digital illustration. it's saparata embracing fluixon who collapses onto his shoulder, blood streaming down his neck. on his blood-spattered face, saps wears an expression between anger, disbelief, and grief while he grits his teeth. saps doesn't have his mask on, nor does fluixon have his jacket on. instead, they're both wear armor which glints softly.

like you were supposed to

creation date: oct 9

characters featured: saparata, fluixon (state 2.5)

embarrassing embarrassing embarrassing it's impossible not to feel embarrassment sharing this one, and yet this was an absolute blast to draw HAHAHA! while i'm v happy w the piece, there's also a bit of contention i have with it in the fact i believe i over-rendered a bit. i have the WIP in my possession and i'm scratching my head why i continued rendering when i could have just left it here but oh well it is what it is

an unfinished version of the same drawing as above. there is no background, saps' face is less detailed, and his hair and armor are rendered more simply.

as for some general thoughts about the narrative of this piece...

the designs i made

character reference sheets for saparata and fluixon's armored designs. saps is wearing the winter clothes from his 'fugitive' alternative design underneath a set of daimond shoulder pads, leather straps, and arm protectors. fluixon has his black jacket off and instead wears a midnight-blue chestplate decorated in turquoise embellishments, as well as a thorned crown. saps is clutching a sword tightly in his hand while fluixon holds an axe loosely.

the symbolic gesture of saps taking off his mouse mask in the final duel bcs he'll never have to run and hide ever again after this. flux taking off his jacket (roach silhouette) bcs hes finally opening himself up to death.

oh and ignore the fact that in the actual scene, saps killed flux with an axe while flux was using a sword, ignore the fact i accidentally got their weapons swapped okay shhhhhh.

design rambles

my biggest regret with flux's armor design is not including his upside-down heart symbol again - it's upright here. it could mean something but i didn't have anything symbolic in mind. i'm also kinda iffy on saps having shoulder pieces but no chest piece. i just was not able to draw a chestplate that looked good on him, that's completely a skill issue on my part but at the same time... it also kinda fits with how i characterized him so far; always wearing oversized un-intuitive clothes and whatnot, so in a way it's fine riiiiight?

something i'm also mildly happy with: saps' armor plating is very clearly thin and flimsy while flux's is visibly thick, shiny, and properly decorated lol. i still can't get over that one screencap of flux in global chat asking ish for amethyst to decorate his armor..... while saps is fighting for his life flux is debating which trim looks best on him........ oh flux.

this drawing was initially going to be part of a series of 5 illustrations depicting their story. 3 of these illusts were finished before i decided i din't like the other 2 and would scrap them. but the series would have been titled "exactly like you were supposed to," depicting saps in the midst of an action for every illust except for the last.

building his house with flux
mediating day 4's meeting as the stalagmite trap goes off
jumping out of turntapp's seat right before he's assassinated
killing flux in the coliseum fight (you are here)
flux in front of a chess board. he holds the black king chesspiece in his hand, the only remaining black piece aside from a pawn. he hovers above the square that gets him checkmated, smiling.

the illust series' surrounded the fact that unknowingly or not, saps' actions were spearheaded because he was supposed to do it. flux's plan. his initial lack of agency and the uphill battle against it was my favorite part of 2.5 and the reason i got so into it in the first place. in a way, 2.5's story is all flux's - it's through his vision that the entire social order of the islands bends, after all. and yet, for how in control he seemed, it started and ended with saparata reaching out, and him accepting. the coliseum fight was a suicide mission - flux knew he'd die there, and also knew there was no way he can ever make things "right" even a LITTLE. the last thing he can do; the only thing he had chased; the only thing that had ever stood in the way of his plan; was to get rid of saps. and now saps is reaching out, and flux will take it.

i think somewhere deep down, flux's stubborn self is still trying to see his own death as something he has control over - him accepting saps' offer to fight being his way of doing just that. stubborn until the end, his relinquishing of control is even seen as a ploy for control. his apology feels more to me as a mutual, "we've gone as far as we can go, now let's leave what happens to us up to fate." a real moment of friendship amidst everything.

while their story in 2.5 is grand and dramatic, what makes polarityduo so special to me is the fact they had indeed been friends at some point. after the dust settles, the world will remember them for the deaths, the betrayal, the battles. but they are the only ones who will ever know the simpler truths, quiet silly moments in the early days, the others' habits and peeves, their unfiltered real selves. the history books will write down flux as a simple villain, but nobody knew flux the person except for one man. while the islands' burdens are alleviated with flux's death, saps' burdens aren't, because knowing fluixon is his burden. carrying with him everything he's done, forever; that was flux's parting gift, this burden which was set in stone the moment he became flux's scapegoat, the burden flux had apologized for in death. saps' story to me isn't about morality but humanity - to invite connections, to accept hurt, and to keep going anyways, to live to love despite how much you've hurt. saps' friendship with flux plays this out to the max. not ever getting an answer for "why", and getting hurt over and over, but still choosing honor what friendship existed before, and in the end sever it. to die in the arms a friend is hardly something flux deserved and yet here they are.

this is also the only fandom pairing in recent memory where i don't mind both platonic or romantic interpretations. usually i feel so strict/picky with pairings, esp in mcrp but their dynamic is just so rich that i don't mind seeing ANY. it's rly cool how much variety of interpretation there is to see, i've had a blast in the state community.

and of course, once i have already long finished the illust did i realize that i forgot to add flux's little crown horns. fuck