Whimsy Of Tickled Fancy

Muffled sounds of complaint

Now that Tess is sporting the beta design of an in-game unit token, let’s get to talking about some of the ailments you can expect to see in Keen Original Fighter Tour

The Slowed ailment

“W-h-y… i-s… e-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g… s-o… f-a-s-t-?”

This ailment has been reworked since its debut in KOFTournament. Originally it was a turn-skipping ailment with worse luck for heavier armors. Now, it cuts your speed stat by three points, reducing your overall movement in battle. Slowed will also have a unique mechanic for shaking off where; instead of rolling to remove it, you spend a turn making zero movement and choosing to convert your action into a reaction. Taking this passive approach to your turn will guarantee its removal. However, when AFTERSlowed; you cannot move at all on the first turn of effects, your speed penalty increases from three to four, and the ailment is immune to the normal method of shaking it off (items still work though).

The Confused ailment

“What in the [by boogity] is going on here?! Did you scramble my [trumpet honk] circuits boss?!?!”

Confusion remains largely unchanged from its OG version. The dice rolled has simply changed to a d% instead of a standard d10, but you will still hit yourself while attacking by rolling lower than a 50%. The OVERConfused ailment only changes the standard one by dealing 1d4 damage to yourself when your successful roll is between 50% and 70%.

The Bleeding ailment

“What on god’s green [DIC Productions] are you- OW! You stabbed me like a pincushion! Now I’m [‘tis but a scratch]!”

Bleeding is a new ailment introduced for Keen Original Fighter Tour. Bleeding has you take 1 damage at the start of your turn for each turn you’ve been bleeding (1 on the first, 2 on the second, so-on and so-forth), and will reduce your vigor and endurance stats by 1. When OVERBleeding, any damage type that you would take normally is now considered potent damage, and resisted damage will be taken as standard damage.

The Drenched ailment

Sounds of aggravated struggling and lots of waterboarding

The Drenched ailment is a mix of old and new. Like before, your agility stat is reduced by 2 and you take 2 extra damage from Shock attacks. A new effect is that when you make movement, you are affected by slippery terrain conditions (think ice physics in puzzles, but there is a punishment if you run out of movement before stopping). OVERDrenched is still a rough ailment, because you are so bogged down with moisture that your character’s typing is overridden to only Tidal. Because your elemental balance is so unstable; Shock damage replaces the ailment with Paralysis, Chill damage makes you Frozen, and Light damage causes Blindness.

And that’s the update! Credits for references below.

Tess artwork by user @torchrandom, you can find their art at @torchsartblog

Ailment artwork by user @beef-chuck

Tess pop-culture references in-order

Dr. Evil - Austin Powers

“I Would Rather” - Artist is Jazz Emu

Toadbert - Mario & Luigi rpg series

Doot meme

DIC children’s entertainment company: broadcast logo meme

since february this year (2026), after i pulled her up on tracing one of my comics and once again requested that she stop copying my work, she has been block evading me on tumblr and joining discord servers i am in in order to continue copying my work, as well as to find and trace gift art drawn for me by my friends. while i have shouldered my own discomfort at her behaviour for many years, this is a line i cannot sit back and watch be crossed.

i will keep this as brief as possible, but because of the sheer length of time this has been going on and volume of stolen content, there’s a lot to cover. be advised that even this does not include everything. this experience has been a gradual boiling pot of pain and dehumanisation for me, watching my work and my character be stolen repeatedly and increasingly over years, while someone else proudly claimed it as their own within my own community spaces.

i will predominantly be addressing theft of my own work and crossing of my stated boundaries. aside from one single case- which i received explicit permission to include- i will NOT be directly addressing any of the art she has copied from other artists.

however, while collecting evidence of the theft that affected me, i saw traced artwork belonging to multiple mutuals of mine, and a handful of artists i do not know personally. 

if you are or have been an artist in the kirby or kirby OC community between 2024-2026, you may also find your work has been copied. none of the copied works i observed on Nokk0’s blog were ever credited to their original artist.

i would also like to acknowledge up front that while it is incredibly rude to treat another artist as a free resource, an amount of inspiration, copying, and even tracing of other artists' work is completely understandable, especially in beginner artists. just make sure you credit them directly with a link to their original work, and stop referencing them if they request you stop. i understand that, especially in a fandom, you absolutely cannot expect to own any broad idea, theme, or story beat. i understand that admiration and inspiration can often manifest itself a lot like copying until the artist finds their creative feet, and that an artist’s biggest fans can also be their biggest copiers.

the problem here is not that inspiration was taken or even that tracing occurred. the problem is that Nokk0 has not only traced or referenced almost every art piece she has ever posted and claimed full credit, but that she continued to do this behaviour with me in particular after i have laid out my boundaries and told her multiple times to stop.

it is clear to me that Nokk0 understands this behaviour is wrong, and yet she continues to do it.

a summary of the following evidence will follow.

1:1 copies of my art, art gifted to me, or my posts

timeline of events including my direct communication with Nokk0 informing her multiple times that i was not okay with this level of copying

evidence that despite unmistakeably clear communication of my boundaries, Nokk0 continues to trace from me and block evades to continue copying my work

evidence of Nokk0 duplicating every element of my character design, storytelling, and even my social media layouts

☆ evidence of tracing & copying art, block evasion, and timeline of events from 2024-2026

i would like to precede this by noting that Nokk0 is a traditional-medium exclusive artist. this means that it is likely most “tracing” occurred via the eyeballing method. this form of referencing is often totally okay when you are using free-use stock images, but can quickly become theft when you are using another artist’s creative work, especially uncredited and claiming it as your own. i have said many times- both on my blog and to Nokk0 directly- that i personally am not okay with my work being treated as free uncredited reference material, after which she continued to do it for a span of years.

in many cases Nokk0 also makes clear attempts to obscure the similarities to the work she is copying by flipping all or parts of the work horizontally, frankensteining multiple different art pieces together, or replacing a character with another (ie: an oc into a canon character, Meta Knight into Galacta Knight, etc). nonetheless, the derivative nature of these art pieces is so quickly recognisable that i and others have immediately clocked not only that the work was based stylistically on mine, but which exact work of mine was copied and where.

once again, i will be focusing on only infringement on my content and crossing of my own boundaries. i do not know the boundaries of other artists whose work has been copied, and i won’t speak for them.

evidence of Nokk0’s serial tracing of my artwork dates over three years, to early 2024. there is no content on her blog prior to this timeframe, and in fact her first published work is fanart for my OC.

around this time, Nokk0 also spent a lot of time in my tumblr inbox, reassurance seeking about exactly how much of my work she was allowed to copy. i told her, repeatedly, that while i was flattered to be an inspiration i was not okay with comprehensive or 1:1 recreations of my work. 

i’m including only excerpts, but these asks can be publicly found on my blog. the excerpts below come from here specifically, where the entire ask response and additional comments can be read in full.

> the only thing i ask (and i'll clarify that i do not think this is what you are doing at all, what you suggested is fine!) is that folks don't take or use a 1:1 copy of everything in entirety of what i'm doing. designs, lore, storytelling quirks, etc etc, all at once. > the corrupted signature is just one part of my story, and many folks are already using that idea! it's only plagiarism when it's many parts copied all together in my opinion. 

at this time, in May 2024, i believed this was clear enough.

this interaction was before i had observed any tracing. i thought that what Nokk0 was interested in doing was writing a story using one of my general headcanons and the idea of a falling star based character- definitely not things i can claim ownership over.

however, for the next year and a half, Nokk0 proceeded to trace or reference dozens of my works and lift design/lore elements from my OC for her own. i have presented a select few below in chronological order.

finally, in early January 2026, Nokk0 posted a comic that included panels copied from mine. she posted this in a public kirby oc discord server we share, Stargate.

not only are the layouts and panel compositions lifted from my comic, the speech bubbles and specific unique dialogue style i use for Morpho and the comic’s narrative are being directly copied, with Nokk0’s own character inserted in my character’s place.

on good faith, i assumed that Nokk0 did not mean harm by this. i understand that it can be hard to know where the line between inspiration and copying lies, and that every artist can have a different boundary on this topic. 

i replied to her in the Stargate server, hoping to restate my boundaries clearly and without room for misunderstanding. i remained respectful, requesting only that she change her behaviour regarding my work moving forward and hoping she would do so once she understood how it made me feel. [transcript below, screenshot here]

> hi Nokk0!! i'm well aware you and others have been referencing my work for a while. despite previously stating that i don't like people doing so, i've been very patient and polite about it these past few years, because i understand some folks are still growing as artists and discovering their own footing! i also know that it's not being done with ill intent or maliciousness, and is predominantly coming from a place of inspiration or admiration. > however this is a panel by panel eyeball of my comic, inclusive of panel compositions and themes, right down to the dialogue-style. the comet panel is copied from another comic of mine, which was giftart for a friend. i don't like this kind of theft or inspiration, so i would rather you don't copy my work in this way! > i've actually been planning for months to make a public announcement about this to clarify my boundaries on this kind of thing, because it is being so pervasively experienced by myself and other members of this community. i deeply appreciate that folks are inspired by my art, but people have been tracing, colour-picking, and stealing my creative work for the two years i've been in this community, and- as you can imagine!- it makes me deeply uncomfortable and upset to have my work treated this way. 

unfortunately, this was not the case. when Nokk0 still continued to post traced art of mine into February, i blocked her on tumblr.

within the month she changed her name on discord to be more reminiscent of my character’s name. she edited her online presentation to match mine- such as lifting large amounts of text and stylisation directly from my artfight and tumblr masterposts.

within another month she had joined a second discord server i co-moderate in order to continue tracing my artwork, as well as to search for gift art drawn by my friends to also trace and insert her character into.

to this day she continues to copy and reference my artwork- for tracing, compositions, ideas, and dialogues. she continues to make complete recreations of whole entire posts, and to steal my character’s storywork and flavour text 1:1. with every new update i make on my own tumblr, she changes her character’s lore to match anything newly revealed in mine. 

she also continues to trace and copy the work of other artists in the kirby oc community.

all of the following examples of her work are dated after i once again asked her to stop copying my work (January 7th 2026), and after i blocked her on tumblr. it includes referencing images that i did not post until after i blocked Nokk0, which suggests she block evaded to find them.

after being blocked by me on tumblr, Nokk0 joined the Kirby OC Tournament (KOCT) discord server, which i co-moderate and have a full character page for starstruck in, on 28 March 2026. 

within days she was posting copies of work that i had only ever posted on that server, and which could be found nowhere else.

additionally, she began copying gift-art done for me by friends. the below example is an art piece posted by my friend Aseuki (included with permission) of our two ocs- Phemus and starstruck- playing together.

this art piece was posted only in the KOCT server where it is tagged with starstruck’s full name and on Aseuki’s offsite toyhouse, and never on tumblr.

this was the first time i noticed Nokk0 copying gift art made for me by others, but since then i have discovered numerous other examples of her copying gift art and replacing starstruck with one of her own characters. as this makes it clear that the issue of her tracking my online activity no longer affects only me, and is in fact directly impacting people who did me the kindness of drawing a gift for me, i resolved to make this post in June 2026. 

to the other artists whose gift art for me she copied in this way, i am deeply sorry.

☆ evidence of character theft, 2024-2026

in addition to tracing artwork and copying posts, Nokk0 has stolen almost every aspect of my singular oc, starstruck dee, scraping my work with near 100% coverage. my visual design work, storytelling work, and direct text have all been copied by her.

pictured: 1) an excerpt from my 2024 reference sheet for starstruck dee, my only published kirby oc, who has remained broadly unchanged since her debut.

throughout 2024-2025, when we were both active in the OC tourney, she made several sona drawings that were color-picked from and traced over starstruck, including traces of gift art of starstruck by others. this character was so similar in design to starstruck that many folks assumed that it was starstruck until i told them otherwise.

in late 2025 and through to 2026, she has progressively redesigned her primary OC Fal to increasingly closely resemble starstruck. 

in the second design, Nokk0 copies only starstruck’s emotive cheek stars/constellations, but makes them rainbow as a point of difference. i knew this was copied from me, but tolerated it in the hope she would grow out of it eventually.

by the third design, finalised in february 2026 after i spoke to and blocked her, multiple iconic design elements from starstruck have been copied exactly. her blue eyes with a pink heart at the bottom and a white pupil, her golden star-buckle design (positioned in the centre of a collar that now recalls its location on her bow and used to hide a star-shaped scar), her blush and pink round cheeks covered in freckles, the ‘peak’ of the heart shaped marking in the centre of her forehead, and her facial stylisation/silhouette. the emotive cheek stars are now an identical rendition of starstruck’s; white with a glowing pink border. a huge proportion of Nokk0’s art of Fal in this redesign has his head traced from artwork of starstruck.

since i spoke to her in January 2026, this behaviour has seemed to only escalate. after blocking her in February 2026, there have been countless examples of her continuing to copy my work for Fal and her newly debuted OC, G.

in fact, almost every fact she has posted about any of her characters first appeared in my work for starstruck. 

to save time here i will use paraphrased text summaries of a selection (not all) of the traits that she copied from my work, but you can find the original copies listed on nokk0's toyhouse [backup screenshot], artfight [backup screenshot, backup screenshot], and many character references and posts on her blog. 

as with my other evidence, this is merely a selection of all the work that was stolen.

in many cases Nokk0 copies whole backstories, texts, and design elements from my work-

and portrays them in exactly the same way that i do-

and religiously copies smaller details from my blog, such as songs i posted from my OC playlists, my masterpost layouts, and various presentations of my work across both tumblr and artfight.

to this day, you can find an excerpt from my masterpost, almost entirely unedited, copied onto hers.

this last june she even went so far as to trace a previous pride month artwork of my character (who is a sona, representing my own identities) while copying the exact identities- aroace, xenogender, polyam qpr, a sexless character who does not understand the social structure of romance but none the less is happily able to date multiple people- onto her own OC. identities her character only developed after i spoke publicly about my own identity and pronouns.

☆ conclusion

Nokk0’s pattern of behaviour is no longer simple inspiration, or even art theft. 

she has followed me closely for over three years, copying almost every creative piece i have ever posted in this community, from my art to my designs, my lore to my blog layouts, even my rules and my content warnings. the additional copying of my othered experience as an autistic and chronically disabled adult- an experience that i portrayed on my oc starstruck with deep intentionality- and the copying of my queer identities, was truly unspeakably uncomfortable.

to treat not only ALL of my creative work, but also my own lived and experienced identity, as though it is stock reference material is horrifically dehumanising and creepy. tracking my art, and my friend’s art, through servers i am in is wilful and intentional block evasion, and purposeful disrespect of my plainly stated boundaries.

as i have already tried multiple times and failed to encourage her to change her behaviour and respect the wishes of others around her, i do not believe that any amount of discussion with Nokk0 individually will change these habits. because of the extraordinary depths of the theft and total lack of original input from her, i no longer believe there is any way for Nokk0 to revitalise her existing characters or her existing work into anything original.

not only has this been unsettling and agonising to me personally, but Nokk0’s behaviour is to the detriment of this creative community. once i began work on this post, i learned that i am far from the only person being affected. 

i must speak out. for myself, for my friends whose work was stolen simply because it contained my character. and i must speak out to protect the many other artists in this community Nokk0 has stolen from while proudly claiming all the praise for work that has never been her own.

What’s new:

An all-new battle grid system with new movement and range mechanics.

New non-player enemies for PvE combat, meaning…

A new Battle Captain role for gameplay, or Storyteller for those heavily devoted to the art. As a Battle Captain, set up enemies for you and your friends to face off against as allies, or don the title of Storyteller and weave a crusade to test the teamwork and prowess of the other players while you play only the opposition.

2 new elements are being added to the type chart: expanding the roster from seven to nine.

New Character Progression systems to boost your characters using their own battle experience.

A new class & subclass system of equipable perks, now with a feature of equipping multiple perks simultaneously.

A handful of new ailments complemented by a list of new debuffs: stacking up to 2 effects at the same time.

New Abilities, now renamed Skills for more of the stat-based builds you love to play.

New Skill types: Universal Actions & Reactions. Now the pesky bug of not knowing how to block (simply because you forgot to equip it last Tuesday) has been ironed out.

A new setting and theme for the base gameplay, where original characters explore Remeria: the world-tree forest.

New economy system. Learn to enjoy Sparx: a magical material interwoven into the entire flavor of the experience.

What returns:

All of the weapons from K.O.F.Tournament 2.0.0.

All of the Ailments found in the old system (now with a fresh coat of paint and some rebalancing).

All 7 Elements found in K.O.F.Tournament with only one tweak: 2 new resistances to Light damage.

All abilities found in K.O.F.Tournament are returning, and some have been reimagined for the new gameplay experience.

Most items and consumables sold by the vendors of KOFTournament will be returning. Things like the cures and healing items may receive a new branding and name, but they’re here to stay.

What has (unfortunately) been cut:

Kirby (and the more broader Nintendo) references in theming and items. These things will return in the first planned content update after Full Release 1.0.0, but KOFTour will need to establish the identity that ALL AUs and fandoms are intended to be welcome to use the system. Content developed by the KOFTour team will focus on fandom-specific additions in the planned future content boosts (all intended to be non-copyright-infringing and IP neutral).

The Welder’s Perk system. This system of character upgrades is being cannibalized to fuel and improve the Subclass Perk system. For the more traditional Welder’s perk experience, a perk mixing feature will be included in the Subclass progression mechanic

All KOFTournament merchants and currencies.

Some items and consumables. The boss battle system of KOFTournament was uniquely maintained in-server but the items for it were equally unique.

Item art for the old items MAY return in content packs down the line, but having item art is not part of the plan for KOFTour.

What’s new:

An all-new battle grid system with new movement and range mechanics.

New non-player enemies for PvE combat, meaning…

A new Battle Captain role for gameplay, or Storyteller for those heavily devoted to the art. As a Battle Captain, set up enemies for you and your friends to face off against as allies, or don the title of Storyteller and weave a crusade to test the teamwork and prowess of the other players while you play only the opposition.

2 new elements are being added to the type chart: expanding the roster from seven to nine.

New Character Progression systems to boost your characters using their own battle experience.

A new class & subclass system of equipable perks, now with a feature of equipping multiple perks simultaneously.

A handful of new ailments complemented by a list of new debuffs: stacking up to 2 effects at the same time.

New Abilities, now renamed Skills for more of the stat-based builds you love to play.

New Skill types: Universal Actions & Reactions. Now the pesky bug of not knowing how to block (simply because you forgot to equip it last Tuesday) has been ironed out.

A new setting and theme for the base gameplay, where original characters explore Remeria: the world-tree forest.

New economy system. Learn to enjoy Sparx: a magical material interwoven into the entire flavor of the experience.

What returns:

All of the weapons from K.O.F.Tournament 2.0.0.

All of the Ailments found in the old system (now with a fresh coat of paint and some rebalancing).

All 7 Elements found in K.O.F.Tournament with only one tweak: 2 new resistances to Light damage.

All abilities found in K.O.F.Tournament are returning, and some have been reimagined for the new gameplay experience.

Most items and consumables sold by the vendors of KOFTournament will be returning. Things like the cures and healing items may receive a new branding and name, but they’re here to stay.

What has (unfortunately) been cut:

Kirby (and the more broader Nintendo) references in theming and items. These things will return in the first planned content update after Full Release 1.0.0, but KOFTour will need to establish the identity that ALL AUs and fandoms are intended to be welcome to use the system. Content developed by the KOFTour team will focus on fandom-specific additions in the planned future content boosts (all intended to be non-copyright-infringing and IP neutral).

The Welder’s Perk system. This system of character upgrades is being cannibalized to fuel and improve the Subclass Perk system. For the more traditional Welder’s perk experience, a perk mixing feature will be included in the Subclass progression mechanic

All KOFTournament merchants and currencies.

Some items and consumables. The boss battle system of KOFTournament was uniquely maintained in-server but the items for it were equally unique.

Item art for the old items MAY return in content packs down the line, but having item art is not part of the plan for KOFTour.