#ikthal

Experimenting with Ikthal's musculature. I'm not great with arm and leg position but I'm trying new things little by little.

Ikthal being their weird, flirty self with Zephrael. These two have history!

I'll revisit this with a short story later on, like I did with Ikthal's introduction piece.

I've decided Starseekers - ti'itulen - have thick split tongues rather than the thin pointy ones I originally conceptualized for the species. Here, Ikthal is showing off a piercing they have. I like the idea that Ikthal is muscular, as you can see in the arms. Zephrael is quite scrawny in comparison.

Ti'itul flirting can vary between ages and ethnicities. Zeph, if e were feeling brave enough to flirt (e never are), might emulate human methods of flirting. Ikthal, however, carries mannerisms from both humans and homeworld ti'itulen. Their flirting can be very straight-to-the-point. In this piece, they're showing off their tongue ring for a reason. Their tail is also curled, which is a species thing - the curlier the tail, the friendlier they're being. Ti'itulen will also sit back on their haunches while talking to someone they're flirting with. It's harder to notice here because Zephrael's natural stance is more upright than others of eir species, because e were raised by and with humans, but Ikthal's default stance is definitely more... "raptorial."

"Ti'itul" means traveler. It mainly refers to how ti'itulen travel in packs, but it's fitting because some of them live off of their home planet. Because humans met them at their space exploration era, humans call them Starseekers.

All ti'itulen are born as twins because the incubator sex has a split uterus. I need to look into the physiology of this. I... think kangaroos are like this? Maybe? I can't remember.

Relationship triads are more common and acceptable in ti'itul society because this species has three sexes: One to act as the gestator, one to act as the ovulator, and one to act as the incubator. Yes, genetic material is deposited from two sexes into the third sex. Humans probably fetishize this idea because we're gross and weird.

Nonconformity looks a lot like being clanless or having only one romantic partner. I haven't decided on how gender norms work yet, but I'm slowly getting some ideas down.

Ti'itulen traveled to Earth probably around the year 2100 or something. I haven't refined this idea. But some of them are of a space-faring variety. Mars has been somewhat colonized by this year, but hasn't been fully taken over. Human habitation probably takes up less than 1% of the planet.

Ti'itulen are probably aware of the existence of @mole-cats but I'm not sure about this. They'd probably cross paths with the bug ferrets of Runaway to the Stars and maybe other sophonts from that universe, but it would need to be at least the year 2300 for that.

Zephrael is often misgendered as male, and Ikthal is often misgendered as female, but I haven't revealed the traits of the three ti'itul sexes otherwise.

Ti'itulen are skittish by nature, being an herbivorous people descended from a prey species, so their culture includes a lot of superstition. Being watchful or being watched are two core themes of most fireside stories.

They have two hearts, one beside the other, which inspired a creation myth where three gods created both hearts and the bodies of all ti'itulen.

Just a chat.