#acaskingac

As you can assume, the drawing is supposed to be from the perspectives of everyone who knew Carmen. I put a lot of thought into what each of them would look like, trying to capture what stood out to them in their memories about her.

Elijah - Malkuth never says anything that specific about Carmen, so I came up with something based on her character. Since Elijah's struggle revolved around desperately wanting to contribute, I thought she would look up to Carmen as someone who is highly involved, a leader, relied on. So here she's directing others and helping while Elijah merely stands off to the side.

Gabriel - Though he too talks about her a fair bit, Yesod never really says anything unique about Carmen either and I had few ideas so he got the designated barely-visible-for-the-sake-of-the-composition piece. I could've come up with something proper but I didn't want any of the scenes to get too repetitive. Sorry not a huge Yesod fan LOL.

Michelle - Again, not much about Carmen from her. But I figured that she would see Carmen as a perfect, inherently good and kind person, someone who Michelle/Hod would compare herself to and feel very guilty about having her project destroyed. She has good memories of Carmen where she receives affection she doesn't feel like she deserves. I feel like Michelle saw her as some kind of role model or older familial figure.

Giovanni - Netzach describes growing up in K Corp. in a way which suggests that he met Carmen there, so the scene takes place there. She's turned away and there's a lens flare because I wanted to capture how Giovanni especially seemed to see Carmen as an unreachable figure despite the fact they were long-term friends rather than just coworkers. They all looked up to Carmen but Giovanni in particular probably elevated her to a god-like status in large part due to his own lack of self worth. However I honestly regret not showing at least a little of her face because I feel like it leads you to glance over this one more than the others.

Lisa - No one would have to think about what to do for Lisa's perspective on Carmen. Very simple stuff. It's a bit messy and blurry because Lisa's crying.

Enoch - This was my cheat piece because I actually think Enoch had a high opinion of Carmen. If I were to draw what feels more accurate, I would have him watching Carmen be affectionate with Lisa while she has another arm on him. But for obvious reasons, it feels wrong for this one not to be special. I went back and forth on depicting the death scene or her just leading him to the experiments, but I eventually decided against the latter because I just didn't feel like it stood out enough. It's very hard to depict this in first person but I feel like he's rather calm in contrast to Carmen's panicking. I think he's reaching out not for help, but to try to reassure her.

Kali - Gebura talks about her first impression of Carmen a couple of times. It was easy enough. What I wish I could have better captured here is some kind of draw or sparkle in Carmen's eyes, because the Sephirot mention the look in her eyes repeatedly.

Daniel - I swore Chesed talks at some point about how he was drawn to Carmen's project because of the way her team trusts and looks up to her, but when I went looking for the lines while making this, I couldn't find them… Maybe I made that up, but that's what I based the drawing on. She's sorta smug-looking here because I think Daniel just respected her as a person in a normal way and was overall a little more disillusioned to her than the others. Accounts and flashbacks make it seem like Carmen was sort of unfair with him. Even if she acted that way with everyone, it's notable that Daniel/Chesed could acknowledge that.

Garion - Another easy one, it's the perspective of an outsider who had no personal attachment or experience with Carmen. This was kinda funny to draw after Canto 8.

Benjamin - He was never in it for Carmen, so it's a piece with her in it that ultimately blurs her out in favor of Ayin as the focus.

Angela - I actually almost chose not to include her in this, because it didn't seem right, but the more I developed the idea the more I realized it would be stupid not to include Angela. Doing something with a mirror felt cliche and would have to take some liberties that didn't really fit the piece (because of course Angela wouldn't literally see Carmen in her reflection). So I chose a framed photograph with a reflection instead, one which shows that Ayin was happy around Carmen. Just enough of Angela's expression is cut off so that you can tell she's upset but not quite the specific emotion.