#burnt millipede

[hummingjay]

IT'S THE GOOBERS! From Left to right for both pictures, Millie, Eddie, Eiche, Ritz, and Kiki.

Under the cut is so much lore so be warned.

Millipede “Millie” Millipede’s a tough and sturdy yet affectionate unit, quiet at most times and very sweet. Incendiary shells burnt half her face and refused medical care until the other units were treated, resulting in the burns becoming permanent after the components melted into each other. Though she looks wholly intimidating, she’s actually sweet as syrup. Slightly self-conscious about her scarring, Millie prefers not to show her face but finds ballistic masks more uncomfortable than having her face exposed. Millie’s girlfriend, a Eule named Rosa, makes her feel better by running her hands over the crevices of the burns and kissing them. Millie's gentle personality makes her easy to get along with by most units and gestalts, especially Eules, and gets her very mistakenly taken for a pushover. Because she spends a lot of time with Rosa, and therefore other Eules, Millipede is an excellent cook. She’s also adept at applying makeup and doing hair, after she awkwardly asked other Eules for help so she could do Rosas hair and makeup as a surprise. She uses a bolt action rifle and a large axe. She has a pet spider named Beine who lives in her backpack.

Edward Teach “Eddie” Edward is rowdy and often loud, her anxiety mostly manifesting in making her easy to startle, spiraling into cynical possibilities, and panic attacks. Eddie got her name from her choice of weapons, a break action blunderbuss and a cutlass, plus the fact that she got them in the first place by stealing from an imperial noble’s former residence. She hates to show it, but she’s often uncomfortable and has a nagging feeling that she’s in constant danger, like most Kasuars but more intense. For this reason she tends to hang around larger units such as Storches, Starlings, and Schnäppers, though she herself is plenty capable in combat. Most find this endearing. She doesn’t mind her masculine name, nor when she’s referred to as ‘blackbeard’, though most simply call her a more neutral ‘Eddie.’ While vocally loud, Edward moves silently and smoothly, making her the best suited for flanking an enemy for an aggressive close-range attack. She wears a mask whenever she’s overwhelmed.

Cricket “Kiki”:  Cricket is quiet, formal, and serious. In most cases she’s extremely calm, still, and passive to the point of being creepy, though in combat, she’s excessively brutal, sometimes dismissing her already-powerful weapons in favor of discarded limbs or simply using her hands in grabbing, slamming, and more aggressive tearing movements. Her softer side shows with her squad, and even more so with Jensen, an Ara unit deployed to work with artillery, who Cricket quietly cares for and gave Cricket her nickname. Though Jensen has a nickname: ‘Jenny’, Cricket has never once used it. Often, Cricket will subtly and repeatedly tap on the people she finds comforting, ‘to make sure they’re still there’, especially Jensen. She’s doesn’t show it most times, but Cricket is extremely protective of her friends, and any officer or other soldier that picks a fight quickly ends up on the wrong side of her fists. She also has a wide knowledge of local flora, mostly because she enjoys listening to Jensen rant about random flowers she sees. She’d likely eat an axe before she admits it, but she likes holding hands with Jensen and being held. She rarely takes her helmet off, instead opting for simply raising the visor when needed, and uses a light machine gun, spiked club, and a combat knife.

Ritterhelm “Ritz”:  Ritterhelm is the rowdiest of the group, finding a gritty thrill in combat and got her name by using her helmet as a cup for liquor. She’s also the more idealistic of the group; while she usually respects the hierarchy of the Eusan Nation military, castes fall short when civilians are brought into harm’s way, even beating an officer to death after she realized that the outpost they bombed was not an outpost but a civilian settlement. She was pardoned after the her allies argued that the officer was a war-criminal. It’s possible that this above-average protectiveness stemsfrom her own lover dying during an air raid, a Starling stationed on a mostly civilian-operated medical outpost. Now Ritterhelm wears the Starling’s ruined garrison hat tied around her arm, as well as a photo of the two in her helmet. Ritterhelm, beyond being wilder than the others, is more humorous and also more of a drunkard, often carrying a flask of liquor with her. She uses a glaive and a submachine gun during combat.

Eichenholz “Eiche”: 

Eichenholz is the oldest of the Kasuars, and relatively old in general, older than a gestalt’s mandatory service time. She’s transferred many times through different units before ending up with the 13th Attack Unit. Long past her optimal service time, Eiche is efficient enough at her job that she’s never been put for decommissioning. Though she grew skeptical of the justness of the war, she remains loyal. With her age came the gradual persona degradation and eventual recovery of suppressed gestalt memories, mostly unpleasant ones. Memories of the gestalt life’s abuse coupled with combat fatigue from the war has left Echenholz depressed and detached, reacting apathetically to even the most gruesome scenes. During her time in combat, Eiche has attempted to end her life twice, once with a rifle and once by jumping from a height, stopped both times by her allies. As well as memories of abuse, a certain penchant for spirituality returned with it. Though she doesn’t know what they mean to her or the gestalt who felt the original connection to it, Eiche has carved numerous symbols across her armor and body, mostly of a large radiating eye. She’s more spiritual than the others and even sometimes prays, not knowing who she’s praying to but has the prayers themselves ingrained into her mind. While originally concerned about praying to an unknown entity, she eventually dismissed whatever concerns she had in favor of her comfort. Other than her religion, Eiche finds purpose in doing her best to keep her compatriots alive, which is hard enough without accounting for the fact that there is a non-zero chance of any one of them is snorting gunpowder at any given moment. After her arms were destroyed not long into her service, medical officers used what they had on hand to get soldiers back to combat, and instead of waiting on often-delayed shipments of replacement parts, utilized the components of the corpses around them, meaning for Eiche the shortened arms of a deceased security unit. Beyond her mental issues, Eiche, despite her best attempts, ends up taking the motherly role of the group, taking care of the others and being more in-tune with whatever stresses they have. Eiche can even consistently speak with Falke units if she knows her compatriots are nearby, mostly because she remembers the original source of the agitation surrounding Falke units and is able to consciously separate the fear. She excels at breaching operations and urban warfare, able to quickly navigate ruined infrastructure. She uses a longsword and a powerful automatic shotgun.

[en8y]

[IMAGE ID: three rectangular flags with six evenly-sized stripes each. the first flag's stripes from top to bottom, are as follows: dark brown, medium brown, peach, pink-orange, dull orange, and red-orange. there is an ant in red-orange in the top left. the second flag's stripes from top to bottom, are as follows: dark warm brown, light brown, light grey, yellow-grey, dark yellow-brown, and nearly-black brown. there is a millipede in dark brown in the top left. the third flag's stripes from top to bottom, are as follows: burnt orange, bright orange, neon yellow, bright cool green, dull green, and dark green. there is a beetle in dark green in the top left. END ID.]

ant: feminine presenting

millipede: masculine presenting

beetle: feminine and masculine presenting

(symbols: ant, millipede, beetle)

see also: @daybreakthing's flags for the same terms!

@radiomogai @liom-archive @obscurian @presentationflag-archive

[crevicedwelling]

here are some Little Guys for u !! they have been feasting on the freezer burnt veggies all evening, it has been so eventful tonight

very charming millipedes!

[muttley-do-something]

welcome back to the bedroom, bugs!!! mom doesn't want millipedes on the table for xmas dinner, so my allergy experiment is entering it's next phase. i am feeling better- so if i get Hella Sick again it's probably them. one of my extension cords burnt out while they were in the kitchen... so... they'll have to wait until i figure that out for their heat lamp :( my room is warmer anyways though.

[theneighborhoodlisten]

Ep 101: On the very first episode of The Neighborhood Listen, local CVS pharmacist Burnt Millipede (Paul F. Tompkins) and local realtor Joan Pedestrian (Nicole Parker) discuss a lost green parrot, a mystery whistler, and all things Doug (Brett Morris). Plus, we meet Vanity (Maria Blasucci), a suspicious “carrot-haired” woman.

[schizoidnightmares]

The Gorge, V: Many Eyes

A.I. placeholder artwork generated using NightCafe Stable Diffusion XL v1.0 — CC0 1.0

144th of First, 1100 A.W. — Yesterday, our hope of seeing home again went up in flames. The HSS Heaven Sails is no more, a burnt carcass. Some pieces of it are probably on their way to the ocean by now. Maybe someday, a piece will drift back to the shores of Heaven’s Peninsula. Maybe. That’s about all the evidence that will return of us.

You can see it all in the eyes of the surviving crew. Shock, pain, fear, and anger… It’s all flowing through us like a sizzling stream of molten metal. Our future is cast. These canyons, or whatever lies beyond, will become our new home and grave. There’s no fixing it.

I barely have the motivation to write anymore, but it helps to keep my mind occupied. Only 47 of us are left now. 13 perished in the fire and chaos that followed. We know little about why or how it happened. At early dawn, a fire broke out on board. There was a great panic. Some crew aboard threw themselves over. Some died from the fall, and others perished when the airsail crashed and exploded on the island. We, the survivors, escaped the flames by jumping into the river. Most of the dead died there, drowning. We could still feel the heat and see the steam even a decent way downriver.

We haven’t lost everything. During the fire, some crew tossed as many supplies as they could overboard. I had all my records already with me on the island. However, I did lose one of my journals in the swim downriver — mainly containing technical minutiae. I’m surprised how well my leather scroll cases held up in the water. Most of the paper inside is in good condition.

Downriver, we found a hole in a rock wall. There’s a cave inside, with a whole network of tunnels. We’ve travelled deeper within and taken shelter. The caves are full of biting insects. The spiders, ants, and scorpions are the worst. They’re a bit bigger than the ones at home and a lot more vicious. At night, they won’t leave you alone. You can see them crawling all along the walls and ceiling, coming in and out of crevices in the rock. They drive the crew mad.

There’s also something else in these caves, something much larger than any insect, or mammal, for that matter. Captain Leaping Tiger thinks the crew are seeing things, but he’s wrong. I’ve seen it — only its eyes, its many eyes. Whatever it is, it’s bigger than Man. Maybe twice the size. Last night, I saw it watching us from another tunnel above our camp in the caves. The light from the fire reflected in its many dark, round beady eyes. It remained still all night but was gone by the time I awoke. I didn’t dare move. Some of the other men saw it, too.

Despite all that has happened, the captain has kept the surviving crew together. There are some with minor injuries. Our cook, Leap Frog, suffers from burns on his arms. He’s still keeping his spirits up, but Doctor Fog Eyes has ordered him to refrain from performing his duties. Fog Eyes is despondent. He sees the destruction of the airsail as if it were a divorce — from a wife he never married. I feel more shock than loss, but I’m grateful to be alive. However, getting shelter outside these caves will be a relief — away from all the insects.

These caves are not entirely enclosed. Light from the moon or the sun leaks through crevices in the rock above. Tonight is our second night. I write by faint candlelight. We’ve moved further in the caves since the first night, setting up camp in the broadest part of the caverns we could find. It’s still cramped but not as bad as the cabin was back on the airsail.

The mysterious creature I and some of the crew saw, we call it Many Eyes. I haven’t seen it tonight. We’re not in the same place we were before. One of the crew claims it looks like a giant millipede but with countless hairy, thin pairs of both bottom and top legs completely surrounding its body. He says it moves slowly and methodically. It would pull insects out of crevices with its legs, retracting them rapidly into its body. He did not get a sight of the creature’s length. Instead of turning around, it crept away backwards. He described its locomotion as silky smooth, with no bobbing of its eyes.

I don’t know if these descriptions of the creature help ease my mind at all. Perhaps, while curious of us, it doesn’t regard us as a potential meal. We’re much bigger than the insects, so I find it hard to believe it could swallow a man. We probably would taste a lot different, too.

Thank you for reading

This story is the fifth scene of “The Gorge,” the third short story in Schizoid Nightmares Anthology I. The previous scene is available here. The next scene is available here.

[bending-sickle]

just realized i could have been using Pleny the Elder’s “medicinal cures” for spell ingredients and instructions in my fics instead of hitting up magical herb encyclopedias and new age woo-woo magic books

because seriously look at these (as provided by Dr Sydnee McElroy for the Sawbones podcast)

First if all, you could try ear wax... Okay? Or— “The filth that adheres to the udders of a sheep.” Now if it makes it more palatable, you’re gonna mix that with some myrrh and some wine. […] The ashes of a dog’s head...mixed with honeyed wine. Or, a millipede— You also want to mix that with wine. These are all in wine. […] There’s some earthworms...in honey-wine, again. Wine, in which a hen’s feet have been washed, after being first cleansed with water. Also, the hen must have yellow feet. […] The brains of a partridge…or an eagle, whatever is easier for you to obtain! […] The ashes of a ringed dove’s feather, or the intestines… Again, either way… And then you wanna mix that with three spoons full of wine. […] Ashes of sparrows, burnt upon twigs, in honeyed wine.

but it doesn’t even have to be Pleny! could just be medeival cures:

Or you could—You could swallow nine lice—Nine... Count out the lice...Nine, mixed with ale each morning, for a week.

and those are just for jaundice

[siglovesbugs]

okay here are some honorable mentions im gonna try to speed this up

dragon headed caterpillars, which arent a species on their own theyre actually shared between 400 different species of butterflies as a larval stage

giant african millipedes (archispirostreptus gigas) are really cool heres some hands for size comparison of how big some of these guys can get

japanese emperor caterpillars, larvae of the great purple emperor (sasakia charonda) i really like them o think a lot of caterpillars resemble pokemon (more like the other way around, but i think theyre really cute)

ok ONE MORE REBLOG once i figure out how to add videos

edit: nevermind it wont let me add videos to reblogs sigh

but overall i wish people treated bugs better theyre almost always treated like pests even though they classify as animals too and they do what they can to survive

i think ive burnt myself out from explaining all this but i hope this answers your question i dont really have a favorite in particular but there are some that i find really interesting

what's your favorite bug? (bug you absolutely LOVE the most) and also types of bugs u like

i really like weevils. and beetles specifically i think they are my favorite kinds

i specifically really like acorn weevils but there are a LOT of unique weevils out therw and thats one thing that i really like about bugs in general cause theres so many to learn about

i dont know if i have a favorite in particular but i really like ladybugs i like identifying which one they are i could identify a 7 spotted ladybug from anywhere

its really difficult to find good information out there especially since theres a lot of misconceptions and misinformation about certain bugs out there so be careful where you get your information from, like there's a whole debate about ladybugs and ladybeetles biting and people calling them the same thing and its generally pretty confusing because a lot of different sites say a lot of different things so im still looking for a good source to like research this stuff

sorry that was unrelated i was gonna talk about the ladybug debate but i got sidetracked and realized i might not fully understand that yet and dont wanna give out ladybug misinformation because of it but as far as ive seen theyve been pretty nice to me

here are some of my favorite beetles (with labels) so you can see which is which

this is a diabolical ironclad beetle also known as phloeodes diabolicus

i really like them because not only are they literally the strongest beetle out there but their name sounds funny and i have to reference it whenever someone says anything along the lines of devious/diabolical/etc

im gonna reblog this and continue my rant cause i ran out of room for pictures and im not near done yet

[sirrobin126]

“Who are you?”

“You know who I am.”

“Are you me?”

“Yes.”

And we laughed

[aggressive-positivity-network]

I just need anything with the mercs and bugs. Like just arthropods in general. Please just the boys and some bugs, please 🥺

Mercs & Creepy Crawlies

Headcanons

Medic:

“Bug? Vhere?”

He is interested in all living creatures, so of course he would have no qualms with insects. Of course, he would prefer mammals, but whatever.

His favorite to study? Cockroaches!

He likes to use them as mini-science projects. When he gets bored or burnt out, he usually takes to the “Roach-Mobile,” using electronic signals to move the cockroach every which way.

He’s also a big fan of scorpions, millipedes, and the occasional revived fossil.

It’s one of the few things he likes about living in the desert.

Lately, though, since he’s become more and more exhausted, he usually hangs out in his butterfly room. That always seems to relax him.

Heavy:

Heavy usually doesn’t notice insects unless there’s a scorpion in his boot or a fly on his sandwich.

However, he unfortunately has a very rare allergy to ladybugs.

It usually doesn’t flare up unless they go to a campground or a park where there are a lot of ladybugs.

He sneezes something awful.

And when Heavy sneezes, you definitely notice.

It hasn’t gotten very bad over the years, especially because of the arid air around the base.

But one time they had a ladybug infestation after a shipment for Medic went wrong. Until Engineer exterminated them, Heavy was sick as a dog. He even swelled up a bit and ran a low-grade fever.

“Lady is little, but make big man feel sick...”

Any occasional ladybug in the base is practically killed on sight.

Demo:

Since he lived in Scotland, the only bug he is familiar with are worms, so he doesn’t really have much to say about the others.

Except, of course, leeches.

He is deathly afraid of them.

When he was young, he was attacked by a leech swarm in a lake, and he lost a lot of blood. He even had to go to the hospital.

Ever since then, he gets sick even looking at a leech.

Medic is thrilled. He has a nice, healthy, slightly obsessive interest in phobias.

The doctor likes to tease him whenever possible, and will always offer leeches as an option when Demo gets injured.

One time, he even held up one for Demo to see.

Demo proceeded to scream, throw a grenade in Medic’s direction, and run like the devil in the opposite direction. He didn’t even take out the pin, just threw the whole, inactivated explosive.

Medic laughed and put it back in the tank, but hasn’t done it since...he already spends enough on the lab as it is.

Soldier:

He has and takes care of a pet scorpion in his Sniper Square.

Their name is Roman.

They literally have a bow on their tail made out of an old t-shirt.

Soldier feeds Roman insects, small frogs, and other meaty things - he even gave them beef jerky once.

He is pretty much immune to scorpion poison because Roman has stung him so many times.

Other than that, Soldier is pretty chill with every other bug.

Sometimes he’ll just be at the table.

Playing with a brown recluse.

Or even a black widow.

Like man, do you have any self-preservation instincts?

Sniper:

Bugs make his job a lot harder, especially centipedes and Soldier’s pet scorpion.

Sniper’ll be aiming for a shot, then he’ll feel a bunch of legs crawling on him.

Sometimes it’s sweat.

Sometimes bug.

He thinks dragonflies are pretty cool, though.

If one lands on the muzzle of his gun, he won’t take the shot. He considers it bad luck to startle a dragonfly.

Sniper isn’t afraid of any insects - I mean, come on, he lived in Australia - but he doesn’t like most of them because of how small, quick, and usually poisonous they are.

Just dragonflies.

In fact, he secretly likes collecting dragonfly stuff along with apricot stuff.

Pyro once got him a scented sticker with a dragonfly on a peach for Smissmas, and he almost went insane over it. He has stuck it on the wall of the Sniper Square, right next to the slit he shoots out of.

Pyro:

There aren’t many day bugs that Pyro likes.

Miss Pauling doesn’t them keep any, so what’s even the point?

However, fireflies are a different story.

Pyro catches massive amounts of them every night and uses them as a night light until morning.

Engie is in the process of making small “fire-bots” so that the firefly population doesn’t go extinct.

The only other bug Pyro is interested in is butterflies. He spends a lot of time in Medic’s butterfly room as a result.

His favorite is watching them come out of their chrysalis. He’ll just sit in the butterfly nursery and stare at them at they come out.

Pyro is very gentle with them, so Medic trusts her to go fetch all the new butterflies and set them free.

It’s their favorite job ever.

Engineer:

GRASSHOPPERS!

No, I’m serious, he is obsessed with grasshoppers.

When he is feeling burnt out, he can and will build as many tiny, robotic grasshoppers as necessary to feel better.

Sometimes he sets them loose and watches them hop around.

Any merc can walk in and see Engineer cross-legged on the floor, staring at an endless sea of robo-hoppers.

“Should I come back later?”

“Yeah.”

He thought about making robo-birds to catch them, but then thought about how he’d have to make robo-cats to catch the birds, and robo-dogs to catch the cats...he got so overwhelmed that he just put the grasshoppers away and took a well-deserved nap.

Scout:

Messes around with pretty much anything that isn’t poisonous

He was actually once dared to eat worms, succeeded, and then proceeded to eat a few worms whenever he could find them.

??????

Medic thinks it’s because of a vitamin deficiency, but no one really knows for sure.

Scout was also always covered in mosquito bites.

He refused to put on bug spray because of the smell and the fact he can’t stand still long enough for it to be applied.

Finally, out of sheer frustration of Scout’s whining about itching all the time, Engineer “came across” a dog tag necklace that suddenly took care of the bug problem.

Scout wore it proudly, and he hasn’t had a bug bite since.

Medic owes Engineer several favors for that one.

Spy:

He will not tolerate bugs.

He doesn’t like cockroaches, flies, scorpions, ladybugs, butterflies, or mosquitos.

But Spy has a special burning passion for spiders.

He will not visibly freak out, of course - he has too much pride for that.

However, he will take the magazine from under his arm and slam it down on the spider, instantly killing it.

He cracked a wooden table after seeing a black widow.

Medic has tried exposure therapy, but Spy has managed to kill every single one of his specimens.

But hey, it’s free pest control, so no one else is complaining.

I wonder if I should add Ms. Pauling in the future...what do you guys think?

@leepogo

[paulftompkins]

LOS ANGELES: DO NOT MISS!

Nicole Parker & I are doing our first variety show together! Music and comedy, with a full band at a fantastic venue!

Sunday, 9/10, 7pm at Lodge Room in Highland Park.

TICKETS

[hummingjay]

I keep wanting to ask more about ur Kasuar goobers and finally i got smth coherent.

How did Millie and Rosa meet? Or just how did they hit it off in general , any more yap about them? I like all the squad members but was just wondering about them specificly. Or about all ur Kasuars tbh fhfhf

Muhuhuhuhuhu YOU LEFT THE ASK OPEN-ENDED! I CAN YAP INDEFINITELY!

Okay so let's get to your question before I get distracted. Milie met Rosa while Rosa was working. I like to think that Eules ask Kasuars for help with things like lifting boxes and reaching high stuff (Kasuars are 15 cm taller) and Millie just offered to help a Eule move a ration box. While there's no fighting (combat actually only takes tiny portion of time, compared to the movement and general waiting around) there's not a lot to do, so Kasuars busy themselves with whatever. Other units take advantage of that and ask for help from the bored soldiers. Cause Millie is really gentle and softer in general (in general, and especially for a Kasuar) they ask her for help a lot and she ends up just hanging out with them in general. She even just starts coming over without being asked. At first she's more reluctant and awkward, being a violent big soldier surrounded by smaller units but eventually she gets used to it. Eventually she meets Rosa while she's prepping rations and they got along really well, next thing you know Millie's asking any Ara she can find about flowers so she can gather a bouquet for her.

Rosa actually met Millie before she got her distinctive scars so after Millie got out of the medical ward she was freaking out. Eules take very good care of their appearance, so she was very slightly worried Rosa'd hate it. Consciously she knew the fear was irrational but Kasuars are very paranoid and anxious all the time, and the cute Eule is no exception. Rosa didn't mind and they remain a very cute couple.

The two are my outlet for the cutesy stuff I need to get out. Of course there's Cricket and Jensen, but those two go through a lot. Cute, yes. but the bad™ follows them. They're the cheesy romance movie couple where everything goes right except only their relationship is perfect and Millie gets shot at a lot.

Okay fun facts about the girlies! Millipede is actually Cricket's original name! Cricket was the first Kasuar oc with a definitive personality and history and her original name was Millipede. I stuck with cricket and eventually threw the name at Millie, cause I really liked it. That's why I write Cricket and Millie really close, and Millie was the first to know about Cricket's thing for Jensen.

Also, of all the kasuars, Millie went through the least change from her conception to the paper. She always had her distinct scars, the only change being that her scars were briefly much worse. Her nose was burnt clean off and her eye, which is only just blind now, was just the socket. Other than that she's stayed the same.

Rosa is not a nickname for Rosemarie. Her full name is Rosa and while it's meant to mean pink (her cadre liked colors when they first were stationed) she doesn't mind when people think her name is meant to mean Rose. Rosa doesn't remotely mind Millie's scars, she's only ever bothered by them because Millie herself feels bad about how she looks. She specializes in forehead and cheek kisses and likes to run her finger across Millie's cheekbone, which is more defined after much of her skin was burnt away.

Millie is really physically affectionate. She likes holding Rosa's hands up to look at her fingers and uses her longer arms to give very big (yet gentle) bear hugs. The only one who's more physically affectionate than Millipede is Cricket, who relies on physical touch to calm herself down. On an unrelated side note, Eddie is a polar opposite and only lets herself be touched by people she'd actively die for. Rosa didn't actually give Millie her nickname. A gestalt soldier did cause he thought her full name was a mouthful. She liked it so it stuck.

Millie, other than physical affection shows love by doing tiny little things, like fetching linseed oil for weapon care for the other Kasuars or in Rosa's case learning how to do makeup and hair so she can do something Rosa likes. Rosa calls her pet names (Honey, babe, gorgeous, schatzi) sometimes and every time Millie practically melts.

Millie's spider, Beine (meaning legs) was named by the Eules before she officially fell for Rosa. He lives in her backpack and she feeds him flies and other bugs. Sometimes he made his webs in Millie's joints before she taught him to keep his burrows to the back, and she only did that because she worried about his web breaking. Rosa was originally scared of Beine but eventually got used to the little fella. Millie always calls him Beine but Rosa calls him Bibi. Beine's a bold jumping spider (that's his species) and likes head scritches.

Millie's often thought of as a pushover at first because she's really really sweet but she's actually very tough. She has a high pain tolerance and excels at hand to hand combat. She once got her jaw dislocated and snapped it back into place mid-fight during a friendly squabble with storches. Rosa thought it was extremely sexy. Oh, Rosa gets along well with the other Kasuars. The only one she isn't perfectly okay with is Cricket, which sucks for Cricket cause she also spends lots of time with Millie. Rosa likes Cricket perfectly fine, but Cricket terrifies her. Cricket terrifies everybody cause she's quiet and very passive, but unlike Millie it's not soft passive, it's boogeyman-standing-in-the-corner-gonna-get-me passive. Beyond that Cricket is excessively brutal when fighting and I forgot to write this in the original post I think (so you get FREE EXTRA LORE!!) Cricket actually opened an imperials ribcage to tear open the heart and used the ribs as projectile weapons and after that people are just scared of her. Cricket really wants Rosa to be more comfortable so she lifts her visor (she's told her facelessness creeps people out) whenever she wants to hang out with Millie.

[en8y]

[IMAGE ID: three rectangular flags with six evenly-sized stripes each. the first flag's stripes from top to bottom, are as follows: dark maroon, bright green, cream, peach, pink-orange, and red-orange. there is an ant in red-orange in the top left, overlaid on top of a pink-orange peach. the second flag's stripes from top to bottom, are as follows: dark red-brown, light brown, dull yellow, warm green, dull green, and nearly-black brown. there is a millipede in dark brown in the top left, overlaid on top of a dull green apple. the third flag's stripes from top to bottom, are as follows: burnt orange, pink-orange, neon yellow, bright green, cool green, and bright red-orange. there is an apricot in red-orange in the top left, overlaid on top of a dark green beetle. END ID.]

silky ant: a feminine presenting person who identifies as both an ant and a peach.

dragon millipede: a masculine presenting person who identifies as both a millipede and an apple.

jewel beetle: a feminine and masculine presenting person who identifies as both a beetle and an apricot.

@radiomogai @liom-archive @obscurian @presentationflag-archive

[twofacedbelief]

I'd also love to see a snippet like Thomas from witch au's daily routine, maybe he visits each tenant or sees them in the building??? What does he think of them all?

Thomas had inherited the empty, four-story building on the corner of Black Brook from an uncle he didn’t know he had. According to the papers, the building was from the early 1900s and had been renovated to modern standards just last year. He could find nothing about former tenants, or any history of anyone having had lived in the building at all.

It was quite normal, considering he had lived in Antemori Shores his whole life. The town was just like that. So Thomas didn’t really think twice about moving into one of the apartments on the first floor of the building.

The week after Thomas had moved in, he became aware that someone was living in one of the apartments on the fourth floor. It was nothing special that made him aware of it, not really. Had he had come home after meeting a friend for lunch, and a millipede had been waiting for him on his door. For some reason, that had been all he needed to know that he had his first tenant.

Thomas met Remus for real the next day. Remus had opened the door before he could knock and greeted him, wearing three long skirts in muddled greens and browns that had been ripped to flow around kelp like tentacles, at least a dozen scarab necklaces in various lengths and colours, and nothing else. Squids hair cascaded over kelp shoulder, with insects moving through it.

It was... an interesting first meeting. Remus smiled the whole time, told him how glad kelp was to see the building being cared for again, and that he should knock on squid door if he ever had an insect problem. Thomas left after twenty minutes, having been gifted one of kelp many scarab necklaces, sigils inscribed in the wings of it.

Remy was the next to move into the building. Thomas ran into them outside as they were coming back from a coffee run and they handed him a strawberry milkshake. He has no idea where they would have gotten a strawberry milkshake but didn’t question it. They winked at him as they walked past him into the building.

In contrast to Remus, Remy was calmer although still chaotic in their own way. They always had a drink for him when they ran into each other, but it was never coffee. Thomas could pretend that the weird sounds coming from the pipes were a coincidence, and he decided to not ask when he started seeing liquids seeping out from Remy’ door. All in all, he quite enjoyed talking to Remy whenever their paths crossed.

His tenants didn’t get less interesting after that. Patton and Virgil moved in on the same day; Patton in the morning and Virgil during the late evening.

Patton was an absolute delight. She had knocked on his door to introduce himself and gifted him a flower crown and a jar of honey that he had collected herself. Whenever they met, Patton would smell of flowers. Sometimes he had a squirrel on her shoulder, and she always wore a wide-brimmed hat. After the first week, butterflies were following him. Thomas suspected Remus had something to do with that, but when he asked, Patton admitted to not yet having met her neighbour.

Thomas could probably have gone weeks without knowing that Virgil had moved into the apartment across from him, if not for the 28-hour long blackout that only affected the first floor. Virgil had sent him a text, explaining that it would be best if Thomas avoided technology until he had set his apartment up with sigils and spells. It was quite interesting to get a text when your phone was turned off, and more so to see a new contact entered once it did get turned on.

Even when Thomas saw Virgil, most of their conversations were through texts for the first couple of months. He supposed it was fair, most tenants wouldn’t want to interact with their landlord more than they had to.

Roman was the loudest with moving in, if only because Thomas actually saw him carry boxes up to the third floor. Strangely, he saw no other tenant the whole time that Roman carried belongings up the stairs. Thomas offered to help but was brushed off with a smile and a comment about how he had done enough by renting out the apartments for such a low cost.

He should probably have checked for contracts and things earlier, especially considering he had no idea how any of the tenants got keys to the building, but you learned to not think too much about things in Antemori Shores. It was while actually going through the papers that Thomas got to know about the last two tenants that would be moving into the building.

Logan was the second-to-last to move in. Xie took the third apartment on the third floor, surprisingly. Thomas had come to expect that he would have two tenants per floor, with the exception of the first floor. Not that it really mattered.

As with Patton, Logan chose to knock on his door and introduce hirself. Xie didn’t gift him anything, but hir talked with him for half an hour about the history of the building. Considering Thomas hadn’t found anything when he tried researching the subject himself, he actually appreciated Logan’s impromptu lecture. Whenever he met hir, xie would teach him something new.

Dee moved in at the end of the month, and much like Virgil, they kept to scaleself and didn’t talk much when Thomas saw them. Scae always seemed to have a different snake with them, be it a big one curled around their shoulders or a small one around scale arm. Thomas mostly wanted to know why they had burnt down the doors to the two empty apartments on the second floor. At least none of the other tenants had complained about the second floor being taken over by snakes.

When it came down to it, Thomas felt some affection for all seven of his tenants. He’d just rather they didn’t turn his building into an insect sanctuary or a reptile house... but as long as he didn’t have to deal with complaints, everything was good.

[scottaukerman]

On this week’s Comedy Bang Bang I’m joined by Burnt Millipede (@PFTompkins) & Joan Pedestrian (@nfparkergirl) of The Neighborhood Listen! It’s a podcast crossover for the ages! - Plus, critic Dickie Caroline’s (@rygaul) tells us about his food reviews! - Listen and subscribe wherever you get podcasts! https://www.instagram.com/p/B-XFPFAHaI-/?igshid=3wn536291d6g

[areloch]

Haggard Star, Part 1

"My name is Mikael Adderman and, uh, apparently I've been taken prisoner. I'm a P.O.W?"

  I was still pretty disoriented by the flurry of events that just transpired, and between my injuries from the earlier combat engagement and the sudden shift in behavior from my captors, things have taken a little while to process.

  "I don't think they really understand what I'm saying, so I'll be quick about it: I think they're scared of me- of us,"

  Staring into what I presume is a camera of some fashion, I was sat down into some weird alien facsimile of a chair and screeched at in that weird way all of them talked. It took me a while to figure out what they were going for, but I think it's either a 'look we have your prisoners' video like terrorists from centuries past used to do - or it's documentation before experiments began.

  Taking a breath to steady myself, I walked back through what happened over the last day- or what I presume was roughly a day. Time tracking in space was hard enough without being stuck in a holding cell on an alien ship. There was the spread of first contact reports through the network. Humanity accosted on multiple fronts from some sort of collective alien force of different species. Quick, brutal, decisive battles. And before the crew of my little shipping corvette could even figure out what was happening, a.., rip in space appeared, close enough we could actually see it out of the viewports, and they were upon us.

  They boarded the ship - or well, that may be overstating slightly, as it was more they ripped the ship in half - and several of us were immediately thrown into the void. The rest of us suited up, got our weapons and prepared for a skirmish. The majority of the ones we fought were long, covered in armor and had a bunch of limbs. Something like a snake-millipede hybrid. They moved fast, and were incredibly aggressive. Their weapons - lasers of some sort, because why WOULDN'T an alien species have laser weapons - tore into my crew.

  But then a shift in the pace of combat happened. Likely partially because humans have always fought hard against aggressors, and a hearty dose of alien invasion media throughout our history may have inadvertently prepared us, but we fought back. Oh did my guys fight back. When one got shot, we'd pull them back, lay suppressing fire and get them patched up and back to shooting. If they were going to kill us all, they were going to work for it, that was damn sure.

  Or so I thought. We'd killed about 25 of them for only 3 of ours lost when they began to slow their attacks down. For being as big, armored and ugly as they were, they went down a lot faster than expected. Their weapons, while brutal, burnt the flesh closed so it was actually pretty hard to kill any of us without a lucky shot to the head or heart. We were all hurt and bleeding, but still fighting. Even I took a good blast to my face, but I've been gritting my way through the pain - and what I think is a total loss on my ear.

  Shortly after they slowed, they stopped their attacks completely. It gave us time to breathe, sure, but it was also unnerving. They just camped outside the bridge, every now and again blasting that annoying click-screech sound I can only presume is their language at us over comms. We held there, hurt, but determined for another 5 hours or so before one of them entered the hallway, weird buggy forelimbs extended spread-eagle showing it was unarmed. I'll admit that it took a good while before we figured out it was attempting to pantomime that we should surrender and come with them.

  We were able to walk ourselves onto their ship, held at a good distance - and laserpoint, but as we watched them, it was pretty easy to tell that we were more than they bargained for. Something about that fight had them spooked, even if we technically lost it. It wasn't their weapons or technology. Their exoskeletons were pretty strong. I'm pretty sure we'd lose in a battle of raw strength. And it sure wasn't my ravishing good looks after taking that grazing shot to the face.

  I'd been mulling it over for the past few hours until now, but I think I get why they're scared. And if I'm right, and they're dumb enough to try and attack earth, then they're going to have a REAL bad time ahead of them.

  "They can't handle pain. Or shock. They're about as resilient as a preschooler with a glass jaw"

  It was sorta funny, really. City-sized ships. Laser weapons. Creepy alien bug-snake things from across the stars. And they're scared of us because we don't just roll over and die for them.