electric playdough octopus people inc.

24 . they/them dyke . same name on twitter. I love gnc scifi/fantasy characters and worldbuilding.

[ccosmicmoth]

Holy fuck, I finally made a real introduction to my headworld. Meet these electric octopus things who yeah, technically poop from their shoulders. This isn’t even like.... a quarter of all the info in my head on cores, but it’s got the basics. 

[grumpyoldsnake]

Art Fight 2021 | 01 - Protect

[Image description: An illustration of Blu, Red, and Ithadel in a rocky, coniferous forest. Blu is hunched over clutching an injury, while Ithadel attempts to help him and Red guards them both. End ID.]

First attack of the year was on @ccosmicmoth! They attacked me a lot last year and I wanted to make sure to get some return fire in, heh. 

I have it on good authority that Blu will be fine, if he can get to safety. He’s just… not very comfortable at the moment. :’D

Revenge Chain:

[Start] | Next ->

Procreate, 6 hours.

[ccosmicmoth]

I finally finished Red’s reference which means... introducing the new and improved 2021 edition electric octopus couple, now with ‘‘‘hair’’’. and a Cookie.

[ccosmicmoth]

second artfight attack for @deinocheirus of their very lovely ladies. Vireo is being creepy on purpose, Pierce is genuinely attempting a smile.

[ccosmicmoth]

Haven’t made as many attacks as I wanted to yet but I’m bouta go full speed the next few days

first art fight attack of the year for @fini-mun ! Their aliens were very fun to draw <3

[ccosmicmoth]

 so @grumpyoldsnake ​ asked me what core injury and healing looks like, and it was a good opportunity to finally nail down the details and draw a quick demo! Sorry Red, I needed a test subject. More details under the cut. 

Their skin is made of either silicone rubber, or a substance very similar to it, so it’s pretty heat resistant (good when your species used to frequently re-enter the planet’s atmosphere after lunch from a nearby asteroid). It's also more resistant to rips and tearing. 

Then you have their sensory/nervous system. Inside their body, it’s a semi-liquid black goo, and hardens into a gel outside (like their eyes). Visible here is mostly just the layer below their skin that senses touch, heat, and EM fields, but its  present practically everywhere. 

The next few layers vary depending on the body part, but usually you’ll have at least some section of material/reserve storage (to use in shapeshifting, healing, and replenishing their generator) that also houses blood pathways and other organs. Speaking of blood, cores only need oxygen as fuel for their furnace stomachs when they are digesting, so they don’t just have blood going everywhere in their body, and the ‘veins’ are also by default closed and empty.  They have a little pouch beside their stomach where they keep some oxygenated blood. Their ‘blood’ is also used to help carry additional materials to the needed sites when healing or shapeshifting. It’s clear or light pink in their body, and amber gold when oxygenated. 

What is very important to their frame’s upkeep is their electrolyte gel: it’s what moves current and voltage from their core around their body. It’s surrounded by various layers of materials that serve as electrodes and regulators. 

Finally, the grey/metallic parts are their frame’s support and movement systems, providing both the actual ‘skeleton’ and the actuators and hydraulics that move it. They’re very similar looking, and cores don’t really have a notion of separate ‘muscles’ and ‘bones’. For flexible things like antennae or grasping limbs/tentacles, hydrostatic semi-liquid metal ‘muscles’ are used.

While all cores technically have the capacity to shapeshift, and all can heal any frame injury with enough time and materials, a core’s personal skill at shapeshifting and energy manipulation will greatly affect healing speed. Red here is an outlier and can heal and shapeshift stupidly fast, growing his head back in a few seconds, provided he has enough resources. Most other cores will have to spend a few hours to a few weeks in a regenerative tank. Doing it this quickly makes him tired though, and doing it 3 or 4 times in a row means he’ll feel exhausted and will have to spend a few hours in the regen tank too.

[ccosmicmoth]

Blu becomes a little goofster when he’s around people he trusts. featuring the crew at the beach. 

[ccosmicmoth]

sorry I’ve been afk I keep forgetting to post stuff, but here’s Blu in chibi plushie form, plus an oc meme (I just changed the format a bit from the og). Working on 3 new references at once for art fight, but they’re almost done thankfully

[ccosmicmoth]

ive been….. delayed in getting the actual species reference done but. Blu and Red have a pet and he’s a ‘bug’ named Cookie. He likes to sleep in Red’s hair. 

The species are called Breezeworms because of their feeding habits, and they’re a popular pet due to being docile and decently intelligent (around cat or pig level). Their native planet has a dense atmosphere, so they will dangle off of branches, swinging in the breeze and collecting bits of food particles with their ‘ear wing’ nets (like marine snow but in the air). As pets, you feed them using a spray bottle - its Cookie’s dinner time here.

[ccosmicmoth]

and while we’re on the topic of plushies... here’s Red and Blu as beanbags. made a bit ago in finals hell season as a quick stress relief doodle 

[ccosmicmoth]

a friend is gonna make plushies of Red and Blu and I’m so excited!!! here’s Red’s plushie ref, with his new(ish) mane and updated outfit. Blu to come soon.

[ccosmicmoth]

ive been..... delayed in getting the actual species reference done but. Blu and Red have a pet and he’s a ‘bug’ named Cookie. He likes to sleep in Red’s hair. 

The species are called Breezeworms because of their feeding habits, and they’re a popular pet due to being docile and decently intelligent (around cat or pig level). Their native planet has a dense atmosphere, so they will dangle off of branches, swinging in the breeze and collecting bits of food particles with their ‘ear wing’ nets (like marine snow but in the air). As pets, you feed them using a spray bottle - its Cookie’s dinner time here.

[ccosmicmoth]

hello I have been woefully inactive bcuz finishing my 4th year has been very stressful BUT IM ALMOST DONE

in the meantime have this quick doodle of Red and Blu as ancient cores (aka octo cores) showing off some courtship rituals. present your beloved with a Very Nice Rock and flail your various appendages around excitedly, surefire way to win them over

[ccosmicmoth]

this had some strange consequences for modern cores, real Red here has Just been hit with the 'so you've been bonded to your partner for 300 years and your body thinks its time to make a rock nest' instinct. it goes away after a few days but by then you’ll have collected a pile of rocks in your living room. 

the unfortunate thing is that its not a very well known process for cores who haven’t reached that stage, since the dominant religion/culture (working name is Purism) treats it as a bit embarrassing/a sign of being feebleminded to have instincts and natural impulses. so its a fun surprise for recently bonded cores, likely followed with some worried googling 

[ccosmicmoth]

so Red wasn’t always a hulking brick shithouse. Because of his DEDcore condition, he needed supplemental energy treatments while growing up, but his parents unfortunately stopped caring for him properly when he was 10, so his growth just almost completely halted until he got into gov care some years later and started getting treatments again (after which he grew over a foot in a year)

He was an understandably wary/insecure teen but this is still funny

[ccosmicmoth]

afterwards in private: (he would have been very excited to learn in advance that he wouldn’t stay a runt forever)

[ccosmicmoth]

so Red wasn’t always a hulking brick shithouse. Because of his DEDcore condition, he needed supplemental energy treatments while growing up, but his parents unfortunately stopped caring for him properly when he was 10, so his growth just almost completely halted until he got into gov care some years later and started getting treatments again (after which he grew over a foot in a year)

He was an understandably wary/insecure teen but this is still funny

[ccosmicmoth]

hello I have been woefully inactive bcuz finishing my 4th year has been very stressful BUT IM ALMOST DONE

in the meantime have this quick doodle of Red and Blu as ancient cores (aka octo cores) showing off some courtship rituals. present your beloved with a Very Nice Rock and flail your various appendages around excitedly, surefire way to win them over

[ccosmicmoth]

Which Specific Character Archetype Are You?

Tagged by: @justashadetalkative thank you, this was a lot of fun! ^v^

Tagging: anyone who wants! I love to hear about peoples oc’s :’)

Doing this for my core crew to give some more insight on their inner workings, so here we go... ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Red: Life/Death/Life.

‘A person who represents the mysteries and inner workings of the world's forces; a person who has destiny at their back, a person wielding their understanding like a weapon. A person who cycles through rebirths and deaths, growing ever more clever.’ yeah Red’s been through several traumas and had to rebuild a lot each time... and he does have some pretty direct ties to the mysteries of his world :3c

Blu: The Ancient Star.

‘A being from somewhere distant, far from here. Ethereal, enigmatic, mysterious, kind, and a catalyst for greatness in others.’ This one is spot on. Although not so much mysterious as shy and fearful.

Lux: The King.

‘Bold, majestic, burdened, responsible, an impassive and neutral face that discloses no pain, only regality.’ ok I love this gsdagsdga, Butch King. absolutely fits her.

Aurelia: The Prophet-Martyr.

‘Someone representing something divine. Eyes fixed above everyone else's, on something too great for words. A person with a heart aflame, and a distant sort of kindness to everyone, a person who'd trade everything simply to understand.’ Makes sense, she sets out with her ambitions already high while the others struggle with it and need a Big motivating event to meet her there.

Viti: The Web-Weaving Spider.

‘Canny, strange, mischievous, someone who looks villainous without meaning real malice, someone who understands more than everyone else, someone who builds things unseen.’ Viti is difficult to place into one category bcuz they change so drastically between their first appearance and ending, and go through a bunch of stages of unlearning their cult upbringing. But they are certainly the most calculating of the bunch regardless.

Cyanthe: The Beauty.

‘Beloved, beautiful, naive, innocent—or at least, perceived this way. The one representing goodness, in all its purity, to others. Smarter than they let on.’ haha, I wasn’t expecting this but yeah. They’re the only one that’s actually gone to therapy for his trauma before coming to Meta so he’s more stable compared to everyone else (other than Aurelia, she also had a good support system). And they’re also just a kind person in general.