#i was thinking about catching up with geats because its a lot easier to be watching something as it comes out vs | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

dunkingtruth · 1 year

Text

wrusilae lore and grendel rewrite infodump incoming prepare yourself boy

from Gardner’s Grendel we gather that he in fact hibernates, has the ability to walk on both four and two legs comfortably, has a wide vocal range (described as “hooting” “whooping” “shrieking” “roaring” and “bellowing” several times), is covered in shaggy fur, is sensitive to light, and is wholly carnivorous. from all of these we could gather that Grendel’s species is a member of the feline family, since a lot of what he does fits in very well with the behaviors and characteristics of felines, with a couple other notably un-feline traits spliced in, but pretty much anything is possible when evolution and all of that shit is taken into account so we’ll just say he’s part of the feline family for now. anyway, some things about grendel that are particularly ‘feline’ to me and that i wanted to talk about.

1. uncannily quiet when need be/stalking prey behavior

Grendel sneaks around a lot, being able to stalk the helmings without being detected, padding through snow, silently, without being noticed by four people. his mother is also an example of this when grendel states that “I saw my mother moving slowly and silently past me,”. grendel also stalks prey. again, the helmings and their animals, the scyldings etc etc. i think Grendel is naturally an ambush predator but the gift of sentience and the natural urge cats have to torture their food or really anything smaller than them that moves suddenly (or also just him being a sadist) all play big roles in the way that he acts. (Typically solitary while hunting, a cat sneaks up to its prey on padded feet. Long, sensitive whiskers on the face aid the cat during the stalking of the prey by brushing against obstacles and enabling the cat to avoid making excessive noise. When close to its prey, the cat overwhelms it in a short, quick rush or leap. Cats can move very fast in a short dash but are not built for sustained speed.) not being built for running long periods of time also rings true for Grendel, as he states “I have never killed a deer in all my life and never will. Cows have more meat, and locked in pens, are easier to catch) livestock thievery is also a trait shared by many big cats such as cougars and leopards. Grendel also hangs out in trees an awful lot and watches people he plans to eat, which speaks for itself.

2. eating habits

(cats are the most highly specialized of the terrestrial flesh-eating mammals. they are powerfully built, with a large brain and strong teeth.) in the book, Grendel only eats meat. cows, oxen, people, anything he can find that has flesh and blood, he’ll eat it. he also caches food at one point, a behavior observed in leopards, when he takes “as much as he can carry” from the wreckage of human raids and stores it in the den (Mama does not like this, she prefers to keep a clean house). additionally, cats live on a feast-or-famine routine, gorging themselves when a kill is made and then fasting for several days. Grendel is this to a tee. he eats seven men in one sitting, plans to eat every last geat right before the Beowulf Incident™️, and generally is able to eat a whole lot in a little time. the fasting is moreso implied, and generally i think Grendel has himself a little snack every day because that’s just how He Is whereas his mother probably “follows the rules” so to say, completely adhering to the whole feast-or-famine thing. in my brain Grendel’s species are omnivorous, being able to eat other things when meat isn’t readily available. i think roots/tubers, insects (grubs mostly), grass, berries/fruit and even carrion or salt or any other mineral-rich thing animals like to lick/chew on, as evidenced by Mama’s bone pile, and her offering him a bone at one point, which is probably the wrusilae equivalent of giving your kid chicken noodle soup when they feel ill.

3. misc headcanons and such + tiny things influenced by one-off comments

right what it says on the tin. mostly just little things or headcanons influenced by Little Things

-female wrusilae have pouches. i know there is literally Zero Evidence for this but i think it’s an interesting quirk for them to have, also putting them in the marsupial category gives them a lot more weird anatomical stuff i think is cool. (this implies Grendel has a forked penis but we won’t dwell on that 💙) also you can’t tell me baby Grendel in his mama’s pouch isn’t the cutest thing you ever did see.

-to build off of Baby Things, grendel and every other wrusilae are born blind, deaf, and helpless. since wrusilae live much, much longer than humans i would say they are REALLY slow to mature, and a female isn’t ready to begin mating until she’s hundreds of years old (young adulthood for a wrusilae). wrusilae are also incredibly good at parenting, carrying babies on the parent’s back when the offspring has grown too large for the pouch. Mama also raised Grendel well into adulthood, and allows him to stay in the cave, something hardly any other animal does besides humans. If Mama were as non-sentient as Grendel insists she is, she probably would’ve booted him out of the cave by force and made him live on his own.

-did i mention the babies have patterns? they start out all white at birth, like a Dalmatian or Siamese cat. when they're first born they're cream or white because of the high temperatures in the womb. As they develop outside of the womb and their body temperature fluctuates, they begin to get darker fur on their face and backs, occasionally on the tail or paws. all of this happens in adulthood after a “camouflage coat” like that of a fawn or cougar kit is shed. they go from pure white/cream babies -> spotted toddlers -> uniformly grey/brown/dark brown adults with tinting and facial coloration

-touch is an important staple of wrusilae behavior. there are greeting “kisses”, which is really just you touching the front teeth of the other person, recognition embraces, and grooming other wrusilae to show them You Care. Grendel also states that his mother used to hold him when he was a tiny baby, and into adolescence hugged him when he got angsty.

-they have a bad sense of smell in the grand scheme of things. they have a sense of smell about nine times stronger than a human’s, and a much more acute sense of it, but compared to an animal like a dog theirs isn’t great. also evidenced by their flatter faces.

-their bodies are straight up weird yo. I think the closest thing i can compare them to is the body structure of a pallas cat and a hyena. they have hefty bodies, short back legs, and comparably long front legs. the pallas cat is very short and stout and generally looks like a fuzzy little powerhouse, and the hyenas have humped/curved backs, and longer forelimbs. usually wrusilae have longer tails, not suuuuper long but good enough for balance, and even hanging upside down like a pangolin. however, Grendel has a genetic defect that makes his tail kind of stubby, which hinders his balance significantly. and he can’t hang upside down. SAD! additionally, sometimes tail deformities can result in split tails or even No Tail At All!

-to build off the above statement, i think that mostly all wrusilae have horns. nothing super super ornate like a deer’s antlers or an antelope’s twisted horns, but really strong horns nonetheless. Grendel’s horns are a little stubby and resemble that of a bison’s horn, only much more angular and large at the bottom. the usual horn arrangements are hooked, angular, nubs and slightly more detailed versions like having notches/grooves in otherwise plain horns. mostly they’re conical and simple in design, and can curve outward or inwards. sometimes they’re even asymmetrical, as a one-hooked horn would show. females have smaller horns than males, though females with increased testosterone levels may have longer/larger horns. they aren’t antlers, don’t get that mixed up! they don’t grow back or shed velvet, and if they are broken, are broken forever.

-additionally, wrusilae have very bony and strong heads. in the case of grendel, he has a face that looks like a barbute helmet, for both symbolism and also because his design is a recycled from a way older character. his head is really square and broad, a perfect anchor for powerful horns. the chitin reinforcements are less noticeable on a female’s face, but they’re there.

-facial patterning is weird. a male’s facial coloring is reminiscent of a lemur or sheep but is never jet black. male wrus have darker faces and females have lighter faces. usually they’re in a spectrum of “deathwhite” to “very dark brown”. their faces are covered in very short fur, like any other animal’s would be, and it makes them look cute.

-“Tinting” comes in pretty much any color, except black or white, unless the wrusilae is melanistic or albino. in the case of Grendel and Mama their tints are a tomato red and a moss green respectively. but wrus can come in dull fuschia to pea green to phlegm yellow. never any bright or abrasive colors but usually a dulled or an offset of a more vibrant color. For example, instead of being cherry red, Grendel’s tint is more tomato/orange-red. Tint is usually found on the sides, legs, arms, and the ridge down the back, which can extend to the base of the tail. tinting resembles tabby cat stripes, and are usually in two’s wherever they are on the body, though more or less sets of tint marks are possible. except the back ridge, which is a stripe down the back like a skunk’s.

-wrusilae are completely covered in shaggy fur, and have lots of spurs on their bodies. Spurs only show up on the forearms and back legs. Grendel for example has sharp spurs on his forearms for slashing things!

-Grendel isn’t a runt by any means. he is Large and in Charge even by wrusilae standards, being a foot taller than a normal male of his species (he clocks in at about 9’2 and a whopping 1,600 lbs). his mother is about 7’1 and he’s able to pick her up like a child. He even states himself that he could single-handedly destroy the whole meadhall and everyone in it in one night if he wanted, has eaten whole cows before, has eaten up to seven men in one sitting, and has literally crushed a bear to death on a whim. take the image below as a template for Grendel’s approximate height, but instead of being as sleek and long-bodied as the polar bear, he’s built like a fucking brick. absolutely no wonder he was able to snap a grizzly bear’s spine.

anyway autism rant over. i love species i love traits i love creatures

#grendel #wrusilae #beowulf #<- You Will See My Niche Posts About The Species Of The Monster #original species

1 note · View note

motorcyclegear101 · 5 years

Text

Best Motorcycle Boots For Walking

Our top 5 picks for the best motorcycle boots for walking

Icon Superduty 5 Motorcycle Boots

TCX X-Blend Waterproof Boots

Alpinestars Newland GTX

Alpinestars Roam 2

Alpinestars Corozal Adventure Drystar

Check out our top five motorcycle boots for walking. We have chosen the most comfortable motorcycle boots and put them all in one place so you don’t have to. Watch our in-depth video reviews so you can choose the right motorcycle boot for you.

These are my favorite Street and commuting motorcycle boots. I’m going to start with my picks that tend towards form and then slowly work into more functional Footwear. The first boot we will look at is the Icon Superduty 5.

Icon Superduty 5 Motorcycle Boots

iFrame is not supported!

This is the $200 Icon Super Duty and it’s probably my first choice for a commuter shoe. Something that I can use to ride to work in the morning and then around the office all day.

It’s a pretty legitimate motorcycle boot, full leather upper and steel shank soul and armor plating on both the pointy bits of your ankle. It’s A really solid toe box, really solid heel counter but at the same time, it’s a very practical working shoe. I think this boot is probably the BEST AND most comfortable motorcycle boot for walking.

The tread pattern underneath is soft on the footpeg interface but everywhere else, it’s grippy enough and the style is excellent. That’s probably because Icon ripped off the Timberland shoe company.

I think this is a stunning looking shoe, especially in brown or weak colorways look phenomenal under a pair of jeans. I ordered the black one because I wanted to see if there’s any magic in it there’s not really, to be honest, I would probably order one of the other colorways if I was to do it again.

When it comes to sizing I wear an eleven and a half in pretty much everything and this 11 and a half is spot on. To tie the boot up you just tie up the laces exactly like you learned in grade school and then snap the positive lock buckle across the top.

The buckle does a really good job of snugging up the entire shoe and I think it’s going to last a long time. It’s made from aluminum, I put mine through 15,000 riding kilometers last season and a ton of hiking kilometers and I have no reason to assume that it’s going to give out anytime soon.

They take a while to break in but once they do they are very comfortable and they’re very solid. Ikon do not market these as waterproof so they’re definitely not going to guarantee what I’m about to say but, the Super Duty 4 is probably going to keep you dry.

If I spray some waterproof leather protector on to the boot and stay away from the big puddles, yeah I trust these through the rainy ride. The one thing that I do hate about the Super Duty is the shifter panel. When I have my jeans rolled over the buckle the only thing that gives away the motorcycle boot are these stupid rubber nubs.

If it wasn’t for them you wouldn’t be able to tell this from a regular shoe, and it’s annoying too because these actually do nothing to help me shift geat. For $300 I could get another multi-purpose shoe which is the TCX X-blend waterproof boot.

TCX X-Blend Waterproof Boots

iFrame is not supported!

I think this is better than the Super Duty in every way except for one, and I’ll get to that.

The excellent is CE rated so it has ankle heel and toe armoring, it’s full leather construction just like the icon Super Duty although this one does come up a little bit higher around the calf so you get the extra slide protection that does come with that.

There’s a fully waterproof lining inside the boot that’s the big way that the TCX is going to sink the icon, and yet somehow this manages to achieve the same weight as its Super Duty. It’s basically eight hundred and forty grams, because of that it feels very nimble on the foot.

Out of the box I would say that this shoe is more comfortable to wear, it’s easier to walk in and it doesn’t look as clunky as the Icon Super Duty.

It’s more of a classic vintage style and kudos to TCX because this shifter panel is subtle enough that it doesn’t stand out.

I’m not in love with the laces and the only thing that they really in danger is my pride. If the laces do catch on the motorcycle I’m probably not going to notice until I get to the next stoplight, then try to put my foot down and then topple over and one of the lamest and most public crashes known to exist.

The one thing that attracts me from this shoe is the comfort of the boot. The leather is incredibly supple right out of the box and the ankle is squishy, the heel and toe cup seem to move with my foot and that really scares me.

I prefer a stiffer boot when it’s new. Give me a firmer soul, give me thicker leather, give me stiffer armoring because I know that all of that is going to break in over time and when it does, I’m going to have a shoe that’s comfortable and safe.

I don’t mind putting in the saddle time to get a shoe feeling like this eventually, but when it feels like this out of the box it feels this good, I’m skeptical that TCX kind of sacrificing too much in terms of safety.

I like the Xblunt, it’s meant to blend style and protection and it definitely succeeds, I mean no it’s not the exact blend that I would want.

Personally I like a little bit more oomph from a motorcycle boot but, if you’re less concerned with protection than I am this is an excellent choice.

I’ve picked two commuter boots that function well and look good, but what if I don’t care that much about appearances? Maybe I ride on the street just for fun, maybe I commute 200 kilometers a day which basically makes me a tourER. If that’s the case I want Alpinestars Newland GTX.

Alpinestars Newland GTX

iFrame is not supported!

GTX stands for gore-tex so I know that this is going to be the most waterproof boot that we’ve seen. Gore-tex is like solid gold for motorcyclists, we’re willing to pay a lot for guaranteed dryness. You normally see this material come into play sort of around the four or five hundred dollar mark.

The New Line GTX though is only two hundred and ninety dollars right now so how is it so cheap?

Obviously you save some of that money by getting a half-length boot, and we also save on the closure system. The new land issues the fancy aqua guard zippers and the buckles for this good old velcro, it does make me feel a little bit like a kindergartner to do up my boot with velcro but, I don’t really have a legitimate complaint because it does work.

The biggest cost-saving move was probably cutting off the gore-tex liner a good three inches below the top of the boot. I definitely want a waterproof pant that’s going to come down below this point otherwise I’m going to have water leaking in through the top.

I have loved wearing these boots, mainly because they’re versatile. More than anything else on my list the new land is worn when it’s cold outside and cool when it’s hot.

It also has the accordion stretch fabric on the front and back, though she gives me totally unrestricted ankle movements this is pretty much equal in walking comfort to the X-Blend. Plus it comes in about 100 grams lighter.

I’ll run through the usual goodies to close us off.

Ankle protection baked into both sides, heel counter, toe box, reflective strip on the rear, two mesh vents which are the first of the day and CE certification.

It has full-grain leather all-around and a steel shank, It’s a hybrid somewhere between walking and riding. On that note, it’s the same exact sole that we see on the Alpine stars Rome 2 waterproof boot.

Alpinestars Roam 2 WP Boots

iFrame is not supported!

When I want to know what a boot is for, I look at the bottom of it. This boot has a tech touring sole just like the Newland and so that means that the Rome 2 is meant for heavy street use and serious commuting, touring that kind of thing.

Three big differences from the Newland boot. Obviously it comes up higher so I’m getting the extra slide protection and the shin armory that comes with that territory.

This is probably the most protective boot on my list and that’s why I see it on sports tours all the time. The second big difference is the waterproof membrane, this is good stuff so it’s not gore-tex. There’s no lifetime guarantee of dryness on the Roam 2.

Of course, having said that this guy does receive a ton of positive reviews, specifically referencing its waterproofing, so it’s probably one of the better non-gore-tex options out there. It also comes in about $60 cheaper than the Newland again, probably because it’s not gore-tex.

The third big difference is the chassis, it’s synthetic leather here rather than the real cow so I am lacking a little bit of that breathability. To be honestthough I don’t care because of the waterproof membrane wasn’t that breathable, to begin with.

Other than that the Rome 2 runs the same stats as the Newlens, CE approvable, toe-heel, and ankle armor and reflective insert. Just like the Newlands I normally wear an eleven and a half but I find that the ten and a half are the better fit for me.

Alpinestars Corozal Adventure Drystar

iFrame is not supported!

If you’re looking for a new pair of comfortable adventure boots in the sub $300 range, the core assaults from Alpinestars are going to carry over a ton of features from their off-road series as well as their street series. Combine it together to make one awesome off-road on-road package ready to go out of the box.

The core of the boot is a very tall boot with tons of protection. they’ve also got the Belize which stops about midway up the boot so if you want a boot that’s a little bit shorter you can get those in the Belize style boots.

They’re very very similar to these but if you want the full-on protection of an off-road boot with the comfort of a street boot the Corozal is the only way to go.

These things are 15 inches from the floor all the way up to the top of these boots they are serious and they’re serious about protection but they’re also serious about comfort.

The leather TPU all mixed together to make an awesome package, the leather is going to be in all the areas where we want to flex, bend, move and stay comfortable. The TPU which is just a fancy name for plastic is going to be in all the areas that we want extra protection we’re not as worried about movement and we want some serious impact resistance.

Bottom to top we’ll start here we’ve got leather all the way around the bottom of the boot, that’s going to make sure that your foot can move around, it’s going to break in just like your favorite pair of tennis shoes.

This boot is not going to flex like your favorite pair of tennis shoes, we’ll go over the soul and that Flexi blade later but it is going to flex a bit, it’s probably going to flex more than your typical off-road boot but not quite as much as a full street boot. This one’s going to be a compromise in between the two.

As we work our way up the boot you’re going to notice that this has two buckles on it, those buckles do ratchet, they do adjust and they are quick release so you can get the things on and off real fast.

You’ve just got a couple of clips you can adjust those the very first time, once you do that you’re going to be good to go. As we come all the way up the shin you’re going to see a massive TPU shin plate, this is just like what you’re going to find in Alpinestars off-road boots.

It comes with impact resistance, it adds a little bit of style Plus if you come in contact with anything off-road that’s going to be there to keep old Mr. shin nice and happy.

At the very top, you’ve got a large velcro panel, again that’s quick, easy in and out so it allows you a bit of adjustment around the calf depending on what type of socks you’re wearing. If they come all the way up it’s definitely going to let you get into a comfortable position.

If we look back around on the front of the boot you’re going to see that this leather changes a couple of times as it goes up the boot. The reason for that on the front of the boot you want it to flex a little bit to be comfortable for the rider, but you also want that heavy-duty protection and abrasion resistance.

As we work our way up the front of the boot you’re going to have this TPU covering up a lot of the leather, so to make sure that these things are extra comfortable and you can articulate that ankle the way you need to front to back, they’ve actually changed over to almost like a micro-suede type material and then a much softer more supple leather.

You will see that it goes black as well as brown all the way around and what that does is allow for more bending and flexing without additional bunching, it’s nice that they’re adding in those comfort features to make sure that these things are good to go for the long haul.

You will see the same thing on the back, the black leather with almost an accordion look to it as it bends that’s going to fold in on itself. It’s much more supple so it’s going to bend very and that’s going to continue all the way up the back, the chances of that being one of your key impact areas pretty slim.

If you look at the inner side of the boot you’re going to notice a few transitions. What you’ve got is a heat press texture and the reason that’s there is whenever you get in inclement weather, this leather can be quite slippery against the frame of the bike. It can let your foot move around a little bit so this texture will help you grip on to the bike and keep your foot from sliding around on that footpeg.

If it gets damp whenever you’re out riding, chances are if you’re an adventure writer you’re probably going to be riding into some nasty mucky stuff so it’s nice to have that on there.

In the toe boxes on the front of the boot, you’re going to notice that there is a symmetrical TPU on both of them. Only one of these is going to be utilized that’s going to be the one on the left of the boot. That is actually there to reduce any of the wear coming from that gear shifter.

Mile after mile after mile especially in technical stuff you’re probably going to be switching gears a whole lot, so this is going to help reduce any of that premature wear which could cause that boot to start to get uncomfortable.

Just to keep things symmetrical and keep the aesthetics going nice and smooth they just added one on the right-hand side as well, it doesn’t look too out of place still definitely fits in with the whole adventure setup.

Last thing I want to look at on the outside of the boot we’ve got hard toe boxes right up in the front if you tried it would be hard to push down on that leather, but if you wrap around to the side it requires a lot less pressure to cave that leather right in.

The reason that’s like that is that there’s a hard plastic casing underneath the leather on the inside of the boot, that’s for some serious impact resistance. If you’re in an adventure scenario, you happen to step off the bike and kick a rock you want something there protecting you. Similar to like steel-toed boots somebody would wear in an industrial environment these are going to flex a little bit more but still deflect a lot of that impact to the rest of the boot.

You’re going to see the same thing right around back on the heel, that heel cup you want to make sure it has tons of impact resistance as well so it gives you the support you need and it HAS that TPU liner there on the back as well.

And last but not least, on the outside, we’ve got the flexible blade. I don’t know where they came up with the name for it but its job is to make sure that we have movement front to back but, we do not have any movement side to side. It’s there to reduce any type of ankle injury.

You definitely want the mobility to be able to walk off of the bike and get around. If you’re on a technical section or you have to walk the bike around a trail, or an obstacle you want to be able to do that and you want to be able to move that ankle back and forth.

But, if you get into an accident you don’t want to roll that ankle so what this does is allow movement front to back. You will see that plastic moving within the casing on the top, what that’s going to allow is that full range motion front to back, but it’s going to limit it side to side. Once you start to roll to the side it’s going to catch on those casters on the inside and make sure that stops that rolling motion which could cause an ankle injury.

At the bottom, you can see the soles on these are a little bit more aggressive than your typical street boot but not so aggressive that they look like a real off-road motocross-style boot. We’ve got some large lugs on the sole AND that’s going to help you walk around in those nasty mucky conditions.

We’ve also got siping on every single one of those lugs, that’s going to help you get that traction in that really nasty stuff. We’ve also got a section basically where the heel goes all the way up almost to the pad on the ball of your foot.

Underneath we’ve got a shank that runs from front all the way to back and that’s going to provide a tremendous amount of support underneath. It limits the range that you can bend these boots, the soles on these boots do not bend a whole lot but it’s like that for a reason.

These are a boot made to be on a motorcycle that the rider is going to be standing up and positioning themselves for technical riding a lot so just like your off-road boots they’re not going to bend a whole lot. The same thing here on your adventure boots, they plan on you spending a lot of time standing on the pegs

They’ve got that shank in there to minimize any of that pressure transferring through to your arch and that nice flat area so you can move around on the peg and get into the position you need to maintain your balance and really get through those obstacles as quickly as possible.

The last thing we want to look at is the opening and on the inside, we’ve got a padded liner all the way around the inside. Underneath that padded liner, you have that dry star waterproof barrier that stuff is waterproof but it’s also breathable.

It will allow the sweat to evacuate out because the molecules in that moisture evaporating are smaller than a water droplet, but those water droplets aren’t going to get through that barrier that’s three layers thick. It’s going to be waterproof but it’s also going to keep your feet from sweating as much as it would with just a standard waterproof liner.

we’ve also got that nice cushioning all the way around, all the way down the backside to provide comfort. A nice wide opening so it’s going to be easy to get on and off.

Overall a great adventure-style boots but definitely on the taller end of the spectrum. If you wanted a shorter variation of a very similar boot you can go with Belize boot, if not, stick with these corals. These things are going to give you the protection you need for the serious adventure riders.

You can get these in brown or black, as far as the sizing goes a pair of size 9 fit on my feet but they were quite snug. If I bought the size 10 they’re going to be wide enough and I should be able to wear the thicker Motocross off-road style socks.

I’m going to go ahead and say these fit true to size so whatever size you normally wear go ahead and order them up and they should fit just perfect.

That’s it for my list of comfortable motorcycle boots for walking and thank you guys very much for reading.

The post Best Motorcycle Boots For Walking appeared first on Motorcycle Gear 101.

0 notes