#like I get the technical explanation

[shushmal]

Every once in a while, I freak out about the internet. WHAT IS IT!!! Where is it!!! “It’s in servers.” WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?? I don’t know how cell phones work! I talk into it and my voice is beamed through the cosmos and my mom can hear me 50 miles away. WHAT. WHAT!!! “It’s radio waves.” WHAT??? How do the radio waves know how my voice sounds like!!! Idk most of the time I just compartmentalize that and access the internet pocket dimension every day to see images of my favorite fictional lil people.

[arcade-confetti]

Being someone who read Under The Red Hood and came out with the firm belief that, for Jason, it's not about killing Joker, it's about Jason wanting proof Batman would choose him over the Joker (bc shelia chose the joker). Makes seeing any other media where it's all about just wanting the Joker dead is a teeny bit frustrating. to be honest

Jason could've killed the Joker himself, really, really easily. Jason kidnaps the Joker before the confrontation. I can't open my comic for a reference right now, but it felt like he had the Joker for quite a bit before the confrontation. He had him. He beat him up with a crowbar. He had every single opportunity to kill the Joker himself, but he didn't because that wasn't his goal. Make no mistake, he did plan for the Joker to be dead by the end of it, but do you see what im trying to say here

Edit: If I knew this post was gonna get 1000+ notes I would've tried to word it better or something, this was a rant I made on the way to the grocery store 😭

It's not about making Batman kill either. When Batman says he won't kill, Jason adjusts and goes, 'Let ME kill the Joker or kill me to stop me' instead. The test is all about Batman choosing him. The whole final confrontation is Jason's first death again. The parent, The Joker, and the explosives. It even ends with Jason unable to move as a bomb goes off right next to him again because the parent didn't choose Jason. And instead tried finding an option that'd benefit them and (consequencely) letting the Joker walk, again, lol, lmao <-in agony

[thatringboy]

haven’t finished Amphoreus yet but if they send Sunday down to the surface he’s literally gonna get confused for titankin with his funky clothes and halo he’s gonna get his ass beat by mydei and NOT in the way my current wip suggests

[rbtlvr]

& by the way i literally CONSTANTLY think about how loop uses the partys titles to create distance to remind themself that those arent 'their versions' of them. that theyre not loops party anymore. and yet and yet and yet

[dynamitekansai]

THE USOS REUNITE WWE SMACKDOWN (OCTOBER 25, 2024)

[the-worms-in-your-bones]

Me seeing people talking about time lords in a way that contradicts how I see them: it’s fine, this is fine, people can have their opinions, the opinions you have on them aren’t even actually canon anyways, it’s fine

[tonydaddingham]

S2 - Miracles

+ bonus where it didn't work

[akechi-stole-my-heart]

everything about labrys's backstory is so fucked up and possibly some of my favorite stuff in persona as a franchise goddamn

[bonebabbles]

@quaelgeist333 Yeah! It's nothing special lmao. I have a group of friends who're a perfect gradient of Minecraft Experience from "hasn't played since they added coral" to "seasoned Botania expert", and we all decided we wanted to play with a basic server together. I'm actually a bit of an enthusiast so I decided to make us a personal modpack tailored to what each of us tends to like in video games.

I've made crummy mish-mashes of different mods before, but this time I'm doing a LOT to add compat. Conflict name resource packs, crafttweaker scripts, I'm even running Expanded Nametags and adding stuff myself so I can minimize how much time they spend having to check a wiki.

It's not like I'm actually making compat mods or anything, since I don't know Java. But it's honest work

[ethereance]

Screw it. *Genderfluids your Lance* Post s8. Fix it.

Lance thought his Altean markings were cosmetic. Nothing more. Nothing less. A gift from Allura, leaving a piece of her with him, to look back and remember with fondness her company. As if he could ever forget a girl as incredible as her.

It’s not until much later he realises it’s something more. That maybe Allura gave a portion more than he expected. He stares, face to face with his mirror. Something off. Something strange. Something that grabs his attention before he really knows what he’s looking at.

His ears slowly shift back to human. But they were there long enough. He saw the Altean ears.

“Incredible,” Coran says when Lance broaches this to him, and after multiple attempts at trying at failing at repeating what happened in the mirror. At last he succeeds. “You’re shifting just like an Altean.”

“I’m not turning Altean, am I?” he panics. He’s pretty attached to being a human and all.

“Haha! Don’t be ridiculous number three, you can’t just ‘turn Altean.’ Good one! Turn Altean, he says. That’s one to remember for an open mike.” Then Coran takes one look at his genuine distress and sobers. “Rest assured, my boy, you’re one hundred percent earthling, ears and all. Allura wouldn’t change you so completely when she loved you the way you are. It just seems she passed our chameleon-like abilities over to you. I can’t say I’ve ever heard anything like this ever documented before, but Allura…”

“Has a way of accomplishing the possible,” Lance offers when Coran’s eyes grow distant, bittersweet.

“Yes,” agrees Coran. Something proud, something sombre, “That she did.”

***

Lance practices often, following Coran’s guidance. Even Romelle drops by at Coran’s request, eager to show someone the ropes.

“In the colony, we had little need to shift as our ancestors had. Our only home had been there, tucked away in a corner of the universe. We understood little of the outside world except what Lotor brought us. Even so, it was an ability we never lost. When you have mastered it, it’s like walking. It becomes natural. To some more than others,” she says, a surprisingly patient teacher. He wonders where this side of her was when she was trying to get him to teach her to pilot. “You may be the ‘others’! But that okay. My… my brother Bandor was the same.”

For such a bright supernova of a person, it is easy to forget that, like Coran, Romelle has been touched by grief. And grief again.

“You strike me as an adaptable person, pointy chin. Like rivers and oceans, it has made you you. I have full confidence in your abilities. And if Allura were here.” She smiles, and it is pain, but beauty. A flower unfurling in the wake of a storm. “I know she would say the same.”

***

He finds himself slipping into other forms like a glove. It becomes easier, a swifter motion just as Romelle had said.

It’s freeing, in a way. To walk as something so slightly adjacent to him. A Lance of another life. Altean, balmeran, olkari, puigian, anything he can think of.

He loves being Plaxum’s species the most. A mer. Beneath the waves, it feels like coming home. He’s a missile underwater, swimming loops around coral.

Dreams really do come true.

***

There’s something about transforming that pulls him that much closer to Allura. Her quintessence sings to him, and his skin dances. He feels alive as he hasn’t in a long time.

Happier maybe. Or that much closer to it.

He wishes he could take a photo of Keith the second he catches sight of Lance, a good extra foot on him, and purple as a plum.

“So this is a… thing,” says Keith eventually. And what an observation that is. Lance explains.

“Don’t let Hunk catch you like this,” is Keith’s response, a hint of tired amusement, “He’ll call you Galra Lance and never stop.”

***

It starts with him shifting into an unilu. He needs the extra hands. Lance doesn’t realise the gender he’d chosen until Coran points it out offhandedly. Now, Lance knows that not every species is going to be quite so clear cut as biologically male or female. Some have more some have less. Some won’t even know what the word gender means. He has experienced a taste of the universe. He knows how vast and diverse it is. When shapeshifting into a species like that, it makes sense his gender isn’t something he’d retain.

Female. He’d made himself into a female unilu. It was a matter of size and facial shape. Nothing too strange, no stranger than his body shifting into a skin it wasn’t born into, but noticeable enough.

And isn’t that something.

***

It’s out of curiosity he tries the same as a human. Curiosity and nothing more. Just because he can. Really. Honest.

Lance half expects his girl!sona would just be a carbon copy of Rachel with the added blue scales residing beneath his eyes. But that isn’t who he sees in the mirror.

He sees. Well, he sees himself.

Herself.

She looks, feels, kind of pretty. Which makes sense. She’s Lance. Of course she looks great. Goes without saying.

Lance’s lip twitches.

***

So. So maybe he throws on the form again. And again. And again. Maybe a little more than he does with any alien species. But can you blame him? He’s just found out he has a free trial at being a girl so quiznack if he isn’t going to try it out.

Her hair is long. Her hair is short. She pulls off both looks well, she thinks. Being a girl is kind of awesome, actually.

It’s not always the case. Sometimes it just isn’t right. But others? Sometimes he finds himself slipping into her without realising it. It’s just what feels right to her in the moment.

There’s something nice about strangers using ‘she’ and ‘her’ and they don’t know. They don’t know. Something in her bubbles, giddy, they don’t know.

But Lance’s family do. Pidge does.

They look at Lance—now once again a boy—and hum, thoughtful, considering.

“Are you are girl?” they ask. Pidge does not beat around the bush. It throws Lance through enough loops to put him in a spiral.

“No”, says Lance. But for some reason that doesn’t sound quite right. “I mean. I’m not always. But—”

“You are sometimes?”

“I guess. But it’s just shapeshifting. I’m not actually—” Lance trails off, lost. “Am I?”

“Do you want to be?” Pidge asks, and huh. Does he want to be? Is it really that simple? He’s always seen himself as a guy, and had no problems with that. But.

Well.

“… Maybe. Maybe sometimes.”

Pidge grins, wild and victorious. “Welcome to the club.”

(Something in his chest feels lighter. There’s a cavern, because it has made its mark and stayed. That has not changed. But this is this.

How wonderful it is to find the answers to secrets within oneself. He could have lived his whole life without knowing, a part locked away without him ever knowing there was a lock. But now, how could he?

It’s like he’s no longer holding in a breath.)

***

Pidge later tells him it’s criminally unfair he can change his body on a whim. They are fine with she, they are, but they are them. Sometimes she is just too much she to match their they.

Lance wonders how much Allura managed to see him. He remembers how close they became, how she became someone he’d call a best friend, then a lover. How she perceived him better than most throughout it all. Looked to him and saw greatness where he, despite wanting to be so much more, only saw failure. He wishes he knew what she saw when she looked at him. The person he was. Is. Lance.

If she knew what these markings have done for him. Did she know?

She can’t have done. Lance didn’t even know.

(But if she had—

It’s not like Lance can ask.)

***

Allura comes back.

She descends like a shooting star, the blinding light of an angel’s fall. She falls home and it is at home she stays. Days are bliss. A dream Lance dare not wake from.

“You’re not dreaming,” she tells him, soft, and kind, but aching, “I’m here. I won’t leave again. My duty to revive the universe is fulfilled. I’m here to live. And I chose to live with you.”

He kisses the words from her lips, blissfully sweet. She more than happily complies.

“I never meant to hurt you this much.”

“You’re here now,” Lance says, and it sounds so beautiful spoken out loud like this. How long he’s dreamed for such a moment. “That’s all that matters. We can move forwards together.”

This is their start.

***

It takes a while. But she tells Allura.

Allura kisses her senselessly. Lance loves it.

“Though I can’t take credit for this being my intention, I’m glad you learned more of yourself.” Allura’s fondness is an ocean she could drown in. “I love the person you are.”

“Yeah?”

Allura’s hand trails Lance’s ear. “Yes. Very much so. It’s an added bonus that I managed fix your ears. You have tried an Altean form, right?”

Lance jolts. “Allura!” she protests, a little put out. “What’s wrong with my ears?”

“Nothing,“ she says, warm and amused. “Nothing at all. I find that they have grown on me greatly. They’re cute. Just like the rest of my girlfriend.”

Oh. Girlfriend.

Her heart is full.

[jam-packed]

thank god im not a journalist cus the amount of eye contact would kill me

[iamthepulta]

wait no please explain mineral processing!!!

I gasped in delight at the ask, haha. I love mineral processing.

Mineral processing is the theory of economically getting your desired element out of whatever it naturally comes in. So Li out of spodumene, or Cu out of chalcopyrite. It's usually split into hydrometallurgy and pyrometallurgy (liquid chemistry and melting the fuck out of it, respectively), and often taught as hard rock extraction, but you need it for Every Element, really. So you can also focus on extracting phosphates, or nitrates, or uranium! It's chemistry++~

Personally, I know the most about copper extraction and my focus is on hydrometallurgy/geometallurgy, although pyrometallurgy is near to my heart. Copper is coincidentally a really good example of how the two work because it comes as so many natural minerals. (Further explanations under the cut...)

So for copper minerals! You have a whole slew of oxides and sulfides. They occur in different part of your orebodies under different states of oxidation/sulfidation. Take Chrysocolla, Malachite, Chalcocite, and Chalcopyrite. (Cu-silicate)(an oxide), (Cu-carbonate)(an oxide), (Cu-Sulfide), and (Cu-Fe-Sulfide).

Mines usually use hydrometallurgy for oxides by sticking them in a leach heap and pouring sulfuric acid over the whole thing. The acid selectively picks up the Cu ion from silicates and carbonates, leaving the primary tetrahedra alone. The sulfides can work with this chemistry if the mineral's comfort zone is outside of the current conditions (Chalcocite does leach, but usually leaves a Cu ion in the structure as CuS) but minerals like Chalcopyrite are very poor leachers because the outer rim of ions are ripped away, leaving a somewhat-hypothetical "passive layer" of Fe/S that won't react with the acid. So if you have a mine with a lot of Chalcopyrite, you'll be leaving money on the table unless you do something.

So people use pyrometallurgy! Which is what we've been using since the Bronze Age, really. You crush the rock to micrometer grains, use the hydrophobic properties of sulfur to "float" the sulfides in water, then send all of it to the smelter and melt the shit out of it, while adding particular chemicals and minerals to enhance copper recovery while suppressing sulfides you don't want, like sphalerite and galena.

It's REALLY cool. I'm biased of course, but I absolutely love the whole cycle. xD Being in mineral processing also gets you on the backside of geopolitics because you're the only person who understands how to GET things and WHERE to get them and why it's not as simple as pulling Cu out of the ground.

Feel free to ask questions!! I love processing so much, and mining in general, even though I'm only a master's student.

((And NO STUPID QUESTIONS. The mining industry is a goddamn black box DO NOT feel bad if you don't know what stuff means or formulas, or processes. I swear I learn one new word a week. They also have fifty names for everything too because 50 names are always better than 1. 👍)

[shoot-i-messed-up]

sketch for my centenarian SuperLantern AU… might color + line later

[corys-nsp-fixation]

Can't remember how exactly I started thinking about this but I started thinking about NSP Fallout as per usual and how all the people born after the nuke would feel so desensitized to and normalize violence first talk later almost constantly and how that'd affect them on several different levels [separating here cause idk how much violence talk I'll get into but I'm at like gon a be talking about fictional violence]

I already think about the small genetic adaptations/differences they probably have but the ruthless violence and how quick to shoot it probably is for them. How that was either drilled into them while they were raised or observed for survival

So, while thinking about this I have an idea I'm probably gonna make something either just for me or gonna post it somewhere that isn't here but it's a video idea to the chorus of "Weapons In My Pocket" by Nico & Chelsea with at the very least Nick, Max, and Laura

Why's nsp scp laura here? It's cause this would be my crossover au I mentioned like once before here that I still need to rework cause that was from like 2 yrs ago-

However, moving on, they are at least 3 who were wasteland born and strictly wasteland born. Yes there are more, (I know, I've seen nsp fallout several times), but these 3 are main cast so them.

Max. Bounty hunter. In my hc backstory for him and just general hc revolving him is that out of both his job and self preservation, dishing out bullets and taking care of others is the way to survive. Peace? What are you? Someone that wants death? It'd never work, it's either you kill them or they'll eventually kill you. Allies are different however first meeting a future ally you know for a fact his first reaction is to threaten them and talk while he's got the advantage.

Laura. Due to shit that's happened to her violence is the way to keep herself alive, her self preservation is high and she'd rather not loose her other eye. Closest she came to death, and several other times as well. Violence is her way of staying safe. It keeps her safe and it keeps her friends safe.

And Nick it depends on what hc is getting applied to him, there's a couple. [1. Nick picking up normalized violence due to traveling from different towns and everywhere. Not that he's the violent one but it's normal to him due to exposure.] {2. Ex Enclave Nick and him having been in The Enclave means so much but in short they'd drill it into you to be armed at all times and leave no man standing if necessary. Which it would be in their eyes if the situation called for it in the first place.}

NewScapePro Fallout my beloved I have too many thoughts about you and think way too much about your world and people in said world….It will happen again

[clumsypuppy]

footnotes arent enough I need you to talk to me like im fucking Amelia Bedelia

[freezegirl]

vijay 'vi' nadeer (m.anish d.ayal) never thought that his life would end up the way that it did. he thought he'd end up becoming a doctor, or take over his dad's architecture business after he passed away due to a heart attack.

(indeed, vijay never knew that his dad had hydrokinetic abilities and that he had passed those onto his oldest sister, nor did vijay know that his dad was the reason that said oldest sister went to sky high and sky u at all.)

instead, his mom - sunjina, more commonly known as sunny, due to her bright and warm personality - got killed during an alien invasion in new york city on the day of her birthday and his older sister - eladevi, who always insisted on being called 'ellen' - developed a burning hatred of extraterrestrials and those with powers, innate or bestowed, to the point where she strongarmed him into a mutual promise: should either of them ever turn into something heinous, the other one would take them out, no hesitation.

they only have each other, ellen had said, especially because their oldest sister, saraswati, left home, got married to evander goossens and never returned. not even for the cremation of either of her parents.

(estranged doesn't even begin to cover it.)

shortly afterwards, vijay's own innate abilities kicked in after he drank from a contaminated water supply. he spent seven months inside a cocoon of, seemingly, his own making.

when he finally managed to break out of there, he found himself transformed. he found himself lost in a world that looked familiar, sure, but that he didn't recognize anymore, gifted with powers he didn't know what to do with, trapped at his own family's estate, a canary in a gilded cage.

superhuman reflexes. anticipation, some called it. vijay himself prefers the term reactive adaption, if nothing else.

his older sister had always been clever. had always been ambitious. ambitchous, she always called herself, winking. though it didn't come as a shock that she'd clawed her way up and became a senator, and head of the finance committee, it did come as a shock that during those seven months, her burning hatred for those with powers grew to the point where she spearheaded a shortlived 'humans first' movement and sent a squadron after her closest relative to take him out.

in the end, the old adage remains true: if you want something done properly, you must do it yourself.

the squadron could not take him out. so ellen did. she shot him point blank and pushed him out of a helicopter and into the ocean where he once again became entrapped in a husk.

tragically, ellen lost her life too when an explosion went off in her workplace a few hours later. (the public doesn't know that the cause for the explosion was not a bomb but an enhanced individual, however; the very same man that helmed the aforementioned squadron that ellen sent after her brother.)

days later, esther bank suited up in order to pull vijay out of the ocean after penthesilea powers got a call about 'something weird' down there. esther and her team took him back to the nadeer residence. once there, on solid ground, vijay freed himself from yet another cocoon, and he realized that he couldn't, in good conscience, remain here anymore.

the place was tainted.

too many dark memories overshadowed the good ones.

so he sold his estate as quickly as he could, took the cash and took on penthesilea's offer of teaching the young and the gifted at skybourne.

it took him a moment to find his stride but once he did, he found that he actually quite liked working with teenagers and young adults. khione goossens even went as far as to say he's pretty much one of her favorite teachers. hopefully he can put in the work so he becomes her favorite uncle, too. she's already his favorite niece. funnily enough, her demeanor reminds vijay a lot of his own mom, despite the fact that khione has never met her.

during his free-time, vijay loves to draw and is working towards getting his pilot license. he always liked flying to far-off places and he won't let his older sister tarnish that.

his claustrophobia and thalassophobia, however, are going to be a bigger hurdles to overcome. he probably needs therapy for that. probably. maybe. potentially. even so, there are other people who need help more than he does; he can hold off for a little while longer.

aside from that, he also spends his time trying to figure out how he's going to deal with his oldest sister and his brother in law, as well as getting up to speed in regards to who the most important people in khione's life are.