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tofu83 · 13 days

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What men bred for.

3. Hunters and Preys

Alien Masters’ Earthling ethologist have discovered that Earthlings aka humans, especially males, like to connect beasts or raptors with themselves, such as covering their bodies with the furs of wild beasts, using the remains of wild beasts as body decorations, and even directly refers to himself as a beast, as if he wishes he was a beast. This is very strange behavior in their eyes. They were unable to determine why humans, who had developed a low level of civilization, would aspire to be equal to lower animals.

They also discovered that in addition to raising hounds, humans also raise cheetahs and falcons to assist in hunting, or keep lions and tigers as pets. Besides, another behavior is even more jaw-dropping to scholars: releasing wild beasts in a place called an "artificial hunting ground", and then hunting them for entertainment.

In the end, scientists put forward hypotheses:

1. Male humans desire to degenerate into lower-level beasts that obey wild instincts.

2. Beasts can assist in hunting or be hunted.

3. To summarize the above two points, it is a man’s nature to desire to be a hunter or a prey.

Behaviorists shared this theory with breeders, who randomly applied it to the development of new breeds of humans.

They replaced part of human genes with some genes from carnivorous beasts and developed several varieties. The genes of the selected beasts include lions, cheetahs, tigers, as well as eagles, vultures and other raptors. As for herbivorous beasts such as rhinos, elephants, bison, etc., we have yet to study how to apply it to humans.

These varieties of humans are very obedient to their wild nature and have more fighting and mating instincts than other species, but they are also more difficult to control and are difficult to apply in military applications. However, they are very suitable as hunting partners of their alien masters. They enjoy their inherited beast power and take pleasure in hunting prey.

Through modification helmet training, they can accurately stun their prey when they catch it. Even if the alien creatures are several times stronger than them, they will still achieve their mission, and even if they die as a result, they will be in a high degree of joy. It is understood that this is due to the positive effect of the dual bonus of the pleasure brought by obeying their master and the display of masculinity.

Due to the high casualty rate, upgraded hunter products like guards covered in latex and alloy armor have also been put into production. The orders are now full. As expected, as long as robots are made based on male humans, they will be very popular.

Not only that, alien masters think that raising animals for themselves to hunt is a good sport, so they also create species that can be used as prey based on the theories of behavioral scientists.

This type of breed is controversial because their genes for obedience to their masters have been "turned off" in a special way. When they see alien masters, they will resist or run away, which means they will be in danger if they escape into the wild. However, because now only males are produced, so there will be no problem of natural reproduction.

Some of these prey humans only maintain their original genetic makeup, while others add genes such as antelopes to make them more difficult to hunt. They were put into a "hunting ground" specially set up by alien masters to live freely. Those wealthy alien owners will take the hunter humans they raise to hunting grounds to hunt prey humans.

They may not necessarily kill these prey. Of course, it is legal to display them as specimens or cook and eat them. But they are more willing to personally tame these "wild" humans who don't know what obedience is into their own pets, just like how humans tamed wild horses in the past.

If the masters simply want to enjoy hunting humans, it is okay to return the prey to the hunting ground, or they can sell the prey. All-purpose livestock like wild earthlings are hot commodities whether purchased through normal channels or traded on the black market.

#ai image #reprogramming #drone #scifi #scifi story #what men bred for #cyborg #malebot #tofu83

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art-that-fucks-you-up-tournament · 1 year

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SET FIVE - ROUND ONE - MATCH TWO

"Uffington White Horse" (c.1380-550 BCE) / Chauvet Cave Bear (30,000 and 32,000 BP)

UFFINGTON WHITE HORSE: its public landscape art, its from bronze or iron age and people still maintain it and this chain of people working together, even through the original purpose is lost, the art is not, the community aspect of it (anonymous)

CHAUVET CAVE BEAR: I'm not a very emotional person but there's something about prehistoric cave paintings that make me cry my eyes out. There are too many examples (please check out the Altamira cave bisons they're beautiful) but one that never fails to amaze me is the Chauvet Cave Bear. He's painting with so much care, he's only one of hundreds and thousands of paintings in this cave, many of them more detailed, colorful and dynamic than this guy, but there's something about the careful lines that the artist (bc prehistoric people were artists) put on this wall that touches me. It's put in a scene where he's hunted, he's alone, in a peaceful position, possibly rummaging through a bush. The anatomy is maybe even cartoony with its tiny ears and small mouth but it's realistic in all the ways that matter at that time, anybody could look at it and see a bear, the artist had to carefully watch this bear (or many bears) to memorize its lines, it's humps and structure and the scrounge up the materials to paint, and finally put to rock this animal they admired from a distance. The Chauvet Cave has thousands of cave bear remains, estimating 200 individuals. The cave also has a quarter of ALL cave bear depictions in pre-history. That means that whoever painted this bear not only saw one in the wild but lived alongside these animals their entire lives, their culture was deeply locked with them. There's a chamber in this cave with 50 bear skulls, all of them carefully placed. This painting shows so much care and love from people that are often depicted as brute and uncaring but they were just as capable as any current human of not only caring but DEPICTING their love. It's a beautiful early representation of our capability for admiration and cherishing things that weren't essential for basic survival. Also the artist was damn good that bear has so much expression without even having eyes, the line thickness balance is amazing. (athenasabattoir)

(The "Uffington White Horse" is a prehistoric hill figure created by trenches filled with crushed white chalk. It is 110 m (360 ft) long and is located on Whitehorse Hill in England.

The "Chauvet Cave Bear" is a prehistoric cave painting in the Chauvet-Pont-d'Arc Cave located in Ardèche, France. This cave contains hundreds of preserved figure paintings from the Upper Paleolithic time period. The central bear is 120 cm (47 in) and was painted using red pigment.)

#theyre looking at each other... in judgement... or admiration???#art that fucks you up tournament #polls #atfyu polls #id in alt text

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kimyoonmiauthor · 2 months

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Europe without trade, a worldbuilding exercise

This exercise pissed off a bunch of white people for all the wrong reasons, but facts are facts and I can link you to all the major resources. You all should be insulted at the idea that Europe can't trade, that melanin dictates that white people can't get along and find ways to trade. But that's not why they were upset. They were upset at the idea that a single region couldn't provide for people. And that's the wrong thing to get upset about. And I'm telling you that's white supremacy ideology you need to boot. Europe, too, traded and used people from other regions who migrated and were physically there on foot. Stop thinking that your lack of melanin is a force field.

So the exercise goes like this: Shortly after Homo Sapiens interbred with the Neanderthal and migrated to Europe, there was a magical force field put around Europe to cut off Europe from the Middle East, Africa, etc. ^^;; I'm sure people from the Caucuses aren't very pleased with this since they get commandeered into this exercise which racists somehow love. Later people also deemed them inferior (which takes a while to travel through but there is a wikipedia page dedicated to the term Caucasian meaning white [link] that goes over this ranking thing and the racist origins and ties to Nazis). But whatever, Nanowrimo a*holes were determined to argue against trade, fine, let's play this game and cut the whole of the Middle East/West Asia.

The other rule is that the Gulf Stream still exists, so you can have that unusual European climate which is a fluke. (This also ticked off people? But seriously, to get the gradient of Europe that far north, you need to Gulf of Mexico otherwise the latitude range would look more like the US than Europe, more south, and larger, much larger. And most people don't make a continent that large. Why people get ticked off at true facts is a whole thing.)

If you cut off the Gulf of Mexico, which a lot of world building of European-like continents do, you get Siberia. So the Gulf of Mexico has to stay for our Hypothetical Europe. (Not getting into continentality either.)

We're not counting the little bit of Turkey here, BTW. Turkey gets to stay whole. And Russia gets kicked out because it always gets kicked out anyway and besides, people were preaching about stupid things when these racists were posting, like all of Russia is white. And then people were arguing over if Russia counts. Fine. We'll kick Russia out. BTW, Australia was called all white. Haha. Aboriginals don't exist according to them. Like WTF. But whatever.

The question is what civilization can Europe grow with only the resources found naturally in Europe? Can you build a European civilization with only things found naturally occurring in Europe?

The first issue is STAPLE CROP.

Yeah, if you notice, you've cut off all of the major grains to Europe. You've also cut off the Beaker people. Oops.

Some Anthropology here, Beaker people brought agriculture to Europe. They were also from Turkey.

https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/news/2018/february/the-beaker-people-a-new-population-for-ancient-britain.html

So, Stone Henge, Long burrows, and all of that are suddenly cut off.

Honestly, this one is terrible to overcome. Most of the BBC docs I watched argued that the ancient people of Britain before Brown people from Turkey brought agriculture and the Cheddar Man, were boiling and eating reeds. Think like cattails type of thing, which is really hard to eat.

Upside, you still have fire in the form of rush lights, though you can't use tallow or beeswax--comes from outside of Europe. And horses are too lean. So, likely the European bison? However, this limits technology quite a bit as advancements can't be made by night and only by camp fire. (Fire is safely pre-modern humans—homonins and some say Homo Erectus, though still debated. But at least Homo Hedelberengensis)

Without a staple crop, you're going to have it tough to make enough surplus to build anything. You need free time and enough food supply to build things like castles.

The closest you might get is maybe peas? The best you get is pea flour, and have you worked with pea flour? It doesn't do anything like the wheat family does. Nutritionally, it's also low carbs, which is great if you're on a low carb diet, but not great for a civilization. Pea flour: 100 kcal, 18 g carbohydrate, 8 g fiber, 0 g fat, and 8 g protein

White rice:

Total Fat 0.4 g

Saturated fat 0.1 g

Cholesterol 0 mg

Sodium 2 mg

Potassium 55 mg

Total Carbohydrate 45 g 15%

Dietary fiber 0.6 g

Sugar 0.1 g

Protein 4.3 g

https://www.healthline.com/health/food-nutrition/brown-rice-vs-white-rice

68-82 amounts of energy in rice.

So peas aren't a bad choice, but the problem is that you don't have a binder. You need a binder to make bread, etc. Even this one here: https://www.powerhungry.com/2024/02/06/split-pea-bread-vegan-oil-free-gf/ Uses a binder from India. But the majority of your people aren't eating Bread. The recipes I can find include non-European things like rice or things outside of Europe. This severely hinders your tech advancements. Being able to eat on the job and not have it take forever is really hard. The portability of bread is a plus for technology. And peas can get mushy and if cooked can mold.

There are Lactofermented peas:

https://www.beetsandbones.com/lacto-fermented-green-peas/

But they aren't widely eaten and include things like garlic, which is out. Bay leaves are not from Europe. Garlic is a difficult one since garlic kills so many bacteria, but you can cope with oregano, I suppose, which kills a high amount of bacteria according to a well vetted study since it was published (original study was 1999, but followup studies since then):

Preservation is a huge part of production and an upside of grains.

Also, how are you going to produce alcohol? This makes water safer to drink. You'd have to convert to teas. (Raspberry leaf tea is a thing.) Peas are not high starch enough, as cited to hold together bread. It's not good enough to make alcohol.

But now you're thinking, OK, we got peas as a staple, they just won't make bread out of it.

Peas, a major protein source, you don't need cows, pigs, etc as much. (Though you're still kinda lacking in vitamin B12, but I'll cover that later.) And your people make a new type of pea plant (BTW, legumes is the largest plant family on Earth.)

Might limit you to not be able to carry it around easily and it's hard to rehydrate, but eventually your people get there. (If you're thinking, but lentils, yeah, not Europe. Deal).

Subsequent agriculture

Tanning leather, BTW, you need oak trees with high tannins, but this tech originated from Western Asia (or Southwestern Asia, if you want to call it that)

Oak trees are found on five continents, but it's a bit fuzzy on how they got there. Humans have a habit of picking up seeds and spreading them about. My own great grandfather loved collecting seeds and planting them. You also have Johnny Appleseed.

The processing time to make acorn flour is pretty terrible (You have to boil it a long, long time to remove the tannins, this is why I didn't suggest this as a staple), but at least you have leather.

The major other crops are out:

Potatoes, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, chocolate, hazelnuts, walnuts, corn, wheat, rye, barley, strawberries? (This one is questionable.), pears (China), apples (Central Asia), Pomegranates (Iran), and major fruits you can think of. Think of a major fruit. Look it up and you'll find it doesn't come from Europe, though it might be grown there.

Most of the spices and herbs are out (sage, oregano, rosemary, and thyme stay in.) No, you can't have garlic. Most allium comes from outside of Europe. Animals are also out: pigs, goats, sheep, cows, chickens, llamas, alpacas.

It's debatable about horses. One thread people debated back and forth on horses, so I'll lay that out.

This leaves you likely with dogs, which probably came with early modern humans. Yeah, ummm... there's a question here, and maybe I shouldn't touch it, and the answer is likely no, probably not eating them. Not unless people get desperate. The Cambridge History of Food also questions the archaeology from Western Asia, but the archaeology also says the only time humans ate dogs were in desperation and the layer in question came at the heels of a drought? (I took a picture of the page, pretty easy to look up since it has an excellent index.).

This leaves deer. Not a good animal to domesticate, but let's say Reindeer. (Thinking Evenk here).

I'm adding in carob.

So Round up of what we have?

Staple crop: Legume, likely related to peas.

Secondary crops:

You have brassica (mustard family)

Olives

Rosemary

Thyme

Oregano

sage

horseradish, maybe.

Acorns—makes leather

carob

currants

gooseberries

raspberry

blackberry

turnip, possibly beets

parsnip Stinging nettle Dandelion (European and edible from roots which make a substance said to be similar to coffee to the buds.)

Brassica family, mainly Brussel sprouts, but possibly they would invent others.

BTW, carrots originally weren't orange until William of Orange, who gets his name from a plant native to Southern China-ish.

But other berries—cranberry, is from the Americas. And strawberry, while found in Europe, was originally domesticated in the Americas. This one is a question mark. Because it was found on both continents, but was only domesticated in the Americas.

The majority of the foods you find are domesticated in West Asia, Southern China and the Americas (mostly central Americas and Northern South America.) Welcome to the downside of temperate climates.

Pies? Nope. "What about Shepards Pie" Yeah, where are you getting the potatoes? Also the iron works is in question here. (later)

Short list. You're losing your mind, no pizza? Yep. No pizza. (lol Someone got mad when I pointed this out with links). Tomato is New World, Wheat is West Asia, Cows domestication is West Asia and Northern Africa. Horse milk you can't form into cheese without camel rennet. Camels, you guessed it, not Europe.

Possibly new legumes to maximize it. (They grow tall as trees, make peanuts, etc, so it's possible a culture under pressure would make new ones. BTW, peanuts is new world.)

Domesticated animals: Dogs, deer, maybe horses—horses are debated. European rabbits, yes, though don't make for good domestication since they are really difficult to work with which you'll have to look up. Look up a rabbit care video. But at least breed fast. Low amount of fat for candles, though.

You'd also have seafood. Only one type of seaweed is poisonous in the world and that is in England. But it's highly nutritious. (The native seaweed in India is apparently nasty, but edible).

You don't need as much with the pea family anyway.

European Bison are not easily domesticated, BTW, but would give you tallow-ish stuff if they succeeded or an ethnic group decided to be nomadic pastoralists with them.

For sweet taste, carob. Easy to process, and you don't need sugar beets, which is harder to process and were only invented as a source in the late 19th century. Mediterranean. The seeds are edible so just grind it up. Though it's easier to grind the pods. So it's easier to process and use in other recipes.

The other options are out: Honeybee domestication originated in China, there's a form in Northern Africa, but the frame design was late 1800's, so Victorian. Even if you had it, it would be for rich people.

Sugar cane is tropical.

Carob mildly tastes like chocolate. This is your chocolate substitute. No fermentation required. However, it doesn't have the properties of chocolate melting, etc. The fat content is much lower, but the production is much higher.

Dates, BTW, are from 4000 BCE in West Asia, fertile crescent. It's out. https://foodandnutrition.org/from-the-magazine/dates-an-ancient-fruit-rediscovered/

The problem with horses

This part is really difficult to climb through.

The first part is that horses were likely domesticated outside of Europe. Also, the invention of the saddle, etc was also outside of Europe. You need a good staple crop to have enough time to mes around with it. You would also have a smaller population if it stays in Europe.

This part got heated in the original. So the evidence is this:

Horses were domesticated outside of Europe (It's on the border of Europe, so hotly debated)

Horses were killed off in the Americas by Indigneous people before being reintroduced. https://new.nsf.gov/science-matters/horses-part-indigenous-cultures-longer-western

The technology to domesticate the horse further was outside of Europe (saddle, stirrups, etc)

But horses exist in Europe, wouldn't they want to breed them?

But maybe only for food? (recent scandal at the time)

Would they be burden animals? You need burden animals fro agriculture to advance and higher production.

So yeah... without cows, pigs, goats, sheep, large questions arise about this.

Would the population split into eating and noneating? Would it not?

Yeah, limited foodstuff. Limited calories, but your people are making it, but maybe not turning white yet? Well, in Southern Europe. Introduction of grains and farming was said to be the thing that tipped people over.

Agriculture is really difficult to achieve without a staple crop like grains or starchy tubers.

But for the sake of argument, let's say they get there, and manage to never break the force field, no matter what, because racists win or whatever. No food importation in or out, no new ideas.

What now?

Arches, as an idea, came from outside of Europe. Rafts do predate humans (Homo Erectus again), but boats, was likely Phonecian. And metal working and stone working also came from outside of Europe as ideas. Beaker people, love them.

Metal working came from Northern Africa, BTW, but say they figure it out, and we let them slide.

You get stunted in Maths since ideas of math came from Babylonians. Later Migrations of Minoans don't count anymore. Linear A isn't invented, but OK, OK, there was written language invented in the Americas, so it's possible, if they get through agriculture and get up to what? Trade, they might have language. But wait, you (Nanowrimo person) just said trade is evil, so maybe they don't have a written language? In all instances of language being created it was on the back of what? trade. Maths awas also created on the back of mostly trade. Sumerians created their written language on trade. The oldest tablets we have is a trade dispute.

Look up Complaint tablet to Ea-nasir. In another words, written records were for keeping track of ledgers, one of the oldest types of writing on record.

These people think trade is too complicated and evil to exist in Europe. So OK, no written language for you, though seriously, I don't know how that works. Is Northern Europe a different subsistence system than Southern Europe?

You all are fighting for diminishing resources (considering 1500's Europe and a BBC doc about how trees were fought over and laws about not cutting down trees) each other while the rest of the world is trading back and forth on ideas and not getting imperialized. Fine. Let's play that game.

The amount of technology gets cut down severely when you disconnect Europe from the rest of the world. You don't get the iron age without some knowledge about smelting. And you need those "dirty Africans" or whatever racist thing they were thinking in order to get that smelting. You don't get masonry without PoCs (Most masonry, as an idea came from West Asia, and they would literally import those people to work on castles, see the docs on Guédelon Castle from British TV). Whatcha going to do?

Let's move onto clothes...

Flax (for Linen), silk, ramie, hemp (for clothes which is a different cultivar), coir, Abaca, Angora (rabbit)*, Angora (goat), wool (obviously), bamboo, banana fiber, cashmere (the goat), sisal, camel hair (obviously), kapok, mohair, kenaf, yak, Qiviut, vicuña,Hibiscus cannabinus, Lyocell, Modal (AKA Rayon) *, Piña (pineapple), and Soy protein are out. All of them occur outside of Europe or require an industrial society. Byssus AKA sea silk, Chiengora (dog hair), spider silk*, is in.

However, notice how expensive and difficult it is to make clothes of these things. So only rich can access them.

dog* hair often requires wool to be added to make the hairs stick together. And sheep wool, in particular has really good spinnable fibers.

Spider silk also kinda takes higher technology to produce into clothing. Look it up and some might find it cruel to do it that way.

Byssus also known as Sea silk was produced by the Greeks and Romans, but only for the super rich.

This means for poor people: Leather and stinging nettle fabric is what they have left. You can see a video of that here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-usU7-WjUU So your people have clothing. They aren't white except for the nomadic people to the north unless you can advance their agriculture and slide the pea family to replace the major nutrition somehow.

And making clothes is torture for the common populace who have to pick stinging nettles for their clothes.

You're thinking, but Angora Rabbits? Yeah, this is possible, though not likely called that since the rabbits originated from Turkey, which is outside of the scenario, but it would be maybe possible your people come up with something similar given human nature as long as they pause the rabbit breeding long enough and have enough surplus to tinker.

So poor people are running around with stinging nettle fabric, rich are wearing most likely sea silk, and you can see the misery compared to growing something like flax.

I doubt anyone can afford to be vegetarian with limited resources. Pescitarian, maybe closer to the shore.

*Dogs were domesticated outside of Europe, but are often attributed to why humans outpaced Neanderthal and date back far enough in time that early humans likely took them to Europe when they first arrived. Cats, however, were domesticated in Africa and are OUT. (Making the majority of writers cry since there seems to be more cat people than dog people among writers).

Conclusion

You're stuck with the Humours, but does Greek civilization even exist without grains? So much collapses when you don't have the subsistence infrastructure. I mean there is a reason people made bread and carry grains and we don't eat peas as a staple.

So you'd have to build everything from scratch starting around ~45,000 BCE or earlier (when Homo sapiens came to Europe by estimates) and you don't even have those really white people then according to science except the Evenk ancestors who show white about 10K years ago? (No, it's not the Caucuses—in what right mind do you think white people developed in the Caucuses when you know about Vitamin D and darker melanin generally around the equator due to skin cancer, etc issues and so on.)

Umm, the lesson here is that Europe was never cut off and people should stop going into that fantasy. Like how did you get apples, plums, honey, etc without trade? And also, people shouldn't be afraid of trade and keep in mind temperate climates (Middle/Northernish Europe) aren't the only biomes in Europe. No matter how much fantasy wants to focus on Western Europe and ignore the Scandis. Seriously, I'm so bored of people assuming everything is like Germany or a less rainy England in fantasy. (And I do mean England, not Scotland or Wales). Can't we get some variety? You have the Mediterranean, but you also have Scandinavia, and you're doing Europe? Where are they? You also had foragers and Nomads in the history of Europe. The Romani from North Western India, for example. And some say that early Celtic groups could have been partial foragers before the coming of Beaker people.

But even in an alt sci-fi, you have to trim all of those accomplishments of PoC and then argue that your people killed all of the PoCs on the way to the planet, and really, that makes no sense. But I suppose then you can murder Bibimbap into tatertot disgusting mess later on. But really?

But even say, you had an organically grown planet that happened to grow a humanoid species, how are you going to grow it without some level of cooperation? And the majority of the food stuff is going to come from those warmer climates: Southern China, West Asia and Central-ish Americas. They don't have a winter to worry about. So it would be imperative for your people to trade.

While you're at it, I'm really squicked by the idea that people put in 16 year old girls to marry much older guys in fantasy and then call it acceptable. You can change at least those rules.

I don't get why people work so hard to cut out LGBTQIA, disability and PoCs from fantasy? Like people should have maimed legs from all the battles written.

BTW, I am amused by the idea that in Star Trek times they didn't have birth control. lol thousands of years and haven't perfected birth control? That one I can't believe. Picard didn't know how to use a condom. lol.

#worldbuilding #worldbuilding tips #worldbuilding exercise

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zoe-oneesama · 2 years

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Kwami Swap Master Post

Marinette:

Cat: Maotif (Lady Noire Variant), Original Design Fox: Huli Rouge Turtle: Bi Xi Bee: Marigold (original post), Marigold redesign, Marigold Chinese, first sighting Butterfly: Mariposa Peacock: Plumette, Belle Blue, Belle Blue with Chloe Snake: Serpentine Dragon: Snapdragon Horse: Yili Monkey: Surili Rabbit: Lucky Rabbit Mouse: Multimouse redesign, chibi Pig: Piglette Tiger: Báihŭ

Adrien:

Ladybug: Original Design Fox: Malin Rouge Turtle: Michelangelo Bee: Buzzy Bee Butterfly: Ombre Snake: Aspik Redesign Dragon: Dracon Pig: Hogwash

Alya:

Ladybug: Ladybird, Heroes Day, first sighting Turtle: Koki Marina, hair options, first sighting Bee: Myèl Jaune, first version

Nino:

Cat: Cat Scratch Fox: Fox Trot, first sighting

Chloe:

Ladybug: Scarlet Lady, Heroes Day, first sighting Cat: Chartreux Butterfly: Monarch Peacock: Blue Blood Rabbit: Satine Random Sketches

Lila:

Ladybug: Harlequin Coccibella and Bella Stella, Bella Stella, Harlequin Fox: Good Fox Volpina Bee: Miele and Regina Butterfly: Farfalla Rabbit: Leprotta Good and Evil Mouse: Multi Topi Rooster: Fenice Pig: Good and Evil (unnamed) Dog: Cucciola Ox: Dominataur Goat: Caprascuro

Sabrina:

Cat: Bob Cat Fox: Kit Bee: Andrena, first sighting Peacock: Mystique Mouse: Comousiner Rooster: Favorelle Dog: Miss Hound redesign, Original Design Phalène Ox: Blue Belle Goat: Chevron

Luka:

Cat: Cat Sith Fox: Zorro Turtle: Heavy Metal Bee: Aristaeus Snake: Viperion Redesign Rabbit: Hoppollo

Kagami:

Ladybug: Lady Tentou Cat: Kuro Neko, first sighting Fox: Kitsune, many chibis Turtle: Kame Verte, many chibis Bee: Mistubachi, first version, many chibis Dragon: Ryuko redesign, first version, many chibis

Mylene:

Ladybug: Lady Beetle Mouse: Polymouse Redesign, Original Design Sourette Rooster: Gold Wing Dog: Ultimutt Ox: Buckaroo Goat: Brebisou

Ivan:

Cat: Wild Cat Bee: Killer Bee Mouse: Rat Trap Rooster: Spring Chicken Dog: Bull Terror Ox: Minotaurox Redesign Goat: Battering Ram

Nathaniel:

Cat: Picatso Fox: (currently nameless) Mouse: Microdent Rooster: Caladrius Dog: Painted Dog Ox: Battle Bison Goat: Caprikid Redesign

Rose:

Ladybug: Dotted Lady Fox: Foxy Bee: Bumble Bee, first sighting Rabbit: Bun Bun Pig: Original Design Miss Piggy Tiger: Unnamed

Juleka:

Cat: Panthera Noir Bee: Yellow Swarm Peacock: Sweet Pea Pig: Unnamed Tiger: Purple Tigress Resign, Chibi, Original Design Tigresse

Max:

Ladybug: Spotted Guard Bee: Yellow Guard Horse: Pegasus redesign

Kim:

Cat: Hell Cat Bee: Roi Abeille

Alix:

Ladybug: Beetle Bug

Gabriel:

Cat: Black Plague

Nathalie:

Fox: Jackal

Jagged Stone:

Bee: Sting

Aurore:

Fox: many chibis Turtle: Shellegant, many chibis Bee: Miss Sting, many chibis Dragon: Pleut Blue, many chibis Rabbit: Lapin Royal

Ondine:

Turtle: Tortue Marina

Marc:

Mouse: Tiny Mouse Rooster: Rooster Bold Redesign Dog: Furmidable Ox: Oxenfree Goat: Goat Gruff

Zoé:

Ladybug: Coccecilia Cat: Dandy Lion Fox: Fox Glove Turtle: Shellonia Butterfly: Gladiolus Peacock: Poinciana Snake: Hydra Gea Dragon: Drakanthus Horse: Peony Trail Monkey: Simia Rabbit: Cotton Tail Mouse: Rodendron Rooster: Chick Pea Pig: Pigsqueek Tiger: (unnamed) Dog: (unnamed) Ox: Moobloom Goat: Fauna

Emilie:

Butterfly: Unnamed

Very Old Season 1 Kwami Swaps Compiled for Marinette, Adrien, Nino, Alya, Chloe, and Lila

#kwami swap #kwami swap master post #my art

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sokkastyles · 7 months

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ATLA Live Action Ep 1 Thoughts:

When the writers meant they wanted it to be like game of thrones, clearly they meant "we want the battles to happen in complete darkness so nobody can see what is going on," and not, you know, the sex stuff.

Idk why this never occurred to me until now but ostrich horse is chocobo.

They are clearly going for a darker, more grittier feel here, but it clashes with the attempt to keep things true to the animated origin. Like, the earth kingdom OC looks straight out of some more realistic Adult fantasy show, whereas Sozin's character design makes him look like evil Santa.

So firebenders are able to do that to bodies, which I appreciate from a fanfic perspective and also confirms what people have been theorizing about the agni kai, that Ozai put his hand on his son's face. Not sure it was necessary to see it, though. The original does a good job of horrifying us with implied violence and the adults already get it, while showing it makes it less accessible to a younger audience. This is hardly a problem unique to this show, though.

Air nomads actually riding sky bison!

I like having more background with the air nomads and Aang's actor is great but front-loading the flashbacks doesn't work great for the pacing.

One thing I do really like is the emphasis on how the war damaged the harmony of the nations in more than just a spiritual way. No one has friends from other nations now. Zuko comes seeking "someone who does not belong" with the (false) promise that no one will get hurt if everyone keeps to themselves, keeps the status quo. The air nomads are a complete anomaly in a world of division. We are introduced to Aang, Sokka, Katara, and Zuko, and all are isolated in their own way by the war at the beginning of the story.

Overall there is something just weird about the pacing. Characters keep pausing at vital moments of action to deliver exposition or meaningful monologues. It just feels off.

Zuko so desperate for "glory" that he accepts Sokka's proposal to fight one on one (nice foil to the final agni kai by the way). Then his surprise when Aang shows himself reveals that Zuko himself did not know whether he would really find the Avatar in this village he's suddenly shown up to terrorize. God, it just emphasizes how low Zuko is at this point. This is probably his first real high stakes fight and he might have killed Sokka over absolutely nothing out of a false sense that he had something to prove. It's just...sad.

The scene at the Southern Air Temple looked great and had me in tears. I actually saw some criticism of this to the effect of them "ruining Aang's arc" because he comes out of the Avatar state himself, but first of all, let's be real and admit that if mastering the Avatar State was Aang's arc, he never completed it. Second, just because he could bring himself out does not mean he can control it, and he's still letting his emotions control him which is a learning curve for handling that power, it's just that he was able to control his anger in that moment by remembering the people he loved. Which is not that different from how the scene plays out in the original, only he isn't using Katara as a crutch. Which is a good thing, actually. It's much more fitting and poignant that he thinks about Gyatso here.

I don't think there was any mention of Katara wanting to go north. She has a few lines about wanting to help more and Aang teaches her about balance so she can bend now, apparently, but where is her drive? It feels like they're attributing her accomplishments to Aang and that bothers me. Maybe it'll be mentioned in the next episode, since they haven't talked about Aang learning waterbending yet, either. But I do miss the Katara who was ready to banish herself from the village the moment she met Aang not just because it was the right thing to do, but because of her own desire for independence and autonomy.

Liked the scene between Aang and Iroh. It gives us a glimpse of an Iroh who is stuck as to what to do and so he just gives Aang the Zuko treatment by offering him tea. I'd be excited if this means we get to see more development for Iroh.

#atla live action #atla la thoughts #atla la ep1

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thetriumphantpanda · 1 year

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The Way You Miss Me | Joel Miller (Chapter Five)

You put your plan into action - in order to get closer to Joel, you have to get close to Ellie. The home truths that come out as a result aren't at all what you wanted though.

Pairing | Joel Miller x Female Reader

Word Count | 3K

Warnings | Angst and pining, mentions of death and origin story of readers scar which involves a knife but nothing else.

Authors Note | This one flew out of my fingers like lightening so I hope you enjoy it! Would love to hear your thoughts so leave comments, like or reblog or pop on over to my ask box if you fancy it! Also not me deadass writing in one of my favourite bands, shoutout to any of my fellow elder emo's out there. The shame of the outbreak is that these guys never got to jam along to Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge or Misery Business..... This fic is actually loosely based on an All Time Low song from their new album, if you wanted to listen you can find it here - listen and watch out for nods to the lyrics in the dialogue here!

It had been a week since the awkward encounter at the bar with Joel and you were frustrated that you hadn’t had the opportunity to speak with him. You’d been watching him from afar, he’d been in the stables one day getting himself assigned a horse so that he could start heading out on patrol. He’d spent an evening at The Tipsy Bison with Tommy, the only acknowledgement was a swift nod of his head towards the table you shared with your father but that was only because Tommy had hit him on the arm, mouthing for him not to be rude. You’d watched him walk down the street past your home a few times, watching from the window and wishing it had been your home he was coming to. The one constant in all of it? The little girl. Ellie was attached to him like a barnacle to a whale, he was never without her, and you’d bet your bottom dollar (If you had any) that the key to getting closer to Joel was that little girl.

“Can I ask you a question?” You asked Tommy one day whilst you were helping him repair some fencing around the outer wall.

“You just did, but sure thing Sunshine.”

“Do you know much about Ellie?” Your tried to keep your tone as nonchalant as possible, but the grin on Tommy’s face suggested he knew exactly where you were going with this.

“I’ve gotta be honest Joel’s kept her to himself mostly,” He shrugged, picking up his hammer to beat some nails into the wood you were holding still for him, “She’s a firecracker, swears like a sailor and is the only person I’ve ever seen make Joel laugh since the world went to shit.”

You hummed in understanding, “You know about the things she likes to do?”

“I think you’re treading a very thin line here.” He warned.

“I’m not trying to do anything Tommy,” You spoke defensively, “She follows him around like a lost puppy, I’ve not seen her make any friends, I just wanted to try and do something nice for her to make her feel welcome.”

Tommy sighed, “Space,” He replied simply, “Joel said she liked space, wanted to be an astronaut or something like that, and she's attached to that Walkman like it's her lifeline,” He was focusing on not hitting his fingers with the hammer, “Maria actually put aside a box of things she thought she might like, with the baby she hasn’t had time to take it over, but maybe if you drop back with me later you can drop it off for us?”

“Sounds good,” You responded, “Will he be there?”

Tommy smirked, “No, he’s on evening patrol on the fence tonight so nothing to worry about.”

“I’m not worried Tommy.”

“Sure, that’s why your nails are bitten down and you’ve been chewing at your lips since he arrived,” Your eyes widened, he was always the more astute of the brothers, “You used to do that before, when you were worried about things.”

“Well like I said, I’m not worried about anything.” You mumbled.

“Whatever you say, Sunshine,” He winked at you, “I finished hammering that about five minutes ago, you can let go now.”

***

The box was heavy in your arms – you silently cursed Maria for filling it up so much, what was even in here? You could see a few books on the top and an empty notepad and there was some material at the bottom that could only be clothing. You thanked the Gods for not allowing the bottom to drop out of it, setting it down on the porch before knocking on the door of the house Tommy had pointed at when you were walking back to his.

It took a while for someone to answer, but the door was eventually ripped open, and Ellie was stood in front of you, trying to catch her breath.

“Oh hey,” She greeted, “Joel’s not here.”

“Lucky me, because I’m actually here to see you,” You smiled, tapping the cardboard box on the floor with your foot, “Maria sent me over with a few things she thought you might like.”

Ellie bent down to pick it up but you beat her to it, “It’s heavy, let me bring it inside for you.”

She smiled and moved in the doorway to let you pass. The inside of their home was exactly as you’d imagine it to be, it wasn’t that much different to how yours had been when you moved in. Simple and bare save for the few pieces of furniture, a coffee mug was sat on the table near the kitchen – if Joel was half he man he had been before that would be his, half full of coffee that he’d drunk before leaving for patrol.

“You can set it down on the table.” Ellie directed, which you did, taking hold of the coffee cup to find it was exactly how you’d imagined, half full of coffee which was still slightly warm, Joel had left recently.

You watched as Ellie started going through the box, taking out the books to read the back of them before setting them down and investigating the clothes, seemingly happy with what Maria had chosen.

“I hope you don’t mind but I brought you something too,” You spoke quietly, fishing around in your jacket pocket before pulling out a CD, “I don’t know if it’s your sort of music, but I’ve seen you with your Walkman around town and though you’d like something different to listen to.”

She took the CD gratefully, “Foo Fighters, what kinda name is that?”

You giggled, “You know they were actually pretty good, I listened to them all the time before all this, trust me.”

“You sure you don’t wanna keep it?” Ellie asked, trying to pass it back to you.

“I don’t have anything to listen to it on, so it’s all yours, I wanna know what you think of it though.” You gave her a smile and a wink.

“Thanks,” She said, “This is actually super cool.”

You knew you couldn’t linger too long here; you didn’t want to outstay your welcome and make Ellie feel uncomfortable. You wanted to do something nice for her so she would tell Joel. Then you’d be front and center in his mind. He might even thank you himself and surely that meant opening a conversation with him. Baby steps, you kept telling yourself.

“You’re welcome,” You reached out and squeezed her shoulder, “And if you ever need anything else you can always ask me, I know how hard it can be to settle here after being… out there.”

Ellie nodded at you, and you excused yourself, heading home and hoping you’d planted a big enough seed to grow.

***

The next morning, as Joel was setting breakfast on the table for Ellie before she went to school, the seed started to bloom.

“Your girlfriend came round last night.”

“Excuse me?”

“You know that woman you knew from before, the one we met at the bar?”

“Ellie, she ain’t my girlfriend,” Ellie shrugged at Joel’s answer, shoveling eggs into her mouth, “What was she doin’ here?”

“Bought some box of stuff Maria set aside for me,” She said with her mouth full, earning a glare from Joel at her table manners, “She bought me this awesome CD as well, did you ever hear of the Foo Fighters?”

Joel nodded, trying not to remember that the only reason he did was because you had insisted on keeping that damn CD in his truck – it had been the background noise to most of your evening escapades when you couldn’t be in his bed. It wasn’t his particular cup of tea, but he had always liked watching you out of the corner of his eye as he drove you to your spot, tapping your fingers on the side of the car and singing along when the moment took you.

“Well, I hope you said thank you.” Joel grumbled, drinking the last of his coffee, “Now come on, you’ll be late.”

As Joel stood on the porch and watched Ellie walk down the street to school he cursed you. Cursed you for being the sweet little girl he always remembered and making Ellie happy, because now he’d have to seek you out and thank you himself. Running a hand over his face he resolved to do it today, better to get it over with instead of dwelling on things.

***

You were bent over the bench in the tool shed taking inventory when a knock at the door pulled you from your counting. Tommy had asked you to take stock of what materials were left after you’d repaired the fence the previous day and although it was giving you a headache it was distracting work, having to concentrate on something that wasn’t Joel.

“Come in!” You called, not looking up from the pile of nails you were counting, you scribbled the number you’d already counted to on a slip of paper, dropping the rest back in the tub to continue counting later.

Turning around, Joel was leant on the doorframe, arms crossed over his chest. In the daylight and up close he was just as devastating as he’d been all those years ago. You silently willed the giddy feeling in your bones to go away.

“Not interrupting anything am I?” He asked, nodding his head towards the bench.

“Not at all, it’s a welcome break actually, only so many nails you can count before you go insane,” You laughed, hoping he would do the same, but his face was as stoic as ever, “Do you need something?”

He let out a sigh, “I just wanted to say thank you for what you did for Ellie yesterday, she’s been through a lot, and this is an adjustment to say the least, so thank you.”

You smiled at him, “You’re welcome,” you replied simply, “I’ve seen her wandering around with that Walkman attached to her so figured she could use something new to listen to,” You started rambling now, “I can’t even believe I managed to find it, it was just hanging out in some old store we stumbled through a few years back and all I could think about what how we used to listen to it in your truck when you’d….” Your eyes went wide as you stopped yourself from finishing your sentence, this wasn’t how you wanted this to go, “Sorry.” You mumbled, looking down from his eyes to your fingers where you set to work worrying at a bit of loose skin.

“It’s alright,” He spoke, “If I’m bein’ honest it’s exactly what I thought about when she showed me last night.”

“Oh,” You exclaimed, snapping your eyes up to him, “Have you thought about me much?”

“Darlin’,” He spoke softly, “It’s best not to talk about it, I don’t want to upset you.”

You nodded, “That means no then right?” You replied, “Because if you had you would have said because that would have made me happy, saying you don’t want to upset me means you didn’t.”

“It was easier that way,” He admitted softly, “Convincing myself you were gone.”

“Wish I could say the same,” You shrugged, “Was there anyone else?”

You didn’t know where all this was coming from and you were half expecting him to tell you to shut your mouth and mind your own business, but to your surprise he answered, “There was one woman, her name was Tess, it wasn’t…” He trailed off, trying to find the right words, “It just made sense, we ran in the same circle, and I guess we just helped distract each other sometimes.”

“Understandable.” You replied simply, itching to get yourself out of the conversation now.

“What about you, was there anyone else?”

You laughed, “Travelling across country trying to keep my dad alive isn’t really conducive to that sort of thing, so no Joel, there was no-one else,” He nodded in understanding but didn’t move to speak again, “I should really get back to this.” You mused, pointing to the bench.

“Of course, sorry for takin’ up your time, and thank you again, Ellie really did appreciate it.”

Joel left without another word, closing the door quietly behind him and all the frustration you’d felt came tumbling out. Angry tears pricked at your eyes at your stupidity that he’d have thought about you at all. You were only ever the stupid little girl with her stupid little crush and the moment he had the opportunity to forget you he did. Of course he did. You wiped at your cheeks furiously, willing your emotions to get themselves in check so you could go back to work, but for the rest of the day you’d catch yourself in your melancholy, tears threatening to fall and your mind completely distracted. This was not how this was supposed to go at all.

***

“You should have seen his face!” Your father roared at the table, “White as a ghost when I woke up.”

You weren’t sure how you’d made it here but you were sat at a table in The Tipsy Bison with your father and Tommy, along with Joel and Ellie, whilst your father recounted stories of your survival, telling them with an enthusiasm that would rival a war veteran speaking about their time in the forces. He was currently going through the motions of explaining how you’d made it to Jackson and how he thought Tommy was going to pass out when he realized it was the both of you he’d rescued.

You’d mostly kept quiet, only popping into the conversation to correct him when he got something wrong. Otherwise you kept your focus on the glass of whiskey in front of you that Tommy was keeping topped up with the bottle he’d bought from the bar for you all.

“How’d you get that scar on your face?” You looked up at Ellie, everyone else looking at her in horror for being so blunt.

“Ellie, don’t be so nosey.” Joel chastised her.

“It’s alright,” You shrugged, “It’s pretty lame actually, we’d shut ourselves in a house a few years ago trying to hide from a pack of infected, not realizing someone else had the same idea. I was looking out the window to see if we had a clear route out when I heard someone shuffling behind me. I turned around and by the time I realized what was happening he’d slashed the knife on my face.”

“Did you kill him?”

“Ellie!” Both Tommy and Joel burst out at the same time.

You chuckled, realizing you probably shouldn’t encourage her questions, but replied anyway, “In a way I guess I did, we had a bit of a struggle and he tripped and fell out of the window, it was a tall building so yeah, he died.”

“That’s cool.”

You shrugged, looking around the table to see that everyone was willing the conversation to move elsewhere, you were itching to know more about how Joel and Ellie had come to be together aside from the snippets Tommy had told you, but you didn’t think this would be the right place to ask. Instead, you fished a cigarette out of your jacket pocket, shoving it between your lips and excusing yourself.

You were halfway through it, leaning against the railing outside the bar when you felt someone come up behind you and lean themselves down next to you, “Never thought I’d see the day when you turned to those.”

“Well, I’m not surprised if you spent the last twenty years convincing yourself I was dead,” You shrugged at Joel, as always, alcohol emboldening your tone, “I’ve gotta die of something and I’d rather these than being torn apart limb from limb or sprouting mushrooms from my face.” You punctuated the end of your sentence with a long drag of your smoke, blowing it out into the cool night.

“How do you always do that?” He asked.

“Do what?” You raised an eyebrow at him.

“Make anything seem funny,” He offered, “The world’s gone to shit, everyone we’ve ever really cared for is dead and yet here you are, joking like we’re back to the days before.”

“It’s the only way I don’t focus on all the shitty things I’ve done to get here.”

It was silent between you for a moment. You could have sworn you saw Joel move his hand as if he was going to place it reassuringly on your arm like he always did but he didn’t, even if your head was screaming at him to do it, just to breech the barrier he had up between the two of you.

“Can I say something?” You asked after a moment.

He nodded, “I don’t want to step out of line, but I just wanted to say I’m really sorry about Sarah,” You could see him physically tense next to you, “You don’t have to tell me what happened, in fact, it’s probably best you don’t but… I liked her Joel; she was a good kid and she didn’t deserve what happened to her and I’m sorry you had to go through that.”

“I hate the way you miss me.” He mumbled.

You looked him dead in the eye for the first time, “I don’t hate the way I miss you,” You spoke honestly, “I think it’s the only thing that kept me alive sometimes, thinking about the chance to see you again, hold your hand or kiss you.”

He sighed, “You can’t stand there and say that,” He spoke roughly, “With your big eyes beggin’ me to be the man you deserve, I couldn’t be that before all of this and I certainly can’t be that for you now,” and then finally, “We can’t keep doin’ this.”

You nodded, stubbing out your cigarette and throwing it to the ground in front of the bar, “Understood,” You spoke, giving him a final glance, “Goodnight Joel.”

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#Joel Miller #Pedro Pascal #The Last Of Us #The Last Of us HBO #Joel Miller smut #joel miller fic #joel miller fanfiction #Joel Miller fanfic #Joel Miller x you #Joel Miller x reader #Joel Miller x female reader #Joel Miller x f!reader #the last of us fanfiction #Joel Miller Pedro Pascal #TWYMM

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capypub · 1 year

Text

Without Warning - Mafia!Joel Miller Scene 3

AU Mafia!Joel Miller x Original Female Character

Rating: T (language, sexual themes)

Minors DNI. 18+ content!

Scene 1 Scene 2 Scene 4

Summary: Joel and his Baby Girl meet Bill and Frank. Then proceed to make out in the horse stables.

Something softer, not very Mafia!Joel heavy, but I have an idea in the works.

It was easy to convince her the gun was merely for protection, a precaution he stood by since returning from his time in the military. Having a concealed carry license in his wallet also helped ease some of her anxiety, especially after he explained that practically everyone and their mama carries in Texas. Everything he was saying made sense, so she had no reason to be wary of him. After that hiccup, his relationship with her continued to develop quickly, both absolutely taken by the other, complimenting each other’s energy to near perfection.

Joel’s presence at the Bison increased drastically over the next two months. Any night Indi was working, he was there, patiently waiting for the last call at his table, usually nursing two or three doubles throughout the night. Outside of work, he seemed to spare no expense, showing up to her apartment with fresh flowers every time they made plans, reserving private rooms for tastings at the finest Texas wineries, leaving her gifts when he couldn’t see her or had to be away for work.

Until one day, after dinner at one of the best rooftop steakhouses in Austin, Indi put her hand over his as he fisted the gearshift of his Hellcat, the engine purring smoothly around them.

“Joel…” she said softly, looking so hesitant and small in the passenger’s seat, the end of her little black dress riding up as she fidgeted nervously, “I’ve been having such a great time with you, these dates,” she chuckled with a slight shake of her head, almost disbelieving, “these dates are incredible…you’re incredible.”

He smiled warmly, bringing his free hand up to stroke her cheek, his chest filling with warmth as she leaned into his touch so easily. He leaned over, kissing her softly, the little content sigh she let out only making that warmth in his chest grow. When he pulled away, she was grinning, eyes already beginning to dilate from a single kiss.

“Just wanna keep seein’ that pretty smile, baby girl,” he said, his voice rich and deep like honey.

Another thing Joel found himself encouraging was that gorgeous blush on her cheeks. She hated it, having mentioned it in passing, but he loved seeing that slight tinge of pink. Slowly batting her lashes, she pecked his lips, leaning back before he could do anything else or make her blush harder from his sweet words.

“I was going to say,” she giggled, when he attempted to chase her mouth, “I want to see more of you, Joel, the real you. I’ve learned enough about you to know you wouldn’t just choose to spend a few hours at a winery or a five-star restaurant,” she explained, stroking his beard with her thumb.

“The real me?” he questioned with a slight frown, caught off guard, “I don’t think you’re ready for that, darlin’,” he added, sighing quietly.

The little smile and chuckle told him that she thought he was joking. In reality, every terrible thing he’s ever done crossed his mind in a flash. Biting his lower lip, he turned his head slightly to look out the front window.

“Please, Joel? I want to get to know the actual you, good and bad included,” she requested, that little pout instantly blowing through his defenses, leaving him feeling more vulnerable than he was comfortable with in the moment. Rather than fight it, he leaned into it, because it’s probably what she would have wanted, the more serious they became about each other.

“Okay, baby girl,” he agreed, pulling her in for a slow kiss.

That’s how they ended up on a ranch about an hour outside of Austin two days later. Joel parked the truck in front of a cozy-looking farmhouse, the circular driveway of dirt kicking up dust as he came to a stop behind an old and beaten down blue truck. He wouldn’t tell her much about where they were going, just that he wanted to take her to a friend’s house.

“So you used to live here?” she asked as he helped her out of his truck, having developed a habit of opening her door and taking her hand every time she had exited his vehicle.

“For a bit, yeah, when I got back from Iraq,” he answered, his hand seeking comfort along the curve of her lower back, “Bill and Frank took me in, kept me fed, and all I had to do was take care of the ranch.”

“Are they nice? Bill and Frank?” she questioned, looking up at him as they went up the worn wooden steps to the front door.

“Frank is,” Joel muttered, tapping on the glass before stepping back.

Before Indi could get another question in, the door swung open, revealing an older man with a graying beard and bright eyes. He was tall, lean and sported a sweater much too warm for this time of year, yet seemed perfectly content with an apron tied around his waist.

“Look who it is,” the man said, beaming with enthusiasm as he wrapped Joel in a tight hug.

Indi noticed how Joel only tensed slightly, probably from being caught off guard more than general discomfort. He patted the man on the back with a low chuckle. Joel kept still as the man put both hands on his shoulders, assessing him from head to foot.

“Good to see you, Frank,” Joel said once the other man gave a quick nod of approval, apparently satisfied with his findings.

“I know,” Frank said with a smirk, making Joel actually laugh, “And this one? She’s gorgeous, Joel!” he proclaimed, his attention now fully on Indi who had kept slightly behind Joel.

After he made a proper introduction, Frank led them into the house. It was definitely as cozy as the outside, filled with furniture and knick knacks of a lifetime, yet also filled with warmth and love.

“Ellie home?” Joel asked as they settled in the kitchen.

Frank scoffed, setting a tray of drinks in the middle of the table, “You know damn well that girl’s never home. She tell you she has a girlfriend now?”

Joel choked on his drink, coughing harshly as he leaned forward, Indi rubbing his back in small circles as he regained his composure. “What now?”

Heavy boots on the wooden floor stopped Frank from answering. A door somewhere in the house closed as the footsteps came closer.

“What’d I tell you about letting strays in?” a deep voice grumbled from the doorway.

Indi turned in her seat to find another man, shorter than Frank but with a roughness similar to Joel. His beard was fuller, blended into his neatly trimmed hair in a mix of chocolate and gray.

“There you are, come sit,” Frank said, ignoring the man’s comments, “Indi, this is my husband Bill, Bill, come meet Joel’s girlfriend.”

Joel visibly stiffend at the word girlfriend, his eyes darting to Indi to gauge her reaction. She seemed unfazed by the term, shaking Bill’s hand. As Frank continued to lead the conversation between the four of them, going on about Ellie's girlfriend, Joel kept glancing nervously at Indi. Bill remained as stoic as ever, providing input only when prompted by Frank like a dutiful husband. The rest of the time he stared at his drink or around the room. When Indi’s hand came to rest on Joel’s knee, that he hadn’t even realized he’d been bouncing anxiously, he looked at her.

She didn’t say anything, instead she smiled at him, squeezing his knee comfortingly before turning her attention back to Frank. Joel held her hand under the table, squeezing lightly and receiving one in return.

“How much gas mileage d’you get on that truck, Joel?” Bill asked, looking out the window, arms crossed over his chest as he leaned back in his chair.

Indi noticed Frank subtly roll his eyes.

“Better mileage than that piece o’ shit Chevy you got sittin’ out there,” Joel shot back, sounding serious but breaking out into a laugh when Bill chuckled.

They ended up staying for a late lunch at Bill and Frank’s. Frank, as always, was the perfect host. Bill grilled some steaks and shared a beer with Joel by the fire while Frank sat with Indi on the back porch. They each had a glass of wine, the conversation coming much easier now that they’d started drinking.

“You know, you’re the first girl he’s ever brought over,” Frank stated, eyeing Indi with a smirk over the rim of his glass.

“Yeah,” she said with a light laughter and a nervous smile, “Apparently I’m the first for a lot of things with him,” she added, bowing her head slightly.

“He seems happier since we last saw ‘m,” Frank continued, smiling warmly over at Joel and Bill who had their backs to them, “He needs some happiness, if I’m bein’ honest…we all do,” he sighed.

“Can I ask you something, Frank?” Indi spoke up after a brief silence.

“Anything, honey,” he nodded, radiating with charisma and light in the afternoon sun.

“Who’s Ellie?”

She could see the hesitation in his face, the way his eyes darted over to Joel before returning to her face. He gently touched her arm, giving it a soft pat as he sighed.

“We have a habit around here of helping out strays,” Frank said softly, “Joel brought her here one day, said she needed a place to stay and the rest is history. Little firecracker that one, good shot too, must’ve picked that up from Joel, I guess.”

Frank could see the confusion in her eyes. He knew he shouldn’t be telling her anything about Ellie, he knew it was Joel’s business to handle, but he could also tell this one was going to stick around for a while. He figured the more prepared she was, the better.

“Ellie was fourteen when she came here, she’s sixteen now, absolute hellraiser, but we love that girl,” Frank continued.

“Why would he bring her here? Wouldn’t it make sense for her to stay with him?” she asked, sipping from her wine glass, glancing over towards Joel as if he might hear them, which Frank knew he wouldn’t with his bad ear directed towards them.

“It wasn’t safe for her to stay with him, but…I think that’s something you two should discuss, I don’t need to be on the receiving end of his tantrums,” he said with a much warmer smile, nudging her playfully.

The conversations remained light after that. Bill was an amazing cook. Frank invited them to stay the night, saying the guest room was always available, but Joel shut that conversation down pretty quickly.

“Mind if I take ‘er to see the horse before we head out?” Joel asked, having drifted closer to Indi at some point during their meal, his arm a comforting weight around her shoulders as she leaned into him, finishing off her third glass of wine and it wasn’t even 5 o’clock yet.

“You can change the feed while you’re out there,” Bill grumbled around his toothpick, receiving a light smack in the arm from Frank.

“Alright, old man, you got yourself a deal,” Joel agreed with a grin, seeming the most relaxed since Indi had met him.

“Joel, don’t go gettin’ yourself dirty for no reason, Bill can get the horses,” Frank insisted as the couple stood from the table.

“I don’t mind, really. Thank y’all for today, too” Joel insisted, taking Indi’s hand and leading her down one of the dirt paths snaking across the grounds.

As they approached the stables, somewhat hidden from the house by a thicket of trees and bushes, Indi looked up at Joel with a wide smile. He wrapped his arm around her, tilting his head down to lightly kiss the side of her head.

“Ready to see some horses?” he asked, amused by her eagerness.

Once inside the stables, Indi absolutely lost her mind over the group of horses, all well-kept and gorgeous. He started by introducing her to each horse, already knowing their names.

“This one’s Whiskey, he, uh, he’s mine,” he explained, stroking the animal slowly.

“Like you bought him?” she asked, offering her hand for Whiskey to sniff, proceeding to stroke his muzzle.

“Bought ‘m, raised ‘m, makin’ sure he gets everything he needs,” he nodded, sounding a little far away as he stared at the side of Whiskey’s head.

Indi felt her chest flutter at the idea of Joel’s nurturing side so exposed in the moment. He seemed so relaxed inside the stables, easily refilling buckets of hay with ease as he explained more about how to care for the horses. Indi kept close, content to watch Joel work and admire his ass every time he bent over.

“This one’s really pretty,” she commented once they reached the last horse needing food.

“Shimmer,” Joel said, “this is Ellie’s horse,” he added, avoiding her gaze momentarily.

“I feel like I should ask who exactly is Ellie,” she said, noticing the hitch in his breathing and tension in his arms, “But I trust you’ll tell me when you’re ready, so I won’t,” she added, coming up behind him to wrap her arms around his torso, nuzzling the back of his shirt.

Joel sighed, a deep and heavy breath of relief. God, this girl was something else. He appreciated her not pushing him on things like this. Turning around, he brought both arms around her, pulling her against him and leaning down to kiss her. Her arms slipped around his neck, holding herself to him as she stood up on the tips of her toes to try and gain more leverage. With ease, Joel gripped the back of her thighs, his mouth never leaving hers, as he lifted her up, encouraged by the muffled squeak she let out as he settled her legs around his waist.

He caged her between his body and the wall next to Shimmer’s pen. She groaned as he licked into her mouth, rough hands holding her up, the scruff of his beard scratching pleasantly against her.

“You’re fucking amazing, baby girl, you know that?” he asked gruffly when he pulled back, eyes hazy with need as he looked up at her.

“Yeah?” she laughed, still trying to recover from the heat of his kiss.

“Absolutely,” he growled, capturing her mouth in another heated kiss, this time a little rougher and a little more urgent.

The deep groan from his throat when she squeezed her legs tighter around his waist and moved her hips just slightly was animalistic. She could feel how hard he was each time she shifted her hips, her body warm with desire as Joel squeezed and groped her ass. His mouth was just as rough on her neck, urgent nips and licks that had her squirming, hot breaths fanning her warm body as she moaned softly in his ear.

“J-Joel,” she said tremulously, grabbing at the collar of his shirt to anchor herself.

He kissed her again, a primal groan rumbling in his chest when she eagerly matched his pace, seeming just as worked up. The sound of the horses whinnying, eating, or moving about their pen was faint, almost nonexistent to him as he felt her thighs squeeze his sides again. Fuck, if she kept that up, he’d lose his mind.

“Joel,” she said, a little clearer this time, putting a hand on his chest to bring his focus back.

“What’s wrong, baby?” he cooed slowly, his chest rising and falling quickly, eyes focussed on her lips that were swollen and wet.

“I…I can’t keep going,” she admitted, looking nervous as she bit her lip.

“Why? What’s the matter?” he asked, trying to catch his breath as he gently set her down.

She mumbled something unintelligible to him, looking down and fidgeting with her bracelet.

“What’s that, darlin’?” he asked again, leaning down to try and understand her.

“The horses…” she said a little louder, still avoiding his eyes as she crossed her arms over her body, “...they’re staring.”

Turning around, Joel spotted Shimmer and one other with their heads sticking out. He wouldn’t exactly call it staring, it was just how they looked sometimes. The others had moved away from the doors, most likely to settle in for the evening. He couldn’t help the soft laugh as he turned back around.

“They’re not staring at us, darlin’,” he chuckled, trying to pull her close again.

“They’re watching us,” she insisted, an adorable pout on her lips.

“Want to go somewhere more private, baby girl?” he offered, openly adjusting his still hard cock through his jeans as best he could.

“Yeah,” she agreed as she bit her lip, her gaze drifting to his crotch momentarily before she wrapped her arms around his forearm as he guided them back to the main house, “But can we come back soon?” she asked while they were walking.

He couldn’t help but smile as he leaned down and kissed her temple, slipping his arm from her grasp to wrap around her. She curled one arm around his waist as they continued towards the truck.

“Anytime, baby, anytime,” he agreed, enjoying the raw sense of calm he felt walking through the ranch in the early evening hours, the sounds of nature surrounding them as he breathed in fresh air and held his girl close, absolutely content.

The moment came to a crashing halt when he remembered what Frank had said earlier. He’d called Indi his girlfriend. As if reading his mind, she glanced up at him with a hint of mischief in her smile, biting her lower lip as she batted her lashes at him.

“So how long have you been telling people I’m your girlfriend?” she asked, grinning slyly.

“Frank likes to assume things,” he tried to explain.

“So he assumed wrong, then?” she questioned, raising a brow at him, still smirking.

“N-no, baby girl, ‘course not, I just…I just mean he di-.”

“Joel,” she stopped him by putting a hand on his chest, coming to a stop on the trail, “I’m messing with you, it’s okay,” she soothed him.

He sighed heavily. “Don’t play like that, honey,” he huffed, “You know what we’ve got goin’ on ain’t just messin’ ‘round,” he insisted.

“I know, I’m just curious what we’re calling ‘what we’ve got goin’ on,’ you know?”

He took a deep breath, bringing both his arms around her waist, turning their bodies to face each other. She leaned into his touch, both hands on his chest as she looked up at him with pure adoration. His voice was husky when he spoke into her ear, suggestive and dangerous.

“You can call it whatever you want, baby girl, but just know you’re mine and I ain’t lettin’ you go.”

Scene 4

#joel miller x reader #joel miller imagine #joel miller #joel miller fluff #joel miller au #mafia!joel miller #mob!joel miller #pedro pascal au #pedro pascal imagine #joel miller fanfic #joel miller drabble

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probablyasocialecologist · 1 year

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The problem, [Frans Vera] explains, is that we have forgotten about the megafauna that would have been roaming our landscape before we arrived on the scene: large herbivorous mammals like the aurochs (the wild ox), tarpan (the original wild horse of Europe), wisent (the European bison), elk (known in North America as moose), European beaver and the omnivorous wild boar. All, according to fossil bone records, re-colonized the lowlands of Central and Western Europe along with red deer and roe deer about 2,000 years after the end of the last ice age – around 12,000 years ago. Trees, on the other hand – according to the pollen records – appear only between 9,000 and 1,500 years ago. So, oak, lime, ash, elm, field maple, beech and hornbeam – the key species of what is claimed to have been the primordial closed-canopy deciduous forest of Europe – arrived at least 3,000 years after the large herbivores. This is a very different picture to the one that has rooted in our mythology. It flies in the face of the received wisdom that closed-canopy forest is the natural habitat of these large animals. It also suggests – another heresy – that large herbivores played a part in, or at least did not prevent, the generation of trees in our landscape.

Isabella Tree, Wilding: The Return of Nature to a British Farm

#Wilding #ecology #biodiversity #wood pasture

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headspace-hotel · 2 years

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Since you're a Kentucky native I'm hoping you have a little more insight than me into 'why' poa pratensis got the name Kentucky Bluegrass when it isn't native to the US at all.

Long story short, the Bluegrass (region) early on in colonization established an aristocracy based around breeding horses, mules, cattle etc. and the bluegrass, which had already been introduced, established very well in the pastures.

(I have heard that the high mineral content of the water is a major reason why the place is good for horses, but that might be a just-so story.)

Before colonization, the Bluegrass region was some kind of savanna-like environment with giant, open grown blue ash and oak trees, and an understory full of giant river cane, AKA bamboo (Arundinaria gigantea). When smallpox devastated Native American populations, a lot of areas changed pretty rapidly in terms of their plant communities—open woodlands closed up in the absence of low intensity periodic fires, and in other areas bison completely churned up the ground into acres of mud because their movement patterns were no longer being shaped by hunting.

Something to understand about the "no-lawns" movement in the USA is that fields of low, cropped greenery are somewhat closer to a sustainable state in Europe where they originate.

I could be wrong on this, but as far as I know, the USA doesn't really have low turf-forming grasses that are native. We have a wealth of native sedges and rushes, and bunch- and clump- forming grasses, but the USAmerican biomes that could be considered "grassland" are dominated by species like Big Bluestem, which forms 10-foot-tall clumps and forms root systems like 15 feet deep, mixed in with herbaceous wildflowers that are the size of what suburban folks recognize as a "bush."

American native plants that form a low turf that you can walk on are like, mosses and herbaceous woodland plants.

I've both read and noticed in life that low "turf-forming" grasses tend to be a big problem in establishing native species, because they cover the ground horizontally in a way other plants aren't adapted to compete with. I don't know what kind of grass originally dominated our lawn, but there is some sort of grass that kills everything under it by lying flat and forming these rotting masses after it dies, and you have to rip it out for other things to establish well.

I guess this was mostly off topic, but yeah. Grass lore

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oneatlatime · 1 year

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The Swamp

Random thing I spotted in the opening credits: this Roku (?) silhouette is doing a spinning blade move with airbending, that Azula did with her blue fire while riding the mail system in Return to Omashu. I guess that despite the bending styles being based on different martial arts, borrowing is allowed.

A snippet of blue spirit music plays when that cart carrying the masks passes by. Maybe one second of showtime but the writers and track team put in the effort anyway.

I'm still mad at Zuko for stealing that lady's bird horse, but I'm happy to see that they're looking after it. It even has a blanky.

Those bangs would have done numbers in 2008.

So I'm wishing death on sword guy. Apart from the whole trying to cut off Iroh's feet thing, he can't even do up his shirt right. Zero redeeming features.

I wish I knew how to make gifs to show this, but the way that the diffused lightsource is reflecting off the water peaking through the vegetation of the swamp is incredibly realistic.

Is the sharpening stone the one that usually sits in the indent on the other side of the blade? It would be pretty cool to have a knife with a built in sharpener like that.

Sokka's got a point. How do you "land" on a swamp? Appa will need to break out his sea bison skills.

TIL swamps don't take no for an answer.

HOW are they still ALIVE?!?!

AcTuAlLy Aang it's "where ARE Appa and Momo?"

As someone who has literally had leeches on my elbow, this is not funny.

Also this episode's beat up Sokka quota has already been filled by a tornado, a swamp, and a vampire slug. And we're only 4 minutes in. I feel like this is going to be a rough episode for him.

Look I get that there is no solid land in this swamp, but they could at least move out of the fetid leech-infested water onto a tree root.

Shibari Appa. I ahd to google that.

Momo is a good friend.

Could you imagine what Apppa smells like after landing in the swamp water?

Poor Momo's like "dude. I JUST freed you."

Not everyone can airbend Aang. Some of us would have no option but to cut our way out of the swamp, niceness be damned.

You ever just go FWOMP?

I'm loving these little Appa & Momo scenes.

Did this episode air on Halloween originally? It's really leaning in to the spooky.

And now Appa gets to be a good friend. I love the ear twitch. Have I talked about how cute Appa's ears are?

King of the jungle Appa.

New fear unlocked. Never swimming in seaweed again.

Also kudos to them for sleeping sitting up. I can't do that.

It's neat how all three of their fighting styles are equally effective at freeing them from the vines. No bending superiority here!

How did Cletus and Brandine figure that Appa has six legs from this trail?

No comment. Just thought you'd all appreciate a picture of bowl cut Appa using an alligator as a toothbrush.

Pretty. Swamp wisteria.

This swamp is a dick.

This jumpscare got me. Also, swamp is now a double dick.

And Aang sees some rando. I was expecting Gyatso. Maybe being the avatar makes you immune to swamp dickishness?

If Cletus saw a lemoo at a travelling show once, does that mean that Momo is not the last of his species? Because I've been worrying about that.

This is a pretty cool use of waterbending. Although I don't think 'outboard motor with high manoeuvrability' is a recognised martial arts move.

All the background art in this episode is subtle but very detailed. Another episode I'll be watching on a better quality screen than my little laptop, which makes everything into a green-grey blur.

Sokka was looking for his friends. Katara was looking for her friends. Aang was chasing tail.

Tea party Sokka rocking a midi skirt and thigh high leather boots.

Have to give it to Sokka; they have all been huffing a lot of swamp gas recently. Hallucinating people you think of often after huffing god knows what is a more believable explanation than sentient, dickish swamp. Or it would be, if this wasn't a world where things like the avatar exist.

Looks like I was right about this being a beat up Sokka episode. The number of times swampy has thrown him to the ground, I'm surprised he's still getting up. Also, I think Sokka's voice actor was paid by the scream this episode.

Anyone remember the Absorbaloth?

Are these guys narrating NYOOM noises?

I have to commend the manoeuvrability of these boats.

Not to self: do not piss off a waterbender. They are human deli slicers.

"He's the Avatar. Stuff like that happens to us, a lot." Season 1 in a nutshell.

I applaud this guy's efficiency for styling his hair into a hat.

You guys are really going to go with this guy to a secondary location like 15 seconds after he stopped trying to kill you? Every so often I forget that the Gaang are teens or younger, then something comes along that really reminds me.

Nitpick! Are his socks made out of mud?

This guy has grey eyes like Aang does 50% of the time. I swear Aang has brown eyes in at least half the episodes so far.

More delicious reflections. I wish I could gif this too.

I love the lesson here. The swamp guy's speech about interconnectedness is good, made twice as good by the delivery. Excellent choice of voice actor. Also the bit about the people we've lost still being there hits hard.

A power this useful had better come up again.

Can someone who knows music better than I do tell me if Cletus is on beat? I think not.

New reaction shot!

Why does Sokka repeat "Hugh" so skeptically? What's the joke here?

"He don't eat no bugs. That's people food." This is the kind of stuff I love the most in this show. These seemingly inconsequential, throwaway worldbuilding comments that instantly double the depth of the universe of the show. Every time I get a glimpse of normal people living non-war-torn normal lives I love it.

Scenes like this. PEAK avatar.

That swamp just bitchslapped a bird.

I'd forgotten that Zuko and Iroh were in this episode.

Zuko is well on his way to being forgiven for stealing the horse bird.

Have to wonder why he had a spare set of black clothes lying around though.

Final Thoughts

This episode may well be my new favourite. I like if for the same reasons that I liked Bato of the Water Tribe: it shows us what comparatively normal life is like. Here's a random group of people that might not even know about the war. Looking at them gives us a glimpse of what Aang's pre-war world must have been like, and what the post-war world everyone is fighting to create could be like. It's both nostalgia and hope in one place.

I love that Sokka is still stubbornly anti-supernatural even after travelling for months with the human incarnation of a spirit, being kidnapped by a giant monster panda, and having his crush turn into the moon. Not to mention mega fishman Aang. Although, in a world where the existence of spirits is a scientifically observable fact, isn't believing in the supernatural actually the logical viewpoint?

Apart from that awesome deli slicer waterbending move, Katara did surprisingly little this episode. I think Momo and Appa had more to do.

Spekaing of, I loved having a little side adventure with Momo and Appa. There's enough personality in the animation and voicing of those two characters that they can easily carry dialogue-free scenes. Avatar should do a dialogue free episode with just Appa and Momo going on an adventure. I love their interspecies friendship.

The whole 'we're all connected' thing could have rung hollow if the writers hadn't taken the time to painfully personalise that message for two thirds of the Gaang. In today's arguably too-connected world (thanks internet) the lesson seems obvious, but in a pre-industrial world that's a century into a global war, I bet the connectedness of things is unknown, forgotten, or actively suppressed.

The incredibly short bookends with Zuko and Iroh were (I'm guessing) to establish that Zuko has taken a vigilante turn and that Iroh is inhumanly patient. Neither of those is a surprise. Honestly, if I found myself in that situation, I would react more like Zuko than Iroh. Guess that means I'm a work in progress.

The Storm last season showed that while Aang had a lot to learn, Zuko had a lot to unlearn. Instead of just unlearning incorrect things, it looks like the show is taking it a step farther and progressively stripping Zuko of everything. Zuko isn't one to sit idly by though, so he's fighting back by clinging to harmful things like his pride and learning things he arguably shouldn't, like how to commit theft of bird horses. Although I have no moral objection to stealing that jerk's swords.

This episode didn't have a beat up Sokka quota; it had a beat up everyone quota, physically and sometimes mentally too. Kind of surprised there weren't even bruises. And poor Sokka. The first cut is the deepest.

I'll definitely be rewatching this one.

#atla #avatar: the last airbender #the swamp #avatar the last airbender

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mymiraclebox · 1 year

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Miracle Boxes - The Mage Generation

These are the first iteration of the Miracle Boxes, created by the Mage himself thousands of years ago. These consisted of twelve Miracle Boxes, each with ten kwamis, which the Mage entrusted to people during his travels around the world. Thanks to the use of the Panda Miraculous, the Mage lived much longer than most humans, making his travels across the world last several hundred years.

The Mage Box - Wandering Panda Crow Unicorn Rabbit Beaver Dove Horse Owl Parrot Scorpion

The Mage Box was the Miracle Box that the Mage personally looked after. He kept the Miraculouses of great power with him, along with ones that helped him in his travels around the world. The Mage would stay in different lands for decades at a time, and choose a close companion from these areas to become a Guardian of one of the boxes he carried. These Guardians were assigned to care for these kwamis, and to watch over a vast region.

The Successor Box - South Asia and West Asia Ladybug Black Cat Qilin Frog Bee Butterfly Fox Peacock Swan Turtle

This Miracle Box was the first the Mage trusted in the hands of another, which was his apprentice. He and apprentice left their home land (in what is now modern Tibet). They both headed south, with the apprentice heading west when they parted ways, while the Mage went east as he began his travels around the world.

The Island Box - Oceania and Southeast Asia Wolf Platypus Pterosaur Tuatara Binturong Blackbuck Coral Kangaroo Komodo Dragon Thylacine

This Miracle Box's Guardian was originally from what is now modern India, who was a traveling companion with the Mage as they went east together. When they parted ways the Mage went north, while she promised to take the Miracle Box south. This Guardian spent much of her time in Southeast Asia, and eventually headed down towards Australia and into the Pacific Islands.

The Coastal Box - East Asia and North Asia Dragon Cobra Dog Goat Monkey Mouse Ox Pig Rooster Tiger

The Mage entrusted this Box to a family who lived along the coast. The range this Guardian and Miracle Box looked after was along the coast of eastern Asia, but did stretch inland as well. The Mage spent a long time with this Guardian and their family, before deciding to pursue stories about a land that laid across the ocean.

The Northern Box - North America Thunderbird Bear Cougar Deer Goose Otter Rattlesnake Raven Salmon Woodpecker

The Mage didn't know what he'd find across the ocean, but he stumbled into a land much bigger than he imagined. His journeys started up in what is now Alaska, down through what would become Canada and the United State. Like many Miracle Boxes before the new Guardian had a vast region with many different cultures for them and their kwamis to look after.

The Central Box - Central America Firefly Raccoon Feathered Serpent Spider Axolotl Bison Coyote Eagle Falcon Shark

Of all of the Mage's travels, it was in Central America where he stayed the longest. This was because ended up adopting a daughter, who he went on many adventures with. The Mage entrusted the last Miracle Box with an Alpha Duo to her, who he stayed with to watch over, along with his grandchildren in time. He continued south shortly after his great-grandson became Guardian, knowing that he couldn't stay there forever.

The Southern Box - South America Grim Snail Crocodile Dolphin Isopod Jaguar Jellyfish Llama Locust Moth

The Mage struggled to bond with others as he headed into South America, pained with his extended life and the lost of love ones that comes from it. In time he befriended a lone traveler who lived a similar lifestyle than him, who he entrusted to become a Guardian. They parted ways when the Mage headed south across the ocean, where he encountered the frozen wasteland of Antarctica.

The Jungle Box - Southern Africa Dinosaur Penguin Elephant Gorilla Jackal Okapi Ray Rhinoceros Squirrel Zebra

The Mage did not remain within Antarctica for long, with the inhospitable environment and lack of human life. He headed north up into Madagascar, where he spent a considerable amount of time before he traveled to the mainland of Africa, which turned out to be much bigger than he had excepted when first traveling to the continent.

The Desert Box - Northern Africa Griffin Dragonfly Camel Chameleon Cheetah Giraffe Hippopotamus Hyena Ostrich Secretarybird

He did not select a guardian for this box for a long time, not until his arrival in ancient Egypt. This was the first place the Mage had truly settled in for many years, but he did eventually head east across the Sahara. The Mage's travels in Africa ended in what is now in Morocco, where he then headed up into the Iberian Peninsula.

The Peninsula Box - Europe Kelpie Aurochs Ant Crab Gecko Hedgehog Ibex Lion Mouflon Seahorse

Europe was yet another region that took the Mage a long time to select a Guardian for, and often retraced his paths in locations he had been in before during this search. In the end he trained up several potential Guardians, but only entrusted the box to one, leading to conflict for the box after he left.

The Arctic Box - Northern Europe and Northern Asia Phoenix Lynx Moose Narwhal Octopus Polar Bear Seal Sheep Stoat Wolverine

The Mage settled a lot more often as he journeyed northward, still very nomadic in where he would travel, but would often stay in settlements for long periods of time, especially during harsh winter months. The Mage loved the world and his travels, but he was tired, especially after living for so long. He entrusted this Miracle Box to a woman the kwamis loved to become their Guardian.

The Mountain Box - Central Asia and the Tibetan Plateau Yeti Red Panda Bat Elk Pangolin Quail Scarab Snow Leopard Tortoise Vulture

At the end of his centuries long journey, the Mage found himself rapidly approaching his homeland. When heading across the mountains he found a Guardian for the last Miracle Box with him. He did not spend long here as he did in other regions of the world, being so close to home. And after such a long journey the Mage for ready to rest.

---

The Mage's apprentice was long dead by the time he returned to his homeland, but he was able to meet those who were protecting the Successor Box in his apprentice's place. Satisfied with the system he had in place and the kwamis that lived across the world, the Mage decided that he was ready to rest after living for so many years.

Still he knew the greed of humanity, and decided that the two Soul Gems along with the Miraculouses of the Panda, Crow, and Unicorn should be hidden away. They were to be hidden away in the Mage Box, so the other seven kwamis he had once looked after he decided to spread across the world, to unite with other Miracle Boxes out there.

After this he hid away the powerful Miraculouses and the Soul Gems, before officially retiring to his homeland under the care of the Guardians of the Successor Box. While he never told a soul where his Miracle Box was hidden, he did entrust the current Guardians with the knowledge of the location of one Soul Gem, before he passed away of old age.

---

The True Generation of Miracle Boxes

The Order Generation of Miracle Boxes [TBA]

#kwamis #kwami oc #kwami #oc kwami #ml headcanons #my headcanons #miraculous headcanon #miraculous ladybug headcanon #ml the mage #the mage #vitaa #plagg #tikki #shii #miracle box

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