#the salsa au

[pigeonstab]

Pay your tab with a dance

[colfy-wolfy]

im branching out, trying out some anthro designs for a modern au I've been brewing in my head.

it wasn't that hard tbh. it's basically just how I normally draw slugcats but longer and with slightly more humanoid proportions.

I've been obsessing over specifically survivor and monk's family lately. they just have so much potential.

[windfish6654]

Lots of things

[fullscoreshenanigans]

I’ve always loved the idea of Norman and Ray getting together during the search for Emma but not wanting to do much until they find Emma because they both love her as well and want her there. But I’m never sure how Emma losing her memories would said relationship and plans afterwords

Oooo Anon I don't know if you're the same person who sent this Norray ask but if you haven't read @salsae's (so what am I defending now?) I highly recommend it because I've essentially taken it as canon and reread it probably once a month.

Beautifully written with loving nuance, her work was (and still is <3) foundational for my interpretations of the trio when I first got into the series in 2021 and was searching for quality fanfic.

In regards to how Emma's memory loss would play into things, I think they'd all have good and bad days at first. A balance of being grateful they defied the odds to have a chance of creating a future they can be proud of together at all, of Emma being alive and well and living life with Alex, of being reacquainted with all the things big and small that made them fall in love with her and having the opportunity to love new ones. Of reconnecting with these two boys who for reasons her mind can't explain but her heart knows without a shadow of a doubt feel like home.

(Chapter 180)

Of perceived selfish grief over wishing Emma would regain her memories when a confused look is thrown their way after they reference something from their childhood (isn't it enough that she's there?). Of self-doubt that she'll ever be able to live up to the Emma everyone loved or relearn the language she sees the boys communicate without words, of seeing what she believes is a brief flicker of hope die in everyone's eyes when she reminds them of all the little ways she's not her (is it more cruel they found her instead of being able to believe their Emma lives on somewhere in distant lands?), of anger over having those memories just within her reach only for her dreams to deny her each time.

But as the days turn to months and the months turn to years, things get better. The sentiments Emma shares in chapter 180 hold true.

Only now today and tomorrow is by their sides.

[short-wooloo]

Because I like to imagine that Ruby is half Latina (on Summer's side, she's Jewish-Chinese on Tai's) in modern aus, I am now picturing Weiss learning the salsa to impress Ruby (and win over Summer, even though it's unnecessary and Summer already likes her, Weiss is a tryhard perfectionist) and I can't decide I'd Weiss is either really good because she accepts nothing less, or if Weiss is really bad because cringefail queen

[bluegekk0]

Please

yeah 👍

[sillypicklz]

an assortment of mom 3 + au doodles

[warrior-cats-project-otd]

The Warrior Cats project of the day is "Living Dead Cats!" by Raccoon Salsa, with the atmospheric thumbnail by RogueShark. This was requested by mapalssyrup. A great start to the Halloween season, this is an AU of the first arc, where a blood moon causes Tigerstar and every subsequent dead cat to be reanimated as a zombie. It's really gory and quite cool, and the zombie designs (particularly Scourge's) are pretty awesome. Brightheart's death particularily hurt. Luckily (or not, depending on your view) one apprentice manages to escape and lives as a kittypet alongside Smudge...

[jackobbit]

Came back to this Magma pic of Sunspot to clear it out of my drafts just to open it and see that I captioned it with just the word ‘shart.’

Nothing else, no commentary on the picture, no thought process behind it or anything clever, just:

Shart.

So you know what? I’m gonna let it stay lmao

Sunspot belongs to @/venomous-qwille, and is a character from the Ghost in the Machine Au, which you can read the fanfic of: here!

[ID: A full body Magma drawing of Sunspot from the Ghost in the Machine Au sitting on the floor with crossed legs. Sunspot is a sun varient that takes the form of an android. He has curly pink hair, a large red jesters ruff around his neck, a pink shirt with a cat on the front, grey jeans, sun-rays that surround his head in a band, blue eyes, and red tennis shoes. Sunspot looks off to the side, sweat rolling down his face, his lips are pulled into a thin line. In his right hand, he holds four playing cards, two UNO cards, and two Yu-Gi-Oh cards. His left hand is placed on his knee. The background is white, with only a few light gray lines indicating where the floor is. /End ID]

[sstrawberrysalsa]

you feel the breeze

[lillymakesart]

SALSA DANCER MIZU ARE YOU KIDDING ME DO YOU WANT ME DEAD OMG????? i love how you draw her sm!!!!

THANK U im so happy you like!!!!! ❤️❤️❤️❤️

fun fact i went to college in socal and did latin social dancing for 4 years! i even performed at LASBF one year (i blacked out during the entire performance bc i was so nervous LOL)

my favorite was the bachata breaks the dj would give once in a while after like 5 fast paced salsa songs in a row lmao

[colfy-wolfy]

more anthro AU but it's on wb

(I have campaign name headcanons for unnamed slugcats)

some more info yapping about the AU under cut

This is an anthro and modern AU and mainly focused on the slugcats

Still figuring things out about this au so maybe I could write a few fun oneshots of it in the future. suggestions and ideas are welcome.

Ages AT THE EARLIEST;

Residual (3rd sib) is 2

Monk is 10

Survivor is 11

Coral (pink dad) is 32

Ivory (white dad) is 34

Gourmand is 46

Hunter is 22

more slugcats will come soon

(this au has different timelines so depending on the event, they can all be older. listed ages are the ages in the beginning of the au and are just so you can get an idea of all their ages compared to one a other)

Schools aren't stupid in this au, there are no grades or tests. you just go to the building and choose whatever classes you wanna go to whenever you want (within the teachers' schedule). that doesn't stop the kids from comparing their skills with eachother though. I did this because school was a very horrible experience for me growing up but I didn't wanna completely eradicate education in this au.

Gourmand is a Culinary teacher and Monk is their best student. Monk is a vegetarian by choice (in the sense that they do not eat most meats. they still enjoy other animal products and insects) and has interests in cooking and creatures. They're very social and makes friends with almost anyone.

I don't have any ideas for hunter. don't ask why they have a suit, I just wanted to draw them dapper lol

Not sure how I can implement iterators into this au if I even should in the first place.

[khayalli]

[clears my throat] fashion icon, slay.✨️ /genuine

also, a deranged thought I had, since I scrolled past this pic I took while retyping this and thought I'd seek your opinion because it's made of gold and I'm a greedy leprechaun. (ᇴ‿ฺᇴ)

i saw this dress at the shops and it made me think of euclidean line bc of the jellyfish look but also made me think of something you could wear while dancing with rise leo (like,,, a tango or rumba something)

thoughts? (◕‿◕✿)

SCREECHIN

i think he'd go mental seeing you in his colour. You could absolutely (if it was rise) do a red eye shadow/liner moment as well to allude to his eye markings.

[salsasolutions]

I LOVE YOUR ARTSTYLE???????

AAAAAAAAAA THANKS!!!!!! I try to make my art as crunchy and colorful as possible lol

[fullscoreshenanigans]

do you have any norray headcannons of them growing closer during the search for emma?

☆ First my required hyping of @salsae's (so what am I defending now?) because I've essentially taken it as canon. Beautifully written with loving nuance, her work was (and still is <3) foundational for my interpretations of the trio when I first got into the series in 2021 and was searching for quality REN works.

☆ I also really love this unnamed piece by @p-s-geeks:

There is a flower in your pocket. It’s wild and medicinal. You’re familiar with it. You remember white bedsheets, a pleading whine, two pairs of hands embracing you, and the flower on your forehead, working more wonders that it was biologically capable of (it wasn’t the flower, you know). The flower currently in your pocket is probably in a worse state, has probably shriveled up and wilted after hours of being plucked. It weighs lighter than a feather but feels heavier than diamonds. […] You unearth the flower from your pocket. Ray deserves to see this. Deserves to relive memories with you. And you kind of need him to. Right now, he’s the only one who’s been through thick and thin with you in majority of these trials and tribulations. He’s the only one who can look at it the way you look at it. […] “It’s alright” Ray says, pressing himself closer to you. You hold onto him like he’s the last lifeline on a sinking boat. “It’s alright. You’re not alone. You never were alone” You sleep listening to her gentle words in his gentle voice and it’s the deepest sleep you’ve gotten in a long time. (You wake up to a beautiful orange sunrise. To limbs tangled around yours. To soft snores. To groaning and complaining about morning coming too early during summers. And the hole in your heart subdues itself. It doesn’t disappear, doesn’t stop panging, but you still smile in remembrance and hope.)

How all the little things build and build until they become so deafening, and how so much solace is able to be found in those small‚ tender exchanges on one quiet night, with Ray echoing simple yet loving words he learned from her so long ago that became etched into his being after Grace Field not only by her but through the actions‚ big and small‚ of their family as well (because family is so very integral to each of them). How at first orange is such a painful reminder and how it ends on a most radiant sunrise that’s the true embodiment of Emma, giving them both the strength to continue onward.

☆ This is when they start antiquing together since they're already traveling all over the world, spotting little shops with hidden treasures. ↳ Tying in another headcanon of mine that they find and fix up a duplicate of the music box Isabella gifted Emma for her sixth birthday, I debate whether they find it before or after finding her.

(Mystic Code Book Chapter 1 Q&A | Questionnaire Translation Source)

☆ They also find a vintage chess set and start having matches again. The win totals remain close.

↳ They find it comforting how after so long the other still has the same subtle quirks to how they play, hold and move the pieces. When one takes a bit longer to make a move and the other glances up to see the tiniest familiar tick, it can be hard to stop that warmth from blooming in their heart. ↳ Sometimes the younger kids will watch them play and want to join in. These matches tend to take longer, but they don't mind. The sight of the other gently coaching and encouraging the children leaves them so very fond.

☆ This actually applies to any situation where they're tending to the kids since they're both very family-oriented. Reading them bedtimes stories, helping them with projects or lessons, Ray showing the kids how to cook, etc. He was never cruel or malicious toward them back at the house:

(Chapter 8 | 9 | 15 | 22)

But seeing Ray being able to openly express his fondness for their family without having to maintain a cool detachment and air of indifference heals Norman's heart some. Similarly, seeing Norman fall back into caring for the kids without the mantle of Minerva weighing on his shoulders does the same for Ray.

(so what am I defending now?)

☆ To plug another of sae's fics, when the two end up on dish cleaning duty together it's not uncommon for this to play out:

(to have and to hold)

☆ In a similar vein, in the winter sometimes Ray tells Norman to hold for a second so he can fix his scarf. Norman, in a light and breezy tone, tells him he doesn't have to worry about him, you know? Ray responds with a tch, saying he worries about everyone, in the way he keeps watch and frets in a nurturing way about the rest of their family. The way his fingers linger ever so briefly on the fabric followed with a light pat over Norman's heart to signal he's done hint otherwise.

☆ It's funny watching them get roped into something like a Mario Kart tournament because they don't trash talk each other at all, but they will get insanely intense with the trajectory of their green shells, banana peel placements, snaking, etc., all while keeping relatively calm exteriors. ↳ It's also funny to see Norman be a sore loser in his own way.

☆ Whether it's at one of the Ratri estates or while they're out on another search, if one wakes up in the middle of the night and can't find the other, their first guesses are to check outside or a spot in the establishment they noted earlier as a good vantage point to see the stars. Sometimes they converse, sometimes they don't, but they appreciate each other's company as their minds drift to whether Emma is looking up at the speckled sky, too.

☆ I love how often people will ignore Lambda illness being largely handled and resolved in order to go for some no-brainer hurt/comfort. After waking up from some of the worst bouts of it to even some of the more mild ones where he didn't have to be hospitalized, Norman seeing Ray calmly reading at his bedside or dozing off himself is a welcomed sight. ↳ Combining with an earlier bullet point but I also really like the imagery of them being out on a nature excursion/picnic with Norman having to deal with a milder attack, and after reassuring everyone that he's fine and encouraging them to go off and play while he rests a bit, it whittles down to just him and Ray sitting under the shade of a tree, space left for a third. Watching their family indulge in such mirth without fear of a future cut short, they know even with the lows that have come before and could come again, when they find Emma, they'll be able to genuinely tell her they've been well.

[jsb-inc]

Okay last one for the day <3 Wally in my AU: Dance AU (work in progress for the name haha) Where they dance of course! Wally is a ballet/salsa dancer :3 more info will be spilled slowly as time goes on