#tarblood

[colorfuldonutrunaway]

Originally posted by hemo-canons.

[tombot24]

Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not

[nauticaltrain]

your themed slang for stex you did in that one post is really interesting could you elaborate on them?

oof yes i love themed slang so much (og post here)

Train slang is not super complex, merely a blending of regular old human culture, real railroad slang, and their own esoteric references. Most rolling stock have a remarkable skillfulness in the art of arguing, and will talk shit to hell and back. As a result, their vernacular is increasingly creative in an effort to really get their points across.

Some examples (including the ones in that post and some more!)

Dries my crown - a steamer saying, referencing the crown sheet that covers the top of the firebox. The crown must have a layer of water on top of it at all times to prevent damage to boiler, and potential implosion. So, saying that something "dries my crown", means it's really irritating to the point of outrage

Keep your tender on - calm down, relax. Another steamer saying

Blow it out your stack - fuck off and leave me alone. Started as a steamer thing and has gradually shifted over to the diesels as a derogative

Chassis - A chassis is the load bearing framework of rolling stock (and many other pieces of machinery). In the context of train slang, it's vaguely sexual? They're about as anatomically correct as barbie dolls and have a limited understanding of sexuality. But that doesn't mean the counterfeit replication of the human mind that makes up the rolling stock psyche can't catcall and talk dirty!

Pumps my pistons - see above

Get out of my cab and it's variations - stop micromanaging me!

Tarblood/coaleater/crummy/hog/scrap/tea kettle/etc. - slurs and name calling. Trains love to insult each other

Rumble - a human term that was co-opted by the rolling stock. Someone is gonna throw down and it's gonna be a big event, let's go watch two idiots beat each other up. Usually references altercations between engines

Less than a hundred miles under you - you're a newbie, you don't have a lot of experience

Wheelslip - In real railroading, wheelslip is a phenomenon where if too much force is applied to the wheels and there is not enough friction, the wheels will turn without there being movement of the train. In train slang, it's the equivalent of saying "butterfingers" when someone drops something or "you good?" when someone trips

Ticking over - not really slang, but more of cultural thing. On a real engine, ticking over is idling. In the musical, tickovers are the set of movements each character does when they're not doing anything specific (Rusty's little arm rotations, CB's salute, Greaseball combing back his hair). In the context of my weird psychological automaton au, it's a visual representation of them processing information. Train stimming, basically.

Oh also, they have a non-verbal sub-language in train form (if one subscribes to the transformers-esque headcanon), which includes brake clenching, whistle/horn variations, metal creaks, and light signals!

[grim9static]

Random taurani lore doodling

- Eeyla, Bahuga, Voxish, Muhorein, LaFriga, Hallows and Shinigami

- though some appear to be more masculine, feminine or nonbinary, taurani are neither male nor fenale, and are their own thing entirely, though they do sometimes choose to dabble into human ideas of gender representation.

- they do not have nipples, and are not mammals, reptiles, or whatever, theyre just Taurani and  theyre weird.

- they sport vapor organs, and can be anywhere in or on the body, but are usually in the throat chest or stomach region.

- they do not have a normal digestive track, and all nutrition consumed is transformed into energy, fats, magical energy, and the rest is released as vapor.

- they lay eggs

-glowing eyes are not uncommon in magic users

- fangs are a sign of youth and energy, and its common to see purely cosmetic fangs

- soul eating is a taboo thing but is frighteningly common

- scales/fur and feathers are akin to body hair

- vapor/smoke is essential to a tauranis health, and is used to relieve stress

- blood colors are a unique anomaly in the tauranin species, all signifying a different things, and determine the eye, vapor and magic colors

- pearlbloods, raidibloods, tarbloods, nochbloods, goldbloods, silverbloods

- pearlbloods: pearlescent white blood, a sign of a touch of a higher power. Extremely powerful magic is built up by negative stimuli, such as pain or anger.

- raidibloods: glowing blood, a sign of Hallowcurse and Ahhn Mahhnhana (I'll talk about that later)

- tarbloods: thick viscous black blood, with the texture of tar or glue, a sign of Shinigami amd corruption

-nochbloods: dark colored with flecks of glitter/opalescence, a sign of overexposure to vapor or strange vapor, usually sporting magical unique powers

- goldblood- what it says on the tin, immortal, able to regenerate limbs and vital organs, and usually immune to pain, or in other cases are just gluttons for pain and torment

- silverbloods: again, what it says on the tin. They can regenerate limbs and certain vital organs, but are not immortal

- pancolorbloods: two or more colors of blood, no special abilities, but it does result in some crazy physical features.

- shiftbloods: again, quite common among taurani, but with no real special abilities. Usually triggered by an external stimuli, such as emotion or in some cases camouflage

- iridescence is super common in taurani, be it in the flesh, blood, eyes, hair, bones, etc.

- their bones can be any material, though anything other than bone or metal are incredibly rare (these include wood, plasma/ energy, precious stone, or other inorganic material)

- taurani and dragons are very similar species, and are incredibly closely related, but just far enough to be considered a different genus. They are commonly confused with one another (the only basic difference between the two being dragons have soulchambers and the ability to transform into a full dragon)

- they chatter when in extreme distress, it's a sound similar to cicadas and the raptor chatterings in Jurassic park

- all taurani purr like cats!! Usually its a happy noise, but they also do it when sick or in pain

- most are highly empathetic, and a very ADHD acting species as a whole

- pupils and eyetype very greatly, ranging from round pupils to slits, goat eyes, or deformed into the shape of hearts, stars, or other shapes. This is yet again another widely popular cosmetic treatment for custom pupils (taurani are weird)

- they commonly sport a strange amount of eyes and limbs, and in some cases they are Not Where You'd Think, like eyes on the chest or back or shoulders and extra arms in unconventional places

 - they have tapedum lucidum

- ear types labled as 'open' or 'closed'. Closed are meaty with small openings, and open are like a Normal Animal's ears

- baby taurani are called kittens, benji or ninfeii, can walk and stand at birth, their vapor organs develop after a few weeks, during which their eyes develop from a goopy colorless jelly to actual eyes, and only then can open, and aside from muhorein are covered in a soft fur that they shed after a few years.

- all taurani (except the Hallow and Shinigami) are very susceptible to curses, blessings, and other soul related diseases and parasites

[millimallow]

pt. 11 - green the shade of leaves

pt 11 of the world of owa anthology. about the snowy world of the northern wilds.

see me like i see you.

this place is not my home. but being born where i was is a curse placed upon me at birth. the illegitimate son of a prestigious family, born to the reclusive unwed daughter who hid away from their big ideas. for she had her own- intruding on the realm of fiends, looking my father in the eyes. gold inscription on his skin, horns embezzled to replace the sun down where it doesn’t shine. telling him, her voice as clear as day,

“i’m not afraid of you.”

i’ve never met him, but in the short time me and my mother spent together, she told me this. according to her, i look just like him. she could not bare to be around me when i could only remind her of him. so i was surrendered to my grandfather. he was a steely man who made his fortune in coal and logs, half-elf half-human with an elven trophy wife from the old nobility. i say was- who am i to know whether he lives or not? though he taught me for much of my childhood, the time between now and my last hearing from him spans years that extend over a continent. he was distraught at my appearance, my burn-red skin and protruding horns, the volume of my forest green hair. yet there was not much to be done. he had punished his daughter already, and she had to be coaxed more forcefully than even him to look me in the eye. infanticide, predictably, would offer no positive consequence amongst his important international business partners even if he could indeed get away with it in siventia. so he held me in his arms and gave me my name- kolite tarblood. i was not to inherit the family title, instead slated for other gifts.

my childhood i spent in the company of few others, and remarkably few children anywhere near my own age. my family drew away the more i grew, old superstition telling that the chaos grew in my body as it became larger. my teacher was a private one- the sprightly elven son of a younger iron producer my grandfather was familiar with. he was not to inherit the business, so he had been put to other use. i would watch with interest as he would bring me a bound set of leather books in twine, the covers red and green and blue, the colours of me. even the gravest words he spoke in elation, voice pitching where the stories and records peaked in excitement. and unlike anyone else, his suspicion of me was absent. i heard it whispered between the two patriarchs- the young man had been educated in talgene mer, where there were other people like me, walking the streets freely. in their voice the idea was surrounded by tutting, but it was the first i had heard of a place where tieflings- of whom i was one, i learned later in life- were people of the outdoors. they were students, businesspeople, teachers, artists.

for months afterward, in the little notebook given to me, i scribbled messy drawings of this place. the sketches came with notes; notes which explained the laws and the culture and the food (mostly edicts outlawing bedtime and my favourite meal, porridge with honey and figs). my teacher stayed by my side when even my grandfather would pull away from me when he came to inspect my room, refusing to touch my things. on my demand, he taught me about the world. why my grandfather was intrigued at the prospect of war with u’baani, what lay on the other side of the ocean that i had only seen in pictures, where was the place my father hailed from? the last part he could not answer me. but he told me of my mother’s people, the lowland humans and the caluutian elves from what was once the trevailian empire, now sweetgrass and soretta samke. caluutes like him, he said, were spread over the world. they originated in trevailia, spread to the north-east, forming their own little groups, each a little different. and when the empire cast my ancestors out many of them came here. siventia; the land of forests and fields. lush and fertile enough to support a people, establish a nobility amongst them, give these elves the ability to integrate the lowland humans into their society.

but the place he taught me of that caught my eye the most was the northern wilds. the frigid landscape of snow and rock where further waves of our ancestors were exiled. known as the thessaline there, a word which translates decently into “outcast” or “exiled to a cage” from their own language. poor and sparse amongst the humans and dragonborn who make up the majority, living in secluded homes, keeping to themselves. stripped of many rights by a historic agreement by the trevailian emperor and the chief dragonborn clan leaders.

i asked him then if there were people like me there. he gave me the name- a tiefling, the offspring of a fiend and someone existing on the physical plane. then he told me yes. the stories of others from siventia came softly from his mouth, how they were the ones who held the gap between dragonborn and human that was otherwise maintained. being neither gave them a strength that could not belong to anyone else, so they braved the cold.

i left when i graduated, my plan being to attend law schooling in one of the great cities. my grandfather approved it, willing to fund whatever would make me leave home and give him peace. so i headed to kefhorda, its spruce-wood and stone architecture calling me once it became visible over the horizon. perhaps i had not shed a single tear leaving home, substituting that gesture for a confident handshake on the part of my tutor, but i did cry. i cried for meeting someone like me, bright hair and feline eyes intact, and again for the time when i met the thessaline. poor recluses, isolated and often on the move, who looked like the family i knew, yet did not turn away from me.