#these were fun to ponder!
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tagged in '20 questions for fic writers' by the esteemed @verecunda — thank you very much!
1. How many works do you have on AO3?
62.
2. What’s your total AO3 word count?
102,035.
3. What fandoms do you write for?
at the moment, I think Sharpe, Flight of the Heron, and Kidnapped are getting most of my attention? altho' there are of course quite a few others.
4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?
you'd be my best friend, you'd be my lady (Hornblower)
sleep in it slowly (if you can) (Hornblower)
illuminating all, in time (Hornblower TV)
here in your arms is cured (Kidnapped)
as in a mirror dimly (The Mummy 1999)
...huh. that is not what I thought the top five were going to be. but then again, I think a lot of the work that I myself like better is both newer and more niche, so I guess that does make sense.
5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?
I typically respond to comments on fics I posted after April 2022, which is when I started replying to comments. not sure why that's my routine but either way it's what it is.
6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?
hm, a lot of breaking left to do, perhaps, being as it's just solidly Horatio Hornblower Is Sorrowful right from one end to the other. I'd lean toward this one rather than any of what I've written on the theme of being lost in undeath, even though there are quite a few more of those (and better written ones to boot!), since I tend to end those with something calm and a little restful even in decay.
7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?
I think that's probably got to go to Shaking Off Our Shadows, which is basically two thousand words to the effect of 'what if these two fellows from a very grim book full of disease and death and ruin and general misery had a really nice beach epilogue wherein Everything Was Fine.'
8. Do you get hate on fics?
eh, I've gotten a few weird comments on one, mostly people voicing their hatred for one of the characters it's about. I personally think it's all very silly to come to the doorstep of a fellow who likes to write about romantic dissection and say that a kiss exchanged with mutual interest but without previous discussion is 'fucked'. methinks the problem lies not with me.
9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?
...on occasion. not a great deal of it has actually made it into finished fic at present, mostly because I'm not very confident with specificity in those matters, and so it's more likely to be heavily metaphoricized (see above about the romantic dissection...)
10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written?
most of them are things that I'll draw about or merely ponder rather than writing, but a particularly silly one that I've actually gotten some words in on is Hornblower and Animorphs — look, if the Animorphs team is canonically at Trafalgar, I don't think I have a choice but to crack open a space to play with in the Age of Sail!
11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?
as far as I know, no.
12. Have you ever had a fic translated?
a few of my RLS-based ones have been translated into Russian!
13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?
sort of! when it comes to actually both writing in the same document, no, but the larger expanse of Flintlock Fortress is done in close collaboration with @dxppercxdxver, and we're discussing a great deal even if we're actually writing on separate parts of the story.
14. What’s your all time favourite ship?
I think when it comes to sheer years-long staying power, that badge has to go to Livesey/Trelawney.
15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?
I really would like to finish some of my earlier Treasure Island and Hornblower attempts, like the selkie au and the tattoo-sorcery story. I was definitely biting off more than I could chew plot-wise at the time and I'm more confident writing at length now, but I really don't have a ton of enthusiasm for the almost complete rewrites those stories would need to feel right to me, and so probably not.
16. What are your writing strengths?
I really do pride myself on my ability to Describe poetically and to spin an interesting sentence. enough of my fics are extended versions of things that I couldn't make work as a single drawing that that's become quite an important thing for me.
17. What are your writing weaknesses?
plots, and overall forming a story to have a solid structure and not just be a vaguely interesting selection of scenes... and I'm definitely not very good at imitating authorial voice, even when I'm trying very hard to do so.
18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?
like most everything, it's good when done with intention — I really wish I'd gotten quite good enough at Latin to do what I'd been intending and write some Hornblower fic entirely in Latin.
19. First fandom you wrote for?
I'd guess Stand Still Stay Silent, altho' I never ended up finishing any of the stories I began, and that was long before I had such a thing as an ao3 account (or even my current file-keeping system,) so where that all ended up I've got no clue at all.
20. Favourite fic you’ve written?
well, I think it's got to be the wormsfic... I'm just beyond proud of it even in its currently unfinished state and I think it's excellent proof of the fact that I've actually grown as a writer over the last few years.
and I shall tag... @dxppercxdxver, @cedarboots, @baronetcoins, @kigiom, @bishakespeares, and @lacomandante, if you're interested?
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The blueberry tart moral quandary has been very fun to ponder! Thank you for sharing it with us. I think the real question, however, is what each of your animals would think about ordering two slices of tart under the circumstances
You're right, that IS the true question here. Let's situate this in a universe where blueberry tart is safe & delicious to eat for all animal species.
CHICKENS. The chickens would definitely want that second helping of tart because chickens live in a solipsistic moral universe and would hesitate to share tart even if it was their dying sister's last wish.
However if you place two slices of tart on the ground for 2 chickens, they will immediately and violently start fighting each other over the same slice, thus giving you the opportunity to discreetly retrieve the first slice for yourself.
Moreover, if a chicken manages to break off half of the slice and starts running like hell to go eat it elsewhere in peace, the other chicken will take off after her instead of eating the other half happily by herself. If they then break this half in two while fighting over it, they will resume fighting over that half of the half, allowing you to retrieve 3/4 of the second slice. And so on. This is Zeno's paradox applied to chickens and tart: the hens will spend the rest of eternity fighting over diminishing crumbs while you get almost all of the second slice back (albeit broken in increasingly minuscule halves.)
CATS. Not only would the cats want that second slice regardless of who else wants it, they would also sit & start grooming themselves on the rest of the pie with great serenity, rendering it inedible for anyone else.
However, my original post established that the pies were under large bell jars. Two of my three cats are (to their everlasting torment) stymied by this sadistic human invention. If the bell jar is heavy enough that you can't push it off the table (a popular strategy), then Mascarille and Merricat will just circle it a few times, ram their faces into the glass, do a full body swipe against it in case this might open a secret door, and then walk away in frustration.
Morille on the other hand is a cat possessed of extreme patience, diabolical intelligence and acute interest in forbidden food. She will get the tart no matter how long she has to lie in wait.
DOG. Pandolf would not want a second slice or even a first one, if he is made to understand that this might make other people sad. The thing with Pandolf is, he can smell disappointment. His great big nose picks up on every particle of human disappointment in the air and they go straight to his heart. He is also too polite to even defend his bone from thieving chickens. There's no way he would claim any tart at all unless someone gave it to him and made it clear they would be happy for him to eat it.
However Pandolf is very cute when he sits there with a lolling tongue, happy for others to have a good time, and there is also no way one or several persons wouldn't give him their slice of tart. He would definitely end up with tart.
LLAMAS. Pampelune is the matriarch and since her duties involve dying to protect her herd in case of predator attacks, she considers it her prerogative to eat first and as much as she damn pleases in compensation. She would get two slices. I believe Poldine would choose to have only one slice and kiss everyone in the restaurant on the cheek for good measure, and I also believe she would actually get zero tart. As shown in the salt video, Poldine understands her place in the pasture hierarchy (the one who eats last) and has to resort to subterfuge to get even 1 lick of salt while others are gorging themselves. She will be very dependent on other people's temperance and decency to get any tart (so, Pandolf is her best bet.)
Meanwhile Pampérigouste is trying to figure out how to escape the restaurant undetected to go on an adventure while the sheeple are talking about tart. She will get one or two or three slices but only if they can facilitate her various stratagems (for example, to bribe a guard at the door.)
The FISH—do not have the cognitive abilities to worry about morals but more importantly, do not experience soul-deep desires in the way the birds and mammals in this list do. My fish live in a smooth and quiet world where the gods make food rain from the sky every day. In this luminescent existence of untroubled abundance their capacity for longing has atrophied. They do not understand what wanting tart means, let alone the complex philosophical agonies humans can put themselves through when faced with culinary conundrums.
DONKEY. Pirlouit's first instinct would be to claim all the tart he can eat and then some. However donkeys and fish sit at opposite ends of the philosophical spectrum; Pirlouit strikes me as an animal who would be interested in exploring the ethical ramifications of the issue, as an intellectual exercise. 70% of his life consists in quiet deep ponderings. I think Pirlouit could get distracted ruminating the blueberry tart quandary in light of the rich philosophical heritage of donkey civilisation, and arrive too late to get any tart by the time he determined whether one or two slices is the right answer. Kind of like that time he got distracted by his need for revenge and was late for breakfast and the llamas had already claimed the hay.
IN CONCLUSION.
#ask#thank you for the question this was also fun to ponder!#morille & the hens were the most obvious answers
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ACNH AU but it’s just Chil as Tom Nook giving out lax loans to people in need with his half-foot guild, and his close friend Isabelle Marcille helping out and hanging around. Been playing ACNH and came to the realization that Tom Nook & Isabelle give Chil & Marcille energy, and immediately had to draw it…
Man wanted to retire early but still hasn’t stopped. What I want for post-canon Chilchuck is just for him to have Tom Nook energy fr fr
#Dungeon meshi#acnh au#chilchuck tims#marcille donato#meijack#Flertom#Puckpatti#Chilchuck’s family#Marchil#To me they’re the Everything Everywhere All at Once thing where doing taxes together is the most romantic thing#At first I wasn’t gonna put Marcille in a pencil skirt but. She’s rocking it#Also was gonna give Mei tims shoes but forgot. She still got her knee-high shoes swag tho#The thing is Marcille DOES have dog energy it’s just that unlike Laios she’s like… A pomeranian or smth#Chil got divorced bc there were never non work-related vacations. Get that island cash my guy#I had fun putting details on the board#Saw a localization of Laios as Laois the other day and I have taken psychic damage#Listen I’m sure canon Chil has a very neat handwriting. Sorry for the character assassination#But also??? Illiterate rates have gotta be high for the Dungeon Meshi world right. I ponder it a lot#I am sorry that I accidentally made Chil look like Christopher Robin in that last one… I apologize
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(Sorry, I know I sent a lot of questions already so feel free to ignore this one akdks)
How do you feel about truth serum tropes? I think it has a lot of potential for angst scenarios - not sure which HH character would be the best "victim" though... It's a tie between Angel Dust and Alastor for me!
I spent WAY too long with Jin Guangyao and Mu Qing as my blorbos of choice in their respective fandoms to not have some strong feelings about truth serums as a concept, ehehehe. I actually fucking love truth serum tropes, but I am also phenomenally picky about them.
The key point for me is that I do not enjoy them as a comedic premise! I want truth serum to be tackled with as much seriousness as the character it's being inflicted upon would see it with. Being forced to reveal your secrets - the secrets you're keeping for your emotional well-being, for your safety, for your reputation - is deeply fucked up and traumatizing. It's an extremely vulnerable position to be in depending on the character it's done to!
Bonus points for trope subversion a la a character being dosed with truth serum and the people close to them understanding that this is deeply fucked, and promptly doing everything they can to ensure that it's not taken advantage of.
I don't know if there is any Hazbin Hotel character that would be as satisfying to truth serum as Jin Guangyao, but here are a couple of ideas:
Angel Dust gets popped with it and is pretty good at spinning his words into innocuous glib comments that he thinks are totally fine jokes to make about his situation, except he doesn't realize that everyone is just growing increasingly horrified as he goes on because his normal-meter is so broken
Lucifer gets dosed and it just kinda shoves all of his self-deprecating dark-as-fuck-but-as-a-humorous-cope thoughts from the inside to the outside sans filter and it's just a magnifying glass onto how not okay he is that whips away his thus far semi-successful attempts to keep it together
#ask#personal#liulith#IL your questions! can't always get to all of them but I love reading them#I had a nieyao/3zun JGY-centric fic planned at one point where they've progressed enough that NMJ doesn't actually interrogate him#partially helped along by the fact that JGY has an absolutely massive panic attack when he realizes what's been done to him#and I never wrote it but it was SO satisfying to ponder#also I think Alastor would be more fun if we knew enough of what his actual truths were bc as it is idk what I'd even have him risk spillin
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you know it might just be that my tendency to overwrite might have something to do with the fact my chapters end up being 15k even after undergoing mitosis
#like obviously im at the point where im throwing in the kitchen sink bc well the point of this fic is if i wanna write it i do#but also like .. i once had very very short scenes and chapters like 90% were under 1k short#and i know a lot of it was that necessary detail got left out#i was underwriting then#but now i have def swung too far this way#fortunately i just write for fun so like i dont actually have to address the overwriting issue#but it is 3am and im awake so it is ponder things time#like the fact the current chapter is at like 15k and i still have at least three scenes left if not more#because the first four chapters are essentially fics in their own right#but also the chapters after the first four would feel weird if the first four chapters were to declare independence and create a series
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Here I am, a total stranger wearing a tiny half mask asking you for prompt 8- To welcome your arch enemy into your evil lair for the costume game
Well total stranger, it's been several months, so if we're lucky you won't remember sending this and we'll have a double mystery.
@flishlish asked this one as well!
8. What would you wear to welcome your arch enemy into your evil lair?
"How kind of you to grace us with your presence-- Oh dear, that looks quite uncomfortable. And I did ask my henchmen to bring you here politely..."
Closet Costume Challenge~
#pondering the orb#i had such fun with this one#besides getting stabbed by a lot of pins#which is only to be expected when you wear half finished garments#there were red matching stilettos#fellas is it gay to dress up in your evil queen best and haveyour henchman kidnap your nemesis?#a talia original#talia's adventures in dressmaking#talia is a drama queen#costume dramatics
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Soooo a little not really cat-related question.... There should be enough bookworm characters to fill up a bracket, right? I'm... Pondering...
#to be completely honest I'm pondering a lot of stuff#namely the classic losers bracket the bracket for the characters people were too late to submit and the cat oc bracket#and also this#hosting a tumblr competition is tiring but a lot of fun
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Tbh i do think animals like dolphins and elephants and chimps and in some ways bonobos /do/ come close to human sapience! Now tbf this is based of my still-not-a-professional-but-a-devouted-hobbiest research so take it with a grain of salt!
But all 4 of those mentioned animals have some of the biggest examples and signs of emotional intelligence and social intelligence besides humans in the animal kingdom! And 2 to 3(chimps and dolphins are known for this and some studies have shown elephants) show /amazing/ skills in logic and reasoning tests like object permanence and pattern recognition, on top of all this all 4 animals pass the self awareness test(recognizing themselves in a mirror)
The most interesting part in my.opinion is the number of neurons and brain matter "folds" in dolphins brain, which is theorized to be our best way of telling an animals intelligent through the physical brain alone, surpass humans which is something incredibly special in natural science! (Not to be confused for brain size which can't say as much about average species intelligence, but even then dolphins have one of the largest brain to body mass of any animal)
I think, what it comes down to is if these species are as intelligent as us they still have a different set of morals than us. And if they do have the same morals as us an Animal knowing something is wrong, and /choosing/ to do it anyway is arguably and amazing example of intelligence and a level of self awareness comparable to ours
And as said by another person, even if a species /can/ do bad, that means they also have the capacity just like us to do amazingly /good/ things.
The more we learn about dolphins and chimps the more some scientists believe it's like looking into a mirror inteligance and social evolution wise, and that threatens some people both because it implies we are animals just as easily swayed by instinct and survival than any other, and it hits people that every act they see as "evil" being done by a dolphin or chimp, has been done by humans 100x more and 100x worse
Either way, dolphins aren't humans and shouldn't be judged like them and /even if/ you were to judge them like they were, you'd have to take a longer harder look and human society as well [idk if any of this makes sense but I saw an opportunity to talk about mt favorite topics in animal behavior sndjs]
Thank you for your viewpoint and insight. As an animal enthusiast I must agree that the level of intelligence and self-awareness that other animals show is very intriguing and exciting indeed! It’s what drew me to dolphins as a kid in the first place, learning about their intelligence, tool use, social behaviour, etc.. It’s interesting to see that animals that aren’t closely related to us can be so similar to us in many ways, after all! It shows you that humans can’t be separated from other animals just like that, because we’re still animals too — something I should’ve brought up more in my original post, I think. (Though animals are still not people. I don’t think I should have to say it but just in case.)
Anyway, I hope we may discover more about their perception of the world in the future! If we find out for sure that dolphins and chimps and elephants and whatnot know they’re causing harm with their harmful actions yet do them anyway… well, that’d be a bummer. But it would also show us that each good action they do is from the goodness in their hearts and I think that would be very rad indeed. We wouldn’t be the only ones anymore.
#This all brings me back to a discussion I had with my friend group some time ago.#We discussed orcas and their intelligence and my friend expressed that he felt that even if orcas were sapient#we wouldn’t have the right to tell them what is right or wrong. Because it’s largely subjective!#Just like us humans have the right to ponder and define our morals and laws#orcas have the right to define theirs.#We have no idea what they experience!#My friend also joked that since some parts of orcas’ brains are bigger than ours maybe they know something we don’t about the animals they#kill “for fun” and are in fact “more morally right” to do so and we just don’t realise! Though that’s all for laughs haha#asks#sammy--moh
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Another potential story idea comes from a sidebar about sports -- I looked over and saw “Wizards at Spurs” with no real explanation.
So now of course I’m thinking “Wizards are going to a place called Spurs? Is that like the Place With No Honor, with spiky things sticking out of the ground? What kind of magic will they do there?”
#the context is basketball#but this is much more fun#wizards#writing prompts#‘where do you get your ideas?’#from things that were definitely not meant to be fantasy stories#but here we are#the place with no honor#haha the wizards are playing basketball with their Pondering Orbs
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10+11 for arabella
10: What's a seemingly minor decision they made that wound up majorly impacting their life?
honestly, probably joining the guild. which doesn't sound like a decision that would be considered minor, but it's far from the first time arabella made a commitment to some group or institution only to ditch it once she got bored and she did not mean for it to be the last. you think that you're just joining up with some down-on-its-luck crime ring to perform a few fun heists while you're in the area and then before you know it you've sold your literal soul... oops
11: If they could have any animal or creature in existence as a pet or companion, what would it be? (Assuming said creature would be docile toward them!)
this question sparked an extremely specific memory of some fantasy books I read as a kid, which featured a species of intelligent chimpanzee-esque ape that were often companions to conmen because they liked doing clever little tasks and so were often very good at picking pockets. arabella would have a lore-friendly monkey that does that and they would be best friends
#it was emily rodda... the dorne/deltora universe. WHAT WERE THEY CALLED...#thanks for the query!! they were fun to ponder#ask#oc tag#arabella
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Over-caffeinated the Creature and now he is awake at hours where he should not be, what crimes will he commit?
#Creature rambles#brain so eepy body so eepless#oh also the creature may not be eeping very well in general hes gonna get a sleep study bc he may have ~problems~#life is hard for the creature he wishes to sleep and also for a day without a headache#do normal people get headaches every single day or is this something i should put under disabled oddness#hmm much to ponder much to think about in the dark of this sleepness night#im so sorry everyone this is rambly but its ok#oh also fun story by which i mean very scary story but some teen hooligans jumped in front of my car today#i dont thinky ive recovered yet it was very scary for the creature#i didnt hit anyone thank the gods but they were trying to prank their friend and mistook my car for theirs? and just jumped in the road?#in the middle of the night??? everyones completely fine but i am shaken by this event#oh to be snuggled im so afraid of car crashes and so extra afraid of hurting someone while driving it was very scary for me#but im around the neurotypicals rn and they dont get that the creature doesnt bounce back as quickly as they do
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current word count on LWH:
24116
#pom ponders#writing stuff#fanfic#long way home#zekina Alaskan adventure au#I've decided that i am going to post updates every other Saturday#weekly updates were fun but very stressful#this way I'm giving myself more time to work on it
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Valdemaran mind magic makes directed energy weapons viable send tweet
#heralds of valdemar#I am pondering the implications of fetching in a modern-with-magic AU and it’s staggering#I mean. There are some wavelengths of light that air reflects and absorbs.#so if you were to say put on some sufficiently sensitive IR goggles#you can literally see light. and line of sight is the only requirement for fetching#and air is extremely lightweight#sooooo all I’m saying is that you cause some NASTY implosions with fetching and a set of IR goggles#also solves thermal blooming wrt directed energy weapons. the possibilities are endless#I LOVE VALDEMAR’S MAGIC IT’S SO FUN#*you can literally see air lmao#not light.#or well. you can see some of the gasses that make up the majority of air#gay herald in a squirrel suit
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probably a pointless observation but I think it’s interesting how little we see of the dreams of characters who aren’t Ronan/aren’t magical dreamers. Like given this was the era of ya that was full of dream sequences. I think the only ones in og trc are Adam’s dream in TRB which is just the same as the vision tree one before he goes to sacrifice himself, Blue in TRK dreaming of Gansey before he leaves to sacrifice himself which is a parallel for sure but. I just think it’s interesting we know so little about what the other chars dream about …
#like it’s not necessarily a criticism just caught my attention this reread.#Adam’s hallucinations in TDT are also left super vague. That’s something I’d be really interested to see how the graphic novel chooses to#adapt them but in the meantime I can have fun pondering on my own.#I did also go eye emoji when Adam said to Blue that cabeswater could do some sort of magic to confuse her and Gansey into kissing#which could just be from the vision tree but I was like hmmm… did something specific happen Adam? Did Cabeswater make you kiss someone or#think that you were kissing someone when you weren’t? hmmm.#(yes I have shipping goggles involved w this but yk my observations stand and you can apply them to other purposes if you want to)#s speaks#s rereads trc
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< read some hurt comfort, caught up with the story again, and now is itching for a particular flavor of dynamic but doesn’t have the fortitude to build it up
#I was waxing on poetic abt tragedy of enjoying hurt/comfort but having Problems with the hurt sometimes#but then my neighbor yelled and I backspaced the tag away#and um. here we are ig#Anymeow turns to stare at ethann with big round eyes#or persnaps junie#fun fact junie has come to the conclusion that getting involved in ethann’s deal would be more detriment than help#on account of all the self destructive activities she likes to partake in. is like hm. squints. you’d be too easy to teach some of these#things and that seems. Not Great. makes a couple comments to bill and gives gedian whatever they were bringing over and leaves again#but now that has me pondering… Ethann unintentionally cornering junie…#well#‘cornering’#they both end up on nearby roofs and Ethann is like hey I know u and junie is like. hi this is very high up What Are You Doing and Ethann is#like I’m climbing :/ obviously 🙄 I’m not here to buy groceries#and they end up cloudeatching or something
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So, I was gathering ak'ab references in the Monster Gallery for potential eventual anthropomorphizing purposes. (They look like moths, so they're prime Mothman inspirations.) But as I turned them about, I had some...cursed, spicy Realizations. *pats ak'ab* This bad bug can fit so many fetishes. Sure, there's tentacles on a whole bunch of stuff in Secret World, but there is just...so much in the design for the ak'ab that can lend to all sorts of shenanigans.
So buckle the fuck up, sweetlings, we're going on a deep dive analyzation of ak'ab anatomy and observing the wild potential for fetishes along the way.
[Image ID: concept art of an ak'ab, a bizarre monster from the game Secret World Legends. It's quadrupedal, but has extra bug-like digits on the sides of its torso. It also has what appear to be bat-like wings, but the membrane connects in the center to a long digit that's sprouting from the center of its back, which results in a single, triangular wing. Its head is large and bulbous, and transitions directly to its shoulders with no neck. It has two pairs of eyes on the front of its head, with a vertically-slit mouth below them that contains two rows of humanoid teeth, and multiple thin tongues extend from it. Below that are another few pairs of eyes, and a large proboscis hanging downward. It has multiple sets of gills in the space between the lower set of eyes and its shoulders, with another set of humanoid teeth inside the gills closest to the eyes.]
I'll open with the general observation that ak'ab are surprisingly mammalian for something that otherwise looks like a fucked-up eldritch moth. By and large, they have a standard recognizable skeletal structure, even in the forelimb sections of the weird wings. Granted, they do also have bonus finger-like "limbs" coming out of their ribs like short insect legs. Plus another large digit on the center of the back, which connects the membranes of what would normally be a pair of wings into a single, triangular wing. And their head is...its own Thing. But they've got fingers/toes on their feet, with black finger/toenails on the digits that don't have claws, and joints generally in the same number and placement you'd expect from a mammal.
But it's not only the apparent arrangement of their bones that's oddly mammalian—indeed, arguably even strikingly humanoid. When I turned the ak'ab model to see what its underside looked like...I found something I would have never noticed in-game. Did you know they have nipples, sweetling? No? Now we know. Together.
[Image ID: a screenshot of the ak'ab model from the Monster Gallery. The camera is angled from below, which makes it possible to see the fact that the monster has a surprisingly humanoid torso, including two pairs of pecs. And, by extension, four nipples, though the set on the left are hidden by the reflective lighting of the model.]
I mean really, all you need to do to anthropomorphize an ak'ab is make it bipedal, slightly less top heavy, and...well, there you go. It's overall surprisingly in line with the cenobite-style shenanigans I might have pulled in an intellectual exercise to try to make a moth using human bits. Besides the nonsense middle wing digit, that part baffles me.
But, with that revelation, several questions are raised. Do ak'ab only have nipples because their form is based on mammalian bodies, nightmare-warped into an otherwise insectoid format? Or do they actually serve some function? Is it possible for an ak'ab to lactate, and if they do, do they carry their wee young around with their rib-digits so they can feed frequently? How cute would that be? Like a mama opossum. If it's not for lactation, nor a holdover from their nightmarish inspiration...well, we know ak'ab can cocoon prey. Is it possible that what appear to be "nipples" are, in fact, spinnerets? In which case, are the rib-digits what manipulate the silk as they wrap their prey? Whatever the case, the mere presence of (presumed) nipples (and/or spinnerets) has potential for oodles of fetish shenanigans, whether they're functional or not.
But let's move on, because boy howdy is that not nearly the end of it. Another obvious potential fetish-feature is the fact that they have five long, thin tongues in their primary mouth. Sure, that mouth has two sets of humanoid teeth in it, but what's that in the face of pseudo-tentacles? Especially when the vertical mouth slit is, well...I mean, real moths do indeed have rather labial mouthparts. But when it's embiggened and fleshy, it's just a bit more blatant, no?
Curiously, the mouth slit (at least the redder flesh of it) continues downward, past four more pairs of eyes, to the underside of its head where it also has a proboscis. This is, presumably, what the ak'ab use for bloodsucking, as suggested in their Bestiary lore/legends. (Which also mentions that they're a hivemind, so. Pretty sure that's also a Thing, as a quick side note.) One might then assume that their rib-digits can also be used to help hold small prey in place while they use their proboscis to drain its blood, and their lower eyes could be used to spot tiny prey on the ground.
But is blood the only thing they consume? They do have mouths and omnivorous teeth, after all. Did you ever notice the extra sets of teeth they have in their gills, sweetling? I was so excited when I first spotted them, it's my favorite design detail about ak'ab. I've cooed quite a bit over their gill-teeth, they're so fantastically gnarly, what a disturbing design. So many potential implications. A little silly that it's horizontal sets of teeth in vertical gill-slits, but whatever, they're chittering nightmares. Only...now that I'm thinking about their anatomy, and trying to make sense of it...perhaps, if we assume ak'ab ever eat particularly large prey, the three sets of teeth are each part of functional mouths? And maybe they just. Shove their faces right on into the carcass, while they breathe with the further-back gills. Do the mouths then connect to one large stomach, or do they have separate ones for each mouth?
An extra thought, regarding how they eat (or not). What if some, or all, of their toothed mouths are connected to a different type of digestive organ, and that's what they use to make Broodmarks and such? Between the front mouth and the pair of gill-mouths, there's a number of potential combinations for consumption of animal/plant matter, partial digestion, and regurgitation vs. regular digestion. If that is something they can do, that could be how they source the various gooey structures they create.
In any case, given that the Buzzing also suggested that ak'ab might be "ravenous" and tunnelers, with many strange limbs and bulbous eyes, and now I'm reminding myself of taxxon from Animorphs...they do have fairly loose skin at their bellies. So it's certainly possible they might, when food is plentiful, have their bellies become distended with blood (or flesh, or etc.). Which is an entire list of subtly enabled fetish potential on its own, pretty much just from the design of the belly.
But another thing occurred to me, in realizing that the gill-teeth might be fully functional and not just for nightmarish visions. Something rather more specific, that sort of requires context of ak'ab behavior within the game. You see, stranger who may have wandered in here unfamiliar yet remain reading despite the ache developing in your brain—the ak'ab have a telegraphed charge attack that stuns the player. It's possible to dodge and avoid the stun, but they're quick as sin, and prone to swarming. They're a hive, as you'll recall, and they'll call in close-but-out-of-sight friends if you attack one. So it's easy to get overwhelmed by two or three (or more), and become stun-locked by a group of ak'ab if you wander in the wrong part of the forest. You also run across them quite early in the game, so it could be quite a shock as a newBee. (This is significantly less of an issue now, because their propensity to pull in distant friends is much lower than it used to be, and the telegraph is shown for much longer. But the Old Bees know.)
So you see. There is a not-insignificant number of people who came to instinctively resent ak'ab, and tried to avoid encountering them because of that frustration. And that instinct and spite might linger, despite things being much more manageable now. And so...in my brain, some things clicked, and it made a couple curious connections when I realized ak'ab might have three fully functional mouths. If a few frustrated Bees were inclined to "get back" at an ak'ab for the stun-locking they suffered...well, that could be a spicy monsterfucker fic prompt, right there.
And that's the super cursed, spicy thought that I couldn't just leave stuck in my craw. I had to inflict it (or gift it) to other Secret Worlders.
#tsw#the secret world#swl#secret world legends#ak'ab#ak'ab anatomy and the implications thereof#I accidentally went full (cursed) dissertation again#I am asexual and 'do not go here' as it were#I just have approximate knowledge of many things#I have stared into the middle distance so much today#as thoughts occurred to me and I tried to parse what various features indicate#they're nightmare creatures they don't need to make sense#but it's fun to ponder how they might#gently stretching out my skull with cursed thoughts#enlightenment hurts sweetling#taste and see
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