#fruitbugs

White Soul Strawberry, he's a Giant Water Flea. Some might recognize him/his inspiration- that's because i made him when i was 11! he was an anthro/gijinka version of that character that i loved and shaped my identity around for a while- so back in 2011, he was a sona, albeit something i wanted to be rather than 'me' at the time. So he's not a sona anymore, but he some of retains his older characteristics. In any case, White Soul is an entity born from pain, that IS in pain constantly, as evidenced by all the strawberry blood on him. His bleeding won't stop no matter what he does. His chronic pain renders him fairly disabled and seemingly uncaring in social interactions, but in the latter case, it's more that the pain prevents White Soul from thinking straight. In the rare moments that his pain is bearable, White Soul composes music with a keyboard- his genre is electronic rock. His songs about his disability are pretty popular, especially among other chronic pain havers.

Cariñosa Banana, he's a Phaedimus cumingi beetle. Cariñosa is a very happy and excitable guy, who loves nothing more than having fun (esp with friends!) and talk about things he loves- those being stimming, toy collecting and tropical plant knowledge. However, he has memories issues, which he frames as a good thing because 'it's always like experiencing something for the first time!', but the thing he forgets the most is that he's in a *dating sim* video game. While he's not arospec, Cariñosa tends to be oblivious to any kind of flirting and gets put off by most common romantic advances. So how to romance Cariñosa WITHOUT making him uncomfortable? One has simply to be as earnest in their fun and into special interests as he is, and never judge him as a whole, especially with his forgetfulness.

Chasselas Rose Grape, despite the rose in his name he's not a sona, and is a Great Purple Emperor Butterfly. Note that he's not winking, half of his body is literally asleep- which gives him mobility issues. He uses his cloud as a 'wheelchair' to get around. While the Fruitbugs game's world is meant to mirror ours, it has many, many elements that are from Futh (which is where the game can be obtained and played). An important part of Futh culture is dreams, and the place simply known as the Dream World, that almost everyone goes to when they're asleep. As a result of being a concept almost everybody on Futh knows, there's a Dream World level that was put in Fruitbugs as well. It's nowhere near as big and intricate as Futh's, but it exists. And Chasselas is kind of 'guarding it'. By that, i mean that when someone falls asleep in-game, he gets to decide whether they go to 'his' level or not. The problem is that he rarely lets people in, because he doesn't like company very much. So the few people- NPCs, fruitbugs and players alike- that ARE allowed to enter the Dream level (and even then they might be allowed in only once) and get back from it talk about this level to others, much to their bewilderment. This is therefore seen as a rare, urban legend tier event, unaware that it's because of one guy's dislike for people.

Holiday Holly, Holiholly for short, is a Diaea Dorsata Crab Spider, and a cousin to Yellow Dent Corn. He's not the only one, the next two and the very last chara of the second pic are all part of this festive family. End of the year holidays are a generally sad/hard time for me, so made a comforting character to help. Despite being a spider, Holiholly is anything but mean- quite the contrary! He has created a foundation- called, as his outfit says, 'the greatest gift is YOU!' to help people that are alone and/or sad during winter holidays. He can personally come to your house to keep you company and help you vent if you need to, or organize events to have all lonely people meet and hopefully find comfort in knowing they're not fully alone. And perhaps even make friends! Holiholly's earnest, crooked smile and comforting demeanor tend to put people at ease.

Rosé Strawberry, a Rose Flea Beetle and an Ydent cousin, who's most active during february. He's the youngest of the family, and yet the most successful- his project, 'lonely 💖s', that encourages players to play Fruitbugs more and give special attention to insecure characters, is VERY popular both in-game and among players. Not only do players get unique rewards not found anywhere else, but it also greatly helps form more meaningful connections with fruitbugs that arent always happy. Rosé was once one of those insecure fruitbugs, and created a project like his cousins to make himself feel better- and it worked! Now he's much more comfortable with his body and who he is as a person, and is confident enough to be openly flirty- which is something his older self could only dream about. Rosé himself is not anywhere bear the hardest character to romance in the game, but he's one of the only fruitbugs to actively go out of his way to help others less fortunate than he is.

Beach Plum, a blueband hermit crab and a cousin to Ydent- he's seen as the 'weird one' by outsiders due to him being a crustacean in a mostly land-based family, but the latter accept him as he is. Beach Plum WAS a bit bullied by NPCs in his younger years, and while he still has mental scars from that, he mostly has grown out of it. Beach Plum represents the summer holidays, and celebrates from june to august, and september to some extent. He specifically celebrates by travelling the world's various beaches, collecting sea items- from seashells, pieces of seaglass to small bottles of sand- to 'sell' at his shop called 'He sells seashells (by the shore)'. Sell is in quotations, because in reality he gives them away, he doesn't like the idea of making profit out of natural things. To get by, Beach Plum makes sculptures out of driftwood and seascape paintings. He's a generally very happy and friendly guy, and likes to be at beach parties, but also loves the simple sounds of the sea and to stare at it.

Marsh Mallow- Mallow for short, is a Flower Garden Crab Spider (Misumena vatia) and his skin and insides is 100% marshmallow based- his bones are made of tough, crystalized sugar (similar to rock candy). While there are a few candy makers in fruitbugs, only Mallow sells marshmallows- because he's the one that discovered that you could make sweets out of the roots. He's essentially a farmer, tending to his marsh mallow plants until they're ready to get harvested to make candy. The various candy makers tend to love Mallow's work and collaborate with him often, especially chocolate makers such as Cocoa or Criollo. Mallow is a very sweet (no pun intended) person, that falsely gives off the impression that he can be taken advantage of- but he's a spider, he can bite if angered enough! But rare are those who DO wish to harm him, as Mallow loves to care and help others, and often gives out his confections for free to those who need them. He loves physical contact and especially to hug people that seem comfortable with it- his marshmallow soft hugs are legendary. Those who experienced them are changed forever by them, in a very good way!

Lilly Pilly, a Common Garden Katydid with erythrism. He was heavily criticized for the latter once he came out- especially since Lilly likes to be femme in a gay man way. For a long time he suppressed who he wanted to be and was ashamed of his pink colors, and assumed he'd never be taken seriously as a feminine man. However there was a fashion revolution in an update of the fruitbugs game, with Rose Apple unashamedly wearing dresses on popular movies and tv shows. He popularized male femininity enough to reach Lilly Pilly and many others, to wear and be what they want to, regardless of what people think. So since then, Lilly is proud to be pink and feminine, and tends to be overjoyed when his identity is validated. He gets happy just to be called 'boy' or 'man'! He's one of the few fruitbugs to not be panromantic ace- Lilly's ace and gay (for cis or trans men he doesnt mind either).

Olotón/Sierra Mixe Corn, an American Cockroach from a distant future, who time traveled to the present for unknown reasons (he won't tell them). He can create a strange substance, that has an immunity to certain diseases and that can heal wounds very quickly. However Olotón does not share much of his ability, to 'not create paradoxes. You need to create it on your own first'. Being from the future gave him a god complex, and his 'advanced' (his words) intelligence make it hard to tell what he's thinking or why he does certain things. Being a cockroach, you can rightly assume that Olotón has extra durability- but being from a future where said durability gets enhanced to make his species thrive, he's essentially immortal. Unless you put him in a blender or ultra beam chamber to destroy each atom of his being... Don't do that.

Frankincense fossil fruit, a Palaeocharinus from a distant past, who did NOT time travel- he's just that old and survived that long. It seems that he knew he would, as he made sure his club and armor would opalize. Said armor is made out of ancient foes' exoskeletons, that he wears as trophies and to show others his might. Being from the fruitbugs' world equivalent to the Devonian, Frankincense's vocal cords aren't adapted to modern speech- but he does understand most things and can speak basic sign language. Just don't try to make him understand how a car works, that'll just confuse him, the same way you'd confuse a medieval farmer with explaining a robot. Frankincense knows Olotón and dislikes him greatly, because the latter have occasionally traveled to the past to study ancient fauna, but most importantly because his time traveling gave some people the idea that time travel was good. Frankincense may not understand how a machine works, but he does understand how people might wrongly use time travel, especially to fix their or others' harmless mistakes. So via meeting people and sign language, Frankincense does his best to convey that time travel should be used extremely sparingly and that, no matter how old you get, mistakes can be ok and erasing them from existence will not help you grow as a person.