#jackie lopez

[nocturnaea]

Saw this cute trend of couples taking selfies like this in front of a mirror, and knew what had to be done :3c Still one of my favorite artworks I've made of them so far.

Also sorry for the heavy watermarks, had a recent run-in with someone uploading all my art to deviantART and claiming it as their own again...

[vivalich]

It's been awhile since I did some fullbody art of my ocs

[vivalich]

I don't really have anything for April Fools but I do have these badly doodled comics of my characters with text posts

[nocturnaea]

~~Family Photo~~

Little headcanon gpose of Dancing Green and his parents (+ his natural hair color).

His father's name is Anukwayi and he's a rancher from Yyasulani. His mother's name is Saga and she originally hails from Orthard, traveling the world to become a storyteller.

I headcanon Dancing Green's name to be Denetakkya, or Jackie. Explanation and a few more headcanon ramblings under the cut for anyone interested :D

-Saga traveled to Tural sometimes after the events of Heavensward took place, stumbling upon a rare ship heading over there by pure chance and deciding on a whim to hop aboard. Tural was bound to have incredible stories and legends and fantastical creatures to learn about.

-She meets Anukwayi, who works at his father's ranch, while touring Yyasulani. Anukwayi is a hopeless romantic who has spent a few years working in Tuliyollal, where he picked up the idea of marrying out of love. The two fall head-over-heels for each other on their first meeting, and things go from there

-Saga enjoys life on the ranch, and coupled with being so in love, she's happy to stay here. One day, while at the bar and deep in their cups, the topic of children comes up.

-Saga jokes that if their first kit turns out to be male, she'd love to name it a bit of a pun name that came to her during her travels. The legendary creatures called Jackalopes always stuck out to her, and she thought it'd be amusing to name a son Jackie Lopez. Anukwayi, equally drunk, finds that hilarious and agrees. Given how slim the chance of a male offspring is, anyway...

-Their first kit is born soon after, and is given the name Denetakkya. When little Denetakkya is two years old, his parents take them on a trip to Shaaloani to visit relatives. Upon taking the train back home, things go crazy...

-fast forward a couple years within the lightning dome, and it turns out fate has a sense of humor. Saga tells her son about the silly name they came up with in a bar so many years back, and much to the parents' surprise, their son loves the idea

-he's heard from his mother how the Viera in Orthard have a Forest Name and a City Name, and he'd love to have something similar. Denetakkya happily accepts his additional name, and mostly becomes known within Solution 9 as Jackie.

-Jackie's original hair color is blonde with storm blue tips, taking after his dad and grandfather.

-he's visually impaired (nearsighted), but it's not super bad so he's more or less fine even without glasses all the time

-Jackie has an insane talent for anything music related and dancing. Thanks to his pa, he loves country as a genre, but given that doesn't land well with most people in Solution9, his later Arcadion persona is built upon his love for disco tunes instead

-he's 32 years old during the events of the Arcadion as seen in-game. But given he's a Shetona, his age is hard to tell, and I love the idea of Metem just assuming him to be under 20 still because the Milala simply doesn't know any better. Also makes them allowing Dancing Green to be the party animal that probably gets drunk and in touch with drugs despite supposedly being underage absolutely wild to think about.

--

The names Anukwayi and Denetakkya are based on Shiwi'ma, the Zuni language. I saw people say that that one seems closest to the inspiration used for in-game Shetona names.

According to a dictionary I found, Anukwayi means Earthquake, and Denetakkya means 'Sing Frog' (Dene = sing, Takkya =Frog)

The name Jackie Lopez I originally came up with before doing that research, as a silly placeholder name. Given his dancing and some musical references (and our friend group loosing our marbles over the whitewashing), I thought 'yeah sure I'll name him after Michael Jackson temporarily'. And then the idea with the pun name hit... and I just couldn't let go anymore. Even if the game is kind enough to drop his real name in 7.4, he will always keep Jackie as a nickname in my brain.

[nocturnaea]

Absolutely insane to me how this green-haired disaster bunny came along and solved all my lore woes about who to pair my WoL with and I just wanna ramble for a moment~

For the longest time I tried to make a ship between Shika and Thancred work. But given the narrative always wrote him out during some crucial story beats by saying he was on spy missions and the likes, I kept having trouble really fleshing their feelings out. Like...he's gone for months during times where she'd need the emotional support the most. It just didn't really work out well for my lore, yet I kept being wishy-washy about it and dragged my feet not knowing what to really do for months. Dawntrail doing Thancred such a disservice and making him basically disappear outside of like...2 important moments was like the final nail in the coffin. (stares at the several shipping art pictures she drew to try and get into the idea, all obsolete now)

And my brother and our friend watched me despair, their own shipping plots already tied up neatly and without problems. The two tried to help by suggesting other chars. "Try Emet-Selch!", "You said Venat was cute...", "How about Urianger?", "What if you have a poly ship?". I tried, gave all of this so much thought, and nothing came of it, to the point were I was ready to just keep Shika single. (And that means a lot, coming from someone who loves her silly little cute shipping endeavors...)

Then suddenly.

Live Letter 86.

Sneak-peek at the first floor of Cruiserweight.

I never understood the hype around male Viera, but I think that moment awoke something within me. I just couldn't escape the feeling that I might have just been handed the solution to my problems.

Patch day came, and my brother and I, super in love with the Arcadion story and characters up to this point, did the raids before the MSQ.

And I knew. The first meeting cutscene. The whole fight. That cutscene of telling Dancing Green and Sugar Riot about psychonekrosis.

I knew that moment who my WoL was going to be paired with.

Totally inconsequential floor 1 raid boss that I will be lucky to ever see in a cutscene or have mentioned somewhere ever again.

But he's perfect. He matches with my silly little Au Ra so well. They basically have gone through the same identity crisis. Once-passionate artist who played their role for so long and with such dedication, the line between persona and reality started to blur. Being known and celebrated only for that acted side, with barely anyone knowing their true selves.

And the best part?

Their love is built upon knowing each other outside their personas. Shika doesn't partake in the Arcadion, and only knows of 'Dancing Green' because she takes up a temporary job as an artist in Solution9 and is tasked with doing some portraits and merch designs for the Cruiserweight folks. But it's not Dancing Green that catches her attention. It's the man hiding behind those tinted glasses. And being basically blind to his role within the Arcadion, that's the side she gets to know and love. Meanwhile he has not the slightest clue who she is. He has no clue the artist they sent his way is a fabled Warrior of Light who has fought all sorts of crazy monsters and foes and threats. He just sees a timid but kind woman who treats him like a normal person rather than a superstar, and that's gets him.

Ohhhh I could swoon about how stoked I am about this character and how he saved my lore writing for hours, and maybe I will at some point.

[lovelyvoices]

[jnontanovan]

Enormous props to Jackie, Breeze Lee, my homies Ray Basa, Maya and all the dance fam I loved to watch battle back in LA.  Support VersaStyles!!