one of the criticisms i got on my first Smokescreen design was that for a Spike and Thorax nextgen, he just looked too much like Spike. Too much dragon, not enough changeling. I agreed, so I tweaked his facial proportions to be more bug eyed, with a lil pony-ish snout to make him cuter. However, his snout has a "seam" on the lower jaw that splits open to reveal a freaky mandible mouth. If he wasn't mute, he would be able to speak normally without splitting open his bottom jaw, and he can smile and emote normally. He mostly just does the mandible thing when he wants to freak ponies out (Smoke is a bit of a troll). He also does it when he's hungry (his fav food to eat is love letters).He can click his mandibles together to speak Changeling (a language composed of insect-like clicking and chittering), and speak to his father Thorax this way, as well as using Equestrian sign language (made up of variety of hoof tapping, stamping, and gestures). Fun fact, Smokescreen got his name as a newborn when he belched a semi-poisonous soot cloud right into Papa Spike's face, the little dickensadult human smokescreen design concept art here: lopoddity.deviantart.com/statu…