Song for the Day: Movement by Oliver Tree

Okay, so let's all take a deep breath.

One, two, three...

That is so much better.  (From left to right: Manta, Aster, and Darter.) 

I already gave a synopsis for this one at the beginning of the book but yeah they're just fun aliens now with a design philosophy of "if it fits character it's technically fine" so idk if anyone wants to make OCs the general rules for mutations are something along the lines of

-plates/external bone: protectors or those who have been protected

-horns: relate to having inflicted pain or having received it, common amongst warriors and basically nonexistent amongst pacifists

-wings: abandonment, same deal

-there's some whole deal with extra teeth I haven't worked out because wings/horns/teeth/bone (occasionally subbing blood for bone, they're similar in most books) are the four most powerful magical reservoirs in most sentient species' bodies (ie sentient horns. there are exceptions for example dragons have a pocket dimension in their chests where their magic is "externally carried" but that's a weird consequence of them being, like omnians, created partially by higher powers instead of nature. 

They've all got those three marks around the edge of their faces, in one form or another, this is also a high magic content thing. Despite this no panta can actually utilize magic in current canon. What they DO have is symbiosis with microorganisms which react heavily to emotional changes, causing pantamorphs to rapidly mutate external structures. It's not fast enough that you could give yourself a sword because you're on a battlefield or something, but we're talking new limbs over the course of months. The purpose of this is that mutation alters certain tags in the pantamorph genome, which will go on to be a blueprint for their metamorphosis-- even though they will remember very little of their pre-pupal stage as adult, all their experiences will permanently manifest into their new form. 

I generally want to stick to humanoid body structure but just for the record if you try to resist metamorphosis at 12 (they become adults by taking a journey to these dark obelisks where they enter and never exit again, they're hormonally compelled to voyage to them but a lot of panta are trying to get around it so they can stay kids forever), they will start very rapidly mutating until they barely resemble anything living and their behavior grows less sentient as said microorganisms are more and more compelled towards the obelisk and begin to interfere with basic function. yeah. body horror. im love this

this would be a really fun universe for a sburb game because the thing that biologically compels them to metamorphose is actually a certain mineral that the obelisks are made of. naturally it would be just everywhere viable for life, sort of a way of biologically telling the organisms "this place is aight you can just lie down here and take a Power Nap" but now the insane concentration in the obelisks, which are literally up into the stratosphere and are visible from everywhere on the planet (you can't go anywhere you can't see one) is just a biological magnet. the adult panta are off-planet with a few exceptions but they terraformed the whole planet and killed off the big preds so the kids would be safe and yknow do what they want (get in the obelisk children you must become meguka) 

i'm a big fan of the idea but also unfortunately it just sounds like homestuck in general lmao. i fucking reinvented homestuck. i want to die

ALSO PANTA ARE NON-BINARY! I DO HAVE AUX PRONOUNS FOR MOST OF THEM BUT I'M TRYING TO MOVE TOWARDS JUST A TOTAL LACK OF GENDER ACROSS SORRY LMAO

my main bitch aster 

SOME ANIMALS AND ALSO MY GIRL
There's a metric f---load of animal symbolism in this book because most of the kids are arranged into groups that derive their names from some animal, primarily the Koda and Siida (yes those are both alien animal names not real ones). I will get to them later. Aster themself has a design based on the Owai, which is a jackalope-coyote (essentially) because goddamn that's cool.  Their deal is that they're usually domesticated, and that they do not speak at all, save for when mourning one of their own, where they have a distinctive "oh whyyyyy" cry, hence the name. When Aster was little they wanted to be one when they grew up, to which the Siida coven raising her responded, "Maybe then you'd be quieter". The huge six-legged wolves are Koda, they were all killed off by the adult panta when they were trying to make the planet kid-friendly but their bones and skulls are often used as decoration or weaponry. There are no Siida above but essentially they're huge ray-esque beings! I will do a chapter on ecology on this world eventually because do I ever have some 

I have this bad in-joke that Aster is essentially sammyclassicsonicfan because I'm a moron and I'm easily entertained

Manta actually only comes in in book two and I can't handle it ok cause they're one of my faves

Pascal, my second favorite (behind Aster), the Woodsman (remember them? they need a rename), and Grinte in the top left. The three of them are part of the Order of the Koda, a militant group which usually kill themselves before the age of twelve before metamorphosis, which is in their minds like death anyways, but through dying they can stop the adults from gaining one of their own. around the whole death cult thing they have this unreasonably positive society of self-improvement, strength, and kinship. it's wholesome 

Moraine, who is in the first book, and Squall, in the third.

Close up on two characters from this page. Their names are the Mechanic (they've eschewed a name) and... Grinte again. Yes, this is deliberate, yes, it's confusing, no they're not the same character, it's an in-joke.

and our daily evan drak.e

pascal's a cutie before they get burned lmao. god i hate them though just because they're my new "FIREY BOI" that is the generic fiery boi. i got soe many fiery bois and it's just... even i'm bored. but i can't help myself

I DRAW THEM ALL

OVER 

MY

SCHOOLWORK
SAVE ME FROM THE EVIL I HAVE COMMITTED PLEASE OH LORD IN YOUR MERCY