This submission was a collaboration. While I liked my design idea, my artistic skill is lacking, and so one of my friends decided to be really super cool and help me out by lending her artistic talents. She has requested that I link to
her tumblr.
Ever since the idea of the move
Psycho Boost was brought up as a potential risky Psychic STAB for our Riskymon, I wanted to see how it would go over to visually demonstrate its Psychic typing via imagery inspired by psychology rather than anything supernatural, so that's where I initially decided to make a
Rorschach-Test-inspired design. As many of you may have seen earlier in the thread, my initial concept was to have the bug at the center of this Rorschach Test be inspired by a typical psychiatrist or psychologist, as though it were administering the test. However, when I posted my most recent concept sketches of what to do with Psycholobug's body, the most positive responses I got on #cap were actually for the joke image I drew of it in a straightjacket. At the same time, I was concerned that Psycholobug didn't visually inspire enough badassery, so I decided to run with the straightjacket idea, and Psycho Bug was born.
It is important to note that this straightjacket that Psycho Bug "wears" is not any external device. Rather, the flavor here is that Psycho Bug goes between periods of sanity and insanity, and during those periods of sanity, it wraps its own body and limbs in an adhesive silk, forming a sort of cocoon to prevent itself from harming itself or others during its not so sane periods. For a Psycho Bug with Weak Armor, its silk is not so effective, and each hit that it takes loosens the restraints of the cocoon. You will see this in future supporting artwork, where all four of its arms will be posed to attack.
As far as Illusion goes, I've needed to make absolutely no changes in the design to account for it. After all, the entire purpose of the Rorschach test is
what you think you see, and the "wings" here have always been intended to be formed of an amorphous gaseous substance (think similar to Musharna's dream mist) that changes in shape as one would expect of a thick gas. It's no stretch to think that some Psycho Bugs would be able to manipulate this substance to form disguises and explore the true fears of their opponents.
What insect is this based on, you might ask? That is left intentionally ambiguous. The easiest answer is that it's something like a moth, as that's a typical answer given for the Rorschach Test being used above in its default depiction. However, I could see it being a lot of other things too. It bears some similarities to Shedinja, making cicada a reasonable guess. I also see it as somewhat cockroach-like in behavior in that people seem to fear it for its association with negative elements (insanity for Psycho Bug, filth or disease for cockroach) despite its non-malevolent nature. And then, of course, it's tempting to make an argument for it being a yellow
jacket just because.