Vesper: Less fun (chaotic) than Dante but that doesn't mean not fun at all, she wishes she could replicate his demeanor because she craves that fear and respect (but she herself never feared him)
Lumen Rosa: 3rd dad or whatevs, never got too close but thinks he's pretty nice to talk to about some kind of things (more than Dante and Lotus at least)
Apple: totally doesn't get his seriousness but likes how he got protective of her and Sammy when he babysat them so she knows he's just playing mister serious to be seen as strong
Sammy: Gets along really well with him, one of the favorite uncles they have. asked him to lend a hand to start out with the baking business and he turned out to be more helpful than they thought. Eternal gratefulness
Sammy: Loveliest dad ever but can't keep up with his energy sometimes, so they might get a wee exhausted
Apple: Loveliest dad ever #2 she loves spending time with him, especially when they can do arts and crafts together!!
Nera: thinks he's cute, melts from his sunrays
Vesper: thinks he's lowkey silly but admires him for the ability to keep it together when she's trying to ragebait him for 3 days straight got herself banned from sleepovers with her cousins on his boat
Lumen Rosa: "I need that energy in my life. Dad let's adopt uncle Palette"
Apple and Sammy fact number [random]: they have never gotten into a fight which is pretty odd for siblings. Mostly because Sammy can't be mad at Apple and Apple is very patient when it comes to Sammy...
How every1 sees: Dante (I will try to make one for all the parents eventually)
Apple: She mostly likes to do construction related stuff with him. Thinks he's ok
Sammy: they can sense the amount of slop he releases into the water and air with his experiments (and breathing) and whatnot but appreciates his passion for bugs lowkey. Not a fan of his chaos
Nera: Never met him
Vesper: Daddy-o yeahhhhh lets gooo woooo 💥💥💥🔥🔥🔥🔥 (when they both get the zoomies it's joever and Rurik can only watch as the world burns)
Lumen Rosa: it depends on the mood. Some days she thinks he's the coolest parent ever and some she thinks he's really embarrassing to be associated with
Sammy: Due. She saw it in the animated movie about the turtle and thought it was cute
Apple: her real name is Antoinette which was chosen by Palette, Apple was a nickname picked by her when she was 4
Lumen Rosa: Lumen was Dante's idea that he thought Lotus will for sure turn down (because nerdy meaning) but to his surprise he accepted it, only if she gets a double name. He added Rosa so that she gets one from each of them
Nera: it came to Geno in a dream or something
Vesper: Dante (because bees) but Rurik approved right away (because motor scooter)
Are your shipchildren related to the other children of the ships?
Hello!!! I mean ya I kinda hinted on the family tree (I wanted to put it out first before answering u) that Nera is related to the 293892 children Afterdeath has (and maybe even some rt!soriel ones but I'm not too deep into that part of the fandom yet)
Obv I don't have contact with the creators of the other AD shipkids c': but I do like to think that Nera has many siblings
As for the other, durik and duelette have a bunch shipkids too! And I have no problem if other creators would like to do little crossovers, but for the purpose of building on what I want and created, I limit my shipkids' lore to only my universe (?) in canon (it might change in the future but that's the state for now)
For example I really enjoyed @purritogato 's Hero content with Sammy🥺
Short answer: Each of the kid is from a ship that I either think about a lot or used to love. It's very easy to make a character based on something that you're already passionate about!!! (Also thank u 🥹)
Long answer:
I'll use the double meaning of "inspiration" and elaborate on how the parents fuel my creativity hehehe (because I will always find an excuse to yap more)
When it comes to the designs and personalities and stuff I work by the rule that my base is: I take elements that I associate with parents and look for things that are similar or related to it (even if vaguely). But never exactly the same!
For example I associate Duelette with the Sea so Sammy is heavily sea-life themed and even has powers connected to this such as glowing in the dark (like a fluorescent fish). One of the things that they like is pastries so Sammy owns a sweet shop, and so on!
On the other hand their twin sister is more based on other elements like Palette's and Due's love for crafts, trinkets and sweet/cute things, she makes her own plaid skirts and tiny models of places or scenes and keeps a colorful but cozy aesthetic
Lumen Rosa is based on the idea I had of Lotus and Dante both being somewhat elegant and cheeky, those headcanons are a little buried under punk Lotus and "lazy" & messy-mechanic Dante now, so I thought their kid could be that instead! Other thing is that red (Lotus) and green (Dante) reminded me of a rose so I adapted the idea and put it in her theme :^
Vesper is the least "inspired by something specific" one because at first I just wanted her to be yellow and that's all I had for her xD Then I thought "Durik's chaos but concentrated and also put electricity somewhere" boom. But in exchange, she's the only shipkid that I have so far that went through changes from the first ever idea and design! I can say a bit more about it if someone wants but for now I don't want to make this post too long...
When you're making a kid for a ship that has many of them you might try to make something that's less obvious but still fits. So for Nera even their color palette was created like that, I didn't want to just make another red and blue shipkid for afterdeath, so I thought of what could be the mix of those colors. Geno is a smart cookie so she's very analitycal and loves topics related to space, but most of all "death" in space... And psychology because I imagine the Afterdeath household as a very grim one but full of humor (aka coping hahaha... she started by observing their family members), that also makes her a little more upbeat
Durik babysitting Apple and Sammy probably happened more than once 💀 (especially when Due or Palette had to depart to somewhere and the kids needed to stay on land)
And it was always weird because they're nice (mostly) calm children. And Dante and Rurik don't really know what to do with them
I think Rurik could maybe occupy Sammy with some cooking and Dante could show Apple around his construction zone (garage) since technically she likes building too but that's about it
Also yes Due gets pissed about Dante showing Apple around what is the essence of danger zone for kids but he doesn't gaf 😭 (he wouldn't actually let her hurt herself)