Hello all!

Sorry for the lack of posts last week. I was a tad busy with relatively mundane matters, as well as writing through the humidity-induced pain. Although I’m very much planning for next week’s advice post and returning to university, I’ve got nothing substantial to show you all yet…

Aside from an expletive amount of art.

I am a very arty person, as I’ve already said. I like to illustrate my aliens whenever I can, but I also like to do character studies of other things. Mainly game characters: I run a sort of roleplaying campaign wherein I imitate a lot of such. It’s set in a rather screwed up purgatory for fiction: rather complicated and shoddily made, but it compels me creatively. As of late, said campaign has compelled me to draw a series of portraits for many of the unfortunate characters I nabbed from other media to ape in my stupid crossover. This, believe it or not, works towards inspiring my writing. It’s not that I’m ripping off ideas or designs exactly, but rather reconsidering what people have already made.

The following cretins are from media that I’ve heard of or have experienced myself. Not many of them (Sans a few) have anything to do with literature. Make of this what you will.

Nothing to do with Aliens – A series of characters Ben happens to like.

Čeda Čedović (Leathericecream) – A highly aggressive Serbian “superbeing” with almost no moral compass and very little intelligence. The epitome of early newsground memes. There is often a similar chaotic element in my own character designs, though not usually as hysterical Leatherface’s protagonist!

SPAMTON G. SPAMTON (Toby Fox’s Deltarune) – One of my favourite characters of all time: a positively deranged salesman who wants to strike the ultimate deal in order to ascend mortal puppetry. Toby fox, in my opinion, isn’t the best worldbuilder or plot weaver, but damn can he make iconic entities! Spamton’s very speech is peppered by both [[swanky business slogans]] and [[VIOLENCE]], all hinting back to the rise and fall of his old life and later experiences (e.g. trying to communicate with a lonely girl from the non-virtual world). He’s funny, he’s disturbing and he’s a bloody icon overall. Anyway, enough [[gushing??]].

Charles James Fox (Real figure, portrayed by James Gillray) – In life, Charles James Fox was a highly Righteous man. He was an abolutionist, supporter of the american revolution (as a Brit) and as far as we know supportive of early feminist movements. However, he had his vices – Gambling, flirting and occasionally drinking, as well as choosing a bad time to support the French Revolution. As a result, caricaturists of the day belittled him remorselessly as a bumbling, sad faced fool, but not without sympathy. James Gillray practically made him the unlikely protagonist of many of his prints, always getting into bother with the king and Pitt. My classier side shining through, I absolutely fixate on the man in life and art to inspire some of my more sophisticated designs, not least an entire alien species I’m yet to introduce!

Agent Black (Joakim Sandberg’s “Iconoclasts”) – Possibly one of the most absurdly tragic villains of all time. First of all, the woman was forcefully immortalised by exposure to a mystical substance, Ivory, that frazzled off her arms and left her with searing headaches, but granted amazing healing abilities. Next, she loses the sole person she cared about (Agent Grey) to a volatile serum that can actually obliterate Ivory, then her only tolerable companion to a parasitic seed sewn by the little sister of the same man who killed her former lover! That said, she was immensely cruel and cynical, but her quest for revenge literally reduces her to a raving monster, not least when she’s infested with the parasite herself. She’s not necessarily likeable, though her snark in the earlier chapters of the game is funny, but she leaves an immense impression. Naturally, she had to pop up in my shoddy campaign as an obstacle.

N/Nail (Originally Dave-X…):You see this angry, blue little hedgehog of a wretch? Forgotten in story and also mostly in real life, he figured as the antagonist of a french Flash spinoff for a popular french MMO/Cartoon called Wakfu…although he was originally going to be the protagonist of the Artist’s Game/Comic “Nail Saga”; originally intended to be released on RPG Maker with the likes of LISA the Painful, OFF and OMORI. To summarise, the company Ankama wanted to take N as their own, which sparked a legal dispute between the artist Dave and the company…leading to the obscurity of the character and the indefinite hiatus of the creator’s other projects.

Me, on the other hand, didn’t know anything about this when i discovered this cretin. What struck me instead was the sheer ANGER broiling within this kid – a bit like Agent Black, he is in constant pain from headaches after being sealed away for making a shock discovery. This trauma reduces him to a howling, Dragon Ball-esq psychopath bent on freezing everything as revenge. He also ends the the plot by literally detonating like a nuke! In contrast to the more classical, subdued characters of my novel, I’d like to have a superlative like N to spice up my narrative…hopefully not at the cost of sparking a legal Battle!

Richard (Terry Goodkind’s “Sword of Truth”) – Controversial of me to say this, but in comparison to the previous characters, Richard here is a bit of an “Anti role-model” for my character designs. Sword of Truth is a bit of an infamous fantasy series, to say the least, and Richard as “Hero” is definitely the head of that shock. He’s supposed to be a gentle but noble ranger who has bravely faced down extremely (note laughably) wicked warlords for the good of the world, wielding a literal SWORD that can cut through delusions!

In actuality, he’s a whiny, violent thug who pulls magic out of his ass to solve his problems, spouts excessively objectivist views and murders pacifists. Yes, he slaughters a bunch of straw hippies that tried to stop him from riding out against the enemy. His wife, Kahlan, is just as bad when it comes to brutal impulse; if the villains weren’t baby eaters, these folk wouldn’t qualify as heroes. Sure, not all protagonists NEED to be heroic or even likeable…but both of them area written to be so in this narrative. This is just the head of the rabbit hole of sword of truth. You do not want to know about the torture maidens…or the demon chicken!

Cunoesse (Disco Elysium) – Disco elysium is a very, very well written detective game with some excellent worldbuilding and an array of deceptive characters. It also has a duo of speed addicted children who throw rocks at a hanged corpse. Cunoesse is very obnoxious, yet endearing. She is a terrible influence to the vulnerable Cuno, who she encourages to do petty crimes for fun. She’s almost enigmatic in design – some say she might not even be a child, but some obscure gnome who incites cruelty in humans to sait their immortal boredom. She also has a very fucking potty mouth. You will not forget a word she says very quickly. Thus, I have made her a minor NPC in my campaign and an inspiration for unlikely residents of my settings. Very edgy indeed.

Anyhoo, that’s enough of this unrelated tripes. Any characters in particular that inspire your writing or design? Let me know if you dare!

Have a [[Best Bargains!!]] day!