Here's Your Yearly Reminder NOT To Purchase Bat Taxidermy Products.

what if vampires are like mosquitoes and only the ladies drink blood

make bad art or you will always feel bad about your art. Make bad art until you find joy in the crooked lines and the off colours. Make bad art because art is about expression and artwork is never ugly because it was made by someone who has lived a life no one else will ever live. Make bad art and find love through ugly. Make bad art so you make art at all. Make bad art.

I am the monster you created. ↳ Ocean Vuong, On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous

Thinking about how the two children in dunmeshi were both sold into slavery and how their enslavement differed. 

Thistle was given to the Royal Family as a trophy, a sign of status because he was an elf. Although he was doted upon and “treated as a second son,” Thistle was clearly a different race, of different stature and ultimately a companion for Delgal.

Despite being a child for the entirety of their relationship, Delgal used Thistle to vent his anxieties and worries to him. Here is an uncomfortable and tragic scene where Delgal is absolutely distraught about the death of his father, with the kingdom being taken over. And it is Thistle, the child, who was supposedly seen as a son to the king too, is comforting Delgal.

This ultimately culminates in Delgal placing the responsibility of the Kingdom’s health on Thistle (who, again, was his elf child slave.)

Kui places obvious signs the mental toll it’s taking on him, and his anxieties and worries drive him to self harm and endless stress.

(We see how Falingan recognises him as a burdened baby and hugs him 😣 so cute…)

(EDIT: This is an edited panel of Thistle! Sorry, I should have mentioned that… I think it’s cute. The original says “His Majesty will return soon, when he does, let’s have a grand celebration.” Thank you to the commenter for pointing this out.)

Thus, Thistle was shaped into a child desperate for approval from his owners, to the point that his deepest wish was to ensure the safety of the Golden Kingdom, forever freezing himself and the citizens in time. It is only towards the end of the story where Delgal realises this all happened because of the mental burden he placed on Thistle.

I believe the The Lion keeping its hold on Thistle for so many years compared to the comparitively instantaneous period it kepts Marcille/Laios is partly because of Thistle’s youth. The other Dungeon Masters became mad, yes, but Thistle was unable to ever be convinced to relinquish the book, as he was too dogmatic, too vindictive, just like the child he is.

On the flip-side, Let’s compare Izutsumi. Like Thistle, she has no idea where she came from as she was sold into sorcery and slavery. While Thistle’s trauma came from the emotional abuse suffered by his owners, Izutsumi’s was very physical. She is part cat, part human, thus a beast man.

Izutsumi is even sold to Toshiro’s family as part of his all-female guard, and as a result of her escape attempts she is also cursed to never be able to escape them. Unlike Thistle, Izutsumi absolutely abhors the violation of her body, as well as her lack of freedom. She not only wants to escape slavery, but wants to lift her Beast-man curse and go back to being a human.

It makes it sadder when Izutsumi eventually discovers that it is impossible for her to life the curse. This is because she is a cat who had a child’s soul imbued into her, and removing the curse would remove her personality and revert her into an animal. This implies that the person who trafficked her murdered her human-child self to do so.

Despite this, Izutsumi is the complete opposite of Thistle. She is rebellious, unshakeable, and extremely self centred. All of this is a result of a life where she’s had to fend for herself. However, just like Thistle, she is still childish in her wants and needs and thoughts. While Thistle took on the responsibility the entire fate of the kingdom, Izutsumi wants nothing more than to do whatever she likes.

Whereas Thistle was a status trophy for the royal human family, Izutsumi was a sick science experiment for a trafficker.

Izutsumi is never able to remove the physical effects of what her traffickers did to her, and spent her life fending for her freedom, so she struggles to understand why anyone would take on unpleasant tasks or selfless responsibilities.

She’s also very inept at doing things like emotionally comforting her big sister figure (compare this scene to how Thistle comforts Derghal.) She hates emotional physicality, doesn’t crave approval, but like a cat, and like a child, she craves warmth of another when she sleeps (so cute!)

Meanwhile, Thistle is never able to shake off the emotional effects of what his traffickers did to him, and spent a millennia desperately clawing his way towards their demands to appease them, and struggles to ever stop for a moment and think, “I’m a child, why is this my responsibility?”

There is one thing that they have in common though — it’s that they entirely refuse to depend on others. That’s so tragic for two children to think. ☹️ This concludes my analysis of the two most prominent children in Dunmeshi.

(Sorry I didn’t put more Izutsumi panels, theres a ten photo limit..)

Having a Laios moment but thinking about the implications of Izutsumi. Do you think she could squeeze into impossibly smaller cracks? Like how cats can? And I wonder what her flexibility is compared to other tall men. lol I’m just imagining her forcing her way through the underside of a door

From how she moves I think she has above average flexibility for a tallman, I think possibly she works like a cat (if the head passes the rest of the body can too)

Speaking of cats the way they flip in the air is really interesting!

"The photos revealed that the cats turn over by twisting around the middle and rotating the front and back halves separately. By controlling the amount each part turns, they’re able achieve a net rotation while still keeping their total angular momentum constant."

Is this what Izutsumi is doing here? Her front does rotate first and is followed by her legs <3 (thought she wasn't upside down she fixes her position midair very well)

also look at this gif from wikipedia

Why Feeding Wildlife is Dangerous

Originally posted on my blog at https://rebeccalexa.com/feeding-wildlife-dangerous/

Winter is here in the Northern Hemisphere, which means that wild animals of all sorts are falling back on cold weather adaptations that have evolved over countless generations. Some, like reptiles and amphibians, go into brumation or other hibernation-like states. Others have warm feathers or fur to insulate them as they go about their lives in chilly conditions. They may migrate around their territory in search of various food sources. Not all will survive these harsh months, which makes feeding wildlife to help them through the hard times a tempting idea.

Unfortunately, while this is a kind-hearted act born of good intentions, the impact is all too often harmful. Here are a few of the damaging, even deadly, effects of feeding wildlife.

First, let’s be a little more nuanced about the definition of wildlife in this case. I support the feeding of birds, at least those that commonly visit bird feeders. These birds are of species that are used to their food sources–like seeds, berries, and insects–being temporary, and so they retain their ability to forage for food in various places. Also, because the birds are not being fed by hand, and tend to retain their natural fear of humans, they are not likely to become habituated to us. It should go without saying that trying to convince birds to eat from your hand, or otherwise stop being afraid of you, is a bad idea (more about that in a minute.) And, of course, you need to make sure to keep your feeders clean and watch your local birds very carefully for any signs of disease; here’s an article I wrote on feeding birds safely and ethically. 

Wild mammals, on the other hand, have a tendency to become dependent on human sources of food much more readily than birds. If you leave food scraps, pet food, or trash out where they can access it, they quickly figure out that this is an easy meal, and will hang around more than birds might.

Some birds will be more easily habituated than others; ducks and geese, for example, will lose their fear of humans as quickly as mammals do, especially when being fed regularly at ponds or lakes. So consider this article to primarily cover wild mammals, waterfowl, and any other animal that can be easily habituated through feeding.

A good example of what NOT to do. 

Habituation is the biggest behavior change seen in fed wildlife. A habituated animal is simply one that no longer fears humans, and sees us as a source of food handouts. Unlike normal, healthy wildlife, these animals do not run away when a human approaches, even at a close distance. As mentioned above, this means they may even become aggressive in seeking food, and people have been bitten, scratched, gored, or otherwise injured by habituated animals. It may be easy to see why a habituated bear or moose is dangerous, but even smaller animals like squirrels or raccoons have a very nasty, painful bite or scratch. Some also carry zoonotic diseases that can be passed to humans; rabies is the most notorious, but even a bacterial infection caused by the bite or scratch can be an unpleasant experience.

But this lack of fear isn’t just a threat to us. It also puts the wildlife at risk. Wild mammals that wander through our neighborhoods in search of food are more likely to be hit by cars, attacked by outdoor dogs or cats, and injured or killed by cruel humans. If hunting is allowed in the area, the animal may walk right up to a hunter. Plus wild animals that become a nuisance or threat to people are sometimes euthanized, as relocated animals often end up finding their way back to their original territory, or go find a new group of humans to mooch off of.

Feeding wildlife can also cause them to cease natural foraging behaviors. Not only does this mean they may starve if the humans in the area stop feeding them, but they don’t teach their young proper foraging either, and so you may have animals several generations down the line that no longer know how to find natural food sources in the area.

Also, what we're feeding wildlife can kill them.

So here’s the thing: humans are omnivores. Actually, we’re sort of super omnivores; we have one of the most varied diets of any species, especially now that we’re able to grow all sorts of domesticated crops, including but not limited to two dozen cultivars of wild mustard (Brassica oleracea), various and sundry grains, legumes, tubers, etc. And because we’ve spread all throughout the planet, we’ve successfully sampled thousands upon thousands of edible animals, plants, and fungi. We’ve managed to evolve tolerances to substances some plants produce to keep from being eaten, like caffeine and capsaicin, and some of us go out of our way to seek them. We’ve also heavily altered some of our foods through cooking, to include some methods that render the food quite unhealthy even for us (not that that stops us from eating it anyway.)

All of this means that over 300,00 years of existence, Homo sapiens has evolved the ability to eat a truly mind-boggling array of foods. Unfortunately, even the other omnivores in our lives can’t necessarily tolerate the foods we eat. Domestic dogs evolved alongside us, eating first our refuse, and then sharing our meals, for thousands of years. Yet they still can’t safely eat chocolate, avocado, onions, or grapes, and some things we’ve created like the artificial sweetener xylitol can also be harmful–even deadly–to dogs.

So when you put out a plate of table scraps for your local squirrels, opossums, raccoons, or even bears, there’s a very good chance that something there is going to make them sick. You could even be sentencing one of your visitors to death! Even if they don’t immediately get sick, over time eating the wrong foods could seriously affect the health of wildlife, and may lead to sickness and an earlier, unpleasant death.

Sometimes, even something that seems like the “right” food can be deadly. Deer species in North America are adapted to eating lots of woody vegetation in winter; their gut microbiome is perfectly balanced to digest this tough food. However, some people like to feed them corn, either because they want to be nice, or because they want to hunt the deer. Unfortunately, the nutritional makeup of corn is very different from the deer’s winter fare. The carbohydrates in the corn can cause a condition called rumen acidosis. This overloading of carbs causes Streptococcus bacteria, which occur naturally in the deer’s chambered stomach, to overpopulate in a matter of hours. This raises the acidity of the stomach, and kills off many of the other microbes in the gut flora. This sudden imbalance essentially causes the stomach to stop digestion altogether. In a severe enough case, the deer dies a horribly painful death within twenty-four hours. Deer that survive often have permanently damaged stomachs, which can lead to worse health overall and a shortened lifespan.

Every ecosystem has adapted over thousands of years; in some cases, an ecosystem may be millions of years old (with some changes in species makeup, of course.) Over that time, species have evolved to keep each other’s numbers in check, whether through consuming each other, competing for resources, or spreading disease to other species as well as their own. One of the biggest limiting factors in a species’ habitat is the amount of food that’s available. You’ll generally have fewer large predators in a place than large herbivores, for example, because the land can support a lot more plants to feed herbivores than herbivores to feed carnivores.

So the ecosystem is able to keep its species in balance; any time a species begins to overpopulate, predation, starvation and disease tend to knock the numbers back. Some species even have “boom or bust” population cycles; lemmings, for example, are thought to have population fluctuations tied to the number of ermine preying on them in a given area.

But when we humans artificially change the availability of food in a given place, we can cause serious disruptions in these natural checks and balances. Put too much food in a place over time, and you end up with overpopulations of the animals that eat that food, with subsequent deaths from disease due to overcrowding, and starvation when the population inevitably outgrows even the artificially added food.

By John Davis, CCA-2.0

Speaking of disease, when feeding wildlife many people just dump the food in the same place every day or night, whether that’s pet bowls, a trash can, or a feeding site. This causes wildlife to congregate in unnaturally large numbers and on a regular basis, which again leads to increased disease transmission. Keep in mind that wildlife don’t have veterinarians they can just go to when sick, so you end up with wild animals dying some pretty slow, awful deaths due to these diseases. (And yes, this can happen with birds–again, why it is so incredibly important to properly clean your feeders regularly!)

I know it’s tempting to entice wildlife closer, and to want to help them through tough times. But it is incredibly important to keep a firm boundary between us and wild animals. We’ve already interfered in their lives and their behaviors enough. The more we meddle, the more harm we do to them, even if our intentions were good.

But wildlife are not pets. They are their own beings with their own lives and agendas, instincts and territories. They are, as Henry Beston wrote in The Outermost House, “not brethren, they are not underlings: they are other nations, caught with ourselves in the net of life and time, fellow prisoners of the splendour and travail of the earth.” And we respect them best when we give them their space and allow them to live as wild a life as possible in a world we have so dramatically changed.

If you want to create the best world for your local wildlife, create habitat and natural food sources for them. Remove invasive species, and plant more native plants, especially those that offer food and shelter to wildlife. (The native plant finder is a great starting point for those in the US.) Work to protect what wildlife habitat is left, especially habitats that are relatively undamaged like old-growth forests. This way you are helping to maintain space where these species can live the lives they have lived for many thousands of years without our interference.

Did you enjoy this post? Consider taking one of my online foraging and natural history classes, checking out my other articles, or picking up a paperback or ebook I’ve written! You can even buy me a coffee here!

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Uff da I need to make somethin worth sharing again

i think there’s something to be said for the circumstances that izutsumi was brought in under, as her backstory isn’t entirely clear about whether she was even meant to be trained as a retainer. shuro’s father comes to maizuru acting like he got izu for her as a pet, and i think that colors a lot of the way she’s treated. the others probably think of keeping and training her as a retainer like the others as a unique privilege they’re granting her in spite of what she is, while she just wants to go back to a home she can’t remember

Since she has given a new name and trained in ninja arts just like the others I assumed she was the same type of servant. They do have ranks and Izutsumi is the lowest ranking of them (she has no mole tattoo and Tade only has one) but she seems to be treated about the same as Tade. The difference in Izu's treatment seem to be because she's a beastman and because she tried to escape.

Hien is their team leader I imagine that's why she scolds Izu here.

Still not a great situation they're in. But yes it seems like they think of the bare minimum they do for Izu as big privilege that she should be thankful for. And yet they put a cursed collar on her so she can't leave this "good life" LMAO

If Izutsumi only has a 'bit' of human soul where's the rest of it? Dead and gone? She doesn't suffer for the lack of it, so it doesn't seem like people need their whole soul. Could someone even take the piece she's missing and stuff it into another monster??

Well, this is gonna be a lot of speculation and very little facts, so beware (will never forget you anon who said I posted my opinions without clarifying it was speculation)

My theory is that in dungeon meshi bodies and souls have some sort of relationship? After all Marcille used the dragon's flesh to resurrect Falin and that cause part of its soul to be mixed in with hers, and at the end to get rid of his soul so Falin could be brought back without being a chimera they ate it's flesh and ground up it's bones so plants would absorb it. So I think it's safe to say there's some relationship between body and soul, at least inside the dungeon where resurrection is possible.

If we take Izutsumi's timeline as a basis, she was a 6yo child when she was taken from her parent's and turned into a beastmen (you could argue that it was a 6yo monster but Izutsumi's ages like a tallman so I doubt only here it would be referring to the monster)

So she was a small child fused with a big monster, so maybe that in itself is why there's way more monster?

The other possibility is that only part of the child was fused with the monster, or perhaps they did take the soul out of her body to put it in the monster, maybe like how ghosts that don't have a body might posses someone that dies and is resurrected and their souls are fused??

But here she only talks about the "personality" changing not their appearance, I really think beastmen and chimera fusions where parts of each show up in the final form makes more sense if their bodies (along with the soul) is fused too? But I'm just speculating.

Anyway, two possibilities

The (whole) child was fused with a much bigger monster and that's why it's the smaller part

The child killed and then only part of her (or her soul) was fused with the monster

Very fucked up either way, about your question if there could be two izutsumis made from the soul of the same child I doubt it, if we take resurrection as an example I don't think they can "divide" the human soul in two different beings? Same as how they couldn't separate part of the dragon soul away from Falin's without before consuming it's flesh? So maybe they burned the rest of the child's body to get rid of the rest of her soul in that second possibility

The AB comic about resurrection says you can't really bring back someone from pieces even if you try to resurrect all of them, so I'd ASSUME that's true for trying to use the same soul for different beings

Anyway these are my thoughts, I love Izutsumi's backstory is so fucked up and tragic... what was done to her is horrible.