#maintaining balance

[hyena-paws]

using art fight as an excuse for maintaining balance refs part 1! my boy ouroboros

what’s “the incident”? dw about it :)

notes and transcripts under cut because i cannnn

1st one: pre-incident

shorter and redder hair

also shorter horns

looks more full of life overall

more full of hope

just ran away from home for the final time

THAT TAILLL he’s finally learning how to take care of his tail and horns

text reads:

shorter horns than post-incident

eye “whites” not actually white (the iris shape is just my art style btw)

on the skinnier side

a little long and lankey

big fluffy tail

his dad kept the hair on Ouroboros’ tail short when he was young so he grew it out when he ran away

shorter hair than post-incident but not short short

he started growing it out after running away

pointed ears down turned

inherited ears + horns + tail from mom’s side

dad not fond of them

tall as hell BTW

like 6’1

2nd one: post incident

looks more dead

eyes don’t have pupils anymore (meant to look glassy)

I LOVE THE BONE TAILLLL ugh i’m so proud of it

sad the tail loses the fluff tho (ignore i have the power to give him back the fluffy, i thought it looked weird with the bones)

it makes me laugh a little tbh that how i draw his nose is similar to how i draw some animal noses when his nose is very much not an animal nose (its more like a skeleton’s)

eventually gets his hope and love for life back but he’s forever changed by the incident

text reads:

bun

hair half up half down a lot

nose not animal nose

yk the nose skulls have? yeah that

tends to cover his face to cover his nose

tall as hell BTW

like 6’1

face turns more skeletal + eyes turn almost black when upset or using powers

broken horn

eyes look dead

constant eyebags

light blushing (meant to look more dead)

X scar on chest from the incident tm

scythe bracelet

bone tail post-incident (he hides it a lot like his face until he learns to accept them)

[pluto-glow]

in maintaining balance i'm including basically as many human+animal type races i can (lycanthropes, kemonomimi, satyr, taur, etc)

but the hard part is actually defining the difference between all of them

satyr and centaur are the easy ones, both have the bottom half of an animal, taurs have 4 legs while satyrs have 2 (amongst other details ofc)

lycanthropes are that way from a curse, they can be born with the curse or they can get cursed sometime in their life. as of rn there isn't a cure for lycanthropy, there has been work towards finding one for a long time, but a lot of lycanthropes advocate more for acceptance than a cure (sound familiar?). i'm debating how much control lycanthropes have over their shapeshifting?

kemonomimi (although i think i wanna find another term for them?) is anyone born with just animal ears and a tail that can't shapeshift. it might be used as more of a catch all umbrella term for anyone that doesn't fall into any of the other categories

i want to include therians in some way? but i'm having trouble sorting out the differences between therians and lycanthropes tbh

like, ofc first big difference, lycanthropy is a curse and therianthropy is not. but i'm debating the differences in how they present. like lycanthropy presents more around the moon ofc, but they both involve shapeshifting to some degree, you're both a therian and you can be born a lycantrope. i'm considering theriantropy having something to do with the soul, but not all therians are spiritual and i want to acknowledge that maybe no one quite knows why some people are therians? it just kinda happens? some believe it's a spiritual thing, some believe it's another curse like lycanthropy, others just kinda shrug and go "well i don't know why i'm like this, i just am"

i'll think more on it

[hyena-paws]

i swear i can’t do casual doodles lol this was supposed to just be a sketch then 3 hours of work later i’m looking up fancy lighting

anyways take ouroboros (horns) and jude (tall) being domestic gays, i gotta be nice to ouroboros sometimes

without the fancy lighting

i love drawing their height difference, ouroboros is like 6’2” not counting the horns btw, jude is just tall as hell

[pluto-glow]

idr how much i've talked about maintaining balance on here? so here's a basic overview ig

maintaining balance is the name i use for a big universe with a lot of interconnected stories. honestly it's the most self indulgent thing i've made in a while

it's a kind of modern fantasy setting? there's some cities with looming skyscrapers, but there's also some kingdoms that still have the original buildings, just updated technology wise. technology and magic tend to be seen as two sides of the same coin, not two opposing forces

(as of rn) there's ten gods of this universe. the current day gods weren't the ones who created the universe, they're just the ones currently trusted with keeping it safe and in balance (see where the name comes from?). not all of them have names yet, but there's the god of ambition and the god of dreams, the god of control and the god of chaos, the god of death and the god of life, the god of war and the god of peace, and the god of technology and the god of magic. they all work together to maintain balance, but they mainly work with their inverse (ex: the god of death and the god of life)

the gods don't work alone tho, they also have their angels and demigods. in this universe demigods aren't the kids of gods, they're people chosen by the universe to train under their assigned god so they could potentially take over if their god can't do their godly duties. angels on the other hand are the assistants to the gods. while the universe choses the demigods, the gods themselves pick their angels. because of this some gods have more angels than others. angels are like the eyes and hands of the gods, the gods can't be in multiple places at once and tend to stay up in the godly realm, but the angels travel back and forth more between the godly realm and the mortal realm, and carry out orders from the gods. sometimes it's just checking on things, but others times it involves taking care of small things that threaten the balance before they grow any bigger

its still very much a wip, but i have some art and some other rants posted for it so far

[pluto-glow]

i've been working more on maintaining balance, and thinking about different accessibility stuff, especially specialized mobility aids

and i've been debating different wheelchair options for mermaids and similar people. for a long time they just used regular humanoid wheelchairs, and some still do honestly (some mermaid species are more semi-aquatic, and can survive just fine on land, while others need to worry about their scales and gills drying out)

but others got really creative on how to keep wet before the modern day chairs were made. some would get a towel or a blanket or something similar and soak it in water then wrap their tail up in it (also helped with disguising as more human if that was a concern), others would carry around a water bottle or spray bottle and use that when they started to get too dry. others only went out when it was raining, or planned on heading back into the water when they got too dry

but now a days there's lots more options. specialized seats that you soak or fill with water that can stay wet for hours and be refilled in a sink. sleeves you can fill with water and slide over your tail. and my favorite, the tank on wheels

i keep trying to come up with more technical ideas, but i just can't get the idea of a tank on wheels out of my head. some have a built in seat so you can sit down, but some people's tails are so big they take up the whole bowl and that's not needed. not all tanks are made of something see through like glass, but the earliest tank chairs were made out of the same stuff as heavy duty aquariums. nowadays they're made of something more specialized than that, with the aquarium material there were limits in how strong it could be, since you could only make it so thick before it got too heavy and cumbersome. it's also a lot more common for tank chairs to be electric, but a lot do still have the option to be pushed manually by the mermaid

one big difference tho for any mermaid's chair is that they're all sand/dirt/gravel/etc friendly (unless they're using a human's chair as a last resort) so they can roll right up to the water and jump right in

[pluto-glow]

idr if i’ve mentioned this but! I finally have a name for that modern fantasy esc universe I’ve been working on

rn at least it’s called maintaining balance, because that’s the job of the gods in this universe. the current gods weren’t responsible for making the world, they inherited the job of keeping the world alive and in balance

not all of the stories in the world directly have to do with the gods, so i’m debating giving those a separate title? but for now since it’s all the same universe i’m just calling it all maintaining balance

[haveacupofjohanny]

Embracing Chaos: Developing Backup Habits for Consistency and Growth

Season 5 of Have a Cup of Johanny kicks off with my chaotic yet rewarding move to San Antonio! 🌟 Discover how backup habits keep me grounded amidst unpredictability and learn how to tailor them for your personal growth. 🎙️💡 #HaveACupOfJohanny #podcast

Let’s embark on season five of “Have a Cup of Johanny,” inviting you to explore the chaotic yet rewarding journey of moving to San Antonio. Through personal stories and reflections, we dive into the theme of growth amidst life’s unpredictabilities. This episode promises to equip you with practical, backup habits for your high-value or nonnegotiable habits that help maintain balance and…

Embracing Chaos: Developing Backup Habits for Consistency and Growth