heyoooo

「黒水着シンデレラ」 by cuboon | Twitter

He’s afraid of failing his classes, of losing an important battle and leaving the town vulnerable, of his family and friends dying, of becoming like Dan, and countless other things.

But perhaps most of all, he’s afraid of his original family.

The League of Assassins.

When Danyal Danny first came to Amity Park, it was because of an infiltration mission. The League had questions about the area and a couple crazy scientists living within it.

But Danny also suspects it was a convenient way to get rid of him. They never said it, but he felt it. He was the spare heir, the weaker twin, the failure.

He had been ordered to send back reports periodically, but he has no idea what happens to them. Supposedly, his twin was responsible for them, an early lesson in the duties he’d need to take on as the heir. But considering how Danny never received a single response, he doubts the other boy ever read them. Or maybe he did, but he just didn’t care.

Maybe if he was even more lucky, they had forgotten him entirely.

Danny wants to be forgotten. If the League forgot him, it would mean he could stay with his family. His real family. The ones he had been sent to spy on, yet who had accepted him far more readily than his blood “family” ever had, even as he started to let them see what he really was underneath his infiltrating persona.

Every report sent back was a risk. A chance that someone would remember the heir’s brother and order him to return. Every time, he was on edge for days, weeks, after it was sent out. Nothing ever happened.

But he was too afraid to stop.

If someone was reading them and noticed it, the League might send someone to check on him. Make sure he hadn’t gone rogue or been killed by something that could threaten their organization later.

He couldn’t risk it.

So he lied, pretended he was still loyal. Every single report was sent out on time, all in the same cold tone even as he left out more and more details about his true circumstances. He would not risk his family. Even if it meant he could never let himself move on from what the League had done to him.

And then one day, those fears were realized. His eyes locked with a pair he’d prayed to never see again, and he felt himself reflexively still, wiping all traces of emotion from his expression.

Damian al Ghul. His brother.

“Danyal. Ahki. Your mission is over. I’ve come to bring you home.”

Danyal paused, staring back silently, then asked in a blank voice, “Is anyone else aware of this?”

Damian’s brows furrowed at the question. “No, I–”

He’d thought so, when he first saw Danyal. His twin looked… relaxed. But then their eyes met and all emotions suddenly drained from his body, and Damian felt a sharp pang of regret. Clearly, that relaxation was just a mask. Had Danyal been forced to keep it up this whole time? How deep had his real personality—the child he’d watched ramble about the night sky at Nanda Parbat—been buried?

He attempted to smile reassuringly as he reached out a hand to his twin, told him he could finally come home even if it should have been far sooner. That expression fell gradually as the silence stretched for several moments in the air.

Then, Danyal finally responded. He asked flatly if Damian had come to retrieve him on his own.

Damian frowned. Was his brother worried that he was only reconnecting because of the League’s orders? Considering his failure to communicate before, it wasn’t an unreasonable assumption. Still, it hurt. He opened his mouth to reassure him that he was here of his own accord, that he wanted to help him.

A fist collided with his temple, cutting off the rest of his words.

Damian stumbled back, only barely managing to block the second strike towards his gut, and then was forced to leap back as Danyal’s leg snapped up into a kick.

He backpedaled rapidly, creating a space between them, and raised his open hands up in front of him—showing he had no weapons, yet still positioned such that he could easily throw more blocks if necessary. Danyal’s blows lacked the same machine-like precision that had been drilled into both of them, but he was fast. Far faster than he was when they last fought.

“Akhi— I don’t want to fight! I’m here to help you! Don’t you want to come home? Our family—”

Danyal’s eyes seemed to glow with unrestrained fury, and he leapt at Damian again, launching into a new flurry of strikes that he was forced to block or dodge. It would have been easier if he counterattacked, but he didn’t want to hurt Danyal more than he already had.

“Home?!” Danyal spat. “FAMILY?! What family!? Grandfather, who only saw me as a failed tool? Mother, who sent me out to survive on my own? Or maybe you, the one who never objected to any of it or attempted to contact me?”

The strikes finally broke off as Damian gave in and seized an opening and shove Danyal back, forcing them apart.

“That place was never my home.”

Damian felt his heart break. Why couldn’t he have been a better brother, done something sooner?

“But then… why send the reports? Why stay here?”

SPECIFICALLY FROM THIS MENU

SPECIFICALLY THIS DISH. CONTINUED. PLEASE. I BEG THEE

Yet something still felt off as he pushed his body through the steps of a kata.

“Hey Damian,” Dick called out as he entered the training area. “How was your trip?”

He paused his movements momentarily, holding his stance while he spoke. “It was… uneventful.”

“What were you doing, anyway?”

“I…” he paused again. Frowned, kata forgotten. “It doesn’t matter.” The itching at the back of his head grew. “It wasn’t anything important.”

“Okay, but then why did you have to go so suddenly?”

“Because… because… I don’t know.” Irritation prickled at his mind. “Does it really matter?”

“Yes!” Dick yelled, throwing his hands up. “Of course it matters why you ran off suddenly without telling us. Where did you even go?”

“It. Doesn’t. Matter,” he grit out.

“Just tell me something.” Dick was nearly pleading now.

“It wasn’t anything important. I’ve already forgotten the details.”

“Wh- what? Wait—” Dick’s eyes widened in realization. “Name one thing you did. Place you went. Anything.”

“I…” The itching grew even stronger. “I…”

“You can’t remember, can you?” Dick whispered in shock.

“Of course I can! My memory is perfect! It’s just…” he trailed off. Couldn’t say anything.

Dick grabbed his arm. “That’s it, I’m taking you to get your head checked. Clearly something is affecting your memories”

* * *

“Yep, there’s definitely something there,” Zatanna commented, squinting at something Damian couldn’t see. Bruce had called her in after the whole barrage of normal tests failed to yield any results. “Can’t quite tell what, though. It’s…” she waved her hand for a moment, thinking, “…messy, for lack of a better word. Whoever did it, they weren’t experienced in using their magic this way.”

“Can you break it?” Bruce asked.

“Yeah, I think so.” She glanced at Damian, “I’d recommend you sit down for this, though.”

After he did so, she took a deep breath and reached her hands besides his head.

“ESAELER SIH DEKCOL SEIROMEM!”

A wave of exhaustion visibly rushed through her, but Damian barely noticed through the flood of returning memories. Far more than he expected, not just from his recent trip but all the way back through his childhood with the League of Assassins.

* * *

“My sons, the two of you are destined to do great things. It is in your blood.”

Eating together. Studying together. Sparring together. They had been two halves of a whole, always together—

“The match goes to Damian.”

—until they weren’t.

“Danyal, you have fallen behind your brother once again. I am disappointed in you. Remember that the League does not tolerate failure.”

Until they separated entirely.

“Damian, you have a new assignment. Your brother has been sent on a long-term infiltration mission following a potential lead, and it will be your duty to monitor his reports.”

He hadn’t even gotten a chance to say goodbye.

And then they met again, only for the situation to turn out exactly the same way. Two brothers once more at each other’s throats.

Except this time, Danyal was the one to win.

* * *

Damian felt tears staining his cheeks, and a single word fell from his lips. “Ahki…”

Why had his brother spared him? Was it purely practical, since his disappearance would be noticed? Or was it, he hoped, that some part of Danyal was still unwilling to kill him despite it all?

And what, now, does he do with this knowledge? Danyal clearly doesn’t want to see him, but the others weren’t going to just let this go.

————> Next

To learn more about the direction of the comic read my pinned post here!

Danny gets summoned and the cultists gets like 3 word in “great ghost king-” before Danny holds his hands up, says he’s going to stop them right there, and then starts going through a list. He will not, “grant eternal life, raise the dead, kill anyone, destroy governments, go on a rampage to destroy the world, grant unlimited power, mind control, drag souls to hell, cause a ‘purge’ of any sort, release an army of spirits, take someone as a prisoner, take someone as a lover, accept live sacrifices, accept dead sacrifices, will not eat anyone, accept children as future servants, possess a human body to ‘traipse upon the mortal world’, or do voodoo of any kind.” And he goes on for a good 10 minutes. Once he finishes his list, the cultists stutters and says that actually, they have a crush on this girl….can you make her fall in love with him?

Danny pauses. That’s….a new one.

…

Still no.

part 19 || 1st part || previous part || next part ||

P: jax?

P: where did you put me?

comic continues after pagebreak

Thanks for enjoying the comic! And yes, it's a combination of 3D renders and 2D overpainting to get that look :D

I always wanted to make a comic, but drawing perspective isn't my strongest suit, so I figured why not make use of my bachelor's degree in 3D art? It's a great way to practice a lot of different sub-fields in 3D that I am not that confident in, like posing, camera work and lighting.

I am so thankful for all the people making the 3D rigs for all the TADC characters, cause while I can do the 3D rigs (basically the character skeletons) myself, a lot the the characters are quite complex in the way they are set-up. My junior 3D-artist ass cannot replicate it that well xD

I basically start with the posing and get the camera in a place that I am happy with.

After that, I set up some rough lighting. While the overpaint follows the realistic red/blue lights from the scene, it deviates in quite a few places, which I did as a stylistic choice to keep more visual contrast.

I have a purple with some visible brushstrokes that I overlay to create a bit of a darker look and to make the red/blue overlays pop more.

Then I start with the outline and pick which direction red and blue comes from. I initally did the 2D parts on my phone, but I did switch that to my computer because working with a bigger screens was much nicer.

Which ends up looking like this if the 3D render is turned off. He looks so naked.

The abstraction effect is added afterwards. I tried initially to include it in the 3D portion, but I wasn't happy with the look, and the 2D overlay gave me more control over the silhouette.

And in the end, with everything combined, it ends up looking like this:

Funfact:

The text boxes are all physical objects in the scene, but because of some limitations, I can't just animate the text inside one text box from frame to frame. So they are animated to stay out of frame and only pop down if they are needed for the shot.

So if you look up, the sky looks like this:

They are all just ominously hovering over the characters at all times.

Also, when doing stuff in 3D you sometimes get just really funny outtakes.

Look at how happy he looks :D

This happened when I decided to switch which model to use and I was testing out if the abstraction eyes were sticking to the rig like they should have. It just looked like he was doing a weird dance, while his double was very hungover.

More of the Scratch AU w/ sad backstory bc of Gooseworx

WOW so turns out you guys really like my Jaz redesign! I needed an excuse to make a proper reference sheet of her for my future works, so here you go! Feel free to draw her if you like, I just ask that I'm credited for this specific design.

what if we were in a feedback loop of becoming worse and worse versions of ourselves as we each tried to do what we thought made the other happy

The military/PMCs literally took civilian dolls that worked in cafes, handed them a gun, and dehumanized them by referring to them only by their gun's name/number before throwing them at their enemies. It's why so many of them took normal names after leaving G&K, or why dolls like Andoris are able to choose which weapon to imprint. (She chose a G36 variant because she thought Centaureissi was very reliable)

They were never just personified guns, I feel like that was just something people understandably assumed because other series at the time did the same thing (e.g. personified boats).