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The Locked Tomb Holiday Exchange 2023
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Published:
2023-12-30
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0
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1/1
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16
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Pampering

Summary:

GIRLS' NIGHT!
Alecto, an empress, is diligently applying red mehendi to her dearest Anastasia.

 

Made with love for influorescence for TLT holiday gift exchange '23!

Notes:

Thank you for this delightful prompt!

i will say i spent a lot of time mulling over which part of Asia and which part of history to go with but in the end felt that with TLT it would make sense to pick and choose from Mughal era fashion. if youll notice, alecto is dressed in attire more customary to early in the empire (wide trousers, elaborate headdress, upward curling shoes), whereas anastasia's more resembles a mixture of styles of locals vs that of nobility (skirts, instead of trousers) that began to influence court fashion later on in the empire.
i dressed anastasia in purple because its more vibrant than the tomb-black and therefore fitting for the context, as well as historically it is Very Expensive. thats also why i thought it fitting she had plenty gold embroidery as well.
alecto's attire is based on two different empresses of different eras of the empire. the light purple of her trousers is beautiful but pales in comparison to anastasia. i kept her blonde hair and yellow eyes so that she still looks Other and also recognisable. The gems she wears are blue and green because she is the soul of the Earth.

(See the end of the work for more notes.)

Work Text:

Digital drawing of Anastasia and Alecto of The Locked Tomb series in a Mughal-era art style. Both characters are dressed in garments reminiscent of those worn during the Mughal empire. Anastasia is standing with her left leg placed forward while Alecto crouches next to her, gently lifting Anastasia's foot as she applies a mehendi design to it. Alecto looks deeply focused on her work as Anastasia smiles upon her.

Notes:

turns out i am a huge fan of alecto kneeling in front of anastasia?? (this is the 2nd year in a row ive been doing this... Theme..)

 

in my mind i imagined alecto here as sort of an empress (because in canon weve got John) and shes bringing luxurious gifts to anastasia and pampering her.
i made her apply red mehendi because it was expensive and used by princesses. also i love the idea of those two and their pledge in canon so i wanted to add a facet of that to this piece by way of. uh. worship, in a way.
at first i considered something somber like alecto helping anastasia get dressed for a funeral (samael's) but i figured this fandom needs some heartfelt things, too.

ALSO!! it wasnt until i hit "save to png" on my art program that i realised with horror that alecto could be seen as ianthe *weeps*. i even went back and tampered with her trousers to maybe make them a different colour but that just made it ugly and unbalanced fhgksdkghs. thats what i get for trying to get era art appropriate wispy hair, i guess.

_

adding some of the refs and inspo i used more heavily:
https://www.ecrater.com/p/22066346/mughal-empire-art-handmade-moghul
https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Scuola_di_jaipur,_mehandi,_xix_secolo.jpg#mw-jump-to-license
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/127437864435497695/
https://www.worldhistory.org/article/2098/royal-women-in-the-mughal-empire/