Studio Peaches

Akello CG#2

Added 2025-05-19 20:02:43 +0000 UTC

With this CG, I knew that I wanted to do something romantic and intimate. The three ROs all kind of move at different speeds and I wanted Akello's chapter 2 cg to really establish the MC breaking down his walls and getting closer to his tender sides. I asked Atlas for a close up with foliage and a chance to show off a rare, full smile from Akello, who (up to this point in the story) has kinda been exasperated or stressed out a lot.

You can see from the sketches, Atlas made this a difficult choice for me. Akello's natural propensity towards gentleness and his drive to protect and care for others are really evident in the soft expressions. Ultimately, we decided to go with a head on/ full eye contact image because it felt the "realest". Funfact! Akello is a really tall guy and I don't think most MCs would be looking him straight in the eye like this, however, I felt like the intimacy was so important to the moment that I kind of did what I could to draw attention away from the small discrepancy and focus on building up the scene's impact.

For the flowers, I wanted Akello to give the MC dogwood flowers. They're not traditionally a bouquet flower as they grow on dogwood trees but they come in a variety of shades with white and pink being the most common. Not only can you find them all up and down the eastern coast of the US (generally the inspiration for the Tri City area) but they're incredibly prominent in the Southeast, where I imagine Akello's family is from and where I like to think he spent a lot of his childhood. It's a callback to family and roots and, to me, kind of symbolizes that he's opening his heart up for a deeper connection.