Art gets posted occasionally but my main is @ma-tsu-the-male-goddess, feel free to send me an ask or an art or writing prompt! I’m not always fast about it but I get there eventually
Image 1 (Below). Were you to catch them awake, the I’sola would appear to be six-legged dragons, with stingray wings and green leaves littering their whip-like tail.
I’sola are generally a dark black-blue, with strips of phosphorescent yellow dug into their skin, winding in unique patterns for each one you meet, but always with brightly shining strips cut horizontally up their long necks.
But let's look a little closer.
See the Google Doc with additional formatting and higher quality images Here.
Image 2 (Below, Left). Their heads, snake-like in construction, have no mouth to speak of and barely-visible strips of mesh-like material indented into the sides of their snout in place of nostrils. Their four eyes more than make up for this visual lack. Two of them, blank and yellow, are nestled into each other on each side of their head, so large as to take up a near third of where their skulls would sit.
[Though these antennae are nearly identical between males and females of the species, they provide very different functions - the males’ giving off pollen, and the females’ collecting it.]
Just behind the antenna is a soft flexible frill, laying flat back against the I’sola’s neck. It, like the rest of the I’sola’s body, is mostly blue with patterns of yellow. This frill is slightly shaped like a crest of a triceratops, and it - along with the I’sola’s neck stripes and antennae - are used extensively in communication.
Image 3 (Above, Right). Here you can see the front view of an I’sola, the way that the neck stripes seem like carved wounds into their neck, and how their legs sprout from beneath their wings.
Image 4 (Below, Left). Though these large creatures seem like they would need a great amount of physical support, their torsos are not solid at all, but seem to be branches forming a facsimile of ribs, protecting something vital inside. That ‘something vital’ seems only to be present in half of the population: two large seeds nestled within inner roots. See [Life Cycle] post (not yet linked). They do not seem to breathe, and they make almost no sound as they walk, sometimes even using the reduced gravity of their home world to glide along with their stingray-like wings.
Each of their long spindly legs seem to be made up of bark-like segments, split at the joints. They each have the same general construction, but the two forelegs contain an extra joint in both the leg and the fingers. Their limbs each have a foot with three spread toes ending in wide shovel-like nails. In addition, the toes on the back four legs are slightly more flexible to allow for an easier grip as they navigate their rocky home.
Image 5, 6 (Above, Right). When moving about, they walk on slightly-raised toes, protecting a hole placed at the center of the bottom of their feet. When they lay down to sleep, they spread their limbs out around them and their toes out wide and flat, revealing this opening and allowing their roots to extend outward. These roots can then dig deep into the soil to collect nutrients while they rest.
Image 7 (Below, Left). As plant-based creatures, they need sunlight, water, carbon dioxide, and additional nutrients from the ground soil around the rivers to survive. I’sola usually gather what they need during the Ring, sleeping near the rivers with leaves pointed towards the Ring in the sky and looking like large, fern-covered rocks or vines spiraling up toward the sky. Nearly three quarters of their days are spent in this state.
Image 8 (Right). Their Life Cycle will be discussed later on, but here you can see a depiction of a young I’sola, growing out of the ground before it has gained mobility. I add this here to give a better understanding of how their tails might look.
You know. There’s something so freeing about writing the most off the wall fic and then just having it exist in the world so you can go back and reread it whenever you want.
Related: go read my Cold Chocoby’s fic on ao3 lmao
‘Sephiroth is just annoying enough to bug Cloud on his secret vacation for some Chocoby's fast food.’
It’s fun I promise! Feel free to throw some wild plot premises at me too. Won’t promise anything but anything’s possible.
Like I understand where they’re coming from logically. Louisiana is well known for Mardi Gras. Mardi Gras is well known for king cakes. King cakes are well known for having tiny plastic baby choking hazards in them to find. But fucking Baby Cakes?
Fun fact! While many Louisianans (including myself) will deny this vehemently, Mardi Gras actually originated in Alabama (we deny this because fuck those guys). Along with the traditions of parades, beads, and general shenaniganary, the king cake originated with the original Mardi Gras celebrations. The cakes used to be less of a social and more of a familial treat, and women would save baby teeth (assuming there were babies in the family losing teeth around that time) to bake into king cakes- usually one or two per cake. It was considered good luck to get a slice of cake with a baby tooth in it, and you’d be considered better prepared for the upcoming month of Lent. Over time, the cakes became more ovular with a hole in the middle, and as Mardi Gras became more widespread, migrated to Louisiana, and a more public celebration, the teeth were replaced with plastic babies. So that’s why we have tiny plastic choking hazard fake babies in our wildly popular Mardi Gras cakes. Which for some reason we named a baseball team after.
One time I bought a little bag of plastic babies for future Mardi Gras king cake adventures and then when the time of the year came around, I made earrings out of them :)
Finally finished @loganisanobody ‘s late Christmas gift this year! I’ve never really done an art trade like this so it was a lot of fun!
Enjoy a Nutcracker au of Janus, Logan, Roman, and Virgil from Sanders Sides!
Wanted to give them a little bit of a background but here’s them without it too - (total time: ~ 22 hrs)
Separate pictures and details on their designs in the readmore below
Logan - Rat King
Outline Color: Blue
Costume Details: Tie, Orange eyes, Mask to replace his glasses, blue accents are meant to look a little like neurons
Janus - Uncle
Outline Color: Green
Costume Details: Bowler hat & gloves, Snake cape
(I actually drew him facing the other direction first and then realized you wouldn’t be able to see his scales haha)
Roman - Nutcracker Prince
Outline Color: Red
Costume Details: Prince outfit & ballet tights
(He fits right in! Barely had to make any outfit changes)
Virgil - Clara
Outline Color: Purple
Costume Details: Vest & cape instead of the usual dress, logo & hoodie design on his cape, purple eye makeup & hair
This au idea & costume designs were partially inspired by @luxmoogle ‘s kingdom hearts nutcracker au (go and look at their art, it’s beautiful) and bc I saw the Nutcracker ballet in person right after we decided on characters for each other.
Thanks @tharkflark1 for some help on their anatomy.
I’ll add on some of the references in another post!
titsay
snowghoul
pixelskylines
discoholicmusic
yousharknotpass
ellievsbear
baratheonpilled
kianamaiart
