A non-canon happy valentines from the Completely Shipless Fanfic Series. I am so fucking tired rn oh my god.
Thought this'd be an adequate time to say that Rift has no canon ships, all character relationships are (queer)platonic at best, and i generally dislike the idea of shipping. However, sometimes i break this rule for unfunny shitposts such as this one, I cannot tell people how to view something, and I don't want to rule with an iron fist, so I will say that you're allowed to ship pretty much anything WITHIN REASON GIVEN SOME OF THEM ARE MINORS OR LITERAL ANIMALS, as long as you aren't, like, gross/weird or completely obnoxious about it. I frown upon it but i literally do not care
Extra speedtyped yipyap under cut, idk
The shark cat fella is a canon Rift oc (yes, those exist!) owned by my mate ratonthemoon, name's Aygos. He's Bouncelia's advisor and also a homosexual british prick. Bangos as a crackship has been around for as long as he's been in existence he's into tall anxiety-riddled sappy non-Kingdom twats i guess. He appears in the second book as a revolutioneer against Prince (King?) Malus (will elaborate)
'Celia and her faithful workaholic weird lizard amphibian attack dog. Toadster canonically does ride around on her shoulder sometimes. The funky harness apparatus on his lower body is like a crappy overcomplicated belt for holding his human rib spear and some chain-tethered muzzles incase he's gotta drag someone along, this loser out here wearing combat pants. He does, like, all of the middleroamer protection work, patrolling for hostile trespassers or nonsentient activity and just keeping order in general. Bouncelia values him greatly for excelling at his job and his loyalty, and Toad is very noticeable fond of her for, giving him purpose i guess?
Yeah i don't know what i was thinking with the third one moon suggested them and it was funny like an hour ago. Calm your tail, Leena. As for general relationship information they're in a pretty odd place, Leena is instinctively aggressive to Helen due to her having been practically out to orchestrate Banban's death several times (and she just acted like a dick to everyone in general) but ever since she's had time to integrate with her travel group and calm down they're more tense than actively hostile. Leena's willing to accept her, but she's gotta earn it. (And yes, Banban and Leena are siblings in this AU, don't know what goes on in the canon when i left they hadnt even had mutual screentime or whatever. They're not related, it's a found family thing)
Flynn. Just Flynn. I don't know what those two have going on but its super gay (Flynn is a straight middle aged man) /hj. He's perpetually annoyed by Ban for. A rotating cast of reasons.
And my beautiful main character idiots themselves i love them so much. They're.. complicated, I guess. Helen's essentially collapsing under her own emotional constipation and cyclical guilt and, well, eventually suicidal tendencies, and Ban originally just thought she was an asshole but managed to realize something was wrong before things got ugly and struck as trying to be an emotional anchor, its all queerplatonic though. She was confused and frustrated at him first but he's slowly becoming a comfort person of sorts. I am very ill about them on GOD they need a therapy arc
-though they were only about, the fourth case class to be created, they are the most populous so i felt like doing them first
-all gv creatures share internal mammal characteristics such as internal structure (vertebrates) and endotherm (warm-blooded) body heat, but mammalians are the ones that technically also stay true to it visually
CHARACTERISTICS //
-almost all mammalians are facultative bipeds with a preference for quadrupedal movement, but some are obligate bipeds
-fur is often very thick and plays a huge part in thermoregulation, and with it disabled (say, getting really wet) they can go into shock or just hypothermia. this also goes for avians and their feathers. their body heat averages at slightly lower than ours, about 33-35 celsius (91.4-95 fahrenheit??? im an uneducated european idk)
-characteristics are not taken dead seriously and pretty much all you need to be considered a mammalian is fur and teeth. if a case had, say, 5 digits on each talon or an altered internal plan, they could still easily be considered a mam
-don't think this part needs further explanation
-would mythical creatures count as morphic? probably
(the animal-adjacent example lad belongs to @ratonthemoon)
INTERNAL ANATOMY //
SKELETAL STRUCTURE //
-fairly durable, but they are prone to back discomfort when on two legs (when it comes to facultative bipeds). their spines and hips arent really built for supporting so much of their weight over long periods of time
-eyes face forward
-foreleg distal phalanges mutate into claws
NERVOUS SYSTEM //
-brains are very developed, sentients generating the same level of sapience as a human
-great skin sensory abilities despite their fur. their palms and underside are most sensitive
-have a tickle response lol that belongs here i guess
RESPIRATORY SYSTEM //
-pretty good lung capacity + stamina
-their nostril veil made of thin fur strands also filters out dust and protects their nose from other irritants. they have a great sense of smell enhanced by their jacobson's organ, often while smelling they slightly open their mouths and press their tongues to the roof of it
-sentients can freely form speech with no issue but their vocalizations also include roars, hisses, growls and purring similar to a big cat's (happy motorcycle noises). they may also whine or chirp
CIRCULATORY SYSTEM //
-no notes idk
DIGESTIVE SYSTEM //
-odd, minimalist digestive system mosty just for a more lifelike facade given they don't need to eat or drink
-due to only having a single-chambered stomach and nothing else (lacks intestines, anal opening, liver etc anything else associated with food) their stomach acid has an even lower pH than a vulture's, allowing them to destroy almost any organic material and whatever is truly indigestible is clumped up into an owl-pellet like formation (chemical waste is crammed into this aswell) and hacked up
-due to lacking a liver or anything to neutralize toxins they also have a dramatic defensive reaction to things like alcohol, larger amounts of caffeine, capsaicin, tartaric acid (from say, grapes) etc. in which the stomach cramps together and forces out its contents through their mouths, a generally. not very pleasant experience but effective. they are very hard to actually poison but easy to get sick
-given their acid can burn through most things and their main defense against being poisoned is projectile vomiting, their entire esophagus and mouth is also lined with a protective coating that of their stomachs'
