#I guess I had been assuming a lot based on the conception of fish as being 'the healthy meat'

[bonefall]

are amphibians like newts and frogs considered aquatic? i know crustaceans & mollusks would be

Yes they are! Generally, the more time it spends on land, the closer it will be to 5 calories than 4. The estimate was actually based on frogs and tadpoles, I had to make an educated guess.

My best source was a feeding chart from a reptile food website which sells whole small prey for consumption by snakes. It perfectly lists out the values of dozens of small animals, but no fish. So I took a note of the 4 calorie estimate, observed that an adult frog increases in calories compared to tadpoles (bucking the trend with the others on the list where younger animals are worth more caloric value) and went on to do more research

I couldn't find a source that broke down WHOLE prey caloric value like the chart, so I ended up comparing caloric value between rabbit fillets, chicken fillets, and fish fillets on human-centric nutrition websites. My hypothesis was mostly consistent, even with more species added. Fish (perch, flounder, pike) < Wild Mammal (rabbit, squirrel) < Poultry (chicken, turkey, quail). There was overlap between "classes", certain fish getting over the 100 hump, but generally there was a trend I boiled down into 4/5/6

This is consistent with how a lot of fish meat is actually water. In fact, cats quench a lot of their thirst from the food they eat. I also learned some very interesting stuff about the fat distribution in fish which is going to blow a bit of a hole in some of my Clan culture stuff lmaoooo, but I'll furiously swim across that obliterated bridge when I get there

But funfact! Fish oil is rendered fish fats and it is the form that unsaturated fat takes, whereas lard is what saturated fats become. I need to do more research into this topic to understand what kind of difference it would make in a wild cat's diet.

There was one big bucked trend though: salmonid meat was WAAAAY higher in fat and calories. Like, absurdly high. Like 150 cal trout fillet vs 110 cal of rabbit fillet vs 88 cal of perch fillet.

I do not know why that is. My guess is that maybe it's because they were taking the number from farmed salmonids? Maybe it's because they're particularly fatty fish? Perhaps this is just the raw power of salmon slammin'.

Anyway, at one point I was trying to estimate exact caloric value per popular prey species, but decided I didn't have the "backing" to get so exact with the numbers since I was doing estimates with the fish. I'll do the work if it comes down to it, but for now, 4/5/6 is a quick, easy guideline you can use for just about any WC project.

[ceiling-karasu]

Update on AU World-building

Like how the concept of Jollin means I have to restructure my plans with Cherry Valley and the Flower Hill Command Center, the idea of Rana Roja means that I need to do some restructuring of some of my countries in the AU.

This is a lot of work that is coming from a reporter background OC that I might plan on using for one or two scenes later down the line.

I was talking to both kosmicpowers and 32girassoisdevangogh about some of the countries in my AUs, and I realized that I have been seeing the Equatorial Allegiance (Africa)

As one 'country,' per say, with the color separations representing a flag, while in South America I have been seeing this

As two entirely separate countries divided down the middle, with the one on the right being the República de Cultivos Oleaginosos (mostly Venezuela, and I know the name is awkward in Spanish, but I did not expect to ever have to say it more than a few times).

I'm not sure why my brain decided on that? Possibly because this screenshot suggests that many countries just have one color on the flag, and I attributed that to South America but not Africa somehow.

Assuming those are the flags of other nations and not symbolizing something else, or even just not showing detail here.

So now the problem is more or less this area.

I kind of want Rana Rosa to be pink like the figurine I found, but not unnaturally so.

She would need to be a natural color found in nature. The closest to pink a frog (for the most part) can get in a variant of the Strawberry Poison Dart Frog found around Red Frog Beach of Isla Bastimentos, Panama.

Naming the entirety of Panama in the AU as Red Frog Beach, a peaceful fishing, tourist, and agricultural nation, sounds nice. It also sets a precedent for the entirety of China to just be called 'Rabbit Village.'

The problem is, why would that area not already be a region the United States Alliance had taken over in order to be used as a base or foothold to get the oil down below? It could be protected by the República de Cultivos Oleaginosos, but it is next to the green country.

UNLESS the green and yellow there are also a flag, and this was one country all along. Kind of big though, but I guess it did the same thing as the Equatorial Allegiance, with a group of countries banding together to protect from occupiers wishing to steal their oil and lives.

I DO NOT PLAN to just retcon my own stories and AU once they have been already published, though. I skimmed back through The Rod that Blocks the Lightning, and I do not appear to have mentioned a separate country next to the oil producing one, so I should be good to go in making it one country.

Red Frog Beach, however, was not allowed to join the República. It is too distant and remote for the army to move into the areas if they were invaded. They would also need offices and collections of important documents, which could be used against the rest of the country if occupied by the United States Alliance that wants the oil.

As per a treaty, both the República de Cultivos Oleaginosos and the United States Alliance leave Red Frog Beach as a neutral territory, although both may have secret bases of operations within the country. Something like this may have happened in real life? I'll have to look it up.

Perhaps The Hague also have an office there, in order to keep the peace as much as they can, which is how Rana Roja joins after she accidentally stumbles upon a secret wolf base one day and successfully manages to gather evidence and report on it.

Anyway, here is a basic Picrew of how I would expect she dresses as a court reporter (since I can’t draw frogs yet).

[gothnitsa]

Wrestling with female identity and Ernest inspiration

Ok, I'm going to be real here: feminist critique fucks with me big time. Everytime I write something and then watch some feminist film critique, it makes me second guess myself and start to feel very confused and have lots of reservations about my own work. What specifically? Well, most recently the thing that's been eating me alive is the concept of the Male Gaze. I watched a video about how the male gaze is present in many depictions of lesbianism. I guess I had assumed by being a lesbian myself I will make the good depictions of lesbianism because why not? But then I saw that people were very critical of a depiction of lesbianism I hadn't seen much of a problem with. Upon examination, yes I agree it is basically p*rnographic. Yes, I agree that it is catered to a male audience. The video went on to say that there is a different gaze, the lesbian gaze, and that this is based around the returning of the gaze. This made me real paranoid about my own work as a writer. Do I centre men too much? I mean, I have scenes with no male characters but I do have scenes which focus on male characters. Do I see men as the default? Have I been poisoned by the patriarchy into thinking male gaze is good and that my gaze is not male gaze because I'm a woman? I honestly don't know and I get frustrated and angry with the criticism for making me think this. Not me personally, but so what if a woman writes something that is kind of straight up p*rnographic or has posed nudity. Are we all just brainwashed by the patriarchy to enjoy that? I am starting to wonder if "male gaze" is really "male" and that we just call it that because men have been the ones doing it. I mean, I feel like the whole "male part" isn't intrinsic, you can have male gaze without men probably, or can you? Maybe I'm misunderstanding, I haven't downloaded the latest feminism patch so please forgive me if my beliefs are out of date. I keep telling myself maybe I'm just getting too into my own head about this and I should just make what i make and not think too damn much about it then. But then again I also like to think critically about my work and constantly improve. BUUUUT then again, what am I doing now but trying to cater my art to the views of someone else. I'm constantly looking for approval and by becoming so wrapped up in self-evaluation on this particular topic I feel like I am just attempting to fish for the approval of feminism. And for what? So I can get praise in some nerds video essay about how I did sexuality and gender good? Fuck that, I'll be bad, I'll fuck up. I'll make gross bad yucky things that is for MEN apparently. I'll download the new feminism drivers when I get to it. Until then, I'll just keep trying. I doubt being so inside myself with this is good for my creative process.

[ecaloshay]

Apparently, based on various complaints I've seen, we're lacking in the mundane when it comes to historical documentation.

@petermorwood has made several posts about cruet sets (and I am now similarly obsessed) because what goes into these little receptacles is periodically in hot debate. Salt, pepper. Solid. Vinegar? Oil? Sure. After that, things get hazy because then what? Sugar? Mustard? What format? How did they use it? etc. It helps when the containers are labeled, but when they're not, lots of fun conjecture depending on the era and region. Go find Peter’s posts on cruet sets.

There are recipes (probably got this from Peter as well) for preparations of simple foods in different cultures that are lost to time because people assumed that this is common enough knowledge to not be worth committing to paper and you'll see things like "we had fish for dinner" and the question would be, 'But how fish?' Was it steamed, fried, or poached? Were there seasonings? What sort of fish? We can hazard a guess based on what is available geographically, but at the same time that information isn't really complete because fish species documentation wasn't as thorough as it is now[1]. Were the aforementioned cruet sets involved in some way?

So ancient or historical journals/tablets/cave art that are seemingly dull because the author is reporting on what nosy neighbour did with their vegetable patch, and how much someone spent on a goat, or what they ate for breakfast (and what time of day they did it for example)[2], or written menus from mistresses of the house or the cook might seem really pointless at a glance, but it gives us neat info about how people lived day-to-day.

Look at how the complaint tablet about Ea-nasir has brought so much joy to the internet.

Or how garum, the ancient Roman fish sauce that fell out of popularity, had a resurgence in current times, but the original method of creating it isn't really known, nor are they sure of the type of fish that was used, perhaps it's now extinct (I saw a food show exploring this condiment and I think they suspected it might be whale?). There are variations, and approximations have been made, and they're pretty sure it's nothing like the fish sauce in Asian cuisine but the details are a bit hand-wavy at times.

Ultimately, be as boring and detailed as you like. It'll probably have some value to some historian or anthropologist somewhere down the track.

--

[1] Even today we could be eating fish unknown to science.

[2] I was bored and decided to read up about what meal and snack times were like during the Victorian and Regency eras and the whole concept of dining out in these periods. Very interesting, have bookmarked to read in more detail later.

I was reading one of my childhood diaries the other day and there was a whole paragraph saying how hopeful I was that my writing will help the archeologists in the far future. Then it proceeded to describe my lunch that day and how my dog was probably secretly able to talk. 

[philipkindreddickhead]

I often seen critiques of make up from an existential/philosophical perspective, but I rarely see criticism of cosmetics from a stand point of the very physical bodily harm it does. I think this is because the number of dangerous ingredients is so massive, and overlapping its an absolutely daunting task. So I've compiled the information I've found and bear with me its a lot. (This is from an American perspective. Sorry, thats what I know. However I would love it if people from other countries had things to add.)

First I want to get the "simple" stuff out of the way. I think almost everyone has heard about bacteria and fungi in makeup and that makeup causes acne from clogging pores. Makeup has a pretty strict shelf life, yet consumers are entirely supposed to self-police as Ive never seen a single expiration date on any cosmetic packaging. (I guess consumers are meant to pull this knowledge out of the ether or something. I only found out about it in a tumblr PSA. I did read that expirys are on products in Europe.) Beauty blenders are the worst offender because theyre almost always moist. When I was taught makeup I was told to wet my sponge so it would soak up less product. If you apply makeup daily your sponge is likely constantly damp. USA Today had an article which said that 96% of sponges had fungi and over 60% had E. Coli in them. But I think what people talk about less is the complication of problems from using other products in conjunction with dirty beauty blenders. USA Today warns its especially dangerous to use beauty blenders if you have damage to your skin like acne, cuts, or dry skin. However the most popular beauty products for washing your face contain walnut pieces for literally scrubbing your skin and creating microabrasions. If youre a frequent makeup user you probably know about the cyclical nature of applying foundation, breaking out, and then applying more foundation to cover the breakout. You may even be using scrubbing cleansers more frequently to combat the acne creating more tears. This can lead to "blood poisoning" and, though neither USA today or Forbes mentions this, blood poisoning (not a medical term btw. Its sepsis.) according to numerous medical sites has the potential to be extremely lethal. The symptoms are so similar to a regular flu its nearly impossible to self-diagnose.

The very first thing I was told when a friend handed me a jar of finishing powder- popular with many beauty gurus for the "baking" technique and considered a must have- was a joke about "clown lung." This was a reference to the main ingredient talc. Talc causes lung problems including cancer and respiratory illness. If anyone remembers the large Johnson and Johnson lawsuit from 2019 it was because theyd been putting talc into baby powder. Talc is dangerous because it's impossible to mine and seperate from ASBESTOS. Some high-end finishing powders will try to sell you on safe talc-free formulas but all the products I looked into contained mica instead which causes pneumoconiosis, colloquially known as "black lung disease." Like fucking coal miners get. Its not just present in finishing powder either. In my research it turned out that talc/asbestos are also present in many eyeshadows and other powder products. [Googleable, evidenced in J&J lawsuit]

Another industry to examine is nail salons. Toluene, Formaldehyde, Dibutyl Phthalate, and Methacrylate compounds are all dangerous ingredients and present in various salon products. These ingredients cause a range of problems from dizziness, drowsiness, birth defects, slow fetal growth, future intellectual disabilities in the fetus, eye skin and throat irritation, coughing, allergic reactions, asthma-like attacks, short-term memory loss, nausea, dermatitis, cancer, and misscarriage. Some nail products advertise that they are 3-free meaning that toluene, formaldehyde, and DP should be absent but often the labels are found to be completely inaccurate. It should be noted that the risk is mainly to salon workers and not patrons but ask yourself if it is right to place other people at serious risk for your aesthetic. OSHA does make an attempt to mitigate these risks however not once in my years of makeup queen did I see a salon following these directives which include constant air monitoring, half mask respirators with chemical cartridges, gloves, long sleeves, and safety glasses. (And Im not even going to touch issues of human trafficking/slave labour out of nail salons one case of which occured 5 days ago two hours away from me) It should also be noted that formaldehyde can also be found in hair relaxers and hair dyes. [Found articles in Scientific American and NYT]

I also found on the FDAs website that many cosmetics include heavy metals like arsenic, mercury, and lead. (Usually accompainied by a picture of lipstick so I assume that is the product most likely to contain it, however campaign for safe cosmetics lists foundation as containing heavy metals, and The Guardian has an article about skin lighteners from Asia and Africa containing mercury.) The website stated that the amount of these heavy metals in cosmetics is "safe" if used as intended. (and I'm going to come back to the concept of "intended use" later because thats a can of worms too) However, when searching for info on heavy metal safety I found this quote in regards to metals in food:

"Certain metals, such as arsenic, lead and mercury, have no established health benefit, and have been shown to lead to illness, impairment, and in high doses, death. Understanding the risk that harmful metals pose in our food supply is complicated by the fact that no single food source accounts for most people’s exposure to metals in foods. People’s exposure comes from many different foods containing these metals. Combining all of the foods we eat, even low levels of harmful metals from individual food sources, can sometimes add up to a level of concern"

So like, which is it? Is it a "safe amount" or is no amount of metal safe? I understand that in the case of certain foods like fish some amount of mercury poisoning is always expected but fish is also something you feed yourself and nourish your body with while cosmetics are completely unecessary to your survival. The mercury problem in fish is also mitigated by health warnings when mercury levels are particularly high but cosmetics have no such warning. Another warning on the site indicated that children should ingest NO amount of lead AT ALL because it is particularly harmful for kids yet theres no effort to stop children from using lead-containing cosmetics. I worked next to a Five Below where I was shocked to find they sold Jeffree Star and Anastasia eyeshadow dupes for five dollars which amounts to fucking pocket change for a lot of kids and kids do buy that stuff. I also think its ironic the FDA would have anything to say regarding cosmetics because in the very same article about heavy metals in cosmetics the FDA says that they DO NOT REGULATE cosmetics beyond the color additives.

Mascara, eyeliner, lipstick, and brow tint often contain carbon black. This is a color additive that is an incomplete combustion of carbon-based products. It can cause lung disease, cancer, and organ system toxicity, and eye, nose, throat irritation. The effects are mainly studied in rats and those at biggest risk are industrial workers but why do other workers have to endure lung problems for something so unecessary? [Easily googleable, NIH, CDC, WHO Europe]

This next bit I only want to mention briefly because I didnt find any particularly reputable sources about it, but its a claim that cropped up repeatedly and I think its an interesting one. Parabens, estrogen, phthalates (again), and pesticides in cosmetics are apparently linked to endocrine disorders and hormone dysregulation. Im not entirely sure what is meant by this accusation. Endocrine disorders include female diseases like PCOS and possibly endometriosis. None of these diseases is very well studied and the female endocrine system itself is not well studied either. Im not saying "cosmetics cause PCOS" because we dont know if PCOS or these other endocrine/hormonal disorders are genetic or environmental or both (it appears that PCOS is largely genetic and Endometriosis is likely autoimmune related) AND we dont appear to know for sure that cosmetic ingredients cause endocrine disorder. But I include anyway for a number of reasons:

If you happen to struggle with hormonal problems you may want to know cosmetics is a potential environment factor.

These conditions are incredibly painful. It will be a battle getting your doctor to even acknowledge that pain for diagnosis. PCOS is linked to diabetes, and heart disease. [Thanks @mother-of-pearl ] There is no cure and the treatments are often throwing hormonal birth control at it and hoping for the best.

I dont anticipate the link between cosmetics and endocrine disorders being studied any time soon or any endocrine disorders studied at all because the medical/scientific field is sexist. I dont want women to suffer in the mean time.

Now again, take this with a grain of salt because I couldnt find scientific or news sources for it. Dont fucking come for me. Im not gonna respond to you. [Most reputable source was a paper from the library of medicine at the national institutes of health but it was behind a paywall and I dont have 39 dollars to be right on tumblrdotcom]

Avoiding these ingredients is not as simple as scanning the label for them. As many beautubers and the community are no doubt aware considering multiple scandals over veganism. Products advertised as vegan or cruelty free but contain non-vegan carmine or are sold in China which legally requires the products to be animal tested. Cosmetic companies will hide ingredients claiming they are "trade secrets" or they will be placed under "fragrance." Many ingredients will be known by six or seven different names and asking consumers to be aware of seven different names for multiple ingredients requires consumers to be aware of innumerable different, often complicated ingredient names. I shouldnt have to point out that's a ridiculous burden to place on women. The EU banned 1,300 hazardous ingredients that the US did not. Cosmetic companies rely on women being unwilling/unable to bring in a list of 1,300 ingredients- with multiple names- every time they pop in to the drug store, sephora, or wherever. Buying "natural" products will not help you either. Theres no established criteria for natural/organic in costmetics, the FDA doesnt test these products, and "natural"=/= safe anyway. Plenty of plants and minerals are poisonous. One good example is traditional kohl products which advertise their natural status but also naturally contain lead and reiterating that natural powders contain mica. US courts are rarely on the side of consumers either. I found an interesting lawsuit against St. Ives for their apricot scrub taken to court for their "dermatologist tested" label despite it causing breakouts and cuts to the skin. The courts ruled that this label was fine because it only indicated that the product was TESTED not APPROVED by dermatologists. However I think any rational consumer would look at this label and assume the tests concluded it was safe for use or else why put the label on there?

[Googlable XMONDO drama, googlable laws wrt china and eu, already stated about FDA, FDA website about Kohl. Googled St. Ives lawsuit.]

I want to return to the idea of "intended use." This is sort of a fucky concept a lot of companies have ways of getting around. My "last straw" with makeup had to do with a run-in I had with Anastasia over their "Riviera" eyeshadow palette. In this pallette they had two colors that were the real feature of the palette, an electric neon purple and a radioactive pink I mean every photo, every promotion has these two colors swirled together around the eye. Because again, its an eyeshadow palette. When I buy the eyeshadow palette of course there's a little insert warning in the package that says these two shades are not intended on the eye area. In an eyeshadow palette. Contacting their customer service they told me that these two shades were meant to be used as a blush. neon purple blush. Not only that, but their website and instagram featured NO models wearing the shades as blush while EVERY model one or more of the shades as eyeshadow. When asked about this discrepancy ABH stopped responding. What I find egregious about this is the amount of people who dont know, and then more staggeringly; dont care. The sephora clerks didnt know, the in store abh representative didnt know, their customers didnt know, and when I told them they would respond with "oh, [brand] did the same thing with their [shade]." Sure enough, when I demanded that store clerks open the packaging to look for warnings nearly every product had an "eyeshadow" that was not intended for use on the eyes. Relegating dark, red-toned teal to "contour" and neon grean to "highlighter" US-based cosmetic junkies will say that these pigments have been approved for use by the EU however I found absolutely NO evidence of that. I googled it a thousand ways but all I ever found were blog posts, reddit comments, and one quote from an apparently nonEuropean layman in an Insider article. I even changed my location to France on ABH's website and the Norvina palette still contains the same warnings (not to harp on ABH in particular. I just know which shades in particular are the problem there). The Insider article noted that brands who were selling pressed pigments declined to comment. If the pressed pigments were EU friendly, I would think companies would be clamouring to say so. It also still makes their market as eyeshadow colors illegal in the US. (If any Europeans would like to chime in I'd love that.) Another problem I find with cosmetics companies and their reps is the claim that the worst thing that could happen is eye irritation for those with sensitive eyes and staining. How could they possibly know? The FDA doesnt test, or approve these cosmetics in the eye area, so ostensibly no one should be using it that way.

The next one is a bit of a "duh" but I'm going to talk about it anyway. Counterfeit cosmetics are a booming market full of untold dangers. Untold primarily because these products could contain literally anything. Ive read about glue, arsenic, lead, feces, staph, and horse urine to name a few. The labels and ingredient list on these products are fake. Legitimate brands often unintentionally play into the counterfeit market. They create artificial scarcity by making less of the product than is actually needed for consumer demand to create an even higher demand. If consumers miss out often their only chance at getting the product is to turn to counterfeits. I found examples of women who had their lips superglued, lips "turned to goo" and burned to blistering, throat closures, women with stys, contact dermatitis, eye infections. I think we as a society turn a blind eye to this problem because we think "hey, if youre buying counterfeits for a discount and you get hurt you deserve it." We imagine idiots buying products for 4 dollars from ebay or perusing Canal street for FEИTY beauty. But these counterfeits can be really convincing. I myself received a gift of a huda palette that I only recognized something was weird about it because I'd swatched it at sephora about five times earlier that month. The person who bought it for me actually paid MORE than the usual cost for the palette because it was advertised as a newer, better edition. The websites can be disturbingly similar. For instance Kylie Jenner's legitimate website is KylieCosmetics.com but you can find fakes at kyliecosmeticsshop.co.uk. These fakes can buy ad space and be one of the first sites that populate when you google the products instead of typing the legitimate site into the address bar. Counterfeits can also be bought and sold through third parties on websites like ebay, wish, and amazon. (My gift actually came from Amazon.)

[Netflix doc "Broken" ep "Makeup Mayhem" Corroborated by personal experience and google]

[duhragonball]

[FIC] Luffa: The Legendary Super Saiyan (156/?)

Disclaimer: This story features characters and concepts based on Dragon Ball, which is a trademark of Bird Studio/Shueisha and Toei Animation.   This is an unauthorized work, and no profit is being made on this work by me. This story is copyright of me. Download if you like, but please don’t archive it without my permission. Don’t be shy.

Continuity Note: This story takes place about 1000 years before 66 years after the events of Dragon Ball Z.

[1 December Age 893, Earth.]

Throughout the night, Trunks had been exploring the simulated universe in the popular arcade game Super Dragon Ball Heroes.   To the Earthlings of the 9th Century, it was just a video game about famous warriors and battles from history, but it was in fact a secret project backed by the Time Patrol.   The game world in SDBH was a scale model of the actual universe, based upon the Scroll of Eternity itself.   This provided a unique gaming experience for the unsuspecting civilians, but it also allowed Time Patrollers like Trunks to conduct research and interact with historical events without altering history.   His main objective to was to learn more about his new partner, Luffa.    So far, he had spoken to several Saiyans across time and space, and each answer he found seemed to raise a new question.

At the Hero Lab, where the SDBH game was programmed and maintained, Trunks pondered these questions over takeout food.    Dr. Leggings had cleared off her desk for the plates and napkins.    Her assistant, a girl named Anne, was fussing over the bags of food, determined to make sure everyone’s order was accounted for and properly distributed.   No one asked her to do this, but she was the type who couldn’t relax otherwise.    She still complained about it, but Trunks knew she wouldn’t have it any other way.

Nearby, Beat and Note had rolled their own chairs to face one another, and they each propped their feet up on the edge of the other's seat.    He had recruited them for help on a case when they were younger, and it was strange to see them as teenagers.   He wondered if there was something more than friendship developing between them, or if they themselves were aware of it, but it seemed undignified to ask, so he let it go.    There were more important things to consider anyway.

"The main job's been accomplished, at least," Trunks said after he swallowed a bite of eggroll.    "I know where Camelia's key planets are located, and our historians can probably fill in a more complete map of the galaxy from that era.   Then we can work with Luffa to figure out the correct date and location she came from."

"You don't sound very satisfied with that, Master," Note said as she fished out a piece of shrimp from her takeout box and fed it to Beat.  

"I'm not," Trunks said.   "We thought Luffa might be from a distant civilization, but one in the present day.    Now, it's starting to look like she's from our galaxy, but eleven centuries in the past.   Maybe twelve.   The Rehval that I spoke with was the third Saiyan King with that name.    The one Luffa mentioned may have been his father or grandfather."

"Why is that bad, Trunks?" Beat asked.   He found a piece of pork in his box and passed it from his chopsticks to Note's chopsticks.    "I mean, so what if she’s from twelve centuries in the past?   You guys are the Time Patrol, after all.   If anyone can send her home, you can."

"It's not that we can't send her back," Beat, " Trunks said.   "The problem is that I'm not so sure we should.   From the start, I just assumed Luffa was from the present time, or close to it.   Without realizing it, I've shown Luffa things that will happen in her distant future.    To us, it's the past, but if we send her back with that knowledge, she could change the course of history."

"Would she?"  Note asked.    "I mean, I'm sure she's an honorable person, or Shenron wouldn't have chosen her as your ally, Master.   And now that she's seen the dangers involved with time anomalies, I'm sure she'd never tell anyone what she learned about our era."

"It's not that simple, I'm afraid," said Dr. Leggings.    She was chewing on a bone from her order of spare ribs, and Trunks couldn't help but appreciate a very faint resemblance she had to his father.   Leggings looked a lot more like his mother, particularly with the way she wore her green hair in a ponytail.    She was no warrior, but there were definite hints of Saiyan to her.    He liked this.   In his own timeline, Trunks was an only child, and the last of his father's people.   It was comforting to spend time in places like Hero Town and Toki Toki City, where he had an extended family of sorts, no matter how distant.  

"What do you mean, doctor?" Note asked.

"We've seen how even minor changes in the past can cause major changes in the present," Leggings said.   "The game world makes it easy to see, because we can jump from one time period to another very quickly, and we can reset those changes as easily as refreshing a computer.   It's not just a matter of winning a battle you were supposed to lose, or telling secrets that you aren't supposed to know about.   Luffa might change history without even realizing she's done it."

"She's right," Trunks said.   "When I first went back to the past, I tried to be careful not to make any unwanted changes.   I only wanted to warn Goku about the Cyborgs and give him the medicine for the heart virus.    But somehow he got sick about six months later than I expected.   I still have no idea why that happened.   My guess is that he was training for the Cyborgs, so he must have been in a different place than he was in my timeline, so he wasn't infected under the same circumstances."  

"You think Luffa might do something differently, now that she knows what's going to happen to the Saiyans?" Beat asked.

"She might," Trunks said.   "Luffa hates King Rehval, and now that I've met the guy, I can't say I blame her.   If I understand correctly, there's a direct throughline connecting Rehval's policies with the class system used by my grandfather on Planet Vegeta.   So she might blame Rehval for the downfall of the Saiyan race, and try to take revenge.   For that matter, she knows about the Dragon Balls on Namek.   She might be tempted to use them in the past, to try to make wishes to prevent some of the terrible things she's seen in the future."

"That'd be good, wouldn't it?" Beat asked.    

"Not for you, it wouldn't," Note said in a scolding tone.    "Son Goku is your ancestor, isn't he?   If the history of the Saiyans changes too much, then they might never send Goku to Earth, and you would never be born."

"Oh, right," Beat said.   "Maybe Luffa should stay in Toki Toki City, then."

"And that could have consequences too," Trunks said.    "Luffa might still play a role in history, however small.   Shenron may have only brought her to us because he knew the Time Patrol would eventually put her back.    But there's also the matter of her power level..."

"Power?" Anne asked.   She had already finished her meal and was busily cleaning up the discarded cartons and wrappers.     "Don't tell me that's a problem on top of everything else!"

"Yup, I'm afraid so, Anne," Trunks said.    "Luffa's done well on her missions, but she's nowhere near as powerful as what I had expected.   Now that I know what time period she's from, that makes more sense.   King Rehval told me he was the strongest Saiyan of his era, and he's a lot stronger than Luffa, but he wouldn't stand a chance against the kinds of enemies I've had to fight.   Luffa defeated the Ginyu Force, and Rehval might have handled them more easily but that's about all I could expect from either of them."  

"That's nothing you can't fix, Master!" Note said.   "I'm sure you can train Luffa just as well as you trained us!"

"I appreciate your confidence, Note," Trunks said, "but Luffa's not exactly what I'd call 'teachable'.   Besides, she seems to have improved dramatically on her own.   Even she doesn't understand how she's doing it, but she may catch up before too long.   But if she returns to her own time with all that extra strength, then that could mess up history too.    And if she has to remain with us, then I'm not sure she'll be any good on future missions."

"Why not?" Beat asked.   "She's sure to get stronger."

"I thought so too, but maybe I've been taking that for granted," Trunks said.   "I'm used to dealing with Saiyans descended from Son Goku, or from my own family.    Goku and Vegeta were extraordinary fighters, even among Saiyans, but Luffa could be... Well, there's no gentle way to put this.   She might not have the same potential."

"You're not going to just fire her, are you?" Note asked.    

"Of course not," Trunks said.   "If we can't send her home, I'm sure we can find a place for her in the Time Patrol.   But we can't risk sending her on certain missions.   Towa and Mira are dangerous, and if I'm right, their raids on history's warriors are only going to get bolder.   Luffa could find herself in deep waters with no one to help her.   Shenron may have granted my wish, and maybe she is the best person for the job, but that doesn't mean I can gamble with her life.   I need more information before she goes back into the field."

"I'm sure whatever happens, it'll all work out, Trunks," Beat said.    

"You always say stuff like that," Note groaned.  

"Well, I'm right, aren't I?" Beat shrugged.    "Well, most of the time, anyway."

"This has been fun, but I should probably get moving," Trunks said.    "I need to report my findings to the Time Patrol, and maybe the Supreme Kai of Time has a fresh lead on Towa."

"You have to leave already?" Beat asked.    "But it feels like you just got here!"

"Yeah, it was beginning to feel like the old days," Note said.  

"I've missed you guys too," Trunks said.   He stood up and brushed loose grains of rice from his pants.   "You've grown up a lot while I've been away.    You too, Anne."

"I guess it's kind of childish how I keep calling you, 'Master'," Note said.   "Force of habit, I suppose."

"You're welcome to call me 'Trunks' if you want, Note.    But to be honest, it reminds me of when I was a kid.   I used to call Gohan 'Master', back when he trained me to fight the Cyborgs.   He meant a lot to me.   Hearing you say it... It's a good feeling."    

"I'll keep the Hero Switches ready in case you come back," Leggings said.    "You'll probably need to do some follow-up work to pin down an exact time for Luffa."

"Good call," Trunks said as he slung his sword over his shoulder.   "I'll probably have to bring her with me.   I'll see if I can get her to make some more of that lasagna she made for us the other day."  

"Lasagna?" Beat asked.    But Trunks vanished before he could get an answer.  

*******

[4 March, Age 850.  Toki Toki City.]

Luffa felt ridiculous doing this, but she had no other ideas for how to handle the situation.   She knew the way from her apartment to the Time Nest, and the Time Vault was unlocked and unguarded, but she had no idea what to do on her own.   Trunks had always contacted her whenever she was needed, and he always had the Scroll ready to send her on her next mission.     Without him, it seemed that the Time Vault was a useless building with a tree sticking out of the roof.    And so, her only way forward was the Supreme Kai of Time, who lived in a modest capsule house in the Time Nest, next door to the Time Vault.    Luffa felt awkward simply entering the house, and so she went back to her apartment and baked a cake.   That wouldn't make things less awkward for her, but at least there would be something to eat during her visit.    

"Luffa, Hi!" Chronoa said as she answered the knock on her door.    "Ooh, what's that?  It smells good."

"Uh, I got in a mood, so I made some cake," Luffa said, in a failed attempt to sound nonchalant.   "And I thought I should check and see if you and Trunks had any update on the search."

"Afraid not," Chronoa said.   "But perfect timing on the cake.   I just put on a pot of tea.   Come on in!"

The interior of Chronoa's house was littered with technological gizmos. ��  There were entire jet engines laying around the Time Nest, and it seemed that this was because those larger objects were the only ones that wouldn't fit inside.    Chronoa tossed several of them off one of the couch cushions and gestured for Luffa to take a seat.    

"I'm glad you finally came over," Chronoa said.   "I was worried that you might be having trouble fitting in with the Time Patrol."

"It's uh... it's not so bad," Luffa said.   "My roommate is kind of weird, but we get along well enough.    I've met a few people here."

"They're all a very special bunch of people," Chronoa said.   "I haven't been able to get to know them all as well as I'd like to, but they've helped me out a lot.   That goes for you too, Luffa."

"Listen, uh... I think I owe you an apology," Luffa said.   "I was in a pretty bad place right before I ended up here, and... well, I might have taken out some of my frustrations on you and your staff."

"You've had to adjust to a lot of changes very quickly, Luffa," Chronoa said.    "And we didn't exactly give you a choice about coming here.    You're entitled to get frustrated with us."

"Thanks, but... I'm a mercenary," Luffa said.   "Well, I used to be.   My parents always taught me how important it was to maintain a professional discipline around the clients.   I don't think I've lived up to my own standards."

"I don't think of the other Time Patrollers as mercenaries, Luffa," Chronoa said.   "We're a team, and we're friends.    At least, I'd like to think of you as a friend."

"Yeah, I guess so," Luffa said.   "I... Can I ask you something?"

"Sure!"

"You're a god, aren't you?   A god of time."

"That's right."

"Don't you already know how all of this turns out?"

Chronoa chuckled as she sipped her tea.  

"Did I say something wrong?" Luffa asked.

"No, I get that a lot, actually," Chronoa said.   "The short answer is: no, I don't know the future.    Not in the way you're thinking of.    I watch over time, and maintain the flow of time.   When it's necessary, I correct problems in that flow.  But I don't make time, or control it."  

"It's just... I'm kind of anxious to get back on the trail of those demons," Luffa said.   "And we've been waiting for them to make their next move, and it occurred to me that it doesn't make much sense that we have to wait.    You could jump ahead to the moment when they've already made their play."

"Well, now that's something I could do," Chronoa said.   I can travel to the future and find out when the next mission happens.   I could even take you with me so you wouldn't have to wait."

"You can?" Luffa said.

"Oh yeah!" Chronoa said.   "I can do a lot of things.   But I shouldn't do it, so I won't."

"Oh."

"It's not an arbitrary rule, either," Chronoa said.   "Most Supreme Kais are only permitted to travel forward through time, and only to observe future events.   They can't interfere, so they have to limit their use of that power.    With me, the problem is that if I skip around too much, I run the risk of upsetting the balance of my own timeline.   Things have to proceed in order.   That's what time is all about."

"I guess that makes sense," Luffa said.  "Honestly, I had a feeling it wouldn't be that easy, or you would have already done it.  But I had to ask."

"You’re right, it’s not that easy.   In fact, it's part of the reason I established the Time Patrol," Chronoa said.   "For millions of years, keeping watch over the flow of time was pretty simple.  I just had to keep Tokitoki fed and watered, give him plenty of enrichment.   But as the universe grows older, it becomes more complex.    Once, there was no Supreme Kai of Time.   We didn't even need one.   But then we did, and now we've reached a point where I need a whole staff to help maintain things.   If I could just jump back and forth in time any way I wanted, maybe I could do the whole thing alone.   But it’s more satisfying this way, with all of you.”

"Why mortals?   Why not get other Kais to do this work?" Luffa asked.  

"Because there aren't enough of us, for one thing," Chronoa said.    "We come from a place called the 'World Core'.    There aren't many Core People, and few of us ever achieve the rank of Kai.    Fewer still ascend to the status of Grand Kai, and even fewer make it to Supreme Kai.   There used to be seven Supreme Kais in this universe, including me.   These days, there's only three."

"Is three enough?" Luffa asked.

"For now, it'll have to be," Chronoa said.   "Besides, I've found that mortals are very dedicated and resourceful.   To say nothing of all the technology they produce..."

She reached for an end table and picked up a machine that looked vaguely like a can opener combined with an alarm clock.    Luffa expected her to use the device, but instead Chronoa simply admired its surfaces.  

"So what's all this stuff for, anyway?" Luffa asked, gesturing to the assortment of similar gadgets that lay in every direction.  

"Nothing in particular," Chronoa said.   "I just find their designs fascinating.   The electronics, the cogwheels, the little blinking lights.   It's helpful for contemplating the nature of time."

"If you say so," Luffa said.    

"Without time, everything would happen all at once," Chronoa explained.  "Birth, death, creation, destruction, none of that would mean anything without the passage of time to separate those moments.   The oven you used to bake this cake.   Without time, there would be no need for it.   Cooking would be meaningless.    You can't preheat an oven or leave a cake inside for seven hours, not when there's no hours."

"S-seven hours?" Luffa asked, but Chronoa paid no mind.    

"Mixing the ingredients would be pointless, too.    Even the pan you put it in, it would be unnecessary, because there could be no cause or effect.    There could be no hunger, because there would be no time for you to become hungry."    

"That's why you like these tools, then?"  Luffa asked.   "Their functions remind you of the flow of time?"

"Yes, that's one way of looking at it," Chronoa said.     She picked up another object that had a handle connected to a transparent dome on wheels.   Inside the dome were several colorful plastic balls, which bounced around inside as Chronoa pushed it along the floor.  

"What does that thing do?" Luffa asked.  

"Oh, this is just a child's toy," Chronoa said.   "Same idea though."

"Okay..."   Luffa decided this was as good a time as any to serve the cake.   It was yellow with chocolate frosting, a recipe which suited her aesthetics, though she had no idea what flavor “yellow” was supposed to be.    She wondered if “yellow” was a kind of fruit, like the oranges used to make the juice she had discovered while shopping.

 "Very impressive," Chronoa said as she took a bite.   "You must have turned the oven up to full power for this."

"Uh, not exactly," Luffa said nervously.   She was beginning to get the impression that Chronoa had no idea how cooking worked.  "Jayncho found a recipe, and they had everything I needed in the Industrial District.   I've been using my downtime to get a handle on Earth cuisine."

"That's great!   You know... when we figure out how to get you home, Luffa, you wouldn't have to stay there.    You could come back for missions."  

"Huh?"

"We have a lot of Patrollers who still live on Earth, in their own native eras.    Mostly ranging from Age 850 to 1050, but there are a few exceptions, like Trunks."

"Well, that's nice and all," Luffa said, "but I don't know that it would work for me..."

"Do you have any family?"

Luffa hesitated before answering.    "No," she said.   "It's just me." To explain further would require her to reveal that she knew she was from the distant past, and she wasn't ready to divulge that just yet.   She wasn't sure she ever would be.   But somehow, sitting in Chronoa's home, sharing snacks with her while they watched the view outside her window, Luffa felt like she could trust her.

She just wouldn't trust her today.  Not yet.   Like Chronoa had said, these things had to happen in the proper order.

"Have you heard of ‘Providence,’ Chronoa?" Luffa asked.

"I know the term, if that's what you mean." she said with her mouth full.  

"My... a friend of mine, she believed in a divine plan.  I just wondered if you, or one of the other Kais, had any connection to that."

"Are you religious yourself, Luffa?"

"Not really.   But I've known people who were.   You wouldn't know a god with nine eyes, by any chance, would you?"

"No, I can't say that I do," Chronoa said.  

"What about Beerus?"

"Oh, well that's different," Chronoa said.   "You see-- Wait, what was that?"

She put her plate on the coffee table and stood up, as though looking for something beyond the walls of her house.    

"What is it?" Luffa asked.  Her own senses picked up nothing out of the ordinary. 

"Something's wrong," Chronoa said.    "We need to go to the Time Vault."

"Is it Towa and Mira?" Luffa asked.  

"I'm not sure," Chronoa said, “but I think it could be."

Luffa punched her right hand with her left as she stood up from the sofa.   At last, it seemed like her waiting was over.

*******

[24 December, Age 762.   Planet Namek.]

The Namekian Dragon Balls were ordinary stones.   Two wishes had been granted, but they petrified upon the death of their creator, Guru.   When Frieza arrived to discover this predicament, he was furious.    So furious, that he wasted no time in destroying the objects of his wrath.    Within minutes, Krillin, Vegeta, and the Namekian child, Dende, were all dead.    Piccolo, newly resurrected by the Dragon Balls, joined the battle, but far too later to do any good.   Gohan was next, and then the only one left was Goku.    

"Who... are you?" Frieza asked, as Goku cradled his dead son in his arms.     "Never mind.   I don't need to know."

Goku followed the others soon after. 

*******

[4 March, Age 850.    Toki Toki City.]

"It has to be Towa," Chronoa said.   She had the Scroll of Eternity unfurled on the great octagonal table in the Time Vault.    Luffa watched over her shoulder, while Tokitoki flapped his wings and hooted overhead.    

"This looks like the same day as the Ginyu Force battle I was just in," Luffa said. 

"It is," Chronoa said.  "This new temporal change takes place thirty-seven minutes after you left.    Towa must have decided it was the last place we would expect her to strike.   I didn't think she was prepared to try her energy stealing techniques on someone as powerful as Frieza."

Luffa had never actually seen Frieza before.    Until now, she had only heard about him.   During her previous mission, the Ginyu Force and Vegeta had spoken of him as being present on Namek, but occupied elsewhere.   Before that, she had heard about Frieza's conquest and destruction of the Saiyan homeworld from the Toki Toki City historian, Dewar.    Dewar had said that Frieza was a clansman of his own species, and now that Luffa could see Frieza in the mystical images generated by the Scroll, she could see the resemblance.   Mostly, Frieza had purple colorations wherever Dewar had blue, and Frieza didn't bother wearing clothes.   He was a white-skinned, muscular humanoid with no hair and three-toed feet.    A long, thick tail waved behind him.  The purple aura from Towa's magic seemed to suit his cruel, indifferent expression.  

"Looks like it's the same story as before," Luffa said.    "Frieza got a power boost and he overwhelmed these guys too quickly, so I'll have to step in and balance the scales."

"It's not that simple," Chronoa warned.   "Frieza is far more powerful than anyone you've faced so far."

"He can't swap bodies like Captain Ginyu, can he?" Luffa asked.    

"No, but--"

"Well then, this should be a lot more straightforward," Luffa said,  She held up her hands and began cracking her knuckles.  

"Wait," Chronoa said.   "Luffa, I really think we should hold off on this until Trunks gets back."

"What for?" Luffa asked.   "I'm the one who has to go on these missions, and I'm ready right now.   With any luck, those miserable demons will still be there, and I can pick up where I left off."

"You don't know what you're dealing with, Luffa," Chronoa warned.  "Every time you've come back from these missions, you've been badly hurt.    Fighting Frieza is one thing.   If he hurts you, you can be automatically recalled to the Time Nest before you die.   But if Towa decides to step in, that might not work.   She's already threatened you, and there's a lot we don't know about her temporal manipulation abilities."

"Then it's time we found out," Luffa insisted.   "I don't know what kind of Saiyans you have working for you in the Time Patrol, but I'm the kind that doesn't back down from a challenge.    I think your pet Dragon noticed that, and maybe that's why he brought me here to help you out."

"There's more at stake here than whatever chip you have on your shoulder, Luffa," Chronoa said.  "I can tell you're out to prove something.   I don't know what, but I won't risk your life like this."

"And what happens if they try to alter history somewhere else while we're waiting around?" Luffa asked.   "We need to address this sooner rather than later.   And no matter what we do, it's going to be me who ends up going.   You know I'm right, Supreme Kai of Time.    I wouldn't be here if I weren't."  

Chronoa regarded her for a moment, then looked back at the Scroll.    "All right, we'll try it your way," she said.   "But I'll be watching, and at the first sign of trouble, I'm pulling you out of there."

"Thanks," Luffa said.   "I was thinking about making a grab for the Scroll, but I didn’t want to upset you.   I've never fought a god before, and I didn't want to make things awkward between us.”

"Uh... sure.   Well, promise me that you’ll keep that in mind if I have to bring you back from the mission early," Chronoa said.   "If you can't handle Frieza, then you definitely don't need to be picking fights with me."

Luffa smiled as she picked up the Scroll, and then she was gone.

NEXT: 「F」

[shadowsong26fic]

Some Stuff

Not a proper Coming Attractions post, that’ll come out on the first Monday of the month as always, but...a more general update on some projects (and also possibly looking for input?)

Basically, I’ve accepted the inevitable, that I’ve fallen back into ATLA in a big way. I haven’t actually rewatched the series yet, because my roommate was doing so and I kept popping in and out and I didn’t want to confuse myself by trying to do a straight rewatch while she was doing hers, but I have reread a bunch of old fanfic/RP logs, and have some plots I kind of want to work with again? Either as fulltext or as an AU Outline. Behind the cut are some more details, as well as seeking Opinions on which, if any, I should actually work on.

I am also Determined to not fall out of SW as this is going on, lol. More details about that behind the cut, as well.

(Also, I’ve talked about some of the stuff listed here on my writing discord, which feel free to come stop by and hang out! It’s basically an extension of this tumblr, only a little more interactive. Find us here!)

Star Wars Stuff:

I plan to take next weekend to bang out at minimum the next Precipice chapter, and possibly the next two (though I’ll stagger posting if I do manage to get both done). And then try and give myself a more active schedule to get the next parts of the series out.

I’m also working on a dragonshifters AU, which I’m enjoying a lot. I think OFLAM may be relegated to the back burner for a while, though I’ll probably kick it up again if I end up doing it for SWBB next year (unless I tease out enough of a Plot for dragonshifters to do that instead, lol). I’ve talked about some of the worldbuilding on my writing discord, too.

I also still owe some meme responses from way back, which I do intend to get to at some point I promise <.<

And I haven’t forgotten some other extant projects--Devoted!verse, the Ventress outline, Bail Unfucks the Timeline, Distaff, etc.--but they’re pretty back-burnered for the time being. If something Sparks in any of those, I’ll probably dive into it, but for now I’m not actively working on them in the way I am on dragonshifters and Precipice.

AtLA Stuff:

So, there’s sort of...four or five projects spinning around in my head right now, lol. One of which, if I do it, would not work as an outline so it would be fulltext. It’s canon-compliant, for the most part.

...well, I should interrupt myself here to say the following: I haven’t read a lot of the comics or tie-in novels, and my familiarity with more recent Word of God is limited. I’m basically operating out of canon defined as “it’s in the original show or WoG I’m specifically aware of, drawing in stuff from other sources as it appeals to me but otherwise ignoring it.” Where WoG contradicts itself (i.e., the timeline for Lu Ten’s death),I go with whatever answer I prefer.

In terms of worldbuilding details added in Korra--ehhhhh, it’s sort of held a little higher than the comics, etc. (in that, if I remember it, unless it Josses something I really, really liked/was foundational to something I’m doing, I’ll probably include it); but most likely whatever I’m doing will go AU enough during the first series for a lot of the other detail work/character-specific stuff to not matter.

Anyway! Back to the fun stuff.

There’s one story I’m playing with that’s not going to work as an AU outline. Depending on exactly what I focus on, there’s a couple different fulltext fics buried in it, and I’m not sure which I’d work on (or if I’d braid the two of them together). Basically, it deals with the siege of Ba Sing Se and Lu Ten’s death, and some of the fallout from that, focusing on an OC of mine and her daughter. I found a short fic I wrote for a challenge back in the day that ties into this concept, which is at the very end of this post. If I work on this, I’d probably change the names of the two relevant OCs and possibly how she gets her memory back (it was written specifically for a “what happened in the rest of the world when Zhao captured Tui” challenge; guess how many of them were Hama-related), but. Anyway, building on either the Siege portion of the story (which has a lot of West Side Story on its soundtrack in my head lol), or focusing on what she does after she remembers him. Or both! Both is also good.

The rest of the options are mostly Zuko-centric canon-divergence fics.

First option, Airbender!Zuko. This occurs because The Spirits Said So; he’s gotten very good at fake firebending using airbending. Probably to the point where he’s so deep in denial that he can’t even see the pyramids anymore, to stretch that analogy to the breaking point, lol. Basically, not much changes until the north pole, but there’s some ways for it to go from there...

Second option, Avatar Zuko. This one has been floating around in my head more lately. Reading old RP logs, my partner and I played through a bunch of different variants on how this all worked, but the one in my head right now is basically--a few months before he’s banished, they’re at Ember Island or something and he’s out on the ocean/fishing or something. Sudden storm, he stops the boat from capsizing through panicked waterbending. No other witnesses, for whatever reason. He initially decides he imagined it, something else must have happened. Except then, when he’s in the palace infirmary after getting his face melted, he does it again. At that point, he basically decides that his options here are “get turned into a weapon and kill A Lot of people, or get disappeared into some dark hole somewhere where I can’t cause any problems.” Neither of those is particularly attractive, so he decides to run away. He doesn’t know what his long-term plan is at this moment--if he’ll use the comet to regain favor/save his nation based on the context he’s operating under right now, or do something else. But he has about three and a half years before then. He figures he’ll spend a year at the Western Air Temple, looking for texts/mosaics/something to get him at least vaguely airbending; then go to the North Pole to learn waterbending for a year, then spend a year in the Earth Kingdom to learn earthbending. Planning, for the last two, to present himself as mixed and while he has a lot of his Fire Nation father’s features, he inherited bending from his other parent (or grandparent, when he goes to the North Pole). For those of you familiar with my original fic, this will also include the first iteration of a prominent secondary character from Feredar/The Farglass Cycle. Mostly so Zuko has someone to talk to at the WAT XD. 

Third and fourth options are a bit more nebulous, and both break off during the Ba Sing Se arc. First option, Zuko gets injured during the stampede when Aang moves the zoo (this will probably draw in at least one of my BSS OCs because I am pathologically incapable of not creating OCs, lol). Second option, Zuko leaves his mask behind in Lake Laogai, which means Aang will know he’s in the city. Not sure where either of those would go from that point but there’s some Significant Differences there, lol.

...anyway, that’s where things stand now. Which, if any, are y’all interested in seeing?

As promised, the clip from the Lu Ten story, originally written for a challenge back in...yeesh 2010 XD. Again, this is canon-compliant at least up until Iroh and Zuko arrive in BSS, and I’d possibly change the names and/or how she gets her memories back.

An Wei sat by the window, holding her little girl and watching the sky. Today had been one of Huai's bad days, so An Wei had her hand resting lightly on her daughter's neck, counting her heartbeats. The doctors had told her, back when Huai was a baby and they'd figured out what was wrong with her, to hope for seven years--but only to hope, not to count on them. So An Wei took special care to always, always watch. She never regretted her child, no. Occasionally, she wished she had never met Huai's father, but...well, she couldn't remember much about him, other than the kind golden eyes (false kindness?) that had taken her in so completely during the Siege. She didn't think about him very much. It was too painful--and dangerous. Above and beyond the dangers in thinking about the War That Was No War, her own father had... Well, he hadn't been pleased. She didn't remember the argument, but her uncle wouldn't have brought her to the Lower Ring midwife who had cared for her during her pregnancy if she hadn't needed to hide. Despite all of her vigilance, it was her own heart that skipped a beat when the moonlight filtering in through her window turned an eerie, dull red. She gasped and clutched her daughter a little tighter, praying that Huai would sleep until this went away, so it wouldn't frighten her. That is, assuming it would go away. She shivered and shifted Huai so the little girl was facing away from the window and watched in horror as the bloody moon failed to return to normal. "Please..." she whispered. "Please be normal when she wakes..." As if in response to her desperate pleading, the moon flared silver again after a half hour. But she barely had a moment to relax before it winked out completely. An Wei jumped and stifled a scream. "Don't be afraid of the dark, this'll light your way home." She jumped again. There was no one here in the room with her and Huai, but she could have sworn... The moon blinked back into existence and a pretty girl with long white hair rode in on one of its beams. An Wei stared up at her, still frightened, pulling her daughter away from the girl as best she could. The moon-girl bent down and kissed An Wei's forehead. "Remember now," she murmured, then faded out of sight. ** "Don't be afraid of the dark." He smiles and makes a little light in his palm, carefully transferring it to a bundle of sticks. "This will light your way home." ** She studies the hairpiece he wears in his topknot, turning it over and over in her hands. "There's something you should know about me, too. About my family." ** "We can make this work, Itsu." He's determined, hopeful, his golden eyes shining. "We'll talk to my father. He'll understand. We'll make it work. Meet me here, at the usual time." "I trust you." ** She waits and waits and waits, until long past dark, but he doesn't come. ** She hates speaking with her guardian, but she's scared and has nowhere else to go. "Please, help me," she finishes quietly. He nods. "I'll keep you safe, Highness. You and your child. I promise." ** The light spins around and around and around, and she forgets her name, forgets her lover, and in her place is An Wei, a young woman trained as a scribe, seduced by a nameless Fire soldier, rather than... ** Itsu let out a little sobbing breath. Huai shifted in her arms. "Mommy?" she whispered, still half-asleep. "It's okay, baby, everything's okay. Go back to sleep." "'Kay." Huai closed her golden eyes again and her breathing evened out as much as it ever did. Itsu held her daughter close. Twice over a princess, at the worst possible time, born with a broken heart. No wonder Long Feng hid us so deep.

[to clarify--Itsu is Kuei’s sister. I forget how I set the relative ages, but assuming, as seems to be the case in flashbacks, that Lu Ten is about 10 years older than Zuko, he’d be somewhere between twenty and twenty-two when he died, depending on which date you believe; Kuei is around the same age (possibly a year or two younger?) and Itsu within two years of them.]

[thekytchensynk]

A History (Fictober Prompt 5)

Prompt number: 5

Fanfiction Fandom: Dr. Stone

Rating: T

Warnings: No warnings

Read this story on AO3

Kinro dodges the first thrust. The second. Pivots. Attacks.

Misses.

“Too shallow!” Kohaku’s voice conveys as much irritation and disappointment as her weapon, as she closes in and strikes under his left arm, knocking him a step to the left. He resists the urge to react, and the two step apart instead. “I can’t say it any other way. You need to attack all the way through!”

The sun had dropped below the trees about ten minutes ago, and probably they should be eating dinner (he knows Ginro has already hightailed it back to the village to get his meal), but Kohaku hasn’t called an end, so he’s not going to ask for one. She’s taking the time to train him. He’s going to do everything she asks as part of that.

“Magma’ll be going for blood,” she says as she paces across their little sparring arena, twirling one of her padded weapons with a careless elegance that makes it almost look like a dance. “You can’t do this halfway.”

“I’m not,” he says, with only a small twinge of uneasiness. Ginro had urged him to tell Chrome and Senku about his vision problems, and on some level not doing so does indeed feel like doing things halfway. But at the same time … what were they going to do about it? It would just be making an excuses. Like he was telling them he expected to lose.

No excuses in war.

He can’t make excuses, and he can’t lose. Kohaku is training him because she wants to save Ruri, and he wants to as well -- not for her own sake alone, or for Kohaku’s, but because Magma cannot win again. Because if he were to get the village under his thumb … if he did that…

“Pay attention.”

Kohaku’s not angry -- not even chiding him really. More just calling him back to the moment, to this opponent and this fight. “Yes,” he says, resuming his ready stance. They go again. This time he feels he’s nearly got her, but she dances back to where her form becomes indistinct, where the difference between one step and the next gets lost, and he misses to the right. She lands lightly on his weapon -- how can someone so strong be so relatively light? -- and frowns down at him.

“You can’t beat him like this,” she says, hopping down and patting him on the shoulder before walking away, back toward the village.

She leans on the word “him” as though it were a prophecy. It’s the first time Kinro knows for sure that Kohaku knows.

“It is a great honor to defend the village. Safety is one of the building blocks upon which prosperity is built.”

Kinro, seven years old today, nods enthusiastically. It’s almost word for word the thing his father told him as he was sent off to train. His father had said it like he believed it, and old Topaz said it like he was just getting it over with, but Kinro believes it both times. The monsters from the hundred stories could all be out there. He imagines them sometimes, seeing their figures painted in the smoke of a campfire or the clouds overhead. Monsters that could sneak in and hurt his family and friends.

To learn to stand against such creatures was indeed the best thing one could do.

He does have his doubts though. Stories of Topaz’s history as a fighter are sometimes told around the fire, and everyone raises toasts to him on those evenings, but the man before him doesn’t look like a warrior. He is old, shrunken into his clothing, with eyes that squint at the world. Kinro rarely sees him anymore. His mother says Topaz has been ill, and has been resting to regain his strength, but Kinro thinks if that’s the case, the man needs to rest for a season. When he stands, he leans on his cane and still, can’t hide the tremors in his legs.

Still, his father said he would come here, to this man, to learn to be brave and fight. So he was going to do just that.

“We will begin working today, to help you become the honorable fighter your village needs you to be.” Topaz isn’t looking at Kinro, exactly. His eyes turn in the right general direction, but he doesn’t seem to be seeing. “It will be difficult, but if you obey orders, you will do your village proud.”

“Thank you for teaching me,” Kinro says, as he was instructed before leaving home. Then he waits in silence for the instruction to begin. The waiting makes him feel a little bit sick, and the situation gets worse the longer he stands here wondering just what will happen. He has used sticks and played at fighting with his brother and other village children, imitating the village chief. But the real thing is probably harder. What if he’s terrible? What if he’s weak? What if he goes home to his parents’ disappointed faces -- this child of ours cannot help protect anyone.

“We will start with the basics,” Topaz says, raising his cane with one hand. For a moment, Kinro thinks he intends to fight using that cane as a weapon, before realizing that he is pointing, only pointing. “And I have requested the aid of a powerful pupil. He will be helping me to train the youth of the village. Please convey your thanks to him as well.”

Kinro turns to see who the man meant, and there stands one of the older boys, Magma, with a padded stick over one shoulder and a grin on his face.

“You just need to try to strike through your opponent,” Chrome says as he carefully grinds some stone or another into dust at Senku’s instruction. “Don’t just stop when you think you’ve hit, right?”

Kinro makes a noncommittal noise from where he sits a few feet away, sharpening his spear -- his real spear, not the weapon for the upcoming Village Games. He appreciates that Chrome is trying to be helpful, but in a lot of ways, he may be the last person Kinro wants advice from.

Chrome isn’t much of a fighter, but not having the physical skill to do something doesn’t necessarily mean your observations aren’t sharp. In this case, he’s not saying anything Kinro hasn’t already tried, but he means well.

That isn’t the problem.

Even Kinro knows that the younger man wants badly to be the tournament victor, not for the power or glory that accompanied it, but simply because he wants to protect someone he cares about. Kinro gets that. He’s built his life to this point around protecting people. He is willing to give his life for it. He can’t imagine what would happen if his ability to do so were diminished to the point where it seemed an unattainable dream.

He feels like the advice Chrome gives him is baring something deep and secret in the sorc… the scientist, and he doesn’t want to observe that. Doesn’t want to be responsible for knowing it.

“How close are you getting?” he asks instead.

And Chrome explains. He tries to keep it in terms a non-scientist can understand, but sometimes his excitement gets the better of him and he leaps from the sphere of things Kinro knows and understands and into a world of words that sound like nonsense. But then he catches himself. Reins it back. Back to the clearer concepts.

Senku runs hot and cold, either too complicated from the get go or simplifying things to their broad concepts. Chrome, maybe because they’ve known one another so long, makes an attempt to explain the things they’re doing so Kinro understands. He appreciates it. And tonight, he wants those explanations. The intensity of the explanation carries how intensely Chrome needs them to win, so they can save Ruri.

Kinro decides to focus on that.

“ Are you even trying?”

Yes , Kinro wants to shout. I’m trying. You’re the one who’s not!

But he holds his silence and picks himself up out of the dirt. One of his teeth cut into his lip on that last one. He barely feels it. He’s sure it hurts, but after two weeks of training, everything hurts. This is just one more.

“Being able to set a solid base is the most important thing to know about fighting,” Magma chides, and in someone else’s mouth this might sound like honest instruction. “Your blocks will be weak. Your attacks won’t hurt. Try again.”

So Kinro sets his feet as Magma had shown him that first day, when Topaz listlessly watched them both. But most days since, Topaz has only watched briefly before wandering off to “take care of some things,” or just to nap.

Kinro assumed others would also be training, but it is mostly just the two of them. Magma sometimes speaks contemptuously about Titan, about how he is weak, how he has given up on training and joined his father felling trees. Kinro has watched Titan at work and doesn’t think he looks weak at all. But Magma seems sure, and Titan’s not here, so Kinro guesses he is missing something.

Carbo comes by sometimes to spar with Magma, but it seems to be out of obligation. The matches are always short. Kinro thinks Carbo could probably do better than he does -- he’s much quicker when he’s out fishing on the water than he is in matches with Magma. But it would be wrong to question his elders, even if they’re not much elder, so he keeps quiet. At least when Magma trains with Carbo, he’s not training with Kinro.

But there is no Carbo today, just Kinro who sets his feet as he was shown and raises his practice spear to block, and Magma, who swings with everything he has, and the end result is Kinro in the dirt again.

“What is going on here?”

Topaz’s voice cuts through the shady, wooded area where the two are practicing. He has woken from his nap it seems. And for a moment, Kinro thinks he must have seen that, he must know that Magma isn’t teaching him how to do anything. As he scrambles to his feet in front of the teacher, Magma speaks first.

“I am doing my best, Master Topaz.” Kinro can hear the edge of mockery in Magma’s voice. “But he refuses to even try to follow my instructions. A breeze could knock him over.”

What? Kinro starts to defend himself, to speak up for himself, but Topaz speaks before he has a chance.

“Unacceptable! Try again.”

“Master-”

“You can make statements and requests once I see you trying and not wasting people’s time,” Topaz says firmly, a little angrily. And just like that, there’s nothing Kinro can do. So he sets his feet as he was shown, and waits for the attack.

This one and the next few don’t come anywhere near as hard and fast. The first one knocks him to one knee, but it’s barely a tumble. And he thinks he can understand now what they were talking about with a strong base. It’s not something he could explain, but he can feel it -- the way the first of the attack carries down through his arms and torso and into his legs, and how if we were not braced, it would have sent him sprawling. The next time, he keeps his feet. And the next. And the next.

“So you can do it,” Topaz says after the fifth. “Don’t think you can be lazy when I am not here, child. You will only hurt yourself.”

He’s not really looking. Magma is grinning. So Kinro takes the only dutiful path.

“Yes sir.”

“We have two days.” Kohaku isn’t even breaking a sweat, while Kinro has been left panting by the day’s relentless training. “You have to break this habit. You are running out of time.”

She isn’t wrong, but without some idea on how to do it, they are just words. And he has no idea how to do it. Willpower and determination won’t be enough.

On the bright side, he does think intensive training with her had helped. They’re actually surprisingly evenly matched in a lot of ways. She is just so fast, and he can't keep up -- but he is getting slightly closer. And most of the fighters in the games would look slow in comparison. Especially Magma -- he’s always moved like a bear, ponderous but powerful, terrifyingly powerful.

Kohaku backs off and glances around. He knows without asking that she is looking for his brother, who has shirked training yet again. He always spends at least some time with the two of them, but usually no more than half of the overall training they do. Sometimes Senku finds him and threatens him with work until he returns. Sometimes he slinks away to one of the hiding places that only he knows to “practice by himself.” Kinro doesn't know if he just already thinks he's ready, despite evidence to the contrary, or if he’s already mentally abdicated his role as a fighter, expecting Kohaku and Kinro to do the real fighting.

“Sorry about Ginro,” he says as she scans the treeline.

“His training is not your responsibility,” she replies firmly.

He grunts in answer. Because of course Ginro’s training, his lack of discipline, is because his older brother has not carefully instilled it in him. He has been coddled, as much as people in this village can be. Protected.

Kohaku looks around once more anyway, just in case, then asks over her shoulder, “are you ready if you face him?”

He wonders if her constant travels into the forest when she was younger had led her to see some of the training he’d undergone. She’s never mentioned it, if so. But alone out of everyone, she seems to get that he is both hoping for and dreading a fight against Magma. That it is more than just Magma being the biggest obstacle. That it is personal, for him.

“Are you?” she asks again, curious.

“I will have to be,” is his only answer.

Many members of the village visit Topaz occasionally, making sure he has food and his home is warm and that he has good clothing. But lately there has been someone with him around the clock. Kinro is drifting off to sleep one night when someone comes and asks his mother to come watch over the old man. She goes without argument. By the time he wakes in the morning, she is back. Curious, Kinro asks why she went to the trainer’s home.

“Topaz is a strong man,” his mother says, taking one of his hands in both of hers. She looks tired, her blond hair unkempt from being out for most of the night. “But he is very tired. Our village will soon have to say goodbye to him, and we do not wish to leave him by himself until that time comes. It would be respectful for you to visit him today. To thank him and to say goodbye.”

Frankly, Kinro doesn’t want to. He has been given very little by Topaz. The man has not attended training in months, and even before that, he rarely taught anything -- just barking out a few orders when he was able to make it to a session. Kinro felt sure he couldn’t see enough to actually tell whether or not he was doing things right.

So Kinro doesn’t hate Topaz. He just isn’t grateful to him. The man had clearly once been spry and powerful and an important protector of the village, but he had kept the job of training the village children and then abdicated it to the last fighter he had trained, who used it as a weapon.

It isn’t that Kinro hasn’t learned anything from training with Magma in the last year and a half. He has. It is just mostly in spite of Magma, not because of him. He’s learned to use his quickness as a weapon. He’s learned to angle his spear to deflect some of the power in the older boy’s attacks, to lessen some of the brute strength advantage. He’s learned when to move and when to stand firm. It is an imperfect fighting style born not of training but of experience and pain.

And he’s learned that Magma likes to use training as a way to bully people into submission. To remove them as a threat to whatever he might want to do. To add them to his group, or to keep them out of fighting all together.

Kinro has decided he will do neither. Even if he pays for that every time they train.

“Can you come with me?” he asks.

And she smiles, saying, “Of course. Would you like to go now?” When he nods, she lets his father know they’re going, then takes his hand and they leave the house.

“We should see about your brother joining you,” she adds as they cross the village, before stifling a yawn.

“But he doesn’t know Master Topaz,” Kinro says. He also isn’t sure mischievous Ginro would be the best person to bring to a dying man’s bedside.

“Mmm. No. For training. With Magma now, I guess?”

Kinro stops abruptly enough that his hand pulls from his mother’s. She stops too. Turns. “Kinro?”

“Magma is taking over training?”

She walks back over to him and crouches down. He’s getting taller, and this actually makes her a little bit shorter than he. He’s not sure if she’s just tired and doesn’t want to stand, or if she just wants to look him in the eye as she asks, “Is something wrong?”

He looks into her face. She’s asking. He can tell her. He can let her know. But… if he tells her, she’ll make him stop training with Magma. May make him stop training to be a guard, a protector. And Magma hasn’t been able to batter that desire out of him.

“Will Magma accept Ginro as a student?” he asks. It’s a legitimate question, if not his real worry. He can deal with what Magma throws at him, but his brother is energetic and outgoing and a bit of a crybaby. And Magma will either break him, or else he’ll chase Ginro off, and he'll never get a chance to learn if he’s any good at fighting.

His mother considers the question for a long few seconds. “I suppose we’ll have to see,” she says. “But you can’t worry about that. You just worry about yourself.”

That statement honestly doesn’t make sense to him. Ginro is his little brother. He’s been helping watch over him for years. And nothing in him will let his brother face Magma’s training.

“I could train him,” Kinro says, anxiety pitching his voice up.

His mother smiles fondly. But then the smile fades as she studies his face. She leans in a little closer. “You’re serious about this, huh?” she asks. He nods emphatically. “Is there something wrong with training with Magma? You can tell me.”

He doesn’t say yes. But he doesn’t say no either. And after a little while, she takes his hand and they go say goodbye to Topaz, who looks almost unreal in his bed, still and pale. He’s gone by that evening.

The next two days, his parents speak to the parents of some of the other older children in the village. And they ask him, with forced casualness, if he still wants to keep training with Magma. And he says yes, and no more is said of it. But Ginro stays home, being trained by a combination of his brother and his father.

“You can’t possibly go along with this, Kohaku! Match fixing … it would be a disgrace to the entire bout!”

But even as he says it, he knows the answer. What she wants is to save her sister. If that means getting free wins so she can save her strength, so be it. And he doesn't agree with her, but he gets it. He totally gets it. And it makes him feel a little guilty.

Because everyone else is united in their reasons to fight. And sure, he shares that reason with them. He wants to protect Ruri, for her own sake and Kohaku’s and Chrome’s.

But he has another reason too.

When Kinro is eleven, training starts to happen less regularly. By the time he’s 13, Magma decides training him is “not worth his time” and ends it. Kinro wonders, for a long time after, why exactly that happened.

Magma may be telling the truth. After all, more and more often, their training ends in stalemates. Magma can still put him down with one blow if it’s a clean one. But landing a clean blow is becoming harder and harder for his teacher to manage. He sees the frustration building. It may certainly not be worth it.

But Kinro never stops wondering if it’s something else.

Magma clearly hoped his offer -- lick my boot and join my side rather than fight me -- would be tempting. The history between them, mostly hidden from everyone else in the village, weighed in those words and the taunts that followed.

Kinro hadn’t backed down before. He wasn’t going to do so this time either. Not with everything on the line. And he couldn’t help but notice that Magma was doing everything to put him off his game.

“I’m no longer the fighter you know,” He found himself saying in the face of Magma’s taunts. And as he said it, he realized it was true. Magma was still bigger, but no longer nearly as much so. And he was slow. And he wanted to win only for himself.

And he couldn’t scare Kinro. Not anymore.

[markoftheasphodel]

FE Conquest Part 1 (Chapters Prologue-4)

So, I have a second-hand copy of FE Conquest (thanks, Lance!) I’ve been meaning to play for some time but in between my ancient 3DS having the battery life of a mayfly and the overall excitement of Three Houses, I’ve not truly picked it up until now. But when one is Up North with no internet and no data connection, spending a rainy evening with a 3DS sounds like a good proposition, so here we are.

NOTA BENE: Because my impression of FE14 fandom is and remains “infested with wankers” I will not be tagging this with FE14. If you wish to blacklist it, please block the custom tag “mark joins the conquest.”

Anyhoo. So my Corrin for this game is f!Corrin because based on FE Heroes I find her less obnoxious than her male incarnation. I went with the default face and voice but opted for cute & short hair, colored Camilla-lavender and adorned with a butterfly hair pin so she fits in better with the Nohr sisters. On with the story…

Spoilers for FE14 ensue!

1) That opening tutorial with the Hoshido sibs made me wonder if I’d somehow loaded the wrong game. What the hell was that? That was just… hallucinatory and not in a compelling way.

2) Gameplay is pretty eh thru the opening chapters. The green/red/blue weapon triangle feels less bizarre than it would’ve before Heroes took the concept and ran with it, so there’s no dissonance there. Dragon Veins are really the only thing interesting in the mix thus far, but of course it’s early yet.

3) Story is… holy shit, this is pretty goddamned bad writing. All the characters are familiar to me thanks to Heroes force-feeding them to me over and over and over again, but in between that fever dream of an opener and the first two actual battles, you’re introduced to more characters than I have goddamned fingers. All the Nohr sibs, most of the Hoshido sibs, four retainers for Corrin, Lilith, and then Garon, Rinkah, and Kaze once you get to the capital. Exposition drops as clumsily as a plate falling from Felicia’s fingers. Like, I understand people have issues with the localization but that is too damn many characters introduced in too short of a time.

3a) Like the whole “it’s still dark outside” bit— does Corrin lose her memory every single day? Surely she knows it’s dark in the daytime? Right? Why is this stupid plot point even a thing?

4) Garon, Hans, and Iago all reek of evil, and the only thing keeping the story aloft is Corrin’s invincible innocence.

5) I have to say I’d long forgotten about Leo’s opening stunt to save Corrin’s hide; he’s just about the only character acting like a plausible human. Xander is halfway there. Elise is halfway there if one assumes she is indeed a child and not “technically an adult” (lol). Everyone else is baaaaaad. Like, I know them from Heroes and it appears Heroes isn’t selling them short.

6) So having Hans on our team is like BEING the bandits led by a big ugly evil bandit dude in early-game FE. Cute inversion, I guess.

7) Oh, and then Hans pushes Gunter off a bridge and Corrin starts transforming into… something. Corrin losing her “babysitter” would’ve been a lot more powerful had we known Gunter for more than THREE brief chapters in which he shared the retainer spotlight with three other characters, two of whom we’ve already ditched.

8) And then the magical koi fish/dragon loli whisks Corrin off to the goddamned astral plane. What is this I don’t even. Yeah, at this point I’m thinking they should’ve just made an anime.

9) Back on Planet Earth, Corrin gets taken to Hoshido to meet her True Family, which comes across as manipulative bullshit if one knows that the Hoshido sibs are no more your “real” family in the genetic sense than the Nohr kids are and the whole “birthright” thing is a load of pegasus dung and these kids Corrin doesn’t remember have no more right to her heart than the siblings she knows and loves. The Nohr sibs as far as I can tell do love Corrin back, while the Hoshido kids at best love an idea of a person— Sakura doesn’t even know who Corrin was!

10) Oh, but then Azura shows up and we learn that it’s better to be a hostage taken in by a Good Mommy than a member of a family ruled by a Bad Dad, so that should answer that, except this is Conquest so it won’t.

11) Also yes, Garon is absolutely transparently terribad and abusive.

12) This writing is also terribad and given the structural issues I don’t know that a better localization would even help much. The pacing is terribad.

[cosmicmoved]

ABOUT KARAM...

hi, i’m back with another oc & this time it’s a concept that might be a little confusing, i guess, but pls bear with me! <3 this is KARAM, and you might consider him a sort of...spirit? of sorts? not in the sense of being a ghosty-type guy bc he’s definitely not dead but he’s sort of a guardian entity who is concerned with guarding nature, specifically a certain area of land he considers to be his home. his story is that, basically, he failed to guard his home, thanks to humans destroying the whole place and forcing him out of there. now, he’s trying to live among humans? this would be where the fun, wacky adventures would start but Karam also kind of hates humans and thinks they suck /: y’know, partly bc they’re destroying the planet but also bc he thinks he’s better than them by default.

fun phob note........this muse is actually kind of a mash-up of a muse i made in 2014 who was actually a final fantasy summon type deal and a muse i made in like?? june 2019 for an rpg that closed really quick (obvs not the same one as tomo but i just don’t have good luck with this stuff huh)...but also with a whole ton of new shit thrown in. so this muse is essentially a whole new experience & i’m counting him as a new oc from here but the concepts have been in my head for 5 years.

i probably won’t be tackling ships & stuff with this muse unless i really feel The Chemistry bc he’s just......not that kinda muse! anyway, below are some basic pieces of info & a basic backstory. i’ll explain things in more detail later but i kinda wanna get this out of the way now! he’s got some spooky vibes so i definitely wanted to introduce him officially this month! also sorry if the backstory repeats some stuff already in the facts bc i wrote them separately.

Karam is actually relatively young as far as his type go; he’s 266 years old and born in a world that was already being vastly changed my destructive technology.

For the record, Karam doesn’t hate technology. He doesn’t avoid it. He doesn’t own a phone either but he can tell the difference between shit that improves people’s lives in some way and shit that’s sucking the life from the planet.

That said, he knows fuck all about most modern technology. He doesn’t GET human shit.

Tell me if you want me to stay away from this area of things but I feel like Karam can usually tell when somebody isn’t human, no matter how human they might look. By default, he’ll be nicer to muses who aren’t strictly human. This one actually has less to do with nature or the planet, this one’s just because he’s a bit of a snob. However, a lot of magic is based around these concepts of not abusing the natural order so uhh...that’s worth counting!

karam is dramatic. this bullet point could easily be left as is, nothing more said, but yeah, dal is dramatic. perhaps even overdramatic at times. he manages to strike a balance between imposing and showy when he needs to but he’s still a bit of a showoff at heart and he likes to make sure his feelings are known, even if he’s over-exaggerating. he can also be a bit blunt and very brusque. this makes him seem as though he might be a cold person but he mostly doesn’t think before he talks. but not because he’s easily distracted or verbally impulsive, he just doesn’t believe he needs to think first around most people. that sort of foresight is reserved for people more powerful and important than him!!

favourite food is all seafood. especially fish. he grew up eating fish from rivers and considers them to have a nostalgic taste but ocean fish are the real winners. dal doesn’t warm to people all that easily but, much like an npc from [insert harvest moon, stardew valley, animal crossing or your favourite calming game here], hand him a fish a day for a long enough period and he might just grow fond of you (bonus points for actual cooked dishes). but i mean he’s also that npc who’s rude to you the whole time, right up until he decides to have a change of heart, so it’s really up to you if you wanna pursue that,,,

he’s a bit of a solitary guy but not by design. dal grew up alone for the most part so he’s just not really all that used to having people around. he doesn’t go out of his way to isolate himself or anything like that but he doesn’t enjoy having too many people around. too noisy. too overwhelming. dude needs his space.

wears a lot of black, belts and leather. dresses kind of like a final fantasy character. everybody just assumes he's a goth. Karam doesn't know what a goth is.

has never even fast food. doesn’t know what a burger tastes like. chicken nuggets are a foreign concept.

BACKSTORY

Karam was raised in the mountains by a nature spirit as one of half a pair of fraternal twins. He was aided by his mother until he was old enough to fend for himself and promptly left to fight his own battles. He doesn’t remember much of the early days, they were much too long ago, and he barely knew his mother long enough to think of her as anything much more than a mentor long since passed from his life. His brother was abandoned with him but Karam barely remembers him. In fact, all he remembers are the days spent training his reflexes, catching and eating fish from the river.

After living in the mountain forests and standing watch over his land for over two hundred years, Karam lost his home to deforestation. The place he had once called home was to become a block of overpriced apartment flats for humans with more money than sense. Reluctant to truly leave his home behind and move on to another forest, Karam (who had spent years visiting the city proper out of curiosity and had learned a lot about modern humans in that time) settled upon living an aimless life amongst humans. So far, he hates it.

In the face of strangers, Karam is standoffish and even a little stuck-up. He's fussy and likes things to go his own way. It seems that he is disdainful of humans, blaming them for the state of the planet they inhabit. He is capable of befriending humans and has done so before but, for the most part, he is distrustful of them and has a low opinion of mankind as a whole. There is a kinder side to him too but it is carefully reserved for those who know him better, even in spite of him not being especially precious about his private affairs. Karam is very blunt and, like I said before, not because he doesn't care about others' feelings but because he believes he's too important to have to think before he speaks.

[androgyne-acolyte]

The “I” in Christ

Commissioning, Community, and Lessons From Hamilton

(My second sermon, for Confirmation Sunday. You can also listen on Soundcloud.)

This Sunday, a few of us are about to confirm our formal membership in this community of St. Andrew’s; we do this with a profession of faith, along with a promise to seek justice and resist evil. Not only does the process of confirmation ask the question of what it means to be part of a Christian community, but this passage from Luke (10:1-11,16-20) also poses the question of what it means to live out our own discipleship beyond the walls of the church — especially in an age where the image of door-to-door missionaries is something of a bad joke.

Perhaps Christianity’s best-kept secret is this: the actual gospel of Jesus is tremendously relatable to anyone else whose mission is also to seek justice and resist evil. These first disciples were instructed to bear one message: that “the Kingdom of God has come near” — or, to put it in more contemporary language, we might say “another world is possible”.

Jesus says to carry no extra gear, going out like lambs into the midst of wolves; greeting no one on the road, but traveling in pairs. This is a radically vulnerable commission — relying entirely on the generosity of strangers, who may not even care if you live or die — but it is also a commission of interdependence and reliance on one another. Sometimes, we might retreat by ourselves into the metaphorical desert for a while to figure things out. But when we go forth and proclaim the good news of the Kingdom of Heaven, we’re not meant to go it alone. And so, from its earliest moments, Christianity is lived out in relationship.

We also see this in how the very early Christians came together in table fellowship — the root of our communion ritual. Jesus and the disciples had caught on to something that’s borne out by sociological science today (this is why we also had lunch as part of our confirmation classes): deep down, our brain associates “the people with whom you eat” with “family”. This becomes especially resonant when we consider that Jesus’ ministry seems to have been responding, at least in part, to the breakup and dispossession of families caused by Roman encroachment on Jewish ancestral farmlands.

So part of Jesus’ message to these seventy disciples is about going out and finding allies — and through that work, making new and cohesive communities in a time of tremendous social upheaval. Then and now, Christianity creates familial structures that counter the systems of injustice in the world with a message of radical community and genuine connection.

The New Testament, in the original Greek, calls this concept of community or fellowship koinonia, literally participation, partnership, or sharing, with emphasis on the element of relationship; a koinonos, used in the Epistles to describe the disciples’ relationship to Christ and to one another, is a sharer, partner, or companion; a joint participant. So, when we become part of the Body of Christ, we become partners, koinonoi, in acting out God’s intent, “on earth as it is in heaven”. As Jesus says when he is asked when the Kingdom will come (later on in the Gospel of Luke), “the Kingdom of God is among you” (Luke 17:21).

So I suggest that we can look at koinonia — this radical companionship — as a concept that has four pillars. They are economic, interpersonal, internal, and political — and together, they answer a world of imperial domination and hierarchical, transactional relationships with the egalitarian, reciprocal relationships of a truly divine community.

Most of us grew up hearing the Gospel story of how a few loaves and fishes fed five thousand people. When Jesus says “give them something to eat”, the disciples respond with “but how can we possibly go out and buy enough bread for everybody?”. But Jesus had a plan — and we are told that “all ate and were filled” (Luke 9:10-17). This isn’t just a fanciful miracle story; in Jesus’ world, everybody gets enough. This is a total reimagining of our economic model. 

We see this principle carried out in the book of Acts, chapter 4: among the growing circle of disciples, it’s said that “there was not a needy person among them”, because people sold their possessions and shared the proceeds; “they laid it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need” (Acts 4:32-35).

“But that could never work!” we say, just like in the story of the loaves and fishes. I may not be an economic theorist, but my guess is that what gets in the way is our own self-interest; of course it won’t work if you assume that you and everyone else are just looking out for number one. The missing ingredient here is what the Bible calls lovingkindness, or what I call radical compassion — the key to the interpersonal aspect of the Kingdom of Heaven.

Remember, Jesus’ program is about treating people like family. And what happens when people feel safe enough, trusting enough, to be able to treat each other as a functioning family? “You’re in need? That’s okay, I’ll cover you.” — “Whatever happens, you’re still my sibling in Christ.”

This ideal of the family of God doesn’t end at the steps of the church, by the way. This is what Buddhist teachings mean when they talk about widening the circle of compassion: Talk to your neighbours. Look a panhandler in the eye. Fall in love with the immigrant kids down the corridor who won’t stop bouncing off the walls. Invite that raggedy backpacker down on Spring Garden Road to brunch. But, Jesus cautions, don’t make a big deal out of it; this is just what we do.

But again, we worry, just like the disciples: what if there’s someone in this community who’s really needy, taking up all the available resources and emotional energy? Perhaps that’s where a community can do its best work: helping a person become self-sufficient. Finding them a therapist, even if it means emailing every private practice in [the immediate area]. Finding them meaningful work in the community, something that provides for them and reminds them that their life matters. Granted, that’s extremely hard to do under late capitalism — but maybe that’s a specific challenge for Christians today!

We don’t claim to offer miracle cures here, but we do offer compassion and grace and walking with someone on the road to healing. And if you’ve bought into the Christian message, you’re already imagining the possibility of becoming whole — recognizing the image of God within yourself — and if you know any trauma survivors, you already know that that’s half the battle.

And to support each other like this, we have to be comfortable with being vulnerable. Paradoxically, that’s very hard to do in our white, English, North American church culture! 

My childhood pastor used to say that a good church has to be so much more than just “a club for nice people” — part of that is because niceness and civility as we understand them involve building very specific walls around yourself, so that no one sees the mess and the struggle underneath your calm exterior. But when others see that you’re a flawed, messy human too, they respond in kind. 

The very best of my church relationships are the very few people to whom I can confess almost anything, and they can confess almost anything to me. We inevitably find ourselves going deep; we have long conversations that are intense and sometimes unsettling, but I always come away feeling more fulfilled, more whole than I was before. And what is salvation in the original Greek but a kind of healing, or “making whole”?

That leads us into the internal work of the Kingdom of God. The hardest lesson we can hope to learn is to give up our preconceived notions of how things ought to be and what others are like. This is where contemplation comes in; it’s about letting go of our hangups so that we can see the bigger picture. This process of self-emptying seems like such a bewildering thought, but it’s a fundamentally liberating process. Just ask our Buddhist neighbours.

So, Christian community calls us to break free from our own self-interest by living as members of one body; as a collective of voices working together in constant dialogue. One might say that there is no “I” in Christ. 

And here is where being political comes in. When we live together in lovingkindness, in partnership, when we let go of our attachments to see things as they really are — we begin to see that this is exactly the opposite of what the world wants, both then and now.

We’ve heard [St. Andrew’s lead minister] Russ [Daye] speak of “sin” not so much as an individual moral failing, but as the state of a society propelled by self-interest and operating through systemic inequality, oppression, and violence. And when we see the big picture, we start to see that that’s exactly what’s going on.

A fully realized Christian life, lived out according to the principles of radical community, makes the scales fall from our eyes and highlights the terrible workings of inhumane disconnection and self-interest that our society is based on. That, in the eyes of our world, makes us dangerous. 

I recently had an extraordinary online conversation with another queer ministry hopeful, who is not afraid to state point-blank that “love cannot exist [or cannot exist fully] in a space where we are complicit in our neighbours’ suffering and exploitation”. We both agreed that a lot of us moderate Christians aren’t politically active because we can’t truly fathom how deep-rooted these systems of oppression actually are, let alone have any idea of how to stand up to them. 

But I invite you to consider that the kind of strong support structure that a fully realized Christian community can provide can be a living “no” to the Caesars of this world, and can empower us to speak our truth to their face, no matter the consequences. “We know love by this,” says the epistle of 1 John, “that he [Jesus] laid down his life for us — and we ought to lay down our lives for one another” (1 John 3:16).

Perhaps, then, there are many “I”s in Christ — together, we are the pillars that hold up God’s kingdom.

However we choose to confront the Caesars of our world, we must always centre our love for God and one another in our actions. This can mean letting our hearts break at the injustice all around us — remember, we are called to be vulnerable! — but it also means means finding and creating opportunities to speak out and stand up for justice; equipping one another with the skills to do so; and lifting each other up in support when those opportunities come.

Let me tell you a story about one such situation.

On June 15, only a few weeks ago, the Pride festival in Hamilton, Ontario was confronted by a group of right-wing agitators carrying giant banners with homophobic messages, shouting slurs, and threatening physical violence. Shamefully, many of these people had the gall to call themselves Christian, using our faith as justification for their hatred and aggression. 

Hamilton police, for their part, did very little to protect the Pride marchers. 

(By the way, I’ve tried to rely on firsthand accounts of this situation wherever possible.)

What did happen at Hamilton Pride was this: after a similar encounter a few weeks earlier in Dunville, Ontario, where homophobes and counter-demonstrators spent six whole hours trying to drown each other out, an affinity group formed in Hamilton with a new plan. They built a thirty-foot-wide, nine-foot-tall barrier out of black cloth, practiced moving it around as a team — and when the right-wing agitators showed up, the affinity group moved their barrier into position and physically blocked the agitators off from the rest of the festival. They intentionally did not raise their fists to strike at anyone.

But — they still got beat up. As the original members of the affinity group dragged themselves away from the fists and helmets of these right-wing bullies, they looked around to see people they didn’t even know rushing to the scene and keeping the barrier standing. The barrier, incredibly, remained intact until the police arrived a full hour later, escorting the troublemakers out of the park with their hateful signs in tatters. 

Community. We lay down our lives for one another.

When asked why the police didn’t get there sooner, an eyewitness reportedly heard the officer respond, “Don’t you remember we weren’t invited to Pride? We’re just going to stand here, not my problem”. [x]

There are, of course, many more layers to this story than I have time to get into here. But the ongoing aftermath of this situation is worth talking about. 

The queer community in Hamilton was furious and disappointed, if unsurprised. Remember that there is a decades-long history of criminalization and persecution of queer communities by police, and of police turning a blind eye to homophobic and transphobic violence. That tension doesn’t go away overnight, and it is still very much with us today.

A few days later, a local queer activist named Cedar Hopperton was arrested, purportedly because being present at Hamilton Pride had violated their parole conditions related to a previous act of civil disobedience. (Like me, Cedar goes by the pronouns “they” and “them”.)

But here’s the thing: according to eyewitnesses, Cedar wasn’t part of that incident at Pride. They had stayed at home, where their friends came to them for support and first aid following the confrontation. When Cedar got access to the paperwork associated with their case, it focused almost exclusively on a public speech they had given at City Hall in the wake of the events. 

And while they had been heavily critical of how Hamilton police have repeatedly let their community down, they framed their criticism with a prophetic statement: 

“...what I am interested in is building community around people who [have] a desire to build a shared idea of the world they actually want to live in. I feel like that’s a higher bar [which] is worth working towards.” [x]

That is what those seventy disciples were sent out to find: The Kingdom of Heaven is near. Another world is possible.

In response to this and what would become at least four other arrests of queer community members, along with frantic attempts to save face by the police and by City Hall, the local activist community decided to go straight to the mayor. In a wonderful example of non-violent protest, some twenty people “dressed in gay masquerade attire” showed up on the mayor’s front lawn early on a Friday morning, and spent fifteen minutes making a ridiculous racket while planting hot pink lawn signs that read “The Mayor Doesn’t Care About Queer People”. 

Within an hour, the same mayor who had largely refused to comment on the issue of right-wing agitators harassing and assaulting people at a Pride festival was in the news decrying the lawn sign action as a “violent attack”, and vowing that the perpetrators would be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.

That afternoon, one of the organizers of the lawn sign action found herself cornered by no less than eight police cars. After being brought in for questioning, she was escorted by officers with assault rifles to the central police station, where she was held overnight. 

Only one of the right-wing agitators has since been arrested. The mayor, in a stunningly oblivious move, concluded the day by issuing a boilerplate supportive statement about the fiftieth anniversary of the Stonewall Riots.

The organizer who was arrested following the lawn sign action (who has chosen to remain anonymous) had some insightful words that I’d like to share with you. For me, they may as well have been spoken by an apostle in the first century. She said:

“[This is] about us as a community getting stronger — and them being afraid of that. We know [that] because within five hours they mobilized an investigation, manhunt and takedown. We know because they confront us with shaking hands and assault rifles. We know because they [subsequently] responded to a queer dance party with eighty officers on a Friday night. We see it when they make desperate arrests; [like] Cedar for a speech at city hall.” [x]

Because when we start to make a dent in the facade of unjust power, the mask slips, and the true cruelty and desperation of the people at the top gets revealed; just like the crucifixion of Jesus laid bare the horror that the Roman Empire was capable of. And yet, in ways that we do not yet fully understand, we are told that Jesus performed one last radical act of turning the tables; using that humiliating, commonplace death as a jumping-off point into the coldest, darkest reaches of the cosmos, where he sowed the love of God into the very ground of the universe.

Our anonymous lawn sign activist continues: 

“In that, we can also acknowledge something else; we are winning. They are afraid of us and what we can do. They are embarrassed. They are losing ground.”

This takes us right back to Holy Week — when the authorities start planning Jesus’ arrest in the wake of the non-violent protest march that we remember as Palm Sunday, because they’re afraid he’ll incite the people to rebellion. When we start to successfully seek justice and resist evil, the powers that be, propelled by self-interest and sustained by systems of cruel inequality, are terrified.

She concludes with this wonderful statement of commission — and I’d like to think it can be our commission too:

“So let’s keep this up. Let’s keep getting into ... public spaces. … Challenging the things that harm us — even when they are institutional and systemic. … Let’s build towards the world we want to see – and share and learn those skills together. … Not just every four years — [I would add, not just every Sunday] — but every single day”.

Amen. 

July 7, 2019 (Confirmation Sunday) — St. Andrew’s United Church, Halifax

Selected further reading:

Center for Action and Contemplation, “Consumed with Love”

Queer Theology podcast, “A Community of Care”

Rethinking Religion, “Buddhists Don’t Have to Be Nice: Avoiding Idiot Compassion”

[jinjojess]

Oh, All-knowing Jess, hear my call and drive away my doubts: how was received in Japan the datamining of the beta of Pokémon Gold? What do you think about it? Are some Pokémon you like or want in actual games? (Personally, my favourite is that creepy Pinsir, for some reasons it reminds me of the Kaonashi from Spirited Away!)

You know, that’s a good question. I’ve seen some fanart and reactions on Twitter, but I didn’t really follow it much, sorry!

To make it up to you, I will now review all of the betas:

Chikorita! 

Yay! I think I’ve made it very clear that I am a big fan of this little plant nugget, so I don’t have much to add really.

10/10

AAAGGGGHHH?! 

What the fuck is this thing? How does this relate to Chikorita or Meganium, who are both largely unchanged from their beta designs? Where are the eyes? Like I’m diggin’ the tiny smug face-looking thing at the top of the bulb, but what’s the deal with the huge single eye down below? Where did the legs go? Why does the body shape change so drastically in the in-between stage when both the first and third stages are quadrupeds?!

0/10 would not trade Bayleef for it

Meganium

Whew, okay. Back on familiar ground here. Meganium is likely my least favorite of the Johto starters’ final forms, but I still like my big, dumb boy.

8/10

Tepkon 

Awww~!

So unpopular opinion, but for a long time I really disliked cyndaquil’s design. I’ve come around to it these days, but back when GS came out, it really put me off. This thing is absolutely adorable, and though the design isn’t super inspired, I still fucking love it.

7/10 wouldn’t trade cyndaquil for it, but would love to see the design reworked for future games

Chubby quilava

This is like quilava’s cousin who grows up to discover that he’s actually more of a bear than a twink. Really like it–seems very cuddly.

7/10 like quilava better but I support this thicc boi

Kirara

Seriously, this is basically just Kirara from Inuyasha. Not as crazy about this design as its pre-evos, especially since it seems like it’s trying to edge in on arcanine’s floof territory. An okay pokemon, but not a fave.

6/10 would not trade typhlosion for it

Baby Nessie

Totodile was one of those pokemon that I had been low-key hoping for, but I gotta admit that this is one adorable little fucker. Look at its stubby limbs! Its cute snoot! Its pudgy tail!

6/10 would not trade totodile but would love to see in another game

Let me clear my thoat (I hope ya don’t mind)

I am…less enthused about the middle evo. The eyes are cute and the little shy smile is to die for, but the…ballast? on its throat kind of looks like a giant boil and I’m not really here for that.

4/10 no thanks I’ll keep croconaw

Dragonair but with legs

The final evo I like a bit more–it looks like a dragonair that struck up a deal with Ursula the sea witch so that it could pursue its land-dwelling love. Now that the gem isn’t jammed right up under the chin it’s less off-putting, and the kind of fang-looking necklace is a Good Look.

6/10 still prefer feraligatr but GameFreak please dust off this design

Hoot-Hoot’s just really into henna right now

I’ve never been a huge fan of hoot-hoot, and I kind of like the extra markings. I assume they were taken off to make the design less busy as well as giving it a fanned tail, but I think I’d actually prefer this one.

5/10 would replace regular hoot-hoot with this one

It is the night

Okay, here we go! Now this is a cool-looking pokemon that would make training up a damn hoot-hoot worth it. Noctowl is a decent pokemon in the game since it means you get access to psychic moves early in the game, but I’ve always thought the design looked too goofy. I like irl owls a lot and this design really speaks to me.

8/10 go back in time and give teenage me this bird instead

Mareep

There’s not a ton to say here other than they lightened up mareep’s fleshy bits in the final release, and I like mareep quite a bit so there we go. Instead, I want to draw attention to this disaster of a backsprite. What am I even looking at? A giant ball of cotton candy that rolled through a bunch of broken candy canes?

9/10 I mean I like mareep, but I gotta take off a point for that awful backsprite

Flaaffy

Flaaffs seems largely unchanged. I’m pretty partial to this boi as well, especially since I had one following me for a bit in my Japanese Soul Silver game.

8/10 I like flaaffy, but fuck that name spelling

Ampharos

One of my fave Gen 2 pokemon! Doesn’t seem to have much different about it, though I did always question where the delightful floof went. I mean we get it back in the mega evolution but still. What was that about, GameFreak?

9/10 docked a point for lack of floof

Mikon

So this is clearly a pre-evo idea for vulpix, and it’s pretty damn cute. I love that with the addition of this member to the family, it’s confirmed that the line increases its number of tails by 3 every time it evolves. I like this, but I’m not entirely sold on it. The face lacks some detail and I feel like the design isn’t different enough from vulpix to really feel necessary.

7/10 it’s cute but I don’t think vulpix needs a pre-evo

Mahou Shoujo Green

This tangela pre-evo is pretty cute, though the body underneath kind of reminds me a bit too much of oddish. I mean maybe it’d be cool to look at the oddish line and the tangela line and see how two related species had off-shoots, but I am not really the biggest fan of baby pokemon as an institution so these will all be a hard sell for me, sorry.

6/10 again, cute but unecessary

Tangrowth as imagined by CalArts

I loved tangela a lot back in the day, and tangrowth is a really interesting pokemon as well…however this one has a little bow and ringlet hair so like, no contest, really.

9/10 this should be an alternate evo option for tangela (perhaps for females?)

i could be your angle or yuor devil

So this one is kinda cool in concept. It’s clearly drawing influence from Japanese kites, and the scary face might be an evolutionary feature designed to scare off predators…that or it’s a flying/ghost or flying/dark type and the angel imagery is the ruse. Either way I fucking love this thing.

10/10 I want this concept revisited

Qwilfish

I like qwilfish a lot! It’s got cool typing, it can perform decently on a rain team, and it’s based on a pufferfish. It’s definitely an underdog in the wider world, but not in my heart.

10/10

The Fish Who Lived

I have…reservations about this evolution though. As cool as it would be to have a qwilfish evolution, this just isn’t doing it for me. It’s kinda cool that it’s shaped like a naval mine, and the Harry Potter scar is pretty cute, but I can get over the dead-eyed stare.

4/10 yeah no I think I’m happy to wait for better evo ideas to come along

Pichu

Pichu’s cute enough I guess but I’ve never liked it as much as pikachu and sure as hell not as much as my boy raichu. However if the baby version was this roly poly cutie, I think I’d be more into it. This style of pre-evo harkens back to the good ol’ days of fat pikachu, and therefore I must doff my cap to it.

8/10 with a bit of polishing I would take this over pichu for sure

Cleffa

Okay, so of the baby pokemon, of which I am generally not fond, cleffa is by far my favorite because of how cute it is. This is also extremely cute. I like picturing the trainer being able to just grab the thing by the little knob on its head if it’s heading toward danger. Plus that tail nub is so cute! I don’t know that I could choose between this version and the actual cleffa.

9/10 would be a 10 but Nate once said “what if cleffa’s hands were its nipples?” and now I can’t unsee it

Igglybuff

Iggly has always reminded me of the Powerpuff Girls, but this beta version is so…delightfully round. God, it’s like hypnotizing how round it is. You wouldn’t have to show this from above to trick someone in a silhouette quiz. The tiny, wide-set eyes are also both piercing and kind of unassuming, which I can’t decide is cute or terrifying.

8/10 think I’d swap this guy in for the existing igglybuff

Quagsire!

I freaking LOVE quagsire. It’s so derpy, I love water/ground types, and just everything about it is cute and makes me want to hug it. The only problem with it in this beta is that there’s no wooper.

10/10 bring wooper with you bro

Natu

I’ve always thought natu was cute and really neat in concept, but I’ve never actually sat down and trained one. This sprite isn’t too different from its final one, but it is missing the color scheme, which is one of the reasons I like it.

6/10 stop being so washed out!

Xatu

Also largely unchanged from its final design, though I do prefer the Silver sprite where its wings are spread. (And I’m sorry about this, but some of the pictures will have bits of other sprites in them, since it was hard cutting these all down in Paint with a trackpad.)

7/10 very unique

Prince(ss) of the sea

Is this a pre-evo of goldeen and seaking, and I can see why it was cut. Who thought either of those would be popular enough to warrant a baby form?

2/10 fuck yeah was a meme guys, it wasn’t sincere

Marill

Marill’s okay. I think it’s fairly cute, and the design they went with using smaller ears and non-clown feet is better imo. Plus this is really minor but it’s bothering me that despite the codename “pikablu” this sprite is pink.

6/10 solid cute pokemon, but the final design is better

Finding Flounder

So I’m a big fan of lanturn because of its digimon-esque eyes and its cool typing. Chinchou I’m…eh on. This cutie though, I could get used to this.

8/10 cute eyes are better than terrifying cross eyes I’m sorry

Clanker’s Cavern

As I just said, I like lanturn a lot. However, this is a shark with an anchor attached. That’s like if you left dhelmise and sharpedo at the day care on the same day an enemy team spilled plutonium all over the yard. It’s so stupid! I love this thing so damn much.

8/10 it’s way too similar to other existing pokemon, but I still kind of want it anyway

Homsar

This thing kind of scares me. The gaping mouth, the wide eyes, and the fact that it clearly would inhabit deep parts of the ocean all make me want to nope out. That said though, I respect it.

6/10 glad they came back to this idea with elektross

Crobat

If you’ve ever battled me in one of our local or online tournaments, you will know that I have a soft spot for crobat. I think golbat’s design is kind of terrible, zubat is simplistic yet kinda cute, and crobat gets to be both cute/cool and also not suck completely in battle (see what I did there?). This design seems mostly unchanged.

8/10 a very good bro

Most likely to drive an airbrushed van

This paras pre-evo looks like it’s inspired by a lovely whimsical creature from Wonderland or Fantasia. I kind of like having a pre-evo to show that at the start the sinister mushrooms allow the baby para to call the shots, biding its time until takes over the entire nervous system as a parasect. Really not feeling the face, though.

5/10 cute, interesting idea, but I don’t know if I want to add more baby pokemon to the mix

Spinarak

I have some mild arachnophobia, but I actually rather like spinarak since it’s so adorable. This version is a little more true to life and not as adorable. Also wtf GameFreak stop giving your arachnids six legs!

5/10 very much prefer the final design but kinda reminds me of the little jumpy bois I catch and release from inside my apartment sometimes

Ariados

Again with the six legs thing. Ugh. Anyway, this beta version of ariados is actually much cuter than the one we ended up getting in the final game. I’m pretty lukewarm on ariados in general (my spider boi of choice is the far superior galvantula), but look at this thing’s face! Look at the face on its body! It’s cute even when it’s trying to be scary!

6/10 why did we not get this adorable boi?!

Skarmory

It’s skarmory. That’s it. A pokemon that I like in theory but have never been super into his design.

5/10 respectably cool but not my cup of tea

Alphonse Elric’s head in chibi form, screaming as his body melts

Here it is. My favorite of all of the beta sprites. This thing is so fucking wonderful in part because I have literally no idea what the hell it’s supposed to be. What is this?! What type is it supposed to be? What is it based on? Is it a pre-evo of an existing mon? Why is its mouth parted in an eternal screech? These questions do not necessarily have answers, and I am a sucker for mystery.

10/10 GameFreak please bring this idea to life just so that I can get closure

Mine! Mine!

So I see what they were going for. It’s a baby form of doduo, with three baby bird heads and a big puff of feathers to make it look like a brood peeking out of a nest. I respect the idea, I do. Too bad it also conjures up images in my head of rat kings and other fused abominations. 

5/10 a good idea that didn’t pan out so well

[Obligatory Undertale Reference]

Sunflora would actually probably be more intimidating if it had an evolution rather than a pre-evo, though. I’m no big fan of sunflora, but I gotta say that this sprite is way better than the one we ended up getting.

6/10 replace existing sunflora with this bullet seed-spewing former skiddo

The Littlest Babaar

I’ve never really been into elephants as a species. Like they’re cool, but they’re pretty middle of the pack for me in terms of my animal preferences. As a result, I always found donphan kind of disappointing. However, I do like phanpy quite a bit, if only for the fact that it’s goddamn adorable. This sprite is a bit plain, but does bring the cuteness.

6/10 prefer the final design but this one ain’t bad at all

Donphan

The Don hasn’t changed much at all as far as I can tell. I’ve never trained one in Gen 2, so is its backsprite really just its trunk? If so, hilarious.

5/10 congrats! you exist!

That’s the statement of the grave mint, Doublemint

I can’t decide if this was intended to be a pre-evo for ghastly or if it’s supposed to be a new ghost type (perhaps later replaced by misdreavus?). Either way it’s an interesting concept, and I can imagine the pokedex entry now: “Born from the souls of fetuses who were eaten in-utero by their siblings. Since they feel they were destined to be twins, they find each other shortly after death and fuse together so that they’ll never be alone again.”

7/10 not the most original design but damn we had a shortage of ghost types back in the day

Girafarig

Girafarig is one of those pokemon that I always wanted to be more competitively viable because I think it has a unique design and could fill a cool niche. I like that the final design has the tail as an evolutionary measure and that there’s a smaller brain in it, just like some real life creatures. That said, we really missed out on getting a face full of evil uniraffe in the backsprite. Man, this is a real tough choice.

7/10 let’s keep girafarig as is and try out this concept on a different mon

Smeargle

This version of him seems a bit more…simian than his final, kinda canine design. Not sure if I dig it. Also, have you noticed that Gen 2 felt obligated to have a ditto/mew type mon that could mimic all the other mons? I feel like this concept gets revisited every so often and GameFreak thinks we’re none the wiser.

5/10 flesh beret just isn’t okay

Coin Kitty

So I know I said I’m against baby pokemon on principle, but the fact that this thing never saw the light of day upsets me so much. It’s so. fucking. CUTE.

10/10 go back in time and replace skitty with this

Betty Boop’s best friend

I get the feeling that this dark type cat got recycled into the purrloin line, but this one is way cooler imo. It references the old adage of “belling the cat” and I think that this pokemon line could have had some really cool sound-based signature moves (sorta similar to the whismur or jangmo-o lines).

9/10 not feeling the bipedal thing, but still a really neat concept I’d like to see

Luna

Again, I love the idea of a pokemon based on a fable. I can see why this particular design didn’t get used, given how simple it is and how closely it resembles umbreon if you just glance at it, but I’d love to see this revisited.

7/10 spruce up the design a bit and get back to me

Politoed’s wild ride

So when I first met politoed I felt he was a bit too…cutesy? Like the rosy cheeks were a bit much. This guy feels a bit more like he belongs in the poliwag line, though he doesn’t look like he’d be as bouncy.

6/10 might replace existing politoed design, might not

Slowking

Though I prefer slowbro as my yadon evo of choice, slowking is pretty awesome in his own right. Not a big fan of the clown ruffle, but honestly it’s kind of a minor setback all things considered. 

7/10 remember how he could randomly talk in the 2nd pokemon movie? That was fucked up.

Unknown

All of these cool, unsued beta designs, and this one gets to stay in?

1/10 don’t talk to me right now, GameFreak

Ledyba

It’s ledyba. One of the bug types I’m actually not really all that into. Pretty sure this is the sprite actually used in Gold.

4/10 fine just not for me

I see you

Ledian’s deal as a superhero is kinda cool, even if I don’t particularly care for the actual design. And I gotta say, it’s preferable to the ever-watching eyes of this thing. Those stars aren’t natural; they’re tattoos for each trainer its killed.

3/10 I feel like I need to go lie down

My Little Shetland Pony

Clearly this is intended to be a ponyta baby form, and while I commend the idea of a foal version (or maybe a Shetland or something?), you may notice that there is very, very little to set this pre-evo apart from ponyta. Like it and and rapidash aren’t exactly the most daring design-wise, so stripping it to the essentials doesn’t really work.

5/10 this is cute as all hell but it has no reason to exist

Espeon

Though I get shit all the time for liking espeon the least out of all the eeveelutions, I do still think the design is neat, and the fact that it draws from the nekomata myth is fascinating. Backsprite is a bit janky in the hips department–yet another unrealistic beauty standard, amirite ladies?

7/10 I personally don’t think there are any bad eeveelutions

Umbreon!

My absolute favorite Gen 2 pokemon! Not many changes between this and the final design, though I will say that this one looks a lot more terrifying–the hole eyes are worse than the red ones somehow. Still, love.

10/10 listen this is my personal rating

Alolan Shellder

This one is so fascinating to me. It’s obviously the chompy boi from slowbro and slowking, which in the pokedex is referred to as a shellder, but perhaps this is a unique evolution that only happens when it disconnects from the slowpoke? I am really upset this wasn’t actually used in the game, because getting to have this thing on the same team as slowpoke, slowbro, and slowking would have been like when Banjo-Tooie introduced the mechanic that let Banjo and Kazooie split up.

10/10 give me, dammit!

Garbage Pail Kid

Again with the baby form for a line that already is known for extremely simple designs. Grimer and muk are literally just piles of slime of differing sizes. (Shut up, Alolan forms weren’t a thing til later.) So basically this baby form is fucking adorable, and I’m loving the thing that could be a nose but I’m choosing to interpret as a mouth with a single tooth. It’s just that…who needs this?

7/10 cute, but not necessary by any stretch of imagination

Are ya feelin’ lucky, punk?

Okay, so this beta is a) way cooler than remoraid ended up being, and b) makes the evolution line make SO MUCH more sense. I can definitely see why it was changed, especially since censor-happy America was a legit market by that point. And I guess the revolver barrel part of the design still persisted in Gen 2, but still.

5/10 booo censorship!

TANK!

Octillary’s name also makes way more sense with the original tank design. I mean I can kinda see why this changed, but like…Digimon was over there with a creature in the anime just literally called Tankmon who shoots shells at elementary schoolers so I don’t fucking know. 

7/10 I like octillary as is, but this is a much more interesting design

WWE fan

Okay so real talk, I am not the biggest fan of tyrogue’s design, but what was even going on here? What’s with the frog hat? Is it a safety helmet? The general hitmonlee body shape combined with the baby boxing gloves for hitmonchan was pretty cool, but this is not something I’d look at and think “Yes, this will grow up to be a humonoid fighting type.”

5/10 it’s…cute? I guess I just don’t see what’s going on here really

shaga;lsdkfhahdgajspd[f

NO. JUST NO. THERE ARE TOO MANY THINGS HAPPENING HERE, TOO MANY LIMBS, TOO MANY EYES, JUST NO. HITMONTOP ENDED UP BEING SILLY BUT AT LEAST IT WASN’T THIS MANGLED BODY HORROR NONSENSE.

0/10 for reminding me of claydol and my own mortality

Pupper

This is going to come as a surprise, but I’m glad they didn’t introduce a baby form of growlithe. The growlithe and arcanine line includes 2 of my top 3 pokemon ever and as cute as this is I don’t think it would fit aesthetically. It looks like a spaniel that doesn’t match the shisa vibe of the growlithe line. That said, I would love to see it as a first form for a different line of perhaps…ground type doggos?

9/10 please give us some floppy ear dog designs, GameFreak! new doggos!

Like, nya

I do think the hoppip line (except for the last evo) is pretty cute, and this one reminds me a bit of an in-training digimon so I’m liking it. That said, I think the designs we got were better.

6/10 cute but like existing hoppip

Gardnyar

Again, prefer Skiploom.

5/10 not a fan of the flower for some reason

Nyancat theme plays in the distance

So I like this better than jumpluff personally, even if the other is probably a more unique design.

5/10 jumpluff’s limbs bother me, but lbr I was never going to train one anyway

New this Easter

Mr. Mime, I think we can all agree, is an unsettling design. That’s its whole appeal, really. Mime Jr. is cute enough I guess, but this is a tiny clown egg that looks like it’s learning to ice skate for the first time!

6/10 get your derpy clown nose out of here, Mime Jr.

Agatha’s apprentice

Smoochum is…well, she is. She’s kinda cute, and I think I prefer the finished design to this one since it looks way too similar to grown up jynx. Plus it raises some uncomfortable questions about it being born with ganguro make-up and hair (in a style that looks like E4 Agatha’s for some reason). This smoochum looks like it’d be taken out to sit alone at the bar in the club while wearing booty shorts that read “Mama’s Lil’ Bitch” across the back.

4/10 this makes me uncomfortable, and the hair is too close to Agatha’s

Which way to the Chao Garden?

Elekid is one of few baby pokemon I like, but hot damn this thing is adorable. It looks like a tiny, wingless bee with a halo.

7/10 can this be recycled as something else?

Bart Simpson

Really what keeps me from fully embracing the magmar line is largely the fact that they all have butts on their heads. These spikes are way more appealing to me, and so I would have loved having this one in the game.

8/10 is it still too late to redesign magby?

Bellossom

Not too many changes from the beta. I am digging the shoujo sparkles going on around her, haha.

6/10 not a big bellossom fan but a well-design pokemon nonetheless

Audrey III

Nope, I don’t like this, no sir. Where would this even go in the evo line? Is it supposed to be an alternative to victreebel? Cause this isn’t much better, guys.

1/10 I will give it one point since it looks like it could cut a rug on the dance floor

Miltank

A good, solid pokemon I’m pretty fond of (once I got over my salt from the Whitney battle). I like her as a female counterpart to tauros. Nothing too astounding but still fun and cute.

8/10 

Fire Seal

I feel like there’s folklore here, but my tired brain isn’t coming up with anything at the moment, sadly. Not a really detailed design but those tend to be more my favorites anyway. Trying to figure out what this was replaced by in the final game but I’m having a tough time figuring it out.

7/10 we have a lot of seals, but this is the only FIRE seal

Delibird

I see we chose the path with more subtlety in the end.

4/10 not really a big fan of delibird

Hanshin Hopeful

Okay, I know I said earlier that the screaming pile of goo was my favorite, but this line is also my favorite out of these beta designs. This one upsets me because this would have been such a great cultural addition! Osaka (represented by Goldinrod City in the games) has a baseball team called the Hanshin Tigers, which everyone in the area is a fervent fan of. Not only is this unbearably cute, it could have been hanging out in like a little baseball stadium area or something in or around Goldinrod. 

10/10 how could you leave this out?!

Nandeyanen!!

Whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy! Why did I not get this?! The Akihabara of Osaka is even called “DenDen Town” (Electric Town)!

10/10 we’ve missed our chance and now amends cannot be made

Talk to the wing

Is this supposed to be a farfetch’d evolution?! It doesn’t make a ton of sense aside from the waterfowl connection, but like…how pissed would you be if you were farfetch’d? This is kinda cool. I’m not super into swans or anything, but the masquerade/crime fighter mask is a neat detail.

5/10 I could see this being used interestingly, even if I’d probably not use it

Hitori Kakurenbou

I love this concept. Look at this! I know it was basically recycled for shuppet’s line, but this is so much more hardcore. Now this is a pokemon that can use curse appropriately.

10/10 personally like this one better than shuppet, if I’m being honest

Hsien-ko

This is the most Chinese pokemon since arcanine, oh my god. It’s a panda jiangshi. A panda jiangshi! Imagine it hopping after you adorably, ready to leech life you to death.

9/10 it’s not as cute as the pre-evolution, but still–panda jiangshi!!!

Murkrow

Not a lot of changes going on here either, aside from the more obvious witch’s hat design. Unsure if I like this one better or regular murkrow.

7/10 good flappy friend

*uncomfortable cough*

Blissey’s design is a bit too busy and frilly for my tastes, but it’s certainly a lot more acceptable than this. I get what they were going for: a heart on top of its head to represent healing and whatnot, but it just came out so…so yonic in nature that I have to wonder about the person responsible for this design.

1/10 not entirely awful but good lord

Scisor

Here’s the boi, only this time with eyes on his little crab claws! It’s cute but later got used for hydregion instead, and I dunno, I kind of prefer scisor as is. Still think scyther looks cooler, but a good strudy boi.

6/10 for the puppet shows it could give to entertain all the baby forms on this sprite sheet

Pinsir Noh Pinching

Here’s your fave, anon! You’re right that it seems to have a blank Noh-like mask on its face, as if a huge pinching bug wasn’t terrifying enough for you. That said, I kind of like the really creepy vibe, and poor pinsir got left in the dirt by his rival scyther once Gen 2 hit and gave scyther an evolution but nothing for his clampy comrade.

6/10 we could still get a pinsir evolution, guys

Houndour!

As you might expect of me, the houndour line is a close second to umbreon for Jess’s Favorite Gen 2 Pokemon. It combines two types I love, fire and dark, into this edgy but adorable package–what could I not love about it? This design is actually even better than the final one, because look at that sick-ass spine highlighting the ribs that got left in!

10/10 you cannot half ass edge; that misses the point

Houndoom!

Houndoom, meanwhile, looks pretty much as I remember him in Gold. And there’s nothing wrong with that–his design is fucking amazing. Man, kids, back in the metagame in Gen 2, houndoom was firmly in the top tier. Ah, I remember those days…

10/10 like a shark, houndoom has passed through decades without major tinkering to its evolutionary design

Baby yeti

Long before froslass burst onto the scene, this little bundle of deceptively charming horror could have been the first ice/ghost type. Yes, yes, it’s very adorable upon initial inspection, but once you look a bit deeper, you notice that the pokemon itself is actually black as night, with two piercing Jawa eyes, and the happy fur coat is another creature that’s been skinned and put on like a hoodie. Amazing.

10/10 I’ll take four

Wampa

I started on Star Wars references in the last entry and I gotta keep it going. Anyway, the evolution of tiny, arctic Buffalo Bill up there is even more fearsome, with claws and pupils! It’s even somehow found a way to make its fur covering evolve with it, having it sprout huge fangs (yeah I know, adults probably hunt larger creatures for clothing, but let me have this).

10/10 this so should have been a thing

Pon de Lion

I wonder if perhaps this design was meant to be an alternate form or evolution of porygon, or if this was an entirely different species based on toys (presumably to pad out the number of steel types). It’s an interesting idea, certainly, but I 100% get why this design got scrapped–it was a lawsuit from Mr. Donut waiting to happen.

Ugh

Did you know that horses produce 10 gallons of saliva a day? I now do thanks to Nate quizzing us over vacation last weekend to see if we could tell the difference between real animals and pokemon based on factoids. Now, lickilicky was not a new evolution I embraced with open arms, but man, it could have been so much worse.

2/10 I can’t say there’s no appeal (that mustache is great) but it just looks slimy and no thanks

Steelix

It’s steelix, unchanged from this beta to the final game.

7/10 I just think it’s neat

Sunken Master

I would like kingdra so, so much more if this is what it looked like.

9/10 this is goddamn cool and no one can convince me otherwise

Shadow the Edgedog

I’m not gonna lie, I fucking love this stupid design. It’s an electric dog with super sayain hair. 

10/10 fuck you, I do what I want

Oscar Myer

Do I find this design cute? Yes. Do I personally like it more than entei’s? Yes. Do I think it’s a better design than entei? No. It’s a bit too plain to really give off that legendary feel, but for me? I’d totally take this in a game. Also at least the last two have actually looked like dogs. The Legendary “Dogs” we got were a tiger, a lion/bear hybrid, and whatever the hell suicune is supposed to be.

8/10 I am a simple woman with simple needs

Jen Kira

I see people likening this design to Nina Tucker, but I actually don’t see that. It looks more to me like a special edition My Little Pony toy from the 80s released to promote The Dark Crystal. I dig it, even if it’s my least favorite of the three OG doggos.

8/10 if only some of the pizzazz of this design was afforded to fiery boi up there and we’d be onto something

Rook

This weasel/otter type thing is really cute, and perhaps was a concept idea for what later became sentret? I’d say I would want to see it again, but I kind of get the feeling we already did get the concept revived in the mienfoo line.

6/10 glad we got to see this one again

Ho-oh

Doesn’t seem too different from the sprite in the final game, and still a good design. That said though, I’m noticing that there’s no lugia in these beta sprites. What the fuck is that?!

7/10 got bros over this ho(-oh)

Togepi

This little bugger was introduced so early in the anime that I’m not surprised that its design was firmed up by the time the demo came out. Togepi’s okay I guess, but again I don’t really tend to like baby pokemon and I got kind of over-exposed to it in the anime.

6/10 cute but not a fave

Snubble

SNUB PARTY!! Snubs has the dubious honor of being the only dog pokemon I actively dislike. I like granbull so I can put up with it temporarily to get it to evolve, but this does a lot of things on my Dislike Checklist: aggressively pink, check; clown ruffle, check; appears to be wearing a dress, check.

4/10 not a fan

Boscoe

This early version of aipom looks like Marsupilami if it had been created by the Fleischer brothers. Something about this design just isn’t Right, but I can’t put my finger on it. I think it’s the 1930s American animation style face combined with walking on all fours? Either way it creeps me out.

3/10 though aipom is a very middle-of-the-road pokemon for me, it’s a helluva lot better than this abomination

Leafeon Prime

If you had asked us kid pokemon fans back in the days of Gen I what pokemon we’d most like to see in the future, I imagine “grass type eeveelution” was near the top for many of them. It just made sense–you had the leaf stone just sitting around, not reacting to your eevee, and it was so blatantly conspicuous. I had my own grass type eeveelution design I’d made called “Thorneon”, the design of which I might share at some point, and I was far from the only one.

So yeah, I’d have appreciated this a LOT in Gen 2. I was disappointed it wasn’t introduced in Gen 2. However, promises of a grass type eeveelution in Gen 4 got me to finally pull the trigger on getting a DS to play Diamond and Pearl, and that turned out to be an execellent decision. So maybe it was better that they kept this idea incubating for a bit longer.

10/10 I like leafeon and I also like this design–particularly like the vine bits that look like scars

And so there you have it! All 100 beta sprites reveiwed by yours truly. 

Hope it was worth the wait, anon!

[glitter-lisp]

Based off of this lovely piece of art by @randomslasher​. Is there more to come from this? Who knows! Not me! Anyways here’s the longest fic I’ve written in months!

If asked, Logan Sanders would not call himself a cryptozoologist. He was simply a biologist who happened to have a more... open mindset than many of his colleagues. So yes, maybe that did result in him flying off to Scotland or Nepal in search of these so-called "cryptids," but he was simply examining evidence and forming hypotheses the way any sound scientist would. More often than not, what he found was nothing more than stories and folk tales and, occasionally, proof that someone had been deliberately fooling the locals.

Sometimes, however, he found himself here, in places like this: an isolated warehouse owned by a private corporation, fully of high-tech equipment and computers and a single enourmous tank that took up most of the room. Inside the tank was a perfect fascimile of the Atlantic Ocean a few miles off the coast of Florida. Logan and an oceanographer had consulted on the exact amount of sand, silt, and salt that were to go inside. Looking at the murky water now, it was almost as though they had somehow cut a piece of the ocean away and transported it several miles inland.

The water did not hold Logan's attention for a second.

What he was staring at was the creature inside. There were several large rocks piled together in a way that formed a natural cave (or as natural as it could be, with Logan and his colleague carefully designing every last detail of the tank's contents), and the creature was hiding inside there. Logan could just make out the gleam of its eyes. It seemed to have a mostly humanoid torso, though were legs should be, its body melted into a large, fish-like tail. Large spines spouted from its back down the tail, and although there were no other markers or any other members of its species to judge by, Logan would guess by their size that the creature was male. Its scales were sleek and black, and its eyes were the same. It had not come out since being put in the tank.

That was all that they knew about it.

"And the fishermen that found it signed the non disclosure agreements?" he asked the man next to him, who nodded.

"Yes. They both seemed eager to forget about it and take the money we gave them. Even if it did get out, we took all the evidence. They don't even have pictures any more. No one will ever believe them."

Logan hums, narrowing his eyes at the creature thoughtfully and deliberately quashing the slight guilt he feels at the thought of the two people who might have become rich and famous, had Logan's boss not gotten there first. The creature had been caught in the net a couple fishing a few miles out from the shore, presumably while hunting for its own dinner. It was pure chance that his boss had happened to be nearby on his own boat, enjoying the weather - he had always been fond of storms. The whole exchange had taken place before anyone made it back to land. The people who had found the creature left with no fish, no nets, and a check for a ludicrous amount of money.

His boss left with the creature.

Two days later, they had retrofitted an old sea life rehabilitation center and the creature had been transferred. And here Logan was now, head of the project, having signed his own papers to keep quiet about it and tasked with discovering everything he could. About a creature that was, by all rights, a mermaid.

"It's an ugly bastard," his boss said, voice reverent. "Ugly as hell. Absolutely stunning."

"Sea creatures are unlikely to have a concept of- oh. Yes, I see what you mean. It is certainly a unique specimen."

He grimaced when his boss clapped him on the back. "Damn right, it is. All right, everything is taken care of. You've got two interns under you, very well trained, extremely curious, and extravagantly well paid. Half a dozen guards to keep an eye of you, the facility, and the creature. If anything happens, you tell them, and then you call me immediately. I'll stay out of your hair as much as possible. You have the key code and an actual, physical key. This place is yours, Doc."

"I really prefer Dr. Sanders," he said, and his boss clapped him on the back, harder than before.

"You find out everything you can about this thing," he said in a low voice, leaning in close. "Is it intelligent? Is it dangerous? More importantly, are there more of them?"

"What do you hope to gain from this?" Logan asks. "There is only so much information that can be gathered from observing a single member of an unknown species in captivity. It's hardly going to behave in its normal manner, whatever that might be. You would gain more from tagging it and releasing it. Or, if you're that worried about being unable to track it, you could always just dissect it."

He knew the creature couldn't hear him. But that didn't change the fact that its dark, unblinking eyes looked somehow more terrified than they had just a few seconds before. Beside him, his boss gave an affected shudder.

"And kill such a beautiful thing?"

"You called it ugly," Logan mutters, and the man keeps talking as though he hadn't heard him. Probably a good thing for both of them.

"No. This is the scientific find of the century. Hell, of the millennium. The only reason I haven't already gone public with it is because I don't want it getting snatched out of my hands and carted off to people who would treat it less delicately than you and I will. Eventually, I will release it, with a tracker. Assuming I can't find any more of the creatures; I've got boats out trawling for them right now."

Logan hummed quietly. "All right. In that case, I need to get my supplies. Is this room equipped with cameras? However many there are, I want more. We're going to need to keep the creature under constant surveillance if I'm to learn anything about it."

Constant surveillance did absolutely nothing. The creature never left its cave; even when they dropped fish in twice a day for it to eat, it waited until one swam close enough for him to reach out with one long, sinuous arm - fin? - and snatch it up. Logan tinkered with camera angles and tripods. He attempted insert one into the tank itself. It was the most he saw of the creature in the first forty-eight hours, when it darted out of its cave, snatched the camera out of the water, and smashed it against the glass of the tank. Logan did not try again.

As frustrated as he was by their lack of progress, he couldn't help but understand. The creature had been stolen from its home and thrown into a strange tank, surrounded by strange creatures. It could hardly be expected to be swimming around and displaying itself and its natural behaviors for the benefit of the scientists observing it.

On day five, Logan was standing outside the tank at three in the morning, staring until his vision went blurry. He blinked several times and kept staring, until his eyes actually crossed, and only then did he reach up to rub at them with one hand, groaning. His glasses pressed uncomfortably into his forehead, and he spun around on one heel and leaned back against the glass, slowly sinking down until he was sitting. He was the only one there, save for two guards. One was outside of the room, patrolling the rest of the complex, and the other was in the main office watching the security tapes.

No one was watching. Logan pulled out his phone.

It was horribly unprofessional. It was, perhaps, slightly illegal, or at least very deeply frowned upon. His boss let Logan get away with a lot, they had worked together too long for anything other than that, but he would hardly be happy about this. Careful of the cameras that he himself had helped position, Logan ducked his head and tucked his phone in close to his stomach. He wouldn't have gotten service out here anyways, and there was a cell scrambler on the premises to make extra sure no one was sharing confidential information from the facility, or leaving themselves open to any sort of a cyber attack. That was the last thing they needed.

Instead, he pulled up one of his half a dozen puzzle and brain teaser applications, and set to work finding anagrams for the word "holiday." The graphics of the game were rather annoying; he didn't need bright colors and a vague, never fully explained plot about sentient food items to hold his attention, but the actual game play was engaging enough that he was able to look past the application's faults. He had, at the very least, disabled the sound, so it no longer played cheerful eight-bit music in a major key that got stuck in his head for days at a time.

Some time later, he had just finished his fourth word of the night ("multiplex," resulting in over fifty other words, some of which he really had to wrack his brain for) when, as the screen went black while loading the next level, he saw his reflection in it. More importantly, he saw the reflection of the creature in the tank, floating behind him and looking over his shoulder at his phone.

He would like to say that he stayed calm and did not let on that he had seen it, that he simply stayed still and waited until he could check the tapes the next morning so as not to startle it. But the fact was that he was so startled that he yelled and scrambled away from the tank, flinging his phone somewhere off to the side in his surprise. He wound up some ten feet away, having stumbled to his feet and run a few steps before his brain caught up with his body. He heard a wild splashing in the tank, and whipped around just in time to see the creature's tail disappearing back into its cave.

His heart pounding in his throat, Logan cautiously walked over to where his phone was lying abandoned on the ground, not taking his eyes off the cave as he slowly bent over and picked it up. "I, ah, I'm sorry for startling you," he called, then scoffed at himself. The creature obviously didn't speak English. And even if it did, it wouldn't hear him through the glass and the water. "Stupid," he muttered, shaking his head and pocketing his phone with, he was embarrassed to notice, trembling hands. The thing had really startled him.

He caught the briefest glimpse of its eyes staring back at him from the depths of its cave before it wriggled back into the shadows.

Reviewing the tapes back in the office, Logan watched as, exactly seventeen minutes after he sat down outside the tank, the creature emerged fully from its cave. It had stuck its head out twice before, and its whole torso once, but each time had darted back inside. Logan never even noticed. It spent another four minutes swimming back and forth between him and the cave, inching closer to him each time, and finally spent another three simply floating in the water right behind Logan. Observing him.

He copied the video clip to the file on his computer, then set to work taking several still frames from the video so he could see the creature more clearly. Fortunately for him and his research, it had spent some time staying relatively still, and he was able to make it out in much more detail than any of them had managed before. Up close in the photos, it looks almost human, with a few notable and somewhat disturbing differences. He tried to remember that it wasn't. Scales covered its head. Although its mouth and eyes were both on the front, similar to a human face, they looked almost horrifyingly wrong. The eyes were perfectly round and big and perfectly black, too far apart and angled outwards in a way that probably allowed the creature to see to the side and in front of it. Its mouth was lower on its head than a human's, and the lipless edges stretched back along its jaw, nearly twice the width of a human's.

He wasn't sure why he was so surprised by this. Of course it wouldn't look like a human. Just because its top half was roughly human shaped didn't mean it had to share any other resemblance. But the fact remained that it was just close enough to human to make it look horribly deformed, even though all evidence would suggest it wasn't. That was just what it looked like. It shouldn't be any stranger than looking at any of the other creatures Logan had studied over the years.

But that didn't change the fact that something in him simply rebelled at the creature's appearance. Something about it was wrong.

"Everything about this is wonderful!"

That was what his boss had said when Logan showed him the pictures and the video, claiming that he had pretended to pull his phone out as a distraction. His boss had been unsurprisingly thrilled, and did not seem to feel any of Logan's discomfort with the creature's appearance.

"Try it again, okay? See if you can get it to come close, just without screaming and running away from it this time!" He laughed and - Logan braced himself - slapped Logan on the back. "Keep up the good work. This is the closest we've gotten this whole time. It's all uphill from here!"

"Going uphill is more difficult," Logan said flatly. "Which is generally the way this work progresses so yes, I suppose it is all uphill from here. I'll come by tonight again, when the interns are gone. They're good scientists, but I don't want to spook the creature by having too many people around."

"Whatever you think is best."

"Everything I think is best," Logan snapped. "That's why you hired me."

Over the next two weeks, Logan was able to coax the creature out nine more times. The second it thought he was looking at it, though, it would bolt back into the safety of its cave. Logan had taken to pacing around the perimeter of the cave, because as much as he tried, he was having a difficult time adjusting to coming into the facility at night and leaving during the day. He wasn't sure if the creature was nocturnal or not, but it certainly seemed more willing to come out whenever they turned the lights down low and kept as many people out of the room as they could. So Logan, too, became more active at night, much as his body protested the change. More than once in the last few weeks he had fallen asleep while sitting by the tank. His neck had ached for hours afterwards.

In those two weeks, he had learned not nearly as much as he would have liked. The creature seemed to have no preference for any particular kind of food; it would eat whatever they dropped in its tank. No more of its kind had been found. Logan had gotten a few more detailed shots, but because everything was simply a screenshot of a video, they still weren't as high resolution as he would have liked. It was impossible to point any sort of a decent camera at the creature without it bolting.

Also, the interns had named it. Interns were idiots. They couldn't even come up with something decent, any sort of binomial nomenclature. No, they called it Annie. Because it was "an anxious little fish." As though that made any kind of sense.

Now, he simply paced around the perimeter of the tank. The creature kept pace with him, swimming almost leisurely alongside. Logan made a show of flipping threw his notebook as he walked; this game only worked if they both pretended he couldn’t see the creature. Halfway around the tank, however, it suddenly slammed both of its webbed hands agains the glass, resulting in a loud, reverberating gong. Logan jumped and stared at the creature which, for the first time, simply stared back at him. And then, slowly, it turned its head to look at the ground in front of him.

There was a puddle. It must have splashed out of the tank, or perhaps someone had spilled something. The how didn’t really matter; the important thing was that, distracted as he had been with deliberately ignoring the creature, he almost certainl would have slipped and fallen. The creature had stopped him.

“Thank… you,” he said. He kept looking at it, and couldn’t help the wondering smile that came to his face as it only looked backt him without fleeing. “You’re not an anxious little fish at all, are you?” he asked, shaking his head at himself. “You’re just… careful. And protective. Vigilant, almost. You’re not Annie. You’re Virgil.” 

Almost without thinking about it, he put his palm against the tank and, to his shock, the newly named Virgil did the same, webbed fingers lining up with Logan's. He stared at them, fascinated. They were much longer that his, dark blue with translucent webbing connecting them. Fanned out the way they are, Logan could see the color of the webbing much more clearly than usual, and he was surprised to see that, while the creature- while Virgil had always appeared to be entirely black and gray, the scales along his arms and the skin on the underside of his hand was actually a dark and shimmering shade of violet, and when the light shone through the webbing on his hands, it turned it into a soft, silvery lavender.

Logan was so absorbed in looking at the colors that he didn't even think to examine the rest of Virgil. He finally looked up, wondering if he would be able to make out any new details in the scales of Virgil's face, when he shouted in surprise and scrambled backwards. Virgil flung himself back from the glass, arms pinwheeling wildly and an expression of shock and terror on his suddenly familiar face. It would seem that Virgil had, unbeknownst to Logan or any of the other researchers, the ability to mimic appearances. Logan immediately started running through possibilities and examples in his mind, examining and dismissing possibilities and theories before he could even fully process them. Mimic octopus. Various species of snakes and insects. Perhaps even-

Virgil swam cautiously up to the glass, placing his hand back where it was. He looked ready to swim away at any second. His hand looked smaller now, and even as Logan watched the color faded from dark purple, to pink, to beige, until it was the same color as his own skin, lit a strange greenish tint by the lights in the water. The webbing between the fingers was still there, still a soft pinkish blush color. Logan took a deep breath and pressed his own hand against Virgil's, and tried not to recoil when the creature smiles at him. He was smiling with Logan's face.

It wasn’t an exact match. There were still patches of scales along his cheeks and forehead and gills on the sides of his neck. His ears were long and pointed, and his hair, longer and darker than Logan's, floated gently around his face. His eyes, too, were darker, and seem almost sunken into his skull. It takes a few moments for Logan to realize that they aren't just pits or shadows beneath Virgil's eyes, but darker markings, almost like bruises or birthmarks. Curious, Logan reached up with a finger and traced the shape of them onto the glass. Virgil followed his finger with one of his own, then touched his own face, apparently realizing what Logan was looking at. An excited expression crossed his face and bubbles streamed from his mouth as he traced the shapes himself, then mimed drawing circles around his eyes. Logan stared, baffled, and Virgil repeated the movement more slowly before pointing at Logan's face.

"My... my glasses?" he asked, adjusting them. Virgil grinned and wriggled in place, tail slapping against the glass in his excitement, and Logan surprised himself by giggling. "You... you tried to copy my glasses. Because you want to look like me." Virgil couldn't hear him and probably couldn't understand him, anyways (just because he looked human, looked like Logan, didn't mean he spoke any human languages), but he kept smiling, now touching his own face. He seemed curious to know what he looked like, and so Logan gathers that Virgil has never copied his appearance before. Even if Virgil hadn’t seemed so curious, Logan still would have known. He had watched ever second of the tapes; it was the first thing he did when he arrived at the facility each night and the last thing he did when he left each morning. So what changed? Why was he suddenly staring at his own face?

“You helped me,” he mused out loud. “You warned me about the puddle. You let me look at you without fleeing. I gave you a new name.”

Virgil, the creature mouthed at him, smiling with a mouth full of canines. Logan’s eyes widened, his jaw dropped, and Virgil’s smile disappeared, replaced with a worried expression.

“You… can you hear me?” Logan asked. Virgil stared back at him, silent and unmoving except for the slightest swishes of his tail to keep him in place. “Virgil?”

Virgil.

“All right, so you know your name,” Logan said, cocking his head to the side thoughtfully. He finally took his hand off the glass to point at his own chest. “Logan.”

Virgil rolled his eyes. Lo-gan, he mouthed, moving his lips in an exaggerated point. If Logan didn’t know any better, he’d say that Virgil was being sarcastic.

Of course, he clearly didn’t know better. He had no idea the creature could change its appearance, or that it possessed this level of intelligence. It was, it a way, conversing with him. It knew his name. It knew its own name.

“Did you already go by Virgil?” Logan asked, placing his hand against the glass and drumming his fingers thoughtfully. “Did I just happen to guess correctly? Or do you just like that better than Annie?”

Virgil gave Logan’s hand on the glass a disgusted look and mimed slapping his hand away. Logan paused his drumming, and Virgil looked satisfied. The vibrations must have carried more strongly through the water that Logan expected. How sensitive were Virgil’s ears? Or was he feeling the movement of the water physically? Maybe they should-

This, time, Virgil did actually slap the glass, grimacing. Oops. Logan had started drumming again without realizing it. Virgil kept his hand where it was, though, and Logan uncurled his own fingers to press against it.

“Virgil,” he breathed, and Virgil smiled back at him.

Logan.

[orbemnews]

Historic DNA Exhibits People Settled Caribbean in 2 Distinct Waves When Dr. Juan Aviles went to high school in Puerto Rico, academics taught him that the unique folks of the island, the Taino, vanished quickly after Spain colonized it. Violence, illness and compelled labor wiped them out, destroying their tradition and language, the academics stated, and the colonizers repopulated the island with enslaved folks, together with Indigenous folks from Central and South America and Africans. However at dwelling, Dr. Aviles heard one other story. His grandmother would inform him that they had been descended from Taino ancestors and that a number of the phrases they used additionally descended from the Taino language. “However, you realize, my grandmother needed to drop out of faculty at second grade, so I didn’t belief her initially,” stated Dr. Aviles, now a doctor in Goldsboro, N.C. Dr. Aviles, who studied genetics in graduate faculty, has develop into lively in utilizing it to assist join folks within the Caribbean with their genealogical historical past. And up to date analysis within the subject has led him to acknowledge that his grandmother was onto one thing. A examine printed Wednesday within the journal Nature, for instance, exhibits that, on common, about 14 % of individuals’s ancestry in Puerto Rico will be traced again to the Taino. In Cuba it’s about 4 % whereas within the Dominican Republic it’s extra like six %. These outcomes, and others like them based mostly on DNA present in historical Caribbean skeletons, are offering new insights into the historical past of the area. They present, for instance, that the Caribbean islands had been populated in two distinct waves from the mainland and that the human inhabitants of the islands was additionally smaller than as soon as believed. However these residing on the islands earlier than colonial contact weren’t absolutely extinguished; hundreds of thousands of individuals residing right this moment inherited their DNA, together with traces of their traditions and languages. Earlier than the appearance of Caribbean genetic research, archaeologists offered a lot of the clues concerning the origins of individuals within the area. The primary human residents of the Caribbean seem to have lived principally as hunter-gatherers, catching sport on the islands and fishing at sea whereas additionally sustaining small gardens of crops. Archaeologists have found a number of burials of these historical folks. Beginning within the early 2000s, geneticists managed to fish out a number of tiny bits of preserved DNA of their bones. Vital advances lately have made it potential to drag complete genomes from historical skeletons. “We went from zero full genomes two years in the past to over 200 now,” stated Maria Nieves-Colón, an anthropological geneticist on the College of Minnesota who was not concerned within the new examine. The genes of the oldest recognized residents of the Caribbean hyperlink them with the earliest populations that settled in Central and South America. “It’s a Native American inhabitants, in fact, however it’s a really distinctive deep lineage,” stated David Reich, a co-author of the examine and a geneticist at Harvard Medical Faculty. However it’s not but clear precisely from the place on the mainland these early Indigenous Individuals set sail in dugout canoes to achieve the Caribbean islands. “I don’t assume we’re as shut as we thought we’d be to a solution,” stated Dr. Nieves-Colón, a co-author of one other large-scale genetic examine in July. A part of the issue is that scientists have but to search out historical DNA within the Caribbean that’s greater than 3,000 years previous. The opposite downside is that historical DNA continues to be scarce on the Caribbean coast of the mainland. “There’s rather a lot we will’t see as a result of we don’t have previous DNA,” Dr. Nieves-Colón stated. About 2,500 years in the past, the archaeological report exhibits, there was a drastic shift within the cultural lifetime of the Caribbean. Folks began residing in larger settlements, intensively farming crops like maize and candy potatoes. Their pottery turned extra subtle and elaborate. For archaeologists, the change signifies the tip of what they name the Archaic Age and the beginning of a Ceramic Age. Dr. Nieves-Colón and different researchers have discovered that the DNA of Caribbean islanders additionally shifted on the similar time. The skeletons from the Ceramic Age largely shared a brand new genetic signature. Their DNA hyperlinks them to small tribes nonetheless residing right this moment in Colombia and Venezuela. It’s potential that the migrants from the Caribbean coast of South America introduced with them the languages that had been nonetheless being spoken when Columbus arrived 2,000 years later. We don’t know rather a lot about these languages, though some phrases have managed to outlive. Hurricane, for instance, comes from hurakán, the Taino identify for the god of storms. These phrases bear a placing resemblance to phrases from a household of languages in South America referred to as Arawak. The DNA of the Ceramic Age Caribbeans most intently resembles that of residing Arawak audio system. Within the Ceramic Age report, it turns into arduous to search out folks with a lot Archaic ancestry. They appear to have survived in a number of locations, like western Cuba, till they vanished about 1,000 years in the past. The folks bearing Ceramic Age ancestry got here to dominate the Caribbean, with virtually no interbreeding between the 2 teams. “It looks as if the Archaics had been simply overwhelmed by the Ceramics,” stated William Keegan, an archaeologist on the Florida Museum of Pure Historical past and a co-author of the brand new examine. Dr. Keegan, who has been finding out Caribbean archaeology for over three many years, stated the brand new DNA findings had stunned him in some ways, giving him a number of recent questions to research. Over the course of the Ceramic Age, for instance, strikingly new pottery types emerged each few centuries. Researchers have lengthy guessed that these shifts mirror the arrival of recent teams of individuals within the islands. The traditional DNA doesn’t help that concept, although. There’s a genetic continuity by these drastic cultural modifications. It seems that the identical group of individuals within the Caribbean went by a sequence of main social modifications that archaeologists have but to elucidate. Dr. Reich and his fellow geneticists additionally found household ties that spanned the Caribbean throughout the Ceramic Age. They discovered 19 pairs of individuals on completely different islands who shared equivalent segments of DNA — an indication that they had been pretty shut family members. In a single case, they discovered long-distance cousins from the Bahamas and Puerto Rico, separated by over 800 miles. That discovering flies within the face of influential theories from archaeology. “The unique concept was that individuals begin in a single place, they set up a colony someplace else, after which they simply minimize all ties to the place they got here from,” Dr. Keegan stated. “However the genetic proof is suggesting that these ties had been maintained over an extended time period.” Quite than being made up of remoted communities, in different phrases, the Caribbean was a busy, long-distance community that individuals recurrently traveled by dugout canoe. “The water is sort of a freeway,” Dr. Nieves-Colón stated. The genetic variations additionally allowed Dr. Reich and his colleague to estimate the dimensions of the Caribbean society earlier than European contact. Christopher Columbus’s brother Bartholomew despatched letters again to Spain placing the determine within the hundreds of thousands. The DNA means that was an exaggeration: the genetic variations suggest that the whole inhabitants was as little as the tens of 1000’s. Colonization delivered an enormous shock to the Caribbean world, drastically altering its genetic profile. However the Ceramic Age folks nonetheless managed to go on their genes to future generations. And now, with a inhabitants of about 44 million folks, the Caribbean might comprise extra Taino DNA than it did in 1491. “Now we now have this proof to point out that we weren’t extinct, we simply combined, and we’re nonetheless round,” stated Dr. Aviles. His fascination with the analysis on Caribbean DNA led him not too long ago to assist discovered the Council of Native Caribbean Heritage. The group helps folks discover their very own hyperlinks to the Caribbean’s distant previous. Dr. Aviles and his colleagues have consulted with Dr. Reich and different researchers, each to debate the course of the analysis and to make use of it to know their very own histories. Dr. Aviles and his colleagues have uploaded the traditional Caribbean genomes to a genealogical database referred to as GEDMatch. With the assistance of genealogists, folks can examine their very own DNA to the traditional genomes. They’ll see the matching stretches of genetic materials that reveal their relatedness. Typically Dr. Aviles imagines explaining all this to his late grandmother. “However first I’d apologize for not believing her,” he stated, “as a result of she was spot on.” Supply hyperlink #Ancient #Caribbean #Distinct #DNA #Humans #Settled #Shows #waves

[kaisoari-blog]

So, I recently got Magician’s Quest: Mysterious Times for the DS and here’s what I think of it.

It's been about almost a week since I had gotten Magician's Quest: Mysterious Times. That’s on November 5, 2017, so not too long ago. Before I get to “reviewing” this game, I just have this to say:

I am in love with this game. I wish I had known about this game when it was first released back in 2009, but I'm happy to have come across it now in 2017. I haven't picked up my 3DS in a long time and this game has gotten me hooked. It feels like deja vu all over again when I got Animal Crossing for the Game Cube back in 2004. I can gush on about this game, but I want to tell you guys about my week experience with the game. I'll be telling you guys about the game play, graphics, sounds and both good and bad things, as well as some mixed opinions.

First off, the game play:

Did you play Animal Crossing? If you did, this game will feel very familiar to you. The most common comparison would be as if Animal Crossing allowed you to attend Hogwarts! However, if you didn't play Animal Crossing, let me give you the run down. This game is technically a life sim game where you live in a town full of different sorts of people while also attending a magic school. Of course, you don't have to go to school, but it's recommended that you do because there are some game play elements that you will need to know if you want to progress through the game. Also, the game runs by the actual real time clock on your DS or 3DS. So, if it's 5 PM in real life, it will be 5 PM in the game. Pretty much the same concept as Animal Crossing.

When you first start off you will be greeted by the school's principle where he will ask you your name, when you were born, what your gender is and what school (or town) you are planning on going to. Once you are finished, you will be taken to the dorm where you are met with the dorm master. He will show you where your room is and will give you a piece of furniture to put in your room, which is nice. A lot better than a certain raccoon that I know...

Once you finish exploring the dormitories, the dorm master will then escort you to the school itself. There, you will meet with the school principle again who will then take you to the classroom where he will introduce you to your fellow classmates (or villagers if you want to call them that) and give you your first set of magical equipment. Here, you can either mingle with your classmates and get to know them, or you can go out of the class room and head back to the dorms where the dorm master is waiting for you. If you choose to go back to the dorms (which you don't have too, but recommended if you do) he will give you funds for your scholarship. He's certainly a really nice guy! First he gives you a room to stay in, a piece of furniture to store your stuff, escorts you to your school and gives you money?! Tom Nook can suck big one! This guy is my new favorite person in the world! He doesn't extort you like that over weight raccoon!

At this point in time, you are free to do whatever you feel like. You can explore the whole town, talk to your classmates, go to class, etc. However, before anything can really get started, it's recommended that you go through the “tutorial”, which will teach you how to use your wand to transform it into certain tools, the basics of magic linguistics and so on. You can talk to which ever teacher who is standing in front of the class room door to begin your lessons. Each teacher will teach different subjects and will award you spells at the end of each lesson, as well as a stamp on your attendance records. There is one teacher that will now give you spells, but will teach you how to speak in magical linguistics. I would assume was also used in online game play (RIP Nintendo WFC...), but certain quests will require you to understand how to use them effectively.

Upon completing the “tutorial”, the principle will summon you and will give you a key to activate an event called “Mystery Time.” Mystery Time is an event that will change the entire town to a different color, no matter the time of day, and this is where things can get interesting. Upon activating it, you will see a silhouette of a certain creature before being transported outside of your dorm. During Mystery Time, you will notice some things have changed and there are new bugs and fish for you to catch. Which then, you can turn into items to sell to make some money. During this time, you can also take extracurricular activities which can range from finding a certain items or to evening dueling your fellow classmates in a magic duel. Mystery Time lasts for a while, so take advantage of it while it's still active. During Mystery Time, however, all classes are dismissed until it ends.

Once Mystery Time has ended, this is where you can actually start your “missions”. Remember that silhouette when you activated Mystery Time? Well, your classmates will be talking about it and it will be up to you to figure out how to solve that mystery. Some are easy while others you may have to do a bit of thinking on how to complete them. It's surprisingly deep in a way. Once you do solve the mystery, things go back to normal like they should until the next mystery. There is one time where you cannot activate Mystery Time, and that is if something is knocking on the door to the other side when you have the key to activate it. I haven't had this happen yet, but I believe it connects with the real world clock which could indicate a holiday event. There are other events that may happen such as getting an invitation to fight a pirate on the island where your school is. It's really neat seeing that anything can happen on a weekly basis.

There's also the school's bulletin board which will tell you of up coming events as well as who is in town and banters between students. It's a good idea to check it out throughout the day since new info is always added. And speaking of your classmates, you can build deep relations with your classmates and there are a lot of diversity among them. In Animal Crossing, all of your neighbors were... animals. In this game, your classmates aren't only just animals, but they can be robots, aliens, humanoid plants and foods and even cell phones. I mean, sure, you can befriend a phone. It seems fitting in this time where people are practically glued to their phones.

What sets the relations apart from this and Animal Crossing, you can actually pursue either a platonic relationship or a romantic relationship. Of course, this is just a little something extra, but it's nice to have deeper relations with your fellow classmates. This on its own keeps me coming back just to see what they have to say. Depending on certain circumstances, rumors about you and other students can spread like wild fire! If you are getting really friendly with one of your classmates, the entire school will know. If you are playing tricks on your classmates, the entire school will know. Even if you are just minding your own business and not doing anything bad, you guessed it, the entire school will know. So, yeah, just lock yourself in your dorm. Nah, don't do that, they will know anyway! Joking aside, I like this feature and it makes things interesting when you talk to your classmates the next day.

Lastly, at the end of every week, you are graded on certain factors that you have done during your play time of that week. If you manage to “make good grades” you will rank up and earn a new hat and a wand. I feel it makes it worth while on what you do for your town and how you interact with your classmates. This also falls on how many mysteries you were able to solve within the week. However, if you are mean to your classmates, leave litter in your town and just slack off, your rank won't go up. So, play nice, keep the town looking clean and go solve any mysteries you can!

Alright, onto the graphics:

For a DS game from 2009, it looks pretty good. I like the style it has going for it. Of course, going back to the DS days is hard enough, especially being spoiled by today's graphics from the 3DS. But for the most part, everything looks alright. The character models are cute and nice to look at. The scenery is also nice and colorful. Nothing stands out all that much that seems jarring. There is this one texture in the shopping area that looks weird when you move in and out of it, but that's pretty much the only thing that stands out. I really can't say much of anything else about the graphics other than they look good, if not, look better than Wild World.

Time for the sound:

Oh boy, the sound. The music in this game is really nice and relaxing. You may notice some familiar tunes from the game as that it does play a lot of classical music during certain events. One thing I do have to say: you better like the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy during Mystery Time, because that is all you hear. However, there are some relaxing tunes that I find myself zoning out on, as well as jamming to some. If you get the chance to look up the OST on YouTube, you should! Of course, there aren't any hourly tunes like in Animal Crossing, but instead plays music based on the time of day. There's different music for the morning, afternoon, evening, night and late night. And depending on the weather, different music will play. I personally like the cloudy evening music. It does put me in a mellow mood to the point of making perfect music to fall asleep to. Overall, the music is really nice and calming.

There are music CDs that you can buy in the game that are nice to listen to. Each CD has a different genre and style that I find are really good. My personal favorites are Night Garage, Ragin' Rivers and X-Ray Invasion. I guess you can compare these to K.K. Slider's air checks, but instead of getting one piece of music every Saturday, you can get up to four new CDs (if you don't own them already) every day.

The actual game sounds themselves are okay. They are expected in every game. Also, everyone in your town and school speaks in what could be described as animalese, which is the default voice setting in Animal Crossing. However, each student (well, a majority of them anyway) has their own “voice”, so no two classmate will have the same voice. I like this because it gives me the general idea of how each student should sound like. There are some that sound a little off, but I like the varied “voices” either way.

Now onto the good stuff I liked about this game:

I think what made me fall in love with this game was the fact that you can have jam sessions with your classmates. If you have an instrument and you have learned a piece of music (you can do that by standing around in the towns bar and listen to the music there, or from a CD you bought) you can whip out the instrument of your choice and start playing music. It's all automated, though, so you have very little interaction with your selected instrument. Depending which instrument you use will determine what part of the song you play. So, if you're playing the drums, you're playing the beat of the song. If you have an electric guitar, you play the bass. If you have the flute, you play the melody and so on. Each instrument has a different role. If one of your classmates see you playing a song, they may come and join you! Each classmate has their own instrument they like playing, so it's really fun to see who will come and join you and what instrument they brought them with.

I still like the fact that you can have a romantic relationship with a classmate of your choosing. It sort of makes it a lot better to interact with them and have cute banters with them. Of course, you can have a strong friendship with them as well and take them to go fishing, catching bugs or have a drink at the bar.

I also feel that the touch screen mechanics (because that's what the DS was all about back in the day) feels a lot better than what Wild Worlds did. Of course, you aren't forced to use it, but it makes planting flowers, trees and bushes a lot easier since you can drag and drop any item you want and your character will walk to that area and put it there, versus walking there and just selecting “drop” like you had to in Wild World. Of course, you aren't forced to use the stylus, but it makes inventory management easier.

I love the music in this game. A lot of it is calming and some had made me feel really nostalgic. The CDs you can get from the store is an awesome bonus since you don't have to wait every Saturday to attend a concert to get an air check.

Your player avatar has more facial expressions that what Animal Crossing's player avatar does. Sure, you don't get to learn emotes from an axolotl, but during certain situations your character can be pretty expressive, which is really great!

Did I mention the diversity of the students? There are quite a few students that are not only animals, but of different kinds of beings! I won't go more into that since I have already mentioned it, but just wanted to express that I like that all of the students are different.

You are able to buy an unlimited amounts of berry bushes (this games equivalent to turnips) and plant them anywhere in town and grow berries. There are six different berries you can grow and they can fetch a nice price when Cat Sith is in town. And since there are six different types of berries to grow and sell, you can make bank! Unlike turnips, you can store berries in your dresser where they will stay fresh forever, so you don't need to worry about them rotting if the prices aren't right when you plan on selling berries. Cat Sith comes on every day that is divisible by 3. So, if it's February 3, he will also come on the February 6, February 9, and well, you get the idea.

Like to keep your town looking good? Well, new flowers are planted everyday in certain key locations. So, you aren't forced to get flowers from the flower shop to make the town look nice. Well, so as long as those spots where flowers do grow aren't already covered. And you can sell them if you need a bit of pocket change. Oh! Also, flowers can have different colors if they are planted in certain locations in town and if you know a certain incantation, you can turn those different colored flowers into special flowers. So, in retrospect, breeding flowers and getting different colors of certain flowers is simplified!

The room that your dorm master gives you is huge! So, you have plenty of space for new furniture and customizing it to the way you like. And you want to know the best part about that is? IT'S FREAKIN' FREE!! No greedy raccoon will be knocking on your door and hounding you to pay back a debt that you didn't want in the first place! Again, suck a fat one, Nook!

Lastly, the mysteries. This is essentially the game's “story” mode. Each mystery will be different and there's quite a lot of them from what I can tell. Some will require you to know certain spells while others are basically fetch quests. Some mysteries will also test your knowledge of how well you know your magical linguistics, since most of the mysteries will require you to read and speak in linguistics. I really like this since it gives me a reason to keep playing and to see what the next mystery will be.

Okay, onto the things I don't like about this game:

Do you like waiting? No? Well, guess what? That's what you will be doing. ...A lot. I didn't find this out until I had to look them up, but you are limited to a max of 3 classes every week. Of course, there are some other classes you can do that will teach you how to use your magical linguistics, but if you want to learn a new spell or incantation, you will have to wait until the next week to get a new spell to play with. Sure, you can cast magic that you haven't learned, but you will have to memorize that spell every time you want to use it, as opposed to pulling up your player's info where your new magic spell is listed there for quick reference.

The game's camera, especially while exploring within the town is a bit jarring... It feels that it's too zoomed in onto your player character, unlike Animal Crossing with the bird's eye/overhead view. Not to mention, if your player runs behind any buildings or trees, you can see them. This may not bother some, but it can be annoying if you are either treasure hunting or trying to find a classmate to talk to.

Speaking of classmates, man do they like to spread rumors a lot. Not that I don't mind it, but some of the rumors are... questionable? From what I gather, the rumors are randomly generated and may come off as not making any sense. There also seems to be some translation errors when it was being localized. I don't know if it was because they were having trouble translating the game, or they were being rushed to get it out and left some errors in the dialogue. I just find it weird when one of my classmates runs up to me and tells me a rumor that was thrown into Google Translate and spat out. While some are intelligible, others elude me to the point of just responding back saying that the rumor was true.

Some mysteries may be too difficult to figure out without the aid of a guide or FaQ. On the flip side, there are some mysteries that are too easy. The first mystery took me too long to figure out and had to consult a guide to figure out how to do it. Of course, your classmates will give you some ideas and suggestions on how to complete the mysteries, but more times than naught, they will often leave out key information on how to complete it. You are given a week to complete it, though so there is plenty of time to finish them. However, from what I gather, if you don't complete it you will miss your chance of completing it and you won't get another Mystery Key (which is needed to do the mysteries) until the next week. So, again, more waiting!

“I'm getting tired of waiting! I'll just change the system's clock!” Sure, you can do that, but the game will punish you for it. Like in the vain of Animal Crossing, time traveling will cause your town to decay. Which means that if you have a nice looking town, say good-bye to your flowers, berry bushes and trees. That's right; trees can die! Which is a perfect segue to the next part: you will have to wait for trees to die if you want to get rid of them. The game doesn't give you an axe to use to get rid of trees that may be in the way. Also, mushrooms will grow in your room, which you need to throw away because the shop keeper will not buy them. Well, no, the shop keeper will buy them, but they will be dirt cheap. Students may move out (or, in this case, transfer to a different school) and the love of your life may find a new person to be with. If that's something that will bother you... So, yeah, don't time travel, even if things are going slow.

Want to have music playing in your room the entire time? Well, too bad! If you wanted to have a CD you bought from the store to keep continuously playing, you will sadden to hear that you will need to turn on your music player every time you want to listen to your CDs in your room. It's nothing too major, but it's a bit of an annoyance to walk into a completely quite room...

Getting money in this game is extremely tedious. Every bug and fish you catch must be taken to the tower (this game's museum) to be converted into items that can be sold. While this is a great way of getting items without having to dig around for them, but it becomes really tiresome of having to run all the way to the shop keep (and yes, it is quite the jog) and then back to where you need to catch more bugs and fish. Speaking of selling, once you guy furniture or clothing, you're stuck with them until Cat Sith comes to town. He is the only NPC that will buy them off of you. So, if there's a piece of furniture or clothing you no longer wait, you gotta wait until he's in town.

And lastly, everything in all of the shops are too expensive! You will find yourself being constantly broke if you want to buy new stuff for your room. Even instruments cost a fortune! It makes saving really difficult since there's usually something that you might want to buy. There is a bank, but from what I've read, it's glitched out. I haven't personally put anything in the banks, but I don't want to chance it an not being able to retrieve my money or any items that I put in there. Also, if you are a person that likes to collect things, you will be hard pressed to learn that there is no catalog in the game. That means, if you got ride of a certain item, you cannot reorder it and you have to wait until it's in stock again. That can be a real pain since you don't know how long it may be until it becomes available for purchase...

Lastly, my mixed feelings on the game as a whole:

While familiar, the game is no Animal Crossing. I keep telling myself that every time I play the game. Even while starting up for the first time, I decided to reset the game to see if I could get a different town layout. Turns out, the town is predetermined and the only thing that is randomized is the classmates you will get. This may not sit well some with some people, but I soon came to accept the fact that if there was a classmate that I didn't like, or didn't have, I could reset it without getting a weird town layout. Speaking of which, there isn't a whole lot of customizing in this game... You can, of course, customize your school outfit and the school bell, but that's it.

There are some instances where the students and NPCs were to slide across the ground without any walking animations. This is definitely an immersion breaker for me. Also, some students are actual “true magicians” because you turn your back for a second, they are on the other side of the map in the blink of an eye! Not to mention, if you see a student outside of where you are and you go inside a building and come out, they always end up coming out of a random building (usually their house) and greet you. It's weird... Why not stay outside?

While I do like the music, I often get thrown for a loop when it comes to the time of day. Every time a new hour strikes I keep thinking that a new hourly tune will play. The day is split up into morning, afternoon, evening, night and late night. So, a total of 5 different music tracks will be played throughout the day, which doesn't seem like a whole lot to some...

Mystery Time takes way too long to end... As soon as you start it, it will last all day until 4 AM. That means that class will be out for that day and if you don't like the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy you tempted to shift the clock a bit to end it. Of course, you can always end it prematurely by making a new character, but some people may not be bothered to even doing that. Messing with the system's clock is another way to effectively end it, but that will cause extracurricular activities to be halted for the next 24 hours... With shops closing at midnight, I feel that Mystery Time should end at midnight.

And lastly, let's talk about a little mole that I'm sure everyone is familiar with. No, he's not in this game, but you will soon appreciate him after what I am about to tell you next. If you turn the game off without saving your dorm master will come to yell at you. Seems tame right? Oh... But here's where it gets good! What if you were to tempt him by turning the game off without saving multiple times? More tongue lashing and verbal abuse? No... You will be forced to clean the school's bathrooms! That's right! The game outright punishes save scummers by forcing them to clean the the schools bathrooms! And if you keep doing this, the task gets longer and harder and soon, not only will you have to clean the bathrooms, but the teacher's lounge as well! And that will take EVEN longer to do! But you want to know what the kicker is? The principle will award the player a title for being “forgetful”... I had to laugh at that. And during the whole time while you're cleaning, the dorm master will constantly yell at you! If you thought that Resetti was bad, he's a puppy dog compared to your dorm master! And to me, that's hilarious. He gave you everything you needed to start your wizard training and by god, if you force his hand, he will make you clean!

Those are my initial thoughts of the game. I LOVE this game! Everything about this game is charming and it brings me back to a time where things were much simpler. To me, if the game had gotten a lot more recognition, I feel that it could go toe-to-toe with Animal Crossing. However, upon release, it had gotten some rough reviews and I feel that people merely passed this off as an Animal Crossing clone or rip off. And to me, that's not fair. I love Animal Crossing, but I also love this. If I had to choose between the two if I had known about it way back in 2009, I would have chosen this one for sure. There's just so much to do and it has kept me coming back every day for a week. Sure, there will be a day where I will have to put it down and forget about it because games do get boring after a while. However, from what I have experienced, I'm glad I was given the chance to find out about this game and try it out for myself.

There is a 3DS version of this game, as well. Sadly, upon doing more research about the game, the 3DS version of this game (which is the fourth game in the series) isn't doing so well in Japan. Which would explain why we haven't gotten a localized version of it yet... I'm not entirely sure why, but my guess may have to do with the timing. The game was released around the same time that Animal Crossing New Leaf was released, so that could be it. I wouldn't hold my breath on it, though, since the 3DS is nearing the end of it's life. But, if you have a Japanese 3DS, you can still get it and give it a shot.

Overall, I highly recommend getting this game for the DS, at least! You can play it on either the DS or 3DS since it is backwards compatible! It is on the expensive side, though... I was lucky enough to get mine for about 50 some-odd dollars. If you are looking to get the cartridge itself, you may be lucky enough to find it for about $60. But, if you are looking for the complete package of the game, I hope you are willing to spend more than $200 for it alone. The highest I've seen which had everything plus the special pre-order stylus was about $400. So, if you got the money to spare, you can try your luck.

This game needs more love... If you happen to come across it and you like playing Animal Crossing or life sim type games, don't pass this up!

[trentteti]

Predictions for the September 2019 LSAT

The September 2019 LSAT is approaching — perhaps a bit too quickly for comfort, for some. While the upcoming September test promises a lot of last-minute cramming and practice exams and bouts of panic-induced mania for those signed up to take it, it promises a different time-honored tradition for us at Most Strongly Supported: the predictions post.

Before each LSAT, our crack-team of bloggers makes hyper-specific predictions for the LSAT, which can range from the outlandish and unlikely to the ridiculously outlandish and incredibly unlikely. The let’s-charitably-call-it-a-“joke” underlying these posts was that the LSAT always tests the same concepts and skills, so predicting what’s going to be on the test is kind of besides the point. So we might as well have some fun and predict that the third Reading Comprehension passage is going to be about the cultural history of Norwegian death metal, or whatever.

But this year, we want to provide some more serious prognostication. Even if we’ve joked in the past, we have been tracking, very closely, which types of games, passages, and Logical Reasoning question types have been recurring most frequently on recent exams. So for this September predictions post, I’m going to put on my best Nate Silver cosplay and use data to make some honest predictions. That way, you can at least have a sense of what’s the most likely to appear on the September test, and can focus on those games, passages, and LR questions in the waning days before the September exam.

That said, our usual caveats still apply. We have no inside knowledge of what the test writers are going to put on the September exam. On a personal level, I’m wrong, a lot (just this year, for example, I saw a can of White Claw and thought, “Pfft, hard seltzer? No way that’s gonna catch on.”). But we pay attention to the LSAT about as closely as anyone could, and we think can offer some insight into what’s likely to be on the September test. So let’s get to prognosticating …

Logical Reasoning:

Here’s how I think the questions are going to be distributed on the September test:

Must Be True: 2 questions (since December 2013, an average of 1.59/exam) Soft Must Be True: 4 questions (average of 5.18/exam) Must Be False: 0 questions (average of 0.59/exam)

Main Point: 1 (average of 2.18/exam) , Describe: 1 (average of 1.24/exam) Flaw: 8 (average of 7.65/exam) Parallel: 2 (average of 2/exam) Parallel Flaw: 2 (average of 2/exam) Role: 1 (average of 1.94/exam) Disagree: 4 (average 1.94/exam) Agree: 1 (average of 0.29/exam)

Strengthen: 10 (average of 8/exam) Weaken: 3 (average 3.53/exam) Crux: 0 (average of 0.77/exam) Sufficient: 3 (average of 2.76/exam) Necessary: 6 (average of 5.12, exam) Resolve/Explain: 3 (average of 3.93/exam)

What we call the “Implication family” of LR questions — which includes Must Be True, Soft Must Be True, and Must Be False questions — has been trending down for years now, so I don’t think there will be more than six of these on the entire test. There’s been a slight uptick of Must Be True questions recently, so I think they’re going to slightly exceed their average prevalence. I’d expect one or both of those to be diagrammable. There’s almost always between four and six Soft Must Be True questions, but the average amount of them has been trending down recently, so I expect that number in September is on the low-end of the range. Must Be False questions — a personal favorite of mine — have been more-or-less dying on the vine recently, only showing up once per testing year. Since there was a Must Be False question on the June 2019 exam, I don’t expect to see one here.

Moving over to the “Characterization family” of questions — those that ask you describe some feature of an argument — I don’t think there’s going to be more than one Main Point question. There have been way more than the average number of those on recent tests — with three appearing last June and four appearing last November — so I think the number is going to regress a bit on this exam. Likewise, there were four Role questions in June 2019, way more than the average. Respect to the ‘Bama fans out there, but I expect the Role tide to recede in September. On the other hand, I expect the number of Flaw questions to exceed its average. There has been between six and nine Flaw questions on a given exam since time immemorial. June was at the low-end of that range with six, so I’m slightly bullish on those for September. There are always exactly two Parallel and two Parallel Flaw questions per exam, so I’m feeling pretty confident with that prediction. Finally, I think there are going to be a lot of Disagree and Agree questions; this year feels like 2017 to me, when there was just a total proliferation of those question types.

Finally, to the “Operation family” — those questions that ask you to find the answer choice that changes the argument some way. The one unmistakable trend of Logical Reasoning is the increasing prominence of the Strengthen question. Since December 2017, there’s been between eight and eleven Strengthen questions on each exam. I think there are going to ten in September, and I’m guessing that three or four of them will be Strengthen Principle questions. That said, I’m only predicting three of the similar Weaken questions, as it’s rare to get more than thirteen Strengthen and Weaken questions in an exam. Crux questions are rare, and there was one in June, so I don’t think we’ll see one on test day. And I’m predicting a lot of Sufficient and Necessary assumption questions. For Necessary questions, in particular, there are almost always between four and six, but there were only three in June. I expect the test writers to dig a bit deeper into the bag of Necessary questions for this exam.

I’m not super eager to predict anything beyond this in Logical Reasoning. I went out on a limb with a prediction in June 2019 and got burned, after all. But old habits die hard, so here’s one of our patented hyper-specific predictions: look out for a question — probably a Flaw, Strengthen, Weaken, or Necessary question — about archaeological evidence. The author of the argument will find some artifact and use it to make some conclusions about the ancient people who presumably used that artifact. That author will be assuming that the artifact was always in the location it was found, or that the artifact has the same uses in ancient times that it would have today. This flaw has been super common on the LSAT of late — check out question 21 in the first Logical Reasoning section of the December 2017 test if you want a good example of such a question.

Reading Comprehension:

Reading Comp — the unloved and overlooked middle-child of the LSAT — will be a slog. That much I can predict, proverbial hat firmly in hand. These passages have only become more difficult-to-understand, and the questions have only become more challenging, as the years go by. I don’t expect that trend to abate in September. It’s unfortunate, but also undeniable.

That said, the topics of these passages have become, if anything, more standardized in recent years. There will definitely be a science passage, as there are 1.11 science passages per exam since December 2013. These have tended to oscillate in recent years between more pop-science topics like fish farms, nutrition, multiverses, and dowsing and more hard-science topics like the Big Bang, plate tectonics, anatomical changes ushered in by cooking, and brain scans. I have a feeling that this science passage will err on the harder side, likely about either neurology or cosmology.

There will almost certainly be a legal passage, as well. These passages about the law have appeared on 89% of recent exams. Lately, they’ve discussed either problems with witness testimony or problems with judicial decision making. Since the last few law-based passages have dealt with witness testimony, let’s say this one is going to be about judges.

Over the last few years, the comparative passage is almost always about either the arts or the law. I think the legal passage is going to a traditional, non-comparative passage, so I expect September’s comparative passage will discuss the arts, which shows up as a topic on 67% of all exams. We’ve seen recent comparative passages delve into music, opera, and literature appear; maybe this one will be about film?

Finally, I think there will be a culture/history passage to round things out. This is a topic that appears in 40% of all Reading Comp sections. I have a totally unsubstantiated feeling it’s going to be about unions.

Logic Games:

Finally, let’s talk Logic Games. The Logic Games trend you absolutely must be aware of is the increased importance of making scenarios. Games that benefit from the use of scenarios are abundant on the last few LSATs. On the June 2019, November 2018, and September 2018 exams, I thought making scenarios made all four of the games easier. On the June 2018 test, I thought this was true for all but one game. On December 2017, all games.

There’s a reason for this. On older games, scenarios were useful less frequently. On those games, you’d usually get a ton of rules that interacted with each other in pretty obvious ways. These rules which would severely constrain your players and lead to important deductions. To find these deductions, you really just had to pay attention to elements that showed up in more than one rule.

On almost all recent games, however, there are fewer rules and, consequently, fewer elements that show up in more than one rule. On their face, recent games appear much more open-ended and unconstrained than older games were. To figure out how these recent games work and to get a little head start on the questions, it’s become increasingly important to figure out a way to divide the game into a few different “scenarios” — the few ways the game could actually shake out. Making scenarios usually involves constraining one or more part of your set-up. When you do that, you’ll make it much easier to make the important deductions in each scenario — deductions that would have been incredibly difficult to make without resorting to scenarios.

I have every reason to think, then, that the September LSAT will continue this trend. I believe all four games on this test will be easier with scenarios So, as I predict these games, I don’t only want to predict what kinds of games they’ll be, but how you’ll probably make scenarios on that game.

I think the first game will be a 1 to 1 ordering game. 1.06 1 to 1 ordering games appear on each exam — this is the one game that shows up on literally every exam. For this 1 to 1 ordering game, watch out for a block (a rule that says players have to be ordered an exact distance apart from each other) that can only fit in a few places in your set-up. This is one of the most common ways to make scenarios on the LSAT. Pay also watch out fo an “or … but not both” ordering rule (e.g., “A must be ordered before B or after C, but not both”). Such rules have been a frequent cause for scenarios and (for those who are deft with scenarios) celebration alike, showing up most recently on the first game of the June 2019 LSAT or on the second game of the December 2017 exam.

For the second game, I’m seeing an unstable grouping game. These appear on roughly 65% of recent exams, and it’s been a few LSATs since they’ve shown up. I’m expecting you’ll be able to make scenarios based on a “must be together relationship” — a rule that claims that two players much be selected for the same group. Those rules are the bread-and-butter of scenarios on grouping games.

I’m going to guess the third game is going to be another grouping game — but this time, a “stable” one. That just means that, unlike their “unstable” counterparts, you’ll know exactly how many players need to join each group. These games show up on about 41% of all LSATs, and there have been a number of them in recent years. I think there’ll be a catch with this one, however: it’s going to be underbooked. There are going to be more spaces to fill than players available to fill them, so certain players will have to join more than one group.

I also think that there will be deductions or scenarios to be made, based on the limited number of players available to join each group. For instance, let’s say you have five players to fill a three-player group. Once you know that two of those five players can’t fill that group, you’ll know exactly who must join that group. This type of deduction has been really common recently — June 2019, Game 4; November 2018, Game 1; June 2018, Game 4; December 2017, Game 1; and June 2017, Game 4 all feature similar deductions. So make sure to keep track of who can’t join a group, and use that to determine who must join that group.

Finally, I think the fourth game will be a “tiered” ordering game. These games appear on over 70% of LSAT; when the appear, they’re usually the hardest game, and the hardest game is usually saved for last. Sounds intimidating … if only there was a blog post outlining all the common ways to make scenarios or deductions on these games. If it’s not one of those common deductions, I’m expecting scenarios could be made based on a constrained player — a player who can go in only a few places and whose placement will affect the surrounding slots. It also wouldn’t surprise me if the deductions within these scenarios were based on conditional logic (as in, “if B goes third, then C and D cannot proceed him …”).

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Based on the data, this is our best guesses about what the September 2019 LSAT will look like. Of course, no one outside LSAC’s inner-circle of test writers and administrators knows exactly what the September test will hold. So it’s obviously best to walk into the exam on September 21st with a very well-rounded set of skills. But because there are a finite number of days before the test, we believe that focusing on these can calm your nerves and set you up for success.

Predictions for the September 2019 LSAT was originally published on Blueprint LSAT Blog