#step closer

(Also, read the alt text if you want some extra design notes) (Don't be concerned that they have no mouth in some drawings, I'm too lazy to add it sometimes)

Most of these are either pre-death, or with illusion disks to look normal

Pete Dinglewood -Step closer (Stupid name):

Alec - Lonely Freddy:

Toby Billings - Hide and seek:

Devon Marks - The New Kid:

Sarah - To be Beautiful:

Millie Fitzsimmons - Count the ways:

Reed - The breaking wheel:

Julius - The breaking wheel:

And now, some more characters I have designs for, but might not show up as often (Not saying that everyone above will show up all the time either) Kelsey - The new kid:

Nole Markham - Blackbird:

Oswald - Into the pit:

Now I do have more designs for more of the characters, but that’s it for now! I will just say one more thing…

Pete prefers feeling empty over feeling too many emotions at once, which is how he normally feels, so he looks for outlets to purge that.

He only started to feel this way after the responsibility of taking care of Chuck was shoved onto him at 16 years old after the divorce. He lost his drive to do anything else, so Chuck became the outlet for those emotions which manifested as aggression.

Pete does love his little brother, and things weren’t always this way.

Pete feels conflicted or uneasy when he has to see his dad because he always feels like he’s disappointed in him, and like he’s always at fault in his dad’s eyes. (The dad's name is Bill by the way... Do what you will with that).

His dad (incorrectly) assumes than an injury on Pete's wrist was from self harm to cope with the divorce. He later reflects on the comment saying that he has thought of escaping his parents in other ways.

Pete trying to scare Chuck with Foxy starts a chain of unfortunate events that eventually lead to his death. I think the theme of Foxy is good, because it’s ironic that he ends up horrified and having nightmares about the thing he used to scare his little brother with. It's pretty self explanatory how this relates to Michael, since Foxy is what Michael always used to scare the Crying Child.

The ultimate tragedy of this story is that the conclusion is a reversal of what happens between Michael and Crying Child. The older brother dies in a freak accident, and the younger brother is left changed, depressed, falling behind in school, and wishing he’d done something differently.

Not everything is identical to Michael’s story. The relationship between Pete and his dad is strained, but it’s clear his dad does love him, and this definitely isn't the case with Michael. But because of the differences, I’ve wondered if things that don’t happen here are implied for Michael, like maybe self harm.