Coming in late today because I was busy doing important things, like meeting someone from Craigslist to buy dahlia bulbs, and losing my tablet pen.
Sorry, but despite everything, Cheevwut is too much of a normie have a woke opinion about carnalists. Microdosing avian cocaine at work is normal, but "sex drugs" (sex hormones and spring inducers) are for weirdo perverts.
Avians don't really chew their food and have a poor sense of taste, so a lot of the experience of meals for them is visuals, texture, and after-effects. Recreational drugs are a very common additive to normal foods. Most psychoactive drugs get filtered from an avian's bloodstream very quickly by their large hepatokidney, but this doesn't prevent dependency from forming. Addiction is major problem in modern avian societies.
Avians also had a global warming crisis, but its scale was more comparable to the human ozone depletion crisis. Their lack of land certainly made things more urgent to those with the power to stop things, but because their planet has much less accessible fossils, their transportation and energy systems were less dependent on them overall. Switching to alternatives was easier because large-scale alternative infrastructure already existed.
Transcript
Anonymous asked: Ohwitiil and Cheevwut, what are some your favorite drugs to add to food?
Ohwitiil: I've never been into the extreme flavors. I have some biih in the morning to wake me up, but I only add enough for the strong high to last a couple minutes. After work I might have some ratriit or vut in my dinner.
Cheevwut: I have biih snacks whenever I feel tired during the day. I add vut to my work lunches, to relax. Ideally just enough for the high to go away when I clock in, butâŠ
Ohwitiil: "Ideally" meaning "never?"
Cheevwut: Oh, loosen up. You should have some woaa or alcohol with me some time!
Ohwitiil: No. I don't like hallucinogen flavorsâŠ
Cheevwut: You don't know how to dose them right. Just time it so it goes away when you're bored and want to try the next one!
Anonymous asked: Cheevwut, what's your stance on carnalist fashion and subculture? Would you ever try it off the clock?
Cheevwut: Ugh, what? No! If some people want to dress like creeps and take sex drugs and mutilate each other and whatever, they can do it all they want. Far away from me!
Typical Carnalist Traits:
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all blood and flesh colors (magenta and orange)
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tight clothing with indecent exposure
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crossdressing and gender nonconformity
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piercings and body mods
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split, plucked, bleached, or dyed feathers
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radical sexual ideology
Ladeeda asked: Cheevwut, did avians go through their own climate crisis like humans did? Is it a universal thing amongst sophonts?
Cheevwut: Oh, like how humans flooded their planet by heating it up with rock oils? I don't know if it's universal, but we had something like that almost happen. We have way less rock oil than Earth, but burning it is generally not allowed now. Non-electric vehicles and generators are usually powered by algal oil. When the Tiiliit colonized the continent and really started mining a lot of rock oil, I guess that's when people noticed the sea ice melting. Governments cut down on use pretty quickly, to limit coastal damage and temperature rise. Ha ha, I guess that on Earth they didn't? Maybe humans didn't have enough rich people living on tiny, humid islands.
Avian Homeplanet
59 thoughts on “RttS Reader Questions 39”
Vinemaple
I always wondered how Avians adding drugs to their food instead of creating flavors as we know them… Turns out it’s actually a fascinating part of their culture and species design! I love how it doesn’t really map onto flavors very well at all, that it’s all about dosage and curating how one alters one’s own state of consciousness.
I wonder if there’s a conoisseurship of drug effects, the way marijuana now has people who write in detail exactly how a certain variety or product will supposedly make you feel…
JoB
> I love how it doesnât really map onto flavors very well at all, that itâs all about
> dosage and curating how one alters oneâs own state of consciousness.
While it’s technically not a flavor, I’d like to point out that chiliheads (like myself) essentially aim for the release of endorphins (much like a range of outright drugs work – also, thrill-seeking etc.).
And yes, you definitely can OD on capsaicin (though it doesn’t have pronounced mental effects). :-3
Solidago
Desire to try woaa
Sabella
Wow you sure showed us Cheev, what do we think you are, some kind of weirdo that bangs their boss?
FuzzySpiderPawz
We need to woke-ify that alien bird
Lilac
Cheevwut isn’t woke enough….. this is a sad day……. shfhfhs
Also, I had a strange dream last night about this comic where there was like a murder mystery or something?? I do not think that is going to happen in the story but I just thought i would share it here lol
Vinemaple
There was a mention in the last batch of AMAs, about a time when an Avian corpse was found in an unpressurized, unheated void, in a space station. While likely the result of criminal negligence, a lot of us treated it like a murder mystery!
mossrabbit
cheevwut is cookie monster pajama pants girl weird and not dissects bugs in the garage weird, i see
hessian
my funny avian cringefail millenial coworker…đđđđđ
Vinemaple
Indeed! It would just be waaaay too on-the-nose for “bratty” Cheevwut to be a Carnalist, as well as someone with a questionable relationship with their boss.
I bet Piawii “slums it” as a Carnalist poser every so often, or went through a phase of it…
But, hmmm, *IS* Cheev and Ohwitiil’s relationship weird or dysfunctional by Tiiliitan standards? Would Cheev be suspected of exploiting Ohwitiil, instead of taking advantage of a funny situation? I wonder if there’s some culture clash, with Ohwit growing up on a mixed-species colony…
Jay Eaton
Piawii from Airsled??? They have been dead for centuries, Airsled is a historical comic đ
Arcstone
Funny little reminder that the first combustion engine was designed to work with peanut oil.
guest
thats so cool! there should be more of this! …on second thought, it might be a major health hazard for peanut allergic folk…
SheTheTDE
so carnalists are the LGBT but even less culturally accepted?
flesh colour clothing, tight clothing, “indecent exposure”, gender nonconformity and “crossdressing”, piercings and body mods, shaved or dyed hair, “radical sexual ideology”
reads like a christian’s description of Pride.
Arcstone
Fuck yeah, gay punk. đ€
SheTheTDE
Gaypunk needs to become the new big style movement
Jay Eaton
Carnalists are more comparable to the BSDM scene, or extreme body modders, or the free love movement, or some combination of those. They are not all queer, but the subculture has a much higher percentage of queer avians than the general population.
guest
oh god i just had the thought of avian carnalist discourse akin to human puphood/bdsm gear in public discourse lmao
Redacted
So what Iâm getting is that the average avian sees Carnalists as like the avian equivalent to the Portland Hell Polyculeâą. Yâknow the one with the matching tracksuits and the heated doghouse. Actually wait the story specifically mentioned that they didnât smoke weed. Okay maybe itâs not exactly like the Portland Polycule but I just wanted an excuse to bring it up.
Chase Wanderstar
The what now!?
Entguarde
I thought it was in Seattle!
Mitta
its called “woaa” cause it makes you say woaaaa…..
halley
this is great. thank you
A Box Of Fox
A delightful observation!
Adrienne
Okay so carnalists aren’t exactly comparable to scene kids and mall goths for the average avian, understood
Redacted
Does make me wonder what the equivalent of a scene kid or mall goth would be. Like whatâs the avian âItâs not a phase, mom!â trend that all the kids wanna hop on?
Light_In_The_Fog
Wait is alcohol a hallucinogen for avians??
Madame Thunderbone
In a very loose sense of the word, I think it also is for humans, in that I always have weird dreams after drinking gin.
Then again, maybe that could be something else in the gin instead, there’s lots of herbs in gin, who knows what they all do. Is there a weird dreams herb, and is it in gin?
JoB
Alcohol-induced hallucinations (in humans) exist, but are quite rare – and supposedly require years-long heavy abuse beforehand. “Seeing pink elephants” is a cartoonish representation of such, but not entirely unfounded.
Dunno about gin or dream-furthering substances, but I suppose that the history of absinthe serves as a warning that people tend to exaggerate how much of such an effect drinks actually have (on a friend, of course) …
Nonetheless, ethanol is a CNS agent (to us) and also a rather simple molecule (that otherworldly ecosystems will likely see occur), so if Avians claim it is notably hallucinogenic to them, why not.
Gheesfellow
Love these two! Too bad they’ll most likely phase out of the story soon.
Hubert
Of all the aliens the avians seem to have the least phenotypic diversity (within species). Humans and bug ferrets have different colored skin or fur, and presumably centaurs do too since Talita can guess her ethnicity. I wonder if that homogeny makes punk even more shocking.
Verc
I remember reading at some point that most avians tend to be attracted to a relatively narrow model of attractiveness
Light_In_The_Fog
I wonder if it has something to do with living on islands. They do have diversity in that there are different avian species from different places, but within those isolated populations theres not much room for diversification. A group of humans or centaurs have the space to live really far away from other people and develop unique traits over time, but they also have the ability to walk that distance and visit their neighbors. I imagine both of these possibilities are far more limited for avians
creetur
Forgot that drugs in food is common for avians. Feels weird but I suppose we have a few of our own (like caffeine in coffee, if that’s even a comparable example)
LexicalAnomaly
Don’t forget all the foods and drinks we have with alcohol in them. I guess we have nicotine gum as well.
guest
Can’t forget thc edibles! and the original coca-cola recipe :3
Gar G
That last bit makes so much sense tho
Rising sea levels is a MAJOR concern on a planet where dry land is already extremely limited!
Graham_Cheshire
I’m sorry, but the way Cheevwut described the carnalists made them sound like Cenobites from Hellraiser. đ
NotOkapi
I mean to Avians they kinda are? Cenobites represent a human fear of pleasure seeking taken to the extreme, which for a species who are only âsupposedâ to be horny for a specific season induced spring is seeking out a wild amount of stimulation.
Peter
Wouldn’t burning biofuels (algal oils) produce greenhouse gases, just like fossil fuels?
Peter Jensen
In terms of CO2, it’s not much of an issue, because you’re not adding carbon to the atmosphere that’s been locked away for millions of years. Production would essentially shift some of the CO2 dissolved in the ocean to (eventually) the atmosphere, where it can then be exchanged with the ocean again in a relatively short cycle.
Now, combustion may produce other greenhouse gasses, but probably not at a scale that would have significant global impact, given they never went heavy on fossil fuels in the first place.
Chase Wanderstar
No, not really, because it’s already out in nature and the cycles of nature, not locked away underground. Algae dies and exposes its constituent molecules to the ecosystem eventually whether someone processes and burns it or not. The bigger problem would be the algae getting out of whatever controlled farm environment it’s being grown in and killing things by causing an algae bloom.
Chase Wanderstar
Bet there’s been some major disasters caused by/resulting in artificial algae blooms on the Avian homeplanet, though.
blythe
oh…cheev is queerphobic </3
do wonder though how idrisah deals with tiiliitians more…conservative…culture. theres probably a lot of discourse across all species about what counts as overstepping when calling out problematic stuff. humans do it enough amongst themselves, but the general consensus is that culture doesnt excuse bigotry.
however across different species, people will probably try to justify it as inherent humanity/avian-ness/ferret-ness/centaur-ness and trying to correct each other probably is seen way more as projection from a species that literally perceives the world differently
PhasmaFelis
Maybe not queerphobic *exactly*, but just the aesthetics…? Like Mary Renault, an out lesbian writer who famously wrote nothing but queer novels at a time when that was *absolutely* not socially acceptable, and also thought that pride parades with people running around mostly naked and making out in public we were the height of bad taste.
I dunno.
Light_In_The_Fog
I wonder if homosexuality is interconnected with carnalist culture in a similar way that queer culture is so interconnected with kink culture, alt culture, drag culture, etc irl (at least in the USA).
Idr if theres any worldbuilding pages that mention common avian cultural views of homosexuality, but I definitely wouldnt be surprised if transgender culture and carnalist culture are super connected given how carnalists crossdress (and how that seems to be a commonly criticized aspect of carnalism)
Jay Eaton
Carnalists are not all queer, but to a normie, the movement is heavily associated with queer avians. Cheevwut’s kneejerk ew reaction is ultimately more about respectability politics than specifically queerness, even though it’s also an aspect of their response. Asking them about queer avians in general would get a much more diplomatic response that would still boil down to “they make me uncomfortable and I am not one of them.”
Anna HladĂkovĂĄ
I’m not sure deliberately-shocking fashion has as much to do with sexuality as you think, or that falling for that shock is as straightforwardly bigoted as that connection would imply.
Maybe it’s different for a Tiiliitian Avian cultural context and I am missing something because I am not subscribed to the patreon, but if I as a human in the Czech Republic am walking around in Prague and see someone wearing “alternative” style fashion, with strange clothes and an eyebrow piercing, I do not assume he is gay, I would assume he thinks he is very cool but probably isn’t, that he is more than an average amount of likely have a “scary” (but relatively harmless, these people are not stupid) pet like a rat or a tarantula at home, and that maybe he works at that overpriced coffeeshop downtown with a “punk” gimmick or else is on his way to see a concert or something.
petra
i have a big love for carnalist fashion.. i think if i were an avian that would be my thing… wiwiip i think their name was? i am fond of them and they haven’t even had any roles in any rtts related stuff yet.
halley
when will wiwiip return from war…
xLatias
Really interested in seeing what Earth looks like with this information… huh…
Ruby
Sea level rise and flooding became so much of an issue that Brazil created the cetacean people to work in these conditions. So it’s definitely a lot more watery.
Hydrurgus
There’s a whole bunch of craters in North America and Eurasia because the Third World War had lots of orbital bombardment
Arcstone
I’d guess america and russia has a lot of perfectly circular lakes and bays now.
Kind of how the craters from the N2 bombs in evangelion all eventually become lakes.
Fallingfeather
Pretty sure Florida and other low-lying areas are just gone. >.>
Flori
Weâve seen a glimpse of a map of earth in a tumblr AMA. It was one of the questions to Idrisah about her family I believe, so it only really showed a bit of Eurasia. Shit didnât look good though! If I find it Iâll link it
Flori
Here it is! Itâs probably outdated by now, especially given the tags on the post saying itâs not final, but it gives an idea.
https://www.tumblr.com/jayrockin/668216153152405504/question-for-idrisah-do-you-stay-in-touch-with
Thisfox
There’s always the cannon info on the Earth, there are links at the top of this page to go to the world information. It’s still under construction, but there’s a bit of information there on what the Earth looks like at the time of the comic.
https://jayeaton.site/RunawayToTheStars/Sophonts/Humans/Planet#Map
Thisfox
There is also this to consider, here on the website, so definitely cannon:
https://jayeaton.site/RunawayToTheStars/Sophonts/Humans/Planet#Map