#i get unsettled when a species that's not in season shows up

[transgenderfivepebbles]

the thing no one tells you about birding is that you start developing comfort species. like comfort characters but for birds. and when it's not the right time of year for them you'll be sad because your comfort bird isn't here

[croc-odette]

the way it took less episodes for tng to begin to humanize the borg the most inhuman trek villains who were actively built up as literally like faceless drones there wasnt much of an ethical implication about killing but literally their second appearance in best of both worlds already trying to imagine what it would be like to be a borg drone from picards perspective and next they show up in i borg where its like ok we take the normal star trek approach of seeing every living being as worthwhile and not inherently monstrous and so on that was fewer episodes than what theyre doing with the gorn its like crazy

Even just from a style perspective, the borg spent a few episodes like ‘oh no, scary!’ And then bc that would have been boring to just keep doing, they started to do eps like ‘what if we captured a borg, could we ethically send it back with a disease to kill all of them’ or even just some pure drama of ‘what if captain picard…. BECAME a borg???’ And then an episode following up on the guilt of that. And even then, I was surprised how few tng episodes were about the borg. Snw is hamstrung by having half the eps in a season, but instead of really packing new stuff in, they keep wasting time on ‘what if we had cool guns to kill gorn monsters with’. Which while fun or silly in its own self-aware genre, feels really out of place and boring in Star Trek.

I think it also is just an incoherent view of the gorn as a species. They’re instinct-driven violent predators with no intelligence; but they’re also smart enough to build ships and space suits? They’re cannibalistic, but they’re also able to work together to command ships. They’re animals who are just trying to eat; but actually they’re intelligent enough to be ‘pure evil’. It’s whatever is convenient in the moment to justify unexamined thrill in murdering them.

If they were animals with instinctive behavior, then I think the Star Trek precedent would be: let’s defend ourselves and get the fuck out of here, but also these are just animals trying to survive and reproduce (ie: picard wouldn’t develop a bloodthirsty vengeful hatred against all bears if a bear killed a crew member). There is no ethical behavior behind animals eating and surviving. A wasp is kind of gross when it reproduces by injecting its eggs into another insect, but it’s not ‘evil’.

But that would mean the gorn wouldn’t be intelligent enough to have spaceships, which creates the convenient problem that our brave heroes HAVE to keep killing them without debate bc the gorn are able to pursue them! So somehow the gorn are smart enough to build spaceships capable of pursuing starfleet ships. They are smart enough for their actions to be considered ‘evil’. But not smart enough to be considered a race with a culture or intellect.

I’ve already talked about how the ep where they say the gorn block telepathy, meaning spock can’t talk to them, is a deliberate way of writing off diplomacy as a possibility. Those nasty gorn are just so mean and violent (and capable enough) that they block telepathy! It’s their fault! Which prevents a devil in the dark Horta solution, and allows the show to shrug and keep using guns as a solution.

I say all of this crap not because I really care about the integrity of the gorn. Who cares, it’s a fun alien. But in a franchise that wants to claim political awareness and goodness, its unsettling to dissect repeated writing choices over and over again (not just about the gorn) that support classic conservative and jingoistic talking points. “The enemy isn’t human or even intelligent, it’s an animal operating on base instincts; except when it’s so smart it can outwit our brave soldiers. And when you kill them, you can ENJOY killing them, because it’s one more dead enemy.”

The borg, changelings, jem hedar, Klingons, romulans— they were handled, some more than others, in ways that should invite criticism and skepticism about the intentions of the show. But they were humanized and explored further than ‘excuse to hand everyone an assault rifle and swat armor.’ A new show would ideally be improving or challenging past shows’ failures or missteps, not taking a huge step back. The gorn problem is even more glaring because it’s a sharp and bleak turn from the themes of trek shows that precede SNW, and from the actual episode the gorn come from.

[clonerightsagenda]

It is Wolf 359 day (also known as Christmas for some) and since I saw a stoat photoset on my dash I feel compelled to post about daemon hcs.

Eiffel - Word of God is raccoon, and it fits. The poor thing probably looks like she has mange during the season 2/3 timeskip, since there's no way astronauts are stuffing their daemons in spacesuits - they must have to go through some kind of pre-mission training to lengthen their range. They are not trained to get blasted lightyears apart though, rip. That's gotta hurt. Once he's recovered from his ordeal though I'm sure he takes advantage of their massively extended range to cause problems. There's no way I stole those donuts from the Urania's stores, commander! I was here in the comms room the whole time.

Minkowski - white-tailed eagle. This bird is found in Poland, and some versions of the Polish flag have a white eagle. It's also similar to but not exactly like a bald eagle - showing how Minkowski aspires to assimilate into Americanness but can't completely abandon her Polish heritage. Plus pilot = bird, it tracks.

Hilbert - rosencrantz-draws-things did a series of daemon paintings for the characters and while I don't agree with all their choices, I did like chameleon for him. He changes roles and faces when he needs to, whatever helps him survive.

Lovelace - The painting series I referenced gives her lioness, which I don't hate, although the logistics are a bit messy for a space station environment. Given the backstory I've envisioned for her I kind of want to spend more time reading about Puerto Rican fauna and get back to you on this one. How does the daemon situation work with her being a surrogate? Unclear but it sure keeps her up at night!

Maxwell - Ferret! The wonder twins have mustelid vibes to me, and I am always charmed by the story of the ferret who cleaned out the tubing of a particle accelerator.

Jacobi - Stoat to match Maxwell. They are the mustelid twins now. It just feels right.

Kepler - idk I don't care about him.

Pryce - Coconut octopus. Something a little bit unusual and unexpected, requires specialized care and upkeep, and octopi are extremely intelligent, with this species actively modifying its situation via tool use. She can carry him around in his own special tank.

Cutter - I never settled (lol) on anything for him, but given I like the idea of him bodyhopping (this has been thoroughly debunked by Word of God but oh well) I imagine that he keeps around the old body's severed daemon as a smokescreen. This leads to a very animated, lively guy with a strangely inert, unfocused daemon which makes him even more unsettling to everyone. He's impossible to read.

Hera - I saved her for last because she's a special case. When AI reach sentience a block of code just pops up in their programming, and that's their daemon. They're not physical in the same way humans are - why would their soul be? However, product testing indicated humans preferred to see something daemonlike, so customer-facing AIs get holographic projections of cute, non-threatening animals like puppies or songbirds. Hera has a bird until Hilbert takes her offline. When she comes back, she has control over the projection and can make it look however she wants. It's not actually her daemon but she can use it to express herself in a similar way, including projecting her humansona, which scares the crap out of people the first few times they see a random stranger on board.

Daemons in microgravity would be their own headache. I imagine crewmembers get velcro pouches on their uniforms or toolbelts sized for their daemons to keep them from floating away. Smaller daemons are preferable in the same way that there's a height range for astronauts - this is why I'm conflicted about Lovelace. Also, you know I am a #hater of 'daemon touching = sex' in AU settings and believe there are multiple kinds of intimacy, and spaceflight involves everyone getting real cool about a lot of stuff real quickly, so I think by season 3 Minkowski and Eiffel at least are hanging on to each other's daemons when they're out on spacewalks both for convenience and emotional support. (Eiffel is still stressed out about it but more because he is really bad at holding a raptor and scared of getting slashed by talons.) Hera occasionally perches her projection on their shoulders which again doesn't mean the same thing to her but gets the message across. If Jacobi is working on something fiddly Maxwell will be wearing both their daemons around her neck, and vice versa.

Bob does not appear with a daemon while wearing his Eiffel suit. The alternative would probably be more upsetting.

[scolopendress-tag]

Have some Asra n Muriel disorganized headcanons: animal themed!

Asra's most likely to answer quetzal if you ask for his favourite bird (he had a close up encounter with one his first time in nopal and had never seen a bird like it so it's a special memory), but he also appreciates all others. He also loves dart frogs and his favorite reptile would of course be perfect lavender angel baby fictional fantasy pythons. I'd also see him loving dragonflies as well.

He will see literally any animal generally and always say "they're one of my favourites!", though. It doesn't matter how many times he's said it that day or how many animals he's said it about. It's almost without fail he'll point one out and say it's a favourite.

One of his favorite animals is always the one in front of him Right Now, as a quick reference.

Plus, he loves to point animals out on travels or when out and about Vesuvia, so get used to hearing it!

He may attempt to catch critters occasionally too, or just pick them up, these will be mostly bugs usually. He just likes to cup moths in his hand on occasion and the watch them flutter out and I think he should be allowed to! Or just cradle bugs in his palm and watch them walk around for a bit. If it's a reptile or amphibian somewhere it could get stepped on or dried out or eaten he will still scoop them up and carry them to the brush.

[Cont. after cut]

Nothing he ever handles seems to get too upset or stressed, even when it's an animal that otherwise would. They just seem to be more relaxed if it's Asra who's touching them. Sometimes reptiles just come up to him (or even crawl onto his hand, as a few lizards have,) curiously enough. Though they may still refuse to be touched even then, they're notably not bothered by his presence when for others they'd run away. It's not something Asra's ever noticed to be odd, nor would it be overly noticeable to most people, but it's definitely something you can recognize if you pay attention.

Asra would also love to run on the beach sometimes, namely as a kid, maybe making himself invisible or otherwise undetectable until he's right up on a big flock of seagulls before giving them a hearty boo! And watching them all fly away all giggly. As an adult he may still stir up flocks for fun sometimes, or just to see how pretty it is to watch them all fly at once.

In general he just loves watching birds or bugs or whatever be it fly, always so effortlessly. Maybe he wishes he could fly himself. It certainly would make things easier he would come to think time to time growing up in Vesuvia.

Plus, he likes to collect the feathers that flutter down. Back when he sold masks, they were something he incorporated into them often. Then, too, he would also sit by the river after wearing himself out practicing hydromancy or what not, and a few times dragonflies would perch on him. He'd always gasp n grin all big and goofy when they did.

Muriel doesn't pick favorites really when it comes to animals (barring wolves and bears), but he does mirror Asra's 'one of my favourites' statements by saying "they're one of Asra's favorites," Occasionally.

While Asra's animal encounters or observations are typically brief, Muriel is more than content to just watch animals long periods of time. He can spot or at least know where to find some seriously elusive ones. The only one such animal Asra seems to have luck like that with seems to be foxes.

If you want to see an animal, local to the area around Vesuvia namely, Muriel can probably help you with that, granted he trusts you. This includes dens, hives, and nesting sites of course, things he will stop by occasionally in his forest to check on. His luck/skill in finding these things can't seem to be mimicked by even the most skilled animal trackers, you'd think they were practically just showing themselves to only him.

Muriel is also content to let animals do their thing and not interact with them much. Birds, butterflies and similar may land on him occasionally and he's always enchanted by it though, and will make no move to prevent an animal being on or touching him. Similar to Asra, he will also remove any animals in bad spots and put them somewhere better. He's a bit more effective at this though, as he tends to be looking down anyways, while Asra has probably smooshed a few pillbugs and snails before while doing his own thing- eyes elsewhere.

If Muriel did ever nerf a bug accidentally he would probably feel pretty damn bad, and if it wasn't reduced to a mere smear he would return its poor bug corpse to nature so that it might reclaim it. He'd get over it quick though if he was in a good mood prior, just give him a moment. If he was upset over something else already and he killed one, I could see it even pushing him to tears or rather making it worse if he was already at that point.

Asra would probably be like 'awh.... :( oof, I'm sorry lil guy...' and sweep it into nature if he could, but otherwise he would not be impacted too much.

Asra would purposely kill bugs on a few occasions even, pest bugs namely - like flies or mosquitoes or, of course, plague beetles. He may even instinctively lash out and flatten a bug that simply resembles a plague beetle enough, particularly if something had his anxiety or panic (ptsd trigger from the plague??) going. Otherwise plague beetle resembling beetles he'd be a little unsettled by, or uncomfortable to be around, but not enough to necessarily kill. He'd either move it somewhere else, try to scare it off, or move away from it. Muriel doesn't have many hang ups on plague beetle resembling bugs, though he would probably kill the real deal readily.

Any dead animals not in a wild area (like left in the city or on a road,) Muriel would move as long as it wasn't yknow. Too nasty. Birds that hit windows, starved or sickly scavengers, anything that dropped in a heatwave or was claimed by a flood, things like that, recent deaths. It pains him to see at all, but pains him more to leave them just.... There. Some he may bury, others he may leave out in places where there's animals he know will take it for food.

Injured or sick animals Muriel would try to help best he could, and he's successfully done it a few times. If it's blistering hot he'd also likely leave water out here and there for the animals of the forest, and he may enlist Asra's help with this to replenish water in natural water basins as well in droughts.

Muriel can handle animal death okay, hunting and fishing is a thing he does to some degree, it's just the preventable or senseless ones that hurt, it's worth saying here. It's just sad. He'll be okay after though, unless there's something more nefarious and upsetting at play.

Asra helping unwell/hurt animals would mostly consist of magic healing, but beyond that he wouldn't know what to really do besides bring it to Muriel or any animal experts near him. He doesn't come across these situations too often thankfully, though. Domestic animals he would take in more readily, and would let crash at the shop for a while if he can. If it's a livestock animal he'll ask if Muriel wants to take it in, or even in the case of an ownerless pet animal. If not, he can ask around. See if anyone wants a new dog or cat or... Goat. I just imagine those are the kinds of animals he's most likely to find in need, being in the center of Vesuvia.

Moving on from that....

Animal knowledge!

Asra likely doesn't know a ton about animals outside of ones that feature prominently in magic and myth, he's just good at identifying them and overall tends to appreciate their presence. Identifying animals can make for good pass times on long travels, or if he just sees something particularly neat he may simply want to know what to call it. He also probably learned most the common local Vesuvian species names growing up, probably through reading, though the bulk of his knowledge of the nature he grew up around is probably botanical- foraging can be dangerous! Plus, magic knowledge probably leans more heavily on plants than animals as well.

If Asra can't identify an animal, though, he will simply make up a name for it on the spot. If he finds out it's ID later he will still refer to it as his made up name followed by AKA/sometimes called/locally known as [real name]. He also tends to refer to tons of animals as the infamous, famous, legendary, revered, etc. Regardless of relevance, commonality or obscurity. He just thinks they all deserve such titles, and when has a little flair ever hurt?

"Ah, MC, look! It's an Abramesmerwhymsical Zadithi midnight-billed stilt-wader! Though it's sometimes also known as the famous crab-plover," Kinda shit. He enjoys it.

Muriel doesn't actually know the actual names of a ton of animals species. He knows of a few though, not to mention the Asra-given names that stuck with him. Despite not knowing their names sometimes still, he can tell most all species apart readily, and juveniles from adults, males from females, things like that. He watches animals of the forest regularly and is in tune with the local species life cycles, breeding or rearing seasons, migratory patterns, unique behaviors and everything else. Though his knowledge is probably limited to Vesuvian species, he's able to quickly pick up on other animal's traits and such when outside of Vesuvian territory, and is generally good with animals as is.

He knows what doves/pigeons and owls and vipers and mice and geckos etc are. He may not know that a specific species of such is called like, namaqua doves, omani owls, ocellated mountain vipers, cario spiny mouse, kotschy's middle-toed geckos n shit. It's not like he has NO idea, species names are weird and can be long winded so....

...He just doesn't know that dunnocks aren't actually called stripple-caped tseepers.

But he doesn't need to. <3

If he does learn the real names for them though, he is quite glad and will use the name readily. If you're looking at a Muriel who's in the city more, he will probably read up on this information himself, but otherwise he would of course treasure it if MC told him.

The only reasons he doesn't even know the names to begin with is mostly because the names you'll hear out and about most commonly only cover a fraction of species to start, and everything else youre mostly going to have to study via reading or classes. Neither of those seem to be things a young homeless Muriel would care to pursue lmao.

Annnnd

I forgot what else I was going to add and lost track so, I'll maybe add more later. I'll probably also amend this as I may find I don't agree with my own statements the next day and also I don't proofread so. I hope u enjoyed these feel free to add on or add differing opinions!

[starlightshore]

How does Monster Food Work? a quick ut theory/analysis

Actually screw it here’s a quick analysis, no pictures because i wrote this quick.

*EDIT went back, there's pics and spelling errors are fixed. Note this was written at 3am or something originally lol.

I believe that monster food is magic that’s mixed with plants grown from the ground. The plant material is then shaped into different foods. A simple example: there is no meat productions underground except for the snail farm. We do, however, have examples of food that aren’t meat/dairy when you expect it to be otherwise.

Granted, this isn’t accessible by normal means, so how canonical it is debatable. (Like, entry #17 is commonly seen as canon so...?) There are barely any bugs underground.

I'm catching bugs. But the underground doesn't have many... -room 123.

That’s so odd to think about actually! Without bugs you can’t really have working ecosystem! Considering the wording concerning the barrier is:

“* Anything can enter through the seal, but only beings with a  powerful SOUL can leave.“

If anything can come in, we can expect fallen animals, seeds, wind ect. But how open is the barrier to life on the surface really?

“ALPHYS updated status. * WAIT THERE'S NO WEATHER DOWN  HERE WHY DID SHE CALL ME”

Now this could just be about Hotland specifically, however one can get the sense that weather wouldn’t be a factor to the rest of the underground either as their name sake and areas seem so little changes to them. It rains in waterfall, it snows in Snowdin. This lack of seasons would greatly impact ecosystems.

Here is a quick reminder on how monster food works, as spoken by Big Mouth at Grillby’s:

“* Isn't human food different  from monster food?* It does things like "spoil."* And when you eat it, it  passes all the way through  your whole body.”

“* To a human, monster food  would be very interesting.* As soon as you eat it, it  converts perfectly into  energy. “

it seems to me that Monster food is similar to Monster magic. Both are magical in nature -monster food doesn’t spoil, and attacks are magic itself. We shouldn’t expect monster food to be the same as human food from the start, we can’t make assumptions.

Let’s connect their food to their bodies: What are monsters and what are their magic?

We know Boss Monsters shed: ”* There is some white fur stuck in the drain. “ and we do see both Papyrus’ and Undyne’s attacks are left over as physical objects.  “* (It's a box of bones.) “

Though not exclusively so!

So magic itself CAN be created as a physical material but it can also dissipate. I’d imagine this fluidity functions similarly to the monster’s themselves! Monsters are beings that are more in-tuned to their souls purely because they don’t have water/carbon based physical bodies like humans. They are made of dust, magic and their souls.

Having their attacks/magic literally being the same material just makes sense! Why would they need meat? Those are bodies of actual animals, which monsters are not. We do see plants being made into monster food on two occasions and only once with meat.

Looking at the artbook we were originally going to get a glimpse at their farm production. (I have a digital copy, and searching in it takes Forever so i couldn’t find the text that talks about it??? i’ll edit this point later when I can find it)

It seems the “meat” we do see in game (aside from the Snails) are shown to surprisingly be plants. Golden flowers are made into tea, but that’s hardly unusual.The first notable example for this sort of monster food is that Sans’ hotcats are actually water-sausages! It’s implied through the phone call that Sans just yoinks them right out of waterfall to use for his hotdog/hotcats.

* "Hot Dog...?" Heals 20 HP * The "meat" is made of something  called a "water sausage."

The second example is one that we don’t get to eat, but we do see it’s production!

This is Alphys’ icecream machine. She lied to Undyne that the tall grass we see in Waterfall was an endangered species so that Undyne would ensure people didn’t tamper with the grass. This was simply because Alphys wanted the grass to produce icecream with.

I told you that seaweed was like... scientifically important...

Really, I just... I just use it to make ice cream!

This is the only time we really see monster food being made- it takes a green slush and converts it into pink ice cream.

Now, let’s get back to the snails. I bet you’re dying to talk about the snails.

Snails are an oddity because they seem to have a monster-like consciousness and are taken by Asriel’s light when absorbing the monster souls.

* there was a flash of light  outside my window* i saw the snails on the farm  disappear 

It’s not like Asriel was just taking everything -no, he was taking monster souls. And they race and have emotions, there’s snails that look visually unlike natural snails.

* but the snail looks  discouraged...* her best wasn't good  enough... 

Napstablook also refers to your racing snail as a “Her,” which also implies more sentience/person-hood. (Though, I’d argue “it” is such a common pronoun underground that if it wouldn’t be evidence for it non-person-hood per-say, but this is specifically “she/her” for a snail.)

Some even speak!

* I've been long overdue for  a second house...

So the snails........ are monsters. That’s... unsettling.

Let’s give Toriel and Asgore the benefit of the doubt that some of these snails are actually real surface snails. I don’t want to imagine some monsters are deemed as food compared to others. In fact, the snails Toriel describes in her “snail facts” directly contradicts the above snail’s autonomy.

* Talk. Really. Slowly? * Just kidding, snails  don't talk. 

So yes, Toriel doesn’t eat monster-snails. Is this confusing? Yes! Thank you toby.

Snails are the only confirmed-to-be-meat we see in the game. And alongside that, Toriel and Asgore are the only customers to the Blooky Snail Farm. (It’s safe to assume Toriel grows her own or gets them from somewhere else.)

* this place used to get a lot of business...* but our main customer  disappeared one day...* now it's just some hairy guy that shows up once  a month...

I think it’s an important detail that the only consumer of animal-meat we know of are boss monsters, who are notorious for being an exception to monsterkind. I’d argue that boss monsters might be more human like than normal monsters, as in they also have some physical matter to them. As stated before, monsters are made of dust and magic.Their souls don’t persist after death, while Boss monsters do for a brief moment.

Obviously they’re not the same level as humans, but it is worthy to note they’re extraordinary! Toriel also oddly enough, takes longer to die and bleeds black.

Which. is very odd. sans could have ketchup or blood also, but it’s hard to know without more info. (I mean hey, looking at you darkner-sans theoriests lol) Deltarune further confirms that monsters don’t bleed (at least in Hometown) which makes sense when monsters are just dust.

Is this because Toriel has more physical matter to her? Is that why her soul is stronger -being more physically separated from her magical/partly physical body. Humans are strong because their souls are disconnected from their bodies, so what makes boss monsters different?

I propose that it’s either from being a boss monster or from having snails in her diet that gives her this distance and therefore power in comparison to other monsters. (Or rather, the reason she likes snails in her diet is because of her boss monster nature, as she’d need the meat for it’s heavier matter content and proteins)

I don’t think it’s a coincidence the only real meat we see is famously eaten by boss monsters and the three monster foods we know how are made are through plants, and we can see the icecream looks vastly different from the sea-weed its made of.

Here’s an additional thought. maybe the use of using magical bullets releases some of the physical material consumed by eating monster food. Having a good balance of monster food (and it’s material within) and using one’s magic attacks keeps a mounter strong and healthy. So I imagine monsters need both healthy emotions and a consistent diet of magic to live!

so. tldr; monster food is plant based. this makes up the physical “dust” that makes up their fragile physical forms. Toriel and Asgore eat snails which are the only known-for-sure animal product in the game, and it’s because of that they’re more physical.

[delimeful]

Wibar Extra: Patton’s Charms

A short WIBAR piece that takes place mostly before the first installment, commissioned by @kieraelieson​ ! Enjoy!

warnings: emotional distress, mentions of smugglers/trafficking, PTSD -

The first time Patton gave away his feathers, it was an impulse. 

He’d been running errands for Logan at market; even with the extra limbs, that goof tried to take on more than he could handle. Patton figured that the least could do was lend a pair of hands, even if that meant ducking and weaving through the occasionally precarious crowd. 

Still, his task wasn’t urgent enough that when a loud wail split the air, he couldn’t turn right around to investigate. He sidled along past a few clumps of bargaining patrons and came to a gap in the market’s flow, where people were putting space between them and the source of the racket: a Pataruan child in tears. 

By the spiraling horns and left-folded robes, a little girl. By the hearts-wrenching cries and skin color shifting to the blue-grey of sea stones, a very upset little girl. 

Patton offered the harried father a sympathetic trill as he approached, and was happy to see the man seemed relieved, rather than opposed to a stranger’s aid. Most species didn’t see him as a threat, since Ampens were small and as a whole rather friendly, but it was always better to get permission before interacting with others’ fledgelings. 

“Hey, kiddo,” he greeted in Common, lowering his antenna to a friendly-safe angle. She probably wasn’t old enough to be familiar with Ampen body language, but it was the thought that counted. 

Her sobbing slowed slightly as she looked down at him with slitted pupils, cheeks pinching inwards and skin turning to lemon-yellow confusion. “Huh?”  

He let his eyes crinkle into an encouraging smile. “I’m Patton! What’s your name?” 

After a few sniffles and a glance at her dad, who was rushing through a transaction with a textile merchant, she blinked slowly and answered in a small voice. “I… I’m Neri.” 

Patton noted absently that she had the same type of translucent third eyelid as Logan, and nodded politely to her. “May the stars greet you, Neri! Now, I came over because you sounded a little upset. Is something wrong?” 

Neri’s skin immediately darkened back to that dark ocean grey, and she reached up to grip her horns, probably a self-soothing gesture. “No, I don’t want to! I don’t want to see the seamster! She’s got sharp itty-bitty things and she yells at me when I move. I like my normal clothes! I don’t need new ones!”  

“Whoa, hey, it’s okay, kiddo. Can you breathe with me?” Sensing an imminent breakdown, Patton held his hands out to her in an offer of comfort. Neri clutched at his hands with her own smooth, scaly ones, taking deep, shuddering breaths in time with Patton. 

“You’re doing great! That sounds like a rough time, but you must be a very brave one, to have been to a fitting before.” Patton beckoned her closer, into a crouch. “Do you want to hear a secret?” 

Neri shuffled close, pupils growing large and round with intrigue. “Mhmm.” 

“I have a secret power, that keeps your darkest days all lit up. If you see it, you’re guaranteed to have a good day no matter what tries to get you down. I think having a little extra glow will help you keep on that tough face while you’re at the seamster, yeah?”  

She seemed a bit doubtful, but leaned in anyhow, undeniably curious. “Yeah… I wanna see.” 

Patton fluffed up the feathers along his arms slowly, and Neri gasped as they flushed a bright, luminescent blue. Patton’s cheeks started to hurt as his eyes squinched up happily at the astonished look on her face. “Pretty neat, huh?” 

She ghosted her hand over the glowing feathers, careful even before Patton warned her that they were sensitive, her face slowly turning sun-warm orange. “You change colors like me?” 

“Only a little,” Patton admitted, “but this color is for making people happy! Do you think it will help you be brave?” 

Neri hesitated before blinking slowly, eyebrows furrowing in determination. “I’ll try really hard not to forget.” 

Patton cast a glance at her father, still haggling, and made a quick decision. He ran his hands through the ruff of feathers around the back of his neck, until he found one that had come loose after his nap earlier. He offered it to her with a flourish Roman would have been proud of. “How about you keep a little feather? Whenever you start feeling upset, you can hold it in your hand and remember.” 

It was as though he’d offered her the whole planet. She took the feather gingerly, and cradled it in her hands, flushed verdant green with happiness. “Thank you!” 

By the time Patton got back to his crew, he had completely forgotten that he’d been in the middle of running an errand at all. 

That was alright; Logan was only fondly exasperated when he explained. 

-

The second time Patton gave away his feathers, it was to help a friend.

The lighting circuit had gone out on almost the entire ship, and while the flight and grav controls weren’t affected, it was still startling to suddenly be plunged into the darkness. 

With how they’d all been doing different things at the time, it had taken them a little bit of stumbling around to find each other. Patton hadn’t been particularly concerned until they finally reached Roman.

Roman, who looked up at Patton’s glow with a desperate sort of hope. Roman, who’s tail had remained curled against his leg for what seemed like the rest of the cycle after the lights came back on. Roman, who had the worst darkvision of them all. 

He hadn’t offered an explanation, and Patton hadn’t pushed. They knew more about Roman’s past than most, but there was still a lot that remained unshared. There were probably some things he’d never share with anyone else, and that was okay. 

What wasn’t okay was the idea of ignoring the matter and leaving Roman to deal with it all on his own. 

Patton sequestered himself in his room for a few cycles, reassuring Roman and Logan whenever they stopped by that he was okay, just working on something. It was a process, since he didn’t normally craft other than drawing. Things like this were more Roman’s area of expertise, but Patton was ready to do whatever it took to create it himself.

Several snapped feathers and a lot of trial and error later, he finally had a trinket he found acceptable. Another few tics, and he had two, ready to present to his friends. 

“Just a little something for you guys to have that will remind you of me!” he claimed as he held out the somewhat clumsily-made necklaces, the feather charms glowing brightly. Roman’s grateful ear twitch told him that the Crav’on hadn’t missed Patton’s real motivation.

Even the slightly sore spots where he’d accidentally plucked out feathers that weren’t completely shed felt worth it when he saw the way Roman’s free hand fluttered happily as he strung the cord around his neck, the way Logan brushed his hand over the fluffy charm whenever he was attempting a particularly fiddly experiment, as though for good luck. The gifts were a complete success. 

Patton spent the rest of the week feeling lighter than air, barely able to hold in an excited trill whenever he saw the feathers glowing on his friends. 

-

The third time Patton gave away his feathers, it was for profit.

The first compliments and queries about the charms came at one of their usual markets, from strangers and regulars alike. The necklaces Patton had made were hard to miss, especially with how luminescent they were. 

He’d been surprised at the outpouring of interest, but it was nearing molting season and he had plenty of discarded feathers to share. It was a little bit tiring to have the bioluminescence activated all the time, but nothing a little snack couldn’t fix. 

The most motivating reason, however, was how excited his crewmates became at the idea. Roman would invite Patton to come sit with him in his quarters, showing him intricate knotwork that would hold the feathers more solidly, and Logan offered a preserve that would keep the feather’s glow maximized for longer. 

Even after contributing to the new and improved version, his two closest friends stalwartly refused to replace Patton’s original gifts, which made his hearts flutter fondly. He was happy to be helping create revenue for their ship, too. Generally, they were able to get by with their exploratory services and material trading, but putting away a little extra credit took a weight off all of their shoulders. 

He loved to run the booth at market, seeing the way people drew to the glow curiously and getting to greet them with his typical enthusiasm. Children were always the most excited, and he made sure to secretly undercharge any charms bought for them. He even got to implement a “tell a joke, get a discount” rule for a day, before Logan put his foot down after one too many puns. 

Through the market cycles, a few visitors stood out. There was a Bal’t’n who had shyly inquired if it was alright to consume the light of the feather(Patton didn’t see why not!), or a fellow Ampen who had spent half her time at the booth asking after Patton’s moms (Luckily, he was always happy to gush about them), or Neri’s father, who had expressed profuse thanks to the Ampen and then requested materials to help his daughter make her feather into a proper necklace(Patton refused any sort of payment for helping out a dad). 

There were also the less friendly visitors, like the Venefican stranger who had eyed his wares with a cold hunger, and then demanded he prove that he was the one the feathers originated from. He’d never felt so uncomfortable showing off his glow before. They didn’t even end up buying anything.

He saw that stranger only once after that, across the market square, speaking to a cloaked figure in a hushed voice. He only noticed them at all because of the feeling of another’s gaze on him, and he shivered and looked away when the hood of the cloak turned his direction.  

It was a bit unsettling, but there didn’t seem to be any real harm done, and so he put it out of mind soon enough. 

-

The fourth time Patton gave away his feathers, it wasn’t his choice. 

(Lightspans away, his two best friends held the pendants they had encouraged Patton to make and sell, the ones that had drawn smuggler attention to their small friend. 

They had never regretted anything more.)

-

The fifth time Patton gave his feathers away, it was for himself. 

The need proved itself early on in their post-escape travels. His huge new friend moved so much quieter than Roman, and Patton’s darkvision wasn’t anywhere near as good as a Human’s. 

Since they were trying to remain under the radar, they traveled by night fairly often, and recently they had gotten perilously close to losing each other in the fog of a particularly confusing patch of galthe vines. Patton could light up, sure, but Virgil would have to be the one to find and reach him. What if they got separated and Virgil was stuck or needed help? Giving his Human a feather charm was a good, sensible idea.

However, knowing it was a good idea and actually following through with it were two very different things. His feathers had grown back, thanks to Virgil, but the sensation of a slow death by starvation was still ever-present in his nightmares. Even though it wasn’t healthy, he hadn't preened any of his loose or ragged feathers, any attempts to remove them bringing back memories he'd much rather repress. He didn't know what he was going to do when he molted. The very thought of it sent a chill down his spine. He never wanted to feel that helpless and weak again. 

It was like a mental barrier, a bubble of terror welling up in his throat whenever he thought of broaching the topic. It was silly. He knew that Virgil would understand if he ended up being unable to bring himself to actually implement the idea, but the very idea of speaking it aloud suddenly seemed so… frightening. It frustrated him! There was no reason to be so nervous about helping a friend! 

It was while he was sitting at their latest camp, having one of these internal arguments with himself that Virgil approached, whistling a low greeting in Patton’s native tongue. Patton chirped back and released some of the tension in his body by shaking out his feathers, careful not to move too quickly. For a Human, Virgil was easily startled. 

“Hey, Pat.” Virgil crouched down, settling into a sitting position with languid grace. “You alright?” 

“Of course!” he replied, scooting over to press up against the Human’s side. “Are you?” 

Virgil nodded once, and then hesitated for a heartbeat. “So, y’know how we almost got lost for a while on the planet with all the mist and little crab guys?” 

Patton stilled, having spent more than enough time remembering the incident. “Y— yeah, on Hythag, right? With the vines? Lots of plants?” Please don’t ask me to give them up again. I’m scared. 

“Um, yeah,” Virgil replied, gaze looking him over sharply. He’d picked up on Patton’s unease, but was too unsure of himself to press. “I… well, I was thinking about how stressful it was, and, uh…” 

Patton’s antennae flattened against his skull, and he braced himself for the request. 

“I made these.” 

What?

He blinked, and saw that Virgil was holding two small lengths of thread— no, woven bracelets. Patton reached out and carefully picked up the smaller loop of twine, staring at the way the material was purposefully knotted in a pattern. 

“Is this for me?” he asked, looking up at Virgil with unbridled curiosity. “How’d you make them?” 

Virgil was staring off at a nearby flowering plant, avoiding eye contact the way he did when he was nervous. “Yeah, that one’s yours. They, uh, match. Back home, we call them friendship bracelets. A little childish, I know, but I don’t know any other patterns I can weave by hand...” 

It didn’t escape Patton’s notice that he had dodged the other question, and he squinted at the threads again with a growing sense of familiarity. He peered over at Virgil’s pants, one leg of which seemed particularly more frayed than the other. His feathers puffed up a bit, unable to contain all that he was feeling as he looked at the bracelet made from the only clothes the Human had.

Oh, Virgil… 

“... and right now, they won’t really solve our problem, but I figured we could find a source of pigment that glows and apply it? I would have done that part myself too, then it would have been a better surprise, but I wasn’t sure what pigments would be safe for your skin, so— oof!” Virgil’s rambling broke off as Patton launched himself directly at his chest, on the brink of crying as the Human carefully returned the hug. He always felt safest here.

“I take it this means you like it?” Virgil asked, his voice low and amused. Patton nodded into his hoodie, a few affectionate chitters escaping him. 

“I love it. I’m wearing it forever.” He paused, swallowing thickly, and then set his chin stubbornly. “But, for the glow, I have something that might help…” 

He might not be ready to deal with a molt, maybe not even when he was safe on the Mindscape again, but he could at least put some loose feathers to good use. He could start small, and work his way up to being okay again. 

Until then, he knew that Virgil would be by his side with everything he had. 

And that would be enough. 

[taiblogcomics]

It’s A-Parent Something’s Wrong

Hey there, ingrown hairs. It's once more pony time, and it will be for a long foreseeable future. Get used to it! Which means we're pretty much gonna have short preambles for a while. You guys already know the deal with pony comics. But let's see if we can't make this at least a little interesting. Now, we already finished our first story arc of the Season 10 run. So, what next? Well, not a new part of the ongoing arc, that's for sure. Nah, after the big adventure, we need a little filler episode~

Here's the cover:

Scootaloo's absolutely thrilled to be part of this. Can't you tell~? Not much else to this cover. In fact, it's kinda like last issue's. Just a big closeup of a character face, and the main selling point is hoping you like said character. At least this one is more indicative of the contents, though~

So we start way far off in some distant lands, Shire Lanka, which is pretty jungly. Who else would be in such hostile lands but Scootaloo's parents, who got introduced in season 9 and ruined all my orphan jokes forever. I didn't even keep track of their names, so they're just collectively Scoots' Parents to me. Anyway, Scoots' Dad encounters a snake, while Scoots' Mom uncovers some undiscovered species. They look like horrifying plant-based Furbies, and I hate them. (For the record, they're called bush babies, because of course they are.) Thankfully, they're not important to the issue, I just find their Furby-like designs very unsettling~

Anyway, the whole prologue here is actually something being told to Scoots by her aunts during breakfast. It's essentially a note about family being of key importance, even if families are very different. Oh, not usually you get the moral of the episode at the beginning. Anyway, the main point of telling such a story is because her parents are actually coming to visit. Scoots is a little worried her everyday life will seem boring compared to her adventurous parents, but her aunts assure her all she has to do is show what she loves about Ponyville and they'll see it through her eyes.

Unfortunately, when they show up, they're not interested in seeing Ponyville. They've seen it before, after all. Instead, they want to show her their world. Or at least a reasonable approximation, here at the Canterlot animal conservation center. Her parents each got their interest in animals when they were about her age, so they feel like it's a great time to share. Scoots rightly points out that she already has a calling being a Cutie Mark Crusader, but they insist. It feels weird to them to share a love of animals with each other but not their daughter, so they want to find some way they can all connect as a family.

And so a montage ensues of the parents enjoying some animal, and Scoots finding herself harassed by some aspect of the same animal. Her parents are oblivious to this. This culminates in their expecting her to wrestle a cragadile and count its teeth. Somehow this doesn't sound perfectly safe or appealing to Scootaloo, and she runs off. Her parents catch up with her, and poor Scoots is looking rough. Scuffed and mussed and practically in tears. She asks in disbelief whether her parents even actually enjoy all that stuff, and they confess, yes they do. Because they do it together.

The family returns home, and Scoots declines an offer to be walked home. Well, at least they respect her independence. On returning home, Scoots has an absolute breakdown as soon as her aunts ask about her day. Scoots is pretty upset that she can't fake liking the things they do or being the daughter her parents want. But you know what? She's the daughter her aunts want. And furthermore, it's not the love of animals that bind a family together. It's love for each other. But of course, continuing to fake it won't solve anything. Her aunts suggest she tell her parents the truth.

So come next morning, her parents show up looking for more cragadile volunteers, and Scoots suggests they get ice cream instead. The fact that her parents agree to ice cream for breakfast shows they're any kid's dream parents, regardless of shared interests. And during the ice creaming, Scoots does the brave thing and tells her parents the truth: she loves their stories about adventure and animals, but she didn't get any enjoyment out of yesterday.

And of course, they don't think for a minute that she's disappointed them. And so they spend the day doing what Scoots wants to do. She shows them the Crusaders' clubhouse, and they go water skiing. And they let Scootaloo know that, even if they're not around to see it, they'll be proud of whoever their daughter grows into. Awww~

Hey, I thought the filler stuff was supposed to be more light-hearted than the actual storyline stuff. I’m not actually complaining, but if this isn’t one of my funniest reviews, it’s probably because this is actually a pretty good story about a kind of heavy topic. So it’s probably not going to be, like, anyone’s favourite issue, unless the topic really resonates with you. And that’s fine. Nice that they give some more thought towards the Scootaloo family dynamic, since they introduced the concept so late in the series.

Next issue, perhaps something a little more lighthearted, since it involves Pinkie Pie and her favourite activities~

[starr-fall-knight-rise]

Humans are Space Orcs “So many Dumb Ways to Die”

Ok, I am really sorry guys that I haven't posted. I got into a real intense art project that may or may not have been aggressively nerdy, and then a new season of my show came out on Netflix, so I had to binge watch that, as you do, but here you go better late than never. 

Report ID 2241570

Author Krill

Can we talk about something…. Something that annoys me greatly, and I am sick and tired of having to deal with?

No? Well TOO BAD because if I am sick and tired of it, than the rest of you are going to have to suffer with me, also if I get one more letter about how my reports are unsettling, scarring or starting to worry my superiors, than don’t bother. You can just take your complaints and shove them RIGHT UP…..

*voice from the background* Uh, Krill, are you ok.

*grumble* Yes, fine, just doing another report…. Anyway, I wanted to talk about humans, because of course you knew that, they are the only creature in the galaxy capable of annoying me so greatly. In fact, I am 100% convinced that human emotions rubbed off on me for the specific reason of giving me the ability to be pissed off.

Why, Krill, why are you so pissed off today? Well, thank you for asking, so kind of you. I am annoyed because everyone in the universe seems to be convinced that humans are indestructible killing machines incapable of dying, but I am here to tell you that that is not the case….. well I mean, it is the case, but sometimes it isn’t….

AHHHRGG

That’s just the point though, humans are simultaneously the most indestructible creatures in the galaxy while simultaneously having the FANTASTIC ability to die over the stupidest o things. So the problem becomes that you have to keep your human alive when everyone, including themselves, is convinced they are indestructible, but they are, in fact, surprisingly easy to kill. Do you know how constantly I have to worry about humans because they have this ability to get into the most dangerous situations, and of course they might just survive, but they might also just die getting out of bed.

A list of a few things humans can survive if you don’t believe me.

·         There are at least 7 humans I know of who have survived falling at terminal velocity from the sky 122 mph if anyone is asking. Ok granted there were other factors that contributed to their survival, like shattering glass, snow, and a mountain hillside, but can we just think about that for a bit?

·         Humans routinely get themselves struck by lightning, ok maybe not routinely, I looked up the statistics. About 1,000 people are insured by lightning each year and some 100 die from it just in what used to be the United States, but that means at least ONE of those people was directly struck and didn’t die….. Yeah…. Super-heated sky plasma of death…..

·         A human once survived 21 gunshot wounds……

·         Humans have survived being shot in the head, getting their lower mandible shot off or getting shot through the neck.

·         Humans also survive traumatic brain injury, and I’m not talking simply about a hit on the head, I am talking about objects being jammed into their brains. Take my friend the Commander for example, who survived a screwdriver through the eye-socket and into his brain, with minimal brain damage. MINIMAL BRAIN DAMAGE! Any brain damage should be death, but NO humans just call it MINIMAL which means, apparently, it’s no big deal.

·         They lose limbs ALL the time. I swear I am not joking. Again, take my Commander again, he got his RIPPED OFF traumatically. Humans get them blown off, ripped off, or just plain cut off because it medically relevant. LIKE WHAT THE ACTUAL HELL! There was even one human who CUT OF HIS OW ARM with a pocketknife...... 

*sigh*

·         They also just casually transplant organs like it’s no big deal.

·         Horrifying diseases that make your insides hemorrhage. Yeah no big deal for humans either.

·         Most humans can survive a second degree burn covering 70% of the body. A lower percentage (but still notably a percentage) can survive 3rd degree burns over 50% of the body….. NOT LIKE ANYONE SHOULD WANT TO SURVIVE THAT. At this point it’s just cruel to keep the poor human alive.

·         HUMANS DON’T NEED HALF THEIR BRAIN…… sometimes they just effing remove it  because it’s convenient that way. HALF OF THEIR MOTHER F***ING BRAIN

·         Humans can theoretically survive for 15 seconds in the vacuum of space…… WHY WOULD YOU WANT TO BE ALIVE FOR FIFTEEN SECONDS THROUGH THE MOST HORRIBLE DEATH IMAGINABLE, I ASK YOU!

·         Or they can just survive plain straight up dying. Like they die, and as long as another human is there to pump their heart for them, they can just go right on to recover like nothing ever happened. Do you have any idea HOW INSANE THAT IS.? Humans can shake off DEATH

Yeah and no wonder humans seem indestructible, but I swear to you. Just as much as they are indestructible, they can also just go right ahead and fall apart.

·         Human organs can just go right ahead and malfunction. Just up and get inflamed and rupture ad kill them, without any provocation what- so-ever. So as a doctor, I constantly have to worry about my humans’ organs exploding.

·         Humans WILL die without sleep. The longest a human was known to last was about 11 days, and then they died.

·         A man bit his own tongue and died from infection. Surprisingly a lot of stupid ways to die end up in infection for humans, stubbing your toe, biting your tongue, biting another person, getting a PAPER CUT, or not washing yourself properly.

·         Another human stepped out of the shower, slipped and hit his head and died.

·         Oh sitting….. yes you heard me right, SITTING can kill humans. How you may ask, oh yeah it might cause blood clots in the legs that will break off and end up in the lungs…… the human body is an absolute minefield of things that can just go wrong.

·         The inability to pee, or just plain deciding not to pee because humans……. Because…..sometimes I really hate humans. I mean honestly, how are you expected to take care of an entire crew of them when their organs might explode, or they may just decide not to pee anymore.

·         Laughing…. People have died from laughing. You heard me correctly, this is just stupid. Outrageously stupid.

·         You can survive 15 seconds in the vacuum of space, but can’t survive stepping on a nail. Doesn’t that freak anyone else out because one of those seem far more extreme to me than the others.

·         Also humans have this stupid habit of shoving their nasty bits into anything small enough to fit it in, or shove something unusual up somewhere it shouldn’t be. DON’T THEY SELL THINGS SPECIFICALLY FOR THAT! WHY THE HELL ARE YOU DOING THESE STUPID THINGS.

·         Sheer stupidity, just going off the last one we discussed, sometimes human stupidity can be directly linked to death.

·         Falling down a manhole. You can survive falling from an airplane, but falling down a manhole is just out of the question.

·         Accidentally being strangled by their own scarves.

·         Choking WHILE EATING. You can survive doing stupid things, but you know what you died of YOU DIED BECAUSE YOU NEEDED TO EAT. One of the only thigs humans and other species have in common and YOU MAKE THAT THE THING THAT KILLS YOU.

·         Falling out of bed. I MEAN HONESTLY….. ARE YOU KIDDING ME!

·         Or a blasted coconut could just fall from a tree and brain you in the head. The most feared and only predator species in the galaxy and you get killed by falling coconuts.

·         Or you can just trip and die, there is always that option. NO better way than to kick the bucket than by just walking minding your own business.

·         O how would you like to be speared by an icicle from your death planet, sounds fun doesn’t it.

·         Oh and if you wanted to feel horrible today, just a reminder that humans can just up and die from sadness, yeah a human can become so sad, that their heart just STOPS WORKING. WHAT THE HELL. Humans can die because they are sad.

My favorite is spontaneous organ explosion, and when I mean favorite, I mean I hate it. I have to take care of these people, and what it all boils down to is that humans die from blows to the head, and infection, but what happened when I suggested wearing helmets? THEY LAUGHED AT ME.  I am the one sitting here terrified their organs are going to spontaneously rupture, and they are over there LAUGHING AT ME!

WHY IS THIS SO HARD?

Why is it that nothing about humans makes sense? Indestructible but not, and now I have to make sure their organs don’t rupture, they eat enough, they sleep, they protect their heads, and now I have to worry about my humans being too sad.

I AM terrified.

I just want to take care of my humans. Why can’t they make it easier on me?

 Comment if there is a dumb way to die I missed, or a miraculous survival story to prove humans are indestructible :) 

[paulisweeabootrash]

2020 mini-review pack

Di Gi Charat (1999)

Episodes watched: 7

Platform: VRV (Hidive)

Di Gi Charat (pronounced like “carrot”) is a series of fast-paced 4-ish-minute shorts nominally about Dejiko and Rabi-en-Rose, rivals trying to be Earth’s greatest idol.  Who are, respectively, a catgirl and a bunnygirl.  Oh, and also they’re aliens?  That’s... uh... certainly a premise, I guess.  The actual show consists of self-contained gag-filled episodes with no ongoing story, in almost a sitcom kind of way, throwing the characters into situations without context, but with a stable “baseline” situation (unlike, say, Pop Team Epic, where the characters serve more as stock personalities playing different roles in different sketches).  Dejiko is a snarky schemer.  Rabi-en-Rose is a snarky schemer whose main activity seems to be bothering Dejiko at work.  Puchiko is a small and quiet child and behaves accordingly.  And Gema is... something?  I have no clue, honestly, and neither does the fan wiki.  Other recurring characters fill stock roles such as “manager” and “otaku”.  A lot of the humor centers around poking fun at fandom.  It’s a show by, for, and about otaku from an era before our current internet culture, and since I’m a millennial and not from Japan, that makes it unusually hard to evaluate.

W/A/S: 8/2?/5?

Weeb: Chibis.  Catgirls.  Idols.  Kappas.  Kawaii verbal tics.  Akihabara.  Low-detail background characters who look like blobs or thumbs with faces.  Kanji left on-screen but untranslated.  Particular sorts of highly-exaggerated facial expressions we may have become familiar with through emoji, but which still haven’t made their way into American media generally.  This is ludicrously Japanese.

Ass: This really isn't that kind of show.  Although it is certainly designed for adults, as evidenced by the presence of phrases like “naughty doujinshi”.

Shit: The art is fun.  It has style shifts from comic strip to watercolor painting to mainstream 90s anime, and looks better than some of its contemporaries that were, uh, “real” shows.  The opening takes up about a quarter of the total runtime and gets annoying quickly (but that's because it’s clearly designed for being part of a broadcast block, not binge-watching).  Still, unless I’m missing hidden cleverness on account of not having the background knowledge, there’s not much to it.  It’s just okay.

-----

First Astronomical Velocity (band, active 2011-present)

Platform: Spotify, surprisingly

Okay, this one is a bit different, and I’m jettisoning the whole format for it.  Remember how I said the music-centered episodes of SoniAni were actually pretty good, even though the modeling-centered episodes were so offputting I never finished the show?  Well it turns out that First Astronomical Velocity, Sonico’s band, has released several IRL albums.  Physical copies may be a little hard to come by, but official uploads of a lot of their music can be found on Youtube and Spotify.  Do your musical interests include at least two of: string arrangements that would be at home in a particularly sappy movie soundtrack, 90s-00s alternative rock, synthesizer beep-boops, and that constricted cutesy Japanese women’s vocal style (you know the one I mean)?  Then this is for you.  They’re a pretty good... uh... alt-pop-rock band, I guess is what I’d call them.

-----

Interspecies Reviewers (2020)

Episodes watched: the entire 12-episode season

Platform: I plead the 5th.  But it’s getting a video release soon, so it will finally be legitimately available in English!

I started this year with a plot-light fanservicey animal-people show, and now I’m ending the year with... a plot-light fanservicey animal-people show.  But unlike Nekopara, this show had me cracking up, eagerly clicking “next episode”, and not complaining about the premise.  I’m sure a lot of people do have a problem with this show’s premise -- which centers almost entirely on various forms of sex work -- and I understand and respect that they will want to skip this show.

But for the rest of you: Interspecies Reviewers is a wildly-NSFW comedy about a group of fantasy world adventurers who gain fame and fortune reviewing brothels of different species.  I expected excessive nudity and fantasy tropes, but I didn’t expect to also get serious thoughts.  Like showing, in the golem and Magic Metropolis episodes, some of the unsettling problems that are looming IRL as deepfakes and sex robots are in development -- note especially the contrast between consensually and non-consensually basing automata on real people in those episodes.  Or the discussion in the last episode of how much riskier sex would be in a world without magic (i.e., ours).  This is a much smarter and more interesting show than you’d expect, considering that it has so much sexual content that it got dropped by two of the networks airing it and even its US distributor.

W/A/S: 5/10/4

Weeb: Although heavily influenced by the Western fantasy media canon of European mythology and Tolkien and tabletop RPGs, familiarity with the tropes of fantasy anime will help you “get” this too, as will familiarity with the -sigh- character dynamics and censorship practices of hentai.  Especially because it’s a comedy, there are probably also instances where I have completely missed topical references or wordplay that a Japanese person would get, but I can’t think of any specific instances right now of “there was clearly supposed to be a joke but I missed it”.

Ass: Look, this could not possibly have more sexual content without unambiguously becoming porn.  Genitals are (almost) always carefully hidden by viewing angle or conveniently-placed glowing (something lampshaded in one episode as an actual feature of one of the species they review), but otherwise, expect lots of nudity and almost nonstop crude humor.  Do not watch this with children.  Do not watch this with your parents.  Do not watch this with friends you don’t know well enough to know how they’ll react to something like this.

Shit: This show is better-made than it deserves to be.  It’s pretty dumb at points, but it’s fun enough to make up for it.  The art is consistent and pleasant, and the opening and ending themes are extremely fun, but it’s not a serious standout in any of those departments.  Also, I swear the background music is stock music, but I don’t remember what other show(s) I’ve heard it in before.

Stray thought: Crim is a precious and relatable cinnamon roll and I love them.

-----

OreSuki OVA (2020)

Platform: Crunchyroll

So, I know I didn’t cover the whole season in my initial review, but I still want to mention the hour-ish-long finale of this show, which was released straight to streaming.  Short version of the rest of the season: Joro starts to actually fall for Pansy, but a new challenger, Hose, appears.  He is irritatingly attractive and effortless at maintaining the right persona for the situation, leading Joro to describe him as “the main character”.  Hose is the sociopathic manipulator Joro wishes he could be, and Pansy, who has a bad past with him, clearly wants nothing more than for Joro to stand up to him.  But, since this is OreSuki, it’s not going to be handled simply.  No, instead, strap in for a grand finale of Joro and Hose competing in, and trying to manipulate through rules-lawyering, an absolutely ludicrous competition to win the right to date Pansy.  And, on top of it, we also get to finally see how Sun-chan got to be the way he is and what happened at that pivotal baseball game that set off the whole plot.  What has Joro learned from the experiences of the past season?  You’ll see!  And you’ll facepalm about it!

Really, you must watch this if you watched the regular season.

W/A/S: 6/5(!)/4ish

Weeb: Basically the same as I said before.  Gags referencing other Japanese media, anime and otherwise, and it's better if you’re familiar with the high school romcoms and harem comedies Joro thinks in terms of.

Ass (and slight content note): -sigh- Why does the camera need to be there?  Also, Joro, you just committed a little bit of sexual assault for the sake of this contest.  Stop.

Shit: I want to rate this overall better than I did the regular season because I think it’s an excellent finale overall because, even though it ends in a very “let’s leave everything unresolved” way that’s common in media that rely on absurd relationships to propel the plot, it does so in a way that makes sense in character.  I personally think it would’ve been stronger if it had, well, confirmed its title, and at least some of the other “challengers” had lost interest in Joro, but I guess they probably want a Season 2, since they have so much more source material to work from.  There are... oh god 14 light novels?!  That is too many.

-----

Your Name. (2016)

Platform: DVD

Two high schoolers -- small-town girl Mitsuha, from Itomori, and big-city boy Taki, from Tokyo -- find themselves in each other’s bodies for a day.  They both think at first it must be a very vivid dream, but when it happens again, and they start finding clues like notes they don’t remember writing and comments by friends and relatives about their out-of-character behavior, they realize the body swap is real.  This begins a relationship of mutual understanding that nobody else can really understand -- or would even believe (except Mitsuha’s grandmother, who is... familiar with this phenomenon) -- and the plot then pivots to a tense adventure where they use their connection, some crucial information Taki has, the skills of Mitsuha’s friends, and the intervention of Itomori’s patron deity, to save the town from an impending disaster.

And that’s all I’ll say about that, because I really do think this is something you should go into blind.  My only remaining comments are that (1) the red string of fate is critically important imagery, and is particularly interesting to me here because, if I took a particular scene correctly, Mitsuha made her own red string of fate from sheer necessity, which is a very different twist on that trope, and (2) I am now curious about the history of the body-swapping phenomenon in-universe.

W/A/S: 4?/2/2

Weeb: As mentioned above, symbolism of the Red String of Fate shows up throughout the movie, as do the occasional distinctly Japanese quirk like a wildly out-of-place vending machine or a café with dogs, and but for the most part it’s a cross-cultural story of understanding and dealing with someone else’s life, and of forming a connection other people don’t -- can’t -- truly understand, and to some extent of divides between urban and rural and modern and traditional that I think could play out in any country with just the local symbolism tweaked.  The significance and content of Shinto beliefs and practices depicted, particularly kuchikamizake, are made pretty explicit, so although foreign to the vast majority of the non-Japanese audience, I feel like this movie also has nearly no barrier to entry for people not familiar with the cultural context, so I don’t want to rate it very high on this scale.

Ass: Look.  It involves teenagers switching bodies.  What do you think they do?  Especially Taki?  But it’s played for laughs, not titillation.

Shit: This movie is beautiful and punched me in the feels and was very satisfying.  The closest I have to a complaint about any aspect of it is that the musical breaks that I guess are supposed to mark acts of the movie almost make it feel like binge-watching a short series instead of watching a single self-contained movie.

[duhragonball]

shadowjack12345 replied to your photo “Got a commission this week by the awesome FrauleinPflaume, and it...”

Nice to finally see Zatte, I always liked her - she's dangerous in a way we don't often get in DB.

Hey, thanks, that means a lot to me.    Also, this is all the prompting I need to try to explain how I came up with the character.   Spoilers under the cut.

The thing that held me up early on was that I couldn’t decide if Luffa’s “career” in the past should be long or short.   I used the Bardock: Father of Goku TV special as a model of a “short” Luffa arc.    You have this character who’s only mentioned in passing (by Raditz), and the TV special fleshes him out and kills him off in the space of an hour.   Then he wakes up in the past in the 2011 “Episode of Bardock” Special, if you want to count that.    On some level, I imagined it could be possible to give Luffa a really quick run in her native era, and then send her to the future to join the TIme Patrol, like the Bardock specials.   

I worked on Chapter 126 and 127 today, so I think it’s clear that I did not go down that route.   I knew the alternative would be to really flesh out the character, having her go through multiple adventures like Goku in Dragon Ball.   That meant I had to come up with extra stuff for her to do.   The simple fact is that I really enjoyed writing the character, and I wanted to take the long road, so that later on, when she refers to her past exploits, there would be some weight to them.   

So I worked on coming up with stuff for her to do in between major plot points.   I thought about giving her some love interests, since we’d never seen a Saiyan character jump from one relationship to another, like Spider-Man in the 70′s.   At some point, I thought it might be interesting to have her run into an old flame, someone who knew her before she went Super.   

The problem with that was that when we first meet Luffa, she’s only 19 years old, and she’s been married to Kandai for about a year.    And she’s been living on the Dorlun colony for about five years.    I say this like someone else foisted this problem on me, but I’m the one who came up with all that stuff, to better amplifly the tragedy she experiences before turning Super Saiyan.   This isn’t some seasoned veteran who’s been all over the universe, loving and leaving ‘em from one planet to the next.     She’s young and inexperienced and isolated in a very small community.    

But I still liked the idea, and I hadn’t published Chapters 1-10 yet, so I still had a lot of room to set things up for later.   I realized the only way this would work would be if the “old flame” was a Dorlun who had admired Luffa from afar.    And that led me to Captain Mesas, the leader of the Dorlun militia.  

Mesas originally served only one purpose, which was to be a sort of proxy who could represent the entire Dorlun colony that Luffa had been hired to defend.   I assigned her gender at random, I think.    I just know that I didn’t put a ton of thought into it, since I was planning to kill all of the Dorluns off later anyway.   Luffa would take this personally, because she came to appreciate these people without really admitting it, and this would be demonstrated by her respect for Mesas, who was their lead warrior, and thus the most Saiyan-like of the bunch.   Eventually, I renamed her Captain Zatte, because I had settled on naming all the Dorlun characters after anagrams of metric prefixes, i.e. “zetta”.  

So I quickly came to the conclusion that the only way this “reunited with an old flame” idea would work would be if it was a Dorlun, and the only one that would make any sense would have to be Zatte, and the only way that could work would be if there was some sort of romantic tension between them.    They couldn’t be lovers in those early chapters because Luffa was married at the time, but later, there would need to be a moment where Zatte would confess her feelings and Luffa would have to feel the same way.   

And this is how I ended up making Luffa bisexual.    I didn’t want Zatte to be a man, and I couldn’t make Luffa gay, because I needed her to start out in a marriage to a Saiyan man.   Too much of the plot depended upon that.   I struggled with this decision for a couple of reasons.   

First, I wasn’t sure I could pull it off, and I didn’t know if I wanted this story to be my first try, because I was already trying to do a lot of other new tricks.   I didn’t want real-world wlw’s to see this story and be disappointed by my amateurish attempt to get it right.    

Second, I felt disingenuous about making such a major change to the character for my own convenience.    I felt like I’d seen that a lot in comic books over the years, where writers would seemingly assign bisexuality to characters arbitrarily, or for “shock” value, or just to be salacious.  I didn’t want readers to think I was only doing this for shallow reasons, or to get my jollies writing two girls making out.  

But at the same time, I really wanted to do it this way, and I finally decided to just go with it and see where it took me.   In hindsight, I realize that I was just being a fraidy cat about the whole thing.   Writing wlw romance isn’t so functionally different from mlw romance, and once I got used to the idea, I realized the only thing I needed to do was to treat it with the proper respect.    And really, this wasn’t so far off from the original premise.    I wanted to make the “Legendary Super Saiyan” a woman to defy convention and to piss off dudebros.    Making her queer just continues that same line of reasoning, right?   I used to see jackasses on the internet say that women couldn’t turn Super Saiyan because they couldn’t “get angry enough,” which is pretty similar to a lot of biphobic crap I’ve heard on the internet.    I mean, I used to listen to Loveline on the radio around 2001, and Dr. Drew was acting like bisexuality was some made-up thing.    Apparently Dr. Drew went nuts somewhere along the way, or maybe he always was, but he seemed pretty progressive in 2001, and he accepted gay and lesbian callers just fine, but he told bi callers to “figure out what they want”, and that never sat right with me.   People used to say there were no such things as black swans, too.    That’s Luffa all over.     You can deny her all you want, but she’ll still kick your ass.  

I’m this close to going off on a rant about J.K. Rowling, so let me try to force myself to talk about Zatte here.    The problem I ran into almost immediately was that I wrote what I had originally planned for her, and I was very pleased with how it turned out.  And then I had to move on to the next arc, and yet, she was still there, and I knew I’d have to do something with her.    I feel like I’ve been winging it ever since, but my main priority was to set her apart from Keda, the other Dorlun character I kept around.  So I ran with the idea that Zatte is more “Saiyan-like” than the rest of her species, and maybe that makes her a little radical at times, maybe not in a way we humans might notice, but a way that other Dorluns would find unsettling.   Dorluns are survivalists, and for them “risk” is a four-letter word, but Zatte’s a thrillseeker at heart.   She wants to survive in spite of the dangers rather than back away from them.    Keda would find somewhere to hide for several months until it’s safe to come out, but Zatte would try to go all Die Hard on a situation.   Keda sticks close to Luffa because Luffa is the strongest person in the universe, so by Luffa’s side is arguably the safest place to be.    Zatte sticks close to Luffa because she’s a furry being by Luffa’s side is arguably the most dangerous place to be.    If she can survive there, she can survive anywhere.  

There’s also the whole fanaticism angle.   At some point, I came up with the idea that Zatte sees Luffa’s Super Saiyan emergence as a watershed moment in history.     I sort of threw that together, mostly to make Luffa uncomfortable and to add some tension to their relationship, but it also distinguishes Zatte from characters like Chi-Chi or Bulma, who see Super Saiyan as a lot of flashy nonsense, signifying nothing.    “Punk rocker?   Don’t you understand?   Your son is a miracle!”

That angle is kind of hard for me to work with, because I also tried to make Zatte very grounded at the same time.    I guess it’s like if you had Jerusalem Syndrome but you were very self-aware the entire time.   You make a toga out of your hotel linens and just constantly saying “Man, I’m just being really nutty right now, but oh well.”

A lot of her tactics are sort of rooted in stuff I thought made sense with the weaker characters in Dragon Ball.   I don’t really know how strong Zatte would be.    I envisioned her as being like a “mere mortal”, like Lois Lane, but in Dragon World even guys like Mr. Satan are insanely tough.   I’m pretty sure Bulma could kick Brock Lesnar’s ass if she visited our own world.   He’d F5 her and she’d just get up and slap him in the face and he’d collapse.    I feel like if Zatte entered the 23rd Budokai, she could sweep the entire thing.   That’s not what I set out to do, and it sounds really arrogant because I’d be putting her over Goku and Piccolo, but come on, that’s low-tier by DBZ standards.   If she couldn’t dominate the 23rd Budokai, then definitely the 22nd, which also sounds unthinkable, but that’s how this crazy show works.   Yajirobe could have won the 22nd Budokai if he’d only thought to enter it.   

My point is that “weaker” characters can do a lot from the sidelines if they know their limits and pick their spots, like Tien using the Kikoho on Cell and Super Buu, or Yajirobe cutting off Vegeta’s tail, and so forth.    Most of those guys hate resorting to that sort of thing, because they prefer to stand and fight in the open, but Zatte specializes in sneaky hit-and-run attacks.   She should be able to shoot ki blasts, but she sticks to firearms instead, because they’re more precise and ki senses can’t pick them up.  She likes being underestimated, to the point where her ideal battle is one where the enemy doesn’t even know she’s on the field.  

I dunno, I’ve always wondered if I was getting her “right” all this time, but now that I summarize it all in one place, it doesn’t seem as disjointed as I feared.   I had all these different things I needed her to be and do, and most of them involved finding ways to justify her continued presence in the story, but maybe it’s all worked out after all.   Sometimes I feel like Zatte is the Yoko Ono of this fic, but the Beatles suck, so I shouldn’t indulge in their crude analogies.    I Zatted my way into this mess, and I’m happy to Zatte my way out.    

[beatriceeagle]

Does race truly matter when discussing a show like Farscape? Anthony Simcoe, Virginia Hey, Gigi Edgley, Wayne Pygram and Jonathan Hardy are all white, certainly, but D'Argo, Zhaan, Scorpius and Rygel aren't. Would anything have been significantly different had they been portrayed by people of color? I'm not sure. Zhaan would still be a woman in blue makeup, for instance. Scorpius, furthermore, is biracial. That was crucial to his character, but his actor's ethnicity didn't impact that.

Yes, race matters when discussing a show like Farscape. Race matters when discussing all shows. Even if a show takes place in a world where human race doesn’t exist, it was made in our world, where race very much does. So it’s always worth asking, “How does race play into how this series was created? How does it affect what I’m seeing on screen?”

In the case of D’Argo, Zhaan, Chiana, Scorpius, and Rygel, it’s true that no matter who played them, they would not have an easily visible human race, nor would they have a canonical human race. (Although I rather suspect that if Scorpius had been played by a darker-skinned actor, his makeup would have been darker to match; they were trying to emulate a Sebacean skin tone, and his prosthetics were actually semi-translucent.) But if any of those characters were played by an actor of color, there would, without question, be one concrete difference: An actor of color would have a job.

The discussions about casting in underrepresented roles—who gets to play minorities, trans people, and people with disabilities—are not just motivated by the idea that it’s offensive to have a white, cis, or abled person play outside their experience. They’re motivated by the fact that traditionally, people of color, trans people, and people with disabilities have a much harder time getting acting work, especially major roles, than white, cis, abled people do. So the idea is that they should, at the very least, get to play the roles that are written about people like them.

D’Argo, Zhaan, Chiana, Scorpius, and Rygel could have been played by actors of any race, but they were all played by white actors. It’s not specifically Farscape’s job to solve diversity in casting, and I have no idea what the casting process for the show looked like, and obviously the actors who ended up in those roles are all phenomenally talented. But the fact is, Farscape didn’t take any steps toward fixing the fact that actors of color find it hard to get roles.

Also, it’s conceivable that being played by actors of color could have had an impact on these characters’ portrayal. Farscape tangled with questions of race a lot, although rarely along lines that strictly mapped to human ideas. D’Argo is the father of a mixed-race child, and experiences years of persecution for that; Aeryn has to unlearn a lifetime of ideas about racial supremacy; and as you mention, Scorpius is biracial, and has a lot of baggage around that fact. Now, I don’t think that only a biracial person should be allowed to play a biracial alien. And hiring actors of color is no substitute for hiring diversely behind-the-scenes. But as someone who has written, directed, and cast web series, I can tell you: Having someone around who has actual insight on the material absolutely makes a difference. Given the amount of creative input that the actors on Farscape ended up having, who’s to say that having actors of color in some of those roles, or a biracial actor playing Scorpius, wouldn’t have changed the tenor, or even the substance, of some of those plotlines? D’Argo, Aeryn, and Scorpius all have fascinating storylines—but I have no idea what they could have been if there had been more people of color involved in the creation of Farscape. I’ll never know.

And let’s set aside the characters whose race we can’t see, and talk about the characters whose race we can. For all that we talk about how alien the aliens of Farscape are, probably half the aliens we see on screen are Sebaceans—which is to say, outwardly indistinguishable from humans. And unless I’m very much mistaken, in four seasons, the only Sebaceans we meet who aren’t white are Crais and his family. Sebaceans may not care about or think about skin color in the way that humans do, but they have a skin color, and it seems to be the same on every single one of them.

And that’s not even taking into account Jool and the Interions, Sikozu and the Kalish, Noranti, Stark, the Eidolons, and a dozen one-off species who, while clearly alien, are also clearly white. The very few nonwhite humanoids we meet—the islanders in “Jeremiah Crichton,” Taalika the spider woman in “Twice Shy”—are uniformly kind of unfortunately cast.

Having aliens with a visible humanoid race, and having that race default, every time, to white, establishes whiteness as a norm. A galactic norm. And that’s not only unsettling in its implications—it undercuts the very thematic point that Farscape is trying to make! Farscape should be full of aliens who look nothing like John Crichton. But instead, Farscape, in this one way, reinforces Crichton’s centrality.

My migraine is getting better, but feel free to keep sending me meta asks!

[gojira007]

In the name of the season- Top Five Horror Media (Books, Video Games, Film, etc)

Well well well a real Swinging-For-the-Fences Ask right outthe gate eh?  Alright let’s do this!  I’m going to cheat a littlethough; the broad scope of mediums makes it a little hard toreally boil it down so instead I’m going to pick a favorite from one of eachmedium to try and keep it SOMEWHAT manageable!  But otherwise?  Let’sdo this!

Book: “Frankenstein (Or The Modern Prometheus)” byMary Shelley

So back in College I actually wound up reading a bunch ofClassic Horror Fiction for the first time as part of a course about the waymonsters represent cultural anxieties of their era, like proto-Gothic “TheMonk” or “Dracula”...and found a lot of them pretty tedious or boring(seriously gaiz “Dracula” the book suuuuuuuuucks). But “Frankenstein”?  That one genuinely managed to impress the hellout of me!  It shows its age in some respects, sure, but far more often itis a shockingly Modern piece with impressively ambitious aims as it tacklesexistential themes like how one defines “Life” as technology advances andwe grow ever closer to being able to make it in ways almost completely removedfrom Nature...or perhaps even more importantly what our responsibility is tothe things we create along the way.  The central Drama between ProfessorVictor Von Frankenstein and his monstrous creation really does work, and theprose has a fantastically poetic quality to it that elevates the wholething.  This became one of the foundational texts of the genre for adamned good reason, in other words.

TV Series: “The Twilight Zone” createdby Rod Serling

It’s honestly funny to consider how few explicitlyhorror-themed TV shows there really are in the medium’s history; even my pickfor the best of the bunch is just as often a science-fiction parable asanything else.  But Horror of all sorts, be it physical, mental, orexistential, did ultimately wind up being “The Twilight Zone”’s mosticonic stock in trade, so to my mind it qualifies.  And naturally, likeany Anthology series, there are definitely better and worse stories toldthroughout the full scope of the series.  But even at its absoluteworst “The Twilight Zone” is always striving to do thething Horror does best: make us think by confronting us with the things we mostfear.  The life we didn’t get to lead, the threat we don’t know orunderstand, the people we don’t trust...in many ways it’s really all so muchmodernization of the Morality Fables of old, but for that exact reason I findthe show remarkably effective in demonstrating that many of those morals do infact remain relevant regardless of when we learn or re-experience them; thelessons “The Twilight Zone” taught were old-hat by the time it aired yetthey still resonated then.  And they’re even older-hat now...but perhapsthe greatest most frightening thing about the show is realizing how very muchthey still mean something to our modern world.

Video Game: Bottom of the Well from “TheLegend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time”

I realize selecting a single level from a Video Game ratherthan a Video Game as a whole may seem a bit unsporting but I can’t lie: I neverreally experienced most of the Horror Game classics-your “Resident Evil”sor your “Silent Hill”s-until I was a bit too old and guarded for themto really affect me; not to say they weren’t effective at allbut they simply did not have the chance to get as profoundly under my skin asthis Dungeon from the iconic N64 “Zelda” title.  Because let me tellyou, playing this area as a kid?  Was viscerally terrifying. It isn’t just the presence of memorably horrific enemies like the Re-Dead orespecially the nightmarish Dead Hand, either; the entire atmosphere of thearea, dank and claustrophobic with filthy carcass-like meat decorating thefloors and only dim torch light to show you the way, combined with the simplebut unnerving music, sets the whole stage apart from the rest of thegame.  Which is really what clinches it for me: the Bottom of the Wellisn’t just frightening in the details, but because it represents an unnervingand unsettling intrusion into a world that up until that pointwouldn’t have seemed to have the dangerous and fearful things it contains.

Music: “Halloween” by John Carpenter

In this case I feel pretty good to just let the music itselfdo the talkin’.

Movie: “The Thing” directed by John Carpenter

Make no mistake, this was far and away the hardest one topick.  More so than almost any othermedium, Film is the one that encompasses what Horror “is” for a lot of mygeneration, which means there are so many great choices to pick from; Inearly did a whole other top 5 JUST for movies. “The Haunting”, “Alien”, “Halloween”, the remake of “The Fly”, “A Nightmareon Elm Street”, “Hellraiser”, “The Sixth Sense”, “It Follows”…and that’s noteven touching foreign classics like “House”, “Demons”, or “The Babadook”!  But in the end if I had to pick the one Irevisit the most?  The one I think aboutthe most often?  It’s John Carpenter’sspectacularly gory, existentially frightening, brilliantly constructed “TheThing”, less a remake of the 1950’s classic “The Thing From Another World” thana more faithful adaptation of its source material, the short story “Who GoesThere?”.  This is a firing-on-all-cylindersmovie, is the thing; not just a white-knuckle tense story with some of the mostsingularly amazing effects work ever put to film, but one which uses all its individually-excellentelements-the acting, the effects, the cinematograph-to make a cogent andcutting point.  About the power ofparanoia, about the fear of disease, about what it means for Humanity to staredown the barrel of an adversary that cannot be simply defeated but which simultaneouslymust be for our species to survive. John Carpenter is justly thought of today as an unimpeachable Master ofthe genre, and to my mind this is the movie that most singularly cements thatfact as undeniable.

[frenchie-sottises]

Have some more NES Godzilla Headcannons

I got someone saying they wanted more, so this is for you and anyone else who wanted to see more.

These are going to be more on the world building.

Also, I know most kaiju technically don’t have genders, but in my world, they do, so just a heads up.

Also, these headcannons are heavily inspired by a friend of mine on dA. They’ve made some amazing NES Godzilla art that y’all should check out. (ArandomVelociraptor.)

World Building

- Solomon and Red are brothers. They’re half-brothers, different mothers, same father, but they’re brothers nonetheless.

- Their father is an intermixed species of the two. Solomon’s mom was the same species as him just as Red’s mom was the same species as him.

- Red’s species are called Arachnids while Solomon’s species are called Bluefurs.

- Based on what humans have studied, these two species can voluntarily mate, allowing the two to create intermixed offspring. Unlike what happens with mules, these offspring are not “sterile,” meaning they can have offspring of their own. This suggests that both the Arachnids and Bluefurs share the same number of chromosomes that match up perfectly, leading the offspring not having any trouble creating kids of their own.

- The offspring of the intermixed species don’t seem to stick with one particular appearance. Some offspring can have more traits of the Bluefurs while others have more traits of the Arachnids. It’s rare to have a perfectly balanced intermixed offspring.

- As a result of them almost never being a perfect balance of the two, the ones with more Bluefur traits are called “Blurachnids” while the ones with more Arachnid traits are called “Arachfurs.” As far as the perfectly balanced ones, there is no name, that’s just how rare they are.

- Bluefurs got their name due to about 80% of them being blue just like Solomon. However, there are two other colors, those being dark green and black. Green is, by far, the rarest color of the Bluefurs. They also have, at least, three different eye colors: Light blue, jade, and aquamarine. Orange has been seen in a green Bluefur, Sebastian, but he is the only one with orange eyes. This suggests that orange is a mutation, making Sebastian a rarity. Solomon having red eyes just means he was influenced by demonic powers and has been “scarred.”

- Arachnids got their name because of their nest making. They can’t spin any web, but their nests often have intricate designs, thus giving the appearance of spider webs. An arachnid, like Red, is often seen sporting the most common color, red. There are three other colors: Flax, royal blue, and salmon with the last one being the rarest. The whole eye color thing is a bit harder to determine since pretty much all of them just sport the black, hollow eyes with the white pupils. Red is the only recorded Arachnid to have red in his eyes, but it only seems to appear when he’s angry about something or someone.

- A young Arachnid, Arachfur, or Blurachnid reaches a point in its life where it learns to transform its limbs. If this does not happen, it may have something related to a genetic disorder. The gene for this transmutation is speculated to be a dominant gene as pretty much all offspring that show any traits of the Arachnid species have been recorded using this ability. This disorder isn’t an instant death sentence, but it will make the kaiju’s life significantly harder.

- Most Bluefurs have been recorded as calm, collective kaiju. They only fight for territory and when they feel threatened, but most of them get along with humans and other kaiju quite well.

- Most Arachnids don’t mind the presence of humans and other kaiju, but they are far more playful than the Bluefurs. They rough house so much that it’s difficult to tell if they’re actually fighting or not.

- Arachnids and Arachfurs have this unsettling ability to tear off their own limbs and eat them when there’s a famine, but the limbs grow back.

- Let’s not forget that in order to know what the differences are between Arachfurs and Blurachnids, Arachfurs share the body of the Arachnids while Blurachnids share the body of the Bluefurs.

- When a group of Bluefurs and Blurachnids have offspring, they’ll huddle all their babies together and form a ring of protection as they grow big enough to start defending themselves. The Arachfurs can join in too, but this isn’t a common practice for them.

- Blurfurs and Blurachnids are often found in caves while Arachnids and Arachfurs are found in huge nests in gigantic trees.

- Male Bluefurs and Blurachnids show off by puffing up their fur and spreading their wings to their preferred mates when the time of season comes around. Sometimes they’ll fight others of their kind, but it mainly happens with Arachnids and Arachfurs as they’re known for being overly energetic.

- Male Arachnids and Arachfurs do a dance that’s unique to the individual kaiju in order to earn their mates. They’ll also dance up to their preferred mates and will either nuzzle them, nip them, or both. If there’s a contestor nearby, they’ll fight them off as soon as possible.

I’ll do more if anyone’s interested still. Also, Sebastian is one of three NES Godzilla OCs I’ve made.

[eternityunicorn]

Remember Me? - Part Two

Author: eternityunicorn 

Genre: Romance/Drama/AU

Pairing: Elijah Mikaelson x OC

Warnings: Violence, Smut (*Smut chapters marked +18)

Summary: Set in TO Season 5 - Elijah Mikaelson didn’t know who he was, but he had stopped searching for answers. Instead, of trying to discover his true identity, he settled in a small village in the south of France, spending his days as a musician. Then a mysterious woman begins to show up, night after night, to drive him insane, when he refuses to return to his old life with her. However, his course is set as he learns more about the woman and the past he left behind, leading him down an emotional path of infidelity, betrayal, and heartbreak. Can he ever put the broken pieces back together?

NOTE: OC and original elements are from my up and coming novel series!

AUTHOR’S COMMENTARY: This chapter is based on TO Season 5, Episode 6.

———————————————————————————————————

That night had proved to not be the last that Elijah saw of the mysterious, yet familiar woman from his past. Though she did not show back up until a few days after their last meeting. Once again, Eternity stood at the bar, watching him as he played at the piano. He had been surprised to see her there, after she disappeared that night he confronted her, but found he was also mildly pleased, despite himself.

Unlike in their past encounters, Eternity didn’t remain standing across the room for long. 

“Do I have any requests?” Elijah asked the gathered crowd, trying to ignore the pale beauty.

When he made this inquiry, the shimmering beauty came floating over, coming to stand in front of the piano with her hands spread out upon it. “I do,” she answered with a flirtatious smile, “but it is a duet. Mind if I join you?”

He returned her smile with a small, curt one of his own as he scooted over to one side of the piano bench and nodded to it, “Sure.”

With that same regal grace, she went around the piano and sat down beside him. Putting her hands on the keys, she began to play a modern tune, one that Elijah hadn’t heard before. It was hauntingly beautiful and soon, he found himself joining in, despite not knowing the music. It was as if his fingers had minds of their owns, as if he knew the tune on some subconscious level. They played together perfectly, he and the beauty beside him, as if they had been playing together for years. Perhaps they had.

“It seems that some part of you still remembers,” commented Eternity quietly, glancing at him. “We used to play this tune together all the time.”

“Did we now? Sorry, I cannot recall,” he quipped with a smirk. “I seem to have some sort of amnesia.”

Eternity laughed lightly and shook her head at him.

Elijah felt such joy hearing that melodious sound and that profound connection he felt toward her only increased with it. He couldn’t resist it if he tried - and he did try.

Then suddenly, Antoinette made an appearance, breaking the spell between them. “Elijah?” She questioned upon seeing them together, the surprise and subtle jealousy evident on her face.

He immediately got up from behind the piano and went to her, kissing her lips quickly in apology. “Sorry, Eternity was just teaching me a new-old tune on the piano,” he said weakly, turning to look at the pale beauty, only to find she had disappeared...again.

Elijah tried not to let his disappointment show. Then he felt Antoinette pull on his arm to gain his attention. He turned to her with a small smile that was as fake as they come, but one he tried to pass off as genuine anyway.

“Come on, love,” she said with a hint of sadness in her sweet voice. “The sun is about to rise. We should head back.”

Without hesitation and a simple nod, he followed her out. All the while, Eternity was on his mind.

That day, as he slept beside his fiancée, he dreamed of the ethereal beauty who would not leave him alone. He saw her round, childlike face and she was smiling at him with those big, sparkling sapphire eyes of hers. He reached for her automatic, embracing her, kissing her, then making love to her. She didn’t speak and neither did he. They were simply together - beautifully happy. 

When night fell and Elijah rose from slumber, all he could think about was Eternity, despite attempting very hard not to. He didn’t consciously know her or love her, but some subconscious part of him remembered and cared for her still. He couldn’t escape it, no matter what and it drove him crazy!

Then, like a saving grace to his sanity, a distraction came knocking at the door. 

Curious, Antoinette answered it and found a fellow vampire the other side, looking weary and weak. “Mother! What happened to you?” She asked, nervously.

“The path to redemption is long and winding...but worthy,” Antoinette’s mother replied, just as Elijah came to stand by his fiancée with her intertwining their fingers in comfort. The weary female vampire looked at him and said, “Elijah, yes? What a pleasure it is to finally meet you.”

There was something eerie and ominous about her. Because of that, he hesitated slightly, before nodding, “And you.”

Of course, Antoinette let her mother into their apartment and before long, the woman, Greta Sienna, started to look less weary and more at full strength. Elijah had prepared a modest meal for the three of them, so that they could talk about whatever had brought the unsettling woman to them.

His fiancée seemed suspicious of her own mother, especially with the quick and strange phone call his soon-to-be mother-in-law made during dinner. Then Antoinette had pointed out how Greta was wearing a daylight ring, something that went against the purist vampire teachings, making his lady even more wary.

“I'm sure you didn't get a daylight ring just to see me,” his fiancée said. 

As Greta poured them more wine, she replied, “No. I've been wearing one for years. But your father believed, at times, the ends justify the means.”

Curious, Elijah asked, “And what means were those?”

“Our movement recognizes the superiority of our species,” Greta explained, “and works to protect the sanctity and purity of the true vampire.”

With a slight scoff, Antoinette chimed in, “By wearing a ring and acting like a daywalker?”

“By infiltrating those who need reeducation,” her mother corrected. “The daywalkers are in denial of their natural state. They live as though they've never died and been chosen for something better than being merely human.”

“Yeah, perhaps they don't know the peace that comes with removing the ring,” commented Elijah.

“No, Elijah, they don't,” Greta agreed. “But...our work is paying off. We've taken hold.”

“Doesn't explain your sudden visit,” Antoinette said, gazing curiously at her mother.

It was obvious to Elijah that there was some tension between mother and daughter. He didn’t know the story behind that, other than it was Greta’s teachings that Antoinette followed, the very same that she had taught to him in his reeducation on how to be a vampire. He enjoyed the purist form of vampirism. It was freeing and he could understand why one might try to push it on others of their kind. 

“No,” Greta admitted, “but I believe Roman may be in danger.”

Immediately, Elijah’s fiancée was on alert. Worry marred her expression and tainted her voice as she urgently asked, “What's happened?”

“It's my fault, really,” answered Greta regretfully. “Your brother wanted to go away to school, and I...I indulged him. But now I've learned that he's gotten mixed up with Hope Mikaelson. He's quite fond of her. But the moment her father finds out that she's involved with a Sienna...”

“He'll kill him,” finished Antoinette, very worried now for her brother.

“Roman won't stand a chance against him,” her mother said gravely. “That's why I'm here. The only one strong enough to stop Klaus Mikaelson, save your brother's life...”

 “Is me,” Elijah finished, knowingly. “I’ll do it. I’ll go.”

“Good,” Greta smiled almost wolfishly. “I’m glad to hear it and I am forever grateful.”

Later, after Antoinette’s mother left. They discussed this mission of his, as he packed to make the journey to New Orleans. He was full of determination, wanting to protect his new family. So focused was he that he didn’t even think about Eternity or the dreams he kept having of her.

“My mother had no right to put this on you,” his lady said, exasperatedly.

“She's just protecting her son,” he replied, as he moved about the bedroom, readying himself for the trip.

Antoinette was clearly bothered by this whole thing, not liking the idea of him going at all, as well as being worried for her brother. “Greta is complicated,” she sighed. “And obviously her views are pretty extreme. But, yes, she does love Roman. So do I.”

Curiously, he asked, “You never told me how it was Greta came to be your mom.”

“All those years ago, after I was staked and stoned by my village, I was left for dead,” Antoinette explained to him. “I could feel my life slipping away when Greta found me. She saw something in me and turned me. I call her mother because...she gave me life. I-I owe her everything.”

He smiled confidently, “So my path is clear.”

As he moved past her, he paused and he kissed her lips tenderly.

“I don't want you having anything to do with your family,” insisted his fiancée, obviously trying to convince him not to go. He realized that she was afraid to lose him. If not to his family, then perhaps to Eternity, whom had been waiting for him to go home to New Orleans. “This is my problem,” she said weakly.”

“You are my family,” he smiled tenderly, as he neared her. “Your joy is my joy.” He paused to put on his daylight ring, then finished, “Therefore, your problem is my problem.”

“No, this is asking too much,” she murmured worriedly.

Elijah shook his head, “No, it's not. Your mother is right. I am the only one with the power to protect your brother from Klaus.” He cupped her neck in both hands to gaze into her eyes meaningfully. “Now just let me go. And after the sun sets and it's safe for you to travel, you come and join us.” He kissed her lips again, more passionately than before. Then, pulling away he saw her uncertainty, and with concern, asked, “Hey. What is it?”

Realizing she couldn’t stop him from going, Antoinette sighed in defeat and whispered, “Thank you.” Then she pulled him to her and hugged him tightly, before letting him go with a brave face.

The next day, Elijah found himself outside New Orleans, at an old abandoned farmhouse. Klaus Mikaelson, along with a pretty blonde companion he of course didn’t recognize, rolled up. The hybrid quickly moved toward the building, ready to kill Roman and anyone else that was part of Greta’s cause. The blonde followed and Elijah moved silently, stealthily snapping the woman’s neck before she could get far.

Then he went after Klaus, just as his brother turned to face him with a surprised look on his face to see him there at all. “What are you doing here?” He asked Elijah.

“Protecting my family,” Elijah replied, just as he snapped off the handle of an old shovel and threw it at the hybrid, who dodged it easily. 

An incredulous look crossed Klaus’s face as he raged, “They're your family? Hope is in there!”

Unmoved, he coolly stated, “It's not my problem.”

“Well, what about Hayley? Your sister-in-law, my wife, Hope’s mother!” His brother tried.

Gazing threateningly, Elijah responded, “The woman I love has a brother in there, and you're not going in.”

“I see Eternity - your wife - couldn’t reach you either,” he said with a sigh and then in frustration, he growled, “She is the woman you love, not that harlot you met in France, the very one that’s part of that deranged Sienna family, our family’s old enemy! You surely break her heart by denouncing her and choosing that woman over her!”

“Antoinette is the woman I love and the woman I plan on spending my life with,” countered Elijah stubbornly, despite his conflicted feelings over the pale beauty. “I don’t care what came before! This is my life now! And as I said, you’re not going in there!”

“Well, it shows how little you actually remember your old life,” his brother said, “because if you did, you'd know there's no way you can stop me.”

Just as they were about to fight, there was a loud commotion that rang out from within the farmhouse, giving both men pause. The sound of a struggle could be heard and then, few moments later, nothing. There was utter silence, before Eternity emerged from the house with a woman limping beside her and a young teenage girl on her other side. 

A look of utter relief crossed Klaus’s face as he rushed to them, embracing the bloodied and bruised woman, then the young girl joyously. He kissed each of their faces over and over again in his relief that they were still alive, and now safe. Then he hugged Eternity and thanked her for her efforts to save them. 

Worry immediately crossed Elijah’s face as he saw the blood spatters that marred the ethereal beauty’s face, hands, and clothes. He feared that the boy he had come to save had been killed by her. He was troubled by the prospect of failing in his mission, as well was the idea of Eternity turning into his enemy.

“Where is Roman?” He demanded angrily. 

Eternity looked at him gravely, knowing already the reason why he had been there. It was obvious by the disappointed expression upon her face. “Roman is alright,” she told him, comfortingly, despite her sadness. “He is but a child and therefore, I let him go. Greta was not so fortunate, I’m afraid.”

Upon seeing the defensive stance he took at her revelation, she turned to Klaus then and said, “Get Hope and Hayley somewhere safe. Leave Elijah to me.”

The hybrid nodded, ushering his wife and daughter away to the car he had come in, while pausing to pick up the still unconscious blonde vampire on the way.

Once they were gone, Eternity approached him. “Greta was using you, you know,” she said. “She was using your amnesia to her advantage, as well as your relationship with her daughter, in an attempt to keep Niklaus busy long enough to allow her kill Hayley and Hope. She was to murder our sister-in-law and our niece for her own twisted cause, which you were naively helping further.”

Elijah stared at her unforgivingly, “You killed Greta.”

“Yes, I did,” she nodded unapologetically. “You’ve aligned yourself with a fascist vampire cult, lead by one, Greta Sienna, Elijah, because of your idiocy. You made a stupid, reckless move with good intentions by erasing your memories. You’ve caused more problems without them than you would have with them.” She sighed in frustration and threw her hands up, “and I don’t know if Niklaus will ever forgive you for it. You may have forever broken your family, which is usually your brother’s MO, by the way.”

Elijah didn’t know what to say or to think. He simply gaped at her speechlessly.

“It is a good thing I managed to intercept her plot,” she carried on, speaking more to herself than to him. “Though it’s not over. Her cult followers have infiltrated New Orleans and I must go help dismantle that evil movement, before it tears the city apart since our family has to remain separated.”

He gazed at her curiously, sensing that she was saying goodbye to him, before she actually said it. He felt his insides twist sickeningly at the very idea, despite her killing his fiancée’s mother and acting as his enemy.

“I’d ask you to come home again,” Eternity murmured with a sad smile that broke his heart, “to allow me to not only restore your memories, but to also put the Hollow down for good - to reunite our family, but I know it’s a fool’s errand. You have made your choice. I cannot stop you. I won’t force you back against your will, because that is not love - and I do love you. Instead, I will find another way of defeating the Hollow and I will let you go.”

Elijah continued to gape, as words kept on failing him every time he attempted them. He didn’t know what to say. What could he say? He had rejected her, just as he had chosen Antoinette’s family over the Mikaelsons. He felt as if it was too late to turn back, as if he were stuck on the path he was on.

“It is a shame, however,” the ethereal beauty mourned with a shaky voice. “It is a shame that our daughter will grow up without a father. Worse, a father that chose to forget her, to build a new life without her. By rejecting the Mikaelsons and I, you have rejected her.”

That snapped Elijah out of his stupor. “Daughter? How?” He asked quickly with uncertainty. “I thought vampires couldn’t procreate. Did we adopt?”

Eternity shook her head, “No, she is your biological child. It is true that typically vampires cannot have children, but I am not bound by the rules of this world and with my magic, I made it so that we could, along with the other Originals.”

“What’s her name?” He found himself asking before he could stop. 

“Arianna Katerina Mikaelson, but we call her Ari for short,” she told him...and then, “Goodbye, Elijah. I wish you nothing but happiness in your new life.”

Before he could get any words out to keep her there, Eternity vanished from sight, just like that. 

Elijah was left with his whirlwind thoughts. His head spun, while his heart ached. It was that part of him that remembered that caused it, it was as if that subconscious part of him that knew the truth was rebelling against his. It was like it was crying out in terrible grief from a loss that he was consciously unattached to. It was a strange feeling, to feel something so profound and yet feel absolutely nothing at the same time.

The sun was setting, Antoinette would be arriving soon. He would have to tell her about Greta...and about the daughter Eternity mentioned, as well as all he was feeling. He didn’t know what to do, what path to take. 

He did love Antoinette and he did want to spend his life with her. However, Eternity and the knowledge of their child threatened to pull him in a backwards direction, back to the family he swore he didn’t care about - that he swore he wanted nothing to do with. He wanted to go to New Orleans to see this daughter, to know her. The tug toward the child was strong, so strong he could barely resist it.

Perhaps, his lady’s worries about losing him had more merit than he realized.

With these troubling thoughts plaguing his mind, Elijah left the farmhouse to meet his fiancée since he didn’t know where Roman had gone to and couldn’t do anything more to help him. He was glad that the boy had managed to escape or rather that Eternity had let the boy go, feeling grateful to her for that mercy. Though, his gratitude only served to complicate him further, leaving him just that more chaotically aimless.

To Be Continued....

———————————————————————————————————

Tag List: @elejah-wonderland @dendrite-lover @xanderling @x-memi12 @elizamonet @esclisa @hawaiianohana31 @inmylifeilovedthemall @freshsuitcasewinnereagle @missnmikealson @lalabluues @loulouisa @lolelijahishot @teekillerin

[bearcentre-blog]

The most effective method to Save a Grizzly Bear from Hunters. Possibly.

Kelly Mayor experienced childhood in Wyoming in a group of trackers. "My father and sibling chase," Mayor says. "My significant other is a tracker. His family are trackers. We as a rule have game meat in our cooler." Typically, the 56-year-old aesthetician has no issue with chasing.

"Yet, I do have an issue with trophy chasing," Mayor says—that is, the murdering of a huge creature for no other explanation than game and gloating rights.

So when Mayor heard recently that the province of Wyoming would hold its first mountain bear chase in over four decades, the news didn't agree with her. She before long found out about a crusade that encouraged grizzly chasing rivals to apply for a chasing label that they could never utilize. She applied, one of in excess of 7,000 individuals who did. What's more, she won.

Civic chairman's triumphant draw gave her label number two out of ten to chase in what the Wyoming Game and Fish Department has called "center regions" outside of Yellowstone National Park, which is home to most by far of 700 grizzlies in and around the recreation center. Late this mid year or early this fall, Mayor will get a ten-day window to head into the forested areas, with no other bear trackers around. Rather than a firearm, nonetheless, Mayor will "shoot them with a camera," as the challenge crusade desires.

Popular natural life picture taker Tom Mangelsen additionally joined the challenge and won label number eight to chase a grizzly in what the state calls center "appropriate living space" territories. Taking all things together, the state will consider up to 22 bears to be taken, albeit the greater part of those won't originate from the center zone close to Yellowstone, however from a more extensive zone around the recreation center that the state regards as less reasonable living space for bears and where it says they come into more clash with people. The season will keep running from September 15 to November 15. (It begins two weeks sooner in the less appropriate environment.)

In the center grizzly chasing region, the chase there closures when ten guys bears or the primary female is shot. At the point when his turn comes, Mangelsen says he'll be out there with his long focal point. "The expectation would be that we would spare a bear or two, and perhaps three or four," he says, accepting that others, still obscure, might have labels and may have comparative plans not to chase. Just he and Mayor have made their arrangements open up until this point, and for that Mangelsen says he has gotten a passing danger.

The government expelled more prominent Yellowstone's grizzlies from the jeopardized species list in 2017, saying the populace had adequately recuperated. Idaho and Wyoming before long made arrangements to begin a grizzly chase. (Montana is as yet thinking about a chase however ruled against beginning it this year.) Renny MacKay, a representative for the Wyoming Game and Fish Department, says the state is holding a chase on the grounds that the populace has recouped, that it is conceivable to hold a chase without harming their numbers, and, ultimately, in light of the fact that trackers need one. In any case, clearly not every person in the network does.

Executing a bear isn't simply slaughtering one bear, Mangelsen says. He makes reference to a much-captured grizzly in the Grand Teton region called Bear 399—"the most popular bear who at any point lived," in Mangelsen's words—who has had 17 or 18 posterity.

Wyoming isn't the main spot where activists have tried different things with this kind of challenge. English Columbia, which as of not long ago held a grizzly chase, grappled with its very own debate over shooting the bears, and among adversaries there was a development to "swamp the lottery," says Kyle Artelle, a scholar at the Raincoast Conservation Foundation and a postdoctoral individual at the University of Victoria. Some ecotourism hotels offered to host endure survey trips for the individuals who won a tag and would not like to chase with it, Artelle says.

Be that as it may, blocking one bear from biting the dust is definitely not a valuable dissent, contends Sy Gilliland, VP of the Wyoming Outfitters and Guides Association. On the off chance that the amount of bears executed isn't arrived at this year, the state will just build the quantity of bears that can be taken in following years, he says. Surely that is the thing that may have happed in British Columbia. "We don't comprehend why a few associations are eager to have this bear kept running at a level that is path bigger than its conveying limit, to the impairment of its species."

The challenge, as per Gilliland, is "simply showing off, with no advantage for the natural life."

Beside briefly securing individual bears, the Wyoming dissent may demonstrate progressively compelling in different ways. One is by attracting consideration regarding the issue. "It's most likely effectively compelling down there, in view of the way that it's everywhere throughout the press," Artelle says. (It didn't hurt that Jane Goodall pursued the lottery.)

Thus, dissidents trust the open consideration converts into open shock. One factor that at long last reversed the situation in British Columbia against grizzly chasing was open resistance to a trophy chase, "which is subjectively not quite the same as a chase for subsistence," or meat, Artelle says. Overviews of the B.C. open in the long run indicated resistance running in the 90 percent extend against grizzly chasing, he says. "That is only unbelievable. We don't concur on whatever much up here in B.C." Then, before the end of last year, the area totally restricted the chasing of grizzlies.

Amusingly, what Mangelsen accepts would excite popular sentiment against the grizzly chase in the United States wouldn't be finished by a dissident by any means: the shooting of Bear 399. "Keep in mind Cecil the Lion?" he says. "Cecil's executing would be a piece of cake contrasted with the quantity of individuals who might be offended."

The dissidents trust their endeavors will likewise help kick off a discussion that is bigger than wild bears and progressively about how the state deals with its creatures. "From the start [our effort] was seen as harm. It's not attack," says Lisa Roberson, a 28-year occupant of Jackson, Wyoming, who is an individual from the grizzly dissent crusade. Chasing licenses frequently give most of subsidizing to untamed life programs, which gives trackers a lopsided voice, she says. In any case, that doesn't catch every one of the individuals who worth natural life for unexpected reasons in comparison to executing them. Chasing is on the decrease, even as natural life the travel industry proceeds with twofold digit builds, Robertson says. But, nonhunters have never truly been greeting into natural life the executives discussions, she says.

"We need our natural life on the scene," Robertson says.

It's indistinct how much footing this contention will get in Wyoming. Both the suppliers' affiliation and the state game and fish office call attention to that about $50 million was spent on grizzly recuperation in the course of recent decades. That cash originated from sportsmen's licenses and charges on open air gear. Today, individuals can photo grizzlies "while not adding to the state's endeavors," says MacKay of the Wyoming Game and Fish Department.

"That is horse crap," Mangelsen counters. Voyagers siphon considerably more than that into Wyoming every year when they come to see natural life, he says. Untamed life viewing is a $365 million industry in Wyoming, as indicated by 2016 figures from the University of Wyoming. That sum makes it almost identical to all spending by the two trackers and anglers in the express every year.

It is yet conceivable that quite a bit of these endeavors could be unsettled. Toward the month's end, a government judge will hold a consultation in a Montana court as a major aspect of a progressing claim brought by ecological gatherings. For every one of the expectations for the grizzly dissent, it is a judge who may have the last word on the creatures' destiny. If you are looking for more information about loud noise makers.

[douxreviews]

Star Trek: Discovery - ‘Such Sweet Sorrow’ Review

Pike: "Sometimes we know the role we play, sometimes we don't. I'm not sure which is better, to be honest."

By nature I love brevity: A fine piece of build-up. This show has filler, transitional episodes down to a science.

The aptly named 'Such Sweet Sorrow' is filled with goodbyes, framed around the countdown until the big event of the finale. On the one hand, I'm pleased with most of the emotional beats 'Sorrow' hits, and there are a lot of them. On the other, this is almost entirely set-up and build-up, and it gets a little tiresome when you know you'll have to wait a whole week for the resolution.

But, as I said, the emotional scenes are mostly well-realized, so let me unpack them. Probably the most disappointing of them was between Tyler and Burnham. It had to be done, and I expect the show is only passing him off to Michelle Yeoh's Section 31 series, but I continue to be thoroughly underwhelmed by Shazad Latif. I didn't mind him so much in the first season, but all throughout this one he's been delivering poor performance after poor performance, and his character has been of precious little use. I won't miss him here, but I have hope that he'll fare better on the Section 31 series as his interactions with Yeoh's Georgiou are easily the best the character has.

Next in line we have the unfinished, unresolved feel of Stamets and Culber's bumbling goodbye. I very strongly doubt the show is done with their relationship, so I don't believe for a second that it's going to end this way. Their conversation, too, was awkward and cut short, and that leaves the audience feeling that something isn't right, and it's still unsettled. If the show vaults the Disco into the future as it promises to, I expect that either Stamets and Culber will both be aboard, or they will both leave the show together. But their conversation does have value, as the discussion of 'forward motion' seems to be a promise about the series more than it is about the two of them. If the show ends up making the jump to somewhere in the future, that would be a huge step of forward motion. Fans have widely decried Discovery's status as a prequel, and a time jump would certainly at least begrudgingly placate some of them.

One emotional farewell seemed particularly out of place for plot reasons, and this was the surprise visit of Sarek and Amanda. These two have been a large part of the series so far, and it seemed fitting that James Frain and Mia Kirschner be brought back one last time. It's the method of doing this that didn't work. The purpose of the episode's numerous countdown timers is to give the plot a sense of urgency, and that was heightened for most of it by a sense of loneliness. The Disco and the Enterprise are supposed to be without reinforcements and without aid, but the arrival of Sarek and Amanda on a Vulcan ship that then just kind of left completely shattered this. If Sarek and Amanda had time to get there, surely at least a few Vulcan ships could've gotten to that spot. And what about the ship that Georgiou must have used to get there? They said she 'arrived,' but gave absolutely no explanation of how. These kinds of questions are raised by the nature of Sarek and Amanda's farewell, and I wish they had gone with something less in-person for that reason.

I absolutely loved the sequences that involved the larger crew. The first of these, of course, was the touching recording of goodbye messages to everyone's families and friends. It was a nice look into Owosekun and Detmer's lives in particular, to see who they cared most about. The second nice, touching scene was the farewell to Captain Pike. Though he will of course be in the finale, he will almost certainly not be interacting with the Disco crew before they leave for times unknown, so it was good to send him off with the appropriate flair. I thought the scene relied perhaps too heavily on dialogue, but the moment at the end where they all stood as he left the bridge was well-deserved.

Notable by their absences are the departures of Spock and Georgiou. These, of course, are being saved for the second part. Spock must leave because he cannot exit the timeline according to canon, and Georgiou must leave because she will have to head up the Section 31 series. That they're saving these two farewells for later means there is something important planned regarding them, and I certainly hope they will be worth the wait.

Two characters made unexpected appearances here, and I'll be interested to see what happens to them in the finale. First is Reno, who is finally starting to have a role worthy of the fanfare her character received. Reno finishes the episode by staring into the time crystal, seeing all manner of horrible things. I wonder if this is leading up to a sacrifice in the end, or if she will be left broken or insane by the visions of the future. Also making her presence felt is Queen Po, whose existence can be explained by the Short Trek 'Runaway.' Yadira Guevara-Prip is clearly far more comfortable in her role here than she was in 'Runaway,' and I would almost say she is now too comfortable. Po's casual couldn't-care-less attitude is at times refreshing, but at other times it feels off and out of place. She is still on board at the end of the episode because reasons, so I wonder what role she will have to play in the final events of the season.

Oh yeah, and... THE ENTERPRISE! The bridge! The hand grips in the turbolift! The little grate things in the hallway! Useless blinking lights everywhere (courtesy of superfan James Cawley, whose recreation of the TOS sets is something any Trek fan should go see)! I absolutely loved the look of the ship's interior, and I'm very well impressed by the attention to detail and homage to Robert Jeffries' incredible original designs. This fan is happy with it, very much so.

Strange New Worlds:

The ship visited Po's home world of Xahea, but we never went down to the surface. It's now an extremely politically relevant planet, we're told, due to Po's scientific discoveries.

New Life and New Civilizations:

No new species or cultures here, or even any exploration of previous ones. I guess we're down to the plot now, and there isn't any time to explore.

Pensees:

-Rebecca Romijn's Number One makes a very brief appearance in this episode, but I thought she worked better here than she did in 'An Obol for Charon' earlier this season.

-Disco's auto-destruct system uses handprint recognition rather than voice identification and codes.

-The sound design of the Enterprise scenes was great, with classic noises for everything from door whooshes to torpedo fire.

-The teaser for this episode was 13, almost 14 minutes long. That's nearly a third of the episode's runtime!

-Georgiou doesn't like ice cream. Add that to the list of her bad-guy cliches.

-I don't like the way the Captaincy discussion was set aside. Saru's glance at Burnham when he said there were many things to consider made it seem like Burnham will be made Captain over Saru. Please don't actually let that happen, writers. Please?

-Dear Mr. Osunsamni, Please stop spinning. Sincerely, Everyone.

-Further evidence to support the still quite unlikely theory that CBS is planning a series set on Pike's Enterprise: The Enterprise sets, which were built fresh rather than redressed from the Disco bridge; the minor bridge characters on the Enterprise who had distinctive characteristics and were given names despite appearing for less than five minutes.

Quotes:

Georgiou: "I thought there were no bad ideas." Pike: "That's a lie." Cornwell, at the same time: "That's a bad one."

Po: "You look taller in your photos." Burnham: "Thank you?"

Po: "I don't have to listen to any snark. I made it an actual law."

Georgiou: "You flinging yourself into the future like some galactic rubber band with a martyr complex."

4 out of 6 truly bad ideas.

CoramDeo has never painted daisies on a big red rubber ball.