#i'll probably end up drawing every blade if i do XD

[starlit-draws-randomness]

Hello little outsider

[n7punk]

Okay, so I like love your work and I just finished Smile like a switch blade, and I'm work on Let Me Ride. I have a question about your AU magic-cats. If they have fur, how do hickies work? And also, how does blushing work? Like its when blood is visible under the skin, but Catra's got fur so how can her skin be seen when she blushes?

tricky answer tbh XD this is something that's kind of handwavey because of how much the answer varies by how you conceptualize catra's appearance and biology in your head, so buckle in. i feel like i talk about this like once a year and my answer is always Similar but not the Exact Same.

okay, Catra canonically has fur and blushes in the show, so for Cartoon Logic I just assume the fur on their faces (and other parts of their bodies) is finer/thinner which would allow blushes/hickies to show through some, but I'll be honest, I avoid picturing what magicat faces would look like outside of drawings because it seems like some creepy Cats (2019) shit (i think nate even said as much at some point, though he is notorious for saying total jokes that get taken too literally - and he definitely said that last part, i think on the blm stream? "you need to learn not to trust everything we say, we like to joke around," roughly from my memory).

how "detailed/realistic" i picture catra varies, but i never see fur on her face in my head, nor do i see a transition between where there is fur and is not. when i write, however, i refer to her having fluffy cheeks because like, her cheek tufts are observable in canon, but even following their existence i don't think every inch of her face has true fur on it and it probably thins out. I mostly think of it just as those cheek tufts even though i know that probably isn't "correct."

i generally try to mention things like blushing being observed on catra less than other characters because i do think they would be subtler with the fluff she is supposed to have. that said, catra can feel herself blushing and such, so from her pov it happens just as much as it would from adora's. and if we're talking about adora setting out to make a hickey or something, she can do that even if it's harder to see the product when she's done.

blushing is also weird, because i think for a lot of people you say that word and they picture cartoon shit (ive seen a post with a lot of notes indicating that, and have had that conception myself), but that isnt how people actually blush irl. that doesnt mean real blushing is not noticable still (generally in more than just the actual blood rush with the expression/mannerisms that accompany it, which would be just as observable on catra as others), but it is a lot more "flagged" and obvious in how it's portrayed in cartoons. it's kind of how, irl, people frown or show sadness with their eyebrows/eyes, but on the computer we convey it with :( A blush is generally pretty subtle, which is harder to convey in animation, especially simpler styles, so it ends up being just red cheeks in a cartoon and we all know exactly what that means.

tldr; catra is fluffy as a cartoon and she blushes, but she's probably less fluffy and it's less observable "in live action", and either way i just say eh. her fur is thin enough in those areas for it to be observable even if it is less noticable