#they're not? recognizable anymore?

[aromantic-eight]

@gorgeousgalatea and I, picking up a ship from the river and brushing the flesh-eating fungus off of it while exclaiming about what a pretty trainwreck it is.

The entire ship fandom, coming around the corner like a tidal wave: But if they care about each other that means the ship can't be toxic in any way, how dare you imply they have EVER hurt each other in their lives.

[mqfx]

the awkwardness of having to physically change out of disguises instead of just magicking it on and off. and other mortal banalities

[sae-mian]

32. If you’re stuck for ideas when creating an OC, what do you do to inspire yourself? (if you never have this problem, then what would you advise to someone that did!)

this is, in fact, not a problem i ever have-- and to risk sounding like a broken record--

⋆⁺｡˚⋆˙‧₊☽ ◯ ☾₊‧˙⋆˚｡⁺⋆

START WITH A PURPOSE

i don't tend to get stuck this way specifically because i'm rarely, if ever, making an OC without a very pointed goal in mind to begin with.

if i'm ever struggling to nail a visual, or to get something particularly visually distinct? i like to use the randomizer in character creation a few times. once a base sticks out to me, i go in and tweak it to make it fit what i like.

⋆⁺｡˚⋆˙‧₊☽ ◯ ☾₊‧˙⋆˚｡⁺⋆

[Little OC Creation Ask List]

[chewwytwee]

The real thing the conversation around AI needs is a reality check. AI isn't good at making things, and it absolutely can't make anything without massive human involvement. When digital music was first becoming a thing it was very scary for musicians because 'why would anyone want to hire someone to play music when they can just download a sample of it?!', and that was a very well founded fear that didn't end up being entirely false. Many people use exclusively digital sampling to make their music, and the field for live musicians has definitely shrank, but I think people are way too prone to idolize the glorious period of 'artistic purity' before digital production became a thing. Generative AI models are certainly scary, and it will definitely change the landscape for art online, but let's temper our expectations because honestly AI generated art is just in general pretty boring and uninteresting. Anyone can generate any prompt they could come up with, but art has a lot more to do with symbolism and narrative than it does with the literal images or tangible aspects of any piece of art.

[chickenisamazing]

Realizing someone you were once best friends with is completely unrecognizable now is...something

[sea-salted-wolverine]

Have you ever contemplated how funny it would be to show someone from the 1924 Olympics the 2024 Olympics?

Some of the sports aren't there anymore, some of the sports are new. Some if the sports have progressed in the field so much they're barely recognizable. Lots more women. Lots more countries in general.

Not to mention, everyone is so fast now. So fast. You have no idea. No she's not a mermaid, well actually, maybe. The entire field came in with 12 hundredths of a second between first and last place in the 100m. Did you see the 4x400m relay? Have you seen the gymnasts? Yep, the Seine is still disgusting. Yeah, they're still making them swim in it. Yea, this is the same issue they've had for the last few hundred years.

[least-carpet]

rotating jin guangyao and his problems

chewing up jin guangyao in my head... this is another one that's been in the drafts forever. throwing it out there because I'm out of gas.

the broad outlines of these thoughts are:

jin guangyao pursues AND values relationships with people he considers to be Good, particularly lan xichen and qin su

which. like. normal.

what's weird is that they're so good that he can't ever disclose the bad things he's done, because they are Good and they would be Disgusted and they might not Love Him anymore.

you'd think they would be safe because they are Good, but that's not how this works.

so he's fundamentally constructed these prisons where he can't get closer but also can't get away

ughhhh I can't articulate it but something something about how he's created these relationships which he fundamentally can't disclose certain important things, areas of violence or vulnerability, without losing them

sooooo they're kinda hollow!! they're hollow relationships!!

I think for lan xichen a lot of distance can be chalked up to the physical distance demanded by their respective responsibilities

like "we would be closer if we could"

so it's a distance that also allows for a continual mutual idealization and doesn't feel bad because there's an outside source

but for qin su? especially during and after rusong's assassination?

like—even setting aside the question of whether or not he killed the kid—they're having different emotional responses to his death because rusong, while he was alive, must have been a source of terrible ongoing anxiety for jin guangyao, who is deeply paranoid about any of his secrets coming to light.

so an ending to that kind of anxiety is a relief, even if he didn't kill his own child.

but relief mixed with grief presumably wouldn't match qin su's emotional experience of rusong's death.

so they're not emotionally in sync, and she doesn't understand why. her husband has also withdrawn from her in a number of ways (because of... the secret incest...)

idk it just seems emotionally horrifying

I also think this is partly why you get such a wide range of takes on jin guangyao, even from people who like him. because people who do this type of thing are sometimes doing it to manipulate people into staying with them, and if someone has done it to you, the tactics are very recognizable (such as during the confrontation between jin guangyao and qin su, where he's desperately trying to control the outcome of her finding out about the secret incest)

anyway what a guy! the inside of his head probably sounds like the soundtrack to a horror movie 100% of the time, huh

[carlyraejepsans]

Ok im trying to make a character and really struggling to make them fit the vibe of undertale, do you have any thoughts on undertale's character design philosophy? or know anyone who does? tips? idk you know alot about undertale, im kinda at the design phase of "throw shit at the wall and see what sticks"

undertale character philosophy rule number 1) get silly with it. rule number 2) be fully, whole-pussedly earnest. do not half ass do NOT undermine your genuinity with useless irony it is the POISON of whimsy. actually no rule number 1) think of every possible wordplay you could make outta them. visual gags included, those are important. undertale is a comedy before being anything else. you know what these aren't in order of importance anymore, who care.

anyway, UT characters are all somehow stuck in their patterns and cycles. either through mistakes, through circumstances outside of their control, past trauma, regret, etc, but they're stuck in that. what breaks them out of that cycle is a crucial aspect of their personality and set of beliefs. keep that in mind while you brainstorm their backstory.

give them speaking quirks. you're gonna feel a little silly at first, but there's not one main character in the game whose identity you can't discern by their dialogue lines alone. no soundbit, no portrait, no context. the way they say it by itself is distinctive enough to make them recognizable. let that guide your writing process.

....ok just realized you probably meant character design as in visual character design. ok, new try: puns and double meanings and things that are not what they seemed at first sight. there's a lot of design repetition with alterations in undertale's NPCs; froggit and final froggit, the dogs in the guard, snowdrake and knight knight. see what aspects are kept and what is altered. remember: while the main characters skew towards more humanoid designs (bipedal, upright, 4 limbs, recognizable face), they all have extremely different body types, often simplifiable in a single geometric shape for the stockier ones (toriel, sans, box mtt being rectangular, toby saying how he wanted to make alphys look like a triangle), while the ones with more complex silhouettes get really fucking weird with it (papyrus is self explanatory, undyne's tall and gangly noodly shape). get creative and get diverse. consider buying the art book, even! i feel like that might be a good choice. have fun, hope this helped!! (very likely didn't lol)

[quasi-normalcy]

I think that Farscape does balls-out weirdness better than just about any other sci-fi series.

Like, Star Trek's greatest weakness is the same as its greatest strength: it's cozy. You're out in space, but it feels weirdly like Mr. Rogers' Neighbourhood. You've got your Federation, your Romulans, your Klingons, and you know basically what to expect from them. Occasionally you get blindsided by something truly inhuman, like the original concepts for the Borg or the Prophets or Species 8472, or SNW's take on the Gorn, but overwhelmingly, it's a story about humans meeting people who are basically human, or at least, have recognizably human mentalities. And even when they try to depart from formula, like on Discovery or Picard, they do it in the direction of making it *less* weird; more like 21st century Earth. Babylon 5 and Andromeda are similar. Stargate, Battlestar Galactica, Firefly, and the Expanse all set up basically a mundane world that might occasionally have some alien or inhuman elements. Doctor Who certainly is weird, but its nonhuman elements (and the Doctor is basically human, except when they're not) are overwhelmingly portrayed through the idiom of Monsters, rather than being taken on their own terms.

Farscape, meanwhile, throws you into the deep end. The weird and the alien and the inhuman are absolutely central to its storytelling. Even its opening theme sounds like it was composed according to some other world's conception of music theory. It makes heavy use of puppetry to give us nonhumanoid aliens, and they don't *act* like humans, either. And the only rule for watching an episode of Farscape is, whatever premise you *think* that the writers are setting up, whatever you *think* is going to happen, is absolutely not what ends up playing out. It's not predictable; it's not cozy; you're not in your world anymore and it's weird and dangerous and absolutely anything can happen to you now.

[chronicbeans]

Wally and a Puppeteer Reader (part 3)

My brain has gone on with this idea and I love where it is going. Yippee!

TW: Obsessive Behavior, Stalking, Scopophobia/Eye Imagery, Idol Worshipping

🎥 This has gone on long enough! In just a few weeks since that interview, the letters and pictures have increased tenfold! You keep finding Wally in the oddest of places, like on your desk, in the lounge, or even next to your locker. It constantly feels like eyes are watching you.

🎥 Even the contents of the letters are getting stranger. They were always odd and creepy, but at least before they had lighthearted words in them. Now they're saying things like "You're the air I breathe and all I see. You make my days better or worse. You keep me warm and keep this neighborhood bright! Please, never abandon me!" It's all written in that messy crayon writing, too, which makes an eerie contrast to the words that makes you sick. It seems so childishly unaware of how disturbing the words are when thought about for too long.

🎥 The drawings aren't much better. Nine out of ten times, they include you in some way. From the pictures just including you, including you and the characters from Welcome Home, to - worst of all, in your opinion - you in real life places. You sitting at your desk. You sleeping in the lounge. You getting a cookie at the snack stand during the interview. There's even one of you putting on your coat at the lockers. The drawings may not be the highest quality, but they are detailed enough to both be recognizable places and to alarm you.

🎥 You have an idea of who it might be. It's gotta be Wally's voice actor. They were his puppeteer before their arthritis kicked in. They just couldn't move their hands enough to properly puppet him anymore, always complaining that it hurt, despite the medications they took. But, the producer did decide to keep them as Wally's voice actor, saying that nobody could replicate his distinct laughter, tone of speech, and voice pitch. Despite this, Wally's voice actor was properly ticked and hated the fact they were replaced. They're always acting passive aggressive towards you. It must be them, probably to try to scare you away.

🎥 Today, you have decided to confront them. Marching over to their recording booth, you knock on the door. When they open it, they have that signature glare that would put even Frank's to shame. Before they can even ask what you want, you tell them all about what has been going on and how you know they have been doing it. They have to be behind it. All of these drawings and letters have Wally's signature writing and art style. The only person that knows Wally more than you is his voice actor. It HAS to be them!

🎥 They grow silent, before looking at the pictures and letters. Then, they look up at you and say, in the most matter of fact tone "I haven't been able to draw or write anything in character for a YEAR, (Y/N). What makes you think I would put myself through the pain of trying to replicate it after all this time, with my horrible joints, just to frighten YOU, of all people? You aren't worth my time, much less my comfort. You got any other evidence to accuse me of this... Whatever this is?"

🎥 You grow silent. To be honest, thinking back on it, it really is a stupid idea that they would do all of this to scare you. If they couldn't even muster up the energy to go out of their way to verbally confront you, then it would be shocking for them to put the effort to write and draw things to do so. You still have one more question, though...

🎥"What about the voice I've been hearing? It sounds just like Wally. You are his voice actor. You have gotta know something."

🎥 Their eyes grow wide. Then, they shrug "The one that has been saying things about... well, something. It's always a bit too muffled to hear exactly what it is. I thought you somehow improved your Wally impression and were practicing in order to replace me completely. Your impression may be off enough for the producers to care, but it was always the best one here. You're telling me you aren't the one making that voice?"

[genericpuff]

zoo wee mama, the new Hbomberguy video is a RIDE and it's absolutely relevant to everything going on in webcomics. let's talk about it.

I'm sure a lot of you have heard about this video going around already (it's gotten 2+ million views in just a little over 24 hours) but if you haven't, I highly recommend you set aside time to watch it yourself, I was surprised to see how much he had dug up especially regarding Youtubers that I never suspected were plagiarizing. He also says some very on-point stuff about how we view content creators and plagiarizing in this "do it yourself" industry that really resonated with me because it's stuff I've been saying for years in the webcomic sphere.

I won't spoil the video much because I think it's best experienced watching it for yourself (especially because he's putting all the money he earns off this video towards compensating the people who had their work plagiarized by one Youtuber in particular who's especially guilty... I'm not even gonna mince words, it's James Somerton) but this passage in particular just felt so validating to hear from someone who clearly holds themselves to the standards that more Youtubers - and creators in general - should be holding themselves to:

"I think a lot of people are inclined to protect creators they like on the grounds that plagiarism is a very academic-sounding problem, like something that happens in research papers or journalism, not something that you can do in a silly video made for entertainment purposes. Why are we holding Youtubers to standards? That would be like expecting accurate history from someone whose name has 'historian' in it! Because Youtubers often project a sense of being scrappy, do-it-yourself amateurs, it feels almost wrong to expect them to be professional... but a lot of them are professionals, regardless how authentic their persona may be. Youtubers are now among the most recognizable faces on the planet, and have become immensely wealthy doing this. Some are so influential we literally call them influencers. Maybe it's a good idea to have some standards for not stealing. Maybe." - Hbomberguy, "Plagiarism and You(tube)" timestamp: 3:35:32

Obviously this has nothing to directly do with webcomics but I do think it's something that reflects very similar behavior within the webcomic community that's, frankly, worth discussing. Many people justifiably want to make a living off their work, want webcomics as a whole to be taken more seriously in the mainstream next to traditional publishing, and for webcomic creators to be taken more seriously as professionals.

But at the same time, I still see a lot of infantilizing of the people in this industry, done by both their fans and the people within it, the idea that being a professional (noun) isn't mutually inclusive of being professional (adjective). It's how we've gotten creators in the past like Snailords, mongie, and yes, Rachel Smythe, who are often shielded by their fanbase on the basis of, "they're just indie comic creators doing what they love, leave them alone!" when they're very much not that, at least not anymore. At least two of those three creators have TV deals (though whether or not they'll make it to the screen is debatable), and all three of them have or have had Webtoons seemingly wrapped around their finger more so than any other creator (though mongie has argued she left Webtoons over unfair treatment, it really doesn't seem like that to the people who know how much mongie was intentionally pushing the rules of what she was allowed to post on the platform, particularly with her Sam x Charles smut).

They are not 'indie creators' anymore and they are not exempt from criticism just because their younger fanbase mistakenly assumes them to be the same age as them. Rachel, mongie, and Snailords are all in their mid-to-late 30's. They all have merchandising deals and either have TV deals or want to have TV deals. They've all been given priority advertising by Webtoons even at the cost of undercutting all the other creators and series on the platform that need it more. They are not "scrappy" creators, they're contractual professionals now and they all do not act like it. Whether it's reacting poorly to criticism or using their characters as a mouthpiece for their own egos or even just using their comics as a poorly disguised fetish, they're all contractual professionals who do not act professional. And they're not the only webcomic creators who do this.

And again, I've talked about this before on here and in the discussions on reddit concerning LO and other webtoons, so it's incredibly validating and refreshing to see Hbomberguy put those feelings into words (albeit about Youtubers, but let's be real, Webtoons is definitely trying to be the "Youtube of webcomics", as is Tapas and other competing webtoon platforms) because that sentiment rings true for a lot of the webtoon creators who have practically failed upwards and only forgo their advertised "professional status" when they're under fire for their actions and writing. Rachel is an "award winning creator" and "self-proclaimed folklorist" until her comic is criticized for its blatant misrepresentation and disrespect towards an entire culture, then all of a sudden "it's just fanfiction". Mongie is the creator of the bestselling series Let's Play until she's called out for racist depictions of Asians and Hispanic people in her work, then all of a sudden she's "just trying to make a fun comic" that's not meant to be taken that seriously. And of course, their audience of teens and young adults who don't know any better keep forgiving them and vehemently defending them because they wrongfully assume that these creators are scrappy teens just like themselves who just started making webcomics for fun and then achieved fame and glory overnight (which they're not!)

We should be having bigger discussions about what awaits the webcomic and "content creator" industry as a whole in the future and what standards we should be holding creators and their work to. We can't possibly expect these mediums to be taken seriously as a professional industry if we don't set better expectations for the quality of the work that's being created and the creators who are building these platforms for themselves.

"In current discourse, Youtubers simultaneously present as the forefront of a new medium, creative voices that need to be taken seriously as part of the 'next generation of media'... and also 'uwu smol beans little babies who shouldn't be taken seriously when they rip someone off and make tens of thousands of dollars doing it." - Hbomberguy, "Plagiarism and You(tube)" timestamp: 3:36:18

[darkonekrisrewrite]

The heroes didn't lose anything

Mirio says that they (the heroes ) lost a lot after their battles with the villains.

"Collectively we've lost so much..."

This is a straight up, obvious lie.

What's actually being shown is that they've not lost anything at all.

No members of class 1A or any other hero student died.

No important pro heroes died.

No recognizable civilians died.

And to put the cherries on top of the victory Cake:

All the societal infrastructure is already being rebuilt very quickly, to the point of everyone happily moving back in.

And no one has said a thing about the villains yet or what they SUPPOSEDLY learned from them.

The quirk vestiges were lost or rather "moved on".

But that whole thing was pretty weird from the beginning, with them being (force) ghosts in deku's head.

And nobody seems overly upset about their moving on, including the vestiges themselves.

Aoyama will be back as a hero and be with his friends, just at a later date.

Endeavor may have lost a limb but if Mirko is anything to go by, a prosthetic could fix that real quick.

So no reason he couldn't come back as a hero later if he's ever needed again.

And finally -

Deku will still be a hero no matter what.

Though he may lose one for all (at some point) in the future, he isn't going to lose his dream or his place among the heroes.

Support item technology has come so far that it can arm a quirkless skeleton man like All-might, into someone who can fight AFO and overpower him more often than not.

If Deku can get even just a fraction of this tech:

Not even the full armor, just a few pieces of it.

He could fight side by side with most heroes against most any villain.

And there's no reason to think that he wouldn't or couldn't.

Deku is the apprentice of All-might.

The trusted ally of Mei Hatsume and Melissa Shield + David Shield.

Not to mention his connections with UA, mainly Nedzu, who like All-might is loaded with cash to burn.

Momo and shoto + endeavor's support would also be included here.

There is no plausible reason why Deku can't get the support item tech that would be needed for him to keep being a hero if/when the embers of One for all do eventually run out.

And that then means:

Nothing is really at risk or at stake for Deku anymore.

Or any of the other heroes.

Is this really what the hero's journey is supposed to be?

No real sacrifices or noticable changes aside from some haircuts and superficial scars?

Winding up right back where they started in the classroom??

This (personally) reaffirms my belief that the villains are the true protagonists of this series in all the ways that really count.

https://www.tumblr.com/darkonekrisrewrite/747471520515981312/the-lov-are-the-protagonists-of-this-series?source=share

Their consequences are real.

No matter how their stories end (though still, they definitely need to be sticking around/alive), the villains are the ones who put in the hardest, backs against the wall struggles.

Even if they wind up close to where they started, as evident by Dabi being shown with endeavor in the recent chapter.

They're the ones who gave the real sacrifices for what they fought for and cared about.

[wasyago]

unsure if you’ve been asked this before but what is your character designing process?

i have already answered in this post (you can go read it if you want), though it's more jrwi based, so i feel like i can answer again! i doubt I'll end up saying something new but hwhatever who cares dhhdhd

obviously this isn't math, so there's no specific scheme i follow every time, and each design is different and it all varies heavily.

in general, when i start working on a design i already have *some* sort of idea in mind. normally not for the entirety of it, but some bits and pieces here and there that help me characterize the design in my head! i try to get those on the canvas first. they're like key points, and i most likely wont change them.

(and if i don't have an idea, i don't start drawing. and instead scroll through my gallery or pinterest in search of inspiration)

let's take my Gem's recent design as an example! i knew i wanted her to be a squirrel, and i already had squirrel scar and cub designs to base it off. so the key points were big pointy ears, curvy tail, claws. i also knew i wanted her clothing to look regal and floral, and reflect her main base. this is an idea that i haven't fully visualized, but i kept it in mind and knew in which direction i had to move.

after that comes the point where i start making stuff up 👍👍 i enjoy thinking my designs through and making them make sense in my head and be practical. so the process consists of me asking myself questions and then answering them in a design. with occasional "oh wouldn't that be cool" thrown into it.

continuing with gem. she needed to have her clothes be suited for a tail, so her underskirt splits in three parts to make it easier. i still wanted the design to be recognizable as gem and have it resemble her skin; so i kept the white sleeves, the green skirt, the corset. i wanted to make her and scar's designs match, so i changed the corset to green with this long piece of cloth but decided to change the patterns on it. because the brown from the corset was gone, i removed it from her shoes as well and made them black instead, so brown wasn't part of the color pallett anymore. i will introduce pink into the design later, so getting rid of one of the colors wasn't that big of a deal. plus, brown makes her look more down to earth, whereas i want her to look elegant and rich, so its a win/win. i wanted to keep her antlers, but obviously she's not a deer anymore, so i turned them into a crown and made it black to match the shoes. etc etc. i can ramble for three more hours about this hdgshsh.

well, that's how the well thought designs work.

sometimes it's just "im gonna draw all the things i think are fun and cute until i can't think of any" and there's no rhyme or reason to it. that's why things like "doc as a unicorn", one-off series designs, random concepts, aus exist!

sometimes its a "i have no idea what to do with it, so im gonna merge all the layers together and just keep fiddling with it until i figure it out", and that's exactly what happens. if i feel stuck with a design, merging it together and working with both line and color helps a ton, because it helps me to see the design as a whole and i dont have to divide my process and think of which parts im gonna do in color and which in line! recent example is hypno's design. here it is when i didn't know how to make it interesting and the final version:

(funnily enough i still like the first concept, the fact that all the clothes is the same color is quite tasty. but i know that if i needed to draw this design in the future, i would struggle with keeping the clothing layers separated and shading and all that stuff.)

visually i don't think there's much difference between how i design things (?), but the process varies and in my head they're all on like, different tiers.

hopefully this was somewhat helpful! if not it at least let me ramble about my design process which is great hdhsjsh

[hoaxghost]

Are angels soft/squishy or hard? I faintly remember seeing that they're like porcelain dolls but I'm not sure... Also are all the angels named after file types? And if so, can there be angels sharing the same name? Asking because there's probably more angels than there are file types out there. Love your worldbuilding btw it rocks

I'd describe the texture of angels being most similar to porcelain, heaven essentially sounds like Celeste Boursiers Mougenot piece with angels moving around the whole place.

As for names, I mostly stick to naming main angel characters after recognizable file formats but considering just the vast amount of angels out there, I figured there's probably a ton with randomized 2-5 alphabetical or numerical codes as their format. [ex: Angel.Dre4, Angel.S32 etc..]

Also to state again, an angels name isn't just their format code but their hierarchy name and then the format [ex: Angel.Tiff, Archangel.Pdf, Principality.Zip] so you could have angels sharing same format codes but different hierarchies [ex: Throne.Tif, Dominion.pdf etc...]

But!! Truth be told not all angels are referred to by their format names, I do have angels named after other electronic creation tools like Selection so theoretically you can have angels with 'nicknames' such as Export, Insert, Gamut (though I admit it's bit too silly to have an angel named "Overlay mode")

If you were curious about demons, the rules are a lot more lax and loose since they're not really bound to the restrictions of Heaven anymore. Fallen Angels (or roots) sometimes keep their old names or opt for new ones while splits are a lot more creative with what they do.

I did have the idea of naming prominent demons after computer viruses but I suppose I never did much with it- maybe the idea will come back and you'll meet a demon named Storm worm. Also the majority of demons in the story are older ocs of mine whose names I felt too attached to to change

[caputvulpinum]

Would love to hear more about your rabid animal encounter!

It was in 2017 at the time and I was working out in the national forests of California. I came into work one day at my ranger's station and there was way more chaos than I expected--turns out that someone had reported a suspected rabid skunk overnight after it bit a dog in a nearby town and it'd been brought in for testing (which includes euthanasia).

I was super curious and had some free time before I needed to actually go out to do what I was assigned so I decided to watch some of the tests being done. I'd seen the vets take blood samples and such of wild animals in the station before--you use basically what amounts to a syringe at the end of a spear etc etc. But before it started getting messed with by us it still acted wrong.

First off: It was jittery and trembling. Wobbly is too cutesy a word--it was just slightly too intense to be wobbly. The wobbles were more twitchy and jerking, like it was constantly having to catch its balance, or it was constantly trying to react to every single minutiae of stimuli. It was also completely silent and utterly unafraid of any of us. This is one of the big markers of rabies: It fucks with an animal's brain to the extent that its fear receptors essentially rot away, because the virus wants the animal to come into contact with as many other animals as possible, and it can't do that if it's skittish. A nonrabid skunk SHOULD be huddled up in the farthest reach of the carrier curled up and scared out of its goddamned mind for being alien-kidnapped. This one just kinda ambled or stood wherever.

So anyway, we start taking blood samples, and by we I mean my coworkers because I am super unqualified for any medical treatment whatsoever of any animal.

The second the needle stuck into the skunk it stopped being a skunk and started being something else. It began writhing and jerking inside the carrier like it was trying to rip its own muscles and limbs apart to get away or get out, and the whole time it was shrieking and squealing so hard and constant that even outside the station it was loud. I've heard animals dying from predators before, I've heard skunks dying from predators before, they didn't scream like this one did. It screamed like it didn't know how to use its vocal chords or mouth, all it knew was pure unthinking noise.

Again, I'm sorry, but I really don't know how to describe the experience very well. The problem is that rabies doesn't make animals act like how they're supposed to. A nonrabid dog going absolutely apeshit is still going to recognizably act like a dog, just an absolutely apeshit one. A rabid dog going absolutely apeshit does NOT act the same. It acts with complete disregard and unawareness of both its surroundings and its own body. It isn't a living creature anymore, it's a breeding ground of rabies that has completely taken control over the dog and is now puppeting it around with the single purpose of spreading rabies everywhere it can. There's no fear, there's no thought, and I barely agree with calling what rabid animals experience as "aggression" because aggression in animals is a thing which fundamentally acts through motivation of stimuli and reaction. Aggression happens because the animal cares about what happens to the animal. Rabid aggression has absolutely no shits given about what happens to its host. It's awful.

[starry-teacup]

Team give lyfrassir edda tentacles. Not in a horny way. I mean, sure if that's your thing, but that's not what the point of this post is. the rainbowed hair, blood, and eyes are cool and all but I need something a little less pretty bifrost glow-up and a little more I-got-turned-into-an-eldritch-monstrosity-and-can't-go-out-in-public-anymore.

Not full on monster level (though bonus points if they have a barely even human-esque form when they're angry or using their powers). I want them to still be decipherably humanoid, or recognizable by someone who'd met them before all this. but something that could conceivably be achieved by a cosplay is not enough for my hp Lovecraft body horror needs. my ideal post-tbi lyf design has become the subject of several drastic urban legends simply by walking around the street and not interacting with anyone.

so yeah. give the fricker tentacles that don't go away and are a nuisance to find clothes to wear with. make Marius find them pretty even when the way they've been changed isn't conventionally attractive. Please reblog with any personal hcs you have about their cosmic horror appearance that are a bit more screwed up than the norm, lyf edda is my barbie and I like dressing them up in nuclear chaos lmao