#This was mostly to just get a solid design from the sketch i did

[wizardofwoof]

Fnaf brainrot really going crazy lately

Tho im not complaining

[harmonictechnicality]

*based off this awesome art right here by @chocoarts - the sketch on the left in particular :)

It doesn’t take long for Steve to get used to Eddie’s raised-by-wolves levels of affection. The hair chewing and the shoulder nibbles and the freckle licking. It’s never classified normal stuff - definitely not stuff he ever did with dainty Hawkins High girls, that’s for damn sure.

But still, it takes no time to get used to it. Full on expects it, by now. The most notable time that Steve is expecting it is on their one year anniversary.

Two months prior to the Big Day, Eddie's spontaneity and Steve's boredom led to an impulsive stick-and-poke tattoo on Steve's forearm. Eddie wanted to give Steve a simple crown. Told him it was to reclaim the stupid nickname from high school, make it his own.

'Overthrow all the teenaged bullshit. Kick trauma in the metaphorical ass.' Eddie had said after completing it, smiling up at Steve. 'It's what kings do best.'

After that day, Steve decides to add on to his impulsive tattoo and surprise Eddie with it. He gets one small bat, just like the ones on Eddie's arm. Gets it right next to the crown, side-by-side. The same way they all fought together a while back.

As soon as Eddie sees the addition, he tackles Steve, linebacker style. Steve is ready for it, totally braces for the aggressive affection. Fucking loves it. Expects it.

However, Eddie doesn't just stop there. Oh no. He climbs up Steve's body, tightly wrapping his arms around Steve's neck. Wraps his legs around Steve's upper arms even tighter.

Which... how the hell did Eddie get so flexible? And when the hell did Eddie get so flexible? Like, yeah they do some semi-contortionist stuff in the bedroom, mostly when they're hyped up on sugary soft drinks.

But this? This is... new. Wild.

He clutches on to Steve like he's a goddamn tree trunk. Some rare tree species that's in grave danger of being chopped down from the rainforest or whatever. He’s making lots of pleased sounds, singing maybe. Hard to tell for sure.

Steve holds Eddie firmly, hands underneath his thigh, his back, anywhere that he can get a solid grip. Keeps him safe from whatever corporate bulldozer that dares to take down their weirdly amazing love.

"Shit, I'm crazy about you." Eddie nuzzles into Steve's hair. "Like... totally and completely."

Steve laughs, comes out a bit strangled from the way Eddie is clinging to him. "Guessing you like it, huh?"

"Duh." Eddie slides off, connecting their hands on his way down.

"It represents-"

"I know what it represents." Eddie interrupts, his expression softens from the reminder, the difficult topic they're both skipping around. "You don't have to say it."

He does though, Steve has to say it. Needs to say it the same exact way Eddie had said it to him two months ago.

Because yeah, they act tough about what went down that night. But that doesn't mean they should just be stuck in a cycle of Acting Tough. Pretending to be okay all the damn time.

So Steve takes Eddie's arm, the one that's covered with tiny bat silhouettes. He holds their two arms together and carefully brushes over each tattoo design. Tells Eddie to reclaim the stupid scars that litter his body.

"Fight off all the inter-dimensional bullshit. Kick trauma's metaphorical ass." Steve smiles up at Eddie, who suddenly looks serious, focused. "It's what heroes do best."

"Steve." The seriousness is wiped clean off of Eddie's face. It's quickly replaced with a gentle grin. Relief reaching over his furrowed brow. No more worry lines. No more grimace. He looks at ease. Content, maybe.

And as much as Steve enjoys making Eddie feel content, he wants him happier right now. So he switches up the energy, tries to lighten the mood a little. Steve hooks his fingers into Eddie's front pockets, readying to pull him in.

It's predictable, been his go to make-out move any time they're standing up. This is a special fucking day, however, and that calls for a Special Edition Make-Out Move.

So Steve digs each hand deep into Eddie's pockets, wiggles them around a bit. Watches Eddie's cheeks go pink, blotchy red in some places. Steve moves all of the coins and lint and questionable items out of the way, making room.

He takes deep breath, then yanks the seams at the very bottom of each pocket, flipping the material inside out. Sticking straight up from his jeans.

Eddie is all red now, flushed down to his neck. "What the..."

Steve tugs on the flipped out pocket seams, jolting Eddie closer. He lands on Steve's lips, colliding a bit roughly. For a second, they're too busy smiling to kiss properly. But Steve slides his hands up Eddie's chest, around his neck, scratches the tiny hairs on the back of Eddie's head, and that's it. That's all that it takes for them to get lost in the kiss.

Eddie's mouth opens, biting the center of Steve's bottom lip. Breathes out the warmest air as he lets go, returns to a softer approach. Steve licks over the spot, soothes the pulse that Eddie left behind.

"That was... different. " Eddie laughs. He swipes his tongue over Steve's cupids bow, traces an outline until Steve is laughing too.

"Bad different?" Steve asks.

"Not at all." Eddie shakes Steve by the shoulders like he’s nuts for asking such an outrageous question. "Besides, different is right up my alley, babe."

"I'm highly aware."

"Didn't realize I was such a bad influence on your freakier side."

"What can I say?" Steve shrugs, steals one of Eddie’s rings to twirl around his finger. "I'm very easily persuaded."

They head over to the couch, kissing haphazardly as they flop down. Eddie tugs and twists at the fabric of Steve’s shirt, stretching it out. Wrinkling it. Steve couldn’t care less if it gets ruined because Eddie will be the one ruining it.

Eddie sighs into the kiss. Not a sexy sigh either (which are obviously Steve’s favorite of the sighing variety). It sounds more shocked. Disbelief or something.

Steve angles his head away from the kiss to see that Eddie’s eyes are open, wandering all over Steve’s face. It’s pretty cute, seeing Eddie too busy just staring to even shut his eyes mid-kiss. Like his schedule is too jam-packed up with Gawking, has to multitask during their make out sessions now.

"Kinda can’t believe it." Eddie finally says, still staring.

"What?" Steve stares backs. Makes it a staring contest. Doesn't tell Eddie though cause he wants to win.

Eddie motions toward his pockets that are still turned inside out. "After one whole year, you still keep me on my toes with shit like that."

"I do?"

"Sure do. You're something else, babe.”

"I am?" Steve blinks.

Damnit, he lost the one-sided staring contest.

“Yup.” Eddie nods, transitions to chewing on a chunk of Steve’s hair like he always does. Sometimes, he’ll make mooing sounds. Especially after sex, when he’s at his goofiest. Most comfortable.

It’s fucking unreal how Steve has learned all of these quirks. How he waits for them, anticipates them. Every bit feels familiar to him now.

"You're unexpected in all the best ways, Harrington."

Steve tries not to gush at that compliment. It's not one he gets often.

Eddie stops chewing on Steve’s hair to kiss his cheek instead. The kiss is powdery-sweet, miles away from his usual eagerness. Still perfect somehow. Just like the weird stuff is somehow perfect too.

That's kind of who they are together. Weird and unexpected.

In all the best ways.

[uva124]

So yeah, I finished the drawing of Asha's redesign from Wish :D, maybe I'll make some changes in the future, but I'm happy to have finished it, it should be noted that I haven't seen the movie. , so I can't give my opinion on it yet, but I found it very interesting that their fandom is mainly made up of people who rewrote or made their own version of the movie, they are all very creative and it got me out of an artistic block. that I had a few months ago, but above all I found the rewriting of @annymation which is the one I have been most hooked on, so I wanted to do some redesigns of the characters coming out of its rewriting, that's why everything that has to do with the story of this version of Asha, as well as her personality and her world on which I base my drawing are the ideas and work of this account: @annymation

I'm just making a drawing of her character and how I would design her as well as sharing part of the process I had to do to draw her because, why not?

BOARD:

The first thing I had to do was put together a table full of references that reminded me of the character and things that I would like to add to her design, so I used milanote to do it:

-Looked for some Asha's concept art and save the ones I liked the most, and add the main colors that I used in the design. -I also created notes to write down the personality of the character and some of his data to have a better guide, I did a little research and found publications that talked a lot about Asha's discarded designs and how Disney workers had put that she had tribe ancestry Amazigh on his mother's side and since his father was from the Iberian Peninsula, that's why the next thing I wanted to do is research more about their culture. -I am not an expert on this topic, nor do I belong to the cultures from which Asha has ancestry, so you can comment on any correction regarding this topic, I wanted to implement details of this culture to her design and I would really like to give a correct representation :)

HAIRSTYLE

Continuing with the theme, I saw that the hairstyles in the Amazigh culture mostly had this type of colorful decorations on their braids and dreadlocks, that's why I also posted these reference photos for Asha's hairstyle.

-Finally I decided that Asha would not have all her hair full of braids or dreadlocks, but only a few accompanied by these decorations with a great variation of colors, although it was fun to sketch the many hairstyle options that I had in mind based on these concept art and other photos that I had saved

TATTOOS:

-Another detail that I liked was giving Asha some tattoos with designs from the Amazigh culture, because I saw that it was quite common for women to get them, the tattoo on her forehead is a symbol of protection against bad influences, that's why the The middle symbol is responsible for deflecting it in the 4 directions, I also added a similar one in Asha's right hand.

ASTROLOGY AND THE SPACE:

-An important part of Asha's rewrite is her knowledge of astronomy inherited from her father, especially with the stars for obvious reasons xd, so in addition to adding constellations to her dresses, research the meaning (or something like that) of the planets. Only 3 really reminded me of the character, which were: -Mars: Symbolization of the internal conquering function of moving forward, independent, self-determined, enduring failures with new energy, courage and energy to fight for your desires. -Saturn: Maturity, effort to solidly build realistic criteria, frustrations are transformed into objectives to continue growing, critical and realistic, far from getting frustrated when an objective does not work, you strive to move forward and obtain even more resistant and solid achievements, perseverance , and tenacity (I feel like yhis it the most similar to Asha :D) -Moon: protective role, feeling very vulnerable outside your known areas, feeling of security with your ties, importance of family ties. The one that reminded me the most of Asha was Saturn, that's why I drew those Saturn-shaped earrings :).

SUITS:

I looked for references and placed some on milanote, I noticed that the concept art was mainly divided into whether the dresses have lilac colors or warm colors, I decided to draw 2 models based on the discarded designs, although at first I thought of using only one color palette lilac and bluish, I realized that the reddish colors of her dress reminded me of Mars which has certain meanings that in my opinion coincide with Asha's personality. In the end I didn't decide what wardrobe she would primarily have 😅, but I like to think that in this version of Wish, Asha would have wardrobe and hairstyle changes like in some older Disney movies.

-These are some of the concepts that I mainly used for my version of the dresses

FINAL COMMENTS:

I am satisfied with the result, it was fun to make all this, although what I researched mostly seems little, it actually cost me several hours and I did it at night, so as a funny fact the next day I was explaining all this information to my mother and I felt like I looked like that:

(Make this drawing was so funny LMAO)

(Apologies if there are errors in my writing, English is not my first language and my writing is very basic)

[hurricanek8art]

Okay, I don't know what's going on with Tumblr and everything has been absolute chaos with my life the past few months, so y'know what, screw it. I think I'm actually brave enough to share some of my art. At least it won't just be sitting on my tablet that way.

This is my Sith Inquisitor turned Force-sensitive Outcast from SWTOR, Roodaka Greatstorm-Kallig. I haven't really plotted everything out with her regarding her story, but she's not my Outlander. She leaves the Empire right after Ziost, after losing all of the family she'd used her Dark Council connections to find and save from slavery, and Lana recruits her to help Sana-Rae run the Enclave about two years before the Outlander (my Knight Aja Verdona) is rescued. She's prickly and petty and spiteful but I love her dearly. And because I've never posted art before, art process and a little bit of character lore ramble under the cut, I guess?

I usually work with lined art/sketches that are admittedly very messy, but when I did the first one back in May I was experimenting with actually rendering/painting, and I saw a fashion post thing that looked like something Roo would wear, so I was mostly just playing around, it's not a solid outfit design for her. It's janky and wonky and oh Lord please don't look closely at the anatomy or face it is not up to my usual standards, but I was so proud of myself for the lighting on this one, as well as how I managed to render the muscle. Like, the lighting! I have no idea what I'm doing but I think it looks so flipping good! And I was happy with how the crackly lightsaber blade turned out—it is supposed to be Aloysius Kallig's lightsaber, meaning it's at least over a thousand years old, right? It should be a little janky with age!

The second one is supposed to be post Fallen Empire, after she's left the Sith and become sort of a wandering Force-user—think Ahsoka as of, well... Ahsoka, but more on the side of Ventress if she'd survived TCW (don't get me started on that choice 🙄🙄🙄). I came into it knowing a little more of what I was doing, but I kinda got in over my head and gave up on the 100% lineless thing, you can definitely tell with the sword/clothes. 🥴 The second piece has been sitting unfinished in my WIP folder for months, so I just said screw it, finished up some details and called it because I am SO PROUD of her face and hands (I DREW A GOOD HAND WITHOUT LINEART WHO AM I?!?!) and how I rendered her skin, I don't want it to live in WIP purgatory forever. You can actually tell that's muscle! And a neck!

I'm proud of how her tattoos turned out, too. I played around with Cham Syndulla's tattoo pattern, turning it at different angles. It felt like a good way to root her in Twi'lek culture despite the Kallig bloodline having been separated from it for so long. She gets the first one to cover up a slave tattoo, and the rest after Ziost to further reclaim her identity and culture, leaving the Sith behind.

I have no idea how to close this post. Um... thanks for reading all this, if you have? I've never posted art before, I'm kinda terrified. 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

[ectocs]

The Lumchagg

Feel like I'm cutting it a bit close this week :P

So. The lumchagg. It's a bird, it's purple, it likes aromatic herbs and it sets itself on fire to revive itself into a worm. Honestly this thing grew on me the more I worked on it.

Ideas behind this design below the cut ! Alongside some doodles, rambles, and concepts :)

It starts life as a "worm" -- a featherless, pink squirmy thing with nubs where its limbs will later grow in. The lengthy tail will later be absorbed to facilitate that.. like a lot of metamorphosing (is that the word?) creatures.

The idea at this point is pretty straightforward. Recently got to watch two robin nests grow, which was interesting, and young birds look really... fleshy. Wanted to give it coloring on its throat like the clitellum on a worm (aka the saddle) but I think it's just not distinctive enough. I gave it four eyes for more of a bug feel, though it's so minor I don't think it matters much in the end.

As it grows and gets feathers, the lumchagg's tail shortens -- the wings are the first limb to fully grow, giving it an amphithere-like appearance, though the legs soon follow within the same day the wings finish growth, making the change from worm to bird seem almost instant. All four eyes are open, though body coloration is not "mature."

Not much to say on this stage; it's a bird with fun antennae-like tufts on its head and a fun beak, a vaguely dinosaur feel, and coloration based sorta on a violet-backed starling. It has faint horns/ridges because ... um...... well to be honest I just decided to give it to the thing based on the dinosaur/dragon/etc vibes in the room.

In the adult stage, they will spend most of their long-lived lives as a darker, mostly-solid purple tone. This coloration lasts until the very end of their lives, at which point the lumchagg's wings become pale on the inside, allowing it to concentrate and direct the sun's rays onto flammable material. Through this method, the bird is able to burn and rebirth itself.

Drew the end-of-life stage here setting itself on fire. Don't ask how white/pale wings lets it burn stuff; it comes back to life, it gets privileges the average white goose doesn't get.

Here is a basic idea of the life cycle, hastily slapped together as a visual:

There was quite a bit of thinking to get to this point. Here is the last sketch page I did. Unlike the other doodles I never bothered coloring it in, as I decided to go with this look.

Note the "wyrm" title -- I initially wanted to do a more dragon-y take, with a final form maybe being an amphithere, but decided against it in the end and changed tracks when I couldn't get that to look right. Liked the idea though, so it gets to be a life stage that exists for 0.1 seconds. You can also see the adult pose change!

The butterfly note here comes from some images I was looking at with interesting wing shapes. Never quite got it how I wanted, pivoted to a purely pennant-winged nightjar kind of wing.

Now the thing I had done earlier was some bugs, which I liked, but ultimately just couldn't draw 'em. Bird can be a loose term, after all, and large black swallowtails flying by at fast speeds have had me thinking a small bird flew past me on multiple occasions.

Plus, well, lots of bugs have worm-children. There are literally just worms, of course. But butterflies, beetles, flies, sawflies... all winged (usually) with little squirmy babies.

And the first doodle page was, of course, birds. I must admit, this is my favorite just because I figured out how to draw birds only on this ONE sketch session. That heron is beautiful. But anyway -- I kinda merged ideas together in the end, giving it several traits from both doodled birds.

In my heart, after all these arts, a lumchagg is a kind of weird purple bird of any type lol. Even from the beginning, I wanted that kind of long feather just for looks. Please note the incorrect text describing what I call the "standard-winged purple swampjarhen." It's a hybrid of a grey-headed swamphen (aka a purple swamphen) and a pennant-winged nightjar. Oops! I was looking at them in a tab, I have no idea how I messed up my own damn text.

Here's a pennant next to a standard -- big difference in silly wing feathers!

[breadstick237]

monthly recap time!

so, what did I learn this month? part 2!

10.12.2024-10.01.2025

I started out strong, the first week i tackled backgrounds! Even though they're just a simple studies from references they're at least done, and i'm pretty proud of that since i've been avoiding this type of work all of my life. That's... the only thing i can honestly say i'm proud of this month.

There also was traditional art. I didn't focus on it at all this month, i only did my still life homework and portrait as a gift. By comparison to last month its weak, but its fine, that wasn't my goal.

My goal was working on the project i want to put in my portfolio.

And I was... slacking, a lot. Today i realized how much of my daily drawing was just procrastinating. Im so mad at myself for it, honestly.

I mean, i did a lot of work in my head. Pinterest board, looking up references, watching other people do things i don't know how to tackle myself, planning, thinking. It all gave me the impression of hard work.

its not bad itself, it's a solid way to learn. But it only works if tou have time. I have to speedrun through this process and i forgot about it. I've got like 4 months more to build a proper portfolio and for now i only have an idea in my head and i just wasted a month on thinking about it.

As i look back at it, from this month i only have two characters designed fully, for the third one i'm still unsure about the outfit. And one unfinished illustration (made to figure out how i should combine characters and environment. Plus, one sketch of the scene i have in mind.

What a disaster.

So, now i really have to get my shit tohether. And for that i need a good plan, because only saying "today i'm gonna do something neat" is one thing and deciding on what that is and how to do it in an efficient way is another.

I mostly have to remember that it's not going to be a masterpiece and i can't aim for that. I just have to finish it and that way with time i can progress. I'm not gonna develop a skill to do something good without doing the thing at all, only thinking about it.

yeah, i'm mad at myself. I feel the time pressure and that's why i can't afford wasting any more time. I have to keep in mind that my goal for now isn't to get good at art but to get as many pieces done as possible. That will of course make me better, i know that. But it's not my priority so i can't procrastinate by doing only studies.

its time to get shit done, no matter how bad and hard it turns out. i have to suck it up and finish even i don't like how it looks :((

[matoitech]

Any dragon guys in your oc repertoire?

i do have some yeah! i like dragons a lot i need more for ocs..

theres dirk, a med student in his 20s. he hasnt reached his residency yet but he's pursuing specializing in trans healthcare (he's trying to get into plastics to do bottom surgeries). he's got a cane (bad legs) and can breathe fire but usually only does when he's upset or overstimulated. his partner is gadget, who's a mechanic (and a kangaroo). both of them have existed since i was in high school they just got redesigns (they still need fullbody refs but most of my ocs r missing those lol) i'd never had a solid design for dirk that i actually liked for the like 10 years that he existed until last yr when i did his bust ref

crutch is another older oc that was made around the same time thats slowly being redesigned (hes low priority so this art from last year is the last art i did of him) so this is not his final form, but he's a drummer for a metal band and in his late 20's, blue knows him. ive got to tat his final design up too lol

i have some ocs that r hybrids mixed w dragon too. krum is a hyena/dragon guy in his 40's that lives in oregon w his stoner squirrel gf moj. he loves tequila. and polyamory

dallas is a newer oc in the works whose a lion/dragon hybrid but he literally only has a sketch page so far. i mostly wanted to get some ideas out with him so im not sure when i'll work on him. i like this idea tho!

my old mascot character was mixed with a dragon too but i don't rly use him anymore, and then i have some dragon girls (my favorites r level the dragon robot and lake the salmon dragon ichthyologist) but u asked for guys so thats what i showed :-)

[littledragondork]

TES Cat AU: Skyrim Thieves Guild

My self indulgent TES Cat art is done, at least my favorite Skyrim Thieves guild NPCs are, Probably gonna’ post the Companions next because I was drawing the Skyrim Dark Brotherhood and for the life of me I couldn’t get Cicero to look right lol, but I’ll take suggestions :3c

(I’m so down with doing the rest of the Skyrim Thieves Guild eventually)

Anyway, my art for Skyrim Cat AU Brynjolf, Karliah and Mercer Frey under the cut, with some design notes :3

I wanted Bryn to be an orange cat, not only because I like orange cats and their low intelligence but because it just made sense. I also wanted him to be one of those massive fluffy cats, the ones that weight like 20lbs/9kg and have more fur than they know what to do with, he’d be 99% fur, go to pet him and your hand is just swallowed by the fur. I made him a mackerel tabby cuz’ I like mackerel tabbies and because they are just super common cat patterns. For a long time I wanted to give Brynjolf Sectoral Heterochromia, which is basically when one eye is 80% one color and has a little dot of another, in this case I wanted brown, but I couldn’t really get it to look right so I ultimately scrapped it.

He also has a docked tail because I liked the idea of all the known Nightingales having something fucked up with their tails.

I also did a little sketch with the thieves guild armor, I think it’ll fit like a harness with a few little pockets and bags. I imagine they’d all have dexterous enough paws where they can make stuff like furniture, buildings, tools, weapons, armor, cook food etc, makes everything a lot easier to me

I imagine all the Nords I’ll draw have ear tufts, extra fluffy paws and long fluffy fur coats, they’d probably slide on ice a lot lol, Think Maine coons, Norwegian forest cats, Siberians. I referenced Maine coons, Lynx and bobcats the most with Bryn here, but he is just a domestic cat.

So, for Karliah (same with all elves tbh) I wanted big ol’ ears, I feel like I could have made them bigger but I decided against it because I didn’t want them to be in the way too much (might change that later though). She is also mostly back cat because I felt it was simple and cute (I have a black kitty and I love her). It’s also not shown here much but she’d have pretty short fur, and a thin and small build, think 10lbs/4.5kg.

Karliah’s tail is shortened and broken (a painless break, the kind that happened as a baby) as to go with ‘all Nightingales have fucked up tails’ deal.

did a more meme-y sketch in this one, I was in a goofy mood and thought it funny how quick both Brynjolf and the Last Dragonborn were to just accept selling their souls.

I imagine all Dunmer would have black or dark grey base coats and those that are tabbies to have them be lighter than the base, so for example a black cat with white stipes or grey with red stripes. They, and all elves will be mostly based on the Oriental Long/short hair cats because of their big ol’ ears and narrow faces but I’ll take creative liberties of course.

Last in this batch is Mercer Frey, I redesigned him at least 8 times, first he was solid grey+ Tuxedo pattern, then he was a dilute grey tabby, then a spotted tabby before I settled on a colorpoint because he was said to be “high born” and coming from a wealthy family, and I was like “hey, colorpoints are fancy cat coats and I can see a rich and powerful family wanting to breed that into their line” and thus Colorpoint Mercer was decided on. I knew 100% I wanted him to be grey because of the whole “grey fox” fan thing he has going on in the game

Seems like every time I would get near him in my playthough, any playthough of Skyrim actually, he’d look at me like I just spat in his drink so I tried to capture that here. Also the Knife cat meme because I thought it fit him.

he doesn’t have a tail because he doesn’t deserve one it’s with the ‘all Nightingales have fucked up tails’ bit.

I also wanted to share my ideas for weapons (still no clue how to do bows) but swords, great swords and daggers, would be little gauntlets made of the specific type of metal that go on the paws, and they would range in size and weight depending on the weapon its based on, so great swords would be huge metal claws while daggers would just be apart of a little leather glove that wraps around the paws. Lots of good ideas cooking up in my Autistic little mind lmao /pos.

I imagine all Bretons will just look like the average street cat, standard issue cats if you will, the common domestic short/long hair, probably have the most diversity in fur patterns and the like.

So that’s what I was able to get done in about about a few hours (with frequent breaks and work in between) A lot of the time was looking at both official art, fanart and the in-game models to get a good sense on the personality (both fandom and canon) and seeing what I can convert more easily to a non-humanoid design, a lot of shape language practice because I like shapes :3

I have a Solid design down for Ulfric but I wanted to do batches with like characters, so all Thieves guild girlies with each other and so all Civil War Girlies with each other, some might be drawn in pairs as well, like Hadvar + Ralof or Vilkas + Farkas.

[tammyhybrid21]

Generation 3 Iterators

(The Highlights)

Oh boy, finally the last of the generations. As with the other two this will just mostly be highlights. And again for the main iterators only really. So Unparalleled Innocence and Five Pebbles mostly. Even if there are a few more cameos for others of these guys along the way. There’s chaos in the bones of this generation of iterators.

As with the other lineups, here’s the names of everyone in order:

Gin & Tonic, Unyielding Tenacity, Unparalleled Innocence, Five Pebbles, Solace of Ink, Pleading Intellect, and Secluded Instinct

Much like in other lineups, some of these designs are yet still going to eventually change. Not fully solid at this time and might be more refined later on. I mean you can already see this happening with my design for Innocence just in the refs here.

Even the boy Five Pebbles getting a bit of a tune up. Although these are more or less the designs I’m going with at current. As it is not really much to say about them as a whole.

For Innocence I have her design split as base, no cloak, cloak and then with her “guilty pearl” as I sort of call it. Some wear and tear and then some nebulous point in the future. I don’t really have so much to say about her, pink-purple highlights I guess. And then Five Pebbles, again that base design, then Rotten at Rivulet’s point of the timeline, although that might get further refined later on to be... worse with the rot... but for now. Just a few spots... and then Saint timeline design, which I really need to wash out more... and bonus Cyan Cloaked Pebbles for a nod to Backwards Through the Snow.

Do I need to explain my Avatar still? Just height reference.

So, anyway... time to actually get to the headcanon Scribbles. Most of this is Innocence and Pebbles of course, with some random nuggets of world building sprinkled in. As usual I probably won’t expand too much on things, since it’s random scribbled headcanons but anyway.

For example, this first sheet of scribbling is basically all building up my idea of what a Third Generation iterator even is. They are on some level chaos gremlins, mascotified-- and well, they overall have less personal experience with the ancients. Shorter time scale in relativity and all.

Also fun fact, a lot of their opinions thus are handed down in some ways. While they do have some grounds for their own ideas and experiences it’s very much extra framed from what they hear from other older iterators. Which is mostly who they look up to. For better or worse in all the cases, even if they have a semi-negative view on the ancients like Innocence did end up with, they wish they could have experienced more... you know.

It was half of their jobs and purpose to care for the people after all, the mascotification and all.

More of that same expansion. Innocence was very much, I think beloved. There were fewer mixed opinions about her, and well, she was in the news. WAS THE NEWS ACTUALLY. Broadcast Iterator, both for the people and while not as touched on in these scribbles she worked something as a relay iterator between different local groups. Represented here by having the sketch sheet include PI and SOI...

This did come with a massive downside though, because her gossip nature isn’t just a personality thing. She was made for spreading information and relaying it. Gossip is a quick and dirty way to get information out after all... And she’s had to learn to moderate and filter things over time... which unfortunately meant early on she didn’t do that so much...

Ahhh, the debate of who was the last one built. I think Five Pebbles is the youngest, as well the possible last Iterator ever built. There’s reasons for this based on Canon Evidence(like Five Pebbles not already having records of Innocence been a construction project despite one of his important houses signing off on it) and then there’s just some thematic and personality reasons. Anycase, doesn’t really matter, I DO, However think that there was a fair bit of overlap in their construction timelines.

Like to the point where they ended up antagonizing each other just because they were built at similar times and there was inbuilt rivalry in it. “I’m not a baby you are! But I’m baby” moments mixed in as well. Also absolutely some sibling vibes to their arguments even if no actual relation exists.

They will bully each other, taunt and jab, tease. Yet absolutely will throw down if someone else insults the other.

...I also like to imagine that on anon they somehow are great friends. Sharing a single neuron at times. (EP & TI great friends, FP & UI screaming matches for fun). It’s a principle thing really.

Oh boy, sure do love giving Five Pebbles issues on top of his canon issues. Also how much of this is projection, I don’t think I could really say. More like I was trying to conceptualise the explanation for him... and then got side-tracked. Mostly because good lord the game sometimes drives me nuts. Metropolis why are you so empty of anything set dressing? Like seriously, what is with it?

Anycase a lot of this is kind of surrounding emotions without much actual explanation. And I do think “baby Pebbles” was a lot happier in the first few cycles of his existence. He had a good big sister, was there to help... good. But well, didn’t work out long term because the comparison hurts, as well the fact people... didn’t really like him. A subgroup sure, and something he reflects on with amusement but at the time... and even lingering...

The city was made empty, the people didn’t stay... it had to have hurt and was some of what influenced his downwards spiral... Suns, I do think they made it worse. Maybe not intentionally, maybe thoughtlessly, but Suns certainly never opposed the views they were handed down, and even again, showed seeming support in Pebbles endeavour to cross himself out.

...that pearl...

I also do think there is something quiet in how Pebbles tried to keep Moon out of it. Her own line in Rivulet about how he knows how protective she is of him... old insecurities and the knowledge from Pebbles side, he knows he’s not the preferred one. Whether that’s fact or just insecurities hard to place fully.

Finally just a page where it’s my Colourblind Pebbles propaganda as well as the fact I genuinely think that Innocence and Pebbles have a kind of mutual “the grass is greener” view of each other. Something that of course doesn’t help their arguments and petty disputes and jabs. Pebbles even further because again, he’s colourblind has some appearance envy mixed in. At least Inno isn’t just a remix of another iterator.

Also, I like to keep things a little bit ambiguous, but I do generally believe that Innocence had, at least somewhat good intentions with leaking Pebbles rot photos. If Moon was already unable to be contacted by that point, a desperate attempt to share it with someone, anyone who might have been able to help resolve the situation...

Only it... made things worse.

And yes. Rivulet made and sent by Innocence propaganda. Though again, who fully knows what the intentions were there. Good, bad, generally hoping that somehow the water dancing slugcat could help.

Also some ship based bonuses just because.

Sorry Inno, Moon probably will only and can only see you as a little sibling in vibes.

Anycase, while it's mostly in a hero-worship way, I do kind of ship Innocence with Moon, Innocence definitely has a little bit of a crush, even if it would go... nowhere.

And yes, hello I am a RageQuit shipper reminder. As well more of Pebbles colourblind propaganda. This started as a joke headcanon, how did it become so central to my interpretation, help. I will likely post both of these again later on their own, but for now. Here.

[paging-possum]

girl is just another word for rabies psa

another week another comic update! I somehow did a lot and absolutely nothing with this comic this week!

They actually have appearances now! Nobody comment on Terry being like, the fifth character I have with a mullet I am normal about the mullet hairstyle and do not desire having a mullet in any way shape or form. I'm trying to stick to designs and everything, but he might get a redo because I'm getting insecure about how many of my characters have mullets. That said, I'm not really a character designer, Im mostly here to write about rabies.

I didn’t like how the script was going and decided to change a lot of things about it and I’m entirely back to square one with writing aside from the first scene, which I feel good about (hence the fact that I started thumbnailing it). That said, I think I have a much more solid outline than I did before, so that whole process will hopefully be a lot quicker from here on out! The connections to the actual Milwaukee Protocol are getting stronger. Here's a peek into the shorthand I’m using for this comic.

The other Nat projects this week involve 1) homework, 2) trying to remember how to clean up the one million billion drawings I've sketched out in the past 1.5 weeks, 3) watching Derry Girls with my friends and 4) being sick. Here is one of the one million billion things I'm not working on.

I also realized I forgot to link the MILWAUKEE PROTOCOL PLAYLIST last time!! I would add the entire Nerdy Prudes Must Die soundtrack if it were on Spotify, but it isn’t so you’ll just have to switch over to whatever other music streaming service and listen to that after getting through this one. 

WHAT AM I LISTENING TO THIS WEEK:

The Wrong Station! It’s a horror fiction podcast with a lot of individual horror stories. My favorite one this week was the Eloise Kestrel episode, which was incredibly eerie and very well done.

Creature by half alive

Literally the entirety of Now, Not Yet by half alive

Say Amen (Saturday Night) by Panic! At the Disco 

Anyone with access to the CAPE playlists can probably figure out exactly which ones I’m listening to from the songs I put in these updates even though it’s been like, two weeks of song updates 

Ship in a Bottle by fin

[ren-from-mars]

I’ve been doing some reflecting on this past year, and I really truly think it is the most artistic improvement I have made in any span of time. Of course, I’m going to be completely insufferable about it and have collected my best piece from each month with a few personal notes, so why don’t we go on a sprint down memory highway together?

January

At the start of the year, I was both adrift between fandoms and art styles. I was mostly aiming to find which style I could keep using, finish pieces quickly yet still feel proud of. It certainly worked in the moment, but as I pushed my boundaries more it didn't stick. Still, I look back on this style fondly! also proper throwback to my old username that i had for far too long

February

This was the start of me working on colour palettes. I lay down my main colour in the background and fit the rest of my colours around that. It was a good way to start experimenting!

March

Then the shift back to finding my style- I particularly like how the hair turned out in this piece! I also started trying more interesting poses here, and actually properly attempting hands.

April

I didn't finish any pieces in april as I had started working more hours and didn't quite know how to balance myself creatively at that point. I did lean into this style of sketch much more, which was good fun while it stuck around but ive leant away from it in more recent times.

May

Not much to say about may in particular, lots of the same things as the past few months with improvements here and there! just some steady progress :)

June

Cue the crunch of getting character refs done before artfight, and then only actually finishing one (which isn't actually complete, even to this day). But hey, more solid reference for My Guy ! I also leaned into drawing furries a lot more and have improved heaps in the difference of proportions!

July

artfight baybee!! no artistic differences, but it was a lot of fun scouting out other peoples character designs! I do hope to participate more this year :3

August

back to colours, though this month felt like a bit of a backtrack. Don't get me wrong, I do quite like this piece, but contrast-wise it doesn't have as much visual clarity as I would like. Regardless, a good learning opportunity!

September

Fun fact, I rendered this one entirely in greyscale! This was the start of me getting back into hatchetfield after being reminded of NPMDs release, and lets be real this part of black friday was chilling so I had to do something about it! I consider this piece a landmark in terms of my art journey.

October

Once again no real finished pieces, I was too busy watching nightmare time while waiting for the group watch of npmd. I did do a lot of studies of star wars characters from their live-action shows though, which was a fun learning experience!

November

This was the piece where I applied pretty much everything I had learnt throughout the year. contrast, colour themes, interactive environments and poses, the lot! and also. its them. how could i not

December

A perfect piece to wrap up the year with! Another step up from november, this applied lots of what I had learnt and pushed my boundaries even more. I have been aiming for more realism to actor's faces and body types, not out of it-has-to-be-canon-sake, but rather learning how to accurately depict someone's likeness from a few photo references. good practice for both live-action and animated characters!

Overall last year was absolutely wild. I can't wait to share my journey with you all as we go into 2024 strong!

[astrafauna]

The REAL origin story of Graham and the Worry Dolls

Want to hear the real origin story of Graham and the Worry Dolls?

It was 2019, and I was going to therapy for anxiety. I don’t mention this part of my life much but that’s where it all started, so here we go. (This is also a story of how my therapist was *really* smart )

I was in a session and my therapist, since she knew I liked animals, mentioned that there was a technique where you visualize your anxiety as an animal and then you can either get a figurine or plushie of this animal and “talk to it” when you’re feeling amped up.

So, if you felt like your anxiety was an elephant sitting on your chest - you’d get a little elephant doll, put it on a shelf and name it Peanuts. Then whenever you’re feeling bad, you’d look at Peanuts and say, “it’s okay, Peanuts, I don’t need you right now. You can stay on the shelf” or, “that’s enough, Peanuts, stop acting up”

She asked me if I knew what animal my anxiety was.

I did. Also, I was a bit of a dick - being that I’m a cynical New Englander who was really sleep deprived since my dog was battling cancer at the time and needed to wake up every 90 mins with side effects from chemo.

I’ve had *multiple* dreams where my anxiety is like a black cloud, totally amorphous and it swirls around me. The only solid part of it is gleaming white predatory teeth.

I told her about my dreams, a bit too cocky for my own good, thinking, “Try that on for size, you and our elephant named, Peanuts”

…and I got my ass humbled.

Without skipping a beat, she was like, “Well, you're a creature designer, right? Can you make it solid and tiny in your head?”

…and I was like, “OMFG…I COULD! And that might WORK?!”

I went home and sketched what that thing would look like. I still have the sketches.

Coincidentally, this session perfectly lined up with my desire to start making resin kits and figures of my creatures for my business.

I had this little chonky critter that was very much so on brand and personal to me - why not use that design to learn about 3d printing, molding, and casting?

So that’s just what I did, and the 1st Worries appeared in Feb 2020. I took them to a show and told people about them. (Not all of it - mostly what they stood for and how they worked. They are, simply, a more toothy version of Peanuts, and work the same way)

I was shocked at how well received they were. People held them and cried. People bought them for therapy sessions. People petted them like a real, little animal. Some people named them right away and some said they needed time.

I realized that making the dolls was actually doing legit good. I mean, no one ever held one of my prints with so much connection and emotion. No one ever bought a playmat and said they were going to use it to help their formerly abused adopted kid work through their troubles.

…and this is why I’m still making the Worry doll figures.

Now here’s where Astra Fauna comes in. I knew I wanted to tell the worry doll story, but I didn’t really want to tell the one I’m telling you now. I wanted to make it, well, scifi and fictional.

So I invented Umaii and Graham.

I wanted to show the connection people have with their anxieties, and how they deal with them.

I wanted to talk about how it can feel to do things despite them.

And lastly, I wanted to make something I wished I had - as a 9 year old kid, who couldn’t breathe all of sudden, because I had a math test that day. And for all the years after it, when it didn't go away.

Umaii and Graham are in Astra Fauna: Expeditions. The KS ends this Thursday (7/13). I hope you’ll give it a read.

PS. My nightmares stopped too. :)

[northoftheroad]

Up to date with the trends, if you don’t mind!

As opposed to some people, I'm not of the opinion that Dick Grayson is a fashion disaster. I don't imagine I will convince anyone who loves to portray him as the eternal looser... But the thing with fashion is that a lot of it quickly gets dated. Since artists have drawn Dick in contemporary style for decades, it's bound to happen that some outfits get past their best before date.

If we're to put the blame where it belongs, it has to be Greg Land, who drew Dick in a multicoloured polka dot shirt in Nightwing vol 1 # 2. That's the outfit most people reference when they claim that Dick dresses outlandishly. However, in the 90s, polka dot shirts (and long hair on men) were trendy – which is something that we tend to forget some decades later, when another era of fashion surrounds us.

The original Nightwing suit from 1984 also gets a fair amount of flak. Certain artists, like Jim Aparo, drew the collar ridiculously high, unlike how it looked with George Pérez’ art. But on the whole, it's not in a completely different style from other superhero suits that were introduced in the 70s and 80s. High collars and deep v-necks were popular. 

Tales of the Teen Titans # 44, Batman vol 1 # 441.

Tyroc (1976); Black Lightning (1977); Dazzler (1980); Jericho (1984).

Gladiator (1977), Black Cat (1979), Atari Force (1982), Mockingbird (1980), Booster Gold (1986).

Fashion at the time was about crossovers and breaking rules, and using fabrics such as rubber and vinyl. And disco...  Here are some pictures from the 70s and 80s, to remind ourselves what it looked like at the time.

I guess some people might point the finger at the original Robin suit, too? But, seriously, it's a 1940s child superhero costume, designed at a time when the printing process favoured bright primary colours. (Besides, in a fair number of versions, Bruce is the one who designed the Robin suit. Now, if we want to talk ridiculous – take a look at Bob Kane's original sketch of the Bat-Man.)

Without further ado. Let's have a look at some of Dick's outfits over the years, and see what was considered stylish at the time, shall we. 

Dick in civilan garbs in the 1940s and 1950s. The boy's fashion at the time included knitted pullovers and sweaters which were also worn over shirt and tie. Bright solid or patterned sportcoats were worn with dress-shirt and necktie or bowtie. (Knickers, that is short trousers, were, by the way, children's fashion in the 1940s.)

Pictures are fashion illustrations from the 40s and 50s and from Batman # 13 (1942). Star Spangled Comics # 65 (1947), # 75 (1947), # 98 (1949), # 111 (1950).

College teenager Dick in the 1970s dressed in sweaters, vests, long collared shirts. His hair was side-parted. And, you guessed it – vests, long collared shirts and turtleneck sweaters were essential fashion items of the 1970s. Dick-pics from: Batman # 248 (1973). Batman Family # 8 (1976). Detective Comics # 483 (1979). Detective Comics  # 495 (1980).

Dick in a green three piece suit in New Teen Titans Vol 1 # 26 (1982). Picture in Sears Fashion Catalogue 1981. 1980s vintage tweed suit.

Leather jacket, t-shirts and sweaters and jeans were trendy in the 1980s. In Tales of the teen titans 43 (1984), Dick wears jeans and an expensive leather jacket.

"That" outfit in Nightwing vol 1 # 2 (1995). "Seinfeld" from 1991.

Overalls were huge in the 1990s, even when you weren't custom building your own car. Nightwing vol 2 # 16 (1998), and fashion photos from the 1990s.  

In the early 2000s, casual clothing was a big trend. Rugby shirts was a common look, and the leather jacket was still popular. Batman: Gotham Knights # 21 (2001), # 45 (2003), Nightwing vol 2 # 49 (2000), #77 (2003), # 80 (2003).

In the mid-2000s, some trendy things were: Casual, fitted shirt. Casual blazer. Cardigan. V-neck t-shirt. Trucker hat. Tank top. Nightwing vol 2 # 133 (2007), # 141 and # 144 (2008). Fashion photos from 2008, design Diesel, Tony Melillo.

In The New 52 and Rebirth, Dick has mostly dressed casually (unless it's for a funeral, of course). Jeans, t-shirts, shirt without tie, sweaters, hoodie, parka, blazer or leather jacket. Often layer on layer - sweater over shirt, shirt on top of t-shirt...  The 2010s wasn't long ago, and it's not easy to sort through fashion shows and micro-trends and see a bigger picture just yet... But a few of the things that were trendy at least at some time during the 2010s were: the colour grey; one-button suits and blazers; striped sweater; checkered shirt; fitted leather jackets; parka; pastel colours; angular v-neck.  

Nightwing vol 3 # 5 (2012), # 6 (2012), # 10 (2012), # 17 (2013),  # 27 (2014). Nightwing vol 4 # 10 (2017), # 15 (2017). Assorted fashion photos from 2012–2017.  

Today it's 2020, and when it comes to men's hairstyles, crew cut is popular. Nightwing vol 4 # 63, and photo from TheTrendSpotter's post 40 Best Short Hairstyles for Men in 2020.

And hey, superhero apparel were on the catwalk in the 2010s, too. How more fashion forward can Dick Grayson become...? Misel Saban, June 27, 2014 (Batman) and Sarah Dos Santos, December 16, 2013 (Superman); Kyle Towers, February 2, 2013 (Spiderman).

However, I don't see Dick (written) as interested in keeping up with the fashion. But he did live his first years in a small trailer. And since then, he's been accustomed to a life where you never know when your home is going to be obliterated, or your foster father will kick you out. Or when you have to rush away to follow a lead in another city or save the world somewhere. Or the next time you'll be shot and forget that you have a flat to live in... He’s bound to have learned not to have an excessive amount of clothes. 

When he does need to buy something, because his last outfit went up in smoke or something, he'll simply pick from what's in the front inside the shops. Hence, he'll often be dressed up-to-date. New Titans # 76, New Titans # 86, Nightwing vol 2 # 89, Nightwing vol 2 # 20, Nigtwing vol 3 # 19, Nightwing vol 4 # 50 , Robin Year One # 3.

Top pictures from: Batman # 237 (1971), New Teen Titans # 16 (1982), Nightwing vol 2 # 129 (2007), Nightwing vol 4 # 10 (2016).

[thehomothings]

Once again I am back with hxh Kite hc dumps because I am unstoppable part 3 of???

Hello! Did you miss me? Did you miss the long-winded, useless hc dumps? No? Too bad! I'm always here, just outside your field of vision, leering from the shadows- *ahem* Anyways, these have been sitting in my drafts for a few weeks and I do not remember them so this is as much a first read for you as for me! The two previous parts can be read here and here Without further ado:

In battle, he's trained to be ambidextrous and has no problem wielding weapons with his left hand. In day to day life, he's strictly right-handed.

His front teeth are crooked and he almost never smiles with his teeth showing.

Perpetually cold. Why else would he wear a sweater in summer?

Will hoard blankets shamelessly. Wears one like a cape around the house.

Was a painfully slow learner when it came to Nen, a fact that Ging made sure to remind him of every single day. What he never told Kite was the potential he showed to have even when his aura nodes hadn't been opened, which was the main reason he took him on as his student.

Despite this, when he started developing Crazy Slots, his aura power increased rapidly.

Designed each of the weapons himself and Ging made the prototypes he used for image training. He would get a bit peeved when the weapons Kite eventually conjure were always a bit different than the prototypes.

When it comes to spiritual beliefs, his are best described as pagan.

Wanted to learn to play the guitar as a teenager, but couldn't lug around a whole instrument while traveling with Ging, so he left it for later. One day he will get to it. (Hopefully)

Prefers sketching and drawing animals to photographing them, and sometimes finds himself sketching people around him.

Designs tattoos he never gets, except the two he already has and even though he doesn't regret getting them, they stir bad memories of a time he frankly wishes he could forget.

But Stick, Podungo and Mon have gotten a few of his designs tattooed.

Has one singular ear piercing and wears a conjured earring. He would have gotten more if not for Ging planting the worry of them getting torn out in battle. (shameless self-projection, except I have 8. and I am very very afraid.)

When he left Whale Island, he considered bringing Gon along to meet his father. If he had asked, Kite would have.

Let's say being an orphan and meeting Gon stirred conflicted feelings about Ging. Which grew ever so confusing after meeting Gon for a second time.

I've done some comparisons and I think he's about 6'7 (~205 cm) or as he likes to say it, exactly 6 feet and 6.6 inches. (Note: as a short person this is terrifying to me I do not want to meet someone this tall)

Suffices to say, standing at a solid 5'5, Ging was rather pissed at yet another kid for outgrowing him. The first being Mito, who's an inch taller than him, a fact he noticed when she was yelling at him about how dangerous a hunter's life is for a literal actual infant.

While I'm on the subject of Ging here, a lot of people during the years have mistaken Kite's admiration and deep respect for him as romantic feelings. They were wrong.

When Kite finds out about this misunderstanding (from Hisoka, of all people) he almost faints from pure horror.

"HOW- WHY? HE'S 7 YEARS OLDER THAN ME! WE'RE LIKE BROTHERS I NEVER EVEN THOUGHT OF IT THAT WAY-" *shakes and cries*

They are brotherly, kinda. Ging always kept a certain level of impersonality and distance between them, mostly to make sure Kite wouldn't get attached. (He failed.)

Pariston's kinda like an evil stepmother to him and Ging finds this too amusing to stop his unhinged husband from tormenting his former student.

They actually have an ongoing bet on whether Kite will kill him or not. Pariston is sure he will, someday. Ging has bet everything that he will not.

He's not aware of this bet, otherwise it would skew the result.

He's pescetarian, just barely tolerating fishing. Hunting animals for food (or for any reason, really) completely kills his appetite, although he had done it when he and Ging had no other choice. He would rather break his moral code than seem weak in front of his mentor, when he was younger.

The basis of his moral code is: do no harm but take no shit.

He won't initiate battles unless stepping in to protect someone.

The moment he Conjures Crazy Slots he resigns himself to the possibility of his opponent dying, even if he draws a weapon that isn't necessarily deadly.

He always gives them a chance of surrender or drawing back, even if he's been taught not to.

His own death simply isn't a possibility he ponders during battle. He fights to win. He has to win.

Even during his last fight, even when he knew the die was cast and he stood on the losing side, he never lost the hope of winning.

And this is it for now because once again it's an unholy hour and I am very very tired. If you made it thus far, here:

Have a him <3

[wirewitchviolet]

Here’s me starting the rumor that Street Fighter 5 spent a good chunk of its development actually being Dark Stalkers 4

OK everybody, strap on your tinfoil hats, because I’m going to pullan idea partly out of my own butt but also back it up with some solid physical evidence. I put to you the following premise: In 2015 or so, Capcom had a team working on a version of Street Fighter 5 which never saw the light of day, seen here:

while another, smaller, less experienced team was working on finally releasing a 4th game in the long dormant Dark Stalkers series, which was to finally make the jump to 3D. For whatever combination of reasons, the plug was pulled on both these projects, with the more ambitious and presumably costly Street Fighter 5 being cancelled outright, and the mostly finished but supporting a basically dead IP Dark Stalkers 4 getting a hasty last minute retrofit to become the Street Fighter 5 we have today.

So what do I have to base this on? Well, the cancelled version of Street Fighter 5 is plenty well documented. It’s technically speculation on my part that they scrapped everything they had and picked up a partially completed game they had sitting around to retrofit instead, but well... the alternative is that after reaching the level of polish seen above, someone decided it was imperative that they scrap all those art assets and that engine and switch over to a visual style of uh... this:

Which to me feels decidedly less “stylistic choice” and more “hastily modeling characters and sketching out plot scenes at the 11th hour in a different engine designed to light stuff in a cartoonier style that doesn’t work here.”

More importantly though, this guy here, F.A.N.G?

He was originally designed as a new character for a scrapped Dark Stalkers game according to this, at least to go by this thread’s translation:

So, that just on its own makes a ton of sense. Cartoony design, really stylized proportions, weird poison hands gimmick. Doesn’t fit in at all with Street Fighter, but he’d make perfect sense in Dark Stalkers as some kind of like... plague doctor? Additional jiangshi type? So, he got recycled. Also his cartooniness works a whole lot better with the general visual presentation of the whole game.

But wait, there’s more. Because see as soon as Halloween rolled around, Street Fighter 5 came out with a new costume pack for everyone, which included a whole slew of Dark Stalkers homages... and by that I mean full on models of Dark Stalkers characters bearing new resemblance at all to the Street Fighter characters ostensibly wearing them as costumes.

Well, really, it’s more of a mixed bag. But, Morrigan there is 100% Morrigan, nothing from Chun-Li, ditto Lilith-Juri (which is decidedly telling as the former has... complex gender things going on I don’t want to label with how sketchy I am on the exact backstory, and... flattening the chest and broadening the shoulders of Juri, specifically, is rather antithetical to how that particular character is treated. Also Khaibit is a deep lore cut who had never been a playable character but would have made sense to bring in as a new playable character if they were, you know, making a new game.

The other thing with these is that they, you know, don’t look like weird gross distorted lumps of clay, like all the normal characters do. They look like they were actually designed for this game’s lighting and palette and general visual style. Meanwhile new characters and new costumes (which for the record as a rule otherwise do NOT do this sort of full body and face model replacement) would otherwise take until the last couple of DLC seasons to stop looking so very very off.

A friend who plays way more fighting games than me says this would also explain a thing or two about the whole V-Trigger mechanic. Something about the uniformity of it feeling a bit Dark Stalkers-y or the way pre-existing moves are forced into it feeling odd for something organic to Street Fighter. I’m not fluent enough in Fighting Game to have fully followed.

What I do know though is that all of this would explain a whole lot of otherwise baffling things. Why did Capcom spend several years hyping up a new game that never materialized?

Why does Street Fighter 5 have this weird cartoony shading that doesn’t match the model detail?

Why was that prototype of a much nicer looking SF5 scrapped for this?

Why does the latest game in one of Capcom’s big tentpole series seem like it changed hands a lot mid-development?

Because for most of its development life it was gonna be Darkstalkers 4, that’s why! Probably. I mean again I’m just speculating here, but it all fits together weirdly well, right?

[unmaskedagain]

Marinette: Adventures at Camp-Halfblood

When Marinette arrived at camp at just six-years-old dressed in pink with pigtails in her hair and was shoved into Hermes cabin until she was claimed; most of the other campers hedged their bets on who her godly parent was.  She was a sweet girl with a cheerful deposition that could easily brighten anyone’s day. She also favored sketching and most artistic endeavors so half the campers thought Apollo was her father.

However, Marinette had an almost unnatural beauty to her that was clear from even her young age; with silky blue-ish black hair and large blue eyes that seemed to twinkle. There was a sheer adorableness to her that caused even the toughest of campers to coo. This caused some of the campers to assume Aphrodite was her mother.

 A few bet on Demeter as Marinette loved to bake. Some of Athena as how well organized and tactile the girl could be.

 Unfortunately, it would take a few years before anyone would get confirmation. And for bets to be paid out.

 As Marinette got older, she easily became the most well-liked camper; mostly because of the sweetest and kindest girl at camp. She was always there to help a friend in need, always there for someone to talk to. Hephaestus cabin liked how creative she was with her designs and always liked to offer an artistic flair to their own. While she didn’t rush towards battle as some campers did, it was clear Marinette still knew what to do with a sword. She was also creative and detailed when it came to planning attacks and defense which got her approval of the Athena cabin.

 Ares Cabin liked that she didn’t back down. Ever.  The first time Dionysus got her name wrong was legendary; it was also the last time.

 “You, mary-Anne!” The god of wine called. They were in the lunch hall “Announce to the rugrats, capture the flag is about to begin.”

 “Marinette,” The seven-year-old corrected politely with a smile on her face. “Marlene,” Dionysus waved her off.

Marinette just stared at the chubby god, her face emotionless. The hall seemed to grow a bit colder. Silence slowly took hold the campers as they watched a seven-year-old in a blue

polka-dotted sundress and pink ribbons in her hair stare down a god with unfeeling eyes as she assessed her opponent as if looking for a weakness.

 For the first time in a long time, Dionysus felt sweat trickle down the back of his neck as a small hint of fear started to turn in his stomach. And, to make matters worse, as if sensing this, his fear, a small smile appeared on the girl’s lovely face.

 “My name is Marinette,” Was all she said and turned around as skipped away.

 Dionysus nodded slowly, despite the girl not even looking. He swallowed a bit more of his coke and with a pop, he was gone, vanished. No one would see him at camp for two weeks. When he came back, from then on out, whenever he ran into the little girl again, he calls her some variation of “You girl,” “Girly” or even a “Lassie” once. It was clear that while the god was too proud to call her or anyone of the campers by their actual names, he would never mess up hers again.

 That day would forever remain in the hearts of the campers forever. When Marinette was eleven, she found out who her godly parent was.

She had been walking with Annabeth to the training yard, near the entrance of the camp, when they heard roars and a scream. Annabeth turned pale but a determined look appeared in her eyes. Marinette patted the blonde’s shoulder comfortingly. Though they were the same age, the blonde had arrived at camp a year after Marinette, and not under the best of circumstances. Grover,

Luka, Thalia, and Annabeth had been being chased by the most dangerous monsters from the underworld. Thalia hadn’t made it. It had been four years since.

 Each girl pulled out their swords, braced their shields, and raced towards the entrance of the camp. What they saw made both of them nearly throw up their breakfasts.

 Charles Beckendorf, son of Hephaestus, Laurel Victor, daughter of Nike, and Malcolm

 Pace, son of Athena were racing back to camp; different monsters hot on their tails. The three

 had been given a mission to retrieve Hephaestus’ stolen Helm. In this case, the helm was just a fancy word for solid gold, expertly carved, war helmet.

Laurel, easily the fastest girl at camp, was heavily injured and struggled with a wounded Malcolm to get to the safety of the camp borders while fending off the monsters. Charles, wearing his father’s helmet, fought valiantly and desperately to give his friends time to escape.

 “Go get help,” Marinette ordered the other girl. “Anyone you can. Find medics from Apollo cabin. Hurry.”

 It was a credit Annabeth that she didn’t hesitate to follow the direction as she raced off to seek allies.

 Marinette, on the other hand, raced the other way; out of the camp, out of the safety of the boundary line, straight to battle. She’d seen the manticore sneaking up on Charles and knew that between the Cyclopes and hellhounds swarming him, he was a dead man. Marinette rushed passed Laurel and Malcolm and was just in time as the manticore's tail moved to strike Charles, it hit Marinette’s shield.

 Fury filled her blue eyes as she began to fight: armor-less and with only a shield in one hand, a sword in the other, and a dagger on her hip, side by side with the son of Hephaestus. “Go!” She yelled at the other two demigods as she slashed at a Cyclops. As the monsters swarmed her and Charles, Marinette noted with a small bit of relief, that in the midst of the chaos of battle and her shoving her sword through the eye of a Cyclops with horrible breath, she spotted that Laurel and Malcolm crossing over the barrier.

 However, the relief died when a fearsome roar shook the very foundations of the camp and both campers to very cores.

 The creature had no legs and crawled on the ground like a snake. It was over 200 hundred feet long and had scales that glistened like armor. The monster moved like lightening and when Marinette met its eyes, for a moment she froze in sheer terror, “Drakon,” She whispered. That when she knew one or both of them were going to die. Only a child of Ares even had a remote chance of defeating it.

 “Shit,” Charles said as he killed a hellhound. Most of the monsters had been defeated. Only a few cyclopes and hellhounds remained. “Run back to camp!” He ordered. “Hurry! I’ll hold it off.”

Marinette didn’t have to even look at the black boy to know he wouldn’t stand a chance. Charles looked like he barely had enough strength left to lift his sword one more time. He was bleeding all over. He had so many injuries and wound Marinette wondered how he managed to keep himself upright.

 With a swing of her sword, Marinette finished off the last Cyclops. “Not this time,” She told the older boy. “You’re hurt really bad.” She told him. “It’ll kill you in seconds and get me before I even make it back. I’ll hold him off. I’m strong enough. I can do it.”

 “No!” Charles had started a tirade of protests. He wasn’t about to let anyone die for him, let alone a little kid who looked like she would be right at home if Disney suddenly named her one of their princesses. A girl who was nearly as battered, bruised, and bloody as he was.

 But Marinette wasn’t listening, because as soon as the moment of fear passed, she found herself charging at the Drakon, her sword ready.

 She barely dodged the monster’s first swipe at her. Her heart pounding her chest, Marinette slashes at the beast only to have her sword bounce off its scales, with not even a scratch on the Drakon. Acid dripped from its mouth burning holes into Marinette’s red shield.

 Marinette didn’t know how long she had been fighting; or rather dodging and helplessly poking a giant snake with a sword. Her arm had nearly been ripped off as she narrowly jumps out of the way of its teeth.

 Then a cry of pain sounded in her ear, and a sharp heartbreaking cry of someone screaming, “CHARLES!”

 Once more rage overtook the small bluenette and raced head on to Drakon, it’s jaws wide open to attack or possibly just eat the demigod. With a roar, Marinette launched her shield at its face. When the Drakon turned its head to bat it away, Marinette jumped forward as high as she could and rammed her sword into the Drakon’s eyes.

 The drakon reared back, letting out a terrifying shriek, sword still in its eyes as Marinette dangled from it; refusing to let go. With one hand free, Marinette pulled out her and stabbed it into the Drakon’s other eye. There was another howl of from the monster.  It swung back and

forth, but Marinette kept stabbing at its eyes. Its acid burning her arms and legs and whatever it managed to hit.

 Then, Marinette didn’t know what happened, but suddenly she was falling. Or rather the Drakon was crashing. It landed in a giant heap that caused the ground to shake. It withered on the ground, back and forth. Marinette who still clung to her sword, stood up on shaky legs, pulled

out her sword and then stabbed it again and then again as deep as it could go. Until the beast stop shaking until its last breath left its body.

 Marinette quickly pulled her sword free and turned to help her fellow demi-god Charles, only to find other campers had beat her to it. With a happy, exhausted smile, Marinette fell to her knees. The pain finally hitting her as the adrenaline wore off. Her sword slipped from her hand. She barely noticed most of the campers who turned up to help were staring at her with amazement in

their eyes. A few, who Marinette recognized as sons and daughter of Apollo, rushed towards with medical supplies.

 There was a loud, some fire in the corner of her eyes, murmurs from the crowd. There was a fiery symbol above her head, already a fading. Then Chiron (When had he arrived, Marinette wondered. She didn’t notice him a few seconds ago) stepped forward.

 “It is determined,” The centaur announced. “Hail, Marinette Dupain-Cheng, daughter of War.” That was when everything went dark for Marinette as she slipped into unconsciousness.

The next few days after that were pretty much a wash. Marinette was mostly in and out of sleep as the worst of her injuries were healed. Only when she got out of the healer’s cabin and headed towards her bunk in the Hermes’ cabin did she finally recall that she had been claimed.

 Mostly because Luke had given her an easy smile, and said, “Clarisse and her goons got your stuff already, oh fearsome Drakon slayer.” Then he pointed down another path. “Your cabin’s that way with the rest of Big Red’s kids.”

And that was that. Luke gave her a pitying look and wondered how the girl most people thought was made of sugar cookies and sunshine ended up in the cabin known for the meanest kids.

Dressed in a baby blue camp shirt, her hair still in her signature pigtails, Marinette held her held high as she walked to her new home. The young girl had never… appreciated the aesthetics of Cabin 5 whenever she had to walk by it. The kids there weren’t the friendliest, some either ignored her or picked on her so she did her best to avoid it.

Cabin 5, Ares cabin, Marinette’s cabin was painted with an angry red color. The roof was covered barbed wire, and there was a stuffed boar's head centered above the doorway. It always used to seem to stare at anyone who walked by. The grass in front of the cabin was rich and green but Marinette made sure to stay on the path as she recalled Annabeth warning her about the landmines that were buried in front of cabin 5. Only Ares kids knew where they hid.

Rock music blared loudly from the cabin; high enough to hurt someone’s ears.

Marinette braced herself as she headed up the stone steps of the cabin. With one last look around, she pushed opened the door and walked inside.

The sound of fighting and arguing and roars of the laughter hit on in the face. Two guys were wrestling in the middle of the room was which look liked a boxing ring. A few kids were cheering them on. Some kids, her siblings, were dancing in a makeshift mosh pit to the music. There were rock posters covering the wall. A giant TV that seemed to be playing whatever violent sport was on and kids were screaming at it. Weapons were thrown about everywhere. The only bright side was, it looked like Cabin 5 had its own kitchen. Everything was chaos.

Clarisse, she spotted, was arm-wrestling a boy twice her size; Sherman Yang, Marinette remembered, the mean girl second in command. While his twin brother Mark watched, declaring he had winners.

This is it, Marinette thought, this is my life now.

           She took a deep breath and went over to the head of the Cabin; Clarisse.

“Hey! I got next!” Mark quickly said again.

“Good for you,” Marinette sniped at him      

Suddenly Clarisse slammed Sherman’s hand down and stood up victorious, “Yes, sucker! Who wants some?”

           Mark moved to speak but Marinette interrupted him, “Before your next… showdown? Where can I find my room, please?”

“Can it, squirt! I’m on a roll,” Clarisse said with a quick glance at her. Then the bigger girl stopped and did a double-take. “Well, well, well; if it is in Drakon-slayer herself.” She announced or rather yelled loudly. Causing heads to turn and the music to die down. “If I hadn’t seen the take-down myself, I’d never guessed that a dainty little thing like yourself would belong here.” She said the word dainty like it was dirty.

           Marinette lifted an eyebrow, “I get by. Larger opponents have a habit of overestimating their own abilities against us dainty little things. They tend to go down fast.”

           Clarisse just snorted, “We need to work on your trash talk.” She slapped Marinette on the back. “It’ll be good to have another girl around. To busy many boys stinking up the place.”

           That was when Marinette noticed that in the entire room, including herself, there were only five, maybe six girls, all various ages and races, in comparison to upwards of twenty guys. But it was clear that they were all related. They all had the same smug, mean expressions; the same authentic large builds, most even favored the goldish red-eye color that sort of looked like flames.

“Am I the shortest one here?” Marinette shouted angrily. “What the hell! No!”

           Sherman smirked, “Not the shortest. Billie just turned seven. And you’re like a foot taller than him… For now.”

           Marinette glared and took a step forward. Only to be pulled back by Clarisse, “Beat him up later, I’ll show you your room.”

           Turned out that there was another good thing about living in the Ares cabin. Since there were so few girls, she got her own room. It was a nicely sized, just a bit bigger than her room in Paris. The walls were black and grey. There was a surprisingly comfy queen-sized bed. But other than that there was nothing. Most of her stuff was already there waiting for her. Her things were a mix of pink, purples, and frills that stood out against the backdrop.

“We don’t usually get girly-girls in our cabin,” Clarisse shrugged. “A week ago, I’d have said you wouldn’t have last a day. Then you single-handedly took down a drakon; now I’m wondering if I should be worried about my spot as head of the cabin.”

           Marinette laughed, “No interest in running this cabin; too many boys.”

“You’ll get used to having brothers,” Clarisse leaned against the door. “Or at least to the smells. Sisters are easier. We stick together. We’re already thought of as weaker, and more delicate by the morons. Show ‘em who’s boss every chance you get.”

           Marinette nodded.

“Just keep the fighting in the house,” Clarisse warned. “Outside this cabin; we’re a unit. Us versus everyone else. And we play to win.”

           Living in Cabin 5 wasn’t as bad as Marinette thought. She had to quickly make some ‘touch this and I’ll annihilate you and dance your corpse’ rules; most of which was to keep her brothers out of her room. An unspoken rule was quickly established that if Marinette was wearing something really pretty; don’t with her mess with her; she played dirty. Ryan and Hunter, two of her more troublesome brothers, quickly learned when after fighting each in a mud pit decided to ruin Marinette’s new designed sunflower dress by throwing a few mud pies at her. The fury in the small girl’s eyes sent shivers through the rest of the cabin. The next day Ryan and Hunter woke up to their skin bright pink and glittering covering their rooms.

           Her brother Troy, a blond with red eyes, learned next. Marinette's new silk top ended up having to be thrown away. Troy woke up glued to the ceiling with hair dyed purple and his eyebrows gone.

           Then there was Chase and a cashmere sweater. Chase ended up tied in a room playing Disney princess movies on reruns for hours and hours. He didn’t speak for a week after.

           Kendall and Marinette’s new purse that somehow ended up on the roof of the Apollo cabin covered in mud and who knows what else. All of the stuff she had in it was missing and had to be located. He woke up in a giant seaweed wrap strapped to a spinning board. Marinette and three of his other sisters had knives in their hands. One of his sister, Megan, started to spin the board as Marinette threw the first knife, it landed next to his head.

           The last one was Blaise, the strongest, toughest, meanest of all Ares’ sons. He thought it was a good idea to throw Marinette in the lake, while she was wearing her newest outfit designed. She had spent weeks working on it. He laughed as she stared daggers at him, soaking wet. Blaise didn’t show up at the cabin that night.

           When he finally did, it was the next morning. He was covered in dirt, and he pointed an accusing finger at Marinette, “She buried me alive!”

That was when Clarisse decided it was time to sit Marinette down, “That’s not we fight.”

           Marinette crossed her arms, “You’re right. That’s how I go to war.” She huffed. “You told me to show them who’s boss.”

“Yeah; not traumatize them!”

“I feel like you’re splitting hairs.”

           Most of her siblings left her alone after that.

Marinette had also claimed dominion over the rarely used kitchen. She baked lots of treats that seemed to get even more of her rowdier brothers to let her be.

           On the downside, she did find herself against Annabeth in capture the flag again and again. The two girls, still best friends, slowly found themselves enjoying the rivalry.

           Marinette met her father a few months later.

           During the Christmas break, Marinette found herself visiting the camp while her parents went to China to visit a sick friend of her mother’s. She had known for weeks that she’d be spending her break there and had created the perfect dress for the winter solstice. It was a mix of silvers and golds that went just below her knees and had a lace bodice.  It was her first time getting to go Olympus during the winter solstice. She only ever went to the summer one since she only spent her summers at camp.

           She stood happily in her dress as she waited for Ares cabin to depart to meet the rest of the campers to leave to go to the city.

“Let’s be real here,” Marinette smiled sweetly to her brothers who eyed her wearily. “Ruin my dress and I’ll kill you all. As far as I’m concerned you’re all to blame, the one who does the crime will just get it the worst. Clear? Good.”

           Clarisse rolled her eyes. Trust her tough as nails brother to be scared to death of their smallest sister.

           Olympus was beautiful. It was a mix of white and with grand pillars and statues everywhere. All the campers had gotten mixed up as most as found their friends on the way there. Marinette stood with Annabeth and Will, from the Apollo cabin.

           The gods were quick to greet their kids, at least the ones that had been claimed. The ones who hadn’t been greet cheerfully by a bubbly Hermes, like they were his own. The kids who knew their godly parents went to go meet them. For the first time, Marinette looked around eagerly for her own godly parent for the first time.

           She found her siblings and glided through the crowd, passed Athena, where she lost Annabeth, passed Apollo, where she lost will, and nearly passed Aphrodite when a hand reached out and grabbed hers.

           Marinette looked up at the attached hand and found Aphrodite looking at her with a smile on her face.

“I believe you are one of mine, darling,” The goddess said. “And don’t you look absolutely beautiful tonight.”

           The bluenette blushed, “Actually, my lady, I belong in another cabin.”

“Oh?” Aphrodite eyed the girl as she was confused. “Who’s cabin is that?” All the beautiful campers were hers.

“Mine!” A voice growled. Ares dressed in all black leather and wore black sunglasses, seemed to glare through them. “Let my girl go, babe! We’ll talk later.”

           The goddess of love eyed the beautiful Asian girl and the gruff warrior she knew and her mind just couldn’t compute. “She’s yours? Are you sure?” She asked but let the girl of the little girl’s hand.

           Ares snorted. “She killed a Drakon and she’s only eleven. She’s mine.”

           Marinette smiled softly at the goddess before rushing over to her brothers and sisters; listening gladly as Ares relayed some of his most recent battle stories. Unaware of the rather ridiculous image is made. A pretty little girl dressed in a silver and gold Christmas dress, surrounded by a leather-wearing, mean-faced, giant warrior that no question if someone told them they were a biker gang.

           Then it was Ares turned to listen as one by one his kids relayed the latest up and goings at camp; mostly their victories. A lot had stories about the pranks they pulled. When asked who the toughest and scariest person in their cabin was; there was the usual Clarisse, Sherman, Ryan, and Blaise but Ares was surprised to hear Marinette’s name drop a few times from his sons’ mouths.

“Powderpuff,” Ares growled towards his daughter who blinked wide innocent eyes at him. “I hear you’re tough. How do you fight dressed like all of that!” He waved at her outfit.

           Marinette crossed her arms and glared at her dad, “I don’t how. About as easy as you do dressed as Danny from Grease.”

           Silence.

           Ares and Marinette glared at each other; each willingly the other to break.

“Shit,” Clarisse whispered a curse.

           Sherman leaned toward his twin Mark, “Who are we betting on?”

           Mark shrugged, “I don’t know. Dad’s a god. But Marinette’s mean. Could go either way.”

           Ares chuckled and walked over to tower over his youngest daughter, “I ain’t your brothers. I don’t scare easily; no fear in my eyes.” He ruffled her hair. “And I don’t like frills.” Ares pulls a bit at lacy ribbons attached to his daughter’s sleeve. Unfortunately, no matter how well designed, with his strength the material ripped. Loud enough for everyone to hear.

           There gasps from her siblings.

           Marinette’s eyes slowly went from her sibling to her father.

“Can you kill a god?” Blaise asked Clarisse.

           Kendall shrugged, “Marinette’s about to find out.”

           A cold smirk appeared on Marinette’s face, “Fear! Why do people say that? In movies, when up against the bad guy? Say there not afraid to die? As if the matters. What does you being afraid have to do with anything?”

           Ares eyes his daughter curiously. He didn’t get the reaction he knew he’d have gotten if he did that to any of his other kids. For now, he let the matter drop as he decided to relay another of his war stories. Unaware of the blue eyes that would disappear from the room.

“Hey!” Ares shouted, drawing everyone’s attention. “Where’s my bike! Someone took my bike.”

           Clarisse looked around, ready to raise hell with her father and her siblings when she noticed, someone was missing. She took her a second to realize what happened. “Shit,” She whispered.

“What?” Sherman asked.

“Marinette’s missing,” Clarisse hissed.

“So?” The Asian boy shrugged, and then the words hit him. “…No. She wouldn’t.”

           Blaise, who overheard their conversation, shook his head, “She would. Marinette really liked that dress.”

“Who’d do what?” Ares growled. “You know who took my bike?”

           Clarisse sighed, hopefully, her dad didn’t kill her youngest sister, “I’ll give ya a hint; she really likes frills and you really pissed her off tonight.”

           Ares took off his glasses, and pits of fire looked out at his children, his eyes narrowed. “Marinette stole my bike?”

           Kendall nodded, “If you get to her quick enough; you might be able to stop her from painting it pink.”

“…She wouldn’t,” The god of war said darkly. There were multiple snorts from his children.

           Clarisse pinched her nose, “Does anyone know how long she’s been gone. Anything more than an hour, and that bike’s history. There will be care bears from threatening.”

           No one answered.

           Ares growled and with a pop, he was gone.

           He showed back up a couple of hours later; still no bike and look positively furious. The other gods, particularly Hephaestus, looked beyond amused. Word had spread that the Princess of Ares’ cabin, Ares’ own daughter, had stolen his bike and ran off. All because of a ripped ribbon on her dress.

           Aphrodite nodded approvingly; it was a rather stunning dress, she’d of raised Tartarus herself over it.

           When the campers returned to camp, the Ares’ cabin members came to find Marinette waiting on the bike in the middle of the boxing ring.

“Who wants to go for a ride?”

           Everyone did. They all cheered as one by one, or two by two, they rode the bike around camp.

           The next morning at breakfast, Marinette was eating with Annabeth with the door flew opened and Ares stomped in. He glared at his daughter, “BIKE. NOW!”

           Marinette placed down her toast, “I want a new dress first.” She glared at her dad.

“This isn’t a negotiation,” He towered over her.

           Marinette blinked, not a drop of fear in her, “It’s not. Until I get a replacement dress for the one you ruined. You don’t get your bike. And you’ll never find it without me.”

“Marinette!” Ares roared.

“DAD!” Marinette yelled back.

           The campers could only watch as the strangest scene to ever hit Camp half-blood played out in front of them.

“I! You! GRR!” Ares howled before stumped away.

           It took a week and three more public confrontations for Ares to finally give in and ask Aphrodite to get his daughter a dress.

“Here, princess!” he shoved it at her.

           Marinette nodded, left the lunch hall, and returned with the bike; same as it ever was, apart from the red bow ribbons attached to it.

           Ares scoffed at the sighted, nodded at his daughter and was gone. He’d return two days later to hang out with his kids in their cabin. His bike parked out in front; a single red ribbon still tied a handlebar.

           From then on the campers knew one thing…

           Never mess with the Princess of War.

           Almost two years later, after thirteen-year-old Marinette would receive a pair of earrings and new destiny, all of Paris would learn the same lesson.