#hunting strategy

[skannar]

Polar Ice Sheet : Minute Fiction

The Minute Fiction is a series of small immersive fiction stories created to give readers a quick daily mental break. How many minutes are in a month? Borrow one for yourself and have an adventure. Survival on the Polar Ice Sheet Amidst the vast expanse of the frozen Arctic, you, a massive adult polar bear, embark on a solitary journey that stretches for miles over the desolate ice. Your…

[tenth-sentence]

The Lardil were thus less dependent on the traps and appear to have relied more on group hunting strategies; they had far fewer traps than the Kaiadilt.

"Design: Building on Country" - Alison Page and Paul Memmott

[cupophrogs]

How did you meet thing? Do you have to be a certain level to aquire thing?

“Honestly? I was eating Pj Puffs and he just skittered on up and popped a squat.”

[cordyceph]

went to bed and woke up in a cold sweat realizing that claudia's play, the birdie one, is both a direct analogy for her story and also foreshadowing of her death WHILE ALSO nodding to pauls death

claudia'a single minded, desperate drive for freedom eventually lead her directly to her death. she was "nailed down" by lestat (by LOUIS, actually- lestat only kept her for him.), and tore herself free at the loss of her 'foot,' being a stand in for the personal pain she suffered for freedom

no matter what she or anyone did, she was going to die painfully, because she was so desperate to be free that everything was suffocating. lestat, louis, romania, the coven. the only thing that didnt rot in her mind was madeline, because... there simply wasnt time. madeline was fresh and new and, given time, would have probably suffered the same heel-turn claudia gave to everything.

of course thats because she shared louis' hopeful outlook. being free of her parents? would fix everything. when it didn't? maybe if she had louis, it would be worth it. but its not, lestats still here, louis is still in love with him... killing lestat, thatll fix it, and she and louis will be happy in romania, right, the homeland for vampirekind? not quite, so better try paris, the city of love. that doesnt work. the coven, though, will give her what she wants, right? she'll be happy with other vampires?

the only person who makes her happy is? a modern version of lestat? a weird white woman she met on happenstance, who has little to no care for societal norms or faux pas. a blunt, kind of funny, kind of sad woman who lost her family but has a capacity for enduring because what else is she going to do? die? no, she cant do that. she had no friends because she was weird and offputting and had dangerous rumors, no hangups on loving claudia, no hangups on dying or being a killer.

that's... just lestat. without the immortality and the specific traumas, of course, but like. claudia's most beloved person was a funhouse mirror of her most hated. which really speaks volumes for what they could have had, because it wasnt just a clash of personalities. it was lestats bpd clashing with hers and both of their attachment to louis clashing. if lestat had been better at sharing, if louis had been better at loving both of them, if claudia had been less angry at the world for nothing but existing? maybe they could have been a good family. a happy one forever, just like they all wanted, but were unable to give each other

[katyspersonal]

who do you think fucked up worse…gehrman or maria?

This is an interesting question, and I kind of didn't think of it before! Time to take a closer look at their crimes I guess. Some of these will be held on the possibilities and 'safe assumptions' though and addressed for the full picture!

1) Both were involved in Fishing Hamlet massacre!

With Maria, we can conclude as much because she discarded her weapons in the well at the place specifically. Her version in the Nightmare realm, a Hunter again, is supposed to be what punishes her, and she is focused on keeping Kos/OoK away from rummaging through. Considering the nature of the Nightmare, as well as the Doll who has spiritual connection with her, it should come from her guilt and regrets rather than.. I dunno, discarding the hunt over natural 'character development' and just picking a cool place to forsaken her past!

Gehrman sleeps better according to the dialogue Doll has after you kill OoK and free it's soul, so if it tortured him so, I think it is safe to say he had to be personally involved too rather than stay back while his students did the job:

They both were involved with Byrgenwerth, following their quest for obtaining the eyes of the dwellers from their skulls, and I suppose cord of OoK?

The thing about this point is that the description is written as though it was Gehrman's curiosity which ruined Maria's "idealisation" of him, or WOULD ruin it had she learned of it! This makes me wonder whether she was really involved in Byrgenwerth all that much, or whether she was aware of the real purpose of Fishing Hamlet massacre beforehand? Her goal, within the Nightmare, is stated to mercy-kill us so we don't allow that curiousity corrupt us to the point of "rummaging through corpse" and similar things, further supported by her visceral attack being an embrace if it is lethal!

I am just saying that here the balance might slightly shift towards making Gehrman 'worse' than her. Maybe she was not aware that it all was not just killing "monsters" but also a pregnant mother with her divine baby, but "well you didn't ask :/". Maybe Gehrman deceived her to use her aid. Maybe he didn't think it would be a big deal for her seeing that Maria was also interested in evolution through talking with Great Ones, and assumed she'd be just as callous about which means to accomplish the goals with?

2) Both were grave-robbing, or at least okay with that!

This one is a little less obvious, but Tomb Prospectors were not the first to go to the Chalice Dungeons! ...It were actually Willem, Dores and Gatekeeper lol:

BUT ALSO it were Old Hunters! We can see the remnants of it by Old Hunter Vitus being one the summons in Chalice Dungeons, hear Gehrman encourage us to go into the Chalice Dungeons to become stronger as via "tradition" of the Old Hunters,

and the fact that one of the things that torture Maria (again, remember that Nightmare Realm is Hell that punishes) is a Chalice:

(A video ( x ) for a better look at the Chalice from a figure)

I'd say that it is not very nice to disturb the undead Pthumerians just struggling in remains of their civilisation! Interesting thing: we can conclude they are even staying there to protect the Great Ones or their remains!

There has been some sort of civil war between ancient great-ones-respecting Pthumerians and who late became Cainhurst nobles! Maria, ironically, fell onto the side of "entitled guys" descendants! But yes, I could see why bullying zombie guys to get more history and archeology relics from them might not seem like much for her at start. Experience in the Fishing Hamlet likely retroactively ruined this period of her life for her: delving into Chalice Dungeons was likewise 'not leaving the corpse alone'. The remaining Pthumerians were right having some honour and dignity. So, that came to haunt her in the form of Pthumeru Chalice. Gehrman is.. well he's here too I guess dfshfdhs

3) Both knew a little too much about Laurence's shady business and did nothing?

Old Hunters used to be friends with Healing Church's Hunters and even had their workshops located close to one another! Gehrman was friends with Laurence and Ludwig, who are both quite strongly involved with Moon Presence (Ludwig's sword and guidance, Laurence's affiliation being known since Byrgenwerth times), as well as the key figure in creation of Hunter's Dream:

This was most likely a bait-and-switch, seeing how the cord itself is still in the real Workshop, and not in the grasp of Moon Presence (unlike, say, Wet Nurse taking Mergo's cord)! I think the purpose of creation of the Hunter's Dream was to "buy time" for the research conceived by the scientists! Remember: Gehrman was known to have "madness of curiosity" that Maria resented, or at least would resent had she known! He might have been fully aware of what Laurence wanted to do and support it! My point here, that with such proximity, he must have known of all Laurence's crimes and agreed with them!

Maria was at least overseer of the Clocktower's Research Hall, which, again, was just beta!Choir.

This last line IS a bit confusing, because it makes it sound as though the nerds looking for the Eyes Inside and the Blood Ministers got split. Laurence and Ludwig make it weird, as Moon Presence is also an Eldrich creature and Ludwig is for sure full of eyes! What also makes it strange is that Choir, and then School of Mensis, are both upper echelons of the Healing Church, but Laurence is supposed to be above both of them.

I think this can be worked with! Let's say what if Choir formed after Laurence's death, which also happened after Maria's death, and Vicars after him were somewhat "powerless" and walked over by Choir and Mensis, only leaders in the name! But that still leaves the bit that the mentioned "division" happened after Choir was formed! Maria and Adeline, however, are locked to the existence of the Research Hall, so, the timeframe when doctors and blood ministers were 100% working together! We find the Eye Pendant that opens the access to the Research Hall in Laurence's hand, and human Skull of Laurence on the platform that hides the secret elevator to that Research Hall. Again, by the Nightmare Logic, they must be connected with Laurence's sins: he started this research, or sponsored it, or was overseeing it, and so on.

This point is not an absolute thing though, because one or both of them might be freed from guilt here. Maybe Gehrman was not as informed and agreeable as we could assume and Laurence did lead him around? Maybe Maria wanted but could not do anything being caught in the web of complicated connections, blackmail and risks for the people she cared about?

4) Both are willingly involved in questionable practices (Maria with research, Gehrman with the cycle of Dream and Hunt)

This point I feel like transcends the morality a little bit, as it touches the matter of 'it is bad if you do it, but it is also bad if you DON'T do it'. I really love Soulsborne universes for having guts to say "you can't win, just pick your poison", but I think it is still worth addressing!

It is up to interpretation in which quantity Maria is involved with the Research Hall! Nothing states whether she founded it, joined in the research later, stepped in and turned the tides (ba dum tss) of the research, or simply was a caretaker/nurse/etc of the broken mess while Research Hall was getting ready for a bit of rebranding. She can be very guilty, or she can be barely guilty but in either case if that was her "redemption arc" that was a pretty bad way to go about it. ...or was it?

Fauxsefka turns people into Celestial Emissaries so they physically can't become beasts instead, and is even stated to be a hero / heroic researcher by Miyazaki:

First, I don't do Death of the Author (in terms of interpreting media I mean, not in terms of a style of writing)! Like, nope. Never. It is just not for me. Creator's word is the final for me; Fauxsefka is the good guy in the story, apparently, and it makes sense considering the fundamentally broken place characters are in! Maria has similarities with Fauxsefka: not only both of them have Cainhurst roots, but also both of them seem to favour 'Stars' line of evolution for humans!

Whereas other patients are afraid of the horrors of the Deep Sea, a concept Miyazaki could not get over well into DS3, Adeline desires them! Other patients seems to have gotten it right, and you can see one of them also clings to Maria mentally to "not drown"; Adeline "didn't understand"! The balcony that Maria wants Adeline to go to so she can forsaken the Deep Sea and seek something "happier" holds unique kind of patients who can shoot cosmic arcane spells:

Herself, Maria is associated with these lumenflowers: their petals are all over her boss arena, and the way to her lays through a much bigger batch of flowers, where Living Failures, other 'Stars' Kin are, whose song lyrics also feature lines 'ave stellar' and 'ave Maria'!

So, how this is different from what Fauxsefka is doing, who is stated to be as much of a good person as possible within this context and with the burden of her knowledge? Fauxsefka was doing more or less rinse-and-repeat practice, with maybe a few patients not surviving the procedure but we don't know what happened: maybe that person was already at the brink of death and she tried to make them live like this.

^ This guy I mean. Maria, on the other hand, is in the time period where the doctors and scientists were only testing the waters (BA DUM TSSS) (ok I will stop) and it was not SO certain what was at the stake, what were the alternatives, what was awaiting the humanity. It is even possible that the beasts problem was not yet bad to the point of "you'll either become a beast, be eaten by a beast or become a Kin, humanity is DONE for!" ! This was an unethical research at the cost of real people! The weight of Maria's sin here really depends on the interpretation, though

As for the cycle of Dream and Hunt, this is complicated and lingers on one's interpretation of what the purpose of the Dream even IS! Its existence provides two things: 1) a hunter who is immortal for the night, thus can sustain the beasts with efficiency like no other, but also effect the continuity of the night ( x ) and 2) supposed sustenance to the Great One Flora of the Moon, who holds the hunt as a concept!

I used to be a bit more set on the idea that if beasts are not sustained and hunted, they will simply overpower those who are yet humans and eat them! It is a self-feeding cycle of people needing to self-defend from beasts, thus having to consume the blood as urgent means of healing and power-up since beasts are too strong, thus risking to become beasts themselves because the blood they consumed during that hunt corrupts them. So, the Hunter's Dream would be a good thing, as it'd help to 'buy time' during nights of the hunt in which not only beasts are more active but Great Ones too! While the Dreaming Hunter holds everything together, the greatest minds of the Healing Church can efficiently study the ways to end beasthood, or ANY problem of humanity, once and for all! It is just better to throw the hunting resources on the Dream, so the scientists don't worry about the beasts and can focus on research. However, I almost forgot that:

This implies that had there not been Mensis Ritual ongoing, people WOULD have the chance to simply 'wait away' the beasthood problem. That, since Rom is not stopping Mensis Ritual but just conceals it, what really makes the inner beast within everyone who consumed the blood inevitably come out is Mergo's cry that draws the Bloodmoon close!

So yeah, the point about Hunter's Dream being helpful for the research of evolution still stands, especially under assumption that the deal with Moon Presence helped to bring more Eldrich Arcane close for "feeding" her. The point about how if the beasts are not hunted they'll simply eat everyone, though, is vague. It is safer to assume that the Hunter's Dream and Research Hall both are both example of hubris of man even if approached differently. Attempts to draw in something dangerous and horrifying, but it is "justified risk" because if you manage to 'tame' arcane/blood, sure, humanity will prosper!

Like... yeah, sure, there IS dangerous and undesireable nature of man that ruins everything and might or might not still linger in humanoids' genes after Loran. But did humanity ASK any of you guys to keep trying to fix it with so many victims and sacrifices? Like, was it WORTH it?

This point is closely tied to 'knowing Laurence's bad antics and doing nothing', yeah. Maria didn't seem to like blood ministration very much, as she disapproved of Adeline becoming a Blood Saint, but she also didn't even approve of blood antics of her own clan! I am not sure what would be her opinion on the Hunter's Dream had she lived to the point when it was created, just that she herself is not willing to ever hunt, so I am leaving this point aside. Is this just blood ministration that she opposes but proximity with a Great One Moon Presence would be something she can see the potential of? Or would she and Gehrman have a pointless cat fight about whose methods are better when they are both hubris of man? In both versions they are 'guilty'! Besides:

In the end none of THIS matters either and everyone was fooled ( x ). The blood offering is a blood offering in any way; whether it is through spilling blood violently during the hunt, or offering the blood's 'red' with how celestial Kin all bleed red. Moon doesn't care what paints it red, in the end.

___________________________________

My conclusion is: both of these characters fucked up almost equally! I think the balance shifts just a little bit and Maria is slightly better than Gehrman since she had some limitations set on how far she was willing to go. Her motivation was not in "curiosity" but strictly in helping humanity, even if in unfair ways, which is apparently not the case for Gehrman?

I'll say this though, NOW I am hooked on the idea of Maria and Gehrman being petty "rivals" ideologically (for as long as they could before Maria's own demons caught up with her). Especially since neither approach is better than the other and they are both cringe loosers! Again, lost comedy gold over Fromsoft making Gehrman's tender and warm feelings for her before and after her death plain. What is not lost, however, is the fact that the two should just kick Laurence and go home :pensive:

[sneverussape]

“it’s just a ruddy snake, minerva, stop shrieking.”

—

(it’s a giant ashwinder actually)

[front-facing-pokemon]

[bespectacled-bookwyrm]

Puppetsilk Leavanny Evolution Line

I was inspired by the bamboo shoot Sewaddle made by @sewatari, and created an evolution line for the little guy!

I call this version of Leavanny "Puppetsilk Leavanny", and it’s a lot more aggressive (and smaller) than standard Leavanny.

For Swadloon, I drew inspiration from the Godseeker (from Hollow Knight), but also the helmet worn by Kaguya in Ōkami.

With Leavanny, I drew inspiration from Ahtal-Ka, from Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate. I picture them as incredibly intelligent, and as they age their skill at creating puppets increases - to the point where exceptionally old individuals can basically make a bamboo mech, like the device Ahtal-Ka makes!

The original bamboo shoot Sewaddle can be found here:

Go give this little guy some love! :D

(I’m also picturing this Sewaddle as being an ambush predator - they’re as cute as a button, but they’ve got quite a bite! Ever heard of Bobbit worms? I’m picturing a hunting strategy like that.)

[ranticore]

can Twist's claws not do any damage? the harness keeps him from biting but his claws still look decently sharp..

He has retractile hooked claws which let him climb easily, and they are sharp! But manticores are very slow-moving, have thin skin, and are not physically strong, and getting in a physical altercation close enough to use those claws would be very dangerous to them. It's why their tail is so long (longer than the rest of their body), it's to keep a safe distance between themselves and their prey until the venom can do its job

[jimkinnz]

homunculus facts¡

every year' thousands of homunculi are unmade by the callousness of their masters• your gift of just §1 a day can help this•

commonly effective enrichment strategies for your homunculus can include introducing new scents like doe urine or peppermint' as well as putting their food inside of little compartments in a box• just make sure the gnomes don,t escape¡

i fucking love to squish berries between my fingers i could do it all day•

while homunculi often eat other living things' the most treasured are those imbued with elemental magic• this explains the gnome thing' but also includes sylphs' undines' and salamanders•

there,s a loose rock in the masonry of one wall of the lab• i,ve been able to pry it out' but there were no treasures there• ಠ⁠ᴥ⁠ಠ

you guys ever heard of video games¿

[powdermelonkeg]

Beat the first half (I assume it's half) of Inscryption. It took me about 7 hours, even knowing what things did and where powerups were (watched a few Markiplier videos before deciding I wanted to play myself).

Talked my roommate (@too-many-blorbos) into trying the game. She beat the first half in 2ish hours.

She did not die once on the final boss.

Also a fun fact, where it took me ~12 tries to beat Ganondorf in TotK, WITH my best gear, she ALSO beat him in one go. Without flurry rushing because she hated the timing of it.

My roommate's gaming skills are cracked.

[definitely-not-a-woodcrawler]

Alright! Offering free tours through the woods!

HUMANS WHO AEE WISHING TO TRAVERSE THE TRAIL LACKING FORESTS OF [REDACTED], YOU'RE IN LUCK! BECAUSE I AM WILLING TO NAVIGATE YOUR WAY THROUGH.

[offorestsongs]

quick sketches of Rook and Lysander's future kid - Rosemary "Mary" Hunt. y'all are probably going to see more of her (and some lilyarrow parenting adventures) because i am suddenly having domestic fluff brainrot

some lore/ramblings under the cut!

so Rook and Lysander probably have more kids (Rook has a lot of siblings himself so it was kind of a natural choice for him while Lysander hated being an only child and wouldn't want his kid to grow up like that either) but Mary's the oldest

since Lysander is trans, she's their biological kid too

she was also. uh. sort of an accident lmao. they only planned to have kids after they would get married but well. it certainly didn't go that way! not that they were unhappy about it (actually they got married while Lysander was pregnant)

when Mary was born, Rook was so happy, he accidentally sat on Lysander's glasses and broke them (Lysander made fun of him for that for years after)

Mary is. an absolute menace to society

she's energetic and wild and very independent, usually runs around wherever she wants and goes off on little adventures of her own

like both of her parents, she's very interested in nature and when she was little, she would often disappear for hours to watch different animals or wreak havoc in Lysander's garden (she tried to do gardening too! ...with different results. and also made a lot of mud soups)

very creative as well, she likes to experiment a lot with her appearance. she often tries out different make up looks, dyes her hair and modifies her own clothes. she loves to wear a lot of different colors, even if they're clashing

honestly she often kind of looks like she just put on the first things that fell out of her closet

speaking of appearance - her hair color is close to Lysander's original hair color

she thinks of Grim as her older brother <3 she often drags him on her little adventures

she's also INCREDIBLY spoiled; she has a lot of uncles (Ace, Deuce, Vil, Epel, Malleus, Kalim, etc) and they all treat her like a little princess <3 <3 <3

she has her favorite uncle and it's Vil but don't say that out loud

[hadesoftheladies]

lesbophobia from anti separatists is bad and misogyny + biphobia from same-sex attracted separatists is bad. none of the weirdos that engage in this kind of bullying and harassment are engaging meaningfully or sincerely with the principles or values of radical feminism. can we now start interacting with each other on the basis of actual theory rather than assuming anyone who ventures to discuss or debate theory is either of these people?

[retrocgads]

UK 1987