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Description
“Don’t go too far up or downstream. Things can get nasty outside of this pond.”
This is Reflux, Mave and Syre’s cousin. He’s a bit older than them and knows a lot more about the dangers his kind face. He used to be very adventurous when he was little, but his experiences with close-calls, the poisonous salt water of the ocean, lust, and the violence that comes with it has washed this side of his personality away. He now stays in Maultrede’s Pond upstream from Saddle Lake with the rest of his immediate family, occasionally coming down to see Mave and the rest. He has two brothers and three sisters, all younger than him except for one of his brothers.
Alp-Luachra breeding sees no problems when close relatives mate (not direct relatives, Syre), so he occasionally pines for Mave’s affections. He has lost and regrown his tail five times, one occasion being intentional.
This is Reflux, Mave and Syre’s cousin. He’s a bit older than them and knows a lot more about the dangers his kind face. He used to be very adventurous when he was little, but his experiences with close-calls, the poisonous salt water of the ocean, lust, and the violence that comes with it has washed this side of his personality away. He now stays in Maultrede’s Pond upstream from Saddle Lake with the rest of his immediate family, occasionally coming down to see Mave and the rest. He has two brothers and three sisters, all younger than him except for one of his brothers.
Alp-Luachra breeding sees no problems when close relatives mate (not direct relatives, Syre), so he occasionally pines for Mave’s affections. He has lost and regrown his tail five times, one occasion being intentional.
Source
not provided yet
Obviously they get a ‘room’ together…
I see, as amusing as using the idea of the er ‘backdoor’ to reach a spawning location is I’m not sure how they could really do it without the host noticing and reacting unless they’re starting in the stomach and working their way down.
As for how real world genetics works: Simply put genetic diversity is always a good thing for the long term success of a species, so most species will have some sort of adaptation to increase it. The best way to do this for sexually reproducing species is to find unrelated mates. That said inbreeding usually only becomes a problem if it happens with immediate family and/or over successive generations. E.g. breeding with a first cousin is unlikely to be a problem unless such matings were common in past generations.
Alternatively you can have incest and a high rate of mutation but that tends to be less efficient as it requires rapid/mass reproduction to balance out all the non-viable offspring that will result, usually more of an asexual reproductive strategy.
Hmm… I see Alp-Luachra as being a mixture of sentient and instinct-driven in their thoughts and behaviours. While they are at once driven by the need to reproduce, they can in turn seek out a mate through friendship as well as just all the hormone stuff. Because of this, consensual couples are usually the norm in most Alp communities, and because of that, I’d say option two is more likely - a couple who are already together find a suitable host to hold their eggs, and then…
I feel I should mention the fact that you misinterpreted the comic I shared. Laying their eggs in the stomach is only in Badum’s side of the canon. In my side, I thought it would be funny if they performed that act in the other end of the digestive system. Hence that little guy pondering that he’s meant to be mating in there at some point.
As for the topic of diversity, I don’t think it matters as much with Luachra. Cousins can mate with no genetic repercussions. Obviously this isn’t how it usually works in nature (I think, not sure on that now that I’ve said it) but hey, it makes things weirder so I’m all for it.
Ah so they breed within a hosts stomach, hmm so do they find a host and hope that an alp of the opposite gender also ends up in the same host (maybe make some sort of signal to make the host seem more appealing to other alps) or do they pair up and find a host together? The former method has better odds on increasing diversity (if the host wander to new locations) but the latter method would grantee a mating.
Canonically speaking, they lay fertilized eggs within the stomach, with then pass through the digestive tract once ready to hatch, while the host is driven toward a source of water to poop them out.
Headcanonically speaking… (NSFW)
The thing I wonder about their reproduction is how the stomach parasite thing ties into it. Obviously an enstomached Alp will not be in the general breeding population until it leaves said stomach. An explanation with roots in real world biology would be that they use the stomachs of larger creatures to travel to new sources of freshwater that they would otherwise not be able to reach thus increasing their chances of encountering distant Alps and improving genetic diversity.
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Mellow vs Refux fisticuffs? Count me in.
I smell dinner.
…And also a story.
I smell a story here.
Funny thing, that…
Understandable, really. I hardly think one stops to consider the more in-depth biological aspects of new imaginary species you think up in a fit of inspiration. Then the weird people, like me, with education in biology show up and start prodding the new idea to see how it ticks!
To be totally honest I gave none of that any thought whatsoever.
Well, I’d say the time will come soon for the more “newly laid egg” that is the Alp-luachra phenomenon to gradually eclipse that of the Tatzlpony. That was cute and kinky, for sure, but I find the Alp-luachra/stomach phenomenon more so.
Eggs, lots of eggs. I’d say 4-12 would be the range for eat clutch, (would it be called a clutch for newt eggs?) Alp-Luachra seem too sentient and sizeable compared to things like frogs to be having more than that per year.
I want it to get there, I really want it to. We just need more artists drawing them, then it’ll be Tatzljack all over again.
Okay, I’m getting a little ahead of myself… but it’s getting there!
Hey, the more the merrier! Apl-luachra is love, Alp-luachra is life.
I bet their mom is quite pretty herself!
I’m not exaggerating at all when I say I’ve never been so productive in my life.
Because I just started drawing Mave and Syre’s mother. Might not get it done today, but hey.
Geez, Parallel, you’re on a roll with these Alp-luachra drawings!
Not that I’m complaining at all. :3
Pony-demonic-stomach-parasites from Irish mythology, actually.
You can thank Badumsquish for turning such a thing into something so adorable.