nervousgladiator24

She/Her | Dragon artist and part-time writer | Galaxy_the_nightwing on Reddit where I post most of my work | feel free to ask about any of my ocs I love to talk about them

[nervousgladiator24]

Everyone, meet Snappy!

This was the baby I originally traded for when I got Anser as a bonus. Even without patterns, I love her so much! She's so pretty! You guys can probably guess how she got her name.

Dokulings are a subspecies from @dokuzaadopts

[nervousgladiator24]

One of my newer creature adopts I got from a trade.

Meet Anser!

She's a new critter called a Vexikit! I had so much fun figuring out her colors and overall pallete since Vexikits gain one color from their owner, her's is the blue lines under her eyes. I find silver foxes really pretty so her colors took a lot of inspo from them.

Vexikits from @vexikit-sanctuary

If anyone is curious this is her owner:

He's the same owner as Lacaille and Orion (he also has two other cats i havent made ref pics for)

[nervousgladiator24]

I was struggling with drawing this pretty baby from @theforevermoreranch so I ironed out their design in my style and made them a ref sheet. Might adjust a few things here and there but im happy with how they look.

Look at them! Look at the baby!

[nervousgladiator24]

I was bored and leaving my brain bored for too long with how many ocs/ creatures I have is dangerous.

So, @mother0fwyrms have the result of said boredom: Dud's first meeting from the pov of Sci

It was a quiet day when it happened. Sci should have known something would happen. Quiet days never stay quiet long with his Great Master's siblings and their servants. If only they would learn from Sci and his Great Master's First Disciple, Latte. He isn't too sure about the newest disciple, Bond. The creature is a bit too energetic for his taste, but he knows how and when to sit still and be quiet. He knows his Great Master has a reason for accepting the strange creature as a disciple, so he won't dare to protest. He will be sure to correct the creature, though.

Sci huffs in distaste as the new Disciple winds himself around one of the Great Master's magnificent horns while the Great Master works. He does seem to have more of an interest in the Great Master's work than either Sci himself or the First Disciple. With the creature's small size, he supposes it is the least disruptive place that allows him to get a good look. He could still be a bit more respectful of the Great Master's person. The Great Master hasn't protested, so Sci won't chastise the young disciple.

Sci shifts on his throne of pillows, all gifted from the Great Master himself, and curled back up to enjoy the momentary quiet. First Disciple Latte seemed to have the same idea as she jumped onto one of her perches to follow his example. For a while, the only sound was the clicking, clacking, momentary buzzing, and occasional mumbling as his Great Master worked.

Said silence was disrupted by a sudden cacophony of clatters, bangs, and shattering from the Great Master's greenhouse. All four in the room jumped and whipped around to look at the door to the greenhouse. There was a long pause as they wait for any other sounds. When none came the Great Master snorted, a small puff of smoke escaping him as his only sign of annoyance.

"One of you go see which of my dumb dumb brother's familiars that was." He commanded his disciples as he returned to his work. A task such as this is low enough rank for the lowest of the desciples to perform, so Sci and Sister Latte both turned to look at Younger Disciple Bond expectantly. The newest disciple looked scared as he stared at the door. Sci sighed, taking pity on the poor creature he stood to complete the task himself. The young disciple is too new to know how much sway and respect his position gives him with the Great Master's brothers' servants. This is something Sci will have to correct later.

Sci waited at the door for it to scan him and open for him to enter. Once he qas through it shut and locked behind him. The room was on lock down then, good. Whoever made the grave mistake of disrupting the Great Master's work won't have any chance of escape. He sat elegantly in his spot and called into the room.

"Whoever it was who foolishly disturbed Great Master Phantom, reveal yourself now any your punishment my be swift." He waited for a response to his words. When he got none he grew irritated.

"Did I not make myself clear enough? I will not repeat myself! You will have no further warnings!" He waited again only to have no answer again. He grumbled to himself and started his search. First, he'll find the source of the noise then follow any evidence afterward towards the culprit. They can't run forever. Especially when they're trapped in here with him.

The room wasn't that large for one, such as his Great Master but for a disciple as small as Sci it was quite the distance to cover. Eventually, he found the source of the awful cacophony. One of the storage shelves- previously holding various tools, supplies, extra pots, and some pre-prepared pots without any seedlings- was knocked over. The tools and supplies scattered everywhere, the empty pots chipped, broken, or outright shattered with only a few able to be salvaged, and the pre-preped pots with carefully sorted and ordered by the precise mixtures of dirt and fertilizer they held were all spilled into one big pile of dirt with most of the pots being able to be salvaged.

Sci scoffed in distain at the damage this caused and let himself grieve a moment at how far back this will set his Great Master's plans. He collected himself, though and moved towards the debris to look for evidence as to whom caused this devastation of his Great Master's work.

As he made his way through the destruction, he started his work on the clean up. He swept the smaller chips of pots closer to the bigger remains with his tail so as to keep from injuring his Great Master, moved what tools and supplies he could into a different pile to keep out of the way until they are resorted, then turned to look with disdain at the pile of dirt.

He sighed, though. He'll have to sacrifice his pristine scales and fur, but that's a price he's willing to pay for his Great Master. He won't be very happy about it, but one isn't supposed to be happy about a sacrifice. He walked over to the dirt and used his perfectly groomed tail fur to sweep the dirt and fertilizer into one big pile, despairing at how much it dirtied his fur. Once it was all swept up he grumbled as he picked the worst of the grime from his poor fur. It will take a much more extensive grooming session to clean it to satisfaction completely but it will do. He shook the remainder from his fur and stood as he turned to glare at the pile of dirt. Only to leap back with a yelp of fear, fur fluffing and back arching. There in the dirt, colored to perfectly blend in, was the face of an unknown wyrm staring at him.

"Intruder! What cause have you to dare intrude on the domain of Great Master Phantom!" He accused with a glare to the face in the dirt. There was a long silence after his words. Each second without reply only made Sci's irritation grow but he can't let it show. Anger and irritation are unbecoming of a Desciple of Great Master Phantom. They are below one such as himself.

"No in- in- in-tr-oo-d. See dirt. Belong." The camouflaged intruder slowly drawls, stumbling over a relatively simple word. Sci blinked at the slow simple sentences. This was a trick. The wyrm was trying to confuse or unbalance him. Hah! They'll have to try harder than that! Sci revels in riddles and mind games! He has tutored under the Great Master himself! There are no masters of the mind greater than him!

"Of course you intruded! You broke in to my Great Master's greenhouse, fell his shelf, broke his possessions, and attempted to hide from his disciple who came to evoke the proper punishment!" There was an even longer silence as the brown wyrm blankly stared and slowly blinked at him. Before Sci spoke up again the intruder spoke.

"Shiny scales. You pretty." Sci blinked and stepped back thrown a bit by the sudden comments. He recovered quickly, not fooled by the change of topic but deciding he could boast a bit.

"Of course! I am the greatest of my Master's disciples! I am required to look the part!" He let himself preen at the compliment and look of awe from the wyrm for a second before he brought the conversation back on topic.

"You cannot distract me with flattery, though! Why are you here?! What reason do you have to be in my masters' greenhouse?!" Growing used to the pauses after his words Sci waited patiently for a response, refusing to be the first to speak afterwards.

"I dunno. I just here." As the wyrm replies they shift a bit, causing the dirt to cover them a little more.

"That is no explaination! You will..... will you get out of there!?" Sci trailed off then snapped at the wyrm, causing their slow covering of the dirt to stop as they stop moving and stare at him.

"But belong." They eventually reply, sounding confused. The response only confused Sci, causing him to blurt a question out without thinking.

"What?" The simple question seemed to register with the wyrm quicker and they responded without much of a pause.

"I am dirt." Was the simple reply. Sci blinked in confusion. There.....there's no way anyone is that dumb. It has to be an act of some kind. There is no possible way anyone would think of themself ad dirt.

"No, you're not." Was the only reply Sci could give. The mostly buried wyrm blinked in response like Sci was being stupid.

"Dud, dirt, brown." To cement the answer, the wyrm -Dud? aparently?- shifted a bit more into the dirt.

"No, you're not! You're just brown!" Sci exclaimed. Dud blinked at him, tilting his head.

"Then what?" Nope. Not an act. They are that dumb. There is no faking that amount of genuine confusion. Sci stared off into space as he tried to keep himself from blurting anything out with all the emotions running through him.

"Pretty mad at Dud?" Were the soft words that broke Sci from his internal struggle. The brown wyrm shrank into the dirt like they were scared of getting snapped at. It was pathetic and almost cute, in a wet cat kind of way. Sci shook his head.

"No, I'm not mad. I'm just-" He was interrupted by Dud's stomach growling. The two paused at the unexpected sound and Dud looked down at the dirt around him and attmepyed to shovel a scoop into his mouth.

"No! Don't even think about it! Dirt is not food!" Dud looked back up at him, confused but spitting out the mouthful of dirt.

"What is?" Sci stared at the other wyrm for a while, speechless. It was long enough that Dud looked back at the dirt suspiciously.

"That's it! Come here!" Sci exclaimed as he stood and dug in the dirt to grab the wyrm and drag them out. As he did, he took a second to glance at their patterns. One stripe, 'he' then. He then spun and stomped off, Dud passively following him.

"You are coming with me! I will bring you to the kitchens where you will have real food! I will not tolerate one of my species eating anything as lowly as dirt!" He paused for a second as he glanced over the wyrm following him.

"No, we'll go to the baths first. I wouldn't dare even chance contaminating pirate food stores with any of your....... that." He trailed off and gestured vaguely to Dud. It was silent for a while as the two stared at each other, asking Sci feel awkward until he coughed and continued on. They walked on in one-sided awkward silence until Sci froze when Dud rubbed against him with a small purr.

"Pretty is smart." Sci stared down at the smaller wyrm's awe filled eyes. His frozen state did not have anything to do with the sudden grime rubbed into his scales. Sci cleared his throat and looked away as he replied.

"I am not simply 'smart'. I am Sci! Second Desciple of Great Master Phantom! My intellect is second only to my master! None can compare! Even my senior sister envies my intellect!" He boasts.

"Teach Dud? Make Dud smart too?" Sci looked down at the wyrm still leaning against him.

"You wish to be my desciple? Hmm. Perhaps you could benefit from my teachings. Come desciple! I shall introduce you to my master! Then we will go to the baths and kitchens!" Sci continued to the door back to his master while Dud trailed behind, eyes sparkling with awe.

[nervousgladiator24]

I finally finished the ref pics for all my Kraang Hounds! I have also added my best guess as to the role each one has assumed in the developing pack.

In order of adoption:

Laika, the Alpha of the pack

Spute, the second in command and primary territory guard

Maranta, some kind of den guard? Maybe a medic or caretaker of some kind? He tends to spend most of his time in the pack den, so I can't tell much.

And lastly:

Kestrel, a scout or gatherer of some kind? She often leaves the pack territory to retrieve things the pack needs that they can't find in the territory.

I haven't been able to find them together enough to make a pack portrait, but I have made a rough size reference of the pack so far compared to their owner

Kestrel is a lot smaller and lankier than the rest of the pack (maybe because of the bird genes?), so she isn't as strong or durable as they are, but she makes up for that with speed.

All the Hounds were adopted from @krang-hound-kennels

[nervousgladiator24]

@krang-hound-kennels, it's been a while since I updated you on my growing pack, hasn't it? I separated Spute and Maranta from Laika for a while after their first meeting to help them get used to each other, and they didn't have any problems, so I let them back out with Laika. Unfortunately, this didn't go nearly as well as it did with the other two.

Laika immediately didn't like Maranta for a reason I couldn't figure out, since the poor guy was so polite to her. Spute didn't like that Laika was being aggressive to her packmate and came over to defend him, which Laika didn't appreciate too much.

The two had some kind of glaring contest for a while, which I can only guess was some kind of battle of wills? While that was happening, I was thankfully able to get poor Maranta away from the girls. Lucky I did too, since the glaring match didn't last long until the two descended into an all-out brawl that was maybe some kind of dominance battle? Most likely, a way for them to figure out which one would be the boss. That didn't last long either before the winner was decided.

Spute looked to submit to Laika after a bit of fighting, but neither one came out without any injuries. Hopefully, they won't scar. Good thing, though: after the fight Laika just kind of ignored Maranta and even let him come over to help clean her wounds before I could get there to patch her up. So..... Maranta is an official pack member? Maybe?

Needless to say, I am going to wait a while until I introduce Kestrel into the group, and I will do so a lot differently than I did this time. I will be keeping a careful eye on both girls to make sure they don't get into another fight, but I'm pretty sure they got it out of their systems. Hopefully.

[nervousgladiator24]

@planet-stuf-wildlife-center Here's my first doodle of my two new fluffy babies! They seem to be settling well, but the blue one becomes a bit of an angry fluffball whenever the orange one gets too curious

Still experimenting with how I'm going to draw them in my style, but they're so cute!

[planet-stuf-wildlife-center]

My boi set up this drop cage, hoping to catch a Death Rodent (if they're still named that) or two

Oh wow. looks like your effort got you two of them.

also, i fear death rodent is going to stick.

congratulations on the first death rodents we’ve seen! remember their habits if you live in a populated area or have other pets. be careful.

[nervousgladiator24]

Omg! They're so cute! Can I keep both of them or would you rather me send one to the sanctuary?

[nervousgladiator24]

I drew a quick drawing of newly hatched SIren from @fruit-adopts

She's so small and round and cute! Fits into her dad's palm perfectly! He's going to wait until she opens her eyes to introduce her to her big brother but she already has her Dad and Uncles wrapped around her little paw.

[nervousgladiator24]

I got a little dragon hatchling from @fruit-adopts!

Meet Siren!

I was having so much fun figuring out how her design translated to my style that my doodle of her turned into a full ref sheet. I love her! She's so cute!

[fruit-adopts]

My submission for the blue mystery egg!

Leviathan travels too much to make the egg a full nest, so he did what he and his brothers did with his son's egg: make a small nest of cushions, pillows, and blankets and arrange said blankets into a sling that can be tied to the travel harness of whoever is carrying it at the moment. He's taking the opportunity of taking care of the egg to teach his son about what eggs are and how to care for them! It helps that little Jr is in his "Why?" stage and asks constant questions

The egg sways as you walk, and emitting small chirps. apon being set down, the little egg starts to sway and rock the sapling inside trying to break free. It is warm if touched, the shell now thin enough to feel them moving inside.

A crack forms, then another and another. A small hand pushes out, then a head and wings as the sapling tumbles out of its egg and onto its nest. It chirps and cry’s the entire time, settling into still to big limbs.

a premade ref with wing details!

your saplings traits:

- x2 whiskers

- x4 wings

- pointy frills and dangles.

[nervousgladiator24]

The baby!! So cute!! I'm definitely going to doodle the little one when I get the chance!!

[nervousgladiator24]

@mother0fwyrms I made a ref sheet for Dud! (I have so many ref sheets I need to make for the rest of my recently adopted critters)

This little Dum Dum (/aff) loves to constantly find the smallest/ strangest/ most out of the way spots he can to just plop down and take a nap. That, along with his hobby being to burrow into any mud/ dirt he can find, is cause for him to need to wear his high-vis harness whenever he goes anywhere to make it easier to find him.

He is a good boy, though, and sits still wherever he is put if he's told to stay, so it was easy to update the familiar family portrait.

This was how we found out he is ever so slightly smaller than Sooki. It's mostly because of his shorter legs and more rounded ear-nubs, but Sooki is so happy she isn't the smallest (adult) wyrm in the family anymore.

[bud-faes]

The old ring is being offered again with the name Honey for this pretty baby

congratulations! She is very pleased with your offering and is happy to go home with you! However another faerie already have the name Honey so if you could offer a spelling variation or a different name that would be ideal!

[nervousgladiator24]

I'll change the spelling of her name to Honie (pronounced the same). Got so excited I forgot to check what names previously adopted fae had

[dokuzaadopts]

I hope I did the cute noodle justice!

ADOPTED!!!!

He looks so cute in your styleeeee! 🥹

[nervousgladiator24]

He definitely struck me as a friendly, curious little noodle with an almost-young kind of vibe to him! He's definitely a mischevious little nope-rope. His owner's gonna have his hands full keeping an eye on the little spagooter!

Definitely going to doodle him messing with with his new owner when I have the time!

[leowreakinghavoc]

Here's my try at the green boi

They appeared and demanded tribute, so my boi gave them the rest of his lunch.

I can't decide between the names Celadon (a shade of green) and Nomad (because this guy looks like the kind of cat that wanders off for days just to appear again like nothing happened)

They also demanded you adopt them, your lunch must be very tasty. Adopted!

My brain was thinking between those two names and suddenly i was thinking "celery nomad" and i dont know what to do with that information. Let me know what you decide 👀

[nervousgladiator24]

Considering how they hung out with the one who gave them food long enough to steal more food then wandered off, they're definitely being named Nomad. They're lucky they weren't named Thief instead

[nervousgladiator24]

Blueberry is going to the market to find something to keep a certain someone from flying off at the first shiny that catches her eye. Let's hope Bb has a good grip on his girl because she's just found another pair of shinies for her growing hoard

The pink bird creature is a Skorrvid I got from @skorrvid-aviary

[nervousgladiator24]

@leowreakinghavoc, I made a full ref sheet of my pretty girl! She's too good for a collar, so her owner gave her a circlet instead, and she looks so pretty with it!