littleredstory

[littleredstory]

Okay this is the last Art Fight attack I'm posting, it was a lot of funnn and I did 19 attacks (I did 9 last year!)

This one is Poppy (my little guy!) and Lily (Debbiecakes1400s little girl!) having a delightful tea party :]

[littleredstory]

Okay she doesn't have a name yet but I needed to do a rough concept for this character, she is an indie game developer that made an unexpectedly MEGA successful game but nobody knows she is a fairy. Online she just pretends she is her human partner who legally gets all the money but gives it to her, so she has more of it than she knows what to do with. She's one of the biggest financial supporters of helping fairies and getting others what they need but she treads a fine line.

She's mentioned only in passing in Little Red (Russel and Maximum Power both play the game she made) but if I continue the story she'd become quite important.

[littleredstory]

Initially I was gonna do a simple background but I never got around to it, here they are anyways having a cuddle. Rus and Max are close good friends

[littleredstory]

!!! THERE HE ISSS!! THE FELLA THE SPECIALEST GUY!!! he's perfecttt thank you sooo much <3 during Art Fight Poppy thrives

Poppy belongs to @aperfecta / @littleredstory love him, little fella ever

[littleredstory]

what they don't tell you is that you can literally just do this

[littleredstory]

'Little Red' Warrior Cats AU

Russetwing: a tall but scrawny tom with poor stamina, he begrudgingly accepted being unable to become a warrior alongside his brother and, after being injured, took on the role of medicine cat. He's timid and reserved but will stand up for what he believes is right.

Echofall: his clan was hesitant to "indulge" his decision to be a tom but, ultimately, he's so competent at his duties that it really doesn't matter if he's a boy or a girl. He's strong, stubborn, and fiery- but he has a soft spot for his little brother Russetwing, who initially struggled with his place in the clan and doubt from his clanmates.

Poppykit: found by Russetwing on the brink of death, it seems he was a kittypet that was tormented and discarded. While some questioned the decision to spend time and effort saving him instead of putting the kit out of his misery, Russetwing heard none of it, and Poppykit was adopted as he and Echofall's little brother of sorts. He's fearful and shy on top of being a runt. There is still an air of uncertainty around the young cat and what his 'purpose' will be.

Thornpool: a strong, level-headed cat with patience to go around. They are the deputy and well-liked amongst the clan. It's no secret that Thornpool and Echofall are interested in one another, but Thornpool must balance their position and respect with their pursuit of love. Echofall's brother was not the most popular cats in his youth, and Echofall accepted nothing less than kindness and loyalty towards Russetwing.

Raven: she is jaded and bitter despite her young age, her self-appointed name changing as often as her moods. She and her adopted brother Magnus are rogues living just past the edge of the clan's territory, but life is hard with just the two of them to support one another. Raven is particularly untrusting and hostile towards outsiders, and she considers everyone but Magnus to be an outsider.

Magnus: a massive cat with a bright heart, though he admits that Raven is the brains of their duo. He envies the clan cats and their social lives, his curiosity leading to a fateful meeting with Thornpool. It's a long and hard battle to get the two to join the clan (which would benefit from Magnus's raw muscle and Raven's quick wit) but Thornpool is patient. Magnus goes out of his way to pick up supplies for Russetwing whenever he can, play-fighting and teaching Poppykit in his free time.

Size comparison:

[littleredstory]

I cannot stop drawing warrior cats!!! Poppykit is a kittypet that was hurt very badly and then discarded, Echofall finds him and brings him back to Russetwing (medicine cat) and even though everybody else in the clan has reservations about trying to save a kitten (a kittypet, no less) as badly hurt as Poppy is, Russetwing says "okay well I don't care" (he sees himself in the little guy) and more or less adopts him.

Thornpool (Jessie) admittedly has very little going on in the AU at this point but I wanted to design them anyway :] I think they would find Max and Jade (whatever their names end up being) as ex-kittypets barely scraping by and eventually convince them to join the clan. I have created quite the open and progressive Warrior Cats clan LMAO

[littleredstory]

Okay I made a Warrior Cat AU for Russel and Stan and here's the good version where they both live (Russel becomes a medicine cat bc he's too sick for warrior duties):

And here's the version where Russel dies as an underappreciated apprentice (saving his clan from a dog) and Stan becomes disillusioned and decides he'll become the leader so nobody else ever has to die like his little brother did, to the point that when he does meet his goal the only cat there to give him his lives is Russel, who says "hey, love you, but you gotta let go at least a little bit. I'm okay."

[littleredstory]

Do bat ponies get cutie marks? Well, in any case, this is my oc Maximum Power as a horse!

[littleredstory]

HOT OFF THE PRESSES (my notebook)

Improved Jessie horse. Still haven't thought of a MLP name for them, though...

The power was out because of all the nasty wind storms and I was forced to engage in offline activities. So here is Poppy!

And Jessie as a My Little Pony, of course. WIP cause I'm not entirely happy with it but someday...

[littleredstory]

The power was out because of all the nasty wind storms and I was forced to engage in offline activities. So here is Poppy!

And Jessie as a My Little Pony, of course. WIP cause I'm not entirely happy with it but someday...

[littleredstory]

I love drawing himb. I forgot his lil chin fluff I'm just now realizing!!

in another original story of mine (that's been orbiting my brain for like a decade but is not entirely fleshed out haha, it's where my OC Akira originates) there's magic and the main characters are shapeshifters- and one of my favorite "I'm laying down for bed, time to Imagine the Scenarios!" scenarios is putting other OCs into that world.

There's versions where Stan, Russel, and Poppy get isekai'd there and become shapeshifters and others where Stan and Rus get AU'd like they were always there but, anyway, they're all mythical Sphinx-looking dudes and I felt like drawing Russel last night.

Defining features: big ass paws. CAN walk upright but usually on all fours. Wings bc I think it's cool. Mane is a different texture than the fur. All 3 of them look like this, Poppy just doesn't have a mane and Stan is a lot bulkier (if I refined the drawing Russel would look much scrawnier lol) and clothes are ??? I feel like they'd want clothes but idk how to put pants on a sphinx LOL sorry dudes Pantsless Time

All the mages/shapeshifters in the story have a color of magic, so Rus gets indigo, Stan's is yellow, and Poppy gets pink magic <3

[littleredstory]

Last week my friends came over and I dug out a MLP coloring book and we colored. Well they colored, I was just drawing

[littleredstory]

in another original story of mine (that's been orbiting my brain for like a decade but is not entirely fleshed out haha, it's where my OC Akira originates) there's magic and the main characters are shapeshifters- and one of my favorite "I'm laying down for bed, time to Imagine the Scenarios!" scenarios is putting other OCs into that world.

There's versions where Stan, Russel, and Poppy get isekai'd there and become shapeshifters and others where Stan and Rus get AU'd like they were always there but, anyway, they're all mythical Sphinx-looking dudes and I felt like drawing Russel last night.

Defining features: big ass paws. CAN walk upright but usually on all fours. Wings bc I think it's cool. Mane is a different texture than the fur. All 3 of them look like this, Poppy just doesn't have a mane and Stan is a lot bulkier (if I refined the drawing Russel would look much scrawnier lol) and clothes are ??? I feel like they'd want clothes but idk how to put pants on a sphinx LOL sorry dudes Pantsless Time

All the mages/shapeshifters in the story have a color of magic, so Rus gets indigo, Stan's is yellow, and Poppy gets pink magic <3

[littleredstory]

Giving characters little quirks is sooooo much fun... what can I say... I am not immune to giving characters fun little things they do...

Russel gives everybody nicknames. Poppy has a hundred (Popcorn, Pop Top, Floppy Poppy, when he's practicing the alphabet he's Scholar Popular), Jessie becomes 'Jess' immediately, Max is 'MP' or 'Beefcake' and Jade is 'Jay Dee'

He doesn't call his brother any nicknames, though, only 'Stan' or 'bro.' Maybe that's because Stan is already short for Stanley... or maybe it's bc Russel, in the deeply unhealthy state he was in when Stan came out to him, initially struggled with deadnaming Stan outright or with old nicknames. And even though Stan was always very patient and understanding bc he knew Russel was going thru a lot and had no experience with queer etiquette and spaces, Rus sure as hell beat himself up for it every single time. And maybe it's been years since that's happened and Russel's brain is Properly Conditioned now, but at this point it's been so long since he called his brother anything but 'Stan' that he doesn't want to mess it up. Like he always does.

And y'know maybe Stan notices this and it makes him really deeply and profoundly sad but he's too scared of upsetting Russel to bring it up.

FUN LITTLE QUIRKSSSSS <3

[littleredstory]

A bit of a "thinking out loud" post but one thing that is not currently in Little Red that I've been considering adding is Flashbacks.

(For context, Russel and Stan are estranged from their parents and never want to see either of them again. Things are rough with just the two of them and no real support network, but its established pretty early in that whatever hardships come from that are much preferred over how things were before they moved out together)

I think the closest thing to a flashback that happens is Stan having a very vague dream about the past, and initially I decided not to put in flashbacks to their life before because... well, mostly because they BOTH very much want to forget and move on, and I think through the story it's established that something Bad Happened and at a certain point its pretty obvious what that Thing was. I guess, in my mind, by not having flashbacks it's a bit of suspense involving what actually happened... but like, a flashback obviously doesn't NEED to explain exactly what happened, and I don't want to write any part of the actual Singular Terrible Event bc, in my mind, it works better as these little puzzle pieces that slowly but surely come together to be like. Wow. That sucks!

Outside of the story and just for some character development reasons, I did actually write a flashback after the Bad Thing and before the two moved out where Stan initially comes out to Russel. When I go back and read it, it does hit kind of hard.

So I'm a little torn between the narrative of "there aren't flashbacks because they are both in the PRESENT and don't want to even THINK about before" and the narrative of "here's small snippets of what it was like so you can understand how bad some of it was and WHY both of them are happy to be where they are." I'm doing mental math on what version of this is more appealing to a reader, like I want some stuff to be vague and some stuff to be obvious but man I don't know what's more COMPELLING for the characters. The reason for Stan's vague dream (the only thing even close to a flashback) is to establish that whatever happened was REALLY BAD and that Stan, even more than Russel, has not gotten over how traumatic it was even if he pretends to.

SIGH I dunno, just writing down some thoughts! There are things that complicate the flashback idea (namely that any flashback before a certain point would have to dance around misgendering/deadnaming Stan, which I would prefer to avoid and I'm sure I could do so with a lil creative finagling, and also that I don't want to give their parents names or characters bc they're not ever gonna make an appearance even if they are important to how Stan and Russel turned out) sooo yeah I'm just yapping!

[littleredstory]

i didn't know what to draw so I drew Russel being slight sad. then i thought "i should draw Stan too" but he got the short end of the sadness stick and I drew him instead going thru the worst moment of his life. damn.