✦ For my DSMP headcanons of hybrids on the server, I decided to work a bit on the anatomy and characteristics of each species, starting by Demons!
Note: There's a difference for full-blood demons, such as cBad and the others; I'll be focusing mainly on the hybrids rather than the full demons.
⤷ During the time I made this drawing I had only worked on 3 demon hybrids: cEryn, cTommy and cSapnap, however I was reminded that Tina confirmed her character to be a demon, so she too is a demon hybrid in my headcanons (I'll be working on her design later!)
HYBRIDS CHARACTERISTICS
⤷ Demon Hybrids have very similar characteristics in general: As beings with demon blood, they all are born with long tails and horns, with different sizes depending on their sex. They have long ears and scales around their body, that can be more or less proeminent depending on the person;
Although my first three designs have all different shades of red and black, these hybrids can also have dark shades of blue and purple (such as cTina);
⤷ For demon hybrids, their sex can affect their physiognomy. Some of the charistics I worked on were:
For AMAB hybrids: They have longer tails with sharper tips and small horns;
For AFAB hybrids: Their tails are smaller with a round tip and bigger horns;
So, what about my cTommy design? I headcanon cTommy as an intersex person (He/She) which leads to him as having mixed traits from both sexes (Long tail with sharper tip and big horns); I'd like to point that hybrids can be born with traits of the other sex, although that's not cTommy's case :)
Demon Hybrids in general also very some strong fire resistence (they're not immune, just resistent), besides other quirks such as: Better eyesight at night and better hearing than humans.
Their hybrid organs are also essential for them: their tails are very important for balance and sense of spacial perception, whilst their horns are related to their hearing, so damadging those parts could cause serious injuries - Example: cTommy got her horns destroyed during cDream's beating in prison, and although they were restored on revival, she's deaf on her left ear, besides injuries on his tail during exile, she gets clumsier after that.
So yeah, they're definitely not decorations but functional organs.
cTina also has serious injuries on her horns, making her almost completely deaf on both ears;
For cEryn, he's one of the few hybrids that doesn't have any scales around his body like cTommy and cSapnap do;
Some background information: Demon Hybrids aren't exactly common, so for all of them on the server meeting each other was kind of a surprise, maybe less for cTommy as he met cEryn during his childhood, but yeah, still a bit rare.
That'll be it for now for the demon hybrids. I plan on working on cTina's design once I'm done on the Bovidae hybrids (cTubbo, cPuffy and cSchlatt)
Tommy felt a strange flash of regret as Phil‘s feathers disappeared under the sage-green fabric, but he pushed it away. He‘d spent too long eying them, succumbing to the waves of emotions that came with the sight of those wings. Fear and apprehension, yes, but also suriosity. Envy. And worst of all, hope.
Sheep features that sheep hybrids have in my blog/au since I don’t think it always comes across as well in my drawing (with pictures that I found on Pinterest for example, I don’t own any of the pictures)
Hair is often a curly, almost wool texture, and typically is a white or cream-ish or various shades of brown
Sheep tails, some have their tails docked when they are young, others dont (first pic is natural length second pic is docked)
Sheep ears & the nostril part of nose is a darker color and more leathery texture than the rest of their skin, with the line connecting down to their top lip (ref picture will show this a lot better than I’m explaining) (looks kind of like the way a lot of people do satyr costumes)
Horns. Horns come in all shapes and sizes, and some sheep breeds have no horns at all, but I took inspiration from Big Horn sheep and Jacob’s sheep for the hybrids on my blog (Schlatt, Tubbo, Puffy) (I imagine Schlatt and Puffy’s parents each took after one of those kinds of sheep).
Thank you for coming to my rant, I have fun thinking of the niche/not that important parts of things I enjoy :)
In the SMP, hybrids are (from what I understand) meant to be equal parts human and whatever other species they may be, but they tend to act in ways that are much more akin to humans. This leads me to believe that hybrids, either consciously or subconsciously, make an effort to suppress certain innate traits in order to better fit in with human society.
Because of this, they start showing more traits of their other species the younger/deeper into headspace they get. They may start speaking their first/other language, enderman hybrids may become eye contact-repulsed/adverse, creeper hybrids may start having stronger emotional responses, fox hybrids may become more skittish, etc.
Regressed hybrids tend to be drawn to other hybrids, not even necessarily of their own race. I think that pretty much all hybrids have a level of cultural trauma over a general exclusion and discrimination from human societies, and know that they aren’t at risk of facing that particular type of mistreatment from people who are like them. I think that when they’re big this often manifests as every-man-for-himself type stuff, but kids instinctually seek out the company of people who they deem safe.
Biologically accurate hybrid oberservations: Part II
Charlie Slimcicle: The slug
Synopsis: This is a short series where I, as a biology student, express my opinions on the hybrids of the DSMP and the Origins SMP (or MCYT’s) and their hybrid traits / features and how they could explain the character’s behavior. Leave behind an ask to request a hybrid I can look into next time!
Masterlist
Charlie would definitely be one of the more difficult hybrids for this kind of analysis due to the fact he's a slime hybrid, and while in nature there are plenty of animals that use slimy substances for a number of reasons, that really doesn't seem to be the case here.
Most of the animals that could be used for such an analysis would be creatures that live mainly, or partially in water and produce slime. Examples would be slugs, eels, jellyfish or octopi. Jellyfish, octopi and slugs do not have bones, similarly to Charlie. Eels do however possess bones which is why I scrapped them from the list further more.
These animals (except for slugs) can contain their shape within water without possessing flesh or bones because of the different density of the water in comparison to air. Canonly however, according to the wiki, Charlie melts away in water which makes the comparison between him and the animals mentioned before difficult.
This leaves slugs.
The slimy substance that they create protects them from the environment and allows their movement. It is secreted from pores in their ‘skin’ and is produced 24/7. Assuming Charlie's physiology works along the same principles, it would make him slimy to touch and would definitely help him reach places he otherwise wouldn't be able to reach. For example, in the case of slugs, it allows climbing of vertical and uneven surfaces.
This would explain why he mentions he sees everything because he can reach high surfaces, inaccessible for others, with a large view over the lands.
The slime produced by slugs also has similar properties to characteristics Charlie has. The slime produced become liquid under pressure (for example when forcibly squeezed into small spaces). It also would protect the rest of his body from bacteria, sun rays and the weather.
Slugs can change their shape, for example when in presence of predators where they contract their body in a smaller form which makes them harder and more compact. It's unsure if Charlie can do the same but personally I think this would certainly play a part in hiding in small spaces and watching events from the shadows.
On Charlie's wiki is described that he cannot blink or close his eyes, which is another trait that slugs also possess. Instead of blinking the creatures retract their eyes momentarily into the tentacles that hold them (in case of land snails and slugs at least).
Because slug’s bodies are made up mostly or water, it would make sense for Charlie to 'melt' when in contact with water. The slime he produces, which would protect him from small amounts of water, would most likely wash away with larger amounts of water or simply dissolve.
Because he describes himself to be formed out of a membrane it is very likely this membrane would be semi permeable and allows smaller molecules to pass through when inside a body of water due to osmosis (a process that allows a solvent to pass through a semi permeable membrane to the more concentrated side).
In short, his cells or he himself would explode.
Although he identifies as a male, slugs are actually hermaphrodites, which means that they typically have both sets of reproductive organs and when mating exchange sperm and both individuals lay eggs. Because he still appears to be a hybrids of some sort due to his human features it is also very likely he either identifies as a male or only has a singular set of reproductive organs.
Now to reach his diet, depending on the type of slug, they can eat close to anything. Some are herbivores, while others are carnivorous and in some cases eat dead specimen from their own species. Although the diets between species of slugs can change, it would also be likely for him to be an omnivore, another hint towards his human side, and be able to eat whatever.
Behaviour between slugs differs greatly between seasons and species, and as Charlie describes himself as 'formed in the earth over hundreds of years' it would be unlikely he'd be social with naturally generated slimes or have any sort of connection to them. Slugs also do not forms relationships, and instead move on after mating, which would enforce that Charlie wouldn't be social to other slimes.
Slugs also typically don't form a nest of some sort, instead dump their eggs in a shielded moist place before continuing on.
Generally they prefer to live in places that are warm, dark and moist, so Charlie's attraction to caves (also to spy on people) makes sense.
Because Charlie describes himself as slime or 'goop' without bones or flesh, it isn't farfetched to assume he doesn't really have organs either (excluding the brain and such). Biologically, this naturally causes a large array of problems and complications, and most of them I will disregard as it's impossible to find solutions or explanations for all of them.
Something however that would be possible, is eating. Naturally it wouldn't be done in a way similar to humans, but I'd assume that after passing through the membrane that forms his 'skin' the food would be transported to a separate type of organ, maybe somewhat resembling a stomach, separated from the rest of his body by a membrane. Different types of enzymes and lysosomes (organelles that break down large molecules) would slowly eat away at the food and break it down to molecules that can be absorbed back into his body.
This is just my hypothesis however, and naturally doesn't give an explanation for the massive amount of other problems, and personally I don't suspect to get an explanation for any of them, but I felt like I should mention this.
currently considering starting a small series about the hybrids of the DSMP and biologically accurate facts / traits they’d have. Weird habits, characteristic behavior explained with the traits, that kind of stuff. I’m a biology student and thought of this after a recent project i had to make about crows so I already have written a post for Phil that is low key ready to go up. It wouldn’t be x reader or any sort of ship, more just a character analysis. Asks would be open for characters to do next and stuff like that. Would y’all be interested to read this?
