#locust

[trunswicked]

Bunch of arthropod guys - refs created for OC purposes! ;)

[heavensgaze]

Lots of you have noticed that the older cats in The Garden seem VERY flirty, comfortable, and close with one another. Have you ever wondered why? WELL...

They're swingers <3 While there are established pairs of mates within the group, the Garden's founding adults are very open and intimate with one another.

Every cat out in the desert has their own approach to mates and relationships, so polyamory and promiscuousness can be viewed very differently from cat to cat. For some cats, it's very normal to have multiple established mates. For others, they chose to mate for life. It's also not uncommon for two cats to stay together just for the purposes of having kits, then to part ways. In the Garden, it's very assumed that cats will stay faithful to their partners. However, with a little communication and a lot of enthusiasm, it didn't take long for this group of five to realize they were getting Very Close.

These are all cats who have lived alone most of their lives. Living in such close quarters with the others was bound to stir up complicated feelings somewhere along the line, especially when they're already helping to raise one another's children. Every kit in the current Clan (from Little Crow to the MothDreamer litter) has grown up knowing that the entire Garden is looking out for them. Little Crow was the only kit for some time - they all doted on her constantly. Mulberry and Locust spent a lot of time with Olivepaw and Creekpaw as kits, when Lake was recovering from the birth. The Dreamer and Moth helped watch Honey Fruit when Locust was sick. Lake is incredibly close with Moonkit, Heartkit, and Beetlekit, and stayed in the nursery to help Moth even once her kits were students. The kits know they can count on these older members, and the five of them know they can trust each other entirely.

Whether you want to call them a polycule or not is up to you, but at this point into living together, they all function as one big family so they might as well hook up, mess around, and have fun with it. The best way to describe it is that their relationships are both open, and all five of them are fond enough of each other that they don't mind who their partners are spending time with - whether it be one on one or all of them together.

There will be other cats added into the GardenClan swinger's club as time goes on too :3 this is something I can't really find space for naturally in the comic, and don't feel the need to, but I sincerely hope you find a lot of joy knowing this is just a running undercurrent of the story. I definitely do <3

this is a fucking mess but here's a little chart trying to quickly explain what the dynamics are between them. everything is way more nuanced and complicated than i could get into on it (for space reasons TT_TT this was already so hard to format) but i hope you have fun with it, and end up as invested in this little group as i am. to me this is a very important part of writing the relationships between them all, making sure that their closeness is being showcased even if the cats in question aren't exactly mates in the traditional sense. these cats are a unit and a community, and they love each other fiercely.

[blondebrainpowered]

Jadeite Cabbage with Insects - a piece of jadeite carved to look like a bok choy with a locust and a katydid hidden amongst its leaves. Originally a gift to the consort of the Qing Emperor, Zaitian in 1889, it is housed in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, Taiwan. 

[herpsandbirds]

Rain Locust (Lobosceliana cinerascens), female, family Pamphagidae, Gorongosa National Park, Mosambique

Females in this family are wingless.

photograph by Piotr Naskrecki

[magicbunnystar]

Really love doctor nowhere's art and characters, have to draw em

[serpentswhisper]

[toacody]

kirikori nuva

"Secret material, Hiden Metal!"

Source

Creator: Djokson

[flightdescending]

she is in your garden eating your crops. she is two apples tall. she is magnificent.