Follow-up, animal compaion poll

[soc_puppet]

Following up on the previous post: I eventually made it out! And then my moped wouldn't start. Which I might have been able to use as a legitimate excuse if I didn't live three blocks from the place I was applying to. (Well, kinda three blocks. Kinda also construction season, and I don't know if the sidewalk's blocked there at the moment or not, and also there's no crosswalk on that side of the intersection, so kinda also a lot longer than that.) I still didn't feel like walking, though, so I went back up to my apartment, took another few minutes to compose myself and mentally debate, and borrowed my roommate's car.

And then found out that yes, I had delayed too long, the business was closed. *sigh* At least I managed to get there. Followed it up with a trip to Hobby Lobby, where I got some wire for a Help_Pakistan project (which turned out to be a little too bendy, sigh), some half-inch round mirrors (fannish crochet project I'll get to eventually), and some magnets (because I have the sudden urge to crochet some Squiddles, and want them to actually be able to form Tangle Buddies, even if the magnets are not of the electro-variety). It didn't cost too much, so I'm pretty okay with it all.


And now, to distract me, a poll! I've got this steampunk-ish detective-ish story on the backburner, and something that would move it closer to actually being developed would be me being able to decide on what sort of animal companion the main character would end up with. The animal itself helps start the first major plot arc, and I'm planning for it to stick around for the entirety of however long I stick with the story. Now I just need to decide what I want it to be.

Since the story/setting is steampunk, I'm totally open to fantastical creatures. The second or third story arc is going to feature sea-serpent-like dragons heavily, so I'm leaning away from those, unless it's a different enough type of dragon/dragon-like creature that I feel I can get away with it. There's a lot of real-world-setting-type stuff I haven't decided on yet, but I was planning to make the main character a woman of color, either second/third generation in the country/area, or whose family moved there when she was quite young; this is relevant because I have been considering the animal being something imported from her family's homeland, but I could definitely use some suggestions in that area.

I'd like something that would be good at tracking, which to me suggests a predator, but it doesn't have to be; it could just be a parrot with a few personality quirks or something. I'm planning on nothing larger than a Labrador retriever, but might negotiate. [Trigger warning for hurt animal?] Since the main character originally finds the animal after it's been injured somehow (I'm thinking it was living on the streets and got hit by an experimental horseless cart), it may end up with a steampunk-style replacement limb or two, but if the animal is too, mm, ethereal? I'll probably stick to more standard healing. Anyway, with that in mind, how the animal in question (potentially/hypothetically?) deals with injury/trauma/wev is something I'm definitely keeping in mind. [/trigger warning]

Poll #4587 Steampunk Pet

This poll is closed.
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 5

View Respondents

What kind of animal should it be?

View Answers

Griffin (miniature)
2 (40.0%)

Boar (with or without wings)
1 (20.0%)

Fire fox
0 (0.0%)

Some kind of weird steam-powered cephalopod?
2 (40.0%)

Something else, which I will describe in a comment
0 (0.0%)

Obligatory ticky boxes

View Answers

Ticky box?
1 (50.0%)

Ticky box.
0 (0.0%)

Ticky box!
0 (0.0%)

Ticky box ♥_♥
1 (50.0%)

Ticky box~
0 (0.0%)

Some thoughts on the specific animals I listed: I think a dog was my first thought, back in the day, but I scratched it for one reason or another, and a small griffin was the next idea. With the tracking thing in mind, one of my roommates suggested a boar; the conversation involved such ideas as whether it would end up a "wheelie-boar", and my roommate commented that rear-wheel-boar is what he expected from the idea, but front-wheel-boar would probably be better in the snow. I recently thought it would also be kinda hilarious if it was a flying boar, especially since one of the perks of the griffin plan is that it could fly, so I tossed that on as a possibility. A fiery fox was my first thought after briefly contemplating Japanese animals, and is more likely to end up with the more standard healing than steampunk limb(s), since metal limb + tendency to burst into flames = BAD THINGS (though it could conceivably be a tripod, possibly). Steam-powered cephalopod I tossed on there because I just like the idea of a cuttlefish (or similar) that floats at roughly head-level as an animal companion, and putting it in a steampunk world would solve a lot of the feasibility issues.

I'd love to discuss the various merits involved in any of the animals listed here, or even go into way too much detail about the story itself, so if you express interest, consider yourself warned ;)

Comments

[redsixwing]

What's with this ticky box thing I keep seeing? *boggle*

Also, I have to vote for mini griffin, because I am very attached to gryphons of all shapes and sizes, and would like to see one in a steampunk setting. :3

It could have a mechanical hind leg or something. Hee. <3

[soc_puppet]

I believe the love of ticky boxes originates at Camp Fuck You Die - though if it didn't originate there, that is where my love of ticky boxes came from, at least. Can't recall in the slightest what made us quite so head-over-heels for them, though.

Hm; I'd been considering more front-end damage, but bypassing the issue of mechanical wings could well be simpler in the long run. Though steampunk wings will definitely be in some sort of use in that story, fufufufu...

[redsixwing]

Hee! Front-end damage.

Which leads me to think of a very sad scene with a character taking the pet to the steampunk vet, and saying something like "she's got an awful lot of front-end damage, I don't know if she's gonna make it.."

;_;

I need to go look at kittens now.

[soc_puppet]

Urk. I keep forgetting that the first story is definitely going to need a warning for animal harm. Clearly, I will have to draw lots of pictures of cute steampunk vet outpatients to make up for it.

In fact... *goes digging for fifteen minutes* Ah-ha! Found it! A picture and a story about an unorthodox alarm clock (and make it steampunk!) I only contributed the picture, but it doesn't feel complete without the story :)

[redsixwing]

That is adorable, right there. Cute kittens! (And make it steampunk!) \o/

[zidane]

I have to say cephalopod because Steampunk is hugely inspired by Jules Verne, who loved him some squids and such.

[soc_puppet]

I am totally with him on the squids and such. I'll probably end up including some somehow, even if they're not the main pet, especially since it's such a conceptually interesting idea. I think a nautilus with a steampunk-style mechanical shell would be pretty cool (and an excellent Verne reference, to boot), but so would entirely mechanical steampunk-organic cephalopods. And how would they have come about - or would steampunk technology be inspired by them? Decisions, decisions...

[inarticulate]

I like them all, really, but I am very fond of the nautilus. ♥

[soc_puppet]

A clockwork nautilus would be way cool ♥ I think I may be leaning towards the griffin animal companion, though :/ Still, the story is (mostly) set at a university; if I make the clockwork nautilus the school mascot, that'd be a great excuse to have tons zipping around and stuff, plaster it all over the walls, etc. Hrm, food for thought...

[inarticulate]

That, too, would be awesome! I just love the way they move through the water and their little tentacles, and a steampunk version would be extremely awesome. :D

Try this...

[ysabetwordsmith]

Ferret! Steampunk ferrets are fun. They can do tricks, but they're also full of mischief.

Re: Try this...

[soc_puppet]

Okay, steampunk ferret would be downright adorable. If nothing else, I can have one making chaos in the vet's office.