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With more and more Ao3 authors restricting their works to the archive (due to AI scraping), they're going to be losing guest interaction. And probably generally feeling down because. You know. AI is stealing their hard work.

So! Now is a great time to stop by your favorite authors/stories and drop them some comments! They really appreciate it!

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let’s do something unethical together, just the two of us. for fun.

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by roozengaarden

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Metroid Fusion tribute

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req'd by @ladyphlogiston

on it boss o7

text: Reject depression become half goat

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have a goat! you deserve it!

via chevre_toy_miniature

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Did you guys know that Gary Numan did a rendition of "Trois Gymnopedies" and it's beautiful!?

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Milestone check! "Prussian Blue" had just reached 2,200 hits!

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I found out about this recently and have read through to the most recent update, I love your Adam and samus!

The way you describe being in a digital body as a human is very good , and the small details about samus like collecting small things or the way she prefers to dress are very nice. :D

SableGear0: Thanks so much! Always nice to hear someone enjoys my work. Electrochromic is kind if a conglomeration point for a lot of my headcanons about these two, I'm glad the ideas are connecting with people.

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fanart of Prussian Blue

to @sablegear0

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Species Spotlight: Chelosian

A breakdown and reference for my Chelosian original species.

Chelosians are a reptilian bipedal sapient species that loosely resemble ceratopsian dinosaurs or turtles. They have short-beaked faces with versatile teeth in the rear of the mouth. Male age-morphs develop short tusks, combat claws on thumbs and hallux (big toe), spines on upper limbs and nape, and loose wattles on the neck; these traits are holdovers from ancestor species where males competed in intraspecific combat during breeding seasons. Female age-morphs are larger overall and develop ornamental frills and noticeable fat deposits in their torso and tail. Their legs are plantigrade, their hands and feet have 5 digits with claws and minor webbing. Their hallux is slightly opposable. Their tails reach to the knees or further but do not touch ground. They are used for communication and calorie storage but are not prehensile. Scales on the back are thickly keratinized and form a flexible shell-like surface in adults. For male-morphs, this shell is studded with spines. Scale colours range from reds through to brown into greens. Distinct patterning is rare but mottled colouring is common, scale colours will sometimes shift as an individual transitions between sex morphs.

Chelosians are sequential hermaphrodites. Chelosians are “male-morph” upon reaching sexual maturity and remain so for ~50 cycles before transitioning to “female-morph” stage and undergoing development of different secondary sexual characteristics, shedding tusks and growing cartilaginous frills. They remain fecund for another 40-60 cycles before entering a geriatric maturity stage. They have no cultural basis for sex-assigned or gender identities, instead a Chelosian’s social identity is closer to an age-related prescribed role. They prefer neutral or neo-pronouns when speaking in Galactic Standard, and have age- and relation-determined pronouns/honourifics in their native Cheloan.

Chelosians are omnivorous and semi-warm-blooded, allowing them to survive most in climates in the known habitable range, though they tend to favour temperate or warmer habitats. Chelosians have an unusual ability to ‘throttle’ their metabolism, easily adapting to a lower calorie intake or colder climate without suffering starvation or torpor. Due to this quirk, they are also able to sequester and excrete most common pollutants and heavy metals, allowing them to work in environments hazardous to many other species. As a result, many Chelosians can be found in hazardous materials or maintenance work positions and are also often among the “founder” populations of new space station habitats.

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Some slightly more whimsical Castilla content for you bc I wanted to draw more cute goat lady. In her daily life she likes to dress pretty femme, but only for her own satisfaction. She gets prickly when other people lean too hard on the fact that she's cute.

Poses from Adorka Stock, limited palette "Wherever She Goes" from Colorpod.

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"Prussian Blue" broke 2000 hits on Ao3! Thank-you to all my readers and long-time hangers-on ^.^;

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AU Lore Spotlight: The Horus Rebellion

I've made vague and indirect reference to this event, so I figure as I try to get back into the swing of writing this world, I should do a mini lore-dive into my headcanons surrounding the infamous Horus Rebellion.

First, the canon and canon-adjacent information: The event was first (and only once) teased in canon in Metroid Prime 3: Corruption. A GF Marine trooper posits idly in conversation that the Phazon Crisis might be worse than "the Horus Rebellion," which was the last time Admiral Dane had scrambled such an impressive number of fighter vessels. In unused scans, we have the name of a significant battle, "The Battle of Horus IV," but little other information. Notably this cut lore entry also mentions Aurora Unit 313's contribution to this battle (whether alongside or in place of Admiral Dane is unclear), and its penchant for violent behaviour. I think it's interesting that point was cut out, the foreknowledge that 313 had a bit of a mean streak could have added some nice context to its role near the end of Corruption. But I digress.

Now, my take. As mentioned in the first wikitroid article linked above, the "Horus Rebellion" is almost certainly a reference to the Warhammer 40,000 "Horus Heresy", a major event in the 40k canon. Now despite living with some Warhammer nerds and having watched a couple lore videos about the Horus Heresy, I could not tell you the first thing about it. So my take on this event will not be influenced by the obvious reference material. Sorry WH fans, it's just not my thang.

Instead, my version of this is more influenced by my Eclipse Phase experience, as is a lot of Electrochromic's AU lore. In EP, since it's a gritty-ish Cyberpunk setting, corporations rule the world(s) in various capacities. Corpos wield a huge amount of power and control a lot of settlements, including spaceborne habitats. This is the jumping-off point for my version of the Horus Rebellion.

In "Iron and Sulfur" I use the phrase "sovereign-corporate habitat" to describe Kypros. This is exactly what it sounds like; a habitat owned and operated by a corporation, considered a sovereign micro-state unto itself. These habs may be subject to the planetary law of the corporation's homeworld, but generally they exist outside any such government organizations (usually for slightly unscrupulous business reasons) and run under their own internal corporate system of law. Kind of like a "company town" on steroids, and in space. Before the Horus Rebellion, the Galactic Federation was relatively hands-off with regard to sovereign-corporate habs, trusting the local or planetary governments to maintain peace and equity.

Horus Star Corporation was a materials processing and weapons manufacturing corp that had claimed a corner of Federated space for itself. Horus SC was allowed to operate freely, as its business was a boon to the rapidly-developing Federation military at the time. When a newly-formed Federation colony began encroaching on territory that Horus SC claimed was theirs, the corporation went on the offensive and outright attacked the fledgling Federation colony. This of course meant the GF Marine Corps had to intervene.

Being a weapons manufacturing business, the Horus private troops were startlingly well-armed, and the attack on the GF colony was a massacre. However, the GFMC had the advantage of numbers, and the counterattack against the Horus forces was also a slaughter. The amount of military might leveled against Horus was staggering for a conflict of such relatively small scale. By necessity, as the corporate force was well-equipped and tenacious. But the cultural memory of the "Horus Rebellion" remains a dark and bloody one that echoes into the present of the AU's timeline.

This was the root of Samus's concern over accidentally drawing the Federation to Kypros. Since the Horus Rebellion, the Galactic Federation has taken a much tougher stance on sovereign-corporate habs, outlawing them altogether in territories close to Daiban and other centers of power. Company-funded habitats are required to have an (often strict) oversight board or supervisor that reports to the nearest branch of GF government, and all station security equipment is heavily regulated, if security is not provided directly by a GF military base nearby or on-site. Since Kypros is outside Federated space, they are not subject to such harsh scrutiny or regulation. But it would be easy for a sufficiently motivated officer to justify an attempt to "subdue" or shut down such a station if it proved an obstacle to military operations in the area.

Hence why Samus was so afraid of Fuja appearing at Kypros. She wasn't just afraid for her own or Adam's safety, but for the safety of the station as a whole; her old friend Ghor, and Helena and the Twins who she had newly come to know, along with the innocent mining staff who would have no idea why their station was suddenly under attack. Thankfully, as clarified in a previous ask, despite her temper, Fuja knew better than to engage here. Among other confounding factors, another instance of a Federation fleet stomping a corporate hab into paste would not look good. Although Admiral Dane remains a well-respected officer despite his participation, neither side of the Rebellion is remembered kindly by history, so many people - officers, freelancers, and corpos alike - err on the side of caution when faced with the potential for such conflicts.