Comic Sketches: May - June 2021

Definitely longer than bi-monthly, wasn't it? Sorry about that. If you're still here, I'm going to take it that you already know the score and won't spend much time getting into it.

Long story short: breaks that needed to be taken, were taken. The Patreon wasn't updated because of that, and now we're back on. Though it does always suck to constantly keep changing the schedule. October up to the end of December will be dropping in early January as usual.

I haven't looked back at most of these updates since they were released, so let's see if I have anything interesting to say about them and their production.

I love how Ellsee's first reaction after attacking something that scares her is to apologize and try to help them. This is probably why Chimeraparent has to do a lot of the heavy lifting on the protection front.

hmmmmm. Hmmmmmmmm. HMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM.

Arm.

Ellsee's staff joining her in her dreams is an occurrence that I feel is probably fairly common for her. 

They are intrinsically tied, and even if they weren't, the staff has a mind(s) of its own.

There's a lot that could be said about how White Noise refers to himself here, though some of it is fairly obvious with his character, there is one part that's a little less so.

White Noise refers to himself as the "progeny of the Great Divide; the one true homunculus." We don't know anything about the Great Divide and we won't learn for some time yet. But I can talk a little bit about the alternative moniker he gives himself here.

In case you're a little bereft of alchemic knowledge, a homunculus is generally speaking, the legendary concept of an artificially created human. In Vast Error, it carries a similar but different connotation. The word has been sparingly used in a few dialogues, and in some interchangeably with the more well-known "horrorcore demons".

What connections does White Noise have with these creatures? I won't get too deep into it (to keep the dream alive) but he has talked about the fact there were supposed to be more guardians like him at one point. 

He is a family man, after all.

I think one of my biggest concerns when it came to writing these scenes was worrying if the question-response-question-response formula for the dialogue would get repetitive, and I'm sure someone could make the argument that it does. I wouldn't blame them.

Even with visual storytelling, it's hard to get concepts across naturally without either alienating your audience or boring them. This isn't really an excuse for an inadequate or excessive amount of exposition, there are ways to reach happy mediums, but it's a conundrum that often make you choose. Do you leave things vague and conceptual, or do you tell your audience what they want to know?

I have a preference for the latter. Ellsee is in a situation where she SHOULD already know of everything White Noise is discussing with her already, but she doesn't remember him or know about anything that surrounds her. If you were suddenly thrust into the encompassing infinity of the unknown with only one person who knows their way through it, would you not also have many questions?

This need for explanation is what I like to call a "necessary evil" in writing. I'll be talking about that a bit more when we get to Gaiaeon.

I made a thread about this scene on my Twitter, and it's a short read that you might enjoy if you want to hear about the original ideas about Arcjec's Static dreams from years past.

It also sort of explains all the things I would want to explain over these next few pages. Past Austin is going to have some explaining to do if he keeps taking all of my material! And I don't mean in the interesting comic author way!

Okay I lied, there is a bit that I want to say here. 

Here, we learn that Kidjec always sort of blocked out any of White Noise's attempts at speaking to Arcjec directly. The only response that Arcjec would make was to other visual stimuli, and that only occurred in the real world and spurred his sleepwalking and or sleepdrawing.

Kidjec is something of a mental blockade, a manifested representation that keeps Arcjec from toying or remembering with ideas, memories and people that could potentially bring him solace or clarity. 

He's been holding Arcjec back for a very long time, and only now with the introduction of The Game and the chance of a fresh start does he see the value in fighting back against him. Before that point, though? It was their way, or the painful way, emotionally speaking.

Uh oh, do you hear that? 

Sounds like a severe case of DADDY ISSUES.

So none of Gaiaeon's panels are here because they had very particular creation methods and ideas attached to them. They were by far the most labor intensive set of panels done for an update so far, and the initial first glimpse at Gaiaeon's true form taking up the entirety of the readers screen was planned to be how the first true look at him was handled for a very long time.

As far as the writing for this scene is concerned, the Gaiaeonsplaining is probably VE's current largest "necessary evil". 

I believe that these so-called "necessary evils" in writing come from the need of making something clear to your audience that would simply not be clear otherwise. 

Act 1 has a few of these, notable examples being the spontaneous dumps made for The Black Depths and Skaia during Taz and Laivan's introductory segments. These were done to serve the purpose of clueing the reader into that these elements were not exactly the same as their Homestuck counterparts. Repiton not being an alteration or future version of Alternia/Beforus and Skaia not currently functioning as the endgame crucible of creative potential that it's known as.

You could say that just showing these on their own amounts to being enough context, but though VE can be read and enjoyed on its own merits, it sort of assumes that you've read Homestuck and that you default to Homestuck's rules. 

You could also say that these could have been spaced out more across the story so that you didn't need to spend 5-20 minutes reading a single page to fill you in on something you don't care too much about. To which I would say that's probably true, but we're on a tight schedule and have much bigger mutated fish to fry and die agonizing brain deaths from.

Gaiaeon is the biggest of these fish. He is quite literally the personification of reality itself, and is so undefined that he can be made to fit anyone's created belief system. There was no possible way to emphasize him to scale and subtlety without talking about him and how he functions outright. Sure, I could have left it utterly vague and inscrutable, but I feel like that emphasizes the idea that Gaiaeon is more of a force than a character- when in actuality, he's both. That and he's not exactly in a position to tell us about himself, nor would he want to.

At least not like this.

I don't think anybody expected us to return to the frog room. Little did you know, I am always looking for the newest excuse to come back here and gaze upon splendorous amphibia. 

"Yes, hello, here is my giant library of storytelling dead universe frogs. Glenda is my favorite."

"Sorry everyone who isn't Glenda."

Lilith speaks in the royal "we" here. If you're an older fan and you remember her first conversation during Act 2, you may recall that was not originally the case.

To keep it real with you, I just suddenly started doing it while writing this update and thought it sounded cooler and more interesting. Me and Eddie edited the original dialogue she was in to fit with this, and the rest is history.

Lilith saying that they can tell that Ellsee has resentment of her blood and how it's often her most prominent and sought after feature. 

Trolls like Arcjec and Occeus aren't easy to come by, and her exploitation is a guaranteed facet of her existence. Only served to be punctuated by everyone who sees her as a threat. Ellsee just wants to be treated like an actual person, and she never seems to be able to get that luxury no matter how much she craves it.

The idea of having ANOMALY SPACE being within all of the winding fractures stemming off the Inciphisphere was actually completely Xam's idea. I didn't exactly know how to represent it, and they decided on this. I feel like it was the best possible way to make use of its whole design.

The text in the final version is a near direct reference to how White Space was introduced in "OMORI". Which is a very good game that I recommend you check out if you haven't already.

Hot shapeshifter summer.

Don't worry we'll see that dance routine at some point. All families have dance routines.

The gothics and grotesques of LOBAG are very heavily heavily inspired by the video game Bloodborne, with maybe a dash of Yume Nikki for flavor. 

Occeus talks about Wormwood's initial conversation with him here, and there are a few little details about it that I think are noteworthy.

First, Wormwood is one of the few characters in VE that has a voice claim. I believe he sounds like the "Ancient Repitilian Brian" from Disco Elysium. Give his recollected dialogue a read with the voice! It's blisteringly raw cockney.

Secondly, Wormwood only refers to Occeus as his archetype: "Prince". Claiming that Princes such as him are all he has ever known. We don't know the specifics of what he means by this at the moment, but it's safe to assume that Blood and the Prince archetype are close mates. 

Not counting Seething Shezmu, but that was an alternate probability regardless.

What Occeus enters here is meant to be somewhat of an overrun, dilapidated museum. His entire land operates among spaces similar to this. 

Venues that are meant to mask his objectives and serve as distractions or busywork. A representation of his workaholic tendencies.

This string of updates is really meant to cement Occeus's characterization and his thoughts about what he does and why he does it. Which for some people, was still kind of lost if they hadn't gone deep into Snowbound Blood beforehand.

I feel as though most fans expected Occeus to remain in shock or utterly devastated about what happened to him during Act 2. Initially, that was the plan for him, but I felt like keeping him that way would be disservice to what he's actually capable of. He freaked out, had time to think everything over, and came to a new conclusion.

There were chains that bound him, and now they can no longer leave him shackled. Occeus's goals and ideas were admirable, and he should be commended for doing what he could, but Repiton as it stands is a lost cause- even if it went unimpeded, his work would not be able to salvage it, but maybe something here could. 

Sometimes, it takes losing everything you want to recognize what it is that you need.

What Occeus needs is compassion, love, understanding. Things that could have been provided more frequently, if only relationships were as easy and worthy of the soulbound titles that Repiton gives to them.

Ellsee and Occeus are contrasting personalities, ones that meet walls when the time comes to properly express their need for one another. Occeus needs Ellsee but doesn't recognize it due to forces beyond his control, Ellsee needs Occeus but can't get it because she fears what her own emotions can do and it makes her susceptible to doubt.

In the end, neither of them really get to understand each other. Neither of them get to understand anyone.

They're both isolated people feeling around in the dark, trying their best not to let go of one another lest they become forever lost.

Neither of them want it to be just that, though. As Occeus says, he doesn't get the luxury of being blissfully ignorant about all of this. A similar but different issue compared to his matesprit.

These are issues that take time and effort, and he doesn't want to shy away from that aspect of it when he no longer has to do that. He doesn't owe anything to Corporate anymore, he doesn't owe anything to anybody but himself and what he yearns for.

A Prince Of Blood is inherently meant to destroy relationships and bonds with others, that's what the role dictates of them on a surface level. But does it not stand to reason that relationships and bonds extend past that of merely romantic and social?

Occeus's relationship to his work and his employer was severed, he can make that into power. Power that he can use to make himself more useful elsewhere and wield what remains from the struggle.

The transition into Occeus's third eye, and by extension his mind, is meant to parallel the very similar transition that Arcjec had before [S] Engage. Right down to the stark white nothingness surrounding everything.

Though Occeus's mind has a lot more going on in it. While Kidjec is what I would call a mental blockade, the mannequins in Occeus's mind are more meant to show his relationships to the others around him, and how fractured and frayed they are to him. 

He says as much in the conversation with Ellsee directly, about seeing all of them in his mind. His hive is in the background as a representation of his work and toil. It's a fixture within him.

The 'X' faces are actually an old concept from my discarded game "You're Happy Now". 

In that game, the main character would visualize all NPC's as neutral gray figures with X's over their face because they were meaningless to him. With Occeus it's meant to represent the opposite, that these are people he cares about but can't fully form connections with.

Ellsee's mannequin being the most intact, because she's the most important person in Occeus's life and someone who he feels that he has yet to ruin with his inability to understand connections with other people.

These animations are the first that see the introduction of Tyson to the VE team. 

He did an excellent job of making this dribbling black goop and its reflection very well animated, and at this point, I can't imagine not having him around to liven up panels with his animations.

The drip has gotten started very recently- as seen by Occeus's surprise at its occurrence.

Whether Gaiaeon's eyes are new to him or not, I suppose we'll find out later.

To end this off on something lighthearted, and to combat the sting that a lack of horse brings, the final production note I can give is that "Herbert Butterhooves" was a very spontaneous spur of the moment choice on my part. 

It came up during a bit of banter in one of our work servers when the update was being planned and I just shot it out as a gag because I didn't know what Serpaz's consort naming convention would be. We all liked the sound of it so much that it just stuck, and now it can never be undone. 

The most hateable character in VE has his title, and he's earned it.

I'll see you all in January! Or actually sooner, given the SBB devpost is just around the corner. You can get off the grind any time you like, but you can never leave.

Keep it unreal!

- Austin V.