#firelfy

[choppedcowboydinosaur]

Now because of that Star Wars Outlaws trailer it makes imagine if you had a Firefly type of series set in the Star Wars universe about a bunch of former Separatists trying to survive in the Imperial era. INB4 someone mentions Star Wars Rebels since the characters in that show weren’t former Separatists.

[twilight-skies]

Holy fuck can we all appreciate the show that had TWO on-screen kisses between a pair of two women in 2002??

[anulithots]

Does this count? How and why do firefly’s glow? Like is there a reason they blink instead of constantly glowing? Is there an advantage from predators or something?

I’m not as well versed on this as cellular biology, but it definitely does count! (Fireflies are peak whimsy and give me sooo much joy so thank you for asking me this!)

If my memory (from wild krats but I will research some and include my sources) serves me correctly, male fireflies glow in patterns that they hope females will find attractive, and if the female firefly likes the male’s flashing patterns, they’ll flash back (two blinks and a pause).

See now here’s another species with more sensible mating rituals then human beings. (I say as a neurodivergent lithromantic who looks upon the society with distain)

Now the how part of their glow is not something I know off the top of my head, (I remember @neurospicy-salsa posting about firefly glow in relation to vaccines, yet I cannot look on tumblr as I am writing this, alas) and thus…

LE RESEARCH

Oh so fireflies are beetles. WHileee I think bugs are adorable, I’ve never had a hyperfixation over them… so someone else like @bonesbeetle could probably tell me why that’s significant. 😅

According to the article, while fireflies originally used their bioluminescence to ward off predators, they now use it for mating purposes, and each species of firefly has a specific height for the male to fly, as well as thier own flashing patterns. The female also has their own responsive flash unique to the species.

Other fun facts before I try finding out the biochemical reason for the fireflies glow (I want the nitty gritty)

some fireflies are most active during the day, and use pheromones instead of light for mating purposes.

fireflies spend most of their life as larvae in the leaf litter, and sometimes as adults they don’t even feed. Sooo I imagine that they don’t live much of their life as adults and honestly… that would make for such an interesting fantasy race. Like imagine the society catering to these children and feeding them and the ones with the most power being the children… then there are these adults, in the final phase of their life, who go out with this fantastical bioluminescence to mate and such… like there could be plenty of interesting cultural things surrounding this and how they value childhood annnndd….

anyways

Many females are wingless

OKay now for this article’s answer on how fireflies glow

“Fireflies produce light in special organs in their abdomens by combining a chemical called luciferin, enzymes called luciferases, oxygen and the fuel for cellular work, ATP.”

… so my guess is that luciferases catabolize luciferin which requires ATP to power it and such and such and let me see if I can find something more in depth

OKay so luciferin refers to a few organic molecules. ‘The name comes from the Latin word lucifer, meaning “light-bearing.”’ which I think sounds cool af.

(OH WAIT THIS IS WHAT THE LINK CLICK PEOPLE WERE TALKING ABOUT WHEN THEY SAID THAT LU GUANG’s ENGLISH NAME COULD”VE BEEN LUCIFER HOLY HERBS WE WERE ROBBED) Each biolumiscent organism has luciferin and luciferase that’s unique to it. So the ones for fireflies are called ‘firefly luciferin and luciferase’

How the process works is that:

first luciferin, the substance to be changed to form light… like a glow stick that you break in half so it lights up, is oxidized. (The way I think about oxidization is that it makes the substance more positive. Oxidize has an ‘o’ and so does positive. Reduction has an ‘e’ and so does negative. Plus each pair of words has similar vibes ig.)

In this case, oxygen oxidizes luciferin, meaning that oxygen removes electrons from luciferin to make luciferin more positive (which sounds very ‘let there be light’ to me). Luciferinase completes this reaction, ‘breaks the glow stick’ so to speak.

(The way i imagine it, the protein removes the electrons, dumps it off to the oxygen to carry the electrons… which oxygen seems to do in a lot of situations, and with that, the luciferase has ‘broken the luciferin like a glow stick’)

… Britanica then goes into more detail on fireflies specifically.

So in order to power this reaction, ATP is needed. I should have an ask explaining ATP here, but in essence ATP has three phosphates at the end that aren’t held together by much, repel each other, and buzz with energy, if you break that last phosphate off, it releases energy that enzymes can use for reactions. (I’ve… regrettably, only taken AP bio and while I do want to learn biochemistry… other requirements must be met. Alas. So what I do remember is that the mechanism that ATP powers the reactions through is typically through ‘giving’ a phosphate to the substances/whatever complex is created, which opens the floodgates for that stored energy.)

So in that ‘giving a phosphate to power the reaction way’, ATP reacts with firefly luciferinase, ionic magnesuim, and firefly luciferin to form a complex.

This complex: ‘complex (luciferase-luciferyl-adenylate) and pyrophosphate’ bunch of fancy words… and I’m… assuming the extra phosphate from the ATP made the pyrophosphate? ‘pyro’ sounds like pyruvate but I’m not sure… alas… I require more knowledge.

The way I think of complexes are these ‘power ups’ from tv shows, the ones like voltron or smth where a bunch of robot things combine with each other to form something more powerful or useful. How this actually works is that all the ingredients go into the active site (notches in the protein that will fit with the substances like puzzle pieces, then they change shape to cause the substances to react. The way I have this story-fied is that active sites are these wants with notches and enzymes will fit these around substances to do magic wowowo) of the luciferase and the luciferase initiates the reaction like a minecraft crafting table.

(I’m telling you there should be a minecraft adjacent game to learn biochemistry. I would lovvveee that.)

Oxygen then oxidizes (removes electrons) from the complex. Now it’s at a higher energy - and usually the universe likes low energy, balanced entropy rather than any condensed energies anywhere - so to release the energy, light emits through photons.

That was the rambling answer. Thank you for asking this! The name Lucifer for Lu GUang will never leave my head and this was an really interesting thing to learn about… now to find someone to catch fireflies with so I can infodump. (Sadly my parents never listen to/shuts down all my infoumps)

Resources:

https://news.ncsu.edu/2019/07/how-fireflies-glow-and-what-signals-theyre-sending/

In the meantime, firefly playlist because I’m very normal about firefly whimsy:

Thank you for the ask!

[jinxedgods]

so you know how there’s a ton of “fuck fedra fascists” graffitti? I just know that in the south they say “fuck fedra communism”

[kaosithesecond]

I will draw every twitter trending thing as these two and you can't stop me ;

Tho I realized after finishing it I should have made Stelle the one asking is Firelfy liked stars and Firefly, watching Stelle "Yeah"

[n3cr0m-nc3r]

The fireflies took your socks FIRELFIES FIEEFLIES FIREFLIES AAHHHHHHH ATTACK ATTACK ATTACK

WHAT

MEIN GOTT??? MY FUCKING SOCKS??????

[crguang]

do you ever get demotivated when you have bad luck in gachas? cause whenever I get a streak of bad luck or whatever i begin to lose interest. like in hsr when i lost the 5050 for firefly, or in ptn when i lose the 5050 on bianca to a character given for free. idk. maybe it's just the world telling me that i should prolly quit gachas lmao. anyways, glad you're back and hope you're doing better than me xD

LET ME TELL YOUUUUU. firelfy’s banner was the worst banner ever for me bc i wanted both ruan mei and her, and i got ruan mei at like 81 pity then bc im f2p i had to grind the WHOLE GAME for firefly pulls and still didnt get her. didnt even get e6 xueyi it actually ruined my week😭 my mental health depends on that game these days… black swan was rumoured to rerun in 2.4 and turns out its fucking sparkle instead like i was genuinely sad + my genshin luck is terrible rn i missed furina by a few pulls (then lost navia 50/50.) bc there was nothing left to grind so yeah i also get really demotivated…. we need to find hobbies that don’t frustrate us this much😭

ptn is the only thing i have i got zoya in 2 pulls and bianca in 30 (lost the 50/50 to enfer s1 but 30 pulls is insane for 2 S-rank anyway?!) and i cant even play the game while im building my charas…. ridiculous

[sampofan28]

(SPOILERS FOR KIT LEAKS ((if u care abt that)))

I. Hate. Hoyoverse. So. Fucking. Much. (this is exageration but god) DUDE WHY. WHY. WHY CANT THE FOXIAN GUY BE GOOD? I'm hoping so bad he gets some tweaks and reworks, because holy fuck if not their getting the essay of a lifetime. Why couldn't Jiao Qiu be like sparkle or robin? Good in general in various teams but an insane beast in his intended team. 'b-but acheron would've been too broken!'

SHE IS.

FIRELFY JUST FUCKING RELEASED?? AND ON RELEASE SHES BROKEN ASF TOO, THEY CLEARLY DON'T CARE ABT BALANCING WHEN IT COMES TO DPS UNITS.

HELL LOOK AT OTHER SUPPORTS. RUAN MEI IS NOT BALANCED, SRSLY IF YOU THINK SHE IS I DONT KNOWHOW. ROBIN AND SPARKLE ARE FANTASTIC, FUCKING BLACK SWAN AND HIM WOULD'VE BEEN PRETTY COMAPRABLE IN OLD LEAKS. THEY BOTH WOULD'VE HAD ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES, REASONS TO GO FOR ONE OVER ANOTHER, BUT NOPE FUCK THAT NOW.

ALSO AFTER THEY STOLE HIS MECHANICS THEY ALSO NERFED HIS FUCKING NUMBERS???

God. I'm so like ughgjhddhjfhjshj. He better fucking get reworked I swear, cuz it feels like a massive middle finger. It's so fucked, and I hate it. I am praying he either ends up being way better in game than he seems or he gets a minor buff before release, or else I'm pissed. Still going for e0 s1 but its just...so infuriating. Rant Over.

[gluttonygirls]

firelfy next week oooouuuggghhh

[infectiouspiss]

firelfy changed me. i need to wreck that miniskirt it costs more money rhan i have ever had

[navings]

firefly firelfy firefly…… such a mystery…….. why did she say sorry when she was killed…. how did she find sam….

[allycat75]

I have been thinking about the below quote from Firelfy. And, yes, Joss Whedon can take a flying fuck, but there were many other people who made that show great, so why should they be painted with the same brush.

I hope it inspires and comforts any of you who are struggling. I know the feeling.

[luciolefire]

Spelled my own name wrong on a post... guess I'm Firelfy now :I

[iamacultest]

Probably more to come.

List of some Stelleron Hunter Kakavasha AU headcanons!

Vasha really hates Sunday. Like really doesn't like him, but Kafka said that he only had to tolerate Sunday so he's trying his best! (I believe Sunday joins the Stelleron Hunters.)

The Aventurine stone Vasha stole from the IPC saved his life during the mission in Pier Point. To the point his body absorbed the thing. So, whenever he gets heart his wound will turn into Aventurine and heal faster. He also bleeds orange! The Aventurine goes away after a while.

(Spoiler)Vasha and Dr.Ratio met at Pencaony, and through a series of events was able to get Ratio out of Ena's dream earlier.

(Spoiler)Vasha had a panic attack when he found out Firelfy went to Jade for help. (Silver Wolf snitched and was able to calm him down enough as to not do something reckless.)

Made a deal with Elio that he can go see Ratio for a entire 24 system hours in person if they're on the same planet.

Also calls Blade "Bladie".

Still really good with kids.

Loves jewels and shiny trinkets. Not obsessed with them but if givin the opportunity will take.

Kafka taught Vasha how to do his makeup.

Plays gacha games with Silver Wolf.

When he first joined he called Silver Wolf, Firefly, and Kafka by Mrs.Silver Wolf, Mrs. Firefly, and Mrs.Kafka. ( Blade was just Blade or "that guy".

Has been in the Stelleron Hunters for a year less than Silver Wolf.

Wants to collect all the cornerstones to take down the IPC.

Had to drag Blade to a casino just for the fun of it.

On good terms with Boothill. Sadly had to endure Boothils crazy ass for the end of 2.2.

Was there with Firelfy when she joined the Astral Express's team for the 2.2 story as well.

[soyshuter]

[royalsmugbird]

Sneak preview of a new art piece I'm working on...

The return of Opal the Firefly!

And yes, I'm still obsessed with Hollow Knight right now.