Yes, this idea was inspired by gospelofdismay. It's a Japanese folklore AU, all the characters are based off of Japanese folklore. Sammy Lawrence is the Japanese folklore "Yukkionna" and Henry is the folklore "The Crane Maiden". I did digital black and white sketches on my iPad, so the line art isn't perfect and it has a lot of messy sketching.

So let's talk about this AU, shall we? Prepare yourself for a lot of explaining.

A lot of things are Japanese based because, well, Japanese folklore. I swear I'm not a weeaboo, I'm just really interested in the culture.

So Sammy Lawrence, renamed to Sakkionno, is Yukkionna.
Yukkionna is the legend of a woman who died in a blizzard. She is described as a beautiful young lady with completely white skin, long black hair and a white kimono. During a snow storm, any traveler may stumble upon Yukkionna. She will lure them further out into the storm until they freeze to death, basically. She might let you live if you happen to be beautiful, or if she's in a good mood. Those who happen to survive her challenges, they'd become really strong.
In this case, Sammy-well, Sakkionno- is a young musician that freezes to death in a snow storm.
I tried not to stray too far from the original content, so to bring out his musician schtick, I gave him a Japanese instrument called a "Shamisen".
Sakkionno plays his shamisen to lead people further into the storm or push people off of a cliff, if anyone survives his challenges they'd become strong. He's usually in a bad mood, but if the opposite, he'll let travellers live.

Henry, renamed to Herashi, is the legend of the crane maiden.
The crane maiden gives me some more explaining. The video up top is a vocaloid song called "Feathers Across The Season", based off of the crane maiden. The song is about a man who had found a crane stuck in a hunter's trap, so he sets it free. The crane then visits the man as a human to find a way to repay him for saving her life, she soon became the man's wife. One day the man falls ill of a disease, although the couple can't afford the medicine, the crane maiden would shift into her crane form and weave beautiful silk out of her feathers. The crane maiden fears that if her husband found out her secret, he wouldn't love her anymore. She over works herself to the point where her hands a bleeding and blistering but she keeps weaving for the sake of her loved one. As she finally runs out of feathers, her husband confesses that he knew about her secret the whole time and will always love her no matter what.
The song is based off of that legend, but the real story is a bit different. I'm too lazy to type it down, but you can find it on the Wikipedia.
Herashi is a very talented painter, and a crane.

So how did Herashi and Sakkionno meet? They live in a place called Vision Mountain, surrounded by a fairly large village and it usually snows.

Well during a snow storm, Sakkionno was came across a hunter who had caught a crane caught in its trap to kill for its feathers, as well as two other cranes that are already dead. Disgusted by what the hunter had done, Sakkionno kills the hunter and frees the surviving crane. The crane appeared to have a damaged wing, so Sakkionno took care of the crane until it was fully healed.

A year later, Sakkionno goes to a mountain hut and asks the people there for a glass of water.

Another thing about Yukkionna is that she'll visit mountain huts and ask for a glass of water. If you give her a glass of water, she'll kill you. Why? because the correct answer is to apparently give her tea, then she'll let you live.

The people at the mountain hut fetch a glass of water for Sakkionno. An hour later, he wonders what's taking so long and notices some beautiful paintings at a table on the other side of the room. Before Sakkionno gets up to check the kitchen, a handsome man with vivid green eyes walks out with a tray of tea.

And I wonder who that could be~?

I find Japanese folklore really interesting so I had fun matching characters with folklore's. I know there's probably one art-like or music-like folklore out there, but I like the ones I already chose. The crane maiden is my absolute favourite and Yukkionna is my second favourite. I also love kimonos because they're so beautiful so I had a lot of fun doing the designs.

I will create the other characters as well.

I thought of Joey Drew as, well I forgot the name of the folklore, but it's a lion-dragon-like creature that eats dreams. When people are afraid of getting nightmares, they will wish for the creature to eat the nightmares. But if you wish too much or happen to annoy it, it will eat all of your hopes and dreams instead. That's Joey Drew Alright.

I picture Susie Campbell, or renamed to Suu, as the slit-mouthed women. You can look up the legend of the slit-mouthed women, it has been proved that the slit-mouthed women doesn't actually exist, but I found the legend fitting. So the story is that a samurai *cough cough* JOEY DREW *cough cough*, the husband of Suu, slit two cuts across her mouth and said that no one would ever love her anymore. Suu wonders the village and asks people if she looked pretty. If you said no, she'd kill you. If you said yes, she'd give you matching cuts across your mouth so you'd be "pretty" like her. The only way to escape is to distract her in two ways, you could distract her with candy and make a run for it or you could flip the question saying "Well do you think I'm pretty?" and run away.

Other than showcasing art, this book is also kinda of an update book where I say "Hey, I've been working on this lately and I really want to show it to you guys". I have been working on some things lately, and now that it's March break, I have plenty of time to work on it.

One specific project that's been on my mind for a while, I've put into production and I can't wait to show you all! Have a nice March break everyone!