TDL Concepts/Sketches (old!)

It's been a while since I had the time or opportunity to scrounge up spare art, but I was just going through old sketchbooks and I found some fun TDL content! (You can tell it's old because my current art style is, in many ways, quite different!)

Some are related to the current chapter (CH 19), and others are just fun doodles that sparked my memory. (like this drawing of the TDD polycule, lol)

 Below is what I believe to be the first drawing of Amily's current design! For a long time, she was a mermaid (pretty unwieldy talent for everything I wanted her to do, so I changed it), and she was also pretty twiggy. She's still a mermaid here, but I'd figured out her hair and body type! (and as you can tell, both were an upgrade)

 Next, we've got some Ambre content! I was having a hard time figuring out her Talent situation. What exactly is it? Why does it make her look like a cool robot? I won't get into spoiler territory on the nature of Talents (though I suspect you could get close to guessing it with just what we've seen in the comic so far), but here's the moment it finally clicked.

 Now!! Thoughts on the short-lived Sam/Ambre relationship!

 There are a lot of plot/character elements of TDL that I've had in my head since the beginning. This romance was not one of them! I conceived of it late in Arc 1, more as a "wouldn't this be wild?" than an actual dynamic. It was always going to be a failed romance, but the reasons for it's failure changed slightly over time. In this early beginning, it's hard to remember exactly what I was thinking, but I believe it was something like: "I don't think Sam could get over being attacked by Ambre multiple times."

 That line of thinking remained as I moved to Arc 2, and the pairing was in limbo. I wasn't sure if I even wanted to include it, or how I could fit it into the plot! But as I was planning out the end of Arc 2, Sam and Miriam Bosser's conversation finally clicked for me, and so did the vague premise of "Sambre". At this point, Sam had grown quite a bit, and she showed interest in Ambre's flirting at the end of Arc 1. "I don't think Sam could get over being attacked by Ambre multiple times" no longer seemed like an issue. I could write a Sambre whirlwind (shallow) teen romance that crashed into a confrontation at the end of Arc 3 and added to TDL's central themes. Nice!!

Back to random TDL concept lore!

 Let's all take in Early Coda, who was designed to be constantly wearing a trench coat. Why would a 12 year old dress like that? How does a short 12 year old find a small enough coat? I couldn't answer these questions, so I dropped the coat and promptly forgot about it, lol.

 Miriam Bosser used to be much blunter. Unfortunately I like her too much to write her as nothing but a mean-spirited boss...so now she can only think these things instead of saying them out loud. She's more of a "I'm not mad, I'm just disappointed" boss, but the truth is she's actually very very mad.

 More Early Coda! Without the trench coat and with Yuma and Kilo. (Yuma was going to have long hair in the present and short hair in the past, but I've effectively swapped that.) Anyway he CAN read! At around a 2nd Grade level, because he was put into Super Jail at 7 years old. Not going to dwell on that!

 Ambre was much less suave around Amily in my first plans. I changed that because why would she ever be hesitant or awkward with her maniac childhood? And it was funnier, too. Also Amily needs a project to fix.