Some illustrations I did for an in-universe article in @parahumanzine. Article text was written by raikotoho and can be read on AO3 here: archiveofourown . org/works/28176969
[ID: Three “fashion-photography” style illustrations featuring teenage superheroes Galatea, Gargoyle, and Talos.
Illustration 1: All three are lounging on a black town car, lit dramatically from behind. They are dressed in formal wear and holding masquerade masks, with symbols of their hero identities drawn on them in gold paint. Talos (left) is wearing a white shirt and khaki trousers with a waistcoat, a bracer on his right arm, and armored boots. Galatea (center) is wearing a flowing white dress belted with a gold lariat, and leather gloves with cloth wrapping up her forearms. Gargoyle (right) is wearing a gray suit jacket and pants over a white shirt, with metal shackles over his biceps.
Illustration 2: Talos and Gargoyle, in casual civilian clothes. Gargoyle is balancing on a chair and using Talos’ shoulder for support.
Illustration 3: Galatea in casual civilian clothes. She is leaning against a wall underneath a mirror, looking into the distance.
Marquis Fanon Stans: “Oh he’s so cool, he doesn’t hurt women or children! He kept the peace of Brockton Bay!”
Deep Tomrid sigh
Worm Arc 1: literally states the heroes came in and brought peace to Brockton Bay, because everything prior to that sucked
Dragon Interlude: admits to murdering his own mooks for failure
Amy Interlude: known as a pattern killer for all the people he’s killed, including superheroes
Carol Interlude: known to stab women in the feet and refused to reveal he had a child hidden in a fight area
Marquis Interlude: wants to gaslight his daughter by “injuring” himself in a prison riot he would start on purpose to kill his own mooks
Arc 30: Was going to let Lung burn Taylor to death (so much for that code)
Ward:makes incest jokes at his daughter’s rape victim, enables said daughter in making weapons of mass destruction, was okay with feeding human flesh to all his villain allies
The in universe reaction that characters have to “Hookline” and “Kitchen Sink’s individual names and the fact that together they’re "Hookline and sink” is probably the most realistic writing I’ve ever read.
Because I didn’t know if I wanted to giggle scream or curse the powers that be when I saw those names and I feel like Wildbow understood the assignment.
Okay but the layers of Rachel holding Taylor’s hand on the ride back from killing Coil. There’s so much to take away there. You have:
How Coil had threatened to shoot her dogs, and Taylor killed him.
How this whole time Rachel has hated, hated playing Machiavellian games and “cloak and shadow” shit. She’s not good at it, she doesn’t understand it, and it keeps leaving her and hers worse off. And not only is the main instigator of those things dealt with, but Taylor, the other person who kept doing it, finally stopped and solved a problem in a direct fucking way.
How Rachel was ready to kill Taylor not an hour ago. She had been betrayed after letting Taylor get close. Everyone forgave her, she had started to forgive her despite everything, and then she goes and betrays them again. Except she hadn’t, and Rachel doesn’t know whether to be angry or grateful or frustrated but for the first time, she doesn’t default to pushing her away.
How Rachel knows what it’s like to kill someone, and hated it, and despite everything about her she felt like she needed to reach out, to comfort or commiserate or just be there, for the one person she could really call a friend.
Something I find myself wondering about post-Khepri parahumans is what the split is between capes who are like “I’m gonna dig Taylor Hebert up just to kill her again for what she did to us” vs “Man I’m glad she did that, It’s not great that I got bodyjacked but I think it was worth it because she probably saved all of our asses, give her a medal.” Both camps would probably wear the GM patch, but for different reasons.
Like, there was never a vote! Contessa sort of just resolved the situation by fiat. I’m really curious what would have happened if there had been any kind of, like, discourse about how to deal with the Taylor Hebert thing.
Also, since she made an appearance in the latest chapter, periodic reminder that I’m pretty sure Alabaster is the real final villain of Pale. (Of course Wildbow would make the literal Spirit of Mercy be a villain.)
I know that we’ve been all about the Bonesaw tumblr discourse lately, but can we talk about the fact that Burnscar was a confirmed weeb. She’s seen in the S9 arc reading graphic novels and it mentions specifically that she really likes them. You know she was turning her flames into Gundams. Giving villain speeches from Naruto.
Right before Brian killed her, she managed to say “oh I get to die like my favorite character from One Pi-”
Most other fandoms when confronted with the bad things the main character character did: *makes excuses, tries to downplay it, pretends it didn’t happen*
Worm fans when confronted with the bad things Taylor did: “Haha, yeah she did.”
Some illustrations I did for an in-universe article in @parahumanzine. Article text was written by raikotoho and can be read on AO3 here: archiveofourown . org/works/28176969
hey gang! i commissioned an artist (@chroma-imp) to draw our girl Tay Tay. they were super amazing throughout the whole thing & I’m really glad i got to add to the total amount of art containing her
![[amy voice] i am NOT a fucking tumblrina!!!!!](https://64.media.tumblr.com/4436432b99c7b8ea14f6a31a16bfd8c3/20a474a6f2986e52-56/s1280x1920/1e5071e7780509c6b56873c42d7c38e05f65f699.png "[amy voice] i am NOT a fucking tumblrina!!!!!")
