gustyphon

January 29 to February 12. Two weeks. Half a month. 72 portraits - albeit marked with anything we can call 'style'.
Today's been one month since those were all actually finished, polished into the timeline I've been building here a few weeks ago.
Take it some 6 or 7 hours of daily exercise. In 15 days. Resulting between 90 and 105 hours. It takes approximately 1 hour and 20 minutes to do each (am I slow or no, man... I don't usually practice it and my work conditions aren't the most ergonomical. So let me not think on that right now, okay?). In two weeks, I've spent over four days in full as hours of work to finish those.

Despite some look more stylized compared to others, I felt some resistance and struggle to keep it all depicting to the same character and fitting between one step and the next on their evolution. I'm glad as I can be of the outcome, and now I think more than rest and pursue more study on that which I may have neglected in my nostalgic dreams getting hold of my progress and caressing what I'm used to do, I must set down the production scale and this means you won't hear much of me from here or elsewhere. Before this goodbye of sorts, check out the history that was written on two weeks, making 9 years worthy:


I have favorites, but, let's say it's hard to choose when you got 72. Taking the times that cross between a character and other, those are reduced to two thirds of the full roster. Before I forget, meet Anna G Whitaker and Melissa Walker, I tried my best to make their portraits casual, so we let go of the fact they had assignments on missions with armored suits. My story isn't all about that. And I'm really fond of those two, who've somehow accompanied different spots in my lifetime, to be forsaken other times. If there were main female deuteragonists, those are they. Coincidentally or not, by late 2015 in 'our universe', I've decided to put both of them on the story. This is just the result, as scientifical as it gets to get a familiar timeline from the afterward of that decision. I did what changes should to make them fit. From then to now I couldn't concentrate much on what's ahead, on any kind of future. My work may have consumed me.

The first row (2008.2-2012.1) mostly accounts to the Triton Saga and the latter (2012.2-2015.2) to the Chthonian, second part of the extensively, uncontrollably growing Apkallu mythos. Seeking closure, let's start with first things first. That is, character by character:


So, these are all the 72. Pick one and read the descriptions to get all what's this about.

We're caught over halfway of this pathetically short line of successive days we call a "month", and I couldn't help but ONCE AGAIN, look back. It seems that's all do since the last three years. Yeah, I miss the 2000s, I miss the golden days. But it's in all I do, in the music I listen, in the comic book shit I still read. Well, once upon a time, when we found ourselves in the same position in space as to say, last year, I was prone into a daily effort here on dA for uploading detailed information on the ALPHA OMEGA, which stands for:

a series of armors with a sci-fi-oriented design, whose source of powers stem from their technology. Each armor has a power, and the entire roster draws from powers you would find in comic book titles of sorts;

and by detailed, I wanted to clarify also the people who (currently) use those 'suits', how did they end up on that, and what rate they perform the tasks necessary to use them (as sci-fi it may sound, a tech still has gadgets and needs maintenance, right?). That ended up requiring information on the AXIS:

which is an international -- despite secret -- institute to prepare people to master the Alpha-Omega. By "institute", it's all here - school as school (college) is, plus combat school (and driving school, why not...), and overseas missions for those in the field (those who have any hope at all to become a wearer of an Alpha-Omega). As Western-aligned and in conformity to UN, they can issue false documents and find matches to usual academic titles despite their medieval-like structure

Thus, we came to the conclusion that the users of these armors are like either military personnel or scientists, right?
Wrong. Admittance isn't given freely, but earned by who's inside - if it's secret, now you know how - and the staff of this institute was pretty sick, you know. It ends up being a great social experiment to tap the holes of the actual manufacturers of the tech, the secrets they garnered at times of war, and to direct a task force on that which some wouldn't understand - demons - be them human, anthropozoomorphic (with a face) like or regardless of how many limbs they had, what kind of acid they spit or what they seemed to know, the task force should bring them down. Missions would go with such formality, teams would be formed, and... demons would be either studied (maybe dissected) or killed, into spare parts. Reports also give some "environmental treatment" to others, moving them from a part of the globe to the other, careless if the sentient individual cared or not.

A Demon Race to Find

    But looking at these fiendishly beings was meant for few - you get it - just to the Alpha Omega (and whoever they required -in secrecy -to "capture missions" - usually "just the best" of a rank, but in truth, just the most acknowledgeable, friendly, or the contrary, when life was too much at risk). Take it as a school, it may admit like 40 to 200 students per year. They must be at least 17 year old to enter, and believe me, those inside were steadily pushing the limits so the newcomers would be on that age. "The earlier the better", for the 21 Alpha-Omega suits AXIS owned had a secret -- their power is symbiotic, built up from trainning, so sending just veterans to wear it off produced previsible results after a couple of years. So they get social pressure on these teenagers and young adults, make them extremely competitive, crush their dreams and give them athletic aptitude (or not, if their brains make it up for other squads), so the next decade they have a big mission coming up where the indomitable and courageous 20-something "Alpha-lings" become replaceable as cattle. But the armor retains everything and push once again young people to even surpass those before them.

    Would any of those care? The admitted ones were either problem kids got out of the dumpster they were found or were privileged somehow, and gullible enough to give it a try. They had big dreams, to olympics, or some kind of art, maybe there just for the fighting, or certainly not for something bland as enterpreneurship or something the matter, maybe they were hyped for the data which was secret to everyone outside the bubble. But get an ALPHA-OMEGA and your contract is for life. On a brighter note -- you're a superhero! You could feel the wind, BE the wind, cut through the rock, swim endlessly, fly, get past over walls... your only surveillance were the other 20 'friends' or colleagues, the only ones to keep your secret. You should respond to a small "justice league" of your own. If you passed more than a decade sitting in a classroom with over 40 primates for each time the earth completed a turn around the sun, that could be easy to settle, and sounded much more fun!

I like the way you set yourself goals

    So, you see, the most shocking thing is neither the armor, but the unescapability of servitude even when power is in your hands. But you don't care (some agents actually did), you had to beat monsters, solve environmental matters (find the supernatural behind mudslides, some dark science behind tsunamis, and keep quiet about it so people don't freak out), and you'd do it for the rest of your life. Knowing there was someone on your position couple of years ago, gave you the thrills -- the team I featured and so overly described was of overall those born between 1986 and 1991 (at time - set in 2009 - they were newcomers themselves) -- and between them, most specifically those admitted at 2006, they found like they were some kind of "star teams", despite keeping up with the vets and learning their place, they just realized the only difference is that since they ever remember (as far as the turn of the millennium) was that there were more demon leaks reports, each month. Of course the only ones who would find that out were those social enough to go and ask the other team "how much they've been putting on the suit". Some were fine playing cat and mouse with demons, planting mousetraps here and there. Few daring ones would try to use the armor outside assigned missions to solve it all and face head-on what they were against. Turned out their bosses (in contrast to the spirited young adults, old scientists in general, with a grim outlook on life, either showing it off or hiding it behind some positive demeanor) were their greatest threats, their bureaucracies and surveillance turned the "star team" inspired by Ms. "shallow talks" into tired bounty hunters looking for the next catch.
A good dose of money kept it all in line!

Time to Meet the Protagonist

    Then, the story goes on. It ties on to my 'current' (did I say it's setting is in 2009? That story is my "current one" since then...) story on the fact that one of these "hunted ones" has a human side. He sees these Alpha-Omega as no more than colored bozos with cheezy letter-named fabrics. It sounds exactly the alphabet from his native language, so it only makes them more ludicrously ridiculous. But that's the toughness of it. All the distance between such 'privileges' fall short. The protagonist, half-human half-demon, is constantly reminded these powers are 'privileges'. hahaha, "privileges". He need no international institute to give him a mission  -- he brings his own, to care and protect the sentient beings - no matter the cost - thus passing what others would conceive as moral twilights. And then, killing those working with animal production for 'food', he becomes AXIS' target. He has and lives through ways the Alpha Omega would never dream, and vice-versa. But in the end, none of them actually knows how their powers work at all. What they think to be magic (his powers as a demon) may just be even more scientifical than the shallow explanations of the 'colorful plating' behind 'techno-organic synaptic adaptive coating' that makes up the Alpha-Omega. People tend to dissect information, memories, experiences and routines in shallow accusations of 'privilege' just to make a mess of what the word exactly meant, so it's rendered with either disbelief, or used blatantly in shallow things. Usually who point that out has barely to no intention at all into doing anything other than to boycott a person's doing. This way, the protagonist finds his only 'privilege', the secrecy of his Triton form, comes as well with much more heavily weighting 'curses'. If he'd be like any animal he constantly tries to save on daily basis (after a tiresome and boring school day), no one would care -- there'd be "plenty like him", but because he's a specimen his treatment is different - some want to kill him once and for all (making them relieved as if he was never meant to live - those stupid dullards still believe anything living has a purpose, instead of being reproductive accidents), others to cage and study (there's a difference here, between "study" and "understand" - the difference lay on the imposing of conditions, tasks, limitating the experiences to meet certain set of Q&As) him. No one made so far. People would get over it, forget and don't care anymore. Soon enough he'd be "one in a million" and would miss the thrill.

Today's Another Day

    I've been so many times on that lot, while I was performing the Inktober I knew time would come to mark one year I got my ass into a chair to finish the sketchy versions of these guys and gals from earlier 2016. When it did, I was about to decide putting colors and let my pens take a rest from such 'exploitation'. They were done between November and December '16, and I guess at that times I'm more prone to produce art. Maybe that's biased with the last couple years' experience. January '17 came and all I've done was polishing portfolio with this personal stuff and putting some design into use for background vectorial illustrations. Now my pens, they're getting dust, as from January '18 to now I've been completing some digital stuff. Of what? Better not ask. The protag did found some of these agents were "bozos", but he pitied some, in the end (pity is a hard thing - you start pitying others then to be pitied yourself - it's the dark side behind empathy and compassion people so much like to talk about). And a teenager he was, he couldn't help but dream of one or two, when they had these crests off. I've been trainning portraits on two agents from this roster, in a time-expensive rate covering deeds past far the lifetime of this fictional institute. Because of what I've done, I feel I moved away some slots on the Life's Boardgame, passing from the feels of 2008 throughout 2011 in the last six months. I'd rather skip the other years ahead and start living in the present. wish me luck.

Following the original artwork depicting the main characters from APKALLU's 3rd tome, I released an extended description which introduces to the main setting in a brief way, for reasons of: to illustrate it. If the last part gave anything like a cliffhanger, this is where the 3rd part meets the upcoming 4th one (one you should be used to as RAPTURE), with newest illustrations revealed few by few.

• Goustavos Mavros (a.k.a TRITON) the once obscure and semi-legendary weather changing demon, the shift between human and Triton was his bliss; but ultimately his deeds were gravely interpretated as a psychotic rampage instead of righteous action, so what once began by purposes in animal liberation, followed some fields the corporocracies openly opposed, needless to say. But his run has given him another kind of battle. His life is forever shaken.
  

• Melissa Walker (a.k.a KAPPA) former fighter of the AXIS, turned defective to the institute after learning it's dark secrets, now a truth-seeker; her temporary deals to own the armor legally were interrupted, rendering her independent, and at the same rate, unaware of the changes the suit is passing, and therefore, of what it is causing upon her. Fatigue is imminent to one who was tireless just a couple years ago.

• Tykuki-Teret (a.k.a "DOGHEAD" [1; 2]) the newcomer yet century old, deluded Akh specimen, which vowed to turn against his horde of birth. While his revenge against Set didn't come yet, he claimed the Iron Hammer from the same's ranks. He's building intelligence and ranks to fight against such an enemy. Before, he has a vow to answer, claiming the Triton as his true "liberator". His female companion the Akh Tiyeshajah, follows him.
  

Like a new day rising, like a calm before the storm.
Like fog lifting from valleys on a sleeping forest floor.
Eyes open slowly as the dust is shaken off.
To gaze upon the wreckage that the midnight hands have brought.
And now I feel my temperature rising, my body explodes!
I feel like somebody's watching, like I'm not alone.
I stopped I vowed right then and said that:
Whatever path you take, wherever you might go,
Whenever you decide to leave, I will follow!
We face a crossroad never knowing what's in store.
There's an angel on my shoulder, there's a devil at my door.
She proclaimed tonight will be the greatest of our lives;
And I said don't be so sure, let's just wait until the morning light.

After months of investigation and a hint secured by the deadliest exchange, they finally traced the demonic slave-dealer Auster and through him, pinpointed Inferno's location. Rebuilding the deadliest history of Rodhesia, they were just unsure of who had the upper hand in Inferno - either the traditional enemy Abaddonn, or the mysterious "Hades", which was likely an alias to a hiddenn magnate playing both British Empire (Brimghtonian Commonwealth's de facto chief) and Akheron League altogether (unknown to them and as should be to you, Hades was the same Rhodes - an elemental on his own right who planned suffering of thousands by centuries before his 'birth'). Since their lines were either engaged against Tamrat and his raiders playing along co-opting agendas, or against his shadow the assasin Taw, they focused on who's been common to the three of them (four if you count Tykuki's companion Tiyeshajah, who has been increasingly absent in last months).

    The enemy they were to face, Abaddonn, as most of so-called "demons", descended from Vovin [elemental dragon] hybridization, according to both Charon and Sphinx. The Vovin lived centuries believing in their individual power whilst it depended rather on the outside. On that laid their chance to stand against Auster and his benefactor, the same Abaddonn which plunged different peoples, species, ethnicties and civilizations at the mercy of different pathogens, populations those who let themselves being fooled as if there was an unescapable nature. Pests, whose only cure could be achieved by invaders mediated by his trust, represented as enemies to his enemies. While Aaru and all of it resorted back to "quantity over quality" everafter the Justinian Plague, the Akhs were just once again sold back to a life in underground slavery (in aforementioned episodes set after the fall of the Horde it pledged as allied to). Tykuki was well known to that. Knowing that it became quite clear the role of birth in increasing suffering on the world. It takes not much to realize humans, demons, all are animals, all live under the roof of exploitation, whilst to breath in the cities the powers which compete for this suffering resides in the vicinity. There's no longer wars in the rural areas, but endless slaughter. How can there be resistance in such scenario... The world's stake is at every level in the minimal acts, from food to everything else. The Triton no longer fought against a civilization. He was against something far greater. His loyalty to Tykuki and Melissa resided on what they had in common. Yet Abaddonn and the Commonwealth had been started like that, they've been managing their roles quite well over centuries. The prison of the Minotaur and the looting of his treasure (which didn't follow - the hammer rests now on the side of Triton), was meant to be the last step of a "demon hunting" facade Melissa followed as Kappa, albeit there were those she could and those she couldn't hunt. While every ecologist would agree that on an environmentalist bias (where some species matter more than others through the seasonal quest for a supposed "balance"), the reason was simplified yet past beyond that. She was never meant to find Inferno in all these years, even risking her life to the limit in 2007 when she was a 19 yr old cadet. She missed her opportunnity to face the true demon back then, and would once again, turning back on the path she could no longer follow. But may Abaddonn be gone or not his face will be there, to stare at as every chaplain, every zealot and every faithful. Charity is his left hand, Poverty is his right one.

There is no reconciliation that will put me in my place;
And there is no time like the present to drink these draining seconds.
But seldom do these words ring true when I'm constantly failing you;
Like walls that we just can't break through until we disappear.
So tell me now, if this ain't love then how do we get out? Because I don't know!
That's when she said:
I don't hate you boy, I just want to save you while there's still something left to save
That's when I told her:
I love you girl, but I'm not the answer for the questions that you still have
One thousand miles away, there's nothing left to say but so much left that I don't know.
We never had a choice, this world is too much noise, it takes me under, it takes me under once again
I don't hate you; I don't hate you, no...

After over ten months of mutual aid through diverse fronts across the world,
the dire toll finally caught up with Melissa. She could no longer protect the one
who despite all didn't change his methods. She had given enough struggle to a cause
which she felt a stranger to. No answer could cost such human mortality.
The young man, on his own way, showed little gratitude for her sporadical savings of his.
What he didn't show to her was actually a mixture of feelings and sorrow to not being able
to ever repay such deed. What she saw as mortality meant nothing to the billions of sentients
assassinated every day for a dying species wanting it's resurrection.
Her departure from the frontlines only farther extended his angst, lashing out evermore violently.

    She couldn't follow down the same path, as Triton was ready once again to find uncharted territory, seek and destroy missions regardless of when or where they were born, for in the end, their life was already consumated by a plague there was no cure from – born in this system – as the touch of death, Tykuki himself has followed a dark path the moment his female companion Tiyeshajah, which was overly loyal and arguably even more warrior-like than his own, succumbed to an invisible disease. Victims were mostly human, but they couldn't deny in their explotation, they kept beings like 'cattle' into hostage position. Liberation was far from perfect in such conditions, but were better than dying in neurosis or morose, kept surrounded but further alone, in domesticated means or in wilderness, due hunger or disease. As Akhs, Tykuki and his companion were very prone to reach for those like them, relying too much on the organic relation from scent to other senses, relying to employ their natural shauabti _{(read part 1 to find about their powers)} only when greater power is required (hunting or mating seasons, for example, or in industrial labors). The shauabti whilst coordinated by the Akh's sheut (it's twisting mass of fire, which serves as ectoplasm and exo-cortex as far as it spreads into), can reach farther areas, only hinting what is there, from any sentient individual or plant and it's proteic value, to hollow caves implying whatever geological property they seek after. As pack-hunters, no unknown, uncharted area made them afraid. Of anything else. But the timing between a possession and another was the only one that mattered other than the birth. Tiyeshajah felt ill, yet she couldn't defeat the pathogen, which stemmed from something similar to Triton's own Daimobia_{(read part 1 to find about their powers)}, as it proliferated some funghi. If the Triton at time was in his human self, he'd certainly die too. Tykuki could have died as his companion, however, his ushabti were quite more efficient. As if.

Without his mate, Tykuki's life would never be the same.
How do you avenge someone who passes out by disease, anyway...
For that sole reason, both humans and akhs crafted their invisible gods and ghost stories.

PAIN OF BIRTH

_{The Nativity, 2010}

    Days after the mourning of "Doghead", it was clear in the autopsy of his beloved. Tiyeshajah was pregnant, she carried their child. Triton felt no words, on how he could describe his disappointment on the warrior couple. The birth of a next life into the miserable world meant more suffering for one whose life was never a choice, and in such fatal conditions, even hindered an once healthy life into a living sacrifice. Abaddon's viruses used arthropod and crustacean lifeforms (the lakes which stood as canals to the underground were filled with parasitic copepods, fiendishly designed and introduced to avoid any busybody triton, as sentient [?] weapons as vectors, sea lice to infect the Triton – Tykuki on the other hand preferred a wasteable technology like an old submarine to drift further in the under-the-lake realm) they were born in the lifetimes of a day, used with the purpose of controlling populations, drones to his ecological management agenda. Yet, the vectors were there independently of the "use" they've been prescripted to. In other words, any being was in a role which escaped it's own responsibility. He thought the Akh couple passed a long time of suffering, carving for better conditions (leaking into surface, becoming independent from the pack leader, claiming power and lending a hand on solidarity through struggle), but overlooked their "traditions", naturalized as feelings for the sake of justificating reproduction, as an habit. The Triton and Gous himself had in mind "rationality" wasn't opposed to "instinct", instinct was how people dubbed that they didn't understand, yet rationality could be replaced by the mimickry and mere dialogue. He knew, however, Tykuki's had not the same take as his – overcoming the consequences, previewing them, and with foresight, preventing them from happenning by not doing something – now, he had to explain Tykuki had what it takes to avoid the death of his beloved plus of a life that should never have been. Never good with word, his only respite was making the old marsupial sure that Abbadonn was to blame – as every other being that breath in the green desert, financed by the ones in the grey one, either by neglect or by treasuring suffering through aesthetical lens of judgement on the land, and in deep through eugenic crusades started in the dawn of time.

POWER OF THE LOST

_{New Year's Eve, 2011}

    Despite whatever allegiance between the vast, yet dwindling catalogue of clients Abaddonn had, he waited in a while for the taking of individual Vovin powers back, tired between the struggle and race with Aaru, no longer supported by an elemental, and Inferno, farther from the reach of other black markets. He was a warrior in nature (despite growing moribund in bureaucracy forever when his superiors changed their ministry), and his allegiance was old-fashioned. A distinct descendeant of the Vovin caste, which had hidden elements as power source, he lost it by the years passing, as they all needed some kind of "magnetism", which by the rate were all monopolized (Serapel through the Japanese Military, Xnobius in Haijian's Forbidden Cities, Darr in Belarussian's KGB, Orichalcum a special case of a pure breed Vovin who worked as Jotunn's hitman, and Cozauhqui historically split from the planet, within the distant plan of Aztlan and it's warrior, yet theocratic dominant class), except by counterfeits produced in Aaru, and dispersed in Indian Ocean by different fronts across history. Those 'counterfeits' were recreational opal-like orbs of the qualities of the Eyes of Horus, made by Her-Ur himself, neither Montu nor Khonshu, or any that followed the "mantle of the Horakhthy", which was believed to be the only one to tame the storm of that region (Indian Ocean - the Monsoons). His creations concerned spreading his 'omniscience', a little price to pay for those who sought to harness a slightly revitalizing power imbued with elements – from earth's rotation to sunbath and radiation – such energy was all the matter for a Vovin who drawn too much of djinni-angelic "blood" (as light beings, most of them were infected by Ushabti, which made Abaddonn to seek it's relation to Xnobius, until tricked by a human born who became a dragon and inherited the crystal of the igniting element). His hopelessness was fueled back to hoping again when the darkest catacombs of his supported Western Church had whereabouts of the Reformed Church bringing good news of eccumenism. God did change his ministry, after all.

    That didn't end on his side. He hired some demon informants and apprisers of aforementioned secret society in Norwega Isla. A manager of highest caste, which followed from hetmans to other sources of intelligence, Auster went by the alias "Mephisto", deeming the evacuation of all the "loose ends" of the Minotaur plot, and after revealing both Morax's (a Minotaur allied to the others) possession of the original Moon Eye of Horus, as well as describing the presence of the Sun one within MI-6 level intelligence. The plans concerning the usage of them to gather innards about the Dezrekhotz (a life-taking virus in possession of people like Abaddonn and Thanasis, another chapter entirely) presence (as if an attempt to control or minimize the effects of the Akh rebellions in the last blows against Inferno, as it was systematically emptying itself ever since Jinci the Barzakh managed to privately own one of the few known "ways out" from that patch of underground hellish tunnels). He meant to take back control of Inferno as Jahannam itself became a host of Tamrat "The Yellow Knight" and Tahmoures' corporation as they've driven enough usage of Akh chiefs and lords to bribe it, rendering the relation of Anatolia at a more religious one, which put it as a heavy arm of the Saudi-UAE policies, yet refuelling some cooperation with Russia (and through indirect means, to Haijian). To that, he tried to earn favor of a God, Hydros (Achelous). During the Scirocco (as Notus, Auster's counterpart), he's been reporting something of importance in the changes the Triton has caused. Demon lords of every caste supported Abbadonn through Kenya, yet the Somalian pirates were easier to turn them down. Pitting them in a coast-to-coast relation would split Jahannam and Inferno even further. It was tempting to assume all the trio's fights in the last seven months were but a result of some demon like Abbadonn. He himself wished as it was so, but the leader of the conspiracy who maye even have lifted the earth crust months ago may have not even been the fire elemental as thought, but the original thief of the seismic hammer.

ADVENT

_{Theophany, 2011}

Recollecting what they've had left, Tykuki, Triton, Sphinx and Charon went farther in the submerged entrance to the infernal realm. The wreckage of the wasted submarine, the airfields operated by Triton and Charon, managed to make a safe and sound arriva to the dry and scalding hot of Inferno's black rock. There, they found out the living virus was actually used to enhance another original Vovin, who in turn, lived in torment as a catalyst to Abaddonn. As any form of Orichalcum served as a compass to weather changes as much as Xnobius to tectonic ones (the Her-Ur's fabricated orbs being nothing more than Pelasgean relics on their own, relying on Sekhem disposed across the world), Abaddonn had quite the know-how. But it was Phorcys who had increased suffering, and had the virus rooting. Abaddonn meant to transplant his Vovin related organism into a new artificial body, whilst leaving Phorcys to rot a final step, and imbue the life-taking virus from within. Dezrekhotz was arguably an entity by the rate, as much as the trypanosoma of a sleep-disease inducer tse-tse fly can be, as much as the locust. Other that it had the reach of anthrax itself, coming from the underground. Should Draconis' plans have worked last June*, it'd bring an undesired gift all along – a plague like never before. Once again the Triton was in a decisive moment for the ecosystem (one he learned not to like after every moment on it), where opportunnity of wiping out suffering processes came with easy way-outs at hand – only that viruses as those were crafted on the shoulders of the suffering of living sacrifices, without to mention the suffering of countless sentients across history. Like life-debts and historical narratives based on past can be paid, the consequences are felt till to this day. It had no guarantee to sterilize others as it had but to kill them with increased suffering. As the battle would emmerge, it was well known that Abadonn's, God's scourge, was even more meant to fill the surface with disease only to prepare a massive "resurrection" (automation based in necromancy), following the steps of Armageddonn (expecting the "rapture" for the just, that is, the still living which still made him profit with such death, and by employing synthethical replicas of their deceased beloved ones).

DRAGON HEART

_{From the 24th century b.C to January 16, 2011}

Phorcys has had his own share of history –
Born a Corinthian Water Vovin related to nobility and in the sponsorship of Olympian aristocrat Poseidon (in his family having Triton as a herald) – one he'd despise and vilify in his last century of freedom – he was a gambler, trafficker, and colonist on the intent of finding crude profit from the legacy of the Topakhon Wars. Telchines have been playing with portals and exploring dimensions to no effective return for over a millennia, yet with the same perfected tech of the Pelasgean Relics, and through inventive ways to make it safe and sound to the other side, the truth of Helladeas' sporadic lifetime was kept in a small secret society, as he himself had quite a prestige, marrying the contested hand of Ceto, as well as having enlisted many daughters to positions from nymphs to Athena's priestesses, Amazons and contesting between muses. His political power shunned the individuality of those behind him, so he didn't think twice to invest on Atlantis, what we think as a lost continent actually as the outside tip of the floating shell that is the hollow planet. On this intent, the upholders of aforementioned crystals some fourty centuries ago all became present, starting to colonize from our Atlantic into the called "third world" (transliterated in helladean-voc cognate "Tredius"). Intensive mining, corruption, bribery and other stuff tried to keep Phorcys out of reach from the actual belligerents of the war. Elsewhere such civilization was praised by philosophers as a virtuous society with honest folks clad in gold robes. But before the continent became lost, he was already displeased by his own lack of management over the things ahead of him. Time would come his daughter Echidna would have rose from the retinues and in her own refusal to play her roles, rallied the Vovin to heed for the call of hunt down species – Drakainas like her own, for example, to rogue "Jungle" Vovin (those unaffected by the crystals due growing in absence of the 'Earth' one), only to find herself stranded into stranger ground from Atlantis itself. In no time she took an initiatory journey her own, finding but a demise at the hands of another elemental, or else a joint of them. Her story resonated the state Phorcys has been ever since, after the fall (circa 16th century b.C), he was salvaged back from the earliest of the slave circles – a defunct "DIS" [guess who was Dis Pater back then] on the Mediterranean Rift – already abandoned in Medieval times to favor Venetian merchants sponsored by the last remnants of the Minotaurs. Phorcys was another essay on the timelessness of exploitation, becoming a victim and without his former privilege, exchanged and devaluated by the passing of time. As well as that even Tykuki and Triton had roles into forcing the massive "demon" migration, by slight acts of justly claiming weapons as the staff and hammer, for example, unaware of the roles it had. The hammer belonged to Triton's former rival as well as ally, and he'd bless Tykuki and make ammends with their distinct perspective on population growth and suffering. If the Sekhem alone wasn't enough to defeat Abaddonn, Phorcys himself released from his shackles, delivered the final blow, in what was seemingly a sacrifice. Sphinx saw on him as a father figure – his lone echo reached her own sentinel position on the islands from Lake Victoria where she was positioned to, and it was his millennia old knowledge which lectured her to her own cryptic wisdom, albeit on anonymous category. It builds up to the fact other knowledges were being abandoned in favor of a supposedly systematic one, albeit not less corruptible and tendencious, the writing. Charon was careless to the outcome of the battle, as his "gift" to Triton, the eye of horus, was as good as any placebo now. His deed was done. The Triton absorbed all it's power, and felt less approached to the earth he was born to, to the flesh of his own mammal form. He only further dragged the Triton in this play of gods, albeit he was unsuspecting of that -his knowledge meant aloofness. Ordered to look for the sentient in the eventual destruction of Inferno, he acted as an "ark" himself, albeit certain such deed would only increase suffering on those he left behind. Knowing he couldn't take care of all the anonymous beings, like never before the Triton questioned the powers and reach of a supposed "godhood". Not caring the elementals' reach far surpassed his own, they were never ultimately effective, and preyed on the suffering. They were not better than anyone else. And then resounded a fragmentary version of Echidna's Epic, one which he wholeheartedly took as a mirror to his own world-view (albeit with certainly most modern lines).

A depiction of Ekhidna, legendary Drakaina who was champion to the Vovin
and was equated to a nomadic goddess across distinct cultures in Europe.

Next step, would be the concern the leak of Inferno's concurrent, Jahannam (now as Auster's haven, deep in Black Sea, with an entrance to Lake Varna) to expose the world powers and institutes to it, as well as avoid the transference of it's workforce into another spot – some hell-hole being dug up deep by different mining magnates [each and every related to either Haijian, Akheron League, and with charity ties to the Western Church] in Northern Territory, Zealandia [which happens to be the place of the earliest chapeter "independence" of this story]. It was clearer than ever the church has been in an eight centuries old crusade, albeit the faithful would believe it to be a "victim", a "political scapegoat", rather than the mastermind behind it. Reprisal would come, as a vicar died, by assassination, and another, almost unanimously elected, would reach armageddonn in the old way – INQUISITION – if death was fate to all, some should meet it, not before suffering horribly. Gous' feelings were not of desperation, but of harshness and inhumanity, at large questioning whether or not the world was once again worth to save, this time split from the caring shoulder or momentaneous laughing of someone he looked up to, as he was forevermore marked with knowledge and a negative consequentialist view on all matters, despising the overarching limits of his humanity, and believing now even his Triton self has reached it's roof. He was cursed by the gods, as an atheos, devoid of any divine spark but his own indomitable will. Where others saw emptiness, his nihilism prevented him from entering in foolish quests, albeit based on objective ethics, he once again had what it takes to step away from that same nihilistic morose he was fated to as a fatal condition in a human life.

My dry lips are bleached by the frozen sun;
My overflowing tears trace me with a dripping brilliance,
As if trying to bury the things we lack, I was seeking you.
Scrap together whatever sufferings we can communicate in our touching fingers.
The wish held out from deep within my heartbeat – if you call that fate –
Then the remaining memories and the lost traces of you are still, even now, deserted
I waver at your faint smile and trembling glance,
The shine that strikes the eyes of a grating soul envelopes the two of us.
We can't go home, can't go back, so shout your life hoarse;
This arm of mine longs for the long-gone days and your warmth, which I keep losing.
Bringing together everyone's different kinds of loneliness, you longed for the morning.
With the uncorrupted strength you sought, break me!
Take the prayer that died out without being voiced and label it "fate",
The remaining memories and the lost traces of you are still,
In this starving heart, deserted even now!

Hope you liked it, soon enough the story continues with the 4th Chapter, RAPTURE!
For an early peek, feel free to revisit my arts from earlier this year, and wait for a new piece on that!

Extended description for some adventures the main characters from my original story face during the third cycle,
aptly dubbed APKALLU 3: INFERNO. Taking from where the latter [reading required to proceed] took off:

It would take a moment of difficulty to reach clarity. They should not leave undone the acts of dismantling human and non-human slavery, and they should start from whatever front that progressed first. Networking and timing was adamant. The year 2010 was full of turns.

INDEPENDENCE (AUS)

_{July 2010}

    Whilst Melissa would go "step-by-step", Gus would rather make not that distinction - not until people pretended to didn't see that as well. He was pretty sure there was a major spot concerning the management of slavery politics - which defined it, as he saw work in arbitrary levels as no more than enslavement of human (and non-human) mind (differences here proposed non-humans as living in suffering conditions out of neglect and endless reproduction, whilst humans split by classes which dictated others condition and accumulating privileges). Matters of global neo-colonialism were in all the rage, regardless of the seasonal tabloid adressing it or not, by whatever coined term. They saw that which they lived (survived) in Africa was no "separate episode". World politics meant exactly that. They couldn't let even neighbors to suffer that. Tykuki has been a prime example as even perceptions of belonging were just ingredients for veiling an exploitation, and by relieving it, all movements were but sedated on the means of meeting certain pre-meditated alignments. Sounded as stark words for those who didn't live it. Perceiving which triggers each potential had set - the Brimghtonian Commonwealth and the Haijianese State - gave them a clearer side on which and where to act first. At Kappa's home country (Zealandia at the federacy of Australia), it was pretty clear no distinction should be made, for all the magnates were under agreements which protected their own accursed initiatives in their own way. Nationalities were illusory, and the wars have been fought rather for the sake of their leaders. Insurrections in the armies resumed in the country where aboriginals were persecuted and their infants kept prisoners. They didn't 'become' another nationality the moment they've been labeled separatists. War was already their living before claims for open armed conflict. It being said or not didn't met the criteria they were targeting. The Triton saw them as possible allies because he weighted how that affected the institution. Institution which based on a narrative, something that didn't exist, the so-called western culture, which was mediated as anything else would be within short years, by a currency. Melissa saw herself covering it up for who would be likely enemies before, for "betraying the army", while they were the armed personnel to begin with. This violated the contract she assured with Lana, so she expected reprisal...

Melissa Walker, former agent Kappa

LIBERTY (NOR)

_{August 2010}

    Risking the lives of civillians meant, in other words, weighting how much did their lives costed for those above them - the only thing she regretted was being unable to explain that to the unsuspected 'victim' once it's begun. They were born in the trap to begin with, there was nowhere to run to, and if there was, she'd be prone to take as much as she could. No surprise would come if their lives meant nothing at all for the authorities, and that the Triton was proud to have been graphic about, since day one. Conflict and war was there, conscrypted in the slightiest of their routines. She couldn't run back from it. A "double-life", if you would, in too short a time. She was used to changing routines. It wasn't different if you account her former colleague Kai who used to run some cafe-shop, had been hacking ever since AXIS closed. He tried to discover that of which no public was aware of. "WikiLeaks", "Panama Papers", things of sort. Arab Spring was invariably a turn of the tide, they just hoped that this time, everything that went, didn't return, or didn't return worse. He gave coverage to the Triton (who'd be his enemy since almost two years ago), on the behalf he had what it takes to support the on-going revolutions and uprising of neglected populaces. He went off by sea, and was dynamic at that, strategical to tomb slavers in the field. Melissa and Kai, knowing he was but a boy with a penchant for a righteous mind behind his most cruel of acts, tried to keep him busy dealing with the often referred to as "greater evil" - conscript slavers. As networking crossed the seas, Kai found his way into some like-minded groups under different scopes of anarchism in the Northern Sea. Using the system's very own planning of emptying movements of their revolutionary potential, they've crafted so-called safe spaces to which information become useless think-tanks, useless in the sense they were anti-capitalist in a place where only money was valuable. Soon enough Kai bridged the different strata from Triton's contacts in diverse fronts worldwide, and the once safe spaces became more than dangerously armed. Dubbed "side-states", they preferred autonomous zones themselves. The loyalty of the belligerents, much to his dismay, was rather based on fear, fear of reprisal from the Triton or whoever enemy of his, not much speech was given on that. Libertarian education reached a dead end, but he wouldn't just throw the towel yet. Individual narratives pushed some kind of reliability to different initiatives which resorted to some "common good", paradoxical as it sounded.

The one shall stand against the horde
From the underground we take hold
Power is word, power is sword
Legion are we all this day – blessed with second sight
The violin was played, as Rome was set aflame
Shall grief of war forever be the same?
Banners must be raised for hope has to prevail
Oars to the water, to a promised land we sail
Divided we shall fall – to stand we must unite

Kai Taylor, former agent Rho

REGICIDE (UK)

_{August 2010 ownwards}

Gous was a fast thinker. Soon enough he had targeted key-personnel. Mining magnates, businessmen, The Queen. Attacking royal family, he triggered and set the stage for a not-so-united Kingdom to start to crumble, or else review it's role as a conscripted "world police". This attack called upon all the "so-called independent states" which actually followed and perpetrated a conscripted role of globalization of misery. Once again unsafe at sea, the international potentials would rather not resort on the potential of Haijian, given it's delicate time having to tap the holes in it's plot to "intoxicate" the world, which despite not turned publicly, was invariably detected by whatever geographer, to astronomer, whoever in a serious reasearch field at UN. The Triton, by doing that, previewed spots of action on which they'd pressure the usage of those they've freed: demons from Africa, in colonies as far as in Egypt and Sudan, pointing out to strategic unions with countries of repressive status such as Anatolia. With help of "Doghead", Triton's intel concerning the black market multiplicated. Not wanting to leave the job half-done, he led illegal immigrants to take the streets. Either claim the means of production or (as a preference) destroy them. Autonomous blocks and rioteers to bring down the conscripted plot of misery and the phantom currencies. Destroy a fabricated story, return the stolen one. Value people's existance by what they were, not by sponsorship or medium <medias> of ideas <ideology> which only just enslaved them. When reviving from the ruins, understand that those lives we can lead, desire not much to take it with honesty. His take on that was kind of severe according to the former agents, but while Kai would rest to hide between the LED screens (and more meticulously slip through the air vents of corporate buildings), Melissa would fight her way. Indian Ocean, Pacific Islands, she would hunt every last slaver, finding to no surprise most of them profitted along with facades of charity. It seemed to have no end...

_{Goustavos Mauros, secret identity of the Triton, mastermind insurgent behind the regicidal campaign}

NORTHERN LIGHTS

_{September 2010}

The location of the major slavery pole, and that was their major concern (the source of their conscripted "currency"), seemed to be unaffected by severe changes in the world. Parallel to Africa's INFERNO there was this northern HEL. A prime example of Triton's 'agenda' gone wrong. A shrine of knowledge for those which can read between the shackles of torment. A force-fed sterilization process of 'autoctonous' populaces, the control of different transgenic food as a patent rather than a common fruit, a severity in the aspect of any property, this place was in the midst of an eco-war. In the likes of his "victory" against Haijian, it was pretty clear that the Northern Country Norrland was connected to southernmost Rhodesia by more than a bank account: apartheid. The Regimen. It was never gone. If today's rulers came in different genders and colors didn't hinder the reality of prison, same as the infancy of Aboriginals being about in jails across the Northern Territory. If the Triton lost faith in his own views on ecology during the missions in Africa months ago, it was clear no steps should be drawn between caring for individuals and eco-systems, but it was clear that the means were destructive, and between trusting one or another to lead it, there were many factors which selected those behind any other individual inclination, morality, and as so ethics were left behind. On the reality of the "side-states"and independency as a separatism, those which were helped by the Triton acted mostly in individual ways, but nonetheless achieved which supposed collectives aimed for. That sketched out solidarity, and then it was newfound a New International. That of which adressed in a single line to more than a hundred people caused enmity. However, it was the scope in the European blocks. The Northern Sea was once again Triton's battlefield, for he always knew the exploitation of his 'kind' (i.e. sea life) was the status quo there. It mattered little if Commonwealth's own Vatican – London; or Norrland's farthest point – Lappland did the same things in whatever scale, or if they filled the same bank accounts. He wanted to know whose it was, at the moment. For what it filled. Money isn't made, and the discovery of such a market was more than ever apparent. The Screams from the East could be heard, it broke free from the racist ideology, as the neo-pagan communities found themselves in a practical schism, forming a chasm between the internationalist, heeding for the call which resorted to other communities regardless of their sign being anarchist or not as long as they've been traditionally against christendom, and those which despite the pagan background, revived nothing but staunch support to caricatures, appropriating an old regimen of ghosts which would rather exploit them given the chance. That led veteran of fights Dazbog to take a majoritarian role in managing the patch of communities and lead an offense against an on-going enemy, which served as a client to Hel. Across that, a pivotal alliance with activist-turned-dragon-at-the-pagan-wedding-ceremony Fafnir Hreidmarson proved a secure ground to act against the war on the Commonwealth and NATO's reprisal. Fafnir has became a Vovin elemental dragon - his re-introduction to the commune filled the allies from each side with certain pride, having secured an ally equal to Triton and Paynal in power, requiring not their sole networking capabilities in land (Paynal's speed) or sea (Triton's unlimited water breathing), and being able to take head on with dissenters and other schisms. Dazbog found similar values in Fafnir which would find staunch enemies in their distinct communities, for whatever select piece of history. While most communities across Norrland, Teutonia, Livonia to Polavia and Czechoslovakia would 'fear' each and every 'commonality' with Ruthenian ones due historical debt narratives, what made Pagan kings sovereign altogether with their people was a keen pragmatism which didn't sell out it's own reason. They made sure to reaffirm that, and heir kingship came from divine power: know-how.

She moves like water over England; and carves her footprints in the earth
She feels like wind to a sailor; and like a candle on a hearth
She sounds like poetry to a blind man: step, step, stepping from the pages of a book
Comes out as smooth as the truth in high fidelity; Sharper than a look.

ELEMENTAL

_{Early October 2010}

At their northern campaign, the deeds of a specific kind – the elemental dragons Vovin – resounded as a resolute response to all the efficience resting on the shoulders of the Akhs and Tritons (lit.of the third - referring to the original eponym character). The remnants of the eugenic crusades which still connected the Commonwealth to the staunch figures such as Marco (known to Gous' secret since at least a year ago – differently of Anna he preserved the information as he was keen to the worldly power struggle since decades) were equally old enough as Inferno, and were arguably the original resolve to the occupation of humans in the northern portions of the earth to begin with. Mediated formerly by an elemental himself, Ymir, he's had declared war (rather a race) to the elemental Khepera, which as of now headed the so much opposed Haijianese State, through the Fire Lord menace. Khepera was old-known to Tykuki, as an undyin legend. The only one Set served beside himself. Proving that point required a huge chunk of information pertaining to aeons past. In the mindest Tykuki had, it was easy enough to compute, despite he living most of life with only his lit back as a light. Contradicted all Melissa has learnt in her deep study. But be that as it may, this borderline of evolution and creation stems from a single point which put them in common roof: nature was no paradise. The battle for survival was a human narrative for something much greater, yet the true war was a genomic one. Ymir lost one of his facilities, when Hel did fell. Khepera lost control of one – which superseded roles in the Aaru fields (established around uncharted portions of the Congo and spreading activities as far as to satellites in the Ssese Islands), territory now controlled as well by Inferno through missionaries. Aaru's master has grown unendingly isolationistic. That costy activity need supplies, found in public charades such as religions, sects, monasteries, including the bank machines and all the infectious publicity dictating so-called social movements. While it seemed at all a lost cause, it became clear the elementals lost their position to their own 'prime creation', historically the role of the Vovin, which weren't clouded by a speciesist bias in the shapes of the Triton and Akh, while they themselves resorted to exploitation regardless. The nature of their enemy Auster, was that of one which lived long enough to have it's power drained. Akhs and Tritons were never meant to survive eternity. But they so did, and became an increasingly old and vitiated species, relying on possession of their own spawns. Living thousand lifetimes and not fulfilling the dreams of their civilization made many a hero die by it's blade, a consort, or out of care. That until they restarted their own wars and reshaped their authorities. Aristocrats to Democracy. Monarchy to Republic. Republic to Socialism. The dream was reset each century, more or less. With the Vovin, they've became unchallenged, and as such, became detainers of endless potential. Those which used their elemental powers to bribe themselves as workforce further lost their powers to the environment, just like Triton's Moon Eye of Horus, which dwindled (unknown to the fact there was other one draining it's power). They lived centuries believing in their power whilst it depended rather on the outside. A classic of the "individual freedom" dilemma. The Vovin were hunt down as a kind. Their leaders followed safe havens. Those which could bribe their workforce became employed with high regard. Some were betrayed by their wits. But living in centuries to the privilege of some weighted with rusting in power. What if Auster was just looking to re-establish such power, and if his master was no threat outside of it's conscripted domain? For understanding Hel;Inferno;Jahannam as "banks" required knowing where the income came from. Hel fell, but since two years ago, the entire demonic genes were relocated, and a new "cycle" like those of mass migrations in the sense of the historical ages was happenning in front of their eyes. Inferno was arguably now a large ruin, yet they couldn't let it's knowledge just become just another brick in the hand of the wrong people – the ever-hunger Church, for example. It seemed mostly like a trap, but one they couldn't miss the opportunnity to fall. Every hint of it's location was sought.

Buried deep beneath the ground, out of sight and out of sound, one day it will appear.
Fault lines joining you and me, so far below the sea; Fault lines running through our lives
I excavated all I could, it was the end for me and you, sustained eruptions in my mind.
There's no point in taking sides: when fault lines come apart both sides slip away.
Fault lines, I can hear the sound: Earthquakes all around, as one by one statues fall
Fault lines drawn up in the sand, now slipping through my hands.
As grain by grain time slips away...

Tykuki-Teret the "Doghead", Triton's new Akh ally

FAULT LINES

_{Late October 2010}

    After the mentioned events, the Triton shocked out major spots of UK's military overseas. Historically, Cyprus and Zealandia were no news for him. The "Falklands" to the Irish islands, he was adamant in his intent since two years ago, and the oceanic cartography was filled piece by piece in his mind. Becoming even more vengeful when leaks of oil showed up and no one paid for it (as if any tax could bring the endangered animals back to life, or would prevent any action from those greedy bastards) in the Northern Sea, he managed to use his weather power to fool the military and their radars. It all seemed as a reprisal to his deeds in their disputed areas – Zealandia, Rhodesia, even Norrland – and all the while he knew among them, people knew his secret, and were just expecting an opportunnity to catch him. No net could hold him. They believed it both him and them to be going to the Atlantic. Through the very Moon Eye of Horus, his "would-be capturers" were in-route to the Southern Sea, when his "cover"was lift. Stationed in Southern Africa, another Triton Perseus kept his word and allied to him on this intent, claiming this worldly government (one could argue, whether it concerned only the UK, or NATO or the whole of UN as well) to be allied with slavers out of it's own globe - deep down in Helladean Akheron. But Perseus didn't count the persecution to Triton and his supposed "resting place" had counter-measures. Perseus himself has fought against the half-human Triton and needless to say, was a prime Akh slayer. Tykuki realized Perseus was one of the "blood-eyed" Tritons from within the distance of his sight. The other, the late Herakles, defeated his Fire Lord opponent at the occasion, but followed blindly to Aaru, and there, the gods weren't quite welcoming. Tykuki found no personal reason against them, despite all the scars from the Topakhon Wars. It took him a harsh life to realize and see through the lie of the speciesist bias. He only 'polished' some ethics he kept laid back. Their collaboration was pragmatic, for it took not too much to realize this "Akheron" demon lordship were nothing but partners to Inferno. Haijian and the Commonwealth were tense, but were still fighting for the same cause. One served as an economical school, the other offered endless workforce. Each new economical cycle they've become more systematically arranged into a symbiosis. The mistake was addressed: making a differential into lesser evils let their guard opened. The NECOCYAOTL weren't the only ones employing demonic aid, and whilst Haijian doing it was no news, the commonwealth only resorted to make a clear point again: human civilization wouldn't go far without so-called "demons". Nature itself has been engineered. With that, the advantageous point resided within the one controlling all the means of information, knowledge, and know-how. But as the Triton acted in shadows, people like Auster had perfected it from aeons ago. Did the Triton felt out of league... Surprisingly, no... for his power was directly heralded from the APKALLU gods of old, just in time news regarding the ME and their re-discovery were made.

Perseus, the legendary Triton regarded among some as the original monster-slayer,
returns with a new "Spartoi" body, and show all the brutal skill he's known for.

APKALLU III

release from the abyss

    Within time, intel coming from the northern front and further related by allies such as Paynal brought about a turning point. The invisible hierarchy the Triton"heralded" across his initiative led him with a distinct mission, and to "lead" he'd need further distinction between information and apprisers of that. News reached on the location of Inferno as with other specs which corroborated with Tykuki's knowledge. During his hiatus, the Triton trained with Apkallu Asclepius, to similarily rogue Vovin as Chiron and for example the Immortal Coelacanth, unnoticed since the last 'eco-war' in Africa, months ago. In truth, the Triton wasn't ready to face his inhuman party (from II: ODYSSEY) ever since they got full combat against the Fire Lords, on the ono-on-one. With the knowledge the Lords still existed, he waited the worst outcome or else an escape from his teammates. He received but no response. He required their gudance for the discernment of this information and how to lead those which required his own assistance. News concerning the ME [Gifts of Civilization] further ponted the world wasn't like they were taught of. Before Asclepius fell to the daemon of flames, he trusted the Triton to be the next step in re-engineering what was systematically built to go wrong. He reminisced the words of Hunapu, _{another mentor he's had no choice but offer best wishes for goodbye}.

    of the powers that hold the world.
    The elementals feed on others, and makes them hungry. Give and take. Predation is that, however, as Gous came to see it, it has became systematical in every level. Both an individual and environmental faculty, such prowesss or ability to harness the elements towards one has been mastered a long time ago. These "forces" which give and take, too, are "schizoid" elements of such a cycle, they're like all of us (thinking on focus of solving problems and attaning different states of existence and experiences of feelings, thus developing parameters such as multiple individualities, through division of labor and of lots), but as controllers (maintainers on their own terms) of the elements (which itself gave them prior control and analysis of the surrounding). They found niches to act, and the matter of resistance could be attained throughout few, select 'immortals'(who became so because found faults in the plans of these "detainers", niches none of them could handle or which they let to without power over, to be defined by someone else's struggle) who made of their survival their living, and their living of this immortal quest not for eternal life, but the release from the clutches of the concept of "Time", a set of coordinates which prisons them towards such always systematically hungry forces. Not only on feeding as it was also about timing, metabolism, perception.

Becoming the Triton wasn't a mere whim of fate,
this could take proportions of either curse or blessing, the "difference" in the world would be meaningless, even if the understanding was awesome, the reach was limited. Hunahpu, as well as Asclepius, have been collecting, studying, but even all the knowledge (which changes and has a factor to all other senses of perception – it is no essence) couldn't set the dawn for these immortals. All they wanted was to make a "world without casualties", with their proper individual and thus theoretical divergences, a process to which no matter of opinion would affect its completion, for it was like nature (day and night doesn't turn because of wish of the animals who live diurnally or nocturnally, these 'roles' are rather the play than the script, it has an impending factor).

He explained further about these forces,
these immortal beings detainer of elements as twisting vectors, wanting to be needed, to be recreated, to experience through the others and their creations (as an artist who sees itself through its creation, which is but a factor of many hands but it desires to be regarded as a sole author), who were performing egotistical views (authorship, ownership, recurrent of the element dividing itself from the other and assimilating the lots into larger groups or smaller ones when needed to preserve its role) which were seeds of their own destruction (the transformation of such elements as life itself operates). Triton's role here seemed to be making the "ground fertile" for that, and he really believed that, as he saw even plants grow underwater. People were "predated" as their minds were eroded, exchanging true freedom (and it's neverending hazards), or mutual growth (only to learn it was actually parasitic) to some consumerist capability, implementing their living cycles so they could waste other lives and lessen the suffering of their own. Because how much was it worth a life without experience but the scheduled chronological step-by-step?

    At such a moment, Hunapu's wisdom semed less ellusive. Gous knew his skepticism only received the most benefical challenges, and he finally realized this group of elementals were more or less decided as they decided themselves some structures. All it required for his advancement, was a closer look, searching a crack, where the joints hinge, the rusts. He fought some before with unnerving (and perhaps foolish) courage. He could do much as the Triton, his mind wasn't from a specific species – there coudn't be such a thing – and as so, he found stability on his feet once again.

    For more information on the schemes which settled such contest, revisit the Madagascar Incident, as it became known the event on which a numerous squad found out Triton's secret, and took with it their death. This was taken into account by the newest head of the Commonwealth, John Edward of York III, from a distant unrelated branch from the royal family that took an oath where others disappeared as anonymous, relieved of the crown and history behind them, either killed or shaken by the Triton and the instilled rage.

Are you going to wait here for a sign to let you know now?
Are you going to sit there paralyzed by what you've seen?
Or are you going to finally grip the wheel? I think you know how...
Is this more than you expected it to be?
Don't wait for a miracle to tumble from the sky;
To part the seas around you or turn water into wine;
Don't wait for a miracle, the world is passing by.
The walls that all surround you are only in your mind.
When the weight we carry breaks us, we're tempted to stay down;
But every road to recovery starts at the breakdown!

    The shocking event further led the team to seek something else. Tykuki's concern with Haijian became more clear. Salvaging the remnants of slave pits in the historically bloodsheds in the eastern steppe made they realize they were seeking but the legacy instead of the deed on it's own. Diyu was a ruin of little consequence today, while centuries ago it was a pivotal factory. Participation of thought to be down enemies such as Marco only led them to review their status. Kai would be put in deadly risk, exposing his own to admit freedom for the Triton and his trio to reach what he found, to connect allies dispersed in backlashing and betrayal. Eastern European communities which long sought independence passed it's trial by fire: those which sought reconciliation with the Triton joined similar motives coming from the North, those which didn't, further deepened into a mafia-like structure, to which most would be quick to judge as a rotten apple among the allies of the Triton, appealing to shamelessly meaningless distinctions between slightiest differences of nations and populaces.

A chance to set things straight, the kind of hurt that burns and burns, like fires we can't contain.
We hole up in a shelter made of bones and ice and there we'll wait.
So start again with steady hands; This time nothing gets in our way.
But as we peer a little closer what do we see?
A crack in the surface; a flaw in the plan
Plans we made together, almost buried in the sand
A cadence imperfect, like a building condemned
Can we indemnify ourselves if we don't face what we're against?
A promise kept, the dirt unswept, a poorly worn disguise;
A child unloved that then grows up to love what we despise.
We're broken but still breathing; We are wounded but we are healing
We pick up right where we left off. Breathe on the ashes that remain.

    Mournful and in regret, the Triton became more than aware his important trait was connecting the dots across the sea, and that required no humanity at all. To mine the progress of the already mentioned Auster, he resorted to unlikely allies – Charon – a Water Dragon Vovin type, a dark mentor in Triton's exile, and Sphinx, to which he earned her trust after replying her newest riddles with unnerving resolution, found in one of the researched entrances of Inferno - a facility at the Ukerewe Island. The joining of them into the retinues only turned back on the schemes which Perseus had tangled into, who resorted back to his 'reward' in other-wordly Helladeas. A chance the Vovin wouldn't take, having Charon taking the seasoned warrior instead. That meant they were closer to live to that which his former mentor Asclepius left for – seeding of a new life. The APKALLU divided more than 4000 years ago, but their resolve passed through this new Triton, he only didn't have ways to ask how at time. It was quite clear more schisms would follow, but the Triton should lead whatever he was left with.

    Few by few, the Triton turned back on human allies – with exception of Omega, the only which was not only a veteran of the riots since the turn of the decade, but as well one which knew how TAW, a deadly agent, could more or less be connected to competing tyrants. Time showed it quite clear that whilst in Africa, Triton wasn't the only one changing the weather. All the effort he had in controlling droughts and floods (taking wild animals as the rule to set better conditions for them) was turned back in disastrous catastrophes by the Haijianese (mudslides, floods, droughts, earthquakes, eruptions and forest fires) and when they were gone, a new christened sultan, the tyrant Tamrat, has been collecting the defeats of their common enemy, the UN, and applied to the "autcoctonous" nature of the militias to plunge some traditionality of his domain, earning support of warmongers from all the political spectrums, specially those which the NECOCYAOTL couldn't address. Like the late Asclepius and his companion Hunahpu had been watching the Triton in his early year, he was in a homecoming process to learn how to use his power. His "gift" the Eye of Horus became on it's own nulled ever since the Madagascar Incident. He was skeptical, yet it seemed some god turned back on him, he lost his kudos. He couldn't care less. Belonging to the beasts, he once again devised plans for the imminent research at the African soil, covering from Tunisia to Cape Town...

Follow the next part as we turn the page and close the year...

  So, I've abandoned all things elsewhere some two weeks ago (in the week from 05-17 to 05-24), as I was tired of leaving no room for practicing or exercising digital coloring. So I took a chance around some ten drawings and stuff lying around from my sketchbook, at large unpublished (as you notice I have the [not-so-healthy] habit to upload anything that comes from me here).    
 Turned out all the paintings I did weren't finished in the way I would like, but they serve as a testament for the future, I guess. Most of them didn't last more than one or two nights, I'm somewhat happy with me becoming faster and improving in some steps of digital painting. Disappointed with the rather strange kind of anxiety that won't help me do at least a painting in the way I'd like not being surpassed at all, and also of depending too much on the line-art. So, I need more study, as the practice I kind of alredy have (I guess 11 paintings a week isn't half bad). And I need to get back to do what I left (university projects and so on). 

from left to right, up to down:
Angels and Demons [2005 characters]
King Gus [2006 character]
Aminorageken and Splinterskull [2006 character]
Screaming Ghoul [2007 character]
Pirate Bairn of the Sea [current character]
Modern Myth [current characters]
Tineno-Criticazoikan Legends [2004 characters]
Apôlôrak X vs. Ann G Waters (Fish vs. Shell) [2004 characters]
Lapolo's Awakening (Die, Apolorak!) [2004 characters]
Childish Rivalry (Aplo and Ann) [2003 characters]
Apkallu's Illustration (child books' style) [current character]


I'm also kind of relieved. Most of the sketches I took to do paintings rather concerned re-imagined versions of characters from my childhood (understood as anything I created as a 7-year old to when I was thirteen, around a decade ago). My interest on my so-called current projects milked away, but in the few I've done about it I liked (precisely, the Modern Myth one). So, I also had lot of fun drawing and coloring some old characters, I think that their rather un-finished paintings already are relateable to how I imagined them as a child. That feels good.
Perhaps now I'm too much relieved, so I must find out some stress to look around and get inspiration again. For other projects. oh my...