DE: It's a jungle out there

[bjornwilde]

Don't you hate it when you have a great idea for a DE topic but forget it as soon as you sit down to post it?

Anyway, today let's talk about the fauna of Milliways. What do you recall about what critters are out back or indoors? 

Comments

[hecu_marine]

- Demon rabbits, in various colors from red and orange to black; fire breathers. Originally added to the Bar's fauna by Lady Death, if I recall correctly. They were created so people would have something to use as target practice without feeling guilty.

- Red deer and roe deer in the woods. The woods were originally an extension of Dream's domain, but they became more ordinary forests when that particular Endless's original player left the game.

- Several species of large freshwater fish in the lake in addition to the giant squid. Shephard and Bumi went catfishing there once and caught a good-sized flathead catfish, even though those tend to prefer rivers and streams.

- Bears in the mountains. Belar put a couple up there on purpose when he created the mountains, because he's Belar, Bear God of the Alorns, and he likes his bears.

- Trout and possibly salmon in the mountain streams because Belar wanted people to be able to go fishing.

- The wait-rats have holes in them for speed. At least I remember someone saying that. Don't know who pulled off that particular feat.

- Birds were added to the woods at some point separately from other creatures, possibly after the original Dream pulled out of the area.

[genarti]

The "bulletholes are for speed" thing comes about because the original waitrats were, IIRC, ghost (or possibly undead?) rats brought into Milliways by Paul from Kingdom Hospital. They did indeed have bulletholes, and/or other wounds. Over time they gradually morphed into more normal rats, at least insofar as Milliways waitrats are ever normal -- or possibly they just bred successive generations who hadn't died in a Stephen King-adapted show, I'm not sure -- but the catchphrase stuck around. Maybe some of the original rats did too, I dunno!

[yakalskovich]

Teja's four cats can be (and have been) spotted by other people in their posts because they roam free -- Kitty: small fierce tabby female; Ferdinand: large friendly white-and-tabby male; Count: small, grey, infinitely fierce, male, dead (drowned kitten from the Discworld); Myrrh: small, black, somewhat prissy, female (gift from Teja's people in Gotland).

Where was the suggestions post again? I had an idea...

[bjornwilde]

Right here.

[genarti]

- Various horses in the barn and pastures, some of which are owned by specific people. I think the black warhorse Bukephalos is still kicking around refusing to come into the barn, and thus using the shelter (or jumping the fence and using the woods, because he's a jerk like that.)

- There used to be a dodo around the barn too, which I think is the same dodo that's now adopted Gaeta and lives in his room instead?

- There used to be at least one thestrel in the barn. Not sure if that's still the case.

[kd7sov]

Turtleducks! I'm sure of the turtleducks on the lake. Not much else, personally.

[bjornwilde]

So are there insects out back? I would imagine we'd have to at least have pollinators since we have plants.

Can we have fireflies? Or is the climate too cold for them?

[hecu_marine]

If nothing else I strongly suspect Belar would've put appropriate insects in the area when he raised the mountains. Mountains just aren't right without all the appropriate creatures that live on them, insects included.

Not sure about fireflies. Does anyone know if there are fireflies in Scotland? I know we don't seem to get them in my part of New England and I'm pretty sure it's warmer here than there.

[bjornwilde]

Hhhmmm, well Google is giving me odd hits. There are definitely Glow Worms in the UK (and perhaps Scotland?), which are much like what we call fireflies but the females don't have wings, though they do glow.

[vivien]

Mr. Julia Fruitnugget, the original giant squid, lives in the lake, along with Sunshine Dust, his mate. They've had squidlets at some point. It's a very deep lake.

[death_gone_mad]

Raspberry Beret was one of them, but is also Puck's daughter and stars in Tentacles of Our Waves right? Maybe I am getting my Millihistory mixed up.

[vivien]

She visited with them a while. Maybe a summer?

[saphyria]

Aside from all the creatures already mentioned, there used to be a chocobo in the stables, too, iirc.

[thebattycakes]

Okay, dredging up old recollections to contribute here:

Bill Pardy once pulled one of these fish out of the lake, then gave it to Ray Stantz.

I thiiink some of the peaceful sentient dough blobs are still out in the forest somewhere, wearing petal skirts and doing whatever it is yeasty objects do. I'm pretty sure all the bad ones were taken care of, as was the cookie dough beast.

Audry II might still be out there, too. Logan and Mary Lennox tracked it down once during the Great Greenhouse investigation.

I've read before that there are winged horses hanging out with the rest in the paddock, but I don't remember where or when, and if that was temporary or if they are regular residents.

There's the trilobite tank in the bar, and the fish that swim in the fireplace and were once said to be Magicarp, though the thing with their evolving didn't get to happen.

And there are minnows in the shallows of the lake, as proven by Boo who (with the soggy help of Bill Pardy and Kate Warner) captured some.

[misslucyjane]

There are birds and insects and foxes in the forest, under Jack Green's protection.

[death_gone_mad]

Amascut pulled giant eurypterid out of the lake and held an impromptu beach party afterward. Yay for giant 'lobster' feasts!

[chanter1944]

I'm pretty sure there are at least a few frogs and a few regular ducks nearish the lake? ... Well, there was the giant frog exodus at the end of the frog plague plot (I am such an archive sniffer), and mention of ducks out there during same, so wouldn't it make sense for a few of each to still be around?

I do remember a flock of seagulls flying out of the lost and found box once, so hey, seagulls inna lakeside/beachside bits of same?

[nerves_of_ice]

I think this is the last updated version of the stockline record for the Milliways stables, which shows all of its inhabitants at that time. Some are probably gone, but many remain (including Boukephalos as Gen mentions above, and Kiseki)!

Stable management passed from Susan Delgado to Caspian Seafarer to Doc Scurlock - and is still there, I believe.