Trying to post these again because apparently I can’t post directly from my pictures and have to do it here
Backstory: I wanted to give @setepenre-set a birthday present and… did not… really… do that. First off I can’t draw, and second I’m a terrible procrastinator. But then I thought, ‘hey, I could color something!’
So I’m flipping through my coloring book and I see these, and my first thought was “that looks like something you’d find on M’ega!” And naturally, I needed a name for them.
Further backstory: set has come up with many rather extensive headcanons for the Megamind universe which the fandom has largely adopted as our own, because they are brilliant and amazing. Among those headcanons are a few words from the planet M’ega, which I wrote at the top of the page.
I then proceeded to tear those words apart for fake morphemes, which I then mashed together into other words. (Also two words for “hope” in Elvish because I love those words)
Thus, the winter lily got the name ‘rythki.’ It’s a flower which because set’s birthday was in the middle of February starts to bud in the middle of winter, and the flower emerges from the many ponds scattered around the semi-aquatic surface of M’ega at the end of winter/beginning of spring. It is therefore a symbol of a kind of determined optimism.
A common saying on M’ega is that someone has “the eyes of a rythki,” which means they look out at the world and it’s terrible negative circumstances and instead of giving up, finds the most seemingly impossible method of overcoming said circumstances. Megamind, in point of fact, actually has eyes the color of the center of rythkia.
No, I don’t know exactly how a flower grows in the middle of winter. I assume the leaves are deceptively strong, almost like peonies, and the tight buds are unfurled suddenly and dramatically PRESENTATION! when… something scientific happens? Temperature change? Tiny aquatic bugs come along and unzip the flower? Look, if I’m going to condense Megamind’s character into a flower why not include the brainbots?
Anyway. These flowers are beautiful, and I needed a word which suited.
AAAAAAAHHHHH I LOVE THIS!
These are so pretty! And that’s such a pleasing cultural background for the rythki flowers! “the eyes of a rythki” I love that! The word sounds like it belongs in the M’ega language, too, which is really pleasing. And the pluralization “rythkia”.
Earth flowers like snowdrops do bloom in winter; they do this to get ahead of the competition–trees with their leaves that block the sunlight. In winter, the trees are bare, and the snowdrops are able to enjoy the sunlight unimpeded.
Which fits really well with the idea of rythkia representing unusual solutions to unfortunate circumstances!
Snowdrops, like water lilies, grow from bulbs; water lily bulbs lie beneath the earth on the pond floors.
The rythkia probably grow from bulbs, too, and compete not only with trees, but also with various other water plants and algae that cover the surface of the water, blocking out the sun; blooming so early allows the rythkia to take advantage of these other plants still being dormant for winter.
setepenre-set 