#roadhounds

And so, the time has finally come!  I’ve jumped off the precipice of making these things adoptable, and the reception has been really joyfully humbling!  Below is a master post of my collective information on Roadhounds and what I consider their technical “canon”– HOWEVER.  IF YOU HAVE PURCHASED A HOUND FROM ME, PLEASE NOTE THAT YOU DO NOT HAVE TO FOLLOW ANY OF THIS.  If you want to take your weird dogbirds and jam them in your own respective headworlds or turn them into something else entirely, you have my full and open blessing to do so!  All I ask is for a footnote of being the technical (first draft) creator somewhere. These guys are meant to be for FUN, in whatever way brings you the most joy.  If you DO, however, want to see what lore they come with, keep reading!  

ROADHOUND FAQ:  

What is a roadhound?  

“Roadhound” is a catchall term encompassing a group of strange, largely enigmatic, bird-faced canid-type lifeforms sighted worldwide.  They are considered by most to be a modern day cryptid, and would be considered a “Safe” Class SCP as a whole despite their numbers and lacking research from observation.  

Origin of species:

There is no current consensus on the origin of roadhounds.  They always seem to just appear one day along human-made paths of travel where people have walked— dirt roads, hiking trails, highways, etc— seemingly fully formed and mature.  No human has ever witnessed the “birth” or emergence of a hound, but this mysterious generation may be associated with traveling, restlessness, or wanderlust.  Similarly, there has never been a firsthand account of hounds actively copulating, pregnant, or with young, and it remains unknown whether or not they are even capable of sexual reproduction.  No bodies have ever been retrieved for study, and their lifespans can only be guessed upon as “ambiguously long.”  

They are sometimes regarded as ill omens or bad luck by the public, given their tendency to appear along stretches of road plagued by car accidents, though this has not in any way been substantiated.  

Observed phenotypes:

Roadhounds all follow a loose construction of two major parts: a bird— generally from the corvid family (though passerine and raptor variants have been observed) and a canine— most commonly wildtype variants of wolves, coyotes, foxes, jackals and etc.  They are almost universally described as having a “doglike body” and tail, functional in shape and of reasonable proportion, a formidable beak, small, but fully formed wings in place of mammalian ears (ear canals are suspected to seat around the “armpit” of the inner wing), and three sets of eyes seated in the bottom half of a long, highly flexible feathered neck.  Forefeet, while canine in structure, have diminished fur in favor of tiled scaling up the carpals/metacarpals, with tough pads and a hooked, birdlike talon replacing the dewclaw.  Nails are thick and sturdy, but non-retractable.  

The bird component, densely feathered and often with an excess of fine bristles around the beak/chin area, can display plumage ranging from drab to offensively colorful depending on species.  The body, however, tends to remain neutral in a range of grays, blacks, whites and browns.  The false “tail” anchored to their sternum can be flattened, fanned, or pulled up slightly by muscular tension for various types of display.  Their wings can also be moved freely, shuffled, flapped or mantled as a key component of body language.  Typical specimens can range anywhere from approximately 30-120 pounds, though outliers can and do occur, if infrequently.  

Known Behavior:

Roadhounds are (usually) fairly clever, displaying robust intelligence on par with (or surpassing) their component fauna.  They seem to have a sense of self-recognition when presented with mirrors and tend towards an inquisitive, playful, and occasionally irritating nature, though this can vary wildly from specimen to specimen.  They can and do use crude tools for basic problem solving when available, and often display behaviors suggesting a grasp of concepts such as forethought, altruism, and grief.  They may even possess a crude language, though it is poorly understood by researchers.  

Curiously, roadhounds all universally seem to lack any prey drive.  Despite a meat oriented semi-carnivorous diet, they have never been seen actively hunting live prey and may regard other animals as anything from a companion to a moving toy that must be coddled or harassed.  When threatened they may stand their ground, displaying various threat gestures, but prefer flight over an altercation.  Shyness and flight radius/“tameness” seems to vary wildly, but a genuine fear of humans is rare.

The majority also seem to have a love bordering obsession of shiny and/or metallic objects, most commonly those associated with automobiles or electronics.  They have been observed “collecting” anything from shed scrap metal (generally shed from highway collisions) to hubcaps, dollar coins, tin cans, window decals, side mirrors, jewelry, truck nuts, and more.  These trinkets have even (rarely) been used as apparent “gifts” and offered to other life forms, with mixed results.  

Vocalizations:  

Roadhounds possess impressive sound mimicry and a robust vocabulary ranging from typical bird/canid vocalizations to machine noises and eavesdropped fragments of human language, the latter regurgitated in tinny, childlike voices.  Given their frequent proximity to roads and civilization, common “acquired” calls include car horns, squealing tires, NOVELTY car horns, metallic crunching sounds, engines revving, toll booth ringers, car alarms, sirens, variants of SPEED UP ASSHOLE, and etc.  They will pepper these noises into their more organic calls seemingly at random, each unique to the individual.  If you hear a car alarm going off incessantly at 3 am in the middle of nowhere, with no cars in sight, you may have a visitor.  

Diet:

Despite a complete lack of hunting instinct, roadhounds subsist almost entirely on meat: more specifically, on roadkill and scavenged carrion.  They prefer fresher carcasses, but are opportunists and generally not picky.  More human/urban acclimated individuals have also been seen raiding garbage bins and city dumpsters for a variety of other (presumably food-based) material.  Dry cat or dog kibble left on porches is also a commonly raided, even preferred snack, and some individuals have been observed going out of their way to raid farmhouses for the delicacy.  

TL;DR: 

And when I walk the streets Kings and Queens step aside

I’m here to tell ya honey that I’m bad to the bone

Bad to the bone

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More Jailbird! Per Han’s lore, roadhounds aren’t born, they just materialize, so Jailbird manifested one day outside a county jail where all the scrub jays harassed the local cats and coyotes got into the trash.

She cannot be trusted. She’ll dig holes in your yard, steal your kids’ toys, release your livestock, bury your mail, and sit outside your window making car alarm noises all night long. It’s a good thing she only weighs thirty pounds, otherwise she’d probably try out world domination just for the hell of it.

Jailbird is a menace to society, other cryptids, cats, and God.