Latest Posts by oblique-lane - Page 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...
OH THEY BETTER HAPPEN!!!
Dramatic movie scenes that didn't happen in Anomaly Diversion. For @oblique-lane
For the first time, I actually used a reference. I went a bit overboard. Whoops. They think they're solving something, good for them.
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!
Interloper Discord atrocities
I am not calming down about these....... (send help)
Interloper continues.....
Anomi
2024 Summary
Starts in May because I drew nothing earlier.
Last year (I barely even remember those times) I was so burned out by drawing, I used to put too much effort in it and then not be satisfied anyway, so I snapped and decided to not draw ever again. 2023 summary was uneventful. I've lost faith in my skills.
Even a year into the fandom, I didn't believe I was able to draw these characters and I didn't want to (I was scared). I decided that I'll be known there solely by my writing... Until one day I actually tried and, wait a minute... I CAN?????
I'm still not in a warm relationship with drawing as I used to be back in the day, I still don't draw for enjoyment but only for the end result. But I'm glad that I'm welcomed here with what it is. 💔
Happy new year!!!
Whispers of the sea
Interloper C was truly something...
In the act of uniting the souls in pure rage and hatred ❤️🩹❤️🩹
!!SPOILERS FOR ANOMALY DIVERSION CHAPTER 3!!
!!TRIGGER WARNING FOR BLOOD AND VIOLENCE!!
Please read Anomaly Diversion, it’s such a good fanfic I could go on forever about it
Uwahhh!! I know the newest chapter came out about 4 days ago, and it’s kinda fast, but I wanted to do something almost immediately after reading it.
I tried something new with coloring this time. It took forever, but I enjoyed doing it.
Cosmetics: Thermal Tracker (Scout) ~ Snow Sleeves (Sniper)
Anomaly Diversion by @oblique-lane
Anomaly Diversion (Chapter 3) IS OUT!
The day RED Sniper spared an injured BLU Scout, he noticed that something about this guy was suspiciously off. In fact, he had long ago begun to notice: there was *something* off about everything around here. Or in other words, how does it feel to find out that all this time the people you and your friends fought... Were your clones? Who the REDs and the BLUs actually were? What other horrors were hidden from mere mercenaries? And what was wrong with the 'faces'? Scout and Sniper from the opposing teams secretly bond together to find this out. Welcome to a story of forbidden friendship, conspiracy, and existential dread!
Tags: Gen, Explicit, Graphic Depictions of Violence, Major Character Death; Themes of Dissociation/Derealization, Suicidal themes, Hurt/Comfort, Slice of life, Spotlight for every character.
[ENG] AO3
[RUS] Ficbook
Вy ObliqueLane
THEY CAN'T SEE THEIR FACES™💥💥💥💥
Read the AMAZING Anomaly Diversion by @oblique-lane
SUCH a good read you guys NEED to check it out
Their visuals, descriptions, and vocabulary are top notch. Nearly poetic. Can’t wait for more!! <3
Gift for @gentlesurgeryenjoyer 🌹
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH WQHWBaHJEDJWWUIRURHIEFHJIERUGJHIGRK WRFHKLJGEFJ !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!💣💣💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥
MY PEPSICOLA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
THE. THE BOTTLES OF VALIUM OH MY FREAKIN GOD. THE YING YANG POSE. THE COMPOSITION. ERA CAN I BE YOUR DOORMAT????
art for @oblique-lane
IS FOR MEEEE??? 🥹🥹🥹
«Anomaly Diversion»
I encourage you to study the lore by reading THIS GENIUS FIC. I'm serious guys... RESPAWN HORROR FANS HEAR ME OUT!! IF YOU'RE INTERESTED IN WHAT'S HAPPENING IN TF2 - READ. NOW.
FANART FOR @oblique-lane YOU'RE GENIUS REMEMBER THAT
Isn't much of a question but holy moly I love your pre fortress hc so much 😭😭🙏
Tysm!!! There's more!
Previous post!
I unironically believe that those three games should (do) share the same universe (The ORANGE BOX UNIVERSE???!?!) That would explain so much......
Paper books are cool again because they don't have ads!!!!
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]
Everyone shut up, esoteric bimbo speaking!!!
Respawn in: ❚❚❚ seconds
...respawn as a union of machine and flesh. The unity of man and his creation. This is a rather sacred concept, but on the other side is the fact of the immorality of how this device violates death and disrupts the natural process of human existence. This breaks the original cycle of life, goes against nature, but is something very close to the absolute of man. What a paradox, right?
Genes and code. Wires and veins. Program and mind. Everything is one and inspired by man as a being. This same person becomes like God, wanting to recreate a new organism just as God once created it.
The cycle will never be interrupted.
Spy tf2 and his identity
Character analysis (or at least my vision on him, if you believe my reasoning)
What do we know about Spy? He's a disguise mastermind. He can pretend to be anyone in order to infiltrate into the scene to do his job - quite literally, stab people on the back. But when he's not in the battle, what is he to his teammates? A suave Frenchman, a gentleman with taste, somewhat a leader.
At least, that's the persona he prefers to show. But is he really..?
What if I tell you that this person never drops his disguise?
For a man who always wears a mask and who's identity being secret is a sacred part of his role in this job, isn't this persona too much to show if it is real? Frenchman, rich, ladykiller... Wouldn't it be too easy to decipher his identity with so much clues provided? Wouldn't it be dangerous?
While Miss Pauling and the Administrator definitely know Spy's real identity, hiding it is a major thing for whatever reason. One could assume it might be because of Scout (obvious guess) but I doubt he's a sole reason. Spy very much enjoys being the Spy all by himself. Do what's the deal?
Let's start from the beginning.
Why did Spy join Mann Co. in the first place?
Let's take this assumption as a fact: people come here out of desperation. They are professionals in their field, yet in their past/casual life there is a pattern of them having difficulties that push them into joining this service. I don't see why Spy would be an exception.
The reason for joining is usually money. Some people question why Spy, a wealthy man from higher society, would join Mann Co. if he has it all already.
Well, probably because he really does not.
Have you ever met an aristocrat? Wealthy people don't get so protective about their expensive suits, they can afford cleaning or a new one. Regardless, rich people don't usually get stingy about material goods, especially if they're mass produced.
At least, not those who were born into wealth.
Spy's defensiveness about his "wealthy stuff", his pomp-ness, disgust and arrogance towards "plebs" gives off a man who knows what it means to live in poverty and who doesn't want to be associated with it ever again.
(Not even talking about his own filthy habits such as not washing his mask and pissing on walls? Jesus Christ)
Dare I even guess that he might be not French at all? His French is so broken. (Although, so is Medic's German, but at least he uses his language much more frequently and in more complex sentences, while Spy only uses French to say some basic expressions, occasionally confusing them with other languages). Definitely not a native.
If anything, he's not giving "rich man" at all, he's giving con man. And that fits my picture perfectly.
So, poor upbringing. How old is Spy? If he's Scout's father (and he was young when he was conceived), I'd say he's no less than 20 years older than him. I'd give him a few more years actually. So, approximately Spy is around 50 at the events of the game (1968-1972). Let's assume he was born somewhere in the 1910s.
Even if he's not French, I still agree that he's probably European. Hmm, what was happening in Europe at the time Spy was a kid?
Oh yeah. The Great Depression.
See my picture: imagine, a child from a lower class family during the Great Depression, his parents were most likely to not take good care about him (both because of the economical situation AND as an echo to Spy's struggles with his own fatherhood). He has to run away from home early and start to make money. Any way possible.
Unavoidably, it leads to crime.
Petty theft, blackmail, scams. Changing identities. Selling low quality products and services. Changing identities again. When older, seducing rich women to stay at their homes overnight, be fed and supported. Running away from the police. Walking into a trap of the mafia, and then joining them as their goon.
In this nightmare of a life he just had to keep pretending to be someone else, someone better and stronger, in order to his ego to not completely shutter. He had to imagine he was an invincible mastermind trickster of some sort, not just a poor boo-hoo victim of poverty who has never knew normal life and care.
And if you pretend for long enough, you become your role eventually... Right?
His true self was long lost forgotten under many layers of new identities. Worse, his true self was never known. And he didn't want it to be known in its ugly and disgusting vulnerability. Narcissism became his lifeline.
It's so much better to be Spy. To be rich and elegant and respected. His ego rebuilt.
When the respawn machine malfunctions, tf2 mercs get sent directly into source engine where they end up being tortured by mentally ill teens who really hate scout for some reason or who think that their tulpa waifu is living inside of the ragdolls (this is worse than eternity).
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.
Sniper tf2 is such a guy. A very essence of guy. The male loneliness embodiment. I think if he was able to watch Ryan Gosling movies he would unironically say "literally me" on them without knowing the meme. I drive amirite? Blade runner fr. Russian doomer music Vol. 3 indeed.
MY GOD!!!!!!!!!!!!
Two out of the many fanart I'm drawing for those rare TF2 fic writers! Gotta show some love to them! Here's some fanart of Anomaly Diversion by @oblique-lane! I don't like existential stuff, it makes me overthink and I hate feeling that way. But this fic is insanely creative and unique, so go read it if you have the time!
Here's the art without the weird swirls.
hiya, i really liked the pyro piece ya made !! I was wondering, how'd you get the glowing effect on the beam coming outta their head?
