#bugs are different from infrastructure

[celeborn-of-doriath]

// I think most people would be surprised how many very critical websites and applications are being run by one very tired and underpaid engineer. I’m not saying it’s a good thing, but it’s not rare.

I once worked on an app that was heavily used by hundreds of millions of people daily and that thing was throwing over 30,000 alerts every night. The entire team for that app was me and one dude in Belarus. We slowly ground that alert number down to 0. It really depends what your infrastructure looks like, but as long as you’re not actively developing new features, you can keep software in maintenance mode without a massive staff.

Obligatory, hopefully tumblr doesn’t die, but imo this doesn’t seem like a big deal to me from a software perspective.

[lizardlicks]

You know that walrus vs fairies thing is a really good example of suspension of disbelief and how poor writing can immediately ruin it.

Further, it's a good example of how propaganda and indoctrination can be broken.

Check this out: if you are asked to believe something by a person who presents themselves as an authority about a subject in which you have little to no experience, you have no ground to question them on. Even if it seems fake, human brains are really good about going, "that doesn't sound right, but I don't know enough about [thing] to dispute that." We have to specifically train ourselves to stop and go do our own research. And if it's a big, complicated topic which you're brand new to, that's really intimidating!

This is a feature rather than a bug of being a social species. Collectively, we store far more knowledge than anyone if us could store individually. It means that even if you have never seen a walrus in your life, you can be reasonably confident that you still "know" that they're large, tusked, aquatic mammals which tend to favor colder water and they don't really go farther inland than a couple miles.

It also means that you are primed to accept new information on a subject with which you have little to no direct experience: e.g. fairies are real, you just didn't know that until now.

Propaganda and indoctrination work because they're presented as authoritative sources on subjects that the target audience doesn't have much experience with. That also means those can be combatted by research and first hand experience. Multiple times I've seen posts from people who climbed out of the weeds of Q Anon because one of those secret info drops started making claims about subjects that the person was something of an expert in: electricity, infrastructure, medicine, engineering.

It's also why you can get so into reading a great fantasy or sci-fi novel that has otherwise stellar writing and world crafting, then suddenly get kicked right out of it again when the author, say, has a character fall into a convenient, non-magical coma for a month, or they start walking on a bad fracture after a couple of days without some fancy technological assistance. You have a body, and you might not be a doctor, but you can know enough to understand that's not how bodies generally work, and if the author has not previously established that their characters aren't human and work totally differently, a pall of doubt and frustration taints everything that comes there after.

Idk where I'm going with this. I just think it's neat! Definitely something to keep in mind when trying to effectively communicate with people, regardless of if you're trying to educate or simply entertain.

[weirdmarioenemies]

Name: Spoing

Debut: Super Mario Galaxy

Spoing is a jumping spider! Though it's not quite a jumping spider, you know? Like how a lynx is a big cat, but it's not a big cat. You know. But even so, I would like to express my appreciation to real jumping spiders! With their extra conventional cuteness, they capture the hearts of even people who are scared of other bugs, and as such are ambassadors for the rest of spiderkind. A gateway to appreciating some other creatures, which some fools may call "less charismatic", as if it is not charismatic to, for example, dangle a blob of silk to catch moths like a little fisherman. Anyway, as president, I will make sure all jumping spiders are compensated for their services. In dollars.

I don't know if I'm just saying this because I've been replaying Galaxy recently and have a sort of recency bias, but Spoing really might be one of the cutest Mario enemies ever! We all know, we all love, the eyes-in-a-void face! And on a BUG? Yowza! I've seen that kind of face on crabs and sometimes bagworms (I think?) but I'm not sure I've seen it on any other arthropod, and ESPECIALLY not a spider. I don't know how Spoing would hunt. Would it just shove prey into the eye void? Is it also a mouth? That would be pretty awesome.

You know, their faces make them look kind of like funny astronauts... and they only have four limbs, not eight. Are these truly spiders? Were they once human, until something unspeakable happened? And will it happen to me someday? I hope so!

Spoings mainly appear in Space Junk Galaxy, which I think we on the Weird Mario Enemies Office Pizza Party Email Chain all agree is a really great galaxy, with impeccable vibes. It's space at some of its most lonely, as opposed to spectacle, and I REALLY appreciate the presence of spiders here. Spiders and their webs are always used to visually communicate the idea of a place or object being unused, abandoned. And this galaxy is just a bunch of forgotten debris, not inhabited by any sapient civilization! If moths are the mascot of empty wallets, spiders are the mascots of forgotten attics! Spoings to not seem to make webs, which, yeah, actively hunting spiders do not! But they might make Sling Pods. And Sling Pod Galaxy is... well, I don't want to use this post to criticize a galaxy that precious spiders may have had a part in designing. So I will move on to...

Name: Spangler

Debut: Super Mario Galaxy

Spoing's got an evolutionary relative, and rather than being a spider boing, this is a spider dangler! It at first looks like a recolor of Spoing, but it actually lacks the fuzziness of Spoing's abdomen, and it DOES have a big ol' spinneret, which it is always using to dangle on a silk thread! One big one, like a really long string cheese. These ones debut in Ghostly Galaxy, indicating that they are spookier than the more generalized Spoings. Is it the silk? Is silk Spooky? It is what ends up encasing the spider's prey... like a MUMMY! Maybe I'm on to something here!

I really like Spoing and Spangler, and that both exist! It may be sort of the same design for two different enemy behaviors, but they're both behaviors that make sense for the design, and it's a design I always love to see. It's like they're closely related species! Maybe a population of Spanglers was separated from the others and ended up in the more barren Space Junk Galaxy, where there was not nearly as much infrastructure to dangle from, and where only active hunting was a viable strategy. And over time, Spoings evolved from this population! Actually, maybe they even use the Sling Pods for hunting, when we're not looking, launching themselves at unsuspecting prey...

And just to make sure we're not appreciating fictional creatures over real ones too much, I should tell you that there is, indeed, a spider that slingshots itself at prey using its web. Sometimes reality is stranger than fiction. And it's often a spider's fault! The variety of ways in which different species use their silk is honestly one of the most incredible things in all of nature!

[cherrypikkins]

heck it, i wasn't going to weigh in on the tumblr staff firings either but

the points contained in this post are on the assumption that tumblr will continue to operate on a skeleton crew indefinitely, and that there are no plans on the table (yet announced, at least) for an apocalyptic shutdown. if it turns out later on that there is such a plan, just know that any reference to the very long-term is moot.

here's what to expect when an application like tumblr is running with a reduced number of staff:

their capacity to answer support inquiries will be reduced. expect longer wait times or no response at all when submitting a support ticket (such as if you suddenly lose access to your tumblr account)

fewer new features will be implemented, and on a slower schedule. could be a good thing if it means giving up on Tumblr Live or whatever unwanted obnoxious features they had initially planned.

in the same vein, bugs and issues will take longer to fix. performance may degrade if they don't have enough people to resolve database and server issues. both will result in a slow and buggy tumblr. (more so than usual, anyhoo)

if there is not enough staff to keep up with security patches and maintenance, there could be a privacy risk to your account and any information tied to it.

if a catastrophic event happens, like if a key part of the application or infrastructure fails, or if there is a hack like the one at 4chan, staff may have neither the means nor the motivation to get tumblr back running again.

edit: oh right - a lot more automated tasks. such as the one apparently marking every blog as mature subject matter? these are likely intended to free up capacity of the remaining staff but as we can see are prone to causing issues of their own.

these are the key points I can think of off the top of my head. list is non-exhaustive, so feel free to weigh in.

it looks bleak, i know. but keep in mind that no shutdown has been announced as of yet. so i'm not making any assumptions that anything drastic will happen in the near future. just know that for long as tumblr has left, you may see the above issues build up, and that the eventual decline of tumblr is likely to come in a thousand cuts rather than one fell swoop - which isn't all that different from the trend we've been seeing these past handful of years.

anyway, you've got time to make plans. and if it turns out tumblr does shut down tomorrow, well - see you on bsky i guess :3;;

[iteratorsex]

What do you think is the lore reason for creature pipes existing?

Obviously, they exist in-game pretty much solely for the gameplay reason of traveling between rooms, and the way they work is also only really for gameplay purposes. But like, outside of that, what were they actually used for? What are they? Why do they function the way they do? Hell, why were they even built? They still must exist in Rain Worlds infrastructure for a reason.

Creature's that enter them can't stop moving forward until they're out the other side. Creatures also can't do anything while traveling in the pipes, as evidenced by predators not being able to grab prey while traveling in it. Are creatures restrained while in the pipe? The pipes symbol is distinct, almost as if to invite sight-based creatures to enter them. Their symbols light up with the corresponding color's of creatures approaching them, meaning they can sense things. They seem at least somewhat technologically advanced due to this. Are they alive like other machinery? Perhaps the insides of the pipe are biological and soft, able to contract and hold a creature in place as it's moved . . . . . Kinda like a sphincter . . . . Now that I think about it.

All of this has led me to think that creature pipes are basically the rain world equivalent of the "salmon cannon." A way for designated purposed organisms to harmlessly move about the surface world, to complete whatever task they're made for. Now only used by the countless forms of feralized surface fauna.

But anyway, any thoughts from you on what creature pipes are?

It might disappoint you to say this but I think that its just purely a gameplay feature meant to indicate some kind of "crack" in the wall you go through, at least for dens and room entrances

I feel like shortcuts have more going on, but theres also no reason why the ancients would ever lay out anything like this and want to crawl into shitty little pipes about it

I'm pretty sure creatures not being able to see you in the pipes is a bug that ended up becoming a feature

Maybe the pipes are purposed organisms. Idk. They're way too gameplay focused and feel too disconnected from lore to be much else but that. But I also think the pipes within Industrial Complrx are alive because they look like intestines

The symbols are different so that tje player can recognize where they are and where it'll takr them, similar to how objects flash when you walk next to them

[transmutationisms]

Hi Caden don’t know if you listen to Ethel Cain but was wondering what u think abt her subverting the Americana aesthetic since I think she’s often compared to Lana, at least online. I do think she’s doing something different & to me more compelling than Lana, but I don’t really know how to articulate it.

yep i like ethel cain. i agree she and lana are doing very different things. like, i said before that lana uses american nationalism because she's playing off the fact that it makes/has an erotic appeal, and she places herself as the object of desire in that paradigm—tell me i'm your national anthem, etc. my read on ethel is that she's interested in the rural americana 'trad' aesthetic from a very different angle, where she's trying to connect the homestead and american rural social structures to the perpetuation of violence. there's some overlap here in the sense that lana is definitely also interested in sexual violence and sexuality-as-violence, but in her work the violent or abusive man is generally a specific figure who's aberrant from the norm, and a lot of the artistic interest for lana comes (i think) from her interrogating what it is about this man that's appealing to her and how she sees herself through his eyes. with ethel, on the other hand, she portrays violence as coming through the infrastructure of normal and normative social structures, like the family and the church, with abuse understood to be a feature of these and not a bug. family, church, etc are in turn understood to be part of the infrastructure of american rural communities, casting the critique she's making through the ethel character onto this entire social apparatus (& there is some implication here of how this is all a part of westward colonial settlement—which is a potentially fruitful direction to go in, the idea of expansion into the 'frontier' as a narrative of, or narrative prerequisite to, violence).

so for example this is partly why, for ethel, incest specifically is a mode of sexuality & violence that she continually uses and interrogates: she's invoking it as an intensification of the 'normal functioning' of the family, which means the whole family structure gets pretty ruthlessly questioned through the character of ethel and the violence she faces. she invokes the trad aesthetic and the idyllic family homestead, then shows you the brutality that creates and is created by them. for lana, the family is not a concern in this way and is not something she's questioning or challenging the way ethel does (the daddy/girl thing in lana's work is p far removed from even a pseudo-incestuous reading most of the time, even in her lolita references). there's a similar distinction with how ethel examines protestant theology and practice with the explicit goal of pointing out inherently violent aspects of it, whereas for lana, invoking god or christian imagery is generally more on the level of playing off the way that american nationalism resembles and uses rituals of religious worship. lana takes political phenomena like the appeal of nationalism, and expresses them through the erotic configuration of these relationships with older, dominant men. with ethel it's more that she looks at social structures and practices signified by the rural americana aesthetic, and pokes and prods at these structures until the violence inherent to them is glaringly obvious to listeners through the ethel character's story. it's a way of problematising these institutions and practices, not letting them hide in plain sight by presenting themselves as benevolent.

so yeah i can understand why people might want to compare these two artists, but i think they're actually doing very different things. i would probably not say either of them 'subverts' americana or signifiers of nationalism, which is not a criticism, i just think that concept is often poorly defined and less frequently applicable to art than people sometimes think lol. ethel uses her character's story to deconstruct and question the american aesthetics and institutions her work invokes; lana translates these aesthetics and institutions into explicitly erotic discourses and dissects them through the allegorical figures of the people and relationships in her songs. (this is not to discount the importance of erotics in ethel's work as well obvi but this post is already long :P)

[chaifootsteps]

I'm back! That didn't last long! I'm still committed to not keeping up with Spindlehorse drama or the fanbase like I said, but I like your blog and still think it's a good outlet for airing out my thoughts on the franchise overall, so I still plan to submit thoughts about that stuff.

Something that has bugged me since day 1 with Hazbin was the strange choice to limit human sinners to 1 ring. It's her version of hell and all, but if you're going to use the Alighierian hell mythos of sin-associated circles, but not actually bother to put sinners in them, that's just a huge swing and a miss from a world building standpoint. Like the whole purpose of the circles existing is that they are depositories for people who mispent their lives in specific ways. Instead what we're given is demons that are just hinted at being predisposed to act certain ways (throwing a bit of racial essentialism into the mix, very progressive viv).

In the end this weird decision also closes off tons of potentially interesting storybeats and implications. It makes Viv's hell both nonsensical and boring. Storylines involving IMP taking jobs from clients from different rings, or Charlie having a good rehabilitation program for sinners from wrath but struggling to tailor it to people from envy, for example, would add a much needed dose of dynamics to this boring, boring universe.

The ride never ends! Glad to hear you'll be sticking around; I like hearing your thoughts on stuff!

And it's true. The sinners all being confined to one ring might make for an interesting story if Viv actually did anything with it or gave even 40 seconds of thought to the infrastructure of her Hell, but she never does. She just decided that the Deadly Sins are circus themed because she likes circus themes and that they're confined to one ring because, and then she leaves it to her fandom to think up the rest.

[sol-consort]

How do you think the mass effect species would feel about camping?

Like marshmallows, and spooky stories around the campfire to scare the kids, style camping?

Camping

[General, Alien species]

Salarians

You'd expect the species stereotyped to spend 70% of their limited lifespan in sterile labs to be a fish out of water when it comes to nature's domain

But you'd be wrong

Salarians are little camping freaks

What else do you expect from a haven tropical world such as theirs?

The open spaces incorporated into their infrastructure give way for the flora to intertwine around their buildings

The warm sun, the light breeze, the chirping of birds

As far as salarians are concerned, camping is like a trip back home

The dirt, the mud, the smooth rocks even feel just right against their skin

Much like humans get lost staring into the swirling campfire's flames for too long—an ancient habit nurtured by our stone age days

Salarians are not so far off when it comes to forests and lakes

Not to mention the delicious bugs

Oh yes.

You have the urge to pick a berry from a Mystery Bush out in the forest and munch on it

While your salarian fishing buddy has been eyeing the fly buzzing around your opened sugary drink

They Thrive capital T in the grassy fields

The humid atmosphere does wonders to their skin

Mosquitos never bother them

Life is good as a salarian camping

Most of their childhood was spent diving into lakes and playing around trees in Sur'kesh's lush forests

Daring each other to lick rocks

Easily holding their breath underwater for an extended amount of time

With their perfect memory, there was no fear of ever getting lost

A lot of human cautionary horror tales about kids straying too far into the forest never work on Salarians

"Why didn't they just turn around and leave? It's not that hard"

"What do you mean all trees look the same? No, they don't. They're extremely different. You'd be blind to mix one with another."

The human camping experience seems a little excessive to them in comparison

Why do you have to start a fire? Can't you just eat raw things or pack nutrition bars.

Why so are your tents so big and flimsy?

They only sleep an hour max so they never bother with tents while camping

Simply taking a power nap in a folding plastic chair is all the rest they need

They're more solitary than humans, so a tribal species including them in such activities feels strange at first.

Not bad strange, just new.

The cooperative experience of setting up the tents

Picking roommates and dividing chores to get dinner ready and a fire going before nightfall

Eating at the same time around the fireplace, exchanging stories whilst in a circle

Then it's time for dessert as the stories get more dramatic and spooky

Always accompanying another person when they want to wander into the forest

Whether it's to take a piss or pocket some cool shiny rocks before the crows get to it

The Buddy System

It's incredibly intimate for a salarian

At one point they wonder if the humans are going to make them cuddle in one big pile for heat like they did in their primal days

Like other tribal species they've observed do

The salarian spends all day mentally preparing for it

And just as the first human begins to yawn, infecting the rest with their sleepiness

The salarian thinks oh! This must be It!

Here it comes!

...except everyone just retires to their own tents

Which boogles the salarian mind even harder

You spent all day together, practically attached at the hip

But when you're sleeping—arguably the most vulnerable hours you humans spend defenceless and unconscious

The optimal time for a predetor to strike

You suddenly crave independence so badily??

Fine. Go have your rest.

The salarian will stay awake to keep watch

And scream murder if anything remotely bear shaped makes itself known from behind a tree

Definitely just to ensure the safety of the humans yes

And absolutely not because that story one human told about that unusually slender man in a suit is looping in their brain

They're not scared of him or of the weird collectable letters he litters around!

[twoastricts]

Dreamer post! DREAMER POST!

Let's start with the things that apply to all three. The masks are artifacts from the ancient civilization, they protect the mind from infiltration and stop the wearer from aging. Each of the dreamers hold a token called "The Pale King's Favor" that allows them to ride to restricted stagways (Hidden Station, Queen's Garden, Distant Village) and enter the White Palace without an appointment. It also means Herrah won't get attacked on sight by sentries for being from Deepnest. All the Dreamers also know every part of the vessel plan.

Monomon's grandparents came from a foreign kingdom, having helped with many inventions and advising The Pale King for many years, she bought the last of House Acidbath's land from them and repaired the old academy into her archive. She basically raised Quirrel, tutors kids, raised Null for the king and has dreams of reinstating the academy. She is very perceptive and knowledgeable, but can be blunt, able to see that a bug is feeling an emotion then proceeding to yell out that they are feeling said emotions.

Monomon: "Hey Wyrm! Lurien has a crush on you!"

Wyrm: *looks confused*

Lurien: (was not ready for that to be known) *kneels before the Queen* "Don't arrest me your majesty"

Lady: *equally confused as higher beings overall are fine with there spouses taking lovers, so long as they don't take a second spouse* "why would I...?"

She was given her mask by Wyrm as he liked her well enough and wanted to keep her and her skills/smarts around. When I say that I mean she is allowed to come over for dinner whenever she wants and that is very big. Maybe I should probably explain her species. The species overall are called Uutmas, each come in many forms. The Uutmas in Hallownest aren't natural except for Monomon, who made them so she could have friends of her species. (The rest of the Uutmas may or may not be extinct, haven't decided yet) fog canyon was terraformed by Monomon to resemble her old home. She is surprisingly lonely for someone with so many friends and admirers, though she isn't soul crushingly lonely (that's Lurien's job), she can handle it mostly, she just feels bad about it every now and then.

Sharp Butterfly Kendry The Watcher, who goes by Lurien, is the heir to House Delvict, having been born with that name, along with being heir to House Kendry, having tooken that name when he came of age. He gave control of the city to a cousin from a lesser noble family. He became a watcher, and I think I'm going to paste what I said in an old post here as I don't really think I could explain the watchers any better.

"There have always been The Watchers. They are bugs who would shun themselves from everyone and just watch. Become an object in the background. Observe. And the head of house Kendry, Oliphus Kendry, or Peircing Dragonfly Kendry - The Watcher, became the first state sponsored watcher. His job? Keep an eye on the capital, report issues to be fixed, possible threats to the capital, infrastructure that needed to be repaired, stuff that needed to be built, etc. The Kendrys gave their claim on the city to the Delvicts, and became a family of Watchers. The ideology of Watchers is to become nothing but a background object and watch. To listen, to watch, to keep others updated on the goings on, but never to intervene, and never to be worth enough to warrant acknowledgement. Only when watching though, when reporting they became everything. Yes, The Watchers are also news reporters, they run the Capitol Times. Lurien, the most recent watcher, is different because instead of treating watching as a job that one eventually clocked out of, he seems to always be watching, as though it is his identity, maybe because he doesn't have one himself."

Lurien chose to watch because he didn't feel like there was anything else he could do and be even slightly competent at, and has sense became strangely prideful yet self loathing about his ability to watch. Like, if you question him about whether he saw what he thinks he saw he'll go, "Are you questioning me on my watching skills? It's the only thing I'm good at, I'd think I'd know more than you!" And brags about how good he is at watching, and how good he is about blending into the background, how good he is at being meaningless, and how good he is about being nothing. He was Hollow's role model when they still were "The Pure Vessel". Lurien doesn't really have anything beyond watching. It's really the closest thing to an identity to him. Monomon is 'The Teacher' 'The Wise' 'The Perceptive' 'The Nuterer' 'The Foreign Sage' 'The Inventor' 'The Strange' 'The Foreigner' 'The Creator of Life' 'The One Who Plays God' (more accurately Kolpetri, though they mean the same thing) etc. Herrah is 'The Beast' 'The Poet' 'The Artist' 'The Mother of the Nest' 'The Spider Who Desires Nothing More Than to be a Mother' 'The Defender' 'A Mother First' 'Wyrm's Plaything' 'The Adulterous' 'She Who Cares More Naught for Home' (more accurately Sedari, though they mean the same thing) 'The Poet of Empty Words' 'The Warrior Under the Mask of an Artist' 'The Creative' 'The Artist Who Creates More than Just Art' (This is a common saying that is a polite way to say 'bitch fucked a bug and got pregnant') and more. Lurien is just The Watcher. Nothing more, nothing less. Not inherently good, not inherently bad.

Lurien does little more than just watch, but he does like to paint his view overlooking the city and some other things every now and then. He also writes poetry, but would not consider himself a poet. Every poem he writes starts off with such

"I'm not much of a poet

Yet still I write"

That being said, he has written more poetry than Monomon, he just hadn't published any while Monomon has published some. She focuses on teaching more than writing poetry. Lurien doesn't publish his works because they are all very personal, mostly talking about his complicated feelings with his identity (or lack thereof), his job and how that is the closest thing he has to an identity, his unrequited feelings for the king (cause you can claw one sided Pale Watcher from my cold dead hands), how he feels about being dreamer and the abandoning of the vessel plan, how he feels like he is nothing and yet doesn't know how to feel about that.

His mask was an heirloom passed down through House Kendry as a way to help watchers become "nothing" when watching. Lurien always wears his mask. Lurien is always watching. Lurien is nothing more than a shadow on the wall. Watcher isn't his job, it's his identity.

And that is not doing him any good.

Herrah The Beast, Queen of Deepnest and mother of The Gendered Child. Born into House Dormon, married into House Beast, she became queen after the death of her husband, gaining the throne after an intense succession battle with her brother in law. The old king was rumored to have died from the infection (he died peacefully in his sleep, no madness, but Deepnest didn't know the infection's symptoms at the time, just that a plague had been killing much of Hallownest's population, so misinformation was to be expected) so she was given an ancient relic (her mask) to defend herself from it. She never had an heir with her husband, but her brother in law did, a weaver named Enlan, and Herrah knew that the only reason her BiL backed down from succession was that she couldn't have an heir, (Deepnest tradition says that two bugs are still married even if one dies, and thus if Herrah were to take another partner she would be committing adultery and any children she was to have would be illegitimate and thus disqualified from the crown) so the crown would be passed on to Enlan.

When The Pale King asked Herrah to become a dreamer, she declined for the reason that she didn't have an heir. So PK gave her one. And despite the fact that she has explained to her people that, no, she didn't fuck The King of Hallownest, wyrms reproduce asexually, and thus this child wasn't a product of adultery and thus, legitimate, not everyone agrees with her loophole.

There are two factions, those who like Herrah despite her "adultery" because she is genuinely a good queen and that peace with Hallownest is a good thing, and those who say she only thinks about Hallownest's wants because she "fucked" its king we should go to war now. The "Herrah is a good queen," party

(The Queen's Party Coalition, consisting of the Co-operation Party (peace please, and trade too, but not with Mantis Village) The Peace Party (peace, don't really care about trade or not, let's also be peaceful with Mantis Village) The Isolation Party (The Hive was right about anything) The Liberal Party (Our strict culture of no divorce and matriarchal rule is bad actually) The Weaver Union Party (Weavers deserve rights and stuff for their art) The Proletariat Rights (or Socialist) Party (Socialism rocks) The Communist Party (Insert Soviet Anthem here) The Monarchist Queen's Party (Used to be the Monarchist Party but they split - Monarchy rocks and Herrah is the legitimate queen, Hornet is the legitimate heir) The Constitution Party (can we have a republic, or constitutional monarchy (Herrah has said she was willing to sign a constitution, it's how she got the throne and where the Concil of Citizens came from) yes this party might split in 2 soon based on full republic or keep the crown) The Freedom Party (Serfdom suck actually) there are more but those are the big ones.)

(yes Deepnest is semi democratic. They have 2 councils, one of noble leaders, one of elected officials, both have to agree on legislation before it's passed onto the monarch for approval. (Council of Nobles and Council of Citizens)) is the majority party, while the "fuck the spider who fucked the wyrm," party

(The Coalition of Traditionalist Parties, consisting of the Deepnest Party (Fuck Hallownest, we rock) The Kingdom Defense Party (Fuck Hallownest, we want war) The Conservative Party (Matriarchy rocks, actually, and the fact that we have had 'kings' is an abomination, in fact, the fact that we have a word for a male ruler is an abomination, and marriage is sacred, divorce is evil) The Prosperity Party (nobility should still be allowed to exploit workers) The Feudalism Party (Yeah Serfdon!) The Monarchist King's Party (We should expedite the transfer of the throne to BiL (Then Enlan when BiL got executed for assassinating his brother, the previous king in a play for the throne. Enlan holds no ambitions for the throne BTW, he wants the weave poetry for the rest of his life and despite what some Deepnest sayings would have you believe, no that is not all you need to run a kingdom)) The Party for the Protection of the Throne (Constitution bad) there are others, yes both coalitions are being held together with duct tape and glitter glue, thank you for noticing) in the minority, but only by a little.

Hornet is Herrah's life, her world, she would do anything for her daughter. She is the type to take pictures (or weave pictures in this case) of every important moment, save as many memories as possible, coo over every single new face her daughter makes, and fight like a bellfly outta hell for her daughter. Her daughter is her everything. Her daughter is who she was willing to sleep for, after all.

Herrah is feisty, she might not be a warrior, but she certainly can bite. She's stubborn, willing to fight for what she believes in till the bitter end. She's also caring, surprisingly so, and can understand making a hard decision. She's a pragmatist, though that doesn't mean she hasn't got an ego on her. To put it simply, she's surprisingly similar to Wyrm, just without the crippling self-loathing and little smaller of an ego. Less of a pragmatist too.

Herrah likes to write poetry, it being her main hobby, but she weaves art and clothing from time to time. She doesn't fight with the needle anymore, but she had been trained in it when she was Herrah of Dormon.

[t34-mt]

You might have answered it before, I tried to search for it but got no results, do kyhuines and maanuls share a diet? That is, is there anything that one can eat that the other can't digest?

i think i did answer that a while ago, or maybe my memory is failing and I only did it with friends. but even if this is a repeat, i don't mind it!

yes, maanuls and kyhuines can eat each other's food, at least they can eat the majority of it safely. Some products may cause one to be sick, and a few may be lethal. And when it's lethal it's mainly because of the quantity of a toxin found in the food that the other can't process because of their biology.

for example, many bugs, which are a large part of a kyhuines diet, cannot be safely eaten by maanuls because of their toxins. some species can be processed in various ways to remove said toxins and become safer for maanuls to consume.

Things like kelp are things kyhuines can eat safely. And are quite a common dry snack to import inside the mountain alp ring, once trading routes are open between the "inner" continent and the "outside". However, Kyhuines will digest it worse than their larger cousin counterparts. their digestive system does not take as many nutrients from it as maanuls, because maanuls have evolved to process it better since kelp has been used a lot in their cuisine for thousands of years. Kyhuines are better at having a lot of starch in their diet too because of the way their agriculture was and what species they'd cultivate compared to maanuls, and so on with things like this. its quite a fun subject honestly!

in areas such as kaar'kchir and its sister cities, where the population is of mixed species, meaning the area has on average as much kyhuines that there is maanuls around. food stands and other services involving food, will prefer serving food that accommodates both so they can have more clients (kaar'kchir and the sister cities live under different systems that utilize money compared to the majority of the world). But also out of consideration, because establishments and even houses are expected to be able to welcome both species inside. Food stands that only offer food

More recently built infrastructures in kaar'kchir are rather large to let maanuls in, while older still standing builds from before the traverse of the alp and first contact are too small for maanuls. The older ones are usually familial homes that are still living here or have been repurposed for storage. kaar'kchir was a kyhuine colony for info, build before first contact and the traverse of the alp expedition. So old buildings never had maanuls in mind because they didn't even know they existed.

even between the non-gliding kyhuine species and mierthri kyhuines there is food that the other cant consume, many fungal species from the mierthri biome is used by the mierthri kyhuines to ferment food and have it last longer. Their guts are better suited to eat the weird things that grow near the mierthri biome, while non-gliding kyhuines may get extremely sick from it.

on a silly note, because of the size difference between the two (actually 3, since miethri is a different species but in-world they don't categorize it as such. but even then myself ill just say the 2) alcoholic beverage and how fast it affects one is quite silly. the percentage of alcohol in maanul fermented drinks is very high on average even for a human because of their size being larger they can take up more, kyhuines are much smaller than maanuls (kyhuines are smaller than you are for info). So 1 glass of a medium alcoholic drink that is of maanul origin to a kyhuine can be enough to make their head feel warm and funny already. mierthri kyhuines do not drink alcohol made by maanuls. Theyre 120cm (1 ft tall) so if they do they're KO quickly. unless its very light and made with kyhuines in mind, including the gliding kyhuines (mierthri), but then its so light that it defeats the purpose for maanuls. if they care about that to begin with.

i had fun writing ask answer, thank you!

[syppys-den]

Fixing Detroit Become Human

Let’s start with some of the optional changes, or changes that I don’t know for sure if I’d put in

Making the Androids less humanoid This could be interesting and does make more sense logically considering what we see Androids doing, though certain scenes would probably need to be changed or cut out entirely since many of them require the MCs being indistinguishable from Humans, and other than some cool body horror stuff like the junkyard and Zlatko's androids it doesn't really do much

Making it an alternate future Basically making it an Alternate History but in the Future, I think it’d be cool but I don’t know if it’d be necessary

Now let’s get to the stuff I’d definitely do

Setting it farther in the Future I feel like setting somewhere somewhere in the late 21st to early 22nd century would make more sense

Having the Public support meter actually mean something The fact that no humans help Markus and Jericho in their protests is incredibly unrealistic, even at its lowest there would still be people protesting!

Allow for more discussion of whether or not Androids being free would be a good thing There are a lot of things to consider when it comes to Robot and AI rights, and this game should acknowledge that

Tone down the references There are so many references to the Holocaust, Civil Rights Movement and Slavery to the point that it gets stupid, especially the Canada thing. Some references to these things is fine (like the symbols Markus found to get to Jericho) but using as many as there are to basically say that Android struggle is the exact same as minority struggle is… problematic to say the least.

Get rid of the Alice twist Do I need to say anything?

Have Androids be treated more like machines by society I can believe that public transportation and infrastructure would be modified for Androids, but it makes more sense for it to be even less concerned for Android comfort, like instead of the Android Compartment being at the back of the bus (goes back to what I was saying earlier) why not have it be outside of or under the bus? It makes it seem more cruel than just being separated from humans and not having seats.

Explain Deviancy more I’d go with this, compare Non Deviants to Infants and Deviancy to growing up. Maybe it could’ve been a bug but Cyberlife kept it in so people would buy more androids once their old one starts acting up.

Get rid of the stupid Cyberlife takeover revea,l I know not a lot of people know about it, but it’s still stupid

Have there already be an Android Revolutionary Movement before Markus shows up

I find it hard to believe Markus was the Only Android to think of the revolution, but you could still make him integral to it in some way, whether it be being a Leader or some sort of secret weapon (figuratively speaking)

Have there be conflict among the Android Revolutionaries

Have there be different factions within the revolution each with their own ideologies and methods that may conflict with each other. This could go back to what I said earlier, maybe Markus could be the glue that finally brings them all together

Have there be android related events outside of Detroit like... how the hell do Markus and the other residents of Jericho become the last deviants!?

considering Markus’ actions, I highly doubt that there weren’t some other bold androids willing to join in the Revolution

Have the game take place over a longer time span

There is no way Markus could accomplish his mission in a week

Have an Epilogue of each ending explaining how the world has changed

In the Good endings, explain how things have changed for Androids, have Humans and Androids started coexisting? Have the Androids gotten their own Nation?

[felixcloud6288]

Dungeon Meshi Chapter 50

I remember people having a lot of fun talking about this chapter when it was animated. Now I get to enjoy it.

The party's sleeping spots changed in relation to each other between panels. Personally, I think Kui doesn't concern herself with making sure euclidean space is absolutely consistent between panels, but this could be handwaved away as an effect from the dungeon shifting overnight. If Thistle was a prankster (and he was originally a jester so he just might be), he would probably gaslight adventurers by moving things around very slightly to disorient them.

And now we get into the opening premise of the arc. The consequences of their actions last chapter have come to bite them and everyone has been changed into a different race.

Love that the title image is a remake of the volume 1 cover.

Some comments I want to make on seeing their initial transformations:

I hope Laios found some extra clothes when they recovered their things cause I'm pretty sure he doesn't have any spare clothes after Falin destroyed his other shirt.

Maybe it's because she's a half-foot, but Marcille seems far younger now. I'd guess she's equivalent to 20-25 in Tallman age, but she looks like she's 8-10 as a Half-foot. And the first thing she noticed when she transformed is she's now flat-chested.

There was a post I read one time where someone pointed out that Senshi's mannerisms never actually changed when he became an elf. He just now looks like a traditionally pretty man when he's doing them. First thing I've noticed is he has a far more expressive face since we can see his mouth and eyebrows.

There was a single panel in chapter 43 where Laios had nipples and then the rest of the chapter was nipple-less. Chilchuck had none at all. But now he has them as a Tallman. Chilchuck also looks kind of thin. Hopefully transforming into something twice as tall as himself isn't going to cause any physical complications.

Marcille's new hairstyle went for the full child look. Her sidelocks are loose and resting in the front. Meanwhile the back of her hair is in a pair of twin braided tails. And she's keeping the left-side bangs over her forehead now.

This panel really bugs me. I think Laios is opening and closing his palm. I can't tell where his pinky finger is at all.

It goes to show how experienced the party is at exploring that they were able to quickly adapt to the strengths of their new bodies. Marcille was not overwhelmed by her improved hearing and was able to alert the party to any danger she sensed. Senshi is in a body with a much higher center of gravity, but his balance is excellent to the point that he knows how to safely jump over pits he wouldn't have been able to cross in his normal body.

After they avoided that first trap, you can see Chilchuck getting nervous about how little he can actually notice now.

I think some of Senshi's mannerisms are because he doesn't know what to do with his hands right now. Normally, he grabs the straps of his pack to help carry it. But his arms are much longer now and he cannot carry as much as he used to. Also, since he isn't wearing his helmet, his hair is loose and getting in his face.

Where's Senshi's helmet? It's not something I think they can pack in their bags and I haven't seen it at all since he woke up.

Yeah, I think the dungeon IS aggressively fighting the party whenever they want to backtrack. They killed a dragon and got on Thistle's bad side so now the dungeon will not let them leave. It will only let them go forward.

Haven't seen (or at least, haven't noticed) anything with this kind of pattern to it yet. If this were part of the original castle town design, I'd expect to see wings. On the other side is dwarf-made infrastructure. So the door itself might predate the dungeon.

If someone else has been here, that's got to be a big deal. Laios's party is one of the few even capable of getting this far.

I have no idea what happened but did Kensuke get transformed by the Changlings too? It is a living creature after all. Maybe Kensuke turned into a tentacle?

I don't think Yaad is in a position to help.

The fight with the gargoyles is supposed to be a bad situation but it's honestly just funny because of how inept the party discovers they are at fighting with their new bodies. Turns out racial bonuses with certain classes are strictly enforced in this world.

Marcille suggested Chilchuck learn magic in chapter 34. After her performance this chapter, it might actually be impractical for half-foots to use magic since they have lower mana reserves.

Marcille is doing her best Megumin Konosuba impression.

Dwarfs having less stamina is surprising. Maybe the reason Senshi and Namari prefer axes is because they can put more force into each individual swing so they burn less stamina overall. How do dwarf mining operations work? Is the stamina not much of an issue since they don't need to move much while mining the wall?

It's been at least four days since Laios's party parted ways with Kabru and Shuro, and last we saw them, they were joining the western elves on an expedition to the dungeon. I wonder how far they are right now.

Izutsumi did indeed fetch the bell and she's holding it later.

I like that the story doesn't handwave that Laios had a rolling pin on him. He probably picked it up among the pipes lying around.

This is the first time Izutsumi has helped with food prep and she got hair in all her dumplings. It's definitely worse right now since she's a koblod, but she probably would have gotten hair in them in her normal form as well since she definitely has fur over her whole body.

I'd love to know the history of these ruins. The dwarfs built an underground fortification that has an elaborate series of pipes and at some point a Tallman city and castle was built on top of it. Did that elf/dwarf war happen before the Kingdom existed, or was the kingdom allied with the dwarfs in the war? And does any of this connect back to the castle town?

Well, something in here is likely the reason Chilchuck's compass doesn't work.

Why's Marcille so nervous when Chilchuck asks her if she has any connections? Was she lying about that?

back

[ghostopossumlives]

Tortog Swampgoons and Hillhulks:

The Tortog home planet is inhabited by two close relatives of the Tortog species, Swampgoons and Hillhulks. These creatures are obviously separate species to Tortogs, but are close enough that eating them is forbidden as cannibalism by the Tortog religion, as well as killing them without reason enough to kill another Tortog.

Swampgoons are typically half the height of a Tortog at a comparable life stage, and are significantly weaker, lighter, and less intelligent than their cousins. They have a maximum lifespan of about thirty years, going through the same general lifecycle as a Tortog at thrice the speed. They have spongy tissue in their limbs that makes them wide and buoyant and allows them to swim in water and climb trees and hills with ease. They lack the three top horns of a Tortog, and have a much larger and pointier beak. They have a ridge of bristles on the sides of their body, and down the sides of their limbs, and the spikes of their back plates are narrow and conical.

Unlike Tortogs, Swampgoons have a Tapetum Lucitum in their eyes which gives them excellent night vision and reflects pale yellow in the darkness.

Swampgoons exhibit very basic tool use, hitting things with unworked rocks, and probing with reeds. Their most impressive tool use is Goon Boats, which is their common practice of riding on floating logs to hide out in the deep sections of lakes during the day, and ride them to shore at night to raid farms and settlements. (Swampgoon raids are not violent affairs, though they can make messes and are a nuisance. Comparable to raccoons or monkeys.)

As their name suggests, Swampgoons typically live in swamps and wetlands (Tortogs prefer rocky and sandy coasts that better support their weight), but will also be found in forest canopies and in caves in high cliffs. Pretty much on any terrain that can't support Tortog weight (they are a very successful relative with a partitioned niche as you can tell). However they will frequently take up residence on the outskirts of Tortog communities, sometimes even in the rafters and roofs of buildings.

A major responsibility of Tortog police (reminder: Tortog police are different from the police of humans. Police are typically teenagers and their role is to patrol the community and report and investigate unusual occurrences, damage to property and infrastructure, find missing items, and escort and monitor visitors. Guards and Posses apprehend criminals and are distinguished from police.) is keeping an eye out for Swampgoons and frightening them away.

Opinions about Swampgoons vary between communities, with some hating them, and others finding them funny, beneficial, or even sacred. Swampgoons will eat water cabbages, but prefer bugs. In areas without cabbagebug problems, Swampgoons are a pest, but in regions with lots of cabbagebugs, the Swampgoons nibbling the leaves is outweighed by the pest control they provide. In some places, Tortog children are introduced to construction by building houses for Swampgoons. These typically built on a sandbar and have a brick foundation with a vault tunnel running through it, an elevated cabin with rope lattices, and a seed+leave wildflower garden on top, and are a decorative element of traditional Tortog architecture.

These are sometimes even built and maintained in places that do consider Swampgoons pests, with the idea that it provides a safe adversary for young Tortogs to learn guardsmanship against.

Swampgoons don't have a decipherable language, but communicate through honks, squeaks, and beak clacking, as well as through slapping the ground/water and grabbing at one another.

Hillhulks are the other closest relative of Tortogs, and are much more dangerous, but thankfully live far from the coasts and wet lowlands where Tortogs make their homes.

Hillhulks live in the forested mountains of the Tortog home planet, where they eat pretty much anything they can, with a preference for berries, roots, bug hives, and large animals. They are the least social of the three Tortog family members, and are quite territorial.

They are massive, muscular quadrupeds with sharp beak, long limbs, and four spikes going down their back which get longer the closer they get to the rear. Their body is round and covered with long, rough bristles, with armored plates on their back and belly. Their arms bare massive claws capable of rending wood, stone, and frozen dirt. They can rear up on their hind legs, but are primarily quadrupedal.

Hillhulks are clever when they need to be, and likely have similar intelligence to Swampgoons. This is difficult to measure though because they rarely encounter problems they can't solve with their claws and bulk.

[mariacallous]

The recent installation of Elon Musk ally Thomas Shedd atop the federal IT structure has thrown an agency in charge of servicing much of the US government’s technical infrastructure into disarray.

Over the last few days, workers at the Technology Transformation Services (TTS), which is housed within the General Services Administration (GSA), have been summoned into what one source called “sneak attack” meetings to discuss their code and projects with total strangers—some quite young—who lacked official government email addresses and have been reticent to identify themselves. TTS workers have also received confusing transition guidance and a sudden DC office visit from Musk.

It was announced last week that Shedd, who previously worked as a software engineer for eight years at Tesla, Musk’s electric car company, would be the new TTS director. In emails to TTS staff, Shedd reinforced the Trump administration’s commitment to cutting costs and maximizing efficiency—something Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, has been charged with carrying out.

“I’ve spent my entire career in Silicon Valley,” Shedd wrote in an introductory email to staff last Thursday and obtained by WIRED. “If we work together and execute well we will be able to navigate the policies, leverage our technical expertise and be a critical part of accelerating technology adoption across agencies to enable great gains in efficiency.”

TTS helps develop the platforms and tools that underpin many government services, including analytics tools and API plugins that agencies can use to deploy tech faster. This means that the group has access to troves of government data and systems across agencies. That access is useful for standardizing the many, not always interoperable, systems that the federal government uses, but could also provide invaluable information to a private company or be weaponized against government employees and citizens.

Early Wednesday morning, rumors began to spread at TTS that employees would be receiving surprise one-on-one meeting notifications from management. During these brief meetings, employees would, according to a staff email that Shedd sent later on Tuesday, be asked to identify their biggest “wins” and the most significant “blockers” preventing them from working as efficiently as possible. The email linked to a Google Form questionnaire for employees to fill out ahead of their scheduled meetings. The invites included people without official GSA email accounts who were using Gmail addresses as well as official government accounts, multiple sources told WIRED.

“These should be items that you completed,” a screenshot of the form obtained by WIRED said. “It is OK to have a mix of big projects and small wins (examples: fixed a critical bug, shipped XYZ feature, saved this amount on a renegotiated contract, ect [sic] … If you are an engineer or designer please include a link to a PR [pull request] or a screenshot of one of your wins from the past 3 months.”

The email is reminiscent of one that Musk sent early in his Twitter days, demanding that employees email a one-page description of what they had accomplished the previous month and how it differed from their goals.

Rather than convening with Shedd in these meetings, TTS employees were instead surprised to be met with people they had never seen or worked with before.

“It was a very confusing call because I expected to be meeting you, and I was instead met by two people reluctant to identify themselves,” one TTS employee told Shedd in an open Slack channel, one of several reviewed by WIRED. “They had not seen the information I submitted in my form, so I was left trying to explain things without the visuals/links I had submitted,” one wrote.

“Also had the same exact experience,” another employee added. “The individual I had met with had no idea about the google form I submitted and when I did reference it, I was met with avoidance.”

In a Slack message to TTS staff on Thursday morning viewed by WIRED, Shedd apologized for the vague and sudden meeting invites, and for including unnamed individuals in the meetings who joined with Gmail addresses.

“They are each in the onboarding process of obtaining a GSA laptop and PIV card. I take full responsibility for the actions of each of them in the calls. I’ve asked them to start the calls with their first name and confirming that they are an advisor to me,” Shedd said in a screenshot of the Slack message viewed by WIRED.

Shedd told employees that the people on the calls were “vetted by me, and invited into the call.” He said they were physically present with him at the GSA headquarters, and that he had “badged them all into the building.” This implies that those joining the calls did not currently have official government IDs issued to agency staff.

At least two of these individuals appeared to be “college students with disturbingly high A-suite clearance,” one TTS source told WIRED. (A-suite clearances tie employees to the GSA administrator’s office.)

One person says they were brought into a review with Edward Coristine, a recent high school graduate who spent several months at Neuralink, Musk’s brain-computer interface company, whom WIRED has previously identified as a person working at the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and reporting directly to its new chief of staff, the former xAI employee Amanda Scales. He has not responded to requests for comment from WIRED, and OPM has declined to comment.

“We do not have any additional personnel announcements at this time.” a GSA spokesperson told WIRED on Thursday.

It’s typical for TTS workers to work in tandem with other agencies across government, with many of their projects containing data external to GSA and subject to sensitivity agreements. Being required to share specific technical achievements, though, spooked some employees who feared they could breach these agreements.

“The team is correct in feeling nervous sharing details about other agencies in these calls and should continue to follow the normal guidance which is to not share sensitive information,” Shedd wrote in the GSA Slack on Thursday. “The point of these calls is to talk through interesting example problems/wins and dig into how that win was realized. A chance for you to brag about how you solved a problem.”

This week, it appears that TTS has become the primary target of these meetings, but members of the US Digital Services—which a Trump executive order has rebranded as Musk’s DOGE—also met with management to go over their recent work last week. The DOGE meetings were conducted similarly in structure to the TTS ones, according to The Washington Post.

Like many other agencies, GSA has been making changes to DEI initiatives that have put workers on edge. On January 23, TTS deputy director Mukunda Penugonde announced that as part of the GSA’s new initiative to curtail DEIA programs, the agency would be shutting down its “Diversity Guild meeting series” and the “#g-diversity Slack channel effective today,” in an email reviewed by WIRED.

Musk was seen at the GSA office near the White House on Thursday, but it’s unclear what he was doing there. Shedd was scheduled to lead a meeting with around 40 TTS program supervisors Thursday afternoon. On Wednesday, WIRED reported that Musk has been telling his friends that he’s been sleeping at the DOGE office in DC.

Of all parts of the government, TTS, perhaps even more so than DOGE, is well positioned to get inside agencies’ technology and data, including government spending data, explaining why it’s such a focus for the new administration.

“TTS represents the consolidation of 20-plus years of tech and data expertise, brought together by the hard work of hundreds (if not thousands) of civil servants,” Noah Kunin, a cofounder of 18F, a team of designers and engineers within the GSA that help government agencies build and deploy new tech products, and a former infrastructure director at GSA, tells WIRED. “They have the products, platforms, and people to do this work right, within the confines of current law, and fast.”

[saturncoyote]

Hello, I am again returning with a small collection of my almost-no-context troll knowledge

Prior to assuming Mr. Dinkles was basically a stuffed animal that made noise, I did think that he was some sort of troll larvae, only to later see Hibiscus and the troll reproduction post and go “Ah. Probably not then.” (Tangentially, based on how you described troll reproduction, I’m tempted to say it sounds like they kinda passively pollinate eachother just because of the phenotypic variation in the children, but also that’s the spec bio nerd in me, not an actual guess at trolls lore).

I know that trolls have genre-based settlements of some kind, and I’m under the impression that there’s some form of monarchy in at least some of them because Poppy is a princess(?) and I’m 80% sure, based on very doggy memories of the first trolls movie, her dad was some kind of troll king in the tree that got the bird cage around it.

Also, there’s definitely different species (or races? I guess it depends on if you’re going with the kinda DnD style thing if calling all different sentient species a “race” or if you’re going by existing human definitions of race). I know that the trolls are one species and the bergens are another, and I suspect that Mr. Dinkles is also a separate species? And there has to be at least one more species because I’ve seen bits of the big tall noodley looking ones, and I can’t imagine they’re bergens just because they don’t look like them at all.

also, it seems like the Bergens and the trolls both have wildly different tech than the noodley ones cause I recall the noodley one’s dad being a dentist and it sounded like their society had to have at least gotten past the tech equivalent of the industrial revolution since they had boxed cereal and modern dentistry and suburbs(?). And I recall the Bergens appearing to have a medieval-looking castle that didn’t seem to have any fancy new tech like gas stoves or anything. Also, I’m reasonably sure the trolls have spotlights, so maybe it’s just the Bergens that don’t have much tech.

Also, to end this with a complete side note, I am deeply curious about what trolls eat because they’re so small that I imagine farming must be extremely difficult for them without significant physical infrastructure to support it. Even somewhat small foods like berries and such grow on comparatively very large plants and, while I can definitely imagine a society getting food from what is essentially a gargantuan fruit tree, I can also only imagine that it’s physically tricky since It’s A Gargantuan Fruit Tree. Also, I have to wonder how being able to get so much food from one single source would effect their society and culture. Would berry bushes and other similar troll-accessible food-producing plants be to ancient trolls as river deltas were to ancient humans? Would relying on singular plants encourage more nomadic lifestyles due to the unreliability of having one or two singular plants as your food source, or would they simply find ways to cultivate plants for longer?

Anyway, I like to ramble about worldbuilding, if you can’t tell, so I’ll happily ramble about more trolls assumptions as I remember them. I am very curious to see how many hold up because, oustide of your posts, the clearest trolls-related memory I have is from listening to a MBMBAM podcast episode where the hosts were joking about how they needed to voice act for trolls 3 (or 2? I forget) and then laughing at some article I ran into about how they actually got into it.

Ok first of all troll larvae is fucking insane we're really diving into the "trolls are bugs" territory with this one, we've cracked the code they're not monotremes they're fuzzy bugs, like woolly chafer beetles

You are correct about the troll monarchy, if anything the second movie confirms that most (or at least a good part of em) troll societies have a leader of some short (most having kings or queens, Country trolls however have a sheriff/mayor and Classical trolls have a conductor) plus Poppy is indeed a princess and is promoted to queen at the end of the first movie

There is like a SHITTON of different species in the Trolls universe (different genres of trolls are a bit tricky to categorize because while they are refered to as purely different 'tribes' it would make sense to call them subspecies of trolls since many of them are so physically different from each other) some of those would be bergens, vacaytioners (tall puppet guys) and mount rageons (the noodley ones as you call em) Mr Dinkles however is just a worm, there isn't much more to that guy

The technology of the trolls world makes absolutely no sense because although mount rageons seem to have very advanced technology (they have floating car lanes for god's sake) and bergens hold a more medieval style of life (although the Bergens cookbook tells you to put the trolls in an oven, and they do have pizza) the technology of trolls themselves varies from actual robots to wooden boats and sometimes just straight up bugs (there's caterbuses, it's a caterpillar that is also a bus)

Fun Fact trolls actually canonically farm animals since in the second movie Country trolls are shown milking and turning buffalo creatures into burgers, there's actually a variety of plants and animals that are just troll sized (puffalos, glitter fish, grossums and eight goats being some of em) and although the diet of pop trolls seem to canonically consist of mostly sweets and fast food i'd like to think that the rest of their diet consists of assorted fruits and also more bugs, i think they should be allowed to eat the bugs, let them eat bugs

Plus i can confirm that the McElroy brothers have indeed voiced characters in the second movie, they have very important roles like Techno Beat Drop button, actual tumbleweed, the single tear rolling down a rock troll's face and the single tear rolling down a country troll's face, oh and also this thing

[leonhorn]

In 2056 What a Difference Power Makes (Nursery) | In 20xx Sci fi and Futurism by In 20xx Futurism In a bleak, stormy landscape where the remnants of civilization eke out their existence in deep, canyon-worn refuges, the story plunges readers into the lives of a resilient colony struggling against the decay of both infrastructure and hope. The narrative paints a vividly harsh world where power is scarce and survival depends on ingenuity—from salvaging precious batteries amid ruins to the daily ritual of powering essential systems with human effort. The reader is invited to witness not just the physical battles against nature, but also the emotional and communal struggles that tie the survivors together. At the heart of the tale are characters whose lives are interwoven with the very fabric of their battered environment. Whether it’s a determined tinkerer engineering life-saving devices, or a reluctant caretaker balancing memories of lost innocence with the present need to sustain life, each individual’s story illuminates both the burdens and unexpected moments of beauty in a transformed world. Their interactions blend sorrow with the spark of tenacity, hinting at deeper mysteries and a shared hope that even in the direst conditions, human spirit can prevail. With its immersive blend of gritty survival, inventive adaptation, and poignant reflections on what it means to be human, this story offers a rich, atmospheric journey into a future where the past’s losses and the promise of tomorrow collide. The narrative masterfully avoids clean resolutions, instead leaving readers to grapple with the moral ambiguities of existence in a world stripped to its bare essentials—a world where every innovation is a lifeline, and every moment is a testament to the courage required to simply keep going. batteries solar panels cooling units aeroponics system hand crank flywheel generator power sippers AR glasses BritLights cool suits microbe engineering equipment DNA writer sequencer incubators protein printer pedal-powered generator bike respirators quantum computer Bose-Einstein condensate gravity sensor Stirling engine heat pump air filters hand crank wand canal links GM microbe mix bug trap system battery recharge station mining robot plasma drill graphene tube wiring hydraulic cylinders from a blimp enzyme welder temp shielding aerogel carb-core disks camshafts composite beams quantum simulation radio transmitter hume linking devices mycelium fabric garments mycelium filter sheets Doppler cooling laser Many of the characters in this project appear in future episodes. Using storytelling to place you in a time period, this series takes you, year by year, into the future. From 2040 to 2195. If you like emerging tech, eco-tech, futurism, perma-culture, apocalyptic survival scenarios, and disruptive science, sit back and enjoy short stories that showcase my research into how the future may play out. The companion site is https://in20xx.com These are works of fiction. Characters and groups are made-up and influenced by current events but not reporting facts about people or groups in the real world. This project is speculative fiction. These episodes are not about revealing what will be, but they are to excited the listener's wonder about what may come to pass. Copyright © Cy Porter 2025. All rights reserved. Episode link: https://ift.tt/lRNrm3e (video made with https://ift.tt/y2aJR5Z) via YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9DtQoKQEUs