#juniperleaf

Unfortunately not, and for quite a while, Webster is stumped by this odd little Pokémon!

He does a TON of research trying to figure out what it is and where it came from, until he stumbles upon an information leak from the Aether Foundation that mentions something called an “Ultra Beast”. An other-wordly, Pokémon-like creature would definitely fit Cosmog’s description!

The Aether Foundation has long since stopped its harmful research practices involving Ultra Beasts, but Webster reaches out regardless. (ie, he mentions it to Blue who immediately plans a family trip to the Alola Region. His ice type Pokémon are not thrilled about a sunny beach episode.)

Once in Alola, Webster sets up a meeting with the Aether Foundation and they recognize Cosmog for what it is right away! Although Cosmog itself isn’t particularly happy with the attention.

Webster is nothing short of stunned to learn he’s had a baby legendary Pokémon with him this whole time! Legendary Pokémon almost never have evolutionary lines, after all.

The problem through all of this is that Cosmog really doesn’t want to evolve. It likes being carried and cuddled and downright babied by Webster like it has been for so long. It can’t do that if it’s a massive legendary beast!

Prepare for so much reading, my friend lol. This is messy lmao

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I’ve honestly thought about this a lot, and I can’t seem to land on an answer that suits everything I want it to! Obviously, some monsters must have vastly different lifespans to humans due to how long ago the war was. Toriel, Asgore, Gerson, etc must be well over the age of a typical human.

Concept 1: The problem I run into is that I would say different species of monsters have different lifespans, but then what are the specifications? How does having such drastically varying lifespans affect culture around family? Around death?

How would young monsters with long lifespans ahead of them, and who take longer to reach maturity because of that, react to watching friends of a different subspecies outgrow them? How would that friend react to seeing the previous monster stay so unchanging while they move on to learning more advanced topics in school?

How would parents teach their little ones about life and death, and would they be inclined to push their children towards friendships with monsters of similar lifespans? How does this problem complicate adoptions? Would a parent with a shorter life expectancy adopt a monster with a longer one knowing they’ll have to say goodbye well before the child’s birth parents would have had to?

Would a parent with a longer than average life expectancy still adopt and care for a child of a short-lived subspecies of monster knowing that someday they’ll have to let them go?

Intuitively, I would be inclined to say that monsters like skeletons or elementals would have longer lives based on their magic when compared to say, dog monsters or other small animal variants. Ghosts surely just live forever, right? And presumably the explanation for Gerson’s old age is that he’s a turtle? He’s noticeably aged though, while Asgore and Toriel seem quite youthful for how old they must be. So then does being royalty somehow change their lifespans?

Concept 2: There’s also the option that monsters could age simply based on life stages, or mental factors (similar to the gems in Steven Universe). Achievements like learning to walk, learning to speak, graduating school, living alone, having a committed partner, having children, etc. could all play a part in a monster’s perceived age. Aging via experience rather than time.

This could allow for reasonable timeframes of mental maturation growing up, and also account for slowed aging later as monsters attempt to seek purpose. Asgore and Toriel are both well-lived, but they aren’t ready to move on to another stage of life and end up stuck in the past. Meanwhile, Gerson spends his time deliberately, living life and solidifying his new role as an elder.

This interpretation also sets the stage nicely for the actual chronological age of the skeletons to be a bit fuzzy and open to interpretation (is Papyrus in his 20s? Is Gaster nearing 100? I don’t know! I don’t really care enough to pin the numbers down most of the time!).

There’s also the aspect of trauma playing a physical impact on a monster’s internal perception of age. Something like say, losing their parents as I mentioned in another post, could cause an extended childhood just as easily as it could throw a monster’s magic into turmoil in an effort to grow up fast enough to face new responsibilities.

Concept 3: They just age like humans.

(can't wait to see what nonanswers you give haha)

Grillby has known was love is from the very start. The people who raised him were kind and attentive, and the community around them all was supportive and giving.

Grillby’s earliest memories are in a warm kitchen, clumsily mimicking how his mother and grandmother kneaded dough and laid lattices over cinnamon spiced apple pie.

Little sparky cousins would run around the counter, asking for spare apple bits and grabbing at his mother’s apron to ask when they would be big enough to help too. Every time, she would scoop them up and gently remind them that they can help as soon as they’re big enough to lift a new bag a flour over their heads without any help. The cousins weren’t always happy with that answer though!

If they got fussy about being left out, Grillby’s grandma would turn on quiet music, hold them on her hip and softly twirl around the room while him and his mother finished getting everything into the oven. Half the time the cousins would fall asleep, and be left to nap until the pie was done.

Edge would probably feel a little silly about having pillows like squishmallows, but Bee or Rus would be all about it. Bee especially would be happy to have a mountain of them in place of a bean bag for his room!

i couldn't stop laughing at "I can't read" so i drew it :] i also attempted to draw rus since that's your profile but hey maybe this is something he'd do

Tbf Rus would also use that bit, because absurdism humor (like saying you can’t read in a situation that very obviously means you can read) is a good bit! lol

Ok so I love elementals in general and have lore for all of them, but ice elementals have the most specific info because of Coda (dancetale oc, not dancetale gaster) so this will include some Dancetale-specific info too

To start with, their overall culture revolves around the concept of being isolated from the rest of monsterkind. The majority of elementals have limitations to where they can safely exist due to weather and temperature, but ice elementals have it the hardest.

An ice elemental’s internal body temperature is well below freezing, but their “skin” is closer to the temperature of normal ice. They can withstand normal temperatures for a short time, but can’t stay for extended periods or in higher temperatures due to the strain on their soul. It takes a lot of energy to keep their outermost layer of ice from melting and causing damage, which would then take time and energy to heal.

Because of all this, ice elementals built their kingdom away from Ebott in an area that serves as a locus for ice magic. It snows year-round and is never above freezing temperatures. This magic is later used to create the area that would become Snowdin.

In general, ice elementals were seen as monsters of nobility and grace. They had their own royal line, but all of them were considered with great respect.

They developed a reputation for being uncaring and distant due to their refusal to interact with other monsters, but the truth is that they consider it cruel to both parties. They don’t allow non-ice monsters to touch them both for fear of melting and to avoid causing frostbite to less cold-hearty monsters. This concept eventually extended to all ice elementals and it’s considered taboo for them to even directly touch each other. It’s seen as disrespectful.

In the Dancetale universe, this expedited the rift between the ice elementals and the Dreemur’s kingdom because so much dancing involves close contact. The ice elementals instead developed their own style that involves two or more elementals dancing around a fixed point together, mirroring each other and often getting close, but never touching. This dance can involve multiple rings of them all dancing around the same fixed point and the resulting magic can be quite powerful. The rings always alternate in direction.

In smaller dances with just two people, typically monsters who are close with each other, the way they reach to each other is significant. Palm up is a gesture of respect and good will, while palm down (unless responding to an upturned palm, as if to join hands) is seen as a challenge or indicative of a rift between the two individuals. Both monsters facing their palms together is a gesture of connection and closeness, although they don’t touch.

The latter is used in general, but is also used in weddings and is one of the only times it’s not considered taboo to actually join hands. Despite the strict culture around contact, ice elementals generally do whatever they want in private, and occasionally (gasp) hold hands with their loved ones.

The sad truth is that a monster is a monster, and they’re all inclined to love and connection. Ice elementals are no exception. They want to be with others and feel the warmth of those they care about, but see it as kinder to simply stay away. (This is all in direct contradiction to the culture of fire elementals, but that would be whole a different post)