#anywayyys i yearn for someone to notice these decisions and feel excited about them

[loppiopio]

a light tarot reading, because i'm still fond of what i cooked up here. expect allusions to the ending of aci and general detailing of my intentions throughout. some nuances omitted because i want to see if anyone else catches on to them....

probably the most obvious thing is the card itself, wheel of fortune. generally it suggests change, cycles, some big turning point in your life. with the eye cutout slashing through the sphinx i meant to encapsulate izaya's plan of flipping the wheel over on the game makers and throwing them under an imitation of their own work.

there's a distinction in the meaning of the card when it's upright or reversed. looking inward, the card reads upright towards him and reversed as presented to the onlooker. throughout the chapter there's a lot of emphasis on the lack of sincere connections he has, how no one seemed to reach out genuinely concerned about his absence. his attention drifts to his phone a lot as he works, and he continues to work until the end of the chapter which i'll leave here.

it's hard for me to articulate but i hope you can see how i also wanted to convey izaya's personal development at this point of the fic.

less obvious is the positioning of izaya's finger keeping the lion out of view. i know shizuo is technically an aquarius but that thing looks boring and i'm not partial to the zodiac anyways so to me he's the lion in reference this bit from the first chapter.

you could also read shizuo as the bull hidden beneath izaya's shadow which i was also considering as a nod to a bull charges at the stirring of a cape. regardless it can work both ways in keeping him out of view for this part of the plan.

and this one just fell into place for me but wheel of fortune happens to be the element of fire!! which if you know you know.

there's a lot i tried to work into this composition and i have to thank rosa again for putting up with me and making it look amazing.... collaboration with me is pretty intensive but rewarding to see the initial ideas get visually realized.

They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery

This is a collab I did with my friend @loppiopio when we were fanfic book clubing "A Cheap Imitation" back in 2023 man, good times good times

Linking the fic here in case anyone is curious