#so y/inu and m/ama

[erigold13261]

Just curious, why did you decide to redesign Yinu? She looks amazing both in canon and your take!

Hmmm, good question!

I don't really know when I started it. Before I used to draw Yinu more like canon, with pale skin and more straight hair that just had flowers on the end of her hair and would be put up for concerts.

Then I started drawing her hair more puffy when it was down. Like it was still straight until it got to the point where all the flowers would be clumped at the end, which I drew pretty puffy like.

From there I started to realize that Yinu looked a LOT like her dad with not a lot of elements from Mama. So one day while drawing Yinu from memory I made her hair puffy so that it looked more like Mama's when she is mad (but still yellow) and her skin more of a darker orange to also kinda match Mama.

She kept her eye color from Papa (the color and pupil) and the shading thing from Mama (the upper and lower part of the iris). I think I usually draw her with an eye shape between Mama and Papa's (when she's older at least since as a child I draw her eyes like big ol circles lol)

Though I guess now I kinda made her look too much like Mama, I might add a lot more flowers or change her nose or face shape a bit more to show more Papa. I was actually trying to draw her with a more square face like Papa than a heart shape like Mama, but I forget to do that on the rare occasions I draw older Yinu lol.

But for the most part, I really wanted to add more of Mama into Yinu's looks! I tend to draw all three of them (Mama, Yinu, and Papa) with darker skin tones than they have in game (especially Yinu and Papa, Mama is just less saturated I feel like with some darkness to it).

So uh yeah, long story short, it was more by accident when drawing her over and over from memory than anything else. And I just stuck with what I ended up with!

It's like my version of Rin having rainbow hair extensions, Tatiana having crystal eyes, or Sayu having puffy hair! All things I played around with when drawing the characters and some things just stick over others!

Here's a bunch of my old Yinu drawings I compiled if anyone wants to see my progress of her (though they are probably not in order lol)

[erigold13261]

Why is Yinu in the FRAU plucking out her flower hair? Is it self harm?

No it's not self harm, just a nervous habit.

It's not like plucking out hair from the roots which does damage the hair, it is more like playing with a single strand of hair and then that hair snaps in half.

Almost like getting a hair cut or cutting grass (yes I know technically the grass is being hurt and that's why we get the "cut grass" smell). The flowers grow back perfectly fine. They rely more on emotion and mental health than they do on physical factors of the person.

That's why Mama can get "hair" cuts even though it looks like it is part of her head. Another analogy, especially with Mama, is like cutting nails. You can cut it really short but if you go too short it will hurt.

But uh, yeah. Yinu is not self harming, she just plucks petals like a lot of people (especially kids) do when they have a flower in front of them.

Now if Yinu was pulling on the roots/stems that go to the flowers along with the more "normal" hair that is on her head, then that would be a problem and be considered self harm as that is damaging the true roots/follicles of her head. But since all she is doing is playing/plucking the petals of her flowers that naturally fall out over time, it is not self harm.

[erigold13261]

Would Yinu ever acknowledge her mom was abusive or will mama realize this herself? Personally, I believe even if Yinu were to realize this, she would never say that. Reason 1. Yinu is emotionally intelligent. She knows that if she should call Mama out, mama will make an entire shitshow about it, and have her mental state worsen even more. 2. Yinu herself is gaslighting herself into believing she was the bad person. For being born.

(Dang I love and hate mama so much. So much so that I made an entire fix it au that is all about having papa get some cyborg tech to get his illness healed via Neon J, and the three of them start dating, and DJ starts dating them too. Yinu with four parents and a bunch of support is the best.)

I don't think either will realize there was any kind of abuse without some kind of outside interference like therapy or a friend telling Yinu that what happened during her childhood was "no normal" and abuse to some degree.

If she does figure it out she would probably find a controlled environment and talk with Mama about what happened. Maybe with Neon and DJ around to help her talk about this stuff.

I don't actually think Mama (at least OG Mama) would make a shitshow about this. She would say that she never meant to hurt Yinu and that she was so sorry for everything. She would listen to her daughter and try to be a better mother. The two would work through their issues and probably start family counseling because Mama didn't realize what she did.

Maybe at first she would deny that any of that happened because she doesn't remember it, or remembers it in a different way, but that is why I think it would be good for Neon and Dj to also be there with her. To ground Mama and tell her their own perspective of situations they have seen with their own.... eyes? (you know what I mean).

I also don't think this would be Yinu gaslighting herself. At least not entirely. It is more like she had no outside insight on how a healthy relationship between a kid and parent should look like. She was surrounded by adults and teens (teens who didn't even talk with their parents most of the time), so she had no real idea of what a normal childhood is.

Her childhood of losing a father, having plant powers, and working for a music company were all super normal to her (and probably any other child musician she might have known). So that might be a form of gaslighting, but I think it is more just her not even knowing her childhood was not normal or okay.

As for the Papa thing, I can see Papa as the type to not want to get cybernetics at all. At least not at the time of his disease. If he somehow met Neon earlier or lived long enough to meet Neon then I can see him changing his mind by having things explained to him from someone with a perspective of having a LOT of cybernetics.

So I can totally see Papa getting a new heart (I think that was what was wrong with him. I remember seeing something about it in like the news sections of the games but can't seem to find it now. Like Yinu having a charity to a heart hospital or something. Whatever) and afterwards bringing Neon into his and Mama's life.

I don't know if Papa is monogamous or not, but I can totally see him letting Mama date Neon if she wanted to as he knows she is polygamous. Which would then lead to Neon at some point dating DJ so that Mama and Papa can have more alone time when Mama and Neon aren't dating.

But then Papa catches feelings for DJ and those two date a bit, or at least snuggle together while DJ talks Papa to sleep or Papa plays his piano by the couch while wrapped in DJ's arms and play DJ to sleep.

Yinu just happily living with 4 cool parents now who can help her in any kind of life situation. Also gaining an extra set of grandparents from DJ as I don't see Papa's or Neon's parents coming into the picture (especially not Neon's). Like omg! DJ's parents would LOVE Yinu so much and absolutely learn LSM for Papa and just welcome the Spinose family and Neon into their lives with open arms!

Oh this is way too cute!!! I love this idea you gave me so much!

[erigold13261]

Yooo! You know what I just realized!

Sayu would be practically BEGGING Cyril for mer to meet his mom lol! Ze has never seen a real, biological siren before and wants to meet what ze is based on!

I do feel like they would be pretty rare, and not exactly how we see sirens in myths. Just people with naturally beautiful voices and maybe some fish parts to them.

Joust isn't a siren, but he is part shark, so think of him and you kinda got an image. Though his shark side isn't as pronounced as Hibiki's is. She has fin ears (or at least I hope I remember to give her fin ears) and probably has fin-like hair (think of the hair from the fish in Shark Tale lol).

But oh yeah, would Sayu be doing anything ze can to meet an actual siren. Mer and the rest of the club would be so excited and some of them would go to Purl or West to try and convince Cyril to bring her over (Sayu even pulling out the "we should meet her because she's gonna be a part of Purl's life when you guys get married!" causing Purl to spit their drink out of shock and West to fall out of his chair).

[erigold13261]

Why does she have to be so difficult to draw? Her colors all seem so wacky

[erigold13261]

“NSR Pokemon Team: Sayu”

Here is Sayu and mer water team Primarina, Swampert, Empoleon, Feraligatr, Blastoise, and Inteleon!

[Please use Ze/Mer for Sayu]

[erigold13261]

“Mirror”

I’ve fallen in love with their design so much!