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fireteam-starfall · 3 years ago

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wrote all of this ina discord chat so im just gonna paste it here as a whole chunk— MY REACTIONS TO THE SEASON OF THE RISEN STORYLINE

Reaction to Season of the Risen Storyline

first problem w how salad is going about mentoring crow—

He’s completely blowing off his concerns as foolish without actually doing anything to help crow understand the necessity of what we’re doing. Instead of helping him work through the reasons we have to do these things, he’s just telling him to basically suck it up and quit complaining

SECONDLY THAT STORY ABOUT THE GIRL WHO HE ‘SPARED’ ONCE HAS ME FUMING because the way I see it, her journey from thief to bandit leader was less because of his sparing her at all, but because instead of actually guiding her and helping her make the most of the life hes allowed her to keep, he just gave her a trinket and some vague words that could be interpreted any which way and then he fucked off!!

the moral of not letting your sympathy to the criminal outweigh your duty to the victims is completely understandable and i agree w it wholeheartedly, but at the same time this isn’t about sparing our enemies, Crow is worried we are Becoming What We Are Fighting Against

and poor zavala is trying to get salad to understand where crow is coming from and also get salad to give him proper guidance, but it’s becoming more and more obvious to me that these two just dont fit each other in a teacher-student sense. incompatible

there are just so many better ways to allay crows doubts. tbh i feel like caiatl would be much better at teaching him why this is all necessary, because from what ive seen in the lore shes much better at being understanding w her forces and colleagues. the best way to encourage someone to never trust you is to blow them off completely when they show doubt, and i feel like she understands that

i think part of the reason it bugged me so much is because the whole scene made me feel like i was trying to talk to my dad about politics and it rlly put me in crows shoes

i feel like salads whole pov is based off of his need to be completely doubt free. He feels like he needs to be firmly in the right, so he cant have any doubts because that means he could be wrong and that would mess up his whole thought process. this leads to him being overly confident and hard headed and blowing off other peoples concerns about his choices, because if theyre right he would be wrong and he Cant Be Wrong otherwise its all for nothing. if that makes any sense idk

-Me via discord, March 13th

ok update on my guardians view of the situation— after the debrief from this weeks mission i feel a lot more optimistic both for saladins teaching of crow(he asked the psion to talk to him!! he said the psion was respectful, and that they had the same view of the situation that i talked about having!! he’s trying to change for the better!!) And the alliance w the cabal, because zavala and caiatl have been getting along really well and both sides are finding common ground!!! i don’t wanna get my hopes up Too much because its only three weeks into the season’s story but im optimistic

—Me via discord, March 14

I SPOKE TOO SOON DAMMIT

i saw none of this comin

never thought id say it this season, but thank fuck for saladin;;

—Me via discord, March 15

and he has finally given some actual advice to crow, with the whole ‘you dont know enough about yourself to know whats right yet’ and ‘you have all these memories of uldren sovs experience while you have only a few years of your own’ stuff, and thats really good

i feel bad for the psion, but it really was a well intentioned, albeit misguided, mistake. it all could have been avoided if crow had thought to ask the psion how to disable the machine first, but whats done is done

and now i think what crow needs is a sleepover w the guardian and maybe amanda(if she feels up to seeing him again yet) and saint because i feel like he needs some emotional support/pep talks rn

also saint could use some emotional support too atm so i think itd help him too. maybe should also invite eva and suraya, eva because everyone needs a good grandmother/mother figure, and suraya would probably be entirely on crows side of thinking but also be pragmatic about it so shed give good advice

—Me via discord, Today(March 16)

#destiny 2 #destiny 2 spoilers #witch queen #destiny 2 witch queen #destiny the game #and scene.

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fireteam-starfall · 4 years ago

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3,675 words of Eliksni headcanons relating to culture, biology, and language because I cannot control myself when playing games with Cool Aliens in them

(Obligatory disclaimer: I am a Destiny noob, so some of these might be inaccurate with canon as they're just stuff I've jotted down after playing. Also, while I tried to stick with believable biology, I also chose to stretch it a bit for narrative fun, because differing biological processes is what makes alien specbio so fun)

*Much of these, including the section on reproduction, can be found under the cut

GENERAL:

-Okay first and foremost, older or more high-ranking Eliksni on Riis had horns and carapace juts similar to their helmet designs because their bald heads just look too damn weird to me. These horns and thick, keeled carapace plates were a mark of strength and maturity, and were due to specific environmental cues/cycles and stressors to trigger them being grown in. Without Riis, its seasons, and many of its native foods, one of those environmental cues for horn growth is gone. No Eliksni know exactly what light cycle, nutrient, or season triggered it in adults (currently I’m thinking that it could have been a mineral used in growing extra carapace that their body now automatically rations bc its rare in the Sol system, like how calcium is required for many reptiles and invertebrates to properly grow in their bones/shells), so now they mimic the general splay of what those horns used to look like as a means of showing off their rank beyond the simple size differences Ether causes

-Draping thin chains of ornaments in complex patterns on or around said horns was similar to human hair braiding, btw! Eliksni just getting their first horn juts would have their parents tie coming-of-age ribbons or bead strings around them once they hardened post-molt, and after that ceremony only very close friends, relatives, or mates would help with the hornaments. It ties into a sort of communal grooming instinct that Eliksni use to strengthen social bonds, but because many hornaments had symbolic meanings tied to colour, style, and fabric used for the jewelry, only those who really knew the Eliksni involved were allowed to adorn them. Even Kells (who often had elaborate hornaments to show off their virtues as a leader) would only allow their partners or nestmates to dress them

-Again, the lack of ability to grow these horns in anew with each moult means that any and all cultural significance to them has been lost. Many shipborn Eliksni don’t even know they can grow horns at all, they just know that only those with the rank of captain or above are able to wear those fancy eye-catching helmets, with those of higher ranks being allowed to customize them for individuality as well as authority

-I'm pretty decisive on Eliksni hair tbh. I don't really know whether or not they canonically have it, but if they do then it's 100% not hair like ours and is gonna be a lot thicker and feathery in texture to get that tough-bristle look to it. Feathers on birds are basically just modified scales, so hair on Eliksni would be modified carapace, making it far more rigid and more like a cockatoo crest on them than our luscious locks. I’m kinda leaning on it being a hatchling/subadult trait to give them a softer, more vulnerable appearance that persists on Dregs as a means of showing their low rank in the hierarchy

-Spiracles are extremely ineffective for delivering oxygen to animals on earth that are anything larger than a generic insect, so on Eliksni they're probably used less for actual breathing purposes and more for gas filtering. They could visit many planets with simple rebreathers (or none at all) because their spiracles would put in double work for filtering out what they need for breathing and what would be toxic in large quantities. So while they’re not doing the full work that their actual lungs would be doing to provide appropriate gas exchange to their entire body, covering them up would still suffocate an Eliksni over time

-Same with the exoskeleton/endoskeleton thing; exoskeletons can drastically limit how big an organism can grow bc of the pull of gravity, so they probably developed internal skeletons to help fight against that, especially when they’re moulting (because then there’s nothing to keep them from being squashed into the Eliksni version of a blobfish while they’re still soft and vulnerable). Their internal skeletons are probably a lot less substantial or rigidly held together than ours, though, because it’s more of a backup stability mechanism than ours is.

-This implies that Eliksni might be able to flatten themselves to avoid danger like cockroaches. Do whatever you want with this.

-The gap in the front of their muzzle is like a snake's- its used for scenting the air. They don't flick their tongue out to gather scent molecules like a snake does, but a deep inhale through a closed mouth forces a stream of air over their version of a Jacobson's organ. Opening their mouth to taste the air like a cat might still work, but not with the same level of precision

-Speaking of which, the fact that they have no cheeks and exposed teeth indicates that they likely have very little to no saliva, like birds. This tracks with the whole mandible deal, since they’d just use their mouthparts and tongue to tear pieces off of things and then swallow them whole, but big F to anyone who wanted oral from an Eliksni bc unless you have some good safe mouthlube for them you’re shit outta luck

-But on the plus side, Eliksni can probably easily open a can or other things with their mandibles and tongue so who's really winning here

-They have lil lobster-like tails that curve between their legs and tuck over their genital plate/lower abdomen bc I said so. There’s no indication that they’d have this in canon, but I think its kinda criminal that none of the alien races (discounting the Vex) have tails, especially since it would be useful for the Eliksni to have one as a means of quick counterbalance when they go from bipedalism to running on all sixes. These tails also have decorative fans on them that flare out when untucked, and are one of the only means of distinguishing a male Eliksni from a female other than scenting them, though uncurling their tail and flaring their tail fans is basically the Eliksni version of flashing someone and is considered to be extremely rude

-While their sense of smell isn’t really as important to them as their codes of honour, it still plays a big role in identification and figuring out who’s related to who, who’s mated to who, etc. Their scent glands are located on the lower part of their cheeks (under their eyes), on the wrists/inner forearms of their upper arms, and on the interior curve of their tails (which tend to rub together while mating). These scent glands secrete a thin oil that helps keep their carapace clean and healthy, and many physical expressions of affection between family, close friends, and mates involve rubbing cheeks together like cats or pressing the inside of their upper forearms against the other’s back while hugging

-Communal grooming is pretty common and casual, especially since reaching between back plates is pretty much impossible, even with four arms. Picking up a nice thick bristle brush with some shell oil and scrubbing down the back of your homie is a common sight to see if a commune is retiring to bed, and helping to remove stuck molt/shed has joined the communal grooming activities after the fall of Riis, when many Eliksni started to have trouble with moulting due to conditions not being perfect (though the entirety of the moult is generally done in private)

-^ this dude hanging on the side of a ship + Taniks running up a glass wall indicate that they either have some killer gecko footpads on their hands OR some neat specialized claws that allows them to grip any surface, regardless of how smooth it is. Considering the fact that a human being would need sticky footpads that cover 40% of their body to successfully hold their mass with Van der Waals forces and that squirrel claws are limited in their effectiveness by how slippery a surface is, I'm going to guess that they're either using something stronger than Van der Waals forces to stick there, or that they're using a combination of the two to help them cling to things they really shouldn't be able to do with only one or the other

-Did you know crabs don't have hearts? They have an open circulatory system! Which sucks mega ass for larger organisms even if it requires far less energy to cycle the blood around than a closed circulatory system does, so Eliksni very likely have at least one heart. I'm personally leaning towards two that function the same as a normal heart, with one pumping deoxygenated blood back to the gas exchange organs and the other pumping the oxygenated blood (or hemolymph) from those organs back around the body

-Speech works in 2 different ways, with higher tones being produced with a vocal organ at the base of the throat/upper chest and lower tones/subvocals being produced by stridulations of specialized chest plates. These vocal organs work kinda like a 2-handed instrument might, where they can either copy each other's movements to form dual-toned speech or function separately. The high tones are generally used for forming clear words or sentences while the low tones offer inflection and mood indicators (such as growls, clicks, chirrs, etc). Humans speaking Eliksni tend to come off as either quite monotone or oddly stilted in their speech because of their lack of ability to produce these subvocal sounds. Additionally, mandible snapping and teeth clicking are used to accent speech, though none will ever be as pronounced as Variks. Dude's either got a vocal tic/stim or is doing the Eliksni equivalent of rolling all his r's like a pretentuous asshat

-(If you are noticing how many facets of their biology works in sets of 2, that's intentional btw. Most animals don't have 2 mediocre adaptations working together to make one sturdy advantage, but these are aliens and their society seems to be focused on rounded curves and pairs of things, so I thought it would be fun to match it)

-They are not a brutal or barbarous race by nature, but their propensity for ritualized combat is hardwired into them biologically. Much in the way two rattlesnakes will forgo lethal combat to instead focus on a trial of strength, ancient Eliksni would fight others for territory, status, or mating rites before Riis's golden age. These fights were always focused only on proving one's strength or cunning in battle, which lead to the very strict honour system that they follow. It faded into obscurity during their Golden Age, when fighting for resources was no longer a necessity, and returned in a twisted, cruel, unnatural form post-Whirlwind, when these fights for honour turned less from a means of proving one's strength or wit and more of a method of showing dominance

-If anything, Kells docking dregs to keep them below them is a perversion of their nature. The Eliksni are social beings, which means that higher-rankers generally are supposed to protect the weaker members of their society in exchange for greater food supplies, resting spots, and mating rights. Ritualized combat would be a great test of strength and mental fortitude to earn the respect and power they've won, but a Kell that uses their power to harm those they are supposed to uplift are no Kell at all.

REPRODUCTION

-Eliksni don’t have haploid gametes like us. They engage in double fertilization like angiosperms (where two sperm merge with one egg, but one type of sperm has a nucleus that triggers the genesis of a fatty protective layer around the egg while the other doesn't, with the main difference between plants and Eliksni being that the embryo is diploid; plant sex is complicated and I’m not gonna get into that here). This basically means that instead of having half n'half genes from your parents, aka a diploid fertilized egg, an Eliksni hatchling is gonna be either 1/3 of one and 2/3 of the other, or 1/3 of one, 1/3 of one mate, and 1/3 of a second, etc, or triploid.

-This allows for detrimental recessive genes to be more rare in smaller populations, which means that suffering from genetic disorders are relatively more infrequent than they are with us because an Eliksni hatchling (and any other sexually reproducing organism from Riis) has a ⅓ chance to get a sucky gene vs a ½ chance like a sexually reproducing Earth organism

-They are technically hermaphrodites by our definition in that they both have the same sets of genitals, but it gets a little complicated with who is currently producing which gamete. Females produce sperm without a nucleus as well as the egg cell, while males produce only sperm with a nucleus as well as develop the eggs that the female implants in them. Both have two phalluses and a slit that leads to a vaginal cavity + brood pouch, but the appearance and function of these organs varies based on the hormones currently at play. Females will have two distinct phalluses that slide out the more they're aroused (one for ejecting sperm and one for eggs), but on males, they will only fully unsheath if no attempts at penetrative sex are made. This allows for 3 breeding Eliksni to either be made up of 2 males and 1 female or 2 females and 1 male no problem, though in the case or 2 males, the larger will always be chosen to carry the eggs.

-Typical sex with the intent to breed involves 2-3 Eliksni and is spread out over a couple of days. Usually, the male will mount the female to trigger ovulation/get a jump start on fertilization, as well as fully induce her cycle if needed. Flash forward a few days, and the female will penetrate the male's brood pouch to lay her eggs + seal everything off with a sticky sperm plug (well, its not solid, more glue-y) laced with the correct hormones to get him to tighten back up. The third Eliksni just jizzes in everyone else if they don't egg or be egged

-If this sounds complicated, its not. Tdlr is that everyone has the same set, which ones are working depends on which sex hormones are predominant in the bloodstream, and sex itself boils down to 'get a female riled up so that she lays eggs in the male, and then either have a third party jizz in him to plug him up or she'll do it herself'

-As you can guess, monogamy is not really a thing with the Eliksni. Having a deep romantic bond with one or two others is the most common, however

-The predominance of which set of sex organs is active depends on hormonal cycles that are influenced by stress, pheromones, and health. Normally Eliksni would cycle through sex changes every 200-300 years on Riis, but now do so every 100 or so years in space, with some being pushed to 50. Shorter lives with more stress and childdeath = 'oh shit gotta fuck more and make sure said fucking results in babies bc we are UNDER ATTACK'

-This happens because temperature drastically affects the amount of females or males hatched, so needing to change sex after x amount of breeding cycles helps stave off male/female imbalances, especially since they're so long-lived. Hormone therapy can be used to keep this cycle from triggering or to trigger it early if needed

-Eliksni gender is thus not really tied to current sex and more tied to preffered sex, as dimorphism is almost nonexistant. Those who are female when they hit their adult molt have a tendency to be smaller or thinner-bodied than males, but it's not a definitive thing and will resolve itself eventually-the only thing that really matters is what pheromones you're giving off. Assigning subadults male or female pronouns is used solely as a means of keeping track of healthy growing patterns (as males and females grow at different rates + bulk up differently), while choosing which pronouns to use/if you use pronouns at all in adulthood is purely for self-expression

-Long-term partners will synch their sex-switch cycles after a time to almost always be the opposite for breeding purposes, but this requires actually synching and spending heats to trigger it. Ace Eliksni often are never on cycle, newly paired Eliksni will not synch their cycles, and sex differences have very little impact on sexual preferences.

-As for who gets to breed: the answer would be barons, captains, and kells only. Vandals and dregs can technically have clutches if they try hard enough, but lower ether rations = lower fertility, and their genes don't take their stunted size into consideration. Captains and up are the only ones who can become gravid without worrying too much about eggbinding, as well as the only ones who can be guaranteed to earn help if it occurs.

-Likewise, the amount of mates that one Eliksni might be allowed to take increases with status. Dregs and Vandals are allowed to have partners but having eggs is discouraged, Captains can breed with their partners as they wish without fear of eggbinding, Barons can and will sleep around with anyone willing that doesn't catch the Kell's eye, and Kells generally can have anyone they want because their size and strength net them a lot of physical attraction points that the others can't contest with. Very few take advantage of this- and those who do are heavily frowned upon- but even those who don't give a shit about casual mates will have a lot of Eliksni admiring them from afar because being big and strong and in power trips a lot of that primal hindbrain attraction that screams 'oh this one has good genes my hatchlings will be strong'

-On Riis, this was less dramatic; usually only older Eliksni would have more mates, as fertility increases with age (like lobsters) and with the presumed knowledge, strength, and experience said Eliksni had. Now it's more a matter of 'I am Kell, I can fight for whomever I wish to fuck, and you cannot contest me because I am the biggest and the strongest and the best to breed with here'. The harems are not a status symbol, they're something that happens as a consequence of it

-SOMETHING IMPORTANT TO NOTE HERE THOUGH is that status is not socially passed down from broodparent to hatchling. Sure, a Kell might have the easiest time having a clutch and the best quarters to brood them in, but once the babies are hatched, everyone in the community pitches in to raise them and are considered equally responsible for their wellbeing. Being the child of a Kell might make you stand out a bit or give you higher expectations than your peers, but all hatchlings will be expected to claw their way up the ranks on their own, regardless of who their parents are

-Similarly, adoption is seen as basically the same as actually having a clutch, with distinctions only being drawn for keeping track of lineages and the like. Brood-parent and soul-parent are two distinctions often referenced casually in Eliksni culture, kinda with the same importance one might distinguish two shades of red as crimson or maroon.

-Now onto clutch sizes: these range from 1-6 eggs, though they can get up to 10 or more in the case of barons and kells because of their ether rations and size. Females lay many small eggs into a male's brood pouch, but very few will properly implant and allowed to develop before the sperm plug dissolves after breeding. Eggs are softball-sized when laid and have thick leathery shells that would slowly harden over time. They never become fully calcified like bird eggs, but they're not as delicate as snake eggs, either.

-Eggcloth is spun from a sturdy layer of silklike material (I'm thinking natural polymers) that resides just under the leather shell. Peeling it free from the eggshells is a very delicate process, but once gathered, pulled carefully apart, and dried, it can be spun into a true silken cloth that young hatchlings are swaddled in. The fabric is soft, so it doesn't irritate soft carapace, and little hatchling claws cannot snag in it very easily. On old Riis, eggcloth for each hatchling was usually carefully kept throughout the young Eliksni's life until they hit their adult moult, after which their parents would adorn them with decorative ribbons formed from their old eggcloth to signify them coming of age and transforming from a child to an adult

-The practice has since faded into obscurity post-Whirlwind. Hatchlings simply don't live long enough and cloth is too badly needed to warrant such frivolity

-Nests are usually made from large, shallow metal basins that are then thoroughly padded with thin cushions and soft cloth by any of the Eliksni involved. In contrast to their usual communal sleeping habits, these nests are typically set up in small, closed spaces that can be easily guarded by mates or close friends to the gravid individual(s). Once laid, the eggs will be carefully covered in layers of fabric to keep them at a nice, stable temperature, with at least one trusted Eliksni always by the nestside keeping tabs on how warm they are and carefully turning the eggs to make sure they harden evenly. Depending on the personalities of the parents, a broodspace can either have a few nests closely lumped together in a nice cozy padded room (common with polycules or close friends), or be a singular nest in a vent with only one broodparent allowed in at a time

-Any Eliksni parenting a clutch will jealously guard these eggs until they hatch, and the babies undergo their first molt. Pre-molt babies are translucent, fragile, and easily crushed by their older peers, so parents will usually only start to gradually add them to the communal baby pile after they shed the paper-thin carapace they were born with and got a couple days to grow a bit. They'll be carefully watched, but a cousin squishing them on accident is still a major concern

#:^D!!#destiny 2 headcanons #headcanons

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