Song of the Day: Pedestrian at Best by Courtney Barnett

The Amalgams were one of many "transitional" books I wrote in early middle school or planned to write, that is, books bridging the gap between my previous penchant for fantasy and a growing desire to write humans. Out of these characters and stories, these twelve are particularly interesting (at least to me) because despite being my first full cast that looked like humans, their story hinges on them not being human. I guess this was the best way from not writing humans to inundating myself in angsty teenagers with superpowers, but it also gave me twelve characters who fall in a particular uncanny valley, and out of these, one of my favorites is Mary.

Mary can not feel fear.

This is hammered in a lot in-book because of its implications: Mary is not afraid of cars on the highway. Mary is not afraid of messing up socially. Mary is not afraid of the social consequences of hurting people. One of the other main characters and the objective protagonist's job is to keep together twelve people and one of them is incapable of being kept in line because she's not afraid of authority. She only listens when it is convenient for her and it is usually not. Needless to say, Mary is a constant threat to the group's safety and is the closest thing they have to an objective protagonist until the other, more subtly dangerous members of the party manage to screw up even harder, primarily because they are precision instruments where Mary is a sledgehammer. 

Working on Mary's Veritas (monster form). Monster is interpreted fairly liberally and doesn't have the same connotation in this book, as the Veritas is the "truest" form of these individuals. Mary sees herself as a hero/warrior, so no matter what her actions are, her Veritas reflects this perception. Of course, I've never had a good idea what she looks like outside of "six wings because seraph connotation", but I digress. Color!

Different members of the group present more or less human, with most of them usually looking human-- Dylan, another member, manifests horns, and Mary tends to manifest wings because she's flighty.

Early dynamic pose practice from November.

Also an older picture.

I've messed with the concept of same AUs where Mary suddenly acquires fear. There's no other way to "break" her in the way some of my other characters get torn up by their respective narratives but the concept of a Mary who feels regret/remourse/anything really is at least interesting to me.

... that sounds way more calculating when I say it out loud. Kill your darlings, folks? It's a normal writer thing I swear I'm not just mean.