Give me one more time around
give me one more chance to see,
Give me everything you are
Give me one more chance to be near you.

When everything inside me
Looks like everything i hate
You are the hope i have for change
You are the only chance I'll take

And I'm on fire when you're near me
I'm on fire when you speak
I'm on fire burning at these mysteries.

Well...this...requires explaination, I guess. Don't get squicked too easily now!

Okay, I was working on my long over-due half of a trade for :iconNoeIzumi: (of Pippin and Mavrin being quite calm), and all of a sudden, tango-ing people come out of my pencil. I don't know what happened, my muse suddenly smacked me upside the head and *poof* there it was. Honestly, s/he's never done anything like this before.

Well, "when the spirit says sing" and all that. So I realize that I must now draw a couple doing the tango. But --problem!-- none of my commonly sailed 'ships (that's favorite couplings, y'all) work well for the tango. Swing, yes. But the tango is the darkly passionate, almost angry dance that doesn't really fit Pippin/Diamond, Todd/Wanda, or Otto/Rosie...ect.

Then one of my muses (I think it was Luki. Brian's too sensible to do this) whispered in my ear...
"Rogue and Toad"

And it worked.

Rogue/Toad is a ship that I cautiously sail, and only in the Ultimate X-men universe, but I think it works fairly well. It's also one of the less mushy ones, because of the way the characters are. The writers have, from time to time, given Toad a smidge of humanity. Toad was also protective of Rogue to the point of getting hurt and captured trying to help her escape. Rogue, in Ultimate, is a b***h. She's angry at the world. In the most recent issue, we've seen that while she's an X-men, she still has the "anything goes" attitude from her Brotherhood days. I don't think she should be with a "goody-goody" like Bobby...it's too convienant.

What I like is the idea that Toad was attracted to her, but that Rogue never knew, or would never let herself know. Being so hurt and angry about how her life had gone, she'd push anyone away, especially an unattractive, scrawny, green Brit. Now, when a pretty boy like Bobby shows some intrest, she'll jump at it, but only as a way of claiming something "special" for herself.

...meph...I'm not making a whole lot of sense. I think it's really such a weird ship that explaining it would take a while--and I've already taken too much space. I love talking about this kind of stuff.


ANYWAY!!
I don't think I've worked this hard on a picture since "Fairies Four" and maybe not even then. Eventually, I just got kind of lazy, but for the most part, I worked my tail off--spent days...probably close to a week, really, on this, from start to finish. I might do a "step-by-step" thing with it one day.
I'm very pleased with the way it came out, especially Toad's face. Rogue is supposed to be angry--like she's trying to pretend he's not there, but still wants him there...um...right, no more explainations. It's probably not a tango move, but it's the general feel.
It started out much angrier--kind of a Tango de Roxanne feel. But while I was coloring it, I mostly listened to "On Fire" by Switchfoot and "Unchained Melody" by the Righteous Brothers, along with a few other romantic songs. So...
There you have it.

Rogue and Toad (c)Marvel
the hours of painstaking work and finished product (c) ME.