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Holy crap guys I think we broke Emmrich

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Oh?

Thank you @razildor for the reference photo. I got to draw this quickie 💚

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Henry fell into some flower bushes and Hans the butterfly comes to say hello ! 🦋🌱🥀 (No, I’m not crazy, everything’s fine)

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"Breathe, Henry. "

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According to the results of my last poll...

Some nice time in the bath 💦

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I need another Hans and Henry bath scene in KCS2

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desperate frotting is nice and all but the gayest scene in kcd2 and perhaps in gaming is the "and THIS is my boyfriend henry!" pose hans swoops in for

what the fuck is this. why did he do this

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the one where Henry loudly proclaims that he did not swallow temptation's unholy seed

Henry followed Hans past the vendors, when they were intercepted by a priest in a tattered frock, who loudly held his unsolicited sermon in the middle of the marketplace. 

“Beware, good folk, the devil’s pursuit to taint your soul,” he shouted, a finger pointed at Henry. “You, sir, have been tempted to sin! It's stench clings to you!”

Henry involuntarily looked himself down, checking his clothes for overlooked blood splatters that didn't get out in the wash. 

“Swear off all sins afore they blacken your heart. Are you ready to repent in front of God and your neighbours?”

The preacher widened his arms expectantly and not only a few purchasers and sellers paused their trades, curiously watching the scene as it unfolded. They knew the young Lord Capon and his entourage never shied away from a challenge and half of them looked on for a moment of entertainment and an exciting story to tell their kin, while the other half waited with baited breath for the moment to call for the guards. 

Indeed, Hans puffed up like a challenged cock on his dunghill, and Henry quickly stepped forward before he could get them into trouble. He quickly discarded the thoughts of defending his christian honour or intimidating the man into shutting up, but fell back onto his tongue twisting the words into his favour.

“Aye, ‘tis true,” he said with a light bow, his hand over his heart. “I have been tempted to sin. The devil crawled into my garden and offered me the forbidden fruit.”

Hans threw him an incredulous look and the bystanders didn't even try to pretend not to listen into Henry's impromptu public sacrament of penance. “The serpent came to me at night, big and strong, and I fought it fiercely.” 

He made a vague gesture with his fists and Hans turned on the spot, clamping a hand over his mouth as if in shock. Unfazed, he continued his confession. 

“It stared me down with one eye and forced its wicked essence down my throat, but I spat it out and come morning, I was blessed by the good Lord’s sun still shining its warmth down upon me.”

The people looked on in silence, compassionate smiles and raised eyebrows between them, until the priest stopped blinking and raised his hands towards the sky. 

“Praise God, my dear boy, he has giveth you great strength,” he shouted out, then pressed his palm against Henry's forehead. “He who wrestles with demons and carries the Lord in his heart is holier than those who have never faced temptation, for he has proven his faith. Go forth a blessed man.”

Crossing himself, he spoke a small prayer and Henry quickly mirrored the action. The crowd began to murmur and, eager to hold their attention, the cleric turned away to pick out his next victim, granting Henry and Hans the opportunity to leave without too much attention. 

Hans finally let out the laugh he had held back the past five minutes. 

“You menace!” 

He shoved Henry's shoulder with vigor and got a shrug in answer, accompanied by a well known canting smile. Putting his hands on his hips he lowered his voice and regarded him with an exaggerated frown. 

“How can you still be caught up on this, when I have already apologised even though I had warned you that I was close and you therefore have none but your own persistence to blame!”

Another shrug and a sharper smile. 

“You know how relentless I am in a duel.”

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do you think we are going to fight with our cocks?

they did. (kinda suggestive)

SORRY this (incredible hard to translate btw) joke is just an excuse to draw Lord Capon moaning and whimpering

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"my lord..."

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Me while writing: oh hell yes this is such a good sentence I'm the master of poetic imagery

The writing when I go back to edit:

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i hate how i have to be the change i want to see in the ao3 tag AGAIN

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"Fortis fortuna adiuvat"~

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this deserved its own post, actually

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It's not even about the vindication of calling a ship, okay. It's that the supposedly anti woke studio wrote about 3 million words of medieval fiction centering the relationship of the two main characters who are in most ways (or in all ways if you follow the obvious canon momentum of the story) meant for each other, as counterparts who help each other survive the great travails of their lives and who challenge/complete the other to become fuller, braver, kinder people. It's so clear these two people are soulmates, platonically or romantically, something observed consistently by the world around them and by themselves.

Except their society (feudalism, Catholicism) dictates that they are intended to be completely incompatible by nature and divine law. Not just for the obvious fact they are both men, but they are separated by what is arguably an even steeper chasm of social class. Their existence even as friends utterly spites, interrupts, and threatens feudal order right down to its theological and philosophical roots. They should not see each other as human and yet.

It's the fact that they do. The fact that the entire story has been about this--that these two protagonists fit together, undeniably, and grow to love each other fiercely (a love that deepens superbly from their knee-jerk playful puppy-friend-love in kcd1 to something selfless and mature by the end of kcd2). And they do so despite the immense opposition by their world, their social circles, their faith, and indeed their fandom.

And yes, it really does fucking matter that all of this culminates into a deep onscreen romantic love (if you get out of the way and allow it to) between two fandom-beloved male main characters (not just side characters rammed in for an optional gay romance but THE main characters of the duology; the "you" as in the player character and your erstwhile dick-jokes bro you have perhaps grudgingly at first been invited as the audience to love) in a historical fiction story that has been wrongly touted by the worst of our contemporaries as the holy grail of cultural conservatism.

Holy shit. Warhorse -- y'all. I'm sorry I doubted you. So few game writers understand how love works and indeed how people work, let alone translate it so well onto the screen.

Calling this an "optional romance" is not technically incorrect, I suppose, because it's true you can opt out and choose to remain platonic friends. But this language feels like a disservice, as if Henry & Hans's romance is a typical RPG wham-bam fanservice makeout with a minor fan fave character who never interacts meaningfully with the player again. Or as if it's a Bioware-style "give this NPC the right gift and do their side quest and you get to see a jankly ugly-bumpin' montage" situation.

Kingdom Come: Deliverance is so very much not that. The "main, optional" romance scene in question is just one consummation event of two people who have been growing up and falling in love in front of us over the course of some 200-300 (or god knows how many) hours. The fact these protagonists openly love each other is very much not optional.

This is, sincerely, groundbreaking storytelling in this medium and this genre. How fucking cool that we all got to see it now.