#also I was inspired to draw Kate bc of this design…. so cute

[ziracona]

in living memory is my favourite dbd fic! seriously feels like it could be it’s own novel series. and i absolutely would purchase the hell out of it if it were asdhsfsff. i was wondering if you had any headcanons regarding the physical appearance of survivors (or killers, too!) since the in game models are... questionable and hard to rely on. if not, no worries!

Awww! Thank you so much! That is an incredibly meaningful thing to me, and I really appreciate it. And sure! I enjoy doing asks. 

In general, I think I headcanon the characters as similar to their models, but obviously there’s some decent room for artist interpretation there, and I definitely have my share of #takes. I tend to fluctuate and like a whole lot of art interpretations of the characters, but I really, really love how @xmafiacatx draws Philip especially, and their picture of him saying he’s sorry was one of the first pieces of art for the game I saw and where I get all my own mental images of him from as base inspiration, and the way @dwightfairfields draws Jake and Dwight is exactly how I see the both of them. For the characters in films as well, like Quentin or Tapp, I think I see them as they looked in the film (Kyle Gallner/Danny Glover) and not their in-game model at all (there’s also a Tapp ask blog w a super great style). Although of course, Quentin and Laurie would both be a little older now. Michael and Laurie are a bit more complicated, but @lauriecynthia had a take I really loved for the sibs. I know Michael has had a lot of height/size iterations, and I dig the like 6+ feet tall for him, but while I think he’s obviously strong, I don’t think he’s like, Kronk from the Emperor’s New Groove jacked or something. He was in Smith’s Grove forever. He’s a little bit more lean than he tends to get drawn, but while I keep that from the og film canon and take my height more from the game and rz canon, I do go with more of a dirty blonde for him (like first film and like Laurie herself). I really like the sibs having the same hair color and somewhat similar faces—where you would definitely be able to tell they were related just looking at them beside each other, because that’s kind of heartbreaking. I think I see dbd Laurie as a little more dbd art specific than filmic interpretation, but with some obvious Jamie Lee Curtis inspiration drawn in. Especially eyes and that fantastic chin.

(putting the rest under a read more bc this got long) 

While I am aware neither Meg nor Susie have freckles in their models, I see both of them with those. I’m also aware of canon heights, but Meg Thomas should not be as tall as she is, and I cannot be swayed. Do love her legs though—as a runner myself, that really be how runner legs look. Thighs like a log and calves like a brick. Regardless, Claudette, she, and Feng should all be similarly short. I also probably see Susie as bigger than her model intends, like a little bit plump and definitely not buff at all, and to my credit with that sweater you really can’t tell. There’s also not a whole lot of body diversity in the dbd character models, like you’ve really just got Jane and Jeff for any kind of plus-size representation at all, and that’s a huge shame. I think of Claudette as probably a little less tiny than she is in-game, and kind of soft all over and incredibly sweet and cute, but with really tough and calloused hands from all the work she does with them regularly, and very similar/close to her model. Jake as a lean kind of buff. I like the way people draw Kate a lot more than her model, so I see her as the kind of person who just looks like a nice person, tall, and muscular (now, after all that work she’s been putting in). Nea’s model also isn’t very kind to her, and I can never see her that well, :’-] , so I see her more based on how she tends to be drawn—punk, and the kind of person who looks like they’re about to tease you when they grin. From the game models it looks like Nea and Meg both have cutting scars, and that makes sense to me for both of them, and that’s such a common thing for people to go through as a teenager and young adult, I think it’s important to have characters that have definitely been through that too. I constantly forget how tall Quentin is, so I think in fic he probably hasn’t hit that last growth spurt just yet. It’s coming for him later, and he’s still a bit shorter than his game model.

Also, while I get Adam is a serious character and person, I don’t like that he’s perma-scowling in his in-game model, and that doesn’t fit how the game itself wrote him, so I see him looking a lot more relaxed-serious than that, and reliable. I think he gives off an air of being a lot older than he is, but if you took a hard look you’d be like, “Oh wait. You’re in your twenties damn.” I think he, Laurie, and Kate are especially tall among the young adults, with Dwight, Quentin, Jake, and David being shorter (David at the tallest of those), then Nea, then Meg, then Susie, then Feng, then Claudette. I see Jeff and Jane pretty much how they look in-game, because those designs are nice, and same for Ace. He looks like a nice guy always about to crack a joke and a bottle of champagne for the whole team. I think of Tapp as very tall, Jane and Jeff as pretty tall but shorter than him, and Ace as shorter than all three and more like Laurie/Kate/Adam height. I’m not sure why I see Laurie as tall so much—I think it might be the bellbottoms. They just have that effect on legs. And then of course, Philip towers over the others at over 7 feet. I also can’t think of a good way to describe this, but I think of Susie as both cuter and a lot more interesting looking than her in-game model. For Joey, I’d say pretty similar, and Frank, but I think of Julie with her hair grown out longer again, like about chin length, and curly/wavy. For Anna/the Huntress, I see her like her game model, but (most of the time anyway) with human eyes instead of the full-pupil thing. Which will actually get a little bit of elaboration next chapter, coincidentally. For David, I see him as a little bit probably younger looking than a lot of his model skins, and more like he tends to be drawn/his base skin, and like a tough but also nice dude. Also, with the sort of 12’oclock shadow, but no beard.

Sorry if this wasn’t what you meant and you meant more like, dress style or something, but I hope this is of interest at least. : D Thanks for the ask!