#It's wild that they only exist in this very small and specific area.

[painted-bees]

Nooo covid is the worst!! I hope you feel better soon! In the meantime, are there any animals you find really interesting or cool? I recently discovered comb jellies myself and they're crazy looking.

aaa thank you ; v; this shit's intense.

also, comb jellies are so beautiful!! I find a lot of animals to be really interesting and cool, but the waterfall where I live is home to a very exclusive species of fresh water crab that hasn't been found anywhere else!! Wildly, it's not a protected species so far as I know, but due to the island being its only native habitat, habitat loss is this little crabs' largest threat.

Phricotelphusa limula, this is me holding one! They make me think of maraschino cherries.

[headspace-hotel]

i need to be working on finals but instead i spent my time reading the crustiest pdf of some guy's dissertation about canebrakes from the 1930s

was it actually accepted? is it a reliable source? does this guy know anything about plants? who knows. with river cane we gotta take everything we can get. this is INVALUABLE info, I can't believe it took me this long to find it. this guy talked to people who were born in the 1850's about their memories of canebrakes. I doubt these personal testimonies are documented anywhere else.

and... it's devastating! even from the viewpoint of someone in the 1930's, there had been a systematic extermination of the canebrakes, where the impenetrable and acres-big bamboo forests of memory only remained in distantly rural areas. The author talks about dozens of specific sites in different US states that used to have extensive and huge canebrakes but the river cane was completely obliterated from them.

The oldest records consistently state that Arundinaria gigantea or Rivercane would reach 30-40 feet in height and 3-4 inches thick. Many different early colonial sources speak of river cane this size. At the time of the author, the cane he visited was mostly 15-20 feet tall or so. Nothing compared to the giant canebrakes of the past, he keeps reminding us. And nowadays—almost 100 years after the time of that writing!—it is very rare to find river cane even 10-12 feet tall, it is crammed into tiny little areas at the edges of roadsides, and hardly anybody even knows an American bamboo ever existed

It even mentioned the area where my Mamaw grew up, saying that the place was once covered in miles of canebrake! Mamaw says that she always remembered cane along the river sides, but when we visited there a couple years ago, I didn't see any cane at all

there's SO many good facts and testimonies about river cane in there but i'm just shaken cause from the authors perspective, the river cane had been devastated to a small remnant of what it once was, but nowadays, it is devastated to a small remnant of what THAT was.

Some researchers are kicking around a theory that passenger pigeons and Carolina parakeets were dependent upon river cane, and that's why they went extinct. One guy i've talked to believes passenger pigeons could have been responsible for distributing the seeds (we still don't really know how river cane seeds distribute)

Apparently back when canebrakes were so common that there was cane producing seeds all the time (an incredibly rare occurrence now) they provided an incredibly valuable food resource for wild animals. In fact some of the colonial writings quoted say that once the canebrakes died off in a certain area, the wild game would disappear!

I'm starting to believe in the "canebrakes + passenger pigeons/Carolina parakeets" theory. It makes sense that practically eradicating a whole biome/habitat would cause something to go extinct, and the timeline and habitat associations are right.

I will NEVER be capable of shutting up about the canebrakes. Imagine if we did such a good job at exterminating the bison that today, almost no one in the USA even knew what a bison was.

[foone]

I want a human zoology textbook.

Zoology, as in the study of animals. Like, a study of how humans work, done by an author that is not human.

I specifically want this for a couple reasons:

1. Descriptive, not prescriptive: don't tell me what the author thinks humans should do or how they should be. Tell me what they do. Observationally!

2. No bias towards "nature". I don't particularly care what the author is imagining humans are like in some "garden of eden" unfallen state. I want it to reference how humans ARE.

3. No morality applied to this! What do humans DO, not what you think they should do, or how they should be. And most importantly, no self-censorship in order to avoid offending some of the humans that disagree with ways people live.

And the reason I want this is because of how biology textbooks/wiki pages get written, where even if they try to be progressive they're still written from this weird perspective where they're explaining based on old ideas and the progressive stuff gets a footnote.

Like it'll be "humans have two genders, male and female. This is determined from their chromosomes, XY for male and xx for female."

And then you scroll past two pages for men and another two pages for women, and then it has one subsection that covers non-binary people and intersex people. And it's like: well then integrate that into your main statement!

It's like the author's worldview is still "there's two genders and everyone is born as one" but they've been forced to accept there are some weird exceptions but the core worldview is unchanged. And it's understandable! Wrong, but understandable: the grew up in a world that is quite strong on the "there are only two genders" ideology and doesn't like to remember that intersex people exist.

But like, imagine if you tried to do this as a zoologist. You're like "hey, all bees are female!" and then someone points out the rare male drones and they're like "oh okay I'll update my zoology textbook."

And now it reads:

All bees are female. Most are workers, and one is the queen.

(a couple sections go pass)

Drones: recent science has discovered that some bees are born male. These rare exceptions live short lives where they fertilize a queen and then die.

And it's like, no? Drones are very important to how a hive lives and they can't survive without them?

And we're constantly doing the same thing to humans and it's just bad science. Like, sure, maybe you could have the theory that "humans come in two genders: male and female" but as soon as you see one non-binary person, you have to discard that theory: it has been proven false! It's like not believing in other galaxies after Henrietta Swan Leavitt figured out how Cepheid Variables worked.

Add to that the "nature" thing. Like, you can make a sort of argument about nature vs artificial settings for a lot of species: the whole alpha/beta wolf thing came about because it turns out wolves act differently in captivity compared to the wild, so it makes sense to study how the vast majority of wolves live, not a small group you stuffed into a small area with unusual conditions. It's like saying the lifespan of goldfish is under 5 minutes, based on your study of them in this dry box you put them in.

But humans are different: we are tool-users who build new environments for ourselves. And while you can talk about how humans living in different environments act differently, it doesn't make a lot of sense to call one of them "artificial". All of them are made by us, and humans always do this. This means all environments are natural (because building environments for ourselves is what we naturally do) and all environments are artificial: we always alter our environments to better suit us! That's one of the things we naturally do!

And as for morality, it's about not ignoring things humans do regularly because you think it's weird or you think they shouldn't.

Like that tweet where someone pointed out that lots of species can change gender. Clown fish are a big one, some frogs, a couple birds, some lizards, and humans.

And people often have an immediate knee-jerk reaction of "that doesn't count!" for the last entity in that list. Why? Because we do it (usually) with clothes and makeup and medication, instead of just "naturally"? Bullshit. We're naturally TOOL USERS. Of course we use tools to change gender. We use tools to do EVERYTHING. That's natural for us.

So yeah. I think it'd be refreshing and enlightening to have a zoology textbook written about humans with this detached non-human perspective. An unbiased description of what humans are and do, rather than one irrevocably tinged with ideas of what humans should be and should do.

Basically I want to load up Vulcan Wikipedia and check the "Humans" article.

[serpentface]

Bulls of the three native wild cattle species- forest bison, buffalo, and aurochs. All three are referred to together as 'kuliganne' (wild oxen/cattle) and only aurochs have a specific name ('ganamit') in common Wardi vernacular, though some local dialects have individual names for each species.

---

Forest bison are outright diminutive in size with lean builds, gracile legs, and small horns. They thrive best in densely wooded areas with easy access to water, and are found only rarely beyond the treeline. They feed primarily by browsing and do not compete intensely with the other two wild bovines (which are primarily grazers), allowing their ranges to heavily overlap in some areas.

These bison are the rarest and most limited in range of the native bovines (WITHIN the Imperial Wardi region- they have the widest Total range of the three) . These animals were native to the once vast northern forest, and are now confined to the two remaining major areas of intact woodland. The two populations have been separated for centuries and show minor physical differences, with the western Highland forest bison being slightly smaller with thicker coats, and the eastern Oakland forest bison having longer legs and darker coloration (whether they could be classed as separate subspecies would be a matter of debate).

Forest bison herds can grow fairly large when resources allow, and consist of cows, their young, and subadult males. Adult bulls hold individual territories (which frequently overlap with other males with little competition outside of the breeding season) and patrol the peripheries of their local herds to defend against predators. Herds form out of related females and their young, but do not always stay that way- when different groups meet, they will quite readily exchange members before splitting apart again. Their dominance hierarchies are formed based upon age, and are not strictly maintained by behavioral reinforcement.

They are powerful for their size, but they are accessible prey items for most large predators. Small predators like jackals can occasionally take down adults, and calves are sometimes known to be killed by opportunistic nechoi or even large eagles. Forest bison are swift runners and usually flee from attack, though will form protective circles around their calves when cornered.

Forest bison are interfertile with domestic cattle but do not readily breed with them; hybrids are virtually unknown. Kulustaig cattle of the Highlands show signs of trace bison ancestry, but this hybridization likely occurred prior to their ancestors being brought south across the sea rather than with the native forest bison.

---

Buffalo are large, robust, and bulky animals. They are not notably tolerant to dehydration and their range is mostly clustered around large, permanent bodies of water. Wardi buffalo are most populous in savannah and floodplain habitat in the eastern parts of the region, and have largely been kept out of the west (and its highly agreeable, wetter habitats) by the better established aurochs (and the higher density of farmland and livestock). They rarely permanently occupy grassland, but some groups temporarily migrate into the plains during the rainy season.

They are highly social and can group into very large herds as resources allow. Cows and their young form the body of the herd, with bachelor herds existing on the peripheries. Sexually mature bulls generally tolerate each others' presence, and form dominance hierarchies based on size and age.

They are very powerful animals and difficult to kill, with their only regular hunters being lions, crocodiles, riverdrakes, and humans. King hyena (though the largest predator in the region) rarely attempt to tackle healthy adults, and instead pick off sick or injured individuals. Hyenas almost never take down adults, but can be threats to their calves. Buffalo behave aggressively towards sources of predation and will actively mob and attempt to kill lone predators and/or their young. They are extremely dangerous to humans, and may kill more people yearly than any other native fauna (rivaled only by crocodiles).

Buffalo are not interfertile with domestic cattle (and tend to behave aggressively towards them), though that doesn't prevent occasional claims of hybridization. They often compete heavily with livestock (in addition to being a severe danger to humans) and do not benefit from a specifically sacred status, and thus are sometimes methodically extirpated from key pasture and water sources.

---

Aurochs are the most widespread of all native bovines, and can be found throughout the region. The Wardi aurochs is highly adaptable and can be found in a variety of environments, but is most notable for tolerating dry conditions- it can thrive in open grassland and even semi-desert scrub that is wholly inaccessible to buffalo. They also fare decently well at elevation and can be found in parts of the Highlands, though compete with livestock for limited pasture and are often driven off by herders.

They are the least social of the native bovines, with most bulls being entirely solitary outside of the breeding season and cows and their young living in small herds (usually consisting of 2-5 adults). Separate herds sometimes congregate in the cooler rainy season to mate and give birth.

Aurochs are VERY large and have few predators (similarly to buffalo, only humans, lions, riverdrakes, and crocodiles regularly kill them). However, their small group size opens more opportunities for the smaller or solo predators- sufficiently large groups of hyenas can take them down, king hyena are occasionally known to chance attacks on healthy adults, and their young are vulnerable to most predators. They can be highly aggressive when provoked, but do not engage in mobbing behaviors.

They are fully interfertile with domestic cattle (though this particular subspecies is likely not the ancestor that Wardi native cattle are domesticated from). Most do not go out of their way to mate with livestock, but some bulls are known (even locally infamous) for 'seducing' receptive cows within their territories. This crossbreeding is sometimes encouraged in hopes of improving cattle stock, though first generation hybrids can often be aggressive and difficult to manage. Some Wardi aurochs populations show distinct signs of hybridization, including the lyrate horns, dewlaps, and some markings of the native domestic cattle.

Aurochs have a near-ubiquitous venerated status among the Wardi, Wogan, and Cholemdinae peoples. They are considered sacred to the faith of the seven faced God and are valuable sacrifices; the Face of God Mitlamache (and God Itself during the act of creation) is usually represented by an aurochs. The word 'mitla' is the Wardi word for both a crescent moon and the horns of aurochs.

There are several variants of bullfighting practices in Imperial Wardi culture, and wild aurochs are used in some. This includes bull leaping, bull dancing (where a person taunts and dances with the bull while evading harm until the animal tires), and the Very dangerous bull wrestling (where a fighter tires the animal until it can be physically wrestled to the ground). Most bullfighting practices are non-fatal, but aurochs specifically are used in explicitly sacrificial fights, a very difficult rite in which the animal must be brought down with only a small blade.

Here's a map showing the (heavily approximated) ranges of the three species. Low opacity denotes low population density or species overlap. Areas of species overlap with bison may imply simultaneous occupation (as the bison does not intensely compete for resources with the other two), while aurochs/buffalo overlap usually does not (they compete directly and established populations rarely occur in the same places at the same times).

This map only indicates the population of the Wardi aurochs, Wardi buffalo, and forest bison (there are plenty of other species/subspecies in these genera outside of the marked area). The forest bison is the only one of the three to occur on both sides of the Blackmane mountains.

[mariacallous]

There has been a long debate over the power of propaganda to influence public opinion. Are people susceptible to the latest wild rumor circulating on TikTok or are they, as writer Joseph Bernstein and others argue, able to hold independent beliefs and resist false narratives?

While public opinion optimists may be right in a number of cases, what they ignore in presidential elections is the manner in which the Electoral College increases disinformation risks. That is because in all but two states the Electoral College votes are awarded on a winner-take-all basis—hence very small vote margins can yield all the Electoral College votes. Have a look at the vote margins in some key states in 2016. In the five closest states, the winning candidate (Trump in four states and Clinton in one state) triumphed with a miniscule percentage of the vote.

False news purveyors don’t have to persuade 99% of American voters to be influential but simply a tiny amount in Michigan, New Hampshire, or Wisconsin. In each of those places, a shift of one percent of the vote or less based on false narratives would have altered the outcome.

The same pattern of a close election repeats itself in 2020. False news purveyors didn’t have to convince everyone voting in the closest states. They merely had to shift a miniscule number of people.

If the United States had direct popular voting for president, disinformation likely would pose little risk in 2024. We would not have to worry about a small number of swing areas as candidates would focus on voters from many states across the country. A vote in Arizona would be no more important than a vote in Florida, Texas, or Illinois. Without the Electoral College, it would be harder for those generating fake videos and audios to target specific geographic areas. Candidates would realize that any appeals in Phoenix, Detroit, or Milwaukee based on false information about voting, climate change, public health, or race relations could backfire and be offset by votes elsewhere for the other candidate.

Fear about a possible backlash is one of the major factors limiting propaganda effectiveness. People who don’t like blatant attempts to manipulate elections always can serve as a counterweight to those peddling falsehoods. If voters in California, Texas, or Florida object to false videos or narratives in Arizona that clearly run contrary to agreed-upon facts, they can in a direct popular election offset disinformation targeting voters in swing states. It is due to the existence of the Electoral College that the 2024 election could come down to a small group of voters in swing areas and enable disinformation disseminators to run highly targeted campaigns with questionable appeals in those places.

False targeted appeals are not the only election risk in 2024. Due to the Electoral College, under the radar manipulation could focus on a small number of voters without much visibility from anyone else. Candidates and their supporters can deploy fake robocalls, direct mail pitches, or launch social media campaigns that might be invisible to opposition candidates, the mainstream media, and independent fact-checkers. Disinformation could thrive without any public accountability from other political forces. Those efforts could lie so far below public visibility that disinformation could work without others even knowing about it or having a chance to rebut it.

The winner-take-all nature of state voting under the Electoral College further elevates the possible role of third party and independent candidates in deciding the outcome in particular areas. Disinformation disseminators don’t have to move voters from Biden to Trump or vice versa to be influential. Instead, disinformation could be effective by moving voters from Biden or Trump to Robert Kennedy, Jr, Jill Stein, or Cornel West. If any of those minor candidates draw votes disproportionately from Biden or Trump based on fake news, that effectively elects the other major party nominee through false material.

In all these respects, the United States faces disinformation risks that go way beyond the situation that exists in most other countries that are voting this year. There are major elections taking place in India, Indonesia, Europe, Mexico, and elsewhere. But in most of these nations, there is some form of direct popular voting for the chief executive or proportional voting for political parties that minimize the overall disinformation risks. It is harder to manipulate an entire country than a few cities in a couple of states as is the case currently in the United States due to the Electoral College.

The anachronistic Electoral College increases the importance of tiny groups of voters. There could be false information that is discounted by the vast swath of U.S. public opinion yet remains persuasive to the small number of people in Arizona, Michigan, or Wisconsin who will decide the presidential election.

At a time when America is plagued by extreme polarization and partisanship, and some Americans are eager to believe just about anything that reflects badly on the other side, the Electoral College elevates the power of questionable material to influence outcomes. False narratives could be completely ineffective with almost all U.S. voters but still decide the national election. It would be tragic if the 2024 election were decided by a small number of voters in a few states who cast their ballots on the basis of blatantly fake information.

[orinthered]

Dragon's Dogma having only one save file may be a design choice (I know of at least one major thing you're referring to), but in actual practice, it just means that some people are objectively going to lose progress or have very negative experiences with the game

To that point, I started a new DD1 file before DD2's release and I ran into an issue where I just kept freezing on random load screen, right as it was autosaving, so my save file kept getting corrupted. Lost like 5 hours of progress from the start of the game, had to do it all over again, then it happened again in a different spot. The only reason I was able to make any meaningful progress until I figured out the issue was by making manual backups

I'm honestly terrified of the same thing happening with Dragon's Dogma 2 and have actually been stopping my play sessions periodically just to make a manual backup, then loading back in. Not even including the in-game event(s) that can royally screw your playthrough, that is a completely unnecessary fear that the devs have chosen to create, which is particularly egregious considering the mountain of performance and crashing issues people have been experiencing due to poor optimization

People who want to save scum or simply want the security of backups are always going to find the means to do so regardless of what the devs intend. I mean, DD1 had a mod that automatically backed up your save file and it was already retooled for DD2 literally on release day. To inconvenience all players purely for the sake of encouraging a specific play style is, quite frankly, insulting to peoples' time. Plenty of games manage to create compelling exploration experiences and interesting points of consequence and tension without tying any of it to some random, severely limiting mechanic or design choice

I say all of this as someone who's currently 40 hours in and is loving the exploration (which evokes that first time experience of playing Breath of the Wild), but who absolutely abhors the notion of having to repeat a 20+ minute long trek because I got to a quest area to save an NPC from some monster and the NPC ends up falling in the water literally as soon as I arrive, causing the game to auto-save because the quest is now "complete" (failed). Or, suddenly all of my pawns have swan dived into a river due to pathfinding issues or climbing movement quirks, causing me to waste time, rift crystals, or ferrystones to recuperate. Or, being forced to automatically talk to a passing NPC/pawn during a fight, causing my escort NPC to draw aggro and die while I'm trying to mash out of the dialogue menu

Defend the vision of players needing to pay attention and sit with their consequences all you'd like, but small, dumb shit like that is honestly infuriating and it happens way more often than it should

i get that this is annoying but i also think that if the ability to savescum existed in the game, everyone would do it. would i necessarily complain about multiple saves in a game like dragon's dogma? probably *not*, but i would miss the experience of being forced to engage with the game in a way i would not if i had access to multiple saves. i found myself missing this in baldur's gate 3 — because i had the ability to savescum things like rolls, i never played with the consequences of failing rolls.

is that a failure of those game systems? yeah. larian wants you to engage with failed rolls, but how many players do you know actually do that? who don't just press f9 when they get a shit roll?

you can dislike these systems, that's fair. but dragon's dogma fills a lot of niches that other games do not. one of these niches is a one-save system that forces you to engage with the game by making you play the game with your consequences, or suffer some really annoying backtracking with the inn save system. i do not think that every game has to appeal completely to every person. if you think dragon's dogma is insulting to your time, that's fine. if you think the execution is bad (which i could argue for, even though i really like what dd2 does) that is also fine. not every aspect of the game is gonna be a hit, god knows there's a particular section of dd2 that i think was a real miss (those who've beaten the game know exactly what i'm talking about) but i mean... there are reasons for it, infuriating or not. that is also part of the experience.

[otomeblcass]

Nu:Carnival Character Headcanons:

⚛》》》Favorite Wines《《《⚛

~Quick note~ My entire week has consisted of me making this list that no one ever asked for, or the probably ever thought about. For some further context, I work as a wine specialist at a giant liquor store, and I have way too much time on my hands where I read a lot about wine and sake. I've added images of one of my favorite wine references, Wine Folly, and highly recommend their website and books if you're curious about wine. Without further a do, if you don't mind a long post, I have combined some of my obsessions: Nu:Carnival and what wines I think suit each character.

Eiden:

Port, like all the way, he wants something sweet and Hella strong. Considered a fortified wine, put simply a wine that has been given additional alcohol, Port comes in many styles, but most are sweet. Eiden specifically loves the chocolate and nutty flavors that these wines have. Also this wine can be a hit or miss for people, so Eiden gets a great laugh out of seeing others' reactions to his favorite wine. Give this baby a bottle of Port and he can talk for hours on end about the crazy stories he’s collected after some wild nights with this wine.

Petite Sirah, Aster would want a wine that is very full in body (aka something that really coats the mouth, similar to blood) and powerful bold flavors, he’s an extremely experienced wine connoisseur, or “wine snob” as Morvay would say, but regardless Aster knows his wines. He loves showing off his personal cellar, explaining the areas they come from, and he especially enjoys bragging about the cost of the wines he’s collected. 

Aster:

It’s taken Morvay quite some time to get into wine. For many years he’s been firm in his statement that he doesn’t like wine like that shitty-little-vampire does. Most of the red wines Aster has made him try are far too bitter, and the white wines are sour as hell. He’s finally realized dessert styled wines exist, such as Muscat of Alexandria, and can be caught sometimes at night sipping this wine with some biscotti as a treat.

Morvay:

Yakumo at first glance comes across as someone who would not be into a “dry red wine” so it’s really interesting to think that his favorite wine would be a Malbec. There has been many occasions where he was served a much sweeter wine than he would personally like, but obviously it’s Yakumo, poor baby is too nervous to let someone know they got his order wrong. Much like Eiden’s favorite wine Port, Malbec has similar rich dark fruit flavors and a smooth chocolatey finish, these wines are a lot dryer in comparison, but not too bitter. It is a wonderful balance for the precious chef Yakumo. (This is one of my favorites too, let's go Yakumo bb)

Yakumo:

Vidal Blanc is not only a bougie sounding wine, but it goes exceptionally well with fresh fruits and desserts. This wine is an elegant off-dry style white wine that can be used to flaunt floral and fruity flavors without being too sweet or childish. As we know Edmond has his sweet tooth, so he would really enjoy the Ice wine style this grape can be used to make. Ice wines are as sweet as dessert wines can go and they take a lot of time and effort to make just a small amount. It’s a perfect pairing for our perfectionist and hardworking captain.

Edmond:

Every winemaking area has established a sparkling wine (I’m somewhat imagining what wines would correspond to the different Klein regions) Olivine is very curious to try anything new, so when traveling and discussing things with nobles he has grown very fond of a particular sparkling wine, Prosecco. He always has gravitated towards a gentle sweetness and slightly acidic flavors and this wine has a perfect balance. As per Eiden’s recommendation, Olivine has discovered this wine makes amazing cocktails such as mimosas, so every now and then Olivine enjoys making those for a relaxing brunch with the clan members. 

Olivine:

An interesting thing we've learned about Quincy during this current Rainy Season event is that his favorite foods include honey, jerky, and dried fish, very natural and raw focused foods that absolutely suit him. A unique wine that has a unique flavor profile of earthy fruits, herbs, and meat is one called Pinotage. Quincy, much like all our wood territory babes, is highly skilled in the winemaking trade. Pinotage is a wine that is very challenging to produce and Quincy has practically mastered it. So much so Quincy doesn’t really drink the wine, but prefers to keep it stored away. He’s positive that the right time will come to enjoy this wine, perhaps with a special individual, right when it’s aging duration has peaked. 

Quincy:

Umeshu or Japanese Plum wine, this is a tricky one because it technically is fermented ume fruit with the addition of distilled alcohol, aka this is a liqueur not a wine at all. Kuya is known for being a trickster though, so it’s a perfect match for him. Umeshu can be made at home, though it does take a lot of time to infuse, it makes the occasions when Kuya drinks this a real treat. The flavors of Umeshu are a mix of sweet and sour fruits like plums or apricots with a lingering alcohol burn. Kuya takes a lot of pride in homemade Umeshu and will lure others (Eiden) into drinking this delicious and sneakily strong beverage with him. (Another personal favorite of mine ♡)

Kuya:

Favorable of all things delicious and mostly edible, Garu and Karu are foodies willing to try anything at least once. They’re super new to trying alcoholic drinks and can’t really handle the smell and taste of something with a strong alcohol content. Concord is a classic beginner wine and it has a very distinguishable grape flavor, let’s think like a traditional grape juice or jelly. Depending on how it’s made, this wine can range from non-alcoholic all the way to higher percentages, Garu and Karu are big fans of having this sweet wine with snacks. Who knew that a wolf yokai would be obsessed with concord grape wine with a pb&j sandwich!

Garu & Karu:

He really enjoys the sweet and lightly sparkling version of this grape varietal, Moscato D’Asti. They have a full assortment of fruit aromas and flavors like peaches and honey, and they have a low ABV making them super easy to drink. Blade describes this wine as “Cute Juice” hence that’s his first response to describing the effervescence. He’s an even bigger fan of being able to use his e-droid abilities to analyze the many fruit flavors in this wine and he’s always excited to share the flavors whenever his darling is ready to try them. *wink wink*

Blade:

A great leader must also know great wines, and it seems super likely that Soleria would make bright red fruit focused wines with lots of herbs and spices. Sangiovese is an extremely versatile grape that can be blended and aged into numerous wine styles; it goes even better with savory and spiced foods. Dante is very intelligent when it comes to wine and is even more impressive when he guides others through a proper wine tasting. Even though Dante has a fierce way of showing it, deep down he really just wants others to appreciate wine the way he does.

Dante:

Rei really enjoys all of the genetic mutations of the Pinot Noir grape, like Pinot Gris or Pinot Blanc, coming from a scientific perspective. More often than not though, the complex red wine Pinot Noir is his favorite to consume, especially during his late night studies and experimentations. Depending on where this wine is grown the flavors can be very misconstrued, quite often it is thought to be a fruity and slightly sweet, but it takes people by surprise by being tart and dry. Rei really likes a lighter bodied red wine that has a slight bite of sassy acidity just like him. 

Rei:

Thank you for reading! I spent way too long thinking about and writing this. I'd love to know what others think and what your favorite wine is if you have one! I also just realized I never thought of wines for Rin or Huey, but I really am not super sure what I'd pick for them.

[hal-o-ween]

Alright, time for another Monster Hunter wishlist! This time instead of just monsters I would personally like to see, I'm going to try and put a bit more focus on monsters that will fill unique niches in an environment, or interact with the environment in an interesting way. Doing it this way since, if my assumptions based on one very short trailer are correct, that's going to be a focus in Wilds!

List itself under the cut so I can really go in depth! I also have a lot on this wishlist, so it's going to be long regardless.

As some context for how I'm thinking about this game, several of the more recent major monster hunter games have really seemed to hone in on one particular aspect of the game, and worked on expanding or perfecting it.

Generations had an impressive monster roster, with lots of very unique additions and a huge returning roster. Tons of variants, and a some really cool new monsters that didn't use existing skeletons.

World eliminated load times between areas, and made a world that felt connected and more natural. You feel less like you're in a series of arenas, more like you're actually in an environment with these monsters.

Rise focused a lot on controls and mobility/maneuverability. Lots of verticality, as well as tons of new moves and abilities for various weapons, streamlining of certain weapons, and customizable move sets. You are encourage to explore and jump and climb, making it feel like it had another dimension that even world didn't quite have.

With that context for my thinking explained, let's start off with an unsurprising portion of this list; as usual, I want to see underwater combat (and the leviathans and piscene wyverns that go with it) make a comeback! Rise gave us more three dimensional combat and movement that worked beautifully, so I think they're really primed to bring back water combat in a way that feels much less clunky and slow. Specific water monsters I would like to see include:

Gobul: TOP of this list tbh. Not a favorite fight of mine, but I think if you want a monster that's going to make a water environment feel more alive and interactive, Gobul is a great choice. It's also very distinct appearance-wise!

Lagiacrus: a popular choice, and a cool one! I'm biased since Tri was my first monster hunter game, of course, but I want to see Lagiacrus get to shine again with its full move set, including under water moves.

Ceadeus: this one I wouldn't count on even if it was guaranteed that water combat would come back. BUT I love it, this elder dragon that exists at the intersection of whale, slug, and buffalo, is such a majestic monster, and it has great music to boot. My tri bias is showing, but even though it wasn't the most interesting fight, I still love it a lot and would love for it to get another chance in a game where water combat could be so much better.

Now for non-water monsters! I'm hoping for lots of monsters with less used skeletons, and ones that would play around in detailed environments in a fun way. To make the environments feel complete, a diverse cast of monsters will be key. As a result, a lot of my choices are Frontier MonstersSome of my top choices include:

Malfestio: a beautiful monster, and an extremely unique one! I would love to see it make a return, and I think it would really stand out in any monster hunter roster.

Kecha Wacha: really just a funky monster. Weird and memorable, and I think it feels distinct enough from any other monsters to be a worthwhile addition.

Qurupeco: Not only does it look unique, the ability to summon othe large monsters to its location is super interesting, often annoying, and a really unique behavior.

Nerscylla: a giant spider just feels like a surprising monster to not use more often. With how big the "small monster" insects are, it makes sense that there are big spiders around! I honestly just want to see more insectoid/arachnid-like monsters in general. They already have some neat ones, but it feels like they get put on the back burner a lot. On that note...

Seltas Queen and Seltas: a duo! Not many monsters in the series actually function as a duo together in combat, and there definitely aren't any in the main series on the level of these two. Monsters that interact like this are fun, and it feels... not necessarily more realistic, but definitely better than, say, Rathian and Rathalos just sort of beating each other up on accident while both trying to fight you.

Najarala: I think more monsters that feel snake-like would be fun, and Najarala is a good option. It's scales and sound based attacks are cool, and I just like how it looks.

Tetsucabra: the giant tusks and bright colors make it really striking, visually. Plus, there's not many frog-like monsters! Also, I love the armor for Tetsucabra.

Zamtrios: on the topic of frog-like monsters, this one is somewhere between frog and shark! With three different forms it can switch between in battle, it's a really fun fight with a lot of variety. I'd also like to see this guy maybe get a chance to try out underwater combat, but I can live without that for Zamtrios, it already does so much on land.

Bulldrome: A nice low level large monster that would still add a bit of variety to things! A bit annoying to fight at times, but I think it would just work nicely in a game with more focus on the natural aspects of thing.

Nibblesnarf: a really funky looking monster, and one that would be cool to have in that desert from the trailer. Being able to feed it bombs when it charges you is a fun bit of its fight, and I think seeing it ambush small monsters while you explore the desert would be just the right amount of cool and concerning.

Namielle: Genuinely, the fact that Namielle was introduced in a game that gave it almost no attention whatsoever pains me. What a cool elder dragon. It has that deep sea bioluminescent look, and it's fight felt so distinctive.

Gigginox: The little giggi spawner egg sacs it lays are a neat little hazard, and I think Gigginox is just a really distinct looking monster. I personally prefer it to Khezu, but that's purely personal preference. I feel like Gigginox is a fun cave dweller, and a bit more interesting than Khezu is to me.

Gammoth: PLEASE capcom you give us the rest of the fated four but not my BOY? IN THE GAME WITH ADDED VERTICALITY IN COMBAT? This big guy could have been so fun but you are simply cowards who hate him and me.

I decided to make a separate list of Frontier monsters, as well as Monster Hunter Online monsters! These ones are always less likely to make it into a main game, if they stand a chance at all, but still. Frontier's particular penchant for unique monster gimmicks lead to a lot of options with distinct appearances, and abilities that could make use of the environment in fun ways, and generally I would just like to see some monsters that haven't gotten to shine much in the main series. Frontier and Online monsters I would like to see:

Forokururu: a large, hummingbird-esque monster that gains different buffs and abilities based on what color of flower it drinks from. This gimmick would be such a fun way for a monster to interact with the world, plus this is one of my personal top choices, and a monster I would kill to be able to fight for myself.

Baruragaru: the blood sucking ability, which is somewhat similar to Forokururu's nectar drinking in function, would be really fun! I live when monsters have abilities that affect or are affected by other monsters. It makes them feel less like things that happen to be in the same space and more like creatures sharing an environment.

Pokaradon: the only monster that looks like a walrus/seal, so a good way to give a diverse monster roster! This is a monster I would love to see given a shot at underwater combat.

Akura Vashimu: a scorpion! This falls into me wanting more arachnid/insect-like monsters in the games, just to help round out the roster. We have so many reptile and mammal-like monsters, I think more monsters like this one would help things feel more varied.

Caeserber: a big beaver monster could have some really fun environmental interactions! Chewing down trees and building dams would be a really fun behavior to see play out, but even if that's too much, just seeing beaver dams could make the world feel a bit more connected to the monsters. This one is from Online.

Tartaronis: another Online monster, this is an elder dragon that inhabits a desert area and has a body shape similar to a sea turtle! Thinking about it, it feels so odd that we don't have more distinctly turtle-like monsters in this series.

I don't expect to see most, if any, of these monsters in the game. I would love to, as I think all of them would be fun additions, especially for newer players who may not have gotten the chance to fight a lot of these monsters yet. I hope to see a lot of them, especially certain ones that I think can really add a lot to an area, but I don't expect it. Just like I hope for water combat to return, but don't expect it. Either way, I'm already really excited for this game. I may have my gripes about every Monster Hunter game, but I would never say they disappoint me. Even if my assumptions about this game are wrong, I expect to have a lot of fun playing it, and I can't wait to get a good look at any and all new monsters it brings to the series!

[random-iz-stuff]

Invader Zim Deathmatch:

ROUND 2, FIGHT 14:

PRISONER 777 VS PROFESSOR MEMBRANE!

The rules are as follows:

1. We’re assuming that both participants actively want and are willing to kill each other unless actively specified otherwise (for example: Chammy Wamboo).

2. The fight must be one on one so no outside help is allowed, but prep time is allowed.

3. The rule for prep time is that if one contestant gets prep time, the other contestant gets an equal amount of prep time as well.

[Masterpost]

Information about both contestants (who they are, powers and abilities, etc) can be found under the cut.

Contestant Stats:

Prisoner 777:

“I don’t actually know why he’s in this competition”

Appearances:

Prisoner 777 appears a surprisingly small amount of times, appearing in the episode “Backseat Drivers from Beyond the Stars” and issues 1 and 34 of the comics

Powers and abilities:

Intelligence (Prisoner 777 is a former scientist and engineer, even being a part of the team that built the Massive)

Really nothing else

Fun Fact:

Like Iggins, Prisoner 777 is here to be an unarmed criminal put up against trained fighters and wild beasts. But this time he’s an actual prisoner.

Professor Membrane:

“S C I E N C E”

Appearances:

Professor Membrane appears all over the place in the series, so I won’t list them all. He has a big role in the Movie though

Powers and abilities:

Intelligence (Membrane is Earth’s smartest scientist, being incredibly intelligent by human standards. However, this intelligence is limited to more Earthly and grounded regions of science, with Membrane unable to figure out things like hyperdrives and time travel and all that sci-fi-esque stuff and writing it off as completely impossible and theoretical. The most advanced thing we ever see him create is a perpetual energy machine the size of a building, and aliens were able to create a much more compact version of that themselves (the infinite energy producing machine from The Trial).

Fighting Skills (Membrane is shown to have somewhat decent fighting skills. It’s not on par with something like a soldier, but it’s more than the average person)

Bionics (Membrane’s arms and possibly legs are mechanical, giving Professor Membrane the following abilities):

Flight (using his bionics, Membrane can fly and hover)

Energy Blasts (using his bionic arms, Membrane can fire blasts of energy from his hands)

BIG Energy Blast (by using both Bionic Arms at once, Professor Membrane can basically preform a dragon ball Kamehameha large enough to destroy a massive area in front of him. However: Given how he only preforms this move once and every other energy blast he fires afterwards is considerably weaker, it’s very likely that he can on preform this move once per fight (most likely for reasons related to power or overheating given how his arms need to take a moment to cool down after preforming the Kamehameha). It’s also very possible for him to miss as the move only shoots straight forwards (albeit with a very wide beam))

[Unusable] Meteor (when Membrane first appears to fight in ETF, he falls from the sky and creates a massive explosion that wipes out the entire area around him. HOWEVER, this explosion was most likely caused by Membrane falling from orbit and hitting the ground extremely hard and not any of his bionics or abilities, just gravity and possibly Membrane attempting to use his Bionics to break the fall, so it won’t be counted as an ability or power. It’s just has too specific requirements for him to use in a fight, even with Prep Time)

[Weakness] Glass Cannon (Membrane can hit extremely hard, but his human body is just as weak as a regular, untrained human, with Zim managing to knock Membrane out cold with one hit. He’s strong, but only as durable in a fight as a regular human, making him a serious glass cannon)

Fun Fact:

Membrane doesn’t believe aliens don’t exist like many fans portray him. He believes in extraterrestrial life, but doesn’t believe that said life would ever be able to communicate with or come to earth due to the vast distance between stars and the fact that while aliens are fully possible in his mind, FTL travel and communication is simply science fiction.

[that-gay-jedi]

So like sorry for yet another off topic anti censorship post but do most people who have weird random anxieties not counter them with learning?

As a fairly clear cut example, I've mentioned my own largely irrational anxieties about radiation exposure before- something that pops up maybe once every few years for me largely unconnected to my mental illnesses or traumas, just as a thinking being who knows a thing exists out there that can kill in some of the most horrific ways and does not want to encounter it.

Whenever I get fixated on it, I read as much as I can about worst-case stories of radiation accidents- not only how and why they happened but who they happened to, and try to get some human context to the places that are named instead of just as sites of this horror that fascinates grim-minded people such as myself. This internalizing of the fact that it happened to real, regular people who came from a place and were of their time is important for the next step.

This can be very frustrating because so many things happened that were obscured by embarassed governments or corporations, because accidents happened in places where education or record-keeping were less rigorous, or because so many widely available or non paywalled attempts to disseminate the information are notoriously spurious and sensationalist media pieces adjacent to true crime. But usually not too bad.

I then specifically try to seek out sources that don't spare the (non imaginary) details, and will look for photos of radiation injuries because the reality, however bad, is almost never as gruesome as my imagination. Being spared the gorey details allows imagination to run wild, but binding them to reality limits them to what they really were. Where possible if the injured person survived I look for photos of them many years later along with knowledge of whether and how they were compensated and how they were treated socially to understand whether the injury defined their life.

That's a very frustrating step because one of the biggest casualties of well-meaning attempts to counter sensationalism is detail. This is part of where I ask if people who learn about a frightening thing to make it less scary are a much smaller population than I'd have thought, because it never seems to occur to people that only knowing how long it took someone to die or how many people were trapped in a fire or something but not having a realistic scene to ground that awfulness to is WORSE.

Only after those two steps do I put a serious focus on causes and aftermath and how the event itself might have looked before the horrorible sights began. Through that lens, to properly understand what exactly happened to the people involved, I've had to learn to parse things like different measurements of doses of radiation and get a foundation in basic principles of safety and exposure that don't otherwise find their way to someone of no specialized schooling who doesn't work in any related field.

There aren't nearly as many obstructions to what's usually considered bland knowledge appropriate for anyone who has both the time and literacy to grasp it, but facts on their own don't demystify.

All three areas of focus- the human side, the horrific details, and the raw data- work in conjunction to make the subject less frightening.

Solely learning that, as distance from a source of ionizing radiation doubles, the dose tends to quarter rather than halve, is only enough to make me marginally less afraid of having a smoke detector in my hallway that relies on a small amount of ionization to determine whether the air is smokey. Facts like these in isolation are basically just floating text in my brain and not nearly as reassuring as they become when put in proper context.

Learning that a man carried radioactive material from the core of an MRI machine left in an abandoned hospital in his pocket and survived, seeing the depth and breadth of his burn with the surrounding thigh for scale and seeing the healed scar that, though horribly deep, is relatively small on the surface- that teaches the lesson about distance and dose in a far more grounding way.

For all that people who despise trigger warnings will talk about exposure therapy as if they were qualified to personally prescribe it, hardly anyone seems interested in preserving or increasing opportunities for demystification of frightening subject matter.

I'm pro trigger warnings because I'm pro informed consent, and that's the exact same reason why I think there should be access to and preservation of things you should get a warning before seeing or hearing.

Respect for victims and survivors is a far more valid argument, but often comes across more as an excuse when the same pieces that omit photos or cut grisly parts out of eyewitness accounts out of "respect" still carry a tone of "wow these stupid pastoral townspeople" or "LOL this scientist didn't value his life at all" etc.

Sometimes it isn't sick or vultureish to want the gorey details because you're already being force-fed imaginary versions. Knowing less doesn't help- knowing more does.

[givehimthemedicine]

more thoughts on Hawkins Lab / memory alteration / NINA / the rainbow rooms / Kali / Henry / El / Terry

(of possible interest to laozuspo and aemiron-main bc of that other HNL post / possible implications for Henry. no pressure tho you guys are both way ahead of me on this investigation)

Owens implies that he developed the NINA program only since El's power loss in case she ever needed it restored, but I have very strong doubts.

how does Owens know that NINA could bring El's powers back stronger than before unless this technique has already been used? best-case-scenario, tested on someone during recent development to make sure it works for El, but worst-case and more probable scenario, used to psychologically manipulate or bring out powers in the lab kids, maybe even El herself, in the past. maybe even Terry Ives (Becky specifically mentioned Terry doing sensory deprivation tank experiments, which is a component of NINA).

HNL has need to alter potentially all the kids' memories, not just Henry

the lab wants all those kids uniform and tractable, so they'll make good little lab rats / spies / assassins, right?

the lab-born kids like El would be relatively easy to mold, because the lab is all they know. but what about Kali, Henry, and any other kids who were wild-caught old enough to remember their former lives? you'd think even remembering the fact that there IS a world outside the lab would make them harder to control. don't they need to be wiped of their memories of their past lives and stripped of individuality, identity?

you would probably also want to wipe any kid after sending them on psionic spying / assassination missions so they don't retain classified info or gain too much knowledge of the outside world, lest they become an escape risk.

I think there's a strong possibility that NINA or equivalent was already used throughout the HNL program for this purpose.

I don't know how you straight up delete memories, but it's easy to see how NINA could be used to plant fabricated replacement memories. add a dash of brainwashing and presto.

Kali tells a little of her life after the lab, but I don't remember her saying anything about before it. all our knowledge about her kidnapping comes from that newspaper clipping, right? do you think she remembers her former life?

Henry is the only other kid we know is wild-caught, and he still has his pre-lab memories, but maybe that doesn't matter in his case because he's uniquely kept in line with soteria.

Two - Eighteen have to be free to use their powers for experimentation, so the lab can't soteria them, they have to be controlled a different way. the most secure way to keep someone imprisoned isn't with strong locks, it's for them not to fully realize they are imprisoned or that escape is even an option. I doubt any of the kids like the lab, but they probably have a limited awareness that there is any other place.

Henry's pre-lab memories could also have been made safe for him to keep (tampered with). we know Virginia was in cahoots with Brenner before Henry even went to the lab, and I wouldn't put it past her to cooperate with the creation of staged footage of Henry's home life to NINA him with. possibly even Alice, unwittingly. not Victor.

now let's talk about the rainbow room(s)

Kali and El both refer to a "rainbow room" in season 2, but the room we see in Terry's memories bears basically no resemblance to the season 4 one.

the areas Terry is seen searching look reasonably like a 70's hospital, and the rainbow room looks like be a small exam-room type area. but season 4's rainbow room is big, with tiled halls, heavy metal doors, high security, the whole works.

these definitely can't be the same room, but I've always wondered whether we're supposed to just fudge it and consider them to be the same?

did the lab retool and get a high-security makeover after the Terry incident, or did both places exist the whole time?

I haven't scoured every frame of the show so tell me if I'm off, but I think I'm deciding that no, the two rainbow rooms aren't supposed to be the same, and that HNL has always had both a publicly presentable hospital area (where the s2 rainbow room is), and a more intense locked-down lab/prison area (where the s4 rainbow room is). they serve the same purpose, just with different security levels.

the lab isn't the mid-70's hospital area made-over because for one thing, they still have a hospital area when Will is a patient there in 1984. this doesn't look like Terry's exact hallway, but note those wood-veneer doors and square plated handles.

HNL has always been both a "hospital" and a prison.

from the path we see Hopper take in 1x5, it would appear that the tiled hallway familiar to us from s1, El's room, etc, is on the ground floor, just beyond a keycard security access point. we see him get in the elevator and go down to the water tank / mothergate floor. he later describes this to Joyce as "upstairs vs downstairs".

but the lab is at least a handful of stories tall. so I feel like the hospital area must be on the second floor or up.

we aren't shown the path that Terry Ives takes to locate her rainbow room, but we do see her come walking from the direction of what looks like elevators just before she finds it, opposite bright windows, which I'm taking to mean that the Terry rainbow room was on an upper floor. not on the same floor as the s4 rainbow room.

tangent: is the hospital where Sara died supposed to also be Hawkins Lab? I thought that was in New York? this looks like a different landing in the same stairwell. I'm confused about the Hopper lore because I think some of it comes from the novels I haven't read and idk whether we accept that as canon. please advise?

anyway, idea: were the lab kids not numbered, not officially program subjects, from birth?

little Kali and El have long hair and seem allowed to wear fairly normal clothes during their free time. the tattoos go on left wrists and I don't think I see one on baby El, not that we're given a very good look.

the lab kids seem to be roughly a year apart each, but they don't go all the way down to babies. the youngest (Eighteen)'s actor was probably 7 or 8 at the time of filming. so there is such a thing as a minimum age for the program.

It can't be that they didn't start numbering the kids until after the Terry memory, because we saw Henry get tattooed in '59 or '60, very possibly before Two was even born.

I'm now chewing on a scenario where maybe young prospective lab kids were kept in a lesser-security area to be evaluated, and officially made test subjects only once they demonstrated powers.

after all, Brenner took newborn El because he expected Terry's abilities to be passed down, but you can't ask a baby to do telekinesis for you. it'll be a while before you get proof. and the lab can't be handing out number tattoos too hastily and wasting resources on some kids for years only to find they show no promise.

we know that didn't happen because there are no numbers 001-018 unaccounted for. no failed discarded subjects.

if not all people have equal latent potential, you can't pick all winners from the getgo, and if you also don't discard any failed numbers, that means you'd have to evaluate a bunch of kids, keep the best for the program, and discard the others before they ever become numbers. and if you do that (without just killing them), you probably wanna wipe their memories first so they don't go around telling what you're up to. this avenue of thought may be of interest to Will-as-a-lab-kid truthers (doesn't this require Will to be missing from home for a chunk of his childhood? explain to me please).

a program intake system like this could help explain how all the kids can be numbered neatly in order of age despite the ages of wild-caught kids being impossible to anticipate, which has bothered me for a long time. edit: I may have misjudged Kali's age, although if any other kids were wild caught I guess the question still bears asking

I hc this memory to have occurred during that preliminary observation time, unless they just didn't start shaving heads until the mid 70's. electric shock seems overboard for standard kid misbehavior. Kali must have already demonstrated psychic potential in order to be kidnapped in the first place, so I imagine this was probably disciplinary action for refusing to use her powers for them.

now let's look at El's and Kali's memories:

what event is this describing? if Kali escaped before El, how was Kali the one who found El gone?

could this be when El disappeared from rainbow room 1 and taken to rainbow room 2? did Kali ever see rainbow room 2?

or was El just in sick bay or isolation or something, and Kali thought she was gone-gone?

Henry corroborates Kali's escape being prior to El's. this puts Kali's escape after - what, say 73? 74? but before 79.

El apparently has no memory of Kali except for the one she got from Terry. did El lose her Kali memories (along with pre-massacre memories in general) from the coma, or did the lab wipe/brainwash her after Kali's escape, not wanting her to remember her at all?

because it's funny that even during the scene where Henry is jogging El's memory about Terry's visit, that same Kali rainbow room footage all we see. I know the scene was about her remembering Terry, not Kali, but it makes me wonder if she remembered that scene by way of her 1986 knowledge, or if that's also all 1979 El remembered about Kali?

El is struggling with the cognitive dissonance here - she insists that Mama died making her, even though she also does successfully recall the memory Henry is describing, and it upsets her. again, I imagine NINA is a lot better at restoring or implanting memories than at deleting them, so you'd have to rely heavily on old fashioned brainwashing to try to cover up an event like this. until Henry brought it up in 1979, El probably believed she had imagined it.

WHY does Kali pause like that before calling the Terry/rainbow room footage a "memory"? it makes me feel like she questions its veracity. either Kali was given different information about how kids enter the program, or she knows that isn't really how El's situation went down. or something. I'm suspicious of ALL lab related memories, even from the good guys.

flies in my ointment:

if Kali finding El gone is describing a time when El was taken out of my theoretical observation area and locked fully into the program, before Kali, you'd think she would have a lower number

if Kali escaped the observation area before she ever made it into the program proper, how was she already known as Eight? unless they were all numbered unofficially before that and just not tattooed yet, and if you gotta discard a kid you recycle their number

if you don't earn your number/tattoo/spot in the program until you're at least something years old, I wonder if El wasn't called Eleven as a toddler? Kali asks her name, she says Jane, and then Kali checks her wrist for the tattoo. I can't actually recall any proof that Kali remembers El as Eleven.

spinning my propeller hat and honking my clown nose:

HNL has high security and Terry already shot a guy on her way in. she had to have already had some idea of where to look in order to find El before the guards got to her. somebody told her where. hint: Henry somehow

did Henry lie and tell Kali that El was gone to prompt Kali's escape?

did Henry think he was telling the truth when he told Kali that El was gone, but really Brenner fed him that?

Kali seems less empathetic than El, do you think Henry would've had a similar alliance with her? why would he choose her to help escape. or did she not need help escaping?

why don't these people just ask each other the most obvious questions in the world AAAAAAHHH

[ohheyidothat]

Grass Pokémon Prevalence

Post in progress hehe :3

Backyard Finds

Oddish: nocturnal patterns mask this Pokémon’s population density. While Gloom and Vileplum are less common (due to migration away from creatures offended by its odor and toxins), Oddish can reproduce vegetatively, and thus their population can grow rapidly without evolution

Hoppip et al: Hoppip have had ancestral ranges across the globe and continue to thrive worldwide. They’re often considered weeds, due to their ability to thrive in places where they are unwanted. In their natural wild homes, springtime will bring flocks of pink-rooted Hoppip to the skies. While Hoppip and Skiploom don’t actively migrate (unlike Jumpluff), they are content to be carried with the wind, and thus spread very far, very easily. Skiploom are harder to spot. Whether this is due to a smaller population percentage or due to their green bodies providing far superior camouflage from humans is unknown. Jumpluff go where they please. Predators are often encouraged as a preventative measure. Some places, such as golf courses, sometimes even purchase trained Pokémon from professional birdkeepers to guard their soil. However, throughout the growing season, it is effortless to see several of each evolution, simply by going outside.

Sunkern et al: In another region, Sunkern might be listed as “Garden Select” or “Common Finds, Conditionally.” This guide is written in a place gifted with native Sunkern. Other places sometimes consider them weeds, due to a unique combination of survival strategies. First, the large seed is fairly equipped to survive the occasional hard time. While they cannot thrive without proper moisture, they are able to survive long enough for conditions to improve or long enough to seek a better habitat. Secondly, they are hard to spot. Sunkern exist with very little movement or noise. They can fulfill their primary need—water—by finding shelter in foliage and drinking morning dew. Sunkern will absorb nutrients from the environment if the conditions allow it, but if it finds a sufficiently dewy and concealed place, it is capable of surviving and evolving without needing to seek out fresh nutrients. Upon evolving, Sunflora shed this shy nature. In smaller city populations, this is observed as small groups and individuals stubbornly chase the sun. The luckiest might find sunny place and only move a few feet each day, walking around a building or structure to remain in the sun. However, competition, predation, and human interference commonly drives Sunflora to constantly migrate in search of an ideal location to produce seeds. For better or worse, Sunkern are often caught and taken to shelters for relocation (or simply driven out of the city and dropped off in rural areas by non-professionals). Sunflora require more nutrients than other weeds, but they can produce a significant generation of Sunkern once they gather enough energy. In their native homes, this process follows an annual cycle. Sunkern emerging from the underbrush is a sign of their growing numbers and competition. It is a common class project to lure a Sunkern to a specific artificial habitat, where it is happy to stay and be cared as school children learn about Grass types and life cycles and ecology. The late-summer Sunflora migrations can occur in spurts and in large fields of moving flowers. And even though they are considered weeds by various cultures across the globe, there is always a gardener somewhere who has learned the beauty of the species, even if they only raise specific breeds that have been partly domesticated to be more compatible with a single garden range.

Garden Selects

Bellossom: the stubborn and persevering gardener is fully capable of raising an Oddish to a Bellossom. The Gloom stage must be carefully monitored for toxic contamination (and the scent can make neighbors reasonably grumpy), but the wise gardener knows when and how to apply a Sunstone. The resulting evolution is universally adored and enjoyed. Twin blossoms bestow a herbaceous stone-fruit scent. Their gently energetic personalities charm everyone as they dance and play. And since they are only a foot tall usually (opppsed to Gloom, who can stand above two feet, and Vileplume who can rise above three), their needs are small as well, since their stature requires less nutrients to maintain.

Common Finds, Conditionally

Bellsprout: Once common in a greater diversity of ecosystems, Bellsprout now thrives in select protected zones. Previous populations were overharvested by people attempting to use the leaves, roots, and even stem and bulbs, for medicinal purposes; and from being classified as pests due to their toxic tendencies and dangerous evolved forms.

Exeggcute et al: Originally limited to specific tropical environments where it utilized sea-faring dispersion, this beloved classic has been spread worldwide. It is a popular choice for larger landscaping projects. While it doesn’t occur naturally in many of these places, it has become so popular that most businesses with moderate outdoor property will have one or more. They can be seen around most cities in hotel landscaping features, hospital flower beds, parks, colleges. Some even survive indoors (at least part of the year) inside malls and other large well-lit places.

Botanical Garden Rarity

Bulbasaur et al. While Bulbasaur can survive various environments due to its photosynthetic+omnivore nature and its nutrient-rich bulb, they are a rare find due to Ivysaur and Venusaur needed more specialized conditions to thrive and reproduce.

Celebi: This Pokémon is known by every professional botanist and Grass trainer. While the public is only vaguely familiar with Celebi, it is an exciting topic for those who dedicate their life to Grass Pokémon, either through career or hobby. Any respectable botanical garden will have a Celebi Shrine. These are given daily maintenance and care. Celebi tend to only appear in tranquil environments, so the shrines are kept clean, with no aggressive plants or Pokémon or people nearby. Fresh fruit and nectar-rich flowers are kept nearby. When a Celebi does appear, the news is heard worldwide by professionals and enthusiasts. Celebi tend to linger for a while, and thus it is common—almost expected—for people to travel to see it if they can. Some may travel across the globe. Schools are not allowed to visit with their full population, but usually select a handful of mature and respectful students to visit and see Celebi. It is often a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

[platthepotato]

I've decided this is going to be for game design topics (I'm not a designer but I'm heavily interested in the process of game design) and want to take this first opportunity to discuss something that really intrigues me:

Collectibles!

Many single player video games provide optional collectibles whether it's in the form of hidden objects, special notes/papers to read, or even just "collecting" certain random events.

My favourite example of a good collectibles system is the Korok Seeds in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of The Wild. For those who don't know in Breath of The Wild(BOTW) there are 900 Korok Seeds to collect, they are in widely varied locations on the map and each requiring one of a limited number of puzzle types in order to collect them.

To communicate to the player that these puzzles exist they are usually something slightly out of the ordinary or feature a small woodland creature (a Korok) in the area to hint at the puzzles existence. Additionally you can use Korok seeds to increase your inventory capacity.

So Korok seeds are a collectible spread throughout a vast open world, each with a small puzzle tied to it, that has a clear but not completely obvious indicator of its existence, and provides a gameplay QoL benefit.

A bad example of collectibles (in my opinion) is Five Night's at Freddy's: Security Breach (Security Breach). What Security Breach does wrong in my opinion is a couple of things. To start, the collectibles give very little gameplay incentive and don't communicate that well. The collectibles in Security Breach are in static locations (not a problem, Korok seeds are too), with static rewards every time. This would be perfectly okay if the way the rewards were given wasn't tied to specific collectibles.

Certain collectibles in Security Breach provide boosts like more stamina, a faster sprint speed, or more battery charge. These boost collectibles are always in the same location in every playthrough and there's only about 10-20 total out of 100 collectibles. This means that if you happen to find these boosts you will either: get excited and search for more boosts only to completely stop gaining them after a certain point OR you will get what you need and not be incentivised to collect any more. There is an achievement for gaining every collectible which is enough of a reward for most people, however being a single player story game many won't look at achievements beforehand so as to not spoil their experience.

Additionally, and this is admittedly a partial result of the poor save system, when you collect a collectible it is shown in your inventory in game. Each save file has its own unique inventory that is completely separate in every run. There's no way to display overall findings through multiple saves across your whole time playing without having every single collectible to get the achievement.

In my opinion a good solution to this would be a collectible tally system. It displays in the main menu and each time you collect a collectible in a playthrough, it adds +1 to a counter in the main menu. That way you can still collect them separately every time but there is a centralized, collective area to store all the collectibles you found, as well as showcasing your dedication to collecting them multiple times over with a save system that allows for that.

Ultimately, the way collectibles are implemented in a game heavily depends on the functionalities of the game but should overall have a sense of satisfaction tied to collecting them, whether it's a clear display of all that you've gathered or a noticeable gameplay reward for going out of your way.

No guarantees on what my next game design topic will be but I'm thinking maybe Bestiaries and collection books next as it's a similar vein to collectibles (still a form of collecting) but is usually way more connected directly to gameplay.

Also: this is my first post on Tumblr so if formatting is weird or anything like that I will be working on it in the future!

[wyrm-in-a-closet]

Science fact of the day- Pluto!

I was initially going to talk about Pluto's classification as a dwarf planet, but honestly I think thats worth leaving for another sfotd. Pluto has plenty of interesting elements by itself, and I think dwarf planets are just as worthy of love as their larger counterparts.

To start off, Pluto's surface is very unique and has several distinct features. One of the coolest Tombaugh Regio, a large bright area which is roughly heart shaped. which is just kinda cute tbh. One lobe of the Heart is called Sputnik Planitia, which is named after Sputnik 1, which is one of my favorite things ever. It has a large number of other features, including red regions probably caused by organic compounds called tholins as well as various dark and bright spots. Pluto also has another unique surface feature called Penitentes, which are sorta like spikes of snow- as far as we know, this only happens on Earth and Pluto, although theyre might also exist on Europa. Also, Pluto seems to have a really young surface. It has almost no craters at all, and in addition to other facts, it seems like it had a resurfacing event within only the last few hundred thousand years alone. I know that feels like a long time, but on the geological, let alone planetary time scale, that's nothing. hell, humans have been around longer than that, probably. which is honestly a bit wild. Pluto also has an atmosphere, although with a pressure of only one pascal (1/100,000 Earth's typical pressure) it's not too much to look at. It was initially expected that when pluto has farthest from the sun (aphelion), its atmosphere would freeze only to sublimate again when it got closer to the sun, but it doesn't seem like this actually happens.

Pluto also has 5 moons. The biggest of these is Charon, named after the ferryman of the dead from mythology. That said, it's entirely possible that Charon is actually also a dwarf planet. It's about half the size and one-tenth the mass of pluto, but thats still possibly large enough for it to meet the qualifications for a dwarf planet. if this is the case, then Charon and Pluto would form a binary dwarf planet system, and when looking at the two, this is generally a more useful to way to think of them. One insteresting consequence of Charon's size is that it doesn't actually orbit Pluto- instead, it orbits around the common center of mass of the two objects, called the barycenter. Because it's so massive, the barycenter lays signifignatly beyond the surface of pluto, and thus pluto also seems to orbit the barycenter, although at a much closer distance than Pluto does. Technically speaking, any two orbits which orbit one another orbit a common barycenter, however, unless their even close to similar in mass, the barycenter will lay very near the center of the larger body. With the Earth and Moon, the barycenter sits only about 1500 km below the surface- about one quarter of the way down to the center of the planet. outside of pluto and charon, the only other notable object with a barycenter outside itself is actually the sun, specifically in its orbit around Jupiter. despite jupiter only being .1% of the mass of the sun, because its so far away, their common center of mass is just a bit above the sun's surface. While a barycenter is mainly important for two bodies orbiting each other, other objects can also orbit around that barycenter. this called a circumbinary orbit, and its the state in which plutos other four moons exist. circumbinary orbits need to be further out and moving relatively slowly in order to be stable, and are generally pretty small objects, so pluto's four other moons are really, really tiny, and generally not as interesting, unfortunately.

[karaloza]

Legend of Zelda Theme Park - Undeveloped Ideas

More theme park stuff! This time around, I’m listing some things that I would like to include, but haven’t been able to develop well enough to make “official,” so to speak. I would welcome any ideas my readers might have in that direction.

Desert Area

There is one major recurring environment type that’s missing from the park as it stands, and that’s the desert. The reason for this is twofold. First, the existing themed areas make a nice compact shape, fairly symmetrical and logically arranged with respect to each other. I can’t figure out a place to put the desert that wouldn’t look like an awkward tumor grafted onto the side.

Second, I couldn’t come up with many ideas for attractions in the desert—in the games, such areas mostly seem to be traversal challenges, with hazards along the way that make traveling difficult, but not much to see or do until you get to the dungeon or other destination at the end. And in the real world, deserts mostly are not considered very nice places to visit, unlike forests and waterways and mountains. I bounced around a couple ideas but wasn’t able to make much of them:

A sand-seal racing ride. Pretty much taken directly from the minigame in Breath of the Wild, with ride vehicles shaped like a seal pulling a sled, carrying riders at high speed around a track whilst being threatened by monsters. Fine on its own, but I felt it wasn’t distinct enough, tone-wise, from the other thrill rides I had already developed in more detail.

Kara Kara Bazaar. A colorful mini-district of shops and eateries, to get in some Gerudo cultural flavor while maintaining the worldbuilding detail that where men and boys are forbidden from visiting Gerudo Town itself.

Gerudo martial arts show. Taking place in the Bazaar, this would be a procession of Gerudo performers (tall female athletes with serious abs—what a casting call that would be!) through the area ending at a small stage where they would put on a demonstration of Gerudo combat techniques.

You’ll notice that I haven’t been able to get away from the BotW/TotK desert for my inspirations, which is part of my problem. Hopefully I’ll overcome the block and a fully fleshed out desert area can be added to the park!

Great Sea Water Park

As you’ve read through my theme park writeups, you may have noticed few or no specific references to games like Link’s Awakening, Wind Waker, and Phantom Hourglass. This is because the base setting of these games—the ocean and/or islands—is different enough from “standard” Zelda that I couldn’t figure out a graceful way to merge them with the overall themed pastiche. So I decided the best way to include them was in a “sister” waterslide park such as many theme parks have right next door (Six Flags Hurricane Harbor, Knott’s Soak City, LEGOLand California Water Park, etc.).

The only problem here is that...I don’t have much experience visiting water parks. When I was a kid, swimming/water fun outings took the form of a) the beach or b) my grandparents’ swimming pool. I remember one trip to a park called Wild Rivers, but not many details—slides, wave pools of varying intensity, a “river” encircling the whole thing where you could spend two hours drifting on the current in an inner tube… It’s not enough for me to make generalizations about water parks as a phenomenon or design my own.

Nonetheless, I think a water park would be the ideal expression of those sea-focused games—slides themed around places like Dragon Roost Island and Mount Tamaranch, pirate ship playgrounds, maybe a flume ride or two, the Windfall Island Ferris wheel… Besides the aforementioned games, features could draw inspiration from seaside areas in other games such as Lurelin Village and the Great Bay (leaving Zora’s Domain in the big park to focus on freshwater.) There’s potential here, I just don’t have the chops to work it out in detail.

Tarrey Town Suites

Another thing you often find in association with theme parks is themed hotels, extending the experience for multi-day guests. This is especially appropriate for Zelda, because have you ever noticed how many of the games begin with Link literally waking up in the morning? And of course inns and taverns have become a common feature in the games, starting with the Stock Pot Inn in Majora’s Mask. I opted to make that one a restaurant in the theme park because of the name, but there was still plenty of material to inspire a hotel, and I soon realized that Breath of the Wild introduced not only unique inns for each of its fantasy races and communities, but a concept for gathering them all in one location.

Tarrey Town Suites would not be a single hotel, but a complex of buildings, each one themed to a different people—Hylians, Sheikah, Gerudo, Gorons, Rito, and Zora—and offering a different aesthetic and vibe for leisure. Common hotel amenities such as a gym, spa, swimming pool, etc. would be divided among the “inns” appropriately (but available to all guests of the Suites, not just the ones staying in the same inn).

Of all the ideas in this post, this is the one I’ve given the most serious thought; I’m just not quite ready to declare it solid.

Something Something Ancient Technology

The Legend of Zelda is traditionally a medieval(-ish) fantasy series, but some of its more recent installments have leaned hard on the trope of “ancient people were way more technologically advanced than us, actually.” The ancient Sheikah and Zonai tech of Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom, respectively, leap easily to mind, but there’s also the Ancient Robot civilization in Skyward Sword. It’s enough of a phenomenon that I feel like it should go somewhere in the park—or the resort, as it’s becoming with all these ideas—but how best to manifest this particular theme?

One possibility is...Tarrey Town Suites. In Tears, Tarrey Town is adjacent to the Hudson Construction Site, where the locals retrieve Zonai devices that fall nearby and experiment with them to create powered vehicles. So maybe the hotel activities could include some small rides or other attractions centered around funky fantasy tech.

That’s all for now. Thanks for reading!

[phantomdecibel]

How do people hunt in your world?

HELL YEAH TIME TO RAMBLE ABOUT WORLDBUILDING-!!!

Prepare yourself for a bunch of information you did not ask for :D!!!!!

Lovely question thank you very much, and very open tho so im just gonna focus on hunting in the Deadzone, since that’s the area in the wcbwe universe that I post about the most :)

…yknow. Im not sure I ever made it really clear so: the Deadzone, with all the oily, acidic water and whatnot, is only a small, small part of the universe. It’s very isolated, so all sorts of wild things go on there :p the rest of the world has normal water. I’m just focusing on developing one part at a time!

Before I really jump into this I’d like to say that the stories I’m writing inside this universe take place over a number of years, like thousands bc immortal ppl exist, so I’m gonna mostly talk about hunting and agriculture around the time that the first instalment of the story ‘Im writing starts (not that that really matters I’m just enjoying rambling lol). So: one-to-two thousand years before the people here started counting the years

oh also bear in mind that at this stage im just making shit up if u want like science behind the shit im making up ur gonna have to get it elsewhere /j :p

Okay so on to the question! How does hunting work in the Deadzone?

There’re a couple things that really shape how things like that work here; the general lack of wood, scarcity of easily accessible drinkable water, the water that can literally melt your skin off, and the fact that open flame here is a Bad Idea (sorry arson mutuals) – but that’s a whole other thing I’m not gonna get into rn lmao

Although – the whole acid rain thing isn’t as big of a problem bc most resources have evolved to be resistant to it, and the people and animals have learned to deal

SO with the dangerous weather/environment, a really popular hunting technique is the use of snares, and herding things into them. They’re reusable, so you get to worry less about the use of resources, you can set them and wait somewhere safe and don’t have to worry about getting caught out in the rain or sandstorms, and assuming you’re setting your traps in an area you know, you don’t have to worry as much about getting lost when visibility is low! Not to mention that setting a trap is less strenuous than than a lot of other forms of hunting, so you need less water, which is a coveted resource, especially at this point in time

Guns don’t exist yet, but if they did, they’d be pretty popular too – and will be when they finally do. I have no clue at what point in time firearms became a thing, but the Deadzone is incredibly isolated anyways, so I can do whatever I want anyways uwu. As it is, archery is definatly a thing instead! Bows and crossbows both are used in hunting, effective long-range weapons :)

Close-range weapons like knives and swords and whatnot do exist and are used, but they’re more so better suited against larger predators, like the murder birb cats. There are these large bug-coyote things I don’t have a solid design for (nightcrawlers; theyre nocturnal. Im so original I know /j) that are really annoying to shoot at. Most people try their best to avoid them and no one’s really out at night – its also really cold so its no big loss – but when people are out at night, you’re gonna want a sword or something. Nightcrawlers are edible, under their tough exoskeleton, but also really dangerous to the people of the Deadzone, so they’re not often hunted for food, more so just to cull their numbers and the fact that they’re edible is just a plus

The murder birb cats are ambush predators mostly, like I mentioned in my other post, and good at avoiding traps – or worse, turning them against the hunter. So they’re rarely hunted specifically (if someone has a chance to kill one though they wil definitely take it), but their eggs are often poached for both food and to get rid of as many threats to a village as possible.

Most animals are pretty difficult to actively… uh. I cant remember the word? Corral? Herd?... farm? and it’s the same with plants bc their main source of hydration is incredibly dangerous to handle – except for these one creatures I first thought up when all I could think about was the people who follow around the murder birds (dw we’re gonna talk abt that im in too deep I’m incapable of not-). The. only visual I have for them is like tall, lanky humpless camels with like. Snouts like those smooth mammal things whos faces look like a mix between anteater and capybara snouts that the only tentative first-draft name ive come up w for them is ‘snufflers’ XD and that sounds way too much like the knew Minecraft mob lmao-

At the point in time where the wcbwe universe begins, snufflers are the only truly domesticated animal in the Deadzone. They’re used as mounts, for food, and, more importantly, they can accurately predict when it’s about to rain, and start barking… maybe screamers or something would be a better name lmao theyre just too soft for that :p

Because they work as a warning system for the other wildlife who aren’t immune to the rain, predators in the Deadzone (with the exception of the nightcrawlers) don’t attack snufflers unless in incredibly dire situations, and, by extension, the people of the Deadzone are mostly safe when close enough! So they’re incredibly popular mounts for travelling the desolation of the Deadzone. Snuffler… ‘rangers’ or ‘ranchers’, this is newer lore so I’m not quite settled on any names/titles yet, have travelling farms that herd their flocks between a rotation of local villages to sell/trade them for various resources. Even just keeping the snufflers in the village deters most predators from hunting there, with the exception of nightcrawlers who will attack snufflers anyways (might be because their exoskeleton protects them from the rain so the warning means nothing to them), and the murder bird cats, who are smart enough to hunt people while leaving the snufflers alone.

THIS IS WHERE I BRING UP THE PEOPLE WHO FOLLOW THE BIRBS AROUND :D

Some ranchers take a snuffler or two and head out either on their own or in small groups no larger than five, to follow the bird cat flocks. When they’re quite literally sat atop the snufflers, the murder friends mostly leave them alone. Of course they also have to be incredibly careful until they build up enough trust within the flock, because they would definitely be considered a threat or food and taken out if they stray too far or close. If the rouge ranchers want to be able to follow and live among the murder friends in relative safety, they’ve got to prove that a) theyre not a threat and b) they’re more useful alive than dead

Ranchers who follow the cats tend to hunt larger prey like the nightcrawlers, and share their kills with the bird cats, among other things, and the murder friends return the favour once the ranchers have been accepted as friends. Its an incredibly important and dangerous job, but also scorned. The murder bird cats are a serious threat to villages and just the people of the Deadzone in general – and the ranchers often become protective and defensive of their flocks, which causes some conflict. Still, these ranchers (who don’t have a separate title yet) are incredibly important for life in the Deadzone. They provide information on where their flocks are so people can avoid them or hide, they have easy access to eggs they can sell or trade as food, and if they have enough respect within the flock can even help provent attacks on villages – not to mention all they learn about the predators, and it always helps to know things about your enemies. One of my ocs, and the pov character of a story I’m writing  named Arceli is one of these ranchers! Though unfortunately that doesn’t last very long and isn’t the focus at all :,)

So those’re two of the most important jobs in the Deadzone and we’ve gone seriously off topic!

Hunting, right-

Well, hunting’s pretty hard without tools lol! I don’t know much about the production of any tools you’d use for hunting n shit so I won’t really talk about that, but I can tell you a bit of what they’re made out of! Though not much sorry ;-;

Metals do exist here and while fire isn’t an option, they do still have the melty water and some forms of bioluminescence that produces heat! I wont go into details I don’t know, but both rock and metal can be heated and molded similar to how they could in our world… just not with fire haha. And also bone! This would work exactly the same as how it does on earth – but the Deadzone has an abundance of bones, particularly around the edges

The Deadzone is surrounded by a barrier called The Threshold – and the Threshold is basically a large ring of the bones of dead things that have tried to cross it. I’m tempted to try and explain but I can’t draw which would really help w the explanation and also this is already really long so I’ll just keep it simple with it’s not a hard line in art terms bc those’re the only words I know rn in art terms it sort of. Ombres and condenses before dispersing out again. and by ‘it’ I mean the bones

So bones are easily accessible, and a pretty abundant resource!

TAPIRS FUCKIGN TAPIRS THAT’S WHAT THEYRE CALLED. SNUFFLER FACES NOSES WHATEVER LOOK LIKE TAPIR FACE NOSES. anyways. moving on now.

Right bones!

Lots of em littered around; they’re used for pretty much everything from tools/weapons to for building to even for food and snacks – things to gnaw and whatnot – especially marrow (in what I’m assuming would be primarily from fresher kills).

(I don’t know why I mentioned agriculture earlier ive barely brought it up whoops. Probably won’t go into it either, unless it comes up naturally, this is just already way to long lmao)

Another thing that plays a large part in hunting is that pretty much everything, people and animal alike, have very strong stomachs, and people, in smaller doses, know how to prepare carrion in a way that wont immediately make you super fucking sick. I haven’t decided how long it takes for things to rot in the Deadzone; the air is super cold there, cold enough to significantly slow down the decomposition process bUT the sands and rocks and shit are really really good at absorbing heat from the sun, like they can get hot enough to burn you. So I guess it depends on how sunny it is but that doesn’t really matter the point is. It’s way less (if at all) necessary now, what with the invention of traps and tools for hunting and farming the snufflers, but the only way you live long enough to evolve in the Deadzone is if you’re a scavenger of some kind.

So back to hunting. I’ve mentioned it once or twice but visibility is Really Shitty most of the time, so when you’re going out, you’ve to plan to be lost for a few days or you’re dead. If you stick close to your village you’re not gonna get as good of results, but at least you’re much more likely to make it home at the end of the day. Stray too far and you could get so turned around it takes you a month to get home – but you’d probably stumble across some really good prey to bring back, when you’re in places people don’t end up in often.

OH

CAN’T BELIEVE I FORGOT-

Bioluminescence! Is a thing here!

Ive already mentioned that in multiple different things, but guess what! It applies here, too!

So like with bioluminescent fish, often predators use their own possible bioluminescent qualities to lure in prey. This was first observed by the rangers following the murder bird cats (I haven’t settled on a specific design but so far they’ve got whiskers that can grown from the chin, crown of the head, and along the spine and base of the tail that have a glowing bubble at the end), and was adapted by people for use in traps and as lures in the same way

Oh also there’s fish in the melty water :)

Fishing isn’t a thing just yet, but they’ll figure it out soon enough

I feel like im forgetting something but *checks wordcount* this is over 2000 words so imma just stop it here lmao-

no art sorry, I tried and failed miserably and then was at my grandma’s writing and not drawing lol