#with the act of mindless killing of other living creatures

[ladsofsorrow24]

i think some of you are too used to genre conventions, you guys forgot to question the worldbuilding that many authors painstakingly made to question the subject of death and life in a more nuanced manner than just "wow resurrection is so romantic!"

[tobiasdrake]

Between the hair-trigger minion execution and all surviving 'loyalists' getting Feed Me Seymour'ed...ya think this was basically Vamdemon's plan for every follower the whole time, and all Angewomon + the other 7 chosen did was speed things up?

I don't think he intended to be killed by Angewomon, but I do think he rerailed it back to the original plan afterwards. The stuff about devouring all of his remaining forces, evolving into an Ultimate stage, eating everyone in Odaiba, and then merging the two worlds? I think that was the plan from the get-go.

I feel confident saying that the prophecy was his endgame. Gennai pulled it out of his ass like the morning of, but we already know Vamdemon was way better at research and ancient lore than him. Vamdemon's a complete and utter nerd. He studied everything in advance. I have no doubt he found the prophecy and was like, "Mm, life goals!"

He also has a few lines that hint that he's setting up for the VenomVamdemon stuff. For instance, when the adults are all put to sleep, they're described as a meal for later. He could just mean he's going to come back and snack on their blood once he's done killing Hikari, but given the context of the VenomVamdemon two-parter, it's clear to me that he was preparing them for his ascension.

Similarly, when whining at Angewomon about his goals, he refers to it as his destiny. He was destined to merge the realities and rule over them as their king. This implies that he isn't acting on his own accord, but trying to follow what a cosmic script told him to do. Like, perhaps, the prophecy Gennai found.

But I don't think being executed by angelic justice was in the plan. In fact, I think that screwed him pretty hard. I don't think VenomVamdemon was his endgoal necessarily; VenomVamdemon is a bestial creature with barely any cognition left. Not exactly fit to govern a merged reality, even evilly. His dominion would probably just be him wandering the landscape, randomly blowing shit up.

My personal theory is that BelialVamdemon was what he was supposed to become. Powerful, savage, and unstoppable... but also still brilliant and cunning, with no drawbacks. Still capable of plan-making and danger-recognition and prioritization of targets, none of which VenomVamdemon seemed to have.

I think Angewomon fucked him up so hard that it screwed up his endgame. His spirit, his wraithy form, lived on but it was barely more than a mindless beast, and that influenced the Ultimate form he ascended to in a way he hadn't intended. Thanks to PicoDevimon nudging him along the rails, he survived and grew strong off the plan he had made when he was still fully sapient, but he lost in his mind in the process.

And also he was now too stupid to realize he shouldn't eat PicoDevimon when PicoDevimon's the only one of them still capable of thinking things through. I can't imagine he got much of a power boost off the little shit. Shot himself in the foot because he became a beast man made of pure hunger.

[fefe658]

Refurbishment [ 2 ]

Part 2 of my birthday gift for @chaosduckies, all characters belong to her.

Previous - Next

CW: Mentions of gore, death and more silly things

As the gentle rays of the sun illuminated his little nest, Nathan awoke to the sound of... talking?

Nathan rubbed his eyes, trying to make out what the mysterious voices were saying. He swam up to the entrance of his little cave, just enough to look outside and see-

The giant mer.

Nathan's eyes widened in terror and he immediately shot back under the cover of his cave.

It's back, it's back and it's not alone. Of course it's back why did I stay here instead of escaping? Now I'm gonna die here like-

Nathan tried to get his breathing under control. If he managed to hide from the creature last time, he can wait it out once more and then get the hell out of there.

Since the mer's voice seemed to come from far away, Nathan decided to cautiously look at it to get more information. But as he peered outside expecting to see a group of giant mers, he was confused at what he saw.

The giant mer wasn't talking to anybody. There weren't any other large creatures swimming with it (thankfully). So what was it doing? Was it just talking to itself?

"Weird..."

Before Nathan could realise he had said that aloud, the larger mer's head snapped towards him. Nathan's heart started beating faster than before as he quickly dove for cover.

If- If the giant had heard him, oh god... I just called it weird- I just insulted it behind its back! It's gonna come here and tear away my cover and- and-

Nathan started hyperventilating, waiting for giant hands to rip him away from his hiding spot and tear into his body, crush him betweeen those teeth and-

The larger mer turned away, and started talking again.

Oh.

So it didn't see me. Good. Why did it turn towards me then? Did the giant think they imagined it? Is this just a sick joke? Is it gonna turn around and laugh at me for letting my guard down and-

The larger mer stopped talking. Instead, it put something on the ground and swam away.

Nathan tried to catch his breath for a moment. Was that fish? The giant seemed to have put fish on the ground. His stomach grumbled. This is a trap. This clearly, oh so obviously a trap. The mer put that fish down to make him come out and-

Nathan started fuming. He was way too smart to fall for that. He wasn't just a mindless fish, he wasn't prey. He was so smart in fact, that he could beat the giant at its own game. He'd grab the food and leave this place, making sure to never come back.

Halfway trough his flawless plan, he started to realise just how not-so-smart he was acting. He was swimming right into the mer's trap, and his mind was screaming at him to go back to the safety of his cave.

It's a trap, it's gonna come here while you're eating and it won't even bother to distinguish you from the rest of the fish-

But I'm so hungry.

Nathan's judgement was starting to get overrun by his need for food. He hadn't eaten in who knows how long. He still hasn't seen any live fish in this forsaken reef (maybe because there's a giant mer cleaning out this entire territory you idiot-) and the fish that was oh-so-generously left here looked so delicious-

The mer wouldn't mind if he ate some of it. Would it even notice? He's more than sure the giant could just tear open his hiding spot if it knew there was a tasty little mer inside (don't think about that right now-), so why would the larger mer go tough the hustle of making a trap to lure him out of hiding? It probably doesn't even know he exists (then why could it smell you) so it put that fish down to eat it later (then why did it hear you) he's sure everything's gonna be fine (he's going to die here-)

As he finally reached the food, a dozen of fish neatly lying on a bed of seagrass, Nathan fully expected for something to jump out and kill him. But nothing happened.

Hesitantly, he reached for the fish (could it be poisoned? Why would it poison the fish to catch me if it could just eat the fish? Does it just prefer to eat creatures that can plead for mercy as they're torn to shreds-)

Nathan's stomach let out a growl. It was either certain death by starvation or death by dubiously poisoned fish. As he took a bite, he let out a sigh of relief.

This is the best thing I've tasted in a long, long time.

Granted, he's spent the last days.. weeks? Looking around for a place to call home so he didn't really have time to find food apart from the easily available redfish or flounder (those always tasted awful-)

Nathan was lost in his thoughts when he was caught by surprise by an unfamiliar voice.

"What are you doing here?"

-----------------------------------------------------

Oooooohhh Nathan has been founddd! But by who you may wonderrr??

Anyway I'll eventually explain what exactly happened to Nathan's parents, I'm just joking about something from the original restoration series from the original author (which y'all should check out btw)

WHAT HAPPENED TO RYKER'S PARENTS, MR. DUCKIES?/lh

[deckofflora]

something something i manifested the astral design standard wands something soemthing

HAII!!!! Laura Sleepwalker here! are you tired of doing an old man’s dirty work? exhausted after a long day of fighting literal god? LOOK NO FURTHER!!!!!! With a little bit crowns and some mindless grinding, you too can become a pacifist in wizard101!

Now, the term ‘pacifist’ is being used loosely here, as the nature of the game is beating up baddies. HOWEVER, the young wizard won’t be the one with ancient blood on their hands. There are three ways we can achieve this.

Cantrip Wizard:

I like to call this one the ‘True Pacifist’ route, as you won’t be directly attacking the creatures, nor ‘acting’ within the battle at all.

To do this, I recommend acquiring some energy gear for every relevant level cap, (you can decide, but it ultimately depends on how long you’re willing to wait for more energy), and creating a full energy pet.

Next, using a character with access to the cantrip support spells within a guild, and other cantrip TC’s from the cauldron (or find some friends who are willing to help aid with donation/trading), trade to yourself any relevant Cantrips you would like to use for this build.

Then, with the assistance of someone to engage in the battle, you can help assist with the fight, make sure to join in on the very last round(s) for the kill so you can get credit for the quest.

School doesn’t really matter, but I suggest balance or life for the theming. Up to you if you choose to allow yourself to ‘act’ when joining the battle in the last round(s), such as using a heal or donate pip if you’d like more flexibility.

Monstrology Wizard:

By taking inspiration from Ambrose, we can instead pass the responsibility onto someone else! Conveniently, we can collect and summon minions to do it. Simple as that!!

On another wizard, collect as many minions as you can with decks and stats that intrigue you (you can check them on multiple forums and guide fansites).

And that’s all!!! Don’t hit, just support your minion and let it work it’s magic! Kick your feet up, you deserve to relax.

I recommend Life, Balance, or Myth as a base here.

Beastkeeper Wizard:

While probably being the least ethical method, why not put these pets to work? I mean, they live in our dorms rent free, they gobble up all our snacks, make THEM save the spiral.

By only using utility, pet item cards, willcasts, and maycasts, we can make our pets deal with the fight.

Create a pet (I recommend trying to get as many attacks as possible on the pet, as these are our only way to deal damage), and use whatever gear necessary to increase it’s spell’s damage.

Here I suggest, of course, Balance.

:)

and there we go! with some treasure cards and pets in hand, you can finally kick back and relax and let someone else save the spiral for a change.

[probablyanalienindisguise]

Remembering Tumblr is a place of art, writings and ideas. So here's an entire ramble about the Jurassic Park movies and why the inaccuracy of the dinosaurs is a part of the plot

Anyways so the movies revolve around dinosaurs and stuff right? The usual plot points are always there, but it's a sci-fi thriller movie about dinosaurs and people tend to forget about the whole sci-fi part. I mean the scientists created dinosaurs but never had the complete strand of DNA as stated in the first movie, leading them to replace the rest of it with frog DNA by filling in the gaps. Which later turned into a whole problem in itself with the thing with the fact that they can breed by switching around a few things with their gender, similarly to some species of frog when faced with a female dominant environment.

Such asssss the dinosaurs ‼️

But the whole problem wasn't the dinosaur DNA, nono it was the frog DNA being mixed around with others to fill in said gaps.

It's my leading point as to why I don't understand why people hate Jurassic Park simply because the dinosaurs aren't accurate, when that was the whole POINT.

They ARENT dinosaurs.

They're amalgamations of different DNA strands combined to RESEMBLE a dinosaur, with maybe a little dino dna in place to create a base. And in later movies revealed to be even more fucked up combinations of DNA to keep the publics interest.

They're monsters made to look like dinosaurs, where intelligent and dangerous are key factors that the scientists like putting into creatures that weren't meant to exhibit such thoughts at such a level.

The premise of these animals in the movies was always "Are they actually alive?"

Because yes dinosaur, but also not dinosaur.

They're talked about constantly like objects, even though they are very much alive and living. Yet are constantly in a state of being created to look and act scarier in order to keep the quota that they're nothing but assets on a building board.

But really the scariest part is "Oh, what's scarier than teeth?"

Teeth and intelligence.

As the movies move on, these scientists create the dinosaurs to be stronger and smarter. Feeding into the amalgamation with the idea of a dinosaur in order to create what would be a marvel; not a stability.

Instead of mindless killings, the dinosaurs are aware of what they're doing. Which is considerably worse than if they ever were just instinctual actions.

Both Jurassic world movies had at least someone point something out, basically just saying that the splices of DNA weren't real dinosaurs.

Notice how it's quite often pointed out with subtleness of a simple sentence yet is used to determine the point of the movies. That once again, they aren't dinosaurs.

Both Indos were there in order to bring the plot point to closure, making it simpler to understand.

That amalgamations of DNA will never be a real dinosaur no matter how much it resembles one.

The books did a much better job getting this point across though I must say, as they enjoyed bringing the horror aspect of it all there. Just showing even more how they're obviously lab created monsters.

Anyways shout out to all the little kids out there who were absolutely convinced the dilo could spit venom because of Jurassic Park. (Me fr) 🥰

[canned-and-carbonated-emotions]

So chimps are absolute fucking menaces right? We can all fundamentally agree on that? Hell, I don't think I would call them menaces cuz that term holds at least a sprinkle of endearment.

No, they are straight fucking villains. Just absolute evil guys. Their flavor of pettiness is acts of terrorism.

Y'know what their favorite act of revenge is? Dismemberment. Wanna know how they resolve conflict? Dismemberment. How do they express their feelings? Dismemberment.

They'll see their bro get a sweet treat, and once they realize they don't also get a sweet treat, their jealousy changes the chemistry in their brain and they go from a super intelligent and emotionally complex creature with a deep sense of self awareness, to a fucking wasp with hands that hold the power of a thousand speeding trains, focused on the sole desire to destroy.

They are also CALCULATED with the way they attack. They consciously pick out the areas on your body to maime based on the criteria of what will cause the most physical AND emotional pain.

They don't wanna kill you and move on. No. They want you to HURT. They wanna inflict straight ouchies.

Now, is this chimp slander? No, of course not. Chimps are fucking cool. They're so smart with complex societal structures that they experience and feel a variety of deep emotions. They're not mindless killing machines.

This whole rant is just to remind to to stay the fuck away from chimps. Like at all costs. There are dozens of other primates out there that aren't going to perform a live autopsy on someone over a birthday cake (which actually happened btw, look up "St. James David Chimpanzee attack")

Chimpanzees are wild animals with free will, and while I don't think any primate or intelligent creature should be held in captivity, chimps DEFINETLY shouldn't be kept in captivity, cuz they have free will and they like to use it for violence. Plus, they're sentient and emotionally intelligent and don't deserve to be put in little prisons for the satisfaction of their naked cousins.

He's a good guy, but he would eat your fucking face :)

[crimsonxe]

@tempestswing

As with the other person I'm doing this type of response to try to accommodate Sir Adamus's not wanting their notes filled with arguments and I don't know if Reblogs are part of that or not. So this is my solution:

I can't exactly say, I do so whenever someone says something that pulls my nerve that wants to push against bullshit/misinformation/or whatever. Anything I replied to was involving the thing being mentioned but likely is something I've already had a LOT of time to argue over before, since I've been following the show since the Red trailer and dealing with the same arguments over and over again.

Um yeah, my mentioning incels and whatnot is going to why he shouldn't be given anything more, cause Adam shitstains already act like its blasphemy that he was as he always was a piece of shit vs. their headcanon of him being some badass revolutionary. They latched onto Ice Queendom cause it chose to vague-ify certain things in regards to him that they took as proof that he was changed.

As for the sob story, um there's only so many directions that can be taken with a bastard like him. What was shown of him was perfectly fitting for the role he fit in the story.

My mentioning the self-defense and stalking aspects are in regards to your assertion that they should feel burdened or have a response to it. He was no different than a grimm attacking them or even WF that had attacked them in earlier volumes. I don't think they should've had some big dramatic moment over being forced into killing him given the context surrounding him including self-defense, stalking, and the trauma he'd inflicted on them. All of that going at your assertion.

You seem to think these things exist in a vacuum which they don't and there's a handful of reasons for them. You talk dismissively about Jaune's upgrade that falls more towards support role, than a warrior one. That falls into the "wanting Jaune to be a badass male lead" camp of thinking as well as just ignoring the utility of his grenades.

Um no Yang has had shotgun blasts, but not the missile whatever that came with v7's change up. If it were just the same-old, same they wouldn't have had the moment in 7x03 spent to focus in on her blowing up a Sentinel in the mine; because it'd just be the same everyone had already seen countless times. On top of that she actually has changed in her incorporating more kicks into her fighting and holding back using her semblance (which is a bit of a shame since I love her semblance when active but narrative).

a) all grimm are not being controlled by Salem, some are others are just wild roaming

b) they don't need to show nonstop grimm invasions that dips into Attack on Titan's edgelord bullshit, they've shown plenty of grimm that are legitimate threats and had the audience fill in the gaps

c) just the practicality on the animators to have to do said nonstop grimm fights that would inevitably take away from character development (cause you can say that 'they could just be put in during the fights' but no some really can't).

d) once again as a matter of reality humans are the biggest evil in any world.

e) at no point were the grimm ever presented as anything more than animalistic (in terms of acting like animals) creatures that at most could live long enough to learn stay away from humans. They weren't floated as the big bad nor did they even have that potential on a concept level. It'd be boring af to have "monster of the week" type of setup that has no true final bad at the end of them. Even Attack on Titan realized this as well as (d) and stopped with the animalistic-titans side of things. Because there needs to be a centralized figure that thinks and has a motive behind the mindless creatures.

[tadsweep]

Oh, so it does talk.

And who the FUCK do you think you are? You speak of warmth and cold like it means anything to you. You speak of humanity as if it means anything to you. It doesn’t. If you were thrust into the inferno, you wouldn’t know how to cope either. If you were stripped of your blissful greys, you’d close your eyes to the light just like you close them to the truth.

All I wanted was to win. Where is the sin in that? You speak of my destruction like I kicked the stool out from under me when it was yanked, as if I didn’t claw and kick and grab onto anything I could.

You know what’s worse than being stupid? Being a hypocrite. You were born into the world by a maker, you do not know joy so you do not know the loss of it. You are a miserable little mindless creature (who seems to have finally found its tongue ? talk about claiming to be pitiful) and you DID kill me simply because you are everything I am not, your sad little squealing about your precious creator and their lie of peace drove me mad. Extending my friendship didn’t make you see the truth, and now you spew this holier than thou bullshit in my face. My corpse. You killed me. You and so many other people, but you… You grieve either my loss or my existence or my wretched ghost but it doesn’t matter. All I wanted was to win. Tad did not, so you did not either. Tad killed me. You killed me.

you speak of this as if you are in the right.

all you wanted was to win. isn't that right? that's all you ever wanted.

a rather flimsy excuse, if you ask me.

a yearn for victory is such a pathetic, human thing to have. you as a species don't know what to do with your useless, meaningless lives, so you duke it out against each other to attempt to find a purpose. a natural propensity to prove thay you're inherently better, that you as a being are simply superior to everyone else is all you're ever good for, it seems.

but does this remove the fact that all living and loving beings are on this earth for nothing but to fuck and die? does this truly make you believe that the tacit truth of you being utterly devoid of purpose is nothing but a nihilistic thought that should be simply pushed aside?

i was created with a purpose, and that was to serve tad. is it small? yes. is it pathetic? yes. but at least i know what im here for. at least i exist with certainty that yes, i'm doing everything right. i'm acting exactly as i am meant to act.

i may have killed you, but you deserved it. you were selfish, greedy, and abhorrantly human.

you're correct. humanity means nothing to me. it sparks nothing but a faraway revulsion and long before buried ire that I've tried so hard to suppress, but you? you make me sick. you extended a hand in the name of friendship and you twisted my arm and sank your claws deep within me and you whispered "this is what love is." you tried to cut the strings of a marionette that will fall apart without them and that is nothing short of repulsive.

organics are put onto this earth so fleetingly. you're here one moment, and you're gone the next. you were bound to die anyway. if anything, i saved you.

[writingalterras]

Greetings friends! I am on time this week . am late again, this time was even worse because I already wrote the post, I just didn’t post it. For my forgetfulness, you will get a free fun fact about the supervillain Lord Valthoraxe. I will now explain more about the Monsters of Alterra.

Starting off with the obvious, undead. Any creature can become an undead, but they have to either be “revived” by a lich or get corrupted by dark magic such as necromancy. Revived undead possess various levels of memory depending on how soon after death they were brought back. Even if immediately resurrected, the undead entity is forever bound to the necromancy user that revived them. If a necromancy user dies themselves, all of their resurrected undead become mindless, barely capable of movement. If an undead creature with only a skeletal structure remaining has their necromancy user die, their bones will fall apart, leaving the skeleton forever trapped in a skull until put out of their misery.

Prolonged use of necrotic magic can lead to the user becoming a lich. A necromancer can prepare for this by trapping their soul in an object before the corruption takes place, although this guarantees that the user will become a lich the next time necrotic magic is used. The process of becoming a lich is extremely painful, feeling the pain you would feel if your body went through the entire decomposition process every second that lasts until the next new moon reaches midnight. Once a lich arises from their death, they are fully sentient and possess all of their previous memories. They no longer age, and their necrotic magic is far more powerful, but they can no longer use any other form of magic. If a lich put their soul in an external object, that object acts as a backup that revives the lich one time if they are defeated in battle. This works one time, after which the lich must provide the object with 40-50 sentient souls to restore it. If a lich fails to restore the object, referred to as a “soulstone,” within a month, the will begin to fade away.

If a lich corrupts a living creature, that creature will be forcefully fused with the nearest other creature that is not of the cursed creature’s own species nor the lich themself. This causes a “curseborn” to be created, and are not bound to the lich. A cursed being is most likely to be fused with an animal, such as wolves, birds, and rats, and act no different to their prior selves. Due to the curse being necrotic in nature, removing it would instantly kill the victim, who would then later rise as an undead, same if the cursed creature is killed while cursed. Curseborns almost never gain any advantages from the beings they fuse with unless the lich that cursed them is over a thousand years old.

The only creatures that can’t get turned into undead are ones who don’t have meat based skin, such as golems, and magic users more powerful than the lich.

Now for the final undead or cursed creature, the ghoul. A ghoul is created when a sentient creature with a soul dies in their sleep during a time of mass civil unease, such as during a war or drought. Ghouls are cursed to roam the nights for all eternity, never able to rest again. They are mostly docile, only really attacking when approached, apart from one exception. If an adventurer experiences “bad sleep” while away from civilization, such as staying awake during the nights or are burdened by nightmares, their tiredness can potentially attract and aggravate a ghoul. There is almost no chance in escaping a ghoul, with the only places that they can’t reach you being deep underground, in deserts, and high in the mountains. Technically you can survive if you manage to avoid it until the day breaks, but that is extremely unlikely as they can and must move slightly faster than you. There is one other place that ghoul dare not go, even if they are able to. Ghouls will without fail not go further than 13 meters in The Lord’s Wastelands, but anyone who willingly enters those lands are already dead men walking.

Fun Valthoraxe fact; Valthoraxe’s favorite food is a tie between Alterra’s equivalent of honey, which is called sugarseep, and lemons, because they are some of the few things it can taste. Valthoraxe holds great respect for humwing guardians(beekeepers, but humwings are 70cm tall and very dangerous if annoyed) and has installed hidden automated defense drones around the perimeter of the guardians he secretly buys from, as well as orbital satellite defense that protect them from bandit attacks.

Next week (Tuesday hopefully) I’ll delve into the different types of magic used on Alterra, stay tuned.

[2024patriot]

No Way He's in Charge!

How many people believe that Joseph Biden was the acting Executive? He was in the office, of course, but the poor man lost his way on stage, nearly boarded the wrong aircraft, slurred his speech as he got lost in his own word salad and had trouble addressing the subject of questions. 

There is no way that he has been the acting, competent executive over the last few years and everybody knows that.

To some people, Kamilah Harris is likeable, and to many she is a political force.  But she is not executive material either; every democrat knows this.  

The point I am making is that the democrats do not need to run an executive, because, obviously, there is a team, a council of some sort, that is running the country now and will run it again if the democrats win this next election.  Just who are these people?

Trump should make this an important point.  He is going to be running against a politburo with two puppets.

Donald Trump needs to change his tactics by ignoring the candidates and addressing the problems that the democrats are causing, such as the horrible national debt, the incursion of many unaccountable aliens, the costs and growth of unnecessary government bureaus and the abuse of government powers, e.g. the lawfare directed against conservatives.  

If Trump changes the dialogue by addressing the actions and philosophies of the two parties, he will gain traction with many of the undecided voters.  But he must give visual cues to reinforce his points; talk alone is not enough.

To illustrate the growth of government debt I suggest that he use a large, helium filled balloon that is attached to a very, very long red banner.  For him to release it and watch it ascend.  On that red banner is a line depicting the billions of dollars of debt that have grown since Biden took office.  That balloon will go up for miles, providing a visual clue of what our government is doing to every one of us.

He can allude to how the democrats didn’t care about Chinese balloons; it is sad that they also have not cared about this debt balloon during the Biden years.  You know why? Increasing the debt is the only way that democrats can survive.

That is why the swamp creatures are united against the republicans.  They want bigger and bigger government and more debt, and they will do anything, including assassination, to get it.

Trump also needs to address the political associations that infest the democrat party and for that to be broadcast for all the voters to understand.  The riots caused by Black Lives Matter and Antifa, helped by NO ICE and Defund the Police, would normally be at top of the list, but there is a new concern that is far more dangerous to every citizen in our nation:  the Hamas/Hezbollah/ISIS groups and their associated Free Palestine movement.  Their hatred crosses all races and party lines.

Here is where we bring in Taylor Swift, a musical star.  Taylor had to cancel three concerts in Europe because of terrorist threats.  After arresting and questioning two of the terrorists, the police learned that other terrorist members were hired as security guards for the concert.  Law enforcement found chemical bombs and plans to drive vehicles into crowds with the intent of killing as many people as possible with the cars, knives and machetes.  After the October attacks on the Re'im music festival massacre, the terrorists have realized the concerts provide a great source of hostages and prisoners for whatever pleasures or prices they want.   Let that sink in for a minute.

If that happens in the United States, how will our government react?   It’s a good thing to consider as we elect a new president.

Framing the Dialogue is Important:  I have seen the dishonest rhetoric that the democrat faction is going to use against Trump.  It starts with personal attacks then moves to the political lie that he is a danger to our democracy, etc..  Not every democrat is driven by gossip columns and mindless charismatic politicians—some are thinkers. Trump, and his republicans, need to frame their campaign in terms of national security, constitutional focus and debt awareness.  It is a sure way for some people to cross the party divide.

What Happened?  There were four million people in the original thirteen colonies, when we had Madison, Washington, Jefferson and Hamilton.  Now we have over 330 million people in the US and we have Biden, Harris and Walz, which proves Darwin was wrong.

 Steve

[030615]

Reflective Journal - Lim Lin Year 1 Production Arts for Screen

Leaving Singapore to a new country, and then starting classes the next day had made me disoriented and lost as a stranger in a foreign land. On the other hand, this transitional period has also shown me the promising pathway for a new door I had opened. 

The identity lecture gave me a closer look at an individual’s sense of self in the modern world. With various analogies and thought experiments, we were taught different interpretations of this idea. A concept I thought was interesting is the way identity is linked to our contemporary society. We were asked to question how identity can be maintained in a vulnerable and unpredictable world. As someone who enjoys the sci-fi genre, the idea that many of these stories can be viewed as a metaphor for addressing current societal concerns was intriguing.  

An example from the lectures that struck me was the real-life “brain worm” incident. A woman had a parasitical infection that caused a worm to grow in her brain and led her to become extremely ill. This non-fictional unnatural violation of the human body shocked me as a horrifying reality to live in could happen from a mundane situation of physical contact with nature. Not only was it unpredictable and terrifying, but it also confirmed fears of the inability of man to live in harmony with nature. This also acts as a real-life metaphor for broken natural boundaries, and the trespassing of personal space. 

For the film project, we were tasked to film and edit a two-minute film using the theme of Identity. Although I had little experience with filming, I was thankful to be in a group of talented people who helped me along the way. We brainstormed several ideas and narrowed them down to personal experiences with identity. Our film was titled “Overload” which used a first-person point of view to convey the experience of autistic individuals. I learned a lot from my groupmates who have more experience in filming, such as different editing techniques and art direction that I had never thought of before. 

After those two weeks, we resumed our course tutorials and the first unit commenced. We were tasked to create a character with the prompt “What's Behind The Door?”. The main struggle I had during this stage was to make the character believable. Initially, I wanted to create a grotesque man-eating creature as I like horror games. However, this led to a conflict I was unable to solve, as I did not know how to justify why a character would behave this way. The creature acted as a mindless killing machine, so I decided to start over with a new idea. 

On my second attempt, I focused more on the personality of the character than its setting. Using the list of questions provided in the tutorial, I created a spider housekeeper who spends most of its time cleaning the room behind the door. 

The above image shows concept sketches I made after writing the description of the character. I wanted to base the creature off a spider as the contrasting volume of the compact body mass and thin legs makes it appear more fragile, adding to its frantic personality. The second design was chosen, and the next tutorial allowed me to understand ways to convey a character’s personality through their body language. We were tasked to draw our character in four different poses representing different emotions. 

A problem I encountered was the stiffness and awkwardness of the way I first drew the lying pose. This was because I used textual descriptions rather than visual references to draw the character, so this tutorial has taught me the importance of using photos when depicting body language. As such, for the rest of the task, I made sure to use visual references that effectively convey the mood and personality of the character. 

Afterward, we were taught how to do three-dimensional drawing. This involves three main elements; simple volumes, basic perspectives, and overlapping forms. I found this lesson to be extremely useful for backgrounds as using these rules to create depth and structure achieves the illusion of 3D on a flat surface. This can also be applied to organic forms, such as foreshortening when drawing body parts. For this tutorial, we were tasked with drawing different objects from three different perspectives. 

In hindsight, I should have given myself a larger space to do this exercise as gridding the paper into nine parts caused most of the drawings to appear too cramped or overly exaggerated. I was disappointed with the outcome as I could not fit the three-point perspective drawing of the piano in the last grid as it will look extremely distorted with that scale. The details on the objects are also inaccurate, so I would have to work on these problem areas when doing more perspective drawings in the future. 

Another exercise related to improving our structure was the practice used for drawing human heads. As someone who is used to making photo studies with loose guidelines and editing the proportions during the rendering stage, I was not used to the methods used to break down features of the head. While drawing the basic forms was manageable separately, applying these steps to a face is challenging as you would also need to consider the proportions of the person. 

While drawing Matt Damon’s face, I tried to follow the structure and created this portrait. The key issues I had were the proportions and the lower half of the face. 

The following tutorial gave us pointers when designing characters and finding an art style for them. Drawing how the characters will be like rather than appear like would aid in creating a being capable of thought. We were recommended to use primary and secondary research and to base the character on something rather than to create one out of our imagination. We were also reminded to exaggerate the line of action while drawing with references and to consider how it affects the angle of hips, shoulders, and head. 

Related to the technical aspects of drawing, we were taught how to draw clothing that belongs to the character. The lesson's outcome is to draw fabric that enhances the character's three-dimensionality rather than flatten it. To do this, the key point is to focus on structure and observation as it gives believability to the characters who should also have surface and form. 

Some of the fabric I drew looked stiff as I either drew too many folds or did not follow the curve of the body. With the help of my tutor's drawing shown in the bottom right of the first page, I was able to make the fabric complement the form of the person more.

When drawing facial expressions, we were given points to take note of for more effective drawings. The expressions should convey the personality of the character, and this can be achieved by following design rules and establishing consistent structure and volume. 

I faced many problems trying to exaggerate my character’s expressions. As the mouth was placed at the lowest point of its skull, it was difficult to create an “open mouth” expression without obscuring the eyes. Moreover, when trying to make the eyes expressive, distorting its size made the character not look like itself. In the end, I managed to convey its emotions by changing the length of the jaw and adjusting the height of the eyeballs. 

The last practice we had in this unit covered the attitude of a character. With a simple prompt, a character’s audience appeal could be evoked with attitude. This can be achieved by giving characters a thought process, reflecting it with their design, and making the way they carry themselves consistently. Establishing the character’s point of view creates an expectation in the audience and reveals the person in the design. Afterward, we were given time to work on our character designs, so I worked on the turnaround and construction sheet during this time and digitalized these sketches for the final hand-in. 

At the end of this unit, I was able to learn new rules of character design that helped me to communicate my ideas better to an audience. This has also helped to improve my technical skills in drawing and I will continue to practice more in the future to achieve better results in my art and storytelling.

[furiouszippernickelcookie-blog]

I have a franchise idea that called Walking Slade which Focus on Slade and his rising undead army as they infect and kill or eat their brains as possible as they try spreading across globe and try conquer the world by bring human civilization to their knee or cause it collapsed.walking slade is pardoy of walking dead and other horror movies and shows including Stephen king books and Ridley Scott aliens etc .this franchise actually set in dirty dogs universe and connected to that universe too somehow Warning: The following story contains graphic content and may not be suitable for all readers. Reader discretion is advised.

Day 9: The world had descended into chaos. The once peaceful streets were now overrun with hordes of undead animals. It started innocently enough, with reports of strange behavior in pets and wildlife. But soon, it became clear that something far more sinister was at play.

The outbreak began on a sunny afternoon, when a group of children playing in the park noticed a raccoon acting strangely. Its eyes were bloodshot, and it moved with an unnatural, jerky gait. Before anyone could react, the raccoon lunged at one of the children, sinking its teeth into the young boy's arm.

Within hours, the boy was dead, and the raccoon had disappeared into the woods. But it was too late. The virus had already spread, infecting other animals in the area. Dogs, cats, birds, and even larger creatures like deer and bears were turning into mindless, flesh-craving monsters.

As the days went by, the situation grew worse. The infected animals roamed the streets, attacking anything that moved. People barricaded themselves in their homes, but it was only a matter of time before the creatures broke through.

I had managed to find refuge in an abandoned warehouse with a small group of survivors. We had armed ourselves with whatever we could find - baseball bats, knives, and even a few guns. But it was a losing battle. The animals were relentless, their hunger driving them forward.

On day 9, we received a distress call from a nearby farmhouse. A family had been trapped inside, surrounded by a pack of infected wolves. We knew we had to help. It was our duty to protect those who couldn't protect themselves.

We made our way through the desolate streets, the stench of death hanging heavy in the air. The sound of growls and snarls echoed all around us. It was a constant reminder of the danger we faced.

When we arrived at the farmhouse, we found the family huddled in the basement, terrified and desperate. The wolves were clawing at the door, their eyes wild with hunger. We knew we had to act fast.

With a plan in mind, we positioned ourselves strategically around the house. As the door finally gave way, the wolves burst in, their feral instincts taking over. We fought back with everything we had, swinging our weapons and firing our guns.

Blood splattered across the walls as we battled the infected animals. The screams of the family mixed with the growls of the wolves, creating a cacophony of terror. It was a gruesome scene, a fight for survival in the face of unimaginable horror.

In the end, we managed to kill the infected wolves, but not without losses of our own. One of our group had been bitten during the struggle. We knew what that meant. We had seen it happen before. The virus would take hold, and he would become one of them.

As we left the farmhouse, the weight of our actions settled upon us. We had saved a family, but at what cost? How many more lives would be lost before this nightmare was over? We had no answers, only the grim determination to keep fighting, to find a way to stop this outbreak and reclaim our world from the clutches of the undead animals.

This prequel franchise going lead up to The events that happen in walking slade day 9

However, little did we know that this prequel franchise would eventually lead up to the events that happened on "Walking Slade Day 9," a. gory and terrifying day that would forever change our lives. As the days went by, the grim reality of our situation became more apparent. The infected dogs roamed the streets, their once innocent eyes now vacant and filled with bloodlust. We gathered what little resources we had left and formed a small group of survivors, determined to survive and find a way to overcome this nightmare. We knew that the Dirty Dogs Halloween special at our local theater would never be the same again. Gone were the days of cheerfully watching canines perform tricks and entertain the audience; now, our theater served as a haunting reminder of the horror. We fortified the entrances and barricaded ourselves inside, using whatever we could find to create a sturdy barrier against the relentless onslaught of the infected dogs. As night fell, we huddled together in the dim theater, the flickering light from a single lantern casting eerie shadows on the cracked walls.then all suddenly someone use bazooka to bomb up theater The deafening blast echoed through the theater, shattering what little remained of the fragile windows. Dust and debris filled the air, swirling in the aftermath of the explosion. Coughing and sputtering, we stumbled out from the cloud of smoke, our senses overwhelmed by the chaos that lay before us.(flashback to day 1 or pre -outbreak ) Back before the outbreak, Halloween was a festive occasion filled with laughter and excitement. Families and friends gathered together, dressed in vibrant costumes and indulging in sugary treats.then midnight come , and with it, a drastic change in the atmosphere. As the witching hour struck, an eerie silence engulfed the entire town. Shadows seemed to dance on the street corners, and a chill ran down my spine as I walked through the now-deserted town. I clutched my bag of candy tightly, the sound of my own footsteps echoing through the empty streets.then outbreak begin , the once lively Halloween turned into a nightmarish scene. The air filled with a ghastly fog, clouding my vision and making it hard to see. I stumbled forward, trying to find my way through the thick mist. As I continued to navigate through the eerie haze, faint whispers reached my ears. My heart raced as the whispers grew louder, their words indecipherable but the tone filled with the unmistakable sense of danger. I quickened my pace, my pulse pounding in my ears. I could feel a presence, something sinister lurking in the shadows, watching me. My breathing became shallow as I frantically searched for a way out of this nightmare. The wind blew, carrying with it the scent of damp earth and decaying leaves, adding to the unsettling atmosphere.then infected zombies animals start infecting people and kill them My heart pounded even harder as I realized that the danger was not just limited to whispers and shadows. I scanned my surroundings, my eyes widening in horror as I saw the infected zombie animals closing in on unsuspecting people. Panic gripped me as I realized the extent of the horror unfolding before my eyes. The once lively Halloween party had turned into a terrifying battleground, with people screaming and running for their lives as the infected zombie animals tore through the crowd,bear maul one of person eyes and eat it for tasty snack His scream pierced the air, a bone-chilling sound that sent shivers down my spine. The infected bear had sunk its teeth into his flesh, devouring his very essence. Blood sprayed, painting the night in vivid shades of crimson. The once joyful Halloween celebration had transformed into a macabre slaughter, with every step I took leading me closer to my own demise.

I ran, fueled by fear and pure survival instinct. The stench of decay filled my nostrils, mixing with the coppery tang of blood. My heart raced, thumping against my chest like a war drum. The streets, once adorned with innocent decorations, now resembled a battlefield soaked in horror.

As I turned a corner, a familiar face greeted me. Sarah, my childhood friend, stood there with a haunted look in her eyes. Her shoulder was drenched in blood, evidence of a recent encounter with the infected creatures. She reached out a trembling hand, pleading for help. But I knew the truth. She was beyond saving.

Reluctantly, I continued my desperate sprint, leaving Sarah behind in the clutches of the relentless creatures. Guilt gnawed at my soul, but there was nothing I could do. In this new reality, it was every man, woman, and child for themselves.

The further I ventured into the nightmarish chaos, the louder the screams grew. Each cry for help was promptly silenced, replaced by guttural roars and the sound of flesh being torn apart. This was a world spiraling into madness, where innocence had been devoured by darkness.

As I reached the outskirts of town, a wild gust of wind blew, carrying with it the scent of death and decay. A sense of foreboding washed over me, and I knew that my journey was far from over. The infected animals may have been the catalyst for this nightmare, but something far more sinister was lurking in the shadows, orchestrating the destruction of civilization.

I tightened my grip on the makeshift weapon in my hand, ready to face whatever horrors awaited me. The world may have fallen, but I was determined to rise from the ashes, to fight against the tides of darkness that threatened to consume us all. And so, with each step I took, I walked deeper into the heart of the apocalypse, where death and despair reigned supreme. His scream rent the night, an icy wail that stabbed into my very bones. The contaminated beast sank its teeth into his flesh, an unholy banquet of his essence. Rivulets of blood erupted, transforming the evening into a grotesque fresco of midnight reds. Laughter and merriment degenerated into a slaughter, a tableau of horror that inexorably drew me towards my own demise.

Fear and raw instinct propelled my trembling legs, propelling me through the shadowed streets. The fetid stench of decay mingled with the metallic tang of blood, invading my senses. My heart hammered against my ribcage like an apocalyptic drumbeat. Streets, once adorned with the trappings of innocent festivity, now bore witness to the ravages of a relentless battle.

Turning a forgotten corner, I came face to face with a specter from my past. Sarah, a friend of my childhood, stood there with hollow eyes, their depths mirroring her tormented soul. Her trembling hand reached out, beseeching my aid, but I knew the bitter truth. She was forever lost.

Reluctantly, I pressed on, abandoning Sarah to the clutches of the insatiable creatures. The weight of guilt clawed at my psyche, but my fate was sealed. In this shattered reality, every man, woman, and child fought for survival alone.

With each step into this abyssal chaos, the symphony of screams swelled into a deafening crescendo. Begging pleas for salvation gave way to guttural growls and the grotesque symphony of rending flesh. This was a world that spun in demented madness, where purity had been devoured by the blackness.

Nearing the town's periphery, a violent gust sheared through the desolation, carrying with it the scent of decay and the specter of death. Dread crept through me, foretelling that my odyssey was far from over. The infected beasts may have birthed this shattered nightmare, but a more nefarious force lurked within the shadows, pulling the strings of civilization's cataclysmic downfall.

My weapon, a crude amalgamation of desperation and hope, tightened within my trembling grasp. I was prepared to confront the encroaching horrors. The world may have crumbled, but from the smoldering ashes, I vowed to rise. Against the impenetrable darkness that threatened to engulf us, I pledged to wage an unyielding war. With every step, I forged deeper into the pulsating heart of the apocalypse, where death and despair reigned supreme.

[squi-she]

Undead in the Mimicverse

More Mimicverse lore! Enjoy! Here's a link to the original document, if you want to read it that way instead. The fundamental force behind the seemingly spontaneous animation in objects comes from the fact that everything has a little bit of divine power in it. It's a property of matter, much like mass and gravity. This energy is largely dormant, undirected, but when shaped by a sentient mind, it is imbued with intent, which is how you get mimics, as detailed here. 

The materials that make up the bodies of living things are imbued with a basic level of intent via the act of procreation, and throughout the course of a creature's life, as they use their body to move and act and survive, they imbue more intent. More complex minds imbue more intent than simpler ones, and sentient beings imbue the strongest intent. However, while objects' intent simply motivates them to be (or perhaps "be recognized as") the thing they were created to be, dead bodies carry the intent to live. This is how undead naturally form. 

It's important to note that this intent is NOT the same thing as a soul- the soul is more like a being's ego or sense of self, and it can separate from the body and in some cases become a distinct entity. That is to say, a zombie, skeleton, or other mindless undead, is NOT the person's soul returned from the dead, though sometimes, the lingering intent may cause a mindless undead's actions to reflect the person that once occupied them (some spontaneous undead will wander 'home' after animating, which can be traumatizing and dangerous for their living relatives). Some sentient undead do retain their souls, but sentient undead DO NOT rise naturally - there is always some form of outside magical influence involved, such as a spell or curse.

Several factors play into whether a body will rise on its own. The most important factor is the state of mind at the moment of death - creatures experiencing profound regret, that have an important mission they have not completed, and those that die suddenly and unexpectedly all have dramatically higher rates of spontaneous animation. A physically intact body is more likely to rise- the intent that allows them to move wants the corpse to move the way it did in life, so if a body is split apart, crushed, or missing a limb, the intent doesn't line up with how the body is capable of movement. The reason so many mindless undead shamble and lurch with their movements is mostly due to physical damage to the body- it's trying to move normally with severed tendons, rotted muscles, and broken bones, like a construct with the wrong parts. Bodies that are seen and recognized as 'dead' are also less likely to rise - proper funeral rites often arise to indirectly serve this purpose, and often include cremation or some form of ritual destruction of the body.  

Humanoid bodies are most likely to become undead spontaneously, and the easiest to animate- it requires the least magical 'force' to animate them due to stronger fundamental intent. Zombies or skeletons are the most common. Animals and other creatures can also be animated but it generally requires greater amounts of negative energy. Undead made from assembled body parts or undead that are twisted to no longer resemble the bodies' original form almost never arise naturally, and require much more complex magic to create.

Liches are a special form of sentient undead, in that it's carefully self-inflicted. First, a ritual is performed that infuses their body with necromantic energy, killing the body but leaving the soul still in control of the now-undead flesh. Then, a second ritual is performed, where the lich tears off a part of their soul and imbues it into a mundane object, awakening it into a pseudomimic in the process. While most liches store their souls in something like a gem or other small item that can be kept secure, it's theoretically possible for a lich to bind their soul to any sort of object they choose. The item is usually heavily enchanted, so as to make it harder to destroy or locate, once the ritual is complete.

With the initial transformation now complete, the lich continues about their business. When the lich's body is destroyed or the soul is otherwise forced out of it, because part of the soul is in the item, the larger portion of the soul is then drawn to it instead of one of the afterlife planes. The lich can then begin reconstructing their physical body- with suitable preparation and protection, they can have one prepared, but the new body must be in close proximity to the item. When they have a body to inhabit, they tear the majority of their soul from the item and project it to the body again. It's possible to project the soul into other undead bodies, or even constructs, but it's not wise long-term - a disconnect between a soul and the body it inhabits can lead to dissociation, dysphoria, and eventual madness, especially over the course of hundreds and thousands of years. All liches experience this to some degree - partially because their undead body does not function as a living one, but even in a perfect replica, the body cannot perfectly match the soul because part of the soul is gone, stored in the item. Additionally, each time a lich tears their soul to animate a new body, there is a small, unavoidable amount of collateral damage to the soul's integrity.

The magic used to animate constructs is similar to the magic used to create undead, though unlike necromancy, it does not utilize negative energy. In much the same way, the caster imbues the target with intent and magical energy to amplify, direct, and focus the divine energy inherent to the materials it is made out of. Any object can be animated as a construct, depending on the spellcaster's own power and skill, but objects specifically created to be animated as constructs retain the magic more easily as their inherent intent lines up more cleanly to the magical intent imbued. For example, a solid stone statue of a humanoid can be animated to move like a person, however, being made of rigid stone, it would be burning magic constantly to force the material to be flexible, contrary to its nature. On the other hand, a construct with joints that can bend easily would use much less energy to do the same thing. The use of mechanical parts, such as pistons, gears, and wheels, can make the energy use even more efficient, and some highly advanced construct designs can be animated indefinitely. Incorporating a secondary power source, such as steam, can make it much less magically taxing to animate a construct, as the construct can rely partially on the forces generated to move itself around, rather than needing to use mana to do so.

To create a sentient construct, simple animation is not enough - one has to magically create a soul to do so. Forming an entity, a concept of self, out of nothing but magic is extremely complicated and very, very difficult. It's not impossible, but fully sentient constructs are very rare, and practically unheard of in many places. Most constructs are simply animated without will of their own beyond a desire to fulfill their creator's commands.

Damage or wear on a construct forces it to consume more energy just to remain animated, which is why constructs disanimate when sufficiently damaged. However, some constructs are capable of entering a dormant state when damaged nearly to the point of disanimation, and remaining in that state indefinitely until repaired, or until natural wear finishes the job.

A construct that has fully disanimated, especially sentient ones or ones that once had very powerful magic animating them, have strong intent imbued into their materials, much like a dead body does. However, being inorganic, they cannot rise as undead- instead, it's highly possible for them to become mimics, with certain caveats. Usually this only occurs when the magical animation force of a construct has been depleted or been dispelled, leaving the body intact but inanimate. Constructs that are destroyed by damage cannot become mimics, the same way a splinter of a chair cannot become a mimic on its own- the object must be intact enough to retain its intent in order to become a mimic. Mimic constructs can be very dangerous and very quick to anger- the intent of the construct is to be an active construct, and when you see a disanimated construct, you usually recognize it as disanimate, causing painful dissonance to a mimic.  Pseudomimic constructs are purely theoretical, their existence unproven- the conditions required to both disanimate it and create a pseudomimic overlap such that it's proved impossible to do intentionally. That said, there are stories of well-loved constructs that have spontaneously reanimated after losing power, or remained active long after they should have run out of power…

[emmabirb8]

Apparently I'm not done with my musings on Nandor.

Maybe I'm just stating the obvious here, but I don't think Nandor has ever really been happy. Not as a human or vampire.

This man's life path was essentially set in stone from the day he was born. Because of his social status and the atmosphere of war that he was brought into, he was forced to become a soldier. His literal way of life included almost nothing but violence, and he had no way to opt out of it without bringing shame and weakness to his family, and later, his country. So, how did he cope with having such little control over his life?

He convinced himself he enjoyed it.

Nandor tends to speak fondly of his past in the show, and mentions numerous times how powerful and amazing he was when he tortured, pillaged, killed, and conquered. He seems at first glance to have very much enjoyed the time he spent as leader of an army and kinda glosses over the more unsavory aspects of his past life (including but not limited to the facts that he wasn't able to spend much quality time with friends and family and that he was shunned, exiled, and basically treated like shit after he was turned).

In reality, Nandor was not satisfied by the life he lived. But to him, things were just… out of his control. So he convinced himself he enjoyed it. He resigned himself to relish in the mindless pillaging and massacres and he became good at it. It was what he came to believe he was meant to do. It made his family proud, earned his country power, and caused everyone around him to bow to his will. And he enjoyed it because he had to. What else was there?

But he was never actually happy.

And then when he became a vampire, his new undead life was different in a lot of ways, but in essence, it was also much the same as before: mindless killing. Mindless violence. Hurting people. Only now, he was forced to do these things for sheer survival.

And that's the thing. He was forced.

During his living life, he was forced into the roles of ruthless soldier and Supreme Viceroy. Then, he was turned into a bloodthirsty monster (most likely) against his will and forced to spend an eternity as an undead creature of the night.

Nandor's entire seven centuries of existence haven't given him very many choices. I honestly don't know if he has ever known genuine happiness despite how he tends to frame his history and how he tends to act (aside from his behavior in the last few episodes of season 3).

The more I think about everything we know of Nandor so far, the more his arc from The Wellness Center on makes sense. He is an excruciatingly tragic character.

But despite everything, I think there's a remedy for him. Do you know what I think Nandor desperately needs above anything else? What I think will bring him genuine, lasting happiness and fulfillment?

Domesticity.

I believe this poor, aching vampire needs to settle into a simple, comfortable existence as, essentially, a househusband (for lack of a better term). Someone who can just be home with little tasks here and there to complete and hobbies to indulge in and a partner and family (*cough* Memo and the other vamps *cough*) to share his happiness with. Just… the full domestic experience. 😊

See, Nandor never got the opportunity for any kind of quiet domestic life as a human, so there are lots of facets of life that he completely missed out on that, honestly, he probably doesn't even know exist. Living the way he has as a vamp up until recently has obviously not done well for his psyche. Guillermo entering his life was definitely a step in the right direction of improving his circumstances, but I say he should take it further and go full domestic. (And Memo could only provide immense help in that transformation. Marrying the guy would be a great start at least, lmao.)

Look, I'm incredibly excited to see where this show goes next, I'm hoping upon hope to learn more about Nandor soon, and I have no idea if this kind of lifestyle could or would ever become canon for him.

But honestly? It's what he wants (even if he doesn't realize it), it's what he needs, and it's what he deserves. ❤

[monstersdownthepath]

Monster Spotlight: Blindheim

CR 2

Neutral Small Magical Beast

Bestiary 2, pg. 46

These creepy cave dwellers live in familial groups of up to 5 individuals at a time, roaming the darkness of the underground as they scoop fungi and mold, rodents and fish, and whatever smaller creatures they find into their toothy, frog-like mouths. While the loincloth in this picture may trick you into believing they’re intelligent yet misunderstood beings, the truth is that they actually only have an Intelligence of 2, below the threshold of sapience and most forms of tool use. The clothing, in this case, was likely put on this particular specimen by its captor or handler, as their unique abilities make them excellent guard dogs and trackers by duergar, drow, and certain colonies of dwarves.

Blindheim are simple creatures, wiling their days away near the damp caves surrounding underground lakes, swamps, and rivers, their days devoted to gathering food, roughhousing with one another, and avoiding their many predators. Their sticky skin allows them to easily climb along even the most tenuous footholds in their cavern lairs, and their strong limbs let them quickly swim through the waters they make their homes near, allowing them numerous methods to get away from whatever may be trying to eat them or stalk whatever it is they may be trying to eat... But their most useful and unique method of gathering food and avoiding becoming food lays in their luminous red eyes.

Evolving a novel defense for the lightless underground, Blindheim can produce unbelievably bright rays of light from their eyes at will as a free action. This Blinding Gaze is so intense it quickly burns out other creatures’ ability to see, forcing any being within 30ft to make a DC 13 Fortitude save every round they remain in the radius or lose the use of their eyes for a whole hour. Any creature with Light Sensitivity or Light Blindness (like almost every creature from the Darklands) is automatically affected by these weaknesses while within this 30ft range without a save even if they succeed in resisting the actual blindness.

Blindheim seem to have some control over their gaze, able to dim it to a point where it acts like a lure for insects and curious vermin before unleashing the full blast, disorienting prey until the giant frog gets ahold of it and rips it apart. In combat, the overgrown amphibians have a bog-standard CCB, their bite dealing 1d4+1 and claws 1d3+1, too weak to threaten much but the smaller creatures they readily feed upon... but as I mentioned before, they tend to travel in packs, and there’s no 24-hour immunity clause on their blindness. Smart enough to use one another as bait in times of hunger to lure in more substantial meals, adventurers (or slavers) finding just one of these froggy creatures limping along may find themselves ambushed from above by four or five of them at a time while the ‘hurt’ one suddenly springs back to full health and unleashes its Blinding Gaze. Able to see through the light and immune to blindness themselves, the Blindheim can quickly incapacitate their blind and disoriented foes and fall upon them with the ferocity of piranha while their allies are helpless to fight back or even aid the fallen.

Thankfully, they’re not mindless animals, quickly scurrying away if they can’t fell their prey fast enough, using their climbing and swimming prowess to get out of reach and get out of dodge in search of something less dangerous. Most of the time, players only need to fell one or two of them before the rest run off, cutting their losses... but in my opinion, they work better as atmospheric encounters or accidental obstacles than actual creatures to be fought and killed. For example, Blindheim can recognize when a target is too much for them to handle, and isolated frogs being encountered by a party will likely not attack, instead flashing their eyes as warning and running off in terror. The Blindheim wasn’t the lethal hazard, but approaching it the wrong way still leaves the players significantly more vulnerable to whatever else may be lurking in the dark, twisting caverns...

You can read more about them here.

[hamliet]

Unless a Grain of Wheat Falls and It Dies...

Or, why I am pretty optimistic about the fates of Jean, Connie, Gabi, and all titanized people this chapter, which is also an excuse for me to talk about SnK’s allusions to Russian literature. 

There are strikingly parallel ideas The Brothers Karamazov and Attack on Titan, as well as parallel plot points and imagery to the point where if it isn’t deliberate, it’s uncanny. (NB: before people yell at me about comparing a Japanese and Russian work, Isayama has used Russian names since the start of SnK--Shiganshina is a Russian name.) In particular, there are narrative allusions to a portion of the novel known as “The Grand Inquisitor,” which is a short story within a novel. The central thesis of “The Grand Inquisitor” is as follows: 

nothing has ever been more insupportable for a man and a human society than freedom. 

This parable is told within the story by Ivan Karamazov, a character whose intellectuality is his gift and his curse. He tells his brother Alyosha that the motivation for creating this parable is precisely the evils done to children (oh look, a major SnK theme) and specifically cites an example which was unfortunately taken from real life in Russia and which Isayama has an uncanny parallel:

I want to see with my own eyes the hind lie down with the lion and the victim rise up and embrace his murderer. I want to be there when every one suddenly understands what it has all been for. All the religions of the world are built on this longing, and I am a believer. But then there are the children, and what am I to do about them? That's a question I can't answer... If all must suffer to pay for the eternal harmony, what have children to do with it, tell me, please? ... if it is really true that they must share responsibility for all their fathers' crimes, such a truth is not of this world and is beyond my comprehension. Some jester will say, perhaps, that the child would have grown up and have sinned, but you see he didn't grow up, he was torn to pieces by the dogs, at eight years old...

... How are you going to atone for them? Is it possible? ... What do I care for a hell for oppressors? What good can hell do, since those children have already been tortured? ... I want to forgive. I want to embrace. I don't want more suffering. And if the sufferings of children go to swell the sum of sufferings which was necessary to pay for truth, then I protest that the truth is not worth such a price. ... too high a price is asked for harmony; it's beyond our means to pay so much to enter on it... It's not God that I don't accept, Alyosha, only I most respectfully return Him the ticket.”

The actual parable of “The Grand Inquisitor” is Ivan’s answer to Alyosha’s question about Ivan’s lines above. Ivan tells a story about how freedom is actually what dooms humanity: it is the curse. (Alyosha does not believe this.) Jesus comes back to earth and is promptly arrested, because his existence and return threaten the wellbeing of society. To be happy, one cannot be free, but one or two strong people in society should be free and bear the burden for everyone else (you can see the parallels to King Fritz/the Reisses). 

Nothing is more seductive for man than his freedom of conscience, but nothing is a greater cause of suffering... all his life he loved humanity, and suddenly his eyes were opened, and he saw that it is no great moral blessedness to attain perfection and freedom, if at the same time one gains the conviction that millions of God's creatures have been created as a mockery, that they will never be capable of using their freedom...

This is SnK’s thesis: to be free, there will be suffering. It is part of human nature, and yet to not have it is to be lost. But SnK, despite its explorations of human darkness and monstrosity, has a higher view of humanity than does Ivan. SnK’s view is more alongside Alyosha’s, who says what is honestly the truth about not just the Reisses, but Eren now:

"Who are these keepers of the mystery who have taken some curse upon themselves for the happiness of mankind? .... It's simple lust of power, of filthy earthly gain, of domination—something like a universal serfdom with them as masters—that's all they stand for.”

Mikasa is akin to the Christ figure in the story, akin to Alyosha: Christ is constantly asked to speak, asked to act, and he does not until the very last moment, when he kisses the Grand Inquisitor on the lips. After the story is over, Alyosha then does likewise to Ivan. 

Not to mention when Alyosha worries about Ivan’s mental state, he then answers with this:

“Listen, Alyosha,” Ivan began in a resolute voice, “if I am really able to care for the sticky little leaves I shall only love them, remembering you. It's enough for me that you are somewhere here, and I shan't lose my desire for life yet.”

A simple leaf can save a life. A leaf can save the world. A leaf, grown from a tree that started as a seed falling to the ground, dead, only to grow life from that death. Alyosha himself notes SnK’s central thesis of chapter 137 in the (very long) novel’s final pages:

...some good, sacred memory, preserved from childhood, is perhaps the best education. If a man carries many such memories with him into life, he is safe to the end of his days, and if one has only one good memory left in one's heart, even that may sometime be the means of saving us.

There’s a lot more to this, but this is the epigraph to The Brothers Karamazov, the central thesis of the entire novel:

"Verily, verily, I say unto you, except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit." -John 12:24

Suffering can grow great fruit in an individual life, and by giving something up, by even death, something beautiful can come. Through cruelty, you can find life. 

This is not just a long-running theme in SnK, but a pattern in its plot. Often those who surrender then receive exactly what they had surrendered (but admittedly, not always, like Erwin). 

Mikasa accepted Eren’s loss, and got him back.

Mikasa let Armin go, and got him back.

Falco gave up hope of survival, and got another chance: 

Hange was going to die alone, feeling guilty for having failed her comrades, but saw everyone again, and they told her well done: 

Historia gave up being free, but now we know she will be.

Levi gave up on his revenge, and then got it. Annie thought she would never see her dad again, but she did. For Mikasa, accepting that she has to kill the boy she loves coincides not just with her acceptance of her love, but with the acceptance and knowledge that he loves her:

It always comes with sacrifice, increasingly hard sacrifice, but usually the seeds that are dropped grow and bloom. 

This chapter, everyone surrendered their hearts. They let their dreams fall to the ground, and I honestly think the story will allow it to plant life. Yes, the world as a whole is saved and that is enough to make thematic sense, but it works even better if the very people who were titanized this chapter also bloom again. They chose to trust Mikasa, Levi, Falco, and Pieck to finish the task.

The characters giving up their lives only to get them back make sense, and give Mikasa’s sacrifice of Eren. For Mikasa, Eren was her world, and she gave it up when she had lost everyone else. She had nothing left, and she still did it. I would hope she’d be narratively rewarded beyond just the world being saved, because Mikasa has always been motivated by her personal relationships.

Moving on from Mikasa: Connie’s mom has been kept alive and the concept of turning mindless titans back to humans was already brought up specifically in relation to her:

Connie giving up on his mother a dozenish chapters ago only to get her back now--not through sacrificing a child, but through saving the entire world--would fit the themes and patterns of SnK.

Thirdly, Gabi should not die. She’s Eren with positive development, and cannot meet the same end. Even people who are skeptical of every titan being saved seem to agree that she’ll be fine. It’s possible she’s the only one saved, but imo, not likely. 

See, the only shifter characters who are going to have the option of self-sacrifice are Falco and maaaaaybe Armin. The others look like they’re about to die right here and now, never mind choosing someone to save: the mindless titans are ripping at their napes. Armin also looks to be in bad shape. 

Yet Armin cannot narratively commit suicide; two chapters ago he was still screaming at himself for being useless and thinking he would be better off dead. He’s already tried the heroic sacrifice, too, so why would it work this time around? It does not work for his arc. Falco dying for Gabi was the plan without any freedom from the titan curse; it’s more powerful if ending the curse changes things, rather than forcing him to make the same choice that Reiner has always been trying to make: a heroic suicide. It could happen; it’s just not as narratively strong.

As for whether the worldbuilding rules, we know that mindless titans are not truly dead nor entirely mindless; they just don’t have freedom. Ymir’s case of getting herself back after decades shows that they aren’t quite dead or absorbed. They still have consciousness that can be awoken; Ymir described it as being in a long “nightmare.” Dina still went looking for Grisha. Connie’s mom remembered and recognized Connie, telling him “welcome home.” There is plenty of evidence that there are parts of these people that are still in there even if they are forced to become monsters (oh hey, it’s an Eren parallel; he was conscious of it and had choices while mindless titans do not, but the parallel remains).