Seanan McGuire (seanan_mcguire) wrote,
Seanan McGuire
seanan_mcguire
  • Mood: excited
  • Music: Glee, "Torn."

Ask me a question! InCryptid knowledge party.

With Midnight Blue-Light Special approaching fast (and Half-Off Ragnarok just put to bed), I am naturally spending a lot of time thinking about InCryptid, and blogging about InCryptid, since I want everyone to be as excited as I am. So here is your invitation:

Ask me a question. Ask me a big question. Like when I posted about the rules governing fae marriage. The ones that require serious thought, and a genuine desire to know.

What can cuckoos really do? What was the straw that broke the camel's back for Alexander and Enid? How do cryptid communities conceal themselves in human cities? Questions too big, and too complicated, to answer in the FAQ. Now, because I apparently wasn't clear enough the first time, I WILL NOT GIVE SPOILERS. Please don't ask me where someone is, or whether someone else is coming back, or whether I'll post a full calendar of Aeslin holidays (because I never, ever will). Ask me about laws and rules and universe, about etiquette and speciation and trends in fashion.

The ten best questions will get full blog posts about them, explaining whatever facet or facets of the InCryptid world they touch on. I get to determine "best," although you're all welcome to weigh in or ask secondary questions.

I have comment amnesty for any questions I do not choose to answer during this particular publication lead-in, because I want my brain to not dribble out of my ears.

Game on!
Tags: comic books, incryptid, midnight bluelight special
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boobook_owl

February 1 2013, 23:03:49 UTC 4 years ago

Don't want to be greedy (And I'm just loving this knowledge party, thank you!) but I have another question: Are there any atheist Aeslin mice? If so, what happens to them? Are they accepted by their home communities or do they go off and form little alt-Aeslin communities of their own or sink into loneliness or...?

greyduck

February 1 2013, 23:24:06 UTC 4 years ago

An interesting notion! I'd think, however, that since they tend to live with their religious figures, atheism isn't much of an issue. Something George Carlin once riffed on about worshipping Joe Pesci because he's actually SEEN Joe Pesci...

boobook_owl

4 years ago

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greyduck

4 years ago

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skelody

4 years ago

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seanan_mcguire

4 years ago

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judifilksign

February 1 2013, 23:28:26 UTC 4 years ago

What is your favorite Aeslin holiday that has come up so far?

seanan_mcguire

February 18 2013, 23:35:40 UTC 4 years ago

Honestly, it changes day to day.

yellowblackhaze

February 2 2013, 00:48:50 UTC 4 years ago

Someone mentioned other Aeslin communities. Are there other known Aeslin communities or did the Prices save them from extinction?

seanan_mcguire

February 13 2013, 15:37:52 UTC 4 years ago

There are no other known Aeslin communities.

deire

February 2 2013, 02:03:23 UTC 4 years ago

Have higher ranking members of the Covenant ever made secret alliances with cyptids?

seanan_mcguire

February 13 2013, 15:35:44 UTC 4 years ago

If they have, it's a secret.

deire

4 years ago

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tiferet

February 2 2013, 06:01:05 UTC 4 years ago Edited:  February 2 2013, 06:04:51 UTC

Does Verity call Istas a gothic lolita (gosurori) because she doesn't know that pink dresses and aprons are sweet lolita (amarori) and most non-Japanese-speaking people know the term "gothic lolita" and assume it applies to all of lolita fashion? (I really thought Istas wore black all the time until I read the book.)

Or is Istas usually in black, dark blue, white and wine and just chose to wear sweet that day?

Or is she like me and just wears whatever she feels like on a given day, whether that's gothic or sweet or classical or whatever? (I have resisted calling myself amarori for years, but I am, I so, so am--but I like the ama prints that straddle the boundaries between sweet and classic and gothic.)

I really really want to dress Istas. OMG. So much. :) :) :) Also I need at some point to solicit your opinion on whether a certain piece of velvet I have should be used to make Istas' new hat, or if I ought to use pleather for that one. <3.

offcntr

February 3 2013, 05:58:41 UTC 4 years ago

I think Istas would prefer a hat made of lungs.

tiferet

4 years ago

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seanan_mcguire

4 years ago

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tiferet

4 years ago

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ashnistrike

February 3 2013, 06:59:24 UTC 4 years ago

I'm going to deviate from all the Aeslin obsession above and admit to a cuckoo obsession (much less healthy). When I see something like this--a species that has almost all gone mad around their basic biological set-up--my assumption is that at one point they were more sane and adaptive, and something changed in their environment so that once-adaptive characteristics led to problems. And yes, I realize that they are still adaptive in the purely biological sense in spite of being sociopaths. But it still seems likely that they haven't always been that way. So, question--what's the original environment in which their parasitic telepathy evolved? What changed? Were they ever less completely destructive to their hosts? Symbiotic? Have they ended up, as parasites often do, in biological/telepathic arms races with other cryptid species?

seanan_mcguire

February 13 2013, 18:47:55 UTC 4 years ago

CUCKOOS.

Your answer:

http://seanan-mcguire.livejournal.com/494667.html

aguido

February 3 2013, 08:41:10 UTC 4 years ago

Are there dropbears in the InCryptid universe? Have any of the families/organisations in the book encountered them? How many survived?

(definitive reference: http://www.australianmuseum.net.au/Drop-Bear)

seanan_mcguire

February 15 2013, 15:40:48 UTC 4 years ago

Yes, not telling, not telling.

aguido

4 years ago

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trixiaw

February 3 2013, 12:05:09 UTC 4 years ago

Aside from the tooth fairy are there fae in the Incryptd world?

seanan_mcguire

February 5 2013, 19:51:56 UTC 4 years ago

In the Toby sense, none. There are zero fae in this setting.

There are things that they call "fairies," but they're entirely different beings.

digitaleopard

February 4 2013, 08:35:42 UTC 4 years ago

So...how big an Aeslin mice colony is the author hiding? (And there's a list of religious festivals I would love to hear!)

almeda

February 5 2013, 14:19:47 UTC 4 years ago

There's a really brilliant Aeslin/NewsFlesh crossover out there (spoilers within for the ENTIRE Newsflesh series, do not read unless you've read all three books, or don't mind spoilers).

seanan_mcguire

4 years ago

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hasufin

4 years ago

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tiferet

4 years ago

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professor

February 13 2013, 19:43:37 UTC 4 years ago

Given that the Covenant is a centuries-old organization that worships tradition and conformity, how do gender and racial identity politics within the Covenant work?

seanan_mcguire

February 18 2013, 17:23:07 UTC 4 years ago

Your question has been answered:

http://seanan-mcguire.livejournal.com/495451.html

rianax

February 14 2013, 04:31:48 UTC 4 years ago

How many of the cryptids are really just subspecies of humanity? Genetically there is very difference between a Pomeranian and a wolf despite appearances, and their offspring would be viable and fertile. Can the Pryces really justify calling people cryptids if they are sucessfully born and interbreeding with humans like the tanuki?

If they can't interbreed with humanity, how to these different species met up and have children in the modern world? Is there a cryptid Cupid.com?

seanan_mcguire

February 14 2013, 04:58:36 UTC 4 years ago

None of them. There are some that are considered part of the same family, in the same sense that Cro-Magnons or Neanderthals would have been, but most are not related at all. Some therianthropes can crossbreed with humans, but therianthropes are magic, and do not follow genetic rules.

rianax

4 years ago

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seanan_mcguire

4 years ago

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seanan_mcguire

4 years ago

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thedragonweaver

February 15 2013, 04:41:02 UTC 4 years ago

Honestly, I would like it if you were to answer the question you've always been hoping you'll get asked, but nobody's thought to come up with it yet.

seanan_mcguire

February 15 2013, 15:39:39 UTC 4 years ago

Someday I will.

akawil

February 20 2013, 20:16:09 UTC 4 years ago

In honor of the Random Penguin photoshop of the Midnight Blue-Light Special cover, are there any penguin cryptids?

seanan_mcguire

February 21 2013, 16:26:44 UTC 4 years ago

Yes.

Yes, there are.

trixiaw

February 22 2013, 22:02:39 UTC 4 years ago

I'd like to know about the other dimensions.
Ignoring the religious based which would be too spoilerific.

Travel : It sounded like the wasps cuckoos evolved from had no trouble shoving there kin across the dimension divide but if they where so easy people would be tripping over them on there way to work.
How different are the dimensions? Are they all alien worlds or are they more like the earth we know but with different evolutions or where people made different decisions?

seanan_mcguire

February 22 2013, 22:10:59 UTC 4 years ago

Nope. No dimension questions. There's universe-related, and there's inherently a spoiler, so nope.

:)

purpleranger

February 24 2013, 19:42:00 UTC 4 years ago

Was Dominic a virgin until Chapter 16? For one thing, he was giving off this whole holier-than-thou vibe when he first met Verity. (Or is that just normal for the Covenant?) He also seemed to have, shall we say, minimal knowledge of the difference between boys and girls. (And I'm guessing that the mice will be celebrating Chapter 16 as the Feast of The Discovery Of The Difference Between Boys And Girls.)

seanan_mcguire

February 24 2013, 20:04:50 UTC 4 years ago

Ask me a question. Ask me a big question. Like when I posted about the rules governing fae marriage. The ones that require serious thought, and a genuine desire to know.

Sadly, this doesn't qualify! :)

gathersscrolls

February 25 2013, 01:08:40 UTC 4 years ago

In your earlier answer to how the Covenant is organized now, you mentioned that they used to recruit from people who had had encounters with incryptids.

Do they still recruit like this, or is the organization pretty much a family business?

And, if they do still recruit, if someone were to refuse to join, what would the consequences be?

*Has* anyone ever refused to join at all?

seanan_mcguire

February 27 2013, 15:19:56 UTC 4 years ago

These are all spoiler questions, rather than universe construction questions, I'm afraid.

kellyjelly33

February 25 2013, 12:46:01 UTC 4 years ago

The Prices are a group that actively, if covertly, work towards keeping Cryptiods safe from people, and visa versa. Question: are there any other groups in the world that work towards the same sort of goals as the Price family? Are there any groups or individuals in the world that work against the Covenant? Are they small groups or are they larger, like rival corporations?
Related question: is there a community level of support for Cryptiods in your universe as there is in ours for something like endangered species? Are there rallies where people write slogans and chant 'save the whatisthings/people'? If not, why? Is it because they are potentially dangerous? Different? Propaganda?

Cryptiods have a smaller number of potential mates than humans (assuming, yes). Are there gay/lesbian/bi/sexually different Cryptiods? If yes, how is that treated within the Cryptiod society/family? </p>

Is there a Cryptiod you would like to be? Is there one you think best describes yourself?

Also thank you for the books.

seanan_mcguire

February 27 2013, 15:20:56 UTC 4 years ago

There is no public knowledge of cryptids, ergo there is no public defense of same. The rest of your questions either constitute spoilers or are not universe construction questions, which was the point of this post.

Very welcome.

vixyish

February 27 2013, 17:10:21 UTC 4 years ago

What is bogeyman society like? So far on paper we've only met them singly. Are there bogeyman communities, do they live in family groups, that kind of thing, or do they prefer to live alone, each with their own territory? And how do they find mates?

seanan_mcguire

February 28 2013, 16:41:05 UTC 4 years ago

Answered!

groblek

February 27 2013, 17:19:06 UTC 4 years ago

I've been trying to work out how to ask this one since you posted, and am still not sure if I'll be able to get it across, but figure I'll try since you're still in need of questions.

While Cryptids are not known to mainstream science, the wonderful taxonomic classifications in the field guide have me wondering how much study has been done to classify them. Does the Covenant bother with studying Cryptids beyond how to kill them? Are the Prices the only cryptozoologists in this universe, or have there been scientists studying them throughout history who have been considered crackpots by their peers? If so, how have they intersected with the scientific community, particularly in the early days of modern science, when there was a bit more willingness to believe in strange things? I'm envisioning a contemporary of Linnaeus working out how some of the strange things he's found in the field fit into the new classification system only to find that no one quite believes his creatures exist.

tmhlittlebit

February 27 2013, 17:21:05 UTC 4 years ago

I am curious to know more about the logistics of the InCryptid world's therianthropic species, such as waheelas, cupacabras, and tanukis, specifically their form-shifting abilities...

To me, this isn't as simple a matter as a creature using a "bluff", like expanding parts of its existing structure in a form of self-defense (i.e. a pufferfish), or just mimicking anatomic placement of features to distract an enemy (i.e. "eye" spots on the wings of butterflies), though maybe that's how it started out? These beings can literally change skeletal and muscular structure to become something entirely new, a different physical form, and I'm wondering if this is some form of scientific evolution that the Healy-Price family is learning more about, or if it's still one vague mystery (perhaps with esoteric or magical origins) that isn't polite to ask a sentient species about?

jen_qoe

February 27 2013, 18:39:21 UTC 4 years ago Edited:  February 27 2013, 19:18:48 UTC

Cryptid archaeology and history keeping - how does it work? Do cryptids keep historic records? Do they restrict their records to their own species or take an interest in other cryptid's history? Do humanoid cryptids go undercover to work with human archaeologists to recover their historic artefacts? Is there a culture of cryptid academics sharing historic knowledge across species to create a wider knowledge base of cryptid history seen from the non-human perspective? (As opposed to the version of cryptid history seen from the Covenant/Price human viewpoint.) And has anyone created any comparative history records expanding/correcting human historic events with the cryptid version of what went down?

anthimerian

February 27 2013, 22:33:06 UTC 4 years ago

Okay, so here's one I hope is right up your alley: Diseases and cryptids. We know the extinction the unicorn caused cholera epidemics, but do any other cryptids have special relationships with disease, either their own, other cryptid species, or human's? And if there are cryptid-specific diseases, has the Covenant ever tried biological warfare?

silvertwi

February 28 2013, 03:21:09 UTC 4 years ago

Let's see if I can ask broad questions.

How do the Price children manage to hide the nature of the "games" they play at home? Discount Armageddon indicated that they were surprised that hide and seek, etc. did not involve traps and tricks of any sort for other children. I suspect I would have a hard time hiding my confusion at that, especially at a young age. What are they taught that prevents, say, teachers from learning about games at home and/or where injuries came from and calling social services?


Are there any cat-like cryptids around? I ask because I love cats and can't imagine them *not* having some kind of cryptid alter-ego type thing, especially given the mice.


Were any of the Egyptian (or other pantheon) god/esses based on cryptids? If so, how did that happen and how did the spread of monotheism impact the cryptids there?

alicetheowl

February 28 2013, 07:00:25 UTC 4 years ago

We've seen in Discount Armageddon that the Price family doesn't know everything about cryptids. Are the numbers of species they don't know about in the single digits, dozens, or hundreds? And, if it's not a spoiler, can you tell us about any of them?

seanan_mcguire

February 28 2013, 15:23:47 UTC 4 years ago

Nope. If they don't know, then they're meant to be a surprise!

alicetheowl

4 years ago

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reedrover

February 28 2013, 17:49:55 UTC 4 years ago

How do cryptids settle cross-species disputes? Do they have a UN assembly or legal charter that groups can sign and use as a basis for negotiation when things go wrong?

seanan_mcguire

July 29 2013, 21:15:49 UTC 3 years ago

Usually?

With knives.
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