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jaybug-jabbers · 3 years

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Pokemon Gold/Silver Beta Pokemon: The April 2020 Leak

Look, 2020 was a rough year. So maybe I shouldn’t be so surprised that the April 2020 Gold/Silver source code leak flew almost entirely under my radar. If you Google about it, you’re find it’s very rare for news outlets to cover it. This is probably because many folks are hesitant to cover leaks. Also, the US was warming up to a truly awful pandemic around that point, not to mention other civil unrest, so it’s no surprise some people were a tad distracted.

But the fact is, another leak turned up in April of last year, following a recent trend of huge Nintendo leaks. And this one was a doozy. I’ve only truly realized its full extent in the past few days. As such, I’d like to do a post that covers some of the new information. In particular, I’m focusing on beta pokemon that were cut or heavily reworked.

Now, back in 2018, the Spaceworld ‘97 Pokemon Gold/Silver Demo was leaked online. I made a post about some of my favorites. So, from this leak, we already knew of a while slew of beta pokemon. However, as it turns out, there were still more new faces to find-- and a lot of them! I list 45 new beta pokemon here, in fact!

In the April 2020 leak, several sprite sets were found as internal files, each at different phases of game production. The sprite sets were dated May 6, 1998, June 13, 1999, June 21, 1999, and September 17, 1999. The August 17, 1999 Spaceworld ‘99 Demo build was also found, so we have information on that as well.

Essentially, if you want to see this information at The Cutting Room Floor, then head to this page for the sprites discovered as internal backups/sprite banks. Head to this page for the Spaceworld ‘99 demo information page. And, if you need a refresher for the older leak, you can go to this page for the Spaceworld ‘97 demo build.

For this post, we will focus on the May 6, ‘98 set of sprites, which contain the vast majority of new faces. So, without further ado, onward to the pokemon!

(#300) Kokopelli Pokemon/Celebi

(May 6, ‘98) (Spaceworld ‘99 Demo)

This first pair of sprites looks very much like Kokopelli, a fertility deity of some Native American cultures. This deity can be seen in ancient Native American petroglyphs, as a humpbacked flute player with feathers on the head. Surprisingly, we find that Celebi in the Spaceworld ‘99 Demo seems to be an updated version of this design, making Celebi’s design origins much different than expected. However, its fertility diety inspiration is still somewhat apparant in the modern Celebi, as a creature that causes plant life to flourish.

(#301) Eel Pokemon

While the sprite files did not reveal a name or other data, this eel’s sprites were numbered right beside the Gurotesu (Grotess) and Ikari (Anchorage) sprites, suggesting it once was the start of their evolution chain.

(#304) Fire Fox Pokemon

This little fellow is a fox that seems to have a fiery tail. It’s possible this fire fox was inspired by kitsune (just as Vulpix/Ninetails were) and that it was later redesigned as Fennekin.

(#305 - 308) Snow Bunny Evolution Line

These four pokemon seem to belong to the same evolutionary line. The second one seems to based on the Yuki Usagi, a ‘Snow Bunny.’ In Japan, these cute little critters are made in the snow (using leaves for the ears). They also sometimes make these Yuki Usagi as little marshmallow or mochi treats. So this pokemon line could be inspired by either of these. Considering the leaves and the snow, I would guess these would have been Grass/Ice.

(#309) Elephant Pokemon

You might wonder if this chonky boy-- looking tough with horns on his head and back-- was an early version of Donphan, but Donphan and Phanpy were present in the Spaceworld ‘97 demo. Indeed, this elephant and Phanpy/Donphan both exist in the same set of sprites from May ‘98, so it was simply a case of two types of elephants. This pokemon also calls to mind a glimpse of a cut beta pokemon we saw from Generation 1 (from ‘Satoshi Tajiri: The Man Who Made Pokémon’):

Same fierce eyes, at any rate! Alas, these both never saw the light of day. However, it’s possible this elephant was reworked into Piloswine, which is not in the May ‘98 collection but does appear in the June 13 ‘99 collection (although Swinub is absent). While Piloswine and Swinub are more akin to wild boars, there is also some relation to mammoths (an inspiration more heavily leaned on with Mammoswine in later games). Then again, there’s another pokemon you’ll see a little further down this list that might have inspired Piloswine instead.

(#311) Natu/Xatu Mid-Evolution

What is clearly a mid-evolution (its file number sits between the two). Has a peacock-like tail. Honestly, I think this works really good as a mid-evolution, and I don’t know why it was cut. I want to name it “Watu.”

(#313) Drunk Kiwi Pokemon

This one is just hilarious to look at. It appears to probably be a kiwi-bird? A very crazy-eyed, loopy one. I can see why this one was cut. The goofy, simple design kind of looks like a knockoff cartoon character for children.

(#314) Scorpion Pokemon

A pretty badass-looking scorpion, although a rather basic design. I dig the funky head, though. It seems like it has a single, beady eye and is rather menacing. This pokemon may have been later reworked into Gligar, a pokemon that first appears after this sprite set, in the June 13 ‘99 group:

Admittedly this is rather different from the Gligar we know, but it is an early design.

Or, who knows-- maybe this little fellah was later reworked into Skorupi. (If so, it’s a shame, as I don’t dig the weird accordian-like design of its limbs and its evolution.)

(#315) Quail Pokemon

A pudgey little quail pokemon. Doesn’t seem related to the kiwi pokemon. It’s a very cute little thing, and has lots of potential to evolve into something interesting, but it seems they scrapped it pretty quickly.

(#316) Music Note Bird Pokemon

Although these sprites are numbered right after the quail, and they are both birds, the designs are very different, so they seem unrelated. It seems the beta pokemon were simply blessed with a lot of birds. This little bird is in the shape of a clef, giving this bird a musical theme. It seems very likely it was later reworked into Chatot, a bird with a music-note shaped head and metronome tail.

(#319) Boar Pokemon

A cute, grumpy little boar with antlers. Probably what eventually led to Piloswine found in the June 13 ‘99 group. A bit of a shame, in my mind, as I kind of prefer this design.

(#325) Spikey Dog Pokemon

The curious thing is that this dog looks very similar to “Pudi,” a pokemon we saw in the Spaceworld ‘97 demo, which was intended to be a pre-evolution of Growlithe. But Pudi is also in this same collection of sprites!

Perhaps they were toying with the idea of re-designing Pudi (and had already scrapped a bunch of baby pokemon) and just hadn’t bothered to remove the old Pudi yet. It’s hard to say. Ultimately, these both were scrapped, but at least we still have Subbull/Granbull.

(#331) Yūrei Ghost Pokemon

This little ghost has two things that are common in Japanese folklore: the hitaikakushi (the white cloth headband it wears) and the two little balls of fire called hitodama. It is unknown why this ghost pokemon was scrapped, but perhaps they thought the little fellow wouldn’t translate well overseas?

(#344) Viking Ship Pokemon

Look at this beauty! A pokemon based off some sort of Viking ship. I absolutely adore this one. It’s creative and charming. I hope to see it in the future.

(#349) Wooly Dog Pokemon

This canine-like creature is fluffy as all out. Honestly I think it’s a tad odd, with how tangled and disheveled its fur looks. I can’t help but compare it to the early desings of the three Legendary Beasts, since they also are very canine-like:

These three designs are present in this same May 6, 98′ sprite collection as the representations of Raikou, Entei, and Suicune. Were they possibly playing with a different design idea for the Legendary Beasts? Perhaps Suicune. The Wooly Dog is just such an imposing sprite, that I can’t help but wonder. All pure speculation, of course.

(#350) Rabbit Pokemon

This rabbit has a rather intense look about him, and it makes me curious what the ideas were behind it. TCRF suggests it’s a possible pikachu clone.

(#351) Snake Pokemon

This cute little worm or snake seems to be wearing a feather headdress, suggesting its design may also be Native American inspired, like the Natu line. On the other hand, this could be inspired by Quetzalcoatl, a feathered serpent deity in Aztec culture. I would have loved to see this little guy’s evolutions.

(#352) Scarecrow Bird

A bird with a hat that kind of looks like a scarecrow. Honestly, it’s a super-cute idea.

(#353) Gargoyle Pokemon

This crouching beastie sort of looks like a gargoyle with a long, sharp tail. I can’t quite tell if those bits on the side are little wings or just a part of its legs. It would be interesting to see this creature standing in a different position-- I feel like that would give us a better understanding of what it looks like. Interestingly, there are striking similarities with Aerodactyl:

I wonder why they are so similar?

(#354 - 356) Manbō Evolution Family

The first of these three fishies was someone we already met in the Spaceworld ‘97 demo-- it was named ‘Manbō 1.′ In the demo, it evolved into Ikari (Anchorage) and then Gurotesu (Grotess). It seems it’s now been split off from those and given a new evolution family here. While I find that neat, and I quite like the expressions on these fish, they are admittedly a little bland.

(#360) Flying Squirrel(?) Pokemon

TCRF guesses this is a flying squirrel, and it seems to be wearing a sheathed sword. Not sure about the headgear it’s sporting. Is that a ninja star?

(#364) Early Cyndaquil

So, this May 6, ‘98 collection is really exciting. The original Gold/Silver fire starter line we saw in Spaceworld ‘97 (Honooguma’s line) is still present in this collection (as is the water-type ‘Cruz’ line and Chikorita’s line). So, what we have here seems to be an early Cyndaquil before they decided to turn it into a fire type and make it the fire starter! In fact, those spikes might even be icicles (like Alolan Sandslash), for all we know. If so, Cyndaquil’s typing pulled a 180.

(#377) Early Furret?

Possibly an early Furret. Looks pretty awkward, not gonna lie; I’m glad it was probably refined into modern Furret, with more body definition between the head and tail.

(#378) Stork Pokemon

It’s a stork, based on the myth of where babies come from. A cute idea, although its curly ‘hair’ looks a little funny to me.

(#380) Squid Pokemon

A squid with drills for its mantle and arms. Since that’s kinda Beedrill’s thing, I’m glad they scrapped the idea. The backsprite lacks drills so it’s probably from a different design stage.

(#382 - 383) Early Burmy/Pineco

Burmy/Wormadam/Mothim is based off the bagworm. Bagworms are grubs that use silk and lots of bits of leaves, bark and other objects to create a camouflaged cocoon. When they turn into adults, some species of female bagworms just look like their larval stage, while the males turn into winged moths. That is why Burmy/Wormadam/Mothim have their unique evolution situation. Clearly, these two beta pokemon are playing around with the bagworm idea. They probably went on to inspire both Pineco (another pokemon based on bagworms!) and the Burmy line in gen 4.

(#386) Koala Pokemon

It’s so cool to see they were thinking about a koala pokemon this early. We would not finally get one until gen 7′s Komala.

(#387) Tanuki Pokemon

A Tanuki that is carrying campfire kindling on his back, but the kindling has caught fire. Apparently based on the Kachi-Kachi Yama folktale, which is a surprisingly violent story, but I suppose folktales often are. Who knows why it was cut, but Sentret is the closest thing we have to a tanuki pokemon for now.

(#392) Megaphone(?) Bird Pokemon

Yet another bird pokemon! There sure were a lot of beta birds. This one appears to have a megaphone-shaped beak. Or, possibly, its head is shaped like a gas mask (the strange eyes seem to support this idea). Honestly I really dig the look of this one.

(#397) Frog Pokemon

It’s tough to tell but it has a small horn on its head. It has a long tongue and is probably shouting “ribbithhhhhh!” It’s cute, but a little plain.

(#400) Tiny Hippo Pokemon

Look at this little weirdo. I think it’s a tiny hippo? With a mohawk and a big grin and wild eyes. It doesn’t really seem to have a head, its mouth/eyes/ears are just stuck directly to a body. Looks pretty awkward, probably needed some polish. No idea what they were going for with it, but it’s interesting.

(#401) Skeleton Pokemon

A very spooky, bipedal, living skeleton beast. It has a long snout and sharp teeth, almost like a crocodile or a dinosaur-like creature. Its head and shoulders have bony spikes and the front of its snout has markings that seem to be a nasal cavity. Very detailed. It also reminds me of Missingno, as some Missingno used the fossil skeletons as their front sprites. I would have loved to have this pokemon, and it’s a real shame they didn’t use it.

(#402) Rodent Pokemon

A mouse or bunny with gigantic, spotted ears and no arms. Those are some serious ears; it almost looks like it could fly with them.

(#403) Fly Pokemon

A bug-type!! It has a huge, creepy face, curly antenna and wings strangely really close to its head. I love it?? But it’s a bug, so of course I do.

(#404) Plant Pokemon

The Snow Bunny was likely part grass-type, but other than that, this is our first grass beta! It has one eye, a spikey head, and almost foot-like roots. I love how grumpy it looks. There’s a possibility it was a pre-evolution for Sunflora, before they had created the idea of Sunkern (which is not present in this collection).

(#405) Ant Pokemon

Another bug!! This one looks a lot like a winged ant. (Those do exist-- usually a temporary thing for mating flights) It’s possibly related to the fly pokemon above, sporting very similar wings. However, it doesn’t really seem like an evolution.

(#406) Dinosaur Pokemon

A little dinosaur-like pokemon, looking up at you. It’s unclear if that’s a tough, bony skull, or if it’s maybe a hat. The clubbed tail makes me wonder if it’s related to #415 below, but it’s probably unlikely. However, it is pretty likely that this later became Cranidos.

(#407) Early Cherrim

This clearly was a design that was picked up later, in gen 4, to create Cherubi/Cherrim’s sunshine form. I am glad the design was improved, because the lips on this one scare me.

(#412) Early Dunsparce

Dunsparce looking quite different. No wings, no drill tail, with a much more typical snake-like face.

(#415) Dinosaur Pokemon

It looks like an aquatic version of an Ankylosaurus or something similar. It’s possible it’s related to the Viking Ship pokemon (as a pre-evo), but there’s no way to know. I quite like it, though.

(#416) Flying Fish Pokemon

This magnificent beast, this miracle of creation, is surely my favorite beta pokemon of all time. Revel in its glory. You may not like it, but this is the ideal pokemon body. What a perfect way to round off our collection of betas.

#pokemon #pokemon gold/silver #beta pokemon #april 2020 leak #pokemon betas #pokemon beta content #mycontent #pokemon discussion

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hydraulicfluidinmyteapot · 3 years

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Pirates of the Caribbean

This is an ask from @shrigma-male, but i accidentally deleted the ask.. so sorry! I am high key excited to get an ask about this topic, as the Pirates of the Caribbean ride is probably one of my earliest animatronic centric obsessions. not only is it one of the earliest and most impressive feats of Imagineering, it also remains solid to this day. it houses a great many iconic animatronic figurines, all of which work together in perfect harmony to capture beautifully life filled scenes of a cohesive storyline. Its individual ride concept was so strong that it birthed a line of clones and even a famous movie franchise. isn’t that sick? a RIDE was the key source material for a whole movie series! but it’s unsurprising, with the time and care poured into the ride. Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on how you think about it, the ride is JAM PACKED so there is a LOT to talk about. This will only be a super brief post information-wise, but who knows? There may be more to come if this performs well. Apologies, my life’s not going great at the moment and i don’t have a lot of spare time so this is not as high a quality as i would like it to be.

Here’s my fast fact file on it!

Debut: March 16, 1967

Withdrawal: All rides are still operating

Attraction: The Pirates of the Caribbean

Locations: Disneyland, Magic Kingdom, Tokyo Disneyland, Disneyland Paris, Shanghai Disney (but this one’s heavily modified)

Attraction Type: Dark ride

Riders Per Vehicle: 23–24

Number of vehicles: 50

Animatronics: 119 ish but it depends on the ride version

Ride videos: The entire ride varies from version to version and different people want to see different parts. i’m leaving you guys to find your own ride videos. it’s a very popular ride, just type on in to youtube and you’ll find heaps of nice high quality ones.

The thing that stands out about this ride is the theming and the sheer amount of effort put in to creating an immersive environment. the ride houses an impressive 119 audio animatronics, 53 of which are animals. There are 630,000 gallons of water in the ride (original Disneyland) and takes three whole days to drain. there are over 40,000 gold coins in the treasure room scene alone. It holds what could possibly be considered Disney’s first themed restaurant which can be seen at the start of the ride. It is objectively one of the coolest things I’ve ever ridden. I want to call specific attention to the boat scene, where cannons fare at each other from opposite ships, creating glowing impacts and throwing water about. the first time I rode it it ensnared my attention and completely suspended my disbelief.The ride system is based on the one used in it’s a small world, due to that rides incredible success in debuting a boat-based transport system. Although I hate it’s a small world with a burning passion and refuse to write anything on it, I must be forced to admit that it did wonders as a test on how to create a good dark ride, emphasising key features such as a high rider capacity, boat-based transport system, and proving that animatronics are an incredibly attractive key event. Since the 60’s when it debuted, the Pirates of the Caribbean ride has gone through many changes throughout its location, including entire scenes being added and removed. but what it has maintained throughout its historic run time is its notoriety and splendour. the key change that I will bring up is the 2006 and 2007 renovations that include more theming from the very successful movie franchise. slightly unrelated, but the song “Yo ho, a pirate’s life for me” was actually first written for the ride. The rides are all being constantly updated in minor ways whether it’s slightly improving the animatronics, touching up background details or changing costuming. I’ll attach here a brief sort of timeline of the ride that I’ve whipped up here, but it only touches on the most notable modifications. sorry about how crap-tier it is..

Now, to talk more specifically about animatronics. The animatronics used on this ride are some of the earliest made by Disney. some are really quite basic, with their full range of motions being a singular full body action such as raising and lowering out of a barrel, but others move heads and arms in (sort of) lifelike actions. Some are newer, (specifically captain Jack Sparrow), but most are the original ones from the 60’s. One of my (and everyone’s tbh) favourites is the redheaded lady. She is (very originally) named Redd. Previously she was being sold off for auction, but in 2018 she was swapped to being an auctioneer. She has stunning red curls and a beautiful dress to match, and now holds a gun. here’s a little before and after.

in the same refurbishment that changed her the mist screen in the tunnel before the fort battle was removed and replaced with a pirate in a cage who turns into a skeleton via an optical trick as well as an octopus playing with some medallions, along with the original 1967 narration about cursed treasure being restored. Her new version is based off none other than Anne Bonny herself (worth a google, she’s a fucking BOSS (like seriously!! Queer history icon!!! LOOK 👏 HER 👏 UP 👏 )) . She’s also displayed in dead man’s cove in a portrait, which I think is kinda neat. Her Paris version is completely silent, but the others yell about selling rum. Sadly I have never actually seen the new Redd in person, as I have only ridden the ride in Tokyo (where she is still being sold).

Now, the barker bird! oh how I love him so <3 he’s a little green pirate parrot, who spent his days crying about the ride. he was originally in the queue area but got kicked outside eventually to help deal with crowd control. he was then gotten rid of in 2006 in the big movie refurb. He was remarkably similar to the original barker bird who resided outside of the Enchanted Tikki Room; however, the pirate version has a peg leg, eye patch, tattoo on his chest and wondrously villainous hat. he was originally based off of Captain Flint, the parrot from Treasure Island. It is theorised that he has a skeletal clone inside the ride; the parrot belonging to “the Dirty Feet pirate”.

When you first get on the ride, the first animatronic you come across is Old Joe. he is an animatronic character used in multiple different attractions, including Liberty Belle Riverboat, The Western River and Mark Twain Riverboat. in each version, he lives in a shack and is associated with the banjo. I say associated because it is actually a really common misconception that he actually plays the banjo. he does not, it is just a dark scene and there is banjo music playing around him. you can see the tip of his pipe glowing as you approach it in the ride, lit up alongside the fireflies. he is a small taste of what is to come.

Barbossa replaced the original pirate captain of The Wicked Wench in the boat battle scene in the mass movie renovation. he is my tied favourite with the redhead, as his dialog adds so much to the scene. his character moves in a beautiful fashion, lit up by a spotlight. His face is artfully painted, capturing what I believe to be the most human expression in the entire ride. His boat is fighting a Castillo del Morro fortress of Isla Tesoro, whilst busy searching for treasure and presumably captain jack sparrow. in 2011 his WDW version’s outfit was swapped over to his privateer uniform from On Stranger Tides, to keep the ride tied to the movies. What can be considered quite odd is that in Paris’s later renovation, the Captain did not replace the Wicked Wench captain, and was rather added in to a scene at the end of the ride, in the skeleton grotto. he is standing on the shipwreck beside the skeleton helmsman, carrying a lantern.

The auctioneer. I don’t like him. greasy man. his eyes are wild. He’s originally voiced by Paul Frees (an icon, a legend) and is inspired by Captain Bartholomew Roberts (considered the most successful pirate in the golden age of piracy. He is also a pirate from the ship The Wicked Wench, and his auction is set up near a canteen called "La Cantina”. very creative. He was originally selling brides (human trafficking, not very snazzy) but now he sells chickens he stole from townspeople. however, this is unsuccessful. In the Paris version, instead of the chickens he is trying to sell a painting of Jean Laffite. Funnily enough, Jean is one of Disney’s sort of “stand in” pirate characters that they frequently just use whenever they need a pirate to slide in. Unfortunately, the auctioneer is always kept relatively up to date with the shiniest, newest technology that Disney can spare, and is always one of the most advanced figures on the ride. doesn’t deserve it, he’s slimy and I don’t like him. I should probably mention that he doesn’t actually have a name other than the auctioneer. There’s also a clone of him used in the haunted mansion for the duelling animatronics. loser.

This is a very long post, so I shall cut it here. I will leave you with an image gallery, further reading and a possible promise of a part two if this post does well. Thank you!

(ok so i actually haven’t got any further reading gathered yet. give me like 6 hours and ill fix it in an edit. i promise. i just want to get this post out asap)

#animatronic #audio animatronics #Audio Animatronic #animatronics #Disney #disney parks #pirates #pirates of the caribbean #redd #captain barbossa #history #long post

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canyouhearthelight · 5 years

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The Miys, Ch. 43

The one where Sophia’s administrator is officially hired, and an odd story about black cats features.

Or, “Sometimes the real world is as weird as fiction”

For all that I joked about books being my truest, most lasting love – after all, who still loves the same thing in their thirties that they loved when they were three? – life on the Ark kept me so busy that I was ashamed to admit I did not know where the archives were. However, I was always willing to learn more about the ship and take the chance to meet new people on the way. As such, I tucked the promised tomes into a satchel and decided to walk there, using my datapad as a map. A little voice somewhere on processor four, where my conscience and good will toward people tended to be, told me that travelling on foot would give people the chance to see that I wasn’t afraid, despite what happened. Maybe it would help make them less afraid.

That was three hours ago. Both of my shoulders ached from swapping the bag of books back and forth over the course of my idiotic trek. I was sweating slightly, and somewhere along the way I decided that the ‘little voice’ at the beginning was not, in fact, my conscience or belief in people, but instead came from processor five, home of Bad Decisions. I was completely certain of this, because the same voice had been telling me for the past thirty minutes to burn the books anyway and just be done with it.

To my relief, my datapad indicated that the door in front of me was my destination. Unlike most common areas on the Ark, this door was not labelled in any way that a human could interpret. Early on, Miys made it very clear that the doors were, in fact, marked by the architecture and gave back a specific echo when hit with a certain frequency – one that humans could neither hear nor create without technical assistance. I took a moment to straighten my bearing and run a hand through my frazzled hair before approaching the den of my soon-to-be administrator.

Alistair Worthington was nowhere in sight, but what I did see compelled me to let out a confident and completely dignified squeak. Books. Hundreds and hundreds of real, tangible, paper books. The smell of ink and glue invaded my lungs like the most intoxicating drug ever created. I don’t know what I had been expecting when I imagined there being an ‘Archive’ on the ship, but this wasn’t it.

This was a library. One like I hadn’t seen since I was a kid. Every shred of exhaustion and frustration vanished from my body as I trailed my fingers gently over the spines on the shelves. I honestly wanted to cry from the sheer sensation of being reunited with a long-lost friend. You can keep your hymns, your prayers, and your sermons, I thought. This is the most religious experience of my life.

My reverie was shattered painfully by the sound of a throat being cleared behind me. “Miss, please don’t touch the – Oh. Councillor Reid.” Worthington’s face snapped from stern to surprised when I turned on him, not even bothering to wipe the tears from my face.

Without a word, I untangled myself from the satchel I had been carrying and held it out with one hand. When he just glanced at it in confusion, I shook it. “Your books. I promised I would bring them myself, and I try to always keep my word.”

After only a split second of additional hesitation, the man before me showed the only spec of emotion I had seen in our brief encounters by eagerly snatching the bag from me and digging through it like it held everything he ever wanted. Ah, I thought, arching a brow. So you are human, after all.

“There are two missing.” He actually sounded disappointed.

Shaking my head, I tried to wrap my Councillor bearing around me. “No, there aren’t. Antoine Costa decided to keep Love in the Time of Cholera, since it was made here on the ship and the source does not negate the fact that it is his favorite book. Tyche Reid did agree to donate two of her graphic novels to the archive, but made a personal choice to keep Blankets, as is her right.”

With a sigh, he nodded in terse acceptance. “I suppose I can learn to live with that.”

“Archivist Worthington, there are fifteen books in that bag. None of the books that were donated or reclaimed were found to have Baconist propaganda, so that is all of them beside the two which were kept by their rightful owners,” I pointed out in frustration. “Besides, I carried those down here, on foot. It took me three hours. The least you can do is show an ounce of gratitude.”

He was clearly unimpressed, if the flat look he pointed at me was any indication. “For honoring our agreement and delivering them yourself, yes, I am grateful. However, I did not ask you to foolishly make that trek without the use of a transport, especially not when you are still recovering from your attack if I remember correctly. How you convinced your over-protective sister to even allow this – “

“Tyche does not ‘allow’ me to do anything, Mr. Worthington,” I cut him off icily. “I am a grown woman, and I am capable of making my own decisions.”

“That does not mean they are intelligent decisions, apparently,” he grumbled. “You clearly have more sense than this, I am baffled why you decided to walk down here.”

He had me there. After an awkward silence, I decided to change the subject. “Where did the rest of these come from?” I asked, running a finger along the edge of a shelf. “I know they aren’t confiscated.”

“I brought them from Earth, mostly,” he breathed with a nod. “Maybe three months before I arrived on the Ark, I stumbled across an old book store. Imagine my surprise when I saw that, somehow, it had not been broken into, the books not used for kindling.”

“You may as well have found Atlantis while you were at it,” I replied, not even half joking. In ten years, I had only found one or two books that were in sufficient condition to still read them, and more gutted and burned libraries than I wanted to remember. Book were paper, paper made good kindling. Sadly, religious texts burned the best, since they were usually printed on thinner paper. College textbooks were a close second.

Clearing his throat, he continued. “When I woke up on the Ark, I insisted that either the books come with me, or I go back to Earth. Books are history, I explained. And those who fail to learn from history…”

“Are doomed to repeat it,” I finished with a nod. “I completely agree, and I’m sure Tyche would agree with your determination. She managed to talk Noah into bringing the pets and genetic samples of the wildlife.”

“It is an Ark,” he conceded. “Would be a shame if we left the fauna behind. They did not ruin our world, after all.” He glanced away with a familiar haunted look. We all had ghosts, it seemed. Shaking his head vigorously, he seemed to snap out of whatever memory he was stuck in. “I’m just glad she did not bring any actual mice. They destroy books like nothing else.”

“No mice, just a cat,” I reassured him with a small smile.

“Ah, yes. Mac.” Worthington wrinkled his nose slightly. “A bit cliché, isn’t it? A witch having a black cat?”

“Ooo, someone never asked about the cat,” I sing-songed. “He’s shared, for starters. Mine, hers, and apparently the entire ship’s. But he’s also part of a long-standing tradition, one that goes back further than I can probably tell you. It’s unrelated to the witch thing, although that seems to be tradition, too.”

“Most people find black cats to be bad luck,” he sniffed, making it clear that ‘most people’ probably equated to ‘superstitious idiots’ in his mind.

I shook my head and chuckled. “Not my family, not by a long shot. Black cats always seem to find us, and we always seem to have at least one. No idea why, but I can’t remember a time when a woman in my family didn’t own a black cat.” A glance showed that the archivist was waiting expectantly. “When I was three years old, my family lived in California. Tyche wasn’t even born yet. Someone dumped two newborn kittens on our doorstep, a tabby and a black one. Smokey and Dragon. Mom went that day and got the formula and bottles to nurse them, and we kept them until we had to move across country. Then we were adopted by strays, first in Arkansas, then in Washington… When we moved back to Arkansas for the last time, not a week after we moved in, a gorgeous long-haired black tom showed up on our doorstep. Shadow. He was already grown, and half feral, but he always came back to our house. Not long before he vanished for the last time, one of our other cats, Monster, had a litter of kittens. Nearly every one was black. The girl, Onyx, was our next black cat. Then I went to college, Onyx died of a very venerable old age, and on my way to class one day, a kitten screamed at me from an engine block. I fished him out, and that was the original Machiavelli. Mac is his grandson, by the way. Mac stayed with Tyche, and I ended up with first The Dread Pirate Timmy, and then Nicodemus. There were other cats, but always at least one black one.”

As I told the story, I had been walking along the edge of the room, trailing my fingers along the tops of and down the spines of the books. I glanced over my shoulder to see Worthington’s head tilted and a strong look of thought on his features. “My family is heathens,” I clarified. “As far back as we have a family tree. You have to look really hard to find any major Abrahamic religions in there, and there’s not a drop of noble blood in our veins unless you count the Vikings.”

“Vikings were quite noble,” he muttered, still lost in thought.

“Maybe that’s why we never bought into the whole ‘black cats are bad luck’ thing,” I shrugged. “Cats are cats. They eat vermin, they make good companions. Self-sufficient, not very needy. So. I need to know that you’ll get along well with Mac.”

“Wait.” He shook his head again before taking off his glasses and rubbing his eyes. “What? Why would I need to get along with your cat?”

I turned to fully face him, wide grin on my face. “Because, Mr. Worthington,” I flicked the file toward him from my datapad with a flourish. “You, sir, are my new Administrator. Congratulations.”

Finally losing all his composure, he started sputtering. “You – you cannot be serious. Did any others even apply?”

“Over a hundred, actually,” I confirmed, enjoying myself. “Forty made it past Xiomara Kalloe. Seventeen survived a second, deeper background check.” No need to mention Derek. “You, however, were the only one with a recommendation letter from my sister.”

“She doesn’t even like me,” he argued.

“Not in the criteria for the position, fortunately,” I explained. “And you’d be surprised. You aren’t afraid of her, which is significantly more impressive than you seem to realize.”

“You have clearly never taught teenagers,” he responded wryly. “Nasty little shits, they can be.”

I continued, trying not to laugh. “You’re determined, which is something she understands. But probably the most important is that you were the first person who I encountered after what happened on Level One who didn’t treat me like either a hero or a helpless victim. You saw me as a Councillor, expected me to act like one, and trusted my judgement.”

“I argued with you,” he pointed out.

“Do you not want the position?” I asked, arching a brow at him. He stopped arguing. “Even the fact that you argued with me is a point in your favor, not against it. You argued reasonably, logically. The disagreement was not with me personally, you were simply trying to get me to understand both sides of the debate. I’m not infallible, I’m human. I can be wrong, and today proves it. I can’t have someone assisting me who will agree to whatever I say just because I’m the one saying it. That way lies madness, despots, and the End.”

“I was really the best candidate?” he asked, still skeptical.

“I wasn’t part of the deliberations, so I can’t answer that honestly. But I do know that you were the one that my sister and I most approved of, based on what we knew of you. And the Council agreed on your appointment unanimously. Which means Grey Hodenson also decided, after what I understand was weeks of deliberation, that you were the best for the position. If that does not speak volumes as to your qualifications, I really don’t know what else would.”

“Huh.”

“Like I said, Administrator Worthington, congratulations.”

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#the miys #humans are weird #science fiction #aliens #humans are space orcs #original fiction #apocalypse #earth is space australia

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bramblepatch · 4 years

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the stranger who sojourns with you

(November’s featured character story from Patreon - an encounter between Pastor Rosemarie, chaplain of the salvage ship Uncertainty, and a cousin of the ship’s captain. You can support my writing and art, get behind the scenes and bonus material, and vote on what characters I write and draw next by becoming a patron!)

Rosemarie had been onboard the Uncertainty for nearly two years before Jim Meqaem ever spoke to her.

This, in itself, wasn’t really so strange. Graey Jim – as she’d been known by most of the crew ever since James “Human Jim” Chang had signed on a decade ago – wasn’t the only graey on the Uncertainty to keep her distance from the rest of the crew and associate mostly with her own family. And as far as Rosemarie was aware, all of the graeys on the ship were Jim’s family; she was a cousin of some sort to the captain of the ship, although far enough along a branch of the family that Rosemarie wasn’t sure what the exact relation was between Jim Meqaem and Captain Aem III. Common wisdom held that graeys had difficulty relating to anyone who wasn’t a direct blood relative – but then, common wisdom held that humans were criminally reckless and could survive practically anything, so perhaps common wisdom ought to be taken with a grain of salt.

Most humans, to Rosemarie’s knowledge, had never even said the words “Hold my beer and watch this,” so probably there were a good many graeys who saw aliens as something other than interesting creatures to observe in their not-so-natural environments. Rosemarie had no complaints about Aem III as a captain or as an employer. But although Rosemarie mingled easily with the rest of the crew, she rarely interacted with the captain or most members of the captain’s family on anything other than official business and she wasn’t entirely sure what Jim even did, professionally speaking, so it was a little surprising to come into the ship’s small, rather utilitarian chapel one morning and find the little alien sitting crosslegged on a bench next to the door.

To tell the truth, it took her a moment to recognize Jim. Rosemarie was good with faces, even across species – a skill she’d spent no little time cultivating – but to say that the family resemblance among House Aem was a strong one would be to dramatically understate the matter. One smooth gray-green head and set of large dark eyes looked pretty much like another, although she’d be embarrassed to admit it.

Graey Jim apparently had no such problem in recognizing the human, though. “You’re the one supposed to keep people in one piece emotionally, right?”

Rosemarie lifted a brow. Jim didn’t particularly seem like a person in crisis, although graeys in general were notoriously hard to read for most other intelligent species. Abrupt and detached was more or less their baseline. “That’s one way to put it, I guess,” the human said. “Can I help you?”

“Probably not.” The words were accompanied by a slight narrowing of those huge dark eyes, an expression that Rosemarie thought was the graey equivalent of a wry smile. Jim sobered quickly, though, as she added, “I thought probably someone should make sure you’d been told about the family-house that Three’s approved to join up on the ship, though.”

“I’m not usually involved in hiring crew or booking fares around here,” Rosemarie pointed out. Still, this seemed like it was going to be a whole conversation – not least because she couldn’t remember any graeys other than those of House Aem ever being in residence on the Uncertainty before - so she took a seat next to Jim in the back of the chapel. “Assume that I don’t know.”

Jim was, apparently, unperturbed by the admission that Rosemarie was not entirely current on whatever this was. Shipboard news? Politics? Gossip? “They’ll be in a couple of adjoining suites on Deck C. Two adults – siblings, I think – and three children. They’re a remnant house, that’s why they’re so few.”

Five individuals had struck Rosemarie as an unusually small graey family group, but… “I’m not certain what that means.”

“It means all of their House-Named heirs are dead,” Jim explained flatly. “Which usually would mean that the house would reform in place under a different name, or maybe get absorbed into a related house since there aren’t many of them? But they aren’t our cousins.”

Rosemarie frowned thoughtfully, trying to chase down the implications of this, still feeling like she was missing a rather important piece of the puzzle. “Are you worried about having an unrelated family on your house’s ship?”

“What? No, we’ve got plenty of space, and anyway I’d hardly have room to complain, huh? Orphaned childless branch-born screw-up and all,” Jim said quickly, with a dismissive wave of her hand. This seemed like kind of a lot that deserved unpacking in its own right, if you asked Rosemarie, but the graey was already barreling ahead to subjects other than her own apparently rocky standing. “No, I’m just worried about them because if House Sae Remnant can’t go to their own family or keep their old home that means that something big happened. Probably something traumatic. I don’t know what, which is also odd… a small house losing their House-Named wouldn’t be headline news or anything but I should be able to find out what happened and I haven’t been able to find anything and -”

She seemed to run out of words abruptly, and picked sheepishly at the hem of her sleeve.

“And just because the Uncertainty is safe doesn’t mean they’ll feel safe,” Rosemarie supplied.

“Yes,” Jim agreed, and the affirmation seemed both abrupt and subdued after the earlier flood of words.

The silence stretched for a moment, as the graey seemed to be collecting her thoughts again; Rosemarie didn’t hurry her. “I don’t know how to… welcome them. Support them,” Jim said eventually. “It’s not really my place? I asked Three what happened to House Sae and she just said I shouldn’t bother them. But the kids, you know? They have to be scared. And it’s just two generations, so the parents can’t be much older than I am. I think they probably just lost their own parent...”

Another, shorter pause. “And then I remembered that’s kind of why we have you around, right? Part of it, anyway. I know some of the other aliens talk to you when they’re in distress, even if they’re not part of… your… star spirit thing.”

Rosemarie couldn’t help chuckling a little. “Universal Galactic Soulism,” she supplied. “I can’t make them come talk to me, but I’ll keep an eye out for them when they get here, and offer help if they seem like they need it.”

Jim nodded once, decisively – Rosemarie wasn’t sure if that was a gesture typically used by graeys, or if Jim had picked it up from the ship’s human crew members – and got to her feet. “Thank you.”

“Of course,” Rosemarie said, and then, because she couldn’t avoid worrying a little, “If you ever want to talk about anything else, my door is open, Jim.”

The suggestion seemed to take Jim a little by surprise, but after a moment she narrowed her eyes in a smile. “I guess I might take you up on that,” she said. “Some time.”

“When you’re ready,” Rosemarie agreed.

In the meantime, she thought maybe she ought to do some review on graey psychology and family structure, though.

#writing #science fiction #unlikely uncertainty #patreon #rosemarie holt

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gascon-en-exil · 4 years

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Joining the Game Late: S3E1 “Valar Dohaeris”

Synopsis

Sam had one job. Jon gets a cold reception and meets his bear boyfriend-to-be. Bronn demands a raise. Davos is stuck on a rock, gets saved by a callback, and then screwed again by Melisandre who’s been very busy in his absence. Robb besieges a Harrenhal full of corpses. Tyrion continues to get no respect from his family. Littlefinger has a cunning plan for Sansa. Dany and her dragons love the sea - the Dothraki not so much. Margaery and Loras bring the Reach to King’s Landing, scandalizing Cersei and impressing Joffrey enough to make him somewhat civil. Dany is in the market for a paramilitary force of castrated slaves, but there’s a language barrier that everyone gets to play around. The Mother of Dragons is almost assassinated by a small child, but fortunately a callback from Season 1 rescues her.

Commentary

Season 3′s start is extremely busy, like many of the episodes of the previous season, and that’s probably not going to be changing anytime soon as the number of characters and plotlines continues to build. Thinking about it, this does make for a solid (re)introduction to how GoT operates for those coming back to the show after however long it went on hiatus between seasons, because it features a bunch of the usual: a cold open (pun intended) with ice zombies, sexposition, gratuitous violence (that is not how you do nipple play), convoluted King’s Landing intrigues, lots of time spent with the two most important protagonists Jon and Daenerys, stuff brought back from previous episodes/seasons in a more significant capacity that requires you to retroactively remember it, and as mentioned entirely too much to follow at once. I’m going to be more reasonable and pick two of them to talk about for now.

Naturally, let’s start with Westeros’s French analogues. Margaery (and also Loras, who’s just kind of there) does not disappoint in her first proper appearance in the royal court, showering the Red Keep with the bounty and relaxed fashions of the Reach while also taking time out for some politically savvy charity work that earns her some passive-aggressive sniping from Cersei - who has previously made her hatred of commoners very clear - and something weirdly like respect from Joffrey. I just love the dinner scene in general, because so much of the antagonism between Margaery and Cersei comes in the form of those sorts of backhanded compliments and double meanings*. Both women have good points, whether it’s about fashion or the wisdom of walking around unprotected in the slums of Flea Bottom, but it’s interesting to see Cersei thrown off her game by another woman for perhaps the first time. I also caught Margaery’s line that the reason they were traveling through Flea Bottom is that they were returning from the sept (read: church), and while there’s been nothing yet to determine the sincerity of her devotion this makes it delightfully easy for me to read her as a socially intelligent not!Frenchwoman using performative public piety and good works to bolster her good image with the common people and religious of King’s Landing even if she may not really care all that much about any of it. That’s a kind of deceit I don’t think Cersei is even capable of understanding.

*Another, unrelated, instance of this is when Tywin refuses to give Tyrion rule of the Lannister seat of Casterly Rock in such a way that it’s not clear if his rejection is based on Tyrion’s dwarfism or his dissolute lifestyle. Tywin thus comes off as a bigot twice over, but a politically canny one.

Over in Essos, we see the return of Dany’s hatred of slavery after a season of absence, but the way it’s handled here is...odd. Granted so much about her scenes in this episode work very well, from the camera and CGI work that contrasts Dany and her dragon vibrant and colorful on the stern of her ship with the bedraggled and seasick Dothraki spread out across the deck below her to the fun with translation and subtitles going on in the scene where Dany meets the Unsullied. Even the assassination attempt that closes out the episode by bringing back a minor character who last appeared when he was dismissed from King’s Landing in the first season comes off effectively, in large part because they don’t skimp on the necessary exposition to remind the audience of who Barristan Selmy is. Rather, what’s off about this plotline so far comes from the nature of the Unsullied and how they’re used to demonstrate to the audience the nature of Essosi slavery. In attempting to acclimate her to the idea of buying slaves, Jorah argues that Dany will be a better master for the Unsullied than their current one. Appeal to the benevolent master myth aside, this is such an unusual place to kick off the character’s reputation as a breaker of chains because the Unsullied are vastly different from slaves used as common laborers - that is, slaves who could reasonably adapt to lives as free people under a master/leader opposed to the idea of owning them. As their current master explains to Dany, the Unsullied are a fighting force subjected to physical mutilation and extreme psychological conditioning to strip from them all fear or sense of morality or desire to do anything other than loyally serve. I’m aware that at least one among them becomes a significant character later on, but even so making this Dany’s first stop on her chain-breaking tour of Essos plays perfectly into what we’ve known about her all along - that her primary motivation is and has always been returning to Westeros to take the Iron Throne that she believes to be her birthright. Now it looks like she’ll be doing it with an army whom she may nominally turn into free men and so prop up her secondary, more heroic-sounding motive, but how free could they truly be when they’ve been so broken in the name of perfect military service? I suppose I’ll have to wait and see.

Final note: Jon meets Tormund in this episode, and he’s large and hairy and I’m not seeing the appeal unless it’s a continuation of his thing with redheads. You do you, Jon Snow.

#Game of Thrones #GoT

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philcoulsonismyhero · 5 years

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Worldbuilding June, Day 5: What sorts of civilisations and architecture fill your world?

This is another big question that I’ll need to revisit, but here’s an intro to one of the distinct groups of humans that exists in my space setting:

Spacers are humans who live (pretty much) their entire lives on ships, travelling between ports and taking passengers and cargo with them or exploring beyond the edges of the Commonspace. They’ve existed pretty much since the human race started to leave Earth, although they only started to develop a unique cultural identity once the first colonies were established and groups of people took up the responsibility of providing a physical link between those colonies and Earth. The first Spacers were the postal workers, the cargo pilots and the explorers (a role they shared with the Exploration Corps) and, while the choice to spend their entire lives in space was looked on as a bit odd by a lot of people, they were respected as a vital part of this new space-based human civilisation.

As spaceship technology evolved and more and more humans moved out into space, more people from all different Earth-based cultures chose the Spacer life, including a lot of people from (or with ancestry from) traditionally nomadic groups. This has led to a melting pot culture with huge variation in traditions and sense of identity from ship to ship. Some ships are home to biological family groups, others to groups of unrelated individuals who become families in their own right, yet others to whole communities (depending obviously on the size of the ship in question). Despite their differences, however, they still hold a sense of shared identity as Spacers, holding themselves separate from those who live on planets or in space stations, although most Spacers will happily adopt individuals who weren’t born into the life into their crews, reasoning that they all started on Earth to begin with.

Part of that shared identity is a love of stories, music and other ways to entertain yourself during the long journeys with little contact with those outside your crew. They have a great oral storytelling tradition, based in part on re-tellings of centuries of fiction but also on originality and the ability to relate anecdotes from life in an entertaining way. It’s also rare to find a Spacer who isn’t comfortable with singing, and the tradition of the sea shanty lives on in their work songs. Also, a great many board and video games have been invented by Spacers with time on their hands, much to the delight of humans all over the Commonspace.

Another aspect of Spacer culture that can be traced back to the sailors and pilots of Earth is their tendency towards superstition. Long periods of time in deep space with no one to rely on but their ship and each other have led to the creation of a whole mythology of entities from the helpful to the malicious, although very frequently no two Spacers crews will agree on the details of said mythology. As with all superstitions and systems of belief, there’s a wide range of degrees to which individual Spacers believe in such things, but they make for good stories as well as common ground between people with ancestry and beliefs originating from all over Earth, and so they live on from generation to generation.

Another persistent concept that’s grown over the generations is the idea that you can’t just hire a crew. A crew is a family, something that grows organically and has to be nurtured. Anyone can crew a ship with people they’ve hired to do a job, but that doesn’t make them a Spacer. As such, young Spacers who choose to leave the ships they grew up on can often be found crewing small ships in ones or twos or small groups, building their own crews from scratch. Adjusting to living alone on a ship can be difficult after growing up surrounded by people, which is why this is by no means an obligatory life path, but young Spacers view it as a right of passage, a way of proving that they’re the sort of person who has the commitment and skills to captain their own ship. Most people who choose this route go into passenger transportation, because you never know if the next person over the boarding ramp might turn out to be someone who ends up staying...

#worldbuildingjune #personal stuff #i love the spacers they're so much fun #two of the four main human characters in the plot are spacers #one of them by birth and the other fell into the life after growing up on earth #gnarly space

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