What kind of story do you have for them? Like... do you write anything for them or smth? Is there an AO3 or an example of writing you can show? :3
I do have one published fic! It's about the loss of Soul's family. I also have a fic about the death of Souls Left Behind and the aftermath, but that's for an AU with my friends so has stuff specific to that AU. In short, shit was fucked in that fic lol.
I'm also writing one about Souls Left Behind realizing they're nonbinary, but that's still a WIP.
Most of my writing is for like. Personal AUs with friends. But I definitely want to start expanding what I share! The Messenger is a character in The Next Civilization AU, but that's pretty loose right now. But they're friends with Spearmaster in it!
I'd love to write and draw more for these guys though! If you guys have any ideas, let me know! <3
Will you ever draw Dew Drops? I'm curious on what the bastard looks like
Also can Soul still read pearls as a slug cat? Or do they lose that ability?
Thank you!
I might make a reference for Dew Drops eventually! Right now I'm working on preparing for ArtFight though, so he'll have to wait. I have a bunch of characters to make or finish refs for!
Also yes, Soul is fully capable of reading pearls! They couldn't understand them before they were given the Mark of Communication, but they've always loved reading pearls.
Now, they like it more when Pebbles or Moon reads them. They usually check then first to see if anything is on them, though.
Can you tell me about Dew Drops and also Souls' life as a slug cat? Pretty pls :)
Absolutely! I've actually been hoping for someone to ask questions haha. All my friends pretty much know the lore, so I've been hoping to ramble to people who don't know it!
Long post, whoops, so under the cut it goes!
First off! Five Dew Drops, Sun Rises at Dawn was originally Seven Red Suns's Administrator. The reason he was so cruel to Souls Left Behind and punished them so harshly is because he was angry he got transferred to a new Iterator. The Ancients in charge figured Souls could use a good, experienced Administrator, especially considering late Gen 3s(like Pebbles) and Gen 4s were pretty unpopular. For this, Dew Drops hated Souls, even though it wasn't their fault. Also, not going to lie, he wasn't the best Administrator to Suns, either. They never liked him because he was very weird about worshipping them and objectifying them in the same breath. He'd call them a god and then refer to them as they weren't an intelligent, sentient being in the same sentence. Suns was pretty close to Souls too because of it- he always made sure they understood that they didn't deserve the way Dew Drops treated them.
In Dew Drops's eyes, Souls was defiant, because they did not immediately obey with requests, instead insisting on knowing the reason why. For example, if they needed to increase their orders of holy ash, Souls would insist to know why. Then, they'd insist on running calculations. Souls wasn't actually defiant, it was very easy to compromise with them if you spoke to them civilly and laid out your reasoning. But Dew Drops saw the worst in every interaction, so he usually just jumped right to using his authority over them. Souls was also unpopular with their administrators, not just Dew Drops, because they were very emotional and liked to indulge in hobbies.
In the end, Five Dew Drops, Sun Rises at Dawn was given a warning from the Void Sea itself: if he attempted Ascension, he would face something worse than the cycle. So he's still out there somewhere, no longer an Ancient, and insistent that this is the fault of that damned Iterator.
In short, Dew Drops was a terrible guy. He's very fun to talk about though!
As for Souls...
Souls's life as a slugcat is... certainly different! It's difficult, at least. And is it a coincidence they chose such a similar name to their past one? Perhaps.
See, Soul, the Messenger, isn't born with memories of their past life- they were actually very, very close to Ascending, but it wasn't something they wanted. Because of that, they lack their memories of who they were, having to regain them later. (That's why the purple marking on their head isn't present in the headshots! They don't know who they are yet.)
Soul was born in a small family of aquatic Slugcats, somewhere north of Five Pebbles. Their family wasn't super religious, but they were aware of the "Metal Gods" and often told them and their sibling, Rivulet, stories. Some were good, others were warnings. They were always very invested in these stories, though never understood why...
Eventually, their younger brother Bubble was born! Bubble and Soul were very, very close.
Which made what happened even more devastating.
Rivulet was always an adventurer at heart. She was lucky she was. Because eventually they left, and it wasn't long after that the rest of the family was wiped out by lizards.
Soul was the only survivor. They were traumatized by the event, scarred and left disabled. For a long time they were alone- although they did eventually start to heal from their fear of lizards by taming several.
(In my Monk file, the one with all my lizards, I have: Ura(green), Iris(blue), Orchid(pink), Heather(pink), Toffee(caramel) Scamper(white) and Blueberry(blue) so far)
Until... they finally met the Iterator Five Pebbles.
With almost any other slugcat, he would have sent them away. And he tried, I'll give him that- but something was familiar about them. Something made him let them stay. Even if he got annoyed at the incessant meowing, or when they dragged food into his chamber, or the attempts to make him pet them. There grew to be a fondness for them, and soon he had his own messenger.
He's not sure why he sent them with that first pearl to Looks to the Moon. But soon, a little blue slugcat helped start to repair a relationship most would assume to be long gone...
And that's that for now! If you have anymore questions, feel free to ask! They might be just as long though!
SOULS LEFT BEHIND
Fourth Generation Iterator
Nonbinary || They/them
Souls Left Behind was a fourth generation iterator, and the only one to be in Looks to the Moon's local group. While originally, they were meant to be the eldest sibling to four new Iterators, the Ancients would soon find that four new Iterators wasn't something within their capabilities- not only were fourth generation Iterators built when many of the Ancients has passed on to the Void Sea, but they found themselves with barely the resources they needed for one- and even then, they were short. Every Iterator around knew it was a bad idea... not that it stopped anyone.
It didn't stop the local group from loving the newest Iterator all the same.
Souls Left Behind was the youngest of the group, behind Five Pebbles and the last Iterator to be built in the area. It was by Moon's insistence to both the Ancients and her brother that he take them under his wing- no matter the complaints anyone had about Five Pebbles, after all, he was a highly intelligent and effective Iterator, as well as the closest to their newest member in technology. And though they found themself closest to Pebbles, it didn't mean they didn't love all the Iterators in their local group all the same, being closer to them than they were to the few citizens they had.
Unfortunately, it was not to last.
Cycles later, long after the last of the Ancients had left them, the local Iterator Group would receive a final, desperate broadcast, pleading for help. By the time the overseers arrived, however, as immediately after Souls Left Behind was unavailable to any of them, they found their youngest had suffered a total system shutdown, one they could not be brought back from.
To this day, no one knows what caused Souls Left Behind's sudden demise. Perhaps it was the no doubt fatal mistakes made in their construction, though they should have liven much longer regardless. Perhaps, like Sliver of Straw, Souls found the way out, despite a lack of the Triple Affirmative being sent out.
Whatever the case, everyone who loved them was left to mourn, and no amount of questions or investigation could give them the answers they wanted.
Meanwhile, cycles later... the Iterator would return to the cycle in a way no one expected.
Okay y'all. ArtFight is coming up and I've got a lot of refs to make before then. I'll probably post all the OCs and Self-Inserts currently seen here there(along with a couple not yet finished!) since I have a lot of Refs to get done. My question is: Should I make full reference sheets for characters who only have concepts or needed updated designs(Ex: Juno, Holly and Birch) now or just post their concepts and work on their reference sheets during ArtFight?
Soul, also known as The Messenger, is the Messenger of Five Pebbles in The Next Civilization AU.
Soul comes from a small colony of Aquatic Slugcats near Five Pebbles's structure- but after their sibling leaves for adventure, tragedy strikes, wiping out the entire colony and leaving only Soul left.
In this AU, Five Pebbles becomes more connected to the other Iterators again, reopening communications via pearls as a test- for this reason, Soul travels further and gets to meet the messengers of other Iterators, including Spearmaster(who has an unnatural lifespan, so hasn't aged much). But they also meet other Slugcats- and while many hold Iterators and their Messengers in high regard, some don't. A lesson they've learned the hard way.
(Though not depicted here, Soul regains their head marking just like in their normal setting once they regain the memories of their past life!)
The Messenger is a wild slugcat adopted as the messenger of Five Pebbles and Looks to the Moon, taking pearls between the two as a means of communication. They're the sibling of the Rivulet, though the two have been separated for a long time, and so have found a new family in their Iterators and the lizards they tame.
They are the first, and seemingly only, to bear the Mark of Translation, a mark created by Five Pebbles to translate the speech of a Slugcat into words an Iterator can understand.
But The Messenger's past life haunts their current cycle, and there are more questions than answers...
ERA: Post Survivor/Monk, pre Rivulet
Mark of Translation created by @saturnthescug!
Original concept and other reference links under the cut!
hey it's me local annoying enby on your dash. i see you have a character there you're thinking of hcing as trans. have you considered making them nonbinary? you should consider making them nonbinary.
even if it isn't the interpretation you land on! that should be something you think of as an option. because it does become very clear very fast if you only consider binary transition and identities when you think of transgenderism in general ok? ok cool.
while i'm here have you considered giving them xenopronouns
SLUGPUPS TIME! I keep forgetting to post them but I love them so I'm sharing them now! The pups they're based on will be under the cut!
Juno is my only current Slugpup on my computer! She's a Pups+ slugpup and also a Hunterpup!(Carnivore + 1 extra food pip). I found her right outside the Industrial Complex-Chimney Canopy Karma Gate(literally, as I also have Pups Everywhere on) and she's very much a fighter! She's actually stolen explosive spears from Scavengers before, so I try to keep her on my back so she doesn't pick a fight...
Her ID is 8505 and her personality is Brave!
Birch and Holly are my Slugpups on my switch file! Unfortunately I don't know either of their IDs, so I don't know their personality modifiers, but they do both have some traits I factor in. I imagine Birch and Holly are a pair of siblings who were separated when a predator attacked their parent, with Holly fleeing towards Chimney Canopy and Birch fleeing towards Garbage Wastes. Holly was found first on my way to Five Pebbles(via The Wall), and then I found Birch the moment I entered Chimney Canopy, as he was in the shelter right inside the gate.
Birch is very energetic! He tugs on my hand the second we wake up and is always eager to be on the move! I imagine his fur tends to be ruffled and messier than Holly's, always with leaves and things like that stuck in his fur.
Holly is quiet and is the classic Weird Girl(tm). She has a habit of staring, and her favorite thing is the Overseer Eye she carries- she never goes anywhere without it! She can commonly be seen fidgeting with it, especially when nervous.
Could you tell me more about your next civilization AU?
Sure!
So in the Next Civilization AU, Slugcats are fairly evolved! Colonies build towns and villages to live in(though some colonies are still nomadic), they trade with Scavenger Tribes or fight against them, and more! I've thought of a LOT of things for anthro Slugcats, though mainly for mine and my friend's Terraria AU(Which I probably won't post? But you'll definitely get to see my Scugsona in that AU!), and I'm SUPER excited to make the headcanon sheet for them!
In particular, Slugcats are the only intelligent species known to worship Iterators and the Void Sea. Now, you only see this with Slugcats who live around Iterator Superstructures, but a lot of them still know about and hear stories about them. In more religious colonies, Messengers are revered for being associated with the Metal Gods(as Iterators are called, as Slugcats don't know what they're actually called!). Some are seen as their equivalent of an angel, whereas others are just seen as being very special, because to be created or chosen by God you MUST be special!
However, not all are so kind to the Iterators and their Messengers...
(In religious Colonies, harm to Overseers is also strictly forbidden! This is because they're viewed as the Eyes of the Gods.)
Right now I'm still developing the AU, but I've thought of stuff for my Scugsona in it!
I nearly forgot about this! Inspired by the Slugcat Race mod in Terraria because I'm currently playing that with my friends. Eventually I'll make like. A sheet for that because I came up with a LOT of information and lore for that! This is what they'd look like, but for an Anthro Scug AU!
The Next Civilization AU is an AU where Scavengers and Slugcats evolve alongside each other to form the next civilization after the Ancients are gone! I'm still super obsessed with Rain World rn so you'll definitely see more slugcats soon, including anthro ones!
Some quick practice with Photoshop! I'm not switching over from Clip Studio, but I had to install it for a Graphic Design class and my professor encouraged me to mess around with it artistically. So here's my Iterator Sona, Souls Left Behind, and their overseer!
Now that I've got my main blog's art all reblogged, here's a gift for sticking with me! Rain World bases!
These are free to use! I made them on Clip Studio Paint. Please make sure to link back if you use these, as well as crediting either this blog or my main, tinyfieryghost!
I've been playing a lot of Rain World lately- and with that I've been taming a bunch of Lizards! Here's all four I've tamed so far!
If I tame more, I might make a second batch!
Ura - My first lizard! She's very special to me! Unfortunately she's a little trapped in a specific area of Industrial Complex, but that's okay- it keeps her safe.
I image she's larger than your average green lizard- older and hardened by battle.
Iris - My second tamed lizard! She was tamed in Industrial Complex, much like Ura was. I don't think she was fully tamed in all honestly because she kept nipping me, but I'm counting her anyway because I love her. Probably for her safety, honestly- Iris was very hard to keep alive, especially because she kept getting into fights trying to protect me. I miss her a bit, but maybe I can find her and re-tame her later.
Orchid - Originally tamed on a co-op, I never did screenshot her, so I decided to re-tame her in my single player Monk campaign! She's your average size for a pink lizard, and would occasionally battle a much larger caramel.
Heather - Smaller than your typical pink, I actually imagine Heather as a hybrid that just happens to take more after her pink side! I actually tamed Heather by saving her from a vulture! I had tried this in the past, but never succeeded- but two spear hits got the vulture to let go and fly off! For that reason, I imagine Heather has a sizable scar where the vulture grabbed her.
(Sadly, Heather got stuck in the first screen of the area, as she couldn't jump from the pole to me. She disappeared after that, but I didn't know until a few cycles later when I came to check on her. She's still alive in my heart though)
Meet my Slugcat Sona! They're an aquatic slugcat like Rivulet and was inspired by their design! Rivulet's probably my favorite Slugcat design,,, I lomve them hahaha.
They lost their family to an unfortunate Lizard attack and, after recovering, are on the search for their one surviving family member... and perhaps... on the way... they'll find the companionship they want.
(I imagine Rivulet as their sibling! Please no spoilers for Downpour tho i haven't gotten that far lmao)