[Rondell]

--- Design tweaks approved 100% by Ryuuhou ----

Basic Info:

~Gg's Name: Scudder; I.E 'Fungus', I.E 'The Cave Boogie'

~Gg's Gender: Female

~Element: Earth

While Scudder is capable of moving medium-sized boulders with a fair amount of skill, she doesn't do it very often. No, she mostly uses her abilities for far less strenuous things... like flinging mud or gravel at any adult who dares to trespass in her neck of the cliffs! Of course if that doesn't make the trespasser go away, she's not afraid to resort to plan 'B' - a studious focusing of her energies will make any unfortunate rock which falls beneath her gaze explode into a million pieces. This process is quite simple. All Scudder has to do is envision the rock she wishes to shatter, particularly the center of it - the very core. Then she causes this core to expand rapidly outward, thus forcing the rest of the rock to do the same. The loud 'bang' this causes, along with all the sharp pointy bits which go flying in every direction, is usually enough to deter even the most curious visitor. Especially when Scudder sends a few of those bits flying directly at the intruder's head! She can explode rocks that are far too large for her to move, you see, and the flying pieces can be the size of baseballs. On calmer days, Scudder uses her abilities to shape piles of rocks, pebbles and mud into strange shapes and figures, which she then decorates with sticks, grass and flowers. Sometimes she uses them for target practice. Other times she leaves them around as company, until she either gets bored of them and reuses the materials or until they fall apart under their own power.

~Mini Ecosystem: Like a sloth!

There are many, many, many moths living in Scudder's fur, and she isn't afraid to snack on them every so often, especially when a strong gust of wind ruffles her the wrong way and they all go flying up into the air at once - they're so much fun to snap at! They aren't very filling, though, and those powdery wings make her tongue feel funny after a while, so the insects rarely make up a large part of her diet. In fact, she mostly leaves them alone. They're just there because they're attracted to the moss and algae Scudder grows on her back.

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The Cave Boogie:

Likes:

~ Children
~ Solitude (unless kids)
~ Tubas
~ Mud
~ Watching fireflies
~ Eating bugs
~ Growing Moss/Lichen on her fur
~ Making up games

~The 'Ol Stomping Ground: Scudder lives all by herself in a remote coastal area where the fractured crust of the earth has formed itself into a surrealistic landscape of stone pillars, kept company by the the bugs, the snakes, the birds, and all the little fuzzy mammal-type things which are so much fun to chase but not so much fun to eat because of the mouthful of fur you always get when you bite them. When viewed as a whole, the landscape resembles the abandoned hive of some great and ancient insect. In some areas, near the shore, the pillars are short enough to be washed by the waves even at low tide, while in others they tower several stories above the water, scraping the sky and creating imposing cliffs that complicate approach by sea. Scattered everywhere are natural inlets - shallow bays and lagoons which offer great fishing and step up gradually to more inland areas which are dominated by vast swamps. In one such lagoon there is a cave, partly flooded at high tide but bone-dry the rest of the time. And it is this cave which Scudder calls home. Needless to say, she doesn't get much company! Few care to trek out into the middle of nowhere just to watch the moss grow. Which is just fine by her. Because whenever anyone does manage to find their way out to her little patch of paradise - if your version of paradise is full of saltwater and stones - she chases them off as quickly as she possibly can, making use of her elemental powers whilst utilizing her natural camouflage to stay out of sight. If she ever runs into anyone who can't be chased off, Scudder simply hides and growls at them, tracking their progress from the shadows until they are safely out of her territory.The thought of losing track of any trespasser is the stuff of nightmares! Who knows what they could get up to if she took her eyes off of them? They could even... steal... her... TUBA. *shudders* Thus Scudder has set up - and daily maintains - a simplistic yet effective series of traps and tricks that are scattered throughout her territory and are intended to alert her to passerby. The traps are placed more closely together around her cave. No stranger has ever violated the sanctity of this dark refuge, and Scudder intends to keep it that way. Of course encounters with outsiders always leave Scudder very tightly wound and twitchy. Which is where her prize obsession possession comes in...




((The 5 photos directly below do not belong to me in any way - they are simply linked to develop the landscape))

-- Inside the cave -- Top of waterfall -- Down the coast, right -- Further down coast, right -- Moving inland --


~Favorite Instrument: Tuba

Tubas are huge instruments, as anyone can tell you, and they're also pretty darn heavy. Not to mention unwieldy. Therefore it takes a massive amount of effort for most anyone to handle one - even a Goblin Gator that's 6 1/2 feet tall by 11 feet long who spends most of her days climbing up and down cliff faces. Thus the Tuba is Scudder's way to calm herself down - not only does she like the sound of it (although she can't carry a tune in a bucket), but the shear effort of man-handling the thing into position and getting up enough wind in her lungs to force a note from the brass beast burns off the vast majority of her nervous energy before she even starts in on her 'song'. Then, the harder she blows, the faster she finds herself calming down. Plus Tubas are shiny, and what self respecting GG doesn't like shiny things? Keeping her Tuba polished in the midst of a saltwater-laden environment is a whole other way for her to calm down - the repetitive movement involved has a tendency to lull her into an almost meditative state.

Dislikes:

~ Adults in her territory
~ Baths
~ Rain (see above)
~ Winter
~ Wide open spaces
~ Towns
~ Silence
~ Worms/maggots
~ Traveling

~How she got her tuba: Quite simply, a traveling human had it on them and when Scudder started flinging mud from the bushes, they dropped it in their haste to get away from the 'monster' (which explains the dents!). Scudder let the thing sit in the weeds for several days before daring to approach it, having never seen anything like it before and having no clue what to do with it. Once she finally got up the curiosity to investigate, though, and swiped a bit of the dried mud off with her forepaw, she saw the shining brass and knew she had to have the thing. So she drug it all the way back to her den. It took her several hours of further investigation to figure out that if she put her mouth there and blew like so... a sound came out. Now she can't get enough of it!

~A Fearsome Reputation: While the brassy sound of a Tuba wafting across the open countryside is certainly strange, it 's generally not the sort of noise that sends a chill down one's spine in the dark of night, and would have no place in a horror movie. Unless the racket is coming from Scudder's lagoon. Humans in the area generally give the mangy-looking patch a wide berth, even if it adds several hours to their travel time, and flat refuse to enter the area after dark, purely out of terror for the beast which dwells within. You see, tales of Scudder's mud-flinging and rock-exploding have become greatly embellished over the years, as each person unlucky enough to draw her attentions sought to recoup a bit of their mud-splattered dignity in front of their friends, family and neighbors. Her admittedly large form has grown gigantic. Her eyes have become burning cinders. Her appetite is for human flesh. Pebbles have become boulders.... Thus Scudder's reputation is much more terrible and ugly than she herself actually is, or ever will be. She doesn't mean any harm. Really. She just wants to be left alone.

~Children: Scudder has always loved children - whether they're a member of her own species or a wayward human, she feels entirely at ease around them in a way she's never known in the company of adults. She can play with them. She can talk to them. She can curl up around them and keep them safe... while their arms around her neck makes her feel safe. It's not simply their small size, though that's a part of it. It's also the way they look at the world and react to the things around them. Scudder finds it familiar, simple, rational and comfortable. Thus the cries of a lost child echoing along the shore are guaranteed to send her running to the rescue! In fact, she can get quite lonely when she hasn't had company in a while, and has been known to lure children away from nearby human communities so that she can play with them. Which does wonders for her reputation *sarcasm*. It is from these children - who treat Scudder much like an imaginary friend - that she gets her fearsome moniker: The Cave Boogie. Because she's big, green, and slimy. Like a boogie. Scudder loves it. Yet in the end, lost children are found and visiting ones must go home. Sometimes - more often than she cares to admit - she never sees them again, and her loneliness returns. Of course there will always be more children for her to play with. There are plenty of children in the world. Scudder just wishes that she had one or two that wouldn't go away for once; one or two or three or so that she could have as friends forever more, so they could play together for always, and never be lonely again. It's her fondest dream.

~The Secret of the Cave Boogie: To put it simply, Scudder isn't as smart as the average GG - she never was, and she never will be. She detests math, yet is capable of basic addition and subtraction. While she can read somewhat, she is limited to very simple books - those which would be classed as '3rd grade' readers. And the vast majority of science is beyond her, despite her her seeming aptitude for basic mechanical principles (which is how she made her traps!). Yet it goes beyond academia. See, she tends to take things very literally, and has trouble understanding sarcasm and figures of speech. This partially helps to explain her ease around children and her frustration when dealing with adults, who have a tendency to use large words and deal with abstract concepts that can confuse her easily. Furthermore, she she detests crowded places. Which is why she's sequestered herself as far away from other GGs (and most humans) as she can get without totally cutting herself off from the possibility of a young visitor or two. The other reason is that Scudder is smart enough to know how not-smart she really is. It frustrates her deeply when something is just beyond her grasp, and temper-tantrums occasionally occur. More than that though, many people look down on her because of her limited mental abilities. Or... she fears they do. And it's easier to run and hide, to lash out at anyone who who could bring judgement, than to face what could end up bringing pain and fear. That is to say - adults.


~Scudder Herself: Scudder has a very active imagination, and quite enjoys using it. One of her favorite things is galumphing along the shore after unfortunate waterfowl, a branch gripped in her forepaw - the bird is a dragon, the branch a sword, and she herself a great hero tasked with defending the kingdom. More than one duck has met its unfortunate end this way. Although Scudder rarely catches her dragons. Instead, she likes to pretend that her great and mighty self was so intimidating that the dragon turned tail and fled the kingdom from fear. Which... isn't really that far from the truth. Another of Scudder's favorite activities is lounging. That is to say, she very much enjoys finding a nice big puddle of mud and flopping down into it, although this often means a bit of a trek inland - into the swamp. She discovered long ago that not only does mud feel really nice on hot days, but it also makes her skin stop itching (because it gets rid of things like fleas, which one picks up when one lives outside 24/7). Scudder also loves flowers. Any time she finds a flower that strikes her fancy she grabs a hold of it and pulls it out by the roots. Then she carries it back to her den and replants it. She used to simply set it on the ground, where it usually died, but one of the children she lured away from the village several years ago set her straight about basic gardening. Therefore Scudder now has quite the collection of blooms growing around her cave; the bowl-like tops boasted by many of the basalt pillars make great pots! Speaking of which, she's learned many things from her young friends over the years - many, many games, and plenty of useful tricks! She's even used her magic to shape a set of 'marbles' out of some of the ever-present pebbles. Though she frequently looses them and has to make new ones.

[winkatuck]

I LAV THIS AHHHHHH