#dino strike hunt

[itcamefromthetoybox]

We’re Back: A Dinosaur Review

Man, it has been a while! I know I meant “Blind Box Month” to end in February, but then a ton of stuff happened, I caught Covid, and just general life chaos that’s kept me away from writing. Now that I finally have the energy to do it, though, let’s get back into reviews! This week, we’re looking at a line focusing on dinosaurs rampaging and those that hunt them down: “Dino Strike Hunt!”

Ok, so what exactly is this? Well, first, let’s look at the company that makes it. I first became aware of Zuru when my wife started collecting their Mini Brands line, a blind box series of tiny versions of real-world products that are in scale with the average doll. Each container has five items in it, and it’s a fun line we’ll probably talk about some other time. Zuru does a ton of different types of toys, such as robot animals, plushies, and most relevant to this review, multiple blind box items. Due to past experiences with them, I went into this with some good expectations, so let’s see if my optimism was rewarded or if it was dashed against the rocks of reality, like my dreams of getting a date in high school.

“Dino Strike Hunt” focuses on dinosaurs rampaging and the vehicles designed to stop them. Each box contains one vehicle or dinosaur that comes disassembled and has to be put together, with the dinosaurs having more soft plastic parts than the vehicles. It’s a pretty straightforward idea aimed at kids who like vehicles or dinosaurs.

Now, I tend not to focus on packaging, choosing instead to look at the toy itself. This is one of those times I’ll make an exception, though. Like most blind boxes sold by Zuru, the package is a ball with two tabs on opposite ends of the ball. Opening it is a feat that is definitely made easier with longer nails. I trimmed mine before opening one of the packages, and that was a decision I regretted almost immediately. Upon removing the tabs, the package falls apart into five slices, like an orange. Each slice has a foil cover on it, and removing that foil reveals a piece of whatever you’re building. It’s a fun little package, though it does result in some wasted plastic.

Finally, all those hours of peeling fruit have paid off!

The toys themselves are a mixed blessing. Like I said earlier, you can end up with either a dinosaur or a vehicle, and there’s no way to tell which you’re getting until the package is opened. The vehicles tend to be fun little toys where you snap together the five parts to make a neat little stylized military vehicle. The dinosaurs, on the other hand, can be the biggest pain to assemble. The vehicles are all harder plastics, so attaching everything is really easy. The dinosaurs tend to have softer plastics, usually in the limbs, which makes pegging them onto the body a challenge. If the peg on the body can’t be forced into the soft plastic limb in just the right way, the limb will fall off after a very short time. Getting the limbs on there sometimes requires a lot more effort than it should, and seeing the limb fall off after that can drive a man to dark places at the bottom of a bottle.

It was around this point that I began experiencing some regrets. Later would come the drinking.

A part of the toys that I really like is the little action feature they have. For the vehicles, this can be something like a grabbing claw or a firing projectile, and for the dinosaurs, it’s button-triggered moving parts, which they use to break out of restraints. The vehicles come out on top here due to the aforementioned issue with attaching the dinosaur parts. If a part isn’t secured just right, it moving in any way will detach it. Picking the dinosaurs up became far riskier than it needed to be. There was something just sad about watching the part I spent God knows how long fighting just fall off for the fourth time.

The toys honestly do look fun. The dinosaurs look like the kind you see in "Jurassic Park” and the vehicles look like they came from a 90’s cartoon. I can safely say the looks are the strongest point here. Unfortunately, as great as the toys do look, the issues with the dinosaurs weigh on me, like a backpack loaded with text books I will use all of once but still paid for.

Helicopter: fun. Pterodactyl, a bit tricky to assemble, but came out alright. Dilophosaurus: punishment from Toy God.

Now, would I recommend “Dino Strike Hunt?” Honestly, no. The issues I had with the dinosaurs are a real turn off for me that I know would be really frustrating for kids. The vehicles are great and kids would like those, which is why I would instead recommend some of Zuru’s other blind boxes, which are just the snap-together vehicles. All the fun of the vehicles with none of the frustration of trying to attach an arm to a peg too big for it. “Dino Strike Hunt” and Zuru’s other blind boxes can be found at most retail stores that sell toys, usually tucked away in the back of the toy section. They tend to run for about $5-$8 depending on where you shop. The packaging does work great as an Easter surprise, so don’t be afraid to try some of their other blind boxes instead of this one. This is JS signing off and wishing you Happy Toy Hunting!

[luna-the-bard]

this is an oc x canon lore dump, you've been warned

-> Act II

Just for organization purposes, I'm calling this Act I. I'll add links to other parts as (and if) i write them. Anyways let's hope Tumblr can fit 11 pages of text into one post! :)c

General lore:

Te’rra is a small planet that stopped participating in Big Space Politics about a century ago. Due to this, its existence has been forgotten by most.

It doesn't help that the planet is in the middle of fucking nowhere

It’s fine they chillin

The society populating the planet are called terraninans, and they are an avian species - humanoids with feathered wings and tails, and some other features like blue skin, striking, cat-like eyes, or elaborate skin patterns that are unique to each individual, akin to birthmarks.

Here’s a couple examples:

Note that the Head Priestess (pic. 1) lacks wings, which is normally not the case for the species. Lower image shows more patterning on parts of the body that aren’t the face (mainly arms).

Fun fact: this species is entirely female! This is not relevant to the story tho, so I won’t dwell on it.

The life expectancy of a terranian is somewhere around 1k years. There are old folk still alive who remember Te’rra before it isolated itself from the rest of the world.

Te’rra has pretty high levels of technological progress. However, culturally they put a large emphasis on co-existing with the ecosystem, which makes their technology rather different from what you would normally expect. There is a very developed culture of artisanry, with most goods being produced by individual masters or small guilds.

Main storyline:

Skeets is a relatively young terranian huntress. She is part of a small, about 10-person, hunting group - a common occurrence for her city, as they are located on the edge of a vast jungle. 

She is neither a newbie nor a master of her craft; her position is more akin to a promising junior - not quite ready to lead her own hunting group, but experienced enough to hold a certain amount of weight and respect among her peers.

Hunting groups normally alternate between staying close to the city and going further out into the jungle to balance out their impact on the flora/fauna. Skeets’s group has recently started going further out, as more experienced hunters.

Meanwhile, there is a Space Pirate ship that happened to be passing the planet - a rare occurrence, considering there were no trade routes nearby and ships of any sort were almost never seen in this sector of the galaxy. The Space Pirates were likely taking such an unusual route to avoid a police or military patrol; the reason is really not that important. Identically, it doesn’t matter why exactly the Space Pirates decided to take a closer look at the little blue planet before them, because the impact is the same nonetheless: the small hunting group that ventured a bit too far from the city catches their attention.

Skeets and her group were actually sent to investigate a disturbance in the ecosystem - because of course the Space Pirates have made quite a ruckus, scaring away the local wildlife. What was a result of their ship’s landing got mistakenly interpreted by the city’s lookout post as a sign of a large predator, which would have to be warded off to avoid causing damage to the area.

Unfortunately for everyone, it was not, in fact, a giant blue dino-chicken. 

The Space Pirates decide that “exotic” humanoids would fetch a good price on the black market - especially considering no one has seen their kind for almost a century, and most have forgotten what they look like. This leads to an ambush and the subsequent capture of Skeets’s hunting group.

Having got what they need and not wanting to attract more attention, the Pirates promptly take off; they’re gone from the planet before anyone has time to react. 

—-

Unfortunately for everyone. But especially the Pirates. The ship experiences an engine malfunction, forcing the Pirates to land on a desolate planet that has long been abandoned by civilization; in hopes of either fixing the engine or finding parts to fix it, the Pirates with their precious cargo have to descend into the deteriorated catacombs under the planet’s surface (as the surface itself is inhospitable). They make their home in an empty room that is still structurally sound and fairly close to the surface. It even has some of the basic technology still functioning, likely from an emergency power source (they attempt to locate it, but to no avail). The room only has one entrance, so it’s easy to guard; this was not the last reason on the list of priorities. The bunch of terranians are placed in that room for the same purpose - easy to make sure nothing gets in… or gets out.

Now, you were probably wondering why this circumstance is especially unlucky for the Pirates. As it turns out, the catacombs aren’t as desolate as they appeared. 

As the Pirates find out from their own experience, deeper in the catacombs dwells the apex predator of this planet; whether it’s a result of a genetic mutation or a creature native to the ecosystem is unclear. But the monster is at the top of the food chain for a reason; it’s fast, its spider-like lower body giving it the ability to climb walls and dwell on ceilings. Its limbs have a poison canal underneath each claw, making even minor wounds lethal - the only difference is that this death is much more slow and painful than getting mauled. The creature has a humanoid upper body, but there is nothing human about it: a demethor would be prettier; those at least lack rows of sharp, curved teeth and even more prominent fangs. Its mouth and skin can secrete a slimy substance saturated with its poison; it leaves a wet trail on the walls of tunnels it frequents most.

Not able to retreat back to the surface, and desperately needing to find resources to fix their ship, the Pirates are forced to witness their crewmates being plucked one by one each time they venture out into the planet’s depths; those who manage to escape are subjects to the unsightly fate of being slowly consumed by the poison. The creature knows these catacombs far better than the Pirates do; it calls them its home. The only reason Skeets and her kin are in relative safety is due to the lack of worthy prey closer to the surface - the spider-like abomination has no interest in rodents and other small animals that scurry along the industrial pipes. Terranians see the state in which the Pirates return from their missions; watch their numbers grow smaller and smaller. The ruins are cold, unwelcoming. While the Pirates have to deal with injuries and worry about their resources running low, their captives are faced with a survival issue of a different kind: none of them are suited for the climate. Te’rra is a warm planet. The temperature in the jungle never drops past zero or even close to it; it has no winter.  Hunters almost never have to go into freezing areas, and when they do, they are heavily equipped - a complete opposite of Skeets and her team, who were dressed very lightly. 

For most, it starts as a cold. The average body temperature of a terranian is slightly above human; it runs around 38-39 ℃, and being constantly exposed to the chilly, humid air of the catacombs is taking its toll on each of the ten captives. Colds grow into acute bronchitis; Skeets, who has been secretly sneaking out to look for resources, develops pneumonia.  Before it gets bad, she continues toying with fate: having a much smaller build than Space Pirates, she can fit into tight maintenance corridors and dried-out pipes. Those on guarding duty are delirious from poison, and sneaking out gets less and less challenging with time. Once, early on, she gets lucky and finds a sealed first-aid box - most of the things there expired long ago, but rubbing alcohol and bandages are still safe to use. She brings them back to mend some minor wounds received during the pirate ambush (they were so, so lucky to avoid any serious injuries). Later on, however, her condition worsens too much for her to continue. At this point, everyone is sick, and Skeets and some of her teammates are rapidly declining. The Pirate numbers are so small there is only one of them guarding the door; and even he is near-comatose from wounds and poison. The Pirates decide to take their chances and send out a distress signal - it’s better to get arrested by some Federation patrol than become food for the monster that lives below. Although, the Pirates hoped that the signal would attract a less armed, civilian ship - so they could kill the unsuspecting crew and get off this planet.

Fortunately for everyone but the Pirates themselves :)c the distress signal is received by a lone gunship that happened to be passing through the area. The gunship that, of course, belongs to the universe’s best bounty hunter - Samus Aran.

To no one’s surprise, Samus traverses the catacombs with ease. This is far from the first time she’s had to navigate a labyrinth of rooms and ruins. There is so little left of the Pirates that Samus almost gets suspicious of how… unchallenging it is to defeat them. Then she finds out the reason behind the Pirates’ weakness; whether or not she kills the arachnid creature is unknown. On her way back up, Samus finds one last Pirate - on the brink of death, guarding the entrance to a room. Compared to being slowly digested from the inside, death by Samus’s hand is almost an act of mercy for him.

However, instead of an ammo stash or a navigation room, Samus finds a bunch of very sickly-looking blue humanoids. The readings from her suit indicate that, although their species is not in her database, they clearly require medical attention - even more so since Samus doesn’t know that terranians have an above average body temperature, so to her their state is not much better than the Pirate’s. 

Luckily, the room is close enough to the surface for Samus to be able to contact A.D.A.M. without having to re-emerge. She sends out a request to the Federation - although, really, it’s much more like a firm order, - to direct a rescue vessel their way; she includes just the necessary minimum of information in her message - that there are about ten individuals, species unknown, in need of immediate medical attention; the coordinates of the planet; the instructions on where to safely enter the catacombs.

She does have to leave the terranians briefly, to clear out the path for medical personnel - the last thing she wants is them getting hurt by the local wildlife. She returns quickly, however, making sure that everyone is still there and that no one has declined to the state of comatose (luckily, things are not that dire).

—

It shouldn't surprise anyone that the ship the Galactic Federation sends is not an emergency vehicle. Or even a military patrol vessel. Or anyone directly affiliated with the Federation.

Because, simply put, the Federation officials are cheapskates. 

Why spend money and resources on sending a warship somewhere, when they could just find some cruiser that was the closest to the disclosed location? Paying a random merchant ship is much cheaper than paying for all that fuel.

So, the ship that enters the planet’s atmosphere is not full of paramedics; in fact, there are only two doctors on board, the minimum legal requirement for a small merchant ship like theirs.

Samus has to cast her frustration aside and work with what she’s got. Terranians get evacuated from the catacombs; some on their own two feet, some - on a stretcher, being too weak from fever to properly walk. In case of the latter, the doctors have to make several trips - there’s only one stretcher (they never needed more). When they descend into the catacombs the third time, Samus, who has to accompany the doctors for safety reasons (she already cleared out the path, but it’s better to be safe than sorry), decides that she doesn’t want to do this a fourth time. There are only two terranians left that still needed to be carried to the merchant ship. One of them is being carefully placed onto the stretcher by the medical personnel. The other has spent the entire time that Samus has been there huddled alone in the furthest corner of the room. 

At this point in time it should be obvious to you that the one in the corner is Skeets. The reason she’s distanced herself from others as much as possible is because she is sick. More than others - her pneumonia worsened violently due to her frequently exposing herself to the cold of the tunnels. She was doing her best to not pass it onto others - somewhat successfully, I must note - the other three terranians who were in a similar state suffered from acute bronchitis, not pneumonia.

Not willing to make another trip through the catacombs, Samus simply picks the little avian up - her suit is enough to avoid the biohazard, she is in no danger of getting sick. In a different setting having both her hands - arms? - full would compromise the crew’s safety, but having made close to five trips down and back, Samus knows that there is nothing dangerous left on their path. So she simply trails behind the medics and their stretcher until they’re back on the surface.

No one wants to stay there longer than necessary - the atmosphere is mildly toxic, and it is not recommended to be out in the open for more than a couple hours - the toxins would accumulate in the body. Thus, the two doctors situate their new passengers as fast as they can - and this is where the first issue arises.

In the best traditions of fictional tropes, they are one bed short. 

It’s a small merchant ship. They’ve done what they could. Took in as many people as safety regulations allowed - and even if they could take in one more, their medical bay was simply not equipped for handling this large of a number of people. They would simply not have enough medication.

The nearest multispecies hospital is a week away from this desolate planet. It would just be futile to try and accommodate everyone - someone would inevitably decline beyond what they could heal in that timeframe.

Samus, on the other hand.

Surely, in her line of work, she had to be as self-sufficient as possible and equip her gunship with top-quality medical equipment and supplies?

Judging by the size of it, she can take in one more person no problem. So do you really have a choice, Samus Aran? Are you going to let someone unfamiliar into your personal space because she desperately needs your help, or are you going to refuse and have that on your conscience for the rest of your life when, inevitably, someone dies?

If you don’t know the answer to this, you don’t know Samus, lol.

The second issue surfaces right before Samus is about to bring Skeets over to her ship. 

None among the present know what species they just rescued. There is an apparent language barrier. Skeets, barely even conscious from fever, is still able to see what’s happening -  and draw her own conclusions.

The Pirates disappeared.

There are new, unfamiliar people, and they took all of her kin into their ship - she can’t understand a word they’re saying, and thus their intentions are unknown.

Sure, there are what seem to be medics - but is that really a sign that they are coming to their rescue?

After all, someone who illegally buys sentient creatures to show off their wealth would want their new exotic decor to be in good, presentable shape.

It doesn’t help that she, alone, is not joining her group. No, she is held firmly by someone else - the same person that first entered their shelter. Tall. Imposing. Armed.

Perhaps the mystery byer only wanted nine specimens. Or could afford just this many.

It’s not unusual to divide the product and sell it to several highest bidders, is it?

Samus is almost taken by surprise when the frail, sickly creature in her arms tries to struggle free. Almost. For someone with her reflexes, however, this is more of an annoyance than anything - all she has to do is adjust her grip so that the alien doesn’t accidentally hurt herself.

It is rather uncomfortable, however, when someone you’re carrying is frantically flapping her wings and trying to wriggle out of your grasp. It is also even more annoying when said someone is desperately scratching at your suit - this doesn’t leave so much as a scratch, the powersuit is so much more durable than claws, but the prospect of it is still… irritating. 

Skeets doesn’t stop thrashing around after her first failed attempt to break free. She has to do something, she has no choice - how could she just let someone separate her and her kin? They were all she had left; they depended on her. They could be facing a fate far more terrible than starving to death in abandoned catacombs.

So she scratched. And she kicked and she flapped her wings and she tried everything she could to get away, get back to her group - to her people, whom she may never see again - until she could do it no longer. Until her body harshly reminded her that she was ill; that adrenaline alone is not enough to fight someone far stronger than you.

And so Skeets cried.

She wasn’t trying to accomplish anything with her tears. They weren’t a tool, or a message, or anything intentional at all - they were tears of frustration; tears of powerlessness; tears of anger and tears of giving up; they were the kind of tears that you simply have to cry, and there’s nothing you can do about it.

She did not expect her carrier to stop.

Samus was beyond capable. She was The Ultimate Protector, she was a top-class bounty huntress, she was an unmatched warrior; she’s been on the brink of death and came back, she has saved entire planets and, on the larger scale, the galaxy as a whole, she knew how to survive and get through the most hostile of environments, and then save the universe on top of that.

She had no idea what to do with feelings.

Even less so when she had no ability to verbally communicate. Samus understood that she had to do something, it has become apparent that the girl in her arms was in intense distress, and she couldn’t put it off until they’re at her ship anymore. Sure, she could just ignore the issue and keep walking to her ship, but that would likely only create more problems - ones she would have to deal with until she can find a way to communicate what she was doing. (Which would take weeks; she’d have to identify the girl’s species of find someone who could identify it, then find a translator or at least a textbook on their language, learn said language, all the while potentially fighting off a scared avian who she’s supposed to be treating so she wouldn’t die on her before they got to a hospital - it was clearly a better course of action to solve the problem now).

Regardless of how much Samus would like to get back to her ship and get this whole ordeal over with, she walks back to the merchants. The two doctors are standing at the entrance ramp, talking - no, gesturing, - to one of the rescued aliens. This must be one of the less sick ones - even so, one of the medics has her arm over his shoulder, supporting her weight. The other is holding up a small screen; when Samus gets closer, she can see that the screen is actually a drawing pad filled with doodles. The doodles are… ugly, but readable, and Samus takes note of this being a working form of communication - at least the alien seems a lot more calm and composed than the one currently shivering in her arms. Samus mirrors one of the doctors, carefully lowering her burden so she can stand - still, however, firmly holding her so she doesn’t fall. Even so, the girl can barely stand - but at the moment this was far less important than making sure she can get an explanation of what’s happening. 

It works - even without the help of the crude drawing of nine beds and ten stick figures (no offense to the doctor), the other person immediately starts talking in an unfamiliar language, the avian that Samus is holding answering in a hoarse, strained voice. Samus pretends her and the medic’s arms aren’t in the way when the two aliens awkwardly hug and put their foreheads together. She even ignores the fact that that’s a biohazard - honestly, she just wants to get outta here.

Which she eventually gets to do; finally being able to carry the exhausted alien girl to her ship, get her bed set up with medical equipment (she has to dig out an oxygen can), and leaving the planet. 

Samus charts a course to the nearest hospital and prepares an array of medications - from fever reducers to cough suppressants to an IV (all of the aliens are malnourished and dehydrated after spending a month in the ruins; the Space Pirates didn’t exactly provide them with a five-star buffet, if you know what I mean).

She makes peace with the fact that she’s going to sleep in her pilot’s chair for the next week, since her bed is taken; one thing that kind of compensates for this is the opportunity to research a species she’s never seen before. Samus is a nerd at heart (if Prime logs are any indication), so diving head-first into research is a nice way to spend her time while she has to care for her passenger. Besides, she’ll have to at least try to learn her language. Out of necessity, of course, simply to be able to communicate - this is what she tells herself, but we all know it’s not the only reason, haha.

Now, some closing notes for Act I: 

This storyline takes place after Fusion, but before Dread (closer to Fusion in the timeline). 

Samus definitely saw something vaguely resembling her suit in the doctor’s doodles. It was lopsided and had her arm cannon on the wrong side

The terranian they were communicating with is the leader of the hunting group; Skeets sees her as a mentor figure

Due to being a solely female species, terranians don’t really have a concept of gender. They don’t even have words for it (or men lmao) - when they need to describe a male specimen (like some insect or mammal that inhabits the jungle) they just say something like “non-female” or “opposite” or some other word (I’m still working on a better term for it bc I came up with this literally just now) (also this is completely unrelated to the storyline, just a fun lore fact)

This ship was born before I even knew what metroid was. A friend of mine was infodumping about it, and I thought: Hey, most people probably ship this Samus gal with other humans or themselves; looks to me like she needs a cute alien wife

And so Skeets was made. Literally because I decided to be Not Like Other Girls™ . You're welcome people✌️

-> Act II

[mayarab]

WIP List (Tag Game)

I was tagged by @the-grim-and-sanguine - You can see their post here!

RULES: post the names of all the files in your WIP folder, regardless of how non-descriptive or ridiculous. Let people send you an ask with the title that most intrigues them, and then post a little snippet or tell them something about it! and then tag as many people as you have WIPs.

OH LORD HERE WE GO

ORIGINAL

The Queen & the Demon

Just Another City

Chaos Magic Kaijus

Guardiãs de Primália

Better! Twilight aka Vampires in Rio

Warylk

Conto Avantesma

Continuação de Journey Home / A Caminho de Casa

Contos Andarilhos

D&D Romance

Fantasy Heist

Space Adventure

Aline

Obsessão

O Santuário de Liara

Reminisce

Queer Greek Myths + Fairytale Retellings

Melting Pot of Ideas

#SuperQueerWIP

Crônicas de Irhullan

Foi por Acaso

Swordswoman & her Wizard GF

Shape-shifter & Hunter

Demissexuais & Dinos + 2 Girls, Music, Books and Internet

Story Engine Anthology

The Golden Queen

A Garota e o Dragão

Alathea

Demon Soul

A/B/O but with actual wolf social structure

Chaotic God + Necromancy + Chaotic MC

Bruxas Latinas + Witches in Saquarema

Isekai Scout

The Untamed x Inuyasha

Portal Book

CdZ inpired Mess

Hunted Siblings

Kingdom Hearts x OUaT

Chosen One Academy

Daughter of the Chosen One

Magic People

Isekai Brazuka

Anna & Milla

Mage & Prince

Warylk AU (Makhy lives)

Warylk Coffe Shop AU (Gods Edition v1 - with powers)

Warylk Coffe Shop AU (Gods Edition v2 - no powers)

COMICS

Pimpim Café

Garotas Mágicas RPG

O Sonho de Nina

Ace of Cakes

To Be Human

I Heal Hearts

Escola Mágica + Criaturas Sobrenaturais

FANFIC

Inuyasha Mermaid AU

Year of the OTP 2023 InuKag

Bond

The Heart of the Miko

Memory Loss

Shikon Strike Force

Inuyasha dies and KagMirSan try to bring him back

Inuyasha HighSchool AU

Kagome MD

SessSan KindergartenGod

InuKagMirSan Polycule

Inuyasha x Pokémon

Prophetic Dreams

Inuyasha Beauty & the Beast

A hanyou birthed by a female Youkai

Inuyasha Retelling Sequel

Polyam Kag/San

ATLA: Twin Avatars

Inuyasha VTuber

Inuyasha sends a video masturbating to Kagome by mistake

Inuyasha + Sell Your Haunted House

Inuyasha + FFVII Remake

Inukag song fic - Give your heart a break - Demi Lovato

GAMES

Viking Punk

Whimsical Life

On the Shoulders of Giants

Avantesma

Esperanthya 5e Setting

Sparkles & Wonder

Azure Garden

Witch’s Workshop 2.0

Digital Deckbuilding Card Game

DnD Character Creator

Match 3 Mobile-style game SEM MONETIZAÇÃO AGRESSIVA

Runeterra Hack

NON-FICTION

Assexualidade e Esteriótipos

I'm just gonna tag a few people under the cut AND WHOEVER ELSE WANTS TO DO THIS THING BECAUSE THERE'S NO WAY I CAN TAG T HIS MANY OMG I HAD NEVER LISTED IT ALL OUT LIKE THIS HELP

tags: @artemis-devotee @anisaanisa @ruddcatha @razdazberry @atelierwriting @akiwitch @mauvelilywilliams @bia-sa @ninaescreve @autielivros @saphoblin

[blizz4rd1203]

well how about you infodump about it then (i like learning cool dino facts)

So here's the thing. Allosaurus and Tyrannosaurus. You know them. Large Theropod Carnivores that ate large Herbivores. Tale as old as time. Visually, they're not that different. Allosaurus has more fingers (three) and longer legs (better at running) than Tyrannosaurus. Tyrannosaurus has a taller head and wider snout with less of a wedge-shape to it. Each has strengths of course they were wildly successful top-level carnivores. They even lived in similar ranges. Now, the real differences come in what they could do with those features. Allosaurus hunted in a unique way compared to other theropods, it had a mouth that could open to almost 92⁰ last I checked. And what it would do with that is run alongside a sauropod that was often larger than itself and grab the fucker with its arms and mouth. It would then try to pull the thing over onto the ground. It would then, if successful, bite the head or throat so its prey would stop struggling. Once it was dead, the Allosaurus would stand on top of the torso or neck (known from stress fractures and foot infection patterns) and tear pieces off to eat with its mouth. Tyrannosaurus, on the other hand would stalk a prey item (lambeosaurus for example) for an extended period of time and spring an ambush when it was close enough. If it was in position to do so, it would bite down on the neck and shoulder of larger prey, or torso of smaller prey, in effort to crush the windpipe or lungs. When the prey was killed, it would stand off to the side and bite down on whatever parts of the animal it could. (Most of them) it ate most of the prey it got (including bones), and would sometimes stay at a kill for multiple days while it ate. (This applies to most large kills made by other theropods as well) another thing to keep in mind is that Tyrannosaurus is fucking ginormous

Now. Onto brachiosaurus versus diplodocus. I don't know as much about their behavior but I do know they had different survival strategies. Theyre both high-browser sauropods. Brachiosaurus gets its name from its bigass fuckin arms that its got tho. Generally the most striking feature of diplodocus is the long ass whip-tail on it that it uses to scare and harm predators. Brachiosaurus survives mostly by being bigass huge

[strangeduckpaper]

Power Rangers Rewrite: Mighty Morphin'

Season 1 & Background

Because the Boom Comics actually expounds on their backstories, Rita & Zedd have their comics backstories. Rita is specifically from a planet known as Bandora, which has a lot of magical practitioners, including an organized order of witches.

Bandorans are taller than humans, and to a human eye always look a little sickly.

The Power Coins used to belong to a multi planetary team (the Zyu Rangers) with explicitly Alien Zords resembling the 2017 movie. Rita killed the Green Ranger and took that Coin, thus control of the Dragonzord.

The 90’s Zyu Rangers interpreted the Zords on the Coins as artistic renditions of Earth animals, thus minorly reformatting the Zords when they’re finally brought to bear.

Jason actually beats Tommy during their fight like in Zyuranger.

Season 2

Grace Sterling gets introduced, and Zordon tells the story of the 1969 Rangers.

The Stone Canyon Trio are introduced, giving an outside perspective to the Rangers.

Zedd doesn’t arrive…yet. He does send messages to Rita in the form of nightmares.

No Thunderzords, the Zyu/Dino Megazord survives, since I wanna keep the Dairangers (Thunder Star Rangers) in my back pocket.

In the same vein, Tommy doesn’t get the White Tiger Power Coin after losing the Green Power Coin, instead he gets a White Brachiosaurus Power Coin that ties him to Titanus, which itself is reformatted to serve as armor and weaponry for the Zyu Megazord.

Tommy’s Ranger Suit is white and gold, with the MM sculpted mouth helmet and Dragon shield, but with elements of the Dino Thunder Black suit, while Saba is literally just a repainted Bracchio Staff.

Before Tommy comes back, Rita launches the Dark Ranger’s scheme from the comics, which comes to an end once Tommy arrives, destroying the Dark Ranger’s Power Source (A Dark Mockery of a Zeo Crystal?)

The Rita putty escapes, albeit heavily wounded, to fight another day.

Kiya comes to Earth following the Dark Rangers, chasing the power source used. She sticks around for a while.

The first half of the season ends with a final confrontation with Goldar when he attempts to throw Angel Grove into the Dark Dimension during Jason, Trini & Zack’s graduation, and is struck down by Tommy and Jason. The Stone Canyon Trio helps.

Jason, Trini and Zack decide to take a gap year, and are given the Omega Morphers to help Kiya hunt down the source of the knockoff Zeo Crystal, while the Stone Canyon Trio take their places.

Rito arrives afterwards, with some new mercenaries to give the Rangers trouble, including Dayne. Scorpina, meanwhile, leaves, vowing vengeance against the Rangers.

Their adventures include a crossover with the Masked Rider of Edenoi.

The season finale is Zedd’s arrival, Serpentera in tow, and challenges the Rangers to combat.

He destroys the Megazord with Serpentera, before taking them on 1-v-6, rendering the Power Coins useless one after the other, until only Tommy is left with his powers.

Tommy tries, but Zedd captures him, and brings him back to the Moon Castle, leaving the other Rangers to lick their wounds and wallow in their powerlessness.

Season 3

With the Power Coins useless, the Omega Rangers out of contact and Zordon unable to access back-up Ranger powers, Zordon sends the Rangers to Ninjor to create powers of their own.

In the meanwhile, he calls for reinforcements, the Rangers of Aquitar (known as the Doron Rangers), with more on the way.

Zedd sends more monsters to delay the Rangers, and gathers forces fromDark Spector, including Master Vile, to attempt and summon the dark god Lokar from the Talus Dimension.

The Rangers pass Ninjor’s trials and gain their Ninjetti Power Coins and Zords, with all new suits coming with them.

They have elements of the American Ninja Ranger uniforms, the Dairangers, with MM helmets remodeled to reflect their new Zords.

Meanwhile, Tommy is being held by the villains, where he strikes up a friendship with Finster, who eventually helps free him.

During this escape, he finds remnants of the tools used in the corruption of the Green Dragon Power Coin, and takes it.

The Rangers return to Earth and meet the Doron rangers. There’s some chafing, especially between Billy and Cestro, though that rivalry shifts into something more…amorous.

Tommy arrives, Finster by his side and arcane secrets in hand. Finster and Alpha duke it out at least once.

In the background, we’re introduced to new transfer students Tanya Sloan and Kat Hillard. Kat gets mind controlled but it gets broken.

Eventually, Finster, Alpha, Tideus and Delphine figure out how to reactivate the Dragonzord, dormant since the loss of the Green Power Coin, and Tommy uses the power of friendship to bring it back under control.

Master Vile attempts to interfere, but the Rangers strike him down with Ninjor’s help. 

Deciding to take advantage, the rangers attack the moon palace, reinforced by the Masked Rider and the Omega Rangers (Now with Yale replacing Kiya)

The Rangers win, destroying Serpentera, and wrecking the moon base, though Lokar is summoned.

In order to seal him, the Mighty Morphin Rangers sacrifice the Ninjetti Power Coins to do so, while Tommy’s powers once again become unstable.

In the aftermath, the rangers disperse. Kim goes off to pursue her gymnastics career, Billy leaves for Aquitar as a representative of Earth, NASADA, and Prometheus.

Aisha also leaves to join humanitarian aid.

Tommy, a bit adrift, decides to stay with Adam and Rocky, and possibly form a new team.

After all, while they did beat them up, they never saw Rita, Rito, or Zedd actually fall…

<-Prev/Next->

[letsrilakkusu-blog]

Seventeen in the SOOP S2 episode 6 - random thoughts

All good things must come to an end~

Carat trend 2K23: CHEESE TONKATSU WAFFLES

The survival game was chaotic. DK running back through fire to retrieve his lost shoes. Hoshi just trying to shoot in any cool pose. And Mingyu being scared, sticking to Jeonghan and crying out when he got hit, what a big baby haha.

We witnessed a truly rare and amazing sight: Wonwoo cooking. Even if it was just bibimmyeon.

Clingy Jeonghan is so cute!! Case 1: Sticking to Hoshi the whole day, from hiking, to waking him up from his nap so they could eat together, then dragging him into the survival game. Case 2: Telling Wonwoo that he loves him when he goes to bed and demanding that Wonwoo say it back to him (bonus "I love you"s from DK).

Hoshi mafia logic strikes again! After all the mafia games I've seen them play I thought I'd be over it but they still manage to make it entertaining, even with only half the group. Poor Gyu. xD

Dino's Darl+ing karaoke is everything! The dancing! The use of props! The fanservice for his hyungs! The man gives 110% every time. I was amusingly reminded of Mr. Cha from BSS' comeback episode.

I already mentioned Mingyu's cooking before but Joshua in the kitchen is really something. Total boyfriend vibes.

It's unbelievably sweet that Minghao calls Vernon to come eat when he cooks breakfast, since he knows that if someone doesn't cook for Vernon he'll most likely not eat or make some strange concoction of whatever is readily available. And Vernon reciprocates by eating Minghao's cooking so well and complimenting him.

DK told Clumsy Gyu not to drop the glass balls that they got from In the SOOP pleeeeeeese.

Finally, Hoshi strikes again as ending fairy with his MV for BRING IT. It was reminiscent of his Spider MV from the Treasure Hunt GoSe episode. The dancing, the circling drone, the action shots, it was all so extra. He was even using his phone as a gun so convincingly lol.

It was nice seeing the boys relaxing together and separately, and I hope it was the recharge they needed to get through the rest of the year. I hope they get to do In the SOOP for a third time, or as Mingyu suggested, they could do an In the SEA and go somewhere with an ocean. As the enlistments for the oldest members inch closer, these moments with all 13 of them are increasingly precious.

[linuxgamenews]

Immerse Yourself in the World of There's No Easter Egg

There's No Easter Eggs a new casual hidden object game launches on Linux, Mac, and Windows PC. Thanks to Error 300's imaginative team for bringing this experience to life. Available now on Steam. If you're into casual, chill games, you've got to check out There's No Easter Eggs from Error300. These folks have been nailing it with their unique takes on hidden object adventures, and this latest title is no exception. Fresh off their dino-themed hit, they've jumped into the Easter spirit, and honestly, it's a blast. You're immersed in these beautifully hand-drawn landscapes, packed with charm and detail. Your mission? Find over 500 Easter eggs. Each environment in There's No Easter Eggs is a new, relaxing backdrop for your egg hunt. There are 9 in total, and each one is as delightful as the last. The gameplay is straightforward but addictive. You're on a clock to find a set number of eggs to progress. It's a simple concept, but the execution is spot-on, striking that perfect balance between challenging and fun. Plus, hunting for eggs turns out to be trickier than finding dinosaurs - who would've thought?

There's No Easter Eggs Trailer

What makes There's No Easter Eggs stand out is its art style. It's got this cute, hand-drawn vibe that's just a joy to look at. Fans of games like "Hidden Folks" or the "100 Cats" series will feel right at home here. But it's not just about the looks. The satisfaction of finding those hidden eggs is rewarding. Error300 seems to have found their groove with these types of titles. They recently released "There's No Dinosaurs" and have Alchemy: Origins available now on Linux. But for now, their Easter-themed offering is what's catching everyone's attention. Available now on Steam, it's the perfect pick for some relaxing fun this Easter season. Whether you're a seasoned pro at these kinds of experiences or just looking for something laid-back to dive into, There's No Easter Eggs is a great choice. The combination of the timer-based challenge, the sheer number of eggs to discover, and the delightful environments makes for an engaging experience. So, if you're in the mood for something cozy yet captivating, give There's No Easter Eggs a try. It's a great way to unwind and get into the Easter spirit. And its price at $3.59 USD / £3.05 / 3,59€ with the 10% launch discount on Steam. Along with support for Linux, Mac, and Windows PC.

[100nation516]

Hunting simulator poki

Hippo Hunting - Play the Best Hippo Hunting Games Online.

Horse Games - Pony Games - Free Online Horse Games.

Steam で 60% オフ:Hunting Simulator 2.

DRIFT HUNTERS - Play Drift Hunters on Poki.

DEER SIMULATOR - Play Deer Simulator on Poki.

Crocodile Simulator - The Best Online Crocodile Simulation Game.

Deer Simulator - Play Deer Simulator Online on SilverGames.

Hunting Simulator - Hunting Games.

Hunting Simulator 2.

Squirrel Simulator - Apps on Google Play.

Wild Hunt - 3D Hunting simulator. Free hunting game online.

DRAGON SIMULATOR 3D - Play Dragon Simulator 3D on Poki.

FREE GAMES FOR KIDS ONLINE - Play Now at Kids.P!.

Hunting Simulator Games - Apps on Google Play.

Hippo Hunting - Play the Best Hippo Hunting Games Online.

About this app. Accurate and realistic hunting simulator made for hunters. This is an easy to use visual 3D ballistic tool for practicing very realistic hunting situations up to 1000m. Practice deer hunting or other game types using realistic adjustable scope, accurate ballistics and lots of environment variables such as distance, wind. Track and shoot a variety of wild animals in this Unreal Engine 4-powered hunting simulator. Although hunting for sport is a pretty controversial thing nowadays, it's difficult to argue against video games, because there is nothing wrong with virtual bullets killing virtual animals. Hence, there have been many tries to transpose the sport. Hunting Simulator 2 Elite Editionを購入する バンドル (?) このバンドルを購入すると、5アイテム全部が24% OFF!. バンドル情報. -24%. -60%. $77.95. $30.88.

Horse Games - Pony Games - Free Online Horse Games.

Idle Startup Tycoon Stickman Climb 2 BoxRob 2 Stupid Zombies Nonogram Brain Test 3: Tricky Quests Temple Run 2: Holi Festival Merge Gangster Cars Heart Star Panda: Bubble Shooter Kiwi Clicker Cannon Strike Wood Blocks 3D Funny Daycare Funny Pet Haircut We Become What We Behold Real Cars in City Soccer Skills Euro Cup BoxRob 3 8 Ball Pool With Buddies Doctor Teeth 2 Friday Night Funkin' Brain.

Steam で 60% オフ:Hunting Simulator 2.

Hunting Simulator is the perfect way for people who are interested in going hunting but love animals to not kill them in real life to have this kind of experience, as with this brand new sim game you get to go out hunting various prey, the bigger the better, and have incredible fun unlike you've ever had here! Let's go hunting in the 3d simulator!. 155,806. ratings. 9.0. Wolf Simulator: Wild Animals is a fun and interesting animal simulation game in which you take control of a lone wolf. You must help the wolf survive against the harsh realities of the wild and try to find food and shelter. Move around this open world and hunt for prey - tackle other animals such as deer, bears and foxes. In most cases using a No-CD or Fixed EXE will solve this problem! Some Game Trainers are sometimes reported to be a Virus or Trojan, the most common is a keylogger called HotKeysHook or the file has been packed/protected with VMProtect or Themida and is recognized as Win32/Packed.VMProtect or Win32/Packed.Themida.

DRIFT HUNTERS - Play Drift Hunters on Poki.

Dinosaur Simulator Dino World Megalodon Lets Hunt Animal Hunter 3D Midnight multiplayer dinosaur h.. Shark Hunting P Wild Wolves Lion Hunter King Lion Hunting 3D Jurassic Dino Hunting Jungle Adventure Run 3D Angry Lion Sim City Attack Elite Archery Lion King Simulator Wildlife A.. Dino Survival Wild Deer Hunting 3D Mini Survival. Community Hub Hunting Simulator Live the adventure of the hunt, from Alberta to Texas, France, Colorado or Scotland. Play single or multiplayer, choose your hunting gear and firearms of choice, including Browning® and Winchester® models, and master tracking 37 different animal species each with realistic behaviours. All Reviews: Mixed (176). Hunting Simulator Game is one of free hunting games. At the same time it isn't not just dh classic or any other deer games, it includes much more interesting things. START from clay hunt on the.

DEER SIMULATOR - Play Deer Simulator on Poki.

The most realistic bow hunting simulation game available for free on PC. Play single player, or with friends, with missions and more. Download and play today. THE MOST REALISTIC BOW HUNTING GAME EVER CREATED. PLAY FOR FREE BOW HUNTING GAME FOR FREE. Hunt 39 different types of animal, from Whitetail Deer and Grey Wolf, to Grizzly Bears and Rocky.

Crocodile Simulator - The Best Online Crocodile Simulation Game.

Ambulance Simulator 3D: Unicorn Family Simulator hot! Raccoon Adventure: City hot! Fox Simulator pop! Wolf Simulator 3D pop! New Modern City Ultimate pop! Robot Police Iron Panther hot! Tiger Simulator 3D pop! Deer Simulator: Animal Wolf Simulator Wild Animals: Deer Simulator Animal Advanced Bus Driving 3d Advanced Car Parking 3D. Solve puzzles as you plant seeds, grow crops and hope for good weather to prosper. Fight against pests that try to eat your crops, and compete against neighboring farmers. In some of our farm challenges, you can manufacture your crops into products and sell them in various markets!. Play one of many farm sims, including the Farm Frenzy series, completely for free. Or, enter the Wild West, and become a sharpshooter in one of our cowboy simulation games. You can even work as a firefighter, sliding down the pole, driving the firetruck, and putting out blazing fires!.

Deer Simulator - Play Deer Simulator Online on SilverGames.

But with the deer hunting simulator games that we have it can still be a challenge to shoot that monster buck. Duck Hunting Games. Duck hunting is part of waterfowl hunting that is also called wildfowling or waterfowl shooting in the UK and it is the practice of hunting for ducks, geese, or other birds for food and sport. Here at Poki Kids, you can play all games for free! You’ll find cool games for kids to play on your computer, smartphone, or tablet. Poki Kids brings you the most popular games, like car games for kids, cooking games for kids, and dress-up games for kids. No matter what type of games you prefer, we have great ones for you. Enjoy!.

Hunting Simulator - Hunting Games.

Raccoon Simulator Lake Fishing What are Hunting Games? Hunting Games are shooting games where you have to kill animals with all kind of guns or bow and arrow. Load your sniper rifle and kill bears, ducks, deer, sharks and even dinosaurs with just a single shot from your deadly weapon. Are you a fan of archery?.

Hunting Simulator 2.

Hunting is an activity that involves tracking and killing animals. Some people hunt to survive and to put food on the table, while others view hunting as a recreational sport. Hunters can use ancient weapons like spears, nets, and bows, or they might use modern weapons like shotguns and high-tech hunting rifles. Here at Kizi, we've got all.

Squirrel Simulator - Apps on Google Play.

Raccoon Simulator. Raccoon Simulator is a cool animal simulator game by Crazy Games and you can enjoy it online and for free. It sure has to be fun to be a wild raccoon living freely on a forest right beside a crowded city. You can interact or fight with other animals, complete missions or walk right to the city and terrorize the humans, but be. Press the right-click to zoom in. Release Date June 2021. Date added Chicago Time: 15 December 2021 09:09. Developer. The Hunting Simulator game 2021 was developed by Good Funny Game. But you can play the game online for free on BrightestG Along with other similar hunting games online like the World of Hunting game. We collected 22 of the best free online hunting games. These games include browser games for both your computer and mobile devices, as well as apps for your Android and iOS phones and tablets. They include new hunting games such as and top hunting games such as Hunter and Props, Tiger Simulator 3D, and Wolf Simulator: Wild Animals 3D.

Wild Hunt - 3D Hunting simulator. Free hunting game online.

You earn coins when you complete quests. Collect meat by hunting, and use these to improve the skills of your family. Let them hear you roar! If you're interested in games like these, then be sure to visit our page of free simulation games. Have fun! Developer. Cyber developed Tiger Simulator. Release Date. April 23, 2018. Features. Colorful 3D. Capercaillie hunt. Feel the hunter call of the wild nature with: * Decoy calls. * Binocular with different zoom and distance calculations. * Thermovision and night vision. * Animated Gun reloading. * Night professional hunts. Hunting accessories: camouflage, flashlight. We are going to add few more stuff to this hunting app. This item: Hunting Simulator 2 (Xb1) - Xbox One. by Maximum Games. $19.90. Get it as soon as Wednesday, Jun 29 FREE Shipping on orders over $25 shipped by Amazon. In Stock. Sold by Clicknpak (Serial Numbers Recorded) and ships from Amazon Fulfillment. Xbox One. Open Country - Xbox One. by 505 Games.

DRAGON SIMULATOR 3D - Play Dragon Simulator 3D on Poki.

Lion King Simulator is a cool wild animal simulator to enjoy online and for free on S Live a day in the life of a real wild lion, running free across the jungle and hunting other animals for your family to survive. Lion Simulator 3d Poki After researching and comparing information on the websites, we find out the Lion Simulator 3d Poki of 2022.

FREE GAMES FOR KIDS ONLINE - Play Now at Kids.P!.

About this game. Hunting Simulator 3D is an unforgettable adventure for real men where you have to come face to face with the lords of the wilderness and hunt them down. If you are a hunter, start up your 4x4 off-road vehicle, hook up your trailer, grab your rifle and ammo and set off on a hunt right now for different kinds of animals. Go out to a huge field full of hippos and try to kill a specific amount of them within a limited time to unlock a new level. Use your hunting rifle's telescopic aim to get perfect shots, but be careful not to shoot at the wrong animals, there are some rhinos walking around as well and you cannot hurt them, otherwise you will fail the level.

Hunting Simulator Games - Apps on Google Play.

Panther Family Simulator 3D. Panther Family Simulator 3D is a cool wild animal simulator which you can play online and for free on S Today you will get the chance to run, jump and hunt like a panther, one of the strongest and most beautiful creatures in the world. Read more. Tiger Simulator 3D CyberGoldFinch 4.5 658,190 votes Live in the wild among panthers, elephants, and snails! Tiger Simulator 3D lets you create a unique beast. You can hunt prey and gather meat to feed your family. Talk to friendly tigers, complete quests, and spend coins on special bonuses! Get the app Popular Games.

See also:

Poki Wood Blocks

Amanda Seyfried Pokies

Instagram Cold Pokies

Dragon Ball Super Poki Games

[thriftrescue]

DINO STRIKE HUNT capsules at retila.  WHY ARE THEY $$$$$$$$$8.00 ?? too much.  I found a green one on clearance and that’s what I’m showing above

[shinyacademy]

My Collection: Amaura

Meet Denali, my shiny Amaura! You might remember him from my guide on Overworld hunting. That’s because Denali is the result of my first Overworld hunt!

Amaura is a really striking shiny. I love the original color for Amaura but the white really pops with the whole “Arctic Aurora Borealis” theme they have going on. I also have a bit of a soft spot for the Dino Pokémon and have since Aerodactyl.

Denali is also full of personality. Look at how his float tendril-things (a very scientific term) light up! He was also very playful, getting a kick out of the feather toy and showing some interest in the fetch ball. Honestly Denali is so photogenic that I took way too many pictures. I’ll have to shove the rest up on Instagram!

If you’re looking to get a shiny Amaura it’s incredibly easy to Overworld Hunt them in the Crown Tundra. They spawn right at the front of the Dynamax Cave in almost any weather environment and will keep repopulating. Just make sure you’re paying attention so you can act appropriately when Amaura shines for you!

I’m doing a bit better on the concussion front. Thank you everyone for your patience and understanding. I hope you have enjoyed the work of the talented artists I’ve been rebloging in the meantime.

Happy hunting!✨

[meldacioxhq]

“ you okay?”

it had been a simple resupply run to galdin - the mother pearl was serving as a sub-station for the hunters and a lookout for any wanderers who were still out there or made their way to the coastline, though it had been some months since any such souls had found their footing on the sands.

but it was still a candle of hope in the darkness. a port in a storm even. and having a manned outpost so far from other settlements was a safety-net in case anyone got caught out on a hunt or couldn't make it to either lachyrte or vennaugh haven.

and it was also just nice to have a catch-up with coctura and dino.

delivering crates of food and medical supplies had been the main objective of the mission and before long it was time for the convoy to head back towards hammerhead. depending on what time they made it there and how many daemons they encountered along the way, they'd either stay there and rest or head for formouth and then on to lestallum.

pressing the ptt button on her radio, kim checked-in with control to let them know that the convoy of four trucks were leaving galdin and settled into the passenger's seat, eyes watching for any telltale glow of wandering ice-bombs or flans along the rolling incline that led up from the beach.

that was the last thing she remembered - turning her head to the left to check that there were no daemons near the convoy and then there was a deafening bang, her stomach lurched with the sensation of weightlessness and then darkness.

you okay?

the voice sounded far away, but the hand on her shoulder was real and kim snapped her eyes open and the whole world was sideways. she was outside. the young woman could see that - she could see the truck she'd been in, the one that the grizzled veteran jim melmond had been driving - but it was a few metres away and she was outside it ... and the truck was on its side.

how the fuck?

staring at the overturned truck, her brain tried to make sense of the burst tires and the fresh gouges and scratches along its side when a hand grabbed the back of her shirt and yanked her backwards.

you okay?

the same voice again and this time kim looked to its owner - petra. snapping out of her daze, kim did a mental check on herself; anything hurting? yes. anything broken? no. was she bleeding? nothing more than scratches and grazes.

okay.

getting her feet back under her, kim nodded her head. confusion and genuine fear blooming in her chest when a deafening roar shook the ground they stood on and then she finally saw it — all spindly spikes and razor-sharp claws, a mouth lined with gleaming canines as it swiped out at the upturned truck.

clutching petra's arm as tight as he held her shoulder, kim stumbled back another few metres, watching as this monstrosity seemed to sink back into the sheer cliff-face. she'd seen it in the intel binders, but no one had ever seen it outside of steyliff grove, so much so kimi had thought a daemonwall was a specific mutation of the dank dungeon.

but there it was.

and their convoy was trashed. how many others could there be? blue eyes darting along the darkened roadway that led up from galdin's parking lot, kim spotted countless spots that the daemon could use ... any of the cliffs were a possibility, right? they didn't know enough about this daemon to know how far it could move or if it could jump between structures.

glancing up at petra, she looked around them, mustering their options - vennaugh haven was out of bounds. they'd have to pass within striking range of the daemonwall to get there.

where was jim? scanning the heads of startled hunters, kim couldn't pick out the man who'd been driving her truck. but she didn't have time to do a full head-count. they needed to move and move now before anything else spawned. if a level nine daemonwall was capable of spawning here, then all the rules went out the window - they could be looking at necromancers, ronins or any of the giants next.

' fall back to the mother of pearl! ' yelling out her order, kim made a mental note that lachyrte haven was plan b. if they were looking at a mass spawning or a niidus situation here, then they could move to the haven and consider options then.

her order was repeated in a deeper, more commanding tone by petra and people started reacting, grabbing their dropped weapons or any supplies that had been ejected from the convoy of trucks and they started heading back down the slight incline towards the lights of galdin's once-tourist restaurant.

what did they do then? they couldn't just wait it out until morning. morning would never come. and the old resort was just a stop-gap solution. so was the haven. they had minimal supplies with them. anything that had been left on the trucks now lay strewn along the roadway.

the roadway that was now impassible.

stooping to grab her bag, kim followed the rest of their contingent, a dull ache in her ribs and her shoulder as she held down the push-to-talk button on her radio again, acutely aware that it could be her dad, her grams or pelna in the intel hut back in meldacio taking stock of the on-going hunts, and that all others with a radio could hear what was happening.

' galdin convoy is down — do not approach via the main road, i repeat, do not approach by the main road, a daemonwall has spawned. we are falling back to the mother of pearl ... we're pinned in. '

@luciancityguard @meldaciomartyr @loqis

[stormyblue90]

Work Boredom Strikes Again!

So, while working in the museum galleries, ADHD brain likes to wander to all sorts of places! Well, it decided to fixate on two things I enjoy, Greek Mythology, and dinosaurs.

So, pretty much most if not all the Greek Pantheon have a bird sacred to them right? Zeus has the eagle, Athena the owl, Ares the vulture, Hera the peacock, etc. etc.

So then my paleontology loving self thought “What non-avian dinosaurs could be symbols for the Greek deities?” So, I wrote down the ones I thought of, which is...not many, but I’ll share the ones i DID think of below the cut. Note, if a god doesn’t appear, it’s because I haven’t decided on one yet, and am open to suggestions.

Zeus: Tyrannosaurus rex. C’mon, the most iconic and popular theropod of all time, the “King of Dinos”, how could it NOT go to the King of Olympus?

Also Carnotaurus. “Meat-eating Bull”. Bulls were also associated with Zeus, sooo...why not?

Poseidon: Sauroposeidon. ...It’s named after him, need I say more?

Also Spinosaurus. Whether you go for the aquatic pursuit predator, or stork-like wading model for hunting, Spinosaurus was clearly adapted to a lifestyle with lots and lots of water. It’s big, it’s WEIRD, and growing as an icon. I also personally find it rather regal looking with that sail, I think it’d fit Poseidon, King of the Seas, well....

Hades: Acheroraptor It’s essentially named after one of the rivers in the Underworld, that’s....really all I got.

Ares: Allosaurus Another pretty iconic theropod, sadly overshadowed by T. rex, but no less deadly. This beast was tough, many gruesome, but healed over, injuries have been found on Allosaurus remains, the most famous of which being Big Al. It’s also been theorized that they might’ve used their jaws like a battle axe to make up for a relatively low bite force; swinging their head down to chomp down on their prey. They could take quite a bit of damage, but also dish it out. Seems like a good fit for the mighty God of War in my opinion. (this is also my favorite large theropod and Ares is one of my favorites but I swear this has nothing to do with my choice...)

Hermes: Microraptor. IT’S GOT LEG WINGS!!!! How could that NOT become a reference to Hermes’ winged sandals? It’s a small, cute, gliding dino, and I imagine it’d be incredibly mischievous. It’s also one of the few non-avian dinos we know the color of due to fossilized melanosomes. An iridescent blue/black, like crows and ravens. (Also another fav of mine...)

Hephaestus: Ankylosaurus. Heavily armored with a HAMMER/CLUB LIKE TAIL. As a god who uses hammers and other tools, and known to make weapons and armor, I think an armored beast such as this would suit him.

BONUS! I know he’s not an Olympian god, but he was the one that started this train of thought!

Prometheus: Pyroraptor. It’s full name, Pyroraptor olympius, pretty much translates to “Fire-thief of Olympus” or “Olympic Fire-Thief”. If that’s not Prometheus then WHAT? ....Also I’m desperate need of art featuring a cute little feathered raptor running from Mt. Olympus with a torch in his jaws....

Sadly these are the only ones I’ve thought of. I hate how I couldn’t figure out any possibilities for the goddesses! Need one suitably beautiful for Aphrodite, or regal for Hera....hmm..

I DID settle on the idea of a hadrosaur of some sort for Apollo, but not which one. Reason being due to the fact they were LOUD, likely VERY VOCAL, and we’ve simulated what they could’ve sounded like. THe god of music should have something known for lots of sound. Also the wide array of lovely crests many had would suit him as he’s also a beautiful god.

[halloweentv]

Netflix Halloween

v.2020

A list of Halloween themed shows and movies available on Netflix streaming that you can play for Halloween! Enjoy!

Stranger Things

S2e2 Trick or Treat, Freak

After Will sees something terrible on trick or treat night, Mike wonders whether Eleven is still out there. Nancy wrestles with the truth about Barb.

Hubie Halloween

Despite his devotion to his hometown of Salem (and its Halloween celebration), Hubie Dubois is a figure of mockery for kids and adults alike. But this year, something is going bump in the night, and it's up to Hubie to save Halloween.

Cobra Kai

S1e3 Esqueleto

Daniel volunteers to chaperone the Halloween dance so he can keep an eye on Sam. Johnny tries to recruit more students for his new business.

A Babysitter’s Guide to Monster Hunting

Recruited by a secret society of babysitters, high school student Kelly Ferguson battles the boogeyman and his monsters when they capture Jacob, the 5 year old boy she’s watching on Halloween.

The Babysitters Club

S1e2 Claudia do the Phantom phone calls

The spooky spirit of Halloween sweeps through Stoneybrook. Meanwhile Claudia explores budding romance and struggles to connect with her parents.

F is for Family

S1e4 F is for Halloween

Frank secretly torpedoes Sue’s shot at a real job and a bully leaves Bill afraid to don his costume.

Harvey Girls Forever

S1e3 Harveyween

Lotta faces her fears to save her friends on Halloween night.

The spooky tale of Captain Underpants Hack-a-ween

When Melvin tries to cancel Halloween, clever best friends Harold and George create their own spooky holiday—and it’s a huge success.

Chilling Adventures of Sabrina

Chapter one: October Country

While Greendale readies for a Halloween eclipse, Sabrina faces a crucial decision and Harvey makes an unexpected decision.

Legends of Tomorrow

S3e4 Phone Home

The Legends jump to 1988 to capture an anachronistic Dominator and save young Ray from being killed.

The Flash

S6e4 There will be Blood

Barry's efforts to prepare Cisco for Crisis are derailed when Cisco schemes to save Barry's life instead; Ramsey Rosso uses his deadly new abilities to save his own life, while sacrificing his humanity in the process.

Supernatural

S4e7 It’s the Great Pumpkin Sam Winchester

Investigating two mysterious deaths in a small town, Sam and Dean discover a witch is sacrificing people to summon a dangerous demon. 

Riverdale

S4e4 Halloween

Halloween comes to Riverdale bearing VHS tapes and creepy dolls of unknown origin.

Scream: The TV series

Anthology series that follows a group of teenagers being stalked and targeted by a masked serial killer. Halloween episodes: S1e9 tm”The Dance” and S3e3 “The man behind the mask”

American Horror Story

Murder House

S1e 4&5 Halloween Part 1 & 2

The ghosts can leave the house on halloween night. Tate runs into some ghosts from his past.

Coven

S3e4 Fearful Pranks Ensue

the witches raise the dead on Halloween

Freak Show

S4e3&4 Edward Mordrake Part 1 & 2

the freaks don’t want to perform on halloween in fear of a ghost coming to visit.

Hotel

S5e4 Devil’s Night

John receives an invitation to attend an exclusive Devil's Night Soiree, while Alex tries to diagnose Holden's strange condition.

Parks and Recreation

S2e7 Greg Pikitis

Leslie enlists the help of Dave and Andy in order to catch a local teen vandal. Meanwhile, Ann struggles to make her Halloween party fun and gets help from an unlikely source.

S4e5 Meet n Greet

Ben is mad when Andy and April decide to throw a Halloween party at their house without asking him. Tom emcees an event for Leslie’s campaign but manages to also promote his company. Meanwhile, Ron and Ann give Andy and April an unusual wedding present.

13 Reasons Why

Tape 2 Side B

Its Halloween in the present and Clay strikes back at someone who wronged Hannah. In the past Hannah thinks someone is stalking her. 

Fuller House

S2e4 Curse of Tanner Manor

DJ attempts to throw the scariest Halloween party for Max. Stephanie works as a zombie at a haunted house.

Carmen Sandiego

S3e2 The Day of the Dead Caper

Carmen tracks a you g art thief on Dis de Muertos.

S3e3 The Haunted Bayou Caper

V.I.L.E. crashes a costume party hosted by a celebrity chef at his spooky mansion.

House of 1000 Corpses

Two young couples traveling across the backwoods of Texas searching for urban legends of murder end up as prisoners of a bizarre and sadistic backwater family of serial killers.

Star Trek TOS

S2e7 Catspaw

Kirk and the crew land on a planet with a spooky castle and witches.

Pac’s Scary Halloween

Sinister Dr. Pacenstein schemes to swap bodies with Pac during a Halloween party.

Pac Man and the Ghostly Adventures

S1e21  A Berry Scary Night

Count Pacula attempts to drain the last yellow orb in Pac World on Halloween night. 

S2e12 The Shadow of the were-pac

Pac and his friends are confronted by spooky space ghost pirates. 

Cult of Chucky

Chucky has some scores to settle with some old enemies.

Charmed

S3e4 All Halliwell’s Eve

The sister’s go to the 1600’s to save a witch and her baby

S8e6 Kill Billie Vol. 1

While the Charmed ones are dealing with paparazzi and Halloween, armed and ready to vanquish, Billie inexplicably freezes and is flooded with childhood flashbacks when she sees her latest demon target, the Dogan.

Charmed (2018)

S1e3 Sweet Tooth

When Macy learns of a mysterious death in her lab, she informs her sisters, and together they devise a plan to flush out the demon; Maggie volunteers to throw a Halloween party at her house.

Lucifer

S2e6 Monster

Guilty and self-destructive, Lucifer clashes with Chloe during an investigation, leading her to team up with Dan instead. Meanwhile, Amenadiel bonds with Charlotte, and Maze takes Trixie trick-or-treating

Gossip Girl

S4e9 The Witches of Bushwick

Chuck throws a Saints and Sinners masquerade party.

Power Rangers

S1e25 Life’s a Masquerade

Isn’t set on Halloween but has a cool Frankenstein monster in it. and costumes.

S1e53 Trick or Treat

Kimberly goes on a Halloween game show…cuz those exist.

S2 e21 Zedd’s Monster Mash

Tommy faces some real Halloween monsters after he’s kidnapped by Goldar. 

Power Rangers Samurai “Party Monsters” and “Trickster Treat”

Power Rangers Megaforce “Raising Spirits” 

Power Rangers Dino Charge “The Ghostest with the Mostest” and in Dino Super Charge “Trick or Trial”

Big Bad Beetle Borgs

S1e24 Bye, Bye Frankie

Frankenbeans escapes into town on Halloween night, then the monster Grenade Guy is ordered to kidnap him.

Goosebumps

Good show for the season but the Halloween episodes in particular are

Specials “The Haunted Mask” Carly Beth’s scary mask begins to change her.

Specials “The Haunted Mask 2” A boy’s creepy Halloween mask won’t come off and begins to harm him.

S2e15 Attack of the Jack O'Lanterns

Jack O‘Lantern aliens terrorize some trick or treaters. 

Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween

Two young friends find a magic book that brings a ventriloquist's dummy to life.

Creeped out

A series of spellbinding, enchanting and intriguing tales that will bring chills to the back of the neck. Different characters must navigate their way through the unexplained.

Dreamworks Spooky Stories

“Scared Skrekless” Shrek and Co tell scary stories

“Monsters vs Aliens Mutant pumpkins” Ginormica and co battle mutant pumpkins!

Dreamworks Spooky Stories Vol. 2

“Monsters Vs Aliens: night of the Living Carrots” Picks up right after the previous special

Also included another MVA short, Megamind, and Shrek.

Glee

S2e5 The Rocky Horror Glee Show

the class attempts to out on a performance of Rocky Horror for Halloween. 

New Girl

S2e6 Halloween

Jess gets hired as a zombie at a haunted house.

S3e6 Keaton

Jess hosts a Halloween party and a Michael Keaton batman costume helps cheer up Schmidt.

My Babysitter’s a Vampire

S2e10  Halloweird

In a total “not rip off” of Buffy, a mask makes people turn into real-life versions of their costumes.

The Vampire Diaries

S1e7 Haunted

Matt takes Vicky to a haunted hous ebut the night takes a terrifying turn

The Office

S2e5 Halloween

Downsizing leads corporate headquarters to order Michael to fire somebody by the end of October. Michael procrastinates until Halloween, when he still has not decided whom to fire. When he decides to fire Creed, Creed manages to convince Michael to fire Devon.

S6e8 Koi Pond

While on the way to a business meeting, Michael falls into a koi pond. The staff tease him so he holds an anti-bullying seminar. Pam and Andy go cold-calling to stir up some new business; they reluctantly use clients’ mistaking them as a couple to their advantage.

S7e6 Costume Contest

Michael freaks out when Darryl goes over his head by taking an idea to corporate. The employees partake in a Halloween costume contest in the office. Meanwhile, Pam tries to get the truth from Danny about their dating history.

S8e5 Spooked

Erin works to make a spooky, non-childish Halloween party, with help from Gabe. Dwight becomes friends with Robert’s son, and Pam and Jim debate the existence of ghosts. Meanwhile, Robert tries to figure out everyone’s deepest fears in order to culminate a ghost story.

Super Monsters Save Halloween

The Super Monsters use their powers to get their neighbors in the Halloween spirit, then help a nervous friend see there's nothing to be afraid of.

Super Monsters: Vida’s first Halloween

The Super Monsters share their Halloween traditions with Vida, then get invited to a Día de los Muertos party in the Howlers' backyard.

Super Monsters: Dia de los Monsters

The Super Monsters celebrate Día de los Muertos in Vida's hometown with her magical family, some new monster friends and a spook-tacular parade!

StarBeam: Halloween Hero

Greedy Captain Fishbeard is stealing everybody's Halloween treats for himself, but StarBeam and Boost have some tricks up their sleeves to save the day!

Monster Family

Dracula's spell turns a woman and her loved ones into a vampire, a mummy, a werewolf and Frankenstein's monster.

Highway to Heaven

S2e5 The Devil & Jonathan Smith

Jonathan recruits a con artist's help after Jabez Stone tricks Mark into selling his soul in order to save a little boy's life, but The Devil has another agenda - acquiring the soul of an angel.

S4e5 I was a middle aged werewolf

During Halloween night, Jonathan helps a little boy get over his fears (and in the process get even with his older sister).

Curious Creations of Christine McConnell

Christine McConnell, an artist and baker lives in a mansion full of monsters and ghosts. She loves to create morbid looking desserts like gingerbread haunted houses, caramel spiders and bones made of pretzel sticks, peanut butter and white chocolate.

Hotel Transylvania

S1e13 The Legend of Pumpkin Guts

Mavis and her friends learn the true meaning of Halloween

Scooby Doo Mystery incorporated

S1e17 Escape from Mystery Manor

When the gang goes on a quest to find out what happened to the original Mystery Incorporated group, they find themselves trapped in the underground Darrow Mansion.

Community

S1e7 Introduction to Statistics

Jeff must choose between a date and honoring a promise to Annie.

S2e6 Epidemiology

Halloween at GCC is ripe for zombie-inspired nightmares.

S3e5 Horror Fiction in Seven Spooky Steps

Britta discovers that an anonymous psych quiz proves that one of her friends is a psychopath.

Sleepy Hollow

Ichabod Crane is sent to Sleepy Hollow to investigate the decapitations of three people, with the culprit being the legendary apparition, The Headless Horseman.

Sister, Sister

S3e7 Halloween

Though grounded Tia and Tamera take Ray’s car in search of a Halloween rave.

Moesha

S3e9 Halloween part 1: Kim’s Revenge

A three-way phone call among friends leads to hurt feelings for Kim, who overhears more than she bargained for concerning a Halloween-costume contest.

S6e7 The Nutty Moesha

While trying to juggle studying, taking care of her family while Dee's away and planning for her Halloween party, Moesha, along with Niecy, starts using energy-raising vitamins that have some peculiar side effects

The Parkers

S2e7 Scary Kim

Kim pulled pranks on Halloween on her friends. Her friends gets her back by pulling a huge prank

S3e7 Mummy’s the word

When Kim,Stevie and T rent out a woman's house for a Halloween party Nikki has to save the professor when they find out she plans to turn him into a mummy

Liv & Maddie

S1e5 Kang-A-Rooney

Joey ends up crushing on Liv in a kangaroo costume while practicing how to talk to girls.

S2e3 Helgaween-A-Rooney

A magic amulet creates a frightening triplet for Liv and Maddie named Helga.

S3e4 Haunt-A-Rooney

Liv and Joey travel to New York for Halloween

S4e3 Scare-A-Rooney

Liv takes Ruby to a spooky dinner and runs into an old acquaintance.

All Hallows’ Eve

As Eve celebrates her birthday on Halloween night, she discovers she's a witch and accidentally summons an old relative, who has nasty plans for the town.

Girlfriends

S1e6 The Remains of the Date

Joan plans an elaborate scheme to get revenge on William for the latest in a series of Halloween pranks. Toni is put off when her date asks her to engage in a threesome--with a stuffed animal.

S2e7 Trick or Truth

Toni winds up suffering a huge breakdown after she discovers Greg took her back only to get revenge on her.

Sam & Cat

S1e16 #DollSitting

On Halloween, Sam and Cat are hired to babysit a doll, with unusual and creepy results. Cat also thinks she may have accidentally turned Dice into a monkey with a magic spell.

Gilmore Girls

S6e7 Twenty-one is the loneliest number

Since Rory was a tyke, the Gilmore girls have planned her 21st birthday: in Atlantic City, sipping martinis, playing 21. But with the estrangement, Emily plans the birthday party -and it's soooo not Atlantic City.

NCIS

S6e6 Murder 2.0

In the days before Halloween, a rampaging serial killer posts cryptic clues online, which the NCIS team must decipher before he strikes again.

S7e5 Code Of Conduct

The NCIS team is called to investigate when a practical-joke-loving Marine turns up dead on Halloween Eve in an apparent suicide. Plus, DiNozzo and McGee share some of their favorite Halloween memories.

Criminal Minds

S6e6 Devil’s Night

The BAU go to Detroit to catch a man who burns his victims alive during the pre-Halloween celebration Devil's Night.

S10e6 Boxed in

A child reappears one year after he went missing -- but the team must work quickly when a trick-or-treater disappears under similar circumstances.

[papermoonloveslucy]

LUCILLE BALL: NUMBER 1, BUT STILL TRYING HARDER

July 29, 1974

Editor's note: following is the final part in a series of eight profiles on America's self-made women.

By PHYLLIS BATTELLE 

“Success - whaddya you mean by that?” rasps Lucille Ball in that rowdy voice which strikes adoration into the hearts of Lucy lovers. 

“If your concept of success is happiness in what you’re doing, in being a mother, in being a wife, then I’m a success. I’m also damned lucky that I have my health and guts life takes guts and that my work paid off. 

“But if you’re talking of the kind of success that’s about dollars and cents, forget it. The real wealth is not out here in Hollywood. Its all highly taxable, honey, and who cares? Money has never been important to me. I hate looking at bills. I hate math. I’m a typical Leo: money-blind. What I’m saying is that not one of us out here has more than $25,000 to buy a stamp with! 

“Pennies, Pickles Or Something" 

So much for Lucy’s petty cash. Aside from stamp funds, she has assets: a million-dollar home in Beverly Hills, another in Palm Springs and an apartment near Aspen, Colo.; investments resulting from the sale of her Desilu Studios to Gulf & Western for $17 million in stock, her own Lucille Ball Productions Company: earnings from 23 years of “Lucy” series (now running in 77 countries); a percentage of “Mame”, the new super-movie musical; not to mention the proceeds from diligent work dating back to 1913, when she was two years old in Jamestown, N.Y., and spoke little pieces at the grocery store for pennies or pickles or something. 

At 62, Lucille Ball Arnaz Morton is No. 1 - but still trying harder. (1) Husband Gary Morton says proudly, “Her work is an obsession and a labor of love, and as long as the public likes her shell never retire.” 

Lucy recently did terminate her “Here’s Lucy” series, at least temporarily, but will hold her "business family” (about 500 staff and cast members) together while she produces TV specials. Now, she leers at her orange-haired image in a dressing room minor and says, “I’ve loved to work, always. I discovered very early that the way to please people was to make them laugh at me. So I appeared at church, school, Girl Scouts, anything and anywhere. Made the tickets, sold them, starred in my own shows. That seems backward now. That’s gone out. The business has been hanging itself, and the kids with it, by making stars and superstars out of strange, young people who don’t know their craft."

Drums And Records 

An example, Lucy says, could be found in her own son, Desi Arnaz, Jr. "When he was nine, he was very good on drums. Used to beat them while the records played as background. He got a group together with a couple of kids at school Dino Martin and Billy Hinsche and they called themselves Dino, Desi and Billy. Then Sinatra heard them, and they made a record and had a hit. 

"A magazine took off on them, and they went on tour. Poor waifs - thank God, they didn’t have any more hits. But it left its mark, this being made a star when you don’t know anything at all, and after two years it was damn hard for Desi and the other kids to get back to doing their homework." 

That sort of "big payoff for mediocrity" was not what happened in Lucy's own youth. Her family in Jamestown was "lower than middle-class, hard working, had a truck garden and was never hungry." 

Most Influential Man 

Lucy's father, a mining engineer, died when she was four. (2) Her stepfather was the most influential man in her early life. To encourage young Lucy’s "flair," he took her to see Julius Tannen, a monologist. (3) “When I saw Tannen sitting on a empty stage in a dark theater, making people cry and then laugh - oh, it was magic, pure magic," she recalls. 

At 16, she went to New York, where her stepfather entered her in drama school. "I found out how shy, awkward and unable to cope I was. The teachers put me down, said I had no talent whatever.” Lucy's blue eyes flash. “New York frightened me. Still does. You have to take me out of the hotel on a leash to get me on the streets of New York today. Being tall, lithe and well-sculptured, Lucy took up modeling. But then, almost tragically, she contracted pneumonia with complications and was bedridden for eight months. It took three years of convalescence before she regained complete control of her legs. At 21, through an agent, she was hired to become a Sam Goldwyn showgirl in Hollywood for an Eddie Cantor film, “Roman Scandals”. 

Would Take Any Part 

“Out here in California, I knew as much as the rest of the girls in movies, which was nothing,” she says. “The difference was I would take any part. I never sought to be a star. I didn't mind being typed. I wanted to be typed. One of the greatest thrills of my life was hearing a director say he wanted a Lucille Ball-type for a picture. 

Of course, later it was different, she growls, "when they said they wanted a young Lucille Ball-type. 

In 10 years as willing “Queen of the B movies," Miss Ball was out of work only two days. 

In 1939 she met a young Cuban bandleader named Desi Arnaz, and they married in 1940. From the beginning, their marriage was a difficult venture: Desi toured the United States with his group, while she stayed in Hollywood making movies. Then Desi served in the army, while Lucy starred not in films but a popular radio series, “My Favorite Husband”. They split. They tried again. 

Finally, in 1951, in a desperate move to keep their marriage alive. Lucy sold CBS on what, at the time, seemed an unlikely television series: "I Love Lucy.” 

It was the beginning of greater professional success, but not the end of domestic upheaval. Their first child, Lucie, was born when her mother was 40; Desi was born when Lucy was 43. But the much-adored children were not to save the marriage, and in 1960 - tearfully, knowing her diligent efforts had failed - Lucille divorced Desi, citing his outbursts of temperament, instability and violence. Desi did not contest the action. 

In parting, they split a $20-million television empire. They are better friends today - at arms length, with new matrimonial ties - than they were during the 19 years of marriage. 

Today, Lucy’s sense of well-being with one-time comedian Gary Morton (who is executive vice president of her production company), is obvious and delightful.

"It s really a super life, grins Gary, living with a thoroughbred." Says Lucy, I guess its very possible to live without a good man. Possible, but no fun. To bake a cake is no fun without a man. It’s no fun to make a garden without a man to watch it grow." 

Lucy also is, and always has been, a proud and over-protective mother. Is that bad? I don’t think so." 

A Share Of Problems 

But despite Lucy’s mother-hen" closeness to Lucie, now 22, and young Desi. 20, the Arnaz offspring have strayed into their share of problems. Desi and actress Patty Duke had a much-publicized affair when he was 16 (and Patty was 28); later he became engaged to Liza Minnelli, but that broke up last summer. Lucie was married in 1971 to actor Philip Vandervort, but the couple quickly split. 

Lucy is convinced her daughter, who is featured on “Here’s Lucy," will be a star. “Lucie," her mom says, “has all the material of stardom - ability, inclination, vitality, intelligence, beauty, good sense and good taste. 

“Wholesome Movies Alive" 

In fact, one reason that Lucille Ball finally agreed after three years of rejecting the role to star in the movie “Mame” is that Gary convinced me it could keep wholesome movies alive for talented people like my daughter. 

"This industry," Lucy shudders, “has turned into a sex-and-violence factory. The whole thing’s ugly, with thousands of ugly people ripping-off their clothes and ripping-off the public. If that’s what makes good box office, and if box office is what they mean by success, then success is out of kilter!”

#   #   #

FOOTNOTES FROM THE FUTURE

(1) The advertising slogan “We Try Harder” was developed in 1962 for Hertz Rent-A-Car company, who was perpetually number two in popularity to Hertz Rent-A-Car. Lucille Ball and Carol Burnett satirized the campaign on “The Carol Burnett Show” on October 2, 1967. 

(2) Henry Ball, Lucille’s father, was actually a telephone lineman, not a mining engineer. One story had Hunt as the executive of a mining company in Montana. his death certificate listed him as a ‘laborer’. 

(3) Julius Tannen (1880-1965) was a monologist in vaudeville. He was known to stage audiences for his witty improvisations and creative word games. He had a successful career as a character actor in films, appearing in over 50 films in his 25-year film career. He is probably best known to film audiences from the musical Singin' in the Rain, in which he appears as the man demonstrating a talking picture early in the film.

[sciencespies]

The Top Ten Dinosaur Discoveries of 2020

https://sciencespies.com/nature/the-top-ten-dinosaur-discoveries-of-2020/

The Top Ten Dinosaur Discoveries of 2020

There’s never been a better time to be a dinosaur fan. Even in a year where fossil explorations have been curtailed because of the COVID-19 pandemic, paleontologists have dug deep to describe dozens of new species and unlock new secrets about our favorite prehistoric creatures. The discoveries continue even now, with the fluffy “maned” dinosaur Ubirajara named just last weekend. As we anticipate what the fossil record might reveal in 2021, here’s a look back at ten dinosaur discoveries that surprised and enthralled dinosaur enthusiasts this year.

Tiny Fuzzball Shows How Dinosaurs Started Small

Life restoration of Kongonaphon kely, a newly described reptile near the ancestry of dinosaurs and pterosaurs

(Illustration by Alex Boersma)

Some of the key traits that allowed dinosaurs to be such an evolutionary success story—from fuzzy feathers to warm-running metabolisms—may have first evolved in their tiny ancestors. This year experts reported the discovery of a tiny reptile from the Triassic of Madagascar they named Kongonaphon. While not a dinosaur itself, this animal was close to the ancestors of both dinosaurs and related flying reptiles called pterosaurs. This small, insect-eating reptile likely moved nimbly to catch lunch and may have sported a coat of fuzz to help regulate its body temperature. This hints that some key dinosaur traits, such as warm-bloodedness and insulating body coverings, evolved early in their history and were elaborated upon as dinosaurs eventually diversified into all sorts of shapes and sizes.

Winner By a Tail

Spinosaurus used its tail to swim

(Gustavo Monroy-Becerril CC BY-SA 4.0 )

Paleontologists have long suspected that the giant carnivore Spinosaurus spent much of its time around the water. Fossils reported in 2015 went a step further—flat feet and dense bones indicated that Spinosaurus spent a great deal of time in the water and is the first known semi-aquatic dinosaur. This year, a tail added another clue. The appendage, found at the same quarry as the 2015 skeleton, is long and deep. The tail is more like a paddle than what’s seen in other carnivorous dinosaurs and would have been suited to swishy, side-to-side motions that propelled Spinosaurus through the water. The fact that the tail goes with the other fossils found at the site also confirm that they all go to one individual, underscoring the fact that Spinosaurus had strange body proportions unlike any other dinosaur yet discovered.

Dinosaurs Suffered From Cancer, Too

A Centrosaurus skeleton in the mass dearth assemblage at the Royal Tyrrell Museum

(Riley Black)

Dinosaurs are often celebrated for being big, fierce and tough. The truth, however, is that they suffered from many of the same injuries and maladies that humans do. A study published this year in The Lancet reported on the first well-documented case of malignant bone cancer in a non-avian dinosaur. The animal, a horned dinosaur known to experts as Centrosaurus, probably coped with declining health before its eventual death in a coastal flood that caught its herd off-guard.

Dinosaurs Weren’t in Decline When the Asteroid Hit

A Tyrannosaurus rex holotype at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History

(ScottRobertAnselmo CC BY-SA 3.0)

If dinosaurs “ruled the Earth” for millions of years, why were they hit so hard by the mass extinction of 66 million years ago? Paleontologists have been puzzling over this question for decades, and, some have suggested, dinosaurs might have already been dying back by time the asteroid struck. But an increasing amount of evidence contracts that view, including a study published this year in Royal Society Open Science. The researchers looked at different evolutionary trees for what dinosaurs were around during the end of the Cretaceous to track whether dinosaurs were dying out, thriving or staying the same. After sifting through the data, the paleontologists didn’t find any sign that dinosaurs were declining before the asteroid strike. In fact, dinosaurs seemed perfectly capable of evolving new species. If the asteroid had missed, the Age of Dinosaurs would have continued for a very long time.

Taking a Long Swim

Researchers found the remains of a duckbilled dinosaur in Morocco.

(Raul Martin)

Sometimes dinosaurs show up where we don’t expect them. While paleontologists have found numerous fossils of duckbilled dinosaurs at spots around the world—from North America to Antarctica—no one had ever found one in Africa. That changed this year. In a Cretaceous Research study, paleontologists described a new species of hadrosaur found in Morocco. Named Ajnabia, the dinosaur lived at the end of the Cretaceous during a time when Africa was separated from other continents by deep water channels. Swimming would have been the only way for the dinosaur to reach prehistoric Africa from Europe or Asia, reinforcing the idea that exceptional events can help species move between distant continents.

Baby Titans Had Tiny Horns

A titanosaur embryo was discovered perfectly preserved inside its egg.

(University of Manchester)

Baby dinosaurs are exceptionally rare. We know far more about the adults of most species than how they started life. And when we do find those babies, they often hold surprises. An embryo of a long-necked dinosaur called a titanosaur reported in Current Biology drew attention this year for a strange, rhino-like horn jutting from its face. No such structure has been found in adult titanosaurs, and so it seems the horn is a kind of a temporary “egg tooth” that the dinosaur would have used to crack out of its shell.

Were Dinosaur Eggs Soft?

Protoceratops laid leathery eggs.

(AntoninJury CC BY-SA 4.0)

Think of a dinosaur egg and you’re likely to envision something out of Jurassic Park—a hard-shelled capsule the baby dinosaur has to kick or push its way out of. But research published this year in Nature proposes that many dinosaurs laid soft-shelled eggs. Under close examination, the eggs of the dinosaurs Protoceratops and Mussaurus turned out to be more like the leathery eggs of turtles than the thick, hard-shelled eggs known from other dinosaurs. This may indicate that dinosaur eggs started off soft and only later evolved to be hard-shelled in some groups. The findings may often indicate why eggs have been so hard to find for many dinosaur species, as softer eggs would decay more readily than hard-shelled ones.

Enter the Wonderchicken

Artist’s reconstruction of the world’s oldest modern bird, Asteriornis maastrichtensis, in its original environment

(Phillip Krzeminski)

Not all this year’s big dinosaur discoveries had to do with non-avian dinosaurs. A fossil dubbed the “wonderchicken” in Nature has helped paleontologists understand how modern birds took off during the Age of Dinosaurs. While birds go back to about 150 million years ago, the wonderchicken—or Asteriornis—lived about 67 million years ago and is the oldest known representative of what biologists think of as modern birds. The fossil, which includes a skull, has some anatomical similarities to chickens and ducks. These findings indicate that modern birds started to evolve and proliferate prior to the mass extinction that wiped out the non-avian dinosaurs. If such beaked, seed-eating birds had not evolved, dinosaurs might have been entirely wiped out instead of leaving birds behind.

The Hunt for Dino DNA

Hypacrosaurus was a 70 million-year-old hadrosaur.

(Riley Black)

Will DNA from the likes of Tyrannosaurus ever be found? The consensus has been “No,” as DNA decays too fast after death to survive millions and millions of years. But in a study published in National Science Review this year, researchers have proposed that they’ve found chemical signatures consistent with DNA in the bones of a 70 million-year-old hadrosaur called Hypacrosaurus. The results have yet to be expanded upon or verified, but the idea that even degraded DNA from non-avian dinosaurs might survive is tantalizing for all such a discovery might teach us about prehistoric life.

Polar Dinosaurs Remained Year Round

A fossil jawbone found in Alaska offers evidence that some dinosaurs stayed in polar habitats year-round.

(Andrey Atuchin)

Ever since paleontologists discovered dinosaur bones within the ancient Arctic Circle, experts have debated whether the polar dinosaurs stayed in their cool habitats year-round or migrated with the seasons. A tiny jaw from a young dinosaur now answers that question. Described in PLOS ONE, the fossil belonged to a young raptor-like dinosaur that lived in an ancient Alaskan habitat marked by harsh seasonal shifts and long, dark winters. That dinosaurs were nesting and hatching babies in these habitats indicates that they were capable of surviving the harsh winters, even when it snowed.

#Nature

[thecoffeeisblack]

Thoughts on the new Dino Hunters TV Show.

So, if you follow paleontology or are the type of person constantly on the lookout for new paleo-documentary series you may have come across this in the past week:

https://youtu.be/TumWvTs9AHU

It's the trailer for a new series on Discovery Channel called Dino Hunters that will follow many figures in the commercial fossil trade, many of which are controversial. Just from the promos they have released it is clear that this show is less interested in the science and more interested in portraying fossil hunting as some sort of new "gold rush," where the average Joe dinosaur cowboy can dig up a skeleton and strike it rich.

The problem with this isn't that people are able to make a sustainable living off of the fossil trade, the problem is that many of the best fossils found by commercial fossil collectors end up in the hands of private collectors that may or may not be inclined to make said finds available for scientific study. A single, well preserved fossil of a rare specimen may yield decades or centuries of scientific data, which really lends perspective to the amount of knowledge that can be lost when profits are put ahead of study.

I'm not saying that all commercial fossil hunters are bad, there are actually quite a few that donate or prioritize sales to institutes of study and make a profit off of either making casts of large skeletons they have found or selling smaller less significant finds.

The majority of the people involved in Dino Hunters are not the types of fossil hunters who donate their finds or appear to care about science. Clayton Phipps, discoverer of the now famous Dueling Dinosaurs fossil that contains a Tyrannosaur and a Chasmosaur, appears to be going over the top with his reality show persona, complete with costume that makes him look like less like a fossil hunter or even a real cowboy and more like a cowboy themed used car salesmen. He is still trying to promote the very dubious genus of Nanotyrannus, probably because that makes the fossils more rare and thus more valuable when selling to collectors who know nothing about the science. He is in fact spotted in this promo saying that he "doesn't do the science work," and is just "a cowboy who likes to find dinosaurs," a line that sums up the tone of this show perfectly.

Discovery Channel has long since turned its back on good science documentaries and it's clear they are only interested in producing a show that fits a formula similar to that of Pawn Starts, Duck Dynsasty, or Tiger King. They want to chuck the facts and just show the average Joe striking it rich, and if they are morally or legally dubious then that's great because it ups the shock value. If you are looking for alternatives to this, I have some recommendations:

The first is a 3 part series airing 2 days before Dino Hunters on PBS called Prehistoric Road Trip, the series is hosted by Emilie Graslie (who also hosts a regular YouTube show called BrainScoop) takes you on a tour of the American West going to fossil sites and talking to experts, it looks to be very good -

https://www.pbs.org/show/prehistoric-road-trip/

The second is another awesome series from PBS that you can watch on YouTube called Eons, which regularly covers a large array of subjects surrounding paleontology  -

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzR-rom72PHN9Zg7RML9EbA

Also on YouTube I would recommend the paleoart channel of Brian Engh, in particular I would recommend his series Jurassic Reimagined 

https://www.youtube.com/user/DinosaursReanimated

On top of all of this I would recommend looking at streaming services like Curiosity Stream, its super cheap and has a lot of good paleo docs both new and old on there. If anyone else has any other interesting shows or YouTube channels to recommend, feel free to leave a comment.