Description
To think I started making these sprites in 2015... *Sniff* How the time flies...
Here I'll be describing a little bit of these characters, as well as commenting a little on their sprites, because oh boy if I have things to say about some of them!
These are the Shadows Mansion Maids; the offspring of the forbidden love between a wizard (Fergus Myrddin) and a light fairy (PrismaBelle). These cute fairies love working in exchange of lots of sugar to eat, but since they don't like to be away from each other, they struggled a lot to find a good place to work at (there were 17 of them at the time). They used to cause a lot of trouble all around the human village, but were always stopped by the local Shrine Maiden.
They finally got to work on a big mansion at one time, and for many years, but after being mistreated and underpaid by their master, they just decided to go away. Not long after, the youngest sister, SparkleStorm met a young shadow being named Tox, and after becoming friends, he invited her and her sisters to work at his mansion located in the middle of a dense forest; such invitation was accepted almost immediately, thus giving the girls the home they currently live in. They might call Tox "master", but for him, they are not workers, they are family.
These girls are the product of a curse put on their parents by "The Ancients" (a group of powerful beings that are in charge of maintaining the natural balance of a distant dimension) as a punishment for violating a law that forbids the interaction between humans and the embodiments of nature, fairies. Said curse was to get them to have a big and loving family (humans and fairies can't normally procreate with each other, but the curse made it possible), to then rip them apart as soon as their last daughter was born. The girls survived thanks to their big sister Normarianne, but it was too late for their parents, there were already sent to another dimension to be punished.
These characters are part of my Touhou-Pokemon fanfiction, which I really haven't been too into sharing because I still feel kinda shy about it. What inspired me to do something like it was those Touhoumon games (GBA pokemon hackroms), back in like 2013, and I don't know, even to this day I still make characters and whatnot who live in the land of Gensokyo, just for fun
This sprites are very awful, in my opinion. Back then I didn't even used to shade sprites properly, and most of them were just not good. I mean, you can tell I had some not-so-bad ideas, but the execution was just horrible. That why now I'm trying to redesign them, to actually do some of my good ideas justice. Also, at the time I was lazy and I just gave them all different outfits, which was stupid since they are supposed to be maids, and they all should wear the same uniform. And let's not talk about how puke-inducing that rainbow of dresses are... It was nice in paper, but it just doesn't look alright now. I plan to give them all the same maid outfit, and all of them in black and white in the near future.
And now I'll proceed to describe them a little in the order I made them:
SparkleStorm: The youngest sister. Very hyperactive and clumsy, loves running around all over the place at high speed, doing things as fast as possible (even though most of the time she ends up making a mess), and hanging out with Tox. Not very intelligent, but learns fast, and has great natural instincts, mostly for battle, and she's very creative. As an electric elemental fairy, she generates infinite energy, but can be troublesome if she doesn't releases some of it every now and then, and because of that, she can often be seen fighting some of the pokemon of the mansion, one of her sisters, or Tox himself.
The first sprite is of her when she was 28 years old, and the other is of her after her 30s (at that age, fairies go through a metamorphosis, and stop looking like children). By the way, look at her hair in the first sprite, what the hell was I thinking?
SoulGleam: The most intelligent and cunning, almost nothing escapes her. She just always knows, it's very difficult to keep something a secret when she's around, good thing she accepts bribes! I already described her enough here: fav.me/dd2d2rc , So I'll go straight to the sprite.
Literally just the Johto Gym Leader Jasmine but pink, and a different head. Very lazy from my part, but at least she looks kinda cute.
MeleeMist: The best fighter. She's very competitive, always seeing everything as a challenge to overcome; some of her sisters take advantage of that and make her do their job for them, but they have to be careful, because if she notices that, she will get angry, and no one wants her angry... Despite her tomboy look and attitude, she actually enjoys things like wearing dresses, getting all cutesy, and overall, she's pretty adorable when not in battle.
This sprite is one of the better ones, but one this is missing: She doesn't look like a maid at all... Also the shading and whatnot, but I don't really dislike it, I might even revisit this sprite when designing her casual outfit in the future for inspiration.
FloraBloom: Also known as Bloomie. Very cheerful and friendly, loves nature a lot, and gets angry when someone messes with it. She has the power of manipulating plants, and loves taking care of all the nature around the mansion. She's the one in charge of the berry field, and can make the berry trees grow really fast. She was the one who introduced their sisters to their previous master, and even to this day, they both still get along really well, despite of what happened in the past.
Her sprite just makes me think of how bad I was at shading back then, but still, the design is actually not bad; I had problems drawing her redesign because I just couldn't come up with something that look better than this one. Hell I might even ditch that idea I had and just reuse this hairstyle, hahaha.
Misery: The deceptive little devil. This mischievous girl enjoys pulling pranks on others, as well as misleading them into doing her biding. Her karma manipulation ability is very dangerous, since she can completely changes someones luck for quite a long time. This however, can be a double-edged sword, because if used unfairly, like for example giving a good person bad karma, Misery will end up getting punished by fate too. She has also a passive ability that she can't really control: If someone makes her happy, they will be blessed with good fortune, but if she's mistreated, then a bad luck curse will be put on them. She's also the only sister that can counter Soul's mind reading ability, making her very unpredictable.
On this sprite you can tell I was trying to do something different with that pose, and all. But I didn't know how to make the clothes look good with her arms covering them, it looks more like she's holding a pillow or something...
SilverDust: The tech-savvy. At one point, she and her sisters were working for a local scientist, and even if it was only for short period of time, Silver really got into it. She learned a lot of thing about how science and technology worked, and as of today, from time to time, keeps visiting that scientist to keep learning more.
The worst of this sprite are those legs, and you can tell I didn't even bother trying to make them look good at the time. Seriously, I get really weird out by my old stuff mostly due to that awful lack of detail most of the sprites have. Also, I already made her redesign, you can watch it here: fav.me/dd29kw8
DrizzleMoon & SunShine: The steam duo. This two girls, among all sisters, have the closest relationship, and they dislike being away from each other. As such, they can be often seen together, but they are okay with being away from eachother as long as they don't go that far away. Drizzle is very sneaky, and loves stalking her other sisters just to drench them in water as soon as they do something they shouldn't (slacking, stealing others' sugar, plotting pranks, etc ). Most of the time she just ends up targeting Misery. Her water has calming properties, which help soothing anyone who feels stressed out or has bad thoughts.
SunSun (as her sisters call her), is just as competitive as Melee, and they have a quite intensive rivalry, so it's not unusual to see them fighting every once in a while. She gets angry very easily, and when that happens, her hair becomes fire, but Drizzle is always there to calm her down.
Since they are supposed to be twins, I thought it would be a nice idea to just make one sprite, and then copy-paste it, change colors and hairstyle, and call it a day. That was just incredibly lazy from my part. But not gonna lie, Drizzle's hair was perfect, I didn't even changed it that much when redesigning her because I liked it that much. SunShine, on the other hand, got the short end of the stick...
GlitterGem: The most stylish. Very pretentious and greedy, loves shiny gems and wants them all for herself. She's very close to Silver, and even has a lock of hair similar to hers. Loves walking like she's modeling, even though she barely gets attention. The gems she wears were made by herself, as she has the ability to create and molding them. She's the one in charge of protecting the Elemental Crystals, and Evolution Stones of the mansion.
This is like one of the two or three sprites that can realistically pass as a maid, and why that is? Because it's literally the Waitress from Pokemon Black/White but brown, and with a different face/hair. Of course, because of that, this is one of the best sprites overall, and that's so sad...
Normarianne: The oldest sister. She's incredibly strong, and even if she has no technique at all (she just attacks with simple punches and kicks), even the mere shock wave of one single punch is enough to defeat most of her challengers, but she gets really sleepy afterwards. Despite of her strength, she rather try to solve problems through talking first. As the Chief Maid, she's very responsible on her job, and always demanding her sister to be like that too, but on her free time, she usually does nothing but take naps. All her sisters look up to her a lot, not only for being the oldest, but because she's the living image of their mother.
This is a kinda cute sprite despite the lack of detail, the only true offender is her face. I don't know what the hell happened there, but it looks weird.
ShiverSnow: The most chilled. Very serious, and mostly communicates with "hmm", "uhh", "hah", and similar noises. She has a lovely voice, though, and is one of the best singers among the sisters, along with Drizzle and Normarianne. On battle she usually only attacks when necessary; She analyzes the opponents movements and plans her own on the fly, finding the right moment to strike. One of her favorite things to do is freezing the ground just see others struggling to not fall on their faces. Erratic fighters are her worst enemy.
This is one of the sprites I hate the most. The design is very bland and uninspired, you can almost hear my young me saying "LOL Let's just put ice everywhere!!1!1 xD ". Like, what the hell it that hair even? And why there's chunks on ice randomly on her hands?! Ahh! I hate it!! But, ironically enough, this girl also has what might me my favorite redesign so far, and I can't wait to show it to everyone in the near future.
SpookHeart: The mischief master. Spook is the smallest sister, but instead of complaining about it, she uses it to her advantage; She can easily hide, and scare the other residents of the mansion, with Tox being her main target most of the time. She's Misery's partner in crime; they have fun pulling pranks together. Her ability to become intangible is very useful to move faster around the mansion, as well as for avoiding any kind of damage; when making use of her ability, she cant be harmed, but she cannot harm either. She's always surrounded by a few wisps that follow her everywhere; they are her main "weapon". Spook always covers her cursed right eye, and uncovering it without consent will not end well for you.
Cute sprite. My main complain is that skirt, it's awful. Also, doesn't look like a maid at all.
SkyBlue: I literally have nothing for her. I pretty much just made her because I needed a Flying-type fairy. The only thing I have written in my notes is: "She makes air rings, and passing through them makes her fly faster and with more strength". I guess she likes flying and feel the wind on her hair? Don't know, I'll elaborate more on her when I make her redesign. As for the sprite, it was me just trying too hard to make her look like someone who flies. But that scarf it's cute, so I might reuse it when making her casual outfit.
StingerDazzle: Another one in which I have nothing to say. But at least her design is way better, and I like how she uses a spear. I tried to redesign her no so long ago, but I had a lot of trouble, and I just gave up. If I try again, I might reuse this concept, it's quite nice.
VenomGaze: The fragrant fairy. Venom, despite of what some might think, has a really nice smell, for someone related to the Poison-type. She has the ability of both create and nullify poison, and can also purify anything affected by it. She uses this ability to make fragrant perfumes out of things that could otherwise be toxic for any living thing. She was born along with Bloomie; they are fraternal twins, unlike Drizzle and SunSun, which are identical twins.
This is another one of the few sprites that actually look like maids, and it's honestly pretty good besides those spikes on her hair, and those random purple marks on her apron.
TerraSmile: The girl who won't leave Storm alone... Terra is a very cutesy fairy, and loves her little sister a lot. Even if Storms sees her as an annoyance most of the time, she also loves her, but still, she doesn't want to be hugged every five seconds. Terra can manipulate ground with ease, and her main method of attack and defense is creating ground walls and pushing them to her opponents, or using them to cover herself. She can also create giant fists that come from the underground, as well as creating powerful earthquakes. She's very overprotective of Storm, and if she sees someone else with her, she will most likely get very jealous; Main reason as of why she doesn't like Tox that much.
I really like this sprite despite its obvious flaws, but, again, she doesn't look like a maid. Also, she looks kinda chubby here, not like I dislike it, though.
WyvernWing: The gold-obsessed dragon. Wyvern is one of the oldest and strongest sisters; a natural leader, and the one in charge when Normarianne is busy doing something else (napping). Just like SunShine, she's very easy to anger, but way harder to calm down. She loves gold, and has a big collection of gold accessories, which she wears from time to time. As a Dragon-type, she might seem to be in a disadvantage against all her sisters, which on top of their element, they are also Fairy-types, but she has developed a technique that helps her to overcome her weakness, the "Golden Wyvern". She also attacks using her claws, wings, ice/thunder/poison/fire breath, and powerful roars.
This sprite is the literal definition of good idea, bad execution. Those things on her head covered with yellow lines are supposed to be horns, and pretty much all the yellow on the sprite is supposed to be golden accesories. But she doesn't look a lot like a maid, does she? I don't know, but I can say that her redesign looks way better!
È̴̮͇̞̱̟̬͇͎̌̀͐̃̓̃̑ͅn̷͚͎̖̓̿͑̈́́͘͜i̴̝̠̯̖̘̰̎̇̿̀̽̀͋͑g̵̨̺͍̙͇͓̝̀̐̐̈́͝ͅm̷͚͓̱̞̹̥̿̇̎͗ḁ̸͍͖̭̯̭̫͌̑̉̈̋̍͘ : The hidden sister. Born just after Normarianne, this girl remained hidden for the longest time, and just recently she was discovered by SoulGleam, and since then she just decided to present herself to the others. She's very weird, talks in a weird posh accent, and usually repeats herself. She's very powerful, but fragile; can be beaten in one hit, but the hard part is getting to actually hit her. Her powers include messing up the reality others see (makes things look like a graphical glitch from a videogame), instant teleportation, attacks that look all f*cked up, and have different effects than the ones you might think at first sight (for example, she could use flames that instead of burning they could electrify you, etc), time freezes, and she can even use the special move "Glitched", that can mess up her targets powers and movement. Very tricky and hard to deal with. She hates having headaches, and since some of her powers causes them, she tends to just not fight often.
This sprite is cool, I made somewhat recently, just like about two years ago, and you can tell it is of better quality. I feel proud of her design; her hair, if look the right way, is a question mark "?", and that thing that's floating near her hair, it's just a floating ball of hair. She likes it. Also, SHE ACTUALLY LOOKS LIKE A MAID!1!!11 Guess I did something good here, right?
Well, that's all!! I really don't expect anyone to read all of this, but if you do, you have my appreciation
So, yeah, I hope you liked it, and until next time!!