#alate!sozo

[pessimisticshapewithablog]

A handsome bug man all dolled up for his Nuptial flight...

[yourlocalfunkyjester]

@pessimisticshapewithablog you’ve cursed me.

I CANT GET THIS MAN OUT OF MY HEAD.

Also here’s a doodle with my oc trying to ask him out lmao

[pessimisticshapewithablog]

Handsome bug man faces!

One closer to Sozo's canon design...

And one in my own...

[pessimisticshapewithablog]

Alate!Sozo!

Or atleast my interpretation of him...

I just like drawing him lol.

[pessimisticshapewithablog]

Colored my Alate!Sozo sketches

I gave him brown wings like real leaf cutter ant drones!

[pessimisticshapewithablog]

My take on a Crown Bearer! Sozo!

Technically this is my AU version of him, Alate!Sozo, where he was revived by my lamb. And also a first pass at this design. It still needs to be refined but I wanted to share the concept...

Art

I tried to remain accurate to the COTL style while also giving Sozo real ant features and traits. But also keeping him recognizable. I noticed the bishop heads are far more detailed than other characters' so i tried that here. Ants have these hair-like structures called Setae that I think they are used for sensing vibrations in their environment but I could be wrong...

I made him reddish brown because I have a headcanon about him being a LeafCutter ant drone, which are about that shade, maybe darker but I didn't want to lose too many details. LeafCutter alates have pretty brown+beige wings so I tried to portray that here.

I also made him a mortal form, to show how he's "grown" and been changed by the Yellow Crown. He's more angular now lol. I was watching video of ants an noticed that aggressive one would hold their mandibles open, ready to bite. So I made that a COTL ant threat display. They also held their antenna up like that which I thought was cute.

Bonus:

I started a design for what I call a "Crown beast" form. Like when the bishops transformed to fight the lamb. They become more animalistic, save Kallamar, and looked more like the animal they are based on.

Trying to incorporate real insect traits while mimicking a specific style is daunting 😭.

Ant alates kinda look like goofy wasps, right? /s

I'm gonna keep trying to fix this design to see if I can portray it better😅.

[pessimisticshapewithablog]

A continuation of Sozo being obtuse.

Artwork

I usually don't write dialogue when doing little comics like this but the gist is that Sozo 1)forgot that he had antenna and 2) couldn't identify his followers from total strangers. He accuses my Lamb OC of stealing his followers after his death which is immediately disproven, by him no less. The man can't handle the embarrassment.

Lore

Ants have a very powerful sense of smell. That's what they use their antenna for. They also produce pheromones and scents to identify and communicate with other ants. As a new leader Sozo treated his Mushroomo followers like ants, learning their individual scents and marking them with his own. After being infected by the fungas Sozo's antenna fell off and he lost his sense of smell and adapted to not having it. Sozo still remembers his followers' scents even after his resurrection but, is still coping with having his old, unaltered body back.

A closer look at Sozo being TALLtm.

He uses it for evil lol.

[pessimisticshapewithablog]

Alate!Sozo!