Aug 13, 2025
outer wilds headcanon status:
#fj.txt#hcs#fj.tags#owi#specbio#me specbioing out general hearthian reproduction/life cycle stuff for brain purposes (fun and recreation):#okay we have basically 0 instances of any known individuals being described as related#or any kinship terminology outside of nomai contexts#and it doesn't sound like anyone particularly *cares* about any of that either#so lets say all the eggs get laid together (dedicated breeding season) in a sort of communal nesting site pool/hatchery#(said breeding season is sort of a poly free-for-all and theres not really any lineage tracking to speak of)#(yes i have thought out the implications. it involves significantly more deranged specbio we're not even touching on here tbh)#everyone who's laying eggs lays eggs (long story; significant offscreen specbio/evo also happening with this part. dont worry about it)#theyre laid in water or sometimes in buckets/washtubs/whatever to be carried to the ponds if you dont wanna/dont have time#i imagine a decent number of eggs getting laid at once would help effectively obfuscate lineage#but the level of r-selection that implies feels a little out of place for hearthians who def raise their own young#considering the actual number of hatchlings around at any given time (hatch season problems aside) (<- also complicated dw about it)#so maybe theres generally a bunch of dud eggs that double as predator decoys and early meals for the tadpoles#also for fun lets say tadpoles are precocial and basically like horrible little animals until metamorphosis around toddler age#(sidenote thank you tadporridge for inspiring usage of the term 'larva'. it is very fitting here. awful wet little creetchurs)#the whole process is more like animal husbandry than infant caretaking until they're big enough to leave the hatchery#tadpoles are little menaces and will straight up eat other unhatched eggs or smaller tadpoles given the chance; theyre not picky at that ag#probably winnows down the numbers further tbh#lol if i had a nickel for every blorbo species i've specbio'd that ended up having baby-on-baby cannibalism i'd have three nickels#...#......#GOD DAMMIT#anyway#there were even buckets involved...