#cause... dragons are cool...

Anyways, I have made Zedaph a sharpwing cause I think the mechanical little guys were a good fit. He's a great size for spying on the hermits and getting into the tight spots in his wild inventions.

He also has a bigger mech he's built and can pilot so he can be closer in size to the rest of the hermits. I think he probably just kind of possesses the mech rather than having controls inside or something. Details of how that works are to be figured out still.

As things tend to go with my brain "draw the hermits as dragons, one-off" has turned into "oh no another au wip". And I haven't locked down enough of it yet to sort out the tiny details like that. Still not even sure if I want this world to be more Minecraft like or more Wings of Fire like, or more of a mash up of the two. I really like my Minecraft world building... It's hard for me to get away from.

Anyways. One thing I have figured out about Zed's mech it that when he leaves it, it locks up and goes rigid. Much of the time he balances it properly so it just stands there, but sometimes it tips over (*cough cough Tango knocks it over *cough). And so naturally Zed, upon re-entering the mech must get up.

Now I cannot animate so I give you... Zed getting up in his mech.

I mean... just the whole body curling up like that at the start. The sporadic coordination. The very abrupt wake up. You cannot convince me he would move any more gracefully that an excited puppy. No matter that it's just an extension of himself, no matter how long he's had the mech and used it.

Ok so in my brainstorming of ideas for this au I got to Joe and could not think of a tribe suited to capture him. And then somehow we ended up here. Since this is Wings of Fire, he's animus enchanted to be alive, like the sharp wings, only he was sort of an accident. I'll get more into that accident on Cleo's day cause it ties in to them and their being a zombie.

Specifically, I think the enchantment resulted in Minecraft Joe Hill's soul getting ripped from his universe into this one (via copy paste, he doesn't vanish from anywhere). And Joe being Joe, he's rolling with it and confusing his now much more dragony looking friends no more or less than he usually does. They're wondering why this armor stand knows them so well despite just spontaneously living one day, but as they get to know him more in return they learn that that's just Joe Hills from Nashville Tennessee... wherever that is... (They learned questions don't get straight answers so they don't ask. Or maybe they are straight answers and they just don't understand words like 'video game' or 'internet' or what ever other Earthly concept he's trying to divulge. Cause I think that even Minecraft Joe Hills would break that fourth wall to know Earth Joe Hills stuff. So now dragon armor stand Joe Hills is breaking through two fourth walls of knowing stuff. Don't think about it too hard, my head hurts too lol.)

This felt like the most Joe Hills option to me.

Cleo sews him covers to wear, like giant dragon plushies that his armor stand can fit inside. He cannot control the coverings like Zed can with his mech so any looser bits flop around a bit. He thinks this is funny and refuses Cleo's attempts to make him less uncanny. The drawing is showing him sitting for one of his early 'fittings' for such a suit, hence the sewing pins.

Modifications to his base armor stand though are within his conscious control. Seeing as he was only partially complete when he came to life, he's been more amenable to Cleo adding to his base. Turns out articulating hands are kind of useful. And better shoulder joints solve the whole can't-get-up-if-knocked-on-his-side thing, and he does appreciate that.

The state he's in in the drawing is what he 'came alive' into. All his hinges are forward/back/up/down and the range of motion of some of them is such that if he gets stuck on his side he needs help getting up. Cleo will iterate on his form over time though. He did end up possessing an early prototype of her next project.

The other funny detail I thought up is how he sees... He couldn't at first, but then he asked Cleo to draw some eyes on him and that worked. Don't ask how, it's Joe Hills. And then when he got more detailed eyes in the form of his juppet plushie suit thing, he could see even better. Yes he can see from/through the suit even though he can't control it. Or maybe its just that he chooses not to control it. He thinks it's funny either way.

Anyways. I definitely have more for Joe, like maybe some short stories/one shots about him kicking around, but they will involve other hermits and I'm inclined to keep their designs to myself until their days arrive. Unfortunately Cleo is one of them and she's last, but this is Hermitcraft and Wings of Fire which are both special interests, so this au should probably be sticking around for a while.

So anyways, there you have it...

So yea. Night/silk Mumbo, specifically post insular dwarfism nightwing hybrid. So he's small.

I love awkward gentle giant Mumbo as much as the next guy. He's a giant in all my other stories/aus too and it's great. But I thought tiny Mumbo that thinks he will get bigger was very funny. His main example of other nightwings is the very old, very much not dwarfed, Xisuma. And no one thought to tell him modern nightwings are much much smaller than that.

Mumbo also has some extremely weak foresight. He does not know this, no one really knows this. So he obviously can't or doesn't focus on it or train it or anything. But he does know that he keeps his diamonds right here!

And here he's probably sticking his tongue out at Grian or something. He's got that long eat-some-nectar tongue, and also little fangs that I think stick out all the time but only a little bit. As for coloration, he's mostly black with some bright and dark reds. He's also very mothy in wing shape but more nightwing in body shape, just smol.