#but also Tulip is the beautiful creation I have made playing in the biology sandbox

[theradioghost]

I want to hear about your OC! -chinhands-

fuck yeah time to go full mary sue no shame no hesitation

well last year I got really into the Monster Hunter series, and what attracted me in particular to it was how its sort of USP within its genre (it invented the genre, but no other similar game has really copied this) is that it's basically spec bio. there aren't just Big Monsters, there are Big Monsters with evolutionary histories and ecological roles and interactions and biologies and I Just Think That's Really Neat

i've also always been fascinated by animal color genetics since I was little, and pigments/color genetics isn't something the games and lore have really gone too deep on, so I like messing around with theories and headcanons in that sphere, especially since the series does have a few monsters that are just palette swaps that range in quality of actual gameplay/design creativity, but might be even weirder if you come at it from a biology standpoint.

take the raths, the series mascots -- they're a sexually dimorphic species. the males, rathalos, are red, and the females, rathian, are green. but green pigment is super rare in amniotes (green color is usually an effect produced by some sort of structural element/process, unless you're a turaco or something) whereas red pigments are super common in carotenes and melanins and whatnot. then the rarer, more powerful variants of the raths basically switch pigments, becoming the pink rathian and azure rathalos

^pink rathian

but basically if that color WAS melanin-based you could have melanistic all-black raths. also there IS a spinoff series where you befriend and ride the monsters and within that series there ARE hunter characters who express interest in becoming riders or incorporating rider knowledge into what they do

the upshot of all this is that the backstory I invented for my character in Monster Hunter World is that the vaguely mentioned "hunting partner" she claims couldn't accompany her for the game's events is a black rathian named Tulip, who she met and befriended in the aftermath of a natural disaster when they were both young, classic RPG orphan style. Tulip is a big poisonous dragon who loves fish, scritches under the chin, and attention and I love her SO MUCH but maybe not as much as every scientist she meets