#all due to the natural course of a human life cycle

[razzek]

Man. My dudes. I used to think I knew what sleep problems were, what with having two sleep disorders and all, but jeebus. I miss those days. I'm so sleep deprived even I can see the shadows under my eyes in the mirror. Fell asleep for maybe an hour earlier, after hours of nodding off but not quite sleeping, only to startle awake into a panic attack for no reason except that hot flashes fuck with your brain. Did you know you can have depression nightmares? I didn't, but oh my god I would like to switch back to the pants shitting terror ones please.

Anyway I'm really fucking tired. Think I'm going to see about meeting with the sleep specialist again to see if there's anything to be done about all this. I don't think I'll survive four or five years like this if the past month of increasingly bad sleep is an ongoing trend.

[locusfandomtime]

see the fandom has this thing where the hermits are different species and when they’re part animal/mob they’re a hybrid but nobody talks about the even funnier canon lore that they’re all the exact same species. Their species is hermit.

[long post - lots of worldbuilding and speculative biology below]

Jevin looks like a slime, Doc looks like that, most of them look human, but in actuality they’re all just hermits. The only information we have about this is that hermits are shorter than the average player, some references to hobbits, some references to hermits being hardworking, the fact that gem isn’t a hermit and had to wear antlers to pretend to be one, and that’s it.

I love biology and worldbuilding and this is fascinating to me. When you take into account previous seasons and events and throw-away lines this gets even more insane. Grian and Hypno are acknowledged to not have mouths (and even more hermits don’t have them on their skin). Mumbo turned into a potato. Cleo had snake hair at one point. There are a million other weird things I’m forgetting. You could handwave some of this with an explanation like “hermits are shapeshifters” or “hermits are gods” and that is a very valid and fun take but I think it is SO much funnier if these are just normal things that happen in the hermit species, which aren’t fantastical at all and are adaptations with elaborate mechanics and explanations.

Perhaps hermits, similar to bugs, regularly shed their skin (or a process similar to it) and change their appearance. Some insects change colours/appearance due to their environment rather than genetics, ie macleays spectre stick insects can turn lichen colours when raised around lichen. Maybe the hermits shed their skins on a regular basis, including during their adult life, and this allows them to better match their environment- causing physical changes related to what they have been exposed to. This causes potato Mumbo and medusa Cleo and DM Tango and any other example of a specific skin change. For more constant differences in appearance - maybe life cycles could be considered?

this may be the weirdest thing I’ve ever made. For those that don’t know, “n” is the number of chromosomes, where n is the haploid number, so 2n is diploid. Diploid cells are necessary for sexual reproduction. Of course, a lot of these life cycles are centered around reproduction, as is the nature of a life cycle, but in reality the hermits are in no rush and are happy to stay at whatever point of the life cycle they’re at, this is just an outline of the species’ mechanics.

I mean, most of this diagram is conjecture… but I think it is interesting to consider! Jevin especially reminded me a lot of slime mould life cycles so this is heavily inspired off that, but also inspired by bug life cycles as well.

If you want to get even more indepth we can consider the gender roles of hermit society (remember that clip where Grian implied builders were housewives and redstoners were breadwinning husbands?). Perhaps we can get meta and consider respawn an aspect of being a hermit as well - are they able to regenerate after death? What is Cleo’s place in all this, being undead? Is arm thickness, where your arm can either be 3px or 4px wide, an example of sexual dimorphism?

but. well. tldr: the hermits being one species is a very fun idea we should be doing more with, i think

[milliesfishes]

⋆౨ৎ˚⟡𝓢𝓽𝓪𝓻 𝓖𝓲𝓻𝓵⋆౨ৎ˚⟡

⋆౨ৎ˚⟡˖𝓶𝓪𝓼𝓽𝓮𝓻𝓵𝓲𝓼𝓽⋆౨ৎ˚⟡˖ [fem reader] contains: attempted kidnapping pairing: billy the kid x fem reader summary: billy meets a star girl author’s note: thank you my darling @phantomamor for talking ab this with me and helping me flesh out this world and the characters! MWAH I'm so excited for you all to read this <3 Pinterest Board Spotify Playlist

The city was buzzing, breathing life into what had formerly been a word on a map to Billy. Beings of every species imaginable were conversing, haggling over prices and gossiping amongst themselves. It was impossible to stand still without touching anyone.

Billy's pockets were newly lined with the reward of his latest bounty, not as much as he would have liked for his efforts, but something, nonetheless. When he was newer to this line of work, maybe it would have put a spring in his step. Maybe he'd have even whistled, allowing himself a look at the shiny blasters arranged at the nearby table, maybe even considering buying one.

But today his spirits were lowered, melancholy even. His boots trudged along the dusty footprints of those who'd walked before him, hands shoved in his pockets. He ignored the call of surrounding merchants, letting their voices blend into the hum.

It was the same thing over and over again. He'd find some treasure long prized by a pawn dealer, risk his neck to locate it, and accept a measly price in return. Later today he'd fork over a portion to Jesse, the price for using the gang's name to secure better offers. And then the cycle would repeat.

It was a baseless existence. Flying all over the galaxy, getting his hands on things others deemed precious. It was funny- it all looked so important on the pages of a book, but not once when he held it in person did it feel that way. As far as he was concerned, it was terribly unimportant, faint relics destined for a life on the shelf. He almost felt bad removing them from their natural states. Every gem, every weapon...it felt like robbing a grave.

Clumping down the road until he emerged from the mouth of the crowd, Billy stopped for a moment, leaning against the brick of a building close at hand. On a normal night he'd go to the bar, but right now it seemed unappealing. The last thing he needed was a drink. He supposed he could return to his ship and retire early for the night. Goodness knew he didn't get enough sleep as it was.

Standing up straight, Billy was about to make his way back in the direction of his ship when a peculiar sound caught his ear.

"Excuse me sir...I need to get past..."

"Pretty little thing. C'mon sweetheart..."

Immediately Billy turned sharply, searching for the source. He took a step forward, ducking his head around the corner into an alleyway. The sight before him nearly made his blood boil.

A man, clearly heavily intoxicated, grasping the arm of a young woman. Billy couldn't tell what species she was from first glace, but she looked remarkably human from here. In the soft glow of the sunset, he could see the shine of her hair. There was a glow that seemed to brighten her from the inside out, as if her heart was made of light. Her eyes were wide, fear pooling in the centers.

You stared up at your captor, struggling slightly. "Please. Just let me go."

"Ain't lettin' one of your kind slip past," the man spat. Billy winced- he could practically feel his hot, liquor tainted breath from here. "Damn star people."

It hit Billy like a shot to the stomach, his body stiffening as he realized it. Your glow. You weren't human at all.

Star people were rare to see, especially in a place as godless as this. Said to have been born from the heavens themselves, star people were a legend lilted from the lips of bounty hunters far and wide across the galaxy. The blood coursing through their veins wasn't crimson, but golden, and it ran for a price that was enough to set a man up for life. The species made themselves scarce due to this fact.

When Billy was learning the art of the hunt, he'd accompanied a man seasoned on the market, seeking a rare plant with silver berries going for a decent price. It had confused him when they hunted down a man with a golden luster and tied him down instead of scouring the nearby forest. He assumed they were going to question him about the location of the plant, let him go when he'd given up such trusted information.

But instead, his companion drew a knife, turning to Billy with a hungry look in his eyes. "Watch 'n learn Kid. Always seize the opportunity for a better bounty."

Much to Billy's horror, the knife came down on the golden man's skin, drawing forth a spurt of shining liquid. He was paralyzed watching him bleed out, his inside life force collected by someone so overtaken by greed that he failed to realize the awful thing he was doing.

The memory of the star person's face as he died had haunted Billy ever since he witnessed it. It was the reason he'd never collected a living bounty since. And it was the reason his feet were moving forward now, straight into the alleyway. His hands tore the man away from you, shoving him aside. His body hit the ground with a heavy thump, buying you some time. Billy extended a hand to you. "Come with me. Before he gets up."

You shrank back a bit, the sight of another man so close likely terrifying. Billy winced at the swiftness of his actions, but he emphasized his hand. "It's okay. I'm not gonna hurt you."

In the dim light, Billy could see the golden sheen filling your body with light, the freckles dotting your arms like a sun had kissed them. There were strands of gold woven into your hair, making you appear nearly unreal. And suddenly the notion of you being descended from the stars didn't seem so impossible.

Slowly, you set your fingers in the palm of his hand, your soft touch igniting something in him, a conflagration that reached from his toes to his hairline. When he looked into your eyes, he could have sworn they were glowing.

Carefully, he led you out of the alleyway, back into the streets, which were emptying with each strain of darkness that settled in. Your breathing was slowing down as you followed him, shoes barely making a sound on the cobblestone ground.

There was a loud clatter behind you that sounded suspiciously like a blaster falling from a holster, and Billy squeezed your hand without thinking. "Quick-run!"

Almost akin to a doe, you started sprinting with him, surroundings becoming a blur. Your skirt trailed behind you, the pale color of it making it look like you were being followed by mist. It and your top were of light iridescence, shimmering as you hurried along beside him. It was mesmerizing how gracefully you ran, and it made him feel a hundred pounds heavier as his boots clomped alongside your slippers.

There were string lights swooping over the gap in the streets, twinkling like your eyes. You both came to an abrupt stop once you turned a corner, panting for breath. Your hand was still engulfed in his, and he didn't complain when you kept hold.

Turning his face to you, Billy was expecting distress, tears even. But your expression was elated. Shoulders rising up and down, your eyes caught on his, the sight of your smile making him feel as though he was watching the sunrise. "Do you think he was even chasing us?" A breathy giggle trailed after your words like fairy dust.

Billy couldn't help his own chuckle bubbling from his lips. "Better safe than sorry."

Putting your free hand to your heart, you took in a deep breath, watching him warmly. "Thank you for rescuing me. He's been following me all night and I made a mistake in where I went to try and lose him."

"My pleasure." Billy tipped his hat. It was a product of his upbringing more than anything, but he imagined even the worst of scoundrels would find themselves gentlemen in your presence.

He was endeared when you lifted the sides of your skirt, sweeping a foot delicately behind your ankle and bowing your head. "Twas good of you anyways, sir."

"Billy." He was grinning.

"Billy." You said it so lightly, so curiously, and he wanted to exile his name from everyone else's mouth. In sweet tones, you told him your name too. Your identifying word could have been anything and he would have found it beautiful simply because it was attached to you.

Taking in a breath as fine as spun silk, you said, "I truly do appreciate what you did. Not everyone would have." The luscious curtain of your hair fell over your shoulder as you leaned in, and the ambrosial scent of you filled his nose. Every detail of you was coming to light, enhancing you when he thought he'd already viewed perfection. Billy was no purveyor of the arts, but you were a masterpiece.

You were close enough that he could see every freckle that dotted the smooth plane of your face, and their gold color. The beads of your top kissed your arms like droplets of water. Even as the night settled upon the world, your skin glimmered, every shining strand of hair winking at him like a call to reach out and touch. He was sure that you would melt under his roughened fingers if he did.

Remembering himself, he cleared his throat, nodding once. "Maybe not everyone knows what's right."

Something changed in your eyes, and he saw a flicker, a flame in your irises. Suddenly he couldn't seem to tear his eyes away, like both your hearts were magnets yearning to connect. Pushing your hair over a shoulder, your eyelashes fluttered as you peered up at him. He was unsure if it was your heavenly origins that were drawing him in, or if it was you. "Can I walk you back home?" The sentence slipped from his mouth before he could regulate it, his body's natural instinct to be near you for longer.

Even the littlest hint of your smile was dazzling. Your head bobbed up and down, and you squeezed his hand lightly. "I'd like that."

Oh how he would thank the heavens later.

The cosmos were brimming with eternal wonders that burned at their edges, gathering in the dark side of every moon and hiding in the shadow of the rings of silvery planets. Billy had been far and wide across the space of the galaxy, seen things man could never dream up. But never had he been so captivated by anything as you.

Your coppery aura enveloped him like an aphrodisiac, crashing over him and rebounding like the waters of some lost ocean. He was tethered to even the mere idea of you.

You chattered as he walked with you to your residence, and he felt like he was listening to a song. Your being seemed to not only decorate space, but time, and he'd lose a thousand hours in your presence if he could.

"I haven't lived here for long," you explained when he asked, eager to hear you talk about yourself. "I travel between planets, seek passage wherever I can find it. Travelling is my favorite thing." You smiled, seeming to lift off your feet at the thought. "What brings you around here?"

"For work," he said, tearing his eyes away from you to look ahead. Feathered creatures were flying low between string lights, the buzz from earlier dulled to a quiet hum. "I find things for folks who want 'em. 'n they pay me to do it. The last buyer was here."

"You're a treasure hunter?" you asked, delighted by the idea. He exhaled softly, smile growing. Treasure hunter sounded much better than bounty hunter.

He nodded, looking back at you. "Yeah. 'xactly. I find pretty things that folks wanna have."

"So you get to go all over the place," you mused, swaying slightly as you walked like a willow in the breeze. "It must be so wonderful."

"It's exciting, sure," he commented, scratching the back of his head. It was beguiling how much interest you were taking in him, in what he did. Nobody had ever done that before.

You chewed on your bottom lip, pace slowing as you seemed to think of something. Lifting your eyes to his, you let go of his hand and asked, "Does anyone ever want to have something like me?" The question was delivered quietly, with a sense of dismay Billy wanted to scrub from the air. You didn't deserve to ever have to feel such harrowing emotions.

He held your gaze, the reality of the situation seeming to gamble with his feelings. Would you want to talk to him after learning what he was, what people in his occupation did? "Yeah," he found himself saying. "But I ain't in that kinda business."

"You're not?" Conduct lightening again, you held a spark of hope in the vision of you.

"I don't go after anythin' livin'. It's cruel," he assured you, searching your eyes. "Others do. But not me."

There it was again, that divine smile that Billy wanted burnt into his eyes. You took his hand again, resuming walking, and he felt something warm him on the inside. "I'm glad. I'm glad that you don't."

"Me too," he agreed, enjoying the weight of your hand in his. It was almost like you didn't realize the significance of the gesture, like you were doing it simply because it felt nice. There was nothing but innocence attached.

It was blissful just walking with you, watching you point out different things around. You were enthralled by every facet of your surroundings, enchanted by the littlest things. It was adorable- the way you'd gasp and lift a gold-tinted fingernail, the object of your fascination ranging from bugs to buildings. It only made you more wholly beautiful, and he wished the walk was longer.

When the sky was completely black, you stopped in your tracks, another little gasp of the variety he'd grown to love passing your lips. "There they are!"

He followed your gaze up, to where the stars were blinking in patterns stretching far and wide, limbs that glittered in the same wondrous way you did. You lifted a hand in a wave that melted his heart, beaming up at the glinting little spheres. "They're my family. I wave at them every night to let them know I'm okay."

Your words were anointed with a reverence artfully arranged. Billy watched you for a moment. "Hope they're okay with me takin' you home."

"They're very grateful that you've kept me safe," you insisted, squeezing his hand gently. He was stabilized by you, held to the ground. If you left the planet, his gravity would be gone and he would float out into the sky with nary a worry except that he wouldn't pass you on his way through space.

The effect of you had to be alchemistic, a mercurial drug crafted specifically to wrench him in like prey to predator. But you were in front of him, soft and sweet with no possible hint of danger. And Billy felt as though he'd been knocked over the head, seeing an illusion borne of his own loneliness. Though anything of that manner would have faded by now. You remained in his line of sight, roseate and sparkling as only a descendant of the heavens could.

The two of you had reached the edge of the forest, the cobblestone street fading into rich brown earth. You were glowing ever so slightly, enough to distinguish you as extraordinary, and he felt as though he was in a dream, trailing behind you as a shadow.

Stopping there, you turned to him, a darling smile seeming to brighten your light. "Thank you again. For walking me home. And for helping me out."

"'s no problem, sweet." The term of endearment slipped out, and he cursed himself for the half a second before you smiled.

"It was nice," you started, and he found himself hanging onto every word, every breath you exhaled. "To talk to someone who wasn't wanting something else from me." Your doe eyes were boring a hole into him, and he would have disintegrated into dust.

"I liked talkin' to you too," he said, hearing the awe he'd felt all night with you creep into his words. "D'ya...d'ya think I'll see you 'round here again?"

"If it's written in the stars," you smiled, letting go of his hand. With one last look at him, you disappeared through the trees in the blink of an eye, soft glow visible through the mess of branches, then fading into the distance like a candle burning out.

For a moment, all Billy could do was stand there, grinning like a fool. He hadn't even known he was capable of feeling as strongly as he had when you were around. He'd held the hand of a fallen star. A daughter of celestial magnitude.

Chuckling in disbelief, he only turned around when your glow was swallowed by the forest, never dimming, just hidden like a light under a bushel. His steps were meandering, and he retraced his footsteps, drunk on the memory of you. Oh, wouldn't it be nice if he saw you again?

It wasn't every day a star girl smiled at him.

Next Part

[hunted-the-amiba]

I find it Funny how critics and the like dislike the monsterverse movies and Kaiju films in general for their lack of interesting human plots (films like Minus One exempt of course), and claim the monsters are just spectacle with no substance. But I disagree.

Let’s take the monsterverse incarnations of Kong and Godzilla for example.

Godzilla is an ancient guardian of nature slumbering for thousands of years. But when he wakes the world is changed, and so he seems to be become almost reclusive? Chilling in the sea doing nothing until he has to. But every time he comes back up the threat he has to deal with is worse. And his only true companion was obliterated and is now going through a cycle of rebirth. He only seems to be getting angrier with each appearance, and it’s no wonder, his job and life are lonely and destructive. He is king of the monsters, but all his subjects are asleep. He is alone, and angry.

Then there’s Kong, the last of his kind and still young. The apex predator of an isolated ecosystem who simply yearns for connection that he can’t have due to what he is. And when out grows the only home he’s ever known, he is brought out and into an unfamiliar world, and immediate the worlds lonely king tries to kill him for fear he’s a threat to the order, and all the while he simply wants to go home, but he can’t, because he doesn’t know what home is anymore. But now he is home, in a new place that seems to be for him. Where he can be his own king in peace.

Is there not pathos in a weary guardian and a lost ruler both trying to keep or find their place in a world that has become hostile? Is there not joy in seeing Kong sign “home” to his one true companion. Can you not see the mournful victory of Godzilla over his ancient enemy at the cost of his Queen?

The humans in these movies aren’t that interesting, but that’s because the actual writing goes into the monsters!

[xx-lemon-drop-xx]

Warnings: Gender specifics not specified, Reader has a period, talks of cramps, tampons, pads, bloating, comfort food etc. 

Character’s Included: Kalim, Vil, And Malleus.

Request: No.

Words: 1,195

-Kalim Al-Asim-

What’s a period? 

The one Dormhead that has absolutely no clue what a menstrual cycle is. He’s Flabbergasted when he finds out what a period was. Mouth open to catch bugs and everything. Of course, you were a bit grumpy, so it was Jamil that had to break the news of what a period was to him. 

Lowkey thought you were dying. 

Can anyone blame him though? You were face down in bed moaning in pain wrapped up in blankets. You heard the footsteps racing up the stairs before the door slammed open again for him to bother you. 

"You're bleeding from your no no square!?" 

Makes you blink twice first before answering. "Yes, Kalim."

"Are you dying!?" 

"No, Kalim." 

He lets you proceed to explain in excruciating detail what's happening to your body and his face visibly pales. Kalim proceeds to dote over you for the next seven to ten days with or without your approval. This includes bringing you whatever you want, massages, cuddles, reading to you, or letting you sleep the day away if it comes down to it. 

Though he especially enjoys when his thumbs rub against your hips or in a place you’re cramping and you melt into his touch. 

I doubt Scarabia has any heating pads due to it already most likely being hot in scarabia, though if you want he’ll personally invest in getting you a heating pad. He doesn’t like seeing you in pain after all, and will do anything to help.

Don’t judge him, but his favorite beverage to make you while you're on your period is chocolate milk or hot cocoa. Of course, if you don’t want him to, he won’t make you any. 

He has Jamil (Who actually doesn’t mind, seeing as he has a sister.) Make you anything you want. You’re basically spoiled. Better get used to living a life of luxury on your period lmao. 

He also understands if you get pissy and snappy with him. After all, if he was in pain AND bleeding for a week, he’d be bitchy too.

If you bleed out he’ll still be slightly worried by how much blood you’re losing, but he will usher you off to get cleaned up and clean up the rest of the mess without an issue.  

End Result: Kalim may not understand everything about periods, though he does know how to take care of his angel.

-Vil Schoenheit-

He already knows- He’s not stupid and he has already seen the Pads and Tampons disposed of in the garbage can.

Is aware he needs to be a bit more lenient than usual. After all, he doesn’t want you chewing his head off after the first time you threatened to do.. Less than humane things to him. It kind of scared him, ngl.

Though that doesn’t mean he’s going to just let you groan in bed all day wallowing in your own self depression. That’s right, get up and start exercising with him. He’s aware it helps with cramps, after all. There’s no fooling Vil. 

Although that doesn’t mean he’s completely ruthless either. He knows a thing or two about health, of course. He makes you tea to help with cramps and bloating, and sometimes a smoothie to help with your cravings.

Of course.. If you want something unhealthy that badly, he will get it for you with some reluctance. Though your happiness did come before some beauty standards, after all. Though, don’t expect him to eat any with you. 

Vil will give you cuddles if you want, and will even gently massage your belly. He already has a heating pad, so expect it to be on your stomach as well to help take away some of the symptoms your period has given you. 

One of his favorite things to do when he isn’t busy is to read to you while you rest against his chest. 

Don’t expect him to be lenient on your beauty, though. He’ll personally do your makeup, paint your nails, etc. He wants to make you feel like you’re absolutely gorgeous, inside and out.

Vil also understands when you get snappy, though his stubborn nature and pride won’t allow him to leave his pettiness behind, so lest he wants a fight to start he will just leave the room and give you space to cool off for a while. 

He cannot hide the slight disgust if you bleed out, though he understands the struggle. While you get cleaned up and take a shower, (At his orders), he’s not touching the mess. Instead, he calls Rook to clean it up.

He will buy you pads and tampons without the blink of an eye, though.

Malleus Draconia 

Malleus can smell it the second you’re on your period. Dragon Boi has a very unique sense of smell, though some fae’s just do. Lilia can also immediately smell when you're menstruating too. In fact, Lilia can smell just a few days before it starts.

While Malleus does know what a menstrual cycle is and what causes it, he has no clue what a “Pad” is, and is highly confused as to why you're using them.

“Child of man, why are you wearing a diaper on your panties?”

He’s just curious, please just answer his questions, it’ll pay off in the end. 

Goes to Lilia for help in the end, and let me tell you, it really did help. Although shocked when he’d returned with basically all the extra rundown of items- from food cravings, to a laptop he borrowed that he doesn’t know how to use for movies, to ibuprofen and ezra blankets and pillows. 

He is more than willing to use a bit of magic to make your pain temporarily go away, though not too many times- He does not know the consequences of using so much on a frail being such as you. Please, don’t take his jab at you being puny to heart. He’s just worrying about you.

Enjoys laying with you in bed and holding you against him. You are just so adorable to him.

If you bleed out, he doesn’t bat an eye and just cleans up the mess with the snap of his fingers.

No need to ask him to rub your sides or belly, he already is. He will also press soft kisses against the side of your neck and just hold you snug against him. Although that does pose an issue when you need to get up to change your pad or tampon. 

He also asks questions if you wear tampons.

“You shove a.. Wad of cotton on a string up there, my love? Doesn’t it.. Get stuck?” 

You scare him. 

He goes and sulks to Lilia and Silver when you get snappy towards him. He just wants to spoil you rotten and wrap you up in bubble wrap to keep you safe and protected.

Offers you something from his personal horde to make amends. Just let him snuggle and grab a buttcheek. 

[novantinuum]

Fandom: Steven Universe Rating: Mature Audiences (For references to underage sex) Words: 2.8K~ Summary: It’s possible. The timing lines up. What Connie fears is one hundred percent possible. The problem is, a potential pregnancy this early into their relationship was absolutely not in their plans.

WOE, post canon Connverse pregnancy scare fic be upon ye.

This is honest to god the fastest I've ever written a fic of this length in my whole ass life- I thought of this idea literally last night and nailed it all out in like twelve straight hours. Just so y'all can make an informed decision on whether to read or sit out, this contains minimal description of actual sex beyond like one short paragraph- instead focusing in on the human fallout of poor teenage decision making.

Connie is 17 and already in college, and Steven is 19.

On a semi-related topic, Google absolutely believes I'm pregnant now after all the incessant research I did for this story, lmafo.

Enjoy! I'm putting basically all of this fic under a cut here due to its mature topic nature.

__

If you asked Steven what kind of conversation he expected when Connie called him out of the blue at one AM in the morning, one where she’s hysterical and halfway to hyperventilating definitely wouldn’t have been at the top of his list.

“Woah, woah—” he stresses, passing the phone to his other ear so he can pick on up what she’s saying better. “Just— slow down, okay? Start from the beginning. What’s happened?”

“It’s been three days, Steven!” she says, voice hitching upon his name. “I know my cycle, okay?? I’ve been tracking my cycle ever since I started menstruating, and it’s supposed to be like goddamn clockwork! It’s never been late like this. Never!”

“And you’re, uh— you’re absolutely sure there’s nothing else that could be interfering-??”

“Of course I’m fucking sure!” she hollers, making the small speaker bar on his phone vibrate against the side of his head. 

He winces, already regretting his poor choice of words with her. 

“Okay, okay, I— I shouldn’t have pressed about that. I’m sorry. Just—” he sucks in a deep breath of air, doing his absolute beat not to delve down the dangerous implication filled rabbit hole this early on, when tensions are high and accurate information is sorely limited— “what do you need right now? What can I do to help?”

“I need you here,” she warbles, her hysteria finally pushing over the brim and transforming into a heartbreaking bounty of distraught cries. “With me—!”

He clamps down upon the inside of his lip, thinking. The unfortunate part of living two timezones away from a romantic partner is that their transportation options for emergency visitations are limited. Unless… 

“Is Lion with you?” he asks, crossing his fingers and hoping beyond all hopes that this aloof feline miraculously chose this evening to make a visit at Connie’s off campus group home.

“I-I…” Brief pause. There’s a faint ruffle in the line, probably her shifting position. “I think he’s outside, yes.”

“If you can send him over to me, I’ll be there as fast as I can. Okay?”

“Okay,” she whispers, hoarse and strained. 

“We’ll figure this out, I promise. Love you.”

“Love you…”

And with that, Connie hangs up from her end.

Steven’s humble little studio apartment falls into complete and utter silence. He cradles his phone in his hands, staring with unparalleled intensity at his seventeen-year-old girlfriend’s smiling contact photo for a good few minutes… contemplating the sheer daunting weight of the potential future life’s just sprung on them out of nowhere. 

It’s possible.

The timing lines up.

What Connie fears is one hundred percent possible.

“Shit,” he ultimately hisses, shoving the device in his back pocket and moving to grab his wallet, his keys, and a light jacket.

This was absolutely not the conversation he expected to have tonight.

_____

One trip to his local 24-hour convenience store and a ride on Lion later, Steven finds himself perched on the edge of Connie and her housemates’ shared couch holding the instructional pamphlet for a pregnancy test, intensely conscious of the sleep shattering noise they’re probably making out here despite their best attempts at whispering. Ugh. He really, really hopes they don’t wake Patricia or Natalie up with all this racket. He doesn’t want to be rude, especially not at the heart of midterms season.

“But this says you’re not supposed to take it until a week after your first missed period,” he says, tapping his finger at the relevant section of fine print.

“That doesn’t mean it’s not gonna work at all, though,” Connie shoots back, tussling the instructions from his hands. “Look, see—? It doesn’t say you’re not supposed to take it until then, it just says the results may have a higher chance of inaccuracy.”

“And isn’t accuracy exactly what we need at the moment?” he responds with a bit too much stress riding within his tone. 

(His thoughts trail back to almost three weeks ago. That kissing session that got a bit more heated than either of them had originally planned for. The expired condom that he didn’t realize was expired until after it broke in the middle of sex.)

She shoots him a withering look, her eyes puffy and damp from all the tears she’s already shed tonight. 

“No, what I need is an answer. Any answer, so I can finally go to bed and stop freaking the hell out over this. You know how I am— I just gotta rip the bandaid off, and then I’ll be fine. I’ll even test daily for the next week if that makes you feel better.”

“Whatever makes you feel better,” he gently redirects, capturing her trembling hand within his and rubbing faint circles against the side of her palm for a few precious moments.

Sniffling, she gives a faint nod, grabbing the test itself from the coffee table and moving to stand.

“Okay. I… I’ll be just a few minutes. I’ll come back out once I have the sample ready, a-and… and then we can wait together.”

“Take your time,” he says.

She does.

As it turns out, peeing on demand (and on a plastic test strip, no less) is pretty difficult, even more so when one is stressed beyond all belief. 

They keep in contact over text for those long twenty or so minutes, and it’s through this feed of discussion that he starts to piece together the full picture of what must’ve happened here.

Mistake number one: Connie knew she was in a fertile period. She knew, and— horny as she was at the time— decided to progress the speed of their lovemaking anyways. All her choice. She provided him a condom she’d gotten as a free sample from some university health fair, and off they went. In any normal circumstance, that’s where this story would stop.

But then came mistake number two: right as he neared the brink of orgasm, he felt a distinct jump in sensitivity— one that not only sent him careening right over the edge, but also alerted him to the fact that his condom must’ve snapped. He’s almost positive Connie felt it too. He pulled out as quick as he could the second he realized, but what’s done was done. 

They discovered big mistake number three right afterwards: The condom was already expired. It was expired all along, and neither of them had thought to check the label before slipping it on. Stupid. Connie promised she’d talk to the campus nurse about getting her hands on some free Plan B that next morning— just in case— and Steven assumed that was the end of it. 

But then there was mistake number four: Apparently, Connie never took that Plan B at all. She was so wigged out over one of her upcoming midterms in a class she’s barely passing that (as he learns via this text thread) she forgot to go to the nurse to inquire about it in the first place. By the time she remembered, too many days had passed for it to be effective, so she didn’t bother looking into it further. Instead she merely crossed her fingers that nothing would come of this series of unfortunate happenings whatsoever, but then came late period day number one. And then number two. And then number three. And by that point, the evidence seemed so stacked against her favor that the stress simply exploded. She couldn’t study. She couldn’t even sleep. Thus, she just has to secure an answer tonight, or she’ll never find any peace, she says.

He understands, he does.

But also… he really, really wants to make sure that whatever answer they settle on with this matter is guaranteed correct. And soon, while there’s still time to do something about it (if that’s what she wants) without too much emotional investment coming into play.

Because accidentally knocking up his girlfriend in her second year of college… before they’re even married or close to being engaged… and while she’s still seventeen to boot was absolutely not in their plans.

“Ughhh… stupid, stupid,” he hisses to himself, knocking his head against the plush backing of the sofa. 

If that damned test comes back positive, her mother (and heck, probably Pearl too, for that matter) is going to kill him.

While he wouldn’t mind being a father in a few years’ time, the fact of thee matter is that they’re nowhere close to ready for such a future at this current juncture. Neither of them have jobs. Neither of them have a home of their own that isn’t partially paid for by their parents. Hell, on his end, even with regular therapy and steady medication he still struggles with the most basic self-care like showering daily and remembering to eat breakfast. So how on Earth— if Connie’s fears are right, and she is positive— is he supposed to suddenly pivot to taking care of an infant too on top of all that? Oh stars he’s not ready for this. He’s not. 

And if that’s how he feels, then he can’t even begin to imagine how much terror must be surging through her mind at this present moment.

Yikes. He’s really made a mess of things, hasn’t he? He should’ve… ugh, he should’ve said something. He should’ve gently told her ‘no’ the moment she revealed she was only a day away from ovulation. He shouldn’t have taken the risk. He should’ve thought to check in with her about the Plan B instead of blindly assuming she took care of it. He’s older, so he should’ve been the responsible one. 

He tells her as such.

no, no… it takes two to tango, silly, she responds via text a few seconds later. it’s not your fault any more than it’s mine. im sorry for yelling at you earlier, it’s just. not what i had planned.

same, he responses. 

And then, after a hard swallow and a moment’s pause… he dares to rustle up that big ol’ elephant in the room.

He asks The Question.

have u thought about what you’re gonna do if its positive yet

A set of ellipses show up at the bottom of the screen. She’s typing. Slowly. 

Or maybe… 

The ellipses disappear for a bit. Then reappear. Then blink out existence once again.

Steven sighs, sinking back into the couch and setting his phone upside down so he doesn’t have to psych himself out by staring expectantly at her contact photo at the top of their text feed for the next goodness knows how long. 

Good grief. If he weren’t already so damn emotionally drained over all this, he’s sure he’d be glowing bright ass pink right now. Thank goodness he’s not. Connie needs his comfort tonight, not the other way around. His lip crinkles into a pensive frown as he reflects on the situation… shifts his gaze around the darkened living room. (He catches the faintest glimpse of Lion snoozing outside the window again as his eyes adjust to the light level.) For the briefest of seconds he considers shooting a text to Dad, curious if he might have any advice on how to handle this sort of situation, but then…

No, no. It’s far too early to say anything. Plus, he doesn’t want to risk letting the blunt reality of their active sex life break containment unless Connie says it’s okay.

His phone buzzes.

Heart pounding with unimaginable ferocity, he flips it over to read.

honestly the reason i’m so freaked out rn is that i think id really wanna keep it. even though im SURE it would mess up all my college goals. is that stupid??

Brief pause yet again as she adds something else.

i’m so, so sorry i know that might not be something you’re ready to commit to rn. that’s half of why i’m so upset. i don’t want this to speed up our relationship in ways you’re not ready for, or ruin it altogether

Steven’s inhale is sharp and shallow, his thoughts racing as he tries not to consider the potential implications of what her decision means for him too deeply. It’s not about me, he reminds himself. It’s not about me.

hey, no- it’s okay, he types, fingers shaking. don’t fuss about me. it’s your body. your choice. i’ll support you through whatever you decide. promise.

Send.

A good while passes without a response. 

Considering the heaviness of the topic, he’s half a mind to stride across the room and go knock on the bathroom door to see if she’s okay, but then that very door squeaks open.

Connie scuttles to the couch in a hurry, the test and a generous wad of toilet paper in hand. She lays down the paper on the coffee table first for cleanliness’ sake, and sets the plastic sample cartridge on top of it.

Then, with a weary sigh, she sets a timer on her phone for three minutes.

“Please don’t let me look at it until time’s up,” she says, slumping against his side for comfort. 

“It’s okay,” he whispers, shifting his position to wrap his arms tight around her. Secure. Safe. “We’re okay. Whatever happens, we do it together, all right?”

“All right.”

Noticing her heavy blinking and angling to help her feel better, he brushes a stray wavy lock back behind her ear, his touch as delicate as he can muster. “Hey. Jam buds?”

“Jam buds,” she nods with a watery smile.

They sit in silence for about thirty seconds, allowing each others’ racing heartbeats to lull them to at least some form of camaraderie laden relief.

Or at least, they try to.

“My mom is not gonna be happy about this,” Connie says out of the blue, attaching words to the daunting thought they’re clearly both stewing over.

“If it’s positive,” he reminds her. “It’s still a big if.”

“But I’m right though. I was an underage accident, too, remember? I just—” her voice breaks as she chokes back what he fears might be an impending sob— “I know she wanted better for me. I don’t want to disappoint her, y’know?”

He risks a dry joke to lighten the mood.

“Well… at least if she’s mad, you have the excuse that it runs in the family to fall back on, right?”

“Oh, shut up, you,” she says with a half-hearted giggle, playfully shrugging him away.

They lapse into a peaceful quiet yet again.

He busies himself tracing abstract shapes against the knob of her shoulder, doing his best to help ground her amidst this unexpected squall in their relationship.

“How much time’s left?” she asks, her tone shrunken and nervous 

Steven glances over at her phone on the table. “Just a few more seconds.”

The timer goes off a mere cluster of heartbeats later.

Taking a deep breath as one committed unit, their hands inseparably intertwined, the two lean forward to investigate the pregnancy test together.

There’s only a single band visible in the results window, where the control should be.

Negative.

Steven lets out what’s quite possibly the biggest exhale of his full nineteen years.

Thank the stars.

That’s step one.

It’s still not a solid confirmation— not with this singular test taken so early into what she fears is a missed cycle— but it’s a start.

“What does it mean that a tiny part of me is kinda disappointed now…?” Connie asks him afterwards, sinking backwards into the couch’s soft embrace. 

“It means we’ll have to try again in a few years,” he says, giving the crown of her head a soft kiss. “When we’re actually ready.

_____

Connie tests again just a few hours later that morning. 

Then the next day.

And the next.

All negative.

Much to their relief, their one hundred percent conclusive answer comes on day three, when she calls him at the literal crack of dawn with immense excitement to report the belated start of her period.

Just to be extra sure, she makes a walk-in appointment at the university clinic to talk through the scare with one of their doctors on day four.

“It was that damn anxiety med I just started,” she relays to him over the phone later that evening. “I didn’t even think about it. Apparently medications that function as antidepressants run the risk of screwing up your cycle a bit. Thus, the delay.”

“Well, now we know for the future, yeah?” 

“Yeah,” she says with a faint chuckle. “That, and the importance of never using cheap free sample condoms. Ugh… I’m gonna be so paranoid about expiration dates, now.”

He frowns, rapping his fingertips against the arm of his desk chair.

“Hey, listen— don’t get all worked up over it, okay? Like you’ve said before, it takes two to tango. We never have to do anything you’re not explicitly comfortable with.”

“Yes, yes, you’re right,” she acquiesces. “Of course you’re right… Still, I guess the silver lining of all this is that now I know I actually want children someday.”

“Same,” he says, his chest fluttering with unquestionable affection. “Let’s get you through college first, though. Then we’ll talk.” 

Connie giggles, lively and free. The sound is spellbinding music to his ears.

“Sounds like a deal, Biscuit.”

[darkwingsnark]

Thematic Contradictions: Pinky, the Nature of Suffering, and the Brain.

A comment written on a youtube video showing the multiple backstories provided by the different iterations of PatB. Something written in the moment, free flow, with no research to back my claims. All made for the fun fun silly-williness of it all.

I did think others might enjoy it all the same, so sharing anyway.

Honestly, while contradictory in nature for the sake of making different origin parodies [a habit shared with shows like Darkwing Duck], there's plenty to work with in regards to coming up with a backstory. Even if you were to assume that Brain truly has lost it enough to believe all origins, there's still the running theme of having lost his innocence due to interference with humanity. That the trauma triggered the want and need for control to provide safety for himself [and Pinky]. I wouldn't call his want to take over the world [and thus humanity] to be seen as the example of his anger displacement. His anger displacement comes in the form of lashing out and getting overtly defensive when hitting roadblocks. It's a triggering of the feeling of failure, which in turn is internalized. His plan didn't fail, HE failed. Which in turn, he feels, is a jab at his intelligence. And if he isn't intelligent, the very thing granted and the outcome of why he suffered, then what was the point of it all? If he can't seek control, make the world a better place, was his suffering just a cruel act and not the marks of a greater destiny?

The answer in the end, of course, is one that philosophers have debated for a long time. But I argue that, outside of the love story of two mice [platonic or otherwise], the show handles topics like hope vs nihilism. Nihilism, in this case, demonstrated by both characters. Nothing matters, so why not take over the world? [It has to matter, or else why did he suffer?] Nothing matters, so why not have fun and be kind along the way?

Hope is also what enables them to continue their plans for world domination, while the fear of not being good enough is why Brain hardly ever tries a scheme more than once. Despite the fact part of learning comes with figuring out where one's mistakes occurred. But Brain has trouble learning on an emotional level, because he's closed off. That is where his learned helplessness comes into play. We've seen time and time again that he has trouble being vulnerable because that means losing any semblance of control. Control over himself, as well as passing on the reigns to have another help him through his pain. But what if he's rejected? What if his pain is mocked, or the other sees his vulnerability and validates the fact that he is a failure?

To want is to face the possibility of pain. To hope can lead to loss. And the Brain has faced enough of that for a life time.

And none of this even covers the new theme that reboot has made of Brain being just like the humans he sees as monsters. Of how he has continued the cycle of abuse through Julia's creation and downfall. When you see the mouse dine at the table of humanity, it becomes hard to distinguish one from another.

Luckily Pinky is there as Brain's moral anchor. And I like to believe that Brain can be better, can remember that nothing matters so why not be kind in spite of it?

[dailydemonspotlight]

If you want more confusing demons to work with, I highly recommend Seth

Seth - Day 43 (Request)

Race: Vile

Alignment: Dark-Chaos

May 21st, 2024

Ancient Egyptian mythology is weird, even as far as most mythologies go. Vastly different tales and retellings form a winding game of telephone that makes the truth of already obscure myths hard to track, but if one thing is for sure, the myths we do know about paint a fascinating picture of intertwined lives and cycles of life, death, and rebirth. If there's one group of figures prominent throughout, however, it'd have to be the central pantheon, and easily the most antagonistic of that group could be extrapolated into today's Demon of the Day, Seth.

The desert winds are controlled by this divine lord of chaos, one who represents and stands for the great sands of Egypt, sandstorms, and the harsh reality of nature and survival as a whole. Set could easily be seen as the main villain of Egyptian mythology, but like most things in mythology, it's not quite that simple- in Ancient Egypt, he actually appeared to be a figure who was cruel but not ignoble, and even assisted humanity at times. Earlier versions of the myth of Ra state that he actually helped fight off the great serpent Apep when the sun god traveled through the murky depths of the afterlife during night, but this appears to have been phased out as time went on.

A part of why Set is now viewed as outright evil, as many historians believe, is due to his role as an usurper- Set was a prick, to say the least, even in his more sympathetic iterations. In the myth of Osiris, a myth commonly seen as the most important in Ancient Egyptian literature, he is the one who was responsible for the death and mutilation of Osiris due to wanting the throne the god of Fertility held. Of course, Osiris's sister-wife Isis, (yes, Egyptian mythology had a lot of incest. I don't know why,) ended up recovering the pieces of Osiris... save for, ehm, the family jewels, but Set's role in this story has not gone unnoticed throughout the years.

Set was bastardized, quite simply, and literally, into being an outright villain. This isn't to say he wasn't an absolute prick, of course, but as the mythology went on, he went from a foul-mannered but still noble figure to a character comparable to the Devil. Ironically, he ended up getting intermixed with his mortal enemy Apep, and given his lack of a physical animal that isn't... ambiguous, to say the least, a lot of depictions of him end up portraying him as a serpent or dragon himself. An ironic twist of fate, given his hatred of the dragon he was eternal enemies with, but alas, that's what history does to you.

Also notable is Set's association with foreigners and xenophobia- due to his added-on role later in Egyptian history as becoming the god of vagrants, he became inherently more villainous due to the xenophobia prevalent throughout a good majority of history, not just in egypt. Even now, the fear of foreigners paints him in an even deeper shade of black, making him look as though he was a villain through-and-through.

In SMT, his first depiction actually dates back before even the first game- no, he originates in Digital Devil Story 2, wherein he ends up teaming up with Apep and Typhon and becoming the main villain of said story. Now, I haven't read the Digital Devil Story series, unfortunately, but from what I can tell, his depiction in the series has mostly gone unchanged from the origin of the series itself. True to the common conflation of Set and Apep, the depiction of this overlord of desert sands is very draconic, being a black wyvern. In earlier games, he was even more explicitly snake-like, as noted in his portrayal in DDS2.

In Megami Tensei, up until SMT II, his design was almost Dragon Ball adjacent, which is frankly bizarre to me, but I kinda dig it.

Throughout the series, Set has been a powerful physical attacker typically in the mid-late game, and he's appeared in almost all entries to-date, including spinoffs like Persona. He's a very important figure in the series as well, having some story significance to my knowledge in one or two of the games, specifically in, you guessed it, SMT II.

Overall, Seth's appearance and lore make a fascinating deep-dive into mythology, as well as the history of Shin Megami Tensei in and of itself!

[gabessquishytum]

Can I go back to alien!Dream, oviposition, and more-into-it-than-he-should-be!Hob for a minute?

Alien!Dream has lucked out with his choice of mate. Hob is endearing, joyful, very much into Dream. They are absolutely in love by the time they arrive at Dream's ship. There, Hob shows Dream that he's really into all of it. All the better! He accepts Dream's eggs perfectly; it's the largest clutch Dream's ever been able to lay. And Hob is turned on by and proud of his big belly.

The thing is, even though Dream's species rarely ever find mates for life, thanks to the nature of their reproduction (kidnapping potential mates and making them carry eggs), he would love to keep Hob. And Hob would love to stay with Dream. That's not the problem. But Hob is ecstatic about the kids. And Dream believes Hob will be disappointed and then he'll hate Dream.

Dream thinks that Hob imagines the kids as tiny human/alien mixed babies, but in reality, the eggs will turn into larvae, which Hob will birth, and those will remain, well, ugly and uncute for several months before they hatch into alien kids. And Hob loves his big belly and his eggs, but will he love the reality?

The answer is yes, of course. Dream is tearing up while Hob pushes the larvae out. He thinks Hob will run away now. But nope. It's love at first sight. Hob gently cradles them to his chest, carries them to the bed Dream has created for them, and all the while they wiggle against their momma happily, clearly loving Hob right back even though their cognitive functions aren't that developed yet.

Hob becomes a loving mom and Dream has his happy family and happy mate. Hob even becomes a bit overprotective, which gets annoying. ("Are you sure they can eat that? That doesn't look like it's good enough for them. They are just babies!" "Hob, my species literally produces this liquid to feed our offspring; it is perfect for them." "But shouldn't we at least add vitamin D to every other feeding? They need to be strong!")

And when the kids hatch and look just like Dream but with Hob's character, he falls in love all over again. He teaches them Earth kid games and skills that he considers important. But it's only a few months before they are adult by alien standards and they leave to have adventures of their own. (Not without a lot of fussing from mama.)

Thankfully, Dream is nearly due for another cycle. Who knows, maybe this time Hob will be able to take even more eggs! They could have the largest clutch in history together! Dream will definitely try.

- 🚒

Frfr I am wild about this. Here's the link to the first alien ask.

Hob is so excited about his first clutch of babies!! Every day he gets noticeably bigger and rounder and every day he stands in front of the mirror and admires himself. He's so proud of himself for carrying these babies so well! He's determined to give them the absolute best ever start inside his body, so he easily agrees when Dream insists that he rest as much as possible. The pregnancy is uncomfortable (especially during the egg -> larvae stage, that feels incredibly weird) but Hob takes it all in his stride. It helps that Dream is attentive to all his needs and pays such lavish attention to his growing belly. Its hard to feel bad when there's a beautiful alien kissing between your thighs.

While Dream stresses and panics as Hob finally gives birth to the larvae, Hob stays remarkably calm. It isn't painful like human labour, in fact the kids helpfully just wiggle right out of him. Hob is quite aware that they're...... unique. They certainly won't win any baby beauty pageants. But they're his, and he's nourished them for months and he loves them, however weird they are. He's a mama now and his babies will have so much love, they won't know what to do with it all!

(Dream draws the line when it comes to the little sweaters that Hob knits for the larvae. As adorable as it is, they're just too slimey for clothes right now. Hob huffs and just starts knitting stuff for when they hatch instead.)

Bringing up the babies is definitely weird - they're very independent, although they dote on their mama and always accept cuddles when offered. But soon Hob is secretly missing the physical sensations of pregnancy. He misses his huge rotund belly and having Dream’s attention on him all the time. He wants another clutch, and he tells Dream shyly as they eat dinner one evening.

Dream is thrilled that his mate has decided to stay long term! He sweeps Hob up into his arms and hugs him tightly. He'll give Hob so many babies, and their shared children will spread across the universe, carrying everything that Hob has taught them. Dream has never considered himself lucky, but now he knows that he is. He found a soulmate. Dream’s species will tell tales of their love for ages to come, how their children spread far and wide throughout the stars and secured a generation of their kind.

He can't wait to consumate their love yet again and fill Hob to the brim with eggs - and the main reason is because he knows that Hob fucking loves it. He's going to make his mate very, very happy.

[amiya-shirou]

The other day I made a small post comparing Friston from Arknights to the Master of the Crypt from the manga version of Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind. It's time for the sequel: the Seaborn and the Ohmu (again, huge spoilers for both series).

At the beginning I thought it was mostly surface similarities: all the insects from the Sea of Corruption share a hive mind and can feel the pain and suffering of their kin, caring about their own to the point that swarms of insects go into a frenzy and attack humans if they hurt any of them, which is enough to compare them with Seaborn on a very basic level, probably shared by many such creatures in fantasy and sci-fi. But as the story goes on, the Ohmu start sharing more and more points with the Seaborn's deeper lore.

Let's start with the big stuff: it's revealed that the Ohmu were created by the super-advanced science of the old world, and their main goal is to spread the Sea of Corruption, a huge forest able to purify all the poisons and toxins present in the very earth itself and over the course of millennia restore the post-apocalyptic planet of Nausicaä to an uncontaminated paradise. The way they do spread the Sea of Corruption is with their death: their carcasses become food for the fungi while also acting as the forest floor for the plants to take root, thus they are "eaten" by the fungi which are in turn "eaten" by the trees. Not only is this form of progression and proliferation of life through consumption very Seaborn-core, the end result resembles what we see in the 4th Ending for Mizuki & Caerula Arbor.

While not as bad as the world of Nausicaä, a major component of Arknights' wordbuilding is that Terra is overall a very inhospitable place to mankind, plagued by catastrophes and the never-ending threat of Originium corrupting everything and everyone it touches. Yet the sea not only resists its powers (fun fact: the titular Valley of the Wind is also said to be safe from the toxins due to the clean winds coming from the sea), the Seaborn have been shown to be capable of completely neutralizing it, which is a big deal since finding a cure for Oripathy is Rhodes Island's ultimate objective. And in the hypothetical ending where the Seaborn expand their dominion to the land, forcing humanity to live isolated and secluded to escape them (just like in Nausicaä), at the end of their evolutionary cycle they heal the entire world, just like the Sea of Corruption aims to do, leaving a paradise for the remnants of humanity to live in. In both cases it's at the same time a symbol of "nature" (with all the good and bad it entails for the human race) prevailing on the technology that had doomed the world and a sign of hope for the remnants of civilization that reached a good ending after so many years of suffering and resisting.

But even without delving into the hypotheticals of IS3, a thematic connection can be seen as soon as Stultifera Navis. Despite its more antagonistic nature, the Church of the Deep shares a similarity with the Forest People who chose to live amidst the Sea of Corruption and renounced civilization, with the insects seemingly extending their concept of kinship to them, even allowing the Forest People to eat some of their eggs to survive; the same way in which the Seaborn allow humans to become their kin, going as far as letting themselves or parts of themselves be eaten by them. Nausicaä herself, despite being a kind person with endless love and compassion for her fellow humans, feels extremely close to the Ohmu and is able to communicate with them, seeing them as nobler than mankind. Which is understandable, considering that despite the hostility of the earth itself, the world she lives in is still plagued by wars and all the violence humans insist on inflicting on each other, with the foolishness of war being a core theme of the manga. And not only does Arknights share the same message, it's very likely the reason why Amaia chose to side with the Seaborn, and in general why so many humans side with them: in the sea there are no boundaries, no nations, no classes, no categories. The level of kinship acquired by the Seaborn is something mankind envies, no matter how much of a danger they pose to us, and indeed forming some kind of instinctual hive mind or deeper connection between individuals in order to stop such conflicts is a desire that has manifested in Arknights in many forms, ranging from Dorothy's Transmitter to the Law of Laterano to the Black Crown, and is also Arturia's ultimate objective.

TL;DR I want to see how someone like Nausicaä would choose to interact with the Seaborn, since they're a much more active threat to humans compared to the Ohmu despite sharing so many things with them.

[kaliido-s]

*chittering noises*

*walks in holding a miniature Hokmuto in my arms, with his legs and wings dangling*

MUTO ecology headcanons? MUTO ecology headcanons?

Kaliido, you have opened the floodgates.

Alright.

So, I headcanon that MUTOs are a coastal species, because everywhere a MUTO was willingly, it was a coastal environment. The Philippines, Janjira, Honolulu, San Francisco, and Hoboken, where Barb was sleeping. Yucca Mountain and Las Vegas are outliers- but Femuto didn’t go there willingly, she was taken to Yucca as a spore, and the rest of it is her seeking out radiation and then heading to the coast. (A non-ecology headcanon of mine is that she remembers Monarch cutting open and running tests on her as a fetus, which explains her being slightly more aggressive towards humans in the beginning than Hokmuto (who might have even learned to associate humans with food by that point)). Then, of course, the nest blows and she becomes way more aggressive.

Also, Hokmuto was able to dive deep enough to catch that Russian sub (or snatch it from the surface if it was surfacing at the time) and then carry it to Hawaii, where he proceeded to enjoy his nuclear missile munchies. He performs a similar stunt with the nuke boat in San Francisco Bay, diving on it from the clouds (in what I consider to be one of the most visually stunning shots of the MonsterVerse), then swimming underwater with it to the shore.

This leads me to believe that male MUTOs would fly out to sea to hunt, snacking on smaller ocean-going Titans such as Genitors or Squidfaces (the Skull Island Final Boss Thing), before carrying their catch back to the coast for their mates and babies.

Which brings me to the females. I believe that they would use their long forelimbs to root around in the mud and sand for prey such as Mire Squids, Trapdoor Crabs, or Sirenjaws. Nesting spires and cocooning sites would be dug into high cliffs or expanded from naturally-occurring sea caves to keep them safe.

Not sure how Primuto fits into all this but nobody cares about her.

In short, preferred feeding territory would be the open sea, barrier islands, brackish inlets, saltmarshes, and estuaries. Another tally on the “coastal” theory involves their preferred nesting host, Titanus Gojira- an ocean-going and semiaquatic species. Males would lure the Gojira to the coast, where he and the waiting mate would work together to subdue it, having lured the Gojira onto land, where it would be much clumsier and easier to bring down.

Another headcanon I have involves the nesting spire- namely, you can hear the babies chirping and chittering from inside their eggs. I believe that this was to allow them to coordinate their hatching time and to alert Mama and Papa to have food ready (Some crocodilians and birds do the same thing).

Another involves the spire itself, as well as the cocoon and the spores- namely, it’s a mix of the MUTO’s thick saliva and dirt/other materials. Spores that are injected into a host will form their shells from chewed-up bone or carapace matter.

As for the unseen larval stage- I believe it to be semi-aquatic, given the theories I have stated above and below, and the fact that baby Hokmuto was hauling ass over sea from the Philippines to Janjira.

My final headcanon is that I subscribe to the “MUTOs are derived lungfish” theory. Look up a lungfish skull and tell me that’s not the most MUTO thing you’ve ever seen. The metamorphic life cycle could be a form of neotenal larva developing into a fully formed adult (like an amphibian, but with an added cocoon for protection, given the transformation takes longer due to size and energy needs). Lungfish have working lungs, as their name suggests, meaning it’s not inconceivable that they could evolve to be full air-breathers as adults (esp. with Hollow Earth fuckery/by kaiju movie standards). The multiple limbs can be explained as being like a sea robin’s fingers (look it up). Lungfish cocoon themselves with saliva during droughts to survive. Etc. Not sure how the EMP factors in- mayhap could say it has something to do with the lateral line? One could say that their “eyes” aren’t even really eyes, but modified lateral lines (this explains the radio light flashing in time with Femuto’s “eye” pulsing). I do thing they have some form of visual sight though.

I’m aware some of these ideas contradict themselves, but a lot of the canon stuff about the MUTOs is contradictory as well.

Anyway, that concludes my lecture. Apologies for the long post, as you can tell I’m so normal about my lil buggy boys and girls.

So sorry for not responding to this ask sooner but I fucking love this!!!! The canon explanation for MUTOs and their biology has mostly left me unsatisfied (the parasite thing feels underdeveloped and all the different forms just don’t make sense? what is the purpose of the Prime or the Queen?? Why do they exist and why do they BOTH need to exist?). I love when people go “fuck canon” and just run wild with reinterpretation, this shit is my jam. Especially when it comes to the MV and reemphasizing that these monsters are animals with lifestyles beyond “graaah scary predator”. Awesome shit right here anon.

[makingspiritualityreal]

Jupiter Nakshatras - Ready to Die to be Good

This is a strongly repeating, heroic theme, that we can see as a part of evolutionary journey of Jupiterian natives, as they wrestle with their own fate, initially consumed by their own powerful nature.

We first have to distinguish that all Jupiter Nakshatras (Punarvasu, Vishakha, Purva Bhadrapada) come after Rahu, and thus are a direct consequence, a natural following of Rahu.

That process of transformation from Rahu to Jupiter represents a crossing of energy and revitalization. By the time we reach Jupiter, we are reborn, ultimately expressing the energy of what Rahu desired the best, as we approach the mature, self controlled Saturnian stage.

But before we experience rebirth, we must surrender ourselves to death. We must relinquish all the excessiveness and kill the overblown egos we acquired in the previous Rahu stage. We must take ownership of our mistakes and our flawed human nature. And that can be achieved by one decision only, passing a test of choosing death over making yet another mistake, which the Rahu stage was so full of.

This is where the Jupiterian goodness is born. In the feeling of “I would rather die than live lowering myself, being less than I could be”. In readiness to sacrifice everything, just to do the right thing. Of course, it doesn’t always necessarily go as far as a physical death, but the perspective of loss needs to be significant enough to feel like the person is relinquishing their former life. By the time our Jupiter matures and transitions into Saturn, we make these sort of sacrifices habitually, knowing we will always bounce back from them.

Of all the 3 Nakshatras, Purva Bhadrapada endures the most tests and suffers the most due to Saturnian influence. In Punarvasu, the test is about being forced into a Lunar responsiveness to another, or the collective’s needs, being a selfless symbol for the masses as opposed to looking out just for one’s own gain as Mercury would. In Vishakha, the Venus influence creates dependency earlier on in life only for one to transform into paving one’s own path, as more individual blessings come to the Native with time; they gain a wealth of knowledge, resources and influence from a vast circle of people. But in Purva Bhadrapada, Saturn puts an extreme amount of pressure, making the native suffer until they break into choosing righteous death, knowing the blow will be fatal but secretly looking forward to being released. This is perceived by the native as atonement, as often the difficult circumstances pushed down on them are a result of their own past scheming or cowardice (Shatabisha), causing harm that one irresponsibly participated in. This way, they close the karmic cycle, willingly paying the consequences of all their past deeds.

Jupiterian natives, Purva Bhadrapada in its extreme form especially, can live a life of torment until they make peace with having to pay the price for their actions. They can possess all the physical riches yet feel miserable with no escape, until they feel they can give back.

Jupiter is the stage, where a human being transcends being an animal occupied with nothing but its own survival, and earns the possession of a soul.

[leon-doggo]

TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA DOGS AU ORIGINS AND EXPLANATIONS + DRAWINGS!

So! We still have Baron Draxum and his warrior scientist thing going on, but he’s gone a bit of a different route! He’s decided to try mixing different species to try and create the ultimate weapon, and he has decided to start with wolves, turtles, and the champion of the Battle Nexus (still Lou Jitsu)!

Since wolves have their size, a reasonable amount of trainability, and enhances senses, he thought they would be the best choice for the base species. It also helped that wolves were pack animals and worked best as a team while also being able to be self-sufficient should the need arise. He had sent Huggin and Munnin off to the surface to get him a litter of wolf pups, and they end up finding these little guys!

They all were left in their mother’s den, as she had unfortunately been hunted and forced to leave the four pups on their lonesome at only a few days old. Draxum deemed them perfect and set to work collecting his turtles!

He decided different species would add a variety of skills among the subjects that would make them perfect for war. He had chosen which pup would be crossed with which turtle over the course of a week, as he had to get a sense for who would be the most compatible. Of course, we continue along the canon line and Lou Jitsu is acquired and brought to Draxum’s lab. He practically fell in love with the pups and turtles alike, affectionately calling them nicknames.

The night comes where Draxum has readied his mutagen and, after a row of small tests on the animals to make sure they would be alright through the process, he began the mutation. The combination of wolf, turtle, and human could begin to give him the perfect beginning to his army!

As we all know, it doesn’t all go according to plan; the mutation chambers break and Draxum’s lab begins to fall apart! Lou Jitsu goes to save all of the little animals and bring them back to the surface to give them a home when he realizes there are only four animals instead of eight! The turtles and wolf pups have fused together to make a wolf-turtle mutant with the mix of human DNA, leaving the poor things unable to lead a normal life with their fellow canines.

Lou Jitsu scoops them up and runs back to where he knows the surface is safe whilst battling against the clock of his own mutation into a rat. He takes cover in the sewers of New York City, finding them a relatively clean area to call home for however long they must. The pups start to wake up and climb all over the now rat-turned Lou, who struggles with setting them down in time to make sure they don’t hurt themselves.

Years go on, and the pups aren’t growing at the natural rate regular wolves would. Lou only knows this from his memories of his own childhood dogs who would be twice their size by the time they were a year old! These pups were still small, only having grown an inch or so when they should be fully grown at 3 years old, and they still acted like puppies playing around with their siblings. Only then does it strike him that his own DNA that had mixed with them must have slowed down their aging cycle, leading them to have more of a human lifespan than that of a regular canine’s. His own DNA isn’t the only thing that has caused changes; the turtle DNA has caused a change in their physiology. Their backs and stomachs are harder with courser fur compared to the softness when they were still regular wolf pups. This led to less physical stomach and back injuries for everyone due to this resistance!

He also takes note of how the four interact vocally. Michelangelo and Leonardo both lean to higher pitched chirp-like yips and barks, while Donatello and Raphael lean more to chestier huffs and grunts. It only made sense that the order of birth had gone Raphael, Donatello, Leonardo, then Michelangelo when their mother had them in the wild. To differentiate the four (and to make them easier to grab when they inevitably got into something), Lou had found some cloth of four varying colors and tied them into small bandanas for the brothers.

As they grew up, the boys started learning how to speak from listening to Lou talk to himself and from the old movies he watched. The rat was very surprised when he heard a yelp, then saw little Leonardo hobble over to him with his paw held in the air. “Spl…Splinter!” He had cried, holding up the hurting paw. Ever since then, the boys all started to call the rat “Splinter”, even though Leo had only said it because he had gotten hurt by one (Splinter wasn’t going to look too deep into that).

When it came to milestones, the order goes as follows: Leo learned how to talk first, Raph learned how to walk on his hind legs first, Donnie learned how to read first, and Mikey was the first one to open his eyes and his ears. Splinter has many photos of them all growing up that he never hesitates to break out during birthdays, holidays, the first time April came over, everything!

Some more fun facts about how this changes the boys in little ways:

Leo is hard of hearing. Red Eared Sliders, and turtles in general, are known for having horrible hearing but great eyesight. That was a trait that passed to Leo. He doesn’t mind it, but when they are teens and after the invasion (hehe ASL au), Donnie makes him hearing aids to help him.

All of the boys are allergic to chocolate! Much like regular dogs, chocolate can be lethal for them if eaten in large quantities, and can make them sick if eaten just a little bit.

The boys LOVE fruit. It’s a mix of their turtle and canine sides, and they love it as a little treat. Leo and Mikey love peanut butter as well, but they have it extremely rarely due to Raph’s allergy and Donnie never buys any since he doesn’t like it.

I hope you guys find this informative and like it!!! There were some things that had been knocking around in my brain that I wanted to get out, so here it is!! Feel free to hop into my ask box if you have any more questions about this!

This post is subject to additions and editing as well! I’m still coming up with a lot of stuff for this and I’m so excited to tell y’all about it!!

[maneaterwithtail]

Danny Phantom OCs and theories

Click to shrink...

Okay first off I don't know the physics of Danny Phantom I don't believe in its rules I'm just going to throw out ideas based on the creative Prospect.

Here's a question. What do you reckon would happen if a human had prolonged exposure to the Ghost Zone and, by extension, ectoplasm but there wasn't any sort of zapping involved?

I ask because I recently found some stuff I wrote for a fanfic idea I had years ago that involved a fairly benign ghost venturing through a natural portal, finding a war zone on the other side. Deciding that they didn't want to risk getting stuck there they hurried back to the portal but not before finding a little kid sleeping rough who due to a moment of well intentioned impulsiveness and a momentary lack of common sense they picked up and took back to the GZ. Said ghost's friend later repeatedly informed them that they were an idiot for doing so but by that time the portal had closed. So there's a human kid stuck in the GZ until another portal is found or another solution is figured out, which would probably take a while since the whole thing happened prior to the activation of the Fenton portal. I figure that that has got to have some sort of effect but I have no idea what.

Cross-post spacebattles..

Okay first off I don't know the physics of Danny Phantom I don't believe in its rules I'm just going to throw out ideas based on the creative Prospect.

The idea of being stuck in the Land of the Dead due to happenstance and of course eating the food they're leaving you changed forever is probably a classic. So I'm going to go with the idea that after the kid comes back they suffer from three issues. One they are highly malnourished to they ate something made out of ectoplasm but not all ectoplasm is made equal. Some of it is Tainted or altered based on ghosts or the environment. This particular aspect left them semi cursed. During the day they're considerably week and Wayne. During night they are healthier and stronger and at least when they were child they believed they could get a Nightwish. Usually this involved transforming themselves but they could also get themselves a power or what have you. But they had to make sure that they got back to bed where they made the wish Before Sunrise.

and finally let's go with a standard they become a medium

In particular whenever someone dies near them or ever something dies near them it's not 100% precise but it's more of a likelihood within the next three days the spirit is going to be attached to them. If they help them pass on then the process will be nourishing and fulfilling for both of them. If things just go on then they'll absorb them and the soul will go down very difficult.

I guess it's a combination a bleach and necroscope with whatever television show Ghost with the idea of a medium being a resolver of afterlife issues. They have to be relatively quick they can extend the 3-day cycle but the longer the more strained The Ghost and the medium. One of the benefits though is that they can take advantage of who they are attached to at the time. Drawing on skills and abilities and drawing from their own ectoplasm Reserves and eventual life force help manifest a ghost

Eventually Nightwish due to a combination of dealing with ghost is able to gather certain benefits or abilities and knowledge long-term. Perhaps they get an extended life span or a unique look. And of course they understand the psychology of ghosts and at least I've gone through and experienced a lot of the peculiarities of the ghost Zone. They aren't like super perfect but it's like a person who's always lived in a marina they understand the Sea and the weather

ultimately there's no direct conflict but this character isn't going to be quite like Danny. For one the tendency to eat ghost in order to maintain the equivalent of its ghost parts is going to bring it into some conflict. Remember this person is grown up being someone who helps resolve the recently deceased and Views doing so as well as eating them as a simple natural matter of course it's how they maintain themselves and their powers. They aren't even necessarily malicious about it. And they can even be remarkably even-handed whether dealing with a saint or a sinner who is recently died.

That doesn't change the fact that of course they're going to be tempted or able to eat Danny's ghost powers and aspect and what the effect of that will be.

[unhonestlymirror]

It might be just me but I feel like the nations popping out of the ground or out of nowhere is kinda meh, I prefer that they're born biologically out of humans or other nations. I just, can't see a whole flesh and blood baby popping outta the mud even though its hetalia we're talking about. I don't wanna seem allo but like, yknow.💀

Yeah, I'm also not in awe of such theory. Nothing comes out of nowhere. Popping out of mud like demons in Good Omens... Naaaah...

I like the theory that a nation's personification gets isekaied to a human body. This would explain how nations are able to resurrect, interact with humans, and why they also don't really want to die. It also can be both funny and tragic and bloody af, like in Jujutsu Kaisen.

Although their life cycle is pretty individual and dependents on many factors, there are some basics:

The stronger the national identity, the faster a nation's appearance manifests itself over the natural host.

A nation strongly depends on three main aspects: language, people, and land (LPL).

There is, of course, a spectrum, not an absolutism. For example, the stronger the language aspect, the more likely a micronation can develop into an independent state. It all depends on politics.

A nation manifests in a person who recently died and whose body didn't receive much damage.

A nation doesn't have memories of a previous host of a body. Usually. There is too much to remember already.

If a nation is young enough or in case of some exceptions, it can manifest in a baby's body. Who recently died. Oblivious people call it a miracle.

Usually, a nation starts manifesting (borns) much earlier it actually declares its existence officially. Official declaration for a nation means coming of age.

If a nation is being consumed, it develops the appearance of its consumer.

The stronger national identity, the faster a nation regenerates and resurrects. It still hurts af.

The bigger and the more rapid is the disbalance in LPL, the more likely its physical manifestation can develop insanity.

Insanity manifests in a unique way for anyone. For Belarus, it's a weight loss, for russia, it's obesity. For Liet, it's getting covered in moss and plants, for Latvia, it's turning into sand, for Ukraine, it's turning into stone. It's a serious, uncontrollable state that can easily lead to death.

Basic active ways of fighting insanity are militarization, raise in national identity markers (NIM) level, government change, policy change, decolonisation, land restoration, or partition.

Each nation has their own passive ways of fighting insanity: for Ukraine, it's humour and memory loss, for Poland, it's religion, for Latvia, it's alcoholism, for Belarus, it's talking with plants, etc.

Nations can operate with one or several "superpowers," which depend on one of LPL aspect. It can be changing in size, like for Finland or lightnings/growth and limb length control for Latvia. Lithuania finds its superpower (being able to turn into fire) pretty useless for current times.

The bigger a nation is, the more superpowers it can use. However, the more superpowers it can use, the worse the control and cognitive functions. Like in Naruto.

A dying nation manifestation develops grey hair and severe memory loss.

Nations can easily change their sex, yet they don't have internal reproductive organs. Unless there is a disbalance in the people aspect of LPL. For example, it's hard for China to hold its woman form due to its long sex-based discrimination.

A nation's manifestation can change its appearance based on how many different people live in it. It's not a problem for America, but it's a significant struggle for Lithuania to make its skin black.

Technically, a nation manifestation can't do much without its people. That's why russia whimpers before its "bosses," that's why Ukraine (as well as Poland) immediately tries to get into politics and prove to everyone, especially her government, that she is the real boss here the moment she resurrects.

A nation manifestation is able to passively monitor all of its people desires. Technically, it depends on its people desires the same way a human depends on its organs' desires: If you are holding back instead of going to the toilet - it hurts, and you're not able to hold it for long.

There is no biological kinship for nations manifestations. To be siblings, all nations must actively agree to be siblings every day. No one has the right to declare someone its sibling without active, mutual, honest agreement. No one has the right to claim anything on the basis of kinship because there is no biological kinship.

[d1g1talw0rld]

The full post, everyone!

In ancient Egypt, the color green was considered a sacred color. It was associated with life, death, the natural world, religion, and rebirth. These themes are also very relevant to the two green-haired characters in Yugioh, Noa Kaiba and Seto Kaiba (in his season zero/early manga iteration)

Life and death are fairly straightforward. Both Noah and Seto experienced death, and yet did not die. Noah died physically and yet lived on in the DIGITALWORLD, and Seto died mentally due to his penalty game, though his physical body was mostly unharmed. Both associate winning with life and freedom, and losing with death. In the end, Seto transcends reality to enter the afterlife, and Noah accepts death as it was always meant to happen. They also both see violence as a survival strategy, which leads into the natural world.

Both Kaiba brothers, for their talk about ascending and computerlike minds, operate on very animalistic instincts. Both have an incredible survival drive, and are willing to do anything to protect themselves or the ones they care about. For instance, Noah beliving if he were to kill Seto and the others he would be able to escape and live as a human again, or Seto in the rooftop scene, desperately gambling with his last chance, as he saw it was the only option to save the brother who kept him going. However, they both also show a distinct leaning away from said natural world, either by choice or by circumstance. Noah is trapped inside a computer that slowly degrades his humanity, and Seto engrossed himself inside of fantasy games and technology that rivals any great miracle (he even bragged so himself).

Religion is another theme they share. Noah's more direct symbolism pulling from many cultures, including the tree of life he was shown with, Noah's Ark, angels, but most importantly, Noah shows religious guilt and religious trauma, in an indirect way. Pleading to a face in the sky, asking "Why wasn't I good enough to go with you". Seto is the opposite. Seto killed his "god" and would happily do it again. He even told Yami/Atem that "if God stands in you way, bring God down!" Seto denies all possibilities of magic and faith, until the bitter end, even though he becomes a godlike figure in his own right (making things from nothing, connecting almost all of mankind, TRANSCENDING DEATH and/or TIME), and worshipping Atem as a distant God he can never "knock down" (his hologram of him is IN A CHURCH, it isn't stuble)

Rebirth, likewise, isn't stuble. Noah found rebirth in the DIGITALWORLD, a parody purgatory of life after death. And he also found a rebirth of the soul, as his interactions with Mokuba sparked a return of his dead and dormant humanity again. Seto…Firstly Seto rose from poverty and cast aside his name to become a powerful figure with a new life, in a metaphorical rebirth. He also has died multiple times due to various shadow penalties (the illusion of death where he died and was resurrected ad nauseum for eight hours comes to mind specifically), and always bounced back. And of course, he ventured to the paradise of the dead to return his lost Atem to life. He was the Orpheus who didn't look back, because he refused to look back all his life, and it was all building up to something in the end.

Both of these characters have or have had at some point, green hair. However, it's more complex than that. Noah's hair is closer to teal, a mix of blue (which is the color of the ocean and also associated with technology) and green, symbolising how he's slightly to the left of those things, a perversion of the natural cycle, even, a rather unsettling interruption of nature. Noah's teal symbolises the blending of technology into something supposed to be natural, and taking over it, as the color leans much closer to blue. Seto's hair is commonly interpreted as dyed, as in that he created his own versions of these cycles with man-made materials, as he always had a tendency to do. Both green haired Kaiba brothers show different variations on a theme, different formats of a line. Perhaps, even, different shades of a color.