The Chimera Company artwork from Cape Town artist Vincent Sammy is coming in now and helping me the visualize the scenes as I get ready to write the last couple of issues of season 1. The portrait you seeing here is of Militia Trooper Lily Hjon, a disgraced captain busted down to the ranks and placed in a punishment company. Some say Lily holds a few grudges; most know to keep such thoughts to themselves.

Lily has an all-body tattoo, but it’s not the kind of traditional ink worn by Lance Scipio and many of the characters in the books from earlier series. Hers is a viral-written bioprogram that writes itself as pigmentation directly into the skin. The color palette of her tattoos depend on the nutrients the bioprogram can extract from her diet. If you want to get in Lily’s good books, treat her to a bottle of “pig juice”: a pigment-rich drink that produces vibrant tattoo colors. It’s not cheap, though.

In Season1: Rho-Torkis, Lily’s face is showing roses bleeding blood, but the design of the tattoos is constantly changing, partly random and partly depending on her mood. If you photographed her every day, you would see the blood drips slowly drop down her cheeks, and the roses gradually morph into something new. I don’t recommend you do this without asking first. If Lily took exception, I wouldn’t want to be in your shoes.

There’s plenty more about Chimera Company on Facebook and in the Legionaries. Legion Bulletin#53 was delivered to inboxes last night. Not joined the Legion yet? You can always sign up here, and unlike the real Legion, it’s not for a minimum 25-year service term; you can exit any time you like 🙂

And now there’s more on the Human Legion website too. Mosey on over to the brand new Chimera Company page and let me know what you think.

I’ll be quiet next week because I’m heading over to Canada for a week to drink some Tim Hortons and celebrate my brother’s wedding. I’ll be back in time to finish the first draft of season 1 before the end of the year.

Tim