#infodumps

[dreamweave01]

TMNT 2012 Swap AU Masterpost:

Decided to make a masterpost because I forgot I don't have one. . .

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Infodumps:

Best Friends

Doodles

Who-got-what-role + Shredder history

Swap infodump 2

April and Casey

Weapon infodump

Footclan and other villains infodump

Some info on Splinter

[ningauinerd]

This year has been quite rich for new dasyurids - a couple months ago we were gifted with a two new planigale species from the Pilbara, and even more recently, a new paper by Newman-Martin et al. was released that found mulgaras, previously believed to be two species, are actually six. Tragically, the number of mulgara species out in Australia's deserts today remains two, as four of these species are already extinct.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. For someone who isn't a dasyuromorph disciple or other variety of Australian mammal nerd, what are mulgaras?

"Crest-tailed mulgara" on the left and "brush-tailed mulgara" on the right (Image credit: Yingyod Lapwong & Owen Lishmund)

Mulgaras (Dasycercus) are a genus of carnivorous marsupials in the family Dasyuridae, which includes Tasmanian devils, quolls and a huge variety of other smaller but equally vicious predators. A fair size as far as dasyurids go, these rat-sized mammals are specialists of arid and semi-arid environments and were previously widespread across much of inland Australia, but their distribution retreated deeper into the interior of the continent following European colonisation. One trait that sets them apart from other dasyurids is their burrowing prowess - while many dasyurid species will inhabit burrows dug by other animals, mulgaras are skilled diggers that will construct their own extensive burrow networks, complete with a main entrance and several side tunnels and pop holes.

Trying to figure out how many species of mulgara there are has always been a source of great confusion to mammal taxonomists. The first species described was Dasycercus cristicaudata back in the 1860s, followed by D. blythi and D. hillieri in the early 1900s. These two new species were synonymised with D. cristicaudata in 1988, leaving one species of mulgara. In 2000, mulgaras were split back into two species, D. cristicaudata and D. hillieri, but a 2006 study believed the species in question had been misidentified - what had been thought to be D. hillieri was actually D. cristicaudata, and what had been thought to be D. cristicaudata was actually D. blythi. Confused yet?

Dasycerus blythi (Image credit: Walter Baldwin Spencer)

Since then, the consensus has largely been that the two species of mulgara were the crest-tailed mulgara (Dasycercus cristicaudata) and the brush-tailed mulgara (D. blythi), both named after their distinctive tail shapes. However, the new paper turns this idea on its head yet again, with the most dramatic revision of Dasycercus species thus far.

Based on measurements of the teeth and skull, Newman-Martin et al. identified six different species within Dasycerus - this included D. cristicaudata and D. blythi, the previously invalidated D. hillieri, and three newly described species, D. wolleyae, D. archeri and D. marlowi. Despite this, the two previously identified living populations remained the only surviving species, with the other four being considered likely to be extinct based on their distribution. However, in one final twist, the surviving mulgaras previously considered to D. cristicaudata were found to actually be D. hillieri after all, meaning the type species of the genus is now among those believed to be extinct!

Of these species, three (D. cristicauda, D. hillieri & D. archeri) could be considered to be "crest-tailed" and two (D. blythi & D. marlowi) are "brush-tailed", while the sixth species, D. woolleyae, is usually crest-tailed but rarely brush-tailed. Given this, the appearance of the tail is no longer a distinctive characteristic of any of the species, but the authors stated that the common name could be kept for the extinct D. cristicaudata and potentially also the extant D. blythi. All other species required new common names, listed below:

Ampurta (Dasycercus hillieri)

Spinifex/brush-tailed mulgara (Dasycercus blythi)

†Crest-tailed mulgara (Dasycercus cristicaudata)

†Northern/sand mulgara (Dasycercus woolleyae)

†Southern mulgara (Dasycercus archeri)

†Little mulgara (Dasycercus marlowi)

What was previously believed to be the crest-tailed mulgara, D. cristicaudata, is now the ampurta, D. hillieri! (Image credit: Mike Letnic)

The fact that four species of mulgara are now extinct is not only inherently disheartening, but these also represent the first known dasyurid species to have disappeared in modern times. Dasyurids were previously considered to be more resilient to the impacts of invasive species and habitat degradation than other small marsupials, hence why no species had yet been lost, but the discovery of extinct mulgaras demonstrates that we are likely underestimating the impact that European invasion has had on dasyurid diversity. There may well be many other species that have already gone extinct without us even realising they existed.

But, while more than half of the mulgaras are tragically now extinct, we must also appreciate the precious species that remain. The brush-tailed or spinifex mulgara thankfully remains widespread and common, but the ampurta now occurs in only a small portion of its former range and is considered to be vulnerable to extinction - we must take careful steps to protect this enigmatic little marsupial, unless we want to see Dasycercus lose yet another species in the not too distant future.

[cyberphuck]

Infodumping about random things I like until I feel better, part one of ?: Supering your Saiyans

So if you're not well-versed in Dragon Ball Z lore, the kind of alien that the main characters Goku (tall, hair goes out in all directions) and Vegeta (short, hair points straight up) are is called a "Saiyan."

Saiyans are basically a species that really loves to fight things: enemies, allies, aliens, monsters, themselves, doesn't matter, gotta punch it. Their culture also encourages it, but Goku, who came to Earth as a baby and was raised by a peaceful Earthling, has been consistently shown having a need to fight things that's so strong he regularly allows enemies time to get stronger in order to make their eventual battle more exciting. (Like seriously, the English dub always has him like "I'm a warrior for Peace!" when the original translation is "wow I love punching stuff so much!!" He's constantly putting himself, his loved ones, and the planet in mortal danger because he stops to let people power up. This is why there's a bunch of scenes where there's a lot of screaming and glowing and speed lines that last forever; Goku is usually offscreen like "fuck yeah lookit him go!") Anyway, one of the things that the DBZ Main Cast Saiyans are able to do is "go" Super Saiyan, which is when they scream really hard and their hair turns blond. It's almost a berserker state, triggered when a Saiyan becomes so overcome with rage that their power surges and starts blasting out everywhere, including through their hair.

(This is why Super Saiyan Goku's hair goes from sticking out to sticking up. This happens to everyone that goes Super Saiyan, and some hairstyles fare better than others. Vegeta's hair stays almost the same, maybe a little wider:

While poor Mirai Trunks's hair goes from stylish undercut to... this:

Later, he tries growing his hair out a little bit, but it ends up looking even worse:

some Saiyans have all the luck.) Once you've done it once, it becomes pretty simple to do it again, but you do have to re-live the trauma that caused you to be able to do it in the first place, which is kind of fucked up but no one ever talks about it. Also, it turns off if you're knocked unconscious which I tried to find a gif of (it tends to happen to Vegeta a LOT) but couldn't. Power scaling due to movies not written by creator Akira Toriyama (and, lbr, things that WERE written by Toriyama as well) meant the whole Super Saiyan thing got sort of out of control later on and "Super Saiyan 1" became an ordinary thing that even children could just do on their own (okay like. you're SUPPOSED to transform due to an overflowing of rage and grief. but then Baby Trunks and Goten just. Do it. There's also crazy stuff going on in Dragon Ball Super but I can't even begin to go into that). Anyway now you know what's going on when someone in DBZ is blond and screaming you're welcome

[rykersreign]

Me and my reasons on why Sonic from Sonic Prime is not too out of character for him!!

I feel like I should start by saying absolutely no hate to people who don't like Prime Sonic. I 100% understand why someone might not like him as a character and I do lightly touch on that!

Also I would appreciate it if when you state your opinion on the matter you do it in a civil way so we can all have a normal conversation on it. I will delete comments that seem too attack based or are just hating on this subject.

Aside from that feel free to tell me how you feel about the matter!!

I feel like Sonic's character in prime is not necessarily the worst or out of character for him. I actually really like this version of sonic due to his character flaws! I find it to be a fun and different way of writing him in his earlier stages of character development.

First we should approach the negatives before we approach the positives; Sonic is very immature compared to his previous iterations. He is impulsive, not the best at truly working in a team, and can be annoying at times.

These characteristics get in the way of his ability to problem solve and act in a way other iterations do but these aren't too far off from other versions of Sonic.

This can 100% make him an unappealing and sometimes frustrating character. I know I've watched some scenes in the show and hated his responses to some situations.

Although Sonic does have some positives! He's still loyal to his friends, tries his best to listen past his impulsive nature, and is overall still as loving as ever.

There are plenty of Sonic timelines where he is the one that messed up. Was it this bad? Not always but it's not rare for him.

Idw sonic for example allowed Metal Sonic to live his life the way he wanted which immediately backfired, same with the Mr Tinker situation.

Sonic has a consistent characteristic in which he trusts too much and wants others to have the chance to change. Any mistake he makes is due to him trying to help others.

While Sonic from Prime's situation is much different he still was trying to help others. Prime wasn't just a simple mistake Prime was a big mistake but that's not weird for his character.

Sonic from prime still puts effort into helping so many people but at times that could be a flaw. This want to help others often backfires as he doesn't fully trust his friends to be safe and handle the situation which can make him seem overbearing; This is consistent with him tho. He has always been the self sacrificing type Sonic frontiers is a good example of that.

Throughout all of Sonic frontiers he is hurting himself to help others.

Most sonic iterations want to help others so desperately they don't think about the consequences whether that causes hurt to themselves or others.

Although many iterations of Sonic trusts their friends abilities and skills they can all still be scared for what can happen.

Sonic from Prime makes mistakes that are undeniable, I mean he destroyed the entire universe but he's still got those positive traits that can sometimes even out the negative.

I feel like judging his character at this current point of the show is very harsh given how much as a character he is potentially set up to change.

At this point in the show it really depends on if the writers want him to approach those issues or not.

[astralechoes]

since @stxrrbright was curious about sorcerer cat Noctis here is some lore about him...

Noctis & Ignis are talented sorcerers in this verse, Noctis soon discovered he was able to understand the thoughts of animals; especially cats. He ended up finding a spell that allows him to transform into a cat, once in this form he is able to talk much more easily to animals.

Ignis initially thought that he was stray cat when he first came back after using the spell, until he transformed back into human form. He finds him quite endearing as a cat though he has put a collar on him when he goes off on little intrepid kitty adventures, it's quite easy to pass him off as a familiar in that form.

It's not uncommon to find him with a bunch of stray cats, or napping in the sun somewhere; he also is amicable to pets sometimes but don't touch his belly 😂

[screwnames-ihatenames]

I remember your post that was like all the lords in black represent a body part? I don't really think so. It really only applies to blinky and nibbly. But they all do represent a want?(which obviously is am important thing in the musicals but yeah)

Something, something, blinky is a want for knowledge. he gives Alice the "knowledge" of what's happening at Deb's party because of how badly she wants it.

Nibbly is a passionate hunger and want. He always hungers, and it is a physical representation of hunger. The honey queen competition is quite literally about who is the hungriest.

Tinky is a want to change things? Maybe? I need to watch all the nightmare times but that feels right. Ted wants to fix things with Jenny.

Uh and Pokotho gave me a hard time buuuut: a want to express yourself. Freedom. That kind of stuff. I know it feels wrong because his shtick is quite literally removing a persons free will. But think about what the apotheosis is: a promise of freedom. In Let It Out, Hive?Paul talks about how freeing it is to talk about how he feels (about musicals?) So yeah. I think Pokotho is a want for self expression (which makes the theatre kid aspect of him honestly make more sense.)

And I don't know exactly what Wiggly's thing is. I think he might also be a want to be adored? A want to be worshipped, but he also seems to be tied to anger. But yeah now that I think about it he's probably a want to be adored, because like. The entirety of Black Friday. He wants people to want him. Linda becomes the prophet because she wants to be adored. People want tickle me wiggly because they want their kids to love them.

LOVE THIS

[horrificinformation]

𓆩♡𓆪 . . . masterlist . . .

𓆩♰𓆪 . . . reviews . . . eden lake

𓆩♰𓆪 . . . infodumps . . .

paraphilias

𓆩♰𓆪 . . . original content . . .

nothing as of yet....

𓆩♰𓆪 . . . fanfictional content . . .

smile dog headcanons

[bluehawkdustorm]

To be serious for a sec, I think it's important to understand (and fun to explore through tropes like Evil Wizards) that, when we think of "the shadow" - the dark parts of ourselves we repress and avoid acknowledging - that "positive traits" like kindness and empathy can just as easily become part of our shadow as "negative ones" like rage, resentment, grief, and selfish ambitions. "Positive" and "negative" have literally nothing to do with it.

I worry when you read that, that what y'all take away from it is "positive and negative are not that important", or "it's a little more complicated than that".

What I said was,

it has NOTHING to do with it.

Because "positive" and "negative" traits DO NOT EXIST.

The deciding factor is CONVENIENCE, whether or not you're willing to recognise the needs that those parts of you try to fulfil. Whether or not you're repressing things, whether or not you view parts of yourself as "in the way".

If you view the best parts of you as your defenses ("I get things done", "tears are for the weak", "well I guess they don't deserve food or housing and they're trying to trick me into giving away mine"), if you view anger as a non-emotion and a show of strength, or even just if you view the world through the lens that if you earn strength, then you want the right to do what you want with that strength (at others' expense), then yeah, kindness and empathy are as likely as anything to become part of your shadow. They're "negative" traits, right? Friendship, family, empathy, these are the demons you must slay to succeed and defend your success.

To be clear, this is why we have so many stories about heroes facing direct reflections of their negative traits, a literal shadow-self (e.g. Scott Pilgrim, Naruto) and having to accept and absorb it to win, usually not long before facing the True antagonist. The reason it's VERY IMPORTANT that positive and negative actually have nothing to do with it, is that whenever you consign to the shadow realm a part of you that you think is "bad", you're actually repressing something you need to know about yourself. You're creating your own blind spots and you're basically doing it on purpose. The bill will come due, and it will not be at a convenient time.

So I guess what I'm saying is, an Evil Wizard whose "dark reflection" / other-side-of-the-mystic-meditation-waterfall self is made of of things like their kindness, their empathy, a bunch of prosocial values and feelings, as well as their moral outrage and a bunch of other things that get in the way of blood sacrifices and abuses of power? Yeah, I absolutely fuck with that story.

I want to be an evil wizard. but I keep choosing kindness

[thesilly-goose]

why do people get so mad/annoyed when they get infodumped at bro😭😭😭😭

[goldensunset]

if you’ve never played a pokémon game you’re missing out on the insane things npcs will say to you unprompted. like you’ll be walking down a path and a total stranger will see you and immediately run up to you and trap you in place and say something like ‘the divorce is getting rough but me and my pokémon are getting tough!’ and then start a battle and after you beat their single rat they’ll be like ‘i wasn’t worthy of her…’ or something

[kookaburra1701]

Definitely infodumps, though I do have footnotes and a lot of purple prose too. But I feel like Malacath's mightiest warrior because I took out a page and a half description of boiling slaughterfish heads to make glue to craft a horn laminate bow in Aristeia because omg no1curr

Here's a potentially fun one:

[ningauinerd]

The lesser bilby (Macrotis leucura), less degradingly known as the yallara by the Wangkangurru people, is one of Australia's many many obscure recently extinct mammals. It was last seen alive by western observers in 1931, although based on First Nations knowledge (and a skull found under an eagle's nest) it appears to certainly have survived at least into the 1960s.

(Image credit: Oldfield Thomas’ Catalogue of the Monotremes and Marsupials in the British Museum)

The yallara was smaller and less colourful than the living greater bilby (M. lagotis), hence its description of as the "lesser" of the two species, but what it lacked in stature it made up for in ferocity. Unlike its larger cousin, the yallara was reportedly very aggressive and feisty, with Hedley Finlayson (one of the few scientists to observe the species in life, and the last) writing that they: "...completely belied their delicate appearance by proving themselves fierce and intractable, and repulsed the most tactful attempts to handle them by repeated savage snapping bites and harsh hissing sounds, and one member of the party, who was persistent in his intentions, received a gash in the hand three quarters of an inch long from the canines of a male."

Although few observations of the species were made in life and much of their ecology remains a mystery, they may also have been more carnivorous than the living greater bilby. Investigations of stomach contents found large quantities of skin and fur from rodents, with only limited seeds and no insect fragments having been ingested. However, this information only comes from a small sample of individuals, so whether or not the yallara was the most predatory of all modern bandicoots will likely remain uncertain. They also differed in behaviour from greater bilbies by always blocking the entrance to their burrow after entering.

The species was only observed by Europeans in the harsh deserts of north-eastern South Australia and the south-east of the Northern Territory, but testimony from Aboriginal peoples indicates it also extended further west into the Great Sandy and Gibson Deserts of Western Australia. Being reported as common when last observed by Finlayson in the 1930s, its decline and extinction appears to have occurred entirely unobserved by western eyes, but it is likely that they were a victim of the usual troubles - invasive species and changing fire regimes.

[andrewmfriday]

Case Studies in Infodumps

Info-dumps mostly pop up in these areas of description in fiction writing: world building, dialogue, and emotions.

Warning: No Info Dumping, Part 2 – Andrew M. Friday

[kaytub]

drew infodump (cam and mac friend-ship) as this dumbass meme pic

[reysasoup]

Teamwork makes the Kinger work!

A short tadc comic :)

"EW~" yourself, Jax.