First of my glass animal mask series! This was so fun to paint, what other animals should I try? So far I'm thinking owl and deer for a woodland theme🦊🦉🦌
This painting and more have just been added as a print to my webshop :)
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I’ve had this thought in my head for a long while now that, after the Roaring/Final Tragedy, the latter half of chapter seven would feature the characters breaking the game itself and travelling through chapters in order to write a new ending and save Kris (and perhaps Dess by extension).
And after chapter five’s weird route ended with Kris and Noelle breaking the game in another way, I then had the thought… “Well…what if these two Noelles crossed paths?”
Alt text for this comic under the read more:
Page 1
Panel 1 - In a largely empty, completely grayscale-looking approximation of Hometown, a choppy, pixel door outlined in the DEVICE color green appears. Through it, there’s signs of the game’s layer existing outside of the game itself. Three figures look through the door: Susie, Noelle and Ralsei, all in different forms of their dark world selves. Susie has become a full dragon, with horns, wings and a much longer tail. Her eyes glow red from the soul. Ralsei is now fully femme presenting, in a green dress, and with their scarf turned into a pink ribbon. She holds up a magic flame to light their way. Noelle is still in her white robes, but now with small glowing angel wings at her back, and a golden halo resembling an eye with six points. All of them look shocked and confused.
Title: MAKE or BREAK
Panel 3 - In a reverse shot, we see the other side of the door, into the empty grayscale landscape. The area is dotted with red tears in reality where the dark world peeks through, black and red lines in contrast to the boring grayscale town. Two other figures look back at the three that have spotted them: Kris and Noelle on the weird route. Noelle looks darker, bedraggled, her hair tangled and wet. She is in her light world outfit, except for her right arm, which seems permanently stuck with the arm and robed sleeve of her dark world self. Kris scuffles along the ground without really walking, arms hanging limp, their body almost completely dull gray and black. A dimmed soul can be seen through cracks in their chest. They don’t even seem to be an actual person anymore, and are just dragging behind Noelle like a convenient carrying case for the soul. Noelle looks back through the door with equal shock and confusion.
Page 2
Panel 1 - A medium close-up as weird route (WR) Noelle falls to her knees with a FWUMP. She catches herself forward with her hands.
Panel 2 - Side view of WR Noelle as she leans forward, her hair covering much of her face, her body shaking. Behind her, the hollowed out Kris stands silently. “I don’t…don’t understand it!” WR Noelle says.
Panel 3 - Upshot as WR Noelle stares down at her hands, which are veined red from using the soul so much. She’s still shaking. “I’m strong enough!” she says, her face contorted in anger and confusion. “I’ve been strong enough to do the IMPOSSIBLE!”
Panel 4 - Wider shot as she looks back up at the other three from the normal route, who all hover above the ground, looking down at her with pity and horror. WR Kris still slumps beside her. “So how is that…still not enough…to win against YOU?” WR Noelle cries, looking specifically at normal route (NR) Noelle, who whisps away the last snowflakes of a spell. They’ve just finished a fight, and WR Noelle lost.
Panel 5 - Downshot as WR Noelle remains on her hands and knees, glaring up at NR Noelle hovering over her. NR Noelle’s wings and halo can be seen from the back. WR Noelle finishes, “When all YOU did…was stay on track?!”
Page 3
Inset panel of NR Noelle holding up a hand and looking off to the side, as if trying to fish out a good response. “Well…I DID get to be a final boss,” she says. “It seems like…you skipped all that?”
Panel 1 - In comparison between Noelle’s statements, we see an image of what might have happened on the normal route. Dragon Susie faces off against an enormous boss that seems to be the Angel and Noelle combined into one being. It’s difficult to see the entire creature, but it has enormous angel wings, concentric golden rings around the head sporting snowflake-like spikes, shining silver armor, and a mess of feathers and antlers protruding from the head. Susie attacks the boss with bright green fire breath; the same color as her healing magic.
Panel 2 - In contrast, in the weird route, Noelle and Kris traverse the landscape, spotted with tears into the dark world. In both spaces, Lightners and Darkners are left frozen in ice by Noelle’s power. At first Noelle is in her dark world outfit, but as they progress the ability for her to change her appearance breaks, and only one sleeve is left of her robe. The two seem stuck in an endless loop of breaking things and freezing things to get stronger.
Panel 3 - Mid shot of WR Noelle as she searches for a response to this. “But then, that just means…”
Panel 4 - She finds her response and shoots back, “That you still LOST!” She glares back up at her angelic counterpart.
Panel 5 - Inset panel of NR Noelle looking a little confused at the accusation. “...What? Of course I did,” she says.
Panel 6 - “What’s…the other option?” she continues.”That I kept winning, and holding on to that power, and never going anywhere else? Just being STUCK there, forever?” After the final battle, dragon Susie helps a restored Noelle to her feet, tears streaming down her face. Giant feathers drift down around them, showing that the angel form was defeated.
Page 4
Panel 1 - Wide shot as the normal route gang face weird route Noelle and Kris. The landscape is still grayscale, broken and empty; all of the people in it frozen and dead. “...Like you are now?” NR Noelle suggests sadly.
Panel 2 - Mid shot of WR Noelle, with WR Kris still hovering in the background. WR Noelle sneers, clutching her chest and pointing up at her counterpart. “Don’t act so smug! You should KNOW…we were trapped there!”
Panel 3 - Side view of WR Noelle as she clutches the sides of her head, expression angry and desperate. “In that town, in that…story, that LIFE!” she cries. “We had to get out!!”
Panel 4 - Side view of NR Noelle as she looks down at her weird route self with sadness. She responds, “Of course I understand. I’m you.”
Panel 5 - Full shot of normal route Susie, Noelle and Ralsei, all looking hurt and pitying as they hover over the scene. Noelle closes her eyes and clutches her hands to her chest, genuinely distressed. “I’m just…I’m so, so sorry, that…that thing, made you believe…”
Panel 6 - Closeup on just Noelle as she looks on with pity. She finishes, “...that the only way out was to hurt yourself.”
Panel 7 - Extreme close up on WR Noelle as she looks off to the side, not wanting to meet NR Noelle’s gaze. She does not want to accept there may have been other options. “No, I…I had to…” she says.
Page 5
Panel 1 - Full shot of Noelle and Susie looking on with sadness. Susie speaks up, flaring her wings up, and pulling her hands to her chest. “Don’t you get it?! We STILL got free!” she says, her expression pained at seeing Noelle like this. “I’m going to CHANGE it, for all of us!”
Panel 2 - Side view of Susie as she looks down at WR Noelle, still clutching her chest. Tears prick at the corners of her eye. “You…didn’t have to do that to yourself…and to Kris!...”
Panel 3 - Mid shot on WR Noelle as she screams back, “You don’t even KNOW what Kris did to ME!” Behind her, WR Kris says and does nothing.
Panel 4 - Ralsei speaks up, extending a hand towards the unmoving Kris. “Is that even Kris anymore?” she cries.
Panel 5 - Ralsei still reaches a hand towards WR Kris, but they do not move and react. Whatever person was there seems to be completely gone now.
Panel 6 - Full shot of NR Noelle, Susie and Ralsei still facing down WR Noelle. WR Noelle’s antlers frame the three of them in the foreground. “You broke the boundary so much earlier than we did…” NR Noelle says. “...Did you never figure out…WHAT had changed Kris?”
Panel 7 - “What was giving you that power?” A flashback scene to the weird route in chapter four, where Kris equips the thorn ring back onto Noelle. The shot just focuses on their hands, and the thorn being placed against Noelle’s finger.
Page 6
Panel 1 - Focus on NR Noelle as she looks off to the side, looking disturbed. Her halo eye follows her line of sight. “You know what the worst part about all this is?” she says. “The thing that really makes my fur stand on end?”
Panel 2-3 - A large panel showing both sides of the story: in the top one we see the end of the weird route in chapter five, with Noelle and Kris sinking upside-down into the bottom of the lake. The water is green and dark, except for the light of the soul starting to shine between them. In the bottom one we see the end of the normal route, with a multitude of dark fountains filling the skies around Castle Town. Kris lies injured and bleeding out, their right hand gone, and a dark hole in their chest. A mix between blood and strange, chopping darkness pours out of their wounds; they’re in mortal danger. Above them, Ralsei in their dress tries to keep them stable with her healing magic. Noelle reaches upward with her own powerful magic, and dragon Susie blasts at the world’s barrier with her fire breath. The two sides mirror each other, both breaking through reality.
NR Noelle says, “It’s knowing that the thing that did this to you…and to Kris… And the thing that’s now helping us SAVE Kris… They’re probably the same person.”
Panel 4 - A repeat of panel one, with NR Noelle looking back towards her counterpart. She almost has a wry, knowing smile on her face. “I mean…that’s what WE’D do, right? Try everything, even the messed-up options. See how things break.”
Page 7
Panel 1 - Full shot as WR Noelle slumps further to the side, her expression blank. WR Kris stands silently behind her, while NR Noelle still stands in the foreground. It’s all starting to his WR Noelle; understanding is coming to her.
Panel 2 - Slightly closer in on WR Noelle as she leans to the side. A weary smile creeps across one side of her face as she looks to the side. “I see. That’s how it is,” she says.
Panel 3 - Closer on WR Noelle’s face as she looks back at her counterpart. She’s smiling, but it’s not a happy one…more resigned. “So I’m the broken one, huh?”
Panel 4 - Mid shot of NR Noelle as she looks down, clutching her hands to her chest again, eyes closed. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.” She seems to be genuinely grieving for her other self.
Panel 5 - The grief does not reach WR Noelle, who just looks down at the thorn ring on her right hand with a resigned smile. “Don’t be. I don’t regret it,” she says. “I still got to see things…got to DO things, that you never will.”
Panel 6 - Downshot of NR Noelle and Ralsei. She looks over at Ralsei as they put a hand on her shoulder, and hold their head with their other hand. “Please. Let’s just go. I can’t stand it here. I can’t stand it…I can’t…” she says, looking genuinely distressed.
Panel 7 - “There’s nothing here we can help Kris with.” Ralsei finishes. Meanwhile, WR Kris continues to slump in the air, saying and doing nothing. Whatever Kris was here is long gone.
Panel 8 - Mid shot of Noelle and Susie, as Noelle turns to face Susie. “Yeah. It’s…gettin’ antsy again,” Susie says, clutching her stomach with one hand. They all seem ready to leave.
Page 8
Panel 1 - Wide shot as the normal route trio head back into the green-colored door they entered from, back into the DEVICE layer. WR Noelle watches them turn to leave from the foreground.
Panel 2 - “WAIT! I know…aren’t you going to do it?” WR Noelle calls after them, her expression now more manic.
Panel 3 - Full shot of WR Noelle still on the ground, with Kris slumped behind her. NR Noelle stands in the foreground, just her arm visible. “I know that you can!” WR cries, pointing a hand up at NR Noelle.
Panel 4 - Extreme closeup on NR Noelle’s face. Her eyes look haunted. “...I don’t want to,” she says.
Panel 5 - A repeat of panel 3, with NR Noelle’s arm in the foreground, and WR Noelle on the ground, looking up at her. Her expression is still manic; she wants to get in the last word. “But you HAVE to,” she says. “We always did end up having to delete those glitched pets, right? So turn and face me. I want to SEE you do it.”
Panel 6 - Closer in on WR Noelle as she holds her hands up, her smile twisted, still clinging to that feeling of impossible power. “I want us BOTH to know how it FEELS!”
Panels 7-8 - A closeup of NR Noelle, facing away from the camera. She then turns her head slightly to look back at her weird route self, her expression now colder.
Page 9
Panel 1 - Full shot as Noelle turns back, just in front of the opening they’ve come through. Susie and Ralsei, on the other side of the opening and back into the middle layer, both look back with sadness. WR Noelle has asked for a final word from NR Noelle, and will receive it. “There’s…one more thing. You didn’t lose because I was a final boss, or anything like that,” NR Noelle says.
Panel 2 - Mid shot as NR Noelle turns back to fully face WR Noelle in the foreground. She starts to raise a hand. “You lost because your power came from the thing in Kris.”
Panel 3 - “The one playing this all out,” she continues. “So…what happens to your power when it’s NOT playing?”
The panel shows an extreme closeup on WR Noelle’s face, with a focus on her eyes. All of the challenging smile in her expression is gone, and instead, there’s only a dawning horror. She only now understands what has happened.
Panel 4 - Upshot as NR Noelle stands over her, raising her right hand to her head. Magic starts to gather around the ring at her finger. Noelle is cast largely in shadow, her expression grave. Her full power is now about to be unleashed, and it terrifies both of them. “I’m sorry it never gave you the chance to realize it…but we never needed it,” she says. “We’ve always been strong enough.”
Page 10
Panel 1 - In an extreme close up on Noelle’s hand, she gives a little flick of her finger, dragging magic with it. It’s clear now that she’s wearing the Gilded Rose ring.
Panel 2 - In the DEVICE layer, the weird route file is erased.
Countdown to Countdown will return on 8/29! Thank you guys for your patience as we move to the second-to-last arc of the webcomic! I'm so excited.
I have been busy prepping for AnimeNYC. I hope to see some of you guys there this year, as I will be doing a live drawing Q/A, giveaway and a signing with Inklore on Friday of the convention for the release of Daughter of a Thousand Faces (and who knows... perhaps something cool will be announced in the future?). I'll also be simply tabling at L-02 in the artist alley!
Additionally, it will be the seventh anniversary of CTC soon! If you guys hadn't known, there is an ongoing celebration in the CTC discord where everyone is sharing their CTC OCs! If you've got a little guy to share and potentially get featured in a future chapter of CTC, now's your chance!
I will be away on family business for most of August and September, so I can't quite catch up on as many pages as I'd like. But rest assured, once I return I will be plowing away at the final book of CTC. I hope you guys will enjoy it. Thank you again, and have a great summer!
Please note that making these big analysis posts is not my strong suit, and while all this makes sense in my head, I'm not the greatest at putting everything I wanna say into words. Sorry in advanced if this gets a little messy but pls stick with me here!! 🫡
I wanna thank the amazing @burrythebusy for yapping with me about how gay Kagi is and for letting me borrow some of their points to write about here 🫶 and also for gathering a bunch of panels for me to use 💕💕
Spoilers for chapter 37a
"But he had a girlfriend in middle school!"
No. That is not the end-all-be-all of sexuality. Plenty of people (myself included) have experiences big and small with other genders before realizing that they're gay. People don't get all "but but but!!" towards Miyano's past crush on Makimura, so why can't Kagi have that same grace? Just because a guy dated a girl in the past doesn't mean his gayness is invalidated
From the light novel: (for context: his class is talking about plans for the school festival and they've come to the exciting realizing that girls are gonna be visiting!!)
Not that he particularly wanted a girlfriend at that point anyway. He'd dated someone for a few months during middle school, but it had been nothing but nerves for both of them and had ended awkwardly.
In my honest opinion, I don't think Kagi and Yamada got very far together. I really think that the furthest they went together was that lap pillow. I doubt they ever kissed or anything like that. In the early chaps when Kagi was still trying to grasp what type of relationship he exactly wanted with Hirano, the thought of kissing never crossed his mind till Niibashi brought it up to him. His mind was locked in on that awkward lap pillow experience
Wow look at how dead his eyes look
I commonly use the emojis 😐😑😐 to represent how Kagi was when he had a girlfriend, and it's definitely fitting when you look at him during that time!
I know we haven't seen much of their relationship, and I'm sure they did have some good moments together, but all together, Kagi looks back at that relationship with this sadness that his past self just couldn't identify.
It's like he thinks - something's just off.
And like, he was just a middle schooler when that experience happened!! It's very common for middle schoolers to think they're grown up (they're not) now that they're no longer in elementary school
And what's something adults do? Date!
(Hell, when I first started middle school, one of my friends got her first boyfriend maybe like 3 weeks into the school year! It's not an out of the question thought process for someone in that age group!)
And to look at it beyond that, he lives in a heteronormative society where being lgbtq+ isn't exactly talked about (gay marriage still isn't legal in Japan after all, which is stupid and sucks very much) he's also popular with girls in a sport that's perceived as masculine. He's being pushed to be with this cute girl who's seemingly also popular and is involved with basketball too. It's not hard to believe that he would end up with a girl when that's the experience he's having in middle school. Even when he starts to piece together that something feels off inside, he sticks with it until he eventually gets dumped.
During that period of time, he was told that a lap pillow is a romantic thing that couples do together. He gave it a shot, and... he didn't feel anything special.
So he gave it another shot with Hirano
And what happened?
The difference is night and day:
Back with Yamada, he was so nervous that he couldn't relax at all even with her telling him to put more of his weight on her. Even his friends are laughing at him for not being able to do something seemingly so simple. It's not simple for him is the thing! There's not a single trace of any blush, or even just a smile on his face at all. His eyes look so empty and hollow, which is not a look we're used to seeing on his face
With Hirano however?
Life returns to his eyes, his faced is flushed bright red, he's so overwhelmed with so many new emotions flooding in that he jumps up from Hirano's lap while thinking he's doing something scandalous
This is the chapter, the moment, where he realizes for certain that he's gay
He's in love with Hirano
He's attracted to Hirano
He's in love with a man
He's attracted to a man
He panics after the realization and starts avoiding Hirano. He realized that he's in love with Hirano and attracted to him in a way that he never could be with Yamada. Guilt overwhelms him so much to the point where he can't sleep and has to pass out in the nurses office for half a day cause he's now carrying this unbearable weight of being in love with his probably-straight roommate
The gay experience can honestly be so heartbreaking at times
Luckily things do get better for him, and he even starts dating Hirano! But at the time, he didn't know any of that would happen! He was just a hormonal 16 year old high schooler experiencing his first gay love.
In my eyes, he's gay. Simple as that. I just really can't see him being bi or pan or anything else. He's a gay high schooler on the basketball team who's secretly dating his older roommate.
And I think that's beautiful!
I don't have a good transition for this, but even in the newest chapter, he just does not share the enthusiasm that his teammates have when they see that girls are visiting (and do note that this is before he sees that Yamada's here)
I have two pictures left so...
To answer Yamada's questions: No, they don't know and he hasn't told them
From how it sounds (Kagi answering his teammate with a question mark) he might not know exactly how to label her. He might not wanna tell the others that they used to date. While the chapter still isn't complete at the time of posting (so who knows, I could be proven wrong next month) chances are that the thought of telling never crossed his mind until Yamada questioned him
But what would even be the point of telling his team? (minus Muroi, chances are he knows since he went to the same middle school) He's dating Hirano now (secretly, albeit) so why would he wanna go around talking about a past relationship that was all nerves and didn't feel right to him?
Adding Burry's tags to the post cuz YESSSSSSS they're so important!!!
#PEAKKKK #THANKS FOR PUTTING THIS IN WRITING LETS GOO #i need to say that #my problem w seeing people insist on calling him bi is that narratively and contextually its important that hes not #bc it gives reason for why he acted the way he did up to chapter 16 when it came to confronting his feelings for hirano #his whole breakdown in 8 #explaining his guilt in 16 #like he reacted/acted/thought that way bc he just figured out his sexuality #and by that i mean #it didnt change or get added to #he FIGURED IT OUT #he did not know about his sexuality until hirano and we watch that happen #and ppls reason for him being bi is "he wont care about gender!" like u can choose #or "he had a gf" which. i mean he wasnt into her so i fear that doesnt work #i said this on twitter earlier but #he has been implied not to like girls #which is an important distinction from #he hasn't NOT been implied to like girls #feel me #anyway I'm usually not passionate about sexuality hcs or whatever for unconfirmed characters but #i fear this is just too important and blatant imo #and kagiura is my fav character in all of fiction so i get heated when ppl dont get him #i will eat my words if he ig implies he did like yamada but theres O reason for me to think that #i mean. his reaction to seeing her again was. mild surprise and nothing else. he doesn't every react to girls cheering for him. he dont gaf #THANKS AGAIN FLY WE NEEDED THIS #hirano to kagiura #kagiura akira
From what little we can see of his face here, he just has like this whole heavy "oh..." physique going on. I'm sure he's aware that he's popular (he's gay not blind) and I wouldn't be surprised if this detachment dates back further (aka before he was certain of his feelings for Hirano. Who knows maybe he started being this way late middle school too even when he didn't know what was going on with him)
Ok we're turning this into a thread of examples now 🤗 anyone feel free to add on!!
This is off topic from above, but Burry gave another example when we were yapping that I didn't know how to put in the og post (+ I hit the image limit) I'm just gonna post a screenshot cuz I'm not doing this (spending forever writing) again tonight haha oops
This is the same energy as when Kagi realized that Hirano's thighs are harder than a girls
Look at how embarrassed and shocked he is to be seen being in a tight space with Hirano. He looks like he's worried about whatever question you're going to ask him because he does not have the answer. Can he say they're dating? What does that mean?! IS HIRANO OKAY WITH THIS???
Hirano has that, "oh shit, I thought I locked the door" look, while Kagi has that, "WE WERE JUST HUGGING!" panic.
Okay, taking it back before the 10 second rule...
At the shrine visit:
Kagi looks upset, scared, and worried that he thought about kissing Hirano. That's not the typical embarrassment we see out of him. He looks like he's going to puke. Like thinking of kissing Hirano isn't okay.
My heart hurts.
Then, after the ol' lap pillow, when Hirano is suspicious of Kagiura avoiding him, Hirano jokes with Kagiura that his bleached hair and piercings are so scary looking to girls.
The panel once again blocks out Kagi's face as he thinks about girls. What they like. How he isn't one. That he likes Hirano just as he is.
Gay. Gay. Gay.
Then, later, omg, when Hirano catches Kagiura playing hide and seek, Kagiura talks to him about his earrings being missing. Hirano says he isn't wearing them because it doesn't seem fair if he's unsure of his feelings.
You know who DIDN'T think of Kagiura's feelings?
The boys telling him to date his ex.
His ex telling him to lie in her lap.
He's SHOCKED that someone is CONSIDERING HIS FEELINGS in romance.
UUUUUUGH!
And that SWEET SWEET SWEET BLUSH IS THERE!
The face is hidden, like a reference to Kagi thinking about the past, about being with a girl and never feeling like this.
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I just spent 3 hours going through the crazy pokemon leak.. absolutely bonkers stuff. There were some walk / run cycles in the pokemon anime resources and I thought it’d be fun to stitch them together!!
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
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your comics made me think about how the humans would probably make some truly incomprehensible references from the pov of a monster, like the only humam media they know about is whatever CDs end up in waterfall so...
imagine, you're toriel and you're hanging out with your recently acquired human children, when one of them starts humming an unfamiliar tune... then all of a sudden, like a sleeper agent activating, ever other child sings/screams in unison:
"GHOSTBUSTERS!!"
this is what asriel and chara were doing unsupervised in waterfall as children
turnnoffyourmind
yousharknotpass
snowghoul
2087
blakekathryn
andulkaphoto
dailybridgerton
tangentwithtanner
