#((ask to tag?))

[waifujuju]

Some doodles of my new favorite guy

[flickering-nightfall]

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

Full transcript under the cut!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

have seemingly massive populations

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

are adept at communicating (non-verbally)

manipulate their environment

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

can create complex weapons and tools

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

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

[dammit-tazmuir]

The eye swap really does make everything worse, but especially for the souls who cohabitate. It's bad enough for the OG Lyctors seeing eyes of people they lost, bittersweet for Cam seeing Pal's eyes if no other part of him, sure. But it makes Pal's "it's not you, it's me wearing you" worse when it's not even "just" her face, but her eyes, knowing her body only still has its original eyes when it's him, not her.

But they lived that way for a few months, and I think by far the worst one is Pyrrha.

Imagine being Pyrrha Dve, robbed of your body and huge chunks of your soul, but still holding on. Living in the body of your best friend, a man you've loved since the moment you met him, knowing you're still here because his grief over you was so great that his brain sealed a part of you away. For so long, you can't talk to him, can't let him know you're still here; maybe you never learned to. Even if you did, that came far later. For so long, you have to let him think he just... forgets. Gaps in his memory, like something possessing him (you are), just having to accept that sometimes his body does things fully out of his control. Knowing he'll keep going no matter what, because he is devotion incarnate, that he'll bend and bend and bend and bend and never ever break no matter what either of you get yourselves into, because that's who he's always been.

And you can't tell anyone else, either. You wear not only his body, but his identity, with everyone for thousands of years. You answer to his name. Imitate the way he talks when you have to. You are the Saint of Duty just as much as he is. You share his friends, his enemies. For one beautiful horrible fleeting moment, you even share a lover. Souls are permeable and yours is so deeply entwined with his, you have his memories, share his feelings, but even if you didn't it would still be impossible to separate your identity from him after so long.

And every time you look in the mirror, you see his face. His face as you always knew it, his eyes and all. You see your other old friends and their eyes are all different, but not his, not when you're there to see it. His face is your face, his eyes are your eyes. It's not him, it's you wearing him, but you've learned to move like him, to sound like him, to exist like him.

You'll never see him again, and then one day he's gone, and you're alone, and you'll really never see any trace of him again. No cigarettes left in the ashtray that you didn't smoke yourself, no signs of the life he's living opposite yours. He's gone forever, except your soul is still irrevocably infused with his soul, and your movements are still so often his movements, and your voice is still his voice, and when you want to you can make it sound just like him. Every day you care for his body. You eat and you can't remember what it's like to not hate carrots, to not taste food with his tongue. You deal with his 5 o'clock shadow at 3 o'clock and even though it's his, you hate it. You've shared his body for nearly a myriad but you've never gotten used to it, not fully. It's your body now, and only yours, but it's never felt like you.

You meet two people who can understand in a way no one ever has, and then after a few measly months they go and find their own way out if it, and once again you're left behind. The new person they left seems nice, and you say you don't know them yet and can't trust them, but deep down you know better. Palamedes couldn't do anything to alter a body like yours— like his, a lyctor's body— especially not without harming Camilla. But Paul? You know... Maybe when things settle down, Paul could help you, could make this body finally feel like yours. Maybe that will be nice. You think he'd want that for you.

And even if they can do that, no matter how much you might change, when you look in the mirror, the eyes looking back at you will always be his. Do you even remember your own? Do you even want to?

[insinirate]

🐅🐍 cheap meat

[whale-trawl]

love, or something like it

[logicpng]

venty lil thing. i figured i may as well upload the small stuff as well

[Image Description in ALT]

[faygelehh]

CRINGETOBER 2023

DAY 2: SELF-INSERT

Ft. Bluey & Bingo! (or… Bingir? Bingo/Gir?)

[waifujuju]

Dependency Inspired by this piece!

[kantocamping]

xatu anon. it ended up being an infertile egg. i didnt get to candle it to confirm but she watched my seviper eat it without moving a feather so i'm pretty sure

I will be honest with you. This does not paint you as a very responsible pokemon owner.

[catboymoments]

The first emergence of Bronwyn’s dormant curse.

“It was supposed to be just… a quick performance for my Bard class… I’d played in front of people before, so I didn’t think anything would go wrong…”

[wizards1977]

Monster High March(ish) / #2025MHChallenge

Prompt 17 - Scream 👻

It was supposed to be an Edvard Munch reference but it kind of looks like one of those edgy ~if Monster High were REAL~ type fanarts lol

[bad-traffic-smp-ideas]

Life life

It’s just 20 minutes of heartbeat noises

Deeply unsettling! Nice work.

[avoidcrowdraws]

Chilaios Kinktober day 6 - biting

Chomp

[c-kiddo]

caleb has ocd to meeee , and yes , some of these behaviours are created from paranoia about very real dangers, but i think despite that all, he always feels safer when he creates rituals. clothes folded the same way Or Else, odd numbers or Else, distressed that frumpkin's whiskers are uneven (some fell out) and feels antsy until he re-summons frumpkin. he pats the doorframe or else he'll be found, lay down the silver thread, talk to each of tmn before bed, clench and unclench his jaw, cover himself in dirt so then he's dirty all over and not unevenly, pick the skin off his fingers, check the lock check the lock check the lock . etc etc

[waxwing-ed]

[ascene]

trohman: This fried bumble bee now lives inside my stomach, with it's entire hive. Tasted like corn nuts.