#another thing is this complete lack of regard for what is the animals actual structure vs its fur/feathers

[smallhatlogan]

i just want to figure out how we ended up where we did for "this is what cute animals look like"

this stuff is so unsettling have you guys looked at real animals recently

[albertonykus]

I don’t have an issue believing that birds are probably dinosaurs, but I do ask: How do we know this isn’t just convergent evolution? How do we know that postcranial air sacs, complex integument, and other various commonalities between the 2 are actually evidence of descent and not convergence? (Also applies to any claim of “x evolved from y”)

Ah, yes. The question of whether specific similarities between organisms are the result of shared ancestry or convergence is one that evolutionary biologists constantly have to deal with, and oftentimes it can be very difficult to answer.

There are a few things we can try though, as I’ve mentioned for a previous ask. One is detailed study of the features themselves. For example, birds and bats both have wings, but looking at the anatomy of those wings quickly shows that they represent very different ways of modifying forelimbs into wings: in birds, the wing surface is composed primarily of feathers, whereas in bats, it is composed primarily of skin stretched between the fingers. All other things being equal, such a dramatic difference in fundamental structure would suggest to us that bird wings and bat wings probably have similarities primarily because they are both specialized for a similar function (flight) and not because birds and bats inherited them from a winged common ancestor.

Another approach would be to compare other features from the organisms. Birds and bats may both have wings in common, but they share many more features with other groups of animals than with each other. Bats have mammary glands, seven neck vertebrae, a single bone in the lower jaw, and many other traits that, taken together, are otherwise only found in non-bat mammals. Birds have an antorbital opening in the front of the skull, an eardrum that fits into a notch behind the quadrate bone, integument composed of beta keratin, and many other traits that, taken together, are otherwise only found in non-bird reptiles, and specifically archosaurs. Even the structure of the wings themselves supports these disparate affinities: a three-fingered hand covered in feathers that form a wing surface is not found in bats or any other mammals, but it is known in non-bird pennaraptoran dinosaurs (which were archosaurs). Finally, with birds and bats both being living groups, we can analyze their genes as well, and this also places birds squarely among reptiles and bats among mammals.

We don’t have genes from non-bird dinosaurs, of course, but the anatomical features that lead us to conclude that birds are dinosaurs have largely passed both of these tests. There are no structural differences in those features that clearly point to independent origins, and there are also no other groups of organisms that provide more convincing alternative affinities for birds and non-bird dinosaurs.

Probably the strongest evidence that the similarities between birds and non-bird dinosaurs are homologous though is the fact that we have observed plausible transitional series for just about all of those characteristics, in which the non-bird dinosaurs we think are more closely related to birds consistently exhibit progressively more bird-like conditions. For example, filamentous integument is a trait that many non-bird dinosaurs shared with birds, but in dinosaurs comparatively distantly related to birds (such as compsognathids and tyrannosauroids), this integument appears to have formed just individual filaments or a few tufts joined together at the base. In oviraptorosaurs, which were more closely related to birds, we see feathers composed of filaments that branch off a central shaft, and these feathers forming a wing-like surface along the forelimbs. In non-bird paravians, which were even more closely related to birds, we start seeing examples of essentially modern feathers that could have functioned in flight.

You can trace similar transitions for almost every skeletal feature shared between birds and non-bird dinosaurs that has been studied (including, but not limited to, foot anatomy, hand anatomy, locomotory posture, and postcranial pneumaticity at increasingly smaller body sizes), and even for some soft tissue (like the aforementioned filaments) and behavioral characteristics (like nesting behavior). In fact, many of the biggest controversies regarding evolutionary relationships among organisms are controversial precisely because we lack such a complete record of the evolutionary transitions that gave rise to those parts of the tree of life.

Mind you, not every feature that happens to be present in both modern birds and a specific non-bird dinosaur is likely to be the result of shared ancestry. For example, both modern birds and oviraptorids have replaced their teeth with beaks, but we currently think that this evolved independently in both lineages. And the reason we think that is exactly because we’ve applied the principles described above: there are notable structural differences between oviraptorid and modern bird beaks (the proportions of the bones involved are different), features from other parts of their bodies strongly favor oviraptorids and modern birds each being more closely related to certain toothed dinosaurs than to each other, and there is fossil evidence suggesting that the beaks of oviraptorids and modern birds probably evolved in different ways (in the ancestors of oviraptorids, the teeth in the front of the upper jaw were seemingly the last to have been lost, whereas in the ancestors of modern birds, those teeth were gone first).

Nonetheless, looking at the totality of all available information, the general trends are clear: non-bird dinosaurs not only share features with birds that are rare or nonexistent in other groups of organisms, but often also exhibit such similarities across the whole of their anatomy, and present a transitional series leading up to successively more bird-like lineages. This is exactly what we’d expect to see if these similarities were the result of shared ancestry and if birds were dinosaurs, and so far no evidence has been found that contradicts this explanation (even though certain researchers have tried very hard to find some!).

If the similarities were the result of convergent evolution, however, then birds acquired every one of these traits (detailed structural resemblances and all) entirely independently of non-bird dinosaurs, from an as-yet-unidentified group that so far has left absolutely no trace of a comparable transitional series. That’s not physically impossible, and in science, we should always be mindful of alternative possibilities. However, it does demand far more assumptions for which we currently lack any good evidence.

At this point, I think we can be as confident that birds are dinosaurs as we can be given the data that we have. It would take a major left-field discovery to upend or even to substantially bolster that hypothesis, as opposed to adding small pieces to the mountain of evidence that has already been gathered. (Somehow getting genome-scale molecular sequences from Mesozoic dinosaurs might do it, but we’re certainly not there yet.) Other notable transitions in vertebrate evolution that I’d consider to be based on similarly solid evidence include the evolution of four-limbed vertebrates from fishes and the evolution of mammals from non-mammalian synapsids.

[queen-of-deans-booty]

The Best Part About Being Human

Characters: Castiel x Angel!Reader

Word Count: 3.2k

Warnings: smut, unprotected sex, fluff, skinny dipping, brief oral fem recieving

Request by anon: Can you write a fluffy Cas x Reader where she is his best friend and they are both in love with each other. He is the careful and overthinking angel she is the girl who just wants to live in the moment. One night they go skinny dipping.

Summary: You’ve lived with humans for centuries, and you can’t ever think about going back to Heaven. When Castiel shows up, you have to show him how good it feels to be human.

Squares Filled: childhood friends @castielspnbingo​ // fools rush where angels fear to tread @as-the-saying-goes-bingo​ // castiel for my frist card of heavenandhellbingo // kissed to be quiet @spnfluffbingo​ // new years resolution @spngenrebingo​ // “whatever you lack in talent, you make up for in confidence.” @spnquotebingo​ // non-canonical relationship for @trope-bingo

Author’s Note: This is unbeta’d and all mistakes are mine. If you have any requests, please send them in!

Heaven has always been a “one-track mind” and a “black and white” kind of way. There is a set of rules every angel is supposed to follow, and if you don’t, then you’re cast out. Most habitable planets have and follow the same kind of rules, and they become so boring to live by. It’s fine for the first couple millennium, but then it gets kind of boring and predictable.

God entrusted his angels to serve Heaven and to follow those strict rules. Heaven always comes first, and it didn’t matter if you had other priorities in your life. You went where the archangels sent you, you did what they asked of you, and you did it without complain.

There has to be something more out there, something that challenged its people and didn’t tell them what to do and where to go. There had to be someplace in the entire universe that held creative imagination to a high standard. For a while, you never found it. You searched high and low for it, but you always came up empty. It made you question whether or not such a  thing existed until you found Earth.

Such a small planet in some tiny solar system lying in a galaxy that is barely out of its diapers. Such a tiny and insignificant planet, and they defy all the rules. Upon first discovering them, your heart soared at the thought of being able to creatively express yourself--to be who you are instead of being who someone else tells you to be. Heaven is exactly that--you don’t get to be who you are. They program you into being perfect soldiers, but that’s not who you want to be.

You want to be able to talk with your peers without the fear of being judged by them, you want to be able to do something without your four older brothers reigning hell down on you for disobeying your father, and you want to be able to find love and joy and humor and sadness and grief--something you can’t ever find in Heaven. Everyone’s Heavens are perfect little sanctuaries that protect them from the horrors of their own lives. You won’t find what you’re looking for in there--and you’ve gotten in trouble for popping into people’s Heavens before.

Humans have a silly way of doing things, but what makes them so unique is that they are imperfect. Everyone in Heaven is perfect--no scars to tell people where they’ve been and what they’ve been doing. Humans are flawed to the T, but that’s what makes them so special to be around. They cherish life because it ends. They find value in happiness because of sadness and fear. They crave thrills and adventure because their bodies are built to withstand so much, yet, they don’t know that. Human souls are so valuable and pure, it’s amazing what each person does with them.

Humans have come a long way since they were first created, but they still have such a long way to go. They won’t ever be perfect, but that’s why you love them so much. It’s also the main reason why you left Heaven to hide on Earth to be with the humans. You pretended for centuries to be like one of them--talk, act, love--just so you can feel like you belong to something.

There are bad ones that filter through every once in a while, but you’d rather be here than on Heaven a million times over. There is just something so powerful and heartwarming about being surrounded by imperfect beings. It really makes you question what God has been doing, and what kind of plan he has for the angels. Even now you can see angels are heavily flawed because the system is flawed.

There is a flawed system down on Earth regarding the demons and monsters that Eve unleashed onto the world. They are the diseased little insects that have been infecting the world from the very start, but you try and do your part to make it a better place without outing yourself to the rest of your friends and family. The only one you want to know you’re down here is Castiel.

He’s the only person you absolutely love out of your entire friends and family from up there.

He’s a good soldier, and you fought beside him in many battles, but he’s also the only one who gets and understands you. He’s seen the flaws up in Heaven, but you’re the only one who had the balls to leave and do something about it. He stayed, and you wish to your father he would come down here and find you.

You’ve prayed to him before in hopes he would change his mind and come down here, but you hadn’t heard anything from him in a while. He’s your best friend who you love with all your heart, and he’s not down here experiencing this with you. You’ve been everywhere on this Earth three times, and it would all be better if he were by your side. You’ve hunted with hunters from all over the world in fighting their monsters, and the ones you actually like are the Winchesters.

They know you exist and how you’re trying to hide from Heaven, so they kept your secret all these years. Then Dean died, and that’s when Castiel finally made his appearance. He’s the one who saved Dean from hell and learned you were here from Sam. Sam knew how much you missed him, so he spilled the beans just a little bit.

While the Winchesters traveled around the United States, you stayed in one place: New York City. While most people would say it’s a dump and has dirty people and things, you think of it as a place where creativity flies high. You don’t think you ever met a group of more independent people than in New York City. You used your angelic powers to get yourself a penthouse suite in the Big Apple just so you could watch the humans live their life all around you.

And now Castiel is here, and you couldn’t be happier about it.

“Castiel!” you rejoice and hug him tightly.

“Y/N, we’ve been looking everywhere for you. Michael wants you back.”

“Michael can sit on his ass and wait. I cloaked myself. I didn’t want to be found, that’s why I prayed to you al the time in hopes you’d join me down here.”

You’re sitting inside a cafe in one of the corners, just watching as humans ordered, talked, and laughed with themselves and other people.

“Why Earth?”

“That seems to be the question that everyone asks these days. Why Earth? Humans are so messy and imperfect and animals. We’re so much above them that they don’t even have any kind of value or worth.”

“Exactly,” he nods.

“But that’s exactly why they’re so special. How old are we, Castiel? Megaannum, that’s how old. We’re millions of years old, and we still have millions more to go. They see the value in life because it ends. For some, it lasts 70 years and others, 100. But it ends, and that’s why they cherish it. They’re reckless and rash and impulsive, but they’re the best judge of characters. I’ve learned that living down here for a few centuries. I’m not human, but it’s not such a bad thing to learn to be it.”

“You sound like God,” he sighs.

“Yes, I do. The only difference between me and Him is that I actually lived among them instead of creating them. He may have created their structure, but they evolved from it and made it better. This is a new year, and I want to try new things. I want you to stay with me here, Castiel. I want to be human with you.”

“We’re not human.”

“No, but we can act like them. How about I make you a deal. You come camping with me for a whole week, and if you decide to stay with me, then that’s great. However, if you decide to go back home, then I won’t blame you. All I ask is that if you do, don’t tell them where I am. They’ll make me come home, and I already found a new one. I’ll still aid and help if and when Heaven needs me, but it’s not right now.”

“What’s camping?” he asks in confusion.

“Oh, Castiel, you’re going to love it! It’s where humans go into the woods and bring camping gear and tents and sleeping bags and non-perishable food while being in touch with nature!” you gush.

“Like animals.”

“You can be so stoic sometimes. Let me take you camping. It’s, like, the most human thing I’ve seen. Well, apart from eating and sleeping and showering. It’ll be so much fun!”

“Can’t wait,” he sighs.

His words express excitement, yet his tone expresses the complete opposite. Just he wait because this is going to be the best camping trip ever.

“You’ve been hanging with the Winchesters, I can tell. It’s why I brought this fancy-ass tent. You don’t need sleeping bags for this because there are air mattresses inside of it. They’re pretty sturdy actually. Great for sleeping.”

“We don’t sleep.”

“Exactly,” you smirk.

You’ve always had a crush on your fellow angel, but you never did anything about it. There are a lot of angels in Heaven making relationships with one another. It’s the most human thing you’ve seen them do. You’ve always hoped you and Castiel would be together one day, but then you left and you hadn’t seen him since. Maybe you can start something with him down here, and he would want to stay.

“What are we supposed to do now?” he asks.

“Now we set up the fire. It’s going to get dark soon. It’s my fault for leaving so late. I try not to use my powers down here. I’ve figured out how to live without them.”

“I could never,” he mutters, but you choose not to comment on it.

Castiel stands there as still as can be while you try to get the fire going. You want to be human, but you haven’t figured out how to everything they can do. Like building a fire, for instance. It’s a lot harder than it looks. Castiel can see you struggling, and he just snickers at your attempts to get a flame going.

“Whatever you lack in talent, you make up for in confidence.”

“Shut the hell up,” you laugh and give in with your powers.

You start a fire instantly despite not needing the warmth. It’s mostly to sit around and watch the fire embers bounce off Castiel’s face. You’ve never seen him in this kind of light, and you can only imagine what color blue his eyes would be against the red of the flames.

“We can start doing things tomorrow, but you need different clothes. It’s hard to do anything with a trench coat and suit on. Let me help you,” you state and walk over to him.

Your hands slide up his coat so you can push it off his shoulders. He watches the emotion in your eyes as you do so, so you know he sees just how much you want him.

“I can manage on my own.”

“You’re still so stiff. Let me help you with that. There’s a reason why I picked this spot. You want to know why?” you ask and step back from him.

“Why?”

“Because there is a lake, and I really love swimming. Care to join me?”

“Isn’t is tradition to wear a swimsuit when doing things like this?” he asks as you lift your shirt over your head.

If it’s possible, he gets stiffer at the sight of you in just a bra and shorts. Not just his body, but his cock as well. Jimmy Novak’s cravings must be getting through somehow.

“It is, but there’s also your birthday suit,” you smirk and finish undressing before his very eyes. “Care to join me?”

“I’d like that,” he says in a much lower voice than normal.

You turn with your back to him as you walk into the lake by your campsite. Castiel doesn’t really know what he’s doing, but he knows he wants to do it with you. The crush you have on him is exactly the kind of crush he has on you. He’s had it ever since you two were children. He never thought relations between angels were allowed until most recently. If he’s going to do anything with anyone, then he’d rather do it with you.

As soon as he’s naked, he walks into the lake to be by your side. While you don’t have sexual cravings as your angel grace prevents it, your vessel’s cravings do shine through. Castiel is a lean and sexy man, and she definitely likes what she sees.

“Do you like the way the water feels on your skin?” you ask as you swim closer to him.

“It’s nice, yes.”

“You’re still tense. Would you like me to help you relax? I’ve picked up a few tricks along the way,” you chuckle.

“What would you do that could help me? Don’t you get nervous or anxious in situations like these? Like you don’t know what you’re--”

You cut him off with a kiss to the lips. He’s shocked, to say the least, but he doesn’t not like it. His vessel is popping up through the cracks in more ways than one, and he’s not sure if she should roll with this or end it.

“Don’t think, feel,” you whisper and wrap your legs around his waist.

His cock springs to attention the more your hands and lips are on his body, but he knows exactly what to do. He’s been to Earth before, and he’s observed this kind of activity before. He’s never participated it in personally, but he knows what to do and where to put it.

“This is new,” he mutters lowly.

“Do you like it?”

“I do.”

“Then let me do more of it,” you grin.

Your lips move from his down to his neck to find that one spot that would have made his vessel soar with pleasure. The water sloshes around you two, but you don’t pay any attention to it. Instead, you’re focused on the thing that’s poking at your center. You’ve come to learn a lot about your body and what it can do and handle. Right now, you can handle a lot more than this.

“I’m not sure what to do now,” he pants.

“You do, Castiel. Take me back to the tent and have your way with me. You’ll know what to do,” you encourage.

You attach your lips to his just as his hands grip your body tighter. He begins the trek back to the tent without ever letting you go. You two drip water everywhere, but you can’t seem to care right now. He lays you down on one of the sturdy air mattresses before detaching his lips from yours.

“I’ve seen many people do this,” he mutters as he kisses down your neck and chest.

“And now you’re doing it yourself,” you moan when he takes a nipple into his mouth.

The noises you make and the way your body arches fuels him to go down further. It’s like the more skin he exposes to himself, the more he knows what to do. He’s not listening to the angel side of him, but the human side of him. Every angel has one, and the longer an angel spends away from Heaven and other angels, the more it pops out.

“Your body is exquisite,” he praises as he descends down your body.

“I can say the same thing about your mouth,” you chuckle-moan.

By the time he reaches your pussy, he knows exactly what to do. He licks one broad stripe up your center, and his vessel goes crazy with the need to be inside you. Castiel’s tongue is warm and wet, but there is time for that later on. Right now, all you want is to feel him inside you. You’ve waited a long time for this moment, and you’re not going to waste another second of it.

He kisses up your body and locks his lips with yours as he grabs the base of his throbbing cock in his hand. He rubs the tip over your lips a few times just to spread your juices around. Humans say this part hurts, but he knows you’ll be able to take the pain. He slides himself in inch by inch until he bottoms out, holding your hands in his by your head.

“Shit, Castiel, you feel so good inside me,” you moan.

“Who knew you could be this tight,” he chuckles.

He gains a surge of confidence that allows him to pull out and slam right back in. Your back arches the moment of impact, and your mouth forms a perfect ‘o’. No noise comes out of it because your body is just in complete shock at what he’s done. He can see how much pleasure he’s giving you, so he does it again, making sure to hit that one spot guaranteed to make you scream.

“Fuck!” you cry.

He doesn’t waste any more time and pistons in and out of you. Out of all the humans you’ve been with, Castiel is the one to come out on top. Nothing is better than angel sex because it can withstand a whole lot more than human sex. Castiel’s hips snap to yours aggressively, and he grips your hips to hold you in place. If he’s going to do this, he may as well do it right knowing you can take a lot.

“Play with my clit, Castiel. I’ll come easier with that,” you guide one of his hands to the bundle of nerves at your center.

“Like this?” he asks and pinches the bundle.

“Yes!” you squeak and moan louder.

He pinches and rolls your clit a few times as he thrusts go harder and deeper in you. Both stimulations are enough to cause the coil inside of you to get tighter and tighter. It’s going to snap soon, and you express it through your words.

“Feel that tightness in me, Castiel? I’m going to come if you keep that up,” you moan.

“Then come,” he simply puts.

Your body comes on command, coating his cock with everything you got. He didn’t know it himself, but he was also close. Feeling your release all over him caused him to shoot his load into you. He never knew sex could be this fun, otherwise, he would have done it a long time ago.

“That’s the best sex I’ve had in a long time,” you laugh.

Castiel pulls out of you and watches as the mixture of yours and his releases drizzle down your thighs. He lays next to you and looks at you as if you are his world.

“You’ve had sex before?”

“Castiel, it’s the best part about being human.”

“I’d like to learn more,” he says seriously.

“You know, I am going to wipe all that tension out of your body until you’re just like me,” you grin and bounce back rather quickly.

“Y/N, no one can be like you.”

“I take that as a compliment because Castiel, there is so much more for you to learn,” you grin.

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[baconpal]

talkin bout fuckig manga

hey it’s me, haven’t had internet for over a week and i’ve been sick and uni and blah blah blah time for a rant about manga

this time its about  "Soredemo Machi wa Mawatteiru", tl;dr, good manga read it idk

lots of bullshit below the cut

Before anything I say gets too confusing or I go off on an insane tangent, just know my recommendation is that you read "Soredemo Machi wa Mawatteiru". It's not very easy to find online since it has an official English release (which my recommendation extends far enough to suggest I might pick up in the future, just to have it, but I am very stingy), but there's an alright torrent of all the volumes on your local anime torrenting website, and is at the very least worth the trouble of reading as such. There is also an anime that gets better as it goes, but the manga is my primary recommendation. Beyond this point I'm not gonna give much regard to what I write, so get ready for anything, read the manga and see if you agree with me, or don't and see if I care:

BOUT THE ANIME: The SoreMachi anime is one of those rare comedy anime you find where the animation and overall production is just really extra the entire time. Hopefully you know what I mean because I won't really be able to explain it any other way, it's simply one of those shows where the jokes are decent and it's a fun time for the most part. Unfortunately, the anime makes a couple of critical missteps that kept me from getting far into it when I first tried watching it about a year ago, and in retrospect seem even less reasonable.

Starting with the good, as an adaptation it does a good job with most chapters it covers, it properly sources where each chapter comes from incase you intend to read the manga and skip around to catch up, and the anime adapts some sections to have additional jokes that fit very naturally in to the story. It also covers up some of those problems only manga can have like having a concert segment without any actual music involved, until they invent mp3-paper it's just something we'll have to live with. Translation work was pretty good (I watched the [WhyNot] release for those who care), which is extra important for something as difficult to translate as jokes from another language. The set of episodes they chose to end on was very good, and was expanded to be a lot more impactful in the anime. If it wasn't for the last episode being as strong as it was I may have given up on finding the manga when I saw it wasn't super easy to read online.

As for what the anime fails in, some episodes feature some really blatant over-acting that doesn't really help make characters believable, and there's this obnoxious gag that continues the whole where through where most scenes have a few seconds long line from what is essentially a forced mascot character, which usually mean nothing and only serve to harm the pacing of many episodes (there isn't even any sort of equivalent bit in the manga so I really don't know why they did it, most of the anime original jokes are pretty good so I just really don't get it). The biggest issue the anime faces is that the source material is about 140 chapters, while the anime is only able to cover 24 chapters. This comes with a LOT of problems, the first being what I'd call the "required reading". SoreMachi is not a 1-note simple comedy where you can skip to any chapter and be completely okay; There are many small but meaningful subplots lying beneath, and characters have a fair bit of development throughout. What this means for the anime is that the first 3-4 episodes are just the first few chapters of the manga, which are a bit rough and not as good as the majority of the work, which is true of a lot of comics (god fuck I promise there will be more than a first chapter of my comic I promise it'll get better fuck). In terms of the anime by itself, I'd say episode 1 is decent, 2 is middling, and by 3/4 their still taking a while to introduce members of the cast, and I didn't immediately want to finish it. I put the show down for a long time until my internet started dying and I wanted to watch something fun. Slapping it back on at episode 5 I immediately had a great time and watched the rest of the show pretty soon after. While I understand the reasoning behind doing this, the anime does not pay off this structure, as beyond the first few episodes, the chapters start being presented out of release order and out of chronological order, kind of destroying any consistent throughline. This decision in and of itself isn't the worst, since the comic isn't always chronological, and the volume ordering is a bit different from the release ordering, but the inconsistency makes the first few episodes feel lessened without reason. The other large failure that comes with only animating about 1/7th of the entire work is that many themes and concepts that are core to the manga are not represented in the anime well at all. One of the biggest is the rare but unnerving supernatural chapters, of which only one is animated, and not a particularly good one. In order to talk about these themes I'll have to transition into talking about the manga itself, since they aren't part of the anime.

DA MANGA: So one last recommendation that you read the manga, the whole damn thing. Cus we're gettin into themes and character moments that take a long time to pay off, and obviously is all part of my interpretations, so if that stuff means anything to you don't let me ruin it for ya.

The title of the manga is, in essence, the entire manga's "punchline" in that every chapter could meaningfully end with simply the text "And yet the town still turns..." (My translation of the title, fuck "And yet, the town revolves" or "But the town moves"); by this I mean most chapters end in an anti-climax where a mystery is left unsolved, or a mystery is solved and undercut by the realization that life simply keeps on going without much change. This is used to essentially force your eyes open to all possibilities when reading, as the main character spends her time acting like a detective, and these mysteries end up as either misunderstandings, secrets, riddles, and sometimes something out of the ordinary happens that makes you unable to pin anything down firmly. Similarly, these endings aren't always read-and-forget scenarios. Several chapters come back in the form of a continued joke, a continued mystery, or contribute to some greater purpose later. Readers are properly rewarded for keeping everything they can in mind, while also tormenting such people with loose ends.

I enjoy Hotori as a protagonist due to her character being defined not in flaws and strengths, but in mindedness. Hotori seems like a simple "haha she's dumb" character to start, but consistently throughout she proves that her strengths are in memory, observation, and deduction, while lacking in some more common sense and abilities. Her brain works in strange ways that some people may or may not understand, such as her need to think through even the most trivial fictional scenarios, which I relate to deeply.

The art and paneling throughout are wonderful. Ishiguro Masakazu is one of those artists who draws very simple characters, but knows how to use details and depth to breath so much life into the artwork. He also clearly uses the occasional supernatural happenings as an excuse to draw what he loved, as all sorts of artistic depictions of the supernatural come out that simply look satisfying. These parts obviously meant a lot to him since he's been working on a primarily mystery-action manga that has a lot more of that stuff in it. (Also, as hindsight is 20/20, if you've read any of his new work you'll notice that the main character of it is eerily similar to a character who shows up very late in SoreMachi that the author obviously fell in love with, cus she just keeps coming back and even ends up with a really unsettling end to her character arc despite only being introduced as a component in a harmless mystery. Feel free to call me out for the same shit 30 years from now when I'll probably do the same shit)

I'd like to get into some of the major themes of this work, as a lot of them hit very close to my mind (which I guess is true of any theme you recognize for yourself, you wouldn't really "get it" if it didn't mean something to you...).

The simplest theme, again, comes from the title. The main character, Hotori, expresses a desire that the town she lives in continues going on, unchanged forever. This is obviously a fear of change, which ya know, same, but also an exploration of what it means to fear change. Hotori actively tries to keep businesses from closing down, keep friends from leaving, and keep relationships from changing, while simultaneously making all sorts of new relationships and solving mysteries. Hotori even comes to realize that simply learning the truth about something changes the world through your own perspective, and that such changes can't be undone. In spite of this, Hotori mostly gets her wish, any time she fears that a large change will impact the town, its resolved about the same as any other issue. Whether its a message that even time can't keep you from your loved ones and that change isn't worth fearing, or a concession that large changes to the setting would be a bad idea in terms of humor, I can't really decide. This theme reaches it's conclusion in what is one in a series of "ending" kinda chapters at the end of the series. Hotori is faced with a supernatural ethical situation, save her town from destruction at the cost of her existence, or live through the disaster, knowing her town and the people in it will forever be changed. While the actual result is that nobody disappears and nothing is lost, and the event may have simply been a strange dream, Hotori confidently decides that sparing the people in her town from a life altering event is worth giving up her memories with them. A kind of bold spit-in-the-face to the idea that change is okay, where we find that Hotori didn't fear change for herself, but rather for the people around her.

There's another major idea in this manga, which takes a very long time to pay off, and completes its arc at the very very very actual end of the series, the idea of "leading someone to be something". A character that rides that line between main and side character, Shizuka, is a writer of detective novels, who feels the best person to judge her works would be a version of herself without the bias of being the author. She tries to achieve this by leading Hotori to be interested in detective works (including her own) and generally be just like her, starting from a young age. The end result is a young girl dead set on being a detective herself (or at least another novelist), while Shizuka keeps her identity as an author secret. She then uses Hotori as a scapegoat for herself, attempting to see how she would solve various mysteries and use that as inspiration, and this is depicted as though Shizuka were some sort of villain, which she may feel like she is. The end result of it all, though, is that Hotori was likely already a detective-minded person, and that even if Shizuka pushed her down that path, it was Hotori's decision to continue down it, and the very end of the manga is a scene revealing that Hotori figured out Shizuka's secret at some point, and even still respected Shizuka and aspired to reach her, and the two accept each other for who they are. I enjoy this ending a lot, since as an artist I've worried that some of my love or aspirations for and from other artists came with an ulterior motive of wanting a better community for art to exist in, but people are people and will make their own decisions, and some day everyone may be able to become equals in a truly meaningful sense, where everyone is inspired by and guiding each other together.

So that probably didn't mean shit to nobody and I didn't even really talk about anything in the comic like most of the main characters or any of the shit goin on but ya know fuck you go read it, and thanks for reading this.

[dragonladdie]

Xeno-Hiraeth

Warning: The following document delves into topics such as (systemic)racism, classism, colonization, (implied)genocide, and slavery. This is not to promote, justify, humanize, or normalize these things in any way, shape or form, and, quite frankly, the opposite of the story's initial message.

The author does NOT approve of such things. If you think any of the above is justifiable in ANY manner, you can leave right now, thanks.

Lore

Xeno-Hiraeth was the first ever planet made by the Seraphs, a race of divine entities with the power to create entire galaxies with the simple flick of their wrist.

There are four sapient species on this ancient planet: The proud dragons, the reclusive lungs, the gentle sphinxes, and finally, the mageia, the first Beings, and made in the Seraph's image.

Not only is Xeno-Hiraeth the first world, it is by far the largest. It is infinitely larger than our Earth, and far more magical. It's teeming with wild magic and a myriad of magical and strange creatures. At its center is Cor Meum, seven continents surrounding the Heartland. The Heartland holds the Capitol, where the Queen resides.

As previously said, there are four sapient species of Xeno-Hiraeth. You would believe the mageia would rule the world, as they were the first Beings, and are made in the Seraph's image. You would be correct, but, millions of years ago, when all but one Seraph suddenly vanished from the cosmos, the mageia fell into chaos.

The mageia waged war on each other, dragging the other three races with them. This started the Cold Age. After thousands of years of distrust, chaos, and all-out war, the remaining Seraph could no longer speak to their people.

They ended up turning the world over to the dragons and lungs, giving them a secret gift that allowed them to reunite the world again. They were supposed to rule the land together in order to retain at least some form of unity. But, another thousand years later, after high tensions, the dragons and lungs turned on each other. The lungs ended up breaking from the dragons and went into hiding, making dragons the singular dominant species of Xeno-Hiraeth.

Sphinxes are a somewhat independent species, and try not to get involved with the other three species' affairs. They normally exist in one of twelve clans, but few unlucky sphinxes live their lives as personal servants and slaves to dragon nobility, and are treated as wealth statuses rather than individuals.

Geography of Notable Landmasses

Heartland

The Heartland is the central continent of Cor Meum. A vast valley surrounded by mountains, and at its center is the Capitol, the largest metropolis in the world. The Capitol is mostly inhabited by dragons, and is also where a good 60% of dragons in Xeno-Hiraeth live. The Heartstone Palace is both the tallest and largest built structure in Cor Meum as well, and it's tallest tower can be seen from miles in any direction. The Heartstone Palace is the home of the Queen and their family.

Makatu Valley

The continent just North of Heartland is a combination of floating isles and mountains. It's the home of the longmas' kingdom, Sahar. Mistiko, the capital city for Sahar is located between one of the two largest mountains on Cor Meum, known as the Twin Peaks. Instead of sitting at the foot of the two mountains, the city actually stands on the top of a huge floating aisle, just above their peaks. It's only accessible by airships and flying.

Rama Forests

The continent of Rama sits upon a rich iron mine that stretches down and out for miles. Even though they have a seemingly infinite amount of it, every scrap of metal is treated graciously, and no amount is wasted. On the surface are lush forests on the foot of a small mountain range. The capital city, Stonehill, sits on the base of said mountain range.

Taiao

The continent of Taiao is a combination of forest and open plain, perfect for the diverse population of Alam. Taiao has bountiful lands to raise crops, and thus there are countless farming villages across the continent. The "capital" of Alam is called the Thicket, which is a town surrounding a huge tree. Inside the tree is the High Sage and their council, made up of all sorts of backgrounds.

Vjetar Plateau

The Vjetar plateau is located at the furthest Northeast point in Cor Meum. The only way up is by flying, airships, or making your way up Zephyr's Road, a dangerous foot trail filled with predators and rogues. Atop the plateau is a flat, lush steppe occasionally dotted with rich forests. There is a small patch of frigid mountains to the north, and the west drops off into the sea. The soil is adequate for the nation's agricultural needs, and produce farms are the majority of what you will find when exploring the land. The capital city of Gisa stands in the middle of a windy meadow.

The Sear

The Sear is a scorching desert to the West of Cor Meum. The farther center you go, the hotter the sun beats, and the taller the sand dunes stand. But, smack in the middle of the desert, springs the Blessing Oasis. It's the largest oasis in the Sear, and most of the qilin population lives here.

The Wai Peninsula

The Wai peninsula is home to Ngaru, the native kingdom of the kelpies. To the Northern entrance to the peninsula are swamps, marshes, bogs, and mangroves. Then, there's the Iridescent Jungle. Though it's a gorgeous sight to behold, it's filled with dangerous animals and man-eating plants. Then, once you finally make it out of the jungle, you are rewarded with a calm, tropical paradise. The capital city is located on the shore, along with the Summer Palace. But, during the winter and fall months, the royal family retreats to the Underwater Palace. A secret entrance on the surface is provided for non-kelpie visitors.

Kahore Mountains

Nihil, the native kingdom of the nix, is based underground and in the mountains of Kahore. The entirety of the continent is just mountains that stretch almost completely off the Eastern coast of Cor Meum. The capital city of Covert lays below the surface of Titan's Maw Summit, the largest mountain in the world.

Ledas

A combination of icy plain and taiga to the north of Cor Meum. It is mostly unexplored by the other Beings, and is occupied by the Fa and Noh sphinx clans.

The Barrier Mountains

Several oceanic mountain ranges that erupt from the water, and surround Cor Meum. There is presumably nothing past these mountains, only open ocean. However, all voyages that set out past these mountains never return. Rumor has it that beyond these mountains lies the secret home of the lungs.

Additional landmasses

Within the Barrier Mountains are several other small islands, whether they humbly sit on the water or float above it. None of them are big enough to be marked fully as continents, however, and most of them are colonized by dragon villages.

General Society

The Queen is a hereditary, gender-neutral title worn by the ruling dragon. It's passed on from parent to oldest child, but it's not unheard of for the crown to go to one of the Queen's spouses, siblings, or even a trusted Council member if either they believe their children aren't cut out for the job or die before they have any.

The King is the first spouse of the Queen(the King is also a gender-neutral title). The King acts as an advisor to the Queen as well as a companion, and is incredibly influential. Consorts hold no political power, but may hold certain influence as well, depending on their background/actions outside of the palace walls.

The current Queen is Nefriah, and her heir is her first son, Valo. She has one spouse, King Solan. Their other children are Naika, Naseem, Kasigo, and Vanja.

That being said, there are no gender roles in Xeno-Hiraeth! Gender identity and expression is something that is a personal preference, and is figured out during childhood(all children are referred to with they/them pronouns at first, unless they choose differently later on). Androgyny is the dominant gender expression, and no individual would be made fun of, judged, or barred from certain tasks/jobs for their gender identity and/or expression, or lack thereof.

While the Queen rules over both dragons and mageia(and to some extent, the sphinxes), it's the Omnis-Sovereign who carries out the laws to the mageia. The Omnis-Sovereign is typically a longma mageia who not only rules their own kingdom, but the other kingdoms as well. While all kingdoms have their individual leader or leaders, they all answer to the Omnis-Sovereign, and the Omnis-Sovereign answers to the Queen. The current Omnis-Sovereign is Jerome.

The Prophet is the religious leader of Cor Meum, and secondary advisor to the Queen. Their job(supposedly) is to make sure the will of the Seraph is followed. They also are responsible for keeping the Queen in check. They are hand-picked by the Queen themself, and serve until death. The current Prophet is Rek'yen.

The Queen's council consists of the King, Prophet, General, Treasurer, High Mage, Archive Keeper, Charter, and High Judge. King Solan currently doubles as the High Mage.

There is an unspoken racial hierarchy amongst the mageia, in order of preference of the dragons; the longmas, the re'em, the dryads, the perytons, the qilins, the kelpies, and then the nixes.

Disabilities are not usually an issue in Xeno-Hiraeth. Non-verbal and/or deaf beings are taught some form of sign language, or given a slate to write your thoughts down. Blind individuals are taught to use their other senses to make their way around, and/or given a guide(whether they be a Being or familiar), or a cane to feel around with as you step. For those with lost limbs, there's a number of different prosthetics to choose from, and there are special prosthetics for different jobs and activities(including wings!).

In regards to technology, think steampunk-esque. Tech such as robotic prosthetics, arcane-powered machines, airships, explosives, and simple firearms such as pistols, bayonets, and shotguns are craftable items.

Tharcanas are enchanted items, all with differing abilities. Some examples would be a piece of jewelry that immediately returns to the owner of it's ever stolen, a small orb that gives off light when needed, a flute that puts listeners to sleep, bracers that give the wearer super strength, etc.

Being Biology & Info

Dragons and Lungs

Dragons and Lungs have a rather… chaotic biology, to say the least. While they can't be classified into several distinct races, almost every dragon or lung family has something unique about their pedigree. For example, some families may be able to grow plant life on themselves, or breathe fire, or have insect-like wings, etc.

Curiously enough, some dragons and lungs have similar features, such as some dragons having manes down their topline, and lungs having small, vestigial wings.

No matter what their features are, dragons are the largest species, standing at around 7-8 ½ feet at the shoulder. They are typically scaled, with at least one pair of wings, and at least one horn.

Lungs, on the other hand, are only slightly taller than the average mageia, but have long, snake-like bodies. They have fur and/or scales, with a mane down their topline/around their head like a lion. They usually have at least one horn.

Mageia

Mageia are huge creatures(the average mageia is about 6 ½ feet at the shoulder) with a canine-like head filled with sharp teeth, front paws(or claws, or talons) back hooves(can be one toed or cloven) a horse-like mane, and a lionel tail.

The mageia have seven races, each with their own unique features:

Longma biology

Pure longmas are mageia who share a common ancestor who was half dragon. All Longmas have at least one horn and draconic wings.

Pure longmas always have:

draconic wings

at least one horn

Longmas can have:

scales somewhere other than the topline, wings, and tail

scales along their topline

serpentine tails

draconic fins

Additional info

Famously pompous and devoted to individualism, Longmas are proud, innovative, and fiercely passionate.

Traditionally classist, recent years have seen the ladder to success grow more accessible, but the line between nobility and commoners remains distinct and nearly impossible to cross.

Longmas consider themselves the ideal and dismiss other mageia as uncultured, barbaric entities.

The gap between Sahar's civilian classes is significant, with the nobility sitting comfortably at the top of the ladder. The Nobility are revered, or at the very least begrudgingly respected, by the lower classes. Their political significance is rivaled only by their implied wealth, which may or may not be as grand as an individual noble claims. Nobles are the only longmas who have surnames, portrayed by their House. While there is some wiggle room for wealthy commoners to rub shoulders with the elite, they are unlikely to be accepted as an equal.

Re'em biology

Re'em are readily identified by their horns, which range from the traditional single spiral to jagged monstrosities, sometimes made of gemstone and metal.

Pure re'em always have:

horn(s), typically on the head.

Pure re'em can have:

Horns made of minerals such as precious gemstones, metals, glass or rock

Gemstone/metal attributes

Additional info

The re'em of Lux are proud people, known for their prowess in battle. Thus, friendly sparring is a common pastime for young re'em, though older re'em enjoy the activity as well.

When a re'em dies, a replica of their horn is carved and shaped from the same gemstone/metal that their real horn was made from. Simply painting a clay sculpture is an alternative to those with simple keratin horns.

Although the re'em have a reputation in other kingdoms as being uneducated, simplistic brutes, intellectual prowess is lauded, and complex, strategy-based games are enjoyed in households.

A single back hoof stomp is a more "aggressive" greeting, and thus is conducted by soldiers and rowdy adolescents, the harder/louder the more impressive.

Dryad biology

A pureblooded dryad is identified by the plant or animal life that thrives from their body. Plant life usually goes through seasonal changes or stagnates at full bloom, but there are always anomalies. A depressed or sick dryad usually suffers from wilted, or even withered growth.

Pure Dryads always have:

plantlife (or plant-esque, such as coral, bark, rocks/minerals/gemstones, etc.) growing from their body

Dryads can have:

extra hair (such as an extended mane down their top line).

antlers.

gemstones.

bark or rock like texture on their body.

Additional info

When hunting and farming, no part of the plant or animal goes to waste. Anything one does not eat is made into jewelry, tools, or simply fertilizer for the next batch of crops.

Outsiders are welcomed, but watched carefully. The dryads of Alam are hospitable and friendly to all, but won't hesitate to give you the boot if you choose violence.

The native mageia of Taiao live in peace with the environment, never taking more than what they need. Wastefulness, in any capacity, is not tolerated. What you take from the land is a blessing, and should be treated as such.

The High Sage is the religious leader of Alam. They interpret signs seemingly sent by the Seraph themself, predict the success of the next year/harvest, and make sure traditions are followed, and outdated ones are updated. The Council are the political leaders, and do most of the paperwork, overseeing official events, recounting population, distributing resources, etc.

Peryton biology

All pureblooded perytons will have at least one set of wings. Feathered wings are the most common, but there are plenty of individuals who sport wings reminiscent of bats, and rarer still are the individuals who grow insect-like wings.

Pure perytons always have:

at least one set of wings(wings can be feathered, bat-like, or insect based)

Perytons can have:

feathering on the body.

feathers in place of a mane or tail.

more than one set of wings.

Additional info:

The perytons are proud, loyal, and cunning, and reside in a nation shrouded in mystery. While often misunderstood, they have a rich history and culture that defines them.

There is so much freestanding land in Vjetar that it is commonplace just to petition for a small plot to build on, and more often than not, it will be granted.

Most families in Sirocco are rather large, as couples generally have anywhere from three to seven children.

The Divine is the kingdom's spiritual leader, acting as the conduit through which the last Seraph makes their will known, while the clerics act as the kingdom's clergy and healers. While the Divine rarely leaves the Holy Temple of the Seraph, and never leaves the great city of Gisa, Clerics live all throughout the nation and assist where the Divine can not.

Qilin biology

The Qilin is immediately recognizable by the presence of body scales and antlers. This race is almost entirely resilient to heat.

Pure qilins always have:

at least one antler, though typically two.

scaling somewhere on their body.

Qilins can have:

antlers that resemble various different deeror antelope.

Additional info

Qilins of Hariq are hardy survivors, a family of mostly nomadic individuals joined together by their mutual love and respect for every member of the Sear.

Humble, accepting, and naive, these gentle mageia are trusting of others to a sometimes dangerous fault. Though they make up the smallest population, they are not to be trifled with: every member has received some form of combat training, and their desert home is a frightful place to wage war.

The traditional qilin would die for their virtues and the safety of another.

Deeply spiritual and fixated on being one with and coexisting with the world, the qilin ways are mystical and rooted in their religion.

Kelpie biology

Kelpies will always possess two forms that they are able to shift between: a land form for traversing terrain, and a water form that allows them to swim and breathe underwater. The aquatic half of a kelpie can be based on fish, cetaceans, octopi, seals, or any other marine creature.

Pure kelpies always have:

a land form.

a water form.

Kelpies can have (in both forms):

fins and scales.

a fishtail.

stingers, tentacles, barbels - anything that correlates to their aquatic animal(s) really.

bioluminescence.

Additional info

Kelpies are famously the most accepting of outsiders, and thus hybrids are not a rare sight in Ngaru.

They are skilled soldiers, fishers, and sailors, but extremely superstitious. Angering the last Seraph is said enough to damn you and your family for generations.

While they are accepting of outside races, they stay as distant as they possibly can from the other nations, and try not to get mixed up in their politics.

As a collective community, Ngaru generally works together to keep themselves in check to prevent interference from the dragons.

Nix biology

Though they lack the fantastical features of their counterparts, there is beauty in simplicity. Rare genetic mutations can give this race additional eyes or even visible auras.

Additional info

Since nixes lack any interesting features, they're seen as boring, tasteless individuals, which is far from the truth.

They're secretive and selective on who they let into the Underground, and fewer ever get to see the capitol city.

The nation is built on a sense of community, and secrets rarely stay hidden for long.

A lot of nixes travel the continents of Cor Meum in hopes of finding wealth elsewhere, and it isn't uncommon to find a travelling Nix merchant setting up shop in the streets in a completely different continent than their own.

Hybrids

Opinions on hybrids vary from kingdom to kingdom. In Sahar, Lux, Sirocco, and Nihil, hybrids are frowned upon or at the very least judged, but in Alam, Hariq, and Ngaru, it's not as much of a big deal. Still, most hybrids are vagabonds, finding their place elsewhere, outside the binary kingdoms.

There is a rumor floating around that off the shore of the Wai Peninsula is a floating isle that is a safe haven for hybrids and wayward beings of the like, conducted by a longma with strange abilities and a gun-slinging nix. They're referred to as the Devil's Duo. Urban legend says that they're a pair of adopted siblings who took control of a ship that once hauled kidnapped sphinxes to slavery. Now, they recruit runaways and misfits, looting and raiding unsuspecting ships, whether they be in the water or the air. This group of misfits is called the Vindicators. The Duo's true names are unknown to all but this group.

Sphinxes

The Sphinxes are felines about the size of an Earth horse, with wings and talons like birds. They naturally belong to one of twelve clans, and usually communicate in a series of both feline and bird-like sounds(such as, but not limited to: chirps, hisses, meowing, cawing, roars, etc). This language is referred to as Dimali colloquially amongst the Sphinxes.

The Sa Clan

The vast desert sand dunes are occupied by the Sa, the smallest of all the clans. The Sa sphinxes closely resemble sand cats, but with a more slim face. They have longer fur that sprouts between their toes to protect their feet from the hot surface sand. Sa culture surrounds on how precious water is, treating water wells as sacred locations. The Sa worship snake spirits, and have elaborate hunting rituals for the rare giant serpents of the Sear.

The Ri Clan

The Ri are a very reclusive clan, preferring to hide deep in their forests surrounded by ancient trees and spirits. They are typically much smaller than the average sphinx, and display dark colors with rich reds on their fur. They have small, "kitten-like" faces with mildly fluffy tails. The Ri are adept with magic, often hoarding their secrets from outsiders. It is said that they have a close connection with the lungs, which is where they derive their magical knowledge.

The Tas Clan

The Tas live in the tropical rainforests of the Wai peninsula. They're the most colorful and vibrant of the sphinxes, with an endless range of fur colors and patterns. Their wings are similar to cockatoos. These sphinxes have a special fondness for feather and fur dyes, and can produce every conceivable color(including UV reactive and glowing dyes).

The Fa Clan

They occupy Ledas, the snow covered isle to the north of Cor Meum. This clan is nomadic, wandering their large territory to hunt and sustain themselves. They're the only sphinxes that hunt whales, more specifically the ivory B'Eshuul whales. These sphinxes have long, white fur and are similar to Norwegian Forest cats. They are so similar physiologically to their slightly southern neighbors, the Noh, that they might be considered a subgroup of them.

The Noh Clan

To the southern part of the Ledas are the vast pine forests, the home of the Noh Clan. Like the Fa, they have long fur and resemble Norwegian Forest cats, only their fur is more darkly colored. Both are also large, tough, and cold-resistant. With dark colors, keen instincts, and incredible strength, they make excellent hunters and warriors.

The Wen Clan

The sphinxes of the Wen occupy an island southwest of Cor Meum dominated by ancient red trees and volcanic activity. While they tend to be more disconnected from the other clans, it's not entirely by choice. There are many rumors about the Wen that make even dragons fear them. From their close connection to volcanism, to the idea they are spirit possessed, or possibly immortal. Tall and graceful, the sphinxes of this clan bear pale fur and sleek, noble eyes. They also have unique feather arrangements and tufted ears, which adds to their exotic profile. They have a knack for creating delicate and beautifully crafted jewelry and adornments.

The Fen Clan

The Fen sphinxes occupy the coastal cliffs of the Vjetar plateau and the islands surrounding it. Characterized by their bright orange colorization, they are shipbuilders and explorers. Having mastered the art of navigation, they bring goods and news from distant islands that are untouched by any of the four Beings. Sphinxes of Fen have more narrow, elongated wings similar to seabirds. This clan has close ties to the Noc, who have provided star charts to them for generations.

The Noc Clan

The Noc are loosely based in the mountains around the continent, mostly nomadic and nocturnal. The sphinxes of this clan are very owl-like, with large eyes and wings built for stealth. They are known to be great astronomers. They are often traders of secrets and information.

The Pel Clan

The clan of Pel occupy a large swath of land between the Sear and Taiao. Tricksters at heart, they are fond of poisons, venoms, and weaving. Mythology for the Pel surrounds storms and lightning, and the most impressive thunderstorms can be found in their territory. Though they're tricksters at heart, their elixirs are mainly used for medicine crafting. They are excellent runners for their species as well, mastering the art of long distance travel.

The Ku Clan

The Ku Clan make their homes in the northernmost point in the Sear, and their territory is a mix between red canyons and pine forests. They tend towards a rusty red color in the canyons, but to the north their coat coloring is grey and ticked. The typical Ku home is an elaborate, carved out chamber in the canyon walls, often with multiple chambers. After many generations of the practice, masonry and stonework are common skills. The Ku territory is rich with salt deposits, which is mined and sold to generate some of the greatest wealth amongst all the sphinx clans of the continents.

The Mal Clan

The sphinxes of Mal inhabit the dense mangrove and marshes between Wai and Taiao. They're the largest clan next to the Fa and Noh, with short fur in different shades of brown, and large, webbed wings. These sphinxes have the unusual ability to breathe underwater, and have developed fins on their topline, webbed talons, and a fish-like tail. Even though they're big clunky, these fins make them surprisingly aerodynamic, making them some of the best fliers amongst the sphinxes. They worship fish and water serpent spirits, and have a deep connection to the winged snakes of the swamps called amphipteres.

The Lin Clan

A mysterious, secretive clan who dwells in perpetual darkness beneath the surface of Cor Meum. They are very much bat-like, with large, beady eyes, huge ears, and bat-like wings that have finger-like appendages at the top to help them grip the cave walls. Their patron spirit is the Iron Root Spirit, also called the Mirror Tree. On the surface, it looks like a normal tree, but its roots take form to grow another tree seemingly growing from the cavern ceiling. Stories say that it talks to all of those able to listen, and will sometimes bestow the iron legs of their ancestor, Diersha. Rumored to be extinct, the Lin Clan spends their days mining and crafting prosthetics, unbothered by the world above… and blissfully ignorant of its current state.

Enslaved Sphinxes

Sphinxes that are owned by dragon nobility. Most are born into slavery, while others are clan sphinxes kidnapped by slave traders. Those who are born into slavery do not typically have any specific features to any one clan, but rather a cluster of hybrids of sick, selective "breeding" over generations. Many have grown accustomed to this life, and keep their heads low in order to survive. The existence of these slaves are exactly the reason why most sphinx clans keep far away from the other Beings.

[nezumiismissing]

Authoritarianism Without Leadership and the Formation of Spatial Identity

I think at this point I have probably brought this up in every single one of my analyses, so it’s about time that this topic gets its own breakdown in a full length post (or 2 or 3). There’s a lot to cover and it’s going to get way out there, but hopefully you can find something useful here. And if not, maybe it can at least be entertaining. More exploration of this topic to come at an unspecified time after the convention when my brain decides to enter the No.6 zone again. (and yes it is over 3000 words so, you know, plan for that)

So if you couldn’t tell, the No.6 anime does not have an antagonist, at least not in any traditional sense of the word. The opponent our characters are facing off against, it turns out, is not an evil scientist or an organization or a military, but instead it is the city and its systems that must be either destroyed or reformed by the end of the story. And while those other characters exist within the world of No.6, and all take actions that go directly against the desires of our main characters, they are not fought against especially directly and within the anime have no real identity, instead only existing as part of the whole. But what is the whole exactly? I think the easy answer here is to say that the whole is society, the culture we live within that shapes everything we do in life and that must have some amount of force placed upon it to change in any significant way. But when we say that “society is the whole”, and therefore the antagonist of No.6, what do we mean by that? And how does our perception and interpretation of what it means to be a society impact how we read and understand the story of No.6?

Now, having society be the antagonist of a young adult dystopian series is not something that No.6 came up with, obviously. It's basically a necessity of the genre. But within that structure, although not always apparent at first, there is a lot of variance. These worlds are almost always authoritarian and hierarchical, the result of some massive war or natural disaster that we have been unable to fully heal from, but outside of that, the way in which these worlds are built and understood are vastly different. Some are pretending to be utopias while others give us no image of what it means to be at the “top” and only show suffering. Some take place in over-crowded cities and others have sparse populations of people constantly searching for each other. There are social (and human) experiments, revolutions of all shapes and sizes, monsters and aliens and governments that are all in one way or another trying to reflect the very real events that are taking place in the real world in a way that is perhaps more comprehensible, or at least entertaining. Society as it currently exists is very much the antagonist of these stories, and at the center (and everywhere else) of a society are individual people making decisions that may or may not be good and may or may not have good intentions. So it is easy to see how, when it comes down to it, while society is implicitly understood to be the antagonist, most of these stories focus their energy on the removal of a tangible threat, usually a person or group of people who are determined to be “in charge” of the society and therefore responsible for much of the misery of a dystopia. The No.6 novels also fall into this group, as does the manga. But the No.6 anime, for whatever reason, decided to do something completely different, and something that is arguably much more terrifying.

From here on out I will just refer to the anime as No.6 and will specify if I am mentioning the novels/manga.

In No.6 things do not happen because someone says they need to happen, but they instead happen for…. what reason exactly? We see the mayor referenced briefly in the first episode, so we can assume that he is the one in charge of decision-making, but he makes no actual appearances. The military is clearly shown demolishing the West Block, but who is giving orders? Who is watching over the scientists at the Correctional Facility? Deciding where the wall will expand next if at all? In most stories you would see questions like these answered either near the beginning of the story or revealed at the end, and if it's neither of those then they’ll probably still show up at some point in the middle. But in No.6 there is none of that. There is no one or no group clearly “in charge” of what is happening at any time in regards to the city and its surroundings. Instead, it seems, the city has reached a point in which the details of how these things are occurring are unimportant, and that for the most part, things will unfold with or without the input of an individual or group. The implication of this being that No.6 is somehow separate from its people and government, and is, in a sense, alive.

I think this is largely why the anime is able to be so effective, despite its many other issues. On a surface level, the story lacks any kind of antagonist, making it unclear where exactly it's going. But the existence of the city as an independent entity fills in these odd gaps, creating the image of a society that has, quite literally, lost control of itself. It also makes more concrete the theme of “society vs nature” that is kind of hinted at for most of the story and then kind of shoved in your face at the end with Elyurias and Nezumi’s backstory. But with Elyurias being the physical embodiment of nature, what exactly is it that she is opposing? But before we get into that, some framing and questions (or maybe just one very big question).

What does it mean for a city to be “alive”? Not in the sense that things are happening in it and people are living there, but in the sense that it thinks and feels on its own and makes choices about itself that are not the direct result of human or other external input? Clearly people were responsible for its creation, and took care to create systems that would hold it together. But those systems were not created for the city itself, but rather the survival of the people living within it, with the city and society simply being a result of our need to be social. The city, if we are to see it as a living thing, doesn’t really gain anything from this arrangement so long as we are in control of it, and so will seek out ways to separate itself from us. It does need us to continue existing, however, and so it can’t truly create anything new on its own, and will instead make use of what we have already created. It will warp itself in unexpected ways, or cement systems that otherwise would change or disappear over time, so that it will better serve itself and maintain continuity while still appearing as though run by people. Different people will have varying amounts of control over how this all unfolds, but at a certain point there will be things that can no longer be changed through “traditional” means, at which point people will have to create and impose systems on a large scale that do not fit into the current form the city is in. And this is the point at which No.6 finds itself.

Now, there is a lot of my thinking that I’m skipping over here, especially in regards to how this applies to the real world and the implications that has, but for the purposes of No.6, this is a good starting point. The city that existed before No.6 was “killed”, restructured, and brought back to life as the result of a world war, and at the beginning of the story, we are already at a stage in which this new city has separated itself from its people and become a conscious entity. We see this process from a different perspective in the novels, with characters questioning how everything got to this point as they come to realize that the things they thought they were doing were never in their control in the first place, and that something else had made the city what it was. By omitting these characters entirely though, the anime makes their point clear, “it doesn’t matter who thinks they’re in charge of things, the city will function just fine with or without them”. I would argue that much of this is made possible through the advanced technology available in No.6, making it possible to automate systems in a way that keeps people entirely out of the process of dealing with massive amounts of vital information. You could probably even say that the “essence” of No.6, its identity as a sentient being, is mostly made up of these computerized systems and algorithms that determine everything about how a citizen will live their life.

This is, of course, similar to the way in which Elyurias is understood to operate, the main difference being that she is made up of natural, rather than man-made and technological systems. As sentient, omnipresent beings, they make use of small parts of their greater existence in order to convince different components to act in ways that are beneficial to their continued survival, reproduction, and expansion, with the survival of the individual components being far less of a concern as they are perceived as being easy to replace. Elyurias uses the parasitic bees to infinitely self-replicate, allowing her to endlessly alter and maintain the natural world as she sees fit. No.6, on the other hand, makes use of social and technological systems to convince its citizens to keep things as they are, or expand the limits of the city, or any number of other things it cannot do on its own, but are seen as crucial to its continued existence. Within the context of the story, there is no one person that needs to be “in control” of these actions, since the city is acting in what it sees as its own benefit, but it is also aware that in order to maintain itself, someone must appear in charge, and may even be influenced to believe that that is the case.

The problem with No.6, of course, arises from its desire to continue expanding while otherwise maintaining society as it currently exists. A static city is one that is destined to fall apart, or else have control returned to the people until a new form of stability can be achieved. So in order for No.6 to maintain its identity as an independent entity, it must change in other ways, and thus views expansion and increased complexity as a path forward. When it comes into contact with Elyurias as a result of this expansion though, it is clear that their goals as entities are incompatible and cannot occupy the same space. For Elyurias this necessitates the destruction of No.6, since the city has already been responsible for the damage and destruction of large areas of her “realm”, while No.6 sees her as an opportunity to improve its own systems through the assimilation of her powers into its “realm”. This assimilation, as the city sees it, both expands its power through the elimination and subsequent exploitation of a competing entity, as well as further automates its own processes through the combination of technological and natural systems. None of these benefits are seen by the citizens, of course, and in fact the result would instead be an almost complete removal of their free will, but for No.6’s purposes those effects are inconsequential so long as the people continue existing. 

This formatting can also be extrapolated to describe Shion and Nezumi’s roles and understanding of the world, which clearly play a much more prominent role in the outward text of the series. Shion has a difficult time understanding and accepting No.6’s absolute corruption not because he has no experience with the suffering it has caused or or the inherent problems with hierarchy. Clearly he has been subjected to both of those things quite early on in the series. Instead the issue arises from the fact that while Nezumi, who learned about Elyurias in his childhood and has an understanding of “sentient” non-human systems, Shion has no basis for comprehending this, and is therefore unable to see how No.6 could have become so awful without anyone noticing or intervening, and cannot understand the true nature of the issue without first passing it through the filter of human decision-making processes. Nezumi falls into this as well on several occasions when he claims that the citizens are the ones at fault for the city’s problems. But unlike Shion, this comes from a lack of understanding of the specific systems that make up the city and a need to have a concrete place of blame rather than a belief in complete human control over society. Through this lens, the story of the human characters of No.6 in the anime is one of coming to understand the nature of both human and non-human systems, where they may intersect and overlap, and then determining how change can be brought about when we do not have control, or even meaningful access, to those systems.

So when a city has separated itself from its citizens, when it has become functionally “alive” and begins to behave in ways that no longer benefit or sustain our conception of humanity, what can be done to regain control? Can a city that has become independent be brought back under human control, or must it be destroyed and rebuilt, its structure completely altered so that little if any of what was originally there remains intact? The answer that No.6 seems to give is much more in line with the latter idea (at least in this fictional instance). Because of No.6’s rapid development, there was never a chance for people to fully grasp what they were really doing, and if anyone did realize what had happened, it was far too late to alter the city in a way that took away its power. The city is authoritarian to the point of self-inflicted genocide in an instance of internal social destabilization, and the faulty addition of Elyurias’ power makes this self-destruction incredibly easy. The fact that her assimilation into No.6’s system is incomplete only exacerbates the issue, and is ultimately what leads to its destruction.

The destruction of the wall as a physical presence has any number of meanings, some of which I have written about before and others that I may or may not write about in the future. But within this reading of No.6 as “alive”, what stands out the most is the fact that what ultimately gave the city its independent status was its refusal to even interact with other systems. Its purpose, its role, as an entity was entirely one of self-preservation, born from the paranoia that inevitably followed the war responsible for its creation. By destroying the wall, and allowing people access to “others”, the city cannot remain isolated and reinforce a singular concept of society, therefore losing almost the entirety of its power over people. Without the wall, there is no No.6, and without No.6, people are once again free to build something new.

Just to bring this all back around to where we started, and maybe simplify all that down to something manageable, what does it mean to have an antagonist that is alive, but not human or otherwise sentient in a way that we understand? In No.6’s case, I don’t think it is enough to say that society is the problem, or that by removing a government and installing new leadership, all of the problems can be solved. Unlike in the novels and manga, the anime does not even give us the second option, since there functionally is no government to oppose for the most part. Instead, we are given a city that people have not had influence over for a significant amount of time, one in which “society” is not a single thing shaped by the people that make it up, but is also a social system that is imposed upon people by a non-human force. No.6, as an entity, needs its citizens only to the extent that they are useful to it, namely as a mechanism for expansion and self-defense, but exists as such that the people living within it are completely reliant upon it in every aspect of their lives. Something so simple as putting someone else in the arbitrary position of “leadership” is meaningless when that person has no real power, and so in order to reclaim human control over the entirety of society, an inaccessible entity must be destroyed. In this sense, Nezumi is not wrong to say that No.6 needs to be destroyed completely, and is instead only misled as to what that actually means, mistaking the people living within the confines of the city for the city itself. The defining feature of the city, the wall, also acts as the source of its power and independence, and thus its destruction is functionally equivalent to its death, leaving behind only a loose collection of systems and beliefs that are no longer upheld in any physical or tangible way.

Society is made up of people, that is clear, but what is less obvious is that people are also made up of society. We can recognize that society impacts us and shapes who we are and how we think, but it is perhaps the case that to an even stronger degree, society is operating outside of our own individual or even collective input, and is, in a sense, self-sustaining. Rather than our own beliefs being imposed upon an ever-changing society, it is a preexisting society that imposes itself upon us, deciding when, how, and if things will change. It does change over time, and that of course is due to people’s existence within it, but what No.6 makes clear, to me at least, is that while people are unable to survive without the construction of a society, even if that society is destructive, the society at a certain point will no longer need people to maintain itself outside of the basic definition of its existence, and it is at that point that it becomes much more difficult, and dangerous, to change.

[doberbutts]

Have you seen the document floating around in a few of the dog book groups regarding the Belgian Kennel Clubs BOAS scoring system? It’s pretty interesting... I’m curious to hear thoughts from someone who knows more than I do haha!

In complete honesty, I’m not exactly sure what document you’re referring to, because I’m not part of many dog-related FB groups because many are filled with drama and I stepped away from such for my own mental health :]

BOAS- Brachycephalic Obstructive Airway Syndrome- is more or less the collective of all the problems that can be associated with the brachycephalic head. Everything that the skull shape in and of itself makes the dog at risk for- the pinched nares, the elongated soft palette, the collapsing of soft tissue within the airways themselves, these are all symptoms of BOAS.

A couple vet articles explaining the basic idea are here:

https://vcahospitals.com/know-your-pet/brachycephalic-airway-syndrome-in-dogs

https://www.acvs.org/small-animal/brachycephalic-syndrome

http://www.vet.upenn.edu/docs/default-source/ryan/ryan-report-bas-article-2.pdf?sfvrsn=238fe3ba_0

https://todaysveterinarypractice.com/surgical-skills-corrective-surgery-dogs-with-brachycephalic-airway-syndrome/

However I want readers to notice that none of them say “all dogs with flat faces are affected by this problem”, simply that the very shape of the brachycephalic skull puts a dog at risk. In fact, the example photos on a couple articles are not a flat-faced dog. This is more or less what I keep being on about- a brachy head is a brachy head. You can breed for more length on the nose, but until you actually fix the entire shape of the head, the dog is still brachy. This means that all of these breed mixes and fixes haven’t made much progress in that regard, because they are still selecting for a brachy head. You cannot have your cake and eat it too. Either the dogs are brachy and thus unhealthy, or you admit there’s more nuance to it than that.

The first article also mentions obesity- another point I’m continuously on about- and how obesity is seen to worsen symptoms. Many people keep their pugs and bulldogs and chihuahuas and everything else very fat. Most chihuahuas are carrying around close to double the weight they’re supposed to be! Seeing a significantly high instance of trouble breathing in a dog that’s been reduced to a snorting fat sausage is always going to be a thing- which is why so many advocates for these breeds are careful to keep their dogs trim and active.

I’d note as well that the diagnosis process requires more than a look at the outside of the dog’s head. People like to share shock photos of just how short a flat muzzle is- and I’ll freely admit that breeding for extreme traits always lands us in trouble- but what about inside? Because without looking deeper, frequently under sedation, you have no idea if the flatter muzzle on that particular dog is less healthy than the slightly longer muzzle on a dog that’s still brachycephalic.

Lastly, the first article ends with a warning that dogs who cannot breathe without help shouldn’t breed. It’s noteable that both the chihuahua and the pug standard also say this, despite selecting for the brachycephalic head shape. Do most people follow it, do breeders ignore that while chasing their titles and ribbons? Maybe, maybe not. I’m not involved enough in the breeds to tell you that. But I can tell you that hanging out with brachy breed people at events will reveal who’s talking about it and trying to prevent it from popping up with their dogs.

There are a couple papers worth reading on the subject that I’m currently aware of. If the paper you mention isn’t one of these, then please link it to me!

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27159898

(things to note: a whopping 95ish% of brachycephalic dogs tested for this were positive for symptoms of BOAS, including previously asymptomatic dogs. This means that just listening to the dog breathe isn’t enough, and a whole-body test should be conducted along with an exercise portion to ensure the dogs are breathing well. Additionally these are client-provided dogs, meaning dogs from all backgrounds with brachy heads, and not specifically any one weight or breeding style. obesity and pinched nares made the dog significantly more likely to show signs)

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4624979/

(things to note: taken from the abstract itself is “Despite the name of the syndrome, scientific evidence quantitatively linking brachycephaly with BOAS is lacking, but it could aid efforts to select for healthier conformations.” and “[...] BOAS risk increases sharply in a non-linear manner as relative muzzle length shortens. BOAS only occurred in dogs whose muzzles comprised less than half their cranial lengths. Thicker neck girths also increased BOAS risk in both populations: a risk factor for human sleep apnoea and not previously realised in dogs; and obesity was found to further increase BOAS risk. This study provides evidence that breeding for brachycephaly leads to an increased risk of BOAS in dogs, with risk increasing as the morphology becomes more exaggerated [...]” - breeding for extreme traits will get us into trouble, but dogs with muzzles 50% of the length of their craniums will still be at risk. A longer snout does not solve the problem. Interestingly, girthy necks were also found to be part of the issue, something most people don’t even think of. Also the study does not consider the pomeranian, chow, or rottweiler as brachy, even though they definitely are. Once again, the use of client dogs from several sources, weights, backgrounds, and more specifically that were referred to one particular vet practice were used.)

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4469695/

(things to note: a non-invasive test was developed for the Frenchie and is spreading to other brachy breeds to control the prevalence of the problem in at-risk breeds. The Pug Club of America also mentions this test as a way to see if their breeding dogs are affected.)

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5538678/

(things to note: this particular study uses WAY MORE dogs than the previous ones have, over 600 when most have used 50-200. Once again mentioning that pinched nares and obesity are the highest predictive factors, but other conformation factors such as a thick neck, eye width, and neck length in addition to the relative shape of the head also seemed to play a part in which dogs would be most affected. Wide skulls are also mentioned- technically brachycephalia is not just the length but also the width of the skull. Once again a wide sample, however they did deliberately seek show dogs for some of these results.)

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1090023316302106

(things to note: EB specific- once again an exercise test used to determine what dogs would be more affected, and discovered that dogs with higher body temperatures were more severely affected. Not particularly surprising as most dogs pant in the heat to cool down, and if their airways are restricted that means much less heat escapes and they cannot run cool air over their internal breathing structures to fix the problem.)

https://veterinaryrecord.bmj.com/content/182/13/375.abstract

(things to note: this is the first study I’ve seen that actually talks about the fact that while breed clubs may have systems in place to fix the problems associated with their breeds, the vast majority of dogs seen for this problem are going to be pet dogs from non-registered breeders, pet stores, rescues, and other sources rather than show dogs, for the simple fact that show dogs are a minority among pet households. This makes it difficult to say if “the standard” is causing a problem, or if “breeders who don’t give a shit about their dogs” are causing a problem.)

All in all, I was somewhat annoyed about the bashing of perfectly nice dogs and breeders doing their best before, and now it’s a personal passion because my fucking puppy died and it’s partially because she was brachy and yet everyone praises the inch-long snouts on these pug fixes because they’re magically not affected anymore, meanwhile I have a dead puppy who had some muzzle length and that definitely didn’t protect her and she suffered and died and yet people want to keep harping on how pugs have flat faces. At least these flat-faced pugs live longer than 10 months and don’t die in their owners’ arms after spending more than half that fighting a losing battle with their own body. All the muzzle length in the world doesn’t fucking matter if you have a dead puppy to show for it. The very shape of the head itself is the important part. Posting shock pictures of dogs with no muzzle to speak of tells me nothing and gives me no comfort because that dog lived to old age with very few complications and my dog never got that chance because it was robbed from her at birth.

[u23art]

A LOOK AT THE STARGATE FRANCHISE

A Look at the Stargate Franchise Stretching over the expanse of nearly 20 years, the Stargate franchise persevered as best it could, entertaining audiences with scifi/ military adventures with various SG teams across many planets. And by golly, over the last month, I took it upon myself to watch all the Stargates. Starting with the Stargate film, the adventure begins with the discovery of an artifact in Giza, covered in glyphs, experts suspected the portal like object to have originated by an intelligence earlier than the Ancient Egyptians. Nearly 80 years later, historian/ archeologist/ anthropologist Daniel Jackson (James Spader) is recruited by a military outfit and successfully deciphers the meaning of the glyphs and the artifact. Each glyph coordinates with a constellation, using 6 around a destination along with a point of origin creates a wormhole to travel along between two of these artifacts called Stargates. Joining up with a team lead by Col Jack O’neill, they set off to a distant planet, meet an ancient life form that nurtured Earth’s earliest cultures and liberate a desert people from the alien that named itself their god. This film, though overshadowed by the media that came afterwards, is an earnest adventure story that knew what it wanted and nailed the landing. The world building is solid and doesn’t interfere with the story progression and creates a sympatico relationship with the character Daniel Jackson. The character’s enthusiasm for understanding the culture validates the importance of the world and the world in turn gives Daniel Jackson a muse to let him flex his intelligence, giving audiences some engaging and thorough analysis to connect with. James Spader gives a stand out performance with this character and becomes the backbone of the film, with no disrespect towards Kurt Russell. Combined with effective special effects, the 1994 film cements itself as a science fiction must-see. Following up the movie, running ten years from 1997 to 2007, Stargate SG-1 was a prime contender on Showtime and the scifi channel.

Recasting O’neill and Jackson with Richard Dean Anderson and Michael Shanks, the two form a team with Samantha Carter (Amanda Tapping) and a former enemy soldier Teal’c (Christopher Judge). Expanding upon ideas set by the film, the galaxy is under the rule of another parasitic race known as the Goa’uld. This show was balanced and well cared for. Some charms of this show carry over from the movie, namely the relationship shared between each new world and Daniel Jackson, and this time this aspect is improved upon by the performance by Michael Shanks. He had fun with his character, his character loved exploring and that validated each new world the team visits. On top of this, the worlds aren’t just one and done, with each new season brings evolving politics, making the story well-constructed and leaving next to no added fluff. Regarding the new actors aside from Michael Shanks, Richard Dean Anderson portrays Jack O’neill with a calm yet playful demeanor, making him a comforting presence in any seemingly stressful situation. Teal’c is portrayed by Christopher Judge, giving a performance offering strength, sensitivity and breathtaking deadpan comedy. Samantha Carter however, played by Amanda Tapping, is a bit of a double edged sword. Sam Carter is stubbornly professional, meaning that she approaches problems with calm inquisition, but she doesn’t actually have a character arc. Despite getting her chops busted constantly by coworkers and villains alike, she responds to nearly every show of pigheadedness with “with all due respect”. I can’t think of many instances where she gives an aggressive or sarcastic response to rude behavior, and further still I don’t think there was a single point where she cracked a joke. But I digress, all in all SG-1 is a well-oiled machine and earns it’s good reputation. Next up is Atlantis. Running from 2004 to 2009, we find ourselves in a new galaxy with a new SG team led by Col John Sheppard. Lasting only 5 seasons, the show left behind a few ingredients that made it’s predecessors as engaging as it was, but still provided fun character interactions. The show is more action based, most stories depicting each new world as a new danger and resolving many conflics with hammers rather than scalpels. And the team this time around lacks a character like Daniel Jackson, removing the element of curiousity towards the worlds and in turn the worlds begin to lack appeal. The writing began to lean more on characters than world building, but regardless, John Sheppard and his crew provide fun, banter and action. And then came Stargate Universe. Thanks, I hate it. This show lasted only 2 seasons and a comic book mini series, and I couldn’t be happier. I can’t remember the last time I watched such an uncharismatic show, with an uncharismatic cast on an uncharismatic set. Lasting even less time than Atlanis, with only 2 seasons from 2009 to 2011, adventure is abandoned entirely and replaced with a survival story. Here we follow a group of civilians and SGC personnel, dragged along by the obsessive curiosity of the total sociopath; Dr. Rush. Deciphering a Stargate address with not 7 but 9 glyphs, Rush drags over 40 survivors of a base attack onto an abandoned, ancient ship called the Destiny. Several galaxies away from earth and unable to control the ship, Rush seeks to uncover the mission of the Destiny while everyone else just wants to get home. The funniest aspect of this show is that it’s structured like a reality tv show, take a bunch of irritated people, isolate them and watch the chaos ensue. There’s even a surprise pregnancy, and I totally watch scifi for that. As for world building, there is next to none. Each world is one and done, managing only to give the characters brief periods to have some shenanigans before moving on. There’s plenty of intrigue regarding the Destiny, from the get go it raises a number of questions; what was the ship’s purpose, why was it abandoned, where is it’s crew. Only one of these questions is truly answered; the purpose of the destiny was to track down and investigate an energy signature supposedly left behind from the birth of the universe, essentially a journey to find God in a sense. Story progression drags it’s feet and without proper focus. The main point of intrigue is the Destiny and it’s mission, then there are the ongoing problems of cabin fever among the civilians and then there’s the emotional turmoil of the SGC soldiers and their emotional instability. None of this is executed in a way that works, the characters certainly perform but none of what they do contributes to learning anything new about the Destiny, leaving me with total apathy towards scenes with most of the characters because they’re irrelevant to the main point of interest towards the show. I found myself just glazing over the characters problems because they don’t contribute substance in tandem to the main story. This is not helped by the fact that the characters wear dull, dark clothes on a dull, dark space ship, leaving no scene looking particularly remarkable. In addition to the problems on the Destiny, there is an issue of cloak and dagger espionage on Earth, this becomes more interesting by default because we join members of the original SG-1 team in well-lit locations with a clear problem and characters willing to solve said problem. The series ends unspectacularly and  was followed up by an unspectacular comic that still doesn’t resolve the ongoing problems. This show bears the name “Stargate” but lacks all the elements that made what came before it so entertaining. The show was cancelled due to issues of poor reviews and financial trouble and at present there’s no chance of a return, and I won’t lose sleep over this. Then after wrapping up my time with Universe, I ended my Stargate marathon with Stargate Infinity. Stargate Universe was a standard 26 episode animated series from 2002 to 2003, airing on the short lived Fox Box and produced by Dic animation. Set years ahead of SG-1, Gus Bonner and a rag tag SG team are framed and accused of treason, finding themselves banished by Stargate command and chased by an alien race called Tlak’kahn. It’s a show for young audiences, and made by an animation studio that pumped out a lot of budget cartoons. Though to this show’s credit, it was more bearable than Alienators: Evolution Continues, another Dic cartoon based off a science fiction property which displayed embarrassing writing like a badge of honor. The show is cheap, has passable animation, toy like character designs and barely taps into the ongoing conflict, making nearly every episode a contained story. Had I watched this before I watched Universe, I probably would have looked on this show with more scrutiny. However, this is not the case, and I can look on this show more favorably now that I’ve seen what Stargate can look like without most of it’s pieces. Despite the show’s faults, it still retains the idea of adventure and exploration, and it has episodes that lightly touch upon issues like living in poverty or dealing with addiction. And Gus Bonner had so many insightful things to say on issues of science and history, I found it rather wholesome. I even appreciate the colorful toy-like designs after several hours of next to no color at all during Stargate Universe. All in all, the show retains the Stargate identity and gives a decent enough show with what resources it has. There were several other pieces of media that came out for the Stargate franchise, such as books and games, but as of this time the Stargate Franchise is on ice for the foreseeable future. It was an underdog that had some bite to it, and that didn’t go unappreciated. It was refreshing getting to watch the shows and get a more complete perspective for the scattered episodes I’d seen when SG-1 was still on the air.

[border-spam]

AU Troy Character Timeline

Right, so I saw an incredible breakdown of Troy’s mental journey/state of ego last night ( that I’ll see if I can get permission to post at some point ) that really kicked my confidence into overdrive for writing out a definitive timeline for the version of him I write about in drabbles/fics etc as it was so amazingly similar. This isn’t complete, it couldn’t be because man I have a lot of stuff for this guy, but I hope it’s interesting for people maybe looking for a somewhat logical bunch of HC content that works well with the info we were given ingame. 

Writing this was like doing a jigsaw puzzle. Except ten pieces are missing, and you have 2 dominos and a Mrs Cupcake card instead. If you like any of this, feel free to use it. I’ll eventually expand on it in my own works.

Pre Pandora Era - 28  years pre BL3

Severe self esteem / image issues from very early childhood. Leda’s death left Typhon both terrified of Tyreen and desperately paranoid about her safety, leaving Troy to feel far less valued and loved as he found himself constantly failing to compete for attention from his remaining parent. 

Typhon never outright called Troy a freak, but he overheard plenty of discussions with his mother and with Tyreen explaining why he was so sick all the time, why he looked the way he did, why he was broken. He never discussed these, they festered in the back of his mind for the rest of his life. 

Strived from an early age to be useful, being useful gave him the belief he was valued, and a “Great job kid!” from his father felt good enough that it could almost replace feeling loved.

Misses his mother intensely from the day she died, for the rest of his life. Had no one else to have platonic intimacy with bar his sister, which never felt as freely given as with his mother. 

Developed an extremely crippled sense of social behavior and rules. The only people the Twins could interact with till they landed on Pandora ( which I HC was between 18 -19 ) were each other, and their Father. 

Left alone on a giant empty planet with no one to tell them no, or instill an understanding of social rules to them regarding others, left them with only a feeling of personal value for each other. This is an extremely dangerous state of mind for any person who will need to function in a social structure, especially a person in power. 

Had it hammered into them over and over by their father that the galaxy outside their home was filled with murderers. Animals. Bandit filth. Not like them, not like their parents, horrible, vicious things that would kill them the second they could. 

Internalised that to the point where it was a crucial part of their development of self as children. The twins would genuinely struggle to comprehend any other human they met was a person, because they were told their whole developing lives that no one they would meet bar their father would be.

 Pre COV - 8 years pre BL3

Lands on Pandora with Tyreen. Woefully underprepared and worried sick, didn’t want to leave Nekro but had no other choice but to go with his sister or die. Misses his father immediately, but avoids talking about it, knowing it will cause an argument.

Disliked that their father had kept them on Nekro intensely, but not enough to hate him the way Tyreen did. This never changed and the regret for leaving him only rotted inside him over the years. 

Very excited to finally meet new people, but his social skills are learned through watching old echos and while he can mimic them, he doesn’t understand social intricacies as well as he’d hoped. This sabotages their first few attempts to communicate with Pandoran non bandit natives. 

Comes across as weird. Stutters, not good with eye contact, awkward in body language and very unnatural in appearance. Extremely tall (6″7), very thin and sickly looking with sallow skin and dark under eyes. His missing arm and quarter of his shoulder draw far more attention than he had ever expected and he becomes instantly self conscious of the damage to his right side, strongly disliking how it’s pointed out every time they try and interact with one of these idiots.  

The twins only had the clothes they had travelled in and at this point they are pretty much rags patched together over nearly 2 decades. Didn’t understand how much appearances were going to matter, Troy had been sure he’d be able to “Mingle with the locals no problem.”, and now feels like he’s letting his sister down by failing to perform the way he’d been so sure of. They move onto the bandit clans once they get laughed out of the first small town they try to impress.

Their first few interactions with bandits have very bad results. They both get mocked a lot, Troy gets insulted even more. This is the first time in his life he’s met other men bar his father and the harsh reality that he is not like other men is really starting to hit hard. He’s monstrously tall, he has no muscle, he’s bony and sick and the bandits make very clear to him that he’s a freak.

Unable to defend himself verbally to people that don’t seem to speak a coherent language, he feels impotent and emasculated. Troy’s gift with words has always been his strong point, something he was proud of, and the bandits barely even understand what he’s saying. Any interest he’d had towards them as other people gets quashed. They clearly aren’t the same as he and Ty, they are beneath them. Savages. They aren’t people after all. His dad was right.

This is the point where he fully switches to seeing almost all others as non-persons. They aren’t people, they aren’t what he and Tyreen are, or they wouldn’t act like this in response to the twins. Any possible empathy he could have developed over time is aborted at this point, and he begins to craft the God King persona he understands he will need to disguise his shortcomings under if he’s going to be in the public’s eye.

Begins to create it piece by piece. Designs their outfits, designs his tattoos and mods, his monstrous arm, their name. 

The Calypso twins are born, and the COV with them.

Early COV Era - 7 years pre BL3

As he learns how to communicate with bandits and craft a persona for Tyreen that they will be drawn to, the COV starts to form. While the huge majority of their followers are people they see as not even being the same species as them, they do also begin to fill the higher ranks with people they are meeting over time that they see as having value. 

People with skills in categories they don’t, engineers, media experts, accountants, are drawn to the COV for the same reasons as the bandits. Opportunity, just a different sort.

Joining in the early days means having the twin’s ears, and those who have excellent ideas, or bring talent to the upper echelon that the twin's don’t have themselves, eventually end up as high priests and Saints. Department leaders (eg: Mouthpiece ). These are the kind of people he sees as people, though still not on par with himself or his sister in value. These are the few he would be capable of having functional conversations with, building simple relationships. 

He has found value in his ability to be very useful within the COV. Leading the Media and Propaganda department has given him a huge amount of power, even if he still physically feels extremely frail. 

He’s settled into living in Tyreen’s shadow, she’s the star, but he’s the puppeteer, and he’s happy for it to be that way for the most part. While she can sometimes step out of line or treat him like he’s not equal, he’s quick to remind her of her place during these outbursts, and their relationship is relatively stable.

Troy is fiercely loyal and surprisingly gentle with people he has a bond with. Despite his desperation to have meaningful connections, to be cared for and liked as himself, they don’t stay around him long.

No matter how hard he tries to give them what he thinks they want, they eventually leave, and he doesn’t understand that they are distancing themself because of how he treats other people, not them.

Troy’s complete inability to view the vast majority of people as people means he has a total lack of empathy towards almost everyone else, and this is a terrifying thing to experience first hand. He doesn’t understand this is why his “friends” leave, why they stop being friendly with him, or request to be transferred to another district.  

“Why did you do that to them..?” - “Huh? Ohhhh, relax haha, it’s just a bandit.” - “What do you mean, just a bandit, they felt that Troy, what’s wrong with you?’ - "The hell? No, it’s a b.a.n.d.i.t. It’s not like us, it’s not like you, it’s just.. you know, a bandit! Doesn’t matter what I do to em.” -shrug- - “-horrified silence-”

He blames himself each time this happens and damages his already fractured self esteem further. He can’t comprehend that his actions are the problem, because he simply has no way to understand his actions are bad. 

Each time someone close to him leaves, it’s another hit to his already crumbling self worth. He has absolutely no strong bonds with anyone bar his sister, who at times seems to barely like him, and he is genuinely desperate for validation and care from someone who likes Troy, not Calypso, not the God he pretends to be.

Every time another one of his “friends” vanishes, another of his little connections to his own humanity breaks. He gets angrier, and sadder, the God King a little more snarling and quicker to snap. It’s a sore point Tyreen tends to dig in during arguments too.

She doesn’t need anyone else, but she’s seen the near manic excitement and happiness he has when he connects with another person over a shared interest or they show actual genuine kindness towards him and not his title. If that person then becomes upset with his lack of empathy, or scared of it and abandons him, it’s another open wound on the already dying soul inside him that’s barely still breathing.

He has a complete and defined understanding of right and wrong, but those rules only apply to people, and his social development from infant to adult left his comprehension of other people so stunted, he cannot fathom that the vast majority of others are people. 

God King Calypso is a fucking nightmare to anyone bar the select view he sees as “people like him”. A feral, cackling monster, as likely to airdrop a million dollars onto a tiny village and record the reaction, as he is to rip a bandits arms off during a raid and live steam them bleeding out. All the same to him. Just background NPCs in his game. Placeholder actors in his life. They don’t matter. All that does matter is how they make him feel, or how they further his sister’s goals.

Every year that passes by leaves the God King more polished and defined, more in control a persona, while inside its impenetrable shell Troy DeLeon is slowly being suffocated by the weight of his own sins, without having the ability to understand he had been sinning at all.

God King Era - 4 years pre Bl3

By this point, Troy’s isolation is now deadly. He is a deity, worshipped by billions, with absolutely no points of human contact in his life to anchor himself to reality. No one to help him understand how to apply his sense of right and wrong to his followers, only his sister, who is even more toxic and vicious than he is.

Every day since starting the COV, he’s distanced himself further from the worshippers, the bandits, the acolytes. They are screaming war meat now, they are chips to barter with, numbers on a viewer count, flesh to tear into when he wants to feel something.

His relationship with Tyreen is crumbling. She’s quicker now to imply he’s not as important, he’s not the Siren. She’s called him a parasite in front of a merger board, a burden during a discussion with department heads. Each new crack at his inner ego only strengthens the persona further. Makes it more attention seeking, more willing to lash out at others, more vicious.

His “friends"are long gone, either fled from the behemoth the COV now is, or far away in other districts, planets, cities. The people he is close with now in working relationships are held at arms length. He doesn’t let anyone near him anymore, he’s afraid they will leave too if he does. 

The isolation pushes him further into the God King persona every day. If he’s Troy Calypso, he doesn’t NEED anyone else. The further he sinks into it, the more aggressive, the more twisted his actions become, but he doesn't see it that way. This is what his followers want, so it must be fine. Why wouldn’t it be fine to ravenously tear into heretics on livestream if 8 billion people are tuning in to watch?

He’s becoming cruel, he’s becoming vicious, but the man he was before he reached Pandora is still whispering that Tyreen is treating him wrong. That this isn’t how it was meant to be, that he’s not weak or a burden.

But listening to that voice means also having to listen to the one telling him he’s warped into something disgusting that his mother would be so let down by, that his father was right about him being a broken monstrosity. He continues to ignore it, and he loses himself further every day.

The deeper he recedes into the God King, the more he starts having nightmares, the more those whispers in the back of his mind get louder. He does what he can to ignore them, but sometimes something will set him off.

An argument with Tyreen, a momentary feeling of regret for leaving his home, a pang of loneliness. He often can’t sleep, and he knows if he starts to wonder why, clarity for the horrors he’s done could crush him.

Drugs, sex, bloodlust, he tries anything to take his mind off the intrusive thoughts that grow day by day. That he’s a failure. He’s a freak. He’s a cold blooded murder, but every now and then he’ll wake up in a cold sweat and hate himself so much that he wishes he’d never been born. 

The feeling passes very quickly as the God King shifts back into place and swallows it down, but while it’s there it’s horrific. He see’s himself from other people’s eyes for just a moment and god what has he turned into. What has he done. He’s a fucking monster.

The man he had been is so damaged under the mantle of this vicious God he’s wearing as a skin that it’s barely alive anymore, and it’s what begs him to kill it in those fleeting moments where he sees past his own facade, where he just for a second realises how many people he has hurt.

He tore his throat out a couple of years before the start of the game story in a moment of lucidity after being sleep deprived for days on end. Tyreen reached him in time when his implanted vitals tracker each twin keeps for the other alerted her to his condition, but it was close enough that he was bedridden for days after her energy transfer closed the wound.

She had been furious with him and made sure it was was kept hushed, the rest of the clergy believing he was on reprieve. Only the twins know the truth of what happened.

He never takes the collars off anymore now, the scars are still there. Convincing Tyreen that it had had happened during a nightmare when he’d left his prosthetic on by mistake was easy. Convincing himself to try and forget he’d been lucid and how it still feels like the right thing to do, is not. 

By the point the story begins, Troy is in a constant state of exhaustion, and knows deep down everything he has been through and done to others was for nothing. Tyreen doesn’t care about him the way he does her. She may never have, or she changed, he doesn’t know anymore. 

What he does know, is that he won't ever be a real God, and that the only reason he’s still alive is because he is useful. 

Maybe he should never have tried so hard to be useful.

 Phew.

I guess in a nutshell, my Troy’s greatest downfall is the God King persona.

As long as that shit is active, as long as it’s being worshipped, he’s never going to snap into reality. The reality that other people are there, that he’s been hurt so badly as a person, it’s all impossible long as he is being treated as, and believes, he is a God. 

The manic moments of clarity he has in the later stages of the COV rule are few and far between, but they eat him alive as he can’t understand why he suddenly feels so terrible, why he’s filled with such consuming remorse.

Peel the God King off the broken man underneath it and you leave him bare, confused, scared. You make him have to deal with reality, with people, with himself. That’s when you get him to show regret, and understand what he’s done, and understand what Ty has done to him.

That’s the redemption.

When he realises the game he was playing was real for billions, and suffers for it. It ends where it ends as my Troy ain’t dyin’ :P I’ll get to my rewrite eventually.  I hope to keep exploring these ideas in the future. Just desperately wish I’d as much to work with for Tyreen as I do Troy. GB YOU HEAR THAT? YOU HEAR THATTTT??

[sepublic]

Rhotuka

           Studies into transmitting the power of the soul itself –initially by harnessing Kraata power with the Exo-Toa- eventually delved into the concept of sentience, as well as sapience. Individuality, personhood, the nature of the metaphorical soul came into question and how it was structured; After all, before Kratakal’s arrival on Xia, few scientists believed in the soul having an actual existence.

           But with his appearance and the knowledge he offered, combined with studies on recreating the sapient mind with AI… Eventually Xian scientists asked if it was possible to harness the power of the mind itself. In particular, the Nynrah Ghosts took towards exploring what made a person, well, a person- And not just a person, but their own unique individual as well.

           Mind was a result and/or aspect of a sapient soul, and generally speaking, souls with more energy tended to develop higher levels of thought; Spiriah’s experiments, as well as his experiments on beings such as the Dark Hunter Charger, proved this concept. The Nynrah Ghosts developed increasingly complex AI, as well as Exo-Toa technology designed to further access the mind itself. Combined with a few Viruses, and the Rhotuka launcher was finally invented; An incredible piece of technology that had the ability to almost subconsciously analyze a mind and react specifically towards the unique things, wavelengths, and patterns that made up someone’s personality, manifesting it as an energy-wheel with an unusual property.

           Rhotuka are wheels of energy that can be conjured through the use of a Rhotuka Launcher, an artificial creation of the Nynrah Ghosts. The exact effects and properties of a Rhotuka vary by individual (and some species), but generally speaking they are first charged up within the launcher as it gathers energy, spinning it into a wheel before finally releasing it. The wheel then whirls through the air until it reaches a target, before transmitting its effects.

           The power of a Rhotuka depends on the personality of the user; For example, one individual may have a Rhotuka that spreads out into multiple explosions, while another being will have a Rhotuka that melts through all matter with a corrosive, acid-like property. A Rhotuka could switch the minds of the user and the target, or it could transmute matter itself.

           The exact ability of a Rhotuka is a direct reflection of the individual user’s soul, personality, and experiences. It is the very culmination of who they are (or at least a partof that identity), manifested in the form of an energy-wheel whose powers and properties are symbolically tied to the user. The exact nature between how a Rhotuka is influenced is not entirely understood; When creating the Rhotuka Launcher, the Nynrah Ghosts delved into a field of forces and study that they themselves did not quite understand- They could merely only interact with it, the same way a bird may use the wind to keep itself in the air without truly knowing how air itself functions.

           With very few exceptions, just about every sapient individual’s Rhotuka is unique in some shape or form. Unless two people have two incredibly identical experiences and personalities, the likelihood of two Rhotuka being the same is extremely scarce. However, when it comes to sentient creatures of some thought –such as certain species of intelligent animal- it seems that a single species will tend to produce the same Rhotuka effect throughout all members. Again, occasional exceptions amongst animal species occurs, but generally speaking, it seems that all members of an intelligent animal species yield the same Rhotuka; But as sapience increases with a species –particularly with Xians- the Energy-Wheels’ variety exponentially branches out.

           Rhotuka Launchers can come in a wide variety of shapes, with some being attached as large tools to a user, and others directly grafted into their very being. All Rhotuka interact with the nature of the soul itself, using technology not dissimilar to what one may find in an Exo-Toa. Thus, cheaper models tend to require direct attachment to a user, while the most expensive consist of gauntlets that can easily be donned and removed at will.

           Any sapient being can and will produce a Rhotuka. When it comes to animals, as aforementioned, only species of a certain intelligence threshold can yield the power of a Rhotuka, incorporating a grafted launcher into their body like any other limb given enough time and opportunity. Since AI lack souls, they themselves cannot manifest Rhotuka; Likewise, Kraata are of a very basic mindset, and their Rhotuka have the same powers as them, making a Rhotuka Launcher for a Kraata a general waste of an asset.

          Whether or not a being can use Rhotuka is a suggested litmust test for intelligence amongst living things, but the Nynrah Ghosts are not entirely certain if they should accept such a standard into practice. After all, there are multiple forms of intelligence, and it is possible that their imperfect Rhotuka launchers can’t quite adequately recognize all forms of thought; The Nynrah Ghosts themselves are not 100% sure on what constitutes intelligence, much less the exact nature of Rhotuka and how they are influenced by a user. For now, further research is being developed into the matter of Rhotuka.

          As for Rhotuka Launchers themselves, their hyper-specific programming and properties make them incredibly expensive, moreso than an Exo-Toa, and thus they are not exactly conducive for mass production. Due to the complicated programming involved, Rhotuka launchers are manufactured exclusively in Artidax. The existence of one is found only very sporadically across Xia. Thus, not many Xians are well-aware of or familiar with Rhotuka; Especially since the powers of a Rhotuka are so individualized, thus making them somewhat reliable in certain regards. Demand for Rhotuka Launchers is typically low.

           However, amongst those who DO utilize and recognize their power, interest is had towards certain individuals. As mentioned before, the exact powers of a Rhotuka are unique to a user, and thus cannot be replicated as they are dependent on the very personality and experiences of an individual. To recreate a useful Rhotuka power would involve recreating the exact same person; Itself an incredibly impossible task.

           Thus, there is a black-market for beings who exhibit useful and valuable Rhotuka abilities. A few trafficking groups have set up a program where people who are kidnapped are regularly screened through a Rhotuka launcher to see what they are capable of; If they have a useful ability that could garner plenty of profit, then the individual will be advertised and sold to groups who have a desire for that particular ability. The Dark Hunters in particular are very interested in this ‘Rhotuka Market’, looking for specific powers, or seeking to replicate them; Either by seeing how to duplicate a mind entirely (possibly through complex AI scans within Artidax), or simply by just kidnapping the individual that the power is unique to and forcing them into servitude.

           Thus, beings with valuable Rhotuka powers have high demand on the human trafficking market. Some people will be targeted and hunted down specifically if they are suspected of having a potentially valuable Rhotuka; Others with confirmed, useful abilities often find themselves bullied or blackmailed into servitude by certain organizations. Some groups will offer pay, but others will get impatient and soon resort to outright kidnapping. Brainwashing an individual into joining a group is risky, as the dramatic change in personality can change the Rhotuka they have.

           Due to the complex nature of personhood, little time and effort has been invested into figuring out the full nature of Rhotuka. Nevertheless, some psychologists have been hired to analyze trends and correlations between Rhotuka abilities and personality traits, with some organizations ��such as the Nynrah Ghosts or Dark Hunters- interested in utilizing brainwashing technology, in the hopes of changing a subject’s personality to the exact one needed to unlock the Rhotuka power they are looking for. Complex simulations and mind-altering technologies in Artidax are frequently patched and updated, and discussion is made on ‘manufacturing’ a personality by raising a person entirely through simulations, all for the purpose of creating someone so identical to another individual that they have the same, or at least a similar, Rhotuka.

           The following is a list of individuals and their unique Rhotuka abilities;

Roodaka- Reconstitutes and drastically mutates a target permanently into an entirely different creature. The victim’s new form is completely random, and can either be useful or debilitating. Some mutated bodies are non-conducive towards an environment, or living in general, thus killing off a victim in addition to physical trauma from the transformation. It is possible that a target’s specific mutation is unique to them, similar to one’s own Rhotuka ability; However, Roodaka is skeptical of this idea.

Sidorak- Makes targets incredibly loyal to Sidorak, as a manifestation of his leadership skills and natural charisma. Victims will obey any and all commands by Sidorak for a few hours, before the effect eventually wears off.

The Shadowed One- Victims are subject to madness in the form of a mental illness, whose symptoms are dialed up to an exaggerated, debilitating degree; Examples include depression, schizophrenia, OCD, bipolar disorder, etc. The effects will eventually dissipate, but trauma from the horrific effects tends to inevitably linger afterwards.

Ancient- All physical coordination of a target is completely scrambled; For example, if a victim attempted to move their arm, their neck may begin moving instead. The effects will eventually wear off after a while.

Amphibax- Renders all water within an approximately mile-wide radius unable to support the buoyancy of any thing; Anything in water affected by her Rhotuka lose their ability to float and will begin sinking unless deliberate swimming attempts are made. Additionally, Amphibax can charge and spin her Rhotuka within her launcher, which can turn the affected water it touches into a devastating whirlpool. The effects wear off after a few hours.

Airwatcher- Solid material becomes soft, malleable, and incredibly sticky like chewing gum, with most things that come into contact with the affected matter sinking into it like quicksand. Objects affected by Airwatcher’s Rhotuka can still be torn apart in this state, but the incredibly sticky, clinging properties makes such things difficult to handle. The effects wear off after a few hours.

Spinner- Targets lose all sense of balance and begin stumbling about; The effects wear off after a few hours.

Guardian- Transmutes all non-gaseous matter it passes through/impacts against into a fragile glass.

Kahgarak- Creates a temporary opening into the mysterious dimensional plane known as the ‘Zone of Darkness’

Visorak Spiders- Paralyzes victims by interfering with their nervous system, collapsing and numbing a target as their bodies become unresponsive to the brain’s signals; Certain organ systems, such as the respiratory or circulatory system, remain somewhat active to prevent a target from dying. The effects wear off after a few hours. Other, alternative abilities are also present, but less frequently utilized.

Gatherer- The memories of a target are scrambled as they interfere with the victim, randomly trapping them within various past experiences with only a dim, dream-like awareness of what is going on.

Sentrakh- Renders targets intangible for several minutes before the effect wears off; People and creatures affected can somewhat float around in this intangible state.

Tracker- Absorbs an object with a ‘trace’ of a target’s life energy and begins replicating the exact movements of that target’s soul within real-time, from the moment of the absorbed object’s separation from the person in question.

[vintongxvw210]

Where to get Professional Farmer 2014

Simulation | Economic | farm | Polish | machines and equipment

Developer: PlayWay

Publisher: UIG Entertainment

Game mode: single player

Platforms: Microsoft Windows PC

Game release date: 28 November 2013

Game language: English

User ratings: 5/10

Simulation sports have always been a tough push to popular gamers. Over the last years, 2 of these get managed to do extremely nicely: Euro Truck Simulator 2 and Farming Simulator 2013. Both games felt generous also allowed a hefty mod community. Professional Farmer 2014 tests to tap into to success. https://farmsimulator.eu/professional-farmer-2017-download/

As in many sports in the type, there is no real story being located. When beginning in career kind, people start as a farmer. Yes, really! The first year is ultimately a guide where you don't get to make a lot decisions regarding yourself. You have a slight tour near the farm and shortly you’ll be work your head take. When fix to, you’ll grow a popup saying: visit your farm. This phase is there impressive you’ll easily get used to because that’s exactly what you’ll be doing all the time. After work you’ll get to cultivate. Then, you’ll get to work the ground of the neighbor. When it is finally time to leave buy something, you’ll have to take right to the store just to get some seeds. Same goes for products. Yet for a credit you’ll must make a trip. This entire mechanic of motivation everywhere yourself gets annoying right away. And through the initial article day regarding your carrier you don't have a choice, you have to visit the missions you get. And, the objective offer no word or background at all. Simply: do this, do that..

At first glance, Professional Farmer looks rather good. The farm people start out now is actually nicely detailed and other environment seems really good and conforms to the time you’re during. The farming equipment however lacks somewhat of point than the rest. Certainly because those become what you’ll be searching at the almost all. The obstacles start if you keep the farm. The concrete roads seem really fundamental and are without variation, exactly the same everywhere. Another crucial question are the fields themselves. As you’re plowing for example, you don’t actually work. What it can is right produce a new structure layer on top of the theme. That cares you could say? So, when you connect with the line in the subject to make a turn, you can actually perceive the change in covering on top of each other which seems ridiculous.

When you put in a tractor for the new, you get harassed by annoying music best in the bat. I don’t see exactly why the builder would realize it that way but the first thing you’ll complete, without a suspicion, is write down the preference menu to convert music off. Ambient sound is very simple. The machines themselves sound okay still. As revealed earlier, with tough song is bad and increases nothing whatsoever to the entire experience.

Sending a tractor is weird at first and then it receives fun for a bit but it quickly turns into annoyance. It takes a minute to figure out the way to help shift the items then the way to structure do exactly. Travel in will quickly become boring though because a tractor could barely get to quickly. Plus the AI of new drivers is horrible. While working on the return, you’ll note the way the tractor keeps moving to the side. Whether that is because of a try to mimic the influences focusing on the tractor while helping equipment or simply a catch, this forms that virtually difficult to make straight runs and your industry will seem terrible. That follows better when you do it some moments yet the just so annoying.

When you’ve completed the original season, you can do anything you need. Which is nothing more than before although now you can choose to progress with the seasons when you get right. You’ll also become log on to workers. You’ll have to record the menu that appears and experiences same basic. It’s the same menu you use to control between the vehicles/machines and to get the review on the record with all the different areas (about 5) then the many fields. As group a technician to do anything during one of your fields, it is made quickly and also exits people from your menu that results in you clicking through the exact same menus again just to find something else done.

Now people yet make objectives yet they have become basic: plow 3 fields, harvest 3 fields and so on. The only distinction between career type with released mode remains which people don’t must experience the guide year. Also the available structures from the sport are bound. You can choice amid a number of tractors, some bigger harvesters and bigger machinery but nothing different from what you get at the start except for size. All this results in the fact that you just don’t take anything to operate with avoid funds for. You can get more fields, pay off the debt and enhance the farm a bit but nothing major. Pets are impressive I haven’t mentioned yet, largely because there’s nothing much to say about them. Animals give you a profit every time you progress a spell with that’s just about most there is to them. The game offers mod champion then there a few mods off here although it is really edge compared to a competition like Farming Simulator 2013 (PC version).

A simulation game is a ready and may be joy to join in. Professional Farmer 2014 doesn’t feel fun at all. While the creator have caused a few movement bringing realistic elements to the farming sim genre, they’ve totally forgotten the score in all different pieces. Organization to with the fact that there are games away present in the same kind which offer far more (albeit mostly because of the mod village) then you have a game i could not recommend.

System requirements Professional Farmer 2014

Recommended: Core i3 3.3 GHz 4 GB RAM graphic card 1 GB (GeForce GTX 460 or better) 4 GB HDD Windows XP/Vista/7/8

[marshmallowgoop]

Goop Plays Kill la Kill the Game: IF (Ryuko Episodes 5-8)

It’s been a while.

Episode 5

Writing about these episodes has been a struggle. I wouldn’t be able to narrow down a single reason for my eight-month hiatus from IF’s story mode, but I can say that it’s difficult to talk about content that is overwhelmingly—and disappointingly—a rehash of scenes I’d already watched before.

Ryuko’s fifth episode especially feels like a game of “spot the difference.” Segments of Satsuki’s story are repeated with astonishingly minor changes, and while this has been an issue with earlier Ryuko episodes (1 and 3), by episode 5, it’s starting to feel very tedious.

I won’t deny that the slight alterations are charming—they very much are! Mako’s contribution to Ryuko and Senketsu’s fight against Nui, for example, is adorable:

Mako: My dad says, “When you’re outnumbered, get more weapons!” An eye for an eye, a blade for a blade!

However, such minimal additions feel like a dishearteningly poor use of the player’s time. If I hadn’t already questioned it before, these chapters really made me question the choice of a two-campaign story mode. 

It’s not that I don’t see the appeal of such a structure; there’s something fun in telling one side of a story and then changing the perception of that story by telling another side of it. Plus, with IF in particular, I think there was a goal—at least to some extent—of confounding players with Satsuki’s ending. I could see Ryuko’s campaign as a means of making the plot more interactive, which is of course fitting for a video game. By not spelling everything out right away, players are encouraged to unravel the mystery and put the pieces together. 

Satsuki: I had a bad dream....

But... there’s just too much overlap for me to feel that the two-campaign structure was the most effective storytelling decision. The choice perhaps makes more sense from a gaming standpoint; it’s easier to focus on one playable character rather than jump around between two. But I don’t know—perhaps it could have been fun to give players a feel for more of this game’s roster all at once. Maybe we could have played as the Elite Four or Ragyo or Nui, too.

Because from a story standpoint? One major letdown of Ryuko’s fifth episode is that actually fighting Nui completely lacks the power that the cutscene in Satsuki’s campaign has.

Sure, that scene certainly doesn’t have the impact of similar moments in the anime (episodes 18 and 21/22), but you can’t really expect it to, and it works well within the context of IF. Ryuko and Senketsu haven’t been through as much together, but Ryuko still keeps her temper under control to prevent a repeat of hurting Senketsu from it again, they burst into battle with “Before my body is dry” playing, and though the animations in the game can be stiff and limited, it’s still sweet. 

Ryuko: Won’t know ‘til I try! So let’s do this!

They sparkle! Their hearts are as one! They’re uniting to take down this threat.

But in Ryuko’s story? You just fight the fight. You miss out on Ryuko shit-talking Nui, you miss out on the song (seriously, was it just the struggling Steam port, or does “Before my body is dry” really not play during the fight?), and most importantly, the emotion I get from the cutscene is largely lost.

Don’t get me wrong—skipping a repetitive scene is appreciated. But at the same time, the omission makes me long for a single story mode. Players could have fought Nui with “Before my body is dry” playing and watched the Satsuki-story cutscene upon victory. That bit of “Satsuki’s” story already focuses so much on Ryuko that in some ways, it honestly feels more “Ryuko” than Ryuko’s story! Why not just have a unified story mode?

Ryuko’s episodes shine when they significantly differ from what players already witnessed in Satsuki’s campaign. The very beginning of episode 5 is charming because seeing Ryuko just wanting to smash things is legitimately amusing.

Ryuko: Oh! So, I just gotta smack ‘em all in the head.

But this could have easily fit into a single story that switched perspectives. And in fact, moving into episode 6...

Episode 6

It’s almost humorous that Satsuki’s story has purposeful omissions to “justify” the existence of Ryuko’s campaign. I am astounded at how Mako literally does not exist in the Satsuki equivalent of Ryuko’s sixth episode:

Seriously, what? This reminds me of Kingdom Hearts jokes about how it’s rude of Disney movies to totally edit out Sora, Donald, and Goofy.

But jokes aside, the Kingdom Hearts comparison actually has some real weight in regards to IF. In Kingdom Hearts, the Disney worlds are—at least, in my opinion—the most fun and engaging when they do more than simply rehash the films they’re based on with Sora, Donald, and Goofy added. In the same way, Ryuko’s campaign in IF is the most fun and engaging when it does more than simply rehash Satsuki’s campaign with Mako added.

And why was Mako even literally edited out of Satsuki’s cutscenes in the first place? It’s really a bigger discussion, but this choice only adds to my frustrations with how Kill la Kill handles Mako’s character. I’ve already written about my beef with the anime in that regard, but IF is even worse. Mako’s so inconsequential to the story (at least thus far) that she can be totally cut out and have absolutely nothing change. For goodness’ sake, she sleeps for a good chunk of her screentime!

Which... is actually an issue I have with the Grand Summoners crossover game, too....

Ryuko: She’s [Mako’s] already asleep!

But in any case, Mako’s presence in the IF story seems to be purely because she’s a popular character. It’s disappointing to me that Kazuki Nakashima couldn’t find more things for her to do.

And it’s sad that she’s literally edited out of Satsuki’s scenes. I really cannot get over that. What the what.

More to the actual content of Ryuko’s sixth episode, the first part is just old hash browns (plus Mako), but the second part is much more intriguing. I find it curious that Senketsu knows right away what the Primordial Life Fiber is, but Ryuko doesn’t. Does he have a connection with it that Ryuko lacks because her Life Fibers haven’t been awoken yet?

Senketsu: That... is what’s known as the Primordial Life Fiber.

Also, same, Mako, same. I also call Nui and Ragyo’s Primordial Life Fiber-y attacks in this game “meatballs.”

Mako: Ooooh! It looks like a big ol’ meatball!

I feel like my previous write-ups on IF already express a lot of what I could say regarding this episode, but I will again reiterate that the character interactions are charming. It’s nice to hear Ryuko laugh (even if in a taunting way), and the Elite Four are absolutely adorable.

Ryuko: Ha! Whatever. I’d like to see you try!

Houka: Oh, my God. Do they have to be so loud? Our enemies can hear us from a mile away.

And since this is a video game and all, in regards to the one fight in episode 6, it’s a bit of a pain; battling multiple enemies doesn’t make for the most enjoyable experience because of the camera and inability to properly lock on to targets. But IF excels in the little details. The dialogue when other characters join you for the fight is as amusing as always. 

There really should be subtitles, though. It’s super poor accessibility.

Episode 6 also briefly questions the nature of the world. Earlier episodes of Ryuko’s campaign had Senketsu—and Nui—note that something felt off about time. Here, Senketsu outright says that time in the Fiber Palace is “seems unstable,” and interestingly, the camera focuses on Ryuko when he wonders if it’s the location or “something else” that’s causing the abnormality.

Senketsu: The flow of time here seems unstable. Is this place causing it to happen...? Or... is something else triggering it....

It’s not in this episode, but given that Ragyo later describes Ryuko as “the singularity,” perhaps she is the one messing up the world.

I think Ryuko sums up my thoughts, though.

Ryuko: I don’t get what’s goin’ on.

Of course, probably the most notable aspect of episode 6 is the ending, and while I could see right through what was happening, I have to admit that Ryuko going at Mako with the Scissor Blades is a stellar finish.

Ryuko: I still gotta get revenge for my dad.

Senketsu: What are you doing, Ryuko?!

Episode 7

However...

Ryuko: Oh, blow it out yer ass... Nui Harime!

I got some issues with this.

For those who have been Kill la Kill-ing for as long as I have, you might remember that there was a flood of Mako-is-Nui theories immediately after the show’s finale. Amusingly, character designer Sushio outright denied the idea in a Tweet, and a Studio Trigger panel at Anime Expo 2014 (6th post from the top) also shot the notion down.

aranbeik: is it [the Mako-is-Nui theory] true????

Sushio: It is no relationship at all

But fake Makos actually ain’t absent from Kill la Kill. In the official Drama CDs that came packaged with Japanese releases of the anime, there are two instances of fake Makos. The first happens in CD 1, where Maiko Ogure impersonates Mako for a huge portion of the runtime. The second happens in CD 4, where—“funnily” enough—Nui herself impersonates Mako after Ryuko has her heart brutally ripped out of her chest by her own mother.

And here’s my issue with IF’s portrayal: in both of these Drama CD cases, Ryuko is fooled. Mako isn’t Mako for tons of the first CD, and Ryuko doesn’t notice. And, in the Nui situation, it’s Senketsu who has to tell her that the “Mako” before them is not actually Mako. Which goes completely counter to what IF does!

It’s not that I’m against Ryuko recognizing a fraud, but her inability to in the Drama CDs lends insight into her character that I find fitting. Ryuko fails to identify the fake Makos in the CDs because Ryuko initially closes her heart off to the girl—something she outright admits in episode 22 (and which the English dub makes particularly prominent).

Ryuko: Yeah, you [Mako] too! You’re like the most persistent chick I ever met! You didn’t care if I pushed you away! You kept coming back and coming back like a yo-yo!

However, after ripping Junketsu from her body, Ryuko becomes far more open, and it’d be really powerful for her to correctly identify a fake Mako then. It’d show how their relationship has grown and become stronger.

In IF, Mako and Ryuko have hardly had the development they undergo in the anime, and further, Ryuko’s explanation for how she knew it was Nui doesn’t make a lick of sense!

Nui-Mako: How’d you know it was me?

Ryuko: Easy! After Mako wakes up, she’s always got drool on her face.

As Ryuko seemed to have already deduced that “Mako” was Nui before even looking at her, how in the world does this work?

Episode 7 has more questionable character writing for Ryuko later on, too. I’ve already written at great lengths about how I find her attitude regarding murder totally OOC, but Nui’s death scene also has such a strange line regarding Ryuko’s feelings towards Satsuki:

Nui: Guess who ordered me to take the Rending Scissors from your daddy! Give up? It was Satsuki!

Ryuko: If she did, she musta had a good reason for it.

As sweet as the sentiment is, and as much as I understand that it’s there to point out how not even Nui can tear apart Ryuko and Satsuki’s bond, it leaves me totally baffled. Satsuki must have had a good reason to issue the order that killed her father, and Ryuko’s chill with that? At this point in the story, the kind of unwavering faith in Satsuki that Ryuko displays here is completely unearned. I could see Ryuko at the end of the anime feeling this way, but IF Ryuko? Not at all! She barely knows Satsuki!

But for all my gripes regarding the storyline, we Kill la Kill fans are starving. (Well, at least I am, anyway.) Even if Ryuko’s words to Nui make no sense, it is something I would have liked the anime to explore more, and the character interactions here are undeniably sweet. I love Ryuko and Senketsu’s banter and how it shows how comfortable and in tune with each other they are. I love Ryuko’s silly dialogue to Satsuki and how Satsuki smiles at it, telling us that even the “ice-cold” Student Council President can’t help but get a bit soft at this dorky shounen protagonist.

Ryuko: I hate family drama. But I said I’d save Satsuki, sooo...

Senketsu: I had a feeling you’d say that.

Ryuko: Looks like you’re having a really shitty day, Satsuki!

The battle that finishes up this episode, with “Blumenkranz” playing in the background and the Elite Four and Satsuki joining the fight with cute dialogue, is a joy, too. There are a lot of little details that I really appreciate.

(I also realized this time around that you can stop Ragyo’s Instant Kill and didn’t get obliterated by Shinra-Kouketsu like I did in Satsuki’s story.) 

Ragyo: Your sins shall be purged along with your pathetic body!

Episode 8

But in regards to the plot of IF, Ryuko’s eighth episode finally starts dropping some more answers. As the ending of Satsuki’s story had implied, the world is outright said here to be her dream, created from Junketsu:

Ragyo: Junketsu took your [Satsuki’s] dreams and made them tangible. That is the distorted world we see now.

However, I still can’t say I get it. When Satsuki wakes up at the end of her story, it’s the start of episode 1 of the anime. She hasn’t come into contact with Junketsu yet, so how has this distorted world even been created in the first place? I guess Life Fibers can just mess with time?

I’m also kinda amused that the world is said to be what Satsuki wants to happen, yet she describes it as a “bad dream” when she wakes up.

But the big “new” information is Ragyo’s assertion that Ryuko is “the singularity”:

Ragyo: I knew it. You were the singularity, Ryuko Matoi.

As Ragyo explains, she could have taken over this fake world (and perhaps merged it with the real one, judging by her comment in Satsuki’s story about how such a world “can even be spun into a single yarn with the Primordial Life Fiber”), but Ryuko got in the way:

Ragyo: Since my Life Fibers are much more powerful than Junketsu’s, I could’ve taken this planet over. Then, I could’ve enslaved humanity and begun the process of turning it... into a Cocoon Sphere. Yes, I could’ve. If it wasn’t for your existence, Ryuko Matoi.

Now, there have been hints that something’s up with Ryuko all throughout IF, but I can’t say I really know what to make of it. Senketsu remarks that Ryuko’s oddly strong in the first episode of her campaign, Ragyo adds to this and suggests that Ryuko’s affecting the Primordial Life Fiber in the same episode, and then, there also seems to be the implication that Ryuko is triggering the weird sense of time in her sixth episode. The final episode of Satsuki’s story seems to feature Ryuko absorbing Life Fibers, too.

It makes sense for Ryuko to affect Satsuki’s dream world, of course; Ryuko has Life Fibers in her, and she’s also the sister whom Satsuki is ultimately fighting for. I’ve seen theories that the Primordial Life Fiber takes on the shape of a baby to represent the baby sister Satsuki thought she’d lost (and at least in the English dub, Ryuko does refer to the baby as a “she,” further connecting the baby to the lost sister); so perhaps, even if Satsuki doesn’t recognize her connection to Ryuko, maybe the Life Fibers do. Ryuko has power in the dream world because, in a lot of ways, Ryuko is Satsuki’s dream. Maybe that’s the reason that Satsuki only gets flashes of scenes between her and Ryuko in the anime when the baby connects with her, too.

Who knows? I can only hope that episodes 9 and 10 will clear this story up.

I’ve obviously got a lot of questions, but I know this is basically the end. I’m not sure how much explanation to expect going forward, and I’m still wondering about things that don’t even necessarily (?) have to do with the dream world, too. Like, whatever was the point of that moment with Ragyo and one of Senketsu’s scraps? And what was bothering Shiro?

Shiro: There’s just one thing that bothers me...

I said in the beginning of this tl;dr report that I couldn’t pinpoint a single reason for my inability to write it for eight months. But maybe part of the reason is that it’s kind of nice to not know the ending. As long as I don’t play it, there’s still some official Kill la Kill content that I haven’t experienced yet, and it could be anything.

But at the same time, I don’t know how much longer I can go without seeing Senketsu-Kisaragi, so.

The thing—i.e., this monstrous essay—that was holding me back from playing through to the end is now complete! And I’m ready to finally finish this game.

Here’s to hoping that the finale is satisfying 🤞

[thegraysquirrel]

Self-Promotion Sunday

For self-promotion Sunday from @mouseymightymarvellous , I would like to bring the following to your attention:

*scrambles to search for anything useful to promote* 

Oh! There was that one time I was making a promotional speech for Obito in the hypothetical situation of Obito in his prime (no Rinnegan though) fighting Shisui in his prime in hopes of convincing people to vote for Obito instead of Shisui! Below the cut, you will find all 3600 words of it... Because go big or go home.

(If I knew how the hell I would put this on AO3, I so would. But. Tags? Format? okay format would be easy probably I have no idea how to get this on there. Title? I know how to jump literal hurdles but I draw the line at figurative hurdles.)

One last thing! You might be asking, “Why?!” and I would shrug. In reality, I don’t like that Shisui’s Kotoamatsukami is regarded as unbeatable in the Naruto ‘verse. Everything should have a weakness and I just exploited my love for Obito as a character to throw him at Shisui and it worked remarkably well.

I will title this: 

Why Obito (who fell through literal cracks and out of reality as he knew it while regarded as dead last and then dead first) Would Beat Shisui (the legend, the martyr, the Uchiha genius that seemed to have it all in terms of skills and abilities)

Okay so I have thoughts and I have to live up to my “commenting disaster” name so here goes. If you ever wanted to know how authors could feel when they got a comment from me, then buckle in. (wow this turned out to be about 2 full AO3 comments, yes, this is exactly how writers will feel upon seeing my comments in their inbox!)

I think it’s a wild guess that Shisui would have been able to manipulate the complete Uchiha clan through Fugaku.

SHISUI’S JUTSU AND WHAT I THINK OF IT

SHISUI’S LIMITATIONS AND LACK OF EXPERIENCE WITH KOTOAMATSUKAMI I don’t think Shisui’s ability has ever been countered or met his match in the short time he spent on the pages of the manga. Shisui doesn’t know how to tell if someone is fighting the manipulation, and he CAN’T know for sure that no one could. Considering he could use it once every ten years and he is younger than Genma, he hasn’t even got a lot of practise with it. He’ll have used it, what, once? So let’s say he used it twice, since he’s got two eyes. 

That’s TWO instances in which he used it—are you honestly telling me that his technique is unstoppable because he used it twice with no one countering? I’m not buying this. We don’t know the limits, and Shisui sure as hell doesn’t either. 

(I’ll admit, maybe it’s 10 years because the crow does not share the Uchiha blood. We can say Shisui could not use it for 2 years for the sake of Shisui, y’know… being able to build a reputation with it. I think Shisui had his Kotoamatsukami when Itachi was 5 years old, so he had it for about 8 years = 8 or 16 attempts, IF he spams his technique the second it comes off cooldown like us gamers do. Otherwise, he used it TWICE at most)

PEOPLE SAY “THIS JUTSU IS IMPOSSIBLE TO BEAT/THIS DEFENSE IS MORE SOLID THAN A ROCK” AND WERE PROVEN WRONG Do I think everyone has the potential to beat Shisui’s genjutsu? Hell no. But we CAN’T just buy the people’s words for it when we have so little data and they actually have little data too. The people Shisui used it on probably weren’t even a challenge in the genjutsu department. Here’s my thoughts about when people say something about a jutsu being *waves hand* without weakness. 

Gaara was said to have Absolute Defence and Sasuke managed to penetrate it when he was a Genin and everyone was like “Whaaaat he got through the Absolute Defence how is that possible??”

In chapter 257, Kakashi says “There is no cancelling the effects of [Itachi’s Tsukuyomi],” but Sasuke still managed to do so later with an ordinary sharingan. Kakashi’s sharingan prowess in dealing with Itachi’s mangekyou sharingan were inferior to that of this particular Uchiha. Sasuke did it by putting a genjutsu on himself to break free of the former genjutsu.

I’m sure there are more instances when jutsus are called “impossible to defeat” only for someone to go in and say, “bitch, watch me prove you wrong.” Naruto did it with the 3rd Raikage, in a way. “Impossible to defeat” means nothing. 

The only thing we have for Shisui’s eye-technique to be unstoppable is his and everyone’s beliefs that it’s flawless. But really, if Itachi’s powerful Tsukuyomi could be broken by an individual Uchiha, then why can’t Shisui’s have flaws that can be exploited (by another Uchiha)? When fighting an Uchiha and it’s one on one, flee, is Chiyo’s advice—unless you are also an Uchiha, I amend, even if your eyes are still basic instead of the premium version. 

CLOSER LOOK ON SHISUI’S VICTIMS Follow me on this wild speculation. (If you’re still reading, you rock!) It was said that a different person would need to question the one under the genjutsu for them to even consider the possibility of being manipulated. Let’s also list off the people we know or assume have been under Shisui’s eye’s manipulation:

Bloody Mist ninjas

More Bloody Mist ninjas

Probably ninjas from other villages they were at war with (I honestly don’t know)

Probably the Elders via Danzo (I’m vague on the details, but very likely right?)

The Daimyo via Danzo (wow that was really a challenge to influence him. Someone without ninja skills.)

Mifune via Danzo

Edo Tensei Itachi via crow instructed by Itachi (well, the eye was instructed by Itachi)

If I look at the list, I’m not seeing anyone who would give Shisui (or the holder of Shisui’s eye) a challenge, especially as Itachi got under control willingly. Just like Kakashi had no trouble fighting Sakura, Sasuke, and Naruto in the first bell test, Shisui is on a level most people will never be able to reach.

The last one is the only one we know used on an Uchiha. We can’t actually conclude much or anything from it because Itachi orchestrated the Kotoamatsukami, but it was Itachi himself to make note of the manipulation. He was aware of the genjutsu. So the manipulation was noted.

MY CONCLUSION ON SHISUI He’s got the greatest genjutsu, but here’s the thing—he doesn’t know how to fight against other geniuses of genjutsu. It’s the same with eSports, when you are the best by far, you don’t get the experience against the people who match your skill, and that means you get rusty (YES I stole these words right from of a player in the LCS of League of Legends, be happy that I didn’t throw KICK a soccer metaphor at you) and since this tournament I’m arguing for is a knock-out, any mistake can cost you the tournament. His genjutsu is revered as the best, that it can’t be broken, but other jutsus that have been called flawless have been shown to have flaws that could be exploited. Shisui doesn’t have enough experience to have found them out himself. Shisui will win if his Kotoamatsukami works 100% on the enemy, but it’s less sure if the enemy breaks (partly) free.

But who could possibly have a chance of breaking free from it?

*RECORD SCRATCH* (In my document I had the following in a very big font. I miss my big font. ;-;)

MY ARGUMENTS FOR WHY OBITO CAN BREAK FREE FROM KOTOAMATSUKAMI (And why he can win it)

GENJUTSU AND MANIPULATION Obito is not just passing with genjutsu, he’s GOOD, because he was able to even control Yagura—a perfect Jinchuriki, someone who has a built-in pacemaker, but then a pacemaker for when the brain zones out of reality and needs to come back. He managed to somehow convince everyone that he was Uchiha Madara and he double-crossed the actual Madara too—this dude knows how manipulation works, even if that alone obviously won’t help him against a genjutsu of manipulation (it’s a good thing he’s got his own mangekyou sharingan, otherwise he’d definitely be toast). Still thought it worth mentioning. 

I hear you say, “Madara manipulated him!”

Actually, no, I don’t think he did?

Hot take: (I don’t know enough of the general consensus to know if it is a hot take) Obito was NOT manipulated by Madara.

Madara manipulated the situations, but Obito remained true to himself in reacting to them. Whether it would have been Madara’s super evil plan to kill Rin or if it had been The Leaf’s own incompetence at sending kids into dangerous territory (resulting in the deaths of said kids because the system is SHIT), Obito would have reacted the same. 

Yes, Madara is evil for playing with people’s lives like a kid does with blocks to build a structure, but Madara’s involvement isn’t important to the outcome. I think that Madara was unable to “genjutsu bullshit” his way into Obito’s mind, otherwise Madara would have hella secured Obito’s actions already. If Obito could have been influenced by “genjutsu suggestions”, no way in hell would Madara have simply kept asking Obito angrily, “Bring me to life, Obito, I hate being dead. I can’t become the Juubi’s jinchuuriki like this, Obito. Bring. Me. To. Life. (Wake me up.)”

Madara, feared by the world, didn’t use genjutsu on Obito from what we saw. He fell back on manipulating the circumstances for Obito, and the only reason I can think of that is because Obito isn’t susceptible to Madara’s suggestive genjutsu. 

Every time I watch the Obito and Madara episode, I just see Madara spouting words and Obito indulging the old man until he can get out of here. In my interpretation, the words have nothing to latch onto. When Obito returns, it’s his own choice. Madara’s and Obito’s interests aren’t aligning as much as Madara would like, and as such, Obito remains more than just Madara’s pawn.

OBITO IS HELLA STUBBORN (OOPS AND MANIPULATION AGAIN) ANYWAY, if ANYONE would be able to find a flaw in Shisui’s eye technique, Obito would. HECK, he even managed to keep his mind sound when the Juubi was driving him crazy. Like, that anime sequence when his limbs were torn apart? That thing. This dude got willpower and a stubbornness to follow the path he wants to take even if it’s really a dumb path. I might be easily swayed and manipulated, but Obito is not. Shisui wouldn’t even need his eyes to sway me, but on Obito he would need to give his 100% and, again, I’m not sure Shisui has ever been pushed to his limit, and he ALSO thinks that he’s impossible to beat so he’s not even going to give it his 100% (he might think he is, but you’ll only know how fast you can run when you’re chased by something you really don’t want catching up to you or if your alarm went off too late and you really need to be on time). Against Obito, it’s a flaw for Shisui’s ability that it’s about manipulating his decision, because Obito is a master of manipulation himself. He knows what Madara did to him. He fought the Juubi. Obito would walk into a tree rather than change his mind about what path he should walk.

OBITO HAS EXPERIENCE Obito at his prime also has a lot more experience with his ability, he knows his own limitations and how to use it as a part of himself. He can use it multiple times, he can use it in ways Shisui would not expect... Shisui would need to figure it out fast, and I think Obito at his prime (TWO Kamui sharingan) just has too many tricks up his sleeve for even Shisui of the Body Flicker to keep up with. 

MY SLEEP DEPRIVED CONCLUSION ON OBITO What I think Obito has: he got the stubbornness + sharingan skillz for weakening Shisui’s genjutsu on himself enough or maybe even completely repel it so Obito can actually still do things + Obito’s own mad skillzzz with Kamui. Shisui loses. 

TO CONCLUDE

I’ve got a lot of fanon thoughts (or maybe just my personal fix-it for canon) on Obito that I won’t unpack here (it’s that Obito is actually a genius himself even if it never showed clearly in his years pre-sharingan) because, hey, people don’t like reading 1k of random shizzle when they just want to vote for their boy Shisui! But please give Obito a chance because I feel he actually has a chance!

TL;DR 

Shisui has never been challenged in his abilities (especially not by an Uchiha). He won’t know what his all-out is for this, so he won’t go all-out 

Abilities have been called flawless before only for someone to be “hold my beer” and fuck them up. Case in point: Sasuke practically made Gaara cry

There’s been precedent of an Uchiha with normal sharingan getting out of what is hailed as one of the best genjutsus whereas no one without     sharingan would be able to do that alone (or at all)

Unlike Sasuke at that point, Obito has been a master of genjutsu and has a mangekyou sharingan at the point of fighting 

Obito knows what manipulation is and has even kept to his sanity* when the Juubi was tearing him apart. He has manipulated practically everyone, including a perfect jinchuuriki. He will be able to find a flaw in Shisui’s jutsu because he’s too stubborn to change his mind enough about yeeting (parts of) himself to his Kamui dimension when there’s danger

Obito knows his own ability like the back of his hand, including limitations, so Shisui will have a hard time fighting Obito if his own Kotoamatsukami isn’t winning the fight for him. 

*Okay, so maybe Obito isn’t completely sane, but Sakura wasn’t either when she fought off a jutsu working on the mind. I think Obito’s instability even gives him a cookie point

PLEASE GIVE OBITO A CHANCE I EVEN TALKED MY POOR SISTER’S EAR OFF DURING DINNER BECAUSE OF THIS

LET HER SACRIFICE NOT BE IN VAIN

 ---

(Counterarguments with my own reply I put in that document)

Honestly Great Argumenter for Shisui: my counter argument: Shisui is known as the ultimate uchiha genjutsu master. And hes also the best looking. ;)

         Me: In reply to greatest genjutsu master-- Would you say that Itachi was a greater genjutsu master than Sasuke? Because Sasuke broke free from ITACHI'S genjutsu. I'm not saying that Obito would put Shisui under a genjutsu--it's just that Shisui's genjutsu wouldn't hold as well as it normally would, and that might be enough already.

         HGAS: Shisui would still be faster than obito if we take genjutsu out of the equation completely Minato was able to almost kill obito due to speed so that can't be discounted. Obito had to retreat from his fight with minato.          Me: How old was Obito? 14? (Kakashi and Obito are both 31 at the end of Shippuuden, and Naruto’s birthday is in October, so Obito would have turned 32 in the following February of the war, and THIS means that Obito was 14 during the fight against Minato too, because Kakashi was 14 at the time of Naruto’s birth but Naruto timelines are terrible) I hardly call that his prime! And against Shisui, Obito will have two Kamui, whereas against Minato, he only had one. The fight would be different, I feel.

---

YO BECAUSE I STILL GOT TIME HERE I WILL ADD TO THIS. I warned you, if you feel confused where this is all coming from, you’re probably feeling the exact same things Mumma does at some of my Konoha Files comments. This is how I roll. AND PLEASE IF YOU WANT TO TALK KONOHA FILES HIT ME UP because I’ve got a lot more thoughts on that than on Obito vs Shisui!

EXPERIENCE Shisui graduated any age between 6 and 12, but we know that about two years later, he met Itachi who was 5, and 8 years later he died (I think he died when Itachi was 13 because there was more time between Shisui’s death and the other Uchihas’ deaths). Shisui died when he was between 16 and 22. (I am not familiar with the book canon!)

This means Shisui had at most 10-11 years of experience as a ninja. Yes, one year after graduating he got the Kotoamatsukami, so he got 10 years TOPS with his Mangekyou Sharingan which had a freaking long timer of usage in between, regardless of how many years we put it as; 10 years, 2 years, Shisui would have kept that ace up his sleeve so he would not spam the ability the second it came off cooldown.

Obito graduated when he was 9. At his prime he was 31 years old. That’s 22-23 years of experience for Obito as a ninja! He got his mangekyou sharingan when he was, what, 14 (at the end of shippuuden he is 31, and Kakashi is 31 too, so they might have been the same age—and then the Kyuubi summoning was when he was 14)? That’s 17 years of experience with his Mangekyou sharingan. 

Obito will have had way more battles with his ability than Shisui, way more opponents that would challenge his way of using his ability so Obito KNOWS what his flaws are. He knows what it will be like to fight against someone with kamui! He fought Minato and knows how the Flying Thunder God/teleportation can be used against him (and that was when he had his Mangekyou sharingan for less than a year!). In his battles, even when he was mostly forced to stay in the normal dimension because he needed to get his hands on someone, he has shown that he can slip body parts into his dimension even when he is attacked from all sides. His reaction time is solid (even if he is not because... dimension stuff).

Conclusion: Obito has more years of experience than Shisui at fighting with his mangekyou and more moments of figuring out his own limits and flaws and adjust his fighting style to minimize them. Obito has also had more momentous fights to test out his own abilities, including The 3rd Mizukage, The Fourth Hokage, Copy Ninja Kakashi with Kamui himself, other Uchihas during the Uchiha massacre (they count), Konan, Naruto and Killer B. Seriously, he’s more well-rounded than Shisui!

---

THE MIST Shisui fought ninjas, soldiers of the Mist and was feared by them. Obito won from the strongest ninja of the Mist, the Mizukage who was also a FREAKING PERFECT JINCHUURIKI and kept him under his control for YEARS. I know which feat I think is more admirable. 

SPEED Shisui is hailed for his speed, but the Body Flicker is said “To an observer, it appears as if the user has teleported. It is accomplished by using chakra to temporarily vitalise the body and move at extreme speeds.” Obito has FOUGHT Minato, who actually is able to teleport. This was 17 years ago!!! Obito has improved because he was just a fledgling who even had to figure out how his new arm worked!!! Yes, Shisui is faster than Obito, but Shisui will not be fast enough to pulverize Obito. Don’t forget, the kamui sharingan has the added benefits of being able to predict the opponent’s movements, see chakra, so Shisui’s speed advantage is diminished against any Uchiha.

OBITO’S TECHNIQUE Shisui has no idea what Obito’s technique could be and honestly, passing through him mid-fight is already a scary thought, just think how disappearing from sight and appearing could be. Heck, Obito could probably even be in his own dimension, spit fire, and then long-range Kamui it back to the dimension where Shisui is. The precision of it can be worth speculating, but if Obito can appear on a branch of a tree, then he sure as hell can know where exactly he’d send his fireball jutsu. He just does. He’s got the spatial awareness of the overlap between his own dimension and the one Shisui recedes in. And how would Shisui counteract this attack, huh? He can’t body flicker to Obito’s dimension.

Even if Obito stays in the dimension Shisui is in, Shisui won’t be able to exploit the weaknesses. It took Konan a long time to know what the timer for Obito’s ability was, and Konan had her own ability to exploit that weakness. From what we know of Uchihas fight styles, I am having a hard time figuring out what Shisui could do to exploit Obito’s timer—and that’s only if he can figure it out, which he won’t. No one but Konan has found out about that particular tid bit, to my knowledge.

Let’s say Shisui got a hit on Obito. A hit means contact and he gets sucked to the other dimension. Afterwards, Obito would return to the dimension with food and eat while Shisui starves. Win. I’m a bit fuzzy on the details, but the people who have managed to get a hit on Obito when Obito could use kamui (Remember! Obito could not use kamui when he was the Juubi jinchuuriki!):

Minato with his Flying Thunder God move when Obito was new to kamui, to his arm, and only had his right eye kamui and not his left

Kakashi but that was when he was in the other dimension while Obito was still fighting Naruto. Since Obito vs Shisui is a 1v1, this won’t happen

Kakashi because he used his OWN kamui to get a kunai to Obito. Uhuh, Kakashi got a lot of hits mostly because Kakashi had kamui.

Kakashi again, but that was because it would be hella stupid to phase out to the dimension that had a war going on.

Konan (she was so badass)

I honestly don���t remember more, do you?

Shisui is amazing with his body flicker, really, but Obito can dodge left and right. Shisui won’t get a hit on him unless Obito allows it, because Obito got the damn experience!

With two kamui’s, Obito’s transportation (himself and of others he holds on to) is faster, as we’ve seen when Obito and Kakashi worked together to move Obito to his own dimension. Obito’s speed has increased with two kamui’s. 

SHISUI’S TECHNIQUE Shisui is a softy. I’m sorry, but he is. Aoba lived to tell the tale because Shisui wanted to scare them off with his genjutsu instead of killing them. Danzo was put under a genjutsu by Shisui and Shisui thought it was enough even when the genjutsu was done (and then Danzo managed to take an eye of BODY FLICKER SHISUI, so hey, his speed ain’t gonna be the end of it all). Shisui relies on his genjutsu deterring people—that’s obviously going to be his go-to move, and it means he can be caught off-guard when it’s not as effective.

He’s good at Taijutsu (or at least, he would win every spar against Itachi but Itachi was 3-9 years younger, so…), but even Taijutsu master Gai didn’t manage to land a hit on Obito when he used his nunchucks--would Shisui really be able to do what Taijutsu master Gai could not? 

Another TL;DR

Shisui simply doesn’t have the tools against an Uchiha as experienced as Obito. Obito’s ability is a different kind of OP than Shisui’s because Obito knows how to use it as a part of him, whereas Shisui’s ability is something he has relied on very heavily because no one has countered it yet. Obito will find the weakness in Shisui’s “strongest” genjutsu and be able to win from Shisui because of all the battle experience against talented individuals Obito has had. Obito managed to unite the five nations all on his own, he was THAT powerful.

We’ve said before that Shisui is on a different level from practically everyone, but honestly?

Obito stares down on Shisui from his god tier level 

*mic drop*

[nezumiismissing]

Missing Character Analysis Pt.3

So we come to part 3 of this series, finally. For the uninitiated, this is where I talk about the characters that were included in the novels/manga but left out of the anime for any multitude of reasons, and how their omission affects the story as a whole (Part 1+Part 2). I won’t say it’s the last one, because there are a few more characters I want to talk about, but this will probably be the last long one, as the characters remaining are fairly minor and there isn’t quite as much to analyze. That being said, this monstrosity is over 3000 words, so if you do decide to read it, make sure you have the time. It’s kind of wild, things get a little conceptual/abstract, but it’s at least marginally coherent, and that’s all that really matters, right? 

So this time around we’re actually going to be talking about two characters, Fennec and lab coat man, not because they are too minor to deserve their own posts, but because they are too interconnected to focus on one without talking about the other. As the leaders of No.6 they hold a huge amount of power, and yet their dialogue occurs almost entirely between themselves. And while individually they are completely different people, what makes them strong characters is much more about the role they play as a single force within the city. Each one of them will get a section of their own, and then at the end we’ll move into the discussion of them as a “unit” and how their absence affects certain aspects of the anime. I'm going to start with lab coat man because, for me at least, Fennec is the far more interesting of the two, so I wanted to save him for last, as well as the fact that chronologically, he also makes the last appearance out of the two of them. Also I’m just going to call him Labcoat because he doesn’t have a name and that’s basically his only identifying feature.

Let’s actually start with that. The fact that he doesn’t have a name (even less so than the mayor) but still appears in the story is extremely odd. I’ve mentioned in the past that something I really like about the anime is the lack of any characters guiding No.6’s actions, which make it seem like a full character with a will of its own (I will touch on this later). But there’s something almost as creepy about knowing who the antagonist of the story is, having an in-depth understanding of his ideology (even if it’s bullshit), seeing him have full on one-on-one conversations with other important characters, and yet having no way to really identify who they are or how they ended up in this position. His character is overly vague and simplified, but to an extent that ends up being nearly as terrifying as him not existing at all. He’s the one that’s actually running No.6, making every major decision about what direction the city should move in up until the very end of the story, and yet his death happens without us seeing it, and without the intervention of any of the main characters. This functions not only as a way to show how insane he was or to what extent he isolated himself in order to do his work, but also reveals the fact that he is completely unnecessary. Not to the story of course, he’s very important to our understanding of No.6, but to No.6 itself, his existence was meaningless. No one outside of Fennec and Safu (the two people he is shown interacting with) ever make reference to his existence, and even after he dies, and the main characters find his body in the mayor’s office, he is only mentioned for a moment to explain what had happened to him. He seems perfectly happy with this arrangement, but it leaves a lot of questions unanswered. How did he become the most powerful man in No.6? Why did he do it? Was complete power always his intention, or was he an idealist in the beginning like everyone else? We’ll never know the answer to these questions, but at the same time, it doesn’t really matter why he did it. Labcoat is a character that is so integral to the story and its events that his motives and existence outside of his ideology become completely meaningless. Which almost seems contradictory, but is also maybe the point of his character. Rather than an actual character with a concrete purpose and role in the story, he is a stand-in for the ideology that drives No.6, similar to the way that Rashi acts as a personification of the sociopolitical status of the city (please read my obscenely long post about Rashi).

At the root of this ideology, and Labcoat’s character, is the overwhelming fear of failure and losing control. Scenes including him are centered on his progress updates, which immediately are recognizable as nothing but reassurances, that “it was only a small obstacle”, that “it should be under control now”. At no point are we under the illusion that he actually knows what he is doing, and with no information regarding what is actually going on until near the end of the story, we are left to watch him desperately struggle with something that is either impossible, or doesn’t exist at all, much like the concept of utopia itself. We already know that his ideology and rational thought process will not allow him to accept impossibilities or non-understandings however, and so it is at this moment that we fully become an active part of the story ourselves, not as simple observers or analysts, but instead as a driving force in the plot, here in the form of the source of Labcoat's paranoia. Within the story, there is no doubt in his mind that anything and everything can fall under his control, and to a point, he is right. Elyurias is ultimately able to defeat him and No.6, but only after severe damage has already been done and some control had been taken from her temporarily. By existing outside of the story, we exist fully outside of his realm of control, and in recognizing our existence, he must come face to face with the reality that certain things exist that cannot be rationalized (more thoughts on this concept another time). Again similar to Rashi, this realization causes the collapse of his ideology, and by extension, No.6. Because that ideology is the entirety of his character, there is no reason for him to remain a part of the story, and so he is killed, quite literally, by irrationality. 

Fennec is one of those characters that from the outset is obviously more complex than is let on. He's the undisputed mayor of No.6, wielding unprecedented power over every single character we meet in the story. But he doesn't really want any of it. And as I mentioned above, he doesn’t really have it either. Now whether he realizes that he is being used by Labcoat or not is unclear (up to a certain point), but it is obvious that he knows that he is not fully in control of the city. His only real job is to serve as the face of No.6 and its perceived ideals, keeping the general population from ever suspecting that anything may be wrong. However, even in this job he is unable to succeed, and ultimately only exacerbates the process by which citizens become suspicious of the city’s leadership. He is arguably the most ideologically pure character in the entire series, other than perhaps Karan, whose ideology is not fully developed over the course of the story, and Safu, whose purpose in the story does not even necessitate any kind of socio-political stance on her part. Despite what he has ended up doing and taking part in, I don’t think that he ever really moved away from dreaming of an ideal world, and while much of his uncertainty about his position certainly stems from being unsure of whether or not they are moving the city in the right direction, I believe that much of it is also part of working towards one of the questions that frames the entire series: “Is it even possible to create an ideal world?”. Without an answer to this question, he is unable to overcome his uncertainty about his own position in the city or move forward ideologically, and thus is easily used as a tool by others such as Labcoat to further their own agendas and ideological positions, rather than develop his own ideas and work towards his own goals of utopia.

While some of the other characters such as Labcoat, and to a certain extent Rashi, are very much a personified version of the city in its idealized authoritarian form, Fennec exists very much on the opposite side of the spectrum, and instead paints a picture of the political and ideological structure of No.6 as it actually is, and likely always has been. While Fennec, like everyone else in the Rebirth Project, went into the creation of No.6 with utopian ideals, he is also probably the first, if not only, one of them to realize that what they were attempting was likely impossible, at least in the way they were attempting to do it. With the information about him we are given, it seems safe to assume that he may have been suspicious from the start, and perhaps was pushed into the leadership position not only as a way for Labcoat to become the de facto ruler of the city, but also in order to convince him that the city was indeed possible, and that it could only happen with Fennec's help. This of course was never a good idea, and likely led to a good portion of the instability that allowed the story to happen in the first place, but by portraying a leader that is so uncertain not only of the concept of the city itself, but also in his ability to lead such a city, we are able to see just how unstable the situation has been from the very beginning. This makes Karan’s comments about Fennec much more interesting as well, as at face value these are obviously comments about the distrust of leadership in the city, and thus distrust in the city itself, but in seeing Fennec’s own insecurity, we are able to place these comments also within the context of a distrust of the self, and a recognition that the entire situation is really out of everyone’s control, making the stability that marks No.6 as the “Holy City” subject to collapse at any time and for basically any reason, which of course it ultimately does.

Basically every death in this story has immense impact, often resulting in significant character development or otherwise important shifts in the story, and Fennec’s death is no exception to this. Like Labcoat, his death occurs without being seen and without intervention, although this time the main characters are at least aware that it is happening, but nonetheless it shifts the tone of the moment. In my experiences reading this scene, it’s always been there to create a quiet, grounding moment for both us and the characters to come back to reality and start processing everything that has happened over the past 9 books. The entire last half of the series is incredibly dense with action scenes, sensory overload, and things that are so far separated from reality that it’s difficult to figure out exactly what their purpose is, and even before entering the Correctional Facility, peaceful scenes are few and far between. So in this brief moment at the end of the series, when we know for a fact that No.6 has finally fallen and the nightmare is (mostly) over, we are finally able to enjoy a single moment of certainty amidst what is otherwise complete chaos. In these moments we are able to see Fennec realize not that he had necessarily lost against Nezumi, Shion, and the protesters, as his actions were almost entirely a result of Labcoat’s manipulation, but that he had been manipulated in the first place, and that his own life had been taken over by the “idea” of No.6, rather than the reality of it. The death of Labcoat and the realization of what had truly transpired within the city results in a return of control to Fennec over his own life, as well as over the city. With his knowledge of the city’s truth, and newfound power over it, he must now make the choice of whether or not to justify everything that has happened up to this point. Manipulated or not, he recognizes his position as the symbol of the city, and therefore his role in its actions, and so in keeping with his utopian ideology, he does the only thing he feels is appropriate in order to avoid going against his ideals and once again relinquishing his self determination to a yet-undecided power. I can’t say whether or not that choice was the right one, and opinions are probably going to differ a lot between people, but it is at least an action that, unlike so much of the rest of the series, is not unexpected and can be rationalized outside of an authoritative framework.

I’ve already done some of this, but this last section is going to go into how these two function as the single unit running No.6, and thus how their lack of presence affects the structure of the anime. On their own of course neither one of them would be able to take on the position of leading the entire city, and although neither one really seems interested in being deeply involved with the other, they have become dependent on each other in order to remain individually stable, with Labcoat needing reassurance that he is indeed in charge, and Fennec needing reassurance that an ideal society can exist, despite neither of those things being entirely true. As a unit, they represent two sides of No.6 in reverse relation to their own positon within the city. That is, Labcoat represents the idealism and scientific superiority that characterizes the world’s perception of the city while remaining a highly secretive figure, while Fennec represents the frailty of the city that is kept hidden from the citizens, despite acting as the city’s public persona (I will be referring to them as a unit from now own because their function is collective rather than individual here). This unit itself is a highly isolated structure (relationship), interacting with only a few other characters within the story during important moments, but otherwise interacting only within itself. This is what allows this setup to work at all, as their isolation enables them to freely trade information and plans between themselves without involving others or worrying about the information finding its way out of the structure. While it is clearly highly manipulative on the part of Labcoat, this is unclear to Fennec as well as the citizens who watch the mayor speak, and so the unit is able to stay intact as it is without being questioned by those who may seek to oppose it. This does not free them from criticism, obviously, but instead makes it impossible to criticize only one or the other from the perspective of a citizen, because as far as they are concerned, they are the same person. The unit, in having two distinctly different personalities functionally taking the place of one, is able to efficiently complete tasks semi-publically that would otherwise be seen as unacceptable by publicly presenting itself, and in fact believing itself to be, an idealized system of leadership which works in the citizen’s favor. Labcoats’s mistakes are able to be rationalized as small obstacles through the lens of Fennec’s nonunderstanding, and Fennec’s paranoia of this nonunderstanding mitigated through Labcoat’s complete trust in scientific inquiry and methods.

Despite the omission of these characters and the unit entirely from the anime, the story is still able to work because the city itself is able to take the place of the unit as the primary actor in the events of the story. With no leadership being portrayed throughout the anime, we are left with the impression that the events are unfolding independently of any kind of governmental system, or at least the government that does exist is vague and devoid of ideology outside of “militant authoritarianism”. Instead these events are framed almost as a type of natural occurrence that likely could not be avoided without the formation of some kind of mediation system such as a government, and without such a system, the responsibility falls somewhere else: society as a whole (or more specifically No.6). With no visible government in the form of the Fennec/Labcoat unit to control and mediate the situation, the unit expands to include everyone, as they become collectively responsible for governing themselves and thus understanding and accepting to a certain extent what is happening throughout the story. It would be a significant understatement to say that the sociological implications of this are immense, and someday I will write that essay. But today is not that day, so we’re going to stay surface level.

I would like to point out that yes, obviously this is not actually how No.6 functions. It’s not an autonomous collective governed by the people. It’s not even kind of a democracy. My point isn’t so much to say that No.6 is or even approaches being either of those things, but rather that the structure of the story, by excluding certain details and characters, gives us a conceptualization of No.6 that is far different from the one portrayed in the novels, and thus may in certain instances be seen as ideologically distinct. In this instance, the omission of Fennec and Labcoat, both independently of each other and as a unit, serve to create the feeling of the situation in No.6 as being entirely out of control, not as a planned series of events or experiments, but rather as a spontaneous occurrence fed by unexplained impulses felt by certain members of society, here taking the form of those recognizable as government officials or soldiers. While the government is certainly mentioned in the anime, and clearly exists in some form that is able to exert that level of control over the citizens, it exists mainly because the way we live requires a government, and so any story that does not explicitly state otherwise is simply assumed to have one that functions in a way we can recognize and relate to. 

In the novels, although they are not the only ones in the government, Fennec and Labcoat occupy the highest position, and are able to confirm the existence of a structured government, and give insight into the background and current issues facing that government. Through them, the events taking place are to a certain extent demystified, and while not explained entirely, we are able to more accurately identify those events as being somewhat purposeful and directly related to the overarching story. Their absence in the anime, while useful in its own way for adapting the themes of the story and creating a sense of mystery in a visual medium, also result in a (perhaps unintended) ideological shift in the overall message of the story, leaving it unclear as to what exactly happened, or could happen in the future. Also, like most things that got left out of the anime, this seems to be at least partially a result of the time crunch of fitting 9 books into only 11 episodes, so while I may have (a lot of) issues with the overall result of this particular change, there also isn’t really much that could have been done about it outside of just making the show longer (which they should have done but I know that wasn’t really an option). Ultimately though, through Fennec and Labcoat, and their existence as a unit in the series, we are able to better contextualize the events of No.6’s story, understand how those events came to take place, and get a better sense of how No.6 as a city and a society really functions. With their omission, we not only lose those understandings, but the ideology portrayed and supported by the story also change, and while that change may not be important to the overall enjoyment of the story, the implications end up being quite significant, and not necessarily in the way you would want.

[ineedrelationshipadvice]

Should I (25F) break up with boyfriend (29M)?

We’ve been together 5 years. We were together 1 year, then had a LDR for 2 years, then lived together for 1 year, followed by another 1 year LDR (we went to different universities after the first year going out). My doubt in the relationship began while living with him, when I noticed my sex drive for him went to zero. This could be because we had been long distance for 2 years and I was used to not having sex regularly. I feel it was also a mix of different reasons: 

He is disorganised while I am organised. His disorganisation in both his life and personal space stresses me out leading me to have to take responsibility to organise things in both circumstances. He is clean in other areas of the house however.

He is quick to anger /sarcasm/insults/debate. He does this to everyone, and I don’t think he means bad by it, it’s just a personality trait but can be grating when you’re exposed to it everyday. I am not argumentative by nature and find the constant sarcastic remarks demeaning. He also gets very angry when playing games.

He is a hypochondriac complete with having constant pains doctors cannot diagnose. This means he is often complaining about this health (real or not, who knows) and sometimes means we cannot enjoy going out. I’d say 70% of our conversations involve his health.

Can be annoying in social situations. I actually prefer social situations when he is not around; he is an extrovert and outgoing, and talks A LOT. But, it’s to the point that he dominates the conversation and as I am quite quiet means when I do want to say something or get involved, it’s more difficult. Although, I also appreciate he can fill in silence.

He may have a gaming addiction. I also like gaming, but not the point it dominates my life. He always wants to play or is playing, even when we are cooking meaning we don’t talk. That being said I am more of a film-lover and like to discuss films and art - he does not have this interest so I don’t have a outlet for this interest with him, including the fact we don’t like the same films apart from sci-fi/fantasy/mainstream cinema.

Some of these things are just personality traits that I see present in his other family members (disorganised, sarcastic, talkative), and I don’t think they can be resolved. That being said, he also has good qualities: caring, loyal, likes to cuddle, likes to travel, enjoys sci-fi, likes to cook and try different food, can be very cute/funny when we are alone (I do not find his humour when we are around other people funny however), I enjoy gaming with him (apart from the above), he is intelligent, likes animals & the environment, cares about his health and exercises.

My doubt in the relationship grew while living together as said, and again when we have been apart due to COVID. I am an introvert and have been really enjoying this time apart – I have doing things I haven’t been able to do while doing my studies and hanging out with him, particularly as he doesn’t really enjoy alone time. I have not missed him at all. Sometimes, I feel like my life is put on hold when we hang out because we have to decide what to do together, as you do in a relationship. We usually end up gaming or compromising on something to watch. I feel like I have been ‘finding myself’ again and realised sometimes I feel like a weaker version of myself when I’m around him.  

I feel confused because for the most part he is a great guy, we’ve been through a lot together and there isn’t one big thing that is making me feel we should break up, it’s lots of small things. Sometimes I feel in my gut I do want to break up, while other times i’m not sure if that’s just my stupid 25-year-old brain talking and that i’d be missing out on a good guy. That being said, I feel anxious about the idea of us moving in together due to his disorganisation/messiness and the lack of ‘me’ time.

I would really appreciate any advice i.e. do you think i’m ‘settling’? there are so many small issues, some of which I don’t feel will change - what is a tolerable amount of negatives in a partner? how do you know if you love a long-term partner romantically vs. as just a person/friend?

____________

I want to say right from the start that this is a really fun and engaging question. Why? Because it has a LOT of moving parts to it, and also, because it's very clear that you have approached writing this message to me with a lot of thought and maturity. I know how easy it is for someone to just spam-type a message in a fit of concern and panic. Sometimes people need that, they just need to spit out their feelings to someone else, and then get a response, and then they feel better. But it's clear that for you, this issue is serious, you have a lot of concern wrapped up in it, and you want a proper resolution to this, and it seems you're happy with any resolution you get as long as it feels like it's guiding you. So let's try to find something.

Firstly, I want to say that you're perfectly valid in your understanding is very valid. One thing that struck me is that you said that you believe that there's no big problem, but instead, it's a lot of small problems that are bringing you to feeling the way you do. And that's okay. It can sometimes feel selfish to say that it's just the little stuff. When you hear someone say, "Oh my partner is abusive," your brain thinks, "Oh yeah, they should definitely leave." They might say, "My boyfriend is alcoholic and ruining his life," YO GET OUT OF THAT BAD RELATIONSHIP. But then you look at your own, and think, what is my partner doing wrong? "Well, it's not one thing or the other, but a million small things." You say that and then think, "Well that's not fair. I mean he has his faults, but don't we all?"

That sort of thinking justifies us settling, which is the other point you raised. One thing that needs to be mentioned is that settling down isn't a bad thing. That's actually a very positive quality! But if we're settling with someone who doesn't actually, truly make us happy, that is where any anxiety around settling actually comes from. Okay, but is he a bad person? Is he not making us happy? That's harder to answer, which is why you're so concerned about it. It sucks, because the answer is not as easy as you want it to be, so it creates more uncertainty about your actions.

What do? Well, let's try to work through some of these issues and see what can actually be changed, and what topics are more difficult.

He's disorganized.

I can definitely understand how frustrating and stressful it might be to be in a messy place. I'm definitely that unorganized dude, and I know it's pretty bad compared to most people. There are a lot of reasons people are disorganized, and there are a lot of different levels to that disorganization. For instance, most people who see my house would probably say, "JESUS THAT'S FILTHY HOW DO YOU LIVE," but for me, it doesn't bother me at all, because I don't care about it. But although my cleaning habits are poor, my organization is extremely high. Not everything is in the perfect place, but I know where everything is, and if you said, "I need a screwdriver" or "where are your car keys," I'd have an immediate answer for you. Although I'm disorganized with cleaning, it doesn't meaningfully impact my life.

So the question comes: is your boyfriend just bad at cleaning like me, but is actually quite structured and organized; or, is his disorganization affecting him. Does he lose things frequently? Is he not sure where things belong, even to himself? Is he the sort of person who just puts something down and immediately forgets it? It's all nuanced, so you have to diagnose this yourself.

What I can say to all of this, however, is that disorganization is very fixable. I don't clean due to my depression and ADHD making me not want to; it's all mental. But if I had someone whip me and make me clean, that's a thing that inspires me. I don't care of my space is messy, but I care if someone else thinks it is. What inspires your partner is different from me, but I think this issue is fixable, because you have the power to instill good habits in them.

What you need to do is SHOW THEM how to be more clean and organized, and then emphasize when they aren't organized. Like I said about my situation, I don't personally care when things get messy. I need to be reminded, because my mind doesn't see the mess. This is likely true of your partner as well, so be his eyes; let him know when things are disorganized, and start showing him gently how to be more organized. "Gaming stuff should be by the TV/computer, no dishes or cups outside of the kitchen unless you're actually using them, no clothes on the floor ever." Simple stuff like this can hopefully make his brain go, "Oh, yeah, good idea," and he will just do them. Again, HOPEFULLY, it's not that he's just a wastrel who likes litter in his house, but that his brain doesn't realize it's messy. Instilling in him these better habits could potentially change his behaviour, as long as you exercise both gentleness and firmness in equal regard.

He is quick to anger, sarcasm, insults, and debate.

This is a bit trickier. This is one one of those things that is harder to influence, as you imagined, because it's more of his actual personality. But there are several facets to this, some that are easier to change, and some that are harder to affect. For instance, you say that you aren't argumentative by nature, but he is. They key here is, are you engaging in his arguments? Sometimes arguments have value, but you need to determine the value on the fly when the argument is occurring. If you ever find yourself disconnecting or getting upset over an argument that's occuring, you need to put your foot down and say,

"Listen, I'm sorry, but I don't want to argue. Can we talk about this when we've had a moment to relax?" or "I don't want to fight with you, I'm sorry. Can we just let this one go?" Trying to deescalate situations like this can often stop arguments in their tracks. Again, to compare myself to your partner, I trend toward being argumentative. There are lots of reasons for that, but it's just how it is for me. I don't mean harm by it. But that also means sometimes I don't realize when I'm arguing. If someone says "hey, chill" to me mid-argument, I stop and reflect on what I'm doing. I ask if the argument is worth it, and if it is, I let them know, and if it's not, I apologize and back off. Try to see if these tactics work with your partner.

Same with the sarcasm. Sarcasm seems to come naturally to him. But if you find it demeaning, that's no good! You should allow him to use sarcasm sometimes, particularly when it's harmless statements. But if you are actively upset by something sarcastic he has said, you should let him know. "That wasn't nice. I would like an apology." If he says IT'S JUST SARCASM, just be calm and say, "I know, but it still upset me. I would like an apology." He'll either throw a temper tantrum or apologize, and whichever action he takes says a lot about him.

The anger, however, is likely more of an inherent part of himself. You can control arguments, and you can control sarcasm, but for many, anger is a lot harder to control. The reason I can make this assumption is because your partner gets mad at lots of things. It's not just mad at you, but it's also mad in his games. There's no harm in getting mad at a game, especially if you care about it. But there is a degree where that anger because worrisome and dangerous. You can't do much about that if that anger is directed at you, except for the strategies I've already given you. If he is angry at you, stay calm, and deescalate. "I'm sorry, I don't really want to talk to you while you're angry. Let's take a moment and collect ourselves." Letting him step away from the conversation will force him to cool off, and whatever was being said in the heat of the moment will probably evaporate along with the anger.

He's a hypochondriac.

Here's the short section. THIS IS NOT FIXABLE. This is a mental disorder, through and through, and you can't fix this. Try to understand that this isn't his fault - it's literally his brain making him think he's sick. And it's not actually just his brain that is thinking this. When he is sick, or when he says he's sick, HE IS ACTUALLY SICK. If he says, "I have a new disorder, it causes me migraines," and he shows symptoms of migraines, HE IS ACTUALLY HAVING MIGRAINES. It's not like he's totally faking this.

The "faking it" is part of the disorder, because people who struggle with hypochondria have learned over time that if they feel ill, and go to the doctor, they get positive attention from this, and that makes them feel good. But many also suffer from what is known as a "nocebo effect." It's a thing similar to the placebo effect, but it means the person feels something EVEN IF THAT THING IS PROVABLY NOT REAL. The thing that is causing the problem may not be real, but the symptoms are VERY REAL and VERY PAINFUL. So even if it seems frustrating, try not to dismiss his pain or symptoms, because he likely does believe those symptoms are real and does struggle with them. Check out this video for more info on the nocebo effect.

https://youtu.be/O2hO4_UEe-4

The key here is, regardless of whether you stay with him or not, if you believe that he is actively suffering with hypochondria, you should try to push him to go see a therapy. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is VERY effective at treating hypochondria, and will benefit him a lot.

He can be annoying in social situations.

Again, this is an issue that you can't really affect, and I'm not gonna spend much time here. He's a social, extroverted dude. He also has a dominant personality, from how you describe. Naturally, he dominates the conversation. If you feel you're being left out of a conversation, all you can really do is make yourself known. Maybe you're shy or meek, I don't know. But even the quietest person has to talk sometime, and if you feel you're being left behind, GET LOUD!

Not much else to say in terms of your relationship though. If he's extroverted, that's not actually a problem. You're just introverted and conflict with this more outgoing personality type.

He may have gaming addiction.

For me, I'm not entirely convinced that gaming addiction is a thing. There are studies back and forth proving its legitimacy, and while some organizations believe in gaming addiction (source: https://www.npr.org/2019/05/28/727585904/is-gaming-disorder-an-illness-the-who-says-yes-adding-it-to-its-list-of-diseases), others disagree with that perception (source: https://www.psychiatry.org/patients-families/internet-gaming), and I tend to fall in that disagreement camp.

I ain't no medical expert. But also being a gamer, and definitely entering some really bad times in my life where gaming dominated a lot of my activities, I never felt like I was addicted to gaming. The time when I was young and would pull all-nighters playing games and not focusing on my school work? That wasn't the games causing the problem; I was using the games to avoid depression and fear of disappointment; it was a solution, but a compulsive solution, because the games made me feel better while ignoring my IRL problems. In that extent, it's no different from gambling, "sex addiction," hoarding, and shopping. All of these have various different medical classifications for addiction, but again, I ain't no doctor, and that's a digression.

The point being here is that from my perspective, it really depends on how much his gaming habits are affecting his IRL life. We know he's disorganized and unclean; is that because he plays games too much, or is it because he is naturally that way? Good question. How often does he game? Several hours a day, most of the day, or literally non-stop? Even if someone plays many hours a day, that's still not indicative of a bad situation. However, does he continue playing games even when he should be doing other things, like working, or paying his bills, or sleeping, or such? You mention he even plays games while cooking, and THAT is a legitimate concern in the favour that he may be suffering from a compulsive behavior.

What to do about this? It's difficult to say. You can try to help him realize that he might be going a little too far with his gaming. You can also emphasize that you want more time spent with him while he's not gaming. "I want ' us time,' so let's turn off the game for a bit." If he's not willing to, that's a bad sign. If you think this issue might be too big for you, then it's best to direct him to a therapist for such issues, especially as said, if it's directly impacting his life in negative ways, and not actually bringing him any real enjoyment in life. _________ So, what do?

Well, that's really up to you. You have expressed that being apart from him now has made you really happy. You haven't missed him at all. You're "finding yourself," and that's awesome.

Should you be with this person? That's hard to say? Are you settling for someone "less-than?" That's also hard to say. There aren't right or wrong answers to this sort of thing, and you kinda have to determine that for yourself based on the information in front of you.

I listed a lot of his problems, and a lot of potential solutions. But do you want to help him conquer those issues? Are you willing to put through that effort? Or are you just kinda tired and bored of dealing with this for so long? Would you be willing to move on and date other people one day? Or does this person actually bring joy to your life because of your shared interests? There are no right answers there.

That's why I think the best course of action is would be to see how much you are willing to change, and then through your action, see how much you are able to change. You only have so much influence in his life, but if you CAN influence his life for the better for both of you, that would be awesome.

What is a tolerable amount of negatives? Again, that's a very personal question, and your answer to that may change dramatically based on the situation. Do you feel like the current amount of negatives outweigh the positives? If yes, try to reduce the negatives as much as possible; if no, then you're probably on the right track, you're just experiencing a bump in the road.

[isolaradiale]

THE FANTASIA WAR: WORLD INFO

Before reading this makes sure you read the event post!

FIBONACCI: THE KINGDOM OF YELA ALORA

GENERAL The towers of Fibonacci have been torn down and rebuilt as The Kingdom of Yela Alora, featuring grand cobblestone structures, shaped like rook chess pieces, with intricately designed walkways connecting them at many levels, and the spires extend far beyond cloud level; dragons circling around them are not an uncommon sight. This section of the kingdom is kept impeccably clean. The exterior and interior design of the structures get more lavish and expensive as you go higher, with the upper-most layers being the most royal looking of all. That is where the highest ranking nobles live, and access is extremely limited. The Kingdom of Yela Alora is ruled by Queen Deyana, whose care for her citizens decreases the further they are from her level—speaking both societally and literally.

The castle-like structures are surrounded by wide moats of bog, with various reeds, twiggy bushes, and other swamp flora sprouting from the murky waters. That expanse of the mire is what separates the inner kingdom from the surrounding town, Sterlow. Much shorter in design but no less complex, the people who live there do so in sturdy buildings made largely of stone, wood, and brass. Miles of metal piping and more gears than you can count are used for both infrastructure and aesthetic enhancement. Steam power is the main source of energy here, with only basic magic filling in where steam is not enough.

PLAYER RACES

ELVES: the primary humanoid race that fills both the streets of Sterlow and the inner portion of Yela Alora. Most elves are quite tall, with 6 feet being the average height, and all of them have ears that come to a rounded point. Ear length varies more than height, but don't feel self-conscious if you draw the short end of the stick in that regard. Elves also have better night vision than normal, and if you ask an elf, better taste in interior decoration, too.

UNHOLY: Though elves may rank nobility too high sometimes, they are not necessarily evil. The same cannot be said for most of the unholy folk who stay in the kingdom of Yela Alora. Demons, vampires, dhampirs, ghouls...all find it relatively easy to live either on the fringes of Sterlow or hidden in the swamps. You may find a kind vampire, or perhaps a devil who is more interested in playing tricks than bartering souls, but always keep your wits about you.

COTES: THE KINGDOM OF AIRAISAL

GENERAL The Cotes ward has been completely transformed into the Kingdom of Airaisal, a nation led by Queen Aleida. A bustling land of forests and magic, the other kingdoms have a tendency to look down upon Airaisal as land without development. But that’s hardly the case. In the depths of the forest rests the city of Diapool, a bustling fantasy town constructed predominantly from the oak of the surrounding brush. Much of the city is powered by magic supplied by its high mage population, from magic torches to rail cars that allow you to quickly traverse the area. 

The surrounding forests themselves are thick and varied, and short of the few paths leading to and from Diapool it’s very possible to get lost. Because these paths are few it’s common for bandits to set up ambushes along the way. Regarding the species of flora: there seems to be no real trend to what appears. Tropical, temperate, boreal; depending on the area you’re in the atmosphere might vary. Be wary of the various man eating plants that lurk within as well.

PLAYER RACES

BEASTKIN: a humanoid race that predominantly occupies Airaisal and calls Diapool their home. Beastkin appear predominantly human in appearance but are liable to show physical traits of animals - specifically mammals. Ears, teeth, tails, paws; the variations are vast and span many different animal species. Beastkin generally have enhanced senses for navigating the forests and double the strength of a regular human. Attuned to nature, many possess a strong affinity for magic.

ALRAUNE: a monster race that, while having the shape of a human, is actually a plant at its core. These monsters come in many shapes and sizes, often decorated with different flowers with skin of green and hair of vines. Those that live wildly on the forest may prey upon passersby, but those that pursue a domesticated life in the cities are exceptionally intelligent and adept at utilizing magic. While they aren’t physically stronger than a regular human, they are capable of extending strong vines from their bodies.

GOLDEN: THE  OPALARIAN EMPIRE

GENERAL The bustling streets and ritzy architecture of Golden have been amplified tenfold in this coastal city. The cobblestone roads have been replaced with smooth, sturdy sandstone, peppered with colorful shells and sea glass to represent the kingdom’s long and fruitful relationship with the ocean. Government buildings and important political landmarks are clearly marked by ornate mosaics, featuring precious materials like gold, ivory, and shimmering opals--the signature gemstone of Opalaria. Merchants in particular are fond of this kingdom, as its residents and visitors are too happy to spend their coin on the finer things in life.

Alongside the roads, one would find clear, deep channels of water carved through the city. These serve as paths for the aquatic residents of Opalaria, and like the buildings on land, several sunken wells and chasms feature those same beautiful sandstone structures. Opalaria is the very picture of opulence, made not with magic, but with ingenuity and hard work... ...Or so most people think. While the city is pristine, its politics are less so. There is no set ruler of Opalaria; instead it’s governed by a council of big family houses, all strangling each other for power. Bribes, assassinations and corruption run rampant and unseen in these few factions, with the families all-too-happy to hire hands that don’t mind getting bloodied. This is especially true of House Karliah, who is both one of the great families and the backbone of the Thieves’ Guild, which has more members in it than one would be even remotely comfortable with.

PLAYER RACES

HUMAN: Due to their relatively short lifespans, humans are capable of incredible potential, determination and arrogance. They slightly outnumber the other populations in the Opalarian Empire. Many of them have migrated here from other kingdoms to live out their dreams--others come regularly to trade their wares. The individual cultures of these human colonies are represented all around the kingdom.

MERFOLK: The second biggest population of Opalaria are the people of the sea, and are the native species of the kingdom. They can travel both by the flooded roads and the streets above by growing legs when needed. Their naturally curious minds welcomed the humans as a social experiment and a business opportunity, and live (mostly) at peace with them. You can tell a merperson apart from a human by their skin, which is slightly translucent and iridescent due to their scales. Though they breathe with lungs on land, one can easily see a merperson’s gills if they’re exposed.

SIRENS: Not everyone you meet in the waters are friendly. Bearing a grudge on both races for casting them out as ugly and inferior, the sirens embraced their monstrous nature and found work in espionage and dirty tactics. Though the colony lives in the shoddier outskirts of the kingdom, they venture into Opalaria for work... or draw budding criminals and justice-seekers to them instead for an easy meal. Though they can disguise themselves for a short while, there will always be something unnervingly off about a siren posing as another race. In their true form, they resemble the strange and terrifying creatures of the deep (anglerfish, vampire squid, gulper eels), and their bio-luminescent freckles betray their true form when the sun sets.

ARCHIMEDES: THE KINGDOM OF XALPHINA

GENERAL Entering Archimedes Ward will reveal that it, too, is no longer how it once was, transformed into what is now known as the Kingdom of Xalphina. Rather than pure white and light blues, the grounds of the ward, now known as the city of Eriol, have become a smooth, silvery gray, pulsating with white and faintly golden lines which appear more like laid stone that are imbued with grandeur magic, some leading to pools of a concentrated energy of magic that people can either draw from by resting beside or dipping themselves into to replenish themselves, all free for access to the citizens. While many other kingdoms are not lacking in these arts, many regard this kingdom as the one most adept in fueling the “technology” of their time through magical means and creatures alike. Even if there are those who will take up arms when necessary, it is easy to tell that this is where many come to study upon the arcane arts and hone their latent magical abilities than physical force. Though many offer themselves to study, there are also many places one can find a good pub or two to let themselves relax after a long day of work and education.

Streams, albeit fewer and more thinner than those now within Golden, flow through to channel magic throughout the city, thus empowering it upon a magical level, while the natural veins in the pathways are considered high powered leylines which have become conduits for mages and other means. Homes are also powered this way, casting magical barriers around public places and private estates and caverns, so long as the flow of the essence is reinforced daily and does not run out. Rustic creations known as Artifactus are magically created and imbued while being fueled by potions, serving as familiars, companions, and workers with various forms that keep the kingdom pristine and proper. Following any of these lines will lead you toward the outer edges where a large fortress resides upon the steep ledge, safeguarding the very castle from a frontal assault while also maintaining a general sense of protection from the climb behind where the twins Princess Aalis and Prince Aaren both preside in lieu of their  mother and father, who have gone beyond the age of rule as dictated in their political practices.

When night falls, the white and faint gold leylines and pools illuminate the entirety of the kingdom, the residents needing no form of light to see when travelling, usually requiring special curtains for their homes in order to block off the overwhelming glow of the magic particles that ooze from the magical sources.

PLAYER RACES

DRAKEN: latent with inherent magical abilities, many people born of this race are likened to dragons which have a lifespan roughly twice as long as humans, if not longer. Their appearances vary by far, some looking more humanesque with only scales to discern their heritage, while others look as if they are dragons in human form, covered completely in natural scaled armor and possessing fangs and claws, even those with a more human like complexion having wings or tails. There is no wrong combination in looks as a Draken, all of them regarding each other as the same. Being considered as dragon reincarnate, some are able to breathe fire while others can spit frost and ice instead.

FAEKIN: contrasting Draken, the Faekin are ethereal beings which exude an otherworldly beauty and deep sense of arcane heritage. There are many types, such as Dryads, Nymphs, Xana, and even the malevolent Erlkings. Seeing antennae on one or even butterfly wings on another is not uncommon, while others might have branches as horns or fissures of magic that crackle along their skin every so often. Though some may be scholarly and composed, it is not foreign to find that you have been pranked by one of this kind, many using their magics for harmless jests and good times. It’s always good to keep an eye out, just in case you might have a Reeking Potion dumped on you as you innocently pass through an area...

FAEKEN: differing from Faekin, Faeken are a combination of Drakens and Faekin heritage through parents of each coming together, creating an almost enchanting creature of magical aptitude and draconic means that seems beyond this realm. While some feel as if they have no place to belong being born of both races, there are those who are well regarded and accepted. There have been rumors that the royal family are amongst those considered Faeken, though they have never been confirmed nor denied.