#like for one thing- cats have such unique body language and behavior

[gongedtornado]

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[xyz-bot-theory]

Hey! I was wondering if you have anything on how the robots communicate? So far (to me at least), they seem to have their own unique body language, such as their fans whirring under stress or purring with their engines when content

It does seem like they have their own type of body language, which developed similarly to one another. I wonder if it is just something that they learnt from each other, or if it is something that came with being a robot.

Mostly? I’m curious about the purring, since it is something that shouldn’t be a feature that comes with a robot. The fans? Sure, since often times you can hear fans whirring louder when a machine is over working itself I can see the same being true for a sentient robot’s emotions, like how just being angry or stressed or sad can lead to exhaustion if you understand what I am saying.

The purring is a very interesting thing to mention, I think I have only seen one or two of them do it, Otto having done it first, which leads me to wonder if every robot is capable of it or it is just something that’s learnt? Or a passive skill that only some of the robots can do? A lot of the robots display cat like behaviors, I wonder if I could make a crack theory on that

[cookie-waffle]

the one thing i kinda dislike about those “why animals do the thing” blogs is that they tend to assume that all individuals of a species function the same.

Human brains don’t always function the same, so why would animal brains function the same? I used to babysit a dog who would growl when he was content and happy. One of the puppies at the daycare I worked at would bear his teeth while being playful and friendly. Dogs can be autistic. Cats can have OCD. Octopi can develop PTSD. There are always gonna be individuals who stick out from the majority of their species. Things like body language and social cues are not universal amongst all individuals in a species. This isn’t anthropomorphism, it’s just a simple fact of nature. I wish those accounts would take more into consideration that sometimes an animal’s strange behavior could possibly be influenced by their unique quirks, and may not always be a sign of distress.

[tsuchiman]

Review: Cyberpunk 2077

Recently finished this after playing it on-and-off for the last 3 months. I started it last year, it didn't hook me so I dropped it but picked it back up and got into the swing of things.

At first, the vanilla game was mostly enjoyable but certain things started to irritate me. I noticed that most guns didn't do any damage to foes, which led me down the rabbit hole of modding via Nexus Mods. After adding in a realistic combat mod, I started fooling around with other mods just to fully customize the experience. Most of it modified minor things: crowd behaviors, water textures, more diverse weather rotation, increased traffic density, etc. The mod that hit the nail on the head was an EBM music modifier, adding in songs from bands like Nine Inch Nails and Front 242 as you ride around the city.

After the mods came the post-processing. I work with Reshade in a lot of games to add in some usually much needed zest into the final image, and this game needed it. The raw image isn't as impressive as I was expecting, so after much tweaking I finalized an image that I would prefer to see. It all made for better looking screenshots. Although, I didn't play it with an RTX driven card, so no ray-tracing. But even without the high-end rig to run ray-tracing, the game does a great job creating a realistic environment while maintaining a steady 60 fps on my RX 6700 XT at 2K resolution.

The game itself was interesting and about as accurate as you would expect the title to imply. If you've read any William Gibson or Philip K. Dick, or watched pretty much any cyberpunkish sci-fi, then the experience was either familiar or felt like you walked into a mashing of those stories. Everything in this universe looks as if it's been built onto something else, creating an embedded, living greeble effect. The lingo that people use is quirky but unique; "preem", "gonk", have been set into my head as new terms. The design language is stuck between a retro-vision of what the future could have looked like from the perspective of the 80's-90's cyberpunk scene, and with modern-influenced perspectives about how the internet of our day actually works, how AI has actually come to function, etc. The cyberspace environments were somewhat predictable in their design, but functionally worked without being overwhelming, visually or conceptually.

The inclusion of transgender or trans-sexual themes should be noted, since in this universe, body modification is the norm. There is one character I came across that after some time building the relationship, you find out that she was previously a he. The game doesn't focus on it much, but the inclusion of transgender themes makes me ask why there's a lack of transracial themes. The body-modding mechanic is integral to the world-building of the story. It would have been interesting to experience more people who's identities were pushed to all sorts of extremes: differenced sexes, spliced sexes, spliced races, possibly even spliced with animals. Where's the gene modification? Where are the cyber cat girls?

The romance between you and the characters you end up working with was an interesting mechanic. I picked female V, but didn't necessarily have to try too hard to pick who I romanced. The game seemed to favor offering your lady companions as possible romance partners instead of the male companions, but maybe I'm biased since all the women are quite attractive. As conversations IRL usually have a hint of innuendo, adding in sex as an outcome adds a touch of realism since most games don't use it or can't. Flirtation and the inevitable sex scenes were half-way between intimate and comical, but this game isn't designed to be a porno. But again, if the developers are going to include sex as an option, why not push to the extremes?

The only thing that kept me motivated throughout the game was the unraveling of Johnny Silverhand's past and current attachment to you. I won't say any spoilers here, but it was genuinely interesting to experience the dynamic between you and him. It's an interesting take on psychology, implants, cybernetics, the concepts of "soul" and "personality" locations, and the morality entwined between all of these. I chose a more amicable path with Johnny, so the outcome was beneficial for both of us. But there are options where you can essentially stay combative with him, and I'm guessing eventually rejecting him outright like a parasite.

The criticisms I do have for the overall structure of the game is how open-world design can both be a benefit and a hazard. The environments were well crafted, everything fit perfectly into the name "cyberpunk", and after modding a bit, it was accentuated that much more. The drawback with the open-world element is that eventually everything starts to look the same in the city, and I quickly started watching the minimap when navigating, instead of tracking by environmental cues. I felt as lost as I do when I'm using Google Maps.

The environments could have instead been designed by something like "old" versus "new" city designs. The old city would have had an aesthetic that looked like everything was retro-fitted. The new city could have been more like Mirror's Edge. Perhaps there could have been a dome-city, for high-end-profile people only, with no air pollution from some future fancy air filtration system. Perhaps contrast this with a slum-city. Excluding the cyberspace scenes, the visual change between environments only became apparent when you travelled into the desert, or after adding in an increased weather cycle mod. Besides that, the neon eye-candy and megacity flora-fauna was like being lost inside a pinball machine. Eventually it all blurs into a revolving same-ness. In a way, it makes me wonder how the game would have been had it been designed more linearly, with a semi-open world design, something like the Metro 2033 series.

On the topic of environmental design, the faction system that's present, or not present, felt a bit lackluster as well. As it is, there isn't much weight to your decisions other than defining the personalized storyline. You end up working with people from particular factions, yet you yourself never get tied to these factions. I would have found it interesting if the factions you ally with start to define other faction behavior. Choosing to work with the police should affect how other gangs trust you, and vice versa. Maybe you can develop a relationship with a gang, only to infiltrate them for a job for the government. Maybe the government is revealed to have splinter factions within, so that a job becomes difficult with an either-or decision. Territories could be defined by faction influence and control, so maybe you could have a bounty on your head under certain territories, or given special permissions in areas with groups you've been good with. This could have come with access to special items, vehicles, body mods, etc.

Overall, the game is most definitely the definition of "cool". It takes itself seriously, pushing the tech-noir aspect while keeping the zaniness of a future one awry out of the picture. Did it break the sound barrier for me? Not necessarily. But it is rare for me to finish a game. I still haven't finished Witcher 3, which is approaching a decade old soon. So for Cyberpunk 2077 to keep me hooked until the end says something. Or maybe it was just Panam's ass.

[anigee]

"Talking to Cats"

Cats have been a beloved household pet for thousands of years. They are cute, cuddly, and have a distinct personality that sets them apart from other domesticated animals. But have you ever wondered what it would be like if we could talk to cats? It's a fascinating thought experiment that opens up a world of possibilities. Here's a glimpse of what it would be like if we could talk to cats.

Understanding Their Needs and Desires The first and most obvious benefit of being able to talk to cats is that we could finally understand their needs and desires. Cats communicate through body language, meows, and other sounds, but these are often difficult to interpret. Imagine being able to have a conversation with your cat and ask them how they're feeling, if they're in pain, or if they're hungry. You could also learn more about their likes and dislikes, what their favorite toys are, and what they enjoy doing. This would create a stronger bond between cat and owner and lead to happier, healthier cats. Hearing Their Opinions

Cats are known for their independent nature, but that doesn't mean they don't have opinions. If we could talk to cats, we could ask for their input on various topics, such as what kind of food they prefer or what type of litter they like best. They might even have ideas on how to improve their living environment, such as adding more toys or providing a better scratching post. Imagine having a cat that actively participates in decision-making around the house! Exploring Their World

Cats are natural explorers, and if we could talk to them, we could learn more about the world from their perspective. Cats have unique senses and abilities, such as their acute hearing, excellent night vision, and impressive agility. They could tell us what it's like to hunt prey, navigate through tight spaces, or climb to high places. We could learn more about their natural behaviors and instincts, which could help us provide better care for them.

Cats as Companions Cats are often seen as independent creatures that don't need as much attention as dogs or other pets. But if we could talk to them, we might find that they crave more attention and interaction than we previously thought. We could have more meaningful conversations with our feline friends and develop a deeper understanding of their personalities. Cats could become more than just pets; they could be true companions.

Challenges of Talking to Cats Of course, there are also some challenges to consider when it comes to talking to cats. For one, we don't know if they would be interested in talking to us. They might be perfectly content with the way things are and not see the need for communication. Additionally, we might find that cats have very different priorities and values than humans, which could make it difficult to find common ground.

Overall, it would be fascinating if we could talk to cats. It would provide a deeper understanding of their needs, desires, and behaviors, and allow for a stronger bond between cat and owner. While there are challenges to consider, the benefits of being able to talk to cats could lead to a more fulfilling and rewarding relationship between humans and their feline companions. If you truly want to learn to talk to cats click the link it's a bonus for you

[vincewillard-1971]

Human Memory and The Brain

Introduced

The human brain is made of millions of neurons placed in an organized manner to ensure the working of the organ. These neurons communicated with each other using specialized chemicals called neuron transmitters. The chemicals are of several types, and the release varies and depends on several different factors. We know a lot about the brain, and there is a lot that we do not. But, with it's complexities and unique coordination system, we have barely scratched the surface.

The human brain is the least understood part of the whole body. This control unit made of organic matter is remarkably complex and is a conundrum of it's own. Although the primary function and coordination are pretty defined, the enigma of deeper understanding remains. There are pathways and complex neural connections that are still unknown, but how the information is coded in the same chemical is beyond understanding. Behavioral patterns, decisions, preferences, and belief systems originate in the brain, but all processes are unclear. The paradox of memory and emotion is a question of it's own.

In this article, we will try to understand human memory and it's types, the ways it can be stored, reason why a person forgets certain events, and many more. So, keep reading!

Definition of Memory

In scientific terms, memory is defined as the encoding, storage, and retrieval of an experience. In a simpler meaning, it is a recollection of the past. Remembering a number just long enough to dial it and the complete mental image of your wedding day or the trip to Greece decade ago are all memories.

Something as simple as remembering the day's task involves complex brain work at the back end. The complete archive of it stored in the brain defines who we are-our behaviors, perception, and beliefs. Ordinary tasks of daily routine and complex ones like learning a new language are all memory-based. In broader terms, memory is something that has got the human race on the top of the evolutionary chain.

Long term VS Short term Memories

If we try to look into the depth of what memories are there can be two types. Based on the time limit, memories can be broadly classified into long and short-term memories.

Short Term Memories

A short-term memory has the time span ranging from seconds to a few minutes. They are stored temporarily and then either get the the long-term storage, or they are discarded. Let us say someone gives us the mobile number. As the number is new so our memory will retain it for the short term. There are the possible chances that we are going to forget about this number after few moments.

Long Term Memory

These are the memories stored in the brain over a more extended period. They are several short-term memories organized to form a long memory that is stored permanently. Depending upon the importance and number of recalls, it can recall your 18th birthday but not what you ate on Monday three weeks ago.

Classification of Long-term Memories

There are several kinds of memories. Depending upon the portion of the brain involved and type of information, they can vary a great deal. Here is a more in-depth look into the classification of long-term memories.

Long term memories can be explicit. Explicit memory can be further divided into episodic or semantic, and implicit memories can be procedural.

Explicit Memory

These are the memories that require the conscious effort of recalling. As a friend, baby shower three years ago or the knowledge like the earth is a planet.

•Episodic: These comprises the events of one's life. For example, the graduation day, a particular Christmas morning, etc. These memories are edited by brain overtime when we recall them in specific context. They are not very reliable. Brain's ability to retain episodic memory depends on the number of sensory stimuli involved and emotions.

•Semantic: These memories are the general facts and knowledge of things around us. Like cats are mammals, earth has one moon, and a year has twelve months in it. These memories get updated with new pieces of information. The phenomenon of forgetting is involved in making place for new facts without cause cognitive dissonance.

Implicit Memory

These memories do not involve active or conscious recalling. They are mostly procedural. For example, shift car gear, riding a bike.

Parts of Brain involved in Memory processes

Technically our brain has many different compartments and they work differently to do certain functions. Not all of the brain is involved in memory. Hippocampus is the main region of the brain involved in memory processes.

When it comes to storing or making a memory Hippocampus is involved. It is the primary regulator of the process of memory retention. It is a seahorse-shaped part of the temporal lobe. It acts as a bridge in engaging all the parts of the brain required to keep a memory. Although it is not involved in retrieving, formation and consolidation are highly dependent on Hippocampus. Consolidation is the fixing or storing a memory permanently.

Suppose due to a dire turn of event someone you know had most of the part of his Hippocampus removed. This person will not be able to remember anything new. Thus, memories will not be retained. However, the ability to recall older memories that happened before removing the Hippocampus will remain unaffected.

Memory Storage in Brain

Generally, we might see a similarity in storage devices or hard drives and brain, but they are hardly alike. Unlike storage devices, memory in mind is not stored at a specific location. And brain structure is not like a hard drive. It is much more complex, and memories are stored all over it. This is evident from the brain scan. Suppose we are looking at the brain activity of a person recalling a past event. The image will show several neurons firing up located in several different parts of the brain. Let us see how it is stored.

Hippocampus that is involved in making memory comes in and takes the aggregate of several short-term memories. Suppose the memory for the graduation party can include the food you taste, what you feel like, and what the house smells like. In short, there are several chunks of memory involved. Hippocampus takes the whole piece and assigns them specific places in the brain center, like the smell, will go to the olfactory region, and sounds go to the auditory area. The neurons on which these are written make connections with each other. This develops a big large memory circuit. The way these connections are made forms the indexing or the flow of how you remember a particular thing.

Role of Memory Retention in Daily Tasks

Memory building has a high range of involvement in doing the tasks of daily life. It is mostly dependent on short-term memory. Ever walked into the room and forgot why you came in? Ever forget what were you writing and question you are on during an exam? It has happened when short-term memory is not built, and we lose the sense of what we are doing for a while.

Most tasks are process, and we need to actively know and memorize what we are doing every step of the way. How and what you are doing is also important. Thus, things go on in a constant loop. If you do not have short-term memory, everything around you will be a giant blur of nothingness. Without short-term memory, you will not be able to make long term memories.

Memories shape our Perception and Reality

Everything we are and everything we will ever be is all dependent on memory. Human belief systems, perceptions, and learning are all memory related. Our consciousness is the ultimate reality of us as people with personality and preferences. Memories define actions, and actions are what we become.

Suppose you think racism was not real. But you came across literature contradicting the idea. Your perception said that it was right. So, you committed the new information to your memory. Based on which you acted differently than before. Had it not because of the mind, you might have stuck to your old beliefs.

Memories are triggered by Senses

We now know that the memory comprises of several chunks of information. The more the sense and emotions involved, the easier it will be to access the memory. In the film Ratatouille, when Remy feeds Ratatouille to Anton, the critic gets a flashback of his mother. It shows Anton as a child, eating the same dish that was made by her mother.

This is a clear depiction of how memory works. The taste of a sensory trigger brought the memory of Anton's mother. Thus, consciousness is based on several such connections. Similarly, a smell of perfume or a song can also take you to a trip down the memory lane because sensory stimuli are involved in accessing a certain memory.

False Memory and Memory implantation

As much as we can trust our brain in keeping the record of everything, it can go through specific alterations. Our memories, especially the episodic ones, are reconstructed and can be falsely stored. One pop culture representation of false memory we have seen is in the movie "Inception." Tit revolves around going into someone's subconscious and planting the idea of memory that was not there.

Progress in psychology has proven that memory implantation is indeed possible. With therapy, the memories can be manipulated, and new memories can be implanted . We see the phenomenon of memory implant going on in Westworld; where Als are given false human memories to mask their reality and purpose.

Reason behind Forgetting things

The brain can store a large sum of data in it, but some things are lost. Forgetting is as essential as retaining something. It helps make new memories and move on. Otherwise, we will never progress into the future and cling on everything traumatic we remember. Sometimes we even forget the memories we cherish because this is how the brain works. It lets go of memories so future memories can be made. This is the reason why we even forget our most heartbreaking break up after a while or even our most cherished birthdays.

Here are the three ways it can happen.

Passive Oblivescence

This is the progress of losing memory when the neuron connection weakens over time. With aging or when we do not actively recall a memory, the neuron's link is lost. It can also happen when we lose the stimulus to the mind. The memory might still be there, but we are not able to access it.

Target Forgetting

This happens when our brain actively prunse and discards certain details of a memory. For example, when we learn a new piece of information that contradicts the previous one, the pleasant memory is retained . The conflicted one is dismissed. With target forgetting, we also eliminate our conflicted believes and welcome new perceptions.

Motivated Forgetting

It is phenomenon of a deliberate forgetting of traumatic and unpleasant events. The exact mechanism is unknown, but when we decide to forget something, the brain steps in. It blocks the neurological pathways to a certain memory, and we forget it.

The Memory Palace

Memory palace or mind techniques is a process of actively archiving important information in an organized manner. It is a compartment technique in which you visualize the space and store memories in a certain rooms and areas. Suppose you want to remember a certain sequence. You envision the room and associate them with certain components lof the course. So, when you want to remember the sequence you walk through, the place in decided order. In Sherlock, we see Cumberbatch organizing the memory palace and getting rid unimportant information to keep him memory tidy. This technique is useful in remembering the detail of any event, whether there is an emotional trigger involved or not.

The Horrors of Dementia

Dementia is often commonly regarded as a disease. The truth is dementia is not a disease; it is a group of several symptoms caused by some brain-related disorder. Although speech and language could also be affected, memory loss is relatively com people with dementia. Strokes and Alzheimer's disease can lead to dementia. The brain activity, including the normal process of memory-making and assessing, is disrupted. The neurons degenerate, causing the symptoms of memory loss. Type of damage can vary with the kind of dementia and other condition.

The memory loss due to aging is different from this. Unlike skin cell that regenerates themselves regularly, nerve cells do not. This means that with normal process of aging, they will degrade. The amount of neurotransmitter will also decrease. This can lead to the loss of specific memories.

Summary

Memories are the past experiences that are stored in the brain in highly organized manner. We can recall the memories at any time by just thinking about that time of our life.

Memories are broadly divided into two types; long-term memories and short-term memories. Short-term memories last for a few seconds to minutes and are then either discarded or stored permanently. Long-term memories are stored for longer periods of time, often for a lifetime.

Long-term memories re divided into explicit and implicit ones. A brief detail of this classification has already been discussed.

Hippocampus is the region in the temporal lobe that is involved in memory formation. However, it is not required to recall the memories.

Memories are stored in the form of neuronal connections that are spread throughout the brain. There is no single location in the brain for memory storage. All the areas of the brain are active when a person recalls a past event stored in his memory..

Short-term memories help us a lot in performing daily life tasks effectively.

Memories also have a major role in shaping our perception of the world and the realities we believe in.

Special senses such as taste, smell, and vision can trigger memories. They not only involved in making new memories but are also involved in the recalling and retrieving process.

Some me literature does exist about the possibilities of memory implantation in one's mind as depicted by some science-fiction movies.

Forgetting different events make space for new memories to be formed in the brain. It can take place in three possible ways as mentioned earlier.

Memory loss is the common and severe memory disorder seen in old age. Alzheimer's disease is the most common cause of this disorder.

[glorioustidalwavedefendor]

someone disagreed with me and then deleted the comment ... but since I alredy crafted an answer ...

The courting rituals of pigeons (…) tend to repeat the same patterns

I have to say that a limited vocabulary will not keep you from making your wishes known if people are willing to listen …

Doesn‘t mean you‘ll get what you want … but not because no one knows … Dream big you little feather ball, one day you‘ll get what you want … XD

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/style/wp/2018/07/23/feature/the-crane-who-fell-in-love-with-a-human/

the social hierarchies of other primates tend to repeat the same patterns. Their rules are unspoken because they don't need to discuss the exact details of their own specific, unique situations.

O contrair my friend

They are very much not unspoken, they are very much learned

O.K. fine they don‘t teach it with words, but they do have to teach their kids

I still remember this lecture on … neurology? The professors speciality was primates, baboons to be exact. And he used them as examples

One examples was where this tiny little baboon toddler, was starting to crawl towards that other little baboon toddler and her mom immediately pulled her back.

Because, no, not that one, you do not speak to that one unless spoken to, that is the daughter of the alpha

Or have you ever seen a calve play with a kid (as in Baby goat)?

How the kid will run full force at the calve (because bumping heads is fun for kids) and then stop an inch before the calve and so so gently bump it‘s head n to the calve?

And the calve bumps back. Despite the fact that for a calve that is not really play behavior?

Trust me, there was some negotiation going down before that.

Yes animals don't speak, but they do communicate rather complex ideas via body language …

Or how a cat can get a whole household of grown ups to go to bed at 9 o‘clock in the evening, through suborn negotiation …

It‘s not just stubborn mechanical repetition

working/living together in an infinitely complex world needs communication … because no amount of rigorous weeding via evolution not taking prisoners will prepare a bee for a screw cap …

Show me a chimpanzee riding another chimpanzee like a dressage horse.

I will not even attempt that XD

because:

a) not sure where to get that, google will not even show you dolphin nipples …

b) not sure what counts as „riding like a dressage horse“ in your book. Like is it only proof if they wear tiny little harnesses? Then I will definitely not be able to provide XD

c) relatively sure now that I think about it that you can see something like that behind a paywall …

d) also even if I did find something it would 1) ruin my search history and 2) I couldn‘t post it because tumblr is very boring about certain things …

But I do know that Bonobos understand enough about reproduction to have more queer then straight sex, to minimize offspring … not out of the question that they also have kinks …

[stars-scales-and-baseball-caps]

I think more movies should care about animal accuracy. I’ve said this before and it’s DEFintely not the biggest problem in cinema BY FAR asdfghgh

BUT but!! what I mean isn’t to be an anatomy stickler or behavior expert (my own art is nowhere near that), rather I think a lot of people overlook how easy it is to use nature as a “cheat sheet” and what using nature as a cheat sheet can accomplish.

for instance, when every single animal companion acts like a dog, it gets boring. and when an animal companion “over acts” to prove its “animalness,” it gets annoying. animal companions fundamentally can’t be 100% accurate because anthropomorphism and domestic-analogues are necessary for the companion animal to accomplish certain tasks and communicate certain things to the other characters and to the audience, especially if that animal is fantastic or not domestic, but studying an animal’s natural behavior is still a really really easy way to add flavor. And you don’t even have to invent that flavor! It already exists! You’ll seem unique by essentially ripping nature off (/JJJ).

It also has the added benefit of familiarizing the audience with body language (even if, again, that body language isn’t 100% accurate).

I forget the video, but there was a really good analysis of Jurassic Park and how the T-rex acts in the original vs Jurassic World, and how destruction through curiosity is so much more effective at conveying life than destruction for the sake of destruction. AND even moreso, it’s an example of how recognizing the T-rex’s inclination towards playfulness didn’t make the car scene any less threatening— it’s still a dangerous wild animal and should be respected as such.

I might be alone in this, but I also preferred the animal acting in the first How to Train Your Dragon to its sequels. Though it was still demonstrably cat or dog or even bird, the animators had a clear pool of inspirations which focused their vision, making Toothless act in a way that was motivated, consistent, and sympathetic. In the sequels... idk, it’s hard to explain, but I guess it feels like... Toothless wiggles too much?? it might not even be an acting thing and more of a model thing, like when a CGI model has so many HD pores it shoots right past realism and lands in uncanny hyper-realism. Sometimes impressionism feels more real than real, you know? asdfgh

and again I could be TOTALLY alone in this— the point is it just felt like sometimes the animator’s intent was “we can’t risk boring the audience” rather than “Toothless has a motivation to move and vocalize.” If characters are the creator’s tools (not people), then the first intent isn’t by any means wrong, just that when it’s obvious it can impede suspension of disbelief. Idle animations have a more effective purpose in video games than movies because video games have to relent control over timing, and an abrupt stop or “freeze” is hard to pull off. In movies, where timing, cameras, and movement are completely under your control, I’d imagine dragons, like most large predators, would want to conserve at least a little bit of energy.

Regarding extant animals, I think one of the dodgier trends might be sound effects because it’s a problem in movies and documentaries. And like, I totally get it, sometimes it’s awkward watching a scene in complete silence when you expect sound. But some animals only vocalize that much when they’re in distress, and if someone’s only exposure to that animal is in movies where it’s constantly squeaking or grunting, they’re going to be under the impression that that’s normal— because why question it? it’s such an innocuous detail.

so to reiterate, this definitely is not always a big deal. i just think it’s an observation that’s worth thinking about, even if just for fun. The fact that the toucan in Encanto only squawks instead of clicking— a fun and unique behavior —is just a missed opportunity. In contrast, designing highly marketable animals in Netflix’s recent (mediocre) film Back to the Outback undermines its own message. In further contrast, a snake that’s been edited to hiss every single time it yawns in a vet show is just dumb and irresponsible. Subverting those expectations by paradoxically matching reality’s expectations would be so easy.

[i-am-bitterly-jittery]

What’s In A Name (momceit fic)

Rating: teen

Word count: 4863

Pairings: all platonic (except for one bit at the end that you can ignore if you want)

Warnings: Remus typical stuff, graphic threats against animals (that he takes back later), minor body horror (? He gives himself an extra finger, I don’t know if that counts), one (1) sexual innuendo. Roman being a bit of an asshole

——Start——

Well this is an interesting development, Logic thinks to himself as he watches Creativity stalk around the room, inspecting every nook and cranny as if the Dark Sides are going to be lurking in between the books in the bookcase.

This morning — five minutes ago to be precise — Logic, Morality, and Creativity awoke on the couch in the Dark Side’s common room. To make matters worse, the three of them had been transformed into cats. Creativity was a pure white Persian, Morality was a soft gray Scottish Fold, and Logic himself was a Siamese.

There hadn’t been any sign of any Dark Sides lurking nearby, nor any indication as to how the three Light Sides had ended up here as cats, but Creativity still insisted on inspecting their surroundings. Logic was fine with letting him, and instead preferred to make his observations from the relative safety of the couch before expanding out to the room beyond. Morality, it seemed, was not too concerned about anything other than the fact that he was a cat, preferring to groom himself and bouncing around the couch cushions excitedly.

“My brother is behind this! I know he is! This foul trick has his name written all over it!” Creativity hisses. Interestingly enough, Logic can understand him perfectly despite the fact that Creativity is speaking in cat language, and Logic had not known cat language before this point.

And Logic has to disagree with his hypothesis that The Duke is behind this. The Duke may be chaotic and impulsive, but this ‘prank’ is far too harmless to be his style. They are not in any immediate danger despite being in unfamiliar territory, there is no trace of gore, nothing R-rated about any of this really. It’s Logic’s opinion that the perpetrator of this predicament is not Creativity’s ‘twin’.

But Logic isn’t about to tell Creativity that. Creativity will get there on his own, given time.

“Isn’t this cool, Logic?” Morality bounces. “We’re adorable, and so cuddly! Do you want to cuddle, Logic?”

“This is not fun, Morality!” Creativity chides from his position inspecting the coffee table. “We are in enemy territory! We could be attacked at any minute!”

“What’s going to attack cats as cute as us?” Morality asks, innocently.

A subtle clicking — somewhat reminiscent of someone walking in heels, but not quite — comes from the top of the stairs and Morality’s question seems to be answered as something comes their way.

Creativity strikes a protective stance against whatever is coming down the stairs. Logic, too, feels a bit of apprehension about whatever is coming their way as it clearly isn’t something walking on human legs, though it does sound like it is something that is walking down the stairs.

Morality clearly does not share his companions’ concerns as he skips past Creativity and bounds towards the stairs to greet whatever is coming down. Creativity hisses a warning at him, but it falls on deaf ears.

Morality makes it to the stairs and looks up to greet the thing coming down, but as soon as he sets eyes on it, his posture changes from excited to terrified.

“SPIDER!” He squeaks as he shoots back past Creativity and scrambles under the couch.

Spider? Logic thinks. How can a spider make such a loud noise?

His questions are answered a second later as a rather large, rather spidery form reaches the bottom of the stairs.

“Kitty?” It asks.

A second glance proves that it is not, in fact, a giant spider, but rather a young boy - maybe about five - that happens to have four rather large spider legs protruding from his back that he seems to be able to walk with. On his spider legs, the boy’s human legs dangle about a foot and a half off the ground, making his total height around five feet, shorter than any of them are in their regular forms, but significantly taller than them as cats.

Other than the four spider legs, and the six smaller black spider eyes underneath his regular human eyes, the boy looks about the same as Thomas did at that age, with a few differences here and there that every Side has, such as the fact that his hair is purple, and has heterochromia, making one eye green, and the other inhumanly purple. Either way, it’s clear that this boy is a Side. And a rather new Side at that.

Logic doesn’t remember another Side forming, but he supposes that if this Side started out in the Dark Side, Deceit likely wouldn’t have informed them of his existence.

“Kitty?” The boy asks again. He looks around the room and seems to catch sight of Logic and Creativity for the first time. “Thwee kitties!”

Despite the obvious excitement in his face, the boy’s voice stays calm and quiet, as if he’s making a conscious effort not to scare them. Interesting behavior for a child.

“Begone foul creature!” Creativity hisses at the new Side even though the boy can’t understand him.

Logic just watches him curiously. They don’t know who he is or what function he serves, but as he’s just a child, it’s unlikely that he is of any threat to the three of them, even in cat form.

The boy looks startled by Creativity’s hostilities, and seems to realize for the first time that he’s standing on four long spider legs rather than his two human ones.

“Sowwy,” he says softly as he slowly lowers himself onto his human legs and folds his spider legs up against his back. For a second, Logic thinks the legs will just rest against his back, but the legs actually fade all together, and a moment later, the extra eyes do too.

Curious. Logic knows that Deceit has snake scales that cover a large area of his skin, and The Duke has tentacles that can solidify into arms and legs when he wants to, but he doesn’t know of either of them being able to hide their animal traits completely. Perhaps it is unique to this Side.

Creativity continues to take an aggressive stance, so the boy carefully gives him a wide berth as he makes his way over to the couch.

“Stay away from them!” Creativity growls as the boy slowly peaks under the couch.

“I’m sowwy I scawed you, kitty,” the Side apologizes to Morality. “Cweativity says my spidew wegs are cweepy, and I know not evewyone wikes cweepy.”

“I have never seen this Side in my life!” Creativity huffs dramatically.

“I believe he means your brother,” Logic sighs. It comes out as an audible meow, drawing the boy’s attention to Logic, the only cat that doesn’t seem disturbed by his presence.

“Hewwo,” the boy says to Logic. The boy blinks once, slowly “I love you.”

Logic’s brain stutters at the admission. The boy had, of course, probably just learned somewhere that that was how to show affection to a cat, and didn’t not mean to say that he loved Logic, but still…

Logic returns the gesture. “I love you.”

“LOGIC!” Creativity yowls.

The boy ignores him in favor of extending his hand towards Logic. Logic flinches a little and the boy stops moving his hand. The hand is a few inches from Logic, palm down, close enough that Logic could easily stretch his head out to touch it, but far enough away to not be in his personal space.

After a moment, Logic stretches his neck out in order to sniff the proffered hand. The boy stays perfectly still, watching Logic carefully, hope shining in his eyes. Instincts take over and Logic licks the boy’s fingers before nuzzling his head against the hand. “I trust you.”

The boy gasps, delighted.

“LOGIC!” Creativity yowls again, and again, he is ignored.

“You’we a nice kitty, awen’t you?” The boy asks as he starts moving his fingers to scratch at Logic’s head.

Logic can’t help but move his head, trying to maximize the pleasant contact. “Please never stop petting me.”

Being a cat must be different than being a Side. Usually, Logic isn’t overly affectionate, and is often uncomfortable with the casual contact Morality and Creativity often initiate, but as a cat, Logic can’t seem to get enough contact.

“Oh!” The boy exclaims in shock, his fingers stutter over Logic’s head for a moment before returning to their previous rhythm. “Hewwo.”

Logic opens his eyes to find that Morality has left the protection of the bottom side of the couch in favor of sitting directly in the boy’s lap. The boy offers his free hand to Morality the same way he had with Logic, but Morality skips sniffing it and goes straight for headbutting his hand.

“I’m sorry I was scared of you, kiddo, you’re not scary.”

“Morality! Not you too!” Creativity laments. Logic honestly can’t see what issue Creativity could possibly have with the young Side. He gave fantastic scratchies, why would anyone have a problem with him?

Vaguely, Logic registers the sounds of footsteps coming down the stairs, but he’s much too preoccupied with the boy petting him to really care.

“Halt foul snake!” Creativity hisses.

Logic flinches as he finally registers that a second Dark Side has entered the common room, but is quickly calmed and distracted by the boy continuing to pet him.

“Anxiety,” Deceit says, sounding a mixture of amused and concerned. “Where did you find these cats?”

“Mama! They was in the wiving woom when I came down!” The boy - Anxiety? - says happily. “These two is nice! That one’s mean. Can we keep them?”

Creativity huffs indignantly. “We’re not pets!”

Deceit chuckles. “You even want to keep the mean one?”

Anxiety nods seriously. “He’s theiw fwiend.” He says, as if that is reason enough to keep a cat that clearly doesn’t like him.

Deceit chuckles again, and somewhere in the back of Logic’s mind he realizes that he’s never seen Deceit be this genuinely nice to anyone, even The Duke.

“We can’t keep them until we try to find their owners, my little spiderling.” Anxiety’s face drops in disappointment.

“They have ownews?” He asks quietly, hands stilling.

“No, no, we’re all yours!” Morality purrs, headbutting Anxiety’s hand so he’ll continue petting them.

“MORALITY!” Creativity hisses. He’s moved fully under the coffee table in order to best protect himself against the two Dark Sides.

“They might,” Deceit answers gently, pulling one glove off and holding his naked hand up seriously. “I’ll go ask the neighbors after breakfast, but if the cats aren’t theirs then I promise you can keep them.”

“Yay!” Anxiety yells loudly, startling Logic for a moment. Morality doesn’t seem at all perturbed as he continues to push into Anxiety’s hand.

“What’s the shortstack cheering about?” The Duke asks as he suddenly appears by the television. “Did my brother bite the dust? Or maybe Thomas has finally decided to go to Walmart wearing nothing but a speedo!”

Creativity hisses at him.

“CATS!” The Duke gasps. “Ooh we can peel their skin off to see their muscles and internal organs and just peel them apart piece by piece until they’re just a kitty cat skeleton!”

Morality flinches at the idea.

“NOOOOO!” Anxiety screeches, suddenly pulling Logic and Morality as close to his chest as he can. “NONONONONONO!”

It takes Logic perhaps a little too long to realize that Anxiety, true to his name, is having an anxiety attack, but his air is rather restricted at the moment so you can’t really blame him.

Anxiety’s breathing is shallow, and labored as he inhales and exhales around his screams; black tears run down his face, and a few drip onto Logic’s head, probably staining his cream fur gray; and he’s shaking violently and uncontrollably. And being in his death grip, Logic is quite uncomfortable, and Morality seems to be panicking almost as much as Anxiety is.

“NONONONONONONO!”

“Fix this!” Deceit hisses at Dark Creativity.

Dark Creativity seems to stumble over himself for a second before deciding on a course of action. He slides to the ground in front of Anxiety, which only causes the young Side to grip the cats tighter.

“Hey, uh, Anxy?” He asks, uncharacteristically soft for him. “I was just joking, I’m not gonna hurt the cats, I swear.”

“You’re- you’re not?” Anxiety sniffles, tears never slowing, but his breathing evens out a little bit.

“I’m not,” The Duke promises.

“Pink pwomise?” Anxiety asks, tears finally stopping.

“Double pinky promise!” The Duke declares, holding out his hand that seems to have two pinky fingers on it. Logic’s pretty sure the hand only had one pinky finger a moment ago.

Anxiety giggles and lets go of Logic so that he can wrap one of his pinkies around both of The Duke’s. “No take backs.”

“None at all, else penalty of death!” The Duke crows happily. “So do the cats have names?”

“He can’t name the cats until we figure out where they came from!” Deceit scolds from the kitchen where he’s preparing breakfast. “We don’t want him to get too attached!”

“Of course not!” The Duke yells back before dropping his voice to a conspiratorial whisper. “But do they have names?”

Anxiety giggles and answers just as quietly. “This one is Wogan!” He says, running a hand from Logic’s head all the way down his body.

Logic blinks slowly, then closes his eyes and pushes his head into Anxiety’s hand. “This is acceptable.”

“This one is Patton!”

“I love it, kiddo!” Morality — Patton — purrs even harder than he already had been.

“And that one's Woman!” The Duke turns to look at the Persian cat underneath the coffee table. Creativity hisses as soon as The Duke makes eye contact.

“Not very friendly is he?” The Duke asks. “I’m not allowed to hurt him either?”

“Nope!” Anxiety declares happily.

“Breakfast!” Deceit calls from the kitchen. “Don’t bring the cats to the table!”

Anxiety pouts, but he does as the older Side instructs and leaves Patton and Logan on the couch. “I’ll be wight back.”

“Take your time, kiddo! Eating a healthy breakfast is important!” Patton meows after him.

“Are you two insane!?” Roman hisses as soon as Anxiety and The Duke are gone. “We aren’t pets! We can’t just live here as his cats forever!”

“I believe Roman is right,” Logan concedes. “We cannot fulfill our functions in this manor, which would be very detrimental to Thomas.”

“But Anxiety loves us,” Patton pouts at the same time Roman hisses “that’s not my name!”

“Regardless of Anxiety’s feelings, we must put Thomas’s well-being first. It is our job, after all,” Even as Logan says it, a funny feeling fills his stomach. He hypothesizes the source to be guilt over taking away the cats that Anxiety so clearly loves, but there’s nothing he can do. They are Sides, not cats, and they have functions they must maintain to keep Thomas alive and happy, and Thomas is always their first priority.

“But Anxiety will be so sad if we just disappear,” Patton continues to protest, but Logan can see in his eyes that he knows Logan is right.

“Who cares what Anxiety thinks?” Roman snorts. “He’s not our friend! He is one of them, a bad guy. He may be a child now, but anxiety is a bad thing. It ruins creative whimsy, prevents people from going after opportunities, and is an all around bummer! We shouldn’t be nice to the source of misery!”

Patton begins to cry in earnest now, loud pathetic mewls leaving his mouth as he does.

“-I’ll go check.” Someone says from the dining room.

“Someone is coming,” Logan warns, causing Roman to tense, but Patton doesn’t stop crying.

“What’s wrong, kitty?” Deceit walks into the room, crouching carefully in front of the couch.

Roman hisses and darts back under the coffee table.

“Is he mean to you?” Deceit rubs a gloved finger against Patton’s head comfortingly. “Where did you come from, hmm? The imagination? Surely you’re not Creativity’s creations, but maybe the other Creativity? Or do the Light Sides keep cats now?”

Deceit continues to rub at Patton’s head, and eventually, the moral Side relaxes into the touch.

“I’ll have to give you back, won’t I? The Light Sides hate us enough without us stealing their cats… Anxiety is going to be so disappointed.” Deceit sighs, pushing himself up into standing position. “It can totally be helped, I suppose. I can definitely conjure convincingly lifelike cats, and Creativity has a knack for creating… child-friendly creatures.”

Deceit continues to mutter to himself as he makes his way back to the breakfast table with the other Dark Sides.

“At least he’s taking us back to our side,” Roman grumbles as Deceit walks away.

“There is still the problem that when he goes to the Light Side, he will not find anyone,” Logan points out as he begins grooming himself, stopping a moment later to ponder that instinct.

“I don’t want to go!” Patton whines.

“I am sorry, Patton,” Logan apologizes. He decides to just give into his instincts and begins grooming Patton instead. “But the best thing for Thomas is for us to be back in our proper place, in our proper forms.”

“Can I go wiff you to the Wight Side?” Anxiety asks, alerting the Light Sides to the approaching Dark Sides.

“I’m sorry, Anxiety,” Deceit says. “But I would prefer you not meet them yet.”

“Why?” Anxiety asks. He returns to his previous seat by the couch, and absentmindedly starts petting Patton when the Moral Side climbs back into his lap.

“Because the neighbors can be…” Deceit pauses to consider his next words.

Logan finds himself very curious to see what Deceit thinks of them. He’s never thought about it before. He views Deceit as a necessary attribute, but as a Side, Logan finds him to be overly dramatic and difficult to deal with. He views The Duke as a harmless nuisance as the Side has no real control over Thomas’s actions, only some thoughts, but he knows that Patton and Roman view him much more harshly. He’s never stopped to consider how the Dark Sides view them in return.

“...mean,” Deceit finally says.

Patton visibly deflates, no doubt hurt that he hasn’t been as nice to the Dark Sides as he could have been.

“SLANDER!” Roman hisses.

“Oh,” Anxiety says quietly. He stares at Patton, still seated in his lap, before turning back to the older Side. “Then why awe we giving them theiw cats back?”

“Don’t poke sleeping bears,” is all Deceit says.

“Always poke sleeping bears!” The Duke insists. “They get super mad and try to bite your hand off! It’s fun!”

Anxiety stares at The Duke with a mixture of fear and nausea.

“Thank you, Creativity,” Deceit drawls. “That was very helpful.”

“Do the Wight Sides bite?” Anxiety demands nervously, looking frantically between the two older Sides.

“Only when they’re being k-”

Deceit snaps and one of The Dukes hands flies up to cover his mouth, effectively cutting off whatever he was about to say.

“No, darling,” he sits on the ground and opens his arms. Anxiety considers the offer for a moment before removing Patton from his lap and snuggling up as close to Deceit as he can. “It was a figure of speech. The Light Sides do not bite.”

“But they’we mean,” Anxiety says quietly.

Deceit suddenly has four more arms that he wraps around Anxiety.

Logan startles. He hadn’t realized that Deceit had six arms. Perhaps he should try spending more time with the Dark Sides as there were clearly several things about them that he was unaware of.

“So am I,” Deceit hums. Personally, Logan isn’t sure how that is supposed to be reassuring, but Anxiety seems to think it is.

“You’ww be back?”

“Of course, spiderling.”

“Okay,” Anxiety whispers. He pulls away from the hug and immediately runs upstairs, never looking back at the cats.

Deceit watches him go with a sigh. “Why did you have to come here?” He asks the cats rhetorically.

“Sorry,” Patton tries to say, but Deceit only hears a meow.

Deceit sighs again before scooping Patton up with one pair of hands. “Let’s just get this over with, shall we?”

He grabs Logan with a second pair of hands, and finally grabs Roman with the third pair. Roman struggles, but Deceit keeps a tight grip on him.

Logan is smarter than Roman. While Roman struggles and ensures that Deceit has a tight grip on him, Logan fully allows Deceit to carry him, lulling the lying Side into a false sense of security. As soon as Deceit enters the Light Side of the Mindscape, Logan makes his move.

With his cat agility and flexibility, he pushes off of Deceits chest, easily breaking the unsuspecting Dark Side’s hold, and darts towards the stairs as quickly as he can, making it to the top before Deceit finally registers what had just happened and starts yelling after him.

“What the- GET BACK HERE!”

Logan ignores him as he runs for his room, theorizing that he’ll be able to change himself back into his own domain.

The door gives him slight pause as he realizes that he’s unable to open it — only mentally though, physically, he’s still running straight towards it. Luckily, the door responds to him, and a cat-flap that he’s quite sure has never been there before opens allowing him entrance.

Almost immediately, Logan is back in his proper form, necktie and all. Just as I suspected.

After a quick look in the mirror to make sure that he is fully presentable, Logan sinks out to the common room where he can still hear Deceit yelling after him.

“Deceit,” Logan appears behind Deceit, causing the lying Side to startle, and involuntary hiss escaping his lips as he quickly spins to face the newcomer.

Logan makes sure to give him a suitably surprised yet reserved look, as if he had been unaware that Deceit was in the common room.

Roman takes advantage of Deceit’s shock to escape his grasp as Logan had earlier. Roman runs for the stairs, but this time, Deceit just lets him, choosing to focus on Logan instead.

The Dark Side is quick to retract his extra arms, and mask his surprise with indifference, and Logan politely doesn’t mention either.

“We didn’t find these on our Side and we weren’t wondering if they were yours,” Deceit sneers, holding Patton out towards Logan as if the cat disgusted him, though Logan is well aware of the lie.

“They are, thank you,” Logan says, accepting Patton from Deceit. “Creativity and Morality have been searching for them in the imagination all day.”

Patton squirms in Logan’s arms until Logan allows him to climb onto his shoulder.

Deceit’s eyes narrow, and Logan realizes, a little too late, that Deceit can tell when someone’s lying. “There should have been three cats.”

“The third cat didn’t run away as soon as we got here, and isn’t lurking around here somewhere,” Deceit answers, mercifully letting the lie go

“Well thank you for returning them, Deceit, it was very decent of you,” Logan says. He thinks the comment is innocuous, but Deceit immediately goes on the defensive.

“Right, because the bessst we can do is desssssscent,” he hisses, his snake features becoming more pronounced with his aggravation. “Heaven forbid we ever do anything nisssssce.”

“I did not mean-”

“Goodbye, Logic. It’sss been sssso much fun.” Deceit sinks out before Logan can respond.

“I suppose that that did not go as well as I had hoped,” Logan says to Patton.

Patton meows and licks Logan’s nose.

Logan blinks. “You are aware that I know that you are not a cat, correct?”

Patton meows again.

“Is he gone?” Roman calls as he comes bounding down the stairs, back to his normal self.

“Yes, Roman, Deceit has left.”

“Okay, first of all Teach, just because Anxiety called me that doesn’t mean it’s my name. Second of all…”

Patton jumps off Logan's shoulder and makes his way to his room, at a slower pace than either of the others had gone.

He has so much to do.

~~~

Deceit does his best to school his features before returning to the Dark Sides’ common room. It would do no good for Anxiety to see him upset. He doesn’t want Anxiety to be afraid of the Light Sides, doesn’t want them to have that power over him already.

Once he’s got his face under control, he enters the common room. He’s greeted by the sight of Creativity sitting criss cross on the couch, Anxiety in his lap. Both of them are clearly waiting for him.

Anxiety’s eyes fill with tears as soon as he sees Deceit some back without the cats. Creativity frowns.

“They belonged to the boring Sides?” Creativity asks with a pout.

Deceit nods. He makes his way over to the couch to pick up the now sobbing Anxiety from Creativity’s lap.

“I’m sorry, spiderling.” Deceit says, wrapping all six arms around the child.

Anxiety wraps his arms around Deceits neck, and seconds later, four spider legs wrap around the rest of him.

Hours later, after Anxiety has finally settled down for his nap, and Creativity has gone to the imagination to vent his anger at hapless figments, there’s a knock at the door.

Deceit stares at the door for a moment in shock. No one’s ever knocked before. No one visits them. The Light Sides hate them, and even if they did want to visit, they’d never deign to knock.

Another knock.

Deceit shakes himself out of his thoughts to answer the door.

It’s Morality. He gives Deceit a wide and genuine grin, while hiding something behind his back.

“Hi Deceit!” He greets, bouncing on his toes with barely contained excitement.

“Morality, I was definitely expecting you.” Deceit says, feinting nonchalantness.

“I wanted to thank you for bringing the cats back! So I made you something!”

“Yes I obviously require payment for being nice, thank you.” Deceit rolls his eyes, he doesn’t need anything from them, and honestly, he doesn’t want anything from them. He’d prefer to just move on from this debacle and never think about it again.

“It’s not payment,” Morality grins like Deceit had been telling a joke. “It’s a gift! For you! Because you’re paw-sitively purrrrr-fect!”

Morality shoves a cat-shaped pillow in Deceit’s face, and all he can do is blink at it stupidly.

“I made you three!” Morality continues. “One for each cat!”

Deceit takes the proffered pillow — gray with bright blue eyes, like the nice cat — and Morality pulls out two more pillows that resemble the other two cats.

“That’s- um…” For once, Deceit’s silver tongue is failing him. He has no idea what to say.

“Mama?”

Not now, Deceit begs internally. Why does Anxiety have to choose now to wake up?

Anxiety approaches normally, but Deceit can tell the second he sees Morality, because he quickly ducks behind Deceit’s legs.

“Hey, kiddo,” Morality says gently as he lowers himself to his knees so that he’s level with the young Side. “I just wanted to thank your mama for returning my cats earlier. I cat tell you how happy I was to have them back, so as a thank you, I made these purr-fect pillows, would you like one?”

“That’s the same joke twice,” Deceit mutters, but Morality ignores him.

Morality holds out the Siamese pillow to Anxiety. Anxiety looks up at Deceit, and Deceit — unable to see how this could possibly be a trap — nods.

Anxiety quickly snatches the pillow from Morality and hugs it close to his chest.

“Thank you,” he mumbles.

Morality smiles. “No problem, kiddo. It’s the fleece I can do.”

Anxiety lets out a giggle, and Morality’s grin grows

“A fan of jokes I see! Well then, why did the chicken cross the road?”

“Why?” Anxiety asks quietly, voice muffled slightly by the pillow.

“To get to the other Sides!” Anxiety stares blankly at him, and Deceit smirks at the failed joke. “No? How about, what’s a ghost’s favorite fruit?”

“What?”

“Boo-berries!”

That one gets another giggle

Morality grins and holds out the third pillow. “You can have this one, too, if you want it.”

Anxiety doesn’t even look at Deceit for approval this time before he grabs pillow from Morality and attempts to hold both as close to his chest as possible.

“Anxiety,” Deceit says as Morality straightens up. “Why don’t you go show Creativity your new pillows?”

“Okay!” The kid cheers, taking off without another word, two cat pillows in tow.

“Thank you, Morality,” Deceit says once Anxiety is gone. “You didn’t have to.”

“I know I didn’t have to,” Morality smiles. “I wanted to! So I did.”

“I will admit, I’m not sure what to do when receiving a gift,” Deceit admits, surprised at his own honestly.

“Well I’ll just have to fix that, won’t I?” Morality says brightly. He pulls Deceit into a tight hug, but lets go before he can even begin to process that. “Bye Dee! I’ll see you later!”

And then he’s gone. Leaving Deceit standing in the doorway clutching a soft gray cat pillow.

Fuck, I’m GAY!

——End——

Taglist (if you voted B then you’re tagged)

@queen-of-all-things-snuggly

@pixelated-pineapple

@selenechris

@angelofthedark2005

@remus-sanders-is-amazing

@quietmob

@the-bones-fall

[k-s-morgan]

Hello I have recently discovered your blog very deep analysis of scenes and characters ! Can you tell me about the empathy Will has. Is it the visions he has when he goes to murder cases

Hi! Thank you - and sure! I’ll mix some of my previous answers here. Basically, I have two views on it, and none of them is about Will being a good empath.

Version 1: Will has deep understanding of killers only because he is one

To me, Will’s empathy is one of the most contradictory things in the show because what ended up on screen differs from what I’m sure Bryan had in mind. Will doesn’t have a good empathy in ‘Hannibal’ - in fact, I’d argue that he has a rather limited capacity for it, considering how he can’t relate to most people and fails to read their emotions even on a basic level from time to time.

In the books, Will does have an empathy disorder: he mirrors people, often without noticing it, and it makes him a better profiler. In the show, what Will has is an almost supernatural ability to connect with exclusively killers on some dark mind level. In E1 of S1, Jack says that Will makes leaps no one can explain, and Will tries to argue that the evidence explains it. But it really, really doesn’t. He doesn’t just make good guesses, he determines what the killer is thinking with 100% accuracy, sometimes to the point of voicing their literal thoughts aloud. He doesn’t mirror them like he does in the books: he retreats into his imagination and sees himself in their place physically, hearing their thoughts and repeating their actions. That’s not empathy, exactly - he’s more of a medium in these scenes.

Will doesn’t mirror people in general in the show. He does acquire some new traits - like he begins to do some sophisticated Hannibal-gestures eventually, but it isn’t presented as anything more but typical human behavior. Many of us develop new habits after being in close contact with another person. Will has a dominating range of his own unique habits - again, like most of us do. He can apply the killers’ perspective with starling clarity, but he’s in perfect control over it. He doesn’t get lost in there like it happens in the books. The only exceptions are when he’s very sick in S1 (with Tobias’ and Gideon’s two kills) and when he’s gone too long subduing his real self in S3 (when he gets angry with Alana and Jack and his vision blurs with Francis’). Other than that, Will decides when to switch his ability on and off. That doesn’t fit with empathy disorder.

Will feels sorry for some people (mostly murderers and those he can relate to in other respects, like Reba), but he remains calm and logical in other instances. For example, let’s take E1 of S1 again. Elise’s parents are emotional wrecks, but Will remains collected and asks a very logical question about the cat that Jack overlooked. In E5, he notices that Jack is shaken and talks to Mrs. Buddish, who is consumed by guilt and sorrow, himself. These are scenes where people are emotional and Will isn’t affected by it - well, he does react in certain ways, but he doesn’t mirror them. Same principle applies over and over again throughout the entire show. Will remains ‘himself’ at all times.

If the plan was to demonstrate he’s in control of his empathy for the most part, then it doesn’t work as well because Will is never shown doing his trick with other people. For example, at the times when the darkness grows overwhelming and Will understands he begins to slip, why not 'hide’ in the heads of normal people like Alana? It could give Will the strength to fight his dark impulses, to let some light and normality into his mind. Since he doesn’t do it, he likely just cannot relate to them properly. His gift works only on killers.

More than that, Will is bad at deciphering simple emotional language. In E7 of S2, he’s released from prison and Alana greets him. Will doesn’t register her coldness and the obvious hard undertones of her questions, he remains oblivious and thinks she’s come with good intentions. He misunderstands the reason for Peter’s feelings in E8 because he’s too focused on his own emotions - he thinks about killing Hannibal, so he assumes Peter also killed Ingram. He falls for Margot’s obvious lies, even though it’s very clear from her body language that she’s not in a mood to have sex, especially with a man. He spends ages figuring out whether Hannibal is capable of love. He misunderstands Abigail for a long time and ends up alienating her because he thinks she’s scared of darkness while in fact she’s scared because of her enjoyment of some of it. And there are endless examples like this.

Now, Hannibal says Will has “pure empathy” in E1, but he doesn’t know him at this point and can only make guesses. Also, anything he says to Jack is automatically subject to suspicion since he’s unlikely to be 100% truthful, especially when it comes to Will’s assessment. We also can’t rely on Will to tell the truth, considering how terrified he is of anyone finding out the reason for his seclusion.

I don’t think it was actually planned like this, but in the show as it ended up, there is no evidence of Will having some huge and unique universal empathy. He connects only with killers and even then, it’s more of a supernatural mind link rather than empathy. He understands them because, like Freddie says, he is a killer himself. He doesn’t show the same deep understanding for non-dark people, he makes huge mistakes in emotional judgement, and he doesn’t engage in mirroring more than most of us do. So yes, like you, I don’t think Will is a good empath.

Version 2: Will has a gift that’s centered on the presence of a murder victim’s body

We can see that Will reconstructs crimes and understands killers as they commit them, but he doesn’t get them in all other situations not related to murder. From major examples: Will often doesn't understand what Hannibal feels for him. He has no idea how to connect to Abigail correctly. He misunderstands Chiyoh. He can’t say much about Francis other than figure out his mindset during murders. If he really had killer-oriented empathy, he wouldn't have so many problems. So, maybe Will’s gift is not really about killers either? Maybe it’s about death?

Every time Will reconstructs the crimes, his visions revolve around the victim’s body. When he analyzes the scenes without the bodies, he  just imagines them there, like with the Dragon: they were already removed, but he envisioned them after reading the report. The only interesting exceptions happen when Will gets into the Ripper's head in S2 to see what he did with Miriam, but there is still a body of a politician involved. The second instance is when Will analyzes Sarah’s body in E8 of S2: he gets into Peter's mind almost by accident, and while this mind is twisted, it doesn't belong to a killer. Peter is the only non-killer we see Will ever connect with, but he's still a person heavily involved with a body - he tried to give it a new life. When Will looked at the scene, he was supposed to get into Ingram’s head, but instead, he got into Peter’s. So it seems like a body is an important component of Will's gift, a catalyzer he needs to turn it on.

And finally, there are two instances in which Will loses control over himself in terms of this ability. Both happen in S1, when he’s physically ill. The first time, he speaks like Tobias - and he’s staring at the body directly when it happens. The second time, he speaks like Gideon - and once again, he’s staring at the corpse of his doctor. I feel like it’s a big indication of Will having not an empathy, but an actual half-supernatural gift that is activated once he sees/senses the body.

[diphthongsfordays]

any funny cat quirks that I, someone who has little experience with cats, might not know about? but that I should?

not saying I’ll introduce all/any of them, but figured this might be a good way to pick your brain hahah

- @akindofmagictoo

Hello and welcome to Random Cat Facts(TM)! In which I ramble about probably useless cat things! I don't know how useful any of this is for dragons, but oh well, lol. Let me know if you have any questions, or want something specific :-)

Other cat people, feel free to chime in! I'm sure I've missed important stuff! And my knowledge may be off, or my experiences different from yours!

(Disclaimer that all cats are different, your mileage may vary, etc. :-) )

Cat's do this fun thing called "mirroring." Basically, they copy behaviors. You'll often see cats sleep next to each other in the same position. They also try to mimic their humans - this often manifests in things like cats sitting on your keyboard, or the book you're trying to read. Giving them decoy can help, but not always, lol.

Cats like tight spaces. They'll wedge themselves into corners to sleep, and it does not look comfortable, but it helps them feel secure. Giving nervous cats a safe corner is often helpful - when I did rescue work, I'd leave their transport crate in a corner with a bed in it and a towel over it, and that was where they would sleep.

Cats don't really meow at each other, but they meow much more at humans. Their meows can be extremely expressive - you learn to tell what different ones mean, and they are often very specific! All cat mewos are unique, and require you to learn them individually.

Cats also have very expressive body language, but it can be quite subtle if you aren't familiar with cats. Many people unfamiliar with cats don't pick up on all of it without practice or instruction - attentive owners may point things out or notice responses that the other people don't quite notice.

A surprising number of cats enjoy carrying large toys around and howling in the middle of the night.

Some cats have no shame, and are perfectly happy to demand attention. Most cats are far to dignified to actually admit they want to be near you, lol. They follow people from room to room, hanging out a few feet away, very deliberately not noticing you. Your presence has nothing to do with their decision to be in this room.

They may also hold a grudge - slight a cat, and they will hardcore ignore you for a bit. Ours would always do this after an extended trip, we'd get home and they'd pretend we don't exist for a solid 12 hours lol. Leaving the room, pointedly not looking at or acknowledging us, not coming for food, etc.

Cats are very clean! They groom a lot! If you touch them, they may need to groom it off immediately! With much twitching and indignation!

When cats are happy and trusting, they do a few things. Almost all do an adorable slow, squeezy-eyed blink. I've found that slow blinking at rescues seems to help them establish a bond with me faster, although that may just be confirmation bias, lol. Some also lay on their back, exposing their vulnerable belly (it looks like they want belly rubs - for most cats, this is a trap, lol). They also sit and/or sleep with their back to you, trusting you to protect it.

Cats go INSANE at whistling. Different cats may respond more strongly to specific songs. They chatter, and circle, and get hyper-stimulated. Whistle long enough and they'll start fighting.

A hyper stimulated cat typically gets twitchy, starts licking anything and everything (harder and harder), and will eventually bite. They're not being mean, they're just over-stimulated! Too much petting, petting too hard, whistling, scratching the base of their tail, rough play, etc. can all trigger this response.

Cats are territorial. They're generally more tolerant of other animals than of other cats. Introducing them typically requires an acclimation period, under supervision for safety at first.

Cats have a death chatter that they make when stalking prey (or a toy, lol). It's basically them using the jaw motion they use to break the necks of small birds and animals.

Some cats chase their tails. In my experience, the smarter the cat, the more likely they are to do this (and other dumb things, lol).

Cat people, feel free to add!

[thernrtwinsofficial]

It's 4 am and my hooman insisted on me posting her cat strategies... she should be sleeping...

Anyways who am I to question that.

Understanding Your Cat

So I'm just going to say this first: all cats are UNIQUE. They are not dogs, who are almost always the same. Some of these might not work for all cats, but this is just a GENERAL GUIDE. Please do not get mad if not all of this works.

So, cats. They are perhaps the ultimate carnivores, yet somehow, we have managed to tame them twice. Currently, there are two lineages your furry friend may have come from. This does not mean much for behavior, health, etc, it's just something interesting about your cat's past.

All cats stem from one of two heritage: Egyptian, or Mesopotamian. Both were very early cultures built around the middle East, and both were the territories of a genus known as "wild cats." These furballs dominated much of the old world, and they are the ancestors of our cats. Most cats tend to be dominantly from Egypt, as many were smuggled from there for their value both in trade and in pest control. A lot of cats still have at least some of the Mesopotamian side, and some are dominantly of that lineage.

But once again, this does not change the basic cat behavior. It's just interesting to know.

Basic cat language that humans have the ability to perceive is made up of mostly body language. Cats put their tails to use especially, and watching their tails can be very important when gauging your cat's mood.

A happy cat will have their tails up and erect, and the extra little twitch at the tip signals extreme joy in your presence.

A tail that is thrashing about or pounding on the ground signals that they are not very happy in this situation.

When their tail is down, this means caution, or curiosity. Curiosity can also be signalled with a tail shaped like a question mark, which is very fitting if you ask me.

A puffed up tail means they are either hyper, angry, or scared. This is not one you want to be around for.

When a cat is sad or lonely, their tail will usually be all the way down, like their mood.

Gaining a cat's trust can be very hard and take awhile, but here are a couple signals for you and your cat to shoot at each other.

Slowly blinking is a sign of uninterest in attacking. Cats will often make heavy eye contact when aggressive or in battle, so try to avoid this all together at least in the early stages.

Getting low to the ground shows submissivness and the urge to avoid conflict. If you can, lay down when trying to socialize with your cat so they know you are not a threat.

If your cat starts to get stressed, here are a couple suggestions. All cats are different, so these may not all work.

-Find some music they like! I've found that my cats like Alternative and bird songs. Some of the shelter cats i have worked with enjoyed calm piano, running water, and forest sounds. One of them went totally docile when I played it.

-Give them distractions! Bring in their favorite toy, or get them something that would smell interesting. If you can get then to think about something else, the problem could fade as a whole.

-Get a safe zone! I have met a number of cats who feel much better in little tents or boxes, so getting a safe zone for your kitty is a must. For my cats, my entire room is their safe zone. They have access to a large rug, a bed, a cat bed, and a dark closet with a number of nooks and crannies. Figuring out what your cat may enjoy as a safe zone is key to a better life.

-Give them some love! If your cat is especially attached to one person, get them to come in the room. Sometimes they just need somebody familiar and comforting.

Finding your cat's personal language and signals is just as important as any of these tips I have shared, so be sure to keep adding to the list of things your cat does as signals. It can make a big difference in your cat's overall quality of life.

- The "certified cat whisperer" of Racer & Rhino

[nightswithkookmin]

I think Jikook acts different on cameras yess they flirt a lot but they don’t show us everything of course, Jikook has changed a lot from 2015-2020 It’s like they used to do a lot of things but back then they were very sneaky when they used to do things like when Jimin was playing footsies under the table in Hawaii , him being jungkooks room in the morning while he was taking a shower , them holding hands while suga body was hiding it , do you think they act different on camera now From before

Jikook act different on cameras? Oh god, I hope you don't mean to say Jikook is fanservice now cos...

I've heard this a lot in my Jikook lifetime and after Taekook's conversation in the Soop that narrative shot back to prominence. The behind the scenes of them at the photoshoot certainly hasn't helped things. Lol

Lord knows it created a schism between Jikookers as to what that moment was and what it meant in the grand scheme of things.

I know Jikook have personas, I've been saying this from the onset of my blog. I know Jikook are human, I've been preaching this from go. I know they have different personalities, hell my whole schtick about their love language has been around their personalities.

We don't know much about who they are behind the cameras but I'm glad at least people are probing into that and not taking Jikook at face value- that's what alternative shipping is. Reconstructing their 'real life' behind the scenes interactions based on their online interactions and the little clues they leave behind through their digital print- very heavy detective work lol and I'm all about that life.

I don't know them personally but if I were to reconstruct all of their interactions to guess at what goes on behind the scenes, I can tell you as a fact that Tae and JK are the least members who spend time together off cameras. I can tell you that much.

They will be followed closely behind by Tae and Jin, Suga etc. In my opinion. If there are any pairs that spend a lot of time together off cameras, to me, it would be Jimin and JK, followed by Jimin and Suga, Jimin and RM and of course VMin. You just have to pay attention to the things they do and say about eachother.

You only have to take one look at Jikook dancing in sync to the very tip of their hairs to know those two spend a lot of time practicing together off cameras. And when you hear them harmonizing- damn, you just know.

The members have pointed out Jikook's unique way of dancing planned and choreographed dance moves on stage and the look on Hobi's face in that reaction video says he was equally taken aback.

Jikook, out of all the members, have the most chemistry online in their interactions and a certain high levels of intimacy that to me the only way I can make sense of it is If they have carnal knowledge of eachother or have at least encroached on eachother's emotional and personal space in such a way that it blurs the lines of friendship a little bit resulting in synergies between them that is out of this world or both.

Because let's face it, neither of Jikook is peacefully mounting their respective partners without addressing the elephant in the room which is eachother staring at them go at it from the couch.

I have seen Jimin with his friends within and outside BTS to know he acts the same- THE SAME, with everybody skinship wise on and off camera and yet his intimacy with JK stands out the most- I wonder why. Smirk.

We've seen him drop softly into Sungwoo's laps at an award. We all saw it. And that was not 'on camera' and so we can't say he acts differently with JK off camera at least where skinship is concerned. Know what I mean?

And just the fact their rain fight was about Jimin caring too much about JK- we can't say JM doesn't care about JK off cameras either.

When JM tried doing his flirty gat shit with Suga, Suga scolded him saying he is not JK if my memory serves me right. So clearly the gay shit he does with JK is something he does offline too.

I can't say same for JK though because JM have said JK acts different with him on camera- cold on camera but warm off camera. I've mentioned this several times now so I won't get into it.

What I'm trying to say is, Jikook don't Jikook all the time but their interactions aren't exactly off of what we see on camera. Their personalities offline may be different but that doesn't mean their interactions offline are different or wildly different. Their interactions on line aren't so far off from their off line interactions such that we can brand what they do online as fanservice. In my opinion.

And also, something about the way JK reacts when he sees Jimin all over the members tells me he is not used to seeing JM prioritise others over him or have that intimacy with the members off camera. Yes, he does skinship with them and with his friends but I feel he does it the most with JK.

I mean if memories 2019 is anything to go by. Why do I feel I have answered this ask before? Lol.

Have their interactions changed online? Well for one, they aren't horny teenage boys anymore- ok, that's lie. They still got it like it was yesterday. Lol. They've matured a lot is what I mean. They've learned a lot and their fandom has equally grown enormously since those days.

I mean, let's be real, the Jikook ship tag wasn't as hot as it is now so they could get away with a lot of things back then. Now, they are one of the biggest ships not just in BTS or S.K but in world. There isn't much they can get away with. So their bandmates, editors etc. even they themselves check their behavior on camera a lot these days- especially with the jealousy and possessiveness bit. Lol.

Jk has really been trying. Jimin too. They crack sometimes but still you can see them putting in the effort- honestly, good for them. I can't be mad at that. We love positive change.

As for the sneaky behavior...

Chilee, I don't know. They still seem pretty gay, very risque to me. Lol

Jimin playing with Jk's titties in last year's season's greatings, dipping his hands in Jk's pockets- from JK's reaction it didn't seem like JM was reaching for Christ in those pockets. Cough cough.

And JK intentionally pushing his butt into JM's groin region- had my bias looking all kinds of confused. Poor Jimin! The sexual innuendos in that footage... good thing the editors cut that bit off. Good thing. And JM, you did not have to drop your eyes to the Jeon booty. You know you can't keep it straight. Jeon booty makes you weak and you know it. Lmho

Eye fucking eachother this year, blowing illegal kithes during the Dynamite reaction VLive - Tae didn't yell 'let's not look in the camera's because he thought they were about to harmonize for Jesus. Lmho. Dude is tired of their shenanigans- I feel you Tae. I'm done with them too. Gosh!

Jk interrupting Jin's call to ask JM on a date- now that was wild. Asking JM to change his clothes and come back to the live and that little gay panic moment JM had after hearing that. Oh Jimin! Bless his heart, he's weak. Lol

JK really wanted to do a live with JM so bad- I'm glad he got his wish later. And from the looks of it, seems he is still fighting to have another one (ALONE) with JM. Can't wait to see how that works out. For now, I know he is grounded. Lol

The bolder one this season for me has been JK. I think you have to go back towards the end of 2019 until JM's birthday this year and reevaluate their interactions. Jk has been holding it down, piloting the Jikook ship until August this year when JM started getting loud again with his overt flirtations.

No but seriously JK, you will do all of these bold wild moves and still not take a minute or two to wish him a happy birthday on his birthday. Then when we don't ship you with Jimin too you'll stand there looking like your cat got stuck in a tree- quirky for no reason this one. Chilee.

It's the, I love you Jiminah at the end of his call for me. I set that as my ringtone for months! Lol

And JM turning red on the couch during Bon Voyage four- c'mon now, that was something! Hobi was right, JM needed an ice pack- all night. Sksksksksksksksksksksjk

Don't mind me. I can be silly for no reason sometimes. Lol

It's not so much as that Jikook's interactions have changed for me. It's more so that there are a lot that has changed around them and in effect, is impacting their interactions on camera.

For one, as I keep pointing out, they don't have the freedom to do certain things anymore. Like, doing VLives on their own whenever they want like they used to do before. Now their vlives are heavily monitored, and the content they make on the app has been reduced to crafts and Arts- until Jimin's birthday live. You know my theory on that so...

VLive used to be one of the sources of their most authentic interactions. That and award shows, interviews and other contents BigHit has less control over. But all that have ceased due to the Corona Virus pandemic.

BTS's online presence, in the wake of the pandemic is also being heavily monetized. A simple tweet on Twitter from any of them has become very transactional- they have to be careful what they tweet because every tweet now is also a brand promotion for a phone campany.

Soop was equally that- brand promotion for Fila and all the big sponsors that sponsored that production, so bet your sweet ass they aren't going to let any 'controversial' sexual innuendo slip into that- but even that, chilee they tried. Lol. If you know, you know!

I'm waiting to see how they all interact with the VApp in the future, especially JK and Jikook.

And those moments, you pointed out are from Bon Voyage, no? I'm not gonna lie, I am wary of content that comes from BigHit editors. I think I've mentioned this a few times. They aren't stupid, they know what they are doing letting certain moments slip into screen time.

And some of the moments we think are authentic Jikook flirty interactions are just missions given them by the content developers- nobody wants Jikook to be gay more than bang PD and his shady ass editors trust me! Lmho.

Some moments too may be authentic coming from Jikook but that doesn't stop pro gay editornim from using it to his advantage. Chileee. I think I've talked about all of this?

All that being said, I think somethings will never change- like JM caring about JK or JK wanting Jimin. That is a Jikook thing. Yes, JM held JK's hand behind Suga when JK seemed- bored out of his mind. But JK rushed to console JM right after his ment in the recent Online concert. That right there was another Rosebowl moment for me and that would never change until they are no longer a couple.

That right there is also an example of the intimacy I talk so much about. It's that unconscious need to be there for eachother in a way I haven't seen anyone else in the group be that for either of them. They answer eachother's questions even if they don't ask. I don't see Tae traveling across podiums for JK or JK rushing from one end of a stage to another for anyone apart from JM. They really care about eachother and I don't think it's only on camera.

And you are right about their sneaky moments in those instances. sometimes these are moments Jikook breach the forth wall but other times too they are just balderdash. Lol

I think BigHit didn't see this pandemic coming, nobody did. Sometimes I feel they are in way over their heads with it, trying to maintain a steady stream of income inspite of it. But they are going to keep experimenting with content, experimenting with marketing strategies until they find that sweet spot.

I'd be ignorant and a hypocrite if I said all these new developments in no way impacts Jikook and their interactions. Or even their relationship. But one thing I know for sure is Jikook is not fanservice. They are not. And I don't think their affections for eachother has changed. They still got it.

I hope this helps. Stay safe and I purple you.

Signed,

GOLDY

[pawpadink]

Art Feedback Session - Spookydoesstuff

"Our task was to make a mock intro to a show using our own original stories, either ones we had in the past or ones we made in class. I used Adobe Animate, which isn't very traditional for art to begin with.

I wanted something dramatic and more anime-esqe (inspirations being Persona 5's 2D animation, as well as the Cowboy Beebop intro.

The render itself didn't turn out as high quality as I had hoped, but that's on me for not figuring out how to render in a higher quality. With my time crunch (I had put off working on this until I had 1 1/2 days left, on top of a project for another class.)

I feel this could have been better? But I'm satisfied with it. I just wished someone had said something, even just asking about my characters (I dont generally ask here, at least about these specific ocs, just because I've had them so long and I want to give out more of their story through context and art. But in that class no one had seen them before and I would have loved explaining their story better than just 'alien cats')"

-- Spookydoesstuff

So! Let's start with the good. The color contrast is lovely, the bright red against the monochrome is a classic high tension color combo that really sells the adversarial stress of the scene. The characters themselves each have their own unique silhouettes, which means if you just filled each of the characters in with pure black and then showed me their reference sheets I could easily identify which character is which. The line work here is very crisp and clear, which for animation lends very well to streamlining and simplifying things. Your style itself applies very nicely to an animation style, again, thanks to its general simplicity will make the whole animation process much easier than a more detailed or complex style or design.

When thinking of areas of improvement, the first thing that is brought to my attention is expression. With the four-eyed cat in the second image, at a glance it's hard to see he's furrowing his brow a bit and his current expression comes across more as a neutral expression than a concerned, worried, or frustrated expression. I would recommend here adding a bit of emphasis on the expression with the eyelids or eyebrows so that it goes into the general shape of the eye instead of just above it or add a stylized eyebrow so it is more visible against the dark fur. Due to the thin line art, the line that marks where he's furrowing his brow is hard to spot.

Your art would also benefit from expression through body language! Cats, in particular, are incredibly expressive through body language. The ears in particular here are showing no emotion- Cats when anxious, scared, or angry will pin their ears back. Perhaps a bit more emphasis on bristling fur too- in the nape of the neck and the tail. Fluffing of tails is not just fear, but also aggression when raised high or thrashing. When curved it's fear. The nervous cat in the second picture might want to be keeping her head a little lower, as nervous cats will duck down, especially if submissive. Of course, since these are not standard cats, you are welcome to take these cat behaviors and alter them to your alien culture's standards! Go wild!

Also, look into playing with the line of action a little more. Even with characters that are standing still, exaggerating some curves in their body will add a hearty dose of personality. Plus, look into the 'law' of stretch and squish- I use the term law here loosely, it's more of a guideline.

(Here are some image scans from a book called Cartoon Animation by Preston Blair, and there's a lovely tutorial on expressions from the comic Lackadaisy here!)

Next I'd like to mention the shading. There is a bit of an inconsistency between the way you shaded each character. Although lighting direction was ignored for style here, the particular techniques used for each piece should remain the same throughout each frame of an animation, each panel of a comic, or between related images in general. In the second photo, the highlights on the four-eyed cat almost looked like fur patterning, so maybe refining that highlight by making it a little darker would make it more obvious it was a highlight and not a change in fur color?

I think if you were given a little more time you would have managed with the shading, but still something of note to keep in mind for the future~

Finally I would like to address the environment... or the lack of it. The bright red background is lovely, especially in this grey scale-pop style of colors. My only issue is that it feels like they're floating in some red void- you have the darker red to denote the ground, but it doesn't feel very consistent with where the characters are placed and there's no shapes in the background to denote any kind of environment- no tree silhouettes, no building silhouettes, or any other objects that could denote where the characters are.

Above is an example from Persona 5 which kind of shows what I'm talking about. Looking at some perspective tutorials will actually show you a way you can manipulate the floor or gradients to help add some solidity to the ground. With this style I wouldn't even say you would need to add nearly as much detail to them as Persona 5's art- just some dark shapes and perhaps a gradient of sorts to give a sense of location to the scene would help.

Overall, wonderful job! My first impression was 'Oh hey this looks like something from Persona 5!' so you really got that feel you were looking for. You also immediately get a sense of relationship here- from an outsider's perspective with zero previous information on who these characters are or how they are related. You can clearly tell the four eyed cat is protecting the female cat in the back, and there's a sense of either accusation from the one-eyed cat or threat, and that the other two almost seem to be distressed as if they were once close to this character.

Keep up the good work, don't feel discouraged with the lack of feedback from your class. I really feel with a bit of practice in terms of expression and body language you can really make some great waves with your art! You have a great foundation.

In terms of art program recommendations, my wife and I both use Clip Studio Paint. You need the EX version for feature length animations unfortunately, but the PRO version is much cheaper and lets you do some very short animations however it is a very powerful illustration and comic tool as well. Krita is a totally free program that will let you animate as well and has a pretty robust illustration feature itself, but I'm not sure if it has anything specific for comic making.

A big thank you to Spookydoesstuff for being our first review and for being so pleasant to speak to! Please check out more of their art and their blog by clicking here to go to their tumblr!

[theramseyloft]

what the story behind kou?

I have been the columbid specialist volunteer for the local wildlife rehab for almost as long as I have had doves.

Most of what they got in were orphaned or injured Mourning and Collared doves, so I primarily fostered the Mourning pweeps for soft release and found homes for the collared doves.

Feral pigeons didn’t come in as often, but my specialization in hand rearing columbids meant those came to me too.

This is 5 week old Ankhou next to a two week old mourning dove the day we got them.

Some kind soul saw him running circles around the base of a lamp post in a parking lot, screaming for parents who were anxiously watching him, but has no way to get him off the ground to safety.

Instead of leaving him, they scooped him up and rushed him to Highland’s wildlife center, who immediately called me to come get him.

For reference, the Billboard Babies, Dodger and Alex, were 5 weeks old when they arrived.

This is what Ankhou SHOULD have looked like.

But his parents simply had not been able to find enough to feed him.

This is him the same day after his first meal.

You can see down on his head in that photo, meaning that he didn’t lose those feathers he’s missing.

He is so emaciated that his body had to prioritize growing bones over growing feathers because he simply did not have the building materials to produce both at the same time.

Here he is a week later, and you can just see him finally getting some pins on his wee head.

We had ankhou before we had the incubator, so he spent a lot of time on me to stay warm.

As he grew, I talked him through everything like a toddler.

I had read this study on Pigeon cognition pointing out that they learn the equivalent of words by the same mechanic as human children.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/02/150204184447.htm

And I was curious to see if that could be done in real time by supplying him the names of objects he was looking at or interacting with, describing his actions, asking about his mood, and describing mine.

To my surprise and delight, he started responding logically to sentences directed at him in such a way that I could tell which words registered correctly and which ones didn’t quite mean anything to him yet.

He has a rudimentary capacity to answer yes or no questions, and understands pretty abstract concepts like help, apology, and consent.

Along with language, though, he was picking up on my behavior patterns.

A little back ground...

I am an autistic woman with ADHD, PTSD, and pretty severe general anxiety.

Those last two things largely from a long history of systematic physical and emotional abuse by my parents, guardians, and peers.

I am nonverbal most of the time because I don’t think in words. I think in pictures, sounds, and sensations and have to manually translate them into words before I can verbally articulate them.

Under sufficient duress, my throat physically closes, and I can’t mechanically speak.

I can usually type or write fine under that circumstance, but if something distresses me enough beyond that point, my connection to language severs completely and I no longer have access to my proverbial internal word bank.

At that point, I understand actions and tone of voice, and that is it.

The problem is that I can’t tell when I am bordering that state of shut down, so, from my perspective, I can be out in public and suddenly just cease to function with no warning or discernible cause.

Ankhou is practically hard wired to pick up on my tells.

And me shutting down freaks him right tf out.

So he has two levels of alerts he taught himself to perform.

If I’m getting stressed at a rapid level, he will sit on my shoulder or knee and lean against my cheek or hand.

That’s my cue to stop what I’m dong to pet him and do my breathing exercises and practice mindful self evaluation.

Standing on my chest to stare me in the face is a much more urgent warning that I will shut down in the next 20-45 seconds, so I need to find a quiet place out of the way to sit down and focus on the softness of his feathers and my breathing exercises.

If he could not get to me before shut down, he will fuss with my hands until I move one, then bunt under it like a little feathered cat.

If he can get me to stroke him, that’s usually step one towards bringing me back down and getting me to where I can function.

He will lose interest and go do his own thing when I’m back to base line.

When we’re out in public, that usually means he leans to ask me to bring him closer to something he wants to look at.

He knows the difference between physically tired, shut down, and crashing from a blood sugar spike, which all look the same from the outside, and all feel the same to me.

If I’m crashing, he just will NOT let me fall asleep. What ever that takes. 

Usually biting me in increasingly sensitive places until something rouses me.

If nothing does, he does looking for my husband or house mates and pitches an absolute fit until some one comes and checks on me.

Our training program here at the Ramsey Loft is designed around what we learned from the practical applications of all the studies I have read on pigeon cognition to communication with Ankhou.

It’s pretty much a constant shifting of applying every new thing we learn based on “What do I wish I had known when Ankhou was this age?”

Unfortunately, only a dog, or in some place a miniature horse can have the legal distinction of Service Animal.

But pigeons are uniquely suited because of their natural sociology and cognition to a wide variety of mental illness specific service and therapy work, so we are researching to try to eventually get the laws changed to include pigeons as potential Service Animals.

[giorgiastastes]

버닝 / Burning (2018)

"It's too close, you might not see it"

What to say about this movie...

The film itself is quite simple, even too easy at first sighting I'd dare to say, but the meaning behind, the interpretations and smart details is what makes it unique and pretty much a masterpiece.

I'm sure that most people, or at least those who usually watch unchallenging to elaborate movies, won't like it. If you're looking for something what will be "explained to you", for the director to give you that big plot twist or long monologue, you won't find it here. But if you want to watch a work of art that'll make you think, reflect and crash your minds, you have a good journey in front of you.

I remember that as soon as I've finished watching it I went online to look for theories, to see if someone else had the same idea as me, if I got it right and what I've missed, and then I planned to write here my thoughts on the real explaination, but after rewatching and searching I've figured it out BURNING doesn't really have a "true" explaination in my idea, or better, the director definitely knows what he believes is the so called truth, but the strength of it is how free of interpretations it is. I've read hundreds theories and honestly all of them could fit just right, so for once I've decided to do something different.

In here I will summarize all the theories, under layers and explaination that I've read, figured out or found, and I will leave to you, the reader, to believe your own "truth"

This will be full of spoilers, it's actually a summarization of the after watch, so read at your own risk, and since I'm taking for granted that you've watched the movie and remember it quite well too, I won't always repeat the plot when not necessary.

• Ben sells organs on the black market. That's how he gets his money and Haemi is aware of this, and decided to sell her own organs to pay off her debt. She even says I'D SELL MY ORGANS IF I WERE YOUNGER. She could also be unaware of this and that's why she dissapears.

• Ben is a serial killer. He seduces fragile women who are very easy preys to such an handsome and carismactic young man, and then gets rid of them after he gets tired. This happens about every couple of months, which corresponds to his journey in Africa timeline. They are the greenhouses he burns, because he knows nobody will look for them, and in fact the police does not care about the greenhouses, just like they don't care about missing women nobody knows about.

Ben also owns all the qualities of a maniac sociopath who's keen on control and feels no emotion or empathy. He never cries for example. He also feels pride in his crime and he's almost tempted to confess them to show how good he is. That's why he says to Jongsu that he will burn a greenhouse close to him, but he didn't mean it in a special terminology, but more like in an emotional sense. He will kill the the closest thing the other has, which is Haemi. He also states that she dissapeared like "smoke".

This would also be justified by the creepy call the protagonist receives by Haemi before she dissapears. The biggest evidence placed by the director to prove that this theory is the most correct one is in the last scene, where Ben is putting makeup on a new girl. For a non Korean speaker it's quite hard to get the reference but Makeup and corpses' cremation are spelled in the same way in the hangul language, therefore the movie showing us Ben doing the girl's makeup is the alternative way to say he's killed her and is now cremating the body, hence his obsession with fires.

He's the one who cleaned Haemi's room and took her cat. He also keeps his victims personal objects as a throphy of some sort.

• Ben is a pimp. He's the trainer for these beautiful, young but poor women who are ready to sell themselves when he convinces them to do so. This is shown as Haemi also become less and less shy as the movie goes on, as seen in the undressing scene, while being more bold and provocative too. He changed her drastically, or maybe only let her discover a different, more free, part of herself. He also applies makeup on them how he would do to a doll, playing dress up for a woman who's now becoming just an object of desire that can be bought.

• Ben is a human trafficker. He sends women into slavery while promising them a life of luxury and happiness. That's why he shows off his idyllic lifestyle, and then sells them in Africa (where he goes frequently), where they'll never be found.

• Ben is a life guru. He teaches unsecure and frustrated women to feel liberated and less oppressed, to leave it all behind and start from scratch. They pay him, that's why he's rich. He also keeps a "souvenir" of every woman he has turned. This could explain why he shows up to the meeting with Jongsu in the finale. If he actually killed or sold these women he wouldn't fall into the other man's trick.

• Ben doesn't exist. He's just the symbol of everything Jongsu is not but aspires to be. He's rich, confident, cultured and attractive. Every flaw and layer of insecurity Jongsu seems to have, Ben lacks. And in the end, when the protagonist finally becomes brave enough to mature, to actually chase the woman he loves, he's able to kill the shadow of himself that only reminded him of how miserable he was.

• Ben and Jongsu are the same person. Much Fight Club like, they're the same human being, just different, extreme sides of one. Jongsu could have a personality disorder or maybe we're just shown two sides of him that prove his mental health issues. That's also why Haemi seems to be involved with both of them without choosing a side, because one is the gentle but insecure fraction, the other the bold but arrogant one. And then, in the end, when such division is making him go insane, he decides to kill his alter ego.

• It's just a love triangle. One of my favorite songs of all time had a similar topic. There's the main character, a shy and quiet boy, who falls in love with a girl who feels foreign and unreachable to him. But he's not the only one in her life. She also has another lover who's much more attractive and manly in a way, and all three start to share this peculiar poliamorous love story, mostly platonic. She's very pretty and feels as free as Venus, torn between two men. Then one day she leaves, and she'll never come back. But while the second boy easily moves on with his life, figuring out it was just a näive fling, the singer remains stuck, obsessing over her day and night, trying to find answers and solutions just not to deal with the realization of her not loving him enough to stay.

• Every character represents a social stereotypes and criticism of modern South Korean classes. I think this is very straightforward, especially Jongsu's jealousy of Ben's wealth, and Haemi's attempt to RISE in the social pyramid, surrounding herself with high class people like Ben or his friends, even letting them make joke of her, to mock her, all of it just to feel part of their group and reality.

• It's all in Jongsu's head.

• The disappearance of Haemi, whether it happened or not or HOW it happened are not the main focus on the movie, which instead is the characters dealing with such loss and lack of knowledge on what happened. Much like the Russian movie Loveless (2017), where the event is only used as an artistical device to let the story progress and the characters' grief culminate. Maybe we really don't need to know what happened to her, maybe she's dead, maybe she's alive and better than ever, but to the movie's intent such information is superficial, it's just the human need to fill our curiosity when were too afraid to deal with the pain of remaining unaware of it. Jongsu is sure she's been killed and that brings him to his next move, but the viewer, he doesn't need to know, because he doesn't need to act, to keep the story going.

• Haemi might have killed herself. Ben is the only one who knows about this and that's why she gives him her cat. She also shows multiple signs of advanced depression, for more than half of the movie is almost like she's not there, like she's already just the memory, the ghost of a girl who once was there.

• The movie itself is just a metaphor. The metaphor is many times used by the characters and maybe not only as a word, part of a dialogue, but the overall film might be A BIG, CRIPTIC METAPHOR.

• Everything is hereditary. From family's fortunes and richness to behavior and inner rage. Jongsu was born poor and will die as such just like his father, and even though he seems like the most innocuous being, he's able to take out his rage on other just like this father. I guess it's in the genes.

• Jongsu is the calf. The calf represents Jongsu's pureness and naivety. And when he sells it, he's also selling his soul in a way.

• Haemi represents South Korea, Jongsu North Korea, Ben is the new Korea, the one always more and more Westernized.

• We're just reading the plot of Jongsu's book. When Haemi leaves for Africa he has plenty of time to write the story he's planning to put into words, and that's what he does. Everything we see after she comes back from her journey is just the plot of the book, and the creation of Jongsu's imagination.

• A modern reinterpretation of the Great Gatsby. Yes, obviously a VERY liberate view of the novel, but many details seem to be quite evocative.

• A criticism to how South Korea treats women. Even the movie itself does this, probably on purpose. The one who disappears is a woman, but the ones who are the main centre of attention are men. She's only a story device, never the real protagonist.

• Ben wanted Jongsu to discover his crimes so he could reach fame if the other ever made a book out of it. He's so full of himself he'd rather be punished for his crimes than never showing off how good he was at covering every proof. That's why he dies almost peacefully, and shed a tear, which he claimed to have never done before.

• The well Haemi reference to, symbolizes falling into prostitution. That's why Jongsu's mother knows about it too, since it's quite obvious she's now an escort. But she states the well is dry, as a way of saying that it's not how easy and fun it might seem.

• This is just the tragic story of a boy who's lost every possible source of love. From his father in jail, his mother who abandoned him, to the only girl that ever showed him affection disappearing, and a new friend who he decides to kill.

• Ben is Death or maybe the devil personified. He helps Haemi get the courage to end it one for all, and even pushes Jongsu to kill, cursing his soul.