Sniper Tf2 Is Such A Guy. A Very Essence Of Guy. The Male Loneliness Embodiment. I Think If He Was Able

"A reflection that couldn't reciprocate"

"...He would live a long life, so long as he never got to know himself."

Hello no pressure but I would love more of your thought process behind the Dying Dog. It's a gorgeous piece and I need the directors commentary.

Thank you guys for giving so much attention to that one, you make me happy as ever!

Well, about the thought process.... heh... Let's say... *puffs a sig like Joker from the movie Joker*.. There were no thought process.....🚬

The picture just popped up in my head and I knew that was some kind of symbolism or metaphor here (I can't differentiate the two) but consciously I couldn't explain what it was. Just feelings... With both writing and art, it happens often - symbols are born by themselves and I'm unable to decipher what they mean unless I materialize them.

If I am to guess, the Dying Dog is just a metaphor for Sniper's inner state. When dogs die from natural causes, there's usually a period of time, about few weeks, to notice. In this period, the dog owners usually prepare for the loss, saying goodbye and making sure the last days of their pet are happy.

But in this piece Sniper is not an owner but a dog himself. He feels like slowly dying somehow, he's prepared and he's waiting. Except the end doesn't come near. Imagine lying there in pain, waiting for the sanctuary of death, but it's been months and years and it never ends. Yet it feels like the end. Does it make sense? Just what is he preparing for, exactly, then?..

Dizziness, feeling cold and sweaty from the inner heat. Yet no physical sign of dying.

A literal dying dog looks more alive than him.

(Also, a little timelapse!!)

Pre-Fortress

"Now arises the question, HOW to make mercenaries immortal? Fortunately for the Administrator, there are some really promising science companies in the US that could help her with that. In particular, two (ironically) competing companies that she believes could do much better if they worked together as a team.

She secretly offers both sides a deal: in exchange for more financial support [in the future], she will only get one of their top scientists to work for her. The deal was made, and the Administrator asked those scientists to *ahem* steal *ahem hmh* the documents of the companies' most promising projects.

This is how we are introduced to Dell Connager and Dr. Ludwig, who join hands and work together to create never-before-seen inventions: mini teleports, medigun, and most importantly: The Respawn Machine." [My favourite headcanon]

Additions by @merlin-s-tea-fortress

And @well-seasoned

In tf2 we take respawn as a given, just as an in-universe mechanism, no big deal.

But imagine... How actually painful and scary it is to die. Even if consciously you know that you will return, the fear of death is instinctive, your body will always roar and fight for it's life. Experiencing the closeness of death is a great trauma. It's exhausting and it's imprinted on your subconscious.

Now, imagine that you die an average of 10 times every day. You reap the trauma of death, you get up, you immediately go into the fight and don't think about it, and then it goes on and on again. You don't even have room to process the pain. You keep putting it off for later, but then when is that?

I wonder if mercenaries have nights when they just let themselves weep out their lings from all that accumulated pain. Even if logically they know there is no danger - the instinct for self-preservation hurts VERY badly. The trauma is primal.

They're all definitely not healthy there in that kind of system.

Paper books are cool again because they don't have ads!!!!

Tyrosine

Rubber Touch part 2....

Comfort sketch

I'm having a very troublesome time right now and it feels like if I do any step in the wrong direction I'm going to crash and injure something in a psycho-physical level... I drew Flower because I love vocaloid since 2014 and I needed something familiar and pretty. Did it work? I don't know. I just want rest, goddammit...

Scout and the strange dream door

I can't believe Anomi just straight up ripped off Badwatervideos2009 with the living ragdolls and even scout entering the white door smhh couldn't even come up with anything original nyeah. shaking my head.

also THERE'S 70 PEOPLE ON THE DISCORD VC SHUTT THE FUCK UPPP

02/25/2025: Okay uh after the recent Discord finds... This scene feels VERY differently now, holy shit, Eida you sick bastard....

References for Anomaly Diversion!!!

Official!! finally!!

I wanted to make their design stand out, so I created them from scratch; they're not loadouts you can find in-game. Plus a little bit of character description because I'm dying to talk about them and their roles in the story (*wearing a shirt that says "please talk to me about my fic"*).

Now I can finally draw them often!!

Somewhat goofy clothing sheets under the cut↓↓↓

I tried to design them the way their silhouettes and colors stay recognisable, as if they were meant to be used in-game later, to not to break the gameplay rules. I also wanted them to look as tf2-like as possible, I studied the hell out of the 3d models and on the last three I guess it started to turn out decent. Drawing Spy is still pain though.

Or maybe it's just that I'm not attracted to the majority of the mercs visually?? That's why they don't look satisfying?? Lmao. Need to adjust them to my tastes later.

I'm not sure I can exactly explain my design choices with these... How exactly they correlate to their characters. There is something, but I went for it fully intuitively.

//

For BLU scout I went for the softer, rounder oversized clothing to accent his insecurity and the need to shield himself for comfort. It still needed to shape his torso (game rules) but his hood and sleeves do the deed. There is also a strict rule in how to draw his freckles: they look more like moles and there's 7 or 8 of them. You won't believe me if I say this is lore relevant.

For RED Scout, I went with the more aggressive military style. I think I literally took this jacket design from a real military one. There should be an accent on his heavy relations with the army. His clothes are tight because he still likes himself.

RED Sniper is giving hunter vibes, forest type. BLU Sniper looks more like a fisher or a winter hunter. Not sure what deeper meaning I could assign to this except that BLU Sniper was heavily referenced on Ogata Hyakunosuke.

BLU Spy should radiate tiredness. His look is quite unkept for his standards but at this point it doesn't matter anymore. The turtleneck and the boots are special requests from @/gentlesurgeryenjoyer (xoxo)

BLU Medic just looks so freaking cool in a black shirt. It was a vision. I'm not sure if black and white accents mean anything in terms of which side those characters are on. I also wanted to separate him from another famous horror witnessing Medic.

And Miss Pauling was the most satisfying to draw, it was a gift to draw her last... I gave her pants because it's getting cold outside at the time when the story takes place. I also find it very impractical to go killing job in a pencil skirt, I'm sorry. She probably also wears snickers underneath.

And also thanks to @nightly-headache for helping out and assistance!

Just wanted to say I loved your portal crossover drawings with TF2 a while back. Cave and Caroline looked spectacular (as did all the Tf2 crew)!

Thank you so much!

I love how similar portal 2 and tf2 are in many aspects, like. The eccentric moron CEO? The assistant who doesn't respect herself but will do anything for her boss? Wacky ass inventions? Random superpower elements (moon rocks, australium)? Medical malpractice (mantis dna / baboon hearts)???

If you think about it, Black Mesa also is a hilariously dumb facility. Like, they weren't even joking as much in hlvrai, what the hell are those pira cutter rooms? Random goo crushing press? Nothing is OSHA approved. Wtf are these for?😭

The orangeboxverse is just inherently funny.