I wanted to experiment with trying to make my characters' hair softer and fluffier-looking, so I felt like drawing some characters I hadn't drawn in a long time. Here they are, twin sisters, along with a bit of exposition on their backgrounds. That's Melody on the right, and Malady on the left.
![[Image: GxeJiXW.png]](http://i.imgur.com/GxeJiXW.png)
*Wall of text incoming!*
So Melody was created to the be the colorful perky girl, and Malady was created... because I wanted to draw a cute gothic girl. So while their clothes bear opposing color schemes, they both wear thematically similar outfits - mostly because Melody delights in making her sister look cute, and Malady enjoys the attention. Despite this, there are differences between the two that dressing up can't hide. Malady's skin is paler, and although I started both of them with the same base shade of red for their eyes, Melody's eyes - err, eye, I suppose, is brighter and Malady always looks completely exhausted. Though both wear the same hairstyle and I aimed to make their hair fluffy, Malady has very unkempt hair to Melody's smooth hair.
Melody and Malady are supporting characters I whipped up for the ongoing game story I've been piecing together bit by bit for ages, designed to be optional party members who can be recruited via a sidequest. The two are born to an affluent family of renown, but Malady was born stricken with a rare terminal illness that, without fail, claims the life of its victim soon after their 18th birthday. Having learned this, their parents felt it best to keep Malady cooped up inside and out of the public eye, and lavish all of their attention and care onto the healthier twin Melody. (And also decided to be cheeky and give them their thematic names.) But Melody, bright and energetic, would form fast and unbreakable bonds with her sister. Malady, for her part, was weak and sickly from her illness, but was always determined to return her sister's affection to the best of her ability - which usually resulted in completely blasting her of all her extremely limited energy. The two would become inseparable.
During their teenage years, Melody learns that her parents had no intention to seek a cure for Malady's illness, satisfied to simply wait until the disease inevitably withered her away - a view that Malady herself shared after growing up so weak and pathetic. But Melody, ever optimistic, refused to simply let things play out as they were. There had to be a cure out there, somewhere, and she would find it. Obtaining their parents' blessing, who secretly believed they had no hope of success, the sisters struck out to explore the world, chasing any tales and legends of remedies and cure-alls to find any lead whatsoever to a cure for Malady's illness. The story opens several years after this, when they are both 17 years old. The clock is ticking, and Melody's cheerful facade hides a growing desperation to save her sister. Should their sidequest be completed, they find their miracle cure and Malady recovers, though her frailty remains from 18 years of living with the affliction. But if the player decides to move on and reaches a certain other event in the story before aiding them, they will instead catch a particularly bad case of being dead - both of them.
Both wear exclusively cloth equipment, but Melody was actually designed as a tank-type character. The small and otherwise unassuming buckler on her arm is actually a rare and expensive relic thought to be from an advanced civilization, which combines magic and science - standard "magitech" fare. In combat, it projects a large energy shield capable of protecting her entire body which she can also fight with using bashing and charging moves. Her block ability is thus slightly slower to activate than a standard block, but affords total protection against attacks from the front. It can also overcharge its core, rapidly expending energy to project a force field behind her to protect allies against field-wide attacks.
Malady on the other follows the textbook squishy mage archetype. Unable to fight physically, she instead wields a valuable but otherwise normal silver magic rod, and took up summoning magic, forging contracts with abyssal creatures who feed on negativity- of which she happens to have plenty. Whenever she and the main party end up butting heads, she only fights briefly before calling forth one of her demons to fight in her stead, retreating to the back lines. She is fiercely devoted to her sister, and considers her the single most important person in the world to her - with predictably bad results when her sister dies ahead of her in their bad end.
BONUS: Naming this picture for exporting, I found I still had the original drawings of these two I did... shit, five years ago. For anyone who's curious, take a gander! It wounds my very soul to see these again...
http://i.imgur.com/S5ZG3io.jpg http://i.imgur.com/04CDVvi.jpg
*Wall of text incoming!*
So Melody was created to the be the colorful perky girl, and Malady was created... because I wanted to draw a cute gothic girl. So while their clothes bear opposing color schemes, they both wear thematically similar outfits - mostly because Melody delights in making her sister look cute, and Malady enjoys the attention. Despite this, there are differences between the two that dressing up can't hide. Malady's skin is paler, and although I started both of them with the same base shade of red for their eyes, Melody's eyes - err, eye, I suppose, is brighter and Malady always looks completely exhausted. Though both wear the same hairstyle and I aimed to make their hair fluffy, Malady has very unkempt hair to Melody's smooth hair.
Melody and Malady are supporting characters I whipped up for the ongoing game story I've been piecing together bit by bit for ages, designed to be optional party members who can be recruited via a sidequest. The two are born to an affluent family of renown, but Malady was born stricken with a rare terminal illness that, without fail, claims the life of its victim soon after their 18th birthday. Having learned this, their parents felt it best to keep Malady cooped up inside and out of the public eye, and lavish all of their attention and care onto the healthier twin Melody. (And also decided to be cheeky and give them their thematic names.) But Melody, bright and energetic, would form fast and unbreakable bonds with her sister. Malady, for her part, was weak and sickly from her illness, but was always determined to return her sister's affection to the best of her ability - which usually resulted in completely blasting her of all her extremely limited energy. The two would become inseparable.
During their teenage years, Melody learns that her parents had no intention to seek a cure for Malady's illness, satisfied to simply wait until the disease inevitably withered her away - a view that Malady herself shared after growing up so weak and pathetic. But Melody, ever optimistic, refused to simply let things play out as they were. There had to be a cure out there, somewhere, and she would find it. Obtaining their parents' blessing, who secretly believed they had no hope of success, the sisters struck out to explore the world, chasing any tales and legends of remedies and cure-alls to find any lead whatsoever to a cure for Malady's illness. The story opens several years after this, when they are both 17 years old. The clock is ticking, and Melody's cheerful facade hides a growing desperation to save her sister. Should their sidequest be completed, they find their miracle cure and Malady recovers, though her frailty remains from 18 years of living with the affliction. But if the player decides to move on and reaches a certain other event in the story before aiding them, they will instead catch a particularly bad case of being dead - both of them.
Both wear exclusively cloth equipment, but Melody was actually designed as a tank-type character. The small and otherwise unassuming buckler on her arm is actually a rare and expensive relic thought to be from an advanced civilization, which combines magic and science - standard "magitech" fare. In combat, it projects a large energy shield capable of protecting her entire body which she can also fight with using bashing and charging moves. Her block ability is thus slightly slower to activate than a standard block, but affords total protection against attacks from the front. It can also overcharge its core, rapidly expending energy to project a force field behind her to protect allies against field-wide attacks.
Malady on the other follows the textbook squishy mage archetype. Unable to fight physically, she instead wields a valuable but otherwise normal silver magic rod, and took up summoning magic, forging contracts with abyssal creatures who feed on negativity- of which she happens to have plenty. Whenever she and the main party end up butting heads, she only fights briefly before calling forth one of her demons to fight in her stead, retreating to the back lines. She is fiercely devoted to her sister, and considers her the single most important person in the world to her - with predictably bad results when her sister dies ahead of her in their bad end.
BONUS: Naming this picture for exporting, I found I still had the original drawings of these two I did... shit, five years ago. For anyone who's curious, take a gander! It wounds my very soul to see these again...
http://i.imgur.com/S5ZG3io.jpg http://i.imgur.com/04CDVvi.jpg