| Overall shape: |
My overall form is pretty similar to the one of a raptor, or other bipedal dinosaur, with the addition of wings and tailwings, and a few other things. Most of my body would seem to be vaguely cylindrical, since it's almost as wide as it's high. There is no clear separation between the main part of my body and the tail. I'm built to be able to stand completely upright/vertical on my legs, and go completely horizontal for takeoff/running or carrying heavy things. When horizontal, my hands can barely reach the ground, which make them pretty much useless as far as walking goes. My wings are made so that they can reach the ground to be used to walk on instead. My wings are made for gliding only, and have a structure different from bat/bird-like wings. I also have a smaller pair of wings, still only for gliding, attached to my tail. They're a few feet behind my hind legs, and are the only thing that really marks the end of my real body and the beginning of the tail. My tail is made in two section. The first, between the legs and tailwings, starts the same size as my body at the hind legs level, and slowly gets to about half that size where the tailwings attach to it. Once past the tailwings, my tail quickly gets smaller, being about an inch or two in diameter for the last few feet. |
| Size: |
I'm somewhere between 20 and 35ft long. Don't really know the height precisely, considering i can be standing anywhere from full upright to completely horizontal. I used to say slightly over 20ft, excluding the tail, but seeing how big a 20ft+ bipedal dinosaur is, i realised that it's much smaller than what i had in mind. If i assume that i am 20ft, my head would probably be 3.5ft long, my neck about 2.5ft, my body from the neck to the hind legs would be about 7ft, and my tail would be 4ft long for the first section, and about 3ft for the second. (To be confirmed. I'm trying to do that mentally, and i might have that wrong.) |
| Skin/scales: |
On the outside, i am covered by a layer of very strong, thick skin. It's rather smooth, and seems to be very strongly attached. It won't "slide", and is very hard to pinch. It's strong enough to not get shredded by sliding down along a tree trunk or on the ground. Under this layer of skin, there are two layers of octogonal
bone-like scales. These protect me from whatever might pierce the skin,
help spread the pressure/force from crashlandings and other impacts,
and protect me from getting crushed by locking together to form some
kind of shell. The two layers are placed so that when unstretched, the
second layer blocks any opening that might be left between the scales
on the first layer. My skin attaches to these scales, and can't easily slide over
them. In a normal situation, the scales can't be seen unless my skin is
stretched. In that situation, my skin can look a bit as if it had a
bunch of flat surfaces instead of being smooth. In addition of providing protection against physical dammage,
the scales are also an important part of my immune system. Each of them
contains a liquid that seals wounds and quickly creates a shell around
any foreign body. In case of serious injury or infection, my body can reject the
affected scales, causing another layer of skin to form below the two
layers of scales, cutting them off from the rest of my body and letting
them die before replacing them. |
| Color: |
Very dark grey, almost black, with blue stripes. The middle of my back seems almost perfectly black, and my color seems to get slightly lighter as it goes toward my underside, but stays mostly the same. The difference wouldn't be noticeable in most situations. My stripes start in the middle of my back, and go 2/3 of the way down on each side of my body. They are in a somewhat triangular shape, getting thinner as they get closer to my underside. The space between each stripe is about twice the size of the stripe itself. The stripes have the ability to fade to the same color as the rest of the body, or any point between. I have some control over them, to the point of being able to make them fade in and out independantly, but this requires a lot of concentration. They normally react according to emotions and health. They can go from an "pure" blue, almost glowing, to the color of the skin surrounding them. They never actually emit light, but can sometime seem to glow. My stripes are placed in a way to never end up going over an eye, breathing opening, or limb. Only my wings arm have stripes too, looking more like bands than actual stripes. They are placed in a way so if my wings were stretched out along my back with the membrane folded, the stripes on the wings arm would match (or almost) with the ones on my back, and look as if it was the continuation of the same one. |
| Head: |
My head is a bit wider and more massive than the regular "jurassic park-style raptor" head. I have two different pair of eyes. The first one are where you
would normally expect them to be. I think they have a blue-ish color,
but i can't confirm that. I don't if they were cat-like or human like,
or something else. These were used mostly to watch things at a
distance, or in the dark, and had difficulty making the difference
between colors. The second pair of eyes is placed a bit lower on my snout, in
front of the primary ones. These eyes are much smaller, completely
black, and fit almost flat along the skin. They are made to be hard to
see, allowing me to watch other creatures while my primary eyes are
closed, letting them think i can't see. These are used mostly to add
color
information to what the primary ones see, and make depth perception
more accurate. Their position and smaller size also make them harder to
dammage. The image these eyes give me tend to be extremely colorfull
and be sensitive to UV/IR, but has a much lower "resolution" and object
too colorfull tend to look very blurry. (Colors bleeding over
eachother/less colorfull things disappearing.) Instead of having nostrils, i have 6 thin vertical opening on
each side of my snout. They are placed so that air can flow into a
cavity inside my snout from the 3 first, and exit by the 3 last. They
seem to go almost all the way up along each side of my snout. They can
close completely if needed to avoid inhaling dust or water, and can
also open very wide, making my breathing much more quiet and helping
pick up scents when staying still. The actual opening in my skull would
be about 1in wide for each, but there's two piece of skin covering
each, leaving only what's needed for breathing open, and filtering the
air a bit. On the tip of my snout, where the nostrils would be, i have
two
flat, slightly darker circles, which are too not very visible. I guess
these are some kind of sensors, but their use is still unconfirmed. I
suspect detection of electric/magnetic fields or radio frequencies of
some kind, but that's really not sure. I am pretty sure that they were
involved in communication between different members of our specie.
("raw data" transmission?) My mouth is made to be used to manipulate and carry things almost more than to eat food. As a result of this, i have a high number of teeth which aren't very sharp or long. They are mostly there to make sure i have a good grip on whatever i'm holding, while avoiding causing dammage to it. I grow a new set of teeth every 10-20 years, so teeth getting broken off or dammaged are only a temporary annoyiance. Inside my mouth, i have two acid pockets attached to my
palate. They stretch from the back of my mouth to my front teeth. As
long as they are empty, they stay flat against it, looking only like
two bumps. They are usually empty, only filling up semi-instinctively
when i'm about to eat, or when i feel threatened. The acid is strong
enough to cause severe burns, but will not melt thru anything. My skin
and the inside of my mouth are resistant to this acid, as it is used
instead of saliva to start breaking down food when eating, or sometime
to clean myself. (Or do "alien" imitations...?) The inside of my mouth goes from the same near-black color as
my skin, to a pink-red-ish flesh color near the center. Unless the acid
system is being used, my mouth stays rather dry, only moist enough to
prevent skin from drying too much. This allows me to use my mouth to
manipulate
things without having to worry about getting them all wet and slimy. My tongue is pretty standard looking, non-forked, and can
stretch out a few feet ouside of my mouth, being about twice the length
as my head at most. It is prehensile and rather strong, making it
almost as
usefull as a hand. It has the same pink-red-ish color as the rest of
his mouth, except for a somewhat wide, near black line going from the
tip of my tongue to my throat along the center of it. My ears are entirely internal, without any visible hole on the
outside. Another particularity of my head is a second bone along my
upper jaw to which my lower jaw hooks up to. If needed, this bone can
slide down, allowing me to open my jaws much wider than what would
normally seem possible without actually unhinging. |
| Neck: | My neck is rather short and wide, being more like the one
you'd see on
a t-rex than a raptor. It is slightly shorter than the whole lenght of
my head, and is just flexible enough so my head can be pointed
backward. It usually stays mostly straight, and cannot bend in a
S-shape. The muscles inside my neck are rather strong, allowing me to lift things with my head without too much trouble, or to carry smaller creatures on it instead of my back. On the inside, i have two different passages for air, one along each side of my head. They can partially collapse when my head is turned, helping a bit with mobility, and making me harder to choke. Another particularity is a small, thin line along the underside of my neck that is unarmored. While being some kind of a weak point for me, it helps prevent from choking if i attempt to swallow something that would normally be too big, as the lack of armor allows my skin to stretch and make space for it. |
| Main body: | My body has the overall shape that you would expect
from a large bipedal dinosaur, except maybe a bit wider. It tends to
have a raptor-ish look to it, without being quite the same as one. My arms seem to attach pretty much the same way as they would on a velociraptor, or other similar dinosaur. My wings shoulders are just a few inches past my arm's shoulder level, on the center of my back. My legs also attach pretty much in the same way that you would for a velociraptor, or other dinosaur. The first part of my tail attaches to my body without any visible separation, it looks only as if my body continued to get thinner and a bit smaller once past my legs, until my tailwings. My tailwings attach on each side of my tail about 2-3 feet (based on 20ft size) past my legs. One particular thing about my body is that the armor scales an ribs inside it create some kind of shell, making me look much bigger than i would normally be and leaving a lot of empty space. This allows me to be a lot more resistant to impacts and pressure, reduce the risks of internal organs being crushed or squeezed, to appear bigger to potential ennemies, and float more easily. The internal space left empty can also be used for storage or carry around various things in a special area inside it. Due to the shell-like design, no matter if i lose or gain weight, my shape stays mostly the same. It also limits the amount of weight i could possibly gain, since fat would fill the empty space and eventually starts to put pressure on internal organs. My underside from my neck to my tailwings is almost perfectly smooth, allowing me to slide along the ground or trees without any risk of something getting caught. |
| Arms: | My arms themselve are not very particular. They are long
enough so that my clawtips will touch the ground when fully stretched
out when my body is horizontal. They are not meant to be used to
walk on, and do not look extremely strong. I normally only use them to
manipulate objects, climb or land. My hands are rather particular. They are almost symmetric, and have 6 digits each. Two thumbs, 4 fingers. I have one thumb on each side, which can be rotated to point backward. Each has a rather sturdy claw at the tip. The fingers are placed in groups of two. The one closer to each thumb is a bit shorter than the other, and lacks a claw. It is partially attached to the other finger next to it. This second finger is a bit longer, and has a claw on it's tip. This particular finger configuration has multiple uses. First, my claws are designed to allow me to climb trees easily, no matter what direction my body is pointed in. My hands being somewhat X-shaped due to the fingers in groups of two and two thumbs, allows me to always have at least one or two finger pointing up which can hook up into tree's trunk. The shape of my hands also allows me to have a much stronger grip onto thing, as each two finger/thumb pair can hold onto things independantly, and give me 4 different direction to put pressure on things from. Second, my two opposed thumbs/big toes can act as landing hook, allowing me to land almost anywhere rather easily. This also allows me to stop almost instantly when running, and allow me to make very sharp turns by letting one claw dig into the ground and spin me around. Third, the smaller finger of each pair allows to control the pressure i put on things, and keep track of the other finger's position. It will always be the first to touch any object being grabbed, allowing to know where to stop the other fingers. Since my claws are made to dig into wood or other material without too much effort, it would be very easy otherwise to accidentally crush things by using too much strength |
| Legs: | I have rather typical raptor-ish legs. Made for running and
jumping, and rather strong. They are designed to be able to handle
heavy landings and carry extra weight without much trouble. My feet are designed in a similar way to my hands. The main difference being that the claws are much larger and a bit more curved, and present on each toe. The two thumb-type toes can go from fully backward to use as landing hook, to almost flat along the sides of my foot. The regular toes are grouped in the same way as my fingers, except that the longer and smaller toe in each pair have partially merged together, only the last two sections being able to move independantly. Due to their heavier construction, i can't really use my feet to manipulate objects very easily. But they are still flexible enough to allow things to be picked up by them, especially when gliding. |
| Wings: |
My wings are very different from the ones found on any other
creatures. They are designed to be used for climbing, fighting,
catching prey and to function as a 3rd pair of legs, as well as for
gliding. They are made of three "arm" sections, looking a bit like a regular arm with a second forearm at the end, and a fourth section pointing backward, used to stretch out the wing's membrane. When all four sections are fully extended, it looks vaguely like a L shape. At the end of the 3 "arm" sections, there is a rather sharp spike, which is my main mean of defense. The way my wings are designed, the elbows between each arm section all bend in the same direction. Because of this, my wings cannot fold in the regular "N" shape that most do. They simply flatten along my sides, or just cross over my back, the 3rd arm sections one against the other perpendicular to my back. The 4th section can fold flat along the 3rd, making the wing's membrane stay flat along the arm. All 3 sections of the wing stretch out to about 15ft, if we assume that i am 20ft long, giving me a 30ft wingspan. When gliding, my wings extend amost straight out to the sides, the 4th section at an angle slightly over 90 degree from the 3rd section. It stretches the membrane outward with the help of a cartilageous extension at it's end, making it almost as long as two wing "arm" sections. My wing's membrane is rather thick, being made in what would seem like two layers, and contains some muscles that can help change it's shape a bit while in flight, or keep it flat against the arm when not in use. When not fully stretched out by the 4th section of the arm, it can keep a pocket-like shape, allowing things to be carried on it. The wing membrane attaches onto my side from the wing shoulders to my legs along the side of my body. Other than flying, my wings can be used as weapon. The muscle in the wing's arm are rather strong, and allow me to "punch" with the spike at the end. When fighting, the wing's membranes are held completely wrapped around the arms, the spikes pointed foward, held on the side at the same level as the wing's shoulders. The spikes at the tip are able to easily go thru a tree's trunk, or dig far into the ground. These wingspikes are my main weapon. They are a somewhat shiny black color, perfectly straight, an with a sharp point. The base of each spike is slightly larger than the wing section it attaches to, making sure that an opponent's spike couldn't slide along it and get stuck in the skin between the spike and the wing's arm. They are built to be thrown foward hard enough to shatter armor scales and bones, which is almost the only way a member of my specie could hurt another. My wings can also be used as a 2nd pair of legs if needed. They can easily support my whole weight alone, and due to their length are much more usefull than my arms to walk on. The spikes at the end of my wings can allow me to use them to stop myself from sliding, or as anchor in some situations. Due to the angle at which the joints in my wings bend, i can wrap them around trees or other things when climbing. This allows me to climb surfaces where i couldn't get a good grip with my claws, and to launch myself more easily. They can also be used in the same way to catch prey, or trap it. I can wrap them around another creature to bring it down, or place them in a wide circle around them, creating a wall around them with my wing's membrane. The second way allows me to catch smaller creatures more easily, as i don't actually have to catch them, just to place my wings around the area they are in. I am also able to use my wings to propel myself underwater, since strength is more important than movement speed in that situation. For a good idea of how the wing's arm movements look like, think of a spider leg. Someone brought that to my attention, and it's oddly close. (Reference pic for the wings, just made fast to give an idea, not entirely accurate.) |
| Tail: | My tail is made in two sections. The first starts a few feet
past my hind legs, and seems to be just an extension of my body,
without any kind of clear separation from it. A few feet after the
beginning of
my tail, i have a pair of smaller wings, each made of one arm
connecting to
the side of the tail, and a "stretching" arm for the membrane. The
design of those is similar to my main wings, having the same overall
"L" shape, except without a real shoulder, spike or more than one arm
section. The tailwings can stay flat along the side of my tail, or spread out on each side. They are used for swimming and additional air control mostly. They cannot do much more than that, having only the ability to spread out or fold against the tail. The membrane of the tailwings start at their "shoulder", and goes down along my tail for the same lenght at the tailwing's "stretching" arm. The first section of my tail gets smaller as it gets closer to my tailwings, being about half the size it was a bit past my legs once it reaches the end of the tailwings membrane. The second section starts just at the end of the tailwings membrane and continues for a few feet, progressively getting smaller until it's only a few inches wide. This part of the tail is a lot more flexible than the first, being able to wrap around objects and hold onto them, without being very good at manipulating things. It is able to support my weight if i hang by it for a limited amount of time, and has enough strength to carry things. (Reference pic for tailwings, just made fast to give an idea, not entirely accurate.) |