Well won't you look at that

Whery’s designs:

Custas- i wanted to make him masculine like a peacock is masculine. I really like his gorgeous hat that the brimmed caps gave him and i carried the feathers(? (Leaves?)) to the shoulders too! I wanted to make the hat somewhat ambiguous if it’s brimmed or not. I have it flaking off, or adding on, but either way he’s free to choose which he wants. Because at the point of the story we’re at right now, im not entirely sure what kind of morality he’s going to double down on, so we’ll see. Also his three poofs are supposed to resemble Dagda’s :)

Now we dont know what cures the silver wood tree’s infection. But in my mind, perhaps the heart of the tree’s roots grow in the area that is the most fucked up, so if you take off that area, you take out the parasite. Thus the decision was made by Custas to get them amputated. The flesh was deteriorating and rotting from not getting nutrients or activity due to the injury/wood, and it needed to get amputated anyway. You can see his hair is grown out a bit from when it was pure white, so he’s been a while without it at this point.

The prosthetic legs were inspired by his wheel chair he was given and were made by Tartah, who in this au is somewhat of a carpenter. They both are more or less outlaws, due to the unfortunate fact that tartah has a sigil branded into him (illegal) and custas was(is) a brimmed cap(illegal). Even though Custas has an ambiguous cap, he does not consider himself a brimmed cap. They both don't contribute to any larger cause. They just roam around, dodging knights moralis, learning medicine, playing music, and hanging with their friends (keep that on the down low though, if anyone asks, they were never there.).

Richeh- In this AU, she is a farmer. She has found herself being a picky eater and wants to create food that she likes, so she genetically and magically modifies her crops to create the perfect food for her. Those in her community who have tasted her food really enjoyed it enough for her to eventually open a farm stand, which she very much enjoys! This aspect was inspired by her enjoyment of working for Nolnoa’s stand in the fair arc.

I love the idea that Richeh and Euini live in a pretty isolated cabin, where she creates her concoctions for fertilizer, food, or seed specifying. I imagine she asks him to get ingredients off of shelves during her procedures, and he nudges them off the shelf with his nose and catches it gently in his large dog mouth and brings it to her dutifully.

She has buttons on the arm holes of her dress/poncho that Coco sewed for her. It makes it so that if she’s in public, she can still cover her arms if she needs to cast spells. She just needs to take off her belt and bring her arms in the holes hehe.

I also gave her a tan because i think it would be funny if she tan-mogged the living hell out of her brother. Who is. SHEET white, i know it.

I made her hair more curled, like her ribbons curl, and i of COURSE added one of her ribbons to the top of her hat and her hair tie, but other than that i didnt want to make her very flashy. Keeping it simple, especially when all of her friends have a lot of ornamentation and bells and whistles and everything, is important too when creating character designs. It makes her stand out!!

Euini- I don’t know how theyre going to take his character progression, but i don’t think they’re going to be able to turn him back into a human. Those carved sigils into skin are permanent, unfortunately. So, i just think his character arc will be learning to make peace with both sides of him, even if he may just prefer to be a big fluffy doggey most of the time :]

I gave him a tassel earring to resemble his new professor, Elaira, and Richeh’s ribbon on his leg as well because it’s CUTE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Somewhat of a side note: Richeh really lucked out. I mean. it is Terrible. What happened to Euini. Absolutely terrible. But i could not be happier for Richeh, she was born to have a werewolf boyfriend. I know shes living the dream i know it. LIKE I KNOW IT!!!!!

Jen’s designs:

Tartah: he uses tattoos of things like plants and stars and feathers to hide the magic branded into his wrist, made using a tattoo pen he invented. It’s got repetition magic to move a thin needle up and down and inject pigment into a surface, and works well on any flexible item. His hat’s still fashioned similarly to Nolnoa’s but it doesn’t stand straight on his head because he doesn’t consider himself an upstanding member of witch society (or a part of it at all, really, seeing as it’s on sight for the knights moralis with him). He has one pouch over his shoulder for medicines and herbs and one pouch at his waist for magic stationer tools on the go. He has a lot of triangles as a callback to Nolnoa’s design, because even if he’s on the run he still visited his grandpa occasionally just so his grandpa knew he was doing fine

whery's commentary: in my ver 2 of his design i made it so that his cape can be pulled back for when he's active. I think it works well because he doesnt want to hide anything too, so having a more open design works for his character! I imagine he grows up to be a carpenter/widdler as well as a medical student. I think it would work very well for what he has already, learning how to carve, living in a house with a silver wood in it, etc etc~ I imagine while theyre on the run tartah makes he and custas makeshift huts. he chops down some trees to drape some fabric over and create a place for them to stay At least until they get busted again I imagine Tartah is such a sturdy man. Him growing up to have big steady hands makes me emotional to think about.

Agott: she based the design of her cap on both of her teachers’, with green tassels to represent youth and learning and springtime (and coco). She’s taken up a similar role to Olruggio as someone who sells her magic inventions to rich patrons but otherwise uses her magic to help people for free and cheer them up. Her specialty is light magic of different animal forms, and after she gets confident in her casting, is able to devote more time to showmanship and using magic as a performing art. I like to think she does consultations with other witches sometimes to help them brainstorm ideas for exhibiting their inventions for things like silver eve, but her best ideas will always go to coco. Visually her outfit is similar to Olruggio since connections go a long way in marketing but also her cloak clasp ties in part of coco’s hat and her cloak shape and tassels are based on the jacket she wore on the night that she and coco snuck out to draw at night before silver eve. Her hat is also based on the dress she wears when she’s not in her student robes

whery commentary: i imagine her mother is super jealous of her living her dreams outside of the library hah hah ya snooze ya lose, sucker

Loopey's Designs:

Tetia - For da overall atmosphere I ofc KNEWWW I had to do sumthin pink and fluffy!!! thats her whole GAME!!! The double witch hat is from her canon wish to have em in the future, and I thought itd be cute to put lil fluffy fluffs on the ends of them X3!!! I think I drew the bracelet based on something I saw the king wearing? A subtle nod to her relations with the prince ouo. The dress was based on an illustration Shirahama sensei drew of her with a cute fit X3 The illustration in question also dressed her up in some cute flowers so I thought it'd be cute to put a lil flower bracelet n flower crown on her :3 The leg warmers I did cuz wherys sona has em and I thot it wud be fitting OuO. I kinda did this unintentionally but isn't it cool how her split cape parallels her witch hats hehe. And I added the sheepo... BECAUSE I COULD!!! WAHAHHAA!!!!!!!!!!

Whery's commentary: i like to imagine Tetia grows up to become a Comfort Engineer! She specializes in making beds, couches, chairs, anything that someone would want to seek comfort in. and of course her specialty Cloud Room. She would provide beds to Custas and Tartah that can collapse back to a glyph on a sheet of wood or something, for ample portability and comfort as they go from place to place.

Coco - originally whery was like oohoeoho what if we like made everyone a diff weather/season theme, and since tartah alrdy looks spring-like I went into my coco design loosely thinking of summer! In the end we didn't rlly stick to the seasonal plan, but I think coco and agott has a cute day/night feel to them X3 Coco spraying the water on the two of them is also a call back to when Coco initially accidentally sprayed Agott near the start of the animanga XD She has a lot more control now tho!!!

I wanted to include some of inspo in this design from Coco's mom. Her mom wears this cute headwear, and I didn't think I cud rlly put it on Coco's head without the hat getting in the way, so I put it ontop of her hat instead! I think it looks vry cute :> The star on her hat and brooch is the same design as the one on her brush pen :D I WAS JUST GONNA COMMENT ON HOW COCO AND AGOTT ARE TWINNING IN THE LIL DIAMOND DECOR I PUT ON HER HAT AND THE ONE CONJOINING AGOTTS CLOAK, OMG BUT IM LOOKING AT JENS DESCRIPTION AND IT TURNS OUT THEY INTENTIONALLY TWINNED WITH MY DESIGN KYAHHH SOO CUTEEE!!!! anyways, that diamond decor and her dress are directly inspired from Shirahama sensei dressing up Coco in bonus illustrations XD The lil V thing under the cardigan and cloak is a nod to her brimhat design, and the cardigan is literally the one her mom wears. Straight up!

I was 2 lazy to come up with my own shoes so i just stole jens design for agotts shoes.... mayb in this future Coco makes both of them matching sets of the flying shoe thingos X3!!! Whery told me that apparently Shirahama sensei said that Coco's hair is light green and will darken when she grows up to allude to imagery of a sapling developing into a more lush plant ouo. So I did exactly that for her hair >:3c Alsoo everyone say thaaankss Jen for doing the water and gay ass rainboww up theree, ehehe arent the waterfish so cute 🥹

whery's commentary: i think that Coco would of course become a professor to some apprentices~~ it is uncertain whether by the end of the story everyone, regardless of if theyre born into it or not, can learn magic, but i think it would be cute if she trained some non-magic-born children to become witches :)))

THANK YOU FOR READING if you got this far you're INSANE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! but absolutely appreciated :3

and you also get a treat:

Agott and Coco are married, they have wedding rings on their fingers in the art

so are Richeh and Euini but more in like a common law marriage way.

Every single house is pastel with white trim and a white picket fence with the family's name on it in a handwritten font. The streets are paved with red bricks and lined with palmettos, and families bicycle past. The streets are clean, the lawns manicured, the sidewalks pristine.

Soon after we arrive my friend says as we walk, "God I wish I could live in a place like this. Imagine having the money to live in a place like this." I reply, "I don't actually know for me...it's gorgeous don't get me wrong, but there's no grime, you know? Where's the grime? I'd feel uncomfortable. It feels like there's not a dive bar for a hundred miles."

We reach the town center, which is a wide square lined with shops on one side, food trucks on the other. We have a lovely time looking through the shops, though I start feeling kinda weird, and I'm not sure why. Probably the extreme cleanliness of the area is making me feel off-kilter. And the surreal feeling of walking through areas I recognize from The Truman Show only adds to the weirdness.

We go into a clothing store, and it's crowded with people who appear to have stepped out of a Land's End catalog. It sells boring tshirts, shorts, and sundresses in whites and blues, all needlessly expensive. Employees walk through, refolding already-pristine shirts. So perfect. "Anyone buying from here is so rich they can probably smell the poor on us," my friend jokes, "that's why they have so many employees refolding things, it's to fix anything we brush against." "Or even breathe on!" I add.

We continue on to the grocery store where, in the movie, Truman finds Marlon stocking the vending machine and first tells him he suspects his world is wrong. I buy some pasta salad there to eat for lunch (all the cafes are quite expensive), and we find a place to sit and eat. As my friend finishes up her food, I write a postcard to my sister, telling her about my trip overall and my day in Seaside, describing the town as 'vomit-inducingly picturesque.' (It has been weeks since my visit and she still has not received that postcard)

Lunch done, we decide to walk down to the beach and have a swim. And I realize something about the surreal feeling. "Weird question," I say to my friend, "have you seen any non-white people here? Am I imagining that?"

She pauses. "The lady cleaning the bathrooms?" she asks.

"No I mean vacationers. Guests, customers. Other than you, I haven't seen a single one who wasn't white."

"...No. I haven't either."

And now that we see it, we can't unsee it. It's a wealthy area, so I had been expecting it to be pretty white, but the fact that there is not a single nonwhite person who isn't working a service job feels so gross. It's as though the place is somehow still segregated, like we have stepped back in time, but not to the fun, fake, rock-n-roll-and-soda-parlor-nostalgia version of the fifties, but to the real racism-and-repression fifties.

It is so fucking weird and sinister. I feel I have stumbled into another realm. All these people giving us sideeye, riding around on their golf carts in their pristine $45 seaside-branded tshirts, taking pictures of the perfect houses all lined up in perfect rows. A whole town of Meryls wearing lulu lemon.

We walk on. It's hot, and a swim is exactly what we need. Surely they can't ruin the ocean. I myself am extremely excited to swim, because now that we've spent a few hours among the pompous populace, I want to piss in their perfect ocean more than anything in the world.

We walk along behind the beachfront bar patios that line the beach toward the access point, and the ocean looks so blue and inviting. Although the hedge growing between us and the dunes is strangely tall. "Huh," I think. "It's weird that they'd grow it like this, it blocks the view for everyone sitting on the patios."

We arrive at the boardwalk, and there is a man standing there. He says "Hold on! Do you two have a beach access pass?" I look at him in disbelief. It's a public beach, but the sign behind the man says you have to rent a beach chair to use the beach, and it's $35 per person. We glance at each other, turn wordlessly, and head back to town.

I seriously consider trying to sneak onto the beach somehow, because at this point I am very invested in the idea of pissing in their ocean, but I realize that with the tall hedge it would be nigh-impossible.

We went home after that.

So many reviews for Seaside on travel websites mention how they love to visit Seaside because they feel transported, they feel it reflects a "simpler time" or a "peaceful life." It's been weeks and I can't stop thinking about my experience. It really drove home how...complicit people can be in their own ignorance. A lot of people want to live in that perfect bubble, and especially if they have the money, they can maintain that barrier. It reminds me that part of the reason I often have trouble persuading these types of people is because they simply do not want to be persuaded. They're so proud to be the place where The Truman Show was filmed, but I rather doubt they really think about what it means that they live on a movie set, in a surreal dream.

Honestly visiting Seaside was a 10/10 unique experience. I would highly recommend it as a place to go for a couple hours if you're gonna be nearby and want to feel like you've been kidnapped into The Truman Show and/or your brain has been put in an easy bake oven. It's like a zoo for superrich WASPS. We had a really good time loudly making fun of how insane it all was, invading their little paradise with our riffraff energy. Treat it like an excursion into the jungle; you're gonna have to park a half mile away minimum, and bring all your food and water with you so you don't have to buy anything. You don't want to give them any money. They have enough.

I guess what I'm trying to say is, next time I go to the panhandle, I will be going to the nearest free public beach access to Seaside, and I will walk to the Seaside area of the beach, and I will piss in their ocean.