Jojo excellently brings up the fact that most of Twilights strength is all natural and I desperately want to talk about that.

Link is 17 in twilight princess and can yeet a full-grown goat without problem. And ordon goats are not tiny like ours tend to be they are almost cow sized.

Now to top that. He can also yeet a full sized Goron. Yes he needs the boots to keep him from get knocked on his ass. But the boots do not add to his upper body and grip strength. He has the grip strength to stop their rolling, and the upper body strength to drag and throw them without falling over. AT THE AGE OF 17!!

So him at whatever age he currently is, is bound to be a little terrifying when it comes to strength.

Not only has he kept up with the heroing but he's also kept the fee items he has and each of them have a lot of uses.

Now we get to the whole reason for this rant. The boots.

In the game he struggles to move around very well in the Iron boots. But with years of practice? Aside from understandably heavy and noisy foot steps still I be he could walk normally in them by now.

Meaning given the chance he could absolutely crush someone with his legs without help if he needs too.

Because even if he doesn't use them all the time he would probably keep up with specific training to keep it so he can use them easily, it only makes sense.

So yeah...absolutely terrifying

A skilled fighter with natural hunting instincts that could crush you in more ways than one.

Yet he hits you with that adorable golden retriever boy smile and and all you see is fluffy little ranch hand just being a dork.

Help.

Tintin Character Requests! Pt. 1

The series where I draw Tintin characters in funky little outfits cuz they truly are funky little characters

In the first picture, we've got toxic yaoi, well, no, the first request was these two on their own but because I love them so much and their interactions in the 2011 movie I drew them together, and wow I am actually quite proud of how it ended up looking like!!!!! (Probably one of my favorite out of this batch of sketches)

Ty @mis3rabl3m3lody and @libraryidealist for the request!!!

Aaand behind curtain number 2, we've got certified best boy, Chang!!!! Where is he running off to? Idk. I would be embarrassed to admit how much time I spent figuring out how running looks like cuz I just suddenly forgot wtf running looks like

Ty @myfunnyvalentine !!! For the request!! You seemed quite enthusiastic

Next up, we've got AHHHHH MY SILLY MY GOOFY MY FAVORITE MANIC PIXIE DREAM GIRL!!!! PROFESSOR CALCULUS!!!! I drew him in polite little vest and turtleneck combo and some patterned pants, politely waving at you! I was watching a few episodes recently and AGEHHDHDHH I FORGOT JUST HOW ENTERTAINING AND AMAZING AND ICONIC THIS MAN IS he's so silly he's a genius he has no idea what's going on most of the time <3333 we need him in the hypothetical 2011 sequel (it's coming guys trust me)

Ty @unlikelyintelligent and @akasanata for the request!!

TADAAA!!!! IT'S GENERAL ALCAZAR!!! ok. As you know I've only recently started coming back to Tintin, and I'm ngl I forgot who general alcazar was. Then I watched Tintin and the picaros and pretty quickly I remembered. THIS GUY WAS SO COOL. my dumb kid brain didn't entirely grasp what was going on in that episode, BUT NOW I DO KNOW. AND WOW THIS EPISODE WAS WILD. every Tintin episode is on a spectrum of insane but this one tips closer to the more unhinged end. GENERAL ALCAZAR IS SO BADASS, HES LEADING A REVOLUTION, HE'S A MALE WIFE, HE IS A PRESIDENT NOW??? I miss the guy. ALSO I LOVE HIS DESIGN.

(Also if your wondering if every Tintin post I make I'll include a tangent of just gushing about how much I love some aspect of Tintin you better get used to it cuz I love rambling about how much I love Tintin)

Ty @tintinology for the request!!! AARRRGHRHRHHH GENERAL ALCAZAR!!!!!!

here's a couple characters ik little about, ik they were the original antagonists of the secret of the unicorn but that's about it! It's the bird brothers!!!! They're in some fancy suits, judging everyone they pass, their probably grumbling about something. From their appearance they look like their never happy sjhfjdjf

Ty @jimmyandthegiraffes for the request! :D

And last but definitely not least, IT'S JOLYON WAGG!!!!! if only the editing was better so you could bask in his graceful and obnoxious glory. I really like his voice! I really like his wardrobe! And he is some sort of anomaly to me, hes just popping up in the most random times, and most of the time it's to be an annoying little bitch (endearing), he has a medal of honor btw! If I ever met him, I would at first be very charmed, but then realize this is an entirely one sided conversation that'll go on for hours and hours that I won't be leaving anytime soon, and when I eventually get home I'll be completely exhausted by how much social energy I was using up just trying to keep up and look like I was really really invested in whatever this man was rambling about

But anyway he's silly and whimsical so I still really like him

Aaannnddd that's it folks! I'll eventually work on the other requests I have!!!! Have a good evening!!!!!

IDW collection reading update! :3 📖

Just finished Phase 2 volume 2! So it's been 2 volumes since the last update? I think?

These volumes included: The Death of Optimus Prime, MTMTE 1-8, RID 1-9, Autocracy and Spotlights: Trailcutter, Hoist and Orion Pax.

My thoughts will be below! To spare people the long scroll! Haha

All MTMTE stories are very enjoyable, I really love the writing for them!! I love that each character has some kind of quirk and they're all so quippy haha.

I really liked the story on Delphi. Ratchet kick some booty! Also got to finally see this Pharma guy everyone draws, he's fine i guess 🙄 /joking I'm a total sucker for an evil doctor. I look forward to his return! That's not it for him right...?

Also got to experience Tarn! He's a cool character! I really like that he's like a Megatron loyalist to the highest regard. Back during "The Last Stand of the Wreckers" they mentioned the Phase Sixers and I kept thinking "Who is this Black Shadow guy????" (He appeared in like 2 frames lol) the Phase Sixers seem like big deals so I was surprised I hadn't seen him before and then Tarn and the DJD took care of him 💀 so there he was lol.

As for RID, BRUH it's wild, everyone's getting their heads exploded 💀 rip Constructions my beloved. Idk how I feel about Arcee just being super violent and murdering so freely. But yay Starscream in an advisory position. This whole IDW collection i feel like Starscream has been very good leaning, like he's been set up this whole time to be a good guy (or at least questioning Megs in a way that just isn't petty and more towards the way of a better future for the people of Cybertron. Like his intentions are there) Of course this could be hindsight bc I've read ahead by accident.

Speaking of good guy-bad guy, before starting this collection I'd seen a bunch of panel's and artwork with Megs on the Lost Light and it would get me thinking "what is acceptable? what is redeemable?" This is sorta random but I think about it when I read these comics like "holy cow this man gets away with a lot" (this kinda goes for everyone tho lol it is war, but oof) I haven't gotten to his reappearance yet, but I'm curious how he gets to "be free" to some degree, after everything. I imagine they put him to use under the eye of Fortmax or Magnus, I dunno. I'll see eventually! Haha.

The Spotlights for Trailcutter(Breaker) and Hoist were great! Orion's was fine. His stories are kinda confusing me now when trying to make a timeline in my head 😂

Autocracy was interesting 🤔 like with the Orion spotlight, timelines are kinda becoming confusing to me, at least through these. I feel like there is some retconning going on as I read. Orion's personality here is also pretty different. He's very erratic. Of course he's under a ton of stress and his whole understanding of the world has shattered, but still, very different than usual! I feel like things happen fast in this story. Orion also becomes Optimus Prime in this one too! Much goes on! Zeta Prime deserves a good pepper spraying to the optics lol I did enjoy the five minutes of the Autobot and Decepticons teaming up to fight him tho haha.

Anyway that's enough rambling for now! It's all very interesting and I'll probably continue reading more over the weekend :>

PÍA RAMBLES #8

you might have seen this post or this wip intro. i'm here to talk about this book because i think it's really cool @teddywriting and i wrote almost 40k words by simply playing dolls with our ocs.

(yes i will be using screencaps of before sunrise, 1995 for any and all subsequent updates regarding this project thank you very much)

what's weird about this book in particular is that, despite maripaz and theo taking up way too much space in my brain, it's also incredibly hard to talk about them?? i know every single detail about them down to what they might order to eat at a mcdonald's, and yet i feel no one outside from teddy and i really knows these characters. their lore is weird and a bit convoluted and explaining it feels like i'm trying to explain the plot of a television show with like 18 seasons of character development you just had to be there to witness to understand even a fraction of it.

but first some basics about the actual book

title: babylon boy (book 1 of the home habitat duology)

genre: literary fiction

category: i say adult because there will be no censoring of topics but in this first installment our protagonists are around eighteen years old. you might consider that ya but i wouldn't

a small summary: having independently run away from home for their own reasons, theo and maripaz meet while homeless on the streets and form an alliance of convenience to survive. while theo vehemently denies the drug addiction he’s nursing, maripaz tries to deal with the way both want and revulsion seem to exist in her at the same time. falling in love is probably the easiest thing they do.

teddy and i are co-authoring, as in we both write the words. they will be primarily working on theo's chapters and i will be primarily working on maripaz's chapters but we'll both be involved in fully crafting this story.

talking about your book is hard when all that happens in it is character work so even whether someone gets sick at one point feels like a spoiler you want people to be surprised by.

we created mari and theo in 2020 on a whim. i can't even remember what prompted it exactly. we wanted a new pair of characters to play with and we decided to make two assholes to bicker and be mean to each other. this iteration saw three reincarnations before we put the characters on the shelf and almost resigned ourselves to them being a miss... if not for one important detail... i really, really believed they should have kissed. this first version of them would eventually be known as the homeless au.

looking back it's Wild thinking about how different mari and theo used to be. we moved onto new aus to play around with, landing on a superhero-type beat that became their new canon for a while. we had fantasy and sci-fi and musicians and hadestown and the raven cycle (that last one did so much for us it's insane). every new thing we tried shaped them more and more until they were unrecognisable from their original versions. one day i really want to go through their threads from start to finish and look at that change in real time.

there was a new thesis to their characters and it was no longer "what if two awful guys with issues were forced together and tried to bite each other's heads off". instead we were looking at two characters that through every new incarnation became more sincere and gentle. they had meta-narrative character development.

(every new au also gave us more characters to populate the world including but not limited to theo's twin sister, maripaz's seven siblings, alex, philip, a whole lot of parental figures, a quirky cast of friends... but i'll talk about them some other time)

then i did it again. in the 2.0 version of the homeless au there was one scene i loved beyond words where an argument between our two protagonists resulted in maripaz punching theo right on the mouth. when she tried to swing a second time he stopped her hand and warned her that if she wanted to hit him he would hit back. they fought and the scene ended. i said to teddy: they should have kissed. we laughed and imagined how homeless au would go now that their characters had changed so much. we started thinking about it more and more until we were moving the pieces of their cinematic universe around to fit this new idea... and suddenly we had plot for a book that would revamp that original homeless au... and a sequel too! (but more on that second one another time)

teddy started a rp thread of what came right after the opening scene of babylon boy, where theo and maripaz would shoplift and he would steal the angel necklace she wore (<- this is important)... and we just kept going... and going. we'd already had a few keys scenes to work towards, one those being that punching scene that started it all, as well as the ending. teddy added two new scenes we began calling the halo scene and the church scene, and we moved something we called the pool scene into this book from another au. we just had to fill in the blanks... fill in the blanks we did.

these right here are the names i gave each individual thread of the roleplay-ification of babylon boy. their purpose is not so much to be chapter titles but to make specific scenes easy to find for future reference. though obviously i had to be a bit artistic about it.

i don't know if babylon boy will have chapter titles, and if they will have some sort of theme going on (usually i like just putting two words together to create some imagery). "angel face" is probably what i would title chapter 1, but i also hesitate on that decision because i think i would like to save angel for later.

these threads are less of a draft and more the skeleton of a draft, that's why i called it a draft 0. its purpose is to give teddy and i direction and reading through them i already know how i want to shift the timeline and how i'd rewrite some of the scenes to make them a lot better, but it did give us a great cause and effect look of things. the way teddy and i approach our roleplay threads is more loose than what i do with @on-the-river-lethe (with whom i'm currently roleplaying draft 1 of our book lupine trail and also a giant hunger games au). fluffy and i write responses between 1k-4k words, they are basically chapters. teddy and i instead do a quick call and response, mostly focused on dialogue, we build on top of each other and neither of us really knows where a thread will go when we start.

there are no actual non-roleplay words written for babylon boy thus far. teddy is in charge of chapter 1 as we open with theo's pov but we are both busy or focused on other things. right now we're enjoying the playing around stage of the process (which i don't see going away even once we start seriously writing, i know for a fact we'll probably do various roleplay-type passes to babylon boy).

you've probably noticed the christian imagery is rampant here. it happened kind of by accident and the already mentioned halo scene is entirely to blame for it. like i said, teddy and i have this very "yes, and," approach to storytelling together where we kinda build on top of what the other puts down. teddy gave me the description of one (1) scene where theo sees a halo of light around maripaz's head and i decided "well, this is now i thing that is here to stay". church scene really brought it all together and there is a scene in book 2 adeptly nicknamed the angel scene that is kind of the culmination of this.

the imagery is almost exclusive to theo's pov as mari is more the subject of the imagery than the one pushing it forward. teddy and i will be doing our most to fill this book with visuals: characters lined with stained glass windows, lights shaped like hearts, signs and graffiti that say meaningful stuff.

babylon boy, as the title suggests, is more theo's book. both he and maripaz have meaningful arcs but theo's is really at the core of it, mari takes centre stage in book 2 (titled gossamer girl). i think i talked about this somewhere before but the titles just kind of... happened. gossamer was relevant for that superhero au and it's just a word i really adore so i wanted to use it on the title. you can't go wrong with alliteration so gossamer girl it is. and because i love when books in a series match i had to do something with boy. like gossamer i adore babylon for some reason, and so we got babylon boy. i wasn't sure about that one because while gossamer girl made sense with the theme, what did "babylon boy" even mean, exactly? teddy came in clutch and analysed the title for me. they connected it to theo's drug addiction and now i can't think of any two titles that are more perfect for this series.

like i said, there are no actual words written for this book so sadly i cannot share any excerpts. but i will share

Festival was very much the result of teddy and i having just watched before sunrise, 1995

we watched before sunrise, 1995 because the mannerisms of the two leads reek of maripaz and theo

"until a miracle happens" became a recurring thing said in the draft and it wrecked me

Our Fears is probably my favourite thread both thematically and visually. followed closely by Church Angels, though that one is mostly visually

The Pool is the longest thread with about 90 responses and all of it is beautiful. i would probably consider it the companion to Our Fears

"mutual pining they're both just idiots"

the closing image is probably my favourite one of the book

the core themes are very much trust, love, and communal help. we've got such an array of npcs who simply... help. i love the human race.

i'll probably do another update before we start properly writing talking about maripaz and theo as characters specifically. a bit of a crash course on who they are, really.

anyway. i'm giving you a golden star if you read all of that ⭐ do ask me or teddy about this story!! we'd be happy to talk about it. or even just about the characters.

cheers, pía

I need help! (spoilers for Outer Wilds Echoes of the Eye)

I'd mentionned recently how I found a way to the Stranger's entrance but like, the OTHER side, the back door if you will. I couldn't get back inside the ship bc the door didn't work, and my own ship wasn't there, but was marked at 221 feet (meters?) away, on the other side of the door. I died when my oxygen ran out. I just couldn't activate the door's light mechanism. Also, the stairs leading to that door were different from the ones in the normal entrance, I don't remember exactly how, but that's how I knew it was different.

Anyway, I got there, I'm pretty sure, from a hole in a cliff, that lead to a dark room/cavern with an elevator just like the one at the dam, and before I got to the elevator that got me to the back door entrance, there was a raft on the floor in the dark room. I think there was a lowering mechanism next to the raft. I kinda wish I'd hopped on that raft, no doubt it would have lead me to a very interesting place.

After a few loops of trying and failing to find that cliffside hole, I decided to try to access the back door of the Stranger directly, by flying over the ship; I accidentally flew away from the dark cloak thingy, because I SUCK at flying, but I still managed to reach the back door; I am 100% sure that was it. Anyway I crashed my ship inside of course, and inspected the dock. Pretty sure I didn't find any elevator, which conforted my belief that I really was on the back door's entrance. I got to the door, the one that hadn't worked last time, and saw that the mechanisms were rotating. Yay! So I turned off my light, got inside the little circular room, then turned my light on again, and then I died like, INSTANTLY. Felt really stupid too. I apparently took a ton of damage, which means I either died because I wasn't totally inside the circular room and got shredded by the rotating pieces of metal when they started moving, or the Stranger just, like, went ''fuck you, you're not getting in from the back door'' and killed me one way or another. (Now that I think about it I should probably try to kill myself in the normal entrance of the ship by not standing totally inside the circular room/door and then activating the lights just to see if it's even possible to die like that.)

Anyway. I should try to get back to the back door directly, by flying over the Stranger again. But that takes flying skill, and I'm kinda lazy... I'll do it eventually, but first I would REALLY like to find my way back to the back door from the inside of the ship, from that cliffside hole, so I can investigate the back door again and more importantly, hop on that raft. I've tried looking it up online but it's way too specific, so I can't find any answer (and there's spoilers everywhere).

Maybe I just hallucinated this entire thing and am not making any sense, but I'm sure I'm right.

So. If anyone understood this rambling, and knows what I'm talking about, I wouldn't mind an intel on where to find that cliff hole please! (I don't want to know about the lore, I just need to know where that door is)

Homestucktober 2023 (1-5)

1) Patron Troll

Seer gang rise up ✊🏽 (I'd done two classpect tests since 2012 and both times I was a Seer, my aspect just changed from Void to Doom which isn't a good sign lol...although the one I just tried from 4chan is telling me I'm a Page of Void now...I mean I'll take it because it's an aspect I've gotten before but I'm not really trying to be Jake or Tavros out here they both got so screwed over lol)

Anyway if she were my actual patron in a game session I'd be fucking terrified because of what she puts John and Dave through but also probably laughing my ass off at her antics and impressed by her intense sensing ability despite the blindness

2) Favorite Beta Kid

Dave Strider is much needed comedic relief in such a tragic tale and his ramblings are often as deeply philosophical as they are deeply ridiculous. I don't even have the right words to describe all this character has done for me. I'm in love with the Time aspect even though it's probably the last aspect I'd be assigned to because I think Time players have to deal with the multiplicity of the self the most out of everyone (except maybe Space players), and what a fucking difficult thing that must be. I will always wonder how he managed to spend IIRC weeks in the game whereas for everyone else it was just 24 hours (and of course Davesprite spending IIRC four months trying to fix his doomed session...my heart)

3) Favorite Beta Troll

(IIRC the beta trolls are technically the dancestors but I just call the original 12 the betas sometimes because they deal with the beta kids and we meet them first. Anyway)

Again I don't have words enough to describe what Karkat has done for me. Karkat rounding up and trying to lead eleven other insane motherfuckers and losing his cool often but almost always asserting, in his way, that it's because he deeply cares. You really see this in Act 6 Post Murderstuck when we find him in Openbound and he's obviously dealing with the weight of having failed at leadership so hard that over half of his teammates are dead. It probably took him a while of raging at how long the meteor trip would be (and upset Sollux didn't stay after "dying" in front of him again) before the sadness set in, but if there's one thing Karkat isn't, it's afraid of emotion. Also the PCG, CCG, FCG conversations remain some of my favorites in the entire canon, especially the one where FCG berates CCG for "wanting [Terezi] in every quadrant like a desperate fool." If there's one thing I can relate to about Karkat it's that I will also always read past me for filth even if it's hard. I use it as a form of self pruning and improvement and eventually I think FCG gets that too.

4) Favorite Alpha Kid

It was Dirk for a long time until maybe the last year or two, but I realized after re-reading the Epilogues that relating to him as much as I do is probably really bad lol, but Roxy was always a close second. Obsessed with the fact that the wild alcoholic, who one might think would be the worst team member because of that, instead sobers up and fully embodies John's role as the "friendleader" which is why I think they end up getting along so well. Despite the obstacles Roxy is full of love for their friends, and with friends like the people who they end up becoming in the Epilogues, you gotta hand it to them for their persistence. Considering that they were in a Void session their positivity throughout was pretty amazing to me, also shout out to them for fully embracing Calliope's skull appearance and finding them beautiful anyway. Alien love wins

5) Favorite Alpha Troll

Okay but can we talk about the fact that she ends up alive??? As a huge stan of hers since we started seeing her I was fucking living my best life lol I can't hate it whatsoever even though it was at John's expense 😭 Meenah's one of the most determined characters in the entire thing fr, she really said "fuck being dead for millions of years after isolating myself on the moon to avoid responsibility, now I want all the responsibility, all of it." Fully meets Karkat again in Candy and is like "lemme reverse what HIC did and use my ancient Queen powers to benefit the mutant," imo an incredible foil to her future self even though they're very much the same troll and speak pretty much exactly the same. Fish puns are hysterical to me most of the time, her unwavering dedication to the shtick 4x as hard as Feferi did it and editing/improving ones she doesn't like in the middle of her sentences 😂 I cosplayed as her at AX 2013 and had a blast, except for that Cronus cosplayer who tried to hit on me in character, I had no idea what to do lmao

SequenceShift Dina

So, been working on SequenceShift and I finally got something for Dina that really clicked with me, and I needed to gush about it since she's probably my favorite character at the moment. So, what's our favorite bartender up to in this AU?

Well, I have said that Dina is a member of the Feisty 'Five' (aka the Royal Rangers), but I haven't really gone beyond that.

Dina started off as the simple bartender lady she was in the original game, not much of a change there, aside from her being childhood friends with Starlo and Ceroba. However, after Kanako had passed, Dina joined the Royal Rangers as a way of keeping an eye on Ceroba.

This led to an encounter with a particularly nasty human that killed a lot of monsters and wrecked half the Wild East. It also resulted in the Feisty Four beaten to near death and Starlo reluctantly killing the human. Such a process ended up breaking him with the harsh realities of being a lawbringer (more on that later) and it goes without saying that the Wild East was reduced to a Ghost Town. Dina recognized this and brought the human SOUL to Ceroba in his place. From that day on, she modeled herself into being the Underground's 'Hangwoman'. She realizes how painful it is to take a life (hell, most monsters crumble in front of a mere human kid), so she's decided to take these matters into her own hands, should another particularly nasty human enter the Underground, so no one would have to go through that type of pain ever again. Essentially, she modeled herself into a Western anti-hero. Okay, granted that could apply to most of the Feisty Five, but she's definitely a darker shade of grey compared to the others, like the protagonist in a Red Dead game or a Clint Eastwood film.

Now, as for her role in the story, she roughly takes the Sans role of the AU Post-Lakeside. She appears in a variety of locations, even being a temporary vendor here and there as a way to relive her Wild East days. She spends a lot of the story watching over Clover and trying to get a read on them.

This eventually leads to her having a boss fight on the slopes of Frostpeak on the Neutral and Geno runs (Pacifist skips the conflict). On a neutral run, she eventually decides Clover doesn't deserve to die for their actions. On Genocide, though? Well, let's just say, she's definitely gonna live up to her Hangwoman title.

And I'll leave it off there for now. If you wanna know more about her, feel free to send me an ask. And if you've gotten this far, thank you for hearing me out about my ramblings for a favorite character.

P.S. she still has the snakes on her, literally.

I absolutely sit on my hair all the time 😭 sometimes I'll lean forward to grab something and then get yanked back by my own hair

Tying it back just keeps it from falling into my eyes and obstructing my vision, but the rest of the ponytail will totally fall over my shoulder and smack me in the face. Braiding it helps keep it more uhh, contained? It tangles less that way, because man it's WILD. I miss my friend/coworker at my old location because she used to untangle it for me at the top since I couldn't always tell

I also have a bad habit of running my fingers through it when I'm nervous. Like when I'm with a big group of people I'm not close to, I'll pull it over my shoulder and just start rapidly doing that 💀 Or place my hands behind me back and mess with the ends. It's only frantic when I'm nervous, otherwise I'm chilling trying to genuinely detangle it bc it's kinda soothing, even if it's tedious

That'd be nice if the characters picked up on that. Like a random demon approaches me and at first they wanna be like "she can handle herself, maybe i shouldn't intervene - oh shit she's doing the hair thing, MY TIME TO SHINE".

But I'd also totally do that if Lucifer was scolding me or grilling me for info 😭 IT'S SUCH AN OBVIOUS TELL NOW THAT I THINK ABOUT IT NOO I'M DOOMED

okay but one funny thing, I've accidentally smacked my brothers in the face when redoing my ponytail. I don't mean to either but it's hilarious. Rip to whoever is near me when that happens

As long as Solomon doesn't change my hair length permanently, we're golden. Glitter hair sounds sick, as long as it doesn't transfer

ALSO MATCHING HAIR WITH 13 AAA I NEVER THOUGHT ABOUT THAT, THAT'S SO CUTE 😭 FUCK IMAGINE TRADING SCRUNCHIES WITH HER, I DON'T WEAR THEM, BUT FOR HER I WOULD

I don't think I'll ever go back to short hair. Sometimes i get that intrusive thought about chopping it all off, but I like it too much now. Honestly, the silly reason I keep it so long is because it gives princess vibes/makes me feel like one. That's it, LOL.

I feel like Lucifer might chastise me after seeing everything I go through with it and then I meekly admit my reasoning to him and he just sighs. And then immediately sits me down to do my hair.

OKAY I NEED TO STOP RAMBLING AKWKFJ, I GOT A NEW BOOK TODAY, I'M RANK 120 AT THE TIME OF TYPING THIS, I'VE KEPT MY DRAWING STREAK, AND MY STORE OPENS FRIDAY SO PRAYING IT GOES WELL

- ✨ anon

If I may say so, I don't think your reason for keeping it long is silly at all! The only reason I've ever grown my hair out was for the way it made me feel pretty (minus the pandemic situation obvs lol). If keeping it long makes you feel like a princess, that's an excellent reason and you need nothing else. I think that's kinda the whole point of having your hair how you like it!

My reason for having short hair currently is definitely more related to my gender expression... i could get into it, but that's more info than is needed lol! But in the end, it still comes down to, I have it this way because I like the way it feels!

Anyway, I'm so sorry but your description of sitting on it made me laugh. And so did the part about accidentally smacking your brothers in the face with it.

I'm just imagining you doing the same to the brothers - some of them would be annoyed, but I think some of them would secretly like it. *cough* Mammon *cough* Like they'd say hey MC watch where you're flingin your hair! But in their mind their like yes please whack me with it again... sldfksdfjf I just find that so cute lol.

And OKAY I love the nervous tell though! I definitely think all the characters would pick up on it eventually, some faster than others perhaps. Like if Lucifer was scolding you and you started doing it, I think it'd make him feel bad. Like actually seeing you do that would make him realize he was stressing you out and he would probably just hug you instead. Lucifer is a big softie under all that strictness so I think that's how he would react.

I'm definitely imagining most of the brothers being like, oh the hair thing, time to step in! They would do that for sure!

I don't think any of Solomon's hair magic would be permanent lol and if you were like, do whatever you want but don't mess with the length, I think he'd do just as you asked~

Rank 120?? Like in the event??? I was like in the 250 range for a little bit until I got everything I wanted and stopped grinding as hard. I think I ended up like 2,000 something lol.

And yay drawing! I hope it's going well for you still!

Update

So, tumblr just saw fit to tell me that this blog is now nine years old, which is... wild and strange to me. It's been a long time since I've been on it, and some of the posts are still getting notes, so I thought I'd stop by with a catch-up on how things are.

So:

I've finished my PhD. The process was bad enough to make my mental health plummet to previously unseen depths (for me, anyway), which is why I dropped off the face of this earth blog. I managed to pass with technical corrections only, which is a huge achievement that I think one day I might figure out how to feel about, but it's too soon right now.

My mum has read it, and thought it was very good - I'm hoping sometime (it's gonna be years, but) to be able to reread it with a clear head and appreciate it. Same with Realm of the Elderlings, honestly.

End of PhD meant some big life changes, some of which I'm still in the middle of. I live in a different city now, and I'm trying to figure out what I want to do with my life, because academia is no longer the answer.

I guess for the last year since I finished I've been wanting to post something about this but trying to work out how, and I think that the core of it is this: it is okay for things to not work out how you expected. If you are neck-deep in academia right not, it is not the whole world, I promise you. I finished my PhD, but I seriously considered quitting, and I still don't think that would have been the wrong decision. (Neither was carrying on. They were both acceptable options, no matter how fraught I felt about them at the time).

We are taught to view our lives like a kind of funnel - we start with a plethora of options, and then we narrow down further and further until we specialise (oh we might have other unrelated hobbies, but the core of it is Our Thing). But that's not how that works, that's not how any of this works at all. The world is wide. I can choose anything now. I mean, most of the things I've thought of so far I don't actually want to do for various reasons, but I know myself well enough to know that I'll figure it out eventually. If I just let it simmer in the back of my head, and give it time. You don't have to know the answer; in a way, you are the answer, if that makes any kind of sense.

I stuck with the job that I picked up part time to fund my PhD, and took it full time. It's definitely not a forever option, but it was a blessing to be in a new city, strangely liberated from the PhD that took up eight years of my life (and the general academia that took up the majority of my whole life before then), and doing something I already knew how to do. It's helping rebuild my confidence, and I know that whatever come next is going to be something I can make something of.

I hope that's not so rambly as to be incoherent; regardless, I'm glad I wrote it. I do still see asks on this account, so if you ever have any queries about academia (not the technical side, but what it feels like to get through sometimes), let me know. I can't promise quick answers, but I'll try to answer most things.

I hope you are all well, and thank you for the notes that remind me this blog still exists - a testament to the love and enthusiasm I had for this project at the start, and that I still hope to rediscover some day.

182 Days of TPN - Day 159

Chapter 159: "Thank You"

C'mon now, which one of you three idiots asked if this child was in pain? Did y'all not see him get smacked hard across the room a couple chapters ago? The trio is lucky they're all cute so I'll forgive them especially since their smiles are precious.

They are pretty incredible, as one would imagine from a couple fullscore kids, though this kinda makes me wish Ray had a big moment like the other two. Don't get me wrong, I love him and my boy definitely put in a lotta work back at GF, even way before the series began, not to mention all the assistance he provided to Emma & their family after the escape, but destroying the entire demon nobility and making a promise with the demon god are pretty huge, ya know?

To be honest, I thought Sonju was on the verge of snapping here. We've known for about hundred chapters that he still craves human meat and was waiting patiently for his chance to eat it once again and now he's coming to the realization that wish of his won't be fulfilled. Due to his beliefs, he of course wouldn't eat our trio since they aren't wild humans, but just imagining the possibility of him turning on them here would've been kinda exciting to witness. Surely the conflict would be solved by talk-no-jutsu from both Emma & Mujika and I could just feel the tension of having him & Ray pointing their weapons at each other which would be so good since they sorta have that teacher-student relationship yet still respect one another. Norman would kinda be a little clueless in the middle, though definitely fearing for his life since he originally had the intention to kill Sonju & Mujika.

I understand why it would be hard for Sonju to be accepted as the next king, but ya could've still tried, dude. Even if he didn't want the position in the first place, he literally could not have been any worse than Legravalima. She set the bar pretty low.

Pfftt I like how we see Norman react a bit to Mujika's words here. The dude took several fans to create a whole inferno with that extermination plan of his.

I honestly would've been so sad if this was their true last goodbye but thankfully they make a last minute appearance in ch178.

Just let it happen, Sonju. You can't fight a protagonist's affection.

When Emma brings up all the demons she's met over the years and how they take lives to eat just as humans do, she eventually brings up death and I always loved the different reactions we see between Norman and Ray, with the former being far more surprised than the latter to even hear our optimistic sunshine child think about something so depressing, as Norman tends to always see Emma in a positive light. It could also be the short amount off time Norman's seen Emma since their initial reunion back at the paradise hideout so they didn't really get the chance to indulge in their own personal struggles with everything else going on, which could also explain Ray's expression. He seems far more understanding since he's been at Emma's side ever since the escape (minus the three weeks after GP) so it's safe to say he knows her worries firsthand and can even empathize about the similar thoughts, even if we as readers never saw such a conversation happen between them regarding death before. (also really love that group shot of their whole family. a nice attempt to lighten the mood here.)

Okay, now this scene of Emma imagining her death has fascinated me for the longest time. The main reason being because it's uncertain when and where it takes place, but as I had rambled on about three years ago, I still believe this moment happens right after Emma made the promise with the demon god. To give as brief summary of that post as possible, I started off by wondering how Emma seemed relatively fine upon her return from the Seven Walls in ch144, despite learning that she was gonna lose her memories and be separated from her family, even going as far as to say "Oh. That was okay too. I'll tell you later!" when Ray had asked the requirements of the reward. Of course her response is sorta deflecting, but in all fairness, they did have to rush to capital to stop Norman's plan. It's also understandable that she kept the reward a secret to prevent her family from worrying about her, since no matter what they would say, the reward couldn't be refused. Demon god was cunning with his choice and wouldn't change His mind, so Emma had no choice but to accept it, so how was it that our girl, who is known for having such a huge heart of gold, seemed "okay" with the fact that she would lose everything that's so important to her? Well, for one, she's a brilliant actor, as this series has demonstrated several times in the past, so chalk up that quick conversation as another successful performance by her. I think another reason behind her "good' mood is that Emma had already taken time to herself to grieve about her future loses and it's this flashback right where I think that moment of reflection takes place. Once again in ch144, Ray informs Emma (& us) that it's been three hours since he first returned from the Seven Walls, which leads me to believe that Emma gave herself that much time (though probably a bit less, depending on how long the conversation with demon god actually took) thinking over the price of the reward, what would happen to her afterwards, if she could've worded the promise differently to prevent all that, etc. This girl adores her family and would do absolutely anything for them, but to live a life without them has gotta be the worst kind of punishment for her that she'd rather die than to experience it, so she eventually wonders what could be the best possible way to make that happen, if it truly had to, and remembers Sonju & Mujika.

Now, obviously, I could be completely wrong about that panel (& im splitting up these thoughts in half because i know long blocks of text are intimidating), but as I brought up in that same post from 2020, I'm still certain it happens sometime after GP, if her hair in the braid is anything to go by at least. The way she's laying down is also similar to how Ray shows up at paradise hideout once he was kicked out of the Seven Walls, though one could argue why did Emma appear somewhere outside instead of inside the base as well. Maybe she asked demon god to transport her there, I dunno, He works in weird ways. Anyways, another detail to take note of is the full moon, which is kinda important since she & Ray left for the Seven Walls during a full moon, as shown in ch130/131 since the ritual to arrive at the entrance requires one. The only nitpick about the moon however is that Anna mentions in ch144 that it's the afternoon when Emma returns, so it might not have been dark enough to see the moon that clearly in the first place, unless the demon world works differently. Who knows. (& random, but in that old post of mine, i wondered if the kids were in the southern hemisphere due to how moon phases work, but Ray literally confirms in ch5 they're in the northern hemisphere due to the way the sun rises, so just ignore that little bit on nonsense if ya choose to read that original post back.) To this day I'm not entirely sure about when & where that panel of Emma contemplating death happens in the story, but I like holding onto this little headcanon regardless. Also, I didn't mention this in that old post since I only thought of it recently, but the shadows on her neck cover her number, so if this moment does take place after Emma learned the reward, then I say keeping her number hidden is a nice, little foreshadowing moment.

...Anyways, sorry not sorry about all that. I'll keep the rest short, like how Mujika finds Sonju's brief freak out over his lost meat amusing and how discouraged he becomes when she admits she has no idea how to fix their broken demon society situation.

Favorite panel/moment:

I mean.. I would hope my favorite moment was obvious enough with all the nonsense I rambled on about it, but aside from that and Sonju's silly, little breakdown, here's some cheerful kiddos. Look at how happy they are that I'm finally shutting up.

It's a bit of a random question, but I'm simply curious, how did you start falling in love with the Horned King/what's your origin story with him? Only if you want to share it of course^^ Feel free to also just generally gush or ramble about him!

(also btw I think it's awesome that we share him as an f/o now, I think subconsciously I already knew for a while that I'd fall for him eventually, it was just a matter of time he's just too gorgeous💕)

Ok this ask has given me the warm fuzzies for several weeks so thank you and I guess I should probably answer this now huh -

(also every time someone else pops up who f/o's him I'm Absolutely Delighted and am so glad I helped facilitate your decent into lich simpery)

I'll do IRL and self insert shenanigans, so IRL first:

- the first time I watched the black cauldron I'd be ...about 8 or 9?

- one thing you sincerely must understand about me is that I am, unapologetically, unequivocally, unexpectedly....a weenie.

- much as I adore the spooky and the strange, any film that veers into remotely scary territory, or horror in general, that shit scars me down to the cellular level.

- Power to everyone who can disengage/absorb that stuff healthily because I sure as fuck don't and doubt I ever will. Anyway.

- mum buys me the black cauldron and thinks nothing of it. It's Disney, right?

- anyway yeah uh suffice to say boy golly gee I'd never seen *that* many skeletons animated before. Think my little brother started crying at some point.

- but honestly, something about the films mad dichotomy of attempted cutesy fantasy with grim dark backdrop and off kilter humour enamoured me. And I found myself wanting *more* of the dark parts of the film.

- (still early the full cauldron born scenes were cut. So goddamn salty)

- the Horned King became a lynchpin of fascination, something about his eerie voice, his apathetic yet menacing mannerisms and his degraded appearance really drew me in. Esp his summoning and death scenes.

- I think I started drawing skeletons soon after and they're still the easiest thing for me to draw.

- over decade later when I was depressed as all fuck, I rewatched the film and found myself only really enjoying his scenes, in part because he was the only relatable villain to me at the time. (Eternally tired, quietly dramatic, quick to anger and dismissal. A smorgasbord of things to distract myself from feeling like I was actively decomposing too at the time. Brains are wild.)

- now I like to imagine quietly helping him get to a better place same as I've managed to do :) who needs therapy when you have imaginary lich time.

As for self insert funky times:

- rather than imagining myself in the dark ages, mostly because despite living in the UK my knowledge of that time period is just awful, I imagine a modern setting

- crucially tho the events of the film still happened exactly as shown.

- in this setting my s/I has moved to Wales and accidentally rediscovered the -broken- cauldron, and the remains of the castle. Time itself rusted the old thing and it cracked, letting HK's disheveled soul slip free.

- my S/I is an amateur ecologist, with interest in geology and paleontology and history. (So just me. Straight up me. I can't even pretend here) Once she figures out she's effectively haunted, HK's presence is akin to a field day.

- will she attempt to resurrect him properly? Eh who knows. Maybe. I'm a real fucking sucker for ghosts, esp partial possession or soul bonds.

- magic exists still in this setting, it's just mostly forgotten and thus dismissed. Of course my s/I has latent magic because of course, and I love the idea of HK teaching her as a pseudo bonding activity.

- love just watching HK be bamboozled and overwhelmed by the modern world too. Show this lich a toaster someone-

- very low stakes very chill, just two lonely fools trying to rebuild their 'lives' together. Probably the most weirdly cottage core of my selfships if I'm honest. With more dead things.

So yeah that's pretty much it! Thanks again for the lovely ask, and feel free to tag me in anything lich related 🥰

Hero!reader being close to wild is kinda like how twilight is close to time. But I’m not here to ramble about that in this one, at least not in this post.

But there are a few nicknames that hero!reader would call members of the ghost!chain.

Wild is gramps

They chose violence against him on a personal level

Aka they heard several stories through their grandparents about the hero of the wilds “antics” so to speak

Time is old man

They stuck with the nickname

And calls him time or Sir out of respect

They look up to Time as some sort of leader

Twilight is pawpaw

This is just a personal thing but pawpaw gives that bit of a country vibe that I feel captures him at least as best as it could

When talking to their actual grandparents they refer twi as “pawpaw number two” which the people in the village laugh over and find adorable as a kid

Wars is Captain America

Four’s nickname started out as a joke but he’s known as the “quad father” (absolutely not cause mush is head empty full of memes) hero!reader knows about the colors/ four sword and calls each one by their respective names

Wind would still be called wind/ windy or just be called squirt

Windy started out as a nickname and once hero!reader grew taller they called him squirt

Wind absolutely hates being called squirt so he messes with em through,,,,small pranks around the house

Sky is known as pops, cause he just gives the vibe

Occasionally little hero!reader dubbed him “sir sleeps a lot” but grew out of it as they got older

“Sir sleeps a lot” is still used but only in a joking manner

Legend is known by Vet or bunny

5yr old hero!reader found out through twi that he was the fluffy rabbit and the nickname stuck ever since

Hero!reader inevitably finds out about ravio and stops calling Legend bunny once they hear a description of him

Legend still gets called bunny but only if hero!reader is tired and groggy enough to not register the nickname

Hyrule is known as fairy or fae

Fairy hyrule was the best thing that hero!reader ever saw and proceeded to go nuts calling him “fairy man”

“Fairy man”!eventually went to “fairy” which just devolved into fae

Hero!reader only calls him by these unless they’re actively crying for comfort as to where they’d call him Hyrule or if it’s serious enough “Link”

With all of the chain they’d scream Link to get some form of protection from any lingering evil presence (such as let’s say ganon or a form of malice)

This gets a certain reaction and commits the chain to immediately get back to hero!reader

Idk what else to add so feel free to go nuts and add onto whatever you want to it

-mushroom 🍄

Wars is Captain America- that got me. I'll admit it, I probably laughed louder than I should have. XD

Sky being called pops is so cute. Like he's an old man who sits on the front porch on the rocking chair, just watching the birds fly by.

Wind could also be Pirate or Captain- since at this point he would be older, right? Unless you mean he died young too and then it still a kid in regard to the Chain. :(

Having Wind and Warrior trying to one up each other to be the better captain is funny though.

New Stories!

Hey all! I know I haven't posted or updated anything in forever here, but I wanted to let everyone know that I have been writing and posting.

On AO3. ^^;

The formatting issue between Google, Tumblr and AO3 used to be so annoying that what I would do was write on Tumblr, copy/paste on Google, edit the parts that needed fixing, then copy/paste again on AO3, so I got into the habit of just cutting Tumblr out of the equation.

Then Tumblr got an update that allowed the copy of formatting from the clipboard to its text editor, but I ended up just not posting the new things I was writing on AO3. I have several stories there that have never been put here on Tumblr.

So, I figured I should at least link them. :3

My account there: SirenNightshade

The Guild Codex:

Protecting Humans for the Irritated (A retelling of the entire book series from Zylas's perspective. Eventual naughty stuff.)

Breaking Rules for Professionals (A continuation of the series. Robin and Zylas's problems are far from over. Now they gotta figure out how to keep him hidden for life instead of just for the few months they'd expected their adventure to last. Naughty stuff sprinkled here and there ;) .)

Fanart (Fanart for the series in general, plus some of my specific fics.)

Minis (Mini scenes for the above fics.)

When The Night Comes:

Taming the Wilds (A chronicling of my secondary Hunter, Tara, as she progresses through the story and romances August, her non-binary boss. Eventual explicit sex.)

Perfect Balance (A chronicling of Selina, my main Hunter, going through the story and romancing her two beaus, Ezra and Finn. Told more through the mens' perspectives than hers. Eventual explicit sex, but raunchier cause TWO MENS 8U.)

Polarity (Tara and her partner August talk about August being non-binary. She's very curious. Oneshot.)

Originals:

Monstertober 2022 (unfinished) (Small, original oneshots that, in retrospect, I'm pretty sure I did start posting here... huh.)

Lewd Dungeon Crawling (A half-elf, Adonna, decides to leave her starter-area questing zone of a village to become a true adventurer. Turns out, true adventuring includes a lot of sex with monsters. Naughty story, much monsterfucking.)

Breeders of the Nephelym:

Nephelym Breeder Alex (Alex is a human. The world is filled with furries. She fucks them a lot. VERY naughty and explicit story.)

I hope everyone enjoys these! Note: if you don't know what something is, you can message/ask me about it or google the thing directly. I'll explain, but remember...I tend to ramble. XD;

-Nightshade

My Favorite Perfumes

Ahh, thank you!! Excuse to ramble!

First off @moth-time YES! They are SO much nicer than alcohol, in my opinion. They make some oil perfumes that are still sprays, but I go for the ones that are roll on or just dabbed onto the skin. Sprays have a tendency to stick to clothes and thus last longer and have more projection, over something just on the skin that will evaporate from your body heat.

I shop indie perfumes as it's easier to find oil based ones (and it's usually significantly cheaper!)

Of all the indie perfumes houses I've tried, so far my favorite is Cherry-ka's Trunk on Etsy. They make fragrances inspired by fandoms and horror tropes and the wild west and overall are just really cool. I found them by looking up a fandom thing on etsy and was confused as to why a fragrance showed up. Eventually curiosity got the better of me and I tried some, and have been in love ever since.

I've now sampled 55 of their scents. Of those, I have destashed 17 of them to my roommate, am currently sampling 7, and the rest I liked enough to finish up the sample and some I'll full-size (or have already full-sized). Also worth noting that they're gender-inclusive! All their scents are for people of any gender! (Some indie perfumers tend to label feminine or masculine or unisex perfumes, which is apparently an indicator for people who are into mainstream perfumes to get an idea of a scent profile. But as someone who doesn't have the baseline knowledge of what that means, I feel a little off-put on trying some of those scents.)

My absolute favorite from Cherry-ka's Trunk (and of every fragrance I've ever tried) is Flying which has notes of fir, mint, and florals. This is also the one that taught me about resting oils. When I first got it, it pretty much just smelled like mint to me. I liked it (in fact, I will wear almost anything with mint in it) but it was pretty plain mint. Then as I used up the sample, the other notes became more pronounced. When you first apply it, it's still mostly mint, but the florals add some sweetness to it, and as the scent dries down, there is the astringent woody quality of the fir.

I didn't even notice the change as I used up the sample, but once I finished the sample, I found myself missing it so I bought a full-size. When I finally got it in the mail I was disappointed to sniff it and only get mint. Why did I want to full-size this again? I put it at the back of my perfumes and forgot about it for a month, only to try it again and be like WOW! I LOVE THIS! I waited until I used up my 5ml to purchase another, and I regretted waiting it, because I had to wait another month for it to become as beautiful as it gets. Next time, I'm ordering as soon as my bottle starts running low!

Other ones I've full sized from them are...

Pronounced (metal, green tea, paint, musk ) This smells strongly of metal to begin with! If you do not like the scent of metal, I don't recommend this. The metal fades away into a beautiful musk. I'm addicting to their musk. It's not an overy dirty musk, nor the laundry detergent musk. I don't know what type of musk it is, but I know I'm the most attractive person alive while wearing it. Oddly enough, I've found this is a summer scent for me.

Two Queens (lavender, coffee, musk, aftershave) Honestly, I got this for the coffee note, but don't smell any coffee in this. I do get a very herbal lavender, that reminds my of motel linen (fitting because of the inspiration for this perfume) and it dries down into that amazing musk. This musk is a little brighter(?) than Pronounced but still very good. I huff this scent until my nose wears out.

Conman (chamomile, blueberry, muguet) This blueberry.....I usually find blueberries too tart and sour, but this smells the way I want blueberries to taste. It's sweet, but not sugary. It's nicely supported by the herbiness of the chamomile. Kinda like a dried grass smell. I'm also very tickled by the name of this. I'm unfamiliar with the character it's based on, but I wear this when I want my own conman confidence.

And I will cut my rambles there for now! I'm not sure if this answers the question of what sorts are my favorites, cuz the only real pattern I've noticed in my collection is that I like mint and (some) musks. And I like metal and leather scents for summer. Thanks again for the excuse to ramble!

😊

having a very happy and dumb little moment of kicking my legs around bc ive missed doing this hobby sm asldfjhal and its been nice to actually do it again with a friend now ; v ;

...oh right yeah we're supposed to NOT be shy about talking. my blog i do what i want. and ramble forever.

so um. i've been picking up voice acting again and nick's been indulging me with it lol it's a bonus for me because the way we'd do it is we'd both pick different scenes and we'd go through them together, giving each other delivery lines and etc. it's silly but it's fun for me anyways.

but it was suuuuch a ++++ for me because 1) i got to do my fave hobby again and like. kinda first thing in the morning. it's wild though because i woke up and was like :I i'd rather not do ANYTHING anymore i'm tired. but seeing how i went from :I to ^u^ the moment i started and then eventually losing track of time was .. nice lol and being able to do voicing for certain things i get nervous about voicing and basically trying to overcome things i was hesitant about was such a nice thing !!

2) it was very much an excuse for me to infodump to nick about what i've been getting into lately (yeah we were voicing some of the h.i3 scenes aslkfalkhj). i've been wanting to for a while but i always get so nervous about it being seemingly Dumb or getting so overly excited over something that might seem dumb to someone else.but :) my brain feels like it has been reset now thanks to me verbally infodumping so YIPPEE

sighs. but anyways. i'm in a good mood alksdfah i have to prep to go out of town this weekend, but i reaaaaaaally wanna go finish the h.sr story... i don't think i actually will before i go 😭😭and i was getting kinda sad about that last night but. letting the story boil in my brain for a bit and process is probably better for me anyhows. so i'll try not to rush myself on trying to finish everything. besides i don't interact w the fandom and keep to my own secluded corner of the universe so lol it's not like i'd be risking anything

As a distraction to Sad Thoughts™, yesterday I drew a concept design for Little Helper.

For context it's a shiny Chandelure for a pokemon story I'm crafting as a pick me up. Just scroll on if you aren't interested in me rambling about that and world building lol

Light and dark background for clarity. They're supposed to look like they have little fangs both above and below the lip... Thingy, but it didn't translate well in the end I suppose.

I like the overall design even though I'm not the biggest fan of shiny chandlure's color scheme. Went for 'expensive chandelier your grandmother paid a professional to clean instead of getting a Swiffer'. Don't get me wrong, I see what they were going for, but I think it could have been a bit more interesting. Like silver metal as well as the flame and body color? Idk, it IS better than Lucario's shiny though.

Why the hell they chose yellow I'll never understand. I'll die a hater for that one.

Anyway! I figured it would make sense that a professional breeder, breeding their own pokemon to assist in their business, would go out of their way to 'create' a stunning specimen. A sort of flex. And I liked the idea of stained glass. Might redraw this to lean more into that and maybe play with the colors more. But I wanted a basic design first, which I did! Hopefully it's cohesive before I start playing with the colors lol

Since I don't have such plebian concerns like budget or complicated pixel designs to translate into workable 3D art or whatever, I can just... Make it a Thing™ that Pokemon actually have some damn variety. I mean, we get that every so often in the anime, but it's a notable exception to the norm. And I get why, don't come at me, I promise I'm not bullying the 90s anime for not handcrafting hundreds of subtly unique designs for every instance of a species we ever see.

The point is that I don't have that problem. So if I want minccino to have different fur colors aside from Normal and Shiny, I can do that. Easily. Same with everything else. I doubt I'll go so deep into the weeds it's stuff like, this is a mixed breed Squirtle with lovedisc or magikarp in there. They'll generally still follow Pokemon logic of favoring a specific parent with maybe moves or abilities passed down if they're different species. Common, out in the wild Pokemon will look pretty typical usually. But once you get into domesticated Pokemon, they tend to look notably different. You can always tell if a pokemon was wild caught instead of carefully bred.

Just different color or fur/scale/claw shape. Minor adjustments depending on how bred they are for traits. IV bred pokemon will likely have unique traits that make it easy to spot deliberate breeding. Even if it's not that big of a difference. Like Sneasel having tufted ear... Feather things instead of a smooth leaf shape. Or spots in their fur. Stuff like that.

It seems like a fun detail.

Also decided where Edna, the main OC is from as well as some little details like being really used to having Pokemon groom her from a young age. Her parents have minccinos that are pair bonded and groomed her every morning. So Yolky, and eventually the rest of her team, tend to play with her hair.

Gets a little dangerous with Toxitricity, Danny (short for Cadenza), cause he puts down poison in her hair but she gets a bit immune after a while as well as the rest of the team lol. It was either poison braids or static frizz everywhere. Gotta compromise somehow!

It'll be fun to play around with established designs for a more unique look!