machinations of the muffintop monarch

[a link to the previous post, in case you missed it]

When i finally got the chance to play, one of the first things i did (after picking up the stuff in the chest they'd set aside for me) was decide on a class.

For those who dont know, terraria has four distinct classes with their own armor, equipment, and weapons (though this isnt enforced on your character in any way). In our party of a half dozen or so players, there was a ranger, a mage, at least two melee players, and one who elected to ignore class guidelines entirely; but no summoners.

If only to have some semblance of loot sovereignty, i elected to make that my class. At the stage of the game i popped in at, there weren't many good options for weapons, but one of the better ones was Abigail's Flower, a weapon that summons a single ghost, who gets stronger depending on how many slots you'd spend summoning her.

I thought, 'Well hey, Masha, a ghost, that totally fits their goth/witchy vibe!' I was honestly pretty dang glad to have fallen down this path, and enjoyed myself thoroughly as we futzed about ingame for ten hours or so.

Since the veezine terraria sessions were a weekly affair, there was a LOT of downtime to be spent doing other shit between actually playing the game. Those of us who were a little more brainrotten about it made art; there were some doodles, some comics, even a short animation!

I spent my time making resource packs, to put some of my own ideas into the game for the next time i'd play.

The first one i made was an edit of the Raven Staff, turning it into a palisman design i'd been cooking for a while by that point. I dont think he had a name at the time, but nowadays, i call him Pilfer.

I even posted it to the steam workshop!

I rode the high of this one for a few hours or days, but at some point, the creative bug bit me again, and i made possibly the very best thing i'd ever drawn up to that point:

BotMasha, in all their glory.

Parts of the design were ripped straight from Terraria, others ripped straight from Masha's appearance in The Owl House, but the earpiece theyre wearing is actually from an OC project of mine, a more physical version of Bitty's character logo.

Anyways, i was downright giddy over this one stupid drawing, for multiple weeks. Although i can look at it now and nitpick all the little issues i have with it (mostly anatomy stuff), the idea was reasonably well-executed, and deeply thrilling to me. I spent as much of my downtime as i could drawing up more resource packs so i could match the fit in-game, and eventually, i got there.

Since we werent at a point in the game yet where the Hi-Tek Sunglasses Android Aerial was available to me, i spent a good deal of the playthrough wearing Bitty's helmet again. I took this pic with another character dressed up too look like BotMasha though.

BotMasha got to wear the getup themself eventually, though.

And that... actually brings us to pretty much the present. We've long since beaten terraria together, and BotMasha has remained a treasured bit of veezine server trivia for as long as theyve been around. I've had the occasional notion to make a little animatic of them getting stanced up like in the big fancy drawing, or possibly redoing that drawing with hopefully-improved art skills, but nothing really came of it.

...And then, we started a minecraft server.

I actually redrew my normal minecraft skin to be more true to Bitty's design (instead of them being mashed up with like 3 other OCs) in preparation for the server starting, and i've been using that skin for at least a month now between singleplayer theorycrafting and multiplayer shenanigans.

But over the last week or so, I've been hard at work on a new skin, a new take on BotMasha, for no other reason than the love of the game.

Earlier tonight, i finished that skin. Behold!

Ahh, the wonders of being mentally ill hard work and determination.

Unfortunately, the skin is a bit less flattering with armor on.

without their hair for context, their makeup and bangs look like bruises and a swollen forehead... mojang add toggleable armor visibility pleasethanks

About a year ago, the Vee Zine discord server decided to start doing weekly terraria sessions to pass the offseason.

As an avid terraria enjoyer (over 4k hours on that thang), i was very excited, enough so that i premade my character weeks in advance, complete with a punny name that was relevant to our group's shared interest (vee).

I took my discord username, BotMuffins, and turned it into BotMasha, and using what little customization was available from the character creation screen, i got 'em looking pretty close to what Masha might look like if they lived a more high-fantasy life.

(apparently the only image i have of the character file from before i started playing on it was just a teaser with their name. sad!)

Shortly before our first session, however, my computer suffered a crippling bout of batteritis, and had to be taken in to have the offending organ removed.

I missed at least the first session, but i think i missed two (it's been a while). With nothing better to do, I participated only via a discord call on my phone, and by scribbling the occasional doodle about it in my notes app.

One of these was of New Player Bot, hurtling through the Time Void as they await the time of their computer's return to health (and thus, of their arrival in the terraria server).

(there were other doodles, too, including a whole ass comic about a duel that took place, but thats for another post (maybe. eventually))

I couldnt remember what colors i'd picked for BotMasha, nor what the outfit i'd chosen looked like (im still not sure why i thought the trenchcoat was sleeveless), and without my computer available, i couldnt just open up the game and check, so i just did the best i could with my normal sona, Bitty, as a stand-in. I gradually honed in on the right color scheme by looking up screenshots of Masha themself, and searching my memory for how i had turned that into a terraria character.

Eventually, i got my computer back, and BotMasha was freed from the time void. Too bad the Bitty helmet they'd been wearing in the meantime broke when they landed. (cant get the Video Visage 'till post-Skeletron)

BEHOLD! My collaboration with the one and only, absolutely incredible artist, host, founder, moderator, and probably more job titles that've skipped my mind for the @vee-fanzine...

LUNAAAAAR JEWELLLLLLS!!! (@lunar-jewels)

I did the lines (and I like to think I did pretty darn good on 'em [-v-]°), and she went RIDICULOUSLY hard with the colors, shading, lighting, and finish! She even found a PERFECT background photo to sell the perspective and all that with luz walking in from afar!

Fuckin' PHENOMENAL work!!!

What do we call Vee/Viney again? Vinee? Veeny? Vinvee? Veeey? Anyways, That.