A fish of the funniest little kind

DAY 1 -

THE WANDERER (by @pine-marten-art) vs THE CARTOGRAPHER (by @pookapufferfish)!

WHEAT (by @mayabunny23) vs PEARL (by @bloomyexonmain)!

FLUTTER (by @gh0st3a) vs CLOUDCAT (by @rainworld-obsessed-cat)!

WAWA (by @that-creationsureisunending) vs LEECH (@cashmonei)!

DAY 2 -

THE FLY WHISPERER (by @program-251) vs MIROSCAT (by @sillycryptid)!

THE RETRIEVER (by @north-winds1) vs SKY’S LIGHT (by @cashmonei)!

THE MIMIC (by @onefeather-endlessocean) vs CUSTARD (by @tanzytechgem)!

DROPLET (by @swordofblaze) vs KELP (by @sensepi)!

DAY 3 -

THREE IDEALS (by @basilthymee) vs INVIS (by @winters-menace)!

THE ENFORCER (by @nofathomtoodeep) vs THE WAYFARER (by @goldendoodling)!

THE ENVOY (by @saturncoyote) vs THE COLLECTOR (by @localcornflake)!

THE UNBOUND (by @neoncityrain) vs THE OUTCAST (by @sillycryptid)!

DAY 4 -

TWIST (by @shatteredstarss) vs THE MASQUERADE (by @lilly-dust)!

THE TAMER (by @verdeltiathedead) vs THE PLAGUED/DOC (by @mothwingedmyths)!

THE CADAVER (by @skittlescat) vs SEER (by @splynter)!

And finally, THE MENACE (by @randomixthegreat-blog) vs THE PEARL-READER (by @dracanianwyvern)!

To the wawas that got in, I wish you luck! To those who didn’t, I greatly appreciated your submission!

imagine you’re just doing your thing and then you feel bitches crawling around your brain, and you’re helpless to do anything so you’re just forced to witness it all. you can feel them tamper with something, and then you can feel them remove your knowledge — things you know you’ve learnt, things you’ve spent cycles upon cycles studying and trying to understand — and it’s all gone. you don’t even know what they’ve gotten rid of this time, but it always feels wrong, wrong so so wrong because you know there should be something there, but when you try to reach for it — nothing. and maybe you’ll never know again what it was. and if they decide to wipe the memory of them wiping your memory beforehand, well, that can turn into a vicious cycle pretty quickly. they can do it as much as they want, but you’ll always know, because the feeling stays. of something missing. of holes in your memory. an itch you can’t scratch. like walking into a completely empty mall in the middle of a weekend — you just know there should be people there, but there’s no one. it’s haunting.

…but at least there’s one thing that you will always notice missing and will always know what it is before they even remove it again, because it’s become such an integral part of you and you’ve put so much work in it and it is you, it’s something you used to understand yourself. but you know if you try to get it back it’ll just get erased again and you’ll be back at square one. so you don’t.

you don’t try to study art again; you don’t try to get your style back even though you’ve spent cycles molding it into what feels like yourself, not just another machine perfectly copying reality, but your style, something that feels like you; you don’t try to salvage your past self. next time you draw, it’s soulless, just a picture of the world as it is.

and you’ve spent so long trying to understand it, all you ever wanted was to understand, because you loved art so much but could never quite comprehend how people did it and it used to make you feel things. and now you’ve forgotten it all. just like that. art used to make you feel things.

next time you draw, you feel nothing.

This competition is ran by @restlesscoffee, and is heavily inspired by @waybacks-swag-awards!

Endless Shifting Seas: They/She. An Iterator made not to solve the Great Problem, but instead an archivist made to store countless pearls worth of information from other iterators and compile a library for organization and use given the sheer amount of information present. Nowadays, she archives updates from other Iterators, and sends out pearls and signals that contain information to those who request it.

Flutter: They/Them. One of ESS’s helpers, Flutter is actually present at ESS’s facility the least often of the 5 slugcats, sent out and about on pearl deliveries to other distant Iterators more often than not, gliding above the heavy rains with their wings, and settling down to rest in the clear moments. Having entered ESS’s facility in the past from the wilds, they agreed to deliver things for friendship and shelter.

Skitter: She/Her. The other delivery Slugcat, mostly a secondary option for emergency deliveries, or shorter-distance deliveries. Skitter is a nervous and jittery slugcat with torn ears due to a long ago accident. Also having wandered into ESS’s facility, she now does the occasional delivery in return of shelter, food, and safety, helping out around the archives while she’s around.

Sparkles: They/Them. ESS’s first successful attempt at bioengineering, Sparkles is.. constantly covered in natural glitter. This glitter does fade over time, it just takes.. quite a bit of time. This glitter especially covers their paws and tail, and causes them to leave glitter everywhere they go, and leave it on every pearl they touch... at least it doesn’t affect the readability!

Robber: He/Him. ESS’s second bioengineered slugcat, Robber is a brash and mischievous creature who loves to steal things... and then puts them where they go. He has eaten Neurons, and will eat Neurons again.

Mint: He/They. ESS’s third and final bioengineered helper, Mint is tidy, proper, and very serious about his work. Mint is the one who cleans up the glitter and pearls that got misplaced... They are an excellent worker, though.. not the nicest to the other slugcats.