Sketch: Havoc Chimera
Of late my Muse wants me to draw as well as write. I've had an idea knocking around my brain of Jean Havoc as a chimera. The sketch below the cut is probably about PG-13--he's nude, but no naughty bits are showing.
Technical details--This took about two afternoons to draw. Done with eraser and pencil in a roughly 12:1 ratio. Big thanks to dragonnan for tips on the spots and other details! *Blows kisses.* The issues of proportions and such are all mine.
Now--because I'm more often a writer than an artist--there's a sort of story behind this, which I may even get around to writing eventually. (I haven't forgotten my writing projects, no--I've just been distracted.)
First of all, unlike just about every chimera I know of, this was Jean's idea. Furthermore, there was more to it than an attempt to regain the use of his legs. Just what the Dire Circumstances were, I'm not yet too sure of (any suggestions?), but I'm fairly sure it involved something on the order of a threat to the life of the Prime Minister Pro Tem and possibly the whole country. It would have to be something on that scale--because otherwise Roy and the Elrics wouldn't have agreed to do it. I tend to think someone's using chimeras for some dark purpose, and Jean's not been able to track the nastiness through his contacts in the black market.
In any case, whatever the specifics of it are, Jean was crossed with a jaguar (he chose the animal himself--and it's best not to ask exactly how he got it into the country), and because Roy and the Elrics handled the transmutation, it came out fairly well. As of this sketch, Jean doesn't yet have full feeling or use of his back end--but he's improving. Some of his joints are put together a bit strangely, and his hands and feet have lost digits to "dewclaws"--though he managed to retain at least one thumb. (Helps to have people who care about you doing your chimera transmutation.) There's an assortment of less-obvious changes to his body and chemistry, as well as the way his mind works. He does have a set of fangs, for example, and soon after his transmutation, he reflexively bit Roy hard enough to crack bones. (He, or rather the jaguar's instinct, had reason--Roy was probing for returning feeling, and a short-circuited nerve misread a poke as a red-hot needle being jabbed into a rather sensitive spot. Havoc was profoundly embarrassed and apologetic about the whole thing.)
Borrowing from the manga canon regarding chimeras, I think that eventually Havoc will learn to morph himself into a shape that will pass for human. For now he's doing well to keep his pupils rounded. He does have night reflectivity in his eyes and a heightened sense of smell as well as impressive hearing. His olfactory sensitivity has forced him to cut back on his cigarettes, though not (unfortunately for me, as I hate the smell of cigarettes) quit completely.
When I started this sketch, I had a different pose and expression in mind. It ended up much softer than I pictured--which I think is probably due to Jean's shoulders tiring and his general temperament--Scar is more suited to prolonged scowling. In any case, I'm rather pleased with this. I've got another sketch of Jaguar-Havoc started--the leg proportions are again out of whack, but I think I can salvage things--and I'm thinking of converting Roy to a chimera and trying to sketch him, too, if I can get him to hold still to pose instead of testing the kicking power of a draft horse's rear legs on me.
Comments, tips, plot suggestions?
Technical details--This took about two afternoons to draw. Done with eraser and pencil in a roughly 12:1 ratio. Big thanks to dragonnan for tips on the spots and other details! *Blows kisses.* The issues of proportions and such are all mine.
Now--because I'm more often a writer than an artist--there's a sort of story behind this, which I may even get around to writing eventually. (I haven't forgotten my writing projects, no--I've just been distracted.)
First of all, unlike just about every chimera I know of, this was Jean's idea. Furthermore, there was more to it than an attempt to regain the use of his legs. Just what the Dire Circumstances were, I'm not yet too sure of (any suggestions?), but I'm fairly sure it involved something on the order of a threat to the life of the Prime Minister Pro Tem and possibly the whole country. It would have to be something on that scale--because otherwise Roy and the Elrics wouldn't have agreed to do it. I tend to think someone's using chimeras for some dark purpose, and Jean's not been able to track the nastiness through his contacts in the black market.
In any case, whatever the specifics of it are, Jean was crossed with a jaguar (he chose the animal himself--and it's best not to ask exactly how he got it into the country), and because Roy and the Elrics handled the transmutation, it came out fairly well. As of this sketch, Jean doesn't yet have full feeling or use of his back end--but he's improving. Some of his joints are put together a bit strangely, and his hands and feet have lost digits to "dewclaws"--though he managed to retain at least one thumb. (Helps to have people who care about you doing your chimera transmutation.) There's an assortment of less-obvious changes to his body and chemistry, as well as the way his mind works. He does have a set of fangs, for example, and soon after his transmutation, he reflexively bit Roy hard enough to crack bones. (He, or rather the jaguar's instinct, had reason--Roy was probing for returning feeling, and a short-circuited nerve misread a poke as a red-hot needle being jabbed into a rather sensitive spot. Havoc was profoundly embarrassed and apologetic about the whole thing.)
Borrowing from the manga canon regarding chimeras, I think that eventually Havoc will learn to morph himself into a shape that will pass for human. For now he's doing well to keep his pupils rounded. He does have night reflectivity in his eyes and a heightened sense of smell as well as impressive hearing. His olfactory sensitivity has forced him to cut back on his cigarettes, though not (unfortunately for me, as I hate the smell of cigarettes) quit completely.
When I started this sketch, I had a different pose and expression in mind. It ended up much softer than I pictured--which I think is probably due to Jean's shoulders tiring and his general temperament--Scar is more suited to prolonged scowling. In any case, I'm rather pleased with this. I've got another sketch of Jaguar-Havoc started--the leg proportions are again out of whack, but I think I can salvage things--and I'm thinking of converting Roy to a chimera and trying to sketch him, too, if I can get him to hold still to pose instead of testing the kicking power of a draft horse's rear legs on me.
Comments, tips, plot suggestions?