Catsune Meowku

What if abilities changed the appearance of a Pokemon?

Found this fun trend and I had to give my baby Absol a spin! I feel that what I achieved is more vibes/character based than a "proper" variation but I guess different abilities could also manifest this way.

Either way, it was fun to draw these! I miss just doodling and drawing simpler things.

Brandon Sanderson:

Interesting conversations here. I strongly agree with the top comment here as of my posting, which points out that soft magic isn't any worse than hard magic. Both are tools for storytelling, and are used in different situations.

I also thought I should point something out. At least by my definitions, a magic is not soft or hard based on its adherence to external logic. A hard magic system is a reliable magic system, capable of being used by the characters to produce consistent results. A soft magic system is one that exists in an uncontrollable space by the viewpoint characters, with consequences that cannot be anticipated.

Therefore, the One Ring is a hard magic. Gandalf is a soft magic. Because the primary viewpoint protagonists (and the reader) can anticipate what the One Ring can do, and what the consequences will be. They cannot (by design) anticipate the same for Gandalf, at least within the confines of the Lord of the Rings books themselves.

Internal Logic (whether something is consistent) is the foundation of hard magic systems. Adding External Logic (i.e. scientific reasons why the magic works from an outsider perspective, or rationale as to how everything is powered) can make a magic easier to understand for a reader--but isn't needed for the system to he hard.

The OP is mistaking these two. An "electricity" system that is consistent and always works, and can be used by the main characters, is a hard magic--whether or not the External Logic (explaining things like where the power comes from) is sound does not influence this.

I literally have a magic system where an electricity-like substance comes from the sky, and it's considered one of the harder magic systems on the market today.

Me: whatever man I don't feel shit

(20 minutes later)

Me: dude I swear as the symbol glows, power pulses through me. Authority.

Ohhhhh yeah they're fun-looking guys. So there are actually like five families (that I know of offhand) that have flies with long eye stalks that evolved independently so it's hard to talk about them all generally so I'll just share some facts about stalk-eyed flies in the family Diopsidae!

Hilariously, when the adult fly emerges, they swallow air through their mouth and pump it into their eye stalks to elongate them while their exoskeleton is still soft and pliable. Incredible.

Males have longer eye stalks than females which is almost certainly sexual selection - females think it's MUCH sexier to have enormous eye stalks. Males will even line up face to face to compare eye stalk size in a mating ritual that really gets the ladies goin'.

Apart from sexual selection, likely having your eyes out on stalks gives you a better range of vision.

Let's admire some silly dudes:

Idioctis parilarilao: A new species of Intertidal Trapdoor Spider from Taiwan

One of only a few species of spiders known to live in marine intertidal zones