How about that, a new character!

So, this fella is kind of a rebirth, I had tried my hand at making a snake some time ago, I think it's been at least a year, maybe two. But while I had some idea for it, I ultimately lost interest and shelved the idea completely.

That was until about a week ago when I was lounging around at home sick, and found myself engaging in Freedom Planet's story, both the original and the sequel. I knew how the first game went and had watched playthroughs of it many times, but I always had my eyes on the second game and completely forgot it had come out, when it had taken many years to develop. But the point I'm getting at is one of the antagonists, General Serpentine, caught my attention again, from a design perspective. He's a snake that also has some sort of chestpiece that allows him to use robotic arms and hands. I presented that idea to my Discord server and expressed interest in wanting to revisit the character idea, and it got some immediate interest, so shortly after, I tried scribbling something out and I managed to put together a sketch pretty quickly. The next day, I tweaked it some more and colored it! Funny how the main thing that got me was drawing the head in a way that I'm pretty familiar with, and how it got me to not draw something with the symmetry tool on! I swear I'm not making this a big deal every time this happens.

So this is Newt Smoothscales, an Ioan soft-bodied snake who goes by "Noodles." For my first draft of his story, I'd like to think he follows a similar pattern as Mozzarella: he grows up wanting to take a different path than what his parents, moreover his father, sets for him, that being how to be a great fighter and predator, something Noodles doesn't see himself being at all. He's far more friendly and gentle than other snakes should be, but he also finds himself often startling others as a general fear of snakes in public. It's common that he finds himself getting flattened or squished as others react to his presence; almost all cases he's apologized to, but they tend to add up over time. As such, Noodles finds himself constantly isolated and unsure of what to do: he doesn't have it in him to be a dominating force in public and has to deal with the repercussions of disappointing his father, but he also doesn't feel like he fits in anywhere. He has a far greater interest in technology and expanding his ability to live in society, which is why he one day acquired a chestpiece that allows him to use energy hands, something his father and others in his village see as lesser. Noodles does his best to find a place where he fits in, feels respected and welcomed and loved, and luck might have it that someone's there to give him that chance...

Noodles, unlike many other snakes, is docile, gentle, and friendly. He doesn't like to bite people unless he absolutely has to, and even then he doesn't have a poisonous or venomous bite; that changes entirely being a Softie like he is (aren't you surprised), where his bite can cause a reversing effect depending on who he chomps down on, causing Neutrals to temporarily become Softies or causing Softies to become Hardies temporarily. He at least will do that or coil if he feels in danger, and thanks to his body, he's capable of stretching himself out longer depending on the situation, though most cases he'll keep himself relatively short in length. Noodles always speaks with a sort of lisp, or will accentuate his Th's or S's. He likes to be outside in the warm sun, go checking out new places, meeting new friends and really enjoys gadgets and technology, particularly those with accessibility properties; if it helps improve his ability to live life or adds to it, he's super excited to learn about it! Additionally, he didn't pick up the nickname Noodles because he's a snake, he really loves noodles, and would easily frequent noodle shops if he had infinite money. As such, he has picked up learning how to cook so he can try making his own ramen, as well as other noodle-based recipes so he can make them taste the way he wants, or make them healthier.

What I also like about Noodles is how easy he was to draw, he was very simple to make and to do something up for him, this might be another character I can lean on if I need something to draw. Hopefully that means there'll be more of him! But for now, thanks for coming to see! 🐍