>SHOULD ANY OBJECT IN YOUR IMMEDIATE VICINITY BE AFFECTED BY THIS PLAGUE, INITIATE THE I.T.E.M PROTOCOL
Welcome to The ITEM Protocol comic blog !
[main account is @tansypawz. i use any/all pronouns :3]
First Page || Latest Page
This is an OSClangen blog, all events in the comic are recontextualized from events happening in a Clangen save file. All patrols will be met with the Proceed option.
This comic is inspired by @object-vault-9 and @the-aisles-oscgen, amongst others. Please be sure to check these other comics out !
Humanity is rushing to find a way to stop living objects, dubbed "items", from spawning across the world, and in retaliation items have begun forming survival groups away from any human intervention. This comic follows a scrapped-up group formed after its leader, Silent, was suddenly exiled from his previous group.
Trigger warnings for general warrior cats media/clangen blogs apply, as well as paranoia, depictions of abuse/mistreatment and implied medical mistreatment. Pages where these warnings are relevant will be tagged with #tw [warning].
Spreadsheet containing updated information of all the characters introduced in the comic can be found here.
This comic uses a specific tagging system which works as follows:
#protocol progress - Updates. Basically each new "moon" in Clangen terms. The time that has passed between updates is purposefully ambiguous most of the time, and can be interpreted however you'd like unless the amount of time has been specified.
#item interview - Asks directed at either the comic's creator [me] or the characters. Please note that any asks directed towards the characters are non-canon.
#item protocol [name] - Any post in which a specific character is seen or involved. You may use this tag for fanart if you wish [you are encouraged to @ me in any fanart you make/see !]
#item interruption - OOC posts made by me. There's a lot of these.
#item identified - Reblogging any fanart of The ITEM Protocol I come across [again, I encourage you to @ me in it !]
#item information - Any post, be it ask, OOC or both, that reveal some kind of background or lore about The ITEM Protocol and the world its characters live in.
Beneath the cut there is a more in-depth explanation of the lore and worldbuilding for The ITEM Protocol, as well as a reference sheet of the current members of Group Silent [which will be updated as more characters are introduced].
Disclaimer: This guide for the lore and worldbuilding won't have everything included, if you're curious about a certain part of of the lore or worldbuilding that isn't mentioned here, feel free to scroll through the #item information tag and/or send an ask to this blog's askbox ! I'd love to give you an in-depth view of the world The I.T.E.M Protocol takes place in. :]
As previously stated, humankind is rushing to find a way to stop regular inanimate objects from suddenly gaining sentience. These living objects, dubbed 'items', have begun forming groups in order to survive and thrive together.
Item groups are named after the item who founded them [I.E. Group Silent] and have a very similar role system to the one in default Warrior Cats media. However, there are some differences.
While there are still Leaders in item groups, the role of Deputy is nonexistant. When the group's leader dies, usually someone close to them steps up as the new leader, such as a family member, friend or partner.
Medicine cats are simply renamed as "Medics" with no notable changes to their role in the group. They are expected to gather herbs and other medicinal resources, and care for the group's health. However, unlike the original medicine cats, item medics aren't disallowed to have partners or children of their own. Some groups even allow their medics to fight and hunt, but this is uncommon.
The roles of Warrior and Deputy are combined into one, which is simply referred to as "Member". These are assigned usual warrior tasks, such as gathering food for the group, patrolling the borders, etc. The word member can also refer to anyone who is part of the group, regardless of rank or role.
Kits and Apprentices are known as "Youth", though apprentices specifically are known as "Training Youth". A training youth can only become an adult if they have been a training youth for enough time, and have achieved something called a "breakthrough". Every item's breakthrough can be different, and a breakthrough can be achieved early in training, but without achieving a breakthrough, an item will remain with the mentality of a youth regardless of time alive.
Elders are known as "Fading", as items' faces and limbs begin to fade and turn transparent as they are reaching the end of their lifespan. Items will not retire from their duties until they begin to fade. When an item's face and limbs fully fade away, they leave behind their object corpse. The dead are known as "faded", though the word "deceased" isn't a foreign concept to items.
Item groups have been forming worldwide, and most of them follow certain unspoken rules to keep the peace between each other. These rules are known as "The Spoken Silence", and are very similar to the Warrior Code.
Every so often, items will request nearby groups to meet up at isolated, well-known safe places to discuss news, human sightings, and other things. Despite this, groups are very distrusting of each other, and items are constantly skeptical of those not in their groups.
"Kittypets" are known as "Protocol Items", and are recontextualized as items that have given themselves up to humans, and reside in laboratories where scientists research them in hopes to find a way to stop items from forming altogether. Items are often captured by scientists such as these, and they are usually killed or turned into protocol items. If a protocol item disobeys the scientists, it is either killed or brainwashed into a mindless weapon used to capture and/or kill items. These are known as "Programmed Items".
Loners are various different kinds of items who are not part of a group. They are highly distrusted by items who are in groups, hostile or not. An item may become a loner due to:
being an escaped Protocol item.
forming without a parent and not being found/adopted by any groups before adulthood.
forming from an item who is/was also a loner.
being exiled from a group.
being the only remaining survivor of a lost group.
being misplaced far, far away from their group.
many other circumstances not listed here.
Despite items' distrust towards loners, The Spoken Silence dictates that an item cannot ignore the well being of a youth, loner or not. Because of this, if a loner youth is found by an item group, they are immediately adopted into that group.
Any human actively involved with the capture, study and/or killing of items is referred to by items as "The Protocol".
Items can have animal features such as unusual limbs, tails, ears, sensory enhancements, enhanced agility, hidden defensive features, among others. The animal an item shares traits with is called the "mimicry" while the item itself is known as a "mimic item", though sometimes the mimicry cannot be identified by one specific animal. Mimic items are usually treated no differently from non-mimic items despite the physical differences.
GROUP SILENT REFERENCES
While these need a slight update to better reflect my current artstyle, they are mostly accurate to how the characters look.
with artfight [and preparations for college] nearly done ive been thinking a lot about item protocol. ive been thinking about retconning a few things worldbuilding wise. it wouldnt necessarily affect the story ? but idk if its the right call. its mainly about the origin of items and how they spread, i considered making them a whole separate species rather than coming from Actual Objects. idk if ygs have anything to say about it leave a comment or ask
as always i wont be working on item protocol for the entirety of july and as the item protocol cast gets attacks i will be posting them on here [with permission from/credit to the artist ofc]
thats all i wanted to say really,, thank you all for being patient i promise better things are coming to this comic i just gotta lock in
i dont normally do this on my sideblogs but for your own safety please block @/candycatfujoooo. theyve been harassing me and sending assault threats in my asks since like a week ago and after i blocked them on my main blog they chased me to this one to keep sending me threats. thats all stay safe everyone and sorry for not updating this comic in 7 years </3 i promise more is coming
I'm a huge fan of clangen comics, and people making versions of them to represent different animals, fandoms or settings is nothing new! (In fact I have a list of the ones I've seen so far available here) Don't take this as the only way to have fun with a non-cat or alternative clangen!
But if you've been pondering making one but you're not sure where to start, here are a few things that I use when I'm asked how I set up mine! My own clangen comic is far from perfect and there's multiple things that I'd change if I could go back in time to give my past self advice, but I enjoy making it and I'm having fun and at the end of the day that is the most important part of this whole deal
I'm using examples from other clangens I read in part of this, and I highly recommend checking them out! Warning that some example links may have some blood, animal harm or light violence for those reasons.
Guide/Outline (Google Docs - Tumblr wasn't cooperating enough for me to use posts)
Missing information? Anything you want me to add or elaborate on? Feel free to let me know!
im realizing i uploaded the first part of update 24 on a rush and forgot to edit a lot of the things i need to edit [like links that lead to other updates or the spreadsheet i forgot to update]. please give me a moment while i fix allat
im realizing i uploaded the first part of update 24 on a rush and forgot to edit a lot of the things i need to edit [like links that lead to other updates or the spreadsheet i forgot to update]. please give me a moment while i fix allat
UPDATE_ID 24 - PART 1
>RETURN TO PREVIOUS UPDATE
>CONTINUE TO NEXT UPDATE
AUTHOR NOTE:
>"We're back ! Somewhat at least !"
>"School has been ROUGH, and I'm only getting busier. But I'll do my best to regularly bring you more Item Protocol content !"
>"Aditionally, prepare for more background inconsistencies </3 I'm deeply indecisive and trying to find the most efficient yet good-looking way to do backgrounds for this comic."
great question ! its either chai or caudi. you'll see why caudi has aura in a future update. as for chai i think successfully escaping whats basically a high-end prison and surviving is kinda auraful
while i was working on update 24 i drew cassie's parent on a separate canvas [for enrichment], meet Venture !
i currently dont have any plans for her to appear in the comic but who knows ! clangen often surprises you with opportunities
Venture used to be part of a group prior to being taken by the Protocol, and was known for being very adventurous and fearless [which resulted in various scars, as shown in her design, which she wore with pride]. she mellowed out after her capture, however, and her once feisty, higher-than-life attitude faded into a more polite and compliant demeanor. her escaping from the Protocol building with her young daughter did bring back that old tenaciousness, even if it was just for a second.
Pretty sure the last guy just wanted to ask how 'the ship of theseus' type situations would be handled, not literally a ship. Would it be the same object if every piece were one-by-one replaced over a long period of time?
lowkey i didnt even think of that
while breakable objects can have external material added to them [like adding an external piece of ceramic to chai if he were to crack] if you removed EVERY part of the original object the item would just. die before they got to fully replace the original object
aditionally if an item's object was made of things that could rot [like plant material, food, wood, etc] as long as the item is alive the rot is halted [i think the original ship of theseus conundrum had to do with the ship's wood rotting ?? idk im not really into philosophy]
do items have souls? will the go to heaven or hell or do they reincarnate?
and let's say i have a living ship correct, now it starts breaking down, if i replace every single wood board of the ship is it still the same ship?
items do not have souls and do not have an afterlife, and are aware of this
also, an entire boat/ship would have a near-zero chance of becoming an item due to its sheer size. while a side effect of becoming an item is an object getting bigger, they never reach that big of a size.
