I was thinking about the actual transformation itself the other day and a few other issues came to mind that could affect how the events immediately following the transformation would occur. I am unsure if we wanted to resolve these issues prior to starting the roleplay or if we wanted to make these up as we go along. I would appreciate anyone else’s thoughts on these ideas.
The timing of the transformation:
If the transformation occurs immediately after the making of wishes by the gang then the interactions of the rainbowfaces and the gang will have to be considered. For one, I would imagine that the gang would not be thrilled (quite an understatement) with suddenly being transformed in that manner regardless of the circumstance. Additionally, if that occurs will one of the gang (I am looking at you Cera) become violent towards the rainbowfaces? If so, then that might be the event that alerts the adults to sharpteeth (the gang) being in the valley.
If, on the other hand, the transformation happens after a delay (perhaps after the gang goes to sleep that night?) then the issue arises how each member is going to be alerted to their new condition. Will one of the gang wake up in the night and notice the change? If so, will the member have the intuition to think that maybe this has happened to the others and to wake them? Undoubtedly if that occurs then one of the gang will scream upon being woken up by another member (because they are being woken up by a sharptooth) and that will alert the adults to the existence of sharpteeth in the valley. This would create a rather more confusing situation than scenario one, because it may take some time for the members to find one another after being chased from the valley and it would also take awhile to realize who is who (as they now all look and smell different.)
The realism of the transformation in terms of the gang’s perceptions:
Smell
Generally speaking, based upon the information gleamed in the television series, Chomper, Ruby, and Spike have the best sense of smell of the gang. This especially makes sense in the case of Chomper and Ruby, as an acute sense of smell is of great benefit in tracking down prey. However, this means that when the gang changes that the remainder of the members will be going from a rather reduced sense of smell to an extremely heightened sense. To put this quantitatively, the difference between the olfactory (smell) acuity of a human and a bloodhound is around 100,000,000 times. The number of olfactory receptor cells are 4 billion in a bloodhound, compared to just 5 million in a human and 100 million in a rabbit. Additionally, many predators have a far larger area of the brain dedicated to the interpretation of smells, further increasing smell sensitivity and differentiation beyond what the raw number of olfactory receptors would seem to indicate. The magnitude of this change is impossible for us to imagine (considering our extremely poor sense of smell) but is probably comparable to a legally blind individual suddenly gaining the ability to see. I can easily imagine the gang being overwhelmed, and perhaps even being rendered unconscious, in the moments immediately following the transformation. Even after the change, relating to one another more on the basis of smell than on sight will be quite a change in perspective – and probably one that we would have to work on detailing in the roleplay.
Binocular Vision
Most herbivores have eyes that are oriented more towards the sides of their heads in order to maximize their range of vision (very useful in seeing predators attempting to sneak up on you) whereas most predators have eyes that are oriented more towards the front (this allows for binocular vision – very useful in gauging the distance to potential prey.) This means that the entire gang (except Chomper and perhaps Ruby) is going to have depth perception for the first time. This would probably make the gang very worried (as their range of vision would be much less and the paranoia that comes with being prey would take a while to subside) and confused (I can easily see one of the gang not realizing what the object is in front of their face before realizing that it is their snout.)
Spike’s Vision
In the case of Spike, he is depicted as being colorblind in the TV episode “Through the eyes of a Spiketail” (his vision appears to be in shades of purple) and therefore I guess we could consider that attribute cannon. Although the shift in his sense of smell will not be as great as the rest of the gang, he would probably be affected by a change in his sense of vision. He will be going from seeing 100 different shades (only rod photoreceptors functioning with 100 different sensitivity states) to 100,000,000 colors (100 times as many as humans assuming that dinosaurs had the same number of cones as most modern birds – 4 different types of cones equals 100 x 100 x 100 x 100 different sensitivity states or approximately 100,000,000 colors.) I can easily imagine him being amazed at the amazing ësong’ his vision is giving him (he would have no concept of color as this is his first time seeing it – so referring to the colors as tones in a song is probably the best description he could give it) until finally recognizing that he is on two feet and has sharp claws and realizing what has transpired.
So what does everyone else think about some of these ideas? Should we leave some of them out or simply explain them away as being handled by the magical transformation? I would like to hear the thoughts of others on this matter.
