For idratherbereading, on the joyful occasion of her birthday!
Idratherbereading and valeria2067 are a pair of heroes. This is in honor of two ladies who’ve survived one hell of a year, in all its mighty ups and downs, and fearlessly gambled everything to pursue the lives and love that made them whole.
These didn’t come out quite like I’d originally envisioned, but I hope you like them anyway. A matched set, for a matched set: kitsune Sherlock and rakshasa John (somewhat arbitrary, perhaps, but I love rakshasa, and no one ever uses them).
Love these!
Does this mean Mycroft is a nine-tailed kitsune? And is John a maneating!rakshasa? *sidles away nervously*
Hahaha, somebody sent me an Ask to to the effect of “Aren’t rakshasa evil grave-defiling monsters? Why did you make John one?”
And the answer is: because I could. ^_^
Who doesn’t enjoy dark!John once in a while? XD
Well, and Sherlock isn’t necessarily any nicer. ^_^ Kitsune are infamously capricious spirits. They’re a pretty but sinister pair, these two!
Perhaps that’s why they get on so well; a couple of magical monsters who don’t really fit in the modern world. With each other, they don’t have to pretend to be anything other than the shapeshifting, illusion-casting predators they are.
Sherlock has his wild fey mood swings and a propensity for deceit, trickery, and chasing the objects of his curiosity with a blissful unconcern over who gets hurt. For a kitsune, he’s rather well-behaved, in fact—he seldom kills his prey, you have to give him that—but like all his kind he thrives on chaos and lies. That’s probably why he’s so enchanted with humans. With seven tails, he’s a powerful old spirit, but not many in London know how to leave the proper offerings anymore. He favors the strong but desperate, those who have precious little but the will to fight and the humble respect to ask him for help. He lovesliars, but can’t tolerate them for long; in the end he always has to prove he’s better at it.
That may be why he gets on with John so well. John’s a trickster born, but he’s torn between upright behavior and rakshasa nature. In his youth, he served the Rakshasa king, Ravana. When Rama overthrew him for his evil, John came to see the difference between obedience and virtue. He begged for his life not out of fear, but for the chance to atone, and was granted the mercy of a curse rather than death. Now he works to uphold dharma, but he’s a tiger still, trying to navigate between the cage of human society and his restless need to hunt and kill.
They’re both loners by nature, really, but it’s a hard thing to be a monster in modern London. It’s so nice to have someone you can be yourself with.
ETA: A wise soul has brought to my attention that these pictures may consist of cultural appropriation and/or whitewashing. If you like this art, then I’m happy and grateful! But I hope that in return, you’ll join me in contemplating their comments and the feedback of our fellow Tumblrites. I won’t delete these images, because I already drew them, posted them, and had them reblogged, and I think it’s more honest to keep them here as a reminder of this learning experience. It’s true that art is sometimes problematic. I don’t think that’s inherently a bad thing, but it should never be thoughtlessly problematic, and that’s the mistake I made here. I sincerely apologize to anyone I’ve made uncomfortable or offended with these pictures. If you reblog them from me, then please keep this note attached.