#she was also a lot of fun to draw. her tail is meant to be shaped like a bat's wing

[kirisclangen]

Batkit

She/her, 3 moons, cis molly

[robo-milky]

What Could Have Been…

Art block struck but I wanted to be productive anyways, so I decided to revisit my very first concept of Cloche! I had some fun drawing this for myself, and it brought a lot of nostalgia to me. It was cool to try to translate old art into how I draw now, and comparing what changed.

[Notes]

- Honestly, I have NO idea what I was even going for with the fit- At the time the cat maid theme was integral to my persona but I also didn’t commit completely?? I still really like the short blazer but gosh the shorts and black leggings underneath- I think it’s a nice style but feels out of place as an altered school uniform. Gosh younger me was edgy (still am- but tbf, I’m sure at that time, I was focused on having fun since I was dipping my toes into TWST without having thoughts of commitment to the game or caring that much). The first thoughts I had in mind seeing this design again was like “ringleader? dominatrix? beast tamer?”. In a way, I still got some butler vibes from this. Could you tell I was fresh out of my JJBA era with this?

- “Silver Tongue” was meant to be this persona’s UM if she were an NRC student. You can bet it was OP 💀 From what I remember, if “Cloche” casts her UM and tells a lie, she’ll seamlessly be transported to an alternate universe where that lie comes true. She can continue to build up on her lies until they start to contradict, in that case, she’d be transported back to the original universe. This is why she keeps a notebook on her at all times, to keep track of each lie she tells.

- Since this was more of a persona, she definitely does not have the same personality the current Cloche does. I think I went for more of a manipulator route with this thing

- This was made before the cat maid curse idea, so she actually wears the cat ears and tail for funsies 💀 I thought it was a funny gag for people to think she’s a beastman until the headband slips off-

- Something off with the skin? No moles? That’s right! A certain area’s beauty standards were still ingrained heavily within me at the time 😔 Funnily enough, for Cloche, I did give her more features similar to me than this persona 💀 Seeing Cloche paler with a cooler skin undertone will always jump scare me in my old art.

- This design will always have a special place in my heart tbh, might actually revamp and reuse this— who knows

[spotaus]

Okay, this was long overdue tbh 😔🙏(N Lore (?) Under the cut!)

I've been meaning to make N a new ref for a bit, so here we are! Since she's my skele-sona I kinda want to do a quick rundown on her design elements for fun, then her in-universe lore!

(Note: I refer to her a lot with she/her, she is technically a she/they/he/it genderfluid kinda girly, but I made her before gender tomfoolery registered in my brain so I default to 'she/her' out of habit-)

Design:

Her Halo/Crescent/Horns were initially inspired by wanting her to have metaphorical horns instead of slapping points onto her skull. She's also a shape-shifter, so her human form uses the crescent like a hair clip! Also based on the moon a bit.

The wings/tail are things I ended up w/ in the long run. The wings used to be optional + usually based on specific birds, and the tail was thicker w/ an end piece that looked like a fountain pen tip, but the long windy one abd the black wings were more fun to draw/animate!

Virgin Killer sweater used to be a Grey sleeveless turtleneck, but I just like the aesthetics here better.

Arm Gloves/Leg Socks are half because I hate drawing arm bones, abd half because I thought it brought more dynamic shapes into the design! Also... kibty... (inspired by gloves/socks I own)

Pants: She's always worn snow-pants in her design, and they used to have hanging suspenders, but I removed them. Why they're amarica colored I couldn't tell you... I just like the color combo 😔

Cracks on her face: The forehead crack is inspired by when I tripped and smacked my forehead onto a stair corner as a kid (blacked out, don't remember the hospital trip that followed?). Chin crack inspo is a random scar I have on my chin!

Color on Bones: I actually just added this, but my skin gets blotchy when I'm nervous or embarrassed, and I like the visual that N's magic does that to her Often lol. So! It's like blush! (It's also on her collarbone but you can't normally see it, haha-)

Blue + Purple: I actually don't have symbolism here. Just that I had another oc (B) who was my *other* skelesona insert oc, and *her* colors were blue and purple. N used to have white eyelights I think? Silver? But N and B traded off some traits in a point where I tried to combine them, and the result was this current version of N! Actually...

Old Art jumpscare...

So, I stole the pattern from her jacket and put it kn her pants, stole the crack in B's forehead and gave it to N, her Halo kept tilting further left, and I revoked shoe privileges?? Idk man, it's been a wild ride.

Oh! Her hands *do* still have holes in them too.

Lore:

N is less like Me and more like a bossy little minion I custom-made to go harass my ocs. She exists anywhere, anytime, and is only restricted my universal laws if it makes a situation more interesting. Very much a mary-sue. Meant to play almost a 'narrator' role!

She has beef specifically with Ichor (because I put hin thru so so much in the early days-) and is very chill with Phishbone and Pretender. She loves to chill in different aus with different people, but she adores just being obnoxious to my ocs specifically. Objectively, *not* a good person 🙏

And yeah. She looks different in has new clothes everytimr I draw her, but this is a good basic design base!

[telekitnetic-art]

Hi!! Your art is so fucking cool! Can I ask what the process looks like for form line? Ex. What do your sketches look like when they are really rough? How do you go from idea -> final product. 💕

Hadih, thanks so much for your question!

Honestly, it's sort of hard to explain? I do have some sketches to sort of give an idea though.

This sketch I posted a couple days ago is a pretty good example of what my initial concept sketches sometimes look like.. As you can see, they're pretty chaotic and very rough, and usually these sketches are more about getting the idea down then actually making the formline itself. There aren't formline shapes just yet, although I do sometimes sketch out elements or shapes like eyes or bodies or paws/hands that will usually have an ovoid in it, because those elements tend to be a focus or centerpiece. The sketch is obviously not final, and things can change along the way to account for space and balance as well as what I'm trying to convey. (These sketches aren't entirely accurate of course because they're for pieces that are meant to be fusions of character illustrations and formline art, but they're the best thing I can find on my pc at the moment)

The rough sketch helps me figure out the flow of the piece, and once I'm satisfied with it I try and get to putting down the shapes and silhouette, and it's here where I try to find the balance with my rough sketch and how the shapes can fit and behave in the piece to the best of their limits while also still conveying the message I want to send. The most common shape I start with is the focus shapes, which are usually ovoids.

This rough of my harbor seal formline which I sent to my aunt for review sort of gives a better Idea of what I mean when I say I try and focus on where the centerpoints will be. Ovoids are usually a focus, so you can see them pop up a lot; in the body, the head, the eyes, the tail, etc. Ovoids are so important and probably the most common shape in formline art, and one of the most common feedback I get from my aunt is to adjust how the ovoid looks in any one of my pieces; she often compared them to a loaf of bread! You don't want your ovoids to look like a loaf of bread! (Her words, not mine). I feel like I've gotten better at drawing ovoids though, because she gives it as feedback less and less nowadays. Ovoids usually also have to have a bit of weight/perspective to them; it's hard to describe but essentially the top of the ovoid should usually be bigger/thicker/have more weight then the bottom.

From ovoids, the next shapes are usually circles, u-shapes and crescents, then usually y-shapes/trigons. It can be difficult, because the key is to make sure the shapes flow together and feel cohesive, as well as to make sure the negative/positive space balance feels right. Also a fun tidbit, trigons are most typically used to essentially fill space; it's always important to make sure that they are binding bigger shapes like u-shapes and ovoids and not stealing all the space and attention.

The lines in this stage tend to be very rough and messy, and I always try to go over the next rough draft with a smoother and cleaner pen.

Once the initial shapes are done, I'll usually send the piece to my aunt (sometimes I send them earlier on, when I'm in the middle of working out the shapes) for feedback! I am still a student in formline work after all; basically all of my teachings come from my aunt, who has a lot more years of work in formline art then me. She'll give me feedback and tips of what she thinks I should fix or experiment with. I adjust and fix and sometimes even completely delete and redo parts of the piece with her guidance. The list of things she tells me to change decreases with each piece, so I like to take that as a sign that I'm improving!

Once the black and white version of the design is done, I move onto coloring. Usually I already have a color scheme in mind when I go into a piece, so I'll mess around and put down colors and see how well they contrast before I color it. Typically, a piece will have about 3 colors; one for the background, one primary color, and one secondary color. I use a clipping layer to color the entire formline piece with the primary color, and then go in with the pen tool and bucket tool to use the secondary color. Adding in the secondary color is tricky but important because it once again falls into balancing positive and negative space/colors and the transitions between the two.

Once coloring is done, the project is basically finished! Unless there are some other plans I have for it, ie using it for an overlay in a bigger piece, colouring is usually the final stage.

And that's about it! I hope this helps you understand a bit; this isn't a perfect explanation as this is just from my own artistic POV and other nations and artists have their own process, but I hope it helps nonetheless!!

Edit: I forgot I posted other WIP formlines here before ��� here and here!! You can sort of see me figure out the flow and balance of the designs in between the WIP and the finished piece!

[thepaintedsable]

Uh oh, who let me into a fandom again? Who left the niche within a niche door open??? Y’all should know better.

@sm-baby’s Carnival AU for The Amazing Digital Circus grabbed me by the bootstraps with??? Inspiration??? Not only have I dodged most fandoms and the motivation to draw fanart (not that I don’t want to show support; just no ideas in the noggin), but I genuinely don’t think I’ve sat down and put a non-ironic, genuine OC for a media I like on paper since my Warrior Cats/Creepypasta era. This AU didn’t just get me to sit down and make an OC that fits with the original media, but one that fits with their derivative. I saw other people doing it and it looked like so much fuunnn.

First, have standard TADC version! Either that or a player.

This is Tuus! They’re mainly based on the beanie baby dragon to fit that sweet sweet 90s theme, but generally a mixture of beloved childhood toys I have sitting on my shelf. She’s scruffy, worn, and kinda dirty looking and that’s on purpose. She’s bottom heavy, and I wanted her wings to give off the texture of that basically-plastic shiny fabric you used to see on a lot of toys.

No mouth, but a randomly appearing lizard tongue. For fun.

Tuus deals with the circus by sleeping. A lot. Too much. If you don’t need to sleep, then you don’t need to be awake. If she’s doing to be trapped in a digital hell, she might as well be catching up on her naps. And she will sleep in the worst places. Time for a digital feast? She’s on the table. Caine wants to have an adventure in the lake? Girl is at the bottom. Sleeping with the fishes fr fr. And you need to find her one day? Nowhere to be seen, probably on the roof.

It’s playing on the whole big, lazy, sleeping dragon thing that used to be in a lot of children stories I remember. But also how well loved childhood toys seem to pop up and disappear, there when you aren’t looking but gone when you are. Her name also means “Your” or “Thy.” Your dragon.

BUT AT THE CARNIVAL?

What amusement park is complete without a gift shop? What game doesn’t have a place to buy goofy digital goods? Tuus is the big lady in charge of the gift place of the Carnival! Her room is what should have been a shop of sorts, to buy whatever products that darned company would have tried to push. Cosmetics, virtual toys, digital snacks, whatever. But, uh, I don’t think anyone told them dragons don’t like to…. share. Becoming sentient did wonders for the attitude. You should be just fine if you don’t make too much noise, though! She’s a lazy lizard, and often sleeps sprawled around the place. I imagine the level would be set up like a maze, or a labyrinth. Isles and isles of things, with peaks of a tail or smoke every now and again. Toys, clothing, and even random things that shouldn’t be in there just trash the path. It’s your job not to step on anything! It’s different each time, though (a speed runner’s nightmare). One level you might get lucky and have a straight shot with a sleeping dragon, the next there might be so many things it’s physically impossible to reach any exit at all. Potentially can get out of trouble with some digital coin™, but you’ll have to have found enough hidden in the room to forgive each “damaged item.”

Here she is much, MUCH larger and far cleaner. An oversized display never meant to be bought. A collectors item far too expensive for a child. Think “I used to be a beloved toy and now I’ve been forgotten, even forgetting myself, and this is how I cope” favor VS “I have never known the touch of a person and have been trapped on this shelf only to be abandoned and have the personality of an unsocialized dog” flavor.

She has no mouth, but she bites.

I want to draw more of her :) She’s a goof.

[hollowsart]

Starfire / Koriand'r !!

I personally just kinda.. never really liked how she looked in the comics.. the awful costuming she was always put in.. like.. isn't she meant to be a teenager? I mean.. it's called the 'TEEN Titans'.. SO! I decided to also try to make her look a little more alien and a little more like an actual teenager!

I really like how she came out. I'm really proud of this, she was a lot of fun to draw!!

--(just a little info below)--

She collects stuffed animals and has a 2-person book club between her and Raven. She enjoys sharing in Raven's interests and actually enjoys the books that Raven reads in her spare time.

She made the friendship bracelets herself and each of the other team members have a matching one respectively 💖

she picked up the art of mending with Cyborg. Sewing and welding with him as a special bonding time between friends. she modifies all her clothes for her tail to be comfortable.

She learns cooking with Beast Boy, and although her cooking and palate is… unique. BB has fun trying out different recipes and seeing how he can prepare various foods for everyone in the team. He also learns a lot from Starfire's taste and recommendations/suggestions for ingredients to add. Sometimes it surprises him with how good it is!

She shares in skills and interests with the rest of the team. She is just very welcoming and friendly and loves her friends and loves to spend time with them.

[maniculum]

Bestiaryposting Results -- Narngreg

All right, time to look at this week's critters. (Sorry it's a few hours later than normal, it's been a busy few days and I'm behind on everything.) This one is not only breaking the bird streak, but it's also one of the handful of animals that gets a color scheme. The entry our artists are working from is here, if anyone wants to check:

As per usual, the art is under the cut in roughly chronological order.

@silverhart-makes-art (link to post here) has again demonstrated their ability to create these with an impressive turnaround time: this went up the same evening I posted the entry. I like the design -- the high, muscular back there gives it a good silhouette and a threatening appearance, and the way the black fur is patterned looks really cool -- but what really caught my attention was something in the linked post's description of their design rationale. Apparently binturongs smell like buttered popcorn?? Learn something new every day.

@sweetlyfez (link to post here) has given her Narngreg an interesting low-slung design, like if you built a hippopotamus on a crocodile frame. (She's also provided her own alt text, thank you.) We can see the characteristic claws, and also the fun decision to give the creature an extra-large mouth for its scented breath.

@coolest-capybara (link to post here) has again done some fantastic medieval stylization. I really like the decision to go literal with the "eye-shaped circles" description -- makes me wonder if this fur pattern just coincidentally looks like eyes, or if it's meant to ward off predators. Which raises the question of what this friend-to-all-other-animals, dragons-are-scared-of-it beast is trying to ward off. Also, if you check out the linked post, in addition to discussing design decisions, coolest-capybara has another version of this art where a number of the other beasts they've drawn for this project are indeed gathered to follow the Narngreg's scent -- except for the Choglaem, which is hidden in a cave in the earth.

@karthara (link to post here) notes that big cats are probably the sort of beast that can hold their own against dragons, and they fit the physical elements of the description, so here's a big cat species for you. I really like how the coat pattern turned out; the stripes on the end of the tail are a nice touch. Excellent cats all around.

@cheapsweets (link to post here) has taken an interesting (and very cool-looking) direction here. (And has also provided alt text, thank you.) In their explanation of their design decisions, which is quite detailed and worth checking out in the linked post, they explain that a lot of the influence on the design came from trying to reconcile "gentle animal" with "dangerous claws". What kinds of animals have large claws but aren't predators? Well, there are a few, but the ones they are primarily drawing on are the extinct chalicotheres and ground sloths -- large herbivores that nevertheless possess sharp claws. I think it's a clever direction to take. Additionally, I appreciate the stylized eye spots. And the mane-plus-goatee situation. They've also included some previous Beaſts following the Narngreg's sweet breath, and the Choglaem hiding from it in the upper right there. And, of course, Stylized Plants that they made sure to point out to me. :)

@pomrania (link to post here) had a similar thought to cheapsweets: what creature is gentle but has large claws? a sloth! And since there's no mention of it being arboreal, it can be a ground sloth. (Ground sloths are cool and I like that they came up more than once here.) This little guy is frankly adorable; I love the ear tufts and mane. I can see why other animals would be friendly to it -- it just looks like it would be pleasant to be around. There are a number of non-sloth influences happening here, which pomrania lays out in detail in their post, so go see that.

(P.S. Pomrania: I have no idea what, if any, pattern there is to whether the bestiary authors cite sources for a specific fact. I kind of suspect that the difference is "whether they know where that information came from" and possibly "whether they think a particular source is prestigious enough to be an impressive citation".)

@strixcattus (link to post) is also of the opinion that the Narngreg is clearly a feline, or at least similar to a feline -- they also note the "sleeping in caves" thing as inspiration for the "feline equivalent of bears" approach they took, so we might be drifting back to the binturongs again. Anyway, let's all take a moment to enjoy the incredibly cute scene here. Now, go read the linked post. Strixcattus's practice of turning the bestiary entry into a realistic modern naturalist's description of the animal is on point as always, and you owe it to yourself to read this and the other entries they have written. They're fascinating, especially in the context of the Bestiary Telephone situation.

They also express a suspicion that the cave thing is a Biblical allegory, and... ding ding ding!

On the third day the [Narngreg] rises from its sleep and gives a great cry, emitting a sweet odour, just like our Lord Jesus Christ, rising again from the dead...

Granted, bestiary authors turn pretty much everything into a Biblical allegory. You may also be interested to know that dragons retreat from it because the dragon represents the devil.

Anyway, the Aberdeen Bestiary version, which I have to say is particularly nice this time around:

Yep, this artist had the same idea as coolest-capybara and cheapsweets: the drawing should show other animals following it and a dragon... um... hm. Let's just assume that dragon is supposed to be hiding in a cave.

(I assume the critter is blue in this image because painting it black would make all that shading more difficult, so we're using a dark blue to indicate "black".)

And everyone who thought "feline" was indeed correct, because this is the panther.

Some of you may be thinking, "hey, I don't remember learning any of these facts about panthers."

Some others of you, who are up on your taxonomy, may also be thinking, "hang on, panther isn't a species. what animal did the medieval bestiaries think they were talking about?"

I am delighted to inform you that the answer to that question boils down to Bestiary Telephone! See, classical authors wrote about leopards, as you might expect from people who were kicking around northern Africa and southwestern Asia back when there were still leopards there. But Latin had two different words for "leopard", and as a result people from Europe assumed those were two different animals and panthera must be a separate, non-leopard thing. (How would they know, after all? It's not like they have any Leopard Experience.) The confusion created by this simple mistake continues to reign even to this day: the existence of a "panther" as a distinct species of big cat remains a common misconception, and I bet at least one person reading this was in today's lucky 10,000.

(This is not the only etymological absurdity that comes out of medieval Europeans dealing with What Is Big Cats, but we'll get to that when we get to it.)

[splintergirl13]

So I try to draw once a month just as a personal goal. And I was struggling with too many big ideas and needed something fun and not as much pressure instead. And so I asked @bi-ocelot for a prompt to draw and they said to draw the trio as dragons. And then I proceeded to have way too much fun creating lore for them and such so feel free to read under the tab this is all just for silly fun though XD

Steve is an underground dragon who is essentially a miner in which he digs and burrows underground. Only going to the surface for certain supplies. He eats a variety of minerals as well as a lot of vegetables and sometimes fish and (if really desperate) axolotls.  His design is based off of a goanna and some other digging reptiles except his head is a little more blocky since he just looked better as a block boy. He uses his nose and horns for pushing dirt. His tail is used to break up big rocks and as protection like an ankylosaurus (except he has more dexterity than that dinosaur had). He places condensed ores on his chest as both a layer of protection (think armor) and as a way to better camouflage into his environment. He can smelt things with his dragon breath (he is the forge). His wings are very bat like and he will curl them around himself but they are very small compared to other dragons so they are really only meant for gliding (think burrowing owl) and going short distances. He can only barely hide himself with the wings. But it works better since he needs to cover up the blue usually he will fold them neatly so only the dark back colors show. But when he gets nervous he will wrap the wings around his head (poorly).  When threatened he usually will curl up on a wall and stay there until someone passes. This dragon can dig for miles with his sharp and strong claws.

Alex is a forest dragon. Very fast and agile. Meant to camouflage in trees (like a tiger) and swoop around (like a falcon or big cat). She eats a very meat based diet of anything she can sneak up on. She has very big haunches for pouncing. Taller than Steve. She is made for quick and efficient kills. I am very much going for a mixture of big cat and quick hunting birds. You would think her mane would cause her to be bad at camouflage but it works just like the orange of a tiger does. Her tail is meant to restrict and pierce. Keeping the larger prey in place. Also makes for good quick swipes if something bigger attacks her. Also works well for balance. Her whiskers allow her to sense prey and movement.

Steve met Alex when he was grabbing trees up on the surface to better prop up his cave. She was hunting in one of the trees, focused on a big prey item that is her favorite, and Steve being very unaware cut down the tree with her in it. She was injured and yelled at Steve that he broke her wing and lost her her lunch and how is she going to live without her wings. He escorts her to his cave and takes care of her while she recovers and they become the best of friends. Both very solitary creatures usually so it is unusual for them to get along. But they do have their silly arguments as Steve didn’t know how to hunt for her at first and really doesn’t like to kill animals. But she shows him her world and he shows her his. They bond with their love for the world.

While I don’t have as much lore for Herobrine that differs from the traditional ‘got his ass banned and beat by the aether’, he is a lava dragon who is very snake like in appearance. Very long body. His tail acts like a scythe. He has sharp teeth and venom. He was discovered by Steve and Alex when Steve started hearing weird things in his cave and asked Alex to come investigate with him. He started off as a beautiful and regal golden dragon and was burned by the fires of the aether (his brother / family) until his very scales burned and became magma itself. When he is calmer the fire dims and he can get a hug or a nuzzle. But when he is freaked out or angry he almost oozes with his lava. His wings are very torn from the beating and so he isn’t a very good flier, but he used to soar high above the clouds. I cannot ever escape the fallen angel trope, sue me.

Anyways this is the time they all first meet. Like I said, Alex followed Steve into the cave thinking he was hearing things and they finally find Herobrine very injured laying in a lava pit to try and recover, but he has a lot of internal injuries from a recent battle. He almost doesnt reveal himself at first but Steve and Alex are bickering about the sounds and so Herobrine just goes "if you two are going to continue to make that much noise, please just finish the job and kill me" in which Steve proceeds to smack the poor guy with his club in surprise and Herobrine's only response is "ow".

Steve proceeds to nurse the dying dragon back to health. Providing him with lots of food which Herobrine refuses to eat (until Steve accidentally leaves out some diamonds and in which the feral dragon goes CHOMP, couldnt resist that snack) and yeah idk other misc things Steve likes to sleep on top of Herobrine who is like a big old hot rock. And they all shed so like Alex sheds like a husky in which she needs to shake all her dead fur and scales off. Steve needs to melt his layer of melted rocks. And Herobrine just stays in lava for a loooooong time. Lol. Uh I could probably continue to brainrot but this has already gotten out of control XD also ignore the background this was just for fun lmao

[roxannarambles]

Title: Wings of a Butterfly, Eye of the Tiger (Part 1)

Ship: Nemona x Juliana (Julinemo/Terajules)

Summary: Nemona and Juliana just can't resist returning to Area Zero once more. They find new places to explore, new pokemon to discover, and a new things to learn . . . about pokemon battling, but also about each other.

Notes: Okay guys, so there's a story I started on but I got a lot going on in life atm, so I may not finish this story anytime soon (or at all). Burned out on writing and got IRL stuff to deal with, you know how it goes.

That said! I decided I want to post the first chapter anyway, because it was fun to do and I thought folks might enjoy it on its own. So here you go. :D This is meant as a sequel to my story Picnic in Paradise.

You were in the middle of history class and you were so bored. Professor Raifort was on a tangent about some musty old ruins she’d studied in Kalos, and you could tell she wasn’t going to get back on track anytime soon. It wouldn’t be so bad if you were sitting next to Nemona, but Raifort assigned seats to students specifically to prevent friends from chatting during class. It was ruthless, cruel. You didn’t dare pull your phone out either, Raifort went into a rage if she saw any student fiddling with their “damned technology” in the middle of her class. You heaved a sad sigh, drooped over with your chin resting on your desk, gazing at Nemona’s ponytail and wishing you could talk to her. If only you could text her without Raifort noticing . . . ugh . . .

A silly idea popped into your head. You sat up and looked down at your notebook, then glanced up at Raifort. Hmm . . .

You picked up your pencil and scribbled out help me nemona my brain is going to melt into goop if I have to listen to her talk about excavation units for any longer

Slowly, you tore the piece of paper out of your notebook, so as not to make any noise, then folded it up. Nemona was sitting two rows ahead of you, but you knew the student sitting between you fairly well, they liked to talk to you about bug types sometimes. You tapped their arm gently and showed them the note, giving your head a little nod in Nemona’s direction and flicking your eyes back to them, trying to broadcast your intent. They seemed briefly confused but then quickly got the idea, taking the note and passing it without question. You watched Nemona accept the note with a puzzled look and unfold the paper, reading it. Then she cast a quick glance behind her, catching your eye. You grinned at her and she stifled a giggle.

After about a minute, you saw Nemona slide a note onto your classmate’s desk with a nervous expression, and they passed it along to you. You unfolded the paper.

there’s only 20 minutes left girl, you can survive. we can have a battle after class :)

That did sound nice, but 20 minutes felt like an eternity in this classroom. You wrote out another note.

okay sounds good. btw I can’t wait to go back to our secret place, think we can do that anytime soon? been thinking a lot about what we’re gonna do there next.

Then you spent some time doodling some pokemon, a large tiger with sabre teeth and angry eyes and a Pawmot facing off against it, punching it with an Ice Punch. You added a Rockruff behind the Pawmot, wagging its little tail and panting. You wrote out ‘You’ next to the Pawmot with an arrow and wrote ‘Me’ next to the Rockruff. Then you folded up the note and passed it forward.

You couldn’t see Nemona’s reaction, but eventually she passed another note back to you.

jules if the teacher catches us we’re gonna get in so much trouble. we’re champion rank trainers we’re supposed to set an example and stuff!

also I can’t wait to go back too, maybe this weekend? 

You snorted, amused at the mixed messages she was sending. She even included a little drawing too, it looked like her Pawmot and your Gengar holding hands and smiling, under a little rainbow. The word Us was scrawled above them. 

Nemona was not good at drawing. You still loved it more than any other piece of art on earth. You folded it up carefully and tucked it away in your pocket to keep. Then you wrote out another note.

if you can do it this weekend then heck yeah I’m in. can’t wait <3 <3  I love your drawing. 

You handed it to your classmate to pass forward. They accepted it with a sigh, looking a little weary by now with being used as a messenger, but passed it on anyway. Raifort had finally finished with her tangent and was writing stuff out on the chalkboard, but you couldn’t be bothered to care. You were too busy watching Nemona drawing something in her notebook, apparently concentrating very hard. It took her a good five minutes, but she finally finished, folding it up and turning to pass it back.

Except she didn’t manage to get that far. Professor Raifort had finally caught wise to the funny business and grabbed hold of Nemona’s wrist before she could pass the note. Nemona gasped, her eyes growing wide.

“Ms. Sanchez, I’ll be checking that, if you don’t mind.”

The teacher snatched the sheet of paper from her hand and released Nemona, unfolding the note. She scrutinized it a moment, scowling. Folding the sheet of paper back up, she spoke in a stern tone,

“Ms. Sanchez, in case you have forgotten, art class is at 3:00 on Thursdays with Mr. Hassel. We are currently in history class, and I ask that you keep your focus on the subject for the duration of my class. Understood?”

“Y-yes Ms. Raifort,” Nemona stammered, shrinking a little in her seat, while a few people in class giggled. Raifort sighed wearily, pacing away and depositing the note upon her lectern. 

“Now where were we . . . ah, yes. So there were a number of factors that contributed to the decline and eventual collapse of the empire . . .”

It was a mercy when the bell finally rang, students packing up as quickly as possible so they could escape. By the time you’d made your way to the front of the class to Nemona, most of the classroom had already emptied. Nemona had slung her bag over her shoulder and was looking very anxious. You leaned in to mutter,

“What’s wrong?”

“Do you think she’s still mad?”

You shook your head,

“She’s probably forgot about it already.”

“I-I dunno . . . I think I’m gonna go apologize.”

“Nemona, you don’t have to–”

She’d already gone to the front of the classroom, though.

“M-Ms. Raifort? I’m sorry about before, drawing in class I mean. It won’t happen again.”

The instructor glanced up from clearing the chalkboard. She had a disapproving look in her sharp eyes as she sighed,

“I certainly hope not. I expected better from you, Ms. Sanchez–”

You hastened to the front of the room, interrupting her,

“Don’t blame Nemona, Ms. Raifort, I’m the one who started it.”

The teacher’s shrewd gaze switched to you, her eyes narrowing.

“I see. Somehow that doesn’t surprise me. You may still be a new student, but know that I hold you to the same exact standards of behavior as your peers.”

You nodded and answered quickly,

“Of course, and I’m really sorry. But um, would it be possible to get Nemona’s picture back? It would really mean a lot.”

Nemona’s eyes flicked to you, looking as though she thought you were crazy and she expected Raifort to bite your head clean off. Raifort looked briefly thrown off by the request 

but then she just turned back to cleaning the blackboard, sighing,

“Take it and leave.”

You went up to the lectern and snatched the sheet of paper up, saying cheerfully,

“Thanks Ms. Raifort! See you next week!”

As you and Nemona rushed out of the classroom, Raifort muttered gravely,

“If the youth are our future, I fear for the future.”

Passing through the halls, you unfolded the sheet of paper to find a large, slightly asymmetrical heart. It had a lot of lines drawn through it at random angles, which confused you a little. You said,

“Oh, I like the . . . heart?”

Nemona looked down at the drawing and clarified brightly,

“That’s my heart! When I met you.”

You studied it, your brow furrowing.

“It, um . . . broke?”

“What? No! It’s not broken, it . . .”

Suddenly looking very self-conscious, she glanced away. She mumbled,

“It’s supposed to be terastallized . . .”

Your eyes widened as you finally recognized the rough lines as facets to a jem. You squeaked out,

“Oh.”

What were you supposed to do with this revelation? Did your best friend and crush just casually drop this bombshell on you like it was nothing? 

“I-I-I, uhm, I– N-nemona, that’s– that’s–” 

You were trying to get out, Meeting me terastallized your heart? but your face was heating up fast and you couldn’t manage to utter something so sappy and wonderful, in part out of fear you were misunderstanding somehow. 

Nemona seemed a little antsy and uncomfortable, and she cut in, quickly switching subjects.

“Hey, you wanted to battle after class, right? C’mon, let’s go to the Schoolyard!”

“Oh– uh– r-right–sure!”

She grabbed your hand and headed towards the stairs eagerly. You made sure to carefully tuck the note away into your pocket.

By the time you both reached the Schoolyard and took your positions, students were already crowding round to watch. It was pretty much a guarantee that when two Champion-rank students were having a battle, it was going to draw some attention, even if it was spur-of-the-moment. It used to make you feel uneasy, being under the spotlight like that. But it didn’t bother you any more, because these days your sole focus was on the battle and Nemona’s infectious energy– everything else just seemed to fall away. 

“You ready?”

She held out her first pokeball and her eyes were glinting with that familiar thrill. You nodded, grinning.

“All right!” she said, throwing the ball.

“Orthworm, let’s go!”

You threw your own pokeball, sending out Krookodile.

“Krookodile, Stealth Rock!”

“Orthworm, Shed Tail!”

Both of your teams had seen a lot of action over the past few months, and you’d faced off against each other many, many times. As a result, there was a lot of familiarity, but things were hardly what you’d call predictable. You’d both made changes to your teams continuously as you learned and adapted and tried new things. For example, Nemona switched up her leads a fair bit. Starting with Orthworm’s Shed Tail was a relatively new development. She’d been using it very effectively as a way of setting up in the early game.

You were on the watch for that possibly now, as Nemona switched into her Palafin next. You quickly swapped in your Bellibolt, which easily tanked the Jet Punch. Then you ordered Bellibolt to Thunderbolt, eager to break the Substitute before her Palafin got up to any funny business with Bulk Ups. But Nemona opted instead to just order Flip Turn, and then sent out Pawmot to eat up the attack. The bolt of electricity struck her Pawmot, charging it with power, and the audience gave an excited little ‘oooh’ in response.

You narrowed your eyes, thinking; you were considering staying in to use a Mud Shot, but you knew Nemona’s Pawmot hit like a truck. Instead you decided to switch in Gengar. 

You watched as Pawmot’s furious punches phased harmlessly through Gengar, the ghost giggling when Pawmot passed through him and flopped onto the ground. The Close Combat was an easy prediction, honestly, but the audience cheered anyway, loving the spectacle. 

Nemona called,

“It’s all right Pawmot, we got this! Get ready!”

The energetic pokemon leapt back to his feet, fists raised, facing off against your ghost with a glare. 

You smirked a little, thinking to yourself that Nemona shouldn’t be so quick to assume Pawmot had this. You pointed and issued your order,

“Gengar, Dazzling Gleam!”

Nemona looked surprised, but she still took it in stride, quickly ordering,

“Double Shock!”

The two pokemon charged at each other, meeting in the middle of the battle court in an explosion of dazzling lights and crackling electricity. Your vision was bleached out from the brightness and when you could see again, Gengar had fallen, Pawmot panting and very weak but still standing. The audience gasped while Nemona cheered,

“Good work, Pawmot!”

Gengar returned to his ball; you were honestly shocked that the Dazzling Gleam hadn’t been enough to take Pawmot out. Though by the looks of it, he’d been very close. You sent out your Tauros Aqua Breed. Nemona eagerly ordered Pawmot to Volt Switch, but you called out,

“Aqua Jet!”

The shot of water struck Pawmot first, knocking the weakened pokemon out. Nemona laughed,

“Darn. Didn’t think you’d mess up there but was hoping anyway.”

You smiled and shrugged,

“You’d be disappointed if I did something that silly.”

“True, haha. Okay Meowscarada, go!”

You considered things for a moment. Nemona probably didn’t expect you to do something so silly as to keep Tauros in on her Meowscarada, either– she’d probably expect you to swap to your Volcarona. You knew she loved swapping to Palafin for that, so you decided to switch to Bellibolt. 

Unfortunately, it seemed you ended up over-predicting her. The Flower Trick that landed on Bellibolt hit hard, weakening it far too much, well past the point of recovery. With a sigh, you decided to leave him in, letting him faint to the next Flower Trick.

You swapped to Volcarona then– you wanted a clean switch for her anyway. This was also a beautiful opportunity. As Nemona recalled Meowscarada, you ordered,

“Quiver Dance!”

“Palafin, you’re in charge!”

The dolphin that materialized on the battle court was now in his fully-powered state, rippling muscles and tall, proud stance. He was a menace for your team and had often been the one responsible for your losses against Nemona. With your best counter already fainted, Nemona was looking pretty smug.

“Becha you wished you didn’t throw away Bellibolt so soon.”

You shrugged,

“Eh, easy come, easy go. I’ll manage.”

Nemona turned to her pokemon.

“Well, there won’t be any more Quiver Dances on my watch. Palafin, you know what to do!”

You pulled a small, glittering orb from your pocket. God, you’d waited for this moment for weeks. You’d laid in bed at night giggling about it as you imagined your silly plan, and you’d spent hours and hours painstakingly gathering the tera shards, bit by bit. 

Now it was finally time.

Settling your nerves, you carefully threw the tera orb, the energy crashing into your Volcarona.

You called:

“Volcarona, Solar Beam!”

The audience gasped at the mid-battle terastallization, the tera energy gathering around Volcarona and the crystals spreading rapidly across its body, finishing at the top with a glittering crown, her tera jewel: a bouquet of flowers. Then Volcarona glittered and shone even brighter as she gathered up sunlight for her Solar Beam, the Power Herb gripped in her little legs melding into the light as she charged, brighter and brighter, until it was almost painful to look. 

You could see Nemona’s eyes were wide, the light of your pokemon reflected in them.

Palafin’s Jet Punch struck your pokemon, but the move hardly even phased it. 

Then Volcarona unleashed its attack in return, the blast of energy engulfing the dolphin entirely. 

Palafin didn’t stand a chance, fainting immediately, and the students around you let loose some wild cheers. However, Nemona looked more excited than any of them by far. She leapt and cackled,

“Oh my god, Jules! That was incredible!!”

You grinned proudly, giggling,

“Thanks.”

“Seriously, I had no idea, when did you change her tera typing?!”

“Just last week.”

“Oh my god. That was so cool, and the Power Herb too!– it was genius, gahh! I can’t believe you– grhh, okay, we still have a battle to finish, but we’ll talk later, okay?”

You laughed,

“Okay.”

While your mid-battle victory over Palafin filled you with giddy energy (if you were honest, though, it had more to do with Nemona’s unrestrained glee than your victory), it was hardly a decided match. After Nemona had finished gushing over the cool moment, she got her head back in the game and sent out her Talonflame. You weren’t gonna sacrifice your Volcarona recklessly, so you swapped to your Krookodile. Nemona took advantage of the moment to get a Swords Dance off. She then ordered a Brave Bird, seriously weakening your Krookodile. Staying calm, you ordered,

“Stone Edge!” 

“What?!”

The move fortunately connected with the bird, dropping the pokemon instantly.

“I thought you were gonna Taunt! Since when are you packing Stone Edge?!”

You shrugged again, smiling.

“Told ya I made a few changes.”

Nemona groaned.

“You’re turning into a downright terror. Looks like I gotta get serious here.”

She tossed a ball, calling,

“Dragapult, time to get to work! Draco Meteor!”

After Krookodile fainted, you sent out your Tauros. Unfortunately, Nemona correctly predicted the Outrage, swapping into Orthworm on the hit, who took the attack easily. While your Tauros was still in a frenzy, she got up some late-game Stealth Rocks. Luckily Tauros calmed down soon after that, although he now was dizzy from the overpowered attack. You knew he needed a chance to rest, so you switched to your Corviknight, while at the same time Nemona brought Dragapult back in. 

You thought carefully about your next move. You only had Corviknight, Tauros and Volcarona left– she had Meowscarada, Dragapult, and Orthworm. It was a little awkward dealing with Dragapult, though. You decided to just go all out. Corviknight would live a Thunderbolt and get an attack off and Tauros would have to finish it off– he could do it, he had an Assault Vest– and you’d save Volcarona for the other two.

“Corviknight, Brave Bird!”

Your pokemon flapped her wings, rising higher and higher into the air, then fell into a swoop. From the other side of the battle court, Nemona shouted,

“Dragapult, Fire Blast!”

Your heart skipped a beat, not expecting that move at all. You watched as the bird dove directly into a massive fireball, the pokemon crying out in shock.

Corviknight never even reached Dragapult. The fainted pokemon returned to your ball.

“Fire Blast?”

Nemona smiled, hands on hips.

“I made a few changes too.”

“Mnnn . . .”

You sent your Tauros out. You ordered Outrage, desperately needing to take care of this Dragapult. Unfortunately, Nemona didn’t want to give you that chance, and swapped back into Orthworm once more, using Earthquake. The big Steel-type worm had been worn down enough by now that the Outrages managed to finish it off, but at what cost? 

Nemona sent her Meowscarada back out once Tauros’ rage had quelled. You were pretty sure it was over, but maybe you still had a chance with Volcarona. You ordered Tauros to Aqua Jet for some extra damage, waiting for the Flower Trick to finish him off. 

But Nemona hesitated. She seemed to think a moment, and then instead of Flower Trick, she commanded,

“Play Rough!”

You watched as Meowscarada’s cape shifted colors from green to light pink, and then the cat leapt forward, striking your Tauros down on the spot. You stared for a few moments in disbelief.

Then you looked up to Nemona.

“Your Meowscarada has Protean now?”

She looked so psyched, immediately answering,

“I’ve been waiting so long to show it off, I found an Ability Patch in a tera den!! It’s so great to finally tell you, I also equipped her with a– oh, whoops, probably shouldn’t blab that part yet. You’ll see, heheh!”

You chuckled, saying,

“That’s honestly awesome, but I think it’s gonna be a GG for me.”

You released your final pokemon, the Volcarona still sparkling with its crown of flowers. 

“C’mon Jules, you know what I always tell you, never call it early–”

“Yeah, yeah, it isn’t over ‘til it’s over. I know.”

Still, you knew that Protean sealed the deal. You could have taken out a grass-type Meowscarada in one hit, but not a Fairy-type Meowscarada. There was Dragapult waiting in the wings anyway. 

Releasing a little sigh, you smiled gently. You issued your command to Volcarona.

“Ok, Volcarona. Quiver Dance!”

Nemona shouted,

“Go, Meowscarada, Play Rough!”

The nimble feline charged as your Volcarona fluttered her wings and began her graceful dance. Meowscarada leapt into the air, claws extended, teeth bared . . .

But she missed. Your Volcarona swooped out of the way just in the nick of time. The gathered students uttered a collective ‘oooh!’ and Nemona gasped before yelling,

“Quick, Meowscarada, again, Play Rough!”

“Volcarona, Flamethrower!”

Volcarona was a lot faster now, and Meowscarada went down in flames before she could get her attack off. And suddenly the match was down to one-on-one. Nemona released her Dragapult while the crowd murmured. 

Even though misses were always a part of matches, you still felt bad, saying,

“Dang. Play Rough almost never misses, it should have been a safe bet . . .”

“Hey, no worries. Like I said, it ain’t over ‘til it’s over!”

She grinned, pulling her tera orb from her pocket. Right, hers was still charged. And her Drapagult had Choice Specs. Crap.

“Wait, your Dragapult’s still Tera Dragon, right?”

You knew she’d been toying with the idea of changing it to Tera Ghost, but you had no clue if she actually did.

Nemona just winked at you. She replied sneakily,

“Not telling.”

You groaned, then shook your head.

“O-okay, that’s fine, I don’t need you to! Let’s finish this.”

She took aim with her Tera Orb, and you made your choice.

Nemona flung the Tera Orb.

“Volcarona, Flamethrower!”

“Dragapult, Draco Meteor!”

Nemona’s pokemon transformed into its splendid, terastallized state, and your heart sank when you saw it still was crowned with a Dragon Tera Jewel. The Flamethrower struck the dragon but didn’t take it out. Oh boy. The massive meteors roared in the air, crashing into your Volcarona with a flurry of purple sparkles . . .

But once the dust settled, Volcarona was still flapping, tired but conscious! Not wasting another moment, you triumphantly shouted,

“Volcarona, Bug Buzz!!”

The final attack struck Dragapult down for good, to the jubilation of the crowds. 

Afterwards, you both headed to the cafeteria for lunch, Nemona ranting and raving about the match the whole way there. When you spotted Arven and Penny already eating, Nemona hurried over to their table to excitedly recount the story for them. You ate lunch and watched her with a silly smile, because few things in life were as wonderful as listening to Nemona talk about pokemon battling. She was so incredibly animated, putting her whole body into the story and acting out the key moments, her eyes crackling with a fiery spirit and her energy so overflowing that she kept squeezing her hands into fists and giving happy little jumps. 

It was so adorable and joyful that you could hardly stand it. 

“And then, then!” She swung her arms wide, making explosion noises,

“Blammgmmgmgm! Solar Beam blows Palafin straight outta the water, she had a Power Herb!!  Not even a second to react, he’s already gone, my jaw hit the floor! You guys you have no idea how awesome it was, I’ve been telling people forever now that Terastalizing can give us these ridiculously cool game-changing moments but all the Gym leaders are always like ‘Bla bla bla, we can’t Tera into anything other than our chosen monotype, bla bla bla’ like c’mon!! How are we supposed to get trainers excited for battle with terastallization if it’s always like that! Jules did exactly what I’ve been wanting people to do for so long, it felt like, like, something I’m gonna remember forever, you know?”

There was a moment’s pause when Nemona stopped to catch her breath. 

“So I’m getting the impression Nemona liked the battle,” Arven said dryly, sipping his drink. Penny chuckled.

“I’m not even finished yet, wait ‘til you guys hear the rest!!”

You somehow managed to make it through lunch without perishing from either Nemona’s praise or her adorable antics, but when you made it back to your dorm, you flung yourself onto the bed with a huge sigh. It was getting harder all the time to keep a lid on your feelings. It was gonna start affecting your battles soon at this rate, and Nemona was sure to notice that . . .

You felt a lump in your pockets and pulled out a sheet of paper.

“Oh, god, right.”

You unfolded the scribbly heart Nemona had drawn for you during class. You stared at it for a long time, and the other note you’d saved of the two of you as pokemon holding hands under a rainbow. It certainly felt like solid, undeniable proof that she returned your feelings, but at this point you second-guessed everything. Nemona had the habit of making some incredibly strong statements of affection about you. After you beat the E4 and had your first battle together as equals, she asked if you wanted to be rivals for life, and it practically felt like a marriage proposal. She’d only doubled down since then, casually telling you stuff like ‘I’ve relished every single day since you’d moved here’ or done stuff like rearrange her classes and delay her graduation just so she could graduate at the same time as you. You know, simple things like shift all her life plans just for you. 

You hopped off your bed, a determined look in your eye. You were gonna stop waffling. It was time to finally tell her. 

You had to do it right, though. Nemona was doing stuff like proclaiming that meeting you terastallized her heart. So you had to be big and bold too. You wanted to match her energy, and you wanted it to be unmistakable. You picked up some of your pokeballs, then headed back out to the Schoolyard. 

Once you’d stepped out into the open-air solarium, you immediately headed over to the garden area and found a quiet corner to work on your little project. You let your Frosmoth out of her ball. 

“Okay, Frosmoth. Let’s get back to work. Ice Beam. Nice and slow, just like we practiced.”

Your plan was pretty simple. It was something you saw on social media a few weeks ago: somebody had trained their Glaceon to create ice sculptures with its Ice Beam, and one of them was a big heart. It had seemed perfect to you, because what better time to confess to Nemona then in the middle of a pokemon battle? You’d envisioned it then, sending Frosmoth out and creating the sculpture, the look of Nemona’s surprised delight, and then you’d finally come clean to her, tell her everything. You’d tried to confess to her a ton of times already, true, but something always happened. Either it was misunderstood or you chickened out or your plans got derailed somehow. Most recently, you had planned to take her to Cortondo for those little lemon cakes she loved so much and tell her then. That had been right after you’d returned from your Area Zero picnic. But you’d both gotten so busy with exams after that, so it hadn’t happened. 

But it was fine. You had a better plan now and you were going to follow through this time. Frosmoth just had to perfect her technique and produce something other than lumpy ice blobs. It was rough going but you believed in her, you knew she’d get the hang of it. Eventually. 

Probably.

“Okay, Frosmoth, good effort! Let’s try again, I think if you slowed down a bit more and made sure to go back and forth, it won’t end up so lumpy . . .”

You glanced down at your phone, re-reading the blog post about teaching your pokemon to make ice sculptures. Nobody had ever tried to teach a Frosmoth before. You wondered if that mattered. Slowglobe had very different eyes from Glaceons, it might affect things. Hm. 

You eventually looked up again from your reading.

“Oh my gosh, Frosmoth! That’s so good!”

It was hardly as impressive as the photo in the blog, but it was way closer to a heart than she’d ever gotten before. Very lumpy and asymmetrical still, but if you squinted, it was almost recognizable!

While you were examining the ice sculpture and thinking about how to improve things, a familiar voice rang out from across the Schoolyard.

“Hey! Juliana, there you are!”

Your heart leapt in a panic. Oh, crap, crap, no– she couldn’t see this now, it wasn’t ready! You glanced around for a few moments trying to think of what to do, until some quick thinking saved you. You chucked a ball and said,

“Volcarona, u-uh, Flamethrower, right there! Quick!”

The large insect obediently released a fireball, melting the ice sculpture down. A few moments later Nemona had finished jogging over, saying,

“Oh, sorry, didn’t know you were training!”

You spun around, the pair of moths hovering behind you.

“Ahaha, i-it’s fine! We’re mostly just fooling around . . .”

Nemona nodded, crossing her arms and grinning.

“Great! ‘Cause I wanted to ask you about this weekend, when we go to Area Z– er–”

She suddenly stopped and glanced around furtively, then stepped closer, dropping her voice.

“I mean, our secret place. What time were you thinking?”

You blinked. Oh, right. You’d forgotten about that already. 

“Um . . . is Saturday morning okay? Early?”

You toed the gravel under your shoe and repressed the urge to say ‘as soon as possible for as long as possible.’

“Yeah, that’s fine! Like 8:00? We could go right after breakfast!”

You looked up at her and smiled,

“Sure!”

Nemona seemed very pleased.

“Awesome. Man, it’s gonna be so great to finally head back again. Poor Hellcat’s been waiting in their ball, I haven’t even been able to heal them since the nurses at the Pokecenters would notice something weird’s up . . .”

You nodded.

“Yeah. Don’t worry, we’ll bring lots of potions and food for them. And we can work on training them.”

Enthusiastically, she agreed,

“Yeah! Plus we can look for Roaring Moo–”

You held up a finger to your lips to hush her and she quickly stopped, giggling,

“Whoops, sorry.”

She stepped even closer to you and leaned in, whispering,

“We can look for Roaring Moon. And maybe whatever other exciting things we can find, heheh.”

Having Nemona this close and whispering sweet nothings to you– well, all right, they weren’t sweet nothings, but at this proximity they may as well be– was a lot to handle. You felt your cheeks warming and the world felt just slightly off-balance.

“Y-yeah! Okay, yeah! That sounds, um, good!”

Smiling, she said to you quietly,

“Perfect. See you then.”

She gave you a wink for the second time today, and you knew it made sense in context but man, she had better stop doing that. It was too dangerous for your heart. 

Once she’d departed, you turned back to inspect the slushy puddle that had been your ice sculpture. You sighed.

“Guess we gotta put this plan on hold ‘til after our trip.”

You returned your pokemon to their balls so you could start making preparations for your journey back to Area Zero.

[peppermintstarsonamintyway]

sea fox post time

All under the cut cause I'm gonna ramble like crazy <3

The sea fox is genuinely absolutely massive, it's not obvious in this image but the damn thing is huge, more than big enough to fit a good few life boats and row boats in it (and fit them it does)

The sea fox is so large because it used to be a flagship, things have changed a lot since then (although it is still just as big and long (don't take that out of context)) but nonetheless it's still a functional ship, and Marbled gets repairs and upgrades done on it frequently

When Marbled had acquired the ship, it wasn't in particularly good condition, so he took it to a friend and they basically striped the ship down to it's skeleton and then rebuilt it, with Marbled's specifications of course

The ship does still have all of it's sails and stuff, it genuinely needs them to move, these images are just more simplified for the sake of I don't know how to draw ships-

The ship has massive ear shaped buoys on each side, which are meant to keep the ship from sinking in particularly stormy and weather and in the case of aggressive sea monsters (they are also just there to keep the ship more stable)

You might be wondering, "Why is there what looks to be a lamp on the end of the 'tail' of the ship?" Short answer, Blue Moonstone.

Long answer, Marbled had it installed after an incident where Moonstone got turned around and disoriented during a particularly nasty and foggy storm in some unfortunately murky water, her tail smacked into the side of the ship by accident due to her confusion, they eventually got her up into the ship and after that storm Marbled opted to make a detour back to his friend to get the lamp installed.

Circling back to the life boat talk-

One thing about the sea fox is that it has a "mouth" so to speak, two massive metal pieces, of which are connected by a surprisingly strong chain, and the bottom jaw lowers to allow life boats and row boats into the safety of the built in dock in the ship

Marbled used to be a lot kinder back when he first had the dock installed, things have changed and he's realized things, but he refuses to remove the dock, because even if he's a jackass sometimes now he can't allow himself to let people die, even if they deserve it

The crew's quarters are absolutely massive, involving pretty much an entire living room alongside all the beds and hammocks, the crew live pretty well in their own opinion and they wouldn't trade it for anything

The loot and major supply storage is connected to the infirmary, of which the infirmary door is, kind of stuck permanently open :'D unfortunate for the sea fox's paramedic, but at the least everything in there is very easy to tie down

The kitchen has it's own food storage just above it, which the quartermaster (remember the buff lady i was drawing the other day alongside two other cookies? yeah she's the quartermaster) is grateful because it makes sending the small crew members for ingredients a lot easier

A fun thing to know is that the whole crew (spare for the littles) all take turns cooking, even Marbled takes a turn every so often

The brig/prison is placed close to the ship entrance of the dock, another set of stairs just outside the second door leading up to the brig. The space in between the two doors is sort of just a mud room, if you've ever had one of those- put short anyone brought in from the dock is checked over for injuries, general sickness, and cleaned up before they're properly brought onto the ship

The captain's quarters are at the top of the ship, and include Marbled's office at the front of the room, and then up a few small steps and behind a door, is his bedroom, lavishly furnished and with a large round bed for his comfortability (trying to sleep in a rectangular bed as a centaur can be, awkward-), his bedroom is like the definition of cozy

Unfortunately for Marbled he does not get his bedroom to himself because Moonstone and multiple of the littler crewmates can and will barge into his bedroom and lay down with him without warning (the littles need the comfort and Moonstone is very used to sleeping in cuddle piles)

(don't worry he gets used to the lack of privacy eventually, and finds ways around 'em)

Alright I think that's enough rambling from me (questions are welcome <3)

[planefood]

Hooray! Barrage attack!

1. Are you thinking of pitching this as a show? Or as a comic series? Or have you not decided fully yet? What shenanigans are they gonna be up to?

2. How long have you had your OCs for? What inspired you to make them, and what were their previous incarnations?

3. How did Sonnet and Lithium meet? Does Sonnet know he's... *underneath breath* kind of a stupid idiot? Or does she love him for that?

4. How does fashion work for robots? Since a lot of them have stuff like wire-tails and bright colors. Or does it not really affect them?

- 🔌

P.S: Do you have any tips for escaping... "debt collectors"? I may have accidentally pissed off the... "insurance company".

okay Hi im taking a short break from drawing thangs to answer this :) 1. I don't think i'd ever pitch any of my personal oc stories as a TV show or film. I don't like the idea of losing control and copyright of a story so near and dear to me and esp with the current state media is in a lot of stuff would be censored/edited and because I don't live in the states pitching an animated show or film would probably be near impossible for a story like this anyway. A comic on the otherhand is something im genuinely considering, I'd have to figure out the plot fully and find the time to do something like that as well. The story was written to be easily made into a comic format though. 2. These specific robot characters I've only actually had for like,,, 7 months? A lot of work has gone into them in that time span tho. But I'm sorry there isn't a huge timeline where I'm like "I drew my first robot in 2008 and that is where tandy begun" I kinda always had a background interest in robots that just needed the right spark. Back in 2020 I did some AU art of already existing characters as robots (if you know who these are, hi) but these weren't really proper characters, just a fun art prompt.

But I bought Tandy as an adoptable back last september by the artist @acid-redux heres the original design I bought here:

It's actually by a pretty slim chance that I bought this guy! I saw the character a couple months earlier and decided not to buy him initially and came back, saw it was unsold and thought about it. Even after some people told me it wasn't worth the money to buy it I decided to buy him anyway. I said I had "ideas" for him, and that I did. This is the first drawing I ever did of Tandy, if you're wondering if there's like any art earlier than this like sketches or anything I don't really do that when it comes to drawing characters a lot of the time I just go right in. (also the most recent for comparison)

But yeah I totally fell in love with the character after that! I was instantly keen on doing a story with him though with who or what was debatable. Initially he had literally nobody to interact with, I was already openly objectum at this point so the earliest drawings of him show him interacting with computers.

My bestie Marty tho @bytevamp did a character trade with me and I asked if he could design me a character to interact with Tandy, all I specified was a computer robot that wasn't too close in model as Tandy and he made me Sierra :) his design alongside my first drawing of her:

this was the first drawing of Tandy and Sierra interacting. Tandy doesn't act this meekly in the current story and Sierra is a lot nicer than this to Tandy initially.

and after that I had a third robot that I still haven't found a proper place in my story/introduced him properly. His name is just "Tinbot" and he was meant to be a robot Sierra and Tandy help get back on its feet. I might have plans in the future for him but in the meantime he's on the backburner. (side note wtf is Tandy wearing)

I'd be here all day if I were to say all the robots vs their initial designs. I usually have other people design my robot characters though (sometimes in exchange for robot characters I designed) in the story the robots are built by different people so having a mix of people design them would better give that impression in my mind. My robot characters I design personally usually come from me scribbling ideas on a procreate canvas, saving them for later and if I can't stop thinking about that one robot I drew I'll fully design them, Lithium's first drawing was in the corner of one of these random sketches, something about his lack of fingers and him telling someone to KYS really spoke to me.

3. Speaking of Lithium... I had a few ideas rattling in my brain for how they met, It was either through Cathy, through Max or Lithium met Sonnet while she was working and went OO TINY ROBOT.

As for whether Sonnet realises Lithium is a bit of a dipshit, she's fully aware of his behaviour as much as anyone else is but prefers to view him through his more positive traits. Lithium isn't irredeemable or anything, Tandy just really really hates him

4. Fashion with robots is funny, the tails don't really come into play as much since they usually just stick them over their waistband or cut a hole in their pants since their cables aren't super big. I will say one thing that I don't think I've said before is that robots can actually remove their cable tails and stick them back on when they need to charge or whatever. But if you had the option to have a tail I think most people would say yes, and robots decide that as well. Phillip and Newton decide to do this a lot, Phillip is almost never seen with his tail and Newton takes it on n off or just sticks it in his pants where it doesn't stick out since its shorter. As for colour choice robots don't have any distinct reason to choose the colours they do? Some might prefer high contrast clothing or lighter coloured clothing if their eyesight is better suited for clothes like that.

[skrimbled]

Scugging it up part 8:

SAINT!!

MY LITTLE FREAK LOOK AT THEM!!! This was such a fun little weirdo to draw and design!

For his design, i made him so fluffy that he kinda looks fat. He isn't though. They're actually incredibly skinny, but has a lot of fur to keep them warm in the snow.

Speaking of the fur, their cheek fur is stylised to kind of resemble an X shape. This paired with his circular and round face is meant to be a referance to the max karma symbol.

His ears are the same colour as her eyes, just because i said so. Same goes for the tongue too.

When using their powers, the two smaller forehead spots turn into a second pair of eyes. Again, this is just because i said so.

Generally he's pretty small, being about the same size as Monk. This is so that she has to eat less food to survive, and generally help with living in the cold.

Their tail is also very short so that it doesn't drag too much in the snow, and so that it can't be snapped by predators while swinging on their tongue.

That's pretty much it for Saint, two more scugs to go! Yippee!!!

[ranboos-kin-cafe]

Hi I'm new here ! Could I ask for tips for a (highly kinsidering) Catra fictionkin?

I Took this ask as tips for connecting to catra, and if you meant something else please tell me. I'll happily fix it. It Is similar to tips for Dysphoria, I hope it helps.

Connecting to Catra as a Kinsidering Fictionkin

Having long nails, especially painted ones. It can help resemble claws.

Things like cat ears and tails could help, although may be hard to get.

Catras shown hiding in dark spaces, or wrapping herself in blankets. Things like that might feel comforting or familiar to try.

Clothes that resemble things you may remember can help! Even small accessories, for example the badges shown in the horde can be fairly easily replicated. If you make a pin with bottle caps you can decorate it in similar forms or glue cardboard on to form the right shape. It's pretty easy and requires easy enough materials. I recommend using pliars to bend and shape the bottle cap.

Catra has a lot of cat like tendencies so considering if you have those traits may be helpful in realising if you kin her. Plus it may be affirming to purr, or do other cat traits.

Not everyone has kin memories, and not having them doesn't invalidate you. However they can be helpful to kinfirm a kin. Just relaxing and doing things that might trigger memories can be helpful. For example watching, writing or drawing things related to Catra and any relationships or just engaging in activities you believe you/Catra might have enjoyed.

Music you associate with catra can be helpful! And the creator of she ra has created a playlist with songs that they associate with catra.

Catra is a complex character and recognising if her behaviours, reactions or events in her life reflect yours can be helpful. A large motivation for her character is needing to prove herself, feeling betrayed. A connection to these themes or the relationships shown in the show can also hint at it being a kin, although it is up to you to decide how you feel and if those relate to you kinning catra.

She's also shown heavily connecting with animals, and spending time with pets or other animals may feel affirming (plus is always fun).

Links to the playlist I mentioned and a tutorial for bottle cap pins are linked above, I hope they work. If People are interested I might make tutorials on creating things similar to what I remember from my past lives, or take requests on how to diy things. I wish you the best of luck working this out anon!

[alavenderleaf]

Tagged by @gilliebee <3

Name: Lavender and Leaf interchangeably

Pronouns: he/him and she/her interchangeably (but genuinely okay with whatever, I’m genderfluid c: )

Where do u call home? Dubai, UAE. Even tho it was meant to be a temporary arrangement I’ve lived here my whole life and now any other emirate feels off lol

Favorite animals: goats. You ever jumped around with a baby goat??? Peace and love on planet earth 🥺💕💞💝💘💖💗💓💓💘💝💞💕

When it comes to birds: chickens and pigeons. Everytime I see one I’m like that’s so me. I’m them. They’re me. We are one.

Cereal of choice: anything with chocolate bc I’m still 5 years old

are you visual, auditory or kinesthetic learner? visual for sure, my ears don’t work right and I freaking love diagrams.

First pet: I’ve never named a pet except my current cat (xiexie!!) so my first pet did not have a name. It was a smol baby chick that grew up to be a mean ass spoiled ass fucking rooster who’d peck everyone except me <3

he was raised as a girl bc whoever gave me the chick told me it’s a chicken not a rooster and my dumbass did not recognize the signs of him being male and would argue with everyone who tried convincing me otherwise 🤠 denial is one hell of a drug bc how could I see the tail and mohawk (?? Tf u call that thing on its head) and be like “yes this is a chicken :) I see nothing wrong about this” anyway trans king. He’s just like mommy <3

I did have to give him away eventually :( he was taken to some uncle’s farm and got a chicken harem like the high value alpha male I knew he always had the capacity to be 😌 (ofc until another rooster was brought over and he lost the fight. He was plucked naked and shunned and he passed away featherless and bitchless. But we don’t talk about that)

Favorite scent: ………… lavend-*gun shots*

do you believe in astrology? Not really? But it’s so much fun !! :) I am a Capricorn sun Taurus moon and Leo rising, so do with that as you will <3

how many playlists do you have in apple music/spotify? I don’t use Apple Music. Spotify is purely for my friends so we can send playlists back and forth but I hate that everything is paywalled and it decides to choose shit for me. Like bitch. I did not add any of these songs to the playlist get tf away from me. Also why can’t I listen to my music offline???? I hate u. Anyway I just checked I have 87 playlists ???? 🤠🤠 When. How. Who are all these people I literally don’t know any of them?????

Sharpies or highlighters? Sharpies!!!! I love markers in general but sharpies always fire up my creative neurons

song that makes you cry: I’ve never cried to music but Fourth of July by Sufjan Stevens makes me so. :(

song that makes you happy: not to be a stereotype but Bastans by Miami band. (It’s a staple wedding song lmao)

and finally: do you draw/write/create?: YES!! My artistic skills are. Fine. But I do write a lot! My ao3 is lavender_petal and I’ve been learning how to create gifs over on my hockey side acc @gaybroons Also! I started making little braided bracelets lately :) they’re not perfect but they are fun!! I do try my hand at some Arabic/English translations from time to time but I’m not the best at it lol

I’m tagging: @loulucifer , @lindholmline , @earth-to-sway , and anyone else who wants to do this, but no pressure <3

[trashboatprince]

So, here's some stuff I have for the sea monster wives au:

-Aziraphale comes from a rich family of merchants and business owners. She herself owns and runs a bookshop in the small island town of Tadfield, where the citizens know she won't sell books. She does repair them though, so she can make a living without having to rely on her family. She lives above the shop because she refuses to live at the estate, but will visit because she feels she has to.

-Aziraphale is a bit of an outsider with the family. She wears dresses and skirts, but is often seen dressed in men's clothing while she works because she prefers it that way. Always sports a tartan bowtie, no matter the outfit.

-Visits the beach often, and goes to a secluded spot that is hard to access. This is where Crowley lives.

-Aziraphale is a lesbian and knows what she's all about, but refuses to bring it up with her family.

-She has older brothers and she's the only daughter, and the youngest. Gabriel James and his twin brother James Gabriel (who goes by Jim) are the eldest and mainly run the businesses, Michael is a military officer. Jim is the only family member Aziraphale likes. The rest of the family are cousins that live in the home.

-Crowley is an ancient creature from the Mediterranean Sea. She used to be in a pod with other creatures like her, but she never was on the best of terms with them. She went along with them as far as she could, which wasn't far. She was never into the whole 'drown sailors to eat them' thing, humans are disgusting and full of diseases.

-She is fascinated by humans in a scientific setting, so she has... experimented on remains, to see how humans work. She doesn't understand any of it, but she's curious.

-She was forcefully removed from her home months before meeting Aziraphale by the gods, and cannot swim back to her home waters. Any time she tries, the waters fling her far away.

-She swam around for ages in the Atlantic before being pulled towards the north, where the waters are colder and not meant for her kind, but she's stuck. She is forced into exile here.

-Crowley was injured when arriving near the shores of Eastgate Isle, having been captured by fishermen and was slashed in the back by one upon her escape during a storm. There is a massive scar going from her right shoulder down to her left hip.

-Crowley washed up on the shore of the island and had been occupying it since. She lives in a small cove and comes out to sunbathe and hunt for food, but mainly stays hidden. Until an angel shows up.

-Crowley can change forms. She has her normal form, where she's coated in black and red scales, is clawed, and is much more dangerous. Her second form makes hers appear a bit more like a typical mermaid, if a mermaid had the tail similar to a sea snake's. Her third form is a human form, but she gets that when drawing blood from a human who willingly offers it to her, or at least that's how it works for her nowadays, as she can't forced a human to offer it like she could in her home waters.

-She can speak languages if she 'steals' from people. She can learn every language a human speaks if she drains the life from them through their mouth and keeps those languages for ages. Or she can learn the main tongue of a human by kissing them and gaining words from each kiss. This is how she learns English from Aziraphale, as she mainly speaks her natural language and a few of the languages from her home waters.

-She also just really, really likes Aziraphale, so kissing her to learn to speak with her is a lot more fun this way.

-She fell in love with Aziraphale at first sight, but kept a distance for ages until she felt that she could approach. It resulted in Aziraphale passing out. Better than her screaming, at least.

-Aziraphale took a while to warm up to Crowley, but there was something there from the start. Probably doesn't help that Crowley is really pretty to look at, and actually wants to listen to Aziraphale talk and read books aloud.

-A major plot point I have is that Gabriel wants to marry Aziraphale off, as she is the only daughter and really, a young lady shouldn't be running a shop all by herself.

-Crowley takes on her human form to keep Aziraphale from being married off to someone, she will not let someone take her mate away from her. Which results in Aziraphale having to help Crowley blend in with humans, which isn't... easy. At all. How do you teach an ancient sea monster who hasn't walked on land in centuries proper Victorian behavior?

-Look, part of me is really, really tempted to have the 'I'm just so angry! Ten!' scene from season two, but with a slightly-feral Crowley doing this in the middle of the town street, in front of people, and fucking pulling a whole 'ancient god' move with the lightening. And then just stomps off, like the weird redheaded mystery friend of Ms. Fell did not just get struck by a bolt of fucking lightening on a clear and sunny day.

-Oh, and Crowley absolutely hates clothing, so the less layers the better. Which is not proper in public. Proper in the bookshop, when it's just her and her angel, but not with everyone looking!

-Crowley also goes by they/them, because sea monsters don't give a shit about gender that much. She/her is used more often because that's what humans just assume.

[warriorssurvivalandstuff]

My Omori catify nonsense.

Aubrey, Basil, Mari Hero, Sunny, Kel

Aubrey: Black amber tortie Basil: Fawn calico Mari: Black smoke Hero: Chocolate golden marbled tabby Sunny: Black with low white Kel: Red classic tabby, minimal white

Design notes (extremely long, image heavy, and fancy cat patterns heavy) and concepts under cut.

Aubrey is based off non-agouti (genetically solid) black amber, made tortoiseshell. Amber is a trait in the Norwegian Forest breed which causes most of the cat to change colour from black/browns to a red/orangish colour starting at around three months old. Using this to drastically change her look somewhat suitably for the timeskip, because just using hair dye is boring. As for why tortoiseshell, she gets associated with fire a lot and for "scars/wounds", which the red splotches are styled to resemble, meant to give her a tough look. There might be something in how they're less distinct post-colour change. The red end of her tail vaguely resembles Basil's. Stripes on the tail curve towards the tip like flames. For non-colour features, she has spiky lines and ear tufts. The tufts are red for the fire look. Maybe I should've just gone with orange eyes instead of yellow but I wanted to them all to have different colours, and Kel had to get orange. Yellow works fine enough for fire and is the cartoon star colour, starry eyed in (more) youth.

Onto Basil, he's a fawn calico, fawn, cream, and white. Cream is an obvious choice to match his blond hair, while the fawn is meant to resemble dead moss as a mirror to his headspace design, and I did just basically copy his hair over directly. Not too pleased with it. Dewclaws and the bottom of his paws are also free of white for green thumbs/muddy look. The fawn end of his tail vaguely resembles Aubrey's as said above. Also fun fact, tortoiseshell/calico cats cannot be AMAB without some sort of mutation or chimerism. While I did not mistake him for a girl, a ton of people did so I thought I'd carry it over here. Broken mackerel stripes for the tendrils his Something has, and his tail stripes slant towards the tip like leaf venation. The high degree of white was mostly to not have mottling (look, I try to go for as much realism as I can), it was just about the generic bicolour pattern until I thought to spike up the flank region as Something's teeth and to stick a daisy above his left eye. His fur is arranged to look like a perpetually soaked creature, and his ear tufts also droop. Some fur on his back curls like dicot sprouts and his weird hair tufts.

Kel gets two designs as well, not because of some colour change shenanigans, but my indecision. One is chocolate tortoiseshell classic tabby and the other forgoes the chocolate, being just red classic tabby. The mix of brown and orange evokes orange joe, more brown above since it looks like espresso floats on orange juice and like a tan, and I did mistake him for a girl at first. But I wanted to have Aubrey and Basil match in being the only torties, as a sibling theme (headcanon). Classic tabby for the signature bullseye pattern, ballin'. Being tortoiseshell also allows me to draw actual basketballs on him, even if I only did it for the flank one. Honestly the rest of the tortie mottling is just random, not planning on replicating them accurately ever. He has very small amounts of white, the toes and locket. It's meant to reflect his jersey and sneakers' white patterns. His line style/fur tufts are round like his hair.

As for Hero, he is a chocolate golden marbled tabby. Golden because he's the golden child. If Kel is tortoiseshell, they match by being chocolate. Marbled tabby allows me to crudely draw roses with nigh 0 reproducibility plus rosettes, instead of just rosetted tabby. The roses are on his flank and one upright on his foreleg. It is also classic tabby with the Bengal modifier, so he and Kel match here, tortie or not. His fur tufts come in threes, like his hair. Crimson chin when stylised.

Sunny is very basic for his colours, just a solid black with (unusual) white spotting. Mewo dictated he and Mari be black cats. His white is placed more deliberately, a cloud on the head, collar and socks that reflect his clothing, and the rest completes the tuxedo look. The fact that his muzzle and collar line up to look like Something was unplanned but welcome. His eyes are sun coloured. Based his build off of Oriental Shorthairs for the scrawniness. The end of his tail splits into two tufts to reflect his weird hair tufts.

Last but not least, Mari who is a black smoke. Like Sunny, she is solid black. It's got the ghostly quality and when tabby stripes are visible on smokes, they're called ghost markings. She has those on her face, very unsubtly music staff with two semiquaver notes. The gene that causes smoke in solid cats turns tabbies into silver tabbies, so she is in a way, silver, matching Hero's golden. Her fur style is smoke/vapour, the ghostly quality again. She also has the Oriental headshape to match Sunny. I considered having her be silver shaded instead for the white dress spirit Mari is pictured in but that would make her and Sunny look very different. Included as an alt, anyway.

All of them together. The base here (and above) is by Reevees on DA.

Old concepting headshots, dates a few years back. They have the different versions of Kel and Aubrey. Sunny and Mari are kept just about the same, while the others have more notable changes.

Headspace full designs will come in some time... three years? Dunno. Hero's palette will change completely.

Old line styling test, only Aubrey, Basil, and Sunny. Older and young.