what-about-sex-stories

[thosetrollkids]

MONSTOBER: DESIGNS

Part 1: Teen Cast!

HELLOOOOO everybody! Welcome to my project, Monstober! A series of several posts with large, in depth looks at different aspects of my AU, Monster Kids, that I wrote during October this year. Special thanks to @eurazba for listening to me ramble over all this and helping with the AU over the years <3

This post will be going over the general monster designs for notable teen characters, as well as some thoughts as to why I chose said designs :D

There will be a second post for the main adult cast, and once posted, you can find it linked here :)

Jim / Toby / Claire

Jim Lake Jr (Sphinx): It's him! The poster boy! Wahoo! Honestly, I don't have many notes for his design process, because his design has stayed relatively similar since the early drafts. His was the very first design, and other than being a typical lion/eagle sphinx for like. two drawings, and then a panther/blackbird for two more, once the snow leopard/blue jay combo was struck, he's only really changed in small ways. I chose a blue jay, because they're one of my favorite birds, they're blue, and I'd used them to be an accent to Jim in a previous drawing. Snow leopards are also my favorite big cat! So similar reasoning for that particular aspect. If I were to design him today, blank slate, I miiiight have changed his cat species, but I still am way too attached to the leopard/jay combo.

Toby Domzalski (Gargoyle): Toby's design also hasn't changed much! The main trio haven't, other than minor adjustments. He originally had yellow eyes, but they're back to standard green. He also used to have larger wings, and while I liked the idea of the main three being able to fly together, I decided to go with a different route as I leaned into his design looking more aquatic, and he instead has wing shaped back fins! They fold down and sit under his clothes, as he only really can use them while swimming.

Claire Nuñez (Harpy) Also another design I haven't changed since conception! Harpies were always something cool to me, and I was inspired by an illustration of harpies in a mythology book I had bought at the time. Her design was originally just 'bird' until I tired to find a more specific species that fit. I landed on barn owls, and coincidentally, they are also associated with brujeria/witchcraft in Mexico! Win-win. With her stronger connection to magic overall, she's also the only member of Team Trollhunter that can fly reliably; her magic feeds her energy enough to keep in the air (Jim's wings are too small for anything besides light gliding and cushioning falls).

Steve / Eli / Krel / Aja

Steve Palchuk (Faun): Steve's design was always pretty formed in my head. For the guy that tries so very hard to be an all-American boy, an icon of that is the whitetail deer buck, and it very quickly fell into place! His design is fairly simple, which is why it works so well for him, IMO. Fun fact, he has a set of scars on his cheek from the equivalent of the fight he had with Jim in S1. More to expand on in a later comic, >:3c

Eli Pepperjack (Bat Humanoid): Eli was actually also a sphinx originally, but I wanted Jim to stay fairly unique among the main teens, so my follow up design was something more batlike! I did do plenty of research for monster bats, or hybrid bat monsters, but what research I could do didn't produce much (then again, could always be wrong!), so I went with 'attributes'. He's based on a Little Brown Bat. He little >:) His wings are also not capable of flight, they're basically large hands, all the better to hunt down creepers with, my dear.

Krel & Aja Tarron (Amphibious humanoids): WAHOOOOO!!!! I'm very proud of these, because you have NO IDEA how many months I struggled to find a design I liked for them. They have been (checks notes) spidertaurs, a few other passes of various insectoid tries, I was going to attempt something more seal like, because I knew the main group's designs were already mammal-heavy, and something aquatic or insectoid was what I wanted to balance the group out. Then my beloved @eurazba, listening to me ramble one night, helped me come to the idea of their 'human' transductions looking closer to old monster movies! Creature from Black Lagoon was an easy pick, I did some research about CFBL and Shape of Water (thanks Del Toro), and bada bing, bada boom! My fishy twins! Also Krel is the only one wearing shoes. Just realized this...

Mary / Darci / Shannon

Mary Wang (Dryad): Mary has also gone through a lot of changes (turns out, I was very indecisive outside of the main trio, AJDJSBSJFHB). She was actually a -taur alongside Darci! Specifically a unitaur (saw a lot of alternate Monster Falls art of Mabel Pines as one, and I really liked the idea. The overall AU was inspired by the Gravity Falls AU, now you know!) She stayed that for a while, then also went through some bug-like redesigns, and then a couple months back, I decided on a dryad! Before that point, I was trying to stay strictly to animalistic monster designs, but it became a little too confining, so she exploded into my sketchbook and became real. Her tree is a california redbud, and her 'antlers' are like the branches of the tree, and leaves/flowers bloom in time with the season on them. The hooves were based on a Zelda design from an artist I liked a lot (truffe.art on IG!)

Darci Scott (Praying Mantis-taur): HERE COMES THE BUG PAYOFF. Some of you may remember my design for Darci hasn't changed for quite some time, and while I liked the look of the cervitaur (a centaur, but deer), it didn't feel... as unique as I wanted? And I was still missing my BUG. So, debating over this, I did a few passes of her mixed with a bee, spider, etc etc... and then once again, @eurazba was like "hey! praying mantis." and I fell in LOVE with the concept. (Very quickly sketched her up as I was doing these sheets, actually NDJSNJKJD)

Shannon Longhannon (Gorgon): Last design of the group, another that has hardly changed since conception. Nagas, gorgons, lamias- whatever they're called, I love the visual of a reptilian character slinking around gracefully, and she helped balance out all the mammalian designs as well. She was originally a typical green/yellow snake, but when I inevitably color her, I picture something more ruddy, reddish brown, to match her hair :) She indeed is able to turn someone to stone, but as she was not born a gorgon, this ability is dulled, and only lasts for a few hours, working only if she focuses completely on doing so to someone. She's taken to wearing shades more often to not scare people who don't know this.

[a-dumbass-jester]

I need to push my transfem Michael hc more

[heartorbit]

searching for a star that's still unknown to anyone!

[skcirthinq]

Sooooooo. Uh. Funny story.

I may have. Hypothetically.

Made a piece of each of @alicat54cwriting and @amevello-blue 's Pawn's Gambit kids wearing their masks and using their ninpo.

And then. Hypothetically! I may have done a series for each of them with different backgrounds and eye effects and power effects.

And if I did do that, then this would be

Davinci!

Davinci-- Simoni-- Sanzio-- Bardi-- Group

Backgrounds1--backgrounds2

Transparent Davinci-- Simoni-- Sanzio-- Bardi

[hallwyeoo]

Ellie’s memory of the golfing scene and what it tells us about her.

🚨spoilers for tlou2🚨

I think Ellie’s flashback to Joel’s death is very telling of how she internalized the event and the meaning she applied to his death. It’s also a good demonstration of her relationship to autonomy. Let’s break down the elements that were inconsistent with the actual event:

The stairs/hallway are much longer than they were. This suggests a sense of helplessness, an inability to get there fast enough. Joel is constantly out of reach.

There is blood on the floor outside of the door. Not entirely certain on this one but my hunch is that she blames herself for not seeing more obvious signs of violence/not knowing something was wrong sooner.

The door is locked, another roadblock in her path to Joel. She can’t access him, she can’t help, he needs her and she isn’t there.

Most importantly. Joel yells “Ellie, help me” (which he didn’t in the actual scene, he just screams. He doesn’t say a word in the actual scene)

Ellie hearing Joel scream for her help, calling for her while being horribly beaten, and her being repeatedly impeded on her way to him suggests that what she took away from his death is that she wasn’t enough. They always helped each other, always had each others backs, always got up. Ellie views his death as a failure. She was too slow, too weak, not smart enough to save him. She failed him when he needed her most. She is absolutely helpless to save him, just like she was helpless to save Riley, Tess, Sam, and Jessie (and Marlene, and humanity, and and and-).

Once again, Ellie makes a decision (staying with Riley, going to the fireflies, staying with Joel, being the cure, trying to forgive Joel) and once again her autonomy and ability to find closure is ripped from her.

This is the inciting incident of tlou pt2, this is the moment where Ellie’s whole world shatters the same way Joel’s did at the start of pt1. Ellie enters into the same cycle (which I like to call the “Joel cycle” because… yeah.) that he did, and throughout pt2 she stays in the “20 years later” phase of the cycle. She is changed, she has lost her light, lost what she fought for. She lost her chance to genuinely forgive Joel and rebuild their relationship. She is stuck in a gruelling and violent world that she has no anchor in, at least not anymore. His death is so sudden and so incredibly violent that it practically gave her (and me as well, tbh) whiplash. She’s in a state of total shock.

On another devastating note, this is one of the three times in tlou that we see Ellie beg (that I remember). The first is begging Joel to get up at the university of Eastern Colorado, the second is begging him to get up and for Abby to stop, and the third is begging Abby to not kill Dina because she’s pregnant. (Two times she begs Joel to get up, one time he doesn’t. Two times she begs Abby to spare her family and one time she does. What a beautifully haunting contrast)

To wrap up, every person creates an internal narrative, a story of their life that is crafted from their context and lived experiences. The meaning we derive from those experiences doesn’t always reflect the truth, and that can sometimes bite us in the ass majorly when we experience a traumatic event. We tend to want to find someone or something to assign blame to, some reason or rationale to why it happened. We tell stories. We write them in our minds about ourselves and what happens to us and what that says about us.

But Ellie is wrong. Joel’s death happened in response to a conscious and willing choice he made. It is in no way her fault, and there was absolutely no way for her to know or to stop what was happening. I think Ellie knows that much on an intellectual level, It just doesn’t change how devastated she is over the whole event. It can’t change the fact that she FEELS as though this was all her fault, that Joel did what he did to save her, that she could have saved him. That she should have.

[skunkes]

really truly genuinely in top 5 of favorite character designs of all time

[jrueships]

Do you have any ocs? You play 2k?

i did play 2k!!!! i mean.. i play 2k13 2k bcs it has pg and it's offline bcs im unwell and love the dying out practice of inviting ppl over to play games still but 😭 it still counts, right?? anyhow! im not a big oc guy, like i don't have a lot of them or my own universe of them, but im also not a self insert kinda guy (no shade to anyone who is any of this, i think it's all rlly cool and wish i had to creativity to do so as well!) so i kinda just made this dude

his first name is THE and his last name is SHRIMP, and he's like 5'3 . He's number 11 on the raptors and i made him solely to cause a rift in kyle/demar for ship drama (it's ok tho bcs he only makes kyle/demar stronger by being an evil division) (plus his girlfriend is denver levins so he rlly just kinda tried breaking kyle/demar up as a social experiment or smthing idk he's insane)

[torgawl]

i keep thinking about how “is this what justice means to you, answer me neuvillette”, despite having been used in a case all those hundred of years ago, was probably a question that haunted - and still haunts - neuvilette during the entire time he has been chief of justice. i keep thinking about how they highlighted his struggles through time with both carole and wriothesley's trials. how guilty and powerless neuvillette must have felt for not being able to support and save those he recognised as vulnerable and victims before a system that corrupted their fates but that he wasn't able to change despite his position. the theme of being a casualty of a system no matter if you're the victim or the perpetrator in its eyes. the way neuvillette took, in both cases, things into his own hands. even if it was too late to fix the hurting carole and those who cared for her went through, even if it was too late to save her life; even if it was impossible to change wriothesley's past, his verdict and subsequent imprisonment; neuvillette went above and beyond, making use of his influence, to allow both melusines and wriothesley the opportunity of a better future - to melusines by making sure they weren't discriminated, to wriothesley by supporting his attempt at a second chance in life. i think part of the reason he's so intriguing is our awareness that this internal conflict he's bound to have is so complex. you have a chief of justice, or a judge, that is supposed to be imparcial and follow the law stictly confronted with situations of social injustice, unable to protect those who rely on him. you have someone who understands better than anyone what it means to be an outcast, being able to relate to those who are ostracised and have their pain weaponise against them. you have, in vautrin's case, a friend who cannot even showcase his own pain and is still expected to fullfil his juridical duties despite being personally related with those involved in the case. someone who people constantly turn to but whom he feels like he has no right to turn to himself. it's about the conflict between his feelings and his duty, between what's expected of him and what he can actually do. i think that's why the end of his story quest is so emotional and why it's so heartwarming to have him realise he isn't an outcast anymore, that he has a community there for him too. because a system is a system and he will probably never be able to save everyone, because yes he isn't human, but it doesn't mean he doesn't deserve to belong or that an active demonstration of love towards individuals and people he can relate to rather than the theoretical concept of humanity isn't meaningful. in fact, i'd it's a lot about that, about finding ways to be kind and how community gives meaning to life; how personal relationships and targeted kindness can shape society, or at least i think so

[shimmerluna]

i do think there's probably something suspicious about the way everyone loves Ca$h and Quinni and their depth while essentially reducing Darren to their shared supporting character and/or the sassy black woman(/person in this case) stereotype, but I feel somewhat hypocritical bringing it up

[icharchivist]

ok im sharing because it's been my theory for years and i was surprised when i realized it's not something i really see in the fandom? (granted i do avoid the fandom a bit but i've been lurking since da4 was announced)

But i'm like. convinced. deep in my bones. that the Nightmare Demons in DAI is actually Fear from Dirthamen's codex entry. And Envy is Deceit.

they're also mentioned in Falon'Din's codex entry like this:

Nightmare's realm is full of the Crow's status we usually see in Kirkwall, which would make sense to link to Dirthamen. (also note how the first pieces of Red Lyrium and Corypheus himself are found under Kirkwall, which has adopted the Double Raven's Iconography as its own. Note also that the Lost Temple of Dirthamen is on the other side of the sea, nearby the Free Marches, possibly implying the Free Marches used to be Dirthamen's domain -- especially since Inquisition calls the Double Raven's aesthetics "Free Marches" in the decor settings).

Yet we're in Orlais, and while the Fade does what the Fade does, it's odd to see this iconography here after we associated it to the Free Marches for so long. Unless it represents Dirthamen's minions even more so than the Free Marches. (especially since otherwise we see the Double Raven in Elven Ruins or, even more accurately so, in the Shattered Library, place of Knowledge (which is credited to Dirthamen), in which "Librarians" are currently turned into Terror Demons alike to Nightmare.)

Nightmare's realm is also where we find that one codex that is most likely about the Evanuris talking through the Blight:

Nightmare=Fear makes so much sense to me. It's a Fear Demon. It has knowledge of the Blight, the ravens are everywhere in this realm, and this codex would suggest it is working with Corypheus because it knows it can help the Evanuris be freed one day.

Meanwhile the other demon who actively helps Corypheus is Envy, from the Champion of the Just questline. A Demon who physically approaches the appearance of Terror Demons, who swap its appearances to look like the people it envies, deceiving people all around in order to start shit. In COTJ the Bad Future is told to us by Envy showing what it intends to do once it takes our appearance- making US be the one person to deceive our allies to do Corypheus' bidding.

in the myth, Fear and Deceit were left without master to wander the Fade and prey on the souls of the Deads. The idea that they could be lurking, waiting for someone with whom they could team up?

And who's best to help the ex-representant of Dumat, God Of Silence, than the two minions of the God Of Secrets?

[no1ryomafan]

Very stupid getter thing I’m thinking about as it’s such a minor detail but my brain is circling around how color is used in the series, more specifically for the robot.

Color palettes for your badass giant robot mean everything but the color choices in Getter are *very* important as it was the first-and few-robots to have multiple different forms in one, and are all compromised of jets to make the robot.

The designs needed to be consistent with this aspect, having the Getters color palette use all three individual colors of the jets. What’s noteworthy about the colors used is the robots almost follow using the primary colors of red, blue and yellow, but the blue is swapped out for white. This was likely due to a better color balance, as while the primary colors would work if the robots weren’t individually joined but still a group, keeping in mind the concept of how they form from jets the blue would likely clash too much with red and yellow, where as white makes it all smoothly come together.

Nearly every Getter set since tries to follow this tradition of using red, white and yellow in there palettes, but aside from a few obvious exceptions for Getters that were meant to stick out-like Neo/Go, as that robot doesn't run on getter rays so the palette was changed drastically to reflect its nature-the most obvious example of a traditional Getter breaking this tradition and going for blue over white is Getter Robo G.

While each and every Getter has its own factors to stand out and differentiate itself, the G line for simply having one small color change really sets it apart. Especially with its OG design above, it’s hard to not notice its version of Getter Two (Liger) had a color change that affects the whole palette. So people either love or hate G for this, even if later takes of its design like Armageddon, try to tweak the colors to be more visually appealing by keeping it strictly to the main color of the respective jet. (This also carrying over for Shin Getter in the show)

But why do I mention any of this? Well I was in fact thinking about this regarding Arma and Getter 2, but less on the actual designs itself and more so a rather small yet likely intentional detail: How Kei is associated with the color blue before it’s even shown that she pilots Shin Liger. From her own promo art with Shin 2 having her being colored in blue despite Go and Gais colors being their respective robot, to her pilot suits having blue shoulder pads to match with Liger, which we see before the robot even appears. (Yes I’m using a SRW art instead of a show shot, just deal with it lol)

This is such a small detail but the team likely had probably a rough idea of what to do with Shin Dragon, so seeing them giving small hints to the viewer-albeit one has to see a art of this prior to know lol-before it even happens is pretty cool. Just goes to show how much insane detail Getter has across its series.

[necrotic-nephilim]

just read the lobotomy fic and i adore the way you write all the characters. i relate to tim already but the way you write him was like you lobotomies me and out my brain guts on the page. please tell me you have more

thank you so much! i'm glad you loved it! it's delightful to know the fic was... immersive in that was, lol. it was fun to write!

i do have other dead dove fics you can find on my masterlist here, but that fic is the only lobotomy fic i have. i have plans for a lot more dead dove-esque fics i'm working on to come out hopefully soonish, though none of them are going to feature lobotomies. i might add more to that fic though, i've got some ideas i want to explore, but there's so many other things i'm working on first. i have a whole rough schedule of fics to work on. but if people really like the lobotomy fic™ i can definitely prioritize writing more for the universe! or other lobotomy fics in general, i've got some other vague ideas in that vein.

[kirinoha]

.

[ereborne]

Song of the Day: May 14

"Diamond on a Landmine” by Billy Talent

[i3utterflyeffect]

5, 17, 20 (for the music asks ^^)

5: a song that needs to be played LOUD

take your pick of most of my vocaloid songs tbh!!!! there's a big selection of songs i love playing loud and rocking to but off the top of my head, there's:

COMFORT ZONE

SCAPEG♾️AT

Reckless Battery Burns

Splitter Girl

She Could Be Satan For All I Know

Animalistic

and not a vocaloid song but also DOGWALK!

be aware that DOGWALK has some pretty gratuitous profanity though! it's not something that bothers me but i don't want someone blasting it in a conservative household and getting yelled at for playing something that's filled to the brim with profanity (bitch, whore, ass, shit, etc. etc.)

while i'm mentioning that, also, animalistic also has swearing but a lot less than DOGWALK, and Splitter Girl contains some self-harm connotations, so just. be safe yk? 👍

17: A song that would sing a duet with on karaoke

can't find it on penny's channel but TOTALLY has to be I.D!!! Penny Parker is a really good artist and it was really exciting to find out she made music since I knew her from a lot of other stuff too! you probably know her too, she's one of the voice actors in Real Time Fandub, which is obv kind of famous here lmao

i totally recommend her stuff, she's got a great sense of humor and makes incredible content; she's on Youtube as Snapcube and on tumblr at snapscube! (no i'm not tagging her it'd be humiliating for her to see me nerding out over this lmao)

she's one of the first trans people i discovered in content creation and it definitely put me on the right path towards accepting my community. i was going down the t*rf pipeline as a kid and seeing her made me think about the things i was being told more critically, because she's someone I had (and always will) admire for her skills and her good-humored nature. I think if I hadn't been snapped out of it I would have been a much more horrible person and I'm genuinely so thankful that i rediscovered her content at that time.

ANYWAY sappy stuff abt being trans over. please search up snapcube if you want to subscribe to her on youtube bc unfortunately if you search her name she's buried by the spiderverse character

20: A song that has many meanings to you

i don't really feel like talking about it in-depth but Non-breath Oblige is a song that means a lot to me, even if it was acutely painful to listen to while I was depressed. I feel a little more hopeful listening to it nowadays so I think that's good :]

(note: this song does contain mentions of suicidal ideation, so please listen safely!)

there is ofc also the song Rät but that also holds some heavy connotations to me that i don't want to explain--

[helladventurers]

(long negative rant, be aware)

I think i'm starting to pinpoint one of the biggest reasons I can't really connect with the plot of botw and totk anymore 😫 and it's because I'm really tired of the "peaceful world whose entire source of conflict can all be pinned into a single, cartooningly evil individual/organization" trope

I'm rewatching some fire emblem playthroughs, another series who relies on that plot narrative too much, and it's exhausting to me 🫠 I thought that totk was a step down from botw plot wise, but it's really Nintendo's incapability and refusal to evolve and to make stories more complex than bog standard "evil always falls and light destroys darkness" kinda stories