bibliopod-au

[bibliopod-au]

doodles

[bibliopod-au]

remaking big man's powers to make it more accurate to canon

big man's body produces doubt toxin. unlike the shadow of doubt (live action)'s doubt toxin, this is a liquid with about the consistency of ink.

it acts on the body once it is absorbed through the skin. the psychological effects are very simple: it leaves one more open to suggestion, like a trance state. a person's surroundings and suggestions determine what happens next. in this case big man is using it to cause doubt, of course.

ingesting it directly causes much worse physiological problems, like tunnel vision, fatigue, excessive sweat, clammy skin, and nausea. the suggestive effect is very long lasting, but with the help of modern medicine, the effects of ingesting (or producing too much toxin yourself) can be negated with a good nap.

he can also reform his body into the toxin if he tries hard enough, but this technique requires a lot of training/practice

[bibliopod-au]

drew some big men

[bibliopod-au]

hi

[bibliopod-au]

sorry for not posting anything recently (i say, to an empty room)

[bibliopod-au]

i gave big man the Tism btw

(cypher and frye also have adhd)

[bibliopod-au]

Repping Bankara City, we are DEEP CUT!

Comprised of Shiver, Frye, and Big Man, Deep Cut is an uber-popular trio based out of Bankara City. Lovable ruffians and esteemed idols to the general public, they lead secret double lives as bandits and villains, angling for the treasure of some notable Ruckersville residents...

Each member of Deep Cut embodies a sin based on their respective deadly poisons (of Buddhist religions), those being greed (Shiver), hatred/wrath (Frye), and delusion/doubt (Big Man). As a group, they (kinda/sorta since they rarely act as villains as a whole troupe) embody the sin of idolatry and combine each of their individual sins. They are often antagonistic to other villains, but will always help each other out if one of them goes solo.

(individual profiles under the cut!)

Shiver Hohojiro - the Cold-Blooded Bandit

Shiver influences greed, and to a lesser extent, cold-heartedness and discontent. Due to her competitive nature, she is quick to anger and will act irrationally when irritated. As a perfectionist, she will often go months without attacking, and will spend all her energy on a single task to eliminate as many flaws as she can. When she does use her villain persona, it is a mass attack where she spends little time which each individual, optimized for efficiency. Her victims will attempt to seek money at all costs, including robbery and illegal business, and will shove aside friends to do so. She maintains a certain distance in combat, focused on taking her enemies out and moving quickly to enable both goals.

Her weapon of choice is Greed Dust, shaken from her fan. Though it runs its course quickly, its effect of ruthless moneygrubbing can ruin friendships for much longer. Shiver has developed an immunity due to working with it for so long.

Trivia:

Usually attacks near oceanfront areas, like beaches or canals- this is so she can escape more easily thanks to Master Mega (her shark)

Has had a bad habit of monologuing in the past- adapted for use by other members of Deep Cut as a distraction technique

Greed Dust is irritating to the mouth and sinus- do not ingest. The twitching resulting from when Shiver accidentally got it in her eye is why she covers it now

Frye Onaga- the Eel Deal

Frye influences wrath and hatred. In contrast with the sin she promotes, she finds a great deal of fun in being a villain and sparring with others. She will attack whenever and wherever she feels like it, usually targeting small groups of 3 to 6, and may bring her eels along with her if she needs help escaping. People affected by her wrath will go out of their way to fight other people and sever friendships because of perceived faults. When fighting, she’s aggressive and will attempt to take out enemies or distract them long enough that her allies can knock them out instead of her.

Frye's weapon of choice is her own pungi. She has the ability to play tunes that promote violence- and it's what controls her swarm of eels.

Trivia:

Though not the most reckless, she comes the closest to the enemy and drains a lot of manpower- comes away with a lot of injuries

Unusually generous, always offers the other to join her side

Theatrical, but improvises a lot- learned from her grandfather

Learning her pungi techniques is what inspired her to branch into other areas of music, eventually leading to the formation of Deep Cut

Big Man (Manda Tarō Kizaemon Munekiyo) - the Hype Manta Storm

Big Man embodies delusion, confusion and ignorance. Although he can act like villainy is his main goal, he mainly uses this persona to support his friends in combat. He is very socially awkward, so he doesn’t attack if he will have to talk to a lot of people. This makes his appearances rare, as he will search for very specific times where not many people will be present. Victims influenced by him will either show doubt, discontent with, or plain ignorance of Christianity. He dislikes fighting; however, if he sees one of his allies in danger, he impulsively tries to take out whoever is hurting them and will remove them from the situation.

He primarily uses blocky sunglasses called blinders in his villain persona. The effects can range from confusion (see above) to complete unawareness like a deep sleep or coma.

Trivia:

Usually the one to help patch up minor injuries, good at convincing people to go along with the treatment

Very nerdy and has a lot of video game knowledge

Was the one to introduce villainy to Shiver and Frye and was formerly known as Devil Ray, but was the last to join Deep Cut proper

okay if you've made it this far congrats!! now time for some design notes

a lot of concepting went into big man's design. for the longest time i just... could not get it to work. you may have seen how he looked in the relationship chart and it was... bad

here's the original- i ended up keeping a few things but scrapped a lot of others for more convincing and homologous humanizations (heh)

i started with the things i liked, i was satisfied with shiver and frye for the most part, and having "gills" on the shawl was cool. i ended up removing the undershirt and left only the cloak. the belt loop was there for a good part of redesigning but i ultimately left it out because it ruined the symmetrical design

this was the first part of the design. for a while it was just his head and neck before i decided to try the medallion's colors out and so filled in the rest to give it context. the stubble was a really good choice in retrospect. the barb earring was one of the first things i settled on- i know mantas don't have stingers but they also don't have teeth and i needed to give him something.

(his hair's also kinda messy/unstyled because it's normally under his hat)

next up were the eyes, although i had already kinda sorta figured this out. the image explains most of it, so i felt like i should explain why i gave them unique pupils instead of circular ones- it's because other animated canon villains have weird eye stuff going on

for example, mr. malevolent's (left) eyes have a shine to them/ the color changes depending on the angle, and the empress of unhappiness (right) has rings around the edge of her eyes. both lack pupils and have unnatural eye colors. giving deep cut unique eyes is a callback to their original designs and sets them apart from the cast!

i also went back and forth a bit on how big man's cape works- its like those butterfly wing capes, but instead of holding rods, it's attached to the sleeves (specifically the wrists).

it also ends in a stuffed tail that has a belt loop (so the sleeves are put on first, then the tail is connected to the belt). and yes it IS extremely swishy

AND ALSO!!! please look at this wonderful fanart done by my friend lemonhead !!! it was made when i was still figuring out his design so it looks kinda different

okay enough about big man! since i only have so many images and i want to talk about shiver and frye!

they're the least changed since they were already humanoid, just give them nails so that it looks like their fingers were painted or smth. it's mainly their hair i switched up

shiver got a side shave! dyed the ends but not the roots (or brows) but i like how it came out. originally their hair was going to be entirely black with blue highlighting, but it didn't look all that great. getting their headpiece to work was a bit of a botched job but eh it looks fine in the end. also removed the amount of white in the hair, it just looked bad

frye got a braid! originally i kept her hair mostly the same but it ended up looking weird so the braid was the better option. other than that their masks were changed to just makeup and they only kept one earring (made from real materials!) (sorry this is kinda unfinished)

i was going to change their medals but opted not to, frye's frustrated me a bit and in hindsight that would've weakened the sea animal theme (admittedly, i could've gone for shark and eel themed ones).

this took me 2 weeks to string together cohesively.

[bibliopod-au]

hi.

[bibliopod-au]

sorry tumblr i twinkified him. here's your bibleman folks.

mostly based off the animated canon because that's the first one i watched so i'm fond of it. also i think it's his best look for me to draw. tried to simplify or make his design more congruent (removed the book from the cross logo. i don't like how the blue stands out)

headcanons:

josh carpenter. 22, white american male. army vet. ambidextrous. single and has no plans to change this status. no sexuality headcanon for him he's just focusing on other things right now. has no time for it.

second newest member of the bible adventure team (in order of who's been in the longest, its cypher, biblegirl, bibleman, melody). despite this, he's the current leader. good in combat, kinda ignorant to the team's history. non-denominational (but really protestant) background.

most generic man ever i just really want to write cypher and biblegirl

[bibliopod-au]

aight. time to talk about the setting.

long post ahead- there's a readmore for a reason

deus and the h/v scene

in the world of bilbiopod, there's a force called deus that enables what might be perceived as magical powers. deus is a relatively recent discovery, so history up to about 1979 (ish. take any dates beyond 2000 with a can of salt) remains largely the same.

the powers deus can offer very considerably by individual, family history, environment, and culture. in extended exposure, it can also give physical effects, such as different eyes, ears, or senses.

deus, when in contact with wildlife, can enhance intelligence and promote more humanoid forms (though its debated if the humanoid adaptations are a byproduct of deus, or to compete with humans). this phenomenon is known as deus-prompted anthropomorphism.

after deus was studied enough to be used by the everyman, a vigilante crime-fighting (and crime-committing) scene emerged based on superhero media. this became known as the hero/villain scene, or h/v for short.

h/v can have a number of forms depending on the local area. for some towns, its dark and gritty- other cities, straight out of superfriends. the style of h/v in a certain area is a major point of its cultural identity.

h/v performers are usually not treated as serious criminal situations by police unless there is serious risk to life and limb involved. hostages are arranged and paid for; stolen goods are returned within 4-6 business days; buildings that were going to get demolished or renovated anyways are always the ones that get destroyed in a fight.

cities, towns, and where people live

ruckersville is a small suburb, almost exurb but too developed outside some city in tennessee. it's good for nothing except one little factoid: it has a weird h/v scene, and everybody knows it. home of the bible adventure team, the odd, christian take on a hero group has garnered minor national attention (and some major attention by a group of bankaran bandits...)

ruckersville's name is taken from the name of the town that the bibleman adventure took place in, i think it was mentioned in breaking the bonds of disobedience?

hikara is a city off the west end of colorado, known affectionately as hi-color, colorado by hikarans. it earned this nickname through the town's pride and joy, turf war- a sport based loosely off paintball where the objective is to cover the ground in as much paint as possible. as any resident of the glimmering city will tell you, it all started with a professor, his cat, and a coupla' paintballers...

hikara is the bibliopod au's equivalent to greater inkopolis, and its name comes from inkopolis's japanese name.

octo valley is the unofficial name for an unincorporated community outside hikara. it was nicknamed such after octavio (takowasa) and the rest of northwest hikara's heroes and villains were forced to flee when there was a fight for territorial rights. this event became known as the great turf war.

octo valley is just... octo valley. but with less floating things.

bankara is in east utah, a hop, skip and a jump across the rocky mountains from its sister city of hikara. it shares this tradition of turf war with hikara, though none of the glitz and glamor. this is the city of chaos, after all, only experiencing its economic boom recently thanks to a series of highly notable top-level turf war events.

bankara is this au's version of splatsville, also taken from splatsville's japanese name.

south of bankara, beneath the suspiciously sandy crater, is the former hero hideout of alterna. during a defense systems test, it collapsed, killing everyone inside. this event was deeply traumatic for the bankara and hikara communities, rendering their respective h/v scenes null and void.

important families

the peterson family- miles peterson and associated wife and children. miles isn't that important i'd just thought i'd mention him (the family dynamics are mainly just to make the inkling/octarian conflict work)

the cuttlefish family- craig cuttlefish, callie cuttlefish, marie cuttlefish, and technically captain 3, agent 3, agent 4 and agent 8. craig is the grandfather of callie and marie, the agents are ... adopted? question mark? i dont know whats happening with them tbh. craig used to be a hero of hikara under the name captain cuttlefish of the squidbeak splatoon- his feud with octavio led to the great turf war. his granddaughters, callie and marie went on to become pop idols, but still retained their gramp's teachings on how to be a hero. they are armed. callie and marie eventually started a talent agency, the squidbeak talent company, and associated record label, inkling rekords. they continue under the name of the new squidbeak splatoon, perusing important duties local heroes nor law enforcement will tackle (but only as a side hustle).

the takowasa family- octavio takowasa (dj ocatvio), marina iida takowasa (dj_hyperfresh), asher akkoro takowasa. octavio was an old villain and craig's arch-rival, though he began to regret the life he led and wanted to give a better living to his grandchildren through music. marina, the older sibling, ran away on her own due to lack of parental support (they wanted to keep villainy going, thinking it was the family legacy) asher, the younger sibling, left to go to college. this was a partial lie, she just applied and then left to start a band.

fyi- asher is an oc, and i don't think marina is related to octavio in canon (and asher isn't related to octavio outside of this au). the reason the octarians were adapted into a family is to make the inkling vs. octarian feud more understandable in a human au.

the houzuki family- nacre houzuki, baroque houzuki, pearl houzuki, "emperor" copal houzuki, "prinz" chiton houzuki. the houzuki family got their riches through owning a cruise line, houzuksea, and expanded into deep sea exploration after they got more successful. while plenty of the family have deus, only copal used his in any h/v scene before turning to turf war. nacre is the mother, baroque the father, and the siblings in order of oldest to youngest are pearl, copal, and chiton.

[bibliopod-au]

good afternoon tumblr. you're probably thinking: hey what the fuck is this?

let me tell you.

the bibliopod au is what spawned from the crossbreeding of my splatoon brainworms and bibleman brainworms. it's a superhuman au centered around deep cut and (my interpretations of) the bibleman team. i say my interpretations of because canon sucks. actually, no, i don't want to say canon sucks because that implies i'm just filling this with shitty fanfic tropes, i'm actually mad that biblegirl got whitewashed 2 episodes in. it's been 20 years but i'm still angry about that.

there are still other characters though, this isn't completely crack. see below for the dynamics chart (squall's design got changed they look better now)

eventually i'll make posts detailing the setting and characters. for now there's this really sketchy thing.

i follow from @bepisdotmp4 so if you see interaction from there that's why