#when ecosystems are doomed

[13thpythagoras]

hydro, or hydroelectric, is the preferred nomenclature, please at once cease referring to it as the

energy of the dammed

[bringbackthepornbots]

editing is the BEST

[hope-for-the-planet]

What if there's already nothing left to save? There's microplastics in the clouds and soil and our blood and brains. Climate disasters and warming are happening faster than scientists thought it would and all the governments in the whole world are just protecting the corporations and billionaires that are causing this. We're not safe, too much irriversable damage has been done already and its getting worse even more and I'm so scared. We could hit so many tipping points that will kill everyone very soon if things dont change completely from how it is now. I'm only in high school I just want a future. Please tell me I have a future

Hi Anon,

I received a bunch of asks similar to this one over the last several days, and I’m not sure if they are all from you or just a lot of people feeling similarly—but I’m going to try to cover them all here.

First, you still have a future. Full stop. And if you don’t want to take it from me, take it from actual NASA climate scientist Kate Marvel, who said “I unequivocally reject, scientifically and personally, that children are somehow doomed to an unhappy life”.

The future may be harder and more complicated than we would have envisioned without the obstacle of climate impacts—it will certainly be different. But it can absolutely still be full of joy and fulfillment and happiness.

Climate change is not a switch that gets flipped when we reach a certain threshold and then almost everyone dies or lives in a post apocalyptic disaster-movie reality. Climate impacts mean a gradual increase in the difficulty of meeting everyone’s needs, mitigating increasing natural disasters, preserving vital ecosystems, etc. as the climate gets warmer. Tipping points may accelerate that change, but it's still not a matter of a "human society kill switch".

Second, I’m so sorry you are feeling this way. I’m sorry that you feel like your future has been taken from you before it’s even started, I’m sorry that you feel betrayed by the generations that came before you. I can’t imagine how hard it must be to be a high schooler right now, entering into adulthood at a time when the world is in such turmoil without the years of adult life experience to give some buffering perspective.

I know that looking at all the progress we still need to make it seems impossible that we will get anywhere close to where we need to be—but when I was in high school the idea that we would make as much progress as we have right now seemed laughably impossible. In my high school reality carbon capture was a sci-fi idea, electric cars were basically nonexistent, clean energy was such a negligible drop in the bucket that no one really believed could ever meet a significant portion of our energy needs, and climate change was generally considered a low-priority, "tree-hugger" issue if people even believed it was real.

The idea that we would have this much popular support, this much worldwide government action, this much investment and progress in clean energy and other climate solutions would have made my high school self cry with disbelieving happiness.

Every tenth of a degree of warming that we avoid will make life in the future measurably easier. We’ve already shifted that needle from 4 degrees to 2.7 in just a couple of decades. We need to keep pushing, but we are making progress and we have already steered the world away from the worst and most apocalyptic climate impacts.

Just getting this far is incredible, heroic work. That is millions of real humans that have been saved from death and poverty, that is an entire planet of people whose lives will be better than they would have been otherwise.

There is still a beautiful, vibrant, complex, life-giving world out there to save. Things will be different, the world will be different, but there is still a future to look forward to. And I would bet that when you've been out of high school for a couple of decades, the future you'll look back from will have seen a lot more progress than you're expecting right now.

(PS Just as a final side note, if you're feeling spiraling climate anxiety all the time, I would really encourage you to reach out to friends, family, or a therapist for support. Any kind of anxiety--climate related or not--can have a really awful impact on your mental health and we all need extra help sometimes (speaking as a very anxious person myself))

[thydungeongal]

Asking w/ genuine curiosity cuz im not rlly into ttrpg at all, what is d&d responsible for in that sphere? Why does it suck or is it just bc thats the only game anyone plays? Thanks for answering if u do, well wishes!! 🫡💋

Very few of the issues with D&D's position have to do with the game itself, like even though I'm not personally all that enthused about the latest edition of the game D&D as a game spanning multiple different editions (some of which should be thought of as pretty much different games) is not, as far as I'm concerned, a Bad Game. The issues with D&D's monolithic position in the hobby are mostly ones of, as you say, it being the only thing many people play and that having an effect on people's perceptions on the hobby and games.

Many players don't want to branch out beyond D&D but since D&D is, by design, a somewhat limited game, a straightforward dungeon adventure game, many people who get into the hobby and like the idea of these games where you make up a bunch of made up characters and put them in made up situations will eventually end up wanting more. But instead of being told that there are other games that produce different types of narratives they get told that they can just hack D&D. Which is an insane proposition, because D&D is a game that has actual design behind it and while some of that design is questionable not all of it is there just by accident. And trying to apply those systems to other types of stories will not work.

But D&D's limited nature and specific scope also warps people's expectations of what RPGs as a medium can do. While D&D is, for better and for worse, the template around which most games model themselves, there are so many things that can be done in these games of shared imagination that simply get ignored because many people unwittingly transmit the assumptions of D&D into other games.

And at the end of the day the only one who benefits from this, the idea that D&D can be turned into any RPG with just enough modification and that D&D is the standard template of RPGs, is Wizards of the Coast, the company that owns D&D. It is absolutely detrimental to players and the wider hobby.

And this genuine incuriosity about games and the hobby also makes many D&D players just genuinely difficult to talk about games to, because once you have accepted that D&D, despite it's very specific and opinionated design, can do anything, there's really no conversation that can be had about what these games actually do and how game design can shape the stories these games produce. The problems with D&D have very little to do with the game itself because most people who play D&D will happily distance themselves from the game as a text.

To use a video game example: imagine if Doom was the biggest game on the market to the point where when someone asked for a farming game people wouldn't recommend Stardew Valley but a Doom total conversion mod that turns it into a farming game (but you still have the BFG), and people couldn't even imagine a game that isn't played from first person perspective and where you primarily shoot things. And people said that Doom belongs to the people, despite the fact that the larger ecosystem of Doom mods inevitably leads to sales for Bethesda.

[dioslesbianwife]

I'm happy your request are open again can I please the jofoes with a partner who has a cat like evil Larry.

Like all animals fear her cat but is only chill with their partner like them waking up with evil Larry looking at them 😭

Their partner not believing her cat is evil I mean they are dating the jofoes she is blind for red flags

Just thought of something killer queen and evil Larry together

sure, hope you enjoy and thank you for requesting <333

Dio

Dio respects the cat's malevolence.

"Your cat is the only creature in this house whose ambition rivals mine."

He’s definitely caught it staring at him from the ceiling corner at 3am, pupils dilated, tail flicking, like it knows too much.

He secretly enjoys that the cat follows him silently and seems to appear wherever he goes.

Honestly not an animal person. He doesn’t particularly care for cats but your cat’s attitude does win him over a bit.

He's tried offering it a bowl of blood once. it sniffed it, looked at him, and walked away. He was offended.

Kars

At first, he tried to treat it like any other animal. Mistake.

The cat hissed, bared its teeth, and his hair physically stood on end- which has never happened before.

But after a few days, they reached a silent truce. Now it sleeps on his lap while he reads, like some kind of ancient demonic guardian.

“I have seen beasts evolve and conquer entire ecosystems. but… this one… it does not abide by nature’s laws.”

The cat once brought him a dead snake. He nodded solemnly. “I accept this offering.”

Yoshikage Kira

Kira adores the cat.

“It has refined instincts. A killer’s grace. I respect that.”

He’ll wake up in the middle of the night and just know it's watching him from the bookshelf. but instead of being creeped out, he calmly says “Good evening”.

Sometimes he stares at it in the eyes for too long and feels like it knows all his secrets.

You once caught them both staring out the window in perfect silence like a cursed painting.

Diavolo

Hates how the cat just appears out of nowhere.

“How did it get in the elevator with me? I locked the doors. I checked.”

He doesn’t like being watched, and your cat watches.

He’ll be writing something and glance up- and it’s just sitting there, tail wrapped neatly, not blinking. Like a reaper waiting to collect.

But… it never scratches him. It rubs against his legs. Sometimes it sits beside him when he’s stressed.

Doppio

Eventually, the cat warmed up to him- kind of. It  lets him pet it but bites him exactly once every time.

He carries it around the house with him sometimes, and it just stares blankly at you.

It likes to sit on his lap when he’s on the phone with “the boss.”

Enrico Pucci

The cat once walked into his church and all the candles blew out.

Instead of being alarmed, he took it as a sign from heaven. or hell. or something divine.

“This animal is touched by providence. It walks the path between blessing and curse.”

It’ll curl up in the pews while he preaches. no one else dares to sit near it.

Pucci swears it follows him through time during Made in Heaven. No matter how fast the world accelerates, It is always there.

Funny Valentine

He doesn't trust the cat. at all.

“It has too much presence. Too much awareness.”

That said, your cat’s the only being aside from him who has ever crossed between dimensions completely unaffected.

He once tried to swap it with a version from another world. The other version refused to come.

“What the hell are you?”

Tooru

Loves your cat. Fully believes it’s cursed and loves it.

“Ahh, look at it’s creepy little stare. You gonna kill me in my sleep, sweetheart?”

Your cat follows him around like a shadow, sometimes even riding on his shoulder like a pirate parrot of doom.

He talks to it like it’s a roommate. “Hey, Y/N’s not home yet. You wanna scare some pigeons together?”

Animals usually run from Tooru due to being attacked by calamities from Wonder of U- but your cat lounges peacefully on his lap while he listens to music or watches medical documentaries.

Once, it knocked over a glass and it bounced instead of breaking. He blinked and whispered, “We’re the same.”

[joy-haver]

Life is getting harder, and so, we must get better at it.

Climate change and species extinction and ecosystem collapse are happening quickly. They are spiraling out of control. Even many Ecosystems that are supposed to be the most stable in their regions are facing decline. There are runaway effects, each thing that gets worse makes the next thing get worse faster, more disastrously. Each of these systems becomes less resilient the more of its redundancies are stripped away.

And yet, we can also have cascading effects. I am seeing controlled burns turn the plantation pines into savannas again, for the first time in 200 years, they are burning now, right now, where they would never have imagined to burn a year ago. I am seeing people talk about planting native plants. The nurseries here are selling out of them faster than they can restock. If you ask, they will say “This did not happen last year”. The foundations that have been being built by ecologists over the past half century, and maintained against brutal colonialism by indigenous peoples, are seeping out into the community. I see people talking about river cane, and pitcher plant, and planting paw paw and persimmon and sassafras and spice bush. These things are returning. Even now, in the worst drought in known history of my area, I see more butterflies than last year, because we have put in more of their host plants, their overwinters. We are learning. We are beginning. We are being born into a world of ecology; we are breaking the green wall of blur that defines our settler nonrelationship with nature. The irises are returning to Louisiana, the black bear too. The oysters are returning to Mobile Bay. I hear talk of gopher apples and river oats from the mouths of children. I see the return of the chinquapin, and her larger sister chestnut. It is slow but it is also so fast. It is growing at new trajectories, new rises. Each of these becomes it’s own advocate when planted in space and put in relationship.

We are not doomed. We must claw back from the brink. We must find each other and we must exchange seeds. We must learn to pull invasive species. We must win others over through earnestness and full bellies, through kindling the spark of ecological joy, and then we must show them the way. We must be learning the way ourselves in the meantime. We must teach the children the names we were not told, that were forgotten; how to recognize these friends.

When things are spiraling towards despair and death we must be that spiral towards life and utter utopia. We must build ourselves into full participants in our ecological systems.

As life gets harder, we must get better at it.

[nellasbookplanet]

Book recs: monster/creature friendships

Do you like movies like Alien vs Predator, Venom, and Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes? Do you enjoy dragon riders and talking animal companions? Friendly yet deeply inhuman aliens? Monster children and monster parents? Consider yourself less of a monster fucker and more of a monster best friend? Watch horror movies and fantasize about befriending the horrifying ghosts and ghoulies? Then this is the list for you!

A note: some of these books do have romance subplots, but not as the most important relationship or focus.

A (second) note: the criteria for "monster" are subjective. I looked mainly for titles featuring creatures who neither look nor act/think human. In cases where they are more human looking, I wanted a distinctly inhuman mind and morality, meaning most books featuring vampires, werewolves, fey, etc are excluded. I may have included books you feel aren't monstrous enough, or excluded ones you feel are sufficiently monstrous but I don't agree about. Again, it’s subjective.

Feel free to leave your own recs in the notes, but please know that if you rec books featuring mostly human vampires and werewolves I will be judging. I have separate lists for those, go look there instead.

For more details on the books, continue under the readmore. Titles marked with * are my personal favorites. If you want more book recs, check out my masterpost of rec lists!

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir*

Ryland Grace just woke up from a coma, unable to remember anything. He finds himself alone on a space ship, and as his memories slowly trickle back, he realizes he’s been sent on a mission: to find a solution to the impending doom of the earth. Still struggling with holes in his memories, Ryland tries to fulfill his mission, but as he gets closer to his goal, he discovers someone else got there first. And they aren’t anything close to human. Funny, heartfelt, and heavy on the science.

Fragment by Warren Fahy*

The reality TV show Sealife is having a rough time - as it turns out, a ship full of scientists doesn’t make for the kind of drama they hoped for. Hoping for some excitement, they reach Hender’s Island, a fragment of a lost continent that may contain an interesting new ecosystem. But as they step foot on the island, they quickly come to realize the ecosystem isn’t just new, it’s highly dangerous and very hungry. Among all this life is one single species that may be more dangerous than any other, but which may also be the salvation of the scientists on the island. A bit wonky, but genuinely one of the most fun books I have read, I love it so much.

The Road to Roswell by Connie Willis*

Francie has just traveled to Roswell to attend her college friend’s wedding to a UFO conspiracist. Not a believer herself, Francie is shocked when she finds herself abducted by an alien. Her abductor is not much what popular media would have you believe, looking more like a tumbleweed than a grey alien, and is clearly on some kind of mission it isn’t willing to put on hold for the sake of Francie attending to her duties as a bridesmaid. As more people get roped along - among those a conman, an old lady, a ufo conspiracist, and a retiree with an RV - Francie finds herself getting closer to the alien and wanting to help it succeed.

The Last Human by Zack Jordan

Young adult. Sarya is a human - the only one of her kind. Living with her adoptive mother - a vicious, insectile alien - on a space station surrounded by hundreds of other alien species, Sarya spends every day staying below the radar and hiding her true identity. But when an odd new alien arrives on the station, she may finally get an answer to her biggest question: why humanity was deemed too dangerous to be allowed to exist.

Alien vs. Predator: Prey by Steve Perry & S.D. Perry*

On desert planet Ruyshi, businesswoman Machiko Noguchi is about to take over the leading position in a small human colony. Her job is made infinitely harder when the colony comes under attack on two fronts as two species of vicious aliens choose it as their battle ground. If you're reading this list, you probably already know of the movie by the same name. The book, while completely different in setting and cast, does feature many similar plot points, among those a third act team-up between a human woman and a murderous alien.

Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky*

Millenia and generation spanning scifi. After the collapse of an empire, a planet once part of a project to uplift other species to sentience is left to develop on its own, resulting not in the intelligent monkeys once intended but in sentient giant spiders. Millenia later, what remains of humanity arrives looking for a new home, only to be met by the artificial remains of the ancient woman who once led the uplift project - and she is not willing to let them on her planet.

The Moon and the Sun by Vonda N. McIntyre

You can’t go wrong with a Vonda McIntyre novel just, like, in general. This one is set in 17th century France, where a young woman and her brother travel to live at the royal court, where they are to care for and study a strange captured sea monster fabled to have the ability to grant eternal life. A lot of focus on court politics as well as the cultural and biological differences between the humans and the mermaid. Also available as a movie (but it’s not very good, please just read the book).

Winter Tide by Ruthanna Emrys*

Lovecraftian fishpeople! Aphra and her brother are the only survivors after the government raided their home, Innsmouth. Their only living family are the amphibian people of the deep, whom they will one day join, but until then they are bound to land where they struggle to build new lives for themselves after the great loss of their home and loved ones. Then rumors start to spread of a russian agent seeking dangerous and ancient magic, forcing Aphra to involve herself as they try to stop it. Does contain horror elements but is generally a much more optimistic look on cosmic horror than most lovecraftian stories, told from the perspective of one of his monsters. Lots of focus on found family and rebuilding of community.

The Doors of Eden by Adrian Tchaikovsky*

The Doors of Eden is something of an experiment in speculative biology, featuring versions of Earth in which various different species were the one to rise to sentience, from dinosaurs to neanderthals. Now, something is threatening the existence of all timelines, dragging multiple different people and species into the struggle, among those a pair of cryptid hunting girlfriends and a transgender scientist. Together, can they find a way to save the multiverse?

The Spider and Her Demons by sydney khoo*

Young adult. All teenager Zhi wants is a normal life (and possibly for her harsh aunt to be a bit nicer), but it’s hard when she’s half spider demon. Every day she must conceal her true nature and hide in human guise. When she slips up and eats a man in front of her rich, aloof classmate Dior, Zhi thinks her life is over. But Dior has secrets of her own, and she is dead set on making herself a part of Zhi's life.

Vespertine by Margaret Rogerson

Young adult fantasy. Artemisia prefers the dead to the living, and is training to become a Gray Sister, a nun who helps the souls of the deceased pass on to the afterlife rather than remain as dangerous spirits. To defend her convent, Artemisia accepts the help of a dangerous revenant, a powerful spirit which grants her great power but also could possess her the moment her guard is lowered. As evil threatens her homeland, Artemisia and the revenant must find a way to work together.

Slewfoot: a Tale of Bewitchery by Brom

Historical horror. Young Englishwoman Abitha has only recently arrived and married into a Puritan colony when she unexpectedly becomes a widow. As she strives to save her small farm from going under in the wake of tragedy, something dark and dangerous stalks the surrounding woods. He doesn't know whether he's spirit, devil, or god, doesn't even know his own name, and in requesting Abitha's help, both their lives are changed forever.

Lycanthropy and Other Chronic Illnesses by Kristen O'Neal*

Young adult. Priya had plans to go to Stanford, but is derailed when the fallout from lyme disease puts her back, making her question if she'll ever get back to normal. Luckily she has her discord support group with whom she can chat and vent about her illness. Even more - she has Brigid, online fandom friend and fellow chronic illness sufferer. But when Brigid disappears from the web without warning, Priya must drive to Pennsylvania to make sure her friend is okay - and finds that Brigid's condition is a bit hairier than she expected.

Sorcery of Thorns by Margaret Rogerson

Young adult. Elisabeth is a librarian, trained to handle grimoires - books of magic which, if mishandled, can turn into horrifying monsters. When an act of sabotage leads to the release of one of the library's most dangerous grimoires, Elisabeth finds herself implicated in the crime. Forced to team up with an enemy sorcerer and his loyal and unpredictable demon servant, Elisabeth sets out to find out the truth of what happened.

The Girl With All the Gifts by M.R. Carey

In a post apocalyptic, zombie-infested wasteland, a group of characters try to stay alive and hope to find a cure. One of the characters is Melanie, a young girl who carries the contagion inside of her and hungers for flesh, but like many children of the apocalypse has kept her humanity. Is she and children like her the answer to the cure we are looking for? Or are they the start of something entirely new? This book has also been adapted as a movie!

Malevolent by Harlan Guthrie*

Lovecraftian horror mystery. Private detective Arthur Lester wakes up in his office, his partner dead, memories fuzzy, vision gone, and the voice of a malevolent entity in his mind. Unable to see, Arthur is forced to rely on guidance from the entity as he attempts to solve the mystery of what it is and where it came from. Is this a book? No. But as someone who reads mostly audiobooks, the difference between a book and a fiction podcast is negligible, and also I love this story and its characters and want all of you to do so too.

Parasyte by Hitoshi Iwaka*

Horror manga, heavy on the bodyhorror. Shinichi Izumi wakes one day after a strange dream: that an alien parasite crawled into his arm. Soon he realizes it was more real than dream, and that an inhuman creature, having failed to eat and take over his brain, now controls his arm. Forced to cooperate, the two do their best to survive as more parasites quietly infiltrate society, meaning to devour our entire species. Also available as a very faithful anime!

Skulduggery Pleasant by Derek Landy*

Young adult. Twelve-year-old Stephanie Edgley's uncle, famed horror writer, just died mysteriously and left her his entire fortune. As it turns out, the stories he wrote weren't entirely made up, and that which killed him wasn't entirely human. In trying to avenge his death, Stephanie joins forces with Skulduggery Pleasant, sorcerer, detective, and living, walking skeleton.

The Cloud Roads by Martha Wells

Moon doesn't know what he is. Having lost his family young he lives on the move, shifting his shape to hide his true form. The only ones similar to himself he's ever encountered are the vicious, bloodthirsty Fell, but he knows he cannot be one of them. When chance leads to a meeting with someone like him, he hopes his days of loneliness are over. But his new people stand against a dangerous enemy, and not all of them welcome Moon's help. A departure from other titles on this list in that it features only creatures, with not a single human on page.

The Girl From the Well by Rin Chupeco

Young adult horror. Okiku died three hundred years ago, her body thrown down a well. Now she spends her days hunting for and punishing murderers like the one who once killed her. When a strange boy bearing odd tattoos appears in her area, he catches Okiku's attention - as does something that follows after him. To save the boy, Okiku will be drawn into a journey taking both of them from American suburbia to a faraway shrine in Japan.

Monstrilio by Gerardo Sámano Córdova

When Magos loses her son Santiago to a longtime illness, she loses herself to grief and cuts out a piece of his lung. After hearing old folktales, she begins feeding it - and is shocked to find it growing and alive. Soon finding herself in charge of a hungry and bloodthirsty creature, Magos and her family must come together to care for what they can only see as a second chance for Santiago.

Semiosis by Sue Burke

A generational story following a group of humans trying to survive on a new planet, where a strange and unkowable intelligence is finding ways to use them to its whims. As the humans come across an abandoned city wrapped in the roots of a strange plant, they slowly come to the realization that mutual communication is the only path to peace and survival. Meanwhile, the alien finds itself tied all the more tightly to the growing human community.

The Stardust Grail by Yume Kitasei

Maya Hoshimoto used to be an art thief, and a damned good one to, until a disastrous heist made her retire into academia, hoping for peace and coping with an alien disease which causes her to see glimpses of the future. When an old friend tracks her down and asks her help to find and steal a legendary artifact that could save his entire species, Maya is convinced to do one last job.

Magical Girl Dandelion by Mizuho Kaeru

Manga. Tanpopo Ohanami's parents were killed by a phantom monster when she was young, but her life was saved by Shade, another phantom. Ever since then, Shade has been her friend, watching over her and keeping her safe. But then Tanpopo is revealed to be a potential magical girl, meant to fight the phantoms and protect humanity. Her and Shade are meant to be enemies, but can they instead work and fight alongside each other?

His Majesty's Dragon by Naomi Novik

It’s the height of the Napoleonic Wars, and soldiers on dragon back fight each other in the air. Will Laurence isn't a dragonrider but a sea captain, but when his ship captures a French frigate and discovers a dragon egg about to hatch in his cargo, his life changes forever when he and the dragon hatchling bond.

The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman

Middle grade. In Lyra's world, every person has a daemon: a talking animal companion who follows them throughout life. When children begin being stolen off the street, among them Lyra's friend, she must embark on a great journey to save him, taking her to the furthest north - and beyond.

A Redtail's Dream by Minna Sundberg*

Graphic novel inspired by Finnish mythology. When an irresponsible fox spirit accidentally traps an entire town in the dreamlands, it’s up to slacker Hannu and his talking, shapeshifting dog Ville to save everyone. Together the unwilling heroes must travel the dreamlands and locate the townsfolk, returning them to the waking world before the fox spirit sends them all on to death to hide his mistake. While the physical copy is all but impossible to get a hold of, the original webcomic can still be read for free here.

[whereserpentswalk]

When an adventuring party goes through a dungeon it has horrifying consequences on the local ecology. From the perspective of a naturalist or an anthropologist the average adventuring party safely escaping a dungeon is the equivalent of a small natural disaster, often acting as a wound that the ecosystem may never fully recover from. Looking here at a dungeon that's just been 'completed'.

The local town has a major influx of gold from an adventuring party spending a few nights there. The innkeeper and blacksmith have both gotten more money than either of them could have overwise made in years. The local lord will come through here in a few days and falsely accuse both of them of treason so that he can take their possessions, and the town's economy will return to normal. The innkeeper and blacksmith with be banished, their sons conscripted into the war effort, and their daughters doomed to poverty, but what matters to the lord is the gold. The adventurers will never know.

The hydra guarding the dungeon who was killed was the alpha in the area. Countless male hydras will fight to take his place, most of them younger, their species' territory is shrinking due to the expansion of humans in this area, this gate and this marshland is one of the last good areas for hydras to nest in the valley left. Male hydras are the ones to take care of the young after they hatch, the ones taken care of by the hydra the adventurers killed were too young to compete with the hydras coming in to take his place, some will run off into the woods and die when the winter comes, most will be cannibalized by the males coming to replace their father.

The dungeon was a rare example of untouched ruins. It had art and artifacts that can never be replaced. Every "puzzle" that was "solved" and every pillar and carving that the adventuring party destroyed in a fight is an example of something lost that will never be replaced. Anthropology's understanding of the culture will forever be smaller. The "treasure" that the adventurers found is a bit better off, but most of it will forever be stripped of important context, even if any of it is studied one day elements of its origins will be forever lost, not to mention to many magic items that will very likely be destroyed in battle with the adventurers that stole them.

The mimics that were killed were an endangered species. They weren't common mimics, not that the adventurers know the difference. Those mimics were some of the only things capable of eating slimes, an invasive species in the area. The local town will have an infestation of slimes in a few years, and nobody will have any understanding as to why. They might even hire another adventuring party to deal with it. Luckily the adventuring party that went through this dungeon was able to kill a nominal amount of slimes, but this valley has far more slimes than it does mimics, and slimes breed far far faster.

The demon the adventuring party killed at the end of the dungeon was a servant of the brass goddess, sworn to protect the arts of a people long forgotten. Upon his defeat he will respawn in the underworld and finally reunite with the people who summoned him two thousand years ago. With one less sacred place of the old gods in this land, the conquest of the hanged king grows stronger, and an apocalyptic event that will bring this continent under his power a thousand years from now is ever so slightly more likely. The adventurers understood none of this of course, they don't care to know where the things who fight them come from, and one member of their party was a priest of the hanged king anyway.

The kobolds the adventurers killed will be found by members of their village in the morning, when their families begin to realize that they didn't come home after a hunt. Their kind is small and often killed by humanity when it is convenient to them. If their bodies are found they will be burnt at the village center, and the entire community will mourn them. One of the bodies will never be found, as its skull was used as an adornment to one of the adventurer's armor. The kobold elders will assure the children that those who are lost have returned to the great dragon below the earth, in a land where meat is plentiful, and humans never tread. The village will wonder if it can survive the coming winter, with less and less places to hunt every year, and more and more souls taken by human hands.

The adventurers will come to another town soon, and the wave of destruction will strike another part of the valley.

[takemyadvice-dontlistentome]

Ok, I have some thoughts on the ending of dungeon meshi that I'd like to share, so major spoiler warnings ahead for the end of the manga.

Specifically, I have some thoughts on the Winged Lion's curse, and that I actually don't think it is a curse - at least not a literal, intentional, "I am cursing you" type curse. I don't think the Winged Lion came up with a customized ironic curse for Laios specifically, and cursed him as its final act before disappearing.

Consider the two components of the curse as it is generally discussed in the fandom. The first is that Laios always feels hungry/never feels full or totally satisfied, and the second is that monsters are afraid of him and avoid him. I'll start with the first part.

When we see the backstory of the Winged Lion/the Demon, we learn that it essentially gained consciousness by discovering desire/hunger and developing an appetite. This happened because it ate the desires of other creatures, first small ones like bugs, and eventually worked its way up to humans. Once this appetite exists, it only grows and requires more and more to feel sated but the satisfaction never lasts long. We see that the Winged Lion is disappointed after finally eating Thistle's desires (which are particularly complex and have been marinating for a thousand years) and then is hungry again pretty much immediately.

I think, when Laios ate the Demon's desires, he became the only other conscious being to have consumed desires and therefore developed the same appetite for them that the Demon had developed millennia ago. Laios even says while he is eating it that the craving for more could drive you to do just about anything. When Laios turns human again, the appetite remains, but he no longer has the physiology to be able to consume desires. (Remember that the ability to do so was something he specifically stipulated in his description of the perfect monster). Therefore he has an insatiable appetite for something that he physically can't consume, and this manifests as a constant feeling of hunger. It's not something the Winged Lion chose to do to him, it's just what happens when a conscious being eats desires - they always want more, forever.

This is so tragic and poetic to me because in doing this, Laios dooms himself to a lifetime of discomfort, but saves the rest of humanity and also saves the Winged Lion in a way. The world is a much safer place if a hunger like that is felt by a mortal human who can't act on it, than by an immortal eldritch god-being with immense power. And the Demon can go back to being a chill elemental force rather than a conscious being that's always insatiably hungry.

Moving on to the next part of the curse: Monsters being afraid of Laios and avoiding him. The first thing to note about this is that it's only very briefly mentioned in the epilogue, and Laios apparently thought that this is what the curse was, but we don't have much to go off of. From the information we do get, though, there's another explanation that makes sense to me. Consider all of the information about monster behavior that we learn from the very beginning of the story. The rules are straightforward, it's eat or be eaten, and monsters are just animals at the end of the day. They are trying to survive, and they will avoid a bigger, stronger monster. That's what keeps the ecosystem of the Dungeon in check. I think the monsters are just continuing to interpret Laios as the biggest, strongest monster, since that's what he was at one point and he still wears its skin. It isn't something the Winged Lion did to him on purpose as a final curse - it was a natural consequence of Laios's choice to become the strongest monster, that other monsters would avoid him.

Finally, you might be asking, if there is no intentional curse then what did the Winged Lion mean when he told Laios his greatest wish will never come true now? We know that Laios thinks this means Falin won't be revived, but obviously they do successfully save her, and the Winged Lion actually sort of helps her to be saved, by telling her which way to go after she consumes the dragon.

I think the Winged Lion thinks that Laios's greatest desire is to live as a monster, something that is only possible through the power that comes with being the Dungeon Lord. It's a straightforward logic: no more Demon means no more Dungeon Lords, which means Laios can't have his perfect monster body anymore. I really think it's as simple as that.

In conclusion: When the Winged Lion says "I curse you, now your greatest wish will never come true," I don't think this is like a magical witch's curse, he's just pissed off and is basically saying "Fuck you dude, getting rid of me means you can't live out your fantasy, why did you do that." The other two lasting negative things that Laios experiences are just natural consequences of the things he did.

I've been mulling this over for the past few weeks since finishing the manga and really wanted to share, so if you read all this, thank you and please let me know what you think!

[crystal-wingeddragon-spikes]

This mini/experimental comic is meant to read with teenager Alan Becker's story. Here.

I missed the opportunity to have The Dark Lord holding the ladle in the last panel, because "The answer is yes."

If you think the spider's pose on its first close-up is weird, it is because the spider was cleaning its back legs. They are flexible enough to bend legs in to their mouth, chelicerae, and clean them. The spider actually liked The Dark Lord and was relaxing.

Disclaimer shippers: I do not see them as a couple. You can tag it whatever you like, still, but I will be clear.

You know you are doomed when The Chosen One is your older sibling/sole parental figure/literally the only thing in the world that you would not kill. And you are also doomed when your emotional support little sister/therapist is The Dark Lord.

I really don't like arthropod. Despite, spending days by the river marshes, documenting the arthropod population, and loving to see them nurture and strengthen the ecosystem. I am the only one in my team who do not feel that way. Dragonflies are nice, I guess. Do not talk to my friend about spiders if you don't have time to spare.

[tribbetherium]

The proliferation of coral reefs in the Middle Rodentocene, 10 million years post-establishment, has attracted many other sea life to the relative safety of its sheltering calcified structures. Numerous shrish, descended from krill, as well as bivalves, gastropods, and other varied invertebrates fill the coral reefs with teeming life, while immature, neotenic coral resembling jellyfish and anemones, fill the surrounding waters or anchor onto the accumulated coral skeletons that build up over time.

Eventually, as niches in the reef ecosystem began filling out, one aboundant resource remained untapped: the coral itself. One such species to take advantage of this bounty is the azure banded clawrral (Albacyanocaris tralalae), a small, primitive species of shrark whose rostrum and front claws, rather than forming a three-jawed snapping beak to seize smaller shrish, instead becane hard, crushing nutcracker-like instruments suited for cracking apart the hard coral exoskeleton to access the soft polyps inside as well as the algae growing on the surface of the coral. While they consume gastropods and bivalves on occasion, coral constitutes a large portion of their diet, grinding away at the hard reefs and leaving fine particulate debris in their wake: debris that wash ashore and over time pile up to form white sand beaches in tropical regions over the course of millions of years.

Males, growing larger than females in an inverse of the usual arthropod trend, are distinguished by their bold blue-and-white markings that signal to prospective mates their fitness. Their greater size is an advantage when males tussle brutally over the right to fertilize a gravid female, often seizing each other in their tripartite pseudojaws and trying to fling their opponent away or even crush and dismember their rival's claws. Unlike many crustaceans, shrarks' claws are less expendable as they play a part in feeding: and while they can regrow, it is at great metabolic cost as they cannot feed effectively until the new claw grows in. The loss of one claw still allows them to feed with some difficulty, but losing both essentially dooms them to starvation, and significant damage to the rostrum forming the upper jaw will break the exoskeleton of their cephalic segment, with invariably, instantaneously lethal results. Once fertilized, a female will carry her cluster of several hundred eggs with her until they hatch, at which point the planktonic larvae are already able to spread far and wide and fend for themselves.

While acting as regulatory trimmers of the coral and preventing it from overgrowing, the azure-banded clawrral can itself be devastating should it consume too much of its coral diet. This is mitigated by significant predation from other, larger species of shrarks that help keep their numbers in check, but in places where unfavorable conditions lead to local, small-scale declines of their oceanic predators, the clawrrals breed out of control, explode in numbers, and voraciously ravage the reef ecosystem's coral, often with devastating, long-term results. As they exhaust their food supplies, clawrral populations then starve and die off, mercifully acting as a self-control mechanism that curbs their population growth almost like a last resort, albeit with significant damage.

------

[novaursa]

Why do you think the targaryens were unable to get dragons to hatch after the Dance?

Simple answer: because they broke the magic that sustained them.

Longer answer:

The Dance of the Dragons was a civil war that didn’t just destroy the Targaryen dynasty’s power—it shattered the delicate magical ecosystem that allowed dragons to thrive. Here’s why that matters:

Too many dragons died at once. Magic in Westeros is not infinite—it ebbs and flows like a tide. Dragons are magical creatures, and their existence is tied to larger magical forces. During the Dance, over a dozen dragons were killed violently, some in horrific ways. That much concentrated death likely caused a magical rupture, draining or destabilizing whatever ambient power was sustaining the species.

The bond between dragon and rider was desecrated. Targaryens turned dragons against each other. They forced them to fight in civil war—siblings killing siblings, dragons turning the skies into blood and fire. That betrayal of their own kind may have damaged the spiritual or mystical link between Targaryens and their dragons. It's possible that Valyrian magic—rooted in blood, fire, and will—was offended, weakened, or simply fractured.

Valyrian magical knowledge was lost or suppressed. The dragonlords of Valyria used blood rituals, sorcery, and ancient rites to bind and hatch dragons. Most of that knowledge was either never fully brought to Westeros or was lost after the Doom. The Targaryens relied on tradition, not full understanding. Once things started going wrong—eggs not hatching, dragons dying—they lacked the magical tools to fix it.

Maesters may have sabotaged them. There’s a solid fan theory (and some evidence in Fire & Blood) that the maesters of the Citadel had a hand in the decline of dragons. Many maesters mistrusted magic, dragons, and the Targaryens’ firepower. They may have spread misinformation, discouraged arcane practices, or even tampered with eggs. Septon Barth, who understood dragons better than most, warned that the creatures were not just beasts—they were fire made flesh, a magical force of nature.

The Targaryens themselves changed. After the Dance, the dynasty grew cautious, more political, less mystical. They treated dragon eggs as heirlooms, not weapons or living beings. Their fear of another Dance led to policies that dulled the very ambition and arrogance that once allowed them to bind dragons. Without that fire—literal and figurative—they couldn’t rekindle what was lost.

By the time of Aegon III, the “Dragonbane,” the last dragons were sickly, stunted things. His reign is the period where the last true dragons died, and no new ones hatched. Whether that was a consequence of grief, trauma, or some deeper magical severance is up for debate—but the result was the same: the fire went out.

Only when Daenerys steps into that funeral pyre with blood magic, fire, death, and sacrifice—echoing ancient Valyrian rites—do dragons return.

Because it’s not just about the egg. It’s about what you’re willing to burn to hatch it.

[valrayne-faeu]

Info about the Faewilds and Forming a Court

(long post incoming)

The Faewilds/the Wilds/Wildes/etc is the general term for any area in the fae realms that is not a part of a court. A court is considered a region of fae that has its own signature magic and (usually) a kingdom of some kind overseeing and organizing said fae.

The Wilds are a network of complex and varied regions that each have their own unique 'rules' and ecosystems. Some forests might require you to skip through them or you'll grow older with every step. You might have to cross a certain river backwards or you'll lose your voice. Some areas might have no consequences for breaking their rules, but the gravity is reversed. It is these rules/laws of reality that will cause any wayward traveller to likely not be the same after traversing the Wilds-- even if you think you made it through safely, there's no telling what you might have lost or had changed that you don't even realize.

Likewise, the fae beasts and other creatures of legend that live out in the Wilds each have their own rules for interaction that they're not likely to explain to you upon meeting. Any misstep with a wild fae or beast is liable to result in you losing something precious or being cursed.

There is precious little documentation of the regions, beasts, and their rules because they're so very complex and change--the magic and rules that make them up are ever shifting, and what worked once might be your doom now. All fae that have attempted to document the Wilds have endured much hardship and losses.

The magic of the Wilds is equally complex and varied-- each area is saturated in many different kinds, woven together and nigh inseparable, stronger in some areas, weaker in others, and even non-existent in some (you are not likely to find a thread of ice magic in a sweltering desert, for example). There is no one 'ruler' of the Wilds or even user of its magic because there is no one true 'Wild Magic'. The only way to harness a magic of the Wilds is to 'befriend' it, for lack of a better term.

All fae, in or out of a court, have magic they gravitate towards, and its these that they will find easier to identify and use. Things like the basic elements, or the sky, or time, or music are all examples of the categories of magic that can be utilised. It is nigh impossible to tame or bend the ambient magic to your will-- fae that use Wild magic need to be in tune with their specialisation and the 'spells' they cast are more requests than commands. A fae that attempts to force magic of a particular kind is more likely to have it backfire, or find the Wilds becoming more and more hostile to their presence. The Wilds are very much a living, complex being made up of many smaller 'consciousnesses', and to upset even a small piece of it will turn the whole against you.

Courts are formed when a particularly ancient or strong fae manages to distill a very specific type of magic and make a deal with it. The stronger the fae the more broad the category they can harness-- it would be the difference between forming a Seasonal Court and simply a Summer court, for example.

Millenia ago Nightmare and Dream's mother, Nimh, managed to form a pact with the Seasonal magic of the Wilds and secure large swathes of land for herself. Over many centuries fae from all over found safety and stability within her court and swore loyalty to her. It was over those many centuries that she built the foundations for what would eventually break apart into the four separated courts (Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter).

Had Dream and Nightmare been stronger and more experienced when she died, the courts may have been able to stay together. But at the time of the falling out they simply did not have the affinities for all of her magic-- Dream was only capable of utilising the magics of Summer and Spring, and Nightmare was limited to Winter and Autumn. Their falling out and Nimh's death caused the magic holding the courts together to falter and shatter, causing the emotional divides between them to manifest into very real magical and physical divides between the courts.

[agent-pennsylvania]

Agent Pennsylvania sits in the hold of one of the Mother of Inventions many Pelicans. His gear is lighter than normal, a supposedly quick mission this time. In and out. His gloved fingers drag over mission files on his datapad. Information on the planet and its doomed colony.

The planet the Pelican is heading towards is Andesia; it boasted a rich ecosystem for life-extending pharmaceuticals and exotic foodstuffs. The colony had been funded by biotech associations looking to exploit those very resources. It had been done quickly and without much reconnaissance. Promesa- “The city of promise.” Hadn't had a very promising run, apparently, destroyed as it is now. His mission was to salvage what he could from the colony before the insurrectionists found it first. Project Freelancer had received the intel that the colony had been attacked by possible Covenant remeanents that apparently also had a colony or base on the same planet. He’d have to be careful not to get spotted while he was there. As the last report the colony was written off as a complete loss; No survivors. The Pelican makes a quick lap around staying low to avoid detection, before it finds a good LZ to drop its agent. The bay doors open up revealing the large soldier as he steps onto solid ground. The Pelican takes off seconds later leaving the agent behind. Penn paid it no mind as he surveyed the damage. He had several mission objectives cluttering his HUD arrows pointing in every which direction. The closest was the colony's power source. He pulls his DMR, having left his sniper at home due to this mission being more close quarter oriented. His heavy boot falls crunch and scatter debris as he makes his way towards his objective. He tries not to let the stench of death and the bodies bother him too much. The Spartan has seen a lot of death and carnage especially when dealing with the Covenant races. 

@rolliesmuses @agent-pennsylvania

[ganondoodle]

totk cataclysm event wasnt just a great (but utterly missed) opportunity to change the map in techincally little ways that has drastic consequences both in stakes and in gameplay (like i mentioned before, flooding the gerudo desert would have meant devastating consequences for its ecosystem- like imagine little islands of sand still poking out, acting as a sort of last doomed refuge for sandseals- but also cahnged the entire gameplay of it, good chance to introduce some neat new ways to surf on water like a new ridable creature or an ice shield freezing a path while you surf on it, the gerudo being forced to save the city from drowing in various means or now living on the roofs, trying to adapt by building boats ect - also call back to older games?? since totk loves that so much ..-, vah naboris serving as the savest refuge being high above the water, even if non functional; similarly takign away ALL water from the zora region, gaving it all dry out would imemdiately turn into something way different and could mean death for the zora- forcing them to move to the lower parts of akkala for example- maybe vah ruta is still halfway functioning bc the faith the zora have to mipha, dorephan and sidon is, while not enough to keep it fully functional, but enough to generate some water so the most stubborn or brave zora set up around it like a last oasis; i know its somewhat done with death mountain but the gorons dont really suffer from it bc their only problem is a drugged rock that makes them mean and lazy ..- what about collapsing or exploding it, leaving a large crater that over the course of the game could start to grow with plant life since vulcanic earth is so fertile- some never seen before ones that was dormant in the lava and now that its cooled off is springing to life, which might seem good at first but for the area and its wildlife means loss of their habitat; the rito freezing over, but actually having to move, maybe into the tabantha canyon, building their new makeshift homes in between the walls of it- generally just switiching things around a bit would have done so much wihtout having to edit every last detail ((seriously tho, how did this game take so long given that botw took similar but they did that ENTIRE main map as detailed as it is AND made it all coherent with itself and its themes- im ranting again ..)

-but it ALSO would have been the perfect opportunity to introduce new weather types created by the sudden change in environment, somethign like a super strong wind that slows you when walking agaisnt and lets you jump much farther when with it- a darkness thing that clouds the world in utter darkness with only little light getting through anything that is caused by mushrooms from the udnerground invading the surface and their spores snuffs out all light (which could explain the weird darkness in the ruins from botw too!!), or just simply mist! making everything misty changes the entire feel of any environment drastically- you could make vertain enemies spawn only in certain weather conditions, lessening the repetive overuse of them; and that is only on the surface- what if the sky had sunbeams so strong it sets anything on fire if you dare to leave the shadows- to comabt it get a armor with a giant hat!! the underground could have been filled with different environments in the first place, but then of course thered be those dark spores of mushrooms, an entire forest you have to carefully travers other wise making them release their spores and make it all more difficult, glowy mushrooms, MORE glowy mushroms, theres so many weird ass shrooms IRL you could take inspo from!! maybe soemthing like a forest of kelp, long flowy plants obstructing view and making you anxious by any movement- there could be one thats a mimic or infected with miasma, slightly off color and its knobs are malice eyes that open only if it thinks you cant see it

(also for the idea of taking botws stuff and recontextualizing it, the guardians or shrines, now non fucntional, could be infected my miasma sometimes, maybe randomly to keep you guessing- an overgrown shrine suddenly lifting itself up with hands clawing at you when you get too close or do sth wrong to distrub it- similar with guardians tho the effect might be less since you know them as a threat already- or sth i mentioned in another post, a tower being used as a weapon by a gigatic miasma monster- the one in the gerudo region with the bottomless pit for example, perfect for an arena for you to run around in the spiral while its swinging at you etc etc)

JUST taking what botw had and mixing it up, expanding on it, even if technically little change, it could do so much but in the actual game death mountain and rito is the only ones that saw anything of a change like it, and it largely .. didnt change anything or was reversible easily, and had no actual consquences that meant anything, neither stakes nor environmental or narratively (the gerudo felt like it at first but its also largely reversible, its just kinda .. adding a bit of city)

i hhhhhhhhhhhhhh have so many thoughts still, i am just better at holding them back .... also dont wanna annoy lmao

[ddarker-dreams]

i think Gojo & chrollo are the hardest to score. Gojo is waaay too popular so he has so many option while chrollo is... not mentally well...to say the least lmao

🕵️‍♂️ i've appreciated the input from my fellow terrible men enjoyers. since the poll is almost at its conclusion, i'll go ahead and give my thoughts, ranked from 'ez +1 husband obtained' to 'requires enough effort that i'm disrespecting myself as a woman with how hard i'd have to try.'

chrollo - listen. hear me out on this. is he a criminal? yes. a murderer? yes to that as well. overall terrible person with very little capacity for genuine emotion? absolutely. however! i'm cute. he'd start off by regarding me the same way one does a penguin who keeps tripping over its feet in the zoo. mild endearment and amusement. next, i regale him with my witticisms. they might not all land but the tripping penguin aura will keep him around anyway, if not just to see what nonsense will happen next. then he can hear my major and go :) heh. the rest is history. wedding bells but in minor key to symbolize the impending doom.

scaramouche - the main hurdle to overcome here is the looming threat of disintegration. i'm a very happy-go-lucky person so he'd probably want to strike me with lightning just to ruin my day. the trick here is to catch him when he can't expose his harbinger identity. that'll buy me enough time to win him over, although, whether or not this is a good idea is up for debate. this fella has a lot of insecurities to work through. my extroversion would endanger the local population (and ecosystem).

gojo - i'd probably end up in a similar camp as utahime at first. i'm easily mortified by people who just say whatever comes to mind, i'd find his lack of tact grating. more pressing than that, however, is that since i'm a girl, my chances of surviving in the jjk universe plummet exponentially. i'd get killed off in an unsatisfying way right when my character development started getting interesting. on the 5% chance i survive, we'd have pretty good chemistry because we're both annoying and cannot shut up.

blade - i hate to admit it, but i'm not sure i could pull this one off. my 20 stat in CHA would ricochet off him because there's no way he'd stick around long enough to fall for my charms. if by some miracle i could have a few interactions with him, i'd have to pass the hardest skill check. there's a 99% chance he'd ghost me because he thinks i deserve better than an 800 year old cursed man who is trying his best to die. is he wrong? not really. should i pass the skill check though, it'd be cute. we're complete opposites. i'm always smiling, wearing bright colors (especially pink), have light hair... then there's him. constantly glaring and dressed for a funeral. adorable vibes ngl.