The Merri Monster

Lets start with our smaller blue rabbit friend, Shifter (clever name I know..) Shifter has been a persona of mine for oooh maybe a decade now. I think they kinda switched out with pink pooka after college but now that pink is part of a project I think Shifter has made their way back and with some growth.

They were definitely more childish when I first made them, Im sure you can tell the years have changed that. Not a bad thing, theyve kept their whimsy but they definitely have a little more sharp edges. I think thats important because so many of my personas would have those pointed edges get sanded down because I was so desperate to be liked that Id keep simplifying them into nothing more than a friendly face.

Drawing Shifter interacting with the Mommot brothers has definitely helped keep that from happening again. Its funny how important it is to keep interacting with my ocs to keep myself grounded. Posting art online had its consequences with trying to appease the audience but my characters have sort of stepped in to keep the focus on them and to stop being a people pleaser.

The Mommot bros are just one example of that. These two are sorta special as they originated in a dream. Theyve always been sorta antagonist-friends. Mombo and Motto are basically artificially or magically constructed beings meant to be hitmen. Theyve always eventually grew enough to leave their creator and live their own lives. However the struggle for them is trying to imagine what that life is without their jobs.

While the two definitely resemble rabbits to a degree theyre technically just…their own thing. And while they wont admit it, its pretty lonely. Thus they tend to gravitate to others that resemble them, aka, Shifter and start a rather involuntary friendship thats lasted for years now.

Mombo is the more high energy of the brothers and feels like hes unhinged in everything he does. Motto is much calmer and the one to think twice about things before carrying it out.

In the pokemon world I have their name as Faeryn from Ballonlea, Galar (because of course) and they are a psychic trainer class that operates as a type of pokemon therapist.

While I feel like Fairy could hold their own in battle, Fairy has never been particularly fond of conflicts and has moreso been tied to emotional soothing and healing. That reminded me of games where there would be a massage npc that could level up your friendship and tbh I always loved that concept and the idea in general of pokemon in jobs other than battling.

So I finally ended up on Faeryn being a psychic with abilities to read pokemon's thoughts/emotions which they use to treat their patients. Their pokemon kinda match the same vibe so I had their main pokemon partner be indeedee alongside others like meowstic, galarian rapidash, and uuuh, damn, I gotta remember the rest later.

If I remember correctly, I gave them a lopunny because...they kinda look like one and also, I feel like lopunny's whole 'Im chilling till you piss me off then I'll crush you' thing kinda fit Faeryn's attitude. They very much make an active decision to be kind and empathic but have little patience for those that would take advantage of it.