So if you also take away the rps (actually don't since thats all we know about her) , how would your interps / ocs treat odette ? Especially with how she's being treated by other people (aka my poppy eating her , your starson literally eating Lamb for dinner , and Maria's Milo being the dad) 😈
Banana King would still treat her like she's his granddaughter despite his troubled relationship with Marie. (I see him as a guy who always wanted a big family but couldn't due to his career as a sailor 🥲)
Mort would treat her nicely enough even though he sort of thinks she's an affront to nature (he's a man of science, and so her being a lamb but having human parents doesn't make sense in his brain)
She and Starson would actually get along well. (Starson is more of a drama-causer in the RPs than he actually is in my interp.) If Milo and Sariah leave him to babysit, he'd take her shopping and stuff. (He would be such a good girl dad)
Spencer, unlike Mort, wouldn't be that weirded out by her existence, but would make their interactions awkward because she'd keep asking rude/invasive questions and suggesting that she do experiments on Odette
Miranda wouldn't care for her much/see her as an annoyance
Boar, Dr. Mort (although he spends most nights working in his office), and later Thade
Schot and Percy
Conea sleeps in the water
HEIGHTS
BOAR IS HUGE. The wiki says that if he was a puppet in the show, he would have been almost as tall as Janice, which would make him, like, twice as tall as the other puppet characters?? So I headcanon him to be like, over 7 feet tall. A literal giant. Why not?
Everyone else on the crew is also fairly tall. Thade is quite tall (but by a normal amount, not tall like Boar), and Lillian and Schot are a few inches shorter than him.
Red Mary isn't short by typical standards (she's like... 5'4" I guess?) but seems short compared to the rest of the crew.
Dr. Mort is SMALL. He's shorter than Mary and just barely taller than Percy (but he's catching up to him!)
Percy is at a normal 12-year-old boy height. Auburn is a little shorter.
Conea is also probably 7 feet tall, but that's average for a merman.
Disclaimer: I'm bad at visualizing height, so if this is confusing... that's why
LILLIAN
Strong sense of justice and what's right.
Has a code about paying back debts. Like, the only reason she let Mary join the crew was because she (supposedly) saved them once. This is also why she lets Dr. Mort stay even though people have tried to get him fired (he's saved their lives multiple times and she thinks it would be wrong).
Her reason for becoming a pirate was pretty silly and not thought through (teenage/young adult rebellion), but it worked out for her.
I imagine her to be very tan and have lots of freckles.
Feral.
Follows her gut rather than common sense sometimes.
THADE
Talks a lot. Constantly asks questions. Annoys people.
He’s normally quiet and shy but talkative towards people he knows well.
Manic pixie dream boy! He and Lillian are manic pixie dream people to each other.
Is Percy’s cool older brother/cool young uncle figure
He's the scout of the crew.
(There are other parallels between him and Percy as well)
Was a tailor (or tanner? I'm not sure) before he joined the crew.
RED MARY
She's the first mate.
She hides the full extent of her powers from the crew.
Her normal-power-level magic causes her to generate fire in the air (like that Dragon Ball fireball thing), but her super powerful magic actually causes fire to come out of her skin.
(CW for really severe burns) Her hands and arms are badly burned because of it, and she's missing fingernails and some parts of her fingers.
And in the future (like when the show of Candle Cove takes place), her hands and forearms (plus some other parts of her body) are just bones. Like she burned all her flesh off. (CW over)
Either she is able to ignore pain, or she got Mort to do brain surgery on her so she no longer felt pain.
She’s both smart and calculating but also prone to following her impulses.
She doesn't have any complicated motivation for being evil, I don't think. She just likes to burn and kill and destroy for fun. Like a child burning ants with a magnifying glass.
My voice headcanon for her is Amanda Palmer.
PERCY
Lillian assigned him the duty of teaching Thade about how Candle Cove works (because everyone else are adults and have things to get done) and they’re close because of it.
Reckless. Needs to be supervised. Causes Schot so much anxiety.
Stands up for himself. Would get into arguments with grown adults.
Kind of a little shit, honestly–
Loves and relies on the crew more than he’d like to admit.
BOAR
Sometimes frightens people due to his absurd height but is very soft and kind.
His relationship to Lillian is that they were friends (like found-family siblings, basically), and he took care of her after her parents disowned her.
If you meet him, he's your friend. You don't have a choice.
There's a running gag of him acting more fatherly towards Percy than Schot. Like, Schot would swear, and Boar would gasp and cover Percy's ears. Things like that.
The story of how he got his nickname is embarrassing and he gets flustered if people bring it up.
Used to be a whaler before he became a pirate.
SCHOT
Everyone else is sort of suspicious of Red Mary, but Schot is the only one who seriously distrusts her. He's spoken to Lillian about it, but she thinks that it's just his hypervigilance/past trauma causing him to see proof that isn't there.
He was imprisoned by the NPHC once but (barely) escaped. The scars over his eyes are from the Earl of Wax and his Freddy Krueger torture glove.
He's blind in one eye (caused by Earl torturing him).
Doesn't really enjoy being a pirate. He's sick of all the violence and danger and just wants to settle down and live safely with Percy.
The only reason he's with the crew is because the navy is after him and he knows he can't live anywhere in Candle Cove without them eventually finding him again.
His dolphin necklace used to belong to his wife.
CONEA
I feel bad for him because he stays in the water and can't come on deck and interact with the crew.
He probably doesn't mind though. He seems like a loner/introvert.
Used to be part of the Amantis military and developed explosives for war. He regrets this.
Was outcast from Amantis for rebelling against the government and whatever wars they were fighting.
Secretive about his past
I am compelled by the idea of him having, like, mechanical legs? And being able to walk around the ship and interact with people, but I don't know. I think him staying in the water the whole time could be compelling too if it's done well.
DR. MORT
Acts aloof, like he's just an employee of the crew and not actually part of the crew/"family".
Very… lowkey. People barely notice when he is or isn't around. Hides out in his office all the time unless there's a crew meeting or something.
Once the crew visited Banana Land to get fruits, and then they left, and then like 3 hours later, they realized Mort was gone and that they had left him there--
Soft voice. Pleasant smile. Actually has a sort of comforting presence if he's not operating on you.
He weighs about… 10 pounds? (he is just a large ragdoll) and has been blown/thrown off the deck of the ship more than once.
Do you know how stuffed animals that have been around for generations get skrunkly and pilly and sort of gross? That's kind of how he looks. (Look up "Too Much Love photo series" for examples of what I mean.)
Everyone there sort of dislikes (or is scared of) him, but he isn't bothered by it.
TALAPIO
She didn't have human-level intelligence until she got light magic. She was just a normal (but large) spider.
She was previously kept as a pet by a powerful light magician who gifted her their powers on their deathbed.
Her powers: being supernaturally smart, mind-reading, predicting the future, knowing things that are otherwise impossible to know, glowing.
Her role in the crew is a seer. Like, she finds hidden treasure and stuff like that.
The crew calls her Tilly for short.
She CAN communicate with people somehow even though she can’t talk. She writes or uses Morse code or something.
She either "left" when Mary joined the crew, like the wiki says (Mary knew that Talapio knew her true intentions and killed her before she could tell anyone), or Mary just threatened to kill her if she told anyone in order to keep her quiet.
AUBURN
Oh, you thought PERCY was a little shit?!!
I like the idea in the fandom of her being adopted. Like, Lillian just found her someplace. (I don't think Lillian would have a whole baby in such a dangerous environment.)
What if... she was a runaway?
Around 10 years old.
Lillian, Thade, Boar, and Schot are all her parents.
Took on personality traits from all the crew members.
She and Percy disliked each other at first but eventually became close siblings.
There are parallels between her and Janice. Like, with her being separated by her family and then being raised by a pirate crew. Janice reminds Percy of her in ways.
Has a strong sense of justice that Lillian taught her.
I'm on the fence if I want her to be the same character as Flaming Dragon from the Hogs Crew. Like, I think it would be compelling if she learns she has fire magic after having been traumatized by fire before. But I also like Flaming Dragon and want her to be her own character with no backstory I have to take into consideration.
I have the feeling that the show of Candle Cove is supposed to be canonically kind of corny, but... I don't think I can keep Dr. Heartfelt's legal last name as "Heartfelt" in my interp. It's just so on-the-nose.
I had the idea to change his name to "Hartfeldt" because 1. it's less unsubtle while the meaning is still pretty easy to catch, 2. it's an actual last name people in real life have, and 3. it makes him sound extra German. Actually, "Hartfeldt" translates into "hard field" in German.
Speaking of last names that translate into words in characters' native languages, I think I kinda wrote myself into a corner by making Mort French, because that would mean that he's literally named "Dr. Death" in his home country. Like, it was already kind of corny and unsubtle to begin with, but I think his being French would make it corny to another level. But I'm hesitant to change his name too much because I personally don't like it when fan interpretations go so far that they're completely unrecognizable from canon.
BUT! If I did change it, I kind of like the name Mordant, because it means "biting" (so like, rude and sarcastic), and I think it fits Mort's character better (in my interp) than the kinda generic "his name means death because he's scary and death is also scary."
I always imagined that Heartfelt was around 18 when he first began training with Mort, but I found out recently that back in pirate times, people graduated high school and started college when they were TWELVE, and... I just don't know what to say. Couldn't've been me. Anyway, I'm gonna take a slight creative liberty and say Heartfelt started his doctor training when he was around 15.
Heartfelt wasn't especially good at biology or science or anything, and he actually had a fear of blood when he started his training, but he was motivated to become a doctor because of his caring personality, and he felt very passionately that people shouldn't get sick or suffer.
Mort used to be one of the head surgeons at Candle Cove's hospital, plus he used to work in academia. He actually wrote a lot of the medical textbooks Heartfelt studied with. I also played with the idea of him being an actual university professor, and him teaching classes at Candle Cove's med school, and that being how he and Heartfelt met, but I'm not sure. Anyways, somehow, Heartfelt ended up becoming his apprentice. I don't think Mort would ordinarily be too jazzed about this, but he saw that Heartfelt was determined to learn, so he accepted.
(OH. Spontaneous idea. Mort was around 60 here. Maybe the hospital board was talking about how they want him to retire. And they wanted somebody to replace him? And they wanted Mort to train a replacement? ORRRRR maybe Mort did something unethical and was fired from the hospital, or put on probation, and he decided to take on a student because he was bored with having so little responsibilities. And maybe also he wanted a successor because he knew the hospital probably wasn't going to take him back, but he wanted his medical expertise to still be present there, through Heartfelt. Or maybe Mort just thought it would be fun. Idk.)
At first, Heartfelt really idolized Mort. Bear in mind that Mort wrote a good deal of the medical textbooks in Candle Cove, so Heartfelt knew who he was beforehand, and knew how smart he was. And he watched how easily Mort could deal with complicated problems and heal people and he was just enchanted. Mort seemed almost unhuman to him. It kind of made him in denial of his negative qualities.
But the fantasy dissipated eventually, and Heartfelt began to acknowledge that he and Mort had really different medical philosophies. And also personalities and values in general.
Heartfelt is very empathetic and personable and makes it a point to get to know each patient and care about them as individuals, even if it exhausts him emotionally.
Mort, meanwhile, has become so desensitized from years and years of dealing with sick and dying people that he barely feels anything for them anymore. His belief is that it’s a waste of energy to get emotionally worked up over every patient and that it makes you less efficient and less able to help people. His bedside manner is nonexistent because of this.
So yeah, the two of them got along alright enough, but they did butt heads. Well, I wouldn't say butt heads. Mort would say or do something, and Heartfelt would feel that it was deeply, deeply wrong, but he'd just keep quiet (usually) because he was just a kid and Mort was his teacher slash boss, so he couldn't exactly backtalk him, and even if he did, it's not like Mort would have listened. But Heartfelt did have his moments of just snapping at him. And then feeling really bad afterwards, ofc, this is Heartfelt we're talking about.
What made their relationship even weirder is that, unfortunately, Heartfelt imprinted onto Mort like a baby duck. Heartfelt didn't really have any family, and while he had friends, he was kind of like the "dad friend" of his friend group, so while he helped other people with their problems, he didn't feel like he could be vulnerable with them. Mort, being the only thing resembling a parental figure in his life, became his outlet and his source of comfort. Mort isn't all that comforting, but Heartfelt took what he could get.
I think I'll stop here, but there IS more to this whole thing. This is just the basics.
Also, have some art while I'm here:
(I'm thinking of making them human because no one else in my interp are puppets/dolls and I think they would stand out too much as minor characters if they had bright pink/purple skin and button eyes.)
Incorrect quotes from when Dr. Heartfelt was being trained by Dr. Mort
I love them :,( I can't talk about my headcanons for them in a concise enough way to fit into a post intro. Just... dysfunctional mentor-mentee sort-of-father-figure-son-figure dynamic. Hopefully that makes sense.
Their first meeting:
Heartfelt trying to covertly psychoanalyze Mort and find out how messed up he actually is:
I like how Mort is aware that his presence isn't very comforting.
Also, I like the idea of Heartfelt becoming smarter than Mort in some areas and Mort acknowledging this but Heartfelt acting all underconfident about it.
That's just scarily accurate. How tf did the quote generator guess how tall Mort was.
Some messy Tarantula Crew headcanons/thoughts I posted on Discord but will also post here:
THADE
--doesn't have a natural sense of what colors go well together and which ones clash, and also just really loves all colors, so he used to dress really gaudily, until people bullied him about it. now he just wears black and white.
--always looks 2 minutes away from dying. this is just how he looks normally.
LILLIAN
--i don't really have anything interesting to say about her lmao. like i love her, i love feral women, i like to draw her and put her in situations, but i don't really have any headcanons off the top of my head
RED MARY
--the crew calls her red
--smokes and has a gravelly smoker's voice (which was also probably caused by the smoke of all the fires she sets)
--her personality is a pain to develop, let me tell you. i keep feeling like she's too similar to my version of skin-taker (not being outright hateful and just killing bc she enjoys it and doesn't see it as wrong)
BOAR
--this was inspired by how the wiki used to say that the hogs crew's captain (who is possibly supposed to be the same guy as boar) was twice as tall as the other puppets. i headcanon him to be between 6'10" and 7' tall. maybe taller...
--a very wholesome guy. but don't mistake his kindness for weakness, and don't mistake his optimism for stupidity
--was a proper sailor before joining the crew. possibly a merchant sailor or a whaler. he's the most knowledgeable about nautical stuff.
SCHOT
--he got caught by the navy at some point in his past. the scars on his face are from the earl of wax's clawed torture glove. (my interp of him has 5 scars across the whole width of his face and not just his eyes)
--he was a high-ranking member of the red-handed jacks (green gregory's crew, and also the most feared pirate crew of the time), which is why earl came after him so hard. earl was also the one to target and kill his wife.
--he's blind in one eye (from earl torturing him), so when he shoots, he doesn't have to close one eye, so it seems as though he's just staring into the soul of whoever he's shooting
DR. MORT
--he doesn't have eyelids so he just constantly stares at people.
--he's immune to sleep deprivation because he used to have a very demanding career as both a head surgeon at candle cove's hospital and a main contributor in cc's medical academia. like he can sleep for 3 hours and feel well-rested.
--unsophisticated frenchman representation. he owns like 3 outfits total, smells musty 24/7, and is banned from the kitchen because one time he thought lemons and oranges were interchangeable in recipes
CONEA
--i have nothing really interesting to say about him tbh. i wish i was less bored by him, but he's just kinda... there.
--he has long luxurious hair and it makes him look like a male model.
TALAPIO
--i mentioned this before, but i hc her to have been just a normal (but weirdly big) spider before she got light magic. her previous owner was a light magician who gave her their powers on their deathbed.
--she's another one of those characters who i definitely think has potential but i'm weirdly not that invested in. i should think about her more. it's pretty interesting, to think what it would have been like to go from having a bug's intelligence to being smarter than any human...
BONUS! THE UNNAMED COOK
--her name is gwen and she's a no-bullshit old welsh lady
--that's it. i only think about her like, once a year.
I'm in the process of figuring out Banana King. He's fun to draw. (I gave him spots like a banana 🤭). I keep forgetting/deliberately not including his beard because it looks kind of goofy tbh, but he is supposed to be goofy, so idk. Also an attempt at designing my version of the Banana People.
Susan's also fun to draw.
Thade <3
I wanted to develop the PANI islanders a bit because the wiki did them dirty and I think they have unused potential. I was going to give them all wicker basket-esque masks, but I thought it would be more interesting if they each came up with different ways to cover their faces.
Starson! Figuring out a way someone could feasibly shape their hair into a star and have it look like a (somewhat) normal hairstyle was a long but rewarding experience. I have no idea why he wants to look like this.
It's Caroline Barker! I was really proud of myself for being able to capture a likeness (before giving up on the hair), but this is pretty old and I think I could do better now.
Aaaand some silly doodles I just haven't gotten around to posting yet :o) (the last one is a reference to this video)
