dokidokitsuna

[dokidokitsuna]

...So there's this 9-year-old child in my mind who started screaming the moment I came up with this, and would not stop until I finished AND posted the drawing. ^^; So even though I have a million other things to do, here it is.

No idea what I'm gonna do with it, but I think we're both satisfied~

[dokidokitsuna]

You know what I just noticed? The only thing Star Dream, The Master Crown, and Fecto Elfilis have in common in GONE (Besides the mental turmoil, violent tendencies, and angst) is that they all have a not alive, yet not quite dead child locked up somewhere...

… that’s one weird coincidence... Maybe Morpho should add that to the bingo card! /J

...You know, you're absolutely right...and I didn't even do that on purpose; it just turned out that way. ^^;

If I had to explain it, it's probably because that's something I do very often with immortal/godlike characters...like yeah, technically they can't die, but that leaves them very vulnerable to fates worse than death, inflicted on them by any character who figures out how to overpower them.

Or in the case of Elfilin/Adeleine/Marx (I assume?), getting caught up in the conflicts of immortal/godlike characters means getting preserved like a frog in formaldehyde while they take their sweet immortal time figuring out what they want to do with you. If anything. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Morpho could add that to the bingo card...but I don't know if it's the kind of suffering they find entertaining. ^^; 'Not quite dead, not quite alive' people usually don't scream or bleed, so...

[dokidokitsuna]

Any updates on Ladybird?

...😭😭😭

Okay, in all seriousness: LADYBIRD is still very much present in my heart and mind; I often return to the script doc to add lore or do character work or write more episodes of the story (I recently started on the third one), and I love the main 4 girls with all my heart and soul. <3

...Unfortunately, development hell strikes again. ^^; Believe it or not, I actually started putting the first episode together like a year ago...but I didn't like the artstyle so I decided to start over...and over...and then I tried to do a trailer and quit that...and then I tried to do an animatic and quit that too...nothing I try to start with it ever works out; even the character designs have been a hassle. ^^; I stopped posting them not because I stopped drawing them, but because they stopped looking fit for public viewing...

I think I might try to practice a bit, maybe with my weekly BlueSky art posts (check em out; so far I've been posting new DotPQ doodles and old Touhou art ^^)...in the meantime, all I can do is keep chipping away at Episode A1 until the majority of the drawings start to look good, I guess.

[dokidokitsuna]

Animated a little eyecatch for MGN1, just to test out my new pen tablet and see if it makes tweening easier-- and it does! oAo

Only the last frame of this animation was drawn traditionally with pencil and paper, which is revolutionary for me. Time will tell what kind of effect this has on my future projects...

[dokidokitsuna]

WILTING ROSE

So it's been a while since I gave an actual update on The Neverfell Projects: Beauty and the Beast. ^^ Highlights:

-I was right; this is gonna be my first hour-long video. Almost an hour and a half, actually. o_o -I'm in what I would call the "final stages" of editing: i.e. just deciding where to put all my screenshots and snarky on-screen comments. The only caveats are: a) I still need background music, and not only have I not composed any yet; I have no idea what I want it to sound like :D b) I've had to take a good look at my placeholder art WIPs as I progress through the video, and the evil boss in my head is already going "yeah, not good enough; redraw all of this" :D :D :D

I mean...I like ^this picture. I had a good feeling about it from the get-go; it came out pretty nice in the end. I can only hope that the others will turn out similarly when finished, so maybe I'll only have to redo days worth of work instead of weeks' worth. Stay tuned!

[dokidokitsuna]

DDT Preview 12

Utterly embarrassing yourself in front of your teenage child is just one of those parenting rites of passage. ^^;

Although, after Elfy finishes cursing out his dad under his breath here, the story finally takes the sad turn I promised before. It's time for Leon to finally learn the truth...

[dokidokitsuna]

I just saw the GONE bingo card... I have a small feeling, when the Arbringer saw Elfilis and Master crown team up... for a brief moment... their hand was hesitantly hovering over the "Creepy Love affair" space...

Also, is Chaos Elfilis a thing in this AU? How would that work? Would it be like a last resort? It's a cool design and concept that could really fit in with this gritty au!

...Perhaps. ^^ They would be wrong, of course, but I could see where they might think that. Fecto Elfilis and the Master Crown make a good pair; they have a lot of interesting contrasts (power levels, emotional maturity, general life experience) and F/E is surprisingly good at getting MC to soften up. They're just not really into each other, though. :T

I...want to say yes. F/E does kind of "die" during the events of the AU, and I never really decided how they would come back once they're fully healed, and Chaos Elfilis would be a great way to do it (plus, it would mean both they and Star Dream have new designs for the final act~). However...the Arbiter is the sticking point in all this. ^^; Technically, Morpho Knight's power is required to create this form, if only as a by-product of them consuming F/E in the first place. But in this AU they don't do things like that...they have no reason to come in contact with F/E again, and F/E has no reason to want or need them to... ...Elfilin might, though. ^^ I mean, you wouldn't know what I'm talking about, but I think I could make it work if Elfy made a deal with the Arbiter, and then F/E gained the new color scheme as a by-product of that. Hmmm...thanks for the inspo~

[dokidokitsuna]

Hi! Just wanted to say, love your GONE AU and Dream kingdom AU, I think it's pretty great that you've managed to pull off some cool darker story telling! I remember seeing your lighthearted comics when I was younger, so it really feels great to see some stories that really expand the pallet now that I'm older! And I hope to see more stories like it!

Also! question about the GONE AU if that's okay. Why'd you make the cast hot? What exactly inspired you to really go for it? To make a dark and gory AU like this? Are there anymore beloved kirby characters in this AU that meet unfortunate fates here?

1] Thanks so much! 2] Hot characters are fun; what can I say 3] Like with many of my AUs, I think the tone was directly inspired by the art. Once I drew the Master Crown here and felt that edgy 2013 DeviantArt energy dripping from its design, I knew the story had to follow suit– to become as dark and violent as the webcomics I loved to read back then. ^^; Maybe it’s not obvious, but I’ve always been into content like that; I just haven’t made much effort to get good at drawing it until relatively recently.

4] I couldn’t think of an established tragic GONE. character to talk about, so I made up a new one. Enjoy~

Marx happened to be off-world at the time of the Master Crown’s conquest, and by the time he passed by his favorite planet again, it had been reduced to a dark prison of psychological torment.

So he confronted the Master Crown, insisting that Pop Star belonged to him alone. And although he was ultimately forced to retreat, he repeatedly returned to battle for dominance, no matter how many times he had to stitch himself back together. Thanks to his special ability to absorb power from his surroundings (including the head start he received from the Galactic Nova), he was a force to be reckoned with, and quickly evolved from a familiar nuisance to a genuine threat as the centuries passed.

Before the Master Crown could truly begin to struggle with Marx, however, the Arbiter’s Challenge began, and Star Dream saw an opportunity within the young space jester. It captured Marx easily, mechanized him, and used the shards of the Galactic Nova within his body to upgrade him to a sort of ‘ascended avatar’-- a hivemind addition on the same level as its own primary avatar, capable of employing the full extent of its power. Then, with the promise of fulfilling his wish to destroy the Master Crown, sent him back out to Pop Star.

Fortunately for the MC, this ‘upgrade’ actually made Marx a more manageable adversary, streamlining his manic, unpredictable fighting style into something much easier to counter. Although it had to rebuild its body several times during the encounter, eventually it won, finally sinking its roots into Marx’s mind.

To its surprise, what it found inside was not a writhing dimension of turbulent emotion ripe for the taking, but instead a quiet, neatly-organized library, with discrete bits of memory sorted into a vast file system. It was then that it realized how Star Dream’s mechanization process worked…and that it had gone through all those eons of battle for nothing. There was nothing left in Marx’s mind that interested it, so instead it decided to simply destroy the contents, keeping his catatonic body as a consolation prize.

Unbeknownst to the Master Crown, Marx’s body is still capable of surveillance, sending Star Dream information on the MC’s private confessions, doubts and fears. Star Dream never really intended for Marx to win the battle, instead hoping to grant his wish indirectly by using his remains to gather information, which would eventually contribute to the MC’s downfall by convincing it to be mechanized.

[dokidokitsuna]

Nautilus expedition live streams (+ their commentary) | 2024

[dokidokitsuna]

Life Finds a Way

Just messing around with the ‘Were-3’ concept from this post– in the “canon” of this AU, it was never Grizz’s intention for New Agent 3 to get fuzzified specifically; in fact you could even argue that he feels sorry for them, accidentally infecting themselves the way they do…

So of course my very next thought was “well, what if he DID do that to them on purpose?” ^^ It’s interesting to think about~.

Although, even in the actual canon, it’s a pretty safe bet that Mr. Grizz was doing experiments like this on at least the Octarians (even if they didn’t look quite this graphic). I assume someone had to be force-fuzzified to make sure the ooze would actually work, before he started mass-producing the stuff. :T

Anyway, even though this is just for funzies, I’m still tagging it #re_rise because that full ‘Were-3’ design will probably-definitely get used in the actual story of the AU. Sometime later. ;)

[dokidokitsuna]

Glass Houses

(So, fair warning: I am pulling this totally random idea straight from the drafts; no extra context, no explanation. I know what all the things mean and how they connect to the rest of the NeverFell AU, and maybe someday I'll take the time to explain them. But right now I just need this out of my brain like an exorcism)

++

In the distant future, long after the events of Beauty and the Beast and Diary of Penny P., Ironwood has gone missing. Clover Ebi is now the headmaster of Atlas Academy, while Caroline Cordovin has taken his place as general of the Atlas military.

The council election is still happening, with May Marigold promising to end the strike by bringing the SDC to heel (delivering justice to the Faunus and Mantle citizens), and Jacques Schnee promising to return stability to Atlas and protect the interests of the upper class. With the backing of the Atlas military and most of the prominent citizens, it looks like Jacques is gonna win…May is trying her best, but her partner Robin Hill doesn’t mind either way, and secretly plans to simply pocket the campaign funds after the whole ordeal is over, funneling the money into her underground criminal empire.

Meanwhile, the SDC is still sinking– between the worker shortage and damages caused by the increase in Dust accidents, the company in its current form may not survive the strike. But because of this, it has pivoted to research and weapons development, trying to get a handle on this new ‘magic’...and working with the government to capture existing magic users, particularly the Protector of Mantle, Cinder Fall.

Winter Schnee is at the center of this, trying to fulfill her duty as a soldier of Atlas and Cordovin’s subordinate, but still mourning the loss of Ironwood and unhappy with the status quo. She believes she could someday make a bid for the general position and turn things around…but in order to do that, she needs to somehow undermine Cordovin while maintaining her current position at the same time. And for this, she recruits her younger sister.

Weiss Schnee, the Songbird of Solitas. A popular recording star and world-class huntress, despite her relatively young age. She was disowned by her father soon after graduating from Beacon Academy, and although the ensuing drama helped to launch her singing career, she never fully recovered from the abuses of the tabloids.

She drank heavily for about a year, then pivoted to a strict combat training regimen to keep sober, leading to her many exploits in and around the kingdom of Atlas. Legend has it that she once took on a swarm of 500 Grimm single-handedly…she seems to find solace in fighting and perfecting her technique, much like she did when she was younger.

When Winter approaches her with the task of rescuing the Protector of Mantle (and potentially working alongside the Atlas chapter of the White Fang), at first Weiss is apprehensive. Although she’s unlikely to face punishment even if she’s caught, even rumored involvement with a rebellion against the Atlas government could derail her entire career, both as a celebrity and as a licensed huntress.

But after taking some time to think about it, she realizes she doesn’t care. She will always sing and she will always fight, with or without permission. And on a deeper level, this mission reminds her of the old days with Team RWBY, of trying to ‘do the right thing’ and fighting for the greater good, not just to destroy the Grimm. She had almost forgotten about that…maybe it’s not too late for her to be that rebellious girl again.

Weiss returns to Winter with her answer: she will accept the mission, and without even charging her usual fee for vigilante work. This one is on the house.

[dokidokitsuna]

HOT GIRL (preview)

So I'm working on a...fanzine, I guess. ^^; I've taken to calling it a 'design collection' just so people don't get the wrong idea about what it is-- rather than the traditional collaborative print project, this is just a bunch of art and writing by one person (me), that happens to be formatted like a digital magazine. Starring everyone's favorite hot girl, Yang Xiao Long. ^^

I've been planning this for a while; it was intended to coincide with the 'Fixing Yang' video I've also been planning for a while, although after much deliberation I'm not going to tie the projects together. Whatever gets done first gets done first; I'll either use the video to advertise the zine or just announce it again. Anyway, if you like fashion and character design, please look forward to HOT GIRL when it goes on sale on my Ko-Fi shop...sometime in the nebulous near future...

[dokidokitsuna]

The Hype Manta Storm

…Big Man designs are really difficult. ⚆‿⚆; And after all the time I spent just constructing this outfit, the color scheme threw me for another loop– see, even though Big Man’s character color is usually red, since I already used so much red on Shiver’s outfit; it would make the group look lopsided…so I decided to expand on my original rainbow idea, not placing emphasis on any color in particular. This way he’s like a “neutral” backdrop for the girls, which I assume was the intention with the canon designs.

Anyway, about his role in the AU…besides all the things I’ve said here and there in earlier posts, I think it would be neat if Big Man was a bit of an Alternan history buff; the Deep Cut member *most* interested in actually learning about its lost civilization. As he’s the last one you run into, you’ll have unlocked most of the map by the time you get to him, so he could help you out with finding more Nostalgic Devices and 100%-ing your collectibles, if you’re into that. ^^ Maybe use his special boss-fight ink to help you retrace your steps as you navigate, something like that.

So, with this done…I think I don’t have any new character designs left. ‘_’ I do plan to draw Octavio and Cuttlefish later (fingers crossed) but I doubt I’ll change much about their looks. After this, it’s just Happiness Research Lab, and then on to the rocket and the end of the story. Weird to think this AU might be over and done with this year… ^^;

[dokidokitsuna]

after rereading gone i wanted to read all your other kirby aus (+ re_rise), i knew a bit about them but not that much and.....

EATING IT ALL UP THEYRE SOOO GOOD

seriously they all inspire me so much and motivate me, the gijinkas the art the story EVERYTHING.

ddt has a deathgrip on me, mostly because i like elfilin, seeing him having a horrible time, and being really the first work of yours that captivated me.

i like rotm and deep cut but was always dissapointed on how underutilized they were and re_rise fixes all of it to me, and also neo 3 content, wich is a blessing

i dont really know why im writing this since im basically saying the same of i love your work, it inspires me to better in art and drawing but idk

anyways what do you think of forgo ^^ theyre my favoritest thing ever and i need more people to think about them

I really like getting asks like these (assuming you meant the version of Forgo that I write in DDT) because it always challenges me to reveal something new about the character in question that I haven't said yet. ^^

So I looked through my file, and I found this interesting little piece I wrote to analyze Forgo's origins and character a bit. I originally wrote it to go with some artwork that I scrapped, featuring a younger Florine "experimenting" on (read: torturing) Fecto Elfilis after they were first imprisoned. I might try it again someday...but in case I don't, here's the text:

I was just thinking that Flo is the only member of the current Lab Discovera crew who is old enough to have been working there back when Fecto Elfilis first invaded their planet. Maybe F/E’s grudge against her could stretch back longer than I initially thought…? ^^

I was also thinking about the contents of Elfilin’s hallucinations in the Dream Discoveries Tour, and what they might mean.

I mean, of course I know what they mean; I just don’t think I’ve ever really thought about them beyond “test subject horrorcore”...I never stopped to consider the emotionality of those visions, the idea that the overwhelming fear and stress that Elfilin experiences when he sees them is probably just a small slice of what Fecto Elfilis went through.

Yes, they attacked first; yes, they probably had it coming. ^^; But just because you’re evil doesn’t mean you can’t suffer. I mean, when you think about the way F/E was split up (essentially, tormented into a dissociative fugue state) and the way Fecto Forgo’s “only refuge was the realm of their dreams” (direct quote from the game!)...to me, that paints a picture of someone trapped in such a hellish environment that the only way they can go on existing is to reject their own conscious mind. Become a different person that doesn’t remember the torture; sleep so deeply that you can’t feel the pain anymore, and pray that your captors finally leave you alone.

And the fact that we’re not told what the ‘incident’ was that caused F/E to split up kinda gives me “prisoner suddenly died in their holding cell” vibes. You’d think such a dramatic event would be important enough to explain a little more, but it’s just glossed over…as if the researchers don’t actually care. Like the test subject wasn’t even considered a valuable resource to them, it was just a fancy toy, and when it finally broke they decided they’d played with it enough anyway. Which fits with the way FF is portrayed as something “forgotten” and “abandoned” rather than purposely hidden or sealed away…

Basically, there’s a lot of little details that suggest to me that F/E was not treated humanely during their stay at the lab. ^^; A premise subtly baked into the story of DDT as a whole…

[dokidokitsuna]

Bring it In

[dokidokitsuna]

Howdy, Neighbor

Yuuka and Rinnosuke are like foils in this AU– Rin is generally antisocial and kinda just tolerates Reimu and friends, but genuinely cares about them and frequently donates items that will help them. Meanwhile, Yuuka is sweet to them and openly invites them to spend time at his store…but only with the intention of learning their habits and weaknesses.

Both are ‘magic’ shop owners who wield a lot of influence within the Dyad community, although Rinnosuke is better established and does a lot more business, thanks to his powers. Yuuka hopes to become his friend and take advantage of this, but it seems…unlikely

[dokidokitsuna]

been rereading all the gone posts and god do i love that au. it really inspires me to better my writing and art skills

Thank you; that truly is one of the nicest things a mature artist could ever want to hear~

Here, have a present: