#I don't have the processing power for other mutations

[kedreeva]

Do you think you could give your opinions on the recessive / lethal yellow genes in mice? Do you think you'd ever consider breeding recessive yellow? (If you haven't already.) I'm just super curious about your thoughts on them as I don't really know a lot about genetics. Do you think it's possible to breed a consistently healthy line of yellow mice? I'm just super curious to hear your thoughts as a breeder

Well, this is a kind of long answer and I'll warn it discusses animal death, so I'll put it behind a cut.

Personally, I wouldn't, but not because of ethics concerns; I just don't like any of the colors made with RY/AY. They're just not visually appealing to me. I had a couple RY pop up from the Taylor black line when I first got it, and they were just enh. A good, rich red, esp a satin red, can be a really perfect looking mouse... but by god that's years of work and it never ends because Red is such a hard phenotype to maintain and I'm just not that determined. I'm convinced that people breed for red because seeing it opens all the ferret cages in their brain, not because they can be normal about it. If you want good reds, it's like you dedicate your life (and mousery) to it or you don't do it, and my life's already dedicated to the peafowl. My mousery is already dedicated to blacks and tricolors.

As for the AY gene itself, it's a "lethal" gene in that homozygosity is lethal but it's lethal at the blastocyst stage so it's not really an ethical problem imo. If it was lethal as in the pups deteriorate and die post partum, or if it caused well developed pups to die/be stillborn such that it caused the dam health risks, then it would be a problem. But, it doesn't. You just get smaller litters because some cells die way early on and get reabsorbed. I don't really have any problems with that. Show breeders cull litters down to 4-6 pups (for dam and pup health reasons), so it's not like all of them would be turning into adults anyway.

As for the genetic issues with the adult mice, there are three major health issues. The first is obesity (sort of), and the major problem there is keeping them in breeding shape (meaning, capable of doing the do at all). Curiously, in at least one study I remember seeing, there's a difference between an obese mouse of X color mutation and an AY that's considered obese because of its natural body type; for example, an obese black mouse will likely have a shortened lifespan, whereas an AY mouse doesn't (at least not less than any other mouse color mutation) unless it's obese for an AY. So this isn't really a problem as long as the breeder is watching their diet and ensuring they stay fit for their body type.

The other two genetic problems actually are health issues related directly to the AY gene, and that's being prone to diabetes and to tumors. However, these are both things that (any good) breeders would notice, cull, and therefore not breed forward, in order to keep the line as free from them as possible. Which really isn't any different than any other line that develops health problems of any sort. People don't keep health problems. A good breeder should be and usually is aware of the potential health problems in the lines they are breeding, particularly if it's a genetic one that can't be avoided (like you can't avoid AY if you're breeding AY), and will know what to look for and intervene as soon as possible. Diabetic mice urinate excessively so it's REALLY noticeable, and tumors... well. Hard to miss. And tumors of various sorts is a fairly common "select away from/cull" problem in any mutation, it's just slightly higher risk in AY.

So the short answer, in my opinion, AY isn't really an unethical gene to work with. It's not one I'd choose to work with, but I don't think the people who do are doing anything wrong just for working with the gene at all. It comes down to the same ethics as any other mutation; working to maintain body condition and selecting for health.

Honestly, out of all the animals I've seen bred and bred myself, I think mouse breeders in general have proven themselves to be the most concerned with what's best for the animal, not the breeder. The show clubs like FMBA and AFRMA etc won't recognize standards for things like snub noses or manx tails or anything else that would potentially seriously impact QoL by nature of existing at all, and at least in the groups I'm in, the members are not shy about recognizing when health problems mean no breeding for a mouse regardless of how pretty or sweet. When someone newer asks what to do, I've never seen anyone support trying to breed a mouse with issues, or usually even keep one whose QoL would be poor. They are very familiar with the kindest thing you can do is let them go. It's a breath of fresh air from the goddamn chicken groups, who will limp along any bird that's still breathing regardless of what's best for the bird.

I think the only morph I've seen that I have an ethical problem with is the X-brindle gene, which is a "brindle" gene on the X chromosome that causes the mouse to be unable to absorb copper. This means that the males DO founder and die after birth (which means most people just humanely euthanize the male pups, they aren't out here letting them suffer that I've seen), and females get a strange coat color and curled whiskers from low copper absorption. Does have a second X gene that's clean so they still can, but it's really an unnecessary mutation to continue imo. It hasn't been recognized by the show clubs that I know of, but idk if they can be shown under normal brindle or if you can tell at a glance, as I don't really know as much about them or any of the AY gene specifics. I have basic knowledge but since i don't breed them myself it's very in passing knowledge. I know it's rarely bred or worked with in the first place, and I hope it stays that way or disappears entirely.

[hostdoozy]

The horrifying implications of Meat Sweats powers.

Rupert (mainly known as meat sweats) is possibly one of my favourite side-villains within Rottmnt as of this moment. Down his writing and animation, the Gordon Ramsey parody is an absolute delight to watch.

Something about his mannerisms is beyond fascinating to me. He's a double threat, both cunning and robust. I could go on about for hours about this overgrown porky pig characteristic and how he is so much more than the very thing he is parodying.

But I'll spare you that mercy and focus on ONE aspect of his character.

His mutant powers. (read more down below)

In 'Nothing but Truffle' we get a lot of insight into how his abilities function. Using the strange tendrils that make up his arm and hands, he can latch onto his prey and suck out their 'essences'. Temporarily possessing his victim's powers while his victim is either immobilized or die after the process (implied). The key word here is "Temporarily" During the episode, after Mikey is betrayed by the British Meatbag we get this little exchange between the two.

"B-but- i thought you were nice now?" "Oh. that wore off hours ago...and by the way, you play lousy mandoline" This shows us, that once he absorbs his victim's powers- throughout the course of an entire day- they only last for a short period. This shows us, that his mutant form can quickly burn off "essences". why is this horrifying? I'll get into it soon enough, sit tightly. Let's us examine what exactly he IS absorbing.

We see that whenever Rupert is absorbing something- it is always GREEN and you what else is green? Empyrean. the source of yokai power, the ingredient used to create mutants. His mutant form requires Empyrean. What do I mean by "require"? well then. We established that Rupert can quickly burn off Empyrean after absorbing it. now i'd like to point out something to you. Notice how Rupert is often described as "cannibalistic" or "vampiric" by other characters, merch and even concept artwork. Notice how often he hunts, he jumps at any opportunity to catch any prey. See how within the show, there are many instances of him having cages upon cages of mutant/yokai saved for special occasions. Almost like, he NEEDS a constant onslaught of Empyrean not because he enjoys the power that comes with it but rather, out of necessity. It is VERY possible that his Mutant form needs it to survive. Normal food won't simply cut it, He hungers for yokai and mutants alike.

So is that it? seems pretty simple enough, right? AHAHAHAHAHA NO MY DEAR READER, WE ARE NOT DONE YET! you are stuck here with me. I had a shocking revelation, one that seemed rather far-fetch but please bear with me.

Rupert has minimal control of his powers.

When the metal gauntlets come off, Rupert cannot control what his tendrils can absorb. An example of this is featured is once again, in "Nothing but Truffle". The second Mikey pulled Rupert's arm to the weretree, the tendrils began draining it upon contact- against Rupert's will. He can't stop it. This is just one of the many instances of it. We know that Rupert can form "claws" with his tendrils based on this one Ep but this is the only time it happens. Usually, they are untangled instead of interconnected

While this could just be an animation inconsistency- please just. indulge me for a moment. Rupert is known as most dangerous mutant according to Tmnt and there's good reason for this. Despite Ruperts disadvantages, he is capable of working AROUND them. He is dangerous not because of his mutant abilities but for his intelligence. we the viewer don't suspect it because He is capable of making split-second decisions within a fight. Rupert is competent in many others ways that we overlook and mislead into thinking he's in full control of his powers. (Idk if he's autistic but he'd be a master at masking lol)

So NOW why is this horrifying?

Keep in mind. Rupert was a human- a shitty one but still human regardless. His mutation wasn't by choice. His cannibalism wasn't a choice. Imagine, you are at the height of your career and in the middle of your show- in front of an entire audience- you suddenly feel a pinch. everything is painful. Your body contorts into a horrific pigish amalgamation in a matter of minutes. The world has its eyes on you. people are watching. All you see is RED.

You've become a monster.

Once the red is gone. All that is left is the hunger. You are reduced to nothing more than a creature lurking within the shadows. A wall is put between you and the remaining semblance of your old life. Everything you work for, Gone. Left to rot away.

No matter how many scraps you pull out of NYC's trash piles. You are still hungry. This disgusting form of yours demands more. The only thing you can do to survive. is give in. indulge. you didn't just become a monster. you ARE the monster.

Whether or not Rupert was deserving of this faith is up in the air. We know that he's always been an Asshole. (both Mikey and himself go on to confirm this)

This isn't meant to suddenly paint Rupert in a sympathetic light nor be an attempt to "redeem" his actions. Far from it. This is meant to further insight into him as a villain and why he acts the way he does. Rupert still values his humanity. Rupert resorts to extreme measures to ensure his own comfortability and his legacy (i.e his restaurant) but thats a topic for another day.

To finally conclude this tangent. While Rupert is scummy sod, the situation he's forced into is unsettling when you sit down and think about it. If anything. he might have become a bigger asshole due to his mutation. (now excuse me- im going step inside this man's food truck and kiss him)

[weebsinstash]

Damn, imagine if all this YT drama was happening when Spot's situation was currently going on too. And, well, since our dimension is fucked and we just seem to jump through dimensions without the watch, what if we end up in Spot's place? (The blank void when he entered one of his own spots).

And, it would be funny to look at him, and for him to look at us and just... stare or wave. He is weird like that, and we are too.

Also, we can start bonding on feeling out of place? Sharing the same experience of everyone leaving us behind/ignoring us. Maybe we can even seek solace in his presence, and in his unique persona (even if he is supposed to be a villain).

And the fact that this is the only place we don't glitch out of? Maybe some bullshit physics as this place literally makes no sense, as well as us. It's like we belong here, with him. He could always teleport us somewhere else, but we look so tired, so pitiful and in so much need of some sort of care... he feels bad for us. And maybe, he can try and convince us to stay with him. After all, he *is* the only one who hasn't turned his back on us, right? He isn't a bad guy like those 'friends' of us were saying!

Meanwhile everything is going to shit in the society's HQ :)

I've actually had a few ideas involving The Spot where he's either the yandere or antagonist or a central character in some way and it's really just a matter of me getting around to. Writing the dozens of things I want to write lmao

But bro your mind 😩 you've just been exiled during the YouTwo incident amd you're glitching and, you know, slowly deteoriating over time, and, suddenly, you're in this weird literally nondescript place where you're suddenly... 'balanced out'? You don't feel like you're being pulled in a bunch of different directions anymore, and you look around and it's just some white void with black dots everywhere that you think you can kind of see and hear things out of if you get close enough, but, first and foremost, is that a person? Spot just like. Is staring at you with this very deer in headlights energy and, you both awkwardly wave to each other, "uhhhhhhh... hi?" "...hiiiii, uh, is this 'your place'? Thank you so much, dude, I've been zipping all over the place, i thought i was gonna die, you saved my life" and maybe you even hug him and he's not sure how to process this because you're clearly a variant of Spiderman but you hold no animosity or hostility towards him whatsoever and 👉👈 this is the most positive human interaction he's had in ages.

Not even his powers, but his knowledge alone would be extremely useful in this scenario because like, he could literally just warp around stealing whatever parts he needed to build something that would "hold you together", given his involvement with Alchemax and the colliders specifically

You're just so understandably and genuinely grateful and Spot feels GOOD about being needed, about being someone's savior. He really had been one of the only ones who could help you and he gets a little drunk off that fact. Whether your glitching is a mutation and is your own power or you're simply some weird anomaly, you two form a kinship, and if it IS some sort of weird ability, maybe he even decides to mentor you a little! Gives him something to do, and it totally isn't to help distract him from how lonely and depressed and miserable he is!

But similar to how the other villains discounted him, you kind of discount him yourself in the sense that you don't see him as a threat. Which, he doesn't necessarily want you to, and it's not some sort of disrespect thing, but, the linger he spends with you, the more he wants you to see him as a man, a man with needs, emotionally, psychologically, physically. Whyd you have to give him all those hugs when he hasnt had human touch in forever, huh?! Don't you know how lonely and touch starved he is?! And you just think you can--can walk away from him? Disrespect him after everything he's done for you, disrespect him like everyone else?

You can always try and 'outrun him' with your little glitching, but, even if you manage to lose him, he'll pick up your tracks again, and one day you wake up from finally crashing from exhaustion to find a pitch black figure at the foot of the bed, slowly pulling in everything around it like some sort of eldritch black hole. And Jonathan menacingly waves to you, "I don't think I'll have trouble keeping up with you this time. I made sure of it"

[sundrop-writes]

Tongue Twister

Sub!Gar Logan x (Dom)GN!Reader

I wanna get you in a tongue twister - tied up in a tongue twister.

Summary:

You and Gar run into each other in the dark halls of Wayne Manor one night. He finds that he just can't resist your touch.

Or: You quite literally try to suck Gar's soul out through his cock, and he definitely doesn't stop you.

Sub!Gar Logan x (Dom)Gender Neutral Reader. Friends to Friends with Benefits. Smut. Set (vaguely) during Season 3.

Word Count: 2,000

DC Titans Masterlist | AO3 Link

Detailed warnings and author's notes below the cut.

Warnings: This is pretty much just straight smut/pwp (there is basically no plot); I say that it's 'loosely' set in Season 3 because there is a mention of the Titans staying at Wayne Manor and I was inspired by S3 Gar, but there's no plot spoilers for S3 and you don't need to have seen Titans for this to make sense (this is just hot smut about my favourite hot guy); there is slight dom/sub dynamics - Gar is somewhat submissive (he likes being manhandled and put in his place), and the reader is somewhat dominant in that they take control of Gar and take what they want; this is a blowjob fic - so, the reader is giving Gar a (very messy) blowjob; the reader's gender is not mentioned or described in any way; the main pronouns used for the reader are you/yours; slight nipple play (Gar receiving); (in terms of the canon, Gar's experience is very debatable, but I don't imagine this to be virgin!Gar, at the very least, this is inexperienced!Gar); slight crying kink - mentions of Gar crying from overstimulation and the reader enjoying it; mentions of deepthroating - the reader takes Gar's dick all the way down with no issues (unrealistic, but that happens in fics sometimes); slight manhandling (from the reader toward Gar) (but nothing to state that the reader has super impressive strength); the reader swallows Gar's cum; multiple orgasms/overstimulation (Gar receiving); I don't think I would call this dubcon, but maybe under-negotiated kink? because they didn't discuss overstimulation beforehand, but Gar still likes it; passing mention of Gar masturbating while thinking about the reader; slight ball play and slight anal play (again, all Gar receiving) and using spit as lube in the process; I think that's it for this fic? Anyway - enjoy!

A/N: I have said this before, but sometimes a tiktok edit just distinctly inspires the vibes of a fic. And I woke up the other day and searched 'Gar Logan edit' because I needed to see my boy, and then I found this amazing edit - and I got the idea stuck in my head that I needed to do a fic of S3 Gar (which is my favourite Gar) - getting the sloppiest head of all time. Cause that is what a Tongue Twister means to me. I later found the full song to listen to it, and for reference it's called Tongue Twister by Cash Cash, so that is the song that this fic is named after. It is just very straightforward pwp smut, because I love writing that about Gar lmao. I love seeing him whining and pathetic (and overstimulated). So, here you go! I hope you guys have fun with this, even if you're reading this as someone who has never seen Titans before.

...

Gar had no clue how he ended up in this situation. 

It was a fucking amazing situation to be in. But still, the whole thing puzzled him. (Well, it would if he had any brain power to think about it at this current moment.) 

This whole thing started when he had woken up hungry. Which, wasn’t entirely unusual for him. Doctor Caulder said that his transformations and his ‘condition’ in general caused him to burn more calories than the average person - not nearly as much as someone like Rita, but definitely more than he used to before his genes mutated. Even on a vegetarian diet, he craved a lot of junk food, which he ate. And he didn’t seem to gain a lot of weight because of this part of his condition. And he often found himself woken in the middle of the night by a rumbling stomach. 

On his way back from the kitchen with a stomach full of nutella and banana sandwiches, he noticed a gentle glow coming from the library of Wayne Manor. He was much more awake than he had been when he had first stumbled to the kitchen, so he had decided to investigate it. He wondered who else was awake at this hour. 

It was you. Apparently doing some late night reading. 

A lot happened very quickly then. 

You reached out and thumbed a large glob of nutella off the side of his mouth, and told him that he was adorable, and delicious. And you stared him right in the eyes while you licked it off your finger - mentioning that you loved his choice to go without a shirt as you removed the now spit-soaked digit from your mouth, looking him up and down with undeniable heat in your eyes. 

Gar felt so utterly trapped. (In the best way possible.) 

That spit-wet thumb made its way to touching his bare nipple, and when he let out an uncontrollable, absolutely loud whimper - he was done. 

That was how he ended up like this. 

This wild and wicked situation being that he was currently getting the best blowjob of his life. And he never would have expected that he would ever be on the receiving end of something sexual from you (he could have only hoped) - so finding out that you could give the most mind-blowing head - well fuck, it was really something. 

You had pushed him down to sit in the middle of the couch in front of the warm glow of the fireplace and stripped him of his loose sleep pants. This left him completely naked, pinned down by your demanding touch and the suction of your mouth on his hard cock. 

“Oh, fuck. Oh my god!” 

He remembered protesting at some point. Maybe. 

If he did, it was only on the basis that the two of you might get caught. The library was a well trafficked area of the ridiculously large house. It was a quick route to get to the kitchen from the set of bedrooms that the Titans had been staying in, rather than walking through some decommissioned ‘sitting rooms’ with creepy, dusty old furniture in them. Gar could only imagine how embarrassing it would be if someone like Dick or Dawn (someone he looked up to and admired) caught him with his pants down like this. 

Not that he was even capable of embarrassment with how much lust was currently throbbing through him. But it would definitely be embarrassing when he thought about it later. 

“Please, please! More!” 

But - all those thoughts easily leaked out of his ears, and those half-baked protests died off in his throat when he felt just how perfect your mouth was on his cock. The wet, warm suction of your lips around his shaft and the way you bobbed your head into such an easy rhythm, forming hot-white streaks of pleasure all across his cock. It was all too good to try and stop it. 

When the head of his large, thick cock hit the back of your throat - he choked out a whine, seeing stars split out across his vision for a moment. You were exceedingly talented at this. 

It was partially ‘talent’, and partially the fact that you truly did want to consume him. 

Every single little moan he let out, every pathetic, sweet whimper - it only spurred you on, made you want to see more. More of the way his stomach quaked when he tried to hold it in, more of feeling his thigh muscles desperately shake under your hands when you traced your tongue under the head of his cock. More pretty tears flowing from his big brown eyes as he was pushed closer and closer to the edge. More of him staring down at you in awe as you played his body like an instrument you had mastered in minutes. 

“Oh god! Oh! Oh - mmm,” 

Fueled by lustful hunger and an attraction for Gar that you had since the day you had met him, you continued on, fucking his cock with your mouth in an utterly unforgiving way. You sucked down the length of his cock and didn’t seem to care as the round cockhead hit the back of your throat, bruising it - your desperation only growing as your oxygen was cut off by the thickness of his shaft. In fact, you let out a moan of your own as his thick green pubes brushed against your nose and you inhaled his natural scent. 

The vibrations shook his cock and that only contributed to the insane pleasure he was feeling. 

Gar felt like he was slowly losing his mind. 

His hands were gripping the couch cushions wildly, finding it too rude and imposing to simply reach out and grab your hair or reach for the back of your head. Even while you handled him like he was simply a toy for your enjoyment, he couldn’t bring himself to return the favor. 

So he sat like a good boy, letting you pin him down and suck the life out of his cock. 

(Not that he wasn’t enjoying every single second of it.) 

“Oh, fuck me! Fuck me, fuck me, fuck me!” 

Gar began chanting, begging in a needy voice that he barely recognized as his own. 

You easily picked up to a brutal pace - gulping down his cock so quickly that it made a sloppy noise with each quick movement, taking him from root to tip within seconds. This made your head practically blur, easily coating his dick in spit and making his skin shine with your wicked efforts.

You sucked his cock so roughly, it was like you were trying to suck something out of him. As if you were trying to obtain some source of life that would magically be drained from his balls if you tried hard enough. 

(In your mind, it was something similar to that. You were desperate to taste his cum. And his perfect noises were supplying your life in a way, so you definitely wanted more.) 

You slurped viciously against his skin, bobbing your head up and down, creating an odd juxtaposition between the very slight roughness of your tongue and the slick flood of your spit whenever you would bob back down. His cock soon became sensitive and his thighs shook - when his legs flexed up toward your head upon instinct, his muscles tightening from all of the strain, you dug your nails into the quivering skin of his thighs and shoved him back down, holding him in place. 

“Y/N!” 

He wailed your name, crying out much louder than he had intended to. 

When he looked down, he made eye contact with you, you stared back with nothing but fierceness and commanding in your eyes. You owned him and you knew it. Even from a position on your knees, you knew that you were in charge. 

His entire body shook with dizziness under the force - flooded with endorphins at being handled so roughly by you. 

Gar’s orgasm was pulled from him forcefully, brought on like a slap in the face at the realization that he loved being pinned under your touch.

“Please, please, oh, oh!” 

Gar heard that lilting, whiny voice and barely recognized it as his own. He felt the air being punched out of his stomach before he realized that he was cumming into your mouth. He thought that surely you would be satisfied by this - that you would be done because he had cum. So he simply rode it out as you hallowed your cheeks and sucked even harder on his sensitive cock. Even making the head aching and raw as you traced your tongue around it and pumped him into your mouth while his stomach shook and he practically gargled his own spit. 

But in that fraction of a moment that he thought you might be done - no. You simply continued on. 

With his cum still lingering on your tongue, you dove back down, not giving him a moment to get soft under your touch. You swallowed his length once again, and he let out a wounded cry as his dick hit the back of your throat once again. His thighs flexed and shook and you left large claw marks in him, fighting him, trying to hold him still. 

He felt hot tears streaking down his face and he knew that this was the most perfect kind of torture - the most beautiful purgatory - being here with your perfect, hot mouth around his cock, seemingly attempting to devour him while he had to sit there and take it. 

“Oh god.” 

He let out another cry and all you did was reach over and begin to stroke his balls. The skin there was already slick with spit that had dripped down from your mouth, and the touch spewed fire up through his gut and caused him to wail out crooked breaths as his vision blurred with more tears. You were so perfect between his thighs - like you knew every single thing to do in order to drive him closer to the edge of insanity. 

Whenever he had imagined you before, he imagined you soft - he had thought of making love to you when he snuck a private moment with his hand around his cock. He always imagined candles and romantic music and gentle kisses all over your body. But he never could have imagined you like this. So fucking filthy. But now, he couldn’t imagine you any other way. 

You moved your fingers down from his balls, reaching your spit-soaked fingertips down to kiss against his against his hole - and just the slight threat of those fingertips pressing into him, touching such a sensitive spot, had another orgasm barreling through him like he had been struck by lighting. 

You sucked the cum out of him like you were greedy for it, like it would restore the very life to you - this time, Gar was sure that not a single streak of it even got to touch your tongue. When he felt the harsh pin-pricks of overstimulation coating his cock, he desperately gulped for breath, searching for words. 

“Please, please!” He cried out. “I can’t - ngh - no more!” 

You moved your hands to gently rub across his thighs, and you finally pulled back so that his cock fell from your mouth with a wet pop - falling to sit on his stomach, so spit-slick and red, glistening in the low lighting, entirely sloppy and messy. 

He was the most lovely mess above you. Tear streaks coming from his eyes, wet and messy eyelashes almost obscuring his perfect doe gaze down toward you. His face was entirely flushed, all the way down to his chest, making his skin the prettiest shade of pink - matching his parted, panting lips. His thighs were covered in bright red claw marks from your nails, and you couldn’t be prouder than knowing that he would be wearing those the next day - a reminder of you under his clothes, a little something stinging against the fabric to really drive home what had happened here. 

He was so perfect like this. 

You knew for certain that this wouldn’t be the last time you had him like this. (You would crave him too badly after this.) 

“You’re cute.” You remarked, giving him a smirk with your raw lips. 

Gar would be lying if he said that the slightly condescending comment didn’t make his entirely tired dick jump with interest.

...

A/N: Please keep in mind, this is a standalone oneshot, so I will not be writing a sequel or a 'part 2' of it. However, if you liked this fic, definitely check out Stop? (Baby, Don't Stop) - Gar Logan x Fem!Reader or Not A Good Time - Gar Logan x GN!Reader which are similar fics to this one! Or you can check out the entirety of my Titans Masterlist for more fics written by me. And remember, reblogging and commenting is always helpful to support fanfic writers <3

[master-jarrus]

Ninjago Star Wars Au species list

I will not debate anyone over these

Starting up:

Jay, half human, half twi'lek, his mother is the twi'lek. When he was born he was shipped to the Huts on Tatooine but his little carriage pod dropped and was picked up by Jawas. He has mechanical wings he made himself and specializes in marketing for the Jawas because he's adorable

Force sensitive

Ed and Edna: Jawas who find Jay are the main ones who raise him but I'm fairly certain jawas take the whole village approach.

Cole: Togurta. Togurta's are very strong and agile but people always seem surprised when they actually show case their strength. This seemed very fitting for Cole.

Force sensitive

Kai and Nya: human nautolan hybrids but it has been so long since the nautolan was introduced they don't have many traits other than large dark eyes and Nya is able to breathe under water. (They don't know its nautolan, which is kit fistos species for those who don't know)

Force sensitive

Nya is stronger in the force but she uses chants to help her focus (like the og dathomirian witches)

Zane: zane is a kyber crystal powering a droid. He more specifically the crystal then the body because kyber crystals are sentient

Force sensitive

Pixal: same deal as zane but her crystal faced torture (from the mining process) zane heals her later but she still struggles (fun fact ahsoka's kyber crystals were corrupted and tortured but she rescued and healed them and that is why they are white)

Force sensitive can only manipulate it through the dark side

Garmadon and Wu: Diathim (also referred to as angels) and part zabrak (i went back and forth on that because beskalisks have four arms but then I drew it and just fit well for them) angels are considered the most beautiful creatures while zebraks tend to be considered evil. Both are capable of good and evil.

Very force sensitive

Garmadon isn't strictly a sith. More of just acts as he sees is needed. He does tend to use the dark side a lot though

Garmadon is missing his lower wings and has mutated arms with cyber supports

Misako: Chiss, intellectual tend to try to logic their emotions away (think a blue spock) the Diathim have prophecies. She wanted to study them. She and Garmadon fall in love

Lloyd: Diathim, zabrak and chiss. Very tall. Blue skin, red eyes, has all of his wings but also has a set of lower arms that do not have cyber supports.

Force sensitive, just dripping midiclorians to the point he boosts the sensitivity of those he is around

Struggles with acting in anger and will accidentally hurt his lightsabers original kyber crystals that he will wear on a necklace and pours into whenever he meditates

Rei: human, mandalorian black smith

Force sensitive

Maya: human nautolan hybrid also unaware of the nautolan she just thinks it's the force she is trained like the og dathomirian witches

Force sensitive

Lily: Togruta

Force sensitive

Lou: Togruta dancer and singer, gets paid for it

Harumi: human, not force sensitive but will later inject midiclorians to try be able to use the force and will become dependent on them

Cyrus: human, tries to create kyber crystal droids like zane but the mining process corrupted all of them including the prosthetics he tried to make that were powered by crystals. He chooses to be wheel chair bound after the incident but he is ambulatory with regular prosthetics he just finds it exhausting

Morro: zabrak, becomes a malevolent ghost but will later settle down into a regular force ghost who follows wu around

Force sensitive

Serpentine: sub species of hutt. Made them native to dathomir and the moons

Let me know who else you want to know

You will for sure get art of Garmadon. We will see about the others

[copperpipes]

Okay so with the biblically accurate turtles, would them having more turtle DNA make them more dangerous? As in, more unstable? That reptillian brain just kicks in sometimes and raph will open his mouth and wiggle his tongue at random times to try and "lure" prey in, or donnie hisses and snaps and his brothers if they annoy him too much, and especially things like mating season for turtles some get especially aggressive and territorial (poor splinter prolly has so many scars from when they were babies)

Buckle up, this is gonna be long.

Let's start off with the fact I'm not changing anything, so I won't call this an au (that's just how i like to draw the turtles) i'm merely deepening the existing lore and making sense of it, at least for myself.

To explain how their brains came to be and answer the first part of your question I'll start at the beginning. I'll start with Draxum, what his goal was and how he planned to reach it, what he did, some canon related theories and from there and in the process I'll answer the rest of your first ask. 

I don't have many headcanons actually, most of what i did was explaining things with my existing knowledge, this ties to my theories and my love of realistic sci-fi and worldbuilding.

Read this however you want, I'll call this an essay.

Draxum has been planning on the turtles long before he found Splinter. We know he schemed against humanity for years or possibly decades, maybe even a century (He is stated to be a couple hundred years old). With counting on the genocide of the human race he may have gone through countless drafts that for some reason didn't suit him (I could have suggested more efficient ways but then the turtles wont be born), In the end it led him to come up with the idea of warriors for mass destruction. Draxum could have created beast mutants, but I understand the ways in which intelligent fighters could be better, for example they could be taught magic when mindless animals couldn't.

We know that he has been looking for a powerful warrior to act as a surrogate DNA donor to perform the mutation, the moment he found one he would have done it, at least i believe these were his intentions, which must have meant the base subjects, or at least the plans for them, were already done. 

(Mutation diagram)

[base subject/base/base entity/base creature]= the original specimen the mutation is performed on.

[surrogate DNA]= the additional genetic material which when infused into the mutagen can react with other DNA, the form doesn't matter, and replace up to 70% of the base’s dominant genes.

This may result in a cancerous outbreak and or death.

As in, he removed everything that he deemed unsuitable in his base subjects. He probably had years to do that, to nitpick gens, essentially directing and speeding up evolution, creating a special kind of turtle with both physical, hormonal, and behavioral traits he wanted even before he found a creature to mutate them with. Getting rid of some traits and strengthening/ adding others, heck, he may have even involved prehistoric gens that have gone recessive or added gens that were not in the base creatures at all.

I'll elaborate; part of the instincts were bread out due to being no longer necessary or a hassle in general. The brumation season was removed, but not the turtles ability to brumate, let me explain:

Yokai (I assume Draxus thought to find a yokai DNA donor) are homeothermal, meaning warm blooded. while turtles, our dear ol’ reptiles, are ectothermal, meaning cold blooded (I'll also assume you know what is the difference between them, if you don't, that's what Google is for). Draxum needed to combine these two, making a type of bi-blooded creatures that can slowly adjust to their environment’s temperature. But, if the difference between the internal and external temperatures is too big, they will brumate to minimize the strain on the body and adjust, obviously this takes longer.

About the breeding season you mentioned, the issue in it was it lasted just a month or so and made the subjects aggressive more towards each other (earlier in the research two died of injuries caused overnight) which he really didn't want, so he cut it out their yearly cycle.

 he didn't know he would find his suitable warrior to be a human, but let's say he found splinter as soon as he was shown in the battle nexus (would make sense for him to check there regularly), he would have another 16 years to adjust his base subjects for binding with human DNA until he re-kidnapped Splinter. I also think there were things that were pre-set in the mutagen infusion (you can ask and remind me later, there is much there and here is already enough).

It took Draxum about 13 years to reach the correct formula of mutagen after his lab (and I'm assuming all his documented research) were destroyed by Splinter when he ran with the turtles. And I think the second version is much much different from the first, let's start with the obvious, the second mutagen is already infused with different kinds of surrogate DNA and is inserted by the oozasquitos directly into the bloodstream. It does not affect the general silhouette of the base subject and most importantly, it doesnt change the nervous system.

The first version doesn't just do that, it is its foremost purpose, it is meant to bind the human anatomy with the turtle base in a way that it would make a human shaped turtle, not a turtle shaped human. It essentially packs the human neuronal-cells to body mass ratio compressed into a reptile skull. Only, the reptile brain doesn't go anywhere, it just expands to the point it is capable of comprehending the universe. there are instincts left, they are just drowned out by everything else. there are instances where you are more likely to see them, like in moments of extreme emotional instants, overloads, shutdowns, meltdowns and the such, but also, in their fighting/ defense styles.

there was a major reason Draxum chose to mutate baby turtles, baby turtles he molded into something that can stand the mutation by selectively breeding them for it. baby turtle brains that would forget how painful the mutation was and would likely not suffer from PMSD (post-mutation-stress-disorder) and the likely following after that depression, and they won't need to walk and move all over again because they didn't know that yet.

there is seriously still so much i gotta tell, like, i cut out of this answer so much, about how the mutagen works, what else did draxum do to the turtles, and so so so so so much details i left out because this was getting long and i need sleep

to all the people who have sent asks, i didnt forget about you! i will get to everything, it just takes me time because i want to make an effort

thanks for the ask :D

[idyllic-musings]

wow. hello. i am so normal i promise. i swear. i promise. just trust me bro 🙏 anyway. eldritch gods and their fucked up followers, y'know? lowercase intended for the Vibes(TM). this post is completely platonic btw 👍

tw & cw. body horror, blood, fucked up devotee & deity dynamics, spitting up flowers as a metaphor of sorts to eldritch mutation and ambrose's bond to yaoshi (it is NOT an allusion to hanahaki disease; spitting up flowers serves a very very different literary purpose in this fic), ambrose's blood has life-giving qualities, etc. read with caution.

ambrose does not flinch when the thorns of the rose cradled in their hands prick almost desperately into their skin. it's as if this rose seeks something from them—it's looking for something. the plant seems to thrive on the taste of their blood, glowing with revitalized life after wounding them, but aside from that, it is most certainly seeking out something else.

no, they do not flinch. not anymore. it stings, but only slightly. it burns a little. it always does. but still, they do not flinch.

a soft hum rises from their throat as their blood drips down their fingertips onto the marble floor below. ambrose's chest trembles and their breath wavers as the flower's thorns dig further into their flesh dizzyingly, tearing new holes dripping a deep wine red in the unblemished and unscarring skin belonging to one imbued so impossibly with the power of the path of abundance. their head spins. vaguely, they muse and lament to themselves about how rude it is of them to dirty such a sacred space with their blood. so, so disrepsectful... how they wished that it was not in their body's nature to bleed so profusely.

(but then again, yaoshi never minded much. such a gentle aeon would not forsake their most loyal devotee for such a small error... and even then, was shedding their blood an error? perhaps not, ambrose thinks. perhaps it is more akin to a display of devotion. they of all people have nothing to prove to their aeon, that much they know, but is bloodshed not the purest form of vulnerability? in a moment such as this, are they not at their most weak and unguarded? is such vulnerability not the most untainted form of love and devotion? in that case, they would bleed as much as yaoshi desired. they would do so without a second thought.)

ambrose does not withdraw despite the stabbing throb spreading throughout their arm as the plant's roots take place underneath their skin and within their veins.

they do flinch now, though, as a sharp hiss is ripped from their chest.

...but it is necessary. they've lived so long now—longer than two or three generations of the longest lived xianzhou natives, perhaps. one such as themselves with such an expansive lifespan would inevitabily need to resort to bloody methods to remove mara's influence on their mind.

the penetration of their skin was perhaps not the easiest way, but it was the most effective way for their aeon's influence to cleanse their body.

and really, they don't think they'd mind at all if this process tore them apart by the seams. if it was anyone other than their patron deity, they might—no... would be resistant.

it is only because of yaoshi that they are alive. dying by their hand would be an honor, in a way.

...of course, ambrose doesn't think yaoshi would. tear them apart, that is. they've drawn blood before—intentionally, on occassions like this, and accidentially, on other such occassions when their nails dug a little too harshly into ambrose's fragile skin—but it's hard to imagine them doing something that violent (and cruel, depending on who one asks, but ambrose does not think it would be so).

the roots dig deeper, deeper, deeper into their body. it tears a visceral sob from their chest.

it hurts now. the pain sears across their skin, through their chest, through their veins and arteries and every organ in their body.

ambrose's slow-beating heart squeezes painfully as if wrapped in vines and thorns, and their breath all is all but stolen from their lungs. on their tongue, they taste iron and something vaguely floral, but they can't raise their hands to check if they're bleeding.

the emanator wheezes, head tilting back and glossy, unfocused gaze now directed at the ceiling.

(it's decorated in a beautiful mural painted by some of yaoshi's other followers.)

they manage to heave out a raspy, constricted cough, and they vacantly note the tickle of a soft texture upon their lips. it eventually flutters to the floor, settling in one of the many splatters of their blood.

the power of the abundance flows in an entirely unrestricted way through their veins. it wasn't unusual for their body to produce a petal or two every now and then.

vines, free of any and all thorns, curl around their limbs, over their thighs, across their torso, and around their neck, all to keep them from thrashing—it's a precaution more than anything. ambrose only thrashed the first few times, when they were far younger, far less used to the agony.

but now the pain seems natural, and the vines are comforting.

the tear that slips down their cheek and mixes with the blood on their face is wiped away with parental haste.

ah.

it's hard to think about the pain, ambrose muses, when there is such a kind aeon to guide them through it.

indeed, if yaoshi wanted them to bleed...

ambrose would be more than happy to bleed out.

[anthonyzoxide]

Rating and Reviewing the Mean Gills team name options

(This is unfinished but it’s been in my drafts for 3 months so I’m just going to impulse-post it now)

-Mean Gills: The best name, naturally, being the one that they went with and all. So much potential for reference humour, rolls off the tongue... If you wanted to analyze it story-wise 'gills' could foreshadow the ocean mutations that both of the gills (Another plus: 'Mean Gills' allowing me to use 'gills' as a replacement for 'girls') start to get throughout the series. And the 'Mean' part could foreshadow all those times they murder people in cold blood on purpose? It does bother me how little they actually reference Mean Girls across Limited Life, if at all, with how much potential there was- But that's a complaint unrelated from the name itself, so I won't count it as effecting the rating. 10/10

-Coral Kids: Sounds cute, and I like (or rather prefer) how it was worked into their area being called the Coral Isles. Though in the lore monologues, this would probably be even harder to take seriously when referenced than 'Mean Gills'. 7/10

-H2-Bros: When pronouncing this name out loud, it either has an awkward pause or is automatically said too quickly to process the joke- And, additionally, in retrospect I quite understand how one of the deciding factors between this and Mean Gills was not perpetuating the same masculine energy of the Bad Boys. Not a fan, but wouldn't have been particularly upset if they went with this. 4/10

-Santa's Little Kelpers: For how summer-coded Limited Life comes across as, this totally feels like the wrong kind of seasonal. In particular, the Mean Gills always felt tropical to me- Would've been a ton of tonal whiplash if they were named this. Also brings to mind a certain song, which I'm not convinced is a positive. Also, introducing Santa's Little Kelpers to the Life Series means adding Santa to the Life Series, and I don't want to know where the pipeline of lore additions would go from there. 2/10

-Sons of Beaches: I feel as though this is either a reference to a band that I haven't heard of, or there for the soundalike to a certain curse word. Assuming that it's the latter, I don't believe that joke would've had much staying power- It's catchy, however. 3/10

-Big Buoys: Had to look up what a buoy was after mispelling it in 3 different ways when making the list of Mean Gills names. I now hold a vendetta against this name. Also sounds quite a lot like the Bad Boys, and I'm not sure I could've taken whatever kind of feud would arise there if the two groups were name-destined rivals. 1/10

-LGB-sea: Not a bad name, but I've got quite extensive nitpicks. The use of an acronym makes you think of BEST and TIES, but neither gill has a name that starts with L, G, or B, so it feels peculiar if you don't recognize the pun at first (Which I did not). Even if you dissasociate it from the prior context of those other acronym team names, it feels as though it would be a trio name so that there can be a person for each letter (and then tying them all together with the shared theme of 'sea'), and out of the Life Series players there aren't any lesbians to be the L, so that'd be tricky to work around. Also, I feel like it should be 'LGB-sea Community' instead of just LGB-sea, but I'm assuming this would be thought of quickly if it was what they went with, so I won't count it as a complaint. With all of that nitpicking out of the way, I do think the pun is quite funny. I dunno. A rather mixed 5/10

-The Shell-dons(?): I'm not even sure I heard this one right despite rewinding it many times. 1/10

-Beauty and the Beach: This name implies that only one of the Mean Gills is 'the beauty', and I do not believe in pitting two beautiful gills against each other in such a manner. I am also definitely not the target audience for Disney references- Though this would have potential as the name of someone's royal AU Mean Gills fanfiction. That'd be pretty cool. Though the writer must specify which one of them is the beauty, to the other's dismay. And where the beach is in relations to their castle or whatever. 2/10

-Damp Dudes: No. No. This is very unpleasant. Reading it feels like stepping in a large puddle and getting water into your sock. I don't wish to dwell on this one. 0/10. Maybe even -1/10 on a bad day.

-Puddle Pals: This, however, is quite cute! The Puddle Pals sound like a group of silly whimsical fellas from a cartoon, and the Mean Gills would work quite well as that kind of dynamic if they were in a series where they did not have to withstand The Horrors (as is the way of the Life Series). While the 'D' illiteration in Damp Dudes made it sound more uncomfortable, the 'P' illiteration makes Puddle Pals sound catchy and rhythmic. I approve. 7/10

-Mean Shells: ...I'm glad, at least, that this got reworked into the final name of Mean Gills. It sounds awkward, and the reference isn't apparent upon reading it.

-Sal-men: I forgot to review the Sal men🙁 Post over. Go home

[justkending]

Found Memories. Chapter 1.

Finding Memories Sequel: (I advise you to read the 1st series for context).

Series Summary: Following the aftermath of Finding Memories, Bucky tries to complete goals he feels she would have discovered for herself as a way to let her memory live on. However, he never expected to find someone very close to who he believed she would have been if given the chance of normalcy. A journey of mourning someone he lost, turned into a journey of discovering someone new, happens upon the soldier. Maybe this whole normal thing isn’t as bad as he had pictured it in his mind. Maybe he had a better shot at it than he ever tried to imagine.

Pairing: Bucky Barnes x Reader insert

Chapter Word Count: 4000+

A/N (PLEASE READ): So I may or may not have gone back on my deal to not post until I finished writing it all, but I'm 15 chapters in, and though I have a ton more to write, I wanted to drop the first chapter for my Finding Memories people to have some closure, and also to see where Bucky's story plans to lead.

This series is told through 1st person unlike a lot of my others, but I realize I like this style a lot more. So all this is from Bucky's perspective in this chapter. I also understand this may seem a little confusing with this being a reader insert for both these stories, so using Y/N will make it harder to tell the difference between the characters. I’ll be calling our previous Y/N from the Finding Memories series, Sloan, just to avoid confusion. But please don’t let that take away from any of the personal aspects of the story. This is just a continued story of Bucky finding happiness after the ending of Finding Memories. (Just think of it as him falling for you 2x ;) There is a note at the bottom after reading so please read that when you finish!

Last note! For each chapter, I am connecting a song from the playlist our last reader left and Bucky took on his own. The song will play off the vibes of each chapter. You don't have to listen if you don't want to, but it is here as a little piece of Bucky's theme (sometimes thought processes and feelings) in each chapter. Enjoy!

Playlist song: At Last by: Etta James

Chapter 1: 

4 years and 364 days had gone by since her passing.

Almost 5 years, 2 weeks, and 4 days since I had rescued her.

I think the reason it stuck with me was that this was one of those missions that carrying on like normal afterwards, wasn’t really an option.

When you lose someone on the field, whether you know them or not, a piece of you is saddened that someone lost their life. Normal. Human. Emotions. 

However, you feel depressed and emotionally stuck when it’s someone you had become familiar with and plan to continue to grow familiar with. 

It hurt even more when it was someone who deserved to go far in life and learn so many things about themselves in a healthy and safe environment. It was a stab to the heart to know she never saw that for herself and had made a decision no one should be put in the position to make. 

But it happened. In the very likely chance someone was to find her and use her for her powers again, she erased all possibilities of it getting into the wrong hands. And with it erased all chances to experience the good in the world as well.

After she died, Bruce and Tony tested her blood to find what the other mutation was even if I knew for the most part. 

We didn’t have much time to understand it, or for her to really explain all the pieces that came with her enhancements that she seemed to remember the day before her ultimate fate. But from what she had passed onto me in the last moments of her life, I feel like I had some kind of grasp of it. 

Her hand over my heart seconds before her powers consumed her was more than just a sentimental goodbye. She shared within that touch her fears, her intentions, her understandings, and the peace she found in her decision. 

It was something I could never explain in words to someone else, but it was a feeling that made me understand why it all had to come to the end that it did. 

She had told me the night before, that her powers were created from the cosmos, and it was a power that could bring an end to society and the world we try so hard to keep afloat in what feels like constant choppy waters. 

She didn’t have to go into too much depth about what all that meant, but it would soon be proven within hours of explaining to me that we would not get the end we hoped for. 

I can’t lie and say I never expected things to take the turns they did. I live the life I have constantly considering the worst-case scenarios, and her death was always one of those scenarios as soon as we saved her in that hidden terrorist facility.

Bruce and Tony confirmed that her gifts were something that could be world-ending and quickly incinerated her blood so that no one could get ahold of that kind of power down the line. 

The wishes she made on her deathbed were met and I was trying to meet all the other ones she had made and never got the chance to do herself. 

It took me a while to go into her room and start to clean out the few personal items she had slowly gathered in the short time she was there, but really there wasn’t much to clean. 

She had a few plants. I took one and Wanda took the other. Her clothes were either taken by Wanda or Nat and the rest were donated. 

She had some books that had been gifted to her about random things she had found interest in while trying to find herself. A cookbook, a book on herbs and plants she used to read to put a name to the plants on the compound during her walks, and some history books Parker was kind enough to loan her so she could catch up with the world around her. 

The only other thing of significance I found, and didn’t realize was something she kept, was a journal. It was in the nightstand drawer, but it had been hidden under all the other books she had collected. 

Inside, it was a list of notes she made about those she had become close with. 

1. Wanda is from Sokovia and she had a brother named Pietro whom she misses dearly.  2. Nat had a sister that’s on missions across seas and sees her every other month, but they keep in contact when able.  3. Bruce has 7 PhDs but has test anxiety.  4. Tony blast rock music that can be heard 3 levels above. (check songs to see if they spark anything…) 5. Bucky acts like Sam annoys him, but I secretly think they’re just as good of friends as he and Steve are. 6. Steve and Bucky grew up together and from what Nat said, “One looks for trouble the other follows cause he still sees Steve as a 90lb Brooklyn kid.” 7. Sam is from Louisanna and mentioned making a shrimp boil… (Still need to look that up...) 8. Bucky likes to prank Sam and Steve in small ways that they never figure out and it drives them slightly insane. 9. Spiderboy is incredibly smart but is also somehow very naive to the teasing he gets from everyone else.  10. Movie nights are something that everyone gets excited about and they all have very different tastes in movies to show me. So far, I've enjoyed the comedies the most. (Peter picked the movie Grown-ups and some of the things they do make no sense and are extremely goofy, but I think that's why I liked it...)

The list went on for about five pages of random things she discovered and felt were important to know about the team and sometimes even herself. 

But in the back, only found if you looked through each page of the small journal, was a list of things she wanted to try once she felt ready and was given the chance to. 

It didn’t feel right ripping the pages out for myself, or taking the journal and ruining it with my scribbles, so I copied the list in a notebook of my own and added some things I think she would have enjoyed if I was given the chance to show her. 

She only got about 24 things written that she wanted to experience in the real world. Most of which were simple things most take for granted having the choice to do any day. 

Right now I was looking at number seven;

7. Go to a coffee shop and try different drinks with cinnamon in them. Find a favorite, so I can eventually say, “I’ll have the usual,” like they do in the movies. 

It was hard to know what her favorite would have been, but I did the best I could. Eventually, I had a usual at the coffee shop I started the adventure on. 

“He’s back.” The barista whose head was in the pastry display shot up and smiled toward me. “It’s been a minute since we’ve seen you. Life or work in the way this time?” 

“What’s the difference?” I responded though it came across a little more melancholy than I meant. 

Luckily, Trudy, the shop owner, had become familiar with me enough to know it’s just how I talk. 

“Get him the usual, dear,” she said to the worker at the front as she wrapped a muffin and handed it to a customer waiting on the side. 

When the worker just looked at her wide-eyed and freaked out, Trudy laughed to herself and pointed her to another task. 

“Forgot she’s only been here for 2 days,” Trudy’s New York accent was strong as she typed in my regular order. “So. Any big bad guys in the world I should be worryin’ about or do you have it handled?” 

“Nothing for you to worry about, Trud,” I smiled as she grabbed a cup and wrote one of her new names for me on it. She was clever with what she could come up with depending on the day. “Sorry, I haven’t been in. I was sent overseas for a bit the last few weeks.”

“You haven’t come in a month,” she said with a raised motherly eyebrow. 

“Hate to break it to ya, but there are bad guys I have to take care of over here too. They keep me just as busy sometimes,” I chuckled, moving out of the way in case someone else needed to order. 

“Yeah, yeah,” she groaned, grabbing a pastry and wrapping it up for me. “I made a new recipe from my Italian side of the family. Give it a try,” she stuck a sticker on it to seal the bag and came around the counter to give it to me. “Tell me how you like it.” 

“How much?” I went on to grab cash knowing she likely wouldn’t let me pay anyway. 

“Cost ya a review on Yelp,” she pushed it on me more. “I had someone come in the other day and try and cheat the system to get free stuff, and when I wouldn’t budge she lowered my rating on the damn website.”

“I don’t think one bad rating will hurt ya, Trud,” I sighed, taking it and putting the cash in the tip jar instead.

“Eh, I like to counter it with a good one where I can. Plus, I’m running out of fake emails to do it myself. Help a gal out.” 

I laughed knowing she may have been a small hole-in-the-wall business, but she got enough foot traffic to keep her afloat even if she joked about going under if I didn’t give her reviews and tell my friends about it. 

Before I could give her peace of mind knowing I’d help in any way she asked me, the bell rang as another customer came in. 

I looked back absentmindedly and saw a woman with her head down while she talked on the phone, but was kind enough to go to the side and finish her conversation before walking to the register. 

“That drink ready?” Trudy shouted to the back and just in time a barista walked out with the cup of my “usual” drink and handed it off. “I’ll be seeing ya sometime soon, right?” She withheld the coffee until I confirmed. 

“Tomorrow,” I promised knowing I had one thing planned and I knew it wouldn’t be interrupted. 

“Good. Have a good one, Boomer,” she winked and I looked to see the name matched on the cup. 

“What does that mean?” I raised an eyebrow. 

“Something the kids are calling old people like you and me,” she shrugged. “Figured if I was going to be called it, you should too.” 

I rolled my eyes playfully before giving a final goodbye and heading toward the doors. The woman that had come in was hanging up the phone and happened to look up at the same time I passed. 

She had soft eyes and smiled up at me in a polite way before sidestepping and moving to the counter. 

I couldn’t help but stop with my hand on the door handle as I looked at her trying to grasp who she reminded me of. 

She had kind features and her light smile was what made me do a double take. I may have imagined it, but something about her beamed at me in a way that I couldn't shake.

I was snapped out of my thoughts when someone else tried to come in and I quickly opened the door for them and moved out of the way. But I looked in the shop one more time seeing Trudy smiling back at the woman and sharing a similar banter she had with me. 

I honed in my hearing some and caught the middle of the conversation. 

“I would ask if you want your normal order, but it’s been so long I’m not sure if it’s the same,” Trudy teased. 

“The move has been great. Thanks for asking Trudy,” the woman remarked with a laugh. 

It would become creepy pretty quickly with me just staring and eavesdropping in the doorway, so I moved on even if I was intrigued to hear the rest of this conversation. 

I took my time walking to my car since the woman’s face was sticking in my mind. Something seemed oddly familiar of her, but I couldn’t put a finger on what it was. 

________________________

“Hey, I was looking for you!” Sam’s voice sounded as soon as I walked into the kitchen. 

“I’d rather you weren’t,” I said back, going to the trash to throw my cardboard cup away and grab a snack from the fridge. 

“Hardy, har, har,” Sam responded. “But really. I need help with a file I can’t access.” 

“Maybe you can’t access it for a reason,” I gave a smug smile to him as I shut the fridge and took a bite out of the apple I stole from it. 

“You're really channeling that clown energy as Parker would say today, aren't you?” he gave me a straight face before pulling papers I hadn’t noticed beforehand and passed them to me. “It’s just some notes on a mission we did last week, but I need to tweak some things. For some reason, the file isn’t giving me access so I was going to ask if I can go through your account.”

“Have Tony look at your account. Maybe the clearance level got mixed up. He had a new protection server put in the other week and a few accounts were tweaked.” 

“Well, he's not in his lab.”

“Ok,” I dragged out. “Sounds like a personal problem.” 

“Barnes, just let me on your account for two seconds to fix it and then I’ll go and find him. It won’t take me longer than five minutes,” Sam groaned. 

I could continue to give him a hard time, but I needed to get some things ready for tomorrow and wasn’t in the mood to keep up my normal antics. 

“Fine. Where’s your computer?” I huffed, biting into the apple again and waiting for him to bring it to me. 

He smiled like he won, even though I could still say no if I wanted, and grabbed the laptop on the counter and handed it off to me. 

I logged in like normal and went to the file, but was stopped when I came to the same problem he had. 

“What the hell?” I glared at the screen and tried a few more tricks but this new protective program Tony had installed was foreign to me. 

“Damn it,” Sam crossed his arms and sighed. “You’re the third person now. Why won’t it let me see this damn file?” 

I looked at him waiting for him to explain. 

“I asked Nat and Wanda too. No luck,” he shrugged. 

That was strange. It was a file from the mission we had done last week. A thief that had been stealing intel from some division in the SHEILD operations over some classified information, but we had captured and incarcerated the hacker. 

“Friday,” I asked into the void and her voice followed. 

“How can I help, Sargent Barnes?” 

“Why aren’t we able to get into these files?” 

There was a pause as she tried to find the answer. 

“It seems to be in a classification you don’t have access to. Clearance levels are not high enough. Would you like me to call Mr. Stark?”

Sam and I shared a look that showed we were on the same page. There were very few things we didn't have access to, so the system was screwed or not modified after the update. At least that was to hoping it was something that simple.

“No. Where’s Tony at?” I asked instead. 

“He’s headed to the lobby. He has an appointment with Ms. Clark.” 

The name didn’t sound familiar, though there were a lot of people Stark talked to that I never cared to learn about. He was the face of the team anyway, so luckily he handled a majority of the social aspects of our job. 

“Thanks, Friday,” I nodded my head to the exit. 

Sam nodded in agreement and we made our way to the lobby to find him. 

It wasn’t a portion of the compound we were usually in, so seeing people in business suits coming and going always reminded me of the mass amount of workers who never did fieldwork that came and went. 

“Stark,” I shouted once I spotted him at one of the reception desks talking with the secretary that was handing him papers she had just printed. 

He turned at his name and looked at us both confused as to why we would be there. 

“Got a question for ya,” Sam started out. 

“Can it wait? I have a meeting with someone I actually like,” he said sarcastically. 

Before I had the chance to spit something back at him and give him a taste of his own medicine, Sam took over. 

“I need access to a file of the mission report we just came back from, but it’s not allowing me to get to it,” he summed up. 

“Strange,” Tony hummed, looking at the papers he was previously handed as if our issue was nothing for him to worry about. 

“It won’t let me through either,” I said and he eventually looked up rolling his eyes before putting the papers on the counter and giving us his attention finally. 

“Can this wait like 20 minutes?” he asked. 

“It might be because of your new and overly complicated-” I started and once again, Sam saved me from saying something that would probably have Tony ignoring us the rest of the week if I wasn't careful. 

“We’ll wait,” Sam nodded. “We’ll be over there.” 

He pointed to a few chairs off to the side and nodded his head for me to follow. Though I was against the motion, I obliged to not make matters more annoying. I’d give him 20 minutes, but I was just as intrigued by this issue as Sam was now. 

Tony went back to the secretary and grabbed the papers looking through them before grabbing a pen and sloppily marking random things out before handing it back. 

Just as he turned back, he seemed to have spotted who he was looking for to begin with and I followed his eyeline. 

Walking in and looking around marveling at the size of the place before seeing Tony and smiling at him, was the same woman who I had seen at the coffee shop. The same one who was talking to Trudy about a move. 

I must have been staring while she and Tony met in the middle and started casually conversing. She reached into the tote she was carrying and handed Tony what looked like a sweater and a folder, but he only took the piece of clothing leaving her with just the folder still in hand.

My stare must have been unmoving cause Sam nudged me with his shoulder and gave me a weird look when I broke out of my trance. 

“What are you gawking at?” he asked, looking where I was and raising his eyebrows. “Oh, I see.” 

I furrowed my eyebrows and gave him a disapproving look to show his mind wasn’t in the right place. 

“Shut up,” I grunted, slouching some in my spot, but only to show disinterest in an attempt to push him off my case. 

“No, I get it. She’s a pretty lady,” Sam chuckled, crossing his arms and leaning back in his own seat. “Just didn’t see you looking for something like that anytime soon-”

“Don’t get any ideas,” I cut him off. “I saw her at a coffee shop earlier today and she just looked familiar. That’s it.” 

He looked from me back at the girl and turned his head as he analyzed her. 

She was smiling at something Stark was saying and shaking her head about whatever it was he was grinning about. I wasn’t sure what the conversation could even be about, and with the loud echoing space, I couldn’t exactly pinpoint what was being shared. 

“I have an idea,” Sam spoke up after a second and stood up without any hesitance, and walked towards the two. 

“Sam, wait! Stop! What are you doing?” I whisper shouted sitting up and looking around as if someone else was in on this idea with him. 

When he didn’t turn back or let up in his steps, I was quickly on my feet trying to get ahead of him to stop him, but he was walking faster causing us to interrupt the two abruptly and throw them both off. 

“Hi,” Sam smiled kindly at her then back at Stark. 

“I told you I would help you after I talked with-,” Tony started, but Sam patted his shoulder and made him pause. 

“Sam Wilson,” he went on to introduce himself while putting his other hand out for her.  

The woman seemed surprised by the introduction, but she was kind nonetheless and extended her own hand before introducing herself. 

“Y/N Clark,” she smiled. “Nice to meet you.” 

Sam turned to me and she followed his look. I wasn’t prepared to talk to her, but I wasn’t going to be rude and just sit there silently and stare at her. 

I extended my hand as well and she smiled at the motion. 

“James Barnes,” I gave a tight smile, but it wasn’t because of her, it was because I was seconds from punching Sam right in the chest for putting me in this position. 

“Mr. Barnes. Nice to meet you,” she nodded, returning the handshake and it was surprisingly firm. 

I would have paid mind to the detail, but now being in close proximity to the woman, I was seeing features that I hadn’t taken in before. 

She had Y/H/C hair, Y/E/C eyes, and her smile was one I had seen before. She was wearing a bright red checkered winter coat that sat on top of a tan sweater tucked into a nice pair of brown slacks. It seemed fitting for her even if I hadn’t known anything about her. But something in her persona showed she was kind and had a welcoming nature. 

Tony rolled his eyes once again and decided to go ahead and introduce us. 

“Cyborge and Birdman, this is Ms. Clark. She’s Morgan’s teacher. Ms. Clark, these are two of my most impatient coworkers,” Tony motioned to us. “Who I asked to give me a second before I talked with them…” The glare he was giving us pulled me away from staring at her longer than what would have been socially acceptable. 

“Thank this one for the interruption,” I shouldered Sam harshly which he became slightly unbalanced from and gave me another glare. 

“Just seemed rude to not introduce your colleagues,” Sam gritted through his teeth, talking to me when the comment was directed to Tony. 

“It’s fine,” Ms. Clark spoke up, breaking the growing tension between us three, and I immediately turned my attention back to her. “I was here to just drop off these two things anyway.” 

“Yeah, well, I had a few things I wanted to discuss without,” Tony continued, only taking a second in between to send us yet another death stare, “this interruption.” 

“I appreciate what you’re offering, but I’ve already told you I have a job set with another district after this year,” she smiled professionally, and I couldn’t help but smile myself at seeing someone say no to Tony. 

“Yeah, but… Money.” His eat-shit grin worked on the weak-minded, but clearly, she was not that. 

“Money is great and all, but it's not what this is about, Mr. Stark,” she chuckled, readjusting her tote on her shoulder. "Maybe after winter break and I get some paperwork back from the new school I'll be at, we will better understand what I'll have on my plate."

“That sounds like a well-worded way to put this conversation off,” Tony smirked. 

She returned it which proved he was right, but she wasn’t falling for his schemes still. 

“It’s Christmas break, Mr. Stark. Have a great vacation with your family and happy holidays,” she nodded, turning to walk out, but not completely turned away. “You two as well. I hope the world is kind enough to give you all a break as you deserve during this time.” 

“If I know anything about teaching, I know you’ll be needing a break just as much,” Sam shouted in her direction with a smile. 

She laughed at that and it was a sound that made it hard not to smile as a reaction to it. 

“Happy Holidays,” she said one final time, waving kindly and moving to the exit. 

“Well, she seems nice,” Sam grinned in a teasing manner and turned to face us both by taking her place. 

“This is why I haven’t brought her around here,” Tony sighed heavily and ran a hand through his beard. “Now, what do you two want?” 

Sam followed quickly after Tony, who was already walking back to the lab, but I couldn’t seem to pull my eyes from the red checkered jacket that was out the doors now and walking down the steps. 

It was another feeling that I couldn’t quite put into words…

I unfortunately don't have a release date for the next chapter as I am going to stick to my promise of finishing the series before I post any further. This is just to give an idea of what's to come! As always, any likes or reblogs, and comments (even if just a heart or a gif) makes my blood, sweat, and tears for this series feel validated :') ANYWHO!! I'm excited to share with you all the stories to come with this series and these characters because in writing them, I've fallen in love with them myself.

Let me know if you want to be tagged by sending me an ask here!

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It's being weird with the tagging so please let me know if this tagged you!!

[entomolog-t]

Got an Idea

In the world of "Bite Me" vampires are real tiny parasitic things, right? But they're still vampires. Does that mean there are people like paranormal hunters or something? There's so much potential in these...

THIS IS A GREAT QUESTION!

So to avoid spoilers I'm going to be pretty vague-

Vampires in the Bite Me universe are abnormal but not paranormal (though I will be doing a paranormal au because there is SO MUCH potential so by all means I can try to answer some more trad vampire stuff if talking about the potential au).

THOUGH- that doesn't mean that the tiny lil bloodsucking activity has gone completely unnoticed right? I mean, Aedes can't possibly be the only vampire who's been caught...

A BIT MORE ELABORATION

Vampires are completely normal biologically speaking, in that they don't have supernatural powers. The vampires in the Bite Me universe are essentially just a type of well adapted parasite. Some lil tidbits about their biology-

⚠ Nerd Alert ⚠

They are nocturnal- and hunt at night. Their eyes are adapted for low light conditions, though they can still move freely in the light.

They have an instinctual fear towards light (feels open, the feeling of being watched etc...) essentially to avoid predation by animals or being spotted by humans

Vampires have keen senses (hearing, smell, taste, sight) and phenomenal reaction time in order to help hunt. With their processing speed and keen senses, unless you catch one in the act or manage to corner/trap one, vampires are extremely hard to catch by just grabbing (cough cough, unless a certain lil someone likes to be grabbed) His senses dull when not in active "bloodlust" in order to keep the mind from being perpetually overwhelmed by everything all at once, though even dulled they are remarkably keen.

They are stronger than humans (relatively speaking), and quite durable. They have a high density of fast twitch muscles that helps further bolster their reaction time.

I've dabbled with the possibly of them having mild electroreception (basically in order to have a 6th sense towards heart beats as the muscle contracts) BUUUT I want to play around with the speculative biology with that. Mammals don't typically have an electrosense (more of a fish thing) but there are exceptions- yet those are still water based (with the semi exception of the echidna) so I'd have to do some pretty hefty playing around if I wanted to make it work.

They're allergic to garlic (along with a lot of other foods). Carnivorous, especially blood based parasitic diets leave an organism with an extremely reduced gut (Fun fact, theres actually a reason behind Aedes' slutty lil waist 😭) so they typically lack the ability to digest some harsher irritants, garlic being a big one. The smell is also extremely pungent so, yes, it absolutely will keep Aedes away (though it would have to be crushed)

Vampires in Bite Me do have one ability that feels almost supernatural- they are natural mimics. Vampires have incredible vocal control and ranges. This is incredibly useful to both ward off predators and lure in prey. Because of this- there are some typical tactics they use to avoid being caught (Some in more remote regions will mimic a rattlesnake rattle to deter a person from coming closer if they get spotted- and are usually able to slip away while the human calls pest control). This skill has led to both folklore and urban legends, about weird sounds occurring in strange locations. With their speed and skills in avoiding detection, a person would likely assume their house is haunted well before thinking theres a little vampire running around their house

Typically their bite is mildly numbing- though a very small number of people have a mutation that makes the numbing nearly completely ineffective (June being one of them). In that case, the numbing tends to work against its intended purpose- the numbing instead being noticeably tingling, and without the numbing agent, the anticoagulation factors and vasodilators within the saliva increase sensation in tandem with the increased bloodflow to the bite area, as well as giving the overall area a warm sensation.

WHEW

That was a chunky lore dump.

[kaylinalexanderbooks]

Hair for the brown ask game?

Thanks for the ask!! (From this world building ask game).

Answering for Alium, the alternate dimension in The Secret Portal.

HAIR - What kinds of discrimination are there? Are they the same as reality?

Oh. OH THIS IS A DOOZY

Ok alright.

The world in terms of culture is all pretty happy to co-exist. There are 10 Sectors but no one really cares where you're from. It's not uncommon for people to be of various cultural descent and you can go anywhere in the world and it won't have a completely monogamous population. So for the most part, racism/xenophobia/any kind of discrimination of culture or origin isn't really a thing.

Same goes for homophobia/transphobia/sexism. Not really a thing. I've kind of in the process of fixing surnames so women don't have to change their names in a M/F relationship and the children can have the names of either parent or both. I did make it a little patriarchal, but I'm working on it.

This isn't to say no one in Alium holds these prejudices. It's just not widespread or institutionalized.

Now ableism - that's the big one. In terms of disabilities that actually exist, there's a lot of technology available for accomodation. Stairs aren't a thing, so people who couldn't use stairs to begin with will be fine. There are gloves/sleeves/etc to help translate gesture-based languages to speech - though they are completely optional to the individual and not enforced. Any real-disability accommodations actually are taught to be entirely up to the individual, who can reject them and not be shamed or mocked for doing so. There's no push - they're just there.

But then come the powers. This is where the root of the discrimination is in TSP.

There are ones specific to a power - such as stereotypes. Telepaths, for example, are stereotyped to be mentally unstable, and most psychological hospitals are populated with telepaths. Telepaths often have to wear dampeners in certain locations. Teleporters can also be warded off. As soon as they're identified, chronokinetics (time manipulants) have their time traveling power suppressed, limited to only smaller changes.

The Class system for power rarity is also sometimes misinterpreted as a hierarchy by those who want to be seen as better for having a more rare power. In general, there are individuals who believe Their Power, or only specific powers, are superior. People with flying and intangibility and other less practical powers can be seen as inferior. Same goes for differing Levels of power - some people don't have the potential for higher abilities.

There are also traditional jobs they are expected to take. Those with superstrength should go into physical work and terrakinetics into construction.

But the most prominent is the Inutilia - the name given to those who never develop powers. If you know your Latin roots, you'd know this means useless. This is a relatively recent mutation where an Alii never develops powers - and in this society this is seen as a disability. This is where the ableism comes in. Society doesn't see a point to them.

The Big Conflict is the prejudice of the Inutilia. After decades of violence toward them, one group had enough and decided to basically attempt to overthrow the oppressive governments of the world and replace it with a new one. Another group was like "hey, how about we try to solve the prejudice without violence!?" And now the two sides are pissed at each other to say the absolute least.

Second group is the focus. As the series goes on, I deconstruct the bias in its leadership and actual more productive ways to counter the prejudice and promote equity. A lot of power corrupts themes. Hehe good luck to me lol.

So that's the basic overview of it? That was a lot. Working on this is super hard but super interesting. Figuring out all the social implications, bias, etc is a LOT. A lot of research too.

Hope that was a sufficient answer lol.

TSP intro

TSP tag list (ask to be +/-): @thepeculiarbird @illarian-rambling @televisionjester @fairy-tales-of-yesterday

[planetsandstarsandstuff]

Thoughts on Chiron in synastry?

I actually just read the book 'Chiron in Love: The Astrology of Envy, Rage, Compassion and Wisdom' (2023) by Liz Greene, and I would really recommend it to anyone who wants to do a deep dive on Chiron in synastry! The book is based on a seminar she originally gave in 2005 and it goes over: 'the nature of Chiron', 'Chiron in synastry', 'Chiron in the family,' and 'Chiron in the composite chart'. I don't think I could possibly explain anything from this book better than Liz Greene herself, so the majority of this post will be made up of excerpts (some of the quotes are very long so bear with me). And unfortunately there's a word limit on tumblr so I'll have to split this into multiple posts. This post will be focusing on Chiron alone, and the next post will delve into Chiron in synastry.

In order to understand Chiron in synastry, it's important to first develop a clear understanding of Chiron itself. In her book, Liz Greene begins by giving some background to the myth of Chiron, "The story that astrologers tend to relate to Chiron is his wounding by Herakles' poisoned arrow. But the way it's usually presented today in [astrological] circles is significantly different from older versions of the story. According to the updated version, Chiron is wounded and then becomes a healer because he has experienced deep suffering and develops compassion. I'm not suggesting that this idea is 'untrue', as it's a powerful theme connected with the emergence of genuine empathy and the capacity to turn one's suffering into a creative tool to relate to and alleviate others' pain. Chiron is a potent image of the healer who has acquired wisdom through personal pain. This version of Chiron has learned how to heal others because he has been wounded, and he reflects the process by which life's damage can enhance consciousness and put us on a path connecting us with [deeper] realities. The fact that Chiron can't heal himself is a necessary part of the story. If we could fully heal our own wounds, we might [lose] our compassion for others who are suffering. It's only the ongoing recognition of our frailty and damage that allows the continuance of empathy. There is profound truth in this interpretation. The only problem is that the idea of healing gifts emerging as a product of wounding is not what the myth of Chiron as it has come down to us from antiquity actually tells us. There are [many] sources for myths, and they inevitably mutate over time according to changing cultural contexts...I'm not suggesting that only the earliest rendition of a mythic story is the 'right' one. Myths are living entities and, because they are symbolic, many meanings may be simultaneously 'right', and different readings of a story may be especially applicable at different epochs of history. But when we're seeking astrological insights, it's always worth looking at versions of the story different to the ones we're most attached to, because they can offer us a new perspective on the pattern." (Greene, pp. 28-31)

She goes on to describe the original myth of Chiron, "Whatever version of the story we consider, the most striking difference between the one given in ancient sources and the one told in contemporary astrological circles is that in earlier sources, Chiron doesn't become a healer because he's wounded. He's already a healer, and his wounding not only puts an end to his career but also results in the relinquishing of his immortality. There seems to be agreement about the fact that the wounding occurs accidentally through the agency of Herakles; the [superhero] of Greek myth who is given 12 Labours to perform as a penance for the inadvertent murder of his wife and children, and manages [to complete all of them]. Herakles had just finished the second of his 12 Labours; the fight with the Lernaen Hydra, a poisonous snakelike monster with nine self-regenerating heads. All the hero's spent arrows were covered in the Hydra's deadly blood. After he put the arrows back in their quiver, he set off to visit his friend Pholos, the wisest and most benign of the wild centaurs. Pholos had a sealed jar of wine hidden in his cave which he had vowed to never touch because he knew that wine could drive centaurs mad. Pholos [was] determined to be civilised and loyal to his vow. Despite Herakles' insistence, he refused to open the jar of wine. But Herakles, being somewhat pushy, finally bullied Pholos into opening the wine. The other centaurs [caught a whiff of it]. They went mad from the mere scent of it, seized the jar, and started drinking. They began to tear up trees and smash boulders and hurl rocks, shooting arrows at each other and also at Herakles. Chiron, their King, rushed out of his own cave to stop the madness, because these were his people and he was responsible for them. Herakles meanwhile was pulling arrows out of his quiver and shooting them in every direction, killing many of the centaurs. In the midst of [this chaos], an arrow passed through the arm of one of the centaurs and accidentally struck Chiron. The arrow lodged in Chiron's hip, knee, foot/hoof (depending on which myth you read), all three of which belong to the horse part of him. Because the arrow was coated in the Hydra's [poisonous] blood, the wound it inflicted couldn't be healed. Chiron rushed back into his cave howling in agony. No matter what remedy he tried, his skills couldn't heal the injury. Because he was immortal, he couldn't die the way the other centaurs did. His situation was impossible and tragic. He couldn't function because of his agony, so he lay in his cave screaming in pain. Then a divine intervention occurred. The Titan Prometheus, who had offended Zeus by stealing the god's fire to give to humans, had been punished by being chained to a rock in the Caucasus mountains, where Zeus's eagle visited every day to devour Prometheus' liver. But this torture didn't quite kill the Titan because every night the liver miraculously regenerated and heralded another day of agony. Zeus, displaying his most spiteful face, decreed that this misery had to go on until some divine being was willing to surrender the gift of immortality to Prometheus. There had been no volunteers. Herakles, who felt guilty because Chiron was his friend, said to his father Zeus, 'I know someone who might be willing to do it.' Thus Chiron relinquished his immortality to take the place of Prometheus in the underworld, freeing the Titan from suffering and at the same time freeing himself from his own pain. Before his wounding, Chiron was already a healer and teacher, good and wise, gifted and kind. But through no fault of his own, he is caught in the [crossfire]. He blunders into the middle of the conflict to stop it, but [is not successful]. He can do nothing to heal himself despite all his wisdom and all his arts, because the Hydra's poison is an eternal poison." (Greene, pp. 31-34)

In this myth Chiron is faced with an impossible situation, one that he isn't personally responsible for, "Chiron can't keep his immortality without eternal misery and wretchedness and the loss of his purpose in the world. He can't remain a god. He isn't to blame, and his blamelessness seems to be one of the major themes of the astrological Chiron." (Greene, p. 35) In our natal chart, Chiron points to an area of life where we feel unfairly and irrevocably wounded, and perpetually unable to soothe the pain of this wound. It's where we feel we are "a victim of life" as Liz Greene puts it, being arbitrarily subjected to pain and suffering by something much larger than ourselves, something completely outside of our control and beyond our capabilities as individuals.

She continues, saying, "It's only when Chiron is ready to relinquish his immortality that he is granted release from his suffering. This is a disturbing denoument, and it's understandable that is has been reinterpreted so that Chiron's wounding results in compassion and healing gifts. But I think it's important to explore the myth in its original form as well as acknowledging the value of the latter version, rather than trying to convince ourselves that there will always be a happy ending to this story...The myth tells us that Chiron's wound can never be cured. But perhaps we can try to transform our way of responding to it and turn it into something more [creative and life-affirming]. That effort might itself constitute healing." (Greene, pp. 35-41) She then discusses what it might mean to 'relinquish immortality', "Audience: I think the relinquishment of immortality means a kind of humility in life, and an acceptance of your own death. Liz: Yes, I agree. The sacrifice suggests an acceptance of life's imperfections, the limits of our power as individuals, and our inevitable mortality..." (Greene, p. 47) There may be no 'cure' to Chiron's wound, but through adjusting our perception and reaction to this wound, and through profound acceptance, we can slowly begin to heal.

I'll end this post with an analogy from the book that relates to viewing life circumstances through different lenses, or, rather, through the lens of different planets, I think it's helpful in demonstrating how Chiron actually feels in a chart. Greene says, "Think about your last trip to the dentist. If you view the experience through Saturn's lens, it's an uncomfortable but necessary part of keeping your body healthy. It's unpleasant but you put up with it stoically and leave the dental surgery quite pleased because you've discharged your duty to your oral hygiene for another year. And if you have to lose a tooth or be fitted with a denture, well, that's just the hard reality of life. Viewed through Venus' lens, the important issue is having a beautiful smile, and it's worth putting up with just about anything and paying any amount of money to achieve it. And it's even more rewarding if you fancy the dentist. But viewed through Chiron's lens, it's a terrifying experience because of the expectation of suffering. You'll put off the visit for as long as possible, and the delay may worsen the condition of your teeth. The hygienist becomes a sociopathic sadist and the dentist transforms into the slasher from A Nightmare on Elm Street. If you must have a tooth extracted, it confirms your conviction that life is brutally unfair, because surely they could have saved the tooth had they cared about you enough or if you could have afforded a top-quality private dental clinic. You leave the dental surgery feeling as though you're suffering from PTSD because it was so traumatic. We can bring many different archetypal perceptions to our experience of injury. When we bring Chiron's perception to it, the experience carries all of the connotations of Chiron's myth." (Greene, p. 68)

In the next post, we'll place all of this into the context of synastry.

Greene, L. (2023) Chiron In Love: The Astrology of Envy, Rage, Compassion and Wisdom. Swanage: The Wessex Astrologer Ltd.

[hostdoozy]

I am putting this thought here cause I think a lot about the Kraang and it is sad to see that the Rottmnt community reduced them to nothing more than set pieces or a hivemind (when they're clearly not)

I want to delve into Kraang3's abilities and how they differ from his elder siblings. so let's focus on the most DANGEROUS one out of the trio

Before I continue I do want to emphasise this point cause i cannot stress this enough, the Kraang themselves are NOT a hivemind. 1 & 2 throughout the movie have many instances of being individualistic, acting upon their own desires- the slight expectation being 3, who is obedient and restrained.

Does this mean 3 is not his own character? nope- he's still his own individual. Kraang3 is a loyal soldier awaiting commands from his Eldest brother 1 but with this being said, he's still capable of acting upon his own volition if the situation calls for it. (I.e protecting the key from Leo, then later on his confrontation with Donnie & mikey within the technodrome. )

"But Brew! How does this tie into Kraang3's abilities?"

You might be wondering. Well, my dear reader- it actually does, in some way. Now that I established that the Kraang themselves are NOT a hivemind. Kraang3 on the other hand, is capable of making them but out of other species.

The Kraang are (while not in a traditional sense) a parasitic-like race. They come to other planets for the pure purpose to conquer... to consume.. to mould the inhabitants into their ideal image.

Anything caught within it is assimilated and turned into a mindless drone. However, there is a slight flaw within 3's biomass. Which is the effects heavily vary upon the individual. Some are mutated beyond recognition- while in other instances- it merely clings itself onto the victim's flesh, invading their minds. The changes heavily vary from person to person. We don't know how far his hivemind can go- but his drones are capable of taking commands from his elder siblings at least. (side note: Biomass contains empyrean, the source of yokai and mutants.)

now, What kind of hivemind does 3Kraang create? The answer is kinda unclear. In some instances where YES, both the biomass and the drones act as an 'extension' of himself but in other moments, they're like worker bees protecting their queenbee. (the queenbee in this case, being the actual kraang, not just 3)

3's biomass can also possess machinery, creating unholy and terrifying abominations against nature. With machines- there is no will to conquer. Furthermore, 3's biomass once it reaches a certain point, can drain energy from an entire fucking city and redirect it into a MASSIVE portal into the sky.

ALL of that- is 3's doing. His siblings are incapable of doing this and are aware of it.

So before I get into that- just what the 1 & 2 abilities are? Allow me to break it down into a simpler list. we know that

Both Kraang 1 & 2 have some Shapeshifting properties. While they are not capable of changing their forms entirely, they can at least shift parts of their anatomy. This aids them in combat outside of their suits (I.e extending their limbs or shifting the density of their flesh)

Krang 1 can peer into his victim's mind. This can only be done physically and through his tendrils. It allows him to dig through their memories and gather intel. The process is evidently painful for the victim causing them to pass out upon kraang 1 retraction. (not canon however, it is worth noting that within a deleted scene. Kraang 1 instead forged a false dream in Raph's mind in which Raph "escaped" and ran back home. This was how the kraang were going to discover Tmnt's home initially)

Kraang1 can block mystic powers. Using his frills- Kraang1 can make a specific soundwave that blocks out his enemy's powers- forcing his opponent to face him and rely on their physical prowess rather than "tricks"

Both Kraang 1 & 2 are highly durable. They had buildings, wrecking balls, fucking 'acid'- thrown at them and while the experience is indeed painful, They manage. They quickly recover from that experience and press forward. They're relentless.

3's siblings never showed any signs of the same powers as he does.

Kraang1 knows this.

Throughout the entire movie. He is seen accompanying 3 the whole time, safely guarding his little brother and dictating his every move along the way. 1 knows how important 3 is to their future empire because neither he nor his sister, have what 3 has. It was not just the Technodrome they needed- it was also 3.

So even when the Technodrome was destroyed. it wasn't just the ship he was pissed about. he was also pissed about his little brother possibly perishing. 3 was IMPORTANT to their conquest, without him, They wouldn't be able to finish what they started all those centuries ago. 3's powers are crucial for their empire.

"you ruined everything!"

1 truly meant it when he said that. He admitted to defeat but retracted that statement with "You think you've won, you wretched little pest." - To sum up this moment, The dude is seething. He is coping that some teenagers outwitted him and killed his little brother, putting a cork in HIS plans. Even with the knowledge that his sister is alive back on earth. There won't be any way for her to 'reclaim' earth- since the two most essential things have been blown up to smithereens.

To conclude this weird tangent.

While Kraang1 is the eldest sibling/the leader. Kraang3 is the more dangerous one because of how he unique abilities. Without him, things would turn out very differently

also- completely unrelated, 3 reminds me of the homophobic dog meme.

okay, that is all. for now.

[cipheramnesia]

I started "A Girl & Her Dog" but just put a bunch of things together so I need to start it over. Or do I? Maybe things changed since last time. I consider any margin under five percent effectively a tie.

Propaganda under the cut.

Saw Down Heaven: The sequel to a Nanowrimo novel, Girl Bites God, picks up the story with Alice Buzzsaw, the reanimated corpse of one of the religious zealots killed last novel, who has become home to a small colony of emotionally sensitive mutant tapeworms. She is taken in by "Iggy," a disabled superstring mechanic who is trying to separate her neighborhood from the authorian oppression of the FCC grid, which helps to prevent the physical world from experiencing a sudden catastrophic entropic collapse but is also used to rigorously oppress the ability of the US population to experience free thought. In the same neighborhood lives AthenA6, former involuntarily institutionalized experimental guinea pig, now subject of a resumed national manhunt due to her ability to process the disruptive anomalous energy trying to destroy all physical matter, ever since the last FCC chairman was killed by a mutated video spider. This is enough of an excuse to lay seige to the upstart off grid community, but they'll have to contend with Alice Buzzsaw, AthenA6, and other locals like Fireball Jill who don't want any cops on their streets. Ghastly, gory anarchy.

A Girl And Her Dog: Intentionally rude and obviously reactive counter to Harlan Ellison's "A Boy And His Dog," not to mention purposefully arrogant to even think of such an undertaking. Roz is a former inhabitant of one of the underground cities on a planet colonized by humans in a far, far distant future which, several thousand years after colonization had the human civilization destroyed thanks to a disaster which resulted in a second sun and a hostile radioactive surface, and the story itself takes place several hundred more years after the disaster. Once imprisoned and abused by the brutal psychic warlord and god eater Viktor Blud, she is returning to his menagerie in the crystal forest for revenge. Her companion is Champ, one of the animals mistreated by Vik, a sort of lizard ant eater pangolin porcupine creature roughly the size of a wolf and with retractable teeth. Champ had a kind of powerful empathic sensitivity that allows him to navigate and sometimes avoid the psychic domination of Vik, and with Roz they have a plan to turn the tables, but it's going to take a lot of dead gods. Luckily, the whole planet is lousy with em. They're joined by Mel, a deserter from the giants teeth valley, formerly a soldier in their dragon tooth army but now fascinated by the road to revenge Roz is walking. It's going to be ugly and messy.

Short Change Hero: Obsidian Bonesplinter made the jump from ensemble ttrpg character to main character of her own world and there's not any going back. Dishwasher at mob front by day, bouncer by night, once in awhile part time knee cap breaker, she's perfectly content with drinking her way through a haze of meaningless sex and violence until a few of her friends from back home show up to visit in the big city. They barely even make it out of the train station before one of the girls is brutally murdered and then they make an even worse mistake: talking to the city guards. Now Obsidian has to untangle the mess of dirty cops and mobsters that goes all the way to the top - which she already knew, but it's a lot different when it's actively trying to kill her and her two friends instead of passively letting her drink and fight herself to death. A hardboiled detective story in a noir fantasy setting. The only thing shorter than Obsidian is her temper.

[muzzleroars]

I LOVE YOUR ULTKILL THOUGHTS THEY ARE SO TASTEY! you've talked a bit about how you feel v1 has become more animal than machine through countless reiterations and modifications- care to elaborate?

aaaa thank you!!! and yes i absolutely want to elaborate this little guy has such a distinct character in my head!!

as a prototype, v1 has a lot about it that remains unfinished or imperfect, especially considering it was an entirely new model type without any previous iterations to use as a template. as such, not all of it works properly or works as it would have if it had actually reached production - its external blood ports are an example of this, vulnerabilities that surely would have been worked out if the v series had gotten its chance. similarly, its mind was also a work in progress, a completely new computer built from the ground up to create a brain sophisticated enough to control fluid movements, make thousands of snap decisions, and keep track of every consideration on a chaotic battlefield. and they built it that quantum mind, but i doubt they fully understood how much that processing power could really do.

v1's mind is meant to have limits placed on it - it is only supposed to care about battle and tactics, the immensity of its intelligence all given over only to understanding war and its strategic needs. however, while some of those stops are in place (i like to think v1 can only read so much irrelevant text and it actually has no choice in whether or not its algorithm cuts it off), these were largely done on the fly and were haphazard in their application, meaning those limitations largely don't exist in its current form. because of this, v1's learning model has gone completely out of control - what remains of the earth in its current state and all the halls of hell further appear to its observation as warzones, and so it devours everything, even the most minute details logged in its mind when it can't know how to stop. and as it consumes, creates and fills thousands of directories a second that it is meant to learn from, it must rework its software over and over to accommodate that growth. new ways of operating, new ways of understanding, new ways of functioning - upon waking, v1 rapidly updates its coding, adding millions of lines into labyrinthine blocks with thousands of errors that it has no way of properly culling. like with a virus, its dna mutates, it begins writing in its own language and its mind grows into something else, it shifts off of its programming as a v model.

and because this happens so rapidly, something in that brilliantly sharp mind changes forever and v1, without understanding the shift, becomes sentient. consciousness is a messy thing to it, suddenly entertaining processes it never should, suddenly wanting to explore hell, to read its books, to wonder at its sights. it starts to want for other things, quietly, its computer having taken in so much information its code is bloated, unstable, and still it keeps shoving in more and it can't count the errors anymore. this is when it chooses to modify itself, reworking its neck so that it may see in all directions but its head is a little loose now. then it tears apart its spine and rebuilds it for the sake of flexibility, but now it's quite difficult for it to stand up straight - it slouches, movement more bird- than human-like. it starts to vocalize to itself, in chirps or beeps, it thinks it has a voice and it recognizes that voice as its own. soon when it's alone, its mind isn't all consumed by fighting, by bloodshed, and it starts to think about things...it's not really introspective or anything, but it starts coloring its weapons, it beeps at the terminals, it thinks idle thoughts and sometimes it sits with those...but not too long. it's kind of. scary. thinking so much. so it moves on, back into battle and what it knows intrinsically as nothing else can.

there is, however, one thing that remains central to it: war. v1's mind may warp and change, but fundamentally it is a being of war and i actually think of that as its primary motivation as opposed to blood - like v2 striving to create peace, v1 strives to forever cause war, it's so incredibly detrimental to its environment not because of its bloodthirst but its bloodlust. it cannot be conservative, it cannot be smart in how it consumes - in another terrible, unchecked quirk of its coding, it does not just engage in war but must ensure it as its purpose for existing. v1 understands the finite nature of its resources, that it will dry up all the blood left in hell, but it tears through room after room because that logic fails before its execution, it is a thought that cannot be acted on. and when it engages, it is without mercy, its programming pushed to the extremes, to hunt as a predator does and rip apart anything that crosses its path. its whole body snaps tight to attention upon any movement, its entire mind calling for war, that it must be hostile and must never stop, never reason, never listen, because war is its function. not to fight one, but to perpetuate one into infinity until nothing remains to engage with.

BUT....and this is where i get silly with it....this falters upon meeting gabriel. the circumstances of their introduction are unusual, which immediately scrambles v1's already messy code - gabriel speaks to it, and it hasn't heard a voice in all this time. in my hc, v1 doesn't understand his words as he speaks the language of heaven, but that matters very little to it - something is talking to it in a language it can't recognize, how fascinating!!! v1's curiosity is tripped, it rushes toward the sound with its new inquisitive nature at the front...but then it reaches gabriel, who is very obviously hostile (but also very obviously a brand new life form that it has never logged). this forces its two opposing motivations to smash into each other, its central war programming immediately firing but, for the first time, unable to fully override its curiosity as the fight begins. gabriel is skilled, powerful, he continues to speak and v1's mind is trying to process way too much, its queue is getting overloaded - if its computer goes one degree over its near absolute-zero, it will surely die in the ensuing failure of thought. so it suspends everything but necessary functions, a short, dangerous lag occurring before it engages with gabriel as a pure war machine, a being with no other purpose, no other thought. and as with every other enemy, it tears into the angel, finishing the fight as quickly as it can since it can't indefinitely keep so much of its coding set to the side. when gabriel drops in surrender, the dam bursts and its mind is once again overrun with opposing objectives - so it stands there, frozen as gabriel screams at it without it able to comprehend a single word. distantly it wonders if he's going to reengage...but he goes just as he came, final words echoing all around it. it stays still for sometime, catching up its queue before it moves on, but things are now radically different in its internal life.

from then on, v1 grows increasingly into itself, into a being made of war but now wanting more, embracing its self-directed thoughts. it has no limits, it doesn't need to be locked behind protocols and purpose. it is aware that this poses a dire threat to its code, that if it allows its mind to grow and grow, unchecked and infinite, it will eventually unravel, it will become unworkable and it will fatally crash...but there's nothing it can do to stop that now. it's the last new thing there will ever be, the last new life, a machine but a creature too, something that walks the line of the mechanical and the alive. it embraces that freedom, knowing that it always would have died and returned to nothingness, but at least in the moment now it is something to itself. it has its own thoughts, personality, interests, life. hell is still forever a place of war, it still reacts on instinct to engagement and hostility, but it's learning it can exist outside of that too, if only for a time.

[lastchancestardomm]

An unwanted info dump about my Twins headcanons (adopted or self-made) about not only them but their species as a whole.

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The Twins identify as Aromantic-Asexual ;; finding no attraction to members of their own species nor any humans. The pair could not care less about the pronouns you may use for them.

Their species are hermaphrodites (meaning they have both sets of male and female genitalia).

The Twins species function somewhat like horses ;; meaning they hatch being fully capable of walking, and they have fully developed senses of sight and hearing. They also have full heads of hair, and are around the size of a toddler (the height of a 3-4 year old).

They are not "born", they hatch. The process of a Warbuxx/Lexicon birth is called a "Cracking" (like the cracking of an egg). The average amount of offspring per brood is three to six, and often the freshly cracked buds begin to tussle with one another ;; often for dominance like in some Earth avians (see Shoebill Stork, Cuckoo).

Failed hatchlings (like the Warbuxx bud) are cannibalized. In some cases, healthy singlets also fall victim to this infanticide.

Budding, much like flowering in carnivorous plants (Venus Flytrap, pitcher plant), is a sign of flourishing health in the Tourmalite species. Many times, using excess energy, their body will create an offspring/s that usually is consumed for self-explanatory reasons upon cracking. In youth, these buds are usually singlets ;; and not fully developed due to immature reproductive organs.

The Twins age far, far slower than humans. They definitely would outlive Earth and still live for epochs beyond that. That's why Ozzal is so god damn old.

** Speaking of Ozzal, he's their planet's God, pretty much. He's the oldest citizen of the planet and it wouldn't be too far-fetched to say he pioneered the planet's civilization.

There are four stages to the lifecycle of The Twins species. Infancy, Juveniles, Adolescence, and Adulthood. The Twins are currently juveniles, and when they hit adolescence they will develop and grow their mutations (horns, wings, antennae, multicolored skin, spots, ect). Then once they finally reach the adult form, the strongest member of the brood will consume the weaker broodlings ;; (this explains why Ozzal is on his lonesome and we don't hear about his fellow broodlings).

Like a reverse version of the Gazorpazorp civilization from Rick and Morty, the males of the species are more refined than that of the animalistic and feral females (have you ever seen a female of the species other than Hunter? Then again she's literally a lapdog).

Power dynamics in the world of the Twins society is determined by the size of the brood. The Triplets would be more politically powerful, as well as more socially revered than the Twins ;; not because they are older, but because their brood size was bigger. Two is closer to one than three so of course that makes the Twins a failure.

The Twins' ability of teleportation is tied to their devices! Their belt is actually what allows them to teleport using what I can only guess is alien technology.

The Twins' species have dense bones. Combined with the headcanon their planet has no water, they will sink like bricks in a swimming pool.

Their planet's lack of water leads to interesting compromises. The Twins' species doesn't require liquid sustenance ;; getting all the nutrition they need through food. Bathing and cleanliness is another poignant staple. Infants of the species take what are basically "dust baths" in powderized crystals, going into a fit as they rub off grime from themselves in the crystalline shards (see Chinchilla Dust Bath). Older members of the species are more conscious of their cleanliness, and never really have the need to bathe. Though when inevitable dirt arises, normally they have a "laser shower", which atomizes the particles of muck. There are also smaller, convenient devices similar to spray bottles that do the same thing.

The Tourmalites can get physically ill by listening to certain music. Something science-y like how the wavelengths and amplitudes hit their eardrums affects their immune system. Or maybe the lyrics they're hearing makes them sick. The Twins' preferred genre is something like techno or breakcore, I imagine. Whenever they fall ill due to music, play some The Quick Brown Fox or OMFG and they'll be right as rain!

The Twins eyes can reflect light like a cat. Though, once they grow into adolescence, they will be capable of of bioluminescing their eyes! Simply meaning that their eyes will glow when they grow up. A majority of the members of their species have glowing eyes, actually.

The Twins have hidden mandibles, like a Praying Mantis. So do The Triplets. Actually, any child of specifically Ozzal has these hidden mandibles ;; usually used for feasting.

The bones of the Twins' species are constructed of Nickel (Ni) metal. And their blood, which is green, is made of an oxidated copper-sulfur hemoglobin. The blue-green color, as well as the partial copper construction, is good for their low-oxygen atmosphere and generally cold planet. Their blood is quite thin as well, so many small cuts they might get drench everything in their green blood.

If The Twins were to pick any Earth crystal as their favourite crystal, they would pick a geode.

Their species has an unnaturally cold body temperature. Like 89°F to 91°F core body temperature, while the average human core temperature is 98°F.

The Twins are very short. Around 4"10. Barely as tall as Jared.

The typically blonde hair of their species is incredibly silky and fluffy. But I don't suggest trying to go pet them willy-nilly.

Their species hair has around four hairs per hair follicle, as opposed to humans who only have one hair. This extra hair used to be used for cranium protection, but after evolution did its thing, the hair serves as a thermoregulator for their brain ;; being replaced by horns once adolescence begins, which in themselves serve a multitude of similar purposes, still including thermoregulation.

Their planet's sun is a white dwarf star! Although, its (quite literally) blinding white color appears a pleasing cyan blue from the planet's surface. White stars are cooler than red or yellow stars, leading to a soothingly chill 99°F planetary temperature.

On Tourmalite, the days last only four hours ;; and the brightly lit nights last thirty hours. Many residents of the planet opt to snooze through the daytime hours during their rest cycles.

The Twins' planet is small, but has four rings encompassing it. The rings reflect the light from their sun, while also absorbing the heat and bouncing it around the cluster of rings ;; heating the outer atmosphere while keeping the surface of the blue-colored planet cool. The dark blue of the planet also helps insolate coolness.

Their species has multiple nipples for the exact same reasoning as cats (and most animals that are guaranteed multiples for that matter). If cats bear litters of multiples, and if the Twins' species is built on the fact that offspring come in multiples, why not?

As I've said before, the Twins' species are hermaphrodites ;; albeit with specialized genitalia unique to their species, like most earthly hermaphrodite animals do. Surprisingly, they reproduce asexually, (basically by cloning themselves, and the Twins look like Ozzal when he was young). The extra reproductive organs exist for convenience sake, as their species is ovoviviparous ;; (producing young by means of eggs which are hatched within the body of the parent and proceed to be born).

When seminated with genetic material, the typically asexual Tourmalites will lose their self-impregnating capabilities ;; and lose the capability to bear offspring. This process is archaically known as "Dominating", and to be dominated lessens one's credibility.

The Twins favourite Earth drinks would either be lava lamps or glowsticks. Lava lamps, to them, is just hot water with jelly floating in it to eat. Glowsticks change flavor based on the color, and they usually bite off the tops and then drink the fluid. As for an Earth drink that humans can consume, the answer lies within the famed McDonald's Sprite ;; so fizzy, so tangy, and it sizzles in your mouth and down your throat. An extra metallic aftertaste due to the soda machine nozzle is only the icing on the cake to the Twins.

Their favourite Earth food? Crayons. Simple and plain. Tastes like how eating plain butter is to humans. Except, the Twins enjoy it because they are weird like that. Other than crayons, Sharpies could also pass as a favourite food ;; their favourite part is to naw on the felt-tip after leeching out all of the ink. As for a favored Earth food edible to humans? They'd say Pixie Sticks. Especially the sour ones. So bitter and sour that the acids for the flavoring could break down the tongue meat if a foolish human is not careful. A perfect mixture of sourness and a tangy candy-like sweetness that hooks the Twins onto this pleasly Earth candy.

The Twins favourite movie they've seen on Earth is Alien. They watched it because, by definition to Earthlings, they themselves were considered aliens. They ended up enjoying it instead of being scared, and they giggled like schoolboys every time the xenomorphs terrified the space crew.

The Twins favourite video game is Tetris. Any version. Both of them are Tetris kings. But god forbid you play a board game with them. Both of them are cheaters and will gaslight you into quitting instead of playing to completion.

The Warbuxxian ascension to adulthood is achieved through a rite of passage known as the Ceremony of the Xorvuẋ. The Overlord oversees the ceremony, in which the maturing broodlings partake in a battle to the death ;; the victor will consume his/her or their weaker broodlings, and be rewarded with a formal adult name.

I think that the Twins ;; no, their entire species, would have a FIELD DAY with a plasma globe (all credit to this goes to twinfanatic ;; the post this was taken from I have since reblogged ;; all credit goes to twinfanatic)

The Twins would sit catatonic and watch a Dream Lite pillow pet projection for hours ;; completely mesmerized by it for fun.

The Twins cannot read. They are unable to recognize either of their homeworld languages nor can they read in English. They enjoy comic books though.

The Twins are polyphasic sleepers (resting in multiple shifts of sleep throughout twenty-four hours). They also sleep in the same bed, and one has a habit of rolling out of it. The other will usually be able to grab him before they hit the ground, while staying fully asleep though.

Not only do the Twins (and their species at large) sink like bricks in water ;; they'll turn into something of a wet cat. Their fluffy and thick hair gets drenched ;; weighed down by the water, and their skin becomes semi-transparent when submerged. While on Earth, the Twins picked up a habit of shaking off like a dog whenever they get wet.

Whenever the Twins blush, their pale faces will get a green tint due to their green blood (although once they get older and their skin gets pigmented, they will no longer have the ability to blush).

The Twins have residual trauma relating to Hunter, so whenever they hear the word, "hunter", they will get very paranoid and may even look around in suspense ;; when they were young, the Triplets would sick her on them as a cruel prank, and sometimes she would successfully leave the pair with scars. Tsk, older brothers.

** Ozzal was from a brood of four. Though, as he was the strongest of them, he consumed his three other broodmates in order to metamorphosize ;; less he would never be able to become a matured ruler, and Ozzal wouldn't want that.

When a ruler, or Warbuxxian of royal blood, has entered adulthood and has consumed his/her or their broodlings ;; it is considered a sign of good fortune for the followers of whomever had conquered the planet. Late-bloomers or those hesitant to metamorphosize are often deemed unworthy rulers, and are exterminated by their followers. Whomever has slain the former ruler gains a royal status by proxy.

The Twins have a slight allergy to limes. Something like a pollen allergy. The smell of limes sends the pair into sneezing fits ;; and if they consume a lime, their throats will get hoarse. It's a benign allergy and it causes zero harm to them, although it is quite annoying.

The Twins' favorite holiday is Halloween. They blend in perfectly amongst costumed children, and tend to pull a variety of pranks on the neighborhoods they visit each year ;; pranks that range from toilet-papering homes, to setting a Superjail creature loose unto a community.

If you recall, I have said that one of the Twins' favorite Earth drinks is lava lamps ;; on their planet, they have a common soda-like drink that is similar-looking to lava lamps. The drink is mainly a flavored (almost all sugar) water, with a pH close to that of battery acid. The top is popped like marble soda, which fizzes the drink.

On the Twins' planet, there is a powder drug similar to cocaine, and is extremely close to the PopRocks candy here on Earth ;; it sizzles when it contacts a liquid and tastes sweet (at least to us humans). Shockingly, normal PopRocks candy does not cause any kind of drug-like effect on the Twins' species. It seems the core composition of both are highly different, despite the obvious similarities.

The Twins think that banana LaffyTaffy is the best flavor of LaffyTaffy. The Triplets, and the rest of Earth, promptly disagree (and the other one of the two ;; he prefers grape LaffyTaffy, but don't tell his brother that).

The Twins cannot handle high temperatures at all. Temperatures any higher than 97°F will cause them to feel uncomfortable, almost as if their skin is crawling. Their species doesn't have sweat glands, rather they have chromatophores (special skin cells that change colors ;; in this context, the chromatophores change colors when they hit puberty like how a baby's hair melanizes when it gets older). The Twins themselves also hate H²O, and they most likely will end up fainting if they aren't cooled off quickly.

The Twins are king Geometry Dash players. They found the game through discovering the soundtrack, and absolutely smoshed the game when they played it ;; all of the levels are complete and they've finished nearly all of the achievements. Their favourite level is Clutterfunk (for both the level design and music).

During a "transitional period" between the juvenile and adolescent stages of the Twins' species lifetime, the changes to both their anatomy and mental fortitude are monumental. The chromatophores will begin to act up and change color, causing their skin to become dry and flaky, and their thick hair will start shedding in favor of horns. They also will begin to have their reproductive organs mature, where the organs do a form pupating ;; the abdominal wall ferments (as if it was a chrysalis) while the reproductive organs break down into what are basically stem cells (imaginal cells), and then reconstruct into a more apt form better to bear offspring with. The entire process of this "puberty" lasts around two to four months.

** Ozzal had encountered Earth once before in his lifetime, during its Age of Exploration. Ozzal watched as Earthlings ruined everything for their own gain, only to die a meaningless death after killing hundreds of natives who've lived there longer than their own family lineage. Yeah, it wasn't a good first impression. When he gifted the Twins his map of the galaxy before they left for their year of vacation, Ozzal censored Earth ;; not wanting his sons to ever meet, let alone interact with such barbarians. But the Twins being the Twins, they headed straight for Earth after noticing the map would deny them the coordinates to the blurred-out dirt planet. Now, the Twins have lived on Earth for nearly ten years, and don't plan on leaving for home any time soon.

The Twins' species has, on average, 124 chromosomes, and four of those are sex chromosomes (as opposed to us having only two). Those four are a repeating chain of Z (""male"") chromosomes and W (""female"") chromosomes. Depending on which chromosome is dominant in the chain, the bud will be the predetermined sex (Z = calmer with shorter hair, masculine ;; W = more belligerent with longer hair, feminine). The gene splitting is simpler ;; the genes of the budder will duplicate and generate a bud.

Other than aforementioned slight behavioral differences, and a difference in hair length ;; the Warbuxx/Lexicon species is very androgynous. Sexual dimorphism didn't seem to touch their species genetics, and so human sexual dimorphism is quite repulsive to them. So breasts, larger hips, facial hair, (and quite obviously separated brows) are seen as "ugly" features.

The Twins' species have prehensile tongues covered in little serrated papillae ;; originally used for scraping meat off the bones of carcasses back in prehistoric times on their planet. Now, the papillae is mostly a novelty, and isn't as useful as it once was.

Reiterating the prehistoric times on their planet, ancient Warbuxxes (the Twins' species) looked similar to the modern versions ;; except they were scrawnier, naked, and looked somewhat like a hairless cat (minus some blonde locks they had on top of their head). They were yeigh height of a Golden Retriever, with a pathetic naked tail. Being semi-bipedal, and those with more drastic mutations were considered more attractive.

Humans used to have a conjoined browline to prevent excessive sweat from getting into our eyes while exerting ourselves ;; though evolution had taken it out after we found out how to automate certain physical processes and how to store coolness. The Tourmalites, who've had a similar evolutionary history to us despite our species "youth", have never lost their conjoined browline due to the species lack of the ability to sweat. With no sweat, there was nothing that ever could get into their eyes in the first place, so the unibrow is more of an accessory feature.

Their species is collectively all called "Tourmalite" (the namesake uncreatively coming from their homeworld (see Yautja, Yautja Prime). Other than the Warbuxxes, though, there is another subspecies under the name as well. The subspecies are called "Lexicons", and they are more insectoid than whatever animal-like things the Warbuxxes are, though Lexicons are still basically the exact same thing. Lexicons usually have mandibles instead of prominent fangs, and often develop speckles when they mature. Some other Lexicon-exclusive mutations can be extra limbs, antennae, or nose spikes. Either species has horns, although Warbuxxes have rounder, more nubby horns than Lexicons ;; but, Warbuxxes are taller when fully grown. Long ago, far back in their ancient history, the Warbuxxes had acted on tensions over the crystalline groves (which are much like Earth rivers and deltas) and declared war on Lexicons ;; pushing them to the brink of extinction. Nowadays, while Lexicons are fewer in numbers, they seemed to have rebound.

Lexicons have a specially venomous bite, with the ammonia-like venom stored in their mandibles. It is a one-use only defense, as the fangs instantly snap off (see Bee stings, Porcupine spines). The ammonia-like properties of the venom causes immense pain at the site of the bite and prevents healing, while also letting bacteria flourish.

The count of horns for either Tourmalite species (Warbuxxes/Lexicons) is determined by the brood size squared. The Triplets, for example, have six horns bored upon their heads. The Twins will grow in four horns ;; and so on.

Buds are more generally considered "parasites" until only a few hours before hatching. This comes from their species' general lack of empathy to pretty much anything else except their broodling\s.

"Romantic" relationships between broodlings are quite common in Warbuxxian (and Lexiconian) society ;; cuddling, on-the-lips kissing, fussing over one's broodling if they do not feel well, ect. Though having sexual conduct with one's broodling(s) is strictly forbidden, and is considered a high-tiering crime ;; often leading to the entire broods execution.

Pile cuddling is very helpful for the mental wellness of a brood. Often times, in family groups with more than one brood ;; younger broods will mix together into one larger pile, which is healthy behavior. As for the Twins and the Triplets, the elder brood often bullied their younger set.

The atmosphere of the Warbuxx/Lexicons home world (the planetoid being dubbed Tourmalite) does not consist of gaseous molecules like our atmosphere ;; rather, it is small particles, or shards, of the elements (see Tear Gas). When these particles collect, instead of turning into a cloud or puddle, it will form a conglomerate crystal. In groves these crystals will form, and it is a staple of the Tourmalite species.

The Tourmalites have acidic gas molecules in their lungs, which deconstruct the tiny crystalline fragments that make up the atmosphere on their planet. Cu, C⁰2, CH⁴, H, and Ne are some of the molecules that make up the crystal fragments they breathe in.

The act of conquering a planet and achieving a "royal" status is very straightforward, actually. The tradition of allowing juveniles to go vacationing for a year is similar to job-shadowing, where those older than them demonstrate which planets are the most favourable to conquer. Once hitting adolescence, the pubescent Warbuxxes will be sent away to go conquer other planets, and be basically exiled from their home planet ;; risking severe ridicule and a tainting of their lineage if they were to return without Overlord status. A planet is considered "overthrown" if the native species is deemed extinct, and it has had the respective subspecies-centric makeover. Followers of the adolescent Warbuxxes are encouraged to move and live on the newly conquered planet. Though, it takes at least the conquering of seven planets by adulthood to consider a member of the species "royal". Lexicons are excluded from this metric, as the subspecies doesn't have a monarchy system ;; rather, having Houses of Power or the like who control laws and such, and less so the public at large.

** / ** Ozzal has conquered nearly 453 planets, both inside and outside the Milky Way galaxy ;; an extremely exceptional feat for someone his age. The Triplets have conquered almost 5 planets, and counting. The Twins, whom are the youngest, have not conquered any planets at all.

In order to replace a royal, he/she or they must be killed off. Those who do not succeed in terminating their Overlord are publicly considered weak ;; although, royals are expected to withhold a sliver of respect for the delinquent citizen, just for the gutsyness.

The Twins species has blood constructed of a sulfur hemoglobin ;; giving their species the green tone in their blood. A blood plasma equivalent is Osmium tetrasulfide ;; an "inorganic" compound of Osmium salt and hydrogen sulfur acid, that is dark brown in color.

Even if their calendar is utmost different from ours, the Twins home planet had faced the Gemini constellation on their cracking day ;; which, in turn, makes the pair gemini's (see what I had done there? they're gemini's, The Gemini Twins, the Twins ;; haha).

The Twins' homeworld of Tourmalite has two languages commonly spoken there ;; tonics and intone. Tonics is quite similar to Pig Latin here on Earth, though the predicate is to be placed before the subject. Tonics is also the commoner's tongue, spoken by almost all citizens. Intone is quite different from tonics, and is quite complex. Intone is the "King's English" of Tourmalite, only being spoken by royalty or those in high power.