#all of team snakemouth is. and team mothiva. and

[hana-bobo-finch]

leif and Vi’s dynamic is everything to me……..decades old kinda grumpy zombie moth who suffered immense tragedy and a teenage bee who likes money and has familial problems

[abombihoney]

Vi sweetie... ur making things worse for urself honey...

[aquilamage]

wouldn’t end up using this for the Mothiva Gets Fired thing but I’m still thinking about my vague understanding that being an idol has an upper age limit (and presuming that once you hit that you’re done no matter what). The idea that she’s close to that at the beginning of the game so on top of her other motivations, she needs to be the one to get the artifacts, to find the Sapling, because if she does she’ll be so famous that they’ll just have to keep her anyway

...Right? (quiet hysteria)

[mantisgodsdomain]

Winning a prize personally by being someone's "well, this trope isn't usually my style, but i know this author is Really Good at writing so i'll check it out anyways" author

[jerktournament]

ROUND ONE - Zote the Mighty (Hollow Knight) VS Mothiva (Bug Fables)

!!! PROPAGANDA BELOW !!!

ZOTE: "This guy. This guy is like an old man who wants you off a lawn that isn't even his. He thinks he's a great knight. He has assigned you to be his archnemesis. He complains about every environment he's in and never thanks you when you save him from Predicaments. He takes advantage of the fact that one of the locals is prone to flights of fancy and romantic tales simply because it gives him an audience to hear himself talk. His weapon is made of bark, and he goes down in just a few hits in the Colosseum (you could say he's... all bark and no bite). You get to smack him around like a ragdoll while he makes grumpy noises afterward, and it's a better reward than the money."

MOTHIVA: "I mean, look at her. An over-dramatic moth who is both a singer and an explorer. Self-entitled, greedy, egoistical, she's got it all. She is incredibly annoying, opposes Team Snakemouth multiple times just to show off, and treats everyone as inherently worse than her, even her own loyal fans. Vote Mothiva! She sucks and I love her"

[erijuice]

So I've estimated the heights for many of the bugs (and human) in my Tales of Bugaria canon. Most are them were based on the sizes of Kabbu and Leif's real-life counterparts, and somewhat intended to be close to how small Team Snakemouth are depicted in the game. As you see, many of them are between 1-2 inches tall.

Canon Tales of Bugaria Sizes:

Vi: 2 cm tall

Kabbu: 2.5 cm tall

Leif: 3.3 cm tall

Elizant: 4.5 cm tall

Maki: 4.4 cm tall

Scarlet: 4.2 cm tall

Mothiva: 3.4 cm tall

Delilah: 3.6 cm tall

Stratos: 5.2 cm tall

My OCs:

Maggie: 160.02 cm tall (Human form) or 3.5 cm tall (Tiny form)

Nox: 2.5 cm tall

Ollie: 3.3 cm tall

Vers: 3.8 cm tall

Zeek: 3.2 cm tall

Saigo: 4.3 cm tall

Roz: 2.5 cm tall

Zipp: 3.8 cm tall

Jetta: 4 cm tall

P.S., my personal headcanon is that all bugs of many different species were all adjusted to be the same size during the Awakening. So while, say, a Chinese mantis is miles bigger than an ant in reality, both species became a lot closer in size after said Awakening.

[secret-bug-pain-blog]

FEBUWHUMP INDEX

Hello! We're trying out a new method of posting this year, after last year's posting revealed some very obvious errors in our methodology. Initial, unbeta'd drafts are posted to Tumblr the day of - AO3 posting is pending proofreading & beta checking, but will be posted once we've wrangled our beta readers into reading our Truly Excessive Amount Of February Fic, as well as done our own proofreading and potential light rewriting. We'll add those links later, but for now, there's just Tumblr.

This year, we pared down a good handful of prompts down to a "snippet and illustration" format to fit them within the month - these have been marked as "truncuated" within this index, and are likely to have more detailed fics when we actually get around to Ao3 posting. We also did not illustrate some of these because we got to having to illustrate them for posting and we didn't want to. As this is a time-limited challenge and our usual strategy for running out of spoons mid-sprint is to take a nap and get back at it later, we do apologise if these are lower-quality than hoped. If all goes well, the full, edited versions will turn out better. If all doesn't go well... well, you'll have a valuable snippet of our Worse First Draft, and if the idea strikes your fancy you're likely to be able to do it in a new and more unique way.

We have more or less finished everything here, but we haven't actually posted some of it - if something isn't linked, check back here at the source post later and we'll probably have it up eventually! For most of these our reasons more or less boil down to a mix of "tagging things sucks" and "we're photosensitive enough that comfortable light for us isn't really bright enough to photograph things well and it's a big pain to set up the right angles", and neither of these factors are likely to improve.

If we don't post a Collection Work before March 5 then someone come yell at us in the inbox. (EDIT: Collection Work's index can be found here!)

KEY

Day of origin - Prompt - Word Count - Fandom - Universe - Summary [Links]

Characters listed mostly by level of importance. POV character marked.

DAY 1 - Helpless - 919 words - Hollow Knight - Unnamed Hornetfic (working title: "hronet out of bugaria") - Hornet, captured and poisoned beyond a hope of escape, is stripped of her cloak and mask. [INITIAL DRAFT (Tumblr)]

Characters: Hornet (POV), ??? (OC)

Contains: Poisoning, manhandling, loss of treasured items, debatably nudity (she doesn't care very much about it), loss of mask (she cares very much about it).

DAY 2 - Solitary Confinement - 341 words - Bug Fables - Canon/Canon Divergence - Hoaxe is still alive. [INITIAL DRAFT (Tumblr)][AO3 (collection)]

Characters: Hoaxe|Wasp King (POV)

Contains: Starvation, dehydration, slow and painful character death, tree angst.

DAY 3 - "Bite down on this" - 4442 words (+598 in omake) - Bug Fables - Unnamed Leipephilene Fic/Bug Fables Canon Crossover - Team Slacker collect a new version of an old informant. [INITIAL DRAFT (Tumblr)]

Characters: Scarlet (POV), Delilah (POV), Stratos, Team Snakemouth but as background characters.

Contains: Manhandling, vampirism, fear of death, rampant paranoia, seedling murder, bartering, and the author's extremely self-indulgent crossover with a fic it has not yet finished.

DAY 4 - Obedience - 2523 words - Hollow Knight/???(Bug Fables) - "Walk In The Backyard" Transmigration - The Hollow Knight fails at its duty. [INITIAL DRAFT (Tumblr)][AO3 (individual work)]

Characters: Hollow Knight|Pure Vessel (POV), Mothiva (not named in text), Zasp (not named in text), mentions of Hornet and The Radiance.

Contains: Heavy injury, mild suicidal idealation, mistaken identity, abandonment, literally kicking a bug while it's down, and the Hollow Knight's unfortunate inability to handle itself without being offered a purpose from an external force.

DAY 5 - Rope Burns - 2579 words - Bug Fables - Selkieverse - A geis or geas (pl. geasa) is an idiosyncratic taboo, whether of obligation or prohibition, similar to being under a vow or curse, yet the observance of which can also bring power and blessings. It is also used to mean specifically a spell prohibiting some action. Geasa are common in Irish and Scottish folklore and mythology, as well as in modern English-language fantasy fiction. [INITIAL DRAFT (Tumblr)][AO3 (Beta read, individual work)]

Characters: Astotheles (POV), Niothibng (OC, not named in text), Butomu (not named in text).

Contains: Feral behavior, magical bindings, mildly graphic description of injury, dehydration, overwork, (the bug equivalent of) prosopagnosia, and being manhandled by strangers with decent intentions.

DAY 6 - "You lied to us" - 1909 words - Bug Fables - Wereweevil Vi - Vi has a nightmare. [INITIAL DRAFT (Tumblr)]

Characters: Vi (POV), Kabbu, Leif (dream), various others (mostly in dream, largely OCs)

Contains: Gore, painful transformation, dream murder, nightmare sequences, accidentally harming friends, a whole lot of verbal abuse,

DAY 7 - Suffering In Silence - 864 words - Hollow Knight - Canon/Canon Divergence - The Vessel has entirely lost count of how many times they've attempted to beat Nightmare King Grimm. They are beginning to grow very, very tired. [INITIAL DRAFT (Tumblr)]

Characters: The Knight, Nightmare King Grimm, brief appearance of Grimmchild, mentions of Dirtmouth residents.

Contains: Metaphysical burn wounds, frustration, The Ritual unfinished, and the general irritation of being stuck wrangling the affairs of gods.

DAY 8 - Lightning Strike - 817 words - Legend Of Zelda - Unnamed AU (Flesh, Bone, Blood, Magic) - "With brutal strength and extreme resilience, this type of Lynel somehow surpasses Silver Lynels in sheer power. It is said they are actually Silver Lynels who mysteriously transformed after being struck by lightning. If you see one, get away as fast as you can." [INITIAL DRAFT (Tumblr)]

Characters: Kasa (POV, OC), Link, Squall (OC), mentions of Lyr (OC)

Contains: Dragons, worldbuilding, the very predictable effects of holding a sword to the heavens during a thunderstorm, and transformation of the self (mild).

DAY 9 - Bees - 250 words (this one in particular has so many clashing versions that we don't want to even try a formal one) - Bug Fables - Canon/Canon Divergence - The problem isn't with the Hive. It's with Vi. [INITIAL POST (Tumblr, truncuated)]

Characters: Vi (POV), misc. bees.

Contains: Terrible self-esteem, deeply questionable familial dynamics, The Hive.

DAY 10 - Killing In Self Defense - 549 words (4125 words and counting) - Bug Fables - Canon/Canon Divergence - Bugarian autumn is cold. This is a fact of life around this part of the world, albeit one that Scarlet has never been terribly fond of, especially when his more favourable hiding places turn out to not keep out the chill. Thankfully for him, campsites are generally open to any traveller caught out in the cold. Unfortunately for him, the category of "any traveller" also includes bugs that he would rather not associate with... [INITIAL POST (Tumblr, truncuated)]

Characters: Scarlet (POV), Sasha (OC), Leif, Vi, Kabbu, Misc. OCs.

Contains: Sexual assault, overstimulation, stereotyping, murder, a not insignificant amount of nonconsensual touching, and the situational energy of having someone who is very much trying to come on to you approach you at the bar in a social situation where you can't explicitly say "no" and have to try to dance around the fact that you aren't interested whilst someone makes increasingly unsubtle come-ons to you in a way where it's increasingly obvious that they see you less as a person and more like a sexy lamp.

DAY 11 - Last Man Standing - 715 words - Bug Fables - Unnamed Forced To Harm A Loved One Verse - He has to protect them. Or they will die. [INITIAL DRAFT (Tumblr)]

Characters: Leif (POV), Kabbu & Vi are mentioned but just out of frame.

Contains: Leif's Request spoilers, altered states of mind, unreliable narrator, significant injury (ignored), feral behavior, and fun facts about biology.

DAY 12 - Semi-Conscious - 270 words (in the same doc as Day 18, which is around 4k words) - Bug Fables - Multi-part (Calia and the Undertaker) - Domesticated forms of parasitic fungus are rare among most kingdoms. Celia's homeland, in this regard, is unique - to her knowledge, there weren't any kingdoms with domesticated cordyceps, save for home. A lack of evidence, of course, doesn't mean a definite no - and the thing that she's found lying by the side of the river certainly isn't a living bug. [INITIAL POST (Tumblr, truncuated)]

Characters: Celia (POV), Leif (POV), Levi, mentions of the rest of TSM, brief Leipephilene

Contains: Poisoning, Leif's Request spoilers, heavy usage of fan canon aka Shit We Just Made Up Because We Thought It Might Be Interesting, cordyceps-related activities.

DAY 13 - "You weren't supposed to get hurt" - 640 words (Too Many) - Bug Fables - Kinabbalism - The newest of Astotheles' Bandits runs into a familiar face our in the field. [INITIAL POST (Tumblr, truncuated)]

Characters: Astotheles (POV), Kina, Maki, a handful of Bandits and Ant guardsbugs in the background

Contains: Family drama, limited information, and dubiously ethical people management.

DAY 14 - Bloody Tiles - 537 words - Bug Fables - Canon/Canon Divergence - Every day that it is in the labs is another day that its siblings come to harm, and it is beginning to grow tired of waiting. [INITIAL DRAFT (Tumblr)]

Characters: Kjdrira|Zommoth (POV), Misc. scientists, misc. zombugs.

Contains: Leif's Request spoilers, unethical experiments, fallout from said unethical experiments, Kjdrira's distinct & growing distaste towards the living, and a certain amount of blood.

DAY 15 - "Who did this to you?" - 422 words (1.5k words) - Bug Fables - Canon/Canon Divergence -  Muze unexpectedly finds herself taking care of an injured drone from an unknown colony. Though he's obviously in no state to answer questions, she doesn't need to be a detective to tell that some of his injuries couldn't have been inflicted by the wilderness alone. [INITIAL POST (Tumblr, truncuated)]

Characters: Monsieur Scarlet (POV), Muze (POV), Grandpa, misc. OCs, mentions of Todd.

Contains: Nonconsensual drugging, unexpected side effects of said nonconsensual drugging, unreliable memory, light interrogation, Scarlet's weird biology, and assumptions of assault where the POV character cannot remember at all if the assumptions accurate or not.

DAY 16 - Came Back Wrong - 974 words - Bug Fables - Canon/Canon Divergence - On some level, Leif knows that he's changed. It's simply easier not to think about it. [INITIAL DRAFT (Tumblr)][AO3 (individual work)]

Characters: Leif (POV), mentions of ensemble.

Contains: Dysphoria, oddities, bodily anomalies, the distinct feeling that something has changed, the lack of desire to be aware of that change, subconscious suppression of impulses that perhaps shouldn't be buried, unreliable narrator, and a surprising lack of Leif's Request spoilers.

DAY 17 - Hostage Situation - 231 words - Bug Fables - Wereweevil Vi - They say they'll let her go when her hive pays for her. She knows all too well that that won't be happening. [TUMBLR] (snip from longer work - no AO3 posting)

Characters: Vi (POV), misc. bandits.

Contains: Captivity, resistance, and a slowly ticking clock.

DAY 18 - Too Weak To Move - WORDS (in same doc as other chapters) - Bug Fables - Multi-part (Celia and the Undertaker) - It's harder to nurse a not-quite-bug back to health than Celia expected. Thankfully, not-quite-living patients are forgiving, when it comes to not dying. [INITIAL POST (Tumblr, truncuated)]

Characters: Celia (POV), Levi (POV), Leif, brief appearances from Zasp

Contains: Leif's Request spoilers, questionable knowledge of medical care, terrible quarantine procedures, attempting to nurse someone back to health on your admittedly-poor memories of A Species Similar To Them.

DAY 19 - "Please don't." - 274 words - Bug Fables - Charmcraft AU - Something is wrong with you. Something has been taken from you. Something has been changed about you. You are in pain, and you, and you, and you. All you want is for it to stop. [INITIAL POST (Tumblr)]

Characters: ????????????????????

Contains: Unreliable narrator, unreliable identity, unreliable mind(s), mild gore.

DAY 20 - Truth Serum - 766 words - Bug Fables - Postcanon/Canon Divergence - Leif wakes up in an unfortunate situation after a night spent in a neighboring kingdom. [INITIAL DRAFT (Tumblr)]

Characters: Leif (POV), Interrogator (OC)

Contains: Nonconsensual drugging, self harm, kidnapping,

DAY 21 - Unresponsive - 173 words (in our short prompts doc) - Bug Fables - Unnamed Bodysharing Verse - Kina's hibernation goes long this year. [INITIAL POST (Tumblr, truncuated)]

Characters: Maki (POV), Kina

Contains: Hibernation, fear of death, Schrodinger's dead sister, and a potentially irrational amount of belief in the idea that Said Sister Is Going To Wake Up Soon.

DAY 22 - "You weren't meant to be there." - WORDS - Bug Fables - Charmcraft AU - Vi's arm was broken in the Snakemouth Den flood. Though she's been trying to act like she's fine, it's obvious that something is wrong - it's hard to hide it when you're struggling to open your fingers, and no amount of insisting she's okay can hide the scent of hemolymph when she moves too energetically, and now, it seems like it's been getting worse. When she starts acting particularly shady, Leif takes notice. When she sneaks out the inn window at night, he follows. [INITIAL POSTING (Tumblr, truncuated)]

Characters: Leif (POV), Vi, Kabbu, ??? (OC)

Contains: Permanent disability, some very heavy discussion on said permanent disability and measures meant to take care of it, internalized ableism, self-surgery, arguments, and taking questionable paths to a more functional arm.

DAY 23 - Presumed Dead - WORDS - Bug Fables - Canon/Canon Divergence - There are, occasionally, some benefits to having a resting heart rate of zero beats per minute. Leif doesn't think this is one of them. [INITIAL POSTING (Tumblr)]

Characters: Leif, Thronja (OC), a handful of miscellanous bugs having a very, very bad time.

Contains: Leif's Request spoilers, body horror, Leif's normal and rational decision making process, and turning your back on the body.

DAY 24 - "I'm doing this because I care about you" - 1266 words/1565 words - Dungeon Meshi - Canon - Falin is dead, eaten by the dragon. Marcille can't let her stay that way. [INITIAL DRAFT (Tumblr)][AO3 (beta read, individual work)]

Characters: Marcille (POV), Falin's Skeleton. Technically, there are other people here, but Marcille isn't paying a whole lot of attention to them.

Contains: Dungeon Meshi spoilers - mainly up to Chapter 28 of the manga, but there are some subtler ones from later. Dark magic, a possibly unhealthy amount of attachment, wound-picking metaphors, fatigue, and bleeding yourself dry for the sake of someone who's already dead.

DAY 25 - Immortality - 3250 words - Bug Fables - Canon/Canon Divergence - ZB-162 reflects on a life lived far too long. [INITIAL DRAFT (Tumblr)]

Characters: ZB-162 (OC, POV), Kjdrira|Zommoth, Misc. other zombugs.

Contains: Leif's Request spoilers, terrible conditions, terrible mental states, death and rebirth of an identity, self-blame, and the world's most mentally ill fungal communication network administrator.

DAY 26 - Last Words - like 2k words - Dungeon Meshi - Chimerachuck AU - Chilchuck is eaten by the dragon. His former teammates sort out his will. [INITIAL DRAFT (Tumblr)]

Characters: Chilchuck (POV), the Red Dragon, the entire rest of the party (minor appearances), Namari (minor POV), Mayjack (minor POV, Packpatty, Fullertom, Chilchuck's Wife (does not have a canon name as far as we know, but we will survive).

Contains: Major character death, Dungeon Meshi spoilers, character being eaten by a dragon, description of injuries from being eaten by a dragon, description of dragon innards (because of the being eaten by a dragon), digestion (done by the dragon), epistolary elements, and a handful of guilt and messy family dynamics that are mostly non-dragon-related.

DAY 27 - Left For Dead - 29 words - Bug Fables - Wereweevil Vi - You don't win friends by betraying them. [TUMBLR] (painting - no AO3 posting)

Characters: Ollie (OC), Misc. Leafbugs

Contains: Blood.

DAY 28 - Human Weapon - ~3k words - Dungeon Meshi - Dungeon Rabbit AU - The spurs on his heels are long and sharp enough to decapitate with a kick. He tries very, very hard not to think about what that might mean. [TUMBLR][AO3 (individual work)]

Characters: Chilchuck (POV), Laios, miscellanous others.

Contains: Nonconsensual body modification, an unorthodox form of body dysphoria, crippling debt, and spoilers for miscellanous worldbuilding bits for Dungeon Meshi.

DAY 29 - Not Allowed To Die - 1466 words - Bug Fables - Fifty-Two Pickup - Piece by piece, Kjdrira puts its eroded disc back together. It will not let the effort be in vain. [INITIAL DRAFT (Tumblr)]

Characters: Kjdrira|Zommoth (POV), Carmina, mentions of misc. zombugs.

Contains: Leif's Request spoilers, Blight magic, questionable methods of surgery, potentially unhealthy attachment issues, and a fungus who is loathe to let go of what they have only just been allowed to know.

[hustlecandy]

Part 2 of this post under cut!

11. Bug Rangers

Does anyone else think it's funny that Ann says Bug Rangers is for kids, yet most of the characters we see that enjoy the Bug Rangers are adults? Anyway, here's a Jayde admiring her poster.

12. Paint

Another Vi's Request redraw. What can I say? It's a fun quest!

14. Boomerang

Vi (<- unaware) buying the Beemarang (<- stolen) from Shades (<- jerk) for the first time

15. Snack (Original prompt: Picnic)

Tbh that spot GS Technician shows Team Snakemouth looks like it would make a good picnic spot. If you ignore all the lesser bugs on the path, that is. Also, they're holding the foods they mention liking when you inspect Fry!

16. Original Character

At this rate, this is just gonna be me infodumping about my OCs buuut. Here's Team Thornbush! They were intended to be Team Snakemouth but Fucked Up And Evil, but I couldn't think of an evil version of Leif so they're just a much worse Team Mothiva. Lobeelia, the leader, is Vi's worst traits dialed up to 11 - she's a proud thief who uses her stolen crossbow to threaten those around her into submission and treats her companions like mere obstacles. Jacques is a beetle from the North who had it beat into his head as a grub that he was only useful if he was helping someone else, so he's extremely selfless to the point of self-destructive tendencies and would gladly give his own life for Lobeelia's. Like Cenn and Pisci, they aren't real explorers and just do whatever gets them berries.

20. Wasp

Yet another OC, this is Rusty the Ampulex ferruginea, who - like Hoaxe - was orphaned at a young age. Instead of being adopted by (other) wasps, however, they were mistaken as an ant and adopted by an ant couple. Even after their parents discovered they were actually a wasp, they still treated them like their own flesh and blood. They're currently a guard working at the Rubber Prison, in charge of handling the more rowdy inmates. Being a solitary wasp like Zasp, they weren't affected by Hoaxe's mind control and fought back.

21. Palace

Redraw of one of my favorite scenes from Chapter 4 with my Team Snakemouth humanizations! The reason Leif's hair covers their eyes is since their eyes are technically hollowed out in bug form, in human their eyes are permanently rolled into the back of their head. Fun stuff /s

25. North (Original prompt: Rage)

"You took EVERYTHING from me!" "I don't even know who you are." Moment

[cordycepsbian]

We can offer more, if you want? The whole thing is based, more or less, on what they would most hate to be - for Kabbu, it's a bit obvious. He fears The Beast, he fears hurting his friends, he fears getting them killed through either inaction or reckless action, he fears having another Master and Bit - and so his Beast Form is a literal Beast Form, a giant centipede with massive combat capabilities that risks hurting or killing his friends if he isn't incredibly careful during battle.

It's hard-hitting, hard to control (albeit mostly because he's got a LOT more legs and body segments than usual), and impossible to hide once it's out - we had them showing off more or less "whenever they hit a state of High Enough Emotion", so he'd probably be trying to just... Not Show It, once he's aware of it. The beast forms in question're more or less... manifestations. A physical form of Kabbu's nightmares and insecurities - the memory of the beast, the fear of losing another team, the "what if i hurt them" and "what if i can't protect them" and faint "what if i'm the problem" lying around his brain. It's technically stronger than the actual Beast, because it's not a real centipede, per se, it's his memory and horror at the Beast wrapped into a form he can barely control.

This ask's getting a bit long so, uhh. We've got some spare snips lying around if we can find them. Everything is the fault of Magic and any emotional wounds also show up as physical wounds in monster form, which also means a whole bunch of Wounds That Cannot Be Healed where they're unwilling to talk about where they're from. We kind of only extended this to Team Snakemouth and Team Mothiva, while we were working on it. Kabbu's got The Beast's tooth marks imbedded into his shell, Vi's got a big 'ol infected wound where her heart should be, Leif's got a hole in his... puppet body thing's chest. They're all Fucked Up. Y'know how it is with beasties.

Ô Ô <looking again

our kabbu's Thing actually has a physical cause (werebug virus, it's a whole thing, the beast itself isn't a werebug it just carried that) so his centipede form is still scary and monstrous but still looks like him in a ... kabbu-ish way

it also works on emotions instead of a time schedule and by the time the game events happen he's gotten more control over it, but kabbu feels everything Very Strongly and the rest of team snakemouth finds out before chapter 5 actually happens. probably via The Tail Thing which likes to appear with the worst timing

there are other werebugs out there just like with the zombugs but we haven't decided who else it should be yet

also, we'd like to hear more about what team mothiva's Thing is in your au :?

[barbaracleboy]

Finally got some rough Bird Fables doodles done (Bird Fables being this old AU I came up with ages ago ---->https://barbaracleboy.tumblr.com/post/684612020292796416/hey-all-ive-given-the-thought-of-bug-fables). Hopefully I can get more and better ones done in the future but for now have these. Team Snakemouth!

For a drawing I like even more, here we have Team Mothiva (Owliva?). I especially like how Zasp (Zawk?) came out.

And finally, Eetl. But a Kiwi.

[amkgal]

I've had a realisation.

All of team Snakemouth is Misery

Mothiva is Recces Puffs

And I can imagine Zasp singing CPR and then stopping abruptly as he realises.

(Every other explorer is just. Off to the side. Trying to figure out what they're doing.)

Why? I don't know. My brain said to. And I have the power to shitpost. So I did.

[waspseekinghoney]

“We each need to find our own inspiration. Sometimes it’s not easy.” (cordyiceps)

It had been quite some time since Zasp had last gotten the chance to hang out with Leif, since the talent show they'd last attended together in fact. The wasp glanced up, tilting his head. "What brought this on all of a sudden?" he asked. If it was in reference to Mothiva being his inspiration, well, he couldn't call himself surprised considering she and Team Snakemouth had never exactly been on the best of terms. Since the Golden Settlement's harvest festival, in fact...

The wasp shuddered slightly at the memory. He would never be eating that many leaves in one sitting again.

[aquilamage]

💫💞💝💋💌

💫what is your favorite kind of comment/feedback?

First thought: any kind of comment lol I am such a slut for the few scraps of attention I do get on my writing.

Second thought: the ones that spark further conversation but especially the kinds where the other person just gets exactly where I'm coming from because that's also how they happen to approach the story/character(s)/whatever. because usually that leads to a lot of mutual excitement and more cool story ideas (has happened with a few people but biggest shout-out to unnecessarygayfeelings if you read this sorry I've just kind of dropped out of aa)

💞what's the most important part of a story for you? the plot, the characters, the worldbuilding, the technical stuff (grammar etc), the figurative language

Characters! The biggest thing I find myself caring about and worrying over in my writing is about whether people in a fic are in-character/at least a believable take on them/interesting. Probably from a combination of that being one of the biggest things that matters to me in reading fics, and also like. characters are what make stories interesting for me in the first place, most of the time. Also for my writing a small offshoot of that concern is whether I'm writing characters internally consistent as in, do the ways they act and think and change make sense and flow consistently? (of course whether or not I succeed at any of this is another thing altogether)

💝what is a fic that got a different response than you were expecting?

probably the one motw aa fic where two or three separate people were like "is Sebastian secretly the monster" which I have no idea where they got that from but it was kinda funny

💋when you leave comments on a fic, do you want to hear back from the writer?

It's always nice to hear from them, particularly when it turns into longer/deeper discussions about the fic or the media the fic is based on, but I try not to go into writing a comment expecting a response esp not anything in particular (both to be fair to the author because they don't owe me a response and also so to avoid potential disappointment if I did create expectations)

💌share something with us about an up-and-coming work (WIP) that has you excited!

so...being honest here, I've had very little motivation to or excitement over actually writing for this whole calendar year, overall. and even less actual writing. so while I do have some things that I abstractly want to work on, I can't accurately describe anything as "up-and-coming."

I mean...I want to finished my chaptered hk fic, both for its own sake and so I can finally have completed a thing with chapters. I sat down after writing the previous paragraph and reread what I have for my one moth family agenda fic and I like it, I just don't have much further I know where to go with it. And. I'm still enjoying tossing around the 'mothiva gets fired' stuff in my head (like. the idea that she's trying to dodge like three different things that could get her fired only to get hit by something else. and her completely fucking up with being horrible to zasp. and then just her being a bitch while living with team snakemouth. and wrestling with "ok but how would mothiva/jaune happen as a dynamic" because it's funny and I kinda want to stick it in there too)

uh. I don't know if that answers the actual question at all. but I am tempted to post some of the snippets I have from something now

[mantisgodsdomain]

Having just read Border Stone, I am sincerely wondering what Team Snakemouth's reaction will be once Mothivia randomly shows up with Hollow.

We originally planned to illustrate this, but we didn't get around to it. This depends on whether or not they show up to potentially important briefings on other team's missions, because the first opportunity that they'll have to see The Hollow Knight is when Team Mothiva turns up to report on that mission, but after that they've got something of a 50/50 of encountering them being dragged around more or less as encountered in Hallownest or encountering them as Ominous Bodyguard Number 2.

As by the time they've returned to Bugaria, they've also achieved what they actually came there to do (assess the state of the fallen kingdom of Hallownest now that the plague has died down), they do have more things to present than just THK, but there's a solid chance that they'll just kind of... leave it to idle in the background, while talking about everything else. Watching. Waiting.

The original plan, of course, was to try and leave it in Hallownest. This, unfortunately, failed around the point when Zasp realized just how poorly it was holding together, along with the fact that they couldn't actually locate anyone with medical training for whatever Hollow was in the area (or anyone speaking a language they shared). Since Hollow was still following them around whenever guided, the plan became "bring it back to Bugaria, get it medical attention, shove it off on whoever we can manage to get it to stick with".

The final step of this plan failed. Mothiva, as someone with a very distinct public image to upkeep, was then stuck with the task of prettying it up enough to fit with the brand rather than risking backlash from either her fans or her managers from having some raggedy-looking maybe-beetle following her around, since her association with Zasp already sort of has her on thin ice with her brand.

There is a "trying to make it look less like it's in the process of actively dying" montage. It involves usage of power tools to clean up the crack on its shell well enough to seal and liberal amounts of beetle shell ointment, and THK is wholly uncertain how to feel about the whole thing. It doesn't do a whole lot for making it look less... horribly intimidating, but it's slightly more marketable in that it don't look like it's going to keel over and die at any second now.

The first reaction is generally going to be "by Venus's name, where the hell did you find that thing?!" regardless of first encounter, though. The industrial sander doesn't change that it's a ridiculously massive maybe-not-even-a-bug with a shell black enough to absorb all light and we don't think Mothiva will be doing an even remotely adequate amount of explanation on "what this thing is" or "how we found it".

[nerves-nebula]

My favourite character next to Leif is Zasp, he's the guy who stopped the "Leif getting stabbed" incident from turning into "Leif getting murdered (again)" incident. He also patched up Leif, meaning he saw the eldritch horror desperately writhing from inside of Leif and went " nah, that's none of my business".

After all that he tells team snakemouth (Leif, Vi (the teenage girl I mentioned in the previous ask) and Kabbu (the guy that tries to stop the pair from committing crimes)) that good friends are hard to come by and that they should take care of theirs.

Which brings up the topic of mothiva, zasp's teammate and technically his boss? Since he's her body guard. She sucks but he really seems to care about her but it really feels one sided, leif even later on tells zasp that he's too decent to keep hanging around her.

So many people often react to the "good friends are hard to come by" line by saying that Zasp probably could find better friends if he wasn't around mothiva all the time. The problem is that Zasp is a wasp (this is a game about bugs I think I forgot to mention) in a kingdom with no other wasps around, plus the wasp kingdom is actively hostile meaning that wasps are generally disliked. He probably thinks mothiva is the only one that will tolerate him.

Which isn't helped by the fact that prior to the stabbing incident Leif kept making snide remarks towards Zasp. Now Leif wasn't making those remarks against zasp cause he's a wasp, he was making those remarks because after Leif won an eating competition against him Leif decided that Zasp is now his anime rival, cause Leif is a dramatic ho, but like come on man Zasp was just doing his job.

Like Zasp is really isolated, after the wasp kingdom invades Leif asks if zasp really feels comfortable fighting against his own people and zasp retorts by saying that he's "nothing like those pests".

It's one of the reasons that a lot of fans (and by a lot of fans I mean like 2 people, the zasp appreciator fandom is tiny) like to headcanon zasp and vi developing a sibling like relationship since they both feel uncomfortable towards their respective species.

Speaking of fanon there is a really good fic called "fox in the henshouse" and I don't think I'll ever recover from reading it, it got everything, feelings of isolation, the fear of being perceived as a threat, food issues (wasps are omnivores while the majority of the friendly characters are herbivorous insects) and invasive medical procedures!

I dunno I just feel like not a lot of people appreciate zasp , including the WRITERS THEMSELVES, what do you mean zasp and mothiva get married post game?? Married?? Those two?? I might be too aromantic for this but mothiva shows zero interest in him, you expect me to believe that just because she's slightly less bitchy towards him that they get married?? And not be absurdly dysfunctional????

sorry for taking my time with this one but i keep falling sleep during the day.

anyway, this is fascinating. Its very cute that Leif gives himself an anime rival, though I guess it's unfortunate for Zasp. I want to ask questions about Zasp (how did he get separated from the other wasps, how as he raised, how did he meet Mothiva, whats his deal anyway) but I imagine I could find out if I just played the game hah.

I'm also often perturbed by weird "oh btw these two get married later" stuff in media. At least set it up first, just because they're around each other a lot doesn't mean they have chemistry! I'd honestly like it better if it was SUPPOSED to be a dysfunctional relationship, because even if thats not a happy ending it might make more sense than just Oh They Get Married.

eh but what do I know

[barbaracleboy]

Y'know, it's difficult to think of a pure favorite, but as for some I like in particular:

The bit at start of Chapter 6 where Elizant II's upset but gets support from Zaryant and the others, I thought that was nice.

It's super simple but Vi calling Bianca "Mom" postgame was adorable.

On a similar note, the part of the ending celebration where Bianca tells Vi something along the lines of "You've opened new frontiers for all Bees!" is really pleasant to me and also interesting to think about.

When the gang come back from Snakemouth and Eetl being so happy they're not dead, completw with tears in his eyes.

The part in Chapter 2 when Mothiva comes to Team Snakemouth and Vi's happy to see her, only to instantly start hating Mothiva forever when she starts asking for the Artifact.

It's been some time since I played and I probably don't remember all the best parts, but those were some I very much liked. Plus I tried to avoid listing scenes others mentioned here (though I agree, Kabbu treating Stealth Mission Faliures as flashbacks is genius).

What is your favorite scene/interaction in Bug Fables?