#coat's head stuff

[sometimesihavewanted]

tfw you've known each other eighteen years but due to your species' reliance on touch-telepathy to communicate you are only now about to have your very first direct conversation with the love of your life #justbasicsolidvam-kothings

Body language notes under the readmore

Vam-ko is signalling a pretty intense case of 'please please please please talk to me i'm literally so nice'; all four ear batons are up and tilted towards Nar-it, his eyes are crazy big and also looking right at her. He has held out his hand patch to her to request the conversation (and therefore its implied he's accepted the responsibility if the conversation goes badly), and has exposed the hand patch not in use as well even though its only touching the ground.

To counteract this very direct focus he's keeping his head lower than Nar-it's and stretched his arm out very far to allow her to take his hand well away from his personal space. He has shuttered his lower eye set, a common calming signal which also softens his stare. He is slumped over and has his legs in an awkward position to get up from, signalling he can't lunge or attack her easily. He is also keeping his tail still, not even his short tail is moving ('short tail' is classed as the end half, wagging this is an interest signal which can be positive or negative. Lashing the long tail (the whole thing) is an aggression signal). he is also touching the 'thumbs' of one foot together, in a cute little 'crossed fingers' gesture.

all in all he's showing that's he incredibly investing in this contact but is also in control of himself and wants it to go well.

Nar-it also has wide eyes, so she is very interested in talking, but is not taking it as calmly as Vam-ko and is a lot warier. However, she is not wary of Vam-ko! All four of her eye are looking at him with no shuttering (sign of calmness) or narrowing (sign of wariness). Tilting her ears away is a counter to Vam-ko's focused ears, like saying 'bro wtf there are other things we might need to listen for pay attention', but she does have one baton on him. Her feet are half braced, but in a way that means if she did push off from her braced foot, she would end up springing away from Vam-ko, to tackle anything that tries to interrupt them. She is also keeping the claws on her talking hand very carefully away from him, showing that she is taking care with their conversation. She doesn't have as much control over her short tail as he does, it's twitching due to her over-stimulation at her split focus.

[sometimesihavewantedtodraw]

People say The Black Unicorn only eats four leaf clovers, so it’s a good thing she doesn’t need to eat a lot. This is not true; The Black Unicorn eats quite a few things, like regular grass, and bones.

(3)

[sometimesihavewanted]

tfw you're really grateful you can't yet project your thoughts without physical touch because you can't stop thinking about kissing your girlfriend #justbasicsolidvam-kothings

notes under the cut

Triumphant return of the main man*

NOTES!! Vam-ko is Big Embarrassed lmao he's covering his head patch with Both hands and therefore hiding those patches as well, signalling that He Really Can't Talk Right Now. His ears are all back and unfocused on his surroundings, which shows he's dealing with something internal to himself. His short tail is lashing, and the thumb claws on his feet are up, showing he's excited, and he's perched up on his toes so he could spring up in a moment. About the only calm signal he has is that his foot patches are touching the ground, meaning that he's leaving a faint physic imprint that shows he's been there, and he wouldn't do that if he wasn't safe. He could be Tormented With Memories From His Past for all anyone looking at him knows but instead he's just shy about asking his gf to make out

(*not a man)

NAR-IT though! Nar-it is in a pretty similar posture, perched on her toes and lashing her short tail, but her attitude is totally different. She's covering all her patches, including the feet, and has her claws out (and is actually clicking some together, which is a Big Threat from a slender) and her ears (except for the one she's pointing at Vam-ko) are focused on something external to her. (it's polite to have at least one ear pointed at the people you're with, to show that youre paying attention). she's also panting quite hard. this would read as Nar-it is about to jump on something and kill it with a great deal of enjoyment, EXCEPT. both sets of eyes are shuttered. while they are wide, which shows focus and interest, she's not concentrating on anything actually around her, or at least one set would be completely open. with her eyes shuttered (instead of closed) she can still see and react to things going on around her, but the visual input is muted. this is a sign that she is ALSO Thinking Really Hard About Something, but that her thing is something she's enjoying thinking about and pretty eager to go for. let's have a look at what that is:

uh-oh vam-ko

[sometimesihavewanted]

Long one this time. Anyway here's how patches work.

[sometimesihavewanted]

Bad Dog Horse and her Cringefail Boyfriend

[sometimesihavewantedtodraw]

He was the only one who could reach her window.

20, Maramil, about to fall in love.

[sometimesihavewanted]

Basic Slender Jof-um hiding from someone she doesn't want to talk to behind Nar-it. #weaselversionofghosting

Jof-um is a friend of Nar-it's and Vam-ko's, but she's not very good at getting herself out of situations.

Nar-it is mostly posturing, her eyes are intense and three ears are on whoever she's hardballing, with one back to check on Jof-um, and her claws are out and displayed (except for the patch-thumb claws, which are curled over her patches to protect them and show she's not going to talk), but she's also very upright and not in a great position to spring and attack. Jof-um is running away from someone who knows Nar-it's reputation and isn't going to push anything.

Jof-um is keeping herself very tight and tense (her legs are compacted) and lashing her short tail high in the air. she's checking back over her shoulder at whoever she's running from, but to show her disinterest, her ears are all back and away and she's squinting. she would be showing boredom if not for the other signs and for her darting behind nar-it

[sometimesihavewanted]

I couldn't be bothered to draw Nar-it's markings and Vam-ko is technically on the edge of being classed as Between so you've got the Brown Brothers*(TM) for the Slender and Solid example and Blue&Red splice for the range of features that Between can show

*Technically humans would class them both as women so they'd be the brown sisters but that's not as fun to say

Anyway, alien body types be upon ye

SLENDER

Kinda meant to be the shock troops, slenders are uh, short and... slender... They evolved to fill the role of hunting dogs, driving and flushing prey to the rest of pack, and to climb and get into smaller spaces after edible vegetation that the heavier solids can't reach. their claws can cause a looot of bleeding* damage so fights between slenders can get crazy. they have a reputation for being sharp and snappy and having short tempers as well

*they don't 'bleed' as such...its more like oozing damage? if you ooze too much you stop being able to move your limbs so you want to ooze as little as possible

SOLID

Big bruisers who have the ability to knit*. Solids are taller and heavier and can hit really hard, but its blunt force damage so more used in interpersonal conflicts and posturing and such. (if solids get in a fight its a pissing contest and theyre going to come out of it with a headache, if slenders do people are going to ooze) however their teeth can cause major trauma so Don't Get Bit. their lack of claws (except for the thumb claws all weasels have for defense and tool use) means that they can manipulate with their hands a lot easier so traditionally they're seen as the 'homemakers'

*they don't actually knit but the ability to do general arts and crafts doesn't sound as snappy

BETWEEN

There's a lot of possible overlap between the types! It can range from The Whole Bag to What's Wrong With That Hairless Freak*. Whole bag is seen as hot, because you can literally do it all**. It's kinda analog to intersex in earth mammals, though doesn't have anything to do with sexual or reproduction systems. and they do actually have an equivalent to intersex so i guess its intertype?? yeah betweens are intertype and about 25% of weasels are on the between spectrum

*this is a cultural attitude, with no basis in actual ability

**except knit