#apencilknight

[dood1e-bug]

Throws Pickles

NOOOOoo

[puppet-purgatory]

Mutant paint brush emu if you please.

send me a character + a neopets paintbrush!!  

did you know gaming: feathers are hard to texture. anyway this took a while so heres some Creature Features i thought up abt this thing:

initially inspired by king ghidorah for the most part; i like how its different heads have different personalities. this one doesnt shoot lightning tho

only the middle head is connected to the stomach. the left and right keep watch and perform threat displays while the middle eats. like a vulture, the middle head is bald.

the side heads' crests are stiff, but the feather shaft fills with blood when the Thing gets agitated, making them pop out. the middle head's isn't feathers but rather stiff plates to protect it from attackers.

it can probably regrow its auxiliary heads

EMU WAR...... 2!!!

i thought this style looks alright, but it sort of forgoes the cartoonish elements i enjoy about puppet history characters;; maybe i redo it in the future

[buglife]

How about festivals and celebrations? Not only the regal, noble type, but the ones of common bugs too.

Here are a couple I figured out with a quick overview. I may expand on these later with illustrations or more depth depending on time and interest.

PART 1 - Pre-Infection Holidays

The Cast Off Festival: Something akin to a new years resolution. Once a year the citizens of Hallownest make an effigy of something they want to ‘cast off’ of themselves so they can improve. Example, they may make a figurine that represents self laziness or something that represents a nasty temper. Some folks may make tokens or figurines to sell that people can purchase if they cannot or don’t want to make their own. Celebrations include food and rituals indicative of purifying yourself to allow the new you to get a foothold over the old. Everyone gets together at the end of the celebration to throw said effigies into a communal fire and let the wind carry the ashes away. Just like how the Pale King cast off his previous form of a Wyrm to walk among the people and lead them to a much better existence, so too would common bugs follow that example to better themselves as well. Bugs may just have one effigy and some may have a whole box of them, the point is to give yourself a fresh new start and leave your old baggage holding you back as mere ashes. In general, it’s a very happy celebration in that you have a new chance to make the changes you want and if you have to do the same thing again next year, that’s okay. It takes time to change. The important part is that you recognize something about yourself that does need improvement and make a promise to work on it. 

Feast of Fellowship: It’s not far fetched to imagine that even after granted Sapience, some bugs that were regularly preyed upon may have lingering instincts that may make interacting with carnivorous citizens a big nerve wracking. To counter act this, there is a yearly feast where folks are encouraged to share company and food with each other to not only celebrate the bounty from the harvest, but also the fact that many different kinds of bugs worked together to produce it. Spiders, Millipedes, Flies, Moths, ect ect, can all have a feast together and enjoy each other’s company. Takes place after the biggest harvest of the year so there is an abundance of food to go around that can be eaten up fresh before they must be preserved. Entire villages would just have one communal feast where everyone can share and enjoy. In big cities, usually these are more private with friends and colleagues being invited but I wouldn’t put it past a crown funded feast for everyone in the Capital. Citizens that are happy after all, are less likely to cause any trouble when they are busy sleeping off the biggest meal of the year. Lol.

Life Festival: A celebration for those wanting to be parents, those that have children, and those that have parents they love. It’s a day of fond wishes and hopes to be able to have healthy young. Different species have children in different ways, but it all comes down to the same thing, the want to reproduce. The day is spent lighting candles and leaving little offerings in the hopes to become gravid if trying to be. It is also a day for current parents to honor their offspring and be grateful to be blessed with them. Some take this day to grieve and honor any lost children and thank them for being there, even if it was for a short amount of time. Parents to be take the nights to be ‘extra sure’ their wishes will stick, if you know what I mean ;3. It can be rather bittersweet but it is important to many people. Children, however, take the day to honor the parents that gave them life, and there’s usually gift exchanges between parents and children. In general, it’s a celebration of life given and the gratitude of it all. 

Birthdays are dependent on species and specific culture. Some celebrate when the egg actually hatches as a birthday. Some celebrate the day they emerge from their pupa an instar molt as the ‘birthday’. Still, there would be some sort of celebration where a child gets a celebration to mark another year of life. Complete with sweets and presents. It’s a big deal, as bugs before rarely made it past the nymph stage of life. It certainly is something to celebrate. 

Celebration of Flight: For flying species, where the young take their first ritual flight to mark an important moment of their development. Non flying bugs are present as well and participate by offering support to their friends and family taking their first flight without any help. 

Celebration of Weaving: For Spiders to show off their very first silk weavings and crafts and getting the praise they deserve. Primarily a Deepnest holiday. 

Celebration of ____: If a species is known for a thing, you better believe they are going to have a cellebration around it! Digging, rolling, fighting, spitting, climbing, ect ect. There’s so many different kinds of bugs!

Mate Day: Bring your mate offerings so they don’t get cranky and try to bite anyone. Especially you. You better make them feel like the most special bug in existence. 

King/Queen’s Day: Two days at different times of the year to celebrate the King and his lovely tree wife. Queen’s day is in ‘Spring’, and King’s day is ‘Winter’. Think of ‘Captain Picard Day’ in the TNG for the idea. Kids make little dolls and pictures and costumes and run around while parents buy them little King/Queen shaped sweets and participate in events run by the crown. Tours of the Palace take place in order to bring more transparency to the public. Both days would involve charity work depending on the ruler’s taste. Example, the Queen might sponsor a beatification effort by planting flowers and bushes around the kingdom and the King may just ask for groups to go around and clean up litter. Citizen bugs outside the Capital/major cities still would have their own home celebrations, perhaps just saying prayers of thanks or just cleaning around their village. Dolls and plushies are typically sold a lot and it’s not uncommon for children to have at least one doll of either the King, Queen, or both. There is a lottery where any citizen can participate, where winners may go before the Royals without having to fight through normal court to request some sort of help for either themselves or another organization. Royalty and Nobility have a separate feast afterwards, where there is a lot of ass kissing and the monarchs just want to eat their din dins and go the hell to bed please.

Day of Spirits: A day to honor and remember the dead. Offerings are set out for deceased loved ones and graves/memorials are carefully cleaned and put to order. It’s a time to remember those you love that are gone and give them honor by showing that you are continuing to live and remember them. There are usually parties where representations are included so the spirits of those gone are invited to participate in said party. It’s a day for laughter and love, not for grief. It’s said on this day the veil between the living and dead and thin, so you can directly tell your gone loved ones whatever you like and they have the greatest chance of hearing it. 

Honey Festival: All things Honey. The Hive makes SO MUCH GEO during a week long Festival. They may not be part of the Kingdom but boy howdy, does everyone love honey and wax products. 

Remembrance Days: Days to remember any well known person, such as visionaries, inventors, people who generally did a lot of good, and others. Bugs that did a lot of good for bugkind are remembered and honored in their own little celebrations. Usually it means that government offices shut down to give their workers a much needed break. 

OF COURSE: There doesn’t need to be a reason for a celebration. Dances and ‘Ho Down’ style celebrations can spring up for any reason. Some villages have their own little celebration days and all it takes is one person setting up some music and drinks and you got a party.  For moral, it’s common for there to be at least one celebration every ‘month/moon/cycle’ to keep up spirits and have at least a bit of time to relax. 

[sometimes-hegemol]

If you're still taking charm prompts, how about Defender's Crest, Spell Twister and Deep Focus?

I am no longer accepting new prompts!

[miwachan2]

1150+ Follower Special Winner - @apencilknight

[dailyashleighraichu]

Team yell Ashley?

She’s yelling about how much she loves her husband!

[doodledrawsthings]

Hey, welcome to the hk fanclub! How do you like the game so far?

Thank you, glad to be here!This game is SUPER PRETTY and really fun with the simple controls. I love the atmosphere and aesthetic and the character designs and setting are RIGHT up my alley! It’s a shame that I haven’t had the means to play it until now! This game is BEYOND impressive and HUGE for apparently having a pretty small dev team, and I’m only playing the vanilla game, rn! I got a spoiled a little bit in certain places, but I’m glad I mostly held out until I actually got around to playing it cuz going in blind is an amazing experience, especially when entering the City of Tears for the first time!

[buglife]

If you're still taking prompts, how about how Dirtmouth came to be? Its my favourite area of the game. Also I love your posts!

Sure! 

If we look at Dirtmouth, it’s the first town you run into after going through Kings Pass. Most likely, new travelers to the region, upon creation of the kingdom, were like “wow, look at this nice flat, open area. It’ll be perfect to sit a spell before having to walk all the way down to the goddamn Capital.” So they made a ‘way point’ or ‘port’ town where people can recover from the brutal winds of Kings Pass before making their way lower into the kingdom, or prepare and stock up on supplies before heading back into said winds. Before the infection the place was probably full of inns, taverns, stables, general stores, and other conveniences for the sake of visitors. It seems that most of the permanent residents lived lower down in other areas with the cross roads being the main hub of travel. Not to say that there wasn’t permanent residents, obviously people lived there in order to run said establishments or just liked the idea of constantly meeting new people. Someone like Quirrel probably spent time in the various taverns, learning about the world outside Hallownest and hearing stories of other places and Kingdoms far, far away. 

Due to the proximity to Crystal Peaks, there were probably an influx of miners coming in wanting some drinks after a hard days work, so most likely, it was pretty busy. Lots of people coming in and out with some regulars. Most likely, there was a shipping area tied to the Stag Station in town where goods could be exchanged between the lower areas. The Station is fancy enough that it probably was a hub of trade. Kingdom’s Edge seems rather difficult to get trade through unless there were bridges that existed and fell after the infection, so it’s more likely foreign trade came from Dirtmouth.

After the infection, people stopped coming into the area due to quarantine, probably turned away by guards at Kings Pass. As panic rose people started to flee, leaving behind all these empty buildings. At the point where we start the game, only a few folks are living there and perhaps just took any of the abandoned houses that they liked. Its unclear how long it’s been since the infection, most say between 1-300 years, so unless it’s an incredibly long lived bug, or all bugs are under a stasis spell, it’s not sure if they would be original owners of said houses. Elderbug either was the actual mayor of Dirtmouth, or he just moved in and became de-facto leader of a random bunch of survivors. Again, it’s hard to tell how much time passed save for seeing crumbling infrastructure and plant overgrowth. I will say time passing can be up to the person and you can decide if poor Elderbug had to watch everyone leave him alone in a dying city, was a descendent of multiple generations living there after the fall, or he just showed up from elsewhere like “Hey, this is mine now.”  

SO, HEADCANON TIME. After the infection is completely dealt with, I can completely imagine Little Ghost and Hornet just completely claiming an entire inn/tavern as a home/nest for themselves and their friends. To cater to different species of bugs, there are probably various sized rooms to fit tall bugs like Hollow and little bugs like Myla. There’d be an open common area with a kitchen and squishy furniture and tables for them all to hang out and do various things while having a private room to escape to should they need it. Or they could knock a few walls down and make a great big nest room in case they all want to sleep in a pile some nights, because sometimes, you just need a pile. For mental health. I mean Ghost saved the goddamn kingdom they can take an entire inn/tavern for themselves and their forever expanding family.

No worries I will draw a bug tavern eventually. It’ll be really neat I figure :3