(From 2016. Note, the dates in the info below are wrong and have been changed.)

So, after 25+/- hours, 3 work sessions, and... I don't even want to think about how many layers (I had to really cheap out on the background. Manga Studio was starting to chug...), the newest version of my "Bring Me To Life" image is finished. 25 hours is twice, plus one hour, the amount of time it too for the original.

Timelapse:
Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yPPWg69tQp4
Part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2VTmtgKNu0

You can see the original and v2 here: http://avenstudios.net/bmtlcomparison.png

I am much, -much- happier with this one than the 2013 version, which I just kinda went :/ at every time I saw it. There's much more expression going on here than there was the previous two versions, and I am particularly pleased with both Snow and Kione's expressions. Even Emeralds... though you can't really see her. I'll post a couple alternate versions later today: one without her, and one with her not transparent.

Both Emerald and Kione got some modifications to their appearance. Emerald's colors are completely greens, save her eyes (which are still blue). Kione's white parts are a warmer tone, and his hair has gone from silver to brown. I also changed his horn spiral to gold.

I built a fake bedroom in SL so I could map out where I wanted things. It was all blocks (the screenshot is very "first sl build!" in appearance), but I'm just putting that out there.

Okay, here's the backstory, since I haven't written it anywhere that's still up at this point:

The characters are Kione, Emerald, who is dead (twice over) so she's not really meant to be there, and Snowhawk.

Kione is a really old vampire. Not the oldest, but one of the originals of this world. Emerald is from before the Delphin Empire fell. She's actually the one that was the tipping point for the fall. She had been captured by some slavers who had no idea who she was (they had killed her mate some weeks earlier), and she continued taunting them while they tried to get her to submit and... well, one of them hit her head with something like a pipe or a bat or whatever, it's not that important, and that was that.

Sorta.

Emerald and Kione knew each other prior to all of this. He was fairly young (relative to his age at this point) at the time she was born, and even though he had already been turned, no one really knew. He used his family's name to secure a job working with the Empire, in security, and so before a Guardian* was found for the newly born Emerald, he would be working with the Royal Guard*, Onyx, to watch her and her mother. Onyx found out, and while he was suspicious of Kione, he let him stay around but gave him a warning to not remotely try anything. So time moves forward. After Emerald's Guardian is found about 2 years later, Kione is reassigned. He goes off to do "Stuff" for the Empire in Juv and Di'aru, and eventually is brought back to Ametiton. Onyx is called away to protect other parts of the family, and Emerald's mother picked Kione to take his place until he returns.

Onyx is away for quite some time, so Kione and Emerald get to know each other. She was 18 when he returned. Emerald is set to marry/partner with the mate who would be later be killed. Kione is very fond of this small, feisty, somewhat obnoxious delphin. (Let's be real, Emerald is a pain in the ass.)

When she's 22, she marries her betrothed. Not too long after her 24th birthday, Kione is sent back out to hunt for slavers. When she's 26, her mate is captured and killed. She can't immediately run after the murderers as she has recently had her first foal. When she can get away, she fears she's lost them because it's been several weeks at this point. She catches whispers of them and does manage to track them down and takes out several before she's captured. The slavers she finds have no idea who she is. The earlier mentioned incident happens four days after she's been captured, and they (think they) have killed her.

When Emerald was discovered missing, word was sent to Kione and several others who had been hunting for slavers. Kione has the ability to sense when a familiar delphin is near him. Finding Emerald was simply a matter of following this sense. He found them just as they had hit her for the final time. He ran toward them, taking out a couple of the slavers, and chasing the others away. Kione knew she had recently had her first foal, and made the split second decision to turn her to save her.

A day later, she awoke highly confused at her situation. She didn't remember the last moments before she was struck. She had no idea why she was now a vampire. Kione explained the situation to her.

She couldn't return now, though. Not in her new state. And there were still slavers left for her to finish off.

Kione would return to tell the empire of what had happened. He did leave out the part of Emerald's death and resurrection as a vampire. The two disappeared to Juv for Emerald to recover and gain strength.

The next thousand years were dotted with Emerald's personal vendetta against the slavers and a romance forming between her and Kione some fifty years after she was turned. However, one of Emerald's fights with the slavers led to her dying for a final time. Kione saw her turn to dust.

Kione became reclusive after this. He took up residence in a stereotypical mansion at the seaside. However, he faintly sensed a familiar delphin nearly a thousand years later. He felt it was Emerald, somehow. He returned to Ametiton and followed the feeling. He discovered that a descendant of Emerald had been recently born.

So this is where Snowhawk comes in. Kione follows her for some time, occasionally watching her while she sleeps and being creepy.

Eventually Emerald's spirit "wakes up" and begins affecting Snow's behavior. Some years after Janus's uncle is killed (by Snow under Emerald's influence), Kione feels Emerald is awake enough, so he manages to get Snowhawk into his grasp. Emerald, having been a fairly strong vampire at her time of death (seriously, the only reason she is dead is because her killer got lucky) would have the ability to completely take over Snowhawk, and even shift her body into Emerald's.

Snowhawk, at the point in this picture, has some vampiric ability. She's partially a vampire. The process she's undergoing significantly weakens her, which would allow Emerald to take over much easier. Emerald wants to come back, regardless of what happens to Snowhawk.

Image without Emerald: https://www.flickr.com/photos/snowh.....k/24195678813/
Image with Emerald not see through: https://www.flickr.com/photos/snowh.....k/24729034191/