#panic omens

There is nothing like seeing someone like Taurus (rules-bound, overworking himself, just trying to keep everything together) become the rule breaker. Trouble the other omens. I want him to become a murderer.

I think evil Taurus would be different to start- he'd be harsher to begin with. Crueler. I don't think anyone would be surprised when he turned out to be a problem.

He'd live further from the omens instead of being a leader- Maybe the sky island's arches would be off-limits for fear of him lashing out at people. He'd be living a quiet life away from everyone until the day either someone went in or he came out.

Seeing the sky islands in a state of disrepair would make him realize he's the only person capable of doing any work. He'd decide the only way to remedy this- given everyone was too scared of him to put him in charge of any work- would be to start removing omens one-by-one.

Of course, this would be before anyone knows that omens can be killed (so the original Pisces and Virgo are still around) as well as the lack of knowledge that removing one just makes more show up.

Sagittarius would see new people popping up in their building and immediately understand that they were dying out there. I think they'd fly out to go try to warn as many people as they could (but probably not find a lot of people, or not have a lot of people believe them) before returning and making sure all the new people stay put in the building. If everyone's in one place, they could supposedly overtake him when he appeared.

His weapons of choice would be various equipment that'd be around already- an axe, a sickle, a hammer- and he'd thunder after people with the confidence of someone who could never be stricken down.

The way they'd finally defeat him would be to have the remaining omens (and the newly reborn ones) push him off the island.

Recap: Aquarius died and now there's a new one running around.

Aquarius 2 is shorter and much more affectionate than the original. They have a different face shape, but similar features. Like the original Aquarius, this new one is generally relaxed. Unlike Aquarius, it takes quite a bit for them to get mad.

Aquarius had a problem with assuming all the problems and solutions were obvious and therefore never speaking up about them- Aquarius 2 has a habit of pointing out obvious solutions that people have already tried. Taurus finds this absolutely nerve-grating.

Pisces takes Aquarius 2 as a sort of niece or nephew figure. Virgo sees them as a fun, although somber, new addition to the team. But they CAN be pretty annoying.

Taurus... isn't sure what to make of this. With Sagittarius heading to mortal's Earth when the roles got shifted around, he's in charge of watching the "new recruit." And the new Aquarius keeps hitting on him.

Aquarius 2 is constantly teasing and making passes at Taurus, who brushes them off every time. They aren't particularly serious about it, luckily, because they don't seem to be making it very far. It's a fun pastime for them, though.

Gemini 2 is also around, now that Gemini has been executed for killing the original Aquarius, but he's under Virgo's care for a change. She was the one in charge of the execution and she's glad he doesn't hold it against her- not that he knew the original Gemini. He thinks she's cute, but scary when she's mad.

Oh god oh no-

Aquarius is the first active character death in the story and Virgo's first personal experience with death- Yay! Now they can join their late boyfriend, the previous Pisces<3 Y'know except there's no afterlife here but we ignore that. It's the thought that counts-

This image is from a PMV I never finished and shows Aquarius remembering their time with Pisces 2 in their final moments. They're fatally wounded and cast to the side- laying dead for the rest of the PMV (and my story, until the end.)

When Pisces and Virgo (the originals, pre-story) were lost in a duel, there was very little time in which there was a dead body. I'd like to think it was an hour at most before the new ones were appearing- Virgo dying first and therefore appearing first- while Pisces takes a while to die/disappear/reappear. Mere moments after the body disappears, the new one pops up.

The omens are widely immortal when they're on mortal's Earth. They call it "mortal's Earth," also, because that's where things that can die of natural causes are. They themselves can only die by the hand of another.

To be honest, before Pisces and Virgo had their little duel (which was for fun and experimentation) they didn't know they could die at all. It wasn't until Virgo 2 was appearing in the grand hall that Sagittarius, the first Virgo's partner, even knew what was happening.

After the shocking loss of two omens, they made some rules- primarily that any purposeful slaughtering of fellow omens would be met with execution. They also deemed that roles would be moved around in case of their personalities clashing again- Pisces 2 was to be moved to mortal's Earth for her duties.

This is also when Aries and Capricorn receded mostly into hiding- there had been 3 couples before and now 2 had lost a member (and they weren't about to lose each other.)

Personalities and appearances change within a certain limit whenever a new omen appears. The original Pisces was a man with the same hair color and skintone to the new one. He had different colored eyes and was a fair bit taller, also having a different hair type. His facial features were similar, as if they were relatives, but not exactly the same.

The new omens all appear knowing who they are- their names, that they came of the death of another omen of the same, and their way around the island. They don't know their role, who everyone is, or what the person they came of had been like. Their personalities are quite different.

The new and old Virgo have similar differences- slightly different faces, generally the same hair and skintones- but they have the same eye colors. Once again, the attitudes are quite different. The old Virgo and Pisces were both fairly relaxed fun-loving individuals and not ones for conflict- just friendly competition.

The new Virgo is very self-assured and frequently argues with Taurus on how to run the island. The new Pisces is cautious and has a rough time making hard calls. They may look like their counterparts, but they're definitely not the same people.

Aquarius views the new Pisces as their daughter due to how similar she looks to their late boyfriend. They haven't voiced this, of course, for fear of making things awkward, but Pisces accepts and returns this affection.

Sagittarius couldn't stand to be around the new Virgo for a while, but they've slowly gained an average relationship. Even though omens don't age, so they're technically the same maturity, Sagittarius sees Virgo and Pisces as the youngest of the group (which, to be fair, they technically are.)

I started working on a PMV for my story Panic Omens to the Nightmare Time theme song by Starkid a couple years ago and since I can no longer work on it I figured I'd share some frames + explanations.

I finished the lineart for a few of them, but none of them are colored and the last few don't even have that-

Also obligatory "they're named after the western zodiac but that doesn't influence too much about them."

Our story starts with Virgo running for her life- her best friend close behind her, but not in the way you'd expect. This best friend, Libra, lifts her by the throat (in the story its by the collar, but who's keeping track). They want her dead- and they're just about to get it.

Flash forward-!

Virgo's on mortal's Earth trying to get Aquarius to understand the situation. Since she doesn't have wings, it's on them to fly up to the sky islands and warn the others that Libra's now an enemy.

I was gonna have the dogtags transparently in the foreground- Pisces gives them to Virgo later in the story as a gift for Aquarius, but doesn't know what's come of them yet.

Aries and Capricorn aren't being particularly cooperative, but they're Virgo's only option. Pisces, shown in the second option, could've gone up as well if given the chance. She doesn't- staying with Virgo to try to work things out with Aries and Capricorn.

I have her covering her eyes because she's struggling to believe what's truly going on. The Pisces image is part of the "Look / Be- / -hind / you" sequence of the song and I wanted to have Virgo's process in getting back to the surface (and peoples' reactions to hearing Libra's an enemy) as it went on.

The sequence has Virgo with her back to the camera, arriving on the sky islands, and slowly turning back towards the camera with each syllable. It shows Aquarius again, Pisces, and then this frame for the final full "Look behind you."

She whips around in surprise only for a hand to land on the back of her shoulder. Libra looks a little different than they did before!

Their eyes have been replaced with a large one in the middle of their head. Virgo flashes back to the beginning-

"When her body went flying to the side, otherwise unharmed, she was too surprised to get a good roll and back to her feet. She laid on the ground, stunned, as Gemini's glow lit up the alley. Their claws were clasped tightly around Libra's in an attempt to overpower them; the spikes covering their arms glowing in a ray of blues and greens that Virgo had never seen before."

Gemini saves Virgo before Libra can get her, hence starting the story where Virgo scrambles off the island and falls to mortal's Earth below.

This line starts the chorus, "You can run, but are you fast enough?"

We're returning from the flashback now. Just needed that one frame really.

I sure hope things are going well back in the regular timeline-

We've reached the part where everything's sketches but I hope it gets things across still!

Aquarius remembers Pisces in their final moments, being fatally wounded and falling back.

Leo gets stabbed and lives, but Libra hunts and finds him.

The full line (it's a duo of panels, but I've only included the one here because the other's too messy to parse) is "The trail of tears that you will leave me / Will lead me straight to those that fear me."

The way Libra finds him is that they notice that someone's left flowers on Aquarius' body- meaning he can't be far. They use this to find him.

Leo throughout the story is continuously excluded for his previous crimes- betrayal of trust, lack of any proof he cares for anyone other than himself- but throughout the story (and PMV) he follows Virgo and Pisces, keeping an eye on them and even following them up into the sky islands. His care for other people is what lands him in trouble in the first place<3

Also disclaimer that he lives- He isn't doing too well, but he's better off than Aquarius (another thing he can live to regret, yay!)

Now ignoring Leo, who walked into his own open grave, where did things go wrong?

Moving to the end (skipping more quick panels in the PMV that are too messy to include-)

((Gemini was also evil))

Gemini is the one who actually killed Aquarius, though Virgo assumes it was Libra up until she finds out the hard way.

Because Gemini kills someone and Libra doesn't, Gemini is the only one of the two that gets executed at the end of the story.

There are other characters with parts in the story (Sagittarius, Taurus) that don't have parts in the PMV! I only did a PMV for up until the end of the first chorus for the song I was using since it encompassed the story up to the Gemini reveal pretty well!