#also I had to bounce between tumblr desktop and tumblr app to make this

[your-local-grubdog]

Star Touched AU: Onions

Now time for some AU stuff about how onions work hehehe. This took a while to make, but it was a lot of fun to do so as well! :D Enjoy!

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Onions are the nests that pikmin live in. These strange creatures are just as alive as the pikmin and are also a strange plant-animal hybrid. Unlike the pikmin though, onions lack true brains. Rather, their nervous system features multiple "clumps" of nerves in key spots to control vital functions of the onion. Pikmin are able to control where the Onion moves, though they admit that they don't have much of an idea of how they do it. All that is known is that the onion will go where most pikmin wish to go and that in the rare case of a standstill it will stay still. 

Details on how onions look and function internally are vague. Because they're meant for pikmin to sleep in, pikmin naturally feel groggy while inside. As a result of being either asleep or half asleep while in the onion, not even the pikmin can perfectly recall what they saw inside. Consistent details from multiple pikmin have helped greatly in piecing this mystery together. 

There are many theories as to what exactly makes pikmin sleepy in the onion, the most popular ones being the onion giving off pheromones that encourage sleep or the pikmin themselves giving off these same pheromones while in the Onion. However, neither have been proven.

Onions are roughly, well, onion-shaped organisms with a flower on top and three spindly legs below. The main body comes in many colors, matching that of the pikmin that live inside it. The petals of the onion will also match those of their pikmin. The legs, which can be retracted into the onion, are typically yellow but have rarely been observed to come in other colors. They also have a band of white and black triangles around the midsection of their main body (fig. 1). Onions also have a sort of "mouth" on their underside where prey and pellets alike are sucked into the onion. 

They are able to fly, retracting their legs before propelling themselves into the air. While they can fly an impressive amount above the ground, they are unable to leave the atmosphere of PNF-404 (fig. 2). The flower on top of the onion has been observed to spin while in flight (fig. 3) and puffs of hot air escape from the holes in which the legs retract into. However, no one knows quite for sure how the onions fly - just that these two things probably aid in their ability. This is also still hotly debated.

… seriously, if you wish to see a room of pikminologists get into a fight then ask them why exactly pikmin feel so sleepy in their onions then ask them how onions fly. They'll be yelling at each other in due time.

Onions have limited capacity, as you'd imagine. This is normally capped at 100 pikmin living inside an onion at any time. However, onions can fuse with other onions! When two onions fuse, their main body color becomes a splotchy mix of their main colors. The same applies to the petals, assuming the pikmin had different colored petals to begin with (fig. 4). Merging is a slow process that must be done on the surface during daylight hours, as the onions will need the extra energy from the sun to properly fuse. Both onions must also be empty of pikmin to properly fuse. One onion will suck another one up, and then it will take a few hours for the insides of the newly fused onion to be as they should. Fusion is permanent, but still common for the community-driven species.

Onions at their maximum capacity will only occasionally accept prey items, but do not turn these into pikmin. It is thought that these extra nutrients are stored to "feed" the onion, "feed" the pikmin, and make emergency seeds in the event of a pikmin extinction.

When onions merge, their size capacity increases by another 100. Interestingly, the onions can fuse only five times meaning that it could only produce five species of pikmin at any given time. But the maximum cap of pikmin does not exceed 300 pikmin. Fused onions will also always ensure there are at least five of any given type of pikmin within its crop. Thus it is possible for the onion to refuse to make seeds even if the overall cap hasn't been met.

Pikmin can sleep in onions not their own if need be, so long as there is space. It doesn't even matter if the onion can't produce that type of pikmin - a winged pikmin could sleep in a purely yellow onion if needed. 

As mentioned before, exact details on how onions look and function internally are vague. However, we do have a rough idea of how it looks! The inside is apparently green, and soft to the touch. Pods line the walls and floor of the onion, with tinted "lids" that can be opened so that pikmin can sleep inside. Accounts of the color of this tint vary wildly, and it's currently thought to be unique to each individual onion. These pods are built purely for sleeping, several pikmin snuggling up together in one (fig. 5).

There is a tube of some sort in the middle of the onion, leading from the flower to the onion's "mouth". The pikmin refer to it as a "seed chamber", and is most certainly where prey is sucked up and where seeds are shot out from the top. Somewhere in the mid section of the onion is a thick, hard disk (fig. 6). Pikmin have stated that it is possible to climb through it via holes near the edges, and that above it are more sleeping pods. This disk is referred to by the pikmin as being "the grinder", and is presumably where nutrients are ground up. There, they will either be turned into seeds or absorbed by the onion.  

It's unknown how long these pikmin trees live, but it's currently thought to be a long time. The onions themselves take their time growing as well, requiring roughly 30 years to fully mature (though this can vary by species). Despite the danger this seems to allow, the onions can survive winter just fine so long as their tree is healthy and they didn't start to grow too late into the season. Creatures typically do not eat the onions either. On the very rare occasion that an animal does decide to eat an onion they always die soon after. It is thought that perhaps the black-and-white band is a sign to herbivores and predators alike that they are highly poisonous, but once again pikminologists are uncertain. When onions drop from them they fly to a clear area, release five seeds, and then these pikmin pull themselves out of the ground to begin life as a new crop.       

So if pikmin come from onions, where do onions come from? Trees! Specifically "pikmin trees". Each species of pikmin tree can produce only one type of onion, and the physical characteristics of them also vary drastically. Red pikmin trees (fig. 7) for example, are short wide trees with thorns. Blue pikmin trees are taller, with long root systems that can support them in water. Yellow pikmin trees are taller still, with their leaves being clustered in a dome sort of shape. While pikmin themselves can survive and thrive just about anywhere, their trees are a little more picky. Red pikmin trees prefer dense forests, blue pikmin trees prefer wetlands, yellow pikmin trees prefer savanas, and so on.

These pikmin trees are quite rare, though pikminologists are reluctant to classify them as "endangered". The pikmin themselves have stated that there are only supposed to be a small number of these trees, much like how there is supposed to be less predators than prey. Still, care is taken to protect these trees and prevent any unnatural deaths of them.   

Old age is unfortunately not the only thing that can kill an onion. If the onion is damaged to the point of leaking a fluid that matches the color(s) of its main body, it is as good as dead. Whatever this fluid is, it is vital to the onion as once it starts leaking it ceases to properly function. Once fully drained, it will be a translucent, hollow shell of what it once was (fig. 9). The onion is unable to grow into a pikmin tree when drained like this. Despite any tear being enough to kill an onion, small injuries are still better. The onion can still fly (though poorly) if the liquid is slowly trickling out. This gives the pikmin time to escape whatever caused the damage and then hopefully find a new onion. These destroyed onions still have one last trick up their sleeves though! With whatever little energy and nutrients they have left, they will expel a cloud of spores. These spores are fairly complicated on their own, and so will be saved for another section.

On that note… onions can and do die. How long they can live has yet to be recorded, but there is a point where the onion is simply too old to properly function anymore. At this point it will slowly turn black and shrink, the petals wilting. One way or another, the hardened dead onion will make its way underground where it will slowly begin to grow into a new pikmin tree (fig. 8). Pikmin whos' onion has died will leave in search for a new one, though it's more common for them to leave while the onion is within its final year. Pikmin will also bury any dead onions they find. 

If an onion experiences a total pikmin extinction (as in, a fused onion lost all of its pikmin, not just all of a particular type) and fails to detect anyone nearby to help, it will go dormant. The onion will darken, but not to a completely withered shade of black. It is able to survive a long time in this state but once again exactly how long is unknown. All that is known is that, if left for too long, the onion will wilt and eventually grow into a tree. What exactly the onion is looking for is unknown as well: pikmin and many bipedal alien races can awaken the onion, but the animals of PNF-404 cannot nor can any alien race that falls outside the common "upright, two legs, two arms" pattern. The most commonly accepted answer is that alien species that do fall in this same body plan pikmin have are mistaken as being pikmin by the onion due to it lacking the ability to truly think.

Fun facts!

Despite being named after a vegetable, onions are better classified as a fruit. Specifically a berry. Olimar didn't know much about the pikmins' onions when he first found them though, and named them based on appearance. He was also fighting for his life; cut him some slack.

Yes, a fruit animal produces vegetable animals. Deal with it.

A note on pikmin hybrids: while I don't currently plan to write any stories within this AU about a pikmin hybrid, they can still happen in this AU. In short, onions are built for processing revitivaly simple creatures. When given an organism with a brain that is already as complex as the one it is trying to create, it mistakes it as a deceased pikmin later in the process than usual (onions normally immediately reject deceased pikmin, as they lack the nutrients needed to make a new pikmin). Thus the process stops halfway through, leaving a hybrid behind. This hybrid may have some minor memory issues as a result, but is still fully aware of who and what they are. They may also experience issues with both fine and gross motor skills for a short while as they adjust to their new body. These hybrids do not count towards the onion's pikmin capacity. While they can sleep in an onion (given that there is space), the hybrids would find that whatever causes the drowsiness in pikmin is particularly unpleasant for them. Thus they would usually avoid it when possible.