In the time of chimpanzees...

Oh look, it’s something about those guys again!

Remember this this family portrait?
Since I finished this one I always wanted to do one for Yenaquai’s family as well, because I figured it would be a nice difference to try and depict their subtle interactions and relationships to each other. You know, show a sweeter counterpart to the rather damaged and traumatic environment Eharon had to endure as a child.

I’ve talked about Yen’s family before, her adoptive brother Amad, her brother who is 13 years her junior and how important her family is to her, even though they sometimes drive her crazy and they not always see eye to eye on certain matters. But they stick together no matter what. They are this save haven everybody needs, where you can let yourself fall back and know that somebody will be there for you, without any need for explanation or obligation to do something in return. Doesn’t mean they are the perfect example of a family, sure they have their problems, but which family doesn’t?

I merely wanted to show the warmth and safety of a family in contrast to the fake image of peace I tried to convey in the portray of Eharon’s family. A wanted to show the steadfastness and trust. They will be there, no matter where you go. If you come back, they will be there and they will welcome you home again, for as long as you want them to. :)

In the past weeks I’ve drawn the characters of this one project I couldn’t stop talking about only as children or their youngest version within the story. - So it’s time to change that, since the story spans many, many years and follows those characters through different phases of their lives.

So here I drew NoName or Subject 14 and Subject 11. NoName actually got a name now, though. It’s Maruja, which means “without name/face” in her native language. (Depends on how you pronounce it. “Mar-usha” for “without face” or “Mar-udsha” for “without a name”) In her culture the name of a person is believed to have a strong link to the “inner spirit”, which in turn manifests itself within the structure, the movements and the aging of the face. (Like the face reflects our emotions, our laughter, our sorrows and therefor reflects our soul and ages and gains experience with the soul).
And Maru doesn’t really care how you pronounce it. So you could pretty much spell it backwards and she would still react to it. She’s cool like that.

She has a very strong bond to another former testsubject of the same scientific institution, Subject 11 or by her real name Lamie, and later on they even end up in a relationship with each other. I’m going to explain their quite complex and complicated relationship and how their powers affect it later on. - I just wanted to draw Maru older, about 19/20, and experiment with their different bodytypes. I imagine that Lamie is quite a bit bigger than Maruja and naturally very thin while Maru is shorter and naturally a bit more curvy. I like the dynamics of such differences <3

sesca asked:

Do you have a story about the specific time Yen made Amad smile & laugh again? Or did it happen gradually?

It did happen gradually, but it all starts with one event, right? Yen, being that annoying, curious little kid she was could not bear to leave Amad alone whe he was adopted by her family. She just couldn’t do it. There was no way a mysterious sad little boy could be in their household without her getting to find stuff out about him. That was just sooo unfair. And unbearable!
So Yenaquai pestered him anyway. Despite her parents telling her to leave him be and let him settle in. But you know, kids find their way if they want to.
And it didn’t really bother her that he was mostly apathetic and didn’t participate in their conversations. And because he didn’t bite her or shouted at her or anything she figured he was okay with her presence too.
One day her father brought some books home from a nearby town so Yen could improve her readingskills. And one morning she wanted to read to Amad, show him how well she can do it already. Which she couldn’t. She was terrible at reading.
So she was clumsily tripping and stumbling over the words, and Amad began to chuckle now and then. Seeing that this was the VERY first reaction her adoptive brother showed her, she seized the moment and began reading it wrong on purpose, or making up the words as she went on, or just trying to eat the book or anything to make him react!
And Amad laughed for the first time after his parents died. Which wasn’t a magical cure to his grieving and trauma, but it was a step forward to healing.

And that’s the story behind that. :)

It is worldbuilding wednesday again!

And because of that I am sort of continuing this “family”theme, I’ve started with Eharon and his parents. This time it’s Yen’s turn, who values her family very much. She got a good relationship to her parents, even though she disagrees with many of their more traditional and conservative opinions. She also has a little brother, for whom she cares, but they never become that close, maybe also because of the age gap. (When he is born, Yen is already 13 years old)
But the one person who sticks with her and she with him almost throughout the whole story, is her adoptive brother Amad. He is the son of good friends of her parents who unfortunately died during a fire that has been started by rebels. So Yen’s parents took him in and raised him instead. He is about the same age as Yen, but she always refers to him as her big brother, because he always stays one head higher than her.
When Amad’s parents died he was pretty traumatized and didn’t speak one word for many months, Yen was the first one to make him laugh after this incident again, and managed to lure him out of his shell. She was always more outgoing and extroverted than Amad, but her positive and energetic attitude began to rub off on him and soon they were inseperable.

A major plot in the story is the rise of a huge corporation that gains a lot more influence with each new chapter, for example in scientific research, politics, economics and warfare and which weakens Yen’s country immensly just so they can progress. No matter the losses on the side of the inhabitants.
When Yen and Amad are introduced in the story, they are anonymously rebelling and fighting against this corporation, and each of them later one takes a different path to help those people who have been victims of this corporation. Amad becomes a military surgeon, Yen a soldier.

Those two mean a lot to each other and wouldn’t hesitate one second to help the other sibling. Even if they are not siblings by blood, they became brother and sister by always being there for each other, by always standing behind each other. They can rely on each other blindly, even if their opinions and strategies sometimes clash and they not always see eye to eye. - They stick together, no matter what.

sesca replied to your photo: sesca replied to your post<span >: <em >It’s…

Oh, her expression breaks my heart. D: Does her perception of reality improve over time? Does Yenaquai help somehow?

It does improve a little over time. It gets a bit worse during her teenage-years, but after that she will find ways to cope with it. It does never truly go away, but she can handle it pretty well later on. Of course there a days were it is worse, but there are days it becomes a little bit better. Yenaquai is not a real help, because at the time she’s busy being trained as soldier and starting an underground revolution against a huge corporation that takes over pracically everything. She actually meets NoName a lot later on in the story, when NoName is all grown up herself. But Subject 14 does have somebody who helps her through all her struggles and sticks to her no matter what. It is a girl that is a little bit older than her and is an earlier testsubject. She has similar abilities to NoName, but they are far less developed and she cannot use them at will like NoName can. But she’s a terribly compassionate being and the most important person in NoName’s life.