#to be endlings as far as you know and never acknowledge it

[muaka-safari]

I have been thinking about the differences between Metru Nui and Mata Nui (the island) recently, and the prev post has reminded me again but - there really had to have been a mentality shift between moving from the former to the latter

for multiple reasons, but the one that's been on my mind is the lack of replacements

like, in Metru Nui, if you lose part of the workforce, a new batch will get created, no problem, but Mata Nui has a finite population. It's an inescapably dwindling number in a strange new world that is constantly evolving fresh ways to kill you

after 1000 yrs, how many had they lost? Were the Turaga counting their numbers and doing the maths - how long before there were none? Before their situation becomes untenable?

were the Matoran aware of this? Or had the memory loss of their time in Metru Nui dulled them to this realisation - that this wasn't the normal way of life, the way they were meant to exist?

they had lived with an ever-rotating cast of colleagues and neighbours in Metru Nui, there's a chance that the millennium on Mata Nui was one of the most socially-stable periods they'd ever encountered. Not only because there weren't new faces to learn, but also because it was a shrinking number

these are your neighbours, the last and only neighbours you'll ever know

[voidscarredadjudicator]

Hey guys, still not dead yet. I wish I had more to talk about more often so the few posts I do on here aren't just shit to prove I still have a pulse, but the simple truth of the matter is that there's usually not much of anything to really talk about on my end.

But right now, there is!

There's a couple things - first, we're about a month out from the one-year anniversary of Act I's final chapter being published, which is very bizarre to think about because time is moving quicker than I can acknowledge and that just makes me vehemently aware of how long folks have waited for anything regarding Act II. And I know y'all are patient, and I know I shouldn't feel bad about actual real life shit that matters more than funny squid video game fanfiction taking precedence over said funny squid video game fanfiction (😱 no way) BUT I feel bad anyways. On the bright side, in the time between then and now, I feel as though my writing has improved dramatically thanks to the effective training courses that have been the shit I've written for the tabletop I'm running. I also may have discovered a latent passion for acting, as I genuinely brought myself to tears while voicing an NPC's emotional breakdown? I never even did theater in school, I just got so caught up in the moment that I felt it.

All of that said though, I think I'm almost at a point where I can start working on Act II once again!

Writing a fanfiction series and running a very plot-heavy tabletop game at the same time is not a combination I'd recommend. Like I said in my last post back in mid-January, it's definitely been a contributing factor to the delay (while certainly not the main one), but also like I said in that post, we're wrapping it up soon. The current projected end date is somewhere in early March, but it might be closer to late March/early April depending on the pace my players go at. So before I get myself caught too deep in planning the next game I run for those goobers, I wanna step back from that for a hot minute and kick this series back into gear - if not for you guys, then for my own sanity's sake.

Does that mean for certain Act II will be finished soon? I dunno. There's a non-zero chance that I might scrap what I've got so far and just start with a blank page once again, but at least that would mean there's progress actually happening.

Anyways... yeah, that's about it. Definitely nothing else worth talking about in regards to Splatoon in the month of February in the year 2024. Nope. Certainly not.

...

guys that's agetn 4 i'm telling you that's the 4 the oone who is not agentn1 ro 2 and not 3 but FOUR number 4 like from pslatton 2!!!

my uncle works at nintendo and he said that um he said that side order will make humanity's endling canon. and uh. kaleb appears and goes "huh. this really is the humanity's endling" and they all clap. yea. also harmony gets a remington 870

[a-dragons-journal]

Long ask, feel free to skip.

Hi. If its okay with you, I really need some advice. You don't have to though, I think I'll be alright muddling my way through this myself if you're too busy.

To start off, I want to clarify that I have a Daemon, male, who I love with all my heart but who isn't me. I have had my Daemon for as long as I can remember but just realized today that I'm thylacinekin, or tasmanian-wolfkin, and had a mild panic attack over it before being directed here by a good friend/mutual of mine.

I discovered my otherkinness by finding some thylacine pride icons, remembering that they're extinct, and then being told by my Daemon that they can't be extinct, because I clearly exist. That's when I realised I'd spoken aloud to him and said "we're extinct" instead of "they're extinct", and I had to start crying because it clicked that my kind are gone from the natural world and we won't ever see them again. I will never know my kind beyond what they looked like. I don't even know if the sounds I make are correct.

I don't know what to do. I don't know what to feel beyond the heartbreak that I've carried with me my whole life but only just understood the reason for. I don't know how to reconcile the fact that my kind are gone gone gone while I'm here here here. I don't want to be alone. I don't want to feel like the last of a species. I don't want to be an endling.

Please. If you have any advice... What do I do?

I had to sit on this one for a couple of days trying to think of advice; unfortunately I still don't have much.

You have my deepest sympathies, anon; I've seen your posts in the tag and so you had them before you ever sent this ask. (I actually intended to reblog your Endling poem, both because I appreciate it a great deal and in the interest of signal boosting and raising the chances of another of your kind finding you, and it appears either Tumblr or my computer decided to burp and that never happened.) I know what it is to be (as far as I know) the only one of my species on this earth, but as far as I know my species lives on; it's not the same, I imagine.

I can say this: While I can't recall having met any other thylacines, I have met several members of other extinct species. Some of them might be able to give better advice than I, or at least be able to commiserate. It might be worth trying to find a paleotherian community - I know there was a paleotherian discord server going around a while back, though I've no idea where one might get an invite or whether it's still active - because even if they're not your kind, it may still give you some sense of community and some alleviation of the aloneness. (I have to imagine there's at least one other thylacine therian out there somewhere - but I can't in good conscience advise resting your hopes on finding them, because even if you do it may not be the connection you're looking for.) You may also be able to find some connection with close relatives or species with similar behavior, though I'm aware the species that look closest to thylacines behave very differently (y'all marsupial mammals and your weirdness (affectionate)). You are not fully alone, even if it's not the same.

Grief isn't easy for anyone. It processes differently for everyone. It's all right to grieve, and to allow yourself time for that. The loss may not be fresh, but your understanding of it is, and that's much the same for many people. You have to acknowledge it and breathe through it if you want to begin to heal from it - and you can heal, even if it seems impossible right now. The pain will ease, given time. You honor your People both by mourning their loss and by living the life you have now to its fullest as one of them.

I hope that gives you at least a place to start. (And, of course, if anyone has further advice for anon - or knows of that paleotherian server I vaguely remember or something similar - please feel free to add on in the notes, as always.) May you find peace, path, and People, in whatever order is best for you. <3