#even if the premise is kinda basic and the names are just bad distortions of the scientific name

[donuts4evry1]

Y'know I only got into jellyfish because I wanted to do some research for a jellyfish oc

and then I kinda just... got sucked into the jellyfish rabbit hole.

Like, they are so incredibly interesting??

Most of them have terrifying regenerative abilities. I found a moon jellyfish on r/JellyfishCare that was still alive despite losing practically its entire bell.

Some have lethal poison. Many of them are small, but some can grow quite large. Some glow in the dark. Others eat the sun (well, more like they mooch off of their zooxanthellae pals, but it's more fun to word it this way)

Members of the Chironex (the famous box jellyfish) species are reported to swim at the same speed we can jog/run on land. The immortal jellyfish (along with the moon jellyfish- Aurelia aurita, to be specific) have the ability to turn back into a polyp under stress, starvation, and disease.

Comb jellies as a whole are largely hermaphroditic, and can reproduce by themselves if they want to. Some have teeth. Some have teeth.

Anyway it's very fun to think about jellyfish. I am glad they've been picking up traction in the scientific community, we've found out so much about them in so little time and there is still mountains of data to comb through and even more things we need to discover

[nyxelestia]

What I Didn’t Write in 2017

So thanks to a confluence of limited time and resources, I had to put a moratorium on starting any new fanfics. That said, I'm still getting plotbunnies. I've found that the process of writing out and talking about a fic is a surprisingly good way to get it out of my system.  

Hence, this tag/this series of the posts. Basically, a little bit about my plotbunnies, and what it was about them that intrigued me - whether it was a premise, a theme, or even just a particular scene or two.

(And if anyone finds themselves intrigued by an idea and wants to give it a shot, I absolutely encourage them! :D Please just make sure to drop me a line if you do.)

This particular post is over a year late, and I will be making a separate "what I didn't write in 2018" post soon enough.

Quick list:

Mermaid/Siren+Banshee!Lydia. Lydia as a Siren/Mermaid as well as a banshee (or rather, all three are the same creature at different "stages").

Accidental Mob Boss Scott. Scott gets mistaken by the FBI for a criminal prodigy and he kinda runs with it because reasons. :)

BBC Merlin "Crossover"/AU. The Core Four (Scott, Stiles, Allison, and Lydia) are reincarnations of the original medieval Core Four (Arthur, Merlin, Guinevere, and Morgana).

"Bitten!Melissa AU". Canon divergence from Season 1, where Stiles wasn't able to get to Melissa in time when she went on that date with Peter, and he Bit her.

Dark Scott/Deucalion fic. After Season 5, Scott starts sleeping with Deucalion in exchange for Deucalion taking some of his more traumatic memories involving his loved ones.

CSA!Survivor Scott. Rafael molested Scott, and everyone finds out because nogitusne. Scott still resents Rafael more for leaving him than for abusing him in the first place, but also still loves him - so he tries to protect his father from all his friends.

Boyd/Malia, bonding over their guilt about being responsible for their little sisters' deaths, and finding a new family in their pack (and each other).

bb!Scott and Stiles brushing up against the supernatural. "I've got a prompt for you, Can you write a story about Scott and Stiles as kids exploring/getting in trouble in Beacon Hills with a bit of supernatural throwed in because it's Beacon hills but they don't really realise it ?"

Sheriff Stilinski as a LEAP Officer. How that influences him being a police officer to such a crazy town as Beacon Hills, and how that's why he encouraged Stiles to become a detective/go the FBI route instead.

Expansions and elaborations below the cut.

1.) Mermaid/Siren+Banshee!Lydia. Lydia as a Siren/Mermaid as well as a banshee (or rather, all three are the same creature at different "stages").

All right, so we already know that many of the supernatural creatures and shapeshifters have multiple shapes - i.e. the werewolves have their largely human shape, their somewhat monstrous shape, and then some change into a wolf or coyote altogether. It's also mentioned that the kanima has another stage of development in which it has wings - and honestly, put wings on the kanima, you basically get a small dragon. We also see that most of the legends are heavily distorted, but with grains of truth to them, and sometimes the different legends get mixed up.

What if banshees are the same way?

We know she has psychic capabilities - which extend well beyond merely detecting people's deaths, as we see in the later seasons. We also see that her voice is her power, giving her powers far beyond what banshees have in legend...but coming awfully close to certain other legends. i.e. Lydia uses her voice to "call people's names" and draw people forward - almost like what sirens and other "water women" in myths (most typically associated with sound, singing, and seduction) also do.

Additionally, what was Lydia and Lorraine's favorite fairytale? The Little Mermaid.

This one, I never wrote because it was more of a headcanon or concept idea, rather than any actual plot or story. I might still incorporate this into another AU entirely. But tl;dr, banshees are just mermaids (and/or sirens) whilst on dry land, so along with being a banshee, Lydia is actually a mermaid.

2.) Accidental Mob Boss Scott. Scott gets mistaken by the FBI for a criminal prodigy and he kinda runs with it because reasons. :)

This one is actually still in the works with @liveandletrain, but it's still mostly a collection of ideas without much plot yet, and it was planned in 2017 but it's now 2018 2019, so it's on this list.

The gist of it is, take a look at all the mayhem in Beacon Hills from the perspective of the FBI. In particular, take a look at Scott McCall. There is all this violence and chaos - and Scott seems to be at the center of it, time and again. There seems to be a long history of violence and bad blood between the Hale and Argent families, for no discernible reason - and yet Scott swoops in and suddenly it gets resolved, with the descendants of those two families making peace with each other, and apparently even working together?

FBI eventually concludes that this must all be secret mob activity, and Scott is some kind of evil teenage prodigy that somehow managed to take over these two different mobs in high school. They start stalking the McCall Pack in an effort to figure this out - and now the pack has to balance preserving the secret of the supernatural, with keeping their own asses out of jail. Clearly, the answer is to actually pretend that they're a mob, without doing so in a way that creates evidence.

They...have a little too much fun pretending to be in a mob. If you don't believe me, I ask you to imagine asking Corey and Mason to be pretend mob henchmen.

3.) BBC Merlin "Crossover"/AU. The Core Four (Scott, Stiles, Allison, and Lydia) are reincarnations of the original medieval Core Four (Arthur, Merlin, Guinevere, and Morgana).

To be honest, I don't have much more thought behind this than that. I noticed some parallels and ran with them, and I might still make a gifset or something out of this. I just had this idea that everything we see in Beacon Hills is just a "dress rehearsal"/precursor to something far bigger and deeper, something that's going to change the world - a change that will be spearheaded by the original Core Four. But we don't see that yet, we just see what they're up to as kids just warming up for the real deal.

Scott and Arthur are both leaders who have to contend with a lot of warfare, lies, and manipulation, but try to rise above them -- instead striving for peace and diplomacy, though with mixed results. They will both battle if they have to, and their proficiency gives them the capability to end wars. But, while they sure always end fights, they never start them.

Stiles and Merlin are, of course, their best friends and confidantes...and the ones occasionally willing to do their "dirty work" so to speak. I had two ideas, one is that Stiles inherits Merlin's powerful magic...and the other that Stiles isn't magical at all/is no more powerful than any other given Emissary like Deaton. He's just a regular ol' Emissary, because magical power is not his power, what makes him particularly powerful. But things like a certain level of suspicion to counteract their leading friends' whole heartedness, and doing "under the table" work to supplement their friends' best efforts. The kind of magic Merlin had is not all that necessary or helpful in the modern era, but just about everything else about Merlin is, and Stiles has them in spades.

Allison and Guinevere are both beautiful women, but also warriors in their own right - and on top of that, both of them make weapons, too! Ironically, I originally paralleled Allison to Guinevere purely for them both being leaders (Allison as the Argent Matriarch, Guinevere as the Queen of Camelot), and for the fact they both forged weapons/made weapons. I then remembered they both had a relationship with the other leader/the king. XD

Lydia and Morgana can both, in their own ways, see the future. They both also had their early stories marked by people lying to them and manipulating them, and people constantly trying to use them. They both had a somewhat sororal relationship with "the king" (Lydia being somewhat sisterly to Scott, and Morgana being Arthur's half-sister) and to "the queen" (Lydia being Allison's best friend, and Morgana once being Guinevere's best friend).

4.) "Bitten!Melissa AU". Canon divergence from Season 1, where Stiles wasn't able to get to Melissa in time when she went on that date with Peter, and he Bit her.

I didn't really have a plot for this, it was just a neat idea. What would change about the ending of Season 1 if Melissa had also become a werewolf? And the rest of the show after it?

The most significant idea I had was that Scott, still believing Derek's claim that they have to kill the alpha who turned them, would realize this means they can't both be cured. In his desperation, he would likely finally cave in and go to the Argents - especially if he finally told Melissa everything, and she assumed that Derek's claims (and the limited conclusive evidence he presented) were exaggerated or unfounded.

The Argents would probably still be quite hostile to Scott and Melissa, but also a little more sympathetic if made to see them both as victims, neither of them willing werewolves and both seeking a cure. They wouldn't have one, but since most of the Argents at least try to stick to the Code, they wouldn't just murder the McCalls on the post.

...except for Kate, who they still don't know really DID murder the Hale pack, despite their innocence. >:)

5.) Dark Scott/Deucalion fic. After Season 5, Scott starts sleeping with Deucalion in exchange for Deucalion taking some of his more traumatic memories involving his loved ones.

Slightly dark AU in which Scott desperately wants to get rid of certain memories - not of the people who he hates hurting him, but of the people he loved hurting him. Ranging from Derek's attacks on him to Allison hunting him down to Stiles' lashing, Scott's been hurt by the people he loves one too many times. Rather than try to do the healthy thing and address those traumas, he figures he might as well take a silver lining in being a werewolf, and manipulate memory - in this case, his own. Especially since he records a video diary of what happened or writes it down, so it's not like he's trying to pretend it never happened - he's only erasing the trauma itself.

Of course, it turns out an alpha can't take their own memory away, so he has to find another alpha to do it for him...and the only one willing to do this is Deucalion.

And he's not gonna do it for free.

6.) CSA!Survivor Scott. Rafael molested Scott, and everyone finds out because nogitusne. Scott still resents Rafael more for leaving him than for abusing him in the first place, but also still loves him - so he tries to protect his father from all his friends.

I ended up not writing this for my mental health/personal reasons, but I actually outlined this entire thing. The nogitsune, when it needs to buy itself some time, distracts everyone by revealing Stiles' long-standing suspicions about Rafael to everyone. Of course, it doesn't significantly change things at the time, save one way: Allison's last plan, made in the car with Derek and her dad on their way to Oak Creek, was to try to find evidence to get Rafael imprisoned for what he did to Scott, and to do so without having to tell Scott what they were doing.

And then she died, but Chris and Isaac are determined to carry out her last mission - even against Scott's wishes - and Derek, finally coming to terms with what Kate did to him, agrees to help. Scott insists that this is between him and his father, and it should be up to him to decide whether or not to forgive Raf or press charges, right? The only one who agrees with him is Lydia - though she argues if there are other victims, they should have the same right. So, Scott brokers a deal - if his friends find evidence that Raf ever hurt a single other kid, Scott would press charges to get the investigation rolling, but if they didn't, they let it drop.

Unfortunately for everyone, they never did find such evidence, nor are they willing to just drop it. They're a step away from just killing Raf to be safe, and Scott has no idea what to do...until someone reveals that this was Allison's last mission, and her effort to protect Scott, or at least get justice for him. Scott walks into the police station himself, after that, with not just an accusation, but video evidence - which it turns out he'd had the whole time, and held onto because he wanted to protect his dad.

7.) Boyd/Malia, bonding over their guilt about being responsible for their little sisters' deaths, and finding a new family in their pack (and each other).

Everyone lives AU, and also one of those premises without a plot. Mostly, I liked the idea of Boyd and Malia bonding because they both felt responsible for the deaths of their little sisters.

Malia doesn't know how Boyd can stand working at the ice rink she went missing in - until she realizes he has held onto that job despite all the supernatural-induced inconsistency due to the rink owners' guilt, and Boyd uses his position to make sure no creeps ever harm a child again. It's too late for him to save his own sister, but he can make sure there's never another case like that again.

Meanwhile, Malia never stops regularly visiting the crashed car where her mother and sister died, preserving the doll she leaves there in remembrance. It's with Boyd's support that she finally tells her dad the whole truth, and indeed he doesn't take it well at first. But he eventually comes to realize that it wasn't Malia's fault, how much she regrets it, and how she was the one taking care of their death site all these years. Boyd helps Malia make a new, proper roadside memorial/grave for her mom and sister.

8.) bb!Scott and Stiles brushing up against the supernatural. "I've got a prompt for you, Can you write a story about Scott and Stiles as kids exploring/getting in trouble in Beacon Hills with a bit of supernatural throwed in because it's Beacon hills but they don't really realise it ?"

This was a prompt, which I promptly lost and sadly am not getting back to because I don't even remember what the prompt was for/from in the first place. In retrospect, that means it probably wasn't an event? IDK

But basically, wolf!Talia's POV taking a relaxing stroll through the forest when she comes across a dog whose leash is tangled in a bush. It takes a bit of cowing to get the dog to hold still, but she's able to untangle the dog and release it, whereby it runs back towards two little boys who are clearly looking for a "Roxy", shouting around in the woods like that.

Boys and dog are reunited, though Talia is a little worried that two unsupervised boys made it this deep into the woods, and she realizes they must've given their parents the sleep. So, she gives a nice, theatrical growl, that scares the boys right back to their parents' sides where they belong.

All in a day's good work.

9.) Sheriff Stilinski as a LEAP Officer. How that influences him being a police officer to such a crazy town as Beacon Hills, and how that's why he encouraged Stiles to become a detective/go the FBI route instead.

This was more of a headcanon than any kind of plotbunny, and thus absent of plot, I'm not writing a dedicated fic for it. But the idea is that Sheriff Stilinski is a member of LEAP - formerly Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, and nowadays Law Enforcement Action Partnership. Basically, it's a group of cops, judges, and other law enforcement officials who advocate for community based and less-/non-violent policing.

The group was originally founded by police officers who saw the War on Drugs as needlessly creating more violence and solving almost nothing in relation to drugs. They wanted to end drug prohibition, seeing it as a source of violence and a waste of police resources. They've since expanded to ..."improving police-community relations, reducing and finding alternatives to incarceration, improving access to harm reduction services, ending the War on Drugs, and global issues.".

So how is this relevant? Well, the focus on this kind of policing is about expanding public safety - and not on "justice"/arrest and incarceration. Community comes first, and arresting people is not nearly as important as reducing recidivism. In other words, it's a kind of policing which puts "help the people" first...and "catch the bad guys" last. This certainly goes against the typical image of policing, doesn't it? But while this does change law enforcement priority, both are necessary.

The fic was basically about the Sheriff telling Stiles that he'll make a great detective one day...which is exactly why he shouldn't be a cop. A cop is someone who sticks around in their community and focuses mostly on helping and protecting good guys. Analyzing messy situations, finding bad guys, and taking them down, that's not really a big part of police work - and ideally, the least amount of police work. He thinks Stiles should focus on being a detective, with someone like the FBI, where their entire job is hunting down bad guys (rather than protecting and serving the people).

Given how much Stiles has idealized himself as a beat cop, it's a tough conversation to have - but a necessary one, because putting someone who sees bad guys everyone into the metaphorical blue shirt is a recipe for police brutality. He thinks Stiles has great skills - he just wants to make sure those skills get put to use in the right place, and the streets ain't it.

[lj-writes]

So i have this conflict when it comes to star wars . I wanted for a long time to see a Star Wars movie where the darkside as a whole was not the evil force. The Dark side is about tapping into your emotions while the light side is about letting go of your emotions. Both in its extreme is bad but we only ever get to see why the dark side can be bad. Its bring balance to the force not light to the force. However the issue is the dark side currently is the first order. Pt1

I don't want to see the first order redeemed I don't want to see Kylo Ren redeemed as of right now. Maybe they could reveal things in the new movie that might change my mind but i doubt it. I also don't want the first order to come out as the lesser of two evils by introducing a bigger lightside threat. And yet I still want one movie where its more clear that dark doesn't mean bad light doesn't mean good. My personal hope is Finn is discovered to be a jedi in tune with the darkside pt.2            

While Rey is with the light and the message is its not important what your allignment is but what you choose to do with your power is. But i feel like they might just go with Kylo Ren if they did do a dark isn't always bad story so Im kinda bummed. Pt.3

I can understand your desire to see the Force reflect more complicated aspects of human experience, and if this is an idea you’re passionate about I encourage you to explore it in headcanons and fanworks. It could be very interesting!

As far as canon is concerned, though, I don’t agree with your premise that the Dark side is about tapping into emotions while the Light side is about letting go. For one thing the new canon seems to be getting away from the strict dualism of the original and prequel trilogies, to the extent it’s possible that the Light and Dark sides are artificial labels attached to what is only the Force. Like all labels they can be useful, but the trap is in creating an impression of two distinct and opposing entities where there is only one.

Even setting aside that objection, though, there is much to contradict the idea that the Light Side requires disconnecting from emotions. To give just one example, in the original trilogy it was Luke’s love for his father, and vice versa, that brought down the Emperor and redeemed (to an extent) Vader himself.

I also think there has been a clear case of the Light Side as you describe it, that is cutting off emotions, having negative consequences--namely in the prequel trilogy. Those three movies are basically a long account of the Jedi Order failing Anakin and the galaxy in its quest for perfect detachment. The old Jedi saw the Light Side as you do, and look what happened. They pushed Anakin into Palpatine’s waiting arms and served a weak, corrupt Republic in the name of order and peace.

(Did I mention I hate Yoda so much so much)

Obviously, of course, there’s nothing to say the old Jedi were actually right about what the Light is. Canon developments in all the movies seem to contradict the idea that the Light Side requires detachment and disconnection. Star Wars has always been about human connections and love bringing salvation. The only times this didn’t hold true were when fear swallowed love up, as in the case of Anakin and Padme.

In the new trilogy as well you see the love and trust between Finn, Poe, Rey, and many others bring down Starkiller Base and save the Resistance. On the flip side there’s Kylo Ren, who fought constantly against his emotions of love and remorse in order to stay on the side of the Dark. 

So I wouldn’t say the Light Side is about pushing emotions away, but rather about certain kinds of emotions such as trust and devotion. Of course no one is all love and joy all the time, so the question arises how to deal with the negative emotions of fear and anger. The old Jedi Order, at least near the end, simply refused to face this difficult question and that was part of its downfall.

I think that question in answered in the movies, though. Our heroes certainly did not have a shortage of negative emotions. The heroes of the original and sequel trilogies are some really traumatized and damaged individuals when you think about it, their stories carved with experiences of pain, loss, and trauma. Unlike Anakin, however, they did not isolate themselves and cling to power so they could avoid being hurt. (Seriously, the seed of Anakin’s downfall is in what he said over his mother’s grave--”I wasn’t strong enough to save you, Mom.” Really? Making your mother’s death about yourself and taking the lesson that you need to be all-powerful to prevent bad things from ever happening? No honey, just... no.) They reached out and formed caring relationships. They struggled together through the difficult process of healing. They risked their necks for each other. They banded together against what had hurt them and stood or fell together.

Where the Force was broken and distorted in isolation, it flowed in the connections people formed--in Han shadowing Leia so she couldn’t give into her self-destructive urges, in Luke rushing to help his friends, in Poe putting his trust in a Stormtrooper, in Finn facing down Resistance and First Order alike to go back for Rey, in Rey battling her nightmares to protect Finn.

And I think that connection is the essence of the Force because the Force is life itself, and life has to be  interconnected and balanced in order to thrive and grow. Call this state what you will, goodness, the Light, Balance, it is what the Force wants to be. The rest are just labels.