Operation Fidelio Vol. 6

Or.

Twelve ways to survive a vampire party. (Number 11 is actually cursed!)

I thought this one would be the last one but, yada, yada, yada… you know the drill.

See, by this point It's clear I've failed to meet the October 31 deadline to finish this story but I feel I do have enough to make a worthy Halloween post. And though I actually have more already done. This feels like a good place for a cliffhanger.

This time I added these squares with the story next to the pictures that I've been using on bluesky and twitter so that the pictures won't have 5 extra posts attached to them. It makes reading the story easier and I wish I had been doing it before. Also I like that they kind of make the story feel like a silent film [Edited: And it actually works even better here]

But also here it is again just in case.

Picture 1

-You just cost me a lot tonight, you know?- Said Arsene after hypnotizing Vero, leaving her just aware enough for her to hear what he had to say. -And not only me, but yours.-

-Too many questions - He continued. -Not only now I have to disappear and start again somewhere else. Tonight’s feast would have had us satisfied for years, but now… Now I'm not only still hungry but I need to find new helpers…-

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Picture 2

-Bur, speaking of… I guess Max got their way after all. It was already the plan but, I know how you can start paying me off for tonight…-

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Picture 3

Arsene releases Vero's arm as he moves closer to Veronica's neck ready to take a bite, unaware that he had made a mistake.

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Picture 4

Max reacts to an unexpected screaming.

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Picture 5

-Aghhhhhhh!-

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Picture 6

Veronica sees the injured vampire screaming in front of her, having been released by him and sliding down the wall she had been pinned against and out of his power.

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Picture 7

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Veronica, now of his power, looks down and something catches her attention.

Picture 8

Veronica jumps trying to grab the holy flask that had been dropped by Arsene before.

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Picture 9

Meanwhile, Arsene finally manages to remove the wooden crucifix that Ignacio had sharpened with the silver knife and that Veronica had used to stab him in the eye.

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Picture 10 

While the remaining water inside the flask was less than she had originally expected, the liquid didn't end up being necessary as the mere threat was enough for Max to release Ignacio.

Picture 11

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Picture 12

-Jump!- Yelled Veronica while she and Ignacio ran, to which, hoping he had misheard, Ignacio replied

-What?!-

-Jump!!- Veronica insisted, noticing that they didn't have enough time to reach the stairs, let alone to use them. 

-Fuck!!- Ignacio yelled knowing the same and they both climbed the railing and jumped.

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All of these happen so close to each other that I felt I didn't have anything to say about them one by one but in general, here it is. This is how they get out of this one, so far. Vero uses the wooden cross turned pocket stake that she had been carrying under the belt of her dress for a while now and she managed to take it from there at the last minute before Arsene grabbed her to stab him in the eye. 

One of my worries is that it is not clear enough through the pictures alone as I didn't want to mention it in the text to not spoil it. 

But I did last minute edits to all of the last batch to make sure the cross’ rosary hanging from Vero's dress's belt was visible though,I hoped, not too obvious.

It is also there hanging from her hand while she's pinned at the wall though not really clear through the focal blur.

Another detail that I finally got to make explicit is Max being the one to choose Vero, or more like suggesting her to Arsene so she can join them as a new vampire. 

Earlier when Vero is talking to Alvaro and Nova, you can see the silhouette of Max talking to Arsene and pointing at Vero.

I think it can also be interpreted as Max telling on her, as in “That one is asking too many questions” and there's something to it as well, I think it's a little bit of both, as in “That one is asking too many questions, but wouldn't she make an awesome vampire?” (Not the actual canonical dialogue) and Arsene clearly agreed.

A thing I have been having fun with is the idea of the lights of the dance floor incidentally changing through the fight. Especially in the monochrome pictures where we see they've been switching colours. I wanted the room to be cast in red light when Arsene is at the height of his powers but now that he's injured the light quickly changes to orange and yellow as our heroes have a chance to escape.

Will they be able to do it? Let's find out… but they better worry before we get back to red.

By the way, picture 11 is cursed…

I don't really know what happened, I might have drawn Arsene too evil or maybe it was the “accidental” inverted cross but for whatever reason the picture kept exporting with this weird glitch where it had a square in a lighter tone than the rest of the picture.

I checked every layer and I couldn't find an explanation, it took some changes and some more attempts but I finally managed to get one without the square. Here's one of the cursed ones. 

I've been having too much fun with this last stretch of the story and that has clearly been kind of my problem. 

These last few batches work almost more like a storyboard than an illustrated story. With reaction shots and everything. This last batch uses 11 illustrations for what in universe were like 10 seconds or something, more or less, I haven't actually timed it.

Of course “Oh, No! I'm having too much fun with my art project!” is exactly the type of problem one wants to have, so I'm not really complaining. Just noting that I've identified the origin of my delays.

Besides, me having fun with this story is a good thing because it means someone is. Since I started posting these I’ve actually been losing followers. I’m not complaining btw, Apparently I don’t really care that much, as it is made evident by the fact that it hasn’t made me stop lmao.

For the next batch I think I'll be trying something of a more spaced out approach like before though. Not too much, just more than here.

Not only because, even though I'm having fun with it, I really need to finish this thing and start working on some other stuff, like some pending commission work and of course, I really should start working on my December stuff so I don't have a repeat of October where I was caught off guard.

But also because, unfortunately, I came up with something of an epilogue. It's not a long one though it is a bit lore-dumpy, but still, the point here is that the story expanded yet a bit more.

Those are also the reasons why I have made the editorial decision of “From now on,  no more last minute additions!”

Except for one. I feel like I have to make more of a subtle emphasis on them having the cross with them now that it has proven to be integral for the plot. So I'll be posting that later. Plus some other extra Halloween stuff I have. 

Watch me break that rule in a week anyway lol.

Happy Halloween!