Nico Cunen

A big thank you to Niko Kuparinen for this character concept, I hope I did him justice! :P

I think I can confidently and categorically state that no-one in the office was looking forward to this interview seeing as Nico Cunen is a lycanthrope and they rate pretty high on our ‘run as fast as possible in the opposite direction whilst crapping yourself’ list. Yes we made a list specifically for that, with rankings. Lycans in our minds are sneaky, dirty, feral and savage creatures who possess the ability to transform into bestial animal forms and wreak havoc from the shadows of our darkest nightmares.

Therefore, at 27years of age and standing 6ft tall we are surprisingly less traumatised than expected by Nico’s initial appearance. In fact while in the form of a man there is something we find quite appealing about his predictably hairy and a rough around the edges look. The coupling of a strong and rugged jawline with his glittering eyes and thick sweeping hair certainly sits well with several of the females in the office, at least until he switches into his wolf form at which point several of them promptly had panic attacks and scattered like the shallow harpies they are.

Yes we’re not so keen on the latest temp-workers; Nico on the other hand turns out to be a genial soul that we easily warm to. Whilst overall quite an intense and serious character who likes to keep his feelings to himself he displays a pleasant, generally optimistic outlook and most importantly has a good sense of humour. His voice is somewhat gruff yet bears a gravel-rounded tone to it that speaks volumes of his personality. Although he says his usual preference is to sit back and observe events he seems to have no trouble engaging us with a touch of charm and witty banter.

The fashion-conscious among us are less certain about his choice of ear piercing, green might match his soulful brown eyes but the small set stone is a mismatch to the rest of his attire. Noting some displeasure at his choice of jewellery Nico bluntly explains that the stone is a semi-precious gem called Seraphinite and that the earring was gift. 

A passionate man in many respects Nico is highly moralistic particularly when it comes to issues of loyalty and trust. He informs us that he is a firm believer in justice and equality who rigorously strives to do right by others. Whilst not devoutly religious he is suspiciously quick to confirm himself as a follower of Evyn, a fierce defender of the meek who shows an intense dislike of bullies, cheats and underhanded misers. Thankfully he keeps his beliefs and gritty nature tempered with an honest smile and a generous splash of that well-measured wit. 

Now Nico relates that he works as an executioner in vampiric society, which strikes us as unusual for two reasons. Firstly one would assume someone with such lofty morals would be against the death sentence altogether and secondly because lycans and vampires have a notorious history of bloodthirstily shredding each other into small pulpy morsels. Nico explains that in the civilized world lycans and vampires can and do work efficiently alongside one another. We get the feeling that he is using the word ‘civilized’ loosely and that he’d probably quite like to rip apart a few of his employers but social etiquette dictates that his personal hatred towards one species shouldn’t sully our interview. Which is jolly nice of him.

Globally speaking he explains that executioners are almost always vampires, set with the task of doing what comes naturally. This logically creates a win-win situation, the criminal is disposed of as society wishes and the executioner is fed so won’t be out wilfully slaughtering the innocent. Lycans on the other hand, whilst commonly seen to be violent creatures are not renowned for killing other species. Nico enlightens us further by explaining that he and the other few non-vampiric executioners are charged with killing those criminals that the vampires deem unfit to eat, primarily the diseased and genetically corrupt. Now we get that no-one wants to chow down on a leprous black pudding and that meat so mutated it resembles a heliotrope helix is probably not the best choice for supper but still find it strange that someone, anyone is then employed to murder the afflicted by hand because well, wouldn’t lethal injection just be more, dare we say, humane? Apparently that’s not a fitting punishment in ‘civilized’ society. One small saving grace is that most criminals are cuffed, bound and executed with a blade as opposed to by tooth and claw and only escapees have the delightful prospect of being ripped limb from limb when Nico catches up to them.

So does he enjoy his job? In short, no, he does not. Converse to our expectations it is by Evyn’s bidding that he continues working as an executioner and proof enough to us that once acquired, Nico’s loyalty never falters.

No doubt however as Nico openly confesses, he does enjoy a good hunt and will jump at any chance to utilise his incredible strength, speed and agility or test his cunning. A keen marksman at the best of times Nico admits that bringing down dinner in one’s own maw instead of with a bow and arrow is quite the thrill. He also finds it hugely amusing when we spout that this is fine by us just as long as dinner is a rabbit or a deer and not another person. 

Whilst talkative and amiable for the best part of our interview Nico confesses that he is sometimes prone to being extremely antisocial and quiet. He expresses that in those moments he loves nothing more than to take a long walk in the woods. We would never have pegged him for a daydreamer yet he tells us that when alone in nature he often lets his mind wander to the extent where he is almost oblivious to his surroundings. He calls them ‘rare moments of bliss’ and cites his favourite form of escapism as, ‘being precisely no-where with no-one and absolutely nothing to do.’

And did we sketch his portrait in wolf form? Of course we did!

As an end note to our interview Nico slips in that he actually studied to become a historian before taking on the role of executioner. We tried to fathom how he went from being a presumably placid history student to slaughtering malefic criminals, or even how one role might feed into the other but drew a blank. The best we could deduce was that it was either a feral eruption of the deep lycan instincts we feared from the start or that he felt he owed Evyn a favour. Either way Nico left us with a cheeky wink and no explanation, perhaps he is a little devious after all.

 

Jet Korro (returns)

Jet’s had his ears lowered! 

  

 Ok so although we’ve met him twice before and had not one but two stabs at sketching his portrait we realised we’ve never sat down to interview Jet, what better opportunity then than his arrival at the studio to show off his freshly chopped locks?

Still standing at 6ft 7in tall and a little eccentric in his behaviour Jet is an amiable 19year old with an acute addiction to video games. Therefore to begin with whenever we asked Jet a question it took him a good five minutes or more to process and respond since his eyes were glued his hand-held device. Then when he did manage to wrench his attention away from the screen, his answers didn’t make any sense seeing as he had only heard a portion of what we asked. 

Thankfully convincing him to put the game away wasn’t too tricky, however without the distraction in hand he opened up like a grimoire and began spouting way more information than necessary. In the space of sixty seconds we learnt that Jet is an adventurer of sorts, he can’t swim, his favourite colour is black, he has minor OCD for symmetry, has a dire fondness for cats and cat related things, suffers from light sensitivity and low blood pressure that causes dizzy spells and black-outs, has fantastic flexibility and night-vision, loves his shades, and the one we found most peculiar and amusing is that the very tall Jet is apparently afraid of heights.

He also seemed to enjoy sharing even the most intimate details of his private life in detail as though flamboyantly parading around in his underwear. Jet explains this as compulsive honesty. He relays that he gets over-excited when meeting someone new and that he can’t help but overload them with pointless details and stories. Immediately after which he decided it was important to tell us that until recently his favourite food was eggs on toast but that he has just adapted his diet to a purely noodle and bread regime.

Fair to say then that Jet rambles a lot and not just in the country. He rarely gets straight to the point and seems to have a knack for finding the most convoluted way to tell his story.  His outlook on life the universe and everything is in his own words, ‘things are what they appear to be until they no longer appear to be what they are.’ An observant character who notices details others might miss at first glance he does tend to over-complicate matters. Thus Jet has adopted a method of decision-making that involves dithering and procrastinating until the presented choice is made for him. 

Jet’s biggest bugbear in life is the need to sleep. He wishes he never had to slumber but informs us matter-of-factly that he understands naps are necessary to move on in life. When asked to explain we realise that Jet seems to think that it’s normal to wake in a different room, town or even country to the one he fell asleep in. He calls it ‘sleepeportation.’ Which we discovered is a term he invented roughly 30 seconds prior to uttering it, that translates to, ‘sleep teleportation.’ To elaborate he decides to regale us with an anecdote about how he once thought he woke up underneath a dragon but after a fit of blind panic realised that a gecko had just fallen asleep on his face.

He states that he likes to help others when he can and will often put himself out to do so. However from witnessing the extent of his game addiction we can’t imagine him going out of his way very often. He shows us the pixelated names of his closest friends on his screen and then mentions that he’d quite like to be a dragon tamer or a cat breeder, or a cat, or failing that he’s quite good at ‘stick twirling.’

We jokingly suggest he sticks to the latter only to discover that, as it happens, Jet really is quite nifty with a Bo staff. He explains how he started staff fighting as a young child after he found he was fascinated by playing with sticks. He taught himself many new ways to bruise his forehead via twirling and twisting the bamboo canes in his garden before his grandfather took note and mentored him in the art. Jet says he doesn’t miss much of the quiet life back home with his folks but that he does miss regular mealtimes. Quite the antisocial, social butterfly he’s never lonely as he tends to get on well with others and makes friends easily. Besides as he jests, he’s always got himself to talk to and his gaming station.

There were a few brief moments where Jet appeared to show glimmers of high intellect and we wondered if he simply chooses to play the fool. Then he would say something nonsensical just to remind us what a tall, ditzy blonde he can be, making us conclude that the air up there must be as thin as he is.

Happy Birthday Jethro! :D

Here's the image my beloved requested for his 24th birthday, one of Lire and Keir (because their names rhyme of course - why else?!) We think it turned out rather nicely so hope you enjoy. 

'Anything You Can Do.'

Lire

This image is deceptive as both Jet and Lire are the same height, they are both 6ft 7in tall and 19 yrs old with a few distinct differences.

Jet knows Lire better than anyone, yet, his knowledge of the selcouth type of Lycanthrope is still limited. Their opinions differ vastly. Jet is cool, calm and collected whilst Lire is instinctive, violent and obtuse.

Being an oddity amongst his already limited race Lire is difficult to define. He has only one black shape into which he can transform, but unlike those Lycan’s who share semblance with animals, such as those called werewolves, Lire has no definitive. He is able to protrude spines from his body wherever he pleases. His lengthy tail could even be considered a long spine. These spines have no bones.

It is true he has only one physical form, yet this form is not limited like other Lycan’s. He is a powerful being, most other creatures fear his Lycan form; it is swift, deft and if he’s in a sour mood it can be unrelenting. He is possibly everything that Jet is not. Lire’s biggest setback is a lack of self-control. Without boundaries Lire has the potential to wreak havoc on everything Jet holds close to his heart.

From an interviewer’s point of view, seeing this null-eyed black skinned atrocity in the flesh is enough to send shivers down any reasonable person’s spine. Knowing he lacks control in his actions only makes matters worse.

Lire clearly understands language but appears unable to replicate it. In direct opposition to Jet he is motivated by instinct as opposed to logic. Jet meticulously calculates his actions, whereas Lire runs headlong into the fray, visceral claws before reasoning.

We are glad we didn’t have to experience the presence of Lire too long. Unsettling is an understatement.   A creature with neither eyes nor empathy certainly deserves our fear.

Keir Graye

Not a great deal is known about Keir, he is thought to be 13 years old and is hence the youngest person in this collection.

We have been informed that he was not naturally conceived. After some research we discovered that his forename means ‘little dark one,’ which is most fitting as his mood and personality are incredibly bleak and difficult to read.

From what we know he is 5ft 1in tall and mostly feral.

He lives in Lukas private stronghold. If we could locate this particular dwelling we might catch a better glimpse of Keir’s unusual abilities or persona. 

Gleaning as much as possible from this brief encounter it can be said that Keir lacks empathy, he appears to have no compassion and little understanding of others. He bears cold black eyes devoid of their whites. His posture is very loose like a puppet held up by one string. These facets suggest he is probably self-assured and quite comfortable in his own skin.

Whilst he obediently obeys direct commands it remains unclear how much language Keir truly understands or is able to speak.

Jet Korro

Ok this isn't actually Jet Korro. This is just a direct copy of my better half Jethro. However Jet Korro does look a lot like Jethro, he's 6ft 7in tall and similarly skinny as a rake. Jet also has bright blue hair and wears sunglasses despite the weather or time of day.