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molagboop · 1 year ago

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After referencing numerous diagrams, avian necropsy records, and my own prior knowledge of human musculoskeletal structure, I have devised speculative anatomical structure for Chozo.

We'll start small with my first attempts to properly chart basic skeletal structure from last year (seeing as how that's what I used as a jumping off point), then move on to the research-based stuff. I wanted to walk through the process of solving problems presented by the skeletal structure.

First we have a cursory look at the ribcage. Drafted June 7, 2023. Leaning into the more humanoid appearance.

New addition, May 2024: a first shot at sussing out wing bones. These bones need to be much, much larger to accommodate the full breadth of the limb: this is just a rough outline. The skeleton also needs to bear muscles that are strong enough to carry the Chozo in flight, hence the new protrusion on the chest: a keel. Two variants of this new breast came out of this drawing session: one with a large keel that extends below the sternum and one with a normal keel.

Image credit: Wikipedia

Human ribcages have this ridge along the bottom that the last six ribs are attached to (noted in grey on the image above). We're not doing that with the Chozo ribcage.

The sternum is the structure in the middle, which the ribs are attached to. See those two bones attached to the top of each side of the sternum, stretching away from the center of the ribs and forming sort of a capital "T" silhouette? Those are the clavicles. When you're drawing any humanoid form, the clavicles are an excellent landmark (and as I've been taught, the first place you should start on anatomy after you've laid out your pose, armature, etc).

It's also part of why wings are so difficult to suss out on Chozo skeletons. In birds, a bone that consists of a fusion of the two clavicles is a crucial part of flight: the clavicle bridges the gap between the ribs and the arms, and for birds, the wings are their arms. That's problem number one: effectively consolidating two pairs of arms on one torso.

We have a few bones to add onto the human skeleton in order to make flight possible for Chozo. First, we'll assume all bones are hollow. This makes them lighter, demanding considerably less energy to lift them off the ground in the first place.

I've modified the sternum to add a keel, which the base flight muscles are going to be anchored to.

First pass at revising the skeletal structure. I made a few modifications unrelated to the wings. The pelvis is similar to that of a human, though a little wider to accommodate egg-laying. I may end up reworking the pelvis entirely to make it more bird-like, but I'm more interested in making those wings fit at the moment. Chozo have a human femur/patella, and avian lower legs.

Here's a thing I slapped together in 3 minutes in January of last year to illustrate which bones are where for the layman. Onto different matters.

Skeleton, labeled.

Generally, the wings' humerus is attached to the scapulacoracoid, a bone attached to the keel that's sort of Y-shaped. That's how a real bird's shoulders are structured. Humans posses a scapula (shoulderblade), which has two protrusions: the acromion process and the coracoid process. The acromion process is where our humerus joins the shoulder. The coracoid process in humans is not exactly big enough nor ideally shaped to anchor flight muscles to.

At first, I had three ideas:

Invent a new bone attached to the keel that serves the function of the coracoid.

Modify the scapula to fit a new bone that anchors the flight muscles (the scapulacoracoid is analogous to the human scapula, after all).

Forego the keel and invent a bone on the spine that does the same thing.

To start, I added the furcula, a Y-shaped bone on the sternum, flanking the keel. Fun fact: not all birds have a furcula (better known as the "wishbone" in some parts of the world).

Real quick muscular structure layout sans flight muscles.

First pass at the flight muscles. Not the most accurate wing muscles in the world (neglected to depict the muscles near the tip of the wing, for one).

In this model of the musculature, a good deal of the flight muscles around the breast and torso are hidden by the pectoralis major, much like several non-flying human muscles.

Flesh applied over muscle.

Feathers applied over flesh.

That was my first attempt at constructing the Chozo skeleton. You'll notice the wing bone solution is inelegant. See, wings are analogous to arms. Their metacarpals are finger bones. In order to give Chozo both arms and wings, we'll need to deviate from both avian and human skeletal structures to make the pieces fit together.

I can't make the flight muscles stretch comfortably over the clavicle: that has the potential to impede motion in the arms. My first idea in the second round of flight bone shenanigans was to invent a second bone that fit between the spine and the scapula, like shoulder-bound plate tectonics (working name "scapula trellis"). I wasn't wholly confident that I could configure flight muscles in a logical manner even with this setup.

At one point I consulted Raven Beak's model. Note the patches on the back of the torso on the powersuit: that's where the wings emerge in phase 2. It looks like they're anchored to the scapula or an adjacent structure.

Barring the fact that his wings are absolutely ridiculous, I wasn't sure I could work with this. Gorgeous structures, but the feathers don't seem big enough to handle flight.

So I was left to brainstorm, and drafted up a few sketches for a second scapula to anchor the wings' shoulder joints to. I was more confident in this than I was the previous design, but I wanted to fish for ideas from other parts of nature.

Enter dinosaurs. Specifically, the Pteranodon with its shoulder girdle.

The addition of a shoulder girdle as an anchor for the yardarm (the term I'm using for the humerus of the wing, applicable only to creatures that have both wings and arms) seemed like a better solution. Positioning it below the scapula allows me to place the wings a little lower on the back, providing minimal interference between the two sets of limbs.

Whether we're rolling with the shoulder girdle or a second scapula, the intended result is the same: the wings have moved down on the back of the torso (personally, I'm digging the girdle, but the second scapula is on the table if anyone else wants to try their hand at this).

Muscles from the back, illustrated. Note the distance between the deltoid (shoulder muscle) and the wings. The shoulder girdle is situated in the lower-middle of the back of the ribcage.

A few notes: the acromioecstasia exists because the muscle that usually connects between the body and the patagialis longus on real birds is located on the pectoralis major. If I emulated that, we'd have flesh crossing over the deltoid to reach the front of the body, which would obstruct movement of the arms. We don't want that, so I moved that section of the wing to the back. We're compensating by adding additional musculature up front.

Wing muscles from the front. All three pectoral muscles are attached to the keel. The pectoralis medius is an extension of the pectoralis major, running beneath it and several other muscles. The pectoralis minor (also known as the supracoracoideus) lies beneath both the major and the medius. The pectoralis medius and major are responsible for the downstroke, while the supracoracoideus raises the wing between flaps.

Flight is very taxing on the individual. Power suit wearers actually have an easier time flying than non-wearers because the suit passively offsets the metabolic demands of flight with its own Energy.

It's important to note that these sizes are not necessarily "to scale". Chozo wings should actually be much bigger than my canvas permitted me to show. I had to keep increasing the size of the canvas on one of my files to accommodate a reasonable wingspan, but even that's not broad enough! I had to stop expanding the canvas for the sake of my CPU. If any muscles look too dinky or the scale seems off on some bones, that's why: I just needed to swiftly illustrate where things are.

A Chozo's total wingspan should at least be twice the individual's standing height. Any smaller and there's no lift.

I still don't necessarily consider the wings "solved": if any speculative biology enthusiasts want to weigh in further on the subject, feel free!

After laying out the bulk of the skeleton (and before solving the wing problem), I decided to go a little further in my studies. Thus, we have organs.

First, the digestive system.

The esophagus is self-explanatory. Food goes in through the beak, traveling into the body through the esophagus.

The crop is used to store food: this is where digestion begins. Many parents regurgitate mushy, enzymatic food for their children from the crop. Very nutritious and promotes growth.

The proventriculus is the first half of the stomach: protein bonds begin to break down here. Gastric fluid produced here aids the gizzard in mushing things.

The gizzard is where the bulk of food-crushing occurs. Breaks larger matter down through transfer between areas within the organ.

The liver and gallbladder are crucial in digesting fats. Real bird livers have two lobes: the left is smaller than the right. Two bile ducts from the liver connect to the distal duodenum: the right duct is connected to the gallbladder. Chozo only need one.

The duodenum is the start of the small intestine, running in tandem with the pancreas. Pancreatic enzymes created by the latter assist in completing digestion, processing sugars, etc.

Digestion is finished in the other sections of the small intestine, where nutrients are absorbed.

Chozo kidneys largely resemble their human counterparts. Connected to the lower half of the gastrointestinal system. Urate is disposed of through the cloaca, transferred from point A to point B by the thin ureters bridging the kidneys to the large intestine.

Bacterial fermentation in the ceca extracts nutrients from plant material that can't be digested through enzymatic breakdown. The ceca and large intestine also reabsorb moisture, forming the solid portion of indigestible waste. The ceca are larger in tribes that eat more fruit and other plant products. Mawkin ceca are fairly small: they live quite an active lifestyle, and plant matter supplements their all-rounder diet with meat as the foremost staple.

The large intestine is the end of the line. Renal and intestinal waste is ejected here. The end of the reproductive tract forks to the distal segment to facilitate egg laying. Mammals have considerably larger large intestines than Chozo to dry out waste before expulsion.

Next we have the respiratory system. The trachea takes in air and delivers it to the lungs. Unlike mammalian lungs, Chozo lungs are inelastic: they don't expand and contract. The air sacs do all the expanding and contracting: they're connected to the lungs through a network of bronchii.

The high metabolic rate required for flight demands a ton of oxygen, and Chozo respiratory organs are designed to do just that. The mechanics are fascinating but I won't take up too much of your time explaining the finer points. Wikipedia's write-up on the circulatory system of birds is a good place to start if you want to dive deeper.

The short version is thus: air enters through the nostrils, traveling into the bronchi through the trachea and syrinx (the syrinx helps Chozo vocalize). The bronchi deliver air to the lungs. When Chozo inhale, the posterior and anterior sacs expand: the posterior sacs take in fresh air while the anterior sacs fill with air that has already passed through the lungs. Air is constantly circulating through the lungs, and it's a one-way flow.

Parabronchii are microscopic tubes that run perpendicular to the blood capillaries. Parabronchii efficiently diffuse oxygen from the air into the blood.

The next image set deals with a few extraneous vital organs. I'm not going to illustrate the nervous system nor arterial network, just as I neglected to illustrate all the bronchi in the respiratory system. That's a lot of tubes!

The circulatory system is pretty standard, but it pulls largely from Dread. Here's the thing: in the pre-boss fight cutscene for Raven Beak (aptly named 0086_comanderorbital_video_artwork_01.webm in the files), we see him contributing to Samus' biological makeup. His heart is set firmly in the center of his chest.

This is anatomically accurate to real birds! Bird hearts are placed similarly in the center of the chest, flanked by the left and right lobes of the liver (linked image is a labeled black and white illustration of a dissected pigeon, showing most of the major organs).

The brain is exactly what you think it is. No, the most interesting part of this last image set is the harus.

The harus is an accessory to the lymphatic system. You'll notice its proximity to the respiratory system. Lymphatic capillaries accompanying the parabronchi network filter more harmful atmospheric molecules into the harus, which makes use of specialized cells to recycle these molecules in a process that synthesizes ATP. In addition to this, the harus helps maintain the body's proper pH levels in hostile environments. This organ is what allows the Thoha to breathe in Zebes' toxic atmosphere.

Headcanon time: the majority of non-powersuit related genetic alteration done to Samus Aran in her youth is related to this organ: her respiratory system was altered with the proper instructions to produce specialized harus cells on their own without needing to transplant the organ. Samus can breathe on Zebes because her lungs can perform the function of the harus while she breathes.

Full-size pngs for everything are available on Ko-fi and Patreon. The canvas for this project was pretty big because I wanted to be able to capture the scale of the wings somewhat.

ADDENDUM, May 16, 2024: Chozo should have a modified pelvic bone that more closely resembles a synsacrum, not a humanoid ilium: I am a fool and completely forgot to make alterations in that department.

#headcanons #chozo anatomy #chozo #raven beak #metroid #metroid dread #metroid dread spoilers #gotta give props to friend of the blog Ivory who reminded me of ATP synthesis and suggested a second liver of sorts

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sysmedsaresexist · 1 year ago

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Hey we've been thinking about that "OSDD was a temporary diagnosis" post for a while and. it makes complete sense what you guys said but like. we can't get ANYONE to diagnose us as anything CDD, let alone anything that isn't going to give us the treatment equivalent of slapping a bandaid on a stab wound. Is there like, anywhere we could look further into P-DID/DID research on the subject? We're not comfortable moving off of the self diagnosis of OSDD-1b yet so we wanna be triple sure to get as much information as possible.

Thankies 💕💕💕

- 🐑 & 🌸 of the Constellation Collective

There's places all over to find that info, but I want to encourage you not to overthink it. You can dig deeper, you absolutely should, but the label... it doesn't matter. It's really, truly okay to get this one wrong and switch around between the labels or use them interchangeably. I promise. You don't need to be right, because you're right regardless (unless it's a misdiagnosis, but I'm going to talk about that at the end of this, because it's important).

I am diagnosed OSDD, but I call myself DID. It's easy, I understand that there's not that big of a difference, no one is going to yell at us (me or you) if it turns out that we have the other one. We're not misrepresenting ourselves. If it turns out I would only ever be diagnosed with OSDD, that doesn't mean I was wrong using the DID label, or that I was even mislabelling myself.

Whether you're diagnosed with DID or OSDD largely depends on where you live. I made a post about this a while back but I can't find it. The US is more likely to diagnose OSDD with minor amnesia than the UK. They're more likely to call minor amnesia DID (as they should). It's literally a dice throw, and not that important.

To quote my BFF, Colin Ross,

The dividing line between DID and most cases of dissociative disorder not otherwise specified is arbitrary [or OSDD]. Most cases of DDNOS are partial forms of DID which lack either clear switching of executive control, full amnesia barriers between identity states, or clear differentiation and structure of identity states. They are partial forms of DID with the same patterns of childhood trauma and co-morbidity.

Also this quote.

So on the one hand we have a vast swathe of people who are, or would be, diagnosed with OSDD as opposed to dissociative identity disorder but who show almost all of the symptoms of DID. Many people therefore see DID and OSDD as appearing on a spectrum, and prefer to conflate the two conditions so that DID/OSDD represents a range of dissociative experiences with more or less amnesia and greater or less elaboration and distinctive identity states or parts of the personality.

It is also what happens in practice: very few people would realistically distinguish between DID and OSDD.

And,

Both OSDD and DID are the result of the spontaneous action of the brain in response to trauma. Both contain different self-states, holding shards of memory and ‘unformulated experience’ (Stern, 1997). Both can be helped by similar approaches to therapy which encourage neuronal repair and result in brain growth such as increased hippocampal volume. Above all, all forms of dissociation need to be validated for their unique contribution to survival.

P-DID is a bit of a new one. Here's the ICD link to it, if you want to read more, but it's going to be the same as above. It's really not that important. Its main difference is that the system doesn't really switch, it's mostly intrusion (like feelings bleeding between alters and host).

These are really only useful for describing how your system generally functions.

Finally, misdiagnosis.

It's okay to be wrong completely. Maybe it's just BPD or OCD, autism, any of the number of disorders that come with identity confusion.

When someone self DX something like BPD and they finally get to therapy and find out it's literally ANYTHING else, we celebrate with them. Good job, you found answers! You're on the right path! You can get the right kind of help now. You did what you had to do in order to get by, and you did your best to try to understand yourself with the tools you had. The use of the first label wasn't malicious, you didn't hurt anyone by using it, and you probably got yourself pretty knowledgeable on the topic.

You are now a resource for those who are also trying to figure themselves out.

Who knows better what the difference between BPD and OSDD is than someone who tried out both and found the answer?

Being wrong doesn't mean you're bad, I don't know why we don't celebrate a misdiagnosis of DID like we do some others. We're all just trying to understand ourselves, and sometimes we're wrong. The point is that eventually we figure it out, and the journey there... recognizing a misdiagnosis is a GOOD part of your story, and it's an important story to share. You were still struggling, regardless of what label you used and what you're being diagnosed with.

Use the label that feels right to you. If you want to keep using OSDD, that's fine. You're describing how your system works right now, and that's perfect. Using DID or OSDD, you'll end up in the same place regardless-- hopefully this means with a good therapist who's going to take your symptoms seriously, but you're going to end up in that same chair no matter what label you're using.

I really hope this helped.

Also, I didn't really touch on it, but I'm sorry you're struggling to get a diagnosis. That must be incredibly frustrating. Don't give up. Unfortunately, the average is about 5 years for most. Keep advocating for yourself.

#not syscourse #did #osdd #osddid #actually dissociative #actually traumagenic #actually did #actually osdd #pro system #system safe #CDDs first #pro endo #plurality #actually plural

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touchastar · 14 days ago

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Read an article about the decline of reading longform content and books in favor of [everything else] and how it's leading to greater declines in being critical of social and political structures, devalues searching out and verifying information (which leads to the rise of right wing rhetoric), certain cognitive functions/skills, and everything like that.

I agree with the idea and I hate the wasteland that social media has created, but at the same time. First of all, don't write a long article about what you believe in and cite your sources and back up your claims, and then end it with effectively; /but maybe I'm just old and telling kids to get off my lawn/. Fucking. Own it. Don't shy away. That's not the nuance you're hoping to achieve.

Secondly; the author is sourcing a large part of his arguments from a pair of researchers who talked about the shift from written information to oral information and how it's detrimental to communications, social issues, culture, and understanding to rely on a strictly oral culture. The entire time the researchers are effectively calling oral traditions and whatnot primitive and lesser.

And sure, the author is critical, but not critical enough! Of the argument he's basing pretty much his entire claim off of! I mean, for God's sake, he didn't even say, yeah this is extremely racist and effectively devalues non-Western white societies and is exactly the kind of racist rhetoric I'm decrying.

Might as well throw the entire article out.

On top of that, he's ragging on leftists and more or less (but not outright) equating them to right extremists while praising liberalism. Then makes his stance on being pro Palestine clear. I don't know what to tell you, but liberals are just as complicit here!

Lastly, um. His argument that reading is part of why the right took off. Correct to a degree but not the only factor here, and a smaller one at that. Goes on to gut his own argument by saying, yet JD and others are well educated! Yeah! No shit! It's because it's not 100% absolutely a byproduct of lack of education! It's because it benefits them! Why is this even a point of confusion? And way to go with effectively (but not outright!) saying those with ID, living in areas with lacking education, etc are going to be right wing fanaticals.

Most of the time, it's not a matter of (perceived) intelligence, it's just who benefits from this. << Nuance, nuance, I digress.

You made good points here and there. I'll be looking at the sources. But oh man I don't even want to refer back to this article later. The decline of literacy is real and needs to be discussed on, but this fucking guyyyy is not it.

#personal

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phoenix-before-the-flame · 11 months ago

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I’m watching one piece, and now I’m wondering do you have any hcs on the world building in the fairy tail universe ? Do you think theirs some crazy kingdom’s , advanced technology in some lands ? Love to hear your thoughts 💗

hmmmmmmmmmmm kinda a bit of a deep question tbh.

Structurally FT has good bones for its world. And that's kinda it lol

There's a fleshed out map of all the countries within the continent that fiore is found on (Ishgar, which has 16 named countries apart from fiore itself) and expanding wider than that we know that there are about 3 named continents (Ishgar to the east being a peninsula connected to the mainland that we know nothing of, Alakitasia to the west where Alavarez is and Guiltina to the north) and a fourth unnamed continent further east that exists within earthland.

But while we have all this info, nothing in particular comes into play as the series had progressed, the majority of the series' arcs all more or less take place within the same country, which for a series that has it's characters constantly travelling for missions looks particularly bad, especially when even the known locations all visually seem indistinct from each other in terms of stuff like architecture. It's a reason why I appreciate edolas in particular because it at least offered something that visually stood out and an insight into how that culture functioned. (and in Phoenix Priestess for the small montage the squad in the city of Rose Garden and showing a bit of the country Veronica)

Like it is frustrating to me whenever I think on it because the solution would be just to change the locations of where they travel to just to expand the background of the places travelled, wouldn't even have to change arc structures or anything to give some life to the named countries like:

Joya despite its small size as a country is the main manufacturers of trains and exports the majority of the transportation other countries use as well as weapons. Wizards are less found here, with treasure hunting being a more popular job choice.

Sin, despite the ironic name, is a deeply religious and faith driven country. Magics that have connection to nature and celestial bodies are particularly revered here.

Desierto mostly deals with trade, having constantly active shipping ports. Enchanted items such as brooms and carpets are popular and easy transport choices within cities and are more widely used than vehicles.

Iceberg's largely uninhabited due to the weather with most of the population sticking closer to the country's borders.

Like this is all just purely flavour text examples to just try and bring some life to these otherwise lifeless locations but you get the general gist of it.

There was clearly this effort to establish these locations by giving then names (and drawing a full on map) so it always boggled me that they were never properly used as a backdrop for the arcs within the story. (Tower of Heaven? Move that arc to Sin, Lucy's arc with Loke? Takes place in Stella, That arc with the giant village? Put it in Minstrel).

Like shifting around major arc locations would easily open up avenues to naturally expand the world as the story moves. And not even just big arcs, but smaller less grand filler arcs (which jesus christ did ft rlly need because it defs need breathing room between all the big events. It's why the story moves at such a breakneck speed without things really feeling as though they've changed in any meaningful ways) would do wonders to make earthland feel like a genuine lived in world (like how it is within the world of one piece that you cited as an inspo for this ask.)

#fairy tail #fairy tail headcanon #i know this ask probably was sent more in the vein of asking for headcanons about the different places #but i am firmly of the belief that if im going to fully rewrite and worldbuild for an existing series #i may as well just create my own thing yknow?#not to knock anyone else who does that ofc but full rewrites and complete changes to an established property arent really for me #bcus all that effort i think could be put into making my own series if i so choose #with regards to your citing of one piece #whilst similar in general tone one piece is purely built on establishing each location #taking time to learn the culture ppl and the political climate of each area #because it in turn feeds into the overarching theme of corruption within that story #so while in one piece it's necessary to know about each land for something lower scale like ft such heavy information #wouldnt be a necessity bcus it wouldnt help to further the base theme of found family and friendship #instead having it expounded on in small drops as the characters go about their jobs (or just general lives) would benefit the story as it i #while also being more than the bare minimum given to us by canon that we have #one piece is a great story with how its world is shaped but that scale is grand and isnt something that should be applied to every story #unless u got time like oda lol

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figpuddingprincess · 4 months ago

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Blog Post (due 3/20)

Do we live in a healthy, functioning democracy that invites vocal dissent and protest? Why or why not?

While at least theoretically, the United States claims to be a “Bastion of Freedom” where all civic participants are both invited and encouraged to vocalize their opinions and critiques of the state of things. However, this definition, when put into practice, has always favored and allowed for certain voices–such as white, wealthy, men whose critiques do not pose existential threats to administration and governmental apparatus–while cracking down on others. Presently, we are witnessing censorship and erasure of certain demonstrations that do directly call into question the legitimacy of the current administration–and rightfully so–which stands against all of the principles that the idea of the United States stands for.

How does the internet allow for social and political organization?

The internet offers a place where folks can become aware–and in some cases, radicalized–on certain issues pertaining to social justice. The Internet provides information that may be generally avoided by the public outside of cyberspace, as well as act as a hub for those interested in the same topics to connect and coordinate, and eventually, put these principles into progressive action. Elin states that the Internet is a place for education and motivation to synthesize, and ultimately result in action in the real world, taking the form of protests and other methods of political subversion.

How does Daniel's article on “White Supremacy in the Digital Era” connect to these topics, and sometimes give rise to the less favorable outcomes on the topic of radicalization enabled by cyberspaces?

While the Internet allows those oriented on social justice topics to consolidate, it also works in the same manner for those on the other end of the spectrum. As many communication hubs are often unmonitored and unrestricted, people radicalized on issues such as white supremacy can similarly connect with other like-minded individuals who reinforce their hate-fueled worldviews, resulting in detrimental and even fatal outcomes for marginalized communities that are the subject of their bigotry and hatred. Daniel’s details an instance of neo-confederate hubs and the hyper-racialized spaces they give rise to.

How does the idea of global white racism connect to the broader issue of cyber racism?

The Internet plays a crucial role in fostering a “global white identity” that white folks can relate to, regardless of local or regional backgrounds. The whole moral panic around the idea of “whiteness in crisis” has laid the foundation for the “global white identity” to take flight. Because of the networking capabilities of the Internet, folks regardless of their geographical location can connect on these issues, furthering their stances and beliefs on their ideal worldview, and who is and is not included in this narrow definition. Additionally, anonymity plays a large role in this regressive radicalization, allowing folks to voice their hate-fueled opinions without any repercussions.

How do traditional social movements differ from those on the Internet? How are they alike?

Traditional social movements, including Daniels, have a more clear structure of leaders and followers, whereas those lines are more blurred in cyberspaces. The latter can give rise to a more democratic structure, ensuring that all voices are accounted for when advocating for certain ideals. Additionally, the role of participants have evolved from “members” to “supporters,” where involvement is looser and less formally recognized without a real process of association. Now, with distinctions between membership versus supporters, online and offline action are more disconnected.

Daniels, Jessie. White Supremacy in the Digital Era. Rowman & Littlefield, 2009.

Daniels, Jessie. White Supremacist Social Movements Online and in a Global Context . Rowman & Littlefield, 2009.

Elin, Larry. “The Radicalization of Zeke Spier.” Cyberactivism: Online Activism in Theory and Practice, Routledge, London, England, 2003.

#tcl25

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yanmagotchi · 10 months ago

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Fixing the Creaking

I spent the afternoon coming up with ideas for the creaking and what I would do with it, how I could make it feel more integrated with the game, and how to avoid it becoming Sniffer 2. I love the sniffer's model and it's personality, but it's hard to deny it's the least functional little guy in the game. I typed all of this up to my friends, and now I'm also gonna post it on Tumblr because I'm proud of it :).

Also I say 'Fixing' as if I already know everything about it and it's bad, that's obviously not the case. But I don't like what I've seen so far.

Mob Changes: -Creaking cannot move when in a players FOV, this accounts for F5 cameras. -Creaking move slightly slower than a player's base sprinting speed. -Creaking can move through all Oak, Dark Oak and Pale Oak blocks, including Logs, Wood, Stripped Logs, Stripped Wood, Planks, Double Slabs, Pressure Plates, Doors, Fences and ALL Crafting Tables and ALL Leaves blocks. It treats these blocks like a player uses scaffolding. This excludes Trap Doors, Half Slabs, Stairs, Chests and Barrels. -Creaking that pass through Oak or Dark Oak Logs or Wood change those blocks into their Pale Oak counterpart, and passing through Oak or Dark Oak Leaves blocks changes those blocks to their Pale Oak counterpart as well. -Creaking will not go straight for their target, instead trying to move from tree to tree, preferring to hide behind or inside. However, they will always be trying to decrease the distance between themselves and their target. -Creaking will attempt to hide in 2 block tall Oak wood structures if more than 1 player is within a 32 block vicinity of it, to prevent exploiting it's inabilty to move when observed and to encourage players to hunt for hearts alone. -Creaking are hostile to all mobs that drop 3 or more EXP, and will try to not be seen moving by any of these mobs when within an 8 block vicinity. (Mobs that drop 3 or more exp include almost all hostile mobs and I think villagers). This also means Creakings will not be hostile to players with less than half a level. -Any mob killed by a Creaking drops no items, and no XP. -Players killed by a Creaking drop no XP, although their items still drop. -Mobs cannot be hostile towards Creaking, as they cannot see past it's camouflage. -Creaking attack by being within a 1 block radius of a mob it is hostile towards, and dealing 'Cactus' type damage with a very short cooldown, dealing half a heart per 0.5 seconds, with no knockback. Similar to cacti, this damage is reduced by armour but also damages the armour. -This damage takes place just being within range, and is not changed by the direction the victim is facing. Creaking will damage all entities they can be hostile towards at once. -It's now called Creaking, not The Creaking and DEFINITELY not the creaking. -For all these changes, I am anticipating that Creaking look the way they did in what we saw at Minecraft Live. I don't dig the design personally, but I'm sure I'll come to be ok with it eventually.

Pale Oak Tree Spawning changes -Pale Oak trees spawn at a 5% rate in Dark Oak Forests, and 10% of those have Heart in their foliage. -Pale Oak trees generate with the same structure as Dark Oak trees (2x2 base, large canopy) -The Heart can only spawn in the top two layers of a Pale Oak, and only in the center pillar of the tree (i.e. it can't be a branch)

Pale Oak block changes -Pale Oak Logs, Wood and Creaking Hearts can corrupt Oak and Dark Oak Logs and Wood at a rate similar to Mycelium and Dirt, but must be in contact through one of the six faces of the block to do so. -Similarly, Pale Oak Logs, Wood and Creaking Hearts and Pale Oak Leaves can corrupt Oak and Dark Oak Leaves at twice the rate, although to do so they must be within 4 blocks of a Pale Oak Log/Wood/Heart. This prevents infinite corruption without player input. -There are no Pale Oak Saplings, with the only way to gain more Pale Oak trees is to grow Oak/Dark Oak trees and corrupt them. -Pale Oak Leaves have a chance of dropping Silver Apples, a food item similar to a regular apple but cannot be used in crafting. Gives four food (2 full food icons) and a small amount of XP when consumed. -All blocks crafted with Pale Oak behave the same as other wood objects.

Creaking Heart block changes -The Creaking Heart, as mentioned earlier, spawns in the top two layers of Pale Oaks that were created during world generation. There is currently no renewable way of obtaining them. -A naturally generated Creaking Heart allows for Creaking to spawn within 64 blocks or a 4 chunk square radius of itself. -A naturally generated Creaking Heart reduces spawning of hostile mobs other than Creaking within 64 blocks of itself by 50%. -A player-placed Creaking Heart can still allow for the spawning of Creaking in a 64 block radius, as long as a Pale Oak Log is above and below it (like in the trailer) -A player-placed Creaking Heart will reduce hostile mob spawning to 0% in a 7-8 block radius (7 South and East, 8 North and West, essentially making a 1 Chunk Square) when there are Stripped Pale Oak Logs above and below it. This extends up and down from bedrock to build limit. Mobs are still capable of entering the space. -A player-placed Creaking Heart will be entirely decorative if these conditions are not met. -All effects of Creaking Hearts do not stack with others in the same radius. -As shown in Minecraft Live, a Creaking Heart will act as an anchor for all nearby Creaking. I think if they stray out of range of their Heart, they become vulnerable to all forms of damage, and perhaps are quite fragile.

Pale Garden biome changes -Pale Garden renamed to Pale Grove (cause it's not a fucking garden). -Pale Grove is a microbiome that can generate within Dark Oak Forests, roughly 100 blocks across. -A Pale Grove microbiome is recognizable by having a Pale Oak tree that is 4-5 blocks taller than the regular tree canopy in Dark Oak forests. -All trees that generate in a Pale Grove will be Pale Oaks, and each of these trees has a 20% chance of having a Creaking Heart. -Trees are much more spread out in a Pale Grove, but there is still the same amount of leaves canopy in the microbiome. -Typical farm mobs spawn with increased frequency within the biome. -Hostile mobs still have their normal spawn rate, however are likely to be reduced due to the closeness of the Creaking Hearts. -The sky in Pale Groves is paler, as it is in the Minecraft Live trailer.

Dark Oak Forest biome changes -Woodland Mansions don't spawn here anymore. They can spawn somewhere else, preferably a less flammable biome. -Pale Groves spawn at a frequency of about 1.5 per medium sized Dark Oak Forest. -If a Dark Oak Forest is above a Deep Dark biome, Pale Groves spawn with much greater frequency.

Before we get to the honourable mentions, and if you'll allow me to be a hater, I wanna say that that Minecraft Live was the most corporate one to date. I don't wanna blame the actual speakers but just, the way they were hyping up the most nothing stuff, like how exciting hardcore mode for bedrock will be. And bundles, which haven't changed in functionality since conception, they just took a long time to code. The stuff about villager rescue was... fine. The villager news segments were fine. But I gotta say, it being called 'A Minecraft Movie' and everyone in the Live very corporately saying the full trademarked ass name was soooo painful. Always nice to see Agnes though, she's very pretty and always sounds sunny. ANYWAY.

7. Additional changes that I think would be fun but wouldn't really fit with the game -Surrounding a Creaking Heart on all sides with Pale Oak logs enables the low render distance fog in an area around it. -If a Creaking kills a player with a LOT of XP (30+ levels), the Creaking will grow into a Pale Oak tree with a Creaking Heart. -Creakings can use a 2 block tall structure of oak wood blocks as a warp point, allowing it to teleport to another 2 block tall structure of oak wood blocks. If a Creaking moves fast when not watched, this ability could be on a long cooldown. However, if they move at regular walking pace, this could be an interesting way of allowing them to gain ground very suddenly. -Creaking irreversibly turn into a 2 block tall pillar of Pale Oak Wood when the sun comes up.

Thank you very much if you got through all of this, as I said I'm quite proud. Yay! Wahoo! Thank you so much for to playing my game!

#minecraft #the creaking #looong

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isdalinarhot · 1 year ago

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copypasting my extensive wine headcanons here in case anyone out in the world wants to adopt them

Pink: this is just juice of a plant. Like some soft drinks, there is a small amount of caffeine, but for the most part, it’s basically the same as apple or grape juice. Feminine drink.

Orange: structurally this is identical to kombucha, in that it is a nonalcoholic (or at least so negligibly alcoholic that it doesn’t count) beverage that is made via fermentation. But its cultural place is akin to ginger ale in that it is just a soft drink people drink when not drinking alcohol and that it has a reputation of soothing stomachs. This is the go-to beverage of people of any gender looking to have a sober drink.

Yellow: the default masculine drink. Made from lavis grains, it’s beer. It’s essentially beer. About the same strength as beer, drank from pint glasses, steins, and once Roshar invents cans it will be drank from those as well. Customary beverage to enjoy during duels. Unlike beer from Earth, people very rarely drink this to get any more drunk than a pleasant buzz.

Auburn: traditionally made from fermented simberries, but can be made from any fruit that when fermented ends up with between 10% to 15% abv, this is the default feminine drink. It really functions almost identically to wine on Earth. It is drunk from glasses analogous to Earth wine glasses. There is a large culture of auburn wine snobbery. Though it is concretely a feminine drink, it is not unheard of for men who are a touch effeminate to sneak a glass or two of it.

Red: you’d have to be insane to drink red wine on its own. It is used near exclusively in mixed drinks as the alcohol base to a fun fruity beverage. Mixed often with pink wine, fruit juices of all kinds, and occasionally wild card picks like sow’s milk or Shin creations such as “coffee”, it is there to provide alcohol to women who cannot stand the taste of alcohol.

Sapphire: wines of red strength or stronger are considered liquors, and sapphire wine is the unequivocal Man’s Wine. It is quite strong, but there is still a veneer of drinking it for the flavor. It is made of the same grains as yellow wine, but distilled instead of fermented. Traditionally drunk on the rocks out of what an Earthling might call a whiskey tumbler.

Blue: this stuff is not as strong as violet wine, but still quite strong. Its closest Earth analogue is a strong rum, made out of a sugarcane-like plant that naturally carries fruity undertones. This is the usual alcohol base drunk in mixed drinks by men; a popular drink will have two types of blue wine mixed with a couple flavors of fruit juice for a Vorin-friendly Mai Tai. It can also be drunk out of shot glasses as a party beverage, but this is less common.

Violet: violet wine is a gender neutral beverage, allowed to be drunk by both men and women. This is because the creators of Vorinism understood the necessity of all humans to have a surefire way of getting drunk quickly. It is roughly analogous to 100 proof vodka in both taste and creation, although in rare cases some violets can reach the 130 proof heights of absinthe. It is made from blackthorn berries, which on Roshar can get distilled to death like potatoes can on earth but like i dunno how that's possible i dont know jack shit about plants. sorry. This makes them perfect for creating the strongest liquors out of. “Glasses” of violet wine, drunk at feasts as a power move, are a mixture of violet wine, blackthorn juice, and lots of water. It is traditionally drunk hot, and nobody likes it like that but everybody pretends to. Nine times out of ten, violet wine is drunk out of a shot glass. It is known for tasting bad. Occasionally, it can be found in mixed drinks in the place of red or blue wine.

#luke.txt

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dragonthunders01 · 2 years ago

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Spectember D27: Revamp the Dinosauroid

The end of the Triassic propitiated finally the dominance of dinosaurs in the next period with the rupture of the large supercontinent Pangea, though in this timeline something pushed further the fragmentation of the continent, and instead of just opening the rift of the Atlantic, it multiplied across Africa and a section of south America, making the Tr/J mass extinction more severe and killing out many more species of dinosaurs, so now the Jurassic was no longer dominated by the animals we have in our timeline, instead we get a strange variety of large dinosaur-like crocodiles, many sauropodomorphs that diverged from the smaller species that survived and never went into the same trend of gigantism as in our earth, many synapsids and so on. At the end of the late Jurassic a lot happened with the new order, within some of the second radiation of sauropodomorphs included varied carnivorous carnosaur-like species, medium size coelurosaur-like omnivores and smaller herbivores that look like silesaurs; from the omnivore lineage that have expanded in varied niches would rise a branch of semiaquatic species that resembled something like a scaly penguin with hands, long finger and claws, with short robust tails, shorter necks and longer heads with narrow keratinized mouths.

They are remarkable as many other animals of this world, through one particular species seems to have started a peculiar evolutionary trend in the last 10 million years.

For the reader, we will refer to this species as the Shagoids, a species originated from 50 cm long aquatic sauropodomorph descendants that wandered on the estuaries of the now more fragmented north Africa/south American region, their ancestors were more of a mix of a cormorant with an otter as unlike the rest of its own family this belongs, as one main feature of these are they still functional forelimbs, these still preserved functional arms and hands that helped them to manipulate their prey of crustaceans and mollusks. Over time these developed strategies to break down their prey shell, including the habit of picking and using stones which choose appropriately for this task. This behavior was passed on to new generations, learned and properly helped them to get food with less effort, the food quality increased brain energy, brain size also increased and so their skills were forged much more adequately.

It was on matter of few million years the Shagoids lineage abandoned their swimming lifestyle and became mostly semi aquatic coastal dwellers, living in the shores and just entering water to hunt their food rather than spending most of their time there. As social animals they formed hierarchy groups, formed by the head of a dominant female around minor males that could either mate with her or just serve them, as well many other younger individuals, matriarchs often had the duty to select and organize hunting and spending of food, as well regulate reproduction and mating between their lower family, as she normally is the eldest of the group, and only another female of the same blood can turn into a elder matriarch of if mated by the son of the elder, this perhaps was the moment they gained proper sentience as how they defined a cultural and social structure.

It seems at the end rathe in a sudden change of sea level in the last 3 million years did the final push on their evolutionary journey, as most of the Shagoid populations got stranded within the main continent with almost no way to find new connections to large water bodies, in other situation their species would have die for starvation, but at that point they were already adapted to feed on other food sources, from tubers, insects and small animals, being able to cook them using fire they managed to craft, and so properly passed the harsh time with the loss of a chunk of their population over the sudden change.

When the Shagoid expanded and found again large water bodies far from their native regions, they really have changed considerable from their ancestors, as their closest relative was a sort of strange loon like reptilian species wandering in the coasts, these were more like limbed penguins with long arms and tridactyl hands, which the third finger being a derivation of the 4th an 5th clawless digit fused into one, their short legs lost their webbed feet a while ago and are more adapted for walking, their head still preserve the characteristic seabird like shape but their teeth have changed in shape to be generalistic omnivore, with a large head which houses the most intelligent brain in the planet.

Over the last thousands of years, they have been becoming more and more prone to establish permanent settlements populated by hundreds of them much more different of their wandering tribes, often farm plants and even carry some animals for domestication.

For the first time in their history they are in the pathway of civilization… who knows what will happen next, either the Shagoid can remain like this until their extinction, or they will start building towards the sky and beyond.

#speculative evolution #alternative evolution #triassic #jurassic #sauropodomorph #dinosauroid #sapient #spectember

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lunch-leviathan · 3 months ago

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Why e/em/eir is the best existing neopronoun set in English

PART 1: DISCLAIMER AND INTRODUCTION

Ok firstly because I have a feeling that posting this is gonna have a "I like pancakes" "oh so you hate waffles???" effect: THIS IS JUST MY (highly subjective) OPINION. You can use whatever pronouns you want, I'm not your mom. This is just about why I think personally that e/em/eir (aka the Spivak set) is better at meshing with the English language (as it exists in the modern day and within my dialect) than the other commonly-used neopronoun sets I've seen. That doesn't make other neopronoun sets bad or anything, just not MY personal choice. And it doesn't mean I think people should change what they wanna be called.

With the disclaimer out of the way, let's begin!

My reasonings for thinking e/em/eir is the best option for a gender-neutral third-person neopronoun (i.e., a pronoun that did not naturally arise in English (hence why they/them and it/its are not on this list)) are that it manages to excel at all of the following criteria:

It is functionally naturalistic: the pronoun uses letters that are already commonly used in the English language, and uses conjugation that references its place in the sentence structure similarly to how existing English pronouns do. It therefore minimizes looking visually out-of-place among other common words when replacing other existing pronouns.

It uses sounds that don't lend themselves to ambiguity when spoken aloud (i.e., they won't be easily confused with other common words).

When written, it is fairly intuitive to figure out what their pronunciation and part of the sentence should be when spoken aloud.

Each pronoun (aside from the reflexive of ___self, which for obvious reasons necessitates at least 2 syllables) consists of only one syllable, making them a maximally-effective verbal shorthand like how other existing pronouns in the English language are.

From my various lookings online, most other common/well-known neopronoun sets that I have seen generally fail to meet one or more of these criteria. I will explain this in the following section.

PART 2: COMPARING OTHER NEOPRONOUNS TO THE CRITERIA

[noun]/[noun]self Firstly, as a whole, I want to address "noun pronouns" as a category (because if I tried to find every single one that exists, this essay would take me until the end of time. Also my points for all of them are the same anyway.). Often these can be fairly common words, such as "pup," "doll," etc., and while this does help them meet criterion 3 it becomes absolutely abysmal for criterion 2, as they intrinsically depend on usage of a word as a pronoun that has an entirely separate, non-pronoun meaning. As such, they are eliminated categorically from the metaphorical running.

fae/faer Fae/faer I consider to be a special case of noun pronoun since, unline the others, the base form of the pronoun actually undergoes some degree of conjugation based on part of the sentence. This definitely helps with intelligibility as a pronoun rather than some other part of speech, but it unfortunately still largely falls into the same trap as other noun pronouns. Though "fae" itself is a largely uncommon word in day-to-day speech, it could still lend itself to ambiguity. Additionally, the object/possessive form, when spoken aloud (in my dialect of American English) is generally pronounced identically to "fair" and "fare," which are both rather common in usage and likely to cause more of an ambiguity issue when spoken aloud than the baseline word "fae," causing it to fail criterion 3. If, alternatively, it is pronounced as "fay-er," this removes the ambiguity but causes it to fail criterion 4, making it more clunky to say and less effective as a verbal shorthand for a referent.

per/pers Per/pers pronouns are also ones that I consider to be a special case of noun pronoun, since they come from a shortening of the word "person". Overall these ones are actually pretty good, but the lack of conjugation based on subject/object/possessive lends itself to, again, a feeling of clunkiness and potential for ambiguity compared to the extant pronouns he, she, and they that have separate conjugations for each part of speech.

ze/zir The first of the pronouns specifically created as pronouns, rather than adapted from a noun! Yippee! Ze/zir nails criteria 2-4, but unfortunately falls short on criterion 1. Z is simply not a common letter in the English language, and having it appear every time the pronoun is used makes it appear out-of-place and distinctly non-naturalistic. Overall, I consider it pretty solid though, just not as solid as e/em/eir.

ze/hir This set, admirably, attempts to address the flaw present in the ze/zir set of the large quantity of z's making it stick out like a sore thumb. While this pronoun definitely looks a lot more naturalistic in its conjugations than the previous one when written, it unfortunately introduces issues with criteria 2 and 3. The pronunciation of hir is rather confusing when reading it for the first time--is it just the same as "her"? or is it more like "here" or "hire"? In my opinion, a neopronoun should be easy for speakers to figure out the pronunciation of at a glance so if they encounter it for the first time and need to use it aloud they aren't caught off guard. Additionally, once learned, the intended pronunciation of hir, which is to sound like "here"/"hear," also raises potential for issues of ambiguity with those identical-sounding words.

xe/xem/xir (also sometimes xe/xem/xyr) This pronoun set is essentially ze/zir but if you made it even more unnatural-looking and added in a dash of potential for mispronunciation. X is, again, a fairly uncommon letter in the English language, and an even more uncommon starting letter for a word than Z is. Because X is so uncommon to start words with, this has the additional detriment of giving it the potential to confuse people saying it for the first time. If you weren't a person generally familiar with words like "xenomorph" using a Z-sound for X, odds are you might try to pronounce them like "ksee-ksem" or "exee-exem" since that is how X is normally pronounced within a word.

thon/thonself Thon is great, and I appreciate the historical roots of it, but unfortunately the lack of conjugation means that it doesn't really feel all that much like a pronoun (and given the fact that I've never seen anyone actually use it in their set of preferred pronouns, I am inclined to think that most agree). It is, both in original meaning and in vibes, more akin to saying "that." It also doesn't conjugate naturalistically like a pronoun, and thus fails criterion 1.

ae/aer/aers This has two flaws: that the "ae" vowel combination is somewhat uncommon in English (especially as a word beginning) and thus seems obviously non-naturalistic when written frequently as a pronoun, and that its various forms sound exactly the same as the common words "a" "air" and "airs" when spoken aloud.

ey/em/eir This addresses the first flaw of the ae/aer/aers set, namely that "ae" is an uncommon vowel combo while this set uses exclusively common letter arrangements, but fails to address the second. "Ey," "eir," and "eirs" are once again identical in sound to "a," "air," and "airs," so although the written aspect is remedied it still succumbs to the flaw of potential ambiguity when spoken aloud. Also, and this is probably just a me thing, but the fact that it is so clearly just the "they" set without the "th" makes it seem less obvious what one should do when conjugating verbs--for example, should one write "ey goes to the store" (modeled after the other third-person singular pronoun conjugation) or "ey go to the store" (modeled after the "they" conjugation)? The e/em/eir set removes this ambiguity by making the subject pronoun "e" more distinct from "they," both in written and spoken form (with the added benefit that there is no word that sounds like "e" in the same way that "ey" sounds like "a").

PART 3: WAIT, WHAT?

"Hold on a moment!" you must be thinking: "e/em/eir has the same issue of 'eir' sounding like 'air' that ae/aer and ey/em/eir have!" And this, I admit, is true. I still think it does better than those other two due to not also having any ambiguity with the word "a" and the subject pronoun, but I will admit that even e/em/eir is imperfect. This is why I would like to propose a new version of the Spivak set, that also addresses this issue!

PART 4: THE NEO-SPIVAK SET

To address this, I propose a simple change, borrowing from the successful qualities of ze/zer: simply replacing "eir" in the Spivak set with "er," pronounced (hopefully fairly intuitively) like "her" but without the h. This would result in the following pronouns when used in context:

E went to the store.

I walked with em.

We got er favorite food.

The groceries were ers.

Afterwards, e walked home by emself.

(written out fully in someone's card/bio, it'd look like e/em/er/ers/emself)

I do admit, even this is imperfect: I already can guess that some people might pronounce "er" and "ers" the same way as "err" and "errs," (with the /e/ vowel sound rather than the /ə/ sound) but given that "err" is a far less common word than "air" in modern english I think it will at least further minimize the possibility for confusion (though I would be happy to hear the thoughts of others for how to improve it in this regard!).

I also like that this alteration kind of addresses the issue of "e" as the subject pronoun in this set making it seem to lean slightly more masculine, as it is pronounced identically to "he" in dialects that drop the h-sound at the start of words. Introducing a variant that also sounds like "her" in a dialect with a dropped-h kind of maintains that sense of gender-neutrality in my view, since instead of only having ones that sound like altered versions of "they" and "he" pronoun sets you also have some of it sounding like an altered version of the "she" pronoun set. Or maybe it's not that deep and nobody actually thought that it leaned masculine aside from me lol, who knows.

PART 5: CONCLUSION

Thanks for coming to my TED talk, if you made it this far please let me know your thinking on this! And again, I want to disclaim that I don't have any actual beef towards any set of neopronouns that I mentioned above as not meeting my criteria, I just thought it would be fun to make a case for why I like the Spivak set the best since I do honestly feel like it gets slept on a lot when it is a wonderful neopronoun option.

Hope u all have a great day!

#neopronouns #pronouns #xenogender #lgbt #gender #spivak pronoun #e/em/eir #xenopronoun #trans #nonbinary #discourse #(<- not really discourse but that might give it more reach lol)#please interact #let me know your thoughts #also sorry for any typos i did not proofread this oopsie #essay #long post

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spidermilkshake · 1 year ago

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Wild Hunt

More RE fanfics--more mutants, more corporate shenanigans. Finally, we have arrived on the day of RE2's events.

Rating: Teen (TW for suggestive language, human experimentation, dehumanization, medical/lab settings and stuff, described injuries and gore, plus also human adults cuss like human adults)

Due to the nature of how RE2 is structured, I'm taking some liberties with the encounters that happen in the game-things should be familiar for any who's played the original, and especially the Remake, but since it's literally impossible to have a story where both Claire and Leon experience all the same stuff, I'm picking and choosing who meets Mr. X when-and adding in some more encounters with people who are not newbie officer Hat-Defiler and badass Ms. Redfield.

Poor Ben. No chance--all because Leon spoke directly in line from you. Poor Mr. X too. He's just... gettin' surprised and bonked at all turns.

9: Wild Hunt

Mr. X staggered through the hallway entering the R.P.D., eyes still smarting and watering from its first encounter with the detestable “flashbang grenade”, its mood still no less hostile. The dimness of the interior soothed it after a few moments, and with a heavy snort it began to scan around the floor close to the helicopter’s wreckage. It had to have landed somewhere in this radius after being knocked off, and the Tyrant began huffing louder and in desperation as it became clear that his trilby—his gift—was nowhere to be seen. T-00’s mood rapidly became much worse—snarling like rolling thunder under his breath as his measured, reserved tread became more of an aggressive march. The building itself seemed to tremble in fear of being the next thing to anger the bioweapon.

It was going to find the unidentified man—if it couldn’t find the hat, then it could at least find him. And make him pay.

Mr. X had zoned in on his mission now, and the implant’s forcing pulses had thankfully died down now that it detected the Tyrant prowling the hallways on its own. At the next door in this upper eastern quadrant of the building T-00 paused for a moment, listened. There was a cacophony of distant noises: Mr. X could filter most out right away as the mind-rotted groans of the infected drifting in through the damaged windows, and some as the low whirrs of air systems kicking on in still-functioning parts of the station. Something squeaked—a loud hinge of some door or locker—and Mr. X focused on that direction. He crouched through the door with some difficulty, and then gave the new air inside what seemed to be the waiting room a few sniffs. He’d been here—the smell of that particularly stressed human was flooding the area, lingering most strongly on where he had shouldered open the doors. The Tyrant dipped his own shoulder and barged through into a massive hall, captivated for a moment by the sheer height and depth of the place, and its ornate decoration. It was looking over a lower section where some makeshift infirmary screens and cots were scattered next to an intake counter of sorts, and spotted the large storage chest and numerous other survival goods piled up next to it. Its attention was hooked onto the slumped figure at the bench opposite. He recognized the man. Marvin Branagh—a target—though the bloody wound on the man’s abdomen sopping through the R.P.D. uniform was new.

Cautious, Mr. X made his way down one of the grand staircases and approached the still body; he did not need to get very close for an inquisitive sniff to tell him that no killing was required—Marvin’s blood was recently shed, but it was starting to reek with a virulent infection. The Tyrant did not want to linger too close, and crept around the large intake counter instead, head raised away from the disturbing odor and trying to detect any others.

Its brows furrowed and it grunted in annoyance at the results: There was one scent it was prioritizing, but unfortunately that one was everywhere—and its mere presence was prompting him to rumble with stifled rage. With no clear trail it could follow, Mr. X instead pricked up its hypersensitive ears.

Someone was very much alive and moving on the second floor—training on the source near the far back corner of the building, it also picked up something like… flowing water? Flowing water—the Tyrant growled under his breath and picked up speed through one of the closest doors into a disheveled office, intent to climb the stairwell near the back west side of the building, the one closest to whoever had just reminded it of the nasty encounter at the doused helicopter. Bursting into another hall, it began to creep a bit more softly over the floors leading to this area. Though with a slight wince, the boards underneath it still creaked in protest and each stairstep vibrated in warning that something strong and heavy was using them. It froze on the small landing halfway up, recognizing a fresher human scent coming from the third story.

… This one was not the scent he wanted to follow, but it was something at least. With all his possible stealth, Mr. X inched up the rest of the way while double-checking his nose’s work. Not only was this presence new and unfamiliar, but up here the man’s had almost completely faded into the background of dust, crust, and viral-laden bloodstains. Whoever it was, they too were overloaded with stress hormones and carried an additional whiff of gunpowder and leather. Tilting its head in contemplation, the bioweapon realized that engaging with anyone new would only give his preferred prey advance warning of where he was—worse, it may allow the defiler of his hat a chance to escape the much easier-to-stalk confines of the indoors. Stomping with its full mass once again, T-00 turned around and made its way back to the main hall.

The damn stink of that hat-shooting bastard was still all over this open room—and Mr. X still could not pinpoint any origin to the trail. The man had been here so often, and so recently, that it pervaded every corner.

Well. If he had not cut through the office to the west, then maybe he had backtracked up to the second level somewhere. As the bioweapon ascended the grand staircase, pace increased and eager to trap his quarry, he continued to pick up the sounds of human activity. It was closing in on the source, though still echoing around corners, muffled through doors and walls; somewhere slightly above it a latch closed behind someone’s passage with a soft clunk, and somewhere else further into that upper west section of the building there was a dull electronic tone—similar to the types of noises that Sheena Island’s failsafe locks made as they disengaged. Two in motion. One could be him. Inhaling deeply, the Tyrant pushed open the closest door that took it in the right direction and ended up in a high-ceilinged library that looked more like it belonged in a university than in a police station. At the base of one of the towering shelves (so tall that an entire upper level of catwalks was build into their tops) was a pair of infected humans, clawing and gnawing clumsily on what was left of a ribcage and spine. One wobbled upright and lunged towards the new source of movement and flesh—and was promptly batted to the floor before having its neck crunched underfoot.

At a better time, Mr. X may have liked to explore the smaller details of this room—but with a shake of his head, he knew he had greater need to focus on the purely strategic ones. Sidestepping the other vastly-overconfident zombie, it peered around and took stock of all escape routes. There were the main doors, of course, which it was blocking, but there was also another door on the opposite side—high on the catwalk level making this one room fully stretch across two stories. Close to where it had entered the staircase wrapped around one corner, and it frowned once it turned away from pulping the other infected man against the hard base of this stair, having spotted the ladder. Against the opposite wall and giving anyone he pursued two ways to get out of its immediate range—the recipe for a literal run-around. T-00 growled to itself; this library was no good, too large. If that man ever fled into here, it would take tactical—and risky—decision-making to herd him somewhere he could be more easily cornered.

There was also a smaller door in the wall just by the bottom of the stairs. As far as it remembered from the blueprints it was given, this led to a lounge, then from there into the winding hallway of the west side’s 2nd floor that meandered into and out of more functional spaces until it met up with that narrow backmost stairwell. Many places to hide—and higher odds the fleeing human might have chosen one of these. If caught there, there was no getting out. And he’d remember those horrible little blasting canisters—he would not be fooled by that trick a second time.

Perfect. The Tyrant plodded towards this door, scenting near the handle and finding a muddle of both fresh and old there. One of them made its eyes flare; yes, he was here. Somewhere.

The simmering anger was interrupted by an explosion—and not of the emotional kind. Mr. X hadn’t been ready for anything like it, and staggered into the door ahead of him, his sheer weight ripping it off its hinges and landing on the lounge’s rattling floor with a thunk! as the Tyrant caught himself on the doorframe. Though not before banging his forehead squarely into the top of it. T-00 sucked in an annoyed hiss and surveyed the splintered dent his cranium had left in the wood before shaking off the disorientation:

What the hell was that.

The whole building (or at least this wing of it) was still faintly shaking, dust trickling down from neglected beams and corners. Not the most powerful explosion it had experienced, but enough to do more than give the likes of him pause. Wary now, Mr. X took a few shuffling paces into the lounge, around the wrecked door, back muscles twitching at every faint noise. There were… quite a lot of those. Some grew less and less faint. Many were definitely on the floor above the Tyrant. Scratching, gouging… shrill, inhuman shrieking? Not even animal-like. Something else. There was a muffled BLAM that seemed most like a long-gun discharging, and this drew its eye upward for a crucial moment as it was just in front of the door into the winding hallway—

—as that door slammed open, narrowly whiffing past its torso, and a series of rapid, clicking steps screeched to a half a meager distance from also slamming into it. Mr. X’s neck snapped back downwards, startled but ready to repel another charging infected… but this wasn’t a zombie. Certainly not a police officer, dressed as she was. Her long coat was more like a Tyrant’s own Limiter than any other uniform he had encountered.

“Fuck..!” The woman sounded as if this was not the first time that evening that she had wanted to let profanity slip, but that this was the moment that one had leaked out. In a flash she’d dragged the alarm on her face back behind a cool, confident mask, sidestepping neatly to gain a bit more distance from the hulking creature at the same time. Mr. X shifted to follow her position, locked-on now and more curious than anything now.

Her right hand had slid to her waist, clearly ready to draw a hidden weapon, and for a few beats the only move either made was each swiftly appraising the other—calculating risk, trying to gauge motives, identifying who and what. She, too, was of no comparison to the faces T-00 knew—but she was too unafraid to be unarmed—or unaware of his true nature. His first thought was that she may be with Umbrella, something they called “Monitors”—but that made little sense with how tense and alert she stood while watching for the Tyrant’s next move.

“What’s the matter, big guy?” She took another step backwards, almost pinning herself to the wall. A glint of dark metal drew T-00’s attention down for a split-second, shoulders tightening at the appearance of the pistol in her hands, “Don’t know how to act around a woman?”

Mr. X’s brows twitched, and his head tilted. What… did that have to do with anything? What the Tyrant needed to know how to act around was a woman he didn’t know being especially cagey around him with a gun in hand. Annoyingly, this time the pulses of the implant hijacking his movements never kicked in, and with a deep huff he tested if she was friend or foe for himself, floorboards creaking as his massive weight shifted forward to take a short step to the side which would open up her path past him, should she choose it.

Two things happened in quick succession—unexpected enough the giant had trouble reacting to the one-two punch of the woman choosing violence. The gun’s barrel swiveled up towards his head, and he froze to brace for the sharp sting of bullet casings shredding against a steely skull and bullet-proof hide. Her firearm must not have been at all powerful because the impacts hardly scuffed up the spot on his cheek where its projectiles connected, but the sharp pop-pop! of the gunfire in the close quarters made him flinch and swat upwards to cup his ringing ear.

That pop-pop! had echoed down the twisty, strangely-designed hallway, reaching something else and leading it on a beeline towards the room. Mr. X’s aching ears were bombarded in the front and behind with the sounds of scrambling feet—the woman darting across the room towards the permanently-open library—and something rounding the hall corner, approaching on all fours—

The Tyrant’s senses scrambled, it was truly taken off-guard the moment it turned to retaliate against the woman’s attack, and something thudded onto its back and latched on with four clawed limbs. Futher injury came in the form of a stinking, slavering jaw full of needle-like teeth digging into the back of his head. He bellowed—a noise somewhere between ape and ox—and panicked at just what exactly was biting him? Its combative intuition and training combined in an instant, and it reached up with both hands and clutched at something gnarled, fleshy, and disturbingly wet. His assailant was thankfully nowhere near the strength of even the most anemic Tyrant, and Mr. X tore the creature off and slung it down in front of it, the thing squealing as it was thrown completely around in one sharp jerk.

It wasn’t a human—not even an infected on—but the way it was shaped under the glistening, overlayed skinless muscles implied it probably had been, days ago. Fingers had lengthened, thickened, sharpened into talon-like spurs (as had toes), and its head… well, to say it was destroyed did not suffice. The gnashing jaw, filled with shard-like teeth still drenched in Tyrant blood, was a human mandible, but above the eroded nostrils everything was compacted, caved-in, replaced by a bunching, brain-like series of growths. Frontal lobe, eyes—everything was now a wrinkled, oozing teratoma. Yes. Mr. X knew that word. Many strains of the t-Virus did that to humans. It would do it to Tyrants as well—if the inoculation was not undertaken at the end of the growth cycle. It had never expected something to this degree. It looked like a brain on the outside of its head—as if to replace the grey matter that had deteriorated to nothing within its warped skull.

What it was, beyond a threat, was irrelevant. T-00 growled deep in its chest as it glared at the monstrosity flailing and flopping back upright.

It hissed, then with a full-body ripple of twitches it appeared to forget the Tyrant existed. Launching through the library’s doorway in a cat-like lunge—following the sounds of the woman fleeing up the library’s stairs.

Oh no you don’t… Mr. X wiped the profuse blood that had streaked down the side of his head from a punctured ear and lacerations at the base of his neck—still running down his large jaw to drip from his chin despite the rips it spilled from already stitching themselves together. Artificial implant or animal impulse, it knew what to do when something attacked.

She’d bolted to the top of the stairwell, taking a breath to turn on her heel and cut across the center catwalk when the erratic, blind mutant leapt to the top of the railing directly in front of her. Reeling back to avoid the swipe of a claw, she took a snap shot at it which caused only a burst of translucent yellow fluid from its false brain and a yowl, and then grunted in largely-restrained disgust as the thing’s tongue whipped out and extended—wrapping in a vice-grip around her waist and yanking her off-balance. Her second shot sent a gout of strangely-viscous blood from the side of its mouth, slowing its attempt to pull her into range of its uneven fangs.

T-00’s rush took the stairs three at a time with ease, and in the time it took for the woman to turn and see him charging towards her he had made the decision to target the long-tongued mutant first. It made a noise like a rusted hinge being forced open as his fist gripped onto the middle of its extended tongue—the rest of its length instantly spasming and going limp. The woman had ducked down to the floor, though she was no longer much concern of his, narrowly avoiding being bowled over by its other arm—and then ducking again under the frantic mutant’s body being swung into the wall behind them. The mostly-brainless creature regrouped itself fast from being brained, but not fast enough to avoid the Tyrant’s free hand shooting out and pulverizing its neck against the wainscotting. Limp and giving only leftover twitches from its rapid brainstem death, the thing slumped into a pile of flesh and bones and disgust as Mr. X retracted both hands. His finger joints crackled and he gave a rumble—good riddance.

Its sense of triumph was snubbed in a moment; a jolt of unexpected impact shot through the bones of the Tyrant’s pelvis, and with a puzzled grunt it look down between its boots and discovered the woman again, still pressed flat to avoid the combat overhead. She’d… kicked it. While perfectly aimed and with full humanly-possible force braced with the floor’s leverage, the strike had not exactly conjured anything approaching pain. Mr. X frowned slightly; she definitely was not an Umbrella agent. If she had been, and had known enough to recognize a T-103 when she saw one, she would have known that he did not possess the particular weak spots she’d aimed for.

The Tyrant decided to play “an eye for an eye”, or rather a boot for a boot, regardless. The woman rolled, narrowly dodging Mr. X’s half-hearted stomp and folding upwards to her feet in a fluid motion. Her pistol pop!-pop!-ed once more, but he felt no impacts and whipped around to see that she had been aiming for the fastenings securing the ventilation grate in place in the corner of the library. The metal fell to the halfway-point landing with a clang, and she heaved herself up and began to army-crawl into one of the large vents pumping the climate-controlled air into the library.

Mr. X’s nose crinkled up as he made for the last sight of her legs vanishing into the darkness of the ducts; she was assuming he couldn’t follow into such a narrow space, though by his measure the space was not so narrow at all… once the ducting was peeled out. In a dive, one massive hand plunged into the hole in the wall—fingers scraping on the corrugated metal as he came up just shy of her heel. His other hand braced on the opening and with a hitch in its breath began forcefully ripping the entrance larger. Larger. There was a quick flash from within the vent, and T-00 jerked his head aside as another bullet blew apart very close to its eyes.

Once sure his vision wasn’t compromised, it bared a sliver of teeth and pressed forward, knees plowing through the wood paneling and underlying brick while pushing the framework of the vent shaft further out. It could now fit its entire enormous width into the darkened inner-wall space, and even as slow as this progress was made, it was still managing to keep up with this provoking character…

Something creaked—deep, ominous. Not surface-level, as with the floorboards. The Tyrant stiffened up, spreading its weight in a spasm of reflex the second it registered the sound. The inner-wall’s frames didn’t… feel that weak. After a second more of trying to find any further subtle warnings of a structural nature over the echoing clamor of the woman hustling towards another series of dim vent grate slits, the Tyrant snorted and moved again.

Another groan, softer. He grew confident. This framework was part of the architecture designed to prop the entire level up, surely it wouldn’t—

—ting!

… ting—tingting!

…Oh.

It appeared the place was not up to code.

—KLINK! Tink! T-KING!

The Tyrant, eyes as wide as they went, made a desperate attempt to back out of the improvised widened passage he’d made, but the mangled metal and the dusty inner braces had already buckled under its tremendous mass, and the damage that mass had done. With a final series of snaps and cracks, the weak section within the walls dropped open like a trap door—Mr. X tumbling into the black unknown, trying to spread himself out to lessen the impact or—he hoped—to catch onto something sturdy and prevent any inconvenient injuries from this error at all. Luck was not with the bioweapon, and as it crashed into another series of much sparser pieces of framework it grunted as it felt itself tilting uncontrollably onto its back mid-air—

—seconds before velocity and weight combined and it burst through another set, then landed with a meaty thwwakk! onto a concrete block.

A true testament to the fortitude of this particular living weapon, Mr. X was not knocked unconscious by being dropped more than two stories. He did, however, spend some time grumbling unhappily and rubbing at the shoulder that had mostly taken the brunt of it until the heavy bruises on the heavier muscles had faded—which was only fair.

Sitting up, his contemplative grunt echoed in the actually quite large and convoluted chamber that made up the utility inner-walls of the basement level. It must be a basement area—nowhere else was so full of damp rust and mildew odor, so much that even the ever-present scent of the building’s brick, wood, lacquer and other basic matters were overpowered.

Coming slowly to its feet, the Tyrant tried to shut out the now-useless olfactory information in favor of its other enhanced senses. Noise was also not going to do much good—not unless it was from close by. Pipes in the ceiling were bubbling, some popping and sizzling, and somewhere off in the darkness an electrical transformer was hammering. Vision was also limited—not as much as a human’s would be. Mr. X’s pupils, usually tightened into tiny pinpricks, had dilated to be even larger than the usual human’s, and this afforded him some level of clarity in the dungeon-like setting. Even so, he was only seeing detail in greyscale and the distance at which he could make those details out was much shorter—perhaps only out to twenty meters or so. He craned his neck up, studying the chaotic pit in the R.P.D.’s inner workings that he’d created; it did not look like there was going to be a way to get back out by going up—there was no stable way to climb unobstructed, and nothing jutting out after the architectural trauma would at all take his weight if he tried to jump up.

The bioweapon turned back to the deep shadows, boots crunching over pieces of broken plaster and splintered braces.

This was… not ideal.

There was not much clearance over the Tyrant’s head, which put it on edge as it picked and squeezed its way through the awkward forest of load-bearing pillars and piping. At every turn, he scanned for signs of some way out of the damp hole: A maintenance door, a drainage gate, even a bricked-over old window that would not be too difficult to unblock. It got the distinct feeling it was wandering in circles, and with a frustrated rumble instead felt along one of the less grime-coated brick walls. Perhaps the only way out was going to be through.

Not here though. For several meters, his inspection revealed these were tough, thick walls—not just from bearing the weight of floors and street above though that certainly was not a helpful factor. He had to find a more expendable section; too much damage to these, and it risked bringing much of the entire station down on itself. While it was difficult to do, it was possible to asphyxiate a T-103—and over forty tones of earth, brick, and roofing collapsing atop it was probably one way to do it.

Continuing his search, Mr. X paused to probe at a new section of wall and held his breath a moment. Muffled voice? Or voices? The walls were still thick here, making distinguishing anything about them next to impossible. Must get closer. Must hear.

“…Look, we’re… s station… nd help each oth…”

T-00 felt its way along, closer to the source, the leather of its creased-up Limiter creaking and straining as it had to duck under a tangle of electrical conduits. The voices stopped at the noise it made, and Mr. X felt the inner urge to curse and went absolutely frozen-still. Listening.

…Listening.

Come on. Speak. Listening!

“Shit. It’s coming.”

There. It was quiet through the half-meter of stone and mortar, but he was definitely much closer to whoever was speaking. The Tyrant pressed his ear flush to the brickwork, straining his auditory processing powers to their limit.

“What—what’s coming?”

At the sound of the second voice, the Tyrant’s heavily wrinkled face twitched in recognition—his blood going white-hot with rage. HIM. Beyond this wall. The voice was distinctly coming from directly perpendicular to him—speaking hushed, but it couldn’t be more clear. There was someone else there too, shouting at his prey in a panicked tone, but T-00 did not care about any bystanders. Everyone else could walk away—he wanted that man—and the short-sightedness of a bull being whipped had come over him.

Wall be damned, too. Mr. X bared his teeth and wound back his dominant arm. With a straight punch, the force of a car wreck was concentrated onto a spot only a few bricks wide, and the thick barricade between interior and nebulous wall-space burst apart in a shower of powder and fragments to allow the Kevlar-wrapped forearm to dive through. There was a sharp shriek of terror, which Mr. X would have found understandable if he had been in any kind of mood to pay the noise any mind.

Reaching as far as his bicep would allow, Mr. X’s fingers found something and reflexively wrapped around it. Through his glove, he could feel the shifts and tangles of hair under his palm, and there was no mistaking the frantic movement of struggle from whatever he had in his grip. Hands much smaller than his own were now clawing at the buckled straps over his wrist and the clenched tops of his knucles; the game struggling, though useless, reminded him of something. Further inflamed, the Tyrant uttered a low snarl and wrenched his arm higher in defiance of the robust brickwork in the way. As expected, the bricks lost, and the wriggling form he held captive was lifted off his feet in an arc. Sputtering, the man began thrashing harder. He had him. Yes.

In a surge of strength, the Tyrant tightened his grip; in spite of the hard human skull in the way, T-00’s fist close regardless. With a deep, spinal twitch the body stopped fighting back, and no longer caring to be in contact with the blood and gore of the task, Mr. X released him to slump into a tilted seated posture. As he retracted the arm, the comparatively-bright light streaming in from the interior of a jail cell half-blinded him, and with care to only raise his unsullied left hand to guard his sensitive eyes he pulled back and huffed.

His next inhale cut short as he heard that voice. Again…

Joined shortly by that of the woman who had instigated their fight upstairs. Mr. X was numb to the exchange of his two enemies, instead focusing on lifting his right hand and squinting down at the glistening residue caking it.

…Whose blood was this?

With much less vigor than before, the Tyrant took a few less-than-graceful steps back into the full darkness. It felt like… lying down for a moment. After it felt like… cleaning itself up somehow.

It was detesting being stuck in this narrow, unpleasantly-scented hole more by the second. Shoving another rat’s nest of cables aside with a shoulder, it tromped off into the unexplored lengths of the foundations.

There had to be a weakspot somewhere.

If it had to search for too much longer, well… the Tyrant was going to be in the mood to make a weakspot.

#Mr. X #Mr X #resident evil #Tyrant #T-00 #T-103 #re2 #resident evil 2 #fanfiction #fanfic #Umbrella #B.O.W.#Leon S. Kennedy #Ada Wong #Ben Bertolucci #Licker #Lickers #Resident Evil Lickers #Lots of chaos goin on here

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shallow-wordsalad · 6 months ago

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[Fate/Destiny Shift] - What Is This Shit

For the last few days, I've been pretty dedicatedly hammering out my own Fate fanfic for basically no purpose and by no prompting. I'm probably flooding some tags so I apologize for that, but this blog is my outlet for the swarm of words and concepts that flood my brain.

As I've been working on it, I've been learning Tumblr's formatting tricks, such as how to add a Read More line - though I only learned that a few posts in. I tried to add it retroactively but Tumblr's weird system saves posts as they were when they were reblogged.

Again my apologies if I'm flooding your feed or tags. My only excuse is that I'm stupid. I'm going to try and be better about it, but you should probably just block this blog if you don't wanna see it. If you have advice for structuring of Tumblr-hosted fanfics, I'd appreciate a DM.

More under the thing for people who care about the fic.

This story is called Fate/Destiny Shift and is essentially my own personal take on a version of the 5th Grail War along the same timespan as the original Fate/Stay Night. Why the 5th War? Because I feel the state of the world of Fate was at its most volatile after the 4th, with lots of open threads and movable pieces from which stories can emerge. And because in common canon, I'd have an annoying time explaining a 6th War. This is easier, and it's more comfortable, so here we are - Fuyuki in 2004.

Characters from the original story will likely not be appearing. Sorry for anyone wanting to see an AU take of the classics, but I don't feel confident writing them. Moreover, I don't want to. I feel Shirou, Rin, Sakura, Kirei et al have been wrung out like sponges for every sweet droplet of character complexity possible, and I have nothing to add. These characters, for reasons that will be explored (some more, some less), simply do not exist or do not act in this AU.

The cast will largely be my own OCs, and Servants either from the larger Fate universe (Extra and Grand Order), or Servants I've made up. There will be my own personal interpretations of figures of history, fiction, and myth. They will be inaccurate. They are interpretations, and while I will do my level best to include and incorporate as much fact or canonicity as possible, ultimately they will be characters in service of a story. I will end up focusing on the parts that help me tell the story I want to tell, and sometimes I may twist something to fit the narrative. I do not apologize for this, but I feel if you're expecting me to write Assassin (Lee Harvey Oswald) [not appearing in this fanfic!] exactly according to his biography you should know you're going to be disappointed.

I am endeavoring in my writing to maintain some aspects of the Fate series I like - deep engagement with characters, high-stakes combat, subjective and disjointed narration, and cute sad girls. I am, however, not a novelist. My writing is choppy and errs on the side of brevity, so things may move quickly and feel very staccato in pacing. Part of this project will be working that tendency into a style rather than just my own form of typography.

Part of the objective of this fanfic is to be accessible for those that don't know Fate inside and out. Counter-intuitive, I know, but part of my audience is friends who don't know things that are obvious to Fate fans. I intend to leave nice details for those that do recognize them, but they probably won't be major features. Also, to be bluntly honest, the explanations of magic in the Nasuverse are dense, loaded with Proper Nouns You're Expected To Know, and largely pointless to moment-to-moment understanding of what's going on. I'll be glossing over them. Again, I'm not apologizing for this, but don't expect me to expound upon the exact function of The Throne, Ghost Liners, The Root, or the Inner Sea Of The Planet.

I said this earlier, but I have no idea what TWs or CWs will be necessary for this fic or its various chapters. I know the content will be largely PG-13 for realistic depictions of violence, tobacco, drugs and alcohol, and mature themes. Honestly aside from those, I'm not that familiar with the ones that should be commonly tagged. If my writing upsets you, I apologize. Please send me a succinct DM and I will add any needed tags to any posts or chapters. I'm writing this out scene by scene, with a vague narrative in mind, so I may include or exclude things if I feel they help the story.

If you've decided to read, I hope you enjoy the story of Kolyastavia Marie Zofastria and Berserker. I promise they will get the ending they deserve.

Thanks for reading, if anyone is.

#creative writing #fate series #my ocs #fate #fate oc #fate au #fate fanfic #Fate Destiny Shift

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parakaryote · 10 months ago

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I wanted to talk a bit about how Gexgean land plants work on a structural level (something I’ve mentioned in passing before).

Cellulose isn’t a thing on Gexge. The cells of its plants owe their stiffness to a different compound (unnamed). Their cell walls take time to fully develop. When the plant forms a new structure, whether it’s a stem from a seed or a new leaf, it is initially as soft as the flesh of an animal and hardens in layers from the inside out.

This is what an un-walled Gexgean plant cell looks like under a microscope:

[Image description: A diagram of a round cell. It has a nucleus, large squarish mitochondria, “roseoplasts” instead of chloroplasts, a large organelle called a “cleaner subcell”, an oval organelle called a “reticustructum”, and several lysosomes floating around. End ID.]

Nucleus, mitochondria, lysosomes: You know these ones… more or less.

Roseoplasts: You know the equivalents of these ones.

Cleaner subcell: The equivalent of a Golgi body, if it also budded off lysosomes (and later consumed and repurposed them for protein-packaging material). The lysosome-production function was observed first, hence the cell being named for that.

Reticustructum: A unique organelle that produces the cellulose equivalent for the cell wall.

[Image description: A three-part diagram of the same cell. In the first image, the reticustructum is starting to produce a dark purple cell wall that builds up around the edge of the cell. In the second image, the cell wall encircles the entire cell, thicker near the reticustructum and thinner opposite it; the organelle is smaller, and is being eaten by lysosomes. In the third image, the reticustructum is gone and the cell wall has formed a square, with the cytoplasm having expanded to fill the new shape. End ID.]

As the plant’s new structure begins to come into its shape, the process of cell wall construction begins. The reticustructum secretes two substances: one that becomes the cell wall and another that dissolves the old cell membrane. As the process continues, lysosomes are attracted to it and begin to eat it as a way to ensure the cell wall doesn’t get too thick.

There are two methods of cell division. If a branch is making more branch cells, for example, a new reticustructum will form, enabling the cell to split in the regular plant manner. If a branch is growing a leaf, the lysosomes eat the cell wall as the nucleus starts to split and a cell membrane forms around it. The new cell kind of oozes out.

#Gexge #Celestial Community #speculative biology #xenobiology #speculative botany #this is probably a mess but I’d already decided that Gexgean plant tissues are soft for a while after forming #and came up with this when trying to reason how it might work

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brickwoodhomes01 · 6 months ago

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Granny Flat Designs Sydney: Stylish and Affordable Solutions for Every Home

Sydney homeowners today are embracing the granny flats, as they offer a good investment since they can be used to either expand the living space, increase the property value or even use them to house additional family members. Whether you require an extra living space for your elderly parents, children, or as a good source of income through renting the property, granny flats’ design is elegant, and they are affordable. Here in this article we look at the different choices people have when it comes to designing granny flats in Sydney and how one can meet their expectations while working on the-granny-flats budget.

Why to Build a Granny Flat?

A Granny flat on the other hand is a type of living quarter which is an independent unit but within the compound of the main residential house. They offer several advantages, including:They offer several advantages, including:

Versatility: There are many reasons why granny flats can be built and they include; to accommodate other family members, as a source of income through renting out the space, or even as a home office, or as a guest house.

Affordability: Generally construction of a granny flat is cheaper compared to construction of a full sized home and granny flats can be very lucrative business especially in areas like Sydney where the market for real estates is very competitive.

Increased Property Value: An increase in the living area is always welcome, and choosing to add a granny flat to their property can help its owners to increase the property’s value and make it more appealing to others.

Privacy and Independence: A granny flat ensures that the occupants get their privacy and independence while at the same time they do not have to live far away from the main house.

Tips when Co-designing with your Granny Flat Designer in Sydney

There is a variety of stylish and cheap granny flat designs in Sydney depending on the clients requirements and preferences. Here are some popular design options:Here are some popular design options:

Two-Bedroom Granny Flats: 2 bedroom granny flats are especially useful for a couple with children, for guests, or when the building might be rented out. These designs commonly consist of a living room area, a kitchen, a washroom and two distinct bedrooms thus offering enough space for a comfortable living. Although granny flats are no longer as prevalent as they used to be, Sydney homeowners love them since they are flexible, especially when they book more than one room that can be utilized in various ways in the end.

Custom Granny Flats: Having a customized granny flat means that whoever is undertaking the project will be in a position to meet the specific needs of the occupants. If you require an extra bedroom detached from the main house to accommodate other old family members, a home office, or a storage room, the design satisfies these needs as required and complement the style of the structure, materials used and accessibility to the occupants. Sydney based custom granny flat builder provide their clients with numerous design choices from modern and contemporary to more antiquated styles.

Modern Granny Flats: Houses considered some functional attributes of contemporary granny flats are neat lined, open spaces and natural light. Some of the aspects which make a contemporary home stylish include floor to ceiling windows, added sliding glass doors and lean sleek finishes among others. Specifically in Sydney, people go for modern kinds of designs since they are stylish and less on energy.

Sustainable and Eco-Friendly Designs: A large number of Sydney based homeowners are now demanding modern granny flat designs that are environmentally friendly through the incorporation of environmentally friendly building materials and energy efficient products. Proper insulation, eco-friendly roofing, utilization of solar panels and rainwater can be used in construction of granny flats and will help in preserving the environment and save on power bills.

Compact and Functional Designs: This domestic granny flat blueprint is aimed at those homeowners who have small space and will provide them with fully packed space. Interestingly these designs concentrate more on efficiency; they incorporate complicated solutions for custom storage, multi functional furniture and pieces as well as ample spaces that include open planning. Regardless of the compact size, small granny flats can be beautiful and comfortable living accommodation at the same time.

Affordable Granny Flat Solutions

One good thing about constructing a granny flat in Sydney is that you don’t have to dig deep into your pocket. There are several ways to keep costs down while still ensuring you get a high-quality, stylish result:There are several ways to keep costs down while still ensuring you get a high-quality, stylish result:

Pre-Designed Floor Plans: Most Sydney based granny flat builders provide ready-made floor plan designs that are aesthetically appealing and within a client’s budget. These designs are usually cheaper than having a brand new design that is made to suit the building process as they have been standardized.

Modular and Prefabricated Granny Flats: In general, modular and prefabricated granny flats are ideal if you are planning to cut on the costs of construction. These granny flats are constructed in a factory and then moved to your compound, meaning that there will be less labor to invest and a shorter construction period. Even though they are built off-site, they provide a numerous amount of design scheme choices to their residents.

Cost-Effective Materials: Being mindful of your costs, by using affordable items like for the cladding, laminated floor and simple fixtures will help reduce the expense incurred in constructing a granny flat. Also, choosing products that do not need much attention for a long time will not only increase the maintenance cost.

Government Grants and Rebates: Sometimes, Sydney homeowners can benefit from certain government grants or rebates for the construction of granny flats especially where such home extensions have been intended for the elder or the disabled members of the family. Examining extant programs and subsidies more information can be gathered to reduce some of the construction costs.

Finding the Right Builder

The property owner must select an appropriate builder that will enable him/her to get a good granny flat. Sydney boasts of several granny flat builders who can either design a unique work or offer standard designs. One should be very cautious when choosing a builder and should check how many years they have been in business, the projects they have completed in the past and the testimonies from other clients. It is also possible to find a builder who has knowledge of local laws regarding building and council approvals will be helpful as well.

These additional dwellings are modern, affordable to build or buy, and can be used to help aging parents or other family members to live nearby, or as a source of rental income. There are many choices of design for granny flats in Sydney depending on the requirements of the clients, ranging from two bedrooms to pre-built and contemporary style. It is therefore possible to build a beautiful and functional granny flat from scratch to complement the value of your compound by consulting experienced builders and making wise choices on costs.

For more info visit here:- Granny Flats Builders Bankstown

#2 bedroom granny flats

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