Hey yeah sorry I don’t have time to risk my life in the extradimensional radiation pit I have a discussion post due in 2 hours.
Fun fact/info update maybe canon?: She got the arms from the corporation her parents worked for since it was their fault the accident happened in the first place. It was mostly a half-assed charity stunt (the models they gave out are pretty barebones by their standards, minimal internal workings and detachable) the company only did because so many people were affected by it, including children/teens like Zoe (bad press…).It wasn’t free, of course, especially because they now have to deal the maintenance and are now tied to that company for parts and formula to prevent you from having complications.
They’re still dealing with the medical bills, which now mostly fall onto Devin since their parents are dead. Uh dead parents update lol their situation makes more sense to me that way->Zoe’s life getting fucked up timeline: living on the coast+mom is chronically ill, Devin becomes a Conduit so they have to move to Conduit housing, war escalates and they get evacuated to housing elsewhere, the accident happens+parents die+Zoe becomes a Conduit also, try to move to live with their grandparents since Devin is an adult now to allow mom to move back into normal person housing to get better treatment, get diverted by gov to the SEZ in a hotel for a bit during immigration/emigration crisis because they’re Conduits , get locked in the SEZ after border closure, Devin joins a dredger agency for the reduced price housing+tries to continue college+drops out to work full time, Zoe joins the same agency part time to pay for her own schooling and medical stuff (the arm debt was taken out of their family’s assets upon their death and then written off when that ran out, but there’s still the formula/medicines and fixing any breaks/wear or updating their size) . They’re financially ehhhhhhhhhhh ok since a lot of their parents’ debt was dismissed (at the expense of them not having a house or inheritance or anything, which is why they were trying to move) and they are both working and have help from their grandparents. Idk idk
The injury to her arms was complicated by infection and RUU, ending in amputation, and her legs were also affected. The arm docking bits were put in as part of the same surgery to take the meat arms off and patch it up. Current human culture views cybernetics as “better” than normal prosthetics due to the glorification of advanced tech/the old ways (They often have more functions and can look and act closer to the meat equivalent, and technology has re-progressed to the point where some people are taking off limbs on purpose to put them in (in the central cities/core of the DRSS where all the money and development is , but still). But a lot of the time it’s form/appearance first and being able to do a lot of things over being able to do one thing well, like a hook or claw could do.)
A giant ichneumon wasp (Megarhyssa macrurus) uses her extremely long ovipositor to drill into a dead maple tree. Megarhyssa includes species with the longest ovipositors of any insect (up to 11 cm in M. macrurus and up to 14 cm in its cousin M. atrata), which also technically gives them the longest total length of any hymenopteran insect. The ovipositor is used to pierce deep into dead or dying trees to lay eggs on the larvae of a large wood-boring sawfly (Tremex columba).
Her ovipositor acts not only as a drill but as a sensory organ, and is highly sensitive to vibrations in the wood made by the sawfly larvae. Note how the translucent membranes of her abdomen stretch as she applies pressure by curling the base of the ovipositor, then retract when she withdraws to search for a different spot.
Do you have any tips for the folks who are new in spec bio?
Honest to god, not really. I was doing whatever and I still am in some ways, I thought of something that I thought was fun / cool to work with and build off from there.
Get really curious and nerdy about every biology and anthropology (if you’re making sophants) fun fact under the sun, then put all your favorite fun facts in a jar and randomly pull out enough of them to mix and match into new species 🌈. I’m talking all sorts of fun facts such as unique reproductive cycles, mating displays, ecological niches, physiology, diet, etc.
Don’t be afraid to be silly with it either. I’ve made a species with a common language greeting of “Aeiou” because I love that one Moonbase Alpha video so much.
Do you have any tips for the folks who are new in spec bio?
Honest to god, not really. I was doing whatever and I still am in some ways, I thought of something that I thought was fun / cool to work with and build off from there.
Get really curious and nerdy about every biology and anthropology (if you’re making sophants) fun fact under the sun, then put all your favorite fun facts in a jar and randomly pull out enough of them to mix and match into new species 🌈. I’m talking all sorts of fun facts such as unique reproductive cycles, mating displays, ecological niches, physiology, diet, etc.
Don’t be afraid to be silly with it either. I’ve made a species with a common language greeting of “Aeiou” because I love that one Moonbase Alpha video so much.
Decided to give the Aesungaian syllabary a little update:
Notes:
The characters on the chart have been drawn very clean and sterile for the sake of readability of the chart. Nobody actually writes them this cleanly.
Exclusion (or inclusion) of the triangle shape seen on the old chart to indicate an unaccompanied consonant is a stylistic choice and doesn't necessarily mean anything. The 'no-triangle' style of writing lone consonants is newer than the 'triangle style', but both styles are still in use.
The dipthong syllables (rightmost 3 columns of the standard set) were introduced as a faster way of writing the more commonly-occurring vowel combinations, but they are not always used, and writing out adjacent vowels individually is also acceptable. The [eɪ] dipthong set in particular (rightmost column of the standard set) is a comparatively modern innovation (introduced thousands of years after the other dipthong characters) and as a result is much less common.
In some dialects, most famously Eastern Aesungaian, certain vowel sounds are sometimes pronounced differently in certain circumstances. This is almost never reflected in writing, with the notable exception of when people are writing their names.
In order to ensure their names could be read and pronounced correctly, Eastern Aesungaians introduced new characters to represent these sounds. These characters are referred to as the Eastern Syllables.
Aside from the speakers of these dialects and their descendents, it is also common for humans (and Aesungaians with names of human origin) to use the Eastern Syllables when spelling their names, because the vowel sounds in many human names do not exist in the standard syllabary. Isaac, Vivian, and Hae'lia, for example, all use Eastern Syllables in their names.
In ancient times, use of the Eastern Syllables (and speaking of "nonstandard" dialects in general) was historically frowned upon and seen as "improper", especially in schools and academic circles, but this particular variety of repellent curmudgeon has long since gone extinct, with modern-day repellent curmudgeons instead seeking increasingly smaller and stupider hills to die on. (And die they shall, as alone and unmourned as the bigoted pedants that died before them)
Finally, it should be noted that the above chart is formatted to be intuitive to English speakers, with the consonants being alphabetized in English. A more "authentic" version of the chart is included below the cut, with the consonants (and vowels) instead sorted by their type, and their position in the mouth:
Close! That would read more like "Fuck bit chess, goat mini". You wanted to write this:
despite having an 'I' and an 'E' in it, both of the vowel sounds in a typical English pronunciation of 'bitches' are a 'short-I' sound, so it's closer to use the eastern 'I' for both vowels. Also, the 's' in 'bitches' is voiced, so it's closer to use the 'Z' instead of the 'S'.
As for the rest, I'm pretty sure you just accidentally lost track of what column you were in, because you were only one column off in both cases.
But you got 6/10 characters correct! That's gotta be at least a D-
They probably WOULD have their own numeral system, but I've never gotten around to making it, both because it's never come up, and also because the idea of making a numeral system is not especially interesting to me. So, I guess no, I usually just write out their names.
(I usually only take on huge worldbuilding tasks like this if I think it's fun or if I otherwise have a good reason to; I mostly come up with things as-needed when relevant so I don't have to invent every facet of an entire universe from the ground-up all at once, only for 99% of it to not be relevant to anything I'm actually making.)
I HAVE, however, named several of the numbers, so here's how to count in Aesungaian:
0 - shino (means 'none' or 'nothing' in other contexts but is used for the number 'zero' also)
1 - ro
2 - ta
3 - hen
4 - mit
5 - shen
6 - keld
7 - esu
8 - aks
9 - onku
10 - jero
20 - jeta
30 - jehen
40 - jemit
50 - jeshen
60 - jekeld
70 - jaesu
80 - jaeks
90 - jonku
100 - la
For all the quantities in between these, you just put the words together in descending order. For example: a hundred and twenty-three would be lajetahen.
As you guys know, I tend to keep to myself when we’re working on Welcome Home and only come out of my hermit’s burrow to give us all an update! This is that!
Unfortunately for May, the workload has been more than anticipated, so I didn’t have time to properly produce a Minute with Wally like I hoped I could…! I hope this will suffice instead! (We also hope to do one next month if things improve!)
The next Merchandise drop is in the works too and it’s so so so sweet! It very much matches a very particular fellow! I’m also happy to write that most everything is available in our merch store found on the website! Each purchase goes to helping us keep building our happy home and promise future updates so the story can reach its end!
(Artwork by @downydig !)
As for this upcoming update, I really want to keep everything a surprise, but I will say we have so much tucked away that we’re eager to share when the time comes! (I love hearing and seeing the reactions we get, it makes everything worthwhile!) It’s funny to say, but much of this year’s workload has been spent on both Eddie’s update and every single update moving forward! (We intend to update twice a year until it's done, if things keep going well enough, for example!)
Also to know… We intend on dropping in the summertime within the next couple of months! Once I feel confident, we’ll offer a proper date! (I have to break our Updately tradition of me being late! I must break the curse of Home)
All else I can say about it is…! Yeehaw! 🎤🐴
Thank you for supporting us in every way that you do, whether it’s buying our merch, loving Welcome Home, thinking about Wally, or spreading the word! We’ll write to you again soon!
Love, This House!
P.S. Place him... Anywhere
vaporwave
turnnoffyourmind
2087
titsay
gummygunk
annaxmalina
ellievsbear
blakekathryn
