♦ We were born to die ♦ Sketch | Backgrounds | Linework + lore ♦

As promised in the weekend stories, here is a little WiP of the Rick/Misha animation I've worked on recently ♥ I filmed the entire process for this one, so there will be a much longer process video coming for the Grimport Residents before I post the finished vid online!

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I haven't talked at length about Misha online yet, mostly because he's kind of essential for the end of The Kostrov Traces, where this scene takes place. It's probably the most heartbreaking part (for me at least) of all the combined series because it really marks the definitive end between Rick who could, to a part, still separate reality from his paranoia, and Rick who no longer recognized himself, or his reality. It's also the only part of the books where Rick deliberately breaks his moral code, essentially destroying the last remains of the man he promised himself he'd become if he ever escaped the Underground.

Misha was, in a lot of ways, a lot like Rick. He was also a victim of the Underground, he lost his only family because of them and was trapped working for them against his will, much like Rick was decades ago. Unlike Rick, though, Misha wasn't able to escape, but he was extremely driven by grief and anger, plotting his revenge against his bosses, which lead him to meet Justus Harris, and alongside him, Rick.

The parallels between them didn't slip past Rick, and neither did Misha's eyebrow scar. It took Rick a bit of time to remember him, as their first meeting happened many years ago when they were both still children, but it was this memory alone that made Rick want to stay as far away from Misha as possible, fearing he's a mole sent by his ex-boss, Kendle, to find him in America.

What Rick did not know at the time, however, is that Misha would become his crutch, his main vessel to reach Kendle and end his legacy once Rick found out him and his family have been stalked and targeted for many, many years already. Driven by his fears and far too traumatized by recent revelations to leave anything to chance anymore, he would sadly use Misha's own yearning for freedom, the same one that saved Rick's life all those years ago, and turn it into a weapon against the Undeground bosses, but also against the both of them.