#inyuji

For nearly 2 millennia, Creon hoped of reaching her actual future time of 2085 or at least make sure her corpse won’t be dug up and kick-start an early bio-weapon war. During those years she has accumulated knowledge, learning more languages, picking up trades and practices, and expanding her culinary expertise. She fully honed her meta-mutant abilities.

Eventually she was caught by some magicians who were planning to summon the devil. They trapped her with magic and used innocent hostages to force her compliance. The summoning backfired and killed summoners, including the hostages, sadly.

Lucifer was really shocked when he first saw Creon and almost confused her for a demon. He helped heal Creon and Creon simply explained the situation she got caught in. Creon makes a deal with Lucifer to make sure her body would be wiped from existence once she died. In return, she hunts down all demonic artifacts and grimoires for disposal. Lucifer has gotten tired of a$$hole humans summoning him for power or other evil business.

Creon also felt sorry for Lucifer and used occasional summoning as an excuse to let him see more of Earth and the good in humanity, and just hang out.

Lilith will be suspicious of Lucifer’s recent deal and how this “human” is putting him in more good moods. She decides to confront Creon through Lucifer’s connection, only to end up befriending Creon as well. Creon will find ways to summon both Lucifer and Lilith to Earth for visits and just to hang out.

When Creon had troubles with facing some witches, Lucifer assigned Paimon to teach Creon magic. Paimon found the task demeaning and below his station and was a condescending ba$tard. Creon didn’t want to insult Lucifer’s choice in tutors since Paimon was a trusted advisor and magic practitioner. Still she asked for a different tutor, and Paimon threw one of his least impressive sons into the proverbial fire. Paimon will regret this decision in the future.

Cyrus is weakest in magic strength, but his intellect is well known. Paimon believed him to be a good pawn to sacrifice. Both Cyrus and Creon became friends and helped each other grow. While Creon won’t be powerful in magic, she can detect, read, and intercept spells and rituals. She mastered a few favored spells but that's it. It’s given her a leg-up when facing ego-maniacal witches who expect a meat-headed barbarian.

Cyrus benefited the most since Creon has shared stories and ideas from pop culture and media from the early 2000s and her time. Cyrus gained enough knowledge to work around his weak magic and eventually become a powerful artificer and spell-crafter on his own merit. He will become crucial in the developing of Hell in the future.

Lucifer and Lilith will witness a lot of good and bad on Earth, and the wonders and progress of ingenuity and innovation. Creon’s unyielding loyalty and focus on her task will endear her to them more. Lucifer will officially make Creon his first ever paladin (an inside joke about the Christian religion that was dominant during the Medieval ages). With time, the escapades and feats of the Devil’s Paladin will be infamous in Hell.

On down times Creon will tell stories of her life from her future time and during the past millennia and sharing ideas of what to expect in the future. She’ll listen to their problems and offer whatever input and advice she can. She’s witnessed and experienced a lot in the past millennia. Enough time for her to work through her own past traumas and accepting her new life as an almost ageless immortal. Creon was merely existing and wasting time while hoping that her existence doesn’t break the timeline.

Now she’s grateful for the end goal, a purpose to work towards, and she’s made friends that she can be truly honest with. She has always felt like “other” compared to everyone in the past millennia. She can look forward to an afterlife with friends who accept ALL of her.

I’m debating if her task takes more than a century or if she finally dies in the early 1800s. She is globe-trotting wiping out evil magicians, but she still goes out of her way to help people that desperately need aid. She’s also harassed by occasional angels that try to “save” her by offering an out from the “Devil’s Deal.” The fact that Creon is cleansing evil artifacts from Earth doesn’t even factor in their minds, because a mortal dealing with the Devil is instant bad news.

I envisioned a scene where Miyu is preparing to give respect to her mother. Sadly all she has are the urn of Lucia’s ashes and a framed photo. Jim joins in to provide emotional support, especially after the recent revelation of how Lucia was murdered in an attempt to abduct Miyu. Jim offers a promise to look after Miyu, since he feels guilty for how Lucia got ill in the first place. His selfishness was a slow build to Lucia’s unwarranted demise. To his surprise, he gets a spiritual glimpse of Lucia and Miyu’s birth mother. Both giving Jim their gratitude and blessings to watch over Miyu.

Miyu and Drake would exchange letters often, but over time Miyu would start getting creative with sending them faster. She begins to experiment with making talismans in hopes of perfecting communication with her friends in St.Carnard. She’d have some problems acclimating to a normal school environment, since she’s had little to none after her mother’s death. It’s hard to concentrate when you’re actively ignoring the presence of school ghosts. Miyu’s presence attracts all manner of supernatural to her and Jim’s house. So she’s gotten good practice at warding away the unfriendly ones. Jim had to learn to live with Miyu’s menagerie of bats, spiders, yokai, foxes and Enfields.

Like mentioned in the initial concept, Jim swallowed his pride and went with small gig roles to pay the bills. So he’d play as an extra, supporting role, or antagonist roles. But he finds that his efforts are worth it since Miyu always tries to visit him on set with home-made bento and encouragement. He was able to make an effort to improve after Miyu gives her opinion of how every role is essential and important for a story. I wanted to draw Jim struggling with chopping veggies while Miyu is coaching him. She is lucky to have access to ghosts who were cooks.  Even if one of them was a failed tv chef. Due to Miyu’s early presence, Drake and Elmo are fans of anime and manga much earlier. Miyu and Jim visit St. Canard every fall for Halloween. Their 2nd Halloween became just as fun as their first. Drake got into ninjas and eventually decided to combine his favorite things into 1. Miyu went as a kitsune Miko priestess to respect Inari, and in case the spookies decide to act up. The tail and ears are fake. She won’t get them back until later teens. Elmo will dress as his favorite inventor/engineer from the recent “Final Reverie” JRPG franchise.  Jim feels betrayed that one of his biggest fans would DARE consider dressing as something other than Darkwing. He’ll get over it eventually. Because Drake ends up going pseudo-Darkwing, or dress as something else. Tastes and interests change with age and time, after all.

I went through quite a bit of thumbnails & settled on a nice cute family setting. This was supposed to be an experimental sketch. But I did some experimenting with texture and making it feel like a traditional Korean Minhwa painting.

Darkwing Duck in the Korean broadcasting still goes by his name. The show title however is 오리형사 다크 “Dark Duck Detective.” They still call him Darkwing Duck, & Drake Mallard, but the Korean pronunciation of American names is a mouthful. Thankfully, Cheongdung 청둥 is the Korean translation of Mallard, so I used that. For his design, I had to think of how he could fit in Joseon period. His overcoat hides a utility vest & belt for his tools & weapons. He is definitely going to use a sword. A shorter one, cuz I can’t find it practical to have that long scabbard hitting your legs while you run. Plus, it’s a last ditch hidden weapon. My weeb obsession with ninjas kinda helped. Thanks GaijinGoombah. The hats were called “Gat” back then. The Heungnip gat is reserved for Yangban Nobility, the rich, & scholars. Some commonors are able to wear this gat if they are meeting important high-ranking guests. Since Darkwing is always looking his best, he’d wear this & proclaim something cheesy like “I’m the Lord of Darkness that hunts malevolence." The hat is there for gags & fashion.

Launchpad's name in the Korean airing was "Balsadae,“ 발사대  the literal translation of “Launchpad.” Sadly he’s not a pilot. I don’t know if even Gyro Gearloose would be able to create a plane before the Wright brothers did. The Joseon period lasted roughly  late 1400s ~ late 1800s. Aeronautics wasn’t a thing until the late 1800s to 1900s. But then again, this is Gearloose, he’ll somehow beat the Wright brothers. For now, Launchpad is still Scrooge’s Chauffeur. He’ll most likely be the stable-hand & occasional help along with Beakley. Mostly everyone went by foot, while nobility & royalty went by an entourage & a palanquin or horse-drawn carriage.

Gosalyn’s name was changed to Bbi Bbi 삐삐, which is also how they pronounce and spell Pippi Longstocking’s name. It’s actually fitting. I had a tough time figuring out her outfit.

I honestly think Darkwing using a fan as a weapon was fun. Korea has a fan dance, and Drake is still an performer. It’s perfect since Korea has a ceremonial fan dance. I found an interesting bit about how Darkwing’s catchphrase was changed from the original cartoon & the ducktales reboot. In the 90s airing, 덤벼보라구 is close to “Put em up, Show me what you’ve got.” An invitation to attack or fight. In the new reboot, 위험하게 노라보실까? It roughly translates rhetorically “Shall we play dangerously?” Interesting ways to translate “Lets get dangerous.” The bit where Drake is in costume & trying to cheer up Gosalyn, he’s performing Talchum. He plays a certain character, in this case he’s playing the Yangban character, which is the subject of mockery in a lot of plays.

Miyu’s adoptive mother, Lucia Moreno, did not survive the risky operation to cure her illness. This left Miyu an orphan, and unable to look after herself. What’s worse was being secretly watched by strange people who claimed “child services.” The spirits and yokai warned her of the shady government agents. Out of desperation and fear, Miyu snuck out of Japan to America when she was thirteen, hoping to find any relatives who could take her in. Unfortunately she was still being tracked by the shady agents, so she ran and hid as far as she could. She stayed hidden, barely surviving in a rumored “haunted house,” in the homely town of St. Canard.

Young teen Drake Mallard would brave his way into the haunted house to retrieve his classmate’s bag, which was maliciously disposed by some schoolyard bullies. That’s how he stumbles into a half-starved Miyu, and a bunch local ghosts and a few yokai. Drake barely understood Miyu’s plight, but decided to visit her and help. While trying to teach Miyu with English, Drake discovered some untranslated and translated manga at his local bookstore, and used these as a teaching aid for Miyu and himself. Drake has been introduced to Anime much earlier and now has even more things to nerd over. Our boi is dorkier than ever and I don’t regret a thing.

Over a month, his classmate noticed something was up with Drake. They are not friends, but they are friendly to each other. Drake decided to trust Elmo on his secret, and soon Elmo became part of the “weirdo” club. Miyu would mostly stay hidden, but she occasionally pops out in public when she’s dragged to movies or possible school events. They did share a very awesome Halloween. Drake and Elmo would research possible leads to Lucia Moreno’s relatives or any past work acquaintances. Miyu would try to dreg up clues or help from the local spirits also. At some point, Drake’s mother found out about Miyu when she came home early from shopping and caught Drake trying to smuggle in Miyu to his house. After getting an explanation, she decided to let Miyu stay, though she really wants to alert authorities about the “runaway child.” She does see how Miyu is deadly scared of any “bad men” finding out, since a few had posed as government workers.

The shady agents from Japan have tracked Miyu down, and it’s revealed that they are Onmyoji hunting down Miyu for her magic. Drake and Miyu hastily embark on a road trip to flee from the Onmyojis and seek out the past Darkwing actors. With Elmo occasionally guiding them via radio and Miyu’s helpful spirits, they are able to visit the main Darkwing villain actors and ask about Lucia. While they have good things to say about her brief time on the show, they do not know much about Lucia’s family or if she even had family here. During their biking trip, they befriend a stray Grim, who has kept stealthy vigil over Drake and Miyu. When they finally meet Jim Starling, they are given even more disappointing news. Jim was really shocked that Lucia had adopted a kid during her time recovering and feels guilty about Miyu being an orphan. Jim lies about not knowing Lucia much, not wanting to reveal that his dangerous stunts were the cause of Lucia being injured during set, resulting in her damaging her voice and falling ill. Rather than risk the show being cancelled, Jim had suggested to the writers and producers to drop Lucia from the show. Drake is a bit hesitant to believe that this acting hero is lying, when all the other actors remember Lucia. Miyu has practically given up when their final lead knows nothing.

The Darkwing actors had actually met up shortly at Jim’s signing to ask if he had met Drake and Miyu. They are concerned that two kids are trekking a long way, and hope to rectify their poor judgment of letting the kids go on their merry way. They are disappointed that Jim had practically lied to a bunch of kids, knowing that he too knew Lucia during the short time on set. At that moment, the 2 Onmyojis start interrogating the crew, claiming they are investigators looking for 2 runaway children. One of them however, is pissed and hates dealing with the “normies.” The actors deny knowing where the kids went, and Jim lies though his teeth that the kids probably hit the bus to the next town. When the Onmyojis leave, everyone is officially freaking out. All of the actors are calling the cops and contacting old colleagues who had worked on the Darkwing production. Jim is too freaked out to do anything and doesn’t want to get involved.

When the Onmyojis finally catch up to Miyu and Drake, Drake was almost killed. Witnessing this caused Miyu to awaken her Kitsune blood. Miyu’s real mother was a kitsune, which has given her a sixth sense for the supernatural and magic. Jim Starling had stumbled on this fight while on his way home, and attempted to help. He was easily subdued and injured in the process. After Miyu maliciously subdued all yokai shikigamis (onmyoji summons) and the 2 Onmyojis, the police and paramedics were able to come in time. Drake is diagnosed to be in coma, with low chances of waking up, and this breaks Miyu. Jim feels terrible that he was practically useless and that he was the reason that Lucia was ill and had to seek treatment, which ultimately killed her. Drake’s mother is wracked with grief, but she doesn’t blame Miyu, seeing how much Miyu blames herself. During the fight with the Onmyojis, they reveal that they had sabotaged the operation that would supposedly cure Lucia’s illness. They wanted Miyu easily vulnerable to induct her into their ranks as an Onmyoji in their organization. Miyu blames her existence and her magic for hurting people around her. Out of desperation, Miyu consulted whatever yokai friends for a solution, and prays for Inari, the Kami closely related to Kitsune and possibly the Kami her kitsune mother had served. Inari appears as a spectral apparition and warns Miyu that she will weaken in magic, even with Inari’s help. Miyu doesn’t care for magic anymore. Drake finds himself in a spectral limbo and told about the plight happening in the living realm. Drake doesn’t want Miyu to sacrifice her magic for him, and stubbornly makes his way towards a gateway back to the living, but with great difficulty.

Drake still has to stay hospitalized, but he only needs to heal from a broken arm, and surprisingly, his skull has recovered nicely. Miyu’s magic has been sapped near dry, so all proficiency she had gained is back to level 0. However, Miyu would still have to be processed into Foster Care. There is no guarantee that Miyu will find a stable place to keep in contact with Drake through long-distance letters. Jim had talked a bit with Miyu, asking about her life with Lucia. Wanting to appease his guilt and truly being sorry for Miyu, he manages to take in Miyu as his foster child. He wants to give Miyu a stable home so she can keep consistent correspondence with Drake and Elmo.