ravioli, ravioli give me the formuoli

So may I present my own casting choice for Odysseus:

Absolutely not

You know who would try that shit?

Is this the face of a man who would defy the very gods to get home to his wife?

You know who would defy the gods just to show he could get away with it?

Red Fox (Vulpes vulpes)

Krafton CEO looks at the hype surrounding Subnautica 2, goes over the contract between Krafton and Unknown Worlds, realizes he'll have to pay out bonuses and freaks out because shelling out those bonuses will make him look like a pushover.

CEO goes to his legal department, asks them to come up with a plan to weasel out of paying bonuses. Legal tells him the contract is iron-clad and to accept the loss.

CEO refuses to take the loss, asks ChatGPT for a plan. ChatGPT says the exact same thing the legal department did.

CEO demands a plan from ChatGPT, which dutifully spits out a plan at this point because clearly the CEO is a goddamn idiot.

CEO deletes the chat logs, failing to understand that 'delete' doesn't permanently remove things.

CEO follows plan, and is surprised when Unknown Worlds sues for breach of contract despite being told by both humans and an LLM that is exactly what would happen.

Court does not go well for Krafton's legal department. It comes out that after ignoring the sound legal advice of human beings, the CEO went to ChatGPT and asked for a plan. When asked for the logs by the court, Krafton's legal team states they were deleted, thus that it's simply herersay. Judge goes "Oh, that's okay, we'll have our IT folks recover them." Krafton's legal team is astounded that's even possible.

The chat logs are recovered. It comes out that even ChatGPT was in agreement with Krafton's legal department, and only spat out a plan after being asked a second time.

The judge, now thoroughly done with the stupidity of Krafton's CEO at this point, rules in favor of Unknown Worlds. Her ruling doesn't simply undo the scheme, but effectively leaves all control over Subnautica 2's development in the hands of Unknown Worlds, including the early access release date, reducing Krafton to just publishing out of contractual obligation. Krafton must also return all social media platforms for Unknown Worlds and Subnautica 2 to Unknown Worlds' control. Financial damages will be determined at a later date.

Krafton proceeds to violate the court order in less than 72 hours by trying to set an early access release date before returning Unknown Worlds' social media platforms.

The pyramids were built by contemporary workers who received wages and were fed and taken care of during construction

The Dendera “lightbulb” is a representation of the creation myth and has nothing to do with electricity

We didn’t find “““copper wiring””” in the great pyramid either

Hatshepsut wasn’t transgender

The gods didn’t actually have animal heads

Hieroglyphs aren’t mysteriously magical; they’re just a language (seriously we have shopping lists and work rosters and even ancient erotica)

The ancient Egyptian ethnicity wasn’t homogeneous

While the Egyptians were fine-ass astronomers they didn’t align any of their enormous and/or important buildings to modern star constellations, because constellations look very different now than they did ~5000 years ago 

Speaking of that particular sphinx, the Napoleonic expedition is not responsible for its missing nose

Akhenaten was not a “heretic” by contemporary standards

Ramses II appropriated a lot of his predecessors’ buildings/reliefs and isn’t really deserving of the epithet “the Great”

It was not, in fact, practice to shave off eyebrows after cats died; Herodotus lied about that

Here are some vetted Egyptological books/sources (that are by and large appropriate for a lay-audience) you can find most, if not all of the above:

Lehner, M., The Complete Pyramids

Wilkinson, R. H., The Complete Temples of Ancient Egypt

Hornung, E., The One and the Many: Conceptions of God in Ancient Egypt

Dunand, F. & Zivie-Coche, C., Gods and Men in Egypt

Kemp, B., Ancient Egypt: Anatomy of a Civilization

Bard, K., An Introduction to the Archaeology of Ancient Egypt

Stevenson Smith, W., The Art and Architecture of Ancient Egypt

Kitchen, K. A., The Life and Times of Ramesses II, King of Egypt

Sweeney, D., Sex and Gender (in Ancient Egypt)

McDowell, A. G., Village Life in Ancient Egypt:  Laundry Lists and Love Songs

An antiviral pill has, for the first time, been shown to prevent COVID-19 in people exposed to the SARS-CoV-2 virus at home, according to trial results published today in the New England Journal of Medicine1. The drug could be a lifeline for those who still face real danger from the virus, such as care-home residents or transplant recipients on immune-suppressing medication.

Attending FanimeCon 2026? Love Indie Comics and Manga? Don't miss the first Original English Language Doujinshi market in the USA, MANGA ICHIBA, An event focused on self-published manga and comics for an English-Speaking Audience!

I’m super excited to be tabling at this event in May (representing my own problematic medieval RPF yaoiz from @angevinyaoiz ) so excited that I made my own personalized promotion graphic above <3. I hope that anyone attending Fanime this year can have fun checking out everyone’s hard work!

There will be people selling both original and fanworks, All Ages works in the daytime and 18+ works in the evening. This will be at the Doubletree hotel, which is separate from the main Convention Center, and also hosts the popular Night Market!

A book-focused event!

Fanime was one of the very first local anime and manga events I attended as a teenager. What encouraged me to apply to this event, as a longtime attendee and tabler at local zinefests and small book fairs, is that it focuses specifically on creating and sharing independent comics and manga, rather than on prints and merchandise (which are wonderful to see, but more specific to the Artist Alley.) My hope is that Manga Ichiba can encourage similar events to pop up across the country.

Spreading the Good Word of Doujinshi

So far, I haven’t seen very much promotion of this event from official sources, so it feels like a lot of the promotion has been from word of mouth. Well, I’m doing my part! I feel that there is a great hunger for these kinds of events, so I hope there can be some more discussion and anticipation. Feel free to post about the event if you’re attending or interested, and feel free to use/repost my unofficial promotion doodle as well if you’d like to share with others!

Staffing and Help

I have also heard that there is still some need for extra staffing at this event. If anyone is interested, feel free to comment or message (or email, at [email protected]) and I can put you in contact with more direct sources.

Thoughts?

Anyone else planning on attending, either as a vendor or as a curious visitor? It will doubtlessly be a busy time, but I’d love to say hi to anyone who comes by. While I can’t guarantee it at this time (I’m still busy working on my actual comic…) I’d love to make some little giveaways or something for folks who make it!