@Masterofchaos: What if the medical scan spots the amethyst Just in Time for Maequoql to forestall Arnaya's rant and, once the amethyst comes out, Maequoql replaces Arnaya's rant with this speech?
By the way, don't make the sun set too fast — I want Rosalind to confess her crush on Jann as the sun crosses the horizon, not after. Although her confession might happen earlier if Corvidae can manage to post a little faster and the current conversation between Jann and Rosalind happens to open up an earlier opportunity.
Edited by Miss_Desperado on Jul 24th 2019 at 9:12:45 AM
If not for this anchor I'd be dancing between the stars. At least I can try to write better vampire stories than Twilight.Right, and the way Adam is affected is enough to get her suspicious enough to raise her mental shields and put on latex gloves (I'm not sure how much good the latter will do, but there are other reasons to wear them).
By the way, what's Adam's blood type? Would he have a mild case of iron-deficiency anemia from losing blood in the recent past (whether from getting hurt in battles or cutting himself), or would Amy's healing hug before they went to David's truck have fixed that?
Edited by Miss_Desperado on Jul 24th 2019 at 11:47:29 AM
If not for this anchor I'd be dancing between the stars. At least I can try to write better vampire stories than Twilight.An unexpected question? Did you forget that Arnaya is a vampire?
@Miss Desperado: Right. Keep forgetting about the mind readers everywhere. It's just an overgrown pheasant that took several levels in the thief class, which I planned on having nab the moonstone for its courtship collection.
Very tired today, thanks to a lot of things stacking up outside of these threads. Between that and having three places to write for, it may take me a while to get to it. Couple other things have to take priority...
They'll turn your world around@Will: So, if the thief pheasant is after the moonstone, why did it detour to do a hit-and-run on the moufreta? I can guess at the Doylist reason (foreshadowing, right?), it's the Watsonian reason I'm having trouble with.
@apocalemur
I've said it before
and I'll say it again: close enough to the same size to where the differences are measured in single-digit inches. Do you want the detailed subtle proportion differentials anyway?
By the way, now that you're asking questions on the same topic as the questions
I asked
and never got an answer to: Is Krakka'a a Q. northropi or Q. sp? What's the circumference and diameter of his neck? Could Jen Jara use her gauntlet-covered arm for Palate Propping while wrapping her legs around the top of Krakka'a's neck? How much reaching would Jen Jara have to do if she tried what I described?
Depending on their stance, Viporises can appear to be shorter or up to six inches taller than humans. If they stand digitigrade with their knees as close to straight as they can manage, that's the tallest they can stretch, but Viporises rarely straighten their knees that far and they can't straighten their knees all the way like humans can. They typically stand digitigrade with their knees bent, throwing off their apparent height to above or below human height depending on how bent the knees are, which is in turn influenced by the individual Viporis's moment-to-moment threat assessment. But if they were to stand plantigrade with their knees as close to straight as they can manage, it becomes more obvious where the differing influences on height actually are and you can get a closer height comparison.
Viporises have three more lumbar vertebrae in their lower backs than humans do. Their pelvises are larger and thicker. Their femurs are slightly longer but also much thicker, with branches to connect to the exoskeletal portion. Their lower legs are the same length as humans. Their ankles are ever-so-slightly larger even after you leave the mass of the dewclaws on each side out of the equation. Standing plantigrade with their knees as close to straight as they can manage, all that adds up to usually two inches taller than humans.
Viporises' feet are longer and narrower than humans, and that's where the extra height comes from once they stand digitigrade with their knees as close to straight as they can manage.
I mentioned in the previous folder how Viporis pelvises are larger and thicker than humans. If you want to tell the males and females apart, you can't go by the hip-to-waist ratio because the ratio of even the most masculine Viporis will appear feminine by human standards. As marsupials on a volcanic Death World, both genders have pouches — the males carry infants should the occasion call for it.
Instead, if you want to tell the genders apart, the males will have crests formed by their head-feathers while the females don't. If that fails (maybe a cinder from a volcano set their feathers on fire and they're still growing those feathers back) look at how broad their shoulders are — the females' measurements will be the closest to the average human, but the males will have shoulders broad enough to where, if they dangle their arms straight down like a plumbob, their arms won't brush up against their ribcage or hips and there will be an obvious air gap extending all the way up to the armpit.
Edited by Miss_Desperado on Jul 25th 2019 at 8:55:43 AM
If not for this anchor I'd be dancing between the stars. At least I can try to write better vampire stories than Twilight.In Universe, the moufreta rolled a twenty on perception... or is Too Dumb to Fool. It noticed the creature, and the creature tail swiped it before leaving.
For a bit more specifics, the pheasant is a feathery wyvern with a pheasant aesthetic, called a coco raptor. It's "small" (I take cues from Monster Hunter, so small is subjective), about 10 feet tall. It has a toothy beak, three of five forelimb digits reserved for grasping, and a stiff, bony tail with musculature for vivid displays of its tail feathers. It can paralyze targets with its foot spurs to allow for a free mugging of anything of perceived value. Its invisibility can be negated by startling it (flashbang it, etc.) causing it to flinch (whack it hard enough), or make invisibility useless (coat it in paint, etc).
Meanwhile, seeing as amethyst counters Sarquoql's powers is there a gem or something that can block telepathy?
As fore Akane's speed: I have no sense of scale... so... 100 mph, a human (oni) fastball?
Science makes things go horribly wrong in strange and horrifically fantastic ways if you even squint at it funny.
Edited by WillDeRegio on Jul 25th 2019 at 10:23:50 AM
Krakka'a is a Q. northropi. His beak is the size of an adult human. I should also point out that both Krakka'a and Zarokh are capable of using their foreclaws like hands (even though neither of them have thumbs...no, I don't know how that works. I also don't know how they can have facial expressions despite lacking the complex facial muscles of a human. I decided a long time ago that the dinosaurs and other contemporary creatures from their universe would need a certain degree of anthropomorphism to make them relatable characters, and that required taking certain biological liberties. Man, I got off topic there.), so if anything became lodged in Krakka'a's mouth like that, he could simply reach up and pull it out.
The reason I asked about Viporis sizes is because of some dialogue I had planned for Krakka'a. Basically, unless Jen Jara was significantly bigger than a human, he was going to scoff at her calling him prey and say something to the effect of "You wouldn't be the biggest thing I've eaten today," alluding to his earlier having swallowed Angus whole.
Okay, so Akane's moving pretty dang fast. Did we ever establish how big this room is? Krakka'a can move his head and neck surprisingly quickly for his size (extrapolated based on his species' most likely method of feeding IRL), but 100mph translates to around 147 feet per second, so unless the room is particularly cavernous, I doubt even he'd have time to react beyond "aw crap."
That's what the el-kor field is for, that's black box technology. A telepath inside a hollow el-kor field will still be able to read the minds of whoever is in there with them but won't be able to read the minds of whoever is outside it. Make the field solid instead of hollow, and the telepath will be further restricted, either to touch-based telepathy only or shut off completely.
There is no "simply" about it when, as he's reaching with one wing, there are three people potentially capable and willing to kick or shove his other wing out from under him.
Edited by Miss_Desperado on Jul 26th 2019 at 10:40:02 AM
If not for this anchor I'd be dancing between the stars. At least I can try to write better vampire stories than Twilight.@apocalemur: One small error I noticed.
Akane loaned her outfit to Alexa for the time being, so right now, she's naked except for some purple modesty Faux Fire.
Krakka'a is in front of Alexa, Akane is on top of Krakka'a, Jen Jara is beside Alexa, Syrni Sandra is behind Alexa.
If not for this anchor I'd be dancing between the stars. At least I can try to write better vampire stories than Twilight.

@Miss Desperado: Chitara and Naiolo should still be enroute to the Necropolis. Since Wolf has not posted for a while, I decided to not advance the plot there much. Although since the sun is going down by now, they would set camp for the night.