✦ Vigil ✦

these two are so interesting to me

characters belong to @canisalbus

A Vaschete universe oc for me!

I loved machete’s outfit in the photo on the right and it inspired me to make Esme.

I’m not well versed in history tbh and I barely know anything about the 16th-17th century so this is probably not very accurate. But…

Esme is a Silken Windhound (which’s origin was in the United States but I’m pretending that their origin was somewhere in Europe so that this timeline makes sense-)

And he was born and raised in Scotland (one of my favorite European countries just because of the history there) and he is an advisor to a Noble Family

He was born in 1689 and died in 1747. He lived to be 58

Hopefully that makes historical sense. My bf is a history nerd so maybe I’ll run the Esme lore passed him, but I wanted to post this anyway. Hopefully I’ll get the inspiration to finish this art haha

Machete and the universe he is set in (along with the art on the right) belongs to @canisalbus I love your art and your lovely dogs :)

*carefully picks you up and peeks into your conch snail shell*

Ehm... Sorry to bother, but... Could we, maybe, possibly... see Vasco's wife and her lover pictured by your hand? Sorry again, thank you for listening. Take care.

*delicately lays you back into the water to prevent any stress or dehydration*

Unfortunately I don't have her lover figured out yet, but I think Ludovica looks something like this:

Have you drawn Vittorio before? I'd like to see what he looks like pls.

Vittorio's design has given me more trouble than I expected, I'm still not sure if I'm happy with his looks. He's Machete's trusted personal secretary, a small and modest but resourceful and resilient man. I think he's somewhere in his mid 20's.

“he also employs a very competent personal doctor” - does this doctor have a name, or breed, or perhaps reference pictures? I would like to know… for reasons, lol!

Doctor Matteo Frosini, I imagine him as a fiftysomething Bracco Italiano from Florence. He has a dignified and collected look to him, but he can be surprisingly jovial and good-natured as well. Above all he's pragmatic, confident in his abilities and unflappable in a time of crisis.

How well could Machete take care of a sick Vasco?

He wouldn't be completely useless at it, I think. Medicine was one of the subjects he minored in so he has at least surface level theoretical knowledge on diseases and potential treatments. But he also employs a very competent personal doctor and if Vasco suddenly fell ill while visiting him, he'd likely trust Vasco in his hands rather than trying to diagnose and treat him on his own. Machete relies on doctors but Vasco isn't a fan, he wouldn't like being examined.

Vasco doesn't get sick very often so I'd imagine it would be a nerve-racking experience, Machete already fusses about his health and wellbeing when he's in peak condition. Vasco also has something of a habit of masking and downplaying it when he's actually hurt, so if he's looking and behaving visibly out of sorts it's something to worry about.

Machete would probably act a lot like those dogs that get concerned when their owners are feeling unwell, staying beside him (but mostly keeping a respectful distance in fear of coming across annoying and overbearing) as much as possible and feeling too consumed by anxiety to get anything else done. I can imagine him attempting to mirror the way Vasco himself acts when he's trying to comfort and cheer people up.

You’ve most likely answered this before but what breed exactly is Machete? I’ve been trying to figure it out for a while I’ve thought maybe a saluki but the ears arnt right.

In theory his breed is fictional Podenco Siciliano, but he's not a purebred example. Out of existing dog breeds he looks closest to (and is related to) Ibizan Hound.

But sometimes I see Silken Windhounds that also kind of remind me of him. They just don't have the characteristic bat ears.

hey another anon following up on Machete info, /why/ is Machete so disliked by his peers and held so tightly by the church?

I'm simplifying a little, but a lot of it has to do with how much of an outsider he is in his circles. The college of cardinals is composed of nobility and a significant portion of it operates on nepotism. Machete managed to get in mostly on his own merits. He doesn't have prestigious background, but he was mentored by an esteemed priest (and later bishop), studied and worked exceedingly hard and had excellent recommendations and a reputation as a dedicated, diligent, meticulous and obedient person. He landed a position as the Pope's personal assistant and was eventually created a cardinal by the said Pope. He has low tolerance for those of his peers that are incompetent or lazy, play dirty or abuse their power. He despises the flagrant corruption going on around him and actively tries to expose and weed it out whenever possible. His colleagues find him suspicious, overly strict, hard to work with and think he's either a deceitful social climber who got into his position by manipulating and sucking up to the Pope, or a foolish lowborn who doesn't know what he's gotten himself into.

After the Pope dies Machete loses his title as the secretary of state and is relegated into inquisition duty, which doesn't do his severe public image any favors. He starts to get infamous among laity as well, people generally don't think fondly of someone who deals with and oversees trials, excommunications and executions. Since he doesn't have a powerful family to back him up and he's never been that good at making allies, he's an easy scapegoat whenever other cardinals need someone to take the blame for their numerous scandals.

Machete was raised in a monastery after being left there by his parents at age 3 or 4 due to his sickliness, and started his training as a priest's apprentice at age 7 or so. The church has been a constant presence in his life for as long as he can remember and the only source of care and security he's had. He was driven to become a priest because he believed it would make him worthy of keeping around and provide him the respect, purpose and protection he needed.

why is machete faking his death again? idk the lore all i know is the dogs are gay and the white one has anxiety

Machete is a high ranking but generally disliked cardinal. He has a number of enemies and rivals within and outside of Vatican, and they're constantly trying to pry into his personal life to undermine him. He has managed to keep his relationship with Vasco a secret but the situation is precarious, especially when the threats start to escalate into recurring assassination attempts. He can't simply resign and leave though, cardinal's position is for life and the church has had him on a tight leash ever since he was a child. Even if he did manage to detach (professionally and mentally), those that plot against him might come after him anyway. But if everyone thought he was dead, he might be able to escape with Vasco and start over.

Do your ocs have like bean paws? I don’t think they have them on their hands, but what about their feet? Sorry if it’s a bit weird!

They do have paw pads on their hands and feet! This is just a quick messy sketch but hopefully it sort of illustrates the look I personally go for with my anthros.

Do the ears of your anthros move and convey body language, like irl dogs (ears back = fear or appeasement, etc) ? or is it just out of emotion, not intentionally communicating anything, but like a.. side effect (? idk how to word this) of feeling emotions?

I think it's a little bit of both? They tend to be more instictive (based on emotions) than calculated (deliberately used in nonverbal communication). They're an expressive facial feature like eyes, eyebrows and mouths. A specific ear position isn't restricted to a single emotion. Just like a human smile isn't always a sign of happiness, ears pulled back isn't necessarily a fearful, sad or submissive gesture, you have to interpret their whole face.

Floppy eared dogs have less range of motion than dogs with upright ears, which can make their faces a little harder to read, but the difference is pretty negligible. This is actually one of the reasons why Vasco is usually more challenging for me to draw, it's like his head is missing an entire layer of expressiveness when he doesn't have big satellite dishes to emote with.

Absolutely sending me that vasco sleeps butt fucking naked with his weird little Victorian doll boyfriend

Different strokes for different folks.

Vasco finds sleepwear kind of unnecessary and restricting. He doesn't insist on sleeping nude and can go to bed decently dressed if the situation calls for it, but if it's up to him and he's comfortable and in trusted company, he prefers wearing very little.

Machete gets cold easily and has weird body image issues, not being properly covered tends to distress him. Plus he has a thing for high guality garments and wants to look pretty or at least passably presentable even in bed.

So you've said before that regular dogs don't exist in Machete + Vasco's universe, since they're all anthropomorphized dogs. (Geez that's a big word–) But does that apply to all canines? Do normal wolves, coyotes, foxes, etc. still exist, or are they completely gone? Or did they become anthro, too?

Hehe sorry, I love worldbuilding and I'm too curious for my own good lol

Correct, four-legged domestic dogs don't exist because they have evolved to fill the role of 'people' in their universe.

Humans are absent and never existed.

Wild canines exist, but they're not anthropomorphic, they're the same as in our world. Dogs recognize wolves/coyotes/foxes etc. are similar to them in some ways, but view them as lesser creatures (similarly to how people see or have seen apes and monkeys) and typically have no qualms about hunting them. (Eventually dog Darwin will publish his controversial theory about anthro dogs and quadrupedal wolves sharing a common ancestor).

The rest of the animal kingdom is the same. Dogs have human diets (with slight emphasis on meat) and raise livestock for food, and keep cats, birds, rodents and other domestic animals as pets.

poor vasco's ear infections. I just imagine his ears in a soft fabric tie "ponytail" so he doesn't paw at them. Machete i think would be an excellent nurse at least. Poor Sad Golden Boy

The series of ear infections made him wary of doctors and taught him to be extra careful about keeping his ear canals dry and clean.

As soon as they started seeing each other regularly Machete's health neuroses expanded to cover Vasco's wellbeing as well and he made it his personal mission to make sure he's never uncomfortable or unwell if he can help it. Vasco can certainly take care of his ears himself but doesn't mind letting Machete clean them with a soft cloth and tepid saline solution whenever he's around.

Hey horse people, I'd love to hear your input on something:

I think Vasco's personal/favorite horse would be a dapple grey Andalusian. My equine knowledge is embarrassinly limited, but I believe they were held in very high regard among early modern European nobility, the real fancy-pants option you could say. Does that sound like a believable choice?

Is there a significant practical difference between mares, geldings and stallions? I know stallions were favored as war and tournament horses (the term for these is destrier I believe, think of medieval knights on horseback), but if we're talking about a horse you use mostly for riding, travel and hunting (these were called palfreys), would a gelding or a mare be preferred?

And from a historical point of view, if you were a wealthy noble that didn't do much fighting, would you still own a prestigious destrier horse just for showing off? Even if a palfrey was better suited for your needs? Not that it matters, I'm just trying to piece stuff together.

I've been trying to come up with a name for Vasco's horse, any suggestions?