#((growing up in the steppes I imagine it would be like that))

[tenuuchlegch]

❃ "I have yet to experience the pains of childbirth for myself, but I used to deliver plenty of babes in my childhood."

[mintyys-blog]

pietro maximoff x pregnant! reader: The Speed of Consequences

WARNINGS: implied sex, pregnancy, reader falls down stairs

The night of the party had been a mistake. That much was clear. You woke up in a strange bed, tangled in sheets that smelled faintly of cologne and alcohol, with Pietro Maximoff lying beside you. The memories of what had happened the night before were hazy at best—flashes of laughter, his teasing smirk, and the two of you disappearing into the nearest guest room after too many drinks.

When the reality of the situation hit you, you bolted upright, your heart hammering in your chest.

“Oh, no. No, no, no,” you whispered, pulling the sheet around yourself as Pietro stirred.

He blinked up at you, his silver hair a mess, his usual cocky expression replaced with confusion. “Morning, dragă. What’s—”

“Don’t,” you cut him off, scrambling out of bed and frantically gathering your clothes. “This never happened, okay? We were drunk, and it’s not going to happen again.”

Pietro frowned, sitting up slowly. “If that’s what you want…”

“It is,” you said firmly, though the crack in your voice betrayed your nerves. “Just—keep quiet. Please.”

His blue eyes lingered on you for a moment before he nodded. “Alright. I won’t say a word.”

And with that, you slipped out of the room, determined to put the whole incident behind you.

The nausea had been the first sign. Then the fatigue, the cravings, the slight rounding of your stomach that no amount of baggy clothes could hide. You hadn’t needed a test to confirm it, but you took one anyway.

Positive.

You were pregnant. And Pietro was the father.

Panic gripped you as you stared at the little stick in your hand. There was no way you could tell anyone, especially not Tony. Your adoptive father was protective on a good day, and the idea of explaining a drunken one-night stand with someone on the team? That would push him over the edge.

As for Pietro… You couldn’t even begin to imagine how he’d react.

So you made a decision. You would keep the baby, but no one could know.

For a few months, everything seemed normal—or as normal as life could be when you were part of the Avengers. Pietro kept his word and acted as if nothing had happened. You avoided being alone with him, and things between you settled into an uneasy truce.

But then, the signs began to appear.

At first, it was small things—declining alcohol at team celebrations, claiming you were “cutting back.” Brushing off offers of coffee during late-night mission briefings, saying it made you jittery. Then came the nausea, which you blamed on food poisoning, and the sudden aversion to certain smells, like the cologne Tony had worn for years.

Sam was the first to notice.

“You’ve been eating a lot of weird stuff lately,” he commented one afternoon as you sat on the couch with a jar of pickles and a bag of chips. “Pickles and chips? Really?”

You shrugged, trying to play it off. “Don’t knock it till you try it.”

But he gave you a suspicious look, and you could feel Pietro’s gaze on you from across the room.

“Uh-huh,” Sam said, smirking. “You’re not pregnant, are you?”

Your heart stopped.

Tony, sitting nearby, barked out a laugh. “Good one, Wilson. Y/N? Pregnant? Not a chance.”

Pietro froze, his face going pale as realization dawned on him. His eyes darted to you, and you quickly looked away, your hands trembling as you clutched the jar of pickles.

Sam’s joke passed without further comment, but you could feel the tension between you and Pietro growing.

Later that evening, you were in the kitchen, pretending to be busy while your heart raced. You knew Pietro had figured it out. The way he had looked at you during the meeting—wide-eyed, stunned—it was only a matter of time before he confronted you.

And you were right.

“You’ve been avoiding me,” Pietro said, appearing in the doorway like a ghost.

You jumped, clutching the edge of the counter. “Pietro. I—I’m just busy.”

“Cut the act, Y/N,” he said, his voice quieter now but no less intense. He stepped closer, his expression unreadable. “It’s mine, isn’t it?”

You opened your mouth to deny it, to lie, but the words wouldn’t come.

“Yes,” you whispered finally, your voice barely audible. “It’s yours.”

He stared at you, his usual smirk nowhere to be found. For once, Pietro Maximoff was speechless.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” he asked after a moment, his voice raw.

“I didn’t want you to feel obligated,” you said quickly. “I can handle this on my own. I don’t need anything from you.”

Pietro frowned, running a hand through his hair. “You think I’d just walk away? That I wouldn’t care?”

“I don’t know,” you admitted. “I don’t know how you’d react, and I couldn’t risk it. Tony would lose his mind if he found out. The team would—”

“Forget the team,” Pietro interrupted, his tone sharp. “Forget Stark. This is our kid, Y/N. I have a right to know.”

Tears pricked at your eyes, and you quickly turned away. “I didn’t mean for this to happen, Pietro. I don’t even know how to do this.”

“Neither do I,” he said softly, stepping closer. “But we’ll figure it out. Together.”

You looked at him, searching his face for any sign of hesitation or doubt. But all you saw was determination.

“Okay,” you said finally, your voice shaking.

A week later, everything came crashing down—literally.

You were rushing down the stairs in Stark Tower, late for a meeting, when your foot slipped. You felt your body lurch forward, your hands grabbing at the railing, but it was too late. You tumbled down the steps, landing hard at the bottom with a sharp cry of pain.

“Y/N!” Pietro was at your side in an instant, his speed blurring as he knelt beside you.

“I’m fine,” you tried to insist, wincing as you clutched your arm.

“You’re not fine,” Pietro snapped, his voice tight with panic. “You could’ve hurt yourself—or the baby!”

The room went silent.

“What?” Tony’s voice cut through the air like a knife.

You froze, your blood turning to ice as you slowly turned to see your adoptive father standing at the top of the stairs, his face a mixture of confusion and anger.

“The baby?” Tony repeated, his eyes narrowing.

Pietro’s face went pale. “I—”

“It’s true,” you blurted out, cutting him off. “I’m… pregnant.”

Tony’s expression shifted, disbelief turning into something harder to read. “And Pietro’s the father?”

“…Yes,” you admitted, your voice barely above a whisper.

For a moment, no one spoke. Then Tony let out a sharp breath, running a hand through his hair. “Unbelievable. You’ve been hiding this? From me?”

“I didn’t want to disappoint you,” you said quickly, tears stinging your eyes. “I didn’t know how to tell you.”

Tony stared at you for a long moment before his gaze shifted to Pietro. “You. Come with me.”

Pietro glanced at you, his expression torn, before standing and following Tony up the stairs.

Hours later, Pietro found you sitting in the medbay, your arm in a sling. He hesitated in the doorway before walking over, his movements uncharacteristically slow.

“How’d it go?” you asked, your voice shaky.

“He’s… not thrilled,” Pietro admitted, sitting beside you. “But he’ll come around. Eventually.”

You nodded, staring down at your hands.

Pietro reached over, placing a hand on yours. “You scared me, dragă. When I saw you fall…” He trailed off, his voice thick with emotion.

“I didn’t mean for any of this to happen,” you said softly.

“I know,” he said. “But it did. And we’re in this together now. Okay?”

You looked up at him, his blue eyes filled with determination, and for the first time in months, you felt a glimmer of hope.

“Okay,” you said, your voice barely above a whisper.

And for the first time, you believed it.

[flat-neines]

Ok. Polychromy got hands to spare. But I did say that I'd talk about nyx being a nightmare kid but not in a cool way.

(This has some references to abuse, racism, sa and systemic misogyny that happens in canon, this could be triggering to read for people. Rant is under the cut)

It's often discussed or speculated in anti spaces (and fellow mutuals) on how nyx possibly grows up to be everything rhysand hates, rebelling against the night court for illyria, etc. all while lamenting that it would never be canon and I find myself enjoying them all the same but.

What if nyx grows up to be worse than feysand could ever be?

Like. It wouldn't even unrealistic for it to happen either, just unforseen from the perspective of feysand. Imagine this: a tentative peace has settled over prythian despite the growing conflicts in the continent and human lands or the looming threat of the deathless. Rhysand and feyre promise to do better and never be like their parents.

This is a nice sentiment, and nyx grows up wanting for nothing* (to the visible eye) due to both his parents being daemati. Nyx has every comfort. And every entitlement.

Children are mirrors and sponges with people not realizing how much a kid can internalize from watching an adult behaves towards someone else. And it almost always, always starts with the family.

I don't believe feyre (or rhysand for that matter) would immediately mistreat their own child**. But I don't think they'll ever grow up, change their behavior towards anyone else and take accountability. This is where the problem lies.

Nyx would be taught to be kind and compassionate but watch as his father coldly allows innocent people to rot underneath a mountain or the steppes and his uncles callously using them for cannon fodder. He would be told to treat others with respect as he watches his aunts constantly trampling the boundaries of his other aunt and his entire family disregarding sovereignty of other courts and nations. He would be taught to be just, and see how his family shackles his own aunt (and cousin possibly) into a life debt over something that wasn't even her fault. Nyx wouldn't grasp treating women well with how feyre herself looks down on femininity and does fuck all for the women in her court. And consent and privacy? Out the window the moment he had enough consciousness for rhysand to claw into.

And this is the tip of the iceberg too, as I don't really want to touch on feysand's personal issues (or the political implications). Nyx is going to be taught to be a good person as he observes how his family enforces segregation, child marriages, misogynistic violence towards women and institutional abuses both domestically and internationally with their behavior. He's going to internalize this as normal. "It's just a mask" does not work as an explanation to someone who wouldn't completely understand the concept. Besides the obvious 'cool story, you still killed people though'.

Nyx is going to grow up having entitlement worse than feyre and deliberate cruelty that makes rhysand pause because he believes that this behavior is acceptable, correct even. And while feysand and the ic would shield him from actual consequences (reinforcing the attitude) they'll also be scratching thier heads "on how did he get so bad??" while never examining their own actions.

Evil and cruelty are ultimately banal things. Rhysand and his little circle aren't special for being snarky, unfunny assholes; you can find them a dime a dozen. And if you [feyre], who has given them the world on a golden platter, has no motivation to make an effort to be better; why should your child have it either?

*this talking about physical safety and needs, not emotional ones, though meeting both is necessary for raising healthy children. Feysand are incredibly emotionally immature people and wouldn't be able to meet that requirement irregardless of what they do.

** I'm not going into the fact that rhysand would drop his kid into a war camp or blood rite and thinking it's perfectly acceptable to do so. Or the fact that feyre might groom her kid into a clone of her mate and think it's a good thing which is why I say immediately not intentionally here.

[oynonrings]

ARTEMY WITH A SEPTUM RING PLEASE SAY MORE. no no but like actually culturally hes the only one that can cut flesh and its like right in the middle of his face so its obvious his status and ability within the community and what have you as well as the connections to bulls. loook no ok you mayu have said it offhand but you keep providing things to the fandom that maybe we didnt ask for but what we absolutley need please say more whenever

he probably has super simple whatever nose ring equivalent of sleeper studs is for most days,, but think , have you seen how elaborete and large adn decorated they can get ??? Artemy deserves to be bedazzled during events or if he just wanna feel pretty. like 'how are you supposed to eat with that? 'thats the neat part i dont' amazingly decorative.

also conceptually it could be interesting he was also the only one allowed to give piercings, as i imagine it would've been his father who gave him his,, perhaps as different to 'cutting' etc, *waffles on*, and ,if he knows how to give all kinds of peircings, now ok quite some time post-canon i'd thjink, daniil , sit down, amazing thought ive just had, youre into self expression, look at your silly clothes, and you're set to stay here ,so now artemy has a proposition bc fuck which genders the Capital says can and can't wear nice jewellery so hear him out-

*anon is dragged out stage left*

(context) YEAH ANON!!! my answer got long so putting it under the cut<3

i think isidor giving artemy a septum piercing as a young boy as a visible reminder that hed grow up to be a menkhu is so good..........and then when he goes off to study hes obstinate about wearing it at first, extremely defensive of it as a symbol of his home, but the more weird looks he gets and the more it affects his life, he eventually takes it out altogether as a reflection of him forgetting (and starting to look down upon) the kin spiritual practices in the capital. then when he returns to the town, hes hesitant to wear it again because he hardly recognizes the town after a decade, he isnt sure how much he even believes in it anymore, and above all, he doesnt feel worthy of taking up his fathers mantle, especially with all of his guilt over not arriving sooner.......and maybe some people dont recognize him without the ring, too, and lara and grief make comments about how they havent seen him without the ring since they were kids

ohhhh imagine if he returned without his septum ring to find that rubin gave himself one at some point since he left!!! and this might fit p2 rubins characterization a little more than p1 rubin, but imagine how good of a symbol it would be. rubins bitterness and his assumptions that artemy was a bad son to isidor are reinforced when he sees that artemy, who had been pierced by isidor himself in his youth, has taken out his ring and eschewed the role of menkhu, his father, and his hometown altogether. meanwhile, as isidors protégé, rubin feels the need to prove himself, and he takes on the stigma of piercing without the title of menkhu like he takes on the stigma of stealing and cutting simons corpse. and as the game progresses and artemy fucks around with oyun, he tries to put the ring back in but the hole has shrunk over the years and he has to repierce himself, and that as a parallel to him relearning the steppe medicine and reincorporating himself into his hometown. you see the vision

or maybe for burda he asks daniil to repierce him, since he cant really see his own nose that well, and they bond: daniil gains an appreciation for the culture, and artemy reluctantly opens up a little about it.......

the idea of artemy giving daniil piercing(s) post-canon is so sweet. daniil would be extremely hesitant but especially if its an established relationship i could see a menkhu piercing his partner being a very intimate ritual process, something like a cross between a part of a wedding ceremony and getting a tattoo. it takes an immense amount of trust to let someone pierce you, and that applies tenfold in the town, where piercing flesh is forbidden along with piercing the ground. itd be described with all the phallic imagery of penetration, insertion, etc. like boring into the earth is (and honestly, you could make the argument that the polyhedron is like a decorative piercing on the town/earth that got infected. actually, the polyhedron and the town could be symbolically represented as piercings and tattoos upon the earth, respectively—one breaks the skin, one sits upon the skin albeit requiring a bit of trauma to begin with)

this got a bit out of hand but THANK YOU ANON i put 0 thought into that post but i actually do think it rules....... many thoughts

[aicosu]

Pathologic headcanons? You mentioned having a lot of them

So fucking many I dont know where to start? Maybe with bigger ones? Then character ones?

The Town/Kin

- I actually played much of p2 first before playing 1 and then returning to finish 2. So I have a lot of attachment to the Kin, and Boddho and their pov.

-I think that Boddho is an empty nesting eldritch mother. That she either is like... Illuvatar from Silmarillion (from what my husbands told me) where she came or grew from earth and wanted to make specificslly humans, but made the worms and brides and shabnaks first at her version of the Valor, or their job is to prepare the world for her true children (humans). even as "excess materials" shabnaks excess bones, worms excess muscle, and brides excess blood. But she didnt expect them to grow out of their need for her. Steppe life does eventually evolve towards integrating with the settlement and she resents creations who can create towers to heaven without her. Hence plague. But again, boddho creates creatures who are individually sentient. Even some of the proto kin seem rebellious. So I imagine the plague too, is sentient with its own ideas and goals. Poor boddho seems a bit immature and frustrated that yes. Eventually, even the plague and kin will want to grow and elvove without her.

-or shes already dead. Love the dead boddho theory, thanks andrey stamatin. That maybe everyone who hears boddho is just hearing her talk from centuries ago cause shes to unfathomable and eldritch creature to speak to. Neat! I think it doesnt hold up in 2, since you see her (someones?) Heart beating but cool.

-i do think the proto humans have preferences but dont know what a preference even is. Theres obviously (in p2, i know p1 was more an obvious patriachal straightfoward thing) brides who prefer townsfolk and brides who prefer the steppe. There are worms who like the city people they make friends with, and shabnaks that feel fear but aspire to grow ans meet and learn langauge.

Daniil Dankovsky

-trans daniil just makes so much damn sense to me its stupid like its perfect. At first I thought maybe he was amab and experiencing gender envy at the women in the town, coming to a conclusion he's in denial of why he favors their company or feels a sort of kinship with. To me, women are to Daniil what children are to Artemy. His bound in 1 as the uptopians is eh to me, but yet anytime he is speaking with Lara or Yulia, even Aspity, there is a understanding, condescending, even familial, protective frustration he has thats so complicated.

-to me that works so well as his journey as afab. Only child. Born to a young dead mother and a military man who didnt want much to do with him.

-I imagine him pursuing college and medical school for a year before his father dies and he drops out to transition. Ive seen other fans of transkovsky say he invented hrt himself, but if I think about how medical was approached or even philosphized about in patho or the older days I think he approached it by killing singular nerves and doing invasive surgey. They werent super great at the hormone or brain level and its just more... danils style to think to himself "i will literally kill what i dont need or want" (and then wearing uterus trophies on his neck because he cant brag out loud)

-which leads me to my other headcanon that this secret invasive self experiments and his success at splicing himself gave him a bit of cancer or a debilitating "mystical" disease he refuses as mystical. While i do love daniil being pompous about defeating death just cause hes pompous, I also love the idea that he wants all his cake and flowers. He succeeded in defeating gender, birth, orientation, and now its making him die? How unfair. How horrible. No one will steal his time at finally being himself not even death.

-thanatica I see as a mask over that research, too. Cause he can not come out and show himself off to substantiate his achievements. The medical world would be too distracted by the social ques to care that, hey, I've stopped cell generation. I've propugated cells. I've made parts of a body grow that stopped in the womb. Its a breakthrough he cant discuss so hes hauling in dead bodies and reanimating skin with the same methods or stacing off tuberculosis with the same technique hes using to stave off his death disease and it give him all this internal, unvalidated, seething frustration that he cant just scream what a fucking genuis he is. (He does anyway but without that to back him up)

-I think he joins the military for a year or two and assumes the identity of a dankovsky son. And the military stupidly, weirdly, validates him in his identity but also hardens him the way war does. The way death does when you have soldiers dying on your medical table. Then goes back and finishes his degree before opening thanatica.

-i hc Daniil as a messy bisexual. I think pre transistion he was always attracted to women actually, and that also motivated him to a smaller degree of well, why not get married to a lovely lady. Why not be the head of my household. Why not conquer society and genetics and death and enjoy things I could not myself feel comfortable to portray, but want to covet.

-you know and he gets to busy to actually finally indulge in that and then gets to town on ghorkan and meets artemy burakh and is like, wait, no, stop, this isnt the plan dammit.

-but I do think also that's complicated when it comes to sex and love. I can identify aapects or a gradient of a sexuality to him. Not necessarily demisexual, but his identity and his mind can get in the way of desires or even, that it takes a specific amount of vulnerability that he avoids. So maybe it's trauma or his being on the spectrum. So in his journey of self-discovery, maybe he's been a lot of whatever "labels." I think so much of labels and identity play into his vast acknlowdgement of philosophy too. Why talk about sex at all if we arent also talking about society and death and culture and etc (que daniil stopping his one night stand mid sentence to lecture about the differences of breeding expectations in different economic structures or population.)

-I ship daniil with Burakh mostly, (stamatins and block too at times) but I also ship him with the Marble Nest bride at the stillwater, who I guess is like a projected OC of mine. (Shes a special model, one of the only ones wearing jewelry and also one of the only kin whose sweet to daniil? She also seems critical of her own culture "weddings are a sad thing for us". I have a million headcanons and ideas for them two, who I think he names her Theralydice (thera for theraputrix the assitants to aescluipis or healers, therayl for feral or wild, and dice for custome or law as well as a common form for femininenames) Something heretically latin and inappropriate and artemy shakes him stupid for naming a bride at all- "but how will I refer to the only reasonable one burakh") but I wont bore you with all that crack.

OTHER:

Sorry this has already gotten so long so ill just list random other stuff.

-I think burakh is a man of little words not cause he's shy or reserved but because hes very smart about his town. He knows that information and gossip spread like wildfire. And stating his ideas, thoughts, plans, TO ANYONE so plainly (as dankovsky does) means in another twenty minutes 6 other people might find out and stop him. It's in his best interest to act stupid and complacent. It's the best idea to shrug at young vlad and go "idk maybe" because saying yes or no would maybe mean making an enemy.

-I think there are two eldritch horros now one. Aside from boddho i think the mistresses are hearing something else out there in the ether. Same as those whispers to peter about building the polyhedron. Boddho from this planet or not, something in that void is wanting to come in and use her or the earths power to its own end. Town on Ghorkon seems like an open battery everyone wants to suck dry. And while the kains can talk a big talk about plans for nina or simon, I wouldnt be suprised if someone or something kicked their souls out and took over for itself.

-I 1000 percent think Aspity is the first outbreak in human form if that wasn't already established. But I also dont think clara is. But I do love the idea that it's possible to do. In the same way, maybe annaAngell occupies Willows body? Hmm.

-also all yes to everyone is just actually dolls, but then wheres the fun in hc-ing the world lore???

[candy616]

Graves proposes to You 💖 (AI ASMR)

Graves will make sure the setting for his proposal is perfect and matches your character. It depends solely on your preferences and could be:

>A very sweet, private moment. Like there's nobody else on this whole world but two of you.

>A dinner and a movie, followed up with a walk through the park… And a picnic under the stars.

>A long walk on the beach when the setting sun casts a warm, soft light across the waves.

>A romantic place with flowers everywhere and a bottle of fine champagne. The place where you two have a connection with.

>A candlelit dinner, flowers and a kiss that never ends.

>A nice restaurant, your favorite dish, a big-ass bouquet of your favorite flowers on the table, the music is right. He makes sure you are totally relaxed, happy and feeling loved.

>He takes you on a vacation to somewhere you two have never been before. It would be a surprise. He'd take you to a beautiful spot, where the sun sets over the horizon, and wait for a perfect moment.

>A trip to a cozy little mountainside cottage where a fire burns in the hearth, to help keep the chill away.

>The most romantic place imaginable, like by a volcano in Iceland, or at a beautiful overlook somewhere… Maybe on top of a tall mountain in Mongolia, overlooking the Mongolian steppe. Something amazing like that.

>In the middle of desert, when the stars are out, and it's all quiet and dark. Just you and him.

>Or he can just say it to you holding you in your bed.

~Of course, the ring is expensive. Even if you don't care about things like that, Graves just wants to show how important you are for him. The most perfect ring for you, something that fits your personality, something you'll love for sure. A special kind of ring that makes you feel like the luckiest girl on Earth. A ring that puts a twinkle in your eye and puts the biggest smile on your face whenever you would look at it. The ring screams, "He wants you to be his".~

So finally, Graves looks you straight in the eyes, takes your hand. You feel like you are the center of his universe. He holds you tight and he says:

Transcript:

Alright, baby. I stand before ya with a proposition so heartfelt, it could cause the devil hisself to tremblee.

Ever since I first laid eyes on ya, I knew ya were somethin' special. There's just somethin' 'bout ya that makes me feel right at home. Mah heart has been yours since the moment we met. Yer laughter, yer smile, yer touch, and yer love, they've given me a sense of purpose that's beyond measure. Darlin', when I say I love ya, I mean it with every bone in mah body. Ya are the most beautiful soul I've ever laid eyes on.

When I'm with ya, I feel like I'm on top of the world. It's like all the pain, all the sufferin', all the heartache jest washes away like it never existed. I've fought some of the toughest battles imaginable, but they pales in comparison to the battles I've fought without ya by mah side, baby. Ah've seen the world and all its ways, and I've come to realize there's no one else who makes me feel the way ya do, sugar. Every single day with ya makes me feel like I'm truly alive, for real… Ya complete me, darlin'.

Now, listen here, love. It's high time we made this thing official. There ain't no one else in this world fer me but you. Mah heart belongs to you and only you. I found ya, I wanna keep ya, so… Will ya marry me, baby?

No, you know what? You and me? We're gonna get married, sweatheart. And that's not a question, that's a fact. I found ya, you found me. Let's commit, let's grow old together. You know I ain't bullshittin', right? 'Cause I gotcha and I ain't never gonna let ya go.. I see it in ya, I seen it since the first time we met. You and I knew this was gonna happen, ya know? I wanna be yer protector, yer shoulder to lean on, and yer biggest champion. Whatcha think 'bout that, darlin'? Let's face whatever the future holds together, as partners, as lovers, and as a team. I love ya, baby.

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BONUS for gals who are into this. That was NOT my idea haha. I'm sorry.

Transcript:

Hell yeah, I'm serious. You are the best thing that ever happened to me. I wanna put a ring on that finger, swetheart. And a baby… A couple of babies… A whole mess of babies in yer belly… And when we're married, ya can call me Daddy. How's that sound, darlin'? Let's do it. Or I'll be very sad. Like really, really sad.

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This beautiful thing by @bellgraves inspired this.

For you, sweetheart.💖

[fishyfishyfishtimes]

I saw your mermaid post and as a fellow marine enthusiast: they could absolutely farm algae and kelp as staple crops. Kelp, for example bull kelp, grows extremely fast and almost farms itself. Algae is a little trickier, since it needs to grow on something-I imagine something like steppes or rice paddies, with large sheets of rock set out from which algae can be collected. Some more simple organisms could also be farmed, like jellyfish and tunicates, and of course sea cucumbers. I also think tubeworms would be viable livestock-just yoink them out of the shell!

Ah!! You know, I was thinking that algae (especially kelp) could be used as a stable food source, but I also figured that there should be another primary crop(s). But on further thought... all the different types of algae might just do the job. Some algae is already regularly consumed by people and contains beneficial vitamins and minerals, like spirulina! If only they were purposely cultivated to be bigger, tastier, healthier, faster-growing, algae would provide a varied selection of "leafy greens"! I really love the idea of algae being grown on rice paddy-like gentle underwater hills... the vast ocean and shallow fields of seaweed all around. Algae could also be grown vertically up to a certain depth, it would make good use of the very tall merfolk houses or underwater boulders!

....Wait, oh my cod. Sea grapes are a species of edible algae, with tiny grape-like balls. WHAT IF THERE WAS A DOMESTIC BREED WITH BIG "GRAPES".... LITERALLY SEA GRAPES.... Omgg

Uhhh uhhh anyway! I really like this idea of farming and harvesting simple animals haha. You just know bivalves are a regular source of animal protein along with fish thanks to their sessile nature! And tubeworms being harvested straight out of the tube!!! I wonder if the real things are poisonous in any way? Because a shallow water variety selected to have lots of meat seems like another good way to make use of sessile animals and possibly out of any skeletal remains of other animals. Sea cucumbers appear to be poisonous, but I mean, poison never stopped anyone from eating fugu! I can imagine it, a rare delicacy...

[smimon]

Hello I wanted to tell you about a song I really like, one of the more hopeful and memorable tracks I've heard - „Boję się” by Nosowska feat. Łona

It's a dialogue between a worried singer (Nosowska) and a reassuring rapper (Łona) and while the lyrics are amazing, the musical part is also really nicely composed. Here is the song and my attempt at translation below the cut as well as a short interpretation

The title: Boję się (I am scared)

(Nosowska)

I am so scared

That I'm a tree that grows frail

In a narrow slit of a paving slab

When I could have been a proud sequoia

I am so scared

That I'm a monkey in front of a TV

That they feed me sweets through the bars

When I could have been jumping from vine to vine

(Łona)

Uh-uh. What “slit”? What “frail”? When

The first statement already brings this significant fact

That there's a deeper instinct in a tree that

Has its roots in Szczecin

And the second statement, true, monkey, bars, true

TV from Orwell, candy from under a wardrobe, true

And the monkey is more of a gentle kind

But when needed, it can still bite hard

(Nosowska)

I am so scared

That all of this is not mine

That I'm getting dressed in someone else's feathers in the morning

That I'm living a life that's not mine

That I'm stubbornly loving you

That I love with my head, not heart

That I'm smiling although I don't want to at all

That I don't know who I am

(Łona)

Wait, goodness gracious,

Why this tone? Don't be so scared

Because you seemingly lost one detail along the way

That the feathers are someone else's but the outfit follows your own rules

And ain't this resilience your own?

You love - means he must be worth it

And there's no use of a heart without the head

So, for real, change the topic already

(Nosowska)

I am so scared

That I'm a horse at Morskie Oko Lake

Pulling a cart of asses uphill

When I could have been galloping through steppes

I am so scared

That I'm a singer in Poland

That I don't know who I am

That I will never learn and disappear

[prolonged silence]

(Łona)

Ok but just in case you don't disappear

Imagine how this draft horse

Suddenly rears and tests its teeth on the coachman

And starts galloping down the Krupówki street

Slalom with the cart, so for those in the cart it's a bummer

And soon they would be followed by a parade of Polish singers

Who suddenly speak in their own voices

And fear would fall out during eliminations

You like this vision? Then, bang!

It doesn't take much

---

Ok that was the song :) now a bit of interpretation

See how Nosowska's worry that she “doesn't know who she is” is repeated twice, in the second and third verse. In the second verse, it's stuffed between other worries, and Łona doesn't address it in his response, focusing on the other worries as they all seem equal so it shouldn't matter if he skips this one or another. But in the third verse, this worry is repeated and expanded.

It seems to be pretty important, and maybe Nosowska didn't accentuate it at first because it's a very personal thing, because it's double scary to get exposed like this. But now she repeats it, and after that a prolonged silence happens, triumphant silence for Nosowska because she seems to have “won” this “argument”, finally proving that it's a serious matter, that there is no hope, and that Łona can't possibly find a counter-argument for that so all that's left for her is to give up and stop caring at all.

So of course it hits so hard when Łona doesn't give up and keeps looking for positives. He took a moment break this time, maybe to think again about this worry, maybe it really is difficult. But if she cares about it so much then he has to look at it carefully, and he does, showing respect and care. And after his last verse, Nosowska doesn't lament anymore, doesn't argue, as if finally convinced that maybe things can turn out alright. And I think that's beautiful

[housedeaubemarle]

FFXIV Write 2024 #29: [Extra Credit] - Souvenirs

For @escherstrange-ffxiv and her wonderful boys whom I am very fond of <3

~~

Dearest Joshua and Izzy, I couldn’t wait to give you these, so I included them with all the other things I sent home. The Hingans call these padded coats ‘hanten’, and they are wonderfully warm, being lined with good cotton. These particular ones were handsewn by a talented tailor whom I chanced to find in Hingashi. When I said I was from Ishgard, she immediately picked up a hanten to recommend to me, which made me laugh – our reputation for ice, snow and dragons precedes us.  The patterned one is meant for Izzy. The Hingans call it ‘yabane’, meant to represent the fletchings on an arrow. It is considered a symbol of good luck and determination – once an arrow is loosed, it aims straight for its target without diversion. The black jacket is for Joshua; I imagined you would look very well in it, with its silver threads sewn into the cotton. There are five different patterns sewn with the silver, all meant to bring good luck and strength. I hope they will serve in the coming moons as the winds grow colder.  I send to you too a box of beautiful sweet delights I’d never seen in my life till now. Its name is ‘kohakutou’ – my hosts say it translates to ‘amber sugar’. I was served some with my tea a few suns ago, and I was enchanted. They look wonderfully like crystals of all colours, and the artisans here do a lovely job of infusing such sweetness that doesn’t overpower the tongue. Please share them amongst those who visit the community centre; I will be sure to bring home more if they are popular.   I’m learning much here in Doma, and I am humbled each day by all that I do not know; it’s a good feeling, unexpectedly. Eddy continues to be a favourite at our inn, and I’m just beginning to be concerned that I may have to hire a new lady’s maid in Ishgard, despite all of Eddy’s blushing protests. As for myself, I have a newfound love for the horses of the Steppe (though I’ve not forgotten the Apkallu of La Noscea, Izzy; one day I'll get to see them in person and be charmed all over again). I fear my hosts may be getting tired of my requests to return to the Steppe to visit the Noykin for more opportunities to ride. I find the horses are only slightly slower than Chocobos when they gallop, and their gaits require getting used to, but they are magnificent creatures all the same. My first sight of their herd roaming the plains under the vast blue sky is something I will never forget. I daren’t imagine trying to bring them to Aldenard, as they are very much a part of their tribe as the Xaela themselves, and it would take far more negotiation and discussion than I could afford at present – but I hold out some flame of hope in my heart.  Regardless of all my excitement, I confess to missing you all (I know I haven't even been away a moon - I am a spoiled creature). I am due to return in about two sennights, if all goes well. I hope you are keeping well, and that your days go smoothly. I’ve given Rem an earful for keeping news from me, so I hope to hear of you and from you if time should allow. Please also let me know if I may do anything or bring anything back for you from the East. Till I next see you, Halone bless and keep you all. Your cousin, Oudine. P.S. I think of how Wil might behave around the falcons here and it makes me smile. Please give him my love; I hope he enjoys the kohakutou too.

[paintedscales]

By contrast, what was the moment that first made their ~heart~ Soft for the other person? Not necessarily a conscious realization of “I love this person,” but a moment that had them like “Oh...I adore them...”

Good evening, Vasheden! Thank you so much for the ask. I don't think this one comes from a prompt list, which thank you! I really appreciate the interest! ; w ; /

I wanted to answer something that's been sitting in my inbox for a while at this point before I went to bed tonight. :'D This one has been on my radar for a while.

So...in my writings that I've been off and on working on, it was Estinien who got smitten first. After everything, and after their time meeting and understanding that they both buried the hatchet on the Steppe, it was Ghimlyt Dark for him. The way I have it framed in one of the drabbles I wrote is that he found Nomin having collapsed due to the Exarch's meddling at an inopportune time, and when he went to defend and whisk her from the battlefield, he was just...

Hm...

He understood that, as the Warrior of Light, losing her would have been detrimental to everyone. But as he was bringing her back to safety, he started having other thoughts. Like what if it wasn't just because she's the Warrior of Light? I'm saving someone who has just as much experience as I do, and can relate to the same things that I do... There was kinship on the Steppe, and then I think Ghimlyt and being so close to losing her in that moment was just that little click for him that was just, "oh...I don't want to lose her because I'll lose someone who understands me better than anyone else."

From there, for him, it just starts to grow. Not that he ever speaks up on it. I think Aymeric probably picked up on it when Estinien brought Nomin to him, though. Maybe. Not sure yet. I haven't really explored how I want to go about that.

As for Nomin...

It was while she was on the First. After remembering what little fragments and moments of delirium in Estinien's hold during Ghimlyt, and also being told that she was rushed into Aymeric's care thanks to him, Estinien lived in her head rent free.

Much like how I imagine Estinien, Nomin has also experienced the fact that she did reconcile and come to understandings enough with Estinien on the Steppe that it felt apt to call him a decent enough friend. It was a lot of dancing around similar trauma bonding, but bonding nonetheless.

On the First, she thought of him, she thought of him so much. Remembering being held by him and feeling grateful that he rescued her from getting killed by Elidibus. So when she came back from the First and she met with him again, just seeing him triggered that happy response. That tail flick. When that happened, she realized, "oh...oh... I actually do want to be with him. I want him at my side as much as I want to be at his."

And that was fun (not)! Because Nomin didn't actually know what to do with those emotions. I don't think Estinien did, either. So...I think both of them just shelved those emotions for later. Fast forward to Endwalker before traveling to Ultima Thule where they both confess to one another. :p

[mnkeethewriter]

Mapmaking through Words

With the prevalence of bestselling fantasy worlds like Middle-earth, Westeros, and Hogwarts flooding the mainstream media, building a world from scratch can seem like a daunting task. Where does one even begin creating such a masterpiece, and how do you make it stand out from the hundreds already out there? Lucky for you, I live and breathe worldbuilding. I’m here to help you streamline the process and get your creativity flowing through prompt questions and guided brainstorming. Worldbuilding doesn’t have to be this impossible task. With the right building blocks, you’ll be making the dream in your head a reality on paper in no time.

With today's topic, let’s start from the ground up, literally. The most fundamental aspect of worldbuilding is, well, building the world. You can’t create a map without topography, just like you can’t write a story without a physical setting to drop your characters into. Nature is the very foundation that you will build everything off of, and it will ultimately affect the trajectory of your story. Imagine how different a story written in a bountiful farmland would be compared to one written in a desolate wasteland. With that in mind, I want to highlight and discuss our first prompt question.

What biomes are your world composed of? According to the Encyclopaedia Britannica, a biome can be defined as “a major community of plants and animals with similar life forms and environmental conditions.” 

There’s much debate on how broad or narrow to categorize these communities, so remember the list I’ve provided below is just a fraction of the diversity this world, and hopefully yours too, offers.

Tropical Rainforest

Hot and humid

High rainfall with no dry season (50 to 260 inches yearly)

Greatest biodiversity in the world

Mostly composed of evergreen plants

Temperate Forest

Mild climate with four distinct seasons

Coniferous and/or deciduous trees

Taiga (Boreal Forest)

Largest terrestrial biome

Coniferous trees

Long, cold winters with little daylight (9 months below freezing)

Short summers (1-3 months) with up to mild temperatures (19 to 70°F) 

Desert

Hottest biome

Extreme temperature swings from day to night (-40 to 120°F)

Little to no precipitation (Less than 20 inches yearly)

Tundra

Year-round permafrost allowing only low plants to grow

Dry climate (6 to 10 inches of rainfall yearly)

Below freezing except during short summers (37 to 54°F)

Little to no daylight in winter

Grassland

Transitional biome between forests and deserts

Various names/kinds dependent on location (plains, prairies, steppes, etc.)

Short and/or tall grasses with little to no trees

Savanna

Transitional biome between forests and deserts

Tree-studded grasslands

Warm climate with wet and dry seasons

Freshwater

Low salt concentration

Further categorized as streams/rivers, lakes/ponds, wetlands 

Ever-changing biome

Marine

High salt concentration

Largest biome in the world

5 major oceans covering 70% of the Earth

References

1. Augustyn, A. (2023, January 13). biome. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/science/biome

2. Moeller, K. (2013, July 19). Boundless Biomes. ASU - Ask A Biologist. https://askabiologist.asu.edu/explore/biomes

[cloudcountry]

okay so like imagine xen or ig me is fucking around with a spell or something and ends up finding out

i faceplant into a pile of snow and am freezing my ass off because holy crap is this the southern steppe?? it’s too cold to just be a magical realm so i use a spell to warm up and just try to figure out where i am before some little gremlin full body rams into me and lo and behold it’s little baby montag (who im just gonna say is around 8 for this)

“oh my gods is that little lucio he’s so cute wait where am i then aaahhh he’s so itty bitty-“

then he like tries to threaten me or something because yk the scourge tribe and all but like let’s be honest he’s probably looking for adult validation that morga wouldn’t give him and i am very willing to dole out praise to him because he’s so cutie patootie

i try to lead him back to the tribe’s territory and morga probably wouldn’t trust me at first but i wouldn’t trust her either cuz she seems too strict and also because ive already grown too overprotective of him

i bet i could raise him better 💪💪 oh he keeps avoiding his chores? give him incentives to do those chores in a timely manner. he almost drowned in a river? teach him to swim???? he can’t fight a bear? DONT MAKE HIM FIGHT A BEAR!!

yeah :3 idc if morga would say im coddling him because maybe he’d grow up to not commit war crimes idk

YOU WOULD LITERALLY BE DOING THE ABSOLUTE MOST BY RAISING A BABY LUCIO CRYINGGGG XEN I WISH YOU THE MOST LUCKK

[hazelkjt]

Just a bunch of dumb thoughts about Hazel I can't get out of my head

Clothing- Hazel prefers free flowing and/or non-restrictive clothing, trying her best to keep to her tribe's aesthetic while adding her own flair. Many in the Kha tribe do not adhere to only wearing the tribe's primary color, preferring and encouraged to express themselves and their individuality as they see fit; an aspect of civilizations outside the Steppe that the Kha integrated into their own culture. Whether or not the bright red her family wore is the Kha tribe's true color or simply the one her family chose to adopt, Hazel tries her best to incorporate red into her outfits as to always keep the thought of her home close to her.

Sleeping- Hazel sleeps on her back with her hips shifted to keep her from laying on top of her own tail. It gets numb if she lays on it for too long and the feeling keeps her up at night. Once asleep she barely makes a sound, her slumber deep enough to not wake up even as a rampaging Dzo is charging through the tribe's camp. Her internal clock is very precise however, as she's always up just as dawn breaks over the horizon.

Tail- Hazel's tail is exceptionally strong, owing to the much larger than normal size of it. Despite spending much of her youth touching it herself, she still gets a jolt of electricity shoot up her spine whenever she feels another person so much as brush against it. She can also have trouble controlling its movements when overcome by too much emotion.

Some examples are:

When sad/upset, her tail droops and the tip drags along the ground.

When happy/excited, her entire tail slowly sways side to side much like a dog's would.

When embarrassed/nervous, her tail begins to wrap itself around and down her leg.

When scared/surprised, her tail begins to curl upwards.

When angry, her tail droops like she is sad except for the tip, which is slightly off the ground and flicking back and forth sporadically.

Horns- Despite having an additional, smaller pair of horns growing from her forehead Hazel's hearing is no different from the average Auri person's. This is because these smaller "oni" horns (as she's had them be called by others in Kugane) are not hollow like the ones on the side of her head. Like her tail, Hazel's horns are also sensitive to anything else touching them, which is why she avoids wearing earrings and many headpieces almost entirely. The only exception is her fur-lined hat she wears while in Ishgard.

Reading- Hazel loves to read, but until she arrived in Eorzea she always found it a challenge. Often times, even after she grew into a young adult, she would have her mother Janis double check the words in the books she read as she often got them wrong. Turns out she has a case of premature presbyopia that was never diagnosed, and after obtaining a pair of reading glasses on her journey she never goes anywhere without them on her person. This saved her so many future headaches from forcing herself to strain over the letters printed on the pages of whatever she could get her hands on to read…but it doesn't save her from reliving the embarrassment of writing her name as "Hazel Kay" by accident for months on end.

Physique- Hazel's jet black scales and larger frame than the average Auri female led to her gaining the stares of many, many other Xaela of the Steppe, both from her own tribe and others. Most of these stares she could feel came from their bewilderment as to how she looked, though a fair few had some other thoughts about her. Many an Oronir tried their hand at claiming her as their Nhaama, Hazel's greater likeness to the Dusk Mother due to her darker scales being an extremely common comparison they all made. Hazel rejected them all however, as she too preferred the Oronir interpretation of the Azim and Nhaama fable and none of the suitors that took their chance felt like how she imagined her "Azim" to be like. Someone who could match her drive for knowledge as well as her strength in combat.

Parentage- Hazel's parents are Janis and Baato Kha, of which she is their only child. The two were always members of the Kha tribe and were infatuated with one another growing up. Following Eorzean traditions Janis read of in a book detailing the Eternal Bonding ritual, the two carved bone rings to symbolize their devotion to one another. Baato is a respected and renowned hunter for the tribe, earning the title of "Stonesplitter" after cleaving a Chuluu in two with one swing from his large blade. Janis was also a hunter for a short while before becoming a shepherd for the tribe, keeping watch over half of the flock of karakul the Kha raise. Janis is also fascinated by foreign literature and novels, having quite the collection in her and Baato's yurt that grows larger with each trip out to trade with people from outside the Azim Steppe. Growing up with a veteran and elite hunter for a father and a knowledge loving and ever-seeking mother, Hazel turning out the way she did is obvious to all within moments of meeting the family.

Hair- Despite her rough and tumble appearance Hazel takes great pride in her hair. She takes extraordinary care of it, always being careful when applying her red hair dye to the ends. She dyes parts of her hair red for the same reason she tries to always wear clothing with some form of red in the outfit: to keep her family close at hand. She keeps a supply of the dye stocked at nearly all times to she's always ready to reapply it when the color begins to fade. Hazel buys this dye from Calling Wind, an alchemist she met and brefriended back in the Azim Steppe. Calling was the one who, after making a deal with the Auri woman, allowed her to travel back with him to Eorzea after she found a rare herb that grows only in the Stepp to assist in his research.

[random-thought-depository]

Refining my ideas for the bearfolk world some more...

I'm still basically going with my ideas here and here, but making some modifications:

I think I'll scale back the ecosystem-shaping aspect of the big grazers and make them more ecologically normal animals. They'd probably still be ecosystem-shapers to some extent, but fundamentally they're just another regular grassland animal. Hunting them was an important selection pressure in the bearfolk's evolution because for most of the last few million years the bearfolk world cycled between ice ages and high obliquity eras and during the ice ages much of the land area was open "grassland"/steppe, i.e. big grazer country.

Accordingly, I've gotten rid of the southern hemisphere grazer steppe continent. The bearfolk world now has only two continents, not three. I still like the idea of having a big "window into what the planet looked like in prehistoric times" region, but it's not going to be a separate continent, instead I'm going to make it a continent-size high plateau that's part of the main continent. I like the high plateau idea better for a couple of reasons. First, a continent-size high plateau is just a nicely weird alien landform, not quite like anything on Earth, so it gives the planet a nice alien touch. Second, I have some ideas for bearfolk history that would work nicely with the continent-size plateau set-up.

I've also changed how the seasons work to make the planet a bit more alien.

So, here's a description of the bearfolk planet as I now imagine it, focusing on the planet's present state and natural environment:

At present, the bearfolk world is in an era of low axis obliquity, moderately high orbital eccentricity, and higher than average atmospheric carbon dioxide. Axis obliquity is less than 10 degrees, maybe 6 to 8 degrees. Seasons are basically controlled by the changing distance from the sun between perigee and apogee and planet-wide, but the axis obliquity is high enough to also generate significant seasonal variations, which results in very different seasonal patterns in the northern and southern hemispheres.

The north pole points at the sun while the planet is at perigee and points away from the sun when the planet is at apogee. Thus, in the northern hemisphere, seasonal variation due to axis obliquity and seasonal variation due to changing distance from the sun are more-or-less synchronous and have an additive effect. Neither source of seasonal variation is very strong. Thus, the northern hemisphere has a warm climate with moderate seasons gentler than Earth's.

The south pole points away from the sun while the planet is at perigee and points toward the sun while the planet is at apogee. Thus, in the southern hemisphere seasonal variation due to axis obliquity and seasonal variation due to changing distance from the sun mostly cancel each other out. Thus, the southern hemisphere has an almost seasonless climate, with only a small warming at perigee and a small cooling at apogee (at least in the tropical, subtropical, and temperate latitudes; near the south pole axis obliquity effects may be strong enough to dominate orbital effects).

This results in the northern and southern hemispheres having rather different climates. Significantly, glaciers form and grow more easily in the southern hemisphere, despite its milder winters; cooler summers mean more areas that are near or below freezing year-round, and thus more opportunities for snow and ice to build up. Glaciers are more reflective than open water, rock, or green land, so once a glacier forms it tends to cool itself and its immediate surroundings by reflecting sunlight. This makes the southern hemisphere noticeably cooler than the northern hemisphere, especially near the poles and in mountainous regions. It's not a full-blown hemisphere-asymmetric ice age - the planet is too warm for that at present - and the northern hemisphere actually has more ice because there's a lot more land in the northern polar region, but the southern hemisphere has a noticeably less friendly climate. Topographical differences between the northern and southern part of the bearfolk world's main continent greatly enhance this effect.

The bearfolk world has two continents. The smaller continent is about 15 million square kilometers. The bigger continent is much bigger and is most of the planet's land area; it stretches from the north polar region to a point near the Antarctic Circle.

The northernmost area of the big continent is almost isolated, connected to the rest of the great continent only by a relatively narrow isthmus. Its interior is covered by a vast continental glacier, bigger than Antarctica's. However, being bigger than Antarctica also means much of its coast has at least an ice-free green fringe like that of southern Greenland, and there are several peninsulas that stretch south into warmer latitudes. The biggest of these peninsulas stretches into the northern temperate latitudes, into the latitudes suitable for agriculture. Though this region is technically connected to the big continent, in historical millennia it has tended to function like a separate continent, exchanging goods, ideas, and people with the rest of the planet more by sea than by the difficult northern overland route. This region actually had more biomass in high obliquity eras, when steambath heat in summer nourished strange deciduous forests in regions that are now buried under kilometers of ice; these vanished polar forests were a major crucible of bearfolk evolution (pity the present kilometers-thick glaciers make the fossil record of this region hard to study).

The rest of the northern part of the big continent is a fertile land, mostly forest, open woodland, and "grassland" regions, though there is some desert (the "grassland" is, of course, technically not covered by grass but by a structurally similar native plant). Most of the major population centers of the bearfolk are in this part of the planet.

The equatorial region of the great continent has a large lowland rainforest, similar to Earth's Amazon basin. But south and perhaps west of this forested lowland there is one of the bearfolk world's strangest landforms; a vast plateau more than a kilometer above sea level and more than fifteen million square kilometers in area, the size of a continent. Most of the southern part of the great continent is this plateau.

This vast plateau is relatively cool because of its high altitude, though the effect is less pronounced than one might expect because of how the cooling effect of high altitude works (the edges of the plateau tend to be cooler than the central regions because of this). A more noticeable difference is that it's rather dry, because the mountains, slopes, and escarpments that surround it stop much of the precipitation that might otherwise reach it. On the other hand, aside from its base elevation it's also mostly relatively flat, a tableland the size of a continent, and this means the rain-bearing winds that do manage to reach it can blow into the interior relatively unimpeded. The result is that much of this plateau is covered by vast "grassland" steppes, though there are also large areas of scrubbier vegetation and desert, especially in the northwest. Altogether, its landscape rather resembles a piece of one of the planet's ice ages.

A large peninsula of the great continent stretches south to a point near the Antarctic Circle; the southern part of this peninsula is covered by a continental glacier.

As mentioned, the bearfolk world also has a second, much smaller continent, about 15 million square kilometers. This smaller continent is centered on the northern hemisphere subtropical latitudes, but it extends into the tropical and northern temperate latitudes. It is rather arid and Australia-like in its western and central regions, but wetter and more fertile in its southern, eastern, and northern regions. It is more-or-less surrounded by a large archipelago. This small continent and its associated archipelago are actually highland regions of a bigger ancient continent that partially subsided to below sea many millions of years ago.

[bardtothestars]

On Au Ra Horns, Scales, and Moulting

I personally headcanon that races like the Miqo'te and Au Ra molt and love to think about how this affects the two races as a whole, especially applying it to Akshay. A large chunk of this actually was written by me being brainrot about the whole thing at first, then built using xBlutkatze's Au Ra and Skin Care Guide after I found it later! As such, it is kind of a mashup of that hc and my own.

The molting process of Au Ra to me is similar to how a gator sheds (shedding individual scales periodically versus one large molt, oftentimes rubbing them off on rocks or hard surfaces), while the scales themselves are more akin to armadillos in material and texture (scutes, a bony layer in the skin covered with horn/keratin).

Au Ra horns, on the other hand, are not made of the same soft scales/scutes. I see the material as more akin to the casques or crests cassowaries have, which help with sound reception and acoustic communication. They are keratinous and hollow, allowing for soundwave vibrations to enter into the hollow inside of the casque and be processed and amplified as they bounce along the fine fibers inside. The horns also help to regulate body temperature, offloading heat at high temperatures and restricting heat loss at low temperatures. Because of this, I also imagine piercings to not pierce through the horn as other races have, despite how earrings appear in the game. Drilling holes into the horns would damage the fibers in the ear, and the vibrations from such a process would be quite painful. Additionally, earrings swinging around would make an audible noise through a hole like that and be really distracting. I personally think Au Ra would instead have metal clamps to attach them by, or, more easily, loop them around the horns.

I like to think that the tribes would have sweat lodges and purification ceremonies similar to many Indigenous tribes like the Chumash or the Aztec peoples. Botanists can get Steppe safflowers there which can be turned into a carrier oil to make into soap or used directly for molting. These oils can help to allow the scales to release and also remedy the cracked, tender skin left behind by lost scales. Also, things such as fatty fish and raw milk can help with molting as well, of which the Steppe has plenty.

Pumice stones or smooth river stones could be utilized to remove tough scales while inside a sweat lodge. I envision this practice as a loving bonding ritual within a tribe. Close ones, such as family or lovers, would be allowed to help in removing scales that are difficult to reach for an Au Ra on their own. I imagine it to be a bit awkward for Akshay to allow non-Au Ra to do this, but a sign of major familial love or trust.

In Eorzea, I imagine Akshay utilizing hot baths or saunas whenever he can to privately remove his own scales to the best of his ability, stubbornly refusing any help. The molting rituals he grew up with in the Steppe do make him highly adept at skin and scale care, though, and he often carries tools to help with shedding on him (such as pumice stones for scale removal and medical salves/carrier oils to help with cracking). He would also catch and eat fatty fish for himself to help his body molt- not that he doesn't already have a preference for it due to him growing up accustomed to fishing and eating the aggressive fish that are indigenous to the Azim Steppe

[setaripendragon]

People are leaving so much thought provoking stuff in the tags!

#it's a long time since I read HDM#but isn't there a canon story about a sailor with a dolphin daemon#who could never go ashore again?#the sailor with the seagull tells Lyta about him via @iztarshi

A dolphin! I was wracking my brains trying to remember if canon had mentioned anything like that. I remember there was emphasis on the Gyptians being sea-faring water-folk, but I couldn't remember if aquatic daemons had been mentioned or not ^^"

So, aquatic mammals definitely in, fish are still up in the air. Metaphorically speaking.

#I personally like to think of the restrictions as 'an animal the daemon and child know about and have seen in person'#because the daemon has to understand it well enough to transform into it#and it helps handle the aquatic/mythical/extant question very nicely#but I only read the first book years ago so via @planeoftheeclectic

I remember reading a... I think it was a Pride and Prejudice fanfic? Some Regency drama, anyway - where this was the case, and it was fascinating. Because, of course, most of the cast was limited to animals found in England, and there was a whole lot of world-building around how fashionable 'exotic' daemons are.

And it would have some interesting worldbuilding implications regarding zoos and such. They'd probably become much more culturally important. There'd probabbly be all sorts of pseudo-science parenting advice based around 'expose your children to as many different animals as possible to give them as much room to grow as you can. And... on a darker note, parents who try to control how their children settle by restricting them from places they might run into 'unsuitable' animals.

So yeah, loads of fascinating worldbuilding posibilities with that one, but personally, I find it... too limiting? And too hard to apply to 'verses that aren't 'Earth-but-different'. Like in Fairy Tail or Lord of the Rings. I suppose you could hand-wave with Lord of the Rings and say that it's all European and go from there (the Shire is rural England, Rohan is the Steppe, etc), but like... what animals would a person be likely to have encountered in Fiore? I'm not building a whole ecosystem just to justify my daemon choices! XD

#okay but what about animals people THINK are real?#could jackalope daemons pop up?#a large portion of people think they really do exist after all#do kids with cryptid daemons get teased by people who know better or gaslighted by people who “know better”? via @murderandjam

Now, see, this! This is exactly the sort of worldbuilding I like. See, going by my rules, which... I feel I should clarify are, like, meant to be the laws of nature in whatever 'verse; humans in whichever setting may not know that daemons have to be extant animals, so a european medieval peasant could potentially have a giraffe daemon or a komodo dragon and therefore believe wholeheartedly that 'mythical' daemons are entirely possible, because an animal like that couldn't really exist.

Ohh, cryptids. Now that's a... huh. Like in a 'verse where cryptids are real... then having a cryptid daemon would theoretically be possible... depending on how sapient your cryptids are. Are they people? Like, most of the vibes I've gotten from the cryptids I know about like bigfoot and mothman and stuff... a lot of them seem sapient, so, that would rule them out. But jackalopes would be possible. And there's a whole load of worldbuilding you could derive from that.

Like with the example of a HP daemon AU where people are able to have mythical daemons without knowing that mythical creatures are actually real, there probably wouldn't be any assumption that daemons have to be extant. There'd probably be a whole variety of cultural attitudes about it, from 'people with a mythical daemon are special and destined for greatness' to 'people with mythical daemons are maybe whimsical and imaginative but ultimately normal' to 'people with mythical daemons are disconnected from reality and probably mad'.

If you've only got a few cyptid style creatures in your 'verse, and assuming it's a modern-day earth-like world, then there could be a disconnect between the scientific community and 'common knowledge' where a scientist might see a jackalope daemon and go 'every other daemon we know about is extant, and we've even discovered species we didn't know were out there because of daemons, so what if?' but your average joe off the street would probably, like you say, mock or tease someone for having a cryptid daemon.

#I think there's one more question left to ask#which is: does it have to be a KNOWN animal?#can a daemon be a species of frog or salamander or something that the human doesn't know of?#or that NO human knows of?#are species discovered by a biologist seeing a daemon and going 'THAT does not EXIST except it must so....'#and then scouring the world for the actual animal?#if it DOESN'T need to be known to the human#you can get interesting scenarios (especially in historical or otherwise limited communication settings)#platypus daemon for a person in 15th century Europe#it would become the basis for a new mythical creature#and then eventually no one would know why some “mythical” creatures appear as daemons and others don't#not to mention the 'what if there's life on other planets' question via @firecoloredwater

Yes! I definitely prefer it not being dependant on what an individual person knows, precisely because of these fun misunderstandings that can happen.

Ooh, hmm... Like deep-sea creatures, my first instinct is to say that a people can only have daemons from the planet they're from? But then why not only from the continent they're from? Why should a desert-dweller be capable of getting an arctic hare for a daemon but not something from, say, tatooine?

Oh, this is... Huh, yeah. Like, in a Star Wars setting, would people be limited to... what? Only animals from the planet they were born on? Only animals from the planet their species is originally from? Only animals from the planet they spent most of their childhood on? I would think... if I was going to stick with my first instinct, I'd probably make it a 'only animals from the planet your species was originally from', with potentially a caveat for like... if humans colonise lots of planets and bring earth-animals with them and then wildly divergent animals evolve over time, then all of those animals are valid for all humans. Even if they've never been to that other planet with the completely 'alien' animals.

Yeah. I think... Despite the fact that there are limiting factors from continent to continent, planets on the whole are a whole 'nother level of completely distinct environments. Like... there are animals that can fly or swim from any part of the world to any other part of the world. It's possible, if very difficult, but... as far as we know, it's not actually possible to get from planet to planet without, well, what we would call sapeince, and even then, we still haven't actually managed to put people on another planet yet.

It also raises the question of sapient life other than humans. This is, honestly, one of my favourite favourite favourite worldbuilding tricks in a daemon AU, ngl =D If you're writing in a 'verse with multiple sapeint species (Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, etc), do they all have daemons, or is it just humans? And in a 'verse like Star Wars, if it is only humans, then how closely related to humans do you have to be to have a daemon? Like, there's a whole category of 'near-human' sapient species in Star Wars that only have minor biological differences. And then on the other end of the spectrum you have, like, wookies and kaminoans and besalisks and such.

And the cultural implications of having some sapeint species without daemons! I know HDM touched on this with Will not having a daemon at first and Lyra's reaction to it, but blowing that up to a bigger, cultural scale is just -chef's kiss- Do humans refuse to believe in another species' sapience because they don't have daemons? Do humans get treated like the Ood from Doctor Who, carrying their brains around in their hands? Are daemons used as a weakness to exploit by other sapient species who think themselves better for being 'less vulnerable'?

-happy wiggle- Culture clash is my jam.

#the spiritual implications of your daemon being a kind of animal you dont even know about is SO FUN#your soul sits in your lap and you cannot name it#daemon au via @mossiestpiglet

You! You get it!

So I'm still on this daemon AU kick, and I can't stop thinking.

What are the limits?

It's generally accepted that a daemon is an animal representation of the soul, right? So, you know, we've got birds and mammals and reptiles and insects.

But what about fish?

Obviously there's an issue here of, you know, environment, and if your soul literally can't survive in the air while you literally can't survive in the water, there's a problem.

But, hey, if it's small enough, you could have a little fishbowl for your daemon to live in. Hamster ball, but filled with water, rolling along at your heels. Fishtank on wheels that get tricked out like dudebros soup up their car. And maybe, if you're from a particularly sea-faring culture/lifestyle a water-bound mammal like a dolphin or an orca could make sense. And then there's things like sharks, which have so much symbolism attached to them that it seems a real shame to have to rule them out. (Someone who's particularly driven or ambitious having a daemon that would literally die if it stopped moving is a bit of symbolism I'm going a bit feral for, tbh.)

I think we have to rule out the deep sea creatures, unfortunately. Fishbowls and/or living on a boat wouldn't really solve the problem of pressure, and someone with a blobfish daemon would, uh... be in trouble.

And if we're talking about things that can't survive in the same atmosphere as humans, what about internal parasites? Like flatworms. I think it's safe to say that having your daemon parasitizing your intestine kind of defeats the purpose of having an external manifestation of your soul, but... There are species of flatworm that aren't parasites, so... do we just rule out all flatworms, or are the non-parasitic ones okay?

And speaking of flatworms, what about size? I've read some fun stories that deal with the issues that might come from having, say, an elephant daemon. It's not quite as dramatic as the issues of having an aquatic daemon, but actually, similar adjustments would have to be made to your living situation to cope. But, of course, it could be done and I don't think anyone's trying to rule out animals on account of how big they are, but I think it's safe to say that microscopic daemons are out for the same reason that internal parasites have to be.

There's a nice solid rule I can settle on; a daemon has to be a visible animal.

And, in point of fact, I think it's safe to say it has to be an animal. We can rule out trees and plants and even fungi.

So what about coral?

It's an animal, and if we are allowing for some aquatic daemons, then should coral be an option? Or are its vibes too plant-like to qualify? Do we rule out sessile animals like we ruled out microscopic ones? As much as I find the idea of a coral daemon absolutely hilarious, I am going to come down on the side of animals that are too much like plants are a no.

So a daemon has to be a visible, mobile animal.

But what about the ones that only move very slowly? I don't think we're ruling out sloths, but in the continuing vein of torturing myself considering various aquatic daemons, there's starfish and sea urchins and hell, even most bivalves can move at least a little, right? (Correct me if I'm wrong, I haven't done that research yet.) And there's a lot of fun symbolsim to be had, there, I think.

And what about extinct creatures?

I think it's safe to say that mythical creatures are a no-go, unless this is a 'verse where those animals are real, (oh, boy wouldn't that confuse people in a world like HP where most people think dragons and unicorns aren't real, but people still wander around with dragon and unicorn daemons) so we can ammend our rule to visible, mobile, real animals, but could we go so far as extant?

If yes, that would have interesting world-building implications. Where's the cut-off point? Can we rule out dinosaurs because we don't/didn't have enough information for a daemon to settle into a form that wouldn't be technically mythical? But then, what about animals that go extinct within human history? What about all the people who had mammoth daemons or dodo daemons as those animals were dying out.

Would conservationists study daemon statistics to see if an animal has really gone extinct? Would an animal's extinct status get over-turned when a kid's daemon settled into that form? Honestly, I like this enough that I've convinced myself that, at least barring some very unique circumstances, extinct animals are not allowed.

So, it has to be a visible, mobile, extant animal. That can exist in proximity to humans.

Oh, and should probably add; visible, mobile, extant, and non-sapient.

You can't have a human daemon, or an elf or a dwarf or a fairy daemon even if they exist in that world, and if this is a 'verse with dragons who're more than just exotic magical animals, you can't have a dragon daemon. (Obviously, if your fairies are more like magical bugs than tiny people, then fairies would be a valid daemon.)

...I'm still on the fence about whether a daemon should have to be air-breathing or not. That kind of rule would still leave marine mammals available for the fun world-building of how people adapt to that kind of handicap. (...Do you think people with aquatic daemons would be considered disabled? Oooh, what about people with really big daemons? I mean, presuming such a thing is comparatively rare, people probably wouldn't be building schools with a mind to allowing elephants or giraffes to wander the corridors.)

Disclaimer! This is for my own creative process, and not intended to limit anyone else's creative flair. And, honestly, I'd love to hear other people's takes on what does and doesn't qualify for a daemon.