#strig-identity

[versaphile]

Hi, I just re-read the Falconry series and I know you're not in the Merlin fandom anymore, but I just wanted to let you know that I really appreciate your legacy within the fandom and the fantastic works you were able to contribute. Thank you!

Awww, thank you so much! ^_^ I’m really glad they’re still being enjoyed.

[featherquillpen]

strig-identity

  Reblog if you're a fanfic writer and you wanna...

Bridge to the Stars. ALIEN. WORLDBUILDING. OMG.

I’m not gonna lie, that’s my favorite of what I’ve written in Dæmorphing. I had so much fun imagining a way for Yeerks to live without Empire.

[featherquillpen]

Re: daemon worldbuilding. What do you think the in-universe behavior would be of people who had daemons that are animals domesticated for food (pigs, chickens, etc)? Do you think they would eat their daemon species? How far do you think it extends? (e.g., Pheasant daemon and chicken? Would their friends not eat those foods in their presence? etc.)

That’s probably true, but I guess I don’t feel very equipped to speculate on it because I’ve been a vegetarian for many years, and I find it pretty hard to imagine eating any animal, much less one that was the same type as my dæmon. My instinct says they wouldn’t eat their dæmon species, but experience tells me that real live people eat pigs! Pigs! They’re as smart and friendly as dogs and so cute!

[featherquillpen]

Happy 500! What do you think the biggest difference would be in the Animorphs series if it took place in modern day rather than the 90s? Ficlet or meta is fine.

Honestly what with the modern surveillance state I think the Animorphs would immediately be toast. Which is why I’m writing this as meta, because the fic would be way too depressing.

Like, even in the first book, there is no way the Animorphs could just slip into the Pool as their human selves and not get caught. Even with modern human level tech the Yeerks could have cameras up everywhere and just rewind to the point when the “Andalite bandits” had to have come down to the pool, and reverse google image search their faces and... bam, toast.

The only way the Animorphs could survive is if they were immediately as paranoid as they became around mid-series with the David trilogy. David taught them real paranoia and they were more careful after that. And that totally makes sense. But with their (totally understandable) carelessness from the early books, and the surveillance technology we have now, the Yeerks would have them infested within days.

This is why I don’t write modern AUs of Animorphs. It’s really depressing to think about.

[featherquillpen]

strig-identity

 I come to you with an extremely important...

But in HB Chron, it’s canon that hork-bajirs have ears. “My senses felt for and found the ear opening.” (from Esplin). I find it curious that no media actually depicts this though.

They could still have earholes everywhere, though, and the Yeerk has to aim for the ears that happen to be near the brain.

[featherquillpen]

I come to you with an extremely important question: where are hork-bajir ears???? I don't think I've seen a single piece of art (official or fan-) that portrayed them having ears.

Yeah the books never mention ears either! What if they’re like insects and they have tympanal membranes all over their bodies?

[featherquillpen]

Hey, can you do a meta/analysis on Tobias and Jake's relationship? (And maybe a small AU where Tobias had a crush in addition to the hero-worship?)

I am not even sure that Tobias having a crush on Jake is an AU, tbh. Tobias is a sucker for that Berenson bravery.

I find it really interesting to look at Jake and Tobias through the lens of protagonists. Animorphs is very much an ensemble story, but if anyone is the protagonist, it’s Jake. He probably gets the most dramatic character development over the course of the series. But as many fanimorphs have pointed out, Tobias is a much more typical YA protagonist. He’s weird, he doesn’t fit in, he lives in an abusive household, and he has mysterious parentage. Jake has a stable home life and fits in quite well at his school.

But Tobias isn’t the protagonist. He’s Jake’s Call to Adventure. Even before the series began, seeing Tobias being bullied spurred Jake on to do something heroic and stand up to the bullies. And Tobias was the one most drawn to Elfangor, and the one who told Jake he should be the leader. He didn’t need to be called to the adventure, like Jake the protagonist, because he was always there for it.

The Call to Adventure always has to have a special relationship to the protagonist. Hagrid is Harry’s Call to Adventure – “yer a wizard, Harry” – Leia’s recorded message is Luke’s, Lord Asriel is Lyra Belacqua’s. Hagrid is a protective, guardian figure to Harry who knew him as a baby, Leia is Luke’s sister, and Lord Asriel is Lyra’s father. Tobias’s connection to Jake is his hero-worship, his gratitude, his crush, the boy he rescued, the reminder that Jake is brave and can stand up in scary situations.

But we usually don’t get to see events from the Call to Adventure’s point of view. We don’t get to see things as Hagrid, Leia, or Lord Asriel saw them. But we do get to see things from Tobias’s perspective, which means we get to see his perspective change on the boy he called to adventure. And in Tobias’s case, well – perhaps by the end of the series, if he could have gone back in time, he would never have told Jake he could be the one to step up and be leader. Jake, the “war hero,” is in some way Tobias’s creation. And oh, how terrible that must be to him.

[featherquillpen]

P (and don't just cheat by saying a daemon AU :P), L, S, T

Invent a random AU for any fandom (we always need more ideas).

Okay, here’s an AU idea I’ve had for a while, but I haven’t come up with enough of the worldbuilding details to make it work. It’s a magical setting in which it’s impossible to do magic alone. You need at least two people to do even the simplest of magic, and it doesn’t work if the second, third, etc. people were compelled by magic to cast with you. Even though you can’t do magic alone, each person brings a certain flavor to the magic they cast with others. The more people involved in a spell, and the more experience they have working together, the more powerful the casting.

Someone take this idea and run with it because I haven’t figured out exactly what to do with it yet.

Say something genuinely nice about a character who isn’t one of your faves.

I dislike Erek King, but I have to admit it was brave of him to volunteer to profoundly alter his programming, with consequences he could not predict and he could never forget. 

Show us an example of your personal headcanon.

My headcanon about why Yeerks infest sentient species even though they are shown to be capable of infesting horses and the like is because of their long evolutionary history with the Gedd, their only means of dispersal and environmental engineering. They have a strong instinct that draws them to join with sentient minds, in particular.

Do you have any hard and fast headcanons that you will die defending?

Rachel killed David at the end of #48. ‘Nuff said.