#they never get the same protections as mammals or birds do even if they are just as or more endangered

[fishyfishyfishtimes]

It's always so weird to come down from the biology heavens to see what the average person believes about animals, plants, ecosystems, just the world around them. I don't even mean things that one simply doesn't know because they've never been told or things that are confusing, I'm talking about people who genuinely do not see insects as animals. What are you saying. Every time I see a crawling or fluttering little guy I know that little guy has motivations and drive to fulfill those motivations. There are gears turning in their head! They are perceiving this world and they are drawing conclusions, they are conscious. And yet it's still a whole thing if various bugs of the world feel pain or if they are simply Instinct Machines that are Not Truly Aware of Anything At All????? Help!!!!!! How can you look at a little guy and think he is just the macroscopic animal version of a virus

[moon-buggg]

In your alien abduction au, you said the boys would be surprised to find out humans eat three meals a day plus snacks, could it be because of our warm blood? That's why, irl, mammals and birds eat more than reptiles and amphibians, because we need more energy to maintain our body temperature, and you said Sun and Moon are kinda of like an amphian species, and that's why they dont eat so much?

This also brings some quirks, because warm blooded beings comes with some kind of way to protect themselves from temperature shifts around them (to maintain their internal heat stable), like fur, feathers and fat, your boys know fur and maybe feathers too but, some species have their own little ways to do it too, like a dogs breathing, but humans, we almost completely lost our fur, that's because we sweat. Do you think sweat and/or oily skin would be strange for them? You said their skin isn't humid like one of an amphian is, but they still use of external enviroment modifications to make themselves confortable, your fic shows it, so would they get weirded out by the strange salty water we produce to lower our temperature? Or the oil to keep our skin from cracking, even in dry places? Im pretty sure humans are the only species to sweat on earth, not sure though, so would that be like, a new thing they've never seen before? Or just rare? Would we shivering from cold get the same reaction?

Sorry it's long, but ever sinse you said they are like amphibians i've been thinking about how sensitive they are, not saying they are fragile thought, dinossaurs were a thing here and we still have crocodiles and aligators, and your boys are big, strong, have claws and teeth, the whole thing, im speaking more of how they are dependent on the external enviroment. Amphibians and reptiles live mostly in hot and humid places because it's easy to regulate themselves like this, but even the ones adapted to harsher ambiances, if they change places they will die. So imagine they are going to a colder planet, im not talking about freezing cold, just 5 or 10°C (50° fahrenheit), we can survive without clothes there, but they need a whole suit to warm them up, because even if a jacket would keep most of the cold out, they dont have internal heat, so they would still freeze at some point.

I think im overthinking. I like your au 👉👈

Welcome to speculative biology, where the fun is the other thinking lol

I do imagine they're cold blooded, yeah. Maybe not in exactly the same way earth animals are (I gotta dig in and do some biology research before I can say anything about their biology for sure-). But the habitable places of their planet largely don't get cold enough to freeze, so there wasn't much evolutionary pressure to evolve adaptations for keeping yourself warm, and then once they evolved to make tools they just... never went to the cold dry parts of the planet. Why bother? But again I am planning to do a masterpost with their definitive biology one of these days that has actual like, scientific explanations

They'd probably be grossed out by sweat yeah, even if theyve seen it before. Other species do sweat, tho, even on earth! Hippos and horses and other apes. Even cats and dogs sweat a little bit on their paws, it's just not their primary method of cooling down. I'd imagine shivering isn't that unusual though, but still probably kinda weird to the boys.

But yeah they don't do too well in the cold. I don't imagine they've ever seen snow in person. The main thing is that they aren't a one to one with any earth animal because their evolutionary line and pressures were so different. So I really gotta do some research before I say anything too definitive here lol because who knows where I'll end up

[a-random-fandom-friend]

hi I just saw your offer on the infodump blog about anatomy and biology

do you know anything about reptiles? I want to write a fantasy novel about dragons and I would like some fun facts about real-life reptiles to sprinkle in my writing. thanks a lot, have a good day!

Hello ! Sorry for the time it took to answer, I just moved city ^^

I ended up talking a LOT, so feel free to ask me about a specific subject I mentioned ! I started with the Bird Problem, then spoke about scales, shedding, courtship, reproduction and egg laying! Hope this helps you !

So ! First fun thing about Reptile : The term "Reptile" actually doesn't exist in science ! Because to have the group X, we need to say "Every specie of X is part of X group because it descends from one common ancestor". At some point there was One Wolf, grandpa of all wolves. There was One Whale. There was One Spider. There was One Mammal. But there never was One Reptile that was the grandparent of every reptile and only the reptile, and that is because the grandparent of lizards and snakes and dinosaurs and crocodiles and turtles... is also the grandpa of birds. So either "reptile" doesn't exist or... birds are reptiles ! They have the same bones and also have scales on their legs ! I much prefer the second way of looking at things : birds are just just... weird reptiles. So if you want some dragons species to have wings or even just decorative feathers, that's scientifically correct ! (many dino also had feathers ; feathers are actually suuuper modified scales) (and they're made of keratin)

Speaking of : There are species of reptiles that have no scales ! There are snake breeders that have engineered, through selective breeding, scale-less snakes - like ball python (T. It's a mutation that occurs in the wild too (Tho there is a big controversy around the practice of breeding for it, because the scales protect the snake and allow him to move more easily, so that's engineering snakes that would not survive well in the wild, and maybe have a reduced quality of life, even in captivity, because of their impeached movements ). Also by checking this info I just learned that snakes have overlapping scales formed on top of their skin, while crocodiles and turtles have scutes that ARE their skin and they do not overlap. You can decide how your dragons are !

Still scale/scute related : a lot of reptiles shed, or moult. It works by creating a new layer of scales under the current one, and once it's complete, the old one -which usually became too small for the reptile and is already stretched- detaches itself when the snake rubs on things. Some species, mostly snakes and some lizards and geckos, shed in big pieces, while in most reptiles it falls in flakes. Some species eat their shred to consume the keratin in it ! I know that humidity tends to help with shedding, and also getting stuck in a shed is very bad for reptiles : there is a scute over the eyes to protect it and if it doesn't fall, the reptile will not see much, plus if a reptile is caught up in its shed it could cut off circulation of the blood, since, well, it moults for a reason and its old shed is too small. Domestic reptiles tend to shed when they are well fed and comfortable, so not in a stress situation !

Some rapid fire informations that I don't know much about, but is common in most reptiles : slow metabolism (need long rest after eating, so tend to eat proportionally big things), cannot control their own body temperature (so they love to rest on hot, warm spots, like stones heated by the sun, or their enclosure's UV light), either predators or herbivores with a gastrolith (a stone in their stomach to crush the leaves that their lack of teeth left intact), and they have one single orifice for pee, poop and egg laying, which is called Cloaca. Oh and last fact : When a crocodilian is propped on it hands, head tilted upward, eyes closed and mouth open in a smile... They are actually SUPER STRESSED. They are being super tense and showing off their teeth. A relaxed crocodilian will look like Flat Fuck Friday : not a single tense muscle in that body.

Now, my favourite part : How they reproduce :D

For, almost all species, the reproductive organs are internal and come out only in period of reproduction (the exception is the tuarara, the Aotearoa/ New Zealand lizard, who doesn't have any organ at all). So it can be hard to determine in an individual is male or female, if there aren't any other physical differences (change in size, or colour, or even body form between the two sexes). Crocodiles and turtles have one penis, while snake and geckos have two (called hemipenes). The penis hole is hidden between two scales when the penis doesn't come out ! (the male tuarara just presses its hole to the female's hole)

Really cool fact : Aspidoscelis neomexicanus is a specie of lizard that is EXCLUSIVELY FEMALE and only reproduce by... basically cloning the mom's DNA and using that to create an egg ! It is called Parthenogenesis, and a lot of other animals can do it (an unfertilized egg give birth to an individual) : reptiles like the Komodo dragon, insects, fishes, birds... Tho it has its cost : there is a very reduced genetic diversity which means they are less resistant to environmental change. Which is why, to most species that are able to do it, it is more of a last resort than the main way their reproduce. But there are 25 lizards species and one of snake which are uni-sexual ! There is just no male in the specie ! Isn't that incredible ?

Above : a female A. neomexicanus ! (picture by Kit Bezy) But yeah most reptiles still need to be 2 to reproduce. One get on top of the other, or on the side of the other, and boom boom boom boom. To do that they need to attract a mate, however, and reptiles have SO MANY different way of doing it. Some snake get like 50 males in a big ball around a female when she's receptive (up to 30 000 for the Red Sided Garther Snake, which is a bit excessive if you ask me), some chameleon change colours, some have horns that grow, turtles need to shake their head or flutter their fingers, the draco (flying lizards) have brightly coloured throat fans, crocodiles make a lot of sound (and in 2010, some responded to noises made by sonic planes !), the Gharial make ultrasounds so the water along its back will dance, the Eastern Fence Lizard contorts itself to really really show that it has a blue belly, that's not even talking about the birds who can literally decorate a nest with objet of one colour, pick flowers, let themselves free fall several dozens of meters, dance, sing, offer food... They also tend to use pheromones, either to attract a mate (the female in those big balls of snakes, for example) or to stimulate the good reception of the sperm. In some species the males can fight for the right to access the female, like turtle headbutting each other, or male sea-turtle trying to bite the male mid-reproduction. In garther snakes, the male deposit a plug at the end of the fuck so that no other man can access it. So, honestly do whatever you like with the courtship of your dragons.

Reptiles can lay eggs OR give live birth : Boas and most vipers give birth to younglings, and so does a specie of chameleon, lizard called skinks, and at least one aquatic dinosaur. Tho (at least for the non-dinosaurs) they still lay eggs : they are ovoviviparous, meaning they lay egg inside of a special cavity inside of them, and they keep the laid eggs inside until they hatch, and at this point the hatched babies exit their mom. So it looks like they give birth to live younglings when in reality they produce eggs! Most reptiles lay eggs directly, meaning it's an egg that leaves the mom. Some with hard shells, most soft shells, and some snake emit a kind of glue that binds all the eggs together in a little mountain. I know that for snakes you must NOT turn an egg once it's been laid ! Because the development of the correct body parts in the correct order depends on the egg orientation. To exit the eggs, the youngs have a little tooth on the front of their mouth, which is really cute ! it falls later in life.

(Picture by Twin City Reptiles)

For some reptiles, the sex of the youngling is not dependent on their genetic, but on their environment ! For example, in some turtles if the egg is incubated above a certain temperature, it will be female, but under that temperature it will be male ! Another form of temperature dependent sex determination is : "There is a reduced range of temperatures at which male will hatch, and any higher or lower that this range, females will hatch" (that's the case in all crocodiles, and some lizards and geckos, and even other turtles). For both methods, if the egg is incubated at the middle temperature, it can hatch as either one or the other, and very rarely as intersex. To achieve different temperatures the parents can, for example, bury the eggs in the sand (near the surface it's hot but deep down it's colder), or bury them in some leaves (near the top it's cold but closer to the earth and surrounded by the other eggs it's warmer). Of course, this isn't the case for all reptiles, but it is a pretty cool fact ! (and it was discovered by a woman in 1966, so that's cool too)

More rapid fire that i did not know where to put : Crocodilians have a lot of strength to close their mouth, the most powerful bite of the animal kingdom, but not a lot of strength to open it. So to prevent biting, animal rescuers duck tape their mouth shut and it's enough! You decide if the bite of your dragons are especially strong. Also a lot of species or reptiles are venomous but most rent, and some are even more dangerous, like the boa that constrict around its pray and crushes it. Snake exit their tongues to "taste" the air (well, collect the chemical around them, then bring them in the mouth where the taste organs are) but rapid tongue flips means stress ! And finally, the study of reptiles is called Herpetology.

I apologize if I made a lot of errors (english isn't my first language) and don't hesitate to come ask me to elaborate on a particular subject ! Have a good day !

[recidivist]

Suggested replies to DEFRA consultation per Wild Justice in their email today 14 September 2023

Read, scroll down to the link to the survey and answer as you see fit bearing in mind the suggested replies of Wild Justice:

EMAIL STARTS HERE

Good morning!

Today we are asking you, please, to respond to the Defra hedgerow consultation. Does that sound dull and unimportant? Well, it might be slightly dull to fill in the form (but it is quick, and we are providing you with quite a lot of suggestions which will make it even quicker) but it is certainly important because hedgerows are very important refuges for farmland wildlife - birds, insects, plants, mammals, spiders ... everything.  

Many of the respondents will be farmers, who are likely to respond in ways that make life easy for farmers and not necessarily in ways that make life easier for wildlife. We're sure that many farmers will respond in wildlife-friendly ways but this is your opportunity to speak up for wildlife. The proposals apply to England but responses are welcomed from all parts of the UK (as is clear from Q6).

The consultation is a consequence of Brexit and so is a test of the promises that were made that Brexit would not weaken environmental protection. We are in a wildlife crisis and Defra should be strengthening existing protection, stiffening the enforcement of existing and future protection and focusing on producing recoveries in farmland wildlife. This consultation scores low points in those areas. There is a danger that Defra weakens the existing rather feeble levels of environmental protection at the behest of the intensive agriculture lobby. 

The consultation closes on Wednesday 20 September, presumably at midnight, and so you have seven days including today to respond. Here is the link to the consultation: https://consult.defra.gov.uk/legal-standards/consultation-on-protecting-hedgerows/ .

If you have responded to a government consultation before then you'll find this one very easy - there are lots of Yes/No questions and boxes for (optional) comments. Unless you want to go overboard it won't take you more than 10 minutes to answer all the questions and make brief comments. If you've never responded to a government consultation before, then this is a good place to start because it is quite straight forward.

OK, let's get started. There are 26 questions but the first eight are about you (eg what's your name?) so they are easy. The last two questions are about the form so respond to them or not depending on your frame of mind. That leaves 16 questions but almost all of them can be answered Yes or No. You can, of course, answer the questions however you want, but these are our suggestions based on our view that the current regulations are too weak, they need to be strengthened rather than weakened and that our proposals for strengthening them will not disadvantage the farming industry, food production or profitability to any significant degree.

So, you're less than 100 keyboard strokes from having your say:

Q9:   Yes

Q10: No

Q11: No

Q12: Yes

Q13: Extend beyond 31 August

Q14: No

Q15: Yes

Q16: No

Q17: Yes

Q18:  [Skip or see below]

Q19:  Yes

Q20:  Yes

Q21:  Yes

Q22:  Yes

Q23:  Yes

Q24:  Yes

You could stop there - thank you! You've stood up for hedgerow protection just by answering those questions. But if you want to add comments then these are what we would suggest (feel free to copy and paste these suggestions):

Q9:   Please consider widening them to at least 3m.

Q10: Small fields have wildlife too - conceivably more of it per unit area. We are in a wildlife loss crisis and farmland has lost more wildlife than most other habitats/land uses. We should be doing more not the same (it clearly isn't working) or less.

Q11: I can't see any reason why.

Q12: You have not defined 'important' bird species - all bird species and all wildlife species are important. All wild birds and their nests are protected by law - the no-cutting period is a simple means of ensuring that nests are not destroyed accidentally and it simplifies farmers' lives in that otherwise they should check all hedgerows for active bird nests before hedge cutting.

Q13: I can't see any good reason to shorten the period.

We are in a wildlife loss crisis and farmland has lost more wildlife than most other habitats/land uses. We should be doing more not the same (it clearly isn't working) or less.  

As a citizen and taxpayer I expect farming to deliver more for the environment.

Many species of birds which nest in hedgerows are declining and/or rare and for some of these the late season is particularly important. Two buntings come to mind -  Yellowhammer and Cirl Bunting. 

But it's not all about birds - other wildlife would benefit from later cutting dates too.

Q14: We are in a wildlife loss crisis and farmland has lost more wildlife than most other habitats/land uses. We should be doing more not the same (it clearly isn't working) or less.  

As a citizen and taxpayer I expect farming to deliver more for the environment.

The existing exemptions aren't really needed - they are examples of farming getting an easy ride. 

Roadside hedges can be cut at other times of year. 

I have not seen a well-argued case for relaxing cutting dates.

Q15: leave blank

Q16: leave blank

Q17: leave blank

Q18: Regulations must be backed up by effective enforcement. Poor enforcement is to blame for the failure of many environmental policies from raptor protection, preventing sewage pollution of rivers, banning of lead ammunition in shooting wildfowl, restricting the burning of blanket bogs and adherence to the terms of general licences.  Defra should engage the public in reporting breaches of regulations and ensuring follow-up.

Q19: Yes, although I believe the benefits might be modest compared with those in agricultural land. Golf courses and renewable energy sites (windfarms and solar farms) must surely be areas where hedgerow protection can be introduced at little disadvantage to anyone.

Q20: Yes, but I have answered yes to Q20-Q24. Some combination of measures is needed and you have not consulted on a proposed mixture. This requires more thought than you can reasonably expect a member of the public to be able to provide at this stage. This is a flaw in your consultation. 

Q21: Yes, but I have answered yes to Q20-Q24. Some combination of measures is needed and you have not consulted on a proposed mixture. This requires more thought than you can reasonably expect a member of the public to be able to provide at this stage. This is a flaw in your consultation. 

Q22: Yes, but I have answered yes to Q20-Q24. Some combination of measures is needed and you have not consulted on a proposed mixture. This requires more thought than you can reasonably expect a member of the public to be able to provide at this stage. This is a flaw in your consultation. 

Q23: Yes, but I have answered yes to Q20-Q24. Some combination of measures is needed and you have not consulted on a proposed mixture. This requires more thought than you can reasonably expect a member of the public to be able to provide at this stage. This is a flaw in your consultation. 

Q24: Yes, but I have answered yes to Q20-Q24. Some combination of measures is needed and you have not consulted on a proposed mixture. This requires more thought than you can reasonably expect a member of the public to be able to provide at this stage. This is a flaw in your consultation. 

Here is the link to the consultation: https://consult.defra.gov.uk/legal-standards/consultation-on-protecting-hedgerows/

Wild Justice will respond as an organisation but we are asking you to accept the invitation from Defra to respond to this consultation as an individual. Perhaps you know others who also might want to respond to it - feel free to forward this email to them.

Thank you!  

Wild Justice (Directors: Mark Avery, Chris Packham and Ruth Tingay).

This is the 159th Wild Justice newsletter.

This email was sent to you because you subscribed to it through the Wild Justice website or through an e-action where you ticked a box.  Thank you. We will only use your personal details to send you the Wild Justice newsletter. We will not give or sell your details to anyone else.  You can unsubscribe at any time: there is an unsubscribe button at the foot of this email or you can reply to this email and ask us to remove you from the list (the former will happen immediately, the latter might take a few days).

[homunculus-argument]

Considering how Stephen Hillenburg was not only animator, writer and a director, but also a marine biologist, it's safe to say that Spongebob Squarepants regards facts and background research the same way as an albatross regards solid ground - knowing exactly where it is, what it is, and how it could get there if it ever wished to, but hardly ever coming near it. And when it does land, you can bet your ass that it was a deliberate choice.

I started thinking about how Squidward is an octopus. Naturally this probably has no deeper meaning, other than how well the word "squid" fits with the ending -ward, but why would an octopus be named after a completely different cephalopod?

Is their relationship similar to the way that humans regard other mammals, alike enough that one could associate the other with traits that they culturally find admirable, yet different enough that comparing someone to one wouldn't be considered insulting? There are plenty of people who are named Bear, Wolf or even Tiger to bring up images of their boldness and bravery, or the beautiful ruthlessness of Lynx or Sable, but you don't meet many people named Chimp or Baboon.

As a rule, almost all nature names are plants, and almost all animal names are birds. But if we focus on mammals, there's a trend to these names. Mammal names tend to be apex predators, much like humans - beasts that are revered and respected, never something that is regularly hunted. Do octopi of the SpongeBob universe regard the squid as an admirable creature - too foreign to truly be alike, as equals, but still close enough in spirit for it to be a compliment to be alikened to them?

But then there is the end side of the name, -ward, "guardian". Names like Edward - "guardian of riches", Howard - "guardian of horses", or Stewart - "guardian of the estate", all refer to ward as an occupation, someone who guards, protects and maintains something, being responsible of its upkeep. Were squids once considered property by the octopi? A living source of wealth and livelihood, like flocks of livestock, or game in a forest. In the episode Squidville we learn that octopi can and will not only maintain isolated and homogenous, completely segregated communities, but have named at least one of these communities after squids - therefore strengthening the association.

The octopus community seems rather tight-knit and uniform, all enjoying similar "high brow" activities and occupations, placing a lot of pressure on outward success and keeping up appearances - both as individuals towards their families, and as family units who keep long, proud records of their illustrious family trees. I would come to the conclusion that even if an individual octopus might not be able to tell you what, exactly, their past and current relationship with squids is, the octopus community is both fully aware of this history, and is either proud of it, or at least completely unapologetic about it.

It is also noteworthy that the only actual squid to ever appear in the show is adopted, being raised by a family of starfish. Do with this information what you will.

[writings-of-a-hufflepuff]

My Liability, My Deadweight

Fandom: The Chronicles of Riddick

Collection/Series: My Liability, My Deadweight

Pairing: Richard B Riddick x Female Fat + Glasses Wearing Reader

Writer: @writings-of-a-hufflepuff aka @hufflepuffing-all-day-long

Rating: T (Swearing, Riddick is Riddick, violence)

Warnings: Swearing, violence towards deadly alien creatures, violence from deadly alien creatures towards the reader

Summary: None of this was supposed to happen. You were supposed to be on a holiday resort planet, relaxing by glistening waters and forgetting your troubles. Not traipsing through a deadly jungle on an uncharted planet with a just as deadly companion who seems torn between helping you and hating you.

Notes: So I guess this is going to be similar to Western AU Din in that i’ll probably write some stuff in the same sort of world/vein as this. I’m just interested in the idea of Riddick with a reader who is the opposite of a survivalist, who isn’t fit or strong, who is scared. The idea of Furyans having mates or soulmates that they don’t really get to choose and the idea of Riddick having to come to terms with the idea that the person he wants to protect so bad needs his protection more than most is interesting to me.

This is probably such a niche thing to write, not only because the fandom is tiny, but also because people tend to write Riddick fanfic where the reader or OC is extremely capable, but I wanted to write it. So self-indulgent fic coming up.

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Kratos is a horror show of a planet. It’s the sort of planet you’d never thought you’d end up on, the sort of planet that you saw on horror vids and read about in the tales of survivors of tragedy. You weren’t supposed to be on it. You were just on a short trip, just supposed to go to a stupid holiday planet, at the insistence of your boss that you needed a break from your desk, that you worked too hard. You were a city slicker, an urban citizen, not an outdoorsman or an adventurer, certainly not the sort of person who’d come to a planet like this. But, your pilot had needed to make a stop, said there was a problem with the fuel cells that he needed to check out. So you’d made a pit stop on a barely charted planet. Nothing good ever happens on a barely charted planet. 

Covered in dense, muggy jungle, the planet would have been beautiful had it not been trying to kill you and your, for want of a better word, companion at every turn. It was covered in vibrant green forest, tropical plants, exotic and brightly coloured flowers (many of which, it turns out, were deadly themselves). There were brightly coloured bird-like creatures and primitive mammals that scurried through the trees and across the ground. It would have been beautiful, except for the limp in your walk from the burning claw marks deep in your thick thigh, except for the blood that followed in your wake, the dead bodies of the crew you’d left behind, and the yellow eyes that seemed to follow the two of you under the dark canopy.

After a stupid decision by your group to go out into the jungle to try and find a settlement of some sort, just because it had seemed like (as if there was any real reason to leave), you’d been picked off one by one. You could only describe the beasts as fucked up panthers. Two tails with stingers at the end, sharp spindly spines along their backs, an elongated neck, venomous fangs and sharp teeth and claws. They were hard to spot, silent in the underbrush and decidedly and most definitely deadly. The only reason you were still even alive was because of Riddick, because for some unknown reason the man, the murderer, had decided to stick close to you, like glue. You weren’t complaining.

At the time of boarding the ship for your trip it had seemed horrifying, to know that you were travelling on the same transport as Richard B. Riddick, escaped convict, known murder, predator. He was the sort of man your parents whispered about, the sort of man that you never wanted to meet. He was someone from your worst nightmare. Now he is your saving grace and surprisingly not what you had expected of a notorious big bad. While he meets many of your expectations, crude at times, harsh, and physically intimidating, he defies them too. He is at times oddly gentle with you and, the mere fact he cares about someone’s survival other than his own, is in itself a surprise. A fortunate one for you. 

“Are we nearly back to the ship?” You ask because your leg is killing you, because you so desperately just want to get off this planet even if it means being stuck in a confined space with a convicted murderer. You hate this planet, you hate the constant feeling of fear and of uselessness. You hate the truth of it all, that you are weak, vulnerable, prey not the predator. It has you realising your many weaknesses, many vulnerabilities, many failings. 

“Shhh…” Riddick raises his hand out in front of you, a universal sign to stop, while the other comes to his lips in a shushing motion. If he were a dog, his ears might very well have pricked up at the slightest sound. 

To you nothing seemed out of the ordinary. There were no unusual sounds or movement in the brush. You couldn’t see anything out of place. Just as you begin to notice the silence, the lack of sound, that is the moment everything goes terribly wrong.

“Riddic-” You were cut off by your own scream. 

Things happen so fast that you don’t really have time to process them. One minute you are standing behind Riddick attempting to get his attention, the next a dark shape crashes into you and you’re on the jungle floor a heavy weight pressing on your chest and stopping your breathing. Your hands reach up instinctively, pushing against the creature in an effort to keep sharp gnashing teeth from your face, but you’re not strong and you’re not a fighter and you can feel your arms beginning to collapse already. Can hear yourself screaming for Riddick even as part of you thinks he’ll leave you there, abandon you to be eaten alive. There is a deep fear that this is it, this is the end. That it shall be painful, terrifying, lonely, and unfamiliar. 

Claws scratch at your arms, blood runs over your skin in rivulets as you scrabble in the dirt. Then as suddenly as the weight came it was gone, hefted off of you with an angry roar and the sound of a knife hitting flesh over and over again. You don’t look, can’t bring yourself to look, just lie there and breathe, in and out. You don’t want to see him do what he’s good at, don’t want to see alien blood, a dying creature, the parts of him that are less than gentle. So you stare up at the canopy and catch your breath, feeling the blood flow down your arms, the bruises that ache over your stomach, hips and legs. Feel the relief flow through you, combat the shock, as you realise you are not dead, you are alive, and he did not leave you to die. 

You’re rather numb in truth until you hear him muttering above you, “goddamn liability, deadweight…”, it shouldn’t upset you because it’s true. But it does, it upsets and angers you because you didn’t want to be here, you didn’t want any of this and you didn’t ask him to hang around, didn’t ask him to help you. You had no say in this. This was not your idea of a holiday, your idea of fun, or your fault. 

It forces you to your feet, forces you, despite the blood dripping from your wounds, to stand and face him, despite the bruises, despite the pain, despite the fear. You find yourself planting your feet even as you sway unsteadily, standing with hands on your wide hips and a scowl aimed at a man that could kill you easily. For the first time you’re too angry to overthink your actions towards the man. For a moment you stop thinking and start acting. 

“If i’m such a goddamn liability, then just leave me here! I didn’t ask for you to stay, Riddick! I didn’t ask for your help! If it’s such a fucking chore to have me along, if i’m really dead weight then leave me! Go!” You didn’t normally scream at anyone, it wasn’t your personality type. You were quiet, shy, retiring. A wallflower. You didn’t scream. You didn’t start fights. You didn’t do any of that. Anger wasn’t your natural response to anything. Fear was. But after being hunted down, time and time again by giant alien cats with venomous fangs and an uncanny ability to hide on a jungle planet, all while being called a liability, a dead weight by the one person you had to rely on, well, you were finally at your wits end. You were in pain, you were upset, frustrated and ready to just go home. 

You didn’t understand it. Why Riddick even bothered with you, practically a stranger. You knew you were a liability, that’s why it hurt so much when he said it. You were soft, emotionally and physically. You were a slow runner, a poor fighter, had terrible eyesight that required glasses, you weren’t light on your feet or graceful and you certainly didn’t know much about survival. You were overweight, unfit and unsure on your feet. You were prone to panic and tears, you were easily emotionally and physically unbalanced. Until this trip from hell you’d been content in the inner rim, working a normal job, a safe life. Your day to day had been comfortable, safe. Easy. You weren’t cut out for this, for danger and potential death and had Riddick, this known criminal, one of the most sought after murderers in the verse, not decided to stick by your side you’d have died at least ten times already. It didn’t make any sense and your frustration at yourself, the situation and at him had tears pooling in your eyes. You didn’t ask for any of this.

“I can’t.” He’s so impassive, so calm, that it pisses you off more. It pisses you off how hard it is to read him, how he hides his eyes behind black goggles that stop you understanding him. How he hides all emotion from you so easily. How is he okay with this? How is he so calm when everything around the two of you wants to kill you, when he could have left this goddamn planet already if you weren’t slowing him down at every turn? How could he stand there above the body of some hell spawn creature and just stare at you like that, like everything was just fine, just normal? Like he wasn’t covered in it’s blood. Like you weren’t dripping in your own. Like you hadn’t almost died. Again. 

“I..I don’t get it…? What do you mean you can’t? You could walk the fuck away right now. I can’t stop you! No one else is here to stop you! If you want to leave, leave! No one’s holding you back, Riddick! No one is going to stop you! I can’t bloody well can’t! Look at me!” You sound hysterical even to your own ears but you can’t help it. You are so scared, so confused, so frustrated, so panicked by all that’s happened, all that could happen. You gesture down to yourself, to the bloody coating you, the way you protectively hold yourself off of your hurt leg, the sheer stature different between the two of you. All the things that make it very abundantly clear that if he chose to simply walk away you couldn’t stop him. 

“Listen, princess, it’s not that fucking simple!” The snap is almost relieving, that he’s not as cold, not as impassive as you thought. That he could break too. That he could be angry, that he could be upset, that this wasn’t just normal. Even as his steps closer cause your back to hunch, cause you to second guess your antagonist behaviour. 

“I don’t understand!” 

With a growl he’s crowding you against a tree, thick arms caging you in. He’s imposing, large, a head taller than you and the action has him taking over every one of your senses. He never touches you in anger and while the display is intimidating, it oddly enough doesn’t scare you. It almost feels secure. Perhaps because not once has he done anything to suggest to you that he would hurt you, every move he’s made has been to keep you safe. Every time he’s touched you has been to pull you from danger or bring you back to your feet. Despite his harsh appearance, his foul language and the deadliness that he displays at every turn, he has never once given you cause to fear him. To fear how he would treat you. 

“You’re my mate, got it?! I don’t get to choose, I don’t get a choice! I can’t leave you! I just fucking can’t, so you’re a fucking liability and dead weight, but you’re my dead weight, got it? I ain’t fucking leaving you, we either both get off this motherfucking planet or we both get eaten by these fucks, princess. There’s no inbetween, understand?” Silver eyes flash at you as he tears the goggles from his eyes,  his brow furrows and the muscles in his thick neck and broad shoulders bunch and move with every piece of tension that bursts through him. You are distinctly and sharply reminded that Riddick is a predator in every sense of the word, while you are prey. You are on two separate ends of the spectrum. 

“Mate…?” Your eyes flit across the landscape behind his head, trying to process all those words and all their meanings. You don’t understand, you don’t understand any of it. But, those words soothe you in a way you can’t explain. He isn’t going to leave you. For whatever reason, for whatever this is, whatever he means, he isn’t going to leave you.  You let out a breath you didn’t even realise you’d been holding. He’s not leaving, even if you’re a liability, a deadweight. Even when things get bad, he’s not leaving. He is, at this point, your only chance at getting home, getting away from him, of surviving. The panic in you begins to soothe, calm and settle. 

“We don’t have time for this.” You’re startled by the sudden display of affection as the man cups the back of your neck and presses his forehead into your own, “Just trust me.”

“I do, Riddick, I trust you” It’s hard to explain, the trust you feel for him, the safety as you let him lead you once more through the jungle. You are bleeding, in pain and still ever so aware of the dangers around you, but you have an implicit belief that with Riddick you are as safe as you can be. That if there was ever a person to carry you through this it would be him. 

You might still be confused, might not understand what he means by you being his mate or by his obligation towards you, but you know that he isn't leaving you for dead and that is enough right now. That is more than enough.

                                                ------------------------------

                                                   All Works Taglist

@charradelange @belfry-bat  @gabile18 @beccaboo929​  @trasheater

[fakeloveaskblog]

Yay Loceit! (Ignore me, I have Loceit brainrot.) Can we see the zoo date? I would love to see the zoo date! (Is there a possibility of encountering Remus and make it a conjoined date? But, like, we don't tell him that's what it is? Because we don't wanna overwhelm the guy.)

(Words: 2712)

Janus: "Don't worry dear fiend. I have Loceit brainrot as well.....ALSo yes!! I totally haven't been waiting to tell someone all about the date. Pff totally not...So basically..."

When Janus arrived by the entrance of the zoo Logan was already waiting outside. They excitedly waved at each other before running up and clashing in a loving hug.

"So how is my one and only still not poisoned boyfriend doing?" Janus asked with a slight giggle in his voice.

“Very well now when I am with you”

Logan leaned down and pressed a soft kiss to his cheek. His boyfriend already had a big grin on his lips but it only grew with the kiss.

He had on a blue suspenders, jeans and a t-shirt with some dude printed on it. The snake had tried to dress extra nice for his first ever date (!!) so he had his long black skirt and his finest purple shirt.

“That is...Jean-luc Picard..right?” He pointed at Logan’s t-shirt.

He flapped his hands around “Correct! I see that the star trek watching is teaching you a lot!”

“Well I do have a good teacher so of course”

The compliment left rosy blush on Logan’s cheeks. He took his boyfriend’s hand and intertwined their fingers before walking into the zoo. It had a big outside area for different larger animals and then a bulding to the west filled with frogs, fish, snakes, etc, etc.

Neither of them were that interested in the large animals. Though Janus did snark about how he looked like a seal and Logan stopped to take photos of the bears so he could show them to Patty later.

It wasn't until they passed a sign Logan suddenly let up into happy stims. He pointed to a house with big look through windows.

"Birds!"

He dragged Janus along with him to one of the windows. kestrels, subirds and kingfishers were flying around and vibing among trees and hung out fruit treats. A small crowd around them was also looking at the different birds.

Logan pointed between his boyfriend and the birds as if Jan hadn’t already seen them. He kept stimming his arm back and forth.

"Their aerodynamics are so fascinating don’t you think. Aside from humans they are the animal that are consistently closest to space and all because of their biology. They are like natural born astronauts”

“I respect any creature who can leave any and all social situations by flying away. Big dick move as some” Remus “says” Janus replied.

“If birds had too big dicks I think it would disturb their flying but yes I get your point” He let out a dreamy sigh “Oh what I would do to be able to inspect bird teeth, not to even talk about their wings!”

Logan squeezed his hand and smiled at him before dragging him over to the next bird. It was several big secretary birds. They were walking instead of flying.

"These ones are known for eating snakes" Lo commented "Are you feeling frightened?"

"Ah yes darling, I am already close to death from fear" He replied in as much of a monotone he could muster. They both chuckled.

Logan went on a long ramble about how the different biology of the species made the flying look and work different. His voice went a bit louder than it usually was, it always got like that when he was excited. Janus wouldn’t have minded it if there weren’t other people there.

He nodded along to his boyfriend’s rant but kept glancing to the people around them. Some of them were looking at Logan. Janus gulped. Suddenly holding his boyfriends hand hurt.

Janus quietly moved his hand away. His throat tightened. The people weren’t looking anymore but it felt like they did, like ants crawling up his skin. It had probably been a stupid idea to wear the skirt.

Obviously Logan noticed but he didnt say anyrhing about it. He finished his rant and asked "Do you want to reunite with your relatives- I mean look at the snakes now?"

"I uh “ He forced a confident smirk “Of course darling. It it prime time to return to my people!!”

They walked away from the birds and went down the sunny path towards the house that stored snakes among other things. It was lined by neatly cut trees and homes for mammals. They didn’t hold hands.

Janus kept fiddling with his gloves to the point of not even looking where he was walking. He bit the inside of his cheek until it was bleeding.

“Are you feeling alright?” Logan asked.

“Never been better!”

“If it is about the hand holding feeling nervous is nothing to be embarrassed about. When I first held hands with Patty I got so flustered I proceeded to walk into a swing and break my glasses”

Janus glanced around to the people around them “Ah yes that is definitely why I’m acting this way. Spot on dear” 

His boyfriend looked in the same direction he did “Oh alright I understand now” He patted him on the shoulder “Well I will have you know I have taken part in multiple physical fights to protect Patty from harassement, I did win most of them. I will of course do the same thing for you”

He said it so casually Janus nearly lost it “Exscuse me wHAT?”

Logan leaned down so they were eye to eye and put his hands on his boyfriend’s shoulders “Sweetheart I can and will break someone’s nose for you”

“That’s the most romantic thing someone has ever said to me”

“I would go for their kneecaps as well”

Janus clasped his hand over his heart and gasped in an overly dramatic tone “Oh such erotiscism you’re showing today!”

“I am legally obliged to show it off every now and then”

He straightened his back and continued to walk down the path. Janus hesitantly reached out to take his hand. Shame tugged at his heart but he buried his face against his boyfriend’s arm to try and ignore it. Logan gently moved his thumb up and down his skin in response.

“....I do still advise that you talk to Picani about it. I am aware it’s hard but if what you’ve told me about your mental health is true I believe it would be beneficial. I could help! I know Picani! Very intimately!”

“Darling please you don’t have to keep reminding me you’ve fucked my fake therapist” Janus sighed “I don’t know if I deserve to take up his time, I’m not That bad”

“Sweetie that is first degree bullshit” Logan replied very gently “There is scientifically no way to accurately compare two people’s mental healths to conclude which is worse. Trust me I did a study on it in college! Do I need to brag about my degree more?”

Janus let out a half hearted chuckle “I’ll think about it. Let’s focus on the snakes for now”

“Thinking about it is good enough for me” He pressed a kiss to his forehead.

They entered the building. The first room was lit in a calming blue because of the giant windows showing off octopuses and rays swimming around. A sign was pointing over to the frog and snake rooms.

Janus looked around the room in awe and- HOLY HELL REMUS WAS THERE. He sat crosslegged on a bench in front of the octopuses. He had headphones on and was focusing on the sketchbook in his hands. 

In a panic Janus started to drag his boyfriend with him to the frogs. Logan saw how flustered his boyfriend had suddenly become and looked around. He saw Remus as well and stopped in his tracks which forced his boyfriend to also stop.

“Does that happen to be the other guy you have a romantic interest in?”

“We’re here to look at snakes not at men Loganson!”

"Aww" Logan flapped his free hand "There are few things i like more than getting to see my partner being loved by someone else they love! We must talk to him"

"Oh- Oh god-" Janus let out while being tugged along.

Remus flinched when Logan shoved his ready to be shaken hand almost into his face. His whole body tensed to an uncomfortable degree.

"Greetings! I have no idea who you are!" Lo exclaimed.

He took off his headphones and looked up at him with panic in his eyes "Uh yeah" He saw Jan and immediately let out a breathe of relief. His shoulders relaxed slightly. "Hiya snakey~ Is This dude your snack?"

Janus was dying. He was dead. This was hell.

"NO! He's my sworn enemy! I'm here to use one of the sharks to kill him!"

Logan gasped "You are? How rude. Such a waste of the shark’s time when a bullet would do"

"Yeah!” Remus added “Anus! If that even is your real name-”

“It’s not”

“-I thought you would be much better at murder! Shark murder is sooo the 70's. Where's the orchestrated acrobatic dance knife throwing???"

Janus let out a dramatic huff "You simply don’t understand how hard it is to be a strong independent complete idiot and a serial murderer at the same time"

Logan nodded in sumpathy "Stranger would you like to accompany us on the rest of our zoo experience?"

He closed his sketchbook. Pages had been filled with doodles of the octopuses "Sure! I'm Remus by the way"

"Ah yes" They began to walk down the hallways lined by animal habitats. He held onto Janus’ hand "You were killed by your twin according to Roman mythology"

"I know!! That's why I chose it"

"Fascinating. I'm Logan. My parents chose it because of the X-man" His parents were also huge nerds.

“Hah dorks!” Remus said while skipping alongside them “Why are you holding hands? Is that a rule at zoos? Oh shit have I been doing zoos wrong???”

“I don’t think so. We are only doing it” Lo glanced at his still flustered boyfriend “.....to aggravate homophobes....yes...”

“COol!! Can I join?”

Logan nodded. Remus proceeded to take Janus’ free hand and happily tugged at it while skipping along. Jan had been wrong. NOW he was dying. His face was so hot from blushing he swore he could melt chocolate on it. The only way this could get ‘worse’ was if he suddenly grew a third arm and Remy appeared to hold it.

“Murder frogs!!” Remus exclaimed while stopping outside a window.

Inside sat several poison dart frogs in a pond surronded by leaves. They were in pretty neon colors and small enough to fit in the palm of a hand. Remus jumped up and down from excitement before pressing his entire face up against the glass.

“They’re the most poisonous animal in the world!!! Snakey you should murder Lo with this one!! These bitches can kill like 10 people with 1 poison thingie!!! it’s so cool!!”

“I have read that they can live to up to 15 years so they have ample time to kill hundreds of people in their lifetime” Logan replied.

“!!!! You are SO right!!! That’s my life goal as well!” Remus turned to look around the room and his eyes turned as big as a cat’s “Fucking hell. Look at how THICK that lizard is!!!”

Janus kept being dragged around between the two while they explored the animals. The saw toads stacked on top of each other, insects swarming around and exactly 1 incredibly friendly chameleon who climbed across a tree to get as close to the glass as it could.

Just holding both of their hands was so much to take in but hearing them rant facts to each other while looking so so happy made his heart feel things he didn’t know it could feel. He wanted to kiss them both and beg them to please never ever shut up.

The zoo melted away as he daydreamed about living as a poly relationship. Getting to see them both be this close and happy every day. Getting to hold them both like this every day. Getting to fall asleep next to them. Oh he was so-

“Hey Snakey you’ve been pretty quiet” Remus interrupted “Whatcha think?”

“dfshkjskj” Janus very eloquently let out. He buried his flushed pink face in the fabric of Logan’s shirt.

“Huh. Exactly what I was thinking! Onwards to the snakes!!”

The snake room was oval shaped. The walls were made up of windows into different giant vivariums decorated with branches, warm rocks and food. In the biggest vivarium several big samar cobras were lazing about. They were both big enough and venomous enough to kill a man.

Janus let go of his crushes to press his palms against the glass and wave at the snakes. He looked back at his boyfriend with a big goofy grin “Look at these babies!!”

“They are indeed very pretty”

“They eat rats! Their venom is able to destroy tissue so if you get the venom in your eyes it can create total blindness!! They-” He stopped himself. Stopped his stimming as well “Sorry. I’m rambling”

Remus patted his shoulder “No. Go on. I wanna hear, about the other snakes as well. I promise” Logan nodded along.

Janus hesitated, but they both looked at him with such loving looks he quietly continued “Okay well what I was going to say was...”

They went around and looked at every snake. The other two happily listened to him infodump about every species there. Sometimes they held hands. Sometimes they all stimmed together. Janus was smiling so much his cheeks hurt.

They stayed sitting by the snakes. Janus leaned his head against the glass to bop his nose to the snakes while Remus and Logan ranted to each other about their favorite obscure sci-fi movies (they also exchanged numbers). 

The three of them had a sudden realization that they all loved murder mysteries and decided they had to have some sort of murder mustery movie night some time in the future.

(Logan also saw a poster about how around Christmas snake petting spots overseered by snake experts would be open. He didn’t tell the other two. He figured he would use it as a surprise Christmas gift)

Eventually the zoo got close to closing. It was Logan who had to drag them both away from the snakes and octopuses. The 2 drama kings acted like Lo was dragging them away from their children.

Once they stood on the street outside the zoo Remus said goodbye. For a moment it looked like he was moving in to hug Janus but he decided not to. He disappeared down the street to catch the bus.

“So” Logan turned to his boyfriend “Was it a satisfactory first date?”

Janus rolled his eyes before wrapping his arms around his boyfriend’s waist and moving up on his toes to kiss him on his nose “It was absolutely horrible darling! I hated every second of it!”

“Glad to hear it” His voice softened “I’m proud of you honey”

“It was just a date. It’s nothing. Nothing if it’s with you”

“Well I shall still be proud, because you can not stop me, and I shall still be percentage wise incredibly in love with you” He pressed a loving kiss to his forehead “I will see you at work then”

“Not if I’ve gotten my invisibility spell to work by then muhahah” Janus slowly let go of him “Love you!”

Janus stood by the entrance watching as his boyfriend (it still made him giddy to think that) went to his car. He gulped and tensed his shoulders once he was all alone. He walked over to a more desolate spot and sat down on the side of the payment.

He scrolled through the contacts on his phone while the image of Logan’s smile repeated in his brain. He let out a shaky breathe as he moved the phone up to his ear and listened to the signals.

“Hiya Janister!” The cheery voice of Dr. Picani rang out.

“Hello...I.....I would....I’m just looking to ask if there’s a chance I could book a time for solo therapy? I’m...I’m...honestly not so sure if I’m completely okay...or if my childhood was okay either, but I’m sure I want to get better”

[xtruss]

Cypress trees have towered over the Three Sisters swamp in North Carolina’s Black River for more than 2,600 years. Photograph: Charlie Peek

The Oldest Tree in Eastern US Survived Millennia – But Rising Seas Could Kill It

A 2,624-year-old bald cypress could teach us how to fight climate change – if it doesn’t get destroyed first

— Ayurella Horn-Muller | Sunday, 01 August 2021 | The Guardian USA

A wizened eastern bald cypress dwells in an expanse of North Carolina’s wetlands.

It lives among a cluster of eastern bald cypress trees in the state’s Black River, some with origins dating back a millennium. But this singular tree has witnessed more than its comrades; a 2019 study found it’s been alive since at least 605BCE. It’s the oldest-known living tree in eastern North America and the fifth-oldest living non-clonal tree species in the world.

If these ancient trees could talk, they might wail a warning – a message about the coalescing threats to their continued survival. What we can learn from a 2,624-year-old bald cypress may help piece together how humanity can best mitigate and adapt to the unprecedented impacts of the climate crisis.

“They have personality,” said Julie Moore, a retired botanist and former coordinator at the US Fish and Wildlife service. “I’ve mapped wetlands for years, so every big swamp in the United States in the south, I’ve seen. But when I see these trees, I know they’re different.”

Back in 1985, Moore introduced David Stahle to the Black River’s bald cypress stand. A dendrochronologist, Stahle began using tree ring mapping and radiocarbon dating on the trees, leading to his discovery of “Methuselah”, a bald cypress dating back to 364AD.

It would take another quarter of a century for Stahle to return to the site, a maze-like waterway navigable only by small watercraft. This trip would lead him farther into the Black River, to the Three Sisters swamp. After coring hundreds of old trees, he identified the 2,624-year-old cypress – nearly a thousand years older than Methuselah.

Dendrochronologist Dave Stahle, left, has been able to visit these cypress trees thanks to Charles Robbins, right, who runs a boating service in the area. Photograph: Unknown

Stahle and his team have since continued their Black River research, reconstructing rainfall patterns and mapping the ancient forest. But climate change is a dangerous foe. Intensifying heatwaves, storms, flooding and droughts compound with warming temperatures to produce problems for plant growth, resilience and reproduction.

“The principal threat to our forests is people and human activity. One consequence of human activity is climate change,” Stahle said.

A little over six feet of elevation stands between the oldest-known cypress and the Atlantic Ocean. While sea level rise is increasing by two inches a decade now, it’s accelerating at a rapid pace. Sea levels are “all but certain” to rise by at least 20ft over the next 100 to 200 years. In a worst-case scenario, the world’s oldest bald cypress may already be underwater by 2080.

“With those bald cypress only two meters above sea level, that’s a really serious threat,” said Harvard Forest’s senior ecologist, Neil Pederson. “I see sea level rise as a train alarm, on a really long, overloaded train. And it’s going to take a long time to slow that train down.”

Pederson is one of the researchers behind a 2016 study that found that increasing drought conditions and extreme events of the past – which led to unusually high tree mortality rates – could be a forecast for the future.

“Even though our forests seem to change slowly over time, every once in a while these things, like black swans, these unprecedented or unforeseen events, come and change an ecosystem,” he said.

Carbon, Biodiversity and Coastal Barriers

A 2020 study found that even though older trees can adapt to stresses and migrate as conditions change, it’s unlikely that these characteristics will be enough to ensure their survival.

Nate McDowell, earth scientist at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and the lead author of that study, describes trees as functionally “sweating” because of warming temperatures, reducing plant productivity.

The world lost more than a third of its old-growth forests from 1900 to 2015. “All the models, all the projections, everything points in the same direction: that we’re going to lose trees,” McDowell said.

His prediction is supported by the years of recently documented increases in the mortality of older trees, which researchers are identifying across the globe. Last year, more than 10% of all mature giant sequoias were killed.

When trees die, entire ecosystems are disrupted. “Once you have changes in the plant community, which is really the foundation for the whole forest, you in turn see changes in rodents, birds, even large mammals,” said plant ecophysiologist Angelica Patterson.

A 2018 study found that tree loss in the Pacific north-west can even negatively affect the climate in the eastern US. Old-growth forests act as carbon sinks, meaning they sequester and store carbon emissions, steadily accumulating carbon for centuries. If they die, that carbon is released back into the atmosphere, creating a vicious cycle that further perpetuates climate change.

Forest loss even translates to the disappearance of natural coastal barriers during storms.

A Future of Flooding

Locals living along North Carolina’s Black River know all about the immemorial trees. “We’re just amazed that those trees are here. The time we first heard about it, they were saying they were over 2,000 years old. And I said, “Well, they were here when Jesus was on Earth,’” said Dwight Horrell.

These cypress trees are accessible only via a ride on small boats through a maze-like swamp. Photograph: Charlie Peek

At 76, Horrell has called Ivanhoe, a rural town off the Black River, home his entire life. Climate change isn’t something he’s concerned about. Yet, dotted along a nearby shoreline are signs that suggest he should be.

Across the coastal wetlands of North Carolina, a new study found that climate change-driven sea level rise and saltwater intrusion have been killing large swaths of trees. In some cases, these “ghost forests” have even expanded inland. More than 10% of forested wetland was lost over the last 35 years in one wildlife refuge.

Charles Robbins, owner of the boating service Cape Fear River Adventures, has led Stahle through the Black River’s charcoal-colored waters for the past decade. He’s also seen first-hand how extreme flood events disrupt ecosystems and livelihoods. “There was a full foot of water on the ground and 15ft of water in the swamp,” Robbins said. “People’s houses were underwater.”

He was describing the aftermath of Hurricane Matthew – which in 2016 flooded Horrell’s parents’ house so severely they didn’t even try to rebuild. “My parents’ house was in an area that had never been flooded,” said Horrell. “The first time it flooded, it got up to about three feet off the floor. The last time, it got up to the ceiling,” he said.

Two years later, Hurricane Florence swept through, leaving a submerged town in its wake. The lowest-lying side was inundated with up to 36 inches of rain and record floods.

Everyone has since moved to higher ground, but the waterlogged shells of a few broken homes remain. “I’m telling you, it just looks morbid in that place,” said Horrell.

‘No Black River State Park’

The chance of dangerous flash flooding increases with intensifying storms; by 2050 North Carolina’s inland flooding events are projected to rise by 40%.

Even so, Horrell isn’t bothered by severe floods looming ahead. What he’s most concerned about is strangers disrupting his way of life. “You see how isolated this is down here? I enjoy the quietness,” he said.

In 2017, a legislative motion for a Black River state park, intended to boost tourism, caused an uproar. The following year, the North Carolina parks and recreation division recommended the state not move forward after four town halls and a petition made up of 1,300 signatures communicated the same message: those living closest to the Black River were overwhelmingly opposed.

Conservationists are split on the efforts to establish a Black River state park. It could invite more tourism and, in turn, pollution – but it could also fund conservation efforts. Photograph: Charlie Peek

Three years later, signs still frame a building bordering one of Ivanhoe’s river boat ramps; the bolded words ‘NO BLACK RIVER STATE PARK’ serving as a veiled promise.

Conservationists like Moore agree with the protesting community. It’s not climate change imperiling the survival of the oldest cypress tree she’s nervous about, but state-managed recreation, which opens the door to increased pollution, depletion of natural resources and ecosystem disturbance.

But Hervey McIver, a land protection specialist at the North Carolina chapter of the Nature Conservancy, attended those state park meetings to garner community support for the initiative. His point is simple: establishing a state park could fund and amplify conservation efforts.

“The most vocal ones were against it. There were some people who were open to it, maybe in favor of it, but not against it. But they were quiet,” McIver said. He’s optimistic that the state legislature will eventually reconsider. “Even these rural, conservative, Republican folks, they see it. They understand it, and they don’t – they know they can’t fight it.”

The Nature Conservancy has invested in the preservation of the Black River since 1989. Today, the nonprofit, alongside state conservation agencies and the NC Coastal Land Trust, owns 17,960 acres along the 66-mile Black River and its upstream tributaries, including the Three Sisters swamp.

McIver says the conservancy protects the ancient trees by acquiring the land surrounding them, which then minimizes human activity. But he isn’t sure what more can be done.

“What can you do? I’ll be long dead before the water gets that high,” McIver said, emphasizing how sea level rise is a global problem, one that requires large-scale solutions like cutting greenhouse gas emissions. “But then, you can’t stop it. I mean, if it’s going to rise, it’s going to rise.”

Environmental archaeologist Katharine Napora holding a cross section of a cypress tree. Photograph: Craig Jacobs

Looking Back to Move Forward

Some believe that question can be answered by using thousand-year-old windows into the past.

Environmental archaeologist Katharine Napora analyzed deceased eastern bald cypress trees along the Georgia coast, ranging from 65 to 1,078 years old, whose preserved remains date back to 3161BCE.

“From these ancient trees, we see that even very long-lived cypress trees in the ancient past can be killed very fast with either rising sea levels or the storm surge from hurricanes,” Napora said.

Solutions to fortifying wetlands and preserving old-growth forests, beyond curbing emissions, include creating living shorelines that act as a buffer for ecosystems from storm surges, sustainably harvesting coastal resources, lobbying for stricter regulations on companies emitting pollutants into the environment and even introducing marsh plants that double as salination sponges.

Napora believes we need to do everything in our power to preserve the Black River’s treasure trove of climate insight.

She compares the loss of old-growth forests to the burning of the Library of Alexandria, one of the greatest archives of all time. “These forests are like libraries informing us about the ancient past,” she said. “Just picture the huge amount of knowledge that would be lost if these forests no longer survive.”

[traumatized-motherfuckers]

CPTSD and Core Beliefs (Your lens, built on traumatic fuckery)

Alright, so you know I have this Patreon thing that I try to make worth your while in return for your economical help. One of the benefits is the good ole’ monthly ask me anything. And I love it. Because the questions are great. And they push me to dig into topics that I was procrastinating. This month’s AMA is a particularly good one! A question that needs to be addressed, anyways. So it’s perfect. Let’s aim for two birds with one stone.

Our good friend Cassie - you know her by now - asks, how do you identify core beliefs and start to change them? Which is a very simple and very complicated question.

  So, to take a step backwards, what she talkin’ bout?

  Well, one of the internal issues that complex trauma sufferers have to rectify is their belief system. Between our core beliefs and our inner critic, we have a lot going on in between our ears to keep us downtrodden and destitute.

  We’re talking about what I call Fucked Up Core Beliefs here… which are your trauma-born core beliefs. Again, called FUCBs because when you discover them, you’ll likely whisper to yourself, “wow, that’s actually really fucked up.” These sentiments are like the lenses that you surgically stitched onto your face several decades ago in response to your upbringing, as your little mammal brain tried to understand its place in the global hierarchy and how to be chill about it.

 The framework you built from your early development and beyond, that all information still filters through today - both on the way in and on the way out of your head. The words that stream through your brain consciously or subconsciously to shape the ways you appraise… everything. Yourself, your life, your past, your future, other people, and everything that happens in between.

  So, essentially, talking about the ways you interpret your existence and the collected pool of knowledge from where you make decisions, and therefore the ways you act. If this is starting to sound like a big deal - it is!

But it don’t come with a big flashing sign. The Challenge

These beliefs are challenging to figure out because:

  One, they were adapted early on in your life in an effort to understand the circumstances around you or directly downloaded from the sentiments expressed in your environment. When you were first establishing your perspective of the universe and trying to figure out how to navigate it based on the clues presented.

  Plus, the harder part is… because of the early adoption, you’ve already accepted the idea for so long that it doesn’t even seem like a “belief” to you - you’re not choosing it and it’s probably not apparent to you - it’s just the secret narrative running in your head that corrupts all later data. Not cognitive thoughts that you’re directing on purpose. You probably don’t have recollections of the time before you believed such and such to question what you believe - these ideas are solidified in your head with as much certainty as the alphabet.

  So, you might believe you’re a worthless piece of shit as a function of the neglect and abuse you experienced, a way to explain the mistreatment to yourself from a young age… OR you might believe you’re a worthless piece of shit because mom, dad, sister, and society directly told you so. But either way, many years down the line, it’s difficult to pinpoint either of these originating factors as memories fade or to even question the validity of the thought… or to even notice the thought.

  Two, if your family of origin was always repeating the same sort of thoughts and you later associate with people who make you comfortable to be around (i.e. probably have some similar views of the world), you have nothing to compare your beliefs to.

  Your environment teaches you what’s normal. There’s no reference for what is and isn’t healthy, fair, or functional if everyone is drinking the same kool aid. And, unfortunately, in traumatic environments, folks seem to congregate around the fucked up beliefs to protect them with a mutual unspoken agreement. Accept the accepted narrative of the group or be outcast. The same story is replayed on repeat from all ends of your social circle, so why would you even begin to think there’s another way to look at things?

So, if mom, dad, cousin, uncle, grandma, neighbor, peer, teacher, and media are all telling you the same reality exists, how would you ever even begin to have the wherewithal to think otherwise? The thought probably never crosses your mind. The sky is blue, grass is green, and the world is a miserable place where everyone is trying to take advantage of you.

  Three, again, I cannot over-express how insidious, subtle, and generalized these things can be. Fucked up core beliefs affect how you see and process everything. Again, like lenses or an instagram filter permanently applied to your corneas. So, there’s not necessarily one life-effect linked to one-FUCB for easy detection or one event that will cause a clear-as-day defined belief to come shooting to the top of the pile. More like, you very slowly realize you have an unhealthy view or twenty about yourself and the world that have sorrrrrtof impacted every single area of your life now that you spend years considering it.

  Thinking you’re a worthless piece of shit, for instance, has led to you taking low-level jobs with chaotic schedules, living with an abusive partner, and settling for living in the same environment with the same behavioral patterns that you’ve known your entire life. It’s also allowed you to give up exercise, eating right, staying sober, and trying to make any life-improvements. Why bother spit polishing shit? And here you are, wondering why you feel awful about yourself and don’t enjoy anything you’ve created in your life.

  But. It’s not that simple to sort out, or else we would have done it already. You probably haven’t ever purposely considered how commonly this impression is operating below the surface of your actions. Realizing that the belief “I’m a worthless piece of shit who deserves nothing” and trying to change it would be like pulling out the wrong Janga block - everything it has been supporting suddenly comes tumbling down and you’re left with a real fucking mess to rebuild from the bottom up. And, to top it all off, no one ever even taught you how to create a sturdier structure in the first place.

  Fourthly, from some of my own learnings, I’ve come to the conclusion that the core belief, itself, doesn’t even have to present itself at any point to be making a difference in your life. They are so deeply ingrained in my brain that my thought center just naturally uses them as a jumping off point, without even directly touching on the words that might ping my brain as unusual. Just like we can subtly detect risks in our environment that set off our warning bells without ever creating a conscious thought to go with the arousal, I feel like I can apply a core belief to my world without ever noticing the accompanying stream of consciousness.

Sometimes I feel like fucked up core beliefs have become so accepted over time that they’re feelings more than cognitions. As if they’ve become so reflexive through repetition that you have muscle memory - an intuitive response that bypasses your logical brain recognition threshold and jumpstarts shittily-related thoughts… and those will actually register on your thinking scale. But at that point, you accept the novel-feeling thought and never note that it was actually spawned by a very old recording.

  Which is to say, you might have to work on identifying your fucked up core feelings before you can get to the thought deeply buried underneath. Taking a meta break from the episode to tell you, I’ve never thought about that so thoroughly before. But Fucked Up Core Feelings definitely sounds like a solid description of my world. I guess we also have FUCFs to go with our FUCBs from now on. Anyways.

  With all of this in mind, I’m sure you can start to see why these fucked up core beliefs are a big problem. Hell, if you’ve listened to this podcast for more than a few episodes, you’ve definitely heard that I’m still challenged by my own. Like, when I say that I’m freaking out because no one should listen to me and I feel like an imposter - I believe that I’m not good enough to share information with people. That I’m too flawed to even express myself. This is a problem for, say, podcasting. Or, living. And I have to fight it all the time.

  Long story short.

  Your core beliefs are sneaky, they can be comprehensive, and they are hardwired into your brain as your default system for analyzing everything on the planet. Again, kind of like looking for goggles strapped to your face, but in reality you had lasik surgery about 30 years ago.

  So, if you aren’t constantly on the lookout for core beliefs and actively working against your pre-programmed ways of assessing yourself and the world around you… they will get out of control, cause a fair amount of avoidance and defeat, and set you back several steps in your mental health management… plus, potentially your entire life, if you make any big decisions out of this unhealthy mindset. Which you will, because that’s how the brain works. I’m almost certain that you have some experience with this already.

If you ever think things like: The world is a dangerous placePeople are cruelI’m not good enough I’m not smart enoughI’m not enoughI’m brokenOther people don’t like meThere’s something wrong with my personalityI’m not allowed to… (live like others, have nice things, be happy)I’m not one of those people who… (has money, has good luck, gets what they want)Shit is just harder for meNothing ever works outLife is always hardI can’t.

Then you’ve had some fucked up core beliefs floating around in your head.

 These are some super broad ones for the sake of demonstration, so don’t disregard highly specific beliefs that might relate to your particular circumstances or upbringing.

  If you haven’t ever noticed yourself thinking these big shitty picture things… check again in all your deepest nooks and crannies. I think a lot of us TMFRs operate from some version of the narratives above - plus, much worse. Like I keep saying, these beliefs might not be in your conscious thoughts, so much as they’re directing the show from behind the curtain.

How do we pull it back? Discover the beliefs ........

Keep reading or listen up at t-mfrs.com

https://www.t-mfrs.com/podcast/episode/532f2b1c/core-beliefs

[vickyvicarious]

Ace Attorney Daemons - Prosecutors

Animal species and reasoning behind each choice under the cut, as well as links to other groups of characters!

Miles Edgeworth - Great Pyrenees. I originally started looking at big white dogs because I wanted to see if something similar to Pess would be suitable, and I think I found one. This breed is big and fluffy, which frankly I think would be needed for Miles growing up with the von Karmas. But honestly, his daemon is intelligent and powerful. Generally calm, but capable of leaping into swift action. However, it is at the same time at heart a protector (of livestock, traditionally) more than a predator. I think his daemon settling in this form when he is a teen would be a great way to illustrate his true nature, underneath all the Demon Prosecutor stuff (I expect he and she would be at odds for a while). Additional details I like are that these guys do tend to be more reserved with strangers and can be somewhat stubborn, and also they do shed a fair bit. I just enjoy the image of Miles having to constantly brush his gigantic floofball of a daemon and lintroller all her fur off his suits. A final thing, which I didn’t really intentionally plan, is that all prosecutors have bird daemons except Godot, who used to be a defense attorney, and Miles. So he stands out a little bit there, which I think works well too - he would be all the more determined to prove himself as Bratworth once his daemon settled in a form atypical for the profession.

Franziska von Karma - Harpy eagle. I put Manfred in the villains list since there’s no space for more prosecutors here, but it just seemed fitting to me that von Karmas typically settle as eagles. They are sharp-eyed predators, generally solitary, and look incredibly fierce, just in general. As for the harpy eagle in particular - they are huge, first of all; their claws are the same length as brown bears’. They are among the largest eagles in the world, and sometimes considered the most powerful. This seems only right for Franziska. They mostly eat monkeys, but can go after pretty much anything as they are at the top of their food chain. They can fly nearly straight up and turn their head upside down, and wait nearly a full day to snatch their prey. Franziska too is maneuverable and ridiculously determined. The head-feathers you can see slightly lifted in the photo are pretty cool, too; they rise up into a distinctive crest when the eagle feels threatened, and it actually looks a bit derpy. Which reminds me somehow of Franziska’s scornful “fool” name-calling and how it can often get to the level of absurdity. They are monogamous and fiercely protective parents, which I think can be a nice match to how Franziska really isn’t so heartless after all. And another detail that fits really nicely with her initial rivalry for Miles is that harpy eagles usually lay two eggs, but typically only the first-hatched survives. The other is ignored or even killed by its older sibling.

Klavier Gavin - Superb lyrebird. Female lyrebirds don’t look nearly as impressive as the males, and they don’t do the dramatic dances either. But they are still incredible vocalists, able to imitate sounds from at least 19 other species. And their songs tend to be mostly used during foraging and defending their nest, as opposed to attracting a mate. Obviously Klavier needs a songbird for his daemon, but I think the female lyrebird specifically is great because of those details. Her less exciting (though still pretty) plumage might not match his outer image, but he is one of the best prosecutors of the series, dedicated to the truth from the very beginning. He’s a lot more serious than he might come across, and his daemon reflects that. The typical songs match up with that too; he loves music and his daemon does too, but it’s not what either of them care about most, and the subject of typical female lyrebird songs show that well. Similarly, though a bird like most prosecutors, his daemon is not a bird of prey. He’s never really been in it for ‘the hunt’, after all. One last reason I like the lyrebird for him is that, contrary to most daemons being quite around people they don’t know well, I suspect his daemon would be fairly vocal and probably sing with him in his band.

Simon Blackquill - Japanese mountain hawk-eagle. Before you ask, yes. Yes I did choose his daemon from birds who look most like Taka. I mean, of course. The wiki listed three, and I looked them all up and thought the mountain hawk-eagle appeared closest. As a bonus, it has a Japanese subspecies, which is fitting for samurai man here. They tend to be quiet most of the time, though they have a distinctive cry. This seems fitting for Simon, as he is generally not super talkative. They hunt their prey from a perch, going after small mammals on the ground or other birds, so the perching on his shoulder all the time doesn’t have to change either. Another fitting detail is that females are extremely defensive of their nests and young, apparently willing to fight to death to protect them instead of getting scared away. They also watch and feed their young for a while after they could be self-sufficient. This fits so well with Simon’s willingness to be put to death to protect Athena, obviously.

Godot/Diego Armando - Asian palm civet. I took a slightly different approach for his daemon, and just googled animals that eat coffee. But I’ll get to that in a minute. First, they are nocturnal, solitary, and can just be hard to locate. This fits well with Godot’s whole ambiguous/mysterious thing he’s got going. They’re good climbers and quite nimble/speedy but still vulnerable to predators. Fitting, I think, since he was caught both as Diego and Godot. He tends to be clever to a point but then make a fatal mistake. They also are pretty adaptable, getting used to urban life quickly, which can relate to him adjusting easily to becoming a prosecutor. However, I would be lying if I said the main reason I like this daemon for him wasn’t because they eat coffee. More than just that, the coffee cherries (of which they are said to select only the best) get fermented in their guts, and when they’ve been pooped out, are used to make a very expensive coffee called “kopi luwak.” Now, granted, when I looked this up it seems that the result doesn’t taste especially good and is pretty much just famous as a novelty thing, but I think Godot’s daemon would enjoy coffee just as much as him, and I find the fact that he could, um, prepare his own if he wanted, hilarious.

.

Detectives, Feys, Misc. Lawyers, Villains, Witnesses, Wright Anything Agency

[365days365movies]

March 2, 2021: The Last Unicorn (1982) (Part 1)

I, uh...I wanna talk about zoology.

It’s my profession of choice, although if I’m going to be specific, it’s ecology and ornithology, based on my Masters. But while my expertise is in birds, that doesn’t mean I have any particular preference. So, let’s talk mammals. Specifically, I’d like to talk about horses.

Horses are odd-toed ungulates (Order Perissodactyla) belonging to the family Equidae, with only one living genus (Equus), which includes donkeys, zebras, and a FUCK-ton of fossil progenitors. Not gonna go into horse evolution here, since it’s a vast topic on its own, but the group dates to about 54 million years ago, during the Eocene period.

There are specific features that define modern horses as horses, including a single hoofed toe for walking on, a body built for running with high stamina, and a large cecum in the intestines for breaking down fibrous and herbaceous material. It’s a group native to North America, Africa, and Asia, with the modern descended horse descended from a somewhat unknown ancestor in Central Asia.

They’re grazers rather than browsers, which many similar sized herbivores are. And, of course, they have a close relationship to humans throughout prehistory. Their main systems of defense against predators are the afore-mentioned running capabilities, a VICIOUS kick (especially horses like zebras), and a high-range of monocular vision due to the position of their HUGE eyes.

In terms of sexual selection, it’s essentially based on physical competition between the males in a population, which are usually formed into reproductive harems. That’s one male with multiple females that live within an established range. The females have their own dominance schemes, while groups of males exist in bachelor herds before establishing a harem of their own.

And those two paragraphs help explain why horses don’t grow horns.

Animals like this bighorn sheep, as well as antelopes with impala and gerenuk, perform intrasexual selection using their horns, the size of which determine the fitness of an individual male, with the fights settling any potential ties for watching females. And that’s the main reason why herbivorous mammals grow horns, and horses have come up with different social structures to compensate. But OK, couldn’t they just horns anyway? 

Remember the stomach I mentioned earlier? Here’s the thing; hindgut digestion, which is what horses do...not the most nutritionally efficient form of digestion. In order to maintain their running lifestyles, they invest all obtained energy and nutrients into building muscle and other important functions. Fact of the matter is, they just can’t devote enough energy and nutrients to the physiologically expensive act of owning a horn. They do have a close relative that does that, though. However, they’ve sacrificed their speed, intelligence, and even their eyesight for their horns, as well as beefing up their physical defense with thicker skin.

YUP! So why talk about this? I mean...you know why.

OK, so that had basically nothing to do with this movie, but a post like this has been building since I mentioned the gerenuk a little bit ago. Sorry, had to get it out. Anyway, yeah, unicorns are impossible, but they’re still a hallowed mythical creature. National animal of Scotland, one of the most prominent symbols of medieval mythology, a magic-using ethnic class in a mythical kingdom composed of a horse-based majority that also includes normal horses and pegasi...

You know, unicorns. So, I’m definitely interested in what would happen to make a unicorn, well...the last one. My bets are on something man-made, like deforestation or another for of habitat depletion. Could be poaching for the horn. After all, that’s what’s been driving rhinoceros species to near-extinction (or actual extinction in the case of the western black and northern white rhinos. RIP Sudan, you goddamn king).

But let’s find out rather than speculate! SPOILERS AHEAD!!!

Recap (1/2)

During medieval times, in a mystical wood called the Unicorn’s Forest, a hunter shows unease to his companion. In the forest, there are no seasons, and the beasts are protected from hunters, as long as there is one unicorn left if the forest. That last unicorn is...the Unicorn (Mia Farrow), who learns from the hunters that she must be the last of her kind.

The opening credits, which are a gorgeous animated medieval tapesty, are backed by the song “The Last Unicorn”, by America (damn, nice pull). Gives the whole thing a Renn Faire feel. Never been to a Renn Faire, but I’d love to go to one, honestly.

Anyway, the Unicorn is in doubt that there are no more of her kind in the world, as they live forever, and she would know if there are none left...right? However, they can also be killed and trapped, so...I mean, they might be dead, Unicorn. As she’s thinking on this, the most Rankin-Bass butterfly ever shows up singing a ballad of love. This is...the Butterfly (Robert Klein), a bard-erfly (see whay I did there) who won’t stop singing, despite the Unicorn’s pleas to tell her of other unicorns.

Butterflies, apparently, repeat to anything they hear around them Which involves like, a lot of non-medieval songs. There’s one about the A-train, apparently, which makes...just NO fucking sense. As the Unicorn also shows frustration at this anachronistic little bugger, he breaks his songs to tell her than the Unicorns have all been chased off by “the Red Bull.”

...I’m going to hold it off as long as I can, but the joke WILL come. It WILL come.

She wonders if she can truly leave the forest, then actually does so in order to find the other unicorns. She happens upon a farmer, who attempts to tame her, as he only sees her as a horse. Apparently, men can no longer see unicorns as they are, and usually only see them as white horses. So, there may be unicorns in the world after all!

Not sure why she doesn’t go back to her forest after realizing this, but...OK. She continues on, backed once again by a song performed by America, called “Man’s Road”. Real talk, I’m digging the music in here, which is my inner folk rock fan talking.

While she finds nothing on her journey, she’s instead found by Mother Fortuna (Angela Langsbury), a witch who runs a carnival that needs a new exhibition. With her comes Ruhk (Brother Theodore) and magician Schmendrick (Alan Arkin), the latter of whom actually can see the Unicorn as a Unicorn.

At the carnival, Schmendrick introduces hiself to the Unicorn, wanting to get her out of there. Meanwhile, an audience is fooled by Mother Fortuna’s illusory magic to see a manticore, satyr, and the Midgard Serpent, when in reality they are an elderly lion, ape with a twisted foot, and really sad snake. However, the Harpy that she has IS real, and a major threat to Fortuna were she to escape.

That night, Fortuna speaks to the Unicorn of the Red Bull, owned by a King Haggard. The Unicorn asks Fortuna to free both her and the Harpy, two signs of the same magical coin. Also...is this a kids’ movie? Kinda thought it was until I noticed that the Harpy has, well...pendulous breasts. Literally the best way I can describe them. Also, three of them, so...there’s that.

After she leaves, Schmendrick arrives to free the Unicorn with his magic...and he’s shit at it. Like, REALLY shit. But thankfully, he’s a decent pickpocket, and stole the cage keys from Ruhk. He lets the Unicorn free, and she in turn releases the other animal prisoners, Harpy included. Which is NOT great for Fortuna, who’s IMMEDIATELY killed.

The two leave together, and head on the Unicorn’s journey to find her own kind. She cannot grant Schmendrick his wish to become a true magician, but he still gives her information about this world, and King Haggard, who seems like bad news.

On the road, the two encounter a gang of thieves of the road, who work for Captain Cully (Keenan Wynn), a short and portly leader of bandits. His mistress is a woman named Molly Grue (Tammy Grimes), who’s endlessly frustrated by Cully’s regular failures. They befriend Schmendrick, who impresses them with illusions of Robin Hood and his Merry Men. Although, it’s not his illusions, but those of the Unicorn, trying to help.

Doesn’t help that much, though, as the Robin Hood-hating Captain Cully ties him up to a tree after all of his men and Molly leave. A frustrated Schmendrick mutters a spell by mistake, and brings the tree to life.

And then my girlfriend fuckin’ broke. Here she is, below:

Ravishing. Yeah, she’s watching this too, and when the tree came up, her words were, and I quote:

...a smooth-talking horse, a three-tittied harpy, and a BOOBED TREE!

Boobed tree is an expression I will find a way to use in my life. Also, this is ABSOLUTELY not a kid’s movie, and that is one busty-ass tree. This tree, called...The Tree (Nellie Bellflower) is in love with Schmendrick, and is enraged by the appearance of the Unicorn. However, the Unicorn undoes Schmendrick’s magic, and puts the t-horny tree back to sleep.

The two encounter Molly Grue, who’s astonished to see a Unicorn. She cries, as she was been waiting to see one since she was a young maiden, but now she isn’t one anymore. Interesting implications there, but moving on. Molly wishes to join them, and while Schmendrick isn’t super down for that, she wins the Unicorn’s trust when she points out that they’ve been going in the wrong direction. Whoops.

OK, with that, let’s break for Part 2! See you there!

[beastarslongposts]

History in Beastars

I think one of the most interesting things about Beastars, which does not come up until late in the manga, is the history of the world. When it’s revealed, it’s a shock to the established order of the world for readers who’ve gotten used to it- suddenly, it’s revealed that unlike in, say, Zootopia, where the animals used to live much like animals in the real world do prior to the establishment of cities, the animals in Beastars never belonged to ecosystems where carnivores preyed on herbivores naturally. Their first contact with one another was long after they were already bipedal and sentient, with distinct cultures:

Originally called life animals, carnivores used to live by eating each other, not herbivores. Although it’s not outright stated, I think that it’s safe to assume that they also ate something other than meat- otherwise, they’d have gone extinct pretty quick, since if they were exclusively eating each other they’d not be able to reproduce fast enough to keep up with their death rate. Their population was said to be stagnant, not declining. Besides, it’s mentioned that they (presumably only) ate one another when they fought, and also that they were intelligent, compassionate, and had great camaraderie. I think this implies that when someone was killed and eaten, it wasn’t just out of hunger, and that instead being able to eat your opponent was just an important added bonus of winning a dispute.

We don’t get as much detail about the culture of the nature animals, the ancestors of herbivores. All we know is that they were “fertile and prosperous,” which presumably indicates a larger population, that they wore funky outfits made of plants, and that after the two met they built a stationary society. Since the life animals did not historically have stationary towns, we can assume this was a holdover from the nature animals’ culture.

When the two met, the life animals perceived the nature animals as “objects to be protected”- not exactly a respectful perception, but certainly not a predatory one either. Their society was peaceful until the Carni-Herbi War, which I think has incredibly important implications- predatory instincts are not natural within the Beastars universe, nor are herbivores’ instincts to flee from carnivores. Both these supposedly feral or primal instincts seem to be modern inventions rather than relics of a wild past. Now, this doesn’t mean they don’t exist- but it does mean they are new. Carnivores’ predatory instincts seem to be some sort of social construct, or possibly an intentional creation from war-time. I suspect herbivores’ instincts are a form of generational trauma.

There is precedent within Beastars for genetic engineering taking place during the war in order to increase the carnivores’ chances at victory. Dogs are an artificial species, created to be super intelligent and obedient. Although I do not think this is a definite thing (and in fact, I think the “social construct” explanation holds more weight), I think there is a distinct possibility that carnivores’ predatory instincts were intentionally created during the war for the purpose of making soldiers more aggressive and intimidating. The carnivore soldiers are shown threatening repeatedly to eat the herbivore soldiers as an intimidation tactic. This is not what I think is the most likely explanation, but since I do think its’ a plausible one, it’s worth mentioning.

What I think is more likely is that these so-called instincts arose as a result of the war’s social impact on society. During wartime, entire populations, not just opposing armies, are labeled enemies by governments and factional leaders. This is what I think likely happened in the Beastars universe. Life animals historically would eat the corpses of enemies who they’d beaten in a fight- and during wartime, you have a lot of enemies to fight. With herbivores being seen as an entire class of enemies, the carnivores would have naturally intended to eat them after defeat, much as they would when the life animals fought one another in the past. We don’t know how long this war lasted, but we do know that wars tend to create long-term damage in relations between groups, with harmful stereotypes and resentments lasting long past the official end of the aggression. I think this is likely why carnivores now consider it natural to eat herbivores.

Furthermore, although it’s unclear who started it, it looks like the herbivores were losing the war, meaning a great many herbivores would have been eaten. In the panels depicting the war, it’s mentioned that the herbivore population was three times that of the carnivore population before the war, but now their populations are equal- this is a massive decline for the herbivores, and I think there’s no way it wouldn’t create generational trauma. According to a demographics website I looked up, about 1/3 of the world’s human population is 19 or younger- if the herbivores’ pre-war population followed the same trend, that would mean either that there were significant child casualties or that nearly their entire adult population was wiped out. They were also the ones to surrender, which I think is interesting considering how they’re often shown as having greater socio-political power in current society than carnivores.

I’d assume that both “carnivore” and “herbivore” as labels were originally intended as slurs- the former implying savagery and the latter implying weakness. That they’re both commonly accepted signifiers in modern Beastars society implies a lot of residual hostility.

I don’t know what to make of the big whale stopping the war- hopefully we’ll get more detail on that in future chapters. I think it’s safe to say it definitely did happen and wasn’t made up, but I’m at a loss as to how or why it would have happened.

This history, in my opinion, clears up why certain animals are considered herbivores despite not technically being herbivores in real life- bugs are not sentient in Beastars, so an anteater, for instance, would not have reasonably come from the life animal culture because never in its history would it have been eating the corpses of enemies- it likely wouldn’t even be physically capable of such a thing.

There is a notable element in this history I’d be interested to know more about, too- the life animals appear to be a mix of feline, canine, and ursine, and the nature animals appear to entirely be composed of hooved animals with horns or antlers. All of them are mammals. Where have other land-dwelling species within the Beastars universe come from, and how do they fit into the war? We know that they’re still classified as herbivores and carnivores, so how did they end up in those groups? I’d especially be interested to know the histories of reptiles and birds. Reptiles in particular appear to face a significant amount of discrimination. Some reptiles do produce venom, which is legitimately dangerous, but not all of them do, so that can’t be the issue with all of them.

The last thing I wanted to touch on in this post is that the Carni-Herbi War is really recent history within Beastars- 100 years may feel like a long time ago, but it’s still within living memory. I’d think this would be especially true in Beastars, since some species of animal can likely live well past 100. Despite this, it doesn’t seem to be common knowledge, at least not among the younger crowd. Why? What about the war necessitates it be aggressively removed from public consciousness? 100 years is not long enough for it to fade naturally, and the fact that only the smartest few students are permitted to learn about it in school is telling. It really reeks of intentional, likely forceful suppression, and I’m a bit worried Jack could end up in trouble later for telling Legosi about it. If there wasn’t some kind of penalty, I’d think that way more animals would have a “my grandpa who was in the war” story to tell and the knowledge wouldn’t be nearly as obscure.

[alarawriting]

Inktober 20: Coral

Underwater was a world Rihaanyaki had never seen the like of. She had orbited above gas giants, she had seen rings spinning around vast planets, she’d been to one of the Diwar ringworlds, she’d walked on the surface of a dozen alien worlds… but the coral reef was beautiful and alien beyond anything she’d ever seen.

Kai, unlike most kai-formed creatures, could see a range of colors that went as low as infrared and as high as the range humans called “blue”. What she was seeing was very close to what humans saw. There was nothing useful in the infrared down here – all the living creatures she could see were poikilotherms, creatures whose temperature was the same as their environment – but literally every other color lay out all around her in profusion.

The coral protrusions from the reef were so delicate. Rihaanyaki reached out a paw to touch one, before she remembered that her diving instructor had told her not to do that, that it might kill some of the tiny creatures who made the coral.

There were coral medallions shaped like flowers, and coral shaped like a sapient mammal’s brain, and protrusions that looked like bones or tree branches, but in wild colors no bones or tree branches had ever been. Blue and green and red and yellow in all sorts of combinations. And the fish! Everywhere there were fish, moving constantly, leaving contrails across her vision. Kai-formed creatures were optimized to see movement; everything that moved in a way she didn’t expect brightened in her vision, and everything around her was moving in patterns she didn’t understand and couldn’t predict.

Her ear bud crackled. “Rihaan, you doing ok down there?”

“It’s so beautiful,” she said into the microphone in her mask. “I’ve never seen anything like it. Do you think maybe there are similar things in the oceans of Mreh’gai?”

“I don’t know anything about other planets; never been off Earth,” her instructor said.

“Oh.” That was too bad. She wanted to go diving in the oceans of Mreh’gai, and see what might be in there. The Kai had never explored the depths of their own oceans; they sailed, and caught fish, but most Kai hated being wet. The very few like Rihaanyaki who loved the water had never been numerous enough to develop diving technology. Her diving instructor had barely been able to believe that a Kai would want to learn to scuba dive.

“Am I allowed to catch the fish?” she asked.

“We’d really prefer you didn’t. We’ve got other places where you can dive to catch fish, but this is a protected area. You can look, but please don’t touch.”

“All right,” she said. “We have amusement parks at home where the trick is to sit on a bridge and catch fish, but  the rules don’t say you can’t jump in the pool.”

“Up north they’ve got streams where you can catch fish by hand if you want, but they’re cold; can you handle that?”

She huffed with laughter. “I have fur! If humans can do it, so can I!”

“Yeah, but you can’t take off your fur if you get it saturated with ice cold water.”

“That is what a drying booth is for.”

The water here was warm; coral reefs grew in the tropics on Earth. Rihaanyaki was wearing a full-body diving suit and flippers on her lower paws, but her upper paws were mostly bare, and the water flowing through her fur felt pleasant.

“Your air tank’s got about five minutes left. You want to come back up?”

“I don’t want to leave. The coral reef is so beautiful. I wish I could live here.”

“Well, you can’t breathe water, so that’s not going to work out, but you could choose to live in a tropical area like this one, near a beach.”

“I would like to,” she admitted. Her coat would thin out in this heat and she’d have to work to stay hydrated, but Kai had lived in much harsher conditions. “I’m not sure how I would get a job on Earth, though.”

“This place is a tourist trap. Someone’s gonna want to hire a cat waitress or cashier for the novelty of it. You’ll bring custom in just by being a Kai, and then they’ll look around the shop and maybe buy something after they gawk at you.”

Rihaanyaki wasn’t sure how much she wanted to be gawked at, but on the other hand, her tourist visa expired in two weeks, and to get it extended, she’d need a job and an affidavit from the employer that the job couldn’t be done by a human, which… did suggest trading on the novelty of her appearance. She didn’t think she was as trained as she wanted to be – she hadn’t done a single deep-sea dive yet – and she knew, just from this swim now, that she wanted to be near beautiful underwater worlds like this for the rest of her life.

“Could I work here? At the scuba equipment store?”

“No, I don’t get much of a boost from having a Kai in the store, but you wanna know what, right across the street there’s a beach-themed gift and novelty shop. They got shells, hermit crabs, all kinds of stuff like that. You go there, I bet they might think it’s a great idea to have a salesperson on staff who’s an alien. And it’d be kind of crazy to have it be a cat alien, we already know the dinosaurs and the elephant horses like water fine but when you think beach, no one thinks Kai.”

“Dinosaurs” was a slang term for the Diwar, who bore a resemblance to a ground-dwelling bird that humans kept as livestock, creatures that supposedly had evolved from far more ancient creatures called dinosaurs. But “elephant horses” was new. “Who are the elephant horses?”

“Oh, that’s the Purundi. They’re the size of creatures here on Earth we used to ride for transportation once, called horses, but they’ve got trunks like elephants, which are huge. So, elephant-horses.”

It seemed a little reductive to Rihaanyaki to try to relate every species in the galaxy to the species on one’s own home planet, but then, humans had not had space travel very long. “Is there anything here I can touch?”

“No, but you can take pictures.”

“I don’t see the point. Pictures already exist.” Humans had extensive photography of their coral reefs. Some of the pictures were even taken with film that could capture the color range Kai could see and humans couldn’t. Rihaanyaki wasn’t a good enough photographer to add her own to that body.

“Yeah, but they’re not of the things you, yourself, saw. Photos can be just to look at something, or they can be to record memories.”

“I will never forget this coral reef, trust me.”

Her time was up. She could feel the oxygen getting stale. Mr. Kale’s voice reminded her of this. “Ok. Tank’s almost gone. Time to come up, Rihaan.”

Rihaanyaki took a last, regretful look around at the coral reef. She hated to leave… but her oxygen was definitely running out, and there would always be tomorrow. She was here for at least another two weeks. There was time for many more dives, still.

[ariasune]

Face Your Fears

Whew! Day 5 of @khoc-week​​ and I guess it’s time for like 7000 words of extract? About time I mixed some actual writing about Nie into this, I suppose. 

Not beta read, we die like men! But below a read more because it’s way too long.

Chapter 7.3

The dream rushed up eagerly towards them, and it was incredibly warm, almost inviting. Sora kept his hold tight on Riku as they spun and drifted into an almost mirror-like ocean. Dipping below consciousness into somewhere bright, on the edge of tropical even-- it wasn't quite like the Destiny Islands, but it wouldn't have been out of place there. 

Warm sunlight, the lap of the ocean somewhere maukai, the chittering of small mammals and birds, hazy buzz of insects and the rushing sound of a waterfall. They were on an unfamiliar lanai, looking out into a humid forest. Elsewhere neighbours moved to and fro, community work and busy occupation. 

And hanging off the side of the lanai was a small child. Purple eyes, ringed with gold and dark black hair drawn up into the beginnings of a ponytail. A young Nie?

They were kicking and thumping at the lanai as they hung off the other end, whining at both of them in the way only five year olds really could:

"Dad," the child pleaded, "you promised you'd take me out to the island if I did all my sigils! Please!" Huge eyes blinked at Riku and Sora. "You promised, I just wanna see it. I promise I won't run off this time."

Enix. This was Enix. The nightmare wasn't trying to be especially convincing, offering information the way dreams did.

Sora glanced at Riku, a thousand questions in his eyes: are we playing along? Is this the person we've been fighting? Is this their dream? Are we going to not play along?

“What will you do on the island, Enix?”

"I'm just gonna look," Enix promised, "I just wanna look.”

“Alright. Come along Nix.”

Giving a whoop of excitement, Nix jumped off the lanai and ran off into the undergrowth with a rustle of plants. Sora turned to gawk at Riku questioningly.

"Was... Is that? Is this their dream?"

“Or something they want us to think is their dream.” Riku frowned. 

"...mm," Sora nodded, "I wouldn't put it past them to make it all up--" then he frowned as well, "their dream Eater. Hm..." Then he started, "uh. We should probably go after them."

Heading down to the shore, Sora blinked at what looked to be... pretty regular looking island boats. Nothing you'd take beyond a reef, really. 

And Enix was bouncing back and forth, trying to drag a small, local distance sort of boat down the sand. It was the clumsy sort of enthusiasm they'd both had, still had really. Setting a hand over his eyes, Sora looked out across the water and pointed out a nearby island. It was small, with white ruins crumbling off one side of it.

Riku turned his face into the wave off the ocean, and sniffed slightly. "...a storm?" He had a slightly puzzled expression, like he couldn't quite pin down the feeling. Riku's senses were largely turning over the dream. It was simple. Hazy at the edges. But the mirage of the Island in the near-distance was like a beacon.

And there was something cooler here. The dream had been warm. But there was now a touch of cold. The sudden drop like the precursor to a storm.

“Something bad happened there.”

"Bad?" Sora looked at Enix who had fallen flat on their face in the sand, so desperate to pull the boat into the surf. "Should... we be going there?"

“Doubt we have a choice. If we’re meant to see, the dream will shift us there.”

Sora frowned, "I... just feel like we're missing something..." He shook his head again, and then when Nix hollered at him to come help, he jogged over to help push the boat into the water. Slow, steady pushing as he went, Enix chatting the entire time.

Enix was soon following Riku around as he worked on the boat, despite Sora's efforts to distract the kid to let Riku work. No good taking any unfamiliar, unchecked boat out to see -- even in a dream.

Nix, however, hopped on and off the boat, staying underfoot and chatted Riku's ear off: "when will I get to take the boat on my own? Is it soon? Is it when I know all my sigils? You can test me! Can I sail it this time? Can we climb up to the top? I'm hungry. Is it ready yet? It's almost my name day, can I go by myself then? What about after the rainy season ends, how about then?"

“When I can sit back and do nothing for three trips, then you can go out on your own,” Riku replied. 

Rather than finding Enix underfoot, he began to gently explain how it worked, what ropes to use and why.

Nix listened about as much as a five year old who very much wanted independence did: which is to say with laser-focus staring and firm nods. Now and then, Nix would help tie a knot, some of them very well, and some of them-- well.

Sora retied those, showing Enix how he'd done it, or how Riku had.

Finally, Nix had settled in the boat, and was explaining in too-sure tones how their lessons were going: "I can do five memory chains now," Nix beamed, "and I know which sigils to put a heart to sleep.”

“And what do you want to learn those for?” Riku prompted in a very parental tone.

As if they all knew the answer but wanted Enix to repeat it.

"Oh, oh oh!" Enix bounced in their spot. "If someone's memories are broken, I can forge them back together, and if-- umm… um."

They stared at Sora for a moment, like Sora might be able to help answer. Sora just gave a playful shrug: not helping Enix with their homework.

Nix pouted, and flopped against Riku's side, drawing the spirit dreamater sigil in sunlight in the air "something about dreameaters, probably."

Sora and Riku recognised the trace of that. “And why is it important to know your sigils?” Riku prompted.

"Ummmm.... cause dad says so?" Nix tried with a sheepish grin.

"Try again," Sora stifled a laugh into his hand.

"...because... uh." Nix nibbled their nails. Scuffed a foot on the floor of the boat. "Cause uh." They drew themselves up suddenly, very sure, "our Ancestors taught us the Secrets of the Heart Forge, and we must preserve the ancient traditions to keep them alive!"

So. Nie came from a family of ancient heart secrets. That. Made a little sense. 

“What do you know about the heart of all worlds?” Sora asked, with genuine curiosity.

"The Kingdom of Hearts!" Enix was bouncing again, causing the small boat to rock very slightly. "Where all Hearts are born! The Blade-Edge of Light and Darkness that tempered the Nothing and made all the Realms! The First Heart and the Final World! Are we gonna see the ruins then! Really? You promise?"

The ruins? “If you can find them.”

Nix gave a loud laugh, "they're the only thing on the Island." Enix peered over into the water for a moment, and then reached a hand out to play with it a little. "Dad, have you ever been to the Outside World? You know? Like in the stories?"

Sora and Riku exchanged another look, before Riku asked, “do you want to see the outside world, Nix?”

Nix looked up at Riku with bright, hungry eyes, before very dutifully lying through their teeth: "nuh-uh! We have to stay here and protect the Island."

“And why do we protect the island?” He prompted in the same parental tone.

"Daaad," Nix flopped against Riku. "I know everything about our sacred responsibilities and duties. I just wanna play, I swear I'll be good." Soft grumbling.

Come on kid. Be more open. Riku gently ruffled the kid’s hair. “Oh? What responsibilities?”

Nix flopped the other way, draping over Sora's lap. "Don't wanna learn..."

"Yeah, I know," Sora petted their hair, glancing at Riku with an awkward almost shrug, because what was he meant to do? "Your dad wants you to grow up strong and smart."

Huffing, Enix scuffed the floor a bit more, "our 'spibilities to keep this world hidden, to never ever leave and to break the heart of anyone who sets foot in the ruins. I know. I listen, I really do, dad."

“I know, I know. But I just want to know if you understand why we do.”

Nix looked at Riku for a few long moments, then grinned, that same hungry glint. "That's a trick question!"

He nodded. “That’s right. You’re learning well.” Okay. So. That made. No sense.

Sora exchanged a look with Riku: was any of this true?

Enix, however, had gone to dip their hands over the side again. Turning the water prismatic colours between their fingers with a prideful grin. "Look!" Nix raised their head suddenly, "oh oh we're almost there!"

“It’s beautiful, Enix,” Riku said softly. “I hope you only ever make beautiful things.” Too bad the two of them knew the truth.

"I'm starting to make my first sigils," Nix added even more proudly. "I gotta show you, when we get there I gotta show you."

Sora looked out towards the horizon again, uneasy. Again that chill in the sharp wind.

Riku was quiet, focusing on bringing the boat into the shore of the island. He could almost feel the bright softness of the moment was over.

As soon as the boat got close, Enix leapt ashore, tripping over the side of the boat and ending up in the surf with a squawk. Pushing up, rolling a little as they raced up the sand, Nix skidded to a hard stop somewhere just below the tideline. There was an obedient eagerness in them as they stared back at Riku and Sora. Hopping foot to foot.

"Riku?" Sora asked quietly, helping secure the boat.

“It’s not a nightmare yet,” he said softly. They had to push on. Follow the dream.

"Mmm," he looked down the shore at Enix. "I'm not sure I want to know why they changed."

“Neither.” But he would struggle to fight Nie now with just the memory of Enix, being sweet. Eager. Maybe that was Nie’s plan.

"Dad!" Nix called out noisily, "hurry up! Please!" 

Sora watched Nix for a few moments more, "they're not going mauka...? Maybe they're not allowed to."

“‘Maybe not alone.” He took a deep breath, grabbed an oar from the boat to use as a makeshift weapon. No keyblades for now.

Waving, Sora headed over to Enix, who gave a burst-like exhale of excitement and jumped forward. This close, Sora could see why Nix had come to a stop right there -- meshed through the island were white marble ruins, slightly tilted but recognizable. But interlocked with the Island. Overlapping. Almost as if two images had collided together. 

Eyebrows furrowing, Sora looked up to see Nix bounding forward, jumping between foliage, sand and jagged bits of white stone with giddy excitement. "Hey! Nix! No running off--" Sora headed after Nix and then froze in his step, a shiver biting down his spine.

Riku carefully nudged his foot onto one of the marble surfaces. Cautious. Testing. 

So true, it was chilling. All of Riku's experiences and life brought to a singularity point that ran through him like a heartbeat. Everything that had led him here. And this was only an echo.

Kingdom Hearts. The weight of it. The ache of it. Complete under their footsteps. Straining at Sora's Heart. Bright in the sky. Complete. Absolute. First. And familiar. Even in a Dream, Riku could feel it.

The Ruins in the Final World. The single door to Kingdom Hearts. Seven Princesses of Light. The door called to Destiny Island. The one Sora had taken to reach him. 

Kingdom Hearts, breathing and living, heartbeat bright in reflection to this place.

And then the dream began to burn at the edges of Riku's awareness. Cold and caustic.

Riku pulled his foot back.

By now the kid was scaling a huge section of broken-in wall, using vines and gaps in the rock alike to clamber up. A small chunk of stone broke off, and Nix dangled for a bit, before crawling up to the top. "Hurry up! I wanna get to the very top!"

Sora looked thoughtful, "maybe it's like... getting in the water. Like how it starts off cold sometimes."

“....race you to the top?”

"...oh you are on," Sora grinned, and was already launching forward. He went right up after Nix using flowmotion, which seemed to dazzle the kid as much as frustrate them.

Sora had a feeling he was going to lose, because he swept Enix up. "C'mon!" Nix squealed when Sora tossed them up to the next ledge. Sora hopped next to them, "wanna learn how to do that?"

"No!" Nix protested, peering at Sora's feet. "I- I can figure it out! I can figure it out."

Riku sat next to the two of them on the ledge. “Is this high enough?”

"Mmm.... yeah," Enix pouted, kicking their feet slightly. They peered down over the edge. "Can you show me the wall running again?"

“Another day. Once you’ve learned all your sigils by memory.”

Enix scoffed in disagreement, and settled looking out at the ocean, and hummed. The dream was undulating all around the island. Shifting a little. Seeping. At times it tingled in Riku's fingertips. At others, they felt numb. And reaching out Riku realized the dream wasn't seeping or shifting around them, but instead they were sinking into it. 

Into layers of dreams: three down already. Wherever the Dreameater was, it was trying to keep them here.

“Three deep,” he murmured. “Don’t follow the dreams.”

"Huh?" Sora looked at Riku in surprise. "Riku?"

He turned to Enix. “Shape changing, huh? Clever. Really clever. You knew we were coming, of course.”

Nix blinked at Riku, tilting their head. "Eh?"

Riku grabbed Sora’s hand. Pulled. “Let’s go.”

Sora didn't question Riku at all, just gripped Riku's hand tightly, trusting. "Mm-hm." He stood up, and Nix clambered up to their feet as well.

"Aw, already?" Enix frowned.

The layers of the dreams were similar. Fit together but imperfectly overlapping, causing the strange oddities in the dream. It was more pronounced for Riku. He figured it had to be possible to move from one layer to the other up or down along those edges. But the edges were hidden; one was at the edge of the ruins, hidden beneath the time knife effect so it wouldn't be noticed.

Decided, Riku headed back to the shore, feeling for the thread to step up into the next dream.

"Dad?" Nix seemed confused as they began to jump down the high ledge. They peered over the edge at them, confused: "I- it's too high--"

Crossing the divide back to the shore, away from the ruins and a layer of dream was passed through. Two layers of dreams. And behind them, still faltering on the high ledge, Nix was yelling after them, frightened: "Hey wait!"

Riku swallowed, lump in his throat. He squeezed his eyes closed. It wasn’t real. It was a dream.

"Dad! Daddy don't leave me!" Enix's shouts had turned into terrified wails. Sora tensed his hand in Riku's, squeezing gently. "Three... so there's two more layers..."

Riku nodded. “Two more. We should go back to the boat.” His voice was taut, almost breaking with the tension of his emotion.

"...this dream is horrible," Sora murmured, and nodded. He took the lead this time, tugging Riku towards the boat. There was something there, an edge humming at their senses. 

At least the further they got, the harder it was to hear the child sobbing.

The water lapped cool at their feet, and the Nightmare burned hot, searing at them furiously.Something in the air snapping, and tensing with discomfort. "It does not like that," Sora said grimly.

“No. It doesn’t.” Riku stepped up onto the boat. Following him Sora threw one final glance back to the ruins. The way they cut in and out of the Island. The small figure curled in a tight ball on top of the tower. He was so distracted, it was only the snap, snarl of lightning and thunder that broke him from his thoughts.

"That was close," Sora jerked close to Riku, instinctively pulling a reflega up. The sky was a dark, furious thing, storm whipping at the water.

“Mhm,” Riku grunted. Focused. Ducking between the waves. Hunkering down to reduce the wind.

The haze of the dream layer was close-- and just before Riku reached it. The Ocean boiled upwards, abrupt, just in front of him. A sudden cold clawing in his stomach the only warning he had before the Nightmare rose out of the sea. A giant Orca, patterned in striking blacks, neon blues and lethal violets and pinks.

Nightmare Ruinpe attacks!

They leapt off. Focusing on dream, they landed deftly on the waves. In the whip of the storm, keyblade shining to hand, Sora could hear the keychain rattle.

The Ruinpe was slow to change directions, torn between Riku and Sora: Riku was the natural enemy, and Sora the natural prey. It swept back and forth, undecided.

“Blizzaga!” Riku bellowed, pointing directly at the Ruinepe. 

Magical resistance crumbling, the Ruinepe was trapped in Ice. The Water swelled, cracked, but wouldn't break--

Sora, meanwhile, had leapt onto the ice. Running across it to stand at Riku's side, Sora took a steady stance. "I think the water is part of it, Riku! Like a living sea!"

Which was exactly why Sora directed his keyblade up, and tried a fierce, "thunderga!"

The storm above them resisted, snaring in the electricity-- but Sora's strike landed and the Nightmare's colours burnt and shifted sharply at the hit. It seemed to swell for a moment, like an ocean, and then burst.

The Ruinpe dissipated into foam and bubbles, stray bits of nightmarish miasma that sank beneath the water. The dream layer snagged-- strained--

One layer left, but the Nightmare was gone. Parts of the Dream felt, distant, unravelling. Parts of the beach disappearing, stars twinkling out.

Without the Nightmare to sustain such a fragile, false world, there was precious little left of the dream. The ocean was a glitching mirror. The storm had frozen, unmoving in the sky. But they were still asleep, even as they'd broken the Nightmare. They were still held there with the familiar taste of Sora's sleep.

Riku turned to Sora. “Come on. Time to wake up.”

He frowned, looking around at the distorted, glitching dream. And then shook his head. "What if this is... our chance to find out what Nie's after?"

“They’re not here, Sora. They never were.”

"That doesn't mean this didn't happen," Sora insisted. "Aren't most dreams made from our memories?"

“Come on.” Riku extended his hand out desperately. “Please. Come out with me. Don’t chase the dreams Sora.”

"But... Riku..." Sora faltered, still looking back to the island. "...but... they were just like..." he cut off before he could say it.

“I know, Sora. I know.

Chapter 12.4

The dream was confused, vicious even. Where before, it had been stratified in careful, seamless layers that led Riku and Sora ever downwards: past the jungle, and the water's edge, now it was jaggedly woven together. This side of the island turned and cut across. The Final Ruins were a molten thing, marble white-hot and seeping into the ocean, where it cooled and formed anew, the sky dripped and poured and rained, the ocean melding into it.

The spiking humidity was second only to the wounded, cloying scent of a bad dream, and there, rotting on the beach was the carcass of the Ruinpe. Great carved ribs, rising like the bones of some abandoned ship.

"....gross." Riku pulled a face, before turning around to look for signs of Xion or Roxas.

Xion was nowhere in sight, but there was a figure prone on the sand. Too small to be Roxas; at least, until Riku got close enough. Knocked out cold, feverish, Roxas looked young, seven, eight and there was a faint, gleaming red pattern of chains - like a show of lights, or a brand - slinking slowly up from under his throat.

It was genuinely unsettling to Riku. Roxas had never been small before. Carefully, he headed over and sliced through the chains with his keyblade, watching it snap and break until Roxas came to with a groan of confusion. Pushing up and swaying a bit, Roxas' eyes looked a bit hazy and poorly focused as he looked all around him.

"Sup, Roxas." Riku said, offering him a hand.

"Um," Roxas just looked at the hand and then looked up at Riku with a suspicious, baffled look.

Okay. Hand go back in his pocket. "I'm looking for a little girl. Black hair."

"Xion?" Roxas questioned, and looked over towards the water immediately. "She's in there."

"....Xion is in the water?"

"... yeah, she went out to the island." Roxas looked confused, looking down at his hands. He scowled, looking far too much like himself despite everything. He turned his hands over. "...what's... going on?"

"You look your age."

"...yeah, I'm... six...?" Roxas turned his hands over once more, "wait..."

Six? Well that was new. "We should rescue Xion, don't you think?"

"No!" Roxas said suddenly, jerking away from Riku and tripping over himself in the sand with a startled noise. He coughed and sniffled a bit, sitting up again and picking bits of sand off his hands. "No. We... we don't wanna get in the water, Riku..."

"No, we don't," he agreed. "But sometimes we have to do things we don't want to save people. If you don't want to help, you can go back home."

"No, it's Xion," Roxas seemed troubled by something and pressed both hands to his head with a whine. Awkwardly, Riku reached out to pat at Roxas’ hair. 

Pat. Pat.

Pat.

Slowly, exhaustedly, Roxas leaned into the touch, finally flopping against Riku. His appearance slowly melting back to normal - dream logic, apparently - but it took a little longer for comprehension to properly settle in his eyes. He slowly touched a hand to his chest, where the chain marks had come from.

"...don't tell Sora," he said, aware enough to know he was embarrassed. Standing up, not quite wobbly, Roxas looked around him. "Shit. I don't... Xion was... I can hardly remember. Like a dream. Xion was here, and-- did you stop whatever that was?"

"I sliced the chains off, if that's what helped? You said Xion was still in the water though."

"The water? No, no that's where the--" Roxas stilled, as if seeing the remains of the Ruinpe for the first time. The dark, molten lap of the ocean. "What... is going on?"

The water was a warning. Unwelcoming in its depth. A nightmare stirring in slow eddies. And if Xion was down there, then what she was had been overwhelmed by what the Nightmare was.

"Not looking forward to that," Riku sighed, but he was the stuff of Nightmares’s fears. 

"Uh...?" Roxas had drawn Next Life and Chain of Memories, holding them tightly in his hands. He squinted at Riku.

"Remember when your whole world fell apart and you found out everything you knew was a lie?"

"... which time, but go on?"

"It's gonna be at least... eight times worse than that."

"Well fuck," Roxas grimaced, and dug around in his inventory for a potion or something. "...we have to go in the water. Don't we?"

"We do," Riku said, resigned.

"...okay," Roxas rubbed his forehead for a moment. "I always did want to go to the beach, I guess."

"Yep." Riku took a deep breath and stepped out into the waves.

They rippled for a split moment, before spilling outwards in a sudden, furious roar. Bursting upwards, the saltwater coming down in a haze of mist and within it a twitching, armed figure. Roxas couldn't say for certain that Riku was familiar with Xion's keyblade armour -- much less this nightmarish form of it, but Roxas could recognize it. 

He clenched his hands tightly around his keyblades. "Xion. She's in there," he said, sharp and direct so Riku would know they had to break the armour to free her, but they couldn't go so far as to hurt Xion.

"Let's save Xon." Riku crouched down to power his jump and then powered forward, slashing across the chestplate of the armour. The strike barely seemed to leave a dent, so Roxas threw himself forward to back Riku up so he could gear up for another attack. "Blizzaga!"

It froze deep along the metal, catching it with a scraping sound and slowing Xion to prevent a reprisal.

Touching down on the surface of the water, as if it was sand, Riku made a shocked sound as the water clawed around his ankles, pulling at him. Magic dream or otherwise, Riku was off-balance and the ocean was thirsting: chains in gleaming red spilling and splashing at Riku's feet.

Noticing, Roxas slashed at the nightmare, the memories, whatever they were-- they broke into pieces, hissing like serpents and sinking back beneath the waves.

Trapped within the Nightmare, Xion wrenched herself free from the ice, tearing at the water. For a split moment, it was obvious -- the nightmare from within the ocean was chained to her keyblade armour. Weaving nightmare emblems in red across her chest and gauntlets.

Then she was pulled back under. Both her blades swung sharply, aiming to drive Riku and Roxas apart.

"Riku!" Roxas had leapt back to avoid the strike barely, but was distracted when Riku was knocked across the water in a spray of darkness. 

The emblem blade drove against Riku, throwing him and lightning flashed overhead. Beneath him, the ocean was desperate, insistent. A discordant wash of fear and helplessness that tried to pull Riku down into the dark.

It clawed at Riku, the fear, the helplessness -- how could they ever beat Nie?

Press △ To Summon Sora

Riku was sinking, breath breaking out of him in a burst of light until he was alone in the dark depths. But not for long. Something reached for him. Someone reached for him. A hand thrown towards his own, someone diving down to reach him. Blue eyes, and brown hair, and so, so clear despite the water and the darkness and the dream--

"Riku!"

He clasped the hand, tightly, eagerly, and let it pull Riku towards Sora. Sora’s arms wrapped tightly around Riku. He was here, he was here, he was--

They were somewhere. Cold. And Dark. Red chains wrapping all around them. But they were together.

Chapter 12.5

Sora gasped, hard, breath pulling into his lungs so sharply it ached a little. He was still wrapped tightly around Riku as they washed ashore. The Dream was stable, the iku'anga in the distance and nearer, the beach of the play island, disturbed by the white marble of the final world. The soft, humid buzz of insects and birds.

It didn't feel real. It didn't feel not real. 

Still tired from their descent into the Nightmare, Sora uncurled a little to see if Riku was okay. He'd curled over him protectively as they'd washed up, and now, Sora reached out to push Riku's soaked hair out of his eyes.

"Riku?"

"Mm," a little dazed, a little clung to the feelings enforced by the dream. "Sora..."

Frowning at Riku's dazed response, Sora shifted to try and help Riku up and towards the--

The pool. Their pool. He paused, and took in the island again slowly. The one that they had taken Enix to in another dream. The familiar feeling sinking in.

Okay, problem for later Sora. He hitched Riku's arm over his shoulder. "C'mon, we gotta find a way out."

Sora settled Riku near the pool of water, and after a moment spent fidgeting with his inventory - unresponsive - just used an empty bottle he'd shoved into a regular pocket. It wasn't very big, so Sora waited for Riku to finish the first few gulps of water, already ready to get more.

"I made it...?" Sora offered with a sheepish smile at Riku.

He smiled. "You always do."

"Mm, but means we're both stuck down here," Sora scooped up another few gulps of water.

“I will always find a way to save you.”

"Riku," Sora laughed, and splashed a bit of water on Riku's face to really rouse him. "This time, I came to save you."

The dream was prickly, mixing memories wildly into a puzzling palette. Riku could feel edges of it everywhere, little bumps and shifts like the texture of an oil painting. But there was still the true edges. Back on the island - Destiny Island, different but the same.

“Come on, Sora.”

Sora looked back towards the water thoughtfully, and nodded. He got to his feet, dusting sand off him and holding his hand out towards Riku. Sora hauled Riku back to his feet. 

They headed to the water's edge. It lapped towards them, a lazy, familiar thing. The same sound they had grown up with.

"I think it's the play island..." Sora said quietly. He looked out over the water. "And that's..."

“Yeah. From.., the final world.”

"And this is our home," Sora said finally, voice soft. "Maybe a long time ago. I wish I’d asked Moana more about this...”

The trip from the play island felt shorter than Sora remembered, even with keyblade gliders. Dream logic? Probably...? He jumped off when they neared the shallows and marched up the shore. Again, the hazy humidity, and Sora gave a soft sneeze.

Riku looked alarmed, looking at him abruptly.

"Pollen," Sora rubbed his nose slightly.

“You don’t get hayfever.”

"Yeah, but I still sneeze when it gets up my nose.”

“Right....” Riku was on edge. Confused. Suspicious.

Sora rubbed his nose again, and reached out to take Riku's hand -- he paused, wiped his hand down on his jacket -- and then took Riku's hand.

"Uh... hm, so," he gestured down the beach at the handful of boats. Sora padded over towards the familiar boat from the dream, the one they had taken with Enix. "Hm," there was something carved round the prow, but it was fuzzy, like it had been forgotten.

It was definitely blurred. A memory, more than a construct, and when Riku studied it, there was the glint of red chains, patterned over the hull. Sora tapped his keyblade at the prow and the chain receded in a slow, clinking movement. The colour of the sky had dipped an almost gold, as the carving slowly appeared. 

“What’s the bet that’s a sigil?” Sora peered at it. "Is there a way to find out what they do?" He didn’t think too hard, just reached out carefully to poke it with his keyblade. It lit up, gleaming gold and blue, iridescent. 

It was a protective sigil, powerful; poised in balance between will and heart, nightmare and spirit, light and dark. Versatile, and though not absolute, it was an old sigil. Written long ago, and passed down as an inheritance, and when called upon, granting access to the forge of the Soul.

The heat of strength and control the cold priming of metal.

This was how Keyblades were once forged. This was the place within that the Nobodies had drawn their weapons from. This was the birthplace of Soul Eater. This was the Mark of Mastery.

Holding Riku's hand, Sora moved this way and that, trying to find the house they'd met Enix in. He ended up almost tripping over tree roots and would have faceplanted if Riku hadn’t grabbed his wrist to steady him.

“Huh. Looks abandoned.”

"It... does," Sora looked up at the crumbling house with confusion. "It was fine before though..." Hopping up onto the lanai, avoiding the broken step on the stairs, Sora looked around slowly.

The red patterned chains were clustered across the damaged door, criss-crossing it and hanging heavy like vines. This time Riku reached out to tap at the chains. They began slowly unlatching, clicking out of existence. The sky over them faded into night, stars gleaming overhead.

Shivering, Riku inhaled the air, tasting the dream around them.

The island was still, a cool drop like the prelude of a storm. The dead of night, restful and quiet. The house looked new again, a door creaking open ever so slowly, as Enix peered out round the corner. 

Looking each way, Enix opened the door a bit more and crept out onto the lanai. They didn't seem to see Sora or Riku there. Tossing a small satchel over the side of the lanai, Enix clambered up onto it, before jumping off into the undergrowth with an eager smile.

“...well. I taught Enix to sail didn’t I.” He sighed. They better follow.

"Think they're running away?" Sora asked, following after Enix. The child was all eager strides, tugging at leaves along the way. "Or if this is just an adventure?"

“Adventure I think. Looks too excited for running.”

"I don't know... we were pretty excited about leaving," Sora admitted, following Enix down to the shoreline. They were dragging a makeshift looking raft that had been hidden by the rocks. Exactly where Sora, Riku and Kairi would hide their first attempt at a raft before they tried again on the play island.

Sora faltered looking at it; even he knew it wasn't the best. It might deal with smooth sailing, but if the weather turned… Riku had been pretty instructive, even if Sora had napped too much...

"Why don't they just take one of the boats?" Sora asked desperately.

“Someone would notice them missing.” He said it as if it was a thought he’d had and decided on a long time ago.

Sora's hand tensed in Riku's at the remark. How easily Riku answered. Quiet, Sora watched Enix drag the little thing down to the water. The dream stuttered, Enix struggling to get the raft to the water. Red chains in the water edge.

Riku sighed. He could see where this was going. “They went out alone. There was a storm, wasn’t there?”

"There's always a storm," Sora mumbled.

“Do you think they ever made it back?”

"Something happened to them," Sora was still mumbly. He looked at the red chains. "One way to find out..." Sora made no effort to unlock the chains, instead looking at Riku. "Are we chasing the dreams or was this what Xion was trying to find?"

“This is chasing the dreams,” he said. But... he really did want to know...

"...what do you want to do Riku?" Sora asked heavily, now watching Enix repeatedly - on loop - drag the raft into the water with a proud, happy smile.

“I have to know,” he said. “But that doesn’t mean you have to risk it too.”

"Uh-uh," Sora shook his head fiercely, and reached out to grab both of Riku's hands. He held them tightly, and settled the sharp shine of his focus on Riku's eyes. "Together. Whatever happens. We go together this time." Sora was smiling, determined. "We keep each other safe."

He nodded. “Okay.” Then he walked over to slice through the chains.

The chains didn't so much unlatch as shatter at the contact point of the keyblade. Vanishing in coils of golden light, Enix finally got the raft into the water with a soft whoop of excitement that they barely remembered to temper.

Looking around nervously, they hadn't woken anyone up and they pushed the raft further out, finally flopping onto its surface.

After a few moments thought, Sora clambered onto the raft himself. The boat didn't even dip at his weight, though boat was maybe a strong word.

Drifting out across the narrow distance between the play island and iku'anga, Sora kept turning his head to look at the shore they'd come from, before finally, in relief commenting to Riku, "they're going out to the play island."

It wasn't a far journey, maybe it'd be okay?

The water was an abyssal black, the stars reflecting in it like an oil slick. Iridescent, opal colours, interrupted now and then by Enix's paddling. Sora watched for awhile, before reaching out to curl his hand in Riku's.

This would have been them, almost, once. Until everything had gone so wrong--

And Sora had to ask, voice ebbing like the tide, the flicker of the breeze off the water, "did... you unlock the door? Back then?"

Riku’s breath hitched. “I did. He... Xehanort. He... mentioned that was how we could leave the world.” He sounded so wrecked, so guilty about it.

Sora's hand held tighter, and he looked at Riku, eyes dark and warm and hurting. But not for what happened, for Riku, for the cracks in his voice. "It's not your fault, Riku," Sora promised, soft but sure, "what happened is not your fault."

A gentle but sad smile. “I still believed him.”

“Trusting someone is not the wrong thing,” Sora said angrily, and Riku just gave him a placid smile that made Sora’s insides knot up.

The raft was struggling in the water all the same, rocking hard with each wave and Enix seemed terribly distracted, just peering at the play island with an absolute focus.

There was a bright red gleam on the island, high above the ruins. Enix was staring at it with confusion when the dream jerked to a sharp, stilling stop-- another lock.

Riku squeezed Sora’s shoulder reassuringly, then climbed up to slice the latest lock. Sora had stood to join Riku, but was sent stumbling as the dream lurched back into motion. A storm, clawing at the raft, the water spiking bright and the ocean and sky both churned with lightning. Enix's voice came out in a high, scared cry as they struggled to keep the raft afloat.

Holding Sora tight under one arm, hand gripping the mast, Riku heard a horrendous thrum. A lurch in the water. Sora tilted his head back to stare up at the island. The red, burning glow tilting slowly and Sora finally placed the shape of it--

"Riku," Sora got out, seaspray sharp across his face, "the ruins are going to turn."

“Turn?” He repeated. “Turn into what?”

"Sideways!" Sora tried to explain. "When you- you hit the thing and it would turn, when I had to put myself back together in the Final World."

“But that would... the whole world might...”

"Mm," Sora flinched as the boat was suddenly yanked still. Around them the water was tangled in the storm, a low snarl of wind, but the raft was chained to a stop, two long coils of red piercing the wood--

Keyblade in hand, Sora raised it to one of the chains. Riku nodded, raised his own--

Chapter 12.6

They didn't pass out, Sora had barely blinked before he raised his head from soaked sand. It had clung to his wet face, and he rubbed his hand at it as he pushed up. The ruins had turned, bisecting the island at a strange angle, the air around them hot and cold like the turn of a fever, almost shivering with magic. It pulled and pried at Sora's heart.

"Riku?" he called out suddenly, yanking to his feet and looking around.

Riku came to at the edges of the ruin, and it was a painful thing. Like something had hooked into his heart and was trying to pull it from his chest in every direction. His nerve endings a shiver of ice and jolt of electric heat. 

But when had he passed out? Had he passed out? The sand was prickling against Riku's skin, but it felt distant. Elsewhere. 

"Riku?" Sora's voice carried on the wind towards him.

Grunting, Riku lifted a hand to let Sora know he was awake. But his eyes darted around, looking for the small dark form of Enix.

Stumbling in the sand, Sora reached out to grasp Riku's hand, and when their fingers slipped through each other, Sora gave a startled sound. Surprised, Sora dropped back on the sand, staring.

“Hm?” He turned. Reached to take Sora’s hand — eyes widening when they passed through.

“It's... it's you, right?" Sora asked uncertainly. "You're here?"

“I think I’m me. I feel here.”

"Same," Sora was still shivering. He turned to look back at the shore. The broken pieces of raft. "Enix took the raft out. They got in a storm... the island... the ruins. Something." 

Riku looked around wildly. Where was Enix?

Enix had stumbled from the broken raft, up the shore in a haze. Walking this way, then that, disoriented and off-balance towards the ruins. The red gleam of the shift gate. The white bright center of the ruins. A great stone face that had been hidden within the ruins and was now revealed: the Mark of Mastery carved in a curling circle. Enix stopped. Still. Staring at it as though hypnotized.

Eyes skating over the ruins, the mark. Unsure why this was so shocking to the child, Riku stared.

Slow, curious, Enix moved towards the carving. Following it with their fingertips. As they went, it became clear to Riku why this was so shocking. Where the mark had cut short in the boat carving, here there was more. Flourishes that crept all around the stone face, a bisecting line, a door--

It was a door.

“No!” Riku shouted, rushing towards the child before the door could open.

Riku's hand ran through Enix like a ghost, all mirage as Enix finished tracing the heart swirl and the door lit up. The carving lighting up in blue and green, light and darkness seeping through it. Meeting in the center of the bisection with a burst of gold and the door began to open.

The rising dawn behind them. A figure in a black coat stepped out from the doorway, turning their face towards Riku and Sora: "You're not meant to be here."

They had tried to shove the doors closed even as they opened, but there was too much force behind it. Riku bared his teeth at the mysterious figure. Enough mysteries! He lunged forward to get the hood down.

"I get it now. You're not really here," a finger wag as Nie jerked back, hood falling down, "someone's getting a bit nosy huh? Chasing nightmares around?"

“Yeah. Well. Someone decided to trap our friends in a nightmare.” 

"Ohh... you guys tried to pick my little Nightmare apart," Nie glanced towards Sora and then settled their gaze on Riku. A series of red chains crashed between Riku and Sora.

Glancing back at the chains, Riku turned his focus on the hooded figure. Keeping calm, posture neutral instead of aggressive.

“So. You went back in time to see your younger self. Knew Xehanort had to get the idea from somewhere.”

"It is etched," Nie answered with a cool sort of hatefulness. They circled slowly, edging towards Enix. "I'm just following the script, Riku. A real Master knows that destiny is beyond his control, and accepts that."

There was a hard intake of air from Sora past the chains, Keyblade flashing suddenly. Cutting through a layer of chains.

Riku stepped calmly between them to keep Sora guarded. “Etchings aren’t permanent. Water and time wears them down, earthquakes shatter and reform the earth.”

"That's not going to help you here," Nie raised their hands, slick nightmare running in vivid colours from their fingertips, turning their hands into talons. "This is just a nightmare for you to get lost in," they lunged towards Riku, claws outstretched to rip and maul.

He slipped aside, ducking and just missing the claws. 

He summoned his keyblade, stood firm. “Well I’m the thing Nightmares are afraid of!”

Chapter 12.8

The chains shattered, the Nightmare snarling in a kaleidoscopic sound as the world around them shifted.

The dawn rose, heavy and bright. The doorway was gone, the carving now a floor beneath Enix who was shaking, trembling head to toe in a handful of shards. Blood and bright heart pieces. Dismemberment of the physical and metaphysical.

Nie crouched by themselves. Blood ran off their clothes. Pieces of heart glittered in their hair, and their teeth shone in a smile, as they offered an elegant keyblade with red hilt and black blade to Enix. A bequeathing.

“...oh fuck.” He’d wielded that. Sora had too.

Slow, crying, Enix took the keyblade in hand, confused. Nie gestured upwards with a smile, unconcerned. The rise of the ruins. The Mark of Mastery beneath them, Kingdom Hearts bright and brilliant against the bright white of the sky.

The Nightmare was beginning to breakdown, crumbling. Its layers had overlapped unnaturally and were starting to collide into each other. Soon, the dream itself would end again, and hopefully, pull everyone within it back to the waking world.

Hopefully.

Riku turned to Sora, a tired resignation in his face. Sora didn't think about it, just gripped Riku's hand abruptly. Their fingers met, and Sora's grasp was painfully tight. He gasped in relief as their fingers met and yanked him close to hold tightly.

The dream crunched upwards, just as Sora shoved back against Riku in his haste to be near him. Nestling his face into the curve of Riku's shoulder, and breathed out, slow and hard. "Riku," he mumbled, and squeezed his eyes shut.

[semi-imaginary-place]

more random death stranding thoughts

finally back to death stranding. the whole BB thing is real disturbing also where's everyone getting their food from??? if its grown below ground that a lot of energy needed.

also been analyzing the map and while some seem like actual cities dc and la. theres also one in yellowstone???? theres denver and then theres some mountain in volorado ? and the middle of nowhere in south dakota wat

hey... death stranding... why is oxytocin an essential

Yeah was thinking about oxytocin being labeled an essential... how many people live in some of the places sam visits. They're called cities but what does "city" mean in the post apocalypse? Some of the points really do seem like one person or a small family. Doesn't help that i mistook oxytocin as oxycontin for the first couple hours. It made sense in my head since delivering painkillers (abit highly addictive narcotics) to a terminally ill patient makes some sense. But yeah oxytocin is involved with social bonding and regulating that whole thing in yer brain. The fact that everyone is on it to functiom is kinda yikes though 

i have... questions 

ok this might just be me but im getting the impression that death strandings art director really wanted the game to be set in iceland instead of america. the music... the lanscapes...

why doesn't everyone in death stranding dress like bloodborne characters. shares the same purpose: stop direct contact with skin 

does snow count as timefall?? 

the one thing ive learned from death stranding is that you should never get pregnant or know anyone who is pregnant. bad things happen to pregnant people in this world

ok... so its alleles that are selected for not genes... and that not what an evodevo biologist does. evodevo is reference to how evolutionary patterns are often mirrored in developmental ones. like if you look at the fetus of any mammal early enough they all look the same. and if you go back further in developmental time all mammal fetuses will also resemble bird and croc fetuses, back to the last common ancestor. and if you go back even further in a fetuses development, all vertebrates are indistinguishable to the untrained eye. so yeah at some point you looked the same as a zebra fish (which is part of why they are used often, also easy to care for and fast generation time). oh and humans grow tails and then loose them. this of course is also mirrored in an organisms gene expression patterns. if you map out gene expression over time and compare that across species, it moves with he evolution of genes in that lineage. take for example hox genes are how they control body planning 

you get a bro bonding moment with higgs of all people... 

ahhhh the classic this doesn't make sense at the end part. Ok so why did fragile have to transport 3 people back east give she says next that its too dangerous to warp sam there. I mean thematically its so you have to retread your entire journey and end where you started, but wow does this feel forced. also did die hardman cliff and amelie just chill for like 3 days on the beach (or however long that is in beach time since it seems to move faster???) 

Wish you got the option to kick higgs while he's down. Bring a gun to a fistfight (and still lose) 

Amelie has a bunch of names too! Amelie, Samantha America Strand, Amerigo. at the beginning I was like "what idiot names both their children Sam, oh right the president of the united cities of america, that's who"

oh. huh. i thought it was weird that Amelie never aged... 

its after an extinction event not before. post extinctions you tend to see massive adaptive radiations to fill in empty niches. but that happens in response to an extinction event. not before one. Also its just damned hard kill bacteria and archea like just really really hard to get rid of absolutely 100% of them. a lot of speciation events yeah. but its after 

what is happening

oh no a kojima game has confused me uwu this has never ever happened before

a good scene

ok so a pediatrician and other health workers should always be on site for a preemie. if BB's are stalled at 28 weeks then that's about 7 month old, Lou's admittedly a little weird but the devs didn't change Lou's model. You should absolutely not take any baby out in the rain without insulation and protection. we you are that small its hard to regulated body temperature. Also babies cant move their heads until a could weeks and they certainly don't have the strength to push themselves up like lou did until much later 

I guess that concludes hideo kojima’s norman reedus mpreg piss simulator....

In all seriousness I really like this. Its thematically cohesive which is a big personal preference of mine. The game did trick me into thinking there were branching endings. Linear games are underrated and Death Stranding definitely stuck its landing.

Also, the whole twist that Amelie isn’t Bridget Strand’s daughter because she had uterine cancer is bullshit, have you never heard of adoption???

[storyskylings]

Ash and Alder

Author's note: I don't yet know the future history of the skylings, but I know this legend will exist in all cultures and stick around in their various cultures everlastingly. If they stay in the stone age until the planet gets asteroided, they are keeping this story. If they terraform the light-cone, they are keeping this story. They will be variations, perhaps even significant ones, but it stays fundamentally the same. No, this is not remotely realistic but I. do. not. care. I am fucking soppy and you. cannot. stop. me.

Note on gendered language: As I've mentioned before, skylings don't experience gender as we understand it. In order to avoid the loaded human words AMAB/AFAB or male/female, I'm going to use ZW and ZZ, in reference to bird chromosomes (crow-mosomes? :P). Birds with ZW chromosomes lay eggs. Birds with ZZ chromosomes produce sperm. (This contrasts with mammals, where XX produce eggs and XY produce sperm.) I'm using gender-neutral words for family relationships wherever possible (parent, beloved, sibling) but I have decided to use the word "aunt" in the place of aunt/uncle and "nephew" in the place of nephew/niece as they don't have well-known gender-neutral English words.

Final note: the "hunting rock" referred to is a flint-knapped flechette. A future post will have more information on how the skylings make and use these.

“Do you know the story of Ash and Alder, whose love was shall be reborn into every generation?”

Ash and Alder's love shall be reborn into every generation, for the day and the night were so moved by the perfection of their bond that they blessed them with everlasting marriage. How did such a perfect love begin?

Perfect love begins in friendship, for Ash and Alder's kin were neighbors and they played together from the fall that they fledged and all their roost suspected from their closeness that they would be beloveds.  In the winter before their first spring, Ash told her first stories to the roost with her nearest sibling, and Alder was enchanted. And when Alder told her first story, Alder was astonished at her prowess on the lithophone. They listened to each other with rapture, and on the last night of winter, Alder came to Ash with a question. "Ash, my dearest friend, will you pray with me that when we have our first spring, my mating-need is for you and yours is for me?"

"We shall pray together tonight, and hope the day and night bless our union," Ash replied. And so Alder prayed "Night, I need a wise and strong beloved to fill my future with joy and help my chicks survive. When my first spring comes, will you fill me with the longing to display to my dearest friend Ash?"

And Ash prayed "Day, I will need a wise and strong beloved to fill my days with joy and help my chicks survive. When my first spring comes, will you fill me with the longing to accept my dear friend Alder?"

And Alder prayed "Day and Night, will you answer our prayer?"

And Ash prayed "Day and Night, we trust you to answer our prayer if this is wisest." And so it was that four days later their first spring came upon them. Alder felt the mating-need for everyone she saw, as all of us do in our first spring, but her prayer was answered, and her mating-need was strongest for Ash. And she flew to Ash and displayed before her, and said "The night has answered my prayer and I long to mate with you, and if our union is accepted, become your beloved. Do you accept?"

"The day has also answered my prayer, and I long to mate with you and become your beloved," answered Ash. And so they mated again and again, and soon Ash felt an egg inside her. And Alder went to her kin and said "I have mated with Ash and she will soon lay an egg. Her kin are fewer than us. May we build a nest among her kin?"

Her kin grieved for her, but they let her go and soon Ash and Alder were sitting upon their nest. And they prayed daily to the day and night that their egg would be allowed to hatch, and they could be beloveds forever. They told the story of their child's greatness over their egg. They thought that they would have abundant joy for octades, but do you know why they were wrong?

They were wrong because while Ash slept upon their egg a silent monster saw her with its vast and terrible eyes, and it hungered for her flesh. And it swooped with its silent wings towards her, ready to snatch her in its terrible claws. But Alder kept watch beside her, and saw the silent monster, with its vast and terrible eyes, dive for her nest. What did she do then?

She thought "Ash's life is more precious to me than mine. I thought the night had answered my prayer so that I could be her beloved all the days of her life, but now I see that the night wished me die so that she could be saved from the silent monster, with its vast and terrible eyes." And she came between Ash and the silent monster, and screamed with her final voice "Goodbye, my dearest friend!" and the silent monster's claws came down upon her, and crushed the life from her body, and her story ended. And what did Ash do, when she saw this?

Ash screamed into the night "A silent monster, with its vast and terrible eyes, has killed my dearest friend! I had dreamed she would love me all the days of my life! Now I must be alone!" Her kin came to console her, but she only screamed. And with the dawn she fell silent, abandoned her egg, and flew away alone. And she thought "I am in so much pain it feels like it will kill me. How can I live?"

But there was no answer. She thought "My kin will tell me to find a beloved next spring, but how can I when I will not find anyone as wonderful as Alder in eight lifetimes, not even in eight times eight lifetimes. How can I tolerate life when someone besides Alder is my beloved?"

But there was no answer. She thought "Since Alder had to be taken from me, why did the day and the night answer our prayers to be together?"

But there was no answer. She thought, "If I must feel so much pain, why was I ever hatched?"

And the answer came from within her "I was hatched to know Alder. This pain is destroying me, but I would not barter it for any joy I would feel in a life where I had never known her. The day and the night allowed a silent monster, with its vast and terrible eyes, to take her from me. They must have had a reason to tell this story. What was their reason?"

And it came to her "Their reason was to protect my kin and Alder's. And all our roost. They wish me to kill the silent monster, with its vast and terrible eyes." She flew back to her kin and said "I am going to kill the silent monster. Who will pray with me for the strength to kill it?"

And her kin said "You have gone mad with grief. You cannot kill a silent monster. You will surely die."  Ash said "Without Alder, life is a disease to me. Who will pray with me?"

Her kin  said "The silent monster, with its vast and terrible eyes, will get angry and come for us all!" Ash said "It kills for hunger, not anger. It has already come for one. Who will pray with me?"

Her kin said "The day and the night will not answer a foolish prayer." Ash said "I will try to kill it with no prayer if I must. Who will pray with me?"

At these words, her kin relented and her sibling prayed with her to kill the silent monster. She flew for many hours until she saw where the silent monster slept, hidden upon the tallest tree. Then she returned to her kin, and said "I had hoped you would give me a hunting-rock to hunt for food for the children I had with Alder. Now, I ask for one to kill the silent monster that stole her from me. I have found where the silent monster sleeps. One of you must follow me, so that if I do not survive you can bring it home. Will you give me a hunting rock, and follow me to the place where the silent monster sleeps?"

Her sibling Birch answered "I will follow you, and if you do not come back, I shall return with your hunting-rock if you cannot." So they flew to the place where the silent monster slept. Ash let the rock fall and her aim was true, and the silent monster was struck. Had she killed it?

No, she had struck and shattered one wing, and the silent monster awoke screaming upon its branch. Ash flew down to it, driving her beak into its vast and terrible eyes. They struggled and screamed, for the silent monster's wound had weakened but not destroyed it. Soon, both Ash and the silent monster were dead. Birch flew down and saw the remnants of her sibling and cried to the sky "My sibling and her friend deserved eight times eight springs together, but they were only given one. Why is the world full of monsters that come to destroy us?"

And then the voice of the day came from the sky "Ash and Alder had such a perfect love that it could destroy a silent monster, with its vast and terrible eyes. How shall we reward them?"

And the night's voice came from behind the day "Because they had perfect love and their lives were taken before they could enjoy it, they will be rewarded with marriage forever. Ash and Alder shall be reborn into every generation, and in every generation they will meet and become beloveds." And her story called their reward into being, and it was so.

This story is told (with minor alterations) at all skyling marriage ceremonies. After the story is told, the gathered family says "And perhaps you are both Ash and Alder, reborn again into perfect love."

We've already had a bit of skyling romance and family structure in the previous post, but marriage is a different matter. Skylings, like corvids, are socially monogamous birds that mate for life. However, the fact that they go into heat once a year, rather than experiencing the year-round horniness of (most) adult humans has a lot of implications for their marriages. Also, while they have sexual dimorphism, their society has like 2% as much gender as human societies, and this is partially explained by the way they romance and rear children.

Skylings would appear all-black and not sexually dimorphic to humans, but (like existing corvids) they can see into UV and have differences that are obvious to their eyes - ZW's have small indigo patches on the wings and none on the breast, while ZZ's have completely indigo wings and a large indigo patch on the breast. Most real-world corvids do not share incubation, as only ZZs have incubation patches (under-feathered parts on the body that allow body heat to transfer to eggs) but skylings have evolved to because <s>I say so</s> they have an unusually long incubation period and it's just easier that way. They don't have significant size or strength differences and all types of work are shared approximately equally, both those coded male in humans (hunting, fending off predators) and those coded female (gathering, childcare) although individual couples may divide certain tasks 60/40 based on individual personality and preference. (Also, flint-knapping is specialized work, but more on that another time.)

Ash and Alder's courtship is a model young skylings are intended to follow. As they grow up, they should make friends with skylings from neighboring kin-groups with an eye to those they want to spend the rest of their lives with. It's also customary to pray that when you become sexual, you will be attracted to a suitable friend. Skylings do not experience sexuality until their first "spring" (not truly spring, more like early February) when they get hit incredibly hard by going into heat and, well, feel the mating-need for everyone they see. The fact that Ash and Alder feel this does not disprove their "perfect love" - but the psychological effects of friendship and prayer mean that they will gravitate (mostly) towards whoever they plan to mate for life with. Most skylings will mate an opposite-sex skyling but ZW/ZW and ZZ/ZZ pairs exist and are accepted in society, although children are impossible. (About 5% of marriages are like this.) They tend to be very devoted aunts and are valued by their kin for their help in rearing nephews - kin-groups that are worried about food shortages will sometimes gently nudge their kids towards same-sex partnerships as a form of population control.

A skyling couple will mate during their first spring, and then (assuming that an egg was fertilized) lay a single egg and build a nest. (Two eggs can happen, but it's about as rare as human twins.) Usually they will move into whichever existing kin-group is smaller; when kin-groups become too large, some will usually break off but rarely new couples, who need the help of their kin with their first egg. They then begin the process of shared incubation, where they alternate time on the egg and whoever is off the egg brings food to the other. Poorly-suited couples will often end up relentlessly arguing and abandoning their egg during this period, in which case they will not marry. (I don't want to get into the ethics of egg-abandonment. All I will say is that, whether unhatched skylings are conscious or not, skylings do not believe they are conscious.) Same sex or infertile couples, while they have no egg, will spend this time together acting as aunts to the younger skylings in their kin, and deciding if they want to forgo parenthood to help their extended family.

Assuming all has gone well and after about 75 days, an egg will hatch (or, if there is no egg, the eggless couple will decide on whether they have chosen to stay together) and the marriage ceremony will be performed in the presence of kin. The difficult task of rearing a chick then begins, but that is for another post.

The story of Ash and Alder, in addition to being a model of self-sacrificial love, is the skyling species' first attempt at theodicy. It leaves a lot to be desired (day and night let them suffer to protect their kin from an owl, but why did they create owls in the first place?) but I've heard worse from humans. Skylings are both predators and prey, and grief is a constant in their life. Dying of old age is a rare privilege. They love their children, their spouses and their kin - their creation myth is about how isolation is worse than death - but grief is a constant companion to them. They believe in re-incarnation (with the caveat that there are a few crimes so severe that your soul is annihilated completely) and rewards in future lives for virtue in this one, but that only softens the blow a little. Life hurts and death hurts and it's not going to get better in any future they can foresee. Stories like Ash and Alder have a depressing but useful message: love is important and beautiful, but it's not enough to protect you. Nothing and nobody can protect you completely.