I don't blame you, so do I; otherwise I'd be 100% confident with it and would instead keep it as a surprise.

They're both supposed to add a layer of tension and horror in different "flavors" from the Aliens and Predators. To put it simply, Dragons are the mindless brutes that attack from the outside while Chiropterans, being intelligent creatures, assimilate into society and attack from the inside. And for the past 200 years in-universe, they have not been detected.

As far as the vamps go, the fact that they have human forms is a plot twist I've been trying to work into the story for the past few months. Humans don't know that Chiros are anything other than monsters.

Basically there are 4 separate stories going on at the same time that occasionally cross over that each deal with one of the 4 monsters, and the Chiropterans and Predators share the theme of "who is the enemy?" Eventually the two main characters of those stories will be asked why they're fighting - one to protect humans, and one to kill Predators. But then it's found out that some human leaders are Chiropterans, and not all Predators are the enemy.

And then it's found out that one of the main characters - a person who hates them the most - IS a Chiropteran who lost its memory (which sounds really rough on paper but there's a lot more to it). Not only that, she's a Queen, and the one who started a sort of civil war between the living Chiropterans before getting laser-guided amnesia. The civil war is the reason why there are less than 20 left, and it's the same reason why some Chiropterans have worked to become human leaders.

It's really iffy, I know, but this is a far cry from "Aliens Versus Predator Versus Dracula."

Could I have done the same thing with just Aliens and Predators? Yeah - I even said as much in an earlier thread months ago. But with some of the other events I have planned, there's no way I could make it work without looking ridiculous, so I saw this as a chance to turn this into - like you said - a different animal from the standard AVP story. And that's where the concept of Hunters and an underground civilization came from.

Edit: Oh, this probably goes without saying, but Dragons and Chiropterans are cousins to the Xenomorph. Xenomorphs don't need to sprout wings or other body parts like they do because they don't need to - I'll explain that more later.

So is a CHpwazzuwat

The Thing?

Cause it sounds like it.

That's actually kind of accurate. Their default form when first being mutated by the black liquid is that of giant bat-looking thing, but they can take the appearance of humans and animals they feed on, and it's their goal to influence the humans into traveling back to the Surface. Their reasoning for this is so that humans, once on the surface, will reawaken The Hive.

The reason humans are underground in the first place is because Predators forced them there - there's more to it in the Art thread.

Remember my Midian character? It was some sort of predator vampire. What I remember about it was that it had completely black blood because the actual bloodstream had been replaced by some unicellular organism that was responsible for all the mutations it had gone through. And what do you know, years later James Cameron made a movie about a black goo that does shit to people. On and it used to actually munch on predators, not just zuck ya blood. Hm, now that I think about it, I think he had a whole story behind him. Damnit, I should have saved all that when predess said "hey, i'm deleting Midian, you wanna save anything?"

i have a question, and i don't know if it was discussed before but...

is this art for a story?

Yeah, that's right.

It's a project I wanted to do to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the website, but eventually it bloomed into something completely different - by now it almost has nothing to do with the anniversary and may not even be ready for debut by next year. It's still a nice nod to our RPGs + members, though.

I guess now would be a good time to tell you guys just what the hell I've been doing for the past 2-3 months. On top of doing a lot of drawing...


I'm finalizing the general story arcs (there are 4 now)
Figuring out what your characters' roles are (almost done)
Establishing a "soundtrack" which, believe it or not, really helped me
FUCKING
WRITING
(fuck writing)
STILL establishing my original characters and the style I'm going to draw them in (I'm close, I can smell it)


I also recently just got a Wacom Intuos 4 drawing tablet, which I've been practicing with nonstop. Don't get me wrong - before I got it, I was still drawing almost every day, but all of that stuff's just concept art for MY eyes - it's nothing I want to show you guys unless you really wanted proof that I'm doing something. (Before you ask, all the concept art is about human characters and the Chiropterans. The only Predator I've drawn is Phone.)

So my guess is that this is the project you were talking about? Sounds cool so far, but I would need to do a bit more skimming through this forum and the one mentioned in your initial post in this thread to have a full understanding of it. Being that this seems to be something simply for yours and the enjoyment of the whole community here I'd donate (for free) the work I'd be otherwise commissioned to do for it if asked to be involved in the production, so long as I am credited for the work I did.

Of course, your work'll be much appreciated. And if you DO do it for free, that'd be great.

It's actually a web-comic in the works for this website. It's already been approved by P, the webmaster, who insists on having limited creative input (something about not wanting to limit my own creativity or something, it's actually kind of nice of him).

It's not a standard comic in the sense that each page will be a single panel and there won't be any standard word bubbles. The dominant ideas are that:

- It'll be an affectionate parody of internet forums/communities, so all dialogue will be seen through forum posts and chat logs/PMs.
- It'll look like anime screencaps with vareying styles. The best examples from the top of my head would be Kill Bill or Death Note.
- The story, which I'm considering calling Instrumentality, will be about four 19-year-old women and their role in a society in which the general public has been informed of "supernatural creatures" rather than hide their existence. These creatures include Giger-esque versions of typical monsters and, of course, Aliens and Predators (both of which don't appear until later into the story because they're much more significant).

The world isn't in ruin and society actually continues like it does now, only with advanced social/cultural norms and better tech. The reason I chose the 4 main characters to be all female is because of the Alien side of things - the Alien films are dominantly about a woman's struggle, and I wanted to continue that trend without relying on Ripley. And the fact that these women are soldiers fighting things that hunt humans is related to the Predator side of things.

The way they fight is... weird. I don't really know how to explain it right now, so imagine putting together Iron Man's Jarvis HUD, Attack on Titan's 3D Maneuver Gear, Portal's Handheld Portal Device + Longfall Boots, and Final Fantasy 8's Gunblades.

If they sound overpowered, I can both justify that and tell you how much their gear actually might hurt them.

I see, it sounds really interesting and worth reading. I'd love to participate. By the way might I add that your alien art is freaking SICK man, I think I'm in love. I also feel a bit rude to have sent you to nothing but half finished, halfassery of mine lol.

Well, here's my new deviant art page though there is practically nothing in my gallery as of yet and the stuff there is more unfinished junk. http://weirdness-unlimited.deviantart.com/

Feel free to call on me if you need something drawn.

Thanks, I've been working on the story since January (and am STILL working on it).

You've got some nice work, but what really caught my eyes was the Predator WIP on your new page. You probably don't consider it your best, but something like that is exactly what I'm talking about.

If I gave you some mask designs and general descriptions, do you think you could come up with full-body lineart? If gets to be too much I could always start paying you.

Thank you very much, and you could be right, but neither of the bits I have up at the moment are done so I don't yet know what I think of them entirely. I think I could work just fine with a few mask designs and information about the characters you need drawn but the more information about each character the better I can accurately put them together in a drawing. I will provide line work in the PNG file format unless you need otherwise. Feel free to info dump on me, it really helps.

Most likely I'll sketch a diagram of the body and its armor along with a more detailed drawing of the mask and other important bits, so description won't be all you'll have to go off. You're even encouraged to change it or give it your own "spin" if you really feel like it.

PNG's are fine. I usually work in canvases between 2000x1000 to 3000x3000. It really depends on how big something needs to be in a panel.

The PSDs of the final panels will be in 1980x1080 (the standard blu-ray size), but will be saved as PNGs and resized for the website.

I've decided that each chapter will be categorized as "Episodes" to reinforce the whole "looks like screencaps of a TV show" thing. Each story arc will be a "Season," and I'm planning on 3-5 of them. Each page/panel will be a frame/screencap.

I'm planning on updating with 2-5 panels every week since I can't do this full-time.

It'll probably debut Summer-Fall 2014. I really don't want to jump the gun on this, and between then and now, I'll be (hopefully) working with other artists on the site like you, and maybe other writers (because I know how much you guys love writing).

I'm not expecting this to be big. I really don't expect anyone other than the forum members to read this thing, but it's for you guys anyway. I don't mind.

It sounds like you have done a great job planning all of this out very carefully. It would be great to see any well thought out fan comic about all of this with some new themes and twists. I've seen plenty of fan comics, not many pan out well and probably because not an awful lot of time or care is taken into the story line. It sure sounds like your covering your butt in that you are passionate and being that this is important to you you're thinking about it very carefully but then again I've been floundering for two years back and forth between complete failure and marginal success trying to write a horror thriller about town in Minnesota, the entire story is complete... In my head, on paper is a different story so it really depends on the persons will to continue writing without getting discouraged by being human and making mistakes. I'm not great at that, but I can draw stuff so you have my help if you need it.

Here, this is my throw around email. I don't really care who gets a hold of it so I have no qualms posting it in a forum for whoever to see. You can contact me there when you are ready to send the information I'll need to put together a linework for you.

[email protected]

Alright, so I was reading these posts in here and I noticed how you would like to get into contact with artists and writers.

Well, considering I usually have a lot of free time I could do some writing for the story. I know most of my posts are short and cut, but that is because I try to get the story moving along. But when I do pay time to the post I consider them masterpieces (arrogance at its finest) and I would be honoured if I could help out in any way.

I won't require anything so detailed as the RPG posts, but you're more than welcome to give me ideas by writing that way if you think that works best.

It has more to do with helping me decide how an already-laid-out scene will play out. You know, details like what the characters might say, or how they get from Point A to Point B, etc.

What I mean is, although Points A and B are set in stone, there are a lot of things that could happen in between. Let's say Point A = Me going out to get bananas, and Point B = getting bananas. These things will always happen because I've decided that's how the story should work. However, you can tell me HOW it happens. As my guest writers, you know how my character acts and maybe you also know the reason for why I need bananas. You can suggest the kind of antics I might get into, how I'll resolve it all and finally get my banana. It doesn't matter as long as it fits.

The suggestions can be anything, even something as stupid as "build a fort" when the scene is about a group of characters breaking out of jail. If I can find a reason for it to be in there, it'll be included.

You can even go as detailed as writing entire scripts or, like you said, RPG-style posts. I may change events and lines to fit, but otherwise, you'll be credited as one of the writers of that "episode."

All in all, I still haven't exactly decided what guest writers should do. ^This is just what I'm thinking for now - I didn't expect anyone to offer so quickly, so thanks.

REALLY IMPORTANT:

Does anyone know of any artists that do background/scenery artwork? I haven't taken the time to look yet, but if you DO know of any, pointing me in the right direction will be greatly appreciated.

---

ART UPDATES:

1. Humans
- Refined portraits (in color) of the main humans are on their way to being completed (including TDN, Peterson, Xeuss, and Kidd).
- Refined full-body portraits of the 4 main characters are completed; I'm considering doing Xeuss, TDN, and Jim as well. Full-body sketches of everyone else will also be completed and roughly colored.

2. Xenos/BWCs
- The rest of the Xeno Alpha Males will be redesigned and have refined + colored head shots by hopefully the middle of November (if not the end of this month).
- A refined + colored head shot of a Chiropteran (vampire) has been completed with a full-body portrait on the way.
- A few sketches of the 3-Eyed Dragon have been completed, I don't know when I'll refine + color them.

3. Predators
- The Elders included in the Seven Head Dragon will have their head shots done by me, but I don't know when yet; I'll hopefully be able to get Hunts_End to help with one or two of the full-body portraits.
- Despite the setbacks, everyone has a rough sketch. I've drawn DD and Doc the most, so they'll most likely be the first to be done.

---

STORY UPDATES
1. Predators
- none so far

2. Xenos/BWCs
- Many of the Red Shield's leaders are now Chiropterans.

3. Humans
- The name "Deva" has been turned into a codename - her prominent name will be "Sarah." She's an albino Japanese/African-American.
- Shelbea has been renamed Vera. She's a Vietnamese Australian born as a male and is a transgender female who gained a female body when she became the one of The Doctor's Companion Synthetics.
- Kiira and Ross have been turned into one character, resulting Kiira Ambrose. Her Forum Name is "Shining Finger" (explaining her nickname, "Light") and she'll be Sarah's eventual romantic partner. She's no longer a major villain.

- The Enclave has been renamed The Red Shield.
- DBO's leader is still Xeuss, who now has 4 Generals: Phone, Lucifer, Kevin Day (TDN), and a 4th hidden from the public: Jim Howard. These 5 form the military's Alpha Team, second to only Alpha Draconi's Isle Team.
- Kevin Day's backstory now includes him being turned into one of The Doctor's Companion Synthetics very late into the story rather than earlier.
- Kidd is now the former leader of Isle Team, the "Dream Team" of the entire Red Shield military. Before this, he was the leader of Alpha Draconis after Kevin Day. When Kidd left AD, Peterson took his spot. When Kidd became Ex-Isle and retired, Peterson declined Kidd's spot on Isle Team, choosing Hyro to take that spot instead.
- Kevin Day is now stated as having left AD in disgrace after a failed mission against the (then-unknown) PREDATORv2, an Elder Predator with the rank "God of Life." 2 decades of trying to find Pv2 resulted in him becoming a master BWC hunter; after a coincidental joint-operation with DBO's Alpha Team, Xeuss persuaded Kevin to use DBO's resources to find Pv2.

- John and Jordan Freeman have been turned into David & Julia Silverstein, a German-American Ex-Isle couple that trains Red Shield recruits, occasionally going on missions themselves with a group they affectionately call Team Ex-Isle.
- Robby Dancer is now "George Miyagusuku," a Japanese Ex-Isle. He runs the Red Shield's Training Facility. He's a former Isle Team leader and the current Ex-Isle leader.

Edit: There was a long-as-hell story change that I decided to remove 'cause it's not that important yet.

Changes are looking pretty cool, I'd love to see the Chiropteran/3-Eyed Dragon sketches.

I'll probably put those up before anything else, just to see whether or not you guys think they'll be "worthy enough" to fight Aliens and Predators.

Also I want your guys' opinion on something:

"In addition to The Invasion set 1000 years before the story, there was a Wordl War set 20 years before Year One between the Red Shield's military and the world's major crime syndicates - between the syndicates, there were also two sides.

The details of these wars aren't important right now, but what IS important is that they resulted in the resurfacing of many lost technologies: Dream Machines, Time-Leap Machines, Memory-Wiping Machines, 3D Maneuver Gear, Power Armor, Portal Technology, remote-controlled Assault Mechs, human-piloted Mobile Suits, Gravity-based Weaponry, Wind Cannons, Lightning Guns, Plasma-Based weaponry, Mini-Nuke Launchers, and probably the most prominent of all, A.I.-Operated Synthetic Humans and Chimera Production."

It won't be directly stated how this tech came to be or where it came from, but they're essentially just references to a million other franchises.

Anyway, the story takes place in the Alien universe. The beginning of the story is set 1000 years after Aliens - the Alien films were the beginning of what I've been calling "The Invasion."

The reason I even wanted to include all of this was so that I could make the fight scenes intense as shit.

Also, I'm having trouble imagining a fast-paced fight between an Alien and Predator, so most of the actual AVPing will be story-relevent and dramatic as opposed to "this happens a million times in each chapter." Meanwhile, all of the above will provide the bulk of the action to attract more people to this. ...Except, this sounds like a bad idea - it's like watching a Godzilla movie where Godzilla appears for a total of 5 minutes.

I mean, both of them will fight the humans (and other monsters) separately very often. But I wanted to limit their exposure to each other for a number of reasons - to create tension and to establish both of them as the strongest among everything else.

What do you guys think? Call me out on anything as long as you can give me an alternative.

I see District 9, Attack on Titan, and a million franchises with Plasma weaponry in there haha

Another thing you're all allowed to call me out on is the fact that I've deliberately designed the main characters to be "cuter" than the rest of the more realistic-looking cast so that people outside the site would be more drawn to it.

Whether or not they actually will get people to read it is a different story...

This can go either way. On one hand, they're easier to draw than everyone else, and I think they're kinda nice-looking, which is a plus. On the other hand, this is a story about Aliens and Predators, so this might definitely be a bad idea.

You'll get to see them in about a week or two, when I'll be ready for the potential backlash.

On the plus side, if you don't like them, then good news: they're only one half of the main characters. The other half is Alpha Team (TDN, Xeuss, Jim, Lucifer, and Phone) and the story will switch to their point of view from time to time where they interact with people like Peterson, Kidd, Deathdrop, Doc, etc.

They're basically mentors to the girls, who make up Beta Team.