what do you think the ancients looked like under their masks?
ANON THANK YOU FOR ASKING I COULD CRY TEARS OF JOY
The short answer: Human-like, but dubiously. Very colorful, ornate, and diverse. Heavy on body modification: piercings, implants, tubes of all sorts, and dramatic face/eye changes are everywhere. It's hard to describe one thing they all are, because they're each so different.
The long answer: (my ocs are here!)
Okay, so, important bare minimums: They can have pretty much any skin tone, and come in all of the patterns and markings you can think of (whether they were born with them or had them added.) The default Ancient eye is exactly like a humans, but people can and often do get changes to their pupils and sclera/eye color. They have "hair" that sort of looks like worm grass. I figure some kinda splatoon inkling type logic applies when taking into mind haircuts and buzzes and all that. They generally have elven, goat-like, or other non-human type ears. Most if not all of them have openings in their bodies for tubes a la cyberpunk, because Ancient fashion gonna Ancient fashion.
Now for the fun/personalized part. Their faces!
Ancients come in a range from the most humanoid to the least. Note that "animaloid" is an EXTREMELY nebulous term and not exclusive to the one shown in the picture. I'm not yet sure how something like this would come about. I like to think this is a result of generations upon generations of extreme genome modification, or "animaloid" Ancients are a subspecies/branch off of whatever the humanoid Ancients are, OR they're the same species, but just have an insane amount of genetic variation. This is an issue for me to figure out another time. Regardless, there is no strict line between what constitutes an animaloid and what constitutes a humanoid. Both are bipedal and have a variable amount of pectorals/arms,* with the primary differences being in the face. There are some Ancients that you can look at and immediately classify as one of the two, but most of them fall somewhere in between, like "humanoid" Ancients with exaggerated facial proportions or "animaloid" Ancients that are just close enough to human looking that it becomes difficult to put a label on it. Trying to classify individual Ancients is often a fruitless endeavor, but having the general spectrum in mind is important.
*Can have 1-2 pairs of each: note that an Ancient with one pair of arms may have 2 pairs of pectorals but an Ancient with 2 pairs of arms cannot have only 1 pectoral set. Ancients with 2 pairs of arms are rare.
As mentioned a million times prior, Ancients are super gung ho about body modification, and things we deem extreme in human society are probably only uncommon or even unremarkable in Ancient society. Obviously, not every Ancient is making themselves into the next Rolf Buchholz. Some are more conservative about changing their body, some are more extreme. But the general idea is that not having ANY sort of change made, be it as minute as an ear piercing or as dramatic as horn implants, is bizarre.
I know there's other possible takes on the Ancients that are much more separated from human aesthetics, and I love those! But I wasn't really concerned about the spec bio-y aspect this time around. I have enough alien aliens in my roster already, so my Ancients are entirely a product of me having fun without much concern for making them super believable. Hopefully they look cool enough for that to be a valid excuse.
And finally, some pictures of my Ancients, because it's hard to get the full scope without examples. Some of these are from wips I hope to post someday, so you might see them again later. Also I'm trying to format them all nice and next to each other so they don't take up so much space, but tumblr is losing its mind right now so if it doesn't format right then whoops.
Why do nearly all my ocs have special forms that are just amalgamation abominations?
You got Baku, who becomes bug black dragon with three eyes. Camazotz, who basically becomes bigger bat. Muerto, who can force himself to mutate into a complete abomination of magic. Talon, who basically becomes a chaotic shit show. And The Supreme God, who's true form is absolutely weirdly terrifying.
Then we have Mischief who's just a normal rabbit. He's the only normal one objectively.
It had been a long time since the Soul Guardians had a day off and they were excited to use it. There was still a long fight ahead, but even heroes deserve a day off! And what better way to enjoy a day off than to have some fun in the sun.
A car, a van, and a motorbike arrive at the beach parking lot just before 8 a.m. Riley and Zena hop off their bike and pack their motorsuits into Zena’s backpack. Riley tapped her foot, hoping the tent would be set up soon. Zena smeared sunscreen on her fair-skinned lover’s face. She grinned as Riley squirmed at the cold touch.
As soon as Bomani unlocked the car doors, James and Enya sprung out of the car and dashed towards the beach, disregarding the fact they were supposed to help carry things with everyone else. Bomani sighed and grabbed both her share of things to carry, which was a lot already given she was over 6 ft and 200 pounds, but also James and Enya’s because what mattered to her was that the kids were having fun. Kat followed soon after wearing her giant black hat and sunglasses. She headed straight for the tiki bar for a cold drink that would help her cope with the fact her icy body was not meant to be in the heat.
As Nile and Selena got out of the van they were chatting each other’s ears off about nothing in particular. JJ opened the door and started pulling out the ramp for Maki’s wheelchair. Once Maki’s wheelchair had made it to the ground, JJ went and grabbed the special beach wheelchair they had bought just for today. He gently scooped her up and placed her on this big-wheeled device. She thanked JJ and expressed her excitement that she could attend with everyone else.
By the time everyone had made it to the beach, James and Enya, whose gloves were abandoned in the sand, were already chasing each other in the water. Bomani quickly set up the tent and then dived in the water, ready to cause chaos for the two teenagers. Riley and Kat immediately placed themselves under the tent and decided that snarkily protesting the sun and heat was the best way to enjoy themselves. Selena on the other hand adored the sun, it could do her no harm since she could just heal any burns she got. She laid in the sunniest spot in her bikini, knowing she could take a sun nap without any regrets.
JJ and Nile eyes dug into each other as Nile prepared her serve of the volleyball. JJ had the height advantage but Nile had determination, and to her, that was enough.
Maki watched her friends all play and wished there was more she could do. She watched Riley braid Zena’s hair carefully and Kat sip on her fancy cocktail. She saw Bomani let Enya and James climb onto her shoulders just to throw them as far as she could. And as Selena peacefully slept, Nile was desperately fighting to win a volleyball game she was clearly losing.
Maki could see the waves crashing onto her feet but she couldn’t feel a thing. She thought back to just a couple years prior, when she could’ve been playing too. But she knew her sacrifice was worth it, because without it, none of them would be here smiling today. Things were so different from the beginning, and yet they still had so far to go.
Not all of them would return to this beach again, but for those who did, this peaceful day danced in their memories.
There we go!!!!
A lot of Babs from the "Free Wonky Doodles"!
I really enjoyed drawing every OC, and I'm really sorry if you submitted your character but i couldn't draw it!
ALL THE CREDITS ARE HERE:
TSG -> @wiccanginger
FLOW -> @dragonfiremagic
RU -> @calameowri
The disaster lesbians -> @clarisetg
The Mimic -> @grapejuicedragoon
RODS -> @jennifer-hamilton-wb
Fluffy -> fluffymeww (on Discord)
FSST -> @babesareblue
Codvulet -> @whataduck
US -> @localfandomjumper-horizon
Salvo (blue scug) -> @moderncrow
HNoP -> @nixii-sabre
To everybody: Thank you for giving me the chance to practice my program on your poor oc lmao
Hope I got all the credits right hgkjadgkhalgghag
Pls lemme know if I missed somebody