#campdigimonth

Jou stared at Mimi with a mix of bafflement and horror, as if a second head had sprouted from her body.

However, that didn’t deter Mimi’s bright energy or her grin.

“Yeah!”

“I-I’m sorry,” he started, feeling his face heat up rapidly as his cheeks turned a deep crimson at the very thought, “Wh-Where did this come from???”

“Think about it! If I supposedly have a relationship and nothing happens to my popularity, then it proves my manager was worrying for no reason!”

“O…kay…” Jou mumbled, nodding slowly.

“And if you have a relationship, then your dad will realize you’re taking your job and all those fundraisers seriously!”

“I-I mean, I guess…” Jou said, “But you realize what you’re saying, right?”

“Yeah?” Mimi said with a furrowed brow.

“We would have to get married,” he said, stressing that last word extra hard in hopes that she would realize what she was saying, but Mimi just laughed.

“Jou! We wouldn’t actually get married,” she told him. He blinked once, then twice.

“Huh?”

“We just tell people we got married,” she said.

“We… tell people we got married…” he repeated slowly. His head was still spinning, frankly, and given the idea she presented, he wasn’t sure when it would stop.

“Mhm!” Mimi chirped, preening proudly as she stood on the balls of her feet, “It solves both of our problems!”

“I mean, it does…” he agreed, “But I don’t know…”

It was a lot to try and process.

“I don’t want you to feel pressured, of course. If you’re really not comfortable, we don’t have to, I’m sorry.”

He glanced up at her, and the awkwardness was clear on her face. It seemed like she regretted the idea as soon as she offered it up.

But at the same time, if they did this, he wouldn’t have to worry about looking for a relationship, his father wouldn’t be so hard on him, and he’d have a chance at that promotion…

“There’s still a lot to think about with this,” he said, “Figuring out our living situation, what we’d tell people… What would happen if one of us did want to pursue a relationship with someone one day?”

“Oooh…” Mimi said, hissing after. “I mean, I have a guest bedroom, so you could always stay here and we could just split rent? And, well, we’d just tell people we’re married.”

That made sense, right? If they had to seem the part, it wouldn’t be hard, but…

“I guess for relationships, well…” she trailed off, “We wouldn’t actually be married, so we could just pretend to get a divorce?”

“There might be some trouble with that…” Jou said. Mimi shrugged.

“Yeah, but I think things are at a point where it shouldn’t be that bad.”

She was taking this in stride, Mimi knew that, but honestly, there would be ways they could figure this out— ways that wouldn’t make either of them look bad.

Jou cupped his chin in his hand, lips pursed as he fell deep in thought. He wasn’t looking for a relationship at the moment, anyways…

PROJECT 1: Finish Winds of Change winds of change my beloved. i am so sorry that the editing schedule for your final chapter coincided with the realization that final fantasy 7 rebirth was set to release the next month. i regret absolutely nothing - honestly i was starting to burn out a little by the end and i think the break from survive, so it was a net positive. either way id like to finish this fic , perhaps even this month! who can say. i do feel a little apprehensive in that it's been a minute since i wrote for survive and i worry id be a little rusty with the character writing. but these kinds of worries are always not as bad as they seem so fuck it we ball

SUB-PROJECT: Winds of Change Chapter 9

rewrite the parts i want to rewrite

go thru edit checklist

post

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SUB-PROJECT: [REDACTED]

[REDACTED]

[REDACTED]

post (dont worry 😇 )

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PROJECT 2: Redesign Survive Partners context from last year: "I am very charmed by the idea that a digimon’s design is affected by the events and relationships in their lives. For example, a digimon may change a little in appearance in a way that reflects something about their human partner."

so i've been kinda working on this on-and-off for the past year, mostly doodles that i didn't plan on doing anything with because they weren't polished enough. i actually really like the redesigns i did although i never posted them, so im thinking i just redraw them and colour them with markers this time. or digital. idk we'll see. i'm gonna pick three of the survive digimon and not all of them because if i did that we would be here all day

SUB-PROJECT: Lopmon Redesign

Redraw the one I did already onto marker paper via light table

Colour and ink

Scan at work (my scanner at home HATES certain colours)

Touch-ups

Write mile-long post about design choices

Post

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SUB-PROJECT: Labramon Redesign

Find a cool dog pose to reference

Draw a Labramon

Move onto marker paper via light table if necessary

Colour and ink

Scan at work

Touch-ups

Write mile-long post about design choices

Post

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SUB-PROJECT: Agumon Redesign

Remember what the hell my workflow was; I've started this one already except that it's 100% digital which i dont usually do. i seem to recall that i'd found a vaguely similar workflow to the one i use with traditional mediums but i dont remember at all how i managed that. i will have to try to remember how i got that working

Finish colouring

Simple background???

Post

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PROJECT 3: Survive Alternate Evos (Digifakes) i refuse to elaborate. i think that doing a big finished colour illustration is not going to be helpful for this since these would be the first passes of all these designs, so this would probably be just some sketches with minimal colour??? maybe??

SUB-PROJECT: Blackavarmon

find & look at blackavarmon's original sketches again to remember what on earth i had in mind

idk just do a bunch of sketches and keep 3-5 of the best ones

low-effort ink/colour

scan at work

post

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SUB-PROJECT: Tigervespamon Burst Mode

find the few sketches i did last year and try to push them further; i remember feeling like some of the design elements weren't working the way i wanted them to and i gotta tinker with them

tigervespamon burst mode is very much 'what if i take the machine aspects out of this design and add others that cater more to me specifically'. tigervespamon as-is doesnt look enough like a wasp OR a tiger to me and im taking it upon myself to fix that. im going to stare at pictures of tiger jaws and wasp mandibles for six hundred hours until i can mash 'em together in a truly horrific way to make a guy who is SO upsetting to look at <3

close-ups of weird design aspects, probably jaws, arms, face, perhaps wings if i dont fear god

low effort ink/colour

scan at work

post

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SUB-PROJECT: Mothmanmon

slap together a bunch of reference pictures. mothmanmon has a specific purpose that i refuse to explain, but i also want it to have the vibe of a digimon that isn't necessarily relevant to [REDACTED] or [REDACTED]. unlike blackavarmon or tigervespamon burst mode, i havent even STARTED work on this one so a finished polished definite design isn't the intent

doodle a bunch of concept sketches

ink/colour the one that looks the most like i want it to

scan at work

post

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PROJECT 4: Survive Snippets so this probably doesn't come as a surprise to anybody but the survive fics ive posted are barely scratching the surface of what a version of me with infinite spare time would like to explore. ive been tossing ideas around for a while that i want to at least write down. i dont know that i'd post any of them since they'd likely be part of other bigger fics that i CERTAINLY do not have time to write

SUB-PROJECT: Conversation (& fight?) between Dracmon and [REDACTED] you get no information on this (:

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(DIGISURVIVE SPOILER WARNING START)

SUB-PROJECT: Alternate Kunemon Champion evo scene listen as much as i love survive and love kunemon and think its funny that his big dramatic evolution scene was triggered while battling against (checks notes) actual babies, i dont necessarily think that it was… the uh, most elegant way to go about ryo's partner's first evolution?? the tone of the scene gave me whiplash. i would like to know what it would be like for that scene to have stakes that are more in-line with the other champion-level evolution scenes. i DO know how im going to do this though, vaguely, ive been thinking about it for like over a year. it'll actually also require some changes to syakomon's champion evo scene most likely! the challenge with this one is going to be to boost the impact of flymon's first appearance while not minimizing the impact of shellmon's first appearance. it's a balancing act that im not SUPER intimidated by; i managed something similar in winds of change, but it's still a little different.

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SUB-PROJECT: Alternate Lopmon Champion Evo scene This would sort of be an epilogue to winds of change! without spoiling much, winds of change is a different outcome of part 5 Truthful where shuuji manages to survive the waterway, but something very very bad still happens. this bad thing would delay lopmon's evolution into turuiemon, and that delayed version would have a different vibe to it than how it was presented in the game's truthful route.

(DIGISURVIVE SPOILER WARNING END)

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PROJECT 5: Digimon TTRPG Stuff I play digimon ttrpg with my friends. yet i rarely draw any of our funny little guys. i wish to draw our funny little guys

SUB-PROJECT: Lys the Muscle Wizardmon currently for playtesting i am playing a melee damage wizardmon who did not get great grades in wizard school. so she hits things with a stick instead. good for her!

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SUB-PROJECT: Delaney & Herculeomon beach episode Look™

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SUB-PROJECT: Nova (Terriermon-x) (& maybe Xander??) beach episode Look™

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“Really dear, I don’t see what all the fuss is about.”

Her mother wasn’t wrong. From a certain point of view, Mimi was making a fuss, acting like an impertinent child over a dress that had gone out of style as soon as the heat of the summer sun drifted into autumn’s first crisp breath. She clung to the balled-up heap of dingy fabric, tears pricking her eyes, as though it was the most precious object in the world.

How could she ever begin to explain the importance of the dress to her parents? Mimi herself didn’t know how to put it in words, but was aware that it meant something more now, after everything that happened. For months, the only connection she had to her home were the clothes on her back. She climbed mountains, hiked forests, and trekked deserts – she looked death and monsters in the face more times she could count. Not only did she survive, she thrived. She was stronger. Not because of the dress, no, not even a pair of Jimmy Choo’s could provide strength (nor would they be much help against a Digimon attack). But when Mimi gazed at the dress, it anchored her as she seemed to float away, gathering snippets of memories that she feared to lose. It reflected truth while everything else around her was askew, a world and a life that begged her to move on despite digging her heels into the ground.

It didn’t make sense. How could she just go back to school tomorrow, mask her whirling emotions in front of her teachers, her friends, when every waking moment she wished she could go back? The idea of something so mundane as a day filled with math, history, and literature boiled her blood. What was homework compared to saving worlds? She couldn’t string the words together, couldn’t articulate that she refused to forget any of it. And Palmon loved this dress. Mimi squeezed her eyes shut – thinking of her partner hurt in a way she hadn’t believed possible, as though some part of her was missing and phantom pains spasmed in her heart at the emptiness.

She wouldn’t cry. Not this time.

“I need it,” she whispered.

“I’m sorry, dear. I can’t let you wear it tomorrow. You know how hard Hiroaki and Natsuko have worked to deflect the media away from you and your friends. What if someone gets suspicious? I mean for goodness’ sake, is that a gunshot?”

Mimi shrugged, searching the fabric for whatever blotch her mother was pointing at, which was difficult since there were so many.

“We can’t deal with any calls or questions. What would you have me tell them? That you were spirited away to some other world with monsters?” Her mother’s voice cracked at the last word, and Mimi felt another sharp pang for Palmon. “People are finally quieting down after that mess at the TV station. One dress isn’t more important than your safety. Or your friends’ safety.”

Mimi wrinkled her nose. Her mother made a good point, even if she was loth to admit it. She wove the dress between her fingers, finding the tear at the hem snaking halfway up the skirt; grass, sludge, burn, mud, and blood stains that were permanently ingrained in the fabric; the sizzled hole in the jacket from Pinocchimon’s hammer gun that had her mother in a tizzy (she still didn’t know how the bullet had missed her shoulder); and clumps of mottled fringe from miles and miles of walking through rain, wind, and snow.

She wasn’t stupid - there was no way to restore it. That it had survived a cycle through the wash was a miracle, but even if the dress was “clean,” it would still raise eyebrows, just as it had when she arrived at summer camp. No one else had been bold enough to mix and match a pink cowgirl outfit, and Mimi initially worried over those prolonged, odd stares. That was before the Digital World, before Palmon. She didn’t care what anyone thought, not anymore. Mimi was different now too, and there was no going back to the way things were.

Her mother reached out to claim the dress, and Mimi yanked it away from her grasp with trembling limbs. She knew her behavior was horrible, noticed the shocked disappointment flash across her mother’s face, but there was nothing else to do. She had to make her mother understand.

“I’ll fix it,” she said, locking eyes with her mother in steeled determination, and before she could respond, Mimi turned around and marched to her bedroom, slamming the door shut with a sharp thwack that she knew she’d hear about later.

***

It wasn’t pretty. At all.

It was utterly atrocious, but that wasn’t surprising considering she hacked with a pair of old scissors and mended with a travel-sized sewing kit well past midnight before falling asleep on the floor.

Mimi giggled and twirled in front of the mirror, admiring the asymmetrical hem that began at her knees and tapered to her shins after cropping all the fringe. She removed the jacket piece of the dress entirely, using the extra fabric to cut out circular patches that she haphazardly sewed over stains. There hadn’t been enough, so she sacrificed a green dress to make the rest. Polka dots were incredibly childish, and less than a day ago, she would have scoffed at the idea of wearing anything of the sort, but she created these herself, with nicks on four fingers to prove it. A whimsical pride swelled in her heart. Every single person in school could gawk at her with wide eyes and she wouldn’t think twice.

“Mimi, time to go or you’ll be late!”

With a grin as wide as Togemon’s, Mimi bounded down the hallway on the balls of her feet, and for the first time since returning home, thinking of Palmon didn’t feel like a punch to the chest. The familiar ache was there, but it was cushioned by something tender, something to treasure.

Her head was so far up in the clouds that she nearly ran into her mother. They stared at each other for a long moment, before her mother’s brow furrowed, taking in the sight of her daughter. Mimi pursed her lips, bracing herself for another argument, but no reprimand or huff of annoyance escaped the older woman’s lips. It was as if Mimi had rendered her speechless, a rare occurrence.

“I fixed it,” Mimi said, smoothing out the front.

Her mother took a gentle hold of Mimi’s wrists, assessing each band-aid wrapped finger, then lifted her hands to caress her daughter’s cheeks.

“‘Fix’ is one way to describe it.”

Mimi’s gaze darted aside, doubt creeping its way up her spine that she’d made a fool of herself, but her mother tilted her chin back towards her.

“You’ve transformed it into something better. I’m sorry about last night. Your dress is beautiful, like you. Like Palmon. I read it on your face - you’ll wear it with sincerity.”