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lb_leeOver the course of living with each other, Strong-Legs and Thomas both take up some of each other's native body language. Strong-Legs learns the art of the hug; Thomas learns what he (and later M.D. and Raige) call "the angry chicken dance," which Strong-Legs does when melodramatically offended. It involves fluffing yourself up and flapping your wings while striking dramatic disgusted expressions, getting up in the offender's face only to turn away at the last second to express how not worth it they are. (Thomas, M.D., and Raige, lacking feathers to fluff, have taken to chanting, "off-off-offFEND! off-off-offFEND!" instead.) Strong-Legs was at first insulted by their horrendous attempts, but later found it hilarious and started begging them, "do the dance! do the dance!" later on.
Strong-Legs's people can make sounds, but they aren't full language. They make a "WHOOMP WHOOMP aWOOOOO" noise (sorta a basso profundo pigeon noise) as a mating call, use other WHOOMP WHOOMP variations as a sort of herd roll call, hiss when angry, and scream when in agony, and that's about it. They don't sing, and their primary language is dancing. To Strong-Legs, Pidgin Sign is hopelessly unemotive, but fortunately, the two languages can be somewhat expressed at the same time. (And since Strong Legs was a huge part of Thomas's early Pidgin Sign learning, he didn't realize which was which and took up some of its mannerisms.)
Agatha is a PIN employee who barely comes up in the story but is an omnipresent figure. Anyone who has an infuriating phone conversation with a petty, obstructive bureaucrat is talking to either her or one of her massive extended family. She was hired specifically to drive off snoops by red taping them to death, and she is the best (worst) at what she does. If she were of an Internet-using generation, she would have been Queen of the Trolls, but as it is, she loves her job... all the while affecting a brain-dead soulless stare so nobody will ever know.
Ribbonblack and the 107 from Red Roses, Old Horses, are the same species. Ribbonblack is just really, really old and skilled at the xenopsych telepathy game, while the 107 is young and not. (Also, Ribbonblack is black with fluorescent blue veins, while the 107 is putty off-white with pink. Their people come in lots of colors and skills.) Here are some of the REALLY old concept sketches we did of their kind in 2006, but I'm not pleased with them now; they shouldn't have a humanoid body base and should more resemble squishy tentacle spiders.
From fall 2006.
From August 2006.
From summer 2012.
Bob did ballroom dancing up through college. He was good enough to compete a little, but the demands were intense and the culture not his thing at all, so he gave it up. Grey's parents also attempted to get her to learn ballroom dancing, but Grey was hopeless at leading and hated every second and managed to drag her way out of it as a teenager.
Strong-Legs's people can make sounds, but they aren't full language. They make a "WHOOMP WHOOMP aWOOOOO" noise (sorta a basso profundo pigeon noise) as a mating call, use other WHOOMP WHOOMP variations as a sort of herd roll call, hiss when angry, and scream when in agony, and that's about it. They don't sing, and their primary language is dancing. To Strong-Legs, Pidgin Sign is hopelessly unemotive, but fortunately, the two languages can be somewhat expressed at the same time. (And since Strong Legs was a huge part of Thomas's early Pidgin Sign learning, he didn't realize which was which and took up some of its mannerisms.)
Agatha is a PIN employee who barely comes up in the story but is an omnipresent figure. Anyone who has an infuriating phone conversation with a petty, obstructive bureaucrat is talking to either her or one of her massive extended family. She was hired specifically to drive off snoops by red taping them to death, and she is the best (worst) at what she does. If she were of an Internet-using generation, she would have been Queen of the Trolls, but as it is, she loves her job... all the while affecting a brain-dead soulless stare so nobody will ever know.
Ribbonblack and the 107 from Red Roses, Old Horses, are the same species. Ribbonblack is just really, really old and skilled at the xenopsych telepathy game, while the 107 is young and not. (Also, Ribbonblack is black with fluorescent blue veins, while the 107 is putty off-white with pink. Their people come in lots of colors and skills.) Here are some of the REALLY old concept sketches we did of their kind in 2006, but I'm not pleased with them now; they shouldn't have a humanoid body base and should more resemble squishy tentacle spiders.
From fall 2006.
From August 2006.
From summer 2012.
Bob did ballroom dancing up through college. He was good enough to compete a little, but the demands were intense and the culture not his thing at all, so he gave it up. Grey's parents also attempted to get her to learn ballroom dancing, but Grey was hopeless at leading and hated every second and managed to drag her way out of it as a teenager.
no subject
Date: 2020-04-19 08:34 am (UTC)This leads to two obvious requests: will we ever get to see (in the stories)
a) the angry chicken dance?
b) Bob and Grey dancing (maybe just privately in their flat), with Bob leading?
no subject
Date: 2020-04-21 10:10 pm (UTC)Part B will have to come later, with the rest of that sketch dump!
no subject
Date: 2020-04-22 08:10 am (UTC)THANK YOU!!!