So, after such a long time, I can finally introduce you to Star Fever AU Mr. Puzzles!
This AU is still a work in progress, so I can't say too much yet. I'm planning on making a separate post about this Puzzles later with a detailed description of the AU. For now, I can say this: Puzzles in this picture is at a point in history when he's gone through the hardest periods of his life, and is now trying to finally overcome his problems (yes, he still has it). However, he's more relaxed now, and doesn't worry so much about his rating. The rating in this universe will matter not only to Puzzles himself, but also to the SMG4 crew, my OC Riko, and many other people. Popularity is a scary thing. It can both heal and break you.
Star Fever, as introduced in Moon 12, is a condition that some leaders get upon gaining their nine lives. When a leader gains nine lives, each StarClan cat that bestows a life gives the leader a fragment of their soul to strengthen and guide them. When they lose the life that has been given to them, that soul fragment returns to StarClan to rejoin the soul of the cat it originally belonged to. Sometimes, for whatever reason, a cat's body is unable to handle housing all these extra soul bits and they come down with what the clans call Star Fever.
Star Fever is inspired by typhros, a disease in The Mighty Nein animated series in which a soul that has been reincarnated many times may lose themselves in memories of their past lives. I have also taken some inspiration from some of the depersonalization elements of In Stars and Time. When a cat has Star Fever, they become disoriented. Sometimes cats lose themselves in the memories of the cats who gave them their lives, believing them to be the current reality of the clans. They may take on characteristics of cats who gave them their lives, or believe themselves to be those cats living in the time period in which they were alive. Sometimes, cats with Star Fever can't even hold onto any sense of identity and see themselves navigating a star-filled world with no sense of what is going on around them. Cats with Star Fever find their bodies giving out as they are unable to hold the power bestowed upon them, and they lose lives at an alarmingly rapid rate, until they die for good. There is currently no cure for Star Fever, as of Moon 12.
Among the clans, this is believed to be a bad omen and a sign of weakness. Most cats believe that Star Fever is a curse for the unworthy. It is expected that if a leader is discovered to have Star Fever, they are killed by their clanmates so that a stronger leader may take their place. Letting a leader with Star Fever live is a great taboo. The reality of the matter is that Star Fever is not a punishment from the stars, it can happen to anyone, though the clans do not see it this way.
Mechanics:
When a new cat becomes leader (beginning from Moon 13 onwards), I will roll a d20. If it lands on a 1, that leader will have Star Fever. There may be times I skip the dice roll if I feel that having Star Fever would mess with the narrative, or if I think that Star Fever is what the narrative needs.
Every moon, I will flip a coin. If heads, I will allow the leader to carry on as normal. If tails, the leader loses a life to Star Fever. The coin flip carries on until a leader has lost all their lives, or until the clan decides to remove their lives by force and promote the deputy.
If you wish to use Star Fever in your own stories/lore, including adapting it in any way, you are welcome to do so! Just please credit me or link back to this post when you first introduce the concept. If someone else has already created a concept like this that I am not aware of, I will remove the request for credit and leave it as an open concept.
Star Fever is not capitalized in the story as it is not a proper noun, but for the purposes of this informational post I decided to capitalize it.
Soooo I am a full month late for Star Fever, BUT here is the beginning of what I had planned way back when I signed up (before university and concussions made a mess of things :/). I really didn’t want to let May 4th pass without posting something. Now that I have oodles of free time there will hopefully be more drawings.
This one is really more of a study I did to understand Goa’uld physiology a little better. I started off just trying to pin down their approximate size compared to humans (vaguely forearm length?) and then I was thinking about how the Goa’uld/jedi might actually connect to their host’s brainstem. I’m not sure where they would anchor their heads but I kind of assumed at the back of the cerebellum (idk, it regulates your motor movements so it sort of makes sense?). Your spinal cord is so delicate that I’m not sure how they get situated with such limited wiggle room, but it was fun to consider.
After that I got a little sidetracked for a while- I mean they’re wrapped around the spine?? HOW? Their biochemistry and physiology must be whack to make that possible without hurting their hosts. What is it they secrete that prevents pain in their host before they are attached enough to suppress it “normally”? Do Goa’uld have fused skulls? Maybe they’re 99% cartilage so they can squish themselves into tight spaces inside their hosts, its not like you really have a lot of room in your skull. Do they even enter the skull??? Do they have their own digestive tracts?? They can live outside hosts so probably, but then how do they get nutrients in-host? Is their ability to filter poisons from their hosts purely via the Force or do they have the Goa’uld equivalent of livers and kidneys??? Someone to CT scan a Goa’uld PLEASE. Basically, you can take the scientist out of school but you can’t take the science out of the scientist.
I was also thinking about Goa’uld skin texture and I know they probably aren’t supposed to be scaly, but I reallyyyy want them to be, so I also made some scale texture with Obi-Wan’s colouring. I do have plans to paint Rex and other human-shaped people, but to be honest I now mostly want to make a spread from a Goa’uld physiology textbook or something (please share your opinions on Goa’uld-host biology with me, nothing would bring me more joy).
For Star Fever Week, tagging @dogmatix. Hey, I made it!
Kamino was buzzing with excitement. Today Master Yoda, one of the most respected Jedi Masters of the Order, would be choosing his new host, after his current one decided to retire and live out his last years on his home planet.
Yoda stood in front of the candidates, all fit young men that felt very capable and prepared to host.
# Not sure I am, if ready for a younger body I am # he muttered to his host.
# More common it is now, to take a clone. Used to it, you will get # was the rather unhelpful reply he got.
“Feel very capable, all of you do”, he told the assembled clones, “A good fit, each of you might be. But wrong it feels. Something missing, there is. Or someone, rather. Mediate on this, I will now.”
# Up to now, what are you? # asked Yefir in the tone of the long suffering, while the group bowed as one and left the room.
# Right we were, that a new host on Kamino I will find. But sense I do, that another one fits better than them. #
Coming out of their mediation, Yefir slowly stood up, cursing his old bones. Moving had been easier a century ago. While his Jedi was still deep in thought, he walked towards the possibility they’d sensed. Apparently Yoda had been right, but Yefir would never admit it, the old troll was insufferable enough as it was.
What they found was unlike anything either Yoda or Yefir had expected. He was a clone, still teenaged, but looking quite different from the standard. Half of the face sagging and all of it…were those wrinkles? There was also a hint of a hunchback.
# Serious, you cannot be? # Yefir asked, astonished
# Certain, I am # was the answer he got, accompanied by the mental impression of a firm nod. # Let me out, will you? #
In the next moment Yefir felt Yoda disconnect from his mind and slither out in front of the astonished clone. Slowly, very slowly, the young man picked up the Jedi. They looked at each other and Yefir was certain he looked at the future now.
The clone’s name, it turned out, was 99, and nobody had expected him to ever be even remotely involved with the Jedi. Apparently the Kaminoans considered him to be defective. And then one of them asked Yoda to reconsider. It made Yoda seethe, how anyone could dare to interfere with his choice of host.
“Capable I am, of deciding who my host should be”, he assured Nala Se indignantly, “not up to you it is, who a Jedi will choose as their host. Interfere you will not, or removed from your position, you will be.”
He then looked at 99 and assured him: “Your choice it is, if a host you want to become. Force you, I will not.”
99’s eyes shone with determination. “It would be an honor to serve as your host. But are you quite certain than I’m the one you want?”
Yoda and Yefir could sense the quiet strength under the insecurity. To be told his whole life that he was lesser and nevertheless never hesitating was a show of character. He would need that as host to a Jedi Master.
“Sure, I am”, Yoda told him. And that was that. As he had never been considered for hosting, 99 hadn’t learned even the basic mental skills that made hosting easier. But Yefir assured Yoda that he could wait for his retirement until 99 had some training; after all, he remembered what it was like to host completely unprepared. Yoda reminded him that this was hardly the same situation; after all there was no war going on at the moment.
A month later, Yoda left Yefir for the last time. He landed in his past host’s cupped hands who then handed him over to 99. The Clone and Jedi looked at each other and then 99 opened his mouth. Yoda slithered in and a new chapter in his story was begun.
