#{rituals}

I started off with the ref sheet, you can see it attached below.

This is a character chart that I've drawn before for something else, and I decided to reuse it because 1) I can't be bothered to draw another ref sheet, and 2) I'm still fairly new at drawing transformers, my style is a lot more loose and less technical, for lack of a better word, so I'm still in the awkward stages as of right now.

Work smarter, and all that.

When designing the conjuxing attire, I was quite stuck on how to begin. I didn't want Megs to wear a copy of Oppy's attire, but they're also supposed to match, but they can't be too different, but similar. It's quite the balance lol.

I thought of making it silver, but then it would've been way too different from Oppy's. I thought about changing the gems to red, but it would've matched Meg's color scheme too much, so I decided to keep the purple on Megs in the end. I think it's a nice unifying color between them; red and blue making purple, opposites coming together and all that.

You can notice in the ref sheet how I tried to match the outfits while also designing Megs' to fit him specifically.

(the 'belts', the chains wrapped around finials/horns, the legs, the arms, ect; and other pieces that are redesigned with slight alterations to give them a unique appearance on their own, but you would immediately recognize that they are a match-set when you see the two together)

I wanted the jewelry to emphasize his stature while also allowing for the freedom of movement. I also really wanted to give him a 'cape' to contrast Oppy while also not appearing overbearing. Again emphasizing the freedom of movement, I think this gives him a more airy feeling where he doesn't look weighed down by a big curtain and is also matching with the thinness of depth with Oppy's (also, feels like it gives the vibe of wings).

Lastly, the gladiatorial marks. I hc that the gladiators would have many, while their conjunx would only have the most prominent and recognizable marks of the gladiator. It's why Megs has a lot more here.

Now, I think what I was most worried about was the pose and what story it would convey; more specifically, the justification for why they would even be in this situation, wearing conjuxing attire when they're not even touching the realm of courting.

So, the justification I came up with: Oppy got curious to see what Megs would wear, and Meg's got all dolled up (potentially with the help of Oppy). Then, it slips out (probably) that Oppy's never been to a conjuxing ceremony ever, and Megs decides to take him through the steps very thoroughly.

They do the ritus, say the pledges, and then Megs maybe shows him a couple of holo-pics of Lugnut and Strika's conjuxing or smth.

Ratchet, when he finds out later, MUCH later, that this took place, almost has a heartattack.

Ratchet: What do you mean you performed the ritus?! In traditional attire??!

Optimus: It's not a big deal..

Ratchet:... ARE YOU AWARE THE PLEDGES ARE A LEGALLY BINDING CONTRACT????????

Optimus:... wut.

Bumblebee: Does this mean we start calling bossbot Lord Optimus?

Optimus short-circuits.

(I headcannon that this was the plan all along, and would love to read a rom-com fic of this, 25k minimum, thanks.)

Now, back to the pose: I really didn't know what to do before I came up with this. I wanted it to be a little dynamic, Megs and Oppy interacting instead of just a ref sheet; but as stated before, I'm still not that comfortable drawing transformers so anything too dynamic or long (like a comic) was out of the question.

I really wanted to show off the entire attire without complicating the composition too much, but this happened before I even designed the attire, so I sat myself down to actually design it, and then the story came to mind, and the pose just fit into place.

The second thing I struggled with was the shading and background lol. I'm posting it now so it'll be too late later when I wanna edit it. Best not to think about it too much lol.