#Marcille: exists and does this

[fuumiku]

It was Maid Day today yesterday a week ago so I got struck by inspiration to draw the worsties, and it ran away from me into a whole AU where they’re coworkers at a maid cafe. She’s a med student & this is just a part time job, and this is his depression job while he gets his life back together. He needs something he can be workaholic about to forget what it’s like having a personal life and personal issues. He’s actually the accountant, but the new hire janitor (Izutsumi) doesn’t show up for half her shifts and is a sloppy worker, so he gets the extra work of doing her job on top of his because he’s undervalued and overworked. Of course, janitors also have an uniform to keep the aesthetic cohesion as they go about cleaning the place, of course.

Senshi’s the part time cook you only see slivers off, he’s kind and warm when you do see him and have a chat but most shifts he’s in and out the kitchen without a trace. Laios and Falin are regulars because Falin and Marcille are besties & in the same med school, Laios accompanies Falin as she visits her friend at work and gets hooked on the food. Chilchuck has to remind Marcille to work instead of chatting with Falin for an hour, and next thing he knows she’s distracting him from work too. That’s it that’s the AU. Inspired by this idol AU fanart a bit <3

This was not meant to be birthday gift but well…… Happy bday Chil!!!

Read from left to right

[yardsards]

so marcille's succubus totally looked like that general from daltian clan right

[kyofsonder]

If anyone's curious, this is my overly specific Dungeon Meshi AMV idea. Spoilers ahead, this idea hinges on me having read the manga and supplemental materials.

The basis of this idea is Marcille. Specifically, her age. It's been canonically stated that she's 50 years old, and that -- in plain numbers -- this equates to her being about 5 years old compared to a human lifespan. However, it's also been shown that at age 13, Marcille was the size of and dressed like a 2-4 year old and was still drinking juice out of a sippy cup. I'd guess that this means age 50 is further from age 5, developmentally, and closer to early or mid teens. Early 20's at oldest.

This still means that Marcille is the youngest of the group (aside from Izutsumi), but it also means that she's a literal 13-18 year old kid. Which is a fact that can be analyzed for days -- how it influences Marcille's choices in canon, how it affects her relationships with other characters, how we view those choices and relationships through the lens of creatures with an 80-100 year maximum lifespan ourselves, etc -- but it also lends really well to a trend from when I, myself, was a teenager.

I can't make AMVs myself. I didn't have that skill then, I don't have it now. But I still think it would be hilarious if a Marcille "I'm Just a Kid" AMV existed. The irony of that song and the associations with isolation and lack of autonomy and the pressures of vying for justice and fairness in a world that thinks you shouldn't yet know the meaning of the word playing over a slideshow of her more impulsive/childish "I have made things significantly worse for everyone" decisions and highlighting how she's just a kid in the "doesn't know the consequences of her actions and doesn't care because she hasn't had the life experiences to examine things outside herself" way would be really fun right up until near the end when it shows some of her actual emotional reasoning and speeches and reminds the viewer that all the associations of the song do in fact apply to her and her story arc.

I distinctly remember at least 3 anime series with kids as protagonists/major characters that got the "I'm Just a Kid" AMV treatment. It was usually angst, sometimes comedy, always compelling. The one for Toboe from Wolf's Rain left a significant mental mark, and the ones I saw for Ed and Al from FMA/FMAB made a lot of sense, for example.

It would be funny and poignant and perfectly Marcille and I'm slightly frustrated that I can't make it exist. I don't even know where I'd start -- or who I'd ask to make it for me.

[prettyupsetnerd]

losing braincells from reading the dungeon meshi subreddit's posts/comments

[blue-rasberry-soda]

Laios: Diagnosed with autism when he was five but his parents never told him because they didn't want him to "use it as an excuse". So, he knows he's weird, but has no clue why.

Falin: Never diagnosed, but the family just knew because they already raised Laios. They used what they learned from raising Laios to help raise her, so although she also was never told she was autistic, she has a better grasp on what her needs are and how to get them met.

Marcille: Special interests and delayed social development made her a pleasure to have in class and a straight A student who was only friends with the teachers.

Senshi: "Back in my day, we didn't have all this Autism stuff" but he comes from a long line of autists so believes Special Intrests and all his other peculiarities are perfectly normal. Doesn't even believe autism exists because "everyone had those symptoms!"

Chilchuck: Had to learn how to mask really early on, and how to ask for accommodations in ways that neurotypical people will actually listen to. He does in fact fully know he's autistic, but only because at least one of his daughters inherited it, and she got diagnosed. He raised his girls right, and is using a lot of those techniques to keep the rest of the party in check.

[neo--queen--serenity]

Marcille is actually one of the biggest reasons it took so long to pinpoint which Chilchuck was the imposter in today’s episode.

The Senshi and Marcille imposters had their own reasons for being hard to decipher, but that was a joint effort on the party’s part. Chilchuck was the only example where a single member’s bias actually swayed the others so strongly that it made them all doubt themselves.

Ryouko Kui did an excellent job of giving us a rich background on how different races interact, and how they may descriminate against each other. Each of the races in this series struggles with these prejudices. Our main characters are not exempt from this, and we see it clearly in the way the shapeshifter manifested as each party member, showing us how the others percieve them.

Marcille knows Chilchuck well, and cares deeply for him as a friend. But she’s not immune to assumptions and biases that come from her elven background. The Chilchuck imposter we are faced with, when it’s down to two of them left, is Marcille’s memory of Chilchuck, Marcille’s perception of how he behaves.

One of the first manifestations of this bias occurs when shapeshifter Chilchuck can’t get a jar open.

The real Chilchuck knows that this would never happen—at least not in this way. Chilchuck is proud, yes, but he asks for Laios’ help all the time. Laios is actually one of the party members he is the most likely to ask help from, given how long they’ve known each other, and how much mutual trust exists between them.

However, the whole scenario isn’t right. Chilchuck wouldn’t give up so easily on opening something; his whole job is opening and unlocking things. He would never quit an attempt like this within 5 seconds, then run to Laios so that “big strong adult tall-man” can open it for him.

Marcille is the one who asks, “Huh? Why do you say that?” because Marcille is partially right. Chilchuck does rely on Laios, and Marcille knows this to be true. But she fails to realize how he relies on Laios.

Chilchuck respects many of Laios’ talents, but the most important ones are his combat skills, his emotional fortitude, and his quick thinking when delegating tasks. He trusts Laios as someone he is comfortable following (he literally said to him and Shuro in the last episode: “Laios!! Tell us what do!! Give us orders!!” when chimera Falin was quickly overpowering them).

So while Marcille almost understands Chilchuck’s confidence in Laios, she tends to accidentally infantilize him in the process.

She immediately believes that Chilchuck B (the imposter, who is specifically using her own memory as its base for Chilchuck’s personality) is the real one, and says so, because she’s blinded by her perception of him as being childlike and adorable because of the very common racial prejudices that half-foots deal with all the time.

She dotes on the imposter, and is open with her affections, as usual (again, her care for him is clear), but doubles down on that bias, on her own assumptions of Chilchuck’s behavior shown through her own lens.

And ultimately, Laios was able to tell the difference, but only because he watched how the Chilchucks handled other minute tasks. Marcille’s stance on which Chilchuck was real truly did throw the others for a loop, at least until the threat passed. And honestly, that’s part of what makes the shapeshifter so terrifying. Its strategy almost worked.

[looking-for-wisdom]

There’s something so important about dungeon meshi choosing falin to be their missing party member. She’s their healer. She is, in many ways, the most important member. She’s the one who ensures they all come home in one piece at the end of the day. So from a storytelling perspective, it makes sense that it would be her. It intrinsically raises the stakes by taking away the party’s ability to quickly heal.

But from a thematic standpoint it’s even more significant. Falin is the best of them. She holds them all together. There’s a reason why the party splits up when they lose her, after all. The only reason Laois and Marcille know each other is because of Falin, so by extension she’s the only reason their party exists the way it does.

There’s something almost divine about the way she’s characterized by her friends. They talk about her kindness, think of what she’d do if she were with them. You never hear anyone speak poorly of her. Everyone else has flaws. Laois struggles to connect with others, Chilchuck can’t admit when he cares, Marcille refuses to be wrong, and Senshi is very stuck in his ways. None of these are necessarily a bad thing. It just makes them complex people. But Falin is almost more of an idealized concept than a person.

And then we see Falin on screen, a mess of bones and viscera. We see her put back together with forbidden magic, her new body soaked with blood. We see that there’s something off about her, that alongside her kindness is incredible power. And everything up until that point reframes itself. Falin has always been part monster, from her compassion for the dead to her magic school hideout in a dungeon. She dies and comes back, not just changed but amplified. She’s a healer, a ghost, a monster, all tucked beneath the same skin.

[ambrosiagourmet]

I love Izutsumi. She's got a great design, she's a fun addition to the main party, she adds some new tension, and she's honestly one of the reasons I read dungeon meshi in the first place. I mean, "the most cat to ever girl" is an extremely appealing hook to anyone who loves cats and girls (me, I love cats and girls).

However, while I have always liked Izutsumi, I finished the story kind of feeling like I didn't really get her. I felt like I had a decent grasp on her character an character arc (she's a traumatized teen given space to feel safe and open up, and because of that she realizes that she can't grow without letting go of the coping mechanisms she once needed). But I didn't feel like I really understood her role in the story as a whole.

She follows the group of her own accord, after a coincidental meeting and a misunderstanding of what they can do for her. She's never super invested in saving Falin, at least not compared to the rest of the group. Though they do help her escape Maizuru's shackles, and are clearly good for her in general, she doesn't really have a healing Moment with the group the way that Senshi does with the hippogriff soup.

And yet, she gets an entire chapter, the third-to-last chapter, dedicated to exploring her growth and future. She's the one who frames much of the falling action, who lets us check in with everyone. She's the one who helps talk Laios into accepting his role as king. She may join the story part way through, but she is there for most of it. So Izutsumi! What's your deal!?

Well, I think I've come up with an answer, at least for myself, that I really like. Two of them, even! Though they both really work together to form the overall point - Izutsumi is the character that most helps the story face towards the future. Here's why I think that.

So the first of these "ah-ha" moments was when I realized that Izutsumi really is the best supporting evidence for Laios' point about the good things that wouldn't have happened if Falin hadn't died.

If Falin hadn't been eaten by the dragon, Izutsumi probably would still be a slave. It was because of Shuro and Laios' parties both being in the dungeon to rescue Falin, as well as Marcille's use of ancient magic in the resurrection, that she got the chance to escape. None of that would have been the case if Falin hadn't died. Shuro wouldn't have separated from the group and joined up with his retainers, Marcille wouldn't have revealed her knowledge of ancient magic, and Izutsumi never would have even met any of them. They are only part of her life because of Falin's death.

Though this isn't explicitly pointed out by Laios or Izutsumi in the scene, I do think you can very much feel the presence of it. For one, when Marcille reflects on the journey and how much it made her realize she didn't want to lose everyone, her relationship with Izutsumi is prominent:

It's the main original group at the top and center, but when you read it right to left, it’s Izutsumi and Marcille who might catch your eye first. And it's specifically Marcille and Izutsumi's relationship on display here, not just Izutsumi's presence in the group in general.

Also, after Laios' statement about how none of their adventure would have happened without Falin dying, it is Izutsumi who gets the final word:

Izutsumi is also the one here who is the most forward-facing. Chilchuck is trying to correct Laios, Senshi is focused on the immediate future, and Izutsumi is talking about her new goal.

And I want to talk about that goal in general as well, because it’s also interesting how it comes up. In that moment, everyone is trying to remind Marcille of her less destructive desires - to eat food, to share it with them, and to meet Chilchuck's family. All of which are previously established, existing desires. When prompted by Chilchuck to join in, however, Izutsumi offers something new:

That's interesting, isn't it? It's kind of funny, of course, to see her rambling on about a completely new thing, her own personal motive, in the middle of everyone working together to reach out to Marcille. Izutsumi doesn't even know who Yaad is! But at the same time, it’s kind of meaningful. Amidst the focus on desires that everyone already had, she adds a completely new one to the mix. It’s even the final bridge that lets Laios reach Marcille.

It is, in fact, even an idea that comes back later to help out another lord of the dungeon. The idea of finding new goals and feeling new desires... this is exactly how Kabru reaches out to Mithrun, after the Winged Lion is gone

So yeah, Izutsumi's presence here, both in what she's actively choosing to say as well as what she represents of the consequences of Falin's death, supports the story's ideas of moving forward. Of accepting the past, and finding new reasons to live.

Which is all really good, and that alone works pretty well as an answer to what Izutsumi's role in the story is.

But oh, oh. There's more. Something I realized after having thought of all this, because I still couldn't let go of the feeling that there was still something I was missing.

And as I reviewed the things I loved about Izutsumi - her sometimes unhealthy ways of coping with trauma, her struggles with isolation, her skill with fighting, her selfishness contrasted with the ways she grows to care for and protect the group, her perpetually guarded nature, born from the seeming impossibility of ever fitting in or finding a safe place to just be herself - I realized something.

Izutsumi...

is a foil to Falin.

Where Falin copes with isolation and trauma by being eternally caring and struggling to say no to people, Izutsumi copes by constantly saying no to everything she can. Falin is often considered selfless, but does have selfish desires that she can’t easily express until a moment of crisis. Izutsumi is delightfully selfish, but chooses to stick by her friends when they need her. They are both transformed, against their will, into partly monstrous hybrids, and they both will have to live with that - there is no undoing what has been done to them.

Falin anchors the group in the past. Izutsumi pulls them towards the future. Neither would find freedom without the other - it is Falin's death that leads to Izutsumi joining the party, and likewise, it is Izutsumi who inspires the realization of how they can save Falin.

And Falin is her future, as much as Izutsumi is Falin's. Both learn to be a little more like each other, even though they never meet. Falin gets a little more selfish. Izutsumi gets a little more willing to bend.

In this context, I feel like I have finally started to understand just how important Izutsumi is to the story. She is a proof that they cannot just go back, and she is a clawed, happy-to-scratch-anyone-who-pisses-her-off reminder, at that. In any conversation about what the group wishes would have happened with Falin, she cannot be ignored or brushed aside.

She is a reminder that, even in the midst of a tragedy so big it feels like a shadow you will never escape, you have yet to met all the people you will love. Hell, some of those people might even be catgirls. We should all be so lucky.

[tuliprambles]

An aspect of Dungeon Meshi I hope more and more anime (or shows in general) take inspiration from is how it handles autistic characters. Laios and Falin aren't just the usual autistic rep you see in media where they're socially inept, incapable of taking things seriously, and you're supposed to laugh at them.

Laios has his strengths. He's one to quietly observe and plan. He saves the party's asses time and time again with his knowledge of monsters, because they're his special interest. He does struggle to pick up on social cues, and he often words his thoughts in a terrible way, but he's not stupid. He's a lovable goof.

Falin is very similar, but rather than trying and failing to take part in social situations, she keeps to herself. Both her and Laios were outcasted where they grew up for being "weird," but whereas Laios actively looked for somewhere to fit in, Falin suffered in silence. It's a big deal when she starts hitting it off with Marcille. She has someone to spend time with and share her interests with, and Marcille is another magic user!

The show isn't shy about the fact that because Falin keeps quiet and acts like a lady is "supposed to," she isn't seen as bad as Laios is. When both of them come to this new place to start fresh, Laios tries and tries to fit in with others, but Falin doesn't. That makes her desirable to others, especially in a more medieval setting like this one. Shuro lashes out at Laios for being unable to pick up on any hints that he doesn't like him, and all the supposedly terrible traits he lists off are also traits Falin has. Shuro is in love with Falin though, which is telling.

The show does all of this so well, and at no point is it preachy. There is no point where the show stops to explain that 'this character has autism' or tell the audience how autism works. It expects the audience to see how these characters are treated and come to conclusions on their own. There are people out there who deny that any of this subtext exists, because the word autism is never outright said in the show or manga, but...come on.

[sabertoothwalrus]

I'm going to think out loud about the dungeon meshi ages for a sec

I'm going to preface this by saying that this is based on my existing knowledge, and fact checking is difficult because there is A LOT of contentious research out there.

First of all, I think a lot of people come at this from a modern lens, forgetting the context that this is fantasy medieval era. this is fiction. on top of that, this is specifically Ryoko Kui's understanding of medieval era aging. plus fantasy. So before anyone comes at me with a bunch of 'ermmmm actualy's just consider that I don't really care and also it might not matter in this context lol

as far as the "age of maturity" assigned for each race, something I don't see many people talk about is that "teenagers" are a fairly recent concept. For a long time, you were either considered A Kid or Not A Kid. but this doesn't necessarily mean kids were more/less developed then, just our cultural expectations for certain age groups have changed.

Laios says the age of maturity for tallmen is 16. I don't think that means 16 year olds in the dungeon meshi universe are necessarily "more mature" than modern 16 year olds, but moreso that they have more responsibilities. However, things like medicine, smoking, drinking, sun exposure, physical activity, etc all affect age, so it's possible that developmentally they're closer to modern 18 year olds? Izutsumi is 17 (less than two weeks from turning 18, actually), and very much acts like a modern 17 year old.

The age of maturity for half-foots is 14. Chilchuck was 13 when he got married and had his first two children. Even though, at age 29, he's the equivalent of a modern 50 year old, I don't think he was That much more developed at 13 than a tallman. I think if half-foot 14 is equal to tallman 16, then Chilchuck was Pretty Damn Young for a parent LMAO. Even if you're generous and say tallman 16 is a modern 18, he still would've been younger than that.

The long-lived races are interesting. Marcille is obviously a unique case, and not a lot of this applies to her. We do know what Senshi was like as a minor (miner, lol), and he seemed like a modern 15ish, considering he was 36 and dwarf maturity is 40. I think it'd be really interesting to delve into how a culture functions with people being developmentally adolescent for soooooo long. Imagine middle school lasting 20 years. that would fucking suck. I suppose it makes sense why long-lived races are so patronizing.

Moving onto lifespans, I want to emphasize that they're average lifespans. Even in the manga, they say some half-foots live to 100, it's just rare. So it's less that a tallman 60 year old is "older" than a modern 60 year old, it's that it's easier to keep people alive for longer nowadays. Modern medicine is a BIG contributor. Dental health as well, considering how much your health is affected by your diet (and how much the action of chewing alone aids in digestion). Curious to know what the FUCK elven dentistry is like.

It also makes me wonder if half-foots would have a longer average lifespan if they weren't like, used for bait and treated so poorly, but half-foot 29 does seem to be middle-aged for half-foots. so who knows!

In that vein, I don't know if I can see Mithrun quite making it to 400 😬 like, his experience as a dungeon lord took a lot out of him quite literally, and he's doing exceptionally well despite it! I imagine he'd eventually start to develop a lot of heart problems if he doesn't have them already. Perhaps early-onset dementia. His memory seems still quite intact (he corrects Kabru on his story's accuracy) and he doesn't act like, lobotomized. He doesn't seem forgetful or confused, and he has a sense of humor/sarcasm still. It's mostly his task initiation that's been affected.

I almost want to say that mana affinity could affect long-lived races' lifespans, except dwarves have very poor tolerance for mana, so it's probably not that.

okay anyway I didn't really have a point to this post so I'm just gonna end my rambling here

[laikabu]

sorry but would you be willing to elaborate on Kabru being a trans allegory? I'm trans myself + a Kabru fan but this never really occurred to me (just thought people made him trans since it's cool)

the whole thing with milsiril and all the doll imagery associated with her as symbolism of how she sees him as a doll she wants to keep and take care of is something a lot of transmascs can relate to. even though he loves her, he does NOT want to go back home to live with her again.

also him needing to mask and adapt his personality to certain people can mean a LOT of things, but you can visualize that a stealth trans guy would want to do this sort of thing for safety reasons

and to the shallower, surface level visual stuff:

he looked very feminine as a child and wore a dress. elf males can wear skirts/dresses, but you can infer that he didn’t like wearing one as you see him wearing shorts as an older child

he’s 170cm(average tallman female height) of course you can say “that doesn’t mean anything” but it’s a funny coincidence, don’t think too much about it.

okay this is just me hypothesizing through the existing text:

you can assume that elves view tallmen as inherently masculine the way dwarves see them as inherently feminine as marcille feels like the actors for the tallman adaptation of the daltian clan don’t fit elf beauty standards, so he didn’t have trouble being seen as a boy while living with milsiril

he spent four years living independently before the story starts. i’m sure he’d have access to masculinizing medicine during that time

of course, this all can be applied to other parts of his character, but there’s nothing that contradicts this headcanon. an allegory doesn’t always have to be intentional after all, but seeing how ryoko kui has made one-shot manga about unambiguously transgender/genderqueer characters, it’s really not impossible to have this reading of him.

obviously, you can still headcanon a character as trans without any “evidence” or even if it’s contradictory with their backstory, but it’s neat how all the puzzle pieces fall into place

[emptyjunior]

Can we talk about how good marcille's "magic has no morals" line is.

She's so right, it's just a thing that exists!! And I do think the metaphor is for science, because I could say Science has no morals.

But it's about how people use it. All types of magic can be used to inflict pain: healing, summoning, illusion, there's good and dark sides to all of them.

So should we outlaw it completely and never think about it again? Is that viable? Because we start to see in their world it simply isn't!

Like I think that nuclear physics has been used for bad things. I think it's a wildly dangerous science and its practical use in our society has caused a lot of people harm.

Does that mean I think we should ignore it completely? That we should never study it or ever try to have understood how it works?

No I do Not think that because that seems way more dangerous! And understanding the things we do about nuclear physics opened up the door to understand things in the rest of the universe and all the other sciences.

Ancient magic IS dangerous, so Marcille is doing what she can to help and that means understanding it. Learning about it.

So when it's actively used as a weapon, she can undo it! When people misuse it to cause harm, she can help!

[dunmeshistash]

wrt spirits; in Guide, Marcille explains the main difference between Elven and Gnomic magic to be that they generate phenomena (i.e. spells) by using spirits differently. The magical micro-organisms, not spirits of the dead. From Raspberry chapter, we know spirits exclusively breed and exist within an environment of suitable mana. Thus, stands to reason that if somewhere is low in mana (most of aboveground), it's low in spirit numbers as well. Less workers for phenomena -> less phenomena.

Anonymous asked: As a sidenote, to keep up with the spirits topic, since mages can and do breed them, it seems like that might be one way to make magic more viable aboveground; literally grow your mana plankton in a jar, to be used when necessary. Nowhere near as good as having a dungeon, of course. In general I assume that mages have probably developed a lot of tech and clever tricks to make the most out of what they have; it's clearly something that gets used aboveground, but it's not trivial like dungeons.

(ref to this)

Thanks for replying! I still have no idea what to say on the subject, wish they expanded more on that subject in the AB or the manga

They do mention breeding spirits is related to summoning magic, one of the students even asks Marcille why she's studying summoning Magic when they're making the dungeonium so idk if that's something students of other areas of magic do.

From these I imagined spirit use was only related to, for example, how Holm uses elemental spirits, related to the summoning magic (Breed water spirits until you have an undine) but the gnome extra does talk about spirits as if magic is related to controlling them/getting them to do what you want

And even the winged lion extra implies something similar I think, with how humans learned to use magic by communicating to it what it wants

Since this one refers to magic itself I thought it was related to the demon's existence seeping into our world and working to make spells happen, I thought spirits were an existence separated from that (similar to monsters, created from it but not the same? Since they feed on magic too) the gnome extra is the one that makes me the most confused tbh

Anyway! I like your theory but it's not really clear in my head what canon is saying.

[ugghouly]

Further on the topic of Marcille’s longevity opposed to her friends, decades are nothing but a drop in the bucket of the centuries she will live. It is like the heartbreak of parting with a short lived pet, a mantis or a mouse that is still so special but both young and old so quickly. How long do you think Marcille holds onto the last loose threads of their rotted clothes, how long does she yearn for a group dinner in the dungeon? Do you hear the whispers in Chilchuck’s old town as a solemn elf wanders down into a cemetery so caked with moss and mud that you can no longer read a single name? Can you imagine their fascination as she navigates quickly to a headstone and kneels down to rub it clean? Can you imagine Marcille and Senshi sitting quietly in those few hundred years they would spend alone together? So afraid to fill the silence because of the voices they may find themselves waiting for. Can you imagine how loud she would cry when that was over? Can you imagine how many keepsakes she carries? Maybe Laios’ gourmet guide, maybe chilchuck’s lockpicks, maybe the rope with which senshi would tie up his hair. Imagine that kind of grief. Imagine her following Chilchuck’s daughters and grandchildren around but they are never quite the same. She sees his face in them but none of them know her the way he did. Can you imagine Marcille tending to the golems? gardening in them for as long as she can stomach being reminded of the past? The stories that exist beyond the dungeon are filled with an immense grief that just draws me in.

[dzmaylon]

sonic au/fan story? Where Sonic lost his superspeed and Shadow met other Sonic and his friends in a parallel universe

I’ll drop some sketches here because why not

Girl on the first pic is my fan character, Verse the Hedgehog, her full name is Verse O’Tyle. Sonic reminds Verse of her siblings in a way, and I like to imagine them both chilling somewhere on a hill.

She is a “chill girl surrounded by chaos” - and chaos is her crazy af family. Her siblings are on a third pic: brother Leaph and cousin Snowflake. Leaph loves jumping, he leaps high as possible, and hides in a trees, causing Verse to search for him for hours lol. And Snowflake is overall quiet girl, shy and cute. Her quills are too soft which hurts a lot, that’s why she only wears gloves and really soft shoes. Snowflake usually just follows Leaph everywhere. There is also Verse’s mother and uncle but I got no pics of them yet

Shadow the Hedgehog

So the whole AU idea is that chaos energy around has risen, because of it an accident has happened with Sonic, and Shadow and Sonic had a brief fight during which all the negative emotions and stuff snapped Shadow’s inhibitor rings. It’s a REALLY long story short because there is more details to it.

but basically it caused all the Shadow’s energy go inside-out and this “Raw Chaos Energy” was still living in the past, unconsciously twisting everything around, and blaming everyone around (aka Sonic and his friends) for Maria’s death. Realising she was long dæd Raw Energy bends space-time to save her. This creates a parallel universe, where past!Shadow now has some of the “flashes” of future events with Maria’s and using it to save her. Also this form is like SUPER STRONG and the only reason Sonic survived it because before that Master Emerald had transferred some of its power to Knuckles just for a brief moment

so here is a sketch of Emerald/Raw Energy Knuckles

Not gonna go with much details because I might change a lot of that, but the whole idea is that in parallel universe where Maria had survived (even if for a few more decades only) Sonic didn’t get his super speed. It’s kinda to balance whole world out, because Maria had influenced people in a good way while she was living her full life

ANYWAY

remember the flashes I mentioned earlier? Shadow also saw Sonic and the others in those “flashy events” but he has no idea who tf they are, and later on he will try to find them because he started to have more and more dreams about them

here is Sonic and some of his friends

he never got blue because he never reach sonic speed and that’s why he is brown

I still didn’t pic a name for him, it makes sense for him to be Wendy (like a wind ig) but I don’t know how to make it unisex or something. I called him “Marcille” before because in Archie Comics he was called Maurice and I loved the way Marcille sounds lol

and yeah TRANS SONIC 🏳️‍⚧️🗣️🗣️ the original sonic is also trans but he is already comfortable with himself so

since sonic isn’t such a hero as he in a main universe, people here are way less united and there is more crime and bad people (mostly because people mistrust each other, so it’s not just about the super speed but specifically Sonic’s mentality)

and Amy in this universe is the one who tries to hold it all together, helping people by the cost of her own happiness

poor baby

Knuckles and Rouge exist here too but I have no pics of them yet, moving forward

TAILS!!

No one even know the guy named Tails and to be fair he doesn’t even exist. Miles, however, does but he is not with the main squad - after all he was never saved from that village and was constantly bullied for his two tails

as of now I don’t have any more sketches so here is my rattlesnake fan character from the same universe

this one is specifically from the main universe

colors on second one are the old one because I dig the new design more

she makes poison treatments and meds but her hobby is mechanics and stuff, she might be not good at it as Tails but she’s willing to learn

and some doodles

[prismatoxic]

(this post features transmasc chilchuck! if that's not a headcanon you enjoy you may look the other way)

chilchuck returns to kahka brud after laios's coronation, but as he'd somewhat suspected, things with his wife don't work out. returning to merini, he reunites with laios, and without a party to compromise and no existing romantic relationships for either of them, they finally confront things they've both been feeling for a while.

chilchuck never did anything drastic to prevent himself from conceiving more kids after puckpatti was born, and as he and his wife's relationship grew distant, sex wasn't an active factor anyway. so he's maybe... not as careful as he should be, when he and laios fall into bed together.

winding up pregnant, chilchuck finds himself unwilling to get rid of it, and just as quickly finds that laios doesn't want him to either. scandalous though chilchuck is sure their relationship would be to the kingdom, laios seems unconcerned, and is far more invested in being with chilchuck.

fentripp is larger than any of chilchuck's girls were, but to laios, he seems so small. chilchuck frets about him being late to all of his developmental milestones, but to laios, he's meeting them all earlier than he thought kids did. he's small for a tall-man, but big for a half-foot; his senses are sharp, though, and his mana pool is reasonably deep, so he did get some benefits from both.

fentripp is two years old when laios proposes, taking chilchuck entirely off guard. having an illicit relationship (and half-breed child) is one thing, but officiating it...? making chilchuck his spouse and fentripp his successor? chilchuck is baffled by the choice, but to laios, it's the most natural decision to make in the world.

as he ages and discovers his aptitude for magic + grows ever closer to his doting aunt falin (whom he idolizes), fentripp decides he wants to be a mage. like falin, he uses the gnome magic system, going so far as to turn up his nose when aunt marcille tries to teach him anything from the elven side. spirits are his friends, not his tools; it's very important to him.

laios's curse isn't hereditary, and fentripp can freely interact with the kingdom's monsters. it may not be what laios had always dreamed of for himself, but seeing his son adopt his enthusiasm for monsters is deeply heartwarming, all the same. (chilchuck wishes fen would maybe be a little more careful, but at least if laios comes running, the monsters scatter.)

he's a beloved child, cared for deeply by all of laios and chilchuck's friends and family. he's also, frequently and with little remorse, a handful--but in a soft, friendly way that makes it hard to stay mad at him. (chilchuck tries. the kid needs some discipline. but he's got laios's eyes, and does a great impression of laios's kicked puppy face, and "a troll will get you" doesn't work so well when his half-sisters have been fondly referring to him as a troll since they met him.)