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a-dinosaur-a-day · 1 year ago

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What follows is a retelling of the Jurassic Park story, mainly based on the 1993 film, with portions of the original novel used to supplement the story. The main point of divergence occurs when the park is unable to find workable nonavian dinosaur genetic material for cloning, since - as in the real world - dna degrades much too rapidly. Instead, the park consists only of extinct dinosaurs that can be brought back - birds from the last 2.5 million years. What happens after that is, as Ian Malcolm would say, an emerging pattern.

Infinite thanks to beta readers @killdeercheer, @otussketching, and @plokool! And extra thanks to @i-draws-dinosaurs for the killer logo!

Link to the masterpost of chapters

Chapter Two: Egg Mountain, United States

“Doctor Sattler! Doctor Grant! We’re ready to try again!”

Ellie stood up from the dirt in front of her, brushing off the sand from her shorts and looking around for the source of the call. Alan took a longer time to get up, looking grumpy and befuddled at the interruption.

“I hate computers,” Grant muttered.

Ellie wanted to laugh, but she managed to keep it in. Computers felt like something from a separate world – a cleaner one, a manufactured one. Out here, in the badlands, surrounded by mountains and dust and old bones, computers were alien. But they had one.

And it had quickly become Alan’s archnemesis.

“The feeling’s mutual,” Ellie joked, smirking at him as he shook his head in bemusement. The two walked down the side of the mountain towards the equipment, including a large lead slug dispenser (aka Thumper) and a portable computer covered in dust and dirt. The computer ran the computer-assisted sonic tomography (CAST) program – Thumper would send a lead slug into the ground, which would generate waves, allowing for the computer to get an idea of the layout of the ground around the slug. The computer would then, theoretically, show a reading of any fossils detected by the sonic waves. Usually, the best it could do was show the approximate location of a fossil – which saved significant amounts of time on digging. But, with repeated readings, sometimes a more detailed outline could be found. That detailed outline was then helpful for digging in the right location – and preserving that location from further environmental damage.

As they reached the bottom of the valley, the students activated Thumper, causing a loud boom to resonate through the mountains. Alan made a beeline for the computer monitor to read the info, while Ellie meandered behind him across the dirt.

“Hey Dr. Sattler!” one grad student shouted. She waved back at her with a smile. There weren’t a lot of women on the dig site, so each one supported the others as much as they could.

By the time she reached the monitor, the image from Thumper was finally loading on this screen.

“This new program’s incredible,” another grad student, a man this time, said, “Few more years development and we won’t even have to dig anymore!”

“Where’s the fun in that?” Alan scoffed, causing the gathering crowd around the screen to laugh with him.

“It’s... a little distorted, but I don’t think it’s the computer,” the student continued, typing away to try and manipulate the image’s presentation. Ellie could see right away, however, that the skeleton was in the right pose. She walked up to the screen and pointed, from a distance, at the tell-tale characteristics.

“Post-mortem contraction of the posterior neck ligaments... Deinonychus?”

“Yes, and it’s in good shape, too,” Alan confirmed, walking closer to the screen himself, “Five, six feet long, I’m guessing nine feet tall. Look at the –“

Suddenly, Alan’s touching of the monitor made everything go fuzzy.

“What’d you do?” Alan asked the student angrily.

“He touched it,” Ellie laughed, patting the student comfortingly on the shoulder, “Dr. Grant’s not machine compatible.”

“Hell, they’ve got it in for me,” Alan grumbled, before composing himself, “And look at the half-moon shaped bones in the wrists. It’s no wonder these guys learned how to fly!”

Everyone laughed around him. While birds being living dinosaurs was a fairly widely accepted hypothesis in the field, it still drew some chuckles – especially from the unaware.

“No, seriously!” Alan said, turning around to look at everyone, his educator face completely taking over the irritation face he had previously, “Dinosaurs have more in common with present-day birds than they do with reptiles. Look at the pubic bone, turned backward, just like a bird... look at the vertebrae, filled with air sacs and hollows just like a bird... and even the word Raptor means, ‘Bird of Prey’.”

“That doesn’t look very scary,” scoffed one of the children on the dig, an annoying little boy who was constantly complaining about the connections between living birds and their extinct dinosaur relatives, “More like a six foot turkey!”

Alan lost his educator face, and Ellie found herself smirking at the sheer irritation he had for an expression instead.

“Have you met a turkey, kid?” Alan asked.

“Oh no,” Ellie muttered, but she wasn’t about to stop him. Alan had been patient with the kid for weeks, and his time was up.

“Um, at Thanksgiving,” the kid responded.

“Okay. So, to begin with, a turkey is already nearly six foot – they can grow up to four,” Alan stated, smirking, “Then, when you are just alone in the woods – or, you think you’re alone – with no one around, guess what is the last thing you want to hear?”

“Um, turkeys?”

“The distant sound of many turkeys coming right in your direction. You see, turkeys – they aren’t predators. So they know at any time they could be on the receiving end of a horrible, horrible attack. And so they, like all prey animals over a certain size, will defend themselves to the death. More human deaths are caused by the vegetarian hippopotamus each year than by sharks or any other predator. And turkeys? They have that ferocity, too.”

The kid did not have a response to that.

“Some might peck you. That has a nasty sting. Others may just run at you, flashing their feathers, making loud sounds. Enough to set your teeth on edge. And then there are the kickers. Nowhere more than the feet can you see how birds are just dinosaurs among us,” Alan let out a snort, “Those claws, that force, it is enough to break bones and other organs.”

Alan stepped up closer to the boy, getting right in his face. Ellie watched, moderately mesmerized, too much so to intervene.

“Just one, a human alone could not deal with. But on your own, surrounded by who knows how many? You would wish it was a Deinonychus, kid. A Deinonychus eventually gets full.”

The boy visibly gulped in front of everyone, who was dead silent. No laughs emerged from a single person.

“So, you know. Try to show a little respect.”

“Okay,” the kid said, nodding. Alan nodded in response, and turned to walk away.

The child’s mother ran forward to him, while Ellie followed after Alan, shaking her head in bemusement.

“If you wanted to scare the kid you could have pulled a gun on him, you know,” Ellie snorted.

“Yeah, I know,” Alan sighed, “Kids. You want to have one of those?”

Ellie laughed, gesturing behind her, “I don’t want that kid, but, a breed of child, Alan, could be intriguing.”

“Ha!”

“I mean, what’s so wrong with kids?”

“Look, they get in the way. I mean, I never thought I’d date anyone, before I met you,” Alan said, “It never interested me.”

“You just wanted to find the bones,” Ellie laughed, shaking her head.

“I just wanted to find the bones! But one person is enough for me. More, and this time I’m responsible for their well-being? For what kind of person they turn into? Nah.”

“You didn’t think you’d like dating me, and you did!” Ellie countered, jabbing him lightly in the arm.

“Cause you’re the only person who understands me,” Alan scoffed, “Besides. You don’t smell.”

“What? Kids don’t smell, either!”

“Some of them smell!” Alan insisted, “Babies smell!”

The whirring of a helicopter cut off their conversation, and both immediately ran down to the site to cover up the new find, shouting for tarps to drape over the rocks and exposed bones. Alan sprinted to the helicopter, while Ellie ran down to the site, covering it quickly with the help of the volunteers and students.

“Get it down – yes – secure the corner – don’t let it be exposed! Even this amount of wind from the helicopter could erode away important information! Yes, get that side down, too!” Ellie barked at everyone, directing people to properly place down the tarp. Satisfied the specimen was secure, she quickly ran towards the trailer, where she had just seen Alan disappear into.

“Alright!” Ellie shouted, opening up the door, “Who’s the jerk?”

“Uh, this is our, paleobotanist, Doctor –“

“Sattler,” Ellie filled in, frowning. In the room was an older man, with a white beard and glasses, wearing a beige hat. Ellie didn’t have a moment to ask before Alan continued,

“Ellie, this is Mr. Hammond.”

Ellie felt her mouth drop open in shock.

“I’m sorry about the dramatic entrance, Dr. Sattler, but...”

“Did I say ‘jerk’?” Ellie laughed, grimacing.

“We’re in a wee bit of a hurry, here. Will you have a drink? We don’t want to let it warm, come along, sit down, sit down.”

It was weird, how he managed to make the space his own, just by virtue of having paid for it, even though it was Ellie’s and Alan’s. Ellie tried to take control, reaching for glasses in the sink, as he protested. Before she knew it, she was sitting at a table.

“Now, I’ll wait a minute, because I have a surprise for you!” Hammond laughed. Conveniently, the door opened at that moment, and a tall dark skinned woman entered the room, her hair done in dreads, a grin spreading across her face.

“Guess who’s baaack!” the woman sang, beaming at Alan and Ellie.

“Miri!” Ellie shouted.

“Miri!” Alan said in unison. Miri laughed and ran to hug Ellie, shaking Alan’s hand eagerly afterwards.

“Mr. Hammond picked me up on the way over here, I’ve been a consultant on his project for the past year down at my dig – I have so much to tell you, when was the last time we saw each other?” Miri said rapidly, laughing at the shocked looks on Ellie and Alan’s faces.

“Last SVP, I think!” Ellie responded, “Oh it’s so good to see you! Are they treating you well down in Florida?”

“As well as can be expected for Florida!” Miri laughed, “But we just found a new Titanis skeleton, and since Pierce passed I’m in charge of the dig site!”

“I was so sorry to have heard of his passing, Miri,” Alan said, “You’re more than capable to take over for him, but so soon after you graduated from here –“

“The man lived in a hoarder house, Alan,” Miri snorted, “A literal hoarder house. Besides that, I was brought on the team because he knew he needed a good replacement. Regardless, I’m here now.”

“And good thing, too!” Dr. Hammond laughed, “Your former mentor would never have been able to come alone on our little trip, Dr. Spinoza!”

“About that, as I was saying in the helicopter, you’re never going to get Alan to –“

“Never going to get Alan to what?” Alan asked, affronted. Ellie snorted, making him glare at her for a moment.

“I’ll get right to the point!” Hammond chortled, clearly delighted by the proceedings, “I like you. Both of you. I can tell instantly about people, it’s a gift. Could tell I liked you, could tell I liked Miri. Now,” Hammond took a deep breath, beaming, “I own an island. Off the coast of Costa Rica. I’ve leased it from the government and spent the last five years setting up a kind of biological preserve. You remember the consultancy you did for me at the time?”

“Yes, but after a point you said we were no longer needed for that?” Alan asked in confusion.

“Which is when he reached out to me,” Miri said, nodding.

“Well, the island is really spectacular. Spared no expense. Make the one I‘ve got down in Kenya look like a petting zoo. And there’s no doubt, our attractions will drive kids out of their minds.”

“And what are those?” Alan asked sarcastically. Miri snorted.

“Small versions of adults, honey,” Ellie laughed.

“And not just kids, everyone! We’re going to open next year, that is if the lawyers don’t kill me first. I don’t care for lawyers, do you...?”

“Oh we... uh...” Ellie began.

“Don’t really know any,” Alan and Miri finished with him in unison.

“Well I do, I’m afraid. There’s a particular pebble in my shoe who represents my investors. Says they insist on ‘outside opinions.’”

“What kind of opinions?” Ellie asked.

“Well, your kind, Dr. Sattler and Dr. Grant, not to put too fine a point on it. And Dr. Spinoza’s too. I mean, let’s face it – in your particular fields, you’re the top minds! And if I could just persuade you to sign off on the park, you know give it your endorsement, maybe even pen a wee testimonial, I could get back on schedule!”

“Is the work I’ve been doing for you not enough of a testimonial?” Miri laughed.

“Well, they want you to see the place, get a feel for it, as it were. They want an expert’s eyes on the whole proceedings.”

“But why would they care what we think?” Dr. Sattler asked.

“With your expertise from paleobotany and paleoecology, Dr. Spinoza’s in behavior, and Alan’s in anatomy, you have the best handle on what sort of problems we may deal with in the park –“

“What kind of park is this?” Alan asked, frowning in confusion.

“It’s right up your alley,” Hammond laughed, handing the three of them drinks.

“Please come down, you two, with Dr. Spinoza and I, for the weekend. I’d love to have both of your opinions on the project. We have a jet standing by at Choteau,” Hammond pleaded.

“I basically had no choice, since he’s sponsoring the dig,” Miri sighed.

“Well, look, we just dug up a new skeleton –“ Alan began.

“And I will compensate you, as well, by fully funding your dig...”

“This is a very unusual time,” Alan continued.

“For a further three years,” Hammond finished.

“Well.. uh...” Ellie stammered, “Where’s the plane?”

“Yeah, okay, okay!” Alan shouted, clinking his glass with Hammond and turning around to Ellie in excitement. Both shouted happily and hugged each other, spinning around the room.

“Three more years!”

“We can get the entire raptor nesting site!”

“Three more years!”

Hammond chortled happily, as the pair reached to grab bags from under the table and pack them.

Soon, they would be off to Costa Rica.

#jurassic park #jurassic park au #jurassic park: it's ironic #palaeoblr #dinosaurs #birds #the birdcage

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copperpipes · 1 year ago

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Speaking of speculative biology, I've been coming up with creatures for the alien planet of my friend

The creatures on the planet don't have mouths and photosynthesize and have three pairs of limbs so it's been fun trying to figure out how a predator works but I think I got it

They have a 'mouth' on their stomach and it's like a jellyfish that takes in food and expels waste with the same hole. The face is used for stabbing and the arms grapple prey and tear them to pieces

But honestly the best part is that I managed to make dragons like creatures!

The autotrophs are a magenta color instead of green, but funny enough they have green blood. They don't use their wings to fly, except the smol guys,but to capture sunlight!

There are humanoid-like creatures too that's the species of my friend, but the family is diverse!

I also have insects like creatures where the wings are from ancient gills like how this world's insects are thought to evolve them.

The first pair of limbs on the insect form and the huh, idk I don't have a name for the top row, can taste things

The dragon forms most likely lost that but still have taste receptors else where

And the bird forms have more taste receptors on their belly area because the first limbs are covered in sharp teeth-claws

Speculative biology is a lot of fun

Rad

But I do have an important note for you.

I'll start from ❗you don't have to listen to me❗

I am but a little nerd, this is just an issue I want to point out to maybe help improve your and your friend's work, do with this whatever you want :]

So, the issue i found is with your photosynthesizing life forms. I guessing you based this idea off the leaf sheep slug, which is the only animal that uses photosynthesis as one of its sources for energy(that's not a plant or a coral, or plankton), because just photosynthesis cannot be the only one. The only ones who can use just photosynthesis are algae, plant cells, and generally sessile organisms like sometimes dinodlagellates who live in corals.

Point is, photosynthesis works on a cellular level. Mostly only for the cell itself, even plants (single cellular and not single cellular, there are exceptions in both) can't live only off of the energy photosynthesis provides, they still need additional nutrients and minerals for everything to work.

For moving creatures, ones who have a brain and muscles and need to run from predators, it wouldn't be enough. Luckily this is fixable, and with no need to significantly change anything or cutting things out.

Some suggestions (again you can ignore this, but if you still decide to use it, you don't have to credit me)

1. Increase surface area and chlorophyll concentration;

You already covered them in little fur which is a step in the right direction and a very cool design point ;] but really don't be shy with it, look at the leaf sheep again

Look at those booshes

And the higher concentration of chlorophyll would be per spot the more energy would be produced, you can kinda see that in plants in areas with rare or little sunlight, they either have a very saturated green color or a dark one.

2. Give them an additional/other way of getting energy;

I would recommend filter feeding through their wings to keep the no mouth bit. or they could dig into the ground and get nutrients like plants do while they sleep.

3. Take a turn from biology;

You know what else uses sunlight to produce energy and does it better then chlorophyll? Solar panels.

Yes, the material is man-made and inorganic(95% silicone, common thing in the earth's crust), but have you ever heard of the volcano snail (or Scaly-foot gastropod)? Very cool creature, it lives around hydrothermal vents and is covered with iron scoots with iron compounds in its shell. And enzymes are a thing :]

One thing doesn't exclude the other, so go wild!

Also instead of wings I could recommend sails, but that's for you to decide and the reasoning is great

Now that that's finished, imma [explode]

Like, this is so cool, creative, fascinating shit, delectable. Love the fact the chlorophyll is pink, love the jellyfish stomach idea, love the mantis arms. About the taste thing tho maybe not taste but smell? Like ants

And yes, spec bio is a lot of fun, I wholeheartedly agree :>

#ask #spec bio #speculative biology #i feel like teacher #idk what to feel #copper talks

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void-f3lt · 9 months ago

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1st🐍Chap: A New Roommate Snake in a Panther’s Cage Now

.*•——————————————————————————•*.

Six months.

Six Fucking Months.

It has been six months—probably—since he’d last been back on Earth.

Him and Loki, his younger brother, were on a plane together to go see their Father and then the plane got intercepted/fucking abducted??? by actual fucking aliens, people knew that aliens existed but they usually didn’t fuck with humans, something happened during WW3 or some shit and a very thin peace treaty was passed around, and some new laws got added to the Geneva Convention along the line of just because they ain’t human doesn’t mean they have to be experimented on.

After failing to escape stupid space jail, yes he knew it is a trafficking ship but he didn’t care. Alistair had just waited for something. Anything other than a trip to The Gladiator Ring. Though after a while he waited for that too, even got excited when it was time. Yes he is a sadist, why do you ask? It’s fucking revenge. (he knows it’s not the bastards he’s fighting fault but it’s still therapeutic) He memorized how often the guards walked by. He painstakingly counted the seconds when he realized there was an actual schedule.

Two and a half hours of the Light Cycle and around every five hours of dark because they don’t have nocturnal Fuckers or timetable’s apparently, resulting in only two switch overs. Assuming he didn’t screw up his counting at any point. The alien wardens brought food and water. Their food smelled like this one time that he lost a muffin under his bed for about a year and it grew black mold, mixed with rat poison. So yeah, he obviously refused to eat it.

Normally he just takes out one of his granola bars and eats half of that. He’s down to twenty-four so far and he eats one every three Day cycles so he’ll last about (*Math Later*).

There was that one time when an alarm had gone off for some reason. That had been somewhat interesting and fucking hurt. His dragon roommate didn’t seem as bothered, behaving how Alistair probably would at a fire alarm back home. But to him? It was unbearable. It drove him to tears and he ultimately passed out. It hadn’t happened again, yet. He guessed it was either a false alarm or a breach somewhere else on the ship. That would also confirm that there were other floors with prisoners.

He tried to find a way out, looking for loose bars and checking out the locks but he genuinely couldn’t figure those the fuck out(he really should have been taking notes whenever Father went on one of his engineering rant) and when he first tried to he could barely get a grip on the bars due to the stupid electric force field science fiction bullshit. Yes earth, and human settlements almost everywhere, has similar tech but he’s still gonna call sci-fi bullshit ‘cause it is.

Eventually, his captors figured out he wouldn’t eat the rat poison, and they brought something else. A lot of something else, actually. He avoided what didn’t smell or taste right, hoping for the best of the things he did eat. Raw, yellow meat? Questionable. Some kind of pink and orange slugs? Absolutely not. The plant lookin’ things that were probably fruit were fine. He liked the almost carrot. And they had jerky. The rest he gave to his dragon roommate as a peace offering.

At one point, some of the wardens came in, like they usually do, only this time they tried to take the alien dragon. When the dragon started struggling, Ailstair decided that helping them might earn him some kind of favor with it. (Definitely not because he grew attached to them and feared for their safety) So he attacked the guard that had tried to keep him back.

And bit the Bastard arm off.

Aliens are… really fucking squishy. Their taser baton things didn’t really phase him, but it killed a Guard whenever he snatched it and used it against them. As it fell, its arm tore off. Inside of his mouth. It was disgusting. It tasted disgusting. He knew the fuckers were fragile, he once just lightly stepped on one that he knocked to the floor—didn’t even jump on the fucker— and snapped its rips but still, That was a lot.

They didn’t open the cell door anymore after that. Food and water were delivered through the little slit under the door, pushed by sticks. He tried to grab the sticks but they pulled back as soon as he started to approach. It was starting to piss him off. Maybe next time he’ll take more than an arm.

Currently he’s just sitting in said cage with his dragonborn frien-Roommate staring at the ceiling after his newest escape attempt. Seriously, these fucker’s are so dumb. Thinking that watching him from all angles will make it any harder for him to escape. News flash, it won't stop him from trying as he’s tried four times by now, and almost succeeded 2 & 1/2 of those times(the half is cause he killed a fucker then took a hit to the bottom of his spine which kinda scared him and his dragon).

He trying his very best to ignore all the chatter around him. Just because he can technically make them shut up doesn't mean he wants to let them know he can understand them. He normally takes the thin but still metal food trays, that they give him everyday, bend and snap and sharpen into shanks during when he’s bored but he ran out. He’s pretty sure they either can’t figure out what he’s doing or know what he’s doing and are to surprised to realize it’s a threat and try and take them away. And if they try and do that they’d have to pry them out of his cold, dead hands.

Alistair is getting real off track with his thought process tonight but what else is he supposed to do? It’s in the middle of the Night and nothing ever hap- oh wait, never mind something’s happening maybe they’re probably just gonna take him to The Gladiator Ring I swear to god if I have to fight another IRL nomu from MHA, I will go for the crowd next time. But he can hear a Fucker carrying something… no someone? large?? alien, with the way they're yelling at another Fucker.

“You are such a hujari axten! Just lift the hujari thing for once you DRIDE!!!” Fucker One said. “Look, I told you with the other one. I. Can’t. Touch. It.” Fucker Two responded with exasperation. “The dride is three times lighter than you would think, but still hujari huge and heavy and one the most violent and capable of this species we’ve taken alive!!” Fucker One yelled.

“Oh well I’m oh so sorry, that only me and you are walking around doing quiores right now. If only we could take one of the other guards that are on patrol just to lift this thing to a cell, when it is obviously easy for you to lift… you are just krefftin lazy and want to go back to sleep, well guess what ya’ blasted axten SO DO I BUT SOMEONE HAS TO BE WITH YOU JUST IN CASE SOMETHING KREFFTIN HAPPENS YOU AXTEN’VERN!!”

Alistair was kinda shocked that they were just casually arguing while dragging someone to a cell where they will either be killed, experimented on, or put into The Gladiator Ring, or even just to sell the poor souls to the highest bidder. He wouldn’t be surprised if it wasn’t uncommon to see other aliens that just sell others cause, y’know, Money. Alistair is preeetty sure Father is either a cannibal or just sells human organs.. or both.

As he glares at the cage door with a new found hate. He doesn't mind the others in the cell block because they're in their own cages but he absolutely hates sharing his personal space. (Loki and his dragon are entirely different stories thank you very fucking much) While most of the other poor souls are asleep or close to, he must stay awake, his paranoia demands it what if they put.. whatever/whoever the hell, in his cage.

He waits as the arguing gets closer and closer, louder and louder, more annoying by the second because the other Fucker should just help the other other Fucker because it will get the work done faster.

He’s very glad that he is already used to very low light levels he and Loki both hate having the light on in their rooms, everyone (including themselves) are very confused by how well Loki’s eyesight actually is. His eyesight is also a whole ‘nother miracle and a half ‘cause both his mother and Father have reading glasses. After what felt like way too long they finally make it in the cell block. And stop right in front of his cell, Lovely. Alistair glares at them, bringing in another poor soul into this shit-hole, how many have they done this too.

(Oh my gawd, why do I caaarreeerrhhr)

Alistair just watches as they open his cage, if this was a good time he would use his new knifes to stab these dumbasses in their dick-equivalent so he could escape. IF it was a good time but Alistair still doesn't know where Loki is being held and his dragon roommate is both seven fuckin’ feet tall and asleep curled into a ball a couple feet away from the wall in front of him, doing something like that now would also be a death sentence cause off how many Fuckers he maimed.

It seemed they finally stopped yelling at each other, probably trying to restrict the information they might let slip in front of him. Both of them looked at each other for a second, having some seyelent conversation.

And then in quick succession, Fucker one turns off the electricity, opens the cage, as Fucker two throws the body bag as hard as they can, and when he says as hard as they can, this is a being getting tossed so hard they hit the back of the cell.

He hopes that didn't electrify whatever or whoever was in the bag. Then as soon as whatever is in the bag left the guards arms, the cage closes and the electricity gets turned back on. Poor bastard might be dead with a hit against the bars like that. The back bars were still electrified so that just added moredamage. Alistair wanted to keep glaring at the guards as they walked away but he couldn’t, this Stupidly lowng bitch in a bag(might be a snake or ferret.. why was That the second option)may not be dead. He flicks his glare back and forth between the Fucks and bag but ultimately picks the bag.

Alistair slowly makes his way over to the bag and hears some chuckling from the Fuckers at the door. He doesn't care about them right now, he needs to make sure what ever is in the bag is 1) dead or not 2) if it’s sentient, prey or predator so he can either make it afraid of him or take his chances with the bars 3) if sentient and not hurt to bad, can they be useful.

He’s getting closer to the bag when he finally notices it’s moving a little bit. He tries to get a little closer again but stops at the sound it made. It sounded like a growl from a demonic lion that is half reformed from being blended in a blender about to claw its way out of hell, might be from the pain, might be because it’s stuck in a bag, or it’s sensing him and telling him to back up.

Whatever it is (probably) can’t see him so, it shouldn’t end up as badly, he’ll just be even more careful. Dragon(who woke up when they heard the loud crash and clang, apparently) whispered at him to “Do not go and open that fucking bag.” He’s so glad he actually know common so he doesn’t have to guess what the curse words are. Ignoring his concerned frRoommate and moving as slowly as he can, Alistair gets right beside the cursed creature in the bag. It’s moving a bit more and making more, demonic clearing throat noises, but he has deducted that it must just be waking up, surprised that it’s hurt, and/or pissed.

He stares at whatever this thing is, pocketknife in hand ‘cause those shanks are not thick nor sharp enough(yet) to cut through the bag. He runs different ways he could get killed doing this in his head and decides that whatever it is, it would be more upset if it was still stuck in a bag, better to make sure he’s the one to get it out. Alistair was about to raise his pocketknife to cut through the bag but jumped back as the bag started thrashing back.

Absolutely not, safety first! He thought as he backtracked to his claimed corner, Dragon looking him like ‘I told you so’ and looking at the bag like it was going to eat them, the thing would probably kill him the moment it saw him going by the fact that it sounds like The Horrors and is like fifteen feet longso. Alistair eyes zero in on the bag and is amazed by how much it’s thrashing around in that thing. But it stopped thrashing almost as fast as started and he thinks he can see little impression of cat/maybe dog ears.

It’s quite around them besides the huffing breaths, growls and the untranslated probable curse words he can hear from the bag. Everyone is just staring at them now.

Alistair watches to see what it might do, does it have claws or something to cut the ba- Why is it gripping where the knot is? They usually don’t do that! Others in the past, either claw their way out or someone else cuts through the bag, either way no one goes for the knot.

He watches as the top of the bag that is tied off gets pulled into itself a bit. It’s confusing trying to figure out what this thing is doing. Does it think it can somehow bring the knot into the inside of the bag and untie it or? If it somehow, by a sheer miracle, gets it fully through the bag…. What will it do now?

Alistair watched in silence, honesty amazed, horror as the now untied knot got tossed out and then the bag opened up. “Finally,” was said followed by more probable very creative insults directed at the Fuckers given their faces. He waits slowly breathing in the forgotten breaths for when it will leave the bag, he hasn’t known any sentient race that can do that.

His eyes track the….

Hand?

I mean it’s furry and has built in claws, but still, HAND???

Slowly exiting the bag first, It has long almost metallic black claws and the hand looks to be short charcoal black but dense fur, from wrist to a little below the elbow the fur seams to be compacted down. (And a little glittery as he reflects on later) The other hand reaches around a little as the opening of the bag opens to let themself through better. The guards at the door froze in fear as the creature’s eyes stared down into their souls, then it pounced.

#humans are space australians #magic #writing #i don��t know what i’m doing #humans are weird #humans are space oddities #humans are deathworlders #earth is space australia #space religion #space gods #Gods #Second pass/draft #Lex Siderum Canon #Lex Siderum

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wouldatulpahelpthem · 4 days ago

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Animorphs is about a group of teenagers who discover a dying alien who gives them the power to transform into animals in order to fight an invasion of a different kind of alien - slug-like creatures that take over their hosts, Invasion of the Body Snatchers style.

One of these teenagers is Cassie, an empathetic young lady who is the moral center of the group. At one point in the 60+ book series, she willingly lets herself be taken over by one of the invading aliens and learns about a peace movement among those aliens resisting the invasion.

I'm not sure what I think would happen if Cassie made a tulpa, though I know she'd at least be a good host. But a life of hiding and violence wouldn't be very good for a tulpa, and I'm quite sure that, at least to some extent, the others wouldn't understand, not at first and maybe not ever.

I do want to read a story about Cassie with a tulpa based off of the wolf she usually morphs into. I think it would be a neat thing to explore.

#would a tulpa help #animorphs #Tulpas #tulpamancy #endogenic

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boatem-probler · 6 months ago

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WHOAAAAAAAA WE'RE HALFWAY THERE in... Tokyo Soul!

1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / You Are Here! / 9

Yes, that's right, with this batch of episodes, we are officially past the halfway point of this show! Well, I'm actually a little further than that, because I've been watching ahead, I've just been lazy about actually making these posts because I don't like updating the navigation on all of them.

We got a twofer this time, as Taurtis is once again not here. In these episodes, the boys finally go to the hospital, Sam is allowed to commit war crimes, and Sam and Grian return to the superstore.

This report contains mentions of: violence, guns, injury, brief transphobia, police/military brutality.

Previously on Tokyo Soul:

“THE MIND SLUGS HAVE ACTIVATED”

This Time...

Episode 28 – THEY ARE BACK!

Grian wakes Sam up to ask him if he heard Taurtis leave the house last night. Grian had heard Taurtis moving around and speaking “some weird language”, and assumed he was “having one of his clone episodes”, implying that this is something he does regularly, and had seen him walk out of the house. Apparently he usually comes back when this happens, but he didn’t this time, and Grian is concerned.

Grian: “He’s kind of like a little puppy, he’ll find his way home, right?” Sam: “Yeah, just like last time when he got deported or whatever and we found him outside the house.” Grian: “No, last time he died, remember?”

Jerry and Dom have replaced the TV with a potted plant.

There’s a Trump caricature named Tronald Drump at school. He’s campaigning for King of Japan. This is when I remember that this series is from late 2015/early 2016 and not from like, 2011.

The cop from before shows up at school, and says that someone named Okami told him to go get Sam and Grian and bring them to the police station.

The police station is lousy with SWAT team members. Okami, Silly, and Pufferfish Pete are waiting in an office.

They want to talk about the alien invasion. Grian is ecstatic that he’s being backed up on this. Pufferfish Pete also claims that Sam and Grian are “sleeper agents” and will be “leading the charge” against the aliens. I’m pretty sure he doesn’t actually know what a “sleeper agent” is.

Grian: “I’m sorry, what, I thought we were children.”

Grian does not like this one bit, so now it’s Sam’s turn to be ecstatic.

Episode 29 – KILL THE ALIENS!

They change into SWAT gear, and Sam attempts to shoot Grian “to test if the armor works”.

Sam keeps repeating that he is “leading the charge”.

Sam: “You gotta follow my command, okay, Grian?” Grian: “No, the last thing I’m gonna do, in a situation where guns are involved, is listen to you.”

They’re driven to a hospital, where Crab Man Carl gives them the rundown. There are “three or four” aliens hiding in the hospital, they may have “taken over the minds of civilians”. Sam correctly deduces that this means he’s allowed to kill whoever he wants.

He proceeds to stand in Carl’s breakfast and make a rambling movie speech.

Sam is dedicated to roleplaying Independence Day all over this hospital. Grian’s strategy is to just walk up to people and ask if they’re aliens.

Dr. Nurse MD works at this hospital in some capacity, and is getting very irritated at all these guys coming in and harassing the elderly patients.

An old lady starts floating randomly and someone shoots her. Everyone seems confused as to whether she was actually an alien or not. They also kill Tronald Drump for taking too long to answer the question “how many legs do humans have”. It is also unclear whether he was an alien or not. I’m pretty sure neither of them were. Nurse MD is now very angry.

Nurse MD: “I can give you an F.” Grian, pointing a gun at his face: “Do I look like I care?”

Sam: “Someone detain him! Can I get someone to detain that guy?” Grian: “And preferably stab him!”

Sam shoots an old man in the leg. Remarkably, this one is an alien, and pulls out a Giant Anime Sword. They retreat to the next floor and wait for the alien to come up the stairs.

Sam is having the time of his fucking life in this hospital, he’s like a badly trained herding dog just biting everyone’s ankles.

They kill the alien, but lose a SWAT guy.

They continue asking people “questions only humans would know the answer to”. Sam kills a guy for saying humans have two genders, although he seems to think “transgender” is a gender, so I’m not sure I can back him up on this one. Grian is just horrified that Sam killed another human.

They continue through the hospital, killing one more normal elderly woman and finding one more alien.

Episode 30 – DONT LET THEM GET AWAY!

Sam demands a report from Silly, who seems pretty rattled.

They kill that alien, and chase a third up to the hospital roof. They shoot her off, but she survives and gets away.

Sam does a headcount and figures they must have lost about four SWAT guys.

Also you can see the edge of the city where there’s just two big mountains and I don’t know why but it creeps me out a little. It’s the liminal space thing. They’re probably never gonna actually go to or do anything with those mountains, but they’re there on the map still. I dunno.

They bribe Dr. Nurse to stay silent with the credit cards they got from killing Drump.

Then they all go to Sushi Wushi to get coffee. They catch up and reminisce about the past, and all the murder that happened in it.

Sam: “You guys have problems, you know? I just wanna point that out. Everyone here, except for myself, clearly, has very serious mental problems.”

Episode 31 – ROBBERY!

We open on Sam and Grian pretending to watch the TV in Grian’s room. They’re pretending because the TV is broken.

Taurtis is still missing, so they go outside to start looking for him, but they don’t get very far because there’s a mobster outside their house.

The mobster informs them that if they want to see “their friend”, “the blue one”, again, they’ll need to deliver the money that Jin owes the mob. Jin apparently owes them 2 million yen, somehow.

Sam and Grian decide that in order to get this money, they’re going to rob the superstore they worked at for one day, just to really stick it to Jason.

They make it all the way to the store before they’re confronted by their utter lack of plan.

Luckily, there’s some random guy outside the store who happens to be selling alien heads! The perfect disguise!

The boys lead him into an alleyway and hold him at gunpoint, because they don’t actually have any money with which to buy the alien heads. They also take his money.

The actual robbery is kind of a shambles, given that Sam is still wearing his school uniform and both of them keep slipping up and calling each other by their actual names, but they are getting a lot of money, so it’s actually going pretty well… until the cops show up. This is now a hostage situation.

Grian keeps the cops outside by threatening to shoot one of the hostages, while Sam gets all the money out of the bank vault that the store just has.

Just as he’s coming out of the vault though, the cops start heading towards the entrance. Sam and Grian both actually do shoot the hostage, but it doesn’t help them any.

They are now officially in yet another shootout.

Episode 32 – SAVING TAURTIS!

Sam and Grian run up to the second floor, and Sam kills one of the cops. He’s also starting to get confused about whether this is real life or a video game, so Grian shoots him in the foot as a reminder.

Grian builds a dummy with one of the alien heads to distract the cops while they run into the boss’s office. They jump out the window and run out the front entrance. Sam kills another cop on the way out.

They stash their alien heads and some of their guns in a random house, but they get arrested anyway.

Crab Man Carl is disappointed in them.

The police once again have a deal for them: they will help the boys with their mafia problem, if the boys help them with their mafia problem. Or in other words, Grian will go meet up with the mafia while wearing a wire, while Sam and the cops hide out and “protect” him. Like, the cop explaining this put quotes around “protect”, those aren’t mine.

The wire, by the way, is extremely huge and conspicuous and looks a hell of a lot like a bomb. Grian’s mainly worried about how he’s going to explain it when the mafia inevitably notice it. His plan is to tell them he had a head transplant and/or he’s transitioning.

At the warehouse, Grian awkwardly tries to fish for incriminating information while Sam and the cops wander around the catwalks.

The mobsters are getting suspicious of Grian’s questions, so he tries to intimidate them and gets stabbed for his trouble.

Grian switches tactics and demands to see that Taurtis is alive, while Sam and the cops start taking out mobsters. Most of the mobsters get away once they reveal themselves though.

Once all the mobsters are gone, Sam and Grian hurry to the closet thing they saw Taurtis in, only to find… Jerry.

Then they actually try to go to the hospital for Grian’s stab wound, for once, but unfortunately the only person there is a cop who doesn’t actually work there. Needless to say, Grian does not get any help with his stab wound.

Grian Trauma Count!

Deaths Witnessed:

4 SWAT team members

2 old people

2 aliens

2 cops

A non-zero number of mobsters, sorry, I didn't keep count

1 hostage

1 transphobe

1 Tronald Drump

For a total of over 13 deaths!

Injuries Sustained:

Gunshot wounds

Stab wound

Traumatic Events:

Once again the military/police are making high schoolers do their jobs for them.

Friend who already died once goes missing for multiple days.

In more shootouts.

Coerced by the police to help them kill a bunch of mobsters.

Next Time... The Word "Splarging" Is Actually Said Out Loud

#al's unhinged tokyo soul summaries #tokyo soul

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wolven91 · 2 years ago

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Slugs & Apes - Chapter 3

“Oh hey, they brought up all my stuff already!” The damnable human cheerfully exclaimed as if nothing was wrong.

Blarah stayed in the foyer of the human’s diplomat quarters that led into a larger seating area, steeling herself from his subtle attempts to undermine her defences. He was currently standing in a room with a large square taking up most of the space. It looked soft with too much material to keep clean, with yet more cushions cluttering up the top.

“Literally everything else that was to do with me it seems…” He said it in more of a confused tone as he picked up a vacuum suit that was obviously designed for a human. Seemingly the ground crew grabbing everything that had been designed for the human. More bits and pieces that wasn’t a part of his travel cases and trunks, tumbled from their place on top of the suit that had been laid on top of the soft square.

He bent over right in front of Blarah causing her left eye stalk to twitch.

He wasn’t making the expected movements that she came to anticipate during flirting, but just as she believed that the human couldn’t mimic a sluggat’s proper movements correctly in an effort to entice her, he would go and partially bend himself in half!

As she subtly melted into the floor, he chose this moment to explore the foyer, lounge combo.

The furniture, she had to assume was human design; she wasn’t foolish, she could see the shapes of the seating would allow him to fold himself along its outer edges and relieve himself from constantly toppling over.

“They even got actual books out here?” He joyfully said as he walked over to a shelf that contained several colourful tomes. “Wait… These aren’t.. ‘Lady Sluggatlies Lover’.. ‘50 Types of Salt’..?”

He held translated copies of what could only be described as a genre that perhaps wasn’t the best to introduce a truly alien species. Their completely different culture and art could perhaps wait for a better moment. These were fine for any other of the Sluggats, they all roughly had the same mindsets, but how would this creature react?

“Ah, those are… well I suppose if you wanted to stay in here; you could rest and read them?” She offered, hoping the curiosity of an entirely new Station, even if it was one as mundane as this one, would lure him away from the embarrassing shelf of smut.

His eyes turned to her, she knew the exact moment he was looking at her, the green and white of his eyes were so stark and focused, they almost made her fearful. Nothing looked at her in the same manner that the human did.

“Oh I think you could tempt me out of my little hidey-hole here…” He said with a strange inflection as he paced towards her.

So tall, so solid, so close.

“Are you okay? I don’t mean anything by it, but you’re acting different from the other Sluggats I’ve met, like you’re distracted? I don’t want to stand in the way if you want to do something?” His entire head tilted slightly as he regarded her.

If. If she was to fall, now would be the time.

This was as close as a direct question this damn seductive mammal would offer her as he evilly led her around by the tentacle and she couldn’t even say it was against her will.

“I..” She started, losing her voice to a breathy whisper.

He leaned closer, his oh so solid hand resting against her side. He felt so good as it pressed in, so good it hurt.

“..yes?” He whispered, matching her volume with naught but a misleading look of care and concern.

“I think I-” was all she got out as the entire Station shuddered in a gut lurching groan. Human and sluggat toppled over, the human landing atop the young miss in his tumble.

Oh mercy... Oh stars and moons; his weight pressed her in all the right places, ‘and yet.. not quite the right places...’ a devilish part of her mind grumbled. Again her mind threatened to snap as he rolled off her in an alarming rapid movement, her skin still tingled where her flesh and his had met and exchanged with one another. He had a slight shimmer to himself, across his face, the dampness of his cloth clothing was proof as any that what she had just felt was not a hallucination of her tortured mind.

But then reality set in as an alarm began to blare. A worrying blue light had revealed itself from the centre of the roof and flashed in a steady beat, alerting any and all to see that they were in grave danger.

“What was that? I don’t know what the siren’s for?” He asked in a pressing tone as the eerie blue light washed over him in a steady beat.

“That.. that’s the boarding alarm! P-pirates!” Blarah stuttered, feeling the creeping dread build within her.

There were stories…

Pirates have always been an issue in one capacity or another throughout every sluggat race’s history. Whether they were roguish gentle-slugs that stole the honourable ladies hearts or cut throat demons that would rob, torture or kill those they came across.

As sluggats came together amongst the stars, the fantasy slipped away as the worst of the worst rose to the surface and took control of the raiding clans. Mostly they raided the outer routes, tax-less and defenceless, but that didn’t stop the occasional clan from becoming large enough to attempt to attack a Station.

But this hunk of junk was just a pit stop along The Edge, they weren’t important or known to have anything of value on board! They were just… just one of the many pit-stops that encircled the ever expanding Edge. Why here? Why now!

Blarah didn’t want to be found by the pirates, the fear began to overtake her as wet tears began to swell from beneath the eyeball atop her stalk.

“I don’t want to be found by them Greg, please! Please don’t let them get me…” She begged without shame as she wrapped her tentacles around him and buried her retracted stalks and head into his chest.

“..I-i won’t. I won’t let them touch you. I promise.” He words became stronger as he understood how affected she was. His promise was sturdier than he was and despite the likelihood of it being a comforting lie, she believed him.

“I can help in the defence; what’s their usual tactics? Weapons? Anything you know could help me.” He demanded of her, putting his hands either side of her body and pulling her away from him to hold her steady in front of him, bathing her in his piercing gaze. She felt like if she kept anything from him, he would see it immediately. She knew deep down, she could never have secrets from this creature.

“They will have demands. They rarely kill everyone, but will… will kill a portion t-to send a message with the survivors that; if we keep resisting, they’ll keep killing.” She took a breath as her body shuddered in fear again.

“But.. their weapons Greg. They don’t just kill you, they use older models, less mercifulness, ones that won't kill you outright, but leave you… m-melting.”

She squeezed her eyes down into her like a child, dimpling her now tacky flesh, drying out in the stress of the situation.

“I won’t let that happen to you. You hear me Blarah? I promise I will protect you.”

There was no lie there, he believed every word and made his intentions crystal clear. Her eyes slowly reappeared.

“But I have to go, and I have to go now. I could help save someone; anyone.”

He didn’t want to leave her, he could see that he was abandoning her to try and save her. He was caught in a paradox. He had seen what happens when ‘pirates’ or ‘raiders’ got the drop of people. Humanity had suffered heavily not hours after the disastrous rescue from Earth when raiders had attacked and destroyed multiple ships carrying the ragged remains of humanity. Greg had learnt to defend himself in the time that had followed and had promised he would do everything he could to defend life as a whole.

She brushed a tentacle against his cheek, wiping away the beading moisture that had collected there.

“Go, my Greg. Be safe and come back to me. Please.”

He didn’t reply, he stood up straight, as tall as a mountain and just as steady. His resolve and solidness gave her courage. His whole aura had changed as if a switch had been thrown and a whole new predator had taken the place of what was moments ago, a sexy, flirtatious beast.

He collected several items from his luggage and donned the vacuum suit, before leaving with instructions on the fastest route to the dock, where the pirates would have boarded. As the door closed behind him and locked down with the panic button depressed on her side of the door,

Blarah looked down at her tentacle that she cradled against herself.

Her flesh where she had wiped his brow; blistered and burnt…

“They aren’t the demons… he is.”

====

The assistant quartermaster was in over his head. He had a small calibre sodium-shot and not enough ammo to keep the pirates pinned down. The whole dock team had similar weapons, but they had been whittled down as the fight progressed, some of their screams, now greatly diminished, still echoed around the dock. The box Blorbus squished behind, shuddered and pushed forward again, as a solid lump of salt smacked into the opposite side of it.

Someone had a Rock Launcher.

The young quartermaster, barely out of training, saw the transport doors of the lift at the other end of the dock open to release a strange sight. Panic swept over him as a strange, white… thing!... Came rapidly moving out of it; on two straight appendages. It moved with surprising speed even if it looked as if it was about to fall over at any moment. Within seconds it had used as much cover as possible to close the distance between itself and the young yellow-hued Sluggat.

Today was the worst day in his entire life and one that would haunt him in the future, but it only got weirder as the thing addressed him directly.

“Have you got a weapon?! We need to push them back! If they take the dock, we’re going to struggle to contain them!”

Blorbus snagged the weapon of his colleague, he didn’t want to think about the mess that was once a drinking buddy, and slid it across the ground to the white thing. He couldn’t see its face due to the visor. Blorbus realised a vacuum suit was a great idea, it might stop the first hit from melting the person, but the moment the coarse rocks tore through the material, the second hit would kill them just the same.

The youth peeked around the box, keeping calm, pressing the horrors around him to the back of his mind, and picked his target to fire. His shot was true, the lump of sodium fired and impacted an attacker who dropped like a puppet with its strings cut. They writhed on the ramp as they began to ooze and melt rapidly.

“Okay, I’m going to push up; you keep me covered, alright?!” It shouted again.

“What are.. Fine! Go!” Blorbus stretched up over the crate and fired in rapid succession. He tried to group his shots to make them count and he did get one, no, two of the pirates making their way down the ramp.

Meanwhile, in the blink of an eyestalk, the interloper had crossed the distance between the pirates and the remaining sluggat before barrelling into the group of Pirates. Too close to properly use the heavy weapon, the slug with the Rock Launcher fired wildly, the white clothed creature slapping the thing aside and grasping the poor Sluggat’s eyestalks. Blorbus nearly vomited for the third time today as the things were promptly removed from the body with sickening ease as it yanked hard.

The creature received a shot to the back from a pirate that had laid in wait just inside the ship’s cargo door. Blorbus flinched and tried to help by firing again, but his gun clicked. As he reloaded he winced as he came to the realisation that the poor thing was as good as dead!

Instead, it swung the two eye stalks, who’s previous owner was now firing wildly with his Rock Launcher which was, unfortunately, now aimed into the ship, rather than away.

Chaos ensued.

The backstabber pirate received a bloody swipe with the stalks which was enough to cause him to drop his gun. This was retrieved by the vac-suit creature who in turn put three shots into the surrounding survivors. It stood there a moment, heaving up and down in a strange display that made no sense to the once assistant quartermaster, now official quartermaster.

It pushed in deeper into the ship and out of sight.

Blorbus, whilst wanting to help it, had to do what he could for his fallen colleagues. Some were too far gone, others were alive and could be saved. He had to help, he had to save one or what was the point?

====

The report that was presented to the quadrant’s director that week was an interesting read.

A fanatic splinter group of pirates had learnt of an ‘easy’ target. Not of an undefended Station, but of a lone human with no backup or guardians. In their misguided belief that the stars belonged to Slug-Kind, they were to make an example of both the human and the Station that housed it.

What followed, if the report was to be believed, was a close quarter firefight that rendered an entire dock unusable until literal lakes of sodium were cleared with the only survivors being a young, but now up and coming sluggat and the human in question.

Eye witness reports from the station's own media centre stated that upon its arrival, the Human had courted and pursued a young adult, female-presenting, sluggat that had returned his flirtations. They had retreated to his rooms, where, when he re-emerged, had a death-wish level need to defend his new apparent mate. He apparently remained referring to himself as male, and likewise the sluggat, one ‘Blarah’, retained her female identifications. It was summarised the human had successfully pierced her with his love and when presented with the idea his mate was in danger was compelled to defend her.

The dock worker who had fought valiantly and proved himself was placed into officer training. His future was considered quite bright after defending a political target with everything he had.

Slaughtered the whole raiding party nearly on his own if the Human was to be believed.

The humans had requested several times to be allowed to serve aboard The Galactic Community’s military ships, but until now it was assumed they would not fight with the ferocity needed in a military capacity. If this civilian was willing to fight this hard for a mate and was evidence that they weren’t above getting involved with sluggats as a whole?

The Community was now believing it was worth considering.

====

Several weeks had passed and the pain was too much to bear any more, for either of them.

Blarah stood at the bottom of the transport’s ramp, staring up and the comfortingly wet eyes of her human. The human that she could never hold, or touch, or have a family with. The Human that was moments from leaving.

“...Maybe there's something we missed?” She deluded herself.

“There’s not, my darling.” A gloved hand ran across her face, along the pitted scars that covered a Human sized part of her body.

“Our love is… impossible. You are amazing and kind and deserve every ounce of happiness you can endure.”

He swallowed.

“But the only way I can ensure that you find the right person, is to let you go.”

She knew he was right. His body was too dangerous, too alluring. It seemed their whole physiology was designed around drawing her in like a sweet smelling flower, only to brutally melt her into nothing once she had fallen in too deep.

He had explained about his secretions. All of them. They had tried to work around it and failed.

She sighed again and pressed her body against his sealed Vacuum Suit.

“Forbidden love.” A mirthless chuckle. “Figures.”

During his time here, Greg had taught her to be bold and to fight for what she wanted. This wouldn’t break her, nor spoil her from finding another mate. But she’d never forget that Human who had given her such a thrill for such a short flash of her life.

He told her he wouldn’t look back. He couldn’t or he might fail. She hoped he would and hoped he wouldn't. His happiness meant as much to her as hers was to him.

“You ready, you great big brute?” The yellowish Sluggat said as he slid up to Greg.

A sniff, a blink and a hard swallow.

“Yeah, of course Blorbus! Lets get moving.” He said in a fake cheery tone, never taking his eyes of Blarah, who returned his gaze with her own. Him and Blorbus had become fast friends, their near-death experiences providing the bedrock of a steady friendship. Greg hesitated.

‘Go’ she mouthed, not making a sound.

He turned and lumbered away and up the ramp. He kept his promise and didn’t stop moving into the ship until he disappeared from sight.

The apes were dangerous, but they could be kind and soft too.

They ‘undulated’ in their own solid way but Blarah had to admit; it was still really, really weird.

Fin.

#conservationverse #cuddleverse #human #haso #humans are space australians #sluggat

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kleiner-ghost-high-on-life · 10 months ago

Note

If you’re doing the drabbles still: Gus telling Creature about what Gatlus was like before the G3 invasion? Or just the two trying to bond sometime after the events of the game or between bounties

The drabbles are open, always 🤲 Thank you for the ask ^^

Here's to two sweet lil' guys bonding while BH and the rest of the team are out kicking butt. (and a tiny bit of existential angst)

"Hey, Gus, Gus," Creature called out.

"Huh - What-" Gus jerked awake, "What's up pal?"

He'd dozed off a while back, during a particularly boring part of a documentary on Earth sea slug reproduction that Lizzie had put on to annoy Gene. She’d “hidden” the remote by the staircase, before heading out, leaving the trio of Gene, Creture, and Gus to watch the thing.

Gene only complained for about 5 minutes, before falling asleep, and Gus was quick to follow. He hadn’t quite realised how exhausting a life of bounty-hunting would be, and didn’t complain too much, if at all, when Bounty Hunter left him and Creature at home during this one mission.

Creature on the other hand seemed utterly unaffected by fatigue. It seemed like the added stress of constant near-death experiences was comparable, or even lesser than, that of constantly having a dozen kids.

“Were you sleeping?” Creature asked.

“Yes pal,” Gus blinked in annoyance, “Did you wake me up just to ask that?”

“No, I just wanted to make sure you weren’t dead.” The Gatlian shrugged, as much as his shoulder-less body would allow.

“I was just sleeping, why would you-”

“This movie Lizzie put on, it’s got me thinking,” Creature turned towards the TV, he paused for a second, his gaze lost in the wavy colourful shapes of sea slugs merging into a singular non-distinct mass of alien bodies, “We are the last Gatlians out there. Our planet is gone, and we will never be able to repopulate it again, just the six of us. All our traditions, songs, dances,” he nudged towards the screen, with a melancholic look painted over his face, “We’ll never be like them. My little freaky babies … they will never get to have little freaky babies of their own. You know?”

Gus was at a loss for words. Sure, he knew what he needed to say, which just so happened to very closely align with what he wanted to say, but Creature’s unprompted nihilistic philosophic speech had taken him by surprise.

Thankfully it seemed that Creature’s children were unaffected, as they spent the few minutes they had staring at the mating sea slugs in silent and confused awe.

“Ah, I’m sure there’s more of us out there,” Gus scruffled over and gave Creature a little pat on the shoulder. “Bunty Hunter will keep looking, and so will we. We’ll be alright buddy, we’ll rebuild. There might no longer be a home for us on Gatlus, but we made a good home for ourselves here, don’t you think?”

Creature turned to face Gus, earning him twelve displeased groans from his back.

“You mean that? Because I don’t think you mean that, not after how you got mad at Kenny for destroying our home planet,”

“I mean, he literally caused the downfall of our fucking-” Gus cut himself off, shaking his head. There was no use getting worked up over something Creature didn’t remember, and couldn’t possibly understand.

Suddenly, an idea popped into his head.

“You know, there’s something we could do before the others return. Bounty Hunter won’t get it, and Lizzie might yell at us, but it was somewhat of a tradition back on Gatlus. When someone close, like a best friend went on a very long journey, and we didn’t know when they’d return we’d throw them-”

“A surprise party?” Creatrue excitedly interrupted.

“No, not a surprise party. A bucket of Takeocot purée.”

“A what now?”

“Takeocot purée. I’ll show you how to make it. Well, we usually did it before they left, for good luck and to repel mud-bugs on their travels, but I’m sure they’ll get our meaning.”

The smile on Creature’s face was contagious, and Gus couldn’t help but mimic the grin. It had been so long since he’d engaged in casual tasks like this, and even longer since he’d done anything Gatlian.

“How are the two of you gonna make whatever that thing is, considering you have two arms between the two of you, and no way of getting down from this coffee table?” Gene suddenly interrupted.

“Aaah – I thought you were sleeping!” Creature exclaimed.

His children hissed at him again, in reaction to the loud noise.

“I woke up when you said repopulate,” Gene scratched his face. “Do you want me to call Lizzie to help you with your mushy-mushy bonding activity?”

“No thank you,” Gus dryly stated.

“I mean, he’s not wrong about us only having two arms,” Creature tried to argue.

“Two plus twenty-four,” Gus nodded towards Creature’s babies.

“Oh, right.”

With the roar of a dozen babies who were just told to stop watching TV, Creature’s children hopped off his back and helped the duo down from the coffee table before carrying them to the kitchen, as per Gus’s instructions.

When Gene straightened up on the couch, attempting to catch a peak of what they were doing, one of the babies ran up to him and hissed at his face. He would have bitten him too, had he not puffed out of existence that very moment.

“You know Gus,” Creature spoke while Gus rummaged through the cupboard he could reach, in search of the necessary ingredients, “We should do this more often; you telling me about stuff I’m supposed to remember, me telling you about how hopeless the future would be without my friends.”

“Sure thing, pal.” Gus smiled in reply, “Just maybe without the hopeless future part, next time.”

#high on life game #gus #creature #gene #drabble #yes i'm making customs up #but like the game should have a whole DLC about them in the bast chilling on Gatlus #fight me #also thank you for your ask OP it i have been struggling to find the motivation to write these past few days

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remyfire · 7 months ago

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just had to pop in and say hello to a fellow animorphs kid. the animorphs to mash pipeline is real

spRINTING in and sliding into home base all cool and stuff yes hello :D :D

Animorphs my beloved. I started reading it way too young, probably, and we could only get maaaaybe 12 books out of the whole series in my library. I think I first found it before it was completed, actually, so maybe that's partly why, idk. But when we were dating, my wife nabbed me all of them in a big lovely digital package, so that's how like 20-year-old me got to finally finish reading the series and then cry my eyes out and stare at the ceiling for an hour processing it. Goddamn. Beautiful shit ;v;

Amusingly I had an Animorphs MASH AU pop into my head once, and it's going under the cut because I'm gonna go off at the mouth about it and I don't think many people will care about it, but you activated me and I'm excited now :D

It was specifically circling around Hawkeye being the only person to have this ability (no I have not yet decided how the escafil device got there before Elfangor did, don't worry about it, that's for later me to decide if I ever wrote it) and ending up morphing into Sophie for recon purposes because he could get away with a lot more scouting out of a suspected Yeerk installation as a wild horse than as a human in a jeep. Unfortunately the Sophie instincts make him too happy just to runrunrunrunrun. I think I had Radar as the only person who knew that Hawk had this ability, so when someone brought horse!Hawk back like "Oh hey I think the colonel's horse got out," Radar was just sweating and trying to pretend he wasn't hiding Sophie in her stall like "OH HOW WEIRD IS THAT," while Hawk who was rapidly approaching the two-hour mark was trying to very subtly trot into the barn and not panic Sophie as he morphed back out, bless them.

THEN my brain took it a couple of different routes! One was the variant of Frank's breakdown between S5 and S6. I posited the idea that a casualty that came in was the first to be infested, probably by a Yeerk scouting ship that went down somewhere deep in the forest, and when its alien host was dying on the ground and being investigated by a panicked American soldier, he didn't notice the lil slug creeping up his boot, over his pants, closer closer ever closer until it touched his face, and while he was in a panic and tripping over himself trying to get this thing off of him, he stumbles and bangs his head on something, and while he's reeling from it, that's when the Yeerk infests him. His host is now bleeding profusely from a head wound, though, and about to pass out, so when he ends up on Frank's operating table, this fucking Yeerk has already had a hell of a day.

So Frank manages to get infested by this Yeerk—again, I futz the details, they're not important rn hfkfd I think I posited Frank leaning down to hear what this gasping soldier is trying to say and the transition happening that way somehow—and the Yeerk is struggling to operate Frank's very poorly medically trained brain, so he is maiming and murdering casualties left and right. Everyone thinks he's cracking up because of Margaret's recent marriage, so they send him off on R&R. And the thing is that this Yeerk is starving and has been already for a full day, so the second Frank is there in Tokyo, his Yeerk has started to go insane from the lack of kadrona rays, and god bless Frank, but he was fragile enough already, and his conservative little mind was already paranoid and keen for conspiracies as it was, so he goes straight off the deep end. He does not get sent home with a promotion. He just happily believes that he did.

And then my brain took it a beejhawk route as I am wont to do where Hawkeye needs to know who is trustworthy around him, and he desperately needs to know if he can talk with BJ about what he's seen, what he's experiencing, so he gets them three-day passes and takes him to Seoul, and for the very first time...Hawk seduces him, and barely within minutes of arriving. And there's this brief pause before BJ surges into him with this low hum and unabashed, languid desire, and Hawk ends up pinning him down on the bed and making a quiet choked sound before he looks up at him with a feline grin and murmurs how he wants to play a game with BJ.

And this is how Hawk ends up tying BJ to a chair tight as he can in the middle of a Seoul hotel room, all while whispering the filthy things he's gonna do to Beej once he's got him secure. And then once he's checked all the knots and knows BJ can't get out of them, Hawk catches BJ by the chin and grins and looks him right in the eye and whispers, "I've got just under three days here alone with you. And you're gonna die the slowest, most excruciating death possible. And when you're squirming free, doing everything you can to find just one shred of food, I'm gonna laugh myself silly over how pathetic you are. And then I'm gonna grind you into a puddle for daring to get your disgusting little slime all over this fella's perfect fucking brain." Because he knows Beej wouldn't have drifted that easily into an affair with him, not without at least some degree of grief and self-directed frustration.

And unbeknownst to him, BJ—who has been so goddamn careful the entire time he and Hawk been working together to not let a lick of his desperate desire show through and tempt him, really tempt him—had intentionally pushed all those wet dreams and fantasies and hunger to the forefront of his mind just so his little Yeerk would bypass the sharp reluctance that BJ has to cheat again, so that it would instead think it was being incredibly clever, about to really wrap Hawkeye around its finger and find a way to make him another lovely host as well while his current one is all tied up with nowhere to go.

Something something watching the man you love writhe in agony for three days straight as his little parasite is using his voice to call you the worst fucking things possible with all the knowledge he has of what hurts you more than anything. Something something hearing him cry and plead and beg and promise you everything you've ever wanted with him if you'll just untie him, having to sit there against the wall with your head in your hands and whisper it's not him it's not him it's not him.

Man. What a fucking series, am I right? I'm really normal about it. Thank you for unlocking my babbling :D

#aughaughjfdsfnds i'd forgotten about that au until this exact moment i'm yelling #my ramblings #my writing

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adarkrainbow · 1 year ago

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An analysis of Otomo Katsuhiro's Hansel and Gretel (the story, not the anthology)

The anthology "Hensel to Gretel" is, as I said in my previous post, comprised of short sequences and brief parodies of a few pages... All except the opening story, the one that gave its name to the collection, that is a full blown story and a truly... let's say original take on the "Hansel and Gretel" story, one that takes back all the elements that would form the style of the anthology as a whole - and thus forms the perfect introduction.

Given the fascinating... oddness of this Hansel and Gretel I wanted to do a quick analysis here (or one of my "Let's overthink everything" analysis depending on how this will go). I will use scans of the pages to punctuate and illustrate my words.

THAT BEING SAID A WORD OF WARNING! This is an adult and mature parody of "Hansel and Gretel" with some dark humor, but also some... yes some gore in it and crude imagery. So this is not for everybody, be warned, this isn't any story for children. Are you ready? Good. Let's proceed.

(And just to be sure I'll put it all under a cut so that I don't get bothered by folks who claim I threw unwanted images at their face). All you will have, if you don't click below, is this safe and neat first page of the story:

Alright... Let's go under.

We open with a depiction of the poverty and misery of the family - and as the opening page says, they are VEEERRYYY poor. No joke. Not only is their house a ruin, but the two children themselves are in an obvious state of denutrition and neglect. They are copy-paste of children during famine - skeletal bodies with bloated abdominal organs, long unkept masses of hair, and Hansel doesn't even has clothes and goes naked for half of the story. (Ah yes, another warning for those who might be souls "too gentle" for this - yes you have a naked child going around in this story.)

Speaking of bodies - there is something that should be known about Otomo Katsuhiro's style. He deliberatly avoids the traditional "manga character design". He has always avoided as strongly as possible this smooth, alien-like, hyper-coded, specific "anime-design". He always wanted his characters to be realistic, to be ethnic, to be ugly, to be... well normal. And this shows here, just like in the rest of the stories of the anthology, by an exploration of various body shapes pushed to the extremes: bodies too tall, too small, too big, too frail (if you look at his Little Red Riding Hood tale, the Big Bad Wolf is a gaunt, bony, elderly looking creature while Little Red is a clearly overweight and round child). In this case, we have this extreme explored with Hansel and Gretel, who have much, much too skinny bodies - and their father, who is a very fat, if not obese man. And here is one of the first clues that something... weird and bizarre is going on in this family.

Hansel, Gretel, the mother, they are all gaunt and skinny and starving. But the father... the father is very fat, and clearly healthy. He is a lazy guy who peacefully sleeps for most of his scenes, or who does his actions with an easy, carefree, let's-not-think-about-it-for-too-long attitude. He is clearly a comedic character, the goof and the buffoon, to the mother's wicked, antagonistic character - here, the original personality of the two parents from the Grimm tale are exaggerated to the extreme, the bad mother being verbally and physically abusive, while the dominate father is a fat, sleepy, slug of a man. In fact, the crucial and anguished scene of the mother telling her husband the kids should be lost is completely wasted - because as it turns out the father was sleeping deeply while the mother had her evil monologue, and didn't listen to anything she said.

But there is still this question that is raised, by the mere contrast of the bodies: why is the father so fat and content and unworried if the family is indeed in a state of extreme poverty and severe hunger? Why is he so cut out of his own family? The reader wonders and can only theorize at this point, but there is clearly something unsaid or missing to this puzzle.

To continue, let's look at this set of pages:

On the first page I want to draw your attention to how, when the mother gives the children bread, they savagely and madly wolf it down, to the point the mother calls them "dogs". This is again part of this entire aesthetic of - let's paint malnutrition and famine in its real light, show what it truly looks like. It is skinny kids, dirty kids, that will eat with frenzy any good food they find. There is no glamorization or romanticism of poverty or famine. But more generally, this is part of the mangaka's effort of "parody". Indeed, what is the picture that comes to your mind when you think of "Hansel and Gretel"? Cute little doll-like kids. Blond cherubs in pretty clothes. And what are the Hansel and Gretel we are offered? Grime-covered, bone-showing, famished children with messy, dirty hair and either rags or no clothes. The entire Hansel and Gretel aesthetic is completely and violently broken down, and the two little German kids straight out of a Nazi propaganda now become subjects of a documentary about third-world famine.

On the second page I would like you to pay attention to the little critter that crawls in the forest. This is the first of the "birds" that haunt the forest that we see, except... It is not a bird. It crawls and moves like a toad, and yet it is a fish. A fish with a little human leg. With a second leg-like appendice, but held by pieces of wood, a hastily made crutch. And it keeps laughing bizarrely. This creature is straight out of a Bosch painting - and Bosch was in fact one of the stylistic inspirations behind this manga. The weird, bizarre, hellish, grotesque paintings of artists such as Bosch or Bruegel form the backdrop and aesthetic Otomo Katsuhiro wanted. Perfect for his quest of the ugly, his search for absurd magic and hellish wonders - his stories might be those of Grimm, but they are set in Bosch's Europe.

Just like i the original story, after one brilliantly working "let's spread little rocks" plan, Hansel tries a "let's spread bread crumbs" plan and it fails... But in the ironic twist here, not because the birds ate it (in fact, when Hansel complains about it, one of the titular birds actually ironically comments "I see..." upon this false accusation, much to Hansel's confusion). No... it is Gretel that ate it all, because Hansel did not inform her of his plan, and she just saw how he dropped all his crumbs of bread, and being a very hungry child, of course she just ate it all.

Once again, just like with the parents, the characters of the children are exaggerated - and just how in the original tale Gretel is a scared, younger, helpless child, here she is... well younger yes, but also as a result much dumber and much more self-centered, and surviving by focusing exclusively on her basic needs.

The "How the children reached the witch's house" is also completely switched and changed here - with the mangaka again placing the seeds of the ultimate conclusion of his tale. In the Grimm story, a pretty white bird lures the children to the candy house. But here? They do meet a bird, oh yes... But is a bizarre and clumsy talking bird that freaks off the kids more than anything, and that is part of the same group of grotesque Boschesque creatures that haunt these woods. And this encounter is... all feeding into the strange ambiguity of this very bizarre tale.

Indeed, what happens on a literal level? The bird tells the kids to NOT go on a certain path. Hansel does not trust the bird because it looks like a sketchy freak, and goes there nonetheless - as it turns out, it is the path leading to the child-eating witch. We have here a very literal lesson of "Don't judge a book by its cover, it is not because these weird creatures are monstrous-looking that they'd give bad advice" (even though the fact that Hansel believes they ate his breadcrumbs probably doesn't help). But... when you look carefully another reading opens itself. Indeed, the bird behavior seems to be intentionally sketchy and misleading - how he whistles when Hansel stares, how he side-eyes the children while gving his "free advice". The bird is shocked when the kids do not listen to him and tries to warn them... But immediately afterward smiles slyly, and joins the happy, singing, laughing dance of the strange wood creatures.

We are here confronted with what can be compared to a full "fae logic", or to the same kind of psychological messing-up the Cheshire Cat delivers on Alice in the Disney movie. It is not wonder that these bizarre beings of Bosch's hell can only offer a frightening ambiguity and confusing, misleading signs. They seem to embody and represent the forces of the supernatural and the "otherworld forest" in this specific universe - forces of the absurd and the nonsense, and that as a result are more amoral and mad than anything else, constantly double-playing and double-crossing others, and forever unclear on their real intentions.

The "gingerbread house" of the witch is nowhere to be seen and rather the mangaka offers us a "ridiculous house" - based on a Japanese, untranslatable pun, because the Japanese word for "ridiculous" sounds similar to the word for "candy". The titular house is ridiculous because it is a little wooden structured at the top of the dead branch of a large, dead, broken tree... That happens to look like two pair of butts one on top of the other. A literal ass-house. And just as ridiculous is the witch's design - if it is even a witch, as the story never calls this being anything nor genders it. Traditional witch elements are still kept - the use of a cauldron to cook, Gretel's "meal" being frogs, and the being carrying a broom as a main weapon. But the actual create is actually... some sort of scarecrow or ragdoll with a goofy, smiling face. This isn't just a parody of the original tale, but also another transliteration of the original concept of the tale - a seemingly harmless encounter (an old woman in a house of candy ; a rag-doll in a house made of butts) proves to be a mortal and horrible danger... And if imprisoning Hansel in a cage and fattening him up to eat him wasn't enough, the being literaly prevents Hansel escaping by... cutting off his feet.

Yes, I will not include those pages in this post, but not only does the witch cuts off the boy's feet, she (or he, or it, or they) even sucks the boy's blood from the wounds, commenting it needs to be more salty (and you have an equally disturbing joke when Gretel, who has been deprived of meat and becomes very insulting and violent because of this, briefly considers Hansel's fallen feet on the ground complaiing that she is hungry...). In the middle of the goof and the laugh comes the most brutal and senseless violence, clearly placing this entity as an inhuman monster. Not just that, but the mangaka plays on the anatomy to clearly show how otherwordly this entity is. The arms and legs of the being seem to be humans, with its head being a sort of scarecrow-mask ; and yet, when the being sucks Hansel's bloody legs, it does so with its "painted-cloth mouth", showing that the mask... is its real face.

Speaking of the witch here, it might not be obvious on a first read but it becomes so on a second - the mangaka clearly understood the parallel drawn in the original story between the mother and the witch, and retranscribed them in his story. The... thing of the ridiculous house IS a double of the mother. Notice the wooden spoon on the being's hat - the mother used a wooden spoon to beat up her family. In fact, the witch's clothes are larger and baggier versions of the mother's outfit. The mother constantly frowns and scolds, while the witch's face is stuck in an eternal smile. Finally, the witch cuts off Hansel's feet... when the mother said to her hungry children "If you are so hungry, cut off one of your leg and eat it."

We jump some times ahead and see the results of Hansel's fattening. No bone trick here, as Hansel has no real survival instinct anymore but more about that later. We see here that the witch didn't just make Hansel fat - she made him go from severely underweight to massively overweight, to the point she herself has a hard time handling him. We find back here Otomo's care and focus on extreme bodies, and more specifically unusual bodies for the manga of the time. You don't often see fat bodies in mangas, especially realistic ones, the same way you don't see much skinny or skeletal ones, and thus he gives them a strong focus in his work [Note: I am speaking for the manga world at the time of this anthology's rlease. Today manga greatly diversified itself in body types and drawing styles]

I say Hansel lost all survival instinct, hence the loss of the bone episode, because at first he is seen gleefully and mindlessly accepting his death - as, in his own words, he ate so much food and had so much meat in such a short time he can now "die happy". Then, in a second time he refuses to get out of the cage and has to be dragged to the cauldron... But only because "There's still food to eat". After living so deprived of food and so hungry he couldn't help but ravenously devour a whole loaf of bread upon seeing it, it makes sense that an over-abundance of food would be for him the equivalent of absolute bliss and paradise. That being said, this transformation also occurs two important symbols.

One: The couple of the parents is recreated among the siblings. Hansel becomes just as fat, lazy and mindless as his father, while Gretel, who has grown bitter and jealous because of her bad situation compared to her brother, is now fulfilling the role of her mother. So hungry and food obsessed she schemes to kill the witch - and ultimately does through trickery. Like parents, like children, and there is probably a message about the "cycle of influences and abuses" to be taken out of this.

Two: This is the inversion of the brother-sister roles from the original tale, but again taken to a dark and grim extreme. Remember: in the original story Hansel in a first time is the hero and savior of the day, hatching plans to save his helpless sister ; then in a second time, he becomes a helpless victim and it is Gretel's turn to save him. The mangaka also perceived this dynamic switch, and transcribed it here in the following way. At first, Hansel is the clever one, preparing plans to survive, while Gretel is the dumb and thoughtless kid who only thinks of eating and foils her brother's plan. With the humoristic twist that Hansel is over-thinking things or too clever for his own good - he prepares the breadcrumbs plan, but does not warn his sister of it ; he thinks he escapes a trap by ignoring the bird's advice, when in fact he has been double-played. But in a second time, the over-abundance of food and the fattening left Hansel blissfully stupid and reduced him to the same state as his sister originally was, thoughtless but only driven by food. In return, Gretel's anger and bitterness led her to become the "intelligent one" and prepare her own plan to escape - pushing the witch in her (their? its?) own cauldron.

We reach the final part of our tale. You can see above a good full panel of the "ridiculous house" and I forgot to mention something... Why choose an ass, a butt, to make the house ridiculous? It isn't just absurd or vulgar humor - it is also a crass reference to the main motifs of the story. The digestive process. The fairytale is all about starving, eatng and fattening up. It is a tale about devouring and absorbing - and the mangaka highlights it by the vampirism of the witch who sucks off Hansel's blood ; by the wild body changes of the characters who go from one extreme (underweight) to another (obesity)... But also by this house that reminds of what this whole process of digestion, absorption and devoration leads to. The ass. The shit. In fact, by choosing a house that reminds the reader of how digestion ends in crap, the mangaka literaly presents to us the angle of attack of his fairytale parodies and literary pastiche throughout the anthology - take a story, but presents it on the angle of the mundane, the vulgar, the cruel, the absurd. We are literaly being told "It's crap" by the mangaka himself. In this Hansel and Gretel gone are the sweet ducks, and the cute children, and the gingerbread, and the candy... We focus on unpleasant, physical, "real" materials and substances. The bones. The fat. The blood. The crap. Though the actual crap itself is owhere to be seen - it is just evoked in the reader's mind by this butt-house. But it might be also another subtle jab at how in fairytales "nobody goes to the toilet" as the saying goes.

Anyway, enough poopy digressions. Back to the story. Once the witch is dead, the next dark joke arrives, which is a very typical and traditional take on Hansel and Gretel: the two kids feast on the witch's cooked remains. This is a continuation of the joke of Gretel considering eating her brother's feet, and a traditional twist on the "Let's party for the witch is dead" scene. Nothing surprising here. What is interesting however is that the wood-creatures join the siblings in their happy party ad joyful feast, again throwing the tables when it comes to their unclear alignment. With their hellish reference, they could have been the witch's familiars - and yet they are gleeful of the monster's demise, though at the same time they keep constantly laughing, which does not help... They are senseless, constant, grotesque and absurd laughter, almost living laugh tracks - maybe they could even be read as te very embodiment of this book's humor?

What is even more interesting however is when you compare the creatures... and the kids. Design wise. Do you notice something? You should. Remember how Hansel ignored the bird's advice because he considered them weird and ugly freaks? Well... Now the kids look identical to the creatures. Notice Hansel's design. His new girth and round , enlarged belly is identical to the bloated, spherical abdomen of various of the creatures. His happy laughter is mixed with the animalistic joy of the beasts. But more importantly... the wooden crutches and items he gets to paliate his lack of feet are identical to the ones the mysterious fish-with-legs had! The children literaly became the same as the strange wood creatures, or "part of their band".

When the children finally return home, not with riches in this case (except in terms of body riches, as they are now fat, well-fed, healthy and happy), their mother is dead like in the Grimm's tale... But here is a final and very dark twist. The mother starved to death, reduced to a skinny corpse. We do know now the connection between the witch and the mother, and we can read it as the children killing their mother by killing the witch and devouring its body... But let's reconsider the beginning. Remember when I said there was a problem with how the father was such a large and big man untroubled by hunger? And this seemed strange compared to his underfed family... Let us consider how the mother was obsessed with food, with the coming starvation, beating up the kids if they asked for anything... And now she starves to death despite having two mouth less to feed? There are the disturbing and dark implications that this woman suffered from some deep food obsession, a dangerous, paranoid madness that made her starve her own children and impose some sort of artificial famine onto her family. After all, her husband is well-fed, and the creatures of the forest are all pot-bellied and portly built. Only her and the children were skinny - and the children not even for long, as their trp to the forest made them the same girth as their father. In this tale where everybody gets to eat only two people stay hungry - the mother who starved to death, possibly starved HERSELF to death ; and the witch who kept waiting for Hansel to be fat enough, offering all her food to him, and then died before she could get her meal.

And thus the story ends on this bizarre and strangely uncomplete note... The kids look at each other, but the reader is left in the blur as to what this look means. Are they sad? Are they secretly happy? Do they know there is a link between their mother's death and the witch's? The family, free of the tyrannical figure, gather together as a trio now very much alike in appearance. Their father decides it is time for them to live happily together - but what are his promises worth? We know from before he is a lazy, not very bright if not truly silly man, only good at being given orders and not even talented at doing anything he was asked. Is this truly a happy end?

And finally, the strange, absurd, genre-defying creatures of the wood dance silently under the moonlight, in a nonsensical, bizarre, frightening but bizarrely-joyful scene, halfway between the dancing circle of fairies and the hellish sabbat of witches.

#otomo katsuhiro #katsuhiro otomo #hansel and gretel #fairytale analysis #fairytale manga #manga analysis #dark fairytale #fairytale parody

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hashal-nutcracker · 9 months ago

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First of all, WOW you draw fast and really well too!

Questions bomb: Been meaning to ask about your nutcrackers! Will you be making character sheets for them?

Is Hashal the only nutcracker with a split face opening/armour? Also will we learn more about Yvonne?

I know Arthur loved her human family, but how about now? Does she still like humans/is she still friendly?

What is the protocol for each nutcracker when encountering an employee? Is it kill-on-sight or different for them all? What do they do when they aren’t patrolling or killing things?

And ofc, the most important and classic Nutcracker question: Can I hug them? (Or will I get kicked into oblivion)

Keep up the cool art! :)

1: I’ve long wanted to ask about your nutcrackers! Will you be creating character sheets for them?

Yes, of course, I think within a week I’ll be able to fill out everything necessary using my template, I’ll do it in two languages, and I’ll mark each one so that it doesn’t get lost, as they say. The main thing is not to get too carried away, otherwise there are usually kilometers of text, which sometimes gets confusing. But I will definitely touch upon the important events of their lives. -Х-Х-Х-Х-Х-Х-Х-Х-Х-Х-Х-Х-Х-Х-Х-Х-Х-Х-Х-Х-Х-Х-Х-Х-Х-Х-Х-Х-

2: Is Hashal the only nutcracker with a split face/armor? And will we learn more about Yvonne?

ugh.. no, unfortunately Hashal is not the only representative with a split front plate, I had plans for a red cavalryman, since the cavalryman model looked very clumsy and extremely impractical, a lightweight model with less protection and open front parts, usually for protection There were flaps on the collar that went up, since they were usually on horseback. Hashal is a more practical and improved model of these same Cavalrymen. I think that when I write about them, I’ll explain the subtleties

-Х-Х-Х-Х-Х-Х-Х-Х-Х-Х-Х-Х-Х-Х-Х-Х-Х-Х-Х-Х-Х-Х-Х-Х-Х-Х-Х-Х-

3: I know Arthur loved his human family, but what about now? Does she still like people/is she still friendly? Oh yes, now she has extremely strained relations with any of the people, due to the trauma received in the last battle and the murder of the “Grey” family, Arthur remembered the special features of the uniform of that association, unfortunately, the uniform of the workers is partially similar to this very uniform , and it also provokes an invasion of the complex. Yes, I just think that there is a high chance that he can contact people, although for this you obviously need to try -Х-Х-Х-Х-Х-Х-Х-Х-Х-Х-Х-Х-Х-Х-Х-Х-Х-Х-Х-Х-Х-Х-Х-Х-Х-Х-Х-Х-

4: What is each Nutcracker's protocol when meeting with an employee? Is it a murder on the spot or is it different for everyone? What do they do when they're not patrolling or killing?

Yes, they are partially different from each other: Sharak: conducts a patrol on the lower tiers and drives away alien life forms, monsters, in other words, since these three love order, but do not tolerate extreme interference in their space, even if you keep an eye on these nutcrackers, you will notice that sometimes they fiddle with pipes and peer for a long time in the sockets in the generator room, since such systems must be maintained so that they do not lose their functionality. Sharak acts as a messenger, emitting a kind of howl of sirens about a bombing in order to scare away such guests; the first one may not enter into battle, but he will certainly pursue it, besides, employees usually attract the attention of other creatures. What Sharak is definitely not happy to see is people and the slug that leaves more traces behind it. They didn’t teach him to watch his step; he would fall 20 times.

Khashal: Spends most of his time in the main corridors and rooms, patrolling all rooms, and checking the safety of valuable objects, in the presence of employees, he will follow them for some time, and when it comes to robbery, he begins to threaten, losing his march making it clear that they should not touch things in this place. If prejudice doesn’t work, a rifle with 12 rounds in the magazine is used, which he will happily send to employees, in close combat with him it’s also not worth it, in addition to kicking him, he has a saber in a casing, I think it won’t be difficult for him to kill the handle of the shovel, like the employee himself, in two halves

Arthur: can leave the complex, usually commits sabotage and can damage the player respawn system after leaving, which is very unprofitable. Her job is to patrol the roof and inspect the surroundings, do not think that you will be alive in the forest, because traps are useful (Traps like the Vietnam War) Usually they try to eliminate her immediately, but this is not so easy, especially indoors or in wooded areas, her task is to completely destroy everything that breathes during an attack (usually Sharak suffers, which she tries to break once again)

in free time:

Sharak usually chills and cleans his weapons, listening to music and some radio broadcasts that employees dug up from the ship. Everything is smooth, he has nowhere to rush, it’s not bad to play the fool with desires, it should be fun to disgrace himself! Hashal sharpens weapons and makes bandoliers for both comrades, he has a personal station for work and everything he needs, so there is no boredom. But he doesn’t really know how to play cards, so once on a dare I had to dance a waltz with Arthur to the laughter of Sharak, but Khashal can dance and not bad Arthur, who is on guard almost all the time, has his own place where he stands for long hours in a state of waiting and meditation, marches along his trajectory and maintains the traditions of his past family. He can stand with a flag, he also arrives in the library in silence, history books, and about the strategies of that one are more interesting than idleness.

And, of course, the most important and classic Nutcracker question: can you hug them? (Or I'll be thrown into oblivion) I think they won't mind hugs)

#lmao my first time so I'm freaking out I answer the question #lethal company nutcracker #my ocs #answers #someone's mind has left their head

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artikgato · 2 months ago

Text

Long post about Dragon Ball ahead!

Today I went to an actual movie theater and watched a screening of the first three episodes of the English dub of Daima. It was a lot of fun! And very nostalgic. Spoilers and reminiscing under the cut.

I was around when Dragon Ball Z was airing on Toonami back in the day. I didn't have regular access to cable so I didn't get to see any of it as it actually aired. I didn't watch the Saiyan or Namek stuff at all until much later, borrowing some friends' DVDs. I did, however, catch reruns of the Trunks - Androids - Cell sagas in the summer of 2001. That summer I was staying with relatives who did have cable. I was enthralled; I don't think I missed a single episode. I was actually pretty bummed when I had to go back to not having cable in the fall, because I knew they were going to be airing the Buu arc (it was very heavily advertised, and was probably the reason they were rerunning the Cell stuff in the first place). After that summer, though, I was hooked. I used chore money to buy some of the movies on VHS (Lord Slug and Cooler's Revenge for sure, kinda wish I still had them) and a substantial amount of the Buu saga either on VHS or DVD when VHS got phased out. So, even though it was not nearly as well written or paced as the earlier parts of DBZ, the Buu arc holds a very special place in my heart. It was what I watched through high school. (I was also the same age as Gohan, so that was fun.)

So, Daima taking place shortly(?) after the end of the Buu arc hit me in the nostalgia in a way I wasn't really expecting. I went into this knowing very little other than everybody got turned into little kids for Reasons, and the animation is very pretty. I assumed it was going to take place during or post-Super, because why wouldn't it? So, seeing that familiar cast of characters and hearing those familiar dub performances sent me straight back to my high school days (which was over 20 years ago now, get off my lawn, etc.), spending lazy Saturday afternoons watching any episodes I could get copies of on my old ass, tiny ass CRT TV. (I watched a lot of anime that way.)

Also within the first ten, fifteen minutes of episode 1 I was slapped (metaphorically) with a reminder that I had an embarrassingly big crush on this little nerd back in the day:

(did I choose the least flattering possible picture of Shin? Yes.)

To be fair (or maybe unfair) to me, I was Weird with a capital W back in high school. I had female friends who also watched DBZ. They all had sensible taste in men: Future Trunks (I mean, yeah, of course), Vegeta, high school age Gohan, Goku, even Android 17. I was the one going "okay but Piccolo is kinda hot, right?" to which they replied "the green slug man??" So I'm in high schooI and watching the Buu arc and this purple-skinned, perpetually anxious loser nerd shows up and I go "Oh??? Sign me the fuck up." And then 20 years later (I'll admit, I did not watch Super. I guess I need to fix that) I'm watching this and then I go "oh, right, Shin is hot, I forgot."

This had been, of course, after staring at his younger brother Degesu for like 10 minutes during the intro of episode 1 and going "oh no he's hot oh no he's hot oh no he's hot". And then also his sister Dr. Arinsu (not sure if she's the eldest sibling or younger than Shin) and going "oh no she's hot too oh no she's hot too" and etc. etc. But I mean, come on, can you blame me? (You can. You should, you should judge me for my weird taste. I'm not going to call it poor taste, because you know I'm right.) I mean, look at them:

(High school me would not have been going "oh no she's hot". I've come a long way.)

But, okay, y'all didn't come here for my apparent bias towards characters from the demon realm (oh, right, it turns out that Shin's people are from the demon realm and are actually demons and not gods. And Namekians are also from the demon realm and are not just alien slug men. Actually everybody with pointy ears is from the demon realm or has an ancestor from the demon realm. Go figure.).

Anyway, I've only watched the first three episodes, but so far it is really good! The action sequences were very well choreographed and animated (the fight with the burgers was SO GOOD THOUGH), the dub voice acting was stellar, and seeing all the main cast turned into kids was phenomenally entertaining. This is what GT should have been. I'll never get over realizing I was looking at a like 12 year old Master Roshi, who continued to speak like an old geezer even with the voice of a 12 year old. 10/10. (Also he has to be related to Krillin, the resemblance is uncanny.) Angery little kid Vegeta was amazing. Teenage-ish Piccolo was great, too, because we got to see him as a little kid in Dragon Ball and as an adult in DBZ, but never in this inbetween teenage stage. I wish we'd gotten to see more of the more secondary and tertiary characters, maybe that'll be in later episodes. Normally I would hate this, but it was hilarious. In GT it was just weird and off-putting to only have Goku as a little kid, but with everyone else as kids he just fits right in.

I'm definitely going to track down episodes 4 and up (I think Japan is up to 6 this week?) and keep watching. I don't think I can patiently wait for the dub like I did for the first three, so subbed it is for now. I don't typically watch DBZ in Japanese because I grew up with the dub, but I'm too interested to see where this plot is going. (And if they're going to give Degesu and Arinsu more screen time. Shin's already getting a lot, which I am very happy about.) I'm also very interested to see if anybody else got turned into a kid. Like Gohan. Are we getting Cell Games age Gohan? I hope so. But also, what other characters were included in that wish? Tien and Chaotzu? Launch? Android 17? Yajirobe? Videl? Ox King was kid-ified, but Korin wasn't. I need answers. Also we were robbed, Korin should have been a kitten.

Also also, I think they should have kept the kids who were already kids the same age they already were. Imagine little kid Vegeta being physically the same age as kid Trunks. Imagine it. I fully get why they just turned them into babies, but imagine.

#dragon ball #dragon ball daima #i'm old okay

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