#kobrakid

[oldiesstationlover11607]

Desert Echoes - Dad!Party Poison x Daughter!OC

Relationship: Dad!Party Poison x Daughter!OC (My OC's name is Pop Vinyl)

Warnings: death, violence, drug references, sexual references, language

Word Count: 3598 - I know! It's a lot 😭

Summary: Party Poison's 17 year old daughter finally finds out the truth about her mother and how the Killjoys left Battery City.

“Kobra, can you come help me with this?” I shout from the front of the diner. Kobra’s always the best when it comes to my art projects, spray paint and stencils are kind of his thing. He’s been helping me with my current project for months now and it’s finally nearly done. It is weird working with paint in the desert though, everything dries so quickly that you have to know what you’re doing so you don’t mess it up. We’ve lived here for as long as I can remember but none of the guys really talk about the past anyways. 

“Yeah, coming,” his bright mop of blonde hair peeks out through a window. It’s getting hot out here, nearly midday and temperatures out in the zones peak at around 35/40 degrees. Jet Star is hanging out under the trans am, working on the engine for what feels like the hundredth time this week and Ghoul is just sitting on the concrete band that surrounds the diner. 

“Are you hanging out with some of your friends when Party gets back?” Ghoul asks just as Kobra walks by. 

“Yep, that’s what we planned,” I smile down at him and hand Kobra the paint can. 

“I still can’t believe that Poison is your dad. I mean, we all know it’s true and shit but it’s weird,” Ghoul grabs a pair of sunglasses out of his pocket and puts them on and Jet walks over, nodding in agreement. 

“It’s not that weird is it? He doesn’t really even feel like my dad, more like an older brother,” I look over at Kobra who looks sympathetic. What for? I don’t know. 

“We were so young when it happened and he’s been our friend forever so it’s weird thinking he’s got a 17 year old kid when he’s only 36. Don’t get me wrong Vinyl, we love you, it just feels surreal,” Kobra pulls me into his side for an awkward hug. I didn’t really ever think about the fact that Dad was only 19 when I was born, fresh out of Battery City. That must’ve been hard for him and Kobra. 

“What about my mom?” I ask sitting down next to Ghoul. Dad never really spoke about my mother. It just was never a topic we spoke about. We talked about boys, girls, animals, Battery City and the zones, but the only two topics that were never mentioned were who he was before he left the city and my mom. That didn’t stop me from being curious though. Ghoul just stays silent and looks at Jet who shakes his head.“What?” Kobra looks down at the ground and lets out a loud sigh. “She-uh…we… I think you should ask your father about that. We… never really got to know her like he did,” Jet starts. They never call Party my ‘father’, it's always ‘Party’ or ‘Poison’ or some other stupid name they use for him, but never ‘your father’. 

“He never wants to talk about her guys. Even if I did ask him he’d ignore me like he always does,” I complain, “If he was with someone long enough to have a fucking kid then I’m sure she can’t be that bad.” As if on cue, as soon as I open my mouth Party Poison himself walks around the front of the diner back from his rounds. Immediately, Ghoul sits up, a concerned look plastered on his face. 

Party just stands there for a minute, looking down at me and then up at Kobra. 

“You’re talking about her aren’t you?” he mutters. I just stare up at him, worried that I’ve done the worst thing possible. He’s either going to yell at me or break down crying. I move closer to Ghoul who looks up at Party, well aware that I’m about to burst into tears myself. He wraps his arm around my shoulders, giving me a look that says, ‘it’s going to be okay’. Everyone stays quiet, building up a tension that you could easily cut with a knife. “Your mother.” I look up at him and he looks more vulnerable than I have ever seen him in my life. 

“Party we need to talk before you do or say anything you’ll regret,” Jet Star grabs his wrist and pulls him into the diner before he has a chance to say anything else to anyone. 

“Do you think he’ll say anything?” Kobra asks Ghoul who is still looking at me. 

“I-I don’t know,” he sighs. Well that’s a first. Ghoul always knows everything. I hate being the only one that doesn’t know, the others have always told me everything. That was part of being a fabulous killjoy, we always shared, even with baby killjoys new to the zones. Dad always wanted me to make friends my age so we always made sure to help babyjoys out but it’s not like there’s many out here and it’s different growing up out here than in the city. My dad and Ghoul are my best friends and it’s awful not knowing their secrets. Dad always relies on Kobra and Ghoul to talk to and even when my dad doesn’t know what’s going on with me, Ghoul or Kobra do. 

“Can you prepare me for the worst case scenario please? I feel like I’m about to be told I’m gonna be killed,” I turn to Kobra who nods reluctantly. 

“Where to start?” he mumbles, clearly going over a long set of events in his head. 

“We’re going to start with the Venom Brothers and we’re going to end with her mom and I,” Party appears behind me, causing me to jump. “Do you guys want to stay or…?” he asks. Jet is back working on the trans am but he flashes me a gentle smile. I trust him, he’s definitely prepared Party to have this conversation.

“We’ll stay,” Kobra sits down next to Party, “someone’s gotta support the two of you and it’s gonna take more than one person,” Ghoul laughs. 

“Okay. Vinyl, I know it’s been hard for us to talk about the past and everything before we ended up where we are, but, I-um… god this is hard,” he laughs, running a hand through his bright red hair. “I just don’t want to lose you V. You’re my everything and I just don’t want you to hate me.” He really thinks I’m going to hate him? He’s given me everything I have, he’s the reason I’m alive. Especially somewhere like the zones, where it’s nearly impossible to survive by yourself, not to mention as a baby. 

“She’s not going to hate you, Party. You haven’t done anything wrong,” Kobra says and I just stare at him quietly.

“The uh… the venom brothers?” I mumble, wrapping my arm around Ghoul’s.

“It’s a long story, babe, trust me,” he laughs, looking down at me affectionately. 

“The venom brothers are the best way to start this story,” Party starts. “This was maybe 20 years ago, back when Kobra and I were your age living in the city. Before the analog wars but after they set up all the surveillance stuff. Kobra and I went to one of the newer schools in the city but we had to take this monorail thing to get there. We used to cause all this trouble and uh, everyone would get annoyed at us because of it.”

“By trouble he means they would throw paint bombs into the different carriages and graffiti every blank surface,” Ghoul interrupts. 

“Sure,” Dad laughs, “Anyway, Better Living were just starting to create a police force and they sent out all this stuff about the venom and poison running in the streets. So people just started calling us the venom brothers.” 

Ghoul coughs interrupting Party and gaining everyone’s attention.

“Excuse me, but I’m pretty sure I came up with the nickname. I went to high school with them and they spent most of their time cheating on homework, selling drugs for spare cash and Mikey here basically fucked-”

“Shut up Ghoul! We’re not talking about that right now!” Kobra shouts shoving Ghoul.

“Wait, your actual name is Mikey?” I ask, never fully thinking that Kobra wasn’t actually Kobra. 

“Yeah, that's what they called me back then,” he nods, “everyone called Ghoul Frank, like his Frankenstien mask. I still remember when he found it out here, he got so excited.” I turn to look at Ghoul, looking at him like I never have before. Frank. He doesn’t feel like Frank to me but I can see it. The name feels old and tattered, not as cool as Fun Ghoul. 

“Frank. That's kind of funny,” I laugh but Ghoul shoots me an annoyed look. Dad continues the story.

“We weren’t the smartest back then, whether we sold drugs at school-”

“Or Kobra fucked half the school.” Kobra shoots Ghoul another look that screams ‘shut the fuck up’.

“But we did build up quite a reputation. Ghoul quickly became one of our closest friends and then he dragged Jet Star–Ray back then, into our group. The city started to introduce things like curfews, medication and those fucking headphones into the regime and obviously we didn’t like that,” Kobra continues. 

“We found this little skate park place under an old bridge that we would hang out at everyday after school. One day, your dad brought someone new to the park.” Mom? It has to be her. Surely. 

“A girl that I’d met and started talking to on the monorail. She was the daughter of a famous politician but after talking to her for about an hour it was clear she didn’t agree with his beliefs. Anyways, I took her back to meet everyone and they got on really well so she just started tagging along,” Party stares at the ground, almost refusing to acknowledge that I’m sitting in front of him. A dramatic change in his demeanor.

“I liked her. Lindsey was funny, smart and beautiful. Party liked to think he chose her but in reality she chose him, you look so much like her you know,” Ghoul comments but Dad winces at the mention of her name. Lindsey. My mom’s name was Lindsey. I don’t even know what she looks like but she already sounds like the most loving, kind and perfect person to ever exist. 

“We all liked her, Frank,” Dad snaps. “Can we not say her name for god’s sake?” 

I’m worried about him. I really am. He looks paler and angrier than I’ve ever seen him. 

“Anyways, your dad ended up falling head over heels for Lind-the girl and they started spending all their time together. He convinced us to get off of the BLI meds which helped everything obviously and we eventually decided we wanted to get out of the city. But Poison over here had to fuck up and she ended up pregnant so plans were made around the birth and getting out as soon as possible. Jet ended up finding a contact from around here to help us get out but we knew we couldn’t take a baby,” Ghoul explains. They were going to leave me? My own parents were going to ditch me back in the city for their own freedom. Oh god. They, Dad, Party, were going to get rid of me. Leave me back in a city where the very basic freedoms we have are stripped from us.

“And what was the solution to the baby problem?” I ask looking right at my Dad. I’m not sure if it’s the lighting but he looks like he’s about to start crying.

“We’ll get to that,” he responds quietly. “We waited as long as we could and you were born at Jet’s flat with the help of a med droid we fixed up named Blue. We ended up moving pretty quickly after that, bags packed and blasters ready we left the second we made sure your mom was okay. I told Ghoul and Jet to get your mother ready and get straight to the border and meet me there while I dealt with you,” he stops to a deep breath and sighs loudly. 

“And? What the fuck were you going to do to me Party?” I never call him that to his face. Ever. Of course he thinks I’m going to hate him. “Were you going to fucking blast me? You were 19 for god’s sake. I’m fucking 17 and I know full well you don’t murder an inocent child for your own gain,” I feel wet tears stream down my face blurring the image of my dad and uncle looking incredibly guilty. 

“He wasn’t going to kill you, Vinyl. I can’t believe you think he’d do that. The plan was to leave you at his parent’s place with a note. He’s not that awful,” Ghoul stands up for his friend, almost shocking me. 

“It’s not like I didn’t think about it, Ghoul. She was so small and it would’ve been easier to just-” he starts to break down. 

“But you didn’t,” Kobra mutters, “you didn’t touch her at all. You didn’t even stop by Mom and Dad's, you put her in your coat and carried her all the way to the border.” He’s right. He didn’t give up on me, even if it meant that we might both have died. 

“So we met back up with the others and I-uh, I didn’t tell them that I kept you. I just thought I’d tell them once we were in the zones and safe. The only problem was that I didn’t anticipate your mother’s reaction. She knew we were leaving you behind but I didn’t think she would be so upset,” Dad starts crying, his head in his hands and voice cracking. “We were so fucking close Vinyl. We were about 5 minutes from freedom when she had a change of heart. She freaked. I couldn’t say anything because we were being chased by dracs,” he coughs, “she um-” Party looks up at Ghoul. “Frank, I can't. I can’t say it. I can’t tell her what happened. I can barely speak.” Ghoul just nods, picking up where Dad stopped. 

“She went crazy. Screaming about how she never should’ve left you or the city. I think it was the withdrawals from the meds but we’ll never know. Your mom ran back towards the city, towards the dracs and they… she was ghosted.” 

I bring my hand over to cover my mouth. Oh god. She’s dead. My mom is dead and it’s his fault, it’s Poison’s fucking fault for not telling her. For 17 years he just failed to mention that she was dead and it was his fault. She’s dead and he killed her.

“I know it’s my fault Vinyl. I’ve lived with it my entire life. Nothing you say or do is going to bring her back. Trust me, I’ve tried. Your mother was the best thing to ever happen to me. She blessed me with you and for a short time she made my life liveable. I understand if you hate me, but I didn’t tell you because it hurts, V. It hurts so much,” he moves over to embrace me but I move away, still in shock. I stare blankly at Kobra who looks concerned for his brother, comforting him. Ghoul grabs onto my hand and pulls me in close. 

“It’s not his fault Vinyl. Your mother made a choice for herself and nothing he could’ve done would’ve changed the outcome. As much as he blames himself and as much as I tried to blame him, it’s not his fault. You know he loves you babe, he really does.” I look over at my mess of a father, he looks tired, exhausted and drained. 

“I don’t hate you Dad. I just… it’s sad. I never got to know my own mother and I don’t even know what she looked like or sounded like,” I sigh. He lifts his head, clearly trying to be a good father but honestly, he’s got no idea what he’s doing and I can tell. 

“I know Vinyl, I’m well aware of that. If there’s any questions you have about your mom I can try my best to answer them.”

“Did um… Did you guys name me before you left or was I always just Pop Vinyl?” Ghoul starts laughing hysterically and so does Kobra. 

“That’s your first question?” Kobra snickers and I nod. 

“Everyone else has a cool original name and I’m just stuck with fucking ‘Pop Vinyl’. I’m fucking named after a music record.”

“Well… we clearly didn’t have much time but she wanted your last name to be Venom so when Ghoul, Jet, Mikey and I properly named you we had your initial be a V. She liked the letter P a lot as well and she would carry around this list of names everywhere. She loved the name Penny, which was a family name. So it would’ve been Penny Venom but when we moved out here it became Pop Vinyl,” Party responds calmly. Penny. It has a ring to it. Mature sounding that’s for sure. 

“I like it. Penny Venom. Penny. Venom. Venom. It sounds dangerous. We could’ve kept it that way. Poison Venom would’ve been a cooler name not gonna lie. Just saying,” I smile and Ghoul just cracks up in laughter. 

“Oh fuck off. I liked it back then and I like it just the same now Frank Anthony Iero Jr. ,” Dad flips him off, “I think we did a pretty good job naming you Vinyl, especially given that Jet was only 20, I was 19 and Ghoul over here was 17.”

“Wait, what was your birth name? Obviously Kobra’s is Mikey but what about you?” I try to think of all the names I can remember but nothing suits him. 

“Gerard Arthur Way, was born in what was New Jersey and what now doesn’t exist,” Jet Star wonders over. 

“Gerard? Oh god that sounds so weird. Geeraard. Gerrarrd. Mikey and Gerard Way,” I over pronounce the words in my mouth, “there’s no way your name was Gerard. That’s-what the fuck kind of a name is that anyways? It’s not cool like Mikey or Frank or Ray at all. Like at least Ghoul could have cool nicknames and shit.” Ghoul’s too busy laughing his head off on the ground to pay attention to what I’m saying.

“They used to call him Gee,” Jet comments and I smile up at him. 

“Anything else?” Party asks and I nod. I’ve got so many questions.

“I’m not going to get into Kobra’s weird sex life but I am curious as to why you had a kid at 19. Like why?” I’m testing the waters here, he might refuse to talk about her at all. Jet sits down next to me so I’m now in between him and Ghoul.

“Other than wanting to get his dick wet?” Ghoul laughs and I shove him. 

“Seriously Ghoul, you forget that she’s actually my daughter and not a friend like you are,” Party fires a look at him. “We were in love V, shit happens when you’re in love. In this case it wasn’t a mistake and I’m sure your mother would feel the same way.” Good answer Dad. Best answer yet. 

Kobra looks at me and then at Poison before opening his mouth. 

“We do love you V. And I know that Lindsey would be so proud of you if she could see you today. You’re a strong person that is full of energy and color, everything she wanted to be. I’m sorry we didn’t tell you things sooner, it was just really hard for us. We knew her for three-four years and to lose her and then have a newborn baby out in the zones was just hard for us.”

I just nod in agreement. I can’t believe that Party was only 19 when this happened. Not to mention Ghoul being only 17. 

“I love you guys too. I never really thought that things were that crazy when it came to getting out of the city. I’m sorry I didn’t respect that,” Kobra nods and Ghoul pulls me in for another hug before getting up and leaving Party and I alone. 

“Dad?” I ask. He just sits there quietly still wiping the tears from his eyes. 

“Yeah V?” I can’t help but feel like I’ve completely destroyed our relationship.

“I’m proud of you. And I’m sure Mom is too,” I smile looking at him. I can’t help but see him in a different light now, as somewhat broken. “I know you’re hurting, even if it was seventeen years ago. But it’s okay. You’ve got me and Jet and Kobra and even though he’s annoying we’ve got Ghoul.”

Party scooches closer so he’s sitting right in front of me. He takes my hands and intertwines our fingers. 

“Sounds great dad,” I smile.

//

Feedback is appreciated! Please request on my page! 😁

[intrn37]

If you have no money to buy band posters or your parents won’t let you, Paint the motherfucker yourself😂 #mychemicalromance #mcr #mcrfanart #dangerdays #thetruelivesofthefabulouskilljoys #thewidow #partypoison #kobrakid #jetstar #funghoul #thefabulouskilljoys #gerardway #frankiero #raytoro #mikeyway #mikeyfuckingway #wowthisisalotofhashtags https://www.instagram.com/p/ClkY4wvrHp_/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[achemicalmess]

Look alive, sunshine… Current Killjoys in honor of Danger Days night #dangerdays #thefabulouskilljoys #thetruelivesofthefabulouskilljoys #mcr #mychemicalromance #mychem #mcrla4 #partypoison #funghoul #kobrakid #jetstar #gerardway #frankiero #mikeyway #raytoro https://www.instagram.com/p/CjyBqWqrx8h/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[spiribia]

hiii i added u on gw2.. i'm hawkkass.6359 and i'm Shy

added! o7

[ivory-smoke-moved]

Um..

Ivory? Are you there?

(@the-kobrakid)

Yes.

[partypoisonofficial]

Hey Party do you have a second? I need to talk to you about something.

-@the-kobrakid

Yeah, what is it?

(@the-kobrakid )

[andthe-damned]

who writes that Venomous Fangs series on AO3 where kobrakid has got Tourette’s Syndrome?

I like need to be mutuals lmao, big fan and i’ve got tourette’s too always reaching out for other people with it especially with similar interests

[venomroses]

Random hc i see KobraKid with lots of small beauty marks on his body

i love that :)

[shadowofmoths]

drawing kobrakid taller than poison but getting angry the whole time bc i’m an oldest sibling who is constantly mad that all 3 of my little sisters are gonna end up taller than me :/

[spookbot]

the new mcr fans following ask-kobrakid occasionally are SO optimistic bless them

[damespock]

@mythid-cryptid tagged me to make myself in this picrew and post the last song I listened to 🫡

@dykespiegal @thefuzzhead @kobrakid @mdwolf @sun-dari, yall are my chosen. feel free to fool around in picrew!! or not ¯\_( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)_/¯

last song was espresso by sabrina carpenter and i WILL be listening to it at least thrice more before the day is out and

ok so before today all i knew about picrew was 1) internet thing, 2) the youths. imagine my surprise bc its a whole website full of dressup doll??!! anyway, i made this one of me

[artorojo]

"The best revenge is NONE. Heal, move on, and don't become like those who hurt you."

#revenge #blackparade #bullets #dangerdays #geeway #threecheers #funghoul #mcrmy #kobrakid #threecheersforsweetrevenge #killjoy #emoband #anger #emomusic #theblackparade #bandpost #maydeathneverstopyou #gee #mychem #mikeyfuckingway #raytoro #mikeyway #bobbryar #jetstar #frankiero #heros #cruel #gerardway #sadquote #secret_society123

[intrn37]

I posted 144 times in 2022

That's 144 more posts than 2021!

41 posts created (28%)

103 posts reblogged (72%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@fabulousatomicstarburst

@lettersfrombeyondthegrave

@revengeromance

@moldy-junk

@collarful-clover

I tagged 132 of my posts in 2022

Only 8% of my posts had no tags

#mcr - 21 posts

#my chemical romance - 17 posts

#xd - 8 posts

#mcr reunion - 6 posts

#gotham series - 6 posts

#gotham fox - 6 posts

#fall out boy - 6 posts

#oswald cobblepot - 5 posts

#gerard way - 5 posts

#edward nygma - 5 posts

Longest Tag: 137 characters

#my only questions are did she leave literally everyone else on the isle and if she let the other three tag along on her world conquest xd

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

Guess what I’m finishing!😆 #mychemicalromance #mcr #mcrfanart #dangerdays #killjoys #thetruelivesofthefabulouskilljoys https://www.instagram.com/p/ClOGesqr7ck/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

8 notes - Posted November 29, 2022

#4

No Broadway musical songs really make me that sad or hit me hard except for one

And that’s Carrie’s “And Eve Was Weak”

It shows the impact of being overly religious and how it affects people around you. 

I am Christian myself and I don’t see any problem with loving your religion openly or making it a bigger part of your life than other people. But this song is telling people about the impacts of being too religious, too dependant on the things they deem holy, to the point where they can’t even see a problem in front of their own eyes.

For example, Mrs White believes that periods are caused by sin and won’t even listen to Carrie trying to explain what Mrs Gardner told her. She’s so adament that what’s happening to her daughter is because of sin that she’s dismissing the fact that Carrie (who is right in front of her) is clearly distressed and confused.

And even if periods were caused by sin wherever they live, instead of comforting Carrie and calmly explaining things, Mrs White goes into a flying rage screaming about sin and how her (if I’m right) 16-year old daughter must repent for her sins! She even locks Carrie in a basement when Carrie doesn’t get on her knees and pray!

This is a prime example of over-dependence on religion. You become so blinded by the words you hear that you can’t even see what’s happening right in front of you and you think that any misfortune that happened to someone was because of their sin. And unfortunately it still happens in the real world.

Religion is used as an excuse and has been used for YEARS. It really sickens me that people can be so oblivious and cruel to others because “God said so” They use God and the bible to excuse their behaviour as “they will repent” and “nobody is free of sin” 

And WELL, if nobody is free of sin then WHY THE FUCK are you condemning and snubbing these people who do sin in your book when you should be enlightening them and forgiving them if they’re not religious like God (the alpha and the omega himself) fucking told you to, NEARLY A MILLENIA AGO??!!!

15 notes - Posted November 30, 2022

#3

If you have no money to buy band posters or your parents won’t let you, Paint the motherfucker yourself😂 #mychemicalromance #mcr #mcrfanart #dangerdays #thetruelivesofthefabulouskilljoys #thewidow #partypoison #kobrakid #jetstar #funghoul #thefabulouskilljoys #gerardway #frankiero #raytoro #mikeyway #mikeyfuckingway #wowthisisalotofhashtags https://www.instagram.com/p/ClkY4wvrHp_/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

16 notes - Posted November 30, 2022

#2

Four ways of dealing with problems

Marc Spector: Leave it to someone else

Steven Grant: The someone else who's too polite to argue

Jake Lockley: Will tackle it head on even if it's dangerous

Khonshu: bREaK hIS wInDPipe!?!???!!!!**!!

36 notes - Posted May 25, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

A summary of Moon Knight characters

Steven Grant: Murder is wrong :<

Marc Spector: Violent croissant 

Khonshu: “stupid pigeon”

Layla El-Faouly: #Goddess

Arthur Harrow: Rabid Fanboy

Taweret: The type of friend that makes people scared of them but is actually really friendly

Other avatars: Fucking oblivious idiots

Ammit: Sussy baka

Bonus:

Jake Lockley: Murder is ok >:D

65 notes - Posted May 25, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

Cool😎

[mysticsparklewings]

Killjoys Never Die

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Killjoys, Make Some Noise 🕷 Because after entirely overthinking it, I’ve redesigned my Killjoysona to coincide with the 2nd HipDot x My Chemical Romance Collection going up for PreOrder today! 💥

I seriously spent way, way, way too long on her, but she came out so good!! 💜

⭐️ Like My Art and Want to see more of it? Here's All My Links! ⭐️

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This is hands down the most time and effort I've put into a drawing...possibly all year. And there's still so much more I could do, but I'm out of time and I have to stop somewhere. 🫠 Some of you may remember this previous attempt at a Killjoy OC/Killjoysona I made back in March of 2019, woefully unaware of the surprise-of-the-decade we were going to get a few months later, that March 22nd no longer has to be sad day, because My Chemical Romance is BACK baby!! And I'm sure loyal Sparklers have heard plenty enough about that from me already, but stick with me here. 😆 Well, the more time has passed between now and then, the less confident I've felt in "Neon Haze"'s design, and once I started dying my hair purple (also in 2019), I started wanting to re-design her for both reasons. But then, if I've wanted to redesign her (sort of her, we'll get to that) for so long, why is it only just now happening? 🤔 I don't really have a good excuse. I suppose in some sense it just never felt like the right time or I just never had the proper motivation, but beyond that, I couldn't really tell you what it was. 🤷‍♀️ All that changed earlier this month when the makeup brand HipDot revealed they're doing a second MCR makeup collection, this timed themed after good ol' MCR album #4, Danger Days. And if you're reading this between July 22-July 29, here's the link where you can pre-order your very own. (And I'm not an affiliate or anything special, but I did find out code HDCART15 should get you 15% said order.) For context, they previously released a collection themed around album #2, Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge in December, which had a different order process and therefore sold out entirely within like 2-3 minutes. I've gone on record before saying Danger Days is tied with The Black Parade for my favorite MCR album, and that still holds true. Don't misunderstand me, though, basically, everything else in MCR's discography is tailing right behind them both--there are no MCR songs I actively dislike. But TBP is their most popular album for a reason, and DD appeals to me on a more personal level for existing in the realm between harder rock and pop. Both also just have pretty great storytelling woven in them, which is something you just don't get very often in music, especially the further you move in pop's direction. So, naturally, that made it seem like now was as good a time as any to finally get on that Killjoy re-design. Now, because the art itself already took so long, I'm going to do my best to breeze through this description. I really don't think you guys want to experience in real-time how much deliberation I went through to get here. 🙃 So if you miss my usual nuance, here are my apologies and excuses right now. (And I may come back and add some more nuance back in later; we'll see how I feel.) That said: Two key factors played an important role here. 

 I wanted a new name, and 

I wanted the outfit to be something I could reasonably pull out of my own closet if and when I ever feel like doing a closet cosplay of the character. I mean, this character is in large part based on me, and there are so many other opportunities out there to make outfits I wish I had but don't.

Both of those things took...a while...in planning. It was just difficult for the outfit to pick something I genuinely liked, that also fit with the style of the official DD outfits, and made some sort of sense for a Killjoy in the first place. I'm still not sure it's exactly right, but this is the outfit I came up with I liked best, so here we are. While we're here, her shirt says, "More Issues Than Vogue," taken straight from a shirt I own. I can't say I feel it's 100% in line with the general Killjoy style, but barring something copyrighted that really doesn't feel fitting, this felt like the best option for now. The name...Look, I now have five sticky notes full of names that aren't "Void Vision" by now. I wanted something that really did feel me, at least a little, but y'know, fit with the other Killjoy names (Party Poison, Kobra Kid, Fun Ghoul, Jet Star), and still fit with the outfit, and might reasonably fit with how the character fits into the Killjoys' world. In the end, this was close to the last one I thought of but it won out simply for sounding the best to me. And it also sounds a lot like "Boy Division," my favorite MCR song. (Though some of those other names may come back later with some purely fictional Killjoy OCs, now that I've gotten my self-insert taken care of.) I will also admit I spent way way way too long Googling and trying to find every scrap of official Killjoy information on the internet to better understand what the heck I was actually doing here, since last time I was going pretty exclusively off of the DD album. For those unaware, there has been one line of comics around the Killjoys for years, and just recently a new line came out too. I don't currently own those (but I want to!) so I had to rely on things like Fan Wikias to dig up any proprietary Killjoy information that might've come from them. Although other than maybe giving me some additional perspective, I'm not sure how much all that extra digging actually helped with my character design struggles. 😅 That said, I also spent a long time going through tags here on Tumblr and over on Instagram to see what other people had done with their Killjoy OCs. This was more helpful, but at the end of the day, I think part of me wanted someone to just hand me a "How to Killjoy" handbook and that was never going to happen anyway. 🙃 At least once I had finally gotten largely through all that convoluted planning and moved on to the actual drawing things only moved slowly because art in general takes time. I'm not thrilled at how long it took, considering I still took a decent chunk of shortcuts to get there, but it's far less...laughable? I guess? Than the amount of time I took to even get to a finalized sketch just because I thought so hard about every little detail beforehand. Chief short cut: If you look closely and notice the line art seems oddly rough, that's because for Void herself (the full figure) I was too lazy to do my normal clean digital lines and instead played around with Adjustments (contrast, exposure, etc.) until the lines were nice and black and most of the detail was preserved, then I fiddled with the Pencil tool until I could reasonably make new lines with the same texture as necessary for fixing mistakes, adding details back in, and the additions (fixing her gun-holding hand, the separate gun, the headshot, etc) I knew I'd be making a bit later. Since I was already playing fast and loose with the line art, I also figured I'd do a fair amount of "throw things at it and see what sticks" as far as the shading goes. Pretty much everything other than the hair uses a basic cell-shading style, but with an extra darker color I previously haven't thrown in for the darkest shadows, and then some areas like her pants have some additional texture thrown in using that same Pencil brush I was using for the lines (in various sizes) just for the visual variety. Truthfully, I really like the results even though from a skill-point level it was relatively easy to get here. Her hair and those kaleidoscope goggles (which yes, I do own pretty much these exact goggles. They're not very practical to wear like the headshot because you will walk like a drunk, but they're fun and still look cool just sitting on top of your head, like on full-body Void) are the two areas that "break" the "coloring rules." Her hair obviously has some extra texture...because hair...Which was again added with the pencil brush. Originally I thought I'd use that and come out with something more similar to an older style of mine. Yet with just two colors of these "pencil ink" lines on top of the flat base color, it was already pretty good, I just needed a little more color variation to sell it. I got that by making the "pencil ink" brush way bigger, shifting the purples slightly, and adding a few splotches underneath the existing shading. Again; relatively simple, but pretty productive results. 🙂 The goggles...Both orientations are an amalgamation of color splotches, blurring, and layer settings where I just did my best to recreate the look I see and remember of the real goggles most strongly (shiny aqua and gold). I think they're still a little...off, but certainly close enough considering I've never drawn "kaleidoscope texture" before. I guess that fly-by brings us to the other things on this...it's kind of a ref sheet, but I can't say calling it that is something I consciously thought about. Still, it's functionally one. 🤷‍♀️ So the headshot of Void is there really just to show off the goggles actually on her face, and the mask I've given her in place of the bandanas the original Killjoys wear in some promotional material. The idea is to breathe in less of the desert sand/dust, I think, since DD's story is set largely in the semi-post-apocalyptic alternative reality California desert. the mask is based on--get this--some masks MCR released last year (for reasons I probably don't have to remind you of) and they were actually old stock from an event that was planned for Danger Days but didn't end up happening. I don't own one of the official masks because I couldn't justify paying $15 + shipping for what was a very basic fang printing on black fabric, but I do have a homemade version; My mom made the black mask part (as she was learning to make them anyway) from an old T-shirt for me, and I hand-painted the fangs on with some white acrylic. Truthfully, mine might actually be better for me, since I have a small face and there's a good chance the official ones wouldn't fit me properly anyway. 🙃 And the official ones weren't made to the current mask standards, while my mom did her best to make sure any she made were/are within reason. Admittedly, it felt like a bit of a cop-out to use the MCR mask, but I didn't have any better ideas that felt like the right choice for Void. 😅 Other than that and the fact I drew the lines entirely digitally with the new brush, the headshot was made the same as full-body Void.  The Raygun was probably the easiest thing here; I used an official image of one of the guns since they're all the same shape anyway and while I am a lot of things, "weapons designer" ain't one of 'em. But from there I had very little thinking to do: Purple, because that's what I wanted Void's color to be (same as the real Killjoys all have a color associated with them that comes from their guns), a little white like 3/4 of the official ones, and I threw in a little cyan and chartreuse as accent colors for good measure. And then I added the "NO" on the side after noticing all the official ones have text of some kind on them. Why "NO"? Again, no better ideas. And most other things I tried felt too cramped. It's also just kinda funny to me. I know if I really were dropped into DD and had to use a raygun to defend myself, I probably would be shouting, "Nononono NO" almost anytime I had to use it. 🤣 I designed the separate gun first, then just flipped it around and partially re-did the shading for the one Void is actually holding. The point of the separate one is really just to better show off the design. Void's little symbol--that skull thing everywhere--was probably the most fun thing to design, despite also being totally over-thought. It's a skull with sparkles for eye sockets within a sparkle. Very on-brand for me, fits okay alongside the existing Killjoy symbols (in any of the presentation styles, as you can see 😉 I was maybe a little too eager to show that off), and it kinda works with Void herself and the name. Sparkle eyes match up with the kaleidoscope goggles, which match up with "void vision" on their own, and the sparkles also work as an alternative to X's on the eyes that usually mean "this thing is dead." That's probably something I should mention; We've established the goggles aren't very practical, but the Draculoids (enemies of the Killjoys, long story) only see in black and white, and so I've chosen to believe it's possible Void's goggles would mess with their vision a bit, similar to how animal eyes glow when seen through night vision. It's probably not realistic, but I can also pretend that in the Killjoys' universe, Void mods the goggles to be more useful and for her name to make more sense. Maybe she mods them into having proper night vision, so among Killjoys, she's one of few that can see at night--she has vision within the void. Something like that, anyway. I mean really, Party Poison sometimes wears a freaking character costume mouse head, is it really so bad if my character totes around impractical goggles just because they look cool? The block of desert behind full-body void is taken from Pixabay, though I have considered changing it to the desert background I made for Heaven Help Us. I may actually change it in the future, but for now, I just wanted something reminiscent of the Danger Days album cover, and borrowing from Pixabay was easier and faster than I could figure out how to draw it myself. The rest of the background (save for the Killjoys logo on the right, that's just taken from one of the comic book covers), is all me, but inspired by some official images I came across, and those as far as I can tell feel like they're made in the way BL/ind, the enemy corporation from the story, would design them. That seemed like a good fit, especially if you do view this as a ref sheet, so I ran with it. And then plopped the variations of Void's logo on the side over there to fill space and, as I said before, because I was excited about them. 😃 Again, all this took way too long, and I still see plenty of tweaks I could make (and some I probably will as soon as I get the chance) but I can't deny being really happy with how it turned out anyway. 🥰 It's just...I don't know. It's fun even if it took forever for me to decide on the details, y'know? I hope this also kinda makes up for the fact that I totally missed making something for March 22nd this year for various reasons. 😅  Now if you'll excuse me, I think I've earned the afternoon off after all that, and I'll add anything to the description or make tweaks I feel as necessary later. 🤗

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Artwork © me, MysticSparkleWings

I do not own My Chemical Romance or the associated concepts that inspired this artwork

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[ivory-smoke-moved]

Ivory frantically searched for Kobra on her motor bike. She took deep breaths in an effort to calm down. She was really worried about him. She rode west from the diner, hoping that he had followed the setting sun.

(@the-kobrakid)

[partypoisonofficial]

Party fiddled with the keys to the 'am, standing by the door hesitantly. They knew Kobra told them not to trust him, but they didn't know if that was over, or still a present threat. What they wanted to do was let their guard down and let things fall back in to how they used to be. Just having their little brother back. The person that had always been there. The person they could trust. They missed him more than they could admit, either for lack of words or how much it hurt just to think about it.

They stepped outside into the night air, and sat on the hood of the car, waiting for Kobra.

(@the-kobrakid )