#coco (and by consequence taffy) -> ????

[musubiki]

need to think about something taffy and coco can do during the timeskip because i am now thinking it would be awesome if all mochis guild members joined an (at least partially) antagonistic purpose after she left and the timeskip begins with a bunch of missions trying to get them back

[musubiki]

recently thinking about restructuring the timeskip period of tcwg.,..

before its essentially "mochi leaves to train her growing magic alone -> the rest of them stay together and do guild things", but i might change it to "mochi leaves to train her weird magic alone -> the rest of them break off and do their own thing for a few years"

which makes more sense since none of them know when/if mochi was ever gonna come back to them, so the mindset would eventually shift to "well we cant wait around forever, might as well move on with life"

and then when mochis magic is done growing and her training is finished, SHE has to go find THEM scattered across the central kingdom and find out if they even want to be in the guild again (they do)

taffy and coco stayed together (he didnt want to be apart from her) and stayed in a city in between their hometown and the capitol city. medium sized dock city where taffy could be close to the ocean still.

oscar went with coco and taffy for a while, but ended up moving to the capitol and when they find him he bought a house?? (and maybe owns his own business too?? no one knows how things happen to him)

lime stayed extremely active in the magic community. often moving from place to place every few months whenever he wanted and regularly did magic side quests (and the underground ring obviously). he would visit oscar and coco/taffy every so often to check in on them.

none of them ever really abandoned the magic side of the world and often did little magic side quests where they could, but taffy/coco/oscar had much more of a normal life with a home and job compared to lime (when you ask him about it he'll say something about "expanding his horizons/seeing the world/improving himself/didnt really find a place he liked and wanted to stay in for a very long time", and while thats all true the overarching reason is "searching for mochi")

(the underying plot of the timeskip/post-timeskip is that the power of magic in general is growing beyond what anyone had seen before. the reason mochi had to leave is because at the end of the first arc, her magic was supposed to be done growing and she could relax but it didnt stop. so pom took her somewhere to get a handle on it where she could essentially go ham and not hurt anyone by accident, since even pom didnt know how much she was going to be capable of eventually.

after a few years it eventually does stop growing, and poms new quest for mochi is to visit the other witches and investigate what is causing the magic to react in such a weird way, and for that she needs her guild back)

[musubiki]

I'm sort of confused, why does Mochi leave during the time skip???

Also, do you think she'd feel betrayed once learning that Lime joined the m34th?

And do taffy and coco ever get together I need to know-

Your art makes me very happy and gives me a lot of inspiration❤️❤️

AAA TYSM IM GLAD YOU LIKE MY OCS!!!!!!!!!!

the main reason mochi leaves it essentially that her power is growing too strong, beyond what pom even knows how to deal with, and its not safe for her to stay in wessport!! the lore is that in the era in which the witch king is supposed to awaken, the magic in other witches grows stronger to "compensate" and prepare them (so mochi along with the other witches experience their magic growing FAR stronger than that of the witches before them)

up until she leaves, mochi had been in Wessport (the seaside town where she grew up/went to high school/etc) and between pom and tiramisu, they had enough knowledge/magic to help train mochi and clean up any mishaps that might happen during her training to be the cat witch. but when mochis power grows beyond what they expected the then some, the thought was that they need to get her away from people and towns so she doesnt accidentally level a whole city since they dont know what shes capable of anymore.

as for the reason she didnt take her guild with her-- a witch primarily needs a guild during the time period where shes growing into her magic as a means of help and protection (since shes not at full strength, they play the role of bodyguards/extensions/helping hands, essentially). but since mochi is in her full strength, she technically doesnt NEED the guild anymore, and again its safer if shes on her own with just her and pom so she doesnt hurt anyone by accident. so thats the reason why she leaves!!!! (as for WHERE she goes, i imagine its either the mountains or the desert. somewhere far from people and prying eyes where she can just go apeshit with her magic with no consequences)

NOW FOR YOUR OTHER QUESTIONS!!!!!!! yes taffy and coco get together!! after mochi leaves and the guild breaks up, taffy goes with coco since he really has nowhere else to go and shes happy to have him. she wants to get her degree (since its something her parents put on their little bucket list for her), and so taffy offers (insists, really) that he can take care of her while she does her studies. even for the period where she wasnt sure if a relationship was what she wanted at that time, he still stayed with her and supported her (and ofc its hard not to love taffy so eventually shes like "I think we should like. go out. officially." so they get together during the timeskip!!!

and as for limes joining the m34th.......yes, she absolutely feels betrayed. she tries not to, because logically, she did leave them with no mention of where she was going or when (or if) she was coming back, so LOGICALLY they can do whatever they want. and the m34th is a natural choice for a black canvas in the magic community. and he says he only did it to keep busy and do something, but she cant help but wonder if he held some deep-rooted resentment to her thats so bad he would join an organization that exists specifically to suppress magic

[musubiki]

omg omg omg i'm gonna geek out about writing quickly but the time skip redo is actually really cool??? like mochi feels like the glue keeping them all together is so it makes sense that they kinda scatter but still stay in touch kinda after she leaves,,,, also the idea of getting the gang back together one by one just feels kinda nice like its the ✨found family✨ vibes that the guild radiates that just has me🤧🤧🤧🤧 LOVE THEM SO MUCH

YES AAAH IM GLAD YOU THINK SO!!!!!!!!! i feel like this version is better exactly for that reason and also its a better driver for the growth lime goes through when mochi isnt there!!!

PLUS it also aligns better with what (in my head) seems to be normal around "grown" witches, which is that after that period of time where a witch is learning and coming into her own, she no longer has need for a guild and it effectively breaks up (which is why tiramisus guild as well as other older witches dont have their full guild with them. maybe 1 or 2 members stuck around because theyre friends but otherwise most witches guilds dissolve after said witch is done training and her power is in full)

the only thing that makes me sad about it is that i wish lime and the others were close enough friends to stay together as a guild after mochi leaves, like their friendship with each other isnt SOLELY dependent on her, but since there only 5 of them (and taffy is new), once mochi left, lime was the only other person who was capable enough to lead the guild. and since he took such an emotional blow i dont think he had it in him to essentially babysit the other 3. so with 2/5 members (and essentially the core of the guild) out of action, it makes sense that neither coco or oscar could ever "lead" the guild the way lime potentially could have (and taffy feels like he has no right to even try to fill that role). that being said, i do like the idea of them hanging out every so often to do side quests!!!!!

(essentially i think of this period as lime shifts into the "main character" role and it turns into a genshin style of adventure for him-- where he just travels around (lowkey searching for mochi) but mostly training, doing side quest/side quest chains, becoming stronger, and every so often he runs into a quest that requires you to bring along/interact with other major characters like coco, oscar, taffy, the merchant, other witches mochis met during her journeys, etc, but afterwards goes back to a solo journey. as a consequence once the guild gets back together it turns out lime has a bunch of connections in a bunch of different places)

and also!!! i maybe have mentioned this, but in my heart it feels unfair to have them all just.,.....waiting around for her. like obviously we all know she comes back to them, but from their POV shes essentially gone forever with no end date, and having them accept the mindset of potentially waiting around forever feels like a shitty thing to do, so im going to let them move on!!!!! (at least superficially. i dont think any of them would ever truly move on after mochi leaves. how would you ever just spend 2-3 years in this magic world of action and adventure and then just suddenly drop it all and go work a 9-5??? impossible. they all tangentially stayed in the magic community and would be ready at the drop of a hat to rejoin mochi if she ever came back and asked them to!!)

[musubiki]

ikasumi / emo ink mage girl infodump / lore dump thoughts so i can keep track!! (also some thoughts on how we first meet her in the story)

same age as the rest of the gang. about 16-17 when first introduced, 20-21 post-timeskip

first shows up claiming that tiramisu signed a contract previously that would allow her to be a memeber of the next cat witchs (mochi's) guild when the time came

said contract had the cat witchs seal, so tiramisu went "damn i guess i made this contract lmfaooo sorry mochi i guess she has to be a part of your guild? (sweating)"

(tiramisu signed a lot of contracts in her day that she doesnt nessecarily remember signing. she was a very busy woman)

mochi accepts it nonetheless because heyo thats her duty. feels a little queasy about it but this girl seems okay enough

at this point in the guild, its after lime, oscar, and coco are already members. ikasumi, at this point, would fill up the 5th and final position in the guild

for a little while, she stays in the room above the storage garage that taffy later gets

ikasumi claims to be from the central kingdom, and she hides the fact that she has any powers at all

basically throughout the course of the episode the guild remains suspicious of her but slowly kind of warms up. oscar is the only one who actually keeps an eye on her as the rest figure shes harmless

anyway theyre proven right because they catch her in the act of trying to steal some of mochis spellbooks. noteably, the ones that note down creatures and living beings

spellbooks which she then uses to pull creatures straight off the page into crazy ink monster things to attack them

ikasumi is proficient in her ink magic but still relatively young in it, and as a consequence doesn't have full control over that which she creates (summed up, the bigger/scarier the creature is, the more likely it is to turn on her)

she bites off more than she can chew with that being said, and mochi/the guild end up having to save her from her own creation

she reveals she is indeed one of the ink mages (or maybe the only one. I think these more common non-elemental mages can have more than one, contrast to taffy and kyanite who are the only one of their kind)

she is a member of the guild of the butterfly witch, Mag Lynn, who runs a fairly notorious antique shop (notorious in the magic community anyway. Mag Lynn's Antiques is full of old magic items, leftover cursed objects, weapons, spellbooks, etc. shes a collector, and also potentially the focus of a spin off/mini story i have in my brain)

Mag Lynn is about the age of mochis mom, and isn't very active as a witch anymore, but took in / recruited ikasumi for her ink magic

she was a bookkeeper for the antique shop but her newest mission is to spy on / keep an eye on the new cat witch, and send updates every so often. (everyone wants to know what goes on with the new cat witch) so she forged a contract and pretended like tiramisu owed her a guild spot

"why did you try and steal my spellbooks then-" "i mean. im sure lady mag lynn would appreciate a new addition to her collection-" and then mochi whacks her on the head with a book

regardless ikasumi is grateful to them for saving her, apologizes for deceiving them, and leaves

laughably it ends up as one of those things where its like "(in a kind of sad tone) do you think we'll ever see her again?" "who knows..." and then the next day she shows up at school and it floors all of them

"I thought you left forever?!" "No I still have Lady Mag Lynns mission to keep an eye on you, remember"

she also probably takes a part time job working at the cat cafe because lord knows being an artist doesnt exactly pay the bills

though she doesnt live with mochi afterwards - turns out lady mag lynn was housing her in a seperate apartment the whole time. part of the reason she agreed to this mission was mag lynn being like "ill take care of rent and utilities" and ikasumi was all "sold."

she is the broke artist character. also the character that will do nearly anything for money. think mona from genshin

someone drops a quarter by accident and she DIVES for it

tiramisu gives her free food whenever she drops by

i think she also has a thing for nice-smelling soap. she drops by to see mochi and is like "do you have any new soaps you can make me" and when mochi gives her the new coconut hibiscuis lavender whatever she magicked up ikasumi is all "(deep inhale) sensational"

doesnt show a lot of emotion, if any at all. just that blank expression most of the time. even when angry, while she beats the shit out of you shes emotionless the whole time

wears exclusively black/dark colors. coco respects this

likes her shimmer eyeshadow. post-timeskip she wears black lipstick as well

an even bigger conspiracy theorist than oscar. oscar goes "the moon landing was fake" and she responds "you believe in the moon?" oscar respects this

i think the way you beat her is with paper. you can re-trap the ink creations with paper, and i like to think of a really cool scene where mochi summons a shit ton of paper that just peppers her like those little paper men on spirited away

also a bit of a dumbass in her own right.

when shes sick: "im an artist. even when feeble, my body will remember" and then draws the worst thing youve ever seen

also noteworthy: her art skills are..,....not great

like 13 year old girl level. the only people she can draw are those badly drawn anime boys, and all her creatures look nothing like whatever it is shes trying to draw

she draws a dog and everyone is like "uhh boat? no? uhhhh is it a fish? not that either?? uhh"

this is one of the only things that frustrates her

oddly, oscar is the only one who nails it on the first try. maybe he has the vision. must be all that doodling in his journal that makes him more attuned to these things

coco is over there getting every guess wrong, and goes "c'mon, no one can tell what this is! oscar, what does this look like?!" and he leans over and goes "oh thats a dog"

ikasumi appreciates this

ability wise, whatever she can draw, she can bring to life / off the page

this includes weapons, items, creatures, etc. but its limited to her artistic ability

as a young mage all her creations are 2D but as she grows stronger they can take on 3D form

she carries around a small art kit with black paint / pens, but really she can use any kind of ink and any canvas to life. this includes spray paint and tattoos

usually draws cute little creatures that fight for her rather than fighting herself. in true desperation she creates horrific things, but shes also very afraid of them so she rarely does it (i think she gets more comfortable with it way later on)

she has cute freckles on her face, and also probably has shoulder freckles

i have a beta idea of her and coco starting a "lime sucks" club at school. she doesnt hate lime, has nothing against him, actually thinks hes really chill, but finds it very entertaining to be the thorn in the side of the "lime fan club" at school. indeed it becomes funny as hell. they HAAATE the lime sucks club.

when oscar catches wind of this hes like "AHAH! Thats awesome can I join?? for laughs??" and theyre like "sure" / "hell yeah join the dark side!!"

mochi is also like "...can i join? (ehe)"

and limes like "YOU THINK I SUCK??!!" and mochi has to explain like "NO no! but...our friends are in that club....i wanna be included

and eventually lime is also like "i wanna join this fucking club" and everyone else outside this friend group is like "??? what the fuck"

the idea of everyone being like "ahaha the lime sucks club is so dumb aha- wait." and lime is sitting with the lime sucks club

oscar gives her the nickname sumi / sumia and she hates it. but then coco also starts using it and also mochi somtimes and once you get a nickname in this group you cant escape it

"why sumi..." "because! i-ka-su-mi is too many syllabuls" "su-mi-ah isnt much better..."

always wearing long sleeve. even in summer when sweating. "ill suffer for fashion," she says

(a little bit more on lady mag lynn) mag lynn and tiramisu are actually incredibly good friends. one day she storms in pretending to be all bad like "what an ugly little shop. whats this i hear about your daughter harassing my guild?" and tiramisu is like "yes an ugly little shop suited for an ugly old hag like yourself! my daughter can beat your guilds ass any day." with a smile, and 2 seconds later theyre like omg i missed you so much!!! you never call me anymore!!

ikasumi isnt mag lynns daughter, but mag lynn lowkey treats her like a daughter. regardless, ikasumi wont get the butterflys power when mag lynn passes it on since shes already an ink mage and it cant be overridden. ikasumi will also be in the guild of whoever it is mag lynn choses the next butterfly witch to be

[musubiki]

what are the flaws of the main crew?

oooh this is a good question!!!!!!!!!!

mochi: reckless(war mongering?) in battle, stubborn(isnt good at taking advice, has to do things her own way), fearful

lime: easily jealous, possessive(👀), also pretty reckless, arrogant

coco: emotionally distant, blunt, rebellious, smart-ass

oscar: easily manipulated, too soft-hearted, naive, stupid (SHAJKDSH IDK WHAT ELSE TO CALL THIS…. HE DOES A LOT OF DUMB THINGS WITHOUT THINKING IT THROUGH THAT HAS SERIOUS CONSEQUENCES)

taffy: ignorant, obsessive, paranoid (for obvious reasons)