#oatmealreplies

ask meme

☠ - angry/violent headcanon

OOOHOOHOO BOY ok so I am very much into the idea that the Mod Frogs get up to some real shady business, and Jamack is no exception. And with clear enemies, you’ve got a great outlet for anger and violent impulses

Jamack reacts to anger in a few different ways. He can channel that energy towards something pragmatic and constructive (or destructive, as the case may be). He’s able to keep his wits about him and, if necessary, hide his anger. it’s not quite keeping cool, but more like keeping a lid on it. On the outside he could be calm and collected but on the inside he is raging

aaand it can’t last long. he’ll start to show tells in his posture and tone of voice after a bit of pretending, especially if he’s particularly irate. eventually he either needs to leave and vent somewhere else or he’ll just snap

when he snaps, or if he doesn’t have a reason to hide his anger in the first place, he is vicious and loud and often physically violent. he goes for very personal insults and is pretty good at guessing what people might be sensitive about, and he absolutely takes advantage of that when verbally lashing out. and as much satisfaction he gets out of that, he’s still not above walloping someone or wrestling them into submission. the classic chokehold-until-they-take-back-what-they-said-or-say-uncle trope is very Jamack. he prefers more sophisticated combat or creative violence, but sometimes he’s just too angry to care

Oh absolutely. When I was first making my Jamack mix, I found I had too many violent songs and had to add more normal songs to even it out XD

I’ve always been very much into the idea that despite going through a redemption arc and bonding with the protagonists, Jamack is still, and always has been, a ruthless motherfucker

I mean heck, back in April I had this line in an early draft of The Scorpion and the Frog: Jamack looked away. “You don’t have any blood on your hands yet. I didn’t want you to think you did. You should hold onto that while you can.” He looked back. “Until you can get your hands on Scarlemagne, of course. Can you imagine? Having Scarlemagne as your first kill?” He grinned, his eyes bright.

So yeah it’s a concept I absolutely adore. ANYWAY! The Mod Frogs have influences from 1960s Mod subculture and early 1900s mobsters. Iconic mobsters tended to be sharply dressed, snarky, witty, organized, strict, greedy, and merciless. Sounds like the Mod Frogs to me! And IRL frogs are slippery little killing machines! They hunt and eat just about any living thing that they can stuff in their huge mouths. And that’s not an exaggeration! That’s how they’re described in some scientific texts, because it would take too long to list their prey! Along with the usual bugs and such, frogs have eaten fish, snakes, mice, small birds, and other frogs! 

One of IRL frogs’ best strategies for survival is massive amounts of offspring. Which means that their lives hinge on the assumption and acceptance that the majority of their tadpoles won’t make it to adulthood, and that even then, adults get picked off constantly by predators and bad luck

Most species of frog don’t even care for their young. They’re entirely defenseless and most start off eating plantstuff and algae. But once their guts develop enough they’ll eat a wider range including other tadpoles. Yep! They’re cannibals. 

And they don’t have any like, social family structures outside of breeding. While primates, canines, felines, and a number of other animal groups help care for not just young, but sick, injured, or elderly members of their community, frogs do none of that. 

Even the call they make when in danger is thought to be not a warning to other frogs in the area, but to instead startle the predator and/or attract another bigger predator so that they might be released as the predator gets into a fight or runs away. Frogs have very few behaviors that humans recognize as compassionate

Instead, if a tadpole is slow in growing, they might get picked apart by their bigger siblings when they get hungry. An injured frog is dinner, full stop.

So.

With that in mind, we throw in sapience, a record of human morals, and newly intelligent predators prey neighbors, and you get the Mod Frogs.

Are they objectively more “moral” than their ancestors? You could argue it either way! But they’re still pretty chill about killing

They’ll kill for food, obviously; they’re carnivores. They’ll kill mutes who try to hurt them, because they can do that and have a chance at surviving the encounter now. And albeit on a smaller scale, they still kill each other. 

Kwat, Harris, and Jamack have all killed. In battles over territory; you strike hard enough in any fight and that’s a killing blow. And sometimes someone is so big a threat that they’re worth going out of their way to murder. Maybe there’s a personal grudge, or they’ve done something to threaten the whole group. It’s not hard! Toss some toxic sludge in their pond and that’s several generations *snap!* gone. Instantly decimate the Frog population. So you can understand if they’re aggressive about establishing and maintaining their strength and reputation. They can’t afford to have anyone think they’d survive an entanglement with the Mod Frogs

A hypothetical: Cats love fishing, and the pond is perfect for that, but the Timbercats won’t step foot in Mod Frog territory. A while ago some Cats got curious, they went to the pond, maybe they even caught and ate some tadpoles. They look like fish! And the Mod Frogs retaliated. Chased the Cats out, killed one before they could get away, and made a whole production of hunting down the others to set an example. “Don’t mess with us. This is what will happen if you do.” 

And they’ll fight over resources too, not just territory 

Most local mute packs they can handle in a fight. Cats, Hummingbirds. It gets harder with bigger, stronger mutes, especially if they used to be their natural predators. Wolves and snakes? Difficult. So they’re not all show-of-force, they’re diplomatic too, trading off resources for agreements--like mobsters do! “We could either continue to fight or you’ll agree not to hunt here and we’ll trade any guitars we find and even make repairs.” Course, people go back on deals all the time, which again calls for revenge

I’ve gotten very broad, so before I wrap up I’ll at least describe one kill that each of these three frogs have made:

Jamack: Back when he was at a lower rank, he noticed one of his superiors was abusing his position, making Jamack and his coworkers’ lives hell--which wasn’t a problem in itself, and rather typical--so that he could skim the extra profits off the top for himself, and not tell his own superiors--which was strictly prohibited. So he invited his boss out to see something he said he found and wasn’t sure was valuable, and planned to jump him when he got far enough. The older frog turned first though and pulled a knife on him. Said he noticed Jamack was getting too nosy. They fought, and Jamack won by cracking his boss’ head against a pointy rock

Harris: In a turf war, which the Mod Frogs eventually lost, Harris took down a snake on his own. He fled into an alley, where she thought she had him cornered, but he climbed the wall and pushed over a brick chimney that then landed on her face

Kwat: Choked out an invading Newton Wolf. Yeah. Incidents involving Wolves went down 30% for the following two years

ask meme

YYESSS

☆ - happy headcanon

@t-i-g-g-s suggested first that Jamack restores cassettes for a hobby, and I absolutely love that. It’s careful patient work, but success is rewarded by fascinating tidbits: the full gamut of music, audiobooks, lectures, comedy, unique personal (often amateur) performances, audio/radia dramas, playlists and mixes, and oddities like sermons in Russian, silly conversations between college students, and recordings of a preschool choir

some of them are in great shape, playing as clear and crisp as a cassette tape can, while others are completely wiped clean. Many play fine but have a few rough spots where the audio gets garbled and distorted. But Jamack finds an odd charm in even those half-gone scraps of sound

and the cassettes and cases themselves are so varied! some of them are awfully pretty, and he loves when he finds new patterns or colors

just having music at all, even fuzzy, is a joy. he has all these wonderful sounds playing just for him, whenever he wants. pleasant voices that don’t argue back or unexpectedly change their tune. favorites he can come back to again and again that become a comfort when he needs it. and in the privacy of his home, behind boarded up windows and the roaring of the waterfall, he can sing and dance along as much as he dares

■ -  Bedroom/house/living quarters headcanon

I honestly think he lives lived in his office. Like, the “private office” proper was just the one room; there was plenty of other living space in that wreck. I think he sleeps in a room on the opposite side of the building from the penthouse. And I think the place used to be a hotel?

So it’s actually one of the smaller rooms, made for a single person. That said, it’s still a decent size, like a master bedroom kinda deal. It’s waterlogged like the rest of that floor; shallow enough to walk in, deep enough to be inconvenient for non-aquatic/amphibious mutes. And it’s full of water lilies. He’s got several larger lily pads in there.

The bed... well, the mattress coils rusted ages ago, and it was kind of just a big soggy pillow at that point, so Jamack tossed it almost immediately. Sleep on a tetanus infection waiting to happen? No thanks. So instead of a bed, he’s got a few options. He can sleep on a lily pad with or without salvaged pillows, sleep under the lily pads on the carpeted floor, or-- This room also has a walk-in closet. Between clothes and bedding hanging from the numerous hangers, and clothes piled on the floor, Jamack’s got a nice dark nest to hide in. Even if someone opens it, they’ll just see the clothes! If he’s feeling particularly paranoid, he’ll burrow under the clothes piles, completely out of sight.

He has some personal items in his room, but the few meaningful ones are expertly hidden in secret compartments or holes in the walls

ൠ - random headcanon

It’s probably just a character design choice, but I like to think that the unique bumps on the back of his head are indicative of him being a different species from the bulk of the Mod Frogs. Obviously very close in appearance to them, but just noticeably different up close

I am particularly attached to the idea that he’s an American Bullfrog. They are an invasive species in that region, and are one of, if not the most common species used for frog dissection, other science experiments, or food. They’re more aquatic on the aquatic/terrestrial scale, and are known for being pretty bumpy for non-toad frogs. They can be fairly plain or have rather nice striped legs

They eat fucking anything and everything and yeah, they have teeth. They’re territorial and aggressive and loud. they also apparently value consent! which simultaneously baffles and pleases me

ask meme

19. What do they think about before falling asleep at night?

oh wow. ok. on an avg day, Jamack goes over everything that happened, at least once, and focuses on anything particularly confusing or troubling. he plans for the next day, next few days. makes absolutely certain that he’s safe and alone, and has a basic escape strategy if awoken suddenly

and then, once the mental guards start to come down, he has fleeting thoughts about impossible things: standing next to someone and knowing he can trust them 100%. chasing sunbeams along the bottom of the pond. singing, without judgement or rebuke

26. Do they have any plans for the future? Any contingency plans if things don’t work out?

He used to. Right now his plan is to get to a point where he can plausibly have plans for the future again.

He has contingency plans, but he’s been improvising a lot more lately.

48. How do they express love?

ask meme

yeeeee!

♥ - family headcanon

I want to like, do research on wolves and explain how the whole Alpha thing is utter bullshit and wolves are usually in family packs like Wolf’s old pack, but I don’t have the energy right now lol so feel free to google it. anyway. just keep in mind I’m far from being an expert on wolves

It may just be the Newton Wolves who think Alphas are a thing, or all wolf mutes do. I dunno. But we’re talking about the Newton Wolves here, so either way I think early on some Wolf mutes just got some outdated information and rolled with it. Tragic, but understandable

The Newton Wolves actually work pretty well with leaders though so it works out okay. Their pack seems to be all adults. And it doesn’t feel like they’re all siblings, and certainly Billions and Billions are not the parents of the others in the pack. Not saying they couldn’t be, i just think that would involve a much different vibe than we actually see. 

I think they’re a collection of wolves from a few different family packs that had split off to do their own thing. Now, irl wolves tend to split off to find a mate and start a new family pack. But again, the Newton Wolves are adults. So I think these are a bunch of either lone adults, wolves in a relationship who don’t want / can’t have pups, and maybe some siblings that just decided to stick together. If a wolf decides they want kids, they leave the Newton Wolves to start their new pack (though they’re still family, and considered a sort of Newton Wolves Alumnus)

And all of them bonded over learning, and specifically astronomy. It’s very much a found family situation! Being in a pack, however odd, is safer and feels so much better than being alone, especially to such a social species. And maybe just because they’re used to having their parents lead the packs they grew up in, they decided they wanted leaders. Not everyone wants to be in charge, and it’s no good to have a bunch of bossy Wolves just butting heads with no order to anything. So they elect leaders, and call them Alphas

And they want two. Having one gives too much power to an individual, unchecked. In the past there’s been one clear elected Actual Leader, and whoever their mate was became the other Alpha by default. A nod back to their family packs, really. They were used to having couples lead. They just didn’t tend to elect single wolves. And in all their history up until recently, it was clear which of the pair was The Actual Leader, and these Alphas were the ones that were given portraits. .......it’s like the president and first lady,,, a little

And then! This could go two ways, I’ve not decided. 1) none of the couples are leader material, so they bend tradition and elect two single wolves of equal leadership ability, Billions and Billions. 2) Billions and Billions are a couple, but neither wanted to sit back and let the other take charge, as had happened in the past, so with two Very Involved Actual Leaders, they both got a portrait.

This is all very... logistical. But I needed to hash that out. Now: The Newton Wolves...

share all their meals, as we’ve seen

delight in learning something and teaching it to the group

play games together all the time, especially trivia games

often all sleep in the same room just because it’s nice to be with everyone and the singles don’t have to always sleep alone

act dignified but privately rag on each other and mock-fight like siblings or close friends do. just not in front of non-pack members. also literal play-fighting too obviously

have read-alouds with textbooks

always know if someone’s upset and all come together to support them

care for sick/injured pack members without having to be told to

ask meme

AAAA thank you!!!!! AHAHAHA yes let’s get the whole gang in on this :D

☠ - angry/violent headcanon

Harris

When angered, he’s more likely to laugh and give a big ol’ slasher smile than scowl or shout. And he doesn’t squint when he’s angry. Sometimes, sure, but usually his eyes are wide open, making full use of his visually striking giant red eyes. And even better, he’s wall-eyed and doesn’t have to move his eyes to see almost everything around him, so when fighting it often looks like he’s not even looking at his enemies when he casually swings his bat around to whack a mute who was sure they were being sneaky. You’re going to have a hard time getting the jump on a guy who can see almost 360 degrees around

So alright, that’s the outside. Very unsettling look. How he feels anger, well. He has a habit of bottling it up. It was easier, you see, to simply not react to the bullies, when he was a tadpole/froglet. So as a result he is very good at hiding his anger. And most feelings he doesn’t want to display, really. 

But anger doesn’t just sit in a bottle. It churns and compounds and builds up pressure until it explodes in a spray of glass shards and acid. Those closest get hurt the most, often including himself, but there are always those tiny slivers of glass that fly all the way across a room and hit someone not even remotely involved. In short, Harris goes into a rage.

Like, an actual rage. Rational thought and inhibitions out the window, impulses high, adrenaline rush, tunnel vision. And lots. Of. Violence. Y’know The Hulk? Like that, but he’s already green and he doesn’t get any bigger. Sometimes he’s able to time it well, blow off steam somewhere remote, trash a store maybe. Other times he taps in intentionally for a boost in combat. Cleaning his bat off afterwards can be a real hassle some days; those nails catch pretty easily in fur especially, and often take more than just fur off whoever Harris hits.

Sometimes he can’t stand it any more but it’s really not a good time. Sometimes he can simmer, then escape the inconvenient situation as soon as possible. More often, he’ll pick a target to at least keep it kinda contained and hope he can justify it afterwards. Misplaced aggression and excuses. And? He learned a lot from those childhood bullies. Harris can be cruel.

Actually acknowledging and processing his anger in a healthy manner? Yeah... he doesn’t do that.

☠ - angry/violent headcanon 

Kwat

Excellent control over her anger. She learned early that she couldn’t get away with outbursts like her peers without scaring everyone. She’s a very physically powerful and imposing Frog.

Hers is a very cold, calculated anger. She may not even outwardly react to a slight, and instead just mentally move the offender’s name a few lines up on her hit list. “It isn’t personal; it’s just business” except when it is personal, and she just crafted a good reason to hit exactly who she wanted to. 

If she wants to harm you, she may well hit you; she’s very good at fighting. But her M.O. is more subtle. Sabotage, poison, and a healthy dose of backstabbing. Pretend she’s forgiven you, act civilly for two months, then arrange to have you sent into a deathtrap or just pound you to mash when nobody’s looking. Vengeance.

Because Kwat has an image to uphold. Capable of massive violence and destruction but only acting with consideration and finesse. She can’t afford to be seen as a loose cannon, cuz she’s a fricken HUGE cannon. No; instead she has to play the sniper; the lancer. ...But with a flail. Which requires precision, forethought, strength, and resilience.

She gets a decent amount of satisfaction from her tricks, but won’t pass up the chance to personally pummel an enemy. And satisfaction is one thing, but she isn’t dealing with her anger any better than Harris or Jamack. It’s still not healthy. She’s just very good at using delayed gratification for her ire. She can put off her anger to focus and keep levelheaded in the moment, but it sticks in her head, quietly rotting, until she finds an opportunity to resolve it in some typically-destructive way.

ask meme

Oh good grief uhh

First impression

talking frogs, eh? wait what the heck why did you stop bc of a stain?? jeez you’re persistent tho huh... and that voice........

Impression now

resilient, an outcast, clever, tactical, badass, skilled, a leader, looks great in a suit, I still love his fucking voice, expressive, driven, snarky, adaptable, complex...... he’s so cool..... and he can take a fuckin HIT and keep going. Constitution score of 30, this guy

Favorite moment

DRIVING THE CAR WITH HIS FOOT

Idea for a story

well I’ve got a WIP in the works where he joins Kipo & co. for some traveling. He and Wolf are forced to work through some trust issues. gratuitous hurt/comfort

Unpopular opinion

heck idk. don’t think I have one tbh

Favorite relationship

hm. I guess that’d have to be his almost-friendship with Kipo

Favorite headcanon

ask meme Daisy: How old were you when you had your first kiss?

I... don’t have a simple answer for that. Like mouth kiss, like the common romantic mouth-on-mouth kiss?? Never. Not once in my life. And that’s exactly how I like it. Maybe I would be willing to do like a platonic mouth kiss with a friend but like, that just hasn’t happened yet. Now like, a peck kiss? Like on the cheek or forehead or wherever? Yeah def. Super often. I don’t remember it myself but I probably had my first kiss when I was minutes, maybe seconds old. I definitely got very careful sweet baby kisses. So yeah I guess that’s that

Amsonia: Would you ever become a vegan?

Uhh I... cannot stress enough how totally and completely impossible that would be for me. Like even if I wanted to (I don’t), like,,,, there are already a super limited amount of things I can eat due to sensory issues. If I had to cut out all like, animal products? Like I could legitimately die of malnutrition. Like actually. So uh, no

Myrtle: Do you like going on airplanes?