DTAE 1, Writing/Bio: Here! DTAE 2, Boys Will Be Bugs AMV: https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/1016470280/ DTAE 3, Comic: https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/1022944155/ DTAE 4, Writing: https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/1022947044/ I really hope you enjoy! I love this character to death, but I'm sure it won't be the end of the world if I don't win the design. I know a lot of people love this design and the characters they've built around it and have put a lot of love and work into their entries, and I'm really rooting for them. :) [[This project contains many mentions of bugs, in detail, as well as mentions / implications of discrimination, war, and anxiety. Tread carefully!]] (Fullscreen recommended!) --------------------------------------------------------------------- Birdie is an abnormal little kid. That’s all he knows, for the record. And everything, from the war between ordinary Junines and Juno’s changelings to the meaning of his birth within a nest of bugs, is too confusing to understand; everything except that Birdie is an abnormal little kid. Being a changeling is scary. It shouldn’t be, that’s what Sunspot says, and Firefly and Spider and Topaz all try to make it not scary, but it doesn’t really work. Birdie knows they try to make it easy on him. He understands, or at least he thinks he does. But “easy isn’t in his job description”. That’s what Tiamat says. The others don’t seem to agree with them. But Birdie feels like he agrees. Birdie’s kind of scared of bugs. He knows it doesn’t make sense, he knows bugs are part of him, and he’s surrounded by them, so Birdie doesn't understand it. But nothing seems to make him used to looking at them. Juno’s all convinced he’s a ruinous being by being part bug, whatever that means (Birdie’s not really sure). Bugs are disgusting and wriggly and they have scary beady eyes and little pincers and they fly fast and make people anxious. Birdie doesn’t like to think about what Juno thinks too hard. When he does let it sink in that he’s disgusting and wriggly and his eyes are scary and beady and he has little pincers and when he flies fast he makes people anxious, he gets scared and he wants to hide his antennae under his fluff and pin his wings down under his sweater vest. It’s a very nice sweater vest, Topaz made it for him, but then what would he do about his tail and bug legs? Birdie learned a new word recently. “Feasible”. It just doesn’t seem “feasible” to hide like that forever. So he doesn’t like to think about what the ordinary Junines think. He wants to understand, but trying to understand makes him feel like it’s impossible to live the way he is. So he doesn’t think about it very hard. Birdie knows he’s in danger. Maybe? It’s hard to tell. The adults don’t really like to explain things to him. Even Tiamat sometimes acts like he doesn’t know how to explain it to Birdie. Birdie knows that Sunspot and the dragons are building a big ship, but not why, or where it's supposed to take them. Everyone is scared but they try to act like they aren’t. So Birdie tries to act like he isn’t scared either. Sometimes Birdie feels really lucky to be saved from his nest by Ceiba. There's a lot of rainforest on Juno, so it’s really hard to come across bug changelings, because they tend to be smaller. They also tend to have a hard time getting anywhere in life past a certain point. So Birdie’s happy he didn’t have to figure things out all by himself. But sometimes Birdie feels really unlucky to be who he is and where he is. Sometimes he hears stories about other kids, ones that don’t have to hide from the government, who don’t get called gross, who didn’t have to be rescued from hurting their family or themselves on accident, because they’re the right size most of the time and don’t ever have to risk crushing their family before even growing up. In any case, Birdie doesn’t really know what’s going on and he really wishes he did. But there’s Tiamat, who tries to be more direct with Birdie when talking about important things. And Topaz, who knits stuff for him like his toy Junebuggy that makes him not-so-scared of bugs, and reads him bedtime stories about flying machines and spiral galaxies. And Spider, who doesn’t talk a lot but knows what it’s like to not like being a changeling. And Firefly—Firefly who’s Birdie’s best friend, and who always makes sure Birdie gets a hug when he needs one, and who explains to him what being a changeling is, and why he doesn’t have to be scared of it. Birdie’s not so alone. Not at all. Even though it feels like the world is out to get him, he knows Sunspot’s working on fixing it. Everything is going to be ok. ---------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------------------------- (Writing section in instructions ^^) For a little bit of context, changelings are a kind of being in the universe I've developed (I call the universe Tessmos—There are a couple of planets in the main system named Juno and Milos, where Juno is the origin for changeling and dragon life). These beings start out as one species, any species, but over time start shifting shape with both alien features (ex. colorful fur, multiple non-bug eyes) and natural features of another species. They are not in control of this feature shifting. They have two natural states, typically one of their origin species and one of their changeling species; they can switch between these two states at will, though, again, it's very hard to permanently change details and features of these states. The shifting really mostly stays between their two natural states, although older changelings tend to be able to shift more easily between seperate species or traits not associated with their natural forms. Firefly is an example of an older changeling with an original insectoid state (firefly) and a changed felid shape. With that out of the way, I can get to the actual bio! B) ★ Name: Birdie (derived from "ladybird", actual name in the Junine conlang that I haven't written yet ^^) ★ Species: canid/insectoid changeling (to put it simply, bug puppy) ★ PRN: he/any ★ Age: 7 in human years (in the provided writing section above) ★ Traits: tries to act more mature than he is; feels fragile and uncomfortable in all of his states; talks to himself/Junebuggy to cope with stress and confusion; pretty much only friends with adults and feels constantly out of place ★ Likes: talking to himself/Junebuggy; understanding what's going on; hugs, though he never asks for them himself; sci-fi stories ★ Dislikes: his constant state of puzzlement; accidently hurting someone (ex. his bug family); people listening him talk to himself/Junebuggy; being called ugly, creepy, or any other negative words commonly associated with bugs That's it for the bio. Also, sorry Scratch nuked Birdie's quality. Scratch has not been getting along with my uploads lately. :') There's a rendered and unrendered version, both with colors straight from the original DTA design, and you can click/tap the sprite or press space to move between them. Thanks for reading all this, I appreciate it! I hope it was a fun read, because it was one heck of a write! Changelings and their existence on Juno has been a concept of mine for a while, but until this DTAE it's been miserably underdeveloped, so I owe a lot to Birdie (whether or not I end up owning him) for helping me figure out some stuff. Also, there is a plot! Despite the lack of details from Birdie's perspective, there are quite a few! He's just not well-informed as a ≈7-year-old everyone's trying to keep innocent. There's more to come after this; I'm working on an AMV, scripting a couple of comics, and hoping maybe I can have time to finish an animation meme too? Probably not. I have an AP test next Wednesday. And seven days before the entries deadline. But we'll see. :'] (edit: animation meme is not gonna happen guys, ran out of time. Sorry!) Credits time! Please don't remix or use this art/design without permission from the proper people; note this design does not belong to me. --------------------------------------------------------------------- > DTA host: @Lagonish > Art: Background found on Unsplash; art by @Gh0stinq, design by @Lagonish > Writing: @Gh0stinq > Code: @Gh0stinq > Audio: Devil Town---Cavetown (side note. I looked at this design and this song almost instantly came to my mind. Not to mention the original version of this song is already a functional theme song for the changelings as a whole for me. So that's neat! I ended up using the acoustic version for Birdie because I feel like it fits the lil guy a bit better than the original.) > Programs: Clip Studio Paint Ex Until next time! Love yourself! B) (EDIT 6/5/24: whoops! Turns out I am illiterate (/j) and did not see the comment on the DTA discussing the deadlines. Next time I will look there for updates, but now it's too late to compile the DTAEs so I would really like to apologize for going past the strongly recommended three-project limit. This whole project was just a mess. Very sorry. /gen)
