#and the funny dolphin bird

[articskele]

Ok it's getting late, goodnight everybodyyyy -u-

[casually-salad]

RAVENS KILL THE BILLS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WE CAN WIN THIS

[lillybean730]

downloaded fin fin 😏

[applepixls]

please join me in imagining:

a sitcom starring the 4 Gs with their creaking neighbour as a frequent visitor and everyone else as side characters we see a lot. and they have super powers.

just imagine, cleo is a necromancer who on the daily has to deal with her sassy zombies and hide them to avoid dealing with the issues of them being undead (fitting 2 extra people in their already cramped flat, taxes, insurance,,, grown up things.) scott is supposed to be super powered but all he does is turn into random barn yard animals impulse can teleport but its not its all cracked up to be (once he sneezed and got accused of robbing a bank) pearl just has a tendency to do dolphin elytra hopping in the living room cause she never has enough room in their cramped flat. ft. their silly neighbour bigb (appears about as much as the landlord in one day at a time if you're familiar.) shows up for family breakfasts and dinners, helps fix things and brings his silly little creaky guys as enrichment for scott when he wants to be something other than a chicken

their neighbours include: 3 college aged guys (who mostly put up with each other and start gradually liking each other better as the show goes on.) who live in the flat below them, one sleeps at any time of day and tends to slow time down to be funny, one runs really fast and freezes water he steps on and the third bounces high with glorified farts and owns a really fancy meat tenderizer. (and is cousins with their other neighbours including a violent ginger girl, a guy obsessed with fast and furious and a guy who seems to be stuck as a 1910s carnival barker-) their 3 upstairs neighbours who more or less keep to themselves and have pet birds, one of them has been asking the landlord if they can build a rooftop rollercoaster (in lieu of a garden) and can.. sit on stuff.. and punches really hard and you ouch if you punch him, another one celebrates every day he lives and is able to go invisible. the third struggles to keep the other two alive and is able to blind others in a vicinity and briefly vanish making her effectively an enhanced cuttlefish. (she is married to their downstairs neighbour and therefore spends as much time as possible in their flat instead of her own. wise choice) then there's the 2 neighbours who are really into roleplay? one of them is nosy and peeps through peep holes cause he can hear everything he sees, the other one borrows peoples identities (no harm done tho mostly just to raid his neighbours fridges without getting yelled at by their roommates) the snooper accidentally trash compactors himself trying to escape the carnival barker and the identity thief is now looking to move in with someone- finally, the main 4's mortal enemies, a guy with a fancy car who can jump on air and a girl who frequently has out of body experiences in which she can talk to the dead. they've recently adopted a silly guy with a waffle who does all of the above but only one at a time on a 6 hour or so time frame. he recently lost his roommates (both in trash compactor incidents, tragic really. one got too close and got eaten the other was leaning out the window trying to see where it was and fell out. self defenestration. rumour has it it was actually one of his buddies but that guy's innocent until proven guilty. these two are ironically now cleo's goons) and couldn't pay the rent himself so he's had to move in with the torettos

i would watch it

[anniflamma]

So God Games got me going back to your original God Games animatics (because the deliveries on the music are different and I was having fun comparing the two), and one thing I did find interesting was the (hilarious) bit with a dove intercepting Aphrodite flashing the camera. Given Athena's very awkward reaction to Hera in your livestream animatic for God Games and the fact it's pretty easy to make a case for asexual Athena from myth, was that kind of an intentional choice of Aphrodite just kinda throwing her sexuality out there because she knows it's uncomfortable for Athena but Aphrodite is all about it?

Also, your animatics really getting into the sacred animal imagery has had me researching this stuff on my own time between Snake Ares and so on, and it's funny learning the literal zoo of sacred animals the Olympians tend to be associated with. Aphrodite with like, three types of birds, rabbits, dolphins, fish, bees, butterflies... Ares: For the love of- PICK ONE. Aphrodite: <with an armful of like eight different animals> But they're all my special precious fluffies! O_O

When I did that animatic with Aphrodite, my take was that Aphrodite's nakedness was meant to throw off Athena, but at the same time, Athena didn’t care about it. That’s why I didn’t include any reaction of Athena getting flustered or anything similar when Aphrodite was flashing. It’s a mix of Athena being ace as hell but also very determined to win the game.

About Aphrodite's animals, when I did my research, I asked myself why Aphrodite’s and even Eros' sacred animals were rabbits. Then I realized it’s because those animals have a ton of offspring, which makes sense for deities of sex and reproduction to be associated with them. But I still haven't figured out why snakes are related to war... and maybe medicine.

[ghost-bison]

the doctors and companions as animals that fit their vibe

nine: dolphin. i had a friend who used to say "nine scares me, he looks like a shark" and everytime it would make me grouchy. she was kinda right, though. but i think dolphin is closer. i know dolphins aren't actually that nice, but today we're mostly judging based on looks and nine most definitely has the vibe of a dolphin: gentle eyes, a huge smile, a very loud, fantastic voice, fast, cheeky and excited. oh, and a big nose as well

rose: seahorse. idk, it just fits. it's the fact that they're colourful creatures maybe, and the shape of the jaw, or also how magic they are... can't really explain it! rose just reminds me of a seahorse

mickey: tiger. it's in the face shape and those facial expressions he gets when he stands up to the doctor or anyone who goes against his beliefs, i think

jack: american black bear. not grizzly bear, not polar bear (although i did hesitate with polar bear), american black bear all the way. first, cause he's american so it's funny. second, cause bears are massive creatures and jack is tall and muscular. third, again, the head shape (which is why grizzly bear was out of the way). fourth, both are hug shaped, wild and actually dangerous

ten: fennec. do i really need to explain that one? big brown eyes, cute af, high-pitched voice and funny jaw... yeah, ten is a fennec

martha: zebra. this one i really can't explain! but i'll still try: i'm not really familiar with zebras, so idk how they behave, but they look gentle, and i've heard they're intelligent, sensitive creatures as well. which is what martha is. i think it's also in the pretty brown eyes with long lashes hihi

donna: doe. maybe some of you will be mad i didn't just say fox, or disagree cause the doe is known to be a fearful, quiet creature, and donna is absolutely none of this. but hear me out: she is gentle and when she's not screaming at the top of her lungs, there's something so soothing and ethereal about her. they are both very maternal, and red hair holds -to me- a connection to nature that no other colour does. the doe has huge brown eyes, and donna's eyes, although huge, are blue. but when you look into them, you can see a gentleness that knows no bounds and that is why i chose it as donna's animal. also the little spots on baby deer remind me of her freckles (yes i am in love with her shut up)

eleven: racoon. well... yall got stuck on the giraffe but eleven is a little shit and so is the racoon. i absolutely do not have anything deep or smart to add to this, i just feel it in my gut

river: leopard. fast, dangerous, elegant, and also the colour palette kinda fits. and! the female feline usually does all the work so that's the tea for today

amy: red panda. red hair, round face, big eyes, cute... yup, amy's a red panda for sure

rory: koala bear. they both look like they get screwed over on a daily poor little guys. gentle and slow, the koala bear is rory's perfect fit. also, they have a similar nose shape

clara: elf owl. just like that bird, clara is small, has enormous brown eyes, a cute little mouth and a sorta heart-shaped face. i think it's one of my best choices

twelve: crow. crows are smart, edgy, actually very sensitive and like to hang out with living creatures even though you often see them alone, and they're also annoying af, can't stfu, hold grudges and take their revenge. twelve is mostly all that. also if i remember correctly he seemed to relate to and like crows

missy: peregrine falcon. idk, missy does have a bird face with her long sharp nose and big blue eyes. i even think michelle gomez mentioned it in an interview (like, she compared herself to a bird. maybe i'm delirious). falcons like to prey on small defenseless animals. missy does too

bill: horse. she kinda looks like a horse i think (it sounds mean but in my head it really isn't i promise). at first i said pony but then i remembered my mum saying ponies are dumb, petty creatures. bill on the other hand is smart, sensitive and gentle. she does still have a sharp edge to her, won't hesitate to kick your arse if so deserved, even if you're a 40000000 or whatever y/o time lord who looks like your local knowledgeable cool grandpa. which is why horse is a very nice fit for bill

nardole: penguin. the choice was so easy to make cause the man is bald, bitchy, weird and kinda walks like a penguin. we love you nardole, never change

thirteen: kangaroo. i don't have a clue as to why tbf. it's the sheer adhd, also the colour for some reason fits her, and the fact that they look nice and peaceful but are actually very dangerous, destructive creatures lol

yaz: hare. another one i can't explain. just fits. yaz, to me, didn't reach her full potential as a character, but what i did notice in her was her intuitiveness and how she usually kept her guard up. reminds me of hares. not just that but also the general vibe as well

graham: beaver. graham had this cute quirky little obsession with building a home and with his "fam" and that's what beavers are known for. apart from his blue eyes that differ from the beaver's own brown ones, he also physically reminds me of a beaver. and if beavers could talk i'm certain they would sound like graham o'brien

ryan: labrador retriever. i had a labrador once, they're goofy, awkward, impulsive, friendly creatures. and just as cats show severe signs of autism and adhd, labradors absolutely display symptoms of dyspraxia, which is what ryan has. both are disoriented and clumsy. they also will do anything to protect people they love, and then be like "oh shit" cause they actually can't really fight and keep putting themselves in situations

dan: wolf. idk he just really looks like a wolf

fourteen: coyote. we're staying in the canine family for david tennant. i did want to choose something other than ten's for fourteen cause they have such a different vibe. there's something really pitiful about coyotes that fits this man perfectly. again with the high-pitched voice as well. anyway. fourteen is a coyote

fifteen: panther. fifteen is seductive, pretty, slim and smoothe af. he's also dangerous and yet you still wanna hug him don't you? yeah that's how panthers make me feel

ruby: dormouse. ruby is cute as hell, i think we can all agree on this. i chose this rodent specifically because of its slightly rounder face shape (hamster might have been more accurate but i hate hamsters so much man, ruby deserves better). she's always so stressed and jumpy as well, which is why to me a small rodent was an appropriate choice

belinda: european robin. she has the elegance of a robin, she's adorable, she's fierce and quick and physically reminds me of a little bird for some reason and that is all honestly

[acheronist]

to the ghost of henry peglar, congrats on writing your poem down 177 years ago!!!

to the actual academic scholars who have studied the pages before me....

so I took the royal museum greenwich's scan of the poem page (which is available online hereeee) and screwed around with its light levels in photoshop until henry's script was darkened enough to see more clearly. then I digitally traced over the darkened letters as best as I could, while also trying to discern his handwriting, and type up how I was reading it & this process took me about a week to get done between like... living my regular day to day life lmao.......

so when it WAS done, the final isabel acheronist peglar papers ["the open C"] transcript seemed a bit different than how I remembered the readily available russell potter transcript going ? (the poem is on the last two pages of that pdf for those of you who don't spend a billion hours a week looking at it btw)

it felt like I was getting more/different information out of it, compared to the potter transcript, which was kind of stressing me out honestly. so THEN I compared mine with barry cornwall's original poem and found more words that matched up? particularly in the second and third stanzas?

so!!!!! almost two hundred years later here's what I've landed on:

April 21 1847 the C the C the open C it grew so fresh the Ever free the Ever free the Ever free without it without it covered it will Run to Earth above Re gions Round I love the C I love the C when I whare & I wish to be with and and silence whare Never go if a sailor should a Come and Make the meek What matter what matter Come Ride Or Sleep there was shores white and of red morn at the noisy hours knew I was ever near I was Born the [...] in felt Unto the Maid the wale the young dolphin ...... yet thes back of gold the Call of gods When I was on Old England Shore I like the young C more and more oftentimes time flew to a sweltering place like a bird thats seeks it mother Case and ware she was bird oft to me for have I loved a young and Hopen C

so then after going thru All Of That, I wanted to have a version of the original poem with parts that Henry did remember clearly highlighted for comparison purposes:

I know it's a popular theory that Henry was writing a dirty parody of the original poem? which if true, is funny as hell. me when i have to write cheeky victorian porn before i die.

But (serious voice) something about that hadn't ever seemed exactly right to me... IN MY HEART it seems more realistic that around 1847 he (and also by extension, the whole surviving expedition crew) were starting to experience confusion / brain fog symptoms from being ummmm quite physically unwell. the lead poisoning/scurvy combo would have severe effects on the brain's ability to function properly, and I started to wonder if Henry was trying to test his memory somehow? So he picked a widely known and popular Victorian era poem about being a sailor to see how much he could recall??? and he then got a little whimsical with it, and wrote in his own words to fill in the portions he couldn't fully recall, because it's his own diary and likely didn't expect anyone else to ever read it, much less have it turn into ONE of TWO surviving sources about the expedition?????

like... idk... this is probably the work of someone in the exact moment as they were starting to realize how bad things were, and then was trying to cope by using poetry. and That hurts my feelings enough as it is, but going through it was also just a very weird and haunting experience....... like, I can recognize all these tiny details in this dead guy's script and handwriting now. and to read his own account of his life in his own words, what stood out to him and what he recalled, what he wanted people in the future to know about him? insane. it literally felt like i was getting haunted by him for no reason. on top of knowing that Someone (#teamarmitage) loved this guy enough to keep his memory protected and safe, even though They Were So Totally Fucked And Going To Die There, unknowing if they'd ever be found again........

SIGHING + SIGHING + SIGHING + SIGHING + CRYING A BIT HONESTLY

anyways thanks for reading this all. I don't think that this is revolutionary franklin expedition news by any means, and idk if there's a better different transcript somewhere that i've not found that already covers all this? but it's consumed a lot of my life lately lol and i wanted to share. because its the anniversary of henry writing it, and it felt...... important....? 💌....????

[blondeaxolotl-twstocs]

Dellie's life when it comes to like relationships (specifically romantic ones, but it also goes for platonic ones as well) has always been a bit iffy, in his old school the only friendgroup he was allowed to have was with other dolphins, (which wasn't that bad since there were plenty of dolphins, unlike NRC where Dellie is the only one) and the only "romantic" relationship he had was with a female dolphin (which unsurprisingly didn't work out after Dellie moved schools because neither of them like eachother). He was not allowed to have other friends that weren't dolphins because his father would immediately disapprove of them, he was basically only allowed to have friends and be in relationships that his father approved of or else it would be nothing

So I'd imagine Dellie being moved to NRC from his old school did have a bit of a negative impact on him, realising he's the only dolphin at the school means there are no people he could rely on or refer to as "friends", he has to do everything himself and fight for only himself. Even if other people are calling him their friend, he'd either say nothing or agree with them to keep up with his fake friend act, but it'd never be genuine. Even with the people he often talks about birds with, he has not referred to them as friends, the best you'll get is "the ones I talk about birds with" and that's it.

Dellie stays very loyal to his father's words about not being allowed to have non-dolphin friends. Which is, very funny actually because if you were to ask about his family, there is a high chance Dellie will lie and say he does not have a father and say he lives with his mother and sister only (if he doesn't say that, he'd just quickly change the topic to something else if the question is asked, giving a small hint that it's a sensitive topic and you should drop it). So it's safe to assume that Dellie does not like his father, even if he continues to listen to him about what's best for him.

[pearl-pool]

Imagine being on the ship with Odysseus, Eurylochus and the crew. Part 1

Part 2 , Part 3

• Captain is a simp for he's wife.

• The walls are filled with writing and drawings.

• Poems? Maybe.

• It's kinda boring on the ship so you guys would play games to entertain yourselves.

• never discovered who made the 2 inch hole in the ship that caused a flood.

• Spot and count the dolphins. Are they dolphins..?

• Someone pranked the Captain one time, it almost never happened again. (Prank went wrong)

• Someone got dared to kiss Eurylochus one time, never happened again. The captain was dying of laughter tho.

• Did we ate the siren's tails? No comment.

• Someone found a barrel of wine at the sea but they dropped it 5 seconds of it being on the ship. They slipped. Wine spilled. Everyone angry.

• After a few years, flirting with your fellow crew members happens because... Their friends. It's funny.

• Flirting battle every once or twice a month.

• Different hair styles and beards were achieved.

• Some of us can't properly sleep at night because of the waves, we don't know if it's Poseidon or something else.

• Bird = food and friend

• Fish = food and friend

• Cow = food and- EURYLOCHUS NOO!

• almost all of us knew we're gonna die when Zeus made Captain choose between himself and us...

• "Captain is a simp for he's wife." Is already the hint.

[sea-lanterns]

PARROTFISH?? ORCA?? ADELIE PENGUIN?! I’m going crazy. Parrotfishes are beautiful, but is Kokomi a rainbow parrotfish or a princess parrotfish. My personal opinion is princess parrotfish but you do you. Orcas are AWESOME!! Largest species of dolphin, smart hunters, big as a fricking BUS! Love the idea of Orca! Yelan. Fits basically perfectly. Adelie penguins are so cute and beautiful. I actually have worked with adelie penguins at when I first started working with many different types of birds at the zoo I work at. Overall 11/10 choices for animals. And may I suggest..Peregrine Falcon! Raiden? (Your choice tho)

-🎬

I definitely think that Kokomi fits a princess parrotfish! Mostly because the colors fit very well with her and Kokomi is a princess in my eyes 😍

I’m so glad you like Orca! Yelan. I was trying to think of an ocean animal that would fit her and the Orca instantly came to mind with how dangerously intelligent they are. I can imagine her toying with the Vet and enjoying the way she squeaks in nervousness whenever she swims too close during feeding. Silly human, if Yelan wanted to kill you she would’ve done so already 😊 (probably one of the scariest hybrids of the sanctuary imo)

Also Adelie Penguin! Skirk was too funny to pass up because I love the idea that she’d be a tiny, ferocious penguin that will attack anyone she deems annoying. Not the Vet though, Skirk enjoys the Vet so much, she even courts her when it’s mating season by giving her a pebble and smirking because she thinks she’s so suave. Heh, she’s sooooo clever. The Vet will swoon for her pebble for sure!

As for Ei…hm. I actually wasn’t sure what animal to assign her, but I must say that a Peregrine Falcon is an interesting choice. I wonder what made you think to assign her as Falcon, as I don’t remember any details that relate to one :0

But I love the idea of more avian women so Peregrine Falcon! Ei is a version I will happily accept!

[fave-fight]

ROUND 2, MATCH 21

NO MAGIC, POWERS, WEAPONS, OR ADDITIONAL HELP FROM OTHERS

Finfin:

“He's a silly little bird-dolphin. He also has MULTIPLE girlfriends, and has a son. He can also change color, loves berries, and loves singing.”

“idk if finfin is capable of violence but he can fly and his bite would probably hurt. plus he’s funny to look at so it would be funny for him to destroy”

“the perfect mix of dolphin and bird, come and see him!”

Sunny:

“This kid has not been outside for 4 years. I want to see what happens.”

“When he has no weapon equipped, he does about half the damage that other party members do. He hits himself with a fly swatter and takes damage. He hasn't/hadn't seen sunlight in 4 years and did nothing but sleep. Low speed and attack.”

“He has Dreamed of him fighting and he has slight powers as in he can heal himself and simple stuff”

[randomalistic]

Finished the rio rewatch, some stuff:

One of the main things I was paying attention to was how they animated the legs to see if they get the backwards knees correct, and they didnt do that most of the time so thats cool!

On that note the birds are really well animated but they do the exxagerated sexual dimorphism thing with the 2 protags and that kinda stings

A bat showed up for 3 seconds and that was great i love bats :D

Aside from the 2 main characters I think I liked the toucan the most. idk why

I am a bit afraid of rewatching rio 2 since i havent watched it at all but i liked the frog iirc

Im just rambling at this point but I didnt hate this movie like i thought i would. I look forward to your vid abt the bird biology bc honestly I dont think abt birds as much even tho I really like them

You liked the toucan the most? Uh oh.... I recently learned that Toucans are just like Dolphins ... They're cute on the surface but actually get up to some VERY uncute behavior LOL. Like killing and eating parrots. Blu and Jewel aren't safe.

And ur right Blu vs Jewel is so funny. The movie treats Blu as this unkillable flesh puppet that you can slap around because he's a boy. Jewel is his girlfriend and shes pretty and sings and shes like an angel and so badass waow.... RIO 2 was quite fun but it was pointless, watch it if you want lol. THANK YOU FOR THE ASK AND VIDEO SOON EHEHE!!!

[huntingrays]

i got a few likes when i said i want to talk about my pjo idol so i have returned to share my notes on it since i finished writing them out

will i ever write this? probably but idk when

basic info before diving in: pjo idol au, will be a more ‘slice of life’ au if i ever do write with drama random thrown in whenever i feel like it, two of the characters are ‘hybrids’ (humans with animal features and sometimes mannerisms). why? wanted an excuse to give leo pretty wings. this is an au so some charas are different from canon (hybrids, gave nico glasses, etc) so excuse any randomness thrown in lol. the two different planets aren’t rlly all that important tbh

ok time to share the notes!

PJO Idol AU Info:

- Percy Jackson 🐬/🦈 - Leader, main rapper, oldest. Oldest member and has been a trainee under their company for the longest. He was recruited when he was only twelve years old. He picked out all the members of the group himself. He and his members have gone through a lot so he feels very protective of them. He’s often referred to as the dad of the group. He’s also very loyal, loving, sassy, and funny. He’s the member most likely to stop a fan’s delusions with his sass. He’s one of the two hybrids in group. He’s a sea creature hybrid. His parents are from the planet Tartarus but he was born in and grew up on the planet Olympus. His representative emoji/animal is a dolphin, but he keeps asking for it to be a shark since dolphins are assholes.

- Leo Valdez 🐦‍🔥 - Main dancer, face of the group. Unlike Percy, he was born and raised on the planet Tartarus. He only moved to Olympus when he caught the attention of a recruiter. His mom wanted him to have a good future, so she sent him off when he was only fifteen. Despite being trainee and idol for several years and being fluent in the language, he likes to pull the foreigner card during games. Due to his flirty nature, natural humor, and bright plumage, he quickly became the most popular member and face of the group. He’s often invited on variety shows. Despite his popularity, he’s struggled for years with insecurity and is very open about it with the fans. In general, he’s very open with fans. He used to act in the past but stopped after becoming a trainee. Recently, he got back into acting. He’s the second hybrid in the group. He’s a bird hybrid but prefers being called an avian. His representative emoji/animal is a phoenix due to his bright red feathers and firey personality.

- Will Solace ☀️/🕊️ - Main vocal, producer, visual. Nearly all of Cabin 4’s songs are written and produced by Will. He’s not only an incredible vocalist but amazing producer. His members often praise him for his talents. He’s the visual of the group and is often referred to as the sun by his fans. His members picked up on it and often call him ‘sunshine’ as a nickname. Will is a very caring member and takes the health of his members very seriously. However, he often neglects his own health. Back when they first debuted, Will knew how risky their concept of a hybrid and human group was. So, he worked tirelessly on their songs so they would be perfect. He felt that if he didn’t make a perfect song then they would fail and he would be responsible for their failure. Even after they became the legends they are today, he’s still a hard worker. It’s no secret that Nico is one of the only ones who can get him to stop working and take a break. He’s one of the two human members. His representative emoji is the sun and his representative animal is a dove due to his vocals and fondness for love songs.

- Nico di Angelo 🦇 - All rounder, youngest. The youngest member and last to join the company. Despite his late start, he’s not lacking in any department. In fact, he’s referred to as a jack of all trades or all rounder in the group. He can do everything and he can do it well. Due to his natural talent, many different companies wanted him. However, he joined Juno Ent after hearing rumors that they had a snow cone machine that trainees and idols could use (which turned out to be true). His members find the story hilarious and will tease him about it whenever they can. In fact, they even bought him his own snow cone machine for his birthday. Despite the teasing, he does often use it. Despite being the youngest, he doesn’t often act like he’s. He’s very independent and reserved. Despite this, he’s very friendly (he knows nearly everyone in the entertainment industry) and his young side does show when he gets to talking about his favorite card game. Though he may seem cold at first, fans and friends know he’s a caring guy. After all, he joined the company to help support his sisters. However, he can also be snarky, especially to Leo. His representative emoji/animal is the bat due to his nocturnal nature, love for fruit, and terrible eyesight. Some fans say his representative emoji should be a moon while others say it should be a star, both wanting his to match with Will’s. Nobody can come to an agreement, so it stays as a bat.

Group Name: Cabin 4

- Cabin 4 are a group composed of two hybrids and two humans. They were the first group to have both hybrid and human members. Due to camp being a place where you can bond with others who are different from you, that’s why they’re called Cabin 4. The cabin is to represent camp while the 4 represents how many members they have. They want fans to feel loved no matter what their background is. The group is all about having fun and embracing people despite their differences. They tend to write a lot fun, upbeat, “summery” songs.

Fandom Name: Campers

Fandom Main Ships: The two popular fandom ships are between the two hybrids and two humans. Due to this, they often get into online arguments with other fandoms who view this as “problematic”. No, they don’t find the shipping problematic, they think that the fandom only shipping within species is problematic.

- Percy/Leo: Known as the parents or the mom and dad of the group. After many fans started shipping Will and Nico due to their natural bond, the only duo left was Percy and Leo. Due to them being the oldest and their habit to occasionally dote on the others, they became known as the mom and dad of the group. After hearing about this, Percy and Leo found it hilarious and would jokingly flirt with each other all the time. Despite the shipping, the two are only close friends

- Will/Nico: Fans were able to instantly pick up on the bond these two have. They became close friends during their trainee days (due to being the same age) and have been close ever since. The two seem to share an unbreakable bond. They are able to share secrets and confide in each other in ways they can’t with others. They are very open about this and their friendship. Due to this, they’re shipped by the fans. They’re the most popular ship in the fandom. This does cause some issues because the two do secretly have feelings for each other. Despite their feelings, they never confess since they don’t want to mess things up for the group. Still, their feelings continue to grow and the fandom ship isn’t helping things.

Company: Juno Entertainment

- Juno Entertainment is all about bringing inclusivity to the world of entertainment. They’re one of the few companies who accept both human and hybrid trainees and employees. Despite being located on Olympus, they have many recruiters searching for talent on Tartarus. Despite their current success, they hard a rough start. Before Cabin 4, none of their groups gained big or commercial success. They debuted Cabin 4, thinking that would be their last group. To their big surprise, the group ended up being a success and they ended up saving their company. Now, they’re one of the biggest entertainment companies. Juno Entertainment is generally regarded amongst the public and idols as one of the ‘better companies’. They don’t have a dating ban, they protect their idols, they make sure to promote their idols, and they even sometimes listen to fans. Despite this, they are still an entertainment company and some of the jokes of the idols in Cabin 4 show that they have harsh training, perhaps even harsher than most companies.

Frank: Manager

- Frank is their (forever suffering) manager. He’s been a manager of groups in the past but met his match when it came to Cabin 4. Somehow, the group manage to get into crazy situations, even when they’re trying to be on their best behavior. He does love the members but he’s also very tired of them (especially Leo). Despite the struggle, he’s great at his job.

- Friends: Cabin 4, Hazel, Reyna

Reyna: Bodyguard

- Reyna is great at her job. She’s good at defending the boys. The fans tend to be kind and considerate and she rarely has to use force. Despite how easy her job is, she does have her struggles. Her struggles mainly involve one Leo Valdez trying to convince her to do dance challenges. Despite the fact that she gives zero effort and energy, Leo and the fans absolutely love the videos. Also, she wishes the other members would stop randomly wandering off. It makes her job a lot harder.

Friends: Cabin 4, Frank, Hazel, Jason, Thalia

Hazel: Stylist

- Hazel is a stylist for many Juno Ent. groups, but often works together with Cabin 4. She’s very kind and gets along well with all the members. Also, she’s Nico’s half-sister and likes to catch up with him whenever they see each other. She’s usually the one who hears about all the gossip the group has to share with her (even if she doesn’t want to hear it).

- Friends: Cabin 4, Bianca, Frank, Reyna

Annabeth: Architect.

- Annabeth is an architect that has been trying her best to succeed in her career. Ever since she was a little girl, it’s been her dream job. She’s worked hard to get where she is as a woman in the field. Recently, she’s gotten a job that she sees as her big break. She was hired by Juno Ent to redesign and upgrade their building. It has been stressful trying to work on all of her client wants along with what she thinks would work best, but she’s been enjoying every second of it. Though, she noticed very quickly on that the idols who work at the company are very… strange. She ran into a few and the ones in the group Cabin 4 are strange, especially the leader. He’s strange… but also nice and funny. He’s even been kind enough to take her out to dinner after she’s done working and keep her company when she’s working late. He asks her about her job and tries his best to pay attention when she rambles about architecture and old buildings and structures she likes. It’s clear he doesn’t always understand but he tries his best and even attempts to ask her questions. Once, she saw her sneakily text a friend a question. She was guessing it Leo. They only talked a handful of times but she always seemed happy to talk to her about architecture. Unlike Percy, he seemed to know a thing or two about it. Percy was nice and cute but she was determined to do her job and then go on with her life. Even if he seemed like the perfect guy, he was an idol and she was a normal girl. She knew nothing would come from a relationship with him. Even so, she couldn’t stop daydreaming about those sea green eyes.

- Friends: Thalia, Grover, Luke

Grover: Former trainee.

- Grover is a former trainee under Juno Ent and Percy’s best friend. During the beginning of his life as a trainee, Percy was anxious due to how young he was and wondering how being a trainee would go. He met Grover on the first day and they’ve been inseparable ever since. Percy didn’t believe in soulmates until he met Grover. If soulmates did exist, then Grover was his platonic soulmate. He would do anything for him and he knew his friend would do anything for him in return. Grover was one of the only things that kept him from quitting when things got too hard. Even though Grover left a year before Percy debuted (he realized the idol life wouldn’t be good for his anxiety after seeing how it affected his girlfriend Juniper), they still remained best friends. Currently, Grover is studying in college hoping to help with nature conservation.

- Friends: Percy, Juniper, Annabeth, Thalia, Luke

Piper: Actress

- Actress under HB Ent. and Leo’s old childhood friends. In the past, her father accepted a role that brought them to Tartarus. While there, she met Leo and they became best friends. However, after her father’s project was done, she moved away and they didn’t see each other for years. She became an actress, following in her father’s footsteps. She immediately became popular due to her father but has done her best to distance herself from him, wanting to be popular for being Piper McLean, not for being the daughter of Tristan McLean. Recently, she landed a role as the main character in the TV series. When they were meeting the cast, she found out the person who would be playing the best friend of her character was none other than Leo Valdez, her old best friend. Immediately, the two were happy to see each other and picked up right where they started. Their natural chemistry helped them with their roles in the show. The two of them became so close so fast that the media tend to think they’re dating. They aren’t, but they occasionally like to fuel the flames of their dating rumors for fun. The show they’re on makes decisions for future seasons based on what the fans want. The show is 100% for the fans. After the season aired with Piper’s character’s complex love dodecahedron, she began to question who she was and her sexuality. When she nervously told Leo that she thought she liked women, he smiled and pulled her into a tight hug. He told her he loved her and that she wasn’t alone in being ‘confused but not straight’. The two have been inseparable ever since.

- Friends: Leo, Jason, Rachel, Nico

Jason: Actor

- Actor under New Rome Ent. His father is a very influential man and he’s been doing his best to separate himself from him. He’s had many different careers in the entertainment industry, but he’s been an actor for the longest and he thinks it’ll be what he does. He’s become very popular and is known as the ‘sweetheart of Olympus’. Recently, he’s been a supporting character on the show Piper is starring in. He’s been in the show since S1. His character used to be in a romance with Piper’s but that storyline was dropped after fans said their characters had no chemistry. However, after the newest season and the fans got to talking about a few interactions between his and Leo’s characters, the show decided to make their characters have a deeper bond in the next season, to make them a ‘will they won’t they’ couple. Jason has been internally freaking out about it. He’s a huge fan of Cabin 4 and Leo is his favorite member. He doesn’t know how to act causally around his celebrity crush. Leo is completely clueless and Piper is trying to get them together.

- Friends: Piper, Reyna, Thalia, Nico

Thalia: Soloist.

- Currently a soloist and a former member of a group called The Hunters. Thalia began her idol career in a girl group called The Hunters. The group was very successful and she was one of the most popular members. However, their company had a dating ban. Despite the ban, she thought she could get away with staying with her boyfriend she met during her trainee days. They were able to stay secret for a few years. However, they ended up getting careless and soon they were caught. She ended up getting removed from the group and later left the company and joined a new one. Now, she’s a soloist and does very well for herself. She kept a lot of fans old fans and later gained many new ones. She and her boyfriend (Luke) are still dating and she’s still good friends with a lot of her former members.

- Friends: Luke, Annabeth, Grover, Percy, Jason, Reyna, Nico

Rachel: Model.

- A model under Juno Ent. She’s currently low contact with her father. He wanted her to go into business but she wanted to do something creative. Her career choices were always something they argued over. Eventually, she went low contact with him. Currently, she’s a model but she also draws and paints a lot, posting a lot of her creations. She loves art but never wanted to make a career out of it. It helps her a lot and she doesn’t want it to suddenly be job that’s about money. She doesn’t want to put value on her pieces that mean so much to her. So, she went into modeling instead. It was a way to express herself and her love for art in another way. She had a crush on Percy when she first joined the company but it eventually faded away and they remain good friends.

- Friends: Percy, Piper, Nico

[wofconfessionsblog]

I imagine that the Rainwing's ethnicity would be Peruvian because of the similarities in the culture and stuff

The middle-of-the-day naps. Both Rainwings and Peruvians do this and I find it funny, I went to a market stand after lunch once a couple years ago when I visited Peru and the guy running the place was sleeping, his cap over his eyes. Same with nearly every other stand.

The food. I ate SO MANY mangoes, bananas, oranges, just every fruit. Granadilla is my favorite and I headcanon that it's in the rainwing rainforest, which leads me to the next point

The land. A lot of the Amazon rainforest is in Peru, I went once when I was like 2 years old so I don't remember much, but there's pirhanas and pink dolphins in the waters, and snakes, insects, birds, and jaguars ground level and up. Rainwings are Peruvian because I said so /lh <3

this is such an interesting headcanon I LOVE IT

[weirdthoughtsandideas]

Watching Allsång på Skansen (a sing-along show) and it’s so funny because they are absolutely not trying to make a high quality show. They’re just having fun.

It’s raining. We can’t do anything about the weather. A bird randomly flies into frame and then out.

The microphone wasn’t turned on for a singer.

Someone in the audience got annoyed they recorded her. They try to get the audience to sing and half of them sing off key but they OWN IT

Even the artists looks a bit awkward when they’re chit-chatting.

Zara Larsson is here tonight and she has dolphin accessories

Also there’s this guard who sits by the stage and looks SO GRUMPY. Sadly I didn’t get a good photo of her but here. She sits there in black

Also KAJ is here

[unclefard]

For context this is from a Deviantart specevo project of mine which i wont link because it's cringe. if you want to see edgy teenage cringe you can reverse image search. the big bird guy is the Nephilim, the smaller bulky guy is the Atrox Sapient, and the guy in the middle is waltuh. The world setting is an "ice-age" planet called Paradise, much wetter than earth, with a single continent situated near the poles and expansive, often shallow seas.

Redid the Nephilim. I’ve been planning this for a while for a number of reasons. I wanted to make them more distinct from the other two sapients on Paradise anatomically as well as behaviorally, as opposed to just having the same body shape (the body model is literally the same one as the original Ogre and Atrox Sapient) and a different head. The redesign is done to A) make them easier to animate, as the old clunky model had a lot of difficulties, B) make them more scientifically plausible in regard to what is known about biped/hominid size constraints and anatomy, and C) make them more closely resemble other probers as opposed to butt monkey but with dolphin skull for head. I do imagine their ancestors resembling the older model however.

               This writing is basically just a generalized description of the Nephilim and a correction of the themes in the older writing (depicting them as these hyperintelligent perfect organisms, the whole “doomed constant starvation” (still present especially as the ice ages got worse but not their whole thing), and the whole being super incomprehensible/above everything else). I imagine them, basically, as big intelligent carnivores and all that entails, with the vibes of elephants and whales. They’re smarter on average than Atrox Sapients, and a little less barbaric, but they’re also more self-centered and isolationist than Atrox Sapients, and quite violent themselves. They’re not as religious as many other sapients, but they’re also not somehow magically above spirituality and religion despite being a primitive hunter-gatherer culture.

               I think a big problem with them is, as a rule, I should write what I know, and in creating them I tried to write things I did not really know, which ended up giving the wrong vibe. I wanted to make them this mystical ass incomprehensible eldritch race. To a degree that’s still the intent, but at the end of the day they are still mortal animals with mortal animal needs, understandable motivations/ideals, and flaws of their own. Funny enough in the actual books? I have been working on, and was making at the time of a lot of the older Nephilim content, the Nephilim are just kinda dicks half the time and socially awkward+somewhat more intelligent than the Atrox Sapients, but not at all mystical, the other half.

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               Nephilim are probers, which are a group of mostly quadrupedal animals who are generally omnivorous and have long, thin snouts/mouthparts to aid in foraging. They are divided into two major groups: the more basal soft-snouted probers, who have elongated mouths terminated in a small radulae, and are usually generalist omnivores who forage for algae as well as fungi and small animals they root up from the muck, and the more derived, specialized hard-snouted probers, who have the namesake hard, bony probe as a sheath covering their mouthparts. Nephilim are hard-snouted probers, their mouths being a prehensile proboscis sheathed in the elongated probe. Their snouts, which lie directly above the mouth, are also elongated and tubular, serving as resonating chambers to amplify their calls and lending them a jawed appearance.

               Nephilim are descended from large ground-sloth-esque animals who lived in small troops like gorillas and were specialized for foraging on the sessile pseudofungi, breaking through the tough skin with their probes and liquefying and siphoning up the meat within. They were initially mostly quadrupedal, locomoting like ground sloths, and had a compact, stocky build, with much shorter, thicker, and more powerful heads, limbs, and necks. As the changing climate broke up their native forests, fragmenting them throughout an increasingly open landscape, the Nephilim’s ancestors evolved similarly to hominids, becoming more upright, more suited to long-distance travel, more intelligent, and better at throwing things.

               The modern Nephilim species existed well before the present ice ages, mostly to the south which was a low-lying region mostly made up of marshy plains and pseudofungi forests. It was extremely flat, at sea level, and prone to flooding and extreme weather. They had developed their own form of agriculture as well as complex tools and architecture. The cooling climate and displacement of their ancestral stomping grounds forced them northwards, to what is now known as the last continent, where due to the harsher, more seasonal climate they were forced into a more nomadic existence, becoming scattered bands of hunters trailing the migratory megafaunal herbivores.

               Eventually, their home planet Paradise would be colonized, owing to interests in its untouched stores of valuable minerals, oil, and natural gas. These colonizers (future humans) would find the Nephilim as under a thousand in number, existing as isolated, often heavily inbred populations along the southern coast of the last continent. Discovering them to be extremely intelligent, and easier to work with than the much more populous Atrox Sapients, the colonizers would integrate them into modern society, providing them with a number of powerful technologies, aiding them in the construction of various cities, and other means of uplifting them. The intent was to outsource the extraction of Paradise’s great wealth to its desperate inhabitants, making them dependent on the much more advanced visitors and thus eventual future subjects and allies.

               The Nephilim, however, after nearly being wiped out by a combination of climate and Atrox Sapients, and somehow still maintaining a common sentiment that they were the best things ever to exist, were not very keen on this. They, witnessing the power of the gods from above, slowly and quietly built up their own. Although given limited resources, they worked towards constructing many of the modern technologies themselves, and, given tools to acquire what was the blood and muscle of those technologies, were easily able to do so. An valuable resource was found in the Atrox Sapients, who, although excluded by the colonizers, were rapidly growing in numbers due to the altered climate and enormous amounts of waste. The Nephilim, taking a page from their enemy’s book, exploited the Atrox Sapients, using them in various mining, farming, and manufacturing operations, using the tools the gods from above lent them to become gods themselves. Many Nephilim were compliant/doing so under the idea/assumption that the Atrox Sapients were also being liberated/ would be uplifted themselves, and made efforts to integrate them into the society they were forming. Others were simply indulging their old hatred and superiority complex and just wanted slaves. Many Nephilim societies hate/hated Atrox Sapients, owing to a superiority complex on the Nephilim side, as well as a history of competition/warfare between the two species. A commonly held belief was that Atrox Sapients heavily contributed to almost wiping them out.

               Eventually, Paradise would fall completely under their control, and the decadent elder race would be gradually driven further and further away. Some Nephilim would return to their ancestral ways, roaming the empty wet world, tending herds of mastodon and rhino. Others would live on in the world they built for themselves, enjoying the many luxuries of the modern world. Others yet, a rich and privileged few, would create for themselves enormous, artificial bodies, becoming real, physical gods, and take to the stars to float around, terraform planets, or just make a general nuisance of themselves. The Atrox Sapients ended up being left to their own devices and, building up from the decaying remnants of the Nephilim’s rise to “godhood” and the invaders that preceded them, built modernized worlds of their own.

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               Nephilim are sapient, hypercarnivorous apex predators. They range in size from 600 to 2,000 pounds, with most getting around a thousand and individuals exceeding 1,500 pounds being considered very large. They are bipedal, with huge, columnar legs terminating in short, pad-like feet with large claws. Their arms are enormous and immensely strong, with a “sheath” of thick rubbery tissue armoring the forearms and strong, dexterous five-fingered hands.

               The hand claws are long and hooked, designed for grappling with and ripping open large animals (ancestrally pseudofungi). The thumb and forefinger are more dexterous than the others and have proportionately smaller and shorter claws, which are often filed down to aid in various delicate tasks. The middle two fingers are thick and short, with huge claws, and the fifth is a vestigial nub. The palms and undersides of the fingers are covered with small, rough nodules, creating a sandpaper-like texture and aiding in gripping. Nephilim hands are less dexterous than those of humans and Atrox Sapients, being more suited to rough physical activities like digging, hauling heavy objects, and grappling opponents and prey. They are however still capable of many fine tasks and can use their prehensile proboscises to help overcome the difficulties of their bulky, clawed hands.

               Their heads are proportionately large and long, with long, elegantly curved necks. This is mostly a product of their beauty standards (like that theory of hominid faces becoming “softer” and gentler looking over time because we find that attractive) as opposed to functionality, though, similar to how our upright stance helped us better scan the landscape for danger, the long necks did and do play a role in searching for threats and food. The head and neck are very lightweight, with the head being mostly unsuitable to the ancestral task of boring into tough pseudofungi and the neck being relatively thin and weak, with much of the apparent mass being loose and saggy skin. The brain is massive and protected by a bony crest to the front and thick, rubbery skin all around. Many Nephilim possess “tusks” which are in fact hornlike outgrowths of tissue and mostly serve a display purpose. In their sturdier ancestors these were shorter, tougher, found mostly in adult males, and, owing to the overall greater resilience and functionality of the ancestors’ skulls, had a role in intraspecies combat. In the present, both sexes grow tusks, attain similar sizes, and look quite similar. Nephilim overall are quite androgynous, again owing to the beauty standards as well as necessity. In a small group threatened by large predators and dependent heavily on hunting to survive, which for Nephilim means in large part being big and strong, it is beneficial for everyone to be big and strong, not just the one or two adult males.

               Much of a Nephilim’s anatomy is geared towards or exaggerated for display/beauty standards, namely the head and neck. The hump and the back, as well as dewlaps, also exist as a result of this tendency. This aside, they are very well suited to their profession of being enormous bipeds. Despite weighing potentially fourteen times as much as the average human being, they are able to stand up fully erect, have a large and powerful upper body, and are surprisingly athletic for their size. A major reason behind this is their bones, which are more like those of birds/dinosaurs than mammals and thus better geared to supporting large sizes. Their lower body, especially the legs, is also much heavier and sturdier than the upper body, and they have a rudimentary tail to help balance out their weight. The upper body despite its size is very lightly built, as previously mentioned with the head and neck. In addition, Nephilim do not walk completely upright like humans do, rather favoring a theropod-esque forward-slouching position that better balances their weight (though they can and do stand fully erect).

               That being said, Nephilim cannot jump, are poor climbers, and at larger sizes their run is more so an elephantine fast walk. They do not live as long as humans, with exceptionally old individuals getting to be around forty, and often suffer from problems related to their size as they age. Injuries to the back and legs are, when they do occur, much more debilitating than those in humans, and in their primitive migratory societies often a death sentence. They are, however, very quick walkers, and despite their enormous frame can walk at a brisk pace for days on end. They are also rather agile, moving frighteningly quick with excellent reaction times, are very capable throwers, and immensely strong (though proportionately weaker than Atrox Sapients). They swim very well and spend much of their lives in water, increasingly so with age. This may seem odd, but humans and sloths are built similarly and both are excellent swimmers. There was even a species of marine sloth: Thalassocnus - Wikipedia.

               Although being so huge protects them from most predators, most extremes of climate, and makes them better slayers of the megafaunal herbivores common on Paradise, it also makes them very vulnerable. Needing huge amounts of food in an increasingly unproductive environment means they can only exist in small, scattered populations, unlike Atrox Sapients who can form very large tribes and weather the bad times of year by hibernating, an ability Nephilim do not have. They reproduce much slower and more infrequently, usually lead shorter lives, and efforts requiring large groups (warfare, big construction projects) are more difficult.

               Nephilim are born proportionately much smaller than human babies, their claws barely present, and their rostrums are extremely short. They grow rapidly, and are able to walk proficiently by their second year. Juvenile/adolescent Nephilim are much more athletic than the adults, being able to run, climb, and jump (somewhat like T. rex adolescents being much leaner than the adults).

               Nephilim are similar in intelligence to human beings, often said to be even smarter (usually by the Nephilim themselves). As a very crude overgeneralization, Nephilim brains work a little slower than human and Atrox Sapient brains, but are much better geared towards memorization, and more creative/inventive. They are quite large, mostly to accommodate the Nephilim’s much wider range of senses.

               Nephilim, despite not having visible eyes, can see in color to the same degree we can, by way of patches of photoreceptors on their face. Their vision is however much blurrier than ours, contributing in part to the more abstract nature of their art. They, like most Paradise animals, can echolocate, and their hearing is incredible. They possess fleshy, pads like the disks of an owl’s face, serving to direct soundwaves to their ears. Their sense of smell is quite good as well. By way of their massive rostrums, Nephilim make very low, deep calls that carry for a very long time, allowing them to communicate over considerable distances like whales.

               Nephilim, having a butterfly-like proboscis as opposed to teeth, jaws, or even the rasping mouthparts of Atrox Sapients, may seem poorly adapted to be carnivores. The truth is, they are. However, human mouths and teeth seem poorly adapted to meat, and we ourselves are predators. The Nephilim compensate for their dentary shortcomings by way of their strength, intelligence, and, most importantly, extremely powerful digestive juices. The pseudofungi-boring prober species, in addition to developing their probes into powerful chisels to hammer through the thick skin, also developed extremely powerful digestive juices, which they could quickly expel into the inner meat to dissolve it, often neutralizing any toxins as well. Nephilim have inherited this trait, and thus despite having tiny mouths and no teeth can turn their meaty dinners into smooth liquids that are easily ingested. Their mouths are small and thin but propelled by very powerful muscles that give them surprising suction power.

               A very common thing to find in Nephilim camps, lairs, and middens is their pottery, as well as skin sacks and drinking bags. Despite Paradise lacking wood, and thus any reliable way of cooking meat for a primitive society, and the Nephilim being unable to consume tough dried jerky, they still stored large amounts of food, placing hunks of meat and fat in cisterns, jars, etc, and vomiting on them to turn them into palatable broth. Of course there is the issue of the eventual decay. This is overcome in a few ways: salting the meat+digestive juices killing most bacteria/fungi/etc+Nephilim are basically humanoid vultures in the sense that they can consume surprisingly putrid meals. A rancid sack of melted pink flesh is, to them, a well-aged and relishable lunch.

#

               In the past with butt monkey land stuff I was aiming for less of a realism aspect and more so a fantasy eldritch creature world. I still want the scary eldritch creature world, but I want it to be plausible, realistic, which I feel makes it even scarier than an edgy, skull-island-esque death world it was originally intended to be. That is why the older Nephilim writing tends to portray them as this doomed “master race” of enormously intelligent, powerful wandering artists. While it could work in the vein of mythology or propaganda or both, it lacked nuance and made them feel a little less real in my opinion. It is however still kind of there: they’re huge, strong, and smart, and they almost went extinct.

               The next parts are going to be iffy because these things are people and people have a massive amount of variation in basically everything besides anatomy. My tendency when writing about sapients is to write about them like any other, generalizing and describing them like a passage in a field guide would about some bird or squirrel. I like it at times but this is meant to elaborate more. The following parts are basically just a general sum of their culture/behavior, mostly the more primitive:

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               Nephilim in general tend to champion two things: art and physical strength. Being so massive they have less need for clothes and shelter than we do, and their bodies are more animalistic than ours. They can survive easily on their own, with only a small pack of supplies. Their size and strength mean they can acquire food, if competent enough, without even needing a weapon. So forth from their beginning they were able to dedicate much more time and mental energy to artmaking, which has persisted into modern day. Not all Nephilim like art, or making it, but it is very common in virtually every Nephilim culture. Artistic accomplishment is and was seen, commonly, in a similar light as many human societies see things like having a good job or getting married: a metric of individual accomplishment and worth. Despite being their greatest source of pride, and mostly having innocent/noble intentions, it very often became a means of societal control and discrimination.

               Historically it was also a means of communication, crafting unique markers to cement a group’s territory or presence. A very common form was the pillars, usually made of clay or carven stone, with which Nephilim would mark their territory, inscribed with the names of tribe members, recordings of births and deaths, and imagery of prevalent local fauna as well as feats of strength. These pillars took many years to make, collaborated on by multiple individuals, and were maintained even after fully being covered for potentially centuries after their making. Even in present day these, at least those remaining, are very treasured artifacts. Similarly in function to the pillars, Nephilim would carve, scrawl, and paint on cliffsides, boulders, and cave walls. They would make odd altars of piled rock and bones, or shape favored landscapes in enjoyable ways. What architecture they did make was usually ornamental, often being gardens, temples, or simply enjoyable assemblages of carven stone and molded clay.

               In the present, Nephilim would maintain their ancestral tradition of drawing on the walls, covering their many structures in organic and hieroglyphic designs very similar to those of the past, though often mass produced and more automated in creation. It was and is very common for a Nephilim, in its individual dwelling, to cover the walls, ceiling, and floor in some form of drawings and paintings. In addition to this, they would often make various abstract environmental and physical aberrations, manipulating weather into bizarre, localized patterns, creating bizarre terrain, and seemingly magic manipulations of heat, light, and energies. In addition, there would be the very famous “living art”, half-machine at times, always animal at least in part, intended to be living paintings, musicians, artificial gods at times, things to live forever so that the Nephilim would live forever, brazenly treading the grey mires, looming amidst the monolith cities, drifting endlessly in space as eternal testimonies to their creators’ existence.

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               The other great championed Nephilim trait is their physical strength. They relied on it to assert themselves, find food, fend off predators, wrangle livestock. They take enormous pride in their physical power, and the shape and abilities of their bodies. Nephilim very rarely clothe themselves, and when they do it is usually ornamental: robes, crowns, loose-fitting cloaks, and jewelry. They do have functional clothing, mostly cloaks, pants, and footwraps reserved for very bad weather, but do not favor it and prefer to lumber around in the nude.

               Physical fitness and accomplishment is seen in most Nephilim cultures as a great virtue, on par with artistic excellence and accomplishment, and a source of pride. Nephilim who excel in strength, athleticism, and/or hunting and combat prowess are highly revered. It is often seen as a moral failing to let one’s physical condition degrade, unless it is due to sickness or old age.

               For all their apparent gentle, wise superiority I rambled about in older writing, Nephilim are still hyperaggressive apex predators, descended from territorial omnivores. They love violence, are prone to recreational and ritualistic combat, and often have a disturbing passion for hunting and killing. Their tempers are often short, and many carry a disregard for anything besides other Nephilim. Martial arts is to them as great a pastime as art (the kind that doesn’t involve smacking each other in the face (they can’t ball their fists up to punch because of the huge claws)), and they treasure scars, recovered injuries, and won battles. In many early Nephilim societies, it was a right of passage to hunt a huge and dangerous animal, and this often persists into the present.

               Art aside, much of their inventions have been some kind of trap, weapon, or armor. The ancient Nephilim carried a long, bone spear, or perhaps a club, and a sling. It may have doused its pointier weapons in toxins, or crafted sacs of irritating powder to disorient enemies and victims. It was an excellent thrower of rocks, with and without the sling and practiced from childhood. It may have carried out many raids on enemies of its own species as well as the Atrox Sapients and Ogres in its lifetime. A few treasured skulls and skins of slain enemies and prey may have adorned a cave or grotto of its liking. It would have greatly enjoyed stalking the cool, desolate plains, feeling the dull squelch of its padded feet on the muck, rattling its sonar over the landscape, scanning for something on the horizon to stalk.

               It is worth noting that some Nephilim cultures view their violent tendencies as a curse, a thing distinct from their true selves, and something to be banished/overcome. Thus the opposite of many cultures (admiring violence) is present here, admiring the calmest, least aggressive individuals. It is also worth noting that they are not a whole lot more aggressive/violent than we are, though both sexes tend to be equally aggressive/violent which combined with being huge carnivores in an often-desperate hunter-gather society make it seem more extreme.

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               Nephilim are as a rule not very religious, and in general do not revere the world around them to the same degree as humans and Atrox Sapients. This is in large part a modern invention but has roots in their primal ancestry. A common belief among Nephilim is that they are the “favored” among all living things. They do not revere the great animals and natural forces as the Atrox Sapients do, at least not to the same degree and frequency. They believe themselves to be the originators of their race and all they hold dear. A common religion involves the following creation story: another world exists, a proper paradise (to them). It is in most tellings an endless shallow sea, warm, lush, with a gentle silt bottom. There are immense carved pillars everywhere, neatly ordered and stretching infinitely into the mists above. Its residents exist in unending, ecstatic hedonism of which they never tire. This world very weakly overlaps with the real world, which was initially an empty void, with the planets, stars, etc being formed from spillage from the paradise. The Nephilim are said to be children of this paradise, or, in some variants, formed from the spillage, and belong in the paradise, being “too good” for the real world. The greater their accomplishment, their mastery over their more animalistic side, the good they do for their people, the more likely they can return to their proper place upon death. Living in the real world is often considered a test, or a soiling of their mind and soul, a challenge to be overcome.

               Of course, there are many Nephilim religions that are kinder and less arrogant, and many Nephilim cultures do not favor any religion at all. They dislike worship, or reverence for anything, rarely wanting to see anything as greater and more important than the Nephilim people and their creations, and if they do it is usually not an individual or animal but clearly defined as an abstract, incommunicable force. A greater emphasis is often placed on individual or societal accomplishment than the appeasement of a deity.

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               Nephilim are very active, despite their size. They are often “busybodies”, get bored easily, and demand frequent stimulation. The usual exception is after a big hunt or feast (the two are often intertwined) where the bloated, gorged Nephilim would usually find somewhere to soak and spend the next day or two lounging around, digesting. Like any predator, they also enjoy sleep, taking frequent naps. Much of their rest is in water, avoided only during the colder months, and many of their sports and games take place in it as well. In primitive times they would often busy themselves with patrolling territory, hunting, or making art. Group recreation was usually some sort of hunt, sport, often roughhousing, or having sex. Conversations and social tool/clothe/artmaking was usual limited to just a few individuals. Nephilim enjoy music, and use it as a means of storytelling, bonding, and cultural memory. Most of it is however somewhat private, done alone as an individual wanders, serving as a means of communicating over long-distances as whales do.

               Despite being social, Nephilim occupy very small groups, usually a wolf pack-esque unit of a mated pair and their children, or a small gathering of friends. Although their modern society is fairly similar in organization to modern human society, in the past a Nephilim society was often comprised of multiple families/bands/tribes, usually under a dozen individuals each, occupying their own territories and coming together at certain special occasions throughout the year, usually for holidays, to celebrate births, mourn deaths, or perform religious ceremonies. These were often used as an opportunity for trade, socialization, and occasional moving between groups.

               Nephilim then and now enjoy lots of alone time. They often get stressed out and irritated in large crowds, or if subject to constant interaction, and historically would often patrol or hunt territory alone, spending days at a time with only themselves for company. Very old and very young individuals, however, constantly stay/stayed with others.

               They also tend to be obsessive. Individual Nephilim often have very narrow interests and focuses. In general, Nephilim dislike casual conversations and prefer occasional long conversations with more “substance”. Outside of their particular interests, the rest of the world is often seen as something to be used, background noise, or a hindrance.

               Despite this, there is a common sentiment in almost every Nephilim culture of contributing to the greater good. Strength is a source of pride, but also a way to defend kindred and provide food. Art is a personal accomplishment and expression, but also a way to bring joy to others, communicate, and record important information. An individual Nephilim may spend much of its time alone, but most of its activities will also be done with the greater good/benefit of the community in mind.

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               Although the extreme seasonality of Paradise’s sole climate prevented agriculture, at least how it is commonly envisioned, in primitive Nephilim societies, they did practice it. Most often, it involved tending large numbers of mastodons, rhinos, and/or other large herbivores, who existed in a semi-domesticated state. The tribe would hunt down and kill any predators nearby, drive off competing herbivores, constantly following their charges as they went up and down the continent in accordance with the seasons. Up until the present most Nephilim occupied this kind of lifestyle, supplementing their diet with wild game.

               Even before the present there was a degree of selective breeding present in their herds, and they frequently modified their environment to make it more suitable both for their stock as well as favored wild game, clearing pseudofungi scrub and forest to encourage the spread of algae plains and marshes, carving out ponds and ditches for certain worms/wyrms, and diverting rivers and draining lakes to enrich potential grazing areas. Often they would make pens and corrals of piled earth, as well as artificial wetlands. It was not uncommon to see massive herds of fat, dim-witted mastodons, attended at all times by a rotating roster of titan herdsmen.

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               It is worth saying that many of the unfortunate tendencies mentioned (favoring violence, treating art/physical prowess as a measure of individual worth, the viewing of themselves as greater than all other living things) are growing rarer, less abused, and less favorable in Nephilim societies. They are overall less brutal, more tolerant, and more humble than their ancestors.

note: the Atrox Sapient model is a bit dated, mostly in regards to the posture+position of the legs.