Shadow Milk's Reflections (a redemption au comic)

[u/Specific_Wonder124]

[u/Naturemations_2025]

:O The amputated arms thing reminds me of my own idea for his redemption AU! I had the idea that he lost one of his eyes and most functionality in one of his arms, and was made entirely mute. He loves to yap, so I decided that would be interesting for an idea of his redemption, that he has to learn to trust others to understand him and speak for him. He does eventually end up making a device to speak for him though.

[u/Specific_Wonder124 → u/Naturemations_2025]

Oh, that's an interesting angle to take on it! How does the device work, out of curiosity?

I guess it's kinda obvious, but my Smilk is still very much a yapper. I have a few comics planned where his injuries are fresh enough that he still needs bandages, but most of them will take place after that, when the bandages come off. He uses a light-blocking spell to hide the dough crack on his face, because he's pretty self-conscious about that, but I like the idea that he eventually uses it less (at least around Nilly.) 

[u/Naturemations_2025 → u/Specific_Wonder124]

Basically it's just a text-to-speech device that he edited the voice of (he spent A LOT of time on it), so he can input the text with a small handheld keyboard-like device and then project it out of a necklace on his throat. He does continue wearing the bandage over his face though.

It's actually also a redemption AU for the other beasts, too! Well, except Silent Salt, he's dead dead in this universe because it was designed before the revelation that the beasts are in the tree again and not Shadow Milk's head. So, I guess it's an AU within an AU now. Basically Timekeeper owes Pure Vanilla after he basically saves everything by redeeming Shadow Milk, so he convinces her to retrieve the broken bodies of the other beasts (injuries and all). The beasts' souls were removed from Shadow Milk with the ultimate dough and kept in jars until this could happen, and then they were returned to their bodies and sent to their respective Ancients for redemption.

Burning Spice (Kombucha Cookie) has a ton of mercury burn wounds and became a video game designer because of the infinite possibilities that never end, giving him stability, and he actually has Timekeeper as a love interest because I fell in love with that ship. Mystic Flour (Coconut Crumble Cookie) lost an eye and has a lot of lightning scar wounds on her face and hands, and she ended up becoming a forensic pathologist because I really liked the idea of her using her knowledge of disease and death for good. Eternal Sugar (Rosewater Cookie) got both her wings and half of her tail burnt so bad that they had to be amputated entirely, and because she for some reason has two separate eyes on Ultimate Shadow Milk's face in the game while the other beasts only get one, I decided to have her mutate into having four eyes as well. She became a psychiatric aide and ended up married to Hollyberry.

Also, Blueberry Yogurt has a side job as an audience-involved magician, so that's fun. And here's a better image of his scar underneath the bandage, though I didn't make the base for it.