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Guilty Gear | Baiken

I changed this piece a little bit and I never posted the revision here~

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Trying to remember that this is a "sketch" blog. These aren't really sketches but these are pieces I've drawn much more loosely than I usually do (and both not quite "finished"). Anyway, drew a Noob for my personal enrichment lol and a Liu because I was curious whether I could figure out how to draw him.

I wish they fought each other in Khaos Reigns.

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I wanted to drop a little AU idea into the void where Bi-han is not born with the ability to control ice but is instead born with the ability to control darkness (has this been done?). If I had the ability to write, I think I would have it follow most of MK1's story beats but it would change some of Bi-han's motives a little bit.

In it, Bi-han is expected to show signs of being a natural born cryomancer, as expected of his bloodline- but nothing manifests. Thinking he has no powers, the Lin Kuei begins training him in cryomancy- which he'd initially struggle greatly with. This casts some doubt on his ability to take the Grandmaster role within clan leadership since the level of strength that he can achieve overall- while still powerful- would be much lower than if he could naturally harness ice.

After the death of his mother- a very low point emotionally for him- his ability to control his shadow would start to manifest. It is after her death, that some doubts would also begin to float around against him that he is emotionally and mentally ill-equipped to lead.

Unfortunately, his shadow powers would manifest quite weakly and very unnoticeably at first and not wanting to add to the talk that he is incapable and possibly unstable, he would unwisely decide to keep his new powers secret. (continued under the cut)

Kuai Liang in this AU would be born with control over ice and his cryomancy would quickly begin to start outpacing Bi-han's. This, along with talks that Kuai Liang should instead be the next Grandmaster, add to Bi-han's overall feelings of inadequacy and eventually resentment as he begins to feel that his best possible efforts aren't enough.

As Bi-han struggles and further isolates himself to hide these emotions, he is also beginning to have a hard time controlling his shadow by himself. It is at this time that Damashi would appear to Bi-han. Damashi would be the first to notice the shadow and question why he is being trained in cryomancy over his innate shadowmancy. She would offer to help him reach his true potential by helping him train and sharpen his shadowmancy skills. Feeling like he has no one else to turn to, he'd accept.

While training with her in secret, he would also continue to study and strengthen his cryomancy under the Lin Kuei and do as he needs to claim the Grandmaster position. As expected, over time, his control over darkness grows to outshine his ability to control ice.

After gaining Bi-han's trust, Damashi would reveal Liu Kang's nature to Bi-han that he is his creator god. Damashi would then also weaponize Bi-han's ambitious nature to sell him the lie that Lui Kang is using his power to control his destiny. She would claim that Liu Kang purposefully gave him a shadow affinity in a clan of cryomancers so he would be forced to wield an element he'd have a much lower strength ceiling with and naturally fail to become Grandmaster over Kuai Liang. Already paranoid that he's losing his title prior to this, he'd choose to believe her. This would cause him to even further continue isolating himself from his allies and family who want to help him. (**more on this in the notes below)

Following the death of Bi-han's father and after he claims the title of Grandmaster, Damashi would claim that Lui Kang is holding the Lin Kuei back from greatness. Bi-han would further begin to believe this after hearing that the clan will be used to test the Earthrealm champions for the Mortal Kombat tournament instead of being used to represent Earthrealm in it. Because Damashi saw the potential in him and helped him reach it and thinking she has his best interests in mind, he would continue to trust her insights.

The events of Ying fortress would happen mostly the same except Bi-han doesn't need to be convinced to betray Liu Kang and Earthrealm- Damashi had her claws in him long before he stepped into the fortress. I think right before his fight with Kuai Liang is when he'd reveal his Shadow and truly embrace his control over darkness.

Then finally later, when Titan Shang Tsung reveals himself, he'd realize that he had been used and made a lot of horrible decisions, that his brothers rightfully hate him and that he has done some very awful things he can't take back.

And then I don't know where it goes after that because I draw and don't write lol. Attempts at redeeming himself and using his shadow for good, maybe- or maybe a horrible downwards spiral into more terrible things idk…

(((Some outside thoughts and notes: While thinking this out I wanted to use this idea to explore how it would affect some of the personality traits and thoughts that Bi-han exhibits in the MK1 story mode. At the same time, with the introduction of Damashi into Bi-han's 'origin', I didn't really want to wave away some of Bi-han's more impulsively evil actions, thoughts and flaws. I wanted the lies she told him to be things that Bi-han had already believed in his head and I wanted these thoughts to be born of his emotional isolation and warped perception of the things that are happening around him. Hearing someone say the things he was thinking amplified his anxieties and fears that they were actually happening and caused him to act on bad impulses.

**I'd like to think in this AU, that Liu Kang and his father were aware that shadow powers could possibly manifest within him and were prepared to help him should that have been the case. Because Bi-han chose to keep the powers hidden and because his cryomancy skills were advancing quite well, they never realized nor got the chance to help him in this way and unfortunately Damashi got to him first.

**I'd also like to think that his ascension into becoming Grandmaster was never in danger because of his inability to naturally use ice. If anything threatened his ability to take the title it was always going to be his emotional and mental state. Because Bi-han emotionally closed himself off to avoid scrutiny and is incorrectly chose to believe he was getting passed over, he makes the very emotionally impulsive decision to kill his father to secure his position. This is something that he would later realize was a huge mistake and come to regret. And because the blame is something that can't be completely passed off onto Damashi, this would cause a very huge and very real rift to be created in Kuai Liang and Bi-han's relationship.

That's all I got! If you have read this far, thank you! Hopefully this isn't horribly OOC. I know this isn't the usual kind of post for this blog, I seriously, seriously considered just making a sideblog but I can't maintain more than one blog lol. I really wanted the idea out there even if my ability to write is very subpar.)))

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Mortal Kombat | Dark Grandmaster Noob Saibot (wip)

I've been sort of jumping all over the place with this piece which usually spells 'disaster' for me (and still could!) but I actually think this is still coming along alright. I wish I had more free time to really put bigger dents in the pieces I start but on a positive note, I am feeling overall a whole lot less rusty than before and I am looking forward to building on that~

I haven't decided who I want to draw next- but if I can step away from Bi-han for just a moment- I am leaning towards Mileena, General Shao, Reiko or Havik because I think they'd look cool in my style. But I also want to draw GG again so who knows what'll happen lol

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Dumping some Bi-Han garbage art here~

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No strategy on this piece just winging everything. I just wanted to attempt drawing maskless sub zero and I wanted to draw on a much smaller canvas (for me anyway). Also, I have wips of other characters coming soon, I promiiise!! I just need more free time.

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I still like this~

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Mortal Kombat | Order of Darkness Sub-Zero (wip)

Taking a break on this for now, I got some other ideas I want to draw~

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Never posted the uncropped version here but this is my favorite thing I'll never finish~

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Mortal Kombat | Noob Saibot (-thing I cannot finish right now lol)

Long time no sharing art- I wish my brain would feel inspiration on much easier things to draw. Excited for Noob tho, he looks cool to me.

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Mortal Kombat | Sub-Zero

Very unsure about even posting this because it isn't done but I don't want to finish it and I haven't posted in so looong soooo...

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Old wip from a while ago~

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Guilty Gear | Sol Badguy

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Gonna put this on the back burner for a little bit~ 💙

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Thanks for the likes on this!! These were gonna be 'jumbo' flight tag style keychains. I do still want to explore this as an artist alley thing to sell with more characters. I liked doing chibi-style acrylic keychains but I feel like this style is more enjoyable for me to actually draw and more unique to me as an artist which is why I explored this direction~ Plus, flight tags are cool imo. Thanks again for the support, it really means a lot to me 💙

Old merch idea/wip/draft~

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The Scavenger (Redo)

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