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unpopular opinions

Do you think people are too sensitive? Or that Superman isn't so super? Think cats aren't cute? The Beatles are overrated? Love pineapple on pizza? Maybe you just don't like chips rly. Even the best of us have some controversial opinions. Let people know what a monster you are.

top level

with your characters’ unpopular and/or controversial opinion. Or share few of them at once. In person or via text. Prepare for disagreement.

comment

to tell them why they're wrong, validate a kindred spirit, or just troll them for caring about such a silly-ass thing in the first place.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I'm not sure we're that much worse than any other sapients.

Most humans in my neck of the woods don't know there are other sapients. The other species we share the world with have very small, hidden populations to protect themselves.

A lot of the people who do know about them have a lot of uninformed opinions about "monsters" living among us.

Yeah, that's a universal problem. So much easier to judge people by their species than by their actions.

It doesn't help that our society has a lot of stories and myths from before people forgot about most cryptid species. When someone looks like the monster out of a fairy tale, not everyone's willing to stop and think about whether they might just be a person with some different biological traits.

What kind of cryptids?

My work mostly focuses on non-sapient animal cryptids, specializing mostly in reptiles. Feathered frogs, winged snakes, the occasional lindwyrm or basilisk relocation.

No shit--?

You got pictures, man? That sounds amazing.

Not on me right now, but the feathered frogs are pretty easy to find in most wetland areas if you know how to listen and look for them. It's probably only a matter of time before someone "discovers" them and biologists have to once again re-consider rules of taxonomy.

They like to move in to areas with declining tree frog populations, I've noticed.

Would love to ask more about those, but then you wouldn't get to enjoy your day off.

[ Ah yes, the international unpopular opinion day, as it's known. ]

So. What monstrous things has any human ever done to you?

(no subject)

cryptoherpetology - 2022-09-20 09:17 (UTC) - Expand

Correct.

Although I'd love to never have to deal with a freaking vampire again.

I feel the same way about the lycanthropy-W virus.

Yeah? Never heard of that one. Lycanthropy's complicated, though. I've seen people take it in real different directions, depending on who they are.

It's a mutated rabies virus. We- cryptozoologists, that is- think a few natural shapeshifters and therianthropes were infected at some point and passed the changed version on to humans. Forcing that kind of transformation on bodies that have no pre-existing inclination to it is taxing enough on the heart that people only usually live a few years after infection if they survive their first transformation.

It's... not a pleasant way to go.

Oh, wow. That makes a lot of sense. I'm gonna have to look into that one. Rabies is honestly terrifying enough in and of itself; blend it with shapeshifting and you've got a nightmare waiting to happen, I guess.

[She appears to be making a genuine mental note, here.] I don't see werewolves of any kind very often, lucky for me.

The worst monsters are human... I've seen what they can do. They are monsters and they'll make monsters out of other men.

I'm sorry you've been through something like that. I can't say if anything I've witnessed compares, but I do know what you mean.

It's always for the same things. Power, money... control. Part of me wishes I didn't know, but being ignorant of it doesn't mean it's not happening.

But you've seen something? Can I ask what?

There's stuff I've seen, and stuff I know about because of who my family is. Until about 5 generations back, my ancestors were part of a pretty horrible organization, one that killed a lot of people for what they were and wiped out whole species- animal and otherwise- that they deemed "unnatural."

My family's been trying to make up for it ever since. Conservation work, mostly, but I've had to get my hands dirty to protect people before, dealt with people who'd steal cryptid children or hunt intelligent species for trophies.

I had the advantage of being raised to know what to expect and how to survive, but nothing really prepares you for your first fight for you life, even if your first trip to the gun range was in second grade and you learned to pick locks before finishing kindergarten.

Yeah I um... yeah, I'd never seen anything like it before. Watched a man get killed right in front of me. Had to run from plenty myself. I'm just a software engineer, I'd never hurt anyone in my life, never been in fight...

[Nothing could prepare anyone for the horrors that became of that asylum. Nothing.]

Cryptids... so monsters? Or "monsters" I guess. They're real?

[Sure sounded like from the way this guy spoke about them. Maybe it shouldn't be that hard to believe after everything he's seen and been through.]

You haven't met the right type of supernatural, in this case.

The dangerous cryptids I've dealt with have either been mindless animals, or people who were made into monsters the same way humans are- making the choice to hurt people. Even the Jorlac [ A species of sadistic telepath commonly known as "cuckoos" for their inclination to leave their offspring to be raised by human parents that the children usually later murder when they come of age. They control minds to get what they want and leave destruction in their wake, usually. ] have exceptions, individuals who resist or lack their usually strong predatory instincts.

Edited 2022-09-20 09:31 (UTC)

( It hums. Curious! Rarely does it come across these cryptid sorts. )

Were you curious to find something more terrible than humankind? No doubt, they are unique in their ability to breed horror, I've no argument with you there. Yet I've known a few being, few indeed, to be worse.

I'm not in any rush to find any, but I believe you that humans are neither unique or particular gifted in committing evil acts. We have the most monsters among us because as far as intelligent species go in this dimension, we have the numbers.

Ah, so you are yourself human, then. And, I would say, the most imagination. From where many of your monsters come.