2015/09/18 [DMFA #1606] You'll be what you eat

[Tapewolf]

The comment on the katbox version is interesting:

Generally speaking, it's usually only Ksh'ta and terror/fear clans that slowly gain monstrous mutations. Most Cubi tend to just adjust to their mental idealized version of themselves (aka: they become more attractive) with a dash of whatever best suits their affinity. So joy clans tend to get more adorable, anger clans tend to look like they are always ready to handle a fight, lust clans...well you get the idea.

It's a little bit different from actual shapeshifting in that it is actually altering their default look. (as been mentioned, if you knock a cubi out who has been shapeshifting they revert back to their default look) But it's fairly slow and definitely not an overnight process, but tends to happen over the course of years after they start getting their Cubi powers. I think someone on one of the forums dubbed it 'Cuberty'.

Now that - the notion that they can affect permanent changes to their physique - is an interesting point and one that I don't think has been mentioned prior.  Though it does make me regret setting Daryil clan's affinity to fear - they aren't very good at it, they seem to be a bit more lust/crazy based.

[Grey Wolf]

I wonder if this is...voluntary? Like, I imagine most 'cubi are chill with it (most humans are chill with going through puberty, though there tend to be rough patches), but what about 'cubi who either resent their affinity or like how they currently look? Can they resist this transformation via magic or stubbornness? Or (if they have one) speak to their clan leader about their reservations?

[HaDDea]

joy clans tend to get more adorable
What is Mink going to look like when he is ~1500 years old??!! 

how old is Mink, anyway... he's at least 400, as he was with Abel when he first arrived.

We're not sure how pain works as an affinity either, Dan - though it seems like the resulting affinity is part of the Ascension process. Perhaps the Cyrans will look like whatever they do when they encounter painful situations? They might make great EMT personnel... or excellent torturers. I expect that anyone who has a sort of "emotionally ambiguous" affinity will end up looking more like whatever helps to feed them.

[Tapewolf]

Perhaps the Cyrans will look like whatever they do when they encounter painful situations? They might make great EMT personnel... or excellent torturers.

...or just what he is now, an adventurer.  But yes, I was thinking emergency response team too.

I wonder if this is...voluntary? Like, I imagine most 'cubi are chill with it (most humans are chill with going through puberty, though there tend to be rough patches), but what about 'cubi who either resent their affinity or like how they currently look? Can they resist this transformation via magic or stubbornness? Or (if they have one) speak to their clan leader about their reservations?

I would imagine that they are the ones who just sort of... improve.  What Amber was saying about most of them just becoming an idealised version of themselves.  Hell, there's a few things I'd fix if I was mutable...

[Tuyu]

I wonder if this is...voluntary? Like, I imagine most 'cubi are chill with it (most humans are chill with going through puberty, though there tend to be rough patches), but what about 'cubi who either resent their affinity or like how they currently look? Can they resist this transformation via magic or stubbornness? Or (if they have one) speak to their clan leader about their reservations?

I would imagine that they are the ones who just sort of... improve.  What Amber was saying about most of them just becoming an idealised version of themselves.  Hell, there's a few things I'd fix if I was mutable...

Aside from which...shapeshifters...

I wonder if there is, or has ever been, a clan of angst...

[Cassi-kun]

I wonder how Quoar-clan Cubi are affected... Now I'm imagining the females as kinda plump and matronly types.

And now I've gotta look into my own clans. Most of them are pretty unexciting but I've got a hate clan and... okay well honestly "punchable faces" sounds about right XD

S'prolly gonna have an impact on my Kish'Ta's career tho... he plays "cute" children in horror movies, which is gonna involve more shapeshifting as he gets less cute XD And I like how the Kish'Ta example included a five-fingered hand...

[HaDDea]

I wonder if there is, or has ever been, a clan of angst...

That would be Clan 'Imo...  their clan quirk is that all members have black fingernails

And I like how the Kish'Ta example included a five-fingered hand...

it's also backwards O.o

[Tapewolf]

And I like how the Kish'Ta example included a five-fingered hand...

it's also backwards O.o

Actually, it's not - if you look closely, it's a six-fingered hand with two thumbs.

[ZacAttac21]

The comment on the katbox version is interesting:

Generally speaking, it's usually only Ksh'ta and terror/fear clans that slowly gain monstrous mutations. Most Cubi tend to just adjust to their mental idealized version of themselves (aka: they become more attractive) with a dash of whatever best suits their affinity. So joy clans tend to get more adorable, anger clans tend to look like they are always ready to handle a fight, lust clans...well you get the idea.

It's a little bit different from actual shapeshifting in that it is actually altering their default look. (as been mentioned, if you knock a cubi out who has been shapeshifting they revert back to their default look) But it's fairly slow and definitely not an overnight process, but tends to happen over the course of years after they start getting their Cubi powers. I think someone on one of the forums dubbed it 'Cuberty'.

Now that - the notion that they can affect permanent changes to their physique - is an interesting point and one that I don't think has been mentioned prior.  Though it does make me regret setting Daryil clan's affinity to fear - they aren't very good at it, they seem to be a bit more lust/crazy based.

Maybe Daryil clanners can just drift toward more and more flamboyant clothing. (Not joking, actually serious this time.)

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

Actually, it's not - if you look closely, it's a six-fingered hand with two thumbs.

"Someone was looking for you."

[Amber Williams]

I wonder if this is...voluntary? Like, I imagine most 'cubi are chill with it (most humans are chill with going through puberty, though there tend to be rough patches), but what about 'cubi who either resent their affinity or like how they currently look? Can they resist this transformation via magic or stubbornness? Or (if they have one) speak to their clan leader about their reservations?

It's generally about as voluntary as humans going through puberty is.   But the degree of changes is more within the individual's realm of control.  Sort of like how some people are genetically more geared to pack on pounds, but through their own efforts avoid doing so.  A lot of it for Cubi really depends on how they pursue their clan's affinity (or if they do at all).  If a cubi is one that tends to gear itself towards causing said emotion in others...it's outward appearance is more likely to shift and more likely to do so dramatically. Where as if a cubi tends to gear itself towards putting themselves into situations that causes said emotions, the shift will be far less dramatic and more likely to just lean towards them looking like an idealized version of themselves. 

So a Nact'larn Cubi who wants to incite lust from others will no doubtedly end up adapting to maximize that effectiveness, where as a Nact'larn Cubi who prefers to just be a lustful individual herself will likely be relatively attractive but not nearly to the extreme of her counterpart. 

[Eboreg]

I guess Danny-boy would get to be more and more ... spiky ... the more he inflicts pain on others. Although Aary has a pain affinity so I guess Danny-boy can look to her for some ideas.

[Techcubi]

So, does that mean most clan Dimanika members look quirky and confusing?

[Ghostwish]

... so what the heck does Seme do? Emo isn't a phase it's a shift?

[Nightmask]

Considering Destania's extreme age and she's been inflicting pain for millenia and focused on being an expert at it one has to wonder what her actual default look is (this is someone who actually lit her head on fire and kept it that way as part of a disguise without even a hint of her suffering from it after all).  You'd think her true look at this point would be something that would make her a good partner with a fear-based clan because you'd think she'd be terrifying to look at being optimized for causing pain in others.

[Eboreg]

Come to think of it, have we ever seen Dee in her "basic" form?

[Tapewolf]

Come to think of it, have we ever seen Dee in her "basic" form?

I don't know, but I'd guess that the form she uses inside the academy is likely to be fairly close to it.  I guess we won't know unless she gets KO'd...

[Lying Foo]

I hate to be (yet somehow always am) "that guy," but I thought headwings came in at 25?

[Tapewolf]

I hate to be (yet somehow always am) "that guy," but I thought headwings came in at 25?

That's probably the average.  They usually come in during the 20s... I seem to remember that Aary's came in at 19, which is considered unusual.

[eeveeeon]

hello. I have been reading a long long LONG time, ( since the first hundred strips, or earlier I think" haven't had a real chance to create a forum account since I don't often use them, however I must know who it is that made the cuberty remark, since when I read It in the authors message I actualy snerked so hard I pulled something in my ribs.

[Tapewolf]

hello. I have been reading a long long LONG time, ( since the first hundred strips, or earlier I think" haven't had a real chance to create a forum account since I don't often use them, however I must know who it is that made the cuberty remark, since when I read It in the authors message I actualy snerked so hard I pulled something in my ribs.

This appears to be the first post using that word:
http://clockworkmansion.com/forum/index.php/topic,2506.msg103300.html#msg103300

I have a snapshot of the earlier forum, but the term doesn't seem to have been coined then.

[justacritic]

I wonder if this also colors the outlook of clan members.

[Kajet]

Is it me or is the cubi in the background of panel 2 just... differently adorable at age 240?

[HaDDea]

Is it me or is the cubi in the background of panel 2 just... differently adorable at age 240?

Hey, to each their own - but if I were a kid and that 'cubi was my mom, I'd be yelling for my dad to come comfort me at night after nightmares. Hopefully he's not also from Kish'ta 

[Grey Wolf]

Is it me or is the cubi in the background of panel 2 just... differently adorable at age 240?

Hey, to each their own - but if I were a kid and that 'cubi was my mom, I'd be yelling for my dad to come comfort me at night after nightmares. Hopefully he's not also from Kish'ta 

"It's okay, sweetie. We're right under your bed."

[ZacAttac21]

Is it me or is the cubi in the background of panel 2 just... differently adorable at age 240?

Hey, to each their own - but if I were a kid and that 'cubi was my mom, I'd be yelling for my dad to come comfort me at night after nightmares. Hopefully he's not also from Kish'ta 

"It's okay, sweetie. We're right under your bed."

Good one.

[Alondro]

So then, for the clan with lust affinity...

I guess that's where the 'hyper' fetish originated.