Depository for my fic brainstorming. Currently trying to convert the carapacians to a standard fantasy society, and it occurs to me they might be a constructed/artificial race. They basically are in the comic anyway, born in jars and whatnot. Potentially opens up discussion of whether they count as "alive", and could interact interestingly with my theory that MSPA Reader is a carapace/human ecto-hybrid. Main sticking point is who made them, and what about the king and queen carapaces? They could be the only non-artificial carapaces, the remnants of a nearly extinct species who can't reproduce normally anymore, or the carapaces themselves could have crafted the kings and queens as their first step to self-governance. I quite like the latter, wonder what I can do with it... Anyone's thoughts would be lovely.
Giving the trolls venom titties because no one makes sufficient use of the "substance useful in battle" comment. To be slightly less undignified I'm gonna have the venom as actually coming out through their teeth, there just isn't room in their jawline for large venom sacs.
Regarding MSPA Reader and my headcanons for them... they give me DMAB and/or male-aligned vibes - might just be male being the social default, but female-type characters don't tend to go through quite as much violent slapstick in fiction so that's probably affecting my view as well. Either way, they're definitely some type of nonbinary, maybe agender. They seem to be somewhere between human and carapace, so maybe have them looking like a human but with very white skin, only three fingers and a thumb on each hand, unusually sharp and pale fingernails, very round head, very flat nose, dark eyes, hair is white and never grows past a buzzcut. They're confirmed to have internal bones, but the structure might be weird or they might be made of chitin or whatever carapace's carapaces are made of instead of actual bone, and it's also canon that they heal faster than a normal human and don't need to eat as much as one.
Their age is sort of hard to tell. They have sex with eighteen/nineteen-year-old Lanque, but they seem to look up to Lanque, Skylla, Chahut, and Elwurd the way a younger kid would to older teens, they don't see anything wrong in making out with Diemen who looks maybe twelve (though they might not have been able to tell his age, they didn't know much about trolls then), and when Konyyl is shocked that adults live on their planet they say "yes they do", not "I am an adult". This might tie into my theory of their mishmash species, as carapaces appear to spring into being fully formed from jars and retain a certain childish outlook forever - even Spades Slick faffs about riding his horse hitcher. If I had to give them an age I'd say maybe fifteenish?
AU thing where Prospit and Derse are nations; would it be simpler to just say it's translation convention for an in-universe dialect/tradition whenever obviously "Japanese" things like Tegiri's collections are brought up rather than setting it in a world with an actual Japan?
Trolltags. Mallek: addersGnawing Elwurd: appellationGatherer Remele: acquiringGouache Barzum and Baizli (shared): tumblingClones Fiamet: chivalrousGlissade Boldir: conspiringGreen Skylla: arableTriumph Marsti: azoicAustere Xefros: adagioAllstar Dammek: ableTetrarch Cridea: compassionAquatic MSPAR, Joey, Jude, and A. Claire give me issues because I don't know which set of initials they should use.
Execution scenes in a setting where you can be killed on the spot at someone's whim don't really work with the same impact. Need something else.
I like the idea of including weird body horror shit but it'd be too complicated to keep track of it at the start. Maybe include just some minor things at the start and ramp it up as the magical weirdness builds till at the climax their bodies are falling apart around them?
Mutations don't have to be visual, I guess. I remember an old kinkmeme fill where John had the curse of The Light Princess - @Acey, I'm vaguely remembering it was you that wrote it, or at least someone with an icon which reminded me of yours?
I don’t think that one was me, but I understand the confusion—I did an oral history-style Ladystuck fill on Alternian folklore years ago, so maybe you got the two fics mixed up? Hope you find it!
Yes! Nice person on Reddit helped me with a xenobiology question at last! Now I have several possible paths I can take it, shall figure them out.
