#kumidark

Is there anyone else out there who ships Kumidark? I hope so…if you are out there. Here, I have some art :)

Here’s the template photo I used!

Alright, so I finished the designs for the kumidark swap au

I don’t know whether to talk about the designs first or the characters. Eh, probably the characters so that people get the context

So like I described in the original post, the swap au is basically where Dark Choco and Kumiho swap places, with Dark Choco being the magic fox while Kumiho is the disgraced warrior

And as you can tell in the image, their names were also changed, particularly since Kumiho is named after being a kumiho, which she no longer is. I named Dark Choco Dark Kumiho because he’s now a kumiho, and put on the Dark prefix because it differentiates him from Kumiho, and also because he generally had darker colors, so it works. As for Kumiho, her name’s Marshmallow Fluff because Kumiho is called a marshmallow fox, but the name Marshmallow Cookie is already taken, so Marshmallow Fluff it is. I’m gonna be referring to the characters as such moving forward

So as might be evident, not only have they swapped roles, but also personalities. I’m not sure I want to call Dark Kumiho flirty, but he’s a very confident and sassy dude, who probably just follows Marshmallow Fluff to playfully tease her. However, his confident act is a facade, and in truth he’s very lonely. I’m not sure what to make his backstory though, and whether it has something to do with his father or not. The original plot point for him was that he was a male kumiho, since from what I understand, kumihos are almost all female, with me only finding one story where there was a male one (note that I originally made this au months ago, and I don’t actually remember where I found it, just that I did), so he Dark Kumiho is kind of an outsider amongst his own people, hence why he wants to become a Cookie. But I’m not sure about keeping it since that means no Dark Cacao, and I like Dark Cacao (though I’m not sure what his name would be here). Just know that Dark Kumiho probably has some tragic backstory which leaves him very lonely and wanting to be a Cookie so he can find companionship. I just haven’t decided what that backstory is yet

And as for Marshmallow Fluff, she’s far more serious than her original, and she basically goes around as a wandering mercenary, with no real end goal in mind. One idea I had (which I’m not sure I portrayed very well) is that she’s supposed to look small and kind of cute, so people don’t take her seriously, but she’s an absolute badass. But also she’s not fond of people and just spends her time being miserable. She also has some tragic backstory, either about being betrayed by someone close to her or betraying that someone herself, but I can’t really tell you specifics since, well…Kumiho really doesn’t have much lore to work with. Like other than wanting to be a real Cookie, I don’t think she has much lore, nor characters connected to it. She kind of just gets roped in with the other animal Cookies and that’s the most they do with her, and frankly I don’t think they’ll give her much lore going forward. So in terms of something connected to her canon and who this other character is, I don’t know. But the whole event basically changed her life and now she’s where she’s at. Also it’s probably where she got that scar

Okay, let’s talk about designs now

So for Dark Kumiho, I’ll be honest I think he looks much better. Probably because Dark Choco has other outfits that fit that I can work with. I gave him his long hair back since I thought it fit with him not having the same backstory as canon (I imagine Dark Choco chopped off his hair because of his betrayal, which didn’t happen here), and I basically just copy pasted his Vestments of Old Memories costume, minus the shoulderpads and cape, since I thought it worked. I gave him a ponytail instead of just having his hair down so it could allude more to fox tails, and it’s also why I gave him his white bits only at the ends

As for Marshmallow Fluff, she doesn’t really have much to work with in terms of her canon outfits, so I basically had to make things up. I knew I wanted to give her short hair, with the idea that she used to have hair like canon, but she later cut her hair short once after the betrayal event. Took me a bit to get the hair but I eventually did. So her outfit is mostly based on Dark Choco’s, though with different shoulderpads and a different bottom piece, which was inspired by some armor I saw at the Royal Armoury over here in Britain (I know I probably shouldn’t be taking inspiration from a western design for armor (specifically I believe it was French), but I’m pretty sure Dark Choco was originally designed with a more western knight look than eastern, so maybe it’s fine). I think the shoulderpads were originally going to look more like marshmallows, but that didn’t end up happening, so they look like that

Two things I didn’t originally plan to put in were Marshmallow Fluff’s eye scar and her streaks, since I didn’t envision her missing an eye and her highlights were supposed to be at the bottom of her hair, which she no longer had, but I gave Dark Kumiho Kumiho’s whisker markings and fox hair, so I thought it fair to give the eye scar and streaks to Marshmallow Fluff. Though to be honest I’m not sure I like how they turned out. Maybe I should have just stuck with two eyes and no streaks. I mean she’d still have a scar somewhere

One thing I wasn’t sure I’d be able to pull off with their swap looks was keeping their original eye shapes, but honestly I think I did good and they look fine with both

Also you’ll notice that neither have weapons or accessories of any kind. That’s because I couldn’t decide what those weapons/accessories would be; whether Dark Kumiho gets a fan and Marshmallow Fluff gets a sword, whether Dark Kumiho still has a sword, whether they both have completely different things, I’m not sure. Though I suppose now I’m liking them just swapping things. Though either way Dark Kumiho still can attack with his fox form, which is frankly much bigger than a normal fox

Anyways yeah, I think that’s about it. Sorry if you’re disappointed with how little I talked about them, especially how they interact, I admit the story isn’t thought out as much as I’d like, and I think I have a hard time describing people’s personalities and how they interact with others. I’d rather just draw that or something. I hope to draw more of these two, but I say that about every new character and au, so I’m not sure I will, at least not before moving on to something else

But anyways, I hope you still enjoy it!

Edit: I made another one with the original ideas for Marshmallow Fluff, and if I’m being honest I like this one a bit more. Which one do you guys like more?