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What is "Unraveled"? If anyone is familiar with my art in the past few years, I have red panda characters named Rubin, Tobias, Josephine, and Phoebe, and other furry characters. Unraveled is just the name for this little world of mine. The profiles are trivia sections are good places to start you know what's going on in the galleries. Though it can still be kind of confusing!
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Rubin Dreigh (red panda)
Born
in 1953, he was adopted at a young age by a Jewish-Russian couple,
Yakov the reindeer and Sonya the tiger. Growing up in a strict, single
child household, Rubin became something of a show-off. He loved
attention even if it was negative and would go to great lengths to get
reactions out of others. His interest in music in his early adulthood
sprouted from wanting to be noticed by the opposite sex. He soon found
he had a great talent for music and became fluent in just about any
instrument he could get his paws on, though he favors the violin. He formed a band called "Broken Hearts and Bones", which broke
up sometime after Rubin became widowed in his late 30s. Now
middle-aged, he struggles to find his path in life floating from one
freelance composing job to the next, and trying to raise two children
on his own.
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Josephine (red panda)
Josephine
is quiet and prefers to do her work behind scenes. Like Rubin, she was never knew her birth parents, but grew up in an orphanage in France, where she was never adopted. She became
interested in plays and musical troupes at a young age. She was too shy
to do any acting, so she became a stage hand. As a young adult she and
several other young women from her orphanage went to the United States
for overseas study, but they had a falling out. Josephine met Rubin and
his band several years later when she saw they were looking for a stage
technician. Mostly because they are the same species, she and Rubin
fell in love and eventually had a son. Years later, Rubin and
Josephine became more distant from eachother and decided to divorce...
bad timing since Josephine discovered she was pregnant again. Nobody
knows if she died after giving birth to their second child because of
her weakened spirit or an unknown health problem.
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Tobias Dreigh (red panda)
Tobias seems to be everything his father, Rubin, isn't. While Rubin is pushy, outgoing, and ambitious, Tobias is more quiet and prefers to keep to himself. He never liked being associated with Rubin's fame. Tobias expresses himself through artwork; drawing, painting, and cartooning in his spare time. He took up boxing for a short while in his teenage years. When his mother died, Tobias became withdrawn and despised Rubin (who wanted a divorce at the time) and his new baby sister, Phoebe. His personality became even more bleak when Rubin moved his broken family from their peaceful country home to a small apartment in the city to find more work. Though generally moody, Tobias responds well to positive company. He is currently in a happy relationship with his upbeat girlfriend, Polly the kangaroo.
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Phoebe Dreigh (red panda)
Born
in 1992, her birth was not a happy time. Her mother, Josephine died
and Rubin and Tobias' lives got turned upside down. However, Phoebe
is a happy soul who does not truly understand why her male relatives
are constatnly depressed. She and Rubin do get a long very well and
tend to act more like friends than father and daughter. She is now at
the age where her outgoing nature could lead to "trouble" with boys. Rubin and even Tobias have taken up the role as "protective
father/brother", much to Phoebe's annoyance. Like Rubin, she can be
bossy but has good relationships with peers. He sees her as a boss, someone in a position to control, one day.
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Polly (kangaroo)
Born in 1983, she and Tobias met as young adults. She's not sure what she wants to do in life yet, but will have fun figuring her path out. Polly is bouncy and playful but is actually the more mature and leading partner in her relationship with Tobias. She loves music and becomes quite amazed when she finds out Tobias is related to a former rock star, much to Toby's dismay. Polly's most unusual physical feature is the fact that, since she is a marsupial and has a pouch, she has no breasts. Walking around shirtless tends to confuse others who are not knowledgeable on her species.
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Leonard and Benjamin (meerkat and spectactled bear)
Many think they are gay, but in fact both are married to women. Leonard has fraternal twin daughters. The duo knew eachother since junior high and are best friends. They met Rubin at the time he was forming his band, "Broken Hearts and Bones". Like Rubin, Leonard is fluent in many instruments. Benjamin is skilled at the guitar and usually plays lead. Despite working with Rubin for years, Leo and Benji have always wanted to form their own band. They did eventually did just that when Broken Hearts and Bones broke up some time after Josephine's death.
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Kodi (African serval)
She was a Christian missionary working in West Africa at the time she met Rubin. While he was already skilled with the violin and a few other instruments, she taught him how to play the guitar. Calm and wise, she and Rubin constantly have friendly debates and arguments mainly because of their different beliefs, but in the end the two are close friends. She was the main one who consoled him at the time Josephine died. When the band broke up she became more focused on her humanitarian efforts.
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Oliver (fossa)
Being nearly a decade younger than Rubin, Oliver did not get much respect from the bossy red panda, despite the fact that Oliver is talented with percussion. Not to mention Rubin feels a bit threatened from the fact that fans love Oliver's tall, dark, and handsome looks. He was part of a very short lived electronics band in the early 80s in the United Kingdom and was visiting his American relatives when he heard about "Broken Hearts and Bones" needing a drummer. Over the years Oliver learned to have to tolerate Rubin's bossy ways, for Oliver himself also has leadership urges. When Rubin left the band, Oliver and the other remaining members stayed together for a few years more with Oliver as the lead, and the ambitious fossa eventually became a successful, solo artist.
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Megan (guinea pig)
At the time "Broken Hearts and Bones" were just beginning to become more known, and before Rubin met Josephine, the teenage Megan had a small fling with Rubin back stage after a concert. Ever since then she became obsessed with the band and followed their success closely, collecting magazine articles, buying all their albums, and kissing a large poster of Rubin she had on her wall. She hid her fannish ways when she married in her twenties yet still secretly lusted for Rubin. She even began writing odd fanfiction about him and became head honcho of many online fan groups focusing on "Broken Hearts and Bones". Megan's husband grew tired of her constant daydreaming and immaturity. Eventually he left her and got full custody of their sons. Megan now devotes her life to trying to find out more about Rubin, who became more distant and "unseen" over the years. Will they meet again? ONLY TIME WILL TELL.
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Yakov and Sonya (reindeer and tiger)
Yakov and Sonya both participated in a heated war (Predators verus Prey) when they were young adults. They met and hit it off well, for both of them were interested in peace and rights for plant eaters. After the war they wanted to get married for marriage between different species was now legal in their country. However, both Yakov's "herd" and Sonya's family disowned them. Yakov and Sonya adopted Rubin at the age of three when they were middleaged. Shortly after his adoption, Yakov decided it would be best to move from Siberia to the United States. With the help of his caribou herd brothers in the states, he, Sonya, and Rubin were able to move by plane and settle down, though tension still existed between them and single species families. Despite their rather unorthadox family unit, Yakov and Sonya are both very strict and rather conservative. Sonya especially is a classic "jew mom" who will guilt-trip and criticize Rubin one moment and then worry about him the next. He was glad to get away from them when he was a teen.
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Trivia
-Tobias was the first character here who I designed and named. -There used to be a different character who was Tobias' girlfriend, an opossum named Melanie. She was first drawn years prior in about 2001 or 2002. After awhile in 2006 I drew Polly and liked her so much I used her instead (they have basically the same personality). -Phoebe came next and I drew her because of a story idea on Tobias having to deal with a teenage sister who was pregnant (now I am unsure if I should make Phoebe's teen pregnancy "canon"). -Rubin is blatantly modeled after Danny Elfman in several ways. -Rubin's original name was Robert which is from Danny's middle name. Later I changed it to Rubin from one of my favorite movies "Rubin and Ed". -Rubin's last name, Dreigh, is from Danny's initials, D.R.E., but with more silent constanants added. -Rubin's middle name is Emmet which makes his initials R.E.D. -Leonard and Benjamin are somewhat modeled after John Linnell and John Flansburgh of the band They Might Be Giants. -Josephine's original name was Anna but I changed it after thinking of the Wallflowers song "Josephine". -Having a drummer (Oliver the fossa) become leader of a band is an idea I got from Phil Collins, originally just a drummer for Genesis, became the lead after Peter Gabriel left. Though obviously, Oliver is not modeled after Phil. He would be a badger, seriously. -Polly came about when I was doodling an anthro version of one of my made-up Pokemon, which explains her weird coloration. -One of my goals with "Unraveled" is a slice of life story, but also taking place in a universe where all and only mammals are anthropomorphic and the "animals" of their world are birds, insects, reptiles, and others. Don't think too deeply on how that happened. -Since mammals aren't beasts in the "Unraveled" world, other animals and things fill the niche. Ostriches and emus are beasts of burden, kiwis and quails are the equivalent of pet hamsters, and milk cartons have pictures of palm trees or nuts instead of cows since milk come from coconuts and almonds and other things. I had a little idea of Rubin visiting a country in West Africa and, not knowing the customs of a certain Wildebeest group, drinks milk they offered. He doesn't find out 'til later that it is considered polite to offer guests a bowl of milk from the breasts of the lead woman of the tribe. -I was originally going to have the animal people strongly resemble humans in the face, which is why the earliest art looks so weird. But I decided it was making the characters too hard to draw for me. Many of them still have low set ears and large brain cases though. I dislike furries with pure animal heads. -The title "Unraveled" is taken from an Oingo Boingo song called "My Life", which has some lyrics that make me think of Rubin. It can refer to his life falling apart and him putting it back together, I guess.
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All images belong to me , Iveechan, unless otherwise stated. Pokemon and other franchises do not belong to me, but I create imagesand stories based on what I like as a fan making no profit. Please refrain from editting or claiming art as your own.
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