The Corpse Brigadier (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
corpsebrigadier) wrote2021-11-02 02:41 am
corpsebrigadier) wrote2021-11-02 02:41 am
Entry tags:
Dear Artist Letter: Multi-Fandom Doodle 2021
Multi-Fandom Doodle Letter for CorpseBrigadier on Ao3
Dear Artist,
I'm super stoked about this exchange, and I'm excited for whatever it is you end up drawing for me. I'm eager to look at what you want to draw, and I'm hopeful that you'll have a cool time flexing some creative muscles. I'm trying (or I was trying) to keep this letter full of brisk, quick prompts and ideas that might inspire ideas well scoped to doodles, but don't feel constrained by them. If you have an inspired idea for any of the nominated characters/settings here, feel free to go with it! I'm a firm believer in optional details actually being optional.
[NOTE: This letter is functionally complete the time it was posted, but it may be tweaked through the end of sign-ups, both to adjust requests and to potentially add new ones.]
General (DNWs, Likes, Opt-Ins) | Creator's Choice of Fandom | Original Works | Final Fantasy VI | Final Fantasy VIII | Final Fantasy Tactics
• ageplay
• omegaverse
• pregnancy-related kinks (ex: breeding kink, mpreg, worshipful focus on pregnant bellies, etc...)
• feces/urine/vomit (unless the vomit is blood)
General Art Likes: I like things with dynamic poses; things that are cute/cartoonish; things that do something offbeat and a little bit exaggerated/surreal; and things that are a little over-stylized and dripping with symbolic imagery. Limited palettes and starkly inked black and white pieces are close to my heart as I am a rotten colorist and have an affinity for styles I could conceivably emulate. I also tend to like things that are de-saturated or a washed out looking. As with my general likes, I'm a sucker for anything that has cool symbolism with plants and religion in it.
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I'd love to be introduced to your favorite ships or favorite characters in your personal style, and if we matched on this feel free to draw the most self-indulgent sketch of your fave(s) that you've been holding in your mind for a while. I'd like to know to what you like about a character or couple, so I'd appreciate some appended explanation as to who is pictured and why they're awesome, but I'm really just eager for somebody to draw a thing they've been wanting to draw and to show it off to me!
I am a sucker for both rarepairs and for dirtybadwrong ships, and I want to see yours! I'm open to any rating for these and to any level of dirtybadwrongness for the latter (My DNWs are waived for the purposes of this request). As with the request above, I'd love some appended explanation as to why you think these characters work or why they are particularly dirty, bad, and/or wrong together
I adore all of these nominations because I love getting to know characters through details like these. (I also really love both images of food and the surreal nature of dreams.) Please feel free to play around with what constitutes as a "dream" (a daydream, a lapsed ambition, etc...) and with what constitutes a meal (If the character puts it in their mouth it counts). Feel free to expand "Bag or Pockets" to any type of personal carry on. Feel free to just play around with ways you can convey something about a character indirectly.
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Who doesn't like a bittersweet love story where the lovers spend time simultaneously close together and impossibly apart? I sure do! I'd love a variety of moods for this from something completely miserable to something hopeful and happy. The animal can be anything you can imagine, and the lover can encounter it at any reasonable point for it to be a reincarnation. It could be a tortoise they meet forty years after the funeral or a mayfly they meet the next day. The lover can appear to be overwhelmed by grief or moving through acceptance and healing. They can seem to know, suspect, or be completely clueless as to the identity of the animal. Feel free to get creative with gender configurations and settings as well.
A few potentialities:
I like skeletons a lot, both of the very serious, decorated saint and memento mori stripe and of the memey, cool, jokey type. I would like to have a drawing in which one skeleton is sad and one skeleton is rad. If you like, they may also be skeletons who want to kiss. (or even... bone ha. ha.)
Some ideas:
Faust narratives! Who doesn't love them? (Usually the Faust figures, I guess.) Something I love about a certain stripe of Faust narrative is how very very obvious it is that the mysterious man the protagonist meets is the devil, even if the text takes forever to drop the big reveal. A strange man here to deliver you an impossible sum of money? From a very old and ancient country that you shall travel to in good time? Mentions he doesn't get on with his father? Keeps frightening animals and virgins? Sounds like a guy (or gal) to trust in the moment of your misfortunes!
For ideas as to how this choice type of relationship and its accompanying devil might look, may I suggest:
Weird children are the best children, and I would like a child who has a weird comfort object. Bears and blankets are fun and all, but I admire a youth who imprints on a can of lima beans or a discarded plumbing joint or a collection of horgs. I would also like this weird object to come to life and either be the child's stalwart companion or to secretly assist this child when it is looking the other way.
Things you might consider:
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I love that Final Fantasy VI has an ensemble cast, such that various groups develop their own arcs and interconnections without feeling overwhelmed by a typical main character's story overwhelming things. My favorite cluster of characters are the four playable characters available when you first hit the Veldt: Shadow, Sabin, Cyan, and Gau. I feel that the latter three are the epitome of found family dynamics done right, and I love the way that Shadow (who is often overlooked in relation to the far more earnest characters in this set) nevertheless touches on the same themes of loss, abandonment, and flight. I'd love all variations of the three adult characters (Cyan, Sabin, Shadow) as ships, as well as Gau hanging with Cyan/Sabin. I love so much about these characters, and I'd love doodles that capture their unique visual style or something about the way that their stories run parallel or converge.
Some elaborations and ideas:
As this is an art exchange, I'm interested in the characters in this game whose special battle skills involve mimicry, imitation, or artistry, as I feel there's a lot of potential here for visually interesting work! I'd love to see something that brings characters' powers together to cool looking effect, and I'd anything that hints at something of these characters' personalities and relationships based on how their powers interact. In general, feel free to go wild imagining how things look! Like most Final Fantasies, VI's battle mechanics are really abstracted, and I feel there's a wide range of ways you can imagine these powers working! (Additionally, feel free to mix and match these groupings if you feel there's some artistic opportunity in another combination of characters.)
Some thoughts:
• Gogo is a wonderful entity to make art about in general! Their entire existence/personality is mimicry! I'd love to see Gogo imitating any character, monster, piece of scenery, or important occurrence in the game.
• Gau cannot, apparently, use Rage to imitate a Zone Eater, but what if he could? Would he be able to inhale people into a pocket dimension in which Gogo is present? If Gogo imitated Gau raging as a Zone Eater, could some form of Gogoception occur? If so, what would any of this nonsense look like? Alternately, how ridiculous do things look when Gau is raging as something clearly non-human (a bird, a cloud a laser turret) and Gogo follows suit.
• Gau can imitate animals! Relm can draw animals! Gau can imitate animals that Relm draws! Relm can draw animals based on Gau's poses! Both of these can cool kids could undertake any number of weird collaborative projects, perhaps even inventing or conjuring new animals in the process.
• Strago isn't as committed to going full monster as Gau, but he still imitates monsters and replicates some element of them (the Ultimania also indicates that he has a prized collection of monster costumes, which you should feel free to completely make up if you can imagine one that looks cool). How might Gogo and he interact as two mimics in that regard?
• Strago and Relm actually have an established relationship outside of their in-game powers, but I'd love to see how their powers interact with regards to their sentiments about one another? How does Relm paint her grandfather if she paints him? Did Stago ever imitate a mosnter for his granddaughter's amusement?
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Seifer is a messed up kid, and I really love the guy. For all the game builds him up as a serious, significant rival to Squall, he is--at heart--a guy chasing after insubstantial ideas of capital R Romance in a way that leaves him a pathetic loser stumbling foreward in a torn trench coat. I love the very distressing and tragic relationship he has with his foster-mom-turned-moon-witch. I also love the fact that--if you follow things closely--his obsession with sorceresses and their knights is clearly linked to Laguna's brief acting career, as you can see Laguna inventing Seifer's battle salute in the course of the movie he stars in. I'd love stuff where Seifer interacts and/or hooks up with either of these major influences on his life.
A few thoughts:
Who is Wimbly Donner, the boy who dropped out of floating mercenary school because he was over-committed its annual student festival? Inquiring minds want to know! I want to know! I'd love to see your take on this complete non-entity of an NPC, and I'd love to see him interacting with his successor!
Some ideas:
I just have endless affection for this very dumb minor NPC:
I would like to see him with a bunch of cats.
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I love tragic set of siblings and Final Fantasy Tactics delivers an unrelenting torrent of them! The four sets above are some of my particular favorites for the game, and I would be happy to see any of these pairs doing just about anything. I'd love images that show them in dramatic poses, that replicate harrowing in game scenes, that show them at younger ages, or that should any interesting interaction you might imagine for them.
A few suggestions:
I have two big ships for this game, both of which are between characters who never interact in canon. You can read my very long ship manifestos about them if you enjoy that sort of thing, but the gist of things is that I think Wiegraf/Zalbag is a very good (usually) Fifty Years War era hateship and I think Dycedarg should definitely be the guy who fathered Orinas with Ruvelia. I like the former when it's accompanied by tons of guilt, angst, and attempts to kill one another and the latter when it's accompanied by a sense of shared villainy and a willingness to stick it to the very posionable older generation. I would, however, like just about anything you might want to draw for these rarepairs, serious or unserious. I love these ships so much.
Some ideas:
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Dear Artist,
I'm super stoked about this exchange, and I'm excited for whatever it is you end up drawing for me. I'm eager to look at what you want to draw, and I'm hopeful that you'll have a cool time flexing some creative muscles. I'm trying (or I was trying) to keep this letter full of brisk, quick prompts and ideas that might inspire ideas well scoped to doodles, but don't feel constrained by them. If you have an inspired idea for any of the nominated characters/settings here, feel free to go with it! I'm a firm believer in optional details actually being optional.
[NOTE: This letter is functionally complete the time it was posted, but it may be tweaked through the end of sign-ups, both to adjust requests and to potentially add new ones.]
General (DNWs, Likes, Opt-Ins) | Creator's Choice of Fandom | Original Works | Final Fantasy VI | Final Fantasy VIII | Final Fantasy Tactics
General (DNWs, Likes, Opt-Ins, Etc...)
Do Not Wants:• ageplay
• omegaverse
• pregnancy-related kinks (ex: breeding kink, mpreg, worshipful focus on pregnant bellies, etc...)
• feces/urine/vomit (unless the vomit is blood)
General Art Likes: I like things with dynamic poses; things that are cute/cartoonish; things that do something offbeat and a little bit exaggerated/surreal; and things that are a little over-stylized and dripping with symbolic imagery. Limited palettes and starkly inked black and white pieces are close to my heart as I am a rotten colorist and have an affinity for styles I could conceivably emulate. I also tend to like things that are de-saturated or a washed out looking. As with my general likes, I'm a sucker for anything that has cool symbolism with plants and religion in it.
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Creator's Choice of Fandom
Your Fave(s) Your Way
[Your Fave Character or Ship in Your Style!]I'd love to be introduced to your favorite ships or favorite characters in your personal style, and if we matched on this feel free to draw the most self-indulgent sketch of your fave(s) that you've been holding in your mind for a while. I'd like to know to what you like about a character or couple, so I'd appreciate some appended explanation as to who is pictured and why they're awesome, but I'm really just eager for somebody to draw a thing they've been wanting to draw and to show it off to me!
Rare and/or Filthy Ships
[Favourite BadWrong Ship; Rarepair OTP]I am a sucker for both rarepairs and for dirtybadwrong ships, and I want to see yours! I'm open to any rating for these and to any level of dirtybadwrongness for the latter (My DNWs are waived for the purposes of this request). As with the request above, I'd love some appended explanation as to why you think these characters work or why they are particularly dirty, bad, and/or wrong together
Attributes of Your Fave
[A Dream Your Favorite Had; Creator's Choice of Character's Meal; the Contents of Creator's Choice of Character's Bag or Pockets; Your Favorite or Ship's Hands]I adore all of these nominations because I love getting to know characters through details like these. (I also really love both images of food and the surreal nature of dreams.) Please feel free to play around with what constitutes as a "dream" (a daydream, a lapsed ambition, etc...) and with what constitutes a meal (If the character puts it in their mouth it counts). Feel free to expand "Bag or Pockets" to any type of personal carry on. Feel free to just play around with ways you can convey something about a character indirectly.
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Original Works
Bereft Lover & An Animal Who is the Reincarnation of Their Dead Beloved
Who doesn't like a bittersweet love story where the lovers spend time simultaneously close together and impossibly apart? I sure do! I'd love a variety of moods for this from something completely miserable to something hopeful and happy. The animal can be anything you can imagine, and the lover can encounter it at any reasonable point for it to be a reincarnation. It could be a tortoise they meet forty years after the funeral or a mayfly they meet the next day. The lover can appear to be overwhelmed by grief or moving through acceptance and healing. They can seem to know, suspect, or be completely clueless as to the identity of the animal. Feel free to get creative with gender configurations and settings as well.
A few potentialities:
• An animal looking at a portrait of a past human self while their former lover looks on.
• Animals looking different in mirrors or bodies of water
• Animals having human shadows!
• A hunter encountering a huntable animal they just cannot bring themselves to kill.
• A stray cat or dog (or something comparable) approaching a person in a crying fit.
• A bird or insect flapping/fluttering against a window in which somebody's face may be seen.
• An old person tenderly touching some sort of companion animal that they've seemingly spent many years with
• A rescue dog, horse, or similar animal carrying somebody desperately to safety
• Animals looking different in mirrors or bodies of water
• Animals having human shadows!
• A hunter encountering a huntable animal they just cannot bring themselves to kill.
• A stray cat or dog (or something comparable) approaching a person in a crying fit.
• A bird or insect flapping/fluttering against a window in which somebody's face may be seen.
• An old person tenderly touching some sort of companion animal that they've seemingly spent many years with
• A rescue dog, horse, or similar animal carrying somebody desperately to safety
Rad Skeleton & Sad Skeleton
[Rad Skeleton & Sad Skeleton; Rad Skeleton/Sad Skeleton]I like skeletons a lot, both of the very serious, decorated saint and memento mori stripe and of the memey, cool, jokey type. I would like to have a drawing in which one skeleton is sad and one skeleton is rad. If you like, they may also be skeletons who want to kiss. (or even... bone ha. ha.)
Some ideas:
• A rad decorated saint's skeleton making another decorated saint's skeleton sad because they get fewer pilgrims
• A sad skeleton in the Paris catacombs who is envious of the rad skeleton who some ill-behaved tourist put sunglasses on
• A rad skeleton who is the star of a natural history collection while a sad skeleton is sitting around incomplete with the incorrect jawbone attached.
• A rad skeleton who has stolen some portion of a sad skeleton to give themselves an extra head or arm or pelvis.
• A rad skeleton who has taken a sad skeletons arm bone to give themselves a fake dick (bonus points if it is to fuck the sad skeleton).
• Riffs on Propertius 4.7 (Cynthia is probably the rad skeleton).
• Just your vision of radness next to your vision of sadness in skeleton form.
• A sad skeleton in the Paris catacombs who is envious of the rad skeleton who some ill-behaved tourist put sunglasses on
• A rad skeleton who is the star of a natural history collection while a sad skeleton is sitting around incomplete with the incorrect jawbone attached.
• A rad skeleton who has stolen some portion of a sad skeleton to give themselves an extra head or arm or pelvis.
• A rad skeleton who has taken a sad skeletons arm bone to give themselves a fake dick (bonus points if it is to fuck the sad skeleton).
• Riffs on Propertius 4.7 (Cynthia is probably the rad skeleton).
• Just your vision of radness next to your vision of sadness in skeleton form.
Rube Down on Their Luck & Their New Best Friend Who is Not So Secretly the Devil
Faust narratives! Who doesn't love them? (Usually the Faust figures, I guess.) Something I love about a certain stripe of Faust narrative is how very very obvious it is that the mysterious man the protagonist meets is the devil, even if the text takes forever to drop the big reveal. A strange man here to deliver you an impossible sum of money? From a very old and ancient country that you shall travel to in good time? Mentions he doesn't get on with his father? Keeps frightening animals and virgins? Sounds like a guy (or gal) to trust in the moment of your misfortunes!
For ideas as to how this choice type of relationship and its accompanying devil might look, may I suggest:
• The shadow of no-so-secret Satan has horns. A classic!
• "This is a special document that needs to be signed in blood for bureaucratic reasons! Haha, weird, I know!"
• Familiars! Evil cats! Evil ravens! An exotic (and evil) pet like an ostrich or a crocodile!
• "Gee new friend, why is all the grass dying around you while the birds shriek and fly away?"
• Some sort of sexy devil party full of men of power and fame who also owe no-so-secret Satan their souls
• She forgot to change out his hooves for feet. His tail is poking out of his impeccable bespoke suit. (The Rube is incapable of noticing.)
• Lil Nas X is impatiently gyrating at them in the distance.
• "This is a special document that needs to be signed in blood for bureaucratic reasons! Haha, weird, I know!"
• Familiars! Evil cats! Evil ravens! An exotic (and evil) pet like an ostrich or a crocodile!
• "Gee new friend, why is all the grass dying around you while the birds shriek and fly away?"
• Some sort of sexy devil party full of men of power and fame who also owe no-so-secret Satan their souls
• She forgot to change out his hooves for feet. His tail is poking out of his impeccable bespoke suit. (The Rube is incapable of noticing.)
• Lil Nas X is impatiently gyrating at them in the distance.
Small Child & Their Atypical Comfort Object That is Secretly Alive
Weird children are the best children, and I would like a child who has a weird comfort object. Bears and blankets are fun and all, but I admire a youth who imprints on a can of lima beans or a discarded plumbing joint or a collection of horgs. I would also like this weird object to come to life and either be the child's stalwart companion or to secretly assist this child when it is looking the other way.
Things you might consider:
A child just hugging an atypical comfort object (maybe one with a little face) while looking cute with it.
• The atypical comfort object guarding over the child while asleep
• The atypical comfort object stealthily helping the child with some manner of task (homework, chores, assassinations)
• An atypical comfort object in peril of being mistaken for one of its non-living siblings (To follow the earlier examples: the lima beans may be in danger of being eaten; the plumbing joint in danger of reuse; the horg pack in danger of being discarded)
• The child and the atypical comfort object on an adventure! Fighting crime! Discovering treasures! Saving lives!
• The child and the atypical comfort object on a caper! Stealing valuables! Sabotaging plans! Assassinating foes!
• The child and the atypical comfort object baffled by what the kid is supposed to do with some more conventional comfort its parents have tried to get it to attach to.
• The atypical comfort object guarding over the child while asleep
• The atypical comfort object stealthily helping the child with some manner of task (homework, chores, assassinations)
• An atypical comfort object in peril of being mistaken for one of its non-living siblings (To follow the earlier examples: the lima beans may be in danger of being eaten; the plumbing joint in danger of reuse; the horg pack in danger of being discarded)
• The child and the atypical comfort object on an adventure! Fighting crime! Discovering treasures! Saving lives!
• The child and the atypical comfort object on a caper! Stealing valuables! Sabotaging plans! Assassinating foes!
• The child and the atypical comfort object baffled by what the kid is supposed to do with some more conventional comfort its parents have tried to get it to attach to.
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Final Fantasy VI
I love this game, and I think of all the Final Fantasies its the one that manages to own the Amano art style the most. Everything is floaty and fantastical and surreal and just a bit goofy, and the whole universe feels like a place that's 100% suitable to having very big operatic feelings and also having a purple octopus on standby trying to thwart them. I also love that the official Amano art was inclusive of both big, dramatic, stylized drawings and goofy, completely adorable chibi versions of the characters, and I'd love something that captured either visual look.The Veldt Crew
[Cyan Garamonde/Sabin Rene Figaro; Cyan Garamonde/Sabin Rene Figaro & Gau; Cyan Garamonde & Sabin Figaro & Shadow; Cyan Garamonde/Shadow; Sabin Figaro/Shadow]I love that Final Fantasy VI has an ensemble cast, such that various groups develop their own arcs and interconnections without feeling overwhelmed by a typical main character's story overwhelming things. My favorite cluster of characters are the four playable characters available when you first hit the Veldt: Shadow, Sabin, Cyan, and Gau. I feel that the latter three are the epitome of found family dynamics done right, and I love the way that Shadow (who is often overlooked in relation to the far more earnest characters in this set) nevertheless touches on the same themes of loss, abandonment, and flight. I'd love all variations of the three adult characters (Cyan, Sabin, Shadow) as ships, as well as Gau hanging with Cyan/Sabin. I love so much about these characters, and I'd love doodles that capture their unique visual style or something about the way that their stories run parallel or converge.
Some elaborations and ideas:
• Cyan and Sabin are both earnest, well-muscled dudes who have had to cope with loss and grapple with obligation, and they meet at a point when Cyan has just faced the emotional devastation of Doma's fall. I'd dig pictures of them, either platonically or as a couple, going working through grief: crying on one another's shoulder, holding one steady during an emotional moment, putting a hand on the others back while one stoically looks into the distance, etc...
• I'd also appreciate Sabin/Cyan or Sabin & Cyan just having a good time practicing martial arts or acting friendly/coupley or introducing one another to some aspect of their very different seeming cultures. Something where Cyan gives Sabin one of his flowers would also be a neat moment.
• Sabin/Cyan & Gau! What a great combo of characters with incomplete/imperfect families coming together. I'd love stuff with Cyan/Sabin reacting to the arc with Gau's father, or meeting Gau for the first time, or just having to react to Gau being a wild child imitating weird monsters. Dynamic, goofy combat scenes are great for these three. I feel like Gau is just a very animated combatant.
• Sabin is like the human embodiment of a very aggressive hug. Shadow is a character who doubtlessly does not want you to hug him and may respond with lethal force. I would enjoy Sabin/Shadow art that plays into this dynamic (you can even go for a literal hug, if you want). Anything where Sabin is clearly trying to bring Shadow out of his shell or comfort him in the wake of nightmares or make friends with his dog would be superb.
• Cyan/Shadow has all the components of a beautiful hateship. One is a good dad and one is a bad dad! One is a samurai and one is a ninja! I would enjoy things where they're adversarial or hatefully making out or about to fight. They also--according to the Ultimania apparently--both have watches with a picture of their family in it as prized possessions, and I think you could do a lot with both of them looking at those.
• Shadow leaves Cyan and Sabin's party right when they hit the Baren Falls, and I realized some time ago that the base of the Baren Falls appears in Shadows dreams as the scene of where he abandons Baram. Something that shows him leaving while clearly upset or filled with unease would be a nice nod to the connection here.
• Shadow should probably also feel pretty weird about the ghost train. Honestly though... anything with Shadow & Sabin & Cyan and the train is golden.
• That includes Sabin supplexing the train. I know there's tons of art of it, but I will never ever get tired of it.
• I'd also appreciate Sabin/Cyan or Sabin & Cyan just having a good time practicing martial arts or acting friendly/coupley or introducing one another to some aspect of their very different seeming cultures. Something where Cyan gives Sabin one of his flowers would also be a neat moment.
• Sabin/Cyan & Gau! What a great combo of characters with incomplete/imperfect families coming together. I'd love stuff with Cyan/Sabin reacting to the arc with Gau's father, or meeting Gau for the first time, or just having to react to Gau being a wild child imitating weird monsters. Dynamic, goofy combat scenes are great for these three. I feel like Gau is just a very animated combatant.
• Sabin is like the human embodiment of a very aggressive hug. Shadow is a character who doubtlessly does not want you to hug him and may respond with lethal force. I would enjoy Sabin/Shadow art that plays into this dynamic (you can even go for a literal hug, if you want). Anything where Sabin is clearly trying to bring Shadow out of his shell or comfort him in the wake of nightmares or make friends with his dog would be superb.
• Cyan/Shadow has all the components of a beautiful hateship. One is a good dad and one is a bad dad! One is a samurai and one is a ninja! I would enjoy things where they're adversarial or hatefully making out or about to fight. They also--according to the Ultimania apparently--both have watches with a picture of their family in it as prized possessions, and I think you could do a lot with both of them looking at those.
• Shadow leaves Cyan and Sabin's party right when they hit the Baren Falls, and I realized some time ago that the base of the Baren Falls appears in Shadows dreams as the scene of where he abandons Baram. Something that shows him leaving while clearly upset or filled with unease would be a nice nod to the connection here.
• Shadow should probably also feel pretty weird about the ghost train. Honestly though... anything with Shadow & Sabin & Cyan and the train is golden.
• That includes Sabin supplexing the train. I know there's tons of art of it, but I will never ever get tired of it.
Imitations and Images
[Gogo; Gau & Gogo; Gau & Relm Arrowny; Gogo & Strago Magus; Relm Arrowny & Strago Magus]As this is an art exchange, I'm interested in the characters in this game whose special battle skills involve mimicry, imitation, or artistry, as I feel there's a lot of potential here for visually interesting work! I'd love to see something that brings characters' powers together to cool looking effect, and I'd anything that hints at something of these characters' personalities and relationships based on how their powers interact. In general, feel free to go wild imagining how things look! Like most Final Fantasies, VI's battle mechanics are really abstracted, and I feel there's a wide range of ways you can imagine these powers working! (Additionally, feel free to mix and match these groupings if you feel there's some artistic opportunity in another combination of characters.)
Some thoughts:
• Gogo is a wonderful entity to make art about in general! Their entire existence/personality is mimicry! I'd love to see Gogo imitating any character, monster, piece of scenery, or important occurrence in the game.
• Gau cannot, apparently, use Rage to imitate a Zone Eater, but what if he could? Would he be able to inhale people into a pocket dimension in which Gogo is present? If Gogo imitated Gau raging as a Zone Eater, could some form of Gogoception occur? If so, what would any of this nonsense look like? Alternately, how ridiculous do things look when Gau is raging as something clearly non-human (a bird, a cloud a laser turret) and Gogo follows suit.
• Gau can imitate animals! Relm can draw animals! Gau can imitate animals that Relm draws! Relm can draw animals based on Gau's poses! Both of these can cool kids could undertake any number of weird collaborative projects, perhaps even inventing or conjuring new animals in the process.
• Strago isn't as committed to going full monster as Gau, but he still imitates monsters and replicates some element of them (the Ultimania also indicates that he has a prized collection of monster costumes, which you should feel free to completely make up if you can imagine one that looks cool). How might Gogo and he interact as two mimics in that regard?
• Strago and Relm actually have an established relationship outside of their in-game powers, but I'd love to see how their powers interact with regards to their sentiments about one another? How does Relm paint her grandfather if she paints him? Did Stago ever imitate a mosnter for his granddaughter's amusement?
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Final Fantasy VIII
Final Fantasy VIII did so many things that diverged from prior games, and I love its vaguely deco, moon-obsessed, quintessentially 90s aesthetics. Balamb Garden feels sort of like a combination Cheesecake Factory/Airport, and I unironically love it. Everywhere there are people looking almost like normal teenagers circa 1998 while there are simultaneously a million swoops and swirls and casual reminders that everyone lives in a world where monsters fall from the sky. I'd love anything that leans into either Final Fantasy VIII at its most mundane or at its most fantastical, and I'm game for stuff that embraces the ridiculousness of the plot and universe.Seifer Almasy and Formative Figures
[Seifer Almasy & Edea Kramer; Seifer Almasy/Edea Kramer; Seifer Almasy & Laguna Loire; Seifer Almasy /Laguna Loire]Seifer is a messed up kid, and I really love the guy. For all the game builds him up as a serious, significant rival to Squall, he is--at heart--a guy chasing after insubstantial ideas of capital R Romance in a way that leaves him a pathetic loser stumbling foreward in a torn trench coat. I love the very distressing and tragic relationship he has with his foster-mom-turned-moon-witch. I also love the fact that--if you follow things closely--his obsession with sorceresses and their knights is clearly linked to Laguna's brief acting career, as you can see Laguna inventing Seifer's battle salute in the course of the movie he stars in. I'd love stuff where Seifer interacts and/or hooks up with either of these major influences on his life.
A few thoughts:
• I'm here for Seifer and Edea in archetypal knight and lady poses, particularly if there's some element of the image that underscores how messed up their actual relationship is (I love that torn trenchcoat a lot).
• kid!Seifer and Edea as Matron! I'd love to see them interacting as foster mom and child. Seifer explaining or playing out some sort of knight fantasy as an actual kid would be heartbreaking and/or adorable.
• Seifer and Edea meeting in the aftermath of the game, looking at one another with the sort of grief and unease that comes from what they did.
• Even if it means Laguna is a far less visible character in the composition, I'd love a younger Seifer watching the movie in which Laguna stars with rapt admiration.
• I would also enjoy an older Seifer, finally in a position to recognize who Laguna is and being dorky fanboy.
• I am also open to shippy/NSFW content for both of these pairings! In general, I'd enjoy something distressing for Seifer/Edea (clear non-con/dub-con, sorcery-related weirdness, etc) and something more enthusiastic/goofy for Seifer/Laguna. You can check out my smut likes in previous letters for ideas.
• kid!Seifer and Edea as Matron! I'd love to see them interacting as foster mom and child. Seifer explaining or playing out some sort of knight fantasy as an actual kid would be heartbreaking and/or adorable.
• Seifer and Edea meeting in the aftermath of the game, looking at one another with the sort of grief and unease that comes from what they did.
• Even if it means Laguna is a far less visible character in the composition, I'd love a younger Seifer watching the movie in which Laguna stars with rapt admiration.
• I would also enjoy an older Seifer, finally in a position to recognize who Laguna is and being dorky fanboy.
• I am also open to shippy/NSFW content for both of these pairings! In general, I'd enjoy something distressing for Seifer/Edea (clear non-con/dub-con, sorcery-related weirdness, etc) and something more enthusiastic/goofy for Seifer/Laguna. You can check out my smut likes in previous letters for ideas.
Wimbly Donner
[Wimbly Donner; Selphie Tilmitt & Wimbly Donner]Who is Wimbly Donner, the boy who dropped out of floating mercenary school because he was over-committed its annual student festival? Inquiring minds want to know! I want to know! I'd love to see your take on this complete non-entity of an NPC, and I'd love to see him interacting with his successor!
Some ideas:
• What did Wimbly Donner do with his life? Where is he now? Did he find happiness after his attempt to single-handedly manage the Garden Festival occurred or was his life forever marred by its tragedy? Just a snapshot of what this guy looks like and where he is post canon would be great.
• What was Wimbly like when he was heading the Garden Festival? What sort of incidents or mishaps occurred during the planning? How did his classmates react to him? I'd love scenes of Wimbly's eventual decline and downfall.
• Did Wimbly make it to the successful Garden Festival? What did he think? How might he and Selphie have hit it off? Did they share a drink, a dance, a plate of hot dogs, a game of Triple Triad? I just want to see these two glorious dorks interacting.
• What was Wimbly like when he was heading the Garden Festival? What sort of incidents or mishaps occurred during the planning? How did his classmates react to him? I'd love scenes of Wimbly's eventual decline and downfall.
• Did Wimbly make it to the successful Garden Festival? What did he think? How might he and Selphie have hit it off? Did they share a drink, a dance, a plate of hot dogs, a game of Triple Triad? I just want to see these two glorious dorks interacting.
"Heartless Son of a Bitch!"
[Middle-Aged Man from Fisherman's Horizon & Cats]I just have endless affection for this very dumb minor NPC:
I would like to see him with a bunch of cats.
• He could be calling Squall a heartless son of a bitch. He could be congratulating Squall on his appreciation of cats. He could be existing independently of Squall, having no need to concern himself with JRPG protagonists because he has ever so many cats around.
• Feel free to draw whatever cats you fancy. Fluffy cats. Sleek cats. Cats dressed in little outfits. Cats with weird JRPG attributes (Can you use one as a draw point? Does one have a status ailment? Feel free to get creative.) I would not say no to a cat-adjacent imposter (like a moomba!) or an interloper from another game (like a Cait Sith!) intruding.
• Feel free to draw whatever cats you fancy. Fluffy cats. Sleek cats. Cats dressed in little outfits. Cats with weird JRPG attributes (Can you use one as a draw point? Does one have a status ailment? Feel free to get creative.) I would not say no to a cat-adjacent imposter (like a moomba!) or an interloper from another game (like a Cait Sith!) intruding.
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Final Fantasy Tactics
I like Final Fantasy Tactics an awful lot, and I really like how unrepentantly bleak it is. So much about this game is just delightfully grim, and it's a great canon for whumpy, tragic, and dark scenarios. I love the washed out sepia look of Yoshida's designs, and I love how visceral the game is in terms of pixelated gore and suffering. In general though, this is a canon where I'm much more drawn to the stories and relationships fanart for it can tell than I'm drawn to imitations of the exact style of the universe (feel free to give everyone noses).Tragic Sibling Sets
[Dycedarg Beoulve & Zalbaag Beoulve; Marach Galthena & Rapha Galthena; Meliadoul Tengille & Isilud Tengille; Wiegraf Folles & Milleuda Folles]I love tragic set of siblings and Final Fantasy Tactics delivers an unrelenting torrent of them! The four sets above are some of my particular favorites for the game, and I would be happy to see any of these pairs doing just about anything. I'd love images that show them in dramatic poses, that replicate harrowing in game scenes, that show them at younger ages, or that should any interesting interaction you might imagine for them.
A few suggestions:
• Every single one of these pairs has an in-game occasion to be clutching the other's lifeless or injured body, and seeing that drawn would be very satisfying.
• Every single one of these pairs also has a fun animal you can associate with them, either owing to their lives being ruined by a specific animal themed Lucavi or on account of one of them puppeteering magical exploding frogs. Animal with the older Beoulves and goats, the Folles kids and sheep, the Tingels and lions, or the Galthenas and magical exploding frogs (or scorpions, given the stone associated with them) would be dandy.
• I'd love to see any of these pairs as younger versions of themselves where whatever gap there might be between their ages is more obvious (particularly with the older Beoulves and Folles kids where one would definitely be well into adulthood while the other was still a child.)
• Inverted sibling dynamic AUs! Wiegraf dies and Miluda becomes a temple knight! Melidoul dies and Izlude quests for vengeance! Malak suffers abuse while Rafa remains loyal to Barinten! Zombdarg and Goatbag!
• Feel free to draw the older Beoulves fighting or killing one another, as that's their climactic in-game interaction. Also feel free to draw either or both of them as the inhuman monstrosities they eventually transform into. Having one non-monstrous sibling interacting with the monstrous version of the other could also be compelling.
• We never get to see the Folles kids interact in game, and I'd love to see them just chilling, running a rag tag revolutionary group together or just fighting Ordallians. As with the Beoulves above, I'd also be into Wiegraf as Belias and Miluda interacting with him.
• The Galthenas wandering as orphans. The Galthenas existing under Barinten. The Galthenas living some post-Chapter-3 life where they are actually sort of happy and at ease. I'd love all sorts of snapshots of these kids that show them at different points in their life outside of the dramatic turning point we see in game.
• I'm really curious about how Izlude and Meliadoul interacted as part of a religious warrior family, and I would love to see them in the midst of religious ceremonies and celebrations. I'd also love to see them just being sort of goofy/affectionate with one another as temple knights, given how grim life probably is in an evil church conspiracy run by your dad.
• Every single one of these pairs also has a fun animal you can associate with them, either owing to their lives being ruined by a specific animal themed Lucavi or on account of one of them puppeteering magical exploding frogs. Animal with the older Beoulves and goats, the Folles kids and sheep, the Tingels and lions, or the Galthenas and magical exploding frogs (or scorpions, given the stone associated with them) would be dandy.
• I'd love to see any of these pairs as younger versions of themselves where whatever gap there might be between their ages is more obvious (particularly with the older Beoulves and Folles kids where one would definitely be well into adulthood while the other was still a child.)
• Inverted sibling dynamic AUs! Wiegraf dies and Miluda becomes a temple knight! Melidoul dies and Izlude quests for vengeance! Malak suffers abuse while Rafa remains loyal to Barinten! Zombdarg and Goatbag!
• Feel free to draw the older Beoulves fighting or killing one another, as that's their climactic in-game interaction. Also feel free to draw either or both of them as the inhuman monstrosities they eventually transform into. Having one non-monstrous sibling interacting with the monstrous version of the other could also be compelling.
• We never get to see the Folles kids interact in game, and I'd love to see them just chilling, running a rag tag revolutionary group together or just fighting Ordallians. As with the Beoulves above, I'd also be into Wiegraf as Belias and Miluda interacting with him.
• The Galthenas wandering as orphans. The Galthenas existing under Barinten. The Galthenas living some post-Chapter-3 life where they are actually sort of happy and at ease. I'd love all sorts of snapshots of these kids that show them at different points in their life outside of the dramatic turning point we see in game.
• I'm really curious about how Izlude and Meliadoul interacted as part of a religious warrior family, and I would love to see them in the midst of religious ceremonies and celebrations. I'd also love to see them just being sort of goofy/affectionate with one another as temple knights, given how grim life probably is in an evil church conspiracy run by your dad.
My Weird Ships
[Dycedarg Beoulve/Louveria Atkascha; Wiegraf Folles/Zalbaag Beoulve]I have two big ships for this game, both of which are between characters who never interact in canon. You can read my very long ship manifestos about them if you enjoy that sort of thing, but the gist of things is that I think Wiegraf/Zalbag is a very good (usually) Fifty Years War era hateship and I think Dycedarg should definitely be the guy who fathered Orinas with Ruvelia. I like the former when it's accompanied by tons of guilt, angst, and attempts to kill one another and the latter when it's accompanied by a sense of shared villainy and a willingness to stick it to the very posionable older generation. I would, however, like just about anything you might want to draw for these rarepairs, serious or unserious. I love these ships so much.
Some ideas:
• Either ship is one where the relationship would presumably be in some way clandestine, and I won't say no to something as simple as the two halves of either ship stealing a kiss somewhere secluded. Somebody getting pushed up against a wall would be great.
• I firmly believe that Wiegraf and Zalbag look awfully good as a ship when one or both of them is covered in blood. Having them attempting to kill one another in the aftermath of Zeakden is great. Having one or both of them suffering injury in the face of Ordallians and/or Romandans while they both try to get through things is also great.
• I am also incredibly into Wiegraf/Zalbag doing anything where there is attention paid to one another's scars.
• Dycedarg and Ruvelia in the midst of some form of scheming, or plotting, or nefariousness--where their expressions make it clear that their conversation may end in somebody getting stabbed--is great. If you want to be completely unsubtle, you could just have them sharing poisoning tips and examining top notch evil vials and mysterious herbs together.
• Dycedarg/Ruvelia pictured in relation to Orinas, with all the weirdness of Dycedarg being his unacknowledged father, would be really satisfying.
• Even though I envision both of these ships as pretty dark/fraught, I'm still absolutely open to cutesy, fluffy poses and interactions where they're just acting like normal couples, smooching, having little hearts over their heads, etc...
• I'm definitely open to NSFW for both pairings, and you can go pretty dark for either of them (I'm definitely up for dub-con for both pairs, and I feel Wiegraf/Zalbag lends itself really well to blasphemy kink). You can check out my smut likes in previous letters for ideas.
• I firmly believe that Wiegraf and Zalbag look awfully good as a ship when one or both of them is covered in blood. Having them attempting to kill one another in the aftermath of Zeakden is great. Having one or both of them suffering injury in the face of Ordallians and/or Romandans while they both try to get through things is also great.
• I am also incredibly into Wiegraf/Zalbag doing anything where there is attention paid to one another's scars.
• Dycedarg and Ruvelia in the midst of some form of scheming, or plotting, or nefariousness--where their expressions make it clear that their conversation may end in somebody getting stabbed--is great. If you want to be completely unsubtle, you could just have them sharing poisoning tips and examining top notch evil vials and mysterious herbs together.
• Dycedarg/Ruvelia pictured in relation to Orinas, with all the weirdness of Dycedarg being his unacknowledged father, would be really satisfying.
• Even though I envision both of these ships as pretty dark/fraught, I'm still absolutely open to cutesy, fluffy poses and interactions where they're just acting like normal couples, smooching, having little hearts over their heads, etc...
• I'm definitely open to NSFW for both pairings, and you can go pretty dark for either of them (I'm definitely up for dub-con for both pairs, and I feel Wiegraf/Zalbag lends itself really well to blasphemy kink). You can check out my smut likes in previous letters for ideas.
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