Whimsy for Those Without
As written by Ms. Fleeca, a Quillrend
We as beings cannot comprehend a sense beyond our mental capabilities. That is to say, the Subterfewege cannot see, the Sample Snap cannot taste, and the Sia Tree cannot hear. But, for some of us, that's quitter's talk. Some curiosity cannot be quelled, even with good reason. For the dreamers and ponderers, I do my best to describe to sense of whimsy not only based on my own input, but the input of my peers. This article includes the words of no fewer than thirty individuals capable of sensing whims.
To give the reader a baseline of my particular literary voice, included below are written descriptions of other basic senses as I experience them. While these are my opinions and not those of a larger grouping, I suspect they will still be of some aid. The writing you perceive here is filtered thought my own personal lens. While others' thinking is present, it's spoken through me in this particular instance and we, as beings, are horribly leaky creatures in terms of personality. The information will be interpreted differently though my voice than it would be from any other, as is the nature of things. It's awfully pesky business. [There's a small winking face with a canine nose drawn alongside the text]
Sight: The focusing of light through the eyes to perceive images and colors. A vibrant and intricate way to observe the world. While vision can at times be quite blurry, it's often sharp and sensitive. Those without underlying issues such as far or nearsightedness may detect movement from more than a mile away if there are no obstructions and the cause of the motion is sufficiently sizeable, colorful, or bright. From twenty feet away, the are able to observe the movement of individual leaves on the exterior of a bush or count fruits laid out on a table, but not perceive individual hairs in a mane or see individual grains of sand in a jar (unless their vision is abnormally strong). Many owners of sight can only see well during the day or during the night depending on the species of the individual. In a person's non-optimal light level, details begin to lay out of reach. The more drastic the unideal light, the less the user can see. This may reach the point where the owner can see nothing at all aside from a solid color such as white or black.
• Sight helps a user perceive danger, assess their surroundings, recognize individuals, read social cues, and navigate areas among other things.
Smell: The detection of an airborne chemical via specialized nerves in order to process scents. Observing the world through smell is a peculiar balance. Scents are emitted from a source and, depending on the strength of that source, may be detected from a great distance or only be focused when one is very near. It can linger, leaving trails, or vanish in an instant with the breeze. Many smells are ambient, a background force unless focused on. Some others may be aggressive, offensive, and unwavering. An average user will be able to locate one individual wearing perfume in a crowd or detect whether food is still edible or has gone off, but not differentiate the scent threads of five different flowers while standing still in a garden or detect a passing bird in flight. The distance at which one can perceive smell varies both on scent strength and species. If someone is baking a loaf of bread in an outdoor oven, Snakekeys may perceive and be able to track the scent from upwards of 300 feet away. Quillrends can do the same over more than ten miles if conditions are not especially poor.
• Scent helps a user detect when food is safe to eat, identify faraway objects, identify locations and conditions (such as rain or a wildfire), and commonly enhances taste among other things. Users with a stronger sense of smell may use it to identify individuals, locate things, or navigate areas.
Taste: The processing of flavors, typically through the tongue. Taste tends to be a supplementary sense rather than the one that a person uses to primarily navigate the world, depending on species. It is vastly varied and sensitive, but generally passive unless in use and very short-ranged. Owners majorly utilize taste to enjoy food and drink, but it also aids in the detection of things harmful to ingest (such as spoiled food) or the identification of objects. Taste is a distinguished, durable sense not easy to overwhelm. Most users will be able to detect upwards of a dozen sources of flavor from a single sample, such as the seasonings, vegetables, stock, and meats used in a soup. An abundance of very acidic, sour, spicy, or otherwise potentially harmful stimuli can "burn" taste into being functionally useless for an extended period in the affected area, but it is otherwise difficult to fully disable. The average user may be able to perceive tastes from a very strong source upwards of twenty feet away due to airborne molecules. Examples of this are a pungent perfume store or the acrid smoke from a bonfire.
• Taste enables a user to enjoy meals, detect items safe for consumption, and explore stimuli among a few other things.
Touch: The detection of stimulation through the nerves. Easy to take for granted, touch is obscenely varied and often a massive source of information for those that have it. Sensitivity typically depends on the perceiving area. Hands and paws are so receptive that they may be able to perceive the difference between a single layer of molecules while most other areas of the body will have reduced detection. It's an analyzing sense, leaving nothing to the imagination. It ignores nothing, be it temperature, pain, pressure, texture, vibration, etc... The mind can become overwhelmed and overstimulated by touch, but the perception itself is nigh ceaseless and, in ways, unforgiving. The sensation may be inhibited by damage to the nerves or numbness, but otherwise resistant to disabling. Touch generally remains within the confines of the body, but vibration may be detectable from up to fifty feet away if the source is powerful enough.
• Touch aids a user in processing their surroundings, detecting temperature, feeling pain, seeking comfort, avoiding potentially painful stimuli, and engaging in social cues among many other things.
Hearing: The detection of vibrations in a medium, such as air or water, to perceive sounds. Hearing is a precise filter, but has moments of ambience where external forces, such as echolocation or movement, may be required to fill the silence. A cane will produce different sounds on cobbles and on grass, but without the cane, these things sit idle. It's very socially useful, as much of communication utilizes it (perhaps too much). Hearing also does a great deal for one's periphery. Many forms of observation are focused forward with the face, but hearing collects a wide swath of information and fills in a key blind spot: directly behind oneself. Like touch, it's difficult to fully disable. Even in loud, chaotic situations, it will continue to dutifully collect babble. Incredibly loud noises will put hearing out, though it may only be for a time. If sound is sufficiently voluminous, it can be picked up from incredible distances. Thunder can be heard by Snakekeys from ten miles away and Quillrends from around thirty-five.
• Hearing helps a user to communicate, detect approach, maintain a wide mental image of an area, observe situations and places, and find peace among other things.
That being said and done:
Whimsy: The collection of airborne whims, generally via whimsy pads, to be translated into mental input. Whims, like scents, sights, and sounds, are virtually everywhere. They flow like currents, but are not perceptively altered by outside forces such as topography or winds. They may, at times, bend into the ground and disappear. Whimsy is always aware of these invisible rivers, though at a reduced rate. Without focus, the whims swirl past the surface, uncaught like water poured onto an upturned bowl. As one enhances scent by inhaling, a conscious action, so too does one swallow whimsy by enabling the reception of the pads. It's comparative to willfully opening one's pores. Much of the whim is consumed by the senser, though more will forever be produced "upstream". A small portion will spill over the pads' edges, but still, a Quill standing behind another may express frustration at them "eating all the whim". It's not uncommon for whimsy users to be constantly perceiving gulps this sense, so users will often not stand "downstream" from one another in ways that obscure the pads.
Whims can be caught from upwards of fifty miles away, though the chances of the stream curling perfectly towards a user from such a distance are slim. More commonly, whimsy collects information from a ten to five mile radius. This information can come from wildly varying directions, though. A Quillrend will typically know the way to travel in order to step into the whim stream for the desired direction, but this is not always the case. Threads can be chaotic as they please, creating whirlpools and riptides. Detection is worsened by seismic activity, stress from a grouping of five or more creatures, and those actively having nightmares.
All well and good, but what does it feel like? Whimsy is cool and crisp. It smells like the color blue, tastes like the sunset, and sounds like the odor of mint. It's like standing on the edge of a cliff, eyes closed, biting wind on one's face, if such a thing could be perceived with a single breath. Consuming it is an ice river across the brain. One feels the shape of beasts brushed past upstream, sees their movements in real time, knows the basic state of their collective mood. Relaxed, still animals can be hunted unknowingly. Frightened, surging beasts should be well avoided. Whims that slide past people - Snakekeys, Quillrends, others - are different. These pluck at unseen things as if they were a delicate instrument. Quiet emotions, wants, needs, expectations, all laid out to the observant. The threads tangle together easily, becoming more and more disjointed the further one is from a person until they get so twisted, they become smooth again, reduced to their previous state. Some channels are tuned into easily. Two Quills face each other while having an idle conversation. One smiles and the other sees it, feels it in the air, drinks it in the whims. The second's threads are altered and the first feels that they're pleased the interaction is going well, wishes to talk some moments longer. The second doesn't know what the first has sensed, but feels a connection in the current. It was a more bonding day than either of them expected.
Later, when the sun has set, the first Quillrend will seek a resting place to pass the night. Their whimsy is open and they read the faces in the wind. The little curl of whim sloping over the small hill is no good. It speaks of a restless sleep and wakefulness. Nearby, beneath a bent tree, there's a thicker current, more of a river. There, it will surely blanket the Quill throughout the whole of the night, not pushed astray by tiny movements. But there's something there, a sourness. It's not strong, doesn't cause them to draw back, but it does put a lace of unease in the air. Lying there will draw out a particular dream, not exactly a nightmare, but not exactly welcome... Finally, they detect a quaint little trail rolling over a quiet knoll. It speaks of perfect nothing and the Quill lies there, desiring no dreams. Their sleep is deep, concise, and well-timed, as they've judged the whims well.
• Whimsy helps a user hunt, avoid danger, navigate social situations, and get the most out of their sleep
Snakekeys and Rocks
Ancient Hybrid
Coins made out of a peculiar pink metal, minted with the image of a five-fingered hand. A feathered wing sprouts from each side of the wrist. The image is only present on the upper-side of the coin. Used among Children of Shivelight as the primary method of currency
What is a plant is defined by keke by using the cell structure shown here, believed to the 'original' fully developed structure, or an evolutionary child of it. Plant cells have synthesizers, at least one APS, and cell walls while non-plant cells do not
