#its more of a reshuffling at this point

[voidlingduck]

Hazbin Hotel - Thoughts and Rewrite

Having seen the first four episodes of Hazbin Hotel, and having been casually following the Hellaverse since the pilot (I have watched the shows but not consumed any outside material) - I have had a lot of thoughts about the storytelling of Hazbin Hotel so far. In discussing my thoughts and feelings with @ekholocationn I ended up having some ideas on how I would handle the overall arc and plot of the show to make for a tighter narrative and address some of the flaws I found with the work.

This is very much a broad strokes kind of rewrite at this point, and trying to stay relatively true to what has been presented to us so far - it mostly involves shuffling things around and reorganising/refocusing the plot.

The main complaint with the plot of the show is that the Heaven plotline feels rushed and the cards are being played too soon, what feels like it should be a twist is laid bare in the first episode and furthermore it undermines the very purpose of the Hotel and Charlie's plan. Heaven as not merely an antagonistic, but an actively villainous force, feels like it's come too soon - and the way it's being explored isn't really satisfying. Camilla's reluctance to fight is difficult to justify, where Velvette, who is arguably framed as a villain, seems to be onto something and correct.

Speaking of Velvette however, her and the Vee's are what I feel are the shows strongest aspect at this point. These are villains that have incredibly strong personality and presence, and moreso, personal connections and investment to the cast at the hotel. Vox and Velvette's songs are some of my favourites, and Valentino is shown to be a serious threat to Angel and his potential for redemption.

This in mind, in my rewrite of the show, Season 1 of Hazbin Hotel would cast the Vee's as the primary antagonists to the hotel, and leave the angel's in heaven and their villainy as a mystery and twist reveal for later in the show.

Charlie has no reason to believe her plan won't work, in fact, she has a powerful Overlord as a benefactor - who while he seems to be a little disparaging, is still putting resources into her project. She is doing what she can to try and rehabilitate these sinners, however, the Vee's want to see this project fail and become active threats to the Hotel. Vox, because of his rivalry with Alastor, and Valentino because he wants to keep control of angel. The primary tension is the push and pull between Charlie as a force of redemption and light, and the Vee's as a representation of temptation, vice and hell's worst qualities trying to keep the sinners down. Charlie does not meet with Adam and the angels in Episode 1, rather, she is seen to be optomistic and hopeful, and Heaven is kept as this guarded mystery and protectors of order and goodness.

What about Velvette the other Overlords, and the angels though? I greatly enjoyed Respectless, and I don't want to snub Velvette, who is clearly a powerful villain in her own right. I don't want to completely erase the plot of the exterminated angel and Heaven's violence from the show. I would keep the scene of the Overlords meeting, and Velvette revealing the angel's severed head, however I would make a few tweaks. Firstly, this would be the first time we find out about the fact that an angel was killed - we are just as shocked as the other Overlords. Secondly, the Hazbin Hotel would be more of a point of discussion, and we would get a more overarching conflict between the Hotel and the Vees regarding what to do about the problem of Angel Extermination. Do we attempt to redeem sinners? Or do we just kill the Angels? I think for the purpose of this plot, the revelation that Heaven is moving up its extermination would coincide with the meeting of the Overlords, really being a trigger for it, and this episode would act as a midpoint - raising the stakes and introducing the broader conflict after a few episodes settling into the attempts fo the Hotel to redeem sinners and the Vee's attempts to intervene.

In this story rather than being the way the show opens, Charlie meeting with the angels would instead be a sort of climactic moment - and the revelation that Adam is a jerk and Heaven has no intention of letting sinners rise but instead wants to exterminate them would be a sort of Darkest Hour moment for Charlie. Her plan has failed, the Vee's are gaining more support... This way, there's been some build up, and the twist feels more like a twist - and it also feels like more of a gut-wrenching betrayal because both us and Charlie by this point would have investment in her plan and a hope that it might actually work.

I want to see how the show handles it's ending before I fully flesh out this rewrite, but for now this is the sort of broad strokes as to how I would approach structuring Hazbin Hotel if I were to rework it. I may or may not expand on these thoughts later when there is more material to work with! This post also does not touch on more nuanced topics such as the shows handling of sensitive issues and character arcs, it is more of a broad strokes analysis and retooling.

I thought it might be fun to share my thoughts and I hope people enjoy them! I would love to hear other peoples thoughts on this as well :)

[olderthannetfic]

Sending this to you specifically because I feel like you're the only normal brained person about this series.

I read Captive Prince a couple of years ago and liked it fine, as someone who doesn't have a strong preference for or against m/m and therefore isn't well-versed enough in its clichés to notice whether it reads like something full of cliché fanfic tropes. I really liked the use of language, some of the historical/political stuff, some of the ways that the characters are made complicated or unreliable.

The problem is, I've since coincidentally read most of the books that were Pacat's inspiration and. Well. Like 80-90% of the stuff in there has direct parallels in one of those. I'm not sure if there are more than three original thoughts in there.

I am not joking, if you read 1. The Lymond Chronicles and House of Niccolò by Dorothy Dunnett; 2. The Nightrunner series by Lynn Flewelling and 3. The Vampire Chronicles by Anne Rice, you will find that some of the scenes were ripped off beat for beat, many jokes were taken and just lazily reworded, a lot of the character beats and arcs are at best a mashup of 2 or maximum 3 things from those books with the serial numbers filed off really poorly. There's a scene where some characters discover a suicide victim whose structure and descriptions are completely ripped off from another series, except Pacat fails to see what made the original scene so impactful. A lot of the pretty use of language is also directly copied from those, including some really really specific descriptors. It's so blatant!

And I don't see how people are okay with this! I know people who are fans of several of these works and they're totally cool with it! And honestly if it were some rando's unpublished original project I'd be cool with it too, but as a published beloved worldwide phenomenon with rabid fans? C'mon.

And another thing is, all of the other series mentioned above are balls to the wall insane. She just... she just made it bland. She took off most of the edge and reshuffled the elements into a fairly straightforward MLM love story with some light kink thrown in. It's not a BAD series, but I feel like I'm disappointed that someone read all my favourite books and THAT was their takeaway?

--

I started reading, got to the name of the series and burst out laughing.

And, wow, you brought up something totally new that I hadn't thought about! I'm impressed. Genuinely. Usually, I rant about all the reasons I hate the series while debunking the standard anti talking points.

--

I've read the Vampire Chronicles, but that was in the 90s and I read Captive Prince in like 2016 or after. I had zero recollection of common points. I haven't read The Lymond Chronicles despite years of hurt/comfort fans bugging me to do so, and I think I got like a chapter into the Nightrunner series before getting distracted...

The reason I found Captive Prince annoying and derivative is that it also reads exactly like the original m/m that was available when it was first being written, most notably the work of P.L. Nunn who was extremely famous for horny fan art but who also wrote some original m/m fantasy novels. The scene where they finally bone reminds me heavily of the one from... uh... what's the P.L. Nunn one where the prince creeps on that archer dude and he gets raped because of course and then the prince has to be ~patient~ and it's peak boring 2000s rape recovery tropes?

The rape backstory is not only lifted from Fushigi Yuugi (the author's fandom at the time) but is shared with basically 100% of original m/m from that era. It's sometimes the uncle, sometimes the stepfather. One single time that I can think of, it was the foster brother, but mostly it's that "funny uncle" type. Unless it's gang rape from a bad Gundam Wing fic. That was also everywhere.

Once somebody told me the author had previously shipped Tamahome/Nakago, I realized that they'd taken what would be a kind of unusual anime ship and made it a thousand times more boring by dumbing down the scary, tall general with the tragic backstory into an uke-appropriate waif.

So I guess what I'm saying is that there may be some inspiration you aren't familiar with, but it's the same story as what you said above: this is the blander remix.

--

As for why people are okay with this... honestly, most of the people who really adore the series whom I've talked to point to how it encapsulates the exact tropes and tone they loved in anime fic circa 2000.

As a fellow weeb, I loathed the tone of said anime fic circa 2000 and could not wait for tastes to change, so Captive Prince is a hideous blast from an unlamented past for me.

I think most people who love the series aren't familiar with its inspirations. Those that are may have consumed them quite a while ago and don't realize quite how direct the parallels are. Or, for the inspirations that aren't overtly canon m/m, the lure of it being Exactly Right may overshadow other things.

(They also mostly haven't read 90s fantasy doorstops that actually contain political intrigue, tactics and strategy. Captive Prince is a piss poor entry into this genre and should be recced for m/m, not this other stuff people constantly think is in there. None of these characters can reason their way out of a paper bag.)

More than any of that, there's a lot of love left over from when the series was a serialized original story on Livejournal in an era when we had vanishingly few original m/m works, especially long ones in a fantasy alternate world.

I think that is what gets it a pass when a new m/m novel presented as "m/m romance" or posted on one of the webnovel sites would be mocked for unoriginality. Many Captive Prince fans aren't (or weren't when they read it) all that familiar with the smorgasbord of original m/m available today. Many are unfamiliar with anime fanfic circa 2000, so this feels adjacent to the fic they've read but a little fresher... instead of like the week-old sardine tin I found it to be.

[wayfayrr]

I just remembered how sometimes I yell at Link when he does something that annoys me, like if I’m trying to walk across a really skinny plank but he accidentally walks off/falls off, or when I’m trying to run from an enemy but he starts climbing a tree instead. I’ll just be like “Link no! Get off the stupid tree omg ur gonna die!” Or “Link! Stop falling off the platform! I just wanna get to the top already!” Would he be mad at me for yelling at him? Sad? …..?

Then there’s an unrelated issue that isn’t his fault that my controller sometimes drifts, so he’s walked off cliffs before bc it was drifting slightly forward and I didn’t notice. The most annoying one on my controller is when the motion control stops working and I’m trying to aim my bow and arrow but it freezes so I have to quickly manually flick the analog stick so it works again but by then I might’ve already gotten hit. Is he mad at me for these problems?

Oooooooh! Then there’s the whole having to scroll thru the whole menu options when u wanna attach something to ur arrow. Ugh that takes forever! Like I wanted a bomb flower but now I want a keese eyeball and that’s all the way at the other end of the menu! Is he frustrated w that? (Ik technically it’s “paused” when I do that but let’s say he’s still conscious when I’m doing that it’s just everything around him is frozen in time. So like he’s just crouching there waiting for me to finally attach an eyeball lol).

Or what about the sages?? I love them all so much but trying to find them (and the right one when u have all of them) and activate their ability is sometimes annoying. I’ll want Sidon’s shield for a second but instead Tulin does his gust. Or when I’m just trying to pick something up he’ll blow it away lol. What does Tears think of that?

Sorry this got so long. I understand I had like 4 ideas in this ask, they all just came into my mind at once lol.

I think he'd get a bit upset over you yelling at him, he gets that you're worried that he'll get hurt but it's not always his fault? sometimes sure but it's just starting to hurt his feelings more than anything. when you're playing he's just a puppet in your hands and as much as he loves you he's still 'a person'. if you struggle to even put him anywhere near that position soon then well, it's not like you can yell at him again for it right? he doesn't want to upset you after all.

I don't think that he'd ever blame you for console defects like that, hell he could even be behind a good number of them, it's not your fault the game is buggy. The only time he could ever be bothered by it is is you close out of the game because its so buggy, if the game is getting to the point where it's bordering on unplayable he still can't blame you but it'll get under his skin so much more. is he not good enough for you? is his game not good enough for you to work through the glitches? don't be surprised if you can't exit the game or turn off your switch for a bit :3 surely nothing has gotten corrupted or broken beyond repair right? No he hasn't sabotaged it himself, how could he - why would he?

The menu is honestly pretty sucky at times for throwing items and sticking them to your arrows, besides from reshuffling it to get what you need to be closer to where you start scrolling from. I think tears is most likely to get irritated at the games own design for that, because it'd be so much easier for him to just grab what you needed from his pad to fuse it onto one of his arrows but he just can't, he's stuck having to abide by the rules of the game, watching you struggle with the admittedly awful UI Nintendo cursed him with. If he wasn't so stressed about you resetting him - or worse reporting your 'faulty' copy of the game. he'd take his own steps to make it better for you - maybe he'll even do it earlier if you carry on struggling like this. He just needs to get more confident about it <3

the sages probably mess with him so much, he wants you ALONE and now he's constantly got these guys running around him?? he's gotta interact with them to try and get his abilities (lwk this could make him more jealous of wild who gets to have you one on one all of the time) And most of the sages abilities are optional anyway so I mean, maybe you won't notice if he simply disables them right? he won't delete them outright so if you miss them you can use them but if you don't reactivate them? maybe he could.... so then it'll be just you and him, just link.

[zahri-melitor]

Hmmmm just thinking about the Big Three Dead Silver Age Characters During The 90s (Barry, Hal and Ollie), and why Ollie’s return feels less destructive to ongoing storytelling than the other two.

I mean, Ollie’s still has issues associated with it (Connor has been frequently bundled back out of the narrative since his return), but I think it works the best of the three above because it’s the one that allowed for the most new storytelling with Ollie’s return.

When Ollie died in 1995, he was extremely broken up with Dinah, had only just found out about Connor’s existence (later retcons aside), and Roy had been busy doing his own thing for a decade over with various generations of the Titans. (Lian was appearing very very very occasionally as a tiny toddler)

Ollie’s return in Quiver in 2001 returned to: Dinah with her own team thing in Birds of Prey that was her own narrative space and not dependent on Ollie for the first time in decades, which had to be worked around; Connor having his own friends and contemporaries and standing as an adult hero; Roy finally being back on a good manifestation of the Titans, with his own family narrative raising Lian being prominent storytelling; and we got the introduction of Mia.

Arrowfam comics became good family dynamics comics in 2001 for the first time in decades. Ollie’s return reshuffled the board, but it provided new storytelling opportunities and dynamics, because Ollie’s stories hadn’t been about trying to be the best dad he could be prior to his death. He does have to work to pick back up relationships he’d trashed before dying. And more to the point, he does that work.

Ollie’s return could have been the return to a Silver Age status quo much like Barry and Hal’s were, but instead, while old status quo elements did return, there was enough changes and progress it still does feel like the continuation of a new avenue of storytelling, rather than returning to plots from the 1970s.

Contrast Hal and Barry.

Barry’s notorious for his return being so sideline to what Flash comics had been doing for the 24 intervening years that they had to reboot the universe and delete all of Wally’s characterisation to find somewhere to fit Barry back in that made the Barry fan writers who were agitating for his return happy at its level of prominence. Wally had been balancing a three-strand family (Garricks, West-Allens, Chambers/Quicks) with regular appearances from various members. Barry returning not only upset that balance but sent multiple other characters out of continuity for extended periods of time.

In the book that’s all about timetravel and shifting futures. The writers couldn’t find anything interesting to do with Barry to the point they had to put Barry into Wally’s spot and remove Wally’s character just to find stories to tell with him.

Equally, Hal should have been easy to reintegrate (it’s the Green Lantern Corps! The entire premise of the Corps involves there being multiple heroes doing different things!), except that Geoff Johns’ obsession with making Hal Jordan the specialest Green Lantern of them all meant he HAD to be the prominent one, and focusing on other Earth based Lanterns was not on. So even while some very interesting Green Lantern storytelling was happening with the mythology, Hal was there stealing other characters oxygen.

I think, at its base, the difference between the three scenarios is this: Ollie’s return respected the character growth of the other associated characters and worked around them in a new direction for the character. Barry and Hal’s returns…did not.

[that-ari-blogger]

A Parody Of A Parody (Any Sport In A Storm)

One of the foundational parts of The Owl House is that someone looked at a magical otherworld story and thought “what would I do in that situation?”.

As a result, you get Luz, someone who is creative to the point of breaking the plot, who understands the mechanics of stories so well that she can call things out before they happen. Someone for whom the realisation that its ok to be unique and stray from the path comes easily. Luz doesn’t resist the story at all, she embraces it with open arms.

She is, in that way, a parody of certain other characters, most specifically Monkey D Luffy. She actively seeks adventure because it’s fun to her rather being obligated by revenge or duty or a desire to protect those she cares about. She has that range, but it’s not her core motivation. She’s heroic, but she’s not coming at it from a particularly stand out motivation. She’s just kind, and that leads her to being the hero.

So, what happens if we reshuffle our hands and play with something new. What if we had someone else go on the same journey as Luz, in their own way? Someone else parodying her.

Then you get Hunter, and Any Sport In A Storm.

Let me explain.

SPOILERS AHEAD (The Owl House, One Piece, Lord Of The Rings)

Monkey D Luffy is a good person naturally. That’s why he will topple governments and fight gods. But fundamentally, his motivation is selfish. He wants to be happy and free. I’m not saying that’s villainous; I’m saying its amoral. You apply it in context.

Case and point, a key villain of the story, Blackbeard, has the exact same motivation. The difference being that Blackbeard has no care for anyone’s life except his own, and Luffy cares deeply about everyone else; his personal happiness cannot coexist with letting people get hurt. The character is kind, the motivation is not. Kindness is a characteristic not a goal.

Luffy’s and Blackbeard’s motivations both lead them to Impel Down, but Blackbeard’s character caused the Ace’s death, while Luffy’s made Ace’s life meaningful. Motivation is a big part of who a person is, but it’s far from the whole picture.

It’s almost as if people are inherently complex. I wonder if that’s important to the series’ theming.

"You're very good at doing exactly what you're told" accompanying a symmetrical shot with Hunter in front of an empty throne room that is too big for him to fill. I wonder if there's any symbolism there.

Hunter is not Blackbeard. He’s not a villain, most importantly. This is why he doesn’t actually get redeemed, he just switches sides, but that’s an argument for another day. He’s also doesn’t share a motivation with Luz.

Except he does, except he doesn’t. It’s complicated, and this gets granular.

Ok, the symbolism behind this. Hunter doesn't have the practical skills required for anything beyond following orders. He can read and learn, but that came from his need to read instructions. When it comes to putting something together, he will try, but he is in way over his head. This is part of the episode's setup, establishing the conflict to come. Here, that is being reshuffled. Hunter can do heroic stuff, it's the mundanity that's a problem for him.

Luz seeks to be accepted; Hunter wants to fit in. These are both facets of a desire for belonging, but their differences are more important. You could argue that they are effectively the same, but that restricts everyone into about three categories, those seeking belonging, safety, or comfort. The Owl House is fundamentally opposed to categorisation in this way, and the point of these two protagonists is that the two things are not equivalent.

This episode highlights that, showing how two similar characters react in wildly different ways.

It's not important, but the fact that the Crow Phone line is like torn paper makes me smile. It's a medieval aesthetic take on a modern visual.

Most notably is in their personalities. Because while their aims are similar, these two characters are opposites. Hunter isn’t curious, he’s wary. Hunter is constantly strategizing, paranoid that something might hurt him, Luz has zero impulse control at the best of times. Also, Hunter actively resists the plot at every turn.

The brave new world in this case is the opposite of Luz’s in a way. Where Luz went from mundanity to adventure, Hunter has gone from questing for the emperor to school drama.

The lessons here become the same as those that Luz learns day one. It’s ok to be different. Hunter just has a hard time learning that because he isn’t willing to look past what he thinks he already knows yet. He has blind spots, and he isn’t willing to examine them.

A good example of this is the contrast between the details that terrify our protagonists. I can’t exactly point at “everything”, so something specific. Luz freaks out when Eda loses her head the first time, Hunter barely flinches at Bellos’ transformation. Instead, Hunter is terrified by someone saying that they want to change the system.

The question then becomes: how do you get someone this resistant to change to undergo character development? Incongruity. Make his motivation clash with his blind spot and force him to operate in that unknown territory.

Hunter gets told to recruit the best and brightest, and to do that, he has to get unconventional. He has to learn that greatness comes in many forms, and if there was that useful piece of information to be found, what else could be hidden in places he has avoided looking?

At the moment, we’re setting up for bigger things down the road, and to do that, we need to get Hunter ready to accept some big changes.

So, we bring him into direct conflict with an authority figure, twice. We give him a support group that encourages him to think differently. We give him a way of using his skills that isn’t as a tool.

But more importantly, we mess with his idea of what people do and don't deserve.

"Where I come from, even chances have to be earned."

That's a pretty fundamental part of Hunter's character. He says the word "earn" so many times in this episode alone that it becomes a mantra. He believes you have to work to receive basic human decency. Willow shows him that that's not the case, and that he can chose to open himself up, if he wants. The emperor's way is not the only way.

He doesn’t pick any of these options yet, but we’re widening the scope of his character, letting him know that those other options are available. We’re setting up a Chekhov’s gun in the form of the power of friendship.

On the note of skills, has anyone else noticed that if it wasn’t for Willow, Hunter would unquestionably be the team powerhouse? Like, Luz is creative, she can take down stronger foes than herself through tricks and clever uses of magic. She’s not overtly powerful, she’s clever. Gus is similarly an illusionist; he can’t directly stand against anyone. Hunter, without magic, and with a new staff that he doesn’t understand, can hold Amity to a standstill.

Eclipse Lake was, so far, Hunter’s worst day, and he was still a physical and tactical threat. Which is why he’s not the main character.

The Owl House is heavily inspired by One Piece, but it throws in references to a ton of different anime, mostly shonen, and part of that is the power system. A core tenet of shonen is that raw power isn’t everything, and clever tactics can often lead to a victory despite that. Luz is the underdog, outclassed in raw magical talent, and yet she succeeds with tactics. Hunter is outclassed in natural magic, yes, but he punches far above his weight class with martial talent to make up for it. He’s a knight, an epic fantasy archetype.

Luz, with her grand dealings and evil emperor shenaniganry, is a shonen protagonist in an epic fantasy story. Hunter, with his discovery of the power of friendship and school drama, is an epic fantasy protagonist superimposed into a shonen story.

But epic fantasy is built on a dynamic with power in a different, hierarchical way. Lord Of The Rings has a reputation for a view on monarchy that I don’t think it actually features.

Tolkien definitely had some ideas that later audiences will find iffy, but his view on leadership was pretty iron clad. A king in Lord Of The Rings is a servant of the people, and those who use the people to serve them are portrayed as villainous. The people come first.

Even Aragorn’s destiny as the one true king isn’t characterised as accepting power, it’s accepting a duty to protect. In Lord Of The Rings, there is an idea of the good king, and he doesn’t have wealth or a kingdom. He has a sword.

Which, yeah, Tolkien was a soldier in WWI. And a soldier believing that a leader’s duty is to protect those under him isn’t that hard to believe.

Later authors have focused on the idea of real-world monarchy being inherently unjust, which I can’t say I disagree with, but the aesthetics of Tolkien have remained in epic fantasy. Knights loyal to kings, etc.

Which brings us to Bellos, and we see The Owl House’s view on unwavering loyalty. This is a series about understanding and engaging with the world around you. Hunter is loyal uncritically, which puts him as an antagonist in the series so far.

We’ll see how that goes for him.

Final Thoughts

The side plot of this episode isn’t really plot relevant. It’s another dead end. But its thematically quite interesting.

Luz and Amity go seeking someone who has paved their way before them and find out that it was a lie. They’ll have to make it up as they go, just like everyone else. But they take comfort in doing that together. They write their own stories.

But also, the Hexside crew other than the main five got a ton of characterisation here. Bosha got moved past, and Viney and Scara are finally in the same place at the same time, which means shipping.

I have speculations about a possible season three, and what I would like to see explored, and part of that would be a spiral from Bosha while Skarney becomes an actual thing. I think those three would make a phenomenal trio to base that series around while the actual protagonists are in the human realm. It would be about what happens when the characters with actual plot armour aren’t here, and the story needs to progress anyway. Essentially, the first scene in For The Future expanded. Throw in Mattholomule and the Blight Twins, and you have a story begging to go haywire.

Nex time, I’ll be covering Reaching Out, my favourite episode of television full stop. So, stick around if that interests you.

Previous - Next

[arminreindl]

The NEW Ultrastenos and its Ironic History

So those that have been keeping up with my posts on mekosuchines might recall the name Ultrastenos, as I've talked about this genus back in August of last year. If you've read that post you might also remember how I highlight at multiple points that a lot of the info was tentative on the basis that Ultrastenos was highly incomplete and that close relatives awaited description.

You may also remember "Baru" huberi, a small mekosuchine that lived roughly around the same time, clearly distinct from Baru yet at that point still unnamed. Oh, how I wished for the former to get more material and for the latter to recieve a proper genus assignment.

My now outdated reconstructions for "Baru" huberi (the small one in the left image) and Ultrastenos (right image)

And then the monkey's paw curled.

As it turns out....they are the same damn animal. Now, back when "Baru" huberi was described, Willis also named a bunch of other mekosuchines from the same locality (the White Hunter Site of the Riversleigh WHA) and described even more material that remained unnamed, including the White Hunter Cranial Form 1. Now, when Ultrastenos was named in 2016, the type material was from the Low Lion Site (also Riversleigh), but importantly, the skull tables identified as WHCF1 were also assigned to the genus (and were the basis for my reconstruction).

Well, re-examination has shown that the WHCF1 and the holotype of "Baru" huberi aren't just a single species.....THEY ARE A SINGLE INDIVIDUAL.

Given the fact that the assignment of the skull table to the Low Lion Ultrastenos material still holds up, this means that Ultrastenos willisi and "Baru" huberi are a single taxon. Which consequently requires some reshuffling of the names.

"Baru" huberi was named first, so the species name takes priority and continues being used. However, since it was never given a genus name, Ultrastenos does stay valid. Except now it's called Ultrastenos huberi, not Ultrastenos willisi. A name that has aged like milk. Back in 2016 it was proposed that Ultrastenos had a very narrow snout (thus the name), so now that we know that the rostrum was flat and mesorostrine, the name really is just wrong.

So next up, lets examine what went wrong.

As I said before, Ultrastenos was fragmentary, so that certainly played a big part in it. But the team in charge of describing the animal still cited several lines of thinking to support their interpretation, most of which are now thoroughly debunked.

As an example, the lower jaw was rather shallow, however while this was initially taken as evidence for longirostry, the 2024 paper states that this only an argument against altirostry (a deep skull), not against a more generalized condition. The teeth were also initially used as evidence, citing their homodont condition (the teeth looked uniform), HOWEVER, the problem in that was that there were only a few teeth present, all of which notably do not bear any resemblance to the needle-like teeth seen in other long-snouted taxa. Another important clue initially taken to mean longirostry was the orientation of the quadrate area and the seemingly sudden constriction of the lower jaw. But the quadrate area was not found in articulation and would support a generalized skull form if simply rotated a little, while the constriction of the mandible appears to at least be partially exaggerated by preservation.

Of course, the fact that we now have proper material of the snout makes the interpretation of a generalized skull shape a lot more solid.

Image 1: The left and right halves of the mandible of Ultrastenos compared to that of Baru iylwenpeny (D), note how the right half is a lot more straight. Image 2: The initial reconstruction of the quadrate area of Ultrastenos compared to one that is slightly rotated Image 3: The revamped skull reconstruction by Yates and Stein

The size of the animal does stay relatively unaffected by these new discoveries. "Baru" huberi has been estimated at only around 1.5 meters in length and my own scaling of Ultrastenos got up to 2 meters, which seems to be in line with what is still assumed for this animal. So among aquatic mekosuchines, its still rather small.

There are however some interesting implications for mekosuchines at large. Now that we no longer have a longirostrine member of this family, one has to wonder, why is that? Well, there might be several reasons.

It could be that the types of environments that were present in Cenozoic Australia simply didn't support such animals. Even in the type description, its been noted that the Riversleigh isn't exactly known for its fish remains, leading to the idea that Ultrastenos might have gone for other small vertebrates like frogs. Hell, the ecology of Baru might suggest that the reason that this genus was so robust might tie to the fact that the local bodies of water just weren't deep enough to allow the typical crocodilian grab-and-drown tactic.

Competition might have been another factor. In environments that may have been more suitable for such morphology, mekosuchines might have been beaten to the punch by other types of crocodilians. Harpacochampsa for example, tho originally thought to be a mekosuchine, is now more often regarded as either an unrelated crocodile or a gharial and its very possible that it filling the nische of a longirostrine simply meant that mekosuchines didn't have the opportunity to expand into that space. Same goes for Gunggamarandu in the Pliocene and Pleistocene and Freshwater Crocodiles from the Pleistocene onwards. (Tho it should be noted that both Harpacochampsa and Gunggamarandu are so fragmentary that their snout shape is technically unknown).

Images: Gunggamarandu (Eleanor Pease), Harpacochampsa (ArtbyJRC) and Freshies (Antoni Camozzato) might have been key factors in why mekosuchines never evolved slender snouts.

Finally, its also possible that something in the growth of mekosuchines simply prevents them from evolving longirostrine skulls, which Yates and Stein liken to alligatoroids (notably the closest alligatoroids got to traditional longirostry as seen in gharials is the Rio Apaporis Caiman, and even that one is closer to some extant crocodiles in its morphology).

Whatever the case, I for one mourn the loss of our long-snouted Ultrastenos. Tho as a note for any paleoartists, there is not a single illustration of this new interpretation since nobody ever drew "Baru" huberi either. Wink wink nudge nudge

Links:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultrasteno

Ultrastenos revised (palaeo-electronica.org)

[trainingdummyrabbit]

thinks really hard abt the lobcorp pre-suppression cutscene choices and their repetition, how it represents how this decision was never yours to make (this is an action picked out by someone who isnt and can never be you; your decision does not matter) yet the decision was Always yours to make (there is no other option because this is What Happened, and Would Always Be what happened; you would never make another choice. your decision is the only one that mattered.)

the line between ayin and x is so blurred. much like the rest of the sephirah, ayin too creates a split in himself not terribly different from the split between elijah and malkuth, gabriel and yesod, michelle and hod, and on, and on. and yet, despite how differently each iteration of x is described or implied to be, after the memory sync, it is always implied to still be Ayin. to be Ayin once more. and yet, each of the sephirah seem to feel as though they are entirely different people. where is the line drawn? and who is it drawn by?

if x is not ayin, what becomes of him when ayins memories return? the sephirah made their own choices of who they decide to be-- but did ayin make that choice for himself too? was he simply too stubborn to allow himself to disappear under the weight of that many resets, that many retries, that many reshuffles of the mind? how much of x remains afterwards? how much say does he have in the right to exist, as someone who defines himself out of existence on the sole account of Being? intrinsically temporary. but i suppose, since when did ayin care of the voices that were not his own?

but if x Is ayin, what does that make of how we see him from the start? how does this redefine his character, who he Is, what he Searches for? what he Prioritizes? an open ended question becomes a well trodden trail, always destined to return to the same point, over and over. the implication that no matter what he does, what becomes of him, any choice he makes will inevitably be the same. he too has a part to play, and he too must see it to fruition, just like everyone else. and so he marches forward, and so he marches forward.

of course, nothing is ever really so black and white, but its not like we will ever really get to know. we dont get to see much of the man behind the curtain, only the hand that directs. no matter what path, what circumstance, what action, it will always end the same way. the hill must be climbed, the wheel must be ran, and the sun always rises at the end.

it was never his choice to make. it was Always his choice to make.

[its-no-biggie]

thinking about. yoohankim body swap......

mild novel spoilers ahead but no big story moments or anything just. brief mentions of skills they get later and such

okay so weve got 2 options here, right (well technically theres 6 ways to arrange 3 objects but. if we assume each of them swaps into someone else. theres 2). first one. kdj -> yjh, yjh -> hsy, hsy -> kdj. right off the bat - extremely funny. kdj in yjhs body having the time of his life (i am the protagonist!!), but also adjusts fairly quickly bc like. hes done this before. hsy in kdjs body is a menace. immediately rummaging through his pockets. everyone is unsettled by unreadable normalguy kdj making hsys evil little gremlin expressions. and yjh in hsys body is like. immediately getting bullied because his menacing aura does not work at all in hsys 5 foot frame. kdj-as-yjh is picking him up by the scruff of the neck and all he can do is glare murderously

second arrangement. kdj -> hsy, hsy -> yjh, yjh -> kdj. i think i like this one less but lets see. yjh as kdj is pretty good, i think yjh would be disgruntled no matter who he swaps bodies with but since the 2 of them are on such even footing in the narrative, i think actually spending time in kdjs weak pathetic body would make him lose some respect for him lmfao. like "what have you been doing all this time that your body is in such poor shape. pathetic." hsy as yjh is extremely salty about how op he is. muttering about cliches under her breath. definitely uses her new power to relentlessly bully kdj (omg wait that means hsys body is getting harassed by yjhs body in both scenarios..... what can i say. shes the perfect size to be bothered. the only reason she isnt bothered more in canon is because of her sharp teeth - i stand by this). kdj as hsy is. unremarkable i think. loudly complains about how much shorter he is now just to piss her off. finds an unholy amount of candy in her pockets and publicly shames her about it until she points yjhs sword at him and he shuts up real quick.

honestly i think both of these scenarios have great potential for physical comedy though. they all have such different mannerisms and such different appearances that reshuffling them is always gonna be striking. i need to draw it.....

okay lets talk logistics. do they keep all their skills or do the skills stay with the body? they probably keep them, although it might be more interesting to have like. physical skills like swordfighting and whatnot stay with the body. so if they get stuck like that for a while and end up fighting in each others bodies they kinda have to adapt to the bodies skills and fighting style. could be fun! hmmm that kinda leaves whoevers in kdjs body in the lurch though, since all his skills are mental..... and then kdj has a massive advantage, because surely the bookmark skill gets a boost if hes literally in the body of the person hes copying. so perhaps they keep all their skills - hsys avatar skill in yjhs protagonist body would be pretty op. and yjh has so many skills that he could make anything work - he might end up ripping kdjs body to shreds though lmfao. also im not sure if we get much of kdj using hsy as a bookmark in the novel? i actually dont remember an instance of it, although i can see him wanting to steal predictive plagiarism so it may have happened and i just forgot. but anyway kdj as hsy using bookmark + avatar, and then hsy as yjh also using avatar is an INSANE combo. two man army. and then theres kdjs body there like *struggling to hold up a sword* "i am yoo joonghyuk......" *passes out* LMAO sorry kdj i know youre not that pathetic its just so funny to imagine the protagonists sheer power literally destroying your fragile salaryman body from the inside out.

omg also. if the swap lasts more than a few minutes theyre DEFINITELY getting their weapons and coats back from their bodies. black coat hsy...... wait omg. okay i know kdjs coat is like a high grade magic item that changes size with him. not sure if yjhs is the same but allow me for a moment - yjh-as-hsy trying to look menacing (already failing) but his coat is way too big. its dragging on the floor. the sleeves cover his hands. 😭😭😭😭 its so ridiculous...... other notable combos - white coat hsy (head in hands). hsy-as-yjh gets yjhs coat stolen from her which means the protagonist physique is on full display - she makes a comment about how WoS should have made more use of this kind of fanservice and now she and kdj are arguing. black coat kdj..... i am yoo joonghyuk......

okay i think thats all i got for now. i hope its in character because i really havent read orv in a while..... anyway i think this has a lot of potential so i wanna try drawing it - maybe ill have more thoughts on specific character interactions once i can like,, put personalities to faces lmao

[brawltogethernow]

QUICK i just gave you a quadrillain dollars and made you head of marvel what spider man comic run plot would you make?

While I have definitely considered what I would do if I were put in charge of Spider-Man tomorrow, it's next to impossible to imagine this scenario as well-funded and free of editorial strings. So much of the main considerations are things like "how would I clean up after/respectfully send off the previous run" and "which changes to the status quo would Disney let me get away with". The endeavor is slightly overburdened with these but would be unrecognizable without them entirely. I like to think they would make it a fun challenge I'm tolerably suited for honestly? The constraints are part of the flavor!

Every run I have some kind of concept of where I'd go from there that then falls out of relevance--if things had been handed to me back when Spencer was teasing rolling back "One More Day", the Black Cat solo was running and crossing her over with Doctor Strange, and Mephisto was deposed, I'd have had Felicia heist the contract representing petermj's deal with the devil from Hell while it reshuffled its infernal paperwork and then lose it on the magical underworld's black market to set off a surreal fetch quest. If you handed the reins to me now I'd have to deal with Norman, I'd want to pull Flash and Harry from dangling story threads and Sha Shan from her recent cameos to reinvolve them in a thematic way, and I'd want to put a lot of focus on unpacking how MJ actually feels about all the storylines that have been happening to her that should given her backstory really be pushing her buttons, and to showcase her and Peter's dynamic in the current status quo--at this point rushing them back together would feel cheap, so the starting goal would be playing them off each other and making the reader desperate for me to hook them back up without delivering.

There are open threads with Betty and Ben too... This kind of thing is what makes superhero comics the unique medium that's captured so much of my attention! I don't have a single perfect storyline I'd like to write, because the story is always in violent flux.

[totem-but-shark]

let's break down what made foolishs fruit mountain technique so effective because there's actually quite a lot to unpack here. -From a doozer who's been following his fruit mountain escapades from first playing the game to developing his strategy to winning this tournament.

The diagrams two best strengths are it's simplicity and speed. It's a very repetitive technique, there's a pattern to it that when followed everything else falls into place. It being so simple cuts down significantly on time needed to assess the plate, deciding where to place and throwing your fruit as though obviously theres manual input and adjustments needed for poor placements or unlucky fruit spawns, most time and energy can be dedicated to following the systems rhythm. Foolish has become confidently fluent with this pattern and seemingly gets faster every time he plays it through, he doesn't need to spend ages judging exactly what placement would be most efficient when he knows if he continues to follow his system the fruit will continue to build and combine. This of course only feeds into his speed, which beyond being able to rack up high scores in such a short period of time and quickly catching up to opponents even after resets also has a hidden bonus, combo multipliers.

The way his system functions incorporates a lot of chain combinations, the fruit are laid out in such a way where Foolish places each fruit beside its next combined stage so that when one combines they all chain together to create one huge fruit which by itself already creates a high combo multiplier. However following the pattern of his strategy foolish doesn't need to wait to reassess the plate even after such significant reshuffling, he can immediately continue to keep placing left to right and combining, further boosting the combo multiplier with quick combines. Using this technique i've seen him reach almost a 2x point multiplier on several occasions, this would mean that even if he and an opponent were placing the exact same fruit in the exact same spots making identical combinations he would still have a higher score using his speed.

It may seem random or like pure luck that he always seems to be getting the exact fruit he needs but that's simply another trick of the diagram. Whilst there is certainly luck involved, placing left to right it allows him to quickly sort through the fruit spawns to get the specific one needed whilst also allowing room for multiple options and improvisation if it's just not working out by accommodating for this random chance element. This gives his technique a strong consistency to it that isn't present in many other play styles for fruit mountain that are often more dependant on lucky fruit drops. He makes decisions that may appear illogical, ignoring opportunities to combine or shoving a lone fruit to some back isolated corner of the plate but this is because he's following his system and prioritising creating a fruit chain that'll lead to a cleaner board and higher points from larger combines. You can put an isolated apple in a corner when you know you can simply continue to sort through the fruit for another three for an easy combine whilst the smaller fruit build up their own larger foundations on the left without needing to worry about being wedged between any bigger fruit needing to combine.

^ my recreation of the diagram

It's all in the layout, how you're able to structure the plate and getting into the flow of placing small fruit on the left and large on the right without getting too caught up in it and slipping up by missing opportunities or misplacement. Progression is clear and linear keeping the plate as clean as possible combining from one fruit to the next with a clear goal and structure for each step towards a watermelon. As consistent as this system is it isn't flawless and significant player input is required, you have to think quick and adapt on the fly. Beyond this technique Foolish is a skilled player on his own and I have to give him credit where credit is due, especially for coming up with this system entirely independently. The tournament was a blast to watch and he's more than deserving of the win.

o7 KOF (king of fruit)

[tobiasdrake]

As much as young Xavier tries to proselytize about hope, it's actually the future crew that are really showing off its virtues.

Hank makes a bad argument that maybe all of this is pointless and, in fact, Trask's assassination and the creation of the Sentinels cannot be changed.

This is a really good opportunity for Charles to speak up and be the beacon of hope. Because Hank's possibility can't be disproven with facts or logic. Maybe he's right. We have no possible way to know one way or the other. All we can do is believe that a better outcome is possible.

As MCU Nick Fury once said, until such a time as the Earth ends, we must act as though it intends to spin on. To despair here would be a self-fulfilling paralytic. If we act as though history can change we may yet be proven right, but if we assume it cannot be and give up then we ensure that it will not be.

Unfortunately, Charles gets fixated on NOT MY RAVEN instead of addressing the actual point Hank's making. He just regurgitates something smart-sounding that his older self told him in a different context.

He's still too stuck on NOT MY RAVEN to actually engage with the idea Hank put forward.

This fixation of his would be a lot easier to swallow if the character in question didn't have three separate films of being a stone-cold villainess under her belt, and wasn't an adaptation of an even more stone-cold villainess from the source material. He is trying so hard to argue the intrinsic goodness of the X-brand's most stylish lady of wickedness.

Meanwhile, in the future, people are laying down their lives for hope.

Everybody here is going to die. The plan is to die here. Charles put forth the idea to unmake this future from having ever happened and convinced this crew to lay down their lives for a possibility of a better world.

They're all just buying time, gambling with their lives on the hope that the future will reshuffle and they'll wake up in a better world. It's fucking inspiring.

[salstray]

Luck of the Draw - part 2

Ghost x fem!Reader - Left 4 Dead/Cod AU

This story is written in first person. I understand that some people don't like first person reader inserts, so if you are one of them, please just keep on scrolling! And if the thought of a left 4 dead/cod au sounds fun, but this one doesn't appeal to you? Feel free to write your own! Or request it from a favorite author, as long as they are open for requests and au ideas~

--

Warnings: A little bit of angst, I suppose, but not really. Just a vague mention of past abuse and a lack of trust on the MC's part pointed towards the boys. Also no zombies yet, but I PROMISE they will be there in the next part- This won't just be an apocalypse au, I swear it!

Words: 2.4K!

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Part 1 // part 3 will be linked here when its posted!

--

We moved in a line. Soap up front, me in the middle, Ghost behind us. I wasn’t a super fan of having tall, dark, and British behind me at all times, but I convinced myself through an internal argument that it was better than being exposed. At least if a Jockey or something managed to sneak up on us that meant it would jump on his back instead of mine. 

Our trip lasted all day. Heading almost directly southeast, keeping the steadily setting sun just to the right of our path. Soap and Ghost were dead silent the entire time and I didn’t try to take up the mantle of conversationalist in their absence. Ghost probably would have yelled at me that I was distracting them and I didn't want to see if Soap had a mean streak hidden behind that smile. 

It was only once the sun started to slip down over the tops of the distant trees, out of sight, that the guys decided it was time to stop for the night. 

“Better not to get caught outside after dark,” Soap muttered as Ghost took the lead of our pack, nudging open the door to a little pizza place. It was completely silent inside, with no broken windows and no visible corpses. Looked like it had probably been closed when everything went down. 

“Seems pretty untouched,” I whispered, glancing down the street, in the one direction we’d seen some infected about twenty minutes ago. It was surprisingly empty of them down this road, which set me on edge. “Think we’ll find food inside?” 

“Might. If not Ghost and I will share what we got,” Soap replied quietly, his eyes trained on Ghost’s back as he slipped into the kitchen with his gun raised. 

“Clear,” he called. “Soap, check the bathrooms. There’s a freezer door back ‘ere I’ll poke into.” He turned to pin me with his eyes. “You, keep back.” 

He didn’t have to tell me twice. 

The place ended up being empty. Not even a blood stain to be seen. The freezer was broken, clearly, and everything that was perishable had long since perished, but there were a few canned things that had lasted through the apocalypse that we shared between the three of us. Ghost didn’t take his mask off to eat. Just lifted it up so it didn’t block his mouth and stared right back at me as I stared at the scar that cut through his lips. Maybe before all this I’d have cared more about how that made me look, how that made him think I was, but the end of the world had a funny way of reshuffling your fears and anxieties. 

Once our lovely dinner was done and over with, the remaining food slipped away for the future, Ghost told Soap and I to get some sleep, then stepped out into the dining room to keep watch for the night. Soap propped himself up against the wall by the freezer door, his gun in his lap, and leaned his head back and closed his eyes. I chose to curl up in the corner along the same wall as him, with my knees tucked into my chest and my hands folded under my head. 

My eyes didn’t close, however. Instead they kept staring out into the darkness, towards the dining room door. Towards where Ghost was. It sounded like Soap was asleep. He was breathing deeply and hadn’t moved in a while, but I still didn’t really trust these two. 

Neither of them had shown any signs of possible betrayal and everything they had done only reinforced the idea that they were actual military men. Yet there was still that little hint of doubt at the back of my mind. That one instinct that told me to keep my guard up, my mind active, my eyes open. I trusted them to keep me safe from the zombies, but I knew the only thing that would keep me safe from them was myself. 

I dozed off a few times. Never fully fell asleep, jerked awake at every rush of wind or creak of the building, but still. It was better than nothing. I probably would have gotten better sleep if I’d still been in that attic. My plan had been to stay there for a few days. Deal with the hunger for as long as I could, rest up, then search the suburbs for anything that might have been left behind by the families there. 

Halfway through the night, Ghost stepped back through the door and I instantly pushed myself up so I was sitting, my eyes wide, fearing that something had gone wrong. 

He didn’t say anything though. Not to me. His eyes danced over to me in the darkness, but he just walked right over to Soap and nudged him in the leg with his boot. Soap breathed deep, his eyes opening easily as he tilted his head back to look up at his partner.

“My turn?” he asked softly. Ghost nodded and Soap nodded back before he pushed himself to his feet. He also spared me a glance, smiling when he spotted me sitting up and staring at them. “Go back to sleep. Just switching the watch, is all.” 

Soap stalked out of the room, looking completely awake, and Ghost slid down the wall to take the same position as Soap. 

After a moment of hesitation, I curled back up on my side, falling back into the silence of the night.

Ghost didn’t let it linger between us long.

“Haven’t slept a wink, have you?” He whispered. His voice carried through the room with ease, making me flinch as it hit my ears. I shifted a bit on the floor. The urge to roll to my other side was strong, but I wasn’t willing to put my back to the room to relieve the ache in my limbs. 

“No.” 

He grunted. Then spoke again. “Should try to.” 

“Have been.” 

“Try harder.” 

I lifted my head, just enough so he could turn and see how my face was twisted in annoyance. 

“Bastard,” I hissed.

To my surprise, his eyes scrunched and his shoulders shook and I heard him chuckle. He didn’t seem the kind to laugh easily, but of course getting a rise out of me would do it. Ghost didn’t say anything else and I settled back on the floor a few seconds later. The urge to snap at him again was strong, yet I managed to ignore it. 

--

“So how long have you been out here alone, lass?” Soap asked, his fingers idly drumming against the handguard of his rifle. 

We were walking along a road. One side was lined sparsely with trees and the other was nothing but a rotting cornfield. It was open and windy and apparently the perfect time to start interrogating me about my past. Soap was to my left and Ghost was a few paces behind us both, his eyes scanning the fields around us. Every now and then we passed an empty car, but besides that it was completely barren. 

“Pretty much since the beginning of all this,” I replied with a shrug. “My family always liked to talk a big game about what we’d do if zombies ever hit, but the second they did, it all fell apart. I was home alone. Everyone else was at work… I said they were dead, but honestly, I have no idea what happened to any of them… I stayed home for a few days after everything went wrong, though, so I figure if they didn’t try to come get me…,” I shrugged again and Soap’s face looked grim. “Went out on my own when looters turned up and started threatening me.” 

“Sorry, lass,” he muttered.

“Don’t be, they were an abusive bunch of assholes anyway.” Soap’s brows raised suddenly and he glanced at Ghost over his shoulder. “I don’t miss any of them.” 

“Not one?”

“Not. One.” 

“Well… guess that’s a bright side, then,” he said, scoffing.

“Mhm. What about you? What’s your sob story?”

Soap shook his head at me. “No story to sob over. My family’s tucked away on base in the UK. I wasn’t working when this all went down, but was called up pretty fast once things got rollin’. Got 'em safe, then got called in.” I nodded a few times, a smile curling at my lips. 

“That’s good to hear. What about you, Ghost?” I asked, turning to walk backwards a few paces so I could look at him while I spoke. “What’s your whole deal?”

Soap’s brows raised again and he glanced back towards Ghost yet again as his dark eyes turned on me. No one spoke for a short while. I kept walking backwards, thankful that this road was smooth and there weren’t any cracks or bumps for me to trip and eat shit over. 

“Don’t have one.” 

“A deal or…?”

“Family.” 

“Because of the zombies?”

“No.” 

“Why the mask?”

“Lass-” Soap started, the warning clear in his tone. “Don’t.” 

Ghost didn’t offer anything else but a set of narrowed eyes, so I took Soap’s advice and turned back around to continue our walk in silence.

--

We were still on the road when night fell. There were no buildings in sight and no signs of any zombies, but Ghost and Soap still didn’t want to be out in the open, so we stopped just after the sun fell below the horizon, when we found a big van that could fit us all while keeping us out of sight. 

It had a big enough space in the back to fit us all on the floor. Not comfortably. However comfort wasn’t the worry, at least not for the guys. 

It wasn’t what I was worried about either, to be fair. What I was worried about was the fact that they wanted to keep me in the middle of our sleep pile. 

“Why?” 

“You’ll be safer there and I don’t think I’d survive too much longer if I woke up snuggled up on Ghost,” Soap said with a laugh. 

“And what makes you think I want you snuggled up on me?” I almost snarled, snapping him out of his humorous mood. His eyes flickered down to my hands, where I was gripping my gun like a lifeline, then over to Ghost, a frown pulling at his lips. 

“I didn’t mean anything by it, lass,” he said, sounding serious for the first time since I’d met him. “Swear it. All hands will be kept to themselves.” My eyes narrowed at him. “It’s just to keep you safe. Ghost and I are used to this sort of thing, even before the outbreak, we’ve done this a thousand times with people we’ve been tasked to keep out of the line of fire.” 

I still wasn’t convinced.

“How ‘bout this,” Ghost said, stepping up beside me. I flinched when he reached forward and my eyes widened when I realized he was offering me a knife. “You keep this close. In hand. Guns won’t be any use in such close quarters, so if we do anything that makes you feel threatened, give us a new hole, alright?”

That was a little more reassuring… I still wasn’t completely happy about the set up, but the sun was gone and the light was fading fast and the closing darkness felt more like it was pressuring me about my choice than anything else. So, with a quiet sigh, I nodded and took the knife from Ghost. 

Then I crawled into the back of the van and was quickly squished between the both of them. 

Neither of them planned on keeping watch that night. Since we were in such an open space with no threats in sight, they figured it was best for them to both catch up on sleep while things were clear. I had hoped to do the same, since I hadn’t slept even a little bit the night before. I was finding it difficult to drift off, however.

It was just fear keeping me awake. Pure fear. 

The knife Ghost gave me was clutched in my left hand, which was resting against my chest. On my back, I had Soap’s back pressed into my left arm and Ghost’s shoulder touching the right, giving me no room to worm away. Maybe I would have if Ghost wasn’t on his back, but he seemed to like sleeping like a vampire with his hands folded over his stomach, so…

“Relax.” I flinched at the sound of his voice and turned to stare at Ghost through the shadows, my grip tightening on the hilt of his knife. “I know you don’t trust us, but we aren’t gonna hurt you. Aren’t gonna touch you.” 

He could say whatever he wanted, but words were words. They didn’t mean jack shit in the end of it all. 

“Why didn’t you just let me go to the base myself?” I whispered back to him. 

“Told you why.” 

“I survived fine enough on my own up until then.”

“Couldn’t risk lettin’ your luck run out.”

“Thought it was just luck that kept me alive this long?”

“It's just luck that’s kept any of us alive through all this.” I couldn’t really argue with that. Zombies were bad enough. The rapid mutations only made it worse. Luck really was a big part of it, that was just a fact. “Try and get some sleep. We move out at sunrise.” 

Ghost turned away from me after that, facing the roof of the van as his eyes fell closed. Less than a minute later he was breathing deeply and evenly and I allowed myself to loosen my grip on the knife. Just a little. 

Neither of them moved in their sleep. All they did was breathe. They didn’t even snore, which was almost weird, but then I thought about how they were military. Probably used to falling asleep whenever they could, wherever they could. Having to be quick and quiet about resting in dangerous places. It was a skill I wish I’d gained through all this. I’d always had trouble falling asleep, even when I was exhausted, like I was now. If I didn’t manage to calm myself down and let myself rest for at least a little while tonight, I’d be a walking liability and luck would get us nowhere. 

I took a deep breath, letting my eyes close lightly. Then I took another and risked rolling over onto my right side, putting my back against Soap’s and facing Ghost. I kept the knife in my hand and rested my fist next to my head, trying to keep my breathing steady, trying to relax myself enough that I could sleep.

--

thank you for reading :3

have a lovely day!

[arc-misadventures]

Rebirth AU: Roman your nephew called and asked if you were part of the betting pool, and if you knew which Altesian your sister slept with

The Arc Family is Weird

Luna: Hello, Uncle Roman!

Roman: Luna! How’s my favourite greedy goblin doing?

Luna: I’m doing fine, how are you?

Roman: I’ll be doing better when your brother comes, and joins me; I need more competent minds, and hands helping me with… the business.

Luna: Right, the business~!

Roman: So, why did you decide to call me, not to say hi I assume?

Luna: The family betting pool, its been shaken up a bit.

Roman: That pool on who’s gonna sleep with, Jaune?

Luna: Yep, that one.

Roman: Okay, so what’s the reshuffle?

Luna: Well we added a new category to the pool, and a new contender!

Roman: Oh, really? Who is it, and what did you add?

Luna: Well… We added, Mom to the pool…

Roman: You added, Juni to the pool?! Why the hell did you add her to the pool, who added her to the pool?!

Luna: Dad place twenty on, Mom popping his cherry; which is also the new bet that’s been going on.

Roman: Ughhh… Of course, Achny put money on that… Freaking weirdo… So, what’s the betting pool like now?

Luna: Okay, the two categories are who will sleep with, Jaune, what order will they sleep with, Jaune, and who will pop his cherry.

Roman: Decent categories… And, who are the favoured to win?

Luna: Well, we went for top three on each, but for popping his cherry we have, Jeanne with the lead…

Roman: Twin advantage, good bases to go off from.

Luna: Followed by, Mom.

Roman: How many of you degenerates are betting on your mother?!

Luna: And, behind in third by eight points is, Thiriana.

Roman: And what about the one who will sleep with him?

Luna: Well, the top three is, Jeanne, Mom, and then, Saphron.

Roman: Saphron? Isn’t she gay, why is she on the list, let alone so high on the list?

Luna: Dad said how mom wasn’t into women, but then woke up one day with dad, and some, Atlasian woman in a threesome. And, if she was anything like mom she was going to do it too, and regret nothing.

Roman: Oh yeah, I remember that day… Put me down for a hundred on, Saphron then. Smart money’s on that. Arc, are a weird lot…

Luna: That’s what, Dad said too. So… You remember that day about the threesome, Mom, and Dad were a part of…?

Roman: Aye…?

Luna: Who was it with?! Can you tell me! Please, please, please~?

Roman: Why…?

Luna: Just because.

Roman: Weird lot you, Arc’s are… Willow Schnee.

Luna: Willow Schnee? Willow Schnee of the, Schnee Dust Company?

Roman: That’s the one.

Luna: When, how?!

Roman: Well for the how; Juni, and Willow Schnee were partners in, Atlas back in the day. So they go way back. As for the when, I believe it was at, Willow’s, Hen Party…? Yeah, I that’s about when it happened.

Luna: Hen Party?

Roman: Stag Party, but for the ladies~!

Luna: Oh, okay… Wait, how do you know about all of this…?

Roman: Oh, Juni sent me a drunk text photo about the whole thing. Teased her about it for months afterwards! Ahhh~! Good times…

Luna: Sounds like a drunk mom thing to do.

Roman: Yeah, Juni was a completely different person twenty-three years ago. She’s mellowed out since marrying your dad… But, not much, but nonetheless.

Luna: I doubt that… Wait… This all happened Twenty-three years ago…?

Roman: Yeah. Why, is that meant to mean something?

Luna: Well, it’s just… Uhh… Winter Schnee… Willow Schnee’s first daughter is… Twenty-two years old…

Roman: …

Luna: You don’t think…?

Roman: …

Luna: …

Roman: Five Hundred says she isn’t.

Luna: You’re on! DAD! You, and Mom had a threesome with, Willow Schnee?!

Acheius: What?! How the hell did you find that out?!

Luna: Uncle Roman told me!

Acheius: Roman! What are you telling my daughter?!

Roman: Hey, Achny~! Where’s that ten Lien you still owe me?

Acheius: Roman, I swear…?!

Luna: Never mind that! You slept with Willow Schnee twenty-three years ago, yes?!

Acheius: Yes…?

Luna: Willow’s first daughter, Winter Schnee is twenty two years old… I-Is she your daughter…? Do we have a ninth sister?!

Acheius: …

Acheius: JUNIPER?!

Roman: Well, looks like I’m not winning this bet…

~~~

Jaune: …

Jeanne: …

Jaune: Was this a thing in your world?

Jeanne: Nope…

Jaune: Oh… Okay…

Jaune: …

Jaune: If she winds up in the list, I’m going to shank one of you with a rusty spoon.

Jeanne: Noted.

Jaune: Good.

[cherrybombrs]

do u have any wiz101 beginner tips!! i just started recently cause it's a very charming mmorpg but after the unicorn way quest it threw so much tutorial and gameplay mechanic at me and my little pea brain cannot keep up, any advice?

OK HIII for starters thank u for helping me realize i had asks turned off on da wiz blog... i've since fixed that so. that should be good now <3 ^_^

AS FOR BEGINNER TIPS... i played the very first arc YEARS ago like a year or two after wiz's first release. i played back in 2011 so everything is like a blur to me- and i do have like. TWO wizards that i made to start fresh with just to see like. how things changed and. YEAH. i see what u mean with how they just kind of throw u at the wolves once ur done with that section

unfortunately i dont have many tips in that regard just because the starting point of the game has changed SO much fundamentally from the time that i played, to now. but i could give u some small things that might make ur life a little easier???

edit: PLEASE ALSO CHECK ALL THE REBLOGS AND THE REPLIES FROM ALL THE LOVELY PEOPLE!!! THEY HAVE ADDED MORE THAN I COULD EVEN THINK TO REMEMBER THEY R THE REAL MVPS!!!!

find a friend who can trade u monstrous TC (treasure cards)!! they're additional spell cards you can add onto your deck that upon use get used up, but monstrous comes super in handy because they boost your damaging spells DMG by a big amount. it'll make the slough of early game much quicker.

WHILE UR DOING UR main scenario quests, look around at the side quest in the area!! i never did this growing up but it dawned on my now how crazy smart this is LOL a lot of side quests will be like "hey wizard go beat up these things for me pleaseeeee" and you can sync up ur quests along with ur sidequest and they'll both count. literally a win-win

the further u go on in the game, u should keep ur deck smaller- less spells means more likely to pull what u need in that moment means less prolonged battles that go on for longer than they need to. ALSO LEARN RESHUFFLE its a balance spell and you learn it in krokotopia. CORRECTION YOU LEARN IT IN COLOSSUS BLVD FROM MILDRED FARSEER (THANK YOU @/divine-deer!!!!) literally worlds most op spell in the game love it

there's some side content that the game throws at u randomly. iirc, theres grizzleheim starts at level 20 and then you keep getting called back there until u reach 45 (that's for wintertusk, highly recommend for that level!!) wysteria, lvl 25 i believe there's the underwater section in wizcity sewers in olde town aquilla (HIGHLY rec doing this for the sky iron hasta, that bad boy will carry you to lvl 100 LOL) and much much more. i know there's more but I'm literally forgetting because there's so many side worlds

when in doubt. just look up whatever you're dealing with and add reddit on the end. i don't like reddit but damnit those mfs have ALL the answers for literally anything

this is ALL i can rlly think of off the top of my head rn BUT if u ever have anymore questions my dms are always open as well as my ask box ^_^ i love wizzzzzz

[kozykricket]

oops long post about minecraft

i hope that within the next 5 years i can see minecraft move on from the stage of Adding Content, and start making more changes... but at the same time, they've always mentioned how they want people to be able to always come back to the game and ... have it feel familiar. mojang wants people to be able to come back from a loooong break, and still ultimately play the game the same, even if it looks or sounds different. even if theres more options. i think logically thats why they never replace or reshuffle content. because... well, they'd rather add something to the side of the core game than change something thats part of the core... because they dont want to disrupt peoples traditional way of playing but like, with how much minecraft has evolved every aspect of itself EXCEPT the main, core gameplay? it feels like... at this point, i think they SHOULD change the core gameplay, even if its in ways that i dont even like. just, to fit in more with the rest... but do i fault them? no. they play it safe yet they also try daring new things, at the same time. its impressive the amount of effort they put into carefully thinking about new content... and i understand so many people would be up in arms, or would be saddened, if the way they played the game drastically changed. and thats why theyre just , giving us the ability to modify the game more easily than ever

i just kinda felt like i needed to get this out here, because. yknow, whenever people mention minecraft having Tons of Content I Can't Keep Track Of What When Did They Add That What Is That it slike yeah you're not really ... supposed to notice it? but you are supposed to?

you're not supposed to feel the need to engage with anything they add, but also Marketing(TM) denotes that they have to advertise the new stuff as something for you to engage with, and really, really encourage you to engage with it via stuff like advancements or the title screen even so i guess the game is at odds with itself in that way, because as said, things are designed to ... well, not BE noticed when they're added, at least not in a disruptive yet, yet they also try to make things noticable enough that you know they exist... and . well, its a careful balance... i dont think its entirely futile, but i think the fact that they kinda have to market content to Everyone even when they know they designed that content as Not Something For Everyone, is fairly ... awkward. cus then... yknow, they end up leading people towards stuff that they otherwise would've had not much of an opinion on, but now that they're being "forcibly shown" the content that they don't personally care about, they may see it as an attack towards their playstyle, in the way that changing the core gameplay loop would be. does this make sense? okay uhh example mojang adds... deep dark biomes, but theyre definitely optional to engage with, and you might not even know they were added, because of their optional-ness and arguably low relevance. its just a fun little sidequest in a way, a self contained Thing because they don't want to scare people away. but yet at the same time, the marketing goes all "HEY WE GOT A COOL NEW SPOOKY BIOME" and then even if you're disinterested in it, you now know its in the game, and you are led to believe that mojang WANTS every player to be using the deep dark, which... makes it seem poorly designed. simply because it WASNT designed for every player to want to engage with. it wasnt designed to be an integral part of the core experience. it was designed to be optional and is being marketed as a big part of the experience.

cus the thing is they DONT always design things for every type of player to want to use. you get me? they design the... allay, to be nice for certain types of players. but then the marketing gives off the idea that they think every type of player ought to enjoy it, even though it wasn't designed to be enjoyed by everyone and... yeah i guess thats also why i appreciate loosely themed updates like 1.8 or 1.20, because they have less of a deliberate focus on the One Big Thing and so people are less likely to end up noticing something that wasnt really meant to be noticed unless they liked it. people who dont like trial chambers will be noticing them since theyre on the title screen in 1.21... even though, if they are someone who doesnt like them, then they were meant to be sorta, yknow, optional for those people? though perhaps a structure that spawns anywhere in the overworld is a poor example. maybe stuff like the sniffer being shown so much is Worse in that sense this really became a bigger post than i imagined. i just kinda intended to make a post that was like "its kind of a bummer that mojang is basically restricted away from changing the core of minecraft despite the fact that theyve changed everything else so much that by proxy they've changed the core in every way that isnt straight up full on touching the core gameplay"

[animehouse-moe]

Mr. Villain's Day Off Episode 2: Earth Is Formidable Indeed

Unsurprisingly, this episode is more of what I expected from this series, and curiously enough the source of the shortcomings isn't the production. Still, the episode is plenty enjoyable and the new storyboarder for this episode excels at a few things, meaning it's not quite a cut and dry conversation. Of course, that means I've got a good bit to chat about once more.

So, the first episode was boarded by Kunihisa Sugishima, and I raved about their effort and eye for approaching the series. This time around the episode is boarded by Kenichi Nishida, and they very much lack the tools to provide consistent depth and finesse in lighter scenes.

I wouldn't go as far as calling it "bad", or even "lazy" really. Nishida's work as a storyboarder has almost exclusively been on low-value and children's productions in the first place. It's more a mindset of what appeals to and is accepted by the target demographic, because there's certainly pieces that are well done.

It's just that Nishida needs a hand holding his in these moments to provide something good. If the manga doesn't approach the content in a novel format, Nishida's boards will reflect that. If it's creative like this moment, then you'll get good work.

It's a little disappointing to see, but it shows how much Mr. Villain's Day Off relies on higher level staff members. There's not much animation to begin with, so the need for expressive and well laid out boards is very strong. Basically, if we don't have a good storyboarder on an episode it won't be all that incredible, but when there is one the content will really thrive off of it.

One aspect I think that could really help with moving reliance away from specific positions though is composition. The color design is really really great and adds a lot to the backgrounds, but the art is very simple. Because of that scenes can feel really flat if there's not many characters or foreground objects in them.

And in a way, there's some sort of undeniable charm to how much Red stands out in this scene, but I feel like there's more potential if the composition and visual effects were a little heavier in sequences like these. Darkening the sky and color palette some more, bringing out the shadows in the streets thanks to the lampposts, just small details that fill up a scene a bit better than what we have here.

Bringing up the slider on the amount of composition would just help in pulling dependence away from what a storyboarder can create and help bring some more balance to the episodes.

Though for how much I'm complaining about the boards in this episode, there really are moments that are quite good.

I just think that a lot of Nishida's good work gets washed away by their bog-standard efforts that employ nonstop zooming and panning to add variation. It's a bit of a cheap trick and quickly becomes tiring when overused, especially in longer sequences like this one.

Admittedly though, I will say that Nishida's sense of humor does do well in this episode. It's not great, and it's not perfectly consistent, but there are more than a few moments that translate well from the manga under his supervision.

Speaking of translation, I only realize today that the production has been changing around the order of the skits and outings in the series. I think it's a very intelligent change due to its nature but I'm curious to see how it ends up playing out. I say that because while a lot of the chapters are isolated in the grand scheme of things, there's a lot of piece that end up conntected.

Take, for example, the kid with the blue hat. The panda sequence and rabbit petting one are actually separated by a good few chapters in the manga.

The point being that while a lot of chapters feel isolated at a small scale, they tend to become more valuable in the larger scheme of the manga, so I'm wondering how they're going to approach that reshuffling for some of the moments they've passed by so far.

All in all though, this really is much more in line with my expectations for Synergy SP and Shin-Ei. Seeing such disparate episodes so early on though has me very interested in seeing who else we get as storyboarders for this series, as they evidently hold a lot of the production value in their own hands. Though I suppose I'll find out more about that next week.