VANQUISHING PROJECTS, ONE BEAST AT A TIME

2024-09-24 00:51[personal profile] redthedragon
redthedragon: Gray and gold anthro dragon. (Default)
Finished a wip i've been working on since the beginning of September. I'm going to add this to my oc imagedump probably tomorrow, i have an assignment i . REALLY BADLY need to work on becuse it's due in two days and it is quite large so i want to get it startd before tomorrow (because finishing it will be easy, starting is the hard part here) but before that i want everyone to look at it and i know those posts mostly exist for my own sense of self-satisfactiion and are hard to see updates on.

ANYWAY. OCS WHO COMMUNICATE LIKE SHIT UPON YE.



note: the image is so long any alt text will break so no alt text on this version, sorry!





The first four panels of a comic. There are two characters - Taran, a young tan man with brown hair, and Haven, a much larger man with long red hair, and eyes with black scleras and red slit pupils (who is not human, but looks close enough). In the first panel, Haven is asleep at a desk crowded with computer monitors, and the room is dim but the computer screens are still lit. Taran, reaching over the top of one monitor, sets a gift bag down on the keyboard in front of where he's sleeping. The bag is clearly a birthday-themed bag, but over the text on it has been pasted a white printout that reads 'good job not doing all the accounting again.' Taran says: 'Hey. I got you something.' Haven, stirring, mumbles: 'wwwuh?' In the second panel, Haven rubs his face blearily, reaching into the bag. In the third panel, he pulls out the contents of the bag - a highlighter-yellow shirt - and looks at it, holding it up. It has black text on it that reads: 'if all else fails, manipulate the data'. In the fourth panel, we see the entire workspace - there are multiple computer towers under the desk, papers stacked mostly-neatly at another tabletop against the wall, and nine wall-mounted monitors along with the three monitors on the desk; beyond that there are stairs going upstairs and several plants visible in the background. Both Taran and Haven's full bodies are also visible for the first time; Taran is fully dressed, and Haven is wearing nothing but a cardigan and slippers. Taran now has his hands crossed nervously in front of his stomach and says: 'uh... do you like it?' Haven is still studying the shirt, and doesn't answer immediately.
In the fifth panel, Haven, visibly exhausted and apparently kind of confused, stares up at Taran. In the sixth, a panel with gloomier colors but almost identical framing, Haven turns to the side, putting the shirt down on top of some papers there. He is no longer meeting Taran's eyes. He says: 'Thanks for waking me up. I'm badly behind. I have to get back to what I'm supposed to be doing.' Trailing off the bottom of the screen is more dialogue, this time from Taran, who says 'Oh,' quietly, and then more strongly, 'Right. Uh...'
'I'll see you in a few days, then?' Taran continues, now visibly nervous and looking to walk out of the room. Haven, now upright and typing at the computer, responds in a very quiet voice: 'Something like that.' Taran, concerned, gives that a couple moments and then starts: 'If you're this busy--'Haven interrupts. 'Taran. Take a trip somewhere. Spain is nice this time of year. I'm not going to be any fun for a while.'
The next page is just speech bubbles. Taran says: Yeah... that bad, huh? Haven says: Well. I have a meeting in a few hours. Taran says: Ah. Spain is nice this time of year, you said? I'll... uh. I'll see you.
A transition, going from the white background to a dark blue gradient.
Now that some time has passed, Taran is coming back, holding a duffel bag in one hand and pulling a suitcase in the other. It's nighttime outside, and the house is dark; there are fallen leaves lying around in the hall beyond the door as he enters.
In the next panel, a kitchen with bright green tiles and counters, Taran has set his bags aside, taken his jacket and shoes off, and left his keys on the counter. On the other side of the island in the kitchen, there is a veritable disaster of broken glass dishes all over the floor, which he's only just noticed. He presses both hands to his face, grumbling to himself: 'Uuughhhhh... I'm not fucking cleaning this shit up.' Then, in the next panel, Taran has clearly taken a shower and is heading upstairs with a paper plate with a cinnamon roll on it. In order to go upstairs, he walks past the workspace from the first few panels, which is now entirely demolished, and debris litters the floor. Taran, concerned, eyes it, saying: 'That's about what I expected... maybe I should've stayed away another week.'
In the next panel, Taran tiptoes into a dark bedroom, still holding his cinnamon roll and still dripping wet. It's in proper order, but the mirror on the desk is broken. Reflecting in the mirror is the bed, and a dark reddish blob with glowing red eyes reflects in it. Taran notices something in that direction, though we can't see what yet. In the panel after that, Haven is laying sprawled in the bed, apparently asleep. He's wearing the 'when all else fails, manipulate the data' shirt. Text over this one says: 'So he didn't hate it after all!'
A final panel intended as a bit of a humorous follow-up shows Taran climbing into bed next to Haven, talking and still holding the cinnamon roll. Behind them, there is an enormous wall of windows. Haven is rolled all the way over onto his side away from Taran now, with one hand over his face so he can keep pretending to be asleep. Taran says: 'So you liked it? You weren't mad? I know you're awake. You're laying like a normal person. Do you want a bite of my cinnamon roll?' Smaller, he mutters: 'would you fucking respond?' He tries: 'It's nice to be back?' In an extremely quiet voice, after a few moments, Haven responds: 'it's nice to have you back, too.'


I originally concieved of this as a funny comic that happened in the present day but frankly Taran wouldn't do this in the present day, so instead he had to be much younger and less familiar with Haven... which meant that this was immediately completely anachronistic because the last time I could really describe him as "much younger" would've been the mid-1950s and it's been a good seventy years but it immediately started taking on the hallmarks of Taran telling someone about this random memory he has instead, which also made the framing of the comic make more sense in general because frankly a lot of it was sitting in "almost-not-quite-right" territory to me as soon as I started drawing the second page.

So I leaned into that. so it's a deliberately self-edited, relatively pleasant narrative Specifically only including the parts Taran both thought were relevant at the time (plates thrown at the kitchen island with enough force to cut the wood! How inconvenient when I wanted a snack) and which he actually wants to mention to someone now (so, like, he seems fine and isn't about to mention the reason he got a gift in the first place was because Haven was in an awful and gettnig-worse mood and he didn't want Haven taking it out on him; their relationship is kind of abysmal and it was even worse during the time period this has to be from).

And THEN i started imagining Taran telling this to someone in front of Haven - because he would, it's nothing objectionable and Haven will also completely tolerate Taran badmouthing him pretty intensely so there's no reason to think he'd be bothered - and Haven like. chiming in with his version of events. Such as "I was pretending to be asleep wearing the shirt because you were convinced I was furious over it and going to break every bone in your body over it" (true) and "didn't you tell me the entire reason you got me a gift in the first place was because you were trying to bribe leniency out of me? I'm pretty sure that was the first time I let you go somewhere unsupervised" (true) "and I was half hoping you were going to run away so I had an excuse to angrily hunt you down" (also true). None of which really make this seem as cute and domestic LMFAO. Certainly the last panel was a near-fabrication combining the events of several other days. though Haven did at one point pretend to be asleep because he thought Taran was going to ask him about the state of the kitchen and he didn't want to hear about it.

...and THEN, after THAT, i started writing, and now i have a 6000+ wip of someone showing up to their house and getting conscripted into hearing about their fucking relationship... one project ends and three begins, i stg.
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