#but the imagery was too strong and i wanted to draw a colorful little frog so bad

[sourscratched]

sometimes you make good life choices. and other times you spend hours making a silly little video about a frog in an offbook song

(⚠️ mild eye strain and rapid images in the middle just as a heads up ⚠️)

[nightklok]

Abigail for the ask meme!

YES OF COURSE

1) Uncommon headcanon about them I am deeply attached to. 

She’s autistic, just undiagnosed until she hangs around Nathan and realizes her similarities with him and then she figures it out  

And also love the idea of her sharing a braincell with Dethklok sometimes. No one can hang around dethklok in a room with them for a long time and at least not do one stupid thing with them. One day I’ll write that fic where she assembles IKEA furniture with them and it ends with them all setting it on fire. One day.

2) Widely-held headcanon about them that I reject. 

I feel like the same answer for Nathan kinda sums it up best-

But also I don’t think she’d blame Nathan for what happened because it’s not inherently his fault when’s all said and done? I dunno but just blaming a person for another person’s actions is just...no. <3 I feel while the dethdinner scene is used as the reason for it being ‘Nathan’s fault Abigail got kidnapped’, I don’t think the placement of where Abigail sat in the funeral really would’ve changed regardless. She was just in the wrong place at the wrong time; they just treated the funeral as a stab one, get one kinda deal. 

I dunno I feel like a lot of this has to do with me and probably this is my philosophy on forgiveness/not forgiving but I don’t think she’d really be all that angry. At first, yes, but I think there would be things she’d realize where she is just as much of a victim as everyone else is in the prophecy; Toki was kidnapped and hurt, and eventually, everyone will have to go fight against someone they have never had knowledge of prior. They have powers they can’t control, a role that she can’t imagine anyone having especially that late in life, and well, I think she’d inherently forgive and still be a great person. Forgiving a person can make you a better person but also not forgiving a person makes you a better person as well.  It’s all about doing things at your own pace and seeing what you think will make you a better person. There are people I will never forgive in my lifetime but I use that as fuel to not be that kind of person and there are people that I forgive but I use what they did as fuel to be a better person. I feel like people forget that especially with her but forgiving them won’t make her a weaker person, she’s just doing her own thing at her own pace!

3) What were they like as a kid? What was their early life like? 

I don’t think I’d use this personally for my fics but I like the idea of her having maybe one or two older brothers and how she really rough-housed with them, learning to fight and actually be a strong person! She really gives me that vibe of ‘growing up with older brothers’ type and I wouldn’t be surprised. The music business is a cutthroat business and she’s prepared for that!

I do think she was a rather outspoken kid though, absolutely willing to pick a fight and comes home with lots of scrapes and bruises. She feels like the type of kid to know her way around woods, collect rocks and bugs, probably had a pet frog,, summon demons in school yards, have a great friend group, and just live the childhood that she deserves!

4) Symbols/motifs that I associate with them–colors, animals, zodiac signs, mythic themes, imagery, objects, etc. 

Ohhh man because I ship her with Nathan, it really helped me figure out her symbolism. I feel like she’s a water god too in a sense, but her powers might be used for negative purposes compared to Nate if she doesn’t control them well. After all, she had gone through a bit and it’d be easy to give in and allow the world to be destroyed but she won’t because she’s learned to control it and learned to let go of things. 

I also love to associate with her the ocean and just the sunsets/sunrises that come right after a storm. There’s a feeling there that I can’t quite describe but I love it and it reminds me of her.

5) Other characters or types of people I have in mind when I draw and/or write them. 

If I have to be honest I don’t think I have other people in mind because she’s the person I’d have in mind when writing someone else!

6) What I project onto them when I draw and/or write them. 

I feel like it’s the whole forgiveness/not forgiveness, learning to cope with trauma, and even learning that it’s okay to fall in love with men as bisexual person! 

I feel like quarantine really brought out the worst of trauma because I was suppressing stuff I shouldn’t have for years but I had no real outlet. Crying on discord vent chats, even going as far as publicly admitting my SA on a post because people REALLY need to be leashed at times on what content they create-what a mess these past few months were sfdljk This is basically all public now whether I like it or not and I feel like in a sense, Abigail kinda has to go through with that too. Even though people may know her as a kidnap victim much like Toki and the communities of support are definitely welcomed, there are times where you just wanna pack everything and leave and drive to somewhere where you can fully start over. I feel like she would have that kind of situation and maybe she does but ends up realizing that it’s not the healthiest way to cope with trauma so she ends up coming back and does agree to actually get proper help. It’s so easy to run away, get angry but not change anything, and other things but the first step is recognizing you’re hurt and then getting help. It goes a long way.

Abigail is my therapy in a sense but that’s basically why I don’t want to write her as this angry, unforgiving person even if she does have a right. It feels like I’d be taking steps back personally on where I am and sometimes, you do need to let anger go and try to move on to other things. besides, there are other writers who may have written similar things and chosen to have her not forgive and leave them which is great! It’s just not my cake but I know that the cake i’m making is probably something others would like to try too. 

One day I’ll finish that fic where Dethklok represents the five stages of grief and their interaction with her. ONE DAY I SWEAR-

7) A surprising hobby, interest, or phobia they have.

Her hobby is trying to convince Charles to not release that rap album as his debut album, she’s trying-

She has a fear of water because I really love the deeper meaning of that when pairing her up with Nathan, someone who probably lives in water and the fact she must go into the water at a point with him. She will conquer the fear but I like the idea of her representing the darkest parts of water but it’s up to her on whether or not she will become the darkest parts of the water or learn to control the waves. 

I think also Abigail being a plant mom like @wumbo-calling mentioned is such a good idea. She has her own little green room full of various plants, she can even grow fruits and just makes smoothies or cakes out of them it’s great! :D 

[fantroll-purgatory]

World: Alternia

Name: Erenyx Erixck (Try saying that 3 times fast)

Age: 8 sweeps

Theme/Story: Since her hatching, Erenyx has been very intelligent. Unfortunately, she’s also batshit crazy. Erenyx gives off an aura of “not quite there”, often randomly staring off into the distance and generally acting weird. She’s very into hypnosis and mind control, trying to command lower blooded trolls with varying methods and success. 

Local Mod With Psychotic Symptoms Here: Please Stop Making Characters Whose Entire Gimmick Is “Not Being All There.” I hope this doesn’t come off as rude, but I want to teach you how to be a stronger writer. It’s not as scary or edgy as you think it is and it is 100% of the time more of a stressor for the person who has the condition than for anyone else. 

People who are most often stigmatized with the “““batshit crazy”““ label don’t want to harm others and experience significantly higher rates of violence directed towards than the general population because of stereotypes like these! Staring off into the distance and “acting weird” aren’t villainous traits. They’re just how people are sometimes. The “crazy genius” is a strung out trope that’s just shorthand so you can get away with not writing character motivation! We’re gonna dissect your girl like a frog specimen and take out her tender Character Traits to build her back better. Bionic frog. 

So to give you a stronger starting base here: If you want a troll to be a bad person, make them a bad person. It’s so much more interesting than them being randomly “crazy” and wacky. Make them malicious, and not because they’re ~not all there~. We’re gonna call New “Bionic Frog” Erenyx a bastard because she thinks she’s better than other people. She was born with strong psionics and she thinks that means she’s a cut above the rest, she thinks they should respect her and like her, and that’s why she wants to control others. 

(Cosigned as another mod with psychotic symptoms like… it’s not a great look. Also: Everyone on Alternia is terrible for the most part. It was DESIGNED that way in-universe. It’s a planet of hormonal teenagers who are encouraged to murder their friends and neighbors for kicks. You don’t need a “batshit crazy” smokescreen to just write a terrible fantroll. Vriska already exists, and she doesn’t have anything like that.)

Goals: Due to her, let’s say, interesting personality, Erenyx has no friends. So, she reasons, why not hypnotize lowbloods to become her friends? (I thiiiiink you misread my section on Goals: These are for you and us, not your fantroll’s ambitions (though nice information to have). I’m going to do this as a general review in lieu of anything specific.)

Strife Specibus: Yoyokind. It’s got a swirly pattern and spikes, naturally.

Fetch Modus: I never bother to think these up, it’s more trouble than it’s worth honestly. (Lowkey agree with you there- I’m horrendous with these. I do think something to help flesh out this spiral motif might be fun? Impressionism, maybe? Some late-Picasso looking art and she’s gotta find the items in it?)

She could also have to solve a maze or labyrinth to get out. Or you could go with something that plays on the Cobra angle and do a snake charmer joke with her playing a pungi. 

Blood Color: Gold

Symbol: Actually, I haven’t decided yet. I don’t know why, I just never get round to it.

You could probably rip a symmetric chunk for a pattern like this and have a pretty good gold symbol on your hands.

Handle: mesmerisingOptics [MO]

Quirk: Undecided

If she loves to seem purposefully confusing, you could mix up her words. Organize her sentences in a way that people usually don’t. The best example I can think of this is… I used to follow this RP blog a while back, amusedmuralist, and the way sentences are structured here is what I’m thinking. “Waste your lowly selves not the time allotted you.” 

A generally ‘better than thou’ attitude and insults/put downs can go a long way, too. 

Special Abilities: Various methods of hypnosis, most of which aren’t very good.

Lusus/Guardian: Cobra Lusus

I do like this a Lot but what about . Kaa. She could face the common troll problem of having a lusus that needs to eat other trolls, and she needs to trap them to feed her snakemom before her snakemom gets hungry and turns on her! 

Personality: As stated above, she’s not exactly the most sane troll on the block. Likes to dish out weird threats to innocent passerby and giggle to herself for no reason. Likes spirals. (This is barely even window dressing on a personality- you’ve made her theoretical, stereotypical mental illness her whole character. You’re overcommitting to a pretty bad gimmick, to be frank.) (To quote the EZ Gold Signs: “Gold Signs are interested in a wide variety of topics, so they tend to be Jacks-of-all-trade, and can have trouble dedicating themselves to just a single hobby or career. They have a tendency to be high-energy, and can stress people out, including themselves.” This may be a good place to start for a character like this.)

And as I’ve said above, she believes she’s a cut above the rest. She could be a little on the cruel or at least inconsiderate side, a better-than-you type. She could look down on other blood colors and the like. Another gold fact from the EZ is that golds love The Hustle, they like making bank. You could play on a manipulation and control angle and instead of relying on a bad mental illness stereotype, make her an extortionist playing mental health professional? Come to her Hypnosis Clinic, she’ll definitely help you get a good night’s sleep/work through your trauma/cut that chalk eating habit! [Fails to brainwash you] 

Interests: Hypnosis, obviously, and other methods of controlling people. Spirals, swirls, other similar things. (You say Spirals and my first thought is early game Uzumaki. Maybe she has an interest in strange art? Really underground, indie shit that the Highbloods would NEVER see as equal to their epic sculptures and Clowns and stuff.)

Actually, I want to step a layer deeper here. What are spirals traditionally associated with in homestuck? C h e r u b s. And what is there evidence of on Alternia? Giant Snake (Cherub) Corpses. And given that the purples worship the merciful messiahs, I’d be unsurprised if spirals actually featured rather heavily in Clown Church Religion. Erenyx could have an interest in art history on top of an interest in modern perplexing imagery. She could be interested in finding the deeper meanings. She could think that she, in all her GENIUS WISDOM, understands this art and the meaning behind it better than anyone else and that she’s unlocked some hidden truth that means she deserves to be in charge. 

It could also be a sparking point for her interest in hypnosis- maybe her psionics don’t actually lend themselves well to mindcontrol, but she’s trying to jack into whatever force allows purplebloods to Chucklevoodoo.  

Lunar Sway: See symbol.

She’s a prospitan if I’ve ever seen one. 

Title: See lunar sway. (I think if hypnosis is her game, she’s probably a Heart/Mind inversion player. Actively messing with people’s brains, passively messing with their souls and identities.)

Yeah, cheesy as it is, I’d rule her as thief of mind. Or witch. One of those. 

And design corner time: 

Hair: I cannot believe you gave me a spiral character and didn’t give her SWIRLS. I had to just embiggen the hair a little more. Big hair on alternia is associated with the Condesce and thus power, so having a big spirally mess of it? Screams Better Than You. 

Face: I adjusted her mouth’s position mildly and changed the glasses to cherub colors as a reference to that cherub comment I made up there, but you could change them out for any appropriate themeatic colors- she didn’t have any Accents before! 

Outfit: I changed her outline and sweater color to go for something lighter, so the hair would stand out from it better. I added a conceptual symbol for her! Golds don’t wear patterns, so her socks are solid yellow now. I also fixed up her shoes by bringing in tavros’ sandals to edit. You don’t need to draw out individual toes on a sprite form wearing shoes, or else the area gets visually complicated! 

Other than that I love this design a lot.