Chootchoot & Hihochugga
Designation: the IRON HORSE cillimorphs
Group: MAMMALISH
Native Biomes: PLANET SCORCHER & PLANET URBANIAK
Size: SMALL & MEDIUM
Interesting Facts: Chootchoot and Hihochugga can lock their wheels to use them as hooves whenever there aren’t any train tracks around to borrow. They are so tireless that they often race high speed trains, win, and then perform victory dances for hours, until the last loser passenger disembarks and get to see.
Spemgirl & Majblusk
Designation: the MAGICAL GIRL & CAVE FISH cillimorphs
Group: FISHY
Native Biomes: PLANET BOLDERO & CYBERSPACE
Size: SMALL & MEDIUM
Interesting Facts: These pale cave dwellers trawl the internet for magical girl anime images and data they can use as a hologram skin, which acts like charismatic sunscreen for when they make excursions into daylight. When they return to the dark they reveal their undeveloped eyes and hunched ghoulish form, and will do some sketchy things to get you to stop looking at them.
Loonge & Fulloonge
Designation: the LUNATIC LOON cillimorphs
Group: BIRDISH
Native Biomes: PLANET SPLISHY & OUTER SPACE
Size: SMALL
Interesting Facts: The pupils of these cillimorphs are moon rocks suspended in tiny gravitational fields. Fulloonge’s amalgamated moon rock can be used as an eye as well, allowing it to see in every direction and sense if you think it’s acting crazy, which might cause it to throw the entire moon at you.
Q-R-on & Barcodista
Designation: the QR CODE & COFFEE BAR CODE cillimorphs
Group: SEGMENTED
Native Biomes: PLANET URBANIAK & CYPBERSPACE
Size: SMALL
Interesting Facts: Hiding inside various code symbols both digitally and physically, Q-R-on hitches a ride into your device whenever it is scanned. Once matured, Barcodista uses its code as a trunk to store consumable items it has stolen from video games that it will try to sell you, but you can’t drink virtual coffee no matter how much you’re upcharged. I learned that the hard thirsty way.
Thneecket & Depositore
Designation: the SEED BANK cillimorphs
Group: GROWER
Native Biomes: PLANET BRRR & OUTER SPACE
Size: SMALL & LARGE
Interesting Facts: These cillimorphs squirrel away seeds and manage their internal environment so well that what they want to store ends up germinating a little. These pockets of potential life are found in some of the most remote locations, with no clear evidence as to how they got there.
Campysnug & Baggedyboog
Designation: the SLEEPING BAG & BODY BAG cillimorphs
Group: SPINELESS
Native Biomes: PLANET URBANIAK & PLANET WOODZY
Size: SMALL & MEDIUM
Interesting Facts: Campysnug is drawn to campsites, hiding among the sleeping bags so it can temporarily swallow and tickle your toes. This mischievous streak is exacerbated in maturity, with Baggedyboog preferring to swallow people whole, transport them to the wilderness with absolutely no street signs anywhere, and then spit them back out.
Wagchin & Jinmoney
Designation: the CHINESE MONEY TOAD cillimorphs
Group: REPTOPHIBIAN
Native Biomes: PLANET SCORCHER & PLANET BRRR
Size: SMALL & MEDIUM
Interesting Facts: Favoring dry environments, Wagchin’s cloth-like tail is usually swimming through sand or fresh snow. As they wiggle and waggle they filter out precious minerals then used to make very collectible coins they cherish as adults.
Hey folks, my probability-based card-combat space opera trilogy ‘Planet in Theory’ has just received a light re-edit and to mark the occasion I’ve made one of my signature lousy covers to slap on it. It takes place in probable space, on planets that were only ever theorized in our world, and begins here with the manifestation of Pluto after its demotion. Please check it out if you’re interested.
(estimated reading time: 55 minutes)
In the fog, in the fervor, in the distress, and in the uncertainty, it became impossible for them to tell how much time was passing. A grabbler can known an hour by the number of breaths, but not these grabblers. A grabbler can know autumn by the lethargy in a beetle’s wings, but not these grabblers. These grabblers were sinking in Rooth Tugt.
Falling, Jeremiad realized dumbly as she took a false step and tumbled. The fog tried to trip her with arcing roots and smooth flat rocks underneath, but she managed to put a foot down. It struck a larger rocks, which slid, so her other foot did the same, creating two little sleds that she could use to reach the bottom of the incline as long as she jumped over a few more roots and caught the slipping stone shoes on the other side. Continue reading
(estimated reading time: 1 hour, 17 minutes)
As they lapsed back into silence, thoughts of the Half-Biters and Beerbetters were left behind. The eye of Xeams did not leave their sky, but soon its powers would be neutralized under the humid greenery. If half the stories of the place were to be believed, only grabblers had a good chance of surviving a journey to the jungle’s center, facing just as much risk on the way out. Even if Roddery Graychild were to pursue them into the dense tangle it was unlikely he could get many others to do so, especially after being half-drowned or whole-drowned by the enigmatic hand of Hexaclete.
Instead the grabblers’ sights were set on the jutting ruin ahead, offering the furthest and least-impeded ingress into Rooth Tugt that, according to Beocroak, also aligned with their heading. To investigate it they would first have to scale the intimidating rock ridge upon which it grew like broken teeth, difficult, but not so much as the crumbling wall of the basin. Or so they thought during that last stretch of Welkmadat, all the way to the start of the climb. Continue reading
Blaine Arcade 