#wrenly. lumine

[itswrenlyart]

currently going to war with same-body-shape syndrome by giving the main cast of Drakocine new refs. To start off, here’s Lumine, now with the proportions she should have as a dragon who is constantly running and/or swimming.

[itswrenly]

these are the places that we’re lucky just to be between.

[itswrenlyart]

apparently forgot to post this when I finished it

my main note for myself next time I do a walkcycle is to sink the hind legs better. Lumine’s are out of sync here, causing her to look like she’s walking with a limp. That said, this’ll make a great reference if I ever make a cycle of her cousin Scarab, who does have a permanent limp.

[itswrenlyart]

all the other kids with the pumped up kicks better run, better run outrun my gun

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wip

[itswrenly]

thinkingggggg about how my ocs have kinda made the own tropes (I’m staring at the main cast of drakocine rn)

like okay hear me out, and bare in mind these are all things in written into these character that are not there to INTENTIONALLY BE RELEVENT TO THEIR THEME. This is stuff that just happened I guess bc of how I write

Albatross, Arashi, Lumine and Pyre (and Angler, though he’s only a sort of semi-protagonist) all have absent father figures. Albatross and Pyre’s parents are both stated very clearly to be deceased long before the story starts, long enough before that neither of them really thinks about it as anything more than a fact of life.

Arashi and Angler’s fathers face more ambiguous fates, Arashi’s father being sent off to fight in a war at a time when Arashi was too young to really remember him, and Angler’s parents essentially being divorced, with him living with his mother full time.

Lumine is that outlier here, and I’ve definitely realized that Lumine accidentally burrows a TON of stuff from my life? Cuz like. Okay.

Lumine doesn’t meet her father until she’s already a teenager. She has enough life behind her with her other parent, the person they’re coparenting with, both of her older cousins, and, to a very small degree, Arashi, Angler and Pyre, that by the time she meets Smog, she doesn’t care to think of him as her father. He’s her other parent’s ex, and she treats him as her parents’ roommate, as opposed to someone who’s meant to be a parental figure, and I never really though about how I came up with any of this.

well by god am I thinking about it now

and FUCK this is why I need therapy

because I can look at all these characters, and they all (minus Pyre, who’s parents both died at the some time before he got to meet them (these character are dragons. They hatch from eggs. Did I mention that? I should’ve mentioned that)) are fatherless, but they all have another parents, and I just think that’s really disturbingly funny

especially because off the top of my head, the only child/teenage character I can think of in drakocine who plays a major role and has a “normal” relationship with her father is Aurora, who’s Angler’s kid. She’s granted a non-fatherless upbringing because her father has a TINY SMIDGE OF PLOT ARMOR! AND I JUST THINK THATS FUNNY!!

anyways sorry if this is incomprehensible. I think I had a point. I might’ve lost it midway through.

but yeah. These guys are dragons. They’re from a story I’m writing. They’re fatherless. I’m on a weird island where by definition of “lacking a father” I’m not fatherless, it’s just weird. Y’know the plot type of “oh no, I just found out everything is a lie and I can never see anything the same”? Yeah that. That happened to me but in real life. With my dad. And it SUCKS. And it’s not even a “I’m not really your dad” thing. He IS my dad! And I accidentally wrote Lumine to be me! She is all the shit I wish I’d said at the time!

but yeah reblogs off. Night y’all

[itswrenly]

so that list of dialogue prompts i reblogged earlier?

yeah.

I accidentally wrote 900 words? Maybe? And I really like them??

so uh. That’s under cut. Character study timeee

content warnings:

- Murder/bounty hunting

- Descriptions of blood

- Non-detailed description of wounds

- Mention of a dead body

- On-screen character death

note that these are almost entirely contained within one scene, with the exception of discussions of bounty hunting.

“Stay in the den.”

Lumine remembered this evening well. Years later, it haunted her dreams, and gripped her mind in a way she’d take to her grave.

She is nine years old. Her da leans down, presses their forehead to hers, and tells her to stay. She does, for a few minutes, curling up in their nest and burying her face in her twelve front talons. It’s when she notices that Gamboge is also gone that she gets up.

It’s when she notices that her cousin, Scarab, is soaring outside, yelling for citizens to get into their dens, that she goes looking for her family.

The rope bridges of the Cavern’s Crypt Cord are barren. There’s commotion coming from the market cave, but unlike the usual noise, things sound as though they’ve turned violent. Lumine lacks wings. Additionally, she is a fledgling, and will not become a juvenile for another four years.

However, her family is in danger, and Lumine is as stubborn as she is fast on her feet.

The fledgling bolts across the hempen bridge and into the market. Dragons are flying out in a panic, and fail to notice her small stature slipping by. The scene she’s met with is not a pretty one.

Her da’s bright red scales were stained a shade darker as they stood next to Gamboge, who clutched his face in one of his hands, blood gushing from across his snout. The liquid trails to a serrated machete, discarded on the ground next to where she’s frozen.

It took a moment too long for Lumine to register the body of a Pyrite behind him, still bleeding out.

It took another moment for her to make eye contact with the dragon that stood across from the duo. They were a pale Pyrite, their face adorned with more gold and silver than Lumine would’ve known what to do with. Feathers covered their tail, wings, and wrists. Their sky blue eyes were piercing, almost entrancing in a sense.

Two years later, her da would teach her that the best way to keep someone from noticing someone else’s presence is to pretend to not notice them yourself. Two years later, she’d wonder if her da had known that when they had turned to Lumine and roared.

“RUN, LUMINE!”

It was their voice that wormed its way into her nightmares. Their command for her to flee. Their scream as the bounty hunter’s talons tear into their face. The Pyrite’s talons on the stone as they barrel towards Lumine.

This is the first time Lumine realizes that something is critically wrong with how she reacts to the world around her. This is when Lumine’s arm jerks out, four fingers and two thumbs curling around the handle of the machete. This is when she transfers the weapon to her other hand. This is when she lets in collide with the Pyrite’s chest.

Lumine is nine years old the first time she kills another dragon. There isn’t a drop of blood on her. The only evidence of the incident is the two deceased Pyrites, and the scars across her da and uncle’s faces.

She is seventeen years old. The Pyrite government fell apart last year, the capitol bombed by a group of rebels. Lumine convinced the leader of the rebellion, her surrogate brother’s elder sister, to save as many records of government-hired bounty hunters as she could before the bombing. They’ve finally found their way into Lumine’s talons. 

The bounty hunter’s name was Shāpu. Her aforementioned surrogate brother, a pure-blooded Pyrite named Arashi, tells her he’s rusty on his Old Pyrite, but is fairly confident that the name means “sharp.” She hasn’t told him about the incident, or why she picked through records, searching for those of this hunter specifically. She can tell he’s too afraid to ask.

She is twenty years old. The first time she speaks about the incident to anyone outside of those present is when she is trying to convince a young mixed-blood to fight his pibling, potentially to the death. His name is Pyre. He, like Arashi, is like a brother to her. He is two years younger than she is. He is hesitant. He wants to fight, but he is scared. She knows that his problem isn’t in a lack of skill; the dark purple scar that tears through his right eye he gained when he was just ten years of age makes that clear. She tells him about killing Shāpu. She tells him that she was half the age he is now. She tells him that she doubts he’ll have to fight his pibling to the death. She convinces him to go through with dueling them for leadership of their cord. Pyre wins with minimal bloodshed, and neither party is killed.

Lumine reflects that night. She reads over Shāpu’s records again. She dragonizes them in her head. As she finally lays down to sleep, ignorant of the sun climbing the horizon line, she asks herself if she’s glad she’s still alive.

She’s glad to have her da and Gamboge, who still look out for her. She’s glad to have Arashi, with his knowledge of old Pyrite and all-too-clear tells. She’s glad to have Pyre, with his sense of justice and distaste for violence, despite how he excels at it. So, she decides she’s glad she’s still alive. She’s not sure if she’s glad that Shāpu died for it, but she decides that concern and her answer can coexist.

She is twenty years old. She was nine when she first killed another dragon, but she has a da, an uncle, and two brothers, and she wouldn’t trade a single one of them for anything.

[itswrenly]

lil thing of Lumine with this palette challenge! It’s been a hot minutes since I’ve drawn a dragon. She’s gonna get a minor redesign at some point, so I used this to kinda plan that (broken horn, gills, etc.). These aren’t going to be her final colors, though.

@ask-saffron-and-friends hope you don’t mind that tag!

[itswrenly]

Heard this song today for the first time in years, and it reminded me of Drakocine

something something traumatized teenaged protagonists who get treated like adults

Lumine (purple) is 14, Angler (blue) and Arashi (dark orange) are 15, and Pyre (tan) isn’t even a teen yet, he’s only 12

also working on more expressive dragons! They have actual eyebrow ridges now!

[itswrenly]

Frames from some MAP parts I’ve been working on!

1-3: Everybody Loves Me 4-5: Wannabe 6-8: Memories (still a work in progress)

Characters: - Pyre (half blind w/ purple face paint) - Lumine (purple drake w/ scarf) - Albatross (red & blue) - Smog (grey with speckles) - Arashi (feathered guy in the background of 3) - Pit Viper (tall guy in the background of 3)

[itswrenly]

based on the Japanese cover art for Knuckles’ Chaotix (or, in Japan, Chaotix)