#demon!dca

"Scared, little hare?"

Over 100 layers and 13 hours later, I finally finished Moon's design tweak! I'm so happy to have finally published chapters one and two of The Cryptid and The Collector, considering the AU has been around for over a year. Lil link to the fic~

I'll be tweaking Sun's design too but it'll probably be a while just yet, likely after drawing for Emotional Support Staff's second anniversary.

I've barely done any drawing this year so I'm surprised that I actually quite like my freaky weird body horror demon boy!

Old design, no lighting and the just Moon version under the cut~

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Summary: Armed with brain fog and a grumpy attitude, you have four shifts at the mortuary ahead of you—one dayshift, and three nightshifts. While it was initially going smoothly, Sun and Moon decide that visiting you during work hours is a much needed respite from the early snowy weather. Perhaps you’re all more alike than you thought... You’re stressed, tired, hungover, and have eaten the worst pasta in the world. Maybe the demons aren’t the most unwelcome part of your day after all.

Quick 30 minute warm-up doodle while I mentally prepare myself to try and finish off the ESS anniversary piece.

[22.8k words]

Shaken by a lurking barghest, you embark on a journey alongside your grandmother and her group of cryptid hunters. Having retreated to her home in the woods, you can’t stand the idea of being left on your own. You’re faced with a decision—do you stay alone in the woods knowing a barghest may come for you or do you excurse alongside the cryptid hunters? Either way, you’re being followed. It’s time to get used to eyes on your six, little hare.

I know you've just seen this on the discord but I shall show the masses

AKA Sun being an asshole

<3

Thank you!

For the world itself it’s actually somewhat loosely based around the area in which I live in England, although unfortunately I don’t live in a mountain valley—

A lot of it is based off my own interests and odd experiences in life from how the characters interact to feeling watched while collecting bones in the middle of the woods. And the occult too.

Especially around winter we get some really thick fog and I love playing in it and observing the world through a lens in which you can’t quite see what’s lurking in it.

As for the pinstripes themselves I actually drew inspiration from a post that I believe was actually on tumblr a while back. It went something along the lines of “the uncanny valley effect is creepy because it means at some point in human evolution we had to be afraid of something that looked human but wasn’t”

I know realistically the uncanny valley effect likely comes from an instinct to stay away from sick humans and dead bodies that could potentially spread disease. But what if it wasn’t?

And that’s the first building block I actually had for the AU. An ancient species of cryptid that could possess and mimic the human form to lure prey trying to help their fellow human. They pull on heartstrings or bring out some desire through pretending to be people.

Of course there’s only three chapters of TCaTC thus far but it has somewhat been brought up. From the reader, grandchild of a cryptid hunter, having a stronger ability/innate instinct to search the expression and form of the “person” in the cafe to mentions of cave paintings that included pinstripe demons standing behind a human that doesn’t look right.