U-Naught

with only moments to spare - here's my entry!:

February's "Girls of the Zig" is Brutal Wendy

Pong on the Lost's screen! but what are the hula hoops seemingly around the clockwork?

Congratz out to Lousy_Day for top honors on great entry! and to Battlewraith (FrozenDeath), Frost, and JohnnyKat, too!

Heck, congratz to EVERYBODY! Inspiring work all round!

Exclamation point!

The voting deadline looms! Hurry Up, folks! Let's get all those 11th-hour votes for my entry in there!

in my researches on Pin-up art, I saw a couple of things referenced in different places as being main points of the style. Realizing that such things are always subjective (or is that objective?), and that I flat-out disagree with some of the definitions out there - here's a couple that I'm finding helpful:

• woman in a suggestive pose but acting nonchalant or doing something non-sexual, such as cooking or talking on the phone.
• Nostalgic style clothing such as from the 30's, 40's, or 50's, or sometimes uniforms (military or other) that have been stylized into shorts, or 1-piece swimsuits (especially very unrevealing ones) from the 1930s.
• Some pinup art is heavily related to the early drag racing and muscle car culture.

Hope this is helpful to any and all!

Okay, I offer one of my villains: Mr. Gnash from the Virtue server. He's a Mutation Stalker (Spines & Willpower).



Background: He is a mutant, the only child born to otherwise ordinary upper-middle class parents. He is horribly disfigured, but has an unusually hardy constitution.

In what seemed a nightmare, he manifested razor-sharp spines during his mother's first labor. Rushing to the front of the house, intending to drive to the hospital, his Mother screamed and collapsed to the floor. She convulsed wildly. His Father tried to help her. Neither survived.

Their housemaid managed to bundle the infant in heavy rags and fled – out of pity, or fear of being somehow blamed, herself, for her employer's deaths, who can say?

She and the child sunk into the bowels of the city, hiding, scrabbling for food and shelter. Years passed, friendless. She taught him what she could. Together they learned to hide, to sneak, to be quiet and unseen, for any who saw the child reacted in great fear and horror. Many tried kill the ugly thing. All who tried, died. Only the housemaid remained.

One evening, he returned from foraging for food to find a motley mob attacking her. “Kill her!” they cried. “She brought that horrible thing into our midst!” “Why would she bring such a thing here?” they yelled. “It will surely eat our children!”

“Your children?!” he screamed. “No, it is YOU I will eat! You! You stupid, frightened sheep! YOU!!!” He lept into them, spines fully extended, bearing his teeth and howling. Only one managed to escape alive, but he did not go far. “If you ever return,” the boy yelled, “I'll gnaw the flesh from your bones!”

The boy then turned to the housemaid. She was badly beaten, barely alive. He withdrew his spines and cradled her in his arms, sobbing. “This is my fault,” he cried. “They did this because of me! I curse the day you saved me! I curse the day I was ever born!”

Her eyes looked at him with a fading warmth. “You cannot,” she breathed, “cannot help your birth, my boy. You did not choose it.” She winced in pain. “Only do what you can,” she breathed, “with it.

Unknown to him, the lone survivor had found a sharp piece of metal and had slunk back to slay the monster. “Die, you awful thing!” the man stabbed at the boy. The boy screamed and instinctively extended his spines, spinning around to tear at his attacker. He flailed and flailed and flailed until he was spent.

When it was over, panting hard, he withdrew his spines again and returned to the housemaid. To his horror, he had impaled her during the attack. She had been near death after the mob's beating, but now there would be no saving her. He looked at her face, her eyes frozen open in surprise. The only person who had ever cared for him, and he had surely killed her.

The years that followed were difficult, filled with bitter loneliness, anger, fear, and hatred. Still, he persevered, he survived. He snuck aboard a freighter that took him from Paragon City to the Rogue Isles. He thought that maybe Arachnos' villainous hordes might accept him more readily than Paragon's bright citizenry had. He was only marginally correct in that. At least there, he could put put his skills to use. It wasn't a nice place. It wasn't pretty, but it would do.

For the most part, he expects the occasional clash with other villains and groups. Thats just part of the game. Lately, however, it seems as if Crey Industries is taking a special interest in him, and they aren't being at all polite about it. He has begun to investigate them, in turn. He is not happy with what he is finding out. The problem is, Crey is big, very big, and has its fingers in too many pockets. He has to admit he is going to need some help, and if the information he acquired from a Crey office is any indication, it just may come from a very unlikely source.

A discreet phone call to a number that was oh, so very difficult to obtain. “Mr. Bayani? Please don't hang up. You don't know me, but I believe I have some information you might want. Information about a certain large corporation we all know and love, whose name begins with the letter 'C'. Information they would not like you to know. I think we should meet...”

Now, I have another little script written, a sort of dialog of the meeting between Mr. Gnash and Bayani, explaining why exactly they'd both want to do this. and I tried to not over do it (Bayani's dialog is minimal) But I know and respect that you don't want anyone writing you into their stuff without your permission, so I'm not just posting it here. I can email it to you if you like - just as a here's why he'd do this. Just let me know.

Thanks for your consideration!

so, it looks like black & white is still okay? (which is fiiiine by me!! just want to clarify.)

while I can see the possibility of distracting from the vote thread, I'm chomping at the bit to know what the next month's theme will be!

this is a tough choice (in a very enjoyable sense) as they are all great entries, each bringing something unique to the theme! I'll say it again: Great Job everyone!

After a lot of thought, I'm casting my vote for Olympic thug skating By Battlewraith (FrozenDeath). Well rendered, captures Olympic theme well, captures COX theme well, shows humor yet also a deeper meaning, its th complete package.

and I'll add yet another Happy Bday! wish, too. (two?)

didn't Wassy say that today, the 23rd, was her birthday?

Happy Bday, Wassy!

Great entries, Frost & Clutch!
humor abounds!

Now that my nap's out of the way, I've updated my deviantart page with the finished piece (at least, as finished as I want to call it. I could tweak it till Sunday and not be totally happy, butcha gotta stop sometime)

http://u-naught.deviantart.com/art/F...ntry-151216150



Looking at the submissions that have gone up in the interim, I am truly humbled! In a pleasant, good way, mind you.
Great stuff everyone!

Mine's almost done, should only take a few more hours. I've posted it to my DeviantArt page, and will update that as soon as its complete (its been a loooong haul).

http://u-naught.deviantart.com/art/F...ntry-151216150