The Shadow Man Strikes Again!

The second illustration of June is completed! I teased the sketch of this one all the way back in October, so it's been a long time coming, but hopefully it was worth the wait.

I also want to give a huge thank you to fellow patron and friend Sid for writing an AMAZING story inspired by the artwork which you can read below!

The streets of New Orleans were more lively than usual today. A foreign prince by the name of Naveen was in town and making his way throughout the city, mingling with the people.

This was both a hindrance and a blessing to one Dr. Facilier, otherwise known as "The Shadow Man".

True the larger crowds made it easier for him to slink and slither his way through the city without rousing any suspicions, but it also made it harder for him to locate his current prey, which just happened to be the foreign prince causing all the commotion.

He had just had his shadow pickpocket a gentleman and was prepared to move onto a new location, when he heard a whiny voice raise above the crowd.

"Sire! I've been looking for you everywhere!"

"Sire, eh?" The Shadow Man mused to himself. " You don't hear that title gettin’ thrown about' much down in these parts. Sounds promising." He began to make his way towards the whining, his shadow moving ahead of him on it's own. Slithering through the crowd, it laid it's sights on two men. One a short, fat and pale creature, clearly the owner of the whiny voice and the other a tall handsome being with beautiful dark skin.

"What a coincidence, Lawrence! I have been avoiding you everywhere!" Naveen exclaimed to the shorter man, all while playing away on the ukulele he held in his arms. Each strum of his instrument blended perfectly with a local jazz band playing in the crowd. "Listen, Lawrence' listen! It's Jazz music! It was born here!" He practically moaned in delight as he continued playing.

A group of women watched the ukulele playing prince with an attention that indicated their eyes appreciated what they saw rather than what their ears heard. The attention he was receiving did not go unnoticed by Naveen as he slowly made his way towards the women.

"It is beautiful, no?" Naveen asked the group of swooning women.

Dr. Facilier had made his way through the crowd and saw the same thing his shadow did, which was an overconfident playboy that needed to be taken down a peg. He gave his shadow a wink and a nod. The shadow smiled and slithered along the wall where the prince cast a shadow of his own.

It reached out and fiddled with the shadow of Naveen's belt buckle until it came undone. Had anyone been paying attention they would have noticed the prince's actual belt being unclasped at the same moment.

With a swift tug, Naveen's belt slid right out of his pant loops.

"Achidanza!" Naveen exclaimed as he noticed his belt floating in front of him.

It was at this moment that he felt a draft.

Unfortunately for the prince, New Orlean’s fashion included baggy pants that required a belt to stay in place.

*PLOP*

Also, it was a shame that Naveen had neglected to wear any undergarments that day.

The entire crowd gasped and went silent along with the jazz band.

The prince looked at Lawrence who stared at him in shock, confirming what he knew to be true. He then reluctantly looked down to see his exposed privates!

"Pas Achidanza!" he screamed and bent down to retrieve his fallen pants, dropping his ukulele in the process.

"Oh my, how degrading," Lawrence said with a grin indicating he felt no sympathy for his exposed master.

The shadow made its way back to Dr. Facilier and placed the stolen belt into his palm. "Nice trophy." He said. "But let's not forget our main goal here." He leered at the fleeing Naveen struggling to keep his pants up, giving the onlooking crowd quite the show. "The young man with the nice rump is gonna be my ticket to the big times! Now, let's go and introduce the poor embarrassed lad to my friends on the other side..."