My last bonded pokemon for now, this time the pokemon is DUNSPARCE, one that grew tired of not being taken seriously by others, it became a retainer to gain the respect and fear of others
Its design is based on those cartoony red devil costumes with plastic horns and a plastic trident, this is more obvious in the shiny form thanks to the red color
The theorising has gotten to me. I don't want to hype up part 2 of the DLC TOO hard for myself, but... What if this toxic chain didn't just get a hold of Kieran but his Pokémon too...
Hey remember that Toxic Chain!Kieran design I made a while ago. What if I told you that I did a bit of tweaking to it with some “baby’s first attempt at some body horror.
(Below is the full design reference sheet!)
⚠️TW/CW: Trypophobia, Slight Body Horror, and mentions of Starving Oneself down below⚠️
Yeah uh. Bro is not doing so good chatroom.
I had been getting heavily back into Pokemon as of recently since the Friendlocke is continuing with the SV DLC which introduced my absolute favorite PKMN character of all time… and it got me thinking to the design I made for my TC!Kieran AU here, and I figured it was time to give him a fresh coat of paint!
I’ve really missed this AU, and I do hope to someday write a full story for it now that I have really improved on my writing - and I probably will work on it here and there! - but I really want to focus on my other ongoing projects (those being Awake Me, Fallen Detectives, and the V3 Remnant Dub - which will definitely be back to being chugged along thanks to Danganronpa 2x2 being announced!) while also juggling college before even THINKING about starting another one so this will be on the back burner for now. But I had to get the brainworms out somehow.
Down below are a bunch of design notes, closeups, and some additional lore I made as I was rewinding on the story!
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• It’s hard to see, but the underside of his cape is quilted! It’s a very bright pink that’s a pearly/luminescent - think of something like this. In this AU after Kieran “fully” succumbs to Pecharunt’s control, he’s occasionally given some sort of solace where he’s sometimes more cognizant and can think more clearly when Pecharunt is asleep. When it happens, he’d just use the cloak as a makeshift blanket, and just sob, hoping his sister and friends will help him… at least, until Pecharunt sows more doubts into his head. He doesn’t sleep that well :(
• The outer fabric of the cloak is slightly glittery! They aren’t super bright or anything, but they are there.
• The stitchery of Kieran’s jumpsuit is pink, matching the ribbon crosses on the leg part of the jumpsuit.
• Speaking of that jumpsuit, its gradient starts a very dark indigo that borders on black, and fades into a slightly brighter purple at the legs.
• It’s hard to see, but his eyes are dual colored! The outer “shell” of the iris is the same color used for the chains and accessories (pink), and the inner circle of the iris is Kieran’s actual eye color (yellow). I plan to do the same thing with other characters that will be chained by Pecharunt later on down the line.
• The chains that are shackled around his neck, wrists and ankles really dig into Kieran’s skin - not enough to cut off any circulation, but enough to leave very prominent red marks. You may notice pink liquid around his wrist and neck - and no, it isn’t danganronpa blood. It’s actually Pecharunt’s poison! There’s a small needle within each chain that pricks into Kieran’s skin that injects their poison into his blood stream to keep him under his control… but it also seems to cause some other affects to his body (see below.)
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• As you can see, the poison really affects Kieran’s body physically. It almost resembles the pattern and spots that are on Pecharunt’s body when they’re seen out of their shell - across the back of his arms, back of his neck, and all over his legs.
• The pink glowing chain on his back will become a permanent mark of him after the story ends - I was really inspired by this from Juno’s older!Kieran design (please check out his work it’s phenomenal) from when the whole theory was still very fresh + when a lot of people thought Kieran being chained would be canonical. Of course since it’s not that aspect has been removed from that design but I really loved the idea of Pecharunt essentially leaving a permanent mark on those who’ve been under its influence for a long amount of time so I decided to go for it here! It wouldn’t glow after he’s freed though - it would just look like a very light pink scar.
• When fully puppeteered by Pecharunt (the same goes for others too), his eyes glow a very bright yellow, and poison marks wrap and glow around his body.
• After his breakdown post champion battle (and after he falls completely), the poison in his system has affected his body so much that his blood and tears have turned into a faint pinker hue (so I guess he does have danganronpa blood after all)
• He’s able to essentially “inject” some of that poisonous blood into others to immobilize them! You may have noticed his fingertips are an extremely dark red that borders on black and slightly covered in that poison. Well, he’s able to essentially dig his nails into his victims and essentially inject the poison into his opponents to paralyze them temporarily and allow Pecharunt to take control of them. (I also like to think the dark spots on his body may also do something similar too - he’s like a poisonous dart frog)
• I didn’t illustrate it in the reference but it’s kinda hinted in the detailed thumbnail piece above, but the poison in his body also has him emit a purple/pink hazy fog in his vicinity. It functions similar to how he injects the poison from his body, but to a less “potent” degree where it slows the victim’s cognitive thinking and behavior, and saps them of their strength to give Kieran a chance to fully paralyze them.
• I don’t know if I really illustrated it too well here, but like in canon, Kieran barely ate or slept as he grew more and more focused on victory thanks to Pecharunt’s mochi clouding his influence (since in Pecharunt’s lore, the Binding Mochi draws out the consumers greed/deepest desires, while also bounding them to Pecharunt). So I wanted to emulate that here that he had not been eating properly and had grown noticeably skinnier and more pale (which I forgot to illustrate/color oops) as the further he fell, the less time he cared for his basic needs. He almost solely relies on Pecharunt’s mochi to “keep his goal in mind,” which only caused him to slowly feel more loyal to Pecharunt. Because once he breaks down, the poison from the Binding Mochi he endlessly was offered and took would lead to his downfall.
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And lastly, one final sketch! Kinda like in my original concept, I had his scrunchie become shaped like two of Pecharunt’s Toxic Chains that can form long chains that almost act as some sort of stilts where Kieran can “float” above the others out of their reach.
And for those curious, here’s a comparison to how both of the designs looked from when he was first made to now!
(Ignore the fact it says 2023 I think he was made in 2024 woops)
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AAAAAAND THATS A WRAP!
What do you guys think of the new look?
I’m honestly so proud of how he turned out and seeing how much I’ve improved in the past year or so,,,, Kieran has always been such a huge comfort character for me since I played the DLC for the first time and indulged in his story because of how much I can relate to him in terms of “not feeling enough and pushing oneself so far in hopes to achieve their goals” and I’m really excited to work on this AU when I do.
One more small slightly older doodle of my SV Pokesona and my first rendition of TC!Kieran for the road :D
