#btal

[erisluna35]

Shizuke, Fiona and Keagan's outfits over the years:

Childhood:

Pre-Origins (a year before main story):

Season 1/BTAL:

Season 2/N2CATS:

[erisluna35ocblog]

"Why don't you love me?!"

... Is what she probably meant between the barbed words and the arrows she shot.

No wonder Chat Noire didn’t stop Crawford from volunteering as bait. Dark Venus’ powers don’t work on him. “Hold still and let me shoot you!” More arrows went flying towards Crawford in an angry barrage. The few that manage to hit him had no effect. Seeing Crawford so unfazed from her powers must be getting to Dark Venus as her aim got sloppier. With every arrow she released, her attacks got easier for Crawford to dodge. “You want me to love you that badly? I feel so special,” Crawford sarcastically said as he continued to run in the middle of the street. Ten wasted arrows later, and Dark Venus screeched. “WHY DON’T MY ARROWS WORK ON YOU?!” “Aww, don’t be mad. It’s not you, it’s me.~” “Maybe it is.” The sheer ice in her voice was enough to make Crawford freeze up. Dark Venus took this chance to shower him with arrows but like all her past attempts, they had no effect other than increasing her frustration. “Maybe the magazines were right after all. You’re just a heartless womanizer who would dump a girl once she bores you. You’re no better than Leo!” Every word was burning with rage, by the time she made her accusation, she hit her boiling point. “... You know that’s not true,” Crawford weakly denied, covered in arrows that were slowly fading away. It would’ve been a gruesome sight had the arrows been purely solid and he wasn’t immune. “Then why were you never there for me when I need you?!”

- Excerpt from Episode 5: Dark Venus, Chapter 4

So I was drawing the corners of my OC's own love square when a thought sprung up: the beta couple has something like that but with akumasonas. It helps their akuma forms have interracted with their love interest's normal form. Here, we got Darklake! Blake x Natalia's akuma form, Dark Venus. Anyone this akuma shoots with her arrows would love her! Except it doesn't seem to change anything with Blake. Little does she know, he already loves her but he sucks at showing it. He's didn't do anything bad... He's just not doing anything at all! He got worse when she announced she has a boyfriend and he's been avoiding her since. But then, come Valentine's Day, her boyfriend dumped her horrendously in public. And Natalia had the crash out of her life.

Yup. This is BTaL's beta couple. They're somehow doing worse than the main pair with their secret identity shennanigans.

Next up, gonna do Natalia x Volpino in a few days. I'm not sure if they'll have an excerpt cause I haven't gotten to writing that part yet.

[erisluna35]

Trying to get back into art on my last hours of freedom. Decided maybe I should just stick with some low commitment pieces for now like portraits of OCs that I haven't drawn in a while.

Introducing, Keagan's older sister, Octavia Eleanor Aurelio-Ashworth. She first officially shows up in Episode 4: Slumber, but before that, she's been mentioned a couple of times as a fencing champion. She is definitely the golden child between herself, Keagan and Leo, having both talent and drive to be the best... Is that all there is to her?

In terms of relationship dynamic with her younger brother Keagan, they do care about each other but there's this awkward distance between them - it's a contrast between Fiona who's always squabbling with her older brother Gav but they're somehow fairly close and know each other fairly well. Part of which may be due to her boyfriend... To the point Keagan got akumatized over it... it's... it's a stupid reason and that's what made Scorch all the more tragic for Keagan... but this awkwardness is also due to Octavia catching most of the pressure as the mayor's first born, and their father being a highly accomplished guy who everyone is needling for a weakness. She opted to excel and shine bright as having her be the focus of the public would mean there's less pressure that would trickle down on Keagan. It didn't work, but Keagan could appreciate the effort (probably figured that out from reading her diary lol Keagan is definitely nosy enough to do that).

She's a lot like her father in that aspect where they're both academically and athletically smart but when it comes to expressing their love for their younger siblings, they're both drawing blanks. It's kinda lucky for her that Keagan isn't the envious sort like Leo that he's open to reconnecting with her to try to understand her better instead of resenting her for being the golden child. Time will tell if she and Keagan can ever fix that bridge but there's hope as neither of them actually want to burn that it down.

Role-wise, she's kind of like Nora to Keagan's Alya if that makes sense. Octavia is primarily reputed as an athlete though her take on it is more feminine. Fiona and Shizuke both have a lot of respect and admire her, but they both would get shy about talking to her about personal stuff and keep a polite distance - which is, again, in contrast to how they're like with Fiona's older brother who they're close enough to mess with his stuff and annoy.

I updated her looks to have her hair seem neater and wavier... maybe I should consider making it curlier, idk. That's all I got on Octavia for now.

[erisluna35]

Funny thing about shizublair is they get to take turns cornering each other in the locker room while getting up at each other's face 🥲 my clowns are probably the only ones not sensing the UST they have going on here.

[erisluna35]

Saw a picture of a cat that has so much gremlin energy and then it snowballed into this meme. These two are hilarious. I missed drawing them in color... Though seeing them side by side, I'm thinking of making Shizuke's hair as Ladybug more black. It makes for matching visuals with Blair as Chat Noire, what with the hair and the suits' colors getting somewhat inverted.

Inspired by:

[erisluna35]

Different Forms Compilation

I finally made enough for a collection. It wouldn't be Miraculous if your mains don't switch it up from time to time. For now, some of these forms only get tentative names*. It's only if I've written anything on them that I feel I can solidify the names.

Shizuke's forms: Ladybug (main, ladybug), Hikoboshi/Ranger Ox* (Reverse!AU, ox), Midorikame (temporary, turtle), Oni Gokko (akuma form)

Ladybug is treated like a legacy name. Think of the many Robins in DC sharing the same superhero name. Shizuke is like, seen as the second Ladybug in recent history, directly following Marinette even if they're a century apart.

Since N2CaTs had Blair go by another hero name, Calico, I'm considering having Shizuke eventually getting his own hero name to define himself apart from Marinette's legacy. Perhaps show growth on how he now fully accepts being the new Ladybug and not just a placeholder that only held the title until someone better comes along.

Hikoboshi is considered as it means cow herder and I couldn't find a more heroic reference to oxes - this is why it's tentative. It also alludes to half of a pair of star crossed lovers (the other being Orihime) which can losely allude to his situation with Blair. Kinda helped by Blair's bee form having elements of royalty while having a string based weapon (Orihime is a weaver princess).

Ranger Ox leans towards the super Sentai inspiration for this form as he definitely based it on super Sentai or power rangers. He genuinely believes he's fighting on the good side. It's giving very friendly vibes despite being an antagonist cause he's that deluded and deep into the Supreme's propaganda. Also giving "this is the localization of my hero name in the English dub cause foreigners won't get the reference of my original name in the sub". Seriously tempted to make this canon tbh, it kinda says something about what Shizuke thinks his side is with how friendly Sunday morning hero show it sounds.

He also used to be part of a team - which is why seeing a power ranger all alone without a team is like, foreshadowing there were more kids like him, raised by the supreme. They had true companionship comparable to a power ranger team yet only Shizuke remains... Think the dude is traumatized by losing his team?? It's why he's so quick to get attached to Blair and declare he'd totally die for her.

Midorikame is pretty on the nose, not really hiding that it's Shizuke when the hero name is just one syllable away from his actual surname. It means green turtle, meant to match his grandma whose hero name as the former turtle wielder was Hisuikame, which means jade turtle.

Oni Gokko is his akuma form. Named after a children's game that's like Tag, and that's how he applies his power. After all, he is his team's close combat specialist.

Blair's forms: Chat Noire/Calico (main, black cat), Sting/Royal Pain* (Reverse!AU, bee), Calico/Unnamed fox form* (temporary, fox), Chrysalis (film role, butterfly)

Much like Ladybug, Chat Noire is like a legacy name. Different people can hold that title.

Though for N2CaTs, Blair renames herself as Calico to define herself apart from Chat Noir. Deep down she wasn't a fan of the kind of reputation Adrien set for black cats, being devoted and self sacrificing for their bugs, even if Blair had grown attached to her own bug. She may consider distancing herself from that by permanently adopting the name Calico.

Sting is meant to be a reference to her outfit's prominent feature: her spikes. The way she can sting from almost any angle with those, and they also grow or shrink depending on her mood. Also, I'm considering naming cat!Blake Stray, so twin theme naming gets maintained. Seriously tempted to keep this if only it didn't feel a little too simple or common.

Royal Pain has the oomph I feel reverse!AU Blair would want. She's more extra than normal, of course even her name seems like it's gonna be extra too. Kinda fits how she's trying to act like she has her shit together but I dunno. It seems kinda self depreciating and not self aggrandizing enough.

Truthfully, I don't think Blair's gotten around to naming her fox form in N2CaTs mainly because she isn't trying to present as a new fox, but as a fake Adrien. That's why it's unnamed...

However, Calico... As Blair thought of in N2CaTs, she chose that name because combined with the black cat, you add orange and white from the fox... You'd get the tricolor cat, Calico. She's wielding both for N2CaTs, and she first wielded both on her unfortunate birthday episode. May have even unified the cat and the fox and had to give the turtle to Shizuke because she was at her limit. That's why this name is associated to both her cat and fox forms.

Chrysalis here is strictly cosplay, not caused by a miraculous or from getting akumatized. This movie role is something I added for BTaL remastered, so she can be haunted by Lila even before N2CaTs.

[erisluna35]

So there was a time when Shizuke went through a punk emo phase trying to be cool like Fiona... Thinking about it, doesn't that leave Keagan as the odd one out for a time? Being the normie with his two emo friends lol

Trying to get back to digital art is hard when your house feels like a furnace. I'm not sure if I'm quite satisfied with this one yet, but I'd rather post it now and recreate it later than never post it at all. Kinda like that Blake chapter I have that I'm still sifting through lol

[erisluna35]

"Hey, Plagg. Just out of curiosity but... You remember how she looked, right?"

"... Do I resemble her?"