Free Day Friday: Viper continuation
Picking up from Here
Thrax scarcely recognized the city anymore. In the five years since his banishment for questioning the research into dark eco, he'd sort of assumed nothing would change, not really. But the Haven he crept through now was barely half of what he'd left behind. The slums were gone, replaced by gleaming modern architecture and locked behind force fields. He'd thought it was to keep the displaced rabble out until he saw the first metalhead lounging on a filthy street corner. Until he saw the crushed remains of the Stadium, the Grand Hotel, the museum-! The Palace District of Main Town was destroyed.
How far Praxis must have fallen before the end! Thrax found himself, to his surprise, hoping the old fool had met a hideous death at the hands of Damas’s pet demon. The count was right, he was an abomination, but that was more Praxis's fault than the monster's, to his mind. Praxis made it out of some kid who didn't get a say in the matter. In his own way, Thrax felt sorry for Jak. But sympathy for demons didn't get you far in life.
Bitterly cursing the cold, Thrax pulled his scarf higher and found himself turning down an alley in search of things to burn. He should have been home by now. Well, not home, his old penthouse from his days in the Guard had a support beam impaling the top three floors now. Somewhere better, perhaps, in New Haven. He'd even have accepted military barracks if it came with the proper pay and respect! That had been the promise, that was to be his reward: all that Praxis had stripped from him restored. And all he'd had to do was kill that weakling Damas.
Only, Damas wasn't a weakling anymore. He was as harshly pragmatic as Praxis had ever been. Ruler of a land of barbarians! It was madness! Honestly, Thrax would have been relieved to have Haven destabilize and assume control of the city. But now...now, he doubted Haven had anything close to the manpower that would require. No wonder assassination had been suggested instead!
And he'd failed, pure and simple.
Thrax was no fool, he knew his glorious homecoming was contingent on him holding up his end of the bargain. Still, he couldn't help a sullen thought that he might have succeeded if Veger hadn't sent the monster straight to Damas’s doorstep like a housewarming present.
There were two other people huddled around a barrel at the end of the alley, burning garbage for warmth. They didn't acknowledge him at first, until the light flickered off his tattoos. One of them swore and kicked at him.
"Get out of here!" The kick unbalanced him and his friend caught his elbow. "KG scum! Metal-lover! Go back to hell!"
Something grated high above their heads. The sound of a boot on a slate shingle. Even with the heat of the fire in his face, Thrax suddenly felt cold. What forgotten instinct warned him not to look up? That he had no time to look?
The shingles cracked.
Thrax ran.
For once, he was grateful for the grueling, brutal training Damas forced candidates to endure before he allowed them to enter the desert alone. A Havenite -- gods, when had he stopped thinking of himself as a Havenite? -- would never have been able to clear the fallen masonry, or the burnt-out husks of hellcats that littered the streets. A mantis-head took a swipe at him from the shadows of a fallen archway, and Thrax lost his footing as he dodged.
He landed hard, skidding down a short drop that had once been part of the road. In the two seconds required to pick himself up, Thrax saw what his instincts had been warning him about.
The monster. The child-soldier. Jak.
He leapt from the awning of what used to be a racing memorabilia shop, landing with a predatory grace that momentarily froze Thrax. His creepy talking Teacup Mine-rat hunched on his shoulder -- everyone said there was no such thing as Mine-rats having a teacup breed, but they were the only animal he'd ever seen with those proportions and that nauseating shade of orange -- watching him with those beady little eyes. In an almost careless move, the rat pointed out the mantis-head that had knocked Thrax down. The monster shot it in the head after only glancing in its direction.
The spell was broken. Thrax ran down the cracked and sunken crater that the road had become, desperately scanning the horizon for a place to hide. He was too far from New Haven -- not that the elite would have any compunction to help him when he'd failed his mission -- and he could see metalheads and those Krimzon robots blocking many of the avenues he could have used for escape. Stopping to shoot them would give the monster time to catch up.
Thrax knew what the abomination was capable of. He'd seen what happened to his co-conspirator. Dropped like a stone as they tried to flee, obsidian claws buried in the base of their skull while watched by the pitiless eyes of whatever evil spirit the boy had become. Would those same claws paralyze him, too? Drag him back to the desert to die or worse? Or would death be swift?
No, no he couldn't think like that. He had to escape. He had to hope for a way to kill the thing. Thrax charged into another alley, hoping against hope that a door would be open or unlocked. If he could get inside, his chances of survival would dramatically increase.
The Precursors, however, did not favor him that day.
The alley ended at a wall of twisted rebar and half melted plastics, fused together with foul acids secreted by the metalheads. A panicked whine escaped Thrax's throat as he whirled, already knowing what would be behind him.
But there was nothing.
That did not calm his nerves. Where was the creature? Thrax's eyes rolled back and forth, scanning every shadow. His breath came in shallow pants as he backed up, fumbling for his morph gun.
Then came the sound of boots on shingles again.
He had forgotten to look up.
Jak dropped silently, driving his knee into the fugitive's back. Thrax fell with a cry, gun clattering from his hand and onto the ruined cobblestones. He was under no obligation to bring Thrax back alive -- they'd gotten most of the information they needed out of the monk, Nadab. Damas had given him explicit permission to kill the would-be assassin if the situation warranted it. But at the same time, Jak had a suspicion. He was catching on to a greater trend of treachery within Haven, and he had a feeling Thrax knew who was behind it. All he needed was confirmation.
"Do your worst, abomination," Thrax gasped, clawing for any shred of courage he had left. "I do not fear death."
"Captain."
Thrax faltered. "What?"
Jak flipped him over so that their eyes met. His eyes were cold, and in the darkness, Thrax wondered in a daze how they could look so much like Damas’s.
"It's Captain Abomination. If you're going to insult me, do it properly."
The rat snickered and nudged his head encouragingly.
"Now you have a very small window of opportunity here," Jak growled. "You tell me who put Nadab in contact with you, and you get a chance to give up your beacon with a shred of honor intact. If you have a shred of honor left."
"This is a limited time offer," Daxter warned.
Trembling, Thrax repeated, "I do not fear death!"
Jak smiled, but there was no humor in it.
"Yes you do."
He was right.
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So I started playing the Jak and Daxter series a couple years ago, and I'm finally working on beating Jak 2. And I also finally got inspired to try my hand at doing some fanart.
These are sort of practice drawings, and I made a little casual ref of Jak to get an idea of how I wanna translate the style. Not perfect by any means but a start!
The girl is my OC, and I made a ref for her too :)
I'm leaning towards the name Rose but I'm still unsure lol I know she's friends with Keira though and loves riding her hoverboard. Oh, and she dual wields pistols. Which I will be illustrating soon 👀
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ah crap more ocs
so in my fic over haven's walls i mentioned the six sisters, precursors who have dominion over their respective eco type. each sister has a homeland and attributes that correspond with their eco. in birth order we have:
mariym - patron of light eco and the goddess of transcendence. she is the twin sister of micte. mariym rules over spargus and the mountain temple, and her disguise among the citizens is that of a healer named merci. she is calm and collected, every step she takes is calculated and well-thought out.
micte - patron of dark eco and the goddess of transformation. she is the twin sister of mariym. in the fic, micte is not the most adjusted out of the bunch. she loves chaos, often looking to play with the mortal realm as much as possible. her dominion used to be misty island, and her disguise is that of the witch of the waste by the name of hin. unlike her sister, micte seeks so be as unpredictable as the element she controls.
kajin - patron of red eco and goddess of strength and resilience. kajin is the queen of the marauders, sat upon a throne of ice and knives. she is always down for a good battle, especially if weapons are involved. kajin rules over the marauder fortress and their former home in the ice lands. she is a glutton for violence, laid back, and truly a queen who cherishes her people.
tyr - patron of yellow eco and goddess of war and ire. much like her older sister, tyr is a warrior through and through. her love for violence and mayhem makes her the perfect companion to kajin. though her beloved boggy swamp is no longer around, tyr doesn't allow its absence to hinder her pride in her swamp lands. ambitious, hot headed, and bloodthirsty, tyr is easily the sister with the most devotees.
neera - patron of blue eco and goddess of speed and fortune. neera doesn't have the same fascination with worship and worshipers as her sisters do. instead, neera finds herself running to and fro, outracing the very lightning from the sky. rock village may be gone, but neera doesn't let that deter her from embracing her new home in haven among the electricity that flows through the city. she is quick witted and charming, the most humble of all the sisters.
kaliope - patron of green eco and goddess of health and prosperity. forever a child, kaliope is playfully juvenile. the monks have built many temples in her name, but kaliope would rather they seek her out in the trees and moss of haven forest.
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