#broken dimensions

Smash your competition, baby Show us some good entertainment Victory's your only payment Gladiator, gladiator…

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yeah, you're in it now Ev. sorry pal, the plot demands that you be forced into submission in the most brutal way possible. no, it's no in a fun way. yeah no, even the guy subjugating you just thinks its kind of funny, the only satisfaction he gets is from the way he gains more power every time he uses you. yeah, that does mean you're a weapon with no ownership over your own self or destiny. sorry man.

…now NATHAN, on the other hand, is having the time of his motherfuckin' life.

SONG: "Gladiator" - Jann

Who is this chaotic nonbinary Star Wars junkie?

Hi! I'm Rip/Rift! I like the color orange, Star Wars, books, reptiles, cats, and art. I'm 23 years old and use he/they pronouns. If you stick around, prepare for endless Star Wars reblogs, the occasional scenic vista reblog, semi-frequent thought dumps, various other fandom posts, and frequent screaming into the void! :)

Why should I follow this nerd?

Uh.... for the Star Wars rants, I guess? For the pictures of my cat and my dragon? For the occasional rants about society, gender, and/or the horrendous state of American politics? Idk man. You don't have to follow me, even, just lurk. I don't care.

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Where else can I find this nonsense?

BlueSky

You want nice stuff?

go to my art blog.

You want to contact me professionally?

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When I made this it was supposed to be a sketch about how Fin has been traumatized by war and loss and simultaneously rewarded for his suffering with political niceties and social laurels, but it kind of turned into a thing about Shire. Especially after I added the spear and sword, both affiliated with Shire Paloran's various eras and lore.

Shire is... a lot of things to the main cast of Fractal Alliances. A little brother, a protege, a student, a friend, a lover... a stalker, a scourge, a twisted pawn of his mother's making... His death, therefore, ends up meaning a lot of different things to each of them simultaneously.

Markis Sparkes, Ev, and Fin kind of get the worst of it, I think. Markis and Shire were best friends (and sometimes more), and Markis saw Shire's descent into wrath and paranoia first-hand. He was also Shire's prisoner of war for a time...? So when he's killed in combat, it's both a relief to Markis and one of the saddest events of his life.

Thelia struggles too, but once he went off the deep end politically, she kind of washed her hands of him. To her, his death wasn't as hard-hitting.

For Fin, Shire was kind of like his personal political protege. Shire had showed a lot of interest in other cultures when he was younger, and Fin was more than happy to share his, so they bonded over that and stuck together for years as a result. As they got older, they found more common interests in sword fighting, architecture, and the ever-evolving strategy of war in Era 10. Then, in the late nineties, Shire tried to start something with Fin romantically, which he immediately shut down (ew, little brother figure, gross)... but Shire never really took his solid "no" for what it was.

That interest turned to obsession, and when Fin and Ev got serious, Shire was the first to know. He was also the first to know when they "broke up" in 2015, and his behavior changed to become more pressured and evocative. By the time Shire dies, Fin is desperate to save what's left of that old friend, and simultaneously relieved to not have to deal with this darker, hungrier, twisted version of Shire that he grew into.

For Ev, Shire was their and Talis's little shadow for the longest time, and Ev saw him that way perpetually. They loved his tenacity, his devotion to his people, his overall intelligence regarding politics and the struggles of their two worlds... Ev loved the kid, but they saw earlier than most of their friend group the path he was going down. They knew better than most the way killing a parental figure (or someone else you treated with similar respect) reflected on one's personality. Ev saw that shift and knew exactly what kind of lies Shire was telling, and had a good hunch as to why, as soon as he told them from that point onward. They saw his descent from a different angle than Markis, but it had no less impact on them.

And, of course, they kill Shire right in front of Fin, who was about to meet his own grisly end at the end of Shire's cursed, magic-amplified spear.

So that fucks everything up for all of them. Like, a lot.

Blackout Imperial - PART 2

Blackout Imperial - PART 3

^^ "Blackout Imperial" is the 3-part introduction to the Aetheria part of Fractal Alliances. It's admittedly a bit chaotic, but that's kind of the main cast's MO ;D

You can also check out:

Fractal Alliances - comic #1

...which takes place around the same time!

There's quite a few other things that have gone up on my Patreon for Fractal Alliances recently, and you can check out just about everything FA-related for free by visiting the collection.

Please consider giving the page a follow as well, even if it's just as a free member! I like having an idea of how many folks get to see my stuff - the whole point of sharing my art and stories with the world is that other people get to enjoy it! :D