#lyrebirds speaks

[lyrebirdswrites]

I’d like to thank the fellow kuroken shippers in the Haikyuu movie translation crew who had kenma say in canon on the big screen “I was doomed the moment I fell for his flattery”

[gatefated]

tag dump

[sunsetcougar]

My muse apparently decided to go on an impromptu vacation, but it’s returned enough to give me thoughts for the Lyrebird AU!

A few months after the hotel battle, right when the rejection and isolation is really hitting Vaggie hard, she and Charlie get a summons from Heaven. It’s for a meeting in the Embassy, and specifically states that while Charlie’s presence is optional, Vaggie is required to be there.

It’s concerning, and they’re nervous, but Charlie wants to be optimistic and doesn’t want Vaggie to go alone.

When the day of the meeting arrives Vaggie isn’t speaking and the walk to the Embassy is filled with Charlie’s rambling as she shuffles through her papers.

Upon arriving and signing in they’re greeted by two people in one of the meeting rooms. One is Lute, looking as angry as ever, but the other is an exorcist without a mask. White hair, grey skin, eyes the color of the sun melting into the ocean as it sets, and an expression of anxious hope.

Seconds after they enter the room Vaggie is clinging to the stranger, obviously trying not to break down sobbing as she’s hugged close. It’s a far cry from her usual demeanor, but it’s really only surprising to Charlie.

All exorcists were once fledglings, and they were all raised by someone, is it really so surprising that Vaggie would run to the mom she thought she’d never get to see again?

[coralinnii]

Hello!

Do you take request??

If you do, can i request a reader who can mimic people's voices?

With rook, riddle, the tweels and any character you like!

MC who can mimic voices feat: Riddle · Rook · Floyd · Jade genre: mild fluff note: gn!reader, no pronouns used with reader, unspecified relationships,

I might be too outdated to understand that. I'm so sorry ^_^"

I typically just do up to four characters in a post so it's just the requested ones :)

At first he wasn’t impressed. I’m sure that there’s a spell that can alter someone’s voice to change or mimic someone else (like Floyd’s deep voice in Book 4). But, when he found out that was your own talent was when he realized how impressive that actually was. 

Being the son of well-owned physicians, he’s fascinated by your capabilities as you showed how you mimic voices he thought were beyond your assumed range. He watched you in awe as you parroted the voices of your friends, chuckling when you matched their mannerisms (it’s uncanny how you could match Ace’s voice while giving off that mischievous aura of his)

You smiled at Riddle looking so giddy with your vocal skills, like a child visiting a performance for the first time (you kept that thought to yourself though). 

Like the Housewarden he is however, he does warn you to not use your skills for any pranks on campus. He doesn’t want to see you get in trouble for mimicking someone and scaring someone you shouldn’t be. Definitely do not mimic his voice or it’s definitely off with your head. 

"I see the fruits of your effort. Some students could learn from you"

He’s definitely fascinated by your talents. He’s intrigued by your vocal prowess and if your mimicry is perfect enough to trump his recognition abilities, he’s absolutely floored by you. To think someone may be able to trick this huntsman, what a tricky lyrebird you are. 

Rook wants to observe you as you speak, he loves seeing the way you reach vocal capabilities that few can do. He watches your lips, your throat, your diaphragm, completely enamored by your voice

With your consent, he would like to see the limits of your skills. How well can you mimic animals? How about vibrating noises? How loud can you go with a certain voice or how high? 

Be sure to tell him you need a break because you have piqued the hunter’s curiosity. In all honesty, he could probably listen to you for hours, be it your acts of mimicry or simply your natural voice. 

“Marveilluex! How exciting it is to hone one's craft.”

You went ahead and showed Floyd something fun. Good luck to you. 

Floyd is going to have a field day with you and your skills, asking you to copy his voice, Jade’s, Azul’s, Riddle’s, everyone. He might even pull up videos of random people to see if you mimic voices from a video. He wants to see how high you can go or how low. This man is giving off “kid in a candy store” energy

Like with Rook, be sure to tell Floyd when you need a break. Also feel free to decline his requests, especially when he asks you to say embarrassing things in Azul’s voice for him to record on his smartphone. 

He would absolutely bug you to teach him your talents. If you choose to help him learn, you just created the most annoying thing on NRC for a few days before Floyd eventually gets bored. 

If you choose not to, Floyd will get pouty and would probably bug you for a while until you either give him or give him a good enough reason. He will still ask you to keep mimicking voices for the fun of it. 

“Whoa, how did you do that? Do that again!”

Color him curious, that is an unexpected talent you have there. 

Sound travels differently in water so seeing this skill is very intriguing to Jade, reminding him of those mimicking birds or seals he’s read in books before coming to NRC. To realize a human is capable of such abilities is a delightful surprise to him. 

A recurring pattern, Jade would also ask you to demonstrate your vocal range to him. He observes the way your voice reaches what was assumed to be ranges beyond you and pitches unlike your typical tone. It was very entertaining to watch. 

Jade wishes to talk more about your skills, how did you perfect your skills? Does it put a strain on your vocal chords? How long can you maintain a voice different from your own? 

This new discovery strikes Jade’s fancy. He can’t help but to compare you to the legendary sirens, of how they entice those who stray too close to them with their voices. 

“I keep finding myself surprised by the surface land. What an intriguing person you are”

[koegama]

I got asked about how koegama sophonts talk to each other:

the main way they talk to each other is a language Baen, which is just the word for Second because it tends to be your second language in learning systems. Baen was created by a group of Tajira linguists who created a language framework that could be spoken by all species despite their different anatomy (main concern was that many hanasei languages are unable to be spoken by other species bc they imitate actual sounds like lyrebirds that most can't really do + hard to pronounce tones).

note that it was a framework, it gave you all the phonemes allowed and vocabulary for polite conversation, but not much else. the idea was that languages evolve naturally, so they should have a laissez-faire relationship w it, letting people create new words and slang. hanasei scholars took Baen and gave it more rules and guidelines and started putting it as a secondary language for their schooling, and asked other species to learn it in a "second language standardization" effort.

it did work, but much like real languages, Baen evolved and gained regional dialects and many words ended mixed up from peoples first languages. because Baen is meant to be spoken by all species though any usage of "illegal" phonemes is not considered proper Baen, and it has an actual academy that maintains that part of the language and adds new slang and keeps tally of regional differences.

BUT… you can also learn the first language of other species if you want. most who wish to learn hanasei languages focus on sign languages and mainly the ISL (ii'mau sign language), which is taught as the default hanasei sign language, but there's around 3 or 4 others. and if you're really stubborn you can learn a native hanasei language, but you might need either a hanasei speech morph (i.e., giving you a hanasei-like larynx build. hard to get without getting extra morphs), or use external devices that take specific spoken input and make the sound for you, hanasei have no issue w other languages because well. lyrebirds lol

tajira > luminae and vice versa is more chill. luminae languages involve a lot of body language and touching/signs, and it's very rare to see a purely spoken luminae language, but other than a few signs that need 5 fingers most tajira can just learn that (and there are 4 finger adaptations). tajira languages are spoken, and they don't have any unreproducible phonemes for tajira the main thing is that they can speak underwater, but for luminae that's not a big consideration since they aren't aquatic anyway. hanasei don't like it, but they can just speak when out of water

[definitely-not-a-wasp]

Maximum Ride versus Spontaneous Power Ups

Part 1

I'm not saying that giving the bird kids power ups isn't fun and funky. But I am definitely not the first person to point out that they're not the best executed, and often take more away from the plot than they add. And someone asked me to state my opinions about one (1) contrived power-up, so now you get to hear about all of them.

Speaking from a general perspective, I have some major problems with Maximum Ride superpowers, and they're as-follows:

They just HAPPEN. There's no trigger, there's no effort on the flock's part to "unlock" them, and there's no explanation given.

They're often these one-off powers that don't maintain narrative significance or further explanations.

Most of the time, they have absolutely no drawbacks.

Yes, I know this is copy-pasted from part 1, what about it?

So this is what I would do to try to solve some of those issues without changing the plot too much. And because I'm nice, I'm sticking it under a read-more.

Pre-Book 1

In the beginning of book 1, Max states that a lot of the flock has "little quirks" like Angel's telepathy, and then the text makes it clear that this is only true of Angel and Gazzy. That means it's completely acceptable to shove a few more powers into pre-series, with the implication that the School caused this before they escaped.

Angel's telepathy, obviously: I've extensively talked about my thoughts surrounding Angel's telepathy, but to rehash, there are plenty of advantages and drawbacks to anything concerning the brain. Telepathy is a boon, but it shouldn't be a pleasant boon. And while this power can definitely grow throughout the series, I think it should stick to telepathy, and not extend towards clairvoyance/precognition like it did in later books.

Gazzy's mimickry: I think this doesn't even need to count as a power, because Lyrebirds can already do that. As Angel grows more powerful, his mimickry can further extend from bird calls to specific human voices to the sounds of objects, and have him learn how to throw his voice.

Nudge's Psychometry: similar to Angel's telepathy, this is a psionic ability, and putting it in pre-series instead of when they miraculously need it makes it feel built-into the narrative. This can also be slowly expanded upon throughout the series, from touching an object and knowing any emotions associated with it, to being able to recall certain moments attached to the object, so being able to touch something and know its entire history.

Gazzy's precognition: "Wait, Gazzy doesn't have precognition", you're totally right, but consider: Precognition is already a thing in the books, because Angel. Gazzy only has two power-ups and one of them is farts. By transferring precognition from Angel to Gazzy and making it start pre-series, there's a bit more of a balance to keep us from getting an OP six-year-old. Like Nudge and Angel, this can start small (having "bad feelings" and being really good at dodging attacks bc he sees them pre-emptively) and build up to something like knowing when someone dies or the exact date and time the world is supposed to end.

Max's, Fang's, and Iggy's ability to withstand the younger three's powers: I think that they should be essentially immune to their younger siblings not because of their own powers, but because of exposure. The younger kids can definitely glean some things, especially when their powers are weak, but the more invasive their powers become, the more immune the older kids get. IE: Angel can read their emotions and sometimes their minds, but she can't control them. Nudge can pick something up and know it's associated with one of them/important to them, but can't tell what they did with it. Gazzy knows if something bad is going to happen, but looking for anything specific or intentional feels like trying to see past a brick wall.

So all of the psionics are at the beginning. And furthermore, there's a clear divide that shows when the School started handling psionic powers. Max, Fang, and Iggy don't have powers. They're old models. But somewhere between Iggy and Nudge, the School had a breakthrough, and the new models have brain powers.

Once the Plot Starts

The next round of powerups makes most sense if it happens as a result of the School's experimentation in TAE-- have the flock NOT be threatened with murder, and instead have tests run on them until they break out, which can take a lot longer. This means that Iggy and Gazzy are excluded, because they were not in the School. But after they escape the School, some abilities can begin to crop up, like:

Max's super speed: originally put in SoF and developed after a slight fever, it could also easily fit into TAE, with Max breaking out of the School while heavily feverish and developing fast flight, specifically regarding dives— similarly to Gazzy's mimickry, this can be staged as less of a power and more of something that happened to her because of her bird DNA that the whitecoats were activation/fine-tuning at the School. The ridiculousness of 350 mph can only occur during dives, though.

Everyone except for Iggy and Gazzy breathing underwater: I didn't realize until I read the wikipedia page that everyone except Iggy and Gazzy canonically has this power, making it a PERFECT power-up to give them after being kidnapped when Iggy and Gazzy were conveniently NOT kidnapped. That being said, this is also a great power to give drawbacks to show that the Flock is not immune to experiments going wrong: FIrstly, they can only breathe underwater in fresh water, like lungfish; they suddenly have to drink a lot more water and easily get dehydrated; they are really suseptible to bronchitis and pneumonia because they're taking water into their lungs that were not originally designed to do that, so they try to do it as little as possible.

And from there, we have...

The Voice

Fuck this thing in particular. There are TWO directions Voice can take in my mind:

It doesn't exist. Full-stop get rid of it, because all it does is take away character agency and give Max answers instead of make the authors think about how Max can figure it out herself.

It's an instrument of the School, preferably controlled by Jeb Batchelder (if it wants to be wishy washy about whose side its on) OR Marian Janssen (if it's an outright antagonist). It disappears once the School is dealt with, and most importantly, is not her own power or a power of her flock. It is a power being used on her.

I've already wasted too much of my life on thinking about this. Since I've already covered gills and psychometry, let's skip over the NYC arc.

After the IFHL

From here, I think there are a few moments where some powers can be gained, and some should definitely not be gained.

Firstly, there's Fang's superspeed. This can develop like it did in canon, where Max donates blood, and Fang gets a fraction of her abilities. However, this isn't even a School-done power, so I think they should reject the blood at first. They get really sick, the doctors have to put them on heavy immuno-suppressants for pretty much the entirety of being at Anne's, and their body temperature permanently jumps up past where it should be.

Then they leave Anne's house, they go on the run, Max gets kidnapped and shoved in a sensory deprivation tank, and she absolutely does not to get to shut down her organs, because it never comes up again and never needs to. Her being able to smell the flock and track them down can have one of two solutions:

She doesn't. She tracks them down another way.

Instead of her hallucinating herself turning into an Eraser, Gazzy has been feeling increasing unease about Max being in proximity to Erasers and can't tell why bc he can't see Max's future. Then, when she escapes the tank in ITEX, she does so by biting an Eraser and swallowing quite a bit of blood and sinew on accident. Suddenly she can smell so many things and her teeth are much sharper than they were a few days ago. Congrats, Max! Power up!

Finally, they reach the School again/are kidnapped again, which is where I guess Angel could possibly unlock shapeshifting, but considering the School was talking about exterminating all of them, I'm thinking no. I think shapeshifting is also on the cutting room floor. However, I think the School definitely should have taken them all out for testing over a few days rather than skipping right to "kill the multi-million dollar investments that are supposed to save the world, bc why not?" (Seriously, who wrote this?), because—

Iggy's Powerups

I've talked about this before, I'll talk about it again, but Iggy's powerups were not brought on by the School, were not spotaneous, were not accidental power transfers, but were intentionally done by Iggy, who was gathering data and running tests throughout the entire series. He doesn't get enough data until he's kidnapped by the School again, at which point Max and Fang probably realize that he's getting a bit sickly and his eyes look permanently irritated, then that there are bruises on his arm he doesn't want to talk about. Then, after breaking into ITEX again and gathering proper resources, he gets:

Detecting light and movement against bright backgrounds, which was his intention.

Color sense, which was an accidental side effect, and not a pleasant sensation for him. Also comes with a disadvantage of not remembering what many colors look like, so he has to guess for a lot of them.

Decreased Oxygen Intake: "wait, he didn't get this in canon!" yeah, because the only power-up JP gave him was pseudo-sight to fix his blindness, so I'm giving him more. Turned out, what he was honing in on was making his eyes function despite them not getting enough oxygen. And he was doing that for his whole body, completely on accident. So his Blood Oxygen percentage can drop to 60 without any ill-effects, his resting heart rate is slowed to about 10 bpm, and he's taking about 1 breath every 10-15 minutes unless he needs air to talk. This takes place over weeks, so he doesn't actually notice it until someone points it out.

This comes with not-so-great side effects. He's cold all the time, his eyes hurt constantly and have permanently burst blood vessels, and his fingers and lips are permanently discolored.

Through the Late Series

After ITEX is taken down, I think the power-getting would decrease exponentially, because they're not being experimented on nearly as much. However, there are a few that I think could be fit in.

Nudge's "Magnetism": I put this in bold and parentheses, because it wouldn't be magnetism, it would be a honing of her psychometry; if an object has a strong enough emotional attachment to her or any of the other psionic kids, she can attract it. Minor telekenesis. As a treat. This is the closest thing I can justify.

Fang's Camoflauge: This was pure accident, and less of a power-up and more of a "came back wrong". Triggered by their death and revival, both of which were unnatural, Fang gets the voluntary organ shutdown that Max doesn't get, and has spaces of time where they don't need to breathe, blink, and their heart slows considerably, meaning that they can be perfectly still in a way that makes people look at them and think "object" instead of "person", and their vision just... glances over them. However, this is not something they can do intentionally. This is almost always when they're dissociating.

Fang's Immortality Genes: I guess that since it's integral to the plot of Nevermore, I can make it work. This was building from School's Out Forever, when they nearly died from Ari's attack, being killed in Fang, nearly getting blown up in Angel, and getting thrown off a cliff in Nevermore. In fact, I would go as far as having their expiration date show up and then pass. By then, it's discovered that they have the "secret to immortality". This does not actually protect them from dying. It protects their genes from unravelling over time, which means they're not ageing. This is not a power-up. This is not a successful experiment. This is the scifi equivalent of being undead, because Fang is pretty much a walking corpse by the end of the series.

Powers Left on the Cutting Room Floor

Angel's Shapeshifting: I barely like shapeshifting Erasers, and it occurs so late in the series that it's not needed.

Gazzy's Flatulence Bombs: Just let him do chemical warfare the old fashioned way I'm begging you.

Max's voluntary organ shutdown: IT ONLY HAPPENS ONCE. I promise you, Max could've thought her way out of that situation.

[anarchuu]

Make way for the conductor, Lyra songbird!

I’ve been burnt out from school and i can only handle drawing and thinking about ocs instead of doing work, i feel like i can’t make it but i can try. Recently i finished the first season of ducktales and was inspired to make my own characters, i only got to finish lyra’s reference while the others are a work in progress or haven’t been drawn yet, this is also my second making this post because i seem to have lost the previous one, i wrote quite a bit, what a hassle. Either way, i’ll try to write every down again a second time

Lyra is a Lyrebird, Dakila is an Albino Green peafowl, Avery is a Red tailed tropical bird, Ivette, Idris, Irene and Ilana are White browed tit warbler

Lyra Songbird

Lyra comes from a wealthy family, both of her parents were famous musicians and frequently out of the house leaving lyra by herself at home, often times she spent her time in the music room or goes out of the family manor to take a stroll in the nearby woods. She doesn’t necessarily have any friends, she grew up alone. She is quite the headstrong girl with a hint of mischief, she may come off as a bit pretentious but do know she means well. She would fight for any she deems close to her and would never back down to any challenge, whether or not she can take it is out of the question.

Dakila

Dakila is a model and also comes from a wealthy family, he is quite popular but often mistaken for a girl, he is simply comfortable with his femininity. He keeps a cool demeanor on all times and people seem to think he judges people but fret not, he just looks like that. He is levelheaded and rational, while he may prefer not to, the spotlight seems to be always on him but he takes it with stride and confidence. Dakila, like lyra, also grew up alone, he was around other models his age often of course but he never formed any real connection, he struggles with expressing his own emotions, please be patient with him

Avery

Avery is a young gymnast, competing in various competitions and always coming out on top, she is hardworking and unwavering when it comes to her performance, outside of it however, she is a laidback individual and charismatic, she gets along with people easily and others seem to be at ease around her naturally. Avery is highly supportive of other’s endeavors and becomes their number one cheerleader, as well as reminding them to take breaks if needed. Ironically she never takes her own advice and overworks herself to the bone with every practice, she seems to think she doesn’t need breaks, a hypocrite in that regard

Ivette

Ivette is a quiet girl, she almost never speaks if not at all but she is sometimes seen whispering to her siblings at times. She doesn’t mind interacting with others, albeit non verbally. She prefers to observe her surroundings instead of interacting with it and she quite enjoys it. Ivette can be quite forgetful and easily distractible, losing her way in the day’s schedule but fortunately she always keeps a journal at hand that she spends most of her times writing in, it helps her keep on track and she also writes tidbits about the people she’s closer with in her journal so she won’t forget, all her thoughts and ideas are safely kept within this journal

Idris

Idris is the eldest out of the quadruplets, stern and a no nonsense type of person yet holds the softest spot for his sisters, he dearly loves them and can be quite protective over them and not letting anyone he deems as untrustworthy near his sisters. He is very wary and cautious around others, he doesn’t trust people easily so you’d have to prove yourself to him first before getting close. He almost never relaxes and only relaxes when he’s with his sisters where he feels most safe at. He may be a little harsh in people but he is a gentle person at heart if you look at him closely, he always keeps people’s best interest in mind

Irene

Irene is awfully timid girl, most seen to be hiding behind her siblings and never seen not holding onto them, she is very soft spoken and only speaks when needed be, she only says whats she needs to say and never adds more to it. When she’s in a comfortable environment, she can be such a chatterbox especially when it comes to her interests. Ivette takes interest in many things and like her sister Ivette, she’s fascinated by her surroundings, she’ll spend hours looking into details in what currently catches her eyes, she is very passionate and meticulous in her research

Ilana

Ilana is the most carefree and friendly out of her siblings, she is the one who initiates all conversations with people in day to day life, how chatty she is. Which is funny since she can be the complete opposite when with her siblings. When in private, she’d tend to listen to her siblings talk instead, she especially loves listening to Irene since she talks about the most interesting things in her opinion. She doesn’t mind talking for her siblings at all, she’d do anything for them as long as they’re happy, she always considers others feelings before her own and will do her best to accommodate others

And that’s pretty much them, there’s others too that’ll appear once i draw them, for now just these ones. Their group together would be called ‘orchestra’ and Lyra would be the perfect conductor

[postscriptsillage]

Dear Tempestine

Dear Tempestine, 

You might not remember me well, but I can recount the outline of your body extemporaneously. You always stood out, altogether golden. 

I was and remain just another cog in the crowd machine. Nothing about me exudes remarkability. The world, I have concluded, is a dichotomy of the observers and the observed. In this life, I am working the spotlight and shining it on those who are golden, like you. 

I do not dispute that respect is something that must be earned. But for you, Tempestine, it appears to fall on the lap like an easy offering. You have a head start. You have an unforgettable face and speak words with such cadence that even lyrebirds reluctantly accept their incompetence before you. 

In the daylight, the light guides my life and brightens up conservations. Towards nightfall, there is nothing to anchor me, and I find myself grovelling for someone to put the spotlight on me and behold me just once. 

The Moon Goddess never obliges and I shudder to think I am accursed to sit in oblivion. No light, no gold, just abject darkness. 

With begrudging admiration, 

[icreatethingsiguess]

I show my ocs again pt. 3 — character I haven't drawn in months edition (lazy art, maybe???)

Meet my girl Eliza Hopp!

⁽¹⁷ᵗʰ ᵒᶠ ˢᵉᵖᵗᵉᵐᵇᵉʳ, ¹⁸⁰² – ¹⁸ᵗʰ ᵒᶠ ᴶᵃⁿ��ᵃʳʸ, ¹⁸⁴⁸⁾

— "Eliza" is short for nothing. Her name is just Eliza. Her name is just a partner name to her mother's, "Beth."

— More about her name: she lacks a middle name (common for her species before 1837 and the mid 1800s in general, although there were cases of this happening afterwards too) and her surname, "Hopp," came from her half brother. It was originally "Hop," as he was half snowy tree cricket, but was changed to "Hopp" later on as an homage to mayor and Eliza's dearest friend, Rainn Fort.

— She's yet another butterfly puppet!! Beth is a holly blue whilst Eliza's father, Jeremy, is a brown/orange butterfly puppet of an unidentified species.

— She has two half siblings, Cassandra Flinders and Thomas Hopp, and two step-parents on both sides of her family, Crispin [step-father on mother's side] and Nyx [step-mother on father's side]. Through her half-brother Eliza has a sister-in-law named Alessandra Hopp who's a gramophone puppet (illegally built), and through her half-sister a brother-in-law named Benjamin "Ben" Flinders who's an anthro lyrebird originally from Eastern Australia. Eliza is also an aunt of seven kids thanks to Ben and Cassandra: from oldest to youngest they are Bellatrix, Samuel, Juliet, Daphne, Fiona, James, and Ashley (M). If this wasn't enough there's also a funky Scottish spirit dude named Duncan who helped nurse and raise all said kids so that they'd survive.

— Technically she has a husband named Rhys Maddox but only when their souls go and live other lives and end up meeting each other on Earth again via new lives and all that junk. They don't plan on having kids but they love each other very much. 😌

— As of mid 2023 she's no longer a resident of Nowhere And Also Everywhere aka "the afterlife," but will return once her current life passes on.

— In terms of personality, Eliza was quite the pessimist and was known to have a very low self esteem. She saw herself as not good enough to do anything but be anything but the town maid (HEAVILY influenced by her backstory) and was very quiet, only speaking to a select few people she felt like talking to: Rainn Fort, poet (and commonly credited founder of the town TLP, alongside Rainn) Matthew Milkweed, Cassandra, and Thomas were lucky enough, among others. Since being dead, her conditions improved.

— (Read backstory for context) Due to her upbringing she struggled a lot with mental illness, specifically depression and anxiety [PTSD and OCD are possible for her as well, but I need to look more into the former and develop her personality a lil more before I make a final judgement.) Even more well known was her maladaptive daydreaming (not a mental illness but oftentimes a symptom of one), which started in early childhood and lasted for the remainder of her life. It's very likely her maladaptive daydreaming played a major role in her untimely demise. On top of maladaptive daydreaming, it's very possible she's hyperphantasic, as I see her having a very vivid imagination.

Beautiful art by @fishyfishyfishtimes! Pieces are a couple years old:

• Here you'll notice she lacks clothing. She's depicted with a rounder segmented body above but actually has a more rectangular body type without any segments. Lack of clothing was first made popular in the 1960s and became accepted in the mainstream in following decades but with the exception of the first puppets in the 10th century, this wasn't the case. Puppets wore clothes, albeit quite raggedy (basically think "poor person in the Middle Ages") and torn, especially those that worked in manual labor. Here, Eliza's without clothes simply because she didn't have a dress design.

• Eliza with her half-siblings!! She and Thomas were very close to each other before she passed, and both were very depressed and angry at the world thanks to very very less than ideal living situations growing up. Cassandra is more of a mediator figure in the trio, see. They might not look it here in this doodle but they were actually quite close during their time together. All three of them lived together in one house and Cassandra frequently visited even when she moved out to live with her husband.

Drawings of caterpillar Eliza:

• Here's a good example of what caterpillars look like! These babies really are like insect puppies, if puppies had a more plant/fruit/vegetable based diet (too much meat for a caterpillar can cause stomach aches). They typically have 6-8 legs and having a "tail" depends on genetics. Eliza here doesn't have one! Caterpillars oftentimes have their future wing prints on their body, kinda like a fun Easter egg for what's to come. Eliza has black spots since Holly blue butterflies have small black spots on their wings :)

• A version of the doodle above except she has a dress. Nothing much to say here besides um. I don't think I can draw loose clothing on complex forms too well.

Eliza's Backstory (1802 – 2023)

CW: Backstory includes mentions of slavery, childhood trauma, segregation, and death

— This backstory is currently incomplete you can help by expanding it. Some details are still a WIP but I'd say it's coherent enough to count as a character backstory.

— A lot of the lore in the backstory was written by none other than @fishyfishyfishtimes ! She's an amazing worldbuilder so please go check her out. She only posts fish/sea creature related things (for now?) but maybe you like that too, I dunno.

Eliza was born (read as: hatched out of her egg) thanks to two puppet slave parents, Beth and Jeremy, sometime in 1802 (usually recorded as "the 17th of September" for simplicity); she was born in a household in London and spent the first couple years of her life around the house with fellow small children and even human children. Like many to-be slaves, contact with her parents was extremely limited if there was any contact at all as many children of slaves couldn't recognize who their parents were or were even allowed to interact with anyone outside their immediate field of view, or alternatively, they were to be sent off to a different household to work.

Reasonably, her living conditions for the first 35 years of life were less than ideal: like many "weaker" and more fashionable species, such as the butterfly, Eliza was resigned to do indoor tasks (most notably cleaning, given her fixation later on) and on rare occasions she would have to do garden work. She lived a life entirely at home, unaware of much of the outside world. Her time was mostly occupied by her excessive daydreaming while she slaved away.

This all changed on the 22nd of May, 1837, a day that's very well known in the (Universe) UK and around much of the world: after 8 centuries of being treated like mere "puppets," the first instance of puppets gaining personal freedoms finally occurred, on this particular day in British territory. Some human families paid royalties to those that had been treated so horribly. Puppet building was officially banned. There was only one nasty catch: instead of being integrated, both puppets and humans were now segregated by law. Thousands of puppets were grouped/grouped together themselves and left areas declared to be "human" areas (mostly big cities, such as London). Travel was allowed but heavily frowned upon by both human society and puppet society alike.

Somewhere in the midst of the chaos, Eliza got in contact with two puppets in particular, Cassandra and Thomas, who turned out to be her relatives. From 1837 – 1839, the trio traveled from developing town to developing town, eventually landing in a developing town between the counties of Kent and East Sussex, Townlocationplace ["TLP" for short]. Eliza quickly became infatuated with the mayor, Rainn Fort. The two became best friends but Eliza wasn't too content with just being friends. Unfortunately, Rainn had instead married a mute dragonfly woman named Alice Brown. This upset Eliza but she didn't push it. The pair remained good friends; Rainn helped her with literacy and even bought her new clothes to wear.

Eliza, however, remained in the cycle she was born into. If not in bed daydreaming, she would be seen wandering around the streets of the town aimlessly. On one of these trips, this proved to be an exceptionally dangerous practice.

On the night of the 17th of January, 1848, Eliza had written a love note to Rainn, wanting to deliver it to him in person. She had no clothes appropriate for going out in the snowy cold, only a gown. In the early morning hours she'd instead gotten lost and froze out in the dark.

Not too long after her soul was transported to Nowhere And Also Everywhere ("the afterlife") where she remained until finally trying to live a brand new life in the late 20th century. As of mid 2023, the present in the Universe, she's still living on Earth.

[asksofthedragons]

(Add Picture Later)

Name: Orpheus

Gender: Genderfaun

Pronouns: He/Him (Primarily)

Sexuality: Panromantic, Greysexual

Age: Equivalent of 25 human years old

Tribes: 50% Leafwing, 25% Sandwing, and 25% Skywing

Partner: Sakura (Female, Sky/Rain)

Additional Information:

Orpheus grew up with both of his parents. His mother a Leafwing with strong leafspeak named Laurel. His father a Sand/Sky hybrid named Pheonix. They were very happy with each other and their dragonet. His Half-uncle, Apollo, a full Sandwing was the one who taught him to sing.

Orpheus loved it, bringing it into his practices with his mother. Both of them being of druidic, circle of life, belief kind of dragons. He eventually learned that he had leaf speak as well. It wasn't as good as his mother's, but his parents were just as proud of him anyways. He was loved, encouraged. He knew what he wanted.

As life moved on and he grew older, Orpheus made his way around the continent, scales the beautiful colors of a purple twilight over a forest. Patterning similar to a lyrebird. He was a handsome young dragon. He played his music to whoever could listen. Eventually he found a beautiful hybrid, Sakura. She was endearing shades of magenta that reminded him of a pink sunset. Her patterning reminding him of a screech owl.

It wasn't easy, but Orpheus managed to persuade her to come with him and travel together. He plans on marrying her, cherishing her every day. She is the one he'd throw his life away for. Eventually, they decided to settle just outside the rainforest, between the mud and sand kingdoms. A crossroads perfect for settled life together. They both still travel, but they want to start a family soon.

[lyrebirdswrites]

Picture itafushi hiking Shibuya’s concrete remains on their way to visit Hakari. City torn asunder, sky apocalyptic, offering a hand to help each other through the rubble. Yuuji puts himself back together piece by piece, one foot in front of the other, eyes fixed on Megumi’s back.

[mockingfinch]

Finch — Monster Hunter: World based OC — follows from @syringia

Finch is a young half-wyverian hunter who was taken to Astera alongside his Palico, Lark, and his handler, Galahad. Once a feral child and now a semi-domesticated adult, his best outlet is hunting the monsters in the New World. At first, he didn’t take his place as a member of the Fifth Fleet seriously, but after some time bonding with the folks in Astera, he’s decided that maybe it’s worth it to consider them family. 

Age: Somewhere around 26-29 ( he genuinely doesn’t know, but estimates himself around that age range ) Gender: Cis man Pronouns: he / him Body: Built like a gymnast, toned muscle Hair: Shaggy, thick, black. Usually in a ponytail with insect clips ( preserved beetles and other large bugs, or discarded shells of beetles ) Eyes: One green, one blue Skin tone: Tanned and heavily freckled

Weapon of choice: Insect glaive Typical Armor: Standard tzitzi ya-ku armor set

Notable Traits: 

Mockery: Finch can mimic sounds he hears, similar to a lyrebird.

Teeth: Finch has sharp, sharklike teeth. They grow back after being lost. They however force him to speak with a slight lisp.

Dexterity: Being an insect glaive user, Finch is used to using his body for speed rather than sheer power. He can use his glaive as a pole vault, swing himself around on it, and spends his downtime climbing and swinging from trees.

Ears: Being half-wyverian, Finch has big ol’ ears. This gives him better hearing than standard humans, but they’re also used heavily while emoting. Even if he tries to mask what he’s feeling, the ears will give him away.

[sunsetcougar]

Lyrebird AU’s Guitarspear/Guardrock! Let’s go!

Adam is one of the only non exorcists to not find their mimicking creepy. In fact he finds it really cool.

(And kinda hot when Lute does it.)

Once a winner asked Lute if the exorcists were even people considering they could only ever reflect others like a mirror and Adam was quick to defend her, saying Lute was more of a person than that winner could ever hope to be.

That was when Lute first realized she had a crush on him.

Lute speaks 19 different languages fluently. Adam understands almost none of them but pretends he knows what she’s saying.

Lute mimics different instruments to match Adam’s guitar, allowing them to do full songs while only technically having one instrument.

Lyrebirds are birds of paradise, so Lute loves when Adam shows off his wings and dances along to his music.

Adam didn’t realize this at first, but once he did he made his displays a little more dramatic just for her.

Even before his death Lute used his voice a lot, and Adam being the egomaniac he is liked it.

(Some part of him also melted a little at the fact that she loved his voice, loved him, enough to use it so often when she had a million others at her disposal.)

After his death Lute almost exclusively uses his voice, treating it like a comfort blanket. Some people find it creepy, but it’s sort of comforting to her, to hear the songs he used to sing to her again.

It’s not the same. It will never be the same. But she fears if she stops she’ll lose her voice. She’s already so much quieter than before.

[inky-kaleidascope-dimensions]

ALEX SPEAKING LIKE A LYREBIRD MY BELOVED! In the very beginning speaking like the sounds of the sun. Or the bottom of the ocean.

Episode ideas

Karl goes to a doctor for the first time

Camping with survival expert Saponite

Saponite finds the candy store in Prowa

Cue telling his best friends about his crush on Karl and Saponite

Saponite talking to Other Knight about his crush on Cue and Karl

Karl talking to himself in the Between or talking to the other Travelers about his crush on Cue and Saponite

Road Trip Episode

Bonding with Alex Episodes

Saponite introducing the other two to Manhunt The Game

Alex makes friends: maybe a Samuri and a Punk? Joke that she and Karl have similar taste.

Knight hides their face from Karl and Karl opens up to them

Knight hatches the new Dragon

Clementine meets and kinda adopts new Dragon

Quackity meets Quarry God

Alex visiting Quarry

Alex visiting Prowa

Alex visiting the Between

Saponite finds and pets dogs that are on fire

Dog sitting dogs with superpowers

Spider-eyes are considered a treat in Quarry, Saponite will eat the eyes of many creatures if he downs them

This went from Episode Ideas to just Things that could happen in an episode very quickly. I wrote this all with no signal so I couldn't remind myself of some facts so yah.

Idea for Alex themed episode: one where we follow her between Quarry and Prowa as she switches from a princess/knight’s child to well-known/liked street scamp. Switch is like her cousin?

[drinkinggblood]

weird dog

my indoraptor redesign completely w/ no inspo from the og

ok so i hate the indoraptor's design so fucking much it is ugly and shameful. i hate it because it doesn't fit the universe, it looks out of place. even compared to the indominus, while not a real animal, atleast looks like it COULD possibly exist in the real world since it at leasts tries to keep reasonable proportions and things that the series has always kinda had but the indoraptor......... doesnt do that ? He just looks so... gross.

anyway here is my redesign

He has a more bipedal, human-like stance due to more human added to the previous attempts of making a hybrid. Human dna was added in previous attempts with little to no success until the Indoraptor. He is essentially the scorpius rex 2

Due to a multitude of bird dna, specifically Lyrebird in an attempt to get him to speak, has given him the ability to repeat words and calls that have been spoken to him.

He has human finger-prints :D ! not creepy at all

He has venomous saliva that stops the clotting of blood, this is due to Troodon being added to his genome. (specifically the troodon is the jurassic park: the game's troodon fuck the jw:e troodon)

love u my fucked up little creature <3 <3

his colours are inspired on jurassic park concept art as well as descriptions of the rex, velociraptor and a few others from the novel.

[nvghtingale]

𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄  ─  9:03  PM

𝐋𝐎𝐂𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍  ─  THE  LIVING  ROOM

 𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐓𝐔𝐒  ─  CLOSED  FOR  @gcdhoods​

𝐓𝐔𝐑𝐍  𝐁𝐀𝐂𝐊  𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄  𝐓𝐇𝐑𝐄𝐄  𝐘𝐄𝐀𝐑𝐒,  what  do  you  see  ?  a  couple,  smitten:  harmonizing  in  melody  and  movement,  hands  that  meet  each  other  in  a  choreographed  dance,  eyes  that  gleam  with  devotion  &  adoration.  lyrebird  and  nightingale,  inseparable.  entranced  by  one  another.  i  never  thought  i  could  love  someone  like  this,  she'd  whispered  once  while  dozing  off  in  their  embrace,  i  never  thought  anyone  could  love  me  like  this.  there  is  something  all  -  consuming  about  love,  she  found  ──  something  holy  in  the  way  it  devoured  the  two  whole  and  carved  a  new  world  for  only  the  two  of  them  to  inhabit.

𝐓𝐔𝐑𝐍  𝐁𝐀𝐂𝐊  𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄  𝐓𝐖𝐎  𝐘𝐄𝐀𝐑𝐒,  what  do  you  see  ?  misery  in  hollow  loneliness,  a  woman  redefined  by  tragedy.  betrayal  stings  every  morning  when  she  rises,  memory  of  a  fight  still  fresh  and  tender  like  a  bruise.  in  violet  shades,  a  scene  is  depicted:  a  tearful  goodbye,  a  door  slammed  shut  with  what  was  always  meant  to  be  finality.  you  betrayed  me.  a  nightingale's  song  turned  more  mournful  than  ever  before  ──  reviewers  comment  on  the  fact  that  her  eyes  gleam  with  tears  whenever  she  sings  of  heartbreak  and  they  praise  her  for  the  authenticity  of  a  heart  -  wrenching  performance.  she  no  longer  looks  her  audience  members  in  the  eye.

𝐓𝐔𝐑𝐍  𝐁𝐀𝐂𝐊  𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄  𝐓𝐎  𝟗𝐏𝐌,  what  do  you  see  ?  eyes  finding  each  other  one  more  time.  there  was  meant  to  be  finality  to  betrayal  ──  they  were  never  meant  to  cross  paths  again.  and  yet,  she  waltzed  into  the  room  at  another's  side  and  found  her  entire  self  tensing  at  the  sight  of  her  then  -  everything.  she  fled  the  second  she  was  able  to  ──  turning  on  her  heel,  willing  normality  to  fill  the  speed  of  her  strides,  the  depth  of  her  breaths.  there  is  no  ease  in  anything  about  this  situation,  no  way  to  escape  the  heavy  tension  hanging  in  the  air,  filling  her  lungs  like  dark  smoke.  it  all  fills  her  with  a  sense  of  dread  ──  she  moves  to  the  living  room  in  pursuit  of  respite,  unease  filling  her.  isabele  is  a  haunted  house.  she  is  filled  with  ash,  what  was  once  cream  -  colored  has  gone  grey  and  what  was  once  pastel  is  as  crimson  as  painted  lips.  too  much  is  wrong.  it  overwhelms  her,  drives  her  towards  solitude  like  child  reaching  for  safety  blanket:  there  is  comfort  in  the  well  -  known,  in  the  end.  not  all.  for  she  recognizes  who  follows  behind  by  footsteps  alone.

❛  𝐏𝐀𝐒𝐈,  ❜  𝐒𝐇𝐄  𝐆𝐑𝐄𝐄𝐓𝐒,  𝐀𝐅𝐓𝐄𝐑  𝐀  pause  ──  too  long,  too  brief.  she  turns  then,  hands  in  the  pockets  of  her  faux  fur  coat.  neck  adorned  by  rubies.  lips  ought  to  quirk  upwards  on  one  side,  yet  there  is  nothing  playful  about  her  expression.  there  is  nothing  much,  in  fact.  isabele  remains  guarded.  exhales,  forcing  the  smoke  out,  wishing  the  intrusive  and  contradicting  thoughts  would  flee  with  it.  i’ve  missed  you.  i  hate  you.  i  haven’t  forgiven  you.  i  want  to.  i  will  never.  stop  haunting  me.  inhales.  speaks:  ❛  you  haven’t  been  sleeping.  ❜