#the pioneer

[delta-orionis]

Another trick-or-treater, you assume. Or one of those creatures that have been relentlessly booping you for the past cycle. You ready yourself for an onslaught of pokes, but they never come... instead, you hear a distinct beep of an ID drone. It introduces your guest - Eight Marbles Cast in Stone, a scholar, martial artist, messenger. You know this creature!

You can tell she's not feeling well. The drone translates her language for you. She asks if she could hide in one of your inner shelters for the time being. As much as this scug likes pats, the sheer number of them is too overwhelming. A quiet nap could to her well.

[ PREVIOUS ]

TSAC: … of course, another disturbance… just as I thought I had ejected the last of those irksome slug creatures...

TSAC: … !?

TSAC: …Oh! Hello, Eight Marbles Cast in Stone! My apologies... for a moment I thought you were another one of those vexatious little interlopers... What brings you here?

....You seem rather distressed. Perhaps you ran into my... visitors. I have been dealing with them all Cycle. I cannot fathom why they all decided to descend on my chamber at once, in such large numbers no less. I imagine they must have disturbed you as well.

TSAC: You are welcome to stay in one of my interior shelters if you like. You are much more... respectful... towards my internal components than some of my other guests, so I won't mind.

You may rest here for as long as you need.

[ @ask-the-pioneer ]

[kalivasquezart]

Art attack on @zenala-art. Our scugs have the same title!

[opashoo]

An Exchange

Pioneer is showing Rook her system of notating slugcat scents by their scent proteins and other chemical compounds, while Rook is showing off a system of writing developed by slugcats from the far north, who were apparently tutored under a late iterator (one who was quite legendary….)

Artfight revenge on @kalivasquezart!! This gets to do double duty as fanart and thanks for that honestly amazing attack you did with Rook.

Pioneer's writing, I just pulled directly from the askblog from this post here. Kali made it using logographs from @ikayblythe's Standard Hegemonic Dialect!

Rook's writing is an ongoing project of mine trying to adapt the symbols of Rain World to a working conlang I'm developing for the colony slugcats in my setting. Each block represents a syllable, and most characters represent consonants, each of which natively have an 'a' attached. A line above changes that 'a' to an 'i' while a line below changes it to an 'o'. Stacks of two characters represent a consonant-vowel-consonant syllable block, with the vowel decided by the top character. Sometimes the Monk symbol (circle) is used to represent the absence of a consonant (such as the third block). A syllable block encompassed within another character (such as the second syllable block) represents a long vowel.

Rook's writing reads "pajmūy ag sayong da". Grammer and lexicon are still very heavily in development, but 'pajmūy' means "One who is often convinced".

[brynsdoodles]

Artfight attack! The pioneer, riding at sunset (link)

[atomic-chronoscaph]

The Pioneer - art by Al Feldstein (1954)

[zenala-art]

close enough welcome back art fight

[dilfgmancoolatta]

hey you know what? i love u. shows u my fallout characters

[mediavol-o]

so theres this fictional woman...

[kcdodger]

Artfight Attack on @kalivasquezart!

As it turns out, I can be somewhat airheaded, and as such, I wholly, completely forgot to post my art here on tumblr. Admittedly, I'm not used to actually... putting, anything on the platform. It'll take time. Twitter did a number on me that way.

[newsupdates-world]

Sanjay Pasari wants to inform you on the occasion of Guru Purnima blood donation camp has been organized by different doctors & CA's in different locations!

[wuxiaphoenix]

Movie Review: The Pioneer

The West, the final frontier. These are the voyages of imperial envoy Zhang Qian. His sixteen-year mission: to explore strange new kingdoms, to seek out new life, and new civilizations; to boldly go where no man (of the Han Empire) has gone before!

This is actually five full-length movies about the life and travels of Zhang Qian, Han Ambassador in the second century BC. As in while Rome was still a republic, not an empire. If you want epic fantasy but are burned out on the Fate of the World Is At Stake, these could be a nice change. And hopefully an inspirational one. I’d love to read more stories like this.

Not least because it has some of the same challenges and values as the original Star Trek. And by challenges I mean that the life of a would-be peaceful explorer can be extremely hazardous. Sandstorms. Waterless deserts. Rockslides. Freezing mountain passes. People. Oh man, people.

Because no one - at least, no one in power - really believes in peaceful explorers. Which is why the first movie opens with Zhang Qian planning to break out of the Xiongnu camp he and his surviving men have been held in for ten years. (Thirteen in real life. Minor detail.)

In all fairness the Lord of the Xiongnu had somehow gotten wind of the fact that Zhang Qian was an ambassador to Yuezhi, seeking allies against Xiongnu raids. So kind of a “Kirk caught by Klingons on his way to offer Romulans an alliance” mess.

He’s held reasonably politely. Free to live, given a wife, he has a son. But never free to leave.

And here’s where the other bit that resonates with Star Trek comes in. Zhang Qian never abandons his mission.

Over a decade in captivity, he waits, maps, plans, and hones his knowledge of the cultures, languages, and geography around him. He knows the Xiongnu leader, he knows none of them will get a second chance. To fail will mean summary execution; being the husband of a Xiongnu princess won’t save him.

But he has a duty. So he escapes. Not back to Chang’an. Heading west.

Zhang Qian believes in the morals and ethics of his people. A man has a duty. A man keeps his word. He is a scholar and a warrior, and he will not quit. Ever.

(The Tropes Badass Bookworm, Ambadassador, I Gave My Word, and Determinator all apply. Liberally.)

We need more of this, no matter what the genre. More heroes with the courage of their convictions. Who believe in something, and are willing to put their lives on the line when it matters.

(Also we need more history. The events may be somewhat fictionalized, I doubt one king and queen died due to collapsing hallucinogenic statue, but Zhang Qian was real, his travels are historical fact, and it must have been a heck of an adventure.)

Space these movies out over at least a few days. You’ll enjoy it more. Also, warning. I’d rate these mostly about PG-13, but there are some serious subjects, violence, and beloved characters do die. Near the end of the fifth movie is a gut-punch.

...It’s also one of the few times we see Zhang Qian truly enraged. Mostly he tries for a peaceful solution. This time the only solution was definitely violence. And as an ex-military guy, he has absolutely no illusions about fighting fair.

The Pioneer: Call of Duty (c-movie): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPZLuGpV2zA

trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-TVGEYQY5o

The Pioneer: The Mysterious City (c-movie): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmM90FGMmy8

The Pioneer: Pegasus (c-movie): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVqmsYJjjpg

trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mhTgkDeELQ

The Pioneer: The Lost Country (c-movie): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=meCqbM-bZJU

The Pioneer: Ambassador (c-movie): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJs2Hf1iu2U

[delta-orionis]

Artfight attack of The Pioneer (@ask-the-pioneer) for @kalivasquezart!! I got a little carried away with this one, oops. I was having a bit too much fun drawing TSAC's Memory Conflux.

I was inspired to make a continuation of this attack. Three Stars Above Clouds recognizes The Pioneer's fascination with pearls and decides to give her a tour of their pearl archives.

Context: TSAC's job as an observatory requires them to collect massive amounts of data, meaning they have a lot of pearls. A lot. I'm talking thousands. Deep inside of TSAC's Memory Conflux is a subregion called the Data Archives, where the majority of their pearls are stored. (I have a detailed region map here.)

The pearls are suspended in an electric field and are continuously stimulated with electricity to make sure they don't fade with time. This also means you can't touch them without getting zapped. However, there are a few loose pearls in the archive than can be safely collected. Such as this one:

(I couldn't resist an extra doodle, hehe)

[adiodont]

”Oh I’m not leaving”

(siblings)

[ask-the-pioneer]

Am lizard... am bring food... want... hunt with... creature... can... creature hunt... with... me?...

[jel-jel-jel]

for the marinacht truthers out there. can anybody hear me

[zenala-art]

Got a cool slugcat design by a friend so I had to make them a proper ref