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lynzishell · 2 months ago

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The Present ❤️ Selvadorada

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Transcript below the cut:

Asher: Jesus, look at this place. This is the museum? Atlas: Yep, this is it. Asher: Wow. Kind of intense, isn’t it? Atlas: Little bit.

Little Sister: What is it? Big Sister: It’s a dinosaur, stupid. Little Sister: I’m not stupid, you’re stupid. Big Sister: Good one. Little Sister: Shut up. I’m telling mom. Big Sister: [mocking] i’M tElLiNg MoM

Child: Mommy, why can’t we go downstairs? Parent: That section isn’t for kids, sweetie. Child: Why? Parent: I don’t know, I’ve never been down there.

Twin1: Why did they frame it if it’s broken? Twin2: Because it’s old, duh. Twin1: So, it’s old and broken and that makes it special? Twin2: [shrugs] I guess. Twin1: Dad, I’m bored. Can we get ice cream?

Atlas: Holy shit. Asher: What? Atlas: I’ve seen these before. Asher: Really? Where?

Atlas: Well, I… in a dream, I think. Asher: What? Atlas: Yeah, I used to have this recurring dream, and there were skeletons in it just like this. Three in a row. Asher: Weird. Atlas: You have no idea. [waves to museum employee] Excuse me.

Sam: Hi there, I’m Sam. Can I help you with something? Atlas: What are these? Sam: Ah, these are the Temple Guards. Atlas: Temple? Sam: Yes, the jungle used to be home to three ancient temples. They were said to contain great treasures, and people would come from all over in search of them. The Guards were one of many things that would protect the temples from trespassers. Asher: They don’t seem very intimidating.

Sam: [laughs] No, these wouldn’t. These are just replicas. The real ones are much larger and are said to have the ability to curse their enemies. Atlas: What kind of curse? Sam: It varies. Legend has it, they take the victim’s greatest wish and turn it into their nightmare. Asher: Creepy. Sam: Very. If you’re interested in learning more, we have the real thing downstairs. It’s a slow day. I can give you the full tour at a 25% discount. Asher: Um… Atlas: Let’s do it. Sam: Follow me.

Sam: Now, everything you see around you, with the exception of some reinforced archways and support beams, comes from the actual temple ruins. These temples were constructed as mazes with various floors, rooms, hidden doorways, and dead ends. They were designed to confuse their enemies and cause them to get lost, unable to find their way out. And, if that wasn’t enough, the whole place was booby trapped. These devices here, they would shoot arrows at anyone who tried to cross them. However, they contain a puzzle. By solving the puzzle, one could deactivate them and continue on.

Sam: This is the kind of room one may find themselves trapped in. The only way out, again, is to solve the puzzle. Get it wrong, and each podium has a different punishment in store for you. Atlas: Why would anyone go into these temples if they’re so dangerous?

Sam: Oh, plenty of reasons. Greed, adventure… Sometimes people just think they’re special. That, even if hundreds have failed before them, somehow, they’re the one who will make it through, the one who will make it out alive. But I’ve yet to hear a story where someone did. Trouble is, once you’re in, there’s only one way out, and good luck finding it.

Asher: [pokes Atlas] Are you thinking what I’m thinking? Atlas: [nods] It’s perfect. Sam: This way, my favorite room is just up ahead.

Asher: Whoa. Atlas: This is amazing. Sam: Right?!

Sam: There are freshwater pools in the jungle. We have no idea how they got there, but they’re said to have been cursed. That they were originally created as traps for those seeking out the temples. It could be very temping to go for a swim, but if you were to try it, you’d be pulled straight to the bottom.

Asher: Fantastic. Atlas: You okay? Asher: How ‘bout we move on? Sam: Oh, uh, sure.

Sam: And here we have the real Guards. Asher: Okay, yeah, these are a bit more intimidating. Atlas: The real ones? Sam: That’s right. The very ones that stood inside one of the temples. Atlas: The temples, are any of them still there? Sam: ‘Fraid not. Only ruins. We’ve collected what we could and preserved it all here in this museum.

Atlas: I think maybe it’s time we head back to our rental. Asher: Yeah. This place is creepy, isn’t it? Atlas: That’s putting it mildly. Sam: Well, good news is, the next stop is the last on our tour. Bad news is, it’s about to get a lot creepier. Asher: Not sure how you’ll manage that.

Sam: This is Barbara. Asher: Barbara? Sam: Well, no. She doesn’t have a name, so I make up a new one every time I come down here. Just whatever pops in my head. So, today she is Barbara. Asher: You really enjoy your job, don’t you, Sam?

Sam: I do. And this is my favorite part. You see, it wasn’t only those looking for treasure or grand adventures that were trapped in these temples. Anyone who wandered nearby could fall victim. Legend has it, the temple

would come alive at night, and so would Barbara. She would crawl her way out of the ground and lure in anyone who dared to get too close. As I mentioned, once inside, there was only one way out. But also, there was a limited amount of time in which to escape. Once the sun rose, the temple went to sleep again, the exit sealed, and anyone left inside was lost forever.

Atlas: What happened to them? Sam: Nobody knows.

[Later]

Asher: I’m so glad we’re finally back. I’m exhausted after all that. Atlas: Me too. You were right. We never would’ve made it out of the jungle before dark. I’m glad we decided to wait. Asher: Me too. We should get to bed soon so we can get up early tomorrow, take our time. Atlas: Good idea. [snuggle] Hey, Ash, I— Asher: Jesus, do see this? Come here.

Asher: I can’t believe how many stars are out tonight. We never see this in the city. Atlas: It’s beautiful. Asher: Sorry for cutting you off just now. What were you going to say?

Atlas: Oh, um… nothing. I was just going to say that I love you. Asher: [smiles] I love you too.

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gay-noodle-clan · 6 months ago

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(edit because I forgot to tag 😭)

@charmedreincarnation

@stilljuststardust

@evvlevie

#i have to justify all of these sorry #i make myself like tea because every single one of my drs focuses on it #i’m a night owl because i overthink #chocolate is too strong a flavour #spring because flowers but fall is a close second #pop is okay but i genuinely prefer water #i still don’t know what dimples are but freckles are super cute i always headcanon my favourite characters to have them #especially hideyoshi from ikémen sengoku #sharks >>> no explanation needed #mountains because i love hiking and am deathly afraid of ticks in fields #lightning just looks so cool #i know more about Greek mythology but neither really interest me #ivory because i hate the word scarlet #it sounds ugly sorry #lyre is the prettiest word alive so it automatically wins #opal because why not #spells >>> every single one of my drs have spells in them #the ocean!! the desert is way too hot for my sensitive self #mermaids because prebby #and in every single dr of mine sirens are basically therizinosaurus’#let women be dinosaurs #masquerade ball i wanna live that manwha life #i actually have a severe bee phobia #both macarons and eclairs are gross since i don’t really like sweets but macarons are slightly better #handwritten but specifically calligraphy #secret garden >>> the elf in me demands such #balcony so i can have flowers #mild i am a sad little white midwestern girl i have the spice tolerance of a bucket of water #i love kimchi though #opera and ballet are both boring sorry but ballet is slightly better

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i-draws-dinosaurs · 1 year ago

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i was rewatching the rite of spring segment from fantasia and i've got to wonder. Why Did We Draw Archaeopteryx Like That. i remember toys having that same, boomerang arm shaped pose too. it's like a monkey lizard more than a bird.

Ooh okay this is a fun one cause while it technically is an Archaeopteryx and is listed as such in the production draft, I don't think the design is based on Archaeopteryx at all!

To me, this "Archaeopteryx" almost exactly resembles something else, the fascinating historical phenomenon called Proavis.

Proavis, or Tetrapteryx as some four-winged interpretations were called, was a hypothetical prehistoric creature that was proposed in the early 20th century as a best guess at what the unknown ancestor of birds could have looked like. The illustration above was drawn in 1926 by Gerhard Heilmann, a Danish artist and amateur scientist who argued that birds evolved from non-dinosaurian archosaurs like Euparkeria. In his 1916 book Vor Nuvaerende Viden om Fuglenes Afstamning and the 1926 English translation The Origin of Birds, he presented Proavis as the imagined midpoint between a scaly ground-running archosaur and Archaeopteryx, which at the time held the title of The First Bird.

Other versions of the same hypothesis, like William Beebe's Tetrapteryx above, were published and discussed around the same time, but it was Heilmann's Proavis that gained immense popularity to the point that bird evolution was considered essentially "solved" for decades. It was also painted by Zdeněk Burian, one of the Old Greats of palaeoart, which kept the concept alive in dinosaur books for decades as well.

Of course further study has shown this hypothesis to be incorrect and that birds are instead members of Dinosauria (and honestly Heilmann either missed or ignored a lot of evidence for a dinosaurian origin of birds even in the 1910s), but the Proavis to me remains a beautiful and fascinating concept that represents scientists and artists striving to understand the prehistoric world and the passage of evolution, much like we still do today!

And of course, its popularity in the early 20th century put it at the perfect time for Fantasia's artists to take... let's say heavy inspiration from Heilmann's imaginary Proavis when depicting a creature that was intended to be Archaeopteryx the whole time! The pattern of feathers matches up almost exactly, although the larger leg wings might have been inspired by Beebe's Tetrapteryx as well:

So to get back to your original question that led to this whole deep dive, artists didn't actually Draw Archaeopteryx Like That except when they were mistakenly drawing something that wasn't Archaeopteryx at all! If you want to read more about the Proavis and Tetrapteryx I recommend this Tetrapod Zoology blog post by Darren Naish, he does into more depth about the history of the concept and some of the unusual evolutionary ideas that Heilmann used to arrive at this weird and cool imaginary creature!

#dinosaurs #paleontology #paleoart #palaeoblr #evolution #fantasia #proavis #tetrapteryx #archaeopteryx

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closetcasefabray · 2 months ago

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jesus saves (i spend)

i have been writing parts of an avatrice college au for two gd years now. the ideas & writing are scattered between here (one of the tags below should work), my whatsapp convos with @snowandwolves, on discord, my dinosaur laptop that crashes, & my email. it’s a fucking disaster but whatever so am i & not once in my life have i had my shit together so this is all unsurprising.

SO what i’m saying is, here’s the only part i have ‘formally’ written in fic form bc i posted that other ficlet. doing this made me almost throw my dino laptop & my phone out a window on several occasions—that’s why there isn’t more. but i just wanna share this.

more notes & rambles at the end.

You notice her because it's syllabus week of your freshman year, it's an 8 AM class, and you're fairly confident you're still drunk from the party you attended last night, but she raises her hand and correctly answers a question posed by your theology professor without hesitation. Your professor, Father Vincent, was likely hoping for a good guess at best, but there she is, exceeding expectations from the moment she speaks. You pickup on an accent, which you would find incredibly attractive if you weren't so thrown by her perfect and concise response, like a well-prepared speech is always readily accessible in the back of her mind—a girl with all the answers. A young woman, really.

You, however, are not—you're just a girl. You're just a girl who shows up to her morning classes smelling like the bar or the house party from the night before, like the weed you started smoking almost immediately upon arriving to university during orientation week, like the cigarettes you smoke because it affords you a little more quiet outside and an excuse to borrow a lighter and talk to a cute boy or a pretty girl.

You're just a girl who technically died, existed in nothingness for a whole minute before being ripped back into a reality of blank ceilings and the sound of your heartbeat in your ears. You're just a girl strangers prayed for after they heard about the American child pulled from the wreckage. You're just a girl who didn't get any credit for teaching herself to stand again, to walk again—and if you’re being completely honest, you’re a girl who’s incredibly bitter that a god you never saw in that one minute got all the credit and none of the blame—for taking your mother from you, for taking years from you that had to be spent healing from god’s grace or lack thereof.

You're just a girl who is tired of being told to look at her life as an expression of holiness, who thinks it is more so the consequence of indifferent stardust. But you still look for the beauty in that, in humanity and its flaws—these meaningless beings in a vast universe, creating and destroying their own little, myopic worlds on this spinning rock. Some will dream of poetry for their lovers, and some will dream of arsenals to level cities. You wonder how many lips were pressed together in a final kiss versus hands clasped together in prayer when fire fell from the sky in the name of God. You wonder what that says about faith.

You'd like to think if your mother could see you, she'd laugh at the irony because once you were baptized, she never took you to church. God finds a way, so you spent five miserable years in a Catholic orphanage before you were sent back to America. People said you were lucky to have two years in a foster family at your age, but it felt like living with strangers who were tasked with the minimum of keeping you alive. Then you were moved into a home for teen girls with a nun at the helm, and that’s where you actually felt fortunate for the first time in years. It was there that Mother Superion helped you with your studies and college applications. So here you are, tipping into a hangover in one of the oldest buildings on campus, learning theology from a priest.

But your mom would understand. (You don’t remember much of her, and you try not to think about that too deeply, or else you have to deal with the resulting ache that comes from reaching inside yourself for something that’s gone.) You have spliced together what you can recall into a short reel—you mom buckling into your car seat while humming a show tune, showing you how to fold a pizza slice and telling about a city famous for their pizza, and holding your hand in a museum in Spain, promising to take you to another big museum closer to home, the home you never saw again. So you promised yourself and the parts of her you carry that you’d make it here.

You would have had to pay almost full tuition if you wished to attend your reach, requiring immense debt, so you ended up at the school that offered you a ticket to the city and a hefty enough scholarship you could get through four years without requiring loans or a full-time job to afford it. (You first refused to use your mother’s death as a sob story in you application letter, but Mother Superion put her hand on yours and said, So rarely do these letters contain truth, but do not be afraid to tell yours. In telling your truth there is a sadness, yes—and I know you detest pity—but of all the things that have been taken from you, do not feel guilty for taking some of it back to live a better life.) You remember getting your acceptance letter, and looking up at the sky and flipping it off, praying whatever god hears you, No thanks to you!

But your bitterness temporarily takes a backseat in your mind as you look at your classmate, beautiful in the refracted light shining through the stained glass window, speaking so graciously of god you'd think Jesus were in the room, about to hand her his latest work. It's poetry, bordering on scripture in a new tongue, and you'd almost be a believer if it didn't sound as if she had repeated these words—practiced—enough times to believe them herself. You wonder what that says about her faith.

If the nuns at the orphanage had spoken the gospel as she does, maybe you'd be here for different reasons. You're fascinated.

Behold, you are beautiful…

i promise this fic gets lighter & has some silliness. so some notes/tangents:

this is 100% self-indulgence bc i heard ‘write what you know’ & ran with that shit. when i visited a friend at a state school in a college town i was so so confused bc it was just a diff campus culture entirely. then i was going to make this set in an ambiguous city, but i literally have saved places in google maps that would be great places to kiss someone sooooo you get NY avatrice.

likely setting this before instagram & smartphones bc i’m old/lazy & i can.

the title is from st. vincent who my friend introduced me to in college. “paris is burning” changed my brain chemistry & so i listened to her music on repeat for ages—“jesus saves, i spend” is on the same album.

father vincent will not be a bad man or evil professor. he will be as he was before adriel—a lost man who found himself through god & still a little broken but caring & devout.

also song of songs/song of solomon is like… the only part of the bible i fucked with in theology class so that’s the reference at the end. also another line used in another scene with JC, chanel, & ava written in v rough form. maybe will share that later.

this is meant to be a fic with a post-grad sequel as well. not much written of that but a lot of ideas everywhere.

once i figure out where i’m moving (hahahaha i’m so stressed), i’ll consider a ko-fi or something (i wish emails & names weren’t shown though). but mostly i will likely need a second job to save up for an actually good computer/macbook. once i have that i’ll be able to post on ao3.

anyway thanks for reading & being here :3

#avatrice #avatrice fanfic #avatrice college au #ccf fanfiction #ccf fanfic #ccf #closetcasefabray #warrior nun #warrior nun fanfic #warrior nun au #fic: jesus saves i spend #fic: jsis

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bubblewrapsnek · 5 months ago

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Phantomarine Reread: Chapter 1

For this chapter I don't have too much to elaborate on so it'll probably be mostly stuff I enjoy about it so uhh enjoy!

Let's begin:

The cover of the chapter is just very fun and good, I love how in a full page what acts as frame is the composition itself, using the rock as both a titlecard, flat space made to have Phae stand out in the centre thanks to less detail around her, and has a couple skeletons climbing on it too making it interacted with the enviorment too, it's just very good, plus lots of cute critters

Bonus, pretty lady with pretty dress

One sword lady just happy to be there, good for her!

Cheth working like a lamp, getting turned off as soon as Phae chickens out is a very good bit xD

Something I also enjoy a lot from this chapter is just how present those godly veins are

You can clearly see them flowing into everything Cheth uses, they work at being somewhat subtle to me, at a first read I just assumed they were for flare, it's a god in the sea hopping bodies, of course he has an aura, but going back they are very consistantly threads coursing through what he touches and moves, around him at all time, and it makes the reveal that those aren't something he causes, but those are HIM very fun to go back to

Also Cheth being so unserious even when angry, giving eyelashes to a t-rex HE CHOSE TO THROUGH A HISSY FIT WITH, THIS GOD CHOSE THE DINOSAUR FAMOUS FOR HAVING TENEE TINY ARMS TO PERK THEM UP AND SHOW ANNOYANCE, love that for them

Something else I want to point out is how Phae is never still, every panel she is moving, posing with dumb bravado sometimes downplaying it a bit, it keeps her expressive and alive even when the obvious main show is Cheth's flamboyance and shapeshifting circus play, and that in itself is also a very fun thing, in a revolving door of actors, the play doesn't loose itself, Cheth's emotions are readable, a character is expressed constantly and flows nicely into a variety of states, and for both of them, keeping this bravado will pay off later in the chapter VERY well

Great visual, the veins themselves working as the smoke, showing he is loosing patience, he is fuming while being underwater

Another bonus point: Extremely rare instance where I find M!Cheth looking hot in a sense of coolness instead of the usual lovely dork clown (he is hot in both ways but this is a different taste)

Plus

The facless crowd of red eyes not playing, smiling or fooling around anymore, they are finally dead set on her, she created a play for them and he provides the pressure of an audience, more than the panel before, with her literally being portrayed in front of the t-rex's mouth, this feels like the maw of the beast surrounding her, sizing her and ready to devour her, ready to have her be part of the facless crowd of observers, very spooky

And this feeling of the maw of the beast pays off, 'cause shit gets real very fast, Cheth doesn't take it lightly and goes for the throat with a question that not only he thinks she would never know, but that hurts so so much, (and also shows what is in his mind when dealing with royalty, not the attacks towards him directly, not the damage to him, but the countless children who have been deprived of a family due to all this). This works as a tone shift, the first, altho minor, payoff from the swagger set up early in the chapter, and this question hits you in the face hard and fast

Cheth's frame while asking this is almost as big as the burden of that knowledge, a question so heavy the panel under it is quite literally being smothered, Phae's face accomapanying the reader who didn't expect the shift

And this leads to another piece of characterization that will come back later, Cheth cares for children, this isn't just a question done to hurt her but it's something he cares for, and why do I say this? well it's something I read not only in what will be said later on in other chapters, but in Cheth's reaction when Phae actually can provide an answer

He is confused, but also looks genuinely worried about her, he is dumbfounded AND concerned for the woman who showed to care about something he thought she would have only superficial empathy towards, for the girl who just admitted to being herself a lost child in grief (little headcanon, the cat showing up is there to be ready to help in case it got too far)

Something else I want to make note of that I find very compelling:

The background, Phae answers and the background goes BLANK, until now it consistantly framed her in either blue or red, either in Cheth's play or taking a step back from it, but now, this is something that wasn't part of his tease, this wasn't something he thought would happen, Phae's care and grief quite literally breaks Cheth's overwhelming, presence here, it feels as if not only is he shocked, but he is giving her a brief moment to breath, letting her have some space for just a moment, I love it

And this also leads to a moment I find very interesting, and I would like to give my reading to

The way I read it as of the time of writing this, is that Cheth has a deep fondness towards humanity, the anathema comic shows a devotion to his love for the people he fares in the afterlife, for the children of man who have all but forsaken him, and here he is ANGRY, but why would he be angry that the king actually cared for said people? I can think of one reason: at this point he has been waiting for a sign for 5000 years, made to sit back and watch for ages the humanity he loves sending their man foolishly to die in a war against him in which he isn't even participating, and I think he might have internalized how the people he loves have accepted a doctrine against him so deeply that they deem the sacrifice of their lives and the suffering of their children as worth less than fighting him. But what does he learn now? that the king, the guide of this war, feels guilt over this, that the mean leading all those people to die had to find a way to cope with how terrible that weight is, that they haven't forgotten how precious the lives of his people are, AND YET HE KEEPS SENDING THEM TO DIE, EXACTLY LIKE THEY DID FOR THE PAST 5000 YEARS. This is beyond foolish, this is pure denial of knowing that what you are doing is terrible, and thinking you can offset it by being kind instead of working on the problem at the root of it, I too would be angry if the man leading those fathers and mothers to abandon their children tried to save his conscience by doing charity instead of preventing those deaths to begin with.

God this came out rant-y, and probably not perfectly worded

Moving on

Remember when I spoke about how the constant expressiveness and bravado of the characters is a great setup, well here we get to the first very big payoff in my opinion

Once again, Cheth's overwhelming red get's completely broken, stark white coral framing the object of something that deeply hits him and breaks his flow, he stops to a screeching halt for the first time, speechless and astounded. without all that overwhelming presence before, all that bravado, this loss of control would hit so much less and it doesn't stop here, no this is the first punch of a two hit combo, the proverbial quiet before the storm

And this also leads to another reversal in their constant duel present in this chapter, up to now all of this has been a back an forth, a dance where Phae responds in kind to Cheth's provocations, and here, she doesn't reflect an attack, but just like Cheth seeing her at a low before had him react with a look of pity, she responds here with the same concerned expression

Sadly, Cheth isn't in a place where vulnerabilty is something that can be helped with pity or comfort, not now

Now all he is, is a raging storm of emotions

And how does he get back control of the scene? he lashes out, he once again becomes overwhelming, the entire scene becomes a vortex of red and anguished faces, Phae's bright yellow gets tinted in a red glow, something deep within him has been touched

And MY GOD is the subsequent page a mic drop, the red slowly drifts to the bottom, her emotions are settling down, there is a moment of reflection and quiet, of many things she probably couldn't hope to think about for such a long time finally piecing together, and with those elements coming into place, here comes a new face that we will come to know along the way, not only is this a new face in the chapter, this is an expression of Cheth's state of mind in my opinion, as we will later learn that the sign he was waiting for, all he is doing and setting up, it was all in the name of a promise made to this face. at least, this is my read atm, we'll have to see how the story unfolds to see how well it fits

Have you ever seen a lady so beautiful you forgot you are dealing with Satan and decided to flirt? Phae sure has

And here we arrive at the reason I said Phae's tired reaction to the death of children was the "minor" payoff to the bravado shown

Cause damn here we get to the main show of her fall

But also, shock factor aside, I want to point out how this is the first truly mean spirited move Cheth has made thus far, the question of children came from a place of care, this is purely mean, nothing can come from being this petty and evil in action, it's almost parody of the demonic figure he gets painted as, almost...

Yeah you all probably know what I'm getting at, this is the first action she takes after learning of the bonefish, of the sign, and we later learn that she actively decided to play up the evil aspect Phae knows her as, painting herself as a disgusting villain because that was the role she thought would work, after all, would kindness and explaining have worked? she is basically programmed to hate them...

And with this Cheth has completely put the curtain back on, the second act of the play has started and they are both the director and the actors, the scene once more tinges itself in overwhelming red as they start their show

After this point the chapter is quite straightforward to me, tho it doesn't shy away from some very neat shots that end up being some of my favourites of the entire chapter

Like this one, it creates a very good feel of having Phae on the backfoot, the textbox itself works in presenting her driven in a corner, against a wall, even amidst a boundless ocean she has no escape, and Cheth taking center stage to the panel also works in establishing them once more in control

Meanwhile, I honestly can't even explain why I like this laugh so much, it's just so visceral, so played to an extreme, the sea itself is laughing, Cheth looks like he could fall over on their back from how the laugh is bending them, you the reader aren't safe from the thunderous laughter as the panel itself breaks down, becoming seafoam, you are seeing them explode over the question of Shoshanna's return and once again, Cheth is playing up a villain, we see later down the line how the argument of Shoshanna breaks them and tears them down, and here I think they are masking it, they play up their bravado to an higher degree than ever before, a villain so incredibly sure of themselves that they can stop and laugh so much they aren't even seeing you anymore, they are completely exposed, not a single shade has their eyes open to keep watch on you

What grief could ever deserve such a boisterous mask?

AND HE KEEPS GOING, HE KEEPS UPPING THE FACADE

He both becomes and rides a wave about to wash Phae away, he both is master of a distaster and the disaster itself, all this part feels like is him deciding to play the villain and putting on his best theatrics to deliver it, they become mean, deameaning, ruthless, the teases don't feel as fun anymore, Phae isn't in a place to make it a back and forth anymore

The chapter starts as an ebb and flow between our main characters, but by the end there is no more pushback, Cheth has become a flood and Phae has lost the ground she was so confidently standing on before

And she manages to get a hold for a last desperate second, she has been pushed so far back in a corner that she lashes out violently, but in the end, even this is futile, in the end...

The tidal wave has crushed her, and she can do nothing but break.

#Phantomarine #Bubblewrap's PhantoLiveReRead

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alwayslurkinginthebackground · 1 month ago

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Turn - A Pedrotober Drabble

Day 11 of Pedrotober: Any Max Pedrotober hosted by @norththelemon and @alyssamariag. View the full prompt list HERE and view my entire Pedrotober drabble catalog HERE.

Pairing: Joel Miller x f!reader

Rating: E because I apparently can't write anything non-explicit with this man. Unprotected p in v, brief mention of oral (f receiving), fingering.

Word Count: 1810

a/n: This is a No Outbreak AU because we like to live happily with Joel Miller as if nothing bad ever happened ever. a/n: I legitimately blacked out with this one. Completely. Originally I was going to write a cute little fic about Mr. Ben and the next thing I know this was on the page. Yes, a Max is involved here. You'll see. I offer this again to the wives of Joel Miller. I hope it holds you over until the wolf thing.

"I do not like horror movies, Joel."

He's been insistent all day. Horror movies, he has so proclaimed, are a Miller family tradition on Halloween, but you'll have nothing of it. They freak you out, with their gore and their jump scares and their monsters. Half the time the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park were enough for you to lose sleep, and now he wanted you to watch something with vampires?

"It's not that bad. It's barely horror at all, actually," he assures you, wrapping his arms around your waist from behind. You have to admit that his tactics are starting to wear you down, from the way he'd crawled under the covers the second you'd woken up to the way he was pressed against your back now.

Still, you shook your head. "It's not happening."

"Come on," Sarah moans from her place at the kitchen table. "He's not kidding. It's literally not even scary."

"Scary is a relative term," you insist, trying your best to ignore the way Joel's hands are teasing the skin beneath the t-shirt you're wearing. "I just never understood the hype. Why would I want to watch people get eaten alive?"

Sarah looks over at you both with exasperated eyes. "They're not being eaten alive, they're being turned." Apparently, she's the foremost authority on vampire terminology now.

"She's right," Joel mutters against the back of your head, pressing a kiss to your hair before stepping away to lean against the table, joining his daughter in a united front to convince you.

"It has the actor you like in it," Sarah emphasizes. This causes you to turn to look at her with narrowed eyes. She's smiling widely, ignoring her dad when he asks her what actor she's talking about, his own gaze flickering back and forth between the two of you as he tries to work out the secret you two seemingly share.

You sigh. "It's not scary at all?"

Sarah shakes her head. "Nope. I mean, there's some blood. Okay, a lot of blood. But it isn't scary, I promise."

You continue to contemplate for a moment, weighing your options. You know this is important to them, to Sarah specifically, and you want to be part of the traditions they're sharing with you. And it is just one movie. "Fine," you agree, and you know you've made the right decision when Sarah jumps up to hug you tightly.

Joel, however, remains where he is at the table, still trying to work something out in his head as Sarah rushes to the living room to start up the DVD player. You follow a moment later with your food, pressing a kiss to Joel's cheek as you pass to follow his daughter.

"Wait," he calls after you, "what actor?"

You have to admit, they were right. The movie isn't all that bad. Sure, it leaves you questioning why Joel allowed his daughter to watch this, but you also can't complain about the way his arm is wrapped around your shoulders, securing you to his side any time the gore becomes a bit too much. Plus, seeing your favorite actor play a cocky businessman named Max sort of makes it all worth it. He's younger here than you're used to seeing him, and clean-shaven. Still undeniably handsome, but it does make you grateful for the scruff of Joel's jaw when you hide your face against it.

You're somewhere in the middle of the film when you catch Sarah continuously checking her phone. "You gonna put that away?" Joel huffs from beside you because of course he's noticed too.

"My friends are having a sleepover and asked if I wanted to come," she explains, still frantically typing away on the screen. Your eyes fall back to Max, letting the scene between Joel and Sarah play out while you're distracted. Truthfully, you're unsure why you didn't watch this sooner.

"Hey," Joel nuzzles the side of your head, his hand running down to your waist and pulling you from the trance you've fallen into. "You still with me?"

The movie is nearing its climax, and you know already that you're about to watch yet another death scene from the man on screen. "Yeah," you whisper unconvincingly.

He shifts slightly, "I don't believe you." His breath is hot against you ear, and you whimper slightly when his lips trace down to your neck.

"Sarah," you whisper harshly, a warning reminder that his daughter is sitting right next to both of you on the couch.

Joel grins against you, one hand pulling the hair back from your shoulder to give him better access. "Sarah's not here. She left fifteen minutes ago."

You're pulled from your daze and your eyes dart to the last place you saw her on the other side of Joel. Sure enough, the seat was empty. "Where did she go?" you ask, your body reacting a lot faster than your brain as your boyfriend's hand trails along your body. There are screams on the TV, but you don't know from who because your eyes have fallen shut at the sensation of his tongue as he licks a stripe across your skin.

"Friend's house," he informs you. "Gone for the rest of the night."

Oh. Oh.

"Joel." You aren't sure if his name is more of a plea or a question, but you aren't about to stop him as his hand again teases the skin of your stomach, except this time it's reaching lower. "What are you doing?"

"Turning you," he jokes gruffly before latching onto your neck. You wince as he marks you, but you do nothing to push him away. Instead, your hands grip into his curls, searching for something, anything to ground you as he sets you ablaze.

"Gonna tell me about that actor you're so enchanted by?" he grits out, fingers dipping beneath the waistband of your leggings. "Because I'd be willing to bet that I can do a lot better."

You turn so you can catch his lips, teeth clashing as he swallows the proper moan he pulls from your lungs. Your hands are everywhere, and so are his as he encourages you to throw one leg over his lap, holding tight to your thighs as he stands with you in his arms. The movie continues to play as he carries you from the room, leaving Max behind to meet his fate.

"He's got you all transfixed," he drawls out as he tosses you onto the bed, immediately covering you with his body a moment later, lips hovering above yours. "Am I not enough? Joel grinds his hips into yours, his length hard against your center, and you can already feel how slick you are. How much you need whatever he's willing to give you.

How much you need him.

"Yeah? You need me, baby?" Joel questions, reading your mind as his hands make quick work of your shirt so he can latch onto your breast, the other pinched between his fingers in a way that has you arching off the bed. "Gonna come for me?"

God, you want to. You want all of him. Inside you, around you, completely smothering you, and you rake at his back, surely leaving marks on the skin beneath the shirt that still covers him. He lets you pull it off before he does the same with your leggings and underwear, revealing a mess that's solely for him.

He needs no guidance as his fingers circle your clit, back and forth until your whole world is spinning. You think you're begging him, to give you more, but you're mesmerized in an entirely different way now. It causes the world around you to grow hazy.

"Stay with me," he whispers, and you fight against the fog as he slides one finger, then two, then three into you easily. "That's it," he talks you through it, but you're long lost to the sensation. Completely absorbed in the way he drags his fingers along your walls just so. You thrust against him as pleasure sparks behind your eyelids, and then you're gushing against his hand.

It takes a moment for you to regain some sort of consciousness, but when you do, Joel is already sliding his cock along your slit, patiently waiting for you to come back to earth. "Still thinking about him?" he asks you, lips again finding that spot behind your ear, sucking your skin. You can only shake your head, words far from the forefront of your mind. His response is timed perfectly with the push of his length into your welcoming heat, "good."

He rocks against you, setting a brutal pace that almost matches the intensity of the film you'd watched earlier. The frantic need. Here, in his bed, it's not a need for blood, but for something else entirely. It's intoxicating, the way he grinds you into the mattress, driving you higher and higher and higher.

"Taking me so well." And you are, you know you are because he's filling you in a way that only he can. Completely. Thoroughly. Unconditionally. He shifts, hands pressing your legs further apart as you writhe beneath him, pinning you down as he hits something inside you that has you gripping the sheets at your side.

You whine out his name, the high-pitched sound joining the symphony of noises filling the bedroom. The creak of the bedframe beneath you and the slap of his skin against yours as he somehow moves faster. The heavy sound of your breathing, rough as it mingles with the grunt he makes when you shift your hips higher. The way you gasp breathlessly when he takes your hand and guides it to your center.

"Fuck," he mutters. "Come on, come on, come on." It's a chant as he changes the angle again to something devastating. You know he's close, you can tell from the way he's panting, but you know he won't fall without you. Thankfully, you're not far behind.

The room is silent then. That or you've blacked out entirely as pleasure consumes every fiber of your being. You're faintly aware of him spilling into you, heat radiating through your body before he collapses against you, his weight settling you into the bed as his lips once again find a home along your collarbone. You're tugging on his curls when you finally regain some resemblance of your consciousness.

"So," he whispers against your skin, "are you pro horror movie now?"

It's an insane thought, but you love him for the way that that's where his mind is at when his cock is softening inside you. "It wasn't really a horror movie anyway," you return, wrapping a leg around his waist to keep him where he is, "but perhaps I could be convinced if my favorite actor..."

Joel silences the thought with his lips. A convincing argument indeed.

#pedrotober #pedrotober 2024 #joel miller x reader #joel miller

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lore-of-the-mushroom-kingdom · 5 months ago

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A Problem With Mario Theories And Lore Hunting

So there is a problem many people have when it comes to speculation, lore hunting, and timeline crafting I've come to notice in the Mario community, and it's something I've recently been having to deal with. So something I've noticed is people who have talked about the Donkey Kongs have tried to apply real world Gorilla lifespans and maturity to the Kongs. After doing this they apply it to the lore and or the Mario timeline. They will do things like place all the Party and Kart games at the end of the timeline. Others claim Donkey Kong Junior is was retconned out of existence, or Donkey Kong the Third is actual DK Jr. and Cranky's son instead of grandson. The application of real world gorilla lifespans and maturity is mostly thanks to certain Mario "timeline"/theory. Why does this not work?

First off they are going against the established lore about the 3 DKs, and how Kongs age rapidly. On a side note I've actually made a few posts about the DKs and Kong aging so if you want to know more look for those. Back on track why does this not work? Well before we get to the main point I wanted to mention another previous post of mine to put things into perspective.

In this post I talked about a hypothesis I had come up with in the past, which was that Piranha Plants aren't actually plants but reptiles. From there I talked about why my hypothesis was wrong. I used information obtained from manuals, descriptions, and in game dialogue establishing they are indeed plants.

So what was my mistake? I tried to apply real world logic to this fictional world. Now while some real world logic is a basis for this world such as needing to eat food and breath air to stay alive. This world also runs by it's own rules. So if in the world plants can have skeletons, tongues, have scales, and can hatch from eggs then they can.

The Mario world is basically a high fantasy world, and trying to force real world logic into it does work when it has it's own set of rules the world runs by. Keep in mind this is a world with man eating plants, alongside sentient talking trees and sunflowers, hexapod dragons, still living non-avian dinosaurs, reanimated skeletons, turtles that can remove their shells, straight up magic, clouds you can physically ride on, the ability to enter dreams, zippers on terrain you can unzip, etc. etc. etc. So in the end it doesn't make sense at all to try to force real world gorilla aging to fictional sapient gorillas who have their own language in a high fantasy setting.

Keep in mind this post is only addressing a problem. This by no means lore hunting and speculation is wrong. That should be self evident by the existence of this blog.

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nameuserlee · 4 months ago

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“The heartless are the most faithful.”

Another part of Sylus’ lines compilation, all from interacting with him at the café. He is the gift that keeps on giving. Part 4 (links back to part 3, and so forth.)

“People who don't overthink things tend to sleep well. I'll think about you more when I can't sleep.” (I might be missing a few words here, I only got the first half of the line.)

“Having more plants in the bedroom isn't always good. You don’t need to keep bringing some back for me. They don’t produce oxygen when I'm awake.”

“You got me. I do have something in my hand that will pique your interest, sweetie. Have you decided what you’ll trade for it?”

“Is this a ticklish spot? I’m checking so you don’t accuse me of sneaking up on you later.”

“I found your weak spot. Heh, I won’t go easy on you now.” (Choose “Don’t do it!") “Good. I’ll take my time finding all your sensitive spots when I make my move.” (Choose "Nope.")

“How do we compare neck lengths? With a ruler?”(I’m sorry but LMAO.)

“You want to leave your scent here [on my neck]? You’ll have to work for it.”

“Are you planning to tie a red ribbon around my neck as if I’m your present?”

“(Y/N), keep it up. I like feeling your breath on my skin.”

“Your lips almost brushed against mine. It was hot.”

“I often place my hand here [on my heart] as well. It makes me feel alive.”

“(Y/N), does rummaging through my belongings provide a joyful experience? Your tail’s standing up straight, kitten. We should get a mirror so you can see for yourself.”

“At the fashion show, I saw a dress with the night sky stitched over a river. I ordered one for you. It'll be sent once the measurements are correct.”

“The scenery on page 37 of the travel magazine you were looking at a few days ago is nice. When we’re free, let’s clear our minds. Should we make that place our travel destination?”

“Do you want a distraction? Night fishing might work. If you spend one whole night fishing, you might get things like drift bottles, tattered hats, or plastic dinosaurs. They’re just jokes that fate throws at you.”

“When you feel like night fishing next time, head straight for that shop by the sea. Should I have someone get the yacht ready? We can set sail tonight.”

“Why am I inviting you to go fishing? No reason in particular. If I must give one… I’ve never a kitten catch a fish before. I’m very curious.”

“You already have Luke and Kieran acting like they’re your henchmen?”

“Anyone who has crossed me isn't active for long. Do you think you’ll be any different?”

“Those people's tracking skills are laughably bad. I lost them by just taking a random turn.”

“Do you see those 'little sparrows' keeping watch outside the window? Let’s make a bet. Guess how many will remain after a gunshot.”

He's a menace, what can I say. A cheeky, thoughtul, playful, and secretly sweet menace. I'm still cackling about that ruler line, btw. Let me go get one actually, hold still-

I think this'll be the last part for a while, I'm trying to raise his affinity level now. I've already exhausted basically all of the interesting lines I came across. Hope these were fun for you as much as they were for me :)

edit: he then proceeded to spew like five more new lines at me what a TREAT. might be able to squeeze one more compilation after all.

#love and deepspace #sylus #love and deepspace sylus #lnds sylus #lads sylus #i know for a FACT im still missing some lines #but i WILL get them all #gotta catch em all and all that #wait wrong game #nameuserlee

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apolloskazoo · 2 years ago

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ELLIE & JOEL HEADCANONS

I am so incredibly obsessed and I have so many thoughts about these two so I present to you: 1k words of headcanons.

Ellie will fall asleep on Joel at random times like a cat so that he’s stuck in whatever uncomfortable position he’s in until she wakes up. Once she fell asleep on two feet while leaning against Joel, and he had to catch her before she fell.

Along with that, she also falls asleep in the weirdest places and positions. He’s almost tripped over her just…walking around the house because she’s sprawled out on the floor. He once found her in a cabinet after panicking and searching for half an hour trying to find her.

At night, however, she cannot sleep, and when she’s having a bad night and can’t fall asleep again they’ll do something to keep her mind off of nightmares. Joel will tell her a story, play the guitar for her, take her in a little midnight walk, cuddle with her, watch a movie with her, play some kind of board game with her, etc. etc.

When he has a nightmare he tries not to wake her, but sometimes he can’t help himself and has to open the door and check to make sure she’s still alive, even though it makes him feel guilty for interrupting her sleep. She’s always okay with it and takes her comforting job very seriously, and it normally ends in cuddles to 1) help Ellie fall asleep again and 2) help Joel with his whole nightmare thing.

They have like…father and daughter super senses. Like Ellie will fall off of a rock and scrape her hand halfway across Jackson and Joel will drop everything he’s doing and go to her even without knowing why, or Ellie will need to find Joel for something and will pick him out of a crowd immediately and it scares people.

They always tell each other where they’re going to be if they seperate. No exceptions. Even if it’s just down the road or a house or two away, they always know.

Holding hands. They do it all the time. When Ellie is having a Bad Day or having a Bad Moment, Joel will hold her hand to make her feel comforted if they’re out in public. When she’s wandering off and he wants her to stay close he just grabs onto that hand and keeps holding it. When she’s tired she’ll grab his hand and he’ll rub a finger over her knuckles, and she’ll lean her head on his shoulder and she’ll fall asleep. When they’re in the dining hall sitting down beside each other she’ll hold his hand under the table just because she can and because she wants attention, even when Joel is talking to Tommy and not her. She gets very fidgety and sometimes picks at her skin, and Joel will hold her hand to make sure she doesn’t hurt herself. Ellie can sense whenever Joel is anxious or panicking, and one day she notices he’s not doing too good and since he always holds her hand in public when she’s having a Bad Moment, she slips her hand into his to help him, and it actually works, so it becomes a thing she does for him to silently help him like he silently helps her.

Sometimes they communicate through puns, since they’re emotionally repressed and all. One time Ellie and Joel were exploring some kind of souvenir store and Ellie picked up a koala plushie and said, “I love spending koala-ty time with you.” Joel almost cries (the pun was a 2/10 at best, though).

They have so many inside jokes it’s crazy. Sometimes somebody will say something completely innocently and both of them will just burst into laughter. Nobody ever figures out why.

PLAY WRESTLING. Ellie one hundred percent is one of those kids that just jumps onto people and only knows horseplay, and Joel always shoves her back when she shoves him. He’s always careful not to hurt her and he never goes on top of her or anything that might seem like that to her, but she is not as careful. He once got a black eye from her accidentally kicking him in the face, and she still feels bad about it to this day.

Joel can recite dinosaur and space facts off the top of his head solely because Ellie talks about it so much and he listens to anything she has to say. Half of it doesn’t make sense to him, but he’s happy to listen. He’s also got all of her favorite puns memorized.

Ellie will mentally tuck away any weird little Texan sayings Joel absent-mindedly says so that she can find the right moment to say them herself. It’s always funny to see the confused look on people’s faces when she, a 14 year old girl from Boston, whips out the “it’s as hot as the hinges of hell out here!”

Ellie’s alarm is Joel waking up. When she actually gets sleep, she’ll sleep in until her mind subconsciously recognizes Joel’s footsteps and she wakes up, too. One time Joel was so exhausted he slept past his normal waking time and both of them slept in until midday. Tommy thought they were both dead and practically broke down the door trying to get in to see if they were rotting corpses.

Ellie eats like a feral wild animal and Joel gets so worried that she’s going to choke that he just starts cutting her food up for her before every meal. Ellie pretends to be annoyed by it but actually appreciates how it shows he cares.

Ellie doesn’t even care about being embarrassed about affection from Joel in public. In fact, she enjoys it, and she loves getting her forehead kisses and a “baby girl” from Joel in front of Tommy so he knows his place.

His personal space is her personal space. Honestly this is just canon. He’s always tripping over her feet when she walks beside him, she clings onto his shirt or hand whenever she can, if she’s taken more than five feet away from him against her will she will definitely go feral QZ child on everyone until she’s back beside him. He definitely panics whenever she’s not near him either, and once he almost tore down a building because he couldn’t find her immediately.

When they settled into Jackson at first, somebody definitely found out Ellie was an orphan and mentioned finding Ellie a “good family in Jackson for her,” clearly not realizing that Joel is indeed the father. Whoever it was definitely didn’t suggest it again after they both had their own reactions to it, none positive. Nobody tries to seperate them again.

The residents of Jackson 100% call Ellie “Ellie Miller” because they don’t know her real last name, and Ellie and Joel go with it. She’s referred to as “Joel’s daughter” and him “Ellie’s dad” all of the time, but they don’t correct them, because…it’s not technically a lie…and soon they start saying it about themselves to others, too. Joel refers to Ellie as “my daughter/kid” and Ellie refers to him as “my dad.” They lie and say it’s because it’s easier than explaining, but we all know the real truth.

Ellie gets so incredibly frustrated while learning the guitar and Joel is so incredibly patient, and though Ellie almost smashes the thing during her lessons, she becomes good at playing the guitar as she gets older and Joel is so proud. Also Ellie uses her new guitar skills to get bitches. (“Oh, you like music? Well, I can play a pretty gnarly twinkle twinkle little star on the guitar, if I do say so myself…”)

Joel brags about Ellie all the time. Like he’ll butt into conversations he’s not even in just to talk about her. “Oh, your son’s going out on his first hunting trip? Yeah, that’s good for him, my daughter took down a whole grown deer all by herself when she was just fourteen.” “Oh, your kid’s good at math? That’s nice, my kid can recite every space book in the library by memory.” He’s that annoying parent and I’m not afraid to admit it.

—

There are some more but Tumblr has a word limit apparently…so…if y’all want some more HCs just tell me & who knows I might post more

#you better believe I’m going to write every last one of these things into my fics #YOU BETTER BELIEVE #this fucked up kid and her fucked up dad have me in a chokehold #the last of us #joel the last of us #the last of us hbo #ellie the last of us #ellie and joel #joel and ellie #joel miller #ellie williams #hbo the last of us #tlou #the last of us headcanons #headcanons

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ironladders · 2 months ago

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zaterran/saurian lore masterpost (all games)

these are mostly meant to be notes for myself so i don't have to constantly check the fandom wiki because i hate using that website, but anyone can use this post as a guide or reference point. there is only so much information about zaterra and its people, but i tried to compile and summarize everything we do have.

if i missed anything, or got something wrong, let me know.

note: i will be referring to them as only zaterrans just to make this easier. midway couldn't decide on a name, and nrs was stuck on that for a while too—but now that mk1 has seemingly settled this, i refuse to go back and forth between them all.

history

original & alternate timelines:

millions of years ago, zaterrans lived on earthrealm, being a bipedal people descended from dinosaurs. unlike their dinosaur ancestors, they had evolved more intelligent brains and were able to thrive as a proper society. however, when shinnok turned against his fellow elder gods and came into conflict with raiden, the following battle was so disastrous that it triggered the K-T event on earthrealm that wiped out the dinosaurs and almost all life on earthrealm. the surviving zaterrans fled the disaster and were split into two: some of them left earthrealm to reside in a realm called zaterra ("new earth") in hopes of rebuilding their culture, and the rest took refuge underground in hollow earth.

for the zaterrans that were displaced, things were fine for a while, until shao kahn came along to conquer their realm. the zaterrans lost the effort against the emperor, and following the trend of other realms that have been conquered by shao — such as edenia, vaeturnus, osh-tekk, and arnyek — zaterra was absorbed into outworld. after this, the zaterrans left were taken into slavery and driven to near extinction. it's not known exactly when shao took zaterra, or how long it took for the zaterrans to start dying out out, but syzoth's mortal kombat 2 bio mentions that his race was believed to be extinct "millions of years ago." in addition, the few remaining zaterrans alive don't actually remember these events happening.

as for the zaterrans that fled to hollow earth, they managed to endure and thrive underground without any interference. there is not much information on their history or what they experienced in hollow earth, other than that they went undetected and are ruled over by a matriarch.

the new era:

in liu kang's new era, zaterra is part of outworld, making zaterrans now native to outworld instead of residing in the realm as a result of conquest. adding to this, there's now more than one species: instead of being different terms to refer to the same group, "zaterran" and "saurian" are now two separate species from one another. the difference between them has not been elaborated on yet. syzoth's mk1 bio calls zaterrans "one of the reptiloid races which lives on outworld's fringes", so whether there are more reptiloid groups outside of zaterrans and saurians is also up to debate.

zaterrans are no longer a near-extinct race, but they still face hardship and are heavily discriminated against. the full history of zaterran-outworld relations in the new era is unknown, but several of syzoth's intros indicate that they once thrived above ground in outworld, before being herded underground by "warmbloods"/non-reptilians. they, along with saurians, now reside in outworld's subterranean areas. why exactly they were driven underground has not been explained yet, but the history there has resulted in both groups hating one another; outworlders are openly bigoted to zaterrans such as syzoth, while warmbloods are generally unwelcome in zaterra.

zikandur has been brought up in some lines, most likely being an area in zaterra where lots of outworld’s reptilian people currently live. its history is unexplored, aside from mentioned past events like the zikandurian floods. it is apparently at risk of being invaded by the kytinn, though why the latter are doing that is also unknown.

at some point in time, a policy was passed in the zaterran government to kill all zaterran shapeshifters. the reasoning behind this and how long ago it started is unknown but considering that syzoth was bullied relentlessly for his shapeshifting mutation, knowledge of zaterran shapeshifters must have faded from the general public after this order was first carried out. in general, zaterra's government is implied to be extremely corrupt.

many zaterrans are dissatisfied with the royal family, either attempting to start or joining rebellion efforts. after his bloody escape from lei chen prison, general shao has been recruiting these dissatisfied zaterrans to join his rebel army in outworld, with the goal of overthrowing mileena's rule.

biology

original & alternate timelines:

the design of zaterrans changed over the games, but they were generally depicted as green (though this also varies, i.e in the case of khameleon) bipedal humanoids with scales, claws, and lizard-shaped heads. they are also close to size of the average human as well. similar to chameleons and frogs, zaterrans have tongues that can extend far beyond their body to catch prey. zaterrran saliva is acidic, able to be used in kombat as a attack/defense mechanism and possibly to help digest food. this acid is very strong, able to melt right through flesh. for some reason, their blood is green.

a zaterran's diet differs from the average human one, mainly consisting of live bugs/insects/worms, but raw meat (including humans) is also on the table. zaterrans are able to make themselves and others around them invisible.

in the first two timelines, all zaterrans possessed the ability to shapeshift between their true forms and more human-like appearances. there is a catch to this, though: their society is matriarchal, and any zaterran who spends too long away from a matriarch & her influence will devolve, losing their ability to maintain a human disguise. this will also negatively impact the mental state of the affected zateerran. however, if they make their way back to the matriarch, the ability to look human and general sanity will return.

alongside all of this, there is a card in mortal kombat mobile that confirms they can regenerate their limbs.

the new era:

in the new era, zaterran biology is generally similar to how it was in the previous timelines, but with some changes.

for starters, these new zaterrans are bigger and more animalistic-looking than their old versions. they are still able to walk on two legs, but one of the moves syzoth's boss has in his invasions season confirms that they can also run around on all four legs. the previous games flip-flopped on whether or not to give zaterrans tails, but in mortal kombat 1 they have tails again—these are used by zaterrans to grab and move things, essentially like a fifth limb.

i have no clue if their actual limbs can still regenerate or not.

outside of these small changes, there is one very significant one in the new era: the average zaterran is no longer able to shapeshift. there are some zaterrans who are able to shapeshift between a human form and reptiloid form, but those who hatch with this mutation are not accepted by their people and often bullied, run out of their homes, or killed. they also don't seem to be matriarchal anymore.

all known members

original & alternate timelines:

SYZOTH/REPTILE:

a long-lasting franchise staple and the most well-known zaterran in the series, syzoth — better known as his codename "reptile" — lived a long life of servitude. original timeline: syzoth was one of the last surviving members of his species, desperate to find a way to bring back his people. syzoth loyally served shang tsung and shao kahn, who kept his loyalty with the promises of restoring the zaterran race. ironically, shao was the one who caused the extermination of his people, but syzoth did not know about this. after shao was murdered by the deadly alliance, syzoth wandered around before he turned to serving nitara (who he'd ran into previously and gotten his kirehashi blade from), as he did not know how to live without serving a master. nitara accepted him, but unbeknownst to syzoth, she too was deceiving him. the vaeternian manipulated syzoth into battling cyrax, damaging the cyborg, which in turn would help with nitara's goal of getting the portal sphere. when syzoth eventually realized he was being used, he was enraged and chased after nitara and cyrax to the lava shrine, but arrived too late. the only thing there was the egg of onaga. it hatched, shining a beam of light onto syzoth, making his body become a vessel for the dragon king. much later, when shujinko defeated onaga and his soul was bound to the netherrealm by nightwolf, syzoth was once again able to have free will and gain control of his own body. he was seen in the red dragon's lair for unknown reasons (most likely trying to create hybrids that would restore his race), and joined the forces of darkness at the battle of armageddeon. he was killed at the battle, along with the majority of the other fighters. alternate timeline: thanks to the reset by raiden, syzoth was back to serving shao kahn and shang tsung, fighting against the earthrealmers in the tournament and later battles. after losing the tournament, syzoth knew that shao kahn would not take kindly to this failure and kept his guard up. he was proven right when the osh-tekk warrior kotal was sent to assassinate him in his sleep; however, to syzoth's surprise, kotal spared his life and didn't go through with killing him. the following morning, shao kahn formally introduced the two, saying that kotal had hand-picked syzoth to serve under his command. from there, kotal earned syzoth's genuine loyalty. when shao died and mileena seized the throne, kotal declared a coup against her. syzoth was at his side during this, taking a blow for him, and continued to loyally serve afterwards. understanding that kotal saw value in him where shao did not, syzoth was committed to serving the new ruler of outworld as a close follower and friend. his whereabouts and status after the events of mortal kombat X are unknown, outside of a few mentions in intros and a small appearance in the krypt from mortal kombat 11.

KHAMELEON:

debuting in mortal kombat trilogy as a secret character, khameleon was the last known female member of her race. unlike syzoth, khameleon actually knew the truth of their people's history. however, because she chose to fight for earthrealm and wished to slay shao, this meant the last surviving members of the zaterran race were mortal enemies. at some point, khameleon set out to search for syzoth. she spent a long time looking for him, wishing to inform him that shao kahn was responsible for their race's extinction, and try to start a new generation of zaterrans. once she found him and reveal the truth, syzoth initially agreed to help her kill the emperor—only for him to fall under shao's influence once again, turning against khameleon. she escaped and wandered the realms until she heard of a battle that would happen in edenia, with the victor being given the prize of ultimate power. khameleon knew that shao kahn getting this would be disastrous and joined the forces of light in the battle of armageddon. along with the rest of the fighters, khameleon died at the pyramid. while she was referenced a few times and even made a brief cameo in the background of mortal kombat 9, khameleon's whereabouts and history after raiden's timeline reset are unknown.

CHAMELEON (unconfirmed):

debuting in the same game khameleon did as a fellow secret fighter, ch-ameleon never actually got a storyline or arcade ending in mortal kombat trilogy, unlike his female counterpart. the only information about chameleon at the time was that he was mentioned to be "one of shao kahn's deadliest warriors." it took until chameleon's next appearance to finally get a (extremely vague) backstory: supposedly, he was present at every major event in the games dating back to liu kang's victory in the tournament, but constantly kept himself hidden and watched everything unfold while waiting for "his moment" to arrive. he fought with the forces of darkness at the battle of armageddon, dying at the pyramid with everyone else. chameleon's presence in the alternate timeline is also miniscule. in mortal kombat x, one of syzoth's mirror match intros will have him question if the counterpart in front of him is chameleon, implying the two know each other. in addition, chameleon falls to his death in mortal kombat 11's krypt, but the canon status of the krypt is debatable. other than this, there's no information on him. the reason that chameleon's status as a zaterran is marked as "unconfirmed" is because.... uh, it has never been outright stated he is one in any game. considering he shares traits with khameleon, who is a zaterran, chameleon being one himself would make sense. there is also the fact that syzoth mistakes his mirror match for chameleon, further alluding to him being a fellow reptilian. in addition, mortal kombat co-creator john tobias has said that his original intention was for chameleon to be a fellow zaterran, but this information just didn't make it into any of the games for some reason. at the same time, if chameleon was a member of the zaterran race, this would directly contradict established information about syzoth being the last living male zaterran. i don't know, man, the devs do not care about this guy and it shows.

QUEEN SYTHOLIN:

presumably the former ruler of zaterra, before shao kahn conquered the realm. no information about her exists, but sytholin's blade — one of the few remaining zaterran relics — can be found inside of goro's treasure chamber in the mortal kombat 11 krypt; according to its description, the wielder can control the minds of smaller reptilians and have them obey the user's will.

the new era:

SYZOTH/REPTILE:

unlike his previous iterations, mortal kombat 1's syzoth is not in a desperate cycle of trying to restore his race. however, he was run out of his homeland of zaterra after being relentlessly bullied for his shapeshifting mutation. up until his arcade ending, syzoth believed he was the only one of his kind who possessed this ability. syzoth joined a traveling carnival to profit on his shapeshifting skill, even marrying an unnamed woman with whom he had a son with. him and shang tsung crossed paths, and when the latter asked to experiment on him, syzoth denied the offer. but shang tsung took syzoth's family hostage anyways, using them to keep him obedient in being a slave; from there, he was experimented on and aided in shang's inhumane experiments on others, all for the sake of his family. that went on for months, before the earthrealmers and baraka were captured and fought their way out of shang tsung's laboratory. syzoth tried to stop them, knowing that if he didn't his family would be killed, but lost the battle to baraka. after this, syzoth learned the truth: his wife and son had already been killed devastated by this, but also understanding that there was nothing keeping him under shang tsung's thumb anymore, syzoth escaped into the living forest with the other men. from there they met ashrah, attempted to stop the sorcerer quan chi from activating his soul stealer in the living forest—but despite failing at that the group still captured him with the intention of bringing him to earthrealm for questioning. to help his companions escape, syzoth disrupted the shivai ranatai festival in sun do and fought off several other characters, providing enough of a diversion for everyone to flee the realm (without quan chi, who managed to get away). it's not known what syzoth did for the remainder of the main story after arriving in earthrealm, but in his tower ending it's revealed that mileena appointed him as her emissary as thanks for helping unveil the truth behind shao and shang's plans. with his renewed political status protecting him, syzoth journeyed home to zaterra, where he discovered the conspiracy by the zaterran government to exterminate all shapeshifters. at some point after the main story's events, syzoth entered a romantic relationship with ashrah, but the details of how this began are (sadly) currently unknown. (more info TBA if khaos reigns gives me anything else)

KHAMELEON:

in the new era, khameleon is no longer the last female zaterran alive. in fact, khameleon isn't even the same species as syzoth anymore. an intro with takeda reveals that khameleon is a saurian, which is said to be distinct from zaterrans. the details of khameleon's life are largely unknown, but she is a member of the umgadi, a group of warrior priestesses. umgadi members are selected from firstborn women in outworld, taken as infants to be raised as one and train to protect outworld's royal family. khameleon was seen throughout the main story assisting tanya in fights against percieved threats to the royal family. she is probably a fellow reptilian shapeshifter, but unlike syzoth she keeps strictly to a human form. (more info TBA if khaos reigns gives me anything else)

ARCHDUKE MAHAZZEM:

only being mentioned once in a syzoth/sindel intro, mahazzem is one of zaterra's many archdukes. the only known details about mahazzem is that sindel considered him to be a friend, but this "friendship" was a mask. in truth, he secretly plotted to betray sindel and rebel against her rule. (more info TBA if any intros or even KR, while unlikely, gives me anything else)

OTHER POSSIBLE MEMBERS: erlac dicharr, nareb nevets, hatigo mesgo, sever nahhan, sykin foh

these are names from syzoth's gear that could be of other reptiloids, as they don't really sound like locations or events, and i don't think they're references to real-life things as nothing comes up when i google them. but at the same time i'm not entirely sure, so take this last bit with a very large grain of salt

k thats all for now byeeeee

#this took so damn long to type. never again man #before anyone asks no i am not covering the tv shows or movies #reason being that i didnt want to LOL #mk #mortal kombat #mortal kombat reptile #reptile mortal kombat #reptile mk #syzoth #syzoth mk #syzoth mortal kombat #khameleon #chameleon mk #saurian #zaterran #zaterra

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fatallyaddictedtofiction · 5 months ago

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My favourite Spn headcanons!

Btw most of these are separate- im a chronic "70 thousand different AUs for like 3 characters" girlie

Hard of Hearing Dean due to the amount of guns he's been shooting since being a kid. This is why they use silent signals when staking out places, because Dean couldn't hear the whispers.

Following on from that point, that's why Sam knows some ASL, because Dean and Sam learned as kids when Sam noticed Dean was struggling to hear especially on his right ear, and every so often Dean would teach Sam a sign that didn't mean what it actually meant (eg fuck instead of thanks)

Transfem Sam: the allegory of demon blood and feeling inherently wrong and out of place in your own body, feeling evil for not being "normal", running away to get away from John's disappointment (at this point in time Dean didnt know he was a boy so he thought he had no sons but then;

Transmasc Dean: trying to prove to his dad that he's worth it by becoming him (and overly masculine to compensate) unhealthy binding at first but when John finds out he gets Dean something decent (only because Dean can't hunt or protect Sammy if his ribs are crushed)

Following on from those, they swap clothes all the time and because Dean is smaller the clothes are big, comfy and euphoria inducing, and with Sam theyre a little tighter and she likes how it fits. John doesn't comment on it usually but occasionally grimaces when they're painting their nails together

Angels actually grow up, so Chuck had to actually raise them, but once Michael and Lucifer were around 16/15 (in cosmic aeons ofc) he relegated those duties to them to raise Uriel & Gabriel, then the others including Cas. For special cases like Naomi, Chuck raised her himself

The angels' true forms have "cores" that represent some aspect of them. Michael has a something similar to a sun or star, Naomi has liquid mercury, Castiel has a stormy ocean, Anna has spores/leaf-like things

The angel siblings betted on which dinosaur would last the longest, then Chuck thought they were getting too sentimental and sent the asteroid down

Dean hates orange juice because they couldn't afford it as kids but tried to always get it because that was Sam's favourite (Dean likes apple juice more because it looks like whiskey)

Jo, Dean and Sam used to play together as little kids, then they forgot about each other as the years went by and it broke Ellen's heart to see the boys still hunting after all those years of not seeing them

As a kid, Dean wrote letters to Mary, and left them on the nightstand of whatever motel they were staying in. John reads them and cries so hard. He always keeps them in his jacket as a reminder of what he made his kids lose and when Dean asks where they went John tries not to cry and says "i posted them, she'll read them. Dont worry". The day Dean stopped writing letters was the day John hit Dean for the first time.

Dean is dyslexic, but still helped Sam do his homework as much as he could. Because Dean mainly taught Sam how to read and write, Sam sometimes gets stuff wrong until he learns the right way at school, then comes home and teaches Dean. Dean pretends to be grumpy but hes actually really proud & grateful

Sam has a favourite stuffed toy that he still keeps with him to this day. Its a really beat up dog with floppy ears that he's never washed because he's scared it will fall apart

Cas practices Dean's (and others) mannerisms while he isn't with them so he feels like hes scaring them less (Dean finds it adorable but sad that Cas feels like he has to)

Sapphic Dean and Cas

After they save the world and theyre ALL alive and happy, Jack de-ages to around 12 and goes to school, Cas becomes a grief counsellor, Sam becomes a teacher, Dean needs more time to adjust, but eventually he and Eileen go into social working with kids

Jody and Donna are together and adopted Claire Alex & Patience.

Dean asks Jody for advice on rearing Jack the 12-year-old but Donna is of more use in that situation as Jody didn't get to raise her son to that age and the girls were past that, and Donna was around for her niece growing up so she texts Dean advice all the time

Cas likes to draw, and he ends up drawing Dean a lot ("still beautiful, still Dean Winchester")

#okay ill stop there because thats a really long list #its up to you to figure out which ones are in the same universe because idk anymore #supernatural #spn #dean winchester #destiel #dean supernatural #castiel #sam winchester #sam and dean #deancas #castiel supernatural #sam supernatural #spn headcanon #supernatural headcanon #still beautiful #still dean winchester

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evilmskitty · 10 days ago

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Jurassic World Chaos Theory and communication

Season 2 spoilers, be warned: long post ahead~

(Now that I’ve simmered down from my high horse, and can look back at the opinions from fresh out of the oven)

Communication is a big theme throughout season 2 (and 1 really), often highlighting major points in certain episodes.

Miscommunication and lack of communication, were often intertwined with different characters. Just to be clear, I am not a big fan of the miscommunication trope because it gets me pissed off. Mostly because it can be very realistic, which hits close to home sometimes. Brooklyn’s character and story line are majorly in this trope.

Brooklyn spends time working on shady shit to get a story and put an end to the shady shit. In doing so, we see her neglect maintaining her friendships/relationship because she’s using it to cope. Then said shady shit comes back to wreck her life up, which she knows can harm her friends. Brooklyn does try to include Darius in last minute but then it gets skewed after the awkward confession. She gets attacked, not expecting to be alone, in a trap set for her. She entertains the idea of staying dead when it’s presented to her. Vetoes it. Andddd then is shown that it’s still very dangerous for her to return and tell her friends. So back to staying dead, because it’s safer for everyone.

Brooklyn continues to be radio silent and in doing so misses a lot of what happens in season 1. I don’t think she knows the group was hunted down or why they were all in Africa other than tracking the Broker there. What she knows is glimpsed from the news, the Broker, and Ben. Her conversation with Ben does irritate me, however it shows how difficult both their situations are. Brooklyn is trying to keep them safe and Ben is trying to find proof she is alive/what happened/what they’re dealing with, neither are in a good spot to really reach out and actually break down what’s happening.

Ben is left to either keep his promise not to say anything or tell the group. We watch it cause him such a visceral reaction he has a panic attack. Once he calms down, he thinks it over. Ben makes the decision to tell the group, and is immediately thwarted for plot reasons the rest of the episode and those following. Which causes more doubt and the desperate scramble for more proof. It builds up and he reaches out to the most levelheaded person he trusts to talk him through it. Yaz. Once again is thwarted by plot and because the doubt is eating at him but so is the guilt. Yet that scene also shows the build of up different communication issues.

We’re seeing Kenji having self sacrificing tendencies (borderline suicidal which is another topic altogether) to avoid feeling the heavy burden of emotions, worrying the group. Darius is wandering off to hyperfixate on dinosaurs to avoid having to discuss his feelings (as one does) or make sure Zayna is okay (if I see anyone shipping them I will cringe into dust). Sammy is also mostly making sure Zayna’s okay but is actually dealing with her emotions (improving from season 1) along with Yaz.

Darius is tasked with talking to Kenji, who Yaz has tried to get through to, both of them getting nothing but the mask he puts up. It isn’t until Ben is stuck in the position of telling them about Brooklyn or keeping quiet does anyone get through to Kenji. Also due to Darius wanting to avoid talking about his emotions again. Ben gets through to Kenji, but Kenji doesn’t get to what’s eating at Ben.

All of these come together during the last 3 episodes. Brooklyn who is unaware that the phone was eaten by a hippo, thinks Ben went out of his way to find her there. Ben who is overly baffled that his friend is here in person and not dead doesn’t really know what to say, much less willing to argue anything. Kenji who is an outsider watching the exchange, festering emotions explode. The rest of the group watch in horror as their supposedly dead friend works with the Broker. When they all meet back up, Ben is confronted with trying to explain his side and there’s a lot being thrown at him. Darius takes lead because he knows this won’t help anyone (in the moment) and they need to get out of the facility. But also because he’s still reeling from everything as well. (Someone pointed out he’s due for his breakdown next season which is very likely that boy is going through it).

In the end, the very thing Brooklyn had gone quiet for, didn’t really matter. The group was still targeted even after her death. They still ended up in Africa at the research facility. Still experienced danger and possible death many times. But she doesn’t know the whole scale and is desperate to keep them safe. So she continues to shut them out, continuing to get as much evidence as she can without involving them just she doesn’t know which is less she’ll have to lie and so they don’t know so they won’t be in harm’s way.

(There’s also my whole thoughts on the confession scene which is another unreliable narrator/miscommunication trope. Darius acts as if he made a huge confession to Brooklyn, likely due to the guilt of not being there during the attack, when in reality it wasn’t. Brooklyn fresh off a break up with their mutual friend catches the slip of tongue to mean exactly what it actually means for Darius. Love, in love, and she reacts to it. Which fair, but it shows how both sides dealt with it. Brooklyn brushes it off, Darius can’t stop feeling ashamed for it.)

(The recent posts I made were hot flash opinionated and fresh from watching the show in full bc I’m a certified slacker and knew I would hyper-fixate if I watched it when I had shit to do)

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aquaquadrant · 6 months ago

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thoughts on the new character bios/interviews that the dreamworks twitter posted below the cut, as promised

so right off the bat, i’m trying to figure out when these interviews took place. it seems to be along the lines of a ‘where are they now?’ for the nublar six, so it’d be long enough after their rescue for them to be settled back in their lives. in terms of exact timing, my guess would be it’s 2-3 years before the time frame of chaos theory, and here’s why.

ben’s part mentions him starting college. if he was 14 during JWCC, he would be around 17 at the time of JW fallen kingdom (ie. during the epilogue scene) cuz it’s 3 years after JW. this would make him roughly 21 during chaos theory cuz it’s supposed to be around the same time as JW dominion (i think so, anyway, could be misremembering), which is 4 years after fallen kingdom. while it’s possible ben delayed his start at college bc of the whole ‘was stranded on dinosaur island for a while’ thing, starting at 21 seems pretty late. so this would most likely indicate the interviews were closer to the timing of the epilogue scene, maybe a year or two after (putting ben at 17-19).

more evidence: darius’s part portrays him as fairly well-adjusted and mentions him traveling to give talks, as we saw in the epilogue. we know that at the start of chaos theory, darius has been isolating himself for an unknown amount of time following brooklynn’s supposed death. i doubt ‘the dino times’ would’ve been able to get ahold of him for an interview.

final point: kenji’s part mentions his relationship with brooklynn and that “all is good in casa de kenji.” so like, it’s very unlikely brooklynn is ‘dead’ yet LMAO

the only thing that snags at me is sammy’s part saying she has her own ranch now. if this interview took place a couple years before chaos theory, she wouldn’t be older than 20. that’s a pretty damn young age to own and operate your own ranch- but since she comes from a family of ranchers, it wouldn’t be impossible. perhaps her family purchased some additional land for her to manage a smaller herd and they stay in close business with each other (providing surplus calves as replacement heifers for sammy’s herd, for example). either way, we stan a strong independent businesswoman.

also there’s the fact that they didn’t make one for brooklynn, when theoretically she would’ve still been alive at the time these interviews were done. but i think the dreamworks team might’ve just been concerned that ppl would confuse the timeline and use it as proof brooklynn is alive (full disclosure: i fully believe brooklynn is alive but ofc the show wants us to still think she’s dead) so i could see them leaving her out just for that reason.

now that the timeline junk is of the way, here’s more random thoughts.

yaz doesn’t seem to have returned to her career as an aspiring pro athlete (seems like something the interviewer would’ve mentioned if she had). this feeds my headcanon of her retaining permanent damage to her ankle quite well. also, the trauma. sammy’s part says they “don’t have time to keep worrying about all that running for our lives stuff.” maybe that’s part of it: yaz decided to just settle down and enjoy the quiet life on the ranch. good for her!!

kenji opened up a climbing school?? that’s random as fuck but i’m here for it. on the surface, it seems like the kinda thing rich tourists would sign up for- y’know, the ppl who travel to exotic places around the world to climb shit. but it’s actually a super useful skill to have in a post-dinosaur world, and kenji knows all too well how important these kinds of skills are for survival. so for me, it’s a choice that reflects the maturing he did during his character arc.

i’ve seen some ppl speculating that yasammy might’ve had a breakup/relationship issues. i sincerely hope that��s not the case- at the time of the interviews, they seemed to be in a very committed relationship, but since that was prob a couple years ago i guess there’s a chance something could’ve happened after. fingers crossed i’m wrong and we’ll just get loads of wonderful yasammy content in the show🤞

i’m curious what ben went/was going to college for. considering the epilogue slated him as researching with mae on mantah corp island, i wonder if he’d pursue some kind of neuro/psych/animal behavior thing.

yaz anxiety mention! god please let the show delve into all the PTSD these kids must’ve brought back from the island.

every new bit of info we get has me so excited like can the show just drop already 😩⚰️

#jurassic world chaos theory #jwct #jwct spoilers #camp cretaceous #jwcc

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