#also i really really like bioluminescence as a concept

[honourablejester]

I’m reading back over my subterranean fantasy/D&D setting of Osh Derrinalina, the Land of the Lightless Sea, and you know what? It still makes me really happy. It’s a whole bunch of city states, island nations and fungal hinterlands focused around an 80 mile long, 40 mile wide abyssal sea 6 miles down under the surface of the world, and it makes me happy.

Some highlights:

The oldest people to call the sea home are a race of midnight black translucent bioluminescent abyssal merfolk that were inspired rather strongly by black dragonfish (Idiacanthus atlanticus), because I just really wanted some terrifying abyssal mermaids who are actually quite friendly. Also the image of a subterranean pitch black sea where bioluminescent mermaids live and trade.

The second oldest people are a race of pale bioluminescent spider people who powerfully believe in community, because if I’m making a subterranean setting, by god I’m getting all the mileage I can out of bioluminescence.

There’s also a tribe of pale goblins from the island of death that tattoo themselves with phosphorescent fungal ink from a vast, possibly sentient pit into the realm of the dead. They’re also pretty chill guys.

Half the sea is fed from a vast fungal forest on a shelf around the cavern, at the center of which stands a vast and sacred mound of bat poop that provides 90% of the fertiliser and protein for the nations of the Lightless Sea, and the price for killing one of the sacred bats is death in half the cavern. This is because I watched a David Attenborough documentary one time about cave ecology that featured something similar, and it’s the sort of image that sticks with you.

The main cities of the sea are Ysea, the city of black stone and bioluminescent spider silk that is the primary home of the spider people and the main trade hub of the region, Durgenrath, a clifftop dwarven trade port further down the sea, Muarra, the unfathomably ancient merfolk capital that covers 50 square miles of the sea floor near Ysea, and Tchorit, the glowing crystal stalactite city on the ceiling.

Ysea and Muarra started trading thousands of years ago when the abyssal mermaids came to the black stone shore to trade, and the spider people went underwater in return in diving bells made of their luminescent silk, because I was inspired by the diving bell spider, and it’s such a fantastic fucking image. Pale spider people being towed into the black depths in webs of luminescent silk by translucent abyssal mermaids. I wanted it. I wanted it so bad.

Tchorit is an industrial hub city and was made by ceiling gnomes who call themselves Starbuilders and who are currently in what is essentially a religious cold war with the merfolk over bringing light, in the form of crystal luminescence, to the sacred darkness of the Lightless Sea.

They are also in a cold war with the ancient shadow dragon of the northern wilderness of the sea over the same issue.

The gnomes have made a lot of enemies and are basically the most contentious inhabitants here, in other words.

They are allied with the dwarves. And with the crystal elementals who taught them how to grow luminous crystal cities in the first place. So there’s that.

There’s a secret path somewhere above the cavern roof that leads back to the crystal home caverns of said elementals, and it is ferociously defended. If you haven’t seen pictures of real life crystal caves, you’re in for such a treat. No subterranean fantasy setting would be complete without whole caverns full of vast white crystals, so I made them glowing crystals, because yes, we’re still getting all possible mileage out of subterranean luminescence.

The dwarves have a much less secret, though no less defended, passage from Durgenrath through the stone to Durgendelf, a dwarven city in its own cave that is famous for its artificial suns, because I really, really, really liked that element of Blackreach in Skyrim. Durgendelf has six massive artificial suns, and Durgendelf dwarves are famous farmers and gardeners as much as miners and tunnellers. So they also have a happy friendship with the mushroom people of Derrinalina’s fungal shelf.

The above-mentioned shadow dragon has a very friendly relationship with the above-mentioned cheerful death island goblins, and regularly goes on religious pilgrimages to the island’s temple town to pay his respects to the impossibly deep dry well into death at the centre of the island.

This pit into death is one of two in the Lightless Sea, though the other is underwater. The merfolk commend their dead to the Fathomless Delve, a gaping underwater chasm with an upcurrent that only allows the merfolk dead to actually sink. The merfolk believe that this upcurrent is where all the waters of the sea originate.

The gnomes, on the other hand, believe that the waters of the sea come from the massive fucking waterfall that pours from the ceiling above the northern half of the Lightless Sea, all the way down from the seas on the surface miles above. This titanic waterfall is slowly but surely tearing through the ceiling on that half of the cavern, and has eaten a massive pit in the sea floor below it as well.

It is also possibly the origin of Zarathea, the Lightless Sea’s legendary albino (or possibly undead) dragon turtle that drifts around the wild, black, uninhabited northern half of the Lightless Sea, occasionally pretending to be a rocky island to fatally surprise sailors. One of the theories is that Zarathea fell through the waterfall from the surface seas as a baby dragon turtle. Or, given how weird it is, possibly it’s a native of the Lightless Sea. Nobody knows, and the shadow dragon at the very least would very much like to.

The massive waterfall, if it does finally collapse the ceiling on the northern half of the sea and dump the entire contents of its higher reservoir into the sea at once, could well cause a massive tidal wave that would destroy everything closer to the sea’s surface than Durgenrath. The gnomes, despite living on the ceiling, are extremely worried about this. The spider people and death goblins, despite living directly on the shore, are not. Whether that’s blind optimism or they know something the gnomes don’t is anyone’s guess.

I said the Lightless Sea is 80 miles long, but the northernmost reaches of it haven’t actually been discovered yet by anyone from the southern end of the cavern, so the exact extent of the northern shore isn’t actually known. And the sea floor on that end of the cavern goes deep, and stays going deep, a vast sloping descent to the north. There could be just about anything down there.

I had so much fun with this setting. Also, worldbuilders note: watch nature documentaries. And history documentaries. Just history and nature and geology and science and archaeology in general. There’s some really cool and inspiring shit in them. Our world is really weird and really cool, and I promise you that a lot of fantasy worlds are nearly boring by comparison. Pick one really weird little thing, bat dung, or spider diving bells, or bioluminescence, and build some funky societies around them, it’s so much fun.

I am still so proud of this setting. I love it.

[marimbles]

happy holidays @0ellestrid0! I was your secret santa for @mlsecretsanta 💜

I don’t know much about solarpunk but I was intrigued by the concept and wanted to give it a shot! hopefully this is ok. random silly solarpunk AU ideas under the cut hehe

since solarpunk is about solar power and green/eco-friendly societal structure, I figured plants would be central to an ML solarpunk AU. it’s cool to imagine a version of Paris with lots of green areas and clever, space-saving, clean-energy solutions. I like the idea of the dupain-chengs having their own greenhouse where they grow ingredients for use in the bakery. And I wanted marinette to have her own greenhouse too where she grows plants that she uses as fibers and dyes for making clothes! So that’s what I drew here. Chat Noir likes to help marinette in her garden and he nerds out about the plants which she thinks is very cute:)

The plant in the middle is associated with ladybug and chat noir. I love sun/moon symbolism and that seemed to fit a solarpunk AU really well so I ran with it haha. in this AU I thought tikki could be a spotted sun beetle and plagg could be a black moon cat (or panther?). sun beetles would be associated with the sundrop plant (first image), and moon cats would be associated with moonflowers (second image). chat noir’s tattoo is a moonflower and in my mind ladybug would have a matching one that’s a sundrop.

The moonflower is inspired by the actual plant of the same name, which blooms only at night, except I wanted to also make it bioluminescent bc that’s cool lol. (I’ve been playing lots of tears of the kingdom and I always love the blue nightshades and silent princesses that glow blue in the dark!) irl moonflowers are actually a type of morning glory, which typically bloom in the morning in full sunlight and then close up at night. so in this AU the sundrop is the corresponding plant (since “sunflower” is already taken, haha) and it would also glow, but only during the day when it’s blooming.

I thought maybe sundrops and moonflowers could have magical effects and marinette is experimenting to discover them. maybe there’s stuff about them in the grimoire and she’s trying to unlock special powers for her and chat noir. maybe those effects and the symbolism of the plants could help her understand more about her and chat’s roles and abilities and potential and even help her discover the key to defeating hawkmoth…hmm… (I really haven’t thought too deeply about it lol I just like glowing plants)

As for their outfits…I was just trying to make them look sort of “punk”-y 😂 I feel like in all the punk AUs like steampunk, cyberpunk, etc, people are always wearing goggles and boots and aprons and vests and stuff with pockets and zippers and arm braces. So. I made a vague attempt fjdkkd

anyway thanks for humoring me with my rambling lol I hope you enjoy and that you had a good holiday!

[merakiui]

Been waiting to do thisss

⭐️ for tmdg!!! Plssss!!!!

Omg I've been wanting to ramble about tmdg!!! Thank you for asking!! <3 there are many details to discuss, but I listed a few below!

(ask game)

✧ many moray eel facts and behaviors are scattered throughout the story. Like the gaping mouths to signal a want to mate or their toxic blood or how most morays aren't monogamous or how they're a territorial species. Additionally, since Jade and Floyd are canonically bioluminescent, I thought it would be interesting if they were able to glow brightly when they're attracted to someone. >:D

✧ "body language" is mentioned often. this is an allusion to The Little Mermaid (specifically Ursula's line of "and don't underestimate the importance of body language!"), but also a nod to how moray eels interact in courtship. A lot of the gestures are based on body language, and I love the concept of the trio using body language as a means of flirting or conveying certain feelings without having to verbalize them.

✧ the scene in which reader becomes a grouper mer,,,, moray eels and groupers are actually hunting partners. they have a mutualistic bond in which they work together to hunt for meals. it's initiated by the grouper approaching the eel's living space and signaling to them through body language that they'd like to engage in a joint hunt. this is meant to mirror the mutualism Jade and reader have as well as show just how good of a match they are. Even as mers, they are perfect for each other. <3

✧ the title "The Most Dangerous Game" refers to the short story of the same name, in which a hunter is stranded on an island and meets a general who loves to hunt the most dangerous game of all (human beings). For you and Jade, the most dangerous game involves navigating your situationship while trying not to fall for him and his charms. There's a point in the story where you may be able to catch Reader's shifting feelings. >:)

✧ you can tell Jade really does love you when he gives you the entire tray of mushroom brownies. Jade is a foodie with a big appetite and he loves to eat, so for him to bake an entire tray of something and then not keep a single leftover for himself,,,, oh, he's so in love. orz he wants to provide for you, not just by cooking meals for you, but in many other ways as well, such as when he comforts you during the times in which you get upset and cry. :D I like to imagine one of the biggest love languages for merfolk is giving gifts (whether that's actual materialistic items or something intangible like quality time). it's a guarantee you'll be well-fed with Jade because he loves cooking for you!!!!

✧ heliotrope symbolism (eternal love).

✧ the moon and star comparisons. you liken Floyd to a star: something that shines brightly but can also be popular if not read as the astronomical definition. Jade likens you to the moon because, unlike the stars, there is only one moon (Earth's moon) and thus there is only one of you. but there's also something so romantic in Jade pining for the moon because the sky and sea are so separate from one another. truly a bittersweet reflection of Jade's feelings. they're as deep as the sea, but can't be encapsulated in the solar system because there is no room for him there (not when you're so in love with Floyd and have made him your entire world). orz

✧ the recurring mention of scent. I like the idea of merfolk being able to scent their partners so that it's easier to find them, but also so that they can make it known to others that that person is taken. >:) Jade claims he's been scenting you for fun, but the truth is that he fully intended to let everyone know that you are his. <3 Jade takes advantage of your limited knowledge on mer customs and culture hehe.

✧ all of the times in which Floyd (the real Floyd) is being sweet to you (buying you perfume or kissing you on the cheek)... those are just his ways of being much too friendly towards you. he never had any romantic attraction towards you to begin with, which is why it drove Jade so crazy because you were looking at and loving the wrong eel!!!! T_T

✧ the times in which phony Floyd is talking about Jade are actually Jade's true feelings and actions. he really did stay up late to learn new recipes for you. and he truly isn't very physical with others. jade just loves you too much and likes being near you, touching you, kissing you, etc. orz he had to say those things as floyd, otherwise he would have just said them outright and he's trying to have some tact. ;;;;

✧ the dinner date scene was Jade's attempt at having a genuine date with you, but because you're so Floyd-brained you mistook his gesture as being part of your arrangement. ^^;;;; in fact, most of the times in which Jade tries to be authentic, you either don't believe him or interrupt him to ramble about Floyd LOL. but the dinner date was the one time in which he was hoping to do something with you that wasn't part of your deal and instead just something between you and jade. >_< he's trying his best...

✧ the waltz you share with Jade is 100% courtship. reader refers to it as a "competition, not courtship," but she forgets Octavinelle is underwater and thus, as Jade noted, both of those things are indeed the same under the sea.

✧ when you ask Jade what the both of you will be after your tryst in the Coral Sea, he leaves the specifics up to you for your decision. he does this a lot in the fic (such as asking if you'd like the dinner date to qualify as such) because, though he appears mostly confident in his actions and words, he's too cowardly to clearly illustrate what the two of you are and doesn't want to do so when he knows you may not reciprocate. he also just wants to hear the words from your mouth because he hopes that, after all of these questions, you'll eventually say the thing he wants to be with you: lovers. :D

✧ alongside Jade and reader having a few similarities (one of which being the obsessive degrees they're willing to go to for their crush), there's significance in their feelings and how they handle them. reader's chasing someone who will never turn around to look at and love her. Jade's chasing someone who only looks at him when he's Floyd. though reader loves to extremes, she's scared of that love being reciprocated, which is partially why she doesn't let Jade say "I love you," whereas Jade just doesn't want to love in silence. they're both not the best at navigating love, and the ways they do it are,,,, questionable. orz but they both understand each other on that level because they're so obsessed. it's crazy to crazy communication. to quote Azul: "a match made in madness."

[adobe-outdesign]

YOU ENDED UP GETTING ME INTO NEOPETS NOW SO WHAT R UR THOUGHTS ON JETSAM(S)? IM A SUCKER FOR SHARKS LOL SO IM RLY HOPING TO GET ONE AT SOME POINT

Jetsams are sharks, and are meant to be kind of a counterpart/natural predator to the dolphin-like Flotsam; to the point where the two looked near-identical. Nowadays there are more differences, with the Jetsam sporting two fins, sharp teeth, slightly different markings, and an upright posture. Personally, I like to think of these two as a case of mimicry, with the Jetsam having evolved to trick Flotsam from a distance.

Visually, the Jetsam has a nice tough look to it that gives it a lot of personality, and the way it sits upright plus the two fins gives it a bit more uniqueness so it isn't just a normal shark. My only issue with it is that the gray underbelly is a bit too dark and low-contrast. Gray as the accent color is fine; it just needed to be a lighter tint.

The Jetsam benefited quite a bit from customization, as its old art was starting to get very dated and needed a redraw anyway. The new Jetsam looks a little less tough, but the smile is nice as it shows off their teeth, and it gives them a fun kind of mischievous look. The overall look didn't change much, but the head has been changed significantly to have a much better, less wonky shape to it, and the markings now stop above the mouth instead of near the eyebrow. The shape of the hind fins have also been improved, and they're one of the only pets who can make the customization fists look good.

Favorite Colours:

Maraquan: How do you make an underwater version of something that already lives in the water? Make it into a deep-sea fish, obviously! The overall design is easily recognizable as a Jetsam, but its been given a horizontal posture with bioluminescence and an angler fish light/teeth. The palette is great, using neutral browns and greys for the body and bright neon blues for the accent color. My only nitpick with it is that the teeth feel a bit busy and don't quite make sense if you look at them too long, but overall, this is a great design.

Pastel: The pastel Jetsam is just plain pretty, using a soft pink and turquoise palette. What really makes it work is that instead of using flat colors, it employs subtle gradients so the turquoise becomes blue in areas and the pink gets some subtle highlights. On top of that, it's also given a sunlight-under-water ripple texture, with a few small speckles on areas like the eyebrows and tail. A lot of effort went into this design compared to your standard pastel pet, and it really paid off.

Toy: Alright yeah, this one's just fun. The pool floatie idea is a great concept that works perfectly for the colour, and the execution is also really solid, including lots of raised plastic ridges, seams, and plenty of highlights to give it that plastic look.

My only issue with it is that weird handle on the side of the head. I guess some shark toys have these, but I've never seen one personally and it honestly just looks distracting and kind of out of place. Also, I do wish it was semi-transparent (think like the good Jelly-coloured pets), but that's not a big deal. Still a really good colour regardless.

BONUS: The robot Jetsam has a mostly red and white palette with a few black accents, and it works really well for this pet. I love the visor, and the patterning on the fins is really neat. Both versions are fine; the UC/styled version looks a bit more robotic, but the customized version reads a bit better overall.

[thehollowwriter]

Thank you @the-banana-0verlord for reminding me of the info, and thank you octonauts for providing me with the info in the first place (I'm sorry I ever doubted you, Octonauts)

So, a fun cookie cutter shark fact, thanks to Lilian:

"All but one small strip of their bellies is lined with photophores, bioluminescent organs that help the sharks blend in with sunlight from above. Predators from below see the dark collar as a small fish, and when they swim up to take a bite, the cookiecutter quickly maneuvers around, biting a chunk of the would-be predator with its bandsaw-like teeth."

They basically turn invisible. Finn's original concept UM was being able to turn invisible. But they also disguise themselves as other fish, like Finn's UM!

It's gonna be so fun implementing this lil fact into Finn's lore

Tagging: @distant-velleity @br3adtoasty @rainesol @theleechyskrunkly @jovieinramshackle @galaxies-and-gore @cyanide-latte @cynthinesia @officialdaydreamer00 @krenenbaker @kitwasnothere @elenauaurs @boopshoops @am0nline @1dont-really-know @kazumify @minteasketches @officialdaydreamer00 @whspermy-name @elysia-nsimp @skrimpyskimpy @casp1an-sea @offorestsongs @the-banana-0verlord

[moonstruckdraws]

Sage & Luci

As said before, I want this to be a QPR & I spent a while relearning what I already knew to double check myself lol. I still find these to be so fun because of the flexibility this kind of relationship has & I'm excited to explore it.

Sage is the more physically affectionate out of the two

I just love size differences lol. Luci isn't really one to ramble unless it's to rant, but she does it with Sage. She feels like she can say anything to her & Sage will being paying attention to everything. Sage is quite the bubbly person, but often enjoys listening to people instead of speaking.

Nicknames! Luci doesn't like romantic pet names. She either cringes or feels dead inside when addressed that way. In an ask Helli made to me, I said that Luci likes drinking floral teas & then it came to me; Sage addresses Luci by whatever tea she drinks that day. I thought it was so cute!! Luci would get tea from Bao's tea shop every so often & would probably be where she & Sage meet up. On days that Sage is either late or days Luci comes into the tea shop without planning on meeting up, I think it'd be funny if Sage just bursts into the shop to interrogate Bao on what tea Luci drank that day lmao.

Sage is gloooowing. I just wanted more color on the page lol. But moths are attracted to light, so when Luci learned Sage is bioluminescent, she was beyond excited & thought it was so cool. Seeing the colors & brightness made Luci come up with nicknames for Sage. She calls her a nightlight, at first in a joking manner before it stuck.

I think it'd be best to talk about Luci's view & opinions of romance, and then her & Sage's partnership so imma do that-

I don't believe I've said this fun fact yet, but Luci watches romance shows & movies practically constantly. If someone wants to watch anything romance, Luci will have a recommendation. She started watching romance because of the relationships around her. I think it's not a secret that Luci is friendless & isn't exactly the best at socializing. Her interactions with people or reselling/buying others' stuff, shouting at said customers when they tick her off, or hating people (cough Pico & Todd cough). The only time she gets along with others is during DIGG concerts (another fun fact is that she's a giga fan of them) when jamming out with people in the crowd. So, as said in Luci's introduction post, she meets Bao by going to his tea shop after being extremely heated. Making Bao her first friend. Of course, that leads to her learning Bao & Pico are together. The only other people in a relationship she'd know of would be Warren & Hypno, because of Repo. It'd leave her puzzled on the subject of a lover. She knows people date & get married & all that, but actually knowing people who are is a shock to her. Like knowing something exists but not really registering it until you've seen it in person. While trying to wrap her head around it, she sees a show playing on the TV Repo left on, it being romance. She'd take this as an opportunity to figure this strange concept & it turned into her binging and watching a bunch of them. Through watching romance is how she'd find out things that were cringe or confusing to her, & things that peaked her interest. (I think she'd just ask Bao straight up, "Why the f*ck are you dating?" That'd probably be her reaction to the news lmao in the sense of "Why Pico?" but also just "Why?")

Repo never talked about romance with Luci unless she asked, and with the lack of people she's around, she never dealt with being questioned on her interest in others & having that expectation of needing to find someone. So that kind of relationship has never been on her mind. What she's interested in, from all the shows & films, interactions she's seen, and by pure description has been the intimacy of those close relationships. It's more of a second thought that might appear time to time when watching romance that'd linger. But aside from that, she doesn't care for any of the rest.

Luci is not an affectionately giving partner that likes receiving attention. With the way she's raises & how she views Repo, she always liked getting attention. The way she grew up also made her not the most considerate person in the world unless it was for Repo (later on others), so she isn't the most showy with affection. She shows affection with others, aside from Repo, by just her presence. Even if she just doesn't talk, her being there with someone is her way of showing care. Sage loves expressing her affection through words. She may not talk as much in a conversation, but when giving praise or compliments, those are likely to make that person be in a good mood for the rest of the day. She likes making people feel good, it's a reason she's an herbalist. She manages to say all the right words & takes pride in that. They do standard cuddles & head resting and is pretty much all they do. They like to go on outings, Sage more than Luci, or just sitting around doing nothing. But they do have this thing with holding hands. They hold hands a lot when doing just about anything, but Sage would always reach for Luci's second pair of arms. And that Luci would never be the one to let go of hands, it'd always be Sage who'd have to do it & I just thought it was sweet lol.

okay that's enough rambling for me lol

[frothingatthemaw]

oc-ifying vessel thus far:

vessel being able to shapeshift into a cat…

his natural skin color being black but when he gets hot or someone he’s fond of touches him, his “human skin” peaks through. this also means that when anything hot touches him, it turns white too. like when he showers or washes his hands or spills something on his skin (idea taken from this)

his skin gets glittery at nighttime sometimes. also a tad bioluminescent. i don’t really have a reason behind this but think of like when werewolves turn into wolves on full moons. it’s a similar concept to that i suppose?

doesn’t really like having a “smell” so if he smells like clean laundry, he’s happy. but ideally he would love to be able to smell like rain or the ocean

despite not liking sweet things, he has to take his coffee sweet. he can’t stand straight black coffee or it only with a bit of sugar. has to have caramel syrup or something else to sweeten it up. loves to put oat milk in it as well (i’m projecting <3)

loooooves mint tea

exaggerated sound of his heartbeat, gets even louder while purring. don’t ask for an explanation because i don’t know!!

bed is his safe space so he really prioritizes keeping it as comfy and cozy and warm as possible. has many pillows and soft blankets and even secretly a couple plushies. he’s just a little guy! :3 also is picky about the texture of his sheets so that matters a lot (projecting part 2)

moves a lot in his sleep when he’s alone, but tends to be evidently more calm while sleeping with someone else (the pillows mentioned before are an effort made to try to simulate another something there but this fails miserably, he still sleeps like this because he’s gotten used to it and knows he’d have to completely readjust otherwise. and yes, the plushies were also a made effort for this problem, or so he claims)

he has stretch marks <3 they are located on his lower back, few on his stomach, and some ones on his hips as well. boy grew a bit too fast for his body’s liking but that’s okay

[ejunkiet]

20 Questions for Fic Writers Game

tagged by the wonderful @autisticempathydaemon (chrissy my beloved <33 also you HAVE to let me know if you start writing for castleaudios >:3)

tagging - you, reading this!! also (no pressure!): @dominimoonbeam @glassbearclock @taelonsamada @romirola @lovelylonerliterature @genginger @ninzied @evilbunnyking @nerdierholler @commander-krios @chroniclesinlacuna @kesla @mordinette @garglyswoof @nagia-pronounced-neijia

1 - How many works do you have on AO3?

oh god, 128! but this is an underestimate, because i've anon'd some older fics/fandoms hehehe. i've been 'round ao3 since 2012!

2 - What's your total AO3 word count?

498,649... now this is actually accurate. 300k of that is from 2020 until now. basically the pandemic got me on a writing kick.

3 - What fandoms do you write for?

SO MANY. 19 according to ao3, but right now? baldurs gate & redacted audios >:3 there is another halsin fic in the works...

4 - What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

oh god. okay. you'll get some older fics here: 1. got me on my best (bad) behaviour 2. Call me scent o' mental, but I'm crazy about you (teen wolf....) 3. all bark, no bite 4. devils and ghosts (frank castle / karen page!! love this one heh) 5. sweeter than honey (ofc halsin makes it ahaha)

5 - Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

YES. there are only a few exceptions, when I've written something that touches close to home / a sensitive topic.

6 - What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

hmm...bittersweet endings were my wheelhouse for a long time. OKAY. let's do this one: too little, too late. caroline forbes and klaus mikaelson, set at the end of the originals. yeah.

7 -What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

....nowadays, I mostly write happier endings sadhfjk lets go with: bioluminescence, which follows on from the events of blood moon (@/barbwrites) and takes marco on a roadtrip to see luminescent algae up close and personal. (it's a loveletter to a summer I spent in california during a really difficult period of my life, and this fic means a lot to me <3)

8 - Do you get hate on fics?

I've not gotten hate, but I've definitely had some interesting comments over the years, for a variety of reasons, usually to do with the person's personal views. (one story had the main character smoking pot to calm their anxiety, and someone was not happy with that)

9 - Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

YEP. Smut with feelings is my FAVOURITE thing. I prefer sensual descriptions, because it is all about feelings and sensations with me. as an ace writer, I also like kink and monster fuckery heheheh.

10 - Do you write crossovers?

Not at all ahahahaha. Have I ever written a crossover? I don't think so. I love AUs though, and pacific rim AUs are one of my favourite concepts in fandom.

11 - Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Yes, and it was teen wolf, and honestly not one of my best. it was a hatchet job, they took random paragraphs and spliced it / wrote around it? someone flagged it to me in a comment, and it was taken down. all in all, a very weird experience.

12 - Have you ever had a fic translated?

No, but gosh, that'd be cool! <- stealing from lexi, agreed, would be awesome <3

13 - Have you ever co-written a fic before?

YES. It was FUN. It was a series of conversations between an estranged father and son, Colm and Milo Greer, with the incredibly talented @frenchiefitzhere (also tagging you for this meme!!). it's still one of my favourite things: An Honest Man Like Yourself

14 - What's your all time favorite ship?

ALL TIME FAVOURITE? How dare you. I love all my ships afjkdsfg Shakarian is pretty high up there. Kastle (karen page/ frank castle). All the werewolves from redacted. <3

15 - What's a WIP that you want to finish, but doubt you ever will?

ahhhh. okay. 'wander. wonder.' my poly longfic. don't hate me, but honestly, I've just not got the space for a longfic at the moment. never say never, but I've caught up with the chapters I had worked up, everything else is a vague outline. <3

16 - What are your writing strengths?

oof. I want to say character. most of the fun for me when writing is getting inside a characters head and figuring out their voice >:3

17 - What are your writing weaknesses?

Structuring longer, multi-chaptered stories - basically figuring out the pacing of it. I'm working on an original project, and I love it, but the first series of major edits will be breaking up my alternating POV sections into proper chapter breaks and letting myself linger more in moments instead of pushing forward (habits of a oneshot writer fdsds)

18 - Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

I've been meaning to have my estonian friend critique my estonian, but I'm pretty positive the 'bond' I referred to is actually the money kind, and not the emotional attachment I'd been hoping to refer to hfjdkssfdg. I do as much research as I can, but it's best to run it past someone who speaks the language!

19 - First fandom you wrote for?

hehehehe naruto. yep. I was a naruto kid. first posted online in 2007......

20 - Favorite fic you've written?

WHAT A QUESTION. honestly, I love what I have been writing the last three years. I've really let myself just write what I want to read, and it's been great. i'm going to cheat, and say the original project I'm working on that I won't let anyone see heheheh. <3 it's got werewolves, kink and explicit consent, and spun out a whole verse for me to play with (and a fun MMF sidestory that I also need to finish...)

gods this got LONG. Thank you for making it this far!! <3

[twistofstory]

Finished 6 out of 9 pages for the first scene and started thinking about the second one! Here's a bioluminescence concept doodle I did yesterday (just a random dragon for demonstration) Maybe I should start translating this scene's dialogue to English... I haven't looked at it in a couple of weeks, really hope it still holds up tbh Also I'm kinda thinking about calling this story Pearl of the deep 🤔 I just really like some little bit of imagery from the second scene ...oh, btw, did I tell you that this is gonna be a romance one-shot?

[greenteaandtattoos]

I was rewatching the “Dragons” OSP trope talk, and I realized that we see so many different variants of dragons, but we hardly see different variants of other species, like elves. They’re all the same: tall, fair, thin, graceful (The Dragon Prince did a really great subversion of this). Elves are supposed to be mystical magical beings, right? Then why are they so boring? I want to see other types!! Elves with different skin tones!!! Elves with crazy characteristics that match their magic!!!

Fire elves whose hair is always alight and emits smoke when exhausted and sparks when energetic with black skin with veins running down their arms that glow a fiery orange!!!! Water elves with storm clouds for hair and webs in between their fingers and toes and always smell like sea salt or incoming rain!!! Earth and plant elves with as many skin tones and hair colors as there are different flowers and soils and can gain nutrients through photosynthesis and reproduce asexually and emit the scent of petrichor when they touch water!!!!

Tree elves that are impossibly old and their skin is rough like bark with circles that appear with age and their blood is sticky and sweet like sap!!! Winter elves with ice-cold skin with veins across their body that looks like shattered ice and leaves frost everywhere they touch!!!! Desert elves with gritty skin that slowly turns to glass with age and is hot to the touch in the day and cold at night!!!! Lightning elves whose voices crackle with electricity and hair that is constantly frizzy and standing up and that gives off static shocks whenever they’re emotional!!! 

Elves with animal features!!! Owl elves covered in feathers and can turn their head 270 degrees and see wayyyy better than most others!!! Arctic fox and hare elves with fur that changes color with the seasons and have impeccable hearing and are resistant to the cold!!! Scorpion elves that are resistant to the heat and have naturally hard skin and a tail full of venom!!! Shark elves with multiple rows of teeth and rough skin and are sensitive to electromagnetic fields!!! 

ELVES WITH DIFFERENT BODY TYPES AND ELVES WITH DISABILITIES!!!

WHALE ELVES THAT ARE LARGE AND HEAVY AND CAN MAKE THE MOST BEAUTIFUL SONGS!!! MUSHROOMS ELVES THAT ARE SHORT AND PLUMP WITH BIOLUMINESCENT SKIN AND CAPS THAT GROW ALL OVER THEIR BODY!!!! MOTH ELVES THAT ARE SMALL AND THICK AND HAVE A DEEP LONGING FOR L I G H T.

SKY ELVES THAT CAN WALK ON AIR AND ARE NEGATIVELY AFFECTED BY AIR POLLUTION!!! BEE ELVES THAT NATURALLY ATTRACT POLLEN TO THEM AND ARE AT A HIGH RISK OF DEATH DUE TO THEIR STINGER BEING THEIR ONLY NATURAL WEAPON!!! GEMSTONE ELVES WITH SKIN AND EYES THAT GLITTER AND SHINE WITH BONES THAT VARY ACCORDING TO THE HARDNESS SCALE!!! LEAF ELVES WHOSE HAIR CHANGES COLORS AND FALLS OUT IN AUTUMN AND GET SEASONAL DEPRESSION THE CLOSER TO WINTER IT GETS!!!!

There are so many possibilities!!! I know that Lord of the Rings and Dungeons and Dragons really laid down the foundation for much of the fantasy genre and characteristics such as magic systems and races, but that doesn’t mean we have to stick to the the same path. Branch out! Do something unique! You’ve got a river of creativity in you, let it loose! Let it break the banks and surge through you!!!

It’s my opinion, as an avid fan and writer of fantasy, that while we can appreciate and certainly build off what Tolkien laid down, we should take the initiative to start crafting our own fantasies, make our own contributions to the fantasy genre. Because in the end, “fantasy” is such a broad term, impossibly vast, there are so many aspects to the concept of “fantasy”, that we could never truly manage to run out of ideas.

I am, of course, not saying that people who enjoy the classical concept of fantasy are wrong or boring. If that’s what you enjoy, then go for it! Heck, I enjoy it, too! But I also think that there is a wellspring of potential in each of us, and I wholly believe that we can put some of the craziest and unique ideas into words and onto paper, no matter how it happens. 

[honourablejester]

I’m realising as I browse around that I really love lore when it comes to ttrpgs, games and game worlds. And by that I don’t mean I like to obsessively learn lists of dates and wars, and the names of leaders of factions, I mean …

I like learning weird, juicy details about the worlds of games. I like finding little nuggets that say things about the set-up and culture and assumptions of the world. I like finding fragments of ideas to hang whole story and character concepts off.

I love that in D&D 5e’s Spelljammer, the Astral Sea is full of the corpses of dead gods that you can fully sail up to in your ship. Just. Floating out there. Waiting for you to rock up to them.

I love that in Sunless Sea, the king of the drowned is the way he is because he fell in love with an eldritch sea urchin from space, and successfully married it. His niece is an angry sentient floating mountain whose mother is a goddess-mountain and whose father is a face-stealing humanoid abomination. This is fine and normal.

I love that in Starfinder, there are mysterious bubble cities in the surface of the sun that the church of the sun goddess discovered and cheerfully occupied despite having no idea who the hell built them or for what purpose.

I love that in Dishonored, the entire industrial revolution that has built the empire we’re in the midst of saving or destroying was built on the properties of whale oil harvested from eldritch tentacled whales that live half in the oceans and half in an eldritch void personified in the form of a weird-ass black-eyed shit-stirrer of a deity who was formed from a murdered and sacrificed child. And this is largely a background detail.

I love in the Elder Scrolls that the dwarves up and fucking vanished, as a race, at some point in history and absolutely nobody has any clue what happened to them or where they went, but their technology is so insane that ideas like ‘they time-travelled’ or ‘they erased themselves from existence’ are absolutely on the table.

I love that in Numenera, so many incredibly advanced civilisations have risen and fallen on this world that it’s absolutely littered with bonkers science fiction artefacts that have caused the current medieval-esque society built over top of them to develop in bizarre ways, and also you can find a mysterious artefact that absolutely baffles and delights your character, but that you the player will fully recognise as a slightly-more-advanced thermos flask.

I love that in Fallout, an irradiated post-nuclear apolocalypic hellscape, there’s a cult that worships the god of radiation as they have come to understand it, and they are mysteriously immune to radiation with absolutely no explanation whatsoever. They’re not ghouls, the usual result of fatally irradiated humans with some resistance, they’re perfectly normal humans who can somehow just tank rads all damn day. It could be a mutation, but Lovecraftian gods apparently do also fully exist in this setting, so it’s also possible that maybe they were on to something with this Atom thing.

I love that in Heart The City Beneath, there’s a mass transit train system that they tried to hook up to the eldritch beating god-thing buried under the city so that they could metaphysically chain the stations together more easily, which went horrifically and metaphysically wrong in entirely predictable fashion, and now there’s a whole order of train-knights who have to keep people safe from the extradimensional weirdness magnet the network has become.

That, and all the fantastic little details you can stumble across. There’s a biotech augmentation in Starfinder called an angler’s light that gives you a little angler-fish bioluminescent antenna on your forehead, and it was developed by asteroid miners who needed light but also both hands free for work. In Dishonored there’s a festival that everyone pretends is outside of time so nothing you do during it can be held against you. There’s a god of snuffed candles mentioned in a single line from Heart The City Beneath who has pacifist cannibal priests, and that is literally all the information you get on him.

While things like the history and geography and timeline of a world do also fascinate me, I’m not really here to memorise stuff like that. I’m here to find weird little nuggets of information and worldbuilding and delight in them. Give me funerary customs and weird myths and oddly specific circumstances and baffling little objects and absolutely bonkers cosmological implications. Give me the corpses of dead gods, and aesthetic movements with highly specific backstories, and bureaucratic fuck-ups of titanic scale, and mysterious things that seem to break all other rules of your setting with absolutely no explanation because people in-universe have no fucking clue how they work either. Why are the Children of Atom immune to radiation without ghoulifying? Not a clue, but Confessor Cromwell has been cheerfully standing in that irradiated pond that kills the player character with about 10 minutes of exposure for the last year and he’s still absolutely fine.

I just. I really love lore. I like my settings to have some meat in them, some juicy details to dig into, some inexplicable elements to have fun trying to explain. Particularly that last bit. I feel like a lot of people when building worlds feel like the rules have to be absolute and everything has to have an explanation, but nah. Putting some weird shit in makes everything immediately feel bigger, more real, because we don’t have even half an idea of how our world truly works, there’s always something we just don’t fully understand yet, and you can put that in a fictional world too. Some mysteries, some contradictions, some randomness, some weirdness. There’s a line, obviously, this depends on execution, but a little bit of mystery really does help.

Lore is awesome. And weird lore is even more so. Heh.

[the-sky-queen]

Introducing! Prince Udando of Tharos!

Character Notes:

14 years old.

Crown Prince of Tharos, a planet dominated by rules, traditions, and symbolic meaning. Udando finds all of it suffocating and wants nothing more than to escape.

His mother, Queen Erikonia, is unyielding and cruel. She constantly pushes Udando to be the best and punishes him when falls short. Udando's late father was similarly critical, constantly disappointed in his son and only interested in people that could be of use to him.

Udando is snarky and rebellious, but he knows there's only so far he can push before he puts his life in his mother's uncaring hands. He stays within the most important boundaries even though it makes his skin crawl.

Despite his distaste for Tharos' very nature, it's all Udando knows. When confronted by objects or gestures with no specific special meaning, he has difficulty wrapping his head around the concept.

Tends to be rude and dismissive. He also struggles with social cues since he wasn't raised around normal people. (Boy has a bad habit of invading people's personal space. XD)

More than anything, he just wants to be a normal kid.

He's a bookworm and loves to research whatever catches his interest into oblivion.

Design + Other Notes:

Udando was honestly very difficult to design! I have this brainstorm paper I've been chipping away at for like a year, but I always struggled to get it to feel right. When doing this iteration of Udando's design, I honestly threw out quite a bit of what I'd initially brainstormed. Stuff like his head shape, the fact that he had ears, the shape of his feet, and him having a cape instead of the scarf he has here.

I've always known that Udando was going to have pitch black eyes. I thought it would be a fun contrast because, fun fact! Tharos is absolutely covered in bioluminescent, glowing plants. I also thought the black eyes would be good for making Udando somewhat mysterious since you can't tell where exactly he's looking. But back on the topic of Tharos' plant life, I realized it would make total sense for Udando and the rest of the Tharians to be very bright and neon in coloring, since way back in the past, those with colors matching the environment would have a better chance at surviving in what I'm thinking was a very hostile landscape.

I debated giving Udando those dragonfly wings, but ultimately decided to let him have them. They made a lot of sense because the eyes and antennae were already giving insect vibes. And speaking of the antennae! Udando can use them to detect vibrations and sense changes in the atmosphere.

Tharos is absolutely riddled with objects of symbolic importance, so I made sure to give Udando a few accessories as part of his royal getup. The crown, the wrist gauntlets, and the ankle rings all have special royal importance. I think the scarf was given to Udando by his dad shortly before he died, so even though they weren't on good terms, the thing has meaning to Udando and he refuses to get rid of it. Erikonia probably wouldn't let him throw it out anyway. As for the necklace . . . that's where things get tricky.

You see, Udando originates from this unposted AU of mine called The Black Prince. There, as part of Tharian tradition, Shadow gave Udando that necklace as a symbol of friendship between the Tharians and the Black Arms. (Shadow has a similar necklace in the AU that identifies him as the crown prince of the Black Arms.) Here's where the problem comes in. I kinda REALLY want to put Udando into my Sonic-verse, but that necklace and his relationship with Shadow is kinda VITAL to his character development. And without the context of The Black Prince, I'm not sure how Udando would meet Shadow and get that necklace. I'll keep working at it. I've got a few vague ideas right now, so we'll see how they go.

But for now, yeah! That's Udando! I love him so much and I hope you all do to!

[marrowcrunch]

What are your top 3 favorite vtm clans (or bloodlines)?

Bonus: which clan do you think you'd fit in with? :3c

Oh boy, this is going to be long lol

Favorite: Tzimisce 

Gosh, what a surprise :O

But yeah. I mean, firstly, the cool factor is undeniable. It's always such a joy designing Tzimisce characters because even toeing the strictest borderlines of canon they're allowed to get real weird with it in a way that most other clans aren't. I don't mean this as hate at all so I hope it doesn't come across like that, all clans are beautiful <3 but if you're playing Ventrue, Brujah, Tremere etc to some degree you'll always just be playing as Some Guy. With a Tzim it’s like…Do you want some sick-ass bone blades on your arms? No problem! Another pair of arms to put more bone blades on? Sounds good! Do you want to be bioluminescent like a squid? Great! Go crazy! 

Second: Full disclosure, I am the “My fursona is my TWOO SELF” flavor of furry. And the idea of having near total freedom of form— to be able to give myself a tail, claws, fangs, horns, [long censor beep], whatever I want, to abandon my human shape, fills me with Yearning. 

In the complete opposite direction, I also find personal meaning in the clan as someone who suffers from chronic pain. Shamelessly copy-pasting a reply to another post: 

The flavoring of Vicissitude as a creeping infection, as the actual body of the Eldest spread from generation to generation, able to rise up and consume its bearers at any moment, resonates with me very deeply as someone whose pain is caused by congenital tissue defects and which will inevitably get worse over time.

The idea that…there’s something horrible lurking inside your body. It can’t be cured. It can’t be removed. It is part of the very fabric of your being. And it is going to eat you alive, it is going to eat and eat until there’s nothing left. That no matter how you struggle, eventually it’s going to win. But you struggle anyways, because what the hell else is there to do?

The clan also has its revenant families, who are all collectively my most Specialist Little Guy in the world. I am a huge sucker for ye old trope of Special Family Bloodline Technique, and they scratch that itch for me in a really fun and interesting way. 

Second favorite: Giovanni. I actually don't have any deep reasons for this one, I just think that “fucked up necromancer vampire crime family” is such a fun concept lol. I like organized crime stories. It's also another one for the “bloodline technique” category— in v20, they even have their own associated revenant family, the Rossellinis! 

Third favorite: Salubri. The vibe I get is that they’re deeply underappreciated because people feel like their designation in both fluff and crunch as “the nice ones” means that they’re boring and clash with Masquerade’s overall tone. But I STRONGLY disagree— I think that's exactly what gives them so much potential for the sort of personal, existential horror that is supposed to be at the heart of Masquerade. I actually want to write a much longer post sometime that really gets into why, but part of it is this— being a magical pacifist unicorn prancing in a sunny flower field isn't “horrifying,” but being a magical pacifist unicorn in a dark forest where the only other animals are wolves that want to eat your face sure is. I also think the contrast between mainline (healer) Salubri and Salubri antitribu is a really rich thematic vein— again, I want to write more on this later. 

Bloodline lightning round:

Ahrimanes: Cat-themed woman power. I like the concept of Gangrel in tune with the spiritual elements of nature. Spirits in World of Darkness are fun because they can be anything. 

Ventrue antitribu: Knights in modern settings are cool.

However, if the question was “Which clan are you most like?” instead of “What's your favorite”, the answer is far and away Toreador. I love making art, and while I mostly just write now because my body has kind of fallen apart, I used to dabble in a bunch of different mediums and loved them all. That and I already do the “oh that flower/painting/ random pattern of light on the wall is really pretty *zones out and stares at it*” thing in real life lol so that would just be business as usual. If I couldn't be a Meat Criminal this is actually the clan I'd choose to be embraced into. 

Thanks for giving me a chance to talk :)

[thunderboltfire]

I had a need to destress at the end of the week, so I've decided to see whether or not I still can fly a dragon in Century: Age of Ashes. And because of the new season the matchmaking put me with newbies, so at least I've managed to feel good about my skills XD

Anyway, it's still a fun game! The monetisation is pretty obnoxious, but it's F2P so It could be expected. The thing I really love in this game are the dragon animations and how organic the flight simulation is. I've also managed to get a few pretty dragons two years ago, before they've introduced the battle pass. Hence, a pretty dragons tax:

When it comes to playing Marauder, my dragon of choice is Valkür Ridges, followed closely by Smoldering Sands, which was the first dragon I've hatched from an egg.

I have a very limited choice of Ironwings, their drops don't like me too much XD but I was able to get the gamer dragon Rayless Depths. Its colors clash terribly with base Windguard skin, but I like its bioluminescent markings and sleek, dark coloring.

I play as Phantom only if I must, but surprisingly I have a few Nightsnaggers too. Their design is a little pointy for my taste, but out of all I have I think I like the Manorc'h Pasturages the best. Its butterfly-like pattern on its wings is pretty compelling and matches the muted body color nicely.

I think I've only played the Stormraiser one or two times, but I happened to have a battlepass when the class was first introduced, so I've collected a few extra dragons. The Stonesnouts' design is IMO the most ostentatiously based on HTTYD (the whole game has a very evident footprint in the very concept of it and in the gear aestetics), and my fave from my nesting ground would probably be Radkron the Thunderborn.

[leotheponderer]

So...I've been tagged by @agirlandherquill who was tagged by @katwritesshit to participate in a tag game from @halfbakedspuds, so here goes!

Rules: Answer as many (or as few) of the questions about your WIP as you can.

1. What was the first part of your WIP that you created?

The Prologue, featuring Kato(Death, Psychopomp, Thanatos), Halcyon(Sleep, Hypnos) and Basile(World, Hades, Persephone) dubbed The Old World Trio because they're the only beings from the Old World who still exist in the New World. The first location I visualised was the Border, which is where souls go before being taken to the Underworld.

The Border.

2. If your story was a TV show, what would the intro song be?

[The Main Character by Will Wood] I love this song and it fits Kato's personality very well, especially during the Prologue. I can imagine Kato, Halcyon and Basile singing this together with Kato playing the Piano.

Abstract Kato playing the piano.

3. Who are your favourite character(s) and why?

My favourite has to be Kato, since they're the first character I ever created so I have lots of fond memories of going about developing their character. Halcyon came later as Kato's twin, and I grew to love their dynamic as siblings who then formed a found family with Basile. Halcyon would call Kato out on their bullshit and keep them in check while Basile is the reliable rock of the group.

Abstract Kato on the top and Abstract Halcyon on the bottom.

4. What other pieces of media could share a fan base with your WIP?

Some Rise of the TMNT fans may notice some similarities between Leo and Donnie's dynamic (the disaster twins) and Kato with Halcyon. I did base some of their personalities on the duo, Kato being Leo and Halcyon being Donnie, so that's not a surprise. There's also a found family dynamic (and FANTASY :D), so I think fans of Avatar: The Last Airbender and Ninjago could like the Prologue too!

5. What has been your biggest struggle while writing your WIP?

Coming up with names! I really struggled with naming everyone, especially Kato because I wanted the best for them and also because Thanatos and Death in general is hard to work with. I still do not have a name for my story, though I'm working on it. Plot and writing is also hard, so is visualising. (In summary, everything.)

My earliest digital drawing. Abstract Kato increasing their collection.

6. Are there any animals in your story?

Plenty! I have not touched the main world yet, but I do know the New World is teeming with life. The Underworld and the Border on the other hand, have its very own bioluminescent inhabitants like the Glow Fishes, the massive Blue Dragon and the Soul Butterflies. Now that I think about it, the Underworld really resembles the spirit world from Avatar.

Some animal concepts.

7. How do your characters get around?

Probably on foot, though I have though about using their powers, like shadow travel from Nico di Angelo. Some of them have physical wings like Volaria and Felix (bird people), while others like Kato and Halcyon in the Prologue have more spiritual ones. Maybe they have animal companions, summons or just teleport through plantlife (Basile).

Abstract Felix flying in a marathon.

8. What part of your WIP are you working on right now?

I'm mostly working on the Prologue, with small bits of the First Interlude and the Main Story. I haven't started on the Epilogue yet, only the things I want to see happen like Halcyon and Basile going on a journey together.

9. What aspects of your WIP do you think will draw people in?

Realistically speaking, art tends to get the most attention on Tumblr. In order to do that I'll need to work harder on drawing to show my story through visuals, and not just words. I'll have to doodle my way into people's hearts!

A place in the Old World.

Whew, that was a long one. I don't really know many people who have WIP stories since I'm pretty new to Tumblr, so I hope they don't mind me tagging them: @hansenesque @drawnecromancy @the-arcade-doctor @devgel7889

Anyone who wants to play this game can join in on the fun too!

Note: There are nine questions in total, listed here.

1. What was the first part of your WIP that you created?

2. If your story was a TV show, what would the intro song be?

3. Who are your favourite character(s) and why?

4. What other pieces of media could share a fan base with your WIP?

5. What has been your biggest struggle while writing your WIP?

6. Are there any animals in your story?

7. How do your characters get around?

8. What part of your WIP are you working on right now?

9. What aspects of your WIP do you think will draw people in?

[ammonitetheartist]

OOOOOO OOOOO

I’m EXTRA excited to talk abt this idea *rubs hands together*

I have this idea for a couple of games where one Legendary is a creature from the deep sea, and the other a creature from deep space, and they’re both really spooky-lookin’

These games would be called Pokémon Aquatic Abyss and Vacuum Void, and the main theme would be the ✨unknown✨ and how different people feel towards it

So here’s some rough concepts of the Aquatic Abyss box legend, Gurguenull (ger-GYOO-nuhl) (I am way too proud of these two legends’ names axfhnijjyfx)!

It’s inspired by underwater cryptids like the Black Demon shark, Bermuda Beast, and Hook Island sea monster, as well as deep-sea creatures like the anglerfish, hagfish and Pacific Blackdragon

Classification: Deep-Lurker Pokémon

Type: Water/Dark

Ability: Depth Check (summons rain and lowers the Special Attack of all Pokémon who aren’t Water-type by one stage)

Signature Move: Maelshredder (85-BP, 100-accuracy Water move that has a chance to flinch the opponent, then deals consecutive damage for a few more turns)

Lore (so far): It’s thought to be responsible for the mysterious disappearances of planes that fly over its area.

It uses its bioluminescence and uniquely shaped tongue to lure in prey, before using its claws to sweep the water around it into crushing the victim.

The name pulls from:

- gurges (Latin for sea)

- Bermuda (mainly the pronunciation)

- null (wanted to include the phrase ‘null and void’ in these legends’ names)

ID under the cut

[Image ID: Two drawings depicting Gurguenull, a fanmade Pokémon. The first drawing depicts a fullbody sketch. Gurguenull is long and serpentine, with a large head and a mouth with varying lengths of teeth. Its eyes lack pupils. The tip of its tongue is shaped like a dead fish. Protruding from the top of its head are two jagged, crab-leg-like horns with orbs at the end, and from the bottom are two ribbon-like whiskers. It also has a larger orb floating above its head. Near its head are a set of gills, and behind those are two fins with three long claws each. It has a sharklike tail.

The second drawing depicts individual body parts of Gurguenull. At the top-left is a more refined design of the tail, labeled ‘Shark tail?’ To the right are the gills with a more jagged edge to them, labeled ‘Jagged fins?’ Directly below the gills is an alternate design for the tail, topped with a massive crab-like claw, and one bioluminescent light each on the top and bottom. This is labeled ‘Claw tail?’ and ‘More lights’. At the bottom-left is a more refined sketch of one of the fins, labeled ‘Heavily knuckled fins w/ long claws’. Torn bits of skin on both shark tail and fins are labeled ‘Wear and tear’. End ID]