#native to where exactly?
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tereghan · 3 months ago
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The Oregon Grape that I hope will mound and help hold up the hillside.
Please note that I'm not sure if this is the right way to plant on a slope like this or not, please do more research than I did when designing your own landscaping projects. 😆
Also probably should have done more research on the plant itself. This is another one that is native to Northern California instead of my particular area, unfortunately. Should have looked it up on CalScape before blowing $40 at the nursery. At least it shouldn't be outright invasive like it can be in other states.
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starry-bi-sky · 3 months ago
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finally giving fem danyal her own au and fulfilling my 'danny is an animal whisperer' agenda at the same time: mother of monsters danyal 2.0
i say "2.0" because TECHNICALLY 'mother of monsters danyal' is an au I made back in June for Dark fem!Danyal (who I promptly named Layal). However, I haven't posted much for her yet, and I like the "mother of monsters" premise too much to leave it only to Layal. Plus Danyal in that au was going to become the mother of monsters anyway, just with significantly less world domination and mass extinction.
'Animal whisperer' Danny has been something I've been thinking about since my latest DP 'wolfpack au' post and it's! So fun to think about, and who no better to assign the idea to than Danyal Al Ghul? Who comes from a family infamously known for their love of animals and nature?
Fem Danyal is just purely self-indulgent. *gestures wildly at her* i just lomvb,,, her,,,, I've only really mentioned her in context of the 'Things in Threes' au/my first Danyal al Ghul au with the facial scar, but she's!!! I love her. She deserves her own au <33
So kill three birds with one stone! Make a post about it.
Anyways, Danny has a large lair. Similar to cult leader danyal, her lair is a giant mountain region resembling nanda parbat with a big temple/palace-like area built into the mountain. It's large, it's overflowing with natural flora, with its own mini-floating islands hovering over some areas, and it's also completely empty.
Danny takes one look at her lair upon first meeting, -- noting that it looked relatively smaller from the outside -- and promptly, with the elegance of an Al Ghul, goes "What the hell??" Because yes, while she does enjoy her own solitude and privacy, this is a bit ridiculous.
For heaven's sake, there's even a massive lake in there! What's she going to do with all this space? Can she make it any smaller? Why is it so big in the first place? This looks borderline like one of the mega-islands!
She finds out later that apparently, the amount of ectoplasm a ghost has can have an effect on the size of their lair. And since she has such a large core, her lair reflects that. Wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey stuff, it's bigger on the inside so it doesn't take up "too much space" on the outside. Don't worry about it too much.
Danyal isn't totally opposed to having such a large lair, she's just... a bit baffled by it. It feels like so much wasted space is all. All this flora and no fauna to enjoy it with. It's practically eerie.
She decorates her temple-palace area, transforming rooms to match her needs as she sees fit. In the center of the inner gardens is a massive tree that she likes to climb, with twisting, winding branches. Sam and Tucker have honorary rooms, even if they can't safely leave the specter speeder for long periods of time, even with proper safety equipment. So does Jazz. Ali (Dani) has one too, but he can actually use that one, and Danny brought him to her lair so he could decorate it himself.
She has a personal garden, but for the most part she lets the flora exist as it is. Too much space to cultivate it en masse anyways.
Skip to a few weeks later, on her next visit to Clockwork. She developed a habit of going to see him semi-regularly just because. She enjoys his wisdom, and he has a lot of stories to tell, and when he's not being the cryptic and esoteric timekeeper, he's a bit goofy.
(pushing my dadwork agenda here,,, i think Danny deserves to go 'hey, Lord Clockwork, do you want me to buy you something' while she's at walmart, only to receive a singular glowing sticky note that says 'cucumber gatorade'.)
(She insists on referring to him with his proper titles even for the most mundane of things because it's proper, but Clockwork sees a future where she eventually calls him "Cee" and by all things in existence is he determined to get there. Anyways,,,)
On her next visit to Clockwork, just as she is about to leave, Clockwork stops her and goes; "Ah, I have something for you. Hold out your hands."
Danny does as such, and Clockwork doesn't give out things often, so her curiosity has spiked to the highest levels. He turns away from her for a moment, using his staff to summon whatever it is he needs, and when he turns around.
He drops a fish into her hands. Granted, a fish in a small glass tank. But a fish nonetheless. A small one, roughly about the size of her finger, with a blue-black, eel-shaped body and four sets of glowing eyes. She can see thin, almost translucent, but spiny fins down its back and the start of bioluminescent markings. It's swimming around in circles in its small container.
"Lord Clockwork." Danyal says all too calmly.
"Yes, Danyal?"
"What is this?"
"That is an adolescent leviathan, Danyal." She’s transfixed onto the tank, but she doesn’t need to see Clockwork’s face to hear the smile he’s stifling.
The myriad of emotions that runs through her all at once threatens to overwhelm her, and she can’t tell if the feelings are negative or positive. So she carefully closes her eyes to breathe in through her nose.
“Clockwork.”
“Ah, I see you’ve dropped formalities.”
She ignores that.
“Why have you given me an adolescent leviathan?”
She's expecting the trickster to look amused when she opens her eyes. Instead, he just looks endeared. "I know you're fond of animals," he says, "and you always look amazed when you come across an animal of the realms. So I thought you might enjoy taking care of the young beast, it's mother is dead so it has no one to care for it."
Oh.
"But, if you don't like it," Clockwork's hands reach out for the tank, "I can simply take it back--"
Danyal shifts the tank out from his reach and hugs it possessively. "I never said that. How do I care for it?"
And so clockwork gives her a list, and when Danyal returns to her lair, she sets up a large tank in her room for the leviathan to swim in -- it's much too small for the lake right now, she thinks. She'll feel better if it's somewhere she can find it. She names him Suhā.
Suhā grows quickly, and by the end of the mortal month she transforms one of the rooms into a large pond for him to swim around in. He's a very loyal beast, recognizing her as it's mother of some kind. Danyal takes great care ensuring that her beastie gets quality care, and Suhā swims to the surface to see her when he senses her in the room.
It spirals from there. Somehow, Pandora catches wind that Clockwork gave her a leviathan, and so the next time Danyal visits the Greater Athens, she gives her a baby chimera. It's eyes are still sealed shut, Danyal can't bring herself to say no. She names the little beastie Firas.
Frostbite hears about it too, and not to be outdone, gives her an animal she's never even heard of. Infinite-realms born, apparently. A fox-like creature with two small horns like an impala, four eyes, and tall legs. The name isn't something she's quite sure how to write down, and she's positive that her friends won't be able to comprehend it. She names her Eira.
Getting the three of them used to each other was... interesting. Suhā tried to eat Firas when Danyal first introduced the two, and they've hated each other ever since. Firas and Eira are seemingly getting along. Her island already feels full enough with the three of them on it.
Of course, that's not the end of it. With her luck, she begins stumbling across other monsters. Realms-borne or otherwise. An injured hydra in the Grecian islands that, through lots of trial and error, Danyal is able to rehabilitate and heal. It routinely comes to visit her afterwards.
A griffin with a broken wing that she moves permanently to the island that likes to keep to itself, but tends to come down when she's near. It gets along best with Firas.
A panther-like monster from the Shades Woods that had six legs and three tails, with ends that reminded her of a venus flytrap. It stuck around the heavy foliage and she can only make out where it was when she saw its golden eyes reflect.
She befriends a young indrik with its leg injured, and much like the hydra it follows her back to her island, and stays there in the mountains. It comes out when she's alone, much like her other beasts.
She receives two more leviathan -- one from clockwork, and one she finds herself while exploring the deeper and darker recesses of the Ghost Zone. It was huddled against the carcass of its mother, and she managed to befriend and get close enough to it to bring it back to her island. Suhā is fully grown by then, with a head bigger than Danyal herself and he still likes to stick her head out of the water for nuzzles when she's near.
He's not very happy with his new siblings, but he's not trying to eat them when she's not looking. So she calls it a win in her book.
And it's not just large beasts either; smaller animals begin popping up when she's not looking. Bird-like creatures and small mammals, and she swears she saw a doe (or something resembling a doe) grazing in the forest while she was walking by.
She takes back with her a lone snake egg once, and it grows so big it wraps around her island and sleeps with its massive head on the mountain beside the temple, like some smaller breed of Jörmungandr.
And on and on it goes. Some of the beasts she comes across never step foot onto her island, some of them follow her back, while others she has to carry back. Not all of the ones that follow her stay, and Danny rehabilitates the injured and releases them when they're fully healed.
It's hectic, and busy, and frankly she loves it. Some of her rehabilitated beasts return to visit her, or to have their children somewhere on the island, or whatever it is they need to do.
She becomes a bit infamous for it. She goes to visit Dorathea once, and as she's walking through the streets she can hear some of the denizens whispering while she walks past.
"Is that her?"
"Her highness' friend? Yes--"
"--that's the one--"
"--Mother of monsters--"
Danny's not sure how to feel about that.
Although, she can't say she's opposed.
Danyal Al Ghul, Mother of monsters, raiser of beasts. It has a nice ring to it.
#danny fenton is not the ghost king#dpxdc#dp x dc#dpxdc crossover#danyal al ghul au#dpxdc prompt#fem danny fenton#fem danyal al ghul#mother of monsters danny#if anyone wants to hear about Layal specifically I'd be HAPPY to tell you about her. she's inspired by the song 'scylla' from epic#you can't leave me with dark danny for too long i give him depth if i do. anyways i gave layal mommy issues. she has a complicated view on#danyal and both loves and hates her in equal measure. she killed her out of mercy. she's her mother her sister her other half.#she despises her. she misses her. she'll never see her again. she sees her every time she looks in the mirror. she's 24. she's 10 years old#can you tell that i made layal during a time where i was thinking about the 'dan is danny's kid' dpdc trope bc that's exactly what happened#*holds dad!clockwork up like potato.* 'i just think he's neat :)'#i am incapable of making things only cracky. i must make it meaningful in some way or another.#MMMM i have to cut it off here before it gets too looooNNGGG.#if this flops i'll be sad :((#i just think the idea that danyal has her own little world on her island is neat. she's got dragons and wyrms and serpents and giant wolves#and griffins and one time there's a sphinx although she doesn't stay permanently. Danyal has a blast answering her riddles though.#that panther is based off the dnd displacer beast. there's little salamanders and gazelles with three eyes. there's more sea monsters than#just suhā and the other two leviathans but i couldnt think of any. im obsessed with the sea serpents if you havent notice LMFAO.#there's pegasi and a manticore and a ton of infinite realms monsters that are just an assortment of animals slapped together#the shades woods are a mega-island idea that i had. they're where a bunch of the “shades ghosts” are from. Its this large forest area with#megaflora trees similar to the redwood forest with canopies so thick and wide that no light can reach the bottom. so all of the native faun#living there have adapted to live in the shadows. there are a few villages that live in tall tree houses like the ewok villages that outsid#ghosts can go visit. the panther that's from there is very fond of danyal honestly. anyways yEAH ANIMAL WHISPERER DANNY.#her beasties are all animals up until she's like. 19. where she promptly steals an infant minotaur from a Legends Islands near Pandora#he wasn't being treated well okay!!! she couldn't stand by and watch. his name is asterion. he's a year old. and she'll kill for him.#i dont have enough tags to talk about Damian or her family >:T. just know that i am leaning into her assassin bg as usual :)
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smokeys-house · 1 year ago
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I get that it's not the job of every person who's fluent in their first language to teach it to new learners, but why is there such an attitude surrounding new learners? Why is there the idea that every person should be fluent before they dare speak aloud? You don't have to let people be wrong, but you do have to accept that there is a polite way to correct someone. If you're going to correct someone you should at least muster the effort to do it politely. You don't have to point out a mistake in a way that shames someone. That discourages learning, which in turn only causes even more of the situations that had you acting this way in the first place.
Idk why you'd feel the need to flex on someone who's showing you a vulnerable point. If someone trusts you enough to fail around you that's not something you should scorn. Is it not in poor taste to break a child's wrist when they challenge an adult to arm wrestling? Why are you trying to gain a feeble sense of power over someone who is still learning? I don't get it.
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abstract-hellbender · 9 months ago
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quick af btw >> you can hate dutch van der linde without calling him an evil snake who eats people..,,,, genuine serious if you think hes a cannibal GET OUT OF HERE
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usagimen · 23 days ago
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Since Rebirth is soon, here is Sayuri’s old FF7 information.
Wutai, she’s the youngest twin who once lived in Wall Market. At a young age, she used her small stature to escape danger && collect information by hiding. By her teens she was working at her father’s materia shop while desperately trying to find a way to give her family a proper station. In hear early 20’s, she became a dancer at the Honey Bee Inn, using her enigmatic charm, she was able to steal important information from liquored Shinra employees.
Due to this particular endeavor, she was a target for sometime, though many within the community know her as someone who has good intentions yet puts on an impersonal front to protect herself. If one needs medicine, assistance in any way, or someone to just have tea with && assure you’re still breathing in the slums, she is the person. There are rumors for sometime that she taught the children at the Leaf House mathematics && songs, she’s known as their once big sister. 
Her recruitment was not easy as it came with Sayuri understanding she either accept the offer presented in front of her or that was the end. The essential knowledge of being a Turk is realizing one is essentially dead, hence, many speculate she went on to become a professional dancer && live a better life on top. Some believe she’s another ghost while her twin often speculates what happened considering their family was then swiftly moved to better conditions leaving him confused && speculating Sayuri isn’t dead, she’s hiding.
Lethal tongue, she doesn’t necessarily need weaponry to gain a victory. Her recruitment is solely on her charm, charisma, along with ability to be shrewd in political bargains. Essentially, she is a mouth piece of Shinra that extorts their power but the usage of blackmail && espionage. If Sayuri is on the field, it’s an emergency. Although, during Aerith’s escape, she mostly would check in to see if she was fine && offer her sweets or bottled tea, always smiling while refusing to bring her back.
Expert with firearms && knives, thigh holster that secures both, but she also slips a blade in her heels just for aesthetic reasons. Not the friendlier one of the Turks if there is such a thing, though she has hesitated twice, while showing utmost contempt after the plate drop. Sayuri is a conflicted woman, she views herself as a once foolish girl that wished to grasp the stars but when she did, like many, she just learned they were the artificial lights.
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umarthiels · 1 year ago
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surprise surprise, les mis letters has got me Thinking about Catholicism again!
#les mis letters#just tagging for personal use hfjfjwj#but yeah myriel my beloved#les mis published in 1862... idk when exactly myriel becomes bishop of digne but its so interesting#bc myriel is really serving that preferential option for the poor swag#i love myriel so much im breaking out my catechism handouts HAHAJSHDHF#but seriously to my knowledge All That is only really articulated in the 1960s and 70s onwards with the really revolutionary clergy#and its interesting to like grapple with/get into myriel and catholicism in general as it’s presented in lm#while knowing that. this is published 1862!!! the ph is still colonized by then!#noli me tangere was published 1887!!! and in it is padre DAMASO!!! a FRANCISCAN! who OUGHT to be like myriel but literally steps on '>#'indios' and DEMANDS they pay obeisance. a FRANCISCAN portrayed like that! and here is myriel#a BISHOP!!@#padre damaso is also a franciscan iirc and dont get me started on irene and camorra (CAMORRA MY BELOATHED DIE BY MY SWORD)#sorry digression but yes very interesting#i guess part of it is that hugo was writing post revolution... that france had already had its anticlerical frenzy with the revolution and#hugo wasnt anticlerical and all that... and of course while the clergy did do oppression in france i don't think it was as bad as in the ph#where they were complicit in and participated in incredibly harsh and inhumane oppression and racism#(cough the monasterio de santa clara only accepting full blooded spanish as nuns until 1898 when the americans came.. though they did accept#native lay sisters who did household work etc)#like the church in lm is cruel in its discompassion/as a part of the wider world which is cruel bc it does not care/bc of apathy#meanwhile the church in noli and fili is cruel bc. okay first off inherently oppressive but second the people in it are personally shitty#damaso isnt just cruel in apathy he literally [*****] someone and has ibarras father disgraced#and he didn't do anything about what he knew was happening in the convent#anyway just spitballing im overdue for a reread of both anyway#but i have been doing research on the catholic institutions of the ph recently for Reasons#and the things they did.... dear god the children in the monasterio de santa clara....#the 'problem' with the friars coercing women in the confessional....#agh sorrh uh#tw clerical abuse#i think
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sschaos · 1 year ago
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Old trope I've been thinking about recently
Remember when every character had a specific scent ascribed to them? Regardless if it made sense for their day to day environment.
Yeah man I work with candles now so... all I can think about is little old Serenity Chaos wandering around the copper filled mesa empire, smelling like mangos?
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stormlit · 7 months ago
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amalia was born in dartmouth, rarely if ever left devon, and had a devon accent (aka west country) for her entire human life. it wasn't a particularly strong accent, though she did use dialect that would have been more common then than it is today, and there was also influence in her english from the fact that her mother was an ESL speaker and they spoke portuguese at home.
after she becomes a vampire, among various other lessons to make her seem like she was of higher class than she was, she had elocution lessons where she was trained to speak with received pronunciation instead. it wasn't difficult for her, though she had to consciously work at not slipping back when upset for a while, and over time this very intentional RP accent became natural for her. of all the changes that were forced upon her, this isn't one that she's particularly upset about.
it does soften over the years, especially as society becomes less formal. it does gain influences from other places she's spent significant amounts of time, especially if she went decades without speaking english at all, or only hearing it from people who had non-RP accents. she still sounds english, but it's a little harder to pin down compared to the heightened standard english of the 19th century aristocracy, a little more worldly.
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critterofthenight · 8 months ago
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what i envy usamericans for is that they are able to drive for days and still be in the same country
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alcedeerie · 8 months ago
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🪄 lingwizard Follow
Magilinguistics and magiconlinguistics are so underrated. The idea that the specific language and syntax used to cast a spell can alter the efficiency and flow of a spell is amazing; it’s honestly infuriating how many people, including many mages, think Latin is the only valid conjuring language even though glossolalia is a WELL-DOCUMENTED PHENOMENON. I use many other languages in various spells and it’s really fun. Would recommend.
🪶 featherspells Follow
YOU CAN DO THAT? YOU CAN TRANSLATE LATIN SPELLS INTO A DIFFERENT LANGUAGE AND THEY’LL WORK!?! EVEN YOUR NATIVE LANGUAGE?!
🌱 gandalfbignaturals Follow
Yeah, welcome to the club! Using your native language isn’t recommended for summoning forces from other realms, though. The portals tend to collapse if you do that.
🗝️ keytomychest Follow
Wait wait wait, I just consulted my familiar about this, is magiconlinguistics modifying or inventing an entire language to optimize your magic? Because that sounds like something both extremely commendable and also batshit insane.
🌳 druid-ruin Follow
Yeah, that’s basically exactly what it is. We’re surprisingly pretty chill. I mean, except for that one time where someone hyper-optimized Taikureiden Suomen Kieli V5 to create the first, and most dangerous, known instance of the Everything-Damage Fireball spell, but we usually don’t talk about that.
🪄 lingwizard Follow
Ah, Taikureiden Suomen Kieli, the most absolutely broken magilang to ever exist. Go Finland, give us more fucked-up spells!
🪶 featherspells Follow
wait, the Everything-Damage Fireball is REAL? I thought you guys were joking.
🌳 druid-ruin Follow
We WERE joking. ONCE.
🔥 icastfireball Follow
on one hand, this is really cool and all, but on the other hand, i'm scared of what this can do. However, on the secret third hand, i kinda wanna modify a language to make demonic creatures physically sick upon hearing it, cause i wanna do a little trolling.
🪄 lingwizard Follow
Grand Mage Amara Lightningchain coming up with the idea for the Volapük Silananazunik experiments be like:
🔥 icastfireball Follow
hold on let me look something up
🔥 icastfireball Follow
wh. what the fuck
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rikamae · 1 year ago
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Yall lost your marbles because this house has some of the most interesting and beautiful detail I've ever seen in a house! Those cabinets??? The bathrooms?? Literally history on the walls??? The backyard looks like a fairytail??
The mirrors and strange design choices are meant to trick the fae they were dealing with
who wants to see a house that made me take ticks of poison damage
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gingerswagfreckles · 1 year ago
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I think people need to understand that when someone says the situation in Israel/Palestine is complicated they are not necessarily saying that the discussion of who the oppressor vs oppressed is complicated. The Israeli government has been oppressing the Palestinians for a very long time, that is clear, and it is not complicated to understand that at least since the 80s they have had dramatically more financial and military power to keep control of the territory in the way they like.
However, it is reductive and dismissive to insist that there is no complexity in the potential ways to move forward to bring peace to the region. Despite what people on tumblr.edu like to believe, "Israel should never have been created" is not a practical solution to an incredibly heated geopolitical situation in the present day. Israel was created and it does exist. 10 million people live there. 74% of the population is native born and the country has existed for 75 years. Hand waving these fact away with the opinion that "they should move back to where they came from" may make you feel good about being a Radical Leftist, but it does not give anyone a road map for how exactly millions of people without dual citizenship are supposed to just up and evaporate. Nor does it acknowledge the reality that 21% of Israelis are Arabs, the very people you are claiming to want to give the land back to.
Insisting that there's nothing complicated about expecting an entire country's population to willingly dissappear with no consequences is not a productive way to think about this conflict. It ignores the many massive superpowers that have an interest in proping up different states in the region, the power dynamics involved in any land back movements, and the inevitably negative consequences of totally dissolving an established state without a plan. It is also completely and almost comically unrealistic, so much so that it makes it hard to believe that anyone who's opinion starts and ends with this idea really gives a shit about anyone who lives in the area as much as they care about their online leftist clout.
There's nothing complicated in understanding that the Israeli government is and has been maintaining an oppressive apartheid state for decades. It is, however, very complicated to come up with a realistic way to resolve some of the most intricately entangled land disputes on the planet without plunging the region into total chaos. Not everyone has to be deeply educated on every geopolitical situation, but it is very hard to take people seriously when they know nothing about the politics or history of a region and yet insist that there is nothing complicated about it at all.
There's a lot of people on this website who are getting dangerously smug about their own ignorance, and are starting to go down Qanon type anti-intellectual paths in the name of being sufficiently radical. Not knowing the details of a very convoluted land dispute isn't something to brag about online as you call for intentionally reductive solutions. You can support the Palestinian cause and be aware of the oppression they have faced while also holding off on calling people trying to do real analysis and de-escalation work bootlickers. We need to get control of the urge to fit every global issue into a simplistic YA novel narrative structure that appeals to Western revolutionary fantasies.
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rebeccathenaturalist · 1 year ago
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A study that just came out demonstrates that outdoor cats are known to prey on over two thousands species of wild animal, from mammals to birds to insects. That includes 347 species that are endangered, threatened or otherwise of concern, and they've been a key factor of the permanent extinction of over 60 species. And while cats may not always bring home what they catch, chances are if your cat is allowed to roam unsupervised outside, they're killing your local wildlife.
Why is this so important? Worldwide, wild animal populations have decreased in number by 69% in the past fifty years; that means that in my lifetime (born in 1978), the sheer number of wild animals in the world has been decreased by over half. Even "common" wild species are less numerous than before. While habitat population is the single biggest cause of species endangerment and extinction overall, outdoor and indoor/outdoor cats are a significant cause as well. In fact, they are the single biggest cause of human-caused mortality in wild birds.
Most importantly, it's very, very simple to fix this problem: keep your cats indoors, and spay and neuter them. If your cat is bored, they need more enrichment, and there are plenty of ways to make your home more exciting for them, from bringing home cardboard boxes for them to explore, to playing with them more often. If you want your cat to get some outdoor enrichment, leash train them (yes, it can be done!) If you have the space and resources, build them a catio where they can be safe from outdoor dangers like predators and cars, while also keeping local wildlife safe from them.
If you just give into their whining and pawing at the door, then they know that that's what they have to do to get their way; I know it's a tough transition, but it's worth it in the end for everyone involved. Cats are domesticated, which means they are not native anywhere in the world; there are exactly zero ecosystems in which they belong, save for the safety of your home. It is your responsibility to give them an enriching environment without taking the shortcut of letting them go wreak havoc outside.
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apas-95 · 1 year ago
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How do I reconcile my intense sympathy and support for Palestine while also living in the ancestral lands of Native Americans? As a black man, where exactly could I migrate to and be accepted by the local populace? I am lost on this point.
While the question of black nationhood is a complicated one, I think there's a deeper misconception, conveyed by the idea of migration, that should be addressed, here - decolonisation does not mean physically removing non-indigenous people from the land.
Decolonisation means the destruction of the colonial state, and the return to sovereignty and self-governance of the colonised nation. Decolonisation of Palestine does not mean that 'israelis' living in Palestine must be removed - but that they must no longer be occupiers, they must no longer be beneficiaries of a state that opresses the indigenous population. In the case of Palestine, many of them will likely leave of their own accord anyway - they do not want to be residents of Palestine, but occupiers of it - but in more entrenched settler colonies, there's no reason to expect everyone who isn't indigenous to up and leave. Rather, recognising the occupied nation they actually live in, accepting its governance and authority, and renouncing any illicit gains the occupation granted them (like stolen homes and land) is much more in line with what decolonisation looks like.
The issue is not, and never was 'foreigners living on our land', it has always been the military occupation, repression of indigenous nations and nationhood, and elevation of settlers to a privileged class on the back of exploitation and base robbery of occupied nations.
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fuckyeahisawthat · 10 months ago
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Controversial opinion among Dune book fans maybe, but I loved the changes they made to Chani's character. Making her a fedaykin who is already an experienced fighter before Paul arrives was a brilliant choice. Dune Part Two is a war movie, and this puts her at the center of the action, side by side with Paul, and gives her a much more active role than she has in the book.
We got a hint of where things were going in the beginning of Dune Part One. The first thing we ever know about movie Chani is that she's a fighter. She serves as a voice for the Fremen, telling us the story of their struggle from her point of view. I wrote here about the difference this change makes compared to other adaptations of Dune, what a perspective shift it is to have the world of Arrakis introduced not by an outsider, describing it as a dangerous but valuable colonial prize, but by one of its native inhabitants, who tells us before all else that it's beautiful, her home that she's fighting to liberate. I am so, so glad that the second movie followed up on this characterization.
I never found Chani and Paul's love story in the book particularly convincing, because why would this woman, who already has a prominent and respected place in Fremen society, even give the time of day to her deposed would-be colonizer, let alone fall in love and have children with him? Without a compelling reason for Chani to love Paul, she ends up feeling like a prize to be won, and "indigenous culture personified as a woman to be wooed (or conquered) by the colonizing man" is a trope we've seen and don't need to repeat.
But as soon as you tell me it's a barricade romance I get it. Cool cool cool, I know exactly what this relationship is now and it makes sense. Movie Chani doesn't respect or even particularly like Paul when she first meets him, and she doesn't think he's the fulfillment of any prophecy. She comes to respect him, and eventually love him, through his actions. He's brave--sometimes recklessly so. He fights well. He's willing to stick his neck out on the front lines with the other Fremen fighters. He can (after a little help) hack surviving in the harsh desert environment. He's not too proud to learn from others. He seems to genuinely want to be her equal in a common political struggle. All these qualities make sense as things she values.
Fighting side by side as equals is just about the only way I can see movie Chani falling for Paul. And it fits perfectly with the film's pattern of reversals that Paul's capacity for violence would initially be one of the things Chani likes about him, only for her to be repelled later when she sees what he becomes.
And as for Paul, well, he's had people deferring to him his entire life. Someone who doesn't take any shit from him is probably refreshing. He seems to like people (Duncan, Gurney) who challenge him and engage in a little friendly teasing--and aren't afraid to go a few rounds in the sparring ring.
It's easy to speedrun a romance when you're spending all your time together in mortal danger fighting for a shared political cause. Especially if you then start winning in a war your people have been fighting for decades. Are you kidding me? That is the perfect environment for intense battle camaraderie to turn into romantic love, and lust.
It makes sense that this version of Chani never believes Paul is any kind of messiah. Of course a character like movie Chani wouldn't believe in or trust some outside savior to liberate them. She's been working to liberate her own people for years. The more Paul invokes the messianic myth, the more he starts sounding once again like someone who plans to rule over them, and the more uncomfortable Chani becomes. In this way she becomes a foil to Jessica, the two of them representing the choices Paul is pulled between. It's a great way of externalizing the political and philosophical debates that often happen within characters' heads in the book.
And of course this version of Chani would leave Paul at the end of the film. It's not just the personal, emotional betrayal--although that stings. What common cause does she have with someone who just declared himself emperor and is sending her own people off in a war of conquest against others? Given the important role she plays in Dune Messiah, I am super curious to see how they get her back into the story, but girl was so valid for being willing to just gtfo. Given that she has the last shot of the whole movie, I'm sure she'll be back somehow, and I can't wait to see what they do with her character in any future installments.
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twilight-skies · 4 months ago
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First thoughts as follows:
1. They used the mobs who only attack when you intrude their territory and steal from them to be the invading hordes of villains, when they could’ve used the entire species named “Pillagers”
2. They whitewashed Steve so that he could be played by an actor who doesn’t even look like him in any aspect. Is that a sweater
3. Dumb jumanji plot when they could’ve used minecraft as the setting and worldbuilding and based it on characters who are from that world. (Humans from our world…who meet a native?? Why not either make it about that iconic character, maybe his origin story of his first journey through the game, OR another group of characters who’ve just freshly spawned and Steve leads them along as a veteran mentor??)
4. Several years ago an entire cast of potential characters was introduced into the game. And they didn’t use them
5. I have three novels sitting on my shelf that would’ve made amazing movies if they wanted to put minecraft in theaters. I could write a better story for the essence of minecraft and I have.
6. If you’re gonna make a world out of Minecraft, don’t put the blockiness in the living things—or at least make it subtle. A wolf whose fur has square shapes in it only when you do a closeup? When you squint at a bee, you realize it’s the shape of a rectangle?
A world where the trees are made up of block shapes and the land is shaped by straight, sharp lines? That’s an aesthetic. Or, even, something like this, where the land reflects the flat terraced environment. Just…make it subtle. Trees and fence posts and ropes that, in our world, would be round, just happen to have sharp edges forming cubes in this one.
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This? Green screen hell nightmare fuel
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7. Why not use Minecraft’s own iconic music in the trailer
8. These writers have clearly never taken a single look at the years and years of mcyt storytelling and fandom that displays exactly what we as a player and fanbase would’ve wanted out of this
9. If the movie doesn’t conclude with these guys fighting the dragon then what’s even the point
10. Why have the piglins enslaved the ghasts
11. Why do the protagonist actors need to be the only non animated things in this movie
12. Why didn’t that llama spit at the end
13. THE LANDSCAPE IN THE ABOVE SCREENSHOT DOES NOT EVEN RESEMBLE COMMON MINECRAFT TERRAIN GENERATION
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