Archive for November 17th, 2010
#14 Dilaa’ub, The Twice Blighted Flame
14 左男
Dilaa’ub • The Twice-Blighted Flame
Dilaa’ub is gigantic, towering over the forms of his peers at a great height of five meters, even slightly taller than Munjieou. He is constantly burning, and his ember is embedded on the crown of his head; his forward-face is that of a crocodilian creature, symbolic of the ruthlessness his flame imbues the ones he comes for. This side also points the way to the Parade for those who die from torture. His slightly more obscure side, who faces those who die from asphyxiation and in crashes, represents a calmer, more hopeful side and looks like a human skeleton without the lower mandible.
Dilaa’ub is often very quiet, although his stubbornness tends to reveal itself in this way. When he disagrees—and often with Augon—he often stalks away, taking the morning with him, and if there are no other Fires present, a once-animated conversation turns awkward and stale. A powerful leaper, when he walks the Parade himself, he often takes the rear.
#17 Dr. Mina Artimedes
I’m going to preface Dr. Artimedes’ design by saying that the most useless character in the main cast of Star Trek TNG was Counselor Troi. For the majority of episodes, she would just sit there in the beginning, the bad guy would spout some garble over the bridge screen and she would respond with “I sense uncertainty.” And that was pretty much her function. She would just go around and “sense” uncertainty, or deception or fear (stuff most aliens feel when dealing with one another ANYWAY) and report as such to the Captain. Why couldn’t Enterprise not afford a REAL TELEPATH in their ranks, which would’ve been far more useful than just sensing people’s feelings? Even Wesley Crusher, God damn his miserable being to the anus of Borg space, got more shit done more than Troi.
But I digress.
For Valkyrie Squadron, I wanted to design a counselor who was also useless, but in a more dangerous way. Now, your question would be “why would Valhalla station, for all its power and might, hire a useless counselor?” but the answer is simple: They have to settle for what they can get. For an engineer or scientist, Valhalla is a badge of honor and to work there can be a huge boost to one’s career. Not so with psychiatrists. In this future, very few psychiatrists want to give up their cushy lives wherever they are to counsel a bunch of folks gone murderously space mad or with PTSD. So, whenever Valhalla station does find someone willing to take the gig, they are eternally grateful.
And Dr. Artimedes knows this.
Dr. Artimedes is not someone you go to if you want any actual counseling done in your life. Her MO is to listen for key words in conversation, like “sad” or “anxious,” and prescribe medications accordingly. That’s it. She’s basically a drug dealer with a couch. It’s not entirely clear why Artimedes takes such a simplistic approach to her treatment. Is she lazy? Is she a total cynic about her profession? Is she secretly trying to drug up all of Valhalla to take it over? Nobody knows for sure, but very few people question her methods. After all, she’s a pretty good source to score some Xanax, so why screw up a good thing?
Why, indeed.
Day 16 Tatiana
Sure humans die of natural causes, but not Tatiana. She was murdered by a demon on her way home from the grocery store. There was no real reason, the demon was just thirsty for blood and she happened to be shopping the local 24-hour store at the witching hour. When she died there was no real surprise, after all dead is dead. Tatiana had managed to kill the demon before she fell herself. There in the parking lot, shrouded by shadows cast of of SUVs the two bodies laid. It wasn’t till she realized her soul would not depart that she began to freak out. That was when the Sisters of the Stitch showed up to collect her. She watched as they finished disassembling her body. She screamed at them to stop and they merely brushed her aside while they stored the parts. When they started to fix the demon’s body she tried to attack them but it was futile. As the last stitch was being placed on the demon’s form she grabbed hold of the thread to rip it from their hands. Instead she was pulled into the body.
She quickly woke up in her new powerful form and tore the sisters apart in mere seconds. Gregory soon showed up after she had calmed herself. Applauding her ability and rage he asked if she would join his gang to help stop these sisters from continuing to desecrate the flesh of the dead. Gladly she has joined them, hoping to find a way out of her new body and home to her family. She collected the satchel that contained her body’s pieces realizing at some point she would have to make a deal with these demons, these sisters of the stitch, if she wanted to ever go home.
Tatiana is part of the Stitchwork Universe, a story I started to develop during last year’s challenge. The artwork here is by collaborator Silvina Rinaldi. This story went on to win cover feature of the Mysterious Vision’s anthology over at Small Press Idol with the help of my collaborator Silvina Rinaldi and editor Amanda Orneck. For more details stop by and check it out.
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#16 – The Chairman
The Chairman calls all the shots. He decides who leaves, who stays, who lives and who dies.
#30Characters Chatter…