FishFossils

Ayo! I'm Fossil! Welcome to my chaos!

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A trend i've noticed while looking for references...

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Happy Halloween!!!!

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A proper reference for my Sight Arthur! I'm planning on doing the rest of the gang too, eventually!

I'd like to actually make a proper comic for it, but I think I'm not quite up to the challenge just yet. My art still isn't quite to the level I want it to be for that sort of thing, and I definitely need to practice backgrounds wayyy more lol. Maybe one day?

Here's the reference with my little notes on it;

I headcannon that nations only have scars from events that are significant enough to remember. Either personal or tied to their nation's memory. So they do sometimes keep small scars for a short while, but they fade away when the nation forgets where they came from. Scars from battles tend to linger longer, since those battles are usually kept in historical records, and thus, remembered by their people. Personal scars that last more than a century tend to be related to trauma. It's considered very rude to talk about or mention another nation's scars. (Older nations tend to have a lot)

And bonus art!

(Featuring; the forager's desire to Nom That Flower, and my extremely beginner level Gaelic)

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Happy pride!!!!

(Ft panromantic asexual Matthieu, excited that there's another ace nation, and aroace Arthur, who has no idea that being asexual is not the norm for most people)

Bonus (here's a wip!):

Im aroace so of course i have to have my faves be somewhere on that spectrum too lol

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The sillies~.*•

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Testing out a new art style and some messier brushes! I like to change things up a little every now and again lol, so here's an England!

Bonus: (Arthur with the sight! You can pry him out of my cold dead hands!)

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Mermay Kiku!

(I feel like it's obligatory to make him a koi lol)

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When you get thrown overboard but it's chill cuz your brother is half whale

A continuation of my Mermay posts! (lol what even is human anatomy)

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More mermay art~.*• this one actually has a background, wow!

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Have some random doodles! (They're based off of references i found, i'm sure you recognize at least two of them lol)

Yao and Arthur typically share the "responsible adult" role, usually they take turns lol, but they all get up to shenanigans regardless

I should also probably clarify that, in fact, no one knows exactly what the hell these three can do with their magic (except Yao, who has none, and everyone knows he has none). Magic is personal, and it's not all that common to share what yours is capable of. Nations especially like to keep their abilities secret, especially from other nations, who are always potential future enemies.

That being said, many nations do share their magic with those they are close to, and some have a hard time hiding what they can do, or simply don't care to. Sharing your magic is actually a rather intimate thing for most, it's a sign of deep respect, and trust. (If someone were to share their magic to someone else, only to have them refuse to recuperate the gesture, wouldn't that just be tragic? ;)

Yao's lack of magic is well known, since it's unheard of otherwise for a nation to just not have magic. Everyone knows, but Yao has lived a long time, and that alone often grants him enough respect that the other nations wouldn't dare even consider that he might be weak because of it.

Feliciano's magic is also not entirely a secret. But no one is entirely sure the exact parameters of it (excluding the four of them anyways). It's kind of hard to hide a literal fully functioning pocket watch jammed into your eyesocket. People do tend to notice that sort of thing. (It hasn't always been there, it's new and so is the magic that comes with it)

I love displaying just how much taller than the three shorties Matthieu is lol, he towers over them :)

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A lil mini comic thing? I've never done anything remotely comic like before so this is it lol (ignore the fact that i draw the bandages differently every single time-)

Featuring Francis with his hair up and Matthieu accidentally scaring the bejezus out of him lol

I imagine Matthieu has this issue a lot lol, where he walks into a room quietly and people startle upon realizing he's there. I also imagine that having no arms and being tall makes him quite a frightening shape to appear out of the corner of your eye (it's made worse by the fact that no one is used to his lack of arms yet)

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A little photo of Matthieu, Yao, Feliciano, and Arthur from my au!

(And yes, Feliciano is wearing a t-shirt with the word bitch printed on the front, he's allowed to wear shitty t-shirts in this au lol)

I guess I should give a bit more info about the world?

Magic is kind of a normal thing. People use it to make things float, or help speed up the growth of plants, or to heal wounds or light candles. Most people only have weak magic, and don't really rely on it in their daily lives. The nations, for the most part, are capable of fairly powerful magic (there are exceptions, i'll get to those when they come up).

There are also taboo arts, such as Necromancy. No types of magic are banned or illegal, but there are restrictions on what you can do with magic, and there are cultural opinions on different forms of magic. The taboo arts are the kinds of magic that would get you illegally fired from a job or kicked out of school.

And if you are one of the rare unlucky few that can't use magic at all? Well, you mostly live a normal life, just without magic. Some people might look down on you, or think of you as weak or in need of help, but mostly it's not something that someone would know about anyways. The only thing you couldn't do, is join the army, as they rely on magics.

So here you've got the four most taboo nations in one photo! They each possess a type of magic that is looked upon poorly, except Yao, who has none at all (It's unheard of for a nation to have no magic whatsoever, and so when people find out, there's usually a problem).

And here's the clearer image:

Annnd the reference i used:

If this au keeps knocking around I might actually have to write about it, jeez!

(I'm not promising anything about writing lol, I have never once actually posted any of my fics)

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A necromancer Matthieu? A necromancer Matthieu with skeleton arms?

Here's a reference sheet for a fairly out of pocket au? I'm thinking of expanding upon it, but we'll see how long it keeps my interest lol

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Matthieu began experimenting in Necromancy after the unfortunate death of his friend and pet bear, Kumajirou. He's always been a little too curious about things he shouldn't.

All magic has a cost, a price you pay to use it. All magic can and will take parts of you, if you run out of energy to pay it with. Necromancy is considered a taboo art, not illegal, but definitely frowned upon. It follows the same rules as any other field of magic. He doesn't care though, he just misses his friend. His lack of care in the subject doesn't go unpunished.

For several years, Matthieu researches everything he can about Necromancy. About souls and spirits and binding the dead. Raising bones and animating mindless corpses is one thing, bringing something back from the dead, even temporarily, is an entirely different matter. But stubborn as he is, he tries it anyways.

It doesn't work.

He looses both arms to his own foolish endeavour. He's lucky it's just his arms. It could have easily been his life.

The experience leaves him shaken, and while he still dabbles in Necromancy, he doesn't try to revive anyone else. That's not a risk he's willing to take.

Adjusting to the lack of arms was difficult, but he's managing alright now. He just wishes he knew where his dang glasses went.

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A little summary of what's happened to the boy! And yes, those are his own arms that he uses! He cleaned them up after the incident.

He is also chronically without glasses. This is literally just because he lost his and cannot be bothered to get a new pair. Don't worry, Alfred will eventually force him to get new ones

Annnd! The refrence sheet without text:

And the main image on its own:

I couldn't decide whether I liked it better with the blue ghost-magic or not, so I did both!

I think that the ghost one looks a bit nicer as an art piece, but the one without is more accurate to what the characters in universe see (they literally just see floating arms lol) so I dunno

Anyway! What do y'all think of Necromancer Matthieu? Like it? Don't? Either way, I'll probably be drawing more for his little world ;)