Jun 29, 2025
me and my posse show up to the function what would you do
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me and my posse show up to the function what would you do
creechur be upon ye
this is Faolan, he was found as an egg with his family, in a set of cryogenic chambers, by Fenrir.
He is transmasc, and the feathers in his hair (?) are, I think, a tradition among Sapiovenators where, as an act of solidarity, a loved one of the opposite sex to the transgender individual will offer their discarded feathers to wear. These feathers were given to him by his mother, who is a trans woman.
Which one is better
top left (original)
middle left
bottom left
top middle
centre
bottom middle
top right
middle right
bottom right
This is Caliburn, one of the main villains in the science gang story. She's the evil mad scientist who experimented on Jake, and others. She has no social skills and often neglects her own health for the grind. She's kind of like me but the bad ending :(
I wasn't feeling very happy about the original design so I whipped up a few others. I tried out drastically different colours, including the yellow and red coral snake one, and although it fits considering these are 'hazard' colours, I'm not sure I want to deviate her from my beloved green. Also I don't think it would work in terms of the science gang character lineup, as Bjorn, Helga and Vincent are all yellow and red (due to being related). Her greenness would be sorely missed :(
so I'm a bit conflicted, which is why the poll is here
speaking of the "science gang" I've been thinking about giving that story an official name because it feels kind of naff to just call it "the science gang" or the "xerexes story" and I also need to standardise the name of the tag
So I was thinking how about calling it "Independent Variable?"
haha it's a reference to the scientific method
reflects how Caliburn doesn't think of her experiments as people but rather points of data
independent variables are the ones controlled by the experimenter. Ironically, in this case Caliburn loses control of her experiments.
does it sound corny???? I think I'm going with this regardless
fuckkk maybe I'll assign every science gang character a favourite chemical element
Helga- technetium Damien- bismuth Zenith- neodymium Jake- lead (although you could not get him to visualise lead as a variety of atom) Fenrir- silicon Caliburn- carbon Beetle- chlorine Vincent- antimony HAHA THAT IS A REFERENCE TO THE FACT THAT THEY USED TO BE THE SAME GUY!!!!!!!! Sammy- barium Faolan (hey remember when I added sapient dinosaurs to the cyanverse)- copper (omg he's just like me for real)
Jake most certainly collects skulls and perhaps roadkill (I'm envisioning that one post, idk where about someone having a roadkill fridge)
and I think he probably also encourages Beetle to do so
walking by the side of the road and collecting dead things is a fun father-daughter bonding activity
Bjorn probably doesn't get involved with that, but makes sure whatever it is they are doing that they have taken the necessary sanitary precautions
tested something out with Blender's animation capabilities and the 'images as planes' addon (hopefully end result is me being able to competently make an animation by importing stuff into Blender
the image files were weirdly unsaturated so if anyone has any explanation for that and how to fix it then any help would be appreciated :)
the still images from FireAlpaca, for reference:
Beetle actually has a normal name on her birth certificate which was given to her by her birth parents before she was taken by the Dark Scientists
(I don't think I've mentioned before but the Dark Scientists are a secret research group that does biological research on prisoners that they keep in their facility. Bjorn was a lab tech there before realizing how bad it was when Vincent was taken, then left to start his quest of rescuing his nephew and bringing down the organisation. Jake was also held there and tested on for 22 years before escaping)
Jake is very annoyed to find out this information when science gang find Beetle's birth certificate. Beetle is, of course, confused. I don't know how old she would be when she finds out her legal name isn't 'Beetle', but certainly old enough to recognise 'Beetle' as her name
side note Jake called her Beetle because when she was a baby her hair grew in a way that looked to him like beetle antenna. He had just escaped from the facility at that point and was not in a great mental state so forgive him for not being so considerate to his surprise daughter. Other names include "the Beast" and "vile creature", although he stopped calling her those when she was old enough to understand what the words meant, and Bjorn pointed out that it was quite cruel to go around calling your own daughter "vile".
At this point I'm not sure how, after finding Beetle's birth parents, that Jake was able to keep her, as I think her birth parents would want her back, and Jake wouldn't really strike a pair of strangers as a responsible parent...perhaps Beetle decides by pining after her adopted dad after being separated from him, giving her birth parents a really hard decision to make....would be terrible for them, but alas, they are not the main characters!
I promise Jake is a functional parent lmaooo
Bjorn is the second dad, and definitely appears as a much more responsible parent to Beetle, and of course, Helga, Damien and Vincent are also very close to Beetle, it's not really the same as a nuclear family structure with two parents and a kid. Jake can get away with being a bit goofy as there are a grand total of 4 (four) other adults in the house (Vincent only shares the house with Beetle for three years until turning 18; he is 25 at 'present-day') who play a role in Beetle's upbringing
I only really pinpoint Jake as the primary parent because he is the one who initially rescued her from the facility and looked after her, even as he himself was disoriented from his own incarceration and escape. The two were alone for a good few months before Bjorn and Zenith (Jake's older sister, idk if I mentioned her already) found them. So Beetle bonded to him, as babies do, and for quite a few years considered Bjorn less of a father to her than Jake. She doesn't think that anymore, and similarly holds her other housemates in high regards (Damien is an 'uncle' to her)
I think Beetle's legal name is something completely innocuous and 'normal' (although I don't think 'Beetle' is very egregious in the Cyanverse) but causes a lot of contention when she is addressed by it. School is for sure taxing on her, and I think the school staff are very suspicious of Jake...to be honest I think everyone in Xerexes is suspicious of Jake apart from a very close circle of people who know what happened to him
like (to be clear it is a combination of prejudices against these traits that make people suspicious of Jake, I'm not trying to say that the traits are inherently suspicious)
> ethnic minority (half-draconine, it's a whole thing that I won't get into here but I'll just say they are/were quite discriminated against in Xerexes specifically)
> few qualifications (Jake missed prime educational years while in the facility so he doesn't really have a lot of opportunities, Zenith sort of 'employs' him by showing him the ropes of mechanical engineering and letting him help out at her garage but it isn't formal and she doesn't have the qualifications to say it's an apprenticeship or anything)
> mentally ill (not beating around the bush. Jake has quite heavy PTSD from the whole experience in the facility, manifesting itself in large memory gaps and psychotic episodes. I think he may also have an underlying disorder unrelated to his experience at the facility which also causes him to act a bit off-kilter, but I don't know which one. I will monitor his behaviour [???] and diagnose accordingly to the best of my ability. he definitely has anger issues though. and a very specific angst caused by a very specific thing that happens to him as a result of experiments in the facility...)
> visibly scarred (speaks for itself. more ableism)
> dresses in alt fashion (the way I usually draw him is quite vanilla [I live with my parents] but I imagine he goes crazy with clothes sometimes in a way that...pushes boundaries to say the least)
> lead pipe (only valid reason to be scared of Jake)
it's half past ten at night and I've derailed my own post...what was it about? Beetle's birth name? well now it's about Xerexian prejudices and how they combine to give Jake specifically a bad time!!! Yippee!