Welcome to May! You still with us? Like a AAA game publisher, I'm here to drop a giant loot crate full of Morbit goodies right in the middle of your day. Unlike a AAA game publisher, though, these are free for everyone to peruse! No Morbitcoin required.
(I will take any Morbitcoin you send my way, though. I've got a stable full of Minion!Wax Gangster NFTs to sell, and my bank is telling me I can't put them up as collateral for a mortgage like I was planning to. Also I burned down a forest for no reason. Ah, the NFT life is a rough one.)
Anywho, if you missed last month's newsletter, you can find it here. You can also feel free to discuss anything about this month's in this thread if you like, go nuts.

CHANGELOG:

How have things been going?

Pretty much all of us got sick at some point this month. Between COVID shots and other medical issues, April sure did a number on our minds and bodies. Even with that said, though, we've been steadily working away at our passion projects, and doing work behind the scenes to plan things out.

Mortis has been working on their usual one-two punch of Maybequest and Morbit second life avatars, mixed with the other skinstealer members to work on Felid Factor, and Heike, Ari, and Como to shore up Fantasy Cascade. (It's kind of become a big experience for everyone.) They're hoping to wrap up part 1 of Maybequest soon, as well as prepare for the return of Void Session. Speaking of TCP, they've also started a new TCP project, The Maze Trials! With a lil' chocolate heart buddy. Lookit 'em.



Ari's been updating Prismic Sanctum, continuing the longstanding story it's been building up for some time now. It's got plans in the works for more stories involving these and other characters from its myriad Morbit projects, and it's been learning picoCAD to prepare for potential ideas in the future.

Speaking of learning, Zenthis has been learning Unity. Why? It's a secret. A secret project. Involving Unity. You can guess at the possibilities that presents.

Knux has been working on commissions and coordination for another Gauntlet RP project. He's also started the Glass Tweedler project, a kind of expedition log exploring the life of this mysterious Morbit creature! Looks sharp.


Como's been doing steady character work in the meantime, launching two new vignettes! He's also been working on other projects, like Arrhythmia, which saw a new update this month in which Arabis and the gang finally find some trail mix.

We've also had other team members doing backend stuff, like when Mraof set up a new spam filter for the site.

It was needed!

Anyway, that's the long and short of it for now. We'll still be here, making the things we love and helping the community prosper as much as we can. Thank you all so much for sticking with us, it means a lot to know you enjoy what we do here. Here's to more months of great work from all of us!

welcome to the may worldbuilding raffles run by us, mortis! other team members will be possibly running their own raffles as well, but this one's ours. every month we'll be trying to let you, the community, contribute to our canon via raffling off TCP type and species morph additions based on a monthly theme. these themes will line up with sales for commissions in the following month as well, giving plenty of opportunity for people to add whatever doesn't get in at a highly discounted price. 

with all that in mind, your theme for the month is...

suggest away! this raffle will be over on the 25th of may!

welcome to the monthly sales thread for TCP types and species morphs/variants! here you can pick up new additions to the Morbit worldbuilding canon at a discount, as long as they match the themes available. you can reply to this thread or message our commission account on discord to claim slots, and we'll do our best to put you in line!
 
PRICES
TCP TYPES: 12 USD per type, 50 USD for a pack of 5
SPECIES MORPHS/VARIANTS: 35 USD for a morph, 30 USD for a variant
 
SPECIES MORPH THEME: ANY SPECIES ALLOWED, WILD THEME
TCP THEME: CREATURE TYPES

You are surrounded by black. 

You are in a room, though you don’t recognize it, and everything feels blurry right now. You don’t think you recognize anything, nor could you, considering this is your first moment of being alive.

You do not have a name, though you feel like you could have one, if you wanted.


 
You are a MOLDED CHOCOLATE TYPE TCP, and you are made entirely of unusually difficult-to-melt milk chocolate. You have the ability to break pieces off of yourself and heal others with it, giving a slight energy boost in the process. You have no idea how you know that information. You also know that you’re in good health, and that you’re not injured in any way.


 
You fall unceremoniously onto the floor before you even realize you’ve been hovering. Some kind of...pad? lays underneath your body, a faint glow dimming as you pull yourself to your feet. 

...well, so much for not being in any pain. Ow.


 
There’s a pile of fabric in front of you, as well as a piece of paper. You’re not sure how you know what either of these things are.

Day 1: Creature observed. Creature appears to be avian and approximately two to four inches in length. Creature produced an odd warbling chirp as it visited a nearby flower. It hovered near the flower for a few moments before flying away again.

Day 3: Confirmed the creature is not of divine origin. TCP ability or other natural phenomena still a possibility.

Day 6: Second sighting. Closer examination was possible due to additional recording equipment. Creature hovered near a flower for approximately ten to twelve seconds, inserting its beak into the center. It appears to be composed of some kind of glass or crystal with a slight iridescent shine to it. Further inspection of the flower reveals it to be the same one it visited previously.

Day 15: Fifth sighting. Similar to previous sightings, creature visits its flower and inserts its beak into the pistil. Work on a nonlethal capture device ongoing.

Day 21: Eighth sighting. Capture attempt unsuccessful. The flower appears to be losing its petals despite other flowers on the same plant appearing perfectly intact.

Day 25: Flower appears to be wilting as petals are falling off. Local botanists have confirmed this is unusual behavior for this species of flower.

Day 32: A juvenile fruit appears to be forming. Note that this species of flower is not known to produce fruit of any kind. Creature has not been sighted in 11 days.

Day 33: Plant has been successfully extracted and moved to an indoor lab for closer examination.

Day 39: The fruit continues to form. Two small lines are becoming visible on the bottom end, forming an X shape centered on the end of the fruit. No change in the other flowers on the plant.

Day 44: Upon closer inspection, the lines have been revealed to be small indentations in the bottom of the fruit. I am beginning to suspect that the fruit is actually a pod of some sort.

Day 51: Pod has grown to 2.5 inches in diameter. It is a slightly oblong shape.

Day 54: The pod opened today, splitting along the indentations. Inside appears to be a small glass creature, similar to the one observed before. Capture was successful and the creature was moved to a secure room. After two hours, it began flying around the room, producing tweedling noises similar to that of its predecessor.

Day 55: The creature is unresponsive to any kind of food or drink offered to it, instead absorbing shreds one by one from the air.

Day 57: The creature has chosen a corner of its room to serve as its nest, returning there each night to sleep. It has built a small structure out of a piece of paper, tearing it to pieces and arranging them in a pile. More building materials will be provided to it.

Day 61: The creature has grown significantly since its birthing, and has become used to the presence of researchers in its room. It seems to respond positively to attention.

Day 67: The creature is now allowed outside of its room as long as it remains indoors and supervised. It is curious in nature, hovering around various pieces of lab equipment.

Day 73: The creature has been dubbed the 'glass tweedler' due to its appearance and distinctive song. Analysis shows that it is made entirely of some kind of living crystal, with no internal organs of any kind. It has responded negatively to close examination, stinging researchers with its beak. A small energy discharge has also been observed during each sting.

Day 78: Several staff have had positive interactions with the tweedler, and it seems able to differentiate them. It comes to different researchers to play different games with them, but will avoid interaction with researchers that attempt to restrain it.

Day 81: The tweedler's growth has ceased, and it is now 3.1 inches in length.

Day 92: The tweedler visited the previously observed plant today, hovering near several of its flowers. It has increased its shred consumption noticeably.

Day 95: Shred energy has been detected inside several of the flowers, and is slowly climbing. The tweedler has shown increased interest in doors and windows.

Day 102: Shred energy inside the flowers continues to grow as pods start to form. The tweedler's mood has taken a turn for the worse, and it is no longer responding to play attempts from staff.

Day 109: The tweedler made an escape attempt today, flying towards an open window. A researcher was able to catch it in their hands before it could make it outside, with no harm done to the tweedler in the process. Increased security measures are now in effect. The flower pods continue to grow steadily.

Day 114: The tweedler has grown increasingly irritable, and will sting some staff members on sight. It continues to ignore any attempts at play.

Day 121: Upon extensive discussion, the decision has been made to allow the tweedler outside. A tracking device will be fitted to its back, and the windows will be left open at all times.

Day 122: The tweedler left this morning. Using the tracking device, it was observed to visit several gardens in a half-mile radius. It returned this evening, resting in its nest.

Day 134: The tweedler continues to take daily trips outside, returning to its nest every time. Its mood has improved again, and it is now willing to interact with the staff. The pods on the plant are nearing their maximum size.

Day 142: The first pod opened today, revealing a baby tweedler. Just like our specimen, it took approximately two hours for its wings to properly unfold and for it to begin flying. It was allowed to leave through the open window.

Day 144: The second pod opened today, and another tweedler emerged, also leaving through the open window. No interaction was observed between the parent and its offspring.

It’s April, and I (loddite) am doing these now! Hopefully you made it through last month alive. We’ve been busy cookin’ up some Morbit soup in the kitchen, just for you. So without further ado, here’s the April 2021 newsletter!
If you missed last month's, you can find it here!

What’s our current situation?



Mortis has been updating Maybequest and working on Felid Factor, and was able to finish Fantasy Cascade (formerly known as the Wilson Project) Episode One: Spilling Over! We’re just waiting on Heike to finish up the OST, and then it’s all ready for publishing. Universal Constants writing is also still underway with Comorant, with Episode Four in the works. With a potential 26 episodes planned, there’s still a long way to go, but they’re chugging away at it and getting feedback when possible! The mystery project relating to the wiki has also been released- Travel Diary: Undertow is now available for reading, and should be updated on Mondays.

Due to therapy mandated treatment, Mortis will be working less in order to help their workaholic tendencies. This may lead to less frequent content updates over time, but hopefully lead to better quality of work and more consistent work- and just better health, which is the most important thing.



Another important thing is the beginning of a fun side venture- Mortis has started dipping into making Morbit-related Second Life avatars as a way to help promote the universe to a new audience, and encourage the community to hang out in a virtual space as TCPs! This is only available to 18+ members of the community due to the nature of SL, however, and you can find out more on our age gated Discord.

Projects of Mortis’ will resume as normal, though possibly with more breaks and more time spent on fun projects like Petz, Second Life, and 4dopt. Commissions may also be slower. Thank you for understanding!



Comorant wrapped up the Winter Crankshaft Special with several updates, as well as a one shot, a Masa con Papas update, a Dopple Effect update, contributing to Maybequest, and several small Worldbuilding additions. He plans to continue updating ongoing projects as well as push out significantly more One Shots in April.



Knux, meanwhile, has been busy with some concept work in addition to working on Arcade Session (look at Echo she’s so precious). Some commission work’s rounded out his schedule for the past month or so; he’s been hard at work gettin’ them pixels in just the right order!

Pear and Lucy have been spending time working together on various concepts in the background (they’re the type who like to pull the strings. Pretty much Morbit lore experts. We let them because their ideas are usually gold anyway.) Pear’s also been helping out with Maybequest sketches.



Ari’s been diligently expanding the Prismic Sanctum story, as well as writing characters and story assistance in Maybequest. This month PS has had a couple of exciting action sequences, as well as a couple new faces! They’ll continue to work on PS and their other projects in the future.

As for me, I’ve been doing this newsletter. You’re welcome!

While we’ve got some things in store for you for April, feel free to comment and discuss March’s updates in the thread if you like. We’re working hard to deliver that fresh new Morbit content to your very door, so watch this space over the next month or so if you want to see what we got cookin’!