DayEight: The Glitchmouse

[ink_in_hand]

This was a challenge. Until now, most of what I had for glitchmice has been behavioral. Besides their tails and a vague impression of what I wanted in their heads , I've had practically nothing else going for their design. Which is why today is only in grayscale, more to show the shapes and lines of its' physiology more than anything else. I'm including my sketch page to show what some of the dropped ideas were, you can see there was some difficulty finding a design that wasn't outright nasty or fluffy cute. I think I succeeded.

Transcripts and further details from my written notes:

-"Extensive vibrissae account for most of it's sensory input. Despite its' four optics, its' vision is rather poor." These traits are derived from actual mice and rats. They don't have bad vision, it's just that they to rely on their whiskers to navigate more. Especially since they're so at home in tunnels and burrows that don't get a lot of light, and with Cybertron only having one layer of its' mass exposed to sunlight/starlight/spacelight, they'd need an even more reliable way to get around.

-"Heavily hinged plating and rubber belly lets glitchmice squeeze through very narrow spaces." Another defining trait of both real mice and glitchmice is for them to get into or through things you wouldn't expect.

-"Tail can connect with many ports,and even splice into lines the glitchmouse cuts open."
-"Wire cutter jaws, and wire stripper forelegs makes for a well developed pest."
These are connected, in that the glitchmouse has formed as one of the more software reliant species of Cybertron in my head. I'm not quite sure the whys yet, but just the name leads to a more data focus than some of the other cybercritters.

-"Glitches occur in a system not only from severed cables, but also from the data they upload trying to create their own network." From what I can tell, the glitch mouse doesn't seem to just cause problems through physical damage, but through data and software as well. My interpretation has them being able to uplink into the datastreams of the cables they chew, and able to upload and download sporadic packets of data that cause problems for everyone since glitchmice systems run completely different than the systems bots create.

-"Interconnecting tails can form a hive mind. (see mouse and rat kings)" This comes from the Rat Kings of folklore and real life, in which a number of animals will get their tails tangled up and be forced to live more like one individual than the many that compose it. Only in this case, they can actually separate themselves again. In this way the glitch mouse can hook up to each other and share data, or like the legendary rat kings, become a more formidable force.