#Biology is outdated

[coochiequeens]

As someone from Connecticut, I knew as soon as I saw Yale my reaction would be an eyeroll.

By Jennifer Lahl May 13, 2025

About the Author

Jennifer Lahl (MA, BSN, RN) is the founder of The Center for Bioethics and Culture. She has produced several important documentaries that can be viewed for free on YouTube. Follow Jennifer on X: @JenniferLahl

At some of the most prestigious universities in the world, ideas once confined to fringe online communities and personal blogs are now published in academic journals and treated as legitimate scholarship. These aren’t just strange thought experiments—they’re full-blown efforts to “queer��� biology, reimagine pregnancy without women, and reshape medical ethics in ways that downplay the health of unborn children. What used to sound like satire is now shaping how doctors are trained and how healthcare is delivered.

I work in reproductive technology, so I read a lot of research on fertility and pregnancy. Most of it is scientific and straightforward. But lately, I’ve been seeing more and more papers that ignore biology entirely in favor of ideology. I wrote previously about one such paper that argued we should question our desire for “normal fetal outcomes” during pregnancy—especially when the pregnant person is taking testosterone as part of a gender transition. The authors actually suggested that helping people have healthy babies might be too focused on “normative bodies,” and that staying on high doses of testosterone while pregnant is fine. It was unscientific and dangerous.

But then I came across a paper that took things even further.

It’s called “Transfeminist Pregnancy: Reproductive Speculation, Genre, and Desire,” written by Carlo Sariego, a Ph.D. candidate in Yale’s joint program in Sociology and Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. Sariego, who uses they/them pronouns, does research exploring gender, sexuality, medicine, and science from a sociological point of view. Sariego’s dissertation, titled “Repro Futures: Transgender Reproductive Politics, Justice, and Time in the United States,” is about dismantling the idea of pregnancy itself.

In this particular paper, Sariego argues that pregnancy isn’t just something that happens to female bodies, and that trans women—biological males—can also “experience” pregnancy through three ideas: transition, performance, and labor. Sariego claims that only by reimagining pregnancy through a “transfeminist” lens can we move beyond outdated ideas rooted in biology.

It may sound bizarre—and it is—but this kind of thinking is becoming more common in academic circles. And because these ideas are starting to affect real-world medicine and policy, they need to be taken seriously—and challenged.

Let’s take a closer look.

The paper argues that “only a transfeminist re-theorisation of pregnancy can reach meaningfully beyond bodily gestation,” and laments that current research on “trans pregnancies” has focused too heavily on trans men and nonbinary individuals “to the detriment of the fertile experiences of trans women.” Sariego asserts that “pregnancy need not imply a cis body,” and proposes that “pregnancy can potentially establish a shared ground between trans and cis women.” In short, the paper claims that men can participate in pregnancy conceptually through three categories: transition, performance, and labor.

This thesis directly challenges basic biology and raises obvious questions about how these ideas could be applied in any real medical setting. The entire paper is speculative and theoretical, making it hard to pin down what exactly Sariego is proposing—or how it might help a physician provide better care to a pregnant patient. Sariego’s challenge to the biological basis of pregnancy ignores the fact that those biological realities form the foundation for how we define women in both medicine and law—and for how we care for pregnant women and their unborn children.

Even more concerning is the way Sariego misrepresents existing legal language to support their argument. For example, in the paper’s introduction, Sariego cites Texas House Bill 2690 and claims it defines a woman as “an individual with a uterus, regardless of any gender identity.” But that’s not what the bill actually says.

Here’s the full definition from HB 2690, The Woman and Child Safety Act:

“Woman” means an individual whose biological sex is female, including an individual with XX chromosomes and an individual with a uterus, regardless of any gender identity that the individual attempts to assert or claim.

Sariego’s misrepresentation of the bill by inappropriately truncating the definition distorts the legislative context and weakens its perceived credibility. It’s also worth noting that HB 2690, which was never passed, aimed to criminalize abortion-inducing medication. That has nothing to do with reimagining who can get pregnant. Since abortion can only be performed on pregnant women, the bill’s relevance to Sariego’s argument is questionable at best.

No matter where you stand on abortion, this bill has nothing to do with so-called “trans pregnancies.” Misrepresenting it doesn’t help the argument—it just makes the reader less likely to trust the author’s conclusions.

From there, Sariego lays out the “problem” as they/them see it: that reproductive medicine is “stuck,” in part, because “reproductive science and medicine are shaped by rigid gender roles” and that transgender pregnancies are underexplored—especially when it comes to trans women. Sariego claims that “anti-trans and gender-critical feminists use reproduction to argue for a ‘sex-based’ theory of pregnancy.”

But might that be because pregnancy is sex-based? It requires a female to produce an egg and a male to produce sperm. There’s no way around that. Yet Sariego insists we should reject the idea that “the view that pregnancy is exclusive to female bodies.”

To support this view, the paper divides pregnancy into three “sub-genres”—transition, performance, and labor—meant to help us reimagine pregnancy “beyond the cis/trans divide.” But these categories are abstract, ideological, and disconnected from biology. They don’t help us understand how to better care for patients. They simply shift focus away from evidence-based medicine and toward ideological storytelling.

Still, Sariego structures the paper around these three categories. So let’s take a closer look at each of them—transition, performance, and labor—to understand what they’re really arguing, and why these claims fall apart under scrutiny.

Transition

Sariego frames gender transition as analogous to pregnancy, suggesting that both involve bodily change, transformation, and the emergence of new possibilities. In this view, pregnancy and gender transition create solidarity between cis women and trans women because both undergo what Sariego calls a “process of becoming.”

See the rest of the article

[crypticsketchpad]

good lird this has been in my drafts for over a year but what EVER. heres some more msm spec bio (first part of this can be found here)

i'd like to redo this at some point, but i like the concepts overall (ive actually already redone the common and rare versions buuuuut i'll wait to share them lmao)

[kaythefloppa]

Praying to god that Wild Kratts has an episode centered around gharials because I'm still not over how they referred to them as crocodiles (of which they are in the same order, but not species) and resulted in one of the most confusing (yet aesthetically pleasing) tidbits of lore involving the Creature Power Suits, and I can't be the only one who had to do extensive research on gharials for myself right?

[blackvahana]

Hey, love your blog! I was wondering if you could tell me a bit about the mindscape, headspace, etc. is it a place in the astral or somewhere in between, and does it count as astral work/travel to go there. Thankyou :))

Hi, thank you!

I'll answer a bit out of order for a reason... I wouldn't count it as astral work/etc, I personally classify is under "mindwalking".

It's rough, in my experience basically every plane including this one is on a spectrum between Material and Mental. Every one is... both, at least if you can traverse it, which makes things confusing. However, just because both the ocean and the rain are experiences of "being in water", that doesn't make differentiating them unimportant - likewise just because technically even the physical plane is partly mental, that doesn't mean differentiating astral and mental are no longer important.

I answer classifications first mostly because I think its important that astral projection/etc is "Astral" not "mindspace" projection, "astral" is a term used for specific types of spaces in the way "physical" is. If "astral" and "mental" work were to be classified as the same thing, genuinely we may as well class "physical" things as "mental" too. None of that is saying you're (insert some negative word here) for asking about them, specifically Im lingering on it because the classification in itself is the biggest source of definitive lines drawn between things.

I'll say it this way: I guess its like asking about... Is a mountain a part of a valley? No. There is definitely a part where they are indistinguishable - but mountain climbers climb mountains, rivers settle in valleys, so while you can walk the line between these two things if youre aiming for Astral work (say: mountain climbing) youre not doing the same thing as mindwalking (say: river settling in a valley).

All that out of the way, I absolutely can tell you about those things in my experience. Mindspaces/headspaces (the only distinction I draw between terms is headspace is, in my experienced, used for systems and... as much as I know plurality comes about through many means, I am actually very big on medical terms being left to those that have medical disorders. Is headspace as much a medical term as system is? no, but Id rather stay out of it and just leave that term alone personally) (thats to say theyre likely similar or the same, but I cant talk on what gets called a headspace).

Mindspaces are complicated. They're essentially heavily rooted in the mental, which is to say the elemental mental... highly influenced by thought, extensions of self, mental is hard to define. That said, as I said earlier, theres places where mental and Astral blur. I actually have a portal in my mindspace to a place in Astral Mongolia, but that... involves weaving reality in... well. ok. TLDR its currently not super connected because it involves stitching a hole from unreality (not. nothingness, not nonreality) into reality, which is loosely like birthing something from nothing - but possible given the ties between them

Mindwalking does involve quite a few sort of... similar skills to AP and Astral work though. Not just that, but it shares similarities on a surface level IE you can meet spirits there as well as people you know irl, and so on. It is.... highly programmable

I think - on that note - a quick detour is important. The mental can be programmed to be incredibly realistic or absolute nothingness. Reality Shifting in all my experience - including creating and going into an "alternate reality" out of my control with my husband - is a Mental function. Dreams (everything from nonsensical flashes of memories, to weird unlucid adventures, to nightmares, to lucid dreaming) are Mental functions, "alternate realities" shifted into with RS, mindspaces, as well as autonomous other people/servitors/i-cant-stand-the-word-tulpa-but-thats-what-it-is-colloquiallys, manifestations of memories, visions/autovisions, as well as what Ive had in two mindspaces now, portals to other things including the astral, are all mental things... And so with that complexity hopefully its more understood when i say that one can go to the mindspace like they can project

its a different process but can be done with the same process, if that makes sense. You can lie down and get into the void state or whatever and "project" into the mental. That makes it complicated and hard to differentiate - if youre treating them as the same. if youre not its much easier to navigate. So, TLDR: Mindspace is a function of the mental where one creates a mental space that is sustained outside their image conjuring (if you put a book down in the mindspace and forget, it should still be there. if you put a book down in imagination while youre imagining youre in a place, it shouldnt still be there when you get back - mindspace is a stable mental space, imagination is a simulation of a space. technically both are simulations but mindspace becomes passively simulated and imagination is actively simulated), and theres a difference between astral and mental work (mindwalking is a type of mental work), but they do get mixed up and arent quite fully separate in many ways

[positron2399]

an even older Brunniee beta design.

The Brunniee are one of the sophont species in a (probably) upcoming manga panel style web comic called "Whispers in the Stars." Which is a story that revolves around a man named Delroy Lawrence Matthews Jr. after he finds himself a 2ish meters tall, crystalline quasi-Superman and guardian of the species he dubbed "Kehhar" and "Ven" respectively.

[gay-artificer]

Okay I might not have anyone here whos able to contribute to this question but, in the past, I have used 'Hermaphrodite" as a purely scientific word, with heavy stressing that it is not to be confused with the definition of intersex or used to describe actual human beings under any circumstances. This is in part because I've never actually found a good term to replace it, as a lot of suggested terms are... unfitting or somewhat mismatched in a strictly scientific/biological sense. A lot of the suggested terms from more worldbuilding-focused individuals are used more (or strictly) for plants, or at least in 99% of contexts tend to be used for plants or describe slightly more specific things than just "Animal with both sexual systems at once." Plants as a whole have like... god, like ten different terms for various sexual setups because they can be stupidly complicated in a way that you just aren't likely to see with most animals, which tend to be more simplistic (at least slightly, lmao). There's also the slightly more niche issue that a lot of suggested alternatives address the topic from the strict goal of 'replace the word' and thus haven't yet spread to cover some of the specific forms that can apply too, although this would probably be a pretty easy fix if everyone can agree on a term, but at least as it is I still seems like everyone is split 5 different ways on which to use. In terms of fiction/casual use I've generally been defaulting to duel-sexed, which isn't an actual used term as far as I know, just because its pretty self descriptive and also wouldn't have some fringe specific scientific use- which is an issue I'd think you'd only really be bothered by if you were dipped in a lot of discussions about fringe animal biology- which is where I think a lot of suggestions from individuals more on the intersex activism side tend to fall when the terms they raise clash against niche situational biology things. Ive also used non-gonochoristic which is both clunkier and less easily picked up by less familiar individuals, but is also basically strictly 'animal' in use. Recently I've seen cosexual, which admittedly I seemed to have missed because yet again its a term where 99% of its use is isolated to plants, although it seems like there is a handful of uses cases that applied it specifically to animals (But still ultimately fall back on the other term in order to clarify the specifics). At least in terms of recent suggestions its probably the one I think would be most likely to pick up traction as a replacement, but its definitely still mired in the problematic terminology (In that basically everything I've seen use it only commits to using it alongside the other term, rather than attempt to replace it) and also still heavily plant related. Although not to the degrees of some of the popular suggestions like 'monoecious' which is a fairly common and well known word- but its specific relationship with other plant terminology makes it feel ill-fitted for the role when its not going to mixed with plant bullshit. Seriously look at this:

I've also seen bigenital suggested recently, which I frankly think is a much worse/weaker word both in terms of just, terminology and also its finer application. And then a handful of terms that just very blatantly have too much crossover with other things. Also a dozen other words that I've seen floating around over the years, but they definitely exist as mostly peoples personal suggestions/solutions and not ones with any real traction. It's a problem I've seen repeatedly brought up, but have yet to actually see any sort of formal correction take hold. And I think part of that is almost certainly a bit of a clash between nerds trying to maintain the specific definitions of things in an area where theres already a lot of confusing overlap, Activists who rightfully want get things changed but aren't clued in as hard to more niche scientific terminology concerns like "This is specifically for plants who have a specific type of reproduction system organization with their flowers, and thus doesn't quiet work for something that doesn't have multiple sets of genitals in different arrangements as most animals do" and well meaning scientists who want to avoid the word and try using alternatives but ultimately fall back on the one people know and that they know scientifically describes the thing they want to describe even if it also carries a historically negative connotation with it. Which is where I'm realizing I've kinda been sitting, because things really haven't shifted once you sit down and read the stuff that gets put out, and unlike some... other words its specific use case is a bit less easily swapped out with synonyms. So you just fall back in on the less ideal but accepted within the bubble youre working in term. So I guess the question is, has anyone here actually seen something make some ground past just sort of 'this would be a nice replacement'? I'd frankly love if I've just somehow missed a big shift in language in the scientific community, but so often I just see people claim that one term is the new standard when its like... standard in that its used heavily in botany, and there generally is a split between botany and zoology in terms of terminology that people would want to maintain. (God don't let anyone tell you 'male and female' are the only options or bring up that stupid 'its 1st grade biology' bullshit. The world is so stupidly complicated and this would not be an issue if it was so simple but unfortunately we need terminology for all the weird shit exclusively found in three species of cactus) Anyway, I typed this whole thing up kinda just to see if anyone else had yet more terms they've seen around or even used actually properly in a scientific paper, and its a whole mess thats been bothering me with specbio for years and at the end of typing this I'm honestly just hoping more that cosexed/cosexual catches on. I think it forms a nice trifecta with perisexed/intersexed/cosexed. And hey, maybe it has caught on more in the sex and gender side of things (let me know if so, if you happen to be more familiar with that) cause I certainly am more clued in to the non-human biology stuff which is where you get weird things one single species of rose has decided to do we now have to name. On a lighter note. God I hate plants. They give me headaches.

[charulein]

I really like real Sphene!!!!

But.

I cannot really take the villains seriously.

[saiph0]

Kalaiɔq | Symbol of the North

(Umada kalaiɔq)

The kalaiɔq is the primary symbol of the Y'mangi peoples of the north where it's primarily found, but it can also be found in small areas of northern Serdu and Kayouya. Kalaiɔq are large land animals that have been domesticated to be used as mounts, work animals, and war animals.

They are hardy, muscular creatures who are opportunistic generalists and are willing to eat a huge variety of meats and plants that they can get access to. They've been seen stealing carcasses from other predators.

In the wild, females live in large herds with their offspring while males live in slightly smaller bachelor herds. During mating season, the male and female herds loosely join together for a while before splitting off again. In mating season, females tend to choose their desired partner from the bachelor herd members.

Origination Note: The kalaiɔq was the animal that showed up in my original dream that I created Amatɔqa from! It was such a vivid dream and the creatures captured my attention so much that it really inspired me to create a world from it.

Minɔq'iyɔq

Dekada: Minɔqada (Of-Minɔqa)

Enpek'i: Dehanum (Live-birth)

Ewan: Uhedeme (Hard-toe front feet)

ɔqopa: Umba (Tusked)

Awume: Umada (Bulky tusked)

Amɔn: Umada kalaiɔq

[ratsbanes]

love continously learning that my biology teacher was very wrong and, in fact, uses offensive and outdated scientific terms.

[theoretically-questionable]

actually, regarding the "dude just duct tapes up a serious injury and moves on" phenomena:

one time when i was five or six, i overheard one relative telling another (exasperatedly) about my paternal grandad, who had apparently injured himself while maintaining his many-acre property, and very much just taped it up and kept going (he was fine).

and my immediate (again, five-years-old) thought was: well, that makes sense. tape's just like a large band-aid. and it keeps all the blood in, which is the big problem when you get cut: all the blood comes out and that's bad. what a sensible solution.

and it's really only now, in adulthood, that i look back and marvel on how the entire rest of the extended family missed the incredibly strong autistic traits of that granddad, all of his four sons, and (literally) every single one of *their* seven assorted children.

at least half of whom, to my knowledge, have injured themselves in some more-than-minor way and just gone "well, lets think about this like an abstract system" and cobbled together a solution that has horrified every non-autistic member of the family tree (and, it goes without saying, has been met with brief but genuine approval from all the autists that knew)

[tapestryundone]

reminded that i DO still need to finish the rest of my voice refs...

[beazt]

the “murder is bad and usually causes more problems than solutions” moral fixation within me vs the “that bitch (UHC ceo) contributed to the death of millions and financial ruin of millions more. that direct action was beautiful and has brought awareness to UHC’s chokehold on US healthcare. it’s knocked fear into insurance corporations and billionaires” cage match is forcing me to hold a little nuance and remorse for how much I wanna celebrate that assassination, but also, that particular CEO is near the top of my list of people that don’t deserve that remorse

I don’t have meaningful influence on the situation as a whole so im honestly just riding with it and enjoying the memes and thoroughly appreciating the revolutionary impacts of this and secretly hoping this makes medicaid more willing to just hit “approve” on my testosterone prescription without any fight in 9 days. I scheduled that appointment at the perfect time I think

I’ve been following and learning about how UHC in particular has its tendrils in fucking over and controlling every aspect of US healthcare — regardless of if you have any coverage with them— for at least 3 years now. you need to know that UHC directly employees over 10% of US physicians. they buy and own entire hospital networks, and the same for pharmacies. not just that, they are a pharmacy benefits manager— PBMs control the reimbursement to pharmacies when prescriptions are covered. and at least for independent pharmacies in particular, they charge fees for that reimbursement service. the fees apply to nearly all prescriptions, they frequently cost more than the reimbursement itself, and can be taken back months after the reimbursement. that’s a lot of why independent pharmacies struggle, many that have been open for decades are closing, newer ones don’t last

UHC as a corporation is probably THE singular most influential private entity contributing to how the US healthcare system is rapidly degrading from an already unlivable state, at least in my opinion. being strongly interested about health justice (and doing on-the-ground campaigning when feasible for me) I keep up with this stuff, even if only loosely during hard times. UHC is an entity I make a point to keep an eye on, honestly only overshadowed by keeping up with public entities such as Medicaid and Medicare and how their funding and operations fluctuate and are legislated

[identifying-deer-in-posts]

Right, so:

Intersex Deer

and just some variations. Obviously not a comprehensive list, only a few examples of how it can present in deer across species. Some of these sources contain images of dead animals (labeled DA) or outdated language for intersex conditions (OL)! Please keep that in mind before clicking the links.

First up, antlered does:

White-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus)

So put incredibly simply, all cervids (except for water deer) are capable of antler growth, as the stem cells that generate them are present even in females. However, in those cervids (except reindeer/caribou), those cells only activate with heightened testosterone. Usually only males can produce enough, but rarely, so can a female. Their antlers tend to be spindly and narrow, if they grow larger than spikes, and remain covered in velvet year-round. They rarely, if ever drop them, unlike their male counterparts, which regrow their antlers annually.

White-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus)

This is most commonly documented in members of the Odocoileus genus, such as these whitetails, and in the Capreolus genus, namely western roe deer. Like the doe above, these deer are typically capable of reproducing, and often behave like other females of their species, i.e. staying in female-only herds. Their heightened testosterone can be linked to hormonal imbalances, malformed or underdeveloped reproductive organs, or tumors/cysts on their ovaries. The latter occurs most often in older individuals, and has also been documented in elk, red deer, and moose (like this cow, which was spotted with a calf near Nome, Alaska).

Alaskan moose (Alces alces gigas)

High testosterone has even been documented in the aforementioned water deer, causing does to grow elongated fangs (DA, OL). These does, like females of other species with permanent velvet antlers, were still capable of producing offspring. While they were expected to exceed the standard weight for does, they were actually smaller.

However, not all antlered does can reproduce, and not all have permanent velvet. In extremely rare cases, their antlers can harden and shed. This leads to the next set of conditions, which unfortunately I don't have pictures for: visibly intersex animals, externally, internally, or both.

A vast majority of visibly intersex deer are discovered via hunting; therefore, intersex whitetails and roe deer (DA) are (still) the best studied. These deer can have any combination of sex organs, such as an individual with a vulva, cervix, testes, and more (DA, OL). Their antlers can be velvet or hardened, though they're often malformed. They may exhibit behaviors of both sexes, including breeding behaviors; while I couldn't find much regarding their reproductive ability, most are likely infertile. There's still a lot to study regarding these guys, especially in poorly-researched species like muntjacs, brockets, and hog deer.

Finally, the most common form of intersex in deer: cryptorchidism. This is a condition where one or both testicles don't descend properly, or are otherwise malformed. It causes male deer to grow wonky antlers, referred to as "cactus antlers," "Devil's antlers," and, for moose, velericorn antlers (also used for antlered cow moose). They shed them at odd times, and, like for this individual, they might even crumble away rather than pop off cleanly.

White-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) (OL)

These deer may have little interest in mating, scraping, self-urinating or other breeding behaviors due to a lack of testosterone, or even prefer the company of females year-round. They may look more feminine, like this elk found in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, which I believe to be a bull with cryptorchidism or another hormonal imbalance.

But this is just the tip of the iceberg. Like many animals, including humans, deer have so much variation in appearance, behavior, and yes, sexual characteristics. Even with strong dimorphism, biology is never binary.

[too-much-tma-stuff]

Finally Getting Help (pt 3)

first | last | Masterpost | Next

What Tim and Bruce found was completely ridiculous. It really wasn’t hard to find the Doctors Fenton’s website but it was ridiculous! It was outdated and gaudy with animations of cartoony ghosts everywhere. If it hadn’t been for how clear Danny was about his parents' names Tim would have skipped right over it. But when he got past the terrible website design and started reading it his stomach just dropped lower and lower.

The writing was clean and scientific though it couldn’t disguise the malicious delight they took in tearing the creatures they called ‘ghosts’ apart. Whatever these ghosts really were Danny had been internalizing this attitude about Himself for years! They also bragged about their weapons and their government contract. So whether that was true or not Danny hadn’t been lying or delusional, it was his parents. And regardless of what these ghosts actually were it was obvious they were supernatural so RR sent a link to the website to Zatana.

(link)

RR: What do you think?

Tana: Lol is this a joke?

RR: I wish, I know it looks like one but no, this is deadly serious.

Tana: Hang on

Red Robin put down his phone to give Zatana the time to read over the site and looked more into Maddy and Jack Fenton while she did. He found their graduation certificates, and pictures of them in college with what must have been a much younger Vlad. So they were actually doctors of some sort, they had their doctorate, though that didn’t exactly make it any less likely they had gone fully off the rails now.

His phone dinged and he picked it up to see one short message from Zatana.

Tana: I’m coming to the cave.

Tim sighed and put his phone back down, spinning his chair to face B who was hunched over the computer typing furiously. “Zatana is on her way, I asked for her opinion of the Fenton’s research and she must think it’s big.” He said as he dug out a domino mask.

“Hm,” B sounded and went to get his cowl. “Report?”

“The Doctors Fenton are doctors, they got their doctorates though I don’t know in what yet. They’ve been friends with Vlad since university and they certainly at least think they’re studying ghosts. Their website has articles on behaviours and biology, and how to hunt and hurt ghosts. They brag about a government contract.” Tim summarized. “You?”

“The Ghost Investigation Ward does exist and they are a government agency but they only seem to be active in the town of Amity Park and they’re so inept! It wasn’t hard to hack them, they’re trying to sound mysterious and a little dangerous talking about protecting humanity from invasions from other worlds but I don’t think they’re actually that competent,” Batman said with a scowl.

“The only reason we didn’t know about this was because we weren’t looking! And it’s possible Danny is right and they were jamming calls from Amity to the JL, but I have a terrible feeling what actually happened if that the call came through and someone heard them talking about ghosts and rogue government agencies, assumed it was a prank and blocked them,” Bruce said massaging his temples.

“Ah,” Tim said, his heart dropping at how plausible that sounded. Could they have saved Danny before, if they had taken that call seriously.

“And Vlad is the mayor of his town, there are articles about Danny fighting him in public. It seems like everyone knew their relationship was antagonistic at best and No One defended him. The GIW also listed him in their special thanks for helping fund them. I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s been using them as a tool to threaten and control Danny.” Batman said with cold fury. Tim took a deep breath, and exhaled slowly.

“We weren’t able to protect him, but we will avenge him. And we’ll keep him safe Now,” Tim reminded his father. Privately thinking that as soon as he could he was going to tell Jason about this so they could Really make sure Vlad never came near Danny again. An arrest just wasn’t strong enough for a man like that. He wasn’t going to tell Bruce that though, obviously.

The sound of the Zeta tube interrupted their moment as Zatana arrived, looking slightly more ruffled then she usually did. She must have really rushed here, which was a bit worrying.

“Zatana,” Batman greeted.

“Hello Batman, before we talk I need to check your wards.” She said already walking past them.

“Hm,” Batman sounded, making RR smile a little, how Batman made that sound mean so many different things always sort of amazed him.

“I need to check the ones on your home too. And I’d like to meet the boy you have under your care,” She said briskly.

“How did you know about the boy?” Batman asked gruffly.

“Lucky guess,” she said briskly, her hands glowed as she walked around the cave, making seemingly random gestures as if touching or pulling on invisible threads. None of the bats really understood magic so they left her to it. When she was done they let her up into the manner, she knew their identities already after all and she checked all the wards on the home very thoroughly, occasionally casting spells to reinforce them. They collected Dick and Damian trailing after them curiously as they went as well.

“Alright, can I meet the boy now?” She asked, turning towards Bruce who crossed his arms and puffed out his chest a bit.

“Not till you explain to us what’s going on,” He growled and Zatana looked over the curious stubborn faces surrounding her and sighed.

“Fine,” she allowed, resigned. She rubbed her temples as she looked around for a chair and sunk down into it. “So what the Fentons seem to be referring to as Ghosts are actually denizens of the Infinite Realms, the space in between every world and afterlife. Some of the beings there were once people who died but many aren’t. They’re also known to be very powerful and quite violent though thankfully not particularly interested in the living. The fact that the Government is apparently messing with something like this is very bad news.

“Constantine and I have been keeping half an eye on the situation in Amity Park but they had their own pair of Heroes, Phantom and Red Huntress, who seemed to have the situation well under control so we weren’t all that worried about it. We weren’t tracking the more human elements of the GIW and the Fentons,” She bit her lip and thought for a moment.

“When Tim sent me that website and I was made aware of those, that changed things. What’s worse is the photo the Fentons’ have of their family. Their son… we knew Phantom looked young but ghosts often stay at a younger age than they really are, with how powerful he was we assumed he was Old. But he looks exactly like the Fenton’s son. Did they not notice he was dead or…” She looked around at their faces, apparently getting her answer from their expressions.

“There have been rumours for a long time about a very rare and powerful sort of living dead, humans soaked in the pure energy of the infinite realms resulting in a still living ancient. It’s so rare that people usually think it’s a fairy tale but with the work Phantom’s parents do it makes a sick sort of sense. And what it means is that that boy you have stashed away is basically a baby God and we all have to be very careful.”

There was a heavy silence as they all processed what she was saying. “Are you… sure?” Tim asked, uncertainly.

“I won’t be till I meet him, but I’m as sure as I can be without that at the moment,” she said firmly.

Tim sighed and pulled out his phone. “Cas is with him, I’ll text her to see if she’s up to meeting you. If he’s that powerful we don’t want to push him right?” He asked as he typed out a text to Cas.

“Yes. Like I said he’s been acting as a hero in Amity, he seems like a good kid but I have no doubt in my mind if he’s pushed too far we could have a truly apocalyptic situation on our hands,” She said which made Tim swallow thickly.

His phone dinged and he checked it. “Danny is willing to meet you but he’s really tired so go easy on him and don’t stay long,” Tim relayed her message.

“Alright that’s fine, thank you. Show me the way please,” She requested.

Bruce took over, leaving the way. “We don’t want to overwhelm him, I think only I and Zatana should go in, with Cas still there since he seems to feel safe with her,” Bruce informed his children.

“Alright, just tell us everything soon!” Dick demanded and Bruce’s lips twitched up in just the suggestion of a smile as he nodded to them.

He took off his cowl, he wasn’t in his full uniform anyway and he didn’t want to scare Danny. Besides if he had been a hero even if he clocked Bruce he would understand.

“Hello Danny, it’s a pleasure to meet you, I’m Zatana,” She introduced herself s she followed Bruce in. She would have offered her hand to shake but Danny was half hiding behind Cas sitting on the bed.

“It’s nice to meet you too. What’s with the outfit?” He asked curiously which made her laugh.

“I’m a hero, one of the less known ones. I’m part of Justice League Dark which is their supernatural division along with Constantine and Deadman and a few others. He’s a ghost, but I assure you the government hasn’t been giving him any trouble, probably because they knew they wouldn’t get away with it.”

“So I’m just lucky then,” Danny said with a bitter curl to his lips.

“As a hero, I want to ask, are you Phantom?” She asked rather bluntly.

Bruce shivered as the temperature in the room suddenly dropped a few degrees and Danny’s eyes started to swirl with green as he glared at Zatana who managed to barely react. Batman noticed how her back tensed a bit but it was barely there. “You know?” Danny demanded. “You knew about what was going on in Amity and you didn’t help?!”

“I’m very sorry Danny,” She said genuinely. “We knew something was going on, but we didn’t look closely enough. We thought that you were an older ghost just of someone who died young because of your strength, and it looked like things were under control. Normally our involvement wouldn’t have been appreciated, intruding on someone’s haunt, so we didn’t look any closer. I am so sorry we overlooked you but we’re going to make up for it now I promise.

“I’ve checked and reinforced the wards on the house so nothing should be able to come in uninvited, and I’m going to contact the rest of the JLD. We’re going to go to Amity, we’ll figure this out and deal with it I promise.”

The temperature in the room slowly went back up, Danny was still upset, but he didn’t seem like he was about to snap anymore. While Zatana had been talking Cas had started gently rubbing Danny’s back and that seemed to be helping too. After a moment Danny looked up again and nodded, accepting the help.

“The veil must be very thin there, to let so many ghosts through?” Zatana probed gently.

“It is, but more than that two years ago my parents succeeded in building a portal to what they call the Ghost Zone. This kinda green world of floating islands.

“A portal,” Zatana said flatly, blinking rapidly. “To the Infinite Realms?”

“Ah is that what it’s really called? Ya probably? That’s how everyone’s been getting through. How I got my powers too, the ghosts call me a halfa, but I’m not the only one. Vlad’s one too.”

Batman heard Zatana mutter “Two?” softly, baffled and alarmed but she nodded. Bruce filed that information away too, it seemed Vlad was even more of a threat then he’d first appeared to be.

“Alright, I’ll get as many of the JLD together as I can and we’ll head to Amity. We’ll shut down the portal and deal with this.” She said determinedly.

From the look on Danny’s face he didn’t really believe her, but he nodded again and leaned against Cas. “Good luck I suppose,” he muttered and sighed, rubbing his face.

“Just… tell me if you get in over your heads okay, I’m used to dealing with all this stuff.” God he sounded so tired, the poor kid.

“I will, but don’t worry about us, just take care of yourself okay? This is a good place to be, I promise you won’t have to be alone anymore.” Zatana assured him. She probably had more questions, but it was very obvious that Danny was getting tired.

“Bruce is good dad,” Cas chimed in, speaking up for the first time. It embarrassed Bruce a little but he smiled at them and nodded a little.

“Thank you,” Danny said, his shoulder slumped and his back curled. “Can I go to bed now?”

“Of course Chum,” Bruce agreed, starting to shoo Zatana out of the bedroom with Cas on their heels. When they closed the door behind them Bruce heard the lock click quietly closed behind them. He really hoped that Danny would feel safe enough to sleep well.

@zlinen  @sebas-nights   @littlefeather345  @isnt-that-grape     @idontgetpaidenoughforthisshit  @shadowkatt99  @fantasticstoryteller @blackshuckatdusk @blacksea21090  @sithlordchimchnga @fanfictionforme2 @imalittlefangirl25 @bushbees @yotsubaayase @thomasdimensor @ultimatebluff

[aeriona]

HEY! Do you guys like squid biology? creature headcanons? cool art? well BOY do I have the document for you~~!

It is with great pleasure to show off this absolute chonker of an art/writing project; The Mollusc Era! BEHOLD, MY MAGNUM OPUS!

In this document I go over the intricacies of various cephalopods; Inklings, Octolings, Cuttlings and even the Nautilus! The entire study is illustrated by yours truly, so there's plenty of pretty pictures to gawk at as well as pages upon pages of my concentrated autism ramblings to pour over if that's also your thing. Enjoy!

I’ve also included a Legacy Version of the document: a much older, unfinished version complete with ancient-ass art from mid last year in all of its poorly-rendered glory. A lot of the information in there is also outdated and poorly written, so good luck with that. yuck.

I recommend viewing both of these on desktop as the formatting seems to work best on there. You're more than welcome to use any of the info in there for whatever you like, if you're gonna use my art please credit me though! cheers!

[recoveringsoulsposts]

Women are the superior sex.

We create and nurture human life, serving as the backbone of society. Women uphold humanity and build communities. Despite centuries of degradation, oppression, and systemic barriers, we continue to surpass men. In education, women now outperform men academically. Many of the so-called “great” inventions credited to men were, in reality, stolen from women, only for women’s names to be erased from history.

Biologically, women are more valuable. We live longer, possess stronger immune systems, have higher stress resilience, and are genetically more stable due to our two X chromosomes, which provide genetic protection. Women are essential for the continuation of the human species. Societies with a high female population are more peaceful, stable, and harmonious. Even Mother Nature favors women—during times of extreme stress and famine, female fetuses are more likely to survive. A woman’s body will naturally abort a male fetus, as the XY chromosome is expendable and worthless. Men die earlier, have weaker immune systems, are more likely to be born with birth defects, and are more prone to genetic disorders. I truly believe Males shouldn’t even exist in the large numbers they do currently.

Male value has always been artificial and manufactured. Men by default are more of a burden to the world than anything. Men commit most violent crimes and engage in anti-social behaviors. Prisons are male-dominated, creating a financial burden on governments. A surplus male population leads to increases in human trafficking and social unrest. The effects of China’s one-child policy serve as an example—after the mass murder of female infants and the artificial skewing of the gender ratio in favor of males, China now faces a 30-million-surplus male population. In almost all species, having a high male population is unnatural. As a result, China is experiencing increased human trafficking, rising crime rates, an aging population, and social instability. Males shouldn’t even exist in such large numbers. At birth, males are expendable and worthless by default. A surplus male population is more detrimental to society than anything else. The more you overvalue Men’s natural worth and undervalue Women’s natural worth, patriarchal societies will continue to reap what they sow, and find themselves in this situation. In an artificial, man-made society, system may favour men however nature, biology and the truth will always be on the side of women.

If males were truly superior, as they claim, they wouldn’t need to constantly remind us of their supposed superiority or use outdated systems of power to justify it and claim that ‘men built the world’ when women were deliberately excluded from participating in society and denied access to resources, making us artificially dependent and forcing us to rely on men for survival and to deal with males in the capacities Women have been forced to deal with them. Yet, despite all the rape, torture, humiliation, and abuse women have been subjected to at the hands of men, along with the oppression and discrimination, women have closed the gap within just a few decades and are now outperforming men. As soon as women regain even a small fraction of our rights, we excel, outperform, and thrive

Men’s survival depends on women, not the other way around. There is no metric in which single men outperform single women. Men need women far more than we need them. Men are confirmed parasites, and women are the hosts. Men suck the life out of women, benefiting from relationships and close proximity to Women. Everything they say against women is merely a projection of their own deficiencies, lack of value, and worthlessness. Remember Women brought these men into the world, and women can just as easily choose to stop bringing these men into the world.