#raintailed rambles

[raintailed]

how do oyu draw scvaenegrs theyre soooo shaped i love them....

GYAHAHAHA!!!!!!! TUTORIAL TIME!!!!!!

first things first! basic anatomy!

These guys are somewhat monkey-shaped. They have deep chests, long arms, and short legs. They usually move by knuckle-walking, using their arms to swing their legs forward as if they're using crutches.

Scavs have eartlers (which i think are technically horns lol), funny whiskers/sensory frills, and frills/quills on their backs. I also give them ears because I think it looks cute.

A note about their tails: scav tails vary in length (many are tailless), and their tails are thinner than slugcat tails. I imagine their tails aren't as important for balance as it is for slugcats.

From the side, my scavengers have sorta egg-shaped heads; they don't have a very prominent snout. They do, however, have some gnarly teeth - baboon like, but better suited for carnivory? Idk honestly

Scavs have long, 3-fingered hands and 2-toed feet. Some scavengers have a third toe on their feet, but it's vestigial. Their palms/soles are hairless for better gripping and are usually lighter than the surrounding fur.

Variations!!! Scavs are super diverse and I highly recommend taking many screenshots of them. I didn't draw anything for elite scavengers here.

Horns range from nubs to large branches. Some scavengers have horns on their cheeks as well as on the top of their heads.

Whiskers can range from being absent to looking like beards.

Scavenger eyes range in size, narrowness, and angle. Pupils can be absent, dark-colored, or light-colored.

For colors, scavengers are usually gray or brown with darker points. Light and bright-colored scavs are unusual but they do appear!

Proportions and quills vary, and that can have some hilarious results. I've seen scavengers with stick-thin arms, others with tons of big quills, etc.

Scavenger body language is pretty complex. I recommend checking the wiki and watching them in-game to study how they move and act. Their quills do seem to be an important part of how they communicate, since frightened or startled scavengers vibrate their quills!

Hopefully this stuff is helpful!

[nevadas-explorer]

Losing my mind bc I'm trying to figure out a Madcom timeline for personal lore. And I dont know where to put Arena Mode...

Maybe bc of all the timeline incongruencies, Arena Mode happens in its own version of Nevada/the Occurant? And Enmeshing the Mandatus keeps that iteration of Nevada alive

In the *main* Nevada, I imagine that characters like Skinner, Chopper Dave, and Qbert are still part of SQ

Another timeline thing: I'm placing MC1 somewhere between Nexus City's prime and its fall. Maybe the beginning of the Madness and the effects of the Great Awakening (grunts gaining sapience basically) affected Nevada retroactively? Since the Machine, which was affected by all of this, regulates (and *is*) reality, then it presumably regulates the past as well.

Bc of this, Marshmellow Madness and MC1 as we know them were essentially overwritten. That early version of Nevada does still exist in a way, but it's been "archived" in the Nowhere, so to speak. Most of the gen 1 grunts from early Nevada also got archived.

Im not that fond of messing with time stuff when it comes to storytelling, but I think the idea of timeline shit happening is interesting

[raintailed]

I love all the different ways people draw slugcats. It's like a triangle chart between "slug alien," "kity," and "in-game."

I love the slugcats that are speculative biology aliens. I love the slugcats that are beasties. I love the slugcats that are just beans with stick arms. All are sluggy and i love them all

[raintailed]

HI I have headcanons for overseers. Theyre funny little bugs to me

Overseers are somewhat sentient and are basically little creatures. They don't do much beyond avoiding danger, looking at interesting things, and listening to directions from their iterator.

They do have little nuggets of personality, though! For example, some overseers are braver than others, some will follow a creature for a long time, etc. Heck, some overseers even prefer to communicate with specific overseers (friendship??). Overseers are also able to have favorite objects, places, or creatures.

If an iterator is unable to communicate with their overseers, their overseers will continue doing their duties and trying to follow instructions. An example would be Iggy, who may have been obeying a command given to it shortly before Moon's collapse to go and get help.

Also, the death or incapacitation of an iterator does not necessarily spell death for their overseers. The surviving overseers will keep working but tend to be directionless and lost. They don't truly understand that their iterator is gone. Orphaned overseers often don't survive for very long, since there's no one around to repair them or keep them from wandering too far from home.

Overseers don't respawn - their bodies don't have enough biological material for that to happen. Instead, if an overseer is killed, its eye must be retrieved and repaired (note: repairs are often long and finicky processes) in order to bring it back to life. Some iterators choose not to go through the hassle of reviving overseers and instead replace them.

It's possible to assign an existing overseer to a new iterator. However, the overseer may be confused for a while, since its code says it was made for a different iterator.

This information is for the standard overseer model. Some iterators have specially-made overseers that are more intelligent, can do more things, can travel farther, etc.

[raintailed]

PLEASE i am CLAWING THE WALLS i gotta talk about regicide oh my god.

My headcanon artificer's story basically has her eventually fight and kill the scav king. The king respawns and Artificer's destroyed karma means she cant leave. She is also burned out on hatred, so to speak; now she is just exhausted.

And the king, who is actually pretty kind, decides that the best long-term solution to having a mass murderer trapped in your city is to pretty much declare a truce.

At first Arti is NOT happy about this arrangemenr but at least she isnt being actively hunted down anymore (this helps massively with her anxiety i'd imagine). She is still very hostile to anyone who gets too close to her den. She also has to duel a lot of scavs so they can basically get even with her for killing them (based on ideas from @its-the-sa).

Uhhh eventually Arti grows to trust the Scav King, which is a HUGE deal for someone like her. She sees herself and the King as equals (in battle, anyway). In turn, the King isn't afraid of what Artificer can do to him, but *is* afraid of what Artificer can and has done to his people.

Imagining it gets to the point where the King is able to like. Go wake up Artificer (any time before noon is early for Arti) to go to some political thing and Arti is just face down in her den going GRRRRRR. But the King knows they are just being grumpy and they won't actually hurt him. Theyre so different and yet they eventually get along so well...

ANYWAYS it is 1 am I should stop rambling for now

[nevadas-explorer]

Honestly I don't know?? Explorer is my Blorbo Of All Time and she can best be described as nonbinary, but it's complicated...

She was born a slugcat, which is a unisex species, so it doesn't have genders based on male/female. And she grew up without a colony, so she never had the chance to learn anything gender-related when she was growing up.

And then in Nevada, she was called "she" bc of the body she was put in, but she didn't know the traditional connotations of those pronouns. And I think she has gleaned some of what they are over the years, but she is very much Creature and probably identifies with that idk

So... she does have a gender, but she used to not have one? Kinda?? So perhaps that counts?

This request was sent to us and we made a poll in response to it. Send any Blorbo-related question you want to our inbox and we’ll make a poll on which people can vote with their own Blorbos in minds

[raintailed]

rain rain rain rain how do you draw iterators and slugcats btw like all your gyus are so shaped its so fun to look at theyre just little guys...

i'm gonna start with slugcats! my old guide from 2023 is here.

Note: "slugcat" refers to multiple species (slugcats are in a species complex). It can be hard to differentiate slugcat species, since some are very similar and hybridization between them is common where their ranges overlap. The species that Monk and Survivor are members of is called the "common slugcat."

Slugcats are weird sorta-feline creatures that walk bipedally and have little hands. Their average height is 3'3" or about 1 meter tall.

Their basic body shape is a round head on top of a trapezoidal body. Their legs are digitigrade, they have human-like arms (that are often skinny lol), and their tails are thick and tapering. Slugcats also have retractable arms ig??? I have no idea how that would work

In terms of head shape, it's similar to a cat's, but with a somewhat taller forehead (bigger brain! more room for being Smart!). Slugcats usually have short muzzles, big eyes, and long ears.

Note: slugcat arms usually rest in front of the body (think meerkats) rather than to the sides like a human.

Uhhh I like giving slugcats dewlaps (rabbit dewlaps are a good reference)!

And for fat slugcats, fat is usually stored in the tail (and dewlap) first. So naturally my gourmand has a big tail and a big dewlap :]

And!! I like to think that some slugcats have fur, and some don't. Hairless slugcats are slimy; furred slugcats have oily, waterproof coats. Some shorthaired slugcats have smooth fur like otters and seals do.

TEEFS!!! Except technically, slugcats don't have teeth. Rather, they have sharp, jagged beaks (think cephalopods). Their beaks continually grow and they are self-sharpening. Because their beaks are really sharp, slugcat bites are always serious injuries.

The length of their "fangs" varies by species. Some carnivorous species have long fangs, for example.

And! They have bristly tongues like cats (and kinda like the radula of a gastropod).

For their paws, slugcats have 3-fingered hands and feet. Their claws vary; some individuals have blunt claws, some have sharp claws, others have retractable claws, etc.

The inner toe of a slugcat's foot is opposable, making it easy for them to grab onto poles with their feet. (Compare to scavengers, who mostly use their arms to climb.)

SLUPPIES!!!!!! (don't worry about the fluffy one, they're just eepy)

Slugpups have different proportions than adults! Including having a bigger head, chubbier body, etc. Fluffy slugpups can also be a bit scraggly like longhaired kittens are.

My slugcats are basically egg-laying marsupials. They lay eggs, store them in their pouch, and then the eggs hatch into itty bitty babies. The babies stay in the pouch, feeding on milk until they're big enough to venture outside.

When pups are too big for the pouch, they ride on their parent's head or back. They also begin the process of weaning around this time, since by then they've started growing a sharp beak (i guess before that, their beak is dull and too small to self-sharpen?).

Note: some slugcat species are unisex and others are trioecious (having male, female, and unisex individuals).

For expressions, ears are important!!

Neutral: ears relaxed. The relaxed position varies by individual; some slugcats have their ears rest slightly tilted back, for example.

Alert/interested: ears perked up.

Angry: ears pinned back. Very angry slugcats have their ears positioned so they're almost in line with the top of the head.

Afraid: ears pinned down (sometimes slightly to the sides, too).

Sad: ears droop to the sides.

Slugcats mostly use their tails for balance, but they're used for some emotes too.

Upwards-curled tail is an excited or enthusiastic hello! Kinda like how some cats raise their tail when they see their human.

When upset, annoyed, or grumpy, slugcats may thump their tail against the ground (kinda like how rabbits stomp).

Some slugcats wag their tails when playing or excited. This isn't a universal thing, though.

Slugcats with fur may puff up their tail when startled or scared. They may also puff their tail when excited or playing, too.

[raintailed]

RAIN WORLD HEADCANON TIME it's about gooieducks

Gooieducks are the weird fruiting bodies of a fungus. They are covered in a spiky shell made of chitin and calcium, much like what snail shells are made of. The shell protects the delicate fruiting body from being eaten before it has released all of its spores.

These "fruits" smell AWFUL to anything that isn't a slugcat. Slugcats like them a lot and their beaks are perfect for cracking open the shell of a gooieduck. Gooieducks are edible to scavengers, but scavs tend to dislike eating them because 1. hard to get the shell off and 2. they smell like garbage.

Uhhh the spores are toxic to worm grass, so worm grass automatically avoids any gooieducks. If a creature is holding one (or has rolled around in gooieduck spores), they can walk through worm grass patches if they are careful.

Also! Gooieduck shells have utility! For crafting, decoration, or just for being ground up and used as a dietary supplement for calcium.

[raintailed]

Shoutout to rw artists who draw five pebbles like a bug

[raintailed]

revisiting dragon shrimpfish and their relatives!!

"Bristle-face worms" (better name pending) are a sister clade to the shrimpfish. They retain more primitive traits, such as having more limbs, less developed vertebrae, etc.

My current thinking is that bristle-face worms are usually benthic or live in burrows. The benthic species roam the ocean floor in search of dead animals while the burrow-dwelling species are ambush hunters. Most of the bristle-face worm species are long extinct. Also, these guys will travel long distances to search for mates. Their luxurious "bristles" (antennae) help them detect pheromones released by potential mates.

Meanwhile, shrimpfish (or at least the early ones) are reef-dwellers. There are some species that are very similar to early shrimpfish and they're basically cleaner shrimp. Also they are quite small (dragon shrimpfish themselves are 4 inches long?).

Both clades have weird mouthparts that are comprised of 4 jaws (which open like the petals of a flower) and a tongue. I'll have to figure out what exactly the tongue is for. I'm leaning towards the tongue being used to pull food into the throat (similar to the pharyngeal jaws that moray eels have). Some species do use their tongue as a harpoons though in a similar way to cone snails.

Both clades also have a line of setae on each side of their body. These setae have a similar function to the lateral line system of fishes, allowing the animal to sense water currents around them. These setae are stiff and brushlike.

The belly setae, on the other hand, are softer and longer; good for sticking eggs onto. Both shrimpfish and bristle-face worms carry their eggs for a while before dropping them somewhere suitable, not unlike what lobsters do.

Primitive species like these don't have much in terms of magic use. They are able to sense the presence of environmental magic but that's about it

Notes transcript and all that under the cut

1st Image

"Bristle-face worms" primitive relatives of shrimpfish

cyan/purple internals?

harpoon-like tongue? radula?? idk

has rudimentary vertebrae

long, whispy setae on belly for holding eggs

setae on sides are stiff and brushlike. similar function to a fish's lateral line system

setae fin, like what shrimpfish have

2nd Image

part of the jaws are inside the head when at rest. they move forward, then outward

some species have jaws that snap shut like a bobbit worm's

bristle-face worms and shrimpfish have similar faces?

3rd image

shrimpfish vs bristle-face worms

shrimpfish:

tail is flattened

reduced tail plates

tail for propulsion, limbs for swimming

bristle-face worms:

whole body is flattened vertically

2 pairs of feeding arms

shrimpfish lost the 4th and 5th limb pairs

poor swimmer, mostly crawls

[raintailed]

Im Cooking lore

Namely, headcanons about batflies, owls, and northern vultures

Batflies are weird bug/bat/bird things. They have both an endoskeleton and exoskeleton (though their bones are lightweight and fragile). They only have four legs and 2 wings (earth insects have 6 legs and 4 wings, by default).

Batflies are important pollinators! They can also be pests, since they can chew into walls to build their burrows (whose entrances are protected by spiky structures).

Their mouthparts are weird - they have a sort of split beak, and the upper/lower portions can move apart. They also have small teeth in their mouths.

On the right is a concept for giant mothflies, a species found in the northern regions. They're larger, fluffier, and have nocturnal habits.

Both of these species are considered primal fauna, though their genomes have been contaminated by hybridizing with modified individuals. This is likely why they are able to chew through metal.

Owls are a creature i made! This is a rework of them.

They're distant relatives of batflies and are basically if bugs evolved into birds. Most of their exoskeleton has been reduced, with their mask being a remnant of it.

Owls are roughly slugcat-sized and are important to the ancients that once inhabited the northern regions. Owls were bred and trained for falconry. Their mask became a symbol of hunting; this symbol spread south along trade routes, and was incorporated into the design of both vulture species.

This is also a primal species.

And then! Northern vultures! The story goes that the rough vulture concept was executed by two different groups of bio-engineers, resulting in two species of "vultures" that had similar behavior but very different anatomy. Northern vultures are heavily based on the genomes of owls.

Northern vultures have a similar head shape to real-life bearded vultures.

I'll have to figure out the situation with the machinery on the backs of northern vultures. Perhaps it's technically part of the exoskeleton, and is basically organic machinery? Also, expelling gas is less important for northern vultures than it is for southern/vanilla vultures, since n. vultures have wings that provide much more lift.

Just like with owls, losing their mask is a serious injury for northern vultures. It's literally part of their face! Of course vultures are upset when their mask gets taken!

Finally, a comparative anatomy thing showing the differences in body segments between batflies, owls, and northern vultures. Limbs and wings aren't shown for visibility.

Like earth insects, these animals have 3 body segments: a head, thorax, and abdomen. In batflies, these segments are distinct, and the abdomen holds many of the internal organs.

In owls, the abdomen is reduced, so the thorax holds more organs. Owls also have one fewer limb pair. The trend seen in owls continues with vultures.

Note that the body segments are more defined here than they actually are. They also probably aren't as... strict?? As what insects have, so they could be divided into sub-segments that can move independently? I have no idea

[raintailed]

Bc im feeling silly, my opinion on skibidi toilet:

Im not interested in it, BUT im glad that kids today can enjoy goofy gmod and sfm videos!! And from there i hope they'll be introduced to and possibly enjoy gmod, half life, etc!

[raintailed]

If you're fine with non-screen tablets, I use an XP Pen G640 (link here), which costs 40$ - expensive, but not that expensive for a drawing tablet. My tablet was a christmas gift and I've been using it on a near-daily basis for almost 5 years.

I don't know about screen tablets; I've never used one before. They also tend to be more expensive than non-screen tablets.

Maybe for my birthday or Christmas I’ll ask for a drawing tablet, lol. Because I don’t think I’d be able to get one on my own time anytime soon. God and then I’ll have to get a good art program and that will probably cost as well though. But there are free ones. And I need to look up what is a good and probably cheep tablet.

[raintailed]

Normalize meowing and beeping on voice calls. It's fun

[raintailed]

I should tell the creatures observing my terrarium about the ART MADNESS.

So basically art is my main hobby and I have devoted my life to it. I breathe art. I eat art. I dream about art. I literally get ideas for OCs from my dreams!!

And sometimes I get an intense urge to draw a whole bunch of stuff, even when I'm already tired. For example, after I completed the Big Piece (tm) during Art Fight this year, the NEXT DAY I started drawing more stuff. What the heck!! I had just finished a week-long piece with like 60 different characters, a background that used 2-point perspective, AND full shading, and the next day I was back making art!

So this is pretty much what the art madness is. I have an insatiable drive to make art. Sometimes I can't get myself to work on a certain piece or to draw digitally, so I just draw on paper instead. I am truly unstoppable.

[raintailed]

If you have pictures of interesting scavs, funky lizards, etc please send them to me i need to hoard creature images