If you guys have an hour or two to kill, I highly recommend these two videos by Cardinal West on the Xenofiction genre. I have a far greater appreciation and understanding of the genre and it’s sub-categories thanks to him and his videos. These and his other xenofiction video essays are all so well written and entertaining and such a great resource for people wanting to get into reading or writing the genre.
Xenofiction stories that add the negative impact of invasive introduced species and how native animals react and deal with them are an absolute Top Tier for me.
non-human trans characters who use different gender signifiers from us is sooo underrated. transfem bird person who thinks her colorful plumage means she cant pass only for every human she meets to be completely clueless. transmasc slime person who uses food dye to change themselves to bright orange, leading everyone they know to question how the hell slime gender works.
it is time once again to think about Par%l:
the non-binary alien in Immortal Hulk in the next universe, who is the very last being in their universe and dares to ask the unspeakable horror who murdered the universe to explain why, and perishes to fling a desperate hope into the past to prevent it all from coming to pass
what we see of their species is genuinely very alien and they would make an EXCELLENT xenofiction protagonist; the whole chapter is, in fact, xenofiction, as they have never seen a humanoid form. you see them, in the narration, struggling to make sense of a bipedal figure, describing an arm being pulled back as an act of incomprehensible strangeness. The sadistic grin of the One Below All is equally unfathomable to them (as Par%l’s people do not have faces to emote with), and you get a real sense of dawning horror when it realizes that the monster that did all this… enjoys the suffering and pain it has inflicted.
what we hear described of their species is apparently reproducing in trios, in a fashion heavily suggested to be completely nonsexual; part of their story involves them trying to reconnect with a former lover, both of them affected by the loss of the third, that is heavily laden with the sense of hopelessness and despair that pervades the issue as all the stars in the sky have, literally, been broken.
they’re deeply inhuman, and drawn to be completely unrecognizable by any human standard, and nonetheless they are people in a very obvious way, and its a terrible tragedy what happens to them, and what they end up doing is hoping that something prevents this all from happening
How I Play and Interpret Kenku
The kenku in the Dungeons and Dragons game are fun and interesting. I’ve put a lot of thought in to how the kenku curse manifests and how I play the details of how it works. I haven’t done a lot of research into the background of the characters, this is all personal headcanon. I understand the kenku’s curse not to just be on their ability to literally speak, but to clearly or intentionally…
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In the dimness he woke and knew it was too late. Morning never came so late unless the world was ending.
Fortunately, he knew what to do about that.
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*raises hand* I think it depends on the Pokemon in question?
Like, if it’s a mainline-game mon of questionable sapience then FUCK NO THAT IS MADE OF DISGUSTING but a lot of the anime mons and all of the Mystery Dungeon mons are of human-level intelligence and able to give consent, so I don’t have any issues if it’s one of them? (PMD2 protagonist/PMD2 partner is cute as hell, for example, and that’s human-turned-into-a-Pokemon/sapient Pokemon)
It’s not any weirder than interspecies relationships between humans and other sci-fi/fantasy races like, I dunno, half the pairings in Mass Effect or Ruto crushing on Ocarina Link.
That said I haven’t seen the Lucario movie so I don’t know if Lucario is intelligent enough to not be squicky, so carry on.
I have realized that ironically, while the cat is one of the most known and loved animals/pets. The Wildcat still lingers in the shadows and is a very little noticed animal. Especially in the popular media.
We need more wild cat media, not just domestic cats, because those are all I see.
(And I'm referring to the "Felis silvestris", the others at least people can spot them).
And it seems that people have forgotten or do not realize that the cats we know are domestic animals, that have little or nothing to do in nature (I include stray/feral cats, because they are still domestic cats) and that their wild relative/ancestor exists and is still alive.
It's not like with dogs, there are dog media and there are wolf media, people know how to differentiate one from the other. But what about cats, can you locate any popular stories where wild cats are even in the wild (TRULY wild, not feral domesticated ones)?
And it's kind of sad, wild cats deserve to be noticed and recognized. Sadly many of them are in a vulnerable state and are disappearing.
I would like to see a xenofiction story with wild cats living their lives, hunting hares, taking on lynx, living in wild territory, doing things of their species that emphasize how they are different from their domesticated descendants.
Although I doubt that something like this will happen for a long time, it is one of those cases where you just have to say "If I don't do it, no one else will".