#so that's primarily what i based his outfit off of.

[spadefish]

Yoink.

Ashe hasn't shown up in the rp yet but I think it'd be really funny if this is how they met.

[ponett]

Do you have any advice for people making OCs/sonas? Yours are really well rounded and unique and I'd greatly appreciate the insight of someone who got a passion project off the ground!

So this is a very broad topic, and it varies a lot based on your own creative goals, what kind of characters you're creating, and where you want to use them. Creating an OC to be used in furry pinups is a little different than creating one for a dramatic story. But I'll try to give some general advice on how I do things for the types of characters and stories I tend to work with

Heads up: this will be kinda long lol

The germ of an idea

For me, I'll generally be inspired to create a character starting with a small number of core traits. These could be anything. A color scheme, a body type, a job, a hobby, a personality archetype, an outfit, a visual motif, a functional role in a story I'm working on, a noteworthy facial feature, a weapon, a relationship of some sort to an existing character, a single scene or joke I want to use them for. For furries and fantasy characters, species is usually one of the first things I'll have an idea for, which tends to get the ball rolling fairly easily since we have all sorts of cultural associations with different animals and fantasy creatures.

Any standout character trait like this that you find compelling can serve as that initial spark. The inspiration can come from anywhere, but it's often just a matter of knowing yourself and your own tastes. What do you like? What are the people in your life like? What really speaks to you in a character? What's an existing fictional character that you'd like to rewrite and take in a different direction? What's an aspect of yourself that you would like to see represented more often in fiction? It doesn't have to be something super deep or fleshed out right from the start, though. You can start with something as simple as "I want a black cat character" or "I want a character who dresses like an arcade carpet" or "I want a character who looks scary but is actually nice." Whatever it is, it's something that differentiates the new character from the ones I already have, because otherwise I'd just be using them.

Contrast

From there, you can start brainstorming other traits that might go with those core traits. Some of those may be traits that naturally complement each other. Continuing with the black cat example, maybe you wanna play into the common cultural perception of black cats and say that this character brings bad luck, or is associated with witchcraft. However, I often like to give characters contrasting or even seemingly contradictory traits, which can help elevate a character beyond a stock archetype. Real people tend to be a walking ball of contradictions, after all.

I've talked a lot about how I did this with the main cast of SLARPG. Melody is a fox, traditionally a crafty and untrustworthy predator, but she's extremely introverted and gentle. Allison is a bunny, but instead of being a meek and cuddly little prey animal she's an outgoing fighter who loves a challenge, and she has a muscular build. I think this kind of thing gives characters some fun flavor, and can be really effective for both comedy and drama. For an example from something I didn't write, take Senshi from Dungeon Meshi. He's a dwarf, and he embodies certain stereotypical aspects of dwarves - he's a short, buff man with a big bushy beard, he lives underground, he's stubborn and doesn't like elven magic - but he also goes against some of them. Instead of being an expert on mining and blacksmithing, Senshi is a culinary expert who has a deep appreciation for the natural ecosystem of the dungeon. He's a weirdo among dwarves for not caring about the wellbeing of his axe and for using his super awesome shield primarily as a giant wok. And that's what makes Senshi fun and interesting.

So going back to our example, instead of going with the stereotype, we could make a black cat character who has comically good luck, or who's superstitious and afraid of witchcraft, or who's an extremely rational person who always believes in science over superstition. Or maybe you roll with the bad luck angle, but instead make the black cat be the victim of their own bad luck in some interesting way. Maybe this black cat has terrible luck with love and can't hold down a relationship. Maybe this black cat is an aspiring speedrunner who consistently gets the absolute worst RNG possible in every video game due to their own bad luck. Maybe this black cat has accrued a horrendous gambling debt after a long losing streak and has loan sharks coming after them.

These are all just hypothetical examples, of course. I don't exclusively make characters with ironic contradictions like this. The idea is just to build on those core traits you started with in interesting ways, and that's one of my favorite ways to do so. But honestly, a lot of the time execution is more important than the sheer originality of an idea, and sometimes really putting your all into playing a trope you love straight is the right move.

Specificity

Regardless of what direction I take a character in past that initial seed of an idea, the key ingredient tends to be specificity. To give them specific details beyond the most stock possible version of that core idea you started with.

This is something I internalized from Tim Schafer, via a blog post in the behind-the-scenes backer material for Broken Age. Sadly I'm not sure if that stuff is still available, but I did save this particular post about creating characters since it really helped me, so I'll directly quote a chunk of that post here:

No two characters would approach a problem or react to events in the same way. At least, not if you’ve designed the characters well. If you’ve left them too vague or superficial, if they are merely functional elements in your story instead of individuals, then they might react in the same way. And that’s a problem. So to avoid that, I’m going to talk about one the most important parts of character development: specificity. Making sure your character is a specific individual, not a stereotype. A unique character, different from anyone else in the world. It doesn’t mean that they have to have wacky gimmicks, eyepatches and crazy accents. It just means they have to be specific. For example, let's create a new character. Let's say your story has a scene where your main character gets in trouble in school. So you’re probably going to need a school teacher. Imagine a school teacher for a bit. Do you see her in a little red schoolhouse? Maybe a bun in her hair? An apple on her desk? Thick black glasses? Let’s put a ruler in her hand for good measure. Done! We have our teacher character. She’s ready to be in the scene where our hero goes to school and the teacher sends her to the principal’s office for passing notes. Right? I mean, this character doesn’t have too many lines, so why develop her character any more? The problem is that this teacher is a very shallow stereotype of a teacher. She has no specific attributes that make her memorable. She’s the teacher you would get in a set of free clip art. She might not have many lines, but if all your supporting characters are this way, your story will be more bland than it should be. Even if this teacher is only onscreen for a minute, she should be unique and different from any other teacher in the world. Luckily, it's not actually that hard to make her so. You just have to ask some very basic, specific questions.

Tim goes on to explain how simple exercises like filling out character sheets with basic questions about your character (there are a million of these online) can help push a character beyond a stock archetype, even if it's a minor supporting character. Questions about where they're from, their likes and dislikes, their beliefs, their goals in life, that sort of thing. For minor characters especially, a lot of these details may never actually come up in a story, but just asking even a few of these questions and giving them specific answers helps you see them less like an archetype and more like a real person in your head. Maybe you never bring up your character's backstory or their favorite sport or what kind of music they listen to, but just having a specific answer for questions like that might help color the way you depict that character in subtle ways. It makes it feel like they aren't defined by just that one core trait you started with, and helps make the characters and world feel more alive, like there's stuff going on with them beyond the bounds of the story or the drawing.

It's a careful balancing act, though. It's easy for a character to feel like they're a collection of too many unrelated gimmicks and quirks. Again, like Tim said, these specifics don't have to make for the craziest, most original character ever, there just has to be something there.

Let's go back to SLARPG as an example, where I combined broad character archetypes I liked with more specific personal elements that I felt like I wasn't seeing enough in the fiction I liked. Melody is riffing on the common idea of the reserved healer character in the RPG or MMO party and the shy girl archetype, but she's the main hero instead of a supporting player in another person's story, and she's also a fat bisexual trans woman who draws a lot of little details from my own life. Her interests, her relationships, her opinions on things, her personal hangups and dreams, these all set Melody apart from other fantasy healer characters and define her as Melody Amaranth. Specificity!

But it doesn't always have to be super deep, especially if you just want some characters to draw for fun and aren't planning on writing a story with them. Take my fursona. I've always loved dogs, so I made my fursona a dog. I chose a Samoyed in particular because I think Samoyeds are the cutest, and I hadn't seen hardly any anthro Samoyed OCs at the time. I leaned into the breed's signature fluffiness to help my fursona stand out from other canine OCs. She has simple identifying traits like being fat like me, wearing glasses like mine, and having a hairstyle kinda like mine (when I tied my hair up in a bun, at least). And there you go. Fursona achieved. She's not a wildly high concept character, but she doesn't need to be

Anyway I realize that this is mostly about the writing aspect, so here's a few quick bullet points about designing a character's appearance:

Face and body type variety are good, but personally I would say lack of body type variety is worse than same face syndrome

Knowing some stuff about shape language is good, but you don't have to be completely beholden to the "circles are friendly, squares are sturdy, triangles are scary" shit. I'm generally more interested in using repeated shaping in different parts of a character's design as sort of a shape motif. Melody's body, hair, and tail are all made of round, swooping shapes, for example. (This is more applicable if you're designing cartoonier characters as opposed to realistic humans, obviously.)

Knowing some basics of color theory is also good. I like using complementary and contiguous color schemes on characters and generally try not to use too many distinct colors on one design. Black and white and grey and various browns are good as neutral colors to balance out the colors of the rainbow, and gold can be a nice accent color

A small handful of identifying accessories can be fun, but don't rely on those to make a design stand out. Ideally your character should still be identifiable even when not wearing their default outfit, or even in silhouette

Aaaaaand I'm gonna call it a wrap there! This is a huge topic, so hopefully this helps with at least some of the basics! At the end of the day, though, don't beat yourself up if you can't sit down and force yourself to come up with the most crazy awesome OC ever. Just have fun and be yourself!

[just-ornstein]

WHAT THE FUCK IS THE BEAKER CASTLE EVEN - A SimPE Deep Dive

Alright, so after stumbling upon some of the Beta pics on the Russian TheSims.cc site and this analysis post about the Beaker mansion, I became deeply curious if some of this would be reflected in the lot relationships. After all, some characters like Viola, Kelly, on top of several others could be found when digging through the raw and somewhat encrypted code of lots.

By now it's pretty clear that the Beaker home once belonged to this dude and his army of girlfriends (definitely check out the post I mentioned earlier). On top of that Loki (and possibly Circe) seems to have gone through at least two iterations before eventually settling on their final forms.

And on top of that whenever you scan the mansion in a completely new game, you will find fingerprints of primarily deceased Sims everywhere!

Now to get to the Sim relationships on the lot...

712 freaking Sim Relationships, all of which are unknown. Some of which still have stats set such as married, friends, relationship scores, etc. I tried comparing this to other lots in their neighborhood and NONE even come close. Both Olive and the Smiths have around 400. The other lots have below. And the only lots that are even a tad higher in this number are the Capps and the Summerdreams which makes sense when you realise that hood went through at least one other iteration before turning into Veronaville.

Now I wondered if the encrypted code (despite being very hard to read due to being partially encrypted) had any old Sim remnants left in there. And yep, several even. Many of which even have information such as their gender, hair, clothes and age in there. So lemme go over some of them:

1. First one, a guy who's name is partially encrypted so it will never fully be visible. It's not Johnny cause Johnny also has his character file on this lot.

A male teen with brown hair who used to wear the "tmbodyhoodedsweatshirtboardshorts" + the "tmhairhatcap" hairstyle.

2. Second is another teen, this time by the name of Zeeshan. He had black hair, the bucket hat hairstyle and wore the hooded sweatshirt, except with pants this time around (and grey apparently?).

3. The third was an adult male Sim by the name of Kenneth with black hair. Based on his info he was likely meant to be a Gardener Sim.

4. The fourth was one named Kana... Possibly a longer name cause once again the code becomes a bit shambled here. She too was meant to be a Gardener as seen by her outfit and hair data. Her hair would have been brown.

5. Elle, another female Gardener Sim, this one having red hair.

6. Vasyl, an adult male Sim who wore the busdriver outfit. Sadly his hair data seems to be blocked behind the code. For funsies I like to give the name to Bald Beta Loki, since he gives off that vibe. BUT, I think this was an NPC busdriver due to the outfit.

7. Joanne, an adult female Sim with an unknown hair colour in corn rows style and the classy afbodyjacketturtlesweaterdressboots. Sadly her ID is hidden behind the encrypted code, so it's hard to fully make out.

All of these Sims appear to be NPC/Townie Sims. None of them match ANYONE in the Beta pictures. And the current Townies/NPCs seem to have replaced them. Interestingly enough, those that were NPCs are still NPCs and those that were Townies are still Townies. Making me wonder if this is a thing that translates to other Sim IDs too. That Sims that were Townies in earlier iterations are still Townies in their new form. Same for NPCs and yep, Playables. This is merely an assumption I'm making on what I'm finding here, but if anyone can help research this further, that would be greatly appreciated, especially as this could mean the Viola ID may not belong to Viola Monty.

Viola is an odd case cause no outfit, hair or other data can be found in the lot file and she's only ever mentioned once in the context of lines filled with "sleep in pyjamas". But for now I cannot say anything with certainty unless more remnants of these old Sims could be found somewhere. OR, if these files could be read in its entirety which is quite difficult.

It's very hard to get a Sim ID attached to a lot (believe me I tried) and often times seems to rather happen accidentally than intentionally. Moving a Sim out or having a Sim die usually removes the data they once held to that lot. Good example is Loki in my current Strangetown who lived on this lot all of his life and when he died he had no remnants left on this lot.

REGARDLESS! The Beaker lot is ancient and seems to have been ground for a ton of testing, Sims and many more things. No wonder the Beakers got this home with its incredibly shady history. Half of the beta town was partying here!

[genericpuff]

saw this pop up on /r/UnpopularLoreOlympus and I-

Full analysis post that inspired this post can be read here, it's a good read, go check it out!

Now my natural reaction to not assume the worst (shocking, I know) is that what Rachel's actual intention behind making Leto a sun god was due to her being Apollo's mother and her clearly having a stronger relationship with him rather than Artemis. I'm abiding by Occam's Razor here, it's the simplest answer and it keeps my brain from getting too riled up right off the bat LMAO

There's a lot of emphasis put on Apollo being the god of the sun in LO, despite the fact that Apollo is one of the MOST prolific gods in the Greek pantheon, Rachel only ever really focuses on him being god of the sun with some loose references to him also being the god of music (as we see with him playing his lyre). There's really no real referencing to him being the god of medicine though (aside from that scene of him condom-bandaging Persephone's hand in Episode 22 ?? which is silly now in hindsight because she's a fertility goddess who can heal herself but ok lmao and the fact that Rachel established him as a LITERAL DAD with his doctor son Asclepius which ... just feels weird to have in LO tbh) and there's absolutely no referencing (from what I can find or recall) of him being a protector of the young, god of prophecy (for some reason he just magically gives Kassandra the ability to read prophecies... just so she can read his prophecy ??) or archery. Like, he's shown doing a lot of these things but they come across more as just side hobbies or extensions of him being Artemis' brother (like his archery) rather than aspects of his godliness or domains that he presides over. It's just like yeah, Apollo can shoot arrows and bandage people's hands I guess LMAO

All that said, I can see Rachel deciding to make him primarily the god of the sun and then going "oh! let's make his mom a sun god! then she could be a common enemy for both Persephone and Hades!" because Hades doesn't like sun gods yadda yadda.

But... we know Rachel has used front page Google sourcing in her comic before.

(literally the 'source' was copy pasted from a 2004 study guide for Princeton.edu. And we KNOW this was taken right from the first result because it just says 'www.princeton.edu' with no slug attached, which is what showed up back when we first looked into this, the princeton version was deadass the first result with this definition word for word. She didn't even remove the typo where there's no space between Xenios:"Zeus !!!).

And while a bit more into sus territory rather than outright confirmed like the xenia thing above, there's the whole Metis / Métis theory, that has us wondering if Rachel seriously googled "Metis" on its own and accidentally used Indigenous Métis cultural depictions in her version of Metis, the Greek God.

The fringe in her outfit, finger wings, and dark orange/red color really got my attention the first time I saw her design years ago, because she set off so many, "Wait a minute, is that an Indigenous woman???" bells in my Mi'kmaq/Cree brain LMAO And not even in a bad way, but now it feels a little :/ because of how much her character has been assassinated and how clearly accidental it was for her to look like that.

Of course, there's still a more likely explanation that her design was based on this vase:

But IDK y'all. That vase is very distinctly orange while the character itself is depicted in dark garbs and with light skin, so Metis being distinctly red-toned with finger wings and fringe?

While the Xenia thing is definitively copy pasted from the first search result on Google (literally there's no denying that at this point, Rachel's REALLY bad at doing research and then pretending like she was being smart by sourcing it from a university website... completely ignoring the fact that that website literally hasn't been updated since Rachel was working on The Doctor Pepper Show) the Metis and Leto depictions are definitely a lot more up for debate as to what 'research' Rachel did and whether or not they got confused with something else during her searching.

And really, the whole thing with Leto being a "sun god" doesn't make sense really when you think about it. Why is Leto a sun god? It's not even like you could argue there are "some versions" of the myths where she's a god of the sun, or other translations out there, or whatever vague source that could be used like what has been used for other gods like Hades and Persephone. Leto is not affiliated with the sun in any shape or form. Remove Apollo, her eventual son, who didn't exist when she was born and given the title of 'sun god', and it quickly falls apart as to why she would be a sun god in the first place.

She is a goddess of motherhood though, and that's NEVER mentioned in LO. If anything, Rachel makes her a terrible mom on purpose. Because god knows we can't have anyone in this comic be a good mom except for Persephone and Rhea (who are literally just carbon copies of one another). Basically the only thing Rachel gets right with Leto is the fact that she's a Titan and that she had Apollo and Artemis after sleeping with Zeus. That's it.

Unfortunately, unlike the xenia thing, there's no outright proof of what Rachel's reasoning was behind these designs or sources. So I'm not gonna accuse or outright state it as fact that Rachel confused Metis for Métis or ripped the idea for Leto being a sun god from an anime, because the odds of that being true in any way are fairly low.

But they're never zero.

[hybbart]

i love your magical girl designs for the seablings, could we get some more info on the choices of colour and stuff? i'm super into character design and love seeing peoples thought on stuff like that ^^

Sure!

A big influence was precure, obviously, as a fan. Many palettes aren't too far off from various precure if you look for them. I am generaly a bit unhappy with the mishmash of 20 different colours used in modern cures, but they did help me be a bit bolder with choices as I'll talk about later. I also tossed out their "avoid green as a main colour" rule like everyone else. I have no idea what sort of wack marketting advice convinced every girls show that girls don't like green and we probably will never know. Irrelevant...

My first step was assigning each mode its own colour. Since they're a duo I was tempted to do either contrasting or complimentary colours, but that went out the window quick. E1 seablings already had very distinctly assigned colours of green and purple, and they were the easiest that I already had ideas for, so I tossed that and just tried to not have them overlap. I still ended up with green, cyan, AND blue as main colours but I adjusted it with the secondary colours.

For the e1 seablings outfits it was primarily colour picked from my actual designs for the codfather and ocean queen, but tweaked to be more saturated, so their main colour theme is green (pink secondary) and purple (blue secondary). It's also when I decided to give them a highlight colour in their hair, as is popular with modern magical girls, since my codfather design already has this. (Also I stole the veil from cure Spicy. Her little veil/napkin hat I immediately fell in love with and thought it would work as a lily pad like hat on Jimmy when designing him, and it fit well with the slight wedding theme I gave them.)

Lizzie's colours are pretty much just various shades of purple and and blue based on her axolotl ocean goddess design. Jimmy's colours are supposed to be like a water lily, of course, and I made the greens less sickly than his codfather design which are meant to be more swampy and go with the browns of the cod. Both the seablings' secondary coloura are references to each other in this btw, as is the case in my codfather design to designate him as the ocean queen's family. Jimmy isn't inherently associated with blue in this au but I did manage to slip it into all three designs since outside of it he is.

The life series designs were veeery easy for Jimmy and much more difficult for Lizzie, but the actual colour choices were both easy once I worked out a design. Lizzie never had an actual skin for her faerie fort self, and her base skin is purple just like the ocean queen, which is also the case for her clothes in e2, so this is where I started taking liberties with her and assigned her other things and desided to throw out the idea of the colour palettes being in neat little boxes. This is the closest to a rainbow cure they get, but I made Lizzie's official main colour cyan and secondary green. Jimmy by contrast is the most monochromatic he gets here, with a main colour of blue and secondary yellow.

Butterfly Lizzie is actually the only time I had multiple palette ideas that I had to make a hard choice between because I liked them all so much, usually I was struggling to find shades I enjoyed being paired since I don't usually work with such saturated palettes. I guess it's fitting, since cyan/teal is minecraft's bets colour that's easy to slap on any build to make it look elegant. Jimmy's palette itself was pretty easy, took a lot of notes from cure sky for him in colour AND design, but it was a matter of where to put what colours. I think I changed the colour of his shorts more times than any other article.

E2 designs were the first I actually designed and thenthe last ones I made palettes for. Their main colours were red and orange... which are quite difficult to work with in such high saturation, and especially with trying to avoid overlaping. I ended up using very unconventional palettes way out of my comfort zone. Brown in general is very unconventional for a magical girl, but there's been a few curea like cure chocolat and cure wing that utilized it that gave the inspiration. It was an easy decision to make her hair and ears based on her calico design after that, though I had trouble deciding exactly where to incorperate the brown into her actual outfit. The purple just came very natural after that. I often use purple instead of actual brown for dark browns so it made sense to me, at least. It was a nice pop against the orange and also contrast the yellow.

E2 Jimmy is the one I am least satisfied with. It was the only one that was not based off his skin the same way Lizzie's weren't. I still look at it and think if theres anything else I could try. By far the most difficult. Red's a very bold colour so it's hard to match without just using different tones of red, and the wrong shade would make the whole rhing look off. I also already knew I wanted yellow/orange in the design because of the sherrif star, but I didn't want it to be his life design with a different primary colour. I decided to try incorperating his blue, and I like it in concept but I still am not sure about the specific shade. After that I thought to add green to make it that classic childish primaries colour, make the design like a space cowboy almost. The star on his hat, the hat in general actually, ended up being the biggest help to decide.

At one point I experimented with a full on rainbow theme but it did not work out. I think it could have with a slightly different design and somekne better at picking colours, but I scrapped it. I also decided to use a lot of darker shades since red is already so bold and bright. Still unhappy with the pants, but white was just a bit too bright and the secondaries were too bold to use. This was the only time I actually messed with the design itself to try and help make colours work, but it didn't work out. I'd say overall I'm happy enough with it but I could have done a lot better.

Also I decided to adjust Lizzie's pink hair slightly with each to match the palettes. I was trying to avoid it, but it's so pink and there's so much it really affected the rest of her design a lot, so I made her e2 hair a more salmon pink and her life design a more bubblegum pink.

As for their wands I just went with an unobtrusive white and pastel rainbow colour scheme. The white matches their outfits and the rainbow doesn't clash too hard with anything. Joel I obbiously just made green and Norman was a bit more awkward but I went with a grey to match the real Norman since a full blue palette made him look like a generic cat faerie and not specifically Norman.

[hatt0riart]

I WANTED TO MAKE MORE THAN JUST THIS but it took like. a week to get done and im sick these days

anyways in light of mk1's nonsense i revisited some koncepts i had for a roleswap au. i took hanzo's inspiration from a mix of mkx and mk11 outfits and kuai i kind of just winged it based off my own preferences in past appearances!!

more rambling is under the cut about the actual AU :-]

PLEASE DO NOT REPOST MY ART ON ANY OTHER SOCIAL MEDIA OR CROP THEM FOR ICONS. THANK YOU!

SO I HAVE NOT ACTUALLY DEVELOPED THIS BEYOND SOME OLD SKETCHES I HAD OF KUAI'S DESIGN but i had some general ideas of how this was supposed to work???

the shirai ryu is still alive and well! he's still a family man and very clan oriented. satoshi is still born and grows into his clan's responsibilities, however harumi dies in child birth.

the lin kuei on the other hand is Not Doing Well. they end up getting wiped out during a raid from the shirai ryu and most of kuai's immediate family (whether by choice or blood) ends up going down with them.

prior to this kuai ends up passing after a failed mission to retrieve the map of elements from the shaolin temple in an attempt to prove himself to his clan. (instead of bi-han being the one set on that path, kuai ends up taking the initiative instead WAY before he's ready without anyone's knowledge and ends up dying when met with scorpion.)

most of it is similar how it is in actual canon for how scorpion's story goes. he gets resurrected he pledges loyalty to quan chi in order to get revenge, blah blah blah. mortal kombat happens. the two meet again at some point.

kuai's still on that "you killed my family" juice but its...more so about familial ties (like bi-han and smoke) rather than it being the love(s) of his life (like hanzo's wife and son) , seeing as he died young from his own overzealous nature.

very much has anger issues. he's impatient and has alot shorter of a temper by comparison to scorpion in the original canon. hardly ever humbled until that point lol

hanzo on the other hand is surprisingly more lax. meditates often, drinks alot of tea and while he *IS* stressed he handles it alot better than kuai does. maybe has a problem of ignoring his problems though for the sake of the task at hand.

kuai ends up harassing hanzo alot in this AU even outside of the tournament. he's kind of a bitchy ghost there to remind hanzo of what happened to him and lowkey hanzo guilts over it.

kuai has alot of grim reaper motifs in his design. he carries a scythe made of ice primarily and fights at a more long distance range.

hanzo on the other hand is alot more of an up close brawler. he keeps alot of design traits from mkx with a bit of mk11 sprinkled in for inspiration of his "classic" design.

STILL A PYROMANCER!! i just havent thought out how. he's just regarded with a bit more respect for having those unnatural abilities lol

but yeah this is just me spitballing in bullet points. i'm hoping to make more stuff later that is a bit more...thought out properly but it follows more of like

mk mythologies --> mk9 -> mkx

type of timeline i guess? except hanzo is in bi-han's position and kuai ends up being put in scorpion's. bi-han doesn't really have a place in the AU outside of being a background character and driving motive for kuai's vengeance later on. (though we're not gonna talk about how bi-han's mentality eventually fed into kuai's at a young age and made him come to the conclusions he did before he died.... maybe.)

smoke exists for the sake of painful flashbacks lol

satoshi's also a bg character but he does end up growing up with the shirai ryu and takes on his own share of clan responsibilities. idk whether or not he takes after hanzo's pyromancy or not in this AU but either way he grows up to be a well respected figure in the clan!

alot of stuff outside of this remains the same though, just the lin kuei and shirai ryu's dynamics get swapped.

ANYWAYS YEAH IF YOU READ THRU ALL THIS THANKS FOR READING BYEEEE (i'll be adding to this au more later on when i finish my other sketches lol)

[goldenchocobo]

Kingdom Hearts Tamagotchi Adventures

So, I got the Kingdom Hearts Tamagotchi for my birthday this year. and it was only in September that I decided to activate it (I was hesitant because I know Tamagotchi can be needy and can't be turned off). So here's my so-far roughly one month journey!

Here he is- Base Sora on day 1. I took care of him, played games, and generally fiddled about with what I could do. This was my first ever Tamagotchi, so it was a new experience to me. You fight Shadow Heartless, Dusk Nobodies and Flood Unversed occasionally with the tap of the 'A' button. They didn't happen super frequently so I was fine fending them off.

Unfortunately things didn't go well. I became ill with stomach flu the night after. The manual says it takes roughly 49 hours for Sora to change/evolve. and well...

When I was able to move again... I woke up to... uh... Heartless Sora. Everything remained the same, except the food and treat (Paopu and Icecream) turned into Heart and !. Heart being that you well- fed him hearts, and ! meaning he attacked you (I think... he vanished then appeared closer and waved his arms about). I felt really bad that my first Tamagotchi basically 'died' because of things I couldn't control. But I enjoyed my time with Heartless Sora; and after a few days, Kairi found him and saved him! Very cute 2 bit scene. Back to Normal Sora. I found an issue. You see... I'm more nocturnal; and this Tamagotchi... wasn't. He woke up at 9AM and slept at 10PM; meaning he didn't get the right care from me.. but I figured I could change the time to suit me- and did. Now he wakes up at 12PM and sleeps at 2AM- same as me. Next evo was a surprise! Sora introduced me to (and trusted me to care?) Riku!

This was when I found out each character/evo has different sleeping schedules. Riku would sleep late and wake late (I'm thankful it wasn't early due to the whole Dawn motif because I didn't want to change the clock too much again). They also have their own unique cutscenes, with Riku primarily featuring Mickey. Not much happened, and I showed Riku to Riku(My Riku... the cockatiel- named after... Riku). But He left and Sora returned. At this point I wanted to aim for Roxas- or Ventus (I'm sad there's no Vanitas). So I miiight have looked up a quick wiki to see how to get the characters. "Wow that's cheating" you might say.. and yeah- probably... the issue is that I didn't get Roxas.

Instead, Sora 'grew up' into KHII Sora. I was interested to see what kind of outfit or character I could get to show up, so I continued with normal care.

On the 28th of September... Sora.. ever the festive fellow...

Donned his Santa outfit.

I found it kinda funny, but kept him up with Normal care. I was starting to forget him (I got a little drawer handle I put him on during the evening on my right hand ride next to my monitor, and during the day he's on the couch arm- I don't take him out because I'm scared I'll lose the Tamagotchi somewhere). So He was getting upset/hungry; but if he beeped I knew he needed something. He Unlocked/locked the Keyhole to Halloween/Christmas Town, then flew off in the Gummiship, returning as Normal Sora. After 49 hours, he once again reintroduced me to Riku. having forbidden knowledge, I knew I could turn Riku into Dark Riku. and tried.

I. Felt. Awful.

I know they're just 2bit pixelart on the screen... but Riku has a special place in my heart (I named my grumpy, gay cockatiel after him!) so me... just basically neglecting Riku? it hurt :(

After this. He did not turn into Dark Riku. He left. just straight-up.

Sora flew back in on the Gummiship and my quest to get Roxas/Ventus continued.

But I was surprised when I came back after an outing to find... Sora turned into a fish

Wiki says he's from 'Bad care', but I don't remember giving him subpar treatment, and catering to what he wanted- so I'm baffled. He did come with an Aerial/Sebastian scene, though- so that was cute. He didn't stay for long and locked Atlantica's Keyhole, returning as Basic Sora.

Again- I tried to get Roxas, but instead got KHII Sora again; so I thought I could maybe get Axel or Xion; since they're included in the KHII evo list.

Nope. Christmas Sora again. Oh well- He does love Christmas.

I'll update this if I get anything interesting. I know you can get Xehanort- I recognised his Silhouette on the manual, so maybe I'll get him one day.

I'm still waiting on Roxas..

[magnhild]

OC-tober Day 14: Who/what inspired your OC?

This is much more a writing prompt than a drawing prompt, so I'm simply going to go over each member of Team LLAC and explain my inspirations for each character!

First and foremost, Team LLAC are all fankids of characters from RWBY, so a lot of the inspiration comes from that. Luna is the child of Blake and Yang, so she takes a lot of design and character elements from them - she looks like them, of course, but also shares their goal of becoming a huntress and counteracting the bad in the world with some good. Her personality differs pretty greatly from either, though. All of Team LLAC were also inspired by aspects of myself and Luna got my anxiety (of both the social and general kind). This part of her personality, alongside some aspects of her design, was also partially inspired by the moon symbolism I talked about in an earlier prompt.

Lily is the daughter of Emerald and a lot of her personality, character, and design stems from that. When she was just an unnamed concept in my mind, I wasn't going to have her be a fankid like her teammates, but I recognised the potential in having her be related to a former antagonist from the show - especially because, at that point in time, Emerald hadn't begun her redemption arc yet. Funnily enough though, parts of her arc in Year 1 were also inspired by Blake - seeking redemption and liberation through becoming a huntsman and initially being more closed-off to her teammates, and Jaune - struggling to find her Semblance when many her age had already done so by then. My own desire to prove myself as a good person while also being adverse to socialising played a part there as well. Parts of her personality - namely her dry wit - and Year 2 design were also inspired by Mercury even though there's no direct relation between the two. Her Semblance was inspired by my general love for plant-based powers in other media. As a kid, I always loved the scene near the end of Sky High where Layla finally unleashes her powers on one of the antagonists and defeats them in a matter of seconds. Plants are cool.

Astra is the daughter of Neon Katt, though I fully don't remember what inspired me to make that decision. I knew I didn't want the team to be comprised entirely of children of main characters, but why I specifically chose a character that had only spoken in a single episode at that point in time, only 2019 Blaire could tell you. Still, she provided plenty of inspiration for Astra, to the point where, on the surface, the two are strikingly similar in terms of design and personality. Astra also inherited my (and Neon's, as far as I'm concerned) ADHD. Both in-story and outside of it, she was also inspired by Nora in regard to her endless enthusiasm, reckless energy, primarily pink colour scheme, and even her hammer weapon. The archetype of 'character who is feminine, silly, and cheerful but also reckless and powerful' is one I am very fond of, so one of Team LLAC was bound to end up with it. I also happen to love that archetype even more when deeply buried identity issues are thrown into it. I love when the perpetually enthusiastic character secretly has crippling self-worth issues - see Korra LoK, Amethyst SU (or even Steven himself), Akko LWA, and, of course, Nora again. I couldn't not saddle Astra with that. My desire for RWBY to properly explore Yang's self-sacrificial tendencies also saw me giving similar habits to Astra, and it all came together perfectly.

Cobalt is the son of Velvet, but also the adoptive son of the rest of Team CFVY, so I took inspiration from all four characters to build his basis. Design-wise, he mostly draws from Velvet, but his Year 2 outfit especially has at least one element from each of the others as well. Personality-wise, I took Velvet's kindness, Coco's cool-headedness, Fox's sense of humor, and Yatsuhashi's calm nature, and mashed them all together into Cobalt. In-universe, this is the way each of them have rubbed off on him. From me, he got his desire to people-please and his strong sense of justice, which clash just as much for him as they do for me. There's more of his character that actually takes inspiration from my hatred for a common trope in any given media, but I don't think I can get too much into it without hinting at spoilers for things to come ;)

[kotaromita]

Based on the CYBER SNIPER set and @kusanagi-nene-official-mods' cyber apocalypse AU, I designed a Kotaro in the same universe!

Rather than offense focused like Akito, Toya, Nene, and Emu are in the set, I wanted to keep in line with his tendency to flee from conflict and give him an EMP multi-tool for the sake of disarming any enemy for a chance to run and hide.

More details below!

Following the apocalypse he’s become hyperfocused on protecting Takato and stockpiling supplies. With people he knows he doesn’t hesitate sharing whatever he has at the time so long as Takato is safe and well taken care of.

He is unsure where his parents are and spends any time he isn’t scavenging or hiding looking for them and anyone else he recognizes. He’s incredibly lonely despite willingly isolating himself for safety most days. He’s perpetually worried about Akito and Kohane.

Because of his habitual hoarding of necessities he was once ambushed and robbed. In the struggle his wrist and numerous bones in his hand were broken. It was painful constantly and unable to heal properly so with Akito’s help he amputated it. He was able to take a split-hook prosthetic off of a casualty of the apocalypse. It’s too small for his upper arm so he can’t wear it for long periods of time without discomfort.

In a roleplay with @hellsaoyagi he and Toya sang together and reminisced.

Interacting with @kusanagi-nene-official has led to the two of them becoming allies in their situation, although they don't often have the chance to interact in person due to their differing goals.

More information about the AU you can get from primarily Nene's mod and maybe the people running the Emu, Toya, and Rin accounts that are also associated with the AU! I'm just trying my best to mesh with the world they've created. It's so much fun putting Kotaro in lots of different AUs since, what with him having no cards and alternate outfits, I have almost complete freedom, hehe.

Lastly, this is basically how I envision his prosthetic!

Just imagine a more high-tech version of this, what with the colored bits being lit up and so on.

[luciddaydreamsstuff]

Here’s the band! More info about each under cut.

I find it weird how Freddy is technically the only naked animatronic. Minus DJ who is just too big, Freddy just has his top hat, bow tie, earrings, and the spike bracelet. Other than that, he’s just commando. Like Sun and Moon have harem pants with Moon also sporting a night cap, Roxy had a two-piece, Chica has a one-piece and leg warmers, and Monty also has pants. Freddy however, zip nada.

Anyways it’s weird, and I’m rambling. Also keep in mind that this is both my interpretation of the characters and also their designs in my AU.

From Right to Left:

Glamrock Foxy: Mostly known as Foxy, Foxy is on the shorter end of the animatronics standing at 6’1. Foxy was originally part of the Core Four, a nicknamed for the original Glamrock band which consisted of Freddy, Bonnie, Chica, and Foxy to keep in line with the previous locations. Foxy originally played the drums for the band before being swapped out for Roxanne. Foxy’s main attraction is Kid’s Cove, a pirate themed Play Palace. While not primarily connected to the Superstar Daycare, Kid’s Cove was a place for children to run around and play if they were too old for the Daycare. Due to budget constraints, Foxy, Puppet, Ballora, and Baby had to be shelved away, so they were not aware of the virus until after they came back. Foxy has a playful rivalry with Bonnie. His design is a mix of fan interpretation of Glam! Foxy but also some cut-outs seen in his log fume ride in Help Wanted 2. Foxy’s legs are based off of actual fox hind legs as most of his strength comes from his legs.

Glamrock Freddy: Mostly known as Freddy, he stands at 6’7 being around the middle of the animatronics heights. Freddy doesn’t change much from his canon counterpart. He was part of the Core Four (Freddy, Bonnie, Chica, Foxy) and later the Main Four (Freddy, Chica, Monty, Roxy), though he doesn’t treat his band mates, either past or present, any differently. After the True Ending of Security Breach, the owner/manger/supervisor of the pizzaplex had contacted Vanessa after watching over and reviewing security footage of the night. With her summon came Gregory and Freddy. A comprise was made and Freddy went with the other animatronics to get fixed and a redesign. With the redesign came pants, a “leather jacket”, and fingerless gloves. Freddy still takes care of Gregory, who lives with Vanessa. His main attraction is Fazer Blast, which I won’t explain because it’s in the game. Freddy is essentially the therapist friend of the animatronics, always willing to go the extra mile to help a friend out.

Glamrock Bonnie: Mostly known as Bonnie, Bonnie stands at 6'5 being around middle height for the animatronics. Bonnie has a sort of rebellious, cool older brother personality. He is both a sore loser and a sore winner, though it is usally played for comedic effect. Bonnie's main's attraction is Bonnie Bowl, a bowling theme attraction with an ice cream bar close by. Bonnie was originally part of the Core Four (Freddy, Bonnie, Chica, Foxy) and was on bass, after a malfunction he had been swapped out for Monty, and was not upset about as he saw it as more freedom. He also has a friendly rivalry with Foxy. After Bonnie was found, he was also given a redesign and fixed, and apologised to those he felt like he hurt most. Bonnie’s design is based off of both is canon design and some fan designs, though it mostly shows through the outfit.

I am of the mindset that Bonnie was Patient Zero for the virus, and that Monty did not decommission him. Bonnie, in my AU, was the first one to get the virus but instead of it gradually upping those affected’s worst qualities by 11, the prototype virus only flared upped when Bonnie felt annoyed, angry, or frustrated, lead in to what staff referred to as “Bonnie Blow-ups”. Bonnie didn’t really notice it as a problem until the third or fourth blow-up, the third with him realising he had a glitch, and the fourth time recognising it as a virus. Bonnie begins to distants himself from his friends but confided in Freddy after each blow-up. Bonnie had gone into Gator Golf to talk to Monty about controlling his emotions when the virus flared up, which led to an argument then a fistfight. After the fight Monty leaves, but Bonnie stays behind to clear his head. He ends up almost getting crushed by the bucket of plastic balls, but ends up just falling and getting pelted by them. Afterwards, Bonnie retreats to the secret room he had found accidentally and stays there until he is found during the event of this AU.

I tried to make this shorter than the last post but I also need to make a post about just the timeline of events and whatnot. I also need to do one for Ballora as she’s the only one so far who has a design but no information about her. I might make it after showing the final animatronic designs but there will be more design for this AU in the future.

[the-s1lly-corner]

Starlight, Starshine; an impenetrable disguise

its finally happening! i came up with a name for this little fanfic/one shot series/whatever this is going to be! obligatory title is ripped from a steam powered giraffe song (go listen to starlight starshine, its literally sun+moon x reader core im begging you) anyways! Starlight, Starshine is going to be a collection of self indulgent writings between our favorite animatronic and reader! from multiple different aus, though it will mostly center around 2! one au thats "everything is fine nothing bad happens please i just want them ALL to be happy" and the other is a silly dumb idea of "what if reader who used to work at the pizzaplex takes eclipse home and repairs them and ect ect happens"! todays little fic is based off of that! im so sorry about the long authors note, i really need to make it a habit to shorten these but yk obligatory admin is not used to writing fics and theyre still trying to find their style in terms of writing so ! most of these one shots also arent going to be in order, due to the nature of this being a collection of writings for at least 2 aus so for the most part theres no need to read them all to understand a greater story!

Summary: Months after the reader brings Eclipse to their home and repairs them, sun and moon must get accustomed to their new environment. however sun has some plans...

Extra notes: this one is primarily sun centered, reader has a dog, author is attempting at comedy, not proof read we die like men so expect a few grammar mistakes and spelling errors, a lot of this one shot also contains more context and exposition (???) to the "Taken Home" au referenced above, author is not confident in their writing skills and hasnt written a full fledged fic in a year or two, author also isnt used to writing proper dialogue so take that as you will, reader is GN/typically wont be given pronouns due to authors general writing style/POV, he/they pronouns for sun and moon they /them for eclipse, really this is just an experimental piece with a vague idea i had last night, nothing too special more so an exercise to get me back into writing, author is still trying to figure out how to write personalities so these are very likely to be OOC

The first word that came to your mind when describing Sun was "odd". He looked odd, he acted odd, he had odd rituals that he carried out in your home. However it wasn't a bad kind of odd.

It'd been a few months since you took the former daycare attendant to your home, and repaired them. You had already grown close to the pair long before the closure of the pizzaplex, being an extra set of hands in the daycare. You didnt even know they were still active within the building when you decided to explore the remains; already taken on the form of Eclipse, who at the time of your discovery was trying in vain to clean the wreckage. Of course repairing them wasn't easy given you had limited experience in... basically rebuilding an animatronic; but against all odds you made it work! You let them take the guest bedroom, not that either of them used it; they would much rather spend their time hovering around you.

It took a lot of getting used to, for everyone involved, but you were all adjusting quite nicely!

Mostly...

You see, Sun didnt like being cooped up.. your home being considerably smaller than the daycare he was so used to. Leading to todays horrible plan.

"Sunflower," You said through lightly clenched teeth as you watched the sun themed animatronic tug on an oversized hat. He really couldn't be doing this... this wasnt going to work, no one is this dumb to fall for this plan!

The plan in question? Well, Sun thinks it would be a good idea to wander about outside in a "disguise" of sorts; said disguise consisting of the aforementioned hat, sunglasses, a face mask, and a entirely new outfit. Obviously, it looked at convincing as it sounded.

Sun hummed and spun on his feel to look at you, already putting your dog on a leash. "Yeeees starshine?" He asked as he scratched your dog between the ears. "This isnt a good idea," You mumbled as you watched him make his way to the door. "Nonsense! There's hardly anyone out, it'll only be a quick walk around the park!" Sun cheered.

The second word that comes to your mind when you think to describe Sun, is "stubborn", as when he made his mind up on something you can almost guarantee that he would follow through with the plan. So now, you were following behind him, keeping your eyes peeled for anyone who could see him. If he weren't so tall, or if he could tuck his rays in, or didn't emit a mechanical creak with every step he made then perhaps, the plan may have just worked... perhaps.. maybe..

No, it wouldn't, you can see his metal neck from where you were standing.

"Remember, only one lap," You reminded him as you succumbed to his will, much to his delight as his pace picked up just ever so slightly.

To his credit, he was right about not many people being out and about, mostly in part due to the fact it was still early in the morning. Just light enough to keep Sun in control, but just early enough for most to still be sleeping or still getting ready for work. However, the park wasn't empty, mostly it was early morning joggers; who thankfully didn't pay much mind to the two of you outside of giving a half wave as they passed.

There were even a few parents around with their small children walking with them; be it they were walking them to school or simply taking them to take in the early morning air... Sun's body seemed to perk up at the sight of the children, loudly greeting them with a good morning; leaving both them and the parents slightly bewildered at his high energy.

There were others, who had decided to also take their dog out for an early walk. The people once again weren't an issue, as they seemed to miraculously fall for Sun's disguise from a distance.

Their dogs weren't fooled, though. Multiple dogs began to bark and growl as they passed by. "Oh I'm so sorry, I don't know what's gotten into him!" was said a few times throughout the walk. Again, the owners somehow didnt seem to notice the fact Sun was an animatronic, mostly due to having to restrain their dog from lunging forward at him.

The closest call, however, came from Sun excitedly taking up an offer for someone to pet their dog. For you see, Sun didnt think far enough ahead to cover his hands, thus leaving his hands in clear sight. Add in the fact that the dog bit Sun as he leaned forward to pet them.

Of course, the man noticed, and before he could say a word or question, you blurted out that it was a prosthetic hand. Though, you're not sure that the man bought it, as he was now craning his neck up to look up at Sun's round, flat face.

He slinked off. Whether it be he didn't have the energy to deal with it, or he simply just didnt care, or somehow believed you, he left.

Thankfully, that last interaction happened as you and Sun were beginning to loop back to where you started. Before Sun could begin to beg for a second round around the park, you started to walk him home; hand in hand.

"Oh that was so so fun! Starshine we gotta do this more often, everyone was so nice, " Sun chirped as you approached your front door. In his excitement he had begun to skip in long strides, forcing you to speed up your walk to a light jog.

"Yeah, again... maybe we can go earlier in the morning? You know we cant risk anything, I mean, if I get caught with you I could probably get sent to," You trailed off as Sun suddenly shoved something into your hands.

A handful of flowers that he had pulled up from the ground, he must have grabbed them while on the walk. How did you not notice? Were you that nervous of being found out by others?

A third word to describe Sun would be sweet. Even through his oddity and stubbornness, he still thought of you. Always so considerate.

Now that you think about it, you realize this may be the first time Sun has touched a real living flower.

You frowned, slightly. It made sense, he wasnt permitted to step foot outside of the pizzaplex, and its not like many people were giving him bouquets of fresh flowers. Usually if they did it'd be the obviously fake plastic ones. Sure, sometimes the kids would give him paper flowers.

"Can we go again tomorrow?" Sun asked as he watched you fumble around with the cluster of flowers... some were weeds, but.. its the thought that counts.

"Of course, Sunflower," You said before you could let yourself think logically.

Well, there was no taking it back, now. How could you, when Sun quickly stamped his heels in excitement as he dashed inside your home.

Perhaps you'll pick some flowers for him tomorrow, too.

yeah idk about this one yall LMAO, i genuinely didnt know where i was going with this one nor did i know how to end it, if that wasnt obvious SOBS im so not used to writing actual stories, im so used to short scenarios and headcannons... gotta fix that anyways i still have a few more ideas i want to write, but! thats it for the first one shot for Starlight, Starshine !

[wen-kexing-apologist]

Uea + Gray

Ok, I wrote this all in response to a post from @respectthepetty but I crave attention so I'm making it it's own post :p

So there is contention about whether or not King's true color is black or blue, throughout Bed Friend we have seen King wear a hell of a lot of black and a hell of a lot of blue. So it's posisble that he is two-toned but I am generally more in the "King is a Blue Boy" camp because at his core, when he is stripped down and bare around Uea in the privacy of his own apartment, he is in blue.

But like RTP has said before, if the black is not one of King's true colors, it means that he is hiding something (his love for Uea) SO WHEN UEA' S WARDROBE THIS EPISODE FLUCTUATES PRIMARILY BETWEEN BLUE, BLACK, AND GRAY?????????????? OUTSIDE OF JUST HIS ROBES????? IN PUBLIC?????????????

You can imagine my excitement...my friends, I present to you THE UEA REALIZING HIS FEELINGS FOR KING EPISODE!!!

We start Ep. 5 where we left off, with Uea and King on the beach. With Uea in red. But the important part is not his outfit, it's his words. "No. It's supposed to be like that, to not take advantage of me."

In episode 4, after Pock assaulted Uea, King asked the same question:

"Can I have something else?" besides a thank you for rescuing you? But Uea's responses are wildly different. In Episode 4 Uea's reply is "If you want more than this, then let's get going," as opposed to "No. It's supposed to be like that, to not take advantage of me." and King doesn't argue, he just asks if they can have sleep together that evening, and Uea says "run out of quota," We are seeing Uea enforce his boundaries with King, oh wait, no I'm sorry. I mean test his boundaries with King. To me, the scene where Uea denies King sex and cites the rules of their FWB, is the beginning of Uea trying to get a better sense of King's interest in him. Is King really a good guy? Does King only care about Uea because they are fucking? What will King's reaction be when he doesn't get what he wants? King makes a joke about Uea being too strict, with the previous evening being totally different (I don't fully understand the context but I'm assuming it's because Uea is counting them sharing a bed in the hotel as one of their three nights and King isn't because they didn't have sex) but otherwise seems content.

So what do we get in the next scene?

(side note: all my love and adoration to whoever decided to go apeshit on the mirrors and reflections in this show) Uea in gray, King in blue. Now, we've seen Uea in this particular gray robe a bunch, but that doesn't negate the fact that he's hiding his feelings. In this scene, King forgets about Uea's trigger, and accidentally sets it off, sees Uea react like this:

Immediately realizes his mistake, and apologizes:

"I'm sorry. You said you don't like it," and gives Uea space that he doesn't ask for but that King knows he needs based on the first time he accidentally triggered Uea and Uea went to hide in his hallway.

What color does Uea wear after?

Our boy is back to wearing blue.

Side note, there is now a red pillow in King's chair which I do not believe existed before...

And more specifically we get him wearing blue at the point in which King is starting to reveal his feelings to him by way of conversation with Jade.

The person he took home is very cute. The person he took home is someone he likes. The person he took home is his type: cold and fierce. The person he took home is much more than a one night stand. And he says these things always looking at Uea.

Uea is wearing this blue when he gets this moment of casual care and intimacy with King:

and when King tries to get his opinion on whether or not he should go on the date with the person his Mom arranged for him:

And when he tries to give King an out at the end of their date dinner:

And when King doesn't take the out:

(coughs in blatantly obvious OST translation)

Next scene?

Back in the gray that Uea always wears when he has sex with King. But this time we end the scene with Uea asking King not to smoke for him, and gently stroking King's waist, and pressing kisses to King's arms and King is saying "yes i'll skip the cigarette for you" and King is saying "let's sleep together" and King is kissing the top of Uea's head and stroking his hair, and hugging him and he's so quiet and gentle and in the morning? What is Uea wearing?

Black.

Two weeks later, what is Uea wearing?

Gray.

And in both these instances, it's interesting because Kit is involved in the scene, and Uea is matching Kit's colors. I suppose this in part is to show that Kit and Uea are connected. That Kit is trying to get Uea to like him, that Kit is trying (and failing) to hide his toxicity, and Uea is trying to hide himself. Trying to hide his personality, trying not to engage with Kit. So that makes sense to me in one sense, but I think there is a double meaning to the gray, and that is that Uea is not being honest about his feelings for King.

We know it, King knows it, and King is just being absolutely patient about it, because he wants Uea to make the first move. He wants, in my mind, to make sure that Uea is a willing participant in changing their relationship from FWB to lovers. He doesn't want Uea to feel pressured into anything, and he doesn't want to ruin what he has with Uea if Uea doesn't feel the same way.

And I think the black and gray is not just meant to tie Kit and Uea together but to symbolize Uea hiding his realization that he is in love with King because we get another round of tests. Or I guess, more accurately, we get King pushing Uea's initial FWB rules.

King puts his arm over Uea's shoulder when they are leaving the coffee shop and Uea doesn't protest, and not only does Uea not protest, but he allows King to continue to hold him like this where other people can see them until they stop to have a conversation at which point Uea gently elbows King off of him to position himself so that King and Uea can be looking each other in the eye while they talk...and that only happens when they are alone. Uea allows himself to be seen in King's embrace by his coworkers.

King is honest about his feelings and tells Uea he is annoyed and Uea stops King from leaving by grabbing King's upper arm and asking him if ignoring Kit is not enough for King to know that Uea isn't flirting, that he doesn't want that attention.

Which to me reads as Uea caring about whether or not King thinks that he might be looking at other people and no longer want to continue their friends with benefits situation. Uea very clearly has a vested interest in making sure King is aware that Uea is not trying to get with Krit.

Then, of course, there is the way that Uea looks at King in the office, when Jade is asking for updates about King and his potential blind date.

King once again pushing at Uea's office boundary by holding Uea's hand and looking him straight in the eye when he says "I'm waiting for him to be ready,"

And I love the exchange here with Jade where Jade is like "Uea, don't be like King," and King messes with his black jacket so that he ends up pulling it more closed "Having a crush on someone but keeping it hidden from friends," and Uea says:

"I don't have one", you know, like a liar. But Uea is bad at hiding his feelings, especially when it comes to King because King is very good at reading Uea. So we get the barest little smile when Uea denies having a crush, without a trace of King looking upset, heartbroken, or rejected.

Instead he tests the work boundary again by being a clingy little baby and teasing Uea with his very exaggerated attempts to hold Uea's hand, and the little kissy face that he makes afterwards:

And where Uea could be genuinely upset or pissed off because King is overstepping the boundaries, but what happens?

It's hard to tell in screen shots but we get the barest of smiles from Uea as he returns to his desk.

Then we get the Kit v. King show down where Uea, emboldened by King turns Kit down:

And the conversation in the break room where Uea says Kit is not his type, and King asks "players?" and Uea looks...guilty? almost, and King is there, flirting with him, asking is Uea believes that he can stop being a player when he cares about someone. And Uea refuses to make eye contact, because he has seen absolutely zero indication from King that he is being a player since they started seeing each other and they laid out the "don't have sex with other people" rule. But again, he's lying about his feelings. He's hiding his feelings so he says "No" no he doesn't believe it. But where King looked almost at the verge of tears the last time that Uea doubted his ability to stop being a player (back in like, episode 1 I think) this time King just..smiles. This time King says "if you never try, you'll never know,"

So King pushes again...this time he loudly asks Uea if he can sleep with him, and he does so at work, and in front of other people. He has pushed too far, so we think, because Uea immediately pulls him away and asks "have you forgotten our agreement?" and the conversation could have ended there. King could have been apologetic, King could have backed off, King could have admitted defeat. He asks "if you don't like it this way, what should I do instead?"

If Uea was fully not okay with King propositioning him at work, he could have said "don't do that here," he could have said "we will not discuss this further, this is a rule I set and you are breaking it, don't do it again,"

Does he? No.

No, no he does not. Uea, in fact, comes up with a very quick solution to allow him and King to flirt in public at the office without people finding out.

Fake phone calls for the win! I love that the second King is able to pretend like he is talking to someone on the phone he just starts showering Uea with "Darling" and "Babe" as frequently as he possibly can. This man is desperately in love with Uea and he's doing everything in his power to show Uea that he feels strongly about him, that he cares for him, that he wants them to be more. He will look Uea directly in the eye and say he's waiting for him to be ready. But he's doing it while teasing Uea at the same time. So does that come off as genuine? No. Is it genuine? Absolutely. But King is in black this whole time because he is still hiding his very real feelings for Uea behind taunts and teases.

So we end the episode with Uea in a blue shirt while watching the football game with King.

Also, I think this is the first time we see King in yellow....P'King, are we happy that Uea is hanging out with us outside of sexy time?

Uea embraced by both King and blue sheets when the lights go out during the storm and he's panicking. King telling him that it's okay, that he's here, that he promises to hold him through the night.

And in the morning? What are they wearing? What colors are on their bodies when Uea and King get interrogated about maybe secretly dating?

Uea is back to his anxiety red and King is in...OH YEAH BABY, THAT'S RIGHT!!! BLUE

It is then worth noting that King is wearing blue in a scene where King's true feelings for Uea cause his jealousy to boil over when he sees Gun talking to Uea, because King knows Gun has a crush on Uea. King is being serious in this scene. He's not making jokes, when Gun questions him King simply says "it's my business,". The only time he gets playful at all in this scene is when Jade says he'll bark with Dang in front of the offfice if Uea and King are secretly dating, and when Uea and King both say "yeah" at the same time and King gets a little playful twinkle in his eye.

From the trailer next week it looks like we are getting more of Kit and Uea which will be interesting in terms of seeing how King reacts when he finds out that Kit is still harassing Uea.

[actualbird]

what is your ranking of all the main event stories we have received so far? (as in sott, enduring light, skadi etc)

OHHHH THIS IS A FUN QUESTION, THANK YOU ANON!!! let me go from my highest to lowest.

for this question, im taking "main event stories" to mean the Big 4 SSR Events where the event story involves the entire team all at once (so no xmas events or sotn, or solo or duo events). and i will be judging these events primarily on their event story (so not as much as the gameplay, though thatll also be a factor. but i wont be judging the cards)

OH DANG WHY DID I EXPLAIN IT, THE TOT WIKI DOES A MUCH BETTER JOB AT DEFINING BIG 4 SSR EVENTS, HERE, THIS IS WHAT IM JUDGING

anyhoo, here is my personal ranking!

FIRST PLACE: Mysteries of the Lost Gold

my beloved, my favorite, my perfect shining star. lost gold was the first big event i played and it has yet to be dethroned as my favorite event story of all of tot. absolute homerun of a rich story with intrigue, high stakes, a good balance of tender moments and lighthearted ones, and just SO gripping in terms of all of the story threads coming together, plus the absolutely A+ nxx team interactions. my advice to every new player who comes into my inbox is "PLAY THE LOST GOLD DLC" because i love it so much. i will never shut up about how i love it so much. it has our very first raven!luke sighting. it has marius nearly getting stabbed. it has artem with gun. it has vyn doing that THING with the bow and arrow. LIKE. THIS EVENT IS PERFECT TO ME. it'll take something really really special to dethrone it.

SECOND PLACE: Enduring Light

this isnt recency bias speaking but my real honest thoughts: this story delighted me to no end. i was kept on the edge my seat for every single phase, and the sheer novelty of the story's setup and the gameplay was such a nice change of pace after the previous event formats started to get repetetive. i especially loved that this time, we had to suspect the nxx boys as well because that really added to my enjoyment of this event. it really felt like a mystery that had to be solved by us, and not just a mystery that will unravel by itself as long as we keep playing, if that makes sense? my point is i was immensely immersed in enduring light and i love it lots lots lots. luke looking stupendously hot in his outfit during the entire event was also a huge plus.

THIRD PLACE: a tie between Blizzardous Threads of Red & Mystery of Bakerlon

i really loved BTR and bakerlon!!! both of their murder cases were adequately thrilling for me, though towards the end i could feel the adrenaline wearing off, if that makes sense? like by the 4th phase, things were slotting together already in a way that like lowered the feeling of intrigue. also i know i said i wouldnt judge much based on gameplay, but these two deserve a shoutout for MINIGAMES I WANT TO KILL W MY BARE HANDS. bakerlon's crystal tasks were so repetetive to me, and BTR's TIMED ESCAPE ROOM THINGIES heightened my blood pressure several times HAHA

FOURTH PLACE: To My Beloved: Moonlit Eve (anniv 2)

this has a soft spot in my heart for including all of the old NPCs from main story, and that was very heartwarming. while theres no mystery that needs solving, just seeing the team hang out together and have fun together was such a treat for my soul

FIFTH PLACE: Secrets of the Tomb

sott is where i'd say the event story quality is inching towards the meh scale. the mystery here was interesting but was not particularly gripping to me. it might just be a me thing, but i enjoyed the side stories (the ones you get with the boys when you investigate the artefacts) more than the actual event story itself.

SIXTH PLACE: A Love Poem to Skadi

ahhhhh skadi. psychological and medical malpractice horrors skadi.....HJSVKHSJDFDSF. i will admit, the mystery in this story is HORRIFIC and it was enjoyable to unravel it, but here is where i break my rule again of not talking about gameplay but mAAAAAAN THE GAMEPLAY HINDERED MY ENJOYMENT OF THE MAIN PLOT LOTS. it was rather difficult for me to do all the exploration in that manor and that stalled my absorption of the story too. plus, i think the fact that the story is Over made the story have a bit of a muted quality to it. not in a bad way (i distinctly remember i wrote a semi-analysis post about how i enjoyed that the story was in the Past) but it definitely affected the mood of the gameplay, if that makes sense?

(that is the third time ive said "if that makes sense" in this response, THREE STRIKES AND YER OOOOOUT)

SEVENTH PLACE: Blissful Fete (anniv 1)

be honest with me.....do YOU remember the event story plot of blissful fete? cuz i sure dont. JVSKDHFSJDHSF. i only remember getting very very mad at luke during that fucking minigame where we guess if the card is higher or lower. that being said, if i cant even remember much of the story, then it didnt make an impact on me and couldve been improved.

so thats my ranking! thank u for the ask :D

[maxwell-grant]

I'm curious for your thoughts on Dan Hibiki

Dan is real special to me mainly because he was the first time I actually had fun cosplaying, in terms of putting the outfit together and attending the event. I was very young at the time but he was my second cosplay, with the first technically being Bison the year before but I barely remember going as Bison and the costume was basically rented whole, where as with Dan I actually had to take the time to put him together peacemeal.

Looking for shitty ponytails and testing out hair gels and glue to get that doofy spit curl right, ruining a judo gi by cutting the sleeves and dying it pink, painting the eyebrows and kanji in the back and practicing those dumb faces and animations of his, and I was really happy that day with the reception I got. Best part of that day by far was when they were doing this cosplay wrestling thing where people could sign up to enter the ring, and I got to really ham it up with the taunts and pratfalls and Dan-isms I memorized from heart (and I did play the fucker a lot in SSFIV, not even ironically, his Hurricane Kick and normals were really solid in IV) and just, one of the most fun times I ever had. I think of Dan pretty fondly for that if nothing else.

Although frankly I think I like him a little less nowadays than I used to, mainly because a lot of the other characters grew on me more or got better redesigns over the years where as Dan's just, Dan, and Dan's always gonna be Dan, no more no less, little room for improvement because he was just kinda perfect at what he set out to do from the go. I think some of that also has to do with the fact that he pulled Blanka big time into his joke character orbit for well over a decade and I'm not really a fan of that? Idk it definitely got better with 5 and especially 6, just for a while there Blanka's role as being primarily Dan and Sakura's dumb sidekick really sucked and made me resent them a little, still can't say I'm too big a fan even if he doesn't take a backseat to them as much anymore.

Dan becoming essentially one of the co-protagonists of Street Fighter over the years I think has a lot to do with the devs figuring out over the decades that there was a lot more they could do with the character, besides taking potshots at SNK (and honestly in that regard, I feel like Remy does it better, in spite or maybe because they don't play him as a joke on purpose). And I do think Dan has several legs up other fighting game joke characters and not just because he came first, not just because he's funny, but because he's filling in some important niches and they ground him in just enough legitimacy, from a lore and gameplay perspective, that he's worth bringing back. Dan is a joke, but he is also important, in his own way, he's an important character for Street Fighter to have.

If your setting and story are defined as a gathering of the greatest fighters and representatives of martial arts and countries the world over, you kinda do have to address what does a Bad Fighter, The Worst Fighter, representing The Worst Martial Arts, looks like, and basing it on "the guys that ripped us off" is the icing on the gag. Both Dan and Sakura were designed around parodies of the Art of Fighting characters, but they did the right call in assigning Yuri Sakazaki's childish braggart antics to Dan and letting Sakura be treated more seriously.

As much as I may complain that Dan dragged Blanka into the funnyman idiot orbit, Dan's existence prevents a lot of other characters from becoming parodies of themselves (more so than they became, at least), at minimum it definitely pumped the breaks on Blanka and Sakura from doing that because, no matter what, they'd always have to suck less than Dan, because nobody (cept maybe Rufus) is allowed to suck more than Dan (I feel like Sean's joke status was a total misfire, but more on him when I got to Sean).

Dan also works because he's got a legitimate backstory and motivation to be here, and to be the way he is: His father was the one to take out Sagat's eye and Sagat mauled him to death in the ring for it, and desperately driven to take revenge, he took up training under Ryu and Ken's master Gouken until being expelled when Gouken learned his true intentions (and the last time a man with power-hungry intentions was trained in Ansatsuken, Akuma happened), and so Dan had to fill out the rest of his training on his own, which is why his playstyle is the way it is, why he's like Ryu but bad. Dan fills out the other end of a scale occupied by the prior shotos, the worst practicioner there is, the lame and pathetic counterpart to Ryu and Ken opposite Akuma as the strongest. Akuma is Bad Ryu, and Dan is Bad Ryu but in a totally opposite sense. He had symmetry with the existing characters and his backstory was treated with as much seriousness as he can be allowed to have, which isn't much most of the time, but just enough.

Dan being a joke from an in-universe also wound up lending a lot of meaning to Sagat's character arc, because Dan became the catalyst for Sagat's redemption. Sagat was confronted by this pathetic fool wholly consumed by revenge and struggling fruitlessly to defeat a stronger martial artist, and he saw himself in Dan, himself and his obsession with Ryu and the lows he'd stooped to in order to achieve that revenge, and so he lets Dan win, giving Dan his one and only victory that we know of. Sagat, at his lowest point emotionally in the series, who is still supremely prideful and regal and very much not a nice man even as a hero.

The strongest man alive letting the weakest man beat him in a fight to save said man from ending up just like him. If it was against anyone else, it wouldn't be anywhere near as meaningful, but starting the supremely prideful and mighty Sagat's redemption arc by having him realize the futility of his vendetta and let himself get beaten by Dan of all people, The Final Boss letting The Joke Character humiliate him, I think was a very inspired choice.

Much as I enjoy his characterization, I do miss a little how Dan was depicted sometimes in the Alpha series, where he'd be treated with a little more seriousness. Like in the backstory blurb describing how Gou died and how Dan still wakes up with nightmares about it, or in Sakura Ganbaru where Dan's kind of a comedic straightman to Sakura and they take some steps to show that Dan IS knowledgeable and observant about ki and martial arts, and is even pretty good at beating average fighters in local circuits; it's just he's Dan, y'know, and all his hard work and self-mythologizing can't make up for his incomplete training, ego issues and him hanging around Sakura and Blanka, who are freakishly talented and either quickly surpass his teachings or, in Blanka's case, never actually need it.

I don't like the Udon comics very much but I do think they get this right, I like the emphasis they put on Dan having a genuinely impressive ability to take a beating and playing up Dan as a guy who gets up to all these offscreen adventures and picked up all these other skills to make up for his incomplete training (and him becoming Chairman of the CWA I thought was pretty inspired). It nicely reflects what the games have done with him, where he's always showing off new skills and moves added to his playstyle, his fireballs get a little farther and stronger every game (and he doesn't fling himself back when firing them anymore), some characters even comment on his progress and potential. Dan is a joke by World Warrior standards, but by regular person or fighter standards, he can be impressive.

And I think Dan also stuck around the way he did because there's a certain necessity for a character who pokes holes at the premise and mythology, not just a comic relief for levity sake but someone who's there to help the writing avoid the pitfalls of excessive self-seriousness. A character who's an absurd cartoon of a martial artist but not in the cool badass way all the other characters are absurd cartoons of martial artists, instead someone who's kinda lame and full of himself the way that, really, most martial artists, especially self-taught, can be. Everyone on Street Fighter, no matter how nice they are as people or what truly motivates them, is joining the tournament sure that their martial arts are the strongest and that they can and will make their way to the top by beating all the other inferior fighters standing in their way. Dan is like that, it's just that nobody takes him seriously for it. He may not even be the funniest joke character in fighting games, but nobody takes as incisive a punchline to the genre as Dan.

Dan, in his own right, does represent an important, maybe even the most important, facet of martial arts there is: the kind that everyone does when they start out or just don't bother growing as people or fighters. In my experience, myself very much not excluded, the gyms and dojos of the world are full of Dan Hibikis trying to be something more by mythologizing themselves into former losers turned invincible fighting machine blowhards the minute they learn how to kick above their heads or take a punch in the gut, whose training is perpetually incomplete, who think they get to teach others, and who go out there thinking they'll get to show off that invincibility any second now and that once everyone sees how badass these karate chops are, or how much ass I can kick when playing Smash Bros or KOF or Street Fighter, I'll show em all how cool I am, just you mess with me and I'll show you my flying kick WA-TCHAAA! *miss* HUP, WORYEEAAHH *crash*

[morphogenetic]

Mediaposting 2024, #5: Dai Gyakuten Saiban 1/The Great Ace Attorney Adventures

Completed: March 26th (main game) / March 27th (escapades/the bonus video content)

Time spent: 37 hours (main game) / 39 hours (including bonus content stuff)

Rating: 8/10 (but with caveats because of it being the first of a duology) thoughts under the cut because there are many and a lot of them are spoilery. but the tl;dr is that they were clearly still kind of finding their footing with this game but The Game Is Good. and the reasons i'm giving it an 8/10 are mostly because i need to see how dgs2 deals with some of the loose ends before i go higher

first, the positives (and I suppose the neutrals):

first of all, on the game design side of things, the music slaps. as usual for an AA game honestly but there does not seem to be a single miss in this soundtrack which is rare. can't wait to hear the inevitable remixes and reframing of themes in dgs2.

it took me way longer than i expected to warm up to the main cast, but once I really got into the meat of the game, i found that I do really like all of them (and I mean ALL of them, including the more minor characters. except mcgilded but fuck mcgilded). this kind of suprised me because I don't think i've come close to that in any AA game except maybe the first one and t&t. also maybe aai2 but that's pushing it. like this game reminded me why I like AA at all after the absolute slogs of 5 and 6. (and the absolute 'i remember fucking none of this' of apollo justice)

the character design of this game as a whole is INCREDIBLE. there is not a single character design that I don't like in some way. from the really good student uniform designs, to susato's kimono, to iris and sherlock's outfits.....and those are just the main ones. a lot of the witnesses and even some of the jury members are memorable just on character design alone. even the designs i think are kind of ugly (coughs. mcgilded) are clearly ugly by design and not by accident. it's a feat. hope that dgs2 keeps up the good work but based on the one (very big....oops) spoiler that i know, i'd be surprised if it didn't.

the parallel between ashley graydon and gina as kids raised in poverty in the last case. mwah. magnificent. chef's kiss. 10/10 no notes

dgs sherlock is such a good interpretation of the Man The Myth and the Legend

also i really adore ryuu as a protagonist. i can't quite put my finger on why, it might honestly just be because of how fucking distressed he is all the time LOL, but i like him in a way that feels a bit deeper to me than the way in which i like phoenix. he's clearly making the best of a bizarre situation and his Law Skills are more of a matter of natural talent rather than training

the ending is. man. it's good and a very good sequel hook but can you fucking IMAGINE if they had never gotten the money to make a sequel to this game. what a hell world that would be. imagine just dropping a major hint that three characters you already know of are involved in a huge fucking conspiracy and then never getting to explain why. vlr/ztd interface level catastrophe.

and then the few negatives i have which unfortunately drag this down a little bit for me, enough to the 8/10 level...primarily the first one:

this game has WHACK pacing. having essentially 3 separate tutorials is a wild game design choice to make. the pacing felt off to me to the extent that the end of case 4 felt like it was the middle of the game, and case 5 was almost half of my playtime at 16 hours out of 37 so i think it was close to LITERALLY being halfway through. i don't have a good idea on how to fix it, given that this game has to introduce both the new dance of deduction mechanic AND the weird jury summation examination mechanic, but....there should have been something. it really made it difficult for me to fully Care about the characters until i was into case 5. and I'm glad that case 5 was ultimately good enough to make me care about everyone (e.g. i didn't really care about gina in case 3 at all), but it's pretty rough. i genuinely don't know HOW you fix the pacing issue while also keeping the overall plot outline the same, though, especially because cases 2 and 3 are so crucial. the only thing i can really think of is introducing some of the background london information in case 4 instead of 5, but.......still. or making case 4 happen more than a single goddamn day after case 3. just something to make the pace not feel nearly as weird. sighs. idk. it needed substantial tweaking but I don't have a good idea on what tweaks needed to be made. i've heard dgs2 has much better pacing from someone whose opinions i trust on that kind of thing, so i really hope it pulls through there.

more minor critique: a lot of the cases, barring 5, are weirdly easy with very rare (and also weird) spotty difficulty spikes. of course it's always hard to strike the balance in an AA game, and i wasn't expecting the tutorial to be hard, but...case 4 just kind of dragged for me because of how long the trial goes on. 5 actually did have tricky moments for me thanks to eggman graydon wanting to hide the truth and the sheer amount of evidence, but yeah. still far more challenging than the dr games just giving you all of the facts at the very beginning of the trial, though...at least shu takumi knows how to write a mystery LMAO

asougi really needed a little more lead time before getting killed off, because i like him but, without the escapades, it's probably not as much as I think the game wants me to like him, and ryuu being his best friend is not super convincing to me even though he shows that a lot more in later cases. i'm not tooootally sure how i would have fixed that, maybe keeping him alive a bit in the first half of the 2nd case? doing some more slice of life stuff with him and ryuu? or making ryuu's reaction to his death a little bit more shocked? idk. i'm REALLY glad the escapades exist because they help a lot in fleshing him out, but i really think parts of them should have been in the game proper =========== all that said. if a game gets me to write this many fucking words about it..which took me a goddamn HOUR to write jesus christ i just checked my computer clock.... it's clearly doing SOMETHING right. honestly, if the pacing wasn't so bizarre, i'd probably bump it up a full point. i am absolutely playing the second game but im already worried its gonna hit full on zero escape and raging loop level catastrophe fixation (positive) once im done so…i'm honestly putting off starting dgs2 a little bit because i'm worried that it's gonna distract me to the point of my grades/job suffering a little LOL. i haven't had that happen in a while so, at least in that way....congrats dgs you won me over. i will never stop calling you dgs because thats how i was introduced to you 7 years ago as my best friend's first new-fixation when i first became friends with her. sorry it took so long for me to get around to you.

[majachee]

god they all look so stupid. squishes them in my hands like stress ball

anyways the designs absolutely SLAP you cooked with them fr fr, I really like you leaning into the white parts of their designs and making their unique colors accents instead of the main focus. the texture of the suits looks incredibly foreign, highlighting the alien origin of these suits and morphers. I love the little collars you gave them too, the suits fit perfectly fit for alien suits from a 90s show lol

I actually really like their civilian outfits too, you made their original outfits look better by adding more details to them without making it too chaotic. courtney literally looks like she goes to catholic school and I love it

over 10/10 art and designs I would eat it for breakfast lunch and dinner

-mmpr anon

TY TY MWAH MWAH

The suits were what I struggled with the most lol, really wanted them to look alien yet also familiar! Glad I succeeded!

Allow me to ramble nonsensically abt the civilian outfits for a bit—

As for the civilian outfits, like I said I based them off of attire shown in campy 90s-early 2000s shows and they were... surprisingly easy for me to draw and design! Probably due to the amount of exposure I had/currently have to these shows lol

I'd unironically dress like this. To be HONEST.

Courtney's is probably my fav, her outfit is explicitly based on school uniforms and the preppy style from the late 80s-90s! Hers was also inspired by Willow from BTVS (primarily seasons 1-2 Willow), and a wee bit of Ocean from Ride the Cyclone (vibes)! Oh, and Rory from Gilmore Girls!

(White sweater top left is def one I want to draw her in!)

Harold's outfit was somewhat yoinked from some of Billy's fits in the og show lol (the blue overalls are very iconic to me) and... Yeah, def some Chucky influence in there. With the orange and pink and whatnot lol

The hamburger on his shirt always felt... weird... to me, so I changed it to an alien. Bit on the nose, but I think it also helps tie in his green-tinted glasses and shoes!

Heather's fit is a mix of her canonical outfit, with some influence from Trini and Kimberly thrown in there, esp with her sweatshirt! Also, the scrunchy is definitely a reference to Heathers (the movie and musical)!

I can also see her pulling off some of Buffy's outfits!

Buffy Summers your fits will ALWAYS be iconic to ME

I remember there being outfits involving oversized sweater vests in a wide variety of 90s media... but for the life of me, I can't find the specific screenshots. I do remember Billy and Trini wearing sweater vests in MMPR once or twice, and that was the first thing that came to mind when creating Noah's outline!

^^ I also used pics/models like these for reference! I wanted his shirts to hang loose from his body, almost covering it up since the ranger suits are lowkey skin-tight. Also I made his socks and pants longer/baggier!

I RAN OUT OF PIC SPACE NOOOOO BUT JUST KNOW I BASED DUNCAN'S OFF OF 90S GRUNGE (because his outfit and aesthetic always seemed more grunge than punk to me) AND I HAD THE MOST FUN WITH HIS OUTFIT.... LET IT BE KNOWN.