#like the shirt and trouser design really is meant to make his waist look smaller

[love-toxin]

bloodlust; hyun.

a/n: a piece shared for a lovely commissioner❤️

warnings: knifeplay, established relationship, blood/blood kink, injuries, gn! pronouns (but can be read as afab), lingerie, teasing, praise, implied aftercare

word count: 2.1k

“Are you afraid of me?” 

Your immediate answer would have been no, not at all. But that feeling changed when he lifted his knife up to your face, and let you watch how it gleamed in the lamplight that cast shadows over you from the corner of the bedroom. 

Hyun's fingers clenched tighter around the handle, subtly proving to you that he had complete control over what he was doing. You'd seen him use it before, whether it was to slice open the top of a letter or chop up vegetables to use for dinner--he had a way with knives that both frightened and intrigued you. It made you wonder where he had learned those skills from, but you didn’t dare to ask. Hyun could spot your answer brimming in your eyes from miles away, but the revelation didn’t perturb him--in fact, it just made him chuckle to himself. 

“You don’t have to be! I love you so much…”

He brought the blade down slowly to your neck, his movements slow and stilted as if to show you how careful he was being. The smoothness of his gestures didn’t at all mesh with the beaming grin split across his face as he did so, except for the glint in his eyes that you couldn’t help but feel was some kind of wicked bloodlust. How frightening it was to be the rabbit facing the jaws of a wolf, even if the wolf found you so cute he could just eat you right up. 

Your clothes provided little resistance, it wasn't as if you were wearing much by this point anyways--nothing except for the cutesy, pale pink intimates that Hyun loved to see you wear, the lace being the only thing saved from the biting sting of his blade sliding over your flesh. He brought it downwards from your throat, the cuts he made shallow and the pressure light, so as not to hurt you more than you could take, but enough that he could lick his lips as he watched your blood bead at the wounds and start to trail down your chest if he was lucky. It egged him on to go deeper and reminded him to keep his hand steady all at once, and you could see that conflict in his eyes, the sparkle disappearing completely as he got closer to the end of the line--the hem of your little pink panties, dipping softly almost to the point of ripping under the weight of his knife, only for it to be taken away and your breath released from the clutches of your throat. 

It wasn’t fear that stayed your hands until now as he left his marks behind, but the desire to let him explore all on his own and watch the excitement heighten in his expression. You let your fingers brush the collar of his dress shirt now, the top two buttons loosening and falling open of your own volition, and his tie slipped out of its knot until you could pull it off and toss it aside. Meanwhile he seemed to stop and wait, his lower lip prisoner to his teeth as he let you do as you pleased with a purr rising in the back of his throat--and once you had his shirt open enough to press your palms to his warm chest, Hyun chuckled and made another slice just above your collarbone, before lowering his mouth to the cut and laving his tongue over your sweet, delectable blood. He called it ambrosia, you called it blood, but what was the difference? His hands were stained with it from swiping his fingers over your “love marks” as he called them, and he made a show of sucking it off each of his digits while his brown eyes pierced straight through you and pinned your head back against his pillow. 

“You’re blushing,”

He spoke with a smile as per usual, which grew even wider when you turned your eyes away from his blinding teeth, and tried to ignore the saccharine sweetness of his voice when he found something good to tease you with. 

“Are you embarrassed?”

A fuzziness had settled in your head and made it a little harder to think, perhaps due to the amount of blood you’d lost by now. But you had enough sense not to deny his observation, knowing fully well that he would manipulate your body as he pleased until that truth was undeniable. Hyun’s touches down the valley of your chest drew a soft sigh from your lips, and with a nod and a mumbled reply, he grinned even wider as a few strands of loose hair fell into his face. 

"It's just me, you know. Just you and me...and we already know everything there is to know about each other, don't we?"

As if to make sure you wouldn’t forget the presence of the knife, he brought it round to your stomach again and aimed the tip just below your navel, the sharp end digging into you just gently enough that it didn’t quite draw blood. He had a fascination with the substance pumping through your veins, but it was a question all on its own whether he fantasized about slicing open a pocket of your flesh and having a look at your guts as they spilled from your lifeless body. You dearly hoped he didn't want to know you that intimately. But you couldn’t count on it. 

"Every mistake, every flaw, every sour little spot that we hope nobody discovers inside us...every mite of imperfection that makes me love you all the more." 

Hyun’s movements shifted into etching a little shape below your belly, the dribbles of blood left behind trailing downwards to soak into the hem of your poor panties. But despite adoring them himself he didn’t seem to mind, even as you sucked in a tight breath as he closed the curve of the heart and crossed off the last line of the “H” in the middle. It bled enough to muddy the design now, but the scar that it would leave would be so beautiful--and finally setting the blade down on the nightstand, his free hand closed around yours, your fingers interlocking for him to squeeze you tight and hold it against the sheets. 

"We're one in the same...soulmates."

With a hand still spared, he reached down to unbuckle his belt, his shirt soon coming untucked with help from one of yours and his trousers sliding down his legs. Going without anything underneath seemed like it would be terribly uncomfortable, but it didn’t seem to impede him in any way--in fact, by the toothy smile he flashed in your direction, he might have done it all day just for you. And with his clothes now finally shed, he pressed himself chest-to-chest with you and buried his face into the crook of your neck, your squirming and giggles as he nibbled at your soft spots making him twitch with excitement between your legs. 

"Hyun.."

His head bobbed back up to meet your eyes in a moment, the look of adoration etched into his features paired with the slow rock of his hips, and the effort for him to hook his hand under your knee and hike your leg up to hitch around his waist. His kiss took your breath away this time, though it was so easy for him to do so--and the press of his tongue to part your lips drew a moan out of you, which caused him to buck into you again with a little less restraint this time, the swollen tip of his cock stretching the fabric of your panties as he humped the spot that his body demanded he try and enter. By now, you'd become uncomfortably aware of the blood drying between your chests as your wounds started to close, but the stronger Hyun's thrusts became, the more your cuts started to reopen and bleed again into each other's skin. Maybe the feeling turned him on even more, and caused his hips to stutter and his face to flush even deeper--but how could you ever really tell with Hyun? He was such an enigma, and you didn't expect to ever really understand him fully. 

"Stop…"

Case in point. Hyun's cheeks had deepened to the colour of wine, his breath held for so long that he had to force himself to take a long, shaky one. He moaned out the word but yet his body wouldn't stop moving, and you found yourself grabbing at his bicep to try and get him to take a break, even if it was just a little one. 

"Wh..Hyun, what? Stop? You wanna stop?"

"No!" 

He nearly whined his answer out, his face falling to hide in the crook of your neck--he didn't have even a clue of what to do with himself, and it would have been so cute if you had any idea of what he meant.

"Stop...making that face…"

Whatever restraint he once had was gone. His hips rolled into you at a frantic pace and of their own accord, no force present to stop him even when you made the attempt to try and at least move your panties aside, both for your sake and his. His puppy-dog whimpers and ironclad grip on you while he still pinned you down with his body was too much, too much for either of you--

"Gonna make me cum...hah, d-don't make me cum yet, please…" 

--But that had never stopped you before, and it wouldn’t start now. Not while he peppered kisses to your jaw and bit into your skin when the pleasure started to overwhelm him, not while he begged you to slow down even though he was doing all the work....not when he melted into your touch as you stroked your fingers through his hair, and felt his body shudder and tremble fervently before he finally started to relax. His grip on your hand loosened and the miniscule distance between you grew ever smaller as he collapsed, and you could feel already that your panties were thoroughly ruined as you heaved a shaky sigh and let your trembling fade into Hyun’s embrace. Little could be done about your outfit, the sheets, his clothes covered in your blood and his cum drooling off his slit as he shifted away from you, and only then he seemed to realize the mess he had made. 

“I’m sorry,”

The words fell from his lips as he raised his head, but the glowing grin stretched from ear to ear made that apology feel a little less sincere. But no matter, you supposed--when had Hyun ever been sorry for making a mess out of the little angel he loved so much? 

“I’ll get a towel. Can I use the cream, honey? I know it burns, but you’ll need it for all these poor scratches...we don’t want them to scar, do we? Well, not the little ones, anyways." 

Somehow his resilience still shocked you, and you watched with both awe and a twinge of jealousy as he shimmied himself off of you and the bed with ease, before standing proudly in only his blood-stained dress shirt that had nearly fallen off his shoulders, and the rest of his body bared to you before he turned on his heels and meandered over to the bedroom door with a chuckle on his lips. He didn't wait for you to answer and he returned just as quickly as he departed, the ointment in hand for these "special" occasions, and a towel wrapped round his waist that he used to dab what little blood remained off your precious skin. And once he'd left it aside for you to wipe your hands with if you wished, he swiped the knife off the nightstand and used it to slash a cut in your panties, to retire the poor things and slide them off you to toss in the general direction of the wastebasket. 

No words were exchanged as he popped the cap off and dabbed at your wounds delicately with the tip of his finger, every touch so fleeting and delicate that you nearly started to whine at him for more...and even if that were so, he would coo at you with those sweet tones he put on so well, and promise you that you could do all you wanted later--but for right now, you needed to rest. Sleep it all off, forget all but the warmth of his body as you woke up in his arms the next morning, and let all those little cuts fade away...except for one little heart below your belly, with the mark of your lover slashed into your lovely skin. 

[sassyhobbits]

Could we have an oln extra from elorcan pretty please *doggy eyes*

it would be my pleasure ;)

this takes place about a year before the ons epilogue!!!!!

elorcan ons oneshot pt1

~~~

Lorcan Salvaterre considered himself to be a level-headed man. He had immense patience and rarely let his emotions, positive or negative, get the better of him.

That’s why it was so surprising that anxiety had been roiling in his gut for the past week.

In the two years he had been living in Terrasen, so many things had changed.

Aelin had given him a job in security at the palace and he had recently been promoted to the head. His relationship with Elide had been growing stronger and stronger with each passing day. They had recently moved in together, Elide moving away from her native Perranth to work more closely with her family in the capital.

Lorcan never would have expected that the chore of traveling to Terrasen with Remelle would lead to so many wonderful things in his life.

He knew that he was in love with Elide. It was like nothing else he had ever felt in his life. He had never cared for anyone the same way he cared for her. It only meant one thing.

Which was why he was anxious.

Lorcan held no doubts about the fact that Elide loved him just as he loved her.

Yet the idea of proposing to her was utterly terrifying.

It hadn’t been a dramatic moment when he realized he wanted to marry her.

It had been a lazy morning in the apartment, and Elide had started on some eggs. Lorcan remembered leaning back on the kitchen island, admiring how she looked in his shirt, her dark hair glistening in the golden morning sun. And… he had just known. That he wanted to marry her. It hadn’t felt like a new idea, instead something he had discovered deep inside of him, as if it had always been there. Elide was it for him, that he knew.

But to propose to her, he would first need to get a fucking ring.

It was much more daunting a task than he would have expected.

Lorcan didn’t truly have an eye for finery, he never had, but he knew Elide deserved the very best.

Which was why he was calling for backup.

He made the call as he was driving towards the palace for work, dialing the number of someone he knew would be there. The other line rang for a few moments, and Lorcan wondered if he wouldn’t answer. But, there was finally a click and an irritable voice barking through the speaker.

“What the fuck do you want, Lorcan?”

Lorcan couldn’t stop himself from grinning at Rowan’s anger. There were only a few times when his friend would give in to his frustrations.

“I’m sorry, was I interrupting something?” Lorcan asked coyly. Rowan had confided in him earlier that month that he and Aelin had finally decided to try for a baby. Which meant they were having a ridiculous amount of sex.

“You know you did, you ass,” Rowan grumbled. Lorcan heard a soft, feminine laugh from the background followed by the shifting of sheets. It seemed whatever had been happening was now over. “What do you want?”

Lorcan simply blurted it out. “I need to buy a ring for Elide so I can propose but I don’t know where to start.”

There were a few heartbeats of all-encompassing silence on the other end of the call. “Oh. Wow. That’s big news, Lor.”

“Yeah… but, are you busy today? Can you help?”

Rowan released a long sigh. Lorcan could practically envision him running a hand through his short, silver hair. “I would, but to be honest, I wouldn’t know what to do either. I didn’t even pick out Aelin’s engagement ring myself.”

Damn. Lorcan had forgotten about that. They were so damned in love with each other that it was easy to forget about the rocky start to their originally arranged marriage.

“But,” Rowan continued. “I know someone who could help, if you want to call in the big guns.”

“Yeah. Anything. I need to get this right. Elide deserves it.”

“Damn right. I’ll let her know.”

…

The big gun’s Chanel heels clicked noisily on the marble floor of the jewelry shop she had picked out. As princess, Aelin Galathynius held a lot of sway and managed to get them a private shopping appointment at the shop she insisted would have what he needed.

She had spent the morning and the entirety of the ride to the shop giving him a basic understanding of jewelry and what women wanted. He hadn’t even thought about how the band color should compliment skin tone or that there were better ways of cutting diamonds. Some women didn’t even want diamonds as the main stones. Aelin’s own was an emerald. It was far more complicated than he had hoped.

Lorcan had never really spent much time one-on-one with the princess, but he liked her well enough. Her attitude had grated him the wrong when they had first met, but it soon found out that she was actually a good person. Tough as nails, too. She would make a fearsome queen one day.

“I’m not going to pick the ring out for you,” Aelin said shortly, smoothing out her silk skirt. “Elide deserves better than that. But, I can point you in the right direction.”

“Whatever you say.”

The princess gave a curt nod and motioned towards a glimmering display, filled with stunning, beautiful rings. He watched as Aelin ran an expert eye over them.

“These are the best designers,” she explained. “The rings are beautiful and crafted perfectly. Quality. If you want to get Elide something nice, this is where you’d get it.”

Lorcan nodded slowly, looking back towards the countless rings. He felt his nerves build up again as he looked towards them, wondering how the hell he was supposed to know which one was the right one. He felt Aelin’s eyes skipping back and forth from the jewelry to him, and he had no doubt she had already decided which one Elide would like best. He didn’t know if he wanted to thank her or strangle her for not telling him which one it was.

Lorcan took a deep breath, trying to tame his pounding heart. He studied the rows slowly, attempting to find one that he knew would encapture the woman he loved. He was just beginning to think that it was hopeless, that he’d fuck it up no matter what, when his gaze finally caught on one.

It was made of a bright, gleaming silver that twisted gracefully, supporting an oval-shaped diamond. A few smaller diamonds embraced the middle one each side. It was simple, but elegant. Lorcan knew Elide wouldn’t want the ring with the largest diamond on it, wouldn’t want it to be too loud or ostentatious. But this… this was perfect. He could already practically see it perched on her finger.

“That one,” Lorcan said confidently, pointing towards the ring. “That one is perfect.”

He looked towards Aelin, finding her lips spreading in a slow smile. She gave a pleased nod. “That’s an excellent choice. Elide’ll love that one.”

It was in that moment that it fully settled on Lorcan that this was real, that this was happening. He was going to propose to the women he loved. And hopefully she would say yes.

“I’m happy for you, Lorcan,” Aelin said earnestly. “For some reason, your miserable ass makes Elide very happy, and I can see she does the same for you. I’m glad you found each other.” With that, her eyes narrowed slightly and she leaned closer, lowering her voice. “That being said if you hurt her, what I’d do to you would make what I did to Hamel and his men seem merciful. Understand?”

It was easy to forget that under that golden hair and pretty clothes, Aelin Galathynius was a certified bad-ass. One that even Lorcan didn’t want to get on the bad side of. Not that he would ever admit that to her aloud. It would make her already enormous ego that much bigger.

“Believe me when I say,” Lorcan began. “That I am going to do everything in my power to make Elide happy until the darkness claims us.”

Aelin seemed satisfied with that answer. “I do believe you. Now, let’s get that ring.”

…

Buying the ring was only half of the struggle. Now Lorcan had to figure out the best way to propose to Elide.

It was constantly on the back of his mind, no matter what he was doing. At work, in the shower, lounging around the apartment with Elide… it wouldn’t leave him alone.

Neither would Aelin fucking Galathynius. Every time she saw him in the halls, she would bother him with questions about it. Whether or not he had picked a time, or if he was ever going to pull his head out of his ass and ask her at all. It was annoying as hell. He wasn’t going around asking her every thirty minutes if Rowan had finally knocked her up. But… although she was mildly infuriating, it was somehow a pretty good motivator.

After a week and a half of the idea of the ring burning a hole through his mind, Lorcan finally decided it was time.

It was Lysandra’s birthday, and they had all gathered at the palace to celebrate with friends and family. It was a small, private affair, but it didn’t make it any less enjoyable. In fact, Lorcan preferred it over large parties any day.

They enjoyed a nice dinner, everyone wishing Lysandra a happy birthday. She was beaming the entire night with Aedion by her side. Their own wedding was only two weeks away.

Lorcan had struggled to pay attention to the others around him all evening. His attention had been pinned on Elide the entire time. She looked lovely tonight in a silky, violet top and high-waisted white trousers, dark hair falling down her back in a gleaming sheet.

If anyone noted his distraction during dinner, they didn’t say anything. By the time desert had been consumed and they had moved to the parlor for cocktailing, he was nearly jittery. Or as close to jittery as he would allow himself to become.

He had finished one drink before he decided it was time. He was done with playing around.

“Elide, love?” he murmured into her ear from where he was sitting next to her on the couch.

“Yes, Lor?” she asked, turning towards him. Her fair cheeks were flushed from either the wine or laughing with her friends, dark eyes practically sparkling with happiness. The sight made his heart swell.

“Will you come with me for a bit?”

Elide raised a dark brow in question but nodded, placing her glass on the low table before her. Most of the room was too lost in conversation to notice them slipping quietly away, but Aelin’s sharp eyes landed on him. She was tucked under Rowan’s arm, lips spreading in a slow, knowing smile. As soon as Elide’s back was turned, the princess mouthed, Good luck.

Lorcan refrained from scowling at her, slipping his hand into Elide’s and guiding her gently out of the parlor.

The halls were dark and quiet, the light of the full moon bathing the marble floors in a pale glow. It almost felt as if they were the only two people in the world. Lorcan wouldn’t have minded that one bit.

The ring box felt like a massive weight in his pocket as he held Elide’s hand tighter.

“What are you up to, Salvaterre?” Elide asked playfully, leaning into his side.

“You’ll see soon enough.”

“A surprise?”

“You’ll see.”

Elide narrowed her eyes suspiciously. He could practically see the wheels turning in her mind. She was too smart for her own good. It was one of the things he loved about her. Lorcan wouldn’t put it past her to figure out what he was about to do before he did it. He could only hope that the gods were on his side tonight.

Lorcan led Elide outside towards the gardens. They were a beautiful space, taken meticulous care of throughout the year, filled with trimmed bushes and aromatic flowers. The summer air was comfortably warm, filled with the scent of night-blooming jasmine. With the light of the stars above them and the privacy, it was a perfectly romantic spot.

Lorcan led Elide over to a low, white stone bench situated before a tinkling fountain. He urged her to sit, taking the spot beside her, refusing to release her hand. He rubbed his thumb in slow circles over the smooth skin of her knuckles.

Lorcan tried to will words to his mouth, but it seemed the nerves had finally taken hold, making it far more difficult than he was used to.

“Elide,” he finally managed to rasp out, lifting his gaze to meet hers. “You mean the world to me. I love you more than I have ever loved anything in my lifetime. You know that, right?”

Elide smiled softly and nodded, placing her palm on the side of her face and looking deeply into his eyes. “I know. And I love you just the same.”

He didn’t think ELide would ever understand just how much those words meant to him. He was undeserving of a woman like Elide, but he would try every day of his life to become worthy of her.

“Elide…” Lorcan breathed. “You’re the love of my life. I treasure every day, every moment, I get to spend with you. I want to spend the rest of my life with you… if you’ll have me.” With that, Lorcan slid from the bench to the ground, getting down on one knee on the soft grass. He pulled the velvet box from his pocket, prying it open and holding it out towards Elide, feeling as though he was holding his very heart out in his hands.

Elide gasped and slapped a hand over her chest, eyes wide.

“Elide Lochan…” Lorcan said lowly, watching her face as her lips pressed together tightly and her eyes began to glisten in the silvery moonlight. “Will you do me the honor of marrying me?”

The single second of silence that followed his question was excruciating. But, eventually Elide relieved his suffering by choking out a sob and nodding.

“Yes, Lorcan,” she gasped. “Yes, of course I’ll marry you.”

Lorcan released a breathy laugh, almost unable to believe that she had actually said yes. He recovered from his shock quickly, taking Elide’s hand within his own and slipping the ring on to her finger. He had been right, it did look perfect on her.

“It’s beautiful, Lorcan,” Elide whispered, looking at the diamond for one more moment before launching herself at him. Her arms wrapped around the back of her neck as her lips came crashing down upon his. Lorcan didn’t hesitate before sweeping her up in his arms and rising, kissing the woman he loved, his fiancé, deeply.

“I love you so much,” Elide murmured against his mouth, laughing and crying and kissing him.

“I love you too, Elide. So much.”

Lorcan’s heart had never been fuller.

…

They stayed in the quiet gardens for a bit longer, lounging in the peace and privacy they provided. Lorcan held Elide the entire time, whispering in her ear about how beautiful she was and how excited he was to marry her.

But, eventually they decided to head back inside to their friends and break the news.

Elide wore a smile on her face the entire walk back. Lorcan had a matching one of his own.

As they reached the threshold, the low murmuring of voices faded away, all eyes on them. Neither he nor Elide said anything at first, only wearing those grins.

Eventually, Aelin sat up straighter, and demanded, “Well?!”

Lorcan looked down at Elide as she slowly raised her left hand higher, showing off her new ring. “We’re getting married!”

The room erupted into shouts of surprise and congratulations. Not all of them had known what Lorcan had planned to do. He figured the less people who had known the better, especially since Fenrys had a big, fat mouth.

Lorcan dealt with the attention the best he could, accepting a hug from Lysandra, clasping forearms with Aedion and Rowan, and shoving Fenrys away when he placed a smacking kiss upon his cheek.

Once the initial surprise had gone away, they all moved to sitting down once more. Aedion grabbed a bottle of champagne and popped it open to celebrate.

“Being engaged is all fun and games until it comes to the wedding planning,” Lysandra sighed dramatically. From across the room, Rowan gave a tiny grunt of agreement as Aedion nodded solemnly. “It’s so much work. You just want everything to go perfect. I’m still stressing about ours.”

“I’m sure everything will be great,” Elide assured her. “For both of us.”

“Yeah, and just think about it,” Aelin added, running her fingers through Rowan’s short hair. “No matter what happens at either of your weddings… it won’t be nearly as bad as our first one.”

A beat of silence.

Lorcan watched as Rowan looked up towards his wife disapprovingly. “That’s still not funny, Aelin.”

“It’s a little funny. It’s okay to laugh.”

Although Rowan didn’t take her up on that offer, the rest of them released tiny chuckles. It wasn’t much longer that they were back to rapid-fire conversation and rambunctious laughter. Rowan and Aelin as well as Aedion and Lysandra shared stories about the woes of wedding planning. Although it did seem daunting, Lorcan held no doubt in his heart that they would persevere.

He glanced back down at Elide, the woman that he loved, before brushing a kiss over the top of her hair. She leaned deeper into his side, snuggling close.

Every minute of work would be worth it to call Elide his wife.

[the-noodle-king]

I’ve drawn a lot this month, relatively! just yesterday I did these two drawings back to back of my OC Reggie (also called RJ).

Since I’ve never actually written anything about him anywhere before, I figure this post is a good chance to do that, so I’m gonna write about his character design and how I developed it, his characterisation and whether or not he’s actually part of any kind of story or universe (Spoiler Alert, the answer is Maybe)

Okay so, first things first, his character design.

Reggie’s design came primarily from one idea, but also from two smaller ideas. The instigating idea for his design was a couple articles of clothing I found in a local shop, a pair of pink and black boots, and a black and yellow jacket.

I grabbed pics of them and filed them away as inspiration for a future drawing. When I set about making said drawing I was really just throwing ideas at the page to see what stuck. Now a jacket and a pair of boots might be enough for some people to make a full character design, but I need a little more to grease the wheels as it were.

Enter the other two smaller ideas.

I had some other images saved for inspiration (which I won’t add to the post as standalone images because they’re someone else’s art) and I had a very old OC with no story and only half of a poorly drawn design to his name - RJ.

^ this dude was not only one of my first attempts to make an overwatch OC, but was straight up one of my first digital drawings, ever. I always kind of wanted to come back to his design and make it... Good, but I never had the motivation. Then when I was figuring out how I wanted to combine the pink and black fur trimmed boots with the black, grey and yellow jacket, I decided I’d take some of the tiny grains of RJ here that I had wanted to salvage into a decent design, and do just that.

^ this here is the original mood board of refs I used to make the original drawing of Reggie.

I took the boots more or less verbatim, but brought the yellow from the jacket down into them, the jacket I embellished with asymmetrical padding and added a hood with fur lining to tie it in with the boots, then I brought the pink of the boots up through the design into the sword’s scabbard, his glove, shirt and hair.

The hair style was based on RJ’s original do, a shorter back and sides then spiked and swooshed on top; from RJ’s original design I also took the base colour for his metal plating and the general idea of his various belts, as seen in Reggie’s diagonal belt and thigh straps (made yellow to tie the grey trousers into the colour scheme) and his thigh plating. Reggie’s skin tone was also based on RJ’s, though tweaks were made to it both at the time of designing Reggie and one making these new drawings.

Finally the impractically large sword and matching metal glove, as well as his floating, cyber-mystical metal plates were added using inspiration from the other images.

In the brand new drawings I did, I made some tweaks to his design, small ones to his metal glove and floating metal plates, of which I added another to his lower left leg. I also made the glowing... port? on his left shoulder have a metal surround so it’s not just a big cyberpunk light right in the fabric of the jacket.

I gave him a shield to complement his sword (sadly hiding his pink fingerless glove from the drawings, meaning one of the few pink elements isn’t shown) and gave his sword a design outside of the scabbard, which I hadn’t done previously.

And that was the whole process of his character design. It was an interesting process to attempt certainly, and one I enjoyed a lot at the time, which I also used as an excuse to try a different colouring method than what I did before, and liked so much I still do it now.

-

Now, about his characterisation and story design/concepts.

The short version of it is, Reggie is a standalone OC who was created without a story, but who I would like to develop one for, and intend to design other characters in the same vein as him in the future to do so. But since he was created without a setting and I’ve not done anything with him since creating him (before now), he doesn’t really have any characterisation to speak of, just vague ideas that I have for what he might be like which could change depending on what kind of story I try to build him into.

The long version is... Well a lot longer.

When I first designed him, some of the kinds of ideas I used involved the thought processes I use when making my overwatch OC’s, and the original RJ was an OW OC, so I could have made him into one as well if I had wanted. The “Design Ideas” I mean are things like, a limited colour pallet, cyber punk elements like the metal plates and lights in clothing, and things that enhance the silhouette and make the character stand out like the huge sword and the way it hangs from his waist, the floating metal plates, the big, blocky metal gauntlet on an otherwise innocuous body and the bright pink hair.

But I also used another set of design ethos’; those that I used for my RWBY oc’s back in the day. The big sword and the way it’s carried was also inspired by the bold weaponry from RWBY, and was even originally meant to be able to transform between being a sword and being a scythe, as well as a gun, in true RWBY fashion. The limited colour pallet and brightly coloured hair were other things which doubled up for these design ideas, and the overall look of Reggie’s outfit, the asymmetrical quilting, black and grey base with bright pops of colour to break it up, the fur trims, all inspire more of a RWBY look to me than an Overwatch one. But in the end he wasn’t either, because I didn’t want him to be either. In the new drawings I refined certain elements for the sake of visual clarity, like removing the runes from his floating metal plates and simplifying their shapes, but I also made changes which, for me, shifted him away from the feel of belonging to either franchise, slightly. I forwent the transforming nature of the sword and added a small personal shield to give him more of a cyber-punk knight vibe, as well as accentuating the glowing yellow lights in the design by adding more of them through the unsheathed sword and the shield, as well as the redesigned floating plates. He’s still undeniably a fusion of the two styles, they’re both franchises that I’ve created a lot of original characters for specifically because of enjoying the way their characters are designed, regardless of my intent, a vaguely cyber-punk character with an oversized weapon and bright pink hair is going to look like they belong to one or the other, if not both. And I’m okay with that.

But back to the matter at hand- He’s 100% not an OC from anything preexisting, and when I made him I didn’t make him for a story idea I already had, and I didn’t create a story idea for him to slot into during or after creating him... So does he have one now, as I’m writing this, after having drawn him again, twice, back to back, out of the blue? No, not exactly. I am working on something, as I always am; the gears are grinding and I’m piecing together little thoughts here and there of some ‘maybe’s’ and ‘what if’s’, and I fully intend to design some more characters like Reggie to all exist in the same universe and to be part of a story. I’m just not there yet.

As for his present characterisation, I originally conceived him as being unnaturally happy go lucky and a tad hyperactive, but I’ve now got him in my mind as being just generally passionate across the board, not just happy go lucky and hyperactive, but also very positive, optimistic, comedic, capable of reacting tearfully to just about anything and likely being just a little ditzy. Real Anime Protagonist energy.