Orlequin — Gilt's creature, level 5

gold stilt-walker

Every clip below was re-rendered on 2026-10-18 from main (0b87d1ed1), with the outline and the hits and flinches from five sides. The 1080p showcase, the gold-vs-photo still, the plates and the overlays were not re-made and are on the archive page with the rest of pass 9. Orlequin, one of the god Gilt's creatures, from two concept sheets by S. Hofer: a faceted gold head on two four-coloured stilts, a crown of three red gems and a crystal mane. PASSES 8 AND 9, after the owner's direction 8. THE KNEES: ordinary walking knees bend forward again, and the sheet's O -- both knees bowed out, "( )" -- is its own pose, played in the new Sheet O clip and in declared windows of the flourish. In pass 8 the two O knees shared one bend plane, so from the gameplay three-quarter camera the legs collapsed into a single needle; pass 9 bends them in two different planes (right knee forward and out, left knee back), and from that camera the O now reads as two bowed shins with ground between them. A planar O always has one edge-on view: this pair gives up the side and the near-front diagonal, and pass 8's knees are shown beside it for comparison. THE FACE (pass 8): a rolling eyelid instead of the brow plate, a crescent mouth, the joker slit closed, earrings for the ear stubs, a softer palette and hills and valleys in the mane. THE CRAYON: a slanted crayon marbling over the whole creature, stuck to the surface, with the gold keeping most of its metal; the gems' fire sweeps continuously. NEW CLIPS: the needle check (an idle), the display (a peacock rise), the scurry, a rapier thrust (visual only, no combat data), the sheet O and the O flourish, whose knee wheel now follows the knee constants. The Pirouette gains its swoosh. Open decisions in the Studio: judge files u03_crayon_marbling (the crayon grain scale: the default may be too fine to see at gameplay distance; 2.5 and 3.5 are options), u03_clip_roles (the O flourish as the special after a kill, the thrust as the normal attack, the display as the laugh), u03_fire_continuity. Still open for the owner: which knee pair (pass 9's or pass 8's), the bow width (wider than the drawing), and a brown band across the forehead early in the flourish. Placeholders: every combat number and the name. THE OUTLINE (W308, 2026-10-07): until now Orlequin drew no cel ink at all -- it ships without vertex normals (its facets shade from screen derivatives), so the ink hull had nothing to push along. The mesh upload now gives it ink-only welded normals that the body shading ignores, and every clip on this card was re-rendered with the outline; the facet shading is unchanged.

how it lives how it fights the O scale orbits the console view
The breathing idle, 120 keys, from the three-quarter front: both knees bowed outward in the O, weight from stilt to stilt, the heavy head lagging, a ripple through the mane; the legs' gold now behaves exactly like the face's, trading deep gold and cream as they shift

Both needles stay planted (declared bite, probed). The sun shadow is the mesh's own at a 24 m shadow box; the game's near cascade stays off (its cost, see the blurb).

The high-step stalk, faster (a 56-key cycle, 2.59 m/s), filmed for three cycles with the camera following: the head lags the body, the mane fans on the plant
The showy run with a bounce: the knees bow outward and the swinging knee lifts wide, the planted needle telescopes at mid-stance and the body rises on it, a chin toss on every plant
Admires its own mane: the body turns only a little, the head turns AWAY and down to look at it, so the fanned mane faces you through the pose; the legs crossed, the gold flashing (150 keys)
Chin up, a slow condescending sweep, the sneer preset
"Come on, then": a rear-up on telescoped legs, two head JABS at you with the jaw barking, a laughing head shake, the mane fanning and snapping shut (90 keys)
A CURTSEY: both needles telescope in so the head goes down near the ground; the right leg now sweeps back nearly straight in a courtier's leg-back
One stilt lifted -- its knee raised outward, keeping the O -- a wobble, a sharp correction
The falling tree: it keels over its planted tips, accelerating -- then EIGHT quick alternating steps race to land under the falling head, the stance narrowing as it is caught; it steps home and looks round as if nobody saw (150 keys)
It speaks: the white lens of a mouth opens on a syllable table to show the dark inside, head nods on the stresses, 86 keys (close, near front)
Low HP: the head sagged and tilted, the favoured leg's knee buckled further outward, a tremor and two winces
The needle inspection, 120 keys: a flamingo lift, two telescope checks, a tsk-tsk, a flick, a stab replant, then a glance at the viewer
The peacock, 140 keys: it rises 1.1 m, fans, flares the rim, turns its profile each way, rattles and dips
A low, quick hurry at 4.62 m/s, three cycles, the camera following
THE ATTACK, 97 keys: the crouch (the tell), the needles TELESCOPE, four turns with a soft fading smear trailing the blades (a bright line at the blade, feathered edges), one strike per turn, the retraction

Area damage in a RING at 6.4 m reach (tests/test_u03_combat: arc 360 against an arc-70 control; four strikes in play).

One stilt planted, the other telescoped out, three turns on one leg
THE ANTI-AIR STAB: one needle chambers, spears straight up far above the gem head, then folds sideways and drops

The only melee that reaches a flier, and only one nearly overhead; deliberately weak (judge file u03_pierce_up).

A rapier lunge, 64 keys: it chambers with a red twist, punches over three keys on a 2.2 m telescope, holds and retracts

Visual only: no events and no combat data yet. Proposed as the normal attack (judge u03_clip_roles).

Two tiers, the pass-2 motion kept (the owner: keep the hits and jolts): a big blow plays the full reaction, a small one a jolt -- which now also bristles the mane, dulls the gold for a blink and flicks the crown, so it reads at 240p (tests/test_u03_combat section 5)

Big hit, front
Big hit, right
Big hit, left
Big hit, back
Big hit, top (the crush)
Jolt, front
Jolt, right
Jolt, back
Jolt, left
Jolt, top
Felled backwards in one continuous fall, a press and a small bounce on impact; the legs drop as it lands and lie in a heap (one stilt still hangs in the air for a moment, far shorter than pass 3's hold)
A staged struggle, 84 keys: one needle plants, the push fails, the second plants, the head comes up last
Airborne: a full turn per loop, the legs flailing, the mouth agape, the mane in every frame
The landing, heavier: the points stab in, the head drives down past rest and recovers (36 keys)
Thrown end over end
The death: it rears, half-pirouettes on one needle, then topples onto its side -- the far leg flung out straight, the near folded under
The HEADSHOT death: a frozen flare, then the skull cap with the eyes kicks off BACKWARDS (it no longer clips into the head), the gold plates, the crown gems and the mosaic's stones fly, the shins and splinters burst from the legs; every piece tumbles, bounces and settles (held; filmed at a fixed distance, so shards leave the frame)

Played when the killing blow lands on the head or mane (combat.death_headshot, sheet death.headshot_clip); every other kill plays Death. The cap-vs-head clip is probed in tests/test_u03_ground section 9, with a control.

Unfolds and rises past its height, a full roll of the mane, presents itself
The sheet's own pose: from the ordinary knees the legs swing out into the O, hold it, and swing back. Pass 9's knees bend in two planes, so from this three-quarter camera the O reads as two bowed shins with ground between them

Default knee pair: right forward 200 / out 1000, left back 1000 / out 400 (u03_pose.h kKneeO*). Both needles stay planted.

The knee wheel: right, then left, then both into the O for two plies, and a smug nod. The wheel now follows the knee constants

Proposed as the special, after a kill (judge u03_clip_roles).

The same two clips on pass 8's knee pair (both knees in one bend plane): a clean diamond from the side and the front diagonals, but one needle from this camera. Shown for the owner's choice; the default is pass 9's pair above

Sheet O, pass 8 knees (comparison, not default)
O flourish, pass 8 knees (comparison, not default)

A Zixxtrixx (the first creature) standing in its stance beside it: Orlequin is about six metres tall

Idle, a Zixxtrixx 3 m to its side
The sweep, a Zixxtrixx 7.6 m out -- just outside the 6.4 m ring
The idle while the camera turns once round it: the legs and the face one gold from every side
The preen from every side
The taunt from every side
The four-turn sweep while the camera turns
Close on the head while the camera circles: the re-authored crown -- a mosaic of tilted crimson, orange and blue triangles like the drawing's -- each facet a cut stone, with a darker inner table that slides and a highlight that travels as it turns
Under the night sky: the face and the legs lifted to one moonlit gold with the hot spot travelling, the gem facets mirroring the night sky
What the console sees today: the software reference view, faceted cel with flat pigments

No metal, no telescoping, no flying debris: the console reference does not have them yet (a report went to the hardware session).