Just saw your [all this anger used to be love] art for your dnd OC and I am *so* intrigued. Can you tell me about them?
YES YES YES!!! i LOVE talking about them.
You can find a full lore dump of Post and Fence's backstory here, so I'll yap more about the meaning of the artwork itself here :))
First off it's actually a redraw of this old piece I did as a warmup; Post is the one with the slit pupils, Fence is the one with the mushroom eye :)
its based off this work from Mcgx Archive, which in turn i believe is based off a poem? i love her work though check her out
A lot of Fence's arc during the campaign has been about the consequences of her repressing her emotions so deeply, and realizing how it impacts the people she cares about. The most obvious example is the most recent, where she was told Post was most likely dead after a ritual gone wrong and had practically no reaction other than laser focus on the next quest line, and her now brushing off the party trying to comfort her, which has started causing a rift between her and the others.
One of the main things she has yet to unpack is her self hatred and anger at her circumstances and the things that have led her here, especially her mother. She believes any show of emotion is weak, and that feeling anger towards the people who have wronged her is a sign of a lack of self control.
The line "All this anger used to be love" is directed at Post, and the way her admiration towards him has turned into a grudge for ruining the illusion of love she had in the village by burning it down, as well as having him as a constant reminder of what she lost. It also can be read as the way that her feelings have changed towards that 'guidance' her mom gave her in childhood.
Now Post is pretty much the opposite. His whole life he was stereotyped as the angry troubled kid, which pushed him further into his bitterness towards others. This was only aided by his exile.
As he's grown up he's become a lot more confident in himself, and learned to show his affection for people without shame, even if it's in more unconventional ways. He's broken down the gaslighting and brainwashing from his time in the village, and become a healthier person for it.
"All this love used to be anger" is directed at Fence, and how his childhood jealousy and rueben instinct towards has for being the favorite has grown into him genuinely loving and caring for her, and wanting to watch her grow into her own person.
It's a bit of a role reversal as well, since both siblings purposefully put up a mask of a surface level caricature of an dnd trope. Post is the red-coded deceitful cultist with a short temper who's actively hostile to outsiders, and Fence is the quiet green-coded healer who always keeps a level head and helps her party members in times of stress.
If you have any more questions PLEASE let me know !!!! i love love love yapping about the Pickets they're very dear to me
