#since it's background lore

[cj-the-random-artist]

I let them get friendship married so Narinder can get his tax benefits lol

But legitimately. I mulled this one over repeatedly for literal months. Like. Do I want them to get married in front of the cult? Should they even get married? It would be hilarious if the Goat married them and then cried at the altar the whole time, but also... that doesn't feel right, so maybe I won't do that. And then once I decided it should be a personal friendship-marriage ritual where it's just the pair of them making vows to each other, I wrote four different scripts and hated them all and ended up just pulling this one out of thin air pretty much on the spot and that was that. At one point, I wanted Lambert to basically suggest this idea and then have them get friend-married on the spot, but that didn't feel right (and it was also gonna be unreasonably long) so that's why there's no context going into this one. And the actual friend-marriage ritual is... maybe not the best designed one ever? I wanted it to in some ways be similar to like, the way I imagine a romantic marriage happening in the cult- the parties exchange vows and do rings and stuff...? (If it's not obvious, I haven't been to many weddings...) But I figured they wouldn't want an audience, or to party with the whole cult afterwards, or anything like that. I also had them kiss each other's rings as opposed to like... faces... because one of the fights I had with myself in deciding how I would want this to go was whether it would make sense for them to kiss or not. And I ultimately decided that in this AU at least they just wouldn't want to. They're also wearing the rings on their not ring fingers cuz. Honestly it just felt right that way. Based on vibes. But basically I just wanted them to exchange a vow of eternal partnership in a very casual, chill setting, because I don't picture QPR AU Narilamb doing... anything other than that.

Also this is the rest of Lambert's office, which I actually had a pretty clear vision for after my last doodle but I didn't really bother to draw before starting this comic. Maybe I should've but eh it looks good enough. Interior backgrounds are hard......

Anyways. I think I'm happy with this one? I was enamored by the concept of a chill friendship marriage, so I definitely leaned into it here. As per usual, it's not perfect, I think I could've done a lot of stuff better / differently, but honestly?? If I were to ever get friend-married I would want it to go about like this, it makes my little aroace heart happy, and I spent too long on it to not show it to anybody. Thus. Enjoy, and also happy new year cuz I totally forgot to make a post individually about that...

[canisalbus]

What if I told you that RoobrickMarine went and wrote an entire novella starring my 16th century dog couple? It's very canon-adjacent, well researched and thoughtfully put together, has inspired me a ton during these past months and it's now publicly available at AO3. I highly recommend it.

✦ Separation ✦

[moeblob]

Impulsively shoving a guy's hand in your mouth after having the thought "oh just like when my little sister used to prick herself on a rose thorn" and then immediately being treated like a pet who ate something they shouldn't have? Wonderful. Thank you, Thane.

(also not pictured is Thane apparently trying to scrape your tongue with his hand BEFORE pouring the holy water down your throat because NO. BAD.)

[ratwithhands]

I had this AU archived off my accounts for a few years, but I'm thinking about it a lot more these days so I'm digging it up for sketches.

This is Kudari from Codebreaker, functionally the starting antagonist for the story when Emmet accidentally collides with him and takes parts of his body.

For a little debrief, the main idea of Codebreaker is that Emmet discovers that he exists in a false reality, and that there is a parallel plane where all of the instructions for his reality exist. He finds his way to this plane by accident after walking back from another lonely day at work, and is hellbent on learning how to manipulate it in the hopes that he can recover Ingo with that knowledge. Kudari is his own set of instructions, who he partly dismantles, allowing him to actually interact with the code. This leaves a hollowed out shell that starts trying to find his own way to get his body back from Emmet.

I'd been thinking about the Beta Submas leaks which lead me to sketching him again. Here's the first rough warmup sketch I did with a fight between him and Emmet.

From there I just started reworking his old design to be worse 💀

Let me know if you guys want more of this freak, he's honestly really fun to sketch.

[sunnyashe]

A prequel to this: we might get there. maybe. just setup for now

next scene under cut! part 3:

Rumble and Frenzy both stiffened instantly. Scrap. 

Rumble side-eyed his twin, watching shock dawn to horror on Frenzy’s faceplate.

Jazz.

“Seems the terrible two are taking the party outside!” Jazz was still standing directly behind them, his grin practically audible. Fragger fed off Cassetticon fear. “‘s there a reason you didn’t pay for that engex?”

“Nope,” Rumble responded immediately, turning to face Jazz. The word dragged out, ending with a lilt, as if he was unsure.

Simultaneously, Frenzy launched into a ramble on the spot. “We have special instruction, clearance, from the Prime! He wants energon samples from across the undercity for…”

Rumble picked up the thread as Frenzy trailed off. “Because he wants to try out the local culture! The Op’s so bored of the fancy shmancy energon they keep serve’n him in that palace, so he asked us to bring him some of these commoner…delicacies!”

Jazz exaggeratedly brought a digit to his helm, miming a comm exchange. "Wow! I thought you might've been stealing for yourselves, but if you're stealing for the Prime, it must be fine!” After a beat, he sighed theatrically, “OP says he didn’t order any engex, you sure you didn’t get the wrong guy?”

Frenzy was still rooted to the spot, facing the street. :Turn around, dumbaft!: Rumble crackled through to him with comms, :Face that slag-head helm first! It’s too late to run.:

:Idiot, it’s called deniability!:

:What, like you talking to him didn’t give up the jig?:

:I was telling the concrete!:

:It’s too late, flickerbrain, grow some self-respect!:

:What, like how you respect Autobots?:

In one swift movement, Rumble dropped all of the stolen engex he was holding. He hopped in front of Frenzy, snarling, with a fisted servo extended to crack his brother’s stupid visor.

A warm, scarred servo yanked Rumble up by his backplate. Frenzy, who had unsheathed a vibroblade from who-knows-where in retribution, was also bodily hoisted up into the unforgiving air of Kaon’s industrial sector. Jazz’s rictus took on an amused tinge, “Woah there, mechs. It’s my job to keep violence off the streets, you know? You’re makin’ it real easy.”

Rumble wiggled in his grasp, limbs flailing ineffectually, “Then be glad about it, turbofox wannabe!”

Frenzy twisted his helm to attempt to bite Jazz’s servo “Yeah, you’re so great at your job! Now let us go!”

Jazz tilted his head, as if considering. As soon as he moved to speak, Frenzy plowed over whatever he was about to say with an interrogation he had little diplomatic power to execute. “Why the frag are you even here? Low-end neutral bar in the sticks? Does your job require engex overcharge or some slag?”

Rumble fought with renewed vigor, as if Jazz was diverting processing power away from his grip to consider his answer the question. “Yeah! Too scared of fighting a little crime without bein’ drunk?”

“As a matter of fact,” Jazz said blithely, ignoring them, “I was considering letting you miscreants off with a warning and a promise that you’ll give that poor bartender a sparkfelt apology.” 

Rumble glared at the underside of Jazz’s helm distrustfully, sending Frenzy a databurst comm, :Liar.:

:No slag.:

Jazz continued on, unruffled, pretending not to be hacking their private comms, “But, y’know…there’s no harm in a little catch-up. I haven’t seen you two since the war!”

“As if it’s over,” Rumble growled. Bitterly.

Jazz’s smile widened, and Rumble realized he kind of fucked up. “Anyway, how’s Sounders doing?”

Frenzy scoffed, crossing his arms while dangling a meter in the air, “Who the frag is Sounders?”

Jazz laughed a little, softly. He lowered Rumble to the ground. The Cassetticon ripped himself out of Jazz’s hold as soon as his pedes hit the cobbled, gritty floor, arm raised defensively. Maybe he was making good on that obvious falsehood from before? It wasn’t like him, at all, there was probably another trick–

Frenzy was still suspended midair. With his now free left servo, Jazz materialized two pairs of miniature stasis cuffs, lightly spinning them between two digits with obscene expertise.

“So, my mechs. Where is Soundwave?”

[son1c]

y'all don't even know about what happens after fibula encounters femur that first time... because, like, sure, he runs away from her. he flees the graveyard and disappears into the woods because he can't bear to face her.

but he doesn't go back to eggman. he can't. he's panicking too much to think straight. stumbling through the trees, overwhelmed by a cavalcade of emotions brought forth by seeing his sister again. he thought she was dead, but she's not. he thought, if she was alive, that she wouldn't care about him anymore. but she does. clearly--since she was visiting his grave, and leaving him gifts.

fibula is CRASHING through the woods, making so much noise and not caring at all about how many plants he's trampling underfoot. the flickies are pissed. he doesn't care. he doesn't even see them.

all he can see is his sister's face--older. her eyes, confused. because she doesn't recognize him.

and it hits him all at once the situation that he's in. undead. stitched together with chaos energy and mechanical legs. a monster. he never cared before. in fact, he actually thought it was pretty cool to be a monster. but his own sister's failure to recognize him causes his still heart to twist painfully.

is this really right? everything he's done since being revived, all the torment he's caused and ENJOYED causing... he's rethinking it now that he's seen femur again. because even though being a menace has made him happy, what would his sister think? would she be disappointed? or, worse...

would she be afraid of him?

the thought of it causes him choke and stumble, and by this point he's made enough of a ruckus to attract the attention of a certain blue hero... who of course, starts on a quip about how he wasn't planning on kicking any zombie butt today, but...

and then sonic sees The Absolute State(TM) that fibula is in, and whatever he was going to say dies in his throat. cuz he's seen a lot of stuff, but one of his enemies crying their eyes out? gotta say, this would be the first time. meanwhile, fibula is NOT EXCITED about running into sonic, because spilling so many tears--which are actually just liquefied chaos energy, aka the stuff KEEPING HIM ALIVE--has left him exhausted, and he doesn't think he has any energy left to fight.

and he's right! because he collapses shortly after sonic steps closer, his ears perking up curiously after fibula chokes out something about his sister... and when he wakes up some time later, he finds himself strapped to another metal table (different from the one eggman revived him on).

as it turns out, fibula's little "face down in the dirt" stunt from earlier made sonic think he was dead. like DEAD dead, for real this time. so, our favorite blue hero dragged fibula back to tails' lab to see if he could fix it. (tails, of course, was baffled by the situation, but a chance to examine eggman's handiwork up close could be useful regardless of the fact fibula is less tech and more flesh than most things the doctor works on.)

immediately, fibula tries to break free, but tails has that shit locked down, so the restraints don't budge. then, fibula remembers seeing femur earlier, and resigns himself to laying on the table. it's not that he's given up, it's just... this might be the worst day of his life (and the competition is pretty steep, so that's really saying something).

meanwhile, tails isn't sure what to do. by this point, he's noticed that fibula is awake, but sonic isn't around--he ran off once it was clear that tails had the situation under control--so he doesn't have his big brother to guide him. and he doesn't even really know fibula. since this is the first time they're directly interacting (before this, all tails would've heard was wild tales from sonic, amounting to nothing more than spotty secondhand knowledge).

and the thing is, fibula has no idea who tails is either. all he can see is that he's a kid. and fibula has a very strict rule against hurting kids (because they remind him of his sister. who is apparently still alive. and doesn't recognize him. oh, man--)

fibula forces himself to say something. "you don't look like you work for eggman," probably. with his typical snark, but it lacks its usual bite.

tails would scoff. an astute observation from the guy who was clinically dead a few minutes ago, he thinks. then, he tells fibula that he doesn't work for eggman, because he's on the opposite team.

that makes fibula grimace. great. so, he's strapped to an ENEMY'S table. and then he remembers running into sonic after having his little freakout in the graveyard, and everything starts to make a little more sense.

and of course THAT is when sonic saunters back in, probably with a snack in hand like, "how's it goin' in here, tails?" all casual-like. but he Knows. and fibula knows that he knows. and fibula is DETERMINED to act like nothing happened and sonic didn't see ANYTHING and nothing is wrong. so he instantly snaps back, because now he can focus on being a jerk again instead of whatever awful feelings have been brewing in his gut since last night...

and tails watches. he watches as fibula and sonic bicker and comments on fibula's strange state of not-life, not-death but fibula ignores him on purpose... until tails gets fed up and states bluntly that maybe he shouldn't've revived him, even though sonic asked, cuz he's so mean.

and there's half a second where fibula has nothing to say. SONIC helped him? even though they're enemies? but then fibula sneers at sonic and says "your mistake."

and sonic has that fucking look in his eye... you know... the one where he thinks he knows everything. the "we'll see about that"-type look. and fibula hates it so much because it just adds to his Inner Turmoil(TM). like, he's evil now! he's evil! and bad! and a no-good, rotten hedgehog!

and he's also strapped to a table. and owes his not-life to a tiny little fox, apparently.

and for the first time since sonic showed up, fibula looks at tails. he looks him right in the face with his unsettling orange eyes that shouldn't be. and he says, "your big bro thinks he's got it all figured out. but you're the smart one, i can tell. so i'll take your word over his."

and tails kinda like... falters. cuz he wasn't expecting that? and fibula doesn't realize it, but what he said reveals a lot of his inner conflict to tails. cuz he's right... tails IS the smart one. and when tails eventually lets fibula go, and fibula scampers back to the empire, tails is left wondering about fibula and his cracked facade

[madebysimblr]

José: You going to the party at the bluffs?

Allison: I don't know. You know my curfew.

José: Dude I can't wait for you to graduate and be out of that house.

Allison: Yup. Far far away from all the rules and expectations... Living the dream. Sort of.

José: Change your mind about coming out?

Allison: I change my mind on that every day.

José: I'm sorry.

Allison: Not your fault. [sighs] Anyway, got a costume for the party?

José: [shrugs] Not really.

Allison: Fashion expert José doesn't have an outfit set? Has the world stopped spinning??

José: No I have an idea, I just... I don't know.

Allison: What's the idea?

José: Well I kinda sorta thought about going in drag? Maybe. I don't know. I found this cool fabric and have been sewing a dress out of it when my mom is out.

Allison: I think that's a great idea! You're free to borrow any of the frilly dresses the monster has bought me.

José: [laughs] Not even for drag would I wear some of that shit.

Allison: Damn, thought I could pawn them off on you.

José: No luck!

-

José: ... But you really think it'd be a good idea?

Allison: I think it's a great idea. I bet you'll look better in a dress than I do.

José: [snorts] That's not hard.

Allison: You are SO the worst.

José: But ya love me anyway!

Allison: Debatable.

[possiblyfunny]

I forgot how to make posts, but don’t worry guys, I’m still alive-

Ghostly Assistance

Heyyy! I finally drew Leaf! (Plus a slight Aster redesign-) This took way too long, and I apologize for the delay and the overall messiness. She had been sitting in my drawing program as a sketch for two months 😅 but with the Flashbacks up starting in Missing Numbers, I finally got the will to finish it!

Leaf Aoyama belongs to @creatively-cosmic. They have a blog called @themissingnumbers, which you should check out, like—right now.

[Sketch + Extras below the cut!]

Here’s the cover of the book, if you wanted that- (I know it’s crap but I’m tired)

[And for those who are curious, some notes about the art:

-The book is Aster’s. He’s read the book cover to cover well over 25 times. It’s his favorite book on flowers, but he’s more than happy to lend it to someone who wants to learn about flora.

-The content of the art (because there was intended to be a background that got scrapped-) is that Aster was showing Leaf around his secret garden deep in the woods, guiding her so that she wouldn’t get lost and showing her the different flowers and such. (That’s why she has the book-)

-You know how in some video games, you can press a button and whatever special companion you have will show up to give you a hint? (Ex: Navi, Fi, Rotom, Olivia, etc) That’s what Aster is doing right now. Whenever Leaf had a question—he had the answers.

-And if you’re wondering—Yes. Aster did make her a flower crown afterwards. And Yes, he thinks she looks very beautiful with flowers in her hair.]

[theprinceandthewitch]

I don't think I mentioned this... but in Ashes of Memory, Alice receives a letter from Orpheus addressed as "Eury Lamb"

Lamb is the last name of the man who adopted her and experimented on her. It also serves as a reference to Little Girl's "Source of Evil" cosmetic, which is lamb themed.

"Eury" is a reference to Eurydice. People have theorized "Eury Lamb" is the name her adoptive father, Villhelm Lamb gave to her to keep her true identity a secret. But that's not rlly relevant...

What is relevant is that this makes Orpheus' alias choice even MORE obvious he loves Alice... this mans got romantic interest in her...

People who use that adoption letter as proof that the writers want you to view their relationship as sibling-like are so cringe. That letter is literally the direct opposite of "sibling-like".

Folks missed the part called "context": Orpheus [who was 17 at the time] knew she was being abused at the orphanage and tried to get her out in the least stressful way possible... and he couldn't even adopt her to begin with because the orphanage thought it would be best for her to be taken in by a blood relative. Which was a lie, because they ended up giving her to Villhelm Lamb to be used as his lab rat.

Like idk man... the writers have made it so abundantly clear Orpheus doesn't see her as a sister. That One letter doesn't prove he sees her as a sibling because if they wanted to make them siblings... then.... they would have... ya know, made them siblings... but they don't because.... they're not siblings and they're writing a tragic romance LMAO.

As for Alice, in AoM she calls him a playmate... granted she doesn't know Orpheus and her playmate are the same person, but she remembers him as her friend and not her brother... because.... they were never adopted siblings...

But yeah It's so crazy to think Orpheus doesn't love her... I'm over here losing my mind at That Scene in AoM where Orpheus asks Alice if she could play a song for him on her father's favorite piano.

What gets me is that this scene shows how much Orpheus missed her. He buys everything her relatives sold off so he can rebuild the mansions' interior to how it was when they were children. He also goes out of his way to fix her father's favorite piano. The piano didn't just need fine tuning - it was straight up destroyed during the raid. It was a really, really expensive thing to repair. Even though Alice's father had other pianos, some of which could have survived the raid, he rebuilds the one which holds alot of sentimental value to her... LIKE???

REALLY... You guys really want me to think Orpheus did all this JUST out of a sense of guilt for unintentionally causing the raid? You are rlly gonna look me in the eyes and tell me Orpheus using "Orpheus" as his alias while addressing Alice as "Eury" is totally platonic?

Are u rlly gonna say that to me knowing this official artwork made Norton and Melly wear their Pluto and Proserpina/Persephone outfits while Frederick, Orpheus, and Alice are dressed normally? My brother in Christ... will you rlly look me in the eyes and tell me Orpheus [AND THE BIRDS] holding flowers is platonic symbolism...

THIS ISN'T EVEN SUBTLE LOOOOL

How much more evidence do people need that these two aren't siblings AND they're on a whole romantic journey together...

[pensola]

Gotta love Dawntrail's (and honestly, at times XIV since ShB and beyond) continuing trend that for every silent female miqo'te in the background, they give us three male miqo'te with dialogue.

Either they are truly commited to retconning the miqo'te's gender ratio lore and hope nobody comments on it so they don't have to achknowledge it like they admitted they are too incompetent to make natural curls as hairstyles, or there is something about the Hhetsarro (and Mystels, to be honest) that make them have equal amounts or more male miqo'te than female.

[skeletalheartattack]

...am I just losing my mind or did yer icon become evil? I don't remember that BeAst behind Boe

yuuuump always been behind me

[valiant-portabella-pirkko]

[ Tideturners AU - Grand High Sovereign Ruju ]

Champion of the [REDACTED]

"Neither of us will live to see the world that emerges once this one is gone. Our purpose ends here, burning in a distant land where no one will remember our names."

"Now, step forward. Show me your resolve... And I will show you mine."

[trans-estinien]

WHUH?

HELLO?

[noodleowl]

Two bassists meeting on the Curb.

That's it, that's the joke.

[monay-monn]

My Current Pcs

Monay the False Saintess

✦| Angelic Cow-girl ✦| Current Li: Sydney (Fallen) > Avery ✦| Playstyle: Defiant ✦| Mission: Perfection (feats collecting + max skills)

Summary of File:

Very first 'normal' save + current longest running save, focused on playing through as much content as possible and achieving as many feats as possible. Accidentally got Angel tf after hyperfocusing on making money for an entire month by spamming the spa (wanted to make sure she could take on Robin's debt and still have extra money on the side to not get punished by Bailey). Very school + reputation focused (all reputation is positive), visits mickey and landry as much as possible to lower fame + buy pepper spray. Worst world corruption out of all the saves (stole ivory necklace + rite of defilement).

──────────────────✧₊∘✦

Mammon the False Prophet

✦| Demonic Cow-boy ✦| Current Li: Sydney (Faithful) > Robin ✦| Playstyle: Defiant ✦| Mission: Become the Ultimate Lewd Priest (infamous reputation + Max lewd skills)

Summary of File:

2nd save + 2nd longest running save. Focused on doing all the things that Monay's save couldnt do. Playstyle is a little more risky with trying to get money using the lewder job options and trying to raise his lewd fame. Currently the save is almost exactly the same as Monay's save except they're less restricted by the way they can actually fuck around. Mostly made just to see the difference between rite of promise faithful!sydney vs rite of defilement fallen!sydney. Also supposed to be the save focused on romancing Whitney but ended up liking Robin and Kylar more.

Lowest world corruption out of all current Pcs (never stole the ivory necklace + rite of promise).

──────────────────✧₊∘✦

Nene the Entropic

✦| Demonic Harpy ✦| Current LI: Great Hawk > Eden ✦| Playstyle: Submissive lewd ✦| Mission: Fuck around and Find out

Summary of file:

3rd save file, initially started to rack up Harper's love by repeatedly getting sent to the asylum, now turned into pregnancy save.

Currently the most chaotic save out of all of them. Restricting myself by not fighting the lewd encounters + not focusing on school and instead fuck around the outskirts/forest.

Explicitly made to dismiss/reject all the school/town lis.

World Corruption is currently unknown since I made her explicitly to stay the fuck away from the temple.

──────────────────✧₊∘✦

??? the ???

✦| Fallen Fox-girl (intended) ✦| Current Li: Sydney (fallen) > ??? ✦| Playstyle: Defiant Crossdresser ✦| Mission: Get all virginities taken by Sydney (failed)

Summary of File

Created on a whim because I wanted a crossdresser PC. Has the most amount of Feat boosters out of all my starting PCs (mf used all 259 coins I had). Also created just to fuck around with Rite of Promise and trying to corrupt Syd. Current goal is to try and achieve fallen forgiven status + getting the other transformation feats I hadnt gotten yet (namely fox + cat + wolf).

Dont really have a name for her or for what kinda direction I wanna take her save file...

[choccorin]

do you guys also need a movie playing in the background while you're studying or am i just weird