#which is why I'm not naming the species in this particular post - it would be getting a little too specific on personal info for my liking

[dracolizardlars]

Ahdhsjxnjs I'll never get over how I did my dissertation research on a particular species of bird and for my birthday my mother actually managed to find one (1) Thing online that she could buy with a picture of that species, a design on Redbubble, so she bought me a cushion cover with it on and when I showed it to my project supervisor he said "oh, isn't that by [name]?" and yeah turns out that design was drawn by one of his former students.

[raptorish]

Being 'Kin Without A 'Heart

Written by Max on October 28, 2024.

I think I have an interesting disconnect between being otherkin and being otherhearted. I see people who feel as though the two terms are nearly indistinguishable, and for some reason it's not like that for me! There's a clear line between them in my brain, and I wanna journal about my personal experience with that.

I'm a velociraptor, velociraptor therian, raptorkin, raptorkind, a prehistoric bird, a wereraptor. I use those words interchangeably, since they all convey the proper information: I'm a raptor. I also strongly identify as human. I have two species, equal in value, and they fluctuate in intensity - in my daily life, I'm content to see myself as human, and my raptor side is almost a separate creature entirely, but not quite. It's a median headmate, an important part of me, and also different from me. We are the same until we are not.

And I'm not raptorhearted, even when I'm only partly identifying as a raptor, when I'm feeling more human. I don't identify with raptors, with the traits humans have given them or with their reconstructed biology - I don't feel a sense of belonging, or home, or love for their species in a way that's beyond what I feel for other animals. Raptors are, for some strange reason, not very special to me. I just happen to be one.

Even when I'm not a raptor, when I'm a human with a raptor side and raptor instincts, I don't relate to my raptor brain - that's why I separate it from me! I don't feel a sense of familiarity with it, beyond the familiarity of being it and knowing how it works from being it.

Other raptors aren't inherently family to me. I'll call them cousins, as an affectionate shorthand, because they're like me and not quite the same, but I don't feel a sense of caring for them simply because they're raptors. I feel familiar with them because they're like me - I enjoy seeing how much we're alike, what ways we might differ! But I don't deeply care about them, in the same way someone who's raptorhearted might.

Here, for contrast, let me tell you about how I experience being fictionhearted with a particular canon, and why I'm confident in calling that a hearttype.

My heartcanon, the fictional canon which I'm connected with, is a personally-created alternate universe of the video game Detroit: Become Human, which I've named Detroit, Machina. I've named it, given it a different title, because it's so fundamentally important to me and feels so different from the original source from which it was derived that calling DBH in general my heartcanon feels painfully wrong.

I don't identify as any character from Machina. I identify with the beats of the story, with the characters and their struggles, with the joys and failures and everything about creating it. I say I have a heartcanon because I could tell someone about it as a story, as a fanfic, and it would not convey the depth of how this story is embedded into my psyche. I would not be the same person if I hadn't written about it for years of my life, put pieces of myself into it. I'm not fictionkind, I'm not anyone in this story, but the story is an integral part of me anyway. I have such strong feelings about it that I don't know how to put it to words, and I don't feel comfortable trying in a public post. It's important to me. If you told me I could never talk about Machina again, I would crumble to ash.

Contrast that with being a raptor. If you were to tell me I could never have any piece of dinosaur paraphernalia ever again, I would shrug. They're cute, sure, but I don't care about raptors that intensely. I would be just as disappointed if you said I couldn't ever have any cat paraphernalia, and I'm not a cat in any alterhuman sense.

Basically - I don't care about raptors in such a strong, personally intense way that they've changed who I am. I am a raptor, and that's changed who I am, and that doesn't mean I necessarily love them. And that's perfectly okay.

[talisidekick]

I go out everywhere in catears, it amazes me that people are so fascinated by this. It's not just doctors appointments, it's clothes shopping, grocery stores, to work, everywhere. I don't leave the house without them, and if I do, I feel like I left the house without shoes on.

But I know some, not all, want to know why, so this is why I'm making this post separate. I do for a number of reasons which are (in no particular order):

because I can.

because it spreads joy.

because it pisses religious conformists off.*

I'm highlighting that last part because Christians, Catholics, Mormons, and Evangelicals to name a few hate anything that is reminiscent of Animism. If you don't know what Animism is, it's the belief that objects, places, and creatures all possess a distinct spiritual essence. Wearing the ears or parts of an animal, embodying traits of that animal, having that be part of your identity, even in just play, is calling back to old cultures, some dead and some struggling to still survive, where the belief that wearing a necklace, ears, or pelt of a slain animal would imbue the wearer with the spirit of that animal. To discredit the practice, these religious extremists will call anything reminiscent of Animism childish, immature, perverted, etc. as if to place their own spiritual values as more a credible practice.

The fact that I just casually walk outside, everywhere, with catears on and literally no one thinks I'm immature for it, and in fact, spreads joy and happiness where I walk is extremely aggravating for these religious fanatics. And this leads right into my fourth and possibly the most important reason for me choosing to wear the catears:

My ancestors wore the pelts of animals for this exact purpose as part of their religious beliefs.

Now many consider the religion and it's faith dead, especially in modern times, but enough of the religion survives through common culture and historical record that I wholeheartedly disagree. In that vein, my choice to wear catears is in part religious or spiritual in nature. While a pelt would be more formal, I live in a world where human negligence has endangered many species and I wish not to contribute to the ongoing environmental harm we passively inflict by deliberately going out and hunting for a wild cat pelt to drape about my shoulders (also in part because I think I'd get fucking killed if I'm being realistic). The catears for me, are a modernization of the spirituality. It's a personal choice, and one I don't feel the need to defend further past this point. I encourage others to wear the ear-headband of their choice for their own personal aesthetic or religious reasons. If you like them, wear them, even just in play, they're harmless. Assign your own meaning and reasons for doing so at whim.

As an aside: "TK" as a nickname was not something I expected when I came up with the name Tali Sidekick ... not sure how I feel about that yet.

[hexjulia]

just logging in to say i'm not dead or anything lol. my brain did the sudden irritation by social media (experience of short form posts, video etc not bad posts or anything in particular) thing again so i logged off and deleted the app until such a time when this form of loosening the grip of focus + alleviating work boredom is fun again which might be tomorrow or in a year who knows. The mind is a funny beast. well mine is.

now that i'm here I would like to say I had a dream in which I was emergency fostering an incredibly jealous caique (bird. type of parrot) which made me nervous about endangering my sweet little bird. This animal was moody, very needy and emotional about my bird getting a lot of attention. And here's why i'm writing this down; coming up with bad puns even in my dreams, this is why I named him Caiqullus (caique catullus), which is unfortunately such a good name for a caique I'd be tempted to give it to a perfectly emotionally stable member of that species. sorry.

[minecraftbookshelf]

For your marriage of the state au:

What exactly is the wither?

Is it like another one of the main “deities” like Trixtin in Pixandria or Aeor and Exor with its own followers or is it like summoning a demon which can be done multiple times with the wither being more of a species than a specific mythical creature. How do other empires view the wither?

Have they ever fought the wither before? Is it a dangerous threat like an Armageddon with it being a huge historical event or is it seen more as a natural disaster? Is it seen as a myth like a creature told in folk tales but most don’t believe to be real. Do other empires battle it as a kind of ritual or show of strength? (mostly asking for Gilded Helianthia as I can total see that empire having ceremonies where their best warriors try to kill the wither)

How did the wither rose alliance come to be?

This is the main question I want answered in this ask. Judging by what you wrote about them it seems like the wither rose alliance only truely came to be once Fwip, Sausage and Gem became the rulers (although I wouldn’t be surprised if I misinterpreted something). In the original mincraft story they got their name from killing the wither as they wanted to prank Jimmy with wither roses so I’m wondering why did they fight the wither this time? This is kinda overlapping with above but did the WRA empires have any connections/experiences with the wither before hand and if so how will it affect their judgement on the name? Is the killing of the wither viewed by the people as a great feat for the trio and an achievement or a horrible decision that could have gone terribly wrong? Is this related to that one event where Fwip and Sausage saved Gem’s life (you haven’t really talked about it that much)?

And finally, how does the Overgrown feel about the wither rose and the name of the WRA?

It hasn’t been talked about in any of the Overgrown’s posts but I feel like, considering Katherine’s lore in the empires smp, flowers would be quite culturally significant as they live in the flower forest so a flower like the wither rose, one that harms and takes life away from other people, wouldn’t be treated lightly. Is the wither rose seen as a bad omen or is it similar to how we view a skull with it still symbolising death and murder but not be taken to seriously where mentioning skulls or using it in naming or it’s imagery isn’t seen as horrifying. Is it treated with the same amount of respect as other flowers as even though it’s deadly it’s still a part of nature or is it something to be condemned and feared? When the Overgrown found out about the name of the WRA did they find it a cultural offfence, was the alliance more feared because of it or did the Overgrown view it as mortals trying to be edgy, and how did their perception of the name change overtime?

Sorry, this is a lot but I am really getting into this au and I hope this ask gives you some fun ideas

So I haven't talked a whole lot about the Nether and how it works for the AU on here, I'm realizing.

The wither in particular is not part of the pantheons. It's generally classified as a cursed construct, since its cobbled together from pieces of the undead. Knowledge of how to summon it is carefully guarded, but if you know where to look isn't too difficult to find.

And young Fwhip, Gem, and Sausage, between the three of them. Definitely found it.

Summoning a wither is a) something only done occasionally, for specific resources and b) usually something done in semi-controlled circumstances, and is considered a military operation, more or less, with multiple people on hand to help take it down. It is not something that three teenagers are supposed to sneak out to do together. (But Fwhip wanted a nether star and they all wanted roses and so they did it and somehow didn't die, though they definitely got close.)

It was considered a feat mostly because of how young they were when they did it and the fact that it was just the three of them.

And that is when the three of them started calling themselves the Wither Rose Alliance, more of a joke between friends, back when Sausage was the only one of them who was royalty, and even he was still not king yet. And it just kinda stuck. (This will all, or at least a good chunk of it be in their origin/backstory fics)

They all became friends fairly young, Fwhip and Sausage first, and then they found Gem and then Sausage found Pearl. The time that Fwhip and Sausage saved Gem's life (instead of vice versa) was the very first time they met when they were very small, and is also how Fwhip and Gem ended up siblings. (Gem is adopted, in this AU)

The Grimlands, the Crystal Cliffs, and Mythland (and Helianthia) were usually allied on some level, being most of the kingdoms with primarily mortal, land-dwelling populations. (Mezalea's close ties with the Ocean and the Swamp caused some divides there) They've also been pretty close with Pixandria, historically. The Grimlands especially, Pix was a frequent visitor there throughout Fwhip and Gem's youth.

When the Roseblings and Sausage (and Pearl) became rulers of their respective empires that just brought them all even closer.

As for wither roses themselves, they are widely viewed as representative of death, specifically unnatural death, though in the case of the WRA its also a symbol of their bonds with each other on a personal level. Because they ultimately come from the undead, they aren't really associated with Trixtin.

The Overgrown actually has some wither roses of their own. The fae are not opposed to violent and horrific murder as a general rule and are, in fact, something of enthusiasts tbh. Katherine's peaceful goals are oriented more on a political level than a personal one.

In the Overgrown wither roses are primarily used as a form of public execution. If anything, they kind of approve of the use of the name for the alliance, because it does seem very much like mortals trying to be edgy and they like that.

I think I got most of the ask covered!

Also welcome! I'm glad you are enjoying the AU. If you stick around we have a lot of fun here!

[rippleclan]

[Image ID: The title of the lore post is "Name Deep Dive: Locustseeker". Locustseeker themself stands under the title in their StarClan form.]

So this got delayed thanks to me getting violently sick, but my brain can actually work now, so I get to talk about name lore! I'm so happy you guys voted for this name deep dive. It sucks that my only distinctly NB character died (Applepelt is she/they, but in-game they're just female), but now we get to talk about the name Locustseeker got in StarClan!

Prefix: "Locust"

Locusts are a species of grasshopper famous for gathering in giant swarms to devour crops. Most of the Clans don't have to worry about this swarming behavior, as their herb gardens and smaller fields are barely noticed by humans and therefore largely ignored by locusts. Most of the time, locusts are solitary insects that can add a special something to a few dishes.

In WheatClan, however, when the days are dry, locusts have the potential to form the great swarms of historian and artisan stories, attacking the human farms and WheatClan's offshoot fields. Despite this insectoid plague, Locust is a popular prefix in WheatClan.

When a kit is named Locustkit, their prefix carries two major connotations. The first is destruction, stemming from a locust's ability to devastate the environment when pushed far enough. The second, despite their typical solitary lifestyle, is the power of community and Clan life. When locusts band together, they are stronger than they could ever be alone. This is a great metaphor for the community mindset the Clans preach.

Suffix: "-seeker"

In Clan tongue, seeker has the same occupational ending as other words like cleric or historian (even though they're not spelled the same in our game's wonderful English translation, lol). This means that the seeker suffix is itself a job which the owner exemplifies.

A seeker's job is to find something. This finding can be emotional, literally, spiritual, whatever. If someone is a -seeker, they may have gone on a quest or completed a mission that was important to the Clan, such as Locustseeker's mission to speak to Gorgestar. Although they were not necessarily finding anything, the suffix is fitting.

Full Name: Locustseeker

Locustseeker is an interesting name, as pairing the suffix with this particular prefix creates two distinct sorts of names, one positive and one a bit darker.

When you look at the destruction connotation of Locust, Locustseeker's name means "seeking destruction". This would imply a violent and troublesome personality. Locustseeker was a bit of a troublemaker in life, so it isn't inaccurate. However, that's not why Fennelspot and Downstar gave them the name.

The other meaning to Locustseeker's name is "seeking Clanhood". By seeking the way of the locust, you are seeking to find the strength and joy of living within a Clan, guided by purpose and innovation. Locustseeker gave their life on a mission for the Clan. As such, when they are thought of, everyone will know that they sought RippleClan to the end of their days.

[starflungwaddledee]

a comment left by @chickenpeep77 on my post about my "realistic penguin" dedede redesigns which i thought was so interesting and compelling i wanted to give a longer reply to! hope that's okay!!

this grew much longer than i even originally expected, so under the read more it goes. i'll also break it up into some kind of sections to make it easier

topics: the joy of the unfamiliar, bird features and the Snood, is dedede officially A Penguin?, and why i like to think he is. (also i have a small meltdown about galacta knight's fkn awful canon wings.)

hard sci-fi spec bio & the joy of the unfamiliar

i'm actually super into speculative biology, and have a lot of gripes with the way aliens in soooooo many fictions or fanons or whichever are always assumed to have a firm set of recognisably familiar traits. must they be made of meat; must they have skeletons; must they pick the most difficult and dangerous method of reproduction possible in the cosmos; just because it's familiar to us? must they be stand ins for humans and animals only? i think that the real fun of speculative hard sci-fi in particular is found in doing a jaunty little dance around the unfamiliar, around all the absolutely infinite and wonderful impossible possibilities out there. so all that to say that i absolutely agree with you about this in general.

the bird "beak skin" topic

i looovvve the idea of using the skin from a bird's mask to form an entirely functional and movable feature like a beak. that would presumably make it a caruncle (and it would share space with one of the best named thing in birds, the "snood"), some of which- like the snood- are indeed movable! many birds also already have caruncles that stretch over the beak, but to have the structure made entirely from it and stretched over teeth instead is very interesting and creative! it perhaps makes it more like skin and lips over a jaw, which is a fun and bizzare visual for a birdlike. i actually think that this kind of specbio could be a fun take for captain vul, who i also just did an earth-bird redesign for. vul has no species identified; for all we know he's a bird-like alien that just happens to look much like an anthromorphic eagle. i also headcanon magolor as a bird-like alien; though he shares few visual similarities with any earth birds.

is dedede a penguin officially or just in our hearts?

(please note that i'm informed on this only from english knowledge and various wikis. if anyone has other info here i'd gladly hear otherwise!) for king dedede in particular, while he's never been officially confirmed to be a penguin there's no shortage of canon references to penguins for him across franchises and he is mistaken for a penguin by snake in smash bros brawl. now i dunno what kind of penguins mr solid snake might have seen in his adventurous life, but while i could look at dedede and think "bird-like alien" i'm not sure i would think "damn that's a penguin for sure." so i personally think that dedede is not necessarily meant to be an unfamiliar alien, or even an alien that looks a bit like a generic bird or an alien that looks like a penguin. i think he is meant to be a penguin, or at least something that was a penguin at some point. and perhaps if there were not an abundance of actual genuine honest to god unidentified and delightfully weird aliens on Popstar and in Kirby games already, i would also be more interested in seeing dedede as a more bizzare bird-like creature than a penguin. you'll note in my designs i also drew him with some dense teeth (not found in earth penguins) and- this wasn't visible- my design also has dexterous talons extended from the wrists of his flippers. if he is a penguin, he doesn't seem to be a very water bound or piscivorous one. so maybe he's a bit distanced from penguins as we know them. several steps of evolution away. but i think because i can satisfy my specbio with the others (please know i have a whole host of unnecessarily complicated and fun waddle dee biology headcanons if anyone is ever interested... and don't get me started on celestials, hahah hahaha!-) for me the most interesting speculative question for king Dedede is not "what could he be if not a penguin like we know them" but actually "how the hell did a penguin get there??". and i think forgotten land gave us some extremely cool stuff to chew on wrt that! kind of like you mentioned with your wormhole theory!

why i personally like to bring Earth Birds into my kirby work

ALL of that said... i'm just doing designs for fun! i like birds, and i like earth birds in particular. they're sadly my only exposure thus far (alien birds though, if you're out there... 👋 ) so when i get the opportunity to utilise both my interest and my knowledge on birds and the way they function here in my fanwork, i take that chance! i had the skill to draw an earth-penguin-accurate dedede so i did, for fun! i also use my knowledge of wing structures for both birds and bats (and butterflies even) to tweak how i draw the various knight's wings to be "more realistic", as if that's a metric in space. but galacta's canon styled wings are.......................... i mean i have some capital t Thoughts about that One Long Feather. and i think most people understand this to be stylisation, but maybe it is just that he's an alien! maybe they're not even feathers, maybe it's just silly putty that looks like feathers! the world is your oyster tbh.

and the wrap up.

lastly, i can see you're into specbio too and that's super exciting, and i absolutely hope none of this sounds like... negative or remotely critical at all? i completely agree with you and love what you're doing with your stuff!! i'm just excited to engage with this topic you brought up and it made me thoughtful about the way i conceptualise dedede as less alien rather than more, when my preference is indeed usually more!

these are just my personal thoughts/preferences/headcanons and i guess like... why i think HCing dedede as a relatively normal penguin is actually perhaps the most interesting (and funniest) take for me and my own enjoyment! 😂 but everybody- including yourself- should always do what is the most fun and enjoyable for you; especially in a space like creativity and fandom!

anyway.. uhm.. hwahaha wow okay. well, anyone, if you read this far, thank you! sorry for accidentally opening this can of worms i'm sure it'll happen again

[keyglyph]

Shiny Chaining circa 2010

I've been catching shinies with the poké radar in the gen IV Pokémon games for a long time now, and it's wild to think about how niche and mysterious the chaining process was for most of us back in the earlier days.

I've been reminiscing about this a lot on my own lately, so why not reminisce together?

The concept of chaining has appeared in a handful of Pokémon games since its introduction in Diamond and Pearl, but wow did things get off to a cryptic start! The only in-game hints in Diamond and Pearl that the chaining mechanic even existed -- at least so far as I was aware -- were 1) a few lines of nonchalant NPC dialog and 2) the Trainer Counter pokétch app.

In regards to the NPCs, if you visit Sandgem Town post-game and speak to Lucas or Dawn, they'll ask you how things are going with the poké radar and then casually drop that the grass patches that shake farthest away from you will have the highest chances of containing consecutive repeat pokémon. Neat, you think. Something to keep in mind if you want to save time seeking out a particular nature or doing some EV training or something.

But then if you pick up the Trainer Counter pokétch app too, you're like, okay, there must be something else to encountering the same species of pokémon over and over again in a row, because why else would the game be putting this much effort into tracking it?

Naming this the "Trainer Counter" didn't make anything clearer, unfortunately.

But the really intriguing bit happens when Lucas or Dawn -- and again, this is expressed to you in just one or two lines of optional post-game dialog with a character you may not be particularly inspired to check up on -- makes an offhand comment about a "sparkling" grass patch that sometimes shows up when you use the poké radar. They claim that these patches will have a different-colored pokémon inside but then quickly reframe this as perhaps more rumor than fact by ending on a wistful, "I wonder if that's true?"

It was this mention of a sparkling grass patch that stuck in my mind enough (read: adhesed forever) that on the random day in 2008 when I was stunned by the appearance of one -- at an incredibly low chain, before I even knew what chaining was -- I was able to make the connection and understand what I was seeing. But from that point on, all of my knowledge about chaining, shiny or otherwise, came from the fan sites, LiveJournal posts, and YouTube videos I found when I started searching the internet to see if other people had experienced this phenomenon too.

And just to fully set the scene here, the only -- only -- footage of an actual shiny patch I was aware of in those days was this two-second YouTube video. There were no gifs or other screenshots to reference anywhere. Eventually more videos would follow from folks setting up their digital cameras or DV camcorders to film over their shoulders, but for a few years the shiny Pokémon LiveJournal community I'd joined had to live with the ongoing subdermal dread of, "Even if I do this whole laborious process right and it actually works, what if a shiny patch happens and I don't recognize it?" If you'd never seen one in your game before, how could you be sure you'd know?

So of course now that we have Nintendo DS capture devices, I'm obsessed with making these.

Fan-made written guides for shiny chaining did exist by the time I was looking into things in 2010, and I specifically remember using an earlier version of this Smogon University guide to wrap my head around the process. But I would love to know the story behind the folks who originally dug through the game's code and pulled out this information, because I just can't get over how a game mechanic this robust -- robust enough to be its own minigame with its own custom animations and BGM tune, which directly and secretly affected shiny odds -- was barely explained in any official capacity at the time.

I cracked open my Pearl and Platinum manuals and my Diamond/Pearl Official Prima Game Guide Volume 1 just to make sure there wasn't something about chaining in either place that I'd somehow overlooked. Not only is there not, but there is no mention of the poké radar at all, and the Game Guide doesn't include the Trainer Counter app in its pokétch section. I suppose this makes some amount of sense since the poké radar isn't given to you until you've finished the main storyline, but still. Pretty interesting.

The pokétch pages in the Prima Game Guide Volume 1.

That said, I can't speak to what is or isn't in the Prima Game Guide Volume 2. I should grab a copy for research purposes. 😄 And I will also note that in Platinum, which came out two years after Diamond and Pearl, Lucas or Dawn will give you a short demonstration of how to use the poké radar... but they really don't give you any new information beyond what was already said in Diamond and Pearl. They certainly don’t mention a relationship between chain numbers and shiny odds. They just spell out the process a little more clearly, show you some actual rustling grass, and suggest that you buy some repels. Helpful, yes. But still barely scratching the surface!

So now what about you? When and how did you learn about shiny chaining? What were your experiences with the poké radar in gen IV? Was there some official information out there that I missed back in the day? Replies are welcomed!

Footage recorded via Nintendo DS Capture Board; edited with ScreenToGif.

[tuiliel]

Hey, I stumbled upon your fae posts and I’ve been reading through them! I’d love your take on a question that’s been on my mind. You mention meeting fae originally England and described a spirit that seems similar to a germanic wood wife — do you feel that every kind of fae & land spirit is present in every place (ex Dryads just being the Greek description for Fänggen tree faeries), or do you think these spirits are distinct and different? Maybe some of these spirits traveled the world as humans have traveled it? You seen very fae-versed and I’d love to hear your thoughts.

I think it's a little of both? There may well be beings that exist everywhere and have dozens of names, but a lot of the beings I've encountered do seem inclined to represent themselves (to me, at least) as being "from" a particular part of the world or to folklore of a particular region or culture. I think there's a certain about of cultural symbiosis that happens in relation to nearby human populations.

There are definitely other people's folkloric and anecdotal accounts of beings traveling with their human "family" (brownies, for one), and I think it's reasonable to assume that certain Otherworldly beings might be around anywhere there's a sizable human population from the culture that has lore about them.

But I think when classifying these beings, it's a lot more important to focus on describing their culture and their attitudes (especially attitudes towards humans) than it is similar to any kind of delineation of "species". Your two examples are both "tree spirits", sure, but even for species of tree frog there are dozens, and if all of those frogs were also sapient and functionally immortal, would populations in distant places be the "same thing"? I don't think we can classify Otherworldly beings the way we classify species of animals, or even hominids. These are beings known for glamour and shape shifting - they will show me what they wish me to see, and I'm not arrogant enough to think that's always the Absolute Truth of them. And this is borne out in folklore - sometimes, the same being is called elf or demon or imp interchangeably, depending on how they're acting. "Demon" when malevolent towards humans, "imp" for mischief and mayhem, and "elf" is more neutral, capable of either help or harm. There's evidence that this is how early medieval people understood the distinctions between etins/jotnar and elves, also. It's descriptive, not absolute.

I'm my own dealings, since part of my first contact is to introduce myself/my context, and explain that I'll do my best to treat them as expected in the culture/folklore they represent themselves as, when they give me something to work with there we've at least established a baseline, a foundation on which we can build a relationship.

For example - if they present themselves as Daoine Sidhe, I'll give offerings of milk and honey, mead and baked goods, and unsalted butter. If they claim to be Alfar, that's much the same but also apples and oatmeal. The rules of etiquette are slightly different, too - never say "Thank you" to the Sidhe; that matters less to the Alfar. Iron wards off both of those, so its presence is rude, but silver or gold wards off some beings who don't mind iron. It's a lot of stuff to learn and I've not mastered it all (it's a lifetime's work, but I've got a decent library and a good eye for trustworthy resources, at this point), but that's why I ask them what I should call them - what kind of a being they wish to be understood as, and what name I should give to their local group, were I to refer to it.

It's also less rude to the human cultures that have created the bodies of folklore, I think - we have to remember that we exist in that context as well. Appropriation can be a serious concern, especially when voices within a culture are drowned out by people speaking over them.

Generally... I don't think it's helpful to collapse deities down to their main roles and ignore all the stories that point out their differences, and I don't think that's helpful with Otherworldly beings, either. So whether they're the same "species" or not, I'd give Dryads clean water, diluted wine, and olive oil. I've not met anyone who called themselves Fänggen, but I think I'd probably try offerings made of grain, first, or possibly milk. I'm not sure they'd appreciate a libation of olive oil.

Does that make sense? How they present themselves tells me a little about their expectations, their likes and dislikes, and their sensibilities. I'm a witch looking to create relationships, not a scientist trying to answer questions that might be unanswerable.

[z-h-i-e]

Get to know me better...

I have been tagged by @sallysavestheday and I aim to please. Or, at least answer the call to answer questions. ^_^

Relationship status: Smaug and I have been together since 1997 - according to the Elves, we've been married since 1998, according to the Race of Men, 2000. We're also besties, so that definitely made all the time spent together during the pandemic pretty nice.

Favorite color: I have a favorite color spectrum that includes purple, green, and gold. It slides around depending on my mood. I will also argue that glitter is one of my favorite colors.

Song stuck in your head: This precise moment? My Songs Know What You Did in the Dark/Fall Out Boy -- I've been listening to it, thinking of Finrod composing songs about the burning of the ships that become popular and this leads into Celegorm and Curufin being pissed at him later that their shoreline deeds become Noldorin pop songs without them getting any credit

Favorite food: I am a big fan of mushrooms - years ago, when I used to do impromptu Discord calls while cooking and imparting fandom and life wisdom, it ended up named 'Mushrooms in my Ramen' because that's the best way to ramen. I also like fruit; I grow several types in my yard. Shrimp, shrimp is amazing. Shrimp on pizza, shrimp and corn chowder, shrimp and grits -- just, shrimps, yes. Also poutine. I love a good poutine. I like making soups and chili the way I want them (basically, no tomatoes - tomatoes are my species enemy, they will try to kill me), so, tomato-less and meatless chili is kind of my jam. My big guilty pleasure is Chicken McNuggets. I know they're basically fried chicken goop, I will still consume them. I don't even need sauce. (But, sauce is good, so it honey with them.) Oh, and raw sweet corn. I don't know why people cook corn. It's so much better raw. (not canned cold, but fresh raw sweet corn)

Last song played: I heard Alone Again Or by The Damned when I drove home. I had only previously heard the original by Love, which I, heh, wow, unintentional pun, love. It's a song on my original Glorfindel/Erestor playlist from twenty years back, when the early shippers were jockeying for position and trying to figure those Rivendell bois out. I should teach myself to play that song. I wonder how it would sound on the balalaika... *pencils that in for a summer project* I already know the lyrics... [So the connection for me with Glorfindel and Erestor on this was the idea of Glorfindel being really friendly with everybody, but the only one he wants is Erestor, so he remains alone and waits for him during the early fourth age when the two of them are the last two remaining inhabitants of Imladris. Even though they aren't together yet, Glorfindel still uses terms of endearment for Erestor - right to his face - nothing hidden. My Erestor is such a asshole. Someday he'll do right by everyone... moving on...]

Dream Trip: I'm at a point where I hate any trip where I can't be home to sleep. Apnea diagnosis did that. So, I guess I'd like VR to catch up to a point where I can really and truly immerse and then go to...Middle-earth, of course I'm going there, or Thundera (obviously pre-explodeyness).

Last thing I Googled: I've been trying to help a friend find apartments in Milwaukee county that are not ridiculously expensive or have weird stipulations or fees attached to them. Certainly been a challenge. But the last last thing was googling Alone Again Or by The Damned so I could listen to it again but also sing along as I was writing this (yeah, that's apparently a creepy thing I do, is singing songs with unrelated lyrics while typing other words or blog posts or fanfic, so that's a thing I have going for me)

I guess that's all for now. Instead of tagging anyone in particular, I suggest that anyone who is interested in sharing please steal these questions and have at it. Or, just go and listen to Alone Again Or. It's a good song.

Love: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPbNpIG8x_s

The Damned: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYVDN27CrOo

Only just realizing this now, it's not a bad Finrod pining for Amarië or Edrahil song, either... I'll have to tuck that away for later.

Your mileage may vary - if you do listen to it, I would would be interested knowing who it reminds you of.

[petalburg-pokemon-husbandry]

Paldea Trip day 7: Wiglett

I'm not gonna lie, this post is mainly gonna be about convergent evolution. I don't think it's an unreasonable thing to look at Wiglett and Diglett and think "Oh, those must be closely related species. They've got the same big red noses and general tube-shaped bodies, so they must share a recent common ancestor." Unfortunately, you would be dead wrong. Wiglett is more closely related to tentacool than it is to Diglett. So of course then one would ask: Why the heck do they look so similar? The answer, as it turns out, is convergent evolution. (Population Evolution, not individual evolution. The terms can be confusing sometimes.) In biology, species will adapt into what we call their "niche", which is basically just the way that they go about their lives. A niche involves the time, location, food, and everything else that a species has to care about to survive. The important thing to know about right now is that species really don't like to share the same niche. If that ever happens, they'll often compete until one or both are entirely wiped out. That sort of competition isn't the only possible outcome, however. Species can also go through something called "niche partitioning", which is when their niches diverge slightly over several generations so they compete with each other less. A class example of this is small songbird pokemon, where any individual species's niche might be one specific part of one specific species of tree, such as Rookidee on the top of the shaded side of sycamore trees, wattrel on the top of the sunny side of sycamore trees, and fletchling on the bottom of sycamore trees. These sorts of niches are entirely innate, which is a remarkable thing to watch happen in real time. Now, with all of that established, let's finally get to convergent evolution. Within its niche, a species will generally adapt to be as efficient as possible at gather resources and reproducing. This will usually lead to traits evolving that are best suited to that specific niche. So, if two species were to share the same niche but in different locations - for example, diglett digging tunnels in soft soil in tepid regions and wiglett digging tunnels in soft sand in arid regions - it's entirely possible for them to adapt in the same way simply because the traits they share are what's best for that particular niche. Another really good example of this is physically powered flight. (We'll ignore psychic levitation for the sake of this post.) Flight evolved four different times across history, all of which were in completely different environments and at completely different times, and yet they all ended up extremely similar to one another. The first creatures to evolve flight were bug-type Pokemon like ancient ancestors of Yanma or Beedrill. After that were ancient flyers like Aerodactyl. Next were the aptly named flying-types such as ancestors of Pidget and Spearow, and finally mammalian flight by pokemon like Zubat and Noivern. All of these abilities to fly evolved millions of years apart from one another, and yet for the most part they've all ended up remarkably similar to one another. That is due to convergent evolution. Well, I just stayed up until 3am writing about convergent evolution. I have to go outside and start tagging Toedscool at 7am tomorrow morning. Wish me luck.

[holidaytorment]

just imagine how good it would feel to read a book that's already assumed that you've internalized the lessons of books for teenagers.

fuck it. in no particular order: Books For Adults

the guns of august, barbara tuchmann. non-fiction, about the lead-up to and first month of world war 1. tuchmann's strength is in writing history in a breezy, personal way, and it is easy to see why it was awarded the pulitzer. the audiobook narrated by ian stuart is also tremendous (the other narrators i've heard are not as good). i think i've re-read this book more than any other i've read .

war and peace, leo tolstoy. historical fiction starring russian aristocrats during the napoleonic wars. jokes have been made about war and peace's length for decades and it's true, it is very long, but the thing is that it's also very, very good. if the thought of reading a long book about russian aristocracy turns you off because of whatever politics you may have then you are a coward.

the karla trilogy, john le carre. mystery/espionage, about the reveal of a traitor at the top of british intelligence (tinker, tailor, soldier, spy), a follow-up mission in hong kong (the honourable schoolboy), and the final resolution of the turmoil (smiley's people). simply fantastic pieces of writing and not at all what you should be expecting when i say that you should read these books about british spies. do not think that any james bond antics will happen here. i think i like the one-two of tinker, tailor and smiley's people (both are tied thematically a lot more to each other) but of the three the honourable schoolboy is probably the best overall. when george smiley shows up in anything i'm reading i smile.

the spy who came in from the cold, john le carre. mystery/espionage, about a mission into the heart of east germany and the personal toll of espionage. i told myself i wouldn't repeat authors but john le carre is basically my favorite author, and this is the novel that made him known worldwide.

all the president's men, carl bernstein and bob woodward. non-fiction journalism procedural, about the washington post's initial coverage of watergate. the book ends (and was published) before nixon resigned, so it might feel incomplete, but i liked the final days (by the same) as a follow-up/sequel. i also recommend the movie, jason robards gives one of the all-time great acting performances.

the game, ken dryden. non-fiction, memoir about the great montreal canadiens goalie's last season as a player, used as a framing device for a career retrospective. it's been some years since i've read it but it's still one of the all-time great books writen about sports. NOT the book that started the pick-up artist trend.

murder on the orient express, agatha christie. mystery, about the murder of a man on a train, and about finding your own peace and justice. i'd prefer not to give more details since it is a murder mystery, but there's a reason why agatha christie is a household name. and a book doesn't have to be long to be adult.

a memory called empire, arkady martine. sci-fi, about the first two weeks in the life of a new ambassador of an independent space station to the core of the galactic empire. oh and she also has to figure out the reason why her predecessor was killed. uh oh!

i got books for days. crime and punishment for me was slow until the titular crime happens about 1/5th in, and then i finished it in a week. lolita is basically unreliable narrator 101, read this book instead of hating it because you half-remember a half-read wikipedia article. last chance to see is a fantastic book by a hilarious writer about endangered species, some of which have gone extinct since publication. the right stuff, a fantastical tale of the early us space race. homage to catalonia, george orwell's memoir of fighting in the spanish civil war. ball four, jim boutan's tales of playing minor league baseball, maybe the best book about the sport ever written. i don't like tom clancy's other stuff but hunt for red october is tremendous trash. read a book written before you were born

No babe it’s so cool and hot that you always insist that fantasy books written to meet a 4th graders’ comprehension skills have more complex themes and a greater sense of praxis than anything written for adults

[faunastanza]

Call Sign

Bearrings, Common A species sheet for the most blatant Pokemon ripoff I've ever seen. Min the not-a-celebi ain't nothing compared to this. Bearrings are just Ursarings. The names are even the same!

come on man

Anyway this time Neon is the one logging in to read info on the Ursarings. Their main thing is that they can astral project when they're sleeping or if they daydream really hard. They can affect the real world in their astral projection form, and can explore places that would be too dangerous for someone to travel to physically. TAL says they have an Ursaring working for them called Cozmo and Neon decides to go see him.

Seeds: War Is Hell Ch? - Call Sign

This is all technically still Seeds: War is Hell, apparently. Not Good With Kids was also a chapter of Seeds: War is Hell. I have no idea why this whole story... section? Is called War is Hell. But whatever. Call Sign is one of the last mostly coherent stories before we dive off a cliff into the really insane territory. I said mostly, note.

beholding siren (back right)

Neon has that nightmare again about Lily and a Beholding Siren where I think the siren is making Lily attack her but I'm not sure. The eye of the siren in particular seems to bother her. She wakes up and goes online to find bad posts (meaning posts that disagree with her) and tracks down the posters in real life to harrass them, to give you an idea of what Neon is like. This is also a dream however. Neon gets an email from Cozmo saying he's not in town currently but he will be in a while and he's cool with whatever.

Cozmo's a very chill and laid back dude who doesn't like being bored. He considers himself a wizard and can remember his astral dreams really well because of this, using his astral form to explore Teslic Yard. Teslic Yard is a dangerous place that's not on many maps and is hard to track down. In trying to find it, Cozmo went to a restaurant where the proprieter has some beholding siren heads on the walls as trophies. Beholding sirens have three eyes and even with their head cut off and mounted on the wall can still be alive and attack things. They can also apparently change their appearance to fit in better with people nearby them.

The proprieter says the beholding siren ate her leg, and Cozmo asks if it can regenerate since sirens are from Beholding Gorge. No idea what he means by that. Anyway he explored around Teslic Yard for a bit since he couldn't really get killed by anything until he ran into a door he couldn't open even in his astral form, which really bothered him. Before he could get in though Lily spotted him, even though most people can't see his astral form, and knocked him out, waking him up and putting him back in his own body. Cozmo keeps trying but Lily keeps finding him, and eventually Lily tracks him down in real life to ask if he wants to work for them at Teslic Yard.

i relate to you cozmo

Neon finds Cozmo and has a speech prepared for him about what she wants to do but he daydreams through it. She readies herself to read it again, and Cozmo again starts drifting off since it's boring but tells himself to focus. She wants Cozmo to go explore a place called Ever Hopeful, which is beyond the Beholding Gorge. She hopes that if she can see something for herself, she'll be able to figure it out.

She gives Cozmo some photos she has of Ever Hopeful that she got from decoding five different numbers stations into data. Strangely, TAL can't hear the signals or see the photos when Neon shows them to her. Cozmo starts heading off and runs into a quarantine line around Kadath that tells him to keep out, but he gets through the barrier anyway. He finds a weird abandoned village and hears spooky breathing on the opposite side of the wall he's walking on, and gets tripped into a noose by a ground full of eyes.

angels??

Turns out that Cozmo's died a ton of times like this without reaching Ever Hopeful and Neon is frustrated. She asks Cozmo why he keeps investigating the village even though it's obviously cursed and haunted and Cozmo just says it looks cool, he can't NOT look at it. Neon decides to reroute him around the evil village so it won't tempt him. Of note is that there's a map of the area and Ever Hopeful is very close to Heaven's Keys, a series of islands off the coast.

coincidence??

Anyway Cozmo goes through the Neckdeep Mire but also ends up dying constantly because the things in there can see him and he's not used to it. Neon says that Lily makes the trip twice a year without getting hurt, but apparently cuts around the thing in Ever Hopeful to go to Heaven's Keys. Cozmo's like then why didn't you just ask Lily to do it and Neon's like because it's DANGEROUS!! and I would've wanted to go with her myself and Cozmo's like whatever.

Cozmo gets past the mire and runs into an Undertaker forest. The Undertaker's like what the hell are you doing here and Cozmo's like eh just walking by. The Undertaker warns him away from exploring the Keys saying they're dangerous with a lot of angel-ish imagery.

maybe angels hang out there? idk

The Undertaker lets Cozmo pass through as long as he doesn't bother anyone, and he sees a bunch of people with terminal maladies hanging out and mostly having a good time. Cozmo realises it's a hospice for dying people and leaves in a funk. When he reports back to Neon he tries to leave out the stuff he saw in the Void Forest but she insists on seeing it, even though he says it'll just make her sad. And you know what, he shows their feelings to her and it makes her sad. Who would have thought?

idiot

Cozmo makes it through to Beholding Gorge and finds four booths run by four different beholding sirens, each with their third eye open and their others closed. They don't seem bothered by him at all and one with bees in her hair offers some honey to him. When he says he doesn't have any money, the siren manifests a coupon that says that favors are currency, and the honey is free to sample. Cozmo eats some and dies. Neon is extremely frustrated that Cozmo fell for such an obvious trap and he just shrugs and goes back to sleep.

He goes back to beehair Siren and tells her that her honey was really good, although it would've killed him.

i give this death honey five stars

She seems a bit puzzled by this and offers him a different type of honey, which he eats and then dies again and Neon is like GOD DAMN IT. She can't figure out why Cozmo is getting drawn to the traps, and he insists it was good honey and that the second time, the beehair siren tried to give him weaker honey, although it was still enough to kill him. He thinks they're just trying to sell their wares to him and him dying was an accident. Neon is doubtful and says that their reputation isn't because of "accidents".

Neon does a scan of all of TAL's archives for information about beholding sirens, leading to a short VN called

Subject 6

Neon logs in and her username is Kid Neon, so Dr. Neon and Kid Neon ARE the same person and not two different Neons across different "frequencies". Maybe. Who knows. She analyzes's Cozmo's dream report about the sirens he saw, of which there are six listed.

The first one has a face that looks a lot like Orobas's. The notes mention that sirens prefer crushing blows to slashing ones, since crushing blows are less likely to kill a fleeing victim. For the third one, the notes mention that sirens have a "beauty", with this one having sacrificed it in the form of its arm to make a victim look at its hypnotic flowers, which would validate her theory that sirens can control their victims. The fourth one also has a very Orobas looking face. Neon says that sirens knowingly cultivate a meek and timid appearance to appeal to their victims and are thus capable of learning what different cultures like.

suspicious

After the fourth siren, the file closes saying it's complete. Neon checks the list of sirens and only four are listed. She tries to list sirens 5 and 6, but they don't appear. She looks at siren 5's file directly and it only gives her garbled static . Neon asks TAL what's going on and TAL says she can see sirens 1-5 perfectly fine. Neon asks for a description of siren 5, and TAL gives her a description that sounds just like Orobas. Neon asks about siren 6, but TAL doesn't see a 6 on the list at all.

Neon tries to get it to display directly and gets a distorted glitchy image of what looks like Mr. 5 and the text begins to glitch out and repeat. It eventually says there are too many results and tells her to narrow it down. When Neon tries to display the list, nothing comes up at all and the messages are all lagging. She tries to display siren 6 again, but the computer lags and the entire file gets deleted.

Neon asks TAL for backups but she doesn't have any. The computer then reboots despite her telling it to stop, then installs new drivers in spite of her telling it to stop, then starts throwing up a ton of errors at her in general.

looks familiar

There's a brief glimpse of a plant with an eye before Neon's CYBEREYES overheat and she loses all the data. Chip says it'll try to restore it while she takes a break.

Back with Cozmo, he's gone through and tested all the sirens' wares. All of them are normal things like incense, ointment, or fabric dye that have some kind of magical effect on them that makes them lethal. Cozmo thinks that none of that is intentional and it's because they're using stuff in the gorge to make their wares and all the stuff in the gorge is toxic or cursed. Meanwhile Jupet asks Neon to read them a story and she mentions that Shizu and "Papa" are busy, which is the first we've heard of Jupet's dad.

All the booths disappear abruptly and beehair siren shows Cozmo a big tree where they apparently all live before also disappearing. In the background, a ghostly Orobas is peeking around. What??

???

Cozmo goes up the tree and finds all the sirens around a table, apparently waiting for him. They talk amongst themselves but Cozmo can't understand it, then set up a sort of summoning circle thing on the table. It goes up in flames and inside is a pawprint, which Cozmo thinks is for him and that they're asking him for his help. He sticks his paw on the pawprint and there's kind of an explosion noise. He decides to leave before Neon gets on his case but finds out suddenly that he's trapped in the room and can't phase through the walls or anything while the sirens leer at him.

Neon gets a report that the dream log for Cozmo has ended but no data has come back from him, and then gets a report that multiple lifeforms are in his room. Neon goes to check it out and finds his room has a bunch of bees that hung out in beehair siren's bee hair, and incense that one of the sirens was selling that smells really nice (and is deadly), and then passes out.

We cut back abruptly to Neon and Lily where we last saw them at the end of Draft 6 where they were both exploring Teslic Yard. They're in the same room but on a different frequency, or at a different time? It's hard to say, but the floor has dead bees on it. Lily says they're shays, or fairy bees, and are meant to bring good luck. Lily and Neon go exploring a bit and Lily finds their old quarters and says they're empty, but Neon finds Jupet's old room that still has all their old stuff in it. Unsurprisingly, Lily is upset and starts crying because she'll never see her Jupet again, OOPS.

Lily says that something happened in the room that makes her sad, but she can't place what it is. There's a fairy circle in the middle of the room that looks dead, and Lily says that fairy circles can show up where fairies die, especially if heavy magic is involved, and says that necropossums (like Biff) are a type of fairy. Neon looks sad at this - later someone implies that Jupet is a possum, so maybe that's why?

Lily says she's starting to remember that Teslic Yard was almost empty and TAL lent Jupet a finger puppet, then the doll disappeared and Jupet died and never woke up, then corrects and says "we" found out that Jupet was using the doll in Hellside, which was what Jupet was doing before the shift happened. Meanwhile there's a pic of Andre on the wall just kinda watching and only Lily seems to notice he's there. She tells Neon to leave her alone for a bit.

andre's face first got cracked in try try again, before that it was fine

She addresses Andre by his full title and asks why his face isn't split in half, to which he says he's a "vintage rendition" untouched by the cosmos. He says he's Beleth's boss "this time" and when Lily asks if he can ask Beleth to come to Teslic Yard, he says that's not a good idea. If Beleth doesn't rescue Median so she can end the epidemic, it'd be disastrous. Lily says "ANOTHER epidemic?" and Andre says it's the first one, as it always is, and that a lot of details are interchangable but not that one, nor the bit about Beleth saving Median.

Meanwhile, Neon asks Chip if they ever reached Ever Hopeful, to which Chip says yes, but when Neon asks for more details Chip refuses to say. Lily and Neon decide to head for Neon's old office, although Lily's taken Andre's picture with her, which I don't think ever comes back in the future.

Back with Cozmo and the sirens, Cozmo says that it wasn't a summoning circle they made but a fairy circle. The sirens aren't interested in fighting with him however, and are staring at a shadow of Orobas at the head of the table. When the sirens look with their normal eyes, she disappears, but if they look with their third eyes, she appears. Cozmo wonders if their stares are what's keeping her in existence, or at least as close to existence as she is at the moment.

Cozmo makes as if to attack them, but the sirens :( at him and he backs off, to which they :) at him (although Orobas is perpetually :) and has no eyes while this is going on).

i think the sirens are cute tbh

The sirens ask Cozmo for a favor, and he eventually figures out that they want him to find Orobas. The sirens themselves can't leave to go look because they get attacked whenever any other people see them. The sirens start telepathically communicating with him, but they can only say a few vague words, mostly "favor" and "see". Cozmo decides they're offering him a favor, seeing, in exchange for him finding Orobas, and agrees.

Meanwhile, Neon wakes up and blames herself for the sirens taking Cozmo and vows that she'll find and rescue him. She says sirens may keep their victims alive for several days if they're sufficiently "desired" so she might still have some time. She decides to head out to find him by following his trail she got from his logs.

Neon decides to take a shortcut and go by the haunted village so she can get to the sirens faster. Chip says this is a bad idea but she's confident she can just ignore the village.

those three lines again

She does not ignore the village. She starts getting haunted by spooky breathing and tries to drive away but keeps looping back to the village. Each time she comes back to the village it looks a little more angel-y. Someone tries to get into her vehicle and she floors it. When she asks Chip if it can sense anything, it says everything's normal, which Neon says has precedent since it was the same case with TAL. The breathing comes back and Neon flips out and drives into a tree.

Current Neon wakes up in present time still thinking she's in Cozmo time, so there's some overlap going on. She says that she and Jupet made the scrapgoat pointy thing that's been following them around (its name is Static), and when she asks where the goat was made since it wasn't Teslic Yard, it says that only Jupet can access that info.

pointy

They make it to the building and Lily flirts with Neon a bit more who blows up at her to stop making fun of her and to stop pretending that Neon's useful or needed or she likes her. Lily apologizes and Neon asks her how much she remembers. Lily says that she doesn't remember very much, but she remembers enough to be happy they're both here. Lily says she'll knock off the flirting and Neon thinks about how she doesn't want that, so she tells Lily it's okay in so many words and flirts back to Lily's delight.

Anyway back in Cozmo time, Neon gets away from the village and makes it to the Void Forest. She asks the Undertakers where Cozmo is and they say they're pretty sure he's in trouble and it's her fault and to gtfo. She tries to drive through anyway and they punt her out lol.

She drives along a beach instead and ends up triggering some kind of... boulder throwing traps that sense motion? So she just has to sit and wait for nightfall. While she's waiting she starts thinking about Cozmo and whether or not she actually wanted to rescue him or if she just wanted to go to Ever Hopeful herself and used him to figure out how to do it.

Neon wonders aloud if Cozmo already found Ever Hopeful and didn't tell her. Chip thinks that's ridiculous. The art starts getting kind of sketchy and weird and Neon gets really paranoid, saying that Cozmo had an agenda and can't be trusted, and he wanted Ever Hopeful for himself. Chip is like what the hell are you talking about while Neon keeps going on about how Cozmo tricked them and all the siren stuff was probably just lies and that he must have tricked them out here to die.

get used to crossed out text like this, soon it will be endless

The borders get eyes and angel-y and start reaching out to block out Chip's protests, making it instead sound like Chip also thinks they should head to Ever Hopeful, since she knows that's where Cozmo will be.

Meanwhile, Cozmo is in his real form and he finds Neon's car but it's empty. He's distraught at the realization that Neon must have come here looking for him. He shifts to his astral form and tells himself that everything will be fine if he can just find her before anything else gets to her and he'll help her go home. He heads off to find her and gets stopped by three beholding sirens who run security around Ever Hopeful, apparently. They scan him saying he has a "soul split" and identify him as Cozmo, saying his status is "beautiful" lol. He makes as if to zap them and they tell him to knock it off or they'll give him a tranquilizing bite. He asks them where Neon is, and they say "Error 651" and say that it's restricted information, and that he has to visit the admissions office and update his profile information to lift the restrictions. When he asks how, they tell him to just head to the admissions office, while one siren says that his soul status is "no longer connected". They also say that permissions are null while on campus until his profile is up to date. They say his soul status qualifies for paid testing and asks if he wants to apply and he refuses. They warn him that an infection is present on inner campus grounds (hey, remember Schoolyard Disease?) and ask if he wants an escort, and he says it's fine and that he remembers the way, and he thinks Neon does too.

Cozmo wonders what they were trying to do here as he finds the main school building, and says that they didn't want to remember. He says that now it's okay though, and that "now, I'm me" and he can remember and things will be okay. He remembers that they were looking for something and they found themselves. He says it used to be so boring, but now it's okay because this time he's himself, and "I won't have to be you, too, ever again". No idea what any of that means.

Call Sign: Cozmo (actually says Neon but it's crossed out) goes to School

I hear you out there going nnOOOO NOT BELETH GOES TO SCHOOL AGAIN and yup, we're going to school again. This arc was really holding together pretty well up until this point, huh? Well all things come to an end.

Cozmo (who has many stars over his head) heads into the school and it's in the detailed greyscale world, a lot like the one seen in the Mr. 5 video where Andre and Mr. 5 bickered back in Try Try again. He overhears someone making a presentation to their esteemed colleagues, saying that they have not only the honor of showing their greatest achievement, but demonstrating it as well. The voice goes on to say it's Static, that pointy goat thing, and that it's the highest marriage of logical science-based reasoning and the spiritual enlightened mind. Meanwhile, Cozmo walks by some barely boarded up doors and runs into Chip. Chip leads Cozmo through a door that leads into a trippy angel place with eyes and flowers all over.

The eyes with eyelashes/petals imagery comes up a lot with this particular... thing

The voice says that with Static they no longer have to fear death. since instead of death there will be countless beginnings. Cozmo goes through another even deeper door and ends up in that same classroom again with the same scribbly shadow people. The teacher gives the same spiel they always do about introducting yourself. Cozmo says he's looking for Dr. Neon and he could only find "this one part" of her, meaning Chip (Chip has a piece of Neon's soul). He doesn't see her in the classroom and is worried he won't see her anywhere. The scribbly shadow people now have weepy eyes for heads as the teacher asks Cozmo to tell them more about himself.

Cozmo says that he thinks he's lost, and that he was supposed to find a building but "we broke it apart a long time ago". He says it was an accident, but he thinks Neon will be annoyed anyway. He asks if they've seen her and says he's scared she won't be able to find herself and also scared that she will, and says it was his fault for taking too long. He says he needs to take her home, but nobody's with her and nobody's here.

The teacher asks if anyone else has any other questions, and a broken TV thing that sort of looks like AmdTV says something about how there's "no hope for us" without self-sacrifice. Cozmo again asks if anyone has seen Neon, since all he can see are the parts of her that she wants to forget. It abruptly cuts to him in the scribbly black and white angel world in the same classroom. There's a shot of a headless Neon on the blackboard as Speckle, that mole with the buckets, comes in yet again to throw paint on the walls. Cozmo asks if it thinks that'll really help, since it never has before.

Cozmo spots Chip and Chip turns and flies through a black and white doorway under all the paint on the walls. Cozmo says that's the wrong way and follows, asking what's to be gained by revisiting your pain. He finds Neon finally who has an angel thing on her shoulders that's holding onto her horns (remember when Neon said that she thought her horns would help her control robots better?). Cozmo asks her (or maybe the angel) what good there is in dwelling on her suffering.

flower angel, three lines

Neon asks why Cozmo thinks she has a choice (she calls him a demon), and why he thinks she can get it out of her head. She then says it's okay and that she'll free herself of those shackles and walks into a big tower with the three lines on it by a row of shadow people. Neon says this can't continue and can't stand, that she'll fix it and fix herself, and that she'll annihiliate these wretched feelings, even if that means annihilating herself.

Inside the tower there's a distorted looking TAL that seems to be morphing or fighting against an angel going "aaaaaaaa". TAL and the flower angel keep sort of morphing and distorting into each other, and someone says they want to forget and pleads someone else to let them do so, and someone says they can't, and they go back and forth about it for a bit. The one voice says that they want to stop thinking about it and they can't and they can't get it out of their head and that no one's listening to it anyway.

The thing continues morphing around and the one voice begs for death and for the other one to let them be forgotten and stop existing, and the other voice continues to say they cannot. The TALangel thing gets huge and screams while Cozmo looks on, and it keeps screaming and finally Cozmo holds out his arms and says "O divine Pole Star, let me help you as I have helped myself!"

those three lines again

Neon seems to appear again and says that the idea of Cozmo helping her is laughable, that she knows everything about him and that he's just a speck. Cozmo, in mole form, says "not anymore" and addresses her as the Pole Star. She says that he's wrong and she knows the most important thing about him, which is that he left her behind, as they all do (remember that myth Calliope told ages ago?), and that's everything she needs to know. She says that he wanted to see (while looking a lot like the Masked Sun), and Cozmo says he did want to see, and she says that "see he will".

Prologue I-?: Paranoia Damn! Prologue 1! Maybe we'll finally be done with all these prologues!! Probably not though.

i'm out of here says mole cozmo

This opens with a shot of five people in the dark greyscale world. Lily, Neon, Cozmo, and two others, one of which I THINK is one of Neon's siblings (Xenon) and the other I think is Jupet's dad Sylvan. It cuts to a shot of buildings with the narration saying "we found knowledge", and the transitions between images in this video are glitchy now. There's a shot of a device that looks very similar to the device in the very first Seeds Prologue. The narration says they received a signal from a dead world, and within that signal was all the information they needed to rescue "her" from that world, and that it was as simple as opening a door.

oh snap! three lines again! doors! flower face! it's all coming together!!!

When this glitches to the next slide, it leaves the words "hidden among the heavens" and "it was opening her". Using that knowledge, the narration says "she was bound and put to use" with a shot of TAL, along with some screens along side her that show the stage from Try Try Again and other suspicious things. It says she painted portraits of familiar worlds they didn't know, and even if they didn't listen to her, it still would have stayed with them, with shots of little angel things going through doors TAL is opening. The glitch transition this time keeps the words "perfect worlds".

It says they felt the trauma as one, each old memory breathing life into it anew, until there was no way to forget it. There are shots of the Troupe during this and Cozmo sitting at a play watching that plant eye thing Neon caught that glimpse of before in Subject 6.

thanks for coming to my show uwu

This time the words stuck on the transition are "trauma memory breathing life into soul". It has a shot of Neon cutting up Static although they look a bit loopy and weird and angel-y, saying that "we" mutilate ourselves to distract ourselves from truths we don't want to face, which this transition leaving "we mutilate truths". It has a shot of what might be Mr. 5 with narration saying that we mutilate ourselves compulsively wondering if anyone will see, and then it has a shot of Jupet looking at a broken Static lying across the floor, with, "we mutilate ourselves in the vain hope that someone notices we are lost". The implication here being that Neon really did cut up Static for her presentation and Jupet was less than pleased.

It has a shot of the three lined Masked Sun flower thing stabbing the angel flower thing, I think, with the text that we mutilate ourselves to hide the proof that we survived. It then has Mr. 5-like imagery saying they slice and slice but all they do is dirty the knife, although there's some Masked Sun imagery in there as well.

Ow!! My eye!! I wish I had hands!!

I'm just going to post the image here because that line with a ball on top (the key) is going to become surprisingly relevant later. The pronouns have shifted now from we to I, and it says that they shut each door they find, but still are repulsed that they're still themselves.

We cut to the flower angel looking thing sitting on a stage in front of mole Cozmo (there's actually a second chair with that line key up above in it), asking Cozmo if he liked the play and thinks they're good in a very needy and intense way. Cozmo hesitates and the flower angel immediately accuses him of hating it and hating them and that he wants to beat the angel to death. Mole Cozmo has a little line under his eye and it makes him constantly look like he's o_o at all this dialogue which is kind of hilarious.

When it transitions, it leaves the words, "I get it, you hate me, hated it, hate me until there's nothing left". Cozmo just stands there while the angel goes on about how he must have hated it, almost as much as the angel wants to hurt Cozmo until he hates them almost as much as it hates itself.

Cozmo finally says that he didn't hate it, and the video glitches to add "liar" on top of him. The angel looks more Neon-like now and asks if he thinks she's stupid (a glitch adds "stupid" on top of her), and he says he didn't say that (glitch puts "a liar" on top of him), so then she accuses him of being a liar. The scene transition has "stupid" repeated over and over.

The angel says if he didn't think she was stupid, then she wouldn't feel like this, and "i was stupid" repeats on the transition. The angel keeps distorting, this time kind of into that key shape, going on about how if he didn't think she was ugly and garbage and trash and so on then she wouldn't feel like this. The glitches on the transition rephrase some of it to "I was pathetic/useless/a waste of space" and "then I would feel disgusting", then to "i FEEL like I was pathetic" etc.

Cozmo says he didn't say any of that, and the angel (in "key" form) asks why he didn't like her story. He says he didn't say he didn't like it and the key's like yes you did, and when he asks her to remind him when, she's all wow am I supposed to remember every bad thing you've ever said? Glitches kick in to change the dialogue again, having Cozmo say that she's thoughtless while the angel asks why he doesn't like her, to which he repeats that he doesn't like her, and she says that she likes him, and he goes "nonononono" while the key goes "wow, you expect me to like my story?"

subtle

Abruptly it cuts back to Neon and Cozmo in their more normal forms, still in greyscale, with Cozmo saying of course he doesn't expect her to remember, although the glitches add "I don't care" to the end of his dialogue. Neon gets super aggro and tells him to take accountability for the effect his words have on others and calls him a bunch of names. The glitching changes Neon's dialogue to "words have effects on others", "i have a miserable life", and replaces a whole bunch of her text with just "excuses" over and over.

pretty rich coming from neon

Cozmo, back in mole form, turns around and heads to the door. Key Angel freaks out and begs him not to go and leave her (them? it? I don't know what pronouns to use for this thing) again. The glitches fill the panel of him looking at her with "leave me", then the one of him heading for the door with "wait why are you leaving", and then adds "stupid" over the key angel and "a liar" over Cozmo as he reaches the door.

It goes back to details with the flower angel reaching and grabbing Cozmo, begging him to stay and asking him why he's punishing her. Glitches change the dialogue just to "you are punishing me" with stupid and liar over Cozmo and the angel again. Cozmo tells her to let him go, but the angel refuses, saying she's scared he'll never come back and he'll just tell everyone how bad she is. Glitches change the dialogue to just "i'm so scared" and adds "I know I'm bad" at the bottom.

Cozmo says she's not bad and he never thought she was bad, but he needs to get help and if she doesn't let him that'll be bad. Glitches repeat "help me" over Cozmo. The eye in the center of the flower has the three line face usually associated with the Masked Sun, and there's the pit that Beleth and company keep jumping down.

people love that hole The angel asks if Cozmo will come back, repeating "come back" a few times via glitches. Cozmo says he'll come back, but he can't stay forever. The angel makes him promise he'll come back, and he does. The glitches repeat "you promise" over the whole screen.

If you got the feeling that a lot of that was just Glip venting about their own personal insecurities and their struggles with relationships with others then we are in agreement! Get ready for a lot of that from now on!

Back to normal comic pages, we check back in with Lily and Neon in present time, where Neon asks Lily to promise that they'll get through whatever happens together. Neon gets a call from one of her siblings, which confuses Chip, and then it turns out that a frequency shift made Neon have four siblings instead of one. Neon freaks out about it although Lily thinks it's neat that frequency shifts can do that. Anyway, Krypto is the sibling that called Neon to brag about a mystery door they just opened. Neon brags about the door she just opened with Lily in retaliation and they bicker. Krypto mentions that Chip has Neon's soul, or at least a part of it, and says that Neon doesn't even have an "extra life" so... some kind of Krypto thing I assume.

Neon grumbles about the call and Chip mentions that she still goes by Kid Neon here so... still the same?? I don't know. Lily flirts with her some more and Neon is all doki doki about it. They hold hands and get ready to enter the door. AND THAT'S THE END OF CALL SIGN BYE

[blueflower-sprite]

New OC ! Based on Grizzlyofthesea's post

Before I start presenting my OC, please, here's the link for the original poster of the idea, and if it's tempt you, pick you're OC name on they're post, and don't hesitate to share (with link to the original post) :

https://www.tumblr.com/grizzlyofthesea/749158031070298112/monster-high-oc-idea?source=share

Results - S for Mystery (First Name), Jun for Der, and S for Chilling (All Last Names).

Mystery Der Chilling

PARENTS - The Cold Invisibles Presences.

AGE – 15.

PRONOUNS – She / They. (Her species tends to use the ''they'' pronouns when they are in they're most ethereal state. As she is in a more ''material state'' in this biography, she will go with the first).

ORIENTATION – I don't know yet.

PHILOSOPHY - ''- The more invisible you are, the most they will learn to fear you're name... So please, don't be a coward and a bully, and learn to show yourself. ''.

ORIGINS – We are litterally the embodiment of ''don't freaking go there'' in paranormal linguo. Yes, we are the Cold Spot in the Room after you failed you're diplomatic genius of a method on the Ouija Board....Otherwise, I'm from Oregon.

KILLER STYLE – Veil, many veils, and more veils ! With boreal colours, which give a touch of chillness into my fashion sense !

FREAKY FLAW – It's difficult for me to enter a room without asking the others if they're are okay with me to be there. That's why I like to talk with ice and frost monsters like Abbey : my Presence ''thing'' don't do anything unpleasant to them.

FAVORITE COLOR – Dawn pink and Artic blue.

FAVORITE FOOD – I feed on the fear and warmth of others, but I would never prefer this to a wonderful smurf blue smoothie !

BIGGEST PET PEEVE – When someone ask me if I truly exist. You know, being non-binary sometimes doesn't mean that all society should ask you to un-unalive you're existence like that ! It's so rude...

FAVORITE ACTIVITY - I like playing simple and relaxed board games. It's a particular bonding opportunity, because victory and defeat always unit monsters and ghouls. My favorite is the Ouija...

PET – I have a invisible White Raven named Neverwhite. He's kinda shy, so please, don't be too loud when he is here.

FAVORITE SUBJECT – Invisibles Sciences of the Earth. There is such many secrets to understand from our world, even some my family doesn't know about it !

LEAST FAVORITE SUBJECTS – I dislike Swimming. I just... don't really like the water's temperature, and some around me tends to say the same when I'm in their swimming group...

FUTURE DREAM – Maybe going to some far away countries and collect artifacts, before founding a family ? Frankly, I don't really know....

REPUTATION AT MONSTER HIGH – I'm kinda invisible in my high school. So I'm doing my best to socialize, despite the fact that some don't want to be in my mere aura when they remember that I'm unliving right there...

FRIENDS – I don't really have some, but frost and winter monsters are friendly to me, so I hope one of them will become my BFF one day.

Here's the chilling Mystery (yes admit, I wanted to do this pun... No, I will not apologize for that). She's not a Monstersona, but more a OC that I created for fun with a base (again, I encourage you to see the original post). Thank you if you have read this post to the end !

[startistdoodles]

Hello! I've been seeing your Kirby OC posts and it got me inspired to try making my own OC. However I wanted to ask you if there are any particular tips or guidelines you have on how exactly to go about making an OC?

I'm happy to hear I could inspire you!! I'm the kind of person who really encourages making an OC however you like with no hard rules, but I would be happy to offer tips as to how you can make them look more convincing and fit into the world!

This applies not just to Kirby but to any media that you want to make a fan design for. I use these tips when I design Fakémon and my other fan OCs as well! Knowing the property's design conventions can help you if you want your OC to fit in more seamlessly with other characters.

Since the subject is a Kirby OC, I will use my own as an example.

Prisma Knight follows the very basic design conventions of Kirby, since I wanted her to be the same species.

They both have: -A round body -Nubby arms -Big, round feet -Cheeks and feet that are a different color than the main body -Eyes that are an accent color

Conventions help with the consistency of character design, but they don't have to strictly be adhered to. Feel free to experiment and break conventions to help your OC stand out!

Next, because I wanted to make her a knight, I went ahead and looked at the designs for the preexisting knights and made some observations based on their conventions as well:

Once that's done it's time to move onto to the secondary design elements. I wanted Prisma to have an icy elemental design to her with a bit of mirror thrown in, so I took inspiration from those copy abilities:

I really liked the colors of these designs, so it was at this stage I decided to go for a primarily blue and purple pallete with some white and gold in there as accents.

With this in mind, I went ahead and looked for a color palette that I could take inspiration from:

By then I had a pretty good idea of all the conventions, so I made some sketches!! Ideally during this step it's good to make many different sketches exploring various ideas, but I'm the kinda person who erases and redraws parts of my initial sketch so know that there were different designs before I reached this one, haha:

All the while I was thinking of her story in my head which mostly stemmed from questions pertaining to certain design elements I chose:

Why does she have an elaborate mask? Because she's royalty.

How did she become a knight turned royalty? She left the life of a soldier behind her.

Why did she stop being a soldier? She was ashamed of a foolish mistake and fled.

What was that foolish mistake? She challenged someone stronger than her and lost her wings in the process.

And thus, Prisma was born!! Her name actually came to me before I even fully designed her (which about NEVER happens for me lol) and it was the inspiration for her using ice and mirror magic in the first place.

Anyways, I hope this helped! Just have fun with it and enjoy the creation process :D

[redux-iterum]

Another question about human cat interact, if you don’t mind - since people are aware of the clans, do (some) cat owners keep their beloved pets indoor only? Related, how do you think clans would react to seeing a catio?

And a question about WindClan’s carnivore language they speak - I think it might have been called Fang? Can any cat learn it if they wish, or do most other clans not have interest? Have cats taught bits of it to each other at gatherings, like apprentices maybe? What’s the usual relation between WindClan and other species? (Do any non cat critters ever decide like, there’s a bunch of weird cats living there, too much trouble, etc)

And has any super paranoid cat ever seen a wildlife death, like a fox/badger/etc killed a cat or caused something hardship for clan, and decided WindClan was at fault since they can speak to them? (Yes that’s a huge no logic leap but not every cat follows logic esp when they want someone to blame)

Good number of questions here!

There are plenty of people who are indoor-only owners. There is a somewhat relevant indoor cat in Burning Hearts, but I'll leave off any further details. There are cats who can be trusted to stay in the neighborhood, and there are some who wander. Just like real cats!

A catio... I don't think the Clans would think of it being anything beyond a tease to the kittypet who lives in it. Sure, you're outside, but you're still attached to a house. That's balls, man. You should've gotten out while you had the chance.

The language's most common name is Fang, correct! Pretty much any animal can learn it - it's designed to be pronounceable by every type of creature who has reason to speak it, and it's a very simple tongue mostly comprised of nouns and verbs. Cats tend to know it the least, population-wise, but that's just because cats are extremely self-centered creatures that think they're too good for everyone else to learn some plebeian language (at least, that's the running idea among more wild meat-eaters). There are cats sprinkled around the other Clans that know a word or two, with most of their lexicon being "stop", "go away", and "peace". They can also know the word for "cousin", which is just a general, very useful term meant to extend a hand in friendship, but being friends with a fox...disgusting! No thank you!

WindClan in particular is very friendly with outside animals. They take great care to keep up a good relationship, which I will be posting more about this Wednesday.

I'm certain there's been instances of suspicion and accusations of WindClan getting help from other predators in a war. WindClan always denies them, of course. I guess you'd have to ask the predators why they showed up at such a convenient time to help their moor-friends.