#telshees

[leona-florianova]

Intelligent talking creatures of Lidian from Hunters Unlucky

[xenofiction-confession]

oh we're doing hunters unlucky now??

as a response to the anon from the other day i can just say that i'm sad that you didn't vibe. i got instantly sucked into the books through the fantastic audio version, so perhaps that's a factor? i don't usually do ya/coming of age lit, but this just worked for me and i love how the sequels have expanded on the universe

(i do however agree the telshees are more interesting than the ferryshaft, so was happy to see them get more development in subsequent books, along with the creasia and curbs. yaaay nuance for everyone! the ferryshaft get better too, i think!)

personally i'm hyped about the worldbuilding and the characters, and how it doesn't pull ANY punches with politics and various social issues (feminism, toxic masculinity, generational trauma, cold war, power struggles, growing old and dying, etc., etc.) and for turning HELLA GAY

hahaha, imagine a 400 page xenofiction novel where you don't have to headcanon your gay and ace and polyam and lesbian and nb rep... my therian ass feels both seen and heard

.

[fauxmoonhare]

Hunters unlucky art / sketch dump ( + ocs ) :]

[alhilton]

Worldbuilding-ish question! Since this is a popular topic in xenofiction fanbases, I figured I'd ask what colors and patterns you'd think of first when someone considers making an "edgy" or "special-looking" fan character for any of the Hunters Unlucky species. Coden and Storm's pale gray and Roup and Teek's gold have already been noted in the books and you've touched on piebaldism in creasia before, but I'm wondering if there might be more, maybe especially among the species that seem to be more popularly-read as less visually diverse, e.g. telshees and curbs. If I wanted to make a fan character that looked really wild and unique without being utterly impossible, what sorts of looks would you highlight for that?

(Note: I'm not actually making any fan characters based on this question, but it's a consideration I really enjoy chewing on in a more general sense with both what I read and what I write in my own time... I definitely do think it would be cool to see some flashy-looking fan characters with rare traits around in the tags, though!)

Oh, let's see... Ferryshaft could probably come in most colors that foxes or dogs come in. Farmed foxes (sadly) come in an immense array of improbable colors. Creasia could probably come in most colors and patterns cats come in. In both cases, the variety of colors that already occur reveal that there isn't heavy selection pressure for color currently acting on the population. There was in the past, but creasia have gotten so much smarter than their prey, and ferryshaft have become so good at *not* being prey, that there isn't as much selection pressure for color as there once was. For curbs, the ones living on the plain would come under a lot of pressure to have colors that blend with grasslands. However, I've already mentioned that some of those living in the mountains look different. Dazzle's curb frienemies, Eclipse and Abyss are melanistic. Eclipse might even be chimeric. I describe them as "unusually dark in color, black in places, with white streaks and brindling. One had a completely black face and the other had a striking two-toned face, half black and half white." There's also one in Thrive (not yet published) called "Brokenstripe" because her stripe pattern is broken and might, in fact, look like spots. The mountains have more varied terrain, and I would think you'd get different colors. As for telshees, hmmm... I think of them as being mostly devoid of pigment. They frequently travel to great depths and dark places. But perhaps a pigmented one might pop up now and then. Or maybe they shape-shifted and got some color leftover, lol. They are magical animals, so less bound by the laws of biology.

[flashbic]

Telshee time! also featuring The Babies™

[peculiurperennial]

The Dreaming Sea...

Hunters Unlucky by Abigale Hilton has become one of my favorite books! I absolutely adore the world and its characters. I’ve purchased both the paper cover and the audio book. If you like stories featuring non-human characters (like me, who is very, very, very bored of human and humanoid protagonists), then I implore you to take a look at Hunters Unlucky!

[alhilton]

I’m reading hunters unlucky again and one thing I’ve always been curious about is the origin of telshee writing. In the scene with Valla in the cave, is it implying that lishties were the ones to start recording history and not the telshee?

Yes 😉

Arcove and Keesha speculate on related topics in their final conversation of the book. I may pick up this thread again in the future.

[alhilton]

This is more of @flashbic's art of my characters. 😻❤❤❤