This was actually a collaboration between myself and my mate,  KrypticRaven <3
(she keeps an updated portfolio on DeviantArt: http://krypticraven.deviantart.com/ )

We spent ALL DAY screwing around in oC until suddenly this started to happen before our eyes. Once we decided we wanted to do an actual, complete picture... we screwed around for another ... god, how many hours? *checks the im logs*...

TEN HOURS!?

Jesus Christ!!

Well. Time flies when you're having art o.o;

There were frequent breaks, for food or restroom or real life in general, or just going off to sketch something else somewhere on the canvas... Come to think of it, this timeless place of mutual creativity reminded me of the dream world that Cobb and his Wife created together in Inception! XD

It seems that I have a bit of a penchant for hurriedly slapped-together extremely vague and impressionistic backgrounds. But what can I say: I do, after all, treat my backgrounds like backgrounds :p Stone and Cassiendra are in focus; everything beyond them would've been blurred out by Depth of Field anyway!

Premise of this picture:
Relating to Cassiendra is usually very hard for a person to do. Generally she -seems- cold and callous, and exudes the vibes of an incredible, invincible, implacable badass... but Stone has been running into her a few times, and found that there's more to her than that. She's a genuinely caring person... she loves her family and is working herself to death to keep a roof over their heads and food on their plates. She was charged with being their sole protector and teacher. She loves to bake. She even gave him a cookie once; she is just.. unfortunately very bad at expressing herself.

When the pressure got too much, she was on the verge of breaking down in the tavern, but ... didn't quite know how to deal with it. Everybody else was keeping their distance; because nobody wants to push HER berserk button. When Stone walked in and saw her, though, he knew something was wrong. He had to do something, maybe give her an opportunity to vent; he walked right up, sat down, and said "...hey."

And that's when the dam burst.

He was the only person who bothered to talk to her, to even give her a second look. And truly, though she was a very intriguing acquaintance, and they had a bit of a rapport going between them, they otherwise hardly knew each other. Stone did admittedly want to get to know her better, but he hates to pry... rather than push the sled off the top of the hill, he waits at the bottom, you might say. He hasn't even asked her for her name yet. It turns out, that's why she trusted him that evening.

Shuddering as she struggles to hold the pieces of her shattered composure together, she asks him to meet her outside... where she starts bawling against his shoulder.

Cassiendra was convinced that she was a failure, that nothing she did was ever turning out right. She didn't have the energy or time to take a fourth or fifth job, so they might lose their home, and tradition charged her as the sole protector and teacher of her family. Stone took it upon himself to remind her, as he'd recalled from their previous conversations, that she's the only one that *was* doing anything to improve the situation at all; that she was the only reason they still did have a home, even now.

I believe the exact line of dialogue depicted for this image had been, "Yer bein' awful hard on yerself, M'am... You deserve more credit than that." in his humble country twang.