Stabs' Pit of Nightmares (and ideas)

Realizing I had made way too many threads already, I decided to keep all this stuff to one thread. Also, trying to keep my post count to an actual representation of my involvement, I'm going to keep all those things to a single post whenever possible.

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Hey there, just looked at the Fairy Kingdom and saw a lot of empty room. So I thought we'd better put something in there, at least as a placeholder for the real stuff.

Boralian
Size: 6-18 inches
Threat: Minimal
The Boralian is a bizarre, harmless ghost that is basically at the bottom of the food chain. Boralians resemble tiny, roughly triangular objects made of stacked sheets of paper cutouts, with dozens of thin tendrils trailing behind them; they can move those layers independently, and resemble alternatively butterflies, angelfish, or pastries, or many other things. By day, they absorb sunlight and flit around at high speeds like some sort of ghost angelfish. By night, they become opaque and luminescent, glowing in all colors of the rainbow. This ghost is completely harmless, except in large numbers and at night, when they could be distracting.


Dreamcatcher
Size: 1/2 - 2 inches
Threat: Very low
Dreamcatchers are ghost-eating arachnids. They superficially resemble a large black spider, except for their very particular webs, which resemble the handmade decor that is their namesake.
A dreamcatcher's web can touch and trap ghosts within its surface; the spider itself then straddles up to the ghost and crams it inside a round, hardened silk bead, for its essence to be devoured at their leisure. Dreamcatchers also eat small insects, but this is rare.
The only danger they represent is that they have a bite that is quite noxious for those who are dumb enough to bother the aggressive and territorial dreamcatcher. While not deadly, the poison causes extreme pain, paranoia and hallucinations for several hours.


Pneumatovore
Size: 3-8 feet
Threat: Moderate
[Shamelessly based off grells]

The Pneumatovore is a relative of the Labrisome. This ghost has the particularity of feeding on other ghosts, which gives it its particular name. A pneumatovore resembles a very narrow, slightly luminescent jellyfish with very long tendrils. It uses those tendrils to trap and then consume other ghosts, though it CAN consume fleshy prey if given the chance, as it has the frightening ability to turn its prey incorporeal!

The pneumatovore feeds on material prey immaterializing it by "feeling it up" with its tendrils and then sucking it up into its immaterial (and therefore indestructible) body. At first, the prey just feels an odd tickle as both become capable of interaction, then something like a bucket of cold water as it becomes incorporeal, and finally a strange sensation (that varies from individual to individual) as the pneumatovore uses its tendrils to displace its move its disoriented prey towards itself, bending it in ways that would usually kill it, incapable of finding leverage even in its own bones (usually, the pneumatovore gives no one time to learn how to move while being immaterial; to onlookers it's like its prey is paralyzed). While it's not too large or stretchy, this medusa-like creature can fold a newly immaterialized creature into itself, which allows it to consume any creature whose limbs are all smaller in volume than its body!

This creature wouldn't be so dangerous if it weren't for the fact that it's a ghost; it takes special magic or high-frequency light waves to harm it. Lasers don't always work in the fairy kingdom, which only leaves one reliable option: running away. Pneumatovores always take the shortest route to their target; they're faster swimming through the air than the average person is while running, but there's always something to get them off you.

A rather suicidal sport is hunting pneumatovores for food. The creature has little control over what it immaterializes as long as it feels edible, so if the hunter can make it put itself tendrils first into their mouths, its tendrils will then feel all over its mouth, making its prey able to use it to slurp the predator up; if the hunter succeeds in slurping it up, the pneumatovore will accidentally feel its prey's stomach with its tendrils, and make both able to interact, therefore commiting suicide. There's an easier way, just gulp down a dreamcatcher's bead with a pneumatovore inside, but it's not really sportive.

Erm, I think I need a different name for this thing...


Scarlet Kiss
Size: 15-25 feet
Threat: High
Also known as the Chesire Kiss, the Scarlet Kiss is a ghost consisting on a gigantic pair of pink lips, which can open as wide as the ghost itself, and a long tongue, with no teeth, throat, palate, or anything else. Scarlet Kisses are basically ambush predators, lying in wait at one place and then stirring into action when they sense prey. While it takes a time for the Kiss to fully awaken, once it manifests, whatever is encompassed in the space between where it parts its lips and where it stands fails to get any friction with any other object. Once it closes, they are irrevocably lost. The Scarlet Kiss doesn't have a stomach; it instead seals its targets within a sac created in a pocket dimension. The sac is lined with the edges of the dimension; teleporting out is possible if you can travel between different realities, but no other way works, as there's no outside to break to. Also, each target is teleported to a separate sac; different targets cannot help each other escape.

Half of the time, a Scarlet Kiss spits its catches out instead of sinking them into a temporary stomach- but it will then try to kiss the target again. If it succeeds, it spits its targets out again- half of the time, and so on. It's unknown where do Scarlet Kisses come from, but fairies agree it can't be pretty. It's thought that someone eaten by a Scarlet Kiss might become Scarlet Kisses themselves... so fairies always make sure there aren't any humans left for them to eat.

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Laser Hog
Size: 4-7 feet tall at the shoulder
Threat: Low, or High for aircraft
Laser Hogs are big, black boars with a mild temper and no tusks. This animal prefers broad sunlight to graze, and under no circumstances does it stay on the shade unless it can't help it. By night, it hides in another animal's burrow, and it bursts out charging in the morning, so as to evade any ambush predators on its way to a sunny spot. Unlike real boars, Laser Hogs are pretty quiet; they show their displeasure by simply pointing their snouts at the offender, placing a glowing red dot on them. If the offender doesn't stop, the hog shoots.

Their name comes from their ability to fire laserbeams from their snout, which they charge up with sunlight they absorb throughout their body. This laser can slice through several inches of steel (or naga), and the hog takes only ten seconds of sunlight to charge up again. While in the shade, they quickly lose their charge; a predator in the mood for pork must first make sure it's discharged before eating it.

The funny thing about laser hogs is that they hold some enmity against aircraft, firing at them whenever they have the chance, a hate they don't feel for harpies or insects of any kind (unless they cast a shade). Big enough hogs (near 7 feet) can actually bring a plane down! This strange behaviour and defense mechanism suggests that Laser Hogs aren't really a naturally or magically evolved species, and instead were bioengineered for military purposes. Then again, as far as bioweapons go, we better consider ourselves lucky it's just a pig with lasers. It could be worse...


Klonk Pine
The Klonk Pine is a bizarre plant, rare in the most magically intense zones of Felarya and nearly inexistent in the rest. This variety of evergreen tree reaches around 350 feet in height on average. Its trunk is rugged and dented, and its branches sport long needle-like leaves. The interesting part, of course, is its fruit.
Klonk Pines bear huge, nearly 10 foot long acorns that seem completely ferrous in composition, weighing from half a ton to three tons. Those acorns are a ready source of metal for the locals, who use it to defend themselves great predators: by luring them near the plant, predators will know better than to go somewhere a giant iron acorn could drop on their heads. While not (always) deadly, those will certainly screw up at least one hunt.
Worshippers of Klonk are known to build large, lavish temples under the shade of a Klonk pine. Oddly enough, some of those temples usually stand strong for centuries. There are stories of invaders who secured temples, which were immediately destroyed by a shower of iron acorns, treasure chests containing the riches they came for, elephants mysteriously living in the canopy, saslenoths, and sometimes paratroopers who are fanatics of Klonk.

Hmm... maybe we could use the "more like giant cherries" meme with this?

Credits to JohnDoe for Klonk.

Canopy Elephant
Size: 8-12 feet at the shoulder
Threat: Low
Elephants are huge, gray herd herbivores with tusks and a long trunk. Sometimes they are used as beasts of burden or mounts despite their unpredictability. Speaking of that unpredictability, some of them have taken to living in the canopies in Deeper Felarya.

Canopy elephants are agile and have extremely strong limbs, which makes them capable of climbing up and down a tree, not to mention move around in the canopy, where they live eating the foliage by using their trunks. They're also capable of jumping from one branch to another, though they don't usually do it. Onlookers have described them as "nimble as ferrets", and their movements as "an unforgivable affront to common sense".

Despite being too big for most predators (at least, the kind they can't fight), Canopy Elephants are very prized for their tusks, which can be used in potions of feather falling (as the animal always lands on its feet harmlessly) or agility. This has made them really difficult to find. Some people think they're just a joke at this point. The elephants themselves would sooner not show themselves.


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Seeing that we'd made so many things out of tonorions already, I think I've got a suitable contribution to the Lore section, how to explain that tonorions have behaved in so many strange ways. How about this?

An in-depth study of tonorions, by Ms. Marlene

Tonorions are a dangerous species above all. When you see their jaws and blades flashing like lightning before your eyes, and feel their presence turning you into less than nothing, you know fear. But they are also a diverse species, and I believe that understanding them can prove to be quite interesting, enrichment that you shouldn't pass up lightly.

The first interesting fact about tonorions is that there are multiple species, quite different from each other, though cosmetically they are all the same. Personally I've seen twelve different species of tonorion, while the officially known species are nineteen. The Forest of Whispers, for instance, is home to six recorded species.

The first species in the Forest of Whispers is the common hive tonorion (Tonorion Legion). This species is quite aggressive, and one of the fastest to boot. It can be recognized by its coloration, a sheer black exoskeleton and glowing red eyes. It attacks anything that can't eat it whole and alive, though it also shows a strange enmity towards fairies, and usually chases them around even if they wouldn't really feed it. The reason for this behaviour is quite simple: this animal goes berserk around magic.

The strain in the Forest of Whispers is a breed composed of three strains, and as such, it has quite a variety of genetic material. This makes it quite subject to mutation; the Abyssal Tonorion isn't actually a separate species, but instead an example of the ways it can mutate. There have been reported cases of mutant Abyssal Tonorions growing to unbelievable sizes, so big they could gobble us up if they wanted to. I shudder at the thought, it's quite exciting to think of something being that big!

The second species in the Forest of Whispers is the arboreal tonorion (Tonorion Dendros). It's recognizable by its softer, mottled underbelly, and shorter legs. It's also one of the most distinctive species. Unlike most people seem to think, not all tonorions live in hundreds within hives. This variety, for instance, is solitary and territorial, also rather large, reaching sizes of around eighty feet more often than not.

The Dendros strain isn't as intensely antimagical as other tonorions. It compensates for this with an increased aggressiveness; full-sized tonorions will still go after tiny-sized creatures if they're wizards, angry as heck. But that's not the interesting part about the Dendros tonorion; it gives live birth to its young, releasing around a dozen larvae from a sack on its back after giving them a month to grow. Those larvae instinctively crawl up trees, looking for a suitable host, and then burrow inside with their powerful fangs. Once inside, they feed off sap for several years, growing larger together with their burrow inside the tree, until they reach sufficient size and energy to undergo metamorphosis. Then they crawl out, reborn a dedicated carnivore, leaving only a hole in a tree which will in time fill up with bats and other animals.

The Lovestruck Tonorion (Tonorion Maximus), also known as the molester tonorion, is another solitary variety, like the Oseos and Dendros. It's often mistaken for the abyssal tonorion, but it's not. This variety is a solitary hunter, characterized by its gigantic size. A Lovestruck tonorion can grow to be around forty feet tall, and a good deal long as well, sometimes reaching 300 feet in length. It's also quite rare in the Forest of Whispers, more common in humid areas, where it often makes its burrow inside small hills. It generally avoids smaller prey, preferring to hunt creatures around its own size.

Lovestruck Tonorions' mating habits are quite a sight as well! Every full moon night, Lovestruck Tonorions look for high places to make their mating calls from. If the male hears the female's call, it then rushes towards the female, in a rampage that makes it bump into every object on its way. Eventually, if it's lucky, it'll bump into the object the female got on, and bring it down, then keep running in circles until it bumps into the female. Only then do they start mating. The things they do for love is what gives them their name: they're called the Lovestruck Tonorion, because their love's like a truck. Then the couple settles, and they live happily ever after.

Another variety, virtually indistinguishable from the common tonorion, is the Candy Tonorion (Tonorion Mellitus). This bizarre creature barely is a predator at all, mostly living off fruits and carrion instead. It can be recognized by its flattened body, its nearly atrophied claws, and its smaller size (rarely over thirty feet). It mostly lives off fresh fruit, but its favourite fare is dry fruit, like nuts and almonds, which often puts it in conflict with squirrels or humans, because they have a tendency to put all the food in the same place. It's also the only variety that usually attacks Miaxi, as it loves sweet things more than it loves living. It also exhibits a symbiotic tendency with black skin-divers; it can raise parts of its armor to let the things in, thus allowing it to take on miaxi hives with reduced risk. This tendency towards destruction seems to stem from a limited ability to digest meat; the Candy Tonorion is very aggressive, but it often maims rather than kill, even if it could eat its target.

The Candy Tonorion also lives in small family groups, within large burrows, which usually house 13 specimens, but that can house up to 22 of them, the upper limit being for a REALLY big colony. Candy Tonorions require little food, like all tonorions, and often hibernate after a good run.

The absolutely most aggressive variety is also elusive, despite being numerous. The Emperor Tonorion (Tonorion Rex) is around the size of a small ant (often mistaken for one as well), topping out at sixth of an inch long. It also attacks magical creatures on sight, and survives! Emperor Tonorions are solitary and very territorial hunters, and hate each other even more than they hate magical creatures. Some tinies keep them as guardians, but in general they're considered a pest at worst and a welcome snack at best. They contain a minor poison which causes a localized itch and swelling.

The most important characteristic about the Emperor Tonorion is that it can feel fairies from far away, and signal by making a very peculiar noise, like bells, before getting restless and sweeping in to "attack", regardless of the fairy's size. That's about the full extent of the Emperor Tonorion's guardian value. As far as survival mechanisms go, however, it doesn't usually help the tonorion. Sometimes, a lucky tonorion bites a fairy's wings by accident, injecting enough poison to keep the fairy down for a minute or two. It usually gets eaten for its trouble, though, which is the real danger, as its antimagic can actually keep wings from working for two minutes after the poison is done. Emperor Tonorions are actually the most dangerous species for fairies, as they're annoying and distracting. The only thing that prevents fairy hunters from successfully using those in groups is their own territorial attitude: trying to use more than one Emperor Tonorion will result in regicide.

The final species in the Forest of Whispers is also the rarest. The Skull Tonorion (Tonorion Oseos) used to be a myth until I found it. This elusive variety of tonorion is actually quite large (very long, though quite narrow-bodied) and noisy, yet at the same time stronger, more suited to a scavenger than a predator. Its shell and limbs are extremely thick, and spiked all over, with white and gray flecks. Its magical resistance is, even in the smaller specimens, as good as that of an abyssal tonorion. What's more, this creature isn't aggressive at all towards fairies! Whenever it meets any resistance, or it feels magic, it quickly burrows underground. The only creature a skull tonorion usually attacks, its main prey, is the common tonorion! This shy miracle usually hunts during moonless nights and hides from any light source, no matter how small.




Let's play a game! The first four species (Common, Lovestruck, Arboreal and Candy) are based off things I read on tonorions doing. Can you find four instances where the tonorion behaves like one of these varieties? Don't open the spoiler block unless you really think it's not worth it!

Spoiler:

Ah wow, nightmares indeed. I'd never want to meet any of those ghosts o__o Sure is nice to see more development of ghosts, though, some of those look genuinely scary, although the Scarlet Kiss reminds me of the Kiss of Death from Earthbound XD

Codified Kortiki Town Musings & Thoughts

Yuki_Akuma and I (Stabs) had been having some conversations (months ago) on what we could find on Kortiki town (aside from fairies). Though we both have played too many RPGs with hard-and-fast systems for our own good, I think we've had some reasonably fun ideas together. I added some ideas I didn't talk through with him, too.

But anyway, here's the place where you can live with size-changing nudists with lax personal boundaries who make Haruhi look like a saint.

We never got to put our ideas together, so our versions of Kortiki wound up pretty divergent. Nevertheless, if you think you can make anything out of this, here it is.

Kortiki is a place where there's never a dull moment (the fairies wouldn't have it any other way ). It's also quite a magnet for strangeness, full of really weird characters, even more so than Negav, as it's far more tolerant with race differences. Also, it's quite alien for most city-folk, given that usually it's important to know geometry... fairies compound the problem by having really diverse personalities and being the dangerous people around. In general, Kortiki, like a fairy, is quite unpredictable, painfully confusing, and otherwise frustrating. It might be rather friendly, but it's still not for everyone.

If it helps things any, there are only 1.200 fairies in Kortiki (yearly average, plenty leave and plenty come all year round). Come on, it could be worse...

NOTE: If you are going into Kortiki, don't bring explosives. Seldom do fairies get the chance to blow people up. Let's keep it that way.


Treehouses
Fairies don't really take well to the idea of architecture. It's pretty easy for a fairy to see anything it can break as a toy, and if it's ugly, then it's a toy that won't really be missed. Also, placing a house on the ground is inviting a fairy to sit next to it, rip your ceiling off, and play tea party with her friends... and yours (in a best case scenario, she'll be playing tea party). Ideally, most people put their houses where no one can get comfortably the leverage to play with them. Therefore, there's plenty of treehouses all around Kortiki: fairies can't comfortably reach them at a dangerous size, and as long as they're nice, they won't attract the wrong kind of attention.

Bird nests
Another kind of housing in this place, often used by fairies who want to store trinkets, are bird nests. There's a variety of bird (known as the Furnarius) that lives all around Kortiki, and builds a vaulted, round, very strong nest out of clay and vegetable matter. It's a common sport for fairies to eat the bird (since it eats insects it's seen as fair play) and then install a door on its nest, which after some cleaning, will be a serviceable house for anyone. Conversely, house-throwing is a sport for many a mischievous fairy! Many fairies often wake up in the middle of the night with their entire body aching, and the remainders of their house strewn around some glass, inside a larger, uglier house. (It's on good form to offer them some coffee and a place to spend the night if that happens).
Other kinds of nests are used as well, but they aren't as special.

Tree Castle
An elven construction within Kortiki, this castle survives by being extremely beautiful and thus untouchable. Fairies will play in it really often, but they won't want any harm to come to it, not in the very least. Fickle as they are, fairies do respect beauty, and it's not unlikely to see small groups of them frolicking around the place, flying around the lanterns, hiding amongst the flowers, or behind bewildered tasty... err, I meant, very sentient and very personly, humans. (Oh, look, this one doesn't talk! Does that mean we can eat him?)

The Tree Castle is a canopy construction built around several trees, mostly with magic. There are both vine and wooden bridges throughout, but all of it is still alive, and requires some trimming from time to time to keep beautiful. There are also several flowerbeds grown all around the place, in the middle of the way sometimes. For nekos and elves it's no problem, but for most humans, that makes the place a minefield. Stepping on a flower is a surefire way to piss someone off, whether the gardener or the fairies. Also, sometimes there are fairies hiding on the ground. Be mean to one, and she might not survive, but neither will you.

The Itty Bitty City
Sitting on a desk, right inside a small snowglobe next to a large fishbowl, lies the Itty Bitty City.

Not all people know this, but fairies can shrink people below a size of three inches tall. It's just not as much fun. However, the Itty Bitty City consists mostly of people who've been shrunken to around 1/600 (exactly, 1/576) of their size, averaging a sixth of an inch. The glass on the snowglobe maintains the effect stable even without fairies around.

On the inside, the Itty Bitty City looks like a strangely modern (though a bit small) slice of steel and concrete city right next to a small expanse of sandy beach, complete with cars and an ice-cream salesman, except for the ocassional sight of the curious goldfish mermaid on the fishbowl next to the snowglobe. Other strangers are simply too large and blurry to be perceived through the round glass. Another spell prevents everyone from dying every time someone shakes the snowglobe, and yet another spell reinforces the glass into unbreakability. It's a pretty big snowglobe, so it feels like a 576 feet wide expanse of beach from the inside, even if it looks like just a big snowglobe from the outside.

Fairies can get in, but their own magic only shrinks them to three inches. Any fairy that wants to get into TIBC needs another fairy's help: they can get in, but only in groups of two or more. It's pretty warm inside the globe: every time it's shaken, more snow appears, but it usually melts away quickly.

One interesting characteristic inside the TIBC is that fairies there can't shrink you any farther. If a fairy tries to eat someone in there, she has to enlarge herself (to somewhere between two and three inches, but still, it's pretty evident when they want to eat someone).

Some people have lived in TIBC for quite a while, and there are some people who have been born there. It's unknown whether upon leaving the snow globe, a second-generation dweller would take human proportions, or stay unable to interact with anyone else for the rest of their lives. (It's almost certain their clothes will stay the same size, though.)

Miscellaneous Other Places to live
Fairies also live in burrows, hollow trees, out in the open, or inside a larger house. In that last case, do expect the fairy to have some prey there to help out. Some fairies have taken a liking to appliances, and unaware of (or disregarding) their original purpose, prefer to live inside chests of drawers, clocks, or even pianos! (Smaller houses have a damn high mortality rate, [though not as high as the people they're thrown at], and fairies expect to have to move reaaaally often. But it's part of the fun for them. Just a friendly hint there: If a fairy moves into your house and doesn't eat you, expect things to get really fun, really fast. And by "fun", I mean "fun for us to read about").


The Rabbit Hole
Built into the ground right next to some roots, the Rabbit Hole is a nice nightclub open all days of the week except mondays and tuesdays from 11:00 PM to 7:00 AM. To get in, you need to be one foot or shorter, and regulation states that all prey species must be shrunken to at least 1/24 of their original size, except tomthumbs, neeras, and those guys that wouldn't really need shrinking. Only fairies are allowed to enter taller than four inches, but even then, being taller than one foot while inside is generally frowned upon. Don't worry, if you're too big to get in, ask any fairy. If they like you...

Once inside, a special material inside the walls keeps all the people inside comfortably shrunken. The earthern tones of the walls are well-lit with some fungus, whose light can change color very quickly. A large home theater system blasts the whole area with the loudest surround sound ever, and the walls are mirrored, creating a pretty... confusing atmosphere. The bar has some nice drinks, but just a little friendly advice: people who ask for a "drink me" tend to disappear for days, and people who ask for an "eat me" are just asking for it.

Whatever you do, try not to attract the bouncers' attention. It's rumoured one of the bouncers, a naga, doesn't really shrink herself to get to her workplace- she's really three inches tall.


The Silly Tree
One of the few structures on the ground, the Silly Tree is a fuzzy tree where plenty of fairies live. It's got a bad reputation as far as Kortiki goes, as fairies there will actively offer you a way into their belly! Refusing might work, but it's not guaranteed to. Even though their initial goal is consensual vore, they're likely to realize you'll struggle more if you're actually unwilling halfway through the conversation. You're likely to find out in their belly.

The happy plant is a Salvalophyta, which would allow a fairy, in theory, to taste someone harmlessly, scaring the daylights out of them, swallow, get them to struggle in panic and confusion in their stomach until they can't do it anymore, and then let them out with no harm done. But the salvalophyta is the ivy growing on the tree, the tree itself is a sorbalier! Most fairies don't make the same mistake twice, but they don't tell others either (it helps you build character, after all). A fairy that's here for the first time and tries to get the same thrill as any of the other fairies by eating a random passersby might make that mistake, and, accidentally, impolitely digest a poor soul.

Some fairies intentionally mislead other fairies into using the sorbalier instead of the salvalophyta, too. Because they're jerks. There's a small stone tablet on the ground that actually reads the salvalophyta is the large tree and not the ivy, but is otherwise exact as to the mode of application, dosage-time relation, and precautions. Someone would remove the tree, but unfortunately plenty of fairies live in it and wouldn't take kindly to it being chopped off.

New material: Fairy Glass
Fairy Glass is a special kind of glass, made from a combination of sand from Akaptor desert and ground rocks from near the Fairy Pond. Mixed with a fundent and molten before being blown into its form, Fairy Glass preserves shrinking effects on the target, keeping it small for as long as it's inside the glass object. Fairy Glass is mostly used to make bottles and snowglobes, but it can also be used to make rings, bracelets, tiaras, and other jewelry for people who for some reason want to stay small for a prolonged period of time.

It can also be used for optics, but people wearing fairy glasses tend to be prone to strange accidents- not all of which involve the optic properties of the material. Not completely, at least.

so many ideas in that thread !
You are really very good at comin up with unique and unexpected concepts XD

Ah yes also Klonk's credit go to Jonhdoe ^^

Oops.

Stabs wrote:

The Itty Bitty City
Sitting on a desk, right inside a small snowglobe next to a large fishbowl, lies the Itty Bitty City.

Not all people know this, but fairies can shrink people below a size of three inches tall. It's just not as much fun. However, the Itty Bitty City consists mostly of people who've been shrunken to around 1/600 (exactly, 1/576) of their size, averaging a sixth of an inch. The glass on the snowglobe maintains the effect stable even without fairies around.

On the inside, the Itty Bitty City looks like a strangely modern (though a bit small) slice of steel and concrete city right next to a small expanse of sandy beach, complete with cars and an ice-cream salesman, except for the ocassional sight of the curious goldfish mermaid on the fishbowl next to the snowglobe. Other strangers are simply too large and blurry to be perceived through the round glass. Another spell prevents everyone from dying every time someone shakes the snowglobe, and yet another spell reinforces the glass into unbreakability. It's a pretty big snowglobe, so it feels like a 576 feet wide expanse of beach from the inside, even if it looks like just a big snowglobe from the outside.

Fairies can get in, but their own magic only shrinks them to three inches. Any fairy that wants to get into TIBC needs another fairy's help: they can get in, but only in groups of two or more. It's pretty warm inside the globe: every time it's shaken, more snow appears, but it usually melts away quickly.

One interesting characteristic inside the TIBC is that fairies there can't shrink you any farther. If a fairy tries to eat someone in there, she has to enlarge herself (to somewhere between two and three inches, but still, it's pretty evident when they want to eat someone).

Some people have lived in TIBC for quite a while, and there are some people who have been born there. It's unknown whether upon leaving the snow globe, a second-generation dweller would take human proportions, or stay unable to interact with anyone else for the rest of their lives. (It's almost certain their clothes will stay the same size, though.)

Miscellaneous Other Places to live
Fairies also live in burrows, hollow trees, out in the open, or inside a larger house. In that last case, do expect the fairy to have some prey there to help out. Some fairies have taken a liking to appliances, and unaware of (or disregarding) their original purpose, prefer to live inside chests of drawers, clocks, or even pianos! (Smaller houses have a damn high mortality rate, [though not as high as the people they're thrown at], and fairies expect to have to move reaaaally often. But it's part of the fun for them. Just a friendly hint there: If a fairy moves into your house and doesn't eat you, expect things to get really fun, really fast. And by "fun", I mean "fun for us to read about").


The Rabbit Hole
Built into the ground right next to some roots, the Rabbit Hole is a nice nightclub open all days of the week except mondays and tuesdays from 11:00 PM to 7:00 AM. To get in, you need to be one foot or shorter, and regulation states that all prey species must be shrunken to at least 1/24 of their original size, except tomthumbs, neeras, and those guys that wouldn't really need shrinking. Only fairies are allowed to enter taller than four inches, but even then, being taller than one foot while inside is generally frowned upon. Don't worry, if you're too big to get in, ask any fairy. If they like you...

Once inside, a special material inside the walls keeps all the people inside comfortably shrunken. The earthern tones of the walls are well-lit with some fungus, whose light can change color very quickly. A large home theater system blasts the whole area with the loudest surround sound ever, and the walls are mirrored, creating a pretty... confusing atmosphere. The bar has some nice drinks, but just a little friendly advice: people who ask for a "drink me" tend to disappear for days, and people who ask for an "eat me" are just asking for it.

Whatever you do, try not to attract the bouncers' attention. It's rumoured one of the bouncers, a naga, doesn't really shrink herself to get to her workplace- she's really three inches tall.

The Silly TreeOne of the few structures on the ground, the Silly Tree is a fuzzy tree where plenty of fairies live. It's got a bad reputation as far as Kortiki goes, as fairies there will actively offer you a way into their belly! Refusing might work, but it's not guaranteed to. Even though their initial goal is consensual vore, they're likely to realize you'll struggle more if you're actually unwilling halfway through the conversation. You're likely to find out in their belly.

The happy plant is a Salvalophyta, which would allow a fairy, in theory, to taste someone harmlessly, scaring the daylights out of them, swallow, get them to struggle in panic and confusion in their stomach until they can't do it anymore, and then let them out with no harm done. But the salvalophyta is the ivy growing on the tree, the tree itself is a sorbalier! Most fairies don't make the same mistake twice, but they don't tell others either (it helps you build character, after all). A fairy that's here for the first time and tries to get the same thrill as any of the other fairies by eating a random passersby might make that mistake, and, accidentally, impolitely digest a poor soul.

Some fairies intentionally mislead other fairies into using the sorbalier instead of the salvalophyta, too. Because they're jerks. There's a small stone tablet on the ground that actually reads the salvalophyta is the large tree and not the ivy, but is otherwise exact as to the mode of application, dosage-time relation, and precautions. Someone would remove the tree, but unfortunately plenty of fairies live in it and wouldn't take kindly to it being chopped off.

I love these.

Stabs wrote:

New material: Fairy Glass
Fairy Glass is a special kind of glass, made from a combination of sand from Akaptor desert and ground rocks from near the Fairy Pond. Mixed with a fundent and molten before being blown into its form, Fairy Glass preserves shrinking effects on the target, keeping it small for as long as it's inside the glass object. Fairy Glass is mostly used to make bottles and snowglobes, but it can also be used to make rings, bracelets, tiaras, and other jewelry for people who for some reason want to stay small for a prolonged period of time.

It can also be used for optics, but people wearing fairy glasses tend to be prone to strange accidents- not all of which involve the optic properties of the material. Not completely, at least.

I love this. The possibilities...

I'll add the fairy glass ^^
Not totally sure where, but I clearly like the idea. I'm also going to add a bit to Kortiki town.
as always, do you agree with the disclaimer ? ^^

I agree to the disclaimer, regarding fairy glass and Kortiki. As for Fairy Glass, I'd say the magical items part.

Fey, Right, and Wrong

Once more my whimsical vein, I was trying to work on the reasons why Faulkner hates fairies (well, not exactly 'hates'. It's more like they make him sad just by existing). And while I was at that, I wound up trying to approximate fairy morality in man-portable terms. This still doesn't give me a rightful reason why anyone would choose fairy hunting over working in a restaurant or butchery, but maybe it's got some merit on its own.

Before you state the obvious, please take a look at this. Fairies aren't completely airheaded, and they DO view good and evil, after all.

[quote=wiki]Fairies are usually playful and mischievous beings who love to have fun more than anything else. The way they view good and evil is rather special and different from the way humans view it. However, contrary to popular belief, not all fairies are light hearted. In their population you can find a wide range of attitudes that vary from the usual fun loving and carefree pranksters to solemn watchmen, serious scholars, mystic sages and even dark brooding warriors.[/quote]

Think about it. If anyone has a reason to think in Felarya, it's 'em fairies. Size isn't really an issue to them, after all, yet they befriend creatures of all sizes, despite we know that it's not impossible for a fairy to eat anyone if she really intends to. The ability to shrink a 100 foot predator isn't more powerful than stretchable jaws, after all, or is it? They should know better than anyone size is not the best parameter to judge people by, and yet, take a good look at them and tell me what you see.

While I wouldn't have anything against leaving fairy morality unexplained, I had a burst of inspiration and I just didn't want it to go to waste. So I'll argue that despite the fact stands that 99% of fairies will get eaten before they stop tickling each other with you in their mouths and think of a reason why they are doing what they're doing, there's maybe a 1% that might actually have the ability to follow formal logic and might care to explain themselves for reasons of their own. You know, like Morag from Neverwinter nights... "Do not ask questions of me, I am not here to talk. I am here but to give this insight, which I give out of my own will. If you disagree with that, you may walk away."

Of that 1%, though, I'd expect 99% not just to argue that THEY are right, but that what mostly any other fairy's doing is alright too, even if their comrades aren't really thinking about it.

Spoiler:

I don't know if this makes sense, feedback would be appreciated. Considering stretchable jaws and all those same-size vore possibilities, not to mention the chomp-chomp attitude some predators have, I think the... possibilities I posted might apply to other kinds of predators (the ones that think), not just fairies. I promise this morality is cute... it's supposed to inspire you a feeling of extreme condescendence. You know... "Awww, it thinks it's right. What a nasty pumpkin!" At the same time, it's nightmarishly callous and arbitrary if you look at it from another angle. Man, I sure hope duality is a good thing!





A rough draft of fairy morality, then. If we stick around long enough, maybe we'll understand fairy logic too.



Fairies' concept of good and evil isn't so different from ours, but it does have its restrictions. While fairies know most humans are people, the word "people" doesn't really exist in their vocabulary; they usually learn it from their prey, and soon enough associate 'people' with "good food". Saying you're a person will make you a snack faster than saying you're a snack.

Very few fairies come to understand that when most beings say "I'm a person!" they don't mean "I'm tasty!", but "I'm a sentient individual, both willing and able to hold myself and others to standards and responsibilities, with dreams, imagination, ambitions, intentions, infinite potential within a self-aware part of a world much more ancient, far greater than myself, and my value as an active, intentional shaper of the future far outweighs my caloric content!". Well, you see, that doesn't really convince them either... fairies, in general, aren't the ambitious sort. So saying that by definition there's plenty for you to live for wouldn't really gain you any empathy. Even if a fairy acknowledges someone is a person, that doesn't help; at best, they'll be mildly curious about your weird ideas about yourself. To fairies, being a person has no intrinsic value.

Another common accusation of hypocrisy on fairies is that they are willing to eat mostly anything, and leave some of their equals untouched. This is true... from an egalitarian perspective. However, fairies don't take an egalitarian perspective. Things that have happened are what matters, not what species anyone is. A fairy doesn't really value someone's life by itself, but their friendship. That friendship is worth more than their lives, or that of their friends, and that friendship is greater than flesh or mind. No one was born equal, but they don't have to be. Not that fairies would say it that way.

This non-egalitarian perspective also accounts for the fact that despite fairies are willing to make friends with... anything that catches them in the whimsical mood, even if they're going to eat every other creature of their species, they seem to share a uniform attitude towards fairy hunters. Fairies don't take an egalitarian perspective, and thus, anyone who does take that perspective towards them is seen as just looking for an excuse to hurt them. That's not nice! However, fairies often admit to making a mistake. They are capable of inductive reasoning just like anyone else, and thus, often come to equate some races to meals. To fairies, however, this is not a statement about that race (usually humans). It's merely a personal preference, completely devoid of any intentions. They just like their flavor, that's not supposed to be degrading. They're likely to say they're fond of the taste of someone's race in front of that someone, even if they consider it their friend- but that's because they're not deterministic. Being tasty is nothing to be ashamed of.

For that reason, the benefit of doubt, one of the most widespread kinds of mercy in humans, also has no place in a fairy's mind. Unless they're friends, most individuals have no way of being people! They could be a friend's friends of course, but more often than not, they aren't; friends of someone whom the fairy isn't a friend of are fair game (literally) too, since they've got nothing to do with her.

Friendship is, thus, an important treasure to most fey. Fey that wish to extend their friendship to a nonfey are seen as doing a nice deed. Those who make friends of everything, Aya for example, are... well, they're weird, but they're okay, because they're nice people, just too soft. At the same time, doing as you please on everything you didn't heal, such as Temi does, isn't hypocrisy either! A fey can disagree with people being wounded, and if she didn't commit to herself keeping them alive afterwards, it'd be hypocrisy. And wouldn't it be even worse not to follow your heart?

All in all, the best words to keep you alive with a fairy aren't stating how much of a person you are. If you state you're a human being, they'll think you're nothing beyond that, and that'll seal your fate. Your best bet is "Hi! I'm (insert name here)! Let's be friends!". For obvious reasons, nobody's ever tried this... really, you try saying that with a straight face and we'll see how far you go. A second best bet might be "Hi! I'm dessert. Finish your lunch first, or you'll go to bed without supper!". Be wary of "I'm a grownup now and I can have dessert whenever I want!", though.


Currently, this draft fails to explain why don't fairies eat each other, though.

Oh really interesting take on their psyche here ! and the point you raise are very valid indeed
I chuckkled at the " Being tasty is nothing to be ashamed of."

I'd like to have other people's opinion on this ^^

Stabs wrote:

Being tasty is nothing to be ashamed of.

Not at all.

Karbo wrote:

I'd like to have other people's opinion on this ^^

I like it a lot. It makes sense to me and the only thing it doesn't cover is why fairies on't eat each other. But we have some fan-made fairy characters that do...

I'd say it's just instinctual or something, it wouldn't be conducive to the multiplication of the species for them to eat each other.

Anime-Junkie wrote:

Stabs wrote:

Being tasty is nothing to be ashamed of.

Not at all.

Karbo wrote:

I'd like to have other people's opinion on this ^^

I like it a lot. It makes sense to me and the only thing it doesn't cover is why fairies on't eat each other. But we have some fan-made fairy characters that do...

I'd say it's just instinctual or something, it wouldn't be conducive to the multiplication of the species for them to eat each other.

Maybe fairies just don't taste good? Well, unless a species has evolved to prey on them...geckotaurs and such.

You know what Fishy Joe says "I mean, the only reason we don't eat humans is because they taste terrible" (Futurama referrence ftw =P)

Could also be a natural aversion to cannibalism. Humans tend to have a natural squick-reflex to that anyway.

Oh, thanks a lot y'all. Hope you can help, I'm really stumped at that point.

are you ok if I add that to the wiki ? ^^

Oh man, how did I not see this thread before.

Talk about great ideas left and right. I especially love the Fairy glass concept.

That Fairy mentality actually make a lot of sense. If I try to sum it all up in a single statement, which is "Concept of Good and Evil aren't quite alien to them, they simply value strong relationships over individuality, and the seemingly contradictory elements some fairy exhibit, such as Temi healing adventurers, is nothing but personal preferences to them, which they can respect." would it be accurate?

Also, the ghosts are interesting additions to Sunfall Thicket.

Fascinating description of fairy morality. It fits very well with what we see of them in stories, but I'd never seen it described quite so coherently and elegantly.

Stabs wrote:

Fairies' concept of good and evil isn't so different from ours, but it does have its restrictions. While fairies know most humans are people, the word "people" doesn't really exist in their vocabulary; they usually learn it from their prey, and soon enough associate 'people' with "good food". Saying you're a person will make you a snack faster than saying you're a snack.

That makes a lot of sense. After all, whatever language you may be speaking, the fairy will hear you in her language. And, as language shapes our view on the world (having been shaped by it in the first place), an unfortunate human caught by a fairy might be using words for which there is no real equivalent in fairy language. Or which are subject only to approximate translation, or which are open to ambiguity, etc... It raises the broader issue of Felaryans using words which may only be loose equivalents of ours.

It also explains "Crisis logic", in a way - particularly as Crisis was raised by fairies. She gives her own meaning to whatever word she uses for "people".

And your fairy distinction between "friends" and "non-friends" within an edible species neatly encompasses that.

Guys, I think I've got what I needed to complete the draft. Credits to EdgedWeapon on DeviantArt for helping me with this. Again, feedback will be appreciated- this one treads on shakier ground than the previous half. Much shakier.



There is a tentative reason right now as to why fairies don't eat each other, despite most of them don't know each other- then again, it's not been demonstrated this is the case. Just like fairies are likely to inductively assume that all humans are nothing more than food, they are likely as well to assume that all fairies are not food, simply because most of their friends are fairies too. Most fairies are taught not to eat fairies; however, even those fairies that grow up alone, or are raised by other species, aren't very likely to eat other fairies.

The reason currently accepted for this is that even a fairy that grows up alone can tell when someone else is a fairy. And fairies, being the special, unique kind of being they are, dangerous to almost everything except for a few monsters and rare species of predators, when confronted by an equal, rare as the occassion may be, they are tempted to make friends. A fairy's perspective, even if they haven't been raised by other fairies, sets them invariably apart from almost anything else. Fairies are unique: no other known race in Felarya can change size and bearing in the food chain at will, masterfully deceive the senses and feelings of others, perceive other beings despite all their efforts to conceal themselves, and still have surprises left to give. Nothing else has their same combination of bizarre strengths and even more bizarre weaknesses. For better or worse, only a fairy can truly understand a fairy's perspective and all that they've been through- and the understanding of one's peers is a treasure not in many's nature to deny. This might be why, despite the fact fairies need a reason not to eat anything else, they usually need a reason to eat another fairy.

That's an interesting and well thought of explanation ^_^
I especially agree with that first part, it just make sense. After all, fairies are social creatures.

Now if a fairy was growing being while totally isolated from others, would they also rules out others fairies as potential prey ? I imagine it would mostly depend on the specimen.

actually in that case, I would think that their natural curiosity (its like a kitten! x3 ) would over-write any sense of desire to eat the other fairy. They would be curious to find out everything about the other fairy, why he/she looks like him/her, and probably try to become friends.

Since fairies are naturally social creatures,I see them as having a desire to befriend first and ask questions later. There are also personality difference, as fairies *are* quite an eclectic mix. The personal nature of a fairy might come into play as well, since you might get a naturally isolationist personality.

Also, they wouldn't have been raised with other fairies, so personal definitions and names for things would be totally different. I

'm not even going to touch the language/speaking possibility area, but this is how I see it. I actually was thinking about this a couple weeks ago, but currently RL is overwhelming me, and I'm forgetting all my felarya ideas within 5 min.

So you noticed, guys... yes, fairies would vary a lot. Specially the ones that have grown up alone.

The first part would work just fine for me- any exceptions to the no-cannibalism rule would be an exceptional upbringing. However, I needed a reason for fairies to let their guard down around wild fairies- I supposed that second part would work as a default. After all, if fairies had to be careful around fairies they didn't know, they wouldn't be the way we love and hate them. They'd be a lot more like us.

I don't deny that maybe a fairy that grows up isolated might relish the uniqueness of the powers she has and see any other fairies as a threat to her uniqueness, then get all overpowering and vorish with them, but that should be the exception, not the rule.

I expanded a bit the entry using your idea ^^

By all means do so.

======

This is just a creepy idea that got into my head, same as the first survival short and the raider's problems with a fairy. I felt it fit right into my pit of nightmares, after all the hard work I've done on fairies lately. Basically, Pinoccio in Felarya, starring the (Sexy) Blue Fairy (dressed in nothing but an apron and mittens as she leans over the stove suggestively, waiting for a young woman to give in to her lusts and ravage her willing godmother to pass the time while the cookies are in the oven.)

On Humans and Why Are They So Tasty

Once upon a time, there was a fairy who enjoyed cooking. Whether it was meat, fruit, or vegetables, it's said whatever made it into her hands would end up in a pot -or a pan- at some point. She enjoyed eating a little less, though, and usually found that no one cared to join her. Other fairies found her practices needlessly cruel, but above all, slow. So the fairy found herself with rarely a guest to cook for: no one enjoyed her meals as much as she did.
This went on until a point in time where the fairy decided to put a little more work into her cooking, and pour some of her soul in it too. She started working on a dish that had all the goodness that could possibly be had in it. So first she decided to fashion it into little cookies, and then make the cookies move, with her magic. There, she found her calling, as everyone enjoyed those cookies she made.
Having found the right direction, she proceeded to make little faces on her cookies, and then make hands, and fingers on the cookies, fashioning them after most tauric races. These cookies came to be even more widely accepted. As she kept working on her technique, her cookies became more and more lifelike, until they were just as good as any of the tauric races in Felarya. Past this point, the fairy decided to make her own special brand of tauric cookies- cookies with the lower half of a fairy. They started as a joke, but they were so popular with all her friends that she stuck to that design. She varied her recipe often, using different ingredients, and sometimes they came out white, sometimes they were almost black, sometimes, the lemon in them made them yellow- some say the Guardian Mercreti was originally a cookie made with ascarlin chips.
But as she improved with her cookies, they grew more intelligent than she intended at first. Of course, she didn't really care- smart or not, they'd always be cookies. And even the little hearts she gave them served only to improve upon their taste. Those first humans were good for only one thing: cookies. All their intelligence was just so that they could be played with. And it'd have stayed that way, were it not for one thing... they were just food, and as mere food were they thought of. So no one bat an eyelash every time a cookie or two went missing: if they could not be found, then no problem, their friend would bake more! Everything in Felarya wanted some of those cookies... so logically one or two would go missing sometime!
However, at some point, a group of humans went missing because of a dimensional disturbance, the kind that's so common in Felarya. Released from their fate, those cookies soon began to work to achieve their maximum potential, beyond the scope of that fairy's imagination. They thrived, and they spread out and about, invading and conquering world after world after world. Cookies soon became one of the most powerful forces of the universe: they grew proud, and they forgot their roots. In time, cookies forgot they were ever cookies, and found a new name for themselves.
Eventually, the guardians realized the threat. Cookies were everywhere, and it was now time to recall them, therefore Felarya started gating those cookies back in. But there were too many, and it was impossible to catch them all; by the time the futility of this effort was realized, the cookies learned of Felarya, and went there of their own volition, in volumes far greater than any dimensional disturbances could ever hope to accomplish. Once there, cookies once more met their fate at the hands of Felarya- to be eaten...
But alas, the harm was done. No matter how many cookies returned to Felarya, and despite the world could eat them all if they ever managed to get them all back, the cookies had already spread beyond control. And there was no way anymore to prove the cookies were cookies, for the cookies had written now their own rules. All because they hadn't been all eaten.


Whether the myth is true or not, the recipe exists: whether it's sugar, spice, and everything nice, or snips, snails, and puppy dogs' tails, with a little of something else to give it uniqueness... usually cinammon, lemon, or maybe something a little more exotic that you wouldn't eat in any other circumstance, such as metal (with more exotic ingredients yielding more exotic results), the Othemites have found two copies of the recipe so far. This sacrilege against human life is one of the reasons why they're so obsessed with scouring Felarya free of predators: if there's any possibility humans can not just not be born of woman, but simply MADE, like they were cookies, so that even if they were all destroyed they could simply be remade by anyone with the time... then humanity's inherent worth falls apart.



So, Felaryan cookies have conquered most of the universe. How's THAT for a deathworld, huh? And how's it feel to tell your girlfriend her hair smells of vanilla now?

Stabs wrote:

By all means do so.

======

This is just a creepy idea that got into my head, same as the first survival short and the raider's problems with a fairy. I felt it fit right into my pit of nightmares, after all the hard work I've done on fairies lately. Basically, Pinoccio in Felarya, starring the (Sexy) Blue Fairy (dressed in nothing but an apron and mittens as she leans over the stove suggestively, waiting for a young woman to give in to her lusts and ravage her willing godmother to pass the time while the cookies are in the oven.)

On Humans and Why Are They So Tasty

Once upon a time, there was a fairy who enjoyed cooking. Whether it was meat, fruit, or vegetables, it's said whatever made it into her hands would end up in a pot -or a pan- at some point. She enjoyed eating a little less, though, and usually found that no one cared to join her. Other fairies found her practices needlessly cruel, but above all, slow. So the fairy found herself with rarely a guest to cook for: no one enjoyed her meals as much as she did.
This went on until a point in time where the fairy decided to put a little more work into her cooking, and pour some of her soul in it too. She started working on a dish that had all the goodness that could possibly be had in it. So first she decided to fashion it into little cookies, and then make the cookies move, with her magic. There, she found her calling, as everyone enjoyed those cookies she made.
Having found the right direction, she proceeded to make little faces on her cookies, and then make hands, and fingers on the cookies, fashioning them after most tauric races. These cookies came to be even more widely accepted. As she kept working on her technique, her cookies became more and more lifelike, until they were just as good as any of the tauric races in Felarya. Past this point, the fairy decided to make her own special brand of tauric cookies- cookies with the lower half of a fairy. They started as a joke, but they were so popular with all her friends that she stuck to that design. She varied her recipe often, using different ingredients, and sometimes they came out white, sometimes they were almost black, sometimes, the lemon in them made them yellow- some say the Guardian Mercreti was originally a cookie made with ascarlin chips.
But as she improved with her cookies, they grew more intelligent than she intended at first. Of course, she didn't really care- smart or not, they'd always be cookies. And even the little hearts she gave them served only to improve upon their taste. Those first humans were good for only one thing: cookies. All their intelligence was just so that they could be played with. And it'd have stayed that way, were it not for one thing... they were just food, and as mere food were they thought of. So no one bat an eyelash every time a cookie or two went missing: if they could not be found, then no problem, their friend would bake more! Everything in Felarya wanted some of those cookies... so logically one or two would go missing sometime!
However, at some point, a group of humans went missing because of a dimensional disturbance, the kind that's so common in Felarya. Released from their fate, those cookies soon began to work to achieve their maximum potential, beyond the scope of that fairy's imagination. They thrived, and they spread out and about, invading and conquering world after world after world. Cookies soon became one of the most powerful forces of the universe: they grew proud, and they forgot their roots. In time, cookies forgot they were ever cookies, and found a new name for themselves.
Eventually, the guardians realized the threat. Cookies were everywhere, and it was now time to recall them, therefore Felarya started gating those cookies back in. But there were too many, and it was impossible to catch them all; by the time the futility of this effort was realized, the cookies learned of Felarya, and went there of their own volition, in volumes far greater than any dimensional disturbances could ever hope to accomplish. Once there, cookies once more met their fate at the hands of Felarya- to be eaten...
But alas, the harm was done. No matter how many cookies returned to Felarya, and despite the world could eat them all if they ever managed to get them all back, the cookies had already spread beyond control. And there was no way anymore to prove the cookies were cookies, for the cookies had written now their own rules. All because they hadn't been all eaten.


Whether the myth is true or not, the recipe exists: whether it's sugar, spice, and everything nice, or snips, snails, and puppy dogs' tails, with a little of something else to give it uniqueness... usually cinammon, lemon, or maybe something a little more exotic that you wouldn't eat in any other circumstance, such as metal (with more exotic ingredients yielding more exotic results), the Othemites have found two copies of the recipe so far. This sacrilege against human life is one of the reasons why they're so obsessed with scouring Felarya free of predators: if there's any possibility humans can not just not be born of woman, but simply MADE, like they were cookies, so that even if they were all destroyed they could simply be remade by anyone with the time... then humanity's inherent worth falls apart.



So, Felaryan cookies have conquered most of the universe. How's THAT for a deathworld, huh? And how's it feel to tell your girlfriend her hair smells of vanilla now?

This . . . this . . . I can't decide whether to declare it to be made of win or to be terrified . . .