Let's go to Australia and poke horrible things with a stick for fun!: seanan

Let's go to Australia and poke horrible things with a stick for fun!

It's time for my first Pocket Apocalypse giveaway! Hooray! This giveaway is going to be US addresses only; I'm still mailing T-shirts, and my post office workers are starting to mysteriously go on break when I show up, because of all the international packages. I know it's not fair, but I can't add more customs forms to the pile or they're going to close completely.

I will do open-to-international giveaways before the book is released, and I'm hoping to clear out more of the pending packages in the next week or so.

So, the rules for this one:

1. Leave a comment.
2. Indicate that you have a US address I can ship to. (You don't have to live in the US. You just have to have a US address.)
3. Name your favorite cryptid and why.

I will use the RNG to choose three winners on Tuesday, January 27th. But there's a twist! Only one person can win for each cryptid. So be honest! Name your favorite! Just be aware that the odds are lower for the Aeslin mice than for, say, the swamp bromeliads.

The field guide is here, if you need some help.

Game on!

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ontogenesis

January 24 2015, 08:16:02 UTC 2 years ago

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I'm in the US. Hmm... I have to say I would absolutely love to live near a family of Madhura, because I'm very cavity-prone (despite rigorous dental hygiene) AND I love bakeries.

Anyone got suggestions for how I can bait -- er, coax -- some into moving into my neighborhood?

lanibgoode

January 24 2015, 08:21:59 UTC 2 years ago

I have a US address, and one of my favorite cryptids is the Jink! How cool is it that they feed off of luck energy--and it balances! And wow, does the bad-luck preference sound familiar--my life has always felt like it is going terribly, but none of the things are truly harmful or horrible, just *unpleasant* (and stressful).

I live in the Portland, home of the best superheroine

Hugo Alvord

January 24 2015, 08:24:26 UTC 2 years ago

My favorite cryptid is the ogre, because they are so nebulous like.... what are they? Giants? Big ugly bear things? Then again, that weird eyeball had monster from Pan's Labyrinth was supposed to be an ogre, and it is neither extraordinarily large, nor hugely strong. They tend to be human enough to be horrible, but having something fundamentally wrong. In Shrek's case, it was his olive complexion, but it can be anything from being one eyed to having two heads.

I like to imagine them as looking somehow between a bear, a man, and a manatee, with thick fat and skin, and the fatty squashed face of a man who looks like a dewgong (such as gimli, from lord of the rings). The bodily proportions would be like that of a bear, with weird little legs and long arms, but with a larger head than would be proportionate on a man; in fact I imagine they look rather like a fat and healthy bear/baboon cross, with mange.

I feel like ogres, with their particular taste for human flesh, would have been exterminated hundreds of years ago by the Covenant. They were still fascinating (and horrible) creatures in my opinion.

svaenohr

January 24 2015, 08:28:59 UTC 2 years ago

Comment. I live in the US in a home with an address that accepts mail. My favorite cryptids are the gorgons, especially the lesser gorgons, because Medusa is a Goddess to me.

darkladynyara

January 24 2015, 08:36:44 UTC 2 years ago

I have a US address.

It's hard to pick a single favorite cryptid, but I'm gonna go with the Apraxis wasps. I actually really like wasps, and the apraxis wasps are awesomely terrifying. Anything that gets the "kill them all with fire" response from the Price/Healy clan is worthy of serious respect.

(And I had to go look up the swamp bromeliads in the field guide. I want, like, fifty. Even if I have no idea where I'd put them.)

Brandon Bousman

January 24 2015, 09:03:04 UTC 2 years ago

I has a US address. Has to be waheela, you gotta love a species who loves carnage that much.

pdelta

January 24 2015, 09:15:54 UTC 2 years ago

I am in possession of a US address, and this is a comment, so I've got two out of three already! My favorite cryptid has to be lesser gryphons, because they have such great scope for interesting subspecies. For example: since it's stated that lesser gryphons appear around the world, I choose to believe that there is a subspecies of flightless lesser gryphon found on the south island of New Zealand whose front half looks like a kākāpō. This species, the Gryps vegrandis habroptila, actually has a slightly larger remaining population than the actual kākāpō, but is still critically endangered for similar reasons. Some Kiwi cryptozoologists of European descent have theorized that the flightless gryphon may actually be the species that created the legends of the hakawai, but since no Maori scholars have entered the debate, this remains pure speculation.

Revenants!

ProtoMat

January 24 2015, 10:09:27 UTC 2 years ago

I am in the US with a US Address

I have to pick Revenants. The idea of there being not only a true "Frankenstein's Monster" (Insensitive term, I'm sure. I apologize) but that there is more than one.

I'm genuinely curious as to how many have been encountered.

Are there families or other organized communities of them? Maybe some kind of regular meetings to compare notes for regular upkeep of themselves, good sources of still functioning parts? Or even just swapping of the dozens of Mad Scientist Jokes.

Are there multiple methods of reanimation? Or did one man discover the process and distribute his findings in the name of furthering science? So many more questions, but none that need to be answered, as the mystery sparked by what little information we Do Have is more than enough to keep my fascination.

isabelknight

January 24 2015, 10:24:12 UTC 2 years ago

I have a US mailing address.

The North American Questing Beast. First, because it appeared in the first Incryptid story I ever read, and secondly, because I used to spend summers in eastern Oregon with my grandmother, and she would tell me stories about enormous cunning rattlers that lay in wait for unwary children, (and my uncles would warn me about warty toads - as an adult, I remember this and think "seriously TOADS? TOADS were a grave danger you thought to warn me of, despite me bringing home new ones to show off every second day? TOADS? REALLY, TOADS? - and wicked coyotes and little-girl-devouring-pumas whenever the whole family got together) and the first time I read "The Flower of Arizona" it gave me kind of a wistful terrified shiver (despite being set in a place I didn't visit until I was in my twenties). I miss my grandmother, even with her intense fear and distrust of snakes, and reading about the North American Questing Beast reminded me of those mid-morning warnings (always accompanied by a hug and a sandwich and a stout stick to take with me as I explored the brush) and the scent of cigarettes and the unquestionable, unshakable love of my grandmother.

lei_che_sogna

January 24 2015, 10:34:39 UTC 2 years ago

I have a US address.
The Madhura are my favorite, because I really want them to be real. I love sweet things, and a good bakery is its own kind of magic.

jarissa

January 24 2015, 11:31:04 UTC 2 years ago

I live in the US and have a US address to which things can be shipped.

My favorite cryptid is the Madhura. I love the idea of sentient beings who are innately of potential benefit to the multi-species community. I can go on about this idea for whole paragraphs, ad nauseum, but I'll sum up with "I kept picturing Piyusha as a madhura AU version of Abby Sciuto" and agree beforehand that my brain is strange sometimes.

anna_sinistra

January 24 2015, 11:41:40 UTC 2 years ago

US address here! My current favorite cryptid are cactus cats. Because puns totally have a place in taxonomy. And in my heart.

silverkiiri

January 24 2015, 12:18:33 UTC 2 years ago

I definitely have a us mailing address. my favorite cryptic is not an easy pick! It's between the waheela for being fierce and hard-core and having Istas among their number, and the cuckoos for being just about as terrifying as a cryptid can be. I can see why they're so feared... and yet we know they have the potential to be better, and that makes them kind of tragic to me.

I'm gonna have to go with the cuckoo! I talked myself into it.

mskiara

January 24 2015, 12:32:41 UTC 2 years ago Edited: January 24 2015, 12:40:31 UTC

I almost forgot to come comment and then i would have cried the tears of a thousand paper cuts.

I've always been fascinated by the caladrius myself. I mean, they're magical doctor angels with bird feet, do i even need to say how handy their healing abilities would be?

And I'm in the US.

silvormoon

January 24 2015, 13:48:26 UTC 2 years ago

Whee, I am excited!

I am in the US.

My favorite would be a toss up between the Aeslin mice and Church griffins. You have a dreadful habit of inventing animals I need as pets and can't have. (I need a rose goblin, too, but that's another story.)

alicebentley

January 24 2015, 14:12:44 UTC 2 years ago

I live in the USA on a charming rural island just south and west of Seattle.

My favorite cryptid is the lindworm - just an animal but very much a part of its environment, so big and fast and quiet, with a tendency to develop mated pairs. What's not to love?!

poison dart frickens!

Liz Underwood

January 24 2015, 14:57:22 UTC 2 years ago

1. Yay!
2. I'm in the usa
3. Poison dart frickens because they are adorable and deadly. I promise not to touch them.

veleda_k

January 24 2015, 15:21:18 UTC 2 years ago

Whee! Thank you for doing this!

I have a US mailing address, and for my favorite cryptid, I'm going to choose the waheela, because I love Istas, with her casual violence and great fashion sense.

ardentdelirium

January 24 2015, 15:26:10 UTC 2 years ago

1. OMG AAUGH I NEEED
2. In the US
3. as in specific character, or in general? Because I LOVE Istas the Waheela, but in general I'm gonna have to go with lesser gryffins because FLYING MAINE COONS YES

killjoy188

January 24 2015, 15:28:56 UTC 2 years ago

Have a US address. And Succubi. Why? Because the field guide says they are very different from incubi, to the point of being treated like a separate species, yet gives lots of info about incubi and very little about succubi. It drives me crazy. Now I need to know. I hope they show up in a later book, or the field guide is expanded.

I'm in!

deidre_

January 24 2015, 15:46:10 UTC 2 years ago

I'm In the US and my favorite cryptid is Istas. Because she's a gothic
Lolita Waheela and that's amzing.

magyck

January 24 2015, 15:46:36 UTC 2 years ago

I wasn't prepared for this, but yes! I need to use LiveJournal way more often.

I have a US address, yesss.

My favorite cryptid is absolutely the cuckoos/Jhorlacs. For one, they are really well fleshed out, with legitimate pros/cons as a species. Two, I'm fascinated by how the idea of the brood parasite works when they step into a human family and the psychic "I belong here" thing works well for me.

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Let's go to Australia and poke horrible things with a stick for fun!

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I live in the Portland, home of the best superheroine

Revenants!

poison dart frickens!

I'm in!