Birthday Gift Art: Squid Icarus by SkarmorySilver Why settle for just a two-armed hug when you can

Birthday Gift Art: Squid IcarusbySkarmorySilver

Why settle for just a two-armed hug when you can have a twelve-armed one? Meet Stephanie “Steph” Podd, a PPC agent written by Voyd, and her boyfriend, my own Cupid Carmine!

The lineart for this picture was created in 2015 as part of my 30-Day Monster Girl challenge, specifically the penultimate “Monster Girl and Her Significant Other” entry. Voyd’s birthday is today, so I decided to finally do the inevitable thing with sketch arts I particularly like and color it as a gift for him - and I liked it even more, so I’ve decided to post it here as well. Happy Early Valentine’s Day, y'all!

Cupid started life as a Sue-wraith I found in a Kid Icarus badfic in February of 2015 - and since the mission in question was in fact posted on Valentine’s Day of that year, his third out-of-universe birthday is therefore just three days away! From my recollections, Steph was created later that same year, and originally the two of them were just meant to go their separate paths. Voyd had his own characters and story arcs to work with, and I had mine.

HOWEVER… the fact that I used to collaborate with other people quite a lot in the PPC missions I managed to publish in the past few years meant that I could never predict what would happen to anyone me and my buddies had created. Even a simple “what if” scenario could end up becoming canon at the drop of a hat, and that’s pretty much what happened with this pairing here. Cupid has a liking for tall, beautiful women and used to be a tad more lecherous - a property which, thankfully, I’ve toned down quite a lot after consulting with multiple other Boarders on the subject - and Steph, being a Monster Musume fan-character (though she’s actually a Kraken monster-girl, her appearance being derived from the Monster Girl Encyclopedia’s depiction of the legendary sea-beast), had more than a few traits straight out of an ecchianime like her home continuum is, especially a love of tentacled hugs and a fondness for cute guys. You’d think they’d go so well together!

Not long after his first written mission with Steph was published, Voyd randomly asked what would happen if she ever met Cupid, and I was a little taken aback at the implication that the two of them would fall in love. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized not only that pairing them made perfect sense, but also that giving Cupid an actual girlfriend would be the perfect way to keep him from flirting too much for the Board’s comfort. So I agreed to co-write a mission with Voyd where Cupid and his partner met and worked with Steph and hers.

Well… To make a long story short, tol squid + smol angel = adorable official couple that wound up becoming totally canon to PPC lore.

Sadly, due to real life and scheduling constraints, Voyd is no longer able to participate in the PPC community, and honestly I haven’t been able to publish any missions in the past year for similar reasons. That hasn’t stopped Cupid/Steph from being enjoyable while it lasted, though, and I’m glad we were able to make something great out of it. (And now I’m reminding myself againto return to my PPC writings, which I’ve wanted to do for a while now but couldn’t find the motivation… Goddamn dumb awesome personal projects and software consulting job. X’D)

So from me and my agents to you, Voyd, Happy Birthday! I hope your path in life leads you to great things, and I hope we get the chance to collaborate on future writings sometime soon - especially if more Squid Icarus is involved.

Original lineart: armorbirdpress.tumblr.com/post…

Kid Icarus © Nintendo
Monster Musume © Okayado
The Monster Girl Encyclopedia © Kenkou Cross
The Protectors of the Plot Continuum © Jay and Acacia
Stephanie Podd © Voyd
Cupid Carmine © me!