#Based on the initial interaction doodle

[cathalbravecog]

the twins being twins

(and cassie debut..? her design may change but I've been stuck on her for a year and I finally have a result im fairly happy with ^^)

[tarobambi]

͏⭒ ۪۪ . ͏ ͏ ͏✏️ 🧁 ͏ nerd ͏ ͏ armin♡゙headcanons

➳ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ౨ৎ ͏ ͏ ͏ a/n: ͏ nerd Armin is engraved in my brain right now so I wrote these ͏ .·:*¨☆ ☆¨*:·. ͏

͏❀ ͏ ͏͏ ۪۪ . 💭 ͏〜 ͏͏ warning(s): none, pure fluff ͏ ͏͏ ͏͏͏͏͏❤︎ ͏

©tarobambi 2025 don’t steal ｡ ●ω●｡ 🍏🥛🩵

1. He Falls First — and Hard

Armin catches feelings fast. He tries to rationalize them with logic (“It’s just oxytocin, it’s fine...”) but he's doodling your name in the margins of his notebooks and overanalyzing your every interaction. He falls headfirst, heart-first, everything-first.

2. Soft, Timid Cuddler

He's the kind of guy who hesitantly asks, “Can I hold you?” the first time — but once you say yes, he melts into you. He loves when you lie on his chest while he plays with your hair and mumbles random facts until you fall asleep.

3. Shared Blanket While Studying

You’re both curled up under one blanket at his desk or on the couch. He’s highlighting notes, you’re doodling on his pages, and every once in a while he just pauses to press a kiss to your temple.

4. Blushing Bookworm

Every time you compliment his intelligence or say something like, “You’re so cute when you talk like that,” he blushes immediately and tries to hide his smile behind a book.

5. Morning “I Missed You”

He’s a big fan of sleepy morning cuddles and gentle forehead kisses. Even if he saw you the day before, he’ll say things like, “I missed you… I had a dream we were reading together.”

6. Handwritten Love Letters

Armin writes love letters in cursive on aged paper like it’s the 1800s. He keeps one in his backpack “just in case” he wants to give it to you, but sometimes chickens out and hides it somewhere for you to find instead.

7. Always Soft-Spoken When He Says “I Love You”

He doesn’t throw the words around lightly. When he says “I love you,” he says it like a secret. Like it’s the most sacred phrase he knows.

8. Gentle Forehead Touches

He loves the quiet intimacy of resting his forehead against yours, especially when he's nervous or overwhelmed. You’ve become his safe space.

9. Nerdy Pet Names

He calls you things like “Starlight,” “Muse,” “Nova,” or even “My constant,” based on some scientific or literary context. He gets embarrassed when you tease him about it, but he never stops.

10. He Tells His Books About You

Armin has a favorite passage or quote in nearly every book he owns that reminds him of you. Sometimes, he dog-ears the page, writes your initials next to it, and rereads it when he’s missing you.

[mariposita24]

Mari’s Master List:

(note: a thing about side blogs is I can’t follow, like or send asks from this account, but interaction from Mariposa324 is also me!)

Main Art Blog: Mariposa324

TikTok: Mariposita2414

Ko-fi: Mariposa Art

About the Artist:

Hi! I’m Mari & this is my gt sideblog!

Send asks anytime! I’m down for all the questions & such especially about my OCs

Open to art/writing trades! I will provide art only, I’m not super confident in my writing but I’d super love to trade my art for writing!

Open to OC fan content! I am super cool with people making fan content of my OCs

SO LONG AS:

- they credit me and are not attempting to claim my characters as their own.

- there is NO AI involved!!!! (including but not limited to any and all forms of generative AI and CAI.)

but literally any other form of fanart, cosplay, fanfic, etc. I WILL ADORE and people have my permission to do/make

____________________________________________

Here’s a Master List of art & Stories & Such (including tags I use to organize):

Link to commission sheet here!!!

Link to G/t commission sheet here!!!

all of my stuff can be found under the tag: my art

Fan Art:

June & Asa

Charlie & Felix

My Characters:

(Still trying to find a solid name for their comic)

tags include: oc: everett & oc: lilly

Main Web Comic:

Prologue

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3 (coming soon)

Semi-Canon Short Comics:

Everett’s Reaction to Dolled Up Lilly

Intimidation check failed (Everett & Erica)

Generally just them/About them:

cute messy doodles/w.i.p.

character reference sheets & lore dump

Close to you (before I had their designs down)

based on a dream

TikToks/Animations:

“spooky” animatic

reaction to comments animatic

“mean and scary” animatic

Mer-May AU:

Shark Everett Studies

pov: you’re too friendly with Lilly

Shark Everett & Shrimp Izzy (also friend’s OC)

With Friend’s OCs/OC Collabs & Art Trades:

Izzi & Lilly

(I’ve had these two cutie pies since 2012!)

(their current main story is connected to my main blog and is an ongoing group passion project visual novel)

I reblog all their stuff here as well. They have multiple AUs I like to indulge in that are even more traditionally gt. (I have since purged a lot of their super old art from tumblr 💀)

tags: oc: clyde, oc: mary & crystal project

(they’ve been around so long my tags have not been super consistent. I’ll try to fix that now but may not catch all of it)

Generally just them/About them:

Masquerade Outfits

Valentines Day Doodles

A little bit 🌶️ doodle

Thinking about them

random character sketches (Clyde)

Caught in the rain bg practice

Older Lore Dump

Some older messy sketches

Crystal Project Universe Related Stuff:

Sibling antics (Clyde & his sister)

Current Character Designs & Reference Sheets (2025)

Height chart

Screenshots of our rough draft prologue

Siblings day doodle (Clyde & his sister)

Happy Fall (2023)

OC-tober (2021)

Mer-May AU(s):

giant mer au 2025

revisiting Clyde’s mer design 2025

giant mer au 2024 (2)

giant mer au 2024 (1)

Mary & Olive (not gt)

giant mer au 2021

giant mer au 2021 (full color)

initial mer design doodles 2021

Miscellaneous:

little one shot pokemon AU

Cute friend fanart thing

Superhero AU concept (old art alert, oof)

[rivalerer]

Dating Doreen Green (Squirrel Girl) p1.

Disclaimer: this is based on marvel rival’s iteration of her & derives from my own personal interpretations of her + what i gather from her canon stories n interactions (And also my information on squirrels). I pull very little from other sources but encourage you sharing feedback or new information through my ask box

(you are also free to just ask or request things about other characters)

CW: Nutty Behavior, Not Beta Read, Nothin’ Else

—

- Dating Doreen comes with a lot of perks and little issues here n there- the regular presence of squirrels & other woodland critters; the quirky chatter with animals & you about her college life; near constant movement or activities to keep her squirrely nature entertained- but an undeniable quality of dating her is coming to terms with the intense amounts of fur n hair everywhere. While this initially seems like it’d be an issue, you take note that Doreen rarely appears completely covered in fur- and once you both get comfortable enough with one another you’ll begin to understand why-

- It’s Allogrooming; the behavior of grooming another creatures pelt in an effort to bond. It’s something Doreen does nightly & it’s something you will unarguably have occur. She will of course stop if you dont want to be “groomed”- but if you let her (and often tippy-toe) continue you’ll find yourself cuddling up with her frequently while she picks you clean of squirrel fur and brushes down your clothes. If you let her she’ll also be running her fingers through your hair- gently untangling any knots or snags; if you dont have any hair or have very little- you note that she’s still keen on keeping every part of you clean and well cared for, scalp massages are a MUST in her mind if this is the case. It’s all her own very special way of showing love for you. And you’re free to return the favor! You’re quick to notice that she’s very fond of having her tail or hair gently brushed- it puts her in such a lovey dovey mood every time (and as an added bonus, it really keeps the shedding down)

- And when Doreen finds herself in a lovey dovey mood- you really have a lot on your plate. Because Doreen is HUGE on cuddling and activities/time shared together. She’s a very clever woman & she will be KEEN on keeping you close so she can curl up with you or somehow convince you to look at her most recent coding misadventures (whether you understand them or not) AND SHE’LL SOMEHOW MAKE YOU THINK IT WAS YOUR IDEA?? And in a few hours later you’ll be 2 & 1/2 movies in on some niche series from 20 years ago and you’ll comprehend that you have no idea what’s going on or why you’re watching this AND YOU’LL REALIZE YOU LIKE IT?? Really and truly- Doreen must have some secret super power on getting you to kick back with her because the 2 of you will be doing SO MUCH together when she’s feeling lovesick over you

- It literally doesn’t even matter what the 2 of you are doing- she has a knack for turning 1-2 hour visits into entire slumber parties. It wont just be for her interests though- Doreen will be ON TOP of remembering your favorite activities just to have things to lure you into hangin out with her more. It’s not a malicious thing by any means- Shes just a real socialite and you’re undeniably her favorite company to have over (well- you & tippy-toe). Still- she’s more than willing to give you your alone time as you need it (she does afterall have plenty of other stuff to do)

- And if you find yourself trying to seek her company while she’s busy- god- good luck- there’s so many things she could be up to. It’ll take awhile before you’re able to really pin point where Doreen is quickly if she’s not bugging you. She has such a tendency to hyperfixate on her tasks- and because of that she can dissapear for hours without meaning to. You‘ve found her hidden away coding or doodling as many times as you’ve found her out in the middle of the woods meddling with some outlandish animal issue. And every time you’ve found her- she’s of course greeting you with hugs and kisses, but it’s still such a task to get a hold of her when she’s off doing Doreen-things. You’ve got to love this if you’re dating her I assume- but it’s definitely a little issue here and there.

- But let’s back track a little- what does time with Doreen look like more normally? Aside from doing activities- your squirrely companion has a lot of nice little quirks to one on one time. Most notable is probably the mix of physical affection & chattering. Doreen has a bit of a magic to her in the sense that she’s somehow always able to fill the silence of a hang out- whether it’s with getting you to talk by egging you on about your passions or explaining a year long woodlands creature drama she’s been following with Tippy-Toe; Doreen Green will have SOMEONE talking during your time together. If you prefer quiet- she’ll be trying her damndest to find some peace and quiet within herself for you- but know that unless you keep her busy it’ll be really obvious for anyone in the room that she wants to YAP. (Though music or her napping is a nice middle ground for her)

- otherwise- the thing youll probably take most notice of is Doreen’s fondness towards physical touch & affection. Tippy-Toe being on her shoulder so often (along with lots of other critters) has made her a sensory seeking cuddle monster. She will be doing SO MUCH to try and cuddle up with you while you both relax. She’s especially fond of finding herself a place to curl up in your side (even if you’re smaller); she’s sort of a master at it. Her squirrel senses give her a good understanding of where her weight lays when she’s curling up with you- so it’s uncommon she’ll ever be laid over you in a way thats too much for you. But aside from the cuddles themselves- she is a touchy girl. Playing with your hands, tracing physical quirks like freckles or scars, leaving random kisses or pokes here and there, squeezing you wherever she can find enough to grab- literally anything is something for her.

- And it’s all cause Doreen is making it a goal early on to learn your body head to toe. Learning what touches you enjoy, what you don’t- what things she can do to make you twitch or playfully irritate you- it’s an intimate but big thing for her. As a girl who is a squirrel- she’s always got a sharp eye & a sense to notice all the little things around her. Learning you isn’t any different from learning about the enemies she fights- it’s no different from learning to live- it’s not necessarily a desire in her mind so much as it is a natural need or process. You’re just that important to her- once the 2 of you are together she wants to integrate you into her life & her learning; you’re a part of what she considers necessary. You’re so much of what she will begin to love.

When all of the silliness and puns fall to the wayside, it’s really clear that Doreen Green cares very deeply for you. She may try to downplay the seriousness of it from time- but you will undeniably become a part of her heart just as Tippy-Toe & Monkey Joe did; if not somehow more.

[wrenwhite]

some random doodles, and a comic. explanation for it is under the readmore if you're interested.

april 6, 2025

you probably didn't notice, but the date written on the comic is for january of 2025. that's cuz i initially sketched and drew the bubbles in january. i didn't really know if i wanted to finish the comic at the time because i wasn't sure how to explain it. writing comics about how i conceptualize my identity requires a pretty long measure of explanation when exactly zero percent of what's happening in the comic is literal.

what inspired me to draw this was, at the time, i was remembering what it was like to be myself when i was 18. i heavily dissociated during pretty much all of college. it was a uniquely miserable time for me, while also having many bright spots of joy sprinkled in here and there. it was probably the most contrasting emotion i've ever dealt with in my life. but i did kind of repress a lot of those memories because it WAS very painful. i didn't really remember what "Rhie" was like. she was my "truesona" when i was an teenager (she existed alongside Funnelcake), so she was more literally me. because i dissociated so much, and because that was a weird time in my life, i almost never think about those days or, frankly, her.

i feel like Rhie's existence was fully ended by the time i returned home from my first semester of college. so, you can imagine how shocking it was for me to realize that i could summon up what it felt like to be her after spending years assuming i'd buried that experience too deeply to ever recall it with any clarity. if there was any period of my life that felt truly "dead" and unreachable, it was that period.

basically, in this, i wanted to express how, when i was a child and teenager, people around me would often talk about me like i wasn't in the room. or they would talk AT me like they didn't expect or even want an answer, the way someone talks to a dog. i found that the way i'd been thinking about Rhie was in a similar way, and i thought that if she was real, she would be unbelievably pissed off by that. she's mostly just quiet and sad, but i've always had a temper, so she can get pissed, too. whitewood and starling reacting to her the way they do is just me giving voice to my surprise that i was still capable of summoning up those old memories.

i think maybe you can sort of start to understand how i transmute my feelings and memories into literal depictions based off abstractions. i don't know why, but using character interaction and personality development to synthesize my jumble of thoughts into something that can be followed like a story is just how i cope with being who i am.

it was only recently that i realized that i'd developed a strong aversion to thinking about my life in that way, like it's fictional, or a story, when it's just something i've done all my life. there's nothing wrong with it, and my experiences aren't cheapened by this behavior. i like to understand myself, i like the little people i've created, and i like to draw them, too.

[flowerbloom-arts]

Hey what autistic headcanons do you have for Johnny? (That’s so poorly worded but hopefully you know what I mean mb 😭)

Don't worry I totally understand!! Here's some doodles I made for it:

And also a comic of Johnny's initiation into the mafia:

(Based on some quick research I did on how it goes. I can't believe saint JOHN the SILENT is a real christian saint.......)

I think Johnny might be a little emotionally constipated and insecure due to (COUGHS LOUDLY) a troubling past and isn't exactly comfortable with expressing interests or unserious behavior or performing odd habits, and his autism would interact VERY strongly with his social anxiety. He's gotten a bit better about it over the years as he becomes more familiar with his mob and especially with the Paxil prescription but learned habits for the sake of self-preservation are a hard thing to kick, you know?

[prostocupoftea]

Kinitopet Programmers AU

finally i am finished with this one, daaaamn

it is hard to draw pathetic men with midlife crisis when your style is mostly for anime boys

more info and sketch version under the cut!!

sketch version aka how it'll probably look like in comic version 'n some doodles

srry for my writing but i was too laisy to put it as regular text

It is a plot-based au, i already have most of the storybits and like... a vibe-chart (i tried to make a playlist for this au and understood that for different chapters and different characters that'd be a copleatly different music, sooo it's a chart now :) )

i will post a fog-o-wared timeline that im hopefully gonna reveal comic-by comic, but also maybe with just pure writing. Hopefully i can include songs that i chose for them into it but we'll see (:

aaand of course designs can change, hopefully not much but we'll see

Now about au:

Main story:

Story follows non-sentient AI Kinito, his creator Sonny and his beta-tester Victoria (oc)

Being literally the first AI (or RRA in-univere) ever, Kinito does not have any, and i mean, any ai safety features so of course his reponce to a goal phrased as "have user near me and/or interacting with me as much as possible" is digitizing them into his own virtual world while killing them in the process. why wouldn't it be?

So that happened. Like, a lot. And with Sonny and Vic too (at the different time but yeah)

Sonny is like "He kills people. We should turn him off because, you know, killing people is bad."

Vic is like "well, we will die if we do that, and it is not that bad here, we are kinda immortal. We should give him acces to changing his initial instalation code before admin priveleges and acces to social media so we can have everythin we want here. It is not that bad to digitize humanity, yk?" and yes i know it is 90, no social media, but shut up, if they made ai then, then i can make twitter then too

Sonny is like "...no??"

And then they fight about it for million chapters

Also they both can't do anything without agreeing bc they have two parts of that admin access key (the data you use to delete kinito in-game) so they are stuck with eachother (also that's why Kinito can't just kill them)

Little facts that may or may not to be important:

Kinito asks so many questions (and weird once too) and has most of the glitches because he needs to analise your responces to copy your mind perfectly (let's pretend that people wouldn't lie about that...)

Your house in your virtual world is made from important places from your memories and oh boy can i do character explorations with this one

I decided that Sonny and Vic are not related. There were thoughts about making then "The Kinito Brothers" (or, at least, siblings) that were mentioned in commercial, but nah, they are just coworkers now. And a bit of work-friends (bc if you interact a lot as a manager of the project and the best worker might as well be friendly)

Author has no idea how small dying toy companies that accidentally create technological marvel work. Author has some idea how AI-s work. So be prepared to be spoon-fed info abut which ai safety problem we are dealing with in which chapter (:

Kinito will mostly be unrendered (as drawn here) but for some cool moments i might pose him as for my other posts. Also his eye placement changes to the side that is most visible because i want him to be able to look to the right side sometimes--

Also when i say "fucked up mentally" i mean they have that them psychological problems with me projecting heavilly B) (guess on who i project most. trick question. all of them. the whole au is my problems split into three characters and forced to interact B) )

Also sea-creature analogies (that are gonna be mentioned like twice):

Victoria is a flying fish because deep character reasons

Sonny is a pufferfish because i said so

oh also there is 7 deaths in the plot as for now

on 3 characters

good luck figuring out who, how and when ((:

for my own sanity i will probably make little doodles where everything is great and kinito is a good guy and not a number-obsessed maniac (i mean... can u imagine not being able to feel any happiness from anything besides one thing... damn...) and you can differenciate them bc good-guy kinito will have a lot of stickers on him (i will explain it somehow but real reason is just bc it is cute af)

like this but even more stickers (he is unfinished here)

[acesandocs]

Slight update to my Mr Flynn fan design, I did treat myself a little bit this time by giving him a stupid mustache.

Flynn belongs ro @libras-interactives and design thoughts below.

I wasn't super happy with the last one, so i attempted a bit of an update, I definitely feel better about this one. I went all in on the devil symbolism this time. He already had the pointed ears and hooked tail but I decided to make his face more reminiscent of classic devil illustrations, very triangular and sharp.

I made the lapels on his jacket and coat a lot bigger to give the illusion of bat/imp wings. His original cheek fluff was spoused to resemble that but I don’t feel like that ultimately came though. I’m more happy with the lapels instead.

Libra also very kindly sent me the photo's of the cat he is based on. I simplified the fur pattern a bit so it would be easier to draw but I feel like I managed to keep the most important details.

The original cat reference has very bright orange fur, orange is a color that can be very energetic and loud witch I feel doesn't suit Mr Flynn so I desaturated it.

I made his orange eye slightly reddish to make it stand out from his fur a bit more, along with giving him a red tie as red is a color usually tied to the devil. I don’t know if thats to much or if I should have kept it green. I feel like this design is starting to become: oops all devil symbolism lol.

I kept his cane. I feel like I knocked it out of the park with that one immediately.

This ended up being more of a head cannon. But when I was initially coming up with outfit ideas I felt like I could'nt make him look sufficiency intimidating, until I gave him the big coat with the lapels. I feel like if he wants to look less intimidating he'll wear smaller coats or blazers. If he was a comic character or something I'd maybe make him wear only the vest and shirt when he was being genuine or actually vulnerable. I love those kinds of visual metaphors.

Again thanks to Libra for sending me the cat photos. Anyway heres a bonus doodle of some shadow and lighting practice i did featuring Flynn.

[emiplayzmc]

You can't even be mad at Vee for wanting to ditch Glisten. If I remember her lore correctly, she's physically incapable of feeling sympathy, which isn't her fault, and operates on pure logic. That's probably what saved her from countless Twisteds.

It's also probably what got Rodger Twisted. Glisten probably wouldn't have gone psycho mode if they had just taken him with them. But Vee couldn't have known that.

Exactly!! Augh, Vee my beloved, tried my best to portray her personality accurately instead of like, less realistic to her robotic tendencies, but at the same time not a total jerk that people make her out to be. She just wants to do the best for her teams and the surviving Toons, and that means wanting to minimize the chance of anything threatening their safety. I feel like she can sympathize to an extent, which is why her immediate reaction wasn't just 'stay as far away from him as possible' when talking to Rodger bc she misses Glisten, too (based on their interactions + the cartoon with them they give sibling / close friend vibes ✨️), and she knows Rodger and everyone else does, but her logic tells her that bringing a Twisted / potential half-Twisted to the lobby with them is NOT a good idea.

But exactly, Vee just couldn't know for sure. She couldn't have predicted Glisten would snap in Panic Mode. She couldn't have predicted he'd be so out of it as to literally hold someone back from the elevator even if he knows that they need to leave. Given he still had enough sanity left to be talking and joking and even laughing with the others she assumed he had enough left to understand how risky it is. Clearly he didn't, and the one thing going through her mind seeing the elevator close with Rodger still outside was how, in her logic, one of her teammates has probably died because of her decisions. It wasn't intentional, she can't have predicted it in her processors, but she still made the call to not bring Glisten. She still made the call to leave Rodger to babysit Glisten alone because she assumed he'd be fine. She'd still see it as *her fault.*

Also, he's not. ENTIRELY Twisted by the end of the fic :) Glisten was able to use Medkits to help Rodger while he was unconscious (with a lot of panicking about how much of his ichor was corrupted by then and if he can detox it properly), and he can still talk and everything, just a little woozy!

(Via a doodle I did of Rodger and Twisted Glisten in a deleted scene [Faint red in the eyeball]).

Doesn't mean he ENTIRELY got out of that safely though. I still like to think Glisten got him back from losing 3 hearts (one when Glisten initially dug his claws into him, one when he was tackled and his arms were punctured, one more when Boxten knocked him to the ground and probably bit / clawed him a little until he could be gotten off) with the health kits and probably didn't waste time trying to fix him. Glisten saved him from Twisting / Dying by like. A gap the size of a salt grain. He's not doing too hot but at least for that moment in time he's stable and alive, could probably get better as long as he wasn't exposed to more tainted ichor / injuries that make him lose his own ichor.

[rorysterr]

Hihi!!!

Personality: sensitive, smart, happy usually :3, shy/also introverted, I complain about small things with ppl I'm comfy with, creative, active, chill

Likes: cats, visual art, all music, character and interior design, rhythm games, shows like Arcane and Gravity Falls, MONEY!!!! 💵, niche anime (children of the whales my beloved), cooking, vegetables, fruits, and bugs!!! Especially beetles!!

Dislikes: stink bugs and male mosquitos. Only bugs I'm scared of (trauma). Babies, slow walkers, when someone interrupts me and I'm too shy to keep talking, ignorance, etc... I'm bad at thinking abt stuff I don't like :(

Hobbies: Visual art and gaming!!! Y'all will never catch me not doodling on a paper or my hand if you give me a pen

Love languages: I like giving physical touch, and I love receiving anything really!!

What I'm looking for: I genuinely don't have a type I just wanna know who you think would fit me best!!! =w=

Bad characters: I will explode into a million pieces of you give me Lucifer... I don't like him that much at all <:C

Your romantic matchup is…

Solomon!!

- so this one was a bit more difficult for me. I initially thought of giving you Satan because of how you’re more on the quiet side and you’ve also got a good head on your shoulders. I could also see you complaining about Lucifer at times and Satan finding that amusing. However, the feels just weren’t there. Plus, I feel like you being sensitive may clash with Satan a bit just because whenever he’s angry or stressed, he may say things that he doesn’t really mean and they may really hurt you. I totally think you guys would get along though, he might be a bit too harsh on you as a romantic partner though!

- I was also thinking of giving you Belphegor but I feel like you’re a bit too sensitive for him. He’s quite a tease but in a mean sort of way, so I could see it getting to you sometimes.

- As we all know, Solomon is a huge tease. In fact, he’s one of the biggest teases in the game alongside Belphie and Satan. I think he’d take advantage of your shyness and tease the crap out of you. He loves to make it a game to see how flustered he can make you.

- I also think your shyness would also pique his curiousity. Sol is very curious and is similar to Satan in the sense that they both like to gain knowledge and understanding of how things around them work. I think Solomon would be interested in truly getting to know you because he knows that you’re more than just your shyness.

- I could see him inviting you to tag along with him whenever he’s trying to look for a cursed item or an herb for one of his potions.

- As the other human exchange student, I think he’d also want to be close to you simply because you’re both humans. Yes he’s “Solomon the Wise” and yes he’s known to be the most powerful sorcerer to have ever lived. He’s got quite the title and it’s all for good reason, he’s very powerful but he’s still treated as though he’s weaker or less than everyone else just because he’s a human. There’s still the clear division between humanity and demons and angels and it makes him want to fight on behalf of humanity. I think he’d want to be close with you so he has someone else to support him but also just because you have so much to bond over. He’s been alive for thousands of years so he’s bound to have many stories from the human world to tell you, and likewise I’m sure you have stories to tell him.

- Just like the game, I could see him approaching you by handing you your ddd back. I definitely feel like he’d be able to pick up on how timid you are just based on this first interaction, but unfortunately for him, he didn’t really have time to talk to you more in depth because he had to get to class.

- I feel like he’d think you’re cute just based on that first interaction, but he didn’t develop any strong romantic feelings for you until he saw how smart you are. Imo, I feel like Sol would like someone who’s very smart. Not the “know it all” sort of smart, but someone who’s very knowledgeable and more modest or lowkey about it, if that makes sense. I feel like you guys would share a class together and he’d recognize how smart you are based on your insightful responses to the teachers questions and also your test grades. I feel like he’d sit behind you so he’d be able to take a peek, he’s very curious so I could see him sneaking a little look LMAO

- I feel like Solomon would like someone who’s a bit more quiet (not like dead silent but also not super loud) and he’d like them to have a bit of spunk, that way he can have a bit of fun with them! I think he’d totally find it amusing when you complain about little things, like deadlines in the class you share or the way the teacher spits on the front row desks whenever he teaches.

- As I mentioned before, I could see him inviting you on little journeys with him, but I could also see him partnering up with you for projects in that shared class. I think that’s how you guys would really grow close and when he’d really start to develop feelings for you, because it’s then when he’d starts to see how intelligent you are but also how you’ve got a bit of spunk.

- He’d find you adorable, but I think he’d wait a little bit until he confesses just because he has his doubts. As I mentioned before, he’s already treated as though he’s weaker than he really is just because hes a human. He’ll wonder if he stands a chance against the demon brothers or angels and if you’ll pick them over him just because they’ve got inhumane strength that he doesn’t possess.

- buut i think he’d be able to realize that you like him back based on how you react to his teasing, so i could see him confessing when you guys are out on one of his journeys to find a cursed item. it’ll be just you two and you’ll be far away from the demon brothers to ensure that there’s no interruptions.

- when you do date, I think he’d like physical touch! He won’t be all over you like Asmo but he strikes me as the type who will rest his hand on your thigh when you sit next to eachother or keep you close whenever you walk alongside eachother.

- also please teach him to cook, he’s in dire need 🙏

- and he’s canonically into TSL so we can assume that he likes other games! I could see him trying some of the games that you like.

Runner Up… Satan

Your platonic matchup is…

Satan!!

- so I already explained above why I think you two would get along so I’ll keep this one a bit shorter.

- I could totally see you complaining about Lucifer and Satan finding this super funny LMAOO I feel like he’d even try to recruit you to the anti-Lucifer league

- I honestly feel like he always liked you, but from the start he just tolerated you since you were nice and quiet. He didn’t really have a solid opinion on you though until Lucifer caught Mammon sneaking out late at night to gamble and enforced a strict curfew on everyone as a result. I could see you complaining and Satan being pleasantly surprised and even siding with you. I def think that after that happened, Satan would talk to you more!

- also I could see you guys bonding over your mutual love for cats. I mean come on, Satan would be like those cat moms if he could but unfortunately Luce won’t let him own a pet so he just settles for taking care of strays and watching cat videos. If you have any cats, he’d totally love to meet them !

i hope you like your matchup! also can you tell I ran out of gifs for Solomon LMAO

[abyssalaquarist00]

I Know dd is very much not 1 to 1 with the real world but do you think Alhazred has any mixed feelings/criticisms of dd!islam? Assuming that is the religion he was raised in?

i think i answered this partially here but sure, what the hell let's expand on it.

note: if i talk about something from the real world in context of alhazred, just assume i'm talking about the dd equivalent. i've always seen the light = christianity, i havent thought much about what judaism or islam would be called

first, here are some considerations:

he is a scholar. you don't become one if you don't have questions or criticisms. this is the most important part of his character.

any one person's relation to religion is tied to a few factors such as; household; community; locale. religion has also historically been enforced by government, and influenced by leaders who are influenced by politics.

islam, like its Abrahamic cousins, has different denominations therefore different interpretations.

cultural and religious practices are influenced by each other

Al-Hazred is based off of Abdul Al-Hazred, the HP Lovecraft character who authors the necronomicon (or "kitab al-azif"). the source character lived during the islamic golden age, and originally from yemen

im just a guy, i don't have a degree in this, i am not in school, i am not a scholar, i am merely a self-professed student of life. take every single thing i give you with a grain of salt and find a variety of sources that you might initially agree OR disagree with. just be open.

hope the below answers your question! i think this is everything. i wanted to make sure i'm covering all my bases. i'm happy to answer more, also :-)

my interpretation of alhazred is that he is an andalusian arab, who was brought up in a sufi household. regardless of religion, like many of us (i hope), he probably went through phases of religion and religiosity.

being raised sufi, he wouldnt have had a problem with mysticism as, say, someone raised strictly sunni would have. in fact, because he's from al-andalus in this context, this would be normal to him. i think it would be cool if he was from an interfaith household like me.

he would have been educated along side women, as the prophet advocated for. he would not have felt shame in liking men, and probably would have loved to read homosexual arabic poetry (see also: my doodles :-) ). he would have had open discussions with people of different faiths and probably engaged in discourse himself considering he went on to become a professor (indicated by one of his barks).

however, like all things, nothing is ever perfect.

because i believe al-hazred is fundamentally a good person, he would be critical of hadiths and views regarding difference in faith, apostasy / conversion, slavery, violence and misogyny. though to the last point, it should be noted that both men and women are subjected to modesty customs as well as everything else in the qu'ran.

he would not be the type of person to judge someone for their religion, but i do think he would judge someones religiosity (intensity of belief), because he doesn't believe in blindly following a doctrine. he is one to scrutinize, criticize, and raise questions about things- probably much to the annoyance of his family and teachers. he takes any text he comes across with a grain of salt, but with an open mind as well.

the biggest thing that i can see him struggling with is reconciling the islam that he was raised with to his current spiritual and religious practices- because that's where the mixed feelings likely settle. there is a general consensus among most islamic sects that interacting with djinn is forbidden because they can trick you and pretend to be muslim- but humans are capable of such actions anyway, so i never really understood the logic behind this. regardless, it's still a widely held belief, he was probably shaking in his boots when he first interacted with eldritch entities and he still probably is a little scared- he just handles it very well and he has to otherwise the entity he sealed within him would be unleashed.

this itself would be the biggest point of contention about religion and his current practice, and i believe i made mention of that in the original post above. he's not sure if what he did was the right choice, and he's likely fighting between justifying his actions vs regretting them

i can see alhazred, like myself, having to face microagressions or misconceptions of islam. as ive said in my original post, he's muslim when he has to defend the faith but he may or may not be on any other day. i think he drinks alcohol and does drugs but he draws the line at eating pork. he mightve tried pork once and felt guilty about it then never ate it again. is this very specific event based on my own experience? who's to say.

all this being said, we should be critical of our upbringings regardless of religiosity. i myself believe that our religion should fit the way we want to live our lives, and i recommend looking up the history of the word and concept. religion can be profound and guiding, but it is ultimately a tool that can be used in anyway.

extra notes:

dd al-andalus = a fantasy al-andalus that persisted into the 18th/19th centuries, where i imagine DD takes place. real world al-andalus largely followed sufi islam, and was much closer in history to when prophet mohammed (pbuh) was still alive

my mom is catholic and my dad is muslim. though my dad wasn't in the picture, my mom was raising mixed race children from an interfaith marriage in their father's country, so we got to choose our religion largely. she had a problem when i went atheist for a bit, but she didn't like, force me to believe in God or pray. i came back to God on my own accord, and even then it's not necessarily a concrete belief in such an entity but the faith that one exists despite the uncertainty.

[storgicbytes]

based on the previous post about tdls arc i rb'd and filled with my ramblings and ascii art i also just rb'd im going to continue my ramblings about the rules of code in ava

(with doodles!)

okay so. all we know right now is that all sticks to begin with have a script. and that it starts with their name and influences their destiny?/powers. its obviously notable with the hollowheads and also but im rambling on other sticks as well

i have lots of questions about how much code and programs work in the universe and influences everyone. the first obvious question is the coding of tdl with their command of destroying chosen. i adore the interpretation of it still affecting them in some way in the fandom !!!! however in canon it isnt elaborated upon. which begs the question of did it affect them? if it did, just how much did it affect them?? was any of this code left in their programming?? if it did affect them, how did they manage it??? have they tried to mess with their programming?? honestly, how did they start programming in the first place???? since they came directly from the pc, interacted with programs and the fact that code wouldve been useful in their terrors its not surprising for them at all to code by themselves, but no other hollowheads were shown to master it to a point of creating something — could it been the consequence of trying to remove their command? another question, if it was still somehow left in them, how did it affect them during showdown?

one of the interpretations of it that it's been "dormant" and that their need of destroying had shown itself in their seven year long reign of terror and why it was SO hard for them to back off. and that the showdown eventually made both dark and chosen to go "back to their roots". but since the command was targeted on chosen specifically i believe that if thats were the case the need to destroy wouldve been expressed to him and not to the whole web (god all this stuff opens so many ideas for them)

my second big wonder that i have is about the creation of chosen himself. as i mentioned in my rb all hollowheads attacked only when they felt threatened or had a command ingrained into them like with dark. except chosen

he attacked the second that he was born without being threatened. just by getting his name. (its also interesting to note the names noogai considered before bringing him to life – again victim, killer and BEAST. did any of that influence chosen too?). in the instant messenger conversation programmer021 mentioned stickmen having levels which i believe is most widely interpreted in a non literal sense, just in the "how powerful is he" way. but if it is used in a somewhat literal sense? it opens a big conception of leveling??? and that being the "chosen one" is, supposedly, one of the highest levels possible for a stickman to have. and the fact that making him the chosen one was called a suicide???? god

it isnt really known from the series alone how much being the chosen one influences a stickman or a creation in general besides having very high levels of power. at the same time, having powers isnt an instant call to attack — unless there are in-universe rules that suppose that being the chosen one immediately means destruction being ingrained into a sticks code. but if thats the case... how much would it influence chosen as well?? wouldnt he have an innate, coded need of destruction too? and if its like this, how would he come back down from it? and if it goes in hand with tdls command too, why it was easier for him to denounce destruction than to tdl? does being the chosen one imply a variety of abilities, with destruction being part of it, but not it being the part that is impossible to suppress?

along with the "literal levels" idea, where would the second coming and the dark lord come in the "hierarchy"? and with the idea that being "the chosen one" initially supposes destruction, did the dark lord, given their name, have any initial code of destruction prior until the go and kill chosen command? why instead of attacking noogai as well they stretched at first instead, until they got their command?

these thoughts bring me to the idea of how exactly adobeflash brings a stick to life, to have a code of their own that influences them and ill probably have to dig information on the program itself and its coding language to know more about its functions. if bringing a stick to life, giving them powers is a function of animated programs in the universe, what else can a program do with them? how does adobeflash makes its creations interact with other applications? how could a creator get rid of a sticks life except for the supposed "dont save the changes" button? man. the whole idea of ava having interactable, 3d and alive internet, animations and creations in general, the existence of outernet as a whole makes me really happy since i just adore internet and digital concepts. i love exploring ava rules !!!

now getting to the second coming. to begin with, how was the program aware of who they were a second coming of in the first place to give them powers? the question feels answearable, but at the same time, second wasnt aware of their powers up until literally the last episode of ava. theres a lot to be thought about their awakening too

if most applications, art and creations has their own consciousnesses [desktop applications, youtube, browser stuff and etc], then how did specifically the last frame of second's animation come to life? could any previous frames of that animation be alive as well? and if they could be, would second's "clones" have the same powers and the same name?

in general, sticks are perceived as a separate entity in ava, but i do wonder if that could be the case, based on the fact that victims clones were able to be created and used after lol. even with vics clones, even with the idea that they're temporary, do they share the same memories with victim? given that victims life was "unsaved" along with their clones, were they able to "uncopy" themselves, or did they continue to just exist? are the clones that agent deployed in the box the same clones or new ones, just made with the amount that what victim is personally used to/the amount of weapons that victim is used to? if they are the same ones and were somehow able to "get back" into victim, do they continue sharing the same memories with them?

talking about other sticks i also have questions about their code. color gang for example

so far we had only seen the creation of hollowhead sticks by noogai and we dont even know about how other types of sticks came to life, not even mentioning the process of it, their code and their possible "program of birth". we do know that other alive sticks, and other HOLLOWHEADS, created by users exist given the stick rights banner in ava 3, yet it is the only clue of stickmen like noogais hollowheads existing. and we know that nonhollowheads are considered "naturally created" sticks both in internet and outernet, and that they're naturally weaker than "artificial" hollowheads are and that, supposedly, they reproduce by themselves. but how did they come to exist in the first place? do the rules of the universe imply them just coming into life by themselves, with the outernets existence? we do know, again, that users, other computers and programs exist in the universe and that some sticks are created by other artists, but were any of non-hollowheads like the colorgang, mercs, king, purple, gold, navy&orchid, everyone in the cities we have seen created by someone else as well? and why noogais stickmen are more special than others? are there stickmen stronger than noogais hollowheads? ... how would you tell two solid-headed sticks apart if, say, some artist created a copy of a "naturally" made stick?

if non-hollowheads stickmen are created too, are they in touch with their creators? besides the enslavement fact-freedom guy stick banner, do creators tend to torture or befriend their sticks, creations in general? are there stereotypes about sticks and their creators? is it more or less acceptable in stick society to be in touch with your creator? are other creators, besides noogai, aware of the outernet?

... where would the creators of the color gang, mercs, king and purple & co be?

talking about the "natural" and the reproduction part, i do wonder, if, in case of non-hollowheads also being created by other people and animators, purple and gold came to life as a will of creators or as a will of the sticks themselves. we have only seen symbolic depiction of purple coming to life in their song, and i feel like it can be a depiction of a stickman drawn for two other stickmen (with the existing code of them being their child) or a proof of actual, natural reproduction. if child sticks were drawn for the parent sticks, were they drawn by their creator or by the parents themselves?

talking about creation again, i do wonder why king was called "king" in the minecraft code, given that he had a life prior to becoming one. was it a player name inside minecraft that he has given to himself, or a name that he had outside minecraft as well? if its the second, why was he called king before? did he do anything king role related prior minecraft? and if it is not his real name, what IS his real name? and did he end up changing it back?

in general, talking about my favourite alive internet concepts, how did outernet appear? did it come into existence along with the internet? is outernet an extension of internet, and does it serve as a sort of a "backstage" for what is happening in the internet sites?

in my personal interpretation, i feel like outernet IS and extension of internet, and it develops with it — that, if you needed to describe it, the internet is the flat front of a regular box, while the outernet is the 3d space inside the box.

goooddd i think im done with my questions and ramble. my beckerverse brainrot consumes all. this is so long omg

if you read till the end...... have an aurora borealis duo doodle !!!! thank yew

[nanaten]

I'm sorry for not requesting a drawing with this space, but I just have to ask... what is the appeal of Clausten? I am not trying to be mean or anything, I legit am very curious.

I can kinda understand Nesscas, it's the result of fledgling mother fans from Smash going "these two would be cute together" (at least that's how I always took it, apologies if that seems rude), but Clausten feels kinda like... those same mother fans finding out about claus and ninten and going "gasp! leftover stripe boys" and mashing them together like... idk what a good term is for this.

Again; sorry for misusing this space, i kinda just want to understand this ship. Not dogging on you or others for enjoying it, just wanna understand it.

I suppose while I am here, I guess I could request a doodle of Lloyd. Maybe of him blabbing about Superman comic stuff to Ninten or what have you. Lloyd needs more appreciation.

Also sorry this may be a mess to read, it was just kinda stream of consciousness

Hi! No need to apologise, I think this is a very good question!

I understand that the ship, on a basic level, doesn’t really make much sense at all! It began as a crackship enjoyed by a small percentage of the mother community and slowly developed into what it is now— a ship with many enjoyers, but not many that know exactly why they enjoy it.

I want to preface this by saying, I do not speak for every person who enjoys Clausten. I am just one of many, and this is all my personal perspective. Thank you for enquiring about it, honestly, because I love speaking about them. So, here we go!

First and Foremost: It’s a crackship— so more than any other reason I can give, it’s just plain fun! These are two characters I love and adore with my whole heart, so it’s just fun to have them interact, and of course, it’s fun to view them as a potentially romantic pairing! Ninten is my favorite character of all time, and Claus is my favorite in Mother 3 specifically, so it’s like a personal wish fulfilment to draw them together.

It’s fun to not take strict canon all too seriously. I pull my silly guys from the source material and I mess around with them whichever way I desire B).

I definitely don’t think it’s entirely fair to view Clausten as, like, Nesscas leftovers either, lol. Ultimately these characters are all very different in terms of stories, how they’re written etc, and both ships have very different qualities that make them loveable in their own right! Liking ships like Clausten has alot to do with how you view these characters— What do you gather their personalities are, how compatible would they be, etc? And the way I characterize Ninten and Claus, atleast in my head, make them very compatible. (Ninten being adventurous, outgoing, snarky, and boyish, and Claus being similar— but more reserved, and more careful as a product of his experiences.)

And finally— I really think them as people— not my own view of their personalities, but judging based on canon events— that the two are very similar, and could find solice in their similar experiences. I think the characters are weirdly connected, in a way, for starters— Claus, if you think about it, is Porky’s second Giegue/Giygas. A new puppet, a new ace, a new strength that he takes away the humanity of.

Ninten, being directly related to Giegue, who I can imagine feels somewhat responsible for the corruption of Giegue alongside what comes after the events of Mother 1 , is also connected in some way to Porky, and then Claus. This is basically an extended way of me saying “Their stories are linked in the overarching tale that is the Mother series”.

Claus’s feelings towards Ninten would be complicated initially, or atleast I think so— for his inability to defeat Giegue weirdly, inadvertently caused a chain reaction that lead to the events of Mother 3. (Giegue lives —> Invades Eagleland —> Porky Gets corrupted —> Giegue is then defeated by Ness and Co by going to the past but Porky Escapes —> Porky goes to the future, Mother 3 time —> The Plot Of Mother 3 Happens You Get It). The two’s distant but important connection in the story of the games leads to some extremely interesting food for thought, or at least I think so. How would Claus view the situation? How would Ninten feel after finding out what happened to Claus? How would the two bond over this weird experienced they’re both tied in?

And that is made all the more interesting to me when possibly viewing it in a romantic lense, or atleast something that could become romantic. It’s complicated and messy and there’s so much history behind the two, it’s interesting to think not only about how they’d meet and how they’d feel about eachother, but how they would handle romantic feelings— how a relationship between two very troubled people could work and be okay, and help them mutually heal.

All this is to say, they’re tied in the story and I think putting the two in a romantic relationship is very interesting. Also, it’s just fun :’)

(This post is a TOTAL mess, it’s midnight and I should be sleeping, but I got too excited to write about them hahaha. Thank you so much for the question! Also, I’ll make my next post a big lloyd appreciation, I like to draw him. Thanks again! X))

[beesgav]

Convincing myself to queue this before I wimp out, haha. It's my blog, I should post what I want!

Though Melody was initially created for my oc universe, I pretty quickly went down the route of "what if she were in C009 though" so. AU!

Further deets under cut

Melody "Mel" Rodriguez is in her early 20s, Mexican-American, and grew up outside of Oswego, NY. She moved to NYC to work at an arcade, where she handles both regular staff duties and cabinet repair. She's an electronics hobbyist, with that having been primarily what got her the job. While working there she happens to meet Jet Link, and the two of them hit it off, eventually becoming good friends.

One day she gets captured by Black Ghost as part of a large group, who intend to turn her and her fellows into Cyborg Men. She's the first one selected for the procedure, but before it can go beyond her being injected with preparatory substances, the 00s attack the base and free those captured, including Mel. It's at this point that she learns about Jet being a cyborg, and the revelation puts their relationship on the rocks for a time, though they eventually reconcile.

Life returns to some kind of normalcy, until it turns out that the substance within the injections are not only self-propagating, but also affecting her blood pressure, eventually resulting in a form of extreme hypotension. She's put in contact with Dr. Gilmore and given a choice: wait and hope a blood treatment to remove the substance can be developed in time, or allow what Black Ghost started to be finished and become a cyborg herself. After much deliberation, she chooses the latter.

At first the modifications are minimal- just enough to account for her blood problems- but eventually she decides that if she's already partly robotic, she might as well make the most of it and become more able to help people, which is what leads to her "upgrade" and obtaining a real set of abilities. Compared to the others, she retains quite a bit more of her organic body, at the cost of being notably more vulnerable than any of the other cyborgs. She doesn't consider herself a member of the team, but is always willing to help out if the need arises.

Melody is sociable, energetic, and has something of a thrillseeking streak, but never takes things too seriously and is decently easygoing. Though she isn't endlessly optimistic, it takes a lot to get her down, and she's quicker to frustrate than mope. However, she's so used to her easygoing reputation that she often winds up unable to express her genuine feelings, especially when it comes to things that bother or upset her. She enjoys working and interacting with the kids at the arcade, and does her best to provide a fun, safe environment even with the arcade itself beginning to go into a decline. In addition to her electronics hobby, she also enjoys home console gaming and often doodles when she's bored, though she isn't very good at it.

[usagi-zakura]

Who wants another Corrupted Link Comic?

Its... not the one I've been struggling with for weeks...I'm still struggling with that.

I might just redo it entirely...

Instead I skipped a head a bit again and made a comic based on one of my initial doodles for the AU, which is probably the first time the sages interact with Corrupted Link in a civilized manner.

[archandshri]

23rd Feb '24 - [arch] OH RISO my beloved!!!!!! ft. cyberpunk hermitcraft soup group

A cliffhanger!!!! And now I have to wait a month for you to upload the second half?? How will I cope :’’0

For real, it’s so awesome to see your process and the sheer amount of inspiration you take! In particular, I thought ‘Sit on Two Chairs’ and ‘This Was Our Pact’ were particularly yummy. 

I think book covers are really hard. You have to sum up a book’s energy in one image, make it stand out and show just enough so people want more. Exploring the narrative through those full pages is really interesting - though this is something you did for fun, it could be a really useful technique for getting to know a narrative. When I’m designing my comic covers, I always do it last - that way I’ve had practice with the visual style and I’m thoroughly familiar with the themes, so I guess spending a bit of time with the characters and narrative in this way helps for standalone book covers too. Of course, it helps if you have the time for that XD

Okay!! Onto what I've been up to!!! [warning this is a beefy post I'm sorry for your poor reading brain]

The past two weeks have been really enjoyable! I’ve been playing a lot with slow world-building, in sketchbooks, google documents, and voice notes to friends. Letting myself really sit with concepts, think about the characters, let them play in my head with no expectations. With this relaxation and lack of pressure, some beautiful narratives and interactions have been developing. I’m starting to need a name for a world/ the story. I’m not quite ready to give them a full introduction to the internet - I know it doesn’t but it feels like there’s some accountability to *produce something* and this slow development is really important for the quality and my skill building. It’s really hard to take on, but we actually don’t have to make the perfect thing now! In fact, it’s impossible. Pressure on ourselves makes it so hard to make something good if we’re always grasping at the final result.  In the meantime, while those characters develop, I have been working hard on my basic skills. I wrote about characterization last post, but this week I focused on setting and colour. I was inspired (once again) by Hermitcraft. I’ve seen some really incredible illustrations of Minecraft builds in the fandom, and it seems like a great exercise.

Bdouble0's Season 10 Base illustrated by @applestruda [source] and The Red Zone, built and illustrated by Bdouble0 [source]

One of the creators on Hermitcraft, ImpulseSV, created this build in a recent episode. It takes inspiration from the last season of Hermitcraft, where he was part of the ‘soup group’ with two other players, and his current base concept - a cyberpunk city.  I also LOVE his new character design, so I wanted to place him in the scene.

Screenshot from Impulse's video and new impulse design by @maxx-doodles

Here are some initial thumbnails I did, trying to figure out the composition. I wasn’t sure of the vibe yet, so I tried some rough thumbnailing, and drawing on an isometric grid and other perspective techniques. I’m going a bit mad for characters at the mo, so I wanted to place some in the scene. I found the angle of the isometric grid steep to place characters comfortably, so decided against that.

Looking back at it, I love the second! But I believe I was struggling with the perspective. I decided on the last one eventually.

Now, I absolutely adore all of the players in the Soup Group, and I am BIG fan of redesigning their notable characteristics to suit different settings. So yes, I decided to put all of the soup group in the image.

PearlescentMoon (left) from my comic and GeminiTay's Hermitcraft Season 10 design [from this thumbnail] (right)

Here's the sketch of the final image. I really enjoyed coming up with cyberpunk versions of them all. I used the impulse design almost exactly, with a few extra interesting details since he's mostly viewed from the back. For PearlescentMoon (middle) I kept her fringe, dark hair and gave her a glowing moon symbol on her top. For GeminiTay, I kept her long ginger hair, antlers (but glowing!) and took inspiration from her new season 10 design - a dark blue jumpsuit to match her dark blue clothes in her new design, and the braids she is often drawn with. I also gave them edgy new hairstyles. And a robot arm. I don't have lore for that.

As usual, I filled each flat colour-to-be with black and lowered the opacity to play with the values. Then I added colours one at a time, aware might be riso printing it. Originally I stuck to trying to make it printable (making the colours out of ones I could make my layering 2-3 colours at different opacities), but as I went on, I decided to drop that and focus on the quality of the image in a digital format alone. I did keep the grayscale version above with all the separate layers in case I needed that if/when I came to riso printing it. Below are the main two digital colour schemes I tried out.

I settled on the one on the left, with the blue tones - the foreground characters really pop. I put a few details in Gem's hair, colour variations etc, and cropped it for Instagram. I actually much prefer the cropped version - it sits better in a rule of thirds.

Now the moment we've all been waiting for :'')

RISO!!!!!!!!!!!

I returned to Cardiff after a couple of months away and was delighted to spend my first day back at The Printhaus, an awesome shared print studio where I have basically made my home. A few of my awesome friends happened to be there, so I spent the day playing around with this image with their help! (please check them out they're very cool - Gavin helped me a lot (we hung out at Thought Bubble, remember? and Rhi gave good crits too!!)

For those who don't know, risograph is basically a shitty photocopier that can only print one colour at a time. However, you can play with gradients and opacities, and layer colours really nicely to combine. I've done a lot of single-colour tonal work with riso but this is my first go really layering.

First, Gavin showed me how to separate the channels in Photoshop, using the flat image uploaded to the 'gram. We copied and pasted these layers in grayscale and added blending modes to each layer to replicate what they might look like when printed.

With blending modes, the digital mockup looked like this!!

This bit goes into technical details for replicating what the print might look like for those who might want it - feel free to skip :)))

I copied and pasted the Cyan, Black and Magenta layers as greyscale (as you can see above)

I made all of the greyscale layers multiply layers since risograph ink is transparent and we wanted to see how it layers. The ink usually comes out a bit lighter than you think, so it's good to bear that in mind. I used a clipping mask over each greyscale layer and a blending mode. WHEN YOU PRINT, PRINT IN GREYSCALE, NOT COLOUR.

Here's how I split the colours from CMYK to the riso colours, their hex codes and the blending mode I used to replicate the colours:

Cyan - Mint [HEX#82D8D5] Screen Magenta - Fluorescent Pink [HEX#FF48B0] Screen Black - Blue [HEX#0078BF] Overlay Yellow - scrapped for colour scheme purposes

Blue, Mint and Florencent Pink layers in greyscale in Procreate.

Riso printed Mint and Florescent Pink layers on separate paper, followed by the two layered together.

We always start with the lighter colour inks first, because sometimes the rollers can pick up the ink and cause extra marks where you don't want them. The first two colours came out great!

The first time we printed the blue, it came out very dark (left, first image). I have had this issue before - my last book, Winter Wellbeing, came out much darker than I wanted. Now I realise that the blue ink is super sensitive. All the 'white space' that is covered by a low-opacity blue on the left is only 2%, and yet it has come out pretty strong. We tried printing it on one of the misaligned images just to see, but it took all of the brightness out of the neon soup sign at the top of the image (second image). So I changed the values and pushed them way lighter, so it just pushed the values of the darker bits slightly, and brightened some of the lineart (right, first image)

And this is the final riso printed version!! I'm so so happy with how this came out. It's so different from the original digital version, and I actually love that.

I didn't create new colours in the way that I intended to - I wanted to play with overlaying purposefully to create specific colours eg. orange for the hair etc. But!!! I'm really happy with how it came out. That will have to be a project for next time.

Also, many copies are slightly misaligned, so in future I think I'd do flat layers for the colours a more blobby style with the linework on one layer only so there's less of a chance for obvious misalignment. design for the riso, rather than riso the design.

Overall though, this feels like a super cool step up and a milestone for me. Super happy with how it came out!! And I'm excited to play with colour some more. Can't wait to see the rest of the Lionheart brothers! Enjoy your weekend :)))

Archie 🕺🕺🕺🕺🕺🕺🕺🕺🕺🕺🕺🕺 <3