Uh.

they share a birthday...

NOW I'M DOWN IN IT

Tried to make some palettes and ended up testing out four of the six so here: a Mosa, two Leifs, and dragon Corvo

[Start ID. A digital drawing of Gabriel and V1 from Ultrakill in super-saturated, pixellated colors. It seemingly takes place during phase two of his second fight, judging by Gabe's bright yellow-cyan wings and the consequent blush shining through his helmet. Gabriel is pictured on the left, facing the left side of the screen with his head turned to V1, preparing to strike them with the bloodied spear in his right hand. Small but frequent splatters of blood dot his armor and outstretched wings, fabrics torn through in places. V1 is on the right, aiming its piercer revolver at his face. Their arms are stacked in pairs on either side, idle Feedbacker and Knuckleblaster on the left and Whiplash tucked atop their default arm on the right. Both parties are stylized to resemble insects, Gabe with beetle wings and a halo in the shape of antennae, and V1 with the four wings, four arms, short antennae and bristles expected of a dragonfly. End ID]

woah.... happy 1 year anniversary to gay people

also a couple alts (background removed, just gabe, and just v1, respectively) in hopes it'll be a little easier to understand what's going on and all!

additionally once again: special thanks to @magnumopos and @muzzleroars , neither of which I have actually spoken to in my life but both of which are credited with partially inspiring this! (dedicated section under the readmore due to the fact I do not generally tag people at all ever and wasn't sure if I should, but thought it was worth mentioning!) The former for giving me the wonderful idea of dragonfly V1, the latter for drawing V1 like a strange little creature + for the feedbacker plate, I enjoy both your works :]

(retroactively, on march 27th of 2024, assigning them a full bingo with credit to deep-space-lines. ehehehehe)

~Mostly Mollusk~

Part 1 - Part 2 Here - Part 3

Settlements.

Coastal Cities

-Taranoake 

“Bay-City”

A bustling town of bugs and sea bugs, basking in the warmth of the sun.

--Architecture

There are eight main areas of Taranoake to consider: The Gates, Jellyfish Bay, The Outpost, The Colosseum of Ven, The Cast Shell Pit, The Agora, Fort Taranoake, and Training Grounds.

---The Gates

Sandswept driftwood gates with rope tied end to end, dunes collecting around the poles. While nowadays most travellers enter from the Wayward Path, this used to be the main entrance to the city.

Near this area lie shimmering, indigo clam-shell mosaics bearing written welcomes to any who venture into Taranoake.

---Jellyfish Bay

Resting in the center of Taranoake lies Jellyfish Bay, a large pool of water where most of the city's vegetation is grown, for the few among us off put by the idea of eating their fallen friends--or for anyone else in need of a seaweed salad.

---The Outpost

A sight for sore eyes, the travellers off the eastern Path come here to rest after long journeys, beckoned forth by the golden shell beacon perched at its peak. It's an inn of sorts, though without any true owner and rarely caretaker--the denizens here are expected to clean up themselves after they leave, unless of course they die prior.

North of this area rests the skeletal husk of a long-dead beast draped with overgrown seaweed and surrounded by serrated shell, named by locals The Thorns.

---The Colosseum of Ven

Witness grand fights to the death... and maybe even receive a free snack afterwards! Here at the Colosseum, gladiator-fools engage in perilous combat for the glory of battle and the favor of their God of life and death. While victors and any other survivors simply live to see another day, the fallen are consumed by their brethren as it is most honorable to benefit your society even after death.

South of the building the barracks can be found. Connected by a few short tunnels, the room is where fighters rest between battles. Like the main area this place is not short of green blood--many are too stubborn to anticipate combat for long, rather wishing to get back into the fight before a chance to heal up.

---The Cast Shell Pit

After their carapace is judged as unsafe and the previous...owner ill, a corpse may be tossed into the hole with not much thought. It is a mourned soul who is infected in such a way that they can no longer benefit their society. Resting over the mass grave a long shrub has recently planted itself, growing through the sand and gaining worship as an omen of the green god Ven: The Guardian of The Dead, Pando, was formed after the town collectively decided that the tree was in some way sacred.

The pit was meant to contain The Thorns, until it was realized the body was too big to move, relieving the hole of its actual purpose.

---The Agora

Need food? Water? Weapon and shell? Dead bodies? We’ll look no further than The Agora. Overlooking Jellyfish Bay, the city's glorious marketplace has everything you might need after a long day of travel! Visit one of the many vendors for a wide variety of goods and perhaps a conversation, while you're at it.

---Fort Taranoake

Despite its militaristic and intimidating exterior, Fort Taranoake is where the citizens of this lovely town reside. Many call it home nestled within these walls, surrounded by banners and children attempting to scale the walls to reach The Acorn that washed ashore so many seasons ago, the symbol that few but the oldest clam remember.

---The Training Grounds

Some looking to compete in the colosseum, some wanting to travel the world, none having any idea how to fight, many outsiders and citizens alike come to train here. Despite the obvious, combat is not the only class. Students are taught how to forage food, how to learn from their surroundings, how to prepare a meal or subsist off of shells, how to survive the land inside and out of the supposed safety of the city. Regardless of ability, spending some time here could benefit even a champion gladiator or seasoned explorer.

-Citadell 

“Basins-City, Quiet Citadell”

A quiet city along the shore, hidden from aerial view and predators among the tides. 

--Architecture

The city consists of nine bays fading into deep holes, being primarily underground. Rooms are chiseled through the sides of the craters, and platforms are set outside connecting each entry, used as catwalks on low tide and decks at high. In the former case, tarps and stalls can be seen set up on the basins, packing up when the water reaches the third bay and the other areas are soon to follow.

---Six Basins

The holes in which most of the city’s traffic takes place, and rooms are placed around. They can be likened to plazas, and while The Archives has the general layout of a Basin it is considered a room instead.

Notable rooms include:

Woodworker’s Association, Second Basin

Noctiluca Cafe, Second Basin

Kritto’s Stall, Fourth Basin

The Archives, Fifth Basin

H.C. Labs, Sixth Basin

Interconnecting each basin lie series of alleyways where, at the lowest levels, the bioluminescent and edible mosses and algaes are grown, and where the sea-dwelling citizens make their homes. The bugs who cannot live in water are restricted to anywhere else, as the tunnels are drenched no matter the tides, carefully irrigated in a way so as not to flood the plazas.

---The Archives

A massive library carved into the sand, connected through pathway to the fifth basin. Unlike the rest of the caves, the roof is solid, arching over the area and carefully protecting the shell tablets inside from the sun. It is by far the largest room dedicated to one purpose.

---Bellows

A giant, translucent green object with salmon shells placed inside, settled on the sands above the cliffs. When the winds blow strongest, the interior howls and the sounds of the shells rattle through the city, marking the shift in tides.

-Renin

A small, long-hidden ghost town, with merely a sole original occupant. This “town” is composed of dozens of burrowed tunnels and sand statues crudely shaped to resemble frogs.

--Architecture

A labyrinth of tunnels and caves, most filled with fake furniture lining areas that give the whole place an uneasy feel. The whole town is full of cobwebs--and sand lumped together in a vague impression of frogs.

---The Ponds

Three slowly eroding caves towards the bottom of Renin, full of salt water and uninhabitable for frogs.

---Housing

Plenty of sand and rocks shaped into the makings of homes are scattered all around this place, most looking like they haven’t been used in years.

Marine Structures and Settlements

-Kelsik

A town of sea slugs, residing much closer to the water's surface than most other settlements inhabited by the purely-aquatic creatures. Homes are fashioned out of the large shells of other mollusks, and foliage is carefully tended to in the form of rows of seaweed. It's small in that all the villagers know each other well, and travellers are warmly welcomed.

While the population mostly consists of marine gastropods, crustaceans have a history with the town, where a few choose to make their home.

-Cranton's Abode

A driftwood hut pulled together neatly by twine, circled around one side by rocks placed in the formation of a sort of patio, where the work of the lone-though-not-lonely shrimp Cranton unfolds. He's something of a traveller--and scavenger--himself, so despite fire not being an option underseas, his food still manages to be the best of any you'd find this side of the Cities.

-Anemone Reefs

A cluster of inert cnidarians far from the surface, corals scattered through despite its namesake.

In the center of the well-protected forest lies a clearing, where two nudibranch siblings have chosen to make their home.

-The Ruins

A collocation of objects that appear to be more of the strange white internal chitin of dead creatures, those of which terrestrial scientists lament not having more information on. About five full sets of them, just sitting at the bottom of the ocean, all relatively and inexplicably in the same area. No one has any explanation and nothing is known of them except that they must have died some time after the rest of the vertebrates, given their condition. Archeologists may not have time to learn more about these before they are completely worn away by the tide.

-Anchor

A city atop a buoy, inhabited mostly by aerial bugs, and those who can climb up from the seaweed-and-chain “stairways” drifting from surface to seafloor. Though the hard minerals did prove difficult to tunnel through, the sheer size and the natural platforms have made it worth the effort to improve.

[Start ID. A drawing of two scavengers from Rain World, one labelled Sanic and the other one Shrek. Sanic's fur is light brown, with darker extremities, a messy row of pale green spines down its back, and bright blue eyes. They sit contentedly, staring at the screen, with a couple grenades by its feet. Shrek has pale fur, a green head, hands, and feet, and brown eyes. It's facing to the right, with their arms splayed out and an explosive spear on their back. Beside each scavenger are a few woefully-compressed screencaps of their in-game appearance. End ID]

An ode to these silly beasts, who accompanied me on my second visits to Industrial and Chimney

So uuh i have become obsessed with rainworld as of recent, so here is a bunch of rainworld art

Decided to answer my own question of "how does a person with wings wear clothes" except without taking the easier route of avian/insect wings for once

[Start ID. A redraw of the official icons of the ten named slugcats from Rain World, arranged in two rows: Survivor, Monk, Hunter, Nightcat, and Gourmand in the first, Artificer, Rivulet, Spearmaster, Saint and Enot/Inv in the second. Each is drawn in roughly the same pose as in the original art and fitted with speculative interpretations of their biology, and the second image is a “dead” version of this. For example, all ten have slug-like rhinophores in place of ears, cuttlefish-like colorful eyes with strangely-shaped pupils, cephalopod-like beak "teeth", expressive barbels or oral tentacles at the corners of mouths, spiny radulas, and the frilly mantle fringes of sea slugs, though otherwise their faces are squishy, simple and mammalian-shaped.

Cream-colored Survivor and yellow Monk both share triangular, bicolored spots matching their eyes (which are tan and brown, and two shades of blue, respectively), small, bumpy fringes, and relatively neutral looks on their faces. Defensive-looking Hunter is mostly a dull orange-pink, though their blobby fringe is a more violent red and their back is purple and marred with lumps. Nightcat is navy blue and flecked with dots of yellow and teal, their rolled rhinophores are a lighter blue, and their shading fractures into stars in some places. Gourmand is almost uniformly tan, their wide, very ruffly white mantle fringe bordered by a spray of white spots, and their beak sticks out from either corner of their smile. Primarily red Artificer, snarling, has yellow markings of multiple sorts, a prominent yellow dewlap and their characteristic dark scar taking out a chunk of its face. Rivulet is a darker blue than usual, with long barbels, red gills and rings, countershading, and a cheerful expression, sticking out their radula. Spearmaster is purple with orange accents, eyes and spots, a large fringe and spines down their back. Saint’s green caryophyllidia are marked by small, yellow diamonds, and their long, thin radula extends far below them. Enot is decorated with mottled red stripes, blue patches, yellow stars, and an uneven and almost cartoonish imitation of blush, though generally the same deep blue as Nightcat, a passive or almost slightly smug look on their face and their rolled rhinophores out to either side.

In the second image, nine of the slugcats’ eyes are crossed out, indicating that these are death icons. They look fairly the same, with mostly expression differences. Survivor is caught in the beginning of a threat display, a karma flower sprouts from Monk’s side, Hunter is burdened with overgrowing, purple and blue rot, Nightcat’s rhinophores are pinned back, and Gourmand looks mildly disheartened. For the final row, Artificer bites its radula between small plumes of smoke, Rivulet drops their expression, Spearmaster looks very startled, Saint looks almost entirely the same besides half-open eyes and their markings greater in number, and Enot grins confusedly. End ID]

If you'll excuse the unusually lengthy ID: the arena meme introduced by @pansear-doodles at long last after a nearly year-long wip status (or, rather, finished a month ago today to honor my own first time playing it!)

Design notes and shout-outs under cut! :]

The following people are some of those who’ve inspired my designs most since I started this eight months ago (or just inspired me to get a little weirder with slugcat biology), among many others for sure, and I thank them for it–but this is simply to bring attention to artists I find cool, and in no way an obligation to interact or anything :]

> @saturncoyote , @carpsoup , @charseraph , @gallusgalluss , @bitsbug , @dopscratch , and @0hmanit (and a special mention to dddeerbo and hunterlonglegs, who’ve since deactivated)!

Survivor: Surprisingly the hardest to pin down the colors for, since nothing with its sibling's palette seemed to match up right (I did have to add in a little blue somewhere for Monk, the beginning of making it clear how much I’m simply going based off of vibes for the colors of scug innards). I consider them, Monk and Gourmand to be part of the same gene pool of slugcats, and even possibly the same colony even if the latter isn't really related, so took a bit of Gourmand's coloring and fit them in with their inspiration: Goniobranchus verrieri. They serve as a bit of an introduction to my ideas of scug traits (i find it really fun how many people have thought to add so many silly sluglike fixtures of biology completely independent of me, buuut here I’m mostly talking about species variation), and like in-game they’re pretty average! They, Monk and Hunter have a couple scars sourced from a piece of Joar's concept art that I'm failing to find, those across the bridge of the nose, under the eyes, and across the rhinophores, respectively, and my Survivor interpretation features many on the back of the neck, as a result of survived lizard bites.

Monk: Their coloring is primarily based off the fact that I associate them with blue fruits, honestly, a bit because I was compelled to establish a familiarity with Rivulet, and lastly inspired by the spots of Goniobranchus kuniei (and geminus, less important to me as one of my characters is a kuniei instead, but more fitting). Between the yellow + blue and the circular marking in the center of their face, they’re meant to bear a little resemblance to an iterator that shares similarities with the characterization I’ve given them, and similar coding of her sibling can be seen on Survivor’s markings around the eyes. As both a “default” slugcat and one whose campaign I haven’t played, though, I can’t say I have much more to point out about em.

Hunter: The whole rot thing made for a really fun time drawing them, and while the color change on their back is a result of this, it’s also an excuse to relate them to Babakina festiva, arguably my favorite sea slug (mostly for sentimental purposes). And to Spearmaster, a fellow messenger slugcat, and it serves as a gradient between Hunter’s pink and the “traditional” color of Rot seen in the DLLs. Aside from their affliction, they’d actually be the plainest in terms of design, as they don’t have any patterns or quirks of body type, just the red + purple and strange lumps + possible malnutrition. I can’t remember if NSH had created them in particular or just...caught + released or something, but it probably wouldn’t be strange for a lab-grown slugcat to be simple like that.

Gourmand: Like the two above, they’re rather plain in terms of coloring and adaptation, and like the two above, I find that fun. I decided it would be nice to avert the “all slugcats being of the same body type, and Gourmand’s out of place as the exception” thing by just...adding more fat to all of them, really. I did want to emphasize their sheer bulk even so, both fat and muscular (not like I couldn’t have still gone further with it, of course, but slugcat anatomy can be a little obfuscating sometimes, and they were intended to look rather plush considering personal size headcanons and therefore the lack of proper gravity), and the thick and flounced mantle looked like a good addition, as per their sea slug Glossodoris hikuerensis. Unlike Survivor and Monk, I didn’t attempt to hold their resemblance to any particular other character (which means a little less to balance out the “default gene pool” thing), so those are all the design notes I have for em.

Artificer: The second slugcat I’ve ever played, or finished the campaign of, my favorite for at least a long time, and the first thing I did was give them yellow accents, the shape of which have troubled me slightly (not quite like the spots or stripes of the others). They’re both a little more appealing and more explosive-looking to me, and considering how early on I played Arti, actually present in some of my older art. It does give them a little resemblance to Saint (completely intentional, two slugcats with strange relations to karma), as well as the fact that its radula is green for familiarity with one of its children (at some point it was going to have all-green markings, even!). I’m generous with their scars, partly because it was fun to overemphasize the one on their face and partly because it does seem like a reckless slugcat, on top of the dangers of its explosive abilities–I’ll probably just keep adding more forever. Mostly-red sea slugs aren’t too common, but Hexabranchus sanguineus works for sure. The ridged, yellow dewlap can expand for combustion purposes, or something along those lines. Arti’s where I began experimenting with a lot of the mildly-offkilter features seen in my interpretation of slugcats, as they’ve once again been a favorite from the start.

Rivulet: I've obviously given other slugcats spots, deeply enjoy the bubbly-soda markings of other peoples' slugcats, and thought seal riv would be cute. Despite not too closely resembling it, they've been government-assigned Hypselodoris bennetti, for color reasons and for a couple sentimental ones. Originally, the colors of every scug were meant to match up with the custom colors I gave them at the beginning of their campaigns, (though Arti, Gourm and Spearmy are the only three who actually apply here, since I've only played through half the slugcats: I gave arti the yellow as mentioned above, gourm brown eyes and spearmy light pink spears, furthered by the outskirts pearl accompanying me and that palette all the way to moon. Tolerance training for eternity in hell cause I already knew about the maroon pearl quest). I initially gave them the colors of the bi flag for fun... but with the limited palette of this image, I was left without pink for a while and decided to see how they'd look in red. I then realized how they now wonderfully matched Moon, and besides, red's a sort of camouflage in deep water! As a side-note, the difference between their eyes and those of others always bothered me a little for anatomical purposes, and the cephalopod eyes were probably influenced by this!

Spearmaster: Inspired as much as possible by @notyourfunnyman ’s wonderful spearmy: designed in a way that helps it fit in with scavengers, at least between the long sensory tentacles, big ruff, back spines and slightly thin/distended anatomy, a form of defensive mimicry. I always had annulate rhinophores in mind, for a little diversity sure, but mostly because the shape reminds me of radio antennae and communication towers (seems fitting for the comms array and being a messenger slugcat)! I started searching for a real-life slug to give them just by looking up their rhinophore shape...and was met immediately and coincidentally with annulate-topped nudibranchs that fit them more perfectly than I could've imagined: Flabellina and surrounding clades, I think Paraflabellina ischitana works very nicely. The orange was completely unplanned, but there wasn’t a place for light pink among the other slugcats’ palettes, and importantly it likens them to both Hunter and Seven Red Suns a little more.

Saint: I am very much a non-furred slugcat enjoyer, with respect to those who aren’t, so figuring out the only visibly furred slugcat was an interesting challenge. I’ve decided that they likely have other, milder adaptations for help in the cold, mainly just more efficient fat storage, and what looks vaguely like fur is instead a bunch of tubercles (called caryophillia, for the second reminder out of three). Their inspiration doesn’t have these, however, Miamira sinuata’s numerous yellow and blue spots (not to mention...whatever’s going on with that shape) and general effect of being the only really green nudibranch I could find were probably perfect for a strange green echo. Not pictured, but their beak-teeth are tiny and flat to make a surface for grinding soft food against with the lack of a functioning radula, which is tipped with a specialized spiny “grapple-hook” for better traction/grip (not to mention the numerous little teeth running down the whole thing).

(Best part of hiding this under a readmore means edits will be seen by all reblogs, I'm mostly sure, because I completely forgot to mention! The spots on their forehead are simple eyes. Their camera eyes appear closed in-game, I like to believe their complex eyesight is rather poor anyways or otherwise reason that they aren't seeing out of those, and while this was far from her REASON for attunement with the world, it does help compensate for mainly viewing it through a canvas of simple light and dark. This, and the fact that their swapped-out "fur" is not only to commit to a lack of hairs but contributes to sensory input!)

Nightcat/Enot: I guess you could say I found the “these two are technically the same person” compelling. (E.g. similar colors, both very strange and enigmatic, and Enot/Inv/Sofanthiel’s remark during the dating sim about getting removed from Arena Mode.) I doubt they’re the only two slugcats in their body, considering humans with DID tend to have more than a few (and I find it very funny that a slugcat bearing resemblance to Nightcat appears in Gourmand’s ending. They’re allowed in the colony and Enot isn’t </3), and I have to credit @faelingdraws ’s art for being what convinced me on it! Their design inspirations come down to trying to balance a few different ideas: making the patterns and palettes of both look oddly similar (special mention to the stars, since those are fun to draw), basing them off of Felimare sechurana and juliae respectively, using blocks of color with the same placement as in Enot’s official art, and specifically making Enot look...biologically reasonable and imperfect, whilst also clearly trying to imitate human displays of emotion (what with...the eyes and blush on that one piece of official art).

Lastly, here’s just a lineup with notes on body shape and size. Most of the nicknames (existing to give a little more space, that’s all) are obvious, and while I can’t remember why I shortened Nightcat to Nox, it is in honor of my friend by the same nickname :]