#that's not a singular species

[problemswithbooks]

There's a few minor characters in a later One Piece arc that disprove your theory re: inheritance of fish-like traits, but your world-building speculation is really interesting!

Actually one of Big Mom’s young sons looks fully Fishmen. De-Chat.

Got these two asks so I looked into it a bit more.

Something I find really interesting is that Big Mom's kids, De-chat and his mermaid sisters look nearly the same as full-blooded fishmen and merfolk. Big Mom is interesting because she doesn't really look human due to her size but is apparently just a little to short to count as a giant. It might be possible that she has giant ancestors somewhere in her past--but also who knows, she could also have fishmen or merfolk ancestors as well.

Again, this is just me trying to make sense of One Piece biology that was never supposed to make any sense. Oda only designs characters based on how they look and fit into the story. He's not going to limit his artistic talent to reality or make world building rules that might also put restrictions on what he can draw.

But for me, how I'd make sense of Big Mom's kids looking so much like their seafolk fathers is to say that somewhere in her background she has a fish-person or merfolk parent. Given how Oda says their dna works, with it remembering any secondary species (like whale shark, or goldfish) it makes sense that human hybrids generally get more human traits because one parent lacks a secondary species to pull from. Meanwhile, both fish-people and merfolk are human, so the genes have more ways of combining in a way that emphasis human traits.

But if someone has seafolk ancestors their dna would still carry that secondary species, even if they themselves do not have any fish traits. If they then had children with a fish-man or mermaid that child could have a higher chance of inheriting fish traits. This could explain why Big Mom has such pure looking seafolk children.

Meanwhile other hybrids we see like Sapi look nearly entirely human except for a fin on his head. Dellinger is interesting because he looks almost fully human as well, but most of it seems to be because he can hide those traits. He can choose whether or not to have human teeth, or hide his fin.

I'm no expert on dna or genealogy so my head-cannon is probably nonsense, but to me seafolk kind of feel like eeve in a way, where they're dna is kind of unstable. Whenever they have kids what they look like is a complete crap-shoot, where anything is possible. On top of that it doesn't seem like their abilities or size is always determined by their fish traits. Some of them look nearly human, except with non-human skin tones, while others look extremely inhuman--like Zeo or Hammond.

Which again is very purposeful on Oda's part. He's drawing cool characters. The reasons why they look the way they do doesn't matter to him at all. I just try and come up with reasons because I find it fun.

[sk-yay-sk]

I've gotta say I'm not a huge fan of putting Dragonese into the HTTYD movie franchise. The concept of a full-on dragon language they all share, that can just easily be translated into English, just really doesn't fit imo

I imagine they're a lot more like Orcas

There are universal ways to communicate with strangers of different species, like it's pretty easy to signal things like "i want to fight you" "i want you to leave" "it's dangerous here" "i'm in pain" etc. by just body language and vocalizations- but ways to communicate more complex ideas have to be developed and learned as unique dialects by different groups, especially flocks of dragons consisting of different species.

I imagine a terrible terror flock or a group of Speed Stingers have a lot of an easier time communicating with each other than a Thunderdrum and a whispering death do.

Dragons with their own dialects, cultures, and habits depending on location and group is really cool- I just don't think it should be a direct translation of how humans do these things, such as straight up language or mythologies or such.

[quixot1sm]

all the starters <3 they’ll all get full images eventually!!

[crystal-cliffs]

Back from the grave to introduce Wanderer for my MLP AU

Free Spirit (formerly Scornful Skirmish) is a Royal Kirin, however unlike Royal Kirin and normal Kirin he cannot turn into a nirik simply due to the composition of his body being artificial in nature. So no angry fire form for him unfortunately.

His cutie mark is the electro sigil with no talent attached as being a puppet he doesn’t have the innate magic to cause such a phenomenon. On the subject of that Free Spirit is unable to preform complex feats of magic without the aid of the electro gnosis for similar reasons.

And here’s the tag <3: @secondoftheeleven

[rearranging-deck-chairs]

i want a companion thats like,, a citizen of the universe. instead of being like a modern human that needs everything explained to them theyve got their own whole like alien-to-us worldview. they know a lot about the universe because they function within it as we do in like, earth but also at times it becomes clear that their view might be biased (highlighting the way our own views are biased)

and they and the doctor can get in some real headbutting about 'no thats not how that happened/the effects of that event were different than you think/okay thats all very well in theory and im sure technically the correct Big Choice but heres how my family/home was still indirectly personally affected etc

and to make it extra fun they can have their own preconceived notions of timelords. really make the doctor face like, their TimelordnessTM. the way they are part of that system, time cop

and this companion probably is wrong about a lot of things timelord but you know what they say exposition is easy to sneak in through arguments. and the doctor loves correcting people. so. accidentally reveals way more about their own relationship to Gallifrey just because this companion keeps getting things almost right

[milkweedman]

Discovered that the bees around here really love the buckthorn trees while they're flowering. I dragged a lawn chair under them and have spent a significant portion of the day sitting under them, staring up at the leaves, watching the bees from quite close, and listening to the loud insect hum.

The underside of buckthorn leaves is very beautiful.

[illwilledomen]

What can you tell me about wasps? :3c

I’m not the biggest wasp expert (just a wasp appreciator) but I can tell you about some species of wasps in Aotearoa, my home country. My favourite native wasp is the black hunting wasp, particularly for its vibrant iridescent wings. I haven’t seen many in real life though. I also like Asian paper wasps which I do see often. I like them for their darker golden colour and thicker black bands (not as pale as European paper wasps) however unfortunately they’re invasive. My favourite non-NZ types of wasp are spider wasps, Asian giant hornets and red velvet ants (name is incorrect, they’re wasps)

[ostrichmonkey-games]

Hey Josh,

While I'm not new to ttrpg, I am fairly new to the blossoming world of indie ttrpg, what would you say defines a game as indie?

Tim

Ah! This is a question with like, no concrete answer hahaha. Like, next to the scale of dnd (and therefore wotc), basically anything is else is "indie". Though, I think it's fair to say things like Pathfinder from Paizo, or stuff from Modiphius probably falls outside of what most would consider indie. What about Monte Cook Games or Magpie? Magpie made the Avatar game, but does that mean Masks is not indie?

Is indie entirely dependent on team size/budget? Vibes and mechanics and style? An amorphous mix of both?

(For the record, the amorphous mix of both is generally where I fall)

I don't even know if it's a super productive conversation to have (looking at video games for reference) all the time?

Basically, I don't have a great answer, but all the small team/solo dev ttrpgs that like to live on itch probably definitely are indie. At least in the sense of how most people think of the term!

I don't know if there's a particular singular sort of unifying feature of indie ttrps, aside from that. Maybe that indie devs tend to be more experimental and a lot of the cooler pushes against convention happens in the indie space.

I mean, my stuff is definitely indie hahahaha

[whimsicmimic]

once again thinking about The Worms and the greater lore implications wrt zazie my best friend zazie

[aphidoideart]

#∞: Everyalways

When a Singularitime and an Entrospace learn to work together, they can stand on each other, allowing them to walk anywhere as long as their footsteps are in sync. Turns out neither of them react to the planet's gravity, they are exclusively attracted to the matter of each other. Once a pair figures this out, they make their way out of the planet's atmosphere towards an unknown location in deep space.

Turns out Singularitimes were the fragments of the avatar of Life and Everything That Has Been, while Entrospaces were the fragments of the avatar of Entropy, and The Nothingness That Will Be. Their constant struggle, eternally pushing into each other is what allows the universe to keep existing

Helping every single pair of Singularitimes & Entrospaces get back to space will allow this cosmic being to be whole once more. Everyalways.

Inspiration: Entropy will eventually make all life cease, but without it, Life would be impossible, our cells create order with the sodium-potassium pump, to then open the cell membrane to let entropy do its thing and balance the ions, like a waterfall, this rapid influx powers ATPase like a generator, which creates ATP, Life utilizes Entropy to power itself. In turn, lifeforms increase the heat of any given system, meaning Entropy grows when Life is present. As such, these two forces, Order & Chaos in constant struggle, is what allows our universe to exist as is. So together, they are everything ever.

[failfemme]

i love spending time on wikipedia bc WHAT

[gibbearish]

btw similar to the whole "if you try adderall at a party and it calms you down, get an adhd test" thing, if at some point in your life you try microdosing shrooms with a friend and end up feeling like a functional person for the first time in your life, get tested for depression. like yeah hallucinogens come with elation so youre probably gonna have some "this is the best ive ever felt in my life" vibes regardless, but like. if that in and of itself feels like finally breathing in for the first time in years, thats for sure a sign that something is up with your ability to process serotonin most of the time. feeling better than ever before should be a nice bonus, not a crushing weight off your chest

[gunkbaby]

I’m repulsed by everything and everyone except him.

[iced-souls]

My brain has developed a new problem!!

[apollos-boyfriend]

the urge to make a basic otubbo bee joke vs the knowledge that it’d be inaccurate as it only really applies to hive bees and not solitary bees and i refuse to contribute to bee misinformation

[practicalsolutions]

I gotta figure out what to call these funky dudes.