#toad brigade au

[space-bowl]

*clap* Here we go!

I finally got around to finishing my Toad Brigade AU sketches! Here’s the first batch of them, focusing on the titular character, Captain! More about him below:

-The self-appointed captain of the Toad Brigade since Mario's adventures in the stars, he acts before he thinks and cannot stay still for the life of him

-A major hoarder, loves to collect shinies to the point he can't jump with that heavy backpack of his

-His impulsive tendencies tend to get him in trouble (mostly with Blue grilling him to be more careful)

-Was racing buds with Toadette back in their Double Dash days! Their friendship is what later brought her onto the team as their archivist and occasional co-captain

[phibsies]

this is a very rough thing but i’m starting on figuring out designs for my mermaid au :3

also toad brigade gets to be sailors woo !!

[pianokantzart]

in the separation au will daisy ever introduce her self to luigi

At some point, Luigi got separated from The Toad Brigade while they were treasure hunting in the outskirts of Sarasaland. Suspecting (correctly) that the toads were in danger, and not knowing the lay of the land, he went to the capital in search of help. He was surprised when the adventure-loving Princess Daisy herself volunteered to accompany him as a guide. She teases Luigi for most of their rescue mission, but it's out of a desire to see him loosen up, and every time she gets him to genuinely laugh/smile it's a victory to her. She is also a big fan of his eye patch. "Superstar" is her go-to nickname.

@multicolour-ink @wiz-witch

[anemoarchonhoe]

(A/N: No. While I was writing this, I already ate them all.)

WARNING: Long brainrot. Literally 1.8 pages on a Google Doc

Ready for adventure!

God!Reader as Captain Toad(ette)!

NOTE: They don’t have to literally be Captain Toad(ette), but what if they were similar?

I have multiple ideas that would be better for Impostor AU. However, I’ll only be writing for Soft AU, lest this brainrot be five pages long. Trust me, I’m on a Google Doc as we speak.

Anyways, because a massive part if not all of Teyvat’s essence is within reader, they’ll have a sense of what reader is like. Teyvat’s spirit will start to transport “enemies” from the Treasure Tracker game, although they wouldn’t be enemies anymore now that they’re a part of Teyvat. It also incorporates puzzles and contraptions similar to the original game design.

Reader is all about adventures and logical thinking, hence why they’re unsurprisingly a lot more monotonous once the “enemies” aren’t a threat anymore. Teyvat panics at the lack of life from it’s creator, and does it’s best to begrudgingly rectify the situation. Reader’s headlight now acts as a forcefield for the “enemies,” who are now encouraged to basically whack, stomp, and/or nom nom on the reader with all their efforts. Of course, it’ll never be a real safety threat thanks to the reader's free shield, and everyone wins! …Well everyone except for the future acolytes that will be horrified at the “betrayal” of Teyvat.

Speaking of, said acolytes are already hysterical before they meet God!Reader. The golden stars were a former source of comfort; something to reassure the masses of their beloved creator’s presence. Not anymore, though. The stars have been reduced to a lifeless, transparent gray. Every last one of them. Strangely enough, as soon as one vanishes, another appears with the same divine light as the previous. They must protect these sacred artifacts at all costs, so why is Teyvat battling them tooth and nail against securing the new ones? Do they have no respect for the creator!?

Well, intelligent people would know that the reader just reclaimed them all. No need to worry. In fact, it should cause celebration and rejoice all around the world! God!Reader has descended, after all!

Never fear, everyone. The following events are sure to contain lavish balls and expensive parades once they find God!Reader. Who… stubbornly refuses to ride a carriage the way Teyvat vigorously defended the remaining stars? Huh? What’s Teyvat doing-

Oh.

Without warning, the sturdy roots of ancient trees begin to intertwine with each other, twisting and spinning together down the streets of (insert nation). A small cart lined with a patch of tree leaves materializes at the end, which is thankfully short enough for the reader to step into because they still can’t jump. While the acolytes are gaping at this violation and miracle of nature’s physics, the reader’s lower half is being drowned with countless amounts of white turnips. One unforeseen force of anemo later and the cart is being paraded (pun intended) down the tracks.

Citizens scramble to light the fireworks, flowers are being gently tossed near the reader's unconventional vehicle, and the “enemies” from before are happily offering themselves POW blocks for the reader to explode. Jean is high on migraines and Klee is having a field day.

The most hilarious part of God!Reader’s entrance is when they softly fling turnips towards the poorer inhabitants of the nation. Zhongli received twenty.

…

Hey, don’t forget the Toad Brigade! They’re screeching their lungs off in the background, cruising on tiny carts of their own.

Because of God!Reader’s interaction with the Toad Brigade, they (and by extension the people of Teyvat) have now associated hair colors with certain traits. Remember the blue toad who always provided the reader with goodies and collectibles? Well, the reader is a whole lot more appreciative of tasks completed by blue haired people. What about the green toad who’s doomed to study maps for all eternity? The reader is instinctively motivated to concentrate on their own work, occasionally clapping for the green haired folk when they demonstrate their skills. As for the yellow toad… let’s just say that they’ve become the impromptu definition of divine melatonin.

All is well! Until a giant bird swoops by and snatches the reader straight from their hands…

Me reading the last part:

I literally can't add anything more to this. It's perfect on its own!!

...That, and I'm unfamiliar with the game. ;w; I did watch a video to familiarize myself with it a little and I like it!! The game is so cute.

[earthnashes]

Hello! So I had a few more questions if that's ok?

1. You previously mentioned that the Kongs don't speak the "common tongue" and have Kremling interpretors. However, I remember a piece of art from you that had Candy Kong talking. Was she talking in "Kongish" in that piece?

2. Do the likes of Professor Kolorado and Professor Frankly exist in your AU?

1. She was speaking in "Kong", which to the untrained ear sounds a lot like normal gorilla vocalization: grunts, growls, so on

2: Whether or not I actually draw them is still up in the air, but they both do exist in the AU, yes.

But before I get into that! Some quick context to help with the headcanon about an organization in this AU, the Explorer's Guild!

The Explorer's Guild is a team of experts dedicated to finding, obtaining, and researching the magical items of this world. Despite environmental magic being limited by... well, this world's laws of nature, they are still extremely unique, useful, and staple to every day life in just about every kingdom, and so this organization is rather necessary in order to maintain a steady supplies of some of the harder-obtained items, as well as just outright finding any new ones, or discovering new ways to utilize them.

It was founded as a collaboration between Mushroom Kingdom and Koopa Kingdom and is unique in that while every other kingdom has their own separate guild to represent them, Koopa and Mushroom Kingdom share the guild between them in joint ownership.

Professor Frankly is head of the research division of the Explorer's Guild, and he's tasked with studying any unique "power ups" that any of the sister divisions recover. He's done work on the benefits and magic properties of things like 1-Up Shrooms, Power Shrooms, Power Stars, so on.

Professor Kolorado is head of the Archeology division of the Explorer's Guild. He calls the shots of the division, including mapping out destinations for the field teams to explore in hopes of finding resources and treasures. The Toad Brigade is his top team. :)

[mariofallenstar]

Super Mario Bros.: Fallen Star AU (Part 4)

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3

What did Luigi feel in the face of his approaching execution?

A lot of jumbled-up things, most of them seemingly incompatible with each other.

See, Luigi had no intention of saving himself by giving up Peach’s location to Bowser.

After being captured for what seemed to be the final time, he looked over the course of his heroing career and saw nothing but failure.

He hadn’t been able to save the Mushroom Kingdom or Mario.

He’d rescued many Toads from Bowser’s tyranny, but there were so many more left behind.

And even the ones who had been saved were now living in exile.

Luigi, in some twisted way, saw himself dying to save Peach and Stella as a redemption,

A redemption it never occurred to him he didn’t need.

His silence was the one thing he still had left to him.

If he could keep his silence, his niece and her mother would be safe.

Well, he wanted to think like that,

But when he thought of his family, not just Stella and Peach but Daisy and his own children,

He nearly broke.

He didn’t want to leave them. He wanted to stay with them.

Each time he tried to reconcile himself to his “sacrifice,” their faces appeared in his head, and he railed against the deep unfairness of it all.

Little did he know,

His niece had no intention of letting her uncle die.

Stella emerged from the warp pipe hidden in an empty mine where Bowser’s forces wouldn’t think to look.

This was the first time she had set foot in the Mushroom Kingdom since she was sixteen, and the first time she had ever done so alone.

She was in awe as she traversed the country she still thought of as her birthright.

“This rock is mine. This tree is mine. That horizon is mine.”

Of course, that’s not how royalty or property works, and to some extent, Stella knew this,

But she was also young and mentally overwhelmed. 

She looked over the terrain the way a farmer would survey the untamed patch of wilderness they had just purchased,

Seeing both what was there and what would be underneath once every obstacle was cleared away. A sort of greedy double-vision.

But, of course, Stella had a job to do.

Luigi’s execution was in six days. She had to make her way to the site of the old castle and interrupt it somehow.

She didn’t really have a plan,

And the Mushroom Kingdom had become an unwelcoming place.

Everything about the country had changed, even its name.

It was called “New Bowser Kingdom” now. 

Much of the old cities had become industrialized, and new towns had sprung up surrounding ember-spewing weapon factories.

The sky was choked with pollution, and the air filled with the metallic clang of hammers.

Toads had been reduced to second-class citizens who toiled in dangerous and thankless jobs. 

And, while many were still secretly loyal to Princess Peach and dreamt of the day when she would return,

Others were consumed by bitterness, thinking that Peach had abandoned them.

Many of them had lost their last shred of hope in the wake of Luigi’s upcoming execution. 

Stella was deeply saddened as she moved through these sad, soot-filled cities.

These were her people. They needed her.

But she had no idea how to help them.

For the first time, she understood something of the full weight of what her mother and uncle were up against. 

Now, naturally, a human girl in the isolationist New Bowser Kingdom was bound to attract attention,

And if anyone discovered she was Princess Peach’s daughter, that could jeopardize her rescue mission.

But, Stella had a cover story.

She told any Toad to whom she showed her face that she was a reporter from the Metro Kingdom. 

She had come to see if living conditions in New Bowser Kingdom were truly as inhumane as the rumors claimed.

When people heard she was a reporter, they became eager to talk to her. 

They all seemed to have something they wanted her to say to the outside world.

Some felt it was important to communicate how bad living conditions really were.

They told Stella of overly long hours, low pay, strict rationing in winter, merciless fatigue in summer, how a coworker had fallen into a smelting vat and the smell had lingered for weeks.

Others had loved ones who had already escaped or that they had simply lost track of.

They urged Stella to send out inquiries and give names.

“It’s me, Todd. I’m still alive. I miss you.

“Publish that for me, will you? Maybe she’ll see it.”

Still others had messages they wished to convey to Princess Peach.

“Long live the princess!”

“This kingdom is still yours, Princess! It will always be yours!”

“We’re fighting for you, Princess Peach! We know you’ll come back one day!”

It was this last group that hit Stella the hardest.

She found her eyes welling up with tears as she heard those earnest words, pledges of loyalty to her mother.

The Toads were taken aback by her tears.

“It’s just very moving how much you care for your princess,” she managed to choke out.

The Toads came to see her as a living bottle, carrying all their messages. They wanted to protect their messages,

And so they tried to protect her.

Stella found people willing to hide her in their homes, people willing to share their food. 

Still, there were a few close calls.

Stella found herself unable to stand back and watch as an overworked Toad was disciplined by a Hammer Bro. for passing out in the street,

So she jumped in and fought the Hammer Bro. off.

She knew it was probably a mistake, but the testimonies of the Toads had left her so riled up, she felt she would explode if she didn’t do something.

She’d had to retreat before reinforcements appeared by crawling into the sewer.

It was there, sloshing through who-knows-what in the dark,

That she discovered her uncle had not been the only one fighting for the kingdom’s freedom.

As previously stated, Luigi had been very hush-hush about his rescue work in New Bowser Kingdom. There were many aspects that he had never told Stella about.

That included his allies.

Stella found herself confronted with a cluster of very dirty, very fierce looking Toads. 

They were the remains of the Toad Brigade.

No longer an exploration team, they now served as the major resistance organization in New Bowser Kingdom. 

In the intervening years, Captain Toad had changed from a wide-eyed idealist into someone much more jaded and cynical.

Stella, overjoyed at having found a real resistance, confided in him her real goal of rescuing Luigi.

Captain Toad told her she was out of her mind.

Luigi was already dead. They couldn’t count on Mario, and they can’t count on Luigi.

They had a hard enough time keeping their numbers up as it is. Risking the entire Toad Brigade to rescue Luigi was a foolish gamble.

They had already seen so many brave souls fall.

He didn’t even want to mention what had happened to Toadette.

Before Stella even had time to ask, “Who’s Toadette?” Captain Toad had already turned away.

“Forget him. Head home. Nobody asked you to meddle in our business.”

The Toad Brigade had been tracking Stella, but they didn’t know who she was, and they were not impressed by what they saw as her feeble efforts to be a hero. 

Stella had no choice but to play her final card.

She opened the backpack she had been carrying and pulled out a hat.

It was a plumber’s hat, much like her father’s and uncle’s. It was in pink with an “S” above the brim.

She put it on and told Captain Toad to look at her.

He did.

He huffed.

“That stupid cosplay isn’t going to change my mind.”

“It’s not cosplay,” said Stella.

“Look in my eyes.

“Don’t you know who I am?”

Captain Toad looked.

He blinked. 

He couldn’t look away.

Stella’s eyes looked exactly like Peach’s.

And that determined expression underneath that hat...

“Princess Peach...the hero you called Mario...

“They’re not strangers to me, either. 

“I already lost my dad. I don’t want to lose my uncle.

“I know you think we failed you, but I promise it will change.”

In spite of himself, Captain Toad was in tears.

“Has it really been that long?

“Is she really a mother now?”

“Please, help me!” said Stella.

But, Captain Toad shook his head.

“Go home. Go back to your mother.

“Do you think we want to lose you, too?”

But, Stella was tired of being protected, tired of being told it was enough just to live.

She had never felt more strongly that she had so much more to offer than her continued survival.

“If you don’t come with me to save Zio, I’m going alone.”

Looking at her blazing blue eyes, Captain Toad saw Mario.

He knew she was serious.

He agreed to help her.

The Toad Brigade bowed to their princess.

Luigi’s execution was in two days.

[bethtoad]

Summer Blog, 2017

HELLO!

Hallo, hello

Is there anybody out there?...

Hi!

    Afraid it might be a tad presumptuous to say All; for one’s had it on undoubtedly sound advice, that for a blog to be viable, one’s to maintain a seriously dedicated presence thus for anyone to be aware of its existence. So albeit that the role of the Phantom Of The Opera’s a more appealing one than it maybe oughta be, should there still be anyone out there among my followers, ergo the seriously impressive real life artists amongst you who’ve been lost without Salvador Danby’s priceless tips (when nobody else’d buy them, ha ha), my woolly minded brigade seekin’ entanglement from the knitwit guru, or just anyone randomly surfing by, or orbiting above the blue planet from the parallel universe pink planet Floyd: This post’s for you.

My website has been redesigned, gaining a few new images on Paintings, whose progress you shall be au fait with via the blog, and losing many on Room Interiors to updated versions. There are also some new sections, titled:

Still Lifes - incorporating manic mannequins in miscellania

Pattern Book - which’s pretty eponymous as it houses working patterns in progress and those painted onto upcycled tat

Rag Dolls - which houses the Sirens and their other raggy friends

Cartoons & Collages - Prototypes and rough drafts from my sketch books

Recent Works - need I say more

Book Illustrations - replacing Illustrations per se, that houses images from my written works, the first batch of which’re from ROMA.

   The latter of which’s finally finished (shall post the How Not To Write feature for the literate at a later date), and in the interim by way of a precursor, the opening prelude of the book can be downloaded in PDF form from here. I shall keep you posted on its release date onto the electronic books circuit, which’s going to be between late autumn and early winter this year, and where and at what price it may be acquired and purchased at.

Looking out of the window on this summer’s day approaching the ides of July: at the grey overhanging clouds baring down on the rooftops, a yard filled with plant pots of flowers with raindrops falling from their petals like tears; little bright heads waving back and forth on increasingly drooping stalks evoking to mind a line from that poem; Not Waving but Drowning! The threat of another deluge from the heavens bringing out, not the birds to sing in full joyous throttle from the telephone wires, but the families of slugs and snails whose trails are mapping out the ground like a mollusc motorway: Not one to do the blues, leastwise over the weather, until la phantom reappears here’s an uplifting line from the Minstrel in the Gallery to bid you well and farewell with.

There’s a haze on the skyline

To wish me on my way

And there’s a note on the telephone

Some roses on a tray

 And the motorway’s stretching

Right out to us all

As I pull on my old wings...

(Jethro Tull)

TOAD

[space-bowl]

Here’s one of the members smarter members, Blue! More on him below:

-Has been with Captain since the start, first one to be found by him when they were all escaping Peach's castle

-Used to be a royal guard, did not enjoy his time there as he sucked due to his poor vision

-Him and Green are the brigade's mechanist/scientists, liking to test new gadgets in their lab to help on adventures

-Has a crush on the captain (shh, don't tell anyone)

[space-bowl]

1. Cyclops (Narcolepsy Toad)

-

Hey! I'm taking a crack at an Inktober since my friend wanted to do one together. I will do my best to see it through, starting with the first one, feat. my AU version of Galaxy's narcolepsy toad :D

Here's the list for reference, courtesy of @teratopedia: