u/AmerRicanArtwork

Here's a figure I made soon after the rough collie! I really wanted to test out my new fur-planting technique on a fluffy fox tail, and since it was around October at the time, I thought a cross fox would be a fitting subject for their Halloween-y black-and-orange colors. Likewise, I tried varying the expression on this vixen a little to make her look more serious and sly-looking.

Honestly, it was actually pretty hard to make a figure covered mostly in black. I struggled to lay the black wool atop the core wool without little "cracks" of core wool showing up. I think I even had to cut off and redo the snout entirely with black wool for that reason. But the result was definitely worth it!

Hope you enjoy!

Happy Feng Friday! Here's this little sketch, plus some AU stuff to explain it!

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A core idea I want to have throughout the Bounded AU story is Fuxi and Nuwa struggling to deal with the weight of their respective expectations as they grow up, and the contrast between how they handled it as kids versus how they treated it once they'd matured more. The biggest expectation, other than Fuxi having to eventually lead the whole Feng clan, would be that he and Nuwa will have to get married to each other someday, despite initially having no idea what that really meant and originally seeing each other as little more than rather reluctant siblings at best.

I imagine that, as a child, Nuwa played much more into their mother's attempts to get them used to their eventual roles as spouses, if only due to her generally being the more agreeable and easy to pressure of the pair. On top of that, she was a lot more energetic and curious in youth, so she'd pester her adoptive brother with all sorts of things whenever she managed to find him. Meanwhile, little Fuxi had made up his mind that he was not going to let his mother force him into this lifelong "duty" he had no choice in, especially if it meant being stuck with a girl he was liking less and less each day. He figured that, when he became Lord Feng, the first thing he'd do was get rid of whatever stupid rule said they had to get married to each other. So whenever Huaxu would try to get the kids to do couple things together as preparation for their adult roles, Nuwa would go all-in and even make up her own childish schemes to fulfill Lady Feng's expectations, all the while Fuxi would be trying to get away from both of them and their nonsense as soon and as often as possible.

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The idea that Fuxi and Nuwa didn't actually have a normal sibling relationship or even a good relationship as kids (due to the pressures they faced from the Feng clan and/or their clashing responses to it) isn't an idea I had when I first thought of a shim-pua Nuwa AU, but I think there's some interesting potential in it. Of course, this is all subjected to revision as I work out the details of this AU, but just getting it out and receiving any feedback on these things helps a lot!

Anyway, hope you enjoyed this! Let me know what you think!

Another older figure, this time of a whitetail deer! Since Bambi is one of my favorite movies, I really wanted to try my hand at making a deer. Plus, it was the first time I tried to make antlers on a felted figure, so that was definitely a learning experience!

If I'm ever in the mood for it, it'd be nice to felt some more deer. Some of the new techniques I've learned could come quite in handy!

Here's this rough collie I made as an experiment to try planting fluffy fur with carded wool instead of roving. It turned out way better than I expected, and I just love how the warm brown colors turned out! I'd say it's still one of my favorite needle felted figures so far!

POV: you're in a loving-your-cat competition and your opponent is Shuanshuan

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I realized that August 8th this year is apparently International Cat Day. Even though I'm late, I figured I'd make a cute little Nine Sols doodle to celebrate, given how well I think it fits! Hope you enjoy it as much as Shuanshuan enjoys spending time with his favorite cat-man Yi!

Happy Feng Friday! I know I'm technically late for that, and I know this isn't focused on the main Fengs, but hopefully you guys still enjoy these sketches and ideas!

I decided to try my hand at drawing the Solarian I interpreted as being Fuxi's mother, who I'll call Huaxu (华胥) for now based on what I could find of the characters' original mythology. Regardless of whatever "plot" I choose for my Bounded AU, Huaxu will probably serve as a prominent and/or important character. Since Fuxi's Soulscape fragments seem to suggest she has or had decent authority in the Feng clan, I'm thinking, until Fuxi comes of age and assumes his position as a leader, Huaxu serves as the de facto leader of the Feng clan. Her role would likely be to manage the family's major affairs on her son's behalf, and she'd take primary responsibility over preparing him to be a proper leader when the time comes.

I'm considering her being sort of a "main antagonist" because it might just make sense for some of my ideas, but no matter the case, I want her to be nuanced rather than totally unsympathetic. I feel there's a lot I could do with her, and a lot of questions I may need to answer to make it work, but I'll see where she takes me eventually...

Sharing a little vixen I made a while ago, before I learned how to make fluffy fur. I should probably try my hand at making another red fox sometime soon!

NOTE: For now, unless I specify otherwise, all content I make for the Fengs, particularly any portraying them as a romantic couple, will take place in the context of this AU.

I may have mentioned it before, but I've been trying to craft a Feng-focused AU thing where Fuxi and Nuwa aren't biologically related, so I thought I'd at least get the idea out there! I might make a longer, more polished reference post later once I've solidified the details of the AU more.

The basic premise for this alternate universe is as follows: instead of being Fuxi's biological twin sister, Nuwa is a shim-pua daughter bought by the Fengs from another noble family and raised in their household so that she would become Fuxi's wife once the two came of age—an expectation which weighs heavily on both of them in different ways. The aspect of Nuwa not being a "real" Feng may impact her and Fuxi's history and relationship in this AU, but I'm still working on a lot of the specifics with this project. Overall, this AU will focus on exploring the nature of Nuwa and Fuxi's history and relationship more deeply, especially from a romantic or intimate lense, and offering an idea for how and why it have possibly developed in the first place.

If anyone is interested, I'm open to do peer review for my ideas to get feedback and brainstorm as I expand on this AU. I want to do my best with this little project!

Otherwise, hope you find this AU intriguing so far!

Here's a little doodle based on a Tumblr suggestion I got, along with a headcanon down below!

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I headcanon that, even before the whole Eternal Cauldron Project was a thing, Yi and Goumang already had a rivalry with each other. Goumang, having been a student of Eigong for longer (and having deep self-worth issues, though she'd refuse to admit it out loud) immediately felt rather threatened by the arrival of this daring new boy genius from the middle of nowhere, who somehow became Eigong's student seemingly just because of some science project gone wrong. Meanwhile Yi, having already gotten more than his fair share of criticism from his parents and peers, really wanted to savor this chance to indulge his scientific passions in peace without even more comments that this "isn't the place for him" and he'll never achieve anything good with it. As such, the two would get into frequent arguments, ranging from more serious matters to the pettiest of slights, and take many opportunities to criticize each other.

So yeah, I imagine the Goumang-Yi fight has gone on for a while. Both were at fault in their own ways, since Goumang was the aggressor overall, but Yi chose to respond with more defensiveness and hostility instead of trying to understand her perspective and/or defuse the situation. Thus, the Eternal Cauldron Project and the disaster of New Kunlun were just the nail in the coffin turning the relationship from tense to downright vicious.

Guess whose birthday this year just so happened to land on a Feng Friday—!!

I was hoping to celebrate by making some cute art of my current faves anyway, but the fact the special occasion was on just the right day of the week for Feng art was a neat little cherry on top! I figured I'd also throw some text in and have a little typography fun, since playing with text arrangement and making poster-like things is actually something I enjoy when I get the chance. And then I just threw in some Chinese words for added flare. Here's hoping I used the correct translation for "happy birthday"!

Anyway, hope you enjoy it! And happy Feng Friday to everyone out there!

Was in a pretty good mood last night, so I decided to draw Yi in a good mood too! It's kind of weird to see him definitively smiling for once, especially with his mouth open, but I was curious to see what it'd look like in my style.

What exactly is Yi so happy about, now? That's for you to interpret. But whatever it is, I hope you enjoy these doodles just as much!

Little meme I made based on this and inspired by a Tumblr suggestion! I'd like to explore the size difference between Yi and Lady Ethereal more seriously in the future, but for now, it seems like these silly little things are what's coming out. I mean, it is a fun little idea to joke about!

Hope you enjoy it!

Old Jiequan sketch. I kinda wanna try drawing him some more sometime soon, if I'm in the mood for it.

Little painting I made a while ago based on a Tumblr ask I got. Hope you enjoy it!

Some old art of Goumang! The second is a little wing ref I decided to make for myself to see how big I could make her wings and try to throw in some detailed anatomy. Hope you guys enjoy it!

>!500+ years of failure and cryosleep!< makes a gal a lil' wacky sometimes.

Little redraw of a meme that gave me strong Eigong vibes. For some reason I can just see her saying this in the most tired, monotone, matter-of-fact, "stop bothering me right now before I lose my absolute last sliver of patience" kind of voice.

Hope you enjoy!

NOTE: I'm specifically looking for canon, in-game logic and evidence to explain the discrepancy below, not theories, headcanons, or other non-canon speculation on the subject.

Also, while I tried to make the drawing above more dramatic for comedic effect, I want to clarify I don't have anything against Ji regarding this part of the story so far. I'm really just trying to see if I missed anything in the game that explains how this possibility fits into the rest of the plot, since the first time I thought about it, the idea seemed like it could have been a major plothole.

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From the moment it was proposed, the Eternal Cauldron Project was an extremely ambitious, yet highly risky endeavor that required tons of moving parts to be coordinated and for more-or-less everything to go perfectly right. Canonically, it seems almost nothing went perfectly right where it mattered most, largely due to ineffective decisions from the Tiandao Council members leading the project. However, among the Council members was Ji, an immortal Solarian with supernatural powers of divination. And, though I may just be forgetting some details in the game, it seems to me like this power of his could've been used to prevent or at least noticeably change the entire plot of Nine Sols, and there wasn't a strong reason for it not to have significantly influenced the game's events from what we saw in canon.

As far as I can see, there's not much of a practical reason why Ji couldn't have affected the fate of New Kunlun for the better by gaining knowledge of its future. I don't think there was a clear limit on Ji's divination powers, so I don't yet see why he wouldn't have been able to preemptively discover New Kunlun's disastrous end should he have sought to find out its fate. Given the game's main events, Ji's storyline itself, and the true ending seems to focus on themes of fate and predestination and that the end of Solarian civilization is "inevitable", it's also possible this future would have occurred, and thus Ji would have been able to sense it, no matter how many years earlier it was first divined.

However, even if we assume Ji's predictions aren't very accurate if he tries to see too far into the future—meaning he wouldn't have been able to guarantee New Kunlun's demise 500+ years later if he tried to see it shortly after the Eternal Cauldron Project was first proposed or put in motion—I can imagine his knowledge of the future could have still been quite useful on even a day-to-day or weekly basis. Since Ji at least seemed to be good at sensing "important" and imminent historical events, he could have helped the Council anticipate some of the more serious problems that happened in canon, like Lady Ethereal's Soulscapes having major psychological side-effects on their users, Fuxi succumbing to Tianhuo early on in the project's timeline, or Eigong repeatedly failing to make progress on a cure for the virus. He may have even been able to predict the creation of Tianhuo in the first place or Yi's decision to turn against Eigong, both of which look like they'd have also been highly useful information for the characters involved in those situations. Though I remember Ji saying he'd "never disobeyed fate" or something along those lines, I don't know if that means he physically cannot affect the futures he sees no matter what he does or that he simply chooses not to for some reason or another, so it doesn't seem out of the question that his knowledge of the future could have affected situations' outcomes. Simply put, I don't see why anyone on the Tiandao Council that knew of Ji's powers wouldn't have wanted him to at least try to use them to make sure the Eternal Cauldron Project worked out in the end.

Now, it's possible that Ji himself didn't have interest in using his divination powers to prevent problems with the Eternal Cauldron Project. After all, if I remember correctly, I don't think Ji voluntarily revealed his immortal nature to anyone before Eigong, and by that time it was too late for it to have much positive effect. Not to mention Ji reportedly lacked the courage to end his own life despite wanting it more than anything else, so perhaps he was just not a fan of actively influencing the situations he was involved in. However, that brings me to my next concern: did anyone else on the Tiandao Council ask or even force Ji to see the future of New Kunlun?

In canon, Jiequan, at least by the time Yi woke up, was aware of Ji's future-seeing powers and actively using them for his own gain to make sure he would defeat Yi. Though it wasn't clear if he was forcing Ji to see the future or if Ji was sharing his predictions with Jiequan voluntarily or for other reasons, the presence of Ji down below Jiequan, between the soldiers, in Jiequan's final Soulscape fragment suggests he planned to continue harnessing Ji's powers for his personal gain indefinitely should he have survived for longer. Meanwhile, Ji never clearly showed any issue with using his powers for Jiequan. Paired with how Kuafu said Ji told him his future about never seeing his family again, and how Ji even willingly offered to see Yi's future as he came to his grotto, it seems that although Ji may not have chosen to use his powers to actively change his own fate, he also didn't resist using them when other people asked.

With that established, I doubt Jiequan and Kuafu would have known about Ji's divination abilities without Eigong, at least, also knowing. Eigong learned of Ji's immortality by doing tests on his very DNA, in which she was most likely with him for at least a few days or weeks during that process. Once again, Ji was also never shown to put up any resistance against Eigong testing him, so I don't think he'd refuse her request to divine the future if she made one. The way I see it, Eigong could have had a lot of time to discover this other peculiar trait of Ji's, especially if she talked to him the way Yi does throughout the game's events and speculated from there. Though it's apparently unknown why Ji is on the Council, various Soulscape fragments imply Eigong was the person who recruited all of the other Sols to it, thus it's likely that Ji's presence was at least partially related to if not entirely because of his supernatural qualities and abilities. And while Ji, Kuafu, and Jiequan perhaps may not have been that concerned with perfecting New Kunlun at all costs, Eigong absolutely seemed like the calculating, determined, unrelenting, "any means necessary" kind of person that'd be willing to use everything at her disposal to make sure her goals of curing Tianhuo and finding immortality would be achieved. If she had no issue lying to and manipulating the other Sols, namely Yi, for her own gain, I don't see why she'd draw the line at exploiting Ji's ability to see the future.

So, with all of this said, did Ji ever foresee the Eternal Cauldron Project's problems, either on his own or on Eigong or someone else's request or command? And if he did foresee its problems, why didn't anyone with this knowledge manage to change New Kunlun's fate?

I made this drawing for a longer post I've got in the works, but I figured I'd also post it separately since it came out pretty nice!

What's the context, exactly? Only time will tell...

What can I say? I just wanted to see my favorite Nine Sols ship be a happy wholesome family together! I will say, though, drawing this made me realize these two look pretty different without their headdresses and makeup and such!

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Thought about sharing this doodle I had in the works for Feng Friday, but I decided it'd make a nice little drawing for the holiday! I honestly really enjoy imagining fanchildren/family scenarios for my favorite ships in general, but have been too shy to ever draw any of my ideas out thus far. I feel like this was a fun change of pace, and a nice start towards expressing those ideas!

Happy Mother's Day!

P.S. I think I might start referring to Fuxi x Nuwa fanchildren as "Fenglets".