#besides she makes do with a parasol that kesi designed and made

[whatudottu]

Do you ever wonder if there’s a market for mannequin/robot/life-sized doll bodies for Ectonurites who want to safely explore well-lit areas but don’t feel comfortable possessing living beings?

Oh that’s actually a pretty interesting idea!

What’s mostly been banging around in my head is that ectonurites have either a seasonal skin and grow a sunskin (like a winter coat but for higher UV seasons). Maybe perhaps they make like a reptile or snake and go into a shedding season but, their skin is a lot tougher and thicker than any Earth creature that until an ectonurite completely outgrows it (the telltale signs being ‘bursting from the seams’ rips and tears), it acts as a sun coat.

And like in either of these cases in the off-seasons where an ectonurite is shed, the most I really had going for sun protection was parasols and other clear sky umbrellas, which even in a world of possessable sunprotection would probably still be an ectonurite dominated market haha. Would sun-bodies (an attempt to amalgamate the mannequin/robot/doll to one term) be almost the extreme form of body modification or would it be like those regular rain umbrellas that have the extra see-through shawl to protect against side winds? Can you tell which generation an ectonurite is apart of based on what sun protection they use, parasols for the older generations and sun-bodies for the modern gen? Maybe some ectonurites can’t possess something for as long as others can, so despite wanting a sun-body they’re stuck with either parasols or just staying inside?

In other words, I didn’t think there was a market for it until you, dear anon, introduced the concept! And what a concept indeed. Haha, and ectonurites are probably already the most freeform aliens you can make a unique character out of, adding the idea of sun-bodies makes designing them all the more versatile.

I’d say it’d also depend on the surrounding sun having community, because a self-animating doll may trigger an uncanny valley feeling in probably not just humans, but any species replicated in the design of the doll; even among ectonurites. It’s one thing to know what a ghost looks like, it’s another to define something as ‘wrong’ and fear it for its differences, so just with any xeno community only do what you want when you are assured you are safe!