I love friendly shadow but can we get some love for Hive and The Mayor too, they may be the antagonists but they are so well written it is honestly beautiful
if i had the energy i would make a video dissecting every character in autodale, but i. dont have that.
First, I consider that I should stop being distracted by those games that come out in ads... second, the context of the AU is already done:
The world was devastated by a strange disease, leaving only small habitable zones (very far from each other, except for the two Grestin, those are next to each other) in charge of a mayor, those habitable zones manage to be self-sustainable thanks to the "matriarchs", goddesses that are kept alive thanks to the blood of the "ugly" or any other similar to them. Some areas are more self-sustainable than others, those of the federales for example; others were destroyed because they were not well managed and because their mayor was not "pretty" (CofCofKolechiaCofCof)
Blinking awake, Shadow raised his hand to rub his face and wake up fully. He froze, hand half to his face.
Skin. There was skin over his hands. He couldn’t quite place why that was odd. It felt familiar, yet like a distant memory. Somewhere he remembered worn suede gloves over metal. The skin was unsettling, but he couldn’t pinpoint why.
Worse, the unsettling feeling came from how happy it made him. He ran his hands over each other, relishing in the feeling, the warmth of his hands. This was normal, and it felt good to be normal. He tried to focus on the moment, not the worry.
After a moment, he looked around him properly. He was on a train, passing through the streets of Autodale. He watched the scenery pass as they blurred by. Up ahead of the tower in the center of the large city. The train’s destination.
That thought made him afraid, enough he felt sick to his stomach. He didn’t want to go, but he couldn’t place why. It was rare for people to go to the center of the city, at least that far.
Under a bridge and he saw his reflection clearly. His mask snuggly in place, and over the forehead, a label, ‘Exceptional' was neatly written there. He was going to where all the exceptional citizens went; to help the mayor.
So why wasn’t he happy, excited? Everyone wished to be exceptional. To go and be more than a model citizen. So why was he so afraid, why was his blood cold, his hands shaking? He held them together, trying to stay calm.
It wasn’t right, something was wrong! He needed to go back to get off the train!
As soon as he was on his feet, he wasn’t on the train anymore.
Now the world was dark around him. The only lights came from their faces. Unmoving faces covered in lights and wires. Faces with no bodies, only skin stretched and held up by wires, while their hearts hung and beat below them. Their lungs still drew breath and, even their rotting stomachs churned in the air.
Hive, he knew their name, knew each face as he had stared at them a million times before. They were talking over each other. Trying to find his place before he joined them. Because that was what came next, he remembered.
He was a part of Hive, just a piece of them. Something he would always be, for as long as they saw it fit for him to live.
Searing pain erupted from his lower half as he felt something tear into him. Crying out, he tried to get away from the pain as it bloomed through him. Even as he fell, his legs fell the other way.
Before he hit the floor, wires wrapped tightly around him. He struggled and begged he didn’t want this! He didn’t want to become nothing!
The pain grew worse as he felt his skin being peeled away. Still, he tried to get away screaming and crying. Even as he felt each bone being yanked away.
The more he struggled, the tighter the wires went, wrapping around his neck, all that was left of him, yet somehow he was alive to feel it all. The wires pulled him higher, rising up to hang into place, like some haunted hunting trophy.
Screaming, Shadow sat up in his bed, gasping for breath. His face was dripping with sweat as he tried to come back to reality.
He tried to wipe the sweat away, but the metal hands did little to help. At least they were cool to the touch, and he pressed his face into them, trying to convince himself he wasn’t crying.
After a while, he cursed himself for letting a dream get to him. What was done was done. Looking up, he looked at himself in the small mirror on the wall.
The lights outside the window spilled in just enough to see the shape of him, the glint off the metal of him. His eyes and face lit up the other details. Highlighted the wires plugged into his face, keeping him alive and aware.
He frowned deeply and looked away just as quickly. A machine with a few organic parts, that’s all he was. Nothing like what he once was. Throwing back the blanket that had knotted around his legs, he got out of bed.
hello mutuals please know that these guys are the only guys i'm going to be thinking about for the next week or so :)
(all characters are from Dead Sound's City of Autodale series. the first three are pictures of Freaks, the fourth is a picture of an unnamed worker like creature in the central tower, the thing on the left in the fifth image is known as the Mayor, the Exceptional Girl is on the right.)
Hello idk what your policies on asks are, so apologies if I'm overstepping some boundaries but another AUTODALE FAN?!? Thoughts on the latest short?
I dont really have an ask policy dude you can come in here whenever idgaf
BUT YES MANY THOUGHTS HEAD FULL
as usual the animation went hard I always get so excited to see how David Armsby’s improved and innovated his style with each new installment in the autodale series and this is no exception. The mayor looked fantastic I love his design and appreciate how he was distinct from the monsters or the matriarch but still felt like he fit in the world. And when the red came in??? the fucking lighting/shading and the way that interacted with his art style???? I am looking RESPECTFULLY. I seriously cannot wait from the process/behind the scenes for this bad boy.
That being said actual substance-wise this actually...wasnt my favorite of the shorts? Like dont get me wrong I love autodale cumulatively and so I love any new content we get from him, but as an individual story it wasn't all that much, friendly shadow and model citizen were both much more story-like, with some proper plot structure to em. This one felt alot more like the older shorts, which again, ISNT BAD!!! Like it makes sense since its a short elaborating on the story of the exceptional girl from no monsters. And its not like it was totally structureless, it just felt very exposition heavy. But again, that’s a product of it being primarily told in flashbacks. and what we did get was fantastic. I LOVED seeing more on the exceptional girl, I wish we could've seen more of her as an autodale citizen, and also that moment in the narration where she sort of shows her darker side was fantastic, and I think it was a really key piece of characterization that I loved.
I also love the way this short recontextualizes Autodale’s existence. Like its this very interesting relationship between the citizens, the uglies and the matriarch where you start the series thinking the uglies are killed to maintain the lives and status quo of the citizens, but as the story progresses the line between citizen and ugly gets erased as its shown that uglies and citizens are the same, and in fact the citizens are killed to maintain the matriarch. I think the backstory of autodiale’s founding is great too. Like a seeming metropolis that actually needs blood sacrifice to survive isnt an original dystopia concept by any means, but by showing a bit of backstory you really do get this sense that autodale was slow descent into this level of fucked up. Like I could totally see a world where because its a literal post-apocalypse, it used to be really easy to keep up with the demand of human sacrifice the matriarch requires because the population of the city started out low and the life expectancy was low. But as more people came and the city grew you needed more life force for the matriarch to be able to protect them, but subsequently the quality fo life improved so people started living longer which means less deaths which means its harder to keep up with demand and sacrifices needed to be made, until you get to the point where citizens exist to keep the matriarch alive, not the other way around.
so...yeah. it was a good addition to the roster and I cant wait for that sweet sweet behind the scenes content. I fuckin love Dead Sound man he’s so cool
This is Charles! He's a major character in the rebellion and he started it too, for literal years I didn't know how to design this character. I've always had a character who was pretty but chose to rebel even though they could live a good life in Autodale, but I could never pinpoint how they looked or even how they acted. I've switched from many ideas in the past like they were shadows girlfriend, someone who lives and works with the mayor, someone who works with shadow, yeah I was pretty young when I thought of this character, and yes this started as a cringe self-insert. But finally, after 4 or 5 long years of trial and error, I have a grip on who this character is.
Now I am struggling with the thought of why he started this rebellion. What is his drive to lead this group or what made him start it? I'm still debating on whether he was a completely normal and pretty citizen and he just started it just because he could, or something tragic happened and he started the rebellion to make sure that never happens again to anyone else.
He's a kind character, he's someone who you could trust with just a few conversations with him. He tries to project himself as a strong leader and someone who can do everything for everyone. Charles is a people pleaser. But his true feelings or his true self he keeps hidden so that no one knows his weaknesses.
Argh sorry for info dumping about this old character- I just was so happy when I finally got a grasp on who he was.
Ty @somebodytolove31 for giving me ideas about his appearance, you don't know how much it truly helps me :]
2021 – Immortal Machine Original Title : Immortal Machine
Deep in the heart of Autodale lives their Mayor. As old as the town itself, a once great inventor, now a gangly and decaying but undying thing which the townsfolk have long forgotten, but continue to echo his machine-obsessed beliefs. This film follows Autodale’s Exceptional Woman as she journey’s deep down the rabbit hole of the Mayor’s…