#aurora the flier

[yesthefandomfreakblr]

AURORA UPON YE

[ares-is-the-best]

GUYS! I have learned crucial information about bats I think everyone should know. Especially pertaining to Underland fliers.

Bats can purr!

They vibrate and they sound like engines, it's adorable. There is a great video of one on the Maid of Bats Instagram page. And I am also immediately adding it to my headcanon that fliers purr unconsciously under certain circumstances of happiness, and that they can do it at will. Just a deep rumble while they vibrate. Just-

Gregor: *does something*

Ares: *finds it endearing and starts purring unconsciously*

Everyone else: 0_0 WTF, I didn't think Ares could do that anymore.

Or also,

Luxa: *extremely stressed out about something that happened or about being queen and goes to Aurora*

Aurora: *wordlessly wraps her wings around Luxa and starts purring to help Luxa relax*

[neon-jackal]

And they were roommates

[haveihitanerve]

The males group chat: Because of course they have one- Howard: guys help dulcet wont stop making me flower crowns and i don't know what to do with them Gregor: help luxa keeps giving me scrolls with a wink and say to ‘open them later’ but all thats inside is a cracked carrot Mareth: help Perdita challenged me to a game of strip poker but she keeps cheating and now im cold Ripred: help boots and hazard have taken over training in the arena and i've locked myself in the supplies closet and they've all gone quiet and im scared Aurora: how the fuck did i get added to this

[anxiousdragoncollector]

Gregor absolutely would've learned how to bat-surf on Ares

[haveihitanerve]

ares and aurora be like

[breannasfluff]

Meet Hyrule's Zeldas: Zia (Aurora) - Major Mitchell’s Cockatoo Zelda (Dawn) - Blue Tanager

They are not actually related and very much in love. Zia is quiet and demur, but has a secret spunky side. Zia is a brighter colored bird; colors faded some through history as it became more dangerous to be flashy. Zelda is still a bit brighter because she's a royalty and has an added level of safety. This would be explored more in the next arc of Wing Bois I didn't end up posting, and we'd meet them both.

Both birds & some info under the cut!

I used to have lots of relevant bird facts for you, but to be honest I did this art in February and have forgotten them. Here's what I do have below :)

Blue Tanager: These birds are relatively social, choosing to travel in pairs or small flocks. They are restless and noisy, and their songs sound like squeaky twittering. (Pair bird!)

Major Mitchell’s Cockatoo: These diurnal birds are a bit lazy, somewhat weak fliers and can generally be found dwelling on the ground or up in trees foraging for seeds. They are a mainly sedentary species, but will carry out local migrations seeking food and water. They are very social and form bonds for life.

[unorthodoxiguana]

I might have seen this said before, on a different post, but I couldn't find it, so I'm just gonna say a few words on this, partially because of that and partially because it's been ages since I've last read the series, despite it being ingrained into my head.

Almost all of the characters in TUC have moments where they are genuine assholes. Gregor has a few points where he says some genuinely disrespectful shit. Luxa, as well as most of the other humans (including Gregor, although arguably to a lesser extent), are deeply prejudiced against the gnawers. Ripred, is, well, Ripred (look, I love him, we all do, but he's a dick).

Even Vikus, arguably one of the nicest characters in the series, admires Sandwich (I think, been a while), a man who literally used poison to commit genocide in the name of stealing land that didn't belong to him.

The only characters I can think of in TUC that don't have flaws are the ones who also have the least lines: Aurora, Dulcet, Miravet. Oh, and all of those characters? Probably also prejudiced against gnawers, just never explicitly stated (to my knowledge), probably due to their obscene lack of lines. Of course there are characters like Lizzie and Hazard, who are literal fucking children so as nice as they are, I think it's safe to say they can't really be counted up here. (Should probably also mention that Gregor and Luxa are also children, just ones that were forced to grow up faster, sadly).

Then again, all of these characters have redeeming qualities. Gregor can be disrespectful at times, but that's mainly because of the stress placed upon him by the various bullshit situations he has to go through, and he usually apologizes after. Luxa and all the humans are deeply prejudiced (actually, I should probably add the fliers might be in that category too), but they are basically raised from birth to hate and kill gnawers, and vice versa. plus, it's shown that despite what is practically being brainwashed from birth, they can grow and change to overcome their own bigotry and accept gnawers as genuine people, as well as friends.

And yes, Ripred, the glorious bastard himself, is a dick. But he's also a war veteran who's lost his family, and most of the respect from his people, meaning he mainly works with humans, who tend to treat him with suspicion, if not outright hostility (until they get to know him). And he makes up for it by letting his guard down at times to be a father to the traumatized pups that dragged him into their pack.

Point is, flawed characters are one of the things that make TUC so great. They're not few and hid away either, they're everywhere, with visible flaws. If you want to make a good character, TUC is a great series to use as an example. Everything casts a shadow, just like every character has a flaw. If they don't, you probably just can't see them from your angle. And if they don't? Like, at all? Give them some, just make sure the shadow they cast matches up with the object itself.

[jiakim]

jia: hi, jeanie! this is jia from bright sparks. i have some fliers for an event happening in a few weeks. do you think i can swing by and give you some to hang up at aurora ?

@jeanieinabxttle

[quohotos]

Thoughts about bonds/bonding

This was something I was already planning to write up but then the latest return to regalia episode opened the flood gates and filled in some missing pieces for me. What follows is my own educated guesses and headcannon, very little of this is explicitly in the text of the books. Understand that much of this is my own headcannon, though I'll try my best to justify it with the text.

(also note that since I was an audio book kid I don't actually know if it's spelled flyer or flier and I'm going to get it wrong more than once and you're just going to have to live with that)

Luxa says that it wasn't normal for her to bond with Aurora so early, but that an exception was made as almost a form of therapy after the death of her parents. The same exception was made for Hazard and Thalia. We aren't explicitly told how old Henry was when he bonded with Ares, but I'm assuming it was before adulthood given how all four of them (Luxa, Henry, Ares, and Arora) have a storied history before the events of the first book. Henry had to be younger than 16 when they bonded (16 being the age of legal maturity in the underland, will amend if I'm misremembering), which isn't surprising given that he's Henry and he's never played by the rules. This raises the question of the bats' ages... we aren't ever told that. I would assume that the bats are of similar ages to their bonds, but I have no evidence to back that up.

In the Marks of Secret Ripred explains that rats grow up incredibly fast and reach full maturity in about a year, and that humans are uncommon in how long they take to grow up. It's not clear how long the bats take to grow up. Would Thalia have become an adult while Hazard was still a little kid, or would they have grown up concurrently? I can't say either way. One thing I can say with more confidence is that regardless of their ages, Aurora and Ares probably see their respective bonds like younger siblings. Obviously, being bonded to someone is a completely different relationship that we can't exactly map onto what we have in the overland, but I think that's a close approximation.

So Why and How do regular people get bonded?

The most surefire way to get bonded would be to join the military (something you can do from a very young age... I mean they have armor on hand for 12 year olds and we see seven year olds doing military drills in the Prophecy of Bane... yaaaaay). In the military you will be assigned to mixed species units and it's just sort of assumed that they'll all end up pairing up and bonding.

For civilians there are likely special yearly festivals that the two kingdoms share with the express purpose of giving people a chance to find bonds. My guess would be right around the time of the harvest when there's plentiful food to go around. After a hard year a bunch of flyers come to regalia and everyone has a big party to celebrate. There are probably specially organized games of whatever sport Gregor walked in on back in the first book. While specific flyers are probably scouted for sports and more importantly the military there's still plenty of opportunities for common Regalian and flyers to interact and meet.

What does bonding do for a flyer?

We see so much of the Underland Chronicles from the point of view of royal humans. To them, the benefits are obvious. Humans can't fly, bonding gives them access to someone who can. But why would a flier seek out a human bond? That just sounds like an obligation, right?

The Regalians have incredibly advanced medical technology. I've roasted them before for their metalworking, but their chemistry/biotech is unparalleled. They're able to produce antibiotics, as well as synthesize plagues and their cures. They have ways of treating illnesses that the overland doctors (allegedly) cannot. We also see that they have incredibly reliable and safe oral administered sedatives. Anesthesiology is such and advanced and risky field, and they seem to have cracked it to the point where people can safely be sedated for trivial maters without anyone batting an eye.

The arrival of humans (as permanent residents, native people made limited journeys to there before the arrival of Sandwich) in the Underland definitely raised everyone's average life expectancy by decades... before lowering it immediately afterwards through endless wars. In Curse of the Warmbloods someone steals the pain killers and Gregor realizes that the rats couldn't even use it if they wanted to because they don't have hands to open the bottle. Much of the Regalian's medical technology still requires a human to administer it. You need humans to carve splints and set them, you need humans to administer injections, you need humans to cut hair and perform surgery. Spinners can do some things to stop bleeding, but any significantly complex medical procedure is going to need human hands involved. Think about things like glasses and prosthetics, things we don't normally associate as medicine but would still kinda are. Humans probably manufacture and prescribe bat-glasses.

For a flyer, traveling long distances without a human bond is incredibly risky. If something bad happens, even if you have other flyers with you, you could die from what would otherwise be preventable causes. Bitten by mites? Who's going to apply the the ointment? Wing dislocated, who's going to pop it back into place (this one literally happened to Aurora). There are also probably some foods that can't safely be eaten raw, but a human could prepare. Heck, a human can boil water to purify it, or place traps that catch pray that otherwise wouldn't be hunt-able. Humans can catch fish that live too deep in the water for a flyer to peruse. Humans are adaptable. Your bond is your Swiss army knife, adaptable and versatile even if sometimes fragile.

Any flier trying to pursue and education needs to be bonded. You wanna go to bat-college? You gotta bring a human. You'll need one to transcribe all your essays and help you read books. The fliers definitely have a rich oral history that they all maintain, but there are some things that you just need a human to access. The average flier probably doesn't have a bond, but the higher in status definitely do for the educational purposes alone. While the queen herself doesn't have a bond, in fact it seems almost frowned upon in the royal family (Nike doesn't have one despite getting very close to a human who would like to bond with her in the later books), you bet your ass that every middle manager and local bat official has a bond who takes care of paperwork and accounting.

It's a funny parallel how flyers of low status like Ares can suddenly be whisked into royalty by being bonded to Henry, the same thing probably happens to humans. You could be Joe Shmo nobody (or I guess this is the underland so Joeth Shmavetus) who would probably live out their whole life carving stone jars, but you do numbers good so the bat-secretary of bat-state bonds with you and now you're really important.

That means that there are probably lots of places within the flyers lands that are built specifically to house humans long term. We see a little bit of that in the first book, but there's probably a lot more out of sight. Special areas where an important fliers' bonds can live and do their taxes and whatnot.

Bonding is usually an egalitarian process. It seems like both sides and both factions have to consent to it. When Gregor insinuates that one side owns the other he gets massive push-back. With that being said, I'm almost certain that Ares had little control in the matter over bonding with Henry. I think there's kind of an unstated rule that the royal families are going to bond with whoever they please, and that turning down a bond of high status would be a massive faux pas. Ares probably didn't feel like saying no was even on the table.

What about non-flyer bonds?

Oh yeah, code of claw spoilers beyond this point. Now that everyone's doing the reread and we're probably bringing a few first time readers into the fold I'm going to spoiler mark this part just in case since I'll be discussing things that happen in the last installment

Luxa and Ripred bond to usher in peace. This is treated as something that has never happened before but that the rules don't explicitly forbid. Henry jokes about people bonding to the crawlers, but in a way that portrays it as stupid and pathetic rather than impossible. In doing so she also symbolically brings the Gnawer into the spiritual fold that the flyers and humans already share.

Humans and Gnawers would then be allowed to bond with each-other. It might take generations for that to happen in earnest, sicne both sides have so much trauma and resentment built up, but maybe decades in the future the younger generations will find it in themselves to do so.

The fact that Luxa bonding with Ripred doesn't break her bond with Aurora sets the precident that you can bond with as many people as you want so long as you never have two of one species. I do not think Aurora is that happy about that, and I doubt she sees Ripred as her own bond. It's possible though, that in the future you could have big groups of underlanders who are all united by one bond. A whole bad batch rogues gallery of a flyer, a gnawer, a human, and a nibbler who each bring something special to the group.

Though never explicitly stated, I think it probably goes without saying that Hamnet and Frill were bonds. It definitely wasn't done the proper way, probably just informally in the jungle with nobody else observing, but still. A bond is a bond.

[originalwinnercheesecake]

I wish we could have gotten more on the bat's and their interpersonal relationships

okay we know which bat's are bonded to which humans, what each bat looks like, and basic descriptions of their personalities

Ex. Ares: large black bat. Had two bonds: Henry and the Gregor. Was very strong, a known risk taker, broody/emo, unpopular with others, still a very good guy.

Aurora: Bright gold bat. Bonded to Queen Luxa. Patient, quiet most of the time. Soft/gentle spoken the rest. Is very brave. Can fly in a series of complicated acrobatics to where a rider has to be very skilled to stay on her. Her and Ares are very close friends.

Nike: Silver and black stripped bat. Daughter to Queen Athena, and the second bond of Howard. Cheerful and helpful. Notably more talkative then other bat's. Boot's is the only one whom she allows to call her "Pincess Nike."

But that is really kinda all we know. Those couple facts about Nike's patentage and Ares&Aroura's friendship, plus maybe that the bats technically need Queen Athena's permission to join the humans for missions, is all we know about their relationships outside of the ones they have outside of their bonds

I do not think Nike is Queen Athena's oldest child. Her being allowed to go on the quest for the plague was explained as the prophacy specifically stating bat's needed to send a representative, and Nike also being a "back up princess incase Boot's role has been misinterpreted". So letting her go off into danger then checks out. The Marks of Secret quest checks out too as it was completely unsanctioned and none of the group had permission to be out searching for the nibbles. All of them knew and said they would be put on house arrest once the returned home.

But still if Nike is next in line for the throne why does the title "Princess" mean so little to her that she only allows a baby who is laughing at an inside joke address that way, She specifically asks others not to "hold it against me" when they try to call her "Princess Nike". Additionally after she and Howard become close and decide they want to eventually bond she starts spending a lot of time with him in the human land. Again there is nothing outright strange about that, plenty of bat's hang out in the humans land with their bonds. But Queen Athena can be noted to mostly stay in her land. The only time she came to the humans land was for the meeting in Curse of the Warmblood. If "overseeing her kingdom" and "preparing to one day rule" were part of Nikes daily life the way they are Luxa's, wouldn't it make more sense for Nike to stay in the fliers land with her mother and Howard to go visit her? Not the other way around? The humans are welcome in the fliers land just like the bat's are in there's. Howard has family connections, medical skills, and is the nicest guy ever. I would be very surprised if he was not allowed to go to any safe land anytime he wants. Nikes disregard of the "Princess" title and seeming freedom to leave her land for adventures as well as casual trips leads me to belive she has unamed older sibling in the bat's land who is on deck to rule befor her.

Gonna move on in a second, but while we are talking about unamed members of Nike's family let's talk about her father. He is not in the books and Queen Athena seemingly rules the Bat's by herself. Does the fandom believe he is dead and Athena was not required to take a second mate/King afterwards, or is he alive and the flyers are a monolithic kingdom (one ruler). Because of Athena's royal status I personally belive the monolithic kingdom. Secondly since Queen Athena is a white bat and Nike is zebra stripped, is her father a dark colored bat, or would that not be how bat genetics work? This is a question I do not know the answer to.

Now let's move on from Nike and talk about our boy Ares. Again even before bonding with Henry he was known to be reckless, disobedient, and a risk taker. While in our safer society this might make Ares seem really cool to kids/teens he was never popular in the underland. Since the underlanders are always at war, or trying to live through or recover from a crisis this possibly made Ares seem like he was kinda crazy/dangerous to be around (You all judged him wrong). After Henry betrayed everybody and Ares broke his bond to save Gregor Ares was then completly shunned by every bat and human, save Luxa and Aurora. Okay to give minor credit: Nerissa still cared about Ares, and the reason he didn't know that was he was avoiding her. While Andromeda and (I guess) Nike did not originally trust Ares after the events of the first book, they got over it and became friends with him. Gregor started visiting more, and Howard is friendly to everybody. But still for like six months Ares had no one in his life but Luxa and Aurora. When they got lost on the second quest he referred to them as his only two reasons to live. He gave up going to the doctor for medical treatment for his mite bites and made a desperate venture into enemy lands alone to search for them, only going back to his cave when he was to sick to keep going.

During all these times there is no mention of Ares having parents, siblings, or relatives of any kind. So was he an orphan who had no one? Or did he originally have family, who after the events of the first book, hated and shunned him with all the rest? And if so were they ever sorry?

Lastly let's talk about Thailiah. Poor, brave, little Thailiah who was such a young bat when she died so tragically. Her friends all tried so hard to take care of her on the quest, and when she still died they all cried and promised to hold her in their hearts forever. Did she have a mother and father back home? What did they think/feel when the "picnic crew" went missing? When Gregor brought the other pups back did her patents believe Thailiah would be with them? Who had to tell them she was never coming home?

[haveihitanerve]

Gregor: I’m fine.

Ripred: Lol, no you’re not. But lucky for you, I don’t care. Wanna go fight other rats?

—

Ares: I’m fine.

Luxa: Okay, I thought you were fine, but now I’m worried.

—

Gregor: I’m fine.

Howard: Is no one going to mention the fact that he’s bleeding from a stab wound?

—

Luxa: I’m fine.

Aurora: Going by historical precedent, I have the feeling I should’ve called Howard an hour ago.

—

Ripred: I’m fine.

Vikus: Perhaps I should invest in a dictionary. It seems that this entire family lacks an understanding of basic English vocabulary.

[noirs-multiverse]

was thinking today abt how luxa and ripred somehow BOND at the end of code of claw and somehow no one,,,, ever,,,, questions it? cause it just creates more questions that literally never ever get answered within the book?

isnt luxa already bonded to aurora? can you bond with more than one person then? what even is the significance of a bond then?

aurora is apparently okay with this but,,, it does not make that much sense really. also, "if you think so, then i can survive it" (luxa to aurora, a little after the bond is made),,, that's. not very,,,,, bondlike or any good prospects for luxa and ripred's bond unless luxa is being sarcastic but i doubt that?

all throughout the series, bonds have always been between humans and fliers. this does make sense because a human and flier duo is pretty great for fighting and survival + travel within the underland, they complement each other. i don't think a human could have that with any other species. (idk how to articulate but like, fliers provide the Flight and humans provide the Attack yk, there's not much a gnawer can provide to a human in that regard if you get what i mean)

also, bonds are sought with someone who have a connection or understanding with. someone whose loss you would actively grieve. luxa and aurora, howard and pandora, hazard and thalia (😭), and so on. i mean,,, a bond is clearly a significant concept within the underland, the breaking of which is literally disastrous (ares being punished with exile before gregor saves the day). if i'm not forgetting anything, the only time a bond breaks is either a betrayal (henry and ares!!! they are a great example of how bond ≠ peace), or your bond dying (howard and pandora).

observing luxa and ripred's dynamic, they do not quite have the understanding that creates a successful bond (Luxa Was Literally Ready To Send Ripred And The Gnawers To The Uncharted Lands, HOW DID THEY BOND™️ LIKE 2 SECONDS LATER??? I reread that part just now and I lost several braincells, just to confirm if I was right. Anyway). i just. don't see how luxa could say that treaties have failed,,,, a bond can fail too?

especially considering how badly henry's betrayal affected luxa throughout the series, it just feels,,,, Not Right to see luxa doing this when henry's bond with ares failed? like, would she not have considered this before placing so much faith in a bond between her and ripred?

unless there is actual magic involved, nothing really guarantees that luxa and ripred's bond will preserve peace or anything. bonds in tuc seem to be more of a cultural/interpersonal tradition of high significance as opposed to an actual magical construct with any weight that ISN'T assigned by cultural/personal association.

i read more of that part just to check and this quote? "I need one human to genuinely approve of what I just did." (said by luxa)

THE WAY THIS LOOKS,,, THIS SOUNDS LIKE A VERY BAD MOVE FOR UM. YOUR "image"???? How could you make such a huge move without even consulting anyone properly, right ? Luxa, bonding with A GNAWER who you Threatened with Exile/Banishment does NOT bode well for your reputation, which you need if you are going to actually want to preserve any peace? Bro you could've just signed a treaty,,,,,,,

and i mean, if you CAN bond (bonds are one of the most,, iconic? idk what other word to use, features of tuc, just to put that here) with other species instead of just humans and fliers, i feel like that's not something you would ever just put at the end of the book and never really explore in depth,,,

anyway i feel like i missed something but like,,,, THERE NEEDS TO BE MORE QUESTIONING ON THE LUXA AND RIPRED BOND BECAUSE IT'S SO OUT OF NOWHERE,, and detracts from a proper understanding of what a bond even is

im pretty sure this is my first proper uh essay??? post on here so um lmk what u think, id love to hear all ur thoughts in general and stuff. i will prolly reblog this post if i have more thoughts on this, let's see haha. anyway, have an awesome day/night!

[lost-technology]

Aurora Borealis

Tri-Tober Fanfic shorts Prompt 18: Zazie Setting: Trigun Stampede Summary: The Spawn lit up the night and the Wam were left with Their thoughts. Prompt 18: Zazie Aurora Borealis The night sky was on fire over the Great Sand Ocean.  The breeding season had commenced and the spawn danced high in the atmosphere.  Sparks of consciousness, newly-formed, sent out signals to their brethren below (brethren? No, that was not quite the right term – but human language is limited).  Wam had at least 56 biological sexes as categorized by human scientists and couldn’t be said to care at all about any individual identities at all.  They were Wam and Wam were They, Wam were One and Wam were Many.  Different stages of development devoured one another.  Some energy came from the suns, but, mostly, the Long Fliers ate the Spawn and were eaten by the Swimmers, which were eaten by the Grand, which, in turn, were scavenged on by the Beaked and all fed the Spawn and numerous other forms that hid in the sand, the skies and the deep Underground.   Memories traced back through epochs, back through the time when the sands were water, before the planetary-shift had caused it to retreat underground, back when green slime proliferated upon the shorelines and enormous towers fed on it and the suns and the winds.  They were different then and They had Neighbors in the Past Times, but the Neighbors were gone now, leaving Them with hard shells to guard against the suns and the sands. They were the last beings with Memory, the last that Thought, the last that Knew their planet.  There were new Neighbors now, of a few kinds.  The Two-Legged Swift-Runners could be quite tasty, along with the Two-Leged-Slow-Walkers.  The Encased were inaccessible and nothing that concerned Them – they seemed to be endless givers, Sources like the suns, but far more fragile – used by the Two-Leged Slow-Walkers. There were Two who were like the Slow-Walkers but carried the energies of the Encased.  The Zazie-illusion that had been created for observation and interaction purposes with the New Neighbors thought that they were very interesting and incidentally, smelled wonderful.  They had yet to decide whether or not they were edible, but they certainly could be beneficial.  Observations continued for now, just as “Zazie” watched Their Spawn from a cliffside. 

[cheritzteam]

[The Ssum] The Ssum : Forbidden Lab Update (15/3 KST, v1.1.12)

Hello, dear lab participant.

You can now download the new version of <The Ssum : Forbidden Lab>.

Google Play Store (Android) - link

Apple App Store (iOS) - link

This update includes bug fixes, so you will receive 10 Aurora Batteries as Study Support upon accessing the game.

Make sure you access the Lab by the 18th of March 2023 (KST) to get your compensation! *You must collect your reward within 3 days.

The following are the details of the update we have received from the Lab.

-

> I can’t complete past chats even with Aurora Batteries…

An error that caused replies in certain chats to be stuck was fixed.

> My precious pictures of my ssum-one are missing…

We improved the Album system so images downloaded using Aurora Batteries remain intact.

> The Cult fliers on Momint can’t be edited…

An error that caused the app to crash when editing Cult benefits was fixed.

[Others]

We added missing translations in the Momint UI.

We fixed minor bugs.

-

We appreciate your reports and your activities as a part of the Lab.

Thank you.

-Cheritz-