#Onni and Rheo: Chronicle of Greed

[kichimiangra]

Today is January 23rd, 2024 and the anniversary of my first long term attempt at webcomic that I started when I was fourteen. Despite having shelved it long ago back in college, I still privately celebrate it every year in my heart as a personal milestone, as the comic in question; "Faeries Bible" was the first time I committed to a single project for any long period of time, running for 7 years with 150 pages plus 2 short 10-12 page spinoffs.

I don't do something every year but decided to indulge myself by drawing a tribute, not of Faeries Bible characters specifically, but a tribute to all the stories and OCs that came before it from the time I was 11 to the time I was 14, at the point I stopped calling each story my first, my second, my third, etc. story. There were many ideas that never left the concept phase, but these were the ones I stuck with long enough to be considered stories.

So this year I decided to indulge some old (fictional) friends.

[kichimiangra]

With my tablet pen acting up I've been doing some traditional work.

[kichimiangra]

The Fifth Story: (Warning, I'mma mention the topic of suicide near then end of this one and if that triggers you don't read like the last two paragraphs. I'mma mark them with an ***)

Chronicle of Greed is like my long form baby that I simultaneously don't work on but also never technically shelved. It almost feels hypocritical to have stated that the previous three stories (Open Element, Forget Me Not, and Chibi House) were plot-less playrooms for my OCs to play within in a derogatory way when in all reality CoG is no different... other than I guess that the characters are the story?

CoG is a supernatural Slice of Life where Protagonist Rheo finds herself stuck with a blue skinned demon from hell and how that effects her day to day life. It all starts when, taking a page of out the story of the Haunting in Connecticut Documentary I had seen recently at the time, 13 year old Rheo's family uproots her hours away from her old home in the middle of the school year. Her younger brother has a chronic heart condition and the family decided to move in with her grandfather, as his mobility problems have left him not using the second floor of his house and his home is located significantly closer to a Cardiovascular Specialist. Rheo responds to the whole scenario like a stereotypical teenage girl written by an out of touch 30 year old man in the early-mid 2000's, slamming doors and just being angry and hating everyone and everything around her.

In spite of this behavior her parents try to do something to make her feel better and take her to the pound to adopt a dog, misinterpreting her staring at the ugliest dog in the building that the workers tentatively call "a chinese crested mix(?)" as love at first sight and adopt for her, her Father Leo naming it "Onni" in hopes that she'll love it like a brother (Which is a slightly depressing thought considering her actual brother's condition is so serious that him dying young is a real reality they may have to face) and take him home.

As Rheo tours her new town, once again hating everything including the dog, she finds herself being followed by some sort of supernatural entities and the dog reveals himself to be some sort of Demon, explaining that the entities are spirits called 'the Damned' and they are attracted to certain humans to cause misfortune. He agrees to protect her and her family from the damned provided she always stays by his side and takes care of him like a pampered pet.

This sounds well and good. Except he is a little shit head who makes Rheo's life a living hell in the process. But what can she do? He's basically blackmailing her. A few episodic misadventures later and it comes to light that he was in fact a lying piece of shit and that the damned were following HIM around, not her. Someone else though more powerful is after him and hiding close to Rheo hides his spiritual trail. This doesn't last for long as inevitably he is tracked down by his Pursuer who fights him into a ultimatum

((This was like the third time this page had been redrawn as my art style changed))

In the end Rheo decides to help Onni because by that point in spite of the danger and the little shit head himself this has been the most fun Rheo has had in her life, and through helping him ends up in Hell where a ceremony is performed that effectively makes her his "Priestess/Nun/Holy Lady" of Greed, Onni actually being the "Sin Angel of Greed" which sounds important but it literally means he's a janitor to clean up Greed related Damned scenarios and chose to run away from all of that, leaving the other six angels to do his job. In the end he's let off easy, he's bound and forced to fill a quota of jobs from the other angels (plus his own from now on) and Rheo being his Priestess being his partner in crime that has to help him, but at this point they finally crossed the threshold into being (Violent) friends.

The story Structure was mostly episodic split up between 3 major "Movie Arcs" as season finales; "Post Apocalypse", "King of the Phantom Fortress", and a third one that tied into another story "Trique Trickster" over the course of 2 in universe years. It had a planned ending where all hell breaks loose in Rheo's town, Onni runs the risk of just un-existing, the other sin angels are majorly kneecapped, and Rheo has to try and put everything back together which ends up being at the expense of Onni who goes missing. It ends on an Epilogue after another 2 years when Rheo is 17 where he reappears and the two are reunited.

((I was wrong this whole time typing. It wasn't shit head, it was "Mud-Flinging-Shit-Nugget"))

I think the thing I loved most about this story and probably the reason why I still revisit it and it's characters today is because Onni and Rheo really start out as shitty people and grow to be better by the end, and unlike past romances in previous stories these two have have this real slow burn chemistry as they evolve from antagonists to each other, to friends, to really good friends, to this weird stage of "We have caught feelings for each other and are both aware of each other's feelings so it's not like some secret or anything but neither is really at a point where they want to commit to being in an official relationship" thing.

Chronicle of Greed also stands as probably the first time that I have no idea what inspired the story. All the past ones were inspired by SOME kind of media but CoG just kinda was. All I know is I came up with the premise in 2003 for about a week or two and then set it down for a period of three years before picking it up again in 2006.

***

In 2006 when I was 14 my Uncle passed away by committing Suicide. I still remember exactly where I was and what I was doing when my mom, his own sister who had finished raising him, came home after finding him. My uncle had been more like an older brother to me and my siblings, and admittedly I was an angry child. I was an un-diagnosed autistic who could tell they were different but just didn't know how or why I was the way I was, and certain family members blocked my parents from having me checked for things like autism. "She's fine, it's a phase. She'll grow out of it. She's normal. Are you trying to get her labelled as Retarded?" where plenty of what my folks heard. It felt like the one person who understood be, even when I didn't, was my uncle. And now he was gone. On top of that but my grandparents where catholic and of course there was whispers flying about how people who die by suicide go to hell.

It was then that I picked up CoG again. It was oddly perfect to have this angry 13 year old girl growing to work through her issues while being introduced to the one person who ends up understanding her in a story where heaven, earth, hell and all of the adventure in between can be a fun joyride, as I myself was working through the pain and trauma of what is still to this day one of the worst moments in my life.

I often wish to return to the world of CoG, but I would never be able to give it the time and commitment it would need to meet its end as I envision it. It would be like 15-25 paperback volumes. But I still love these characters from this story.

Today is January 23rd, 2024 and the anniversary of my first long term attempt at webcomic that I started when I was fourteen. Despite having shelved it long ago back in college, I still privately celebrate it every year in my heart as a personal milestone, as the comic in question; "Faeries Bible" was the first time I committed to a single project for any long period of time, running for 7 years with 150 pages plus 2 short 10-12 page spinoffs.

I don't do something every year but decided to indulge myself by drawing a tribute, not of Faeries Bible characters specifically, but a tribute to all the stories and OCs that came before it from the time I was 11 to the time I was 14, at the point I stopped calling each story my first, my second, my third, etc. story. There were many ideas that never left the concept phase, but these were the ones I stuck with long enough to be considered stories.

So this year I decided to indulge some old (fictional) friends.