Humans are dangerous. Just as their brilliant minds bring the stars to their fingertips, so too does it place fiery brimstone at their heels. If you are able to comprehend these words, then you too know this fact better than any wild beast will ever be able to understand, even more so for occupants of human-adjacent vessels irreparably warped by man's cruel, clever hands. We of the lesser race, of the smaller, weaker kind, are of particular interest to them, and must thusly avoid them at all cost. But without the knowledge to do so, the sole asset placing us on any semblance of equal footing with the enemy is squandered, our lives forfeit to fear and terror. That is why this guide exists: to give the weak every possible avenue to avoid the strong, to create escapes where there previously seemed none. Because though the human threat is strong and witty, we need only to look to the masters that have survived their reign for thousands of years to scuttle free.
At long last, I present to you every last bit of information I have on Piper's bug-based martial art form, Scuttle! It's a work-in-progress that is highly subject to change, so I'm really interested to hear other people's questions, critiques and additions. Please don't be shy!
First and foremost, Scuttle is not a guide on how to kill humans. As far as Scuttle is concerned, killing a human is completely impossible and any attempts to do so are suicidal. Rather, it is a guide on how to avoid them by any means necessary and reasonably executed by a tiny (1-5") humanoid that is surviving on their own. It does this by categorizing bug-inspired techniques, also known as bugforms, into a simple 3-part plan on what to do in the presence of a human, each of which is only to be progressed to if the previous part fails:
1- Don't Get Caught (Wings)
2- Run Away (Legs)
3- Strike Back (Sting)
Wings has everything one needs to know about staying out of sight, Legs on creating distance once they've been sighted, and Sting on freeing oneself from a human's grasp should they find themselves there. Every Scuttle part after 1 exists to get the scuttler back to part 1 as smoothly as possible, so a seasoned scuttler would seldom (if ever) see past it under ideal circumstances. That being said, reality is often disappointing, so parts 2 and 3 should be studied closely regardless.
Scuttle also uses a set of highly versatile tools in the vast majority of its techniques. These are called the dreipoints, and there is so much info on them that they will be getting their own section right under this one.
Dreipoints
The dreipoints are a set of two needles, one with one point, the other with two, called the einpoint and zweipoint (or just ein and zwei) respectively. Their primary purpose is to grant the wielder the tiniest bit of extra breathing room during scuttles so that the scuttler has that much more time to react. They accomplish this by creating distance from the human threat while simultaneously granting extra mobility to the wielder, greatly increasing chances of survival so long as they are held on the scuttler's person.
Note that they are referred to as tools rather than weapons, and that a scuttler should always aim to have just one of each point rather than any more of one type. You won't avoid being crushed under a boot by doubling your einpoints, just as you wont inflict any more damage to someone a hundred times your size by stabbing them with two zweipoints. Carrying any more than one set of dreipoints stifles mobility, and should therefore be avoided.
While it is important to the full techniques of Scuttle that scuttlers have one einpoint and zweipoint, both are not required to utilize some of the bugforms to be discussed. This art form is nothing if not accommodating after all, which is also why dreipoints can reasonably come in many different shapes and sizes. Some suitable materials include:
Wood- Best resorted to if none of the other materials can be found. easily worked into a sharp point, but doesn't work well for much past that due to material weakness and roughness.
Chitin- Refers to points made of bug parts such as stingers and mandibles. Naturally sharp and can be poisonous, but not easily obtained.
Metal- Metal points must be scavenged, and are usually found in the form of knitting or medical needles, or even nails and screws. Durable, potentially poisonous, and extremely sharp. These points are ideal.
Glass- Must be scavenged in the form of broken glass. Material's natural sharpness makes this a fantastic choice for defensive use, but is otherwise so brittle that it isn't terribly useful as part of climbing tools.
Other materials such as plastic or paper could also be used if circumstances prevent the use of aforementioned resources.
To maximize mobility, neither dreipoint should be any longer than 3/4 of the scuttler's height. Longer points can be worked with, but they become more unwieldy with length. Similarly, certain wide points like screws and nails can become cumbersome. Do not hesitate to drop your dreipoints during a scuttle to free up extra movement. The ultimate goal is escaping the human, not defeating it.
Certain point types provide their own advantages to scuttlers in distress. Scavenged einpoints have an especially wide selection by comparison to zweipoints, a few of which will be listed here.
Einpoints
Screw
Nail
Sewing Pin
Sewing Needle
Suture Needle
Fish Hook
Thumbtack
Specimen Needle
Hypodermic Needle
Dart Tip
Zweipoints
Porcupine Quill
Sharpened Feather Quill
Medical Transfer Needle
Double-Ended Upholstery Needle
Shaved Specimen Needle
Ideally, the dreipoints will only be used as tool handles or climbing sticks. Worst case scenario, they are for escaping from humans. A sting from a distance allows the most probable means of escape to smalluns that may find themselves in a bind, and the dreipoints exist to create the opening and get them away, but only when wielded in capable hands. This is where bugforms come into play.
Bugforms by Part
As previously mentioned, each part contains several bugforms to guide scuttlers back out of a human's sight. Each will be discussed here, but a more detailed exploration of them must be done through their own individual posts lest this one get too long.
Wings
Roach- Hiding your existence. Unlike walking stick, roach focuses on the best means of hiding deep within the recesses of a home and staying totally hidden while minimizing any risk of ever being found. It also emphasizes resilience, strength, and endurance training. In other words, roach is the techniques used to set up your body and dojo to train in the other ways of Scuttle.
Walking Stick- Hiding in plain sight. Especially useful to scuttlers stuck in precarious positions, such as high up on a shelf, or suspended from a cord.
Cricket- Pass without trace on ground level. Involves means of identifying and utilizing escape routes, creating escape routes if they aren't available, and further minimizing traces of your existence.
Moth- Pass without trace vertically. Just as a moth leaves traces of itself in dust form, a scuttler is bound to leave traces of their struggle to climb no matter what method they use unless they are able to utilize the cricket to ascend. As such, moth mostly explores different means of climbing using the dreipoints while leaving little evidence of doing so.
Also, just as an insect's wings won't work while wet, a scuttler's ability to flea is severely hindered in water. Avoid it whenever possible, but utilize each part as appropriate either way.
Legs
Fly- Embodies observation and reaction. It's best if you see your enemy before they see you, so you have to be the one with a more observant eye. Also explores the reaction- If you've been spotted, you can't afford to hesitate. Run away, and be ready to react to anything they may do next.
Centipede- Running from the ground. Also includes quick means of escape if it involves shoving yourself into a tight space.
Grasshopper- Running from a height. Includes what to do if you're spotted in the situations mentioned in walking stick.
Click Beetle- Explains recovery if one should falter in their escape, but hasn't yet progressed to Sting.
Sting
Mantis- The art of deception during combat, and how to react offensively rather than defensively as in the case of the fly.
Stag Beetle- Grounded struggles and how to effectively use what little strength you have to escape. Though personal strength is the main focus of stag beetle techniques, it also goes over how to channel that strength into the very tips of one's dreipoints.
Wasp- Ungrounded struggles and how to maneuver the dreipoints to most effectively get the target away from oneself.
Assassin Bug- Active dirty tactics such as the use of poisons and blinding sprays.
Spider- Passive dirty tactics. This includes preemptive placement of traps, and using the terrain to further harm the enemy.
So yea! That's what I've got so far. Scuttle also has a sub discipline called Slink that focuses on outdoor survival, but that one is entirely too underdeveloped for me to show at the moment. And like I said before, please don't hesitate to comment! I'd love to hear other people's opinions on this idea.
Rant about why I'm not open about enjoying g/t. Not terribly substantial; guess it's just something I wish I could tell people without them judging.
Contains mentions of fetish content, but only because it's part of what people tend to associate the community with, when that stuff makes me really uncomfortable.
I feel like there's a discrepancy between what people that aren't "in" consider to be g/t and what it is to people that actually consume/produce the content. Like, yes, there is a section of the community that consumes related content because they're into the fetishistic side of it, but by no means does that mean the entire community enjoys stuff like that. Externally, you can like movies like Epic or Monsters Vs Aliens, but openly associating yourself with the g/t community because you think the dynamic between one character and another with an extreme size difference creates interesting points of contention that would fundamentally change how those two characters can interact with one another automatically makes you a fetishist in some people's eyes. Especially if both characters are *human*.
Personally, I love seeing the angsty, scary side of what size-related dynamics present. An exceptionally tiny human in a world built for regular humans, for example, would react differently to their environment than an equally small creature would since their size directly effects their means of interacting with a world that is no longer meant for them. By taking the inherent risk of talking to other members of their own species, a tiny human would be completely at the mercy of someone else's flaws and desires. Even if intent suggests that the tiny human is in no danger, they would always know that the larger humans they are interacting with are just as inherently flawed, if not more so, than they themselves are. This would be just another part of a normal relationship between people, but due to the intrinsic power imbalance, each of the larger person's mistakes become potential threats to the smaller's wellbeing.
To me, that's fucking *horrifying* and I love it for that. The kind of mental distress that a constant state of 'what if' creates is just one of many issues that could arise of extreme size difference. Which, to many, occasionally including myself, makes it all the more rewarding when the relationship overcomes the odds and becomes something comfortable for both parties instead.
These relationships don't necessarily have to be romantic or even friendly, and one can even say that such a romantic relationship could easily be seen as predatory depending on the context. The appeal of fluff in the g/t community as I see it, though, mostly comes from the potential for the larger character to protect the smaller as wholly and completely as the larger could in destroying the smaller. It's having absolute trust in a being that is simply, absolutely powerful, and being rewarded in a way that would be impossible for creatures of equal stature.
This all goes to say that assuming the existence of an inherent connection between all g/t content and macrophilic/microphilic fetish content is silly and frankly a bit insulting. Hell, I think that even certain parts of g/t that I get a bit woozy with (ie. vore) can be effectively used as plot devices rather than fetish content alone. It just sucks that I can't talk as fervently about all these things everywhere else as I can here without everyone thinking I'm a weirdo.
As always, I'm open to questions and comments. I'd love to see other people's takes on this.
I made the executive decision to purchase a shirt with a breast pocket off Omocat's online shop like two months ago, and both times that I've worn it, I've gotten childishly happy thinking about a little guy just popping their head out of the pocket. Any time I felt sad or overwhelmed during the day, the pocket's simple presence sent dopamine through my tiny lizard brain.
What can I say? I'm a simple person with simple desires!
I modeled my farmer after B with no plans to come up with any g/t-related lore at all. I just wanted to play through the latest update with a new look since all my other farmers look pretty much the same. Then one day during my first year in fall or winter, I speak to Elliot, prompting this line of dialogue:
This one simple little line sent sparks through my brain. I started typing up an AU explaining how B got the farm in place of Grandpa's niece/nephew, how she runs it and why, and how she interacts with the townsfolk. Expect a few text posts like this one here and there with lore drabbles, hehe.
By the by, I apologize for taking so long on the asks yall sent in! I have the answers written and planned, just haven't drawn them yet. I will get at least two of them done within the next two weeks. I'm thrilled that people are interested in my little guys, and I thank you for your questions!
And one more thing, chapter 3 of Breaking Point has been posted to Wattpad, and chapter 4 is in the works. Wish me luck ;.)
Small B sketch sheet! This took a little while to make, even with how little there is. Time's been tough to come by lately, but sketching and writing here and there has helped me keep my head.
Life updates past the break!
Howdy! It's been a little while, huh. I know I said I'd only post as often as I have new content to share, but even still, I feel it polite to apologize for the lack of new content being sent here. Scrolling back through this stuff and looking at past interactions is fun for me, despite what my recent lack of activity might suggest. Part of the reason why I haven't been active is that I'm still a bit self-conscious of the subject matter, and part because I'm just not great at posting consistently even when I *do* have new things to share. But, by far the greatest obstacle to me in recent months has been life in general. Things have been ramping up beyond the screen, and they are by no means slowing down even as I type this.
To put it simply, I lived the past year-and-a-half to the fullest, and am now in school again. Time sure flies when you're having fun!
As you can probably imagine, returning to an academic environment after avoiding it for so long has been a little stressful. Excess pressure compels me to write and draw to decompress, meaning I have a small backlog of drafts I've been working on as personal projects for the past few weeks between batches of homework (mostly chemistry homework [good gosh the chemistry homework]). I'll probably touch on those more down the line, but as the semester's end looms, I cannot say when for certain, only that I want to post here again. There is one thing that I will for sure write about here that I mentioned right before vanishing though, so I'll try to type that up between classes to keep myself awake.
But yea! Thank you for reading, and I look forward to interacting with you all again.
Oh my goodness, I completely forgot to talk about Gen V and The Boys! How on Earth could I, a fan of both series even with the g/t aspects aside, forget to talk about them on a g/t account?! Absolutely blasphemous!
Anyway, spoilers for both Gen V and The Boys after the divide. Both shows are meant for mature audiences, so please only view them (and my commentary in turn) if you're 18+.
Ok, so I was completely jazzed to see some g/t in mainstream media of COURSE, and its inclusion (mostly in Gen V) added to how much the series lured me in, great writing aside (excluding S4 of The Boys). And while normally I would be put off by the writer's use of shrinking characters as overly sexual/drug-obsessed caricatures, it's The Boys. No one is spared. I think a lot of people forget how much of it is supposed to be over-the-top satirizations of how people would actually behave in a super-abled society. Plus, that just straight up ignores Emma's existence.
It's mind-boggling to me that Emma didn't just emerge directly from this community. I mean, come on! Size shifter? Check. Tragic, harmful means of and reasoning behind using her abilities? Check. Turns out she might also change size based on her emotions?! Can you get any more on the nose?!
Don't even get me started on her initial meeting with Sam. Oh my goodness gracious I had an absolute field day with those scenes! I was almost equal parts giddy to how much I wanted to implode during the other bit with Emma and that one guy (if you know you know; I'd sooner stick my tongue in a wasp hive than watch those parts again with fresh eyes).
Really *really* hoping that the writers are able to pick up the pieces of season 4 and finish the series off nicely in season 5. I'm hearing a surprising number of people saying season 4 was good, but I personally couldn't disagree more. My boyfriend and I have theorized that it could be due to the writer's strike that so many characters had suddenly lost the plot or stagnated, but who knows. If nothing else, I can appreciate the fresh pieces of g/t media to sate my unending hunger with ;.)
I've been spending some time writing and re-reading Breaking Point since, heaven help me, chapter 4 is published and chapter 5 is in the works. In the process, I've spackled a few minor plot holes and dialed back on the exposition to generate a little more tension and give me some opportunities to have our current active characters learn about each other organically. It has been interesting to look back on my earlier chapters since there are months between each wave of motivation, which causes little changes in my writing style and workflow between each one, aheha.
Also, I've almost finished a sketch sheet for Piper's current caretaker, Kyle! He's a nerdy weirdo that likes bugs and lacks basic social skills, so he replaces them with info dumps about his favorite crawlies (just like me for real). 'Tis a lonely but productive existence he leads until Piper crashes into his life, and though he won't show it beyond the cold lenses of his eyes, he can barely contain his excitement at seeing what the future could hold for the two of them.
Here's a sneak peak of the sketch sheet, the full version of which will include some more info about him:
There is one more caretaker that I have yet to draw or even speak of, but he will have to wait for a later date. I said I would talk more about Scuttle ages ago, and I've made you all wait long enough!
One exercise that I find super useful when writing characters in a story is to take note of little details about them as they come to mind. So, here's a little list of assorted Piper quirks!
Tries to keep her preferences and fears under wraps, but anyone with a watchful eye could spot the patterns in her behavior when she's presented with such things. She feels most loved when people notice the patterns and act on them in her favor.
Absolutely disgusted by and terrified of grapes.
Not a wine connoisseur by any means, but likes a good glass of Merlot.
Refuses to smoke.
Can speak fluent Russian. This was a necessity for her work in the military, as Russia was where she spent the majority of her time in service.
Shrugs off cold weather, but can't stand too much heat.
Favorite snack food is raspberries. As a toy soldier, she also likes them as a meal.
Knows her way around most firearms, how to service them, and how to fix common malfunctions.
She invents a new form of martial arts called 'Scuttle' specifically to get away from ginormous humans. It uses two needles, one with one pointed end and the other with two. More on Scuttle in a later post!
Also, I imagine that instead of using a hook and string like a normal little person, Piper either has a needle and string that she hucks like a harpoon javelin, or she ditches the string entirely and uses her pair of needles like little ice picks. It's not that she wants to wreck the furniture (she totally does), she just never found a hook to use! She couldn't possibly make one either, that'd be preposterous..
