Hello there my little grubs!

It's been a while since I could be fully active at my normal level, and I'm sorry for that. There's a lot going on that has me busy while I'm on low energy. As such I haven't been able to keep up with Activity Rewards and Event management as much. However, I hope I can rectify that soon.

To make up for the lost potential rewards, I've decided to do a little Lightbulb Giveaway. This week, everyone commenting on the dedicated comment thread of this journal gets 3 Lightbulbs added to their account!

Cutoff Date is Wednesday, 18th of April 2018.

I hope this will make things easier on you guys. Keep in mind that I do notice and reward activity, and I hope I can get back to doing it on a monthly basis!

Also yes - this reward stacks. If you participate on DeviantArt, Amino and here, you'll get the Lightbulbs for each this time. C: However you MUST be member of this world to get your Lightbulbs here!

Phew, last year was quite tumultuous, wasn't it? So many things happened, and our holiday extravaganza brought the species to life with a boom. After so much action, it's time to take things a bit more easy for a month. So this month will mainly see a simple activity event from my side.

• • • • • • ~ ʚĭɞ ~ • • • • • •

A New Home Challenge

To participate in the challenge, draw your Calyptra character in your own style! The picture should be colored and show the whole body, as well as be of the hybrid form of your bean. Everything else is up to you, just remain PG13 please! For every FIRST submission that fulfills these conditions, you receive 1 Lightbulb!

"But I don't have a Calyptra yet!"

Never fear! Aside from soon bringing in some Communal characters from different franchises, there already are a few nice options! You can fulfill the challenge by drawing one of the following characters:

Mascot Coffee:



Sample Babbu:



This list will hopefully grow soon, because...

People with multiple Characters

Can still only earn ONE Lightbulb total! As a small comfort, they are allowed to submit their additional Calyptra to the list above so that people without a character of their own can draw them. Just tell me in PM or the comments which character you wish to submit to the list. This option only exists for owners of multiple characters for now.

• • • • • • ~ ʚĭɞ ~ • • • • • •

Please pm me with a link to your submission so I can find it easily! Otherwise I might simply overlook it! Ideally, also mention that it's for this challenge in the description.

• • • • • • ~ ʚĭɞ ~ • • • • • •

I will likely only be able to update the central bank on the weekends, so please don't be alarmed if your new balance doesn't immediately show up. C:

Now go forth and have fun arting!!

It's tiiiiime! The month (and with it, the year) is ending! And with that, it's time to reward our most active members and tie up some loose ends. C: !

Activity Rewards

Sadly, no one was active in the TH portion of our community. So... no activity rewards this time. I will award singular Lightbulbs to active members in the future though! And maybe once I'm back home, I can foster more activity...

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Raffle Winners

For closure, I wanted to provide a comprehensive list of the holiday raffle winners! Here we go:

• Matchbox: won by Minka_M.K of Adopts Amino
• Lovebug: won by GreywaterAlley of Calyptra Amino
• Candy Princess: won by Demonsocks of Calyptra Amino
• Pink Fluff: won by teadoodlz of Adopts Amino
• Swirls and Tinsel: won by the herb lord of Calyptra Amino
• Santa's Helper: won by breaking penguin of Calyptra Amino

If you want to check the receipts (screencaps) of the winner drawings, they are collected in this folder until the end of January. C:

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Roadmap

So now that the year fades out and a new one begins, you might be interested in learning what I've planned for the group and species' future! And phew, there are plans - oh so many of them! Some will have to wait until late January/early February, when I can return home (to a stable and not highly limited internet connection! ;A;) but there are some that I can already tackle. Some I will work on on the weekends, when I have the opportunity to move to a better spot for online stuff during the day, some I will approach with the help of my lovely co-admin :devparziivale:.

Owner Registry

I really want to keep tabs on who owns a Calyptra, so this is pretty high on my priority list and I planned on starting with it today. Instead of making several lists for the different platforms, I will try to put the registry into one single place. Likely a google doc or pastebin. If I don't manage to finish all of this today or tomorrow, I likely will in a week.

Communal Characters/Communal Character Artists

I am still working on the system for the CoCha Artists, but currently we are three people who can work on this. I'm going to put up polls for franchises very soon, since :devParziivale: and I have decided to start out small and see how well the system will work as we go. There will be five different franchises elected, and one character from each of those franchises will be drawn and published as CoCha. We will likely repeat this process once we're done with the first batch. If everything goes well, we should have some first babies to provide to the public by the end of January.

Lore

I am basically already sitting on entries on the origin of Calyptra Magic, Reproduction, Decorative Magic and Glamour and Shapeshifting. Some of these might be up before the year is over, some might have to wait until next week. I'm also mulling over if I can find a better way of collecting and presenting this information than a Stash Folder - maybe a wiki? I'm open for suggestions!

Mascot Refs

Coffee and Theo are all over the goshdarn group yet have no own refs yet. ;A; This is especially unpleasant because the mascots are an additional way for people to participate in some events even if they have no Calyptra yet! Coffee is about halfway done at the moment, Theo still needs to be drawn from the ground up - I will probably not manage to finish them before February though because I put most other things first.

Events for the Future

I will likely announce the event for January tomorrow. That will be an activity event, meaning that everyone who participates will get a small Lightbulb reward! So keep an eye on the Events Journal when the new year has begun!

Upload Backlog

I doubt that I will get to this before February, urgh... uploading characters takes lots of bandwidth and I hate halfassing it. So I'll probably wait until I can safely access a normal connection again. :/ You will get to see some pretty darn cute adoptables then though!

~~~

Well, that should just about cover everything. I wish you all a happy new year, have fun tonight and arrive safely in 2018! C:

It's time for the announcement I've been looking forward to for days now!

Introducing....


I have seen people translating characters from popular culture into closed species "OCs" before, and it's a concept that makes me deeply uncomfortable. Something feels wrong about a person laying claim to something every fan of a franchise might enjoy just as much.

Inspired by conversations with Caldoric and Shiny, I had an idea that I hope can make everyone happy who would enjoy such characters! Calyptra characters translated from pop culture will from now on be Communal Characters!

Communal Characters belong to everyone, including people who do not otherwise own a Calyptra character yet. No one is allowed to claim any of them as exclusively their own or to profit off them. Everyone may draw and RP freely using them. The only way one such character can be revoked from use is if someone lands on the blacklist or the creator/owner of the character asks to put it out of use.

This way, every fan of a franchise can use characters who are part of it in their Calyptra form, and people who don't have their own Calyptra can still join events and prompts by using Communal Characters! C:

Of course there are a few limitations though! For starters:

 Until further notice, I am the only one who can authorize a Communal Character Design. And I will appoint a few designated artists for this task.
This might change once it feels safe to distribute this power more evenly. You may make requests for characters you wish to see, or even suggestions for their traits - but I don't want you all to happily start drawing just to then have your heart broken as designs are rejected.

 Secondly, no interactions with a Communal Character can become part of your character's canon history! All of these interactions exist in a sort of Alternate Universe! This is to avoid hangups with different people playing the same character differently, and to prevent Caluptra characters meeting each other and realising that they all happen to be Harry Potter's children or something.

 Trying to force people into Communal Character RP or into any kind of relationship with/connection to your character is a quick path to the blacklist.
This should be self-explanatory under the harassment-rules, but better safe than sorry.

 The Communal Characters still fall under the Species Rules, and they should be treated according to My Terms of Ownership minus the permission to sell them.

 I also want to try and keep all of these character designs at 0 Lightbulbs if possible. This is another guideline that might change with time or will have exceptions made if it makes the most sense for a design. But I want to keep the Lightbulbs low - most adopts and MYO slots should be more valuable than Communal Characters by default.

Yes, some of that will probably feel super restrictive at first, but I would rather start out carefully and then loosen the rules as we go than have to pull the brakes while things already go downhill. X.x

I'll approach some people about the Communal Character Designs directly. The design above is not final by the way... I just wanted a recognisable babbu for the introduction of the idea. ;D So stay tuned for a hopefully slowly but steadily expanding number of characters that everyone can moff with!

It's finally done! Our Adopt-A-Secret-Santa Event has successfully concluded and the winners of the MYO-Slots have been chosen by my jury!

First off, a huge thank you to everyone who participated. Altogether there were 20 participants who sent in their designs! And the best thing is that all of these designs found a loving new home~! Here's are some thumbnails of the entries:

So now after this little Thank You, it's time to announce the winners!

First off, I sadly also have some not so fun news for you guys. Among the many submissions I received, most (as in 14 out of 20) did not properly follow the submission rules or they incorporated elements that do not comply with the Species Guide on Calyptra appearance. The most common issue was too small a file size for the complete ref, from near misses of maybe 1200 pixels in one direction to very small sizes of maybe 500-650 pixels in either direction. Among the anatomical errors the most frequent one were disconnected and differently colored neck- and head-hair.

Now, excluding all of these entries entirely from the event would have felt unfair and unnecessarily harsh. I wrote a tendency for crossbreeding into the Calyptra's lore for exactly such cases, to allow for small exceptions and unusual traits every now and then - especially among characters not created by me. So all those anatomical errors can be explained away as mutations due to crossbreeding somewhere down the line. And as for the sizes - most of them were still useable, and the one that I couldn't salvage was still happily embraced as it was by the person who received the gift. I want you guys to know that I really do my best to make things work out!

However, it would have felt a bit unfair to attach no consequences at all to this, especially combined with some cases of people whose entries actually were faulty enough to let them enter before they fixed them up.

So my decision in the end was to make everyone who participated eligible for a gift, as reward for their hard work and creativity. Having a Calyptra character in the first place is a great starting point to jump into other rewarding activities like prompts and themed events later on. But as a tradeoff, the only people eligible to win one of the three main prizes were the six participants who followed all of the rules and stuck to the correct anatomy! I am still thinking over how I will handle it in future years, because this hurt my soul to do - some of the most beautiful entries and personal favorites were among the entries disqualified this way. But the people who took the time to read, listen, and double check do deserve that reward, and seeing as I, too, worked hard on the announcements, rules and species guide, I feel that this might also be the best incentive to pay attention to these things in the future. Especially since you all still earned yourself a new lil bean to keep~.

So without further ado, here are the winners!

3. Place: mama-acorn!

Your entry not only arrived in a timely fashion, it was also executed with obvious care! The Calyptra's face is brimming with personality, and the soft, muted palette is incredibly pleasant to look at. It was a surprising but interesting move that you left out the markings completely, to settle for a very plain but very pleasant design. For your beautiful contribution, you receive an MYO-Slot and 5 Lightbulbs to burn on your characters or any other wishes you might have! They have been registered in your account in the bank.

2. Place: PopoDaWolf!

I'm always incredibly happy when people take advantage of my little note that all bodytypes are welcome among the Calyptra, and so seeing how you drew those gorgeous thunder thighs and broad shoulders made me smile brightly when I saw your entry! The soft greens and browns are a beautiful combination, and the face and stance make me want to hug and befriend your character on the spot! For your fun contribution, you receive an MYO-Slot and 10 Lightbulbs to spend on your characters or whatever else you might want to do with them! They have been registered in your account in the bank.

1. Place: erratictransparency!

Your design is another one of those that made me smile right when I first saw it! This "I'm a little shit"-grin, those "come at me bro!"-arms and that firm stance - it's just so fun to look at! Of course, that alone wouldn't have won you the top prize though - it's your actual design that knocks this entry out of the park. Making the markings vaguely reminiscent of tree bark while adding the twist that they look almost more like running mascara around the eyes was a really cool take on the concept of the markings, and you obviously put a lot of love and effort into them and the wing pattern. For your lovingly made contribution, you receive an MYO-Slot and 15 Lightbulbs to spend on your new babies or whatever you wish! They have been registered in your account in the bank.

Now that everyone has received their main prizes, here are some honorable mentions!

Once to GreywaterAlley, Morrynlupine/Sto and Whydotheleavesfall! Your entries followed all of the rules and specifications to a T, and as a little reward for this you each get 3 Lightbulbs to use as you please! You can use these for trade, save up for a later adoptable-purchase or upgrade your current babies with them if your Santa's allowed for changes. C:

And the second honorable mention goes to the herb lord! Your entry came in first, at a time when I thought no one would actually take interest in the event or species after all. As a reward for kicking us off and sending in your entry early, you also receive 3 Lightbulbs to spend on whatever you wish!

With that, our event officially and completely concludes! The MYO Winners can PM me to talk about their drafts and ideas - keep in mind that the final designs still need to be greenlit by me so I can ensure a certain amount of consistency in the species! To everyone else - thank you for your participation! I will create a separate announcement for things to come. C:

After the season kicked off with so many ladies, we're treated to a gent once again today~.

A real treat! This Calyptra's family likely experimented with crossbreeding and cosmetic magic to achieve such special offspring! Provided by AiC , so her Terms of Ownership apply.

To enter this raffle, comment on this bulletin with the word "I sure could use a little help"! I will then enter your name into the list of people from which the winner will be randomly chosen.

Conditions and Deadline

This character is a Calyptra, which is a closed species created by Broeckchen. If you win, you will still need to accept the Species Rules to receive the prize. Winning one of my December Holiday Raffles means that you cannot win in any other ones. No worries, you can still enter raffles in future months! You can also still participate in the Adopt-A-Secret-Santa Event to get a Calyptra character and a chance at an MYO Slot.

If you encounter this raffle on other Aminos and platforms, please choose only one to participate. I only give out one raffle ticket per person.

Deadline is the 23rd of December, 8PM UTC+1.

Another cutiepie for the prize pool!

A soft boi this time! Provided by Broeckchen , so her Terms of Ownership apply.

To enter this raffle, comment on this bulletin with the words "What a merry go round"! I will then enter your name into the list of people from which the winner will be randomly chosen.

Conditions and Deadline

This character is a Calyptra, which is a closed species created by Broeckchen. If you win, you will still need to accept the Species Rules to receive the prize. Winning one of my December Holiday Raffles means that you cannot win in any other ones. No worries, you can still enter raffles in future months! You can also still participate in the Adopt-A-Secret-Santa Event to get a Calyptra character and a chance at an MYO Slot.

If you encounter this raffle on other Aminos and platforms, please choose only one to participate. I only give out one raffle ticket per person.

Deadline is the 22nd of December, 8PM UTC+1.

And another bby joins out prize pool!

The lovely Tea provided this prize design! Big thank you again to Tea for that <3

To enter this raffle, comment on this post with the words "So fluffy I'm gonna die"! I will then enter your name into the list of people from which the winner will be randomly chosen.

Conditions and Deadline

This character is a Calyptra, which is a closed species created by Broeckchen. If you win, you will still need to accept the Species Rules to receive the prize. Winning one of my December Holiday Raffles means that you cannot win in any other ones. No worries, you can still enter raffles in future months! You can also still participate in the Adopt-A-Secret-Santa Event to get a Calyptra character and a chance at an MYO Slot.

If you encounter this raffle on other Aminos and platforms, please choose only one to participate. I only give out one raffle ticket per person.

Deadline is the 18th of December, 8PM UTC+1.