[ Heart of Stone ] 12 💧 Fire and Rain (Patreon)

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Heart of Stone updates were 2025 first and last things I worked on, so we're once again kickstarting the new year with this AU! If this is a good or bad thing... you let me know after reading! 😂🙌

This episode has been the reason why HoS updates has been delayed for months... I wanted to alternate Zhongli and Neuvillette stories and I thought I already knew how I wanted the latter to evolve. When I started working on this episode, though, I realize a lot could be improved... though hours of gym brainstorming and late-night vc sessions with Keiki, I was able to cut a lot of unnecessary bits and strengthened the solid parts! This is when Maleficar came into play and brought my ideas to life with a beautiful fic 💙

...then the tough part of the makning-of this episode started. The three of us went though the fic more times to improve dialogues and Wrio's reactions to the events (trying my best to talk spoiler-free here in case somebody reads my captions before the episode haha), because my final draft was lacking character. The I REALLY wanted you to both read and see Neuvillette's feelings and I drew on the visual additions to the fic with Keiki who did flat colors, and I loved what came out of it!! I love a story narrated through different medias and I loved what we did here! So happy I had two enthusiast collaborators to craft this with! 💜💜💜

I hope you enjoy this update!(Beyond the angst. Look at the craft haha stay strong!)

(Before you ask: we kissed and nicely wrapped all the bricks 🎀)

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More art rambling in case you hadn't enough

You have no idea how many times I've redrawn these damn faces over hours, while the rest of the panels was done in one take haha I SUFFERED with Neuvillette on this, I really did. I went on a hunt for references and ended up with a mirror by my monitor to watch myself mimicking his expressions until real tears came out 😂 during the process, I've even changed brush switching to one without pressure sensitivity so I could focus on shapes only cause I was struggling so badly haha

With this, I'm going to let Neuvillette marinate in his pain and go back to Zhongli's pain ghjkl

(It gets brighter soon, I promise, hold oooon)

End note, I love the contrast between these two spread pages hahaNeuvillette: ⛈️😠💢🔥Zhongli: 💐🥰💝💕