#chiefly

Random mental image of Jiahui, Chiefly, and Valerian running around and jumping through tall grass like lil cats stalking prey back in Jinzhou because of this song^^

Caladin is just watching, confused and intrigued. He’s never seen tall grass. Or green grass for that matter. Or a lot of grass at all.

@crypticrainbowmoss as promised^^

I actually had a lot of fun with this since Caladin is extremely curious about humans with animal traits in general :3

About Chiefly: “Hmm? Is that-! I was not aware cowboys still existed, let alone in the corner of the world??? How curious, he seems to have rabbit features. Rover, would it be impolite of me to walk up and ask about his genealogy? Ah. Probably so, hmm? The world seems to have changed a lot while I was asleep. Finding traits of Dragons and Rabbits and Birds in people… Truly remarkable.”

Overall, I think their first encounter would be somewhat random? Like meeting on the street or through the Midnight Rangers and Cal just short circuits with the amount of questions he wants to ask.

Tbh it would be very funny to put Chiefly in that role considering his personality - hes loud, always optimistic, extroverted, a bit too talkative, isnt that good at convincingly outwardly lying, and yet somehow hes amazing at keeping secrets and his outwardly innocent & seemingly always honest-to-a-fault demeanor is what he can use to trick certain targets into trusting him. (Though for the most part he doesnt even need to lie or fake anything to be trusted a lot of the time, hes just that likeable and, of course, often underestimated due to his personality. Definitely seen as a bit of a blonde ditz by even some of his teammates due to his cheerful persona, even though hes actually quite smart and perceptive. People dont usually take him seriously, despite him desperately wanting them too [lots of insecurity stuff i'll delve into in the actual story], and he can use that to his advantage in flying under the radar of even some very cautious targets.)

Though Chiefly isnt perfect or flawless - he suffers from immense Fear. He is easily startled, has a lot of phobias, and generally exhibits the "freeze" truama response when yelled at or when in a tense situation of any kind, hes been this way his whole life. Though his arc wont be about getting rid of his fear completely like how it is for most story protags. Fear is normal, and its always apart of us. It cant just be "removed", and nor should it ever be. His arc will be about learning to live with his fear, learning to stand up against what hes afraid of even while trembling the whole time, learning that he isnt worthless cuz of his fear(s) and that he can still do something positive with it.

Hmmm good question!

It would be pretty cool, but sadly fireflies cant do that. Their bodies (wings more specifically) just arent structured in a way that would make it possible.

Bees defend themselves from giant hornets by surrounding them and generating just enough heat to kill the wasp without cooking themselves to death. The bees have a heat tolerance of about 2 degrees hotter then wasps, which means they are killing the hornet by about 1 degree necessary to heat it past its safe body temperature. Both bees and wasps have molecularly different alarm systems, with the slaughter strategy involving groups of 10 to 20 or more Vespa mandarinia nestmates staging a coordinated attack on a single colony by ripping multiple guards.

Even IF fireflies were able to do that, it would only be effective against fellow insects (bees cant really do it with anything bigger then wasps im pretty sure), since bees can really only use it on wasps (or just only ever need to use it on wasps but might use it on others if given an opportunity- they've optimized it to wasps mainly cuz their the primary threat) Chiefly wouldnt be able to use it on like - a person or smth, yknow? Humans have naturally very high body tempts compared to bugs, so the bee heat up tactic wouldnt be effective on them.

Fireflies are mostly harmless animals (since they dont bite or sting), it does make sense since they dont live long enough to justify having such complex defense strategies, and nor do they live in colonies or anything like other bugs. They really only group up together when its time to mate from what i understand from my research. or in my protag's case, only being able to group up cuz hes summoning them. The ones he summons are all real and alive, but he genuinely creates them himself, hes not snatching them from somewhere else. Not sure how else to explain that -like they dont dissappear after being summoned/created more so, they stick around, cuz their alive and real. Tho he doesnt only summon a bunch, he can summon just 1 or a few or a large amount- hes in control of the specific number when using his Sinew. Theres a max limit for how many he can summon at once of course, but i dont yet know what i want it to be. Im tempted to make it 10 thousand fireflies or something close to that, like as an Owl City reference xD the meme potential is so enticing...

Also, fun fact- did you know that fireflies are actually a type of beetle (Closest relative being the solider beetle), that there are 2,000 (tho some say only 30 - i cant find a definitive answer) different unique species of fireflies, And that each species of firefly has a unique pattern of light flashing? (Lights of which can either be yellow, green, or even orange!). Though not all firefly adults glow - primary the ones on the western side of north america are unable to glow (and the "winter firefly" especially), from what im aware of.

Firefly larvae are carnivorous and particularly enjoy snails, though its not as important here since all the ones he summons/creates are adults by default. Adult fireflies usually live off of nectar and pollen, being just as important of pollinators as bees and bats, but some don’t feed at all. A few firefly species are also carnivorous as adults, but they don’t eat snails, though—they eat fellow fireflies of other genera. Cannibal fireflies :)

However, despite them mostly being harmless- there is 1 specific thing about them that makes them harmful to humans (or most living beings in general). The chemical that facilitates the reaction causing a firefly’s signature bioluminescence is called "Luciferin". It not only provides the spark to help fireflies communicate, but it is also a distasteful chemical defense. If you catch a firefly you may notice droplets of this thick, white substance seeping out from their bodies. Not too many things eat fireflies as a result. Believe it or not, it could take as few as 20 fireflies to provide a fatal dose of luciferin to an adult human if their consumed! So, technically, he CAN use his Sinew to harm or even kill people, which is 1000% not expected by anyone in and out of universe - making him an effective underestimated underdog; who everyone thinks is "super weak with a pathetic sinew" but they get a rude wakeup call about it. :p