And here we have a pair of the rank & file sendai that pretty much comprise the majority of the sendai population. Because the sendai were created to be SOL's working class they, essentially are the proletariat.

Most common sendai are indentured to a human (or humans) owner in a work contract that can be either the lifespan of the human (in this case it can transfer generational) or the lifespan of the sendai. The arrangements can be with the sendai working for the human in their residence or the sendai (singular or plural) operating a business the human owns. Often in these arrangements the sendai sees little to none of the profits living only to serve it's human owners as an instrument of profit through labor. Naturally this situation has evolved a tenuous dynamic in the class structure with sendai often cracking, going on the lamb, falling into crime, or outright killing sprees. This class structure is something mostly unique to Indus with the sendai population actually outnumbering humans depending on location and population distribution.

Some of these indenturement contracts can be set up on a yearly basis and its not uncommon for sendai to be involved in gambling to cut down the number of years in their contracts. Gambling on the Polemon conflict with Indus is a huge business and many sendai engage in betting on their favorite FOIL crews (the rank & file sendai idolize their FOIL brethren for their power and status as warriors in SOL. The irony is FOILs are enslaved to their FOIL frames so they are not really any more free in the classical sense). Many sendai can achieve freedom this way and often they flee to Polemos by legal or illegal means.

Polemos does not have the same kind of class structure as Indus and indenturement contracts with sendai are simply not common there. Most Polemon sendai are free sendai and many immigrating to Polemos, from Indus, have a hard time adjusting to these new freedoms. Those that don't typically fall into organized crime, often the gambling rackets.

These two fella here look pretty shifty so it's possible they're involved in illegal activity but appearances can be deceiving. I have no idea how the one of the right got his pottery head dome into that jacket (actually it pulls open all the way down at the front) and it looks like he's smuggling something in the front (sendai beer gut, don't think so). When I sent a WIP of these two he called the one on the right yo-yo- head, that works too XD

It's most likely clear, by now, that the Whispers material is going to be a black & white affair. Indeed the intent for the Whispers works is a very classic film noir look.

More to come...

Digitally inked pencils with gray scale tones in CS3.