#Kangaroo anatomy

[wild-wow-facts]

The Kangaroo's Incredible Hopping Secrets

Did you know kangaroos can hop long distances effortlessly? Discover the science behind their unique movement!

Check out my other videos here: Animal Kingdom Animal Facts Animal Education

[plokoonsdisapprovingeyebrows]

idk im not quite happy w this, but considering I have had major major artblock for like a whole fuckin year now im gonna consider it a victory anyway lol

[dustyerror]

Roo'd world warrior

I mean... she was asking for it. Clearly.

Posted using PostyBirb

[jellyloveru]

HELP I WANNA MAKE AN ALIEN

[asteroidtroglodyte]

My Wife: whatcha thinking about

Me: Australia used to be populated by giant shortfaced kangaroos that walked like a man.

My Wife: what the fuck

Me: check it out

Unlike modern macropodids, which hop (either bipedally or quadrupedally), sthenurines seem to have abandoned saltation as a means of locomotion. Their comparatively inflexible spines, robust hindlimb and pelvic elements, and the lack of capacity for rapid hopping suggest that these animals walked bipedally, somewhat like hominids, even converging with those primates in details of their pelvic anatomy. Furthermore, their hooved single digits and metatarsal anatomy suggest that unlike their plantigrade relatives, sthenurines were digitigrade, walking on the tips of their "toes".

Procoptodon was not able to hop as a mode of transportation, and would have been unable to accelerate sufficiently due to its weight. Broad hips and ankle joints, adapted to resist torsion or twisting, point to an upright posture where weight is supported by one leg at a time. Its broad hips also allowed for another important modification – large buttocks – a feature shared with other walking species

Me: so yea

My Wife: no but actually what the fuck

[soulrph]

chaotic unhinged lines from 2022-2023 (prompt edition).

basically in 2021 i made a list of prompts inspired by lines in tiktok videos and instagram reels that made me laugh so hard i cried! and now i have returned with another list! these may provide an alarmingly clear image of what my sense of humor is (aka broken) but i figure a little levity is always a good thing! more prompts are forthcoming, but in the mean time: bon appetit!

knowledge has always chased you, but you've always been faster.

no... no, that was mango apathy juice. from the farmer's market.

of all these people, you are the one i understand the least. i want to get to know you better, but like, not that much better.

i-i will CHEW YOUR MEAT!! WHAT are you doing?!

ooooh god, no, you wouldn't be long getting frostbit!

you are evil. like a hobbit.

WHY MUST YOU FAIL ME SO OFTEN?!?!!?

i have had a perfectly wonderful evening, but this wasn't it.

AHEM!! fill my cup.

may god ignore you like you ignored my greetings.

i will avenge you mister van gogh.

call off work bestie, we need you to solve a murder. here's fifteen dollars.

you're not in love. you may think you are, you dumb fuck, but you're not.

go ahead and put the ranch away.

sadly, "hopefully" doth butter no parsnips.

forget school, i want to be an italian sandwich.

you shouldn't skip work, you are a lawyer and he is a hamster.

you can stop roleplaying now. you're free.

her coupon game was so fucking raw.

i'm sorry guys... he's making a salad.

you could get a straight guy here if you learned to make a good pasta. i'll teach you how to make a risotto that'll get you married and out of my basement.

hey, do you want me to get together a plate of roast beef and hide it in our room so we can have night meats?

it's not the most ethical thing in the world, but in a pinch you can hand off a cursed object to basically any baby.

no, children, you're wrong. once upon a time, there was a piece of wood.

and i'm not saying she deserved it, but i am saying that god's timing is always riiiiight.

hydrate or die-drate, ya DICK!

why did the monkey fall out of the tree? because it was DEAD.

new york city is a fictional place written up by someone with a sinister mind and a knack for comedy.

this is grindr my guy.

wait, i didn't finish teaching you the difference between human and wolf anatomy.

it's time to tell your grandmother that she was wrong. do not be afraid.

vanilla vodka... you fucking child.

without ash to rise from, a phoenix would just be a bird getting up.

you are fucking alive. do what you want.

why are you cradling me like a baby, friend? this isn't how guys of my generation hang out.

i hope a hedgehog shits in your cereal, you difficult person.

you know, i am not as mean as i would like to be. and i think people should appreciate that more.

see, i am not a kangaroo.

well, i'd like to help, but... you see... not as much as i'd like not to.

rest in peace you fucking onion fairy.

when god sings with all his creations, will a turtle not be part of the choir?

i fight for a seat in heaven, every. single. day.

map maker? can you find me somewhere on the map where this big man thinks he's the king?

you bald-headed demon...

so... there are 24 million pigs in australia... and 24 million people... so if you ever feel lonely, there's like, a pig out there that's sort of your cosmic twin.

remember, alcohol is god's apology for making us self-aware.

i'm straight!! stop CONFUSING me!!!!!

you guys want something to eat? because... i know we'll die if we don't eat.

he is a BIBLICALLY gorgeous man. i wanna feed him grapes. i wanna fan him with the frond of a date palm from the forests of Lebanon. i wanna find the alabaster vial of perfume oil that one woman broke for jesus and comb it through his hair. like... he's stressing me OUT.

i'm not sad! i'm freaking HUNGRY!

maybe, if we wait a little bit longer, a fuck will fall into my hand, and i can give it to you.

it's not my fault you thought you lived in this IKEA.

let's leave my mother out of this.

jason may kill people but he's not bad enough to kick a dog.

i run for LUMP!

oh no, i'm all out of caring, baby!

you don't think it mcbe that way... but it mcdo.

what is this enticing bowl of white?

serious question, do his nipples sparkle?

what in the reese's peanut butter fuck is going on here?

if your parents don't buy it, stop loving them!

i just hope you know just how much you've decreased productivity today.

that was poetry at its FINEST.

and if you let that motherfucker shenan ONCE, you best believe they're gonna shenanIGAN!

may god bless the dinosaur that died to make the fossil fuel that was treated to become petrol in the car that took her mom to the hospital to give birth to her.

that's modern milk for ya. what a time to be alive.

you have attachment issues. please fix it.

remember when people had secrets? we should bring that back.

the moon landing was an elaborate marriage proposal.

i don't like the cobra chicken.

i didn't know eggs were this expensive? it's time to lay my own, i fear.

so you're saying the reason i don't have a girlfriend is because i'm not a big enough threat yet.

god gave him a top lip, that's why he's so powerful.

it's a common mistake, but frankenstein was actually the author.

i finally got a pocket-sized diary!!! also i don't get the concept of life.

if a beautiful woman disagrees with me, i will immediately change my view. i've no principles.

how did you all end up married to such boiled potatoes?

if so much as one tear drops from their eye... i will slap you back into your mum.

you are ringing a phone that does not like to be rung.

look how Dr. doofenschmirtz had a fucked up childhood but didn't project his trauma onto his teenage daughter. he projected it onto a platypus.

it is mathematically impossible for you to get a wedgie.

i'm breaking up with you. i love you, it's just... i don't think you could protect me from a mummy.

if you can't do fractions....... you will fucking die.

that's right; in the year 1791, all of our bottoms were killed in a Big Bottom Massacre.

people always assume i'm mean. like CAN you BELIEVE THAT CRAP?! like WHAT would make you think i'm MEAN?! I'M THE NICEST PERSON ON THE PLANET!

the chocolate milk is strikingly overpriced and at the same time very easy to steal; another of god's little tests.

someone's gotta tell the waiter that i ordered mashed 'taters and it sure as shit ain't gonna be me.

if i had a week i couldn't list all the reasons that wouldn't work.

[monicracar]

Been playing a lot of Pokémon recently, and decided to do some past/future paradox fakemon designs based on tartar! The name of them are DEAD RINGER and IRON CORDS, respectively. Credit to Snazzy who helped came up with some lore, their names and their type!

Under the cut is some concept/ideas during the process of creating these designs.

Dead ringer is a steel/grass type. I take inspiration from the actual wall mounted phone from late 19th century that are made of wood, put onto a wooden shelf on wall with wooden drawer attached. The body resembles an antique wooden table with foil gold legs. He has a grassy tie on the drawer handle and a tattered clothing resembling table cloth. The phone cord is very thick indicating a lot of strength, with the phone pole resembling a tail. The anatomy kinda works like kangaroo with the tail being a strong support of the body. Dead ringer only developed primary communication function, and he cries in Morse code. He find hollow objects to tie to his cord to amplify his sound to act intimidating too.

Iron Cords is a steel/electric type. I take inspiration on how black holes are illustrated/visualized in text books/medias as a black colored funnel with white wireframe showing its shape, and translate the shape to his ‘speaker’. This Pokémon already lost its function as a phone, as it is build more for storing information and such. It walks in plantigrade posture and is more android looking. Because of how it follows its program without failing, it started make human feel distant as it seems emotionless and soulless. The wireframe are also inspired by 3D modeling. I can say also iron valiant’s lore and design inspired this design too.

[fantasy-anatomy-analyst]

Hello : )

What is the best dragon depiction you ever saw? Why did you like it?

honestly, it's gonna sound so typical of me, but while most of the How to Train Your Dragon designs are more about wacky aesthetics than functionality, I think the night/light fury design is just outstanding. they could use a little extra patagium, maybe, that little membrane on the upper arm. I could nitpick on the pointy-ness of the wing fingers on Toothless. but the design itself is wonderfully sleek, the wings look genuinely functional in comparison to the body size and there are functional tail fins too! which is cool!

(image description: the night and light fury dragons from How to Train Your Dragon, flying together in front of a bright sky.)

I also appreciate the unique details here. like, they do have bat-like wings, but they have no wing thumb and there are six fingers instead of five. Their heads are a very aerodynamic shape and they don't suffer from excessive spikes for the sake of having extra spikes. I can truly believe that these creatures are capable of flight! look how far along the body that wing membrane stretches! the light fury especially just looks so sleek. they're good dragon designs!

I also was the sort of kid who had the dragonology book, and looking back at their designs I can easily point out some anatomical issues, but I love how in depth it goes to explain the dragons and all their different types. and I think it's the only place I've ever seen a marsupial dragon, which I adore.

(image description: photo of a book page from Dragonology, showing a marsupial dragon and a few paragraphs explaining its origin and anatomy. it looks like a reptilian kangaroo with small wings. end description.)

I mean that's pretty cool. it's pretty obviously just "what if kangaroo was dragon", but you really can't get a better body plan than kangaroos when it comes to being a bipedal marsupial. and a marsupial reptile would be very cool!! I love it and I want more dragons to explore unique ideas like this.

[jedi-nurse]

Just so everybody knows: Rotta the Hutt is canonically the result of mpreg.

Hutts produce asexually and have a pouch like kangaroos. So Jabba carried Rotta for 50 yrs then he came out of the pouch.

So.

[mineralsrocksandfossiltalks]

Monday Musings: In Conclusion

This month has been dedicated to the Cambrian Period. Something most people are not aware of is that Paleozoic and Mesozoic periods are broken down into epochs and stages...just like the Cenozoic.

Just for fun I wanted to use this column of the Cambrian Period to show where all the major deposits and animals we've talked about (and a few we haven't) occurred.

Like our favorite trilobites!

Trilobites appeared in the fossil record at about 521 Ma, right at the end of Stage 2 of the Terreneuvian Epoch. Not long after that, the Chengjiang and Sirius Passet lagerstatten were deposited. This was towards the end of Stage 3 of Series 2. This is when the animal Haikouella lived.

Next is Emu Bay Shale. We haven't talked about that one yet. As you can imagine, Emu Bay is in Australia on Kangaroo Island.

It is one of two sites containing Redlichiidan trilobites.

The Burgess Shale was deposited at the beginning of the Drumian Age during the Mialingian Epoch. This is when Hallucigenia and Marella lived.

This is followed by the Wheeler Shale, Marjum and Weeks Formation sequence in the Guzhangian Age.

The final lagerstatten is the Orsten Fauna of Sweden. The fossils are just a little bit younger than the Utah ones and much smaller. This site preserved larval stages and the first fossil tardigrades.

By the end of the Cambrian there was a major faunal turnover into the Ordovician Period. Many brachiopods and conodonts died but the group that was hit the hardest was the trilobites. Those that lived on the outer edges of the shelfs and slope environments were hardly affected but those that lived in the shallow seas on the shelf were wiped out.

The Cambrian Period was important and I hope you enjoyed learning about it this month. Next month we will switch from geochronology to paleontology with comparative anatomy! There will be a video on the basics posted to youtube on October 19th but if you want to see it sooner then join my new Patreon! The video will be posted two weeks earlier.

There will also be interviews with my fellow paleontologists as well as lesson videos and access to the Minerals Rocks and Fossil Talks discord server. Thanks for all the support and fossilize you later!

[blubushie]

good morning blu!!! you know a whole lot about everything so do you have any mistakes that people make in medicine in like media and stuff??? -leafanon

G'day leafanon, and yes I do!

WARNING: DISCUSSION OF GORE AND MEDICAL GORE INBOUND. ALSO INCLUDES PICTURES OF BLOOD IN SYRINGES.

DEAR AUTHORS/ARTISTS/ANIMATORS

GUNSHOT WOUNDS (GSW) ARE NOT INSTANT KILLS. No, not even if you're shot in the chest. Unless that round completely obliterates the spinal cord (unlikely as it's very small and hard to hit) your victim is going to stay alive and conscious anywhere from half a minute (direct shot to the heart) to an hour or longer (shallow wound to the lung). KNOW YOUR ANATOMY AND DO RESEARCH ON GSWs TO THAT ANATOMY. KNOW WHAT THAT ROUND PENETRATES, WATCH VIDEOS ON HOW MUCH DAMAGE THAT ROUND DOES TO BALLISTIC DUMMIES, AND HOW PENETRATION AFFECTS THE BODY.

YOUR CHARACTER WILL NOT SHRUG OFF A GUTSHOT. Gutshots absolutely suck and are fatal when left untreated. A shot to the pelvis will buckle you--you will not take a shot to the pelvis and stay standing. A gutshot will usually kill within 12 hours, but sometimes it may take days depending on what was hit, where, and how deeply the bullet penetrated. Also on that note, A GUTSHOT FUCKING HURTS AND IS ARGUABLY THE WORST POSSIBLE WAY TO DIE BY BULLET. If it rips through your stomach you're going to die within a few hours as your stomach acid will gradually eat through your internal organs and burn them. It'll feel like a fire from the inside-out. This, coupled with heightened emotions due to adrenaline, will break even the most stoic character. If the bullet pierces the intestine the wound like leak faeces into your abdominal cavity. You will know this has happened by the smell alone.

Also on that note: WHILE A GUTSHOT WILL KILL YOU, A GUTSTAB PROBABLY WON'T. Knives move a lot slower than bullets and have much less kinetic energy on impact. When you're stabbed in the stomach with a knife it's actually pretty rare for the blade to perforate your bowels, as usually the bowels will move aside as the knife passes through. The most dangerous part of a gutstab is removing the knife, the subsequent bleeding, and the risk of infection by foreign bacteria entering the wound (either from the knife itself or just entering the open wound from the surrounding environment).

WHEN SOMEONE IS SHOT IN THE HEAD THEY DO NOT JUST DROP. They fall and extend their limbs, arch their neck back, go slack-jawed, tip their toes down, and they will start twitching. Depending on where they were shot, they may exhibit decorticate posturing indicative of brain damage (even though they're most definitely dead once the bullet pierces their skull). The bottom posture with the wrists curled is most common. If someone was running when they were shot, they will fall and their legs will continue kicking for a few seconds before their body exhibits decorticate posturing. They will release this ungodly sigh that will haunt any character who's never heard that sound before.

Also on that note: YOU CAN STOP INVOLUNTARY MUSCLE SPASMS BY HITTING THE CORRECT PART OF THE BRAIN. Make a T-shape from the outside of your left eye socket to your right, and then down the bridge of your nose to your upper lip. That's the T-zone, which is what police and military snipers aim for in hostage situations. A headshot causes involuntary muscle spasms and when your target has a firearm or knife on someone, that could mean they hurt the hostage by a simple twitch of their arm or trigger finger. A shot to the T-zone causes flaccid paralysis as a result of taking out the medulla oblongata, an organ what connects the brain to the spinal cord, and renders the body completely paralysed. The target will drop and will not experience spasms or decorticate posturing. Snipers call this an apricot, named for the shape of the medulla, and IT IS AN INCREDIBLY DIFFICULT SHOT TO MAKE. I can shoot kangaroos at 1200yd but I've never gotten an apricot.

A DEFIBRILLATOR WILL NOT RESTART A STOPPED HEART. Nothing but a fuckton of epinephrine, a fuckton more chest compressions, and a metric fuckton of luck will restart a stopped heart. Defibrillators are for correcting or preventing an arrhythmia, which is an abnormal heartbeat (too slow, too fact, skipping beats, etc). IT WILL NOT RESTART A HEART IN ASYSTOLE. In fact, defibrillators work by actually forcibly stopped the heart so that when it resumes beating, it does so on a normal rhythm.

DO NOT MOVE WITH AN ARROW WOUND. You have a razor blade on a stick in your body and the more you move, the more you're ripping yourself apart. Your character is not going to be walking around with ten arrows in them as that amount of pain is crippling, not unless they have a constant IV supply of Enough Morphine To Kill An Elephant.

DO NOT HAVE YOUR CHARACTER REMOVE A KNIFE UNLESS THEY'RE PREPARED FOR MASSIVE BLEEDING. When you're stabbed, the muscles clamp down around the knife and the blade acts as a "plug" that seals the wound shut. Stab wounds with the weapon intact will often have very little if any bleeding. THAT WILL CHANGE ONCE YOU PULL OUT THE WEAPON.

FOR ARTISTS AND ANIMATORS: RECOGNISE WHAT KIND OF BLOOD YOUR CHARACTER IS SHEDDING. Superficial blood from a flesh wound is dark. After a few minutes, blood starts coagulating and turning a dark maroon colour. YOU WILL NOT SEE BRIGHT RED BLOOD IN THE ENVIRONMENT UNLESS SOMEONE IS ACTIVELY BLEEDING. If your character has been shot in the heart, lung, or artery, THEY WILL BLEED ARTERIAL BLOOD. Arterial blood is bright red due to being freshly-oxygenated to the point that it almost appears pink. The two syringes on the right have deoxygenated venous blood that was travelling back to the heart when it was drawn. The three syringes on the right have freshly-oxygenated arterial blood.

IF YOUR CHARACTER HAS BEEN SHOT/STABBED IN THE CHEST AND THE OTHER CHARACTERS DON'T KNOW WHAT WAS HIT, CHECK THE BULLET WOUND. LUNG SHOTS WILL BUBBLE.

THINGS VOID THEIR BOWELS WHEN THEY DIE. You'll know when something's dead by the smell.

CRUSHING INJURIES TO THE EXTREMITIES CAN KILL. When someone is pinned under rubble by a limb, that limb can form blood clots. Once the person is freed, those clots can loosen and then travel through the arteries until it clogs one (arterial thrombosis). The primary concern in victims of crush injuries after they're freed is strokes. The second killer is traumatic rhabdomyolysis, or muscle breakdown. This releases toxic muscle components into the circulatory system that can poison the body. This poisoning is called crush syndrome.

A MODERN ECG DOES NOT "BEEEEEEP" WHEN A HEART GOES INTO ASYSTOLE (FLATLINE. IT WILL ANNOUNCE. ECGs made before 2000 typically had a continuous beep to announce a disconnect from the heart (either the patient is in asystole or the ECG's lead detached from the skin or the machine itself). ECGs made after 2005 will say something along the lines of "check patient/no pulse detected" on repeat. If your scene occurs somewhere between 2000 and 2005 when announcing ECGs were being implemented then what you choose is your discretion.

STOP HAVING YOUR CHARACTER CAUTERISE WOUNDS THAT DON'T NEED IT. Cauterisation is a last-ditch, life-or-death treatment. It burns the wound (obviously) and leaves you incredibly prone to infection in that wound. IT IS NOT A TREATMENT TO BE TAKEN LIGHTLY. I know that having some badass Rambo type dump gunpowder into a wound and light it up with a match is really cool but it's a terrible idea and does far more damage than what it's supposed to fix.

Most of you are probably already aware of this but IT IS LITERALLY IMPOSSIBLE TO SUCK VENOM OUT OF A BITE. It's injected and immediately disperses into the tissue around it. You can't suck venom out of a bite wound. If you want to help a snakebite victim, keep the bite wound below the heart so that gravity helps with keeping the venom localised to the wound. Apply a cool compress. Get a marker and make a ring around the bite mark so you can track inflammation and redness. Every hour after the bite, apply another ring along the edge of the redness. Get the victim to the hospital ASAP. Also, it's antivenin, not antivenom. Professionals say antivenin.

If I think of anything else I'll add it later.

As always, if you have questions or something feel free to send me an ask!

[phlurrii]

I cannot sleep and I am curious about your take on this random conundrum I am faced with that I was wondering your take on because I love how you are able to depict dynamic movement and action in your art and animations.

So, I absolutely LOVE it when the typically cutesy being that is Mew is depicted as a feral godly beast and I am so utterly in love with Meau’s truly powerful design. An absolute apex predator. However, my brain is hung up on a frustrating detail. If they weren’t floating everywhere all the time how would they like… prowl? Or chase down something. They’ve got these nubby little arms and these looooong legs.

Like. I’m trying SO hard to imagine something that could anatomically work because as eery as floating can be there’s something satisfying about feeling in the weight of a creature through its gait. But all I can picture with their body shape is…hopping. Just a murderous psychic kangaroo cat god bounding towards something but like…It’s kind of silly? I’m sure irl that would probably be absolutely terrifying to see a kangaroo bouncing at you with malicious intent but… it’s hard to picture it as an intimidating movement.

The slow predatory prowl or the fast thumps of heavy clawed paws of something huge and large sharp teeth that quadrupeds have is so a satisfying in a heart racing way. I WANT a Mew or Mew-ish creature to be able to have that vibe while connected to the earth that but then I look at those LONG footers and nub paws and I…I’m left feeling like it’s not possible.

Even for Meau like…their arm to leg ratio…I don’t think it’s possible to run on all 4s. Naruto-run sure. Absolutely. All the mews and twos can Naruto run and kangaroo-hop with them leggies…but none of them move with the “tiger on the hunt in the forest” vibes. I want to make something close to that but I keep making something too permanently quadrupedal in anatomy.

Sorry for the tired brain rambling I just my brain won’t let me sleep because of it’s “How would Meau run down their prey on foot” thoughts sending me in a spiral.

You see- you see, I have the same. Exact, brain worms. Constantly.

When I made the Ancient mew, I wanted something feral, a physical threat. That happens to be psychically able to obliterate you as a side treat. In my earliest comics, I tried so hard to demonstrate she was a power house, so much so her mega evolution is entirely just… that. A massive, wall of steel. Meau tore those scientists limb from limb, literally, with her jaw. Even in mew form, she bitch slapped a nidoking with her tail and kangaroo kicked a persian. She could’ve just shadowballed them, sure, but I want that weight. That feral energy, that sense of an unstoppable force, meeting an immovable object, except it’s just one cat and they are about to flatten you.

As her design has clearly evolved, I’ve tried to make alterations that fit this feeling, that vibe of apex predator no matter the size. She’s larger then average because she’s a threat, she’s more muscular because she’s a threat, her tail is thicker, packed with said muscle because she’s a threat, her front paws are meaty and girthy because She’s. A. Threat. Her entire mega evolution is just amping up that primal energy of raw, unadulterated strength. That’s why I made it, it was my first freaking thought after I designed her XD

I was actually caught between animating a younger Meau acting like a mew or an current Meau acting like a threat. I went with younger Meau cuz we don’t see a lot of her and she’s about to come up with Noe’s arc. So if you sent me this lovely and viciously relatable brain dump 3 days ago, I probably would’ve swayed to animate feral meau XD

But, to answer your question, yes. She can absolutely hunt you down on all fours and disembowel you with her jaw, she is that untamed, wild concentration that kills with a sleek efficiency fellow gods fear. And! At the end of our current arc we’ll finally get that secondary typing reveal I’ve had planned since April XD

[maniculum]

Bestiaryposting Results: Almlaeni

Here are the results for this week's bestiaryposting; as always, anyone who doesn't know what that's about can see all previous posts here: https://maniculum.tumblr.com/bestiaryposting.

This one, I think, really illustrated to me how differently one perceives these entries when one knows what animal is being described. There was a particular detail in this week's entry that I thought was an absolute dead giveaway as to the identity of the animal, but most of the commentary I've seen from the artists indicates that they didn't see it as obvious, which was a relief -- I think the harder it is to guess, the more fun this whole thing is. (Yes, you're not supposed to try and guess it at all, but on the more obvious ones like the Gligglae I see a lot of comments along the lines of "I'm pretty sure I know what this is", so there are indicators whether people know.) It probably helps that it was a longer entry, so there's a lot going on. I just think it's worth noting because of the conversation recently going around regarding what's obvious to the author vs. what's obvious to the reader.

The entry we're working from can be found here:

Art is below the cut in roughly chronological order.

@silverhart-makes-art (link to post here) started with the thought that an example of an animal with strong jaws is an ant. But given the description of manes and fur, this is probably a mammal, so we get an "ant-lion" that they describe as looking "like he should be an alien pet in a sci-fi movie or game", which I think is spot-on. Good design for a weird alien pet. I really like the execution of the "ant's head but mammalian" concept, and the coloring of the mane looks really cool. Some more detail on design decisions can be found in the linked post.

@sweetlyfez (link to post here) does note that she thinks she knows what this animal is -- but, in the spirit of the thing, intentionally avoided drawing that -- so we'll have to see how identifiable it is at the end of this post. She's also provided her own alt text, thanks for that. I find this design really charming -- the blend of porcine and feline makes for a good silhouette in my opinion, the pose looks cool, and the rainbow mane is quite pretty. I particularly like that the tuft of hair the entry says is a love charm is drawn to resemble a heart.

@cheapsweets (link to post here) has drawn a rather frightening-looking beast, here shown nipping its own paw after accidentally stepping on a twig. (They also provided alt text, thank you.) There's a lot of interesting design choices here -- explained in some detail in the linked post, check that out. We can see a stocky, muscular head and chest, showing that this animal has the strength in its jaws and chest mentioned by the entry, paired with kangaroo-like legs and tail to give it the leaping capabilities mentioned. Also, this picture shows an Ethiopian Almlaeni in summer, which is why it is bald except for a bit of fur on its mane and tail. The shining eyes, I think, are what really gives this animal an unsettling appearance.

Cheapsweets also would like to note that they're "on the lookout for some good resources for animal anatomy and musculature", so if anyone has any suggestions, please send those their way!

@pomrania (link to post here) has given us this creature that is very much A Mammal but it's hard to pin down anything more specific than that -- it makes me think of the sort of old engravings that archaeologists just kind of give up on categorizing as specific animals and end up just calling them something like "the [culture/location] Beast". It's kind of feline, kind of equine, and it has what Pomrania (accurately) characterizes as a greyhound-like build. This impression is aided by the pose and the line work -- I don't know, there's just something about it that makes me think "this should be on the wall of an old tomb somewhere." I like the vibe, is what I'm saying. Very good beast.

@coolest-capybara (link to post here) has selected a couple of the elements in the description that stand out and taken them to their most dramatic interpretation. The Almlaeni can jump in such a way that it seems to fly, and it can live on the wind -- what if it has bat-like wings it can glide on? (Someone else noted "live on the wind" as possibly suggesting flight depending on how you interpret the ambiguity of the phrase, but discarded the idea; here we're running with it.) The result is quite a fearsome beast; that face is downright scary. We can also see here sensory organs adapted to hunting at night, and strength concentrated in the front of its body (which probably helps with those wings). And of course the stylization is excellent as always -- the linework is very convincingly medieval and I swear I've seen illuminations with that exact style of starry background. The linked post describes the design decisions in a bit more detail. (Also thank you for providing your own alt text.)

@strixcattus (link to post here) put this up after I drafted the rest of this post, and from the text of their post I think they guessed the nature of the animal, so take all references to it being more difficult to identify than I thought with a grain of salt. They also describe it as "a little freak (affectionate)" which is definitely an accurate description of the creature they've drawn. I really like the combination of different types of animal you can see here. The pose comes from a pretty reasonable interpretation of a couple points in the original entry: they can leap really well, but most of their strength is in the front half of their body. Therefore, obviously, they must use their front legs to jump and to propel themselves for rapid motion. Excellent direction to take that, I think. As usual, I strongly recommend clicking that above link and seeing the details Strixcattus writes up for their beasts.

And now, the Aberdeen Bestiary version.

As you can probably gather from this image, this week's animal is the wolf. And I think it's an interesting peek into the medieval imagination to see how fierce that wolf looks. The shaggy fur, the fangs, the eyes -- it's striking. That looks like a fairy-tale illustrator decided to draw the Big Bad Wolf in such a way as to frighten children. All the best wishes to our heroic little dog up there.

I also like the interestingly-symbolic depiction of the sheepfold: it kind of looks like our sleeping shepherd keeps his flock in a TARDIS. And, of course, look at that lovely Stylized Tree in the background.

So yeah, it was the bit about them sneaking up on sheepfolds that I thought made it Too Obvious that the Almlaeni was a wolf. Glad that didn't turn out to be as much of a tip-off as I thought.

As for the Ethiopian wolves mentioned: damned if I know what they were thinking of. Jackals and African wild dogs can be pretty colorful, so there might be something there, but I wouldn't describe them as having manes. My best guess is that the original animal being described was a black-backed jackal, but it's hard to be sure what, if anything, the grain of truth is here. (There is an animal we call the "Ethiopian wolf", but it looks more like a coyote than anything, so I'm not seeing the "colorful mane" thing.)

The thing about this is that medieval authors were very much ignorant of that part of the world. "Ethiopia" to them was much like "India" -- to the modern ear, those are countries we're aware of with a defined location, and we can go read about them if we want. To medieval Europeans, both were just kind of vague geographical blobs: they knew these places existed because they heard about them from classical sources and/or from trading partners, but there was virtually no direct contact or reliable information. These were distant and mysterious lands to them, and as a result they were willing to believe just about anything regarding what those places were like. (Also, if you see "Ethiopia" in a medieval text, don't necessarily think the region we now call by that name -- it tends to just be an umbrella term for "sub-Saharan Africa".) So, leaping maned wolves? May or may not be based on anything real, and if it was, it's been Telephoned to death by this point.

[moonyasnow]

Is Spike the kangaroo beastmen's middle toe longer than the rest of his toes like an actual kangaroo?

Ooo, now this is a really interesting question! I actually had to look this up, since it was not a part of kangaroo anatomy I was familiar with at first, so it was fun to learn something new!

But to answer the question...I'm gonna say 'kinda no'. Sort of a middle ground situation.

I do still think he has some kinda 'hint' of it— I'm thinking like his three middle toes just kinda bend together, like when you stick the three middle fingers of your hand together, and they're probably a bit longer than his big or pinky toes, to still be able to make it at least a little easier for him to jump. But other than that they're mostly humanoid-looking

Tag list: @another-random-paradise @thehollowwriter @faefum @cactus13-rolloflammesimp @beneathsakurashade

@nyx-of-night

[artherzenswarme]

An introduction to Castor erectus:

Castor erectus, common name "Mountain Dwarf" is member of Castorimorphia, a suborder of rodents that consists of the superfamilies Castoroidea, (Modern Beavers) and Geomyoidea (Kangaroo Rats). In our current timeline, the genus Castor has only two extant members, Castor canadensis, common name "North American Beaver", and Castor fiber, common name "Eurasian Beaver". Castor erectus offers an alternate evolutionary history where Beavers evolved to fill human-like niches. Their look and culture are heavily inspired by the stories of Dwarves as told in fantasy epics such as Lord of the Rings, as well as stories of dwarves from Germanic folklore. Their design is meant to be unique enough to offer an interesting history and flavor for Dwarves, while still being familiar enough to be recognizable as Dwarves. Castor erectus stands at an average of 4'5", with specimens varying in height by +/- 4 inches (for healthy adults.) Female dwarves are on average 3 inches shorter than their male counterparts. Castor erectus shows little to no sexual dimorphism. (You may have seen my previous sexual dimorphism model, this was based on my incorrect assumption that strong sexual dimorphism was present across most mammals.) Modern beavers lack external genitalia, a trait that is present in Castor erectus, which makes it difficult to distinguish a Dwarf's sex. Members of the species can easily distinguish the sex of other members through smell, though their culture does not place a heavy emphasis on gender. The Dwarven language lacks gendered pronouns, and sexuality among Dwarves is incredibly fluid. Same sex pairings can be a helpful evolutionary tool, allowing communal-living social species to meet the social and sexual needs of its' members, without increasing population of their colony to an unsustainable size. Dwarves typically live in large colonies constructed in and around mountain cave systems. These structures are known as Lodges, which are an evolved form of modern beaver habitats. The construction of these lodges generally begins with the construction of a large cistern, and a canal below the snowcap of their home mountain which diverts runoff into the cistern for collection. They use this collected water to fuel primitive aquaponics and hydroponics systems in their lodges. Dwarves are often separated into small familial groups, but it is not uncommon for distantly related groups to merge into a single colony to control resources and water. In the future, I will be posting more illustrations and writings detailing Dwarven Culture, as well as exploring their evolutionary history through extinct relatives. If you have any questions about their culture or anatomy in the mean time, feel free to ask! Any amount of feedback helps to flesh them out and answer questions I might not have otherwise thought of.

[fountainpenguin]

130 Reasons Why I'm Fairy Trash

🧡 Orange Train Collection - AKA, High Fantasy

(July 2016 - Ongoing)

"What? Everyone in my family? Including me? No, I'm not a witch." "Oh, but you must be. You see, I only talk to witches, and only when I want to. Ask your grandmother." Kevin bit his lip. "But–but magic isn't real. I'm going to be a scientist who builds robot friends and babysitters. And before I do that, I'm going to be a dentist until I can support myself on robots alone. I can't be a witch!" The cat winked. "Sure, hon. And I can't be a korrigan who broke Da Rules by falling in love with a crazy Fairy-hunting human. Guess we're both a bit insane."

- FOP works with a heavy focus on high fantasy worldbuilding, regardless of character or genre.

- Also, deep dives into bits of lore that I think are acquired tastes.

- I've moved all 'fics that qualify here, even if they're not 130 Prompts, so browse or avoid at your preference.

⭐ Any Rating - Everything in the 130 Prompts is G or T. However, Orange Train is a catch-all that can include M or E

Read on FFN | Read these works on AO3

130 Sums | Full 130 Prompt Series (AO3) | Other Arcs

Cloudlands AU - Detailed warnings & other AU info

#130 arc guides - More posts like this

More Fairly OddParents 'fics

What goes in Orange Train?

- Cloudlands AU Worldbuilding: Condensed Version ⭐ If you're easily squicked, consider reading either the above link and/or the Cloudlands AU warnings above before proceeding. If those are too much for you, you won't want to see what's under the cut. Orange Train details below. This post contains simple explanations of Cloudlands AU worldbuilding, like anatomy and culture. -> Ex: There's an explanation of how to rescue a baby from a pouch, which is the same way joeys are rescued from dead mother kangaroos IRL, because that does happen in a 'fic in the Orange Train series. This and other descriptions below may be upsetting to read unless you're mentally prepared. #Long post [7,800 words]

Author writes about complex non-human societies and does not inherently condone any viewpoints presented by characters or the societies they live in.

⭐ Reminder: Any rating. #ScarletPenguin

Works marked as 🧡 Orange Train contain deep explorations of high fantasy worldbuilding.

The purpose of the info below is to give a heads up for many deep worldbuilding details in case you find something here that squicks you out (so you can decide to avoid Orange Train works when reading actual 'fics).

- C-C-C-Combo! - Fairly OddParents, Danny Phantom, T.U.F.F. Puppy, and Bunsen Is a Beast all co-exist in the Cloudlands AU timeline.

-> A T.U.F.F. Timeline

-> How the Four Hartman Shows Co-Exist

- War Scenes - Bickering, politics, action, setting damage, manipulative schemes, and main character injury

Ex: The war from Season 7's "Balance of Flour" confirms Anti-Cosmo was an adult with a position of power during the war (He played Tiddlywinks against Jorgen in the original attempt at a truce before they switched to the annual bake-off). Thus, it's heavily implied all our main cast fae were old enough to fight. The May Blossom War messes up the Earth to the point "T.U.F.F. Puppy's" animal races become the dominant species (See above)

-> Wars of the Fae

Timmy's Secret Wish - Timmy freezing time for 50 years is canon in Cloudlands AU. Every 'fic accounts for it as appropriate

-> Ex: People get confused when trying to remember how long ago an event happened

-> The Burger World employee (Kenny) wasn't affected because he wasn't on Earth until Season 7 (See also, "Shouldn't Have Survived"). He appears again in Season 10 and my 'fics depict a slide towards him getting more and more confused. Don't worry about it.

-> Poof aged only when he wasn't on Earth (with Foop tied to his life and aging alongside him).

Jimmy-Timmy Power Hour - The crossover is also canon, but Jimmy Neutron and friends continued aging since they're from a separate dimension. Timmy and his friends call it The Bulgyverse.

Technically, the canon is that there is a Jimmy (and a Carl and a Sheen, etc.) who exist in Timmy's version of the world, but he's not doing high tech stuff on a planet-affecting scale (His chaos is localized to Retroville).

-> The Timmy that does exist in the Bulgyverse doesn't have Fairies, but genuinely does have fairy-like computer programs.

That said, Shirley's pizzeria is canon and it has an entrance in both dimensions. It appeared in Come What May Chapter 4 ("The Pizza Place Where Worlds Collide"), where we saw it had portals to... Well, any Nickelodeon or Nick Jr. show you could think of.

-> No one really uses them, so it's just a giant thing we lampshade. Kevin Crocker finds it baffling, but the popular kids think it's a cool place to hang out.

It's worth noting that Evil Jimmy Neutron jumped from the Bulgyverse to Timmy's universe to escape his dying planet (J.N. episode "The Trouble with Clones").

-> In "Swim," he's seen hanging out with people on Unwish Island. He goes by James and gets a kick out of bothering Nega-Timmy.

24 Fae Planes - Fairy World and Anti-Fairy World have many layers. For example, Pixie World is very close to Earth, and Fairy World hovers above Giant Bucket of Acid World (in line with Season 7's "Crocker Shocker").

My 'fics depict characters traveling up and down. Notably, you need a Bridge (like the Rainbow Bridge) to go up a level, but you can drop down just by jumping.

The lower planes (where the show and most of my 'fic content takes place) are pretty stable, but the higher up the levels you go, the more wild the magic becomes. Nature spirits (such as Mother Nature, Father Time, and the Grim Reaper) live on Plane 23, which is sometimes considered to be Fairy Heaven.

Plane 24 has a magical life-giving fountain and is occupied solely by the nature spirit who embodies Reality. His ex-wife is the Hocus Poconos, who embodies Unreality. He never got over that break-up.

-> In Cloudlands AU, Foop was sent to Plane 24 after "Playdate of Doom" and had to make his way back down. Along the way, he got tangled up with alt versions of his parents from another reality who were very abusive towards him. That's known as his Pivotverse experience and it severely messed him up. He still flinches around his real parents even though he knows they're not the same people.

-> The 'fic about this is called Identity Theft, which has been planned for years but never posted because I'm indecisive :') ... Maybe I should make a separate AU for Pivotverse. I was just gonna keep it in this one 'fic, but it might be fun to do more.

-> Fae Cosmology

-> Overview of the 24 Fae Planes

Foop's alternate personality - Foop's alt personality is canon from Season 7 on (Most obvious in "Playdate of Doom" and "Spellementary School," but if you're familiar with details like their body language, traits like cheeks and eye highlights, and music cues, you can tell when they switch in many other episodes).

-> Ex: "Man's Worst Friend" is a pretty obvious one, and those elements are consistent in "Terrible Twosome" even though Foop was going through the Terrific Twos at the time.

-> In Cloudlands AU, the alter is named Hiccup. He's mostly nice, but very overprotective, VERY jealous, and increasingly bitter over time. He also has a sassy, savage streak and will just dunk on you for no reason.

-> Hiccup has a massive crush on Sammy Sweetsparkle and many other people, especially "bad boys." This includes Cavatina Sanderson (despite Cavatina's deep-seeded desire to kill Foop), so... y'know. It's fine.

The Refracted - Gold and white bird people exist in this universe. They tend to be holier-than-thou and see Fairies and Anti-Fairies as impure. They keep to themselves in the upper planes. They're a hunting and gathering people due to their bird biology; they don't have cities.

They're allowed 3 Robes who sit on the Fairy Council (the Peach, the Rose, and the Lilac), but they never show up as a protest for being "above" this.

Artemis Cairo (Chief Sunchosen) is the de facto leader, but only if you take her seriously. She founded a town called Town. It's going great. Artemis appears as a child in Frayed Knots and an adult in "Think Positive." Jorgen, H.P., Anti-Cosmo, and Anti-Sanderson are all a bit intimidated by her.

Pixie refracts are based on the purple-crowned fairywren, so they're purple and brown (paralleling the canon from "Clash With the Anti-World" where anti-pixies are green with yellow hair).

-> Class Overview: The Refracted

-> #Pious gold and white bird people yep

-> Old art of Chief Sunchosen & Dame Sanderson

Courts - Fairies and Pixies belong to the Seelie Court. Anti-Fairies and Refracts belong to the Unseelie Court.

-> In Cloudlands AU, this doesn't mean much beyond giving us a nice collective term for Fairies and Pixies when discussing their insect biology. Very common terms in 'fic.

Drakes & Damsels - Terms for male and female Fae, respectively. Mentioning because I'll use those terms in this post.

Non-Human Biology - The Fae have insect, bat, and bird biology. This includes reproductive parts. They're technically marsupials and have pouches like sugar gliders.

-> Poof and Foop shed their exoskeletons and took more humanoid bodies in "Evolution Hopeful".

-> My Fae have a very detailed breathing system intertwined with their magic. See also, Fae Magic.

-> Fairies are elastic and heal very quickly. Some of their play can seem very violent to humans (Ex: Wanda playing "Wandaball" in the last 10 seconds of Season 1's "The Same Game," which is a game where she bashes Cosmo's head with a cinderblock and laughs about it). Cosmo demonstrates quick healing in Season 5's "Fairy Idol" by jabbing himself in the eye several times.

-> Fairies can only be killed by non-magical means (Inspired by episodes like "Abracatastrophe" where magic doesn't affect magic along with "Poltergeeks" and "Scary Godcouple" where Cosmo and Wanda nearly die to sharp blades and the Crocker Pot, respectively).

-> Fairies turn to dust when they die (Inspired by "Fairy Idol," where Jorgen thinks Cosmo and Wanda are dead when he finds dust on their beds, his exact line being "No! They've turned to fairy dust!").

--- Anti-Fairies turn to smoke (a nod towards Foop being born from a smoke cloud). Refracts turn to mist.

-> Anatomy is played more realistically than in the show. For example, wings flap. Also, Anti-Fairies have claws and opposable toes. The common anti-fairy subspecies (who are based on Mexican free-tailed bats) have white toes and longer tails than the usual puffs of their species.

--- Fun Fact: My Anti-Fairies are based not only on bats, but also pink fairy armadillos! They have scutes protecting them from Fairy magic (which isn't supposed to affect them in canon) and Cosmo and Wanda's magic bounced off armadillo scutes in Season 7's "Teacher's Pet". However, Anti-Fairy bellies have soft hair and that's where they CAN be affected by magic. That said, I tend to draw them fluffy because I like to.

-> Fairies sweat their excess magic constantly. It secretes from their skin, creating a light magical veil preventing people from immediately recognizing magic unless they look closer. This is called the Principle of Observation and plays into episodes like "Nectar of the Odds" and "Crocker Shocker," where Cosmo released sweat and sparkles that could be used for magic.

--- Baby, You're a Rich Man and Pink and Gray are both good examples of this in practice.

--- Pixies are based on eusocial insects and swarm when they smell one of their own is injured. In Rich Man, Sanderson gets separated from H.P. and cuts his skin on purpose in the hopes his boss will find him. (It IS self-harm, but he's also elastic and heals quickly). Chloe accidentally triggers the swarming instinct in "This Is a Box" when she kicks H.P. in the face.

-> Forehead domes swing open and some sensitive parts are kept in there. Fae have cores, which are bits of magical enamel (like their crowns) that develop to reflect their personality. In canon, we saw that Wanda's is a radar [Multiple episodes], Cosmo's an empty storage chamber ["Mind Over Magic"], and H.P.'s is a laser cannon ["Fairy Oddlympics"].

--- Anti-Fairies' cores match their counterparts'. Also, it's worth noting Sanderson's is a pencil sharpener until he gets a core transplant late in Origin of the Pixies. If you know where this is going then you know where this is going.

-> In Chapter 2 of Frayed Knots, Anti-Cosmo rescues his "unborn joey" of a cousin from his dying aunt by cutting off the teat in her pouch (This is how you rescue baby joeys from dead kangaroos because their mouths are fused to the nipple in this early state).

-> Anti-Fairies have a type of embryonic diapause like actual bats. In other words, Anti-Fairy babies must reach 3 months of gestation, after which they will be born the following Friday the 13th. It's possible for an Anti-Fairy to be pregnant for over a year depending on how far apart Friday the 13ths are.

-> All Refracts are born exactly 3 months after the host counterpart; my lore for Season 7's "Anti-Poof" is that Foop and their Refract counterpart (Poppy) were born the exact same day, so the smoke cloud that absorbed personality traits from Poof was much larger than expected.

Fairy Reproduction - In the old days, damsels would die after mating. Cupid's family prevents this by using arrows to deliver a burst of magic. Fairies don't mate often as it's painful for them (and they have heat cycles anyway, so they're only interested occasionally).

-> There's one scene in Origin of the Pixies where H.P.'s sister begs to know why he's so stressed about intimacy; he finally snaps "My pleasure isn't worth her suffering." Yeah, he's got issues with it...

-> Cupid's arrows force a mating couple's magic to turn yellow when they fertilize eggs. This is the only color of magic that lasts after death (See also, Colors of Magic).

-> One of the plot points in Origin of the Pixies is H.P. having extreme anxiety that his offspring were fertilized with purple magic - which fades after death - because he was unable to hit yellow's joy requirement and Cupid's family never saw him because he reproduces asexually (and thus didn't show up in their records).

Fairy culture leans towards having separate beds for sleeping and mating. In fact, bedrooms have a special connected room for mating (the yidreamu) due to how important and precious it is for them, especially back in the day when a damsel knew she'd die (so mating was reserved for the end of the life as it was).

-> Damsels spend time recovering afterwards and cannot reproduce again during that cycle (though a drake can). Cosmo and Wanda used their yidreamu in "Repeat." In one Frayed Knots chapter, Anti-Cosmo hesitates to barge into a yidreamu even while searching rooms to check everyone had evacuated in a fire; it's so deep-seeded in their culture that he was embarrassed to even look at it.

The Fae have heat cycles; the common fairy subspecies (and the pixies since they're mutated common fairies) come into heat for 18 months just once every 500 years. Most of the time, everyday intimacy is snuggles and some kisses.

-> Fun Fact: Wanda and Cosmo hit their cycle in Season 5 (The season they both express interest in other people multiple times & leading up to "Fairly Odd Baby" as Season 6's debut episode). They're happily monogamous, but hormones are messy...

-> There are 35 Fae subspecies (if you include Pixies who were later separated into their own Class). Back in the day, Cupid's family organized all species in a list according to their heat cycles to make it easier for individuals to determine who was adjacent to them in schedule.

--- Unfortunately, this led to a deeply rooted caste system that still guides their culture today. (See Fairy Social Ladder).

Fairy damsels leave mating plugs (i.e. the part that breaks off and once upon a time would've led to their deaths, in line with their insect anatomy). This gets mentioned on very rare occasion, such as late Origin of the Pixies and Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Pixies.

-> Poof has a small crisis when he realizes he's spent his whole life writing fanfics with Fairies who mate like humans. Also, his roommate teases him by saying some people like to keep the plug as a memento (They do not... I think).

Will o' the Wisps - Wisps are one of the Fairy subspecies. They're a mutation of common fairies whose damsels recover quickly and can mate multiple times a cycle. Their genetics are horribly unstable and a lot of their offspring die, so... /double thumbs up.

-> Long ago, Cupid's family took the wisp holotype (Ilisa Maddington) captive and forced her to reproduce a bunch to preserve her species. Apparently, Ilisa mentally broke and would kill any of her offspring who didn't show the butterfly wing gene (believing they weren't hers), so... she had a rough life. We talk about her life a lot.

Wisp damsels keep harems and that leads to fanfic drama. H.P. was forced into one when seeking milk for baby Sanderson (Origin of the Pixies). He doesn't necessarily resolve the issues that come with this or have a healthy ending to that plot arc, but... it sure did happen.

-> Goldie is in training to be her species' ambassador (and required to uphold expectations regarding her own harem). She struggles with Harm OCD in "Watch and Learn."

-> Poof stresses out in some works (especially Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Pixies & "All I Ever Wanted") due to fears that Goldie doesn't respect his consent. Which he's afraid to bring up with her because of the aforementioned harm OCD she has in regards to her people being stereotyped as aggressive and forceful with their partners (and because his memory is pretty bad anyway since he's on peppermint so often).

--- Yeah, there's a lot going on. Read my Poof/Goldie works with caution 😬

Pixie Reproduction - Pixies have obligate asexual reproduction that kicks in when they're adults due to their Wolbachia pipientis infection (i.e. the real-world bacteria that causes many insects to reproduce asexually). All pixies are genetically identical to H.P. (with one exception).

-> The main plot point in Origin of the Pixies is H.P. trying to figure out what is happening to him and how to take care of all the pixies he produces (1 every 500 years in line with his heat cycle, seeing as he's a common fairy with a mutation).

-> H.P. has one non-identical biological daughter named Commelina. If you can guess how that happened before we get there (considering Wolbachia destroyed his ability to reproduce the standard way)... congrats! It's pretty awful and he's extremely messed up about it :D

-> Sanderson has his eldest (Cavatina) during the Gray Train arc of the 130 Prompts series.

Anti-Fairy Reproduction - Anti-Fairies cannot reproduce on their own, as they're reflections of their Fairy counterparts. 3 months after their counterparts mate, Anti-Fairies are flooded with an incredible amount of hormones and magic (the honey-lock instinct) that immediately sends them out to find their partner and mate.

-> "But doesn't that cause a lot of trauma-" yes. They don't have a choice /fingerguns.

-> One of the main plot threads in Frayed Knots is Anti-Cosmo trying to outfox the honey-lock, with his grand plan being to find someone else to mate with when his instinct kicks in. Thus, he'll sire an offspring born outside these universal rules, who'll go on to be the host counterpart of a new Fairy-Anti-Fairy-Refract trio.

--- Frayed Knots has a lot of theming around this type of thing. For instance, when Anti-Cosmo explains this plan to Anti-Wanda, the first thing she does is point out that he lacks a piece of anatomy he needs to make that plan work (because Cosmo has it). We get nitty-gritty about that sort of thing.

-> Oh yeah, Anti-Cosmo also stole sperm and eggs from the Eros Nest while he was interning and fertilized them with his own magic. Things got pretty messed up. Don't worry about it.

Like bats, Anti-Fairy drakes have barbs on their reproductive organ, and Anti-Cosmo has no shame in narrating that. It's glossed over in Frayed Knots, but blatant in the E-rated versions of "Cageflight" and whatever else gets an E chapter. (Can be found in Red Train or under my ScarletPenguin pseud, but I'm not linking directly in this post).

Anti-Fairy drakes carry their baby for 13 days before passing it to their partner by pressing their bellies together. In "Think Positive," Anti-Cosmo mourns the death of his unborn son because he dropped little joey Foop while transferring him to Anti-Wanda's pouch

Anti-Marigold (Goldie Goldenglow's counterpart) is an anti-wisp. While will o' the wisps are famed for being temptresses who keep harems, anti-wisps often get taken advantage of due to their four pouches to hold four babies.

-> To clarify: Anti-Fairies are forced to mirror their counterparts and some Anti-Fairy drakes forcibly dump their babies on random damsels. This happens a lot with anti-wisps, who are looked down on for being moth-like instead of bat-like; it's also a nod to moths being prey for bats.

-> Anti-Marigold's crop top rides high enough to slightly show her four pouches when I draw her. Poof jumped a bit when he brushed his hand over them while putting a painkiller charm on her stomach in "All I Ever Wanted."

⭐ Fae Culture - #RD species ref - Long, detailed posts for each magical culture. /slaps each one- These babies can fit a good 20k words in each of 'em and they're perfect if you're interested in the nitty-gritty.

Fairy World's population consists of roughly 75% damsels and 25% drakes. Damsels are born more often because back in the old days, they would die after mating (like many male insects, though it's male Fairies who give birth in FOP canon).

-> In modern times, Cupid's family now shoots every couple with a burst of magic to ensure damsels don't die. On very rare occasion, someone slips through the cracks, but his family are extremely devoted to their job.

-> Cupid's family were blessed by the nature spirits and have incredibly intense magic. They split it between triplets and kill any of their own offspring who aren't born triplets (and forbid anyone other than the Triplet of the Morning from reproducing- See also, Cupid's family tree).

-> His family also run the Eros Nest: a zoo containing every fauna species in the universe, which appears in Origin of the Pixies and Frayed Knots when they kidnap H.P. and when Anti-Cosmo interns there.

-> It's worth noting that in Cloudlands AU canon, Cupid's married to a beautiful will o' the wisp named Psyche and his mom is not happy.

> 2020 post about ZZ & ZW sex chromosomes for Fairies & the masculinization effect of Wolbachia pipientis on Pixies [Parallel of IRL Wolbachia's feminization phenotype for infected insects]

-> 2018 post about Fairy, Anti-Fairy, and Refract views of trans members in their culture & types of body adjustment magic

--- tl;dr - The Fae envision several different sexes. Fairies see gynes and drones as sexes alongside kabouter drakes and kabouter damsels. Anti-Fairies have a special designation for neurodivergent individuals [Ex: Anti-Cosmo's divus displacement disorder, which is an Anti-Fairy parallel of bipolar disorder that he treats with pheromones; Anti-Fairy culture believes he has a nature spirit tangled with his soul and sharing his body]... Lots of little nitty-gritty going on there, always traced back to Anti-Fairy zodiac culture].

That said, Fairies are supportive of gender transitions because they believe suppressing yourself weakens your magic and/or causes harm to your health [Magical back-up is part of their culture; they get nervous]. They're very big on being yourself.

--- Anti-Fairies believe in reincarnation and take body dysphoria as proof of their beliefs. They believe souls have no gender, but it's your role as someone experiencing many incarnations to take each one seriously and love the body and role given to you. Some people criticize this belief due to the possibility that this is just a way for the extremely patriarchal Anti-Fairy culture to keep damsels submissive because "it's their fate right now; they'll have their chance when it's their turn to be drakes; we all take our turn."

Generally, Anti-Fairies [who follow Zodii beliefs] consider it an insult to the nature spirits to change your body. This doesn't just mean gender presentation, but everything- Their culture has strict rules about bodies, including only being allowed to shapeshift into one form your entire life (predetermined by lineage), they're only allowed to wear clothes in specific colors, their underwear needs to match the color of their year of birth on the zodiac, stuff like that.

--- Anti-Cosmo has a whole crossdressing arc in Frayed Knots where he convinces himself that changing his clothes is okay as long as he doesn't change his body. The nature spirits are incredibly fluid in their bodies and gender, so idk where the Anti-Fairies got the idea that it would be an insult. Lots of different cultures and beliefs!

--- The Refracted are not very supportive of trans individuals, but I don't know what you expected because they think everything in life is sinful except breathing, praying, and eating. Owning possessions? Learning to read? Practicing magic? It's all bad.

--- Pixies don't really know what's going on in their bodies. They're designated drakes at birth due to having reproductive parts historically associated with ZZ chromosomes, but some pixies have ZW chromosomes and don't know it. That's just the way of Wolbachia! Wilcox and Smith are two notable ZW pixies, Wilcox being the first one Wolbachia pipientis's masculinization property was discovered in (Frayed Knots) & Smith's pheromones giving him an attraction boost both for being a gyne and for having ZW chromosomes. Smith is the only ZW Gen 2 pixie gyne, so his 'double attractive' status is unique and everyone thinks he's sexy.

-> Cloudlands AU only rarely plays with transformation magic and gender (We do have some interesting cases like Foop using a pendant in "Blue Angel," which is a special type of indirect magic that flies under the radar in his culture; I write Foop as genderfluid as he gets older, and one of the most important Anti-Fairies in history [the first High Count] used they/them pronouns, so... It's an interesting culture to explore, but may not be for everyone).

--- If you're interested in gender magic, you might like Reedfilter Rules AU, where Anti-Cosmo flips between gender presentations using magic for comfort and enjoyment (As in, not for a scheme or joke); there are neat details about his culture's naming traditions and how they're fluid with his presentation. H.P.'s spouse in RR AU does a hard reset of identity every 500 years. A very different but equally interesting society to explore in 'fic.

Seelie Courters have pheromone-based cultures while Anti-Fairies have sound-based culture and Refracts have sight-based culture.

-> In "Minion," both H.P. and Sanderson were affected by the Fairy Elder's pheromones, as she is the most powerful individual in Fairy World. Just being in the hallway nearby flipped Sanderson into a calm, authoritative state and H.P. into a flirty one (with Sanderson unable to maintain his gray suit - instead changing it to yellow - and using hand gestures that H.P.'s "no fun" pheromones usually suppress).

-> Anti-Cosmo asked H.P. if he could translate the scents of candles in "Yellow Flower Number 9," to which H.P. replied that he was "trying not to" because "It's gross this close to Valentine's Day."

-> Anti-Fairies who kiff-tie with nature spirits (discussed below) smell strong to Fairies. In late Origin of the Pixies and Frayed Knots, Sanderson waffles on his loyalty to H.P. because Anti-Cosmo's scent is overpowering to him (since Anti-Cosmo is bonded with the Water spirit and Sanderson was born in a Water year).

-> Fairies can smell when a fellow Fairy is no longer a virgin, because it upgrades their pheromones.

Drake Fairies who eat a significant amount of jelly during their first 3 months of life develop into gynes, whose behavior somewhat mirrors queen bees IRL. They have freckles, attract drones to serve them, and fight each other to the death. Drones are attracted to pheromones; gynes and drones engage in preening behaviors (insect-like licking behaviors) that satisfy them both (Ex: It helps them breathe better because it straightens out their magic).

-> By "serve," I do mean things like errands and chores. In Cloudlands AU, gyne/drone dynamics are completely non-sexual (with very rare exceptions such as H.P.'s rival (Jean Reddinski) taking advantage of his drones in Origin of the Pixies, which is considered sexual abuse in-universe and he faces consequences).

-> There is a lot of face-licking and neck-licking in these 'fics; it's a whole thing, baby... They are bugs, your honor...

-> H.P., Big Daddy, Poof, and Finley (see the tomte section below) are all gynes. Most pixies (including Sanderson) are drones. Only one gyne in the immediate area can be dominant; others are submissive. One of the side effects is that they become more pliant to orders. Due to pheromone suppression, gynes are sterile unless they're the dominant gyne.

-> Gynes don't kill on sight, but their instincts flare up when a fellow gyne challenges them. In Origin of the Pixies, H.P. struggles not to kill his vice president and heir (Longwood) many times. Multiple characters die in my 'fics, especially during gyne fights.

-> Finley gets his aggressive urges out by playing video games. Finley is the dominant gyne over Poof and yes, it is incredibly dangerous that they're living together. Poof never refuses when Finley wants something from him because he lives in fear that Finley will see it as a challenge and decide to kill him. Poof would probably win because he's captain of the saucerbee team and Finley plays video games all day. But it's complicated...

-> Gynes tend to have strong-scented pheromones and are usually considered attractive. Insects tend to find non-virgin insects more attractive than virgin ones (If I'm recalling my research from many years ago correctly; I believe it was the pheromone change). It gets a lot harder for gynes not to kill each other if both have the upgraded pheromones; they're way more aggressive.

--- This is mentioned now and then, such as H.P.'s insistence that his vice president must stay a virgin until he's gone, or the huge spike in tension between Poof and Finley when Poof's pheromones flip to their non-virgin state (Finley has a disability preventing him from doing the same; see the tomte section below). It's... never a secret (especially among gossipy high schoolers) who is and isn't a virgin.

-> Reddinski was significantly more dominant than H.P. back in the day, and H.P. was unable to be near him without flipping to a completely different personality (influenced by Reddinski's pheromones) where he was more nervous and submissive (See the Origin of the Pixies chapters "Almost" & "Senseless").

-> The Anti-Fairy parallel of a gyne is a pilot. They don't have pheromones or special behaviors, but they have purple freckles and are born with black stripes on their face (two things Foop has in canon- his stripes of course being his mustache and goatee).

-> The Refract version of a gyne is a plume. They're born with blue "ribbons" above their brows that usually go down to their hips or even past their feet (think bird-of-paradise courtship decorations). No pheromones or behaviors here either, though pilots and plumes are generally considered flashy and attractive.

-> Frayed Knots Chapter 7 - "Full House" - Spellementary-aged Anti-Cosmo visits a hive estate after accusing his gyne principal of being abusive to his drones.

-> Preening Signals

-> Freckle Distribution in Gyne Fairies

Wishbirthed individuals are uncommon, but not unheard of. Their official designation is luz mala, or "bad light." Their magic is highly unstable and strong emotions affect their surroundings (as in "Fairly Odd Baby" or "Anti-Poof").

-> If I'm remembering canon correctly, Juandissimo and Poof are the only Fairies who've been shown to do magic without a wand (Poof in both "Terrible Twosome" and "School of Crock," Juandissimo when he snaps his fingers and sends a blast of magic from his fingertip to Cosmo in the latter half of "Fairy Fairy Quite Contrary."

-> Canonically, Juandissimo was unable to hold a job for long after he and Remy separated because he was constantly crying ("Remy Rides Again"); dialogue heavily implies Juandissimo's tears ruined the food he cooked even though such a thing presumably would've been subtle if he had human tears.

-> In Frayed Knots, Juandissimo interns at the Eros Nest and babysits Cupid (and his siblings). In both Knots and Origin, Juandissimo's arc is about his journey to becoming more confident after a lifetime of being shamed and looked down on for his status as a luz mala. In "Whatever," he has a breakdown and wails that he's good, not bad.

- Some Fae are born tomtes, meaning they can't use magic. In their society, this is considered a disability. Finley - the pixie who rooms with Poof, Foop, and Sammy Sweetsparkle at boarding school - is the most notable tomte character. His hat doesn't float and he can't fly because his wings can't sustain his weight.

-> Finley will die if he engages in intercourse because his body would not have enough magic to sustain his life. This comes up now and then, such as when his roommates chat about their love lives.

-> He will also die if he gives birth, which is bad news for a member of a race that reproduces parthenogenetically when they come of age :')

-> Finley can only use magic on Gray Tuesday, when the Head Pixie takes Santa's powers and splits them between all the pixies. Finley looks forward to this every year in his youth (Ex: "This Is a Box"), but grows sour as he ages since it reminds him of what he can't have.

-> As mentioned, Fairies (who have insect biology) must adhere to specific reproduction practices (i.e. Cupid shooting them) or they risk dying after intercourse. Finley's disability means Cupid's arrows won't save him (His body can't process that magic).

When they become godparents, Fairies link their magic with the appendixes of their godchildren. This helps them locate their godchild, get a better understanding of what they're wishing for, and allows them to draw energy- Wishes made by children are drastically more powerful than random spells Fairies can do otherwise.

-> Juandissimo screeched in pain in "Whatever" when his godchild was injured. In the opening flashback in "Looking Back," Juandissimo passed out when Remy went into shock from extreme pain.

-> Fairy Court removed Gary and Betty's appendixes at age 8 after the Pixies won the right to adopt them (Pink and Gray).

Anti-Fairy culture revolves around fate and the Fae zodiac. The zodiac plays a big role, so it's a good idea to become at least a bit familiar with this part of the lore. (See #RD nature spirits)

There are many nature spirits (Father Time and Mother Nature are good examples), but the zodiac spirits - 7 brothers who were imprisoned in their cloudland temples during war - are a very big deal.

The zodiac culture influences everything from what colors an Anti-Fairy is allowed to wear to whether they're allowed to be more dominant or submissive in intimate relationships. Childhood betrothals are very common, and seemingly random due to Anti-Fairies trusting in fate.

-> Anti-Cosmo (born in the Water year) has a crisis in Frayed Knots when he realizes he prefers being the submissive partner and is stuck in a culture where he's forbidden to do that except with Anti-Fairies born in either the Love or Fire years.

-> Foop wasn't betrothed as a child since he was in Abracatraz, but Anti-Cosmo discusses this in Frayed Knots (and is paired with a woman who isn't Anti-Wanda). Fairies find child betrothals especially strange, but it's important to the Anti-Fairies.

-> Anti-Cosmo and Anti-Wanda really want Foop (a scientist born in the Breath year) to marry Anti-Coriander (a doctor-in-training born in the Leaves year). Healthcare falls under the Breath spirit's domain and science under the Leaves spirit's domain, so in Anti-Fairy eyes, Foop and Anti-Coriander are in perfect balance and thus... their society's OTP.

In Frayed Knots, Anti-Cosmo turns his body over to the Water spirit once he becomes High Count (as is custom; this is called a kiff-tie). They struggle a lot to make that work.

-> Throughout the 130 Prompts (and other works about Foop), he grumbles about being raised with the expectation that he'll turn his body over to the nature spirit of Breath. He'll almost certainly be shunned if he refuses.

The Anti-Fairies who were dining with Anti-Cosmo in "Fairly Odd Baby" are called the camarilla court. There are 14 members if you include Anti-Cosmo and Anti-Wanda, so each of the 7 zodiacs are represented twice. The camarilla court advises the High Count and Countess; they play special roles like planning events and watching the border.

-> If the camarilla is gridlocked, ties are broken by another party: the First General (who wears a red cloak to represent Tarrow, the father of the zodiac spirits).

Karmic Weaves

Anti-Fairies care a lot about karma and the influence you have on others. A karmic weave is an ethereal manifestation of your influence on other people and when it shimmers into view, it takes the form of glowing rainbow clothing.

-> H.P. is known for having an especially dramatic one since he runs a shipping company (and because he's a head of state, and because all pixies can trace their ancestry to him, and because he influenced Flappy Bob who made the wish to change the planet, etc.)

-> See also, Karmic Weaves

-> Frayed Knots is named for Anti-Cosmo's karmic weave, which becomes tangled, frayed, and knotted as he spends his life lying about things that grow increasingly complicated. Anti-Cosmo is notable for deliberately "acting against his fate" (in his case, he lied about who he was betrothed to and it spiraled from there): something Anti-Fairies generally don't do, as trying to "dodge fate" is extremely taboo in their culture... which means he can never admit to his growing web of lies.

-> Foop and Anti-Marigold tangled their weaves during their Tarrow dance in "Watch and Learn." When their solid bodies reformed, Foop's hand was stuck inside Anti-Marigold's skin. They fixed it, but it was uncomfortable for all involved.

-> Anti-Cosmo took some of the Head Pixie's karma in Frayed Knots Chapter 27, "Tangled Threads", and used it to boost his own magic... which went poorly, since Anti-Cosmo's meddling tangled their weaves (and thus bodies) together, so they both fell off a building when A.C. tried to fly.

Anti-Fairies and bad luck - Anti-Fairies' role in the universe is to bring balance. They're genuinely cleaning up Fairy messes, but they're portrayed as the ones causing messes. Sometimes they do cause messes, but a lot of the time, they're the cleaning crew.

-> Anti-Fairies disperse stinky magic. If left to fester, it will become violent and attack; in Frayed Knots, we see this presented as if evil spirits or demons are leaping from another dimension to hunt people, especially Anti-Fairies (their favorite food). Fairies can't see these spirits (umbrae), so they don't really get it.

-> In other words, Anti-Fairies take something that could cause devastating harm to a person and disperse it into much smaller pieces of bad luck. They ARE sending you bad luck, but they're preventing things that could kill you.

-> They still do evil things, but I often portray Anti-Fairies as jealous, bitter, and lonely more than truly evil. The vibe I'm going for is people hating bugs or scavengers for being "gross and creepy" when in reality, they're important in the ecosystem. Sometimes they get angry and lash out... especially at Fairies (who've hurt, imprisoned, and shunned them for a long time) and humans (who can't really fight back).

-> In Frayed Knots, Anti-Cosmo trains as a demon summoner. He doesn't show much of this onscreen because... honestly, it's not as interesting as it sounds, but it basically means he's the emergency cavalry for his friend group to call in if things go wrong. He gets to call the shots and (against all odds) he's good at it.

Anti-Fairy culture is sociosexual (mostly themed around IRL bonobos). Physical touch is a very big deal for them, and they tend to be more open about sexual things since they can't reproduce unless their counterparts do.

-> "Physical touch" covers things like pressing bodies together, nipping at each other, roosting together, snuggling, bundling (i.e. wrapping wings around each other), and sexual things.

-> Fairies are stereotyped as "brawn over brains," especially since gynes fight to the death sometimes. Anti-Fairies are stereotyped as "brains over brawn"- Their culture isn't big on fighting. In "You'll Never Know," Foop challenged Anti-Cosmo to a duel and Anti-Cosmo remarked that he'd "raised a fairy."

-> There are 13 levels of intimacy important in their culture, ranging from friendly to letting nature spirits possess your body.

-> The iris virus is a sexually transmitted disease with a side effect of adding color to Anti-Fairy eyes. It's passed ceremonially between noble families, although Anti-Cosmo and Foop were born with theirs. Anti-Wanda got hers when she gained higher status.

--- In Frayed Knots, Anti-Cosmo has a meltdown over Anti-Wanda passing the virus to important figureheads in ceremony despite this being extremely ingrained in his culture for many generations... He's very jealous. "But doesn't he chronically cheat on her-?" Yes.

--- Anti-Cosmo's first heir (Talon) was born with red eyes. Foop displaced him by being born with colored eyes, as it's considered a blessing from the nature spirits (despite it being an STD he inherited).

--- Refracts also have red eyes unless they get the iris virus. In their culture, it's shameful to have the virus (even though they're also bound to the whims of the honey-lock and can't always choose their partner). Yay, victim-blaming! (We do not yay for that).

-> Anti-Fairies have a tongue-piercing culture... It's a nod to bats being one of the only animal species to practice oral, so you can probably guess how their barbs play into this.

-> Frayed Knots discusses sociosexual things, but glosses over some details (Ex: Anti-Cosmo tells us when he does ceremonial things with his friends, but doesn't give the nitty-gritty).

--- You can find alt versions of some chapters (Ex: versions rated E) in Red Train or under my ScarletPenguin pseud on AO3. It's not something I've posted much of historically because I think it's funny to write something as extreme as a sociosexual culture while censoring it, but maybe in the future.

-> We gloss over this culture pretty hard in the 130 Prompts, which is strictly G and T works. The in-universe explanation is that after the War of the Angels (Season 7's "Balance of Flour"), touch culture tapered a bit and during Foop's youth; it's currently in a numb "socioromantic" era and picking up its broken pieces.

Anti-Fairy culture is very patriarchal and much more sexist than Fairy culture (while Fairy culture tends to be more racist than Anti-Fairy culture).

-> They also have the 75% - 25% gender split, but interpret this as "Nature says drakes should have multiple damsels..." which is pretty in-line with their bat biology.

-> Colonies are led by creche fathers. In modern day, Anti-Cosmo heads the Blue Castle Colony and one of his responsibilities is looking after all the pups, even if they're not related to him. In his youth, that colony was led by High Count Anti-Bryndin, whom Anti-Cosmo considers his step-father (despite them not having a very close relationship... the feelings are not necessarily reciprocated).

-> When drake Anti-Fairies come of age, it's expected they leave their birth colony and join a bachelor colony. Anti-Cosmo depicts this in Frayed Knots. Damsels stay with the birth colony and technically become "one of the creche father's damsels" at that point until they're legally married to someone else.

-> In Frayed Knots, one of the reasons Anti-Cosmo chooses to overthrow Anti-Bryndin is A.C.'s discomfort with his leader coming on to people who don't want him to.

-> "Was it Anti-Wanda-" Yes (More or less). And his mom. And obligatory jealousy regarding his fiancée.

More Anti-Fairy details - They roost upside-down, their native language is Vatajasa (a language themed around clicks and squeaks), and they're forbidden to shapeshift into any form other than the single animal associated with their family line.

-> Changing yourself away from "your fate" is very frowned upon in Anti-Fairy society (and Fairy culture is all about embracing yourself).

Names are very important in Anti-Fairy culture; I believe Foop has 6 different names. Technically he's in the records as Nebula; Foop is a nickname, plus he has names like Anti-Poof and so on.

-> Anti-Fairies use names given by their parents when they're young (which is also given to the Fairy counterpart as their middle name, thus allowing Anti-Fairy parents to name their kids). They switch to their anti-names when they become adults. Those given names then become their "private names" and are to be spoken aloud only with intimate partners.

-> It's a running gag that Foop doesn't know his betrothed's private name because they were only introduced to each other as adults and she can't tell him until they're married. He has a very bad habit of calling her his mistress's name instead (i.e. Anti-Marigold's private name is Kelsia) because he grew up with Anti-Marigold since he was a baby and called her Kelsia for 150,000 years. (RIP...)

-> Foop is very defensive of Anti-Fairy name culture even though he sometimes thinks it's stupid. Poof has a hard time remembering Goldie's counterpart uses the name Anti-Marigold; he always calls her Anti-Goldie. Funnily enough, he also did that when they were young, so Foop would always correct him with "Kelsia." One of these days, he'll probably call her Kelsia when he's trying to switch to using Anti-Marigold and Foop will throw his arms up in frustration.

It's worth clarifying that Anti-Cosmo runs the executive branch of Anti-Fairy government (He runs things like search and rescue, military, and infrastructure) while the Anti-Fairy Council handle judicial things (like crime) and many interracial politics (like scoring Foop the right to have a "scary godchild," which is one of the truce-related things they have to negotiate with the Fairies).

-> Fairies have Da Rules, but Anti-Fairies have their Traditions and Customs book, which their Council manages.

-> Fun Fact: All members of the Anti-Fairy Council seen in the show are pilots.

Yugopotamian Culture - Not much to mention here beyond "Hey, things that are unpleasant to humans are often desirable to Yugopotamians," in line with show canon.

-> It's worth a reminder that Mark comes from a violent culture. He likes when Vicky hurts him and states in the show that what she does to him is in line with his planet's courtship customs (except the kissing).

Potentially, we could delve into this in 'fic and it might be violent or upsetting, but I don't have specific plans. If we see specifics, I expect canon-typical Vicky things like blades (since it's canon that she gave Mark a ton of scars somehow), so heads up.

Witches - First generation witches are individuals with one magical parent and one non-magical parent. Their descendants are also classified as witches. Season 3's "Which Witch Is Which?" canonized an old relative of Crocker's (Alden Bitterroot) as a witch.

-> The Fae can't reproduce outside their own species (special rules about magic and breathing don't allow them to shapeshift while they're that aroused), so no witches have Fae parents.

-> Notable witches include Denzel Crocker, Kevin Crocker, Elmer, and Happy Peppy Gary. Being male witches, they have XYZ chromosomes; they pass as having Klinefelter syndrome on human scans, but there's a lot going on under the surface.

-> In my lore, male witches are sterile and witch heritage only passes through the mother's line, so technically Alden is a great-something uncle of Crocker's and not a direct ancestor. Elmer's mom, Crocker's mom, and Crocker's half-sister (Kevin's mom) are also witches.

-> Ed Leadly's motivation for hunting magical creatures is the reproduction ("Opportunity" & "Trying Too Hard") and/or just because he thinks random magical creatures are neat (hence offering to pay 17 million dollars for Sparky in Season 9's "Dog Gone"). This terrible man has been divorced multiple times and at this point he just wants a partner who's interesting and fun, and I respect it.

-> Witches of the Fire Tribe (i.e. those who are genie-descended) can pass their magic to others through body fluids like kisses. In Pink and Gray, Gary is pressured to kiss Betty throughout his life even though in his own words, it makes him "feel like rental equipment." This plays a lot into their messy relationship as they get older, especially after Betty loses her magical memories and forgets WHY Gary was so reluctant about kissing her.

-> While not discussed in detail, it's heavily implied Gary was born with an STD (considering that H.P. and Anti-Cosmo took one look at his DNA and immediately switched their plan from "let's transfer blood to Betty so the magic transfer is permanent" to "Uh... We're gonna stick with kisses."

-> Witch magic is so powerful, it can't really be destroyed. Come What May is a Kevin-centric 'fic about life in the Crocker house, where generations of stinky magic buildup (See Season 5's "Talkin' Trash") have caused it to essentially become alive.

-> Witches are very long-lived (hence Alden still living at the bottom of his well at the end of "Which Witch Is Which?" - Living hundreds of years is expected. Because witch magic can't be destroyed, they're reborn as animals when they die... familiars, in fact!

-> Denzel and Kevin Crocker are Foop's familiars in future 'fics like "You'll Never Know" and "Approval."

-> Witches

The Fae also have magical kisses; each race has their own.

-> We know from canon that Anti-Fairies have acidic tears ("Timmy's Secret Wish"), so I gave them acidic saliva as well.

-> Fairy kisses spike your joy/pleasure and Pixie kisses clear the head.

"Power Pals" confirmed candy and soda get Fairies drunk; soda is sometimes seen during celebration scenes (such as H.P. and Sanderson kicking back after they took over Fairy World and Earth in "School's Out! The Musical").

-> It's impossible for Pixies to get blackout drunk because they rebound to the sober state when they start to tip. They tend to be sugar addicts because of this (paralleling how the wasps I based them on are also social addicts).

-> In Cloudlands AU, I play with the idea of sugar as substance use. As he gets older, Poof develops a peppermint addiction because it gets him high, which allows him moments of respite from his incredible amounts of trauma. In "Repeat" (before he really started), he pleaded with his dad not to think he was "taking mint" because "he's a good kid."

-> He's tried to quit multiple times. Anti-Marigold was surprised when she found Poof peppering up in "Temptation." He had a breakdown in "All I Ever Wanted" when explaining why he struggles to quit.

... That's everything I can think of that falls in my mental category of "deep worldbuilding people might not want to be surprised by because it might squick them out." My apologies if there's anything I missed.

-> That said, don't forget to check the AU warnings linked at the top- There are things I warned for in that post that aren't deep worldbuilding and thus aren't stated here.

Orange Train's works delve deeper into this type of content than 'fics without this series label, so keep an eye out and and browse or avoid as preferred.

You may also like the Riddledeep Masterpost, which contains links to all my worldbuilding posts (More polished on that sideblog than my initial musings on the main blog). -> Before I used the name Cloudlands AU, I called this FOP worldbuilding Riddleverse Classic, so you may see that term in some posts. -> I'm in the process of copying Riddledeep posts to the AO3 work So, You're Studying the Cloudlands... - You can subscribe to it on AO3 if you would like to read there instead.

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