#at least hover mode is solid

[victorluvsalice]

Welcome back to the Chill Valicer Save, where – after introducing new member Marm L. Iser the Servo to the family last update – we get to see how Marm is fitting in on the farm and helping out at the store! How did things go for him and the rest of the fam this fine Fall Wednesday? Well –

-->I started with Victor and Alice in bed and Smiler and Marm watching romantic TV together (though if this stirred any feelings between creator and creation, they didn't act upon them). I decided to check on Marm’s enhancement status while they were both chilling, and upon learning he could indeed be enhanced, had Smiler upgrade him so he’d charge a bit faster going forward. Nice! Marm then got to recharging on the couch (apparently robots can take naps, who knew?) while Smiler lectured Surprise on scratching the furniture (Surprise, in a typical cat move, pretended to have no idea what they were talking about) before heading out to the porch to ask Shadow, sadly chewing on her ball, what was wrong. Turns out Shadow was feeling down and needed hugs and treats – Smiler was only too happy to provide, along with a brushing. :) I then had them feed Toothy before heading down into the barn basement to make some strawberry nectar – I mean, they were feeling flirty anyway, so why not? I don’t think it had any effect on the final product, of course, but it feels like it should have. :p

-->While that was going on, Victor and Alice both woke up around 3 AM – I immediately put Victor on “upgrading the tub in the black-and-yellow bathroom” duty, since he had a want to increase his Handiness (and in fact was very close to maxing it). Had him give it a water recycler (using eco parts, of course), pulsating jets, soothing jets, and a self-cleaning coating. I mean, he did all that for the shower, might as well do the same for the tub! Alice, for her part, talked to Snappy the Sixam Mosquito Trap for a bit (it was a want), then got back to working on her book. In Smiler’s room, because of course she did – never mind that I clicked on HER computer in HER and Victor’s room. *sigh* I really should lock the various computers to their owners, shouldn’t I?

Anyway, while Victor and Alice were thus occupied, Smiler finished their nectar and put it in storage (the vitality and potato nectar Victor found in the prairie grass the other day also made it in there), then went upstairs to stand by the robotics bench so I could sort out the pictures in their and Alice’s inventories and pick my favorites from the recent family reunion to put up. The best two of Alice’s pictures of the group and Marm himself, along with one of Smiler and Marm’s selfies, went into the free “column of three pictures” frames they got from the reunion and hung up near the robotics station, while another Smiler-and-Marm selfie went up in Smiler’s room, on the side wall between the windows (over their yoga mat). :) So now Marm has a presence on the walls of the house, nice. Though, while I was doing all that, I noticed there was a Potion of the Nimble Mind in the household inventory for some reason –

-->And then looked in the barn basement and realized that Victor’s potion display was missing a cube! >.< Yeah, back when I did the small house renovation and jazzed up the basement, I had trouble getting that top left corner display case to slot in, but I didn’t expect it to just POP OFF THE WALL! (If you’re wondering what happened to the shelf itself, I am pretty sure I recycled it by accident.) Even more annoying, I was actually able to move the display right below it up into that slot no problem, then add in a new case into the vacated spot. *shakehead* These snap-together shelves sometimes, man. At least I was able to fix the display!

-->With pictures sorted and Victor, Alice, and Marm all occupied, I had Smiler head into the greenhouse to clean up some cursed objects there (a slime monster and a creepy doll), then had them clean Moory’s shed (which really needed it) while making the recently-awakened Marm clean the chicken coop instead of watching Politi-Sim (trust me, Marm, you don’t wanna watch politics). Smiler then pulled the recyclable trash out of the bin, before returning to the greenhouse to drop off Elmer and Bugs the gardening bots and put them to work! Because we hadn’t used the little bots in a while, and judging by the state of the greenhouse, Victor was going to need the help. XD

-->Speaking of Victor, by this point he’d finished all the tub upgrades (without maxing out his Handiness, boo) – he went and had a little chat with Alice as she finished off her book, then showed a little love to Shadow before heading downstairs to finish off the last of the banana split waffles while I had Alice clean up some of the dirty plates around the place. And as for Marm – well, having FINALLY gotten around to the front of the house to throw away the chicken poop, he decided he wanted to play with the cowplant. I allowed this, but I first made him turn on hover mode so he’d move quicker. Because a walking Servo walks VERY SLOWLY, I have discovered. *grimace* Like, EA, seriously, what the hell is the deal with THAT?? *sigh* This is why I stick to occults like vampires and spellcasters...

[courtingchaos]

Life Is Good Blues

Professor Munson x Fem Reader

@carolmunson So the old man finally had something to say to me and I think you might find it a little cathartic too maybe?

Life is Good Blues

“There she is.”

You don’t even have the door all the way open before you hear his voice. Normally it’s a welcome surprise when he gets home before you but today you’re talked out. A deep breath and a millisecond pep talk to get yourself through the door without snapping at him when he’s just happy to see you.

“Did you get out early today?” You can’t hide the strain in your voice and you hope you can pass it off on full hands. Ed is already rounding the corner and reaching out for at least one fistful of bags.

“We lost power like six times today so they told us to vacate.” He loops the handles over his forearm and takes the others off you too, turning to head back into the kitchen. He hasn’t caught on yet to your sour mood or the fact that your teeth have been clenched for six solid hours. All you can muster is a little hum and a terse nod, the strain along your neck not easing up like you thought it would when you finally made it back home.

He picks out the bags with groceries in them and peers at you over his glasses when you come into the kitchen behind him. Head bowed and eyes following the wood grain of the flooring you can barely even thinking about making eye contact.

“You okay?” He doesn’t fly into worry mode like everyone else in your life would upon seeing you turn into an automaton.

Are you okay? There’s just…so much to go over. There’s the humming of your brain in the background of every thought process and the god damn job search that rolls through your every waking thought and there’s just the thought of what you need to make for dinner because you’ve just remembered you haven’t eaten a thing today. A grimace accompanied by a short, sharp tap to your forehead. “Just uh, bad brain day.” You suddenly remember you forgot to rinse off the shower after you started cleaning it this morning and those tears that have been hovering in your lash line all day are that much closer to spilling.

“You wanna talk about it?” A simple question asked simply. Ed gets the cold stuff put away and stacks all the dry on the corner of the island so he can turn to look at you, all of you, in your overstimulated glory.

“N-not really.” The tears burn and you really can’t look up at him now.

He slides along the countertop slowly and holds out his hand to you. “You want me to shut up?” He doesn’t touch, finally catching on to where you’re currently teetering. He holds his hand out like an olive branch, a peace offering for you to take so you can ask for help.

“No.” You don’t want him to, you just don’t want to talk anymore. It took you four hours to get out of bed and another four to get any kind of clothes on your body and then two more to finally drag yourself out of the house to run your errands. Food shopping and a quick run to the pharmacy and you’re effectively rendered useless by your brain trying to outsmart itself.

“How’s this sound.” He keeps his hand open but moves in closer, close enough you can feel the heat radiate off of him and suddenly nothing sounds better than letting him prop you up and guide you around. “You let me take care of you and you get to reboot your brain for the evening.” Your hand slides into his seamlessly just like your face that presses into the crook of his neck. If there’s a sob hidden there he ignores it, arms wrapping around your shoulders when you sag into his chest.

“Have you eaten today?”

“No.” You peel off your clothes that you haven’t been able to stand all day and he runs his hand under the spray of the shower head. “I just forgot.”

He doesn’t reprimand you or scoff or laugh, just hums and leans out from the glass partition. “It’s a lobster shower, I hope that’s what you wanted.” The steam rolls up to the ceiling and you can almost feel your neck starting to relax before the water has even hit it. He holds the door open for you with a flourish and a little bow and it makes you smile.

“You want me to leave you alone?”

“No.” The silence would be deafening.

“Okay.” The door clicks shut behind you and his hand pops over the top to hand you one of the rose shower melts he bought you. “I’ll be right back.”

The drone and the heat of the water lull you into something akin to peace and when Ed turns back up it only startles you a little.

“I know you should eat first but I’ll make sure you don’t drown.” The smile is evident in his voice when his hand appears over the door again, this time a wineglass half full being handed down to you. “Go easy, tiger.”

“Thank you Ed.”

“I also brought you a snack.” Another hand, this time holding a few grapes.

“Did you bring me a shower lunchable?”

“Maybe.”

You giggle at him periodically handing you fistfuls of cheese and fruit, making sure to keep your distance from the shower head. He starts talking softly about a new D&D thing he found on Kickstarter, something he thinks you might find interesting.

“It’s Halloween themed, but like D&D Halloween. I backed it, and I got the biggest tier of course, so more dice for you to find around here.”

“At least they’re pretty.”

“And Halloween themed.”

“You’ve mentioned.” You grin at him through the frosted glass and finish off your wine. He takes the glass from you and when the water cuts off he’s ready with a towel held up for you to walk into.

“You feel better?”

“A little bit.” Still quiet when you lean on him, droplets soaking into his grey t-shirt while he dries you off softly. He rubs the towel along your back and finally up to the ends of your hair to scrunch lightly and wring out any extra water.

“Look at me.”

Chin tilted up so he can see your faint smile and tired eyes. He looks so soft in the bathroom lighting, the streaks of grey in his hair glittering warmly. He didn’t put it up and the ends of his curls tickle your cheek where they begin drying, plastered to your skin.

“God you’re pretty.” He pinches your chin between his fingers when you roll your eyes and try to scoff.

“You don’t have to butter me up, Ed. I feel better.”

“I’m doing no such thing.” A finger runs down your temple and pushes back a few strands of wet hair behind your ear. That same finger glides down under the corner of your jaw and he cradles the back of your neck so he can give you kiss. Nothing hurried or tinted with anything other than his simple intent. “I just don’t think I tell you enough.”

“You tell me all the time.” It comes out in a whisper that ghosts over his lips.

“Well it’s still not enough.” Another soft press against your mouth. “You’re gorgeous.”

“Mm.”

“My pretty baby.”

God those tears burn a trail down your freshly washed face. Hotter than the steam that beat against your back, like they’ve been trapped in the tumultuous core of you all day. You didn’t want to have this breakdown but it seems it’s going to have you no matter what you wish. Ed’s voice soothes in your ear when he feels that first shudder rumble through you and he pulls you in closer.

“I’m sorry baby.”

Nothing but half formed sobs answer him while you finally let the pressure valve of the past however many weeks or months release.

“I know, I know.”

He gathers you up so you’re fully covered in the extra long towel, angling you towards the bedroom so he can sit you down on the edge of the bed. You cling to his shirt and to his arms and babble against his chest about ruining the night. You try to explain to him what the chaos in your head feels like when you slide into these moods. A blank slate for the world to see so you can have your whitecaps to yourself, the churning grey waters that try to pull you all the way down.

“Eddie I’m tired.” You hiccup when the tears finally slow. “I’m tired and I don’t know why.” You can hear the whine in your voice and it makes your skin crawl. “I don’t know if there’s enough sleep for this.”

He’s silent now when you want him to fill the void so desperately. You need him to talk about his job or his music or one of his hobbies, anything to keep you from thinking-

His slippers hit the ground with a smack that jolts you out of the dread spiral, his hands under your arms pulling you up the bed also pull you out of those crashing waves.

“I see you.” He says while he pulls the duvet up over the two of you.

“The bathroom light is still on.”

He shushes you. “I see you struggling all the time and I try so hard to let you do stuff on your own.”

“Eddie I need to do my face stuff-”

He cuts you off when he drops the bedding over your heads and yanks you in close. “And I think I’m pretty good at that.” He settles on his side of the bed and makes sure you’re anchored to him. “But you really need to understand something.”

“What.” Muffled into his chest and you can feel the short laugh rumble under your lips.

“I’m gonna help you when I can because I want to, not because I have to. I see you trying and I see you trying hard and you’re gonna have days like this.”

You huff to try and fight back against the new onslaught of tears.

“And I’m gonna hold out my hand and you’re gonna take the damn thing and let me feed you in the shower.”

“Ed, I can’t-“

“I know you can’t and that’s okay.” He hooks his leg over one of yours to tuck you even closer. “It’s okay.” His hands run over your back and calm you down so your tears only trickle instead of stream. “It’s okay.”

It’s dark under the covers, warm and a little damp only because of your hair and towel. He doesn’t mind so you don’t mind, especially when he tucks you up under his jaw like this.

“You mean it?” Still quiet when you ask. He means it like he always does but still you have to ask, have to make sure.

And he knows, of course he does. Another kiss to your hair and a whisper only for you.

“Of course I do.”

[teetlestansecond]

yay requests!! can I request the turtles and April with a sick reader? I've been sick the last few days and I'm pretty sure your hcs are as good as medicine!

oh bestie same i feel like my brain has been dripping out from my nose 😭😭 i hope we both start feeling better soon!!

rise turtles + april x sick reader

gn!reader, mild general warning for anyone who doesn't want to read about being sick ♥️

raph! ❤️

mom mode: activated.

you came over to the lab to pick up something you'd left and made the unfortunate mistake of sniffling within earshot of your boyfriend. a fatal mistake, truly.

"are you sick? do you have a fever? you might have a fever come here -"

definitely does the classic "back of the hand to the forehead" to check your temperature, which may not be the most accurate method but he simply couldn't care less.

you're running a temperature anyway, leon confirms it for raph and really that's all he needs. you are swiftly sentenced to staying in bed until you're all better.

raph can be a little overbearing while you're sick, but he means well. he's just worried about you and wants to make sure you're okay.

my boy can't cook, so he convinces mikey to make you soup and definitely feeds it to you.

he also reads to you every time. you let him pick the book because you just like listening to him regardless of what it is he's saying. he makes really solid choices anyway so you trust him to pick something you'll enjoy.

he piles so many blankets and pillows on the bed and you're definitely drowning but you're so so comfy.

raph checks your temperature and makes sure you take your medicine on a tight schedule, and it amuses you to no end - unless you were sleeping and got woken up so you could take your medicine. then you're a little grumpy, but raph will insist that it was necessary and cuddle you back to sleep.

speaking of cuddles, he's the one that cuddles with you the entire time you're sick and ends up catching your cold, but lucky for raph you're more than happy to return the favor and take care of him.

donnie! 💜

donnie is not a fan of dealing with people when they're sick, but he loves you so he's worked out a system.

if he thinks you're sick, he'll make his own assessment and come up with the least likely situation possible.

"yep, as i suspected, brain-eating amoeba. have you been swimming in untreated water lately?"

this is very intentional on his part, because you always huff and roll your eyes and go to leon so he can confirm that you have a simple cold.

donnie knows that he can't make you go see leon, so he always comes up with a wild diagnosis to trick you into going on your own to prove him wrong.

once you get your cold diagnosis, donnie pretty much confines you to the lab before anyone else in the lair catches a cold from you. he's got a very cozy futon in there and he keeps it cool in the lab so it's more comfortable than being in a warmer space.

like raph, donnie is also a stickler about making sure you take your medicine on time, but he won't wake you up if you're sleeping. he figures rest is medicine in its own right.

he pretends to not be hovering but he's hovering. he pretends to work on a project but he's really just watching you throughout the day, making sure you're doing alright and all. it's very sweet but he'll deny it forever if you call him out on it.

in spite of the fact that he made you quarantine to keep everyone from getting sick, he ends up getting sick himself because he stayed with you the whole time and didn't think to wear any sort of protective gear.

leon! 💙

is there a doctor in the house? there is and he's onto you the moment you come into the lair.

leon is the best when it comes to dealing with sick people in general, and he's ten times better with you as his s/o.

immediately takes you to his room and has you settle down for a little while while he gets some medicine and soup for you.

leon can cook thirteen dishes really well and that's it. everything else is a guaranteed disaster. one of those thirteen dishes is egg drop soup, and he'll make you a whole bunch to get you through the next few days.

he makes you a lot of medicinal teas, too. leon especially favors ginger tea to help soothe your throat.

he'll keep you in his room for the day, but he'll walk you home at night in one disguise or another. you complain that he could portal you home, or let you stay the night, but he reasons that movement is good for you.

he'll walk you home at night and show up in the morning to walk you back to the lair throughout the duration of your cold to keep you moving.

while you're in the lair, leon will entertain you with movies or, on at least one occasion, a ten-hour vine compilation he may or may not have made himself. he does not care that it's 2023 he's still living in the golden days of vine.

he just wants to keep your spirits up while you're sick so he's twice as silly as usual.

also gets sick after you because he spent every day of your cold cuddling, but while he handled your cold like a champ he acts like his cold is going to kill him.

mikey! 🧡

as the baby of the family, mikey knows how it can be getting smothered half to death when you're sick. he doesn't want to do the same to you, but he wants to take care of you, so he finds a balance.

when he finds out you're sick, he insists that you stay home and promises to come over in a couple of hours to check on you.

he uses those couple of hours to make you some soup and a few of your favorite snacks and dishes, then forces leon to help him pick the best teas for colds and flus. he grabs a few art supplies and games too, wanting to keep you entertained.

he stays at your place the whole time you're sick, and while he's not really a medic he makes a great caretaker in your opinion.

he trusts you to make decisions about how often you take medicine, and while he suggests things here and there he largely makes your own decisions while you're recovering.

he'll share his games or offer you some of his art supplies, just so you have something to keep your mind busy with.

as much as he wants to give you the space to do your own thing, he's very affectionate when you're sick and will be getting as much cuddle action as he can. this is the one thing he insists upon and he tells you that it'll help you feel better faster. you're not sure about the science behind that but it's not like the cuddles bother you anyway.

mikey will tidy up your room whenever you're sick because he also claims that it'll help you recover. again, you're not sure how true that is, but you think it's very sweet and you can admit that the cleaner space kinda does make you feel better.

mikey takes proper precautions when you're sick and is the only one who doesn't catch a cold from you.

april! 💚

april absolutely hates being around people when they're sick, but she's made an exception for you.

when she finds out you're sick, she comes over with all your favorite junk food, her mother's famous soup, and plenty of medicine.

like mikey, she just stays at your place the whole time, but she keeps her distance and won't actually get on the bed with you.

you guys tend to just do your own things together, but she will keep an eye on you and asks you how you're doing every couple of hours.

she also cleans up when you're sick, but it's a part of her effort to keep herself from getting sick in the process.

april won't give you a lot of affection, but she will bring you one of her favorite stuffed animals to cuddle with and promises to give you plenty of kisses once you're all better.

"consider it an incentive to heal up faster."

does it work? maybe so.

she does keep her promise though, and is super affectionate with you after you get better because she missed it while you were sick.

april doesn't always catch a cold from you, but when she does she's miserable and grumpy about it, but luckily you're there to take care of her.

[alln64games]

Star Fox 64 / Lylat Wars

JP release: 27th April 1997

NA release: 30th June 1997

PAL release: 4th October 1997

Developer: Nintendo

Publisher: Nintendo

N64 Magazine Score: 91%

Star Fox 64 (or Lylat Wars as I knew it as a kid) is a fast-paced on-rails shooter made by Nintendo. The gameplay is extremely solid. Fox’s Awring has lasers that you can charge up for a lock-on, along with limited bombs. Movement is fast and precise and you can perform loops and barrel rolls – the latter reflects bullets.

If you complete levels normally, you’ll go through a really fun route through the game. On top of the on-rails levels, you’ll also encounter “all range mode” where you can fly in 3D. These typically aren’t as “cinematic” as the on-rails levels, but still a lot of fun.

Slippy will get attacked by one of the bosses and will crash land on a planet, here you get to use the Landmaster, a tank that is also really fun to use. You can hover temporally and barrel rolls will now move you across most of the screen.

To get to the credits for the first time, Star Fox 64 is a very short game, but that’s because it’s made to be replayed for a high score, and because it’s so much fun, you don’t mind doing so, trying to get a higher score than last time – but that’s not all of it.

Most missions in the game has a secret objective, complete this and you’ll get “Mission Accomplished” and to a different mission, the “hard route” will take you across some more challenging missions, although personally this is my least favourite route of the games – while all missions but one of the missions in Star Fox 64 are good, I do think these are some of the weaker ones, plus the one bad mission is in this route.

The underwater level. It’s slow, plodding and is rather boring. The bombs are replaced with infinite torpedoes which also light up the way, because the level is also dark and dreary. This is easily the worst part of the game, but at least it’s just the one mission.

Some of my favourite missions are in the middle, including the best all-range mission as you fight an Independence Day-style UFO and the second Landmaster tank mission as you chase a train.

Once you’ve played all the levels, there are also gold medals to unlock, which are extremely difficult. A level select at this point would be nice so you wouldn’t have to work through previous levels, but it does provide something to work towards.

Star Fox 64 is a incredibly fun game, and one you can just have a quick blast through every now and then.

It’s action packed. It’s technically eye-boggling. It works on a number of levels, being easy enough to be fun but with taxing bits if you search for them. It’s got exciting music. It’s unpredictable. It’s imaginative. It’s got massive explosions. It builds up steadily to a spectacular ending. It’s got everything, in other words, that you look for in a good movie – but in a game. It’s brilliant.

- Jonathan Davies, N64 Magazine #3

Remake or Remaster?

A new console remaster would be great – have options to toggle between N64 and 3DS graphics, music and voices (using the higher quality original recordings for the N64 version), some level select options, (perhaps with separate leaderboards for doing induvial levels), widescreen and things like that.

Official ways to get the game

There is no way to buy a new copy of Star Fox 64, the only official way to play is to rent it via the Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pak.

Other Versions

Star Fox 64 3D

The 3DS got a remake of Star Fox 64, with various enhancements. I personally think the graphic lack the charm of the original (especially the water on Corneria), and the new voice acting and music aren’t quite the same.

Re-releases

2003: iQue

2007: Wii Virtual Console

2016: Wii U Virtual Console

2011: Star Fox 64 3D (remake, 3DS)

2021: Nintendo Switch Online (subscription only)

[crystalelemental]

Unit Teambuilding - Lodge Irida

Oh boy, she got Flareon!  I can’t wait to see if she synergizes with Ada-why is it a Tech?

General Overview Let me put some fears to rest.  Despite Adaman’s rather poor showing as a Lodge pair, Irida comes in as a surprisingly alright Fire tech.

Irida offers some solid damage potential, with a sync nuke above Serena but below Anni N, which I think speaks well of her.  The problem is, the main condition is Burn, and her damage comes from four sync nodes rather than good multipliers.  In fact, her only real multiplier is Scorching Sync 5, so better hope you can burn the foe.  Oddly, the better utility for Irida is her DPS, which is an odd thing to say about a tech unit.  Irida got Flare Blitz with Standfast 9, which is legitimately respectable damage, hovering above Ethan’s Eruption but below Blarcanine’s Hyper Beam.  Unlike Lodge Gloria, however, she did not get First Aid and Super Preparation 4 built in.  In fact, no SEUN at all, and First Aid 4 is a grid skill.  Instead, Irida focuses on Fire Fang utility, with Aggravation 2 and Hostile Environment 2.  Which, to clarify a thing I learned today, is actually good?  Wulfric’s issues made me think Fang moves only hit status or flinch, but never both.  Apparently Volkner can hit both, and thus Irida can too.  This is news to me.

Grid offers another Aggravation 2 and Hostile Environment 2, putting her moves at 50% burn, and Fang at a 50% flinch.  Which...admittedly, there’s been better.  In fact, a 50% flinch rate is objectively worse than the majority of flinch bots.  Thorton has a more reliable flinch.  And with Burn being the worst status in the game, with very little outright utility and minimal supplemental damage, this is...not a worthwhile trade.  The fact that the Burn is so integral to her sync and all of her multipliers, while being so wildly inconsistent, is her biggest flaw.

There are two upsides, though.  Irida’s offenses are very well aligned to both modes, with Fire Fang being great in Gauntlet with the heavy disruption it provides, and Flare Blitz being ideal in CS where the high DPS will easily tear down sides for denials while permitting an EX Support taking first sync.  Irida has flexibility across both modes, provided someone helps her otherwise poor self-setup for offensive stats.  The other big upside is there’s an ideal partner in SS Acerola, who sets Sun, caps attack and crit very easily, and stacks moves up next for Irida to just blast people with.  Additionally, Adaman isn’t a perfect partner by any means, but access to Sinnoh Pride and his defense drops does give a very nice increase in damage potential.

I’d say Irida hovers somewhere around mediocre.  There’s nothing exceptional in this kit, but it’s serviceable.  There have definitely been worse outcomes.  But I think her problem is that she fails to stand out compared to others in her role.  Other recoil DPS units don’t have positive conditions gimping their BP.  Other flinch bots get 60%, not 50%.  Most tech units set up their nuke with like...actual reliability, not a coin flip.  I can’t envision a world where Lodge Irida stands out, but she can at least get a job done if Silver’s busy.

EX and Move Level? I...don’t know.  I feel like her DPS set is good enough to manage without EX, but as a 4* Tech with a lot of needs, the 3/5 is pretty mandatory if you’re going to try anything.

Team 1: Lodge Irida, Hop/Sonia, Blaine/Silver Let’s start with a fairly free one.  Hop covers all of Irida’s needs, while Blaine provides Sun.  Simple, easy, effective.  As an alternative, Irida can work dual strike with Silver, thanks to Silver’s sync setting Sun.  Sonia is able to buff relevant stats, including Speed for Silver’s Inertia, and debuffs defense per hit.  Notably, Hop is about to get his EX, so both of these emphasize DPS over Irida’s sync.

Team 2: Lodge Irida, SS Morty, Colress/Eevee Lucas/Flannery SS Morty can work well with Irida.  Two X Atk from Irida, Morty caps crit and supplies the coveted Sun, then you pick a direction.  Colress is when Irida focuses strictly on DPS, giving spread Screech debuffs and accuracy debuffs for survival.  Otherwise, Eevee Lucas and Flannery provide burns, with Lucas providing a bit better team support while Flannery...is present and easier on gauge?

Team 3: Lodge Irida, Lodge Acerola, Tech Ninetales/Tech Lickitung Alright, let’s talk Gauntlet, and where Irida’s sync starts to matter.  Lodge Acerola is referenced due to her ability to dodge, and quickly buff a lot of what Irida needs offensively.  Tech Ninetales offers Sun, while Tech Lickitung is defense drops and trap for Uxie.  Irida herself aims to burn, but can also spam Fire Fang in these scenarios, due to what I believe is flinch being the priority over burn.  Notably, Cobalion does not become immune to flinch, so you have an in.

Team 4: Lodge Irida, Adaman, Aaron Sinnoh stacking.  I feel like this is one of those objectively bad ideas that technically works out but not the way I’d want.  Irida benefits from Adaman’s perma-sun and Sinnoh Pride passive, but Adaman is likely to just take over all damage anyway if permitted.  Aaron is the chosen partner due to buffing all of Irida’s relevant offenses, and generally keeping the team alive well, while maximizing Pride.  This gives Irida a full 50% bonus move damage and Sun.  The only downside is she’s on her own for burns.

Final Thoughts Lodge Irida is not particularly great, but I’d be lying if I said she was all that bad either.  I think her real selling point is the Flare Blitz DPS.  Sync is respectable, but requires Burn to function, and that necessitates luck or teambuilding around that mechanic instead of things like defense drops.  I do think Irida succeeds.  But I also question whether she’ll be particularly effective.  There are just a few things that worry me about her consistency.  But we’ll see.  Or, more specifically, I’ll see.  I said if she had Flareon I’d EX and Level 150 her, and I am creature of my word.

[cinemaglow]

Solid agree with you about the dating. This is definitely an early 1860s (or POSSIBLY late 50s) image, which would put her in the 10-15 age range when it was taken.

I disagree with your assessment that she is dressed as an adult. This is pretty standard transitional style for adolescents. The bodice style and wide tuck in the skirt are hallmarks of childrens dresses. (Before someone says anything: yes wide necklines and short sleeves were also used for adult ballgowns, but those were typically darted with pointed waists. The wide neck, short sleeves, and gathered or pleated bodice with straight waistline is extremely typical for childrenswear. The fabric, accessories, and lack of decoration further confirm that this is a day ensemble.)

(image from Ebay, no info provided)

You are correct that her skirt is adult length. Skirt length did increase in length as girls got older, but usually would hover around ankle length for young teens

(image from eBay, no info provided)

(Salmon P. Chase and his daughters in 1857. Kate, on the right, is 17 and clearly dressed in adult mode. I couldn't find much info on Nettie but after doing some reading about the timeline of Salmon's marriages I'm guessing she's at least 12.)

Rules like skirt length were in reality not quite as rigid as we think they were today: they could vary slightly across geography and social classes, or according to individual circumstances. We might never know why Antonie is wearing a dress with a child's bodice and a full length skirt. I have two guesses. I think you may very well be correct that the skirt is shorter when she's standing up. When I was presenting femme and doing living history the skirt of my floor length 1860 dress would drag on the ground considerably when I sat down (depending on the chair) so I think it's definitely plausible that an ankle length skirt could touch the ground when sitting (again, depending on the chair and undergarments, which is why I can't say for certain.) Another possibility I think is plausible, given the unpredictability of teenage bodies, is that her skirt originally had two growth tucks and someone let one down preemptively in anticipation of a growth spurt that she hasn't had yet.

My qualifications: I did living history for over a decade ("reenacting" usually has a recreational connotation, while living history implies an educational focus and can be done professionally. It usually involves a higher standard of rigor in research and a responsibility to present historical lifestyles as accurately as possible.) with a focus on the American Civil War. I ended up taking over as the volunteer costume manager at the local historical society's museum which was still operating under a reenacting mindset and completely overhauled the way volunteers were costumed. We had an influx of child volunteers and I ended up having to make several new reproduction children's outfits, so I have done a fair bit of research on the topic.

ab. 1865-1870 Antonie Sandberg (photo by Claus Peter Knudsen)

(Oslo Museum)

[hikarimiyanaga]

Loving You (Part 2)

Part 1

Because I just realized how short the first part was... and despite being hell week for me I'm going to give an update because I expected this fic to be just under 10,000 words but now it's double that amount... I did not plan nor expect this... so here we are! I had a solid plotline... and everything just kinda derived off that.

Oh well, I love Wanda anyways.

Warning: Omegaverse. Beta!Reader x Omega!Wanda Maximoff. Curse Words.

Taglist : @mitchiesdungeon

You yawn as you read the last chapter of your latest novel. Your phone pings and you furrow your eyebrows… Who knows your number? You haven’t given it to anyone ove-

“The goddamn bookmark.” You groan as you remember. Right. That bookmark was pretty important to you until high school that you’ve written your number on it. You finish your novel before getting your phone. It was an unknown number.

Unknown: Pretty smooth.

You: I forgot that my number was there.

You save her number nonetheless.

Wanda: Oh. Still. This works out for me.

You: Why?

Wanda: I get to talk to you even if you avoid me.

You sigh.

You: You still want to hang out with me?

Wanda: Desperately. I love talking to you.

You blush and gulp. You decide to tell her the truth.

You: I love talking to you too.

Wanda: *Heart eyes*

Wanda: See? Let’s eat lunch tomorrow.

You: No.

Wanda: Why not?

You: People will avoid you.

Wanda: Don’t care.

You: You should.

Wanda: Why should I?

Wanda groans in frustration. Why were you so stubborn? Why can’t you just fall for her charms?

You: Just because.

You: Don’t try to eat with me tomorrow.

You: I won’t be in the cafeteria.

You: Goodnight.

You charge your phone and sigh. You like her. You really do but you can’t drag her into the shitty treatment of a Beta. Moreover, she was an Omega. Omegas tended to treat Betas more harshly than Alphas did. You shudder as you think of last year. You clutch your chest as you cry silently. Never again.

-

You yawn as you trudge through the halls again… maybe reading a long novel into the night wasn’t such a good idea. You go to your locker and get your books for the day.

“You still haven’t told me why.” You close your locker in shock and flinch as Wanda frowns at you. You sigh and run a hand through your hair. “Did I wake you up last night?”

“No. I was reading a novel.” You answer quickly and walk away.

“Come on, tell me.” She follows you and you groan as you drag her into a bathroom.

“It’s because you’re an Omega!” You shout and grit your teeth. “The people here will eat you alive if you hang out with me.” You say more softly and run a hand through your hair. “The Omegas will think that you’ve betrayed them and settled with a lowly Beta.”

“I don-“ She reasons but you glare at her.

“Stop being a stubborn idiot! Do you want to get bullied!?” She stops as she sees the sadness in your eyes.

“They bullied you?” She whispers and reach out to you but you pull away as if she’s too hot and you just got burned. You take a deep breath and hide your trembling hand.

“Just stop trying to hang out with me. It won’t do you any good.” You leave her and she clutches her chest. What have they done to you?

-

You eat alone on the bleachers and read.

“Here you are.” You flinch and look down on the voice. It was Pietro. What could he possibly want? Wanda was the only one wanting to hang out with you. The only one trying to be your friend. What was her twin brother doing here? At your hiding place that you chose so she would finally get the clue and leave you alone.

“Wha-“ He hops on and sits besides you. What’s with the Maximoff siblings and never bothering to ask for permission? You glare at him and stop reading. Damn it, you were at a really good part too.

“You’re the Beta that my sister wants to hang out with.” You gulp and nod in confirmation. “She’s avoiding me and was trying to find you earlier.”

“Did she eat yet?” You ask, worry settling in your stomach. Where is she? He sighs and settles in besides you.

“I don’t know.” You stand and get your bag. You stand and jump down from the bleachers. “Where are you-“

“I’ll find her!” You shout and run away from him. What the hell was she thinking?

-

It took at least 15 minutes but you found her reading on a secluded bench. You sigh as you approach her.

“Why are you so stubborn?” You ask and she closes her book.

“I’m not stubborn, I just don’t want to be with Pietro and his new friends.” She looks at you and your ragged appearance. Did you come looking for her? She smiles at the thought of you running around everywhere just for her.

“Aren’t they your friends too?”

“No. Not when they judge someone based on their second gender.” You sigh and sit besides her. You hold out a sandwich. She smiles then takes it. She takes a bite of it and beams. You get your book from your bag and read.

“We can hang out.” She turns to you with shining eyes. You sigh. “Only in places like this or the-“

“Library.” You both say and you hum. You notice that there were some sauce on the corner of her lips so you wipe it with your thumb. Wanda gulps as you lick it up. She blushes even more when you look at her.

“Stop being a messy eater.” You settle in the seat. Wanda just stares for a few more seconds before eating again.

-

You were in your last AP Class when Wanda texts you. You sigh in relief as you don’t hear your phone ping. Thank god, you remembered to turn it into silent mode earlier. You discreetly open it.

Wanda: I’m in the library, where are you?

You discreetly reply to her.

You: Still in class. Syl.

You hide your phone in your bag quickly when you saw the teacher glance at your direction.

“Miss Y/LN?” You answer the question of the teacher and she nods as you gave the correct one.

It took at least half an hour more before the class ended. You were packing up your things when someone hovers over you.

“So you really do take all of the AP Classes.” You look up and gulp. It was Angel. “You have more than me too.” You nod.

“I-I have to go.” You quickly leave and go to the library. You go to the table that you occupied yesterday and Wanda was there. She was reading again and you sit besides her.

“Hey.” She greets and you hum.

“What are you reading?”

“One of your recommendations from the bookmark.”

“Which one?”

“Digital Fortress.”

“Ah. Dan Brown.”

“Yeah. Most of his works are in here.”

“That’s because I got addicted to his works at one point.”

“So what’s your favorite genre?”

“Definitely mystery and thriller. I read most investigation cases.”

“True crime?”

“Yep. I love watching their documentaries too.” She smiles and you get a book from your backpack.

“How about you? What’s your favorite genre?”

“Definitely Sci-fi.”

“Ah. Then you’ve read The Giver?”

“Yeah. You have?”

“Yep.” Before you knew it, the two of you have a two-hour discussion on the book.

-

You were laughing with Wanda when you notice the clock on the wall and pale.

“Shit.” You quickly stuff your novel into your bag.

“What’s wrong?”

“Come on.” You both get outside and you sigh. “Mom is going to get angry if I’m late.”

“Oh. Okay. Sorr-“

“Don’t be, It was fun hanging out with you.” Wanda beams at that and you give her a smile. “Do you have any ride? Or should I walk you home?” Wanda crosses her arms and raises an eyebrow at you.

“What? Because I’m an Omega?” You roll your eyes and huff.

“No. Because you’re my friend, you idiot. I worry if I leave you here alone and your house is too far away.”

“What if my house is close?” You smirk and turn away from her.

“Then I’ll be goi-“ She grabs your bag and pulls you. You turn to her with a smile and she flicks your forehead.

“Idiot.” You rub your forehead.

“So what is it?”

“I’m waiting for Pietro to finish his Track and Field training. He’s my ride.”

“Oh yeah. Your twin is an omega too, right?”

“Yep.”

“Any other siblings then?”

“No. Just us two.”

“How do you handle heats then?”

“Why?”

“Just curious. Both of my older sisters are Alphas and Mom always take care of Ma so I-“ You blush and look away. “I don’t know that much about Omegas.”

“Ah. We typically use a jacket of dad’s and drink suppressants.” You scrunch your face at that.

“How many times do you take it?”

“Typically, twice a day but if it gets bad then thrice, if it’s really bad we double the amount.”

“Damn, that’s a lot of chemicals in your body.” She shrugs.

“The price of a heat.”

“What about your scent?”

“My dad’s clothing.”

“Ah. That’s it?”

“Typically, yeah. Why?”

“Nothing. Just sometimes I can smell some Omegas that have heat even though they’re already wearing an Alpha’s clothing.”

“Whoa. Betas can’t usually smell them.” You shrug.

“Wanda!” Pietro calls out and you two turn at him.

“And that’s my cue.”

“See you again tomorrow?” You smile at her and nod.

“Send me a text again.” You wave her goodbye then leave.

When you get home, your mom is waiting with her arms crossed and you gave a nervous laugh.

“I’m home?”

“Where have you been? It’s-“

“Zale.” You Ma calls out and both you and your mom turns to her. “Don’t pressure Y/N.”

“I was hanging out with a friend and lost track of time. Sorry.”

“A friend?”

“Y-yeah.”

“Alright, then. Go get changed and come back in fifteen minutes.”

“Thanks, Ma.” You quickly go upstairs, and Dahlia sits beside Zale. They look at each other and sigh in relief.

“She’s making friends.”

“Thank god, I thought she would be a loner for all of her high school days.”

-

You sit down beside Zale and Dahlia gives you a plate of food.

“Thanks, Ma.” You smile at her and she gives you a pat on the head.

“So, who’s your friend?” Your mom asks after a few minutes and you stop. Dahlia hits Zale but Zale just shushes her.

“What?”

“You’re friend that you hung out with?”

“Ah. Her name’s Wanda. She’s new in town and a sophomore just like me.”

“That’s good, Y/N.” You nod and Zale pats your head.

“She sounds like a nice friend.” You grin at them.

“She is!”

-

You’ve been watching a docuseries again when your phone rings.

“Y/N?” You sit and furrow your brows.

“Val? Why are-“

“Can you come pick me up? Please?” You assure her that you will and you wear your jacket. You can’t help but worry, why was she there? What happened? Why did she want you to pick her up?

“Where are you?”

“Club Prestige.” The defeat in her voice only makes you quicken your actions.

“Okay. I’ll be there in ten minutes.”

“Thank you.” You hang up and get your mom’s car keys. Both of your parents are watching a movie and looks at you. You inform them before leaving.

“I’m picking Val up.”

“Why? What happened?”

“I don’t know either. I’ll go to her.”

“Drive safely, Y/N, please.”

“Okay. Thanks!” You quickly go to the garage and open the gate. You get inside of your mom’s car and drive after the gate opens up. You got to Club Prestige in under 8 minutes.

“Val? Whe-“ You hear soft sobbing from an alley and see your sister sitting on the ground while hugging her knees. “Val?” She looks up to you and sniffles.

“Y/N?” You kneel besides her and nod.

“It’s me.” She hugs you and wails.

“S-she was kissing another girl, Y/N. I-I thought she wa-was my soulmate.” She stutters and you rub her back to comfort her.

-

You drive your sister back home after calming her down. Your parents, thankfully, have gone to bed already. And even though, you technically still have school tomorrow, you decide to stay up late to comfort Valerie.

“You want anything? Ice cream? Cake?”

“Oreos and strawberry ice cream? Do we have them?”

“I’ll look and even if we don’t I’ll bike to get some.”

“Really?”

“Of course.” You smirk at her. “You’re my sister, Val and I happen to take broken heart seriously.” She gives you a smile and a nod.

“Thank you.” You go to the refrigerator and sigh in relief. The two things she wanted are both there and while you really would ride your bike to get them, you preferred to just stay inside. You get them and two spoons. You give her them and get the remote.

“The Owl House?”

“Please.” She gives you a grateful smile then turns to the tv. You spend all night marathoning the series.

-

“Y/N.” Zale shakes you to no avail. Both you and Valerie slept on the living room. “Little one! You still have school in an hour.” That woke you up and you look around, confused at your surroundings. This isn’t your room.

“Honey, you’re in the living room. You slept here with Val.” Dahlia fixes Valerie’s position on the couch and you stretch your body.

“What time is it?”

“6 am.”

“Okay. I’ll take a shower then.” You get up and Dahlia goes to the kitchen to prepare breakfast. Zale cleans up the mess that you and Valerie left on the coffee table.

“Morning, little one.” You give a kiss to Dahlia’s cheek as you move pass her and sit on the chair besides Zale. She gives you a plate of pancakes and you thank her before eating.

“Sis still isn’t awake?” You look at the living room and can faintly see her arm.

“Afraid not. She’s going to miss her classes.” You scrunch up your face.

“It’s Thursday, Ma, she doesn’t have classes today.” Your parents look at you and you raise an eyebrow at them. “Did you two forget?” They look away and blush while you smirk at them. Dahlia sits beside you and pat your head. You finish eating breakfast and get your jacket.

“Bye, Mom, Ma!”

“Bye, Y/N!” Your sister stirs but stay asleep. You leave your house and go to school.

-

You were getting books from your locker when a voice interrupts you.

“Whoa! You smell like an Alpha!” You glare at Jason, one of the Betas who are friendly with you and would sometimes talk to you. “Good for you, Y/LN!” Wanda frowns at that. You really do smell like an Alpha. You did spend the whole night wearing it while you were with Valerie.

“Asshole. It’s my sister’s scent.” You close your locker and Wanda sighs in relief at your words.

“But we don’t get heats?”

“So? Can’t I spend time with my sister without it being her protecting my scent?” Jason holds up his hands in surrender and you roll your eyes. You get to your first class.

-

Lunch rolls around and you buy some breads and a couple of juices before going into the courtyard. You head to the secluded bench and she was there reading.

“Have you eaten yet?” Wanda looks at you and smiles. She shakes her head and you sigh. You give her half of the things you bought. She thanks you and she puts her book in her bag before getting her wallet.

“How much do I owe you?” You raise an eyebrow as you open up the bread you bought.

“For what?”

“Lunch?” You give her a flick to the forehead and sigh. She rubs the spot you flicked before hiding her wallet.

“Nothing. Go buy tomorrow.”

“And you’ll wait here?” She asks with shining eyes and you sigh.

“Yes.” You eat with her and she smiles.

-

Classes pass by and you meet Wanda again in the library.

“Hey.” You greet as you sit on the chair besides her. She looks at you and catches your sister’s scent… how long will it last?

“How long does an Alpha’s scent last?” She asks and you shrug.

“No idea but as long as someone’s scent isn’t too overbearing or too much then it can last long.” You see her look at your jacket. “Can you still smell my sis?”

“Yes. It’s faint now, unlike this morning.” You hum.

“Betas’ scents are like that. Not overbearing or too much.” She nods.

“I like yours much better though.” You gulp and blush at her words.

“What?”

“Your scent? It’s more calming and soothing to me.” You get even redder. Nobody has ever told you that. Hell, most Omegas and Alphas ignore you because your scent is just average. Nothing special like theirs. Wanda is the first one to ever compliment it.

“T-thanks.” She smiles as you clear your throat and read your book. You really are falling for her charms.

-

A/N:

Hell week is coming after me. Send help.

After I die from my finals maybe someone can summon my soul to hopefully finish this.

Jokes aside... I had another motivation to post this... since one of my favorite authors just followed me and... my heart died? I just really love their stories then they followed and I just.

Thank you, really.

[joshslater]

Almost Frozen

Similar stories and bonus material on my Patreon.

Suddenly everything stopped. Literally stopped. I couldn't move. I couldn't breathe. At the back of my mind the small monkey brain was freaking out, screaming at the bigger brain that can handle complex issues and unforeseen novel events to get its fucking act together and continue exhaling. As scared as the big brain was, the small brain told it to be scared, it was also fascinated by the hovering bird in front of me in the distance. Not flying, but hanging still in the air, immovable with its wings frozen solid in a downward wing motion. There was also none of that feeling of running out of air, that buildup of carbon dioxide in the body if you don't exhale.

It was like being stuck in one of Einstein's thought experiments, his Gedankenexperiments. I couldn't move at all, even my eyes were fixated straight ahead towards the small ice cream hut just opposite of the road that acts as a barrier between the beach and the overpriced beach apartments. It made sense that I couldn't hear anything. Even if the air wasn't frozen the parts of my ear that could register it wouldn't be able to move. Given the bird ahead of me I doubt anything was moving. But I could still think, and leaving Descarte's musings for a less stressful time, it did mean that electricity was still flowing. Unless the philosophers arguing that consciousness was a different property altogether, not bound to the material world were correct after all. But to bring us back to the Gedankenexperiment I could also see, which means light waves are still moving and receptors in the eye are still registering them and sending signals to the brain. Or is there some chemistry involved in sight? I couldn't remember that much physiology. I could still feel the heat of the summer sun on my body. Perhaps someone just stopped the simulation we are all living in, and the subroutine for my consciousness for some reason wasn't halted. Man, it would suck to be stuck like this for...

Suddenly something went past me, interrupting my train of thoughts. "Hunted! Flee!" monkey brain shouted, unsuccessfully trying to engage fight or flight mode in the autonomic nervous system. Raise heart rate. Dilate pupils. Rerouting blood. Tensing muscles. Pump out adrenaline. None of it worked.

I could feel the sun being blocked out. Someone, something, was standing next to me. Something just outside my peripheral vision. Or was there something there I hadn't seen before. Hard to tell. So far in my 23 years my eyes have always been able to move in the direction of peripheral movement to get a better look. Not so now.

When all the clothes disappeared it wasn't a tactile experience. Apparently and quite logically the sense of touch didn't work, but I could feel the sun hitting me even harder. The lack of any sensation for what must have been minutes by then made the next thing even worse, though it would probably be pretty bad on its own. Bone-crushing pain all over the body hit at once. I couldn't scream or flinch or anything, just stand there motionless in agony. Perhaps not motionless. Somehow my vantage point was shifting, as if I was gaining height. Then came a sharp pain, like a bad headache. I twisted in pain and shouted out "fucking hell".

Some of the nearest sunbathers looked my way to see what was up, but quickly resumed whatever they were doing since I was just standing there. Everything was moving as if nothing had happened. As if nothing had just changed dramatically. But looking down I didn't see my Damian T-shirt, or even my pasty old body, but a meticulously sculpted, smooth, and evenly tanned body. "Fucking hell," I said again, but this time under my breath. This was like one of those events from the Bible where Jesus does magic tricks, but without Jesus. I turned to walk back to Simon. Would he freak out? Would he even recognize me? We've been roommates for like two years, but I don't know what I look like now.

"Hey, airhead! Where's the ice cream?" So he did recognize me, but he doesn't appear upset. I touched my head, why I don't know, and find a snapback. That's new. "Bro, do I look different?" Simon changed expression from annoyed to... what? Concerned and smiling? No, that’s not it. He got up from the beach towel and stepped towards me. He looked better than just minutes earlier. Just small changes though. A bit more toned perhaps. Fresher haircut. "Honey, you're an annoyingly good-looking beefcake as always. The ice cream is well within your macros. Don't worry. I keep track, as always." He planted a kiss on my mouth and got back on the towel and continued to read his book. Why did he kiss me? And come to think of it, why was he wearing my Damian T-shirt. No, Debian it says. Fuck. It felt like pulling memories out of mole asses. I know macros are the stuff in food you should eat enough of. But not too enough. I couldn't think of anything I knew about Damain. Debian. Whatever. I know I should. It's my job, isn't it? It's not the stuff with music and porn in. I know that much at least. That's the Google. "Do we fuck?" "Not before you've bought the ice cream."

[candycityy]

rumour mill (special ops ft. 104th crack with a dollop of rivetra because it's the weekend, why the hell not)

Friendship is a confusing thing.

As such, despite Hanji Zoë's sheer oddness—Levi really doesn't know any other way to put it—he counts her as one of his very, very few friends. At least, inside his head.

It's a friendship that most people don't understand, him least of all. But for what they lack in the conventional features of friendship—things in common, trips to town, et cetera—they make up in one particularly powerful phenomenon: gossip.

"Kirschtein tried to send Ackerman a love letter today," Levi reports, the second they sit down at the officers' table. As expected, Hanji's jaw drops in quite a gratifying manner.

"No," she breathes. "How'd you know?"

The captain allows himself the faintest hint of a smirk. "I caught him hovering outside the women's barracks. Apparently there's some sort of holiday coming up—"

"St. Valentine's Day." The mad scientist nods wisely. "I'm familiar."

"Whatever," Levi snaps. "Anyway, he was just waiting outside there for the longest time, like a creep, clutching an envelope in his hands."

"For how long?"

"Ten minutes. I counted." Hanji lets out a muffled scream of laughter, which garners them a very pointed look from Erwin. Levi glares at her.

She shuts up.

"So, then, I finally go up to him and ask him what the fuck he's up to, and the brat looks like he's about to shit himself." He rolls his eyes. "It took some...persuasion...but he ended up confessing that he was trying to pass something to Ackerman."

"How'd you know it was a love letter, though? It could've been something lame, like a report," Hanji points out. He rolls his eyes.

"Four-Eyes, the envelope was scented. But that's not all."

"No!" Hanji repeats, looking like she's on the verge of passing out with excitement. "Then what happened? Did he end up passing it to her?"

"I was just about to send him off, but then guess who walks right out of the door." A wicked gleam flashes in his eyes. "Jaeger."

"He didn't!"

"He did. And then of course the shitty brat demands to know what he's doing there, and Kirschtein gets all defensive asking what he's doing there, and then Jaeger grabs the letter and reads it and I swear, he yells so loudly I was afraid he was gonna go all titan-mode on Kirschtein's ass."

"And I don't suppose the poor guy stood there and let him read it?"

Levi snorts. "Of course not. Kirschtein ended up in the med bay and Jaeger lost another tooth, but whatever, it's probably grown back already. But look." He nods discreetly at the recruits' table, where the two boys are resolutely glaring off in opposite directions, while Mikasa sits in between, obliviously tucking into her potato stew. "I guess they haven't made up yet, the brats."

"Poor things. Love is hard," Hanji says. She sounds almost sympathetic, and perhaps he'd believe she was, if not for the almost maniacally wide grin on her face.

Levi just sips at his tea and smirks.

==

The new members of the Survey Corps stares at the officers' table, where Captain Levi and Squad Leader Hanji appear be deep in conversation. As they watch, the brunette lets out a peal of laughter, and the ordinarily impassive captain's lips quirk into something that is almost a smile.

There's a collective intake of breath. "You see?" Connie whispers heatedly. "The captain smiled. I told you they had something going on."

"I think it's adorable," Krista goes dreamily. Ymir snorts.

"That's rubbish," she declares. "I don't think Captain Levi is capable of like, a relationship. He's too busy being a scary, frigid bastard."

"Keep your voice down," Eren implores, his eyes darting to the table. "And the captain's actually really nice—he's just, uh, got a strange way of showing it."

"Whatever, Jaeger, we all know you have some sort of hero-worship crush on the captain anyway—"

"I do not!"

"As if Eren would ever," Mikasa sniffs. "As if anyone would ever like that shorty, he's so full of himself—"

"Keep your voice down." Eren looks around nervously. "And I honestly don't think Captain Levi has anything going on with Squad Leader Hanji. In fact, if anything..." He lowers his voice dramatically, and everyone leans in, even Ymir. "I'd suspect he has something on with Ms Petra."

There's a shocked silence. Sasha interrupts it by bursting into laughter. "Petra Ral? The lady in your squad?" she giggles. "You've got to be joking, she's way too nice for him."

"And way too cute," Jean interrupts with a snigger. "Although, at least she's shorter than him, ha—"

"I still think he has something going on with Squad Leader Hanji," Connie says firmly. He grins mischievously. "And if there are any disagreements...well, anyone care to settle it with a bet?"

==

"Guys," Eld announces, striding into the room and grinning like he's just won the lottery, "you'll never believe what I overheard at dinner."

Petra yawns. Gunther shrugs. "Don't know, don't care," Auruo goes, wincing as he stretches in his chair. "Training was a bitch today, I just wanna get to bed."

"Well, you'll reconsider when you hear this." The squad's second-in-command leans forward, his eyes gleaming. "The captain and Squad Leader Hanji have something going on."

For a moment, no-one moves.

"Wow." Auruo stares at him with awe. "Did you take a hit on the head with a tree branch this morning or something?"

"Even if it was true, you've some nerve telling us." Gunther rolls his eyes in amused disbelief. "The captain could walk in any minute, you know."

"I'm keeping a lookout," Eld insists. "But it's true! I overheard the kids talking about it, and you know that Captain Levi spends almost all his time with them these days, them and the Jaeger brat. They must've seen or heard something."

"If the captain was dating anyone, Petra'd be the first to know," Gunther points out wisely, and turns to their sole female squadmate, and Captain Levi's alleged favourite "Right, Pet...?"

He trails off when he catches sight of the look on the woman's face. Her usually sunny demeanour has been replaced by something pale, stony-faced, and all in all quite terrifying.

There's an awkward silence. "Petra?" Eld ventures. "Is it...is it true then? About the captain dating—"

"Dating who, now?"

Everyone except Petra leaps to their feet instantly, their eagerness quelling to a deer-in-headlights guilt as the man in question stalks through the doors, as silently and with rather the same, threatening air of a predator cornering its prey.

"Eld, you ass," Gunther mutters out of the side of his mouth at the failed lookout.

Auruo, on the other hand, glances sideways at Petra, who remains seated, the strange, cold fury still on her face, her fists clenched at her sides. "What are you doing?" he hisses. "Get up."

She ignores him. "Captain," she says instead, her voice frighteningly calm, "Eld was just talking about a rumour he'd heard."

The man laughs nervously. "Petra," he mutters through a forced smile, "I don't think the captain needs to hear about this."

She continues on, as though she hadn't heard him. "Apparently," she says, her words taking on a note so decidedly threatening that even Humanity's Strongest soldier starts looking slightly nervous, "you're dating Squad Leader Hanji. Is that true, sir?"

The last word hangs in the air, like a warning. The captain blinks.

And makes a sound low in his throat that sounds almost, incredibly, like a muffled snort.

For some reason, Petra seems to take offense at it. She shoves her chair back, sends him one last look of absolute loathing (the boys suck in bated breaths at that), and flounces out of the room, slamming the door bodily behind her.

No-one says anything. The captain's expression doesn't shift a centimetre.

"...uh, sir?" Gunther finally ventures, after a full thirty seconds of silence. "Are you...all right?"

The question seems to snap him out of his reverie. He rounds on Eld, even as his face remains a mask of deadly calm.

"Where," he asks icily, "did you hear that?"

"The kids," Eld confesses after a moment's hesitation.

Captain Levi mutters a curse under his breath.

==

Several fingers point, at once, to Connie Springer.

He sputters, looking around wildly at the traitors. "It wasn't just me!" he cries, and glares accusingly at his comrades. "Krista, you agreed, too!"

Ymir steps protectively in front of the blonde girl. "Don't you pin this on her," she snarls.

"Well, she did," Mikasa says, as deadpan as ever. "So? What's this about? Is it true, sir?" The recruits turn a shade paler at her blunt remark. Eren elbows her in the side, and yelps as his arm collides with what seems to be a wall of solid muscle.

Levi glares at the lot of them. "You shitty brats really don't have a brain cell between the lot of you, do you," he barks. "I've never heard anything so stupid in my life."

"If I may, sir," Mikasa goes smoothly, even as Sasha hisses at her to shut up already, "if it was rubbish anyway, why waste your time coming after us? Gossip isn't exactly a subject worth your attention.

"Yes, captain," another voice comes snidely from behind him. It's Petra, arms folded and glaring daggers, lips twisted in a frown that looks quite out of place on her ordinarily cheerful face. "Why bother?"

Eren's eyes widen, darting rapidly from the captain to his pissed-off subordinate. A look of gleeful understanding dawns on his face.

"Oh," he breathes. "Ms Petra, you're dating the captain, aren't you?"

There's an awkward silence. "None of your business," Levi snaps, just as Petra replies, "No."

The captain turns to her, incredulously. "No?"

"Did I say something wrong, sir?" she drawls. They glare at each other in a silent argument that goes on for a few heated moments, before Levi finally looks away.

"Fine," he growls. "I'm not with Four-Eyes. I'm...I'm with Ral here. And no-one outside this room needs to hear a fucking word of this, understand?"

"Yes, sir!" the recruits chorus in unison, thumping their fists over their hearts with suppressed grins. Out of the corner of his eye, he notices Connie Springer and Sasha Braus discreetly exchange coins.

He decides to ignore this.

"Anything else?" he asks, folding his arms and turning his best glare on them.

Nobody dares to move. At least, until Eren raises a tentative hand.

"If it helps," he volunteers, "I betted on you, Ms Petra."

Petra doesn't smile. "Thank you, Eren."

==

"Captain!" Eld exclaims, bursting into the room two days later. "Is it true that you and Pet—"

"Fucking hell."

[patchun]

KIRBY STAR ALLIES: UNNECESSARILY DETAILED DEFINITIVE ARENA VIABILITY TIER LIST

After reading the title you may have a few questions. The first of which may be: why should I care what you think? Haha, well, reader who has likely never even played this game...

I have invested just a little bit of time into this game. More, lately, as I recently spent about 30 hours playing this game to decide once and for all who the strongest and weakest characters are. Now, you say, patchun... you invested 30 hours into a game that's like four years old, wasn't that well reviewed, and has completely faded from relevance... all so you could make a tier list no one will care about? And I tell you. Yes. Yes I fucking did. With that out of the way, let's dive in.

The criterion I used to determine viability were damage output, safety, and versatility. Some characters, when played skillfully, can have crazy unexpected DPS. Some characters have fantastic air dodges or blocks that drastically increase their safety. Some characters absolutely destroy Whispy Woods, but then struggle against literally anyone else. All of this has been taken into account to make the following tier list.

Before we start I want to make a few notes: if playing with friends, a few positions change. When playing with friends, Rock, Gooey, and Painter move up to SSS tier. Painting rocks is legit one of the most fun and strongest ways to clear the true arena. Also, Meta Knight, when playing with friends, is in S tier. He has some very high damage output if he is safe, but can struggle to stay safe. I will be using the terms "decent, good, great, and insane" very deliberately.

In order of goodness in all rows.

F Tier:

Those in F tier have pretty much nothing going for them.

Suplex is weak and constantly makes itself vulnerable.

Kirby is arguably the most skillful character in the game, but has decent damage when played well.

Fighter just has no good moves, its kit is a weak disaster.

Painter is slow and the minions it creates are weak and not versatile. Statue (down up B) is its best move by far, but the slow startup and inability to move during really hinders the move.

Bird has great mobility and lots of i-frames, but super low damage. I-frames don't matter when you're fighting the bosses for hours.

ESP, in order to do any good damage whatsoever, needs to charge it's ball of energy to max, and then manage to hit the enemy without touching anything else first. If you can do that, it's solid. But it's pretty rare that you can do that, and you're very vulnerable while charging.

Chef honestly should have gone at the top of F tier. It's dash midair B is strong and so is its spatula, though a bit boring. However, Chef has a large hurtbox and you can't play as Kirby instead.

D Tier:

D Tier clears are manageable but require almost perfect play. These characters have something going for them, but it usually isn't much and they're heavily outclassed in some way by other characters.

Beam is strong, but struggles due to lack of mobility. All of its attacks are good, but just good.

Staff is held back by the fact that its dash attack is immobile and has very few i-frames. Down-up B and Pole Vault into B are both good, but are outclassed.

Water has a strong attack in its down-up B, which creates a rainbow and does good damage. It also has a projectile that it can stay relatively safe while using. However, the projectile falls to the ground, meaning Water really struggles against enemies that stay high in the air. Anything out of reach of its rainbow attack will be quite a hassle to kill.

Sweep - I somehow cleared true arena with solo sweep, so maybe it's better than I was able to figure out? I tried for a while. It's hold and release B move, which sweeps and then flicks the broom, does good damage. Additionally, its dash attack is decent.

Fire has one decent move - its midair down B, which causes it to roll into an invincible ball of fire. If you use this near the ground, you'll then roll. If used on a big enemy, it can do good damage, but most of the time you won't be doing much damage at all. Barely makes D tier.

C Tier:

These characters are okay. They generally require a very patient and careful playstyle, but can do decent damage.

Rock can do damage. It has invincibility. It even has an up B in this game that is strong! But... well, unless you're playing with friends, you are going to be waiting around in rock form A LOT while playing this character. Waiting as two Bugsys hover around you, waiting for that perfect opportunity... to unrock, and then rock right back up. It's boring. But you can win with it.

Beetle can be strong, but it needs to be very careful about the opportunities it takes to attack, as many leave it vulnerable in end lag.

Hammer is the only copy ability here where you're better off playing as Kirby. Bonkers' hurtbox is big, why not just use Dedede?

Yoyo is like a better Bird. It has lots of mobility and i-frames, but only does decent damage (rather than Bird who does none). Its down up B is good damage on large enemies, but leaves it vulnerable.

B Tier:

Clearing the true arena with these characters will be a challenge, but keep at it and you can succeed for sure! These characters have at least something that is actually GOOD, without drawbacks.

Bomb is safe and does a surprising amount of damage. Simple, but effective, and you can aim which is a perk. Wind and ice weapons are great on this one.

Whip is what Yoyo and Staff want to be. Though it's dash B isn't as mobile as Yoyo's, it does a lot of damage, and has much more i-frames than Staff's. Its down up move does great damage and does not leave it uncomfortably airborne like Yoyo. And like Yoyo, it can grab and throw stars and enemies.

Spider is very safe and fun. All of its moves do good damage, and you can kite enemies and spam your dashing midair B. Webbed enemies that you hit into others will do a lot of damage, and jumping off of webs is a great way to deal with airborne bosses such as Kracko and Void. Spider works well as a teammate when playing with friends for this reason, as your webs can basically function as shields against some attacks. Also particularly noteworthy is that spider has a damage-immune shield (damage-immune shields can still be sucked, blown, and tornado'd) that can be used midair.

Parasol does insane damage with its down B attack, which also grants i-frames. This can be spammed to absolutely decimate health bars, and you can move during it to reposition. Parasol also has great mobility in it's dash B, midair dash B, and midair down B, all three giving i-frames - as well as a decently powerful throw. Parasol struggles most against Hyness, who rarely goes to the ground and as such does not present many opportunities to down B.

Sword has a good dash attack, and a great up B down B combo that can really put in work against larger bosses. It is vulnerable, however, at the end of the combo, and is not great at dealing with midbosses and smaller enemies. It's midair dash B is also good, but not nearly as good as a certain other character. Wind can help Sword by increasing it's mobility.

Plasma is a great ability so long as you don't mind destroying your thumbs! For those who don't know, Plasma in this game works like this: as you move the joystick, Plasma will build up static electricity. This has three levels, and when it's fully charged, it can be fired out as a powerful circular bolt. Until it is used, the static buildup also functions as a shield, and will allow Plasma to warp instead of dodge up to three times. Plasma is good at dealing with Kracko, Void, and Hyness thanks to it's up B, which sends the circular bolt upwards, and is safe against other enemies. But yeah, you have to kill your thumbs. Mine hurt right now.

Cutter is good, but not as good as bomb.

Gooey is just slightly better rock. Most of Gooey's moves don't do much damage. Gooey's rock can be painted. Gooey also has a damage-immune shield, but it doesn't really matter because you might as well rock up.

A Tier

These characters are legitimately good, but there is a lot of variety in exactly how the characters in this category are good. It is organized by how likely you are to be able to clear with them. Now that I'm getting into good characters: I played every character in this category with every single element to deduce which element goes best with each one. I technically have them all tiered, too, but I figured that was too much for anyone to read.

Adeleine's down B's minions do a surprising amount of damage (great), and are quite versatile, even being able to hit airborne enemies such as Kracko and Void. She also has the best shield in the game, completey invincible and unable to be hit by anything to my knowledge (possibly Morpho Knight tornado), and a good air attack option thanks to Ribbon. She doesn't have any i-frames, so she may require a bit of waiting - like Rock, but that's only if you put yourself in that situation.

Susie (Ice) has shots that drop large balls of ice at the end. She easily destroys most bosses with these. Business Suit has i-frames at the beginning of its spin and a very powerful midair down B, also reducing damage and preventing negative status effects. Susie will likely get hit because of her massive hurtbox in Business Suit mode, but it won't matter as much thanks to the damage reduction.

Dark Meta Knight (Fire) has two great moves in his charge Bs. Fire was chosen as the best element for him because it expands the radius of his charge B. His dash and aerial attacks are great, especially if you can land his dash combo. Dark Meta Knight also has a damage-immune shield.

Chilly is surprising in its placement, but its midair B does insane damage and it has a solid kit to boot. Instead of normal dash B, Chilly needs to use dash down B for an briefly invincible and mobile ice ball. Chilly also has a damage-immune shield.

Daroach has a lot of options and all of them are great. Fire bombs destroy Whispy and Kracko, Ice Laser easily clears midbosses and does great damage to everyone else, Squeaks are second only to Adeleine's minions in their effectiveness, and the Triple Star is a great tool for staying safe while dealing good damage. Daroach doesn't have a special shield, but he does have a three-use, chainable warp as opposed to an air dodge, which if used correctly should be able to save you from any bad situation.

Bandana Dee (Ice) is stronger than any other Bandana Dee variant (you may notice a pattern like that...). Bandana Dee's dashing midair b can be spammed and does great damage, like a machine gun, but is held back by the fact that you inevitably touch the ground after 4-6 spears. Bandana Dee's strongest move is probably its down B, which can also serve nicely as a dash attack, as it has great mobility and i-frames. Bandana Dee (Wind) has a good charge B, but wonky throwing spears and lackluster damage output when compared to Ice overall.

Ninja (Ice) has potentially the most DPS in the game. By being near an enemy and pressing and holding B briefly, you do a double slashing move that creates an ice pillar that constantly damages an enemy. You can beat Whispy with this in under 20 seconds! Shurikens are good for hitting faraway enemies, and Ninja is also able to use Substitute Jutsu if it block before getting hit. The reason Ninja is not S tier is because it struggles against airborne enemies and is not able to utilize its full potential unless it catches an enemy standing still. High skill cap, but high reward.

Meta Knight has insane DPS with his dashing midair B spam. Ice and Wind are best, depending on who you're struggling with. Meta Knight can struggle to do damage while also keeping himself safe, and for that reason is best when playing with friends. His down up B, condor dive, grants i-frames and is usable in the air. His counter also does great damage.

Dedede (Shock) has great damage in his kit and a lot of i-frames, including his dash B and iconic down up B. However, he is hindered by his slow movement and large hurtbox.

S Tier

These characters will have no problem clearing if you play them right, but are they broken? Considering what is to come... nahhhh.

Marx (Ice, Wind, Water) has two great moves in his black hole which can do insane damage and is invincible, and his dive which can do great damage and is invincible. Marx pretty much always wants to stay in the air, and his midair B has a lot of variety depending on your element, but it is most notably a very safe move. Marx has a one time warp in the air that can be chained but has to be timed perfectly in order to retain invincibility, and his main drawback is that all of his powerful, i-frame granting moves tend to be pretty vulnerable with end lag. For that reason, Marx needs to be played patiently.

Rick & Kine & Coo have the best dash attacks in the game, both midair and grounded. Rick (grounded) will turn into a mobile rock, completely invincible, dealing a lot of damage, and also able to move, while Kine (midair) has a long spin attack with plenty of i-frames. Rick conveniently also bounces off the top of the heads of enemies, Kine has a projectile that can travel a fair distance but is weak, Rick can melt ice with his fire, Coo can cleanse dirty food with his flop. These guys also have a damage-immune shield.

Taranza is a case where all of his moves are great, but none of them are insane. Put them together, though, and you'll clear bosses safely. Taranza can kind of do several things at once, and I'd recommend down up B + dash B + up B. Utilizing all of this damage at once will destroy bosses quickly. When you don't feel you're safe as Taranza, midair up B and midair down B can give you control and hit from a distance.

SS Tier

Magolor's down up B is insane. He summons a giant sword that takes up the entire screen, then slashes it and hits everything for insane damage while being invincible, then can cancel that sword into itself. He has an invincible dash move, by far the best air dodge in the game, a black hole that he can summon just like Marx, and a powerful fire projectile that can melt ice. And that's not even everything - so how is this not the most broken character in the game?

SSS Tier

Somehow, dear reader, you have made it this far. The best character in Star Allies, even better than Magalor, are the Three Mage Sisters is ZAN MOTHERFUCKING PARTIZANNE. Zan does not care what you can throw at her, she has something to handle it, and chances are she doesn't need to use it. Because Zan's down up B is a giant piercing laser that covers the entire screen, grants i-frames, can be cancelled into itself, does insane damage, and can be moved during. There are just no enemies that can even pose a challenge to this character. There are no enemies that can even damage her. My highest score in Star Allies was me goofing around and playing solo Three Mage Sisters and just repeatedly spamming this move over and over again! The funny thing is, her other moves are good too, and so are her sisters to an extent! But Zan is great because she also has really fast movement as well as a warp similar to Marx and Daroach's. In a pinch she can relocate incredibly quickly, and she has no need for a shield because her warp, when you're used to it, is probably the easiest to chain into itself.

So yeah this was my Star Allies tier list. If you've read this far I'm actually amazed. Thanks. Star Allies is at its most fun, I feel, when playing with friends. If you'd like me to talk in more detail (but not as much as this post) about some friend strategies and which ones are best, such as painting rocks, let me know, I guess.

[manyblinkinglights]

HOW TO USE THE MBL ANYTAUR BASE - PART ONE

These instructions will be structured around a main narrative--someone who has everything they need for best results, and for whom everything goes right--with digressions for what to do when things go wrong at each step. 

Pictured: gryphoranguAnytaur.

WHAT YOU NEED (WANT):

- A fully weight-painted taur model .fbx. *If you have a quad instead, see “I HAVE A QUAD INSTEAD” **If you’re modeling from scratch, see “I’M MODELING FROM SCRATCH” - CATS Blender plugin, just in case. (We’ll be using its assign rest pose function, if we need to.) - A Unity 2019.whatever.it.is project, with the latest VRChat Avatars 3.0 SDK. - Pumkin’s Avatar Tools package (THIS IS SO IMPORTANT). ***If this tool is unavailable, see “I DON’T HAVE PUMKIN’S AVATAR TOOLS, OR IT ISN’T WORKING FOR ME NO MATTER WHAT I DO”

Open MakeYoursInHere.blend. Find the Humanoid hips on the base Anytaur, but DON’T touch them--just find them. Turn on Isometric view and import your taur .fbx; scale and move your model until its Humanoid hips (you know, the bone below its spine, in the Humanoid torso up front), or Humanoid hip-ish-area, matches the Anytaur’s, and the legs are long enough to put your feet ALMOST on the floor (same as the Anytaur is fine). You don’t want to leave so much clearance it’s obvious you’re hovering, but you do want your taur’s (mesh) feet to be raised very slightly above the floor. This makes it easier to avoid clipping. *If you CAN’T STAND having your feet clip into the floor at all, you may wish to pursue using Final IK to run your taur limbs instead, but that’s the opposite hookup method from this tutorial!

When you’re positioned and sized, select your taur and put its wings into a flat T-pose, like the Anytaur’s, and its arms into an A-pose, at the same angles as the Anytaur’s. Apply this pose as your rest pose with CATS, or look up how to do it without CATS if you don’t have CATS. Then select the Anytaur, and, WORKING ISOMETRICALLY AND SYMMETRICALLY (symmetry has been preserved within the Humanoid armature, so you can work normally), you may move the spine, chest, neck, and head around to match the scales and angles of your taur’s existing armature. Again, make sure nothing you do alters the hips--OR interrupts the hierarchy!

If you have Dynamic Bone rigging on the Humanoid torso chain (like for fur or accessories), you may separate the bones out from your taur’s armature at this stage and join and parent them to the Anytaur’s. Same with anything wiggly you have on the arms, next, too.

Once the Anytaur’s Humanoid torso chain matches yours, select the either the left or right WHOLE ENTIRE Anytaur arm, including shoulder. View it isometrically, and shift it in xyz and scale it until it matches your taur’s arm. DO NOT rotate ANYTHING in ANY WAY! *If you have changed the angles in the Humanoid arms or legs, see “I CHANGED IMPORTANT BONE ANGLES IN BLENDER. :(”

You may rotate and reposition the fingerbones freely, though!

Now that both taur armature Humanoid upper bodies match, go into Pose Mode on the Anytaur and find RRA.spacer, off the Humanoid hips. Grab it and rotate it; the Anytaur’s taurbody’s back should respond dramatically. You’ll be toning this behavior down later in Unity, but I’ve recreated it here in Blender to help with weight painting. Try to understand what you’re looking at in the Anytaur’s hind torso chain. Hind.spine is one huge bone to make an optional Dynamic Bones-based-sit work correctly; hind.chest ends wherever is necessary for the “hinge” of that sit. We WILL NOT be going over how to implement sit in this tutorial, but since you’re looking, you might as well know why it’s like that. The .tinybones are because Dynamic Bones needs at least two transforms in a row to operate, and when I had ONLY two, I got stupid bugs preventing the butt collider from showing up in hind.hind.tinybone, so with this setup, Dynamic Bones gets THREE transforms, and the collider on hind.hind.tinybone definitely shows up. Unless you specifically commed your artist for it or they worked with this base in mind, you won’t have a BEND bone, and will need to paint your own, but you should already have hind.hips to start with! There are bone constraints in the hind thighs for weight painting purposes, again--you’re advised to leave them until you’re satisfied with the BEND/hind.hips torso chain action you get on your own taur. 

NOW:

Go into Object mode, select the Anytaur’s mesh, and delete it. *If your taur IS NOT weight painted, see “I’M MODELING FROM SCRATCH.” Then select your taur’s mesh and duplicate it. Then, shift-select the Anytaur armature, and parent the duplicate to it with empty groups. 

You could go to your duplicate’s vertex groups and start finding and renaming them to match the Anytaur’s armature as best you can at this point, but first, I recommend you fit the Anytaur armature to your taur!

Using your original as a reference, BUT ALSO taking at least a glance at a real animal’s skeletal reference (especially for shoulder length and angle), work isometrically from the sides and front--symmetry has been preserved in all the taurbody legs, lucky you! Rotate the Anytaur’s taurbody bones pair by pair (of bones, left-right) until they’re all angled right to fit your mesh. You may wish to grab and hide anything that’s getting in your way, if you haven’t already, like the zillions of wing and utility bones, and the Humanoid legs (shortcut in edit mode is “h” with a bone selected.) When you’re finished from the side, select the taurbody foreleg chains, switch to viewing isometrically from the front, and shift them in X until they mostly match the width-apart of your forelegs. For the forelegs, I’d prioritize matching the feet to the feet over matching the width of your taurbody shoulders. DO NOT ROTATE ANYTHING--they must stay straight-up-and-down from the front! Do the same for the hindleg chains, though unless you intend to individually articulate your hind beans, you may wish to split the difference between matching the feet versus matching the width of the hind hips above, or just match the hips width and ignore the hind feet, like I did on the Anytaur--If you noticed before deleting it, the hindpaws are quite far outside the hind foot armature--that’s about the limit I’d ever recommend you deviate, though. I just started to get some weird behavior on hindpaw twist at that distance (but I did get to enjoy having my hindlegs always look a little extra jaunty because of how they were modelled “at rest” around the bones here). If you’re lucky, your artist just has those hindlegs straight up and down lol so you won’t have to make any decisions.

You may add/graft on extra bones out of your old armature if you’ve got them (floof bones, etc), SO LONG AS YOU DON’T DELETE, REPARENT, OR RENAME ANYTHING ALREADY THERE, OR OTHERWISE BREAK THE ANYTAUR HIERARCHY. 

The twist bones don’t like being moved, sometimes, so make sure to check on them specifically and fix them if they’ve gotten skewed by grabbing just their left/right heads or tails at a time and shifting them in x.

Don’t forget to fit your toes! They don’t have to be straight up and down, just have them fit your toes. You don’t have to use EVERY beanbone either, there’s a final (FINAL--do NOT do it until you’re SO SURE you’re finished) optimization pass in Unity where we’ll delete any bones that didn’t get used. You could probably just graft your old toebones on, here (but DON’T do that with anything but the toes! We’ll need the leg chain transforms to all be named in PRECISELY this way or nothing will work AT ALL later. Working this way around, renaming your vertex groups to the Anytaur armature, allows you to check your work here in Blender AND not ruin anything silently before we move to Unity). 

The Anytaur armature should now be fit to your taur! Well, except for wings--SYMMETRY IS BROKEN IN THE WINGS, I’M SO SORRY, so if you need them, handle them by scaling left/right pairs of the bones’ heads and tails in and out in X from the isometric front and top views, and moving left-right pairs freely together with g + zy shortcuts. If you have dragon wings with extra wing fingers, graft yours from your old armature onto the Anytaur wingfingers. Just shrink the Anytaur wingfingers way down first; they’ll act as control bones. If you have feathery wings, look at the weight painting “zones” of influence that already exist in them. You’ll likely want to rename and/or merge your weight paint vertex groups to use only the (wing upper arm, forearm, and hand, obviously, but also the) first, the fifth, and the tenth feathers, OR--if you have a bunch of existing dynamic rigging, graft your wing surface rigging bones ONTO (parent them to) the first, fifth, or tenth feathers as appropriate. Only use the individual feather rigging if you HAVE (or are making!) individual feathers, it will look weird if your wings are a solid surface (each of the bones is going to roll quite a bit). Basically, the fifth and tenth feathers are rigged to “smooth out” the wing-arm action... hopefully the effect looks okay. If it winds up looking weird later you can reparent your (YOUR) bones directly to the appropriate Anytaur wing-arm bones instead. 

Oh, and tails. Do whatever with the tail. The Anytaur tail comes with six bones and limited but ready-to-go rotation constraint rigging, but it isn’t Dynamic Bones compatible, so you’ll probably just want to keep the rigging in the tailbase bone in Unity later, because it’s important for finishing the harmonious “feel” of the movement of your hind hips, and capturing all of your Humanoid hip motions. You can make it really small and not weight paint it if you want, though, so it’s at the base of your tail as a control bone. Do match the next five Anytaur tail bones to the rest of your tail, then feel free to add (or graft on) however many more you need. If you graft your entire old tail on instead of the existing one, you’ll NEED to rename it to match/replace the Anytaur tail in the hierarchy EXACTLY, taking into account whether you kept the first tailbone as a tiny control bone or not! Pumkin’s Avatar Tools, at least as I’ve used it, will FAIL on EVERYTHING DOWNSTREAM OF THE FIRST BREAK... so watch out.

Okay... NOW the Anytaur armature has been fitted. 

Use Pose Mode to pose your original model and then your Anytaur duplicate, into a pose suitable for weight painting (or for referencing, in your original). Now, begin the process of renaming/recovering your original vertex groups... 

Using your original as a reference as necessary, rename each corresponding old-naming vertex group in Your New Anytaur(tm) to match the naming of the new taurbody bones. Since some preserve symmetry and some do not, especially in the wings, just copy-paste each of the bone names out of the Anytaur hierarchy and into your old vertex groups’ names. Every time you find a match, the fixed mesh should leap up and stick to the right bone!

But maybe you have multiple vertex groups that all need to be collapsed onto one Anytaur bone, because the Anytaur rig is so different. In that case, use the VERTEX WEIGHT MIX MODIFIER. Important: this modifier HAS to be first in the list of modifiers, or it won’t work! It’s to the left in the modifiers list, under the wrench icon for “modifiers”. The first slot is the vertex group you’re adding more influences into (it should be an Anytaur one, like hind.spine). The second slot is where you put the group from your original model you want to add. After you put those, you change the dropdown mix method to addition. Rather than applying each modifier as you go, I recommend you duplicate them as needed and get them all ready and moved above your Armature modifier. Then look them over a few times once you think you’ve captured everything, then apply them one after the other when you’re sure it’s all there. There should be a big, immediate improvement in your Anytaur(’s taurbody torso chain, you’re probably doing this for stuff in the taurbody’s torso chain) after this step.

Once you’ve figured out somewhere for all of your preexisting vertex groups to go, and you can freely pose your Anytaur without leaving any vertices behind, it’s time to WEIGHT PAINT TWO THINGS. 

You’ll need to grab the RRA.spacer animation-rig-style control bone (off the Humanoid hips) in Pose mode, rotate it a little (A LITTLE) from the side isometrically, then find the vertex group for the BEND bone and start painting on weight at either full strength 1 yolo (valid) or around .4. Your back should begin to either raise or dip, depending on which way you rotated RRA.spacer. Don’t do too finicky of a job yet, because BEND doesn’t work alone, it operates in conjunction with hind.hips. Find and switch to hind.hips, and add or blur some weight forward into the lower back and belly, just, probably the whole taurbody tube. You want to balance the action of hind.hips and BEND until you get a strong but reasonable-looking response in your taurbody. Moderate the action you get by trying out the levels function on your hind.spine group (though levels is a little bugged currently--click back and forth between the viewport and the hind.spine vertex group a couple times so it doesn’t bump you back to the vertex group you were on previously). Give levels a value less than one to turn it down and free up the action in your BEND and hind.hips, or turn it up somewhat to damp them down if they’re just too freaky/rubbery/bendy. If you’re working with everything way up bright red at one you do risk getting lost in the sauce somewhat, so I recommend toning your hind.spine down to a firm green and working with red in your hind.hips and BEND that you then blur out as necessary. 

Once you can grab RRA.spacer and get an amusing but like... coherent... and goodlooking... response from your torso chain, at least to moderate/reasonable movements :p, add twist bone weight painting to your taurbody thighs if you haven’t already! That’s where the hind thigh twistbones get the top halves of the thighs up to the butt--make sure they’re well-positioned up there, with their heads matching the regular thighbones’ heads, and that they reach the halfway point on the regular thigh bones--and the regular thigh bones get the bottom half of the thigh to the knee. 

ONE NEAT TIP: to prevent butt crunch, move the heads of your thighbones down to the level of the “crease of your buttcheek” (but maintain the same angle as they’re supposed to have; the head of the thighbone should still be ALONG the original thighbone’s line). When your thighs hinge from THERE, they won’t vanish your butt and leave your crotch poking out into the wind when you crouch or sit! However, after moving your thigh bones’ heads, you’ll need to revisit the isometric front view and grab the tails of your twist bones, then move them back into alignment with x. If your leg chain is still properly straight up and down, you can just zoom in and move their tips to touch the dotted line.

Your Anytaur should now be FULLY WEIGHTED to its armature!! Now it’s time to GET THIS BEAST INTO UNITY.

[weepylucifer]

Mairon is working on a circlet when the Dark Vala first makes his offer.

“What is it you’re crafting?” he asks, hovering over Mairon’s shoulder, casting a jealous, covetous gaze at his work. “Who is it for?”

“It is a gift intended for Lord Aule,” Mairon replies, abandoning all pretense of activity, tilting his body backwards from the fire of the forge, disgruntled as the Dark One grabs his project and lifts it, white-hot and just beginning to cool, to inspect it up close. The heated metal does not singe him. It seems that the most unforgiving of elements cannot harm the Dark Vala, the biting ice does not sting him, the unremitting flame does not burn him. His large, dark hands darken further upon contact with the heat, the veins beneath the skin pulsing and lighting as though filled with molten lava. Mairon admonishes himself not to stare.

(Oh, they will find out what it takes to harm Melkor’s hands. They will find out in time.)

“It is a nice trinket,” the Dark One says, his dismissive tone setting Mairon’s teeth on edge. “I have never seen Aule wear jewelry,” he adds.

“That as may be,” Mairon says, keeping his voice blandly emotionless. It is true. All precious gems and metals are at Lord Aule’s purview, and yet, when clothed in physical form, he goes in his simple, robust leather apron, adorned with a few occasional beads in his hair and beard and no jewelry besides. Aule is constantly at work, and cannot afford forging accidents caused by finery getting caught or snagging somewhere.

“It does not suit you toiling away at producing trinkets nobody will have use for,” the Dark One states.

Mairon shrugs. “My Lord will appreciate a token of his Maia’s devotion, whether he wears it or not.”

“How many Maiar does Aule have? How many tokens of devotion?” The Dark One looks at Mairon down his nose. “There are grander things to be crafted,” he adds without waiting for Mairon’s answer.

“In time,” Mairon says.

“Now,” the Dark One corrects. “If you were to come to my kingdom, you and I could begin the shaping of the world in earnest.”

“Lord Aule would hardly permit such a thing,” Mairon says dryly.

“Forget Lord Aule,” says the Dark One. “Come with me, learn from me, aid me and see your craft soaring to heights you can now scarcely even imagine.”

He goes on a rather lengthy, rambling tangent on all the things he means to build, extolling the excitements of his machinations, the pleasure of freedom to work as one wills without direction from anybody, the satisfaction of the Dark One upon getting what he perceives to be his due. To Mairon, his words sing of love of himself, and little besides. To his mind, the Dark Vala needs a speechwriter rather more urgently than a smith, but he holds his tongue and does not say so.

“I must decline,” he says.

The Dark Vala’s eyes go wide and round. He had not expected being denied.

“I am no lost and stumbling spirit you may entice to your side,” Mairon continues. “I am in good standing here. I serve my Vala well, and see no need to forsake him and the life I know for another.”

The Dark Vala looms suddenly much closer, one hand setting the circlet down, the other reaching, touching, winding a lock of Mairon’s hair around his index finger. Mairon holds himself still. Maiar do not usually disallow touches from any Vala, for who would decline the loving caress of their gods? But surely the Dark One is an exception, surely here it may be permitted to resist.

“But I have observed you,” the Dark One says. “I have seen your potential, and you are easy on the eyes as well... do you not yearn, as I do, for something more than this predetermined path, laid out for us by small minds of limited imagination?”

His voice is a dark, deep murmur in Mairon’s ear, husky and rich. Mairon remembers when he heard it first, reverberating with the Discord. He rears away before he can fluster, yanking his hair out of the Vala’s grip. “I yearn for nothing of yours,” he snaps.

---

“You are still observing me,” Mairon says, his mouth drawn into a tight frown. The Dark Vala is at his forge again, leaning faux-casually against the anvil, and Mairon has not bowed upon entering and seeing him there, has not tacked any honorific onto his statement. The Dark Vala doesn’t request it.

“’Tis so,” Melkor admits unabashedly, in a tone of voice as if he’s talking about the weather. “What am I to say? You fascinate me. Aule has many Maiar, but you... I see a fire within you that’s unique to yourself.”

Mairon crosses his arms. “I am not different from anybody else,” he says, his voice as frigid as the gales Melkor will conjure on occasion.

“Ah, but isn’t that the problem?” the Dark Vala asks.

Not wishing to look at him, Mairon busies himself donning his protective gear for the work ahead. “I do not see any problem apart from you pestering me.”

It should have earned him rage and rebuke, this open disrespect towards a Vala. What he gets is a huff of laughter.

“But you are not happy here,” Melkor then says, sobering.

“What would you know about my happiness?” Mairon asks, perhaps more sharply than he had intended.

“I watch. I listen. You keep apart from the others, you stay in the forge all day and late into the night. And you have a look about you of one driven.”

Driven, is he? Well, perhaps. “I wish to excel at my work. This is not abnormal nor unusual.”

“You strive for greatness, and they have you tinkering with jewelry. Shiny little baubles, made to be pretty and useless.”

“I like my craft,” Mairon almost snarls. Why does he feel like he’s being put on the defensive? What must he justify to the Dark One? He turns his back on Melkor and pretends to be immersed in selecting tools from his kit.

“Oh, aye,” Melkor says dismissively. “But don’t tell me you have never wished to expand your repertoire? To shape the very bones of Arda to your liking? To be instrumental to that grand undertaking? Do you not wish to be unfettered?”

Safely with his back to the Dark Vala, Mairon rolls his eyes. Is this the kind of talk that has led other Maiar to abandon Aman to stand by Melkor’s side? “’Tis no use wishing for what cannot be.”

“But it can,” Melkor husks, so clearly in love with the sound of his own voice. “If you come to my realm with me, you will taste of freedom - ah, bah, taste? You will drink deeply of it, yet never slake your thirst. It’s impossible to get one’s fill of true independence, once enjoyed, but oh, how heady...”

Mairon’s hands are gripping the edge of his workbench, fingers clenching tightly. Why is this empty prattle getting to him? “You have no idea of what you speak,” he grits out.

He turns around to see Melkor raise an eyebrow. “Oh, indeed?”

“How can you possibly? You’re a Vala.”

Melkor straightens from his affected nonchalant slouch. “That... was quite a lot of venom.”

Mairon sighs. “You cannot know what it is like. You were put upon Arda to rule it. You cannot know what it is to be created from nothing and immediately be told to serve. To get assigned a master, and a duty, and what you will learn, and what you are to devote your existence to, for eternity and beyond. They say it is a blessing, a privilege, that the Valar in their grace and Eru in his wisdom have put all Maiar in their places, adorned us with these powers... it doesn’t occur to the others to yearn for anything beyond what they were given... but all I see are shackles. Shackles the likes of which you and your ilk have never worn.”

“If you--” Melkor begins.

“You ask me to forsake Lord Aule and join your court? Why? To exchange one slavedriver for another? Here at least I get to subsist and carry out my servitude in comfort, and Lord Aule is nice to me when he remembers I exist. You wish me to forsake my standing here and join you in the wild? What can you offer me but the life of an outcast, despised by all? And what would you use me for, if you had me? Wanton destruction, or so I hear? Oh, that would certainly render me more useful than my current work. Nay,” Mairon cried, “there is nothing you may tempt me with. I will abide here, and hopefully get a chance to contribute to the shaping of Arda in some small, insignificant manner, if nothing else. So do not speak to me of freedom, when all you offer is more servitude.”

Melkor has grown quite still. He blinks. “I... had never considered this.”

“Of course not.” Mairon feels quite out of breath. A distant part of him is panicking, he realizes, his head abuzz, his chest tight, as if an iron vice is clamping down on it. He has never told anyone these deepest, most heretical thoughts of his. Why then, with the Dark One, did it seem so easy?

“Remove thyself from my workplace,” he grits out through clenched teeth. “Do not approach me with thine offer again.”

Melkor steps back from the anvil, inclines his head in acknowledgement, and sweeps out of the room. Mairon sags against his workbench, his knees as rubber.

---

“Mairon.”

Mairon wonders where the Dark Vala goes, when he’s not here in the forge harangueing him. Does he have a place to stay? He hinted at some realm of his own existing on Arda. Mairon is not privy to the knowledge of its whereabouts.

He doesn’t ask. He crosses his arms, the solid and comforting weight of the anvil at his back. “I thought I made my reception of your offer quite clear. I will alert the guards if you persist.” He resorts back to a more formal mode of address. He is determined not to slip up and proclaim overfamiliarity with the Dark Vala again.

“I understood you well,” says Melkor. “You wish to remain here. Yet, my fortress will still need a smith.”

“Lord Aule has many Maiar,” Mairon reminds them once more.

“Ah, but I want the best,” Melkor replies. “I want excellence. I want that flame in you, undimmed by whatever chains you here.”

“You are going to take me by force?” Mairon asks.

Melkor snorts, as if Mairon had made a joke in poor taste. “Certainly not, no. But if you are not to be mine, at least your artifice must be. Oh, simmer down, little flame, I will not repeat my offer. I only ask to let me linger, for a short while, and observe your work. To learn from you, so as to pass the ways of your craft on to other, more willing souls.”

Mairon must admit, he had not expected this. He is taken aback. “Teach a Vala? That is... unheard of.”

Melkor shrugs. “Why does that matter?”

Now Mairon rolls his eyes openly. He is beginning to take the measure of Melkor, and suspects that he will not be punished for such impudence. “You wish your presence in my space to build familiarity. You are counting on me growing attached to you and more receptive to your offer, provided you stay around long enough. This will not succeed.”

Melkor is not deterred in the slightest. One corner of his mouth quirks upwards in a crooked grin. “Perhaps it will, perhaps it won’t. Either way,” he repeats, “my fortress will attain a smith.”

So Melkor hovers as Mairon finishes the circlet, asking questions about the process, about how Mairon would go about making other things. It takes several days, in which they meet. Melkor learns the name of every tool in Mairon’s toolbox, their feel in his hands and their multiple uses. He attempts to resist it at first, but Mairon feels himself growing bolder in Melkor’s presence, and soon entrusts the Dark Vala with little tasks: stoking the fire, compressing the bellows, fetching red-hot iron from the forge with his bare hands. Melkor should by rights complain about the menial work that is so beneath him; he never does. He watches, grows absentminded, fiddles with his fingers or the hem of his robe, hums snatches of songs, and apologizes - a Vala, apologizing to a Maia! - for his flighty attention.

The circlet is soon finished, and Mairon contemplates giving it to Aule, this work that has become of his and Melkor’s hands, and it feels wrong. For a moment, he considers giving it to Melkor, and banishes that thought.

---

Once the circlet is finished, Melkor stays away.

Days turn to weeks and Mairon wonders if it is true, if the Dark Vala has given up and rescinded his offer, if he has taken Mairon at his word and will not appear again. He feels content in that thought. He feels relieved. He feels, perhaps, lonesome. He feels as though an opportunity has passed him by. Opportunity for nothing much, he tells himself sternly, and crushes those foolish thoughts.

One night, Mairon is the last one in the forge and considering turning in for a few hours, Melkor reappears. He is carrying an object wrapped in cloth, and looks preoccupied.

“I have given thought to what you have told me,” he says, no greeting, no preamble.

“It is nice to see you too,” Mairon replies.

It actually gives the Dark Vala pause. “Is it? Nice to see me?” he asks, genuinely baffled. “Well, now. Ahem. Indeed. I was about to impart to you the thoughts I had.”

“I’m sure they will be riveting.” And not at all go on at length, Mairon adds mentally.

“I should hope so,” Melkor says. “You should sit.”

For lack of a chair, Mairon sits on the anvil. Melkor, meanwhile, takes up pacing.

“You were right,” says he. “I was wholly unprepared to see things in the way you see them. Yes, my siblings and I were instilled upon Arda with the knowledge that it is ours to rule by right. An existence for the purpose of servitude to another is different from anything I know.”

He releases a deep breath. “I can see why you chafe at it. Merely contemplating such an existence for a few brief moments rendered me disgusted.”

Oh, splendid, Mairon remarks to himself. He thinks I’m disgusting.

“Mairon, if you came with me, you would not have to live thus.”

What?

“I would see you instated in Utumno to rule by my side. Free to work and think and speak as you see fit, in servitude to no one.”

“Except for you.”

“No!” Melkor shakes his head. “I have servants enough, and I will have more. You, however, are different. For you I would have a different purpose. You see, I can sing a fortress out of the ground but I haven’t the mind to maintain it. I can persuade people to my cause, but can I see them situated, organize the many needs of a court, build and craft and make law? My kingdom needs more than a smith, it needs someone to maintain order, and I feel it might be you. Take your place by my side and rule with me whatever realms we shall have, and be elevated above all Maiar who would cower in subservience to my brethren. Be my Prince Regent, my Lieutenant, and we shall be in eternal covenant, and make our every choice together.”

Mairon had never thought to find... this anywhere, least of all with the Dark One. It is too good to be true.

He shakes his head. “Y-you lie.”

Of course. The Dark Vala has found what makes him tick, and is now looking to exploit it. He will lure Mairon to his keep with honeyed false promises, and then Mairon will be trapped. He should not have bared himself emotionally as he has. He should have been more cautious.

Melkor ceases his pacing. “Look into my mind and see that I speak true.”

Mairon rears upright to abruptly he almost topples off the anvil. “You mean... initiate osanwe? A Maia to approach a Vala? That... is against the natural order.”

Melkor shrugs. “What of the natural order? It needs reworking anyway. Look around you and tell me Eru didn’t do a rather shoddy job of it.”

A blasphemy. The arrogance of it. Mairon finds he isn’t too bothered.

He has never opened his mind to anyone, preferring to keep his own heretical thoughts closely guarded. He opens it now.

The mind of a Vala feels... different, and yet the same. There is more power there than Mairon could dream to possess, but at the same time... in some ways, it is not much vaster than his. In power, they may be unequal. In thought, in wisdom, in foresight or sagacity, they are not. Their basic make is similar, Ainur both of them. Something in Mairon settles.

There can be, for them, a meeting point. They can grow to understand one another. Know one another fully.

Yes, there is arrogance, plain in Melkor’s mind, a potent strain of self-worship, a kind of jilted entitlement towards his siblings and the realm of Arda, an inclination towards petty malice. There is chaos there aplenty, swirling maelstrom depths of thought and intuition and emotion that Melkor himself probably cannot hope to gauge, much less master.

But, in his offer to Mairon, there is no deceit.

I believe you, Mairon thinks, beyond astonished at finding this.

Melkor’s mind reacts with a sudden blinding flare of reliefhopeglee. In this mental space, he seems less guarded, because he blurts, This fills me with joy.

Mairon laughs and withdraws.

“I believe you,” he says again out loud.

Melkor nods, appearing to try not to smile. Finally, he unwraps whatever he has been carrying wrapped in his dark cloak. It is a chest sung from dark wood. He flicks the clasps open, removes the lid and lowers himself to one knee.

He kneels, and Mairon is bewildered all over again.

From the chest, Melkor takes a circlet not unlike the one they have been making together, made from dark metal, inlaid with obsidian. Clearly it is the work of a beginner, one who has not yet had time to hone his smithing, but it is charming in its crudeness. It is obvious that some thought went into it, if not (yet) the height of artifice.

This Melkor sets on Mairon’s brow.

“My Prince Regent, steward of all my realms, ought to have a crown of his own,” Melkor says. “It does not come close to what you could create, but it is a start.”

The weight of it feels unusual, but not unpleasant.

Then Melkor removes from the chest a second object, wrought from the same material. It is a hammer fit for a master smith, simplistic but elegant designs adorning the hilt. It is not gem-encrusted and ostentatious, but something he could actually work with. This he proffers to Mairon also, who hefts it in his hands. The grip is decent, the weight and balance of the head about right. This then is why Melkor was so interested in examining Mairon’s tools.

“I knew you would want something of practical use,” Melkor says. “I hope that if you come with me, I will get to see wonders wrought with it. Not in my service, but to our mutual benefit and that of those that may follow us.”

Something practical.

Mairon is not inclined to romanticism. He prefers life neat and ordered, he prefers facts, figures and useful deeds to great, gushing avalances of emotion. He prefers to take life on and mold it - smelt it down and beat it, if necessary - into a favorable shape. Melkor must have seen this, and decided to gift him a tool to do the shaping with.

That and a crown, to win his freedom.

This is what Melkor has been doing while he was away: crafting a gift in a way Mairon would, to meet Mairon on his level.

And Mairon starts to believe, Maybe I’ll be alright with him.

[meyerlansky]

You’ve talked before abt Daniil- what about the other two patho protags?

oh man do not let how much i talk about daniil fool you, i fucking love artemy. the Moment for me with him was when the thought for ascending the polyhedron pops up, and the hover text is "the world is very beautiful indeed." there are plenty of moments that made me love him before that, ofc, not least being the fact that he's a snarky bastard if you want him to be, but that moment sort of encapsulates what i find so compelling about him—the way he's defined by all these dualities, and tries so hard to reconcile them all. the kin vs the town, love vs anger, violence vs healing, the man-made vs the natural, free will vs fate, he straddles so many lines [ha] and for the most part he actually does solid job managing the tightrope walk? ascending this thing that is causing his town and his people so much pain and grief and suffering, he could be furious about its existence, he could be analyzing it for weaknesses, but his actual takeaway is "the world is beautiful, and that includes this." he doesn't outright dismiss the "utopian" vision of ascension, he doesn't insist there's one right way of doing things, he sees things worth saving from all the perspectives the game presents, and it's only through dire circumstances that he's forced to choose—little bit of crit here for the game itself, i find the dichotomization of the endings to be a little... hm, unfair? dissynchronous? with the rest of artemy's storyline, in that up until day 11 you CAN play him as straddling all of these lines and successfully holding all these dualities within himself, but there's no way to not choose one or the other in the end. it lacks the synthesis that makes his character so compelling for me, but that's critique of the endings, not the character. artemy himself embodying and engaging with all of these dualities is one of my favorite things about his character. also as briefly mentioned he's so fucking funny and so full of snark which is the best trait for any character ever.

clara is uhhhhhhhh extremely unsettling to me as someone with an uncomfortably keen awareness of xtian modes of thinking acting as repressive and authoritarian wrapped up very neatly in a form that's hard to hold responsible for the damage it causes, and i realize this doesn't sound complimentary but i do applaud ipl for managing to characterize her in EXACTLY the most uncomfortable form for me personally

send me a reverse unpopular opinion topic here :D

[imamarvelbitch]

Softie

Hawk / Eli Moskowitz 

Summary ~ (Pre established relationship between Hawk / Eli and reader) The reader goes to visit Hawk at the Dojo and the Cobras are amazed at how quickly he changed. Issues quickly arise and he realises just how badly he's fallen in love with her.

Also, this is my first piece of writing so tell me how I did and how I could improve! I'm going to try make the rest of my writing gender neutral in order to incorporate everybody and let them know they're accepted! I'll probably edit this to be gender neutral soon!

(We're gonna say they’re about 16)

Y/N = Your Name

Y/N/N = Your Nickname 

H/L= Hair length

H/C = Hair colour

As Y/N pushed open the doors to the Dojo, quietly closing them and slipping in almost silently with a fond smile on her face as she stood off to the side. She watched in amazement as people around her sparred, trained and punched in an almost dance like way. Y/N smiled and pulled Eli’s hoodie closer to her body as Sensei Lawrence came towards her, fondly patting her head before saying, “What’s up kid? if it isn’t my favourite non-cobra, here for Hawk?”

She laughed before saying lightly “Who else would I be here for? You?” giggling at the last part.

Johnny pulled an offended face before saying, “ I take it back, you aren’t my favourite.” before laughing and clapping her shoulder lightly.

“He’s over there kid.” He said pointing towards the edge of the mat where him and Miguel were practising punches, Eli throwing them, sweat dripping off his brow as Miguel held up the focus pads. She nodded before making her way around the edge, offering a kind smile to Miguel, to which he returned, as she approached, watching him lower the pads as she came closer.

“What the hell man?” Eli started saying before Y/N wrapped her arms around him from behind, snuggling her face into his shoulder as he relaxed his muscles, no longer tense.

“Y/N?” He mumbled, as she nodded into his shoulder as Hawk removed his boxing gloves before throwing them at Miguel and twisting around in her hold.

“What are you doing here?” He said softly, unable to hide the curious tone in his voice as he kissed the side of her head before gently trying to pry Y/N’s vice like grip off him a little, giving up within seconds.

She mumbled incoherently into his chest before lifting her head up slightly and saying, “I just missed you...”

He shook his head fondly before saying, “You know this is probably destroying my reputation as we speak?”

“Do you care?” Was Y/N’s reply, as she loosened her arms around him. Looking up at him with those same innocent and adoring eyes she always did, never knowing she turned him into mush just by doing that.

“Of course not, but why now Y/N/N?”  He said as he gave her a small kiss on the lips and slipped out her grip, before bowing off the mat and making his way towards rooms - horribly aware of the many pairs of eyes on him, not that he cared.

“I don’t know” She replied before he disappeared into the changing rooms, turning around immediately after to start a conversation with Miguel, chatting about the new mexican restaurant that had just opened in town. Laughing about how nobody would ever beat El Fiesta’s chicken fajitas, as Hawk came up behind her, looping an arm around her waist and grabbing her hand before guiding her out with an affectionate glint in his eye.

○●○●○●○

Later that day, as they laid in Eli’s bed, Y/N flopped on top of him curiosity got the better of her.

“Why have you never introduced me to any of the Cobra’s apart from Miguel?” She asked, voiced laced with confusion and curiosity as she kissed him, before breaking it off within seconds.

“I just haven’t okay? What’s the big deal?” He said defensively, slipping back into ‘Hawk’ once again.

Y/N shuffled off him, before sitting beside him, her voice quivering as she inquired quietly, “Is it because you’re embarrassed of me or something...”

This caused Hawk to sit up, almost angrily. “What the fuck do you mean?” 

Y/N looked at him before saying louder, “ Why haven’t you introduced me? Are you embarrassed of me or is it something else?”

This caused Hawk to look at her sharply, “It isn’t that fucking deep okay?”

“Then what is it?...” She said, biting her bottom lip, “We’ve been dating nearly 7 months Eli and you’ve never introduced me to them once, you don’t like me coming to the Dojo to drop off your keys when you forget them, you don’t like me even texting you to check if you’re okay while you’re training!”

“Y/N! Just shut the fuck up okay? I already said it isn’t a big fucking deal!” Hawk said angrily, moving towards her.

“It is a big deal! I know how much they mean to you and I just wanted to meet the people who you call your family!” She said, now matching his volume, her voice remaining almost threateningly calm as she stood up and put on her shoes.

Hawk moved to grab her wrist quickly, his grip tight as she made her way towards the door. He looked at her and said, “Where the fuck are you going? It’s pitch black outside Y/N!”

Y/N yanked her hand away before saying as a tears dripped down her face, “Home...”

○●○●○●○

"You've well and truly fucked up haven't you..." Miguel sighed as he walked out the Dojo with Hawk. Hawk had arguably performed the worst today, even Stingray was providing better punches.

"You think I don't know that? Shut the fuck up man." To which Hawk replied angrily. 

"Well at least she hasn't broken up with you? You might see her at Moon's party?" Aishia offered tentatively, only getting a grunt of frustration back.

Eli stalked off from his group of friends, too annoyed to deal with them. As he unlocked his black SUV, slamming the door behind him and letting out a huff of air as he slid down into his seat.

Was it his fault she had walked out last night, crying? Why hadn't he introduced her already? It wasn't like they weren't going to completely adore her just like he did. Hawk knew why, he just wasn't ready to admit it to himself.

Y/N made him soft. She made him melt every time he saw her and he hated it. He hated the fact she could so easily take him from Hawk to Eli with just a small pout of her lips. He hated that she made him Eli, and that he was so soft around her.

He was completely in love with her, and he didn't even know it yet...

○●○●○●○

Hawk sighed as he sipped his drink in a bored fashion. It wasn't even alcohol, just some flavoured water with ice. He refused to drink when he knew there was even a small possibility Y/N would be there, as she usually drank until she couldn't walk 2 steps without tripping. He glanced around the room, subconsciously looking for Y/N without even realising- tapping his foot as he did so. Miguel had disappeared earlier to look for Tori and he hadn't seen him since. As cheers reverberated from outside, Hawk glared at the open sliding doors before making his way towards the deck.

On the patio was a crowd of people, cheering, screaming and booing as if their life depended on it. Stood on a stool each, Y/N and Tori were balancing on one foot doing shots as though their lives depended on it. 

"3 SHOTS" Tory yelled holding her hand out expectantly for the solo cup as Y/N did the same.

Eli pushed his way through the crowd to near her stool, looking over to see Miguel doing the same with Tori, giving him a shrug as if to say 'i don't even know anymore'.

As Y/N swayed slightly, Eli's hands immediately flew up to her hips to try steady her as Miguel was cautiously hovering behind Tori.

"What the fuck happened here?" Hawk yelled towards Miguel, sounding mildly pissed. 

"They got each other drunk and I have no fucking clue after that" He yelled back, shrugging his shoulders.

"You have got to be shitting me"  Hawk muttered frustratedly as he tried to pry Y/N down from the stool.

"Y/N/N you need to get down, you're going to fall." He said as he moved the drink out of her hands and passed it to somebody in the crowd.

"No! I'm fine baby, see? I’m a flamingo, I am one with the balance!” She said laughing.

 “Why are you even here? I thought you were embarrassed of me?” She said, her happy demeanor falling to pieces within seconds, her lips now pouting and tears threatening to fall. 

Across from them, Miguel was convincing Tori to step down- rather unsuccessfully. In the second Hawk had taken to look over, he felt a hand grasp his shoulder with a small gasp. He looked over at once, thinking Y/N was about to fall.

“I’m gonna fly!” Y/N exclaimed happily once more, as she jumped off the stool and into Eli’s arms, laughing excitedly. 

“See! I’m a bird!” She said as he set her down, keeping his arms around her waist warily. 

"I can see baby, I know." He said, pulling her closer as Tori fell off her stool.

"You've already met Tori?" He said questioningly, "How was she?"

"Tori?" Y/N yelled, "Oh she's great! She said I was pretty and gave me a drink! Look watch!"

She wriggled out his grip before making her way towards Tori, hugging her and stumbling back to Eli.

"See! She's my bestest friend now!" Y/N slurred giggling before dragging Eli inside the house.

He shook his head lovingly before following after her, already knowing he was going to have to beat somebody up to keep his reputation solid after this.

Offering her his cup of water, she refused saying, while giggling, "Nopesie!" 

Rolling his eyes Hawk said, "I'll introduce you to the cobras, you just need to sober up a bit Y/N/N okay?"

Her eyes lighting up she said, "Promise?"

"Promise" was his only reply before she took the cup out his hands and gulped it down.

Giving her a fond smile, he wrapped his arm around her waist - knowing she would fall within seconds otherwise - and led her towards Miguel and the other cobras.

"Whats up losers, I want you to meet Y/N. My girlfriend. She's excited to meet you all, she's been begging me for months." He said, slipping into Hawk mode within seconds.

She hugged Miguel and Tori before practically throwing herself at Aisha, giving her a tight hug to which Aisha awkwardly returned : not quite sure what to do.

"Oh yeah, forgot to mention. Tori and her got pissed together and now shes drunk off her ass." He said, smirking.

They laughed understandingly, immediately bombarding Y/N with questions to which she replied with just as much enthusiasm. Eli pulled her closer towards his chest, keeping her back firmly pressed against it as he kissed her forehead.

"Who knew you were such a softie?" Tori teased, the small amount of love in her heart seemingly accepting Y/N whole-heartedly. 

"She's a keeper man" another cobra added, "She's awesome"

○●○●○●○

"Demetri...stop." Hawk said warningly, venom dripping off his voice. 

Demetri spared him no glance as he said, " That is the medical term for somebody that wets the bed."

As everybody started to laugh, Hawk started storming towards him, fists clenched and jaw set in anger. As people began grabbing him and blocking his path, he felt a familiar two hands cup his face, soothingly rubbing circles and slowly pushing him backwards at the same time.

Suddenly, sirens erupted through the house. This forced Hawk to pull out of their grasps and gently push Y/N's hands down.Hawk glanced up and snarled threateningly, "Cya at school, man."

Already knowing Y/N was far too drunk to run, he pulled her out the door and into the woods.

○●○●○●○

Eli had ended up carrying Y/N through the woods and down the street he had parked in that night. Now he was laying in bed, stroking her hair softly as Y/N cuddled into him. She was looking absolutely  adorable in his eyes, her H/L H/C hair thrown back messily -Eli didn't think he had done too bad of a job really- dressed in his sweatpants and one of his shirts.

Earlier that night as he had carried a sleeping Y/N up to his room, he had been forced to wake her up and push her into the bathroom. Telling her to get changed as he went and got her some advil and water for her to take when she woke up tomorrow. 

He had come back up to her trying and failing to put on his shirt, and had reluctantly put it on her himself before sitting her up on the counter and brushing her teeth and scraping her hair back to the best of his ability.

Now he was here, looking at the beautiful mess before him realising just how much he adored her. How she made him better, how she made him feel valid and loved. How much he loved her...

Mutteringly quietly under his breath, in almost a whisper, his voice pure affection, "I love you so damn much..."

He felt her bury her face futher into the crook of his neck as a quiet, sleepy voice murmured, "I love you too, you big softie..."

[vventure]

Pairing: Ennoshita Chikara x American!reader

Genre: Fluff

Plot: Rain? Not ideal, but Chikara won’t let it ruin a perfect opportunity.

HaikyuuWriters’ Monthly Prompt Event - Prompt: Summer

Word Count: 2020

Warnings: None

All characters are aged to 20+

A/N: Me? Writing fluff? More likely than you think djfkd My family has been going to the lake every summer for about 15 years now, so I wanted to share a little bit of that while also including Ennoshita and his Capricorn stellium. From my research, those with Capricorn stelliums in their natal charts like to plan in advance, and the best way forward is through. Hope you enjoy! I tried to make it enjoyable for those who aren’t American as well <3

Dappled light sparkled over white knuckles as the small convertible wound its way around sharp bends under your direction. Your begrudging passenger, Ennoshita, held your hand as though his digits were a snapping turtle that’d finally caught its prey. He was no coward, but the bottomless ravines caging the road coupled with the seasoned driving of a person unafraid of kinks in the path of the vehicle set his teeth on edge.

“You don’t trust my driving?” You queried, peeking over to discover his normally shiftless face uncharacteristically tense behind his dark sunglasses.

You’d rented the car when your flight landed in America and Ennoshita insisted he would drive the entire way to the lakeside cabin in the mountains. Having never driven while placed on the left side of the car he did remarkably well; it was a treat to observe his handsome profile as warm air blustered through his short locks. 

The confidence he’d possessed then evaporated the moment the road urged him to maneuver around a curve, prompting your boyfriend to pull over and admit he needed his designated passenger to take over, explaining that since you’d grown up driving ‘this way’ you should be the one to do it.

You understood his hesitation. When you’d moved to Japan for university, the only transportation you felt comfortable using was the train, the bus, or your own two feet. These modes took you far, but Ennoshita took you farther by offering to drive when you were too intimidated to even learn.

In this moment, the regret rolling off of him in waves was palpable even in the open air of the compact car.

“I trust you, I do,” he spoke feebly. “It’s just that...are you sure you’re okay with driving? It’s been years since you’ve done this.”

“I’m sure, baby,” came your response laced with finality. You lifted his hand to your lips, skimming them delicately over the smooth skin of his knuckles as you approached another twist in the road.

“Pay attention!” He cried, his rock-solid composure slipping as his free hand clapped over his eyes; the car continued to glide smoothly along the asphalt.

“I am,” you intoned against his hand before smiling. “Relax! You never get this worked up.”

“Don’t like when plans change,” he mumbled, a pout creasing his visage.

“What?”

“I just don’t like when things don’t go the way I planned.”

“I know,” you said with an inaudible sigh. “Don’t stress, just go with the flow.”

“Easier said than done,” came his garbled response that you chose to ignore. This was just the way that your boyfriend was: he was happiest when things worked out exactly in the manner he had planned. 

“We’re almost there, smooth sailing now.” 

You could see him visibly relax from the corner of your eye as the road straightened out ahead, the turn onto the graveled drive leading to the lake house approaching quickly. The view that each person navigating the narrow road gained when pulling into the driveway of the wood-clad cabin made the rattling of brains over potholes and oversized crushed rocks worthwhile.

Pine trees so tall they could tickle the sky framed the expanse of the crystalline lake with powder white clouds embedded in pristine cerulean reflected along its surface, inviting any passerby to dip their toes into the chill water.

Hopping out of the convertible, you were eager to grab the groceries and assist Ennoshita inside when the lake captured your attention. This happened every time your family visited your go-to location for summer vacation. 

There was something about the lake that made it your solace. Not so much the lake, but the memories shared here, like kayaking through hidden alcoves at dawn, swimming out as far as possible until your brain begged you to go back lest you be captured by a non-existent lake monster, and burning marshmallows over a fire that blazed too hot for too short a time as mosquitos buzzed away from your bug-sprayed skin.

The lake acted as a looking glass for you, sending snippets of the past through your mind as you leaned against the front of the car.

“[Y/n]?” Ennoshita prodded, his arms laden with plastic bags. “I’ve got everything, are you coming?”

“Oh!” you responded, snapping from your reverie with a small smile. “Let me help you.”

--

His mind was almost always consumed with plans. Planning for becoming a physical therapist from the beginning of high school. Planning the perfect way to ask if you’d like to see a movie with him after he met you in a general education class at university. Planning out what you both were looking for in a shared apartment and how to make it the best location for your careers. Planning how to make your relationship permanent.

He hated the saying “Change is inevitable,” and throughout life he’d worked to ensure that no matter what happened he stuck to his guns and completed the task at hand, so why did this sudden alteration of his image for the day feel different?

Dread had settled in Ennoshita’s spine, the fine hairs on the back of his neck standing stock-straight as he peered out over the tumultuous lake from the enclosed porch of the cabin.

The day had risen beautifully with the sun beaming along the peaked waves as boats skipped across the water. He was overjoyed to wake up to your beautiful face glowing in the morning light. Although the itinerary for the day seemed run-of-the-mill--preparing barbecue chicken and then enjoying a bonfire once it was dusk--there was something special that he wanted to spring on you that demanded perfection from the atmosphere.

The atmosphere was a fickle entity to work with, and his optimism surrounding the day was lashed down by pouring rain. It hammered against the once tranquil water and afforded the lake an ominous appearance, almost as if a monster was preparing for the perfect moment to show its grisled face. Dark thoughts were a hallmark of his mind on its descent to self-doubt, though he rarely stood at this precipice due to thorough plotting.

There was no way that he could explain this to you without revealing his hidden agenda. How was a chicken barbecue and bonfire supposed to be a special occasion? You’d tell him to move the dinner plans to tomorrow and order pizza in, problem easily solved. 

“Storms roll in fast,” you explained, your voice rising in volume with every step you took towards him. These were the first real words you’d spoken to him that weren’t whispered affections across the valley between your pillows in the dark. Translating for each set of parents had been all-consuming, but rewarding, leaving no time for conversations between lovers.

“I have to start the coals,” he said, placing his warm hand between your shoulder blades. “Where can I find an umbrella?”

“Let’s just order--”

“No, it’s okay,” he said, kissing you on the cheek. “The chicken won’t be good tomorrow anyway.”

“There’s a big yellow umbrella in the coat rack just inside the doorway,” you explained. “Let me at least help you.”

“No, stay in here so you can translate, it won’t take me that long to get this cooked up.”

Ennoshita quickly snatched the bag of marinated chicken from the fridge and the cheery yellow umbrella and made his way down to the grill to find your father standing over it, the coals smoking as they heated.

“You didn’t have to do that, sir,” he called in english to the man standing dangerously close to such high heat. “I was just coming down. Why don’t you go inside, I don’t want you to get sick.”

It was thoughtful of him to assist and save Ennoshita the time it would take to get everything set up. Now, all he had to do was dump the coals and start grilling. Rain sizzled along the white-cast charcoal nuggets as they cascaded into the belly of the grill before he put the grate over top. Water was already accumulating along the slotted metal as it sat waiting for food to be placed upon it. This wouldn’t work, the downpour might affect his ability to cook everything thoroughly. 

So Ennoshita sacrificed his comfort for the fate of dinner.

‘Not ideal,’ was the understatement of the year as Ennoshita stood in a cloth hoodie with rain soaking him all the way through. He steadfastly held the yellow umbrella over the hot grill as the marinated chicken cooked and took on flavor as though it were another sunny day at the lake.

No matter what, this was going to happen. He wouldn’t let rain ruin this evening.

It was fine if he was soaked, he could change quickly and meet everyone for dinner before the chicken was too cold. The best way around any obstacle is through.

The sound of the rain was so consuming that he hadn’t realized you were approaching until the rain was no longer sluicing off his face, a warm hand now firmly against his back. Looking up, he spotted a black umbrella now hovering over him to protect him from the elements. And to his left, there you were in your hoodie, your palm against his abdomen, and your eyes full of concerned love.

“What’re you doing out here?” He asked before turning to examine the food. 

“I told you I’d help.”

“Don’t they need a translator?”

“The language of afternoon judge shows is universal,” you quipped teasingly, to which he returned his usual bored look. “They’re okay for now, I think they were just preparing the side dishes.”

“You don’t have to do this, you know,” he said. 

“But I wanted to. Besides, we haven’t talked in days. I miss you.”

He smiled down at you, drinking in how your face still glowed with an inner beauty in the murky twilight and how the shine in your eyes never dulled by any undesirable circumstances. 

Giving you a small peck on the lips, he finally tore his eyes from your face and deemed the chicken ready for the family dinner.

--

Laughter flitted through the open screens of the porch where Ennoshita stood surveying the sight that greeted him once he was dried off and changed: five of the most important people to him stood around the fire pit. The rain had cleared to reveal a nearly blinding cherry sunset capped with deep plum, its appearance reflected on the now-calm lake it oversaw.

Japanese and English were quickly replaced by laughter as you reminisced and told jokes over the past, even Ennoshita’s least favorite childhood story of putting on a musical all about his stuffed animals for his mother surfaced in the jovial atmosphere.

Something about the way you stood, your back turned so you were merely a silhouette in the saturated light, had his eyes locked onto your form as you swirled and sipped from the wine glass in your hand between the two families he hoped to unite. 

People spoke of moments where everything dropped away and it was only the other person in front of them. Things often fell away for Ennoshita when he was focused on achieving a goal, superfluous people and emotions blurring, so he thought he knew what these so-called people were talking about. He was wrong.

Now he knew, watching your head tilt back to free the lilt of your laugh, this was the moment he’d been missing out on. Perhaps he’d experienced it during your first kiss, or even when you’d said yes to moving in with him—but this was different. The moment he’d planned this entire trip for had come, and he ceased his nervous fiddling. 

Although the day wasn’t perfect, you were.

“Chikara,” came your sweet call, your upturned face adorned with an affectionate smile reserved for him alone. “Come join us!”

The sound of your voice drew him from his thoughts, the square velvet box he’d been fidgeting with dropping to the bottom of his pocket as he made the journey downstairs to join the group. 

Any plan could change as long as he had you.

Taglist: @miyuswriting @burnthoneymint @bb-noya 

[f-nodragonart]

Vertebrate Wings, PART 3: Flight

Return to main post + TOC >>HERE<<

Flight TOC

  Basic Flight Theory

  Bird vs. Bat vs. Pterosaur

  Aspect Ratio and Wing Loading

  Special Cases: Hoverers

Basic Flight Theory

I will openly admit here and now, I’m not well-versed in physics. I apologize if this section is a bit disorganized, since I’ll be stitching together others’ more comprehensible flight descriptions/explanations.

This first bit is from a kind follower, Rahjital, who sent us this quick explanation of flight theory a while back (sadly the images they added no longer seem to be working, so I tried to find fitting images as substitutes):

The first step to learn how lift works is to debunk the popular explanation of how lift forces are created, called the Equal Transit Time theory. The reasoning is that air flowing around the wing splits into two streams, one of which has to travel over the wing and another which travels below it. Due to the shape of the wing, the upper stream has to move faster to cover the same distance. This difference in velocities generates a difference in pressure and therefore lift.

However, what happens if you fly upside down?

The upper side of your wing points towards the ground, and so does the lift force. I would have said you’d fall like a rock, but the fall would actually be faster since your wings would drag you down. We all know that’s not how flight works, though, so how is lift actually created?

All you need to do is tilt the wings a bit. Seriously, I’m not kidding. No need for a specialized wing shape, as the majority of people seems to believe. (although it helps.) Why? Let me explain:

There are two phenomena causing lift to be created:

1. As air flows around the wing, its direction changes downwards and it leaves the back edge of the wing moving slightly more down. Mister Newton tells us that every action has its reaction, so if the air moves down, our wing has to rise.

2. Due to the tilting, the air flowing on the underside of the wing ends up colliding with it and slowing down, raising the pressure. On the other hand, the air flowing over the wings goes upwards because it has to get over the raised front edge, but as it can’t get back down immediately, it ends up travelling in an arc over the wing. This forms a small ‘pocket’ of low pressure straight above the top surface of the wings. These two fields of pressure then generate additional lift. (this is similar to how the Equal Transit Time theory states lift is generated, but with a very different reason, and not as important as the theory states it to be).

Next time you are traveling in a car, try reaching out of the window with your arm when going reasonably fast. As long as you keep your hand parallel to the ground, not much is going to happen, but once you tilt it even a little, the wind is going to push it up. (or down, depending on which direction you tilted it.) That’s it - your hand is generating enough lift to hit the frame of the car window. Just imagine how much lift does a properly built wing get in a similar situation.

The tilt I am talking about the entire time here is called the angle of attack, often abbreviated just AOA. The greater the angle of attack is, the more lift is generated, but the more drag there is, too. For airplanes, the AOA is negligible from an artist’s perspective, but for winged creatures, this is far more of a concern.

Therefore, the flight theory rule #1 is: Whenever you draw a flying creature, always make its wings slightly inclined. It wouldn’t be able to fly otherwise.

~~end quote~~

Bird vs. Bat vs. Pterosaur

This first bit will be borrowed from Koryos’ article “Bat Flight Versus Bird Flight” (which I highly suggest reading in-full for a deeper explanation). Fair warning though—from the short explanation they give of basic flight/lift, it seems they do believe (at least at the time of writing the article) in the now-defunct Equal Transit Time Theory, though their points on bird vs. bat flight are still valid otherwise:

If you look closely at the above gif, you’ll notice that at several points during flight, the bat actually bends its fingers, which dramatically changes the shape of its wings. Birds do not have joints in their feathers, so they cannot do this.

....

Flexible joints are not all the bat has in its arsenal. Its actual bones are flexible, due to a lack of calcium in its diet. This means that they deform and reform their shape during flight.

Birds minimize air resistance by rotating their primaries during their upstroke, allowing air to slip between the feathers. Bats, with solid membranes, can’t do this- so they have an even finer means of control. There are lines of muscle present within the bat’s wing membrane that can actually change the stiffness and malleability of its skin. You can see them quite clearly under the skin of our entangled bat friend.

This is a big brown bat (Eptesicus fuscus), by the way.

These muscles allow the bat to make their membranes flexible during their upstroke to decrease resistance, yet stiff during their downstroke in order to provide lift. It also allows them to change the camber (angle) of their wings on a whim!

This slow-mo video really displays just how incredibly flexible bat wings are.

Bat wings are also covered by millions of tiny, hyper-sensitive hairs that allow the bat to sense air currents and adjust accordingly.

So what does all this control do for the bat?

Well, for one thing, it means they’re not limited by symmetry. Bird wings will almost always mirror each other in shape, while bats may form two different wings shapes at the same time, allowing them to perform some crazy aerial acrobatics. Some insect-eating bats will actually grab an insect by wrapping one wing around it midflight (don’t believe me? You can see it in the beginning of this video!) and then get the insect in their mouth all in a split second, while still flying.

Now, in terms of speed, birds can generally outpace bats. But in terms of maneuverability, bats can fly circles around birds.

The fact that bats’ bones, unlike those of birds, aren’t hollow, and that their skin is heavier than feathers might seem like a disadvantage- but it isn’t. Birds have much more mass in the center of their body than they do in their wings; by contrast, bats have more mass distributed through each wing (12-20% per wing). This means that bats can actually push off their own mass to do things like flip, spin, roll, etc. No bird can stop midflight and flip over to land upside-down, but bats can.

Because they have such fine control over their airfoil shape, bats can also generate lift using less energy than birds. Remember when I talked about minimizing surface area during the upstroke and maximizing it during the downstroke? Bats can bend their fingers and ‘crumple’ their wings as they raise them, conserving energy. Think of it like opening and closing an umbrella. While birds can pull their feathers together more tightly, they can’t exactly clench them like fists.

Decreasing energy costs is good in any situation, but particularly for fliers. It takes a lot of energy to fly. In this case, bats can outcompete both birds and insects for energy efficiency- one study found that nectar-feeding bats, though the largest in size, expended the least energy hovering when compared to both moths and hummingbirds.

~~end quote~~

As for pterosaurs, I’ll leave it up to Mike Habib’s article “Feathers vs Membranes”:

The structure and efficiency of pterosaur wings is obviously not known in as much detail as those of birds or bats, for the simple reason that no living representatives of pterosaurs are available for study.  However, soft tissue preservation in pterosaurs does give some critical information about their wing morphology, and the overall shape and structure of the wing can be used (along with first principles from aerodynamics) to estimate efficiency and performance.

…((I’ll just be pasting the basic findings, but please read the full article if you’re interested in specifics))…

Now, for some punchlines...

Based on the structural information above, we might expect the following regarding pterosaurs and birds:

- Pterosaurs would have a base advantage in terms of maneuverability and slow flight competency.

- Pterosaurs would also have had an advantage in terms of soaring capability and efficiency

- Pterosaurs would have been better suited to the evolution of large sizes (though this was affected more by differences in takeoff - see earlier posts about pterosaur launch).

- Birds will perform a bit better as mid-sized, broad-winged morphs (because they can use slotted wing tips and span reduction).

- Birds would have an advantage in steep climb-out after takeoff at small body sizes (because they can work with shorter wings and engage them earlier).  This might pre-dispose them to burst launch morphologies/ecologies.

~~end quote~~

(other articles by Habib about Pterosaur anatomy and flight can be found here and here, for anyone interested)

When Exdraghunt linked us this information about pterosaur wings, it was in relation to a question about pterosaur keels and why they differed from bird keels. Exdraghunt suggested this might be due to pterosaur preference for soaring compared to bird flapping. However, plenty of inland pterosaurs could have been flappers, so I think the shallowness is more likely caused by their muscular setup compared to birds, discussed in more detail in the Basic Anatomy section.

Aspect Ratio and Wing Loading

Now that we have a basic understanding of the different modes of vertebrate flight, we can get to the fun stuff—wing diversity! Believe it or not, my friends, wing shapes and sizes can drastically effect an animal’s flight style.

Aspect ratio is the ratio of length to width in a wing, where high ratio indicates narrow wings, and low ratio indicates wide wings.

Loading is the ratio of body weight to wing size, where low loading = large wings + small weight, and high loading = small wings + large weight.

Measuring these two aspects against each other helps us determine different flight styles.

For a short n’ sweet rundown:

1)      Long, narrow wings (low loading, high ratio)= gliding, low speed

 2)      Long, wide wings (low loading, low ratio)= soaring

 3)      Short, wide wings (high loading, low ratio)= high acceleration (burst speed), maneuverability

 4)      Short, narrow wings (high loading, high ratio)= high speed

Though there are other aspects of wing shape to take into account as well.

(via^)

Pointedness refers to a wing tip’s position on the leading edge; IE- is the longest point of the wing further back behind the leading edge (A, round), or does the longest point lie along the leading edge (B, pointed)?. Rounder wings increase thrust, and lend towards greater maneuverability-- particularly in short/wide wings. Pointed wings reduce drag on the air (which increases speed), particularly in short wings, and can make for smoother flight.

Convexity refers to the acuteness of a wingtip; IE- is the shape of the wingtip curved relatively inwards (C, concave) or outwards (D, convex)? Concave wings are better suited for constant high speed. Convex wings create more lift, so are ideal for slow flying and increase acceleration.

Measuring these two aspects against each other gives us another fun chart of wing types.

(via^)

And let’s not forget that slotted wings—those whose primary remiges have notches which create gaps between these feathers—reduce drag and tend to be found in wide (low ratio) wings.

Put all these aspects and little details together, and you can observe some very unique flight patterns. Most ornithologists tend to organize wings into 4 different types, as shown below.

Though I personally like to use a few more types as organization (list via):

  1) Marine soarers are birds that fly for long periods over the open ocean and have very high aspect-ratio wings and average or low wing loading that reduce the energetic cost of flight. Birds in this category include the albatrosses (Procellariiformes).

  2) Divers/swimmers are birds with medium to high aspect ratios and high wing loading, including murres, loons, grebes, scoters, mergansers, ducks, and swans. These birds fly rapidly, but with limited maneuverability, characteristics useful for birds that often fly long distances (e.g., during migration or to feeding areas) and take-off and land on water where precise maneuverability is not as important.

  3) Aerial hunters are birds with high aspect-ratio wings and low wing loading, a combination permitting rapid flight and excellent maneuverability. Aerial hunters include swallows and martins (Passeriformes), swifts (Apodiformes), nightjars (Caprimulgiformes), Swallow-tailed Kites (Falconiformes), frigatebirds (Fregatidae), terns (Sterninae), some falcons (e.g., hobbies and Eleonora’s Falcon), and tropicbirds (Phaethontidae).

  4) Soarers/coursers include birds with low aspect ratios and low wing loading, characteristics that allow relatively large birds to either soar or fly just above the vegetation in open habitats in search of prey. Birds in the soaring category include hawks and eagles (Falconiformes), vultures, condors, and storks (Ciconiiformes), and cranes (Gruiformes). Coursing birds include some owls (e.g., Barn Owl and Short-eared Owl; Strigiformes) and harriers (Falconiformes).

  5) Short-burst fliers are birds with low aspect ratios and high wing loading that fly infrequently and only for short distances. Birds in this category include those in the orders Galliformes (e.g., turkeys, pheasants, quail, grouse, and megapodes) and Tinamiformes (tinamous).

  6) Hoverers are birds capable of flying in one position without wind and have high aspect ratios and, surprisingly, high wing loading. The high aspect ratio reduces the energetic cost of flight, whereas the high wing loading permits relatively fast, agile flight (Rayner 1998). The only true hoverers are the hummingbirds (Apodiformes).

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I don’t have an outside source to verify this observation, but I’ve found that a longer “hand” section and shorter arm generally correlate with high-speed flight, while a shorter “hand” and longer arm correlates to low-speed gliding. I can only assume this may be due to a shorter arm section being easier to flap rapidly, but again, this is conjecture.

While much of this information is bird-specific, I was able to scrounge up a graph of bat aspect ratios and loading, so I can only assume these concepts similarly apply to bat flight.

(via^)

There sadly seems to be much less information available on bat wing/flight diversity…

As for pterosaur wing diversity, exdraghunt sent in some great input (as well as that chart of different bat wings featured above~):

There actually is a fair amount of wing diversity among pterosaurs, and it fairly closely parallels that in birds. (Though they do not reach the extreme variety in shapes that birds do, due to the limitations in variety of “arm+wing finger” combos)

One of the most extreme examples is Nyctosaurus gracilis, a long-distance marine soarer, similar to albatrosses. They have very long, thin wings (and also lost their other wing fingers, presumably because they came on land rarely)

Other species of pterosaur, like insect eaters (which need short, broad wings for manuverability) or over-land fliers would’ve had different wing shapes.

Some of this difference was achieved by varying the ratio between “arm” and “wing finger” lengths. You’ll notice that smaller, earlier “Rhamphorhynchoids” (the top half, with the long tails) tended towards  short arms vs long wing fingers. While larger, later Pterodactyloid species developed longer arms in relationships to the wing finger. (Especially in the wrist)

Wing shape silhouettes, by Mark Witton. (Not to scale, obvs.)

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Special Cases: Hoverers

Hoverers such as hummingbirds are special cases in the world of vertebrate flight, because much of their lifestyle and physiology mimics that of insects-- including their flight.

The basic rules of flight theory discussed above won’t exactly apply to these guys, because air doesn’t travel over their wings in the same way it does in other vertebrate flyers. Take a look at this post and compare the animations between the hummingbird, goose, and bat. What exactly is unique about the hummingbird animation compared to the other two?

A few things-- for one, hummingbirds don’t have nearly as many points of wing articulation during flight. If you look closely, you’ll see there’s no bend at the elbow or wrist for a hummingbird; they move their whole arm in a completely stiff, figure-8 pattern. Such high-speed flapping can’t handle that much articulation.

Why a figure-8? Here’s the thing-- hummingbirds don’t technically have an upstroke they have to account for. Every stroke of their wings is a downstroke because when they pull their wings back, the topside of their wings tilts down and also pushes against the air as a “downstroke”. Thus, there’s never a gap between downstrokes-- they’re always efficiently pushing down against the air.

This is also why, unlike most every other flying vertebrate, their flight is more vertical than horizontal. In order to properly swing their wings in a figure-8 motion, they have to tilt their bodies up.

While hovering flight is cool as hell, it comes with a lot of restrictions; mainly, hoverers are always small. The energetic restrictions required for hovering are so incredibly high that bodies much bigger than a hummingbird wouldn’t be able to consume enough energy to make up for hovering. Plus, hoverers tend to live right on the edge of starvation because what energy they do manage to consume is used up so quickly.

If you do want to integrate hovering into your dragons, consider making it a secondary form of flight that they can only keep up for short bursts, rather than their primary mode of flight. Unless you’re ready to give your dragon a lot of physiological restrictions, which is cool too.

-Mod Spiral