#i know it’s because it would be impossible to animate with the models

[inbabylontheywept]

by tradition, the first day of the camp was spent pranking the group next to us. our prank was ziptying the zippers on their sleeping bags together. we figured one of them would sleep with a knife, because we all slept with knives, because we were dangerous maniacs and half the danger of a dangerous maniac is that they tend to think that they are Actually Normal. so. obviously that didn't pan out, and instead they got stuck in their sleeping bags for like half an hour and because their scoutmaster slept in their car and couldn't hear them yelling, they actually only got out when one of them went full caged animal and chewed through the plastic. which meant they had time to make it to the axe throwing station, but they did miss breakfast.

the scale of our victory was impossible to understate. it was an epic prank. unrivaled. the best in years. we knew they were going to retaliate, and we both feared and craved it. maybe i'm still a maniac, but that feels like a common thing, right? do well adjusted people that are not maniacs crave Judgement?

(serious answers only please, from people who would never spoon a knife.)

anyway, the next day we got back to our camp, and the neighors had skipped dinner to just come back and fill all our tents with pinecones. which was like, a decent prank, i guess, but it probably took them an hour to fill all the tents up, and it took us like 15 minutes to tip the tents out, and as a return volley to the ziptie prank it was incredibly underwhelming. we felt a little cheated.

so our scouting group held a council, and we agreed, unanimously, that our prank was 100% better and theirs sucked and that there would be no escalating tensions because we were the clear victors. they'd had their chance to retaliate, and they failed, and so the war was over. that was it.

we agreed on this. we swore. but madness is a relative thing, and in our group of maniacs, we still had J. i have many, many J stories. too many. i biked up to school with him from 4th grade to 8th, and i saw him get hit by cars thrice. he'd just swerve into the road sometimes. one time on a rainy day in 4th grade, a car splashed me, and before i could even consider my response J yelled I GOT THIS and then he blitzed off after the car. i didn't see him the rest of the day. i was so anxious i barely slept that night. i saw him the next morning and he told me that he'd chased the car until it got to a gated community and then he'd climbed over the fence and looked in peoples garages until he found the one with the car, and then he'd ripped the hood ornament off and broke their window. then he gave me a hood ornament to a different brand of car from the one that splashed me and i didnt tell him because i didnt want him missing more school. i want you to mentally adjust your mental model of the things a 9 year old is capable of doing to include chasing a car for five miles, hopping a fence, breaking into a garage, and vandalizing a randos car.

and that's just the tip of my J stories iceberg.

the point of all this is just to say that J was so crazy that he made us knife spooners look like accountanting enthusiasts.

so we agreed the war was done, and we shook on it, and then J, in the name of friendship, in the name of honor, in the name of avenging our pinecone filled tents, snuck over to their camp that evening and fornicated with a watermelon that they'd been saving in their cooler.

i want to emphasize, again, that this was not the consensus of the group. that is not a prank. like i know it seems like we dont know what pranks are because of the whole ziptie thing, but even we knew that fucking someones food is not a prank, it is a crime, and a sin, the kind of weapon that had only been ethically used once in history by Horus in his battle against Set and none of us dumb assholes had owl heads.

so.

the next day went pretty well. we threw some more axes again, which is a valuable and important skill for children to learn i guess, and we learned how to tie knots, which is a skill that turned out to be far sexier than i ever expected, and i learned how to light fires with a magnifying glass, which was great. i'm looking back at this, and i am actually just now beginning to realize that the clear and obvious point of scouting is turning child sociopaths into apex predators.

and then the day ended, and we went back to our camps, except for our leaders, who had a sort of Scout Leader Meeting they were going to have for a few hours at least. it was built into the camp, that day was supposed to be our day to chill as a group, and make peach cobbler, and just be buddies.

except, as it turned out, our neighboring group's alternative to making peach cobbler was eating their watermelon. so at some point they opened their watermelon, and woo boy. oh man. you think catholics hated seedless watermelons? you should see how much mormons hate seeded ones.

so we were chilling by the fire, and then we heard screaming from the camp over, but we didn't pay much mind to that because there are many reasonable explanations for a group of 10ish children to scream simulanteoulsy, such as wasps, which are abundant in arizona, and then the screaming got closer, which did not bother us because there were many reasons for a group 10ish children to scream and run towards us, for example, wasps, which are abundant in arizona, and then we noticed they had large sticks on them, which we figured were perhaps being used to drive away the wasps, which are abundant in arizona, and then they arrived and they started beating the shit out of us, abundantly, in arizona.

so we ran into the woods.

now, at this point, we had no idea what was up. we knew that the camp next to us was out for blood, which was crazy, because we'd actually locked them in fartproof bags for 30 minutes and they'd barely done anything back, and were trying to figure out what could possibly have happened that could drive them to Terrible Violence when we realized that J was cackling like a witch that had learned how to order children off of ebay.

so we politely asked J what the hell he had done, and he politely explained that had "done" their watermelon, and we politely beat him with large sticks because life is nothing but endless cycles of violence.

we were still being chased by the other camp btw. so it was them, chasing us, chasing J, and then they got tired and went back to their camp, and we chased J a little longer because we were mad we'd all been walloped with sticks, and J did not care because he was a supernatural entity whose only weaknesses were Needles and Fire, and then we got tired and went back and J kept running, and we just kind of figured he would come back eventually.

he did not.

we went back to our tents, and we waited, and J did not come back. we stayed up all night, peering into the forest, worrying. our leader came back, and we did our best to hide our battlewounds, and he either genuinely did not notice or simply accepted this as part of Boyhood. then he went to bed, and we waited, and waited, and waited. And Waited. and did not sleep.

eventually, we convened again, and we agreed that if J was not back by after breakfast, we would have to tell the scoutleader about what exactly had transpired. and we really did not want to do that, because it would have meant that everyone would have gotten in a very large amount of trouble.

morning came around, and J still was not back. we went to breakfast, and we ate very, very slowly. we were afraid the other camp was going to continue their war with us, but they actually looked fairly frightened. one of them actually came to us and asked for a truce, and we agreed because we truly felt bad for them. like, yes, they did beat us with sticks, but J fucked their watermelon. we werent complicit in the watermelonfuckening but they didnt know that, and it was definitely the kind of crime that left one outside the bounds of the social contract.

and then when we could eat no more bits, when breakfast was almost done, right when i was getting pushed to go and tell the scoutleader that we needed to find J, he arrived. he was sleep deprived, and noticeably scraped and bloody, and tied to his belt was a blood squirrel tail.

and i asked him, J, where did you get that? and he said, don't worry man, it was already dead, which did not answer by question and gave me several more.

the camp ended that day, and the other groups avoided us like the plague, and it was not until some weeks later that we were able to piece together what happened.

J, in his sojourn through the forest, managed to find (or, possibly, make) a dead squirrel. he then cut off the tail to keep on his belt, because he was a weird little freak like that. he also took the dead squirrel, and he skinned it, then he tied it to a little crucifix made of wood, and he left it in the other scouting group's camp. which is why they were so scared of us.

it was such an unhinged thing to do it actually sobered us up for a while. scouting became a scary thing for us. we'd found something dark and primal there, in the place where no adult could see, and our appreciation of J as a wild ride kind of changed into seeing him as something truly dangerous. we had a sense wherever he went, something terrible would follow, and the only way to escape it was to not be there when it arrived. and so piece by piece, the scout group dissolved. it wasnt until he moved out of that ward that the rest of us started daring to go back to scouts.

and for the final epilogue of the tale:

i have a little brother who was friends with a younger cousin of J's, and the two would go to parties together in highschool. and sometimes J, who was in his early 20's at that point, would show up at the parties, and it was unsettling in such a way that it just became a known risk at parties with the cousin. and at one party, they were playing truth or dare, and J wasn't even in the room, but someone asked him the Truth of how he always knew how to find the cousin, and J said the cousin's mom had mentioned she was worried about him and the parties so he'd put a tracker in his car. and when he saw that the cousin was out of the house on weekends, he'd made a visit by, just to make sure he was safe.

then he left. and every single person at that party went over that poor kid's car. they searched the wheel-wells, checked underneath it, the works, until they found the tracker. then because they were clever, they didnt break it, or throw it away, or anything that would've given away what they'd done. they just gave the tracker to the cousin, who put it in his glovebox. and on schooldays, he'd take it with him, so J could see him in the parking lot. and on weekends, he could leave it in the garage, so he could go to parties with out Hell coming with him. because everyone that met J - every single person - knew that the only way to be safe from him was to be far, far away.

[quicksilversnails]

Took some notes from the Wild Life retrospective episode of the Imp & Skizz podcast featuring Grian because I thought the behind the scenes info was really interesting!

(3:15) The wild cards were all kept totally secret from the players (apart from Grian), with the exception of the superpowers and finale (as they required the players to set keybinds)

(3:45) The players were given files containing the required mods each week, which were named things like "creeper rain" to throw them off

(4:12) Wild cards were a combination of data packs and mods

(4:38) Grian told them not to read the folder name to avoid spoilers (which is kind of impossible), so everyone fully believed there would be creeper rain lol. Grian was saying it in jest but everyone took it seriously and were apologetic about having seen it, to which Grian told them not to worry

(6:58) Grian originally contacted a data pack dev called Brace for help with programming the wild cards. Some, like the shrinking/growing could be achieved with minecraft attributes, but the snails were too janky and unusable. Grian still liked the idea though, so he reached out to mod developers Henkelmax and Breadloaf, who designed the pathfinding/behaviour from scratch

(8:49) They had a debugging mode used to test the pathfinding of the snails, shown in the podcast and in Grian's credits

(10:09) Grian wants most of the credit to go to the development team and artists, as he was mostly in charge of ideas & organization!

(10:39) Grian's only regret with the snails was that they were too fast in session 3, leading to unexpectedly many deaths. They were apparently not so difficult to get away from during testing, but perhaps the testers were more used to them than the players were

(11:44) Grian: "We did develop to the lowest common denominator" ie. prioritizing how players would struggle over how worrying about if players would do too well

(12:56) Oli's voice for the snails was iconic. It cost Impulse a life because he intentionally stayed closer to it to hear the voice lol

(13:42) Danny was in charge of the snail models and animations

(14:11) During testing, the snails just sounded like Oli, which made it feel weird. They pitched up his voice so that it'd be less immediately recognizable

(15:18) The snails' jumping attack was meant to be clearly telegraphed: they would stop, wiggle, make a "ooeee" sound before jumping. Many players had their friendly creatures volume turned very low/off (as cows and other mobs are loud), which made this attack much less obvious for them

(16:57) The growing/shrinking had the least testing done for it, as it was the simplest conceptually and to program. This meant that the falling off of blocks due to the shrinking hitboxes wasn't anticipated

(17:55) Before the 1st session, Grian told them that he didn't think anyone would die to the wild card. Pearl's death made Grian pretty nervous, as he didn't want everyone dying too early in the season

(19:29) 6 lives were given, knowing that many of the death to the wild cards were unexpected/unfair. The intent was for ~3 lives to be allocated for wild cards, and ~3 for PvP.

(21:13) The developers were all fans of the Life Series!

(22:43) The shrinking/growing was intentionally pretty simple to ease players/viewers into the concept and build up toward more dramatic wild cards like the snails

(25:38) In the hunger episode, Grian didn't know which foods would be good

(25:58) Grian thinks that "it's unfair that Grian already knows everything" is valid criticism, but that it's important for him to be involved with the ideas. Having someone else do that is like having someone else record his videos: Life Series is his brainchild

(26:35) Well before the season began, while they were still developing the concept, Grian asked the other players for wild card ideas that would meet a few criteria. All of them ended up being unused for one reason or another. Impulse thinks his ideas were very "inside the box" because he was viewing things through what was possible in vanilla Minecraft. His idea was to have a scavenger hunt where the players would search to find a relic. The first person to find it would get a buff. Skizz's idea was for every player to turn into a random passive mob for every given interval of time. They would have to find every other player of the same mob type as them or else the whole group loses a life.

(29:44) The food qualities were weighted by the rarity of the item, so very common blocks like dirt and cobblestone would never give anything good. The other items were randomly selected

(30:23) Regular blocks/items cannot be made edible normally, so they had to circumvent that and custom code a fix for items not stacking correctly

(32:41) While a lot of players do want to win, the main priority is creating entertainment, which prioritizes playing recklessly

(33:20) The food wild card wasn't included in the finale because it would've felt like "too much". There was a higher risk of technical issues since it changed the data values of items, and Grian didn't want someone's last death to be because they ate their sword. In his mind, it was a good and fun wild card, but didn't need to be repeated in the finale. Impulse points out that they all would have collected more rare items by that point, removing the incentive to search for blocks to eat

(33:46) The wild cards in the finale were nerfed from their original sessions. The shrinking/growing had a smaller height range, the snails moved slower, etc.

(36:21) The personalized snail skins were a late addition by Danny, who made 18 skins very quickly

(36:49) Grian did not anticipate the snails becoming as popular with fans as they were. After the session released, they had the idea to release the snail merchandise, which directly funded the rest of the season

(39:20) Grian spent what "felt like every day" testing with the developers. They'd record the sessions on Tuesdays, meet up with the dev team, talk about what need to be done, testing, bugs, etc, edit and upload on Saturday, and would get a few days grace before starting again

(40:01) After the snail session, Grian was worried that the season would be very short due to all the deaths. They were considering toning down the later wild cards but ultimately didn't change them too much

(40:36) The time wild card was carefully balanced. If it had gone even a little faster, many players likely would have died because they wouldn't have time to react to threats like baby zombies or creepers.

(40:57) While sessions normally run for a variable amount of time, session 4 was hardcoded at 2 hours. Grian ended the session ~10 minutes early, just after they hit max speed, because he felt like things were getting dicey

(42:46) When the wild card first activates, it looks a lot like the server had frozen or crashed. Grian told the players before the session started that it would look like the game was broken, but that it isn't broken. Skizz tabbed out anyway and missed the beginning 😔

(43:30) Having the rain start just as the wild card began was a good visual indicator of time slowing down. This was a suggestion from the dev team (probably Brace)

(44:41) Impulse and Grian "cheesed" the end of the session by going branch mining. Grian wanted players to take advantage of the wild cards (eg. mining quickly, helping to kill someone), and not have them just be an annoyance.

(45:30) Keeping the client and server-side time stay in sync was challenging. The sky's motion was changed to be smoother on client-side. The players were also not as fast as the server (around 2x faster), the server was going faster than that, and the time of day was even faster

(46:56) The sounds were pitched up/down based on the speed to add to the effect

(27:46) In testing, if the players were made 7x faster, it would be basically unplayable, which was why it was capped at 2x speed. This made mobs very dangerous, as they were now faster than players and could catch up to you and kill you easily

(49:01) On several occasions, they had to extend the fuse duration of creepers to make them more fair. In the time session, their speed was only increased by ~10%

(49:39) Usually, Grian was the one to test the wild cards and notice when things like creeper speed would be an issue, since he was the one with experience making videos

(50:50) A challenge with balancing wild cards is accounting for the playstyles of so many players: reckless players like Scar and Skizz, "kind and gentle" players like Bigb who would stay off to the sides, and "the sweat squad" (Scott, Impulse) who play very cautiously

(52:48) Trivia Bot was the only wild card that was not planned in advance. Grian was struggling to come up with a wild card for that episode, and wanted to have a wild card available that could give people lives in case many people died to early wild cards without it feeling cheap.

(53:33) Trivia seemed a little boring on its face, so presentation was essential

(54:34) This one made Grian the most stressed due to all the moving parts involved in making it (coding and pathfinding mostly by Henkelmax, visuals by Hoffen, audio/music, questions)

(55:08) Trivia Bot's design was based on Grumbot and Mettaton from Undertale. Hoffen drew concept art shown in the video

(58:32) They show Trivia Bot's custom animation for becoming a snail and it's really cool

(59:12) The music was the most stressful part of the project. Grian spent 2-3 days looking through Epidemic Sounds for a Trivia Bot theme song and couldn't find anything good. He commissioned Zera @hopepetal for a theme song, which is played in the podcast. However, Grian realized he needed a full audio package, so he commissioned Oli late in development, who created the final soundtrack and many audio variations

(1:01:38) Grian wants to send appreciation for everyone who worked on the project, even if their work ultimately went unused

(1:02:58) Skizz was happy to give back however he could by staying on standby in the final episode as a zombie, as the players were able to "reap all the benefits" of the hard work of the development team

(1:05:21) Grian didn't know any of the trivia questions beforehand, which were done by fans of the series. The goal was for ~50% of the questions to be answered correctly, which was approximately met

(1:07:11) Players couldn't get questions about themselves because it would be too easy. This would encourage players to leave their bot, allowing other players to mess with them

(1:07:57) Grian felt a little left out from the discovery element of the wild cards, and decided to mess with Scar by hiding his bot. He wasn't expecting Scar to die from it, and could tell that he was genuinely a little upset by it. Grian felt bad about it, which led to a genuine in-game alliance between them

(1:12:32) Grian was very close to letting Trivia Bot give lives as rewards, but decided it would feel too cheap

(1:14:38) Mob swap was slightly toned down, with more camels and sniffers spawning

(1:15:07) Evokers didn't drop totems anymore. Instead, there was a minuscule chance a warden or wither would spawn, which would drop a totem if killed. Grian was a little disappointed that the warden got cheesed in the end

(1:17:45) Having the mobs start passive and turn hostile was mostly for the presentation, building anticipation, and so players could predict where mobs would spawn and react accordingly, making things feel less unfair

(1:20:32) There was no superpower made for Skizz (or Mumbo presumably)

(1:20:38) The superpowers were another late addition. There was a large design doc where Grian created all the powers, which were handed over to Henkelmax and completed over 4 days

(1:21:42) Grian avoided superpowers involving strength, that could cause someone to die easily. Most of the powers were social or movement-based, which couldn't be used for offence as easily

(1:22:25) Some powers were randomly assigned, others weren't. Impulse's was random. Cleo's, Bigb's, Lizzie's, Grian's were assigned.

(1:24:25) Grian gave himself the mimic because it could easily backfire (like in Grian's fall damage death), and because it would've been confusing for a player who wasn't aware of the other powers. They likely would've spent the episode just figuring out how everything worked and not actually using the power to its best ability

Lots of discussion about the superpowers and how they interacted in the episode itself, go watch if you're interested :)

(1:33:38) Talk on how the series "standard" rules evolved since 3rd Life. There was no keep inventory, and no restrictions on enchanting levels or potions, which created slow or unbalanced fights

(1:36:23) 3rd Life was designed to be an experimental series, which made Grian eager to improve it. For example, some people just weren't dying in 3L, leading to the boogeyman in LL, and so on

(1:37:17) The goal with the seasons isn't to one-up the previous one, but to create a different experience every time, which keeps things engaging for the creators

(1:38:31) At the end of each session, Grian would ask the group if they had fun and how they felt about the wild cards. According the Skizz, the answer was "a resounding yes"

(1:39:08) Grian had moments throughout the season where he personally felt like things didn't go well for him, and was anxious for the rest of the group's episodes. Things worked out while editing the raw footage, though. His issues were never with the wild cards themselves, but his own actions (traps not working, spending too long branch mining), but would always find funny moments in his footage

(1:43:41) Everyone in the Life Series cast genuinely likes and genuinely respects everybody else in the group. This allows them to make the show and get mad at each other, because they know it's all just in-character

(1:44:50) It'd be hard to top Wild Life in spectacle, and Grian doesn't want to start an arms race with himself. The next season could potentially be closer to 3rd Life, but Grian's not sure yet. For Grian, Wild Life was the most enjoyable

(1:45:20) Grian: "As long as people keep enjoying [the Life Series] then I'd love to keep doing it"

(1:49:35) With the finale, Grian knew how the wild cards played out the previous sessions and was able to adjust them

(1:49:56) Grian's goal was to create safe chaos where everyone knew what was happening and wouldn't die to them, which didn't go entirely to plan. The snails were 60% of their original speed and people still died

(1:51:03) Grian made a precise timeline of when each wild card would start/stop, it wasn't randomized.

(1:54:16) All the superpowers were randomized, with Bdubs' power being removed from circulation because it didn't have much use in a finale setting

(1:56:10) It was important for Grian that in the final moments, the wild cards were removed, so there were no interruptions. The timing worked out well because there were a few people left and it ended within ~10 minutes (this implies that the change wasn't based on # of players alive, as people had speculated based on Gem's death)

(1:58:48) The players all randomly switched to zombie skins throughout the session to mess with people on NameMC. Well-played :)

[dandelionsresilience]

whether the internet becomes an intolerable surveillance state, ubiquitous subscription model, or unusably ad- or AI-ridden shithole, I think we need to remember

how to do things offline

either on your personal hard drive (just because it’s an app doesn’t mean the information is stored in your device) or on paper. I’m not saying the collapse of the internet is imminent, and I’m not suggesting we do everything completely without technology, or even stop using it until we have to. (to be clear, I also don’t think the internet will just blink out of existence, suddenly stop being a thing at all; rather I think it might continue to lose its usefulness to the point where it’s impossible to get anything done. anyway) but some people may have forgotten how we got by before the internet (I almost have!), and the younger generation might not have experienced it at all.

I figure most people probably use the internet mainly for communication with friends and family, entertainment and creation (eg. writing), and looking up how to do things, so here’s how to do those things offline:

First and most importantly, download everything important to you onto at least one hard drive and at least one flashdrive! files can get corrupted and hardware can get damaged or lost, but as long as you keep backup copies, you have much-closer-to-guaranteed access versus hoping a business doesn’t decide to paywall, purge, or otherwise revoke your access. I would recommend getting irreplaceable photos printed as well

download and/or print/write down:

anything important to you - photos/videos, journals, certificates, college transcripts

contact info - phone numbers and/or addresses of friends/family (know how to contact them if you can’t use your favourite messaging app), doctors (open hours would be good too), veterinarians if you have pets, and work

how-to’s - recipes (one, two), emergency preparedness (what do I do if… eg. I smell gas)

other things you might google: cleaning chemicals to NOT mix, what laundry tag symbols mean, people food dogs and cats can and can’t eat, plant toxicity to pets

and know offline ways to find things out - local radio station, newspaper, a nearby highway rest area might have a region map, public libraries usually have a bunch of resources

also, those of you who get periods should strongly consider not using period tracking apps! here’s how to track your period manually

free printable period tracker templates (no printer? public libraries usually charge a few cents per page, or you can recreate it by hand)

moving on to entertainment, you can still get most media for free! it’s completely legal to download your favourite movies to your own personal hard drive, you just can’t sell or distribute copies (not legal advice)

movies: wcostream.tv (right click the player) - the url changes every once in a while but usually redirects; I recently noticed that it’s hiding a lot of movies behind “premium,” so it may or may not work anymore | download youtube videos

music: how to get music without streaming it | legal free downloads

games: steamunlocked.net - doesn’t have every game and can be slow to update, but very reliable

books: free online libraries | legal free downloads

otherwise passing time:

active outdoor games

for road trips (social verbal games)

for when power’s out

for sheltering in place (not all offline, but good ideas)

board games (often found at thrift stores)

ad-free customisable games collection (mobile)

read, write, draw, or whatever your craft is, sing, dance, clean, reorganise, take a bath

go outside - excuses include napping (if safe), eating, reading, finding cool plants/animals/rocks, playing with the dog

places to go include:

zoos and museums can be surprisingly cheap

parks and nature preserves

library, mall, or game shop

and a few miscellaneous things for good measure:

time budgeting | household management

how to use a planner | I’ve had success with visually blocked-out schedules like these

please add on if you have any other offline alternatives to common uses of the internet!

[shadesofmauve]

Alliance Normandy SR2 interior redesign: Introduction

The Normandy is a sexy sexy spaceship, but the interior we see is defined by game play: corridors are extremely wide so Shepard doesn't get stuck on the scenery, the crew is sparse because animating crew members takes resources and NPCs are also obstacles Shepard could get stuck on, you need larger spaces for camera angles, etc.

I wanted to see if I could redesign the space to fit a crew of 70–90... ...and I got carried away.

This post covers the rules I set myself and the basic process. Each deck will get a separate post (check back for links):

Intro

Loft

Command deck

Crew deck

Engineering deck

Hangar deck

Design rules

Keep major elements in basically the same places. This is the Normandy as she exists in my fic Sunset & Evening Star, and readers shouldn't have to study a floorplan!

Use only space that's 'available' in the game. If we can access it as the player, it's fair game. If it's a mysterious void in-game, I assume it's full of Important Spaceship Parts and the only access is for ship maintenance.

The elevator shaft is vertical. No Willy Wonka/ST turbo lift shit.

*There are inertial dampeners; if there weren't none of this would work. But as an author I like to imagine that any system can be overloaded.

Step one: Align & scale the deck maps

I aligned the deck maps around the elevator, the only element that shows up on every one. Each is shown at a different scale, so I eyeballed their relationship based on furniture, which is the only thing required to have a relatively consistent size. This is a big assumption; game designers resize whatever they need to! Shepard's bed, for instance, has pillows about a meter square. Presumably they needed room to made the pixel dolls have sex. Shepard's bed can therefore not be trusted, and to a lesser extent neither can anything else.

(There are also floor panels that look a lot like standard 4'x8' construction sheet stock, but A) developers can re-size those as needed without the player noticing, and B) If we're still using imperial units to construct spaceships in 2184 I hope the reapers eat us.**)

**...that said, I used a scale of 1px:2ft to draw this. I'm so sorry. I'm American and I've done construction, it's easy for me to visualize. (The scale was two inches to the pixel, if you're curious.)

Step two: Redesign over the existing space

This is where I saw how much I could fit in the space the game design allowed (given my guesses on scale). Y'know, the fun bit that I thought I'd be spending most of my time doing!

(I was so wrong).

Redesign goals

The Alliance refitted the Normandy for an Admiral. Admirals don't captain their own ships, so I needed to account for an Admiral and their staff as well as the captain and crew.

Align bunks fore-aft, so that the most common major inertial vectors* will hit sleeping crew in the least dangerous direction.

Plumbing should be stacked when possible. (I don't know spaceships but I know about plumbing columns. Glamorous!)

Step three: Adjust to the hull

One modeler figured the ship had to be ~370 meters long to fit the decks as-is, which would leave them using only ~20% of the length. One dev is quoted as saying she's 170m. Fan estimates comparing it with other ships suggest somewhere from 210–230 meters.

The hangar deck is the one*** place the interior aligns with the exterior for certain. The hangar needs to fit two kodiaks in the space between the bay door and the elevator, and each kodiak needs to fit 12 people plus the pilot. Additionally, as the lowest deck the hanger is limited in width by the inward curve of the hull (and that limit changes based on how low you go, which is why the drawing above includes a front elevation).

***Yes, we also see Joker piloting right up in the nose. This is impossible to achieve and also stupid, so I've elected to ignore it.

Sizing it to the smallest reasonable hangar — and after drawing a rather stubbier kodiak — I managed a 194 meter hull; ~217 if you include thrusters. At this size the liveable area takes up just over a third of the hull length. It's still an awful lot of nose, but that nose means 136 meters for the main gun, which for my purposes is still a rail gun (so size matters). Sadly it can't be a hull-length gun; it would run into first the elevator, and then the eezo core.

I did NOT pretend to figure out where the Make Spaceship Go parts are, or the Keep People Alive parts. There's a LOT of 'wasted' space; assume it's all in use and accessible through engineering access-ways, though how comfortable or safe they are is questionable.

———

Thanks to @swaps55 for the amazing high-res screenshots of the game maps, and to @faejilly and @sheepishwolfy for the long-ago talks about crew size that started all this!

[foodfightnovelization]

ROTTEN: Behind The Foodfight

Holy chips! It's an exciting time to be a Foodfight! fan, because ROTTEN: Behind The Foodfight is finally out! This really is THE definitive documentary on the insanity behind the movie, and it finally answers the question of just what was going on behind the scenes during production. Since I helped out with research (and I even get a short line of dialogue at 45:19) I've already seen everything that was shown off, but had to keep quiet until all the interviews were conducted and the documentary was finished. But now it's out and everything has been made public, the cat's out of the bag (the Fat Cat Burglar?) and I can talk about all the production material that's been shared.

Before I get into any of that though, I'd highly recommend you watch the documentary for yourself. It's insanely well researched and put together, and having worked together with Ziggy Cashmere (the documentary's creator) I know how hard he dedicated himself towards making this all possible. If it weren't for him, the most interesting Foodfight! discovery would've been finding the novelization, and we would have never gotten any real insight into how this movie came to be. It's also a documentary that really speaks for itself- I don't want to say too much about what it reveals since it's all expressed far better through its narrative and the interviews with people who actually worked on the project. My favorite is the interview with texture artist Mona Weiss- she tells such horrifying stories about how she was treated by Larry and other crewmembers, yet does it all with a sense of humor that makes it clear she's enjoying getting to talk about her crazy experiences. It's clear Foodfight! was an unmitigated disaster from start to finish, and there's nobody to blame for that but Larry Kasanoff himself. The movie was rotten from the top down and despite the countless talented animators and artists working on it, nothing could fix the fact that it was fundamentally mismanaged in the worst way possible. I think the quote from producer George Johnsen summarizes it best: "Foodfight! was a good idea that unfortunately lost its way during production. The technology, the art, and the direction were not in sync. Many very talented people gave their all to make the picture, but more understanding of process from the top was needed for it to succeed."

But if you saw the documentary, you already know all that, right? So instead, let's talk about the behind-the-scenes material that's finally been shared! You can find everything I'll talking about HERE on archive.org-

It's worth following the link and checking it out for yourself- there's so much it'd impossible to discuss everything. Artwork, storyboards, bloopers, models, a nude render of Lady X, an interview with Larry Kasanoff, the list goes on and it's still being updated! Despite the documentary already being out, people who worked on the movie are continuing to share new material! It's pretty incredible- for the past year I've ran this blog all I've really had to discuss are two tie-in books, and now there's so much Foodfight! material I can't even keep up with it.

I mean LOOK at all this, isn't it fantastic? The character art by Jim George showing off just how much better these designs originally were, the countless environments showing off just how stunning Marketropolis could've looked as well as the strength of the core idea "what if a supermarket came to life at night", and insanely detailed storyboards for a 7-minute pitch reel that was used to sell the movie to investors. Normally, I'd be ALL OVER this because it's all just incredible, but there's something far, FAR more fascinating than any of it.

There are even multiple drafts of the script (one from 2005 and one from 2007 respectively) and normally I'd be insanely fascinated by those too, making extremely detailed posts explaining the differences between the drafts and how they compare to the novelization, but there's something else that was found that blows ALL of this out of the water and is easily one of the most monumental lost media discoveries of ALL TIME.

That's right, a rough cut of the ENTIRE movie from 2005 has been found, containing nearly ALL the completed animation from earlier on in production. I mean, that's mindblowing right? We first got sent this around a month ago, a little while before the documentary came out, and I literally stopped everything I was doing at work to just sit and watch this. This is the closest we're ever going to get to the "original" version of Foodfight! after all- only 7 minutes of footage was ever actually made before they switched to mocap, made solely for the aforementioned pitch reel, and this workprint contains practically all of it! On top of that there are some great storyboards in here, as well as some truly hilarious ones cobbled together from 3D renders, and the plot is far better than what we ended up with, a lot of the more inappropriate jokes being absent. This rough cut is actually pretty similar to the novelization in that regard, and it also contains scenes that we'd previously only read about in there.

For example, in the novelization there's a snowmobile chase through the mountains, with Brand X soldiers on snowmobiles and a heavy avalanche close behind. This scene was completely left out of the movie itself, but in this workprint it's here! ALL the previously novelization-exclusive scenes are included, and this rough cut is seemingly based on an even earlier draft of the script than that- here Brand X are still defeated by a flood, whereas by the time of the novelization it'd been changed to a lightning storm. There are SO many exciting differences in this workprint, the snippets of original animation we get to see are SO good, and it's SO much better than the movie itself that I think it by far deserves the crown as the DEFINITIVE version of Foodfight! There's so much in it I want to discuss, that there's no way I can fit it all into this one post...so stay tuned, because in the next few days I'll be doing a FULL analysis of the 2005 workprint, pointing out all the extra brand mascots not in the finished film, and generally just gushing about how amazing it is.

I mean, this is it. Just take it all in for a second- the original footage was considered lost media for over a decade, and now it's practically been found in its entirety, embedded in an early cut of the whole movie...isn't that just phenomenal? All the mysteries have been unraveled, all the questions have been answered, and now we can relax, take a deep breath, and watch Foodfight!...the REAL Foodfight! Make sure to enjoy it, and join me next time for my analysis!

[giulliadella]

Speculative Biology of Euclydians (and Bill Cipher) part 2

Part 1, Part 3, Part 4, UPDATE, Part 5

So this part is what you've all been waiting for, it took so long, but you'll quickly understand why. This part is:

The Biology of Bill Cipher

As always, this analysis is based on two assumptions:

Before Bill Cipher became a demigod, he was a biological, living organism and so were the rest of his species.

Even after Bill Cipher became a demigod, he still retained some physical characteristics of his biological form.

And a fair content warning: This contains anatomy illustrations. This isn't anything gory, but there are people who are squeamish, so you've been warned.

Click on the images to get better quality!

And without further ado, let's begin.

External structures

Euclydians are animals with a very specific shape. They have a shell in a form of a geometric shape and four limbs. Bill is an equilateral triangle, so my analysis will be just on triangular Euclydeans.

They have bilateral symmetry. This type of symmetry is characterized by having a left and a right side placed like mirror images of each other. Humans and majority of Earth’s animals also have this feature.

Bilaterally symmetrical organisms usually have a distinct head region, because of a process known as cephalization. This process moves the animal’s brain and sensory organs towards one end of the body – the head. Euclydians have a head. It’s the “tip of the pyramid” on Bill and that’s where the eye and other sensory organs and brain are located.

Finally, Euclydeans are segmented. Their segments are clearly visible as those weird brick lines on their body. Bill also often separates his body into three segments. This is a part of his god powers, but it tells us that Euclydeans have three major body segments, I’ll call them the tip, the middle and the base. Each segment contains specific organs.

Euclydeans are invertebrates. And yes, I know this image exists, but this is just Bill’s trolling. He’s making fun of human classrooms where we often find skeleton models. That skeleton wouldn’t even be functional, because it doesn’t have any joints in arms and legs, so it wouldn’t be able to move. And it has a hole where the brain would be, so you know, the fucking brain would fall out.

It was outright stated that Bill has an exoskeleton. Having both external and internal skeleton would be a big waste because you have two systems that do the same thing. Besides, the way Bill's limbs move is much more similar to an invertebrate. His shell is also somewhat bendable which would not be possible if it was made of bone. And the eye-mouth complex that Bill uses to eat would also be completely impossible with a set of vertebrate jaws.

Euclydean shell (or exoskeleton) is nothing like anything here on Earth. It’s most likely made out of silica combined with proteins. I say this because Bill turned to stone when he died and he also likes to eat glass, which is pure silica.

The exoskeleton is made out of several parts. It has a front (ventral) and back (dorsal) part. Both the front and the back part of the exoskeleton are made out of head region (the tip) and three layers of “bricks” which are just segments of the exoskeleton.

The front tip is probably made of more protein and elastic tissue than the back, because Bill has a very expressive “face”. This means that he also has quite complex facial muscles. The back of the head is probably the hardest part of the exoskeleton because it protects the brain. Bricks are in the middle since they have a very important role in speaking and breathing, but also allow the shell to bend.

Can Euclydeans change color, or is it just Bill Cipher using his god powers? Well, since he changes his color on instinct, I think they could! Bill can change color to black, yellow, red and blue. This means that he has a complex system of chromatophores – cells that contain little sacs full of pigment. When the sacs inflate, the body appears to be the color of the largest sac, whilst those deflated are invisible. Color changes depending on the pigments contained in inflated sacs. In Bill, the pigments are red, blue and yellow. Yellow is the standard color, it signifies neutral or content emotional state. He turns red when he's angry or wants to look intimidating and blue might signify fear, despair and cry for help. Black is the color of Euclydean’s skin, so when they look black, it’s because all pigment sacs have deflated and the transparent shell allows us to see the skin underneath.

And yes, Euclydeans have black skin. I know some people say that Bill wears thigh high boots and long gloves, but to me, that doesn’t make any sense. Like, that image of him in Theraprism is showing him with clothes over his supposed gloves and boots. Why would they make him wear sneakers over boots? And why baby Bill has yellow hands? Well, that’s something I’ll tell you in the next part where I’ll talk about babies.

Anyways, the skin is black, but we have no idea what it feels like. Seriously, so many people shook hands with Bill and nobody wrote down how his skin feels like! But we know that he has fingerprints. That means that he has very sensitive fingertips and that those little paws were made for grabbing things. Also, Bill doesn’t have any growths on his skin: no nails, hairs, scales etc. I know a lot of people love to draw Bill with claws, but he doesn’t have claws, not even in his most eldritch form. His fingers always remain small and soft. The legs have no fingers and the skin of the sole of their feet is probably thick.

Internal Structures

Coelom

Coelom is one of the most important organs, that you probably don’t know you even have! It’s a fluid filled cavity whose role is to separate internal organs from the muscles of the body wall. This allows organs to move and grow independently of your muscles and it also protects and cushions them against impact. In humans coelom is complex and it’s made out of pericardial cavity (around the heart – allows heart to pump blood), pleural cavity (around lungs – allows lungs to expand while breathing) and peritoneal cavity (around digestive system – allows for expansion and movement of digestive organs).

I believe that Euclydeans also have some form of a coelom. Coelom is even more important in invertebrates, as that’s where their immune system is and it can also serve as a supportive hydroskeleton. Since Euclydeans have a hard shell, they need the protection around their organs. Every shelled animal on Earth has coelom for that reason. They also need room for the food they eat, since the shell can’t expand and their limbs can enter the shell, so they need room for that too.

2. Nervous system

Euclydeans have a vast range of emotions, capability to communicate using speech, body language and even color shifting. They are as intelligent, or more intelligent than humans. They have a highly developed eye and other senses and all of this requires a nervous system. We saw Bill’s optic nerve when his eye got pulled out during Weirdmageddon, so he does have a nervous system, but I can't tell you how exactly it looks like.

There’s one part of Bill that I bet is similar to human - it’s his brain. Bill claims that he can take control over any being a long as they have neurons. This is his god like power, but then, why just beings with neurons? Well, most likely, because he has neurons too and kind of understands how they work. Maybe his brain even produces similar neurotransmitters as ours, so we’re easy to control with them. The brain is in the tip of the pyramid, slightly above eye and it likely has a lot of neurons and a very complex structure. I can’t tell you how exactly is his brain organized, but since he's bilaterally symmetrical, it’s very likely that it has hemispheres. He likely also has two neural cords, like most invertebrates, and those run down the dorsal (back) side of his body

3. Senses

Euclydeans have camera lens type eyes. Now here I can only speak of Bill, since we haven’t seen any other Euclydian. Bill’s eye is large, placed in the center of his “face”. It has eyelids with “eyelashes” (more on them later) and produces tears (Bill cries after his break up with Ford). The pupil is slit and vertical and there is no iris. However, there are muscles that can change the shape and dilation of the pupil. The eye looks similar enough to human that I can confidently say that he has cornea, lens and sclera. The eye is filled with refractory fluid and has some form of retina in the back. Bill’s eye changing color and being used as a projector or to shoot lasers are all parts of his god powers, however, it is possible that his species has a tapetum lucidum, a reflective layer of cells which help animals see in low light conditions and also makes the eye glow in the dark. Bill has color vision and he claims that he can see every part of the electromagnetic spectrum, but I think that's a part of his god powers. However, Euclydeans definitely could see in color, since their alphabet was basically a color code and they also use colors to express emotion.

Since Bill has fingerprints, we can confidently say that his fingers are the most sensitive part of his skin. Bill can feel through his shell too, just like every shelled organism ever (that's why he used Ford as a backscratcher). Tactile senses are very primitive, so Eucliydeans could feel cold, heat, pain, pressure, vibration and everything else just like we do.

Bill has a sense of smell and he even says which scents he finds attractive. This could mean that sense of smell plays a big role in reproduction of Euclydeans, but where is it located? Well, on the eyelashes. Except, those are not eyelashes, they are antennae. Bill has total eight of these antennae, 4 on lower and 4 on upper eyelid. They are very soft and sensitive, so he can retract them inside the eyelid. He does that when he feels threatened, so it’s probably a fight or flight response. His lashes get longer and he flutters his eyelid more near Ford, probably because he enjoys his smell. They are also located close to the mouth, so that’s how he samples the scents of the food.

Euclydeans have great hearing. They communicate vocally, sing, Bill can play the piano, so obviously, they hear. But I have no idea what they use to hear. It could be the bow tie, since it does look vaguely ear shaped, but it's possible that the bow tie isn't actually an organ. In that case, they could have an unknown structure inside them or they could just use their thin exoskeleton to catch sound vibrations.

They taste using their long tongue.

4. Muscles and movement

We have seen Bill’s muscles and they are striated skeletal muscles like mammals and insects have.

As the shell is kind of bendy, there is a lot of muscles underneath it. Those are the muscles of the body, they also move the face and bricks while speaking. The limbs have muscles too and two kinds at that.

When Ford shoots through Bill’s hat (which also a part of him) it is shown that inside of it are strange bone-like structures. These are not bones, since they aren’t articulated, but muscles do connect to them. They kind of remind me of echinoderm ossicles, but they don’t really look like them. This is another fully alien structure and I’ll call them anchors.

You know how Bill’s limbs can both bend just like human arms and legs, like he has elbows, wrists, knees and ankles, but they also bend like goofy rubber-hose cartoon anatomy? Well, that’s because there are two types of muscles in them. There are muscles attached to the anchor points and subcutaneous muscles.

Anchor points are located in the same places as joints in humans. Muscles that attach to them are long and strong and they are used for regulated, precise movement. The subcutaneous muscles (the one we see in his Weirdmageddon image) are used to bend the limbs in every other manner. They are not attached to anchors, but to the skin, so they resemble muscles of octopus arms. They are shorter and less strong, but when they act together they move the limbs in coils. These muscles are also responsible for squishing the limbs inside the shell when they are hidden.

Bill has incredible control and dexterity of his muscles, especially in arms and fingers. Even though his paws are soft and small, he can use them pretty much as efficiently as humans use their hands.

Possibly the strongest muscles in Bill's body are his jaw muscles, so let's talk about those jaws.

5. Eye-mouth complex and the digestive system

Having your eye used for feeding seems wild to us, but this adaptation is seemingly common in fictional geometric shaped people, as it has convergently evolved in Flatland’s inhabitants as well. And, speak what you like, but Euclydeans can’t choke on their food, so they have it better than humans.

I don’t know what Flatlanders eat, but Euclydeans are definitely predators. Now, I know that Bill sometimes depicts himself with human like teeth. The guy has a thing for teeth, especially molars, but he doesn’t have mammalian teeth. In every image where he opens his mouth that was not made by him, we see that he has cone shaped sharp teeth, like a predator. These teeth are great for biting and subduing prey, but they suck at chewing. Euclydeans can’t chew, so they they feed by swallowing chunks that they bite off, or swallowing their food whole if it’s small enough.

Here I depicted how this “eye-mouth complex” functions:

Euclydeans have a stomach in the middle of their body, but I have no idea what goes after it. My best guess is that they have a branching intestine. Our flattest organisms (flatworms, sea stars and brittle stars) all have this type of intestine. It basically means that, instead of just going like a tube, the intestine branches into different parts of the body. I also have no idea whether they have an anus and if it’s just one. This is just something I can’t tell you.

Since Euclydeans are capable of eating a lot of various things, I expect that they have accessory digestive glands (that’s liver and pancreas in humans). Strangely, despite the fact that his anatomy indicates a predator, Bill likes eating starch (pasta, empanadas, sandwiches etc). Most carnivores are unable to digest starch, so I went with god powers, but he ate sandwiches when he was a kid and had no god powers. So, we have two options. Either Euclydeans are omnivores (which, with those teeth, I doubt) or the animals on their planet store their excess calories as starch, not fat, so predators evolved the ability to digest it. If the second one is true, then Bill eating pasta is like your cat eating pure butter. It’s probably not healthy for him, but I don’t think he’s a guy who would give a single crap about that.

6. Breathing and speaking

In The Book of Bill, Bill says that “dumb trapezoids and rhombuses were sucking up his rightful oxygen”. This means that Euclydeans are aerobic organisms – they breathe oxygen. Their skin is dry, so they don't use it for breathing and they also speak, laugh and sing. All of this tells me that they have lungs.

I believe that their lungs are located near the base where the bricks are. The gaps between bricks have little tracheae that lead to the lungs. Bill most likely breathes in from his back side and breathes out from the front. The air is probably forced to travel through small crevices inside the lungs so that it can exchange the oxygen with blood. We don’t know whether Euclydeans exhale carbon dioxide, but they probably do, since they can eat our food, so they probably have similar metabolism to us Earthlings.

Since Euclydeans can speak and laugh, they probably have some kind of a diaphragm. In fact, I think they have two! Their voice has an echo, which means that, most likely, their lungs don’t always expel air at the same time. Air expelling causes the bricks to vibrate which produces sound. That’s why Bill seems to glow when he speaks – he’s actually vibrating. This action is also controlled by muscles. Depending on which row of bricks is vibrating and how many of them are involved, Bill changes the pitch and tone of his voice.

And the growling noise? Well, when Bill uses his demonic voice, he is doing one of two things. He is either using his god like powers to modify his voice, or that’s just how Euclydian vocal fry sounds. If you don’t know what vocal fry is, it’s produced when the vocal chords are vibrating slowly and they become out of sync. This produces a very specific sound and that sound can be made voluntarily. That’s how Mongolian throat singing works. Similarly, Euclydeans could slow down the rate at which their bricks vibrate and make them out of sync to produce that menacing “demon voice” as a threat display.

7. Circulatory system

We know how Euclydean blood looks like. It’s silvery and kind of seems like it glitches. It also contain chemicals that can make humans sick. This means that Euclydeans have much different blood from animals on Earth, but it certainly serves the same function. It’s used to transport nutrients and oxygen through their body.

Since the agents from The Book of Bill were able to draw his blood, it’s clear that Bill has a circulatory system and a closed one at that. The closed circulatory system means that blood vessels end in capillary nets and don’t open inside the body cavity like they do in molluscs and insects. If the agents used syringe to pull Bill’s blood and he had an open circulatory system, they could actually collapse the entire thing as they would pull his organs as well. That’s why I believe that he has a closed circulatory system.

Closed circulatory system requires a heart and I believe that Bill’s heart is located between his lungs, like ours. I have no proof that his heart looked anything like in the illustration, but I looove cardiology, so I did all this just because I wanted to draw a weird heart. I don’t think Euclydeans have a super complex four chambered heart like we do, they most likely have two or three chambered heart. The heart separates lung and body circulation and regulates their blood pressure.

The capillary nets are all located in important places: lungs where they exchange oxygen, intestines where they absorb nutrients and brain where they feed the neurons. Euclydeans have a rather large brain, so it probably uses most of their calories and oxygen.

8. Other systems

I can’t tell you anything abut Euclydean excretory system. I don’t know whether they produce urine or not, if they have kidneys, nephrocytes or something completely different. I genuinely have no idea.

They have to have an immune system because they are multicellular. Every single multicellular organism including sponges and plants has some form of an immune system. I believe Euclydeans have something similar to coelomocytes - a very common type of immune cells in invertebrates which reside in coelomatic cavity.

I'll talk about reproductive system in Part 3!

Are Euclydeans warm or cold-blooded?

This was a very tough one, because they could be both, but I am leaning more towards cold-blooded. They have very little muscle mass and heat is produced within the muscles via trembling or metabolic heat (heat released in various chemical reactions in the body). When an animal has very little muscle it isn’t used for that. Even mammals like sloths who have significantly reduced muscle mass become dependent on the surrounding temperature. Also, Euclydean flat shape can easily distribute heat they absorb, so they wouldn’t need to waste energy making their own. On top of that, Euclydeans don’t wear clothes, which can be a cultural thing, sure, but they could also not wear clothes because they need their skin exposed so that it could absorb heat.

Here's how Bill Cipher's complete inner anatomy looks like:

There, I hope you enjoyed this! I'll see you hopefully next week to tell you about Euclydean reproduction and development.

Thank you @ok1237 @unoriginal-starwalker and @chrystalitar for your support :D

(Also, I hid Ford Pines in one of the anatomy illustrations. Can you find him? Click on the images for better quality!)

[tanadrin]

"What I think is crazy/creepy is when individual cells of a multicellular organism mutate to become essentially a free-living organism"

...

""is Tasmanian Devil facial tumor disease a chordate and a mammal despite being essentially an infectious microbe?""

Could you talk more about this? It sounds biologically and philosophically interesting but I don't think I completely understand what you mean. What's the argument that the tumor disease could be considered a chodate & mammal?

in cladistics, new members of a clade inherit membership in every clade their progenitor species is a part of. even though the original synapsid is a reptile with some mammal-like anatomical features that evolved in the late carboniferous period, humans are members of the synapsid clade because we descended from that ur-synapsid. birds are dinosaurs because they descend from members of the clade dinosauria. there are good reasons to prefer this cladistic structure in many cases to the traditional "rank" structure of species/genus/family/order/etc, bc even when new members of a clade are genuinely innovative in some ways, they still often bear traits typical of the rest of their clade. no matter how diverse chordates get, they all still have spines, you know? and sometimes members of a clade may lose important features, like flightless birds, but they will still inevitably retain others. a purely feature-based analysis of the ostrich's anatomy might erroneously lead you to conclude they lack the critical bird feature "flight" and therefore are not birds, but this would obscure the (in this case dead obvious) evolutionary relationship, and evolution is so criticial to our undertanding of biology and natural history.

sure, this cladistic perspective leads to some apparently goofy stuff: while land animals are obviously not fish, all tetrapods (which includes snakes!) do descend from members of clades like the osteichthyes (bony fish), so if you are using "fish" as a cladistic classification, then humans are a kind of fish. but the real answer is that lots of classifications of life are simply paraphyletic--"fish" as a category excludes tetrapods, which is fine. you could argue that the colloquial meaning of the term "dinosaur" is paraphyletic and excludes birds, too, bc when people say "the dinosaurs went extinct 66 million years ago" they obviously aren't talking about chickens, which didn't exist then. this isn't a problem with cladistics, just with the fact that some common words do double duty with more specialized meaning in scientific vocabulary, you know?

but the model of clades where new clades have to be nested entirely within existing clades, genuinely does break down in a couple of places in the history of life. one example would be the emergence of eukaryotes. the eukaryote cell originates in the symbiosis of an anaerobic archaeon from the Heimdallarchaeia taxon with a member of the bacterial clade Rickettsiales. eukaryotes are not usually classified as a kind of archaeon; they are really very, very different from both their archaeal and bacterial progenitors, and two separate clades coming together to produce an offspring that inherits from both is not usually how evolution works.

HeLa cells and transmissible cancers in the wild don't violate the principles of cladistic structure in the same way, but they do raise really awkward questions. they break what are otherwise apparently a lot of one-way ratchets in evolution: single-celled to multicellular, undifferentiated tissues to more differentiated tissues, the preservation of at least some anatomical features in offshoot clades (ostriches don't fly but they still have beaks and feathers and spinal cords! they're still obviously amniotes, you know?). and yet despite being wildly, insanely different from their progenitor species, in a way not even the first eukaryotes were, the genome of these organisms is still very similar. like if you sequenced the genome of TDFTD it would be impossible to escape the conclusion that its closest living relative is the Tasmanian devil, and not some other single-celled pathogen. cladistically, it's a chordate and a mammal, if you grant it the status of organism. (and why shouldn't we? lots of organisms are obligate parasites.)

you could say, ok fine, chordate and mammal and amniote and any other classification implicated in this scenario is paraphyletic. i think that's a little unsatisfying. i think it's more honest to admit that the concept of clades and monophyletic groupings and all that just isn't well-equipped to handle some freaky biological edge cases, this one included. in the same way it's not well-equipped to deal with the emergence of eukaryotes, or whatever is going on with the evolutionary history of viruses/plasmids/retrotransposons. or for that matter the same way these concepts break down in situations of intense horizontal gene transfer, like what was probably the case with the common ancestral community of primitive cells. and much like black holes in astronomy, sometimes the most interesting stuff occurs in those contexts where very useful general models start to break down!

[olenvasynyt]

I know my fellow artists and creators have been frustrated with the rise of AI on Pinterest and Google.  Many of us find it difficult to serch for good references, tips, and general inspiration for art.  So I want to share my collection of good, free websites for artists, designers, film makers, and creators so we can create without ugly AI images staring in our faces 🙌

Sketchfab

An incredible source for references.  Has a huge collection of 3D animals, architecture, interior rooms, vehicles, food, objects, furniture, nature, memes, characters, etc etc etc. You can literally find several insanely detailed 3D models of the Notre Dame (this one is insane) Models can rotated at any angle as well as zoomed in and out.  You can also change the view of the model to be matcap with flat, colorless planes, wireframe, or base color as opposed to fully rendered.  

Cons: there are many uploads that are random and incredibly specific, which overwhelms the search.  Can be excellent for game designers who want to download models but for artists looking for drawing references, you might have to dig a bit for what you want.  Can be so fun for playing around and using crazy fun references for practicing.

Designspiration

As a photographer and graphic designer and someone who can doomscroll on pinterest forever, this is my favorite for finding inspiration for everything: typography, logos, product mockups, illustration, photography, web design, etc.  Has an amazing feature where you can search for art with specific hex codes!  Probably the coolest feature I’ve seen in search engines, and by far superior to google's color search. This site is mostly for design inspiration, but I feel like if you are super into moodboards, then this is the site for you too especially with the beautiful selection of photography.

Cons: I have no cons, I love this website so much and I used to be addicted to pinterest (still am actually😬) but this is easily my new favorite

Public Works by Cosmos 

Thousands of artworks enter the public domain every year, and this website is a search engine for other 100,000 of those copyright free works.  All of these works are free to edit, use, and sell with few restrictions.

Cons: I personally find the layout for the search feed a bit frustrating to look around in sometimes, because it’s not the typical "scroll up and down" website. But is very dynamic and overall fun to explore.

Same.energy 

This is a good visual search engine that’s a good replacement for Google images and Pinterest.  The minimal words makes it simple and easy, and clicking on an image you like to filter the feed to find similar images.

Cons: this is in beta so it still have some kinks to work out. It seems to struggle with specific searches and some of the images brought up in the search can be repetitive or not relevant.  

Reference Angle

A website for finding face references in any specific angle and any expression for any gender and age.

Cons: I would love this website more if it gave you the ability to customize the light source, but sadly is not an option.  I also feel like there is not a lot of racial diversity in the photos, and some of the images do not match the specific angle. But it is overall a great source for face references

Virtual Lighting Studio by zvork

A good source for light studies.  You can change the source, direction, color, and brightness as well stacking several light sources on top of each other.  

Cons: there isn’t a way to angle the face or change the expression, so it is permanently in portrait mode.  There are four different models and I’m not the biggest fan of some of them…I like the black guy the best because he looks at me kindly instead staring into my soul like the two white guys. The ads are also a bit obnoxious and for the love of god DO NOT USE IN MOBILE!!!  The ads are impossible to get rid of.

Film Grab

An archive of stills from a huge list of movies.  Good for film makers, photographers, art studies, moodboards, inspiration, etc. Has a huge selection of movies and you can search by movie, director, costume designer, aspect ratio, year, genre, and country. You can also hit random post and it'll give you a random movie, which I think is really fun.

Cons: I do not recommend mobile. The mobile does not have the option to search for a specific movie, so you're forced to scroll through the giant A-Z list of directors or films to find the specific film you were looking for.  Another con that I just discovered: a big-ass ad on the top of the website that occasionally advertises AI websites 🤢 (not shown on the screenshots I shared because ew)

Unsplash

Another image search website that has the feeling of Pinterest

Cons: some images are locked for premium only, and the feed is a bit frustrating to scroll through on mobile since they show the images one at a time instead of as a nice collage like pinterest.  Some images can also be irrelevant to the search.

Sending lots of love to my fellow artists and creative peeps out there. AI sucks and it feels like it's overwhelming the creative space. But I promise there is a way to avoid it! Keep creating 💕

[toa-archive]

Nari Design Path

We're now on the final of the trio and we're finishing up with Nari! Part of the reason she's last is there is So Much and given smacked straight into the image limit it was the right call. Think she is also a great reminder that there is no "central hub" for finding information scattered across multiple artists with some being lost over time. The only place that is anything like that is the Dreamworks vault, all this is by one dedicated person who despite doing their best can still miss things.

As ever with these it is far from impossible something else will belatedly turn up. Should this occur, wherever it is added will have a [/edit xx/xx/xxxx] which includes a date marker. Just makes it easier to find the “new” thing :)

Much like with Skrael opening with these guys again if for flow reasons this time round. Francisco Ruiz Velasco had his own stab at a bunch of wizards which are nigh impossible to pin down if it was for any of the Arcane Trio specifically or not. This one will very understandably appear in all three as there could well be a Nari potential here for all we know.

Source goes to Linkedin so may require an account.

Next up is Yingjue Chen's initial forest wizard concepts which you may recognise from the Bellroc thread. We've even got some deer ankles going!

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Her next iteration is Nari as we know her for the most part if more "adult" in appearance, longer hair, possible deer ankles and lots of veils.

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The "adult" Nari has popped up one other time namely through Francisco Ruiz Velasco doing his own exploration of the nature wizard and funky magic vines.

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After this it was decided to make Nari "younger" and more childlike in stature though at this point still keeping everything else about her design. Fandom has generally fallen into two camps as either seeing her as a literal child sharing a weird spot with Skrael there or as a small adult. This is in part why the quotation marks are being used. Next to her here is the nature wizard design recast as Bellroc before they went off to a different artist. This is Yingjue Chen again!

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For some reason have the left image entirely on its own and not entirely sure why. Anyway.

On the right is more veil tests that were tried out until it was decided it would be cost prohibitive, a common reason for cape loss in animation. Her hair was shrunk into the snazzy braid for the same reason. Her design would have further tweaks before settling, notably in the legs and how the leaf plates fit together if you compare the above and the below.

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After this we have Nari's paint over a Leo Sanchez Studios model complete with callouts! Thinks ended up being tweaked a little bit more which really shows how iterative the process of concept to final design can be. Bonus is good reference particularly for that braid.

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This is the point where you will see some creative work arounds for the image limit. Prior to his website being changed, Ivan Gozali had a bunch of sketches, some Bellroc sketches and a Jilaire beatboard. The Nari ones are still accessible through instagram if small. These are a smidge bigger though have been grouped into twos because of aforementioned limit.

He does mention a very interesting tidbit however:

Some character studies of Nari. Early in production we didn’t have much to go on. There were several design iterations, we even had several name changes. I was never much of a “concept” artist so please excuse with these off-proportion drawings. I always find joy exploring character behaviours and attitude.

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In addition there was this little animation which is on both instagram and on his tumblr. There he says:

Nari character from Wizards, inspired by a ‘feral boy’ character from Road Warrior, which was a good jumping point, but I’m mostly inspired by @glenkeaneprd Tarzan test.

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Also by one of the storyboarders we have this series of art by Bianca Siercke. Completely non-canon these were part of figuring out her character and no doubt helped the boarders figure her out best for drawing as well.

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This can of course also mean rock fists. Specifically in this case to quote:

"Nari playful personality was especially fun because of how it might effect her fighting style". "This was one of the explorations I did to figure out what kind of magic she might use".

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"This was an exploration of how Nari's magic might change depending on her mood".

Given she can use plants like a telephone according to Aaron, murder hands seem fair even if they were just part of figuring her out.

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"These were explorations trying to find Nari's personality and magic ideas. They're non canon".

This is the last one! Ironically enough the seeds did come back in a sense in the form of her potted plant in Rise of the Titans.

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Decided to add a trio of bonuses just for fun. You might have noticed the Order pops up in the Wizards credits sequence though unlike Trollhunters and 3Below, it is not Headless Studios. They were drawn in a similar way though! They are by Alison Donato.

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Now firmly onto RotT related artwork, these various disguises for Nari are by Betsy Bauer painted over Yingjue Chen's original! Should you so desire you can have chav Nari in your works and point to this as to why.

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Thanks to Andy Murray we have a paint and orthographic turnaround of the chosen Nari in a giant beanie. Gives a good look at the t-posing model as well should you need it.

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This is also a great excuse to yet again break out Francisco Ruiz Velasco's Order band poster again! Some imagery shenaniganry was done purely to ensure this got in here again.

Source goes to Linkedin so may require an account.

Returning to Yingjue Chen a moment, Nari's staff! This and Alison Donato's credits paintings are the only currently known artwork of it. It might not have been used much but she does very much have a stick just like the others.

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In the previous two design paths this is about when the Art of Wizards panel gets pointed to with the really tiny screenshot. In a unique twist to Nari and as a boon when smacked into the image limit, we have the full-sized versions of the very art shown there!

Next to the very tiny Nari is the left most vine.

And beside it is both the "flame" and the beam that will be used to bass boost the Heart of Avalon specifically. The below was originally on Betsy Bauer's website though is no longer available. Why things are saved off :)

Do you recall the green butterflies/moths Nari seemingly produced out of nowhere while at Hex Tech? Well thanks to Isaac Orloff we have their orthographic and their glowy effects!

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Moving onto the RotT spell front, when Betsy Bauer revamped her website it came with some brand new art we hadn't seen previously. Not only does it show her potted plant unfurling and name it as a passion flower, there's an additional view of Nari in her "Fish fear me" hat.

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We have that same flower exploding into a massive vine. Even has a callout specifically to Betsy Bauer's spell effects which is neat! This one is by Sean Wang.

Returning to Andy Murray a moment, we have the glow up eye effect for Nari. While not shown here for image limit reasons, the mind swap between Douxie and Nari effects plus the ripping him outta there is on the same sheet. The one below, which is purely Titan related has been cropped for fitting this post reasons only.

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This is the Arcane Circle for Nari which is shown on the Earth Titan. The Genesis Seal marker is on the same row as Bellroc so is not shown here. As above it has been cropped for fitting this post reasons only. This time they are once again by Sean Wang.

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Sean Wang also has this on her website showing additional effects and the rune usage on Nari specifically. The artwork on the left is from one of Alfonso Blaas' colour keys which shows the Genesis Seals being opened.

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Nearly there now! While mentioned earlier and to fit with the format of the other two posts, one of Nari's in development names was Ilnara which we found out thanks to Bianca Siercke.

To close up on a fun note, Yingjue Chen has a headcanon of "adult" Nari having Excalibur which Schildwand went and cosplayed!

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With the trio now complete, all the link hops between now work! When this is uploaded please allow chance for the links to Nari to be updated on the other posts.

Bellroc - Nari - Skrael

[kathegoose]

the compane i think

lineup of every (at least somewhat) biological entity (aside from earth leviathan) in lethal company!!!

again, non-VHS version under cut with some wacko headcanons and allat!

WOOHOO!!!!!!! so here are my extra headcanons and other minor changes because i am allowed to ramble about my art if i want to👍👍 (Those without any HC dumps here are pretty much as they are already, nothing to talk about them!)

Tiny bugs: the locust, bee and wasp are made to faintly resemble their real life counterparts aside from the reused fly model as in the game.

Manticoil: i will get either praised or executed for this but i made the extra wings.... leg wings. like a microraptor. but it does come with a reason, yes! it is practically impossible to evolve a new pair of limbs, it's either remove or change existing parts when it comes to evolution, and the manticoils are just evolved corvids in canon!

Hoarding bug: made to resemble hymenoptera more, as they are - again - canonically in this order of real life animal :]

Spore lizard: back scutes and more toes added to, you guessed it; resemble their earth relatives (in this case alligators) more.

Bunker spider: spider pitter patter feet :D

Thumper: more earth-relative (chondrichthyes) resemblance, especially the mouth is more shark-like.

Baboon hawk: earth thing again and also made the 'wings' the brightest, since i believe they pose no other purpose than social display.

Bracken: i've been WAITING to talk about my brackens' symmetrical, two-thumbed hands. PERFECT (i think?) for grabbing a victim's head to do a little snappin'. also the claws are just on the hands to really make sure they have a firm grip, and not on the padded, almost mitten-like feet for silent sneaking! (even though they are usually quadrupedal)

Eyeless dog: okay fellas but... that's no actual mammal (as we know) i think. the in-game head shape is too ridiculous to have evolved from anything and the class saeptivus doesn't even exist! what i think is a re-evolving of mammals at play, say.. synapsida 2.0 perhaps. so i took creative liberties and made the dog a taaaad bit more fish-like with a line of sensory pits on their sides kinda like a fish's lateral line. suits the blind critter :]

Nutcracker: some little paint job changes and added some hinge doohickeys to accentuate the mechanical properties of the nutcracker itself that the meaty-eye-hermit-thing is operating.

Jester: i am simply here to say that i would like to bite a chunk off of the jester's meat gluppo.

Forest keeper: ok so there is the cool octopus-style beak yeah and i gave it tiiiiny little silly pinky-thumbs as they're probably canonically related to the brackens but MY GOD!!!!!!! I HATED COLOURING THAT THING!!! what colour is it even if I HAD TO FNAF 3 BLAST IT. that's how you know that i didn't like doing it sorry giant enjoyers i didn't enjoy colouring large jonathan (my fan name for them) :[

[emmetofthestars]

3D character commissions

these are rough prices for my 3d comms. i have not taken 3d comms before. note rough prices, these prices can change wildly depending on how simple or complex your character is.

iam comfortable with low to medium poly modeling, and likely wont go extremely high poly with any comm, regardless of payment. i do not work with subdivision modifiers. i have modeled mostly humanoids so far, digitigrades arent entirely out of the question but im not very experienced with furry models and animal anatomy, as a note.

i currently only use paypal. i would like payment upfront, but only after ive discussed the price with you and the details. ill explain any aspects that are unclear to you, if it impacts your decision making, e.g. if you dont know what the difference between two rig types is, i will explain to you what the differences are, and which option you might want, depending on your needs. because of all the layers of making a 3d character model, i will most likely have to work with you very closely for each added step. i will make sure to review with you before giving you the final product. if for any reason i realize i cannot finish the commission, i will refund immediately.

if i have to dismiss your commission (before payment) for other reasons i have the right to do so.

im not sure how many slots i will take, so for now i will say 5 slots.

because its hard to price 3d character models, the below prices refer only roughly to a humanoid type model. these prices do not account for characters which are chibi-like, have exaggerated proportions, or are simplistic in design.

ill use these two models as examples as a sort of way to guess how much you might need to pay (for a humanoid model)

model in a t pose (without anything else, no texture no rig): 20-30€

the first model has segmented limbs, the second has a continuous mesh (except for the head, which is a seperate object). the first model only has mittens for hands, and a thumb each, whereas the second has 4 seperate fingers and a thumb each.

because of the fact that the second model has actual fingers instead of mittens, and more modeled details like the collar, flared pants and sleeves, i would charge more for the second model.

+texturing: 10-30€

this can be difficult because i have more than one style of texturing. some of my methods are lazier while some are more standard. the lazier methods usually make it a little harder to edit the models textures in post, or might even eliminate the need for a proper texture, or simply have other advantages/disadvantages. most of the detail in the first model are simply painted in rather than modeled, to save on model complexity, whereas details in the second model are modeled in rather than textured in.

1# has traditional UVs and textures, whereas 2# has alot of broken up and stretched UVs, due to the fact that there is no noise in his textures, making it impossible to see seams even on a stretched UV. you can see how several UVs are layered on top of eachother, in order to make the suit's pinstripes without dedicating space to every single UV. this makes 2# harder to edit in post.

i would charge more for the first texture, as its painted and has more detail than the second, which is solely flat colors.

+weight painting (with a rigify rig, or a vrchat rig): 10-15€

1# has a vrchat rig which is perfect for porting into unity and uploading to vrchat, as the bones are all named according to the vrc armature naming conventions. this rig type is not as suitable for blender. 2# has a rigify rig, which has many useful features especially good for animation. it is very good for blender, but not for outside of it.

im not charging for a rigify rig or vrchat rig, as rigify is a rigging tool, and i have a vrchat rig preset, these both are free tools i wont charge for. im only charging for the time i spend setting these things up, and of course, im charging for the weight painting.

some extras would include things like shapekeys and drivers, for example shapekeys for visemes (lipsync in games like vrchat) like in the first image, expressions in the second image, and drivers for things like correcting elbow and knee bends (so they dont look as jagged), where i wouldnt say id make those very expensive, maybe 10 euros or less, but it all depends on complexity, and the amount of shapekeys needed.

props can also be included, though again this can vary wildly in complexity and amount, because it can range from a simple cylinder for a cigarette to a modeled gun or other weapons. this would however not be that expensive, except for props that are exceptionally detailed, you know how it is. higher complexity, higher price. something as simple as a cigarette or cig might even be free because its literally just a cylinder.

(also that first model of the minato is not ripped from the game, i modeled it with direct reference of the original minato model though. the model on the top is mine, the bottom is the model ripped from the game, just to make that clear haha)

at the end, i will provide you with the entire blend file as well as all the needed textures, and i will send you a simple turnaround/pose render for free. this can be a gif or a simple png. i will send it through email or through a drive link if needed.

in the end, you'll need to discuss with me about which character you want to commission, what your wishes are, so i can kind of gauge the price, as these are not precise prices.

dm me directly please, we can then continue discussing there.

here are some of my other 3d characters (mostly tf2 hehe)

^ this character belongs to @\straightyuri

^ this character belongs to @\averageludwig

[sparkylilacs]

All credits to this Wild Kratt AU to @elmushterri

Okay, so I feel very silly about this. While I have written fanfics/head cannons before and even shared them before. But this is just a kid show I used to watch with my little sister. A normal person would not spend a whole day at work thinking about how this doubly fictional story could play out. Yet as my sister would tell you all I have never been a normal person. At first I tried commenting on the YT video but there wasn’t enough space, so I deleted them because nobody can follow a chain of replies that was dumb.

And I am a firm believer if you are going to do something dumb at least do it right, so here we are. Without further ado my own little ideas for how a Wild Kratts AU could play out.

I was thinking I liked the idea of the Kratt brothers getting kidnapped by Zac. But for the outcomes why not have your cake and eat too.

Imagine Zac kidnaps both brothers and is experimenting on brainwashing them into helping him again. In fact the reason he hasn’t outright killed them is because deep down he misses the camaraderie and friendship they and Aviva gave him in college. Like maybe that was the first time he felt like he truly had friends. Growing up he was an intense kid, who perhaps always emanated a dangerous vibe around others since he really is a bit of a psycho. Driving others away from himself. Then in college he met the Kratts and Aviva who shared his passions and weren’t afraid of taking risks, until the stakes became too high and they turned on him just like everyone else.

Anyway, when Zac captured Martin and Chris, the latter’s current creature disk was damaged and during the brainwashing procedure Chris tries to activate his suit to break free, but instead it turns him into an inhuman beastly chimera of creatures. The beast starts wrecking the lab, overheating the brainwashing machine and inadvertently wiping all of Martin’s memory. 

I can picture this scene where Martin regains consciousness during the chaos mind blank and the beast stops in front of him. Their eyes lock, but neither brother can recognize the other. The beast lunges at Martin, but Zac’s bots stop it just in time. After containing the beast and realizing what he's done to Martin as well Zac decides to simply get rid of his guilt. But he is also quite terrified of the beast so as perhaps in his mind he is giving a piece of mercy as he permanently deactivates the power suit center in Martin's chest. If anyone could do it while keeping him alive it is Zac. Then he gives Martin to Donata to make into the model of her whims. Which includes an impressive prosthetic six pack (which will be important later).

Now the audience will not know any of this at first. How it would play out is at the end of say season two the rest of the Tortuga gang has after a few episodes finally tracked down Zac and demand the release of the brothers. Zac laughs at them and says coldly, “Wish I could, but that is impossible. They're dead,”. And in his mind he isn’t even lying since they aren’t Chris and Martin anymore.

Ultimate season ending cliffhanger material. So at the start of the next season the crew is trying to pull together to continue their mission, the Kratts would want it that way.

But Aviva is in denial, since that would mean facing her role in their deaths, like she has a massive conspiracy board in her lab and won't let anyone else in anxiety problems. Taking charge Koki decides they need a fresh start, her old acquaintance Donita Donata is unveiling a new fashion line with rumored live exotic animals. Using her old connections she gets herself and Aviva invited to a party at one of Donota’s mansions. 

At the party they see Martin, but he's barely recognizable. If not his looks then his mannerisms and attitude. Koki is not immediately convinced as Aviva is barely containing excitement. They have a quiet battle trying to prove Martin’s identity while not disturbing the party. At the end of the episode though Aviva gets over excited remembering the creature suit, it has to be under “Troy's” impeccably tailored tuxedo. How could it be removed? 

The astute of you see where this is going. 

Koki just fails to stop Aviva from tearing open Martin's shirt to reveal a normal if slightly too perfect chest. Pulling Aviva away Koki tries to cover by stammering out, “Well that's enough martinis for you, so sorry sir. Let's go,”.

Donata instead of blowing up as Koki expects, Donata loves drama and playing up a scene for attention, she utters her own apologies and hurriedly takes “Troy” away from them. 

Aviva is devastated, apologizing the whole time Koki guides her outside and believing maybe she has truly snapped. 

In the lavish gardens hidden behind a hedgerow Koki raises a hand to stop Aviva’s rambling. “You were right,” she says simply. “Wait what?” Aviva replies confused. Koki purses her lips then continues, “Look, I'm sorry for doubting you before, but I guess I didn't want to give in to false hopes. I kept telling myself things would just be worse for you when you finally realized Martin and Chris couldn't be found. But the way Donita hustled “Troy” away without making a scene of you undressing him-”. Aviva interrupts, “It was only his shirt!”. “Whatever, Donita was nervous, and when we were kids she never did nervous. She's hiding something and I believe you were right, that is Martin Kratt,”. “Then what are we waiting for, let's go get him,” Aviva nearly shouts, whipping around to head back into the party. “No!” Koki grabs Aviva’s arm.

“Why not? We've been searching for months! We thought they were dead, and he’s not. Martin is right there and we can save him,”. Aviva demands. “ Because that isn't Martin right now. They did something to him, and we need to know more before rushing in with guns blazing. We can't just take “Troy”, then we'd be kidnappers as well, no better than them. We will get Martin back, but we have to be careful,”. Koki explains.

Aviva takes a deep breath, “You're right, and if we take him now we might compromise any chance we have at finding Chris too,”.

“Exactly, now let's get back to the Tortuga. I have an idea how to get closer to this “Troy”,’.

The idea included cleaning up and shaving Jimmy so he could pose as a model for Donata’s new fashion show. Backstage at the show James blends in thanks to some coaching from Koki and he tries to talk to “Troy” James catches “Troy”  staring off into the distance distracted. “What are you thinking about?” James asks casually. “Troy” starts and tries to brush off the question,”Oh, nothing really, just pre-show shakes I guess,”. 

“I know what you mean,” James replies, “ I get terrible butterflies before any form of public speaking,”. “Troy” barks a weak laugh, “Yeah, it's just-” he hesitates but James doesn't interrupt. “Do you ever feel empty? Like something is missing but you can't quite put your finger on it?”. James looks thoughtful and says,” I think I might know what you mean, I keep thinking to myself, this isn't the real you is it, James?”. But the interaction is broken by the bustle of show preparations. 

Donata is very careful with her specially frozen creatures, they cannot be in warm air or the cryogenic balance is thrown off and the animals will die and rot, so they are kept in special locked ice chests until right before the model goes on are they to be worn. The whole theater is kept nearly frigid as well much to pretty much everyone’s annoyance. “Troy” is up next, his piece is pinned to his neck lapel. A small bee hummingbird, the tiniest bird in the world. It is not just any hummingbird though, it is the same hummingbird they saved from Gourmand in the first season. Watching the bird get pinned to his suit “Troy” finds himself being filled with an anger he can’t explain. 

Almost more a sensation than a memory of dipping and weaving through trees racing this bird on the wind fills his mind. He shakes his head because that’s impossible. Nobody can shrink to the size of a hummingbird and fly.  Still a sick feeling is taking him over, and he can barely resist the urge to tear the hummingbird from his neck and watch it fly away free.

The attendants notice his pale hue and ask if he’s alright, as if underwater he slowly shakes his head backing away from the entrance to the catwalk. An attendant yells for someone to get him water. Leaning heavily against a wall, more flashes of memories flick through his mind. It's just random pieces though, not enough to make sense of where he is or why. One thing he is certain of is that this is wrong. Donata comes over along with an assistant carrying a bottle of water. “What’s the matter, dear, getting some first time jitters? I know all the lights are daunting but please you were born to outshine them,” she actually seemed to be talking more to the hummingbird than to “Troy”. 

Ignoring the water, he gives Donata a quizzical look, “I thought I was a seasoned model. You said this show would be no different from the dozens of others I walked,”. She laughs nervously, “Simple slip of the tongue, I’m so busy tonight I hardly know what I’m saying. Deep breaths and you will be fine out there,”. “Are you sure this is right? These animals this isn’t really living is it?”he asks. “ I am making these animals something most people would kill to become. With my direction they are more than mere flesh and bone, they are famous immortals. Now go make me shine,” Donata replies snapping her fingers. Taking his arm and practically dragging him to the catwalk entrance she pushes him out onstage. Dazed “Troy” barely makes it down and back without tripping, hardly pausing for the photographers. 

Head still reeling he actually stops the attendant from removing the hummingbird when he comes offstage. “You shouldn’t keep Zippy in some box,” he says unthinkingly. “Well, if we don’t it loses all the magic so if you would just,” the attendant reaches for the collar. “No,” he steps back, “His magic is beating his wings 80 times per second and zipping 30 miles an hour free in the wild,”. The attendant huffs, “Well you should have thought of that before signing up for this job, just let me have the pin,”. Martin shakes his head, “Actually I’m not sure I did sign up for this,”. 

Then he dodges into the chaos backstage. Desperately searching the crowd though not quite sure for who Martin weaves through hairdressers, makeup artists and models. There he sees impossibly a familiar face, “Jimmy!”, he shouts. The red head freezes, he had been chatting casually with some fellow models, but he excuses himself and makes his way to Martin. “You called me Jimmy,” he states more than asks, “Why?”. “Because that’s your name?” Martin replies confused. “Yes, but I introduced myself as James. Are you the kind of person who just nicknames everybody or…” Jimmy pauses, hesitant to continue. “Jimmy, what happened to us? Why are we prancing around wearing animals and,” Martin’s face goes ashen, “Where are Chris, Koki, and Aviva?”.

Jimmy cracks a wide grin, “Welcome back to the land of the living, Martin. I really hated calling you Troy. Aviva and Koki are on the Tortuga, I came here to find you,”.

“To find me? And why would you call me Troy? I am so confused. The last thing I think I remember was flying with Zippy and Chris in Cuba. Wait, you just said Aviva and Koki, where’s Chris, is he here too?”. 

Jimmy’s smile drops, “Well we were really hoping you would remember that-“.

Their conversation is cut off by the attendant catching up to Martin with a burly security guard. “Sir, you are going to have to return the lapel pin before the specimen is damaged,” the guard barks. “Oh, uh silly me must have forgot I had it on,” Martin lets the attendant take back the pin and lock it in a freezer chest. Jimmy watches, shocked, though not for long. Martin turns back to Jimmy with a steel in his eyes. “You’ll have to catch me up later, first we are leaving this show, with every one of those chests,”.

“There’s the Martin I know. Aviva, Koki do you have any ideas how to get sixty freezer chests of various sizes out of a room full of people?” Jimmy says. “First off I want to say I am so glad to be able to breathe again, second Aviva will need a moment as she is I quote ‘not crying hysterically, but weeping tears of relief’. Does Martin still have his creature power suit? Surely there are plenty of animals to activate it there,” Koki replies over their ear pieces.

“That’s a great idea. Martin, is your creature power suit under that fake chest?” Jimmy asks. “I have a fake chest?” Martin gawks.

 “Okay, he still has a few gaps in his memory. Do you guys have a different plan?” Jimmy replies.

“I do,” Aviva says, finally not sobbing too hard to speak, “If you can load all the chests onto a couple of trolleys and you can still outrun the guards, then we could be waiting in the Tortuga cloaked at the edge of the cliff. It would look like you ran over the edge,”.

“I don’t love that plan, but it sounds like the best idea we have right now. Are you ready Martin?” Jimmy asks. Martin, who had been a little distracted poking at his chest, looks up and nods. “Let’s do this,” he grins.

After Martin and Jimmy burst from the show’s back door over the edge of a cliff, Donata makes a call to Zac. Who is not happy to hear it, but also not overly concerned yet. He’s never actually seen Jimmy, but is assuming the Tortuga team had somehow found Martin. Still he knows they will be limited since he deactivated Martin’s suit. Of course Donata is now seething at the loss of her entire new collection, but that’s for another day.

Back on the Tortuga is a tearful reunion. Aviva and Koki quickly figure out how to flush the animals of the cryogenic fluids and bring them back up to temperature without putting them in shock. While traveling to the animals' different locations Aviva asks Martin to open his shirt again so she can see if his creature power suit is still there.

As she inspects the neckline of the prosthetic chest for a seam Martin makes a light joke, “At least you asked this time, I was beginning to worry this was becoming a habit of yoOOOW!”. Aviva peels off the fake chest like a bandaid and it hurts like one too. “Why did you do that?” Martin nearly yells. “To find this, what!” Aviva reveals the black and blue of Martin’s power suit, but where the activation portal should be is just nothing. Completely smooth like it was never there. “How dare that vermin mess with my tech, Martin what happened to you and Chris?”.

Martin shakes his head, “ I d-don’t remember, like my head still feels like it was run through a blender. For example, what does any of this have to do with that emo guy from college? And why is your invention fused to my upper torso? But whatever happened to Chris I know we will rescue him. We’re brothers and I’m not letting anything stand in our way from finding my brother,”.

And so eventually as Martin’s memories come back in bits and pieces he will recall the moment when he locked eyes with the beast and he realizes it was Chris. Also Aviva will be hesitant to try and restore Martin’s creature power suit since it is after all still keeping him alive and she doesn’t want to ruin that. So when they do find the beast it’s like the brothers have opposite problems, one stuck as an animal and the other unable to become one. But finding Chris will definitely be harder and drag out until the season finale.

And as a super silly bonus some doodles I did…

The image of Aviva snapping that has been living rent free in my head for days and a sketch of sharp Jimmy very unhappy to be stuck in a monkey suit.

[gladionfan]

i see a lot of people getting confused over gladion’s age and height. people are always asking me so here is my analysis post & my conclusions based on the canon evidence.

both protagonists, sun and moon, are confirmed to be 150 cm in the concept art books. we can compare this to gladion’s height in his model.

gladion’s model is about 165 cm, which lines up with him compared to the protagonist. silvally also has a canonical height of 230 cm and we are given this very helpful gladion to silvally height chart

comparing gladion and silvally, assuming the top of silvally’s crest is the end of its height, it makes sense for gladion to be about 165 cm or 5’5. so he’s pretty average and even tall for his age.

his father is kind of short though, so how tall gladion gets can be up to your interpretation. i think it’s funny to think he’s short because i like the idea of everyone else in the SM squad outgrowing him. i think it would piss him off.

i’ve seen a lot of people say they think gladion is 15-17 which just makes me laugh because i know they’re going from vibes alone.

he has a lot of chuunibyou traits & his english concept art says he needs to express “middle school arrogance”. his japanese concept art says something similar about secondary school, which lands around 12-15 in japan. i think 15 is a little too old for the timeline, not impossible, but not realistic. he’s probably 13 or 14.

if you take into account the few times were shown gladion & lillie when they’re young, acknowledging lillie is said to be 11, gladion is not much older than her. this goes for both the anime & the manga, since we never see them young in the game. they’d have no reason really to change this in different universes.

lillie is a little baby when he can already walk & speak in basic sentences. it would make the most sense for him to be 2-3 years older than her.

conclusion: gladion is most likely 13 or 14 years old & around 5’5.

[rosieuv]

Project: Eden's Garden chapter 1 is so fucking good oh my god

btw spoilers here

go watch the official playthrough

Please.

Okay so ever since I saw the announcement trailer I was like "Diana's going to die first, I can feel it". It was something with her design, and her personality that screamed "early target". So when all that trial stuff was targeted towards her, I assumed it meant this was when she died: still chapter 1 but a bit later.

Now I think she's gonna die in chapter 2 from all that heroic monologuing. I also feel like Wenona's gonna play some kind of big role due to the way she acts. Possibly an antagonist? I'm not sure.

The actual contents of the chapter are long, with the official playthrough's being about 11 hours combined (and you bet I watched them the day they came out this weekend) yet the pacing still feels fine. A lot happens within both daily life, deadly life and the trial and I can in vision a timeline based on what happened on each day/part of day. The tournament thing was cool and how despite the murder not being in the new rooms, the fact that it would be impossible without it made it feel like it actually had a purpose, which I was a bit concerned about when the corpse was in the boiler room.

I wouldn't have guessed Wolfgang was the victim though but it makes so much sense. And Eva being the murderer. That was a whole bag of plot twists and they work very well. The rooms are cool, the concept of the whole locks thing is cool, basically everything is cool and Tozu is more interesting than Monokuma and he's definitely some drama kid that get rejected from the lead role and so some organisation thing that Wolfgang's father made (I swear he's going to be important in the future) and he was basically like "yeah just act all dramatic and stuff and scare the kiddies". Why Wolfgang is in this game though...idk. I feel like his father has to be important though, especially with the message on the back that for some reason took Damon so long to figure out when I figured it out very quickly: Wolfgang's father is an asshole and he is too. His animal is literally a sheep how the hell did he not realise this. I mean, the conversation with Tozu was cool as he doesn't appear often, but like, has Damon ever heard the phrase "Wolf in sheep's clothing?".

Okay here's my nitpicks:

some of the furniture models are a bit low poly which doesn't mesh well with the 2D sprites

3D textures are weird in places (Wolfgang's chair is the worst offender of this)

the line width is a bit thin in some of the new sprites and it bugs me because the artstyle typically has quite thick lines

this book is never shaded

the Damon thing I mentioned earlier

this bug in the trial where it fades out to show some kind of floor plan, and Damon is talking, but when the UI fades back in, for a split second it shows the mugshot of whoever was speaking before the fade thing (I can't find where this happens in the official playthrough but I swear it's real)

nobody realising the "thin bit of metal" was a hairpin until it was brought up as a lockpick in the trial like i realised that immediately

does Eva have a game console or a tablet? Pre-trial and at the start of the trial it was called a game console but towards the end when it was relevant, it was called a tablet? I can't find an image of it as the wiki doesn't have a gallery page for her (idk why) but I remember it looked like a DS from it's lid

there's only like 4 minigame section things in the trial: non stop debate, rebuttal showdown, the choosy one and the ending one. where's the letter one? i know there's more and i know this is probably so the programmers don't shoot themselves in the head, but still.

when did they have lunch during the last day? there was the tournament, the blackout, the investigation and then the trial and that was all about 5 hours going based on gameplay so if the investigation was at 9:45 ish and the trial ended 5 hours later, then it should be 2:45 and these poor people are starving! Well, idk about them all but Damon certainly didn't stop investigating to make lunch.

there's little inconsistencies with the art style/quality of the image in the CGs. The ending one with Diana sticks out the most to me: the lineart and shading look a little different. It's like a different artist from the rest drew it.

Okay more praise:

grace pulling the middle finger in her objection sprite

wenona

the music made by mark having a danganronpa motif in

the dummy thing in the execution

the whole scene where eva's true talent is revealed and her "oh shit" sprite

all the voice acting

the maths equipment in the execution

the thing with the calendars and the horses joke at the beginning

eva's free time events (it was shown in the playthrough)

the scenes with Tozu at the beginning of each day

the tree animation is sick

the thing with the footsteps

the thing with the blackout

everyone screaming one by one when they see the body

the beginning

the middle

the end

all those biblical references

Tumblr is going to have a field day with this game.

[late-to-the-party-99]

Having watched TDTEBU, I’m curious about something: how did the acres of rural farmland become a suburban neighborhood?

The way I see it, there’s two options.

Option 1: After Farmer Jim fades away, developers approach Porky and Daffy. In the beginning flashback, neither of them seem very interested in tending to the farm beyond an occasional tractor ride. It’s arguable they don’t want it or know what to do with it. So Daffy and Porky agree to sell the farmland to the developers with the condition that they keep their house in the new neighborhood. That way, they can fulfill their promise to Farmer Jim and get some new neighbors in the process. And they can live off the money from the sale for awhile. It’s a win-win! Right…?

Option 2: Farmer Jim realizes his boys, for all he loves them, aren’t interested in or fit for the farmer’s life. He’s also been asked by developers for years to sell the surrounding farmland. Knowing his time is drawing near, he agrees to the sale while ensuring he and his descendants will keep the house. He leaves not only the house, but also the money from the sale behind to support Porky and Daffy after he’s gone. He doesn’t know what they’ll make of their lives, but this will give them a start. At least, that’s what he hopes…

I’m curious about what people think! How did the farm become a neighborhood? Do you agree with either of my suggestions, or do you have one of your own? I’d love to hear what you think!

Regardless of how the farm becomes a suburb, I think it’s safe to say it doesn’t go how Daffy, Porky, or Farmer Jim hoped. And it turns out I have a lot to say about that… so if you want, buckle up for some (over)analysis. (Spoilers for the end of TDTEBU follow under the cut! Proceed at your discretion.)

The HOA representative repeatedly refers to Daffy and Porky as “freaks” and “filthy barn animals.” She could’ve only cited their destructive tendencies, their unsafe management of their home. But even as she notes the hole in their roof, the representative flings hateful insults at them. She takes issue with immutable facets of their identities such as being raised on a farm. She resents them for not matching her model of suburbia, for being relics of what the neighborhood used to be — a farm where a man called a duck and a pig his family. When she cites the hole in their roof, it’s to justify her preexisting, prejudiced desire to evict them.

And it’s not only the HOA representative who poses an issue here. The mayor of the town winces when she yells, tries to calm her, but still stands beside her. The most he’s willing to offer Daffy and Porky for their heroism is a park bench, but he’s silent when the representative insists that would lower property values. He doesn’t seem to like her very much or even agree with her views, but he doesn’t stand up to her or push back against her decisions. His inaction is what allows her unchecked reign over their community — and her prejudices.

Instead of being a welcoming community, the neighborhood’s leadership ultimately forces Daffy and Porky to the margins, looking for any excuse to get rid of them because of who they are as people. People in town do care about them, like the lady at the diner who gives them milkshakes. Plenty of people have neutral to positive interactions with them, or negative reactions for understandable reasons (like screaming in their faces, breaking their things, etc). But it’s the leadership that seems to decide whether they get to stay or go, and their decision is based on hatred and passivity in the face of hatred.

However, that’s the key word: “seems.” After they save the world and, in the process, overcome their doubts and issues in their relationship, Daffy and Porky carry on without leadership approval. Rather than comply with an eviction or an impossible timeline to repair a roof, they build a new house even more grandiose than the first and still very much theirs. They refuse to give up. They carve out a place for themselves as they are, loony and zany. In addition, they find people who stand by them, like Petunia, the Scientist, and the Invader, who are equally zany and wacky in their own ways. And the very act of standing together on their new home’s porch, tigers and boba tea and all the mayhem that makes them who they are, causes the HOA representative’s head to explode. Daffy and Porky grow as people, yes, but they develop a sense of purpose and self-awareness without compromising their “freakishness.” They accept themselves as the weird outliers and embrace that, because it was their weirdness and their faith in each other that saved the world. And that is how you find your place in the world. When you stop caring about what other people think, when you live on your own terms, you can make a home. You will always have a home with other weirdos like you. Home isn’t so much a place as what you make of it, as what you carry with you. Home is with the people you love.

[gossypibomaa]

as someone who has nothing more than a basic high-school understanding of physics, this is how I see all the physics stuff going on in the recent bsd chapters.

(AGAIN I KNOW NOTHING ABOUT ACTUAL PHYSICS THIS IS JUST WHAT'S MADE SENSE TO ME DON'T KILL ME)

(I only make this diagram because I feel like it makes sense to me but now I'm starting to doubt that I actually understand it and just think that I know what's going on. so I've made an explanation so that hopefully if I am wrong, someone can tell me)

one more note as well: the terms "infinite/infinity" and "fourth dimension" are used loosely here. I know that this is likely inaccurate, but it's just a simple generalization of how I can see it.

So there's the main 3D universe which is (obviously) length, width, and depth expanding outward infinitely in all three of those directions(condensed into a cube to model it)

It's impossible to really see the 4th dimension. The best way I can understand how I see it is by lining up these 3D planes/universe onto this plane behind it.

The "4D" plane drawn here(I know it really isn't but again just for visualization/having something to see it as) doesn't have width/height/depth, it is just there. It represents time. It could even be drawn as just a line, or lines between 3D planes.

And that plane being time, you can line up the 3D planes on it like animation keyframes. (-2 sec, -1 sec, present, 1 sec, 2 sec, etc, etc.)

And also something of note, each 3D plane isn't just one second of time here. Because really, there are measurements of time smaller than a second but I am not writing all that out. Best way I can still explain it is animation keyframes.

And if you rotate this and expand it outwards a bit:

Each section represents each interval of time(or keyframe) of the 3 dimensional space, and each section is each keyframe's space(length/width/depth) in its ENTIRETY.

This plane expands through every second/frame of the third dimension. Negative infinity, present, and positive infinity.

And in perspective of recent events:

and now add Fyodor's whole "drawing on a piece of paper with two hands" thing.

Each dot represents where Gozen(A four dimensional being) has been placed onto the timeline.

If the model was drawn to go farther backwards, it would show where Gozen was placed in the timeline to kill off Kunikida, Kenji, and Tanizaki, with the dots having line segments after them that extended until Gozen was no longer in that space of time.

When a four dimensional being attacks a third dimensional one(or goes into a 3D space), it can go in through any (x, y, z) coordinate on the "keyframe" it chooses to attack or go in from.

And put more into perspective with said events:

(gozen attacking third dimensional beings)

(gozen staying in the 3D space-time)

(both visualized)

(red dot(w/ line, no black center) is gozen, purple is fyodor, pink is atsushi, orange is akutagawa, yellow is fukuzawa.)

okay yeah :thumbs-up-emoji: