#handbook to the stars

[the-astral-express-archive]

Honkai: Star Rail | Jade Sprites From "Lady Bonajade Handbook" Web Event

[hstayafanart]

I had so much fun drawing this one! I really thought it'd be a chore to do the whole group, but I enjoyed the composition alone enough that I just got excited.

Second last chapter of The Mortal Care Handbook will be up shortly! I'll be sad to see it finished, but I have heaps of fun plans for the next story already <3

[whirligig-girl]

I recently received a copy of the Cerritos Crew Handbook. This was obviously my favorite page, so here's a high resolution digital scan. (just kidding)

Image ID: A starfleet PADD tablet with a page showing basic facts about Mellanoid Slime Worms in the style of the species bio pages in the Star Trek: Lower Decks: Crew Handbook. It is heavily annotated with commentary from Mariner, Boimler, Tendi, and Eaurp Guz.

Transcript below cut:

NAME: Mellanoid Slime Worm provisional Federation member. Boimler: I've brought on our Mellanoid officer, Ensign Eaurp Guz, and our resident expert on Mellanoid biology, D'vana Tendi. Guz: full Federation member now, actually.

GREETING: Mellanoid Slime Worms react poorly to friendly insults. At first their righteous indignation might seem like a positive response, but be fair warned! You are not befriending them.

Boimler: Wait, who wrote this? Mariner: Looks like the uh, Zaldan who made first contact with them in the 30s?

TABOOS: Eating in public, uncovered skin. Abducting their children as pets. They do not take kindly to any kind of romantic advances. Guz: ... Tendi: ... Mariner: Girl. IMPORTANT BIOLOGICAL FACTS: Mellanoid Slime Worms are composed of a single amorphous cell which can shapeshift into any number of revolting forms, but which do seem to be willing to take on a bipedal appearance when dealing with aliens. Mellanoid Slimes have no sex, no gender, and reproduce asexually. Not much is known about Mellanoids. Their biology, evolution, and habitat are still a mystery.

Guz, responding to "revolting forms": Wait what? We've always been mostly humanoid! And nonhumanoid forms aren't revolting! They're beautiful! Some of my best friends have nonstandard features. Mariner: no sex? Sick burn. Guz, responding to "no gender": I am a woman. Mellanoids are assigned agender at birth but a growing movement is recognizing that some of us do experience gender. Tendi, responding to the whole section: Mellanoid Slime Worms are comprised mostly of visceral slime with a gelatin skeleton made of skeletal gelatin. Their nervous system is highly redundant and spread throughout the body, with slightly darker regions corresponding to regions of higher nerve density. All sensory cells can feel all senses, so they experience touch, taste, sight, sound, and other senses in their whole bodies, but form sensory organs to concentrate those senses. The biomolecular composition is. Mariner: ok Ada Lovelace, we don't need the footnote to be THAT big. CULTURE: The Mellanoid Slime Worms posses a highly repressed culture, lacking entertainment, interpersonal interactions, and with individuals living in even the richest and most technologically advanced nations on their planet being confined to abject poverty. Their technology is rudimentary, with steam propulsion still in common use on land, and their spaceflight manifests as small capsules incapable of even safely making the journey to the nearest gas giant without assistance. Due to their revolting appearance and archaic technology, they are not worthy of further consideration.

Guz: We don't live in poverty! We just have movie theaters instead of televisions, public kitchens instead of restaurants and dining rooms, libraries instead of personal computers. And Advanced Steam locomotives are cool, ok! They were cheaper to run than diesel engines for many years. Guz: Don't even get me STARTED on the rockets of the time. Oh globs, the things we were able to do with only chemical rockets back in the 30s and 40s! Probe missions to Glerbuh and Rabbit, crewed missions to Omen and Oldsky... and that's before the latest warp drive prototypes. When I was in the astronaut corps, they were working on a warp-2 drive! And that's transwarp-2, so that's like 26% faster than the NX-Beta. Mellanoids pride ourselves in our space exploration, which is why even now we're in the Federation we still have our own space program.

Boimler: Huh. That's it? I thought there'd be more, you know, like, something about the history, maybe native animals, why the taboos are the way they are. But it's just something about steam trains and rocket ships? Guz: No actually I think they pretty much hit the stem bolt on the autoseal. I can't think of a reason a new recruit would need to know more about my species. Besides, Tendi's medical research is pretty thorough. Mariner: Hey I just tried to access the research. Why is it flagged as "Age-Locked"? What kind of "research" are you two doing anyway? Guz: Ohhhh... oh no. Tendi: Ok we can stop talking about this now! Boimler: Eh it's probably fine. I mean, why would a minor using a starfleet database need to know critical biological details about a mellanoid slime worm? What, is some, I dunno, Brikar kid gonna stroll up to Starfleet with a slime worm baby and not know how to take care of it? Mariner: Hah! A big stony alien kid taking care of a gooey lil worm? Like that'll ever happen.

[dragaliareferencearchive]

Lady Bonajade Handbook - Honkai: Star Rail

[haaaaaaaaaaaave-you-met-ted]

Star Wars: Roleplaying Game (West End Games) - Rules of Engagement: The Rebel SpecForce Handbook Cover Art by Alan Pollack

[the-gershomite]

Star Wars: Handbook Volume 1 X-Wing Rogue Squadron

Script Writers: Michael Stackpole & Peet Janes

Artists: John Nadeau, Dave Nestelle, Arthur Adams, Edvin Biukovi, Steve Crespo, Rodolfo Damaggio, Doug Mahnke, Jordi Ensign

[antzonian]

Here's a Photo of my Star Trek Lower Decks stuff! LOWER DECKS LOWER DECKS!

[blazingblorbos]

She's so gay,,,

Why are you, as a woman, staring at another woman's lips expectant to see lipstick endorsed by galactic superstar Ms. Lesbian Icon Robin???

[andi-o-geyser]

he means the world to me (silly little copy paste [orange edition] wifi booster of a man)

[the-astral-express-archive]

Honkai: Star Rail | Background Images From "Lady Bonajade Handbook" Web Event

[hstayafanart]

Does this image tell you what the chapter's about? No, no not really. But I couldn't get the image of Nightmare faceplanting into a mattress out of my head, so this is what you get.

Next chapter of The Mortal Care Handbook will be up soon!

[wizardsimper]

Reading The Frugal Wizard's Handbook to Surviving Medieval England is going from "wait is this copaganda?" to "oh thank fuck"

[alphacomicsvol2]

Star Wars: Handbook Vol 2 - Crimson Empire Cover Art by Dave Dorman

[commanderfoxdeservesbetter]

Fox has his handy, dandy handbook

He’s carries it with him everywhere so he can directly look up policy to see what loopholes he can jump to get away with shit

Thorn hates him for it but also asks him hypothetical questions for hypothetical situations

[zagreus-eats-your-bread]

I think it's super funny in Star Trek that Hermats have government assigned pronouns. Like literally pt 2 of the New Frontier omnibus its like ATTENTION ALL HERMATS WE ARE SIMPLIFYING OUR NEOPRONOUNS like honestly a bit iconic why is no one talking about it

[the-gershomite]

Star Wars: Handbook Volume 1 X-Wing Rogue Squadron

(11-20 of 26)

Script Writers: Michael Stackpole & Peet Janes

Artists: John Nadeau, Dave Nestelle, Arthur Adams, Edvin Biukovi, Steve Crespo, Rodolfo Damaggio, Doug Mahnke, Jordi Ensign