#mandragora worm

[kosmicdream]

I’ve wanted to make a sort of “FFAK SPECIES CHART” for a long time but i always kind of struggled to find a way to present it in a simple format.. as in the FFAK world-- many of the species share traits or are connected/made from another species. With so much crossover, it kind of makes it confusing and circular to describe.

However, we’ve now hit a point in the story where most of the plot/worldbuilding elements have been established or at least mentioned!!! Yipee! So i gave it another shot and i think it was actually much easier than i thought it would be. There’s a few minor things that we still haven’t gotten to-- but basically the range has already been set in stone. There will never be another “species” brought in that is not in SOME way connected to the ones already presented. The most confusing aspect will be, i suppose, more new mysterious Created species-- or freaky confusing hybrids* like Crimson and Canary that pose a sort of ‘next generation’ evolution. But that is still connected to this base system. I like to think of it as being just.. three major categories that everything else draws from: Humans, Worms, and Aliens.

Even tho hekatons are very influential and are still classified as their own species, separate from worms, they still wouldn’t exist without being made from hydragora king seeds. So in a way, they’re like an evolution from worms. I like to think of Worms/Humans/Aliens as the “primary colors” that everything else draws from!! as they are the start of these species groups. The root of all this variety that have general connected themes that branch out and mesh together.

So If ffak’s species ever feels too vast to comprehend, just know that everything stems from one of these three categories. And in the end, almost all FFAK species still sort of follow the same kind of traits tbh, just with slightly different cosmetic aesthetics or slightly different rules. I generally write them all with very similar kinds of patterns so they all feel like part of the same universe/setting lol.

(*also Cash, who i actually decided to list on the chart-- but i suppose technically i didnt need to as i didnt specifically list any other “hybrid" characters.)

[kosmicdream]

Wait a minute so if the Mandragora hearts removed from Crimson have snazzy consciousnesses (Chain/the Knife) then does Fork's fork also have one too? Could we then conclude that many of the genuine kosmic stones have this property, being the hearts of living things? Which in turn maybe means that the mandragora race could be revived if a number of these sentient stones were provoked into waking? Or maybe we'll see more of this lore unfold in the future i guess :D anyway, cheers

Yes it does! Maybe there are more mandragora hearts still out there, still alive enough to be revived.. o:

[kosmicdream]

Fork's eponymous fork presumably is a mandragora worm heart (rather than a synthetic one, which you've said are comparatively crummy). Has he met the heart's self yet? It seems likely since he's apparently super good at using it as a tuning fork to read minds, but who knows?

Fork hasn’t met it. :( And it is a real heart! However, its in an even deeper sleep than crimson’s hearts. I think it might be because it doesn’t want to wake up, or more specifically, it doesn’t want to be noticed. Fork also is unaware its sentient/alive at all, so being oblivious of that fact makes it harder to realize its living even though Fork is very skilled at using it. FUN FACT: The fork weapon is also not nearly as old as the spoon/knife. but yeah.... Maybe they will meet one day! >:)c 

[kosmicdream]

what do baby wormies look like. did canary come out a beautiful centipede-taur or was there a legless red worm stage. i am sure youve explained this before but i cant recall

i might have but i am too lazy to dig for the time where i might have so heres some babie wormies!!!!!!!!!!!Canary is a strange hybrid case so I wouldn’t attribute anything abt their conception as typical. It is common for baby worms to adopt features of their parents, but this does not normally show until after the worms have eaten something. at first, all hydragora worms just look like little tiny (usually pale pink, or white/translucent with prominent veins) wormies and then fluffy wormies. then when they go thru their first cocoon/metamorphosis (usually after eating something) thats when they’ll change/evolve their bodies and usually naturally show the qualities they inherited from their parents + also their new prey they ate. (for reference, worms gotta go through this at least once before ever turning into a humanoid-ish stage. so usually its baby -> fluffy wormie -> first metamorph -> new worm form (like baby paper bunny form) -> eat a huyman nyum nyum -> badass epic humanoid form.) (worms also generally have 2 major forms they alternate btwn after they go thru their first cocoon stage. 1 is the “big fluffy aeschylus worm” and the other is more of a “disguise” form) (this obvs is gonna be part of a larger topic at some point but imma save that for later in the comic) (and im sleepy) (zzz) Canary also was a live birth, sorta..like a human child would be-- which is extra freaky and probably no other worm besides crimson was made this way. So canary, without needing to go thru a cocoon stage, was already born with physical qualities of both his parents. if i painted baby canary realistically im sure it would be truly ..nightmareish but just look @ the silly doodle instead and you can get the picture. canary also just naturally got older as time went on, rather than eating things/going thru pod stages. very odd....i wonder if that means ...canary is not done growing...? hmmnn...

[kosmicdream]

Do knife, spoon and fork know they all are alive? Have they ever tried to communicate or 'see' each other, maybe when Perkons owned both knife and spoon?

They do not, its only a very recent thing for Chain to like.. realize that she exists due to locket constantly trying to communicate with her. The knife and fork currently don’t have any thoughts like that. They just sort of... exist in a very detached/disassociated state. I think when Perkons owned the spoon and knife together, the only thing that happened was that the weapons were much more powerful as they were amplified by being close to each other. But, as he worked with Simon on many missions after giving the spoon to him, it basically remained the same since the weapons were still...close to one another. in present day, They have gone thru a decrease in power since their prolonged separation, and probably feel a bit more stressed out. i think this has opened them up to also being more vulnerable, which is why its been easier for locket to ‘wake’ chain up as well. (so its kind of been a good thing too.)Even If the spoon and knife ever actually managed to communicate or see each other before, both of them have forgotten any exchanges. memories have been difficult to retain since they have been very severely restrained in their thinking and starved of nutrients.

[kosmicdream]

A hostless mandragora worm can survive indefinitely in a saltwater environment, right? But are they even very good at swimming, with those big old hearts and the tiny tiny flesh body?

yeah they’d be fine there. and they loved to swim and are.. somehow really skilled at it! altho they usually would burrow into a fish or something just b/c its much more relaxing. (not even fully controlling the fish, just hitching a ride.. kinda like staying in your bed all day that just happens to swim around a lot.)

[kosmicdream]

is Chain meant to be interpreted as a sibling to Crimson? (along with the other parts of Crimson's missing hearts..) if Crimson didn't have their hearts removed, would Crimson have just one mind or multiple minds? like would severing a Mandragora heart in half produce two different minds? or is one heart = one mind?

I think its kinda tricky for me to say what we’re “supposed” to interpret Chain as, cuz its like.. Something along the lines of a ‘sibling’, or perhaps a ‘clone of yourself who was raised under totally different conditions’ or like meeting yourself from an alternate reality, except this takes place in the same one? Its because they are literally the same person (or were, originally) but also not that makes me hesitate to use “sibling” for them. Even a ‘twin’ is not the same thing as ‘you’. While its true that Chain also has grown to be a very different person than Crimson and I would consider the two not the same anymore.. i still kind of also.. consider them the same character? I suppose it requires some fluid, not quite determinable thinking when regarding the two of them, ideally anyway. If Crimson’s hearts had not been removed, they would have likely been perfectly synchronized in a way which made them pretty much the ‘same.’ (And their third heart might never fully matured.) But despite that, 1 heart = 1 mind. They just would have been so close together that it felt like one. (So for example, if something had been dragged into crim’s heart world during that time, they would have two hearts in control of that place and make it even more dangerous for those who enter it. this is also why a 3-heart mandragora would be even scarier!!) So anyway to wrap up, i dont.. think severing a single mandragora heart in half would result in more mandragoras. i think that worm would just be like........ fking dead. or at least in the most wild hypothetical circumstances, i dont think they would have access to a heart world anymore.

[kosmicdream]

When's Crim gonna find out what her adopted brother did with her hearts?

I dunno if that’s really a good idea. They aren’t exactly.. doing.. that well…. and crimson kinda has enough to be stressed out about as it is.

crimson lays face down on the ground as two talking utensils bounce around her