#shubbletv

[eyelessfog]

I COULD say what did she mean by this but i know exactly what she meant by it so instead i'll say. shelby. that was in no way a threat. not when this is a 1 person beats everyone else thing

[goatedgreen]

quick little o!shubble :) i like drawing the phantoms

[eyelessfog]

I love making things up. Flower shower girls for you

[eyelessfog]

s1 Shrub in Succulents pretty plz! (if you're doing that ask game if not ignore this sdfxgh)

Yk, I used to do these with some sort of pretty phrase that had the colour pallet name in it. Let's call this one surrounded by succulents even though it's entirely untrue

[ID: A bust shot of Shrub from empires season one. She's looking down at a red capped mushroom in her hand and is drawn in varying yellow-greens. Only the top of her mushroom hat and her overall strap are drawn in a maroon. She looks melancholy. END ID]

[eyelessfog]

Shelby frowns at the still blackened and dead stone of Glimmergrove’s castle. “This blows,” she tells no one.

“Thar’ she blows!” Agrees a familiar voice, and Shelby hangs her head.

“Shut up, Joe,” Shelby tells him. There’s a quiet gasp, and Shelby turns, panicked. “Don’t shut up, Joe!” she corrects, glancing between Katherine and Pirate Joe.

Katherine’s brows are furrowed, and her mouth is downturned in a sad frown, but Joe seems entirely unfazed by the idea of Katherine realizing that they’re not nice to each other.

“I thought you guys were friends now?” Katherine says, voice wobbly.

“We are!” Shelby tells her. “Promise! I’m sorry!”

“It’s true, we are. And!” Joe winks at Shelby. “Apology accepted.”

As she usually does when in the general vicinity of both Katherine and Joe, Shelby stops herself from telling Joe that she wasn’t talking to him.

“Right,” Shelby says dryly. “Anyway, what’s the occasion? We don’t usually all show up here at the same time if there wasn’t a party planned.”

“Oh,” Joe says, raising a hand. “That’s my fault. I made Katherine show me how to work her boats. Dropped in unplanned and all that. You know how it goes!”

Shelby makes a face. “And you actually gave him the tour?”

Katherine shrugs. “I like my boats. Not gonna pass up the chance to show them off!”

“Yeah! It’s fine,” Joe says decisively. “It’s not as if I’d steal them.”

Realization dawns on Katherine’s face. “Oh. I didn’t think of that.”

Shelby turns her laugh into a cough, and Joe doesn’t even make the attempt. Katherine, good sport that she is, rolls her eyes. “I’ll be back with you in a minute, Shelby." As she walks past them both, into her castle, she calls over her shoulder, "Play nice, please!"

Shelby watches her until she literally can't anymore, and then turns to Joe. "Hey," she says.

Joe grabs her hands and spins her around, then places his head on her shoulder so that they're both staring at the palace walls. "Hi, Shelby! What are we looking at?"

"Curses, 'n stuff. I'm trying to figure it out without bringing Scott into the whole thing, 'cuz he keeps making these really weird faces at me when he thinks I'm not looking." She squints at the wall. "And I just... I'm pretty sure the problem is that no one knows where the source is. It's not just on the palace, or just on the land, or just on Katherine. I don't- I don't know where to find the source."

"Aw, Shels, that sucks. How are you gonna know the source if you find it?”

Shelby looks over the palace again. “Well, I assume it’s going to be like a skulk catalyst kinda thing, right? With skulk, it feeds off of souls of the dead, and all that-“

“It does?” Joe asks, voice high with fear.

Shelby looks over at him. “Uh, yeah? This is like… the first thing you learn about skulk.”

“When you’re a witch,” Joe reminds.

Shelby considers this. “Huh. I guess. But yeah, it feeds off of soul, then starts spreading.” She can feel the grin on his face from where he’s resting his chin on her shoulder. “If you say another word, I’ll kill you myself. Keep your jokes away from my ears. Anyway, the catalyst has a certain feel to it. It has a bit of magic and a bit of biology that makes it a little different from normal skulk, which lets it grow. I need to find the skulk catalyst equivalent in the kingdom.”

Joe leans back, taking his head off of Shelby’s shoulder. “Hm. So should we be looking over there?” He points to the right, towards the darker side of the kingdom. “Since it’s starting from there and all that.”

Shelby looks over. “Huh. I think you’re right.”

“I always am!” Joe hums.

“In no universe. You’re so lucky you have such a smart friend like me to tell you when you’re wrong.”

Joe looks her up and down, brows raised. The grin on his face lets her know he’s teasing when he says, “Riiiight. After all we’ve been through, I’m sure you’re the smart one.”

“Grades don’t count!”

“I’d sure hope not! I never went to school.”

“You’re breaking down your own case, Joe. I went to witch school.”

Joe squints at her, and then shoves the rim of her hat down over her eyes. “I win!” he decides.

Shelby pulls her hat off and adjusts where Tortoise sits on her hair. “You can’t just bully me and then decide you’ve won the argument.” She places the hat back squarely on her head.

“I just did!”

“Did not.”

“Did too!”

“Did not!”

“Did-“

“Um?” Katherine says, and Shelby schools the grin on her face into something less wild. Joe, as it usually goes, doesn’t even try.

“Hi,” Katherine says. “I got changed and stuff, so we can go explore the kingdom if you want to inspect the curse.” She looks between them. “If I’m not interrupting something.”

“Only the dumbest argument I think we’ve ever had,” Shelby says, waving her off.

“And you’re still friends?” Katherine asks, just to be sure.

“Yes, yes, of course,” Joe says. “It was funny. I’m curious about this magic stuff though, so keep working! I’ll just be here. Observing.” He stands to the side, blinking big innocent eyes at them.

---

Shelby takes the lead as they walk over to the cursed side of the kingdom. It's strange, because even the sky feels a little darker, just by being in this area.

Shelby turns to Katherine. "How does the whole thing work? Like, does it grow sometimes, or does it stay the same, or..?"

"It grows sometimes." Katherine scratches at the back of her neck. "Around my birthday."

She avoids eye contact, as if afraid that Shelby or Joey will berate her for her birthday.

"So it's a yearly curse. 'Cause you said it appeared first when you were born, right?"

"Um. Yes."

"And it's on your arm, right?"

Katherine tugs her long glove off her left arm and holds it out. Black-grey skin that fades back to Katherine's actual skin colour at the shoulder is revealed, and Joe sucks in a breath. "Grows every year, at about the same speed as the curse on the land," Katherine reports.

"Hm," Shelby says. She holds Katherine's hand, looking into her eyes. "Does it... hurt?"

"I can't actually feel it. At all. It's numb."

Shelby's eyes widen. "What?"

"What?" Joe echos.

"My arm is numb, up to where the grey stops. I don't know why."

Shelby considers this. "Do you remember that time, when you wore the other dress and your hair was up and you had..." Shelby points to the base of her neck. "The thing on your spine. That I said was probably connected to the curse?"

Katherine absently touches the back of her neck. "Oh, I do remember that. It's why I changed my usual dress to one with a high collar."

Joey frowns. "That was you? Shelby, come on now."

Shelby elbows him. "Not the time, Joe." Joe ducks his head in apology. "Spines have a lot of your nerves in it. If your curse is effecting your ability to feel things by corrupting your spine and the nerves inside - Katherine! Katherine, this is bad!"

Katherine laughs nervously. "I- uh- I have a bit of time before it gets really bad though, wouldn't you say? We just have to figure out where the problem lies."

Shelby looks around the cursed half of the kingdom. "I... I have to assume that if it's starting over here, then the core of it all is on this side, right? Either in the middle of the cursed area, or at the very edge and working it's way over there-" she points towards the docks, "-without spreading in the opposite direction. But I can't figure out why it would do that."

Katherine bites at her thumbnail. "My parents aren't a big fan of the night. But I- well." She gestures to herself. "I am. Dawn and GlimmerGrove have historically held similar opinions on nighttime, and I just have to wonder the reason."

Shelby tilts her head. "Katherine, you sound like you have a theory."

"I do." Katherine looks up at the sky, brows furrowed with worry. "So. You know how when the moon waxes, it gets darker?"

[eyelessfog]

Consider, if you would: The sleepies

[eyelessfog]

Can you draw corrupted shubble 👉👈

i wanted to do properly coloured ones but i tried like four poses & didnt like em :( here’s my favourite two though!

while we’re at it, headcanon that shelby’s hair turns into skulk sensor tentacles when the whole thing infects her further

[eyelessfog]

Various swapped empires!