Who is Lichen? What is Lichen? Why is Lichen?

I like the idea that the curses are manifestations of human fears that coalesce over periods of time. I wanted my oc to be a curse, because I feel it would take a big difference over a looong span of time to get through to Mahito. It would take a lot to pry him from his current beliefs. For this specific purpose I came up with Lichen.

Lichen is a curse based on the human fear of ‘what lurks in the darkness in the trees.’ Very vague, but not without reason. Mostly so it could apply to both forests and woods, general areas with trees and such.

It seems as specific as it is vague. Again, not without reason. Fear of what lurks in the trees at night is something ancient, primal. I wanted Lichen to have been around for a while, and to have been exposed to specific environments and conditions, so he could bring different experiences and views.

Why ‘fear of what lurks in the darkness behind trees?’

I was one of those kids who constantly loved learning about nature. Countless hours of watching Wild Kratts at my grandma’s house, reading about rainforests… and the movie Rio, that made me aware of the trouble our forests are in as a kid, but gave me hope in conservation efforts to save species and environments.

I loved learning about it, and seeing those gorgeous environments depicted from a distance. Unfortunately, being in the woods still freaks me out, though. It makes me feel so small in a place that’s so big, yet… also small.

The fear of the dark is a common one that I also struggle with. So the fear of what could be in the trees at night feels reasonable. Especially for small rural communities, etc.

Also, think of trail cams; like when you see a pair of glowing eyes from a leopard or a wolf creeping out from the brush.

Anyway here’s one of my many depictions of Lichen :)

You may have to turn up your brightness :))

Simple, but it feels effective enough.

Here’s another drawing of Lichen that I feel has stayed true throughout my tinkering of him

I have wayyy more thoughts and explaining I can do about him, but I think I’m running out of coherent writing steam for today 🥲

I can probably just find and post some of my Lichen iteration pictures next, idk

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[Image ID:

A drawing of Sophie and Biana from KotLC. It has been drawn to look like a polaroid image. At the largest (bottom) side, “sophie & biana” is written in cursive.

The background is the sky and grass. The grass is green. The sky is a gradient going from light teal at the top to lavender in the bottom. The sun is in the corner, it is white with a thin yellow border. There are clouds in the sky. In the bottom right corner is the artist’s signature, “Sam,” in cursive.

Sophie is the girl on the left. Her face is angled upwards and her blonde hair is loose and swept to the right. She is holding an orange drink with a straw. She is wearing a blue sleeveless shirt and knee-length skirt. Her shirt is slightly darker than her skirt. Her shirt has “idiot 2 (i’m No. 1)” written on it above and below a shocking-pink arrow. Her arms are spread out and her right is holding on to Biana. She is laughing.

Biana is the girl on the left. Her dark brown hair is in a ponytail. Her left arm is holding on to Sophie’s right. Biana’s right hand is holding an orange bag with the image of a pink, sprinkled donut on it. Biana is wearing red lipstick, a sleeveless shirt, and pants. Her pants are dark blue. Her shirt is dark grey with strips of colours of the rainbow on it in the center. She is smiling softly at Sophie.