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mariacallous · 1 year

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This story originally appeared in Hakai Magazine, an online publication about science and society in coastal ecosystems, and is part of the Climate Desk collaboration. It was published in collaboration with Earth Island Journal.

The floatplane bobs at the dock, its wing tips leaking fuel. I try not to take that as a sign that my trip to Chirikof Island is ill-fated. Bad weather, rough seas, geographical isolation—visiting Chirikof is forever an iffy adventure.

A remote island in the Gulf of Alaska, Chirikof is about the size of two Manhattans. It lies roughly 130 kilometers southwest of Kodiak Island, where I am waiting in the largest town, technically a city, named Kodiak. The city is a hub for fishing and hunting, and for tourists who’ve come to see one of the world’s largest land carnivores, the omnivorous brown bears that roam the archipelago. Chirikof has no bears or people, though; it has cattle.

At last count, over 2,000 cows and bulls roam Chirikof, one of many islands within a US wildlife refuge. Depending on whom you ask, the cattle are everything from unwelcome invasive megafauna to rightful heirs of a place this domesticated species has inhabited for 200 years, perhaps more. Whether they stay or go probably comes down to human emotions, not evidence.

Russians brought cattle to Chirikof and other islands in the Kodiak Archipelago to establish an agricultural colony, leaving cows and bulls behind when they sold Alaska to the United States in 1867. But the progenitor of cattle ranching in the archipelago is Jack McCord, an Iowa farm boy and consummate salesman who struck gold in Alaska and landed on Kodiak in the 1920s. He heard about feral cattle grazing Chirikof and other islands, and sensed an opportunity. But once he’d bought the Chirikof herd from a company that held rights to it, he got wind that the federal government was going to declare the cattle wild and assume control of them. McCord went into overdrive.

In 1927, he successfully lobbied the US Congress—with help from politicians in the American West—to create legislation that enshrined the right of privately owned livestock to graze public lands. What McCord set in motion reverberates in US cattle country today, where conflicts over land use have led to armed standoffs and death.

McCord introduced new bulls to balance the herd and inject fresh genes into the pool, but he soon lost control of his cattle. By early 1939, he still had 1,500 feral cattle—too many for him to handle and far too many bulls. Stormy, unpredictable weather deterred most of the hunters McCord turned to for help thinning the herd, though he eventually wrangled five men foolhardy enough to bet against the weather gods. They lost. The expedition failed, precipitated one of McCord’s divorces, and almost killed him. In 1950, he gave up. But his story played out on Chirikof over and over for the next half-century, with various actors making similarly irrational decisions, caught up in the delusion that the frontier would make them rich.

By 1980, the government had created the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge (Alaska Maritime for short), a federally protected area roughly the size of New Jersey, and charged the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) with managing it. This meant preserving the natural habitat and dealing with the introduced and invasive species. Foxes? Practically annihilated. Bunnies? Gone. But when it came to cattle?

Alaskans became emotional. “Let’s leave one island in Alaska for the cattle,” Governor Frank Murkowski said in 2003. Thirteen years later, at the behest of his daughter, Alaska’s senior senator, Lisa Murkowski, the US Congress directed the USFWS to leave the cattle alone.

So I’d been wondering: What are those cattle up to on Chirikof?

On the surface, Alaska as a whole appears an odd choice for cattle: mountainous, snowy, far from lucrative markets. But we’re here in June, summer solstice 2022, at “peak green,” when the archipelago oozes a lushness I associate with coastal British Columbia and the Pacific Northwest. The islands rest closer to the gentle climate of those coasts than to the northern outposts they skirt. So, in the aspirational culture that Alaska has always embraced, why not cattle?

“Why not cattle” is perhaps the mantra of every rancher everywhere, to the detriment of native plants and animals. But Chirikof, in some ways, was more rational rangeland than where many of McCord’s ranching comrades grazed their herds—on Kodiak Island, where cattle provided the gift of brisket to the Kodiak brown bear. Ranchers battled the bears for decades in a one-sided war. From 1953 to 1963, they killed about 200 bears, often from the air with rifles fixed to the top of a plane, sometimes shooting bears far from ranches in areas where cattle roamed unfenced.

Bears and cattle cannot coexist. It was either protect bears or lose them, and on Kodiak, bear advocates pushed hard. Cattle are, in part, the reason the Kodiak National Wildlife Refuge exists. Big, charismatic bears outshone the cows and bulls; bear protection prevailed. Likewise, one of the reasons the Alaska Maritime exists—sweeping from the Inside Passage to the Aleutian chain and on up to the islands in the Chukchi Sea—is to protect seabirds and other migratory birds. A cattle-free Chirikof, with its generally flat topography and lack of predators, would offer more quality habitat for burrow-nesting tufted puffins, storm petrels, and other seabirds. And yet, on Chirikof, and a few other islands, cows apparently outshine birds.

The remoteness, physically good for birds, works against them, too: Most people can picture a Ferdinand the Bull frolicking through the cotton grass, but not birds building nests. Chirikof is so far from other islands in the archipelago that it’s usually included as an inset on paper maps. A sample sentence for those learning the Alutiiq language states the obvious: Ukamuk (Chirikof) yaqsigtuq (is far from here). At least one Chirikof rancher recommended the island as a penal colony for juvenile delinquents. To get to Chirikof from Kodiak, you need a ship or a floatplane carrying extra fuel for the four-hour round trip. It’s a wonder anyone thought grazing cattle on pasture at the outer edge of a floatplane’s fuel supply was a good idea.

Patrick Saltonstall, a cheerful, fit 57-year-old with a head of tousled gray curls, is an archaeologist with the Alutiiq Museum in Kodiak. He’s accompanying photographer Shanna Baker and me to Chirikof—but he’s left us on the dock while he checks in at the veterinarian’s where he has taken his sick dog, a lab named Brewster.

The owners of the floatplane, Jo Murphy and her husband, pilot Rolan Ruoss, are debating next steps, using buckets to catch the fuel seeping from both wing tips. Weather is the variable I had feared; in the North it’s a capricious god, swinging from affable to irascible for reasons unpredictable and unknowable. But the weather is perfect this morning. Now, I’m fearing O-rings.

Our 8 am departure ticks by. Baker and I grab empty red plastic jerrycans from a pickup truck and haul them to the dock. The crew empties the fuel from the buckets into the red jugs. This will take a while.

A fuel leak, plus a sick dog: Are these omens? But such things are emotional and irrational. I channel my inner engineer: Failing O-rings are a common problem, and we’re not in the air, so it’s all good.

Saltonstall returns, minus his usual smile: Brewster has died.

Dammit.

He sighs, shakes his head, and mumbles his bewilderment and sadness. Brewster’s death apparently mystified the vet, too. Baker and I murmur our condolences. We wait in silence awhile, gazing at distant snowy peaks and the occasional seal peeking its head above water. Eventually, we distract Saltonstall by getting him talking about Chirikof.

Cattle alone on an island can ruin it, he says. They’re “pretty much hell on archaeological sites,” grazing vegetation down to nubs, digging into the dirt with their hooves, and, as creatures of habit, stomping along familiar routes, fissuring shorelines so that the earth falls away into the sea. Saltonstall falls silent. Brewster is foremost on his mind. He eventually wanders over to see what’s up with the plane.

I lie on a picnic table in the sun, double-check my pack, think about birds. There is no baseline data for Chirikof prior to the introduction of cattle and foxes. But based on the reality of other islands in the refuge, it has a mix of good bird habitats. Catherine West, an archaeologist at Boston University in Massachusetts, studies Chirikof’s animal life from before the introduction of cows and foxes; she has been telling me that the island was likely once habitat for far more birds than we see today: murres, auklets, puffins, kittiwakes and other gulls, along with ducks and geese.

I flip through my notes to what I scrawled while walking a Kodiak Island trail through Sitka spruce with retired wildlife biologist Larry Van Daele. Van Daele worked for the State of Alaska for 34 years, and once retired, sat for five years on the Alaska Board of Game, which gave him plenty of time to sit through raucous town hall meetings pitting Kodiak locals against USFWS officials. Culling ungulates—reindeer and cattle—from islands in the refuge has never gone down well with locals. But change is possible. Van Daele also witnessed the massive cultural shift regarding the bear—from “If it’s brown, it’s down” to it being an economic icon of the island. Now, ursine primacy is on display on the cover of the official visitor guide for the archipelago: a photo of a mother bear, her feet planted in a muddy riverbank, water droplets clinging to her fur, fish blood smearing her nose.

But Chirikof, remember, is different. No bears. Van Daele visited several times for assessments before the refuge eradicated foxes. His first trip, in 1999, followed a long, cold winter. His aerial census counted 600 to 800 live cattle and 200 to 250 dead, their hair and hide in place and less than 30 percent of them scavenged. “The foxes were really looking fat,” he told me, adding that some foxes were living inside the carcasses. The cattle had likely died of starvation. Without predators, they rise and fall with good winters and bad.

The shape of the island summarizes the controversy, Van Daele likes to say—a T-bone steak to ranchers and a teardrop to bird biologists and Indigenous people who once claimed the island. In 2013, when refuge officials began soliciting public input over what to do with feral animals in the Alaska Maritime, locals reacted negatively during the three-year process. They resentfully recalled animal culls elsewhere and argued to preserve the genetic heritage of the Chirikof cattle. Van Daele, who has been described as “pro-cow,” seems to me, more than anything, resistant to top-down edicts. As a wildlife biologist, he sees the cattle as probably invasive and acknowledges that living free as a cow is costly. An unmanaged herd has too many bulls. Trappers on Chirikof have witnessed up to a dozen bulls at a time pursuing and mounting cows, causing injury, exhaustion, and death, especially to heifers. It’s not unreasonable to imagine a 1,000-kilogram bull crushing a heifer weighing less than half that.

But, as an Alaskan and a former member of the state’s Board of Game, Van Daele chafes at the federal government’s control. Senator Murkowski, after all, was following the lead of her constituents, at least the most vocal of them, when she pushed to leave the cattle free to roam. Once Congress acted, Van Daele told me, “why not find the money, spend the money, and manage the herd in a way that allows them to continue to be a unique variety, whatever it is?” “Whatever it is” turns out to be not much at all.

Finally, Ruoss beckons us to the plane, a de Havilland Canada Beaver, a heroically hard-working animal, well adapted for wandering the bush of a remote coast. He has solved the leaking problem by carrying extra fuel onboard in jerrycans, leaving the wing tips empty. At 12:36 pm, we take off for Chirikof.

Imagine Fred Rogers as a bush pilot in Alaska. That’s Ruoss: reassuring, unflappable, and keen to share his archipelago neighborhood. By the time we’re angling up off the water, my angst—over portents of dead dog and dripping fuel—has evaporated.

A transplant from Seattle, Washington, Ruoss was a herring spotter as a young pilot in 1979. Today, he mostly transports hunters, bear-viewers, and scientists conducting fieldwork. He takes goat hunters to remote clifftops, for example, sussing out the terrain and counting to around seven as he flies over a lake at 100 miles per hour (160 kilometers per hour) to determine if the watery landing strip is long enough for the Beaver.

From above, our world is equal parts land and water. We fly over carpets of lupine and pushki (cow parsnip), and, on Sitkinak Island, only 15 kilometers south of Kodiak Island, a cattle herd managed by a private company with a grazing lease. Ruoss and Saltonstall point out landmarks: Refuge Rock, where Alutiiq people once waited out raids by neighboring tribes but couldn’t repel an attack from Russian cannons; a 4,500-year-old archaeology site with long slate bayonets; kilns where Russians baked bricks for export to California; an estuary where a tsunami destroyed a cannery; the village of Russian Harbor, abandoned in the 1930s. “People were [living] in every bay” in the archipelago, Ruoss says. He pulls a book about local plant life from under his seat and flips through it before handing it over the seat to me.

Today, the only people we see are in boats, fishing for Dungeness crab and salmon. We fly over Tugidak Island, where Ruoss and Murphy have a cabin. The next landmass will be Chirikof. We have another 25 minutes to go, with only whitecaps below.

For thousands of years, the Alutiiq routinely navigated this rough sea around their home on Chirikof, where they wove beach rye and collected amber and hunted sea lions, paddling qayat—kayaks. Fog was a hazard; it descends rapidly here, like a ghostly footstep. When Alutiiq paddlers set off from Chirikof, they would tie a bull kelp rope to shore as a guide back to safety if mist suddenly blocked their vision.

As we angle toward Chirikof, sure enough, a mist begins to form. But like the leaking fuel or Brewster’s death, it foreshadows nothing. Below us, as the haze dissipates, the island gleams green, a swath of velveteen shaped, to my mind, like nothing more symbolic than the webbed foot of a goose. A bunch of spooked cows gallop before us as we descend over the northeast side. Ruoss lands on a lake plenty long for a taxiing Beaver.

We toss out our gear and he’s off. We’re the only humans on what appears to be a storybook island—until you kick up fecal dust from a dry cow pie, and then more, and more, and you find yourself stumbling over bovid femurs, ribs, and skulls. Cattle prefer grazing a flat landscape, so stick to the coastline and to the even terrain inland. We tromp northward, flushing sandpipers from the verdant carpet. A peppery bouquet floats on the still air. A cabbagey scent of yarrow dominates whiffs of sedges and grasses, wild geraniums and flag irises, buttercups and chocolate lilies.

Since the end of the last ice age, Chirikof has been mostly tundra-like: no trees, sparse low brush, tall grasses, and boggy. Until the cattle arrived, the island never had large terrestrial mammals, the kind of grazers and browsers that mold a landscape—mammoths, mastodons, deer, caribou. But bovids have fashioned a pastoral landscape that a hiker would recognize in crossing northern England, a place that cows and sheep have kept clear for centuries. The going is easy, but Baker and I struggle to keep pace with the galloping Saltonstall, and we can’t help but stop to gape at bull and cow skeletons splayed across the grasses. We skirt a ground nest with three speckled eggs, barely hidden by the low scrub. We cut across a beach muddled with plastics—ropes, bottles, floats—and reach a giant puddle with indefinable edges, its water meandering toward the sea. “We call it the river Styx,” Saltonstall says. “The one you cross into hell.”

Compared with the Emerald City behind us, the underworld across the Styx is a Kansas dust bowl, a sandy mess that looks as if it could swallow us. Saltonstall tells us about a previous trip when he and his colleagues pulled a cow out of quicksand. Twice. “It charged us—and we’d saved its life!”

Hoof prints scatter from the river. At one time, the river Styx probably supported a small pink salmon run. A team of biologists reported in 2016 that several Chirikof streams host pink and coho, with cameo appearances of rainbow trout and steelhead. This stream is likely fish-free, the erosion too corrosive, a habitat routinely trampled.

Two raptors—jaegers—cavort above us. A smaller bird’s entrails unspool at our feet. On a sandy bluff, Saltonstall pauses to look for artifacts while Baker and I climb down to a beach where hungry cattle probably eat seaweed in winter. We follow a ground squirrel’s tracks up the bluff to its burrow, and at the top meet Saltonstall, who holds out his hands: stone tools. Artifacts sprinkle the surface as if someone has shaken out a tablecloth laden with forks, knives, spoons, and plates—an archaeological site with context ajumble. A lone bovid’s track crosses the sand, winding through shoulder blades, ribs, and the femoral belongings of relatives.

After four hours of hiking, we turn toward the lake where we left our gear. So far on this hike, dead cattle outnumber live ones, dozens to zero. But wait! What’s that? A bull appears on a rise, across a welcome mat of cotton grass. Curious, he jogs down. Baker and Saltonstall peer through viewfinders and click off images. The bull stops several meters away; we stare at each other. He wins. We turn and walk away. When I look back, he’s still paused, watching us, or—I glance around—watching a distant herd running at us.

Again, my calm comrades-in-arms lift their cameras. I lift my iPhone, which shakes because I’m scared. Should I have my hands on the pepper spray I borrowed from Ruoss and Murphy? Closer, closer, closer they thunder, until I can’t tell the difference between my pounding heart and their pounding feet. Then, in sync, the herd turns 90 degrees and gallops out of the frame. The bull lollops away to join them. Their cattle plans take them elsewhere. Saltonstall has surveyed archaeology sites three times on Chirikof. The first time, in 2005, he carried a gun to hunt the cattle, but his colleagues were also apprehensive about the feral beasts. At least one person I talked to suggested we bring a gun. But Saltonstall says he learned that cattle are cowards: Stand your ground, clap, and cows and bulls will run away. But to me, big domesticated herbivores are terrifying. Horses kick and bite, cattle can crush you. The rules of bears—happier without humans around—are easier to parse. I’ve never come close to pepper spraying a bear, but I’m hot on the trigger when it comes to cattle.

The next morning, we set out for the Old Ranch, one of the two homesteads built decades ago on the island and about a three-hour amble one way. Ruoss won’t be picking us up till 3 pm, so we have plenty of time. The cattle path we’re following crosses a field bejeweled with floral ambers, opals, rubies, sapphires, amethysts, and shades of jade. It’s alive with least sandpipers, a shorebird that breeds in northern North America, with the males arriving early, establishing their territories, and building nests for their mates. The least sandpiper population, in general, is in good shape—they certainly flourish here. High-pitched, sped-up laughs split the air. They slice the wind and rush across the velvet expanse. Their flapping wings look impossibly short for supporting flights from their southern wintering grounds, sometimes as far away as Mexico, over 3,000 kilometers distant. They flutter into a tangle of green and vanish.

From a small rise, we spot cattle paths meandering into the distance, forking again and again. Saltonstall announces the presence of the only other mammal on the island. “A battery killer,” he says, raising his camera at an Arctic ground squirrel, and he’s right. They are adorable. They stand on two legs and hold their food in their hands. To us humans, that makes them cute. Pretty soon, we’re all running down the batteries on our cameras and smartphones.

Qanganaq is Alutiiq for ground squirrel. An Alutiiq tailor needed around 100 ground squirrels for one parka, more precious than a sea otter cloak. Some evidence suggests the Alutiiq introduced ground squirrels to Chirikof at least 2,000 years ago, apparently a more rational investment than cattle. Squirrels were easily transported, and the market for skins was local. Still, they were fancy dress, Dehrich Chya, the Alutiiq Museum’s Alutiiq language and living culture manager, told me. Creating a parka—from hunting to sewing to wearing—was an homage to the animals that offered their lives to the Alutiiq. Archaeologist Catherine West and her crew have collected over 20,000 squirrel bones from Chirikof middens, a few marked by tool use and many burned.

Chirikof has been occupied and abandoned periodically—the Alutiiq quit the island, perhaps triggered by a volcanic eruption 4,000 years ago, then came people more related to the Aleuts from the west, then the Alutiiq again. Then, Russian colonizers arrived. The Russians lasted not much longer than the American cattle ranchers who would succeed them. That last, doomed culture crumbled in less than 100 years, pegged to an animal hard to transport, with a market far, far away.

Whether ground squirrels, some populations definitely introduced, should be in the Alaska Maritime is rarely discussed. One reason, probably, is that they are small and cute and easy to anthropomorphize. There is a great body of literature on why we anthropomorphize. Evolutionarily, cognitive archaeologists would argue that once we could anthropomorphize—by at least 40,000 years ago—we became better hunters and eventually herders. We better understood our prey and the animals we domesticated. Whatever the reason, researchers tend to agree that to anthropomorphize is a universal human behavior with profound implications for how we treat animals. We attribute humanness based on animals’ appearance, familiarity, and non-physical traits, such as agreeability and sociality—all factors that will vary somewhat across cultures—and we favor those we humanize.

Ungulates, in general, come across favorably. Add a layer of domestication, and cattle become even more familiar. Cows, especially dairy cows named Daisy, can be sweet and agreeable. Steve Ebbert, a retired USFWS wildlife biologist living on the Alaska mainland outside Homer, eradicated foxes, as well as rabbits and marmots, from islands in the refuge. Few objected to eliminating foxes—or even the rabbits and marmots, he told me. Cattle are more complicated. Humans are supposed to take care of them, he said, not shoot them or let them starve and die: they’re for food—and of course, they’re large, and they’re in a lot of storybooks, and they have big eyes. Alaskans, like many US westerners, are also protective of the state’s ranching legacy—cattle ranchers transformed the landscape to a more familiar place for colonizers and created an American story of triumph, leaving out the messy bits.

We spot a herd of mostly cows and calves, picture-book perfect, with chestnut coats and white faces and socks. We edge closer, but they’re wary. They trot away.

Saltonstall, always a few leaps and bounds ahead, spots the Old Ranch—or part of it. A couple of bulls are hanging out near the sagging, severed rooms that cling to a cliff above the sea, refusing their fate. Ghostly fence posts march from the beach across a rolling landscape.

Close by is a wire exclosure, one of five Ebbert and his colleagues set up in 2016. The exclosure—big enough to park a quad—keeps out cattle, allowing an unaggravated patch of land to regenerate. Beach rye taller than cows soars within the fencing. This is what the island looks like without cattle: a haven for ground-nesting birds. The Alutiiq relied on beach rye, weaving the fiber into house thatching, baskets, socks, and other textiles; if they introduced ground squirrels, they knew what they were doing, since the rodents didn’t drastically alter the vegetation the way cattle do.

Saltonstall approaches a shed set back from the eroding cliff.

“Holy cow!” he hollers. No irony. He is peering into the shed.

On the floor, a cow’s head resembles a Halloween mask, horns up, eye sockets facing the door, snout resting close to what looks like a rusted engine. Half the head is bone, half is covered with hide and keratin. Femurs and ribs and backbone scatter the floor, amid bits and bobs of machinery. One day, for reasons unknown, this cow wedged herself into an old shed and died.

Cattle loom large in death, their bodies lingering. Their suffering—whether or not by human hands—is tangible. Through size, domestication, and ubiquity, they take up a disproportionate amount of space physically, and through anthropomorphism, they grab a disproportionate amount of human imagination and emotion. When Frank Murkowski said Alaska should leave one island to the cattle, he probably pictured a happy herd rambling a vast, unfenced pasture—not an island full of bones or heifer-buckling bulls.

Birds are free, but they’re different. They vanish. We rarely witness their suffering, especially the birds we never see at backyard feeders—shorebirds and seabirds. We witness their freedom in fleeting moments, if at all, and when we do see them—gliding across a beach, sipping slime from an intertidal mudflat, resting on a boat rail far from shore—can we name the species? As popular as birding is, the world is full of non-birders. And so, we mistreat them. On Chirikof, where there should be storm petrels, puffins, and terns, there are cattle hoof prints, cattle plops, and cattle bones.

Hustling back to meet the seaplane, we skirt an area thick with cotton grass and ringed by small hills. In 2013, an ornithologist recorded six Aleutian terns and identified one nest with two eggs. In the United States, Aleutian tern populations have crashed by 80 percent in the past few decades. The tern is probably the most imperiled seabird in Alaska. But eradicating foxes, which ate birds’ eggs and babies, probably helped Chirikof’s avian citizens, perhaps most notably the terns. From a distance, we count dozens of birds, shooting up from the grass, swirling around the sky, and fluttering back down to their nests.

Terns may be dipping their webbed toes into a bad situation, but consider the other seabirds shooting their little bodies through the atmosphere, spotting specks of land in the middle of the Pacific Ocean to raise their young, and yet it’s unsafe for them on this big, lovely island. The outcry over a few hundred feral cattle—a loss that would have absolutely no effect on the species worldwide—seems completely irrational. Emotional. A case of maladaptive anthropomorphism. If a species’ purpose is to proliferate, cattle took advantage of their association with humans and won the genetic lottery.

Back at camp, we haul our gear to the lake. Ruoss arrives slightly early, and while he’s emptying red jerrycans of fuel into the Beaver, we grab tents and packs and haul them into the pontoons. Visibility today is even better than yesterday. I watch the teardrop-shaped island recede, thinking of what more than one scientist told me: when you’re on Chirikof, it’s so isolated, surrounded by whitecaps, that you hope only to get home. But as soon as you leave, you want to go back.

Chirikof cattle are one of many herds people have sprinkled around the world in surprising and questionable places. And cattle have a tendency to go feral. On uninhabited Amsterdam Island in the Indian Ocean, the French deposited a herd that performed an evolutionary trick in response to the constraints of island living: the size of individuals shrank in the course of 117 years, squashing albatross colonies in the process. In Hong Kong, feral cattle plunder vegetable plots, disturb traffic, and trample the landscape. During the colonization of the Americas and the Caribbean, cattle came to occupy spaces violently emptied of Indigenous people. Herds ran wild—on small islands like Puerto Rico and across expanses in Texas and Panama—pulverizing landscapes that had been cultivated for thousands of years. No question: cattle are problem animals.

A few genetic studies explore the uniqueness of Chirikof cattle. Like freedom, “unique” is a vague word. I sent the studies to a scientist who researches the genetics of hybrid species to confirm my takeaway: the cattle are hybrids, perhaps unusual hybrids, some Brown Swiss ancestry but mostly British Hereford and Russian Yakutian, an endangered breed. The latter are cold tolerant, but no study shows selective forces at play. The cattle are not genetically distinct; they’re a mix of breeds, the way a labradoodle is a mix of a Labrador and a poodle.

Feral cattle graze unusual niches all over the world, and maybe some are precious genetic outliers. But the argument touted by livestock conservancies and locals that we need Chirikof cattle genes as a safeguard against some future fatal cattle disease rings hollow. And if we did, we might plan and prepare: freeze some eggs and sperm.

Cattle live feral lives elsewhere in the Alaska Maritime, too, on islands shared by the refuge and Indigenous owners or, in the case of Sitkinak Island, where a meat company grazes cattle. Why Frank Murkowski singled out Chirikof is puzzling: Alaska will probably always have feral cattle. Chirikof cattle, of use to practically no one, fully residing within a wildlife refuge a federal agency is charged with protecting for birds, with no concept of the human drama swirling around their presence, have their own agenda for keeping themselves alive. Unwittingly, humans are part of the plan.

We created cattle by manipulating their wild cousins, aurochs, in Europe, Asia, and the Sahara beginning over 10,000 years ago. Unlike Frankenstein’s monster, who could never find a place in human society, cattle trotted into societies around the world, making themselves at home on most ranges they encountered. Rosa Ficek, an anthropologist at the University of Puerto Rico who has studied feral cattle, says they generally find their niche. Christopher Columbus brought them on his second voyage to the Caribbean in 1493, and they proliferated, like the kudzu of the feral animal world. “[Cattle are] never fully under the control of human projects,” she says. They’re not “taking orders the way military guys are … They have their own cattle plans.”

The larger question is, Why are we so nervous about losing cattle? In terms of sheer numbers, they’re a successful species. There is just over one cow or bull for every eight people in the world. If numbers translate to likes, we like cows and bulls more than dogs. If estimates are right, the world has 1.5 billion cattle and 700 million dogs. Imagine all the domesticated animals that would become feral if some apocalypse took out humans.

I could say something here about how vital seabirds—as opposed to cattle—are to marine ecosystems and the overall health of the planet. They spread their poop around the oceans, nurturing plankton, coral reefs, and seagrasses, which nurture small plankton-eating fishes, which are eaten by bigger fishes, and so on. Between 1950 and 2010, the world lost some 230 million seabirds, a decline of around 70 percent.

But maybe it’s better to end with conjuring the exquisiteness of seabirds like the Aleutian terns in their breeding plumage, with their white foreheads, black bars that run from black bill to black-capped heads, feathers in shades of grays, white rump and tail, and black legs. Flashy? No. Their breeding plumage is more timeless monochromatic, with the clean, classic lines of a vintage Givenchy design. The Audrey Hepburn of seabirds. They’re so pretty, so elegant, so difficult to appreciate as they flit across a cotton grass meadow. Their dainty bodies aren’t much longer than a typical ruler, from bill to tail, but their wingspans are over double that, and plenty strong to propel them, in spring, from their winter homes in Southeast Asia to Alaska and Siberia.

A good nesting experience, watching their eggs hatch and their chicks fledge, with plenty of fish to eat, will pull Aleutian terns back to the same places again and again and again—like a vacationing family, drawn back to a special island, a place so infused with good memories, they return again and again and again. That’s called fidelity.

Humans understand home, hard work, and family. So, for a moment, think about how Aleutian terns might feel after soaring over the Pacific Ocean for 16,000 kilometers with their compatriots, making pit stops to feed, and finally spotting a familiar place, a place we call Chirikof. They have plans, to breed and nest and lay eggs. The special place? The grassy cover is okay. But, safe nesting spots are hard to find: Massive creatures lumber about, and the terns have memories of loss, of squashed eggs, and kicked chicks. It’s sad, isn’t it?

This story was made possible in part by the Fund for Environmental Journalism and the Society of Environmental Journalists and was published in collaboration with Earth Island Journal.

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typingtess · 2 years

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NCIS: Los Angeles Season 13 Rewatch: “A Land of Wolves”

The basics: The team is looking for Kensi.

Written by: Justin Kohlas & Adam George Key. Kohlas is a longtime NCIS: Los Angeles staffer, working on the series since 2015. This is his first episode as a writer. He previous wrote several short films, including one starring Adam George Key. Adam George Key co-wrote "Monster" with Frank Military and "Searching" with Kyle Harimoto. Key also played LAPD Officer Harrison in four episodes in seasons 11 and 12.

Directed by: Tawnia McKiernan, who directed “Exchange Rate", “High Value Target”, “Kulinda”, "Assets", “Joy Ride”, “The Frogman’s Daughter” and "Can't Take My Eyes Off Of You".

Guest stars of note: Briana Marin as NCIS Supervisory Special Agent Aliyah de León, Natalia Del Riego as Rosa, Alexandra Goyco as Marine Lance Corporal Benny Gomez, Jaime Paul Gomez as U.S. Border Patrol Agent Jay Rivera, Jolene Andersen as Ghost/Rebecca Gordon, Nathin Butler as Kodiak, Patrick Cox as Legion, Gloria Laino as Adriana and Oscar Peña as Fernando.

Our heroes: Rescue Kensi as she rescues herself and an a teenage refugee.

What important things did we learn about:

Callen: With his sister. Sam: Handling Deeks. Kensi: Saving herself and Rosa. Deeks: Spiraling. Fatima: Back in the field. Rountree: With his sister. Kilbride: Can run all the equipment in Ops

What not so important things did we learn about:

Callen: Absent. Sam: Working with the daughter of a good friend. Kensi: Sending up a signal to help with her rescue. Deeks: Marty Prefontaine Fatima: Not a drinker. Rountree: Absent. Kilbride: Finds a good 16-year old single malt helpful after rough days.

Where in the world is Henrietta Lange? Not along the border, that’s for sure.

Who's down with OTP: Deeks didn’t throw a chair or pound Sabatino during this episode’s Kensi is missing moments. Progress and personal growth!

Who's down with BrOTP: Sam did a wonderful job keeping Deeks from spiraling. Deeks did a wonderful job not bringing up that he was in the same position Sam was a few years ago and how did that turn out.

Fashion review: Callen and Rountree are out today. To start the day, exercising Deeks is back in the blue-grey tank top and darker grey joggers. As the case goes along, Sam is in a black, long-sleeve tee. Kensi wears a flannel shirt and a sometimes a baseball cap. Deeks in also in a long-sleeve dark tee-shirt and a dark green baseball cap. Fatima is wearing a pale purple cardigan over a red turtleneck sweater. The Admiral is in one of his dark blue three-piece suit. In bed, Kensi is wearing a red tank top (and a white bandage), Deeks has on a blue tee-shirt.

Music: Not today.

Any notable cut scene: Two. The first one has Sam calling Fatima asking for satellite info. Deeks find a fire that is still burning – Kensi was in the area very recently. She also wrote “11 Militia” in the dirt. Sam and Deeks are going to keep looking for Kensi while Fatima checks into the militia. The Admiral and Aliyah arrive in Ops. Fatima provides a sit-rep. The Admiral will make some calls about a satellite link after asking about structures in the area where Kensi left her message.

Scene two: The militia team goes back into the cabin to find Kensi and Rosa gone. She wants them captured and killed. The cubby militia guy really didn’t sign up for that – he was there to protect the border. He doesn’t want to kill a federal. The woman in charge makes it clear, Kensi is either a Fed or with the Cartels – either way they’re screwed if they don’t kill her.

Quote: Kensi: “You found me.” Deeks: “We're always gonna find our way back to each other one way or the other.”

Anything else: A group of migrants are crossing into America. There is an older man who is helped down a hilly area by a teenage girl. The group hears some rustling in the woods. The man leading the group tells them to be quiet and crouch down. Before they can comply, a smoke grenade is thrown into the group. There is gunfire. One of the men near the front of the group is shot, as is the older man helped by the teen girl.

Members of the group are sitting ducks, getting picked off by gunshots. The teen girl is grabbed by one of the people moving the migrants through the woods. Pulling her to safety is Kensi, who promises the girl she is safe with Kensi.

In the firing range, Sam is doing blind shooting. The door opens and a young woman walks in to see “Senior Chief Hanna” and to hear his “seize the day” proverbs. She reminisces about the one Sam use to tell that was a favorite of her father as well. They share a big hug. The woman is Aliyah DeLeon. She is just getting her bearings.

Sam asks about her father – if he was still upset she left the Navy for NCIS. Admitting her father would have preferred she stay with the Navy and climb in ranks, she was in for something new. She is a better fit for civilian life. Sam tells her Master Chef DeLeon is the strongest man he knows, he’ll make it through. Aliyah is a hero – she belongs at OSP. Sam and Aliyah get a call from the Admiral to report to Ops.

In the boat shed, Deeks arrives with Fatima. He’s talking about the Spanish Conquistadors and his new running shoes that look a lot like flipflops. The fast Spanish Conquistadors ran in them. Fatima is not impressed as Deeks goes on and on about modern running shoes having too much cushion and are an ACL tear waiting to happen. Deeks wants to buy Fatima a pair. She thanks “Marty Prefontaine” but she’s good with her Nikes. Deeks moves and admits he has some blisters due to the new sneakers when his cellphone buzzes.

Looking at his phone, Deeks is worried – Kensi is late. Fatima is thrilled until Deeks tells her it is not that kind of late. She missed her check-in. The Admiral pops up on the plasma screen with a “good morning.” “Why do I suddenly feel like there’s nothing good about it?” Deeks asks. Sam and Aliyah arrive in Ops. The Admiral asks about Callen, who is out on personal business. The Admiral knows that, he gave him the personal time. Sam mentions reconnecting with Alex, his sister “but that’s really none of our business, is it?” Rountree is also out, also with his sister.

Deeks is “guessing that Callen and Rountree’s absence is not the reason you’re calling us this early.” The Admiral says Border Patrol found a number of dead bodies on the US/Mexico border, all shot to death. One of the bodies was Raul Fuentes, the cousin of Benny Gomez and the target of Kensi’s investigation. Gomez is a Marine in Camp Pendleton who is suspected of working with his cousin Raul and the Campo Cartel as part of a human smuggling ring.

When he asks if Kensi was there, Deeks is told it is possible, nobody knows. He can’t believe they don’t know. Sam asks if Deeks spoke to Kensi that morning. He did not. Nobody did. And there is no way to track her. Fatima asks if Kensi has a sat-phone. She does not, according to Aliyah, far too dangerous for this assignment. Deeks asks who Aliyah is and the Admiral does the intro with Special Agent DeLeon being TAD (temporary additional duty) with the team.

The only thing that matters to Deeks is Kensi. The Admiral agrees, the safety of Agent Blye is everyone’s top concern, “but if you can’t remain calm, you’re going nowhere near this.” Deeks says he’s calm, he wants the location of the crime scene. The Admiral has a chopper waiting to take the team to the crime scene. Deeks leaves to get dressed.

Fatima wants to know if she should go with Deeks. Sam wants Fatima and Aliyah to see Benny Gomez and find out what he knows. Fatima is worried about Ops. The Admiral assures her he knows how to run the systems but he prefers some sort of chain of command and “seeing as how other members of this team take sabbaticals whenever they damn well please, I have no choice.” Sam dismisses Aliyah to speak to the Admiral alone. After Sam promises the Admiral that he “has” Deeks, the Admiral brings up the last time the OSP went to Mexico. Sam is clear.

Kensi and the young woman are running along a road when Kensi needs to sit down. She’s supporting her left arm with her right. When they sit, Kensi passes the young woman her water bottle – Kensi wants her to stay hydrated – Kensi takes off her belt and wraps it around her left arm. She’s been shot.

The young woman, Rosa, knows Kensi is not a coyote. If she was, Kensi would have left Rosa to die where they were attacked or left her on the road to die. Kensi says she’s one of the good ones. “No such thing,” Rosa replies. Kensi explains she’s a federal agent. Rosa asks if they were attacked because they found out Kensi was a fed. Kensi doesn’t know and doesn’t plan on finding out. A vehicle passes near them. Kensi and Rosa hide until it passes and then take off again.

Fatima and Aliyah arrive at Benny Gomez’s place in Fatima’s red Porsche. Aliyah says Fatima was quiet through the drive over – “was it my backseat driving?” Fatima was working through some scenarios in her head. Aliyah understands – OSP is family and one of them is missing. She’s the new agent anyone barely knows going out in the field would be jarring too. Fatima promises she trusts Aliyah. And Aliyah knows Kensi has survived more than her fair share of tough spots but this is the life they all signed up for when joining NCIS. Fatima quickly agrees.

On Fatima’s turf, Aliyah wants to know how to handle going into Gomez’s house. Fatima takes the front door, Aliyah the back. Fatima does the whole “federal agent” thing so Gomez runs out the back. He spars with Aliyah before Fatima joins in on the fun. Fatima knocks Gomez to the ground and Aliyah puts him in cuffs. “Team work makes the dream work,” Fatima says.

At the border near the shooting, Sam can’t even tell if Kensi was with this group (she hasn’t checked in, obviously she’s with this group). Deeks is worried that the Cartel or Kessler got Kensi. Sam thinks Deeks is spiraling bringing up Kessler. A Border Patrol Agent arrives. He wants to know why NCIS is there. Sam doesn’t answer, just wants some info on the crime scene. The Border Patrol Agent talks about the victims – many shot in the back running away. 556 brass (used in semi-automatic rifles) and smoke cannisters, the Border Patrol has seen it before. Deeks is stunned – how is an act like that considered ordinary.

The area is a big part of the Cartel’s activity. It isn’t just a migration corridor, it is a way to smuggle drugs into the US and not be picked up by Border Patrol’s check points. “If it’s illegal, it’s here.” Deeks can’t believe this is a garden-variety mass killing. The Border Patrol Agent explains he has limited resources. His agency is stretched thin over hundreds of miles of uninhabitable borderland. There are remote parts of the border that may not see an Agent in a week. If someone gets hurt or abandoned, there’s a “slim” chance of survival. The Agent saw more dead bodies than he ever wants to remember.

Trying to get things back on track, Sam wants to know what the Border Patrol Agent thinks happened at the crime scene – is this the Cartel. The Agent has no other theory but the Cartels. He wishes he had more specifics but in cases like this, they rarely do. “If it’s not a turf war, it’s a shepherd playing God with his sheep.” With the scene being processed, NCIS is free to look around but there isn’t much to see.

Realizing that if Kensi is out there, they’re already way behind, Sam finds some ATV tracks. Border Patrol doesn’t use ATV’s. They did try to follow the ATV’s but only found they went 20-yards. Deeks finds some blood on a big stone just away from the crime scene. He thinks it is Kensi’s, Sam isn’t sure. Deeks is sure that she doesn’t have a lot of time in the conditions out there either way. They’re back to the helicopter.

In a cave, Rosa has a badly sprained ankle. Kensi is tending to it but Rosa is more worried Kensi arm. Kensi says she’s fine. Rosa is mourning the older man who was shot and killed. He took care of her since “La Bestia” – the cargo trains used to smuggle Central American migrants to the border. The old man said Rosa reminded him of his daughter, who lived in New York City and sent money home to get the him to the US.

Kensi asks if Rosa was going to New York. She’s going to Los Angeles. Her late mother wanted to go to LA to work and send money so Rosa could leave. Rosa is crying since it did not work out. Rosa asks Kensi is she is a mother. Kensi shakes her head no, “I want to be. Just haven’t been that lucky”. Kensi agrees, sometimes things don’t work out. They are both hoping their luck changes. Kensi is going to scout around. She begs Rosa to stay put – if someone comes by, don’t make a sound. Rosa nods her head as Kensi leaves, promising that she will return.

In Ops, the Admiral gets a sit-rep from Fatima and Aliyah. Seal Beach is sending over MPs to arrest Gomez. He’s currently handcuffed to as swing in his backyard. Fatima asks about Kensi. The Cartels of course aren’t talking. Fatima asks about David Kessler. The Admiral calls Kessler “self-indulgent”. If he was involved in what happened at the border, “we’d know. He wouldn’t be able to help himself.” Sam and Deeks are running an air-ground search. Fatima tries to reassure the Admiral. While the Admiral has all the faith in the world in Kensi’s abilities, finding her when they have no idea where she is “like finding a grain of salt in a sand box.”

Fatima and Aliyah start hearing some loud banging. There is a structure just off the backyard with a giant blue tarp covering it. Aliyah asks Gomez what will they find inside. He’s babbling on about his civil rights. Unlocking the structure, with the Admiral on comms demanding to know what they are doing, Fatima and Aliyah find about a dozen migrants inside.

Aliyah brings Fatima some water and asks how she’s doing. Fatima is OK and asks the same of Aliyah. Aliyah admits to seeing worse. Fatima wants to questions the migrants – if they arrived with Kensi, they may know what happened to her.

In Spanish, Fatima apologizes for questioning the migrants, who all look worried. Aliyah and Fatima start showing a photo of Kensi. One woman reacts to Kensi’s photo. Fatima assures the woman she won’t be in trouble for helping. Kensi helped the woman cross to the US. She wasn’t afraid of the trip or the Cartels, she was afraid of the American soldiers who hunt migrants. These soldiers don’t deport you, they kill you.

Kensi is walking around – more stumbling - when two men in camo pull up on ATVs on the other side of a row of trees. One pulls over near where Kensi tries to hide – he needs to relieve himself. Kensi has her knife out in case he gets too close. In the cave, Rosa moves a little and a human skull shows up in the dirt. She screams loud enough to catch forest bathroom guy’s ear. He calls it in to his non-peeing budding. A woman’s voice comes over the radio and orders him to get to the location of the scream. He takes off, leaving his cigarette behind.

Fatima and Aliyah call into Ops. The Admiral hasn’t heard from Sam and Deeks and Kensi still hasn’t checked in. The “soldiers who hunt people” aren’t actually military. While the DOD has some active duty military on the border helping with logistics, it isn’t heavily in California. The US Military can’t be involved in local law enforcement so if there are soldiers shooting migrants, they aren’t US soldiers. Fatima thinks they could be rogue actors in the military. While the Admiral finds that unlikely, he does not find it impossible. Fatima says Gomez had help from fellow Marines and the shootings at the border could be cleaning up all evidence of the smuggling. These shooters could be bad actors from ICE or Border Patrol. Citing exigent circumstances, the Admiral makes it clear that Fatima and Aliyah are to get everything out of Gomez. “One of our own is on the line here.”

The Admiral updates Sam and Deeks about the shooters – they could be Cartel, militia or just a bunch of people out killing for fun. Deeks hates all the options. Once they hear from Gomez, the Admiral will update. In the helicopter, Deeks wants “real talk” from Sam. Is the Border Patrol Agent correct – Kensi would have a slim chance of survival. Sam says the average person – yes. But Kensi isn’t the average person.

In the cave, a woman in camo gear is kicking Rosa in her injured leg. A heavy-set bald man with her – also in camo gear – isn’t happy about it. Rosa is just a kid. The woman disagrees – Rosa broke the law, is bringing in drugs that kill people. The woman – called Ghost – orders the man – called Legion – to secure the perimeter. Asking her question one last time, Ghost wants to know where is your smuggler. Rosa doesn’t answer, causing Ghost to start pulling her up by her hair. Rosa calls for Kensi, who arrives. As Ghost threatens to shoot Kensi, Kensi tells her she’s a federal agent. Legion comes up from behind and knocks Kensi with the butt of his gun.

In interrogation, Benny Gomez wants a lawyer – not a JAG lawyer, a real one. Aliyah wonders how he is going to pay for that, “with your blood money?” Fatima tells Gomez he’s looking at 10-years for the smuggling charges and a ton of time for aiding in the kidnapping of a federal agent. Aliyah thinks Gomez is a Netflix death-row documentary in the making. Gomez wants his lawyer.

Fatima and Aliyah explains the future to Gomez. He’s going to jail for a long time. He’s going to jail because he’s smuggled people for the Cartel and head of the cartel Pedro Silva is not going to be happy that his American connection is snitching to the Feds. Silva usually skins people alive for being involved with law enforcement. Gomez claims his brother asked him if he wanted to make some money under the table. Now he wants a deal. He’s not getting one with that terrible story – Fatima is done. Let Gomez take his chances in prison.

Deciding to cooperate, Gomez explains all he had to do was find a few buddies on the base who would drive down to the border and “pick up some cargo”. As military, they were never questioned by Border Patrol. They’d store the “cargo” in the house until someone picked them up. Gomez claims he didn’t know Kensi was a federal agent and he “sure as hell” doesn’t know where she is now. They were supposed to meet that morning but the group never showed. If the group doesn’t show, that means something really bad happened and Gomez was supposed to get out of there. Then NCIS showed up at his home.

Fatima and Aliyah update Sam and Deeks. Gomez doesn’t know where Kensi is but between the info she has and what Gomez admitted, they have a strong case against his smuggling partners at Camp Pendleton. The soldiers in the border are obviously not Gomez’s partners. The Admiral orders Castor to take Gomez into custody, tells Fatima and Aliyah to return to Ops.

Deeks is really worried – Gomez was a dead end. Sam tells Deeks they will find Kensi. “Yeah, just because you keep saying that doesn’t make it true,” Deeks replies. Patting Deeks on the chest, Sam says they are going to find Kensi again and Deeks has to keep his head on straight. Looking out his window, Deeks sees smoke coming up from the trees. Kensi used the discarded cigarette to start a small camp fire. Sam orders the helicopter to land.

In the area near the smoldering fire, Deeks recognizes Kensi’s knife with the message “11 MILITIA” written in the dirt. Sam calls that in to the Admiral. He needs satellite info for the last 24-hours. Deeks feels near the smoldering fire – it is still warm. Kensi was there recently. Sam wants everything on 11 Militia.

The 11 Militia tied up an unconscious Kensi and Rosa back to back in a cabin. Legion is complaining – he signed up to protect the border, not to have women tied up in a cabin. Ghosts says they aren’t just finding migrants and turning them over to the Border Patrol, they are protecting the American way of life. This is a war and “all wars have causalities.” The guy who needed to pee – called Kodiak – starts talking about sheep dogs and it is all nonsense.

Legion pushes back – what if Kensi really is a federal agent. Ghost thinks if Kensi is a federal agent then she’s helping move migrants into the country. “I call that treason and the punishment for treason is death.” Kensi is not unconscious. She heard it all.

After checking the area around the fire, Sam and Deeks come up empty. Figuring that Kensi got caught in the crossfire but got away, Sam realizes Kensi is a loose end. That doesn’t do much for Deeks. Since the 11 Militia is traveling on ATV’s, they have to fuel up somewhere. Deeks wants to go up in the helicopter but Sam is worried they’d be wasting time and fuel flying blind. Deeks doesn’t think Kensi has the time.

The Admiral calls. Sam wants to know what is taking so long. The Admiral is “rattling as many cages as possible” but he’s called in a lot of favors over the years taking care of the team. Fatima makes a link between the Sons of Our Fathers militia from earlier in the season and the 11 Militia. After NCIS shut down the Sons of our Fathers, a smaller, more militant part of the group left Arizona for California. The 11 in their name is from the 11 states of the Confederacy. Deeks is freaking out, only hearing Sam’s end of the conversation.

Fatima has some pictures of the 11 Militia and the Admiral’s assessment is not kind. Ghost is Rebecca Gordon, the second in command at Sons of our Fathers with a “crazy long rap sheet”. Lots of assaults with a deadly weapon charges – all involved with immigrants. Gordon owns a cabin near where the helicopter landed. Aliyah send the coordinates to Sam. A REACT team has been activated but they are going to take a while to get to the cabin. Sam and Deeks are on their own.

In the cabin, Kensi and Rosa struggle to stand while Ghost, Legion and Kodiak talk about what is going on outside. Legion was there to protect the border, not hurt people. Kensi and Rosa make it to a window where Kensi uses her head, literally, break some glass and using her mouth to pick up some shards. The 11 Militia walk into the cabin to find Kensi and Rosa gone. They are walking down the hill slowly. Rosa’s ankle is bad and Kensi is getting weaker by the minute.

Sam and Deeks enter the cabin but nobody is there. They hear shots fired. A fourth member of the 11 Militia found Kensi and Rosa. Ghost, Legion and Kodiak join him. Kensi warns them that if they kill a federal agent, there is no place on earth they can hide. Legion doesn’t want Ghost to shoot Kensi and Rosa. He’s got rope – if they are tied up for a few days, the animals will take care of Kensi and Rosa. Kodiak shoots Legion. Sam arrives, yells “federal agent” and while the people in the show haven’t seen the program, we all have. Lots of shooting ensues.

Deeks tosses Kensi a pistol which she uses to take out Ghost. Sam, Kensi and Deeks quickly have control of the situation. Rosa asks if it is over. It is. She hugs Kensi. Deeks sees Kensi and Rosa hugging. Kensi is so happy he found her. He tells her they will always find each other. Then Deeks finds her “flesh wound”. He wants to take her to a hospital. Kensi makes some introductions.

While Fatima is working at her new desk – complete with a desk lamp – Sam arrives. Aliyah is coming down the stairs. Sam is so grateful for her help. Aliyah thinks the team is terrific as does the arriving Admiral. Aliyah impressed the Admiral, who wants to have a sitdown with her to see where she fits inside NCIS.

Aliyah offers to take Sam, Fatima and the Admiral out for drinks – on her. Fatima eyes the Admiral and he suddenly has to leave. Fatima starts to talk her way out but Aliyah has ideas to help in Ops. Fatima would like to do that down the road.

Sam take Aliyah to his locker. He brought in a photo of her Dad when they were in BUDS – it is a gift to Aliyah. She missed LA.

In a dark Ops, Fatima is crying at one of the work stations. The Admiral walks in and asks Fatima if she wants to talk. She doesn’t say anything so the Admiral says good night. As he’s walking away, Fatima tries to explain she’s not a cop, a SEAL, her family isn’t military. She doesn’t have the background the rest of the team has. She can’t get shot or kidnapped and pretend everything is fine. Telling her “a little secret”, the Admiral says nobody in the office is superhero. Everyone is human, “even me,” the Admiral continues.

The office was shorthanded in a time of great need. “the thing is you stepped up to the plate.” It is the things you don’t chose that makes you who you are. And on nights like this, the Admiral finds a single malt, aged 16-years or so, “to do the trick.” Fatima is smiling. She doesn’t drink – it is her choice, a choice the Admiral finds idiotic but her choice. He wishes her a good night.

At home, Kensi is in bed with a big bandage on her left arm. Deeks is trying to sneak into the bedroom – he thought Kensi was sleeping. She’s not. She is grateful he helped talk her doctor out of keeping her overnight. Kensi asks about Rosa, who is being processed as a migrant seeking asylum. They are looking for relatives in the US and if there are no realities, she would go to foster parents. Kensi doesn’t want Rosa sent home – she has nobody there for her. Deeks wants Kensi to go to sleep. Getting into bed with Kensi, Deeks snuggles up. Kensi asks if he knows how lucky they are. He does, every morning when he wakes up with her. Quoting “Spoils of War”, Deeks is very glad she’s not dead.

What head canon can be formed from here: The introduction of Rosa is the new head canon move. Otherwise, this was a very well done “team member in peril” episode. Aliyah was a strong addition and I’m sorry she didn’t make past an episode or two. No issue with Shyla Dhar but having someone with family ties to Sam is always a good thing.

There was really nice continuity with prior parts of the season. The Sons of our Fathers from “Indentured” evolved to the 11 Militia here. Fatima’s issues returning to the field are continued here but she powers through it.

Just a guess, Callen was spending less time with Alex and Jake than he was with Leah.

Episode number: Episode number 288, the 8th episode of season 13.

#NCIS: Los Angeles Rewatch #NCIS: Los Angeles #NCIS: LA #NCIS Los Angeles #ncis la

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stellevatum · 5 months

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Opportunity Crew:

Note, there are human crew from the locals, some former Raiders and the like, but I’m highlighting the non-human ones specifically because they are non human and post-takeover, Kar’s made it a little more welcoming toward non-humans to settle.

Commander Riya “Sunny” Anulla: Twi'lek from the Milky Way. Riya’s family emigrated to the colonies in the Milky Way from Ryloth a few generations ago, some time after the fall of the First Order. Co-Commander of Opportunity’s Security force, and the leader of the Walker squad. Bondmate of Skip. Is often found around the city helping the residents if not spending time with Skip. Riya is also sort of the unofficial “Welcome committee” to the city for first timers, before having an immigration droid assist. Got the nickname “Sunny” from her partner.

Commander Verus “Skip” Scipius: Turian Co-Commander of security and marksman. Riya leads the walkers, Skip leads the ground troops, and the usual liaison between the Opportunity and the Crimson Raiders. Skip’s ancestors were survivors of the Reaper-ravaged Oma Ker, though he was raised in the Terminus before winding up in the Borderlands. Despite his serious looking demeanor, he’s laid back and gregarious as turians can be. Bondmates with Riya.

Tychus Spiro: A turian guardsman serving under Skip and Riya. Tychus' story is a complex one. Born on Omega out in the Terminus, he wound up involving himself with the Blue Suns. When the heat with the Suns got too hot, he joined the Andromeda initiative. As a later wave colonist, Tychus was only recently taken out of cryo in the last few years and served a few tours in APEX before joining Kar.

Paxis “Pax” Vakarian: Turian agent; of Kar’s Network. Palaven born, though didn’t fit much into the hierarchy and wound up on Omega before being recruited into the Void Network. Possibly a very distant relation to Garrus. Pax was one of Kar’s people to be deployed to Promethea during the Maliwan invasion to help, and tends to bounce around as Kar gives her missions. Similar to Skip, she’s more a free spirit in turian terms and enjoys planet hopping, seeing new sites, avoid gunfire from new threats, et cetera.

Roowarrk: Wookiee engineer; keeps the lights on and power running, and sometimes even works on the walkers with Riya. Shares duties with Murz. Grudgingly accepts that sometimes Murz is right. Gets time off to return to Kashyyyk for Life Day. Roowark's parents were liberated during the Imperial control of Kashyyyk, and were freedom fighters (and friends) with Kar. She's a been a bit of mentor figure, and wanted to help out his family friend.

Murz Hagdah: Batarian engineer; genius with anything running with an eezo core, maintains the few Kodiak shuttles Kar managed to transport over. Shares duties with Roowarrk, but doesn’t always let him gets his way despite being aware of a Wookiee’s arm-ripping abilities. Has an interest in Hyperspace theory, and enjoys the times when he and Kar can talk shop– when they get a moment from keeping the city running to do so. Comes off as gruff, but really a frank sort of being who doesn’t like wasting his time.

Tobo, Grega, Shovu, & Bob: The Quartet of Anzellians that work under Roowarrk and Murz. Are they siblings? Friends? Who knows. Fantastic with anything with wires and electricity: Ships, droids, bots, repurposed Hyperion tech? No problem for them. Few can understand their basic, but they’re nice enough folks, if a bit strange. Sometimes their size leads them to be repetitively unnoticed. Almost deconstructed Claptrap after giving them some choice words, thankfully Roowarrk put the kibosh to that. Really fond of Ellie, in an ironic twist. Outside of Kar, no one can ever really tell who’s who, not that they mind too much. They thrive on being the weirdos of the colony. Have been on occasion nearly hunted by Talon, leading many awkward moments between the Raiders and the Anzellians/

Dr. Aelon Rannahe: Salarian doctor hailing from from Omega, by way of Jaeto, by way of the Citadel. As a Xenobiology expert, she is known for her work on non-salarian patients. Took the position to work at Opportunity to study the Brain Shiver phenomenon, and is often found working on the people in the nearby town of Overlook. She has also taken to writing to the science teams on Andromeda frequently– sharing their new discoveries from their respective homes away from home.

Dr. Uma Se: Kaminoan doctor, part of Aelon’s hand-picked medical team. She lacks her people’s eugenicist beliefs, and is a little “strange” by Kaminoan standards for openly embracing other’s cultures. She started working in a clinic in Coruscant’s lower levels, found her way to the Mordin Solus Memorial Clinic on Omega under Dr. Rannahe, and followed him when Kar offered them a place on Opportunity. While older than the salarian she does treat her more as a mentor figure. If not in the clinic, she enjoys walks in the Waterfront district, and occasionally being-watches in the Markets. She is kind, if a bit socially awkward.

Aaranj Mirdalaan: Angara Mandalorian, younger brother to Anjma. Orphaned by the kett, Aaranj was raised by the Mandalorians of Jaster's Watch on Kadara. Sees Kar as an older auntie figure. He’s more the voice of reason of the two, and is an excellent navigator. He enjoys astronomy and the study of space and the stars, and much like his auntie in intellectual pursuits. He is learning how to pilot the Walkers from Riya. After feeling homesick, Aranj has tried to create a small coalition of colonists locals and Raiders to attempt a semblance of a Cultural Affairs hub like on the Nexus– an endeavor supported wholeheartedly by Kar. He is also particularly sweet on Neeza, the two sharing a love of astronavigation.

Anjma Mirdalaan: Angara Mandalorian, older sister to Aaranj. Lost her biological family to the kett, but was raised by a Mandalorian colonist on Kadara. Sees Kar as an older auntie figure. She’s more short tempered, impulsive, and trigger-happy than her brother. Before joining their aunt on Pandora, Anjma cut her teeth on Outlaws, kett, and Roekaar in the wilds of Kadara. He presence is great for the city and outlying settlements, but bad for the Bandit clans. Served under Skip fighting the CoV– a job she relished. Isn’t as particularly social like her brother, but the people are grateful for her work.

Urdnot Vaulk: Krogan warrior born at the end of the Krogan Rebellions. Known Kar since her arrival on Omega in the 2180s. Helped Wrex in his vision to revive Tuchanka in the years after the genophage was cured. Survived the reapers, and everything else that came his way in the last 600-odd years. Came to Pandora “for a challenge”, but really he (and Wrex) were a tad bit concerned about Kar’s mental state after her time on Helios and was asked to “look out for her”. Isn’t particularly impressed with what the planet’s tossed at him at first, and hopes he survives long enough to se the vault re-open in 200 years. Even if the planet hasn’t brought that much of a challenge, he respects the local folk for toughing it out. Does pitch in and works some guard shifts, but more often is found protecting the younglings.

Nazar vas Pandora nar Rannoch: Formerly a geth agricultural unit, Nazar is one of the few geth that survive the Catalyst by virtue of having being uploaded into a quarian envirosuit as a way to adapt them to their return to Rannoch. Nazar lived as from envirosuit to envirosuit for some time before a suitable and working geth platform could be found and made. Nazar serves as her Requisitions Officer in the newly reclaimed Opportunity. After centuries of hopping from quarian to quarian, he honors his creators and their complicated history by using their naming conventions– and personality wise is very quarian in some regard. He now serves Opportunity as its Head of Requisitions and makes sure that the people are fed, the defense force is supplied, and the Market is running smoothly. He is sometimes found with Uma in the Market. Is sometimes at odds with the belligerent HK, but is very friendly with most other synthetics. In like thieves with Beedee and Artie, though. Paints in his free time– some of which have attracted the notice of offworlders. As a fully fledged sentient but synthetic being, he tries not to take it personally when colonists regard him like a bot or droid– even if it does still sting. The people of Opportunity do try to treat him with dignity and respect, and even friendship– far from the way geth have been treated centuries before.

Neeza Iro: A female Kadas'sa'Nikto, and responsible for the Spaceport. Neeza is descended from refugees from Tanalorr, and spent her youth navigating the Abyss. Bright, cheery, an sometimes takes things literally, she is grateful for the chance to see so many new cultures and the wider universe here on Opportunity. As a skilled pilot, she can fly and fix nearly any ship, though at some point she'd like to test her mettle against the Scourge in Andromeda.

#hc;#v: ramikad;#worldbuilding;

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theprofanedgreatsword · 5 years

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Read Hunters in the Dark thank

#halo #hunters in the dark #ntho sraom #frank kodiak #spartan #elite #sangheili #my art #sassy

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bookola-de · 2 years

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#droemer knaur #frank kodiak #das fundstück

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halos-top-alien-model · 1 year

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Sangheili Bracket Round 1 Match 15

More info below:

N'tho 'Sraom:

Debuted in Halo 3

Born Oct. 18th, 2522, he would be put on an accelerated promotion path after beginning his compulsory military service. In the 2540s, he would engage a soldier named Frank Kodiak, cutting off his arm but being unable to kill him. Before the end of the war, he would join the SpecOps branch as his unit's youngest member. At the onset of the Great Schism, he joined Arbiter Thel 'Vadam and Rtas 'Vadum in their Fleet of Retribution, under the Special Warfare Group. He would go on to join the Arbiter at Earth, alongside Usze 'Taham, and help humanity in the defense of their homeworld. Later, he would take part in the Battle of Installation 00, even being present when the Master Chief deactivated the Halo Array and the Arbiter killed the Prophet of Truth.

Following the end of the war, he would continue to serve under the Arbiter's command and gained a respect for humanity. In 2555, he would be sent to take part in Operation: STAR STORM - an operation to return to the Ark to turn off the Halos that seemingly were ticking down to activation for unknown reasons - in which he acted as the shipmaster for the Mayhem. While waiting for the portal to the Ark to be activated, a Spartan would approach him for a spar, which soon turned into a true fight where the Spartan revealed his true identity as Kodiak. However, Kodiak would ultimately decide against taking revenge. Just then, an earthquake would be caused by the portal activating, causing a tree to fall on N'tho and Kodiak to rescue him by cutting it with an energy sword. A meeting would then be organized following an attack by a Forerunner Retriever that was stopped. N'tho wished to continue on with the operation immediately, but Captain Annabelle Richards claimed they needed to wait for consent due to the unknown threat to Earth. Yet N'tho had foreseen this as a possibility, revealing he had tricked the humans necessary for the operation to be on board Mayhem and that he had already decided he would be heading into that portal with or without approval. Another Retriever would attack just then, but Mayhem took care of it before entering the portal. To their surprise, they found the journey took a matter of hours rather than the usual two weeks. Multiple Retrievers were waiting for them, causing Mayhem to crash on the Ark. N'tho would then lead an expedition on foot, only for a pack of Blind wolves and a group of Chaefka to attack and Olympia Vale to become separated from the group. The team would split up, with N'tho joining Kodiak, Luther Mann, Zon 'Vadum, and Kola 'Baoth to the Citdel to continue the mission. On the way, a mammoth-like creature would be found, which surprisingly allowed them to ride it to the Citadel. Once there, N'tho told of the day he was there and witnessed the fall of the Covenant. As Luther deactivated the Halo Array, Forerunner armigers suddenly attacked the group. Fighting them off, the rest of the group would be cut off from Luther due to being teleported into a dark corridor. It was there that they reunited with Vale, as well as met the Ark's monitor - 000 Tragic Solitude. Separated by an energy barrier, the group had to watch as a cyborg created from Kodiak's MIA brother attacked Vale, until they managed to find the monitor's data stores and fired upon them. This caused the barrier to fall and Tragic Solitude to beg them that he'd recall the retrievers currently attacking Earth, only for him to attack them once they stopped shooting. The Bobby cyborg would then take out Tragic Solitude for good, dying in the process. With the galaxy now safe, everyone returned to the Mayhem and waited for reinforcements to arrive and bring them back to Earth. On the way back through the portal, N'tho would have a heart-to-heart with Kodiak over the death of Bobby and for the maiming of his arm back in the war, leading the Spartan to forgive him and the two to thank each other for the times they saved one another. N'tho offered Kodiak a visit to Sanghelios, which would be turned down.

By 2559, N'tho continued to assist the Arbiter. Notably, he helped escort the Arbiter to and from a meeting shortly after the destruction of the Jiralhanae homeworld Doisac, only to be stopped by Created armigers and forced to give up his weapons whilst they searched their vehicle for the perpetrators of a recent conflict. Later, when they returned to Vadam keep, N'tho would escort the Arbiter to his residence for a meeting with a sudden visitor.

Usze 'Taham:

Debuted in Halo 3

Born Oct. 31st, 2519, Usze was fathered by the famous swordsman Toha 'Sumai (although only knew him as an uncle that would act as a trainer) and born into a respected merchant family in Sumai keep. He would graduated with honors from a top war college, being posted on the Fleet of Faithful Ardor afterwards. After only a single tour within the fleet, he would be offered a place in the Covenant Honor Guard, but declined out of the desire to start away from ceremonial positions. He continued to refuse offers, which could have put him in danger of accusations of apostasy; but, either due to luck or superiors protecting him, Usze would not be targeted, save for some assassination attempts. His actions during the Human-Covenant war would ultimately cause those wishing him in the Honor Guard to finally back off. Still prior to the Great Schism, Usze would join the Ascetics and serve as a liaison for the Covenant, while also serving under SpecOps Commander Rtas 'Vadumee. Once the Great Schism broke out, he would join the Separatists' Fleet of Retribution, specifically the Special Warfare Group. He would then head to Earth alongside the Arbiter and N'tho 'Sraom. Later, he would take part in the Battle of Installation 00, even being present when the Master Chief deactivated the Halo Array and the Arbiter killed the Prophet of Truth.

At the end of the war, he would become a liaison to the UNSC and an emissary within the Ascetics' naval forces. He also liaisoned between feuding Sangheili keeps and factions, while also helping to resurrect the Ascetic Guard. Upon joining the Swords of Sanghelios, he helped establish the Riftborn: a SpecOps division fully committed to joint operations with the UNSC. In 2555, he learned of an assassination plot against the Arbiter and confronted the would-be assassin, Otar 'Bemet, refusing his attempts to get Usze on his side and killing the rebel. Once that was finished, the Arbiter informed him that the UNSC discovered the Halo Array was suddenly ticking down to activation, so he would be sending him alongside N'tho and the Mayhem to help stop it in Operation: FAR STORM. While waiting for the portal at Voi to be reactivated, he watched over the Huragok Drifts Randomly. When Drifts finally activated the portal, a Forerunner Retriever suddenly appeared and attacked. A meeting would then be organized on Mayhem. The Sangheili wished to continue on with the operation immediately, but Captain Annabelle Richards claimed they needed to wait for consent due to the unknown threat to Earth. Yet N'tho had foreseen this as a possibility, revealing he had tricked the humans necessary for the operation to be on board Mayhem and that he had already decided he would be heading into that portal with or without approval. Another Retriever would attack just then, but Mayhem took care of it before entering the portal. To their surprise, they found the journey took a matter of hours rather than the usual two weeks. Multiple Retrievers were waiting for them, causing Mayhem to crash on the Ark. Usze would then join an expedition on foot, only for a pack of Blind wolves and a group of Chaefka to attack and Olympia Vale to become separated from the group. The team would split up, with Usze, Spartan Elias Holt, and Henry Lamb following Vale's footsteps in the snow. Communications with the other team would then be lost, with increased snowfall sabotaging efforts to follow Vale. Therefore, they decided to head to the Citadel in the hopes they'd regroup with anyone. Forerunner armigers and a giant carnivorous planet would be among the obstacles the trio faced on the way. Once the whole team - barring the still missing Vale - regrouped at the Citadel, the Halo Array was shut down only for more armigers to attack. Usze, Luther Mann, Henry Lamb, Drifts Randomly, and Kola 'Baoth would retreat down the same elevator shaft Usze used as an escape route the first time he was at the Ark, while the rest of the team were teleported elsewhere by the Ark's monitor, 000 Tragic Solitude. In the inner tunnels of the Citadel, they would discover the central power station, where Drifts would start repairs while Lamb was killed by a Sentinel. They would continue to search for an exit, finding a heavy, locked door blocking their path. Usze and Kola would lift the door enough for Luther and Drift to enter, but would be forced to wait on the other side, becoming open to an armiger ambush. As they fought off the armigers, Drifts would finally take control of the Ark from Tragic Solitude, who would be destroyed shortly afterwards. With the galaxy now safe, everyone - including the recovered Vale - returned to the Mayhem and waited for reinforcements to arrive and bring them back to Earth. Following the end of the mission, Usze would have a heart-to-heart with Vale regarding her failure to negotiate with the rampant monitor.

By 2559, N'tho continued to assist the Arbiter. Notably, he helped escort the Arbiter to and from a meeting shortly after the destruction of the Jiralhanae homeworld Doisac, only to be stopped by Created armigers and forced to give up his weapons whilst they searched their vehicle for the perpetrators of a recent conflict. Later, when they returned to Vadam keep, Usze would be present - along with Kola - in hearing out the Oath Warden Crei 'Ayomuu regarding the existence of a weapon that could defeat Cortana.

#halo #sangheili #halo sangheili #halo aliens #halo elites #halo elite #halo fandom #halo tumblr #tumblr bracket #tumblr tournament #usze taham #usze ‘taham #usze 'taham #n'tho 'sraom #ntho sraom

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newattitude · 3 years

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Blueberry - L&B - Galvanized par ʕ·͡ᴥ·ʔ Pтιтɴoυrѕ Alтer ʕ·͡ᴥ·ʔ Via Flickr : 🌹 Credit 🌹

For Her

Blueberry - Ela - Fur Jacket

Blueberry - Frank Jeans - Full Length

Blueberry - Frank Boots - Ankle

For Him

L&B - Swear Pilot Suede Jacket

L&B - Swear Kodiak Boots

Galvanized - G7 Pants

NEW ATTITUDE ● New Attitude Blog ● Twitter ● Tumblr ● Pinterest ● Instagram ● Flickr ● Facebook

#Blog #Blogger #SecondLife #SL #Influencer #Blueberry #Galvanized #L&B #Lapointe #Bastchild

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halobirthdays · 11 months

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Happy birthday to Usze 'Taham! Today is his -496th birthday!

Usze was the son of famed swordsman Toha 'Sumai, who had the privileged of mating with his mother due to his status. Usze was raised by his mother and her husband, a wealthy merchant, while receiving training from 'Sumai, whom Usze believed was his uncle. He excelled at his training and graduated with honors from a top war college.

Usze was soon offered a position on the Covenant Honor Guard. Though a prestigious position, it was largely ceremonial, and Usze made the risky decision to decline, preferring a combat position. Though his superiors warned him that the decision could signal a lack of faith, others respected him for his choice to continue fighting. Still, the decision was not without consequence, with Usze evading punishment and attempts on his life. Though he was faithful to the Covenant, he also joined the Ascetics, a Sangheili order with deep ties to Sangheili pre-Covenant history and beliefs, who existed to preserve their ideals and faith. Unable to be swayed, and otherwise remaining above reproach, he was eventually assigned to the Special Operations division under the leadership of Rtas 'Vadum(ee).

When the Covenant fractured, he remained loyal to the Covenant Separatists, joining Arbiter Thel 'Vadam on his journey to the Ark to prevent the Halo array from firing. After the war, Usze was instrumental in reviving the Ascetic guard, becoming one of their emissaries and a liaison to the UNSC. He worked closely with humans, helping to establish the Riftborn, a joint UNSC/Swords of Sanghelios spec ops unit located on Anvil Station.

During the Blooding Years, Usze was called back home to maintain order on Sanghelios, including thwarting attempts on the Arbiter's life. He answered directly to 'Vadam, who would order him back to the Ark on another joint mission with the UNSC to investigate a countdown signal which suggested that the Halo array was once again set to fire. He was once again paired with N'tho 'Sroam, whom he served with on the Ark, as well as Spartan Frank Kodiak and a team of scientists, including Olympia Vale before she became a Spartan.

After discovering that the signal was being controlled by a rogue AI, Usze and the team were able to stop the countdown, but not without destroying the AI. Usze would form a friendship with Vale, whom he consoled when she expressed that the AI's destruction was a diplomatic failure on her part.

Usze continued to serve directly under 'Vadam during the Created crisis.

In canon (~2560), he is turning 41!

#usze was born on halloween bc i love him so much it's scary #plus a hat for good measure #listen man its my blog i get to editorialize a little for enrichment #valexusze5ever

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kwebtv · 3 years

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The Troubleshooters - NBC - September 11, 1959 - April 1, 1960

Advemture (26 episodes)

Running Time: 30 minutes

Stars:

Keenan Wynn as Kodiak

Bob Mathias as Frank Dugan

Bob Fortier as Scotty

Carey Loftin as Skinner

Bob Harris as Jim

Chet Allen as Slats

#The Troubleshooters #TV #NBC #1950's #Adventure #Keenan Wynn #Bob Mathias

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letterboxd · 4 years

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Beautiful Day: The Don Hertzfeldt Q&A.

In which the singular creator of It’s Such a Beautiful Day and the World of Tomorrow trilogy answers 57 questions put to him by the Letterboxd community, about death, gills, snacks, back flips, the best time of day to watch a movie, and the sick pleasure of emotionally destroying people.

Since his first animated outings in the 1990s, filmmaker Don Hertzfeldt has had a way of staring deeply into humanity’s soul via a humble stick figure, and his skill at blending existential questions with situational humor breeds intense reactions. To browse Letterboxd reviews of Hertzfeldt’s animated works is to meet film lovers at a rare, collective gathering point: heaping great piles of love for films that do “the exact opposite of helping with depression”.

There’s something optimistically anti-feel-good in Hertzfeldt’s works; a bleak view of the future, and a frank appreciation of death’s inevitability, that makes viewers urgently want to fix the way they’re living right now. “I’ve built a lot of my life philosophy on the messages of this film,” writes Misty, of his acclaimed It’s Such a Beautiful Day. “It has kicked my ass completely,” writes Dirk of the first, Oscar-nominated World of Tomorrow instalment, “making me angry at myself for letting trivial stuff take over things I love and making me happy I have so very, very much in my life to enjoy and be grateful for.”

The filmmaker’s magic lies as much in the process as the content: “Hertzfeldt is able to make every moment count,” writes Artpig, of the second WoT instalment, The Burden of Other People’s Thoughts, “every line of dialogue, every moment of silence, every note of music, every line of animation.” The World of Tomorrow films, says animation expert Toussaint Egan in our Letterboxd Show animation episode, are “some of the best science fiction films, period”.

And his timing. Oh, his timing. Just as the northern hemisphere days were turning cold, and the drawn-out misery of the pandemic was really taking hold all over again, Hertzfeldt tweeted:

WORLD OF TOMORROW EPISODE THREE everywhere october 9 5pm est 🚀

— don hertzfeldt (@donhertzfeldt)

October 8, 2020

And like that, World of Tomorrow Three: The Absent Destinations of David Prime was ours, an overnight gift to the quarantined and bereaved-weary, on Vimeo for all to rent or own. The gifts, they keep coming: a master list of movies that have their fingerprints on the World of Tomorrow universe, and now, in recognition of our community’s love for his films—and in his signature lower-case—the answers to questions asked in an exclusive Letterboxd Q&A.

To make things easier for Don, we grouped similar questions (and have noted which members asked what). Read on for more than you ever thought you might get to know about Hertzfeldt’s process, brain, heart and influences.

Filmmaker Don Hertzfeldt.

From “holograms that yell at you!” to the stunning colors, textures and folds of the blue mountains, to attributes David progressively deletes to make room for memories, would you please give us an insight into World of Tomorrow Three’s world-building process? —Letterboxd in the grand scheme of the series, episodes one and two still felt like baby steps to me. episode three was my first chance to really start blowing things up and exploring this universe. when i’m writing, i don’t want to worry about going over the top or think about structure or meaning or really much of anything yet. writing is playtime, it should be fun and messy. i want to go over the top. there is no top. i don’t want to start thinking too much until i’m rewriting and sorting through it all. thinking too much too soon can get in the way, like being too aware of when you’re trying to fall asleep. when you write a diary entry or a text to a friend, there’s no self-consciousness or creative blocks, you just write. it’s casual and fluid and automatic. but if you’re asked to write a term paper or a screenplay, suddenly all those lights turn off. it can be paralyzing. it’s hard to get to that place of truly not caring what anyone thinks and approach all forms of writing just as freely as writing those immediate thoughts in your diary. but that’s what i try to do.

When you start writing a new piece, do you usually start with a plot idea, a thematic idea, one uniform philosophical notion, or a little bit of each? —Kodiak J. Sanders, Trenz, Mr. Tables i don’t think i ever write in a straight line. i’ll jot down a hundred stray ideas over time, and one day i’ll sit down and see what connections might be made out of them. i really want this scene to be in the movie, so how do i get there? this is a good line, how can i get a character to say it? so the actual story usually only starts to reveal itself when i sit down to logic all these bits and pieces out. hey, in order to connect this strange idea to that strange idea, suddenly there is a very interesting third scene.

I’m astounded by how much the animation and the visuals improve with each instalment of World of Tomorrow. What have you done differently for each one? —Aske Lund, Cringetacular the characters needed to physically perform a lot more in episodes two and three so there were more demands put on the animation. when emily 4 dances or david staggers up a mountain, those sorts of scenes were animated in “ones”, which means doing 24 drawings per second versus my usual twelve. it’s still all 2D hand animation, just more of a classic disney approach that gives the movement a smoother look and a little more room for nuance. and obviously it takes a lot more work. but i hesitate to call such things improvements because i’m not sure i like the idea of different techniques being thought of as good or bad. it’s just another way of doing things. it really depends, sometimes super limited animation can be more effective.

Likewise, Part Three’s sound design is incredible. What conditions did you create it in, and what are all those sounds, and how do you have such an incredible command of the cut-to-silence trick?! —Letterboxd thanks, the sound design is always my favorite thing to do. other than julia’s lines, it’s easy to forget that all the animation starts with dead silence. obviously there’s no sound coming from a live-action set. so adding sound and music to everything, usually pretty late in production, is when all the stuff i’ve been working on suddenly starts to feel like an actual movie. this is not a future that works very well—particularly david’s, which predates everything else we’ve seen so far by a century or two—so you’re hearing a lot of creaky old hard drives booting up, electric distortions, and bent circuits from broken toys.

Emily and Emily Prime in a still from ‘World of Tomorrow’ (2015).

World of Tomorrow used to fill me with existential dread, but now with the current state of the world it’s become more and more comforting in a strange way. Do you feel that at all as you make new episodes? —mariano gg i wish that were possible but when i’m making something i’m usually so close to it i’m unable to see anything but all the things i need to fix.

Can you talk a little bit about sourcing the photo-realistic images for the backgrounds in Part Three? —Jack Moulton most of the environments were 2D images i built in photoshop, usually starting from close-up photos of different textures (like sandstone), all sort of reshaped and puzzle-pieced into something new. an easy to see example was david’s cockpit, which was cobbled together from all sorts of different old aircraft engine and machine parts. the trick in building and lighting these locations was always figuring out where the line was drawn in making these places realistic, but not too realistic for minimal characters to inhabit. i kept landing on a sort of painterly looking middle ground.

If the cloning process in World of Tomorrow existed right now, would you go through that process and create clones of yourself to prolong your life? —tim probably not, that process doesn’t seem to work so well.

If you were put into the world you’ve created, would you buy gills? —Lauren Torres i tend to avoid putting my head under because i almost always get water in my ears so i guess i wouldn’t need them. gills also seem like they’d be a real nuisance to keep clean.

What does love mean, and why do your characters go through so much effort to find it? —Andrew Michalko oh man.

In this year of years, what do you hope people will understand about death and its inevitability (or is it all there on the screen, and if so, that’s okay too)? —Letterboxd understanding death and its inevitability is maybe the most valuable thing a person can do for themselves.

Was the absence of Emily Prime in Part Three a practical decision [Don’s then-four-year-old niece Winona provided Emily’s voice] or an intentional departure from the first two films? —Michael it was both. i couldn’t find a way to fit her in naturally and i also felt like the series needed to start growing in other directions and not rest on the past. episode two had also been really difficult to write, it was so reliant on winona’s recordings, and it felt like the dam was really broken when i was finally able to write without any restrictions this time.

In a series like World of Tomorrow, where you headed in a direction that is a lot more plot-driven than your previous work, how far in advance do you plan? Did you always know this was in David’s past, or are these stories told one at a time? —Ryan Welch, Kodiak J. Sanders, julius, Alex Leon i could tell early on that this wasn’t a story like it’s such a beautiful day with a clear beginning, middle and end, but a much wilder thing that could continue to grow. the openness of it is still what makes it so interesting to me. i have all sorts of notes for the next episodes but if i already knew what would happen in episode nine i think that would take a lot of the air out of the tires and i’d start to feel like i was just connecting the boring dots. while writing, i’ve also had to be aware that there someday might be an episode nine so i can’t go wrecking the timelines before i get there.

What were the rocks and the gas pump that Emily fell in love with meant to represent? —Ekaneff she was learning how to love, and like all of us, in her youth she gravitated to a bunch of individuals that were wrong for her.

Aside from the ability to release more frequently, is there something about the episodic structure that you prefer/appreciate, as opposed to creating one larger feature-length film? —SiddFinch1 there’s just more freedom. the traditional running time of a feature film, 90 to 120 minutes, is a totally arbitrary number.

Have you ever considered writing a World of Tomorrow book or graphic novel? —Jay Smith the earliest ideas for world of tomorrow were sloshing around in a graphic novel called the end of the world that came out in 2013. but i don’t have any talent or much confidence in making another book like that. it’s a different world. when i look at someone like chris ware and then look at something like the end of the world, it’s like, “wow, baby made a mess”.

A page from Don Hertzfeldt’s graphic novel, ‘The End of the World’ (2013).

What attracted you to the unique style [of minimalist stick figures]? Is there a sense of intimacy that you feel you can achieve with this simplicity? —Evan Whitford when i was little, before i wanted to make movies i wanted to be a newspaper cartoonist. i think my drawings today might have more in common with newspaper comics than the sort of characters you usually see in animation. comic-strip panels were always composed in a very reserved way because they were generally intended to be skimmed. you needed to be able to read the strip in five seconds so you could be off to read the sports pages and obituaries. the comics pages were also under constant size and space restrictions. so they were minimal by design and the artists reduced their characters to only their most essential parts. there was no room for fussing. charles schulz said “i only draw what’s necessary”. and that’s actually incredibly hard to do. you’re accomplishing so much more with so much less.

i’ve also found that if there’s a scene that’s not playing right and bothering me, most of the time it’s because my composition was too cluttered. i almost always find myself removing things from the frame and trying to pare it down to only what’s necessary. very rarely do i ever think ‘i need to add more stuff in here’. because this shot is only five seconds long and i want you to be looking over here when this moment happens and this character says something, and if you’re distracted by this other flickering junk i put in the corner it’s going to throw everything off.

Animation-aside, which creative medium do you resonate with the most? —Bronkdan music.

How much did you pull from real-life experiences to make It’s Such A Beautiful Day, if any? What research did you conduct into memory? —Gunnar Sizemore, David Sigura, Micah Smith whenever i got a little stuck writing it’s such a beautiful day, i’d go back and reread my journal and pull more things out of it. dreams, conversations, small scenes. reading the journal now, it seems like i stole something from it every few pages. i also heavily researched neurological problems. it’s never said in the movie what exactly’s going on with bill, but i needed there to be a real diagnosis to base the medical writing on. so all the things he’s going through are real treatments or symptoms based on an actual condition. i didn’t want to ever come out and say, “he’s got terminal brain clouds”, or whatever in the movie, because then it becomes a “brain-cloud movie”, and that’s too easy for the audience to compartmentalize and distance themselves from… “brain clouds are so rare, that will never happen to me”. but not being told exactly what’s wrong with bill might help make the story more relatable and universal.

In what ways have you kept your mind fresh creatively? How do you keep yourself from slipping into complacency? —Watchmoviez, Drew’s reviews most creative blocks or stagnation come from anxiety, second-guessing and doubt. over the years i’ve learned to just sort of calm down and trust myself more. it’s like the old aesop fable: when you stop thrashing around in the water, the water becomes clearer and you can see more. if a scene isn’t working right, i can more easily chill out about it these days and trust that i’ll eventually figure it out—because i’ve figured these sorts of things out a hundred times before and i know by now that i’m not the sort of person who’s just going to allow a scene that isn’t working to remain in the movie. there’s a little more panic about that sort of thing when you’re young: “oh no, the movie sucks right now, will it always suck?!” i’ve reached the point where i know that i will not let it suck. and that sort of thinking allows all the movie gears to turn more easily.

Do you have a specific thematic, emotional or other miscellaneous motive in mind when including classical music pieces? —James Y. Lee when i’m listening to music and suddenly the right piece arrives, it’s usually blindingly obvious to me: there’s just no doubt this needs to be in the movie somehow. it’s like the idea has always existed and i’ve just finally uncovered it. it’s the same with writing. when the right thing floats along, it is striking and obvious and into the pile of notes it goes.

How much of your animation style lends itself to experimentation, such as discovering new tricks and pretty shots, that is then discarded if you learn it doesn’t work as intended? —Adam, Jacob i think i’m always experimenting. i figure if it doesn’t work, at least i’ve learned something.

What is the strangest compliment or critique you’ve gotten personally or of your work? —Elliot Taylor i’ve always remembered this one. i am so proud of you came out a couple years after everything will be ok. it was a continuation of that story, so it was basically the first time i had ever made a sequel. and everything will be ok had done really well when it came out. it won sundance and got all these great reviews. so i am so proud of you comes out and i remember reading this review that says, “everything will be ok was probably my favorite animated short of all time. it honestly changed my life. it was funny, sad, beautiful and just so wonderful. everything will be ok, boy did i love it. incredible. two thumbs up. truly, best thing ever. wow. so, unfortunately, its sequel, i am so proud of you, just feels like more of the same.”

A still image from ‘It’s Such a Beautiful Day’ (2012).

Are there any pieces of fiction that have influenced your work that we probably wouldn’t think of? —Gyani Wasp, Mikolaj Perzyna, Aaron McMillan, Harrison, Axel, Cringetacular, The25centman, Hunter Guidry one thing that pops to mind is the phantom tollbooth. my favorite children’s books were the ones with all the fun metaphors and clever wordplay. when i was plotting out episode two i wanted to lean into that, where visiting different sections of emily’s brain would be like milo visiting the land of math, the land of letters, the land of sound, with different looks and logic to it. so we had the bog of realism, glimmers of hope, broken memories, the logic center, and all the stuff in triangle land and square land. i guess that’s a lot but i wish there had been a bit more.

How did your friends and family respond to the “my anus is bleeding” part of Rejected? —Alex Tatterson they were pretty used to me by then.

Do you know of the work of David Firth, the internet animator? His work is also surreal and has dark humor, but more sinister than whimsical. Would you ever consider making an animation in the realm of horror in future? —KEVIИ HДWKIИS i’m afraid i don’t know him. i’d love to make a horror movie. from a certain point of view though maybe it could be argued that most everything i’ve made is a sort of horror movie?

My first tattoo is of Billy from Billy’s Balloon hanging from his ankle and it was the best decision I’ve ever made. How do you feel about people having your work tattooed and do you have any ink from other creatives that have meant something to you? —Elias it really fucking enrages me when people get my stuff tattooed on them. no just kidding. mostly i feel embarrassed but i’m glad you haven’t changed your mind about it yet. sometimes i wonder how many people have.

Have you ever thought about directing live action? —Abeer, Noah Thompson yes.

Is there an update on your feature film Antarctica? —Rylan California it’s one of many things swirling around.

Will you do a remake of Robocop and why not next year? —Simon no, because robocop is already sort of perfect.

Do you ever see yourself directing a large studio film? Or working with a large team to make something with a higher budget, maybe through a crowd-funded project? Or do you just strongly prefer working on your own? —Vteyshev, Monotone Duck sure. i’ve never preferred working on my own at all. it was usually just the only way to ever get anything made. i haven’t had the funding to pay a big crew, or really much of a crew at all. there’s the old saying: you can make something good, you can make it fast, and you can make it cheap, but you can only pick two. if you make it good and fast it won’t be cheap, if you make it cheap and fast it won’t be good, etc. so my only route in hoping to make something good and cheap has been to totally forget about making it fast.

What did you find digital animation added or took away from your work, and what did those changes do for your storytelling? Will you continue using the digital medium when/if you decide to move on from the World of Tomorrow project? —Alec Lai, Slipkornbizkit, Aldo digital just sped everything up. it’s still one person drawing everything, so we need to remember that speed is relative here, but i felt like i went from riding a bicycle to driving a car. there are many pleasant, wonderful things about riding a bicycle but you’re not going to get anywhere very quickly. and i’m not in my 20s anymore, in fact my 20s and 30s were mostly entirely devoured by making movies in what was maybe the slowest way possible. so these days i am appreciating the speed of digital.

If you could have a conversation with any filmmaker, dead or alive, who would it be and why? —ToBeHonest, Cringetacular if i could resurrect one of my heroes from the dead i think i would feel terrible wasting his time forcing him to have a conversation with me. he might also just sit there, covered with graveyard dirt, screaming in horror.

What is the best time of day to watch a movie? —Sammy night. i always feel a little nuts coming out of a movie and the sun is still up.

What’s your all-time favorite science-fiction film, and why? —Letterboxd 2001. because come on.

What is your favorite of Julia Potts’ films, and why? —Letterboxd i like the one with the severed foot.

Are there any animated films that you felt had a profound impact on you as a child? —Sprizzle probably fantasia. and ray harryhausen stuff. whenever there was a sunday-afternoon movie on TV, my brother and i learned that if in the opening titles there was a credit for “special effects” we should keep watching because we might eventually see something cool.

Which one of your movies is your personal favorite? —Jakob Böwer, RodrigoJerez i don’t know. sometimes it’s the newest one because it’s usually the one with the most experience behind it and therefore feels like it has the fewest mistakes. but then over time i realize they’re all riddled with mistakes. of the it’s such a beautiful day pieces, i think my favorite has always been i am so proud of you. and then i’ll see reviews that say “clearly the second chapter is the weakest one”, and i’ll think, man you guys don’t know what you’re talking about.

One of Don’s layout sketches for ‘I Am So Proud of You’ (2008).

What’s your favorite Pixar film? —Jordan inside out.

What film would you want to be the last one you watch before you die? —Gavin honestly if i’m in the process of dying i hope i won’t be watching movies at all.

Do you have faith in humanity? —Connor Kriechbaum not often.

What is something that worries you about where humankind is headed? —Felix_Bouchard social media.

What is the most valuable thing you have ever lost? How often do you think about it? —Siminup well now i’m getting sad.

Can you do a back flip, mister Don? —Doug maybe with the help of a catapult.

What is your take on the after life? What do you think happens to us when we die? —Luisdecoss i guess that it’s probably a lot like our memory of what the year 1823 was like.

Do you want anything from McDonald’s? —Andrew Rhyne only if i’m in an airport and desperate.

What’s your favorite meal or snack? —Pfitzerone, Evan lately in quarantine i’ve been discovering this particular breakfast burrito.

How’s your quarantine life, Don? —Ivan Arcena it’s okay thanks. eating lots of breakfast burritos.

Hi! I can’t believe you’re going to read this. I am currently filled with an unparalleled amount of joy, wow. This is a long shot but here I go. I’m 17 and your (self-proclaimed) biggest fan. I’ve seen It's Such a Beautiful Day eight times now and every single time I pick up on more details. I’ve watched a few of your interviews and in the AFS one about Rejected you said that the louder you play a movie, the funnier it is. On my seventh watch of It’s Such a Beautiful Day I hooked my laptop up to three huge speakers and I must say—you were so, so right. I made a video essay about the movie. Lol, I’m not sure if this will get to you but Michael Jordan once said something about missing shots or not taking shots or maybe about tequila, I am unsure but I know it was important. Thanks MJ. Not you, Mr Jackson. I’m sorry Ms. Jackson…

I actually do have a question, sorry about the rambling. Every single time I watch the guy at the payphone flip his pencil and go “fantastic, fantastic” I cry. And I think what really does it for me is that “we’ll finally have our day”. Earlier in the movie, Bill’s co-worker talks about how all of time is happening at once. So what I constantly ask myself is if the guy at the payphone is simultaneously having his day and waiting for it. And I’m no longer speaking to that one specific example or even to the movie as a whole but I guess I’m wondering if the idea of all events happening at once comforts you?

In Slaughterhouse Five, Kurt Vonnegut writes: “The most important thing I learned on Tralfamadore was that when a person dies he only appears to die. He is still very much alive in the past, so it is very silly for people to cry at his funeral. All moments past, present and future, always have existed, always will exist.” When I read this I immediately thought about your movie. I think the idea of all of time happening at once makes all of life feel less important but more special. You know? Anyway, I suppose I’d just like to know what inspired the lines about time in the office scene. This isn’t much of a question, more an incoherent ramble but thank you so, so much for all you’ve done. I feel so incredibly inspired and so deeply moved by your work and I know that so many people in this comment section and around the world would agree. I can’t believe I’ve been given the opportunity to ask something. It really is such a beautiful day. :) —Eli Osei (co-signed by Vooder) that old guy at the payphone was someone i saw at the laundromat once and he borrowed my pencil and the whole thing just played out like in the movie. i just thought it was such a perfect little scene that i’d just witnessed. anyway, the idea of time being a landscape and everything taking place “at once” just came straight out of a science magazine. i don’t know how, but apparently it’s been more or less proven to be true? we perceive time in one direction, but the past and the future are always all around us. think of it as though we’re driving our car through a landscape. even though the mountains we saw ten minutes ago are behind us now, it doesn’t mean those mountains have ceased to exist. they’ve only ceased to exist from our point of view. we’ve only just driven past them. the mountains, like your childhood, are still going on back there. anyway, i had never heard of that before and thought it needed to be in a movie.

A still from ‘World of Tomorrow Episode Two: The Burden of Other People’s Thoughts’ (2017).

Are you a fan of Kurt Vonnegut by any chance? It may be coincidental, but I love how you both utilize science-fiction settings and concepts like being “unstuck from time/memory” to explore the human condition. I feel his writing and your animation are both capable of making me laugh wholeheartedly one minute and weeping genuine, sorrowful tears the next. —Vooder i’m embarrassed to say i’ve never read him and i’m told on a regular basis that i should. that all started after i am so proud of you came out with those discussions about time being a landscape. but i almost only ever read non-fiction. it’s a long story. but now i’m almost afraid to ever read vonnegut after all these years of build-up.

Hey Don, this is really cool. I don’t have as much of a question, more of a comment. It’s Such A Beautiful Day has gotten me through a lot of hard times, being in middle school sucks, I think everyone knows that: and your movie has made life just a wee bit better for me. It also gave me the inspiration and motivation to finish my first feature! Thanks lots. Love from Indiana —Blood Mountain: Experimental Cinema <3 hey thank you. yeah middle school was pretty much the deepest pit of hell. there’s this old saying, “if you find yourself in hell, keep going”. and i’ve never understood that saying. “keep going”, because, i guess, you can always just go deeper into hell?

Hi! Has the vitreous humour in your eyes started to deteriorate and have you experienced floaters within your eyeballs? If not, that’s okay. Just remember it’s part of life, so don’t get scared when it happens! Just keep moving on! But if you do have them, follow-up question: Do you think it’s funny that the body of vitreous fluid that allows your sight to be clear is called the vitreous humour, and when it detaches it’s anything but humorous? I find that pretty humorous myself, in, like, an ironic way. —Clbert1 i actually blew a blood vessel in my eye a couple weeks ago and the whole thing turned bright blood red. it didn’t hurt or anything, i just walked into the room all disgusting and my girlfriend was like, “what the fuck?!” and then the next day i had further weird eye problems. i just went to the eye doctor yesterday. i think i will be fine but i was thinking, wouldn’t it be like the most heavy metal thing ever for my biography if i just suddenly went BLIND? “and then in 2020, HE WENT BLIND.”

Will Intro ever be released to the general public outside of theater screenings? —Melissa okay yes you’ve talked me into it. on that note, i noticed that the poster of intro used on letterboxd is a weird fake and i’m not sure where it came from. someone just used a picture from rejected. if fake posters are to be made i would prefer it if they used a picture from raiders of the lost ark or something.

Do you have plans to combine the World of Tomorrow shorts into one feature-length film à la It’s Such a Beautiful Day? —David Sigura, Sam Stewart, An_Person no, it’s going to be much longer than a feature-length.

Will we ever get a ‘Hertzfeldt 4K Collection’? Or at least a Blu-ray with It’s Such a Beautiful Day and all episodes of World of Tomorrow? —Teebin, HippityHoppity there is actually already a blu-ray for it’s such a beautiful day. up next we’ll do some sort of world of tomorrow blu-ray of the first three episodes. but 4k is too many k’s. you don’t need that many k’s.

Would you ever consider comprising an OST album of all the songs you used and mixed from your films? —PhiloDemon i don’t think so. i read that for many years cat stevens resisted releasing his original songs from harold and maude on any records because he thought they were more special if you could only ever hear them in the movie. i like that.

Do you get a sick kind of pleasure from emotionally destroying people with your movies? —MaxT26 yep.

What’s been your ongoing experience of the outpouring of joy and love of your work? —Henry gratitude. how sad for me if, after all this work, nobody was watching at all.