This season I want John to use his projecting powers/his arm to kill again, but this time I don't want it to be out of hatred, I want it to be out of devotion to Arthur, so devoted he becomes unrecognizable in a way we've never seen before. I want him to become utterly visceral. Out of so much devotion that it doesn't even cross Arthur's mind that this could be remanence of The King in Yellow, John's his own now, I want him to blur the lines between John and something else entirely, something worse. 
Okay I usually hate trying to design characters but I’m having so much fun figuring John out so here’s yet another John concept design idea for you
The ALT text won’t work, so I’m gonna put the image ID here <3333
Image ID: This is my second time rewriting this so sorry it’s an… iffy description. Anyhow, John is portrayed as a fog-shrouded, shadowy figure under a large, ripped-up, yellow cloak. Dark fog seeps from the rips in the bottom of the fabric, twisting and turning. The darkness holds up a human-like Silhouette, with the addition of two upward-turning horns on the upper right side of where his head would be. The left side of his face is covered by a white, mostly-featureless mask, save for sharp, sun ray-like spikes protruding from the lower side of it. The mask’s eye is open, but any eye-like feature cannot be seen behind it, while on the revealed part of his face, a small, somehow even-darker-then-the-darkness orb lays where an eye would be thought to be. Above his head, a large, yellow halo floats at a slight angle, with a four-sided star shape in the front of it, and with it’s sides separating into two “paths” before meeting once more. Next to this sketch, Yellow is drawn much the same, except his features are opposite. His mask covers the right side of his face, rather than his left, it’s spikes are on the upper half of the side of it, and it’s eye is closed. His “horns” of sorts lay on the bottom left side of his face, not the right, and are facing downwards, rather than upwards. His halo is a solid line, with thorn-like spikes adorning its hoop. Above these drawings are some partial, kinda-old notes on past designs, one saying, “more intimidating to me, like John” (talking about the previous design idea), and “fuck Yellow”. We ignore this last one, as I am a changed person.
Let the eldritch abomination have a minute to determine left from right so he can guide his blind angry British P.I. landlord around (they run into a pole five seconds later)
I spy the glass, the tooth, the stone, The poem, the wallet, the hooks, the bone, The razor of course to help him shave, What else can we find today? I spy the frame of gold, Black goat horns shiny and cold, Ten coins, the squid, the song, the facet, But where's the gun? He must've lost it… I spy eight eels, and six ducks afloat, A hand extended, a hand at throat, The wicked smile, the broken machine, The tendrils, the river, the man in between
Click keep reading for closeups and progress pictures
This piece is inspired by the album cover art of 0 by arai tasuku, illustrated by C7(HIROKO SHIINA) @c7-shiina, shown below
[ID: A digital illustration of Arthur Lester and John Doe of Malevolent, drawn from the waist up, facing the camera. Arthur holds his lighter in one hand, which casts his face in warm light, while his left hand, John's hand, protects the flame. John is a visage of color and abstract shapes wrapped around Arthur. A few small black tendrils creep in from the corners around Arthur's body.
Character designs: Arthur is a thin, pale man with short, straight brown hair, a thin mustache and beard, who wears a white button down shirt and grey suspenders. He has a slashing scar across his throat. He looks right ahead at the viewer with lidded eyes that are bright gold.
John is a non-corporeal figure cast in splotches of yellow and black, filling the darkness around Arthur in the loose form of a hooded figure with asymmetrical eyes appearing from beneath the hood. Around their shared hand, the skin is darkened grey, and a larger dark tentacle wraps around it. End ID.]
Wouldn't it be so fucked up if Arthur got Kayne the stone and he gave Faroe back as promised and she was just off, different, not the daughter he raised, not Faroe. That would be soooooo fucked up right