[FELID_FACTOR]

[skinstealer]

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Welcome to the Felid Factor Forums! Felid Factor is a forum run by TCPs, for TCPs, and only TCPs can join- yes, this does mean we’ll ask you for verification on signing up. Providing you’re willing to give that, you’ll be welcomed into a community that prides itself on being both a friendly place for TCPs to interact and a helpful resource hub for those looking for information on their species. Here you will find TCPs of all typings, including hybrids and those with anomalies, conditions and modifiers- we’ve even teamed up with people from research facilities to provide extra resources to those looking to learn more about themselves and their peers. For those who aren’t TCPs and are interested in our forums- our resource section remains public for viewing, and you’re welcome to learn through there, but please, respect our boundaries! We TCPs need a space of our own, too!

Within Felid Factor itself, we have a few different areas:

General Chatter, an anything goes area for anyone to talk in about just about everything. If you’re not sure where something goes, here’s a good place! If it’d be better suited for another area, someone will be sure to guide you to the right area, and you’ll be well on your way. It’s a great place to get started and introduce yourself!

Artist’s Corner, an area for artists of any kind to make, share, and sell their work. While we have a marketplace area (mentioned below) available, this is a more focused area for people to market their work, and people can choose to advertise wherever they please- or in both areas, if they like! Any kind of content is allowed as long as it is legal and non-sexual, and we encourage you to express yourself. 

Gaming Den, an area for playing, discussing, and making games! Feel free to make groups to play multiplayer games with, or just discuss whatever games you’ve been playing as of late. Any games are welcome, no matter how popular or obscure, and no matter what skill level is required. Even board games are allowed, and we even have webcam-based tabletop game nights!

Open Marketplace, an area for buying, selling, and overall advertisement of wares, services, and anything else you can think of. TCPs are often overlooked in the global market dominated by complexes, and this space allows for us TCPs to market to each other without fear of being overshadowed by our larger peers. As long as your wares are legal and non-sexual in nature, they are welcome here!

Enigmas and Absurdities, an area created by popular request, dedicated to strange happenings, magical studies, paranormal activity, you name it. While we don’t intend on making too many specialized areas like this, the demand for such a board was too high for us to ignore it, and due to the inherent magical nature of TCPs and the prevalence and reality of supernatural typings, we felt like it deserved a spot.

To sign up for Felid Factor, just fill out the following form and provide photo verification of yourself holding up a piece of paper with your preferred username on it, along with the date. We’ll review your application as soon as possible and try to get you on the site when we can, so you can start posting and enjoying everything we have to offer.

Thank you for checking out Felid Factor, and we hope you enjoy your stay!
 

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4/4/316- Alias

Inhale, exhale. Oxygen in, carbon dioxide out. It was something that a lot of species did, not all of them, but a lot. A necessary function for life, something that if fucked with, could lead to serious problems if not outright death.

TCPs were one of those species that didn’t need to breathe, and the only way Alias knew what it could possibly feel like at all was through reading countless medical articles and overly descriptive prose on people’s fiction pages. 

So why did Alias feel like they were choking?

Maybe they were different, and this was something they were actually capable of after all, just like crying. Maybe shorthair type TCPs secretly had a pair of lungs somewhere in their body and just, absorbed air through their skin or something, and it wasn’t enough, and they were slowly suffocating to death and that’s what was causing this horrible feeling of being crushed to death. Their eyes weren’t supposed to be able to make tears and yet here they were, watching horrible yellow-orange globs of fluid pour out of the corners as they trembled in front of the mirror, unable to stop any of it from coming out. It was all too much, and they tried to wipe it away, into the sink at the very least, keep it from making a mess of the floor…

Okay, okay. Relax. Breathe. Wait, no, breathing, that’s the whole problem, they don’t know whether they can breathe or not, is it a real, physical thing they’re capable of, or is it just another fucked up metaphor people use for “relax, chill your shit, stop freaking out!” They’d rather people just outright tell them to chill out at that point, because at the very least they wouldn’t have an existential crisis over whether they have organs in there or not-

They pat at their chest, getting nothing but a solid thump in return. Completely unhelpful. They don’t even know why they did that. It’s not like they know what whacking lungs sounds like, that’s probably not even a medical procedure...they need like, x-rays for that kind of thing, and it’s not like they have cash for that. Maybe if they pushed critter sales...no, stupid idea. They are not working themself extra just to find out whether they have lungs. Cmon.

They grip the edge of the sink with one paw, their now fully exposed left eye dribbling fluid freely into the basin. Get your shit together, Alias. It was just a stupid video, thirty seconds tops, not even a full minute long. 

But it sounded like her. It sounded like her voice. 
 

ALIAS: That’s not fair to them, though. 
ALIAS: They’re just some fucking stranger on the internet, they’re not even a person I’ll ever meet, they didn’t...they didn’t hurt me!

  
Their voice is getting louder now and they’re trying to stop themself, and they know that the sound they’re making is a choke, even if it’s not the act of choking, because nothing about what they are makes any goddamn sense, and they’re just, it’s just-

They hear a notification from the other room, somehow, nearly falling off of their step stool- they must have accidentally bumped their headphone cable out of the computer when freaking out for it to be that audible from here. They fumble for the hand towel and shove their face into it, holding it there as they shuffle down the stool and towards their room. 

There’s a message from Remmy.
 

[REMNANT_TREASURES]: u okay?

 
They hesitate, paws over the touchpad.
 

[CRITTER_CATCHER]: yeah
[REMNANT_TREASURES]: u sure?
[REMNANT_TREASURES]: u havent been on all day and i miss u
[REMNANT_TREASURES]: u didnt show up for our usual lunch convo time or anything
[CRITTER_CATCHER]: im fine
[REMNANT_TREASURES]: okay dropping cute talk
[REMNANT_TREASURES]: what happened
[CRITTER_CATCHER]: its fine and im fine
[CRITTER_CATCHER]: its stupid and not worth talking about
[REMNANT_TREASURES]: dude if it got you upset its worth talking about
[REMNANT_TREASURES]: is someone giving you shit about your prices again?
[CRITTER_CATCHER]: no
[CRITTER_CATCHER]: i mean yes but that was yesterday
[REMNANT_TREASURES]: i will wreck them.

Alias snickers a bit, unable to help themself.
 

[REMNANT_TREASURES]: ok but whats the today problem?
[CRITTER_CATCHER]: i saw this video and just
[CRITTER_CATCHER]: there was a TCP in it and their voice was just like 
[CRITTER_CATCHER]: idk
[REMNANT_TREASURES]: was it like sonar’s?
[CRITTER_CATCHER]: yeah
[REMNANT_TREASURES]: shit
[REMNANT_TREASURES]: im sorry crit
[CRITTER_CATCHER]: its fine
[REMNANT_TREASURES]: no like that’s legit rough and i hope you know like
[REMNANT_TREASURES]: i am here for you.
[REMNANT_TREASURES]: ok?
[CRITTER_CATCHER]: yeah i just
[CRITTER_CATCHER]: had this whole fucking thing about
[CRITTER_CATCHER]: its stupid nvm
[REMNANT_TREASURES]: i will not think its stupid
[CRITTER_CATCHER]: you will think its stupid
[REMNANT_TREASURES]: i swear i will not
[CRITTER_CATCHER]: i got upset about like
[CRITTER_CATCHER]: breathing
[REMNANT_TREASURES]: breathing?
[REMNANT_TREASURES]: like the biological process?
[CRITTER_CATCHER]: yeah
[REMNANT_TREASURES]: okay
[REMNANT_TREASURES]: why that specifically?
[CRITTER_CATCHER]: i felt like i couldnt and it just
[REMNANT_TREASURES]: i mean, you can’t
[CRITTER_CATCHER]: right and that’s the problem
[CRITTER_CATCHER]: like TCPs cant breathe but it felt like i /couldnt/ breathe
[REMNANT_TREASURES]: okay i am trying very hard to follow keep going
[CRITTER_CATCHER]: like i didnt feel like i was physically incapable of breathing
[CRITTER_CATCHER]: i felt like i was being choked. like i was being crushed.
[REMNANT_TREASURES]: okay. i think i can get that part
[REMNANT_TREASURES]: i think thats called like
[REMNANT_TREASURES]: an anxiety attack
[CRITTER_CATCHER]: i know what an anxiety attack is
[REMNANT_TREASURES]: i mean i figure you would yes 
[REMNANT_TREASURES]: but im pretty sure thats a symptom
[CRITTER_CATCHER]: i guess
[CRITTER_CATCHER]: but in the moment it felt like so much more than that
[CRITTER_CATCHER]: it felt just so
[CRITTER_CATCHER]: all fucking encompassing
[CRITTER_CATCHER]: like thats all there ever would be
[REMNANT_TREASURES]: well
[REMNANT_TREASURES]: do you feel like that now?
[CRITTER_CATCHER]: guess not
[REMNANT_TREASURES]: there you go then
[REMNANT_TREASURES]: anxiety attacks suck but they arent forever
[REMNANT_TREASURES]: nothing is
[CRITTER_CATCHER]: ok i dont like thinking about the nothing is forever part
[REMNANT_TREASURES]: fair enough! forget about that bit
[REMNANT_TREASURES]: just remember that the /anxiety stuff/ doesnt last forever and that youre gonna be okay
[REMNANT_TREASURES]:  and that ill always be here to give you big ol hugs!
[REMNANT_TREASURES]:  and that i miss u when you disappear like that
[CRITTER_CATCHER]: you are a dork.
[REMNANT_TREASURES]: well, correct, objectively
[REMNANT_TREASURES]: but you are my friend, and thus dork by extension
[REMNANT_TREASURES]: i infected you with dork cooties
[REMNANT_TREASURES]: so there
[CRITTER_CATCHER]: ugh

Huh.

They aren’t crying anymore.

How about that.