#(that being the pelarotas and the VULPINIC tortugans)

[whatudottu]

So the anthropologist nerd/loser in me wondered what kind of folklore and mythology various alien cultures in the Ben 10 universe might have (creation myths, folk heroes, ways of explaining natural phenomena that aren’t science-based, etc.) and caused me to come up with possibly the dumbest idea for a Ben 10 OC yet: an alien bard who travels across the galaxy not just to perform but also to collect stories and ballads of great events and heroes from different planets to add to their collection and form new ballads based off of them.

One of their original stories tells the tale of an alien from a far-off planet who attempted to take control of the space-time continuum and was cursed by the gods of his planet for his hubris by being scattered across time and space and sent back to the beginning of the universe, forced to live through its entire history in an endless cycle all while never being able to experience the sweet release of death, only for him to learn how to bend time and space to his will and ascend to godhood himself, leading to an epic battle between him and the gods who had cursed him in the first place. Though they are required by the man who served as the inspiration behind the story to put a disclaimer at the beginning that the story is merely a dramatization and doesn't 100% line up with what actually happened before they can tell it.

Oh totally! With the advent of space travel, especially among the species that have had such for a LONG while, there would most certainly be folktales and mythology abound for newer space travelers to pick up. Like, even with a significant scientific understanding of the happenings of the universe, older facts translate into newer fiction as stories develop by word of mouth (or the equivalent depending on species physiology) by the more bardic types of intergalactic individuals.

Of course, you'd probably have the more librarian types who not only record all these tales but also all the fact that it was inspired by through vigorous fact checking. Me making Sugilite a mutant with a more unique planetary psychometry (accessing the 'memories' of the entire planet) lends to me also making him this librarian of Petropian history, and considering the state of Petropia (aka not revived) he can't particularly afford to spin a few myths of his own. Instead Sugilite would totally have some bardic stories ABOUT him and his 'Library of Alexandria' mutant power, especially with Mor'Otesi being as barren of cystalsapiens as it is.

[whatudottu]

Alright so, today I learnt that Arburian Pelarotas have fur (it’s all the white, though it’s short), so aside from that cursed bit of information, I wanna talk about them, their survival and also in part Vulpinic Tortugans.

So, first off all, let’s acknowledge the obvious. Arburia has been destroyed by The Great One, which would’ve killed anything living on its surface, but unlike humans, surely the Pelarota are aware of interplanetary shenanigans, right? Official word is, the universe is huge and there must be some Arburian Pelarota around still, especially enough that even the worshippers aren’t all that shocked to still see one.

Taking an idea from @omnipedia inspired by one of their recent asks, I believe that, when people realised that the big tick was virtually impossible to defeat (despite the fact that Cannonbolt did just that), they had issued a planetary evacuation. Where did they evac to? Their colonies of course!

But wait, colonies? Let me explain.

In doing at least a little bit of research so I don’t pull an Omniverse and retcon anything, it seems as though Arburian Pelarota’s have been referenced as being Tortugans, demonstrated in a very interesting pop-up panel in Game Over. Now you’ve probably already noted that Vulpinic Tortugans share the common name, and and I’m sure you’re aware, these species are related.

What I’m getting at here is, if there is already a distinction made between Vulpinic and Arburian Tortugans, why not have other strains of family on other colonies? Sure, perhaps each of the species themselves has a different secondary name (a new evolutionary generation you might say), but given the information we have been given, I believe the common ancestor of these colonies were Tortugans.

Moreover, the wiki (at the very least) says that these Vulpinic Tortugans are more ‘primative’ than their Arburian, and assumably other colony, relatives. I wonder, does this actually mean primative, or does this specifically mean that their lives aren’t as pristine and civilised as the colonies, not because they aren’t intelligent, but because Vulpin itself is destructive to rules and it’s people need to adapt and change faster than a city ever could.

Alrighty, let’s walk through what happened.

Tortugans, one of the earliest species to engage in not only space travel, but even space colonisation in the known universe (ironically, the reboot supports this with the state of modern Arburian education), engage on an expedition to expand their territories. Whether it’s out of need for materials, desire for more land under their grasp or out of spite and competition (almost the least likely, but who knows what evolutionary behaviours are lost or gained from generation to generation), they spread out across their solar system.

Colonies with planets of similar biospheres as Arburia (or their original planet, if it weren’t Arburia) would’ve had the most success in adapting to the environment and have settled firmly on their respective planet. However, within this same solar system, Vulpin orbits, and the colonists sent to it had it hard. Maybe they had a mentality that prevented them from turning back, maybe something something colony ship crashed or just generally had no materials to safely maintain, but regardless, they remained Vulpin bound and colony unsuccessful.

Overtime perhaps the Tortugans had perhaps attempted to make friendly with the ancestors of the Vulpimancers. Maybe some had tried and failed to domesticate these ancestors because they too fell under the belief that they were merely animals rather than their own sapient beings with their own culture. Maybe some had succeeded, working to benefit the ancestors so that they may help the stranded Tortugans. With two sapient beings working together, the troubles of the wild lessen and the rewards of cooperation become mutually beneficial.

Remember what seemed to be an off comment about Pelarota fur? Yeah, apparently that’s sensory fur and with that, they can see without eyes. Do you know who else sees without eyes? That’s right, Vulpimancers, baby! Despite the implications that Tortugans are... well, turtles, it doesn’t mean that they are reptiles (it could just very well reference their shells). And that pop-up trivia? Yeah, it described that Tortugans were made to spin, as their shells secrete a chemical that reduces friction.

This means that Vulpinic Tortugans would probably not loose the ability to roll and may perhaps increase the effectiveness of their sensory fur. Who knows, maybe convergent evolution occurs and this sect of Torgans may develop specialised sensory organs as a result of their exposure to the Vulpin environment.

Primitive in this perspective may mean that, while reverting back to more animalistic and wild behaviours, the lost colonists of Vulpin have not lost their intelligence. Whether or not they lose the ability of sight due to the pitch black of Vulpin as new sensory organs increase effectiveness or consists of more rods than cones for nocturnal viewing, the planet of Vulpin was exposed to the concept of written language, the knowledge of the universe and the interplanetary voice that Vulpimancer and earlier generations never much cared for. Of course, the Vulpinic Tortugans were the primary users of the written language, but it’s typically etched or even akin to braille so that the blind Vulpimancers can actually read it, if they so choose to.

It had only been fairly recently that Vulpin has become an interplanetary dumping ground, you know, in the scale of the universe and general planetary lifespan and everything, but while the Vulpimancers are forced to change everything that their ancestors had to be evolved to do, the Vulpinic Tortugans attempt to the best of their efforts to reverse the irreversible. The remnants of their ancestors, the broken colony ship and the failed attempts at civilisation, lay amongst the dump, but knowledge can be found to those who are determined enough to uncover it. Vulpin may never be the world that it once was, but with the help of the long since evolved Tortugans, maybe a better, different future can be made.

When did this become a fanfiction? I don’t know but that last sentence had probably had its effect lessened by this comment so, woop. Anyway, I have quite a few thoughts about Vulpimancers, Vulpin and how they both are viewed in not-so-thinly-veiled racism... speciesism? At the very least xenophobia, but you get me. They’re in the Omnitrix for a reason.

[whatudottu]

Heyo, I’m here to talk about Vulpimancers and Vulpin now, as promised in my last non-reblog post.

So, we’ve already gone into the speculative history of an already rather niche species the Vulpinic Tortugans, but I wanna go over how Vulpimancers adapted to the pitch black.

Already, based on the modern day Vulpimancer, their ancestors probably didn’t have much need for their eyesight, seeming as though they were very much more reliant on their senses and hearing. Why they might not have adapted to have nocturnal based eyes may be due to them not already being nocturnal or, as the wiki says, the planet is completely pitch-black that even if they tried, they wouldn’t have enough light to reflect into their ancient retina.

Therefore, here we have super sensors (definitely a scientific term yes 100%) with dominant scent and sound receptors. But why do Vulpimancers lack defined noses, why do their ears resemble gills. What if somehow these two senses combined?

You know how, if you close your nose and blow your ears burst, and how they’re connected? I have no idea how much of a stretch this is scientifically, but wouldn’t it be neat if that actually happened? Heck, even when sick (at least with the human common cold) their gills seem to gum up and prevent them from sensing anything.

Now how would this work? Well, I don’t know a whole lot about how smelling nor hearing works, but I know at least that smelling accompanies airways and that hearing involves (often times) hair, whether it be hairlike or sensory hair (oh looky, it’s the Vulpinic Tortugans again). And guess what gills are for? That’s right babes! Breathing!

With that said, that does not mean that Vulpimancers spontaneously evolved gills that happened to run down the sides of their neck without ancestral history with something similar. Perhaps Vulpin was always just that little extra deadly before all the garbage being dumped onto it, or maybe it’s got a thicker atmosphere that’s very easy to cloud up with pollution. Thinking that way, maybe the ancestors had already adapted gill-based breathing, but may not have had the same level of sensory receptors that the Vulpimancers had grown to evolve into.

Uh... how do I make a transition. This is how, balantly moving from one topic to the other. I talked a bit about how the Vulpinic Tortugans opened Vulpin to written language and interplanetary interaction. Now, most Vulpimancers couldn’t care less, preferring their lifestyles that their ancestors were used to, even if they have a few more struggles that might not provide an environment with any time to relax, but... a few Vulpimancers may have that curiosity.

Coevolving, the Vulpinic Tortugans and Vulpimancers may understand each other’s spoken language, even Vulpimancers’ have a more suggestive and ‘open to interpretation’ dialect. Wild, if you will. But translating that in a more... structured language would be incredibly difficult because it has to account for inflection. Heck, even speaking it may be difficult because certain noises are exclusive to the Vulpimancer. Vulpinic Tortugans get by with a wilder form of their ancient Tortugan language.

But here’s the thing, Vulpimancers physically can’t form traditional spoken language, having the wrong mouth shape to make the right noises. So, it’s just a two way issue that is barely solved vocally. Vulpimancers may be able to tell what you’re talking about based on your present mood, but then that just leaves them in the dust with nuance. Not a... mega issue (still an issue, but one that’s relatively typical, being a language barrier), this can be ‘solved’ by learning to listen to the language.

Still though, inter-species communication is practically impossible. Practically. See, what if Vulpimancers had sign language?

Sure, they can’t see anything... if it’s printed. You get to see how Vulpimancers ‘sees’, and it’s probably a very sensitive to movement. So, they can probably very visibly see someone talking with their hands. Tortugans may have brought sign language, in some sense, to Vulpin that may have evolved into a complete dialect. Who knows, it may even vaguely resemble the sign language of my previously headcanoned idea of Tortugan colonies (which includes Arburian Pelarotas, even if their language, verbal and sign, may be suffering due to their lower numbers).

The catch? Vulpimancers would have to rely on people knowing sign language, and not only that, but VSL (take a wild guess at what it stands for haha) specifically. The Tortugan colonies have an inherent advantage at learning, it’s a modified version of their own, but... well, even if it’s an accessible language, not many people are taught it. Maybe the colonies are a little more educated on sign language, and I think that Arburia was one of the leading colonies on accessible language (and we all know what happened there) but other planets and systems are just... eh...

Too heavy? I don’t know... maybe I’ve run my mouth (or is it fingers) too long and have let some things slip, but I am partial to Vulpimancers and how they face prejudice... okay maybe that’s way too much and I should stop for a bit and let you breathe.

Would this count as xenophobia?

[whatudottu]

Just waking up and I have more thoughts about Vulpinic Tortugans (and maybe more about Vulpimancers and Vulpin as a whole I’ll decide in the car).

Alrighty, let’s determine their basic appearance. First of all, how long did it take for the ancient Tortugan colonists to evolve into the Vulpinic Tortugans? Assumably, given the name that they share, that it may only be one generation. In that case, it would be assumed that they have not deviated too far from the Tortugans’ body plan. Given this is most likely the case, we can assume that they still have a similar appearance to Arburian Pelarotas.

However, though their body types may remain similar, it does not mean that they are the same. Pelarota have adapted to live in a largely peaceful and (based on a few reboot info drops) scholarly lifestyle, and therefore may be built to have a relatively relaxed form of movement, i.e. rolling into a ball and travelling in style, whilst calmly preambling when on their own two feet. The environment of Vulpin however may be detrimental to this form of travel.

This could very well mean that Vulpinic Tortugans legs are more suitable for running and may overall have a better body for balancing, rather than the overtly top heavy build of their Arburian cousins. However, since this would only be a generation away from the Tortugans, this does not mean they stop rolling. Sure, I’m far from an expert on both evolution AND effective shapes for speed and momentum, but what this could mean for the Tortugans, with less body mass, could mean a more wheel-like shape they roll into.

So currently we have thinner Pelarotas, presumably with a little more leg and a little less shoulders, but what if we made them a little more different. By comparing names, though this is far from being solid evidence, we can make the presumption that Arburian Pelarotas look a bit more different to Tortugans than their Vulpinic cousins, which will be the basis of my next proposition (dang, whipping out the big words for this one).

So what I’m saying here is, what if the original Tortugans had a distinct head? Maybe, like turtles, it had adapted to retract (in tandem with their ability to roll) and, while the Arburian Pelarotas had evolved to have it as a face on their chest, Vulpinic Tortugans have grown it out into a neck. Why have they done this? Well, being only one generation away from these ancestors, they needed some way to compensate for their lack of sensory specialisation to adapt to the pitch-blackness of Vulpin.

While Pelarotas spent their days in a ball, our Vulpinic friends needed more ways to perceive the world around them. So aside from growing more of their sensory fur, perhaps bundled in scruffs for better manoeuvrability rather than a heavy shag, and nocturnal adapted eyes, perhaps the Vulpinic Tortugans were pushed into evolving a neck that their ancestor nor their safer cousins needed to adapt.

With these changes, now we have thin, bearded and especially necked Pelarotas, if one can make that comparison at all. And though I don’t have much more thoughts on their physical appearance, I do have an idea on how they can once again compensate, now for the decreased level of armour that these Vulpinic Tortugans now possess. Last time that I talked about these aliens, I mentioned something something chemistry secretion that allowed the Arburian Pelarotas to... ROTA-te in their balls, but...

What if that chemical happens to be venomous?

Predatory species, of which I don’t doubt also hunger for Vulpimancers, stumble across this sweet new treat. In the past, these predators most definitely snacked on the delicious new visitors, so surely these little critters would be worth the bite. However, their prey has spotted them, and makes the moves to flee.

The Vulpinic Tortugans, instead of just evolving a toxic chemical that coats them like a poison, may have developed ridged shells. These ridges are strong and durable enough to dig into the... earth? vulpin? dirt of the planet to increase stability and the occasional powered roll, but are also sharp enough to pierce the skin of such predators after a tasty bite. Anyone too slow to escape the relentless pursuit of these hungry hungry animals still have a chance to ward off their hunter and live to ‘see’ another day.

Given how Vulpin is lethal in of itself, simple stinging or burning may not be enough to deter the determinded, so Vulpinic Tortugans may induce paralysis which shall give them enough time to flee.

Seeing how I’ve barely mentioned Vulpimancers and Vulpin, I might not talk about them in this post. However if I talk about our pitch-black planet again, I’ll surely talk more about them. I have just expended my thoughts for the day.