#mandrill-based

[lines-and-lies]

Canta !

[mechawolfie]

trying to figure out orrin's colors

[idcallmyselfhuman]

XiaoAether Masterlist 👹⛅

Edit: version 2.0 here

Or, every XiaoAether moment that I can remember (and an attempt to organize them)

Starting this off with the one scene that made us all go "wait a fucking minute" at the very start of the game,

Battle of Osial

Aether's feet were already steadied. Xiao could've let go, or let him fall as gracefully as Mountain Shaper did to that guard (I would've hated him forever) but considering that he insists that being near mortals is such a biiiig no-no, he could have, but he didn't. No, even more, he fucking tightened his hold.

-

Teyvat Food Notes (Sweet Dream, Adeptus' Temptation and Satisfying Salad)

Next! The promotionals during Xiao's release as a playable character. Specifically, Teyvat Food Notes. To celebrate his release, they made an Almond Tofu + Sweet Dream Food blog.

Note: Both google translate and Papago seem to use Mandrill instead of Xiao, so... just know that's who it's talking about.

This is where we learn that Xiao didn't even make "Sweet Dream"; this dish was Aether's thank you gift to him. Xiao's specialty dish is a gift from Aether. I'm- agh. ANYWAY.

We actually also see Sweet Dream in Childe's birthday art. And I'm really sorry to Tartaglia but seeing it stole all his thunder. I could not get over it.

I like to think Aether was so busy making Childe food that he absentmindedly started preparing Almond Tofu in the way he's used to (because of how often Xiao requests it :'> ).

Just when I thought that was it for the Teyvat Food Notes and I could've moved on, I found this in the Adeptus' Temptation food note; the one they made for the first Lantern Rite.

Note: "Fairy/Buddha Jump over the Wall" is apparently an actual Chinese delicacy that the Adeptus' Temptation is based on!

I found this part really cute, especially right now because of the poetry event. Since the beginning, Aether's always known that Xiao was capable of being poetic, it just took them being close and his encouragement for Xiao to actually make a poem.

Lastly, Aether's Satisfying Salad. This isn't connected to the food blog this time (since that one's for Mona), but rather, this and Almond Tofu are the first dishes Aether has ever given Xiao in the game. I included this despite it being pretty minor because in Moonlight Merriment, Smiley Yanxiao actually brings this up again.

Smiley Yanxiao: The boss told me to take care of him, but this guy, let me tell you - he is one tough nut to crack. He usually turns his nose up at everything that isn't Almond Tofu.

Xiao willingly ate something that wasn't Almond Tofu because... because what, it was given to him by a cute blonde traveler? The jury's still out on that one.

-

Lantern Rite 1.3, Baizhu Story Quest

I'm sure we're already familiar with this scene, right?

The very first time Xiao promised Aether that no matter what, as long as he calls his name, he'll be there. Right after that was Moonlight Merriment, where the game literally specifies that Xiao made that promise just for Aether. Way to make your commitment subtle.

Ah, Xiao, you're so easy... Of course, this wouldn't be the last time that Aether calls for him and Xiao arrives immediately. This also happened during Baizhu's story quest to, yet again, the astonishment of everyone around excluding these two. (Xiao's dedication is one of a kind)

Xiao worries over Aether often, despite knowing that they're both formidable in their own right. I also think it's sweet how every time they meet, Xiao's departing words are always a reminder to call for him whenever needed, to the point where there are times that Aether just goes "Yeah, we know." before he can even finish the sentence.

Unfortunately, though, there is one time where Xiao failed to reach Aether when he called him, but only because he physically wasn't able to.

-

Perilous Trail (Interlude)

The only thing that prevented this man from getting to Aether like always was being in a different plane of existence. Romeo and Juliet wish they were this romantic istfg

Aether: Come find us.

Xiao: No.

Yanfei: But Aether's in trouble!

Xiao: How do we meet?

Now where else did someone pull this tactic recently-

...Again, XIAO YOU ARE SO EASY. But anyway, back to the Chasm bc I wasn't quite done with that-

As soon as Yanfei tells Aether that Xiao is awake, Ae comes running. Just full on "stop saying you're fine i'll be the judge of that"

And he looks so angry when Xiao brings up writing a will. augguh they are sooooo- (i would put a reaction pic here if i didn't have an IMAGE LIMIT fuck tumblr bro)

To finish off the Chasm Interlude on a more serious note, this entire conversation was really touching, and I love seeing the progress these two have made over the years. Xiao letting himself open up with Aether's help year by year is one of my favorite things about this game.

-

Teapot and Character Voice Lines + Birthday Letters

For the first and second Lantern Rite, Xiao was still adamant on not even stepping foot in Liyue Harbor, declining every invitation to go there because of how much he disliked being near mortals.

Yet in his teapot voicelines, once you reach a high enough friendship with him, Xiao actually takes the initiative to invite Aether to go to the city, if only to understand him better. Xiao explicitly says that his willingness to go to the harbor was for him.

More About Xiao I: I'm willing to protect you.But don't think about getting close, and stay out of my way, or all that awaits you is regret.

More About Xiao V: It's too late. The connection between us is too strong. Even if you wanted to, it's too late to sever it. Hm? You've never thought to sever it?

About Shenhe: It seems Shenhe places a great deal of trust in you. Well, how could she not. There are few people in the world as kind and good-natured as you.

Shenhe, About Xiao: My first impression of him was that he's not one to smile. After meeting him again more recently, however, he's still as reserved as ever, but… he seems a lot more relaxed now. Maybe he… met someone special.

That line by Shenhe made me happy. Aether's effect on Xiao benefitted not only him, but the people surrounding Xiao as well. We even see that in his birthday letters, where at the most recent one, he follows Ae's advice and goes to spend time with old friends.

They're also all just insanely romantic, I feel like that goes without saying. Every year, I wonder how Genshin would possibly top the one before it that isn't just an explicit confession of undying love.

-

Lantern Rite '23

I'm here to remind you all of a beautiful scene that should never be forgotten for years to come.

Regardless of Genshin trying to be mysterious and making us guess who saved Aether, the fact that they both came rushing over is incredible on its own. They know that Aether isn't a damsel in distress, and Paimon's acting was so on the nose, but they still couldn't allow even the slightest possibility of harm to come to him.

Xiao looking away and talking in circles just to say he really was worried is the funniest fucking thing.

For the Lantern Rite event itself, if you've read this far in, you're probably already familiar. I really wish there wasn't an image limit because I have so many screenshots I want to put in here. If you want a refresher, watch this and start around the 2-hour mark

I wanted to put my own video in the post but you can only put one :/// I'm fist fighting whoever put these limits. 1 video file and 30 images? who are you

BACK TO THE TOPIC

There really isn't much I could say that I haven't already said before. For XiaoAether shippers, this was hoyo spoonfeeding content on a silver spoon. It's Aether and Xiao at their most comfortable with each other, talking and spending time with the people they care about. It's Aether fulfilling his end of the bargain of bailing Xiao out of uncomfortable social situations, because if you haven't noticed throughout all of these examples (or even outside of that), Aether is so perceptive when it comes to the comfort of the people around him.

This was also the event where we find out that for Xiao, the most distinguished guest in his eyes was Aether (Even though Ae thought he was going to say Zhongli..)

I have a lot of love for this event. But since this isn't just a lantern rite post, I'll move on.

-

Waterborne Poetry

The catalyst for this post. The reminder of how lovely this ship is, and how far these two have come.

As we have all learned from Xiangling, Yanfei, Venti and Hu Tao, you only need to mention Aether's name to convince Xiao of whatever it is you're planning. The part where Aether and Team Chongyun were trying to convince him to come with them and touch some fucking grass was really cute.

This event and the previous Lantern Rite also had Aether and Xiao talking privately, only to get interrupted by Paimon/Xiangling (as well as calling them out lmao)

And, of course, the scene that everyone freaked out over,

This. I don't think I'll ever get over this.

The fact that they had Zach voice this- A short, but sweet moment where Aether looks at Xiao from afar and immediately gets inspired, performing a poem where the real meaning is shared only between the two of them...

And Xiao's smile.

An expression that Aether had done so well to bring out.

2023 was the year of XiaoAether. Thank you, Hoyo.

-

Done! I HAVE SO MANY SCREENSHOTS AND I COULDN'T EVEN USE MOST OF THEM ToT. I actually had clips that I edited but Tumblr said no. Good thing there's YouTube.

Another reason as to why I made this was because some shippers said that XiaoAe didn't make sense because it lacked depth and I was so affronted by it that I did all this out of spite (and love for these characters. mostly love.)

[gynandromorph]

god this shit took forever to sketch. another NofNA emulation comic. it reminds me of the midterms in secretary, for obvious reasons, but Legend is sort of an inverse secretary situation, where she is exceptional at fighting, but wants to write.

let me see what i can remember...

PS, the blue-eyed black lemur, has been friends with Legend since their mutual first season at college, as mentioned above her reference sketch... they probably became more friendly after being paired up to peer edit each others' work. PS has since graduated from college and works as a markscraft. Legend frequently commissions PS to scribe for her, not only because they are friends, but because PS is one of the few markscrafts in the area who isn't a rodent. many primates go into law or medicine. mainly Legend commissions notetaking in classes -- she is too insecure to share her stories. PS has a more relaxed, informal personality, and i tried to get that across -- i think it's relevant to why she decided to become a markscraft instead of pursuing more intense study. still, i also tried to get across that they are good friends, not just scribe and customer, particularly with the amount of touching that PS does. the impulse to touch and groom is probably innate for her as a primate. there isn't as much information about her species, but in ring-tailed lemurs, lemurs usually only groom based on the strongest bonds, rather than more communal aggregate grooming as a sort of social currency. i honestly don't know what PS would need to note during finals, but i think Legend just Wanted her there anyway.

the bird, DL, fighting the squirrel, GG, is a grey shrike. i imagine him as an average student in the middle of his education, but i think he is in the class for combat purposes, because pressure point manipulation can be incredibly powerful, more so if from a less expected species like a bird.

mr. deciding is a much more serious, no-nonsense teacher, possibly due to his specialty. when you're teaching students how to explode a kidney with a handshake, you probably just play it safe and try to put the fear of god into them before any kidneys get exploded. i wanted this class to have a much heavier emphasis on safety of the participants than the class in secretary, with a more focused goal than "who can beat the shit out of each other better." i think the goal of fighting to show off knowledge here is still Fucking Insane, but it's just. their culture, i guess. you can technically "move" your pressure points, so being able to defend yourself by utilizing this knowledge can also show off what you've retained. the mouse next to him is a proctor, who is an extra teacher brought in to judge and often write for another teacher, but primarily as a peacekeeper and bouncer. in classes where a student can theoretically totally disable a teacher by just touching them once, the precaution is seen as necessary. the mouse is probably a combat-oriented point invocation instructor.

the mandrill, MK, is a first-season or first-year student -- i assume that one class, from midterms to finals, is a season, as secretary seems to start near autumn. midterms have snow, and finals are during early spring. anyway, that's tangential. i think he's very new to the educational system. i pictured him as a medical student. in his fighting style, i made him more defensive; he doesn't really know nearly as much about attacking an opponent in a fight. he does think at least about his opponent's most immediate reactions, but doesn't have enough experience with fighting to think ahead to the degree that Legend does. you can see him make the same mistake that Legend did against Machinations, which disables his non-dominant hand. needless to say, he will probably always be aware of headbutt proximity now. he attempts to use two factures in the fight within a style meant to evoke debilitating vertigo by manipulating the connection between the occular, vestibular, and proprioceptive systems. it's obvious that he created the style from his medical classes. it is fairly empty as far as styles go. interrupted facture: nystagmus, which causes the world to spin around the opponent by involuntarily twitching the eyes back and forth. second facture: strabismus, which misaligns the pupils, primarily impeding aim. denied by Legend because a honey badger does not rely on vision or a vestibular system as much as a primate does -- not something he really considered when making the style. factures that never ended up being used: pursuit, which forces the target to follow a spinning image of themselves instead of looking where they should; and mask's lasting, which forcibly initiates saccadic masking, suppressing the intake of new visual information altogether.

the large bird is a bateleur. the mouse is just a regular house mouse. the lizard is an ornate sandveld lizard. the opponent of the lizard is a common mole-rat, also called an african mole-rat (even though most species of mole-rats live in africa). the monkey god i'm not super sure but i believe it's just a vervet monkey. the other mouse is also a common house mouse.

GG is a second-year student, which is the last year for a rodent. i think she's been kind of aimless -- she thinks incredibly fast as a squirrel, and finds solving problems in the moment to be a much more successful endeavor than trying to plan ahead. she doesn't worry about the future and doesn't ruminate on the past much. she's aware that she isn't the best ever and doesn't apply herself as much as others, but it also doesn't particularly bother her. kind of ironic, given the aesop she slops onto Legend after the fight. i imagine that she will eventually choose the name Serendipity. i tried to write her lack of foresight, but compensatory quick thinking in both fights. like the shrike, GG is a combat-oriented student. the style she briefly introduces at the beginning is called fanciful flower's delightful blight. it is based on the deadly nightshade flower and its berries -- which are toxic, obviously, and a hallucinogenic. squirrels flick their tails for many reasons, and the most common reason is simply a default flicking to attract predators. their tails are designed to "deglove" easily; if a predator lunges for their tail, which is the moving part of them, the skin and fur will tear off, and the squirrel can escape. delightful blight utilizes the attention-grabbing flicking of the squirrel's tail as a nightshade plant to induce a trance-like state. the berries represent temptations so much more pleasing than what you ought to focus on. a nice berry and a flower to smell are so much nicer than struggling in a fight. even when you resist them, they linger in your mind, and "plant seeds" when the berry falls as self-restraint is worn down over repeated abstinence from the temptation. factures induce hallucinations and nausea. she primarily uses the base rodent style to fight Legend here, but also uses base squirrel style twists, which include more acrobatics, backflipping, and contortions.

the two things that really catch Legend off-guard use limbs that she doesn't have, and most opponents don't have -- elbows long enough to use defensively, and a long, rope-like tail. she is otherwise supposed to be fairly adept at analyzing what an opponent will do, usually a few steps ahead, related to her ability to fabricate narratives quickly. you can see her also come up with a lie for kicking GG fairly quickly... she was going to say the impulse was in her legs because she was trying to move away from GG's strike.

anyway if any part of this fight is like... unfathomable i can probably explain. i've already been typing for way too long, lmfao

[spinnysocks]

TLG Outlanders Jumanji AU that i have suddenly become obsessed with :) buckle up

i'm mainly basing this off of the 2017 movie, with elements of the 2019 one too

wema, tunu, dogo and kijana are playing when they find a hidden cave, they go in and they find lots of weird paintings on the wall and the floor. ever the inquisitive one, dogo steps into a circle in the middle and they all get sucked into... Jumanji?? or maybe in the TLG universe it's called Mchezo

the adults look for them. the leaders (plus kenge and sumu) and the idiots (plus mwoga, nne, tano and neema) go in two groups to search since the kids were missing for a while. the leaders find the hidden cave first as sumu noticed it in his small size. they get sucked in, and eventually the idiots find it after them

they turn into human versions upon entering the world. yeah they're pretty freaked out lmao

the premise is that they go through trials to "prove" themselves, at the risk of their 3 lives, to get to the final task of saving the kiddos. i'm thinking each of them get a task focused on their skills but all of them are at the will of it, aka any of them could lose a life in any trial

i think the Strengths & Weaknesses bit would be funny. kiburi has no weaknesses, he says smth like "I'm too good to be weak 😏" and then 'Pride' pops up hfgdhdh. tamka's weakness would be cake because i think it'd be funny. nduli's is picking up cool rocks. i would say goigoi's would be sleeping but he'd lose all 3 in an instant. the list goes on

reirei is mad because she gets the boring map-reader job lol, despite that she saves everyone's asses so

i imagine sumu is like Milo, he gives them the information in a really deadpan tone lmao. it's like "... Oh no..." "Spit it out, will you?!" "... Mandrills. We should go" and he just continues spilling knowledge while they're running for their lives lmao

you know how in the second movie Bethany/Milo is a horse? yeah nne and tano are straight up just themselves- they're hyenas but realistic, like they didn't change 💀 they're just there doing hyena laughs and absolutely savaging people in the fights

the ostrich scene from the second movie would be funny. maybe the hyenas are the drivers 👀 NONE of them trust their lives with janja, chungu or cheezi but somefuckinghow.. they don't die

in a trial where the leaders are really trapped, guess who sneaks in and saves them? Ushari!!! that was actually all of their reactions as soon as he spoke and they knew it was him. shupavu hugs him on impulse and then gets awkward about it lol, they're happy to see him

ushari explains how he didn't actually die when scar was destroyed but he escaped the volcano and happened across the hidden cave. he's been trapped ever since and obviously presumed dead. he's been stuck with 1 life because he needed the others to complete the rest of the trials :(

there's a dance fight where kiburi has to defeat the guards without being all guns blazing about it. literally the same as the scene with Martha. it's so funny at first bc he doesn't know what the fuck to do - i hc him as demi, he can't flirt with someone he doesn't know😭 - but when a song (prolly rap?) starts playing he beats their asses easy

little did they know the exact same thing was happening on the opposite side of the building, just with the idiots. tamka, nduli and neema also get their cool moment of beating people up, dance fight style! it's mainly tamka because he actually DOES have a strength in acting :)

the leaders and the idiots enter the building at the same time and it's an "Oh Shit!" spiderman pointing meme moment lmao. from this point on they do the trials together

the vultures fly the helicopters. you can imagine how well that goes. it's just like in the movie where something immediately breaks 😭 i think it'd be cool if kenge was the one to fix the helicopter, giving him a hero moment! imagine it

"Kenge, you did it! :D"

"Guess I did"

"Um... Oops"

"What Janja?"

"I dropped the jewel 😶"

"YOU WHAT?!?!"

janja loses a life in that scene from the rhinos 😭 do i wanna traumatise mzingo that much? idk. i just feel like that is such a janja thing to happen. fridge's character is janja-coded lmfao

"YOU PUSHED ME OUT THE HELICOPTER! >:("

that scene where fridge pushes spencer off a cliff? yeah that obviously happens. i'm thinking reirei and janja squabbling. would be funny if janja pushes reirei off impulsively and he just stands there, in shock, waiting to get yelled at when she respawns 😭

there's one of those Step On The Right Pieces trials. kiburi is being all cocky, steps on the wrong one and loses a life- bro gets absolutely humbled lmao. i think the skinks would be good at that trial for some reason

some random trial ideas: a "sleeping lions" type trial for goigoi. a "follow (copy) the leader" trial for mzingo. a food temptation one for the idiots??

jasiri definitely has a trial where she helps someone or shows that the "bad guy" NPCs can be good or somethin. that's probably the last trial before the finale

at the last trial they all work together to save the kiddos! it's really wholesome at the end because they saved the kids, they actually achieved something, they worked together, AND they got ushari back! :)

bonus:

based on the second movie, i was considering a different version of this au where janja purposefully enters the game to prove himself and it's more of a lesson of how it's not just about his strength, but the strength of all of them

janja just thinks he ain't good enough, especially not being leader of his clan anymore, but it's through working together when the others come after him that he realises that ain't true. just an extra thought i had :)

might make a follow up post because i came up with this in an afternoon just for fun 😭

[shannonsketches]

but just like...What If, you know??

Geets/Ego is based on a Mandrill, the monkey I personally fear most

Goku/Instinct is based mmmostly on a lemur because I like the idea of him being very long and agile

I kept his legs funky to nod to angelic influence. Also because Lemur feet weird me out! So I made them Worse.

teeny freeza for size reference

[realareturns]

A bunch of smaller/miscellaneous NiGHTS findings using the Free Look Camera under the read more

(Sorry if this is kind of disorganized— it was originally a thread on Twitter lol, also this might be part 1 of these because I forgot there’s a photo limit here lol)

The doors in the Dream Gate have little lions on them— kind of hard to see with the game’s usual quality lol

Bomamba’s boss area has some hidden cats that are hard to see normally. There are also fish bones on the ground 😟

The buildings in Bella’s boss area have eyes on them (???)

Chamelan’s boss area— not as interesting as I had hoped but still looks kinda cool from above

This sign in the background of Delight City seems to show some very very simplified pictures of NiGHTS and Reala along with Nightopians

Before the Nightopians appear in this cutscene, they bunch together off camera

If you zoom out during a loading screen, you can see that the regular purple void is contained inside of a larger black void

When NiGHTS gets a key, their hand doesn’t change to show them holding it. Instead it just pokes through their hand (FIRMLY GRASP IT)

Reala’s eyelids are black in cutscenes, but turn blue during his battles or in 2P mode

Most of Lost Park’s rides are very detailed, but you usually can’t see them through the clouds. You can also see inside the blimps for some reason

Also the roller coaster starts violently spinning after a few laps on the track

The 2P race mode has this cool color-changing Ideya icon (orange, purple, and pink Ideya confirmed 👀)

Not a camera thing but still kind of interesting: like the bosses, the enemies also have different file names. Most just state the animal the Nightmaren is based on, but there isn’t a bat enemy in the game, and its files correspond to attacks and features of the moth Nightmaren. Might be a remnant of an earlier idea?

Speaking of bats, the pattern on the train carts in Lost Park kind of look like bats… but the faces remind me of mandrills 😟 bat monkey Nightmaren confirmed

Also a Goodle jumpscare

When NiGHTS takes off their Persona in the intro cutscene for Crystal Castle, they remove it so hard that it goes underground twice

(Sorry this photo is really small) The glass patterns on the windows are probably just random but this one kind of looks like Jackle a little?

You can also mess with the camera to the point their eyelashes fall off :(

Icons from 2P battle mode (also used in JoD’s display at TGS 2007, with what might be a slightly earlier design)

And finally spinning 🫵 That’s all for now lol

[boinkingbattlemechs]

Devil

The Devil was created by Clan Snow Raven as a derivative design of Clan Fire Mandrill's 20 ton Howler, after the Snow Ravens had acquired one as isorla shortly after the Howler had debuted. Though it weighs fifty percent more than its progenitor at 30 tons, its use of an endo steel structure and ferro-fibrous armor allows it to focus on high speed and accurate fire. The Devil proved to be a popular sniper for most of the Clans' Golden Century, but was eventually replaced by more flexible OmniMechs. After Clan Snow Raven merged with the Outworlds Alliance, they put the design back into production.

The Inner Sphere first observed Devils in the Clan Jade Falcon Occupation Zone during the initial Clan Invasion through ROM operatives. They reported the 'Mech as slightly underweight at 28 tons, failing to mention the targeting computer and miscalculating the torso armor allocation. They also gave the Devil the alphanumerical code TZ-1, though Clan 'Mechs do not normally have such alphanumerical codes. Notably, they had reported the Clans' proper name for the Devil, which, unlike the Howler that was called Baboon in the Inner Sphere, was never given a distinct Inner Sphere reporting name.

The Devil is a dedicated fast sniper, essentially a long-ranged, heavy hitting gun on fast legs. The 300-rated XL engine allows it to cruise at over 100 km/h, while running at a top speed of 150 km/h. Its single Series 1B ER PPC is tied into an advanced targeting computer, allowing skilled pilots to dash in, hit a target, then get out again before the enemy can respond. Five tons of ferro-fibrous armor provide protection.

No variants are known to exist, but the Devil is itself based on the Howler and would in turn serve as inspiration for the Howler 3 "Devil" variant of the Howler, which was a modification that Clan Snow Raven carried out on captured Howler 2s from Clan Steel Viper since 3066.

[silverhart-makes-art]

This week's Bestiary Posting is a whole menagerie of mammals. Again, labeled version and short descriptions of my thoughts below.

Shmeashagg - needed to be mottled, I also gave it giant claws on it's forepaws so it can "kill at a single bound". Trying to make it look like it could be the parent of a leopard while trying to make it less lion-like. Goggaerker - a bit more of a dynamic pose of it being stuck in a bush; saw-tooth horns, and big fuzzy ears. Brotkarske - a tiny goat with a markhor-style horn, and long legs Revklogwat - I decided to draw a bird since it's feathered and has wings, but I turned it's wings into forelegs. I also gave it ear tufts like a praire chicken, because they're one of my favorites. Shrobshong - was trying to think how horns are supposed to protect you from falling. I went with big curling ibex horns so the animal can never land on it's head and die. Rest of the animal was a combo of a bull and a takin, with a big nose to warm the air up in it's mountain home. Biklanokyo - this one really turned out looking like an alien. Went with a pose/body reminiscent of a horse. Since it needed to carry a huge horn it needed a think neck, and of course, elephant feet and a deer tail Nutogsheag - I don't know where I was going with this one. Just slapped all the mentioned features on it and gave it a long neck for fun. It's got weird protruding cheek bones like an entelodont, or a warthog, but I don't know why - that's just what I was feeling. Raenwegguk - when I thought of animals that embody wildness to me, especially those found in forests, I thought of wild boar and wolves. Smush the two together and add some extra tusks and you get this noble fellow. Klosweisht - originally meant it to be a sort of hyena-like beast, and some of that is still there, but the mention of horns made me redraw the head and legs as more gazelle-like. It's terrifying when it opens it's mouth and I love it. Kregichmon - pouring through the 'what animal groups haven't I drawn' I happened on 'giraffe-moose with bull horns'. Thokragosk - just a puny little friend. Based on a rodent, but the face turned out a little more like a raccoon, which is cute. Kamyaweneg - just a weird little mole. I had the marsupial mole in mind with their weird fleshy snout and sort of extended it into a helmet for this little guy. I know it doesn't have eyes, but I put a dot where I thought an eye would be, because otherwise it's hard to even figure out what this thing is. Moles are just weird. Extremely successful, but weird. Ghrastasag - so the rest of these are primates and I'm gonna be honest: I don't like drawing non-human primates. Even humans-primates tend to be low on the 'things i love to draw' list. So we're gonna have a lot of sketchy stuff heavily relying on references for these last critters. The lack of real description beyond 'ape' for these also is not helping. Ghrastasag is just a fuzzy baboon. Rigfengtog - another baboon, but this one's showing off it's fangs and is significantly less fuzzy. Ngibealgul - a shaggy gorilla creature. This one looks very thoughtful and solemn for some reason. Gerskatrea - these apes are said to have attractive faces, and the two most attractive primates I thought of off the top of my head, are the mandrill and the emperor tamarin. Hence, mandrill with a mustache. No one can resist a curly mustache. Maerdradli - I was pretty burned out at this point so... more of a doodle then anything, but it's an ape, and it's got a beard, and a fat tail, and I also gave it a droopy mustache because I felt bad for it.

[docgold13]

Profiles in Villainy 

Scarlemange

Heralding from the post-apocalyptic realm of the Age of Wonderbeasts, Hugo Oak was a mutated mandrill possessing pheromone-based mind-control powers. With his abilities and enhanced intellect, sat at the very top of Las Vistas's food chain ruling the land with an iron fist.  

Hugo was originally a normal primate that was mutated and raised by Lio and Song. The cruel treatment he endured under the human scientists who commissioned his mutation, and the eventual perceived desertion of his adoptive family, left Hugo with a lasting grudge against the human race. Upon acclimating to the surface world and weaponizing his coercive pheromones, he rechristened himself 'Scarlemagne' and crusaded to reunite the surface under his banner.

A despotic ruler who championed his fellow primates through intimidation and mind-control, Scarlemange was feared across the surface for the reach and scope of his power. He sought to build a golden city from which he could rule over his fellow mutes, and very nearly succeeded before Kipo and her allies were able to depose him at his own coronation, costing him his captive army in the process. Shortly afterwards, Scarlemagne was captured and imprisoned by the Timbercats.

After his reformation he joined Kipo in the fight against Emilia. In the final battle, he sacrificed himself to save his adoptive sister, Kipo.

Actor Dan Stevens provided the voice for the villain, first appearing in the sixth episode of Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts, airing on January 14th, 2020.

[tinyfantasminha]

Have you seen the new birthday card for jack? I really want to know your honest reaction about it

I was out the whole day yesterday so that's why I didn't immediately screamed in here as usual

THERE HE IS MY PROUD BOY, MY BF MY BABYGIRL MY WOOBA SHOBA MY WITTLE PUMPKIN MY SWEET LITTLE CHEESECAKE MY LITTLE WOOF WOOF

He's holding a macaron in his hand 😭😭😭💗💗💗I think he mentioned somewhere before that he's actually fond of sweets? Even though he's so physically active

Also he's wearing glittery eyeshadow again LETS FUCKING GOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!! Yassify him

Ok now putting the rot aside, I'm sure everyone is curious about what I think of the paintings they chose for his card, and I've been seeing a lot of general confusion regarding the paintings

First, I want to state that it's probably safe to assume that the painting on the right is the respective Great Seven of the dorm from which the twst boy is from; Jack from Savanaclaw has Scar, Ace from Heartslabyul had the Queen of Hearts and Jamil from Scarabia had Jafar (which, coincidentally is also the character's he's twst from).

Okay so what about the LEFT painting... This is where everyone is left confused because the fandom was speculating that the painting was meant to represent the dsny character whom the birthday boy is based off. This is merely FANDOM SPECULATION. It was never stated in any official sources that the characters shown in the paintings are supposed to be the OG dsny character whom the birthday boy is based off.

To be honest I was already expecting they'd put a random lion king character instead of a canon wolf character for Jack rip my beauty and the beast wolves but this is also confusing because there are no wolves in lion king. So they slapped Rafiki in there as a filler.

No, Jack is NOT based on Rafiki. There is little to none similarities between them, not to mention the most obvious of all, Rafiki is a mandrill and Jack is a wolf. ...There's just no sense. ''So why'd they put him in there?'' because the painting on the left isn't meant to be his origin character, it's just supposed to be the painting the birthday boy chose to talk about. In some cases, like Ace's, the painting of their choice is indeed the character they are originated from, and I'm sure it will be like that with the characters who really does have clear inspirations. So for the character with ambiguous origins or that seems to have mixed inspirations such as Lilia, Sebek, Silver, Ortho (even Epel, as he's based on an object rather than a character...) they will probably choose to talk about a random character from the movie their dorm is based on.

Clarifying it all with a picture:

So to finish, that leaves a lot of people asking ''so are we never going to see who Jack is based on? 😭'' the truth that we don't want to admit is that he doesn't have an origin character! Jack is unique (and we love him for that) and very likely a mix of inspirations such as White Fang and the whole ''big bad wolf'' trope as a whole. It's fun to see and indulge in everyone's headcanons even if a lot of them don't make sense for Jack's inspirations because Jack is a good boy and he deserves all the attention and love and I'm eating it up.

[rockybloo]

I really think SlayerBack is cool, don't get me wrong! But, he reminds me of a giant Baboon with horns

That's because I purposely based him off the Mandrill.

I even updated him so he has the beard color of them.

I was looking straight at pictures of that monkey while designing him because I wanted Slayerback to be on the lowest key a ref to Planet of the Apes and because monkey based aliens are slept on as a concept.

[rose-grimm-spirit-does-dumb-shit]

Compound is a scaremaze, a good scaremaze.

The idea with this design was to absolutely take advantage of the whole "weaponising your DNA" part of the lore to make a mutated Seek the Truth activist, after all that is what you're detained under suspicion of being! Going with Honey Badger as a base species for the fun of making a species known for their violence and tenacity so dangerous that even they feel ashamed of it.

The eyes, teeth and general growths of this design were very fun :)

Oh and before you get any ideas, @cherrykitkat has this one on hold as well.

THE LINEUP

Day 1 - The London Dungeon Day 2 - Magma Day 3 - Coven of 13 Day 4 - Orion Day 5 - Vampire Day 6 - Below Day 7 - Curse at Alton Manor Day 8 - Wolf Legend Day 9 - Depths of Darkness Day 10 - Octonauts Rollercoaster Adventure Day 11 - Electrick Circus Day 12 - Mandrill Mayhem Day 13 - Survival Games Day 14 - Mystic Timbers Day 15 - Compound Day 16 - Tiger Rock

[journeytothewestresearch]

Ty! On that note, what is the most accurate translation when describing the Four Monkeys? The Red-Buttocked Monkey in particular because you’ve got translations like horse monkey, baboon, and possibly mandrill? I’m also interested in their abilities and would please like a reliable source on what each is capable of.

Your best source for the abilities of the four primates is JTTW. I have altered Anthony C. Yu's translation of the names to make them more accurate:

“The first,” said Tathagata, “is the Stone-Monkey of Numinous Wisdom [Lingming shihou, 靈明石猴], [1] who Knows transformations, Recognizes the seasons, Discerns the advantages of earth, And is able to alter the course of planets and stars. The second is the Red-Buttocked Horse-Monkey [Chikao mahou, 赤尻馬猴], who Has knowledge of yin and yang, Understands human affairs, Is adept in its daily life And able to avoid death and lengthen its life. The third is the Long-Armed Gibbon [Tongbi yuanhou, 通臂猿猴], who can Seize the sun and the moon, Shorten a thousand mountains, Distinguish the auspicious from the inauspicious, And manipulate planets and stars. The fourth is the Six-Eared Macaque [Liu��er mihou, 六耳獼猴] who has A sensitive ear, Discernment of fundamental principles, Knowledge of past and future, And comprehension of all things. These four kinds of monkeys are not classified in the ten categories [of life], nor are they contained in the names between Heaven and Earth” (based on Wu & Yu, 2012, vol. 3, p. 115). 如來道：「第一是靈明石猴，通變化，識天時，知地利，移星換斗；第二是赤尻馬猴，曉陰陽，會人事，善出入，避死延生；第三是通臂猿猴，拿日月，縮千山，辨休咎，乾坤摩弄；第四是六耳獼猴，善聆音，能察理，知前後，萬物皆明。此四猴者，不入十類之種，不達兩間之名。

One late-Qing source, New Dialect (Xinfangyan, 新方言, early-20th-c.), associates “horse-monkey” (mahou, 馬猴) with various iterations of Chinese terms for macaque monkeys:

"Bathing-monkey” (muhou): “mother-monkey” (muhou); mother-monkey (muhou): “full-monkey” (mihou) – these are called “horse-monkey” (mahou), the sound of each one changing [in turn]. 沐猴：母猴；母猴：彌猴，令人謂之馬猴，皆一音之轉。(the original doesn’t have punctuation)

And since the stone-monkey is Sun Wukong, the celestial primates consist of three macaques and one gibbon.

Here is my article on the four celestial primates:

[batmanfruitloops]

MORE ASKS? YOU BET I WILL

number one: are there any general fun facts about anyone you guys would like to share, but haven't yet?

number two: anything you can share on your poison ivy? i love her. woman of all time

and lastly: are there any lesser-known (or less popular) rogues that'll be in the au? anything yall can tell us about em?

(sorry for multiple questions. this au scratches my brain)

So many questions is not a problem at all! I'm glad to have so many to answer,

Along with being a scientist, Viktor used to run an ice cream parlor with Nora and it was like a winter wonderland come to life. With his freezing expertise, it snows inside and their display window has a snowman built weekly to advertise their business.

They sold all kind of ice cream, frozen treats, and hot chocolate. Also, since Nora and Viktor were unable to have children, seeing so many come into their parlor was a way to vicariously live as if they were able to. After Nora's MacGregor's Syndrome reached stage 4, both of them stopped working there personally.

Cleo, or Ratcatcher, is very asthmatic, and so she has a mask to help with that. She also has an optional pair of goggles that I affectionately call "Boggle-goggles" because boggling is the something that rats do when they're happy. It's kind of like their eyes are vibrating.

Our Creeper is based on a Mandrill monkey as that's what he reminded us of when reviewing clips. Very silly animal brain. He drank all the funny chemicals and now his brain makes coo-coo sounds sometimes.

But of course! When Ivy plant pheromones don't work and she feels threatened, she grows thorns over her body and pulse and move like thorny veins.

Ivy has many sentient plants, but her closest is named Gloria. Mostly inspired by Audrey 2 from little shop of horrors, but also the piranha plants from Mario.

Ivy can photosynthesize, I don't know if she normally can, although eating and drinking food as a human normally would works too and is more efficient.

As for less-popular, or less-known rogues, yes! With that post I released earlier, there is quite the cast. This is also a good time to mention that there will sometimes be appearances of mine and Fluffy's favorite Justice League members and later down the line, the Titans too. This won't be often, but they will be here.

If I had to choose one for now though, I'd love to talk about Lynns, a.k.a. Firefly;

Lynns was born with body deformities that makes them look more bug-like, but also they were born intersex. Like most kids born as such, their parents (mainly father) decided that Lynns was specifically a male and named them Garfield. It didn't take Lynns long to decide that that was not how they wanted to be viewed, and pretty adamantly said this to their father to which, after a lot of trying to "convert" Lynns and a lot of back and forth, backed off albeit begrudgingly.

Because of this, Lynns isn't particularly fond of being called Garfield, or restrictive masculine things, although masculinity itself Lynns is not against. As they grew up most of their friends were pretty supportive and understanding, although there are some who view Lynns as just "Fi" and as a female, but they're fine with that. So long as it's not meant to be offensive.

Lynns had regular old prosthetic legs growing up, but as an adult, Lynns made their own legs that were meant to look more bug-like, as they like appearing that way. Lynns was always a pyromaniac and so they became a pyrotechnic for movies as an adult. They weren't badly scarred and burned until someone else accidently made a trick faulty.

Hope this info-dump is entertaining, :3

-Sarsee

[lagt-duck]

Day 30 of Monkey May!

Monkey!

Aka

The BEST MONKEYS, celestial kind~ for those of you that have a keen eye you would notice that macaque eyes already made an appearance in this challenge!

More lore about them under read more

Okay so in order they are

Baboon Gibbon Wukong and Macaque

Baboon Is in part inspired by a mandrill but mostly for the dark fur color, he has a yin yang symbol as eye in both eyes, to reference his descriptor by Buddha.

Then Gibbon, mostly I based on aesthetic space art, and how I personally draw sunsets, he even gets sparkly anime eyes because of that XD, again the space/star theme is because of his descriptor, which he shares some parts with Wukong but I think wukong is more defined by his transformations then his planet and stars part.

Then of course we have Wukong

And last everyone's favorite Macaque, who's design is mostly based on vibes EXCEPT the fur.

This is because in my designs all the celestial monkeys were born with white/very light fur, but then after some personal growth they grow into their actual fur color.

Wukong fur is actually golden but he has to outgrow the fact that he is a bit charred by the furnace!

If you guys have more questions feel free to blast me about it!!!

As always the challenge belongs to @vorpaldoodles who deserves your attention!