Areo "the Flapjack" Ants

@areoants

hey check it out it's me inflatable nutcase here to draw all sorts of strange things but big and round will hide insights inside Alt-Text for those curious about them Zoophiles & Minors DNI FA:

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Ist das dein Profil?Übernimm es — dann gehört dir areoants.dirty.social.Profil übernehmen

Areo "the Flapjack" Ants@areoants· 13d

Something Truly Evil has liked my post...

Areo "the Flapjack" Ants@areoants· 16d

On its own, unrelated note: hey why is the isolated WIP of me rendering Vex's pooltoy arm popping off

Areo "the Flapjack" Ants@areoants· 16d

Been about... what, a year? Who all's ready for the next batch of Airborne August prompts? Hoping I'll be able to get something going for this year, no guarantees I'll be able to properly participate, but it'd be fun! #airborneaugust

Areo "the Flapjack" Ants@areoants· 20d

#ringracers

Areo "the Flapjack" Ants@areoants· 23d

Are there any USEFUL cases for your characters to be inflated? Being inflatable has gotta have SOME benefits... — The answer, of course, is "a decent bit actually, just gotta be a bit more clever about it"... alterspring.org/@areoants/a/... #inflation #inflationart #AreoQnA #AreoOCs

Question:
"Are there any USEFUL cases for your characters to be inflated? Being inflatable has gotta have SOME benefits..."

Description:

Flapjack, acting as my stand-in inside the main panel, replies as such.
"My imagination's a bit more rigid as of late, and, like it or not, it's definitely more situational without decent worldbuilding. But you CAN still get clever with it."

On the top-left, BnR (a Warsect) shields Piss Off (a Leezpunk Ignis) from an off-screen attack, bloated to a sizable (but not insane) degree.
"B'n'R*, for example. Massive dude, acts as a bodyguard for Piss Off. Sturdy enough that losing some defense is fine for giving her more cover."
*"Bug 'n Round"

In the middle panel, a heat-seeking missile flies right past Fugu, the inflated Orca VTOL. He looks by at the passing missile, not really in fear or awe. Just kinda neutrally. Little heat waves are flying out of his engines, not giving off any exhaust.
"Or Fugu. If he catches a lock, he can just... turn his engines off. Loses heat signatures a lot faster than altitude."

Bottom-left panel, features an EXTREMELY swollen Emolga (BuoyantBliss), alongside the entirety of Team Chroma (a PMDnD adventuring group) falling right into them, acting as an airbag for them.
"Even saved our party during an extradimensional train crash! Long story."

Just below that, next to the final panel, a final note:
"Hell, honeypot ants exist IRL for honey storage. So there's even that."

Artist's Note:
Man, I wasn't kidding when I said that Palworld took up my entire work break. The only other piece I did during my 6-day freedom stint was a pretty quick commission for a friend, and then it was back to Palworld.

Final Time: 3h41m

Alterspring Answer:
The answer, of course, is "a decent bit actually, just gotta be a bit more clever about it". We're talking "think like a JoJo protagonist" level's of creativity here.

All else fails? Storage and transport, baby. Storage and transport.

Areo "the Flapjack" Ants@areoants· 26d

Warsect (by beloved) teaches everyone a valuable lesson in proper bowling pin formation #palworld

Areo "the Flapjack" Ants@areoants· 29d

we are close, though.

Areo "the Flapjack" Ants@areoants· 29d

the thing that sucks about Palworld is that I'll never ever be able to come up with a sign that tops the first one I ever made

my character, staring longingly at the sign lain just below the Statue of Power

A Welcome Home
To Those Who Yearn
For the Long Gone Days
Of Challenge Pissing

Areo "the Flapjack" Ants@areoants· Jul 8

i like to call this "Vazz Hands" #inflation #inflationart #AreoOCs

Vazz-33 (Sootseer), but with inflated Xenogard hand lmao

Areo "the Flapjack" Ants@areoants· Jul 8

No art for this one, just a question that's undulated in my head for a while that got asked by someone else now, my fullest answer inside the question itself. There's a few people who deserve to see the finale most grand.

Question:
this isn't a question of any sort i just really liked the hoenn legendary series and wish to see it completed

Answer:
Yeah, no reason for me to dance around that, it was pretty shitty of me to leave that whole thing on a cliffhanger like that.

Wanting to do something big and grand was definitely an AreoAnts-ism, and I don't regret putting my all into it! Burnout hit me bad after the "final" part, and while I was in a financially tenuous state at that point in time, having to shift back to regular comms was probably the right move for the short-term. What I *do* regret is not coming back to finish the story once things had become more concrete.

Three years is a long time for Kyogre to be charging that final attack of theirs. Nothing I regret more than the fact that there's people who aren't around to see it unleashed.

I'll let'cha know once I get to giving it a proper conclusion.

Areo "the Flapjack" Ants@areoants· Jul 7

milestone reached, more people to introduce my unhealthy love of C&C to

Areo "the Flapjack" Ants@areoants· Jul 7

So In the palworld universe of your characters the Sootseer was emperimented to turn him more stretchy but you also mention… — To make a long story short? Only the Sootseer (as far as the current cast) was experimented on. alterspring.org/@areoants/a/... #inflation #inflationart #AreoQnA

Question:
"So in the palworld universe of your characters, the Sootseer was experimented on to turn him more stretchy, but you also mentioned an Incident. Is the rest of your cast able to inflate due to experiments, or for this "Incident"?"

Description:
Piss Off (a Leezpunk Ignis) looks towards the viewer, responding with a mild sincerity.
PO: ("Oh, no, the rest of us were part of a more... *humane* palbase than our Sooter hybrid friend. Not like our Tamer didn't do weird (no not like that) things to us, we're all definitely a lot STRONGER than we should thanks to him, but Vazz is on another level entirely due to P-GRU's cruelty.)

(The whole stretchiness, though? That's all because of that global Incident. Strap in, we've got a short lore dump.)"

At the bottom lies a small diagram of Piss Off, almost sequential. The first part, her body has taken on a pear-ish shape, cutting off at her jacket... and an arrow points to her larger self, over twice as tall as before, now struggling to hold it all in.

"(I happen to know my limits prior to that Incident. You can thank a wild Croajiro and two sips of a Strange Juice for taking on such a bet.)

(Accidentally gave us all a good idea of our limits pre- and post-Incident. Far more valuable than the 20G I lost.)"

The implication is that these are her limits, one before, and one after.

Artist's Note:
whoops I kinda sorta got caught up a QnArt thing, again. because WRITING CHARACTERS AND WRITING WORLDBUILDING IS FUN EVEN IF IT'S LEECHING OFF OF SOMETHING FAMILIAR, FANFIC IS FUN YOU SHOULD DO IT

Description:

Another sequence, but this one is of a more familiar Sootseer... of Vazz-33. Three parts in total, in fact.

The first part is a sideways shot of Vazz, distinguished from his peers by nothing more than a headshape.
"Vazz's sitch is kinda... well, he was born in the Pal Genetic Research Unit. Had his arms replaced with a Xenogard's, something about mixing and matching parts. One of a rare few whose body actually didn't reject it."
- Next to him is a transitional arrow, when his original arms were discarded for a Xenogard's instead. ->

The second, he has swollen outwards, tensing up. The flames that once emitted from his arms are nearly gone, and his head flame is failing to pick up the slack.
"Thing is, his fuel never stopped burning, so with only a third of his proper vents, it'd just... build. Explode. *Endlessly.* P-GRU never really figured that part out, so they put Croajiro DNA in him instead as a hail mary for their precious experiment.
- Another transitional arrow, with the face of a Croajiro and some DNA. ->

The third, he's utterly ginormous. He hasn't stopped tensing up, his plight still not solved. All they did was make him larger.
"Gave him more capacity! Gave him a LOT more capacity. His testers might as well have forgotten about his arms. All this, pre-Incident.

After it?"

...and we transition to a final fourth part, Piss Off sitting ever so nonchalantly upon a Vazz-33 too big to even comprehend. Vazz is no longer strained, however, just mad.

PO: "(Hilariously absurd, tbh. May have been the reason t/hat he was...)"
V33, interrupting: THAT IS NOT AND WAS NOT YOUR FUCKING STORY TO TELL, PISSY.
PO: "(Leave our base when we're getting raided and I'm showing everyone the full goddamn process of going past your capacity.)"

Artist's Note:
nearly 1800 characters to write that, lmao, i should write more, lmao, get more characters into this thing, lmao, i love listening to music that puts me in the headspace to

Final Time (combined): 4h47m

Areo "the Flapjack" Ants@areoants· Jul 4

I can't link the AlterSpring site since the site's down, but there's been a question that's been burning in my head for a while, and I finally got the chance to actually answer it! ...really deserves a fuller explanation than these three pieces, but in due time. #inflation #inflationart #AreoQnA

Question:
"please flap. im begging you. how the FUCK do you inflate an appliance. I want to be buried in my couch"

Description:
Flapjack, joyously holding up a very small and round couch in his hand, looking on to the side.

"I know I'm late... but DAMN if this ain't knowledge I've wanted to drop for a while."
(in smaller text) "I do wanna make a fuller "how I do this", but I got a metaphor that should hopefully work."

Author's Note:
yeah, my method's pretty shockingly simple! it's not super detailed; I'm doing this after a long day of work, but damn it, this isn't knowledge I wanna keep to myself. I just never actually stopped to explain myself, did I?

hopefully this'll de-mystify how some artists do it easy peasy.

Description:

Several teddy bears, two of which are colored in a certain way.

"My go-to explanation starts with a teddy bear. It's a simple caricature of a bear, and yet, it is also an object."
"If you were to ask me how I'd break its anatomy down... I'd indicate its "head" (blue), arms (yellow), legs (green), and body (red). Simple, and allows for granular interpretation."

There is a third bear, swollen to a proper spherical shape.
"...and if we were to inflate this teddy bear with the provided anatomy..."

"This method works well for me, because I can anthropomorphize more *abstract* shapes with it."

A small color reference sits up at the top of the sheet, sitting copy/pastedly and comfortably. Blue is its head, yellow is its arms, green are its legs, and red is its body.

"If I do the same to this plane... we get this!"
It points to a hastily-made jet fighter, with its cockpit and nose colored blue, its frame colored red, wings colored yellow, and wheels colored green.

"...which leads to this!!!"
Indeed, the same plane has now been swollen outwards. Its cockpit has morphed slightly into its body, its wings pushed outwards, and its tires, unimposed.

"As for a couch? Probably like this."
In this case, the back is treated as a head, its main pillows are the body, and the arms and legs are... well, the arms and legs.

Areo "the Flapjack" Ants@areoants· Jul 1

wanted to try and inflate a pokemon but I didn’t know who so I put on my favorite streamer SaltyDKDan and someone mentioned Regirock #inflation #inflationart

Description:

Regirock, big and round, swollen as HECK, kinda just sorta vibin on da beach, sunken ever so slightly into the sand beneath, sun shinin' on their granite form.

some weird dude's steaming at them in the background lmao what a chump

Artist's Note:

Kinda just messing around and doing my own thing for now, not having a backlog is nice. Found myself with a bunch of time, so I ended up using it to... play more D&D with a friend, and then deciding not doing art like I thought I would! So this ended up being my "hey I wanna make sure I do something, what the heck do I draw", and... well, read da description!!

(also I have no clue if the man of the hour is actually gonna find this, but if he does? lol. lmao, even. let me show you the true strength of an inflation furry. ✨👄👁️)

Final Time: 1h0m

Areo "the Flapjack" Ants@areoants· Jun 23

What's your favorite object(s) to inflate other than like, airships? — For better or worse, a lot of my answers are just warmachines? I dunno, purpose be damned, I like their vibe a lot. Would look great as a circle. alterspring.org/@areoants/a/... #inflation #inflationart #AreoQnA

Question:
"What's your favorite object(s) to inflate other than like, airships?"

Description:
Flapjack, laying belly down on a very, *VERY* swollen Typhoon-class submarine that's surfacing from the deep below.

"honestly? submarines are frick'n rad, absolutely inflatable things."

an Obelisk of Light is in the background, also swollen, with an arrow pointing to it.

<- "obelisks, too, if fanart is allowed."

Author's Note:
Super quick compared to before, forgot my funny ADHD med so my focus is slightly more shot. But also, I have a nasty habit of trying to keep one-upping myself, so trying to accept a less polished image is also me trying to keep myself in check for these things. Dunno if I'll answer every question, but putting my all into every one is asking for burnout!

Final Time: 0h42m

Alterspring Answer:
For better or worse, a lot of my answers are just warmachines? I dunno, purpose be damned, I like their vibe a lot. Would look great as a circle.

Mechs are also good, but that feels a bit too far from what one would think with an "object".

Areo "the Flapjack" Ants@areoants· Jun 19

Does Vex and Judas know each other, and if yes, how is their relation? — Vex knows about Judas, yes. He's looked up archive footage and historical documents about him. Done as much research as one can about a dude from two wars ago. Know thy enemy. alterspring.org/@areoants/a/... #AreoOCs #AreoQnA

Question:
"Does Vex and Judas know each other, and if yes, how is their relation(ship)?"

Description:
The camera is panned behind Vex, staring down at a tablet. There's a bunch of information about Judas displayed on it, although the camera is too far to make any of the details out. He's just looking on at the image with a slight hint of disgust.

"Ah, a question out of time.
I'll be curt. He's a historical figure to me, a product two wars before this one. A traitor to his *deservedly* bitter end.

I'm far more familiar with his anomaly of a friend. Time hasn't claimed him yet.
Nothing does."

Artist's Note:

Judas is a Stealth Tank mk. I, while Vex is a Stealth Tank mk. III. Makes sense one of them would be completely outdated and gone by the time the other one's around. But I've also had this strange idea of Fugu, an Orca mk. I, modified into this parodical farce of an air force unit, somehow surviving long past his prime. Long past his due date. Past his war. Past his time.

It's weird, having something so incidental, in a genre too erotic or comical to take seriously, turn into a character I wanna try to fully examine. Have I ever mentioned wanting to write stories?

(also don't mind me reuploading this because I forgot the tags while rewriting the whole alt-text because I completely forgot to save it)

Final Time: 1h31m.

Areo "the Flapjack" Ants@areoants· Jun 19

Think fast! P Balloon! — Y'know, I feel like all my characters could probably be put on a tier list for how fast they'd actually react. (Which is in the link itself. Wow!) #AreoOCs #AreoQNA alterspring.org/@areoants/a/...

Question:
"Think fast! P Balloon!"

Description:

1st Panel, Crust parries a P-Balloon right past him, into the direction of an unsuspecting Ragu, too absorbed in his reading of a Good Book...
2nd panel, Crust towers over the viewer, gloating over their missed trick.
("Really thought that'd get me, huh?")
("Thanks for the heads up.")=("Better luck next time.")
Ragu, completely unphased, is already redirecting the P-Balloon back to an unsuspecting Crust.

Artist's Note:

Thought this would take less time than it did, so naturally I had this really fun and cool and interesting image in my head of someone actually thinking fast. Who better than Crust? Then it just turns into a Simpsons joke a'la building off the last punchline.

Q&Arts are fun for these kinda things.

Final Time: 4h02m

Alterspring Answer:
Y'know, I feel like all my characters could probably be put on a tier list for how fast they'd actually react.

Some (Crust, Ragu, Hard Batter) would actually react fast, some would be a bit slow to the punch (Deathscythe, Vex), and some would probably just let it happen (Fugu, Judas, Flapjack).

Areo "the Flapjack" Ants@areoants· Jun 18

Kane Parsons is the first director to celebrate their 21st birthday on June 18th, 2026 He is 20 years old

Areo "the Flapjack" Ants@areoants· Jun 15

I do wonder how does Judas manages to sneak into the base to visit Fugu and viceversa — (Slightly Fuller answer in the link) alterspring.org/@areoants/a/... #AreoOCs #AreoQNA

Areo "the Flapjack" Ants@areoants· Jun 15

Lovander. Big lovander. Big lovander boobs. Big blimping lovander boobs.??? — in the words of Pokemon? "It wasn't very effective..." (though there's a Lovander OC I've had in the head for a while so I guess there's that. alterspring.org/@areoants/a/...

Question: "Lovander. Big lovander. Big lovander boobs. Big blimping lovander boobs.???"

The Conceptual WIP Lovander OC is coming right out of the thought bubble to cover the question with their arms the best they can, answering with a solid "No?????"

Flap, much more concrete in nature, just looks up at the idea, responding with a "Aren't you still in the conceptual phase right now...? also we'll keep it to the first two sentences pls thx"

Areo "the Flapjack" Ants@areoants· Jun 13

why Fraaz tryin not to laugh bruh?

Areo "the Flapjack" Ants@areoants· Jun 12

you ever find yourself feeling so hungry you gotta scarf down the nearest food source on the spot? please don't do that you never know what's inside Vazz's bag (My long overdue half of a trade with @smokeybloke.bsky.social! ft. his fake Chillet, Chell!) #inflation #inflationart #AreoOC

Description:
An image with a rather peculiar way of reading it.

Vazz-33, a modified Sootseer, is wandering around, incredibly hungry, their body close to deflated and flames extinguished.
They stop to take some food out of their bag, represented by a stack of Blimp Fruit (x297) being split into (x296) & (x1).
He then brings the fruit up to his mouth, chewing down on it, reigniting the flames with a twinge of teal...

Chell, a fake Chillet, is wandering around, incredibly hungry.
Something stops them, the scent of a berry flooding their head exactly like the scene from Beastars.
They trace the scent back to the source: a backpack held onto the faint silhouette of a Sootseer...

...and the panels converge!! Chell has forced their head straight into Vazz's backpack, startling the Sootseer into crushing his berry without a hint of concern, their body already having widened plenty within seconds of their feast!

It all culminates in the final panel, Chell rounded out to a truly incredible size, and looking all the satisfied for it. Vazz is also inflated, but only back to his usual size; all he can do is angrily clench his fist at the berry thief.

Artist's Note:
Hooooooly hell this one took a good minute to make man. This whole thing was for a trade, and since Smokey's half was a sequence, it felt fair to make mine a sequence as well. And then, I got ambitious, thinking "hey, what if the comic panels converged to a single point?"

Did you know that attempting really funky comic panelling leads to focus testing? Kinda hard to keep getting new eyes on a piece to figure out if it reads correctly or not!

But that's half the fun of art, really. And y'know what, I like to think I pulled it off in the end. The background greeble certainly helped.

Did you know this is going down in a very specific part of the map? Find the coordinates, and I'll give you a pat on the head! (Would love to make an actual reward, but I am backlogged.)

Final Time: 25h54m

Areo "the Flapjack" Ants@areoants· Jun 12

almost 26 hours and many days later... a final teaser.

Areo "the Flapjack" Ants@areoants· Jun 12

god so fuckin help me i did it

flapjack is lying exhausted on the floor, thumbs up, "I did it... wow...!", as the art gallery behind him is now organized!

he has "1048 Submissions" above his head.

Areo "the Flapjack" Ants@areoants· Jun 9

There you are, playing your favorite anti-grav racing game, and all of a sudden... boom, you're cubes. You didn't ask for this. You didn't choose this. And yet, there it is.

Areo "the Flapjack" Ants@areoants· Jun 9

goddamn it i fell off again ......WHICH IS WHAT I WOULD SAY-

Areo "the Flapjack" Ants@areoants· Jun 9

(XF Extreme Formula) help it happened a second time

Areo "the Flapjack" Ants@areoants· Jun 9

(XF Extreme Formula) NICE ON!

Areo "the Flapjack" Ants@areoants· Jun 7

Shit, Hades 2 had placeholder assets in the game, either a hooded figure for overworld stuff, or WIP art for portrait stuff. Sometimes both. So I'm wondering what GenAI does for placeholders that can't be done with WIPs or stock assets. Not everyone's Supergiant, not all companies act the same.