"I want to mix my favorite animal and fruit," was my thought process when approaching Twila's creation. I wanted to keep them human, so I approached it a different way by referencing the bunny ears with her hair. For her color palette and clothing style, I referenced pink strawberries with the pastel colors and gradients. Though, I did briefly considering giving her longer bangs and a Neapolitan ice cream looking hair color but decided against it. She was named Twila Frazier, meaning, "woven with a double thread" and "strawberry field."

They were purchased from "plushpon," an artist I admired and had been following for a while. After gaining owner rights, Lutao was the one to kick off the fruit bandits ideas after Twila was created and I started coming up with ideas for the pair and creating the other. The name Lutao, is a chinese name meaning "dew, syrup," and "peach."

Eschol was the third member of this bunch. Their design was inspired from my hair being dyed purple for the first time plus I've always loved the chaotic gremlin character trope so why not mix both! The reason why they're a raccoon dog, also known as a Tanuki, is since Twila and Lutao were supposed to be raccoons, I didn't want to repeat the species again. The name Eschol means "grapes" in Hebrew.

Manga's creation was much more spontaneous yet straightforward with the idea of them coming to me randomly in the middle of the night while texting a friend. Red Panda, okay. What fruit though? Banana? Kiwi? Apple? Tomato (yes, that's a fruit)? Mangos are good... mmmm. I go spin a random wheel generator and BAM! Mango was chosen! As for the name, Manga is "mango" in Portuguese. So, I thought, wouldn't it be funny if Manga liked manga and anime? And finally, the anime-loving red panda was born. ✨