#bww Madre AU

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NiGHTS au worldbuilding concept!

In my au (the collective au that connects Balan Wonderworld to it and also has Katz, basically my bww Madre AU) I've been thinking about this place in the dream world that acts a sort of daycare for nightopian children, named Cookie's Dollhouse!

The reason it's named Cookie's Dollhouse is because from the outside, it's a small monument designed to look like a basic suburban house, but if you walk into it, you're transported into a bright, cozy mansion! In this mansion, somewhere near the entrance, you can completely change how you look through going in a dressing room and choosing a little figurine, each with their own designs and roles, and you're free to change out of this character whenever you like by walking into any dressing room on any floor!

(3rd secret reason is because I play happy home designer and decided to make Cookie's house all pretty and frilly and pink (✿ ♥‿♥) it's just too perfect--)

Every so often, a human kid will get dropped off in here! Usually from wandering into a grown nightopian/dream creature's territory, or wandering into the valley where this monument is and getting too close to it. However, the human kid is treated no differently than any other nightopian there, and they're happy to have a new friend to be around until they eventually wake up!

Alright, that's all for my au worldbuilding bit, hope you enjoyed hearing my ideas! I hope to make more posts like this to finally add more to my au and not have it all just stewing in my head forever, never to be seen lol

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Ooooh I’m doing more species things!!!

Cool sea slug fact: this one’s based off the Nembrotha kubaryana, which also looks like it glows a little, as it has ✨neon colors!✨

I drew this not only to fight off the art block but also because I’ll be doing a species sheet in the future for slugterrians! Yes that whole entire species I made for a Balan wonderworld au 💖 praying I can get that and the heartbreakers’ refs done and posted before July 😰

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A few character lore and worldbuilding tidbits because I've had these in my head for so long but kept holding on putting them out there because I have no finished refs, I need to stop doing that and just let loose already!!

Under the cut because this is a WALL of text, bitches got a lot to say alr 😭

While Crystal's doing her usual heartbreaker work, Madre offers her a one time position as a maestro of a concert hall, to basically give her a possible job opportunity if she ever decides to get back into heartbreaker work past her graduation, this one time job offer being The Star Gauntlet

The Star Gauntlet is a series of labyrinths and bosses all crafted by the leading maestro of the gauntlet (in this case, Vanity) and I'm still thinking of the reason behind it but so far its for already heartbroken individuals to basically,, strengthen their heart, but without exactly healing it? Still thinking it out alr

Vanity's client for this one time gauntlet, is none other than Katrina! The human version of Katz! (timeline for Katrina is as follows: Katrina goes through the gauntlet -> nearing the end she gets the power to transform into her nightmaren form, which she lovingly named Katz because her blunt horns remind her of cat ears -> after the gauntlet is over, she's stored enough magic in her art to transform into Katz whenever she pleases

Katrina, now fully named Katrina Craig, is Leo's little cousin! By the time The Star Gauntlet happens (still thinking of a title for this event, another working title is The Shining Moment Program) Katrina is 12 and Leo is 17, the events of the Madre AU take place 2 years after the events of the main BWW story! (thus why postincident!Crystal is 14)

Leo sadly doesn't know about Katrina's situation, he hasn't seen his baby cousin since she was 9 💔 (Katrina's situation being that she lives basically alone, save for her father coming back to pay the bills every so often, REEKING of vodka- he has a gambling addiction and could care less about his daughter, Katrina gets food and most things she needs through dumpster diving and sometimes theft.) Last time Leo saw Katrina she was in a decent position so like if he ever finds this out (he will 👁️ 👁️) he's gonna be pretty taken aback

Originally I had planned to have Balan and his homies (the bww cast) intervene with the gauntlet in a separate au simply titled "Balan Interference AU" just as a fun little thing to be like "what would happen if Balan was more present and had a way of helping if he knew of the gauntlet's existence? 🤔" but overtime I started to like this AU so much it became part of the main Madre AU story, the possibilities for ♡Soft Feelings♡ are all around!!!!

Leo and Kat together are The Sillies, they are really just so funny <3 goofballs <33

And that's all I have to share rn, WOO that's a BIG wall of text! If you read all of this, thank you! I'm really glad you were that invested in my little ramblings!! I definitely think I'll post like this more instead of just waiting to make fully realized refs, been doing that for too long smh

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✨Platinum Power!✨

AAAAAAAA ITS FINISHED THIS TOOK ME 3 DAYS—

Ladies and gentlemen I am proud to announce, Vanity now finally has a full design! There will be more design tidbits in the future to clear more things out (such as accessory inconsistencies—)

Now forrrr,,, artwork facts!

This was originally just to practice how to draw the ends of wavy hair

The ends are actually traced from a picture of Sailor Neptune! I had my attempt going off said picture and the trace itself, and Based on a poll I ran in a small content creation server, the trace looks better (obviously—)

The pose is based off a pose of Sailor Jupiter (really in a sailor moon phase huh 😏)

This canvas has,,, so many layers,,,

I wasn’t planning on making her look evil, I just added the angry looking eyebrows to display fun confidence and then I added the fangs because she’s a slugterrian and, well, now she looks evil—

• It works tho because the heartbreakers are kind of the bad guys it we’re splitting them by good side bad side— (goes who’s mourning the fact that Madre’s Children hasn’t come to fruition 🙈🙈🙈)

Also a leftover, this looks so cool

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Fellas, rejoice! Crystal will soon, finally have a surname!

Crystal is Malaysian American (I’m not btw the character is I just think Malaysian culture is really cool and she’d also be my first Malay oc ever—) aaand I couldn’t decide on a last name because I couldn’t find a fitting one, so I did the next best thing, and old trick: go on google translate and pick out a fitting word!

Here’s what each of those words translate to:

(^ This image was taken a week ago ^)

I can’t run a poll for complicated reasons sooo if you wanna ‘vote’ on any of the chosen names, feel free to do so either in a reblog or in the replies, either way is fine!

And as promised, here is the Picrew I made this Crystal in, I did so because I didn’t feel like drawing but also wanted to but I have no drawing juice—

My girl can ALWAYS have drip 💖👏 it’s fashion hours around here

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Finally finished that short lore comic! It’s 2 pics styled like anime caps but whatever it’s for lore purposes and still a comic in my eyes

The First Encounter

Ayyyyy it’s finally finished! The teaser I posted literally 2 weeks ago! (Wow that time flew by but also didn’t time is so strange)

For context: Crystal here is fresh out the hospital, and on her way home has a breakdown in the middle of a park when she’s alone, being crushed under the weight of the traumatic event that happened before she went into a coma for 3 days (still don’t know if 3 days is realistic or not for head trauma) and knowing she’ll come home to nobody to be there for her (her father’s overseas for whatever he does, he leaves overseas a lot so she’s home alone all the time, she’s used to it and likes the freedom of being home alone but sometimes it gets lonely 😔)

Madre however, through some magic means I haven’t thought of yet, senses the traumatic event happen and that Crystal’s heart is shattered, and takes this moment as the perfect opportunity to... ‘polish an undefined jewel’ (😈) and from this point forward, Madre acts as Crystal’s caretaker! Unofficial because she hadn’t stepped foot in that hospital once to confirm anything— She just kinda inserts herself into Crystal’s life at this time, which Crystal accepts because, well—

Some things about this art + the moment itself!

Madre is in a human form here of course, you would just walk up to a vulnerable new heartbreaker lonely 14 yr old girl as some sort of humanoid creature and expect her to let you in her life—

This was kinda used as angle practice! I drew the 1st frame before I even really started the 2nd because for the 2nd I was planning to use a pic of a 3D model at an angle (MagicPoser) and then couldn’t put my artstyle over it too well, so then I went to my sketchbook and proceeded to try and draw an angle by hand!

After this scene you’re seeing plays out, Madre helps Crystal off the floor, wipes her tears, gives her a few words of praise (stuff like how much potential she has although is very vague about what she means by this, how pretty she is, how strong she is for bearing it all to this point, etc. you know as one does—), and walks home with her (to Crystal’s house of course)

At Crystal’s house is when Madre introduces herself and tells Crystal how she’ll be here to take care of her ‘as long as she can’, Crystal asks more questions about her like where she came from, how she knows who she is, and why she’s here to take care of her, to which Madre responds with “I just happened to walk by and I saw you on the ground” and “I don’t know you too well but I know your name from volunteering at your school once” (she never once stepped foot in her school) and “You just came from the hospital and you’re all alone, I wouldn’t leave someone as sweet and hurting as you to bear with the pain like this 🥺”

I wanted to emphasize a feeling of (unintentionally) blocking everything else out in the shot with Crystal looking up, to do this, I made the vignette of the frame a bit deeper, while also having nothing but her, the ground she collapsed on, and the shadow of Madre looming over her, I also had the path fade out a bit too!

Incase you’re wondering why a tim couldn’t just hop in and lead her to the theater, there are 3 separate reasons I’ve chosen, so believe whichever you want because they all work!

🧿 Reason 1: Madre, after the event happened and Crystal was in a coma, did some magic she does with whatever Heartbreaker she’s looking to hire, where she basically cuts off the portal to Wonderworld from your view, lol rip Balan, not boutta get this visitor Madre called dibs—

🧿 Reason 2: the same as reason 1 except you can still see the theater, but it no longer has its aura of wonder aka the power to pull you in, so basically you just kinda see the entrance of some rundown looking theater, and well, who’s go in a theater when you’re on the verge of breaking down cuz not me that’s ong

🧿 Reason 3: The theater won’t let itself appear until you’re in a state of functional physical health and aren’t on the verge of breaking down, basically you have to meet a kind of “okayness” requirement for the theater (or Balan himself) to decide the pathway to being even more ok is open lol

To define the closeup angle on Crystal’s frame, I made the closeup lines thicker than the lines on the bottom! Something I learned to do maybe 2-3 years ago by just kinda copying certain animes

Aaand that’s it for the post! If I don’t have a lore tag already I probably should make one—

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Platinum Power!

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What was originally supposed to be a doodle took me 3 days—

“Look, I know math is hard for you, and I don’t blame you wanting to toss the paper away! But, you have a good head on your shoulders, can you at least try a little? For me?”

Bonus:

“...”

“Grgrrrhrhgehhehhhrgrgrgrr,,, fINE,,!! whateverrr,,,”

“I knew you had it in you sweetie!! You’re gonna do great! 😊 <3” “don’t ever ask me for anything ever again”

The bottom is covered to hide the fact that he’s cut off because this was supposed to be a doodle but I went miles ahead 🙈

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Ladies and Gentlemen, I finally made a human Balan design I’m ok with!

Have a 3/4 ref of The Man and him also being the homeroom teacher he was hired as, Mr. Lovejoy everybody, telling you why ‘math is good!’ 🙄😒

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Madre FINALLY has a finalized design!! Man that only took me like 2 years—

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Bro I went to compare some character heights for art referencing and YALL,,,,,

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Little fun fact: Crystal plays bass! Has been playing bass since she was 14, loves deep tones 😩 (Maybe like yours truly 😏)

She’s not confident enough in her bass skills to play without looking down at it tho, never played for a crowd before anyways lol

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✿ We like fashion: groovy~ edition ✿

AAAAAAA ITS FINALLY FINISHED IM FREE—

ALSO ME WHEN I LEARN HOW TO MAKE GIFS AND THEN TAKE ADVANTAGE OF IT

Y’all omg this took so long, not even because of the background cuz I did that in a separate canvas, I mean adding all the little details and trying to decide what colors look good and messing up some lines and trying to make all the lines smooth with tediously using the curve tool— your girl is tired

Tidbits about this piece:

To measure them out correctly, I sketched Ru and a Crystal on the same straight line, and knowing I wanted Ru to have platforms, I moved him up just a bit

Incase you couldn’t tell, this piece isn’t called GrooveTown NYC just because of the artstyle, but I also wanted to try some groovy 70s fashion! Of course this isn’t exact and is very exaggerated but hey lol

I didn’t know what exact theme I wanted Crystal to have but Ru has a dragonfruit theme! He is the dragon after all 😏

I have been working on this piece on and off for almost a month.

Aaand that’s it that’s the post, I hope you like it! I worked too hard on it for you to say you don’t like it 🧍‍♀️🔪 /j

Have a groovy day! ✿

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Sketch I did that I forgot to show off yesterday, Vanity out of her usual uniform!

Made this specifically to show how maestro bodies look in my mind, just in slugterrian flavor here, thinking about digitizing and coloring this someday 🤔

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Angle practice! Also sided with some ability building!

I’ve been real set on the idea for a while that Vanity, since she doesn’t know if she can rely on her physical strength (she has super human strength as she is a maestro BUT she’s never taken any sort of self defense lesson), has the ability to summon guns with infinite ammo!

This spell is titled: “Starfront; Firepower!”

(She says Starfront to start and use her abilities, kinda like to build the spell’s power more, she is using the powers of Starfront! More lore for later)

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Sketch I did of Vanity in a different outfit, mainly inspired by Seraphina from Disgaea 5!