#but I like making concept sketches and developing the idea the most

[layaart]

was asked to see a bit more of my process of making my bookmarks! I don't save much process but I have an ongoing concept document and I can ramble about things for Ages so here's some of that:

This was my very first group of sketches after the initial mushrooms I did (which were planned/lined traditionally). As you can see, some are almost identical to how they ended up, some changed a lot, some didn't go anywhere. the book spines I guess I just started like that and developed them further in the actual final file.

Below is kinda 1.5 I guess (crossed off after I completed them, I just hid that layer on the other images), there's the couple newest dagger ones, purple/yellow fungi (different species at this point, I just wanted those colours), very rough colour blocks for the book spines I already had + new ideas just to see all the colours together..

and then current page:

shifted those vague book shaped blobs here to work on them better. some, like the dragon, I just figured out in the proper file, the rest are clearly pretty worked out at this point already. I'm not sure if I'll do the lichen since I already have a bunch of green ones, and I really want to do a wizard spells kinda vibe I just can NOT figure out a colour palette or what objects to use for it.

I've been prioritising the book spines since they sell way better than the daggers/swords and I think are the most unique, but I do want to make more swords because ultimately i just do what i want........ have almost finished the jungle & dark water ones which is probably where I'll stop for now.

[I also haven't 100% decided on the dark or light version of the snowy book - I will print proofs of both. I like the contrast of the dark one but I think the light one might look better as a physical object]

As far as decision making, I start with ideas/colours I like obviously, but I also think about:

what colour palettes are common on book covers with similar themes (I often think of a few books I like to match them to specifically)

what colours/palettes have I not used yet? I like to have a rainbow of bookmark designs. (you can see in the concepts above I've got a little group of some colours I might use for new ones...)

what genre/niche of book have I not covered much of yet (how I came to do a couple more horror & sci-fi - ish ones)

what other slightly different imagery or design element can I add in to the main theme to make it a bit more interesting? (like: the celestial theme on the cards/coins one; the key on the fantasy map, there's some spiderwebs on the eldritch one #tma)

also all of them (except some of the fungi) are different on the back in some form! either subtly (slightly different flame overlap) or very obviously (different colour or details, broken sword, closed angel eye)

my only 'limits' really are keeping some level of consistency with the different types, ie: fungi designs all have a squared bottom shape; the swords all have a wider background element (often kinda elements or environments?), the daggers have more closeup specific objects as a background; the books are either fantasy or sciencey themed. if I ever choose to do non-book or non-sword/dagger bookmarks I would want to do a set, not just having a random bookmark that's a different kind of weapon or something

Oh, the other relevant thing to the book designs is that I briefly explored if I could get special versions made with gold/silver foil on the spine designs - only sparkly ink was an option, and that wasn't obvious enough to be worth it. But that is what made me end up doing these matching sticker designs - because metallic effects can be done on stickers! Some of these I did after the matching bookmark design, some before.

Also I have speedpaints of some of these on tiktok: bones, crystal dagger, potions, plants part 2, crystals, fire, water, honey, orange fungi, purple roses, a couple daggers, raven, murderbot, sabran, ead. mostly just parts of the process on the rare occasion I remembered to record some.

-----

Also since I'm here? I made graphs of all my bookmark sales at events since late 2023

This doesn't include the sets that I used to sell (5 swords, 6 daggers, 5 book spines), since I don't sell them as sets anymore in person. I keep making new designs and it's annoying to update sets constantly (also, table space)

I didn't include the fandom designs in the rest of this post since I did them kinda separately but here's the sales for those too. obviously I sell them mostly online!

and below is all of the total bookmarks I've ordered (as in the numbers I requested from my manu - not counting the extras they sometimes give me or bgrade/damaged ones, etc). I also of course have a thousand or so in stock that I haven't sold yet

(I've been counting the 3 priory designs in one total here, which is why it's far above the others)

organised by type, then in order from when I made them. obviously some have been around for 4 years so I've had more time to sell more of them, hence the general downward curves

we are approaching 10k. that's a lot of bookmarks. wow thanks!

[vhalesa]

Cool looking Nana for a secret santa trade <3

(initial concept sketch under the cut)

[aus-by-fwoosh]

I'm not sure if I'm ever gonna include them in any way if I ever get around to my AU!Links meet AU, but I wanted to do my take on the CDi duo! (Wall of text with my thought process under the cut)

I haven't played those games myself, but I did watch playthroughs of the remastered versions of Wand of Gamelon and Faces of Evil. And as hilariously cursed those games are (in gameplay, animations, plot, as well as dialogues), the thing that bothers me the most about those games is that if we look at only the plot, the stories had the potential to be really good. And they just. Botched it. (I have also started to look at a playthrough of Zelda's Adventure, since I kinda want this Zelda to be the Heroine of Tolemac too because it would be fun if she could light-heartedly tease Link for having saved him more often than him saving her, but I don't yet know how to incorporate those details.)

Anyway, this is how I would tweak Zelda and Link if I was put in charge to remake those games today with as little as possible change of the things that are there already.

Personality-wise, rather than Link trying to flirt with Zelda every time he gets the chance, they're besties and Link's flirting is actually an in-joke between them where Link is mocking all the nobles trying to woo her. He is not romantically inclined at all (aroace af to put it frankly) and gets really flustered ans awkward when people are flirting with him or touchy when it's somebody he doesn't know well. The reason he was imprisoned in the mirror by that Noble Lady Alma in WoG was because he wouldn't kiss her. And rather than just brushing it off like in canon (which is just really weird and a missed opportunity imo), Zelda's "oh nothing happened" was to sooth a groggy and injured Link while the Lady Alma was escorted to a holding cell. So he has some scars from the mirror breaking and his memories of being trapped are mostly somewhat hazy but there. The scars-from-the-mirror idea was shamelessly stolen from the Koridai from @linked-maze (highly recommend y'all check it out, it's currently on hiatus but it's really good ❤), though my version's scar looks more like broken glass then glass cuts, because I want him to match (and share some trauma) with the Shadow Link (aka Flint) from my AU Four Wild Ones. Other than that he's still a hungry goof-ball who is always up for eating like a like-like and bombing dodongos.

Zelda on the other hand is as helpful to commoners and sassy to enemies as hinted in her cutscenes, and whichever of her many suitors she will eventually select one of her (not vocalized) requirement (other than being kind and competent) is that the suitor must not only be okay with Link being a third wheel, they must actually enjoy it and preferably partake in the shenanigans she and Link will cause. This is also why Ganon had her placed under a sleeping spell when he kidnapped her in FoE: The first thing she did when he took her to Koridai was to cause trouble at his fort and nearly escape.

When it comes to their designs, I wanted them to have some similarities in the silhouette, and also stand out a bit from my normal go-to options, but still contain something from the CDi designs. In Link's case, his canon design is pretty much the same as in the other early canon games, but I felt that poofy sleeves and collar would suit him. I might even make the sleeves even poofier in the future. I did plan on making his hair brown, because it was more brown in some of his cutscenes, but I settled on a darker blond that can look blond or brown depending on the light. It's also kind of a mullet cut, though his cap normally hides that detail.

And as I wanted Zelda's silhouette match Link's a bit rather than being so very 90's in style, her vest got turned into a poofy-sleeved bolero-thingy. I also find crop tops to be very uncomfortable and not quite matching my version of her, so I turned that into a short dress with shorts underneath. I also decided that early on while on her first adventure she grew sick of not only things getting stuck in her hair but also monsters trying to grab it, so she found herself a villager who was willing to cut it for her, so she sports an undercut (kinda like Colin in TP I suppose, but less of a bowl cut). As I was colouring her outfit I realized I accidentally made her clothes kinda the same shape as Purah's outfit in TotK, but that's fine, that outfit is ✨amazing✨ anyway imo lol

Not sure where in the LoZ Universe Timeline I think they fit, but among the CDi games my order of them is Faces of Evil -> Wand of Gamelon -> Zelda's Adventure

[doodledrawsthings]

you. Oh my god, you. (Positive)

listen. Before I had internet access, all I had was 1 hour of allotted browser time, bing image search, and a single dantdm play through of a hat in time that never got finished. I googled fanart and got pretty much nothing, I googled fancomics and got pretty much nothing, but you know what I did end up finding?

your art.

from ages 11-14, my goal in life, in art, was your art. I can’t tell you how much I loved finding random screenshots of your posts, because I was always just so impressed by how clean and consistent your sketches are, how the characters always stay on model, the shape language, how you could somehow sketch a character in like 20 lines when it took me 50 to draw sans in my little spiral notebook— like! Holy shit! For years I have looked up to your art! There’s still a photos folder on my dads old huge-ass 12 inch work iPad labeled “holy crap” and filled with your art. Because it inspired me so much. It’s become an undeniable part of my artstyle, now — I still have fanart I drew way back in the day of Hattie and the rest, I didn’t even know anyone’s names because I couldn’t play the game, but you’re the reason I eventually did play the game. Your coffee shop au and different versions of the prince— one of those ieterations inspired the main character of my novel! Well, novel that I tried to write, I was 13 so it was eh, but I tried!!

I’m submitting this on-anon because I don’t want to out my age on the wide internet (I like my privacy) but. Your art has really meant a lot to me. It’s the reason I played hollow knight, and it’s the reason I kept trying to develop an art style I was happy with. You’re the reason I started scribbling comics in my notebooks. Being 13-14 was pretty much the worst two years of my life, but I had Bing image search and the occasional glimpse of your signature, and I’d be so happy every time I found a new (if crusty) three-times screenshotted jpg. You literally introduced me to the concept of polyamory and nonbinary-ness with the coffee shop au. I had no other access to that in my household, and. Yeah. It meant a lot to me.

Anyway. I’m so glad I’ve finally tracked you down (in the most non-ominous way possible) and I’m so glad you’re still active— Please never stop making art. Your art is incredible, and amazing, and also you never know who’s out there on Bing image search. Thank you for creating for as long as you have. You’re pretty much the reason I’m shooting for an art degree (Wish me luck!) so just…Thank you.

(Also I had no idea you were a professional storyboarder, which is insane because that’s what I want to be when I’m through college. Hey, maybe I’ll end up storyboarding a remake of something you’ve storyboarded! hehehe)

Hi anon!

So right off the bat, I gotta tell you that this message made me start bawling when I woke up and saw it. Like I had a full-on cry session while reading your message and lying in bed for almost an hour. I am crying as I am typing this response, on my phone, still in bed. It’s 11am and i woke up at 9. So I hope it turns out coherent.

The last two years have been. weird. I say that a lot because I wanna say “rough” but that still doesn’t feel quite right. I’m almost hyper-aware that there are so many people that have it worse than me rn, so it feels hard to even acknowledge when I’m going through anything, myself, sometimes- REGARDLESS, it’s been kind of an all-time low for my mental health. There was a point within in the last year where I just HATED drawing. I struggled to bring myself to work, I struggled to bring myself to even draw for fun. It felt like I was posting just to post, trying to keep people aware of my existence and it almost felt physically painful to force myself to sit down and do it, sometimes.

I’m getting better now, I think, but. Yknow.

It’s so easy to get caught up in the “oh I can make money off this,” “oh I can get attention off this,” “oh I can prove myself a functional person in society with this,” of it all. I forget why I actually do this, sometimes, or if I even enjoy it. And then I get messages like yours, about the kid with limited internet access looking for A Hat in Time fan art on Bing image search, and I get taken back to when I was a kid scrolling Google images and deviantart for the same thing.

I don’t mean to like. Foster some kind of parasocial thing with you or any one of my followers. There’s a reason I’m saying all this, I hope it ties up in the end.

We don’t know each other. I’m not some mysterious legendary artist, or whatever. I’m a person who gets burnt out, and jealous, and insecure. I need inspiration to function, just like you, and when I don’t have it, I get art block. But I also really like to draw fictional characters kissing and hanging out. I like coming up with comics and stories and playing out dramatic and funny scenarios in my head like I’m mashing Barbies together. And when other people tell me they enjoy the stuff I put out when I do this, it makes me really, really, really happy.

I think I needed to read your message, probably. With the state of… Everything… Right now, especially recently, I feel like a lot of artists are also struggling with a sense of purpose, pride, and reason as the world makes it harder and harder to even BE an artist, these days. And when I read this message it was like Anton Ego at the end of Ratatouille, I got taken back to when I was a kid looking at my favorite artists and studying their style and striving to be better and better at it over years of my life. Not just because I wanted a job for it or cuz I wanted to be a famous Disney animator or whatever, but because it was fun and I just liked doing it.

Thank you, SO much. I say this in the most genuine and earnest way I possibly can possibly express. I wish you luck on your own path in art and art school. And if you decide that animation industry is your thing, then I wish you the best in that endeavor, as well. I think I will keep making art for a long time.

Peace and love on the planet earth ✌️✌️✌️

[felassan]

Brian J. Audette: "As promised, what follows is an unofficial behind the scenes/director’s commentary thread for the “Isle of the Gods” mission in Dragon Age: The Veilguard for Dragon Age Day. Some Veilguard spoilers will follow, so Beware." [source thread]

Rest of post is under a cut due to spoilers and length.

Brian J. Audette: "First off, who am I? I'm Brian Audette. I was the level designer on Isle of the Gods and the level design lead for the critical path (and other scattered missions) on Veilguard for the last 3.5 years or so. While some levels changed hands between people over time, Isle of the Gods was mine from the beginning. And speaking of the beginning, what a great place to start. Usually when a level designer starts work on a crit path mission, the main dialogue and narrative is already written. In this case the writer was Bioware veteran Sylvia Feketekuty whose fingerprints are all over the game, but who you can primarily thank for Emmrich. While this initial narrative work gives us a general idea of what the mission needs to be, the gameplay is only a suggestion at this point. As the level designer, the first thing I do is flesh out the gameplay implied by the narrative and then design the steps that will connect those moments. This is all done “on paper” in a concept doc. I’m a very visual thinker and while not a requirement of this process, I used a free online fantasy map making tool to mock up a sketch of what I thought the level could be in order to help me wrap my head around it."

"Once that’s reviewed and approved, the more physical work on level design begins: blockout. Essentially this is where the level designer uses simple geometry to craft a skeletal version of the level in order to test gameplay, pacing, flow, etc. In the case of Isle of the Gods, the initial blockout and the final version of the level look very different, but the major beats, how they connect, and even most of the pacing and timing is the same. The major difference is that originally the island was more condensed, with a moat-like river around a central rise, but when level art initially started working on it, they “unraveled” it into a crescent shape that ultimately proved much better both visually and for the gameplay."

"One thing that barely changed from blockout to the final level, was the very start of the mission, but especially this rocky arch. I added it early in blockout in order to sell the idea that we were landing on a rocky, secluded cove."

"The initial beach area changed several times during development. It started big, got smaller, and got bigger again for various reasons. At one point there was some light deep stalker combat here, but the pacing felt better without it in the end. Another thing that barely changed from the original blockout was the gods’ ritual site and how it’s seen in the distance. My initial inspiration for how this should look was the Castlevania games, where Dracula’s lair is always at the pinnacle of the castle and juts precariously out into the air."

"Unraveling the level to be more of a crescent allowed both for more views of the ritual site as we climb and an earlier view of the Antaam presence across the inner bay than what was originally intended. I think this helped better sell the bigger combat that follows the first small encounter. I cannot claim full credit for the mortars combat beat. At one point we had a group focused on interesting combat moments and this was their idea, that I ultimately refined as what’s in game now. I think it’s more fun than just fighting a bunch more enemies alone."

"As we approach the entrance to the gods’ stronghold from the beaches, we get this moment where we see explosions in the distance as evidence of the rest of the team's (those not with Rook) efforts to distract the Antaam. This was another view helped greatly by art’s unraveling of the level."

"If you head down to the beach just after seeing the explosions, you can find some goodies and one of our visual Easter eggs … an homage to Planet of the Apes. This was initially setup by the level artist Meggie Rock and I decided to place a chest right where one could get the best view of the statue"

"Incidentally, this makes me want to hear Gareth David-Lloyd deliver the “You maniacs! You blew it up! Damn you! Damn you all to hell” line from Planet of the Apes, but as Solas. The next bit of the level proceeds more or less as it was originally blocked out, though the area with the deep stalkers at the top of the first elevator was an addition that had to be made after level art decided to blow out the traversal in that area to a greater degree than I initially intended. The overlook where you fight some mercenary mages has one of my favorite notes. Sylvia and I wanted to press the idea that a larger Antaam presence here had been drawn away by the explosion at the camp below and It was my idea to have a note from a bored Antaam lookout, counting floating rocks."

"One thing that changed even before I was done with the blockout, was Elgar’nan’s speech as you make your way through the ruins and up to the second elevator. Originally we had wanted his face in the sky like Ghilan’nain at Weisshaupt, but decided to trade it for the Archdemon flyby we used instead. At the top of the zip line just before the Archdemon flyby is one of my favorite views: the gods’ ritual site silhouetted against the eclipse. The initial description of this shot was used almost like a mission statement for this level in the original concept."

"Here’s a fun bit of trivia for you: The second elevator in Isle of the Gods is the longest elevator ride in the game. Also … elevators used to be slower and I’m pretty sure this ride contributed to speeding them up everywhere. The fight while waiting for your companions to open the gate after the second elevator was always intended to be big. Originally I had designed an arena with lots of cover and elevation changes, but when we decided to use a couple Reavers for the fight, things got a lot flatter."

"This waterfall area after leaving the gatehouse was never in the original blockout, but it’s something the level’s original artist put in and that we liked so much, we tried to find use for it as a nice side path for loot and a note."

"My original blockout for the area after the gatehouse (now known as the Elven Ruins) was much different. The pacing and the beats were the same, but I envisioned it as taking place at the tops of ruined towers rising high above a caldera or pit below. Ultimately these blighted ruins work better imo. The presence of fade tears and the fact that we call them out several times in the level originally had a larger narrative purpose that we moved away from. Exploding fade tears didn’t actually exist in game until I created them for this mission and they were ultimately elsewhere to good effect. The blight destruction before entering the gods’ inner sanctum was a beat that went through several iterations early on. We knew we wanted to halt the player at a door like we did at the gatehouse, but didn’t want to use the same idea of fighting until the door opens again. At one point I had some over complicated ideas about using fade tears to blow up blight boils, but with level art’s help we settled on something less about combat and more about traversal."

"Now we’re getting close to the end. When you open the door to the gods’ inner sanctum, right before it fades into the cinematic, you can see your companions who have gone ahead, waiting for you in the room. Most will miss it, but I wanted that attention to detail. While the general structure of the final section of the level didn’t change much from the original blockout, the gameplay certainly did. Everything after that last elevator ride in cinematic was overhauled to create an experience that was much more about this looming confrontation with Ghilan’nain. “A master class in blight boils” was how we had originally approached the two sections before the boss fight here and I originally had some really cool and puzzle-like blight destruction utilizing boils that would regrow."

"Ultimately we removed that puzzle aspect however as we wanted a lot of combat and in play testing it, it just felt too busy. We could either have a big puzzle or a big combat, but both was too much, so we decided on combat as it was more in keeping with the pacing of the end of the mission. The fight against Ghilan’nain was a collaboration between myself and several other designers. We knew we didn’t want to attack her directly (that’s Lucanis’ job) and we knew we wanted to strip away your companions at least initially. Once again, we decided to use the blight. If you think this fight is chaotic now, imagine it with blight boils that regrow! Like the previous section, we decided to ditch this idea as it detracted from the rest of the fight. Incidentally, you can beat this fight without killing a single enemy. My best time is somewhere just under 2 minutes. And that brings us to the end of Isle of the Gods. I hope you enjoyed the mission and I hope you enjoyed this look behind the curtain. And remember "Whatever it takes!""

[source thread]

[alnair-jpg]

Olympics AU Info dump!

First, I am blown away by how much love the series is getting, thank you all so much! I do really enjoy all the comments and reactions in the tags. Know that they all delight me and the only reason I don’t reply to everything is because there are so many! But I read them all 💕

General questions:

Can you draw the designs or concepts? Write fanfic in this AU?

Yes of course! I’d love for you to tag me if you post them so I can see

Do they all know each other?

At first, I would say no- with the exception of Nico and Will (they’re developing a whole backstory in my head that I cannot and will not stop.). But they all meet in the Olympic Village after the opening ceremonies and quickly become friends. They all try their best to attend each other’s events. (Someone please tell me how Percabeth becomes a thing. Please. 🙏 )

Why didn’t Percy win gold?

Percy was an Olympic medalist in swimming before moving to diving. After competing in several swimming events and feeling like they were all just small variations of the same thing, he wanted more of a challenge. He chose diving to stay rooted in to the water, but to add a new dimension to his bodily awareness and control.

What’s Annabeth and Luke’s rivalry?

They most definitely trained together, and it was Luke’s skill that motivated Annabeth to aim for the Olympics. But, she wanted to compete for her home country, Greece, which Luke thought was just a shortcut since there was a clearer path to an Olympic team in a smaller country. Annabeth is constantly trying to prove to him that she would have made it to the top of the sport either way.

Also, apologies to the IRL fencers out there for the inconsistency. I know fencing is a gendered sport, and Annabeth’s gear/style are inconsistent, please forgive the oversight ☺️🫶

Volleyball?

The whole Hunters of Artemis are a volleyball team (that apparently has no country 😅). Thalia ends up the captain. When Reyna moves on from tennis they welcome her with open arms.

Rejected sports

Will as a runner. Canonically, he’s super fast, but just having him as a sprinter didn’t fit with his personality.

Will as a pole vaulter. Specifically the guy that lost because he was ‘blessed a little too much’ and knocked down the bar. I will not explain further.

Will as a gymnast. He was this || close to being a gymnast essentially modeled after Steven Nedoroscik, I had the sketch and everything. (I shared it here!) But when an anyonomous ask clued me into the sick medical team uniforms it all fell into place from there. (Thank you no-longer-anon @helyeahmangocheese !)

Percy in anything equestrian related. I see him not having the patience for all the formality of it all, but he definitely crashes Hazel’s shows and chats up all the competition (the horses.)

Annabeth on a sailing team. Also, related to that, Reyna on a sailing team. It was a fun idea, especially for Reyna and her history with pirates but ultimately it was really hard to capture in a few illustrations.

Nico in several winter sports. For consistency mostly. He could fit for a lot of winter sports - ice skating and snowboarding are my personal favorites.

Leo as a shooter. He would most definitely build his own gear and make tweaks to his weapon. Which would get him immediately disqualified.

Jason in discus. Jason as a basketball player. Golf is just… fitting. 😂

Other Characters I’ve been thinking about

(that may have art in the works… and may not actually be athletes!)

Clarisse

Meg

Grover

Rachel

Lester / Apollo

Mr. D

Chiron

[collapsedsquid]

Now: why would libertarianism be a form of feudalism, of all things? Here I would like to offer an argument of my own, which I came up with reading Jan Narveson’s The Libertarian Idea, a couple years back, which dovetails with Freeman’s argument. He discusses Narveson quite a bit along the way and has thereby gotten me off my butt, to write out these old thoughts. (Pardon me if someone else has already made this argument, or nearly. It seems like the sort of thing that someone has probably already tried on for size. I am not a literature hound on this stuff.) Libertarians – propertarians, anyway – rather notoriously maintain that you really ought to be able to sell yourself into slavery, if you want to. After all, you’re your property. You should be able to dispose of yourself as you see fit. (Some libertarians don’t go so far but many do. Nozick, for example. I think it’s pretty hard to resist this conclusion, in princpled fashion, once you’ve bought the strong self-ownership principle.) Now: suppose we drop, experimentally, just the libertarian ‘self-ownership’ assumption, while keeping the ownership model. Imagine a society in which everyone belongs to their parents, at birth. (Or, if their parents belong to someone, to their parents’ owners.) The libertarian logic of this is clear enough, I trust. (I don’t say all libertarians should be bound by logic to embrace this vision of utopia on the spot, but they ought to recognize libertarianism, minus assumed self-ownership, as a form of the philosophy they advocate, albeit an extreme form.) You didn’t make yourself. You are not the sweat of your brow. Someone else made you. And people are the sort of things that can be owned. So you are a made-by-someone-else thing. And made to be owned. Why shouldn’t you be born owned by whoever went to the trouble (two someones?) It would be kind of fun to sketch a hyper-propertarian society, organized along these lines. It’s not obvious how such a society would work. Obviously it could work (or fail to) in a lot of different ways. It wouldn’t have to turn out radically differently than what we’ve got now. Most parents love their children, so they would free them – officially at birth, or when they turned 18 or whatever. But it could turn out quite differently, if different social patterns developed. You could have your free children and also your slave children, and you might regard them very differently. This utopia doesn’t seem likely to shape up as a more free society than the one we’ve got, by any ordinary stretch of our ordinary notions of freedom. It wouldn’t be terribly surprising if it turned out radically … feudal. Libertarianism, in this extreme form, could turn out to be the road to serfdom. But beyond that, it would be quite feudal in the sense that Freeman actually has in mind, which is not the serf-sense. He means that political power is privately held. And a bit more. I’ll just quote Freeman:

Under feudalism, the elements of political authority are powers that are held personally by individuals, not by enduring political institutions. These powers are held as a matter of private contractual right. Individuals gradually acquire the power to make, apply, and enforce rules by forging a series of private contracts with particular individuals or families. Oaths of fealty or service are sworn in exchange for similar or compensating benefits. Those who exercise political power wield it on behalf of others pursuant to their private contractual relation and only so long as their contract is in force. Since different services are provided to people, there is no notion of a uniform public law that is to be impartially applied to all individuals. (148)

In other words:

Libertarianism resembles feudalism in that it establishes political power in a web of bilateral individual contracts. Consequently, it has no conception of legitimate public political authority nor any place for political society, a “body politic” that political authority represents in a fiduciary capacity. (149)

[bukashki]

While I'm struggling to find time to finish the next part (leave me alone stupid priorities!!!) I thought I'd share some of Mender's concepts -

This is the final one where I decided on the grey, dull, almost monolith figure against colorful background.

But the first sketch I made before I had an idea for the story was simply an attempt at something opposite to chat blanc - creation chaos (make it TOO MUCH make it UGLY just INSULTING to the eye!!! so many colors and textures at once it hurts!! I never finished developing it).

fun contrast to the final version,

yeah, when I started figuring out her story and personality it demanded something mournful - also i kinda really donnnt wanna harass everyone's eyes for eternity.... Plus with the colorful background it never would have worked... And something like that would have been a Nightmare to color a hundred times... And thematically... but I won't over-explain. So I kinda looked into different silhouettes and historical stuff for one second, decided it was boring, went for the knight look and immediately knew that was it. I still think this sketch is one of the best drawings of this costume :')

And here's something that came to mind right after - and you can see what inspired the pose in one of the pages! Fairytale illustrations by Erik Bulatov and Oleg Vassiliev that I've had in my books since early childhood are one of the core inspirations of my life. It's really one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen. Please look them up!!! they're my absolute favorite

bonus: someone's losing patience.. messy sketch from the upcoming part :D i love her stern little face

[gallusrostromegalus]

So how much are you willing to talk about Ulquiorra?

I will talk so much about him. There are so many things wrong with that man, but to make a brief list of his most notable features:

He's dumb as hell.

I say that with tremendous sympathetic affection. Ulquiorra barely thinks. It's easy for him to do nothing and go nowhere. He eats chocolate in the middle of the night in the dark. When he gets access to a garden, he often just stands around in it. He's often waiting for things to happen.

He just LOOKS smart compared to nearly everyone else in the fic because he doesn't have much to say, so he's not constantly opening his mouth to jam his foot down it.

Consequently, Ulquiorra starts off having little to no initiative of his own. Stuff just happens to him. Some of that is because he is colossally depressed, but he's depressed because the idea that he has control over his circumstances has straight up not occured to him.

The first person he meets that shows him that "You can just do whatever you want, forever" and the boundless joy it is to be a creature of free will is, unfortunately, Aizen. And Aizen left off the key corollary "-EVERYONE is allowed to do whatever they want, forever. We are all equal in God's dead, empty eye sockets."

So Ulquiorra wanders around trying out this "doing stuff" thing without any concept of ethics.

I realize I am infantilizing this character, but I am doing so in a twilight zone "hey, wouldn't it be fucked up to watch a fully anatomically functional person who is able to speak and blow stuff up with his mind go through the emotional development steps of a toddler?", because I think that's a fun high-concept premise to explore with him. Yeah, what if a toddler could speak articulately and also destroy you? How would he act? How does he feel, learning to have feelings?

It'd probably suck for him and everyone around him, and make him very easy to manipulate, for one thing.

So I don't think Ulquiorra is evil, because evil takes intent. He is dangerous to be in the general proximity of, though

Like a horse

lose

in a hospital!

I love that sketch as much as the next person but if an IRL horse got loose in a hospital it would be bedlam, but the horse would be mostly confused and probably willing to follow around the first person who looked like they knew what they were doing.

You know, like how Ulquiorra follows Aizen around because that's the first guy he's met who THINKS he knows what he's doing, and is good at convincing others he knows what he's doing!

So Ulquiorra's entire first character arc is being exposed to more and more people and realizing he does have control over his life, and that he can take actions, and that those actions have consequences.

Like being emotionally devastated by a teenage girl because he was an asshole to her and she's willing to scream at him about it.

Hm.

Consequences hurt.

He lives through the Las Noches arc, and decides to follow his own star!

He follows it right through a portal that was not meant for him and now he's sort of trapped in somewhere he's really, really, really, really, REALLY not supposed to be.

But it's a beautiful place

And nobody is forcing him to do anything.

And for a long time, he just stands out in the garden, waiting for something.

But then

Ulquiorra experiences a novel pair of emotions that he's recently learned from his new...

Orihime is too mad at him for him to call her a friend.

-but he did learn the names and therefore the experience of two new emotions from her: boredom, and it's natural remedy: curiosity.

So Ulquiorra's second character arc is him learning how to be himself without anyone telling him who he is and what he ought to be.

He's travelling up Maslow's hierarchy with the inscrutable but unstoppable instinctual drive of a salmon returning to its spawning ground.

This has lead to an important discovery on my part: Ulquiorra is terrific for comedy because he is the ULTIMATE straight man to everyone else's nonsense, because he's immune to nearly all nonsense.

He doesn't have societal taboos to be hung up on, nor any sense of what is "normal", so the sole thing he geta hung up on is a lack of internal consistency in others, meaning he can slip between straight man to the absurdist at the drop of a single scathing observation. Yet, he retains a sort of understated dignity that compels people to try to earn his respect.

Hence, I'm having fun turning him loose on the most absurd, internally inconsistent and frankly, insane batch of characters in the series:

The Royal Guard.

:)

[literaryvein-reblogs]

A 7-Part Book Development Template

Take your story from a vague book idea to an impactful first draft.

PART 1: Concept Development

A great story is built on a great premise.

This exercise is meant to help you develop a strong foundation for your story.

This story follows [name + brief character bio]. Their life changes/story begins when [inciting incident]. This causes [problem]. They wish to [goal] but are held back by [antagonistic forces].

CHARACTER "This story follows [name + brief character bio]"

Brief description of character (occupation, skills, lifestyle, etc.):

Emotional trait or problem:

PLOT "When [inciting incident], this causes [problem]"

Inciting incident:

Problem:

GOAL "They wish to [goal]"

Goal:

ANTAGONIST "Held back by [antagonistic forces]"

Internal antagonist:

External antagonist:

PART 2: The Protagonist

After writing the premise of your story, it’s time to focus on your protagonist.

This exercise will help you sketch out the fundamentals of your main character.

Five (possibly) positive qualities:

Five (possibly) negative qualities:

Personality type:

Aspirations and goals:

Belief system (written as ‘I believe…’ statements):

Significant life events & backstory:

Skills:

Appearance:

Mannerisms, body language, speaking style:

What is their character arc in the story? How do they change and grow?

PART 3: The Cast

Behind every strong protagonist is a strong supporting cast. This exercise will help you flesh out the key relationships in your protagonist’s life.

What important relationships were a part of the protagonist's past?

Who were they?

Their influences on the protagonist?

What happened to the relationship/s?

What important relationships are a part of the protagonist's life now?

Who were they?

Their influences on the protagonist?

What will happen to the relationship/s?

Select at least one and at most 3 important relationships to focus on developing. What are their progressions?

Relationship #1:

Relationship #2:

Relationship #3:

PART 4: The World

An impactful setting should put pressure on the character to grow. This exercise will help you identify how your setting can accomplish this.

Where and when is the story set?

What other settings will we visit in the story? List them here.

What does the main setting look like?

What is the climate and weather like?

Imagery associated with the setting?

What are the people like?

What does a day-to-day for this place look like? Describe it in a few sentences.

What challenges does this setting present? What opportunities?

How long has the protagonist been here? How do they feel about it?

PART 5: The Plot

This exercise helps you define your plot using the popular 3-act structure method.

Identify the 5 key points on the timeline:

Inciting incident:

Plot point #1:

Midpoint:

Plot point #2:

Climax:

PART 6: Form, Style & Voice

If a book’s structure is its walls, its voice and style is the interior design that makes the book truly unique. This is an exercise to help you nail down how this particular book will be told.

DEVELOPING THE BOOK’S FORM

POV:

Tense:

Narrator:

Voice and tone:

Emotional core:

What are the primary emotions in this piece?

Atmosphere and mood?

DEVELOPING YOUR VOICE

Identify 3 books whose style or voice is similar to what you want:

Read a few pages from each and describe what they do specifically:

Write a scene from your character’s voice. How close is it to hitting the mark? What do you wish it did differently?

PART 7: The Writing Plan

This exercise will help you determine the logistics of your writing process, so that you can finish your first draft.

What’s your project timeline?

Set a deadline for finishing your first draft.

To complete your book, how many words do you need to write per:

Week:

Month:

Source ⚜ More: Writing Worksheets & Templates ⚜ 100 Sensory Words Plot ⚜ Character ⚜ Worldbuilding ⚜ 170 Quirks ⚜ 600+ Personality Traits

[ranticore]

selected pages from Shapeshifter Problems, a small exploration of old old concept art & thoughts on shapeshifter tropes (specifically the question of the 'true form') i posted to patreon earlier this year. there's a bunch more haha. here's some OLD art and bg process for writing said the black horse. I don't like my old art but looking back at it I'm really happy how I've developed since, I used to make everything too sharp, straight-sided, or skinny. I had to make a conscious effort to change that and now it's so much better.

image transcriptions under the cut (just the text sorry)

Image 1: "These are more of those older designs - the horns were a deliberate play into devil imagery on Puck's part while giving Félix this form (all to cause more torment of course) but again I couldn't vibe with it. Such clear statements of intent didn't work for me.

The scars remain canon but not quite so stark, more a difference in texture (again, moving away from visual details). His forehead scar is ALWAYS there."

Image 2: "Félix. These are really old - from 2019-2020. They're the first attempts at Félix's horse form. At the time I was leaning into some goat-like attributes. I liked the idea of something that looked like an emaciated amalgam of many familiar creatures but if you look closer, it actually doesn't look like any animal at all. The original body shape and proportions were inspired by moose. I didn't know how to draw convincing horse shapes which is why he had these hands and claws for so long. I still draw the little flower wheel pattern on his sides sometimes... a secret just for me. His belly fur, squared off ear shape, and beard are still defining characteristics"

Image 3: "More old art from 2020. Bottom left is my first ever painting on my iPad using Procreate. I still prefer SAI for creature drawings, or at least the original sketches underpinning a lot of my art. Below on the bottom was my attempt at a scarier form for the character but I ultimately decided that it ran contrary to the atmosphere I was trying to create. Top left is my first 'real' horse painting and it includes the tail shape which has not ever changed, and feathers, which I nixed because I wanted to learn how to draw the feet and legs properly and not rely on covering them up with flowing hair (my favourite thing to draw)"

Image 4: "Like the black horse designs, these humanoid designs for Félix (circa 2019 - OLD art!) started very complex and simplified over time. I decided to avoid visual complexity, but made the mistake of solidifying specific 'rules' for how the Púca servants' bodies work, and I deeply regret this. Because I wrote Said the Black Horse in 2021, I was still operating under the old mindset and that caused it to become somewhat established canon.

In his original iteration his tattoos represented magical contracts between him and various faeries, so they were supposed to be always visible as a reminder of that contract.

<- a really early furry version, I was playing with the eye on the neck as a design feature. Ultimately I feel that although it looks cool, the medium he exists in is proser. So I needed to move away from visually complex designs and towards designs which were interesting to different senses instead."

Image 5: "As time went on the design simplified. I enjoyed making fun textures using procreate brushes. These designs lack his forehead scar but do include his impalement scar. If you've seen my Hanged Man card you'll know how he got that one. But when I made the charts like this about how his body 'worked' in 2020, again I ran into the same issue I always do when writing about faeries... the more I explain it, the most 'logic' and 'science' goes into it, the less it feels like a faery story to me. Overexplaining is anathema to the faeries of Inver. so even though I like these design notes they just don't fit in this setting."

[fandomsfordays21]

My "Ink Sans" AU

So, I've had this idea for a while, but I'm sharing it now due to my mutuals @mrgrimreaper1 and @t3m1 encouraging me, and because they shared their own ocs. (Go check them out Sketch!Sans is pretty cool)

Basically, I was thinking a bit too hard about Ink's backstory, and I started feeling really bad about the others in his universe. This was especially true for his Papyrus, since he was the only other person in _____!tale that showed any form of emotions.

Then I got onto a train of thought about Ink's creator specifically. We know they dropped the idea of Ink's universe when drawing became a chore, leaving the sketches unfinished, but nothing else about them. I got to thinking, what if Ink's creator was to come back? What if they came back and finished I _____!tale after Ink was gone?

That brings us to Sketchtale, also known as the Completed Concept AU for those outside of the UTMV.

For the basics, Sketchtale is the universe that _____!tale was supposed to be, or at least a reworked version of it. The Creator, after a long while, rejoins the Undertale Fandom and decides to revisit their unfinished au from all that time ago. The name "Sketchtale" is meant to reference that it was left as a sketch for a long time.

Sketchtale is a universe based entirely off of art and multiple art forms, each area of the Underground being based off of certain mediums.

Ruins: Sculpture, carvings, engravings, mosaics.

Snowdin: Graphite and colored pencil, crayon, marker, charcoal.

Waterfall: Watercolors, paints of any variety, resin.

Hotland: Glassblowing, pottery, metalworking. (Art done with/using technology is also found here, but it's more common around the CORE and is not the main art medium.)

New Home/The castle: Knitting, sewing, crotchet, quilt and clothes making.

I'll make posts about individual characters later, but Monsters as a whole have some unique qualities that are important to know.

Monsters in Sketchtale have colored SOULs, with each monster having 1 or 2 unique colors. These colors are not Traits, like they are in Humans, and are instead types of Magic. Each color has specific abilities, with having more than one color being both rare and powerful. (Most bosses in the game have dual-colored SOULs.) A monster who has absorbed 7 Human SOULs gains a special, incredibly powerful SOUL type, called a Prism SOUL or God SOUL, that can use all colors at once.

A Monster's Magic will express its color(s) by binding to one or more specific utensils or mediums, which will be used in battle. (Imagine every Monster in Sketchtale as having their own Broomie, or having the specific paint magics.)

I'll have a separate post with diagrams and charts once I draw them, but I hope this post is clear enough to understand. This is just a very basic rundown of the AU, so if anyone has questions or wants specific details about Sketchtale, my askbox is open.

This is kind of a half-baked idea for now, so things are open to change and I will have to finish developing certain details and characters, but I'm willing to keep working if you guys like this idea. I have a lot of cool stuff planned for the Sans (Doodle) and Papyrus (Sketch) of this au and some angst ideas that I'm excited to share, so stay tuned!

[kayatoastkkat]

some toh au sketches!!

okay…I realised I never post anything about my au and I wanted to change that…

most of it is really just concept ideas and "what if"s that I still haven't bothered to develop into proper storylines yet. ah well. maybe some day. I can explain some below the cut

at some point after the oopsy-doopsy arson happened in Bonesborough, Lanyon finds Jekyll's will like in the original story, except this time he gives up after Jekyll's very cagey response to not worry about it and decided to worry about it. Eventually he corners Hyde in the Night Market and challenges him to a witch's duel (how could Hyde refuse?), surprisingly being able to best him and might have even won, if not for Hyde whipping out Jekyll's palisman as a last ditch resort and escapes from a very stunned Lanyon.

there's also a redraw of an older plotline some may remember where I intended Hyde to find out how to suppress and control Jekyll's magic to cause problems (since while Hyde is part of Jekyll's curse in this au, he doesn't drain magic and shares the bile sac while in control) except this time I've also thought about Jekyll pulling the ol' uno reverse on him like in the comic.

purely self-indulgent, but I thought it would be really funny that in this au Jekyll saves the Lodgers by 1v5ing all the coven scouts sent out to capture the wild witches while undercover, flees while they're knocked out and does the same with Jasper.

last point!! Jekyll's Crow palisman was very panicked on the night of the first transformation, even attacking Hyde for a fair bit until he transformed back.

Again, I don't have a concrete storyline or a particular order these are in, for now it's just a huge collection of ideas for me to ponder about in the future when I do want to make a properly fleshed-out story regarding this au.

[amascomet]

Ellloo, first time like asking something on Tumblr lol

But I'm sure you've answered this before and I just can't find it- but are any of your (tmnt) series going to be written up / (web)comic? Because I'd love to learn and read about your AU's!

Also, out of all your designs, who is your favourite? (I can tell you love Leo though so keep him out of this /j(joke) )

Hi!! I’ve got a thread for Gene Spliced on my Twitter.

Here’s the link —> https://x.com/amasc0met/status/1745957057671344325?s=61&t=eg7daRoqH7PJYTlpG3G0JQ

It’s only slightly outdated. Most of the lore is still true! I’ll be making a separate Twitter for it very soon as well. So far Gene Spliced is the only one that I’ll be making into a comic! It’s the one that’s closest to my heart and I’ve been putting a lot of work into it. 🥹♥️ I’ve got the outline for the first issue written so now I’m just sketching out the pages. Putting a samples below! (There’s a two pages between these sequences but I’m omitting cause spoilers lol.) I’ve never made a comic before so it’s also gonna be a learning experience for me. 😭 So happy people enjoy my GS turtles. I truly am.

The Divorce AU is something I’m still developing. It’s just on the back burner. Central idea for them is just Tang Shen is the one who mutated as raised them while Yoshi is the Shredder.

Embrace Legacy literally is just 2003 turtles return and experience IDW canon events. Idk how is to put it. Lawl. You can find more design concept stuff for them here and on my twt under just the #tmnt hashtag, though they’re def easier to find here I’m sure. But again Legacy designs are just rebooted 2k3 and double as my IDW interpretations.

As for my favorite designs- I really adore Legacy Donnie and GS Raph. 💜♥️ I really like how they came out but also the GS turtles all together are just my absolute faves. I love them so much. I’m so happy with all of them.

ALSO MY TENDENCY TO DRAW LEO MAKES ME SICK CAUSE RAPH IS MY FAVE. 😭😭😭 (I love Raph and Leo equally there’s just a lot of evidence against me. ⚰️)

Anyways I know that was a lot but tysm for your interest! I hope this all made sense.

[coolingrosa]

Roseverse more like Rosa’s verse. Am I right guys?

What’s your approach to character design and characterizing versions of a character in your own way? How do you go about that?

So true anon

1. (Designing)

I tend to go by the character’s key traits and what they would be into.

This was the pintrest board I used a year ago to help me deisgn Killer. I combineded a bunch of clothing I knew in my head he’d likely love, then took into the factors of the surrounding context of the story.

These have three points:

Stuff Nightmare would allow him to wear

the need to be ready for combat

Killer’s mental state.

Would Nightmare let him wear anything too cropped? Likely not, so I gave him a bone tight (heh) black shirt. However, Nightmare wouldn’t care about the patches and anarchy stuff since he doesn’t go by “king” in Roseverse unless threatening people. So he’d be fine with Killer flashing that, as well as any other patches. He would also allow him his Emo bracelets.

Killer’s outfit is designed for combat as well. It’s light weight so it’s easier for him to move in.

All the patches and splotches on his clothing comes from breakdowns and him ripping his pants while having meltdowns. He also wears outfits that reflect his personality and mental spiral- which tend to be closed off and edgy.

Once I get all that done, I go and do a couple sketches. I did this with Ink, since his outfit design was making me struggle a lot. I looked at Ink’s Pintrest board to get some ideas, and eventually settled on the guy we have now.

Once we got that and I got a solid idea of the character, off to the final design

2 (Characterzation)

Most of my characters come from concepts and the want to make them distinct enough from their canon counterparts. Ink is much like his original self, but he’s less wild and more subdued, but he still lacks social cues. This is a quick summary of him in one sentence, but it’s a mix of his past, present, and interests. Ink is more subdued due to growing up with Dream, who is very calm. He lacks social cues and misses tones and timing due to his autism. I cant just go in and change a Undertale character however I want. It has to make sense with the context of their situation and history. FTFO Ink is quiet and assertive because he grew up with the Bad Sanses and also was trapped in his empty au with no sounds for so long.

As for how I change every character, I’ll use Cross as an example.

Originally, he was going to be a lot like his canon counterpart. However, I’ve completely re-written him into a younger character with a completely different complex bc I wanted him to stand out from underverse. RvCross is meek and timid, but a product of a war he’s participated in since he was ten, so he’s a lethal killer who gets a thrill from it. He’s 17 and is shel, shocked most of the time, but he’s still very much easily pushed to the edge and cries a lot. It doesn’t make him a baby or weak. He’s TRAUMATIZED. He’s a mentally regressed teenager who has the knowledge and emotional regulation of a young child due to his development being delayed YEARS. He’s smart and cunning and capable, but he’s still horribly traumatized and needs proper watch and treatment.

This…isn’t like Underverse Cross at all. And that was the point. I wanted my characters to be different, and there’s no limitations on how far you can push them. RvCross and Underverse Cross could not be any different, but you’d still look at RV Cross and see traits of canon Cross in him. So I just cater the characters to whatever I want to push them to.

[winterbunz]

Howdy haiiiiiiii im breaking into your inbox via HIGH EXPLOSIVES hope that wall wasn’t load-bearing. for the character asks thing I got (and I’m copy-pasting so you don’t have to go back and forth) these for the wonderful and extremely cute Turmfalke!!!

What was the original thought that led to the creation of this character ?

2. How long was the process before the character reached its final version? (or a version that would be clearly recognizable as the character?)

5. How did you choose their name and why? Was it simply based on vibes or is there any specific meaning behind the name? Are the reasons behind their name different in- and out of universe?

20. Any extra yap on the good doctor?

oh as long as I got you here you are wonderful and amazing and it’s a joy to have you around

Stay frosty!!!

Aw come on that was my favorite wall- HAIII JAY !! Thank you for the ask and making my life so much easier with reposting these, so without further ado, some Turmfalke creation lore coming right up! Wow we are looking at a long one, huh...

1. What was the original thought that led to the creation of this character ?

Like pretty much anyone wanting to make their own Replika model, it started off with trying to think of a niche to fill that would also be interesting for me to develop. What exactly prompted me to make a medic was most likely a combination of my interest/knowledge in the field, a history of enjoying writing caretaker-type characters, and that outside of medical records, we don't actually see a doctor character in the game, Gestalt or otherwise. Alongside this one, I had another idea that I started putting some more thought into and will surely revisit in due time!!

2. How long was the process before the character reached its final version? (or a version that would be clearly recognizable as the character?)

Not very long... like three days. No, I'm not kidding, THREE DAYS from writing down my first idea in the notes app on my way to work to finishing the reference sheet. I got so severely fixated on this concept that I couldn't rest until she was done, hell I could hardly focus during my lectures that weekend because of this. However, she went through some notable changes which I have documented surprisingly well through my crazed ramblings in a friend's DMs.

The "first draft" of Turmfalke, unnamed at the time, was a more specialized surgeon and combat medic model, although the majority of the personality and other characteristics (such as being accompanied by Eules for assistance) remained unchanged. The more I thought about it, the more I pivoted away from specifically a surgeon to a cheaper, more generally-applicable medical model, barely more than a glorified paramedic; this is where the inclusion of very basic bioresonance also started to make much more sense to me, so I leaned further into that!

I also completely disregarded the issue of resurfacing Gestalt memories in the beginning and undermined my own idea of making her a combat medic... so for now her actual neural pattern remains a mystery.

Here's my original sketch of the design (with some color tweaks), and a little attempt at a height chart ft. the humble Eule. Symmetry tool is my friend when it comes to drafts

Fun fact: she started off with red accents until I figured those would make more sense on the combat variant, or a unit deployed at Sierpinski or another more militaristic facility. The blue was going to be a color choice for her specifically, but then I decided to keep it for the facility I'm putting them in.

5. How did you choose their name and why? Was it simply based on vibes or is there any specific meaning behind the name? Are the reasons behind their name different in- and out of universe?

I really wish I was kidding when I say that I COULD NOT SLEEP because I was trying so hard to think of the name, until I had to call it quits and pick it up the next day. My search history has never been more oddly specific than this... average Signalis fan trying to make an OC experience. Bird names and medical professions in German upon ye. I don't even remember what names I went through, but I was really trying to brute force it, tackling either the full name or the acronym first...

And then a handy list of acronym/bird name ideas from the Signalis subreddit appeared in my searches like that one Mercy Overwatch gif and enlightened me. It really made me realize there aren't many bird names in German that have the letter M in them and that's the only thing I knew I needed... until I finally landed on Turmfalke. By the end of my last lecture that day I settled on the full name for the model and my torment was OVER.

As for the specific unit in my main story going by Kestrel, yes, that is just the English name for the bird species. Initially I wanted to give her a more unique nickname, but it has a nice ring to it and very much stuck, so I thought yeah why not. In-universe, it was given to her by a friendly Gestalt staff member... or the Eules? Undecided.

20. Any extra yap on the good doctor?

Do I have extra yap on my favorite child? Of course I do!!

Turmfalke possesses bioresonant abilities, but they are heavily limited and allow her to only read other people's emotional states, not thoughts. The lack of further insight leads to her tendency to overthink interactions with others, particularly more negative ones or when it comes to more important relationships, whatever the criteria for that may be. This may cause some difficulties in communication and creating bonds, but nothing that some patience, sincerity, and kindness cannot help.

The ability to detect and take in other's emotions isn't entirely in their control due to the way bioresonance works, so their own emotional state is fairly easily influenced and easily overwhelmed. This can frequently lead to a sort of emotional feedback loop (although not nearly as intense as in Kolibris) and increased stress... but it can also have a much more desirable effect instead, with positive/less intense emotions at play. No wonder Kestrel is so happy and content when in a room full of Eules :D

Kestrel does like to nap during downtime on her long-ass shifts, so she keeps a pillow in her office. Sometimes she will climb onto the cot meant for the patients to sit on during medical exams and doze off for a bit. It's not very comfortable, though... too bad getting a sofa or something is considered an "unnecessary expense" and the therapy office with the nice seats isn't hers.

And to be a little shameless at the closing part here: she really enjoys praise and being taken care of, and her Eules know that very well.

That will be all for now because this post has gotten. Absurdly long and I really should be going to bed... either way THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THE ASK AND ALL THE KIND WORDS!!! 🫶🫶🫶 I appreciate the support and encouragement to yap about my OCs so so much and I'm happy that you're also enjoying them :D

Signing off now, goodnight! 🐇💤