part one
As humanity moved to reconstruct itself after the Great War, they came out of their bomb shelters, leaving the protection of the sturdy concrete, and coming up into the harsh conditions of a world ravaged by nuclear fallout.

The sickly, the elderly, the weak and young - they were hit most by the cold. Temperatures too deep for the average person to survive. However, things took a turn for something far worse when the raditation itself started to take its toll on humanity.

Soon, swarthes of people began to turn, inside and out, into hideous beings of mere skin and bone, shadows of their former selves. Their skin turned white, tinged blue by the cold. Their eyes grew wide, and appeared sunken in to their hallowed flesh and pasty, wrinkled skin.

The true victors, in all this, were the insects. They crawled into the abandoned, irradiated homes, and feasted apon the resources left by their recently deceased human neighbors. They grew into beasts as large as a human toddler, and the radiation only seemed to make them grow stronger, their shells like steel, their eyes with eagle-like perception.

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part two
Michael Dean was once a man of strong build and character. Then, his life was destroyed by the fallout. His two-year old child had suscepted to cold - his wife left him after surviving two years, a victim of long-set radiation poisioning. Their rooms were now occupied by giant roaches - Dean noticed how they seemed to thrive, how their hard shells protected them from cold and radiation alike. He was deeply interested.

He got together an assortment of knives, firearms - anything he could find, and took down the beasts that had invaded his home. Then, his resources gathered, he put his previous experience as a small-town mechanic to work. The plates started out as a large suit, of sorts, but it was too cumbersome to be considered practical. Dean nearly gave up at this point, until his neighbor, a former marines officer, showed him the blueprints he had taken from the war, for a post-war military grade suit. The two worked tirelessly together - Dean fashioning plates of roach-shell, and his neighbor fashioning them together with power cells of collected, compressed irradiated liquid and old wires from their long-dead televisions.

Dean's neighbor passed away before the suit's completion, and so it came together rickety towards the end. Dean attempted to piece everything together, but a freak accident with the nuclear waste caused parts of the suit to painfully melt to his skin. He finished the suit - it wasn't perfect, but it might get him through until a further solution showed itself.

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Hey everyone, I really hope you enjoyed this contest entry! If you did, diamonds are very much appreciated.

This is the sort of skin I've actually wanted to do for a very long time, though not exactly in this form. I really like how this one came out - it's dark, the colors are moody and expressive - I think it fits the contest perfectly!

From an artists perspective, I also tried to capture some lighter purples and blues in the highlights to reflect the cold. The detailing on this skin, for things like that, and the complex lighting - were a lot of fun and definitely new for me.

Once again, the story touches on some darker themes. It's a work of fiction - though I would say its not quite as inspired as say, my Grandpa's Doll skin (I don't think I'll ever top that :P). Anyways, thanks for viewing, and until next time, DFTBA.