YA BUM-RAG

I was drawing these last night and then the power went out so I had to stop

Alek looked her up and down. Deryn was in the sort of evening dress that fashionable young women-about-town wore, with a fringed back and a broad belt high on her waist. Long beaded necklaces were draped around her neck, tucked into her belt or hanging to her thighs. Perched on her head was a close-fitting hat, a long fabricated peacock feather jutting almost straight back from it.

Alek looked down at his own dress, so formal and old-fashioned with its fussy bows and bustle. He suddenly felt frumpy, whereas Deryn was positively stylish. Her short hair and slim figure, the core of her disguise as a midshipman, no longer looked masculine at all.

He wondered if there would ever come a time when women wore their hair so short. Surely such a thing would never happen, but he had to admit that it looked quite fetching.

Okay I’m done now.

Fandom: Leviathan trilogy by Scott Westerfeld

Yeahhh first fandom for the first day, yeahhh

FIRST UP IS RANDOM FANART FOR THE MAIN CHARACTERS, OF COURSE. The blonde is Deryn/Dylan, who joins up with the British Air Force dressed as a boy. And the brunette is Alek, prince of Hohenberg and future archduke of Hapsburg who’s on the run after the assassination of his parents.

It’s a really great series that ties together steampunk, biopunk, and bits of played-with history. The plot follows an alternate universe of World War I between Darwinists (countries who use the manipulation of DNA to construct new creatures for use) and Clankers (countries who rely solely on machinery). Alek and Deryn (known as Dylan to him and everyone else) team up to fight towards the end of the war aboard the great airship whale, the Leviathan.

I really do recommend it if you’re into Young Adult books—or heck, even if you’re not so much about Young Adult books but like alternate history and steam/biopunk, crossdressing secrets, royalty on the run, UST, and crazy amazing animals and machines.

Lilit, Alek, Deryn & Newkirk