Work Text
How the hell do I even start this, a journal that's going to be published online? I'm certainly not the best writer, no. English isn't my first language and I do slip up occasionally. I'm okay-ish with spelling, but I'm not good with grammar. When I write, It's like a flow of consciousness. I guess. It downgrades as I go on.As an introduction, my name is Khime. Full name is Khime Pudovi-Thi-Nantai-Ejai. I don't offer to shorten it because I like my full name and I adore being a hassle towards other people. Who doesn't?I'm intersex. I refuse to call myself Nonbinary because I.. just am not. I use gender-neutral pronouns, whatever, whatever. I don't really see what's so important about this nowadays. I'm 20 years old and I live with my dads, fiance and child, Ramses. I have two dads and I'm adopted. Also they're a completely different species than me, but, it doesn't really matter. I just thought it was cool. I have autism, borderline and possibly ADHD. Pretty soon I'm just gonna become the entire DSM-5 at this point. I'll try to refrain from mentioning my partner a lot because I know some people don't want to read about that and I usually say TMI things regarding them. Just note that my partner doesn't like it when I use gender neutral pronouns for them, so I will now call him a he from now on. For you all? Y'all are required to call him a "they." Sorry I don't make the rules here (My writer does however)I just fucking spent an hour writing some of this shit down and forgot to save it. Whatever, I can deal with typing it all again. I adore teaching people about new things. So... Where was I at?Ah yes, to start..I live on an odd planet populated by serpentine creatures known as Slinkos. They're rather tall and unfriendly, but I managed to get adopted by two of them. They have skin and fur - sometimes, hair, which is different than what you humans may think of when you think of a serpentine species. I have two dads who look vastly different compared to each other. One has short fur, the other has very, very long fur. Not to mention that one of them is at least 15 feet taller than the other. They can sport several different colors - ranging from calming hues of browns to vibrant colors as blinding as the color white on a summer day. They can be as dark as the night sky on a clear night, or just.. As bright as the sun. No one knows how they grew to be so diverse, but people usually blame it on our progenitors. Their snouts are uncannily long like the Gharial gator and they have a cute nose like that of a cat. In fact, here's a drawing of one that my writer made. Link. This is my pa. Note that I have two dads! Pa is Chris, dad is Vic. I will refrain from calling them my "father" or "fathers" due to personal reasons. Maybe I'll explain it in another chapter. Just remember, I'm a fictional character. Why not take my dad for reference, too? Link. I am not a Slinko. I'm a humanoid unlike them. I'm very short compared to them and I have legs. I have hooded, slanted eyes, complete with dirt-brown skin and long blue hair that goes down to my knees and curls out like flower petals. My eye-whites are yellow thanks to the color of my blood - same with my teeth. I often get rude comments telling me to brush my teeth, even though I brush them daily. Now, you may be thinking - what does blood color even have to do with your eye whites and the color of your teeth? No one knows how my species came to be, first of all. Some say that we manifested due to some fuckery that was going on between gods. Some say that we evolved from Slinkos. Others say that we evolved from Apes, much like humans. However, humans don't exist here and I surely don't want to come in contact with any type of human. Sorry. Anyways..Our blood comes in different colors,. it comes in different brightnesses, too. The brightness of one's blood is entirely dependent on an alien iron alloy dubbed Canovite. It's named after a deity who is referred to as Canov. Not many people like Canov because they were "weird" around their sister, but I genuinely just don't see the problem with it. Whatever. Canov was the one who discovered that blood has different effects based on how dark it is. The color of the blood flat out doesn't matter. It doesn't matter if a Slinko or a Kekoa has red or blue blood, it just matters if one of them has pastel red blood or navy blue blood like the ocean. The amount of Canovite in one's blood is referred to as the Canovite Concentration, which is often shortened to CC. If a Slinko - or anything, rather, wants to find out what their CC is, they just need to go to a lab and get it tested for free. They just have to prick their finger and it can pretty much be determined without tests. That's because it smells. Did I mention that Canovite can be used as a drug when exposed to oxygen, like, the oxygen that we breath? Isn't that neat? Actually, let me provide y'all with a chart about it. It think it's pretty cool. If you humans are interested in it, I'll write another chapter about Canovite and its uses. It's pretty cool and I think you guys would enjoy it. But that's just the words from a fictional character. There are five different types of Canovite blood - dayblood, lightblood, midblood, darkblood, and nightblood. Nightblood is a pretty metal name and I will not be taking criticism for it because I can't handle any sort of criticism. Dayblood: Does nothing to you. 0-5% CC, rare blood type. Blood hue doesn't matter as it is commonly seen as white.Lightblood: Gets you a bit woozy like staying out in the blistering sun for longer than you should. 6-39% CC, pretty common. Blood can be a blinding white, or a violent vibrant.Midblood: Literally gets you high; This is where the problems may start. 40-49% CC, rare blood type. Blood is usually a murky color, it can even just be a dark grey.Darkblood: Gets you high with the chance of making you pass out. 50-95% CC, most common blood type. Blood color is usually dark and unsaturated.Nightblood: Will flat out kill you if you have not built up a tolerance to it. Death isn't permanent here. 96-100% CC, rarest blood type of them all. Blood is black. It is gooey and often has chunks of raw Canovite floating around it like a bad soup.Canovite is rarely used nowadays thanks to its reputation of literally destroying families. This system is crucial for literally everyone in this society because it helped - and continues to help - scientific breakthroughs. Like that of the Wilt. Before I move on with that, I gotta talk about how I mentioned that death isn't permanent here.We do not have funeral homes, nor do we have graveyards. Instead, we have advanced morticians which are dubbed Bulbkeepers. There are only two bulbkeepers in charge of the entirety of not one, but two whole planets. They are literal zombies, so they do not need to rest or set shifts for each other. Most of the time, they're busy and away on their job. They have a long, bony jaw at the end of their tail like that of prongs that is seen on those claspers you see at salad bars. I forgot the word sorry. The process of bulbing someone is very graphic, so I'll spare the details here. I may go more in-depth with it if I decide to write a whole chapter on it. Anyways.Inside of their tail - their tail, also called a bulber - gapes wide open. A tiny bulb is at the base of the bulber, which glows a nice blue. They snap with such force that they can crush boulders, which is needed because you need to decapitate someone in order to bulb them. Anyways.. If the bulb comes in contact with any deceased organic matter- whether it be blood or flesh - the creature will vaporize and transform into a bulb. Bulbs are bean-shaped and are made of thick glass. They have sweet juice inside of them which is actually the soul of the creature in liquid form. If it meets oxygen, it will materialize back into the creature.So, if someone wants to revive their dead friend - or use it as a weapon (this is commonly seen in my workplace), they must smash the bulb on the ground and it revives the creature right then and there. The deceased can decide if they wish to return to the mortal world or not. Bulbkeepers can communicate with dead people, as it is their job. When a creature is bulbed, whenever the Bulbkeeper somehow catches a break, they will try to contact their family or friends if they wish to retrieve the bulb. Unclaimed bulbs are brought to this large undersea library in which they are neatly lined up on large shelves. Each bulb has the name of the creature. Families who have died simultaneously and do not get their bulbs claimed will be placed in the same cubby of a shelf. Pretty sweet, isn't it?Royal figures - such as my parents - or even me, surprisingly - get special bulbs. My pa has a gold bulb and my dad has a black bulb. That reminds me of something and how the Bulbkeeper of both planets (Permino) has one of my dad's horns because it got torn off. Tangent over.Remember how I mentioned something called the Wilt? The wilt is a disease that was created in a critical lab accident. My dad and Permino were experimenting with blood transfusions, due to reports of Slinkos dying mysteriously after receiving a blood transfusion. They found out that if you try to transfuse blood within 5 CC ticks within the Slinkos' base blood, it will create the Wilt. For example, a 6CC Slinko can't transfuse with a 12CC or a 1CC. This makes it nearly impossible to transfuse any type of blood, which is why death is so common here. Death isn't a bad thing here, either. It's literally just a minor inconvenience. However, people here can be killed permanently. But I won't discuss that for now. They dropped their blood into a beaker - My dad is 74CC, and Permino is 101 CC (What? 101 CC? His blood is like expired milk. You can cut it in half, it's so viscous). The blood began to sizzle and bubble, eventually exploding out of the instrument and infecting them. My dad managed to recover rather quickly, however, Permino lost a whole arm to it. It managed to escape the lab and plague a large area of land, but they both managed to contain it. A whole continent here is just a Wilt wasteland and no one is advised to go there. Except for me because I'm special.There are two types of Wilt - regular Wilt and rainbow Wilt. Happy pride, they say. Wilt can kill in a matter of just a few days, or in the matter of just a few hours.Regular wilt can kill in just a few days whilst rainbow Wilt can kill in just a few hours. The Wilt is a tar-like substance with colored holes in it that drill through your skin and melt it away like magma. However, nothing graphic is seen, as all wounds are covered by the Wilt. Despite it plaguing several planets for centuries, we haven't gotten rid of it and it's likely that it won't be eradicated because people are stupid. Just kidding. It kills so quickly - and it's grown to be antibiotic resistant - that it has a 100% mortality rate. I think it's mutating now that creatures from other planets are calling my planet home?Oh well.That's it for today, people. My brain is wrung dry and my head hurts from thinking so much. I'll update this soon, it just depends on how damn busy I am. Bye.