Description
I finally finished my Ruvik, AKA “Ruben Victoriano” (character from “The Evil Within” videogame franchise). I mainly used the ‘model viewer’ from the game itself to make the (burn) scars as identical as possible to the rendered model you see in the game (even find out that Ruvik has this ‘weird holes’ in the palm of his left hand, and I’m sure not many know this because it’s not visible in the game and even in the model viewer you’ve got to put an extra effort to find them, but they’re there...); - He is a fully articulated BJD (ball jointed doll), on 1/3 scale (70cm tall, that’s like 27,5 inches?), completely customized by me (I even made the eyes; they’re urethane resin eyes that have “glow in the dark” feature for a ghostly look when the light go out, and that “yellowish sick look” when they’re exposed to the regular light). Head sculpt is (was) a ‘Fifth Motif’ Venitu (from the company Dollshe), all marks and wounds are actually carved and textured (with a red-hot iron instrument I use for modification) and the brain part is carved and re-sculpted whit e-poxy putty for the brain texture, then the ‘clear part’ was made with transparent resin, and the metallic “holes” are indeed made of metal, and the stitches on his face are real surgical suture/string pieces, permanently glued on him where they must be (--yeah I like my stuff to be as ‘permanent-and-real’ as I can make them, so they last in time--). I also made the clothing and burn patterns and modifications to mimic the original design. So it’s like “a very big and detailed action figure”, and, I must mention that as any other BJD, he is ‘anatomically correct’ (not my ‘kinky thing’ in particular, but all BJDs are, so... yeah... I was also “shocked” first timed I got into the BJD hobby back like a reaaaallllyyyy long time ago, and then you get used to have “anatomically correct” dolls that can kill you in your sleep). You can see the WIP (work in progress) in this folder: mechanic-star.deviantart.com/g…
I saw the character made into several other BJDs before (from different owners), but (while beautiful) non filled my expectations. This is a very ‘think’ and ‘sick’ individual (and no, his eyes aren’t “gold-yellow” per se’.., they’re light-blue with a tone of yellow all over because he has liver failure due to his condition), so I see this dolls and think to myself, it can’t possibly have a muscular “strong” Iplehouse E.I.D. body (I have several on other dolls and they just don’t add up to the character), not does he has an “anime face” with small pointy nose and big eyes much like Volks dolls (as I’ve seeing other dolls “cosplaying” Ruvik so to speak). - BJDs are wonderful because you can get the character you want as detailed and as truthful as you like, and there was something bugging me all over the place with all other Ruvik dolls I ever saw online... I admire the work and thumbs up to the owners, but it seems like none got the guts to make an extreme modification because they fear to “ruin the doll” (and it potential resale value if they change their mind about it, thankfully I have over more than 50th dolls and I don’t plan to feel guilty about “destroying” this to make him since I still think if I was ever to sell him I would certainly find some fans willing to buy him just like he is and keep him as “Ruvik”, not that I plan to sell him anytime soon, but just saying the game it’s a modern classic by now).
I most likely will be making a ‘Stefano Valentini’ next (he’s an antagonist from the 2nd TEW game), specially because compared to Ruvik, Stefano it’s easy to pull out giving he has only ONE distinctive scar, and that’s on his face (so I’ll only have to do his head and he can use any regular BJD body, I even have a tiny japanese real working camera from the 70’s that was given to me by my dad so... it’s not a prop, it’s a real camera that looks too good to let the opportunity pass... I’m not keen on Stefano clothing choice since I’m horrible making outfits, but since he is seeing with at least 2 different clothing sets in the game I guest I can work something until I have the time and patience to do his signature “purple-blue” outfit). So yeah... might take some time, but most likely Stefano will be next on the list...
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* As a funny note, I (severely) burned my hands while working on the burn-scars for Ruvik (body)... so... IRONY. - You can smell it in the air (along with my skin). - But!, what doesn’t kills you...
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Character Story: [SPOILERS AHEAD, YOU HAVE BEING WARNED]
As any TEW fan (or Ruvik fan for that matter) knows, Ruvik (Ruben Victoriano) is a very particular character, although he is kinda’ the main antagonist on the first TEW game, he has a very dramatic story behind (and, unlike Stefano on the 2nd game, a lot of good reasons for killing the people he kills, not that he’s not a sociopath, just that by knowing his story you get to understand “why” he’s doing what he’s doing). --- At age 10 he was in a fire at a barn (caused by people from the village that was “unhappy whit his dad” buying all the lands in town) that killed his sister and the only person that seemed to care or loved him (Laura Victoriano) while she was saving him from the blazing fire, but still he suffered a grate amount of disfiguring burns all over his body. His parents where kinda’ rich assholes so his dad throw him into the mansion basement (and told his mom that “the two kids have died on the fire”), locking him up for good because he was apparently “too ashamed” of his own soon and how he looked after the incident. - At age 18, Ruvik was already crazy enough (and quite angry) to get out the basement and kill his parents on their bedroom with a kitchen knife (and later on staging a car accident to cover the murders, truth is Ruvik didn’t knew her mom had no idea he was still alive in the basement so... *ouch*, guest he found out after killing her). - From that point on he refused any more skin transplants or treatments (being ‘that bad’ burned out, his body was unable to regulate temperature causing him extreme headaches and seizures among other symptoms, maybe that’s why he has so little clothing perhaps..?, and possibly liver failure since the sclera {the ‘white part’ of eyes} has turned somewhat “red” around the iris and then quite yellow in the rest, giving him this particularly eye color). Ruvik ended up retiring himself into his own mansion, living alone and secluded from the world, working on STEM (literally the definition of making “the matrix” but horror themed device) with the intention to first “live inside the machine” with his sister Laura (who died saving him from the fire, well, actually she got very badly burned and last records are that she fall off the higher part of the barn hitting her head and entering some comatose-vegetable state before dying in a hospital bed two weeks after the initial incident), and later on, finding a compatible host to transfer his mind into. - “Test subjects” (crazy people from ‘Beacon Mental Hospital’, on ‘Krimson City’) where delivered to him regularly in exchange for “generous donations” (of his family fortune) by the hand of Dr. Jimenez, who seemed to be his only friend but ended up taking credit for Ruvik research and ultimately sold his idea of STEM to the (evil?) MOBIUS corporation, resulting on MOBIUS agents going into Ruvik’s research lab (age 37 by this time), taking all of his research and even Ruvik himself (as he had grew paranoid of Dr. Jimenez taking his research, and had modified the STEM system to be in need of a “core mind” that had to be his own and no one else). - As they only needed his brain/mind to activate the STEM system, they paralyzed him using his own drugs and slice him up until there was nothing more than his brain (needless to say he was completely conscious and feeling while they cut him alive piece by piece). - So back to MOBIUS, they installed Ruvik’s brain (in a crystal burble) into STEM to make it work but Ruvik gain power inside STEM and killed everyone the corporation sent in, so MOBIUS took out the brain in the physical form (from the machine in the real world), but not before Ruvik (provably suspecting what they where up to) “copied himself” to STEM in digital form/mind. As a “core subject” of STEM he had a lot of power and influence over everything that happened inside the system (almost God-like), but the only thing Ruvik wanted, was to get out to the real world, point was... he didn’t had a body anymore. - So, back on track, after taking everything and faking his death/disappearance, MOBIUS set up a fire on the entire ‘Victoriano Mansion’ that burned to the ground. Having no friends or relatives, no one ever cared for not finding Ruviks body and they all assumed “he died on the fire that consumed the mansion” (while in fact it was all a MOBIUS cover up). - But by that time Ruvik had already found a compatible host, Leslie Withers, a young very disturb kid (he’s actually 25 but has the mind of a autistic child, and he’s also albino... so it looks like 16s..? kinda’..?), that was traumatized because apparently he saw his parents being murdered in front of him and eventually ended up at Beacon Mental Hospital (and Dr. Jimenez took him to Ruvik as a test subject). - The game starts off when Dr. Jimenez tries to activate a prototype STEM system at the Beacon Mental Hospital (without MOBIUS authorization), and that event “sucks” (into this nightmarish world made up based on Ruviks memories and imagination) everyone in. This includes (now formerly) Detective Sebastian Castellanos, Detective Joseph Oda, and July Kidman (no one but Ruvik knew she was actually working for MOBIUS as a double agent). - Kidman it’s sent by The Administrator (that was on charge of her) to stop Ruvik from getting out to the real world by retrieving Leslie Withers (who was the only test subject that had being “in” and “out” the STEM system alive and now was “trapped” inside again), since Leslie was compatible with everyone (due to his pathology and how he was able to mimic other people behaviors) and was a valuable asset for developing a new STEM with a core mind that wouldn’t kill everyone inside the system (like Ruvik did). - Finally all characters are unable to get Leslie outside of STEM safe, while July Kidman tries to kill the boy in a certain moment (in stand of retrieving it for MOBIUS) because it was obvious that Ruvik influence on the boy was growing ever so strong by the minute. Ruvik is able to get to the boy completely and transfer/copy his mind into Leslie body, so at the end Leslie wakes up whit Ruvik inside his mind. - Unfortunately for Ruvik, it’s unclear if MOBIUS agents take “Leslie” into custody or if he’s able to escape (we see him escape at the end of the main game leaving Beacon Mental Hospital, but in the DLC that follows July Kidman story we see when “Leslie” wakes up from STEM and it’s taken by MOBIUS agents). What it’s certain is that he (Ruvik inside Leslie body) is still alive and gets away alive from the first game. And that’s all we know of him until this date. Other than the possibility than after the events of the second game, even if “Leslie” was taken into custody, he might have being able to escape when most MOBIUS field agents died due to the ‘kill-switch-chip’ that Myra (Castellanos) detonates inside STEM affecting the (real world) agents (...long story, spoilers from the 2nd game, sorry... but I did warn you for spoilers at the beginning of this text so... #sorrynotsorry ?).
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* [All characters and copyright stuff to Bethesda and Tango Softworks, also, Shinji Mikami and his team]