#birth island

[thefantastician]

pokemon on the brain

[gummi-ships]

Kingdom Hearts 0.2 Birth by Sleep - A Fragmentary Passage

[sanjiaftersex]

new mental health issue unlocked for blackleg sanji <33 🔓

[cyellolemon]

Ambrose's aunties, Flora and Marie!! not pride month anymore but whatever

[thefreshprinceofjunes]

reading about kh3 gameplay mechanics on the khwiki (cuz i didnt do shit fuck with 99% of them when i played it) and like

the shotlock for oblivion is called��‘dawn eclipse’ in japanese, while oathkeepers is ‘sunset bright’

and i realized

kairi is associated with sunsets, which in kh (and in real life) are symbolic of endings

while riku is associated with dawn/sunrises, which are symbolic of new beginnings

also, dawn eclipse? like the dawn being eclipsed by something?

and sunset meaning the loss of (day)light, while sunrise means the return?

[gallimaufryish]

Tina Louise (1934- ) as Julie Grey on Dallas (1978)

[kh-described]

playing birth by sleep. trying to 100% my aqua save. will not be trying to 100% the other two because this is a Hassle. currently trying to complete all the ice cream beat levels. having a hard time. took to reddit for advice. found this

[ID: a reddit reply from 8 years ago, by a user named Nyyo, reading: "its been awhile since I played that part of BBS. but I was something of a master back in the day TBH. you must become one with the ice cream, don't watch the cues, feel them. feel that ice cream beat. remember you will not truly understand the ice cream until you can do it blind folded. be edgy Riku. be edgy Riku and feel the ice cream beat. I leave you with this [defunct youtube link] , imprint it into your mind, feel ice cream. good luck my friend. but seriously its been awhile I hated that mini game. I remember there was some timing trick that made much easier but I forgot. END ID]

the comedy of this whole thing is just... golden to me. link to a youtube video that no longer exists. "be edgy riku and feel the ice cream beat." this self-proclaimed master ending with admitting that it sucks. no notes.

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Saint George Island. Hatching sea turtles head for the sea.

* * * * *

“The world, even the smallest parts of it, is filled with things you don't know.” ― Sherman Alexie, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

+

“The true mystery of the world is the visible, not the invisible.” ― Oscar Wilde

[gorillageek27]

Baby kong post

[gummi-ships]

Kingdom Hearts 0.2 Birth by Sleep - A Fragmentary Passage - Depths of Darkness

[lavampira]

chase your dreams but always know the road that'll lead you home again

[strayheartless]

Do you ever think about the fact that Terra technically has a little bit of responsibility to take for what happened to Riku in KH1? Cause I do.

Like I’m not saying that Terra is terrible or that he’s completely to blame, because he’s not. I love Terra as a character. He’s great! However I am saying that one of the many mistakes Terra made in BBS was bequeathing his Keyblade to Riku the way he did.

And I think Aqua knew it too.

Maybe I’m stating the obvious here, but something that becomes pretty apparent to me from that scene is that Terra didn’t actually think about the logistics of giving his keyblade to a seven year old kid. Nor did he really think of the responsibility that placed on him, to teach Riku how to be a keyblade barer.

When Terra helps Riku make the oath, he doesn’t really explain the weight of it to Riku, and quite honestly even if he had, Riku was still only seven. Yes okay, he was a seven year old who thought protecting his best friend was the most important thing, but he’s still only seven. Terra could t really expect Riku to comprehend what taking on the role of a keyblade barer meant, especially since Riku didn’t even know what one was!

And then Terra leaves, and it’s not made clear whether or not he plans to come back and teach Riku. He leaves this kid to simply figure this stuff out by himself, when Riku doesn’t even know where to start.

By comparison Aqua makes a purposeful decision not to bequeath her keyblade to sora. And I think that was less to do with the fact that Terra had already given one of the boys a keyblade, and more to do with the fact that she recognised that unless she was sure she could come back, then giving the keyblade to sora would be a bad idea. Because she couldn’t come back to teach him the way Terra, Ven and herself were taught. She knew better then to place that pressure on a child, to simply do it themselves.

Personally I believe that part of Riku’s desperation to be the best. To be the strongest, the smartest, the fastest, the wisest; came from an expectation that Terra placed on him to “have the strength to protect what matters”.

Riku had no idea that what he needed was a teacher. He had no idea the amount of training and practice it took to become a keyblade master, because he didn’t have a teacher! Because Terra left, and he never came back.

And I know that’s not Terras fault. But part of the reason I think that it was such a bad idea to gift Riku the keyblade, was because -technically- Terra didn’t have the right. He wasn’t a master, he failed his exam and was made to go away and re-evaluate his relationship to the darkness.

To me thats the first sign that you shouldn’t be handing out keyblades to kids on beaches.

Riku had the same priorities as Terra, and that was both of their downfalls in the end. It’s becoming Sora’s weakness in real time as we play the games. The difference is, Riku became a master because -unlike Terra he stared long and hard at his relationship to the darkness and learned that it wasn’t about using it to protect his friends, it was about allowing it to consume him.

But Riku could only learn that because he was pushed to the brink of destruction, that was caused by his fear of failing to become a Keyblade barer.

And who placed that weight of expectation on him?

Terra.

I dunno man, I have a lot of thinking thoughts. Most of them incoherent.

Tell me what you think???

[jackie-shitposts]

[hermesmoly]

when you're in a "wretched with incredible guilt so you overcompensate" competition and your opponent is zeus

[monarch-afterdark]

Superspecies History: Swamp Locust

Welcome once again to Monarch: After Dark, the digital gateway between you and the organisation dedicated to understanding and navigating this troubled new world we live in.

Our Skull Island fauna coverage is beginning to draw to a close, with just a few more entries to go. That said, let us dive beneath the water once again and take a look at the toothed terror of the swamps, the Swamp Locust.

(Pictured above: Sketch of the Swamp Locust by Stephanie Levallois, based on eyewitness descriptions of the creature)

Monarch Database File: Swamp Locust

Monarch Designation: Stagnum acrididae

Height: 22-28 feet

Species Designation: Insectoid florafauna

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Those traversing Skull Island by water have quite a bit to fear, even within the shallower inland swamps. Picture the scene for a moment. Your small boat has managed to dodge Mire Squids, Sirenjaws, and you've been fortunate enough that the Kraken is no longer around. You get caught in some stray brambles, but you don't panic. You go to cut away at them, but they tighten their grip and you hear a clicking sound through the air...

Meet the Swamp Locust, a creature rather affectionately described by Monarch as "a sentient throat with claws". Distantly related to grasshoppers, the Swamp Locust is remarkably similar to a lamprey, filled with teeth like a tigerfish. On their sides are six legs, spiked with barbs, that sit above the surface of the water to trap prey for consumption.

(Pictured above: Artistic depiction of a Swamp Locust ambushing Aaron Brooks' expedition team, circa. 1996)

A Swamp Locust was briefly encountered by Aaron Brooks' expedition team and their Iwi companions in 1996. Forced to take another route back to the Iwi village, the group accidentally wander too close to a swamp and attract the attention of a Swamp Locust. The team successfully run from the creature when bullets turn out to be largely ineffective.

Described by Monarch as being the most primal predator on Skull Island, there are potentially thousands of Swamp Locusts residing in the island's waters. Their aquatic lifestyle means that, following the island's destruction in 2021, Swamp Locusts are among the possible species that survived and continue to live on.

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And that's all she wrote on the Swamp Locust! While current records are somewhat limited, owing to difficulties with sufficiently monitoring and tracking Swamp Locusts, they remain a core part of what makes Skull Island so intriguing, yet deadly.

Until next time,

Monarch: After Dark