"Mitia, I do not blame you... you did what you could to stop it."
Zayed's voice was stable, as always, but at the same time low and careful, adding a strange kind of softness to his otherwise stern face.
"I don't hold it against you..."
Zayed's blue eyes turned towards the albino in front of him, who was sitting with his back leaning against the raised pillow, hands clenching the fabric of the simple sweater he was wearing. Red eyes carefully avoided returning the gaze, and a silence fell between them, the albino seemingly struggling to keep his composure.
Slowly, after several seconds, Mitia answered, his voice low and hoarse from suppressed emotions.
"I always knew that you would forgive me, Zayed, that is not the problem..."
"Then what is?" the other asked somewhat impatiently, driven not by anger, but concern.
The albino slowly drew a deep breath while the slim fingers clenched harder around the soft fabric. He was still not returning the eyecontact that Zayed sought, and when he answered, it was but a cracked whisper, void of his normally carefree attitude:
"... how am I ever going to forgive myself?"


.~*...*~.


SO. This is what Mitia put me through this time. I have no other character that forces me to improve and work my ass off as much as he does.
Which means that I will never, ever stop drawing him, I hope

This is from a written story of mine (I guess, although it's not written yet) and is really about my character Laurion and *Sjazna's Zayed (here seen to the right, yes) but ever since Mitia jumped in and stole the spotlight, I am so ready to ditch Laurion for the freaky albino

So what are they talking about?
Well, Mitia, Zayed and a bunch of other kids grew up at a laboratory due to their special abilites - Mitia can control light and lightning for an example - but some of them managed to escape... Mitia was not one of them, because he sacrificed himself to let the others get away.
Years passed, anyway, and Mitia did not die as everyone believed, but brainwashed and trained into a sort of super soldier and then sent out to the world to kill off his old friends that had managed to escape a similar fate.
A chip was installed at the back of his neck to pump him full of drugs and keep him under control and it was not until he met Zayed that he started fighting against it - by then having already killed several of the children that had managed to escape.

Then a lot of stuff happened, but in the end, the chip was removed and Mitia could return to normal... or... well... at least somewhat.
Truth be told, he doesn't REALLY regret having killed all those people - that's the problem with him - but he DOES regret being controlled and not doing it out of his own free will. It's a tiny difference, but a difference none the less (meaning that had he felt like it, he might have killed them on his own, yes, but the chip was what made him so determined that time... and THAT is what he regrets... you are so fucked up... )
And he does actually regret nearly killing Zayed (he looked pretty into it though: [link] ) Because he kinda likes him. A lot.

So that is the story behind it... and the picture is a part of an Art Trade between me and *Sjazna...
And yes, I worked my ass of for this one.

I've noticed that whenever I do realism practice, I do a portrait and then nothing more, so this time I decided to do a picture - for real - and... well... it put me to the test, to say the least, but it was worth it.
I learned a lot, and even though I'm still uncertain on how I want to colour white hair, this looks pretty nice.

I'm very proud over this one...

Enjoy!