#moberry

[toldentops-fr]

It’s so hard picking favorites and I probably have more but here’s some of my clan highlights!

[palossssssand]

Got in a slug city mood, here’s Moberry, some thumbnails, and Weird Guns

[palossssssand]

Being incredibly self indulgent here and turned the Slug City cast into splatoons

[palossssssand]

c and i for any of your guys!

banger ask. I'm going to do this for All of my guys

C) Did you have trouble figuring out where they fit in their own story?

Gingull: Both yes and no. "Yes" in that she's the main character, or at least, the story would be from her point of view and revolve around her. "No" in that I've been struggling to pinpoint exactly how her personality is and how she interacts with everyone else. I want to make relationship dynamics interesting. Maybe I'll make a chart.

Alfin: He's very much a designated "support character" in that he's Gingull's sibling and is the closest to her, but other than that I feel like he doesn't have too much of an active role other than being a presence and a part of Gingull's world. I'll have to workshop him a little more because admittedly he's the character that I'm least invested in.

King: As a parental figure for Gingull, how he plays off on her is pretty important on understanding her decisions and general worldview and etc. I think she has an overall positive relationship with him, which is a little different than my personal experience, so I'd like to explore how to make this more complex and how King influences her arc. He's in the same boat as Alfin where he individually probably won't drive the story forward but is an integral part to Gingull.

Moberry: This is where things get more interesting, Moberry possibly plays one of the most active roles in the "plot" of slug city in that their dynamic with the city's leader, Maika, affects nearly every other character on various ways. I'm particularly really into the results of these interpersonal interactions and dynamics having consequences. I love The Consequences. Maika is a character that doesn't appear much physically in the context of the story and the city in-universe, so Moberry serves as the bridge between him and the "outer world" through their personal experience with him. They also serve as the leader of the hidden underground, so there's a parallel going on between them and Maika.

Smooks: I love smooks so much. Easily one of my favorite characters and designs. Her role in the story is less "plot related" and more "worldbuilding and imagery" related, if that makes sense? The main tower, many buildings, and the vehicles are all mainly designed by her, so I want to play around with the implications from that. Is transportation useful and convenient, or is it disabling? Was this from Maika's influence? Her own internal concepts? Much to think about. She plays an interesting role in the background for sure and I think would be a fun adult figure for Gingull to look up to.

Dr. Walworth: Her current role is "character who worked closely with Moberry and also has guilt about her involvement with Maika" and is also a therapist for Delta. There's some implications with her role that I feel like I need to flesh out more, for example, if therapy isn't a "licensed practice" due to the nature of the city's organization being so aggressively anti-mental health, is it hidden? Does she make her services known to the general public? There's a lot of questions I have to jump off from there, including the fact that she herself is autistic and therefore was unknowingly contributing to the detriment of citizens like her. Like Moberry, she's actively trying to make up for the damage done, and I like exploring that sort of character arc.

Delta: She's probably my favorite character to think about. Initially, she was the "soldier with ptsd" archetype that I kind of wanted to stray from and develop more, and then eventually brought in the idea that she was responsible for bringing Gingull in to their machines, and then turning around and rescuing her when the machine malfunctions. As far as Gingull is concerned, Delta is part of an oppressive and violent force and wants nothing to do with her, the flip side is that Delta has been seeking an Out from the military and feeling increasingly trapped by it, and the machine malfunctioning was her breaking point for her to actively rebel. Gingull doesn't know any of this, and even when she does, there's no forgiveness involved with it. I'm like. so interested in her arc in that she is both a victim and perpetrator in her system. the tension of it. it's so juicy to me. There's so much that I want to think about for Delta. Any other character, if put into her position, might have done the same, or at least understood why she kept under wraps for so long. What are you supposed to do when you feel like you have no choice in what you can do, no impact on the circumstances, and knowing that what you are doing is ultimately wrong?

Oster and Co: Oster and his alters are very much side characters, similar to how Alfin in there to give Gingull relationships. Oster is there to flesh out the underground city community on Moberry, Dr. Walworth, and Smook's side. He's also there to be a friend to Gingull, someone who is a little older but still a kid, so there's solidarity there and also as an example/contrast for living with some kind of accommodation. Alka, Kaola, and Teris (alters) I'm not entirely sure how they fit in, but at the very least they're going to switch fairly nonchalantly. I'm wanting him to have a more major(?) role in the story but I haven't thought about this character in depth enough for that.

Eidwinn: He's pretty much stayed the same as I was thinking about his role initially; someone who isn't connected to any of the other characters personally except for Gingull, and the brief moments that they share end up having a profound impact on both of them. I talked about this a little more in the previous ask, but I'm really attached to Eidwinn, so I don't mind that his role in the story is fairly small. Something about the contrast between Eidwinn and Gingull (young and old, someone who still has their life ahead of them vs someone who's lived through much) works so well with how they are fundamentally very similar people and were both impacted by Maika's project. I love having parallels.

Maika: Very obviously the Main Antagonist, responsible for everything that's I've talked about regarding the previous characters. Originally, I had him as a more flamboyant, appealing villain character, and stepped down from that because it really didn't seems to fit in with his goals and role as the city's leader and opted for a more serious, cold, cutthroat character. The thing to understand about Maika and that I want to come across is that his desire to do good for the citizens is guided by a misunderstanding of what people actually need, going off of his own idea of what's best, and what was once a genuine effort to make a great city was overtaken by his curiosity about like. Conditions. and what he could do to fix them. I'm wanting to dig a little more into his motivations and in the context of slug city's world as a whole, culturally. I might have typed this out in a different post or just forgot but I want to think about if his mindset is a product of other dominant schools of thought in slug city society, or if there was any particular event that set off this obsession and whatnot. I'm wanting to steer clear from "this guy is completely irredeemable" or imply that he's intrinsically "evil", not to deny that he fucking sucks and that his actions have consequences on Everybody. I think the dynamic between him and Gingull is interesting, in that to him, Gingull is fairly unremarkable and he isn't aware of her until much later when she ends up breaking into the tower and seeing him in person. To Gingull, it's extremely personal, he's the man who built up(or at the very least, enforced) the system that she's suffered under.

I) Do you prefer to keep them in their canon universe?

Yes, but also I drew them as splatoons just for funsies

I have a tendency to just draw existing characters as species or crossover from other media, so there's like a nonzero chance that I'll draw the cast as Something sometime down the line. It's definitely not going to be any fully fledged AU that I think hard about conceptually (who knows. I might be lying. I'll never know)

list of slug city characters question list

[palossssssand]

got carried away thinking about slug city last night, here's a height chart, icons, and several alignment memes

[palossssssand]

Assorted slug city concept ideas! I realize that I haven’t really shared much of it outside of discord but it’s a project that I’ve been slowly building up for the past couple of years.

1. Cephalopolis’s landmark, Myce Tower, which houses government officials, military units, and the main headquarters/city hall. Interior scribble of a Myce housing unit, which can be 3-4 floors with ample space. Also shown is an interior of a unit from The Mulches, structures that form a ring around the perimeter of the city and crowds multiple units per tower and are generally 1-2 floors.

2. Sketches of Moberry and Maika, who designed and ran Cephalopolis with a few others until Maika became invested in controlling the city’s population through unethical means.

3. A cross section view of the true expanse of the city. Cephalopolis is the “upper city”, and beneath the earth lies a massive, sprawling, underground structure that was designed and built by Moberry and their colleagues after they quit working for Maika. This was designed to be a safe haven for those fearing Maika’s rule. I haven’t decided on a name for it, but the underground is supposed to be shaped like a cicada(and I also have yet to decide if it is actually a massive cicada shell or if it was just designed to look like one). The interior is well-lit with lanterns containing bioluminescent energy, and it consists of layered chambers that are accessible via climbing vehicles that traverse along the branching structures, with a central port/structure designated for government office. The underground city takes inspiration from wasp nests, ant tunnels, and termite mounds.

Hopefully I can share more about Slug City soon because it’s definitely still in The Works and there’s still a lot of stuff I haven’t figured out yet!

[palossssssand]

M?

M is for Moberry! Moberry is a character from a story I’m developing called Slug City. Once the city’s advisor, they fled upon the realization that the city’s leader, Maika, became corrupt. I came up with the name Moberry on the spot, and it stuck! They’re pretty calm and collected, but also doesn’t really speak much. Their cloak is made of byssus

[palossssssand]

being predictable but i gotta ask. about Moberry....

2. 4. 10. 17. 30 & 31. 43

with a bonus B.C.E.H

MOBERRY....fun character to think about. I've touched on them a little more in this post

2: How easy is it for your character to laugh?

Not particularly easy. You would have to know Moberry well to understand their sense of humor, which probably consists of niche context/injokes and dry humor. They aren't one to be very outwards about emoting in general, so to most of everyone else as far as they are concerned, Moberry's a bit of a stick in the mud. Moberry's circle of friends is more likely to pick up on jokes and subtle shifts in conversation.

4: How easy is it to earn their trust?

Not easy. Moberry has been generally untrustworthy of others for most of their life due to not really having people to rely on growing up. I haven't fleshed out their backstory much yet, but I'd imagine that overall they never formed many close relationships until they hit their mid-thirties when working for Maika. Moberry isn't particularly charismatic on the surface, so it takes a lot of work and time to get to build that trust. Even once that trust is established it takes a conscious effort from Moberry to allow themselves to rely on others and not fall back on self-sustaining behavior. They're aware that it's difficult for them to build trust, which makes it all the more harrowing when someone (Maika) breaches that trust that they've worked so hard to maintain.

After Moberry cuts off from Maika, they're back to square one in terms of opening up to people, except now they have Smooks and Dr. Walworth's support, and they're able to encourage Moberry to try re-establishing trust with new people both for practical reasons and for the sake of their health. It's kind of needed for them, since they take up the responsibility of managing the underground city. There's a part of them that can't help but open up to the citizens that they let down and feel the need to make it back to them personally.

10: What lie do they most frequently remember telling? Does it haunt them?

To me, I can't really decide if Moberry is generally an honest person or is one to lie to cover/save face. On one hand, they're fairly blunt, and isn't going to say what they don't mean in general. I think there's definitely been cases though, numerous enough times, where they would lie as a practical maneuver to downplay bad situations or avoid conflict. Post-Maika, they're frequently going to end up doubting themselves about what they say because they're unsure about if what they said was lying or if they truly believed it at the time. In any case, they're definitely going to be very self-reflective about things they may have said in Maika's name.

17: Are they easily embarrassed?

They're not going to be easily embarrassed in a "oh what if I'm cringey" way or by any particular action/situation, but is more likely to be overthinking things after the fact or be self conscious in the long run as an overall thing.

30: Who do they most regret meeting? 

31: Who are they the most glad to have met? 

I'm answering both of these questions in tandem because It's Complicated. I haven't figured out the exact details or timeline yet, but Moberry and Maika are established to be close friends at the start. Maybe they start planning the city after that, maybe they started as coworkers and became friends. If it weren't for meeting Maika, they might not have met Smooks and Dr. Walworth, two of his current and closest friends. Maika had a genuine positive impact on Moberry in that he was one of the strongest relationships they ever had, he was a source of inspiration and motivation as well. All this makes Maika's eventual turn especially all the more bitter, and Moberry undergoes a brief spiral of regretting ever getting involved in his projects and wondering if they would have been better off never meeting him at all. There's a part of them that grieves their relationship with Maika that will never return to good.

I've been wanting to get more into the dynamic of Maika vs. the rest of the planners (Moberry, Smooks, Dr. Walworth) in that there's a period of time where all 3 of them know Maika might not be up to any good, but they've already established trust and don't want to believe that they're contributing towards the detriment of slug city's citizens.

43: If someone asked them to explain their sexuality, how would they do so? 

I feel like sexuality isn't something that Moberry's really thought about or looked into much, so if asked, they would first be taken aback by being asked such a personal question, but if they were inclined to answer, they would say something along the lines of "I don't really have a preference. As long as they get along fine with me, and folks like that are hard to come by anyways." They're generally pretty ambivalent about it.

B: What inspired you to create them?

Shortly after slug city's initial concept draft, I wanted there to be like, a secret group of mostly kids and other citizens that were victims of experimentation, and Moberry was designated to be their caretaker. Initially, this was like a peter pan lost boys situation where they live scrappy and are like a small family, and Moberry was this mysterious figure seen around the city, eventually meeting Gingull and recruiting/introducing her to this gang. The idea for them to be tied to Maika, Smooks, and Dr. Walworth came about later, and the "small band of lost kids" expanded to "underground town" and Moberry took on a more authoritative role. The general idea of "shady character that reaches out to the main character and knows more than let on initially" inspired making Moberry as a character.

C: Did you have trouble figuring out where they fit in their own story? Already answered here!

E: Are they someone you would get along with? Would they get along with you?

Definitely not someone I would get along with immediately, I think they're likely to say things that put themselves down without really realizing it and that tends to be a turn-off. Maybe if I spent a good amount of time together, we might hit it off, but I tend to mirror people in conversation energy and I like talking to people, so being put together with someone who doesn't initiate conversation makes it feel awkward for me lol

H: What trait do you admire most?

I admire their sense of commitment. They're good at solving problems and keeping cool when put into the right environment, and will keep going on something when they put their head into it!

list of slug city characters question list