Hello all! Swirl, sometimes called Ky, here to make a late intro thread. Swirlingflight is my main username, you can find me under it on Tumblr, Plurk, AO3, Minecraft, and other sites I'm forgetting. I came here via Tumblr, and found Seebs and co thanks to Luka's comic Kagerou. I'm self- and Seebs-diagnosed as possibly autistic. I like to curl up in a corner with a sketchbook when I'm tired of dealing with people. It works pretty well; I have a likely conversation topic if anyone really wants to talk to me, and I have an excuse for staring out at interesting things. So maybe I'm not autistic, just artistic? :P I've probably got other things going on, depression at the least, but I haven't gotten it sorted out yet. Talking with a therapist is next on the list. Major interests you'll see me chat about here: Puns! Summing up conversations/brainstorming to help people think about all the suggestions Flights of fancy and figurative wording Visual art, especially drawing and painting (Acrylic paint. Oil smells and Watercolor is too easy to mess up.) Reading, writing, and roleplaying World building, map making, pantheon designing, religion planning. Spoiler: Fandoms of choice include but are not limited to: Homestuck, Luka's Kagerou, DDuane's Young Wizards, TPierce's Circle of Magic and Tortall, TPerry's Discworld, McNeil's Finder, Aasimov's Nightfall, Heinlein's SIASL and MIAHM, STeppier's Raising the Stones, SEngdahl's Children of the Star, ATLA, Tolkien's LotR and The Hobbit (no Silmarillion yet, but maybe someday...), some of MLackey's Valdemar and 500 Kingdoms (especially Kerowyn's), the Star Wars movies, the Star Trek shows (DS9 is freshest in my memory), the one season show Day Break, all about a guy trapped in a time loop on pretty much the worst day of his life. the eternal level grind of Shin Megami Tensai games. Strange Journey and Devil Summoner 2 specifically right now, though I've played through Persona 4 and started games in Persona 3, Nocturne, and Devil Survivor. FFVII, FFVIII, FFIX, FFX and FFX-2 and many more! Spoiler: Fanworks of choice include: Vatheon's Embers AU of ATLA, Homestuck AUs like Hemostuck, Cultstuck, and Miracle Child, Poetry's Daemorphing AU of Animorphs with HMD-style daemons, Avelera's Prayers to Broken Stone, with literal dragon sickness, Hannah's Stubborn Mouths ST:DS9 AU with autistic!Julian, icarus_chained's JARVIS series, GingerAndRust's Again and Again and Again Once More, Osheen Nevoy's Boromir's Return, Silver Pard's insurgere, pretty much any Hobbit AU that includes growing hobbits in soil or carving dwarves from stone, time travel fic that include interesting complications to the main character's attempts to "fix" their past (will list a few later), stories that feature canonical antagonists taking a third path, especially ones that invest them in the welfare of a community while still being jerks at heart, and more that I'm not thinking of! Other things about me that might be interesting/relevant: I have an undergrad degree after majoring in visual art, though technically the degree is "Self-designed" thanks to missing a prerequisite theoretical class and not realizing until my 7th semester, when it wouldn't be held again until after my default graduation... In hindsight, I should have just gone for an extra semester or two, gotten more experience and explored more options and put together more of a plan for life. Unfortunately I was in a very bad mental/emotional state, and I believed delaying graduation for that reason would mark me as a Failure At Life. Even though I knew a few people who had done the same, and I never thought poorly of them! For all my fondness/experience with visual art, I'm weaker at writing. I focus more on the symbols than the human element. I get very excited planning mechanics for a tabletop character, or musing about classpects for a Homestuck OC, or spend a few hours skimming dictionaries for an obligatory pun. I design them side-by-side with a general personality and background for the character/story... and somehow forget to think about what my character's goals are, or what sorts of things they're willing to do for them---and why they aren't willing to do certain things. One of my college advisers compared my default writing style to Ayn Rand. He clarified that it's often dry, needlessly wordy and too passive. That it's full of strong opinions that I seem to take for granted, without explaining in a way someone unfamiliar can grasp it, not exploring the flaws of those opinions, not challenging them with other perspectives. I was annoyed and a little insulted at the time, but I've come to agree. And I'm working on it. Back in late high school / early college, I hung out on the edge of multiple/otherkin communities because something about the median idea appealed to me. I think it was the sense of a fluctuating identity, a sense of selfhood that only works if I go back and forth, like alternating legs to walk but both legs are still me. It's a nice image for my feelings of inconsistency and of being pushed in different directions. I've left those communities for some years, and I've switched to exploring the concept as a creation myth in the gods of the world I mentioned in the Writing thread. The creation story being: I like the imagery but the wording needs work. The 7 Deities mentioned over in the Writing thread (Devourer, Destroyer, Decider, Defier, Definer, Developer, and Defender) are basically a median depiction of that god. Larger or more powerful pieces of the all-being who remember that shared selfhood and are now determined to explore separate existence (even if it's only a temporary dream). They have very strongly different ideas of how existence should proceed, and pull in ways that oppose each other. I'm largely inspired by the Powers-that-Be of Young Wizards (and everything they're inspired by). Devourer takes a lot from the ambivalent versions of the Lone Power. This is a world of balance, of conflicting forces and drives where both sides of each conflict are somewhat needed, and the only evil is in how we treat each other. Spoiler: Devourer Devourer is the spirit of self interest, resentment, addiction, and craving. The original void that resents the imposition of this separated glass fog, or the love of risk and change, or the black hole of narcissistic depression that takes in any experience it can get to try to fill that yearning. The spirit of Nice Guys, of cruel beautiful fae youths who use and abuse and expect only the same in kind, of moths that fly into flames. Neutral evil. Common symbol: a moth-like skull with an open mouth, surrounded by swirling colors that turn to gray around it. Possible theme song: Gray Street by Dave Matthews Band. Moral foundation: n/a, or perhaps self-interest, or perhaps desire. Spoiler: Destroyer Destroyer is the spirit of sanctity, cleansing, wrath, and omens. The side that realized what Devourer could do to existence, who sought to fight fire with fire. Feelings of disgust and revulsion and rejection, so that people isolate themselves from the source of danger. The spirit of crusaders and vengeful victims and book burners and eugenics advocates. Chaotic evil. Common symbol: a long silvery blue comet with a broken chain trailing from it. Spoiler: Decider Decider is the spirit of authority, restriction, hierarchy, tradition. The side that recognized the harm Devourer and Destroyer can do, and prevents it by setting and enforcing boundaries. Considers fire, power, and knowledge as dangerous in the wrong hands, and considers basically everyone as too rash and ignorant to use them responsibility. Called Lightkeeper, Peacekeeper, or Gatekeeper, for guarding and withholding from people for their own good. Lawful Evil, or Lesser/necessary evil. Common symbol: a tall, thin black lantern that somehow resemble bars from a jail cell, with a small orange flame within. and so on. The other four are more in-progress than these, but I'll be happy to share my brainstorming if anyone's interested. I think this intro is getting long enough as it is. I've shifted all the gods around multiple times over the years, as I understand people (and myself) better. Most recently I've redesigned them with the Moral Foundations Theory ( http://www.moralfoundations.org/ ) in mind, because I realized they already nearly matched to one primary ideal each, and this made them fit in a way I struggled with. Hopefully, this way they're recognizable to me and accessible to others, so I can use them for the pantheon of a story or a roleplaying setting and be easy enough for people to play with. A parting factoid that makes more sense after you've seen all this: If we do self-insert fantroll rp, mine will be teal-blooded with some kind of deer lusus. I already have her symbol worked out. #because, #tl;dr, #;)
Heck yes! I was browsing daemon AU and randomly started in the series with like, the 12th fic or so? And it works so well! The different experiences for the different species, and the question of how each kid would settle...!
I love love love what they are doing with Aftran, and what the Chee are being 'encouraged' to do. Spoiler, I only really read books 1-19, the Megamorphs, the Andalite Chronicles, and the very last book. The David storyline distressed me, and I stopped consistently reading part way into that book. I read some scattered books through the series past that, but I don't know how much Daemorphing differs from book canon. :C I could go check a summary somewhere, but I'm lazy right now. I don't mind spoilers.
Oh boy. Okay so right now the most important difference is Loren, who canonically doesn't appear until like the last ten books when everything goes to shit. Aftran is actually also a difference, in the canonical books she becomes a whale and disappears forever. I 100% can't blame you for being unable to follow after David; that was one of the definite turning points towards the series being darker. A lot of the next chunk of books after that are filler, though don't skip 23 for Tobias actually finding out about Dad Things. Aside from the chronicles books (READ ALL OF THEM), and a couple related in-line books (I cannot WAIT until we get to the Aldrea book in daemorphing), they're mostly skippable until like, I think it's #40? It's definitely a Marco book, and he and his dad have to go into hiding. Shit starts getting real about there.
I thought she might be a late-joiner in canon, there was an emphasis in the fic about the useful (and previously missing) perspective she's offering. Like homework help from the pacifists. And I bet the later animorphs (like one in a wheelchair or something?) will get a very different treatment. Not surprised to hear that about Aftran. It kinda messes with the beset-by-foes vibe the book a usually opt for. A sorta-allied yeerk staying in touch and providing info would have made certain sorts of conflict less plausible, which doesn't help to write and sell books. Oh, I /did/ read that Tobias one! I vividly remember the pleasure and pain contrast tactic, it was memorable. I'll check into 40 and see if I've read it.
Yeah, she both joins late and doesn't really do much of anything, plotwise. I much prefer this version, for a long list of reasons. (More active female characters? Check. Forcing the group into examining their attitudes re: disability? Check, and worth noting that there's a book with disabled Andalites later, which I think is ALSO a Marco book, that I'm also looking forward to. Having an adult who takes care of these kids? Check. Make the Chee actually do a thing? Check.) It's also worth noting that Daemorphing Loren is one of the first highly religious characters I (as the resident awkward atheist) can actually enjoy. To be fair, Aftran DOES go back to the pool, but because the kids don't think of the Chee Solution, she's eventually put up for execution, they rescue her, and Whale. That's #29, I believe, which is fairly good for the middle section; there's a lot of Cassie acting on her own. I'm so mad that the site with ebooks of all of them went down, because the PDFs I have of the rest are kind of poorly formatted a LOT. :[ It was a sad day. I should reread most of them, really; I skip a lot of the less important filler-y ones but it's still a chunk of like forty books, even if I can pop through like three every two hours. Also if #40 is the one I'm thinking of, make sure you crack into Visser around that time. It's good.
Finally got a USB hub, so I have access to the PDFs I have from sometime back. Only have the numbered books, so I'll do a hunt for Visser in a bit. Disappearing Aftran: boo. Fic series making a point to explore the neglected, largely female side characters: yay! I'll see about reading in order, it wouldn't take me much to reach 29. I did a quick read of 40 (like fifteen minute rapidly skimming) and it looks like it's the one where Ax introduces the concept of vecol. I suddenly remembered the alternate timeline in Megamorphs 3, with less advanced technology and far more fascist ideaologies... Ax did just fine in that setting. Ouch. I'm really looking forward to seeing what the Daemorphing series does with that pair!
Yeah, I rechecked and it looks like I was thinking of 45, whoopsie! But yes, I'm excited for what daemorphing does with that, too. It jsut updated today and oh my GOD I love this fic so much. It makes me really tempted to do a reread and take a crack at my WoD AU (basically: add nWoDs to Animorphs until oh god horrible reaches some kind of critical mass). I'm still really especially interested in contrasting nWoD demons (choose to break away from their creator, visceral experience of humanity, often lead shorter, violent lives) with the Chee (left behind when their creators were destroyed, immortal pacifists who rarely if ever get involved in human affairs). Because that looks so full of interesting potential. There's a hell of a spark of something there.
