#i scrapped a lot of old concepts some of which i had posted about so just. ignore those and focus here

[silly-boozer]

This is my goofy goober (art credit to my AMAZING friend @tanzabee love ya dude /p)

Joshua is a character from my Cabinet Man universe (or "Man Verse") and I love him dearly.

I don't talk about my Man Verse thingy a lot but my Joshua offering to you all feels like the right time to bring it up (again).

[arolesbianism]

Some swap au Olivia and Jackie concepts for the main 3 universes 👍

[barblaz-arts]

Stephanie Beatrice had played my 3 favorite characters (Rosa Mirabel and Vaggie) and since I watched Encanto and B99 I have my head canon that Vaggie have both Rosa and Mirabel personalities.

Any way, I just want to know what is your head canon or theory about her? ( specifically about Lute calling her weak and why the other exorcist hate her)

Since she is your girl, I would love to read your essay about her.(I’m joking you don’t have to write that much I just like to read your post)

Thank you

"My girl"... Am I just "that one artist who's the biggest Vaggie stan" to you guys? (I won't mind it!)

Oh man! I do have some ideas! A lot of my headcanons were already kinda sorta mentioned in my fic/art tho, so sorry if you're not getting a lot of new info

- I have this headcanon that Vaggie's always been "softer" than the other Exorcists, which is what I assume Lute meant when she said she "always knew [Vaggie] was weak". I know it probably has more to do with how little time each episode has, but what if Lute was so ready, already behind Vaggie when she let that kid go, because she knew this wasn't the first time Vaggie spared a sinner? Maybe that was just the first time Lute actually caught her. Maybe she's always had her suspicions, when Vaggie's kill count would lower every year, and she'd sometimes find Vaggie saying a sinner got away somehow despite cornering that demon moments ago.

- although she's gotten used enough to her lack of depth perception when it comes to her hand eye coordination, especially when fighting, i like to think her reading ability could never truly go back to the way it used to be, so she has trouble reading/ writing/texting (if you notice, i always showed instances of this in my fic ;> )But because she's the hotel manager she still has to deal with them because of paperwork and shit, so she has prescription glasses that help. I'd wanted to include a scene in the First Guest where Vaggie almost cries after seeing Charlie thru the glasses for the first time, because she didn't think Charlie could be any more beautiful, but i scrapped the idea because I couldn't expand the concept enough to an actual scene that could be relevant to the overall fic. I probably should have just mentioned it in a paragraph or something, but by the time i remembered id already posted the chapter I intended to add it in. Maybe I'll use it for another fic.

- she prefers femme clothing so she doesn't really have a reason to do this, but she learned how to do all kinds of ties so that she could do Charlie's whenever

- she grew her hair to compensate for her lost wings

- she wasn't exactly a great cook before she Fell, but she was pretty capable when she lived alone in Heaven. Cooking for Charlie tho gave her the motivation to get better and actually enjoy it

- an angel trait that she could never truly abandon is being a stickler for rules. She's very strict on everyone and herself with these things, within reason. So even when she and Charlie started dating, she insisted that they can't sleep together until they've had their third date. When they're on the clock, they have to be professional and avoid flirtatious advances in front of staff and guests. Charlie didn't mind because she prefers privacy too.

- Vaggie's physical appearance slightly changed gradually the longer she stayed in hell. As an angel, her sclera was paler, her incisors duller, and her skin grayer. But as time passed, her sclera got more and more peach/pink, fangs sharper, and skin more purple toned

- i still like to think that Vaggie's old backstory back when only the pilot was out (having died in 2014 in her early twenties who worked as a sex worker in El Salvador) was still true. Maybe it's just because I've liked Chaggie since pilot, and I've grown really attached to that backstory. I also just really don't want Vaggie to be Heavenborn for some reason. Among the cast she just seems the most grounded to reality to me, so having her revealed to have never been human and born "divine" just doesn't seem right to me. I also just think it'd be cute and funny if it turns out she's chronologically the youngest in the hotel even tho she's basically everyone's strict not-mom.

- idgaf what Adam says, I wanna think that "Vaggie" is short for "Evangeline". I used to have these 2 coworkers in their late 50's to 60's who had Evangeline as their government name, but one of them goes by "Vanj" and the other "Vajee". Being older Filipino women who aren't really too fluent in English, they never thought there was anything wrong with that when they grew up with their nicknames. I like to think that the case was the same if Vaggie used to be human. I'm not sure how common English is in El Salvador, but I'm willing to bet it's possible she could have been given that nickname as a kid by an older family member who didn't know a lot of English. Also Evangeline makes more sense to have been the name of an angel cmon now...

[cyren-myadd]

This concept art has been living in my head rent free

This concept art of Spider with a kuru literally keeps me up some nights wondering what it means. I got so excited over the new D23 concept art that I went looking through some old Avatar stuff I had saved and came across this again, which reignited all the burning questions I have about it.

Concept art typically leads to two outcomes: either it gets scrapped and removed from the plot or it gets refined and is eventually realized within the story. The same is true for this particular piece of concept art. Its existence means it's either:

A) an old idea that they ended up scrapping, or

B) it's an idea they're going with and will eventually be realized in the movies.

The reason I keep myself up at night wondering whether its A or B is because of the context of this concept art. The art was originally shown on a gigantic screen at some big avatar showcase thing in Los Angeles. There's no way showing this was some oversight or mistake. Unlike the script that was shown on accident, this was shown to avatar fans INTENTIONALLY. Which leaves me with the question of why they would show such a shocking concept on purpose?

If option A is right and this is just an old idea they scrapped, why show people? This isn't a minor change (ie switching the Metkayina eye color from yellow to blue/green) that won't really make an impact on the plot. Spider growing a kuru would be a massive change that would radically effect the story. I think I read somewhere that James Cameron at some point wanted the character Trudy to return as a recombinant like Quaritch, but scrapped the idea because the actress, Michelle Rodriguez, didn't want to reprise her role. Could you imagine if before Avatar 2 released, they showed concept art of Trudy as recom, and everyone got all excited to see how that would play out, only for it to be revealed that it was an old scrapped idea and we were never going to see it on screen? That would be such a confusing and disappointing thing to do. This is how I feel about this concept art. If it's never going to happen, why show it at all? Since intentionally showing concept art for an idea they scrapped doesn't make any sense, that makes me wonder if option B is right, but option B doesn't make a lot of sense either.

If option B is right, once again, why show people? That's a MASSIVE spoiler. Showing this image would be like if they showed concept art of Neteyam's funeral before Avatar 2 released, spoiling the major death of the story. It wouldn't make any more sense to spoil a big death than it would to spoil such a radical change like Spider getting a kuru. I'll admit that when I first saw this image, I accepted it at face value and I made this long post theorizing that Spider will get a kuru and that this will somehow be connected to the leaked script where he gets the ability to breathe the Pandoran air, but since then I've rethought my position. It just doesn't make sense to me that they would show it on purpose if they actually do intend to give Spider a kuru in Avatar 3. But at the same time, it also doesn't make sense that they would show a scrapped idea that's so wildly out of the range of what we know is possible in the avatar universe.

Unless there's some secret third option I'm missing, I'm going to keep wondering and wondering whether this image is just a scrapped idea or a real spoiler of what's to come. I guess I'll get my answer when Avatar 3 finally comes out and this idea happens or not, but I'll still wonder why they showed it.

Do you guys think this concept art is depicting a scrapped idea or a spoiler, and why? And does anyone have any idea why they would show this regardless if its a scrap or a spoiler?

[sammylbir]

Behind the OC: Nui Yoshikane

Nui Yoshikane.

Probably my most popular OC, all of you loved Nui. To my surprise too, considering that her character isn't that remarkable. But I am happy you liked her anyway. And because of this, since Nui is officially over a year old, I decided to make this post. To explain the character's creation process and the many changes that they went through.

I hope you'll enjoy it. ^^

Origin

Now, why did I create her? Well, you see a year ago I was planning a new fanfic. One where Tsumugi would wake up after the death and find herself in a non-despair universe with her classmates and herself attending Hope's Peak Academy. With none of them remembering anything from their time of the game.

Given that the story was supposed to be as mind-screwing and ambiguous than the actual V3 game, I knew I needed to add something to distort the truth even further.

And what better way to confuse Tsumugi, is by meeting herself? Or someone that looks oddly familiar to her, in a way.

And that's, how I decided to create the OC who would be in the future known as Nui Yoshikane.

Creation Process

When I created Nui, I was inspired by a certain character from a series that I just got into, around last year. Said series inspired me to write the above aforementioned fic to begin with.

I am talking about the series "Don't Hug Me I'm Scared." And the character I am referring to, is her.

Lesley. (Spoilers below)

The moment I saw her, I was obsessed with the character for a variety of reasons. One, her demeanor was so oddly comforting and I especially loved that accent of hers (Not sure if it's a British one, considering the actress of the character is welsh. Oh well.)

Either way, when I created Nui, I wanted to go for a similar character concept. Someone who takes Tsumugi's faux kindness up to the max, which would make her even creepier. The stitches on Nui's face are also a reference to Lesley in that regard.

Another inspiration for Nui's character, was the Beldam from Coraline.

In general, the sewing motif and her status as a seamstress, were inspired by the Beldam in that regard. Her pale skin and darker clothing colors were also inspired by the Beldam, especially her true form as seen above.

Another thing that was inspired by the Beldam regarding Nui's character, where the needle hands. I gave Nui some very thin and long fingers and sharp nails, to give her more of a terrifying look. And to tie in with the sewing motif.

The last character who inspired Nui Yoshikane, is a somewhat surprising choice. But that inspiration was none other than "The Most".

I am talking about Wally Darling.

When I first learned of Welcome Home, Wally Darling stuck to me. His friendly nature and yet his off-putting behavior on the Welcome Home Website instantly made me fall in love with him, as a character.

Due to this, Nui's slow and monotone speech pattern, her curious and almost child-like demeanor. And the general affable demeanor. Of course, since Welcome Home is still ongoing, Wally may develop differently and I am excited to see, how his character will develop.

But I digress. Those were the three main inspirations for Nui's character. Let's go over the design process.

Design

When I designed Nui, my major inspiration was her beta design. In particular this one right here, created by Nona Nightingale.

Her more subdued and darker colors really fit well and I decided to base Nui's design off that beta design. Of course, I couldn't copy it 1 to 1 for obvious reasons, so I went on and tried to work on some different designs for Nui.

And believe me, she went through a lot of changes.

This was one of the first sketches for Nui's character. As you can see, she had a lot more stitches and had a much more disturbing overall appearance. I scrapped the design in the end, because it was just too terrifying and because I wanted Nui to look a bit friendly, if not a tad uncanny. So, I made another sketch.

This beta designs, does look a bit more similar to the final product. But again, I was not satisfied with the hair because I wanted to give her a bit more of a sophisticated look. So, I moved on to her first "official" design.

Here's another earlier design of Nui. You can see that unlike the final product, she lacks her green bow tie and her skin is much shorter. Not only that, but the stitches are less noticeable and her overall appearance is a lot less creepy than in the final product. So, I revised yet again.

This design for Nui looks very similar to the final product. As you can see, the stitches are a lot more pronounced and the crossed eyes are vertical and not horizontal, unlike the final version. I was initially happy with Nui's designs, but eventually I gave her a different design yet again.

In this comic that I drew based on the fic where she first appeared in "Welcome To your Paradise", I changed Nui's design a bit more, to reflect her final appearance. However the crosses are still vertical and her blazer is much more lighter, than in the final version.

Now then. This next one was a commission I bought from the lovely @waveglox back in May, I believe. They drew Nui extremely well with a good price and I recommend you, to check their account out. Because they are an incredible artist and a huge inspiration of mine.

Incredible, isn't it? I jsut love this comission so much and although her hair is a lot longer than in the final version, I am still very happy about it and think her design is absolutely awesome.

But of course, I changed it yet again.

This design looks extremely familiar and simmilar to the final product and the only thing that's different is the overall anatomy and the fact that she looks a lot thinner. But I wasn't satisfied with that design either, so....

This, is her present design

As you can see here, I made the blazer much much darker and I also made the stitches in her eyes horizontal, while giving her a bit of a paler color. And I decided to make the stitches on her neck reflect her current mood. Because, why not?

I am personally happy with the design, since it reflects everything I envisioned about her character. Creepy, yet polite and friendly. However the other versions of Nui's designs, were based on some earlier character concepts of hers. Which leads me to:

Personality and Mannerisms

Originally, Nui was conceived as a pure villainous character. One that would be similar to Junko Enoshima in some aspects, like a faux-affably evil persona and a general manipulative nature. However, as time went on, I decided to flesh her out more. Because I wanted her to be much more complex. Which is why, I added the following.

As I mentioned previously, Nui was inspired by The Beldam from Coraline. In order to differentiate her more from her, I made Nui extremely protective and caring towards children. She would never hurt them and actively hurts those, who harm and endanger children in any malicious way.

Another thing I added, was to make her a bit more dorky. For that, I decided to give her a pianist hobby. But unlike Kaede, Nui's piano skills range from atrocious to just abysmal. Not only that, but I also gave her an affinity for tea. Because Nui's overall appearance was supposed to give off the vibes of a British Lady, sophisticated and polite. To contrast with Junko's hammy and vulgar personality.

Also, when I fleshed her out a bit more, I also gave her a habit of her humming and singing. Something she is a bit better at than playing the piano, but not by much.

The last quirk I added, was that she likes to sew all kinds of stuff. Originally, her specialty was only supposed to be in crafting clothing for dolls, but then I made her more of a general sewing specialist, ranging from fixing clothing and making sweaters among other things.

Other Inspirations

Nui's character is partially based on the concept, of Liminal Spaces. By that I mean, is that she is supposed to give of a familiar and harmless, yet overall strange feeling.

Like...something is off. But you cannot put your finger on it. For this, I even made a Spotify playlist for her, which you can view here.

Lastly, I wanna stress that Nui is not 100% human. What is she really?

You'd love to know that....wouldn't you?

Closing Thoughts

Overall, to say that Nui developed this much over the entire year surprised me. But it does show, how characters can go through a variety of changes, before settling in on their final form. Whether Nui will go through other changes is unknown as of now, but I hope you will stick around.

Lastly, here is some of Nui's voice. Enjoy ^^

Listen.

Thank you for reading and have a good day!

[polysprachig]

Hello friend! I just came across your post about filling in old spaces in your polyglot journal via the bullet journal tag… could you say more about how you use your polyglot journal in general and what its intended purpose(s) is/are?

Thank you for the question, @northfaceho! ***(Read orange text for a short summarised version)

The purpose of my polyglot journal is to capture my process of learning languages, both for myself and to share with other people. It was prompted by a secret learning project I did in 2019 to make my other native language skills go from passive to active (and the subsequent desire to subtly strengthen my skills across my main 5 languages). This happened to coincide with my dissatisfaction with the general ‘Polyglot learns X# of Languages - Here’s How + Tips and Tricks’ kind of content you could—and can—find online. And the rich stock at the base of all my griping generally boiled down to one thing:

Fucking notecards.

No shade to anyone in specific—it was more a general trend I felt I noticed at the time—but the idea that someone who has acquired or is learning a football club worth of languages and who, moreover, is able to demonstrate their use of said languages across the 4 skills to various degrees of range and accuracy at their current stage of learning does so by *secret tip: using notecards* struck me as extremely… imprecise and decidedly non-tip-worthy. It’s not that I think these people were lying about using notecards to learn—not at all! The description was just focused on what I learn with not how I learn imho, and it begged the question: Well, what do you do with the notecards?

Because at the time, I only really used notecards in Old English, but not as flashcards for memorisation or playing vocabulary matching games, which I assume was used as shorthand in the content I kept seeing. No, once a year, I would take out some fresh notecards and write Beowulf verbatim from memory for the section I have memorised, then compare it to the orthography in the Howell D. Chickering dual-language translation. (I do something similar with Chaucer, but notecards are too small so I use a yellow legal pad instead. Still, the concept is the same.) And later, when I started learning Italian, I would prepare a notecard to keep on my desk during lessons which listed out the most common errors I knew I was going to make in that day’s class, based on my teacher’s recent feedback (usually incorrect pronunciation/word stress, Greek or French influence which isn’t correct, accidental uses of Latin, etc.).

And so I repurposed what I had hoped would be a travel journal into a polyglot journal and kicked it off with this statement of my intentions forgive the register:

This year, 2024, one of my main goals was to read the rest through, comment on my methods, mistakes, mindset, etc. etc., and fill in the gaps with scraps of loose studies and feedback from my teachers. Oh yeah, and start typing it all up to save my future self some time.

I’ll be posting a lot more from my polyglot journal in 2025, now that I’ve figured out how much time I can commit to it based on my schedule and the writing routine I’ve been testing out these last months. I want to make sharing it an adventure reflective of its many side quests and the actual time and input required to learn.

In essence, the journal reflects the planning, check-ins, learning notes, and process of my quarantine levelling up project and literary/poetic translation portfolio part 1, which are free to read here if anyone is interested:

The Merlin Project (Irish-English)—running with the question all my students asked in the pandemic, i.e. Can I learn a language from just watching TV? by writing borderline Merlin fanfiction

The tragic portion of my translation portfolio (English-German-French-Italian)—literary translations into English from Poliziano, Goethe, Voltaire and Kaiserin Elisabeth (Sisi); translations into German of Lord Byron, Mary Shelley and Percy Bysshe Shelley

The journal is not without silly and serious one-off language escapades as well, which I occasionally ventured out into when taking a break from the more major projects.

Thanks for reading if you’ve made it to the end!

[rontra]

drop your ffxiv lore

asking me to drop my pants in public would be less embarrassing..... you have to understand crucially that i don't know anything about anything and dont want The Knowers to see me

LMAO well i can talk about it a little but only on One Condition. as i mentioned before im a Certified Stormblood Gamer . in fact according to the wiki i am about this deep (level 64 questing atm)

so basically the condition is this: if something wasn't explicit in ARR or HW you cannot under any circumstances talk to me about it...! if you have any sort of reaction to this post that has to do with any later material than that i ask you Don't say it to me. if you are in doubt about whether something "counts", the safe answer is yes it does, and just going "neat!" instead & moving on will do fine. i really don't want to play spoiler chicken with you and don't want to know anything i don't already know. i'm enjoying taking my time with the game, so please refrain from correcting or corroborating anything i have to say about it atm!!!!!!! i'm still baby! thank you....!!! 😭👍

anyway my xiv characters are 1 a dude who was born in a wet cardboard box all alone and might be scared of women . & 2 a scary woman who did definitely kill her wife but is also the most Wife Guy for like secret reasons. the second one's lore is being ironed out as we speak so its all subject to change but the concept is there

1. ZT

love this guy. i even made an amv about it when i finished arr

(every xiv player voice) my wol is the most special boy in the world.

i actually had a whole thing typed up here about like his fucked up mom and whatever but i got shy and deleted it. i might go over it if someone's actually interested . but basically he's a poor little meow meow who, up until the beginning of the game, was abused pretty consistently bc of [evil cat people family dynamic reasons]. his family members mostly hate his ass and were rarely all that nice to him, so he has a lot of issues with self-worth and things like that--he doesn't feel like he's particularly good at anything or really "worth" much

he's from southern ilsabard which is a place i uh do not know much about. as a stormblood gamer. but it's fine the details don't really matter (walking away quickly)

his most prized childhood possession was the ruined scraps of an old arcanist's tome, and through sheer tenacity he managed to teach himself his first rudimentary spell from the incomplete paragraphs therein. he mostly chalks that feat up to the fruit of Time + Boredom and not talent or love, but those pages were the only thing he took with him when it finally came time for him to follow his older brothers' footsteps and leave the family.

gets on the boat. goes to limsa. enlists in the arcanists guild to cultivate what he sees as the One Single Skill He Has. people in the guild ???praise him??? and encourage him?? to keep at it??? which he is not at ALL used to, but it motivates him to work even harder at his training. he's pretty far from home and deeply unsure of himself, but he absolutely does not want to go back to the limited world he knew until now. so that unwillingness to look back sort of inherently keeps him trucking in search of a new purpose to latch on to

he's very sensitive to people being niceys to him, because he's not used to it at all. he's 4x weak to it and might cry if it's coming from an older woman who is even vaguely maternal, due to his horrific mommy issues. also, he wants to be useful to people ("for once"), so he has a hard time saying no to all the million quests and sidequests in the game. perfect

his inability to say no to people who request his help puts him on the Old Nymian Scholar Investigation Mission of course. i am Scholar Guy for a reason and that reason is ZT. this dude never had anything his family valued, and lived as the expendable runt of the litter his whole life, and now is suddenly entrusted with something important for the first time in his life--something bigger and older than him, a way of life, a legacy to uphold and carry forwards into the future

and that mantle is pretty heavy. but he'll carry it! and that's how he becomes a healer boy who will defend any random tonberry with his life. he feels very strongly about the extinct art of the scholars and also about being a healer in general--boy finally found his calling! also he has the echo and is our funny warrior of light but like that's fine. i'm sure the "not being able to say no to people, no matter how tired/hurt/etc he himself is" thing is not catching up any time soon. i did play DRK up to 60 though and lmao. well. hang in there. i even made an amv ab

there's some more stuff about him like how his path through eorzea and as a healer specifically is in lockstep with death at every turn and also how he's a blue mage on the side and whatever but this is long enough. here's a pic of him with one of my favorite "no one else gives a shit about this character" npcs

he's a pretty kitty and very sweet altho he does need to learn to assert himself (and starts doing so through the course of the game). he's very attached to his friends. he doesn't have any love interest or w/e for now he's figuring his own stuff out. gaining confidence. classic stuff. easy protagonist recipe. my meow meow. i played pvp just to get him a haircut. the things i do for zt

2. KRALJICA

the new baby. kraljica is not her original name, but she's never going to use her original one again. her surname is Radinasch, which used to be Aradina, before she killed her own queen who may or may not have been also her wife (ofc by hrothgar convention she then changed her surname to represent the loss of her queen) (despite being the killer) (it's a memento :) )

she is a bozjan hrothgar so we're back to ilsabard shenanigans (which remains kind of problematic for a stormblood gamer, but It's Fine). she actually knows ZT's mother, but not in a good way. Radina's group was in local political tension with ZT's mom's group, so there's some history there (notably in that kraljica would recognize ZT as "zahsa's runt" (derogatory) and not be very nice to him about it, but they don't really share a Personal history beyond the Faction Squabbles)

back to the point though, kraljica killed her queen, and most of the other followers of said queen were not very happy about that. killing the queen is like really high up on the list of things hrothgar do not want you to do. so she is branded queenkiller and exiled. some of the other hrothgar choose to follow kraljica out (having faith in her leadership for various reasons), making her their new queen as they venture to eorzea together (and all of their surnames become akraljica to match).

kraljica takes the surge of enmity against her as a natural consequence of what she did, and doesn't correct anybody who identifies her as a queenkiller in her journeys. she basically does not care about her shattered reputation or having to leave her home, because she is on, a secret, Other Scheme.

what they don't know of course is that radina asked her to do it. for scheme reasons. #women

kraljica is acting in accordance with radina's will. not even her own loyal followers know what her plan is, but they can clearly tell she has conviction; even when being hated by her people and ousted from her home, kraljica moves with that same inexhaustible willpower

(maybe she has questions, when she's alone, and wonders how much radina kept from her in the final days. and maybe she misses and mourns her. but all of that is only for her, in private, when no one can see... in front of the others, she's unflinching, and a leader they will follow no matter what...!!!)

she doesn't seem to have the echo and isnt a warrior of light. ZT can do that stuff. she's like busy with her own thing. she's running around collecting suspicious amounts of aether and being suspiciously driven and faithful to her cause. suspiciously

ok fine it's because radina asked her to cut her loose from mortality, venerate that, and bring her back as a primal. because she wants to become a war god strong enough to take revenge on the empire. something that will keep coming back, no matter how many times it's destroyed, as long as her chosen can still call for her....<3 that's so romantic

of course, what returns will not be radina-the-person. it will be an image of her will, shaped by kraljica's mind and the bloodpool of radina's aether. radina is dead for good; what kraljica is summoning is a representation of radina's goals and dreams, fueled by pure belief and a lot of aether. That Which Resembles Wife But Is Not will cast one megaflare for every minute of suffering inflicted upon bozja. (speaking to the empire thru a megaphone) this is your final warning

their summoning is pretty unorthodox and and "partial" (the primal does not manifest a corporeal form at this time, but it is certainly present in its vessel to some extent)--the game already allows a few different quirky summonings, so we're just playing calvinball and making up Another Special Case (this time owing to the specific setup and execution of radina's plan, her and kraljica's synchronicity about the whole thing, kraljica's unique position in her life, and some sprinkles of Rule Of Cool to taste) . imo the game is flexible enough about it that putting in Just One More Weird Summon Strat is not gonna break anything (LMAO) so it's fine <3

all you have to do is write in a side character who goes "but! that's not possible..." while the thing is happening in front of them

anyway suffice to say no one is doing it like radina's weird ass, and she couldn't do it without her wife guy who is willing to do whatever she wants. suffice to also say that kraljica's own aether is noticeably Weird and over-aspected by her beloved primal, and that "radina" (that which resembles wife but is not) Could Be lowkey tempering her right now and nobody would even notice it because her goal and the primal's goal are already one and the same. but that's probably fine. radina would never do that to her <3......

unless of course there are things about her even kraljica never understood. but surely that wouldn't happen

its really hard for other people to get a grip on kraljica because she won't let anybody close to her emotionally and she definitely won't spill the beans on radina's secret scheme. her boys are with her no matter what (#hrothgang) (they also picked up a viera whose city name now includes "akraljica" hahaha). other people are just like um that is a shady lady who is casting spells we dont even know how to classify. scary. also she's got a situationship with a nasty bandit milf (my friend's hrothgal<3) so we better just leave her alone. bad vibes all around

radina was a gunbreaker. kraljica is very good at manipulating aether and a strong fighter too, but i havent rly settled on a canon class for her. because her actual "canon class" is like. "a summoner from a hypothetical Other FF game. not even a specific other FF game, just Very Much Not This One" LMAO

she would just be like ah its um secret ancient arts from my homeland . you wouldnt know her. shes from a different continent. not like how they do it in limsa. not at all. goodbye (walks away mid conversation) and the arcanists could not stop her. like

anyway i'm not used to playing a female char so i keep getting distracted by her breasting boobily around. they dont let ZT jiggle like that so how was i to know... and basically, so-called free thinkers when dalmascan draped top 👇

she almost had a different face marking way back in the benchmark character creation era, but looking at it now it looks so weird without her big X . like who is that

(metian vest so important for the shoulder bulk... not gonna lie)

anyway kraljica would hear about the final aeon from ff10 and be like that's fucking right.

[unknownhyperial]

Being reminded about my first attempt at a TADC Au made me remember that I said I'd post it back in March a month after I stopped actively making it.

So let me rectify that right now :]

NOTE: This AU is a scrapped idea that I'm taking apart and reusing for the Company AU and Survival Isles. I just wanted to showcase the original concept sketches for an AU because although I don't like them at all anymore they are rather silly.

Now, allow me to introduce The Amazing Digital Dollhouse! (I am amazing at names /s /silly)

I never finished Caines design. I think at that point I gave up on the AU because I realized I had no idea what I wanted to do with it and it no longer scratched my brain like it used to

It never really had a plot? My basic idea for it was that instead of a circus they lived inside a doll house. Like, an actual doll house. There was an opening in some of the rooms that just led to a vacant dark void that made them feel constantly watched. I made Pomni into an small wooden doll that I used to see at my old local library when I was a kid. Had this entire idea that because she had ball hands she couldn't figure out how to pick up stuff for the longest time (even tho this is a digital VR thing still) until one day she accidentally managed to snap an item she tried to grab into her hand as a way of holding it.

Gangle possessed a barbie like doll because it made her feel more stable which I thought was neat. Jax lost his arm at some point (cant remember why) and so Zooble helped him get it replaced with one of those sticky hands.

They all also had circus roles and acts like in Freakshow, but I don't really want to delve into that part because it was complicated.

Never got around to drawing them much outside of a few doodles in a sketch book (this AU did cause me to start shipping ragapom though) and one sketch concept of them baking together as a group. I only have one sketch from that because I never finished.

Obviously there was a lot more to the story then just them living in a dollhouse but I made this actively in February and forgot majority of the lore at this point.

I genuinely thought I made this AU in March but my files say February so thats why they all look a lil ugly 👍

[md-confessions]

Trigger Warning for abuse since I am going to be talking about it a lot.

My honest reaction to TSM anon's confessions/posts trying to justify J's treatment of N. (They're so ass)

Ok so uhh... Anyway I'll try to debunk some of the points:

First of all: yes the fuck she is abusive! Search the damn definition on Google or the dictionary, it's exactly what she's doing, like beat for beat.

Let's start with two examples: one from the manor and another from copper-9.

J kicking N in the manor flashback: for context N and V had literally just bumped into each other, made a spark and both were trying to clean up the mess they made, then comes in Ms. Tenth letter of the alphabet with a kick to N's face for like no fucking reason whatsoever.

J stepping on N's chest while he clearly struggles: In the pilot during the scene that introduces the Alphabet squad during J's introduction she has her foot on his chest while saying he's useless, terrible and if she could, she'd kill him herself and N is very clearly struggling to even breath.

Those two very clearly ARE abuse, the second one even has a tinge of verbal abuse!

Ok so TSM tried to justify both these actions by us not knowing the full context.

The context of the kick is that: there is none, that kick was completely unprovoked, so J had absolutely no reason for kicking N aside from him being in her way from the "move it moron" line, and she changes up her attitude completely at Tessa being there, her visor showing those hollow eyes that drones show when worried or scared.

But even if you say "oh but N was in J's way so she kicked him out" but she could have just, you know, MOVED A LITTLE BIT TO THE RIGHT?!?!? And also that does not excuse kicking a person in the face.

Context of the second scene is: THERE IS NONE, ONE AGAIN! The reason that scene exists is to show that A. J is abusive towards N, and B. J is a hypocrite! Let me explain, A is very self explanatory, stepping on someone's chest and verbally abusing them is very clearly well... Abuse and B is to show that even though she calls N useless, N has shown throughout the rest of the series he is a very competent fighter, arguably better than his fellow DDs and also that even though J was pretty much insulting N for being weak, she got killed by a Angsty bisexual 18-year-old with a pen and a Railgun made out of like, scrap.

I don't know how you can genuinely look at those scenes and go "J isn't an abuser" even though yes she fucking is.

Also I dead ass forgot that second post aside from the "why would Cyn put N in the squad if his abuser?" Part, which has a very simple explanation: it wasn't Cyn, it was Mr. Solver of the absolute fabric itself! It used Cyn as a host, Cyn wasn't in control, she prob has been dead for a long ass time.

The solver is sadistic and it likes fucking with the alphabet squad, take V as an example: it allowed V to keep her memories, just to make V's trauma even worse.

The solver thinks it's funny to traumatize people so why wouldn't it think putting a person in the same team as their abuser wouldn't be?

Anyways I've been typing this since 5:30 AM, and now it's 6:50 and I got school so I'll stop here, if you got anything else to add put it in the reblogs ig...

Final note: I haven't been abused myself (not that I remember) so I can't really fully grasp the concept, but still, J's treatment of N is like, the dictionary definition of Abuse, I'm very bad at understanding other people and their emotions and I'm not super great at analysing characters but this shit is so obviously abuse seeing TSM over here trying to say otherwise is giving me a brain aneurysm.

Anyways have a good day/evening/night or whatever time of day it is :D

.

[rosygames]

Sending much love and positive vibes to you and also, holy shit, am I so glad to find you are alright and doing better now. I have been a huge fan since conception of the game and I have been typing the blog name frequently to see if you have returned. So to see the blog be in public with a new post was such a great surprise.

If you are to create a new blog, will you keep the name and just change the current, soon to be old, blog's name and/or delete it, or will you be choosing a new name instead? Will that affect the game's own title? What type of changes do you plan to implement, like romance system, plotline, characters (personality, number of, relations), etc.?

Once again, happy to see you back!

Hello! Thank you for this kind ask.

I think I'll keep the name and change the current (maybe keep this one private in the future, but too attached to actually delete it). I was going back and forth about the game title but I think it'll stay as "The Rosy Ones". I thought it was tacky after a while (probably just because things get old when you use it a lot) but it makes sense with how story goes.

As for type of changes, I do change the romantic interests. This is something that I spent months thinking about but ultimately decided that it'd be too much for me to handle having so many characters. Instead of the six original ROs and two hidden ones, there are five ROs now (one F, one M, and the rest gender switchable). I changed all of their names because ultimately they are sort of different characters now (the readers won't notice, though, since most of the changes are stuff I haven't put on the public demo yet).

The characters will be recognizable and it'll be obvious which ones were "scrapped" but the scrapped ROs still live in those who stayed. I had to make sure that the characters are staying for the plot, and not solely for romance. I was heartbroken having to leave some characters behind so I'd understand if others are also heartbroken over it. Some characters will be recognizable because of their archetype but they have changed so much that they're basically different characters put into these archetypes now (again, I don't know if people will notice though since the changes are more obvious in the scenes I haven't published).

Plot is basically still the same but Rosetail's backstory is now much, much bigger than I originally planned (and thus, other characters' backstories are bigger and meatier too). The lore is different since I chose to create new gods for this one. Same with ROs, these gods might still be a little recognizable but they're very different now. Backstories and relationships are all different now. Magic system is a little different too.

I know it's a lot of changes but I was basically bullshitting my way through the first few drafts (high on mania and no sleep) and I've come to love the idea too much to just keep bullshitting my way through the rest of the game. For people who were here since the very, very, very first demos/posts, this game will probably be unrecognizable and I'm sorry for that. I just felt like it'd be a shame to keep going with the story even when I felt like certain changes could make it better and feel more like "mine".

Thank you for this ask, and I hope I answered your questions!

[tyrantisterror]

Early Wizard School Mysteries Concept Art Pt. 1: 2017 & 2018

Wizard School Mysteries Book 3: Wicked Witchcraft has been available for purchase in paperback and kindle editions for about a week now, and to do my due diligence as this series' author, editor, and marketing executive, I've gotta make a post about it to annoy you all with so that maybe more people read it and build up a bigger audience for the next one.

So! To accomplish that in a way I find palatable, I've dug up some very old concept art for the series, and am going to parade it out for your enjoyment! Come, look upon my old art and despair be inspired to buy my books!

We're going to start with the earliest sketches I could find, which is from 2017. I kind of adore how ridiculously enormous I made James's hat in this early sketch - it's so huge that he actually has a strap to keep it on his head (look close, you can see it!). His design has a lot of touches from Wizardmon that didn't make it to the final product, namely the abundance of stitches and false faces on his outfit. He's also got a sort of ascot which I'm pretty sure is an homage to Fred from Scooby Doo, because he's in the same role as Fred in our Mystery Solving Teens group. Jesus, that's a big hat.

2017 Ivan doesn't seem too different on a surface glance, though his outfit feels too clean/new to me. It looks nice, but doesn't convey a lot of his character to me.

Ew, 2017 Gretchen, why are you white? Well, ok, the clear answer is because you're just Wizard Velma Dinkley at this point, but hey, at least you've got your iconic scarf!

Jesus Crumbs, I really did not give my human characters enough skull above the eyes to contain a proper brain, did I? A lot of Margot's key visuals are still present here - the gauntlet, the high collar, the partially armored boots - but just, you know, a bit worse, a bit less uniquely designed. She's called Joan at this point because hey, it's from 2017, when the author who everyone associated with wizard schools whose first name happens to be Joanne hadn't gone fully mask off about being a TERF yet, and I could name a wizard character I like "Joan" without worrying that people might think it's a reference to said writer (when it was intended as a reference to Joan of Arc instead).

2017 Rodrigo is pretty recognizable, actually. Kinda weird to me that I had his look pinned down so early compared to the others - though his staff here definitely doesn't fit his status as the most well-off wizard of the bunch, so I can see why I changed it to something more sleek later.

By contrast, 2017 Serena is basically a completely different character on every level. No magical girl trappings, no pigtails, I don't think she was even Asian yet. The name "Cerrigwen" had been given to at least one other character I ended up scrapping for a different project before this, and I'd thought I found a home for it here, but obviously not (though a Cerrigwen did get mentioned as a historical important wizard in WSM Book 2, so maybe I'll find a story for her eventually). Serena's role in the Mystery Solving Teens dynamic is "the weird one," but for whatever reason I wrote "the Joy and the Laughter" here instead. I do think Serena's personality is shining from this design, even if none of the actual details are recognizable - the manic bubbliness here would carry on in all future designs.

Charlotte also looks recognizable at first glance, and I think in some ways she's more explicitly monstrous/nonhuman here. I don't know if that's to her benefit, though? The gangly limbs feel very awkward, like they don't quite fit her frame, and her face is a bit too inexpressive (also holy shit that hat is hilariously too small, it's the opposite of 2017 James's hat). I like the hairy feet and fingers, but it does kinda bog down her design with unnecessary detail.

Holy Christ 2017 Polybeus, you're a fucking nightmare. What's going on with your face? And why are you so skinny? Why are all these people so goddamn skinny?

Let's move to the next year, I don't like looking at this guy. He looks like he'd be voiced by Pauly Shore or Andy Dick. Awful.

2018 James takes the 2017 design and refines it a bit - still has the ascot, has even MORE Wizardmon style false faces and stitches, still has the enormous hat, just all tightened up a bit. I think the problem with this look comes through when comparing the polished design with the sketches I abandoned halfway through above it - namely, the freaky Wizardmon look just doesn't fit with the quiet, deep-thinking personality James is supposed to exude. It looks rad as hell, yes, but it's flashy and chaotic in an attention-claiming way, which doesn't fit James's analytical nature. Good design elements that just didn't fit the character they were slapped onto.

2018 Ivan is also a refinement of his 2017 self, and I like his wacky little pose here - it really communicates his accident prone nature. But he still feels too polished, the outfit can be pushed farther.

Gretchen's looking a bit more like herself now - she's got more layers draping over her body, longer hair to cover her face, and the little tassels on the end of her scarf. Is she still white, or was I just a coward who thought I could just give her a dark skin tone while still drawing her with a straight bob cut and call it good? Not sure.

Margot's getting closer to her current self too - slightly longer face and nose, a bun where her pony tail will eventually go, and I think she's got broader shoulders than her first design? The gauntlet still doesn't feel like it's got the right personality but it's a bit more unique than the first take, and that's progress.

The only big differences I see with 2018 Rodrigo and his current self - beyond the fact that I got better at drawing humans (still not enough room in this drawing's cranium for a human brain) - is that I kinda toned him down from here. This Rodrigo's more or less his current self, but more flamboyant.

Alright, Serena's definitely Asian here, and her costume feels more distinct than her 2017 self, but still doesn't really match her personality. I definitely wanted her outfit to showcase her energetic nature, but the big bulky layers just don't fit. She needs bows and ribbons!

Ok, Charlotte's coming together better too! Still a bit too awkardly gangly, but her face is getting that sweet, friendly look a bit better.

oh thank god

2018 Polybeus is such an upgrade. His outfit's pretty close to what he'd end with, and he's beginning to get that onion-esque hairdo his modern self has, although here it's a bit more like devil horns, befitting his status as an antagonist-turned-ally. Still too thin, though, you gotta start weight training Poly!

That's it for part 1! Next we're skipping to 2020, because for whatever reason I don't have any sketches from 2019.

[slankyyy-revs-the-world]

While sifting through my dms with oomf, I found I shared my Gautier-Brainrot™ essay. Figured why not repost it on my new blog since my old one got nuked. This is going to be divided in two parts, this is Part 1 cus tumblr just??? wont let me post the entire essay for Some reason. Here's the sparknotes version of my 1k word ramble above the cut:

Miklan-Stans and Sylvain-Stans ironically share the same issue of blaming Matthias on everything just to woobify their fav Gautier-Man because it's cleans up the messy family of House Gautier into clean boxes.

I can't exactly fault Gautier-fanon for making Matthias into a really abusive terrible dad because in base Houses; he doesn't even have a name, Margrave Gautier is only a vague concept. Post-Hopes, Matthias was characterized and recontextualized—a lot of fans tend to ignore the nuances Hopes gave just to default him into abusive dad ever

Matthias is a deeply interesting character; he's a character so deeply defined by loss, yet who held such high ambitions as he believed in Lambert's future and legitimately tried brokering peace with Sreng. He cares deeply about his sons and grieves for them, but because of how jaded he's become, he's always failing to ever express that to them

Same criticism I have with Matthias fanon I have with Miklan. Disclaimer: Miklan had agency with his actions, I'm not pretending like he's a hapless victim—the two extremes around his character are extremes I dont like (Miklan was a total victim guys!!!! vs Miklan was a totally evil person guys!!!)

The more content Hopes gave us about the Gautier's is way more compelling than the scraps we got from Houses actually.

Addendum: with the Miklan-Stans and Sylvain- Stans, of fucking course most woobiefication always share the same take of 'Let's blame Matthias for everything because he is the sole root of my Gautier Blorbo's mental anguish hundred-fold!!!!'. Which that's just really boring honestly because it cleans up the very messy family situation of House Gautier into nice clean boxes; people say that they love messy and complex families in media but then immediately jump to make the one character the villain while everyone else was hapless victim of circumstance. I'm more lenient with fanon during the 3Houses era since at the time, the game didn't even give Margrave Gautier a name, he was at most a vague concept left up to fill the blanks. When Hopes came out and we got more Matthias characterization and context for the situation of Gautier-Sreng, sucks that people chucked it all out of the window to just make the flattest interpretations ever. Which sucks because I absolutely adore Matthias as well (how Gautier enjoyers look when I roll up loving ALL Gautiers that is not just Sylvain) and he gets cartoonishly flattened to be this horrible awful abusive father in a Post-Hopes fandom. Matthias is a man destroyed by loss; who believed in the same starry-eyed future that Lambert did, who tried to bring that future to fruition. Even after he lost not just the love of his life but his second unborn child in a violent raid by Sreng forces, Matthias still tried to broker peace with Sreng (methods of brokering peace were dubious since he brought home a child political hostage). He become cold and closed off after his first wife died, doing a complete 180 in his personality from being a talkative and friendly guy to the Margrave who's fixated on ensuring the border is secured. After Lambert's death—it's clear that he gave up on ever reaching that lofty future Lambert got him to believe in. This man is deeply good to his friends, he's loyal to his country and shares a close bond with Rodrigue—but for the life of him, he cannot ever express how he truly feels to the point where Sylvain says that his true emotions/thoughts could fill a whole library. Matthias has completely closed himself off from other people, being dubbed as the Wall of Ice because of how little he lets people see of him; all to the detriment of his sons. Yet Matthias grieves, my god does he grieve deeply for Miklan—despite putting up an exterior of indifference, he wishes to avenge his death in Azure Gleam, Rodrigue comments how he holds so much regret for how Miklan turned out. He is also very aware that he has not been the greatest father, yet he cares deeply for Sylvain as well and sees so much of his younger self in him; it literally talks Rodrigue chasing after the man to get him to apologize to Sylvain. Yes, this criticism against Matthias fanon applies to Miklan content as well, same thing I said about Matthias fanon pre-Hopes era also applies here too. I'd much rather explore how House Gautier was shaped by military necessity to defend a hostile border and Matthias's grief about losing his beloved wife had helped shaped Miklan for the worse rather than taking one of those two extremes.

[cosmic-nyx-fanwork]

Ehm…so, I’m going to remake the Doll AU, which means the story will change a bit, so will the characters because I’m redesigning them and because the concept changed a bit since what I have in mind now seems a bit more logical than what the concept was before, so the comic I posted won’t be continued, but once I have this new version of the AU figured out and with enough chapters written I will turn it into a comic that will (hopefully) have more chapters, so you won’t see content of this AU for a while, but I’ll still try to post other DCA drawings or even something about the other AUs I have.

I also wanted to thank all the people who commented/replied to my last post, it gave me some motivation to continue with my AUs even if they’re not that original, I was thinking of deleting it after a few hours but seeing what people said made me change my mind, so if I ever feel like that again (which will definitely happen, knowing myself) I’ll just go back to that post to read the replies again so I can remember why I’m still doing this, so thank you, it might seem like it’s not a big deal but it really means a lot to me 💜

But other than that I decided to also dump some old and scrapped concepts and designs for the DCA Doll AU + some random white board doodles at the end

This was an unfinished doodle of a second form for the dolls, since they were originally able to transform in a 9 ft tall scary version of their cute doll form, but it was scrapped because I’ve seen a lot of people using this concept and I didn’t like it much (the concept)

Also fun fact: the dolls’s height in their regular form is 1’5 ft, but I don’t know if that’s also going to change in the new version

This was the first drawing I did of them (it’s also a bit old because the art style is a bit different) and also the first design they had, the concept was also a bit different at the time because the three dolls were actually demons trapped into these dolls, so they were also a bit evil, especially Eclipse which was very evil here while in the version you saw and in the new version I’m working on he’s actually pretty chill and nice-

This is also why I wanted to give them a second form at first

This one is just a slightly different version of the Eclipse design you saw in the other drawings, he was going to look like this originally but then it was changed because I didn’t want to draw all the tiny bells on his clothes and I didn’t like the colors on the hat

Also please ignore the old watemark, it was already there when I found this drawing again-

These are pretty ugly and old, it was the first time for me drawing on a white board (I’m too used to drawing on IbisPaint) This one also has my old name in it-

And that’s all, you won’t see the celestial dolls for a while now so I hope you liked this art and info dump post :3

[ironladders]

so i had a thought about ashrah and syzoth and i really dont know how to feel about it so i want your input. and keep in mind i am still new to MK lore and dont understand the ins and outs of it like most other people do. but i read that in past timelines at least, demons of the netherrealm were dead bodies reanimated by quan chi. so i was wondering, how do you feel about the idea of ashrah having been syzoths wife in her past life, probably unbeknownst to her. does it make sense, the implications of it, etc.

hi sorry i was in figure drawing when i got this ask & that class lasts 6 hours 🫠 art school was a mistake

anyways: this is so good and yet evil oh my god??????? it probably wouldn't work in canon unless stuff got retconned, but the implications here are so interesting to me regardless and you could do so much stuff character-wise (especially for ashrah) with this concept.....

first off, don't worry about not knowing extensive details about mk lore. it's bound to be confusing for someone new to the franchise, and even then plenty of us who've been here for a while don't entirely know what's going on either. i had to look up half the shit i mention in this post just to make sure i'm not off by a bunch

syzoth would have the biggest mental breakdown ever if this were a thing. poor guy can't catch a break

this would be a lot for ashrah, if she were to find out or otherwise put the pieces together. i mean, her whole thing is wanting to be fully human, and yet in this idea, she's not aware that she once already was human. that would be absolutely wild and 100% turn her entire world upside-down if she were to ever find out that truth.

the angst in this idea would go crazy. I LOVE IT. i think that syzoth would be reluctant to get close in any way with ashrah (at least initially) because, even if he doesn't know about how some demons are dead people brought back to life, ashrah physically resembling + sounding like his dead wife would mess with his head SO much.

poor ashrah, too; she's trying to learn what it means to be human and make friends with all these new people, and everyone in the good-guys group seems to be willing to be open with her--except for syzoth. and she has zero clue why. of course, because of their similar pasts and common struggles, they'd probably be drawn to each other anyways, but it'd be 10x more depressing than in canon

i imagine in this concept, shang killed her and then gave her corpse to quan chi. i don't think shang tsung would've given syzoth's family the dignity of dying in the living forest, tbh, i personally believe he dragged them off somewhere far away to die (which is also how i imagine syzoth went so long without knowing they were dead in the first place. easier to keep him in the dark about his family's fate if he's not aware of where they are). alternatively, ashrah could be put in a similar boat to old-timeline hanzo, who was a vengeful spirit of the netherrealm after being killed by bi-han, and then continuously manipulated by quan chi. i guess she would have to be somehow turned from a spectre to a demon, but i'm sure they can figure it out with magic lmfao

you're sort of right about the reanimated/reincarnation thing, it just doesn't apply to every type of demon. (more lore explanation under the cut bc i rambled a lot and it got a bit long oops) (if you read up on all this already and this information is useless to you i sincerely apologize in advance)

the lots of different demon types in mortal kombat: imps, oni, the enenera, cambions, and other miscellaneous ones. iirc there was also gonna be another class called "elder demons" (like elder gods but not really???? i guess???) in an older game but that was scrapped.

there’s technically a difference between the oni and other demons, because quan chi in the old timeline was an oni before he turned into a demon after mastering sorcery. so i guess oni are like… lower than demons??? or something?????? i’m not actually sure what the difference is between the two tbh 😓

we know that the enenra are created from the souls of slain mortals, so they'd be an example of an undead person coming back as a demon, as mentioned in this very sad scenario. the only enenra that we've actually met in canon is smoke, who was explained to be one after dying as a child via his mk9 ending

it's really fucked up lol, some cult kidnapped & sacrificed him when he just a kid

so that would be one example of how in this au/scenario/thing, ashrah could've had a human life once and not be aware of it. this tracks pretty well with mk9 smoke not remembering his previous life or death, until his early memories came back to him after so long.

the only issue is that smoke was reborn as an enenra right after he was killed, and after he took out his revenge on the cultists, he woke back up in his human body with no memories of his previous life. so i assume this would apply to any other enenra: they die, come back and do their thing, then go back to their original bodies right where they died with no memories of their old lives. they don't minecraft respawn in the netherrealm, which is where ashrah is from. but if pre-death ashrah in this au was dragged to the netherrealm and then killed, then brought back as a demon that's further manipulated by quan chi's dark magic, i guess it could work?????

(speaking of the enenra: in one of his mk1 intros with ashrah, smoke mentions dreaming of the enenra. so either tomas already died in this new timeline & just isn't aware of it, OR he's gonna kick the bucket soon and come back as an enenra. either way, we should probably prepare his funeral in advance lmfao).

there have also been demons that aren’t enenra, but are still dead people reincarnated by quan chi, as you mentioned. they're really obscure characters -- i had to look them up to make sure i wasn't making this up in my head lmfao -- but in the show mortal kombat: conquest there's siann, mika, and sora. they're undead corpses of the netherrealm that were brought back to life as demons via quan chi's magic

they lived they served cunt they died

from my understanding (i haven't watched mk:c, i just read their wiki page) they were basically being forced to work for quan chi otherwise he threatened take away their living forms, which sucks. also mika might have a crush on quan chi….. for some reason???

the difference between these three and the enenra, though, is that they seem to actually be aware that they're undead lol. but maybe that's just because quan chi keeps threatening them with being corpses again if they don't follow his orders (again, haven't watched mk:c). who knows! their wiki page isn’t that long and doesn’t give me much info so i don’t have much to go off of 🤷🏻‍♂️

ashrah in mk1 does have a canonical demon type; she mentions that her and her sisters are cambions in an intro with kitana, hence how sareena can seamlessly change between her human-ish and demon form. i don’t thiiiink cambions are “reborn”/undead the same way the enenra would be? in irl folklore “cambion” is used to refer to either a changeling — which makes sense given sareena — or a demon-human hybrid. i really doubt ashrah’s the latter, though, so i suppose she just... spawned into existence as a cambion one day. or maybe she has demon parents running around somewhere. idk bro

i guess what i’m trying to tie together here is that in the “ashrah is a reborn dead person but doesnt know it and unfortunately said dead person is syzoth’s dead wife” nightmare scenario you’ve presented to my inbox, it could go a few ways:

she’s an enenra

same situation as the mk:c girls

hanzo-esque situation (although he's not a demon so. idk)

the second one is probably more in line with what you're thinking of, except that unlike the mk:c girls, ashrah would be kept in the dark that she's a reanimated corpse of a human woman.

and, i said this earlier, but i'll say it again: this would be a wild twist for ashrah character-wise. imagine: she’s fighting for her absolution, fighting to be a human and rid herself of her demonic nature, and then it turns out all along that at one point, there was a time ashrah was human. she had a human life and appearance once, and it was all ripped from her one day and she had no idea. even if her previous life wasn’t related to syzoth or anyone else on the roster, that would still suck. but on the other hand, i think it would give her even more incentive to purify her soul & finally kill quan chi. she'd be hurt, angry, want vengeance for the human woman she once was. the woman that was wrongfully murdered for a sorcerer's selfish gains. the possibilities are endless!!!

i dunno what else to put here or how to end this off, but i've got so many thoughts now... oughh

[archiesoniconline]

Sonic Universe Online #52 Behind The Scenes!

Hello, everyone!  Boy, it’s been a while since we’ve done one of these, huh?  But considering we finally managed to release this issue after its nightmarish production cycle, we decided that it was a good time to bring the “behind the scenes” posts back.  There’s a lot to talk about with this one, so get ready for a real doozy!

As usual, let’s start with the cover.  We wanted to have Bunnie and Scarlett as the focus, and RocketPOW! went through several drafts of what that would look like.  In the end, we settled on having them playing cards in the bar from Sonic Mania’s Mirage Saloon Zone to fit with the desert theme.  It’s also worth noting that we had Jack on the cover at one point but ultimately decided against it, since the story focuses more on his lackeys than himself.

Before we start on the actual story, I guess we should begin with the elephant in the room: Bunnie’s redesign.  Even though we technically first saw her new look in issue 51, we might as well go over it now.  Picking up from where the official comic left off, we knew that Bunnie had a redesign after being legionized, but the reboot happened before we ever got to see it.  And with the redesign of such an important character, obviously there was a lot of pressure to do her justice.  There was some old concept art by Tracy Yardley of legionnaire Bunnie, but we didn’t want to just take that and call it a day.  We had quite a field day with many of our talented artists coming up with their own interpretations of her redesign, including @miitoons, @riggo-draws, @drawloverlala, @fritzymagpies, Tim Campbell, CrimDa, DoNotDelete, and more that I sadly can’t remember anymore.  From the shape and function of her cybernetics, her overall color scheme, her clothing, her hairstyle, her weapons, etc., every last detail was meticulously gone over until we arrived at the final design taking what we liked most from each of them.

At first, we had gotten Tale to draw out the first several pages, and even though they were finished, he unfortunately had to step out of the issue and we had Gilgalad take over, better known as Thomas Rothlisberger, who we were lucky to have on the team before he moved on to the IDW Sonic comics.  For the sake of consistency (lol), we unfortunately had to scrap Tale’s pages so he could redo those as well.

Holly’s sickness isn’t elaborated on in the actual story, but the gist is that she’s a snow leapord who was roboticized during the First Robotnik War.  But after the Bem deroboticized her while she was in the desert, her body became sick due to being stuck in the inhospitable environment, which is an example of how misplaced many of the former Robians were being sent far out of their natural habitats, and losing the protection of their robot bodies was actually a detriment.

A Sonic fan with a good eye for detail may notice that the guard who takes over watching Bunnie after Scarlett is actually one of the unnamed members of Infinite’s Jackal Squad from the Sonic Forces prequel comic.  Since this cameo may or may not go anywhere in regards to Infinite in ASO, we opted against using Infinite himself since he’s too important of a character to pass off as a mere cameo.  If you want this plot thread to be expanded upon, let us know!

Since this is where we introduce Holly and her relationship with Scarlett, it’s as good a time as any to discuss the process of their creation.  With Scarlett, we wanted to introduce a character who would serve as a foil to Bunnie, another person struggling due to their bedridden lover, but with diametrically-opposed views regarding cybernetics.  Her design was actually taken from a random Sand Blaster who appeared in a single panel of StH #218, who we decided to turn into a full-fledged character.  Although her species was unknown during her single appearance, we decided to make her a fennec fox.  On the other hand, Holly was an entirely new design that we came up with for the story.  The LGBT aspect of their relationship was actually the idea of my editor for the issue, The Shadow Imperator.  I stated in the interview after the issue that I was the one who came up with their names, but that’s not the whole truth.  There was a whole team effort dedicated to naming the two of them, before I suggested Scarlett since there was an abandoned plot point about how Bunnie’s true name was at one point planned to be Scarlett O’Hare.  Our Scarlett’s full name is Scarlett O’Fenn, with ShadImp being the one to suggest adding the last name as well.  But since her last name didn’t come up in the story, I apologize for forgetting to mention it.  Holly was also one of several names I came up with, which was agreed on due to the sort of “snowy” feel it has to it.

In my initial draft for Scarlett and Holly’s conversation, I wrote Holly as being more openly pessimistic about her condition, outright stating that Scarlett would be better off if she was gone.  But since that seemed rather inconsiderate to Scarlett’s feelings, ShadImp suggested that I tone it down a little and have her only mention feeling like a burden.  He was also the one to suggest that I make sure their romantic relationship is mentioned as explicitly as possible, so there would be no room for ambiguity that might lessen the impact of their sexual orientation.

Scarlett taking off her hat here wasn’t actually in the script I wrote, but it was a smart move by Gilgalad, showing her letting her guard down around the one person she can afford to do so with.  To put it simply, Scarlett offers Holly physical support while Holly offers Scarlett emotional support, so neither one is one-sidedly supporting the other.  This scene also demonstrates that even though Scarlett is easily the most level-headed and compassionate Sand Blaster we’ve seen so far, some of the old bigotries and prejudice against cyborgs and robots that Jack instilled into her still remain.

Gilgalad had actually already penciled out the next couple pages, but since he wasn’t able to stick around for the full story, we decided that that the end of Scarlett and Holly’s scene was a good cutoff point for the drastic shift in art style.  Red Rabbit is an amazing artist with a style very similar to Patrick Spaziante, but it is still a jarring shift compared to most other artists on the project.  I had also originally written Bunnie mentioning not being very good at undercover missions, but when ShadImp brought up her successful operation tricking Battle Lord Kukku I changed the script to have her mention that instead.

At first, I was planning for the poker scene to have the characters holding cards that reflected their position in the conversation, such as holding a winning hand when they have the upper hand in the argument.  But since I have absolutely no knowledge or experience with poker, that idea ultimately didn’t come through in the final story.  This scene also serves to flesh out the Sand Blasters and show that none of them are blindly loyal to Jack.  Tex obviously has his own agenda, Avery just goes along with whatever’s the least troublesome, Shift wants to get his hands on new technology, and Jolt does genuinely want the city to open up to the rest of the world.

You may have noticed that instead of rocket feet like her old design, Bunnie now flies with a removable jet pack on her back.  If you’re wondering how that wouldn’t burn her tail off, it was specifically designed so that the fire trails would shoot aiming away from her tail.

Originally, during the car chase sequence Bunnie’s jet pack was just written to malfunction for no real reason.  But eventually, I decided to give it a more interesting explanation by adding in hints that Shift may have intentionally sabotaged it to trip up Bunnie, only to reveal that he was actually trying to fix it and he didn’t betray her after all.  This was also the portion of the story where Ink Pants took over for pencils, and then Lav after him.  Even though they’re all fine artists in their own right, hopefully this will be the last time that we need to include so many drastic changes in art style to illustrate a single story.

We almost had one more shift in art style, with @gendeerfluid​ penciling the last page.  In the end, Lav managed to finish that one as well, giving us a massive cliffhanger both figuratively and literally in the form of Jun Kun, the Iron King.

That’s about it for this one, folks!  Thanks for sticking with us all this time, and look forward to the conclusion of this story next issue.  Until then, keep on juicin’!

[chaox1k]

Naori Ebihara • Kamuy with the Grace of 8 Arms

Really old Touhou Oc I want to bring back and flesh out more

(More info on her Below) vvv

Basic Rundown of her:

1. Backstory Inspiration:

There was an old theory of the reason the Hakurei god had never been seen even by Reimu was because Reimu herself was the god of the shrine. From my knowledge it was never widely believed but I thought the concept was very interesting.

Hence why Naori is given the title of Kamuy. And yes I am aware Kamuy and Kami (Japanese gods and or spirits) Are not considered the same by some but for simplicity and the way I am using the word, they will refer to the same thing (Being a Divine being usually one of great goodness or great strength)

2. Yokai Inspiration

Naori is a Tako nyūdō or an Octopus Preist, usually described as old men given the inspiration for the Yokai itself was how old men’s balding heads resembled that of Octopi. Now obviously Naori isn’t an old balding man but I made it a point to make her older (not obvious in the doodles as they were made a while ago) and she is a priestess. And the original tale or depictions of the Yokai it is not stated to be a God. I just chose that path myself. 

3. Ability Inspiration

One of the only known art depictions is a piece where the Yokai is dangling a catfish in front of a Ugani hime. And with the catfish also being a prominent Yokai in old Japanese mythology, I decided to use it to make a second character, which, after I actually make the portrait of, I will introduce later. 

But a quick synopsis is that earthquakes were believed to be the result of giant catfish flopping about (i’m pretty sure they have a specific name, but I kind of forgot.)

So my first idea was to have her use a catfish as a sort of wand to create mini earthquakes underwater that may cause tsunamis. But that wasn’t really a power of her own so I scrapped it. But then an obvious idea came to me, which was that I could just make her be able to control huge tentacles in place of her hands which is where “the grace of 8 arms” comes from.

Since that’s a pretty powerful ability. That’s where I decided I’d just make her a God. Not sure of what yet since Gensokyo doesn’t have a sea but she’s also from the outside world so I can kind of do whatever I want. Sort of thinking of cephalopods, but to my knowledge, there aren’t a whole lot of Yokai based on them, but I’ll see what I can come up with or if anybody can suggest anything.

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I doubt anyone has read to the end but if you have thank you I’m debating making a second blog just for OCs, but I’m going to post this year now just to gauge how many people would be interested. Thank you!! 🐙⛩️