do you think slugcats actually wawa? It is a fairly popular fanon sure but I have been wondering for the last few days. We know slugcats must have some decent hearing - some of the map markers are explicitly the slugcat using its hearing to differentiate between other living creatures in other rooms and so on (although the actual passages they apparently just commit to the memory). Probably not as good as black lizard hearing but pretty good. However this part of gameplay as proof of canon worldbuilding might be taken with a grain of salt

that may suggest that audial communication between slugcats may actually be pretty hard to hear for humans - similar to how we cannot hear most of audible signals of various rodents. The problem is, well, it is a gameplay concession for the most part and tbh the way gameplay is integrated with worldbuiding - the devs made an attempt but the realization is imho wonky at best and misleading at worst.

back to wawas, we can try to draw a comparison between domestic cats and slugcats wherein meow is something mostly relegated to 'babytalk' and a specific type of call which some cats, especially those who grew up with humans, adopt for cat to human communication (with cats who grew up without much human interaction sometimes never taking up a habit of meowing even if they end up living with humans later on and actively engaging with them positively). In this case a wawa is a specific signal that is either used for example in danger (owing to how we hear a wawa like sound in one of the danger alert osts) or during communication with the young.

this assumes we take danger osts as actually symbolically reflective of something.

Howerver! While just like the map it seems to be largely a gameplay concession, most of slugcat out of cutscene (aka the gourmand ending slides) communication is reliant on body language. Pointing, jumping, things like that. Even with the pups we mostly interact via those things. Which... either suggests a dimension of pup interaction we do not see because of the gameplay limitations or we should take it as wawa not being a slugcat 'babytalk'.

Which leaves wawas with a very dubious space as a potential 'can be fit into canon' or not.

Oh I'm SO sorry, but I don't think slugcats wawa at all,,

I just think Rivulet ONLY can scream.

Slightly longer ramble under cut!

I think lore and gameplay are mostly done pretty well! For example the cycle mechanic is something you can only really theorize on if you look at both gameplay and lore. You get to experience the pain of cycles all on your own!

As for wawas.. as you have mentioned, they mostly use body language and art. Picture from Gourmand campaign ↓

Spearmaster draws too, and uses sign language to communicate with Suns. And I hear you. "Spearmaster is domesticated, they don't count" and you're right!

BUT

The fact they can learn such complicated sign language would imply they have the capacity for it in their brain to learn and memorize a language so complicated in the first place. Unless that was modified as well.

But it is more intuitive for slugcats to understand gestures than speech, which is why they need the mark of communication as they otherwise just hear incomprehensible garble. Their brains weren't made for many complicated noises. Yet when they DO have the mark they are capable of understanding extremely complicated sentences and such.

The wawas in threat themes are just the track not actual noise your slugcat makes. A lot of tracks have quite the bizarre sounds in them.

I think slugcats draw, point and jump to communicate. They're rodents that sign!

My only self-indulgent funny headcanon is.. as forementioned, that Rivulet can scream. There is no proof or basis for this. It's just incredibly creepy and funny to me.

This is why that creature wanders alone. Cursed being.

i don't think i posted doodles of Sundown Summer's loyal steed! he's a starry appaloosa. a... starpaloosa. constelloopa. appastella. he has a body count written in blood

Who's excited for the family gathering?

Transcript:

Marco: Petrah…why do I have to come to your family gathering?

Petrah: Hey! I was practically forced to come here, so I am making you too [all smug]

Marco: [sulks then fake smiles] But you are wasting my precious sleeping time.

Petrah: Honey [even faker smile] you'll get your precious beauty sleep once we're back.

[Casper toddles behind with no idea where they are going]

Petrah: We'll stay for a bit then leave secretly. Sound good to you?

[They arrive and are greeted by Connie, who we know has an estranged relationship with her twin]

Connie: Petrah. You actually made it, what a surprise to see you in person and not on the big screen.

Petrah: [clears throat] And it's nice to see you too…Connie. You've met Mar-

[Before Marco even has a chance to speak, Connie goes and picks up Casper from his arms]

Connie: Ahh my baby Caspeeeeeer! Look how big you are!

[Both look at then ignore Marco who just stands there. Casper giggles]

Noah: Welcome welcome! Wow I finally get to meet you two, come on in everyone's waiting!

Petrah: [in her head] God he's so loud. Ugh of course Connie knows someone like him [smiles and shakes his

hand pretending to make a good impression] Hi Noah! Oh yes, we meet at last! Can't wait to see Briar!

Holy shit IT WORKED!!

I've been completely lost I didn't thought it would work i was just desesperate aeoirgjoiejgrji

The weird thing about the debate on Israeli's indigenousness is that "indigenous" doesn't mean... you're From somewhere. You can stop being indigenous; you can stop being indigenous while still existing in the place your ancestors were born. "Indigenous" isn't that you have the memory of belonging to a place or notice little cultural things in your family that tie into your ancestral homeland. I mean, there's a reason we don't call British people in Britan indigenous.

Indigenousness is about perpetual opposition to settler colonialism, which is about the complete uprooting of a pre-existing culture and forcing that land to accommodate an extractivist, export economy. That's what it is. It's not about being from a place or even having a """tie to the land.""" (The "tie to the land" is definitely an element of indigenousness but it's really just a romanticized simplification of indigenousness — a simple answer for why indigenous people are at the frontline of environmental movements.)

When the Spanish came to Mexico, they worked with the noble Nahua people to de-indigenize them. They did this by converting them to Catholicism, teaching them European writing (Latin) and academics, and relying on the Nahua nobility to help enforce the new political system. Fransicans are usually credited with converting Mexico to Christianity, but the ones who did most of the work were the young, Nahua "niños del monasterio" who marched into the villages and burned the idols of the gods — of both their own and other indigenous communities. (Nahua soldiers are credited with being the ones who helped the Spanish conquer the rest of Mexico's native people).

Indigenous/mestizo scholar Chimalpahin wrote about the history of the "Aztecs" by calling every Nahua god a demon, by positioning the Spanish like a good development and by arguing his specific Nahua city was better than the other by appealing to Spanish sentiments. ("But maybe he was just speaking to the Spanish!!!" He wrote in Nahuatl for presumably a Nahua audience.) (Academics don't agree on whether to call him indigenous).

"Chimalpahin and the noble Nahuas were violently forced into assimilating into Spanish nobility; you are sick for trying to argue that they weren't indigenous anymore." I'm not arguing that they weren't, but they were players in de-indigenizing Mexico, and it's important that it was forced.

De-tribalization and de-indigenization are always violent and ugly; you don't lose your indigenousness, usually, because you're evil. Chimalpahin and the noble Nahuas were still victims and horribly traumatized. They were also enforcers of de-indigenization.

Anyway, I'm mestizo and have ties to central Mexico and feel a sense of belonging there, at times. I'm not indigenous to it though. The memory of any indigenousness in my family is just a memory now. We visit, and I eat so so many poblano peppers. But we've detribalized, become borderline settlers by participating in capitalism, lightened our skin through generations, probably intentionally (many Mexicans have heard the phrase that we have to "better our race"). If I wanted to actually reconnect, it would be a lot of work; any reconnecting indigenous person can tell you how much work it is.

I know people get really prissy about how "You can't compare Israelis to white European settlers in America because we actually have a connection to the land!!!! We are actually from there!! >:/ some of us are not even white!"

Well let's think of the majority brown mestizo (mixed) population of Mexico. Are they indigenous because they might have "ties to the land" and because they have lineage from it?? Maybe they were once, but for the majority now — no. Without a mass effort to oppose settler colonialism and reconnect, mestizos are not indigenous and might never be again, no matter how much of their pre-colombian culture persists in our quieter traditions and language. And the Mexican state is happy to co-opt aesthetic representations of indigenousness, to talk about our glorious "Aztec" ancestry, while actively hurting indigenous populations.

So assume some, or lets say all!, Israelis have every possible connection to the land (lets say they love the olive trees and cry over the murder of all the Nile crocodiles), maybe they're visibly non-white, maybe they can trace their lineage to the exact spot where they stand. But if they're on the side of a settler colonial, capitalist state (say it was even forced on them!! say they were even made to move there!!! say they are like the Nahua nobles) — how indigenous are you?

How much longer will you remain " indigenous " ???

the amount of betrayal and tears i can put into Melissa's story is unbelievable and i should totally do it

Me: I'm fine

Also me: Six getting his memory erased in "Six Minus Six" and Rex trying to make him remember is meant to parallel just how terrifying it must've been for Six and Holiday when Rex would sometime lose his memories before canon started. We know from what Tuck told Rex that he had lost his memories so many times, he would keep a notebook on him to make sure he would remember. How many times had this happen, for it to be a habit. How many memories did Rex lose when he was in Providence. How much of his own life does Rex actually remember during those years. Did Rex and Six bonded and got close before Rex inevitably blacks out and forgets everything again. How absolutely horrifying is it for Rex, a child in everything but title, to wake up with no idea who he is at a goddamn government facility and treated nothing more than a weapon. How heartbreaking had it been for Holiday, a mother figure who treats Rex like a child- how he should be treated- to see him not recall anything about her. How absolutely soul-crushing had it be for Six, who had taught this kid to survive and how to stay strong, to see that same kid act in fear. Did Providence did something similar to what Rex did, keeping a log of everything about him so he could know right away. How awful is that. How absolutely batshit, fucking insanely immoral it is that a child have to go through. To lose memories and be conditioned about waking up a military base. But in the eyes of Providence, he isn't a child. He's a weapon, an asset at best, and a monster at worst.

Why do you have to be so anti everyone? you have a really good blog but it's just not fun anymore

... what 🧍🏻‍♀️

im still taking a break but i feel like i owe everyone an apology for being such a pathetic baby! i rlly don't want anyone to feel obligated to interact with my silly minbo posts, im just letting the loneliness and anxiety get to me and a weird yearning for a heyday of fandom that never existed and i do very very much appreciate you all <3 (also like, i must be the change i want to see. if i want more interactions maybe i should... instigate them lol)

Pokémon Scarlet/Violet has been on the brain, have a little Katy

YOU ARE BORED AND I AM IN YOUR ASKS.

What's the question you've been secretly hoping someone would ask you about one of your fics?? That thing only you know, that little detail, that easter egg, that thing that every writer has. ❤️

gosh i have so many little secrets but most of them will only get touched on in the future (in the mud fic, but also others)

usually it's related to the frankly absurd amounts of worldbuilding i've been doing for serenno specifically :P

but if i had to pick one thing that is very close to my heart its that the mandalorian spy on Coruscant in Meanwhile On Mandalore is Elan Sleazebaggano, aka the disgraced former med student that wanted to sell Obi-Wan deathsticks in canon.

there were only the vaguest of hints and its something that literally is just for me

everything's coming up ♠️Aces♠️

being bi in theory should be the best of all worlds but in practice when it comes to dating it's like. I'm too straight to be gay and too gay to be straight. you feel me

Honestly, knowing this event is (presumably) ending on my birthday is already the best gift I could ever get

Me, after finishing my March goal of 75k words of my story, and hitting a nice spot to blindly send the newest part to my current readers and take a small break: my mind is vibrating but churning I have nothing to say after the dialogue I just typed it had a nice weighty chapter end finality to it

Me, the next morning: actually,

i've had people suggest i use mindfulness whenever i'm having a cptsd episode. but I don't think it works that way. they want me to realize that i'm not in the past experiencing the past traumas I dealt with. but the problem is, i'm STILL dealing with all these same traumas! they keep piling up on top themsleves and get thicker and heavier as time goes on.

being autistic in an allistic world, with severe sensory issues and really bad communication issues, it never stops. it's ongoing. my problems with people, communicating with them, being misunderstood, losing friends, etc, that's not a past thing. that's a real thing that always happens.

if I feel like friends are about to hurt me or trun their back on me like ones in the past have done, i've had people suggest mindfulness to me, saying I must be imagining it. saying i'm applying past experiences and being insecure and anxious and there's probably nothing wrong. so i'll let my guard down and try, act like everything is fine. then i'm suddenly blindsided by the thing I thought would happen and wasn't prepared anymore! that makes the past trauma load flood in again and makes the current situation worse!

also, when mindfulness involves being aware of everything around you in that moment, but you're autistic with sensory issues, so you are already painfully aware of literally every thing around you...why would you want to focus on that stuff even more?! i'm already exhausted and easily burnt out because of it. doing so will cause a meltdown and i'll definitely lose those friends I was worried about by accidentally lashing out at them if i hit that point lmao

i'm tired of people suggesting this to me. it is not a thing that will help me. if I was being paranoid for no reason, sure! I can see how it would help. but when i'm seeing real patterns repeat themsleves and every single time my predictions come true, I don't see how i'm simply being paranoid and mindfulness will stop it. when people already decided they don't like me but are hiding it, it won't do anything. when i'm already "living in the moment" because the moment is so suffocating and I can't ignore anything around me and need breaks from it, it's not going to help me.

mindfulness may work on wrongfully perceived anxieties and worries, but when they are real and actually happen, especially if it's a constant or recurring thing that you are better off being prepared for, I don't see how it helps.