#deepscale au

Okay so first off, designing her was SO HARD but also really fun! Can’t wait to do the researcher next hehe. I did want to scrap her warmer tones because she looks too much like the fishmonger (who I also need to talk about) otherwise.

Also changing her tribes slightly! I think a sea/mud combo feels more ‘right’ to me for her; she’s a bit too seawing presenting for my taste BUT this hybridisation does make more sense with my fanon. I do think she needs to look more naturally nightwing-y in general - the dark colours here are doing most of the work. She doesn’t have gills and she can make a weak flame, relying mostly on nearby flammable materials. Her mother was a seawing most likely, since she doesn’t have a tail barb. Generally, she has a seawing build, and if I was to do this on the Joy Ang base, I would give her sandwing scale patterns.

Since Scute is a hybrid, she can have aquatic scales in convenient places (near the eyes, on the wings) and her chest/underbelly wouldn’t be horribly visible while she’s standing. Also I like to think she keeps her sail short by cutting it (badly) and also ripping it randomly to try and mimic spikes (this hurts more as you get closer to the spine though, so it’s not super rife)

Additionally, most Nightwings have Seawing genes in them and vice versa because Greater/Little Marrows are close and also both small populations, so mixing is common. She won’t look too out of place.

And! About her character!

The Travelling Merchant in dredge is really interesting to me. She’s probably the sole connection we have to a real human being that we’ve kept outside of a few weeks. There’s an interesting story in the dredge zine where she is supernatural, and while I really like that theory/head canon, I do kind of want to keep her normal? She gets a grey area for now :)