The Ultimate Use Of The Diplomacy Pouch

Everyone’s talking about House Martins and their fuzzy pants, so I painted over them to make them into griffons. The Common House Griffon (original photo credit is to Steve Robinson)

Whenever people see an intelligent animal with a witch, there is a common assumption that it is the witches familiar. And while true, many of them are simply magical animal helpers… 

Others are actually young witch babies.

Since witches have no womb and are a byproduct of wild magic, whenever a witch wishes for a child they might one day find a young animal lingering around the house, much like receiving a familiar. An easy way to tell the difference between a youngling and a familiar, however, is that once bonded a familiar will soon begin speaking thereafter. Younglings will not develop speech until much later in their development.

The 2 year mark is when familiar and youngling dimorphism begins. While familiars will simply grow into an adult animal, younglings will enter into a “troll” stage, in which they will develop traits that separate them from ordinary creatures but do not yet resemble a human. It is towards the end of this stage that they will begin saying words, and simple sentences. Minor jinx magic is to be expected.

The “troll” stage will last for ~5 years, and the next stage can happen anytime within the next 3-6 following years. They will encounter a sudden “growth spurt,” where they will suddenly come into distinctly human shapes, while still retaining vestigial traits from their troll years. This transformation can happen overnight, or take over a year to complete. They can begin practicing simple spell magic at this point.

Finally, usually around the 18 year mark, they will fully shed any last vestigial traits, and appear as any other mature witch.

spent a whole day to animate this small clip from “CHURCH” animatic made by @toastyhat …I liked this sequence so much and I might do another small part as well XD

More dumb cross-fandom nerdery: D&D warforged with Culture ship names.

I don’ think this is true in any way shape or form, but I thought it was funny.

I don’t think anime vs western animation are as different as people claim due to the fact they have inspired and fed off each other for decades (they’re friends!!), however I do think our environmental messages to kids are… significantly and interestingly different

whereas, say Ghibli films express a deep Shinto-based respect and reverence for nature:

fighting for it as a means of both self-preservation and expression of heroism revolving around justice

and a matter of other groups of humans (the government often) going up against the stalwart youth

This is contrasted to western animation which tends to be like…. hey! look at this funny bat! And pollution is an evil spirit you can fight like physically 

that isn’t to say the west doesn’t depict environmentalism as heroic and even involving collective action, Captain Planet is a good example of this

but individualism is still very present, the struggle is stalwart youths versus an individual or individual corporation, hell, sometimes you even get a sympathetic backstory for the corporation and weirdly cool rock song

to be clear, antagonists like Lady Eboshi in Princess Mononoke are sympathetic too, but it is… different, Lady Eboshi is trying to survive due to circumstances but it is all of Irontown that represents a system of corruption

In comparison, there is this western idea of corruption coming from individuals rather than systems as well as the fact they aren’t trying to save nature because we are part of it, but because nature itself is a person and thus worthy of respect

In Fern Gully the fairy’s represent nature, the Lorax represents nature, Captain Planet is literally just nature, all things we can talk to and relate to, where in Princess Mononoke and Nausicaa the ultimate nature spirits are something you can’t talk to and are frankly terrifying, awe-inspiring, and mighty

Western epistemology is heavily rooted in Christianity which says that man has dominion over fish of the sea, fowl of the air, and creatures of the land, ect, which leads to a utilitarian and separate view of nature– what can it do for us as separate (higher) beings, and the only way to combat this view is to say “actually nature is a person and thus worthy of protection”

Whereas Japanese Shintoism has much more emphasis on the idea that we are all part of a whole with nature, nature is the ultimate divine with nothing more important than the other, and something worthy of protection not because we can understand it, but because we can’t

“It’s a mistake to think about nature from the idea of efficiency, that forests should be preserved because they are essential to human beings”– Hayao Miyazaki

this is not to completely bash western animation, it does have other strengths such as emphasizing children’s relationship to empathy, empathy toward others in “Toy Story” and empathy toward themselves in “Inside Out” 

However, our methods of conveying environmentalism could use some updating and steering away from “goofy” and “relatable” and maybe a little more terror and awe involved with fighting the good fight

a student at the high school my sister attends threatened to shoot up the place yesterday

both the authorities and the school know who it is

do you know what precautions they took?

they don’t have him in custody, or even under any watch as far as i know

they banned him from attending school until their investigation is finished and made him (a minor) sign a letter promising not to go through with it

classes are being held like normal today

the only thing between him and that school is a flimsy piece of paper

my sister stayed home today

theyre disease-proof mutants that treat diseases of all kinds (including magical ones) the girls are separated into different specialties after training, as follows:

Crows- specialize in treating non-magical ailments of the common folk and prevent spread with the help of vultures. Are generally better at triage than other plague doctors

Owls- specialize in treating magical illnesses. The owls are who you call when the whole village has been put under a curse

Eagles- better at long-term treatment plans for individuals rather than huge outbreaks. Have sweets on hand at all times for bratty nobles

Vultures- Ensure a disease, magical or not, doesn’t spread by any means possible  

other characteristics of plague doctors from their mutations include: -living for less time than your standard person -unusual ability in magic or physical strength (sometimes both) -endurance -a lot of love to give

i learned that Binghamton University researchers have been working on a self-healing concrete that uses a specific type of fungi as a healing agent. When the fungus is mixed with concrete, it lies dormant until cracks appear, when spores germinate, grow and precipitate calcium carbonate to heal the cracks (x)

Spent the morning listening to MCDM’s campaign premiere! It was really intense!!!!

My thanks to Anna for gifting us with this Sassy Evil Boi. 10/10, would praise Asmodeus under his intimidating gaze.