[PROJECT DISCUSSION] [FELID_FACTOR]

[skinstealer]

ITS HERE

another TCP project for your enjoyment, this one set on morbit and featuring morbitian TCPs! this project features characters from almost every member of the skinstealer system, so to aid in visualization and provide some fun character details, we'll be posting designs and information about characters as they're introduced.

first up is Alias, a shorthair type TCP played by ringor. 



alias is a digital artist and uses they/them pronouns, and has an eye anomaly that allows them to have moving pupils and leak fluid tears. they hate it! their handle online is [CRITTER_CATCHER], alluding to their open species, critters.

they live in a shitty apartment in a complex in ludicrous, the capital of hearth, and specialize in creature design. yes i am projecting a lot onto this tiny cat and you WILL take them in the same way that people put up with stephen king likes to write authors in maine

have an alias song, as a treat

[sarcovyn]

will the FELID_FACTOR roleplay subforum have any sort of effect on this story? maybe not direct events but like, cameo appearances? e.g. are the characters in the roleplay canon? does the roleplay take place in an AU of sorts?

[skinstealer]

there are some planned crossovers but for the time being the main contributions that will show up are things like alias' critter gallery including stuff done from RP commissions, so basically cameos of Stuff The TCPs Do

i'd offer for team members to bring their TCPs in but OH GOD THERE ARE 60+ MAIN CHARACTERS PLUS SIDE CHARACTERS ALREADY JESUS CHRIST and managing the story structure of it is like balancing 50 million plates

that said, felid factor RP (which we need to hit with sticks to get going again) will have tie ins and ways to interact with the canon characters in ways that arent shown on screen in the project itself.

[Wilds]

I love this tiny cat with my whole heart already. That is all.

[skinstealer]

hi everyone, it's percy! time to introduce my cat: remmy! he's a quilt type with a tail anomaly, and yes, he does have a secret body under the quilt. he likes to dress fancy and make fashion designs that he's never sure will come to actual fruition...and mainly gets his creative kicks through making quilted patches. 



here's peg, his coworker! he has a bunch more people in his story that i want to make too, but they'll come later. 


she's really small...i like to think that she has to do a full body stretch to punch him in the arm and stuff. maybe he carried her around when they goofed off in the past?

[skinstealer]

dolly here! introducing marcel, my little fashion designer:



she's so cute...but don't fuck with her, okay? she's really tired.

i don't know what else to say about her yet! enjoy!

[skinstealer]

hi, it's iris!! please meet tansy my sweet sweet girl with (formerly) cursed eyes
omen types are a kind of creature type TCP based on the "omen" cryptid/legend on morbit...creatures that curse you to death or a worse fate if you look at their eyes! tansy's nullified though, and thankfully, images don't have that effect anyway.   


also, here's glycon!

[King-Clod]

Oh, very cute designs for both of them! I do wonder what critter she ordered from Alias...

[skinstealer]

fran here- introducing my FF character, lily! she's...got some issues

[skinstealer]

sorry for the delay...zoray here with foil, who goes by tricky online. here she is:



she's best friends with alias and remmy...but the three of them have a complicated history. more on that to come...

also, here's claire

[skinstealer]

oh god it's back. Oh God It's Back. aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

we have a very large backlog of updates to use so hopefully we can keep this consistently going for a bit! today we start with mabel, the first look at one of the three FF admins. she's written by beatrix!

we have a lot of thoughts on her, but here's her ref, and a song for her.



[image description: a queen type TCP with a black and gray body palette, along with a sparkly gold and yellow dress and crown.]

[AceOfNothing]

I'm so excited that there's an update, I love FF stuff.

I like Mabel a lot! Not sure if we've seen Beatrix write stuff before, this update was great. Hoping we get to find out about Mabel and Phantom more sometime. Hope she loved the pie

Can I ask what kinds of forum boards she'd participate in, if any? Im curious

[skinstealer]

Beatrix here. I'm here for a bit and would like to talk over my new character, Mabel...

Mabel is my first foray into writing a character, though I wouldn't be surprised if I had some hand in Pokemon-related characters growing up. However, this is my first since becoming a distinct system member, and while I am very nervous in some ways, I am very excited in others.

Mabel's typing was an obvious pick for me- while I abhor the idea of monarchy in actuality, regal and royal imagery tend to hit for me in ways I don't fully understand. It felt like picking a queen type TCP would be an interesting way of working with and deconstructing that...someone who was effectively born into a role they never chose, and with powers that force others to adhere to that role around her. After all, queen types command authority when they speak firmly, whether they want to or not. The responsibility of it weighs on her shoulders and she feels as if any missteps could seriously hurt others in ways that she doesn't want, and she actively has to deconstruct any possible speech patterns that could set off her ability. Thankfully her roommates (Courtney and Honey) have built up a decent bit of resistance over time thanks to...exposure, I suppose, and mindfulness regarding passive aura effects (something I imagine to be a big thing in TCP culture...), but Mabel still struggles with tone regulation and essentially forcing herself to sound levelheaded at all times. Fighting is something she's trying to leave in the past- because the fact that her typing would make her more likely to "win" vs actually coming to a compromise makes her feel sick. 

Typing aside, other themes that Mabel is going to tackle include repetition in work and home life, finding yourself in monotonous cycles that grip you and don't let you go. Her previous job was very corporate and lead to her feeling trapped until she finally broke free, and grief definitely made things worse while she was in the throes of it. This is something we've felt a lot due to our workaholic nature even when it's self imposed (and for Mabel, it definitely is even as she works from home), and while it's strange to think that since I wrote that update, we've gotten significantly better about this thanks to therapy, it still rings true in some places of our heart.

The static headache effect mentioned in this update is an actual thing we experience, and was worsened significantly back when our life situation wasn't as stable. I don't want to reveal too much about it, so I won't be acknowledging too much conjecture about it. Feel free to talk amongst yourselves on that one, though.

And then...Phantom.

Phantom is a difficult character to write and is weirdly enough not rooted in experiences with a partner, but more the fact that we started writing Phantom around when our grandmother died and we were processing the sudden grief snaps throughout the day, as well as the complicated nature of "Here was a person I loved dearly who I didn't always have the best relationship with, and they're gone now. What do I do to move on?" Things have very much changed for us perspective wise since then...but I have some good ideas.



Re: Ace's comments...

Mabel definitely loved the pie. She is fairly reserved about expressing joy but she loves it when her roommates do nice things for her. She will definitely love the scarf too...

As for forum boards, game threads mainly. She enjoys puzzles and games of strategy, especially more traditional/old fashioned ones. Board games too. Chess is a big thing for her.

[skinstealer]

Hello! It's Tori with today's update. I hope everyone's doing well.

Introducing Courtney...a spice jar type after my own heart. While I don't knit, as a system member I have a lot of ties to it through things our grandmother used to do. It felt nice making a character who could connect to that, as well as our own crafting/making art for a living experiences...

Here's Courtney's ref, for the record!



[image description: a spice jar type TCP with pastel blue tinted glass with white polka dots, a dark blue cap, and a white tag with a dark blue floral pattern on it. she also sports freckles underneath her eyespots. she is wearing a layered, scalloped pink dress, along with a pair of white and navy bracelets.]