#theeeeenks for the lovely asks!!🍓🍰

[moonliched]

I really love Y/N's look, what led you to add things like double rows of teeth? What led you to that design? Was there another one design before?

bonks my head against yours like a cat!! thenks :3

i repurposed an old self insert oc i had as a teenager bc i wanted to be self indulgent! some edgy gothic white haired girl with a fringe over one eye lmao😋 i miss her...

their colour palette is pale and greyish as a nod to the grey Y/Ns in this community, their hair is white bc mine used to be white, and their hairstyle is one i used to wear swimming! i was also inspired by futuristic white aesthetics and Suichu Niso underwater modelling shoots.

i pretty much immediately settled on Y/N as they are here including webbed feet and finger scarring, and then built on more alien features later. the 4th image down is actually the first time i drew them. i think i got the idea for the teeth about a month into writing, prior to the first chapter going up. mostly i decide on things by daydreaming a funny or angsty scenario based on their alien heritage, and then seeing if i can work it into the story without it seeming clumsy or overcomplicating matters for myself. i overcomplicate things a lot😅 for example i'm regretting having two suits. and two subs. why did i do that?? lol

there's a scene coming up soon after chapter 12 involving the teeth and Vanessa - that's the scenario that inspired Y/N's lil shark teeth. i was also thinking that if i met a mermaid i would totally want a scale as a souvenir, but what would be the mermaid equivalent? hair? a fingernail makes me shiver. but teeth, when losing a row is a semi-regular affair, would be cool. even humans collect teeth!

i don't have a concrete image in mind yet for the natives of Y/N's home planet, but it's something in the realm of humanoid-fish-person, scaly, they have hair but it's not human-grade. an alien unfamiliar with humanoids would easily mistake them for regular humans (they got four legs and a little round head, right?) whereas humans and the fish people would be very offended to be lumped in together lmao. as a result i got a lot of freedom with what Y/N gets to inherit! their human-ness is bit of a disappointment to their guardian tho, so they don't get the full deck of fishy cards.

this might be tmi, some rambling about MEEE!! at first the evidence of having alien features removed was going to be more drastic - i thought over flippers surgically mutated into human feet, a missing tail, scales laser-removed - but decided against those. i was having a really tough time with my disability and chronic pain, and i wanted to live vicariously through Y/N, so they pass as able-bodied. i can't run or swim anymore so it's nice that they can. i think the missing finger webbing counts as a disability, esp when taking into account their issues with managing the discomfort from the scar tissue, and having to actively maintain their health to avoid the drawbacks that would arise from this kind of amputation. Y/N should be grateful i wanted to cosplay as able-bodied, otherwise they'd be far worse off😌🫰