#a very insular city at that

[hellenhighwater]

Genuinely being a single woman in my thirties, living alone, is such a mixed blessing sometimes. I do love my house and when I'm here I literally never want to leave. But on the other hand, I do get tired of leaving to go hang out with people, even though I love seeing them. Especially because I have such a great group of friends but they live all over the place, geographically, and therefore most of them don't know each other. And I actually really love hosting? But I never have people in my house because logistically it's always more practical for me to go to them than vice versa.

But sometimes I buy new old dishes and wanna just have a little fancy wizard party, but all my guests are far away. Please may I have the teleport spell. Or a high-speed commuter rail system.

#Hazard of moving to a city where i dont have people locally i guess #a very insular city at that #and honestly i am not lonely! I have lovely freinds! But I do miss the college days of everyone basically living in walking distance #in one city #as opposed to now #where DND takes me the width of the state on a weekly basis #usually the only time there are groups of people in my house is around christmas for the family holidays #and like...in the overall balance of my life this works #me going to my people is the logical choice #and its not a bad thing #but most of my friend groups are...local clusters where I am the out-of-towner these days #which again: fine; i knew that going in when I decided to move where I did and overall its the best call #but also sometimes I want to just load up the whole crew in detroit and tell them we're heading to mine this time #dont worry there'll be fancy little finger sammiches when we get there #just give me an excuse to use the wizard plates

[fincalinde]

JGY! (getting in ahead of the crowd)

Ah, but of course. I have only had 3 asks for this meme so I can only assume people are sick of my whinging, so it's not like you beat the rush.

a song that reminds me of them

I'm trying to think of songs that I haven't already strip mined for fic titles and not coming up with much. So maybe this can just be a recommendation for PHILDEL, who is one of my favourite artists. A lot of her work has serious Xiyao vibes, and off the top of my head the one that might be the most JGY on his own is Glorious.

There's a place I go A place I always stand alone And need no witness to my throne Here I say my piece And have no need to be believed The bridge I built will carry me Beyond the creatures of your sea

and

Here I win my day I make my kill upon the grave And need no hero to be saved Here the light still shines Despite the odds and all the time Despite the gods and their design

—like, omg

what they smell like

He's obviously fastidious because he can't ever afford not to be, but I'd probably stage it like this:

Before his mother dies - can never get rid of the cheap sickly smell of the brothel incenses.

After his mother dies - not around much if any incense and must be as respectable as possible, smells of clean cloth and silk and whatever hair oil he can afford. He is very careful about hair oil, he absolutely must not appear to be cheap or tacky.

When he's serving the Nie - similar to the above, probably keeps making little adjustments every time he's bullied about something in a fruitless attempt to mitigate all the judgement and make himself respectable.

When he's serving the Jin - see above but so much worse.

When he's serving the Wen - very careful at first but begins to adjust to having some form of power and resource that protects him from direct abuse. Spends enough time with WRH that he smells like the same incenses WRH prefers, and his scented hair oil and the like is carefully chosen to be consistent with whatever is fashionable amongst the Wen and approved of by WRH.

When he's legitimised - see above but dialled up. He has to walk a fine line between being the same as the other Jin without coming across as vulgarly ambitious. In fic a time or two I've mentioned that he smells of olibanum incense, which I chose as something that would have been imported at great expense and seemed characteristic of the Jin. He needs to demonstrate his status and his wealth, but that said: I guarantee you that it's a typical fragrance that's used all over Golden Carp Tower, and not a scent that's considered a signature central Jin family fragrance. He wouldn't be so bold.

When he's chief cultivator - sticking with what he was doing before. He can never stop being careful.

Secret bonus scent: sandalwood because he spends so much time around LXC.

an otp

oh well let me think of course it's Xiyao. I don't think the text supports a reading where they're lovers, but I think it does support a reading where their intimate friendship includes romantic feelings and the potential for a romantic and presumably also sexual relationship. LXC is the only person who gets on the MS tier of the JGY harm pyramid. JGY is the only person who sees LXC's needs and attempts to meet them. Their relationship is a true meeting of the minds, and the secrets between them are either mutually agreed and healthy or the result of horrific external circumstances. I think I've summed it up before.

a notp

I already mentioned how repellent I find Nieyao in my NMJ response.

Honestly though, JGY with anyone but LXC is a no from me. I think his relationship with QS is sweet and tragic, but it's telling that he never once talks about loving her for who she is and how they are together. He insists he loved her and the forcefulness of that assertion makes it clear he's being sincere, but the emphasis is all on how he's grateful for the fact that she never made his background an issue. It reads to me like he loves how sweet and kind she is and how brave and loyal, but even that is not enough for a healthy and successful relationship. I'm not going to get into the incest thing as that would be a whole other post.

Based on this, I think if he didn't need a wife for social and political purposes he'd have been equally as happy to have her as a supportive friend and political ally. She is canonically not that bright, and he needs an intellectual equal for true partnership—and that's not even getting into the importance of him needing a partner who's capable of grappling with moral relativism.

favorite platonic/familial relationships

This might make @thatswhatsushesaid happy—I really like JGY's relationship with NHS before he's forced to take out NMJ and it all goes to hell. JGY deserves a didi he can dote on. NHS probably does not deserve another doting gege, but I'll allow it anyway.

I also love JGY and JL. The flashback to JGY giving JL Fairy is one of my favourite scenes, not just because it shows that JGY genuinely loves and cares for JL, but because it shows that JGY's unique background and struggles have equipped him to provide JL with comfort and support that no one else could offer.

I always assumed Jin Chan and his little mob of thugs have parents who are a political threat to JGY within the Jin, or how else would they have the guts to harass the heir who will one day rule over them? So there's a lot of layers here for JGY, who has to navigate a delicate political situation while trying to do what he can for JL. I just think it's a beautiful moment where JGY cannot do what I'm sure he wants to do and deal directly with the source of the abuse, and so he does what he can. He knows better than anyone else that sometimes you can't make the abuse stop; but it still matters if you can help someone bear it a little bit better.

a headcanon that is popular in the fandom but that i disagree with

I mean, how much time do you have? I have no patience for the ubiquitous bratty power bottom JGY bossing around 'service top' (vomit) LXC, and I also have no patience for the I think less ubiquitous now but still worth mentioning sadist dom JGY who fantasises about cutting lines into LXC. Those are probably the most common base types I've seen around, but the list, it goes on. I could write another few thousand words joylessly debunking what seems to get people off on AO3, but I really do spill enough ink already on highlighting how inconsistent these portrayals are with the JGY we see in canon.

I'm not saying every single word I personally write is blessed by the angels and incontrovertibly in line with the translated text of the novel, and obviously we are all here at the end of the day to have fun. But it does baffle me that this is so inescapable, because if you want those sorts of dynamics then there are so many other pairings out there to choose from.

the position they sleep in

This probably varies but he must be an extremely light sleeper and probably never sleeps with his back to the door.

a crossover au i’d love to see them in

Can I bring up my ATLA AU yet again ... yes, I am shameless. Or how about the theoretical X-Men AU I raised in the last post? The trouble is that this would have to be a setting where being a mutant is desirable and he has a weak mutation that he exploits to the maximum and perhaps later is able to strengthen.

my favorite outfit they’ve ever worn

Since THAI COVER JGY was already taken, I'll pivot and say I really love what he's wearing in his official artwork. Look at this man! He is elegant and wealthy and powerful and classy and a skilled diplomat and administrator and yet there remains an air of danger about him. Precise! Deadly! Polite! sorry i think i got possessed by lan xichen there for a moment

#ask #xiyao-feels #roquen meta #hilariously for so many of these fanon dynamics #i find myself exclaiming 'but wangxian is right there!' #for the knife thing i mean i guess there's cql xxc + xy #i am dubious as to whether xxc would be into it #but i'd at least say it's likely xy sits there imagining that sort of thing #putting cql yi city meta in the tags of my post about jgy #i do what i want #there is nothing more attractive than a competent administrator #unless it be a competent administrator with a sword that murders other swords #GLORIOUS PURE INSULAR #THE VERY FIRST TO DRAW THE AIR #AND TOUCH THE EARTH #I BUILT IT THERE #OH GLORIOUS OH

[petruchio]

leaving college and immediately becoming like 10x happier. like oh so i guess it WAS [redacted] making me miserable. damn that’s crazy

#caroline speaks #it’s weird bc. i loved college and i was good at it #and i think i chose the right college #but like. #my college was just. v Suburban and thus v isolating in a way #it was just very elite and very insular and very removed from the ‘real world’ #now i live in a city again and im just like. aaaaah #urban isolation is much more my jam #idk!! i can’t explain it bc like i’m SO grateful for my college experience #and it made me who i am and the education i got was truly stellar #and it was a great place to be for college #but i just. didn’t love it like most people did #and i think it was purely the suburban isolation of it all #sorry im just a city girlie through and through

[godblooded]

throws on the batman while i prep to write bruce because i need to love my boy. be back when i’m done crying to probably dump my thoughts. ps: love the league of assassins ref that’s the beginning with baby bruce in the training attire. gorgeous touch. 

#ooc. mikkelsen vc: this week on kat valentine's hannibal. #[I'm such an absolute fuck for bruce not being lethally trained in the batman because i love him learning brutality by throwing himself #headfirst into the streets of gotham. there's something stunning about bruce being so insular he has never left his city in this iteration #to me. it's so important for gotham to be the very core of who he is and who he will become. who he always will be. i love the idea of all #of his self-actualization coming from within and not only within but from within the streets of that which he loves with his whole soul. #my favorite otp is bruce x the city that doesn't deserve him but he tries constantly to die for it anyway.] #headcanon. Bruce Wayne. #headcanon. bruce wayne. sorrow waited sorrow won.

[dongiovannitriumphant]

it's interesting how i always come away w mixed feelings after hanging out w the regency dancing group by which i mean it's exhausting and no wonder im the only man there

#the over-active spleen #the amount of patronizing nonsense i have to deal with #on top of the tokenistic stuff #no wonder z*ck likes hanging out with me people in this community are so insular and unpleasant to anyone not like them #and not even deliberately so lol #i do very much like dancing tho is the thing #eta: might as well whine more abt the gay thing here which is that like #once more i am #in the countryside alone and all my friends are in the big city and even those friends are all straight #feeling isolated and homosexual in this joint 2nite #i feel like fckn frodo lord of the tings ive gone thru something that makes me unable to relate to people i knew before so i might as well #just fuck off somewhere else and start over

[kingdom-dance]

Meow they don’t tell you in your thirties that even though you’re a grown up it still hurts and sucks to feel like you’ve been friendship replaced

#my hs best friend and I have been drifting for awhile esp since I moved out of the state #recently I texted her on her birthday and she never responded which was really out of character #idk if she didn’t see it because she was traveling or what #but yeah it kind of stung and I’m not the best at keeping in contact I’ll be the first to admit it #I hate talking on the phone so that immediately puts me at a disadvantage #and she’s always had a habit of calling other people her best friend that always made me prickle?? like I know you can have multiple bffs #but it just hurts because I always feel like I’m out second to whatever shiny new Instagrammable BFF she has #I think she’s also a lot more about image and keeping up appearances than I ever have been #so I see why being bffs with some theatre instagluencer is more appealing than trying to maintain a long distance friendship #esp with a very insular private human who does much less glamorous things #like i get it but I’ve known her for literally 15-16 years at this point #people drift apart I know that but I feel like she’s actively cutting me out of her inner circle #and that’s fine too I guess I just have so few friends irl (especially being in a new city not knowing anyone) i was hoping to keep some #god I went ham in the tags sorry 🙈 #to delete later #personal ish

[soarrenbluejay]

Supervillains for a community. (Well, except those jerks over in Gotham, insular lot, but they’re they’re one problem) Of course they do- supervillains are a group defined by strong opinions and a willingness to see them through, often with a healthy dash of societal failures and trauma as a catalyst.

The fentons, while not active even on the online message boards, are well known and explosive when they do show up, full of fascinating insights and hours long rants on mad science on hair pin turns courtesy of that ADHD attention span. Bit of the cryptids you feel honored to bump into kind of deal. Besides, like a good quarter of the community as it aged, they’d settled down and had kids (not necessarily in that order) and taken it very seriously! Out in the middle of nowhere, where even the most fearsome government outpost members, the local branch of the IRS, quake before them in fear. Out of the way.

Reveal gone okay-ish, Danny moves to Gotham still to get some air bc now things are Akward and he landed that engineering scholarship which is loads better than any other college would give him with his track record. So- the mysterious Fenton children are finally crawling out of hiding! Everyone is psyched! And roll in to Gotham en masse to witness the fireworks!

Except Danny is Determined To Be Normal. He’s had enough of the throwing himself into harms way shit for a lifetime- he wants to be free to peacefully built Rube Goldberg machines and unintentional increasingly complex bombs to his hearts content. JAZZ, on the other hand- the coveted token Normal One, has finally snapped! She’s watched her baby brother she practically raised throw himself into danger over and over and could do nothing, and now that she’s exposed to this whole network of superheroes outside of small town Amnity, some of those uglier emotions are coming out. And boy is she pissed! And can’t afford to show it much while filing the paperwork to have Arkham legally razed to the ground!

See I love this idea of like, niches in superhero society. A villain the heroes know they can plop their kiddo down with for an exciting afternoon brawl while they take care of a particularly grisly case and come back to a few hours later ranting about some new life lesson and a new move they really want to try. A villain who has a functioning moral compass despite their somewhat batshit long term goal and you can contact to fuck with another villains’s plan so they can laugh at them and you can have an easy afternoon. One who pries up hostile architecture and fills in pot holes, idk man. Get creative here, there’s such potential!

So Jazz becomes a Training villain- someone the heroes know their sidekicks will walk away from in a fight 100% of the time, usually with some new lesson to ponder and only a couple of bruises. Sometimes even snacks!

She also absolutely ambushes mentors to check that they’re worth the kiddo, which they appreciate once they get over being jumped in a dark alley by a 7 foot Amazon trained force of nature. They are not used to being on that side of the jumping, it’s a little unnerving.

(Yes, she low key adopts Shazam upon checking in with him on cursory ‘is the main hero of this city and asshole’ checkin. Yes, the super clones get yoinked out from under Superman’s negligent thumb to go have a blast with Ellie. What about it?)

This however only encourages more assorted weirdos to crawl out of the woodwork. It’s not often one of their own forfeits their potential spot for the running of the coveted Most Normal I Swear prize, but when they do it’s bound to be good! But jazz is off hounding various heroes and punching the faces in of pedophiles and shit whenever there’s no cape within easy reach, and so is a mite bit harder to contact than Danny, who has innocently gotten an apprenticeship under a clockworker for access to their workshop and is gleefully going about doing nerdy shit with great abandon.

Plus this is Gotham. No one gives a shit if someone in the Mad Alchemist uniform and still smoking from their latest experiment pokes their head in a window to bother the local shrimp teen- none of the usual social rules apply, everyone’s crazy here! So everyone drops any and all attempts at masking and just acts their genuine unhinged selves, much to the alarm of the Bats and frustration of Danny.

Bc he cannot get these mfers to go. Away. Even liberal use of the creep stick has little effect when the interloper is calibrated for an opponent with super speed or laser vision or whatever, and he’s trying to maintain his guise as a Normal College Student Do No Investigate.

So he calls in the big guns. He’s not super active in the supervillain kids group chat ever since things in amnity calmed the fuck down post becoming King and then immediately using a loophole that says he will not take the throne until he is grown, as defined by finishing learning his trade a la the medieval standards Pariah set up. So he can just take his sweet ass time with his graduate degree and out of inter dimensional bull shit that much longer! Point is, he hasn’t taken the chance to rant over there in a while, so his Crazy friends are getting a lil worried.

The change to come over and shout at their batshit crazy but (mostly) well meaning parent AND see Danny? Score!

The bats, however, are getting awfully suspicious about this one kid that villains from all over the country are flocking to, especially young and upcoming ones as of recently! And he’s acting his engineering course- all the worst rogues are known to have flown through their PhD studies prior to Cracking. They seem to have a real problem on their hands with this Fenton guy.

#dp x dc #dc x dp #mad science #supervillain community #bonus points if you can pull out some super niche comic villain #justice for kite man #local child of a crazy chemist: so you know that trick you showed me with the soda and the reaction that could turn into just like all foam #Danny: yeah and also back the fuck up #lcoacc: so it’s been like my comfort food right but like I started wondering what you could do #danny: oh no (he says while making what amounts of an overachieving smoke bomb) #lcoacc: so I was like what if I add more of a base to it so it could be solid and then maybe just like a LIL acid to see what happens #Danny: oh ancients #lcoacc: but then the killjoy supes came in a ruined everything from where I was ruining lex Luther’s day #Danny:… did you get in on camera #lcoacc: OF COURSE. oh also like everyone ever if coming over for a sleepover lol #Danny: WHAT I CANT FEED YOU MONSTERS #lcoacc: no worrries we’ll rob a bulk store or something lol #Danny: nO

[jazzfordshire]

The chef/food critic au sounds AMAZING. Can you share a snippet please 🙏

“One bacalo, one arancini, three filets - one rare, two medium,” Lena shouts as a new order comes in, and she smiles at the satisfying chorus of “Yes, chef!” that follows. Her kitchen is a well-oiled machine, her staff is on fire, and the positive reviews have been rolling in all week – Kieran is a clear success, and the relief at not catastrophically failing at her new venture is making everything easier.

Opening a new restaurant had been a gamble. Lutessa in Metropolis has been doing well ever since it opened, but the food culture there is crowded. Insular. There’s less room for innovation, and there’s a lot of competition. Branching out to the west coast is risky, but the city is growing in cuisine and she has high hopes – with any luck Kieran will take off, and she’ll be able to leave it in the capable hands of Sam and go back home to Metropolis in just a few months.

The first week was a whirlwind. Opening night was packed with industry professionals and critics, and Lena was so stressed and busy that reviews had seemed like the least of her worries. Now, it’s nice to be able to downshift and read about how much some of the critics had liked the food.

Especially, it seems, one critic in particular. When one of her waitstaff brings what seems like a mountain of empty plates back to the kitchen, Lena has to take a moment to make sure she’s heard him correctly.

“Kara Danvers from CatCo Magazine sends her compliments, chef,” he says, grabbing the next few plates from the pass and heading back into the dining room. Lena pauses in drizzling olive oil over the appetizers in front of her, frowning.

“CatCo? Again?” Sam asks, sending a few more finished plates Lena’s way for inspection. “Isn’t that like, the fourth time this week?”

“Fifth, actually,” Lena says, wiping her hands on the towel slung over her shoulder and putting them on her hips. Miss Danvers’ article in CatCo Magazine had been glowing, she remembers, but she’s not sure any amount of positivity warrants coming back 5 nights in a row. She hasn’t had time to do much besides read the biggest reviews, so she has very little idea who this Danvers woman is besides a single article.

“Maybe she has a crush,” Sam teases, and Lena elbows her, heading to the grill to inspect the next batch of steaks.

“Shut up, Arias.”

When the restaurant has closed up for the night and Lena finally has a few moments to herself before bed, soaking her sore feet in Epsom salts, she does a quick google search for ‘Kara Danvers CatCo’. And as it turns out, Kara Danvers is sort of a big deal in National City.

She’s an honest and sometimes harsh critic, it seems. She gave a scathing review to Siobahn Smythe’s restaurant a few months ago, calling the food ‘bland and uninspired’, but her review of Lena’s restaurant – both of them, she discovers, as she finds another article from over a year ago for her place in Metropolis – is absurdly complimentary. Which explains why she’s been returning night after night.

It’s intriguing – but, Lena assures herself, there’s no way that Miss Danvers is going to return for a 6th night.

She’s proven wrong within the first hour of dinner service.

#wip game

[intertexts-moving]

ok ive still been rotating warbreaker in my mind recently & i still gotta say it is SO unserious 2 look at brandon sanderson whose bibliography includes

>warbreaker (extremely religious girl from a small insular community goes to the Big Evil City, goes on a journey of realizing that being extremely dogmatic and self-righteous in your faith is almost always hypocritical, recognizes that the Big Evil City and People are not, in fact, inherently evil, and the alleged sins they commit are actually beautiful and fascinating and morally neutral things, eventually wields and grows to love the very power she was taught to be terrified of and hate by her religion,)

>mistborn (god is dead & i killed him & that is a cause for celebration, god is awful and cruel and must be stopped, god is tired and faded and not very good at helping, god is a teenage girl, the only truly kind god in the entire cosmos is a kind and gentle archivist who has gone to hell and back and is capable of resolving problems and differences into harmony,)

>mistborn era two (dogmatic insular religion CAN be good for some people but it will only be a cage for others & can be frustrating and wrong and harmful and still have good in it too & will haunt them the rest of their life, sometimes you will go your entire life feeling the disappointed gaze of your religious elders on your back and still know the choice you made was the only right one for you)

>stormlight archive (that which you believed was god is dead and possibly was never god in the first place and you have GOT to stop worshipping him it is USELESS it does NOTHING he is DEAD you are calcified in your dogmatic ways and will do incredibly stupid shit in the name of religious tradition, arrogance and pride and bigotry and oppression in the name of tradition and religion will always come crashing down upon their perpetrators, you framed yourself as the innocent victims of evil but you were the evil itself all along)

& go oh my god... sanderson... isnt he like.. mormon... i bet he writes vile shit because he's religious...

#txt #like. TBH. #cosmere #stormlight archive #mistborn

[becausegoodheroesdeservekidneys]

I thought you might find the "watching" count as funnybas I do

Oh! Also, how well does Wales care for its lgbtq+ community, and how's the public healthcare? The USA is getting kinda iffy and I don't know if a boarder will protect us from those extremists. Always good to have a back up plan

HAHAHAHAHA fucking hell. The Daily Mail!!! Only 200 people!!! I saw the results of one poll said only a third of the country reported that they gave a shit about the coronation.

Regarding the rest:

Well, public healthcare is possibly fantastic compared with what you're used to (I know it is compared with the USA; not so sure about Canada, which I'm guessing is where you are? Judging by your mention of the border?), but the NHS has of course been increasingly hamstrung by the Tories for a decade. Better here than England, though, because it's partially devolved. So we don't pay for prescriptions, for example, which they do. My sister lives in England these days and has to buy her inhalers, whereas mine are free. (That said, she pays about £16-£17 per inhaler. No idea what that would be where you are)

LGBTQ shit - well, mixed bag. For the most part, it's great; plenty of homophobia about, of course, but only really in small and more insular communities. For the most part, especially in the big cities ("big" cities, lol) queer folks are pretty normalised. Last weekend was Swansea Pride, and the city is still drenched in rainbows like a unicorn threw up everywhere. On my way to the parade, my NB friend and I went into one of the Middle Eastern shops on High Street to buy water, and the lovely man behind the counter looked us up and down and said "Is it your day? Yes?"

"Yes!" I said. "That's right."

"Happy your day!" he said delightedly, and gave us a free cheap lollipop each.

And, like the rest of Britain, surveys show that most people on the streets are actually pretty accepting of GNC/trans folks. At worst, they just don't care. BUT, like the rest of Britain, there's an extremely vocal extreme minority who say otherwise.

But, none of my trans or NB friends have really had a problem, tbh. Standard micro-aggressions, like people not understanding pronouns, but very little of those are out of malice. The overwhelming majority are confused but well-meaning farmers. If you spend a lot of your time online, you could get the impression the place is riddled with transphobes, but in practice, that's not the case.

But, you know. Learn Welsh and the transphobes will come around anyway, lol.

Hope that helps!

#asks #wales! #closed for cleaning on mondays

[fagexe]

A beginners guide to having a fun time at a small show (some of this also applies to bigger shows)

If you've never been to a show before or you've only been to big shows going to a small or diy show can be confusing. The rules and etiquette of attending a small show are different from what you may have experienced or heard about at a bigger show. I'm here to try to give you some tips and pointers on how to have the best night and help everybody else around you have a great night as well.

Small shows are community based, if you only take one thing away from this post let It be that. The environment is that of friends and acquaintances, this includes the bands that play. The members of these bands are just people who are part of their local scene and enjoy playing music. They should be treated like any other member of the audience, you can be friendly and start up a conversation or compliment the set, but remember they're just a stranger who enjoys the same music you do.

Your first show in a new city or venue? The environment and social expectations of a scene can vary from city to city and venue to venue. If it's your first time being somewhere it's always better to follow the social cues of others rather than looking like an ass. If you don't know what's going on try asking somebody:) Many people in the scene are very happy to welcome newcomers and explain the ins and outs of their individual local seen.

Queuing (if you want "barricade"), for 1500 to 700 person capacity venues, depending on whether or not the show is sold out and the artists popularity, I would suggest showing up 2-4 hours before doors. This would be for places like House of Blues, that are arguably not a small venue, but I'm including them anyway. Anything under 600 I would show up 2 hours to half an hour before doors. Anything under the 300 mark doesn't usually have "barricade" per se, the crowd moves around a bunch and showing up early will not help you get a better vantage point. Note: I never show up anywhere more than an hour before doors and I can usually get pretty close to the stage.

Respect the venue and the people working there, if you're attending a small show, especially a basement show, it's really important to be extra aware of where you put your trash and how you're acting. Oftentimes these locations are rented halls or somebody's actual house. This means there wont be any staff that are being paid to clean up after you, not that you should be messy at larger venues. But at these venues especially try to stick around and help out if you can. If the venue is left trashed they may no longer be willing to host shows in the future.

Braving the pit, there are only three rules I would suggest for the pit, and they all boil down to respect. First, if somebody falls, drops something, or seems like they're having a hard time _always_ stop what you're doing and help them out. Second, don't try to be tough, if the pit is too aggressive for you you can either jump around on the side of it or dance somewhere else. Third, unless you're actively pushing somebody always try to keep your elbows tucked, especially if you're tall. It can be really stressful being a short person in a pit that's just a sea of elbows.

Say hi! not just to the band, to the people around you at the show as well. I know this one can be hard, if you went with folks it's very easy to become insular, and if you went alone it can be scary to talk to people by yourself. Something that I've found really helpful is hanging out outside, either between sets, or after the show (you don't need to smoke I often just cool down with a water bottle). Many people will be excited to see a new face and if you seem open to it they might start up a conversation. If they don't and you don't know what to talk about, try complimenting something somebody's wearing, it can often lead to a story that then can lead to a conversation.

Always show up for the openers, even if you don't care about barricade, you should try to show up for the openers both by physically being there and by paying attention and giving them your energy. I've discovered a lot of really wonderful bands by checking out the openers before a show, learning a couple of their songs, and then really getting into it once they're playing.

Take care of yourself, make sure you come having eaten and drunk enough water, I even suggest bringing a water bottle. Most venues will at least have access to water but it's always good to be self-reliant just in case they run out or something happens. Depending on the style of venue they may require this to be empty, If they do require that, you can usually fill it up once you get inside.

Dress appropriately, especially if you're planning on being up at the front at a punk or hardcore show. You will probably end the night covered in other people's sweat and beer, this is amazing revel in it. But, it's maybe not the time to pull out your favorite shirt, unless you want that for your favorite shirt (in which case I love you)

And last but by no means least, always always always thoroughly check the flyer or event posting to make sure you know if the show is a sober / straight-edge show or not.

(edit) A couple of additional tips that have been suggested in the tags, as well as a few new ones from yours truly

Always bring earplugs, some venues will have them for sale but they're not great quality and they can run out. If you plan on going to a lot of hc/punk shows, or honestly a lot of shows at all, I suggest investing in a $15-25 pair, it'll save your hearing in the long run.

Keep your toes safe! Even if you don't plan on going into the pit it's a good idea to wear closed-toed shoes. You'll be in close quarters with people wearing boots who probably won't be able to tell if they are accidentally stepping on your flip flop shod feet. Shows also involve standing for a number of hours so you may want to think about comfort. I suggest wearing at minimum a converse style shoe with a little bit of structure around the toe. I personally always wear boots with a pair of insoles, but that's just me and my rickety ankles.

do you want to wear a bag all night? If so, that's fine, but you're probably not going to be able to enjoy the pit or dance that much. Some smaller shows will have coat checks, but a lot under 300 capacity won't. I generally suggest against just hiding your bag in the corner, I've seen a lot of people get their stuff stolen. So, pare down, I don't even bring my whole wallet, just a credit card, ID, subway pass, phone, keys, and some cash in case the venue only accepts cash or if something happens and I need to get a taxi home. If you end up keeping stuff in your pockets make sure it's secure. If I know my pant pockets are particularly bad at holding things I'll put my cards and cash in a sandwich bag and pin it to the inside of my pocket. This way it's still accessible but won't fall out.

Picking up merch? Do it after the show, merch rarely sells out at smaller shows. So, pick up anything you want after the show, carrying it around all night can be annoying and you might lose it.

Jewelry? If you plan on going in the pit I wouldn't wear dangly earrings or necklaces, they can get caught on things and ripped out or off, which is not fun at all!

I hope you found this helpful<3 if you have any additional questions or concerns please feel free to dm me or leave me an ask and I'll try to get to it

#ls dunes #show tips #concert etiquette #you must felix your heart #concert tips

[cthulhusstepmom]

What Is and What Could Be

Down in the bayou it’s never silent. The air is filled with the shrill calls of a million marsh birds, underscored by the harmonies of cicadas, crickets, and whining mosquitos. With a tempo set by croaking bullfrogs and sluggishly churning water, urged along by hooting owls and supported by the bass tones of bellowing gators. The song of the swamp is a busy tune, not unlike the brassy jazz played by those that live there. And if you know how to listen just right, it can tell you no shortage of things. 

In a warm and humid tavern a group of adventurers sits around a table, glancing furtively this way and that, squirming slightly under the judgemental stare of the more naturalized citizens. Things don’t often change in the bayou, it’s a wild place, untamed. Civilization has tried to reach within before and without fail it’s been pushed back with prejudice, those that do live here are proud of it and somewhat by design they tend to be a rather insular folk. By and large this means they don’t take kindly to most strangers. Particularly strangers that show up asking questions .

And this crew had been asking plenty, beyond the glaring offense of very clearly not being from around this neck of the woods. 

They rolled into town a few days ago, talking like Galticans or similar enough to them, and by the look in their eyes: running from who knows what. They found rooms at one of the nicer inns, kept to themselves and tipped decent enough(it takes more than that to ingratiate yourselves to the folk of Agwé) before they started asking things. Innocuous at first. They wanted to know about the circus going on just out of town, who the mayor was(useless question) and who was really in charge(that one earned them some begrudging respect). Then they dug deeper, asked about other people. Powerful people. People who are none too fond of having their business nosed about. 

However, if there’s one thing the people of Agwé like more than being stalwartly unhelpful to those they dislike, it’s watching someone else be stalwartly unhelpful and commentating on it over Sunday brunch and mimosas. 

“I’ll tell you what, you go on over to that carnival a ways outta town and I reckon you’ll find who you’re looking for.” A greasy tabaxi offers between wiping tables, battered tail flicking back and forth with a hard to determine emotion. “I wouldn’t dawdle if I were you, it won’t be in town much longer.” The Tabaxi returns to his business with a glinting smile and a few gold pieces that were well worth the trouble. If city slickers wanna go poking beehives it’s not his business to stop them, especially if he’s compensated for handing them the stick. 

The carnival itself is in full swing when they arrive, flashing lights and smells both sweet and savory assaulting their senses from the get go. The operation is staffed by a motley crew of goblinoids, bullywugs, humans, kobolds, and anything else one could reasonably imagine; in the corner of her vision, the half elven leader of the group of adventurers even catches sight of what look to be a few pixies working the crowd though the tide of patrons sways and they’re obscured before she can be fully certain. 

Games line the thoroughfare all of which, from the looks of a surreptitious investigation, appear to be thoroughly if subtly rigged. Arching above the sea of people is an impressive ferris wheel, bedazzled with twinkling magical lights as it turns and turns. Near it, a calliope booms a cheery tune over the sounds of hawking carnival workers, screaming children, and laughing patrons. A map near the entrance advertises a hall of mirrors, a freak show, and hourly performances in the red and white striped big top including a magic show, fire dancing, beast taming, and a spectacle led by the carnival owner at noon and midnight. Perusing through the carnival, wandering and wondering just how they’re meant to find anyone here let alone the one man they seek, the party save one(a dragonborn with a hand harp strapped to his side) seems oblivious to an odd quirk of this particular carnival. There doesn’t seem to be any clowns.

Their hotheaded gnome companion is easily egged into a game of strength(taunted all the while by a colorful lizardfolk wearing the symbol of the carnival), black eyes glitter with excitement as their minotaur begs to go to the big top to see the beasts in the next show as the small pseudodragon on his shoulder makes similar pleading motions, a disinterested rabbitfolk quickly snatches her hands away from a passing purse under the stern reprimand of an androgynous human with subtly glowing eyes. They come to the conclusion that they should split, agreeing that they will meet at the big top in an hour for the Spectacular, all concluding that should be their best chance to get an audience with who they seek. 

As they go their separate ways(one pair to the big top, one pair to the freak show, one making her way down the alley of carnival games and the last picking his way towards the concessions) the party is pulled into the atmosphere of merriment and none of them perceive the very distinct feeling of predatory eyes locked on their every move.

The party never gets a chance to reconvene at the big top. 

Instead, throughout the hour each one meets a disparate misfortune. The half elven woman drops to her knees at the edge of the thoroughfare, clutching her head in pain as the hand reaching for a holy symbol falls limp.

Behind her, the human spins about in panic, muttering a few infernal words before a hand is clamped over their mouth and ether slowly calms their struggling limbs. 

At a dart game, the dragonborn reaches to claim his prize and suddenly finds himself somewhere else entirely with only a moment to scream before his mind is enveloped in darkness and he falls to the ground fast asleep. 

In the large circus tent, the harengon thief is escorted away from her thoroughly distracted friend by a mysterious tabaxi claiming to be security, receiving a sharp blow to the temple as they walk towards a ‘holding cell’. 

Within the hall of mirrors, a black and orange hand reaches forth and yanks the furs worn by the gnome; sending her careening through the glass-turned-portal. 

Last to go is the minotaur. Enamored by the performance, he couldn’t pass up a chance to speak with the beastmaster of the carnival: an old goblin with an easy smile and a worn wooden ocarina. The only moment of warning he had was a deep hoot behind him before the world went dark.

Some indeterminate time later the human is wrenched from unconsciousness by a familiar, if perpetually jarring, voice shouting within their mind. In swift order they endeavor to wake the others, attempting to take stock of the situation. Their surroundings are dark, what little light is present struggles to illuminate anything through heavy curtains drawn over wide windows. Beneath them is an opulent rug, the color of which is hard to discern in the low light, and under that are tight wooden floorboards that match the walls of this space. What they can see of the walls anyway; most of the space is taken by lavish hangings and shelves of kick knacks, the one closest to them holds a beat up silver cigarette case, a small wooden figure of a two headed vulture, a clockwork dragonfly, a crocheted doily, a hip flask, and a vial that looks to house a small lily pad floating in water amongst a few other things. The air is thick with the scent of quality tobacco and warm food and the ambience it creates might even be homey and welcoming in the right circumstances. Though now, tied securely to chairs with no idea how they got there, it seems rather daunting. 

Spatially, the room is quite large. Wide enough for six chairs with displeased adventurers to be lined up side by side with a foot or so of walking room on one side. It’s longer than it is wide, maybe twice over though it’s hard to tell; the windows are positioned opposite each other in the very center of each wall, what light that escapes the curtains quickly stifles in almost absolute darkness before it reveals any sign of a far wall, at least to disadvantaged human eyes. What does catch their gaze and take their breath away are a pair of glowing dull magenta dots in the darkness. No, that’s not quite right. Not dots. Eyes . 

From the gasps coming from their left and right, some of the human’s more visually attuned party members have also perceived the eyes, and most likely the creature attached to them, whatever horrific beast it may be. 

Soon after they discover their predicament, the air is filled with the muffled noises of the carnivalé outside and underneath the muted cacophony the occasional grunt over a chorus of heavy breathing(the Thing on the other end of the room doesn’t move a single muscle, doesn’t even seem to breathe), a sliver of light falls upon the interior of the wagon. 

Creaaaaaaak. 

A door on the far side of the wagon opens. 

It takes a moment for the adventurers to get their bearing in the new light, when they do they first notice the creature connected to those dully shining eyes. 

A large bugbear stands against the far wall. He stands tall, the tips of his bat-like ears almost brushing the ceiling, limbs corded with lithe muscle, and a severe bearing that hints at confidence and ferocity. Running over his arms and up under his sleeves are large spots devoid of any of the dense brown fur that covers the rest of him, a closer look reveals thick rings of angry scar tissue, long healed but clearly agonizing once.

As the bugbear moves away from the opening door he reveals these new variables to their unfortunate situation. 

Stepping into the room with twin, thudding, clanks , a large fire genasi drags a pair of thick chains across the floor attached to weathered manacles that cover his forearms. The genasi is broad, with muscles that speak of hard labor and sheer physical power. His face is creased with deep laugh lines though the only smile on his lips at the moment is a malicious smirk as he reaches behind him to hold the door open. 

Lastly, a lizardfolk gentleman strolls through the door. He moves with the assured ease of a man who holds all the cards. Wearing a sharp purple suit, hand gripping the amethyst skull atop an ornate cane, the lizardfolk takes his time setting his top hat on a stand in the corner, breezing under the watchful eyes of the bugbear without a care for the sharp claws hovering near his snout. When he finally seats himself in a commanding armchair set front and center of the room, he casually fishes in his suit coat before withdrawing a sleek black cigarette holder and a cigarette from a mother of pearl case. It’s hardly in his hand for more than a second before the genasi at his shoulder provides a light at the tip of his finger before leaning with crossed arms on the back of the chair. As his back makes contact with the leather, a spidery hand covered in fur proffers a crystal tumbler of dark alcohol. 

After a long, weighted silence and a luxurious draw from the cigarette, he speaks. 

“What a do friends …”

#man in five years when they finish the module i'm so stoked for EVERYTHING to be HAPPY and OKAY #could you imagine these chucklefucks in a serious campaign? really think about it they already commit war crimes #and that's WITH the generally lighthearted fey tomfoolery jfc #also we don't talk about Gideon and Torbek as character foils enough #i can and will write a dissertation on this #p.s. Twig is there too she's just busy with the Inn #once upon a witchlight #legends of avantris #kremy lecroux #morning frost #gideon coal #gricko grimgrin #hootsie grimgrin #torbek #OC mentions but really only as a framing device

[dasha-aibo]

The vast sprawling territory of Russia, the death of small towns, the giant disconnected megapolises and the very top-down structure of the government all makes starting any kind of a meaningful opposition movement that much harder.

The internet helped, but not as radically as we all first believed. A lot of people never even brush against the internet opposition spaces. So many are stuck inside twitter (banned in Russia, was never popular to begin with) and insular Telegram communities.

Most opposition are upper-middle class and even rich people, living in tight bubbles of other successful Muscovites and Peterburgians. Maybe with a couple of people, from, like, Voronezh, Yekaterinburg and Nizhny Novgorod thrown in, but that's it.

All of them just blatantly don't understand why, despite crashing the economy, despite starting the war, so many poorer Russians are still supporting Putin. They can't even convince their own parents to vote for anyone else.

Any kind of on-the-ground work is already incredibly hard and with the state actively working to prevent it, it becomes borderline-impossible.

I guess that's why all our revolutions were just a Moscow and St Pete's thing, with other big cities only learning that something has changed post-factum.

[aquadestinyswriting]

Ayyyy, Aqua! :D Happy STS! So I'm making my way through Titan Modern AU, and . . . actually, take two questions on it. 8)

I have legitimately looked everywhere, and I am severely curious. :') Have you thought of a title for this one, or is its title literally just Titan Modern AU?

More importantly, tho, how much did you have to change to make the world of Fangthane's Folly fit the modern day? (And what did you end up keeping? I notice there's magic and dwarves, but how different are these bits compared to their DnD roots?)

Hope this ask finds you well! :D o/

Hi Jax, this is technically a day late, but not really because time zones are a thing :P. I am very well, thank you. I am enjoying the fact that the words seem to be flowing quite easily for the time being and taking advantage of that to write a lot for all my ongoing series and creating new ones. Thanks very much for the questions, I have a lot to talk about with this AU :D. Answers are under a cut because the second one is going to get quite long.

Question 1

I don't currently have an actual title for this one yet. I have a tendency to title WIPs towards the end of writing them and this one is no exception. I have some vague ideas, but I'm not too concerned about it just yet. Especially since there's a high possibility that this one is going to throw some major curveballs my way once I get into the thick of the plot that might well change the kind of title I want to give it.

Question 2

Ah, the dwarves are technically not a thing for this one. Everyone is more or less human, unless it's directly stated otherwise. The reason Fangthanian women can have beards at all is down to a slight genetic quirk which means they are pre-disposed to much higher testosterone levels than average. The Throffite community, in particular, is very insular and tend to inter-marry within themselves due to a history of discrimination against them.

As to how I changed the setting to fit with the modern aesthetic:

I've modelled Fangthane city a little bit after towns like Fort William, since the location of Fangthane in Allansia has a relatively similar geography to that of the Scottish Highlands. So Fangthane city is no longer built into the mountain, but is a city that was built very close to the mountain (which is now called Ben Oir). Extrapolating from there, and taking into account the maps that exist of Allansia, it was a a matter of figuring out how and why there would be outposts for the kingdom that are so far away from the capital. In that case, an old empire made a lot of sense, and taking into account the relative time period this AU is set in (roughly the 90s to early 2000s), it also made sense that said empire had been disbanded, but that communities deriving from it still exist (hence why Stonebridge and Firetop are still mainly natively Fangthanian). So, yeah, culturally speaking Fangthane is basically the UK transplanted into Allansia at this point.

I wanted some of the history of Toreguarde to remain intact because there are plot things related to that that will pop up later in the story. The city was almost destroyed, officially, by what is considered to have been a terrorist organisation that was working on behalf of another state and/or one of the ruling council of Toreguarde of the time who went just teeny bit mad with power (Greydown was an absolute ass in canon, and is in this AU too).

As the setting, rather purposefully, appears to be lacking in magic, no mentions are made of demons, portals or the breaking of reality, even by those who were present at the time. The remaining Heroes still exist, but I'm working out what their exact roles in all that were. Egrim is still a priest, so that's him covered. Alexis, upon talking to Dru about it, was probably a sniper that was a part of the military forces of Toreguarde at the time, while Selene was probably some sort of science-y nerd person brought in to help explain some of the weirder stuff that went on that was kind of acknowledged and then later given plausible and sensible scientific explanations. She just happened to be somewhat decent at this diplomacy lark when communication with the reinforcements from Fangthane started going south, hence her current role in the story. She probably worked quite closely with Ivan, who I have yet to figure out the details of, with regards to that. I also need to figure out what Fai did and what happened to him...

I am doing a lot of this worldbuilding and adjusting Fantasy canon on the fly, to be quite honest, so not a lot of it is set in stone just yet. However, I have given some thought to the Throffite community both in Fangthane and in Toreguarde and some of their history and culture, drawing a lot on what I established about Throffism in the fantasy canon and doing some major research into the irl history of such things to make sure that anything I write about it is handled as sensitively as possible. I have also written copious notes on the hows and whys of the fractious relationship between Fangthane and Toreguarde that would fit in with more modern (Western, as that is what I'm familiar with) political norms.

#writeblr asks #storyteller saturday #answered ask #aquadestinyswriting #titan fighting fantasy #titan fighting fantasy modern au

[comicaurora]

book recommendations?

Gideon The Ninth and Harrow The Ninth!

Part 1 and 2 of the Locked Tomb series, with the third entry coming out later this month. Pitched fairly accurately as "lesbian necromancers in space" what I love most about it is the worldbuilding - the ten thousand years of history that turned our world into this world. It's an absolute treasure trove of buried lore and eldritch nightmare fuel obscured constantly by unreliable narrators and fluctuating narrative tone. The narrator of the first book is too bored and checked out to noticed 95% of the crazy foreshadowing she's faced with, and the narrator of the second book is, for spoiler reasons, an extremely unreliable witness of the events going on around her. I will say that the opaqueness of the actual events of the story can make these books better on a reread than on the first read, and if I hadn't gone into Harrow The Ninth with a hefty bank of spoilers I probably would've tapped out about halfway through, because the book spends about half its wordcount actively gaslighting the reader about the events of the first book. It's weird and I love it.

Iron Widow!

Described as "pacific rim meets the handmaid's tale." Giant robot combat plus hefty political drama set in a futuristic sci-fi setting based strongly on Chinese history and mythology, starring basically a reimagining of Wu Zetian, a serious contestant for the coveted History's Baddest Bitch Award. Features one of the only instances of "should I choose the bad boy or the sweet, safe best friend? orrrrrr maybe we can all just fuck each other" polycule love-triangle resolution. A portrayal of socially systemic misogyny so frustratingly on-point it actually set my teeth on edge and made it very easy for me to root for the heroine burning the world down for funsies and catharsis. Awaiting a sequel!

Elder Race

A relatively short read that's 100% worth it just for the fascinating language barrier portrayed between the two protagonists - the spunky princess of a sort-of-medieval fantasy kingdom setting out to slay a demon and prove herself to her mother, and the anthropologist from earth stationed on this planet to observe the cultural development of this human colony over the centuries. Each chapter is written from the perspective of one of these two characters, and at times we see events/conversations from each of their perspectives. The book is written in modern english, but this is explicitly a translation convention, as what the anthropologist says and what the princess hears are two very different things - something that frustrates him immensely. I want to see more stories written in this setting and it bums me out that I probably won't get any.

Thud!

Uh oh! How'd this Discworld novel get here? Looks like you'll have to read the other City Watch novels (Guards! Guards!, Men At Arms, Feet Of Clay, Jingo, The Fifth Elephant, Night Watch) to have sufficient context for this one! A fantasy police procedural (like all the other City Watch novels), this story centers on the eternal blood feud between dwarves and trolls and how it threatens to boil over in the cultural melting pot that is the great city of Ankh-Morpork, spurred along by the anniversary of a legendary battle between the two peoples that was left unresolved. Caught in the middle are the city watch, trying to keep the peace and solve several thefts and murders while wrangling two extremely insular communities that would rather be left to their own devices to murder each other in peace. There's also some absolutely incredible worldbuilding about dwarf culture and the unique texture the multifaceted concept of the dark takes on for a civilization that lives almost entirely underground. This is also explored in earlier City Watch books. Oopsies! I seem to have once again recommended six other books! Oh well!

#asks #media recs

[infodumpingaboutnature]

This year has gone by fast! There are only 44 more days left of 2023 so to celebrate I’m gonna make a post about five extinct animals that were described this year!

1. Bos primigenius thrinacius n. ssp.

(Bos primigenius thrinacius n. ssp. Size estimate of a bull, cow, and calf compared to a human and an adult Palaeoloxodon falconeri. Art by Joschua Knüppe)

This new sub species of Aurochs lived on the Greek island of Kythera during the Late Pleistocene. The sub species was probably present on Kythera while it was still part of the mainland, but became trapped when it was separated sometime during the Middle to Late Pleistocene and their small size was a result of insular dwarfism. Insular dwarfism is a common phenomenon in evolution where a population of large animals becomes trapped on an island and slowly evolve to become smaller over time to better adapt to the reduced space and resources. The opposite, insular gigantism, where an island-bound population of small animals grows larger than their mainland counterparts also occurs regularly. During the Pleistocene, the various islands of Greece were full of giant swans and miniature elephants but now we know they had tiny cattle roaming about as well.

2. Garumbatitan morellensis

(Size comparison between Garumbatitan morellensis and a human. Art by cisiopurple on Deviantart)

Meaning “Garumba Giant”, Garumbatitan morellensis was a species of sauropod dinosaur that lived during the Cretaceous period in what is now Spain. Its remains were first discovered in 1998 at the Arcillas de Morella Formation near the city of Morella, however, they would not be excavated until an expedition in 2005. More material would later be discovered in a 2008 expedition and a paper would be published on the findings in 2016, but it wasn’t until this year that the species was officially named and described. Its genus named is a mix of the name for the tallest mountain in the region it was discovered in, Mola de la Garumba, and the Greek word “Titan”.

3. Nihohae matakoi

(A pair of Nihohae matakoi hunting some squid. Art by Daniel Verhelst)

Nihohae matakoi was a species of dolphin that belonged to the now extinct Waipatiid family and lived during the Oligocene in the waters surrounding what is now New Zealand. It possessed a bizarre set of tusk-like teeth that protruded from its beak. It is thought that this dolphin used it’s strange teeth much like a sawfish to stun their prey before consuming them. The holotype specimen was discovered all the way back in 1998 in Awamoko Valley on New Zealand’s South Island. The specimen consisted of a nearly complete skull, a single atlas and axis, eight vertebrae, and seven ribs. However, Nihohae matakoi would not be officially described until 2023. Its genus name combines the Māori words “Niho”, meaning “teeth”, and “Hae”, meaning “slashing”. The species name is also derived from Māori and comes from the words “Mata”, meaning “face” or “point”, and “Koi”, meaning “sharp”.

4. Perucetus colossus

(A pair of Perucetus swim together in the shallows. Art by Gabuded on Deviantart)

Another cetacean, Perucetus colossus was a species of early whale that lived during the Bartonian age of the Middle Eocene and was found in Peru (obviously). The remains we have or Perucetus are pretty fragmentary, but it has an estimated length of around 55.8-65.9 ft and was probably just as, if not heavier, than the modern Blue Whale. Due to the density of its bones and its absolute chonkiness, Perucetus likely was not a fast swimmer and likely lived in shallow waters and fed on crustaceans and mollusks. However, this is just speculation as very little about its ecology is known.

5. Vectipelta barretti

(A pair of Vectipelta barretti graze near a stream. Art by Stuart Pond)

Vectipelta barretti was an ankylosaurian dinosaur that lived during the Early Cretaceous in what is now England. It was discovered in the Wessex Formation and it’s genus name means “Isle of Wight shield”. The holotype specimen of Vectipelta was originally discovered in November of 1993, however, at the time it was believed that the specimen belonged to the genus Polacanthus. In May of 2021 it was discovered that the specimen was in fact a new genus and in June of 2023 it was officially named and described. Funnily enough, fossil evidence suggests that Vectipelta might be millions of years older than Polacanthus, the genus it was originally thought to be a member of.

I hope you all enjoyed reading about these recently described prehistoric species! I LOVE dinosaurs and other extinct animals and can’t wait to see what new discoveries 2024 has to offer!

#dinosaur love #animals #new discoveries #infodump #science #dinosaur #peru #new zealand #isle of wight #Kythera #new species #animal news #animal facts #dinosaur facts #paleontology #spain #2023 #ankylosauria #sauropod #aurochs #cetacean #perucetus