Duck hunting pontoon

Four Iroquois Hunters
Once, not long ago, four Iroquois hunters spent the winter together trapping in the north. They had good luck.
When they brought their furs to the trading post at the end of the season, they had more than enough to buy all the things they needed for their families.
In fact, there was just enough left over to buy a new rifle.
They had a problem.
Although they hunted and trapped together as brothers, for all of them belonged to the Bear Clan, they did not live together.
One hunter was from the Nundawaono, the People of the Great Hill, the Seneca.
His home was to the west.
One was from the Gueugwehono, the People of the Mucky Land, the Cayuga.
His home was to the south near the marshes by the long lakes.
One was from the Onundagaono, the People on the Hills, the Onondaga. His place was in the very centre of the lands of the Great League.
One was from the Ganeagaono, the People of the Flint, the Mohawks.
His home was to the east. Now that they had finished trapping, each would be returning home.
It was easy to divide provisions among four people, but how could they divide the rifle? Finally it was decided.
The man who told the tallest story about hunting would take the gun home.
The Mohawk hunter spoke first.
“A man was walking along.
He had been hunting all day, but his mind wasn’t on his hunting.
He’d used up all of the bullets for his old muzzle loader without hitting anything.
As he walked, he ate some cherries he had picked. Eat one, spit the stone into his hand.
Eat one spit the stone into his hand. Then he saw, right in front of him, a big, big deer.
But he had no bullets left. He thought quickly.
He poured powder into the gun, took the cherry seeds, loaded them and fired at the deer’s head.
The deer fell down, but it got right up again and ran away.
“Some years later that same hunter went out again hunting in the same place.
Again he had no luck. Near the end of the day he saw at the edge of a clearing a tall tree covered with ripe cherries.
Ah, this man thought.
At least I can eat some cherries.
So he put his gun down and began to climb up into the tree.
He had reached the lower branches when the tree began to shake back and forth and the hunter had to hold on with both hands.
Then the tree lifted straight up into the air and he was thrown out.
He looked up from the ground and saw that the tree was growing from between the antlers of a huge deer which shook its head one more time and then ran away into the forest.
And that,” said the Mohawk hunter, “is my story.”
Now it was the turn of the Onondaga hunter.
“One time my uncle was out hunting. He had only one shot left in his gun and he wanted to make it count.
He came to a stream where he saw a duck swimming back and forth, back and forth.
Just in front of the duck there was a large trout and it was leaping from the water to catch flies, leaping, leaping, leaping.
On the other side of the stream there stood a deer.
It had its head up and it was standing still, sniffing the wind. Further back on a small hill was a bear up on its hind legs, scratching its paws on a tree, up and down, up and down.
My uncle got down on his belly.
He crawled close to the stream, took careful aim and waited.
When everything was just right and the trout jumped again he pulled the trigger.
His bullet went through the trout and killed the duck.
It ricocheted off the water and struck the deer.
It went through the deer and killed the bear.
My uncle was a good shot. The amazing thing–I know you will find this hard to believe–is that when he went to skin the bear he turned it over and found it had fallen on a fox and killed it.” The Onondaga hunter paused for breath.
“And that fox had a fat rabbit in its mouth.”
The Cayuga hunter was next.
“Many seasons ago my grandfather was out hunting and saw a deer.
He started to chase it so he could get closer for a better shot, but he ran so fast he went right past the deer.
When the deer saw my grandfather go by him, it got scared.
It turned around, jumped as hard as it could and sailed right over a stream.
My grandfather jumped too but when he got halfway over the stream he saw he couldn’t make it to the other side so he turned around in mid-air and jumped back.
By now the deer hid behind a hill on the other side of the stream so my grandfather couldn’t see it anymore.
“Now my grandfather was angry. He wasn’t going to let that deer get away! He put his gun between little maple trees and bent the barrel.
The he aimed and shot.
The bullet curved right around the hill and struck the deer.
“When my grandfather saw the fallen deer he got real excited.
It was as if it was the first deer he’d ever shot.
He started to skin it right away,
But the dear wasn’t dead. Just when my grandfather reached the horns and was about to pull the skin off, the dear jumped up and began to run around.
My grandfather tried to grab the deer, but it was too slippery.
He chased it around and around.
Then the skin got caught on the bark of a hickory tree.
The dear backed off and pulled real hard and the skin came right off over its horns!
The deer ran away, leaving my grandfather with nothing but its skin.
” The Cayuga hunter looked up and look a deep breath. “
And if you don’t believe my story, you can just go to my grandfather’s lodge.
That skin is still hanging there.”
Now only the Seneca hunter was left.
He looked around at the other three.
Then he smiled and shook his head.
“Wah-ah,” he said, “I am sorry.
None of us Senecas ever tell tall stories about hunting.”
The other three hunters looked at each other.
Then, without another word, they handed him the gun.

Little Author's Note up here since it was missed in the last chapter by some people: I don't approve of anyone "narrating" or using my story for their youtube channels or whatever as it makes me uncomfortable. I’ve been getting messages whenever I post a chapter asking the same thing and I keep saying no. If you see this story on youtube or elsewhere, I didn’t approve of it or give them my permission to do so.
Also I hope you enjoy this chapter, I had some difficulty writing it, so it’s probably not my best quality.
Cerelia, Altrin Female, Captain of The Opal Star
I smirk at my wrist data pad as I can see Triwt is basically hunting and chasing down the remaining pirates while expertly leading them to me for a trap.
“Triwt, you know me so well.” I say with a fully smug tone as I ready my rifle and prepare to open fire.
Not yet
The footsteps are getting louder.
Not yet…
The footsteps, given how good my hearing is, have now rounded the corner and there’s a shriek of terror.
“Boys! Turn back and save your damn Captain! The damn girl has me!”
I can’t help but smirk, it seems the ugly bastard did come aboard the ship. What’s better is that Triwt has grabbed him, leaving the remaining 4 pirates not looking this way.
Now.
Triwt, Female Valis-Trobat Hybrid, Security Commander
I’m slightly annoyed as I have to constantly dodge and weave going through the corridor. These dumbasses aren’t even aiming where they're shooting. I quickly duck low to the ground to dodge a barrage of plasma bolts, when I hear the one thing I was looking forward to. Click click click…
Silence follows the clicking of empty TOR’s besides the frantic running. It’s then replaced by one of the pirates, not the Captain, shrieking as she runs ahead of the others in a panic. In no sense am I a sadistic person, but however in this situation, I might have smiled a bit to her reaction as I pick up the pace and quickly enter melee range.
Hm, maybe we can afford one prisoner…
I see the corner coming up as I whip my body around and grab the Captain with my tail.
EWWWW He’s all slimy and mucusy! Goddess this is worse than Jordan Cores bleeding on my fur. EWWW!!!
“Boys! Turn back and save your damn Captain! The damn girl has me!”
Despite my own internal hatred of the sensation of having to get that gross slime like mucus on my tail of all things, I still pull the Captain back as they round the corner looking back at me as they abandon their captain. I give them a wave right before a hail of gunfire shreds through them, leaving only a fine mist.
I’m surprised Cerelia is allowed to even own such a modified weapon. I can’t even shoot it while holding it with all 4 of my arms due to the recoil! She says it’s registered as a ceremonial weapon. I suppose a sudden funeral is a ceremony in itself.
I smirk at the thought before returning my attention to this gross captain wrapped up in my tail.
Cerelia, Altrin Female, Captain of The Opal Star
I let out a relaxed sigh as I released the trigger from my grip. I don’t particularly enjoy battle, but there seems to be something within my own instincts that triggers dopamine at the end of a battle.
Probably something to do with Altrins being a hunter race before we were modern and spacefaring. Might have to ask a historian about that, if not at the very least a psychologist.
I lower my rifle as Triwt slithers down the hall, her fur was undeniably red in a few spots where it came into contact with Jordan’s blood, but it was mostly on her uniform. She keeps going with the Alcoranth Captain being dragged along by her tail, already bound up and gagged.
“I can deal with the blood of Jordan Cores, but take this bastard away from me before I slit his throat for getting mucus on my tail.”
Oh, she is pissed. She’s just doing a good job at mostly containing it.
I nod before speaking, “Just knock him out for now and we’ll put him in a cryopod or something. His slime-like excretions from his skin might make him an easy flight risk since we can assume he can slip out of handcuffs and other bindings fairly easily.”
Triwt nods at me and uses a Stun Baton to knock him out for now after hitting him with probably more volts than regulated.
I suppose it’s better than bashing his head against the wall until he passes out.
The remaining guards who were left with me take the now prisoner captain away from Triwt and begin transporting him to a cryopod room meant for emergencies like if the ship’s thrusters were to stop working and we’re years away from rescue.
We could just set up an SOS frequency broadcast and then put everyone in cryo until rescue arrives. But now, it’s a makeshift prison for a cowardly pirate.
Now… for the real battle in all of this. The battle on the inside.
Lys, Verkrawn Male, Fauna Research Specialist
Silence. Well, except my ears are ringing from the sound of gunfire that has now stopped.
I take in a shaky breath in what feels like the first time in forever. Everything is shaking now that the fighting seems to have stopped. It seems I’m not the only one who was holding their breath for so long as other crew members near me seemed to breathe in, while a few start to break down crying.
We’re not fighters like security, Triwt, or Cerelia. Most of us had never seen people die, to say the least how brutal it was to see how Jordan Cores attacked the Alcoranth. I feel my face with my clawed hands and feel the warm liquid of my tears running down my face.
When did I start crying?
The realization hit me like a powerloader as it’s my turn to break down crying, my own legs failing me as they shook before I found myself weeping on the floor as the thoughts and emotions flooded my head with what happened and how terrible this was. I keep crying as I feel the large paw of my older sister as she slowly sits me up and holds me in a warm embrace. It makes me think about when I was younger. The days when she and I were in the orphanage. She used to hold me just like this after she would chase away the older kids who would be mean to me. I still remember some of the things she’d say to them.
“I don’t care if a Verkawn’s scales can deflect most bullets, he still has feelings!” The first thing she ever said to the bullies as she chased them off. It was also the day I met her. She had lost her family due to a Slaver raid on the colony world she was living on at the time. She didn’t tell me much about it, and I doubt she would tell me even today, but she always called me her little brother, so I started calling her my older sister. It’s been like that since.
I keep crying until it’s more of a sniffle as I slowly return the embrace.
“They will never hurt you like they hurt me, Lys.” She whispers to me before slowly turning her attention to the crew members with a sad expression. “Nor any of you. Oh, none of this was ever supposed to happen.”
“Y-You can’t predict pirates, Cerelia”
“I know, but they got so close to hurting and enslaving you. I failed to keep you all safe.”
“Cerelia, we’re fine. No one got hurt physically. We should probably just go to the nearest planetary city, maybe see some therapists and psychologists while the ship gets repaired.”
Cerelia nods as she thinks about what I said.
“Yeah, but what about the furless beast? What are we supposed to do about it?” A member says as everyone was slowly coming to grips that they are alive and well. “Are we just going to keep it here? Who knows if it’ll attack us again like it did to Lys or that Alcoranth on the floor there!?”
“He was scared!” Cerelia counters, with a hint of personal anger in her tone. “He couldn’t understand us and was only trying to escape because he thought he was in danger!”
“He was in danger? He is the danger for all I’ve seen!” They countered as I felt like shrinking down and hiding away, before a bit more of an emotional burning sensation rose up in me.
“Shut up!” I suddenly snapped. Silence follows as they wait for me to say something. I have never raised my voice.
“Sure, they found us in here because Jordan Cores had a chip on him, but he didn’t know about it! Not only that, but he at least protected us from that psychopath, breaking his own body and getting shot before doing so! You haven’t even had time to interact with him. While my interactions with him were brief, I could at least tell that he was scared and that he was sorry!” I huff as I silently cry again as I look at both Cerelia and the crew member. I think their name is R’dorn. They’ve always been brash and rude, so I had a tendency to avoid them.
R’dorn looks at me annoyed, but as they are seemingly unable to come up with a good counter argument, they storm out of the safe room.
I look at Cerelia and Triwt before sighing and sitting down. “Sorry…”
“It’s alright, you kinda said what we were all thinking.” Someone says as they place a wing on me. “That, and R’dorn needs to shut up every now and then.” There’s sounds of agreement before it becomes a group embrace of comfort. Much different to huddling in fear.
“So wait, where is Jordan Cores now? Is he okay?”
“He’s in Med Bay 07’s only regeneration pod. He’s going to be fine, but it won’t be a while until he’s out due to his injuries.” Triwt responds as she slithers to the entrance of the room. “How about everyone gets cleaned up, or takes a hot shower to calm their nerves, and in about 2 hours time, we can see how Jordan Cores is holding up?”
That sounds like a good idea. To wash away the stress and some time to think, it sounds super nice.
I let out a sigh and nod. “Yeah, that sounds good to me… I’ll be there then. I guess if everyone else wants to show up, you can as well? Not like I can stop you or force you to, but the suggestion is there. Just trying to be considerate.”
With that, I stand up and I’m escorted back to my room to try and freshen up and clear my head.
And that is chapter 9! I was personally a little bit of mental and emotional wreck while writing because sometimes I don't know what I'm doing. At least that's how it feels. Gonna try and do some experimenting as I kinda want to explore some places now as we’ve been stuck on The Opal Star since the very beginning. So what are we feeling? A desert world, tropical world, or maybe a world that’s high in gravity, but Jordan seems to be just fine? Let me know your thoughts, ideas, and suggestions below, and thank you so much for reading!
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Homesteading, gardening, horses, chickens, veggies, ducks, spinning, fiber arts, bees, pigs, cows, horses, hunting, big family, homeschooling. We do not raise all of our own food but we have done quite a lot over the years

Hey all, I was talking to someone at a gun show, and they said there is a dinner coming up - would be east bay to Sacramento-ish area. Can't remember the organization (wasn't Ducks Unlimited) .
Any help?

Longer post today. My life took a really big turn for the worse last year around November. I got assaulted and lost some teeth. I spent a bunch of money to get them fixed. This all happened right in the middle of a move. I had to take off some time on the mats. However, when I got back, my ducks were absolutely not in a row. I was working a shitty job where I broke even had no spending money whatsoever and couldn't afford classes. I had barely seen any of my friends in almost a year. I had just started a new relationship. I was on the hunt for a new job.
One thing that I noticed when I got injured and had to take time off the mats was how depressed I got. It wasn't so much that I missed training which I absolutely did, but it was more so that I realized how little I had going on in my life outside of BJJ. It was my social life, my exercise, my reason to eat healthy, my reason to to travel, and every waking moment of the day, I was constantly thinking about jiu jitsu. Getting injured and being forced to take time away from the mats realized that in one moment everything I lived for could be taken from me in a flash. So I took a few months to get a better job, maintain my new relationship, visit my friends, and overall just make sure I have a life to come back to when I leave the mats.
So tonight I'm going back to the mats for the first time in 3 months. From what I've read, no one is going to be mad at me, no one is going to demand an explanation. No. Most people are just going to be happy to see me back and ready to train with me again. I'm not in bad shape, but I'm not in BJJ shape anymore. What is the best way to get back into the swing of things? I went from training 4/5 days a week sometimes twice a day and competing regularly to zero. Have any of you been through something similar? Regardless, I'm going back today and it honestly feels like I'm going to class for the first time again.

Things have been busy here so I thought I would catch up on our two latest race adventures.
It's time for another race, so I hook up to the trailer and bring it to work. The Miata has been in the enclosed trailer since I ran it through the Christmas parade, but now it is time to wake it from it's winter slumber and start preparing it for Barber, our 10th 24 Hours of Lemons race.
The car should not need much as we ran nearly flawless at the last race at Road America. We had one spin and the wing mounts broke but that was about it.
I get it to the shop and we hurry up and start in. I already have one bay tied up with the next car we are building (more on that later, it is epic) and can't afford to tie up a second during business hours. Youngest jumps in and rebuilds the entire wing assembly. Manny comes by and drives the car to his place and keeps it there until a few more parts come in. It's a block or two away from the shop, we can nearly see it from the front sidewalk. No plates, no insurance, no problem.
Next we change out the brake pads, front rotors, front brake hoses and rear pads. We also change the timing belt after a debate on exactly how many race hours the old one has. Change the oil and the car is ready to load.
Racerguy comes down and we leave out Thursday night. I am driving a little fast as the website shows the gates close at 9 and our gps says we are expected to get there at 9.01. A quick fuel stop and a brisket sandwich at Buccees off I65 in Alabama and we are rolling on through the night.
Finally we get to Barber Motorsports park in Leeds Alabama. Just before 9pm we get in line and get signed in. The team ahead of us is just realizing they lost a wheel off their enclosed sometime on their tow in. The way I was driving before we stopped for fuel I could have lost the car out the back like in the movie Cars and not noticed. Luckily everything seems to be in one piece, we give everything a check over and drop the trailer and head off to the hotel which is thankfully just across the street from the entrance to the track.
The next morning we are up early. No Gill this race as he has had foot surgery and is out of commission, which means we are sorely missing his cooking skills. So we take advantage of the breakfast at the hotel and head over to the track. After we unload the car we have a discussion which ends with us moving across the paddock to the far side as the side we have had for the last few years is shorter and we can't park the trailer in that area as the new trailer is about ten foot longer than the old open trailer.
After the first of two drivers meetings of the weekend (many tracks do the practice day and hold their own drivers meeting to explain their own rules, then the next day Lemons runs the race and has their drivers meeting) we load a driver in the car and send him out to practice. Rinse and repeat until we have sent all the drivers out for a few laps.
By then it is time for inspections. First off all the tech inspection. They have a big crew this race but our favorite inspector Dale Strimple is there. He's knowledgeable, affable and very popular among all the racers. Every day is also his birthday, a story best told later. He and the other tech people soon pass our car then it's time for BS tech.
We have gone all out this race for our theme. This has been a long time thought of mine, it just took a while to get it enacted. So for context I am a cancer survivor and we are always doing crazy themes to try and draw attention to the importance of early detection in cancer improving your chances. In the past we have done free colonscopy tests with huge antique cameras and motor oil for props which thankfully no one took us up on. Later we have done dinosaurs with the inflatable dino costumes to bring home the point that that "dinosaurs never got checked and now they are extinct" which is also on the side of the car. It was popular, I mean who doesn't like to see a inflatable dinosaur walking around?
Today we have again upped our game. We are taking a scene from one of the funniest movies I have ever seen, Johnny Dangerously. There's a part where Micheal Keaton's character is counseling his younger brother not to have sex until he is married, which is funny in itself because Micheals character is always surrounded by a crowd of ladies who apparently are all competing for his affections. Anyhow he shows his brother this video of all these poor guys who are suffering from poor choices that have caused them to have severely enlarged testicles. Like basketball sized. Watch it sometime, it's hilarious. So we made up special pants to hold some dodgeballs and shirts that said: "mens health is no joke, get checked before you croak!" We got a lot of attention for that and even made the wrap video. Walking in those pants with the dodgeballs was not easy!
The next day it's race day. It could not be a nicer day in Alabama. Temps are great, sun is shining. We get through the drivers meeting and line up the cars. Racerguy is going first, we are trying to balance our drivers so that everyone gets one start or one finish for the weekend. It's fun to finish the race or the day and fun to start as well.
The flag drops and we are off. It was a complete fiasco at the start! Someone oiled down half the track on the pace laps and the track was not ready when they dropped the green. It was an immediate yellow but cars where stacking up and passing then realizing the yellow was out. Race control messed up that one pretty badly. It took another ten minutes to clean the track. Finally it really is time for a start and we go green for real. Racerguy is driving smooth as always and moving up. He brings the car from 87th out of 131 cars there to a respectable 39th when the first incident happens. A car spins and hits our rf wheel. Racerguy didn't think much of it but they flagged him in anyway. While in the penalty box we realize the rf is going flat. I did not see it then but by the time we get the car up to our spot in the paddock the wheel is destroyed. We slap another wheel on and send him back out. We lost nearly all the spots we gained, dropping to 78th on the board. Sucks but it happens.
The rest of his stint goes great and he brings the car back to pit road and we put in Youngest. He is running great and the car is showing no signs of any issues from the earlier contact. He starts making up ground and we get all the way up to 54th. Then I get a radio call. "The car is on fire and stopped running!"
What?!!! I radio back asking if he needs to get out of the car. "I'm trying to decide that" Ok, maybe not such a big fire then? We have to wait for more information and in a few minutes the rollback shows up with him in the car. We have had a wiring fire from the passenger side floorboard where the stock PCM harness is. I immediately think the car is done but after Youngest gets some fresh air he jumps in and cuts all the burnt wires out and patches it all up. Start to finish we are off the track an hour and a half and drop to 90th.
I suit up and take the car out to see if it will run or not. It struggles and will only get up to 45, so I bring it right back in. Youngest thinks he knows exactly what is wrong and jumps in again and patches one more wire. I go out and the car is spot on. I start clicking off laps and trying some things the guys said to do to improve on my lap times. There's a few parts where I just need to be more aggressive and roll through and trust the car more. I pick up about four seconds off my best time and am pretty pleased by that. The car runs flawless for the rest of my stint and I bring it back to pit road for the crew to fuel and driver change. We put Manny in the car and send him out. He's running some fast laps and really pushing the car. All the sudden we realize we do not see the car going by. One of the other teams say our car is in the wall on the front stretch. Manny comes over the radio "I FUBAR'ed it" Great, The front stretch at Barber is one of the places I have noted will bite you pretty hard. I have seen a few Lemons cars get really messed up there including a 63 Valiant last year. I am expecting the worst when the roll back comes by with the car for the second time this day.
It's pretty bad. The nose is knocked sideways, the steering is all out of sorts, a closer look reveals the lf tie rod is broken. The right rear is all messed up, the wheel is pushed so far forward it is into the quarter panel and won't even turn. We put the car up on jack stands and look it over. Not good. But there's glimmers of hope. The radiator is not broke. The engine is still fine. The core of the car seems square. And we have almost an entire Miata in parts in totes in our trailer. Maybe we can fix this. I start dragging out parts and we start changing them. The tie rod on the front is soon changed and we now have both wheels pointing the same direction. Youngest takes the nose off and straightens the brackets that hold it and the splitter in place and adds a whole lot of zip ties.
On the rear it just keeps going and going deeper. We change the knuckle, the lower control arm and the upper. We spend a long time saving the bolt that goes through the lower control arm and knuckle, we do not have another. This one is bent and has questionable threads too. In true lemons never say die fashion we beat it out of the bent parts, straighten it and when we cannot find the correct die to chase the threads we use one that is close and pray it works. It does, but then we get it all back together and realize even with all the parts replaced we still have two inches of rear toe. Just a wee more than the 1/16th we started with.
Turns out the rear subframe is bent, so we all go out and start walking the pits looking to borrow a port a power. This small hydraulic jack comes with rams and other attachments and has a pump attached to a hose so you can jack and bend parts that are bent like ours. We actually end up borrowing two after searching almost every team that is still around. It's getting dark, rain is moving in after midnight and the clock is ticking on the car being done. Is it fixable or is the damage terminal? There are three guys under the car jacking and measuring and I am handing them parts and tools and making a run for food.
In a dramatic fashion, they pull it out. I run for food and they finally announce the car is perfect. I think they worked until nearly midnight, but everything they measured was on the money. It was an amazing effort and a huge comeback. We all fall into an exhausted sleep wondering if the car will drive good tomorrow or did we miss something important.
The next morning dawns and as expected its raining. And colder. I cannot emphasize enough just how wet and cold it was. All day long it rained and I think the temps dropped. Made for a miserable day, pretty sure even a duck would have been unhappy.
I go out first, I had called this stint early on. Sometimes you have to pull the car owner card. It's a two hour stint then a quiet hour then the race resumes.
We gas up the car and I line up. The car seems to drive straight, but it is raining and the track is slippery so who really knows? The car stumbles a bit on accel and I wonder if we outsmarted ourselves with our home made ram air system that sucks air from right below where the left headlight was. It keeps on doing that for a few laps then finally gets better.
Driving in the rain is not without it's challenges. You have to drive very carefully and not push the car too hard. The fun part is the Miata goes straight when you floor it so anytime I get a chance I gas it up and go hard to the next corner where I slow down and ease through it. Soon enough another issue arises. The windshield starts fogging up. It gets real bad on yellow flags where we all slow down then gets better if I have a good run at speed, but there are times a smart person would have pulled off as you cannot see much at all. But most of us aren't real smart. I can't reach the windshield or I would try to wipe it. The temptation is there to loosen the belts and get enough room to reach but even I am not that crazy. I keep the belts tight but do take off one glove and give it a few swipes under a long yellow then hasten to put the gloves back on. There's probably not much chance of a fire in these conditions but no sense chancing it. I've seen pictures of burns from race car incidents and they aren't pretty.
On one corner I make a mistake, I get off line to let a really aggressive car go by. It's the Party Girl car and they are hyper aggressive. If you would think they would wait to pass until you get through a critical part you'd be wrong, they typically will jam their car in wherever they can and go on. Other fast cars are a bit more respectful and do a better job on the give and take. Not wanting to make an issue, I get over and promptly realize there is zero grip outside on this corner and slide through the grass. I go to penalty and explain what happened. The judge asks if I learned anything, I said "Yes, next time to be a jerk" I might not have used that exact wording but I meant it. The same car also was what indirectly caused the wreck the day before, their aggressive driving was what caused Manny to get the red mist when they did the same thing passing him. He over drove the car after that and lost it. Mental note to drive them the same way going forward, we both can be hyper aggressive and see where that leads. We have a few more cars to build in the driveway if need be.
After my two hours are up, I bring the car in and explain about the terrible fogging and vision issue. Manny goes out after the quiet hour and slides off the track for black flag number two. It's just very nasty out there and cars are going off all the time. We fix up a ice scraper with a rag tied to it to give the driver a method of clearing the fog. It's primative but way better than nothing. The drivers report they used it quite a bit the rest of the day. It's just gloomy and the race is going on, but cars are hydroplaning if they get into the water which is starting to pool on parts of the track. The rest of us are watching from inside Manny's car with the heat on, it's gotten that cold and wet.
We are so far behind now we aren't bothering to suit up and go to pit lane. Rather we bring the car up to the pumps, get the driver out and fuel and put the next driver in. It's still raining and not having to get anymore wet than necessary is a plus. Racerguy gets flagged in after he's run about half his stint and he has no idea why. Apparently the cameras show what they thought was contact in the corner, he says he got real close and braked hard to avoid it. The car shows no new signs of contact. The judge tells us one more flag and he's parking us for the rest of the day. Over contact that someone thought they saw on camera that apparently never happened. (I went to look this up on our go pro footage but the chip glitched and we had no footage)
Racerguy goes out and finishes. He reports the same as Manny, the track is getting increasingly treacherous. Very few cars are getting around good, if you have a front wheel drive with skinny tires, today was your day. I saw a escort wagon running laps as fast as us and later the Dodge Caravan passed us.
Youngest goes out and after about 15 minutes I notice the lap counter is not updating. I look outside the trailer and he is in the car, sitting there. We go out and he announces he cannot drive the car anymore, it's sideways all the time. I ask if he wants to load the car and he said yes. I don't object. We race for the fun of it, and at that point none of us were having fun. We loaded in the rain and left before the race was over. Many other teams had already done the same. Some were gone before the day ever started. We have raced in the rain before but this was the worst conditions I have ever seen on the track. Barber is a top notch facility, it was just such a lingering rain and the temps being below 40 made it miserable. The vision and grip levels seemingly got worse as the day went on and the water built up and the temps dropped. We saw a lot of big problems and overcame many. Probably if we were not so exhausted from fixing the car and were in the hunt for anything we might have stayed until the end. As it were, we dropped from 65th to 67th or so. Time to rebuild and get dried out and ready for the next race.

Scenario: An Earth-like planet inhabited with all living species found today and left to their own devices for fifteen million years. Note that harmful invasive species have been removed.
Continents, islands etc include:
Terra Europa.
The continent that houses Europe’s flora and fauna. Its wildlife includes the varied and strange descendants of the deer, wisent, feral cattle, sheep, goats, chamois, horses and wild boar, muntjac sized rabbit descendants, the descendants of the wolf, lynx, wildcat and bear alongside the new competitors in the form of mustelid and rat descendants. On the coasts, flightless descendants of gannets, guillemots and puffins occupy niches once occupied by the great auk while cetacean and pinniped descendants continue to roam the northern ocean.
Hy-Brasilian Isles.
A set of islands that act as proxies for the islands of Britain and Ireland along with their corresponding surrounding islands.
Terra Africanus.
The home to Africa’s wildlife. It still boasts a wide array of creatures descended from today’s animals, but some truly bizarre new forms have occurred such as predatory baboons, varied forms of hyaena that include a huge bear-like species and small to medium sized descendants of the hyrax with some truly bizarre forms. Hippos have become almost fully aquatic and often make forays into lagoons. Five species of elephant descendants occupy various niches with one living a semi aquatic lifestyle on the coast. The great herds are swelled with varied antelope, zebra, buffalo, pig, giraffe and rhino descendants and watched by the descendants of the native cat and dog species who compete with the rising descendants of civets, mongooses, meerkats and mustelids.
Neo-Arabian Peninsula.
A peninsula that houses the wildlife of the old Arabian Peninsula. Notable inhabitants include pack hunting descendants of the cheetah, carnivorous descendants of the hamadryas baboon and strange camel and antelope descendants.
Terra Asia.
The home to Asia’s wildlife. Probably the most varied continent in terms of habitat, from vast steppes and pine forests in the north to flood plains and rainforests in the south, this is reflected in the wildlife.
Terra Indus.
A subcontinent connected to Terra Indus that houses India’s wildlife. One descendant of the Asian elephant has become highly specialised to life in the water and now calls the warm estuarine mangroves near the coast home. They share it with a semi aquatic form of tiger and fully aquatic descendants of the gharial. The forests and grasslands host their own bounty with scavenging descendants of the langur and the mongoose plus giant cat and canine descendants that hunt bizarre antelope, deer and bovid descendants.
Terra Australis.
Home to the wildlife of Australia and Papua New Guinea. Its unique wildlife includes varied and often large descendants of wombats and bandicoots, deer-like and ground sloth-like descendants of kangaroos, wolf-to-big cat sized descendants of the quoll and Tasmanian devil, armoured echidnas, tree dwelling and rabbit like descendants of the wallabies, wallaroo and potoroo, giant emus, huge goannas, dingo descendants resembling bears, land-dwelling and massive descendants of crocodiles, monkey-like possums, panda-like koalas, bone-eating skinks and carnivorous descendants of the cassowary.
New Albion.
An archipelago that houses species from the Bismarck Archipelago such as New Britain and New Ireland along with more recent land formations. The wildlife reflects that found in old Papua, but is unique to the area. It includes a flightless descendant of the New Guinea harpy eagle and strange descendants of native marsupials and reptiles.
New Tasmania.
Kept separate from the mainland of Terra Australis, the far more temperate environment of New Tasmania hosts a unique set of animals adapted to the smaller landmass.
Terra America Septentrionalis.
The home of the wildlife native to North and Central America. The native wildlife has been joined by immigrants from Asia thanks to the new land bridge. The natives include diverse descendants of the mountain lion, wolf and bear species, numerous descendants of deer, bison and peccaries, giant alligators and of course, new larger mustelid predator competitors. This includes relatives of creatures living in Terra America Meridionalis.
Terra America Meridionalis.
The continent that houses the wildlife of South America. Its wildlife includes horse-like and elephant-like descendants of the tapir, larger descendants of the various giant rodent species, bear like sloths, giraffe like descendants of the guanaco, flightless descendants of the vampire bat, giant predatory birds much like those that existed in South America’s prehistory, hyena and fox like descendants of the South American possums, apex predators descending from the Amazon giant otter, varied types of armadillo and unique cat, fox, dog and bear descendants found nowhere else
Taino Archipelago.
An archipelago that houses the wildlife of the Caribbean. Local wildlife include seal-like sloths, giant hutia descendants and a terrestrial descendant of the Cuban crocodile.
Terra Antarctica.
The continent that houses the wildlife of Antarctica. Its inhabitants include varied species of ground dwelling bats, giant descendants of albatrosses and penguins, marsupials and reptiles from the offshore islands of Australia and a leopard seal descendant that lives like a crocodile.
Sunda Peninsula.
A peninsula that houses wildlife from the regions of Malaysia and the Sunda Islands. The only exceptions to this rule have been the islands of the Philippines, Sulawesi, Komodo and Flores. Descendants of the Sumatran tiger prowl the jungle in packs while semi aquatic descendants of local rhino species and the dwarf elephants of Borneo bask in the river systems The descendants of the Komodo dragon have split; one remains largely on land while another has taken to the sea. In the New Philippines, the descendants of binturongs, civets, mongooses and leopard cats compete for food which include the descendants of native pigs, badgers, buffalo and deer.
Greater Zanzibar.
An island neighbouring Terra Africa. The land is largely grassland and hosts a set of animals related to those found in mainland Africa, but unique. These include a small species of elephant, flightless descendants of the secretary bird among others.
New Madagascar.
The new island home of Madagascar’s native wildlife. Notable creatures include new species of giant lemur, leopard-like giant fossa, wolf-like giant mongoose, giant birds, descendants of reintroduced pygmy hippos and giant tortoises, bandicoot-like tenrecs, larger descendants of the native giant rat, terrestrial crocodiles and rabbit-sized chameleons.
New Comoros Archipelago.
An archipelago neighbouring New Madagascar. The native lemur population has diversified with some even swimming between islands while dodging sharks, snakes and crocodiles.
Mauritius-Reunion Archipelago.
An archipelago that houses the wildlife of Reunion and Mauritius. It hosts a unique set of birds found nowhere else alongside giant tortoises.
Greater Seychelles Archipelago.
An archipelago that houses the wildlife of the Seychelles as well as the Maldives, Andaman and Sentinel Islands. The giant tortoises are the most notable inhabitants, but some are semi aquatic unlike their neighbours and capable of traversing the sea to some extent.
New Year’s Islands.
A small group of islands that houses the wildlife of Christmas Island. The native crabs have continued to diversify while bats and birds have begun to occupy previously empty niches.
Marruni.
An archipelago that houses the wildlife of the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, New Caledonia and other surrounding islands, new and old. Fauna includes descendents of the kagu and other native birds, several descendents of the native skinks (the largest being as big as a border collie), strange new species of gecko and three species of terrestrial crocodile.
Havaiki.
An archipelago that houses the wildlife of Aotearoa, Tonga, Samoa, Fiji, Tuvalu, the Cook Islands, the Society Islands and various new and old islands. Fauna includes ground-dwelling fox-sized bats, larger descendants of the tuatara, kiwi and kakapo (among others) and eagle-like descendants of the kea alongside various other oddities.
Macronesia.
An archipelago that houses the wildlife of Palau to Neo-Hawaii. It provides a system of beaches for nesting seabirds and sea dwelling reptiles as well as a fractured land bridge. The native wildlife mostly comprises the descendants of castaways and flying species.
Neo-Galapagos.
An archipelago that houses the wildlife of the Galapagos Islands. The giant tortoises are now far larger, the marine iguanas are now fully aquatic alongside the penguins and some finches are now flightless.
Neo-Hawaii.
An island chain that houses the wildlife of Hawaii. Fauna includes giant ducks, tortoises and a flightless ant eating kiwi-sized descendants of one of the modern honeycreeper species.
Neo-Rapa Nui Archipelago.
A small island chain as remote as Rapa Nui. It boasts significant seabird colonies while forests have taken over much of the land.
Primavera.
A medium island in the Indus Ocean strewn with thick jungle growing out of hard rocky terrain. While mammals are rare, the island is bountiful with reptiles, amphibians and numerous arthropods that, thanks to the higher oxygen density, have grown to impressive sizes and make up a good chunk of the predatory niches on land, in the trees and even in the swampy waterways that carve their way through the lowlands.
New Zanzibar Strait.
A stretch of sea that separates Terra Africanus from New Zanzibar. Small islets create a mangrove environment that intermingles with tropical reefs, creating a unique fusion of oceanic, semi aquatic and terrestrial life.
Indus Ocean.
The Indus is one of the core centres of ocean biodiversity with numerous atolls and reefs. These locations are a hub for new forms of ocean life while islets provide nesting grounds for birds, sea turtles and sea crocodiles.
Tangaroa Ocean.
The largest ocean on Earth Lab. Among the atolls and reefs, vibrant new fish species dwell alongside new coral species, cephalopods like a pack hunting descendant of the Humboldt squid, a swimming sea slug descendant, various new sharks and rays, serpentine descendants of toothed whales that hunt smaller species alongside aquatic penguins, crocodiles and new species of turtle, big and small.
Proteus Ocean.
The Proteus boasts fewer islands, but still plays host to numerous forms of ocean life. Alongside the numerous schools of fish swim the new serpentine hunting whales, fully aquatic seals, huge manatee descendants, giant sharks and penguin like descendants of guillemots and gannets that swim alongside the now fully aquatic penguin species.
Turgis Ocean/Great Ice Shelf.
While solid land in the Turgis is rare now, the Great Ice Shelf still provides a home for those creatures hardy enough to eke out a living. These include a colony of ice-burrowing seabirds, ice burrowing semi-aquatic colonies of flightless midge descendants, giant sea hairs that dwell beneath the ice, predatory lobsters, aquatic penguin descendants and predatory descendants of seals and toothed whales.
Tundris Ocean.
Largely covered by ice, the Neo-Arctic ocean regions host unique new species which include aquatic polar bears capable of bringing down small whales.

I’m not a vegan, but I had a question today and this is the only place I can think to get an answer. Someone at work said “a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush”. I understand this idiom to be a hunting phrase and it got me wondering if vegans filter that language out of regular use. As I thought about it, I realized there’s a ton of phrases like that. “Don’t count your chickens before they’ve hatched”, “Keep your ducks in a row”, etc.
I know you folks get a lot of flak, but this isn’t a jab. Legit question.

"Great days and glorious victory! My name is Spifflemonk and welcome to my Letsplay! Today I am back from my medically mandated break from playing human videogames after a rather... cathartic experience with a game called Teardown. Subnautica, even among humans, is labeled as a notorious experience with... mixed reception for its sequel. A survival crafting game apparently. I have experience with those so presumably the gameplay loop should be predictable enough. So... Let's go in!"
Spiffle starts the game, going for standard Survival Mode, with aspects of food and water mechanics alongside health and oxygen. The game loads very, very fast with Spiffles overpowered computer, and the introduction sequence begins. The camera pans to the panicked sight of the payer character moving down a ladder followed by a sight of a starship above exploding.
"Oh dear... oh dear! They weren't kidding about survival! Do I even survive this or am I a ghost or something..."
The pod rattles, the screen shakes, a fire extinguisher falls from its mounting. Velocity causes the pod to dislodge a panel from a wall and it flies around the cabin. The panel flies into the player's screen, making it go black.
"Oh... well okay then. I uh... well."
Spiffles' character awakens and panics at the buttons securing him to the seat. Spiffle quickly figures out that fire in this game is in fact bad, and grabs the fire extinguisher, putting the fire out. The game's introduction plays, showing his PDA, the game's inventory UI.
"Oh! I have seen these things in real life when visiting human stations! Do all humans have these?"
Spiffle starts exploring the escape pod, noting all of the damage to the radio beacon and the wiring panel.
"Hmm... craft the repair tool... Well... For later I suppose. Now how do i-AH, the ladder!"
Spiffle clicks on the ladder and goes through the animation. The character exits and dramatically stands. Spiffle looks around. His face visibly pales as he looks in every direction, finding the only thing nearby that looks 'safe’ or like 'land' is the destroyed ship in the distance.
"Water... it's... water... everywhere! How big is this game's map!? Structural hull failure... zero human lifesigns detected. That's.. not nice. Well... Here we go!"
Spiffle jumps into the water. His mood changes, the underwater environment significantly different than above ground. The water is absolutely teeming with life and color, as Spiff swims towards a reef to stare at some coral. Spiff gets distracted and starts chasing a fish, specifically a Peeper, and grabs it.
"Oh! Good god! THAT'S how humans catch fish!? That's very... inefficient! What is this thing? Can I eat it? I know I'm supposed to take care of my food and water, so how do I eat it?"
Spiffle wanders about for a while, gathering resources and exploring his general location, eventually getting back to the pod. He had gathered up a decent amount of stuff while he was swimming around and accessed the Fabricator to see what was available.
"Ah! I see, the fabricator cooks things too. Uhm... cooked fish thing and... these transparent fish give me water bottles? Okay then! Well. Sorted for food anyway. Let's see. Copper wire, batteries. A Scanner? Does that mean I can like, scan things and tell what they are? And... Oxygen tank? Oh hell yes. I'll build that then."
Spiffle goes through the process of building a few things, checking out how the game's crafting system works, and spending more time collecting resources. He quickly realizes how much work he has to do and finally finishes making a Scanner.
"Okay then well... I can see how much time is going to be spent collecting resources so i'm going to edit all of that out and keep you all in the loop on all the fun parts instead."
Spiffle continues playing, inserting a creative, albeit mildly annoying fanciful scene transition in between resource loops. He comes to a cave looking for salt to make more equipment, when he encounters the first hostile enemy of the game: The Crashfish. He does not notice it at first, the strange sloppy noise it makes as its pod opens, the beast makes a terrible gurgly noise and charges straight at him.
"What is that noi-AH! OY! OI! OIIII what are you what are-!"
Spiffle is cut off as the fish explodes, causing him to lose half his health. He quickly surfaces and takes a breath.
"Okay then... OKAY... THAT... makes absolutely no sense from an evolutionary perspective... but okay then. Avoid those. What even was that? I can't even scan it because it was moving so fast! Gods... exploding fish."
Spiffle shakes his head and resumes his hunt for resources, eventually finding enough for a repair tool. He makes the repair of the pods' broken wiring and looks around a bit more, noting some of the details in the game.
"Hard to believe these games are over eight hundred years old! I keep getting requests to play 'them gud ol' gamez' instead of any new releases. Maybe I'll get to those eventually. I have quite the backlog though."
Spiffle quickly tabs out and shows the huge list of human made games on his list that he has been gifted or purchased himself. The list includes Space Marine, Starship Troopers, Spyro Trilogy, Crash Bandicoot, and so... so many more.
"I am also told about this thing called 'anime', whatever that is. Maybe I should look into that. Anyway..."
Spiffle shrugs for now and resumes playing, swimming around for a bit before finally deciding to use his scanner. He gets the first scan - the Acid Mushroom - and painstakingly reads the supplied article. He then goes on a scanning frenzy, scanning each thing he can find, comically chasing after various fish and objects, trying to scan them then taking an irritatingly long time to read the article aloud.
He gets to the point where he encounters his first real hostile enemy and tries to scan it. The stalker, of course, doesn't appreciate that, and attacks.
"Oooh what's this thing? Oh lovely, it's a big one. Can I scan it? The... Stalker? Oh okay is it friend-OW! NONONONO go away!"
Spiffle panics and scans it while running away from it, trying to swim backwards. He's so focused on scanning it he can't run far enough away that he gets ambushed by another Stalker nearby and manages to scan it just as he gets hit with his first Death in the game.
"Oh.... o...kay. Well... it seems things aren't as friendly as expected. I'm going to guess there's more things like that around. So... I'm just going to finish working on repairs and equipment then I'll take those things on."
Spiffle reads the article on the Stalker he scanned and spends more time collecting resources, scanning local entities and building the rest of the gear he has. Fins, high capacity O2 tank, rebreather and some more food and water which he stores in floating containers for later. He starts to explore a bit farther in search of fragments to scan and finds a Sand Shark, as well as a biome resembling a desert-like area. He encounters his first piece of the wrecked ship here.
"Oh! Hello! Pieces of wreckage! What are these for now do you suppose? Can I disassemble these for resources or-Oh! Is that a door? Oh! I'm supposed to go in here and look for things? How do I get in? Oh I can't. I need a laser cutter. Is one of those here? Need more fragments I guess..."
Spiffle gives up trying to enter and goes up for air, then returns to the floor to hunt for fragments. He eventually unlocks the Bioreactor, pieces of the Scanner room, a couple fragments of the Seaglide and Seamoth. He comes across the first cave entrance to the Mushroom Caves Biome.
"Oh... oh my. That's... deep. Good thing I unlocked the Seamoth thing. Its a miniature submarine I think. I can use that. But that's... kinda scary. I can't see the bottom. I kinda see just... purple. Mostly purple. But it scares me that I can't see the bottom."
Spiffle hangs around the cave entrance for a bit before a call for Oxygen forces him to the surface. He swims back down to the cave entrance and then hangs around a bit longer before once again resurfacing, heading for some new things to scan. It is however at this point that Spiffles exploration is cut short.
"EMERGENCY - SEISMIC READINGS SUGGEST A QUANTUM DETONATION HAS OCCURRED IN THE AURORA'S DRIVE CORE. THE CENTRAL DARK MATTER REACTOR WILL REACH A SUPERCRITICAL STATE IN -"
The computer aboard the PDA shakes Spiff out of his daze and he quickly rushes to the surface and looks at the ship.
"Wait wait wait what's that!? What's going on!? I see the ship? The Aurora! That's what its name is? Whats a Dark Matter reactor and wha-"
The computer continues its countdown muffled by Spiffs panicked squealing and he has a front-row seat to one of the most spectacular explosions in the history of gaming - the Aurora's Reactor Detonation.
It happens. The world goes dead silent for a short moment, and one can see Spiffles heart visibly stop beating. Then explosion as the Aurora lets out its magnificent blast. As the shockwave expands outwards, Spiffs skin visibly turns a paler shade of blue, and his eyes go wide. The sound of a geiger counter follows, leaving him breathless and pale as the world suddenly goes dead quiet again. The sound of the geiger counter ominously leaving him shaken even more than he already is.
"FOR YOUR CONVENIENCE - THE RADIATION SUIT HAS BEEN ADDED TO YOUR BLUEPRINTS."
Spiffle stays completely silent, bobbing in the water for a solid few minutes, staring in shocked wonder at what he just witnessed. He regains his composure for a few short moments and returns to his scanning venture, but one can easily see he isn't in the right mind after that. He returns to the seabed, at the entrance to the mushroom caves and dives again. He does this several more times, popping up to the surface, looking at the shipwreck, then diving at the entrance again. Finally, after much hesitation, he dives one last time.
"Screw it. it's just a game right?"
He smiles at the camera with a shrug and swims far below the surface, into one of the caves. As he enters the cavern his jaw drops at the sight of a massive underwater cavern filled with gigantic glowing pink mushrooms. The Mushroom caves as they are known. He spots something in the distance, entranced, forgetting his oxygen situation. He cant get far however and a terrifying shriek of some unknown entity shakes him out of his stupor.
"What in the red dawn was that noise!?"
Spiff can't finish asking his invisible audience what's going on as he strays too close to a mushroom, occupied by a Crab Snake, a gigantic sea worm. He is grabbed from behind, spun around and he visibly panics as the giant worm digs its enormous tusks into Spiffles character. Spiffle immediately freaks out, a combination of both the terrifying shriek emitted by the creature and the shock of being attacked makes poor Spiffle jump out of his seat and duck under the table.
"GOWAYGOWAYGOWAGOWAYGOWAY!!!"
The worm comes back and finishes Spiff off before his oxygen runs out. Spiff's character respawns but the footage continues, a slight whimper can be heard in the background as Spiff hides under the desk. This carries on for a few minutes, and his head very slowly appears above the desk. He gingerly puts himself back in his seat and breathes heavily for a bit. When he finally gains control, he tabs out of the game and takes a look at the wiki for Subnautica. He returns a few moments later and stares at the camera in that strange haunting glare he's become so famous for.
"WHY DO YOU STUPID DEVELOPERS NOT PUT GUNS IN THE GAME IF YOU HAVE SHIT LIKE THAT!? ARE YOU INSANE!?"
He grabs the camera and shakes it violently as he rants at it, questioning why there are guns in every other human game he has played and not THIS specific game, especially considering how there are 'giant water snake monsters that eat your face' in a game with no guns. He rants for a good minute or two then plays his outro.
TOP COMMENT: "Are you absolutely sure after Teardown, Factorio and Project ZOMBOID, you should be playing Subnautica? I mean seriously, try something less... psychologically terrifying. It's known as Thalassophobia Simulator for a reason."
_______________________________________________________________
"Great days and glorious victory! My name is Spifflemonk and I still don't understand why we have giant worm monsters but we have no guns!"
Spiffle stares at the camera with an expression that can only be summarized as 'Seriously bruh?' and resumes his last playthrough. He becomes confused at the lack of stuff in his inventory.
"Why is my... Why do I not ha-Oh right... I was eaten. When you die your inventory is wiped... I need to build more tools then."
Spiffle starts some silly music, an alien version of Benny Hill to a montage of him collecting resources, occasionally ranting at various oddities and questioning game logic. He restores all of his tools then goes hunting for a Vehicle Bay fragment so he can build the Seamoth. He continues to scan what he can, developing something of an obsession with the task, then painstakingly reading every word about it to try and understand it. It is at this point Spiffle, during his explorations finds another derelict chunk of ship near the desert region, encountering his first Sand Shark.
"What... What is this? Oh... careful Spiff. This one looks angrier than the last one you found. Wh-What in oblivion!?"
Spiffles attention is once again diverted by the appearance of a Reefback Leviathan and its signature low drone. This one appears to be a fully grown adult.
"You-you... You've got to be... You gotta be fucking kidding me. A Juhara Eelfish!? WHAT IS THAT DOING IN A HUMAN VIDEOGAME!!!??"
Spiffle squeaks in shock as he sees a creature that is an absolute spitting image of a large oceanic dwelling sea creature, which is both the games and his native homeworlds version of a Whale. The Reefback has some dissimilarities, but its close enough to the real thing that Spiffle is genuinely shocked. He quickly pauses the game, opening various wikipedia articles, then displays a full picture of both Subnautica in game Reefback, and the Juhara-Kal-Rehar, colloquially known as a Juhara Eelfish, a shockingly similar creature that lives in his homeworlds oceans.
The only difference between them is the color of the exterior chitin shell. The Reefback has a blue/purple shell, the Juhara Eelfish's chitin has a red/green shell.
"WHEN was this game made!?"
Spiff checks, the current Earth-date is the year 2886. Humanity only entered the galactic community in 2752. Subnautica was released in 2018.
"HOW.... How is that even possible!? You didn't even know the galaxy existed until only a few decades ago, yet you almost PERFECTLY matched the appearance of one of our homeworlds native species! How is this even possible!? Okay. If the name matches then I have to call bullshit."
Spiffle approaches and scans it, then reads the data article.
"A... Reefback Leviathan? Oh thank God... Now let's see... A herbivorous creature that... that likely got so large due to the fact that its predators went extinct. Well... that's... okay... A hard chitinous shell of multiple layers, a microcosm of different creatures and flora growing from its back, hence the name. Hmmm..."
Spiffle gets that cold, empty stare on his face and glares menacingly at the camera. The screen goes black, then returns, seeing Spiffle nursing a beverage of some kind while wrapped in a blanket.
"I realized something... Call it a message from the Ancestors or a Divine revelation. But I have a funny feeling this isn't going to be the last time I see a creature from the galaxy represented in human media. I hope to the Gods that doesn't happen... the concept of this situation is nothing short of terrifying. In any case, I'm sorry about that. Lets.... let's continue."
Spiffle resumes where he left off, doing his usual routine of scanning, then obsessively reading. Eventually he unlocks the Vehicle Bay, and returns home to his pod where the situation with resources is growing obscene with at least fifty floating resource containers hovering around the area.
"Alright... A Vehicle Bay... This means I can build things like the Seamoth now. This will be nice. Right, I shall for the sake of my audience skip the resource collection mechanic that's here and focus on the actual result. I shan't waste my time either though. MONTAGE!"
Spiff yells excitedly and a montage to that same odd Benny Hill type music plays out, with him collecting the resources he needs to build both machines. Most of it is already in the floating containers strewn about. With a few visits to the fabricator, he compiles the Power Cell, Titanium Ingot and Lubricant he needs to make the Vehicle Bay. He deploys it and chases it to the surface just away from the pod in the deeper end of the shallows.
"Right... Not too hard. Let's see then, how do-Ah. Get on it and... The Seamoth. Cost of two glass, one titanium ingot, a powercell, lead and lubricant. Right."
He quickly gathers and makes everything he needs for the Seamoth, then stands on the platform ready to go. He chooses the Seamoths recipe and the sequence starts. His eyes light up as drones start flying around the platform, then begin assembling atom by atom, the small, adorable minisub known as the Seamoth. It finishes the process and flops into the water with a splash.
"My gods look at this thing! It's so cute!"
Spiffle explores the sub for a little while and hops inside it, testing the controls and playing around with it a bit to see what it can do.
"Hm... Maximum Depth, 200 meters? So if I go below that does it implode or something? I need to be careful of that. OH dammit I remember! I have to make that Radiation Suit don't I? I shall do so now!"
Spiffle seems to have found a new resolve, quickly gathering resources together and making both a Seaglide and radiation suit in short order.
"Does this thing have any weapons? How do I repair-Oh... Repair tool? That makes it easier I suppose. Now... Where do I go now? Is there anything I can do?"
Spiffle stumbles about in the blind for a few minutes, trying to figure out his next course of action beyond simply wandering aimlessly while scanning things. He gets back in the pod and fixes the radio beacon. His face visibly contorts into an expression of irritation when he hears his rescue is in 9999 hours. He resolves to come back every now and then to check the radio. He decides to gather more resources to make up for building the seamoth and comes back a bit later. He finds a radio transmission when he returns.
"RADIO: ▀▖┗▛Nine new biological subjects designated. Mode ▄▖▜▚┣: hunting/analyzing.
Sharing subject locations with other agents."
"What... in the Nine Hells was THAT!? Why was it in such an odd voice? What was that language? What were those letters!? Somethings going on here... SO now what? I have the radiation suit. i guess... go into the Aurora? Oh no, I'm not going in there unprepared! Lemme make some tools and spare batteries, then i'll go in. I need... Oh... I need more fragments is what I need."
Spiffle resumes his fragment hunt, looking around for fragments of various tools. He uses the Seamoth to traverse around.
"WHEEE!!!"
Spiff seems more than just a bit happy as he trundles around in the Seamoth, using his speed to launch himself out of the water. He splashes about a bit, testing the limits of the craft and trying to see what holes he can squeeze himself into or out of and how deep he can go.
"Okay okay. time to get to serious work. Now... I need to find... A Laser Cutter and a... STASIS RIFLE?! Wait... rifle? That means GUN! I NEED A GUN!!"
Spiffle charges forward towards the desert biome where he found the Reefback and resumes his search for things to scan. It is now he comes across a Reginald.
"What... IS this fish? Wait, let me just..."
He gets out of the Seamoth and scans it.
"Huh... Reginald. That's a... fish? It's so cute! Wait, come back friend!"
Spiffle spends an unreasonable amount of time trying to catch a Reginald. When he finally catches one he gets back in the Seamoth and heads towards the aurora, new friend in tow. He trundles over to the side of the crashed ship and scans some random stuff here and there, finding fragments to a few small items, including a few he needs such as a Powercell Charger for the Seamoth’s battery. He gets close to the front of the ship and the haunting, evil noise of Subnautica's most iconic killer suddenly echoes through the gloomy water.
"What... Was that? Is it another worm thing? Please don't let it be one of those..."
Spiffle wanders around the side for a bit longer. An ominous shadow looms in the background, catching his eye. He ignores it for the moment and simply carries on, eventually arriving at the entrance to the ship. Through the mangled steel and fire he squeezes into the front of the ship and looks around. The environment ominously rattles and his screen shakes as the ships structure isn't exactly stable. The howl of the creature in the shadows makes Spiff even more uncomfortable.
"I... Do NOT like this. I really dont."
Spiff parks the Seamoth where he can see a ramp leading up, and gets out. He is immediately accosted by Cave Crawlers and uses his knife to defend himself, poorly, but he gets rid of the three or four around him.
"WARNING: SCANS SHOW THE DIGESTIVE TRACTS OF INDIGENOUS LIFE FORMS CONTAIN HUMAN TISSUE."
Spiffs face turns an even paler shade of blue and he swallows visibly as if he's trying not to vomit.
"Yeuch... I can scan this thing and read it later. I don't want to be here any longer than I have to."
Spiff scans and follows the path to the interior, uses his fire extinguisher to put out some fires in the area and gets inside. The ship rumbles as he wanders around and gets into one of the rooms. He finds the poster of the P.R.A.W.N. Suit.
"Ooh! A poster thing? Can I take it or? I can! PRAWN Suit eh? Can I actually use that thing?"
Spiff takes the poster, scans some furniture and collects a PDA. Spiff continues down the corridor and retrieves his Propulsion Cannon from his inventory and uses it to pick up some furniture in the way.
"I am SO glad I got this thing from scanning the area before I came here. This is super useful! I wonder if it has other uses..."
He gets to the door and looks at his databank.
"Hmm... Here it is! Code for the door is 1454. Right."
Spiff moves through, repairing a door to get the Seamoth Depth Upgrade Module. He continues and clears a fire to enter the main reactor. His inner loot goblin shines through and grabs the Cyclops engine efficiency module before he starts work on repairs, scanning the breach and starting work. It doesn't take him long, but he gets issues with a Bleeder that lives in the waters. He scans one then finishes repairs. Foolishly, he uses the propulsion cannon and shoots the bleeder at one of the reactors, undoing his work. He looks at the damage he caused and repairs it.
"Well... what was I expecting... Why did I do that? It's a CANNON... why did I aim it at the reactor exactly? So stupid..."
Spiff finishes and heads to the PRAWN Bay, and looks around at the damage. He spots the prawn suits and starts scanning, grabbing a storage module upgrade from a console and starts extinguishing flames so he can scan. He runs out of fire extinguisher juice though.
"Blast! Can I still scan these if they're on fire?"
Spiff walks around, finding cheeky angles he can use and scans the debris, finding all four fragments he needs. He heads upstairs and goes through the rooms and everything he can find. He gets into the Galley and sees the Kitty in a Space Helmet Poster.
"What the- 'Keep Calm'? What in the blue balls is this? It's.... cute! What is this creature!? Can I keep this? I can!"
Spiffle excitedly grabs the poster and moves on. He goes through cabins, picks up PDAs and collects the Natural Selection 2 poster, the Prawn suit in the sea poster and the collectible arcade toy in the locked cabin. Lacking the code to the Captain's cabin, he returns to the prawn bay and tries swimming around, eventually finding a passage in the hull debris to the rest of the ship. He moves through in silence, recovers the black box data and exits the ship. He removes debris, grabs the local wildlife with the cannon and tosses them into fires or the water with glee.
"BEGONE BEAST!!! Ha! Right... uhh... where did i park? Oh, there it is. Should I go home? I wonder if there are any fragments I can use around here?"
Spiff exits, finding Liefpod 4 floating upside down on the surface of the water. He collects the PDA data and a new blueprint. Then, as he gets in the seamoth, the horrifying roar of the Reaper Leviathan suddenly sounds. Spiff is thrown into a panic, screams in terror and tries desperately to get away. The beast appears with jaw chomping and claws clawing at the poor Seamoth. The entire time Spiffle is screeching like a bird with a broken leg, his entire body now an almost ghostly white out of absolute terror.
"GOWAYGOWAYGOWAYGOWAYGODNONNONOGOWAYGOWAY!!!"
Spiffle manages to get out of its grip and in a panic charges away towards his lifepod and continues to scream, breathing hard between screams. He gets to the pod and then hides under his desk, continuing to scream. His channel outro plays.
TOP COMMENT: (This has been translated from Eridani) "I am starting to believe this whole sojourn was a very BAD idea. Do you humans have those kinds of beasts on your homeworld? How did you ever survive them?!"
RESPONSE: LOL no we never had Reapers. The only Leviathan Class creatures we have on our planet are Whales. And they're mostly peaceful plankton eaters. Mostly.
RESPONSE: (Translated from Eridani) "Seriously? I think I find it more terrifying that these creatures are made up in your minds. What kind of nightmares do you people have to be able to create this level of fiction!?"
RESPONSE: Do. Not. Ask. This is only Subnautica - we have FAR worse.
Spiffles response: "You're going to make me play these 'far worse', aren't you?"
RESPONSE: "Damn right we are! :)"
________________________________________________________
"Great days and glorious victory! My name is Spifflemnonk and welcome back to Subnautica!"
Spiffle looks visibly stronger, his usual lanky appearance now looking like he's been working out like a Gym Bro. One can see muscles on muscles and Spiff seems to have an abnormal amount of energy.
"I am now relaxed. It is now time to get eaten by giant scary sea monsters. And yes, before you ask, I have successfully finished fully soundproofing my office. And also yes, I am indeed expecting a new addition to the brood... THANKS DAMN HUMANS! You and your damn musical magic nonsense..."
Spiffle starts the game and is swimming outside the pod next to the Seamoth. The first thing he does is repair the seamoth from the damage incurred by the Reaper, and recounts what hes been up to, checking inventory and equipment. He heads to the radio and gets a new transmission.
RADIO - "This is Avery Quinn of trading ship Sunbeam. Aurora, do you read? Over.'
'Nothing but vacuum. These Alterra ships. They run low on engine grease, they send an SOS; you offer to help, they don't pick up.'
'Aurora, we're out on the far side of the system, it's going to take more than a week to reach your position, do you still need our assistance? Over.'
'I'll try them again tomorrow. Damn charter's going to have us wasting our profit margin running errands for Alterra.'
'See what the long-range scanner picks up in the meantime."
"Oh? Oh lovely! There ARE people in this game! I wonder when they will be here? Meh, I have things to build, so I'll keep an eye."
Spiffle resolves himself to start building a base, trying to find a good spot. He finds the Mushroom Forest Biome and starts gathering resources to ferry them around. He installs the Depth Module and the Storage module to the Seamoth, then builds the Moon Pool. The Mushroom Biome becomes one of his favorite spots and a close encounter with a JellyRay cements it.
"Those creatures are beautiful! Look! JellyRay! Its glowing blue and pretty! I love that! Oh... I have a new radio message. I need to listen to that then."
Spiff returns to the pod and listens to the message.
RADIO - "Aurora, this is Sunbeam again. We just picked up a massive debris field at your location.'
'I didn't know how bad... How many of you... I didn't know.'
'We are now en route to your location. We're going to bring you home. Sunbeam out.'
'What else can I say? The only time I parked a rig this big on a rock that small was in VR, and I blew it'
'Oh, it's a bad option alright, but so are all the others."
Spiff smiles and carries on working, parking the Seamoth inside after powering everything up.
"So lovely! But... Is that a win condition? I know human games by now I have played enough of them. Is that a win condition? Get rescued? I dunno..."
Spiffle carries on building for a little and gets a storage system up, spending a few in-game days transporting resources to his new base. He returned to the pod and played a new radio message, again from the Sunbeam.
RADIO - "This is Sunbeam. Y'know, Aurora, we're from a little trans-gov on the far side of Andromeda, and we have a saying there.'
'There's no bad without the good, no good without the bad.'
'Sounds like you tasted a bunch of the former, but that only means you're overdue a whole lot of the latter.'
'Might just be we're it.'
'We're scanning for somewhere to park, we'll be in touch when we find it. Sunbeam out."
"Ohh... That... that's a lovely saying! What was that uh... There's no bad without the good, no good without the bad. I like that! I think i'll have that framed on my wall! Now lets see.. i ca- I CAN GIVE THE SEAMOTH A NAME? OOHHHhh okay, okay.. I can customize the color too! I think I'll just do this..."
Spiff leaves the name as 'Seamoth' for now, changing the color to a mix of purple for the main, and blue for the trim and name color. His two favorite colors. Spiffle does a little more work, acquiring the last fragments for the Cyclops and starts gathering together the resources necessary to build it.
"Hmmm.. Cyclops... Personal large scale submarine capable of carrying other vehicles! Ooohhh I want to build that! I need to fetch the Vehicle Bay though. Im almost done moving house!"
Spiff returns and packs up the last of his resources, then gets another radio message.
RADIO - "Aurora, we're approaching the planet now, and we have a landing site for you that's... well, it's better than the alternatives.'
'We've sent you the coordinates.'
'It'll take us a couple of days to align our orbit, we should be able to establish direct contact with you during that time, then we're coming in to get you.'
'Cross your fingers the weather holds, and don't leave us waiting. Sunbeam out."
Spiffle gets a new beacon on his HUD. Sunbeam Landing Site.
"What!? Is this game over If I'm there!? Okay... well. At least it's no longer terrifying! I'll get the Seamoth and go for the beacon then. I hope it's okay... Strange... this... doesn't feel like the end, you know? But if it is then it is."
Spiff heads home, deploys the Vehicle Bay and deposits his gear and resources. He heads towards the location, occasionally squealing 'WHEEE!!' as he uses the Seamoth to jump out of the water like a dolphin. However, he miscalculates and the Seamoth jumps up, out and sustains a bit of damage as it hits a rock formation close to the surface. He gets out, repairs it and looks at the camera.
"Why no I didn't just damage my Seamoth by having too much fun. I don't know what you are talking about. Hehe."
Spiffle smirks at the camera with a glare and carries on. Eventually, he encounters the largest of the Islands in the world.
"Wh... WHAT. This has been here the whole time!? Is this an island? Who cares! LAND! Sweet land!"
Spiffle now notices the timer and hops onto the island from his Seamoth. He walks up to the landing zone and stops dead in his tracks at the sight of the massive al;ien structure known as the Quarantine Enforcement Platform. In essence, a giant alien cannon.
"What... the *beep* is THAT?"
Spiffles' editing has gotten better, his editor learning how to censor Spiffles foul language, in both English AND Eridani. He moves closer to the building, scanning the broken tablet and the Forcefield Controls.
"What is this? I mean it's clearly alien... What do the codex entries say... 'possible to reconstruct the device' Oh... hmm.. I can make more of these then. 'Matches no known technologies... functions like a lock'. Okay then so... Standard video game logic I guess. That's nice! So A purple tablet will unlock the gate there. What are those?"
Spiff moves towards the Cairns marking the way into the island, pathways leading up the mountainside. He follows them, finding a Purple Tablet in the process on one of the pathways.
"Oh! Lovely! That saves me resources and a trip I guess. This pathway keeps going though. hmm... Welp, we still have thirty minutes, so let's go."
Spiff explores the pathway, getting lost a bit before finally figuring that following the large cables is a good idea. He comes across the Teleportation Arch and scans it, in between dodging the Cave Crawlers.
"Right, let's see... Alien Arch... not much to speak of here. Maybe this thing will be useful later I guess. Likely.... Hmmm..."
Spiffle continues exploring and eventually finds himself back at the forcefield with another twenty minutes to go.
"Screw it, let's go."
Spiff activates the forcefield platform and the animation of the key being placed plays out. He moves into the building, activating both data platforms and acquiring two Ion Cubes for later, scanning everything he thinks he can scan. He enters the Moonpool in the bay and gets two more Ion Cubes, plus data on a rifle and a Doomsday Device. He ignores it for now, acquiring one more purple tablet and accessing the control room.
"Right... what's in here? Hmm... Energy Core, right. I shall scan that and... press button?"
Spiff presses the button. An animation plays where a device locks his characters hand in place, viciously stabs it with a pointy metal bit and then releases it.
"OH GODS what the hell! Why is that?! That's just nasty!"
"THE TERMINAL IS BROADCASTING A MESSAGE. TRANSLATION READS: 'Warning, infected individuals may not disable the weapon. This planet is under quarantine.'"
"Quarantine! What? Infected? I-Hold on...."
Spiffle gets his scanner out and performs a self-scan. It is only now he notices something very bad has happened.
"I-infected!? Wait, what!?"
"SELF-SCAN COMPLETE - DETECTING STATISTICALLY SIGNIFICANT BACTERIAL LEVELS. NO ADVERSE EFFECTS DETECTED. BE VIGILANT FOR SYMPTOMS."
"Oh brilliant! Does that mean I can't leave? I KNEW IT! Wait... weapon!? This is a weapon!?"
Spiffle panics and runs out of the facility as fast as he can and waits the last few minutes for the Sunbeam to arrive. Sure enough, it does. In the last 30 seconds, the Sunbeam plays a message.
RADIO - "Survivor, we see you!
'Man, I don't know how you held out down there.'
The sunbeams message plays, and Spiffle gasps in terror from the sound of the gun platform starting up and starting to move around.
RADIO - "We've broken atmosphere and we're descending towards the landing site.'
'Is that a building down there?! What do you mean you can't identify it?"
The weapon powers up and turns, aiming itself high at the sky.
RADIO - "Hold on, no turning back now.'
'Positions everyone, touching down in 10, 9, 8-'
The weapon charges up and a loud vicious hum can be heard echoing through the valley.
RADIO - "It's coming from the building?! Change course, set thrusters to (full)-"
The radio goes to static, the weapon fires and the Sunbeam is vaporized instantly by a massive blast of bright green light. The sunbeam disappears, its hull structure completely disintegrated. Spiffle sits in stunned silence as the platform returns to a stable position, shuts down, and everything goes quiet.
"Well... Okay then... That was... horrifying. I guess thats all we have time for! Hehe! Oh dear..."
Spiffle looks a bit defeated as he sits back in his seat.
"S-see you next time! I guess... Holy shit..."
Channel Outro plays.
TOP COMMENT: "Are you okay? You seem a little bit too disturbed by that. Its fine though, compared to what happens in the Rise Of The Ancients Mod, this is tame! Lol! I love that mod!"
Spiffles Response: "Please don't make me play that mod..."
((Authors note - due to how bastardingly huge Subnautica is, this will be a multi part series. Other Spiff stories will come inbetween. Hope you enjoy!))

food in anime is... weird
whenever it's on screen, a tremendous amount of focus in animation and detail is put into making it look as delicious and savory as possible, and in general if your anime doesn't make food look tasty enough to plaster on a restaurant menu, then the people will be disappointed and call it low effort. this obsession in the anime industry actually originates from this show named Yoake Mae yori Ruriiro na... erm... this one, which had such terrible looking cabbages they were ridiculed for it and ever since anime as an industry has vowed to never make food look that stupid ever again
and yet funnily enough, despite this seeming obsession with food, it is very rarely used to convey meaning in stories that aren't expressly about cooking. The closest many shows get to having meaning in their food is to use the always hungry anime character trope, where one such character, usually the protagonist, and especially if it's the protagonist of a Shonen battle series, will have a bottomless pit of a stomach and appetite, and loves eating to an almost obsessive degree.
I often view this as a representation of ambition. These characters dream big and always being hungry for more. Never being satisfied enough to not eat more is a great, if basic, representation of their personality. From my understanding in anime history, this particular trope was popularized by goku, and was as a result, present in many other series that started soon after dragonball exploded. 2 of the biggest and most famous examples of characters inheriting this trait are luffy from one piece and naruto from... wait i forgot the name of the show
Using these 2 examples, I think that one show naruto is from is a fair bit worse at incorporating meaning into its food than one piece, and I wanna talk about what the difference is.
in "that show", food is almost never really used to convey anything thematically or inform a character's personality. it feels like naruto only likes to eat a lot because he's the protagonist and that's what's expected of him. Why is choji pudgy? is it anything about his character? no, it's just because he eats choppers rumble balls as a super power and so the auther went "he swallows pills to get strong so he swallow everything else too."
one piece by contrast I feel does a lot more than either dragonball or naruto with food. luffy's cannonical ability to eat as much as he does is explained by his stomach being made of rubber and capable of expanding as he eats, and food directly works it's way into the power system for him, as many of luffy's gear techniques require huge amounts of energy and body fuel and leave him incredibly fatigued. on whole cake island he looks like this after just a single day of intensive combat with no snacking. And this is taking place on aan entire island made of cake and deserts you can eat, a place where it litterally rains syrup instead of water. This is an act of protest to sanji, as sanji is attempting to leave the crew and luffy told him to his face that he would starve to death on purpose unless his next meal was made by sanji. it's an important plot point and character moment for the 2 of them. sanji is a cook and a major part of his backstory involves him being stranded on the ocean with no food and starving for months, only being rescued within an inch of his life. This experience greatly informs his character, being willing to serve anybody who is hungry, even if its his enemy and it would be in his best intrests not to, like when he served don krieg and his pirates knowing full well as soon as they finished eating they would have the body stregnth to follow their plan and slaughter everybody at baratie and steal the ship, which is the major conflict of that arc. he puts several lives in danger, and condemned some to death because to him feeding somebody who is experiencing starvation is more important.
I jokingly called chojis pills the chopper rumble balls, but they really similar, even including massive side effects after eating 3 of them. however the meaning they have to the characters are quite different. choji just happened to be born in a family that uses them, and knows eating the third one means death (even though it really doesnt) and thats his only personal connection to the pill. by contrast, chopper invented his rumble balls himself using his medicinal knowledge as a doctor, and only discovered the third one is dangerous by accidentally eating 3, causing him to lose concious control of his body and turning him into a monster that attacks indescriminately. he's fearful of the third ball not because he'll die, but because he's afraid of what he'll become and afraid he'll hurt innocent bystanders, which is counter to his entire role and character as a doctor
this is not to shit on "whats that shows name", but to say that Food is clearly an important thing to oda, the author of one piece, as it plays a vital role in multiple staw hats personalities, and informs the decisions and situations the characters find themselves participating in, in a show that on the surface has nothing to do with food. it is a testimate to how you can use food to convey meaning and character in your world
but while food is meaningful and important in one piece, it's downright SACRED to golden kamuy. whereas one piece has food a comonplace staple and uses it to convey meaning once ever 20 episodes or so, or ocasionally throughout an entire food based arc like baratie or whole cake island, golden kamuy uses food to convey themes, messaging, character backstories and decisions, power dynamics, violence, connecting characters, foreshadowing major plot points, detecting lies, and more, and it does this on an episodic basis. there are SCARCELY few episodes of golden kamuy with no food or mentions and discussions of food. it is the very lifeblood of the show. it is such a big facet of the show that golden kamuy is often jokingly referred to by its community as a cooking show, and it puts more meaning and care into the food it's characters eat than many actual cooking anime.
food is the most universal languages in the entire world, and a fact of life is that everbody needs to eat. we may not see eye to eye, we may not eat the same thing, but we all eat. what we eat and why can tell us a lot about people, about our cultures and beliefs. islamic and jewish people don't eat pork, and hindu don't eat beef due to their religious beliefs. vegans care for animals and don't feel that they can personally participate in the consumption of living things. vegans that also try to make their dog or cats vegan are animal abusers who just do it to feel superior to others. what you eat can say a lot about where you're from. american cuisine looks far different than russian or scottish cuisine, which looks far different than african cuisine. ox penis is something ocasinally eaten in china, and pufferfish in japan. whale skin and blubber were eaten by the various inuit people, along with most every other part of the whale, due to availability. the land we live on can dictate what we eat in a very real way. most places with strong cultural beliefs against eating certain foods have a lot more variety in edible resources than other places. many hindu people refuse to eat beef or are straight vegetarians, and they mostly live in places where other types of food are easy to come by. by contrast, you would be hard pressed to find a vegetarian inuit, simply because that's not sustainable where they live, and their beliefs reflect that. cultures that historically had less food available to them are strongly abhorrent to letting any part of their food go to waste, and many indigenous people historically see using as much as humanly possible from the animals you hunt as a necessary part of honoring and thanking that animal, and not letting anything go to waste.
food is the most universal language, and it might just be the most meaningful one as well. offering someone food as a form of thanks is a lot more meaningful than just saying thanks for example. it's a way we connect to people, and is why most first dates are at restaurants. it's even a language that can transcend species. we train animals by offering food as rewards, and pets are often most attached to the person who feeds them. food is one of the most important aspects of who we are as people, and nobody writing fiction seems to understand this more satoru noda, the creator of golden kamuy... him and ryoko kui, the creator of dungeon meshi, but as much as I love that manga thats not what today's video is about.
I'll be focusing on the anime in this video, so meals that only happen in the manga or that happen after the current point the anime is at will not be talked about here. Truth be told, I don't really know where this script is going as I'm writing it, I just want to talk about many of the various ways that golden kamuy uses food, because I think it's something a lot of shows can learn from.
food is first brought up or used in golden kamuy as early as... oh would you look at that the very first line in the entire show! golden kamuy starts off in a flashack during the russo-japanese war on 208 meter hill. the very first interaction with any character in the series is sugimoto in the trenches eating an ant off his finger and commenting it tastes sour. he then comments that he would eat the russians he kills if thats what it took to survive. this establishes in only a few seconds that the living conditions in the trench are terrible, people are hungry, and that sugimoto is a survivalist, but didn't consider desertion, instead of you know... canibalism. this is all before the charge up the hill, before we learn he's a monster in close quarters and is nicknamed sugimoto the immortal. that's a LOT of information given in just a couple lines using an ant. we know sugimoto proably wasn't seroius about eating people, but are almost given the impression throughout the scene that if push came to shove he would do it. sugimoto is a person who does whatever it takes to survive. this is one of his most central character traits and is conveyed using food in a matter of seconds within the start of the show.
soon ashirpa is introduced, a young ainu hunter and joins sugimoto as they begin a quest to... uh... skin people for the purposes of making a treasure map... look golen kamuy is a weird show okay?
ashirpa and sugimoto are the 2 primary leads of the show, and neither of them are particularly familar with the cultures of the other, but they grow closer and bond over the course of the show and learn about each others lives and backgrounds. this is shown throughout the show by the meals they eat. when they kill a bear that was hunting them in episode 1, ashirpa comments that although the ainu to hunt and eat bears, she can't eat the bear they killed, as eating a wenkamuy: a bear that's eaten people before, is against her people's beliefs. so it's not until episode 2 that the pair share the first meals on their journey. they make chitatap, an ainu dish of raw meat that is meant to be made only using fresh kills, and ashirpa offers sugimoto the brains of the squirrel they hunted raw on a spoon as a snack for him to try. sugimoto is naturally at first repullsed by the idea, but after being preassured by ashirpa and not wanting to offend her he eats it, and reluctantly admits it's good. It's not clear in this scene whether he actually thinks it's good or if he's placating ashirpa, but it's definetely clear he still finds at least the concept of eating a brain gross. he also eats the chitatap and likes it, but believes it would taste even better by adding miso to it, and this time it's ashirpa who looks upon in disgust as she see's an unfamiliar japanese paste she insist's must be poop is willingly added to his portion of the meal. she even refuses to try it upon being presented with some, denying the same courtosey that sugimoto showed by eating brains just earlier. this is changed by their meal in meal a few episodes later when she tries miso at the insistence of both sugimoto and their new traveling companion shiraishi, and much like sugimoto admits it's good, even if it still visualy repulses her. from this point on, the characters share and mix both of their cultures into the food they eat and slowly become more used, accepting, and eventually enjoying each others cuisine, something shown with some hilarious screenshots. this mirrors of course their growing trust in each other. we don't need to be told that these 3 characters are closer when we can see it visually by sugimoto passionately sucking on a giant eyeball, or drunkenly babybirding shiraishi chewed dumpling, or ashirpa developing an obsessoin with miso and also wanting to try dried persimons because sutimotos favorite food and... fuck im getting emotional thinking about that scene again. I talked about it more extensively in my anti-war video on golden kamuy, so go watch that. but its so clear and disturbingly beautiful how much these characters have grown to care for each other by viewing their eating habits.
chitatap, the first meal they properly shared, becomes used repetedly throughout the show as a way to meet new people and intermingle characters, because it'a a dish meant to be prepared by everyone eating it together by taking turns chopping the meat, and we get to learn about every character by how they interact with the process of making chitatap, such as hijikata being cool with using his historial treasure of a katana, one of the few relics of his samurai days, to chop up raw meat because because a little kid thougt it would be cool and fun, or how ogata thinks he's too cool for school to chant chitatap while he cuts like everyone else, but the second time they make the meal he says it once just loud enough for ashirpa to hear.
meals have also been used to foreshadow events in golden kamuy, like when kioranke's betrayal is foreshadowed in this meal immitating the final supper. kioranke is in the seat and position judas in, and yes those are human corpses that have been turned into mannequins at the dinnertable, why do you ask?
on the topic of kiorankes betralal, after sugimoto is shot in the head and believed by ashirpa and half the characters to be dead, the fun joyous meals stop temporarily in the show. ashirpa is still eating and still enjoying hunting and trying new food, she's still ashirpa, but for the first couple of meals, the animals the capture reportedly don't taste good, such as this seal thing and musk deer. the only meal we were told as good was a snack made by someone else and eaten off screen. it's only after kioranke tells ashirpa that musk deer was her father's first kill and she finds a new purpose in the journey to learn more about her father and the karafuto indiginous that she begins to eat good food again.
food can be a tool in storytelling to display dynamics between characters. this is often in shown as a differentiating factor between the wealthy and poor, such as in the hunger games, but that's not the only dynamic that can be shown through this. to use lt tsurumi as an example, his second major scene where we learn about him as a character is a conversation with sugimoto after sugimoto has been captured by the 7th division. during this scene, sugimoto is handcuffed and sitting straight in his chair with 2 armed gurads while tsurumi casually questions him while eating dango on a stick, offering nothing for the captive to eat, representing a power dynamic showing which of them is in charge. tsurumi eats the dango throughout the scene, and the way he eats it is somehow offputting, and animated in such a way where you know there is something about him that just isn't right. I never thought eating dango could be intimidating, but here we are. I am terrified of this man. sugimoto does actually get to interact with the dango in this scene too, so we can contrasst it with how tsurumi did it to learn something... how did sugimoto get to interact with the dango again?
oh right, he gets STABBED THROUGH BOTH CHEECKS BY THE DANGO STICK by tsurumi as soon as he declines he gets caught in a lie. it's clear at this moment that the niceties and fun in games are over. tsurumi caught sugimoto in a lie about his identity, and the gloves are off.
food can also be used to show a sickness of the mind. ogata, who could be the topic of a whole nother video, has a hatred of monkfish stew. this is one of the only emotinal connections he has been shown to have food, and was born from his parents. ogata is the son of a high ranking military official and a geisha. ashamed of the mothers side of the family, the father forced them to leave and never make contact again while ogata was still a young child. over time, his mother lost her mind and began to only make monkfish stew to eat. it was his fathers favorite meal, and in her sickened mind she convinced herself that if she made it than one day the father would come back. she made it day after day after day. ogata picked up shooting and would kill ducks and birds to bring to his mother so he could eat something else and she would still only make monkfish stew. one day he put rat poison in the stew and killed his mother. ogata isn't right in the head either, he's a psychopath. he didn't kill his mother out of hatred of her food, but out of simple curiorsity to see if his father would care to show up at the funeral. he didn't.
monkfish stew here is used in golden kamuy as a representation of stagnation of the mind. denial that things will never go back to the way they were for the mother. it represents an insanity, doing the same thing over and over without change in hopes for a different outcome.

I’m on the hunt for a nice insulated jacket. From my research, I understand that fill power and fill weight are both important considerations but I am struggling in terms of which is more important.
The 2 jackets I’m deciding between are:

• Option A: 700 fill power with goose down (90/10 ratio of down to feather) with a fill weight of 248 grams.
• Option B: 600 fill power with duck down (80/20 ratio of down to feather) with a fill weight of 314 grams.

My take on it is that Option A wins out because it has a higher fill power of a warmer down type and with a higher percentage of down to feathers. I’m just a bit stuck though on whether the higher fill weight of Option B happens to give it the edge?
Thoughts? Thanks in advance!