#slugcat familiar

[mahou-mogai]

 💗。+ slugcat familiar ( gender )

♠️。— a gender familiar (link) for when your gender is connected to slugcat familiars, slugcats and familiars, a slugcat being your familiar or being a slugcat and a familiar.

 🪽。+ coined by mod queen of hatred

[needlemeister]

please don't think i have no empathy for you what you've been through... but there's nothing i can do, now, but stand here and watch it all catch up to you

[skybristle]

REBLOGS > LIKES [tags appreciated!]

"doing a huge slugcat lineup killed my art motivation" minx said, doing another one. this is for my cookie calculators au/fan campaign[s] with my bestie @drake-dragon !!! they designed some of he scugs like prodigy and paladin :]

+individual drawings below!

[groupalpha]

Oooh! What a lovely blue pearl! Could you grab it? I wanna see it closer.

TC: Here! This one is such a beautiful shade!

[midnite-enjoyer]

Oh and fun fact I have this crossover AU between Ben 10(the original series and specifically Omniverse) Steven Universe(leaning more into Future) and hear me out, Mixels-

hi sorry I was like ten pages deep into the Ben 10 tag ohoho elaborate I'm interested

[ask-the-pioneer]

the calm before the storm

[part 1] // ...

[TRANSCRIPT]

Marbles sits outside, making explosive spears. Something catches her attention. Scavenger elites visit the local tribe to collect tribute. The tribe chief points at Marbles, saying that the offering of spears is still in preparation. One approaches the slugcat. Marbles is suspicious.

One: "Slugcat." Marbles: "...hi?" One: "Who are you? Where from?" Marbles: "Traveler, trading for pearls. Why?"

One points at a stack of freshly made explosive spears.

One: "These? What for? Smells awful" Marbles: "Um, gifts. For the tribe here. My craft" One: "Craft? You made these? How? Show me"

Marbles puts a rock in her mouth, then spits it shortly after and shows the handmade bomb to the elite scavenger. One seems surprised.

One: "You turn rock to bomb?" Marbles: "Yep!"

One suddenly leans in to sniff her, they think her scent smells familiar. Marbles clearly doesn't like her personal space being invaded.

Marbles: (in her native language) "EW! What the hell..."

One whistles at Three to come here.

One: "Three, look at this" Marbles: (annoyed, looking at Three) "What, you gonna smell me too?"

Three gives her an overly dramatic sniff, and Marbles is weirded out.

Marbles: (shoving bomb in Three's face as a warning) "Do you MIND? I'm busy" Marbles: (gets up) "Need more rocks, bye"

Marbles feels that something is off, and tries to weasel out of the situation, but her way is blocked by Two. She dodges them quickly, but then her escape is blocked again by Four.

Marbles: (trying to play it cool) "Look, if you want bombs - just ask (and pay)" One: "Yes, many bombs... you will come with us"

Marbles is visibly on edge. She realizes she's made a grave mistake by not running away immediately, but it's too late now. The blue slugcat is apprehended by the group of elites, and they escort her towards Metropolis as the local scavenger tribe watches in terror at their guest being taken away.

[flickering-nightfall]

Playing with some ideas mostly regarding gender/reproduction in RW, and slugcat colonies.

Full transcript under the cut!

Creatures in Rain World are typically simultaneous hermaphrodites but require partners to reproduce, with either individual capable of being a genetic donor or carrier. Alongside what we are familiar with, this has lead to interesting reproductive strategies such as rotating donor/carrier roles, or dual/simultaneous genetic swaps.

Rotating donor/carrier roles - A K-selection reproductive strategy. One partner carries the first child, the other partner carries the next child, and so forth. Allows each partner to recover from the demands of childbearing.

Rain Deer aren't quite monogamous, but they tend to choose the same breeding partner whenever mating season rolls around. They serve as a donor one season, then bear and raise a child the next. Calves are raised away from the rain and worm grass, in places that have less food but more safety. Calf wool is softer, not yet gunked up by the dirty rainfall. Their legs are sturdier as children, allowing them to run for cover while the parent wards off threats.

Dual/simultaneous genetic swap - An r-selection reproductive strategy. Parents fulfill the donor and carrier role for each other. The more children you make, the more likely some are to survive!

Multiple batflies lay thousands of eggs in a single "blue fruit." Several eggs congeal and become nutrient paste for the surviving eggs (and for hungry slugcats). Like some plant seeds, batfly eggs that are consumed before pupating can survive passing through the digestive system. Ew.

Ancients also fell under this umbrella. Their genders (and the genders of iterators by extension, who have no sex anyways) could have been determined by a variety of other factors, such as societal role, donor/carrier preference, or simply different categorizations of personal expression.

It's difficult to say how well their common pronouns would translate to ours, but it seems they can translate to an extent, given what Moon and Pebbles use canonically.

Slugcats, like real slugs, can have children with a partner or self-fertilize. Unlike real slugs, they are often known to adopt.

In the case of self-fertilization: children who are born from one parent may display a large amount of genetic diversity despite the circumstances. Maybe slugcats have some sort of... genetic reservoir independent of their own genetic code?

Slugcats live 20-30 years on average... if they manage to reach adulthood. Their mortality rate is sadly rather high, especially in pups. If they were to develop as a civilization, it's likely their lifespan would increase dramatically.

Slugcats in a colony are more likely to have more children, and to successfully rear those children to adulthood, than those who wander alone or in small groups. The safety and stability of a colony cannot be understated.

Colonies either have a set, cycling migration path, or wander continuously. Survivor and Monk's tree home was a nesting site that their colony frequents about once a year. So it's likely that they'll see their family again!

...also, the strength of large colonies are why scavengers are likely to become the dominant species. In the time of Saint's era, continuous migration has become more of a risk, and it has become more difficult to support large populations. Slugcat populations have shrunk back to the more forgiving equatorial zones.

Saint's tongue is pretty unusual and probably unique to them, or to a small population that they hail from. Fur (of varying thickness) is much more common.

Meanwhile, scavengers are bulkier and covered in thicker insulating fur. They:

have seemingly massive populations

have a burgeoning society (the existence of merchants, tolls, bartering, elites and leaders)

are adept at communicating (non-verbally)

manipulate their environment

can build structures (scavenger-made structures were a scrapped idea from Saint's campaign)

can create complex weapons and tools

may have agriculture behind the scenes (unsure if scout parties prioritize exploration or hunting)

I would wager on scavengers developing more quickly than slugcats, but it would be nice if there was a future where both could co-exist.

[zooliminology]

OOC - I knew the Sailors were a little too familiar! They have a slugcat-like essence to them but distinctly more shark or dolphin-like by comparison: You can see the inspiration but you can tell it's a distinctly separate creature. That does have me curious about whether if they're meant to be shark-like or dolphin-like, is the social behavior based on slugcats or on dolphins? (Both?) That being said, thanks to their shared shape I wonder if anybody's ever thought to mod a playable Sailor in Rain World? I'd say it'd go over best as a skin for Rivulet considering the Sailor's aquatic adaptations.

[Yeah no I admit it. I just wanted to make legally distinct slugcats to put in zoolim because I love them lol. I want to develop them more and have their behvaior not absolutely mirror slugcats, yaknow, give them some flavor.

I wanted them to be essentially like pool toys, so, shark lol.

T.S. Smith actually did make a sailor DMS! You can find it here.]

[thunder-opossum]

The two slugcats squirmed through tight tunnels and vast open spaces. Sizzle's stomach flip-flops in the lack of gravity; it's a strange sensation, there was no heft to his body, not to anything he touched. He would compare it to falling... but even then, you can still feel wind batting against your fur. The air here was still, the oh so familiar noises of the outside were all replaced by mechanical whirring.

Artificer reached out and snatched one of the small floating creatures from the air. She stuffed it into her mouth, "Eat these, and be quick."

Sizzle reached out as well, his paws grabbing onto the organism as it flashed an aray of bright colors. He but I it it quickly, hoping it wasn't in too much terror. The texture was chewy, with hardly any taste. "What are these?" Sizzle asked, reaching for a few more.

"Food. You can eat it, and you won't die from it." Artificer didn't need to eat anymore, she had already filled her belly with scavenger meat. It sickend Sizzle. But the green slugcat still needed to survive the cycle, he ate his fill and continued through the complex machinery.

Then the two suddenly popped into a different looking room, inhabitanted by something more complex. Similar structures to a slugcat, upright posture and diget-ed paws. But it was attached to wall with cords wrapping around it's metallic skin. It beeped weird noises as it stated at the two slugcats, seemingly annoyed.

Sizzle flinched at the familiar white-eyed-glare. He let his mother move in first, and she did so with confidence, the strange hunk of metal that's been following her around poped into existence and immediately caught the other beings, eyes. A moment later, gravity returned.

Sizzle smacked his face on the warm metal floor groaning as his mother landed safely. He really needed to work on his landings. Before Sizzle could lift himself up, a blaring light enveloped his vision and his ears rang with loud noise, similar to that of an explosion. He was propelled backwards and onto the floor once again. He clutched his head in pain, but there was a sudden clarity to the noise. A voice.

The two slugcats rose to their feet as this... iterator started to speak to the two...

[timeskip i ain't writing the spiel 5P gives Arti]

What a strange thing, Sizzle was having trouble wrapping his head around being in the presence of something god-like. Scavengers were known to exaggerate their stories, but the things they've said about gods in sky boxes suddenly were more believable.

Artificer was taking it in stride. She knew what coming here would give her. And now Sizzle must question the reality of the situation. There's no way his mom could survive slaughtering an entire city. It was impossible. But she seemed entirely confident.

She heard what she needed and waved Sizzle back up to the exit as gravity disappeared once again. She moved out through the pipe, but her son heared a shift in the room. The iterator, Five Pebbles. It made him come to a halt.

"You, green one. I need to mention something to you." His voice echoed in Sizzle's skull.

Sizzle angled his body around to face the iterator. Sure listening was uncomfortable, but his words must be important.

"I have seen pieces of your journey, and you seem to exhibit complex social behavior. So if you can prosses this information, I think you should know it," blue overseers popped up around the room, flashing bright holographic screens, "as much as one animal can lie to another one... well, I don't think you should be lied to."

Sizzle looked on, confused, and the holograms started to project a familiar environment... and a familiar friend.

---

hopefully the writing made up for the art! This is all I got motivation for right now, but I think it should give you guys a kick! Sorry for any typing mistakes, new phone and such.

[a-rabid-snake]

Enot in my au, can transform his body as he wants, so he took on more of the usual and familiar look of a small slugcat

He just doesn't know how to be non-creepy

[groupalpha]

Ah, you have reached your first echo. Do not panic, as you are not in any more danger. Go and meet one of those who could not ascend. I will meet you on the other side.

TA: I don't know what an echo is, but the prescience is oddly familiar.

TA: I guess they are quite close by...

[kelocitta]

[OFFICIAL WORK] Its been a few months and I never posted the set, so here’s everything I contributed to Downpour! Including the background mural for MSC that the actual slugcats cover up :) Whole thing was a delight to work on! If you’re familiar with what the icons for the original versions of the community mods looked like, there is a few easter eggs with certain details~

[focshi]

a familiar family of slugcats...

[daily-survivorrw]

Day 4: Survivor on a pole

trying to get more familiar with the way i draw slugcats, think i’m starting to get around to it and internalize how i do it though! this one was fun to draw, but i cant help but feel like it’s not the best i could have done

[the-real-rain-world-confessions]

You know, I never really liked when people made slugcats more cat-like in terms of behaviour and appearance. I think it's strips away a lot of their nuance by making them act and look more like a familiar species in our world.

Idk maybe that's just me, but one of the core reasons why I like Rain World is that it's mostly alien to me. You have this unique and interesting ecosystem brought to life by great AI and you visit these God-like biochemical entities that are waaaay beyond your comprehension, BUILT by an Ancient civilization you would never get to meet

.

[forsetcabiri]

I had been comm'd to make… A slugcat OC for myself?

Here's Starscav, reclaiming intelligence and society to spread it wild, and using a 'familiar' grappling hook. Known less-friendly as the 'can opener' by the local group.