OH MY GOD BRO I GOTTA KNOW EVERYTHING ABOUT THESE CUTIES
HAIII lemme use this ask as a little intro refresher as well hehe... ALTHOUGH DO NOTE IT'S SUBJECT TO CHANGE WHEN NEW CROSSROADS DROPS!!
Spiked Bat is a gang leader in Playground!! However she has a lot of bad history with Darkage since she was originally naturally spawned in Thieves Den and was basically orphaned for most of her developing years before escaping to Craterdust.
Her gang, Homerunnerz, are mostly comprised of her friends when they all used to run with another gang called the Cleavers, and they have a very long running rivalry after leaving.
As side hustles, Bat also scraps biografts or junk metal for Basketball's shop, help Powgloves with her diner, Punch Out, and occasionally participates in pit-phighting in an underground ring called Skyfall Arena!!
Monarch H Butterfly is a doctor from Thieves Den that now resides in Crossroads!! She owns a clinic that's well hidden due to her status as a fugitive. Most of her patients are usually gang members or inphernals who find it hard to find medical aid for various reasons.
She was supposed to be the next head of a secretive clan called Modoku, a clan that focuses on assassinations and venom-brewing. She was very adverse to the idea of being the Matriarch due to the clan having a very dehumanizing way of running things and caused a massacre to escape. She was also known as Poisfly before changing her name and getting her gear modified for healing instead of poison exclusively.
They met each other after Bat and her gang were injured from trying to secure healers due to the Cleavers going around and killing or cutting off supports that aligned with Homerunnerz.
Originally her gang wanted to bring her to Vinestaff, but she was busy with Thieves' Rest at the time so Monarch, who didn't have any patients back then, immediately took them in to treat Bat.
Bat overheard from one of her members that Monarch used to be aligned with Darkage (even if it's sorta not true, Modoku & Darkage were closely allied with each other in terms of Modoku being their arms dealer in poison & hiring assassins to silence opposition.) and tried to fight Monarch in her office thinking she was a con artist that preyed on vulnerable inphernals.
Eventually they came to an understanding (Monarch beat her in that fight and still healed her afterwards) so Bat & her gang became regulars!! They got to know each other more for 2 years before officially dating!
I do plan on making a lore comic (or maybe something else?👀) exploring them more after New Crossroads drop!! for now im just. stalling for time with doodles and experimental things hehe!! All I can say is that the comic happens around that 2 year timespan!! so its like. ditf in a way like prequel comic...
