#i will eventually make another ref sheet for them

[sacrosanction]

[leslietheluna]

✨Team Caliber!!✨ [Finished + rough sketches!] Finally came up with a team name for these three!

[Bonus drawing!] They're all a bunch of silly goofballs

[hexedmaniacs]

I should probably post about my ocs here more but I’ve been having 3 consecutive breakdowns on toyhouse that makes it so I’m too nervous to post about my ocs because what if I change their clothes and/or names AGAIN for a fifth time

[ohnoitstbskyen]

Hi Skyen, hope you're well! I'm seeking some advice and since you used to work doing mainly art commissions I figured asking you was worth a shot.

I'm a furry artist and I'm looking into doing commission work as a side gig while I finish animation college, and hopefully acquire enough experience/clients/notoriety to turn it into a full time job once I graduate.

Do you have any advice for someone literally just starting out with fresh accounts and zero following? Especially when it comes to reaching people and getting your first clients, and anything that one should take into account when working with NSFW specifically. Also advice for pricing your work is always useful 😅

No need to answer obvs but I'd appreciate your viewpoint if you want to share!

Got 2 asks on this exact subject so I'll write up what advice I can. One big caveat: I haven't worked as a commission artist for like half a decade at this point, and this job has a tendency to change fast, do not take anything I say as gospel. This is advice from a limited perspective, be critical of what I say and trust your peers and the people you are in community with before you trust me.

building audience

Step one is getting people to notice the artwork you create. Literally nothing else can happen until you have eyeballs on your work, and the most consistent and reliable way to make that happen is fanart. Ideally you'd want to produce fanart in a fandom you are personally engaged with and passionate about and familiar with, and which also has a sizeable community whose attention can help you build recognition and a base of followers.

This isn't always possible, and there's many a working artist who creates work for fandoms not out of deep personal connection, but because the fandom is large and relevant and a good way to capture the goodwill of algorithms and content feeds.

This approach has some downsides. For one, genuine fans can usually tell when someone's engagement with Their Thing is shallow, and for another it can be deeply creatively exhausting to chase the algorithm. I don't recommend this approach, but it is a valid means of building a business.

Another important consideration, especially when you are early in your career, is that volume tends to trump quality. Every artist will eventually learn that their shitty joke-doodle they sh*t out in ten minutes on a whim will get a billion reposts, and their complex personal work that took eight weeks to finish gets 2 likes from their closest mutuals and a comment from a bot saying "wow!"

In the age of the algorithm, what machines and for you pages value is a consistent, high-volume of output that generates user engagement. You will generally get further, faster, by producing a lot of work than you will producing great work. Again, this can be rough on your mental state, and a fast way to burn the fuck out, so please be careful and mind your health before all else.

The best way to build something that will last is to build your audience in communities and around fandoms and themes and ideas you genuinely care about and enjoy exploring and interacting with. Being your authentic self and creating work from your authentic interest is generally both healthier and long-term better for your career than trend-chasing. Treat trend-chasing and volume > quality output as tools in your toolbox, as creative and business decisions you can make to achieve a specific purpose, never ever EVER let them become the center of your praxis or your philosophy. Never ever EVER allow the Numbers™ to be your source of validation and accomplishment.

building business

Ok, so you've got eyes on your work. You've got some followers. How the hell do you get them to commission you?

Well, again, by demonstrating a capacity to create kinds of art for which there is demand. In the furry community, there's brisk trade in things like ref sheets and character design, for example. For most fandoms, ship art is a product which tends to be in demand. Being able to do really good expression sheets is a marketable skill. Being able to create compelling and clear emotes for streamers and creators is a marketable skill.

Showing the capacity to work in a wide range of styles is valuable. Showing the capacity to work in a wide range of genres is valuable. If you can do both comedy and romance your appeal expands. If you can do shonen-like action and angst as well, it expands again.

Equally, being incredibly good at a specific niche is valuable as well. Focusing hard on an under-served niche of work can give you a lot of opportunities to be the Go To person for that specific kind of thing.

Perhaps the hardest part of all of this is marketing yourself. Not only showing that you have the skills, but actively informing your audience that you are available, eager and willing to practise your skill for a fee. You have to sell yourself. It sucks, but you have to do it. You have to advertise what you can do, and you have to suffer the rejection and annoyance that comes along with doing that.

You have to ask people to commission you. You have to raise your hand and demand attention. It's not fun, but it's business.

Walking the line between self-promotion and being a person is hard. I can't help you that much with it, it's a very personal balance to find. Stay in touch with your soul, but kill the part that cringes at yourself.

Ultimately, you best marketing asset is your portfolio. Every time you do work, show it off. Repost it, retweet it, spread it around. If someone is happy with what you've made for them, do your best to make sure that other people see that happiness. Ask your clients (politely) to tag you when they share your work.

Oh, and for the love of god, sign everything you create, slap watermarks on anything that's likely to get reposted, and make it impossible for someone not to find your business email on your profile.

building network

If you're a commission artist, you are in community with other commission artists. You share interests, you share experiences, you share needs.

Practise solidarity. Absolutely seek out professional peers to help your business, but equally seek out opportunities to help them with theirs. If someone comes to you for art and you don't have commission slots open, point them at a colleague who you know can do the work too. Gas up your peers and spread their work.

Be a symbiote, not a parasite. Respect the craft of your peers, and don't chase celebrities and big names in the hope of coasting on their coattails. It will fail.

smut

If you're a working artist, at some point you have to reckon with smut and r34.

These genres are excellent sources of income, and fertile ground to build a business and network of customers. BUT. Do not ever make the mistake of thinking that they are "the easy way" or a shortcut. Do not ever make the mistake of thinking you can simply offer to draw tiddies and rake in the cash.

It's work and graft same as literally any other form of labor, it's challenging on both a technical and creative level, and the audience can sense if you're looking down on them. If you approach this from a position of shame, of "eugh, I'm debasing myself by doing this for rent money," it will not work, and you will lose standing and respect in the eyes of every peer whose support you need to succeed.

Just as in all other forms of creativity, if you treat the audience as morons who will slurp up whatever slop you serve them, then you will attract clientele that agrees with you, and you will deserve the misery they will inflict upon you.

If you are going to work in smut, establish your boundaries and enforce them. Know that good clients will feel safer and more comfortable with an artist who clearly states their red lines and earnest interests than they will with someone who tries to attract more clients by pretending to be open to work that they are actually uncomfortable with.

Never, ever, EVER let a client push you to create work you are not comfortable creating. It scars your soul in both the short and long term.

Also, when working with this kind of content, know the rules of payment processors and know how to hide the nature of your business from them. PayPal should never, EVER know the details of the content you sell with their service. Frankly, neither should your bank, most likely.

Look to your peers for advice and best practises about this. And be meticulous about your bookkeeping.

money

I want to tell you to charge at least minimum wage for your time. I want to tell you to charge substantially more than that, because your labor is specialized and highly skilled.

But the economic reality of commission work is that there is a crushing downwards pressure on the labor price of art, which has only been made more devastating by the rise of generative AI, and especially when you are a young artist just starting out, you're going to find yourself in a position where charging even minimum wage for your time will turn away a huge proportion of your potential customers.

Again, your portfolio will be the greatest argument for the value of your work, but you have to build that portfolio first, and very often that means doing a f*kton of work for not remotely enough pay until the pressure of demand finally works in your favor.

I don't condone or justify this state of affairs. It is horrid and I hate it, but I don't know how to fix it either.

Making a living from content creation of any kind requires you to get lucky, on top of working obscene hours and foregoing rest and vacations. It's not a safe or sensible plan for a career or paying your bills.

My sensible advice is to get a "normal" job you can survive doing, and do your creative work on the side, and resign yourself to the possibility that the creative work may never actually pay your bills.

And that is soul-crushing, but I cannot stomach pretending that hard work and gumption will guarantee anyone a decent living if they just try hard enough.

There are people who are better at every aspect of my work than I am, and they struggle harder and work for longer, and they will never see half the success I have, because I happened to get lucky, and they happened not to. It's wretched.

I'm not telling you not to chase your dreams. I'm telling you to do it with your eyes open, and with compassion for yourself first before all else.

All of this to say: I can't tell you what to charge for your work. It depends on everything from your competition to your niche to your genre to your community to your economic situation. You have to figure it out on your own.

All I can tell you is never forget that your work is worth more than the market will let you charge, and to raise your prices as soon and as much as you can. Try to reach at least minimum wage for your time as fast as possible.

in conclusion

Again, I haven't been a commission artist full time for a long time, please do not take any of this as gospel. Listen to your peers before you listen to me.

But trust me about the solidarity. It will save you when all else fails.

[makeyoumine69]

Being Bateman’s Soulmate | HEADCANON

Pairing: Patrick Bateman x gn!Reader; CW: Romance & Angst; Links: [MASTERLIST]; Song Rec: The Cure — Lovesong; A/N: This is dedicated to everyone who is madly in love with their fictional crush! 💗 If you find any mistakes regarding gn!reader, please let me know!

— “Soulmate? What the fuck does that word even mean?” Bateman would say the first time you mentioned it. His reaction would amuse you at first, although you knew that Patrick would understand its meaning in time, and that feeling when you could touch another person's soul as if it were material. The feeling of wanting to scream because you were so in love that you couldn't even believe it was possible to have such feelings. All of this would eventually overwhelm him, and then he'd never want it to end.

— "You think I have a soul, huh?" He would smile whenever you had sentimental conversations, and even though Bateman kept repeating that he didn't like them, you would sometimes see him sitting alone, thinking about his life before he met you. Did you make his life better? Well, was it even possible to judge such things? Since nothing in this world could be black or white, it was always gray.  But with you, his life was painted in new colors.

— “I remember you telling me that your favorite color was red.” Red like the blood that spilled on his perfect sheets whenever he treated you too rough, but you never asked him to stop. Sometimes those little scarlet spots on the white sheets could look like petals from the red roses Bateman used to give you, even though he knew how clichéd that was. "Why didn't you tell me to stop?" The man would ask, tracing his long finger over the red marks on your hip.  Sighing, you would roll onto your stomach and give him your most devoted look. "Because I like it," and that was all he needed to hear from you. "I'd tell you if I didn't." Having said that, you would sit up to find his lips and kiss him, slowly but eagerly, transmitting all the love and emotion you had for him through that kiss.

— "If you say you love me, why does it hurt so much?" He would ask you this question over and over again after he had a breakdown because he was so overwhelmed by everything you were giving him: your care, your affection, your understanding, and your support. Eventually, it all became too much for him, and when Patrick realized that he was probably in love with you, a sharp pain coursed through the very small pitch of his body like an electric impulse. He loved you so much it hurt.

— One night, you were sitting in the living room in Bateman’s slick apartment and watching some classic romantic comedy from the 1930s, the scenes from it made you think about something you never expected you would. "Patrick, have you ever thought about death?" You asked suddenly, holding his hand and noticing how tense he became. "I mean... I'm afraid of death because I don't want to be without you, if that makes any sense." At first, Patrick just laughed and gently moved closer to you, hugging your shoulders possessively. "Can you promise me that... if there is an afterlife, you will find me there?" Nearly sobbing, you looked into his dark, brown eyes, at the way his eyebrows furrowed as the man considered his answer. "And we will be together even after death?" Your voice cracked at the weight of your words, never before had you dared to speak of such things.

— The question of death, an abstract yet intimately familiar topic, drew a thoughtful arch to his brow. Death was not a stranger to him, nor was it an adversary he feared-not in the way that the average person might. "Death," Patrick began, his voice tinged with a cold amusement that belied the gravity of the subject. "It's the only certainty in life, isn't it? A final transaction, one we all must make." His arm tightened around you, a gesture that feigned warmth but held an undercurrent of something sharper. Bateman met your gaze, the hazel of his eyes unreadable yet intense, reflecting the black-and-white dance of images on the screen. "If there is an afterlife," he continued, weighing each word like a coin on a scale, "I'll find you. But let's not be so morose, darling." The man leaned in, his lips brushing your ear, his breath a whisper that carried the scent of the red wine you had shared earlier. "Life is for the living, and I intend to savor every moment I have with you. Making promises about the afterlife is... morbidly romantic, but unnecessary. I have you now, and you have me. Isn't that enough?"

— And that was even more than enough.

P.S. Thank you for reading until the end! I don’t have a taglist. You can follow my side blog @makeyoumineagain and turn on notifications to know when I update!

[valictini]

@askoverkill Overkill au is kinda living rent free in my brain right now and my need to theorise is getting unmanageable hfjdj here's something I've been wanting to talk about, regarding the blacked out words on the Director's ref sheet

This is what I could decipher:

The first square I won't talk much about. We now know for sure that the Director is ISAT Siffrin and I'm not confident in my guess for the missing word. So not much can be really gleaned from it, since idk if I'm right.

NOW THE SECOND ONE: I am 100% sure those are the words!

"Powered by [...] dead Siffrins" You say...

Of course, the missing bit in the middle could give us more precise info on what exactly dead Siffrins provide that get the Director going (my bet is their body, with how many cannibalism allusions the Director's made) but yeah! This implies that dead Siffrins are the Director's fuel, in one way or another!

The Director HAS been calling Siffrin the meat for the meat grinder after all. Does this mean we can stop the meat grinder by simply not putting meat in it?

Is everyone around Siffrin right? Should they just stay behind and make sure they dont die near the Director? Is it that simple? Knowing that ISAT and SASASAP could have ended the loops by just talking with the party, I think it is possible.

What makes me doubt it a bit is that Loop gave this option immediately, kind of giving the vibe that they told that to other Siffrins before, and I want to believe that at least one of them (aside from ISAT ofc) already took up on their offer, and the loops didn't end... but for all we know, literally no one else did that ever again. Exactly like when Loop suggested to ISAT Sif to just talk to the others at the very beginning (the actual answer to all his problems) and Sif went nah and never thought about that option ever again.

What im saying is that we are not safe from another catastrophically self sacrificing Siffrin doing everything but the one thing that would save them (affectionate)

But even if it's the answer, and Dawn actually stayed behind for a loop, Dusk probably will always go into the labyrinth and get killed... so does that mean that he's providing a dead Siffrin, thus giving strength to the Director regardless? So many questions...

I have Other Thoughts, regarding Loop, Dusk, Lupus and the role of past Siffrins... But for now, I wanted to share that partial deciphering. Maybe I'll find the strength to work on the evil wordle that is the blacked out text under the Director eventually...

[towncritte]

Red Destiny AU Lore Dump

I'm deciding to compile all the lore dumps I did so far on Twitter, into this post.

Stuff is subjected to change in the future, but this post is just to help you guys get bits of the story.

It's still a work in progress AU, and nothing is entirely set in stone but regardless, I do hope this helps.

Here's Dogday's reference sheet and info:

Here is a quick summary of what's going on in this Dimension: The Smiling Critters live in another dimension, which the portal was located in a Toy Factory. The humans entered and started ruling over the place, along with ruling several different towns to have control over the creatures within said dimension.

The story for now mostly focuses on Smiling Valley where the Smiling Critters live.

Due to the humans mostly seeing the Smiling Valley citizens as if they are Zoo Animals or an attraction of sorts, the small town finds it difficult to have supplies and have a tendency to get a shortage.

Most humans visiting aren't aware of the abuse going on done by Scientists that want to study the Critter Citizens as if they are Lab Rats, or the abuse of Soldiers/Guards hungry for a power trip.

That's the summary of the condition of the town so far.

For the most part the story for now will be pretty focused on Dogday and his perspective, as well as the other critters.

Catnap's whereabouts and what he is doing will be a mystery.

I want this AU to feel like an ominous mystery of what's going on.

Here's more lore drop of the pooch:

Declawing Trauma:

Dogday was declawed. Bubba, during Dogday receiving therapy, tried to get as much supplies and knowledge as he can to fix Dogday's hands/paws.

During those 3 years, Dogday couldn't hold things due to how bad the condition of his hands were.

Dogday had to constantly wear bandages and deal with pain for the past 3 years, making his mental recovery difficult, and feeling like a burden to his friends for helping him.

Catnap CONSTANTLY had to reassure Dogday nothing was his fault and would constantly comfort him.

Dogday, despite everything, held onto hope Bubba would restore his claws.

Bubba had to eventually settle for reshaping Dogday's hands to paws so Dogday wouldn't feel so much pain anymore. (He had to use extra bones from Dogday's hands to do this.)

Dogday was depressed about this but overtime did manage to get through therapy without being in so much pain anymore and had to learn to hold things with his newly reshaped paws. (Tho he still has some trauma)

Catnap held a HEAVY grudge against the scientists that hurt Dogday.

These traumatizing events will show how it's affected Day as the story goes.

Dogday does know about The Prototype and what Catnap's been doing. Not fully aware, the Moon is in a cult of sorts hidden outside of town.

Catnap at one point, gave Dogday hope about his claws before he left Smiling Valley as he was called upon by The Prototype:

Catnap wasn't being malicious when he showed them off, he just wanted to give Dogday a reason to support his beliefs. Catnap wasn't declawed, but he was given much deadlier claws.

Speaking of Catnap, here's his beta ref sheet:

In the future, I'll make him a colored reference sheet once I have this AU organized.

Dogday's eyes:

When Day's eyes would be fading back to white, Mini Moon immediately tells Day to go home and sleep. He then administers the red smoke again.

GORE WARNING!

Dogday developing violent tendencies:

At some point, Dogday starts to develop violent urges due to the Plush's manipulation and mind warping.

(Since I DO NOT plan to rip off Dogday's legs EVER! I'm going with this route as a nod to what happened in the game, but its in reverse)

This is so far the lore dump of the AU. I'll look back at this in the future as I continue the story to see how I can tie things together, or what to change or what I like or don't like.

If you don't understand this, it's okay.

Again, this is just a lore dump post to understand the AU so far in it's Work In Progress stage.

And to help me read over stuff and see what I can do with it.

Again, stuff is subjected to change, including designs. So nothing is entirely permanent.

I made the Plush Delivery comic back on Twitter originally as a one off in it's old version. But over time, I liked the concept so much I started forming it into a story and redid Plush Delivery.

I do hope you'll enjoy wherever Red Destiny's story will go.

Who knows what lies ahead for the red path the pooch is following.

" A red destiny awaits you Sunshine….are you ready?" -Catnap

Thank goodness, I'm done writing this all down. xnx

[captain-astors]

Finished my reference sheets for @tokyoghoulartfight2024 at long last! (Note: I removed Aoki’s gold earring because it looked weird)

Individual profiles

Shizuya Kei: Quinx, Blood Type AB+, 5'10. 28.

A solo-operating First-class investigator who underwent the Quinx surgery with a Bikaku kagune from an ghoul known as Kelpie. Prior to meeting Aoki he was almost completely apathetic, but as the two have collaborated, Aoki's requests have rejuvenated a desire for life in him. Also, his vision is awful. He sees blurs of color at best.

Aoki: Ghoul, Blood Type A-, 5'3. 24.

The infamous S~ rank Kakuja, codenamed "Kelpie", currently imprisoned in Cochlea; the grey oversized clothing is his prison attire. However, as opposed to being forced there, Aoki is there by choice, comfortably living in safety from his fellow ghouls as he directs Shizuya to eliminate various ghouls and gives him the advice needed to do so. (Note: I accidentally switched his earrings around for the Kakuja form, the base ref has them right) DO:

Draw them in ships, they have a weird gay thing going on with each other but they can absolutely be weird with another person, just know they're a package deal. If one of them is dating a character the other one either will be too or will be third wheeling.

Draw them interacting with canon characters/your OCs

Change their outfits/hair/whatever as long as they're them, Aoki's markings are just little patterns he he's taught himself to make on his skin with RC cells out of boredom in Cochlea so they can take just about any shape.

Blood/gore/angst

Ask me any additional questions about them!

DO NOT:

Draw NSFW of them

lighten Aoki's skin (lighting and stuff affects it of course but he's not pale)

Mutual Story (under the cut for length but I strongly encourage anyone interested to read it!)

Shizuya grew up in an entirely unremarkable lower-middle-class family with even less remarkable grades; he was never really expected to go far by anyone, so when he was accepted into the CCG training school he believed it might finally be his time. In reality he just had an aptitude for fighting, and by looking at his records V determined that if he were to die in action his body would not be highly sought after and therefore make suitable food for the garden.

Though he doesn't know the latter, he managed to figure out the prior by the time he graduated, but continued as a rank 3 investigator on the principle that he simply didn't have anywhere else to go. Despite being a talented fighter, he was so severely dispassionate and depressed that he never rose through the ranks and amassed scars from simply being careless in fights. The only thing that really interested him was joining his coworkers at bars and such after their shift, but Shizuya didn't know how to start up a conversation and mostly just ended up listening silently as they chattered and feeling emptier than before.

Aoki, meanwhile, grew up on the streets with a burning resentment towards just about everyone. Despite being claimed as part of a "pack" of ghouls, they abandoned him and his mother when they were cornered by Investigators, and his mom, who had been sharing her food with Aoki, didn't have the strength to outrun them. Instead she hid him as best she could in an alleyway, covering him in tattered blankets as she was cornered. Aoki watched, horrified and powerless to help as they killed her and called ghouls heartless beasts.

Aoki has never been able to forgive the ghouls that abandoned him, nor himself for not trying to help her, even if at such a young age couldn't have done a thing regardless, so he channeled his self-loathing into external hatred of his own species. He almost strictly consumed ghouls, eventually developing his Kakuja.

The "Kelpie" name is more fitting than just aesthetics, as one of his main strategies was to use his day job as a dancer to lure fellow ghouls to his home under the guise of kinship, just to devour them. However, this worked progressively less as he developed a reputation among ghouls and the CCG alike, and counterattacks became increasingly threatening in spite of his strength.

Their meeting was little more than coincidence. Shizuya was assigned to dispatch some ghouls that had been causing trouble in the 10th district, and Aoki happened to be attacking the same group. Shizuya got to them first, while Aoki watched from a distance, undetected. Aoki was overcome with an idea as he saw Shizuya dispatch these ghouls without a single spark of the hatred that he'd seen in the investigators that killed his mother, just melancholy.

Aoki attacked Shizuya, fully covered in his Kakuja. Aoki slashed his face, and Shizuya realized rather starkly that this wasn't like his other fights, where he was injured out of a lack of caring; Aoki was fully capable of overpowering him. However, as the two fought, Aoki managed to pin him to the ground and have a conversation with the Investigator. Shizuya admitted he felt aimless, and Aoki promised to give him purpose if he guaranteed the latter's safety. Shizuya, who, as predicted had no real allegiance to humanity or morals and just wanted to feel wanted, agreed. Their "fight" then proceeded, and Shizuya, under Aoki's direction, gouged one of his Kakuhou out of his back.

The first Kakuhou he took from Aoki was turned into his harpoon-like quinque, and shortly thereafter when the primary Kakuhou had heald, it was extracted and placed within Shizuya. The concept was to leave the ghoul alive and regularly transfer RC cells from the original host so that the Kagune would acclimate and be controlled with much more ease and less risk; and all the while Shizuya was supposedly torturing Aoki for intel and compliance.

However, this was really anything but the case. Aoki allowed this all for the technical protection of Cochlea, specifically entrusting Shizuya with his Kagune. With the publicity disaster with Shiki Kijima shortly before Aoki was taken into custody, Shizuya managed to arrange for all monitoring of the room to be shut down while he was "interrogating" Aoki, so that the public would never get the chance to form empathy for a mistreated ghoul. In reality though, Shizuya merely uses this time to deepen his relationship with Aoki, and seek his direction in which ghouls must be killed, and which investigators might be lost along the way. Their path is one of mutually assured destruction.

Though before Shizuya had no particular love for anything, now, as long as he's killing under Aoki's request, he does so with a deeply unnerving bloodlust, but it is nonetheless a passion.

Aoki is a surprisingly capable emotional support, (he just willfully ignores his own problems), and tenderly caring for Shizuya's wellbeing has actually done wonders for the deeply hateful worldview he's surrounded himself ever since the death of his mother.

They're anchored by each other, and their time together in Aoki's cell is usually just embracing and consoling each other in a weirdly tender way as Shizuya tells Aoki about anyone he's killed for him, and Aoki advises Shizuya about using his Kagune or who to hunt.

Shizuya keeps Aoki safe, Aoki keeps Shizuya sane.

Also they kiss, I'm not really sure where to mention that, there's not an exact label on their relationship it's just desperate attachment and fondness, "dating" doesn't exactly cover it.

Other facts:

Their rings are a sign of promise to eachother, Shizuya usually hides his under a glove but he deeply enjoys wearing it visibly when he can.

Shizuya regularly delivers meat to Aoki, so that if needed Aoki can always break out. It's not foolproof but it's better than nothing. He also makes sure Aoki's administered RC suppressant dosage is way too low.

Aoki doesn't technically have a last name but between them he is Aoki Shizuya, Shizuya said something about "sharing his" and it stuck.

[giantchasm]

Faces of Floralia

So... uh, a while back (almost a year ago now— I think I'm going to be sick), I wrote a fic called Cicada Days. It was a cool little story getting into my headcanons about Joronia and Taranza's shared childhood, as well as Floralia as a whole.

In it, I introduced a few characters relevant to my Kirbyverse: the heirs to other Insectoid families who competed with Joronia for the throne, and later went on to become victims of her bodysnatching.

Ever since, I've wanted to design those characters! And... well, I finally got around to it! About damn time, don't you think?

But while I was making little ref sheets for the characters who are relevant to Floralia in my Kirbyverse...

I may have gotten a little carried away and did one or two extra.

First up, of course, being the young 'prince' and his future retainer. But that's not all!

I also made one for Persephone, one of the characters I alluded to in one of my Kirbtober drawings. She's an angry, heartbroken little Sectra seeking vengeance, and in one of my WIP fics she stabs Taranza in the gut <3

Then, finally, uh...-

Fun fact: in my Kirbyverse, all of Sectonia's victims were conscious the entire time after she assimilated them, unable to move or speak, but fully aware. This is an experience that I can only imagine would sort of... break a person's brain.

So, yeah! Sectonia's victims probably aren't doing too hot, even freed of their horrific fate and now resting 'peacefully' in Hades. Poor Perconta here is a little showcase of that.

Eventually I'd like to maybe do another one of these with more characters. But for now... these are some of the most noteworthy bugs! Enjoy!

[sanctus-ingenium]

I'd looove to hear a little about your worldbuilding process if you don't mind sharing. How do you go about it? I know you have shared in a few posts already but just wanna know moree. Also where did it all begin? What inspired you? (eating it all uppp!!!)

hi!! I know I wrote a big long thing like last year or the year before about the process to making a setting but I cannot be arsed to find it rn so here's some disconnected thoughts

Overall I don't really make Headworlds or Worldbuilding Projects the way a lot of people do (which is why u keep hearing me say 'setting' over and over) because mainly what I make are stories in the order of characters -> plot -> world. those three things have to serve one another in that order of importance, so the world itself bends to serve the narrative. for example, ultimately idgaf where the holy beasts' skeletons come from, that is not important because the beasts are basically just a big plot device to serve the story. i can make some post-hoc justifications for their existence (and i did) but at the end of the day it will not and does not matter how they work or where they come from. the world is full of mysteries that will never be solved because the characters are not in a position to solve them. aside from a single border conflict, the world outside the mezian empire is nebulous and unimportant.

I don't enjoy working in a world -> narrative order because what I want to produce isn't just a series of info posts or artpieces about a setting, but a closed and self-contained story which is the justification for the entire world's existence. Headworlds that are all world and no character don't interest me.

So basically in the process of worldbuilding, I have to serve the story. A while back I made a post about continental history around Inver, all these wars and occupations and schisms and so on. All of those exist solely to provide a particular political climate, justification for Aquitan's theocratic structure, and the spread of the southern church north into Inver. I already had the idea of this church, that it would be integral to the country as a main political faction, so now I have to figure out how it got there and the political ramifications of that. It's all worldbuilding for sure, but it's a support structure underneath the story about how that church eventually changes world history, because i wanted to write a story about a church lol.

I guess if I wanted to explain The Process for a world -> characters setting i'd just be giving you How To Write A Story 101 lol. But basically: I think of a concept which interests me (big mechs yay). Then I think of a conflict that might arise (where does the fuel come from? who controls that supply? what might that do to the concentration of power in this area?). Then I put a character in what I consider to be the most interesting position to observe the effects of this conflict (a knight, an enginesmith, an exile), and honestly the main plot generally writes itself after that. I extrapolate the hook from that.

In terms of characters, I try to avoid calling them 'ocs' because in my mind 'oc' tends to be a very static stand-alone thing. Like I couldn't make a useful ref sheet of my characters because they are all changed by the story. I couldn't say 'he has a carefree personality' because in a few chapters no he fucking won't. in the same way i struggle a LOT to talk about my Siren setting which as close to a specbio 'headworld' as i'm ever gonna get, because I am worldbuilding in vastly different time periods at once in a world which is always changing, i can't make a post about for example a map of Siren because that's just a map from one era, I'd need to make a dozen maps to show how things change, how time affects it all, etc.

Because nothing is ever static and everything is in flux, pretty much the only way I can handle a setting like this is, again, just to focus on a few small stories centered around a cast of characters separated by time (i have... 4 distinct stories in Siren. maybe more). this is actually a frustrating barrier to me sharing any information at all about this place lol i'm the struggler

Where did it all begin? When I was 11 I used to write stories in my copybooks in class. There has never been a time where I was not making stories and where my stories were not the only important thing at all to me, superseding literally everything else. I learned how to draw digitally in 2011 because I wanted to draw my characters.

What inspires me? Everything lol. I actually don't have time to Consume Media much, I struggle watching movies or tv and I mostly hate video games because I would much rather be productive and sitting and watching a screen feels like a waste of my time. but I like reading books because I can take them with me on my phone. I get ideas from all sources but mostly non-media sources, like obviously mythology but also my history with the church and my scientific education. Usually nonfictional sources interest me the most (i was going to write a whole story that was a post-apocalyptic plague plot based on canine transmissible venereal cancer haha and even to this day that's where "the Immortal Hound" title comes from, little easter egg in inver)

[shubox]

Tapu Mew-Mew Ref Sheet!

Another thing for the 'Try-Two' Mewtwo AU I'm slowly chipping away at! One (of four) offshoot clones of the original Mewtwo, with lore and concept/research under the cut! --------

So long ago my bestie and I decided that there were going to be a few clones past the original one that we started with that was made in the same lab as Mewtwo. Depending on where they were made, they'd adopt some regional traits. One of which was Alola - where this bean comes in! One of the offshoot Mewtwo project labs was secreted away in Alola, and since the progenitor was a lost cause (what with wrecking shop on the HQ and all), what resources they could divert went into these far-flung facilities. Not that it lasted long - the Island Deities of Alola were not appreciative of such things in their region, and both leveled the facility in entirety, but also kidnapped its focused Mewtwo clone. After years of being raised alongside them, and having not quite fully 'grown' at the time of his rescue, he began to take on weird traits - aided by his Tapu caretakers. This would result in plates similar to theirs, a Water Typing (complete with biologically-created water veil at will!), and pigmentation changes that'd eventually mimic the very beings raising him. As such, they eventually inducted their weird little pseudo-progeny into their roles, playing a bit of an odd 'fifth' role. He doesn't preside over Alola like they do, but he both tends to - and observes - the balance between their natural origins and cultures, while also ensuring the merciless march of technology and contact with outside regions does not cause a discarding of the olden ways. He is the youngest of the clones, but also because of how Alola has become a rich tourist destination, he's also the most well-informed - having known about his 'father's' rampage, the death of Giovanni, and some (not ALL) of his 'siblings'. His nature being what it is, he's also the closest to old-school Mew in demeanour. --RESEARCH TIME-- SO. I wanted to make sure what I was doing wasn't an absolute mess, especially given the Tapu reference a *very real* culture. So, I dug in a bit, looked up each of the four major Hawaiian gods that the Tapu refer to. (at least those that were most prominent, King Kamehameha's reign causing some muddiness in it)

Given that bit of research, plus the other thing Alola's rituals/trials reference (the balance between preserving Hawaii's traditions, while *also* adapting influences from outside regions since contact), I wanted this 'pseudo-Tapu' to be a sort-of 'avatar' for Alola's version of it. A few things: 1) The Tapu have animal themes, which are indicated by their shells and patterning. Tapu Mew-Mew's are less angular, and more loosely resemble manmade structures. 2) As he isn't a biological Tapu, despite his grown shells, he is unable to close them whatsoever. However, he did gain an odd quirk that they can generate a sort of water-shawl and skirt that he calls a 'water veil'. 3) Because he is, by creation, a literal clone (unlike his father, who was an unborn Mew mutated into a Mewtwo), he is slightly indicative of that balance - born by artificial means, raised in nature and adapting to it. The Tapu deemed him fit to both have his own personalized Trials, but also that his role was exactly what he symbolized - observing and maintaining the balance between the two sides of the post-contact cultural shift in Alola.

4) He is *absolutely* as capricious as his caretakers. The reason the Aether Foundation both remains in Alola, but does not stir up trouble is because he has made it all too clear that the reason it still exists was due to him being 'in a good mood' when he confronted Lusamine and her staff. He's also not one to make his retribution proportional. (Damn near considered capsizing it from the get-go because he 'didn't like how it looked'.) An absolute joy to make, and will be even more fun to write! Y'know. Once I get there. |D

[riddle-rosethorns]

Name: Morgan de la Mar Pronouns: they/he Orientation: Pansexual Based on: Sirens/Mermaids (Pirates of the Caribbean) Dorm: Octavinelle

Hey guys, sorry again for not having a Halloween special this year. To (hopefully) make up for it, I'm sharing another one of my OCs with you all! He's been in the works for just as long as Ismund, but I only just got around to finishing their ref sheet recently. Please feel free to ask me about him as well, I'm excited to ramble about any of my OCs upon request! I'm even working on a masterpost to keep them organized, including ones I don't have refs for yet, so stay tuned for that as well!

The bio template I used is by @/unfinished-projects-galore here on Tumblr!

More info under the cut!

Grade/Class: Junior/Class C (No. 7) Birthday: March 18 (Pisces) Age: 18 Height: 178 cm Dominant Hand: Right Homeland: Sunshine Lands Club: Pop Music Club Best Subject: Physical Training Hobbies: Stick and poke tattooing Pet Peeves: Being ordered around Favorite Food: Shellfish Least Favorite Food: Grouper Talent: Singing

Morgan is a lionfish merman, born into a heavily female-dominated culture of merpeople residing in the tropical waters of the Sunshine Lands. Despite their mothers' initial shock at having spawned a more masculine-leaning fry— a rare occurrence in their shoal, only happening once every several years— they were quick to dote on him, nurturing his strength, independence, and his burgeoning magical abilities. When Morgan was eventually invited to Night Raven College, they couldn't have been prouder or more supportive of their son's decision to attend.

Outside of classes, Morgan works as an entertainer at the Mostro Lounge, serenading customers with his smooth, hypnotic voice as they enjoy their meals. While on the clock, they're the perfect picture of a classic vintage crooner; outside of work, however, that couldn't be further from the truth. Morgan's true passion lies in all things alternative: rock, punk, metal, ska, and everything in between. His dream after graduation is to become a famous rockstar, but he settles for his gig at the lounge because it pays decently— that, plus the Leech twins scare the scales off him.

In their free time, Morgan finds other ways to indulge their interests. This includes giving out stick-and-poke tattoos in the dorm washrooms, performing with the Pop Music Club, and starting a ska band called Reef-Raff with his friend Eddie Dyre and two other Octavinelle boys. He also does additional (paid) appearances at the Mostro Lounge upon request as his drag persona Koral Ryf. Others might say Morgan is spreading themself too thin with all of their side projects, but one thing is for certain: audiences just can't get enough!

[artofmyraid]

Hi, I've been a little busy, but I was struck by a sudden wave of inspiration that landed squarely on @anxiousapplepie 's Rose knights story. I've been enjoying it a lot for a while now, and I always planned to do this, but the inspiration to do it has hit me just now, lol.

Anyway, meet Myraid, Desire, and Tatsuo! Their actually OCs from my own stuff, but I routinely like to toss them around different worlds and adapt them into it! These three are my favorite little guys~

Now that's basically the summary of it. Under the cut-off, I'm about to fly off into a large ramble about each of them.

Myraid is a shaded red rose that grew up in a wild rose community until they eventually decided to get even more wild by leaving their community on a journey of re-self discovery! In which they have a clone and adopt, pick up a very confused coloured dragon/green rose. :3

Along the way they've been working on how much they can improve their magic as they travel, they refuse to settle for middling magic and when their not out exploring particularly dangerous areas, their trying to improve their stats as much as possible.

At first glance, Myraid seems to be a very typical red rose, they always appear passionate about what their doing, and are clearly devoted(obsessed) to desiree and Tatsuo. But that's just what they want you to think, ever since they first became a red rose, they've put a lot of effort into being an over the top, passionate, red rose (because the truth of the matter is, they haven't really felt all that passionate about anything theyve done in their life), it's almost hard to believe desiree is their clone since their so much more subdued than Myraid to the point their already gaining a completely diffrent colour.

This behavior has no consequences whatsoever. What? Doodle on the ref sheet, you say? Why, I dont know how that got there! :)

Next up, Desiree, the teeny tiny clone of Myraid. Their still quite young, but their already forming a very different identity to Myraid. But for now their being dragged around by their overzealous parent, they mostly don't mind all that much, but they do become way more bothered when Myraid decides to pick up Tatsuo. They were perfectly fine when it was just the two of them, they cannot believe their stringing along someone else.

As you can see, Desiree has chosen to speed run as many colours as they can in a short time period, going from gaining their first colour of shaded red to almost immediately picking up black! Going so fast the white hasn't even had a chance to fade away! (Eventually once the white does go away, they'll end up being multicolored with both red and black.) Which is also the case with their stats, Desiree's current stats are the ones with decimals and the brackets are their stats after they transition colours fully.

Finally, Tatsuo, our little coloured dragon/green rose. Why both? That's because Tatsuo can't decide if they want to be more rose than dragon or more dragon than rose. They feel pressured to choose a side, but every time they feel like their ready to commit to being one or the other, their hit in the face with another realization that makes them fall back into uncertainty. Maybe they'll learn that they don't have to choose... Eventually.

Before Myraid and Desiree came along, Tatsuo was a drifter, exploring different rose and dragon settlements to learn more about them and the many different lifestyles of the races. They were hoping that if they could learn all they could, that maybe, just maybe they'd find something that felt right...

Throughout their time studying the two races and finally planning on maybe settling down as more of a dragon than rose, they get swept up by Myraid and Desiree, making them back pedal once more! How fun!

As you might have noticed, despite placing numbers by the stats for healing magic and power share their crossed out. This is because Tatsuo basically can't really use them (for healing magic I crossed it out as their healing is basically nonexistent by rose standard healing and probably about normal healing for dragons?) I was really interested in playing around with the coloued dragon/green rose's being able to have a mix of the abilities, which was really really hard to figure out how to balance, but it was fun to play with!

Well! That was even more than I first expected, I kinda went a little crazy with it! I didn't expect my original idea for the characters to change so quickly. They each basically went through two iterations before I decided on this one for all of them!

Close ups

[gomzdrawfr]

First off, that sneak peek art of Viktor is amazing!! Did you draw that? Wow. Second, is there a place I can find out more about Raven's lore and background? I know so little. Fish sounds really cool, but I can't imagine putting your life in the hands of a medic who makes decisions based on his coins! Poor guy sounds like he really needs a hug. If he's related to Jelly, maybe Ghost will give him one that crushes his soul back into his body. B6 sounds like he might have been really good friends with Raven. I wonder if he gets out of Cobra and how Price and Ghost feel about him. I could see Nik getting along with him. Did you ever find a name for his cat? I love Jelly as Ghost's squishy fluffy haired girlfriend. They are very cute together. <3 Thank you for all the lore. I love hearing about OCs.

Nope I didn't draw Viktor, that was a commission work from my friend @/hai-nae (twitter link). They're AMAZING at what they do and they did these for me too!!!!!!!!!! (SCREAMING!!! the last one was a comms piece too)

I used to have Raven's lore in my google doc that I've linked in my reference sheet post but I removed it cause I'm thinking of revamping some stuff. But the key points are probably just these:

Raven growing up in an orphanage, mistreated and bullied, bonds with crows and owls (tragic story 1.0)

Orphanage burnt down by Viktor, Viktor then adopts her because she glared and looked at him eye-to-eye without fear. He had intention for her to take over Cobra but somewhere along the way the lines blurred (just know Viktor's fucked up and wanted Raven to kill him since she's like a copy version of him in terms of skills and whatnot)

She dabbled in private intelligence agencies (affiliated with Cobra) before she officially joined Cobra and worked as mercenary, taking contracts every month (there's a quoto you need to achieve in Cobra, and she's ranked top every time which builds up tension amongst the Cobra members)

Just extra note, all Cobra members are bounded with a barcode tattoo on their wrist (showed in her ref sheet)

Lieutenant John Price's name showed up in one of those monthly quota thingy and that's when she met him, the intention to kill him was overtaken by curiosity and infatuation and such.

Before that, in her years of working in Cobra she went through one event where she was locked and tortured in an abandoned kindergarten, tied to the chair and had to face a small room with worn down sunflower wallpapers (tragic story 2.0, and also why she develops a fear towards sunflowers then eventually other flowers). This fear was discovered quite late into the story when Price has signed her up to work with the 141 when Gaz brought them to a sunflower field, causing her to pass out.

Dialling back a bit in the timeline, the Cobra PMC (and Viktor included) planned an assassination attempt on Raven, nearly ending her life at an oil rig with her signature back scar - see ref (tragic story 3.0)

B6 then came in and basically help her contact Price and then erase her history almost entirely (hence, it was hard for Price to trace back her backstory, but nothing's lost forever)

Price and Gaz were the ones who rescued her and funded her recovery process. I think somewhere in my doc I've talked about partial incomplete spinal cord injuries, RSI and PTSD and such? (Take it with a grain of salt since spinal injuries rarely allows full recovery) She'll suffer lingering nerve related scars and injuries later on into her life, causing pain and many, many sleepless nights

Uh then I suppose she starts working with Price and the 141. This is where priceraven doodles would appear

She is however, driven by grief and revenge, setting to return the favor from Viktor and she does kill him in the end. (Refer animation - which has more rambles on how she felt afterwards)

Also another OC that I have yet to develop, but Viktor is paired with Archi, his assistant, which followed Viktor's death not long after Viktor died (by suicide). They're basically toxic yaoi co-dependent pairing if I want to explain their dynamic lol

I think then afterwards Raven sort of retire for a while, stayed at home and such. I call this the domestic era.

Then after mw3 happened, she's back on action with Price again. This is where my fic's timeline is currently at. The next part should involve Price marrying Raven (and hopefully I can update Raven's name to Eira Price :p)

B6 eventually left Cobra as well since the act of deleting Raven's history went against the PMC, he end up living the life he wanted in his own garage and just tinkering away :) Price and Gaz knows him personally and they're good colleagues, not really friends since he puts people at arms' length. As for Ghost, he respect the lad and nothing more. I'd say the person B6 would most likely warm up to is Gaz since they're in similar age range (and well, who can resist Gaz's easy charm eh?) Not too sure how Nik would feel towards him, probably same as Ghost. Nope, have not decided the name of his cat but I'm open to suggestions! (lil buddy is a munchkin tuxedo meow meow...very tiny...very clingy...small meows but powerful paws)

[artzy-demxn]

Meet Brooke Beverly!

My tkatb oc :]

How do you make intros lmao-

(open/click for better quality)

I've been actually procrastinating for a while but I finally managed to get enough motivation to finish the ref sheet, this "meet the character" card and the "understand my ship in 5min,"

Yeah I got a little lazy and didn't have the motivation to do the shading

~ More info on Brooke under the cut~

Brooke is half German half Serbian, their (very conservative) mother being Serbian and father being German. They have two older siblings, Elena and Simon (twins) and they're 10 years older than them. The twins were born in Serbia after a one-night-stand at a party their mother was at (she was like 20?). The woman had a hard life as a single mother, then eventually move to Germany for work. Years later she met them married a man who was Brooke's father, but he was kind of a deadbeat dad and after a few years divorce.

Couple more years later, when Brooke was a teenager, their mother would meet another guy who'd she marry a few years after(his last name- Beverly). Brooke wasn't all too happy about this but their current stepdad is trying his best to get to know them and be the good and supportive father figure all three needed. Ofc the family then moved to wherever the story takes place (I assume USA??). Brooke would then start university and move out to their own apartment.

Extra: My best friend's oc, Charlie (a tomboy that they ship w/Brittney) is Brooke's best friend and basically like sister. Brooke and Charlie live together since Charlie was basically adopted. The two knew each other back when Brooke lived in Germany.

Also Brooke x Sol is actually stalker x stalker but shhh I didn't tell you that 🤫

[ivory-ibis-starlike-skim]

can i even call this a ref sheet? whatever. shes here now. shes real. i can Look at her with my eyes

dont mind the scuffed robotnik and stone, i was just trying to get a general idea of the dynamic. i mean, i have their early dynamic pretty firmly in my head, but i'd need to figure out how she slots in to the rest... which probably means writing stuff. or at least making an outline. curse of oc artist

more info on her under the cut (this was originally going to go in the spot where all the lil doodles are, but it was way too many words for the picture. so i replaced it)

Vivian is a cheerful, curious creature who was forced to flee her home planet as a small fry. She's absolutely fascinated by humanity; this, combined with her appetite for electricity, eventually put her on the US government's radar. She started out as Doctor Robotnik's lab rat after he tracked and captured her. However, she eventually became something closer to his mechanic. Her small size and resistance to electricity even allow her to crawl inside the larger machines, working on them from the inside.

They first meet a few years before the events of Sonic 1. At this point Vivian usually just hangs around Robotnik's workshop; she pelts him with questions about his work, undeterred by the insults he slings in return. (Until he kicks her out under pain of death, that is.)

That being said... She likes being around Robotnik, but Agent Stone is her favorite person in the world. Whenever she's not pestering the doctor, she follows him around, helping him with whatever he asks. Robotnik often complains that she's never so amenable with him; she just smiles and asks for another shot of espresso.