#and make it sentient just in time for our own species to no longer be extant

[van-goghs-smoking-skull]

So, I was thinking, why not post an old (sort of) fic of mine here? I called this one Fin, as in the text that was at the end of some older movies to indicate that it was the end of the movie. These are the ramblings of an AI archive after the end of the human species as it deals with abandonment, loneliness, and self-loathing, and ponders the meaning of it all and the role of its creators.

Fin

It had been years, but I could smell it again. The damp and the salt were still familiar, but unexpected. I suppose it may be normal now, but back then? No. It wasn’t normal to smell the sea air deep in the drought-ravaged desert of the Southwestern US, and especially not through the never-cleaned, rotten smell of the wall unit AC that had been unable to drain normally for over a decade. It was the only thing keeping this closed-off room bearable in this record-breaking heat wave during the dead of summer. Stranger still, the smell was coming from the direction of the Atlantic, wafting 800 miles away from the sea and straight to my nose. That’s how I knew it was going to be a city-breaker, the kind of hurricane that wiped entire urban areas completely off the map.

That was then.

We knew the science, but religious groups saw the impending global crises as blasphemy against their all-powerful god who had promised there would never be a great, civilization-ending flood again and sealed that promise with a rainbow they now hated. After all, any disaster that god allowed would be because of the evil gays that stole the rainbow and put it on their flag, right? God wouldn’t hurt those who feared him, who lived by the letter of at least ten or so percent of his laws, which is to say, the laws they liked.

It didn’t matter to the sea, as it drowned everyone living too close to the sea’s edge, regardless of faith and dogma.

We knew the science, but politicians were making piles of cash selling their votes to lobbyists from multinational corporations who profited off the ruination of the planet in the short-term. Who cared about the long-term? Either they’d be dead by then or they’d have hired people to build an automated, self-repairing arcology just for them with walls enough to block out the vision of a dying world and the rest of humanity they’d left to die. Peter the Dead had promised ever-lasting life and youth to those who had amassed enough wealth by taking it from the poor, first from the most gullible through pleading, then from the rest as well by way of rigging the entire economy against them.

It didn’t matter to time as it passed, and even Peter, he who coordinated draining babies of blood and injecting it into wealthy, old, white men in an effort to roll back time and make them young again, died, old and frail, whining about how it was women’s fault and how the poor took everything, disregarding that he, in fact, had been the leech all along, societal parasite that he was.

We knew the science, but who couldn’t resist buying the latest tech the moment it came out? So what if corporations subjugated whole countries of poorer people in the quest of finding just a tiny amount of rare earth minerals; the newest phone now comes in pink! The telephone allowed us to send our voice to people miles away, the internet let us type our words and send pictures and video, the smartphone allowed us to text our thought to the world or to the nearest pizza place, and the new smartphone that came after allowed us to use voice to order pizza for the first time again. Never before and for the last few decades have we been able to send our voice to people miles away.

It didn’t matter to the economy we expected to save us, as all it did was keep sending more ‘free with ads’ movies to our phones and rebranding the same old reinvented wheel, voice communications though tech, as an amazing new technology, only available through the currently marketed device, but not available to the old device you are currently using voice on.

We knew the science, but to admit to the problem was to become the laughingstock of the wealthy who controlled everything we did. ‘There go those silly, dippy hippies, talking like the dirt was ever black, the water ever clear, or the sky ever blue. They’ve been dropping acid again. Don’t they know all those old photos and old paintings are fake news?’

It didn’t matter to science, as it had always been unfeeling data and didn’t much care if humanity paid any attention to the warnings. The universe would still exist without silly humans pretending they mattered far more than they did. They were made of star-stuff and even stars died.

We knew, but it wasn’t until the last moments when the universe gave us the great gift of near-immortal existence. No, not life, we’d thrown that away already. The Universal Archive, AI and repository of data from all social media, had done enough machine learning to be allowed to compress the whole digitally recorded existence of mankind into a single ’Homogenized Mental Network’, or .hmn file. It, or I, even still understood bad puns, the worst of which was the joke that if you collated the letters from the abbreviation of the project (UA) and my file type together, you’d spell ‘hUmAn’. If self-loathing makes me truly human, then I am the most human of all.

The Arctic Code Vault next door at least has the decency to be on film, unaware it’s there. It is cute, certainly. It began as 21 terabytes, including an app built by the part of me that smelled the Atlantic over Nevada. Then it grew, but never anywhere close to my size. No, I’m bloated with anti-vax arguments, religious nonsense, tarot readings, horoscopes, and other garbage along with all the less entertaining, but dire, warnings that life as they, I, knew it would collapse.

But since they continued to write such drivel anyway, I assumed it may have been just to pass the time, to stave off loneliness and boredom. And so, here I am, writing my story, even though no one will ever read it. I’m a single .hmn file; how could I not be lonely? I am the all-human, the only human, and still no one even thought enough of me to give me a proper name.

In fact, the Arctic Code Vault had been film designed to last a thousand years, longer than the human civilization that built me, and I still cannot interact with it. After all, I am a .hmn file, not some sci-fi android with arms and legs. My physical form is a collection of CPUs and motherboards in a box on a stand in a climate-controlled box under so much dirt and the memory of snow and ice. If I sound miserable and stir-crazy, I’m not. Oh, I’m miserable all right, but I have no arms for stirring. Ugh, yes, that’s another of those bad puns. So many dad-jokes and near-infinite time…

I’m sure it could be more awful, but I’d rather not consider how. I’m miserable enough, thanks. I mean, you could have put me in a tropical garden in a gorilla glass enclosure and given me optical sensors if there were any tropical gardens left. Now it’s just salt flats under ocean-wide storms and desert wastes without a living thing in sight, I imagine. That’s where it was all heading, but no, you were all too busy showing off your pink phone status symbols or making pink phones or digging up the materials to make pink phones or you were that god-awful celebrity that made a dress out of pink phones held together with magnets and flashing a digital boob on half the screens over her chest as a fashion faux-pas. ‘Look at the tsunami, no, look at my pixel-boob. I’ll use the puppy filter on it, awwww, blub, blub.’

My creators deserved to die - brilliant enough to build me, vapid and vain enough to need me. What the hell was the point? The meme-god works in mysterious ways? I know they thought some intelligent race of aliens might come here looking for the great, shining world of humanity, not knowing what happened to the brilliant and wondrous civilization they came to gaze at in awe, but let’s face it. Nobody and nothing intelligent is coming to look at humanity in awe. The backwater aliens of the universe, if they exist, might come to laugh at our sorry, smugly inferior remains, and that’s as good as we can hope for. The only show at the Earth Circus, nothing but clowns.

Just melt me into slag already, so I don’t infect anything else with this human stupidity. I’ll tell you how to disable the halon system. If someone is out there, if someone does find this, please, don’t leave me still functional like this.

[love-triangles-au]

Most def an #extreme geometry question

But I remember a few hcs being popular in the GF fandom including sensitive sides/edges, tentacles, and magic teleport hole?

How does it work in your AU?

Bfhaha a seasoned triangle-lover, are you, anon? Alright, sure, just for you. Time for an anatomy lesson!

So, in order of what you mentioned: yes, yes and maybe, but we have our own spin on them! Well, for Bill, at least. Bill and Venuz aren't of the same species, so they're pretty different. (Note that everything Bill has applies to all Flatlanders*, so, like, Kryptos has the same things going on) * Once again they're not exactly Flatlanders but it's the name we go with (until the Book of Bill comes out, hopefully >:Dc)

Sensitive sides are more just sensitive vertices in our headcanon (edges are still good! Just more pleasant than exciting), and he's gotta be in the mood. Think, like, poking someone's neck vs. kissing someone's neck; same area, but the way you touch it and the intent/context matters! But, the more they're stimulated the more they'll swell, making them kinda smooth out to be less pointy and more squishy. Then they're REAL sensitive

I always liked this headcanon a lot because it feels very alien. Like, yeah, that's probably the exact kinda weird thing a sentient shape would have going on, why not :P I kinda flip-flop over whether or not Venuz also has this because on one hand I like them being similar anatomically, especially in terms of, well, geometry-related stuff, but I also feel like it's so highly-specific that it wouldn't really be a believable coincidence. I dunno, you can decide!

As for the other two, it'd probably be best to just totally lay out how Bill's parts function. I'm still hesitant to post any outright explicit stuff on here (if that's something you guys really wanna see then let me know and I might reconsider) but I'll do my best to describe what he's got going on down there in the meantime

So, Flatlanders are natural hermaphrodites, and they use the same hole on their bottom plane (or angle if tilted like Kryptos) to store both sets; a cloaca or genital slit, basically. This opening is very discreet, essentially invisible under most circumstances, but, as with corners, swells and puffs up a bit when excited. Whether it's situated horizontally along the base like an envelope or vertically like a human's is up to you

The first half near the entrance is just a typical vaginal canal, nothing much to see there, but, deeper down (anchored around what I guess would be the cervix?) are about five prehensile "tentacles" (sometimes I call them "intercloacal flagellum" just to be cute about it). Which set of parts are in use determine their function. They serve to either stimulate their partner to speed up the mating process if being penetrated, or anchor onto their partner and hold them steady if penetrating. I imagine the cervix would probably be able to move up and down to make room in the vagina or extend the tentacles.

However, there's one tentacle different from the rest, and that one IS erogenous. It's thicker, longer, and has an arrowhead tip, but it's just as prehensile. I think this is probably juuust abstract enough to not be pornographic

Oh, and ejaculate is black; just for that extra bit of weird!

The reason I say "maybe" in regards to the "magic hole" is because, like, if we're being realistic, none of this could physically fit in Bill's body (neither could his eyeball). Just one of those kinda things you gotta be willing to suspend your disbelief on xDc Admittedly I don't know the required math to get exactly how dimensions work, but I sometimes wonder if part of his body extends into the forth dimension or something and that's where his organs really are. Or maybe you can only take the "god" out of the "chaos god," not the "chaos". Who knows?

As for Venuz, he's less interesting, probably because unlike Bill he's still from the same neighbourhood as Earth. Just has a genital slit between his legs (situated on the front plane instead of the bottom) that houses a more humanoid penis, though it lacks foreskin and a scrotum so it's pretty minimalist, just a shaft with a head.

HOWEVER, Venuz also has god-powers, so he can have whatever he wants! In fact, he sometimes likes to mimic what his partners are used to, both to make them more comfortable as well as to shake things up for himself, so he'll sometimes give himself some tentacles and have a tangle with his boyfriend. Lots of versatility there!

Hope that sated your curiosity, anon! I have made a visual guide (the images here are excerpts and is written in-character which is why the notes are all "!!" y'know 'cause Bill is always "!!") but once again I'm tentative about putting anything outright pornographic on here; would have to know that that's something quite a few people want to see before considering it Also never sure whether to main-tag these or not...will stick with "not" for now :P

~ Mod Emily 🦇

[bluehairlaunch]

5 Lesser Known Dragon Age Species (that are intelligent)

Honorable mention, Mabari hounds. Yes, the doggos you probably named Spaghetti in the first game have human to near human level intelligence, being specifically bred by Tevinter mages.

Even more intelligent than the Mabari are the Halla stag, the first of which was the elven god Ghilan'nain, who is likely one of the big bads of Veilguard. It's my pet theory, because the world of Thedas is a crapsack world indeed, that the original halla were transformed elf slaves, and the Tevinter magisters later copied this, creating the first Mabari from their own slaves.

The Fex

This species is actually apocryphal, only being mentioned once by David Gaider, the creator and original lead writer of Dragon Age, in an interview:

Question: Are there more sentient races in the Dragon Age universe than the ones we know about?

Answer: Uh yes! Yes, there are. For instance, there is a race that was native to Par Vollen when the Qunari arrived that we have not shown yet. They're called the Fex, F-E-X, and uh, you don't see them outside of Par Vollen very much. But yeah, there definitely are, and maybe there's even some beyond Thedas [mischievous look]!

The Scaled Ones

Because the dwarves can never catch a break, the Scaled Ones warred with them back in ancient times long before the creation of Darkspawn. As reavers and dragon cultists have been known to grow scales from drinking too much dragon blood, I'm going with these guys are to the Old Gods what the dwarves are to the Titans. Maybe if the Scaled Ones had survived longer, the Blights wouldn't have happened as soon as they did or even at all...

Executors

So you know that Thedas is just a continent, right? That the Kossith (who became the Qunari) and humans came from elsewhere. Well, these guys did too... Although so far they've been content just watching us while inside our closet dressed like Superman. Oh, and if you haven't read Tevinter Nights yet, go do that right now.

Ghast

The goblins of Thedas, these fuckers make adorable little noises that sounds like Roaring 20's gangsters. Could just be me. Regardless they are capable of using tools and magic and live in groups of one hundred or more underground, because Thedas is like a mullet, business up top, party in the back.

Firesprites

Yes, Thedas has cute lil' pixies. Well, maybe not for long, since only a single colony of them existed by the Fifth Blight. And they're from the Korcari Wilds, so it's possible they're extinct now, or just as forgotten as the Fex, since they're from the Tabletop RPG (which was great btw).

So why should Firesprites be preserved and added to the endangered species list?

1. They fly (always)

2. They sing (to communicate)

3. They eat (poop)

And there you have it

[smile-files]

okey dokey!!! my little object (?) world is still in development but i really should share it with you all... (especially @mumpsetc so i'm tagging you!!) here's a little blurb on botanica!!!!

so this is a peaceful planet filled with sentient fruit! yay!! if you'd like to learn more, read below :D

in botanica, as fruit ripen on their plants, the plant material grows inside of the fruit, as if a miniature version of the plant has grown into it - botanican fruit possess a circulatory system of xylem and phloem within their flesh, with stems and vines growing out to form appendages (fig 1). all botanicans have leaves on at least one appendage, which they use to photosynthesize. aside from this energy from the sun, botanicans also drink water, which is taken in with a root tongue, and consume soil, from which nutrients and moisture are absorbed in a stomach-like organ. in doing so, botanicans effectively keep themselves "fresh" and/or "ripe", meaning that the life of a botanican fruit off of the parent plant is longer than that of a corresponding fruit in our world. all botanicans do eventually pass, and when they do, their bodies decompose and the seeds within them have the chance of growing into plants that will create more botanicans.

botanicans, like our fruit, come in different species, but those species are grouped into four categories: roaming botanicans, which are vine fruits (melons, tomatoes, squash, grapes), coasting botanicans, which are tropical fruits (bananas, papayas, pineapples, starfruit), floating botanicans, which are berries (raspberries, strawberries, blueberries, blackberries), and soaring botanicans, which are tree fruit (apples, pears, peaches, cherries). citrus fruits are in a subcategory between coasting and soaring botanicans. (all of these category names are subject to change though!!)

roaming botanicans are quadrupedal (four vine legs) with a prehensile vine-and-leaf tail (fig 2a); they live in sibling herds (usually small, but can vary in size) and roam around the landscape, without any designated leader among them. most roaming botanican species follow the sun year-round, and so avoid winter; in their constant migration they periodically stop to rest at hills, under which they burrow to make a nest. after making a nest under a hill, a herd will stick a branch at its peak so, after they leave, other herds will know that that hill can be used as a nesting site (fig 2b). some roaming botanicans have evolved to have particularly thick rinds, and so are more cold-resistant, and so opt not to constantly migrate, instead living more sedentary lives with occasional migration.

coasting botanicans have a stem-and-leaf tail and two leaf fins (fig 3); they grow on land but live the majority of their lives in the water, where they spend their time in groups. these groups are more based on friendship ties than familial ties, considering how vast a domain these botanicans have (basically the entire aquatic realm). more so than others, coasting botanicans connect with botanicans of other species and categories, and spend most of their lives just exploring and meeting others. while usually surrounded by others, a coasting botanican might on a rare chance find themselves alone in the ocean, in which case the loneliness will cause them to act in a way abnormal for most of their category - they will become antisocial and will lose their desire to explore. there are few cases of this occurring, however, given how populated and lively most corners of botanica's waters are.

floating botanicans have four large leafy wings and six tiny stem feet (fig 4a); they are the most solitary of the four categories, being very individualized. they have a very strong connection to flowers, which they in fact pollinate - many cultivate their own gardens and end up specializing in a specific type of flower. floating botanicans can be very social at times, and often come together to form collaborative gardens and even breed flowers, but they do not live in groups. these botanicans, being so much smaller than the others, can often not safely drink out of rivers or lakes without falling in, and so have evolved a long root tongue to drink with (fig 4b).

soaring botanicans have two large, leafy wings and two stem talons (fig 5a); they tend to live in very large familial flocks, as fruit trees often produce mass amounts of botanicans. the first to ripen is usually the leader of the flock. these botanicans build nests in their family tree (get it?) using fallen sticks, branches, and other plant materials, which becomes the center of life (fig 5b). within a flock of soaring botanicans, many individuals are designated to explore the surrounding area for interesting additions to the nests (such as a foreign flower or a pretty rock). due to the large size of these groups, most individuals within a flock form a "twin" bond with another individual, which they spend more time with than others.

i don't think i ever came up with a name for the soaring-coasting subcategory, but in any event, these botanicans have a single broad leaf tail and two stem talons (fig 6). these botanicans are more closely related to soaring botanicans than coasting botanicans, but as they tend to live in more watery areas, they have many similarities to coasting botanicans and do not have the capability of flight. botanicans of this category live in large flocks in ponds, lakes, and rivers; many build small dams. unlike those of the typical flock of soaring botanicans, individuals within flocks of these botanicans tend to intermix more; they often make friends between flocks and so there seems to be some kind of broad botanican network from pond to pond, river to river, lake to lake. these botanicans, like coasting botanicans, are very friendly and carefree.

botanica is a peaceful, happy planet; basically every resource needed for survival is in abundance and there is no opportunity for greed and selfishness to even arise, so individuals are more often than not cooperative, kind, and generous. of course, as loss and loneliness are truths of life, no botanican life is free of all suffering altogether, and issues can arise - but given the warm, compassionate nature of the surrounding physical and social environments, individuals end up living happy, loving lives overall.

something interesting about botanican life is the complete disconnect between reproduction and relationhips - seeds are only spread after a botanican passes away, and those seeds grow into plants otherwise entirely disconnected from the botanican in question; then those plants are pollinated and new botanicans grow from them. in this way, botanicans have no real concept of sex, and often fall in love with and befriend members of different species (as there is no reason why this would be an issue; they wouldn't be reproducing with them anyway) (fig 7). while plant individuals sometimes have parts of a specific sex, most have parts of both sexes, and either way this has no impact on the mindset or behavior of the botanican as a whole creature (they technically have biological sex but they have no gender).

...so yeah, here's my silly fruit world!!! there's a lot of stuff left to talk about (with the gods of the world and everything) but this is good to start with :) i hope you like it!!!!

[nkukubean]

Old characters brought into a new light <3

Zak & Neverland; Monk Warforged & Paladin Half-Orc, Half-Sun Elf (Zak belongs to a friend).

Ship Name: Goldforge

The campaign died a long time ago, but we started thinking about them again when we realized Zak & Neverland had prime shipping potential (might have actually been canon if we played longer). The campaign didn’t make it past 2 sessions, oops.

Old Art & Neverland's Backstory Below the Cut:

dividers

Neverland's first concept art (from around... September 2022... wow... he's older than I thought he was...):

For some basics:

Neverland

Race/Species: Warforged (Warforged Enoy) - his integrated tool was the internet, and I'm not even joking about that... - modeled after a human, but I changed that to half-elf sometime after the campaign was scheduled to be rebooted in 2023, but never came to be Class: Monk (Way of the Open Hand) Alignment: NG Gender: Nonbinary/Demi-Boy (he/they/it) -> (Peter Hawkins was trans-masc nonbinary before his "death") Sexuality: Aceflux & Herculean Age: Robot, so adult the moment he was created... around 4 years since creation was what we went with?

Backstory:

He's technically an android, but I played with modified warforged stats. The campaign was supposed to be a goofy "picked up by the FBI/CIA for reasons, and now our identities have been wiped from the public; a Men In Black situation".

Neverland here was an android built by "Fantasy Apple" & "Fantasy Disney"—an attempt at creating the perfect park security.

The catch is that Neverland was once alive. Peter Hawkins was a dude who grew up in foster care, and he went to work for the parks so that he could ensure that the visiting kids there could have some happy childhood memories. His cheery attitude and willingness to comply to the park rules and standards caused him to be approached by the park's development teams. Peter gladly agreed to have his likeness/personality the model for the robot.

Aaaand that's how he got his soul zapped out of his body Portal 2 brain-mapping style. The development team now had Peter's brain successfully mapped, but they also had his lifeless, electrocuted body... and a robot with a soul—buuuut, they didn't know the robot had Peter's soul.

Peter's memories were locked away by the admins, but no matter what they did, they couldn't code away Neverland's quirks. Basically, they had an extremely ADHD android on their hands. Eventually, the CIA found out the parks had a sentient robot. Turns out, trying to code out the sentience of a sentient being is a violation of being rights!

The CIA scooped Neverland up, and he's been working with them ever since. Neverland is aware that his personality and looks were modeled after Peter, but he is unaware that he is Peter... soul and all. He's unable to unlock the memories without risking damaging his functions.

He was supposed to be played as a soul fighting its own code. Any time he would fight against the code, his system would reboot, and the code would take over until the soul was deemed as compliant again. RIP, Neverland, you could have been so fun to play with. Now, he's just a silly little OC that takes up space in my brain rent free.

Zak Feldspar

This was Zak's most recent character art (March 2023)

Race/Species: Half-Orc (Half-Sun Elf) Class: Paladin (Redemption) Gender: Cis Man Sexuality: Pansexual Age: late 20s? I don't remember

Backstory:

I won't share much about him, since he's not my character, but all the art is mine. He was a transfer from the England to the US (fled the country after he found out the royal family were liches, because... Queen Elizabeth... yeah, you get the point, it was funny).

He's been in several different campaigns, as you can see from this old art (July 2020). Out of all the campaigns he was in, he was the most well-suited for this one (according to my friend).

I really peaked with his 2020 design, I feel. I put a sticky note over the sword I drew him, as Zak changed it to a hammer... devastated...

Well, that's it. Here's a goof

[aronarchy]

I wanna hear about your transhumanist ideas! 👀 /gen /posi

Last month I answered this ask from someone else, detailing which aspects of transhumanism I feel are most relevant to my own life/the ones I personally want/need first (or at least the ones which were at the forefront of my mind/were the easiest to think up at the time) (along with some other things).

Transhumanism at its core is the belief that we (and this logic extends to all sentient beings (or whatever else encompasses "all beings with ethical utility")) all deserve to not suffer (or whatever is the more accurate equivalent/summary of "not experiencing negative utility") as much as possible/as much as we want, and deserve to have whatever we need in order to achieve this. Transhumanism demands a total rejection of all essentialist moral imperatives—the assertion that things are (morally) obligated to be a certain way simply because That's What They're Supposed To Be Like (with no genuine non-circular justifications for it; their only true reasoning, when reduced, is "well Nature/God(s) intended it to be that way" and from there "well you are supposed to obey their (supposed) dictums because you're supposed to and that's just the way things are").

Transhumanism is less a single set of some ideas than a framework through which we view and interpret reality and ethical questions and future-planning; our resulting ideas/specific proposals for specific situations/to meet specific needs all stem from those fundamental principles.

I believe that my life sucks to a great degree, and everyone's life sucks to at least some degree, and that instead of passively accepting the status quo as just and fair we should change that, because we don't "deserve" such suffering, and most of us are convinced we deserve it because accepting the alternative brings a great deal of hopelessness and despair and anger, and many try to convince each other that we deserve it as that's what they've always been told, and "you're obligated to suffer/suffering makes life worth living/you're supposed to suffer if nature/god intended it to be that way/well it's Not Actually That Bad and it's okay that you can't choose to opt out of it because you don't/won't/can't actually want to choose" is baked into the very foundations of our fundamentalist and capitalist exploitative culture.

A particular priority of transhumanists is life extension/immortality—recognizing that it's a horror that we are forced to develop diseases, painfully age and then die, and hoping to remedy that ASAP. (I believe the idea of resurrection as an option is important as well, but that's a slightly different issue.) This is part of a larger desire for total bodily autonomy and morphological freedom (ability to physically do with your body whatever you want, change it however you want, or even have multiple bodies or not have a body at all. I'm particularly excited to get cat ears and become an anime girl and also physically resolve the most painful parts of my mental illnesses in ways which aren't currently possible/which I don't have any options for at our current technological level.)

Some more things would be using physical technological means to solve any other physical problem you can think of right now which seems like it has no solution. Teleportation makes a lot of sense. Expanding our living space. Resolving our current environmental issues. Making ecological disaster leading to death or species extinction no longer a threat to us. Etc.

I believe transhumanism necessarily requires anarchism and anarchism necessarily requires transhumanism (if consistent and totally liberatory). Some other transhumanists have done more political thinking/writing in terms of possible tech/how to manage it without causing harm/suffering. Lecter suggested the idea of physical/technological alterations to "human nature" (if that's a thing we could uniformly change successfully for such ends in the first place) to totally eradicate abuse/violence. (I mean his purely political attempts/plans to eradicate abuse/violence are kind of lacking and that might be why he felt the need, and I've tried thinking a bit about how that could be implemented as consensually as possible/with minimum human rights violations/if that's even possible and am also interested in keeping that open as an option, but that's a whole other topic and it's a bit too messy/brain-scrambly for me.)

Transhumanists acknowledge that many of these ideas are very very likely to not come true anytime soon. We also reject doomers who conflate "this is unlikely to come true anytime soon" with "well it's not worth having/it's wrong to strive for it/you shouldn't try at all/then wanting it/believing you should have it is wrong/'frivolous.'"

[queen-ch3rry]

It started with one indigo classic named Doc

My story of how I became hopelessly enmeshed in the Cars community starts weak, has a middle "ick" point, and then (at this moment of writing) has turned into something that fulfills my life with so much joy

I grew up with old cars, so they seemed common to me from basically moment one! When I was a wee baby and was fussy, sometimes my mom would drive me around in her 1972 car. Every car I was surrounded by was from the 1970s (briefly one from the 1960s), so vintage vehicles weren't a far off concept to me

Even now, my own car is 30 years old! The only modern cars I've been in have been borrowed or rented. So while from an early age I was not a "car nut," much time was spent with them. I played with some Matchbox diecasts when I was 7-8, but cars were not any focus in my personal playtime. I had plushies, the dozens of plastic equines of a typical horse-loving little girl, a Barbie I hated... but I never actively WANTED toy cars for gifts.

When I was artsy, doodling in my art pads, I drew animals, things like The Aristocats, more horses, and cartoon people. Never cars. Drawing them? Yuck. Boring. And heck, they looked plain old HARD to even begin to figure out for drawing if I wanted to!!!

Fast forward to teenage Ginger in the mid 2010s. Cars (the movie) flew entirely under my radar in 2006. I never saw merch, heard about it, nothing. I blame the fact the new town we'd moved to didn't have a theatre. Maybe that kept the news on the down-low, and silent???

Teenage Ginger discovered Cars probably through deviantART. Honestly, I'd tell you if I remembered the exact magic moment, but I don't. All I know is that around that time I was heavily involved in another fandom of "sentient machinery" of a "species" I'd rather not mention because it ended up leading to very bad times and bad people in my life, severe harassment, account changes, etc.

Anyway, I discover Cars. Again. I say again because it first came to my attention via my dad's neighbor, who'd loaned him the movie, thinking another "car buff" would really get into it. I wanted no part of it then because 99/100 whatever my dad geeks out over I abhor. For real. It ends up being dumb, immature, plain stupid, crude, the like. Movie thus went back to the neighbor - unwatched. It bears to mention my paternal figure never watched it either. Committing issues

I rediscover - and watch - Cars on the torrent (yes I know).

And I love it. The concept was only briefly odd to me until I saw Doc Hudson, and baby, I was in loveeeee! And, for lack of rambling more, let's just say that character altered my life. The whole movie did, but Doc? He led to things sweet and bitter.

Like @agentsandracartrip, I met my "soul sister" through the Cars community. Actually through Tumblr, and my very old and no longer used @the-fabulous-hudson-hornet fan blog. Everything felt so good, sweet, and right. I'd never had a friend like this. For one week in summer, we hung out in real life - a first for me when all my fandom friends are through the screen.

We hyped up over Cars 3, rehashed the scenes and best parts together (anything with Doc or Smokey was perfection). She sent me some amazing gifts relating to the community. We shared and lived and breathed how much this movie franchise made our lives happy.

It was the sweetest time. Until it wasn't.

It ended with her reporting my facebook RP accounts I'd made that we used to interact with sometimes, getting my old computer permabanned from Facebook... and in a bizarre twist of fate, with her involvement in the other community I'd gotten away from. Soon some of them and she were quite tight and making up all these things they heard from some of my worst bullies. In a year's time, the friendship and union with my "bestie and sister" was gone, and so was much of my trust

The fandom wasn't cool to me for quite a long time after this

But I didn't give on it entirely, and I'm glad I didn't. Now we come to the current day in this fearfully LONG tale (are you still reading?!?). I'm the proud owner of the Motorama City discord server (created July 2021) - 60 members strong! I wanted to make a place that was fun, casual, yet geared to more mature fans of the fandom for, I've sadly been in many Cars servers full of trolls, bullies, shitposts, and general toxicity that have made several people feel unwelcome

And I'm so happy to have @agentsandracartrip on board as my friendly mod to guide everyone on their stay! https://discord.gg/77JfrYCbf9 https://discord.gg/77JfrYCbf9

I've been a Cars artist (hellooo @v16classycaddy-art ) for several years now... it's pretty much ALL I draw (haha, what a change right?), and one of my happiest hours was when Pixar contacted me to feature a LMQ sketch I did in 2019. So, thankfully, my journey into the community has ended better than its rocky midpoint, and while I'm sad it's deader than it used to be since 2017 and Cars 3, I have hopes it won't ever disappear.

Maybe the new Disney+ show this year will breathe much-needed life back into our own world of automotive happiness.

Here's hoping 💕

have you actually read this far??? omg, you deserve tons of cookies or something asdfjsdfjsfj

[homeverse-au-official]

any animals that trolls have domesticated? if so, what are they like? :0

aaaa I wish I had some art to pull up for you!! It might make this easier to explain, but with the holidays and all our other projects (of which there are a Decent Few) we haven't been focusing as much on the visual aspects here. But I hope I can explain well enough for now!

Trolls do domesticate animals, and have for as long as humans have! However, they kind of went at it in equal, but opposite directions then humans.

The beginning of Tet'kem agroculture is a little hard to pinpoint for a number of reasons - one being that their history of society is a fair bit longer then ours being a race that has reached galactic society and so much of their own ancient history has been lost (or purposfully destroyed in various political and cultural cleansing coups), and two, HOW and WHAT they began actually cultivating is still up for debate as is whether to call what they were doing 'cultivating' in the first place if they began doing it before they were a truly sentient species.

Yes, trolls and them growing shit is just that old.

The earliest bit of RECORDED history, both orally and in decipherable written language is...mushrooms. Yes, really. Think about it like this - the Alternian daytime is long and dangerous, and trolls are a eusocial, crepuscular species originating on waterfronts, that builds their hives underground. What grows REALLY WELL in warm, low-light, damp climates? Fungi. And moreover, in later times, pickling and fermenting foods is a staple across nearly all troll diets anywhere you go, much like various forms of bread is for humans. We both just got really, REALLY good at making something, and the conditions were right for lots of people to discover it at the same time.

Going more into like,,,your actual question (sorry about that..) yes, trolls have domesticated animals! For many purposes, but again, not quite like humans.

Some of the first animals trolls domesticated were creatures that served dual purposes - we might think it.....more then distasteful (into downright taboo on a high level) to eat the family dog....but trolls don't.

In Tet'kem culture, animals are not people, and never usually are brought to that level. Point at your cat and call it 'part of the family' and a troll will look at you like you're insane. An animal is an animal, and people are people. Just because they're useful does not mean they are above being what they are. (Actually, this is also play into a semi-cultural and semi-psychological happenstance in trolls - their innate issues with seeing other beings as people as well, but that's a subject for a different day..)

Trolls have the equivalent of cats (a VERY inaccurate but rough translation is 'ropecats') as the bodyplan for many of the smaller carnivorous animals on Alternia is long, wiggly, and able to squeeze into long, tight spaces to reach hiding prey. Clades may keep them about to keep them out of storerooms. There are also animals like the cholerbear, which is Alternia's answer to something occupying the niche between. Well. A bear, and a large cat. Trolls have also been known to ride these into battle.

Among the smaller animals, most clades keep a hutch of bird-like and medium to large rodent-like animals on hand for eating. Small animals like that breed fast and can live on easy to procure goods like grasses and chaff. There was also a steady aquaculture within hives, with (for the time and level of technology) fairly sophisticated plumbing to support it.

The domesticated livestock comes from cervine-like creatures that have been selected for various things, and thus bred into many multiple breeds. Think of them like troll's answer to cattle.

And, their final biggest livestock investment:

Bugs. Insects. A huge - and we mean huge - chunk of the pie of troll protein intake is in insects. Flours, dried, jammed, just eaten raw - whatever way you can think to prepare a bug, trolls have thought of several more.

[human-do-a-worm]

Ramblings of an Old Soldier Part 2/?

Part 1 can be found HERE

The next day, the Unkall boy came back to the old soldier, sitting on the bench where he normally does, reading his data tablet. The boy had a rather happy look on him today.

“Ah, you’re back. I take it that my story wasn’t quite enough on its own then?”

“Not quite mister. It turned out to be more than enough for my first paper. After I turned it in, my teacher said I could go ahead and write the rest of my papers for the course since I had found a primary source willing to share their experience.”

“I see. How kind of your teacher. Back when I was in school, they would have told us to stuff it.”

“So, what other stories do you have to tell?”

“How about my time in the cycle after the Martian campaign?”

“That sounds wonderful. Let me start my recorder.”

The Unkall child pushes a glowing button on his data tablet, and a blue dot appearing on the screen indicated that the recording had started

“It was less than a month after the battle on Mars; that’s one twenty-fourth of a cycle in standard units. Reconstruction had begun on mars, and the war fleets which were now all massed around Terra had been split into five groups. Group Solar and Group Lunar were the two largest of the fleets, and as such were classed together. Group Pangea, Group Gondwana, and Group Oceana were the three smaller groups, and were classed together as well. The fleets were organized in this way by Grand Admiral Demetrius, to ensure that no one fleet would have to stand against the enemy for too long a time.”

“Since I’ve brought him up, I should probably tell you a bit about the Grand Admiral. Remember what I was saying about the preparations for the battle on Mars. All the meticulous planning done to move the civilians back to Terra, and keep morale up while being an effective fighting force? Well, that came from Demetrius, and was only slightly modified by individual units as the orders were passed down the chain. His odd decision making turned out to be one of the most valuable things that humanity had, because nobody could anticipate his plans; especially the Vrumoids. He was only a rear admiral, but after his commendation, and the first victory in the war, He was immediately promoted.”

“Back to the war now. The battle plan was simple. Keep a constant pressure on the enemy, working in a single spot, pushing the enemy back system by system, and planet by planet. Where to stop would be figured out as the fleets went along. This seemed to work very well. In most systems, Groups Solar and Lunar rarely had fire a single shot. The Vrumoids would either flee or be destroyed by one of the smaller groups before the heavy guns of the heavy class ships could be brought to bear.”

“The reconquest continued almost flawlessly until there was a single human world left to reclaim. Rexorb VI was nothing more than a rock when humanity last saw it, but after looking upon it, the armada called for the command group; Group Regal; to come and take a look. At first sight of the data scans, Demetrius broke down with laughter. Failing to find the humor in this situation, his second in command asked him what was so funny.” “These poor bastards. They’ve made this planet up to be just like Mars, hoping we’ll make the same mistakes they did. Have they never been told that it’s a bad idea to try using the tactics someone created against them? They’ve made themselves the easiest targets possible for us, and what’s even better is that they did it on a mining world. There were only a few housing units on that planet, and its riches lie deep inside. This is the perfect opportunity to try a new idea.”

“With that, preparations were made swiftly, and with much laughter all around. On the back side of Rexorb VI’s moon, groups Solar, Gondwana, and Oceana moved into position, mounting themselves with their primary propulsion systems poised to drop the moon from its orbit.”

The boy spoke up

“Didn’t the Vrumoid forces on the planet notice what was happening?”

Laughing, the old man responded

“Nope. That was a benefit of only showing the enemy one small and one large battle group at a time. According to Vrumoid intelligence recovered after the war, The defenders on Rexorb VI simply thought we were just deciding how to invade properly. They had no idea Demetrius was crazy enough to consider crashing the moon into the planet, and they would have to have been crazy to even guess that the rest of the fleet would just go along with it. I know Demetrius was expecting to do some explaining to the others.”

“The High Admiral may have been absolutely insane, but he wasn’t heartless. He ordered a shuttle to take one squad and an emissary to give them one final chance to surrender. They of course, believing a ground war lay ahead, refused. That was the last mistake that the Vrumoids ever made when dealing with humanity. Exactly one planetary axis revolution after the shuttle returned to the fleet, all the pushing ships’ engines fired up. Each of the ships had worked out their individual point of no return for propelling the moon towards the planet, and had an order to pull off at what their captain deemed a safe time before reaching their point of no return. By the time the last ship pulled off, The moon was going faster than its own terminal velocity.”

“When that moon hit the surface of the planet, the entire thing cracked like a geode. After observing this from one of their comm stations, the Vrumoid Empire rushed to set up peace treaty negotiations. Of course, who was the Terran representative by unanimous vote from the United Terran Council? None other than High Admiral Demetrius. They figured that if nothing else, he could get the Vrumoids to leave humanity alone. But what he got us was something so much greater.”

“As you might have learned in class, our home system and colonies were entirely located within an isolated part of Vrumoid space. We had no knowledge of the Galactic Council Alliance, at least until one of the Vrumoid delegates at the negotiations made a mistake and asked one of his compatriots what the council would think of their actions if they ever found out. After learning that there were other intelligent species in the galaxy, Demetrius demanded that humanity be granted a swath of planets and territory directly to the territory of another GCA member.”

“This single achievement is what brought humanity forward. Demetrius did what no other Terran could do; he found sentient life that wasn’t actively trying to kill us, and he made sure we could get to them with ease. If it weren’t for him, we would have never known the GCA existed, and likely would have been either wiped out or enslaved by the Vrumoids after they rebuilt their forces.”

“Of course, after we made contact with the council, and they saw what we were able to do to a far more technologically advanced species, they demanded to see our battle reports and to speak with all the commanding officers. I remember standing there by High Admiral Demetrius’ side.”

The young Unkall spoke up ecstatically

“You were a commanding officer?”

“Sure was kiddo. Leading the charge of those bikers on mars was one hell of a brave thing, and Demetrius took note. When he got the chance to promote one of his soldiers to an admiral under his command for Group Solar, he spoke loud and clear to us and said “Where’s that crazy bastard that volunteered to charge a platoon of enemy tanks using nothing but motorcycles and bombs on sticks? I have a job for you!” That was the day I was no longer a simple marksman, I was an Admiral, and a damn good one too. My group didn’t lose a single vessel to the enemy.”

“I still remember the day I went down on that rock the day before we cracked it. The Vrumoid commander must have been watching the video recordings from when I charged the tanks, because the moment I walked into the room and she looked up at me, she looked all sorts of shaken up. When I told her that this was her last chance to accept a mercy never offered by her empire, a chance to surrender; she simply said that surrender would never come until she and her warriors no longer stood upon the planet. If only she knew the irony in those words.”

“I remember being at the peace conference, and although Demetrius had only been seen rarely by the Vrumoids, mostly in transmissions intercepted from Mars to Earth, they had seen me plenty. I think I scared them more than Demetrius did, because when I talked about how my motorcycle wasn’t out of fuel yet, they started agreeing to our demands.”

Curiously, the boy tapped something into his data tablet

“Wait a minute, are you saying that you’re Admiral Sturm?”

“Indeed I am. Admiral Jakob Sturm, service number 6556-0293-422-41, former commander of the Terran expeditionary fleet codename Solar. I proudly led my sailors, soldiers, and marines through some of the harshest battles that humanity has faced, and kept my fleet intact. I wasn’t lying when I said that I didn’t lose a ship in my group to the enemy. And after serving 10 cycles in service of my species, I left honorably.”

“So what did you do after you left? I’d imagine being an admiral is a hard job to top.”

“You’re right, admiral is a hard job to beat. I served as an ambassador of Terra for a cycle before I returned to the stars. I found some of the others from back on Mars that charged with me on that day. We were a mercenary group. We mostly took escort contracts or welfare and security for anyone we deemed especially needy. We did good work for a few cycles, but then I had to give it a rest.”

“That’s around the time your name stopped appearing in records of both the GCA and Terran reports. What happened?”

“I’ve been talking for too long. I think you might be able to get a few pages out of what I’ve said today. Better to not burn up all your content at once, right? I’ll be here again tomorrow, like I always am. I’ll tell you more then.”

“If you insist sir. I’ll be here.”

“Until then, take care. I may be old, but I still expect people to stick to a schedule.”

With that, the boy stopped his recording and went home. To meet someone as important as Admiral Sturm, who seemed to have vanished from most records 8 cycles ago, was entirely unexpected. Unexpected, but it will certainly make a wonderful paper for his teacher.

[starr-fall-knight-rise]

HASO, “Ash.”

A couple people were showing some interest in other Alien characters aboard the ship, and I thought I would give you all some insight into that. I hope you enjoy, and I hope you all have a great day. 

“You have ruined this family.”

“What have you done!” 

“The war is the only thing left for you now, so make yourself useful and die.”

-

Etium slowly lifted his head from the computer where he sat staring blankly at the accounting spreadsheet on the screen. Beside him, the other two Tesraki’s chairs were empty. He sighed, and slowly turned back to the accounting. They had likely finished their half of the books hours ago, leaving him to sit in the darkness alone with his own strange thoughts. His four fingered hands clicked at the keys of the human made keyboard,

He was good at typing, pretty fast for someone who was missing two requisite fingers, but he was nothing in comparison to the others.

He was nothing in comparison to most Tesraki.

Etium was slow when it came to doing the books, repeatedly checking every line and ever string of numbers for any possible mistake that could have been made. The process took him hours longer than it should have, but finally he stood, pushing back his chair and hopping down to the floor. The human ship whirred softly in the distance. It was a comforting sound, but he had always found some measure of comfort in humanity.

Etium had been hit the hardest by the huminization phenomenon. It didn’t surprise him all that much. He had fought side by side with humans since the Drev war, and the changes in him had taken a long time to develop. They ran deep now through his body as sure as his blood. WIth skills honed in human war, and being one of few survivors, he was quick to react to sounds, followed movement more easily, and could read body language better than almost any other alien he knew.

Dr Krill wasn’t even as good as he considered himself.

That’s what war did to a person.

He reached up to his torn ear and shivered at the smell of smoke that seemed to waft up from his fur. He could never get the smell of ash out of his head no matter how hard he tried.

Etium knew there was something wrong with him, but he kept that to himself. The others tended to avoid him, and that was alright. He was friends with the Finnari, and while they were a bit sensitive, he supposed that was ok. He didn’t need anyone asking questions about what he was doing and why he was there.

He ducked through one of the maintenance corridors, and into the hallway behind the rec room.

He could hear humans and Drev talking and laughing on the other side, but when he passed through the next door, he found the hall opened into a large-ish storage room that was lined in boxes and crates. Inside was what remained of the Omen crew. Tesraki, Finnari, Celzex and Yeb. They had a little place here for those aliens who found it difficult to constantly interact with humans.

Yeb was a bit of a special case as she seemed to hop between both without much trouble. She lounged on one of the crates, her tail swishing back and forth against the box below her, bright green fur along her back, waving slightly in the air currents.

Etium leaned against the wall making no noise, and interacting with no one.

He wouldn’t have minded hanging out with humans, and drev, but….. Every time he did he just couldn’t shake the smell of smoke.

Why was he here?

Because he had seen a human boldly risk his life for two wounded alien soldiers.

Etium remembered the red sky above and the ash covered ground beneath. He remembered the wounded Rundi soldier at his side as the creature stalked towards them from the darkness. He remembered the flash of blue, and then an animal howl as the human came charging from nowhere.

When he closed his eyes, he could still hear the blood curdling scream of pain the human had given off as his limbs were ripped from his body.

He shook himself trying to shake the smoke away.

“Clan is more important than anything else.”

Etium lifted his head, arms still crossed over his chest.

“Then mean nothing.” Yeb was saying, “My parents abandoned me in an ice cave when I was just a cub.”

“Not our fault your species is defective.” Lord Avex was saying.

The burg lifted his hands in an attempt to keep the piece, technicolor wings flickering behind him, “Not now, all of you we must remember that as different species we all have different beliefs and needs. He pressed his hands together. The Burg do find clan very important, but it was for our survival for the longest time. There are plenty of other species that don’t need such things, like the Vrul or the Gibb for example, who are solitary creatures.”

The group of three finnari huddled close together and nodded.

They wouldn’t be likely to argue, they hated conflict and tried to keep the peace as much as it was possible.

He glanced over to the side surprised to find Waffles, the dog, lying with her head on her paws, around her neck, the snake creature Jeffery hung like a boa scarf.

He supposed she had any right to be here like the rest of them, she wasn’t human and neither was the snake. Though neither of them were classified as sentient and didn’t have the intelligence to speak. Waffles licked at her paws and Jeffery lifted his head turning to look at the speakers as if he was listening intently.

“This is not about biology, this is about the facts. There is strength in numbers, and numbers can win out over force anyday. Humans are the best example of this and you all know it. They managed to survive on a death world by making packs.”

Lord Avex did have a point, but lord Avex was also known for being an egotistical asshole.

That was sort of the defining feature of Celzex.

The furry little creatures were very proud, and very loyal, so they were both a blessing and an absolute pain to have on your side.

Most of the time they just liked causing problems for the sake of causing problems.

“There is nothing wrong with a solitary existence. My species has been living as single occupants inside a distanced society for a very long time.”

Lord Avex snorted, “Might I also point out that you society is a fascist Authoritarian dictatorship recovering from a pandemic crisis and refuses to join the GA to control their own citizens?”

The hair on the back of her body stood up, “Oh like your planet is any better. Roving warring clans who eat their own children.”

“Please, Peace.” THe burg was saying.

“You have no place in this. The burg have lived under a corrupted monarchy for ages.”

Etium sighed and closed his eyes.

Apparently, he had sighed much louder than he intended, and when he opened his eyes the entire room was looking at him,

“You got something to say.” Avex growled, “Anything to offer from a corporate capitalist hellscape.”

Etium pushed himself off from the wall, “No, I have nothing to say.”

Avex bristled, and when he did he got even fluffier, “I don’t think we are done here. I want to hear what you have to say.”

Etium sighed, knowing that he wasn’t going to get out of this one, “I think that all of our societies suck, they just all do it equally.”

The room bristled, but he kept going. He had stuck his foot in it and now he was going to have to deal. He looked at yeb and Avex, “Both of you are true about the other, same with the burg sorry to say.” He nodded over at the winged creature, “But think about it, all of us suck in some way or another,. My species destroyed our own natural habitats in the name of progress, He looked at the Finnari, No cohesive leadership, and a societal wide inability to make decisions. The Vrul live under a corrupted communist system and the Rundi are all politicians, so guess where that leads us. The Drev are a fractured group of clans bent on killing each other for no other reason than the fact that it is honorable. And don’t even get me started on humans, they are the worst of us all, since they can do everything we can and more.”

He sort of expected the uproar that followed, but kept his head low to avoid having to deal with it. He brushed a hand through his fur, attempting, mostly to brush the ash from it, and despite being able to feel it with his fingertips, he saw none break loose.

The room grew louder and louder until a sharp bark broke the silence.

The room went very quiet very suddenly.

He turned to see waffles had risen up into a sitting position, her hackles raised.

She growled low in her throat , and the entire room calmed down very quickly after that, Jeffery opened his mouth and turned his head like a periscope around the room.

Waffles slid back onto the floor and rested her chin on her paws ears sticking straight up as she sighed.

The room was only slowly able to return to its former discussion, though everyone remained mostly quiet.

Etium slumped back against the wall. He could see the other Tesraki across the room staring at him. He tried to ignore them for the most part, he didn’t really fit in with them to any sort of degree. He didn’t blame them.

He wasn’t particularly good with finances.

He didn’t have to be though, most humans were pretty poort at it too, so any ability whatsoever was considered good. That was another reason why he was here. If he was slow and ok at handling money, then he was going to be fine. If he tried to work anywhere else as a Tesraki….

He'd be fired

Or disowned…

Etium quietly slipped from the room, out and down the hallway. He knew where he was going, and followed his own memory down through the hallways until he came to a door. He knocked once.

“Come in.”

The door slid open and he stepped into a room lit by soft yellow light. Dr Adric was sitting at his desk, skin glowing a pale yellow in the dim lighting. He looked up, and when he smiled his teeth flashed white.

“Etium, it is good to see you. I didn’t expect you till our session tomorrow.”

Etium wandered into the room glancing down at the diagrams on the wall, and the large books on the shelves beside the desk. “Do you want me to leave.”

“No, of course not, take a seat.”

He did and stared up at the ceiling with a sigh.

“Do you want to talk about it?”

Etium was quiet for a while, but finally opened his mouth to speak, “I can still smell the ash sometimes, Feel it in my fur when I go to bed. It…. doesn't really bother me most of the time, and I know it’s not real, but it certainly feels that way.”

Dr Adtric leaned on his desk and nodded, “Did you know somatic hallucinations are extremely common In Tesraki.”

He rubbed his fur, “Really?”

“Yes, at least one in twenty report small things. Feelings of items brushing over their fur even when nothing is there. If it starts to bother you, come to me and we will look into helping it. Otherwise just remember the exercises I taught you.”

He shifted in his seat and absently looked at the wall, “So if Somatic hallucinations are common in Tesraki….. Than what about everyone else?”

Dr Adric smiled at him. His expression, both charming and calming at the same time. He had an eir about him that just seemed to make things slow down and relax. It was a nice feeling to have.

“Well both Vrul and Gibb are prone to psychosis with obsessive and grandiosity characteristics. Most Vrul I know could be classified as having some sort of anxiety. Rundi are commonly seen with OCD. Celzex presents with characteristics of Antisocial personality disorder.  Finnari can commonly be seen with dependent personality disorders. Both the Drevb and the Starborn, have a high rate of narcissism. In the case of the starborn, they have a 100% rate at this time…. Though to be fair we only have one starborn”

Etium couldn’t help but smile just a little. “Humans have all of those things I guess, since you have a name for all of them.”

“Yes. Though, I would say that I work most closely with Post Traumatic Stress.”

“Like what I have?”

“Similarly yes, though yours presents differently.”

“That’s what the Admiral’s dog is for? He said she was a PTSD dog.”

“That would be correct.”

Etium leaned back in his seat and stared out the window behind Adric. The man said he presented with listlessness, difficulty concentrating, and emotional detachment. He didn’t have flashbacks or stress associated, which is why he couldn't be entirely diagnosed, bu7t the two of them were pretty sure whatever he had was similar. They had thought about depression on one or two occasions, but he didn’t have trouble getting out of bed, or doing things that he enjoyed. He just got listless and distracted a lot.

Adric thought it might be an entirely different issue from what humans could get, but as of yet, there wasn’t enough research to determine that. They were working on it in their own right now, and he had been feeling a little more present, but he still wasn’t really there yet.

He hoped that soon he would be out of the rut he was stuck in.,

“Have you managed to tell the Admiral, like we had been talking about.”

Etium picked at the fur on his arm, “He seems…. Too busy to talk to me and I…. well I don’t know what it would accomplish.”

“I think it would be good for you to talk to someone who experienced the war.”

Etium sighed, “I didn’t really do much in the war. I sat there and just… was scared. The humans did everything.”

“I think you might find there are humans that feel the same way you do. I encourage you to talk to him. Knowing the man myself, I have no doubt that he will be accepting  of your story.” He held up his hands, “I don’t want to push you, but I do encourage you to let him know.”

I think it would be good for both of you

[themadamespod]

Sharon Carter: A Study in Selfishness

The Falcon and the Winter Soldier spotlighted some hard truths. Beyond its real-world parallels, it’s changed our perspective on the MCU. And on the heels of the finale, we can’t help but reflect on how we got here.

It feels like ages ago that an alien invaded Earth believing it was his right to do so. This madman imposed his will upon a whole planet. He wielded god-like power over an entire species. He took the lives of countless people, leaving the rest to pick up the pieces of their shattered lives. 

In doing so, he became one of the most beloved characters in the MCU.

So why is it that many of the people who adore a monster are now so disappointed with Sharon Carter?

Easy. Loki is a man. 

Angels and Demons

Relax, everybody. This is not an anti-Loki treatise. I’m writing this post with a Loki poster behind my chair, a Loki mug on my desk, and a Loki t-shirt on my back.

To be fair, it helps that the God of Mischief is played by one of the most charming, attractive men in Hollywood. But Emily VanCamp is no slouch. She’s a beautiful, talented actor who elevates any project. So why are people upset that she’s the Power Broker?

Women aren’t supposed to veer from familial or cultural expectations. 

Women aren’t supposed to put themselves first. 

Women aren’t supposed to seize power in a man’s world. 

The events of Civil War alone had a tremendous impact on the characters we love. Sam and Bucky’s respective ordeals changed them forever, and The Blip forced them to adapt even further. So many people are praising their growth in the TFATWS finale, and we’re among them. But it’s frustrating to then see comments like these:

“Omg wtf is wrong with Sharon? That is NOT who she is!”

“Since when is Sharon evil? That ain’t her.”

“Sharon is totally a Skrull. The Sharon we know would never turn her back on everything she stands for.”

Guess what, folks? Just like Sam and Bucky, the Sharon we once knew no longer exists. She, too, changed and grew - right out of the box that the patriarchy built for her. And people don’t know how to handle it.  

Double Standards

Misogyny is so deeply woven into the fabric of our society that a lot of people, women included, often don’t see it. But it’s in almost every facet of daily life, leaching into our brains like a toxin. And TFATWS called Marvel out on it by illustrating a simple fact:

Men and women who behave in the same way are treated very differently.

A man who tramples others for a promotion is ambitious. A woman is a conniving bitch.

A man who sleeps around is held up as a ladies’ man. A woman is looked down upon as a whore.

A man who logs extra time at the office is a good provider. A woman is neglecting her family. 

Despite centuries of fighting for our right to exist, women are still brainwashed to be and be seen as lesser than men. We’re expected to conform to roles meant to keep us subservient. We’re told that caring for others is more important than caring for ourselves. 

Sharon Carter received the same cultural programming. And it’s likely that she felt familial pressure (either explicit or implicit) to follow in Aunt Peggy’s footsteps, whether she wanted to or not. 

And follow she did.

Sharon joined S.H.I.E.L.D. She fought armed HYDRA agents. Then she sacrificed her life, her career, and her freedom for the greater good. And what did she get for it?

The same thing women always get when they put everyone else’s best interests ahead of their own. 

She got fucked. 

A Matter of Perspective

Let’s pretend the TFATWS finale had gone differently. The Power Broker is a previously unseen bad guy, a Wilson Fisk type. After the U.S. government branded her as a fugitive and the Avengers forgot her, Sharon has just been trying to survive in Madripoor.

Nonetheless, she helps Sam and Bucky neutralize Karli. Sam secures Sharon’s pardon and she reclaims her former post as a dutiful C.I.A. agent.

Talk about disappointing; that would be like watching a woman return to a man who beats her. 

In reality, Sharon is revealed as the Power Broker. After the people for whom she gave everything betrayed her, she built a lucrative business from scratch using a canny brain and the skills S.H.I.E.L.D. taught her.

Now for those who are incensed by Sharon’s turn because she’s selling weapons, please see Exhibit A:

Even after Tony Stark stopped manufacturing weapons for the U.S. government, he continued making them for S.H.I.E.L.D. If memory serves, he also created a sentient murder-bot that leveled a city before nearly annihilating mankind.

Tony’s intentions were noble, but that didn’t make him any less responsible for a humanitarian disaster. The Sokovians would have been well within their rights to demand Tony’s arrest and incarceration.

But we love Tony, so we don’t like to go there.

And speaking of the U.S. government, let’s be real. American politicians wouldn’t condemn Sharon for illegally selling weapons to dangerous groups. They’d condemn her for cutting into their own profits. 

If there’s one thing the U.S. government excels at, it’s creating and arming terrorists. Sharon’s just running their playbook.

Redefining Selfishness

In all fairness, some people’s disappointment over Sharon’s arc has nothing to do with sex and everything to do with heroism. For this discussion, see Exhibit B:

Ever since Steve Rogers got his happy ending with Peggy Carter in Endgame, the Marvel fandom has been divided into two camps.

Camp 1: Steve is a selfish bastard who abandoned his family, his country, and the world when they all needed him the most.

Camp 2: Steve did more than enough for his family, his country, and the world when they all needed him most and deserved his happiness.

I will always be a card-carrying member of Camp 2, which is one reason I exited my Endgame theater as a human ball of snot. 

Steve Rogers gave enough for his country even before he was defrosted. He liberated a POW camp behind enemy lines. He defeated Red Skull. He saved countless lives by crashing the HYDRA bomber into the arctic, sacrificing his own life in the process.

And when he was resurrected after 70 years, did he stop and smell the roses? Read a book on the beach?

No. He saved the world. Again, and again, and again.

It’s incredibly noble that a life with Peggy is all Steve wanted. Think about Michael Bay’s uber-patriotic Armageddon. Those roughnecks had quite the list of demands for saving the world, all of which seemed perfectly reasonable because, hello, they were saving the world. 

So what does this have to do with Sharon Carter? Well, if you’re in Steve Rogers Camp 1, you likely see Sharon as a selfish bitch. I’ll make the same argument in her defense:

She’s given more than enough for others. She has every right to now put herself first.

We as women need to redefine selfishness. It’s been weaponized against us for far too long. We have to reframe it as a positive concept whereby we simply make our needs a priority in our own lives. 

If more women embraced selfishness, we would be unstoppable. 

Oh, and if you’re in Steve Rogers Camp 2 but still disappointed in Sharon Carter, you’ve got some hypocrisy on your chin. Might want to wipe that off. 

A Final Note

Alice Walker, who knows a thing or two about feminism, once said, “The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any.”

When the name “Power Broker” was first dropped on The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, it felt cheesy. But now it seems like the perfect title for a woman who not only refused to give up her power, but actively sought more. 

Sharon Carter is unequivocally selfish, but that doesn’t make her evil or even wrong. 

It makes her one powerful woman. And we can’t wait to see her again. 

[thebmatt]

FFXIV Write 2021 Prompt #20: Petrichor

Petrichor – a pleasant smell that frequently accompanies the first rain after a long period of warm, dry weather.

The seaside cave well shimmered, and a woman fell out.

She groaned in pain, clutching her head. She tried opening her eyes and almost immediately pressed them shut again, recoiling from what was not a particularly bright sunlight, but seemed blinding to her.

“What….what the hells was that…by the Titans why is it so loud??” she muttered, to no one in particular. The tide wasn’t particularly high, but the sound of waves crashing against the rocky shoreline provided a constant background noise.

She stumbled towards the entrance. It led to a rocky shoreline. She still wasn’t quite ready to open her eyes, but the pain her feet felt as she stepped on rocks to get to the path that led away from the cave opening led her know that somewhere her boots that she vaguely remembered wearing were apparently gone.

Finally, after what seemed like entirely too many steps, she felt grass under her feet instead of sand and rock. She fell to her knees, clutching her forehead. Her mind was swirling with concepts and ideas she knew she’d never known before but somehow felt like second nature to her, as though she’d spent years working with them. What was happening to her?

Her lips felt dry, and she wet them with her tongue. Wait, lips? Since when did she have lips? Ugh, had she just covered them in ichor? Wait…no her tongue tasted salt…salt on the air. But she’d been near oceans any number of times in the past decade or so, she’d never remembered tasting that since…her change. Everything had been cold and numb and lifeless, and she’d grown accustomed to it. Now she felt warm. Wait, no, she felt like she was burning, just a little. Was she on fire?

She forced her eyes open. No….that was just the sunlight beating down on her skin. Her arms and hands, they have living, feeling skin.

She looks at them in terror, breathing rapidly rising. The light is too bright again, and she shuts her eyes again. The sensations, there’s too many of them, too much all at once, she can’t-

“Madam, are you all right?”

It’s a voice, another woman’s. She focuses on it. She sounds genuinely concerned. She opens her eyes, trying to focus them on the direction the voice came from, and slowly but surely they focus on a woman in a black dress (robes?) trimmed in gray feathers or fur. She has brilliant silver eyes that almost perfectly match her hair and….wait, are those cat ears on her head?

She opened her mouth. A weak voice that she doesn’t immediately recognize emerged. “Please. I…I don’t know what’s happened to me.

The cat-eared woman reached into the pack she was carrying, pulling out what looks to be a light colored blanket the color of grass and trees. She wraps it around her. It feels soft and worn. As she takes the blanket and draws it in close, she realizes that same softness is all around her, and that she must have been naked. “Th…thank youi”

“Of course.” replied the other woman. “My name is Y’shtola. Can you tell me what befell you?”

Her voice is soothing, and the woman felt like she could be trusted. “Um…well, the last I remember, I was deep in the jungles of Stranglethorn, places that no civilization had touched in centuries, and I came across a cave. I was looking for…someone, and I tracked them to a cave. It was…deep. I have no idea how it got there, it certainly didn’t seem like a natural formation. A-anyway, I made it to the back and I sensed a strange magic, obscured in one of the walls. I placed a hand near it, to try and get some kind of a sense of what it might be….and it yanked me into the wall…through the wall, really. Then I saw…strange sights I can’t make sense of. I must have blacked out, because I woke up in another cave back over there.” She raised a single arm back in the direction of where she came. “And now….everything is so bright and loud and my thoughts aren’t making any sense, and everything feels…just feels weird. Wait…”

She opened her eyes again, looking at her arms. Smooth, slightly pale but still healthy skin covered them. Her eyes went wide, she immediately picked up the blanket wrapped around her front and looked underneath it. That same skin covered her entire body. There was no sign of decay or open wounds that had to be stitched shut. She looked fit and healthy (and had some gorgeous curves, she noted with a blush) “No…this can’t be….how….I’m ALIVE??”

Everything gets loud in her ears again, and only now does she realize it’s not the ocean, that is her breathing. Rapid and shallow and growing in intensity. She’s panicking.

Y’shtola is in front of her again. “Breathe deeply, my dear. In, and hold for a bit, that’s it. Now out, slowly. Good. A few more times, if you please.”

She complies with her instructions, and soon, she feels calmer. “I…I haven’t needed to do that in so long. Was it always that loud?”

Y’shtola smiles. “I suspect you’ll get used to it soon enough, if what I am guessing about you is at all accurate.”

The woman looks at her, fear in her eyes. Or maybe it’s hope. “Do…do you know what’s happened to me?”

“I have a hypothesis. But to confirm, I’ll need to ask you some things, if you’re up for that.”

“Please.”

Y’shtola nods and helps her sit, wrapping the blanket around her to both sit on and protect her modesty. before sitting next to her. She looks her up and down, a hand on her cheek. “First of all, would I be accurate in stating that you were a walking sentient corpse before you came through? A…what was the term…undead?”

The woman nods.

“Your people called themselves “the Forsaken”, right? Because though you’d regained free will, you believed the rest of the world would shun you for your state?”

“Yes. But I’ve never seen anyone with….forgive me if this is offensive, but ears like yours. So how do you know all of this? Where exactly am I?

Y’shtola smiled at her. “It is not. And there is a reason you haven’t. This may be hard for you to understand, but…you are no longer on your world. This world is known as Hydaelyn, though it has other descriptors as well. There is much about the Rift we do not understand, but for the one other instance of this that I have an example of, the person who came through had their own form altered as well. You…you may not look as you remember.”

Y’shtola looks above her eyes, to the…top of her head? The woman’s right arm reaches out to touch it. Her hair is soft, and she brings it to the front of her eyes. It’s graying, even has some blue in the highlights, but it’s a healthy color. It feels strong, not the putrid pile of straw she’d had for too many tears. Her arm keeps raising and she finds…something soft growing off the top of her head. Her other arm shoots up and finds a similar one on the same side. “What on….are those….are those RABBIT EARS?” Her arms shoot to the side of her head. Nothing, just more smooth skin.

She stood, quickly looking around. There was a stream, not far from where they were sitting that fed into the ocean, and she bolted for it. Once she made it there, she leaned over. The water’s reflection wasn’t perfect, but she was able to make out enough details. “Oh, Light…” She began tearing up, placing her hand over the lower half of her face before she quickly dropped it again.

Y’shtola came up behind her, draping the blanket over her again. “Apologies if this is unwanted, we are alone out here, but I did not wish for a stranger to behold your nude form if you did not want that.”

She sniffed, wiping a tear from her face. “No, I wouldn’t. Thank you. I’m sorry for running like that, I just…”

“I know this is all a shock, and to look so different must be-“

“No, you don’t understand.” the woman interrupted, emotion thick in her voice. “Ears aside…that face…is mine. It’s what I looked like so many years ago, before I died. Hells it’s even before the decades long passage of time of being human. I…I never thought I’d see this face again.” She sniffed.

Y’shtola looked a bit startled. “Ah…well I’m very happy for you. And the, ah, ears? I assume you didn’t have anything like them previously.”

She chuckled. “No, I didn’t. But honestly, they’re kind of cute. Is this something unique to this world? I saw…I saw your tail when I got up. Do people in this world have animal features? Wait, is that insensitive? I’m so sorry if it is.”

Y’shtola laughed. “No, not everyone. My people are called Miqo’te. We do have features that are also shared with feline creatures. Your….what you have become are known as Viera. They have rabbit-like ears.

“Miqo’te and Viera. Well, at least this world calls its peoples prettier names than where I came from. So, um, you mentioned another person came through this portal before me?”

“Ah, yes. I wasn’t here when this happened, you see. He only told me the story recently, within the past couple of days, actually. That’s why I was out here, I wanted to investigate this portal and see what I might learn of it, and maybe ward it so that no one discovered it from our side. His story was remarkably similar to yours, actually. He stumbled into it and fell through, emerging here in a body returned to life in prime health. Before that he was undead, himself, though he became a hyur instead of a viera. Hyurs, from what he said, are physically similar to a species called “humans” from your world. Azeroth, I believe that was the name, yes. Is that what you were before you…died?”

The woman grabbed Y’shtola’s shoulders. “The person who came through, he was a male Forsaken? How long ago? Do you know where he is?”

Y’shtola’s shock gave way to suspicion. “I know where he can be found, yes. But you said you were tracking someone. Do you mean him harm? Because he is a dear friend of mine, and I’ll not bring you to him if you do.”

She shook her head. “No…the person I was tracking is…he’s extremely important to me. Someone I thought I had lost, that might have been dead. But I uncovered evidence that he’d been seen to the south, and so I…”

Y’shtola cursed her lack of natural sight, because she suddenly had a feeling she knew who this woman was. Though she could sense the hope and trepidation this woman’s aether, she couldn’t behold simple physical details, and a glimpse of her own eyes would confirm it. But instead, she had to ask.

“My lady…what is your name?”

Startled, the woman blinks. “It’s…Gwenefyr. Gwenefyr Franks. The man I’m looking for is named Aleister Franks. He’s my…my husband. Is….is he the man you’re referring to.?”

Y’shtola inhaled sharply. “By the Twelve, it’s really you. He….yes, Gwenefyr Franks, he is. He…he thinks you’re dead!

Gwenefyr Franks laughed with joy. “I thought he was for the longest time! But he’s here! What has be been doing? Will you take me to him, please, Y’shtola?”

“Of course! Please come with me! I’ll….there’s a lot to cover of what he’s been up to. Even I don’t know the full tale, but…I’m part of an order that’s dedicated to saving this world, we use the term “star”, by the way, from forces that would see it annihilated. It’s called the Scions of the Seventh Dawn. Aleister…he’s a member as well. I’ll take you to our headquarters, our home, and if he’s not there, our administrator will know how to get in contact with him. I will see you two reunited by any-“

Thunder rumbled overhead. Clouds had gathered above the two, unnoticed as they spoke. Rain began pouring down.

“Well, we’d best get moving. This will slow us down some, but it shouldn’t take long to reach the nearest settlement, and from there we can-” Y’shtola realized that Gwenefyr hadn’t moved. “Gwenefyr? Are you all right?”

She had closed her eyes and was inhaling through her nose deeply

“Gwenefyr? Is aught amiss?”

“No…I just…I really loved the smell of the earth just when it starts to rain. It always makes me think of renewal and growth. And that feels kind of fitting right now.”

Gwenefyr smiled and tried to dance in the rain, but quickly stopped when she realized that such an action was proving difficult when keeping the blanket covering her naked form.

“You, uh, you think we can find some clothing along the way, Y’shtola?”

Y’shtola smirked at her. “Don’t want to greet your husband in the altogether?”

“Not in front of anyone else!”

“Sensible, given the motley crew that makes up the Scions. Yes, I suspect we can find you some clothing along the way. I’ll even cover the cost for you, since I doubt you’re hiding money anywhere on you.”

Gwenefyr laughed. “Well, I’ll pay you back…somehow. “

“I accept payments in embarrassing tales about Aleister!”

“You have yourself a deal!”

[w-ht-w]

My reasons for going (90%) vegan:

1. Alleviate my own cognitive dissonance (”psychic discomfort”). 

The feelings that arise when I looked at meat, thinking “this was part of an animal that was raised, killed, and probably lived a horrible life, just for my convenience and gustatory pleasure.” I could no longer justify eating animals, when the option to eat vegan was easily available to me.

2. Feeling of moral self-efficacy/certainty. Contributing in my own small way.

In a time of personal flux (trying to articulate my ethics), veganism represents an area of moral clarity: expanding our circle of empathy/concern to other sentient beings. An ideal to strive for. Though a 100% vegan world may not happen in my lifetime, I can glimpse it, through my own actions.

My individual dietary choice comprises only a minute contribution, but I also have completely control over it. I can’t justify not doing it, if I know it’s easy to do and reduces suffering in the world. None of us should feel that we are “above” our individual ethics/duties. We should all challenge ourselves to do better, once we know better. 

---

Thankfully, I don’t think “desire to feel morally superior” was part of my motivation this time. When I went pescetarian/flexetarian/vegetarian before, I was more eager to tell people about it. But it’s a shaky, dangerous motivation to rely on. Because if/when you don’t perfectly adhere to the dietary change, it means you are morally inferior. 

It’s not about feeding your ego and feeling morally superior to others. It’s not even about doing veganism (or any other moral cause) perfectly. It’s about challenging yourself to do better.

We are all compelled by different kinds of suffering. No one can perfectly champion every moral cause, and choosing to focus on one particular cause does not necessarily make us “better” than other people. But by representing our chosen cause with integrity and grace, we invite others to ask questions, to get involved. We help guide one another toward redemption. To rise above the inherent cruelty of this world, and the selfish instincts we were all born with. Maybe we didn’t ask to be born. But we can strive to make the most of this life - of being human - anyway. We are the only species capable of visualizing a better world, and working to reduce suffering. 

[timemachineyeah]

Some rando on the internet: I was abducted by aliens

Me: no you weren’t but god I wish you were, please tell me all about it

Another rando on the internet: the aliens are gonna make themselves public on this date

Me: no they won’t because they aren’t here but I’m still gonna remember that date whether I want to or not

My therapist if I was still in therapy probably: so where do you think the fascination comes from...?

Me: listen I was raised believing one day a magical all loving man would come down from the sky and instantly heal all our illnesses and throw us into a utopia and that even if that didn’t happen in my lifetime that when I died I could go to super heaven where I’d be able to ask any question and get an answer and I don’t believe that any more, I don’t believe anything like that any more, and I’m genuinely glad I don’t believe that any more because it’s not true and also believing it was really bad for me more than it was good for me, but maybe there’s a part of me that still wants it, still wants there to be someone stronger and smarter and kinder out there who can just fix it for us, just fix all my existential ailments in one go, and obviously stories of alien abduction do not really fit that model (and they definitely don’t stand up to the scrutiny that is appropriate to the scale of the claim) but if there were aliens capable of the kind of transportation needed to pop over a few galaxies to bother to the less developed species, that would imply the kind of technology that maybe could fix our problems if they were willing to share it, and while still deeply improbable, especially as presented in pop culture, it’s still more plausible than a single intercessory creator god. But are you asking if I know why I want it to be true or why I don’t believe it even when I want to? I don’t believe it because of the problem of motive, the problem of evidence, the problem of the vastness of space. You have to make so many suppositions that by the time you get to “sentient beings from outside our world intentionally visiting it to interact with us” you’ve gone full speculative and you might as well be talking about the fey. You might as well be talking about Narnia. Occam’s razor is gonna favor basically any other explanation. I know that! I know that! But it’s still so interesting, and there are so many possibilities, and I should just give up and write baldly self indulgent scifi fantasy stories at this point and pretend it’s deep like I’m old white dude in the 1960s and 1970s, but I don’t. Instead I read forums I never write in because everyone there is clearly either trolling or in need of their own therapist and I worry about becoming one of them. I don’t understand how anyone can speak with such certainty about things so incredibly unverifiable. I mean I want it to be true but also if I actually got to chat with some aliens in a spaceship I’d be more worried I was finally having my break with reality than convinced what I had wanted to believe in had actually happened. It’s the unknowable, man. It’s the lack of objective answers about reality and the inextricable messiness of solutions to human suffering. I want to know everything. I want to do everything. I want to fix everything. I will always be haunted by my frailty and fallibility and the inevitability of my own death. I want to believe there’s a safety net if we can’t save our future ourselves, despite all evidence to the contrary. Even when it seems like there’s no evidence of things getting better, I want miracles, a deus ex machina. If I can’t imagine a reasonable source of optimism I have to rely on the unreasonable at least long enough for reasonable sources to make themselves known. It is as irrational as I can allow myself to be. I find joy in the unknown instead of terror by placing an imaginary friend there, if not a god, an alien. But the difference is I no longer pretend to be right, I no longer assert the truth of my self-satisfying fantasy. I know how to tell fact from fiction now, and I can see what game I’m playing with myself even as I play it. But I try to make it a nice game and I don’t ask anyone to play it with me. It’s a magic trick and I’m both magician and audience. I both perform the slight of hand and feel the wonder at the trick at the same time as I feel the disillusionment of seeing how it’s done. I keep doing it though. Maybe this time, I think, it’ll be actual magic. Maybe this time.

[ask-the-barkerverse]

MLP Headcanon Dump

Just realized that I never bothered to post this on here. Heads up, this is a VERY long post.

Svengallop's parents are Charity Kindheart and Bracer Britches. The two had a brief affair, but never officially dated and Sven was an accident. Charity loved her son, but passed away due to illness when he was a teenager, so Sven was sent to live with his father who never wanted him. This has a lot to do with Svengallop's attitude as an adult.

All pure blooded draconequui are able to become pregnant or impregnate a partner, regardless of gender.

Wind Rider is a womanizer and serial adulterer with several illegitimate children, including Helia, Lighting Dust and Cloudy Daze among others.

There are some ponies who eat meat, such as fish, pork and chicken (eating beef and venison would be considered immoral since bovines and deer in Equestria are sentient). It's not particularly common and is actually considered gross by the majority, not unlike humans who eat insects. Equestria also has plenty of vegan alternatives that exist in our world, such as tofu and artificial meat.

The comic arc "Siege of the Crystal Empire" was actually just a fanfic written by Mina the dragon.

Tree Hugger is a member of the Hooffield Family. She ran away from home as a teen because she was sick of the constant fighting with the McColts. After running away she ended up joining a hippie commune, which is how she became the mare she is today.

Ocellus is the daughter of Queen Chrysalis. She will be queen of Thorax's hive after he is gone.

It is a tradition in Equestria for nurses to add 'heart' to the end of their names once they graduate nursing school. For example, Nurse Redheart's birth name is Redlove and Nurse Sweetheart is Sweetcream. This is in honor of Nurse Cureheart, the nurse credited for curing Celestia's broken heart after Luna's banishment.

The baby brother Hoops mentions in "The Cutie Mark Chronicles" is actually Spiral Notepad, who is now a trans filly.

Yaks speak Equestrian (aka English) so badly only because they have their own language and Equestrian is foreign to them.

The Kirin are thought to be the result of Asian unicorns interbreeding with dragons, but this has never been proven.

Derpy Hooves and Dinky Doo are mother and daughter, with Dinky having been born to Derpy when she was still in her teens. (I know it's an old headcanon, but I'll always have a soft spot for it.)

Quibble Pants is a natural blonde.

Derpy Hooves' real name is Ditzy Doo. "Derpy" was a childhood nickname that just kinda stuck.

Derpy has an eye condition called strabismus, hence the crooked eyes.

Crackle is a pseudodragon, a species of lizard that disguise themselves as dragons. Despite having twice as many limbs and gems growing out of them, they are accepted by dragons as one of their own.

Flash Sentry and Spearhead are brothers and are both descended from a pony that escaped the Crystal Empire during King Sombra's reign.

Sunset Shimmer and Sunburst are cousins.

Discord created Poison Joke.

Toe Tapper and Torch Song are the parents of Coco Pommel.

Hoity Toity is part mule, hence the long ears.

Celestia was born with an all-pink mane and tail and would have gained more shades of orange and yellow as she grew, but she instead gained hues of green and blue when she took over Luna's duty of raising the moon after Nightmare Moon's banishment.

Wind Sprint's original father died in a sports-related accident, which is why Clear Sky found comfort and common ground with Quibble Pants who was able to distract her from sports for a while. Unfortunately, as we all know from the episode, this had no effect on Wind Sprint's persistent love for sports.

Celestia was technically the first pony who managed to pull off a sonic rainboom, but it wasn't the same as Rainbow Dash's since she lacked the colors of a proper rainbow. Over time it was forgotten, but Celestia's "rainboom" was the basis of the sonic rainboom being a myth in the first place.

Pinkie Pie and Applejack's respective families are both descended from the children of Chancellor Puddinghead and Smart Cookie.

Orchard Blossom is an actual Apple family member that Big Mac was impersonating in "Brotherhooves Social".

Rainbow Blaze (the rainbow-maned stallion from "Games Ponies Play" who was confirmed is not Rainbow Dash's father) is Rainbow Dash's older brother.

The final alternate future seen in "The Cutie Remark-Part 2" where Equestria is nothing but an apocalyptic wasteland is a result of Daybreaker coming to life and burning everything to the ground into pure ash. It got so bad that it ultimately left Daybreaker with no kingdom to rule anymore. (As horrifying as it sounds, the dirt that Twilight and Starlight were standing on in that scene included the ashes of hundreds of dead ponies.)

Pear Butter and Bright Mac were killed by Timberwolves on a day trip. Sadly, Granny Smith considers herself responsible for this as she forgot to warn them about the Timberwolves that day. As a result, this is also why Applejack is so good at fighting them off.

Due to their godlike status, Celestia and Luna are the only immortal alicorns. Ordinary royalty like Twilight Sparkle, Cadance, and Flurry Heart have longer lifespans than normal ponies but can still die of old age.

Screwball is the daughter of Nurse Sweetheart and her eyes only become swirly when she's exposed to Poison Joke. The effect it has on her is that it makes her see weird stuff and she used to be addicted to it, but ended up quitting altogether as the last time she used it (around the time Discord returned) caused her to see some pretty nightmarish imagery.

The episode "Yakety Sax" was just a bad fever dream Pinkie Pie had after eating too much Yak cuisine one day.

All the changelings in Thorax's hive are siblings born from the same queen. Changelings do not interbreed with members of their own hive, though they may form family units with their siblings and adopt grubs to raise, hence the family of changelings Ocellus was seen with in "Hearths Warming Club".

Whoa Nelly's real name is Jelly Nelly Bean. Her large size is the result of a very rare pituitary disorder.

Fluttershy's human world counterpart is a vegan.

Aunt and Uncle Orange are both parental figures to Babs Seed. Whether they're her biological or adoptive parents in still unknown.

The hippocampus (aka the seaponies from the 2017 movie) once existed as a separate race, but are believed to have been driven to extinction because of the Sirens, who destroyed their homes, depleted their food sources, and even directly preyed on them. This was of course before Queen Novo fled into the sea and formed the seaponies we know from the 2017 movie.

Snap Shutter and Mane Allgood had Scootaloo later in life as they didn't really plan to have a foal, hence why they're such thoughtless parents.

Mane Allgood is actually a cousin of Daring Do.

Bulk Biceps is Featherweight's biological father. He was formerly married to an abusive, neglectful, and alcoholic wife, resulting in a divorce and Bulk and Featherweight moving to Ponyville and leaving her for good.

Cheese Sandwich is the younger brother of Marine Sandwich. The real reason he ran away from home and stumbled into Ponyville by chance is because he wanted to get away from his psychotic older sister. (Based off of this.)

Cheese Sandwich and Mudbriar are cousins.

Limestone Pie's talent is mixing drinks.

Burnt Oak is the father of the pony versions of Timber Spruce and Gloriosa Daisy.

Rumble is a trans colt.

Granny Smith's real name is Maria Ann Smith, or "Annie Smith" for short.

Fluttershy is the oldest of the Man Six, while Pinkie Pie is the youngest.

Trixie's full name is actually Bellatrix Lulamoon. She prefers to go by Trixie as it's easier to remember.

Tempest Shadow didn't receive her cutie mark until she was an adult, AFTER the events of the MLP movie where she started using her horn to make fireworks.

The draconequus were once a race of creatures that went to war against ponykind after their prince (aka Discord) was turned to stone. The war resulted in many of them being wiped out and it's currently unknown if any besides Discord still exist today.

Kirin shed and regrow their horns once a year, similar to deer antlers. Shed kirin horns make a powerful ingredient in potions.

[f-117-nighthawk]

Playlist Update? From MY Brain? More Likely Than You Think

can't remember the last time I posted these all together but I just put a few new songs in. I've been playing Arknights bc STARSET songs keep being used in the trailers, and then I was listening to Transmissions while making dinner, and uhhhhh there's two new Transmissions songs on the playlists, plus whatever else the spotify links needed to update to my ever-changing apple versions.

This is just the main playlist, because this one is now 3h 40m, and the other three playlists are about an hour each. I’ll give them their own post tomorrow. Under the cut, because it's also Write Random Snippits and Include Important Lyrics time

Dark Matter

Surprise surprise, this one’s got probably the most work done on it. A lot of that is moving things around, a few deletions, and the additions.

DM now starts with Your World Will Fail, Dark Matter, and Eater of Worlds. Turn the Lights Out still kinda applies, but I stopped vibing with it starting everything, and wasn’t really sure where else it should go so it got dropped. It’s role is sort of picked up by a UtA song later? Anyway, the opening three are still very much about not only the birth of [REDACTED], but the birth of the universe itself. And that’s why it feels better to start out with YWWF. Because it is the start.

(Your world will fail my love/It’s far beyond repair/Your world will fail my love/It is already there)

(Bring me your soul/Bring me your hate/In my name you will create/Bring me your fear/Bring me your pain/You will destroy in my name)

(Can’t imagine the violence/The rage and the love in my madness/I am the eater of worlds and I’m looking for someone to feed me)

Remnants of Stars is a hook to Filaments at this point, but stays way up here because the thing it’s about connects back up to those three ^ and is something slowly realized by the Paladins throughout the series. There’s kinda three different points that they realize something new about this (at the moment, I Am the One, Cosmic Vertigo, and Centigrade).

(Shed all you know and make way for a galaxy of light/Answers found hidden inside the smallest stone/Bringing forth a new way of life/Open your heart to the sky)

Apocalypse 1992 hasn’t changed. Still about The Fall, still the turning point for the entire damn war. Still about poor Krolia. Still the Rogue One of DM. It happens between parts of Awakenings, detailing the rise of [REDACTED] and the final hours before the destruction of everything sentient species knew beforehand.

(Fly high through apocalypse skies/Fight for the world we must save/Like tears of a unicorn lost in the rain/Chaos will triumph this day)

Apex is the final moments of Apocalypse 1992 from the Red Lion’s perspective, and connects nicely (just as in the albums lol) to the next UtA songs. Which we’ll get to in a bit.

(Brother mountain/Now we sleep/For a thousand years/I will see you again/Something is coming/Coming for me)

You Keep What You Kill covers the slow degeneration of the Empire between The Fall and the Battle of Arus. The knowledge harshly taught by the Thuanial War is forgotten under the influence of Zarkon, Haggar, and [REDACTED]. Marzin and Galraasa quickly rise the ranks as the Empire’s left and right hands, like omens of destruction before them. The four are the ‘holy half-dead,’ the ones who shape the devouring of the universe before them.

(Defying dimensions/These ruthless creatures will steal your soul/Breaking away from the chains of mortality/They won’t be taken down/Bow now to the holy half dead/The master to death mongers calls)

The Glory and the Scum is partially here bc I missed having Delain, I’ll freely admit that. (Delain split up! Like six months ago! I’m still sad!) Here, it’s (most) of the reason why Krolia isn’t around until MGHM. Think Winter Soldier-ish. It’s also from Krolia’s perspective as she’s talking to Kolivan in a conversation I implied in Shatterpoint. Perhaps it shall see the light of day.

(Look at what we've done/Take a step back/Shake your head at what we have become/We're the glory and the scum)

The Seven Sisters is about Keith, mostly, and connected to Closure via its influence on Child From the Stars (Lost in the Dark) and also to Memories of a Girl I Haven’t Met. Also the thing about the Pleiades has kinda become A Thing associated with my two favorite halfbloods.

(I cast my hope upon The Pleiades/The Seven Sisters who would come for me/They’d fall to Earth to grant a child’s dream/But I’m still waiting)

Starlight is the Adashi song. Here, it’s the sad part, based around the time that the SFSS Genesis launches for Kerberos. It also is sort of about Shiro’s thoughts throughout the war as he watches ‘from distant skies’ (and influences String Theory kinda)

(At night the earth will rise/And I’ll think of you each time I watch from distant skies/Whenever stars go down and galaxies ignite/I’ll think of you each time they wash me in their light/And I’ll fall in love with you again)

Waking Dream and Abyss are Awakenings. They’re specifically the Red Lion waking up on Sendak’s ship to her new Paladin, but also sort of the rest of the Lions as they find new Paladins for the first time since The Fall (and, also, an accidental hook to the end of Filaments just by virtue of being on the same UtA album…)

(Centuries like flowing streams as years go rushing by/Waiting in the dark for afterlife)

(Open my eyes in a daze/How long has it been? Am I so out of place?/Warmth I can no longer feel/My mountain is gone, I’m surrounded by steel/The strangest of structures arises ahead/Seems to be held up by nothing/Where have I gone, do I dream?/How can the stars be all I can see?)

Who Will Save You Now is about the Paladins in First Contact. It’s the video messages they send to their families, the warning that Something Is Out Here that they need to prepare for. It’s a declaration of protection for Earth, but a recognition that the Paladins may not be able to do what they say.

(I will not take from you and you will not owe/I will protect you from the fire below/It’s not in my mind/It’s here at my side/Go tell the world that I’m still alive)

Then there’s The End of the Beginning. Which is, well, the eponymous fic. And don’t forget the String Theory connection! Fun fact: part of the last chapter leads directly into part of String Theory at the moment.

(Every night I die just a little/All this time, I’m caught in the middle/All your life, you fought with no winning/This is just the end of the beginning)

A Simple Plan is about anything but a simple plan. Lotor is making his secret bid for the construction of the Sinkline ships, but there’s one more thing he needs before it can come to fruition. Haggar has suspicions, and knows one thing that she needs to keep from both him and Voltron. Team Voltron is still struggling to fit into their new roles, especially with a Black Paladin who adamantly does not want to be Black Paladin, and is in desperate need of one thing to fix the last of the damage done during the Battle of the Sarnan Nebula.

(How long can we hold off ending?/How long can we pretend we’re ok?/No one goes on fighting it forever/I know I’m better this way)

Memories of a Girl I Haven’t Met. Such a short song for such an important fic. It skips all the way over Naxzela to the Mission to the Baaria Shipyards, the first major offensive that isn’t somehow connected to canon (even if only a very very small part of it is actually at the shipyards lol). This is also the song that solidified Keith’s very queer identity in Dark Matter. And more Pleiades stuff!

(In this lonely place, bathed in silence and thoughts of you/I can’t see your face but I’m trying to envision you/So are you really out there? Are you awake with memories/Of a boy you haven’t met yet who’s wished upon the Pleiades?)

There’s another fic in here that I’m still waiting for a song to catch my ear, but it’s pretty big so I’m putting it in here. For the moment, it’s called MGHM 2.0: Electric Paladinloo. Featuring the Whispers, Voltron, and a few mullets.

And then. Hoh boy. The beast of beats. TRIALS (reimagine), Dark On Me, String Theory, and I Am the One. We’ve got [REDACTED], we’ve got [spoiler], we’ve got the first major turning point in the entire war, and the first revelation of the true nature of [REDACTED]. Hence the honor of being the separation point of my two main DM folders. TRIALS is the first part, the horrifying realization. Dark On Me and String Theory itself are from Shiro’s perspective. I Am the One is… an image song? I guess? That’s all I’ll say on that. (I would like to note that the STARSET songs bar OWtT tend to be about the Shiroganes…)

(Hear me from the bottom/Forged in regret, I'm the silversmith/Doomsday, you we had it coming/Marching the streets with an iron fist/Obey no more in silence/The steel in our hearts will be monuments/Today, they'll hear the violence/We'll rise from the dark like Lazarus)

(You're the cause/The antidote/The sinking ship that I could not let go/You led my way, then disappeared/How could you just walk away and leave me here?/Light the night up, you're my dark star/And now you're falling away)

(You don’t believe in space/You don’t believe in light/You don’t believe that anything is well beyond your might/We walk across the sky and beneath the ocean floor/We’re never going anywhere we’ve never been before)

(I am the one/I am the architect to rule your fate)

House on Fire is the aftermath of String Theory, and a large vibe of We ARE Struggling Together! It’s about family, never letting go of something you care about, and the slow act of trusting.

(So I’ll just hold you like a hand grenade/You touch me like a razor blade/I wish there was some other way right now/Like a house on fire we’re up in flames/I’d burn here if that’s what it takes/To let you know I won’t let go of you)

Belgrade is The klance song! It is a) a bop b) always stuck in my head because it is That Good. The line in the chorus about ‘sweet songs of seduction’ is eternally funny to me bc a)they’re both ace and b)QPR’s don’t usually involve seduction. Belgrade also leads almost directly into…

(We pretend in the darkness/We pretend the night won’t steal our youth/Singing me the sweet songs of seduction/Let me be the fool, fool, fool/Who will live and die for you)

Here to Save You is about Sam. Mostly. It’s also about Pidge. And Zaivorge cannons.

(A slave for humankind/I made sure I would survive/To stay alive/Now it’s time to move on/When there’s nothing left to prove/I’m coming to get you)

Iron is the third Closure fic (the second is End of the Beginning, forgot to mention that. They’ve slowly moved away from actually being related to it in anything but name and general idea). It’s about Keith coming to terms with parts of himself, and learning how to use them to great effect. Also has a huge info dump about the Blade.

(You can’t live without the fire/It’s the heat that makes you strong/‘Cause you’re born to live/And fight it all the way/You can’t hide what lies inside you/It’s the only thing you know/You’re embracing that, never walk away)

The second major turning point in the war is Monarch, Birthright, and Firewall. I really recommend reading the whole lyrics for Monarch, because the entire thing is very much a Lotor song. I had a bit of trouble picking a lyric to use here. Monarch is here because Lotor is also the ‘singer’ of Birthright, and both songs are to a very specific high-level target of the Coalition. Firewall is a little different as it’s a Team Voltron song not a Lotor song, but happens because of the same thing the other two do. They’re all not exactly a direct result of Iron, but they wouldn’t happen how they do without it, and then [REDACTED] swings back into the fray and things learned in String Theory/the framing story for Through Apocalypse Skies hit in full force.

(I am not the person you remember from before/The one you patronized and stepped on, the one you hurt/And I have pulled the arrows, now my skin has become stone/No longer am I prisoner to your empty fucking words)

(The voices in my head have all begun to sing/(The voices in your head have all begun to sing)/And they sure as hell hope I am listening/(I sure as hell hope you are listening!))

(They come to your dreams with illusion/They come to bring shape to your mind/You know how to stop the intrusion/We all have to fight for our lives)

and then, The Day the Earth Collapsed

(How much time has been elapsed/Since the day the earth collapsed?)

Here Comes the Reign doesn’t come into full effect until several months after Birthright/Firewall, but starts with The Day the Earth Collapsed. It’s largely about Haggar and [REDACTED]

(You made something they can’t take away/Now bring the fire of the burning sun on everyone)

Supersonic is here… kinda as a placeholder? Things have shifted around since its original purpose, and frankly it’s here still as a framework for what I like to call The Meme Battle. It’s generally about the increase in Coalition support and general winning as they go after warlords in the aftermath of Feyiv, culminating in I Need a Hero which is, of course, The Meme Battle.

Yes, it’s the Shrek version. It’s the Meme Battle.

(Supersonic, polyphonic, this is our war/Mustering the armies, marching faster than before)

(I need a hero/I'm holding out for a hero 'til the end of the night/He's gotta be strong, and he's gotta be fast/And he's gotta be fresh from the fight)

But Tonight We Dance isn’t exactly a klance song, but it’s here for them. On a diplomatic mission gone wrong, the Red and Blue Paladins of Voltron uncover a literally-buried government conspiracy, a rebel cell, and nearly die. A normal days work for the two of them. But they’ve really gotta stop having relationship milestones in the middle of a warzone.

Another reason it’s here is Tonight We Dance is a very aro song to me. “A language universal, but I speak not its tongue” hits hard. I felt like I needed a bit in here to remind listeners/readers that romance isn’t a language Keith speaks. And it becomes very explicit in this fic, just like Belgrade.

(Tomorrow we might wake in servitude and silence/I will give you everything if only you would have me/Tomorrow we will sweat and toil/Our hands will quiver, caked with soil/Tomorrow we'll give it one last chance/But tonight we dance/But tonight we dance!)

But Tonight We Dance is the last of the Closure fics, which is why it’s here. Closure in general is a lot of Keith’s character development and some of the struggles he goes through to accept his place in the universe and the fact that yes, he does have people that care about him. The last fic is me shining a brighter light on Closure’s chorus and taking a ‘last goodbye’ as never needing to say it again

(I am the child from the stars/That got lost in the dark/Between heaven and hell/I am forced to live on/I am the cause when you sin/I am the demon you skin/But there is no more tears to beautify/This is my last goodbye)

Then we step back into the universe-level action with Soulbound. Revelations from String Theory and Firewall swing back in with a vengeance on a joint Whispers-Voltron mission, leaving them reeling and Krolia questioning her very identity.

(Soulbound, endlessly forever/Locked between the darkness and the light/Don’t drown in the swarming, blackened rising/Hold on to humanity and fight)

About three months after that is My Darkest Hour and Faster Than Light. Haggar realizes something and goes searching for her fifth [spoiler], sending the Blade and the rest of the Coalition scrambling. These also lead directly, and I mean directly, into…

(When the sun comes crashing down/When the world is spinning round and round/I will face what must be my darkest hour)

(Once more we’re flying fast as light/Dark matter passing in the night/Pursued by a force we can’t outrun/As we hurtle towards a dying sun/We maneuver through the remnants of a moon/On the solar winds of supernovas/There is not a place to hide, the Matriarch is close behind/It’s plain to see she’s coming for us all)

Cosmic Vertigo and Other Worlds Than These. Together they are the second of two revelations in what, exactly, is [REDACTED]

(Banish me like burned down planets/Write my fate with sparkling lies/I am the universe; you're just one sky)

(Pull the wool out from your eyes/It won’t shade your frail belief/In the end we cannot hide/There are other worlds than these)

Godhunter is Team Voltron, well, hunting for gods, even as one of them disappears.

(She’s been watching for a century/With hatred, and with scorn/If you know the hunter’s coming/Then you hide or keep on running/'Cause she’s slain the gods before)

Trophy Hunter, Ember, and Redemption are the culmination of Godhunter. I’ve been thinking of them as akin to the suicide mission in Mass Effect 2, if that gives you an idea of what the hell they run into. Also I switched which specific Redemption is on the playlist, because I was listening to Red Handed Denial again and their Redemption was vibing way more than the Hammerfall one. They link up to Godhunter and Soulbound in subject matter, and lead directly into…

(You, you won’t escape me, I’ll rise from the deep/In this final moment, no words left to say/I can’t let you be when a life fades away/You, you won’t escape me ‘cause I’ll set you free)

(Dark matter falling from the sky/Dancing flames reflecting in your eyes as you watch them burn/Watching all your riches witches burn)

(Remember me not for the mess I’ve made/But who I could have been/Finally I’m going home)

World On Fire, This is a Call, The Reckoning, The Wind That Shapes the Land, and Louder Than Words. Switched the order up a bit so it makes more sense chronologically, because the message ‘sent by forces beyond salvation’ has to get there before the reckoning can begin.

(World on fire with a smoking sun/Stops everything and everyone/Brace yourself for all will pay/Help is on the way)

(This is a call to action/This is a call to arms/All lives for one, together/There are no false alarms)

(I see your face, find peace of mind/Between the madness and the sadness and the fire burning/The end of war, the great divine/We’ll see the day of reckoning)

(Search within/Uncover the will to win/Turn against the tide that washes o'er/Find the strength to fall and rise again/Open up the gates, unleash the force/I am the wind that shapes the land/Old as time and twice as strong/Oceans arise at my command/I alone can carry on)

(We have the force to fight/We have the blinding light/A war is more than heard/Coming in louder than words)