#like science in general has been one of my special interests since I was a baby

[the-crimson]

Aight thoughts on todays bbh lore cuz we got A LOT. Just stay with me through my nerding about trees it’ll be worth it XD

We pretty much got 100% confirmation that he is intentionally hurting Baghera and Forever and that he thinks of himself as expendable. What fascinates me the most is when Bad asked Foolish this

“Is there anything wrong with burning the forest to save the trees?”

At first glance you might think YES if u burn the forest then there won’t be any trees??!! However it is a custom on fire risk zones to create controlled fires that burn up brush and dead trees so that the risk of a natural and far more devastating fire is reduced. Additionally, if a fungus infects a forest, burning the infected trees may be the only way to prevent the spread to the rest of the forest.

On top of that, there is a specific type of tree species that requires fires in order to reproduce. These are often Pine trees that drop pinecones. Pinecones hold seeds inside them that only germinate when immense heat is applied to them: the heat of a forest fire. When they are within these temperatures, the seeds germinate and the pine cones pop, scattering the seeds on the forest floor. These trees adapted to form a symbiotic relationship with fire one of if not the most destructive natural forces on the earth.

Do you know one of the trees that has developed this adaption? Redwoods.

Do you know which tree bbh brought up when giving Jaiden a PINECONE gift for her birthday today? A Redwood.

I’m like actually going insane. This can’t be a coincidence right????? I’m not going crazy right???

The whole reason I noticed this scene is because I live near the redwood forests in California and I know all about the way these trees depend on fires for their survival. It’s something that’s always fascinated me. That’s when I assume Bad was going to ask foolish the above question before Jaiden and Teana cut their conversation short while they were talking on the Titian . He literally had these specific trees on his mind when he was going to ask about burning down the forest.

Let me tell you another thing about Redwood trees. They are ancient. They are massive. They are sturdy. Natural fires are a common phenomenon here and a majority of the redwoods survive with barely a scratch, maybe an inch or two of its outer bark scorched. Nothing it won’t grow past in a year or two when these trees easily live for 500+ years.

(Side note, if there is one place in America you should visit it’s the redwood forests of California. It is literally like entering a portal to another world. These trees are 10-15 ft in diameter easily and you can just feel how ancient the forests are. It’s one of my all time favorite places to go)

So, in the situation Bad is proposing, burning the forest to save the trees, he is actively thinking about Redwoods in this hypothetical. Not only trees that are extremely resistant to fire but trees that depend on fire to survive. That completely changes the way he is approaching this question.

In his hypothetical, the forest will burn. The animals will die. The brush and non redwoods will turn to ash. The land will be scarred and the trees themselves may look dead, branchless and black. But. But. A season will pass and new branches will peel through the charcoal. Seeds deep in the soil will surge forth as the soil is fed nutrients from the ash. Animals will return. Pinecones will shed their fertilized seeds to give birth to a new generation of trees. And by next year, the forest will look just as vibrant as it had before the fire. Trees may bear the scars of the flames but life continues and it continues and it continues always.

I might actually be going crazy bbh makes me crazy cc!bbh makes me crazy I’m losing my mind

[copperpipes]

PLEASE? TELL ME WHAT YOU DO IN SPECULATIVE BIOLOGY? THAT SOUNDS REALLY COOL???

WHERE DO I EVEN START???

Okay I know. Some general information about the subject first:

Its a genre.

Before speculative biology comes speculative evolution, a more known subject that is basically a whole genre of books, projects, and is more spread then speculative biology because it is less specific. You would find plenty of speculative evolution projects.

They are very similar in a lot of ways and I think the difference is that speculative evolution 'documents' the journey (the evolution) of a creature or a multitude of creatures throughout a time-line of events that may or my not effect its form, while speculative biology is more focused on a single time period or just one creature or maybe a made up culture or an entire planet at a certain point in said journey, and digs deep.

A good example would be birgworld by @iguanodont and alien whale documentary which I definitely recommend checking out if you like the subject and a couple I forgot the name of currently ':]

Whe i say digs deep, I mean it could be as vast as from the building bloks of DNA (like carbon and nitrogen for us) to the politics and cultural plays. Tradition, religion, culture, history, language, psychology, and of course, biology. From general physiology to the way they reproduce and raise their young if at all.

This genre is usually categorized as sci-fi (not in all cases, but then it would be seen less as speculative biology and more just world building, an example would be monstergarden on YouTube) even though its word building because most of the creatures 'documented' are made up aliens and the projects themselves are closely tied to science.

Everything has an explanation in speculative biology and it goes into detail.

Actually a couple of my personal projects are categorized as speculative biology since in them I put my imagination to use and explore alien creatures and their identity.

Being my autistic self everything is thought out to the miniscule detail of how my aliens farm their equivalent of potatoes to what is their social structure and the different things I listed prior. Consider it my special interest.

To this date, I have at least drawn a picture of 10 different intelligent alien species (not including animals or other life forms from same planets, not even different life stages that may be in one species) all seen in a single time period on their respective planets.

Speculative biology also often features in it the planet itself and the solar system it belongs to since one is heavily effected by the other.

I am planning on posting about my project soon enough since I'd like to document it digitally but for now its nearly 3 am so yeah

Thank you so much for the ask I've been wanting to blubber about my favorite subject for some time just didn't have the opportunity :]

This is merely a summary of what little knowledge I hold, I encourage you to look into it and maybe start one of your own.

Also if I didn't get the question right correct me please

[jimintomystery]

MST3K's most wanted

I've been organizing my Mystery Science Theater 3000 collection, so I've become preoccupied with the handful of episodes that are not easily available, and the reasons why. In case in anyone else is interested, I thought I'd share what I've learned.

For our purposes we'll be focusing on the ten seasons that aired on cable, from 1989 to 1999. With the post-2017 episodes, it's trivial to purchase them on home video or streaming. And the pre-cable stuff, from KTMA, is widely available as bootleg footage, which is probably about as good as you're ever going to get. But the episodes from the cable era have been notoriously difficult to re-release, and require special attention.

Of the 176 MST3K episodes that aired on cable, 166 have been released on home video, and 145 are available for streaming/download on the Gizmoplex. As someone who's been trying to collect the whole series since the 1990s, I think that's pretty impressive. But there are 40 episodes that have been particularly tricky. Let's take a look, won't you?

Currently available on the Gizmoplex, but never on home video (1):

913 - Quest of the Delta Knights

As I understand it, nobody was sure who owned the rights to this movie, or how to contact them, for years. The situation has only recently been cleared up, perhaps too late for a DVD release.

Currently available on the Gizmoplex, but out of print on home video (8):

203 - Jungle Goddess

317 - Viking Women and the Sea Serpent

319 - War of the Colossal Beast

510 - The Painted Hills

619 - Red Zone Cuba

806 - The Undead

808 - The She-Creature

912 - The Screaming Skull

It looks like all of these went out of print due to being on a set where a different episode's rights expired. Theoretically Shout Factory could re-release any of them in a "Lost and Found" set, but that may not be cost-effective as people move away from collecting physical media.

Currently available on home video and MST3K's official YouTube, but not on the Gizmoplex (1):

615 - Kitten with a Whip (Vol. 25 DVD, 2012)

Kitten is one of the Universal movies that could only be licensed for physical media. And yet, it's the only one I can find on the official YouTube channel. Beats me why that is.

Currently available on home video, but not on the Gizmoplex (16):

401 - Space Travelers (Vol. 32 DVD, 2015)

522 - Teen-Age Crime Wave (Vol. 33 DVD, 2015)

524 - 12 to the Moon (Vol. 35 DVD, 2016)

601 - Girls Town (Vol. 39 DVD, 2017)

605 - Colossus and the Headhunters (Vol. 38 DVD, 2017)

614 - San Francisco International (Vol. 32 DVD, 2015)

704 - The Incredible Melting Man (Vol. 36 DVD, 2016)

801 - Revenge of the Creature (Vol. 25 DVD, 2012)

802 - The Leech Woman (25th Anniversary Edition DVD, 2013)

803 - The Mole People (Vol. 26 DVD, 2013)

804 - The Deadly Mantis (Vol. 27 DVD, 2013)

805 - The Thing That Couldn't Die (Vol. 29 DVD, 2013)

814 - Riding With Death (Vol. 36 DVD, 2016)

815 - Agent for H.A.R.M (Vol. 33 DVD, 2015)

901 - The Projected Man (Vol. 30 DVD, 2014)

1013 - Diabolik (Vol. 39 DVD, 2017)

I was able to find the DVD sets listed above on Shout Factory's website. As far as I know, they'll remain in print for the foreseeable future, but there's no way to know how long that will last.

The general pattern with these episodes is that the movies are owned by major studios that would only license them for physical media. Columbia owns Teen-Age Crime Wave and 12 to the Moon. MGM owns Girls Town and The Incredible Melting Man. Paramount owns Diabolik. But the big player here is Universal, which controls the rights to Space Travelers, San Francisco International, Revenge of the Creature, Leech Woman, Mole People, Deadly Mantis, Thing That Couldn't Die, Riding With Death, Agent for H.A.R.M., and Projected Man.

The odd man out here is Colossus and the Headhunters; I can't find any info on who owns the rights to this film, which may be part of the problem.

The real hard cases, the stickiest of wickets, are below...

Released on home video, but now out of print (5):

212 - Godzilla vs. Megalon (Vol. 10 DVD, 2006)

309 - The Amazing Colossal Man (VHS, 1996)

910 - The Final Sacrifice (Vol. 17 DVD, 2010)

1001 - Soultaker (Vol. 14 DVD, 2009)

1012 - Squirm (Turkey Day Collection DVD, 2014)

Megalon and Colossal Man were both recalled when rights issues came up after they were released. Oops. These were produced by Rhino, back before Shout Factory took over.

The Final Sacrifice is particularly tough to find, even unofficially, because director Tjardus Greidanus is very aggressive about tracking down download links. I always figured someone was similarly possessive of Soultaker, since it's clearly a passion project, but that's purely my speculation.

The Turkey Day DVD set is still available on Amazon at a reasonable price, so Squirm is still relatively accessible for now.

Never released on home video or streaming (9):

201 - Rocketship X-M

213 - Godzilla vs. the Sea Monster

311 - It Conquered the World

416 - Fire Maidens of Outer Space

418 - Attack of the the Eye Creatures

807 - Terror from the Year 5000

809 - I was a Teenage Werewolf

905 - The Deadly Bees

906 - The Space Children

In 2017, Shout released its final (?) MST3K DVD collection, which included Satellite Dishes, a compilation of host segments from episodes that "may never get a legitimate release." This included the nine listed above, as well as The Amazing Colossal Man and Quest for the Delta Knights. Of course, Delta Knights eventually got a digital-only release, which is cause for a glimmer of hope. But the others are probably tougher nuts to crack.

Wade Williams owned the rights to Rocketship X-M and had a particular sentimental attachment to the film. His death in 2023 may make it easier to negotiate with his estate, but I wouldn't count on that being a swift process.

Godzilla vs. Megalon and Godzilla vs. The Sea Monster are part of a prestigious franchise, and it's remarkable MST3K got away with riffing on Godzilla movies in the first place. I get the impression that Japanese culture doesn't particularly appreciate the sort of mockery MST3K is known for, so the rights to these two movies may be a long, long shot. Then again I used to think there was no hope of for the Gamera episodes too.

Fire Maidens, Deadly Bees, and Space Children are owned by Olive Films, and currently licensed to Paramount. It's possible a deal can be made later on, but not until the current arrangement expires.

The major bugbear for MST3K fandom is Susan Hart, the widow of American International Pictures co-founder James Nicholson. One way or another the AIP catalog was split up and Hart laid claim to several of their films, including Amazing Colossal Man, It Conquered the World, Eye Creatures, Terror from the Year 5000, and Teenage Werewolf. Hart's price for licensing her movies is very high, and it seems Shout has given up negotiating with her. I suppose the situation could change when she passes away, but I'd feel rather silly hoping for an old woman to die just so I can pay 8 bucks to watch robots laugh at a werewolf movie.

In conclusion, I've already purchased all the movies available on the Gizmoplex (I got most of them in a Kickstarter reward package), and the 31 that aren't available there can be obtained by, ahem, other means. So it's a great time to be an MST3K fan, and I'm still amazed how easy it is to watch the show nowadays.

[sl-newsie]

American Woman (Thomas Shelby x American OC) Ch. 2: Employed By Criminals

I can’t stand waiting any longer. I’ve been in my new room for what seems like an hour and no one has come to give any further instructions. The time I took to settle in only lasted five minutes, considering all my possessions fit in a small suitcase. So, I decide now I will explore.

I peek through the keyhole and find the kitchen outside to be empty. After opening the door I stick my head out to survey again. Still empty. Where is everyone? The least I can do now is to prepare dinner. After scavenging the kitchen I find some vegetables and spices to work with. No meat, but I’m not going to make a fool of myself around looking for the meat cellar. After I’ve started boiling water and mixed in some herbs I begin to chop the vegetables.

“You’re back,” Finn states as he enters from another side door, looking at the pot with new-found interest. “What’s that?”

“Dinner. Oh, since I didn’t get a good chance to introduce myself, my name’s Verena. Just so you know. Your aunt hired me to be your tutor.”

Finn scrunches his face in dislike. “Ugh. That again? Aunt Polly knows I hate reading!”

“What do you enjoy instead?” I try to sound optimistic as I peel the carrots.

“I like math better, like the math Tommy does for the business. Reading’s too complicated.”

“Not necessarily. What have you read before?”

“The Wind In The Willows, Peter Rabbit, all that kids stuff.”

“Well then it seems to me that you just need to find content you enjoy. Fiction may not be your choice, but you might like books of science, philosophy, or social issues. Have you heard of the Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy by Isaac Newton, or Relativity: The Special and General Theory by Albert Einstein? Maybe The Jungle by Upton Sinclair? Actually-” I set down my knife and rush to my room, returning with a book from my suitcase. “I brought this with me on vacation for light reading.” I hand the curious child the worn book. “It’s the Common Sense pamphlet by Thomas Paine. It’s American, but I’m sure it’s much more interesting than Peter Rabbit.”

Finn apprehensively scans the first page, and I can’t hide my growing smile as a look of interest begins to spread on his face. He starts reading, wandering down the hall while not looking up once. Maybe I’ll make a good tutor after all.

“Alright, enough chatter. Let’s eat.” An approaching voice speaks.

I go back to chopping carrots and don’t bother to look up until the voice speaks again.

“Who are you?”

When I lift my gaze to find the voice’s source, a pair of icy blue eyes are peering into me. The eyes belong to a man with a well-sculpted face that shows both stern and commanding intentions. He’s wearing gray trousers, black dress shoes, white shirt and gray vest, as well as a flat cap that John was wearing earlier. He’s also smoking a cigarette, which has brought a foul stench along with it.

“Who let you in here?” The man asks, not even waiting for me to answer his first question.

“Polly did. Pleasure to meet you-”

“But you can’t be here. I’ll have to talk to her.” Then he walks off and starts pouring himself some water, and I faintly hear him mutter: “We don’t take in strays.”

Excuse me? Since when does this guy get to treat me like dirt? Maybe it’s the American mutt temper, but I’ve got the urge to give him a piece of my mind!

I lean against the counter and look up with rebellious eyes. “Gotta say, your accent is a bit on the tricky side. Mind saying that again?”

The man seems taken back by the tone of my voice, as if he’s not used to people being sassy with him. He’s quick to regain his posture and has a smirk growing on his lips.

“And I’ll say that your American accent is downright pathetic compared to ours. You lot still never got over being independent, did you? Gotta flaunt it about in all our faces!”

My jaw drops. “I never even mentioned that! I think you’re the one holding a grudge based on a war you weren’t even a part of!” He tries to interrupt but I keep talking. “And for the record, we Americans are current allies with you. So instead of arguing about something that happened a hundred and forty years ago, I say we uphold each country’s honor and talk as if we’re on the same level. Do you agree?”

The man keeps staring at me, seeming to ponder whether or not to argue again.

“This book is really good!” Finn interrupts the silence from down the hall.

I grin at his enthusiasm and go back to chopping carrots, ignoring the man’s blank stare.

“Polly said you know Finn, my new student.”

His eyes flick upwards to find mine again. “Pardon?”

“I’m his tutor, or at least I have been for the past hour. Polly hired me, so that’s why I’m here.”

“Interesting…”

Now he’s looking at me in a different manner, as if sizing me up as a potential threat. Why would he do that? The man slowly walks around the counter towards me and removes his cap, allowing me to see he has dark hair in a style similar to Finn’s. He turns it over and sets it on the counter, as if he wants me to get a closer look. What I do I notice it’s got something shiny peeking out of the brim.

“What’s with the custom hat? It’s made of metal, or something?”

The man simply chuckles and holds back the fabric to show- razors?

“You sew razor blades into your hat? Now I’ve heard everything! And I thought Americans were crazy!”

“Is that soup I smell?” Another voice comes from the same way the man came. Another man enters the room and I recognize him as John. When he sees us, his eyes acquire a hint of uncertainty. “Thomas, I see you’ve met Verena. Polly was just telling me about her.”

So this is the Thomas I was warned about? I guess Polly wasn’t kidding when she said he was ruff. 

“Not officially, John. She was just telling about how Polly hired her to teach Finn. May I ask why?”

“Polly says it’s because he needs a proper education. Not one that’s only taught through bookkeeping. Can’t say I blame her. When’s the last time any of us actually sat down with him and taught him something?”

Thomas shrugs. “If he’s going to be part of the Blinders he’ll learn all he needs to know by watching us.”

The name sends a chill down my spine and I snap to attention.

“Wait- Blinders? As in Peaky Blinders…? Oh my God.” I look back and forth between Thomas and John, still holding the knife. “Shelby! That’s the name! Shelby! I’ve heard things about you, what kind of a man you are! Excuse me, but I do not want to be involved with anything surrounding you!”

I grip the knife and dash for the hallway, yanking on the door handle only to find it’s locked. Panicking, I stand in the corner with the knife held out as Thomas Shelby struts towards me- holding a pistol!

“Please, don’t kill me! I have nothing to offer! You’d just be wasting a bullet!”

There’s no answer, only Thomas looking at me with cold eyes.

“Verena! Verena! Polly, where'd she go?” Finn’s voice comes from down the hall. He turns his head and sees me, with a wide grin on his face. God, I can’t let him see me get killed!

“Finn…? Finn! Did you finish your reading?” I speak in a quivering voice.

“Almost. I’ve only got a few more pages.”

I nod shakily still looking between Finn and Thomas, who’s looking at him while still holding the gun up. “Alright, go and finish up and then I’ll be right over.”

Finn heads back into his room, and I look up to glare into Thomas’ calculating eyes. “I swear to God, if you so much as lay a finger on that boy-!”

“You’ll what?” Thomas asks in a laid-back manner. “A moment ago you were begging for me not to kill you. Now you’re threatening me not to kill my own brother?”

My mind stops. “Brother…? He’s your brother? Oh…” I shamefully look to the floor, cursing myself in my head for making such a stupid mistake. “But you’ll still kill me.”

The next few quiet seconds are so suspenseful I swear I can hear my own heart beating. I dare to look back up at Thomas, who now shakes his head.

“I’m not going to kill you.”

My brow furrows at his words. “This means I’m fired then, doesn’t it?”

By now John’s entered the hallway and comes over to stand in front of Thomas.

“Why would we fire you? From what Polly’s told me and what we’ve seen here, you haven’t given us any reason to fire you.”

“But my question is-” Thomas steps forward. “Can she be trusted? How do we know she’s loyal to us?”

I bite my lip and lower the knife I’m holding. “With all due respect sir, you’re technically my employer. That and the fact that you’re temporarily housing me gives me enough reason to be loyal. And if for whatever reason in the future I might not be, you can kick me to the dirt.”

Both men exchange looks, seeming to have a silent conversation while I stand here awkwardly. Eventually John gestures for Thomas to put away the gun, who seems to have forgotten he had it out.

“We seem to have gotten off on the wrong foot,” Thomas says in a lighter tone. “What was your name again?”

Now that he’s not holding a gun at me, Thomas actually seems decent. I might dare to even call him handsome. Remember, this is your boss now. Keep it professional. Don’t lose your head.

I stand up straighter and hold out a hand to shake his. “Verena Nora Steenstra. Pleasure to meet you, Mr. Shelby.” I turn to John and shake his hand too. “You as well, Mr. Shelby. I was told by Polly to wait for any further instructions. In the meantime there is soup in the pot if you’re interested.”

“Wait.” Thomas gets an odd look. “You… made dinner? Why?”

Now that I have more leverage, I hold my breath to squeeze past the two men and back into the kitchen. “I had nothing else to do, and it’s the least I can do since you’ve allowed me into your home.”

Just then, Polly comes into the room. She hesitates when she sees us, giving John and Thomas a certain look. Then she sees the pot on the stove.

“Who cooked? Ada hasn’t made anything in weeks.”

The two men look at each other, then point to me. Polly seems impressed.

“You appear to be a lady of many talents, Ms. Steenstra.”

My face goes pink at her praise and I busy myself by stirring the soup. “I know my way around the kitchen. My family thinks it’s proper for me to be a suitable housewife, so that’s what I’ve been expected to do my whole life. Cooking, baking, sewing, the works. In all honesty, this is the first real job I’ve ever had.”

When I turn back to them, they’re all sitting at the table and appear to all be whispering something. Thomas is the one to speak first.

“So you’re from America, and for the moment you are stuck here?”

“Correct.”

He nods slowly. “Welcome to Birmingham, Ms. Steenstra. Here’s exactly what you’re getting yourself into, love. My family runs a bookkeeping business, and we do our part to keep a close eye on the authorities. People know better not to mess with us.”

“Bookkeeping, like gambling?”

“Correct.”

Dear Lord, I’ve become involved with criminals!

Polly seems to catch onto my panicked thoughts. “You need not worry about being caught up with our work. You’ll only be interacting with Finn.” Polly’s eyes narrow. “If anyone asks, you’re a private tutor and only a private tutor. Do not go asking too many questions.”

I nod shakily and wring my hands together. “Seems to me like a world made up of gambling, drinking, and violence.” I shake my head and give her a skeptical look. “That doesn’t seem like a world I want to be involved in.”

“You won’t have to, and I suggest you don’t.”

By now Finn’s returned and is sitting next to John, but he’s not the only one who’s entered. Over the past few minutes a man with a mustache and a younger woman with short dark hair wearing a red dress are now standing across from me. Thankfully Polly notices my discomfort.

“Everyone, we need proper introductions. This is Verena Steenstra, and she’s going to be helping Finn with his studies. Verena, you’ve met Finn, Thomas, and John. The final Shelby brother is Arthur over there.” She points to the mustache man. “And Ada’s their sister.” She points to the woman in red.

Wow. The Shelbys are a big family. And suspicious ones at that, because they’re all looking at me as if they’re dogs eyeing a piece of meat.

“Polly, no offense, but I don’t like this,” the one called Arthur grunts. “Who says the bitch won’t tattle to the coppers the instant she leaves? How do you know she isn’t a spy sent by the new bloke?” He jerks his head to see Finn eating my soup and he swipes the bowl. “How do we know this isn’t poisoned?!”

“Because I ate it?” I shrug. “Because unlike most people I’ve met here I actually try to be nice? It’s fun, you should try it sometime.”

John starts outright laughing, leaving us all giving him funny looks. “You picked out a real winner, Polly! She’s just like the Americans I met during the war!”

Lord, what have I gotten myself into?

[tiptapricot]

1,000 follower celebration!

Ty for everyone who voted on what to do :-D I’ve decided to take the top two choices so people can do things depending on their energy levels, so!

Draw/Write/Create this in your style:

Make something based off, expanding, or rewriting the prompt(s) below and either submit it via the ask box or make your own post and tag me! I’ll also be checking the hashtag #1000 tip fruits if you’d just like to put it there :-) You can make fic, art, meta, headcanons, collages, whatever you’d like! There is a general prompt that can be used for fandoms, OCs, or however you want to take it, as well a few fandom specific prompts. You are welcome to do any you’d like or combine a few if you’re interested in a crossover!

Ask Game:

My ask box is open to general Q’s about me, my writing, specific fics, characters, fandoms, etc! I won’t answer anything intimate about myself, but am open to nsfw hc asks about characters or ships as well :-) Any headcanon posts will be shorter than my normal ones but I’ll still try to give a good batch of thoughts!

Both these “events” will be open until the end of September! I’ll be reblogging stuff people make, but it’s a loosish period as there’s no contest or raffle or anything at the end and I mainly just want people to have fun :-)

💕 Thank you all for being here in my goofy corner, and I hope we can continue to vibe and grow as we continue to in our own lives :-D 💕

(Prompts below cut)

General prompt: Small things make up love languages. Intent with care, wanting with direction, and sometimes even just a reminder that one party values the other. It’s not a science, really. Everyone is different.

Moon Knight (comics or show): Jake often finds himself in the middle of disagreements, caught between Marc’s militaristic necessities and Steven’s push for comfort and collection. Today, however, he’s taken a firm side, and no one will make him budge.

WWBN (marvel special): With all the universes out there, the line between hunter and monster often blurs. It’s odd to see a case, however, where everything has been swapped while staying so closely the same.

TLB: There are many nights Michael doesn’t remember from the summer of 1987, more now that he’s grown into grey hairs and spotted fingertips. Sometimes he still tries to imagine what it may have been like between flickers of firelight and the flash of fangs, if nothing than for his own amusement.

BnT: Ever since they grew far enough out of trick or treating age that it felt strange to go door to door, Bill and Ted have been trying to establish a new Halloween routine. Ted’s not so sure about this idea, though.

Spider-verse (characters and/or ocs!): An anomaly manages to break free in HQ, spreading a mass of glitches through the building that send several spider people tumbling into dimensions not their own. Whether via escape or rescue, there is a mess that needs cleaning up, and fast.

DC (comics, cartoons, live action, whatever!): It’s not the first time heroes from the future have met heroes from the past, but it may be the first time they’ve managed to get lunch without a world ending event hovering on the horizon.

[fluffyhare]

im already curious abt the new OC!! Ingrid looks so lovely~

what inspired the head shape, btw? im also very intrigued by the "one grade ahead" comment... lil Avery in school :((((( /pos so adorable

Hello! I am touched by your interest in her, thank you! 💙 She is based on cirrus clouds, pictured above.

I'm going to infodump a bit here, because clouds are my special interest (shocking nobody, haha) and all of my characters are based on real science. I'll put it under a cut, because I know not everybody appreciates my long-winded expositions, and that's perfectly okay. 💙 I'll talk a bit about your second point toward the end.

I'll start with Avery, since he's the one you know!

Avery was inspired by cumulonimbus clouds, which are the only genus of cloud that can produce all types of weather conditions. While nimbostratus can produce rain, snow, and sleet, only cumulonimbus can create thunder, lightning, and even tornadoes (if they get angry enough). All clouds can fluctuate in size, but cumulonimbus are able to grow larger and are physically stronger than any other genus. Cumulonimbus clouds, like all genera, also have their own species; Avery, specifically, is a cumulonimbus calvus (flat bottom, puffy top). If you were to touch Avery's skin, you would be able to feel that there's a storm inside of him. Looking closely, you would see that his internal "texture" is always shifting and moving. Cumulonimbus clouds always have a mixed composition (a mixture of water and ice crystals), and they can span all layers of the troposphere, so their internal temperate can fluctuate.

Worth mentioning here is that being of a specific genus or species does not mean anything for a cloud's personality; they can vary as much as human personalities can. It would be wrong to make assumptions about a cloud's about disposition based on their appearance (which, by the way -- any cloud can have any body type. The form/shape of their body is not determined by their genus or species, only their head shape, physical abilities and composition).

That said, all cloudkind are generally friendly and altruistic; they exist in a society that is based on compassion and interest in the welfare of its members, not competition.

Ingrid is based on cirrus clouds, specifically, cirrus unicus (pictured above). In Latin, the name means "curly hooks"; they are generally thin, whispy clouds, sometimes also called mares' tails. Cirrus is the only genus that contains the unicus species. Unlike cumulonimbus, cirrus clouds can only form at high altitudes and are composed of ice crystals, which is why she is always cold and would be cold to the touch, too. Optical phenomena, like sun dogs, halos, and cloud iridescence are often associated with cirrus clouds. They cannot produce weather phenomena, but they are often an indicator that stormy weather is coming soon.

On Avery and Ingrid's relationship, they grew up together, and their families are very close. Education is incredibly important in cloud society and is, of course, free and accessible for everyone. I'm planning on writing more about them and their friendship in the future. :3 I think they would have been so cute as kids, too! Personally, I have worked around children for much of my career, I have a huge heart for kids and find them fascinating.

Importantly, if I ever draw my characters as children, it will be for storybuilding purposes only and will NOT involve tickling. Canonically, tickling does not even exist as a concept in Cirropa, and Avery is the only cloud who has ever left.

[donniesexceptionalmind]

hey hey may you please infodump about your favorite book(s) please ? I want to hear a detailed poetic explaintion about eeevery single thing you like because you're cool and i like reading what you write

I am BEYOND amazed by this ask, I - I can't comprehend. Is this real?

My favourite books - that's a though ask because I have many books I thoroughly enjoy, many tied to my special interests.

Oh gosh, I am sorry in advance, this will be long...

I have not talked about it much on here, but besides Jupiter Jim I am a huge fan of Star Wars & I'm owning over 160 books + the begin of a comic collection. Autistic much, mhmmmmm?

My favourite Star Wars book series is the Republic Commando Series by Karen Traviss. It's a masterpiece.

The way she gives the clone soldiers individual lives & personalities is amazing & it truly mirrors the conflicts that arise with the use of clones for an army. I am also fascinated by Mandalorian Culture, which the clones are raised in by their DNA giver Jango Fett & a few mandalorian warriors he chose for that task.

Karen Traviss created Mando'a, the language of this culture (which I have NOT learned, no, never /s).

I also want to add that the clones are NOT stormtroopers!

I'd also recommend reading the High Republic Series, which is BEYOND amazing & has become my favourite Star Wars Era next to the Prequel Era.

Even if you are not a fan of Star Wars, the High Republic is worth a read as a standalone series. You don't need to know anything about Star Wars to understand it.

Star Wars has a very big library of books & comics - every era has great stories. Here are some of my favourites beyond the ones I already mentioned:

Darth Plagueis (Prequel era to beginning of the Empire)

Alphabet Squadron Trilogy (New Empire era)

Death Star (Original Trilogy)

Brotherhood & also Master & Apprentice (Prequel Trilogy)

The Padmé Trilogy (Prequel Trilogy)

The Lando Calrissian Trilogy (takes place years before the Original Trilogy)

Everything by Timothy Zahn (he's famous for creating Thrawn)

You see how I am unable to choose???

Apart from my quite big Star Wars literature obsession I love reading other science fiction works & also thriller/ horror stories.

Ethan Cross with his absolutely amazing serial killer Francis Ackermann Junior is my favourite thriller author, but I do enjoy Stephen King as well

Of course, Jules Verne & his works are worth mentioning too, his work is impressive considering what he had come up with back in his time!

A Walk Between Stars by Tyler. R. Parsons is a great novel, truly recommend it - a human is stuck in outer space & gets rescued by strange aliens

As a huge Five Nights at Freddy's fan, I (of course) own the novels as well & THEY ARE SO WORTH IT

Occasionally I like fantasy as well.

The Dune Universe by Frank Herbert is what I've started reading & I do like the idea, but I don't enjoy the main character - so I've stopped after the first book. I do want to try to read the whole series someday!

Walter Moers is my favourite fantasy author, his work is absolutely stunning & I treasure every single one. My favourite work would be the 13 1/2 Lives of Captain Bluebear, which was the first novel I've read by him

Lord of the Rings & the Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien. No words needed!

The Never Ending Story by Michael Ende (trust me, it's exceptional)

Momo by Michael Ende (teaches you a lot about compassion)

I like reading the nerdy books about astrophysics & quantum physics, but I haven't included them since - it would've been boring to read for you. My newest interest is neuroscience & I want to obtain the scientific books about that field as well!

There you have it, a general overview about my favourite books! (Finally over)

I was seriously touched by this ask.

Even if you just asked to comfort me, it still means so much to me.

People actually care for me.

Thank you.

[chromantlks]

Workin on art at 5:30am and watching Vendetta, so to procrastinate even longer, here is:

Resident Evil Vendetta: Why Leon and Rebecca’s Positions Should Have Been Swapped

• Rebecca is not a damsel in distress please stop doing this to RE women (female characters in general, hate to be that guy), let Rebecca be the prodigious badass tyrant slayer she has been since day fucking one

• Leon’s entire arc would be improved in the way Chris’ sort of was if he was kidnapped and had time to think about who he is and why he’s come as far as he has, as well as accepting that he can’t always be the dashing hero and that sometimes he needs help too

• We could FINALLY re-explore the dynamic between Chris and Rebecca!! Don’t get me wrong, I love the relationship between Chris and Leon I love the part where they said “it’s gay sex Thursday” and then started making out on the chopper, but cmon. These were the ORIGINAL guys, the goobers, the oomfies, they were partners then and they could have been again

• We might have had more of a chance to catch up with what Rebecca has been doing all this time, we haven’t seen her since 0, or the stage play if you’re insane like I am, and I feel like we deserved to see her in action. It’s totally in line with her character to take more of a backseat to the action, having more of an interest in the science and medical aspects, that’s all good, but she’s still trained in combat and marksmanship. Can you imagine a scene of Rebecca showing off her skills, especially to Leon? Dude that would rock so unbelievably hard cmon.

• Chris has this continued theme in his life of losing people close to him and it reflects in the way he treats his partners/teams. This is just a flaw with the movie in general (which I continue to enjoy despite its. Yknow. Everything~), but we never got to see much of that. Obviously that whole theme was generally resolved in 5 and then continued into 6, but I feel like whether it’s Leon or Rebecca, Chris should have been, like. Way more freaked about it? Staying professional and all, but Jesus Christ man, you’re gonna exchange one liners and cool gun slow-no scenes with MCR over here in the hallway while you have less than 20 minutes to both SAVE and CURE someone who has been by your side for upwards of 20 years whom you have befriended and relied on numerous times??? Whatever! Whatever!

• Arias should have had a MUCH higher interest in obtaining Leon if he wanted his revenge plan work out. He’s already a suuuuper iffy character, I too would be mad if the government dropped a bomb on my wedding and killed almost everyone I held dear, but also I didn’t do arms dealing and bioterrorism so. Maybe reflect on that man. But anyway, the A-Virus already has a lot in common with the Plaga. Arias ABSOLUTELY could improve this connection via a sample of Leon’s blood and an examination of whatever’s left in his nervous system; if done right, this could have handled the virus nearly unstoppable. But instead, he opted to, uh…steal a woman that looks like his wife? Yeah, her blood with the antibodies made the virus stronger, but he had NO IDEA OF THAT. He totally lucked out there. Now, information about the Plaga would be easily attainable for a man of Arias’ profession and status among the underworld of crime or whatever, all that shit, and Leon’s name would absolutely be among that information. It’s just so much more convenient? Makes so much more sense?? Literally aids his evil plan???

I’m sure there’s more reasons I’m forgetting because the amount of times I’ve ranted about this is ridiculous, but like. Cmon cmon cmon I beg

If someone makes art or like rewrites the story like this tag me in it I beg of you like idk if this will incite any inspiration this is just my special weird take on a my special weird movie

[solradguy]

Honestly, one day I fully expect you to fully develop the OUTRAGE and then, and only then, will you have reached critical mass Sol Badguy.

You just have that kind of vibe (not the vibe of Sol Badguy, but the vibe of someone who gets up to unexpected shenanigans and radical hijinks, galore). I wouldn’t be surprised if you showed a picture of your room and had functional wizard stuff next to your record player. Orbs to ponder per chance or some such curios.

A few summers ago I actually looked into how hard it would be to make a small forge in my backyard but there are really strict fire rules in my neighborhood and I wouldn't have been able to build one lol Almost, though... In another world, perhaps....

And, well... My grimoire shelf is uh....

I really like reading about how different cultures approached metaphysics and the folk explanations for worldly phenomena that science has since more precisely explained. Norse/Germanic stuff was one that most interested me because the entire thing with Odin in particular was FASCINATING. Magic was generally seen as a "woman's" thing, but Odin, the war god leader of that pantheon, used magic despite being a man. The way that rippled through the rest of the culture/religion and affected gender roles was really cool.

Unfortunately, around 2015-ish, it started getting really difficult to find actual information about Norse cultures because of CERTAIN POLITICAL SITUATIONS IN THE USA and I got sick of having to rip out nazi bullshit like weeds so I dropped it and moved on. Still have my books though. It will always have a special place in my heart.

I've got books covering a broader range of cultures on other shelves and a bunch of ebooks too. The Norse and Germanic stuff's just generally easier/cheaper to find in print, and one of my good friends took a class on ancient Norse/Scandinavian cultures in uni and sent me a bunch of her books afterwards once the classes ended.

[scintillyyy]

I can’t believe I had followed you this long without realizing you had a whole >100k word fic you were working on. I spent the past few days reading My Baby, You are a Gift, One I Will Cherish.

Your writing is honestly so amazing. I can’t remember the last time I read something that long from start to finish in such a short time. The characterizations, the reinterpretation of canon events; so many things were just incredible. It really shows how much work and care you put into it.  

It’s so nice to have a story that puts so much effort into fleshing out a character like Janet Drake. Was there anything in particular that inspired you when you were writing her?  

hahaha, yep, that's me! that fic is my baby lol. thank you, i get very bashful about my writing lmao. im glad the characterization had been decent, i'm always so worried about that. anyways, this answer might get a little long so i'm putting it under a cut lol

as far as anything in particular that inspired me? uhhh, well i guess i'll have to go into something that you're basically almost never going to see me talk about ever on the internet if i can help it so i'll still keep it vague-ish: i actually have a young child of my own. (i mean. if it wasn't super obvious already. people usually don't get into attachment science on a whim. they do it because it's 4:37AM and someone has only slept in half-hour increments since 11:30PM and they've been crying off and on for the past 2 hours desperately hoping that the someone will just fall asleep for 2 hours please and all they do is research everything about parenting obsessively because that's the absolute only thing they can do-). so i have spent a lot. and i mean a lot of time in parenting spaces. i'm part of my local area moms group in all their glory (they're very, uh, special), and i personally know a lot of other parents, and i'm basically immersed in a very interesting and complex culture (marriage and parenting culture). and i have seen my fair share of conplex, not great marital dynamics. and now that i have a kid that's what the majority of my patients talk to me about, so i get to hear a lot about different views and experiences of parenting from a lot of different viewpoints.

so anyways after the batman came out and my husband and i went on a date night to go see it, i ofc got the itch to get back into reading dcu fanfics and comics after not doing it for years since the nu52 (i also saw that they rebirthed tim's original history back, so i forgave dc a tiny bit), so i got myself the dc app so i could re-read all my beloved post-crisis comics. and it was a nice hobby to pick up again because it was very easy to pick up and put down in 20 minute increments and work around, you know, child care. i was devouring all the most popular fics (which 90% are fanon, lbr) while re-reading old storylines, and while the absolute disconnect between fanon and canon was fine for me at first because it's all fiction and i really didn't care that much, i eventually started to personally get a bit...discontent at fanon in general and the fanon drakes, especially janet (but jack too. like it or not, he does have an established characterization!). like. i read the comics!! she wasn't necessarily a great parent by any means, but the five panels she got prior to being fridged for tim to officially become robin basically showed her being physically affectionate, caring, and generally supportive of her son. who was this weird, cold woman who never once held her son and didn't care about his well-being at all?? she was unrecognizable to me. and as i started to make my way through post-crisis, i also became a bit mad at dc for killing her for tim's character and then basically making her a non-entity that barely got mentioned. despite her failings, tim was legit devastated when she died (and he later said he can't let himself drown in his grief for her--he clearly must have loved her so much) and then they did nothing with it. what was their relationship?? who was she?? why was she a generally loving mother yet left with jack?? did she think tim was okay?? what were she and jack constantly arguing about?? why did jack say to tim that his mother wouldn't want them to be so far apart?? did she maybe have some misgivings about traveling, did she not necessarily like being far away from tim?? how does this woman become the mother she does?? what were her intentions?? she deserved to have more character development in my mind! why does this woman basically get flattened into the worst mother ever? i know a lot of imperfect mothers who are in complex marriages and are just trying and not always succeeding. what exactly did that look like to me? how do i marry the two ideas?

another thing that interested me immensely was the idea of a difference in perception from tim and from his parents regarding tim's childhood. obviously, we know tim's pov. but what did his parents think? did janet think everything was going fine?? did they have a rosier picture of tim's childhood than he did? and thus, the first fic was born. me blathering for 27k words trying to showcase janet as a parent who was trying her best, who was semi-isolated by life circumstances, but was simply unable to balance work, kid, marriage and was unintentionally making tim feel abandoned by her, something she never would have wanted if she had realized. and that was going to be it.

and then i got sad about her, because janet as i view her (i like to think a lot of tim's good traits come from her) i think would have done a lot better with a second chance with tim than jack did! like, she, as a mother, might have a very different response to the tragedies and loss of her husband and try to focus more on her son than jack did. she as a widowed mother would also face very different judgments than jack did (society is obsessed with the idea that boys need a father figure--so she'd probably be more likely to let tim hang out with bruce rather than jack fighting their relationship at first because "it's good for him" to have an older man he can look up to) she's more supportive in her appearances, after all, saying that tim could be just like dick when he grows up. i think that she'd find out a lot sooner. and i think her surviving wouldn't have changed any of the big events, and i became obsessed with the idea of "but how would she deal with this canon event vs jack". she is, after all, a different character who deserves her own internal feelings and motivations. the drakes weren't great, but i don't think they're that irredeemably bad. and i think tim would want them redeemed too!

and nobody else was writing the canon-but-with-janet fic in my head that i couldn't stop thinking about, so i figured i'd give it a shot just in case there was one other person who felt the way i did and wanted to see it lmao.

anyways tl;dr a lot of inspiration comes from the fact that i am a mom and have spent way too many hours dissecting parenting in my head and the fact that i know a lot of moms who are very complex, imperfect humans and i just like stories about motherhood and allowing mothers to be nuanced and to redeem themselves.

[chaifighter]

Ok but what if I really want to hear your Orson Scott Card rant?

...You asked for this.

This is definitely harder to deliver in text format than verbally, but I'll do my best.

Ender's Game is a seminal science fiction novel from the mid 80's about a space war between Earth and an insectoid alien species referred to as "buggers" (they have an actual name I think but I don't remember it). The war has been raging for years, Earth has effectively united to fight it, and particularly intelligent children are taken by the military to train at an orbital boot camp to be the next generation of soldiers. Our protagonist Ender Wiggin, a genius to end all geniuses, is taken to this space station to begin this training. (Ender is a usually-illegal third child who the government gave his parents special permission to produce, since their first two children were both unaccountably brilliant but too violent (Peter) or too gentle (Valentine) to be good child soldiers, which is uhhhh pretty eugenicist BUT THAT'S NOT THE SUBJECT OF THIS PARTICULAR TED TALK-)

The main body of the book covers Ender's time at battle school and is pretty solidly entertaining, with some genuinely interesting thought experiments on zero-g battles and psychological management and manipulation of a young fighting force (though it's, yanno, undercut by the full-page out of nowhere antisemitic raving. I'm not fucking kidding, there's slurs and everything, it's. Fucking wild.) but the really important stuff comes at the end of the book, when Ender and his trusted group of friends are put through a grueling series of simulations designed as a graduation test. Through this series of simulations, Ender, gifted and cursed with an incredible depth of empathy, begins to understand the buggers in a way that no one has before, and by understanding them, knows how to end them. To quote directly:

"In the moment when I truly understand my enemy, understand him well enough to defeat him, then in that very moment I also love him. I think it's impossible to really understand somebody, what they want, what they believe, and not love them the way they love themselves."

Through this understanding, he realizes that the buggers are a hive mind, and that by destroying the center of that hive mind, he can win. So he does, and the simulation ends. And then they tell him he just won the war. He has given real orders to real soldiers, and he has exterminated the buggers. He has loved his enemy, and he has destroyed them.

Compassion is the key theme of Ender's Game. It is what makes Ender and what breaks him when it is exploited. Empathy and understanding for someone deeply, incomprehensibly different from you.

So then we come to Orson Scott Card, great-great-grandson of Brigham Young, a virulent homophobe, a racist (called Obama "a black man who talks like a white man" as an explanation of his success in politics) and antisemite (looking at that FUCKING page again). He wrote this entire book that hinges on empathy, but either refuses or abjectly fails to apply that notion to his own life. It is genuinely remarkable to me that someone can craft a narrative so explicitly about the one trait they seem to lack entirely and not allow it to open some window of understanding into their own shortcomings.

But we're not quite done yet. Let's talk about Xenocide.

Xenocide is the first of 3 sequels to Ender's Game, set some hundreds/thousands (can't remember, it's a long fuckin time) of years after the events of the first book. Humanity has spread across the universe and settled other planets. The book tells the story of a small human community on a planet predominantly inhabited by the pequeninos, a race of piglike sentients with whom human contact is limited to two specific researchers. The researchers' interactions with the pequeninos are going well -- until one day the body of one of the humans is found vivisected by the pequeninos. Later in the book, it happens to the other researcher as well. All this, very understandably, threatens to spark a war.

Then the discovery is made -- the late life cycle stage of a pequenino is to transition from one of the piglike creatures into a tree, which is the form that is actually capable of reproduction. This transition, bestowed upon members of the species who have done something significant or remarkable, is done by vivisection, after which the body sprouts. The pequeninos believed they were bestowing an honor upon the researchers they killed, and were confused when they did not proceed into the next stage of life. When they learn that they in fact killed them, they mourn.

I am so genuinely fascinated by this story as a work of science fiction. I read this book pretty young, but this is all from memory, it stuck with me that vividly. When two species so utterly alien to each other begin to interact, a simple assumption of similarity can end in tragedy, even during acts of respect or good will. It's juicy! It's thought-provoking! The pequeninos are convincingly alien and the scenario makes sense. And the key thing is that they are people, they cared, they wanted to show their respect for the humans they admired. Empathy, speaking with them and understanding their view of the situation, was the only way to move forward in a constructive way, to avoid war and prevent further tragedy.

Another fascinating thing in this book: the concept of a Speaker for the Dead. Through the time-distorting effects of intergalactic travel, Ender is in his mid-30's in Xenocide, having spent the intervening centuries as a Speaker for the Dead, a position named after the role he assumed in writing his own book about the buggers as a species, laying out their story postmortem. The job of a Speaker is to tell the story of a life as the person viewed themselves -- returning once again to empathy, this time as an almost ritualized practice, as a Speaker arrives to a place where they have been requested and has to piece together the life of the deceased in order to tell the tale. (A friend of mine once promised to be my Speaker if I died first, if I'd promise the same. I think that promise still holds, though I somehow doubt both our capabilities toward the task as writ.)

Orson Scott Card loves empathy. It's one of his main themes. He keeps coming back to it, keeps emphasizing it in new and varied ways. And then he turns around and is a fucking asshole in real life. And you can't help but wonder - does he think he's succeeded? Does he think that he's managed to interact with the world in a kind and empathetic way? Does he somehow believe that he truly understands all these groups he seems to actively disdain, to campaign against, to view as alien? Does he think he loves them the way they love themselves?

After 71 spiteful little years on this planet, I somehow don't think change is in the cards for this man before he shuffles off the mortal coil. And yet I can't help thinking... he could stand to read his own books sometime. He might learn something.

[junosmindpalace]

A platonic Nanami Sai in the stone age with an autistic high school kid who looks up to him and follows him around !

A very long note : not only because Sai's programming skills is in a way too cool stage but also respecting Sai for being full of passion knowing what he likes + i belive that Sai won't be the type to make fun of anyones interests even if it was childish or not very common as well as understanding and be helpfull if they had sensory overload

sorry for talking alot ! If writing about autistics isn't something your comfortable with may i change the request ? Thank you ! :]

hello anon! thank you for your request! i know that every autistic person has their own experiences and traits, which is why i wrote this in a headcanon format to try to make it applicable to all sorts of people, but i hope i was able to properly write this request with a couple of aspects - feedback is absolutely welcome. and my first sai request!

warnings: none!

ever since sai joined the kingdom of science, you’ve been mostly at his side.

you admired his incredible programming skills and ability to code even in the stone world, and you’re always trying to take something away from him.

at first, sai is nervous having someone look up to him. he's a little stressed out about trying to set a good example, but as the two of you become more familiar with one another as you worked together, you two became good friends. 

as an anxious person himself, he's able to understand a little about how it feels to be overwhelmed over specific things.

he does his best to help you with your sensory issues, either creating noise or finding ways to get rid of it. if your sensitivity is more severe, he does his best trying to imagine what would help calm him down, so whether it be a texture or sound, he tries to rid of whatever the trigger was and maybe even replace it with something more comforting.

finds any and all of your special interests interesting. he can absolutely relate to the intense feelings of loving something, and he totally understands wanting to indulge in what he loves with others. so rant!! indulge in front of him!! he’s encouraging every step of the way, seeing bits of himself in you.

not only that, but he JOINS IN. so sometimes the two of you will be frantically talking with one another in the middle of making plans.

these info-dumps are usually not uncommon though, and you can certainly indulge in ranting more about your knowledge and interests to not only sai, but the other scientists who also understand your enthusiasm.

it's especially the folk from the stone age who love to hear your rants, however. whether it be about programming or another interest of yours, they're engrossed by your explanations and storytellings and always encourage you with comments and questions.

sai encourages you to use your strengths such as your heightened senses or in depth knowledge about certain things that could be useful, so he might sometimes ask you to help him with certain tasks, or volunteer you to help contribute to some of the bigger issues that senku and ryusui are involved in. good attention to detail; you’re an incredible asset to the team.

free to not mask in front of sai, as he’s a person you deeply trust and are comfortable with.

also free to stim around him! if the stimming comes as a result of a stressful situation, sai does his best to relieve the tension by redirecting your attention to something related to his coding.

he also greatly enjoys your happy stims, especially when the two of you are talking about or working on coding. even with missions in general, your happy stims signify a job well done, and they're a sort of indicator for him to not be as stressed as he normally is and celebrate alongside you and the others in your victories.

makes sure to explain things directly in case you may not be able to always catch on to metaphors or social cues.

he's always incredibly flattered when you compliment him, and he always does his best to teach you about aspects of programming you're interested in.

the two of you practically came in a pair. a sweet and capable duo who learn a lot of from one another and do their best to look out for each other. it almost feels like as if he has another younger sibling.

[humanitys-strongest-bamf]

...oh boy. we going with all of them? alrighty

tagged by @chaotic-on-main!!!

rules: post the names of the files in your WIP folder, regardless of how non-descriptive or ridiculous. let people send you an ask with the title that most intrigues them, and then post a little snippet or tell them something about it! tag as many people as you have WIPs!

the levi-related ones will be highlighted in pink since i've done a lot of writing for different fandoms so

Split into folders!

"BSD AU"

"Current" - dazai x reader "mafia days" - mafia!dazai x reader "mafia husband au" - chuuya x reader

2. "First drafts" - these are all canondivergent rewrites of some toaru light novels

"agitate halation arc" "battle royale arc" "DRAGON arc" "WWIII arc"

3. "Main verse" / general - most are related or excerpts of the canondivergent toaru universe unless otherwise specified

"book 1: the darkness within" "book 3 beginnings" "condemnation of the city" "intro to soul magic" - undertale au "purge arc" "soul harvest"

4. "Main verse" / "Series 1: Science" - updated drafts of canondivergent toaru light novel rewrites

"experiment arc" "the descent" "the dark side" "DRAGON" "WWII arc actual" "Ryuuri arc" - introduces another OC "freshman arc" "the next step" "agitate halation arc" "invasion arc"

5. "Main verse" / "Series 2: Magic"

"angel fall arc" "daihaisei arc" "hawaii invasion arc" "intro to magic"

"Misc"

"ATLA" - what it sounds like. OC that is Azula's twin. mostly explores Azula's POV throughout the OG series "norse au" - had some marvel-related dream where i was an odinson and beat the shit out of hela and was like very close with loki and was the true heir to the throne or something idk dreams are weird and sometimes i'll write about them "overwatch heart thing" - idk this has something to do with genji. i dont actually remember LMAO "plot: dazai is pissed at you" - what it sounds like. ex-boyfriend!dazai x reader. gets kinda dark.

"Random AU's that might turn into something" - my AOT content! :D

"Forced Roommates AU" - modern!au levi x reader (I'M STILL WORKING ON THIS GUYS I PROMISE I SWEAR) "Main AU" - canonverse levi x reader with special abilities due to a bloodline heritage "Post-war" - where i hold the parts of Until I See You Again "rivals" - canonverse levi x assassin!reader random WIPs in my drafts: - part 2 of the modern!au oneshot i wrote for @luvjiro - oneshot with flustering levi as he's patching you up - headcanons of levi as a pet!dad - either a canonverse oneshot or drabble of levi breaking up with a reader to protect them but then the reader dies and he wasn't there to protect them - request: canon!divergent scene where reader gets turned into a Titan and levi has to hunt down beardo and feed him to her - drunk love confession - levi attempting to confess his feelings but he's horrifically drunk - levi being reluctant to ask you out on a date - depressed reader and levi comes home to her with a matcha

send me asks if you're interested! even for the non-aot ones! although some i might remember better than others idk i've been writing for a while jadkf;ljd

#: @ohmytomorrowisthursday @fscottcatsgerald @marleysfinest @prettyiwa @mrsackxrman @sixpennydame @dont-f-with-moogles @ghostlykeyes @svftackerman @thevelria @nosleepjustlevi + anyone else i forgot idk i've gotten like 4 hours of sleep in the past 3 days a;dlkfjd

[doorbloggr]

Saturday 4/6/22 - Media Recommendations #34

These past few years have been an exciting time for paleo nerds. The revival of the Jurassic franchise has renewed the public's interest in dinosaurs, and new paleontological discoveries such as the revamping of Spinosaurus, and new understandings of behaviour, integument, and taxonomy are coming out every few months.

But there's this disconnect between what the general public thinks of dinosaurs, and what experts and enthusiasts (like myself) understand. Once upon a time, dinosaur nature documentaries were all the rage. Walking With Dinosaurs was a cultural cornerstone of the turn of the century, but it has been a while since any Dino Doco has had anywhere near the same success.

Fast forward to 2022, and Apple TV presents a BBC series in the style of Planet Earth and Blue Planet, but with dinosaurs, called Prehistoric Planet. And I loved it.

Prehistoric Planet

BBC / Jon Favreau / Mike Gunton

The Pitch

Prehistoric Planet is a 5-part nature documentary, each episode about 45 minutes long. Unlike Walking With Dinosaurs, which explored habitats and species across the Mesozoic period, Prehistoric Planet focuses in on the end of the Cretaceous, around 66 million years ago.

Each episode explores biodiversity in a specific type of habitat;

Coasts

Deserts

Freshwater

Ice World

Forests

Rather than follow a group of animals in one specific locale, each episode will jump around different locations around the world that match the episode's theme. Episode 2 for example gives an insight into deserts in South America, North Africa, and East Asia. This formula allows the documentary team to discuss various species from all across the world.

There's fantastic variety in the species chosen to focus in each episode. With the dinosaurs, of course they have to discuss mainstream fan favourites like Tyrannosaurus, Triceratops, and Velociraptor. But they also discuss species not as well known to the public like Nanuqsaurus, Antarctopelta, and even dinosaurs I hadn't heard of until now, like Zalmoxes.

Something I have seen discussed as somewhat unique to this series, is the spotlight on non-dinosaur animals from this period. Plesiosaurs, frogs, primitive birds, Mosasaurs, Ammonites, and most of all, Pterosaurs. Pterosaurs get a great amount of focus in multiple episodes, and from a variety of groups within Pterosauria; aerial expert Nyctosaurs, impressively decorated Pteranodontids, and the gigantic stalking Azdarchids.

And I can't believe I haven't mentioned it yet, but the documentary is narrated by Sir David Attenborough, and that just ties together the whole package.

My Thoughts

As a fan of anything with David Attenborough, this was an immediate sell for me. The tenderness and wonder in David's voice as he details the mundane and exciting of these extinct animals holds your attention firmly.

The special effects used to create the illusion of these animals interacting with their world is stunning; water splashes and flows as animals move through it, snow and sand shifts against them, leaves are brushed aside. It's expertly done.

Every behaviour and design aspect of the dinosaurs, pterosaurs, and the animals they live with is called against direct fossil evidence and further inferred from behaviour and physiology in living animals. Even the most speculative aspects of their design have roots in actual zoology.

Each of the 45 minute episodes are accompanied with a 5 minute behind-the-scenes clip, where palaeontologists who were consulted for the project explain how all decisions made were steeped deeply in real science. These were once living things on this planet, and the way they are depicted, and described by David Attenborough, illustrates this fact.

That last part is probably my favourite aspect of this documentary series, that the dinosaurs and other creatures are treated like animals. They were not blood thirsty monsters that would stop at nothing short of absolute bloodshed. They had families, they would back off if there was too much danger, they were curious about their environment.

It's a shame that dinosaurs have become little more than movie monsters in the eye of today's public, because as Prehistoric Planet shows us, dinosaurs, pterosaurs, and all extinct animals were living things, and they were extraordinary.

Credit to tumblr user @bluedaddysgirl for all the gifs used in this post

[anghraine]

I wonder if you can guide me on whether I should pursue Linguistics or Literature for my MA since you already are working on your PhD in Literary Studies? It's my dream to major in Literary Criticism and I believe I can always get another MA in Linguistics, but for now I don't want to waste my time and power on something that might not be so useful in the future. How has your experience been with Literary Studies? Would you advice a fellow academic to pursue it?

Hmm, I would always suggest getting advice from an actual advisor or committee chair if you have one. However, here is what advice I can give, with the caveat that I am a random stranger on the Internet who doesn't know you.

First: broadly speaking, if you're really sure about what your ultimate goal is, you're probably best served by doing the things directly related to that goal if it doesn't make much of a difference to you otherwise. I suspect that an MA in English literature will do more to help you get into a PhD program in English literature than a degree in linguistics.

That said, the fields are related enough that if there would be no difference with regard to GPA, what recommendations you can get, and (most importantly) your writing sample, it may not matter that much in the long run, unless you envision your PhD literary work as particularly involved in linguistics (sometimes this is the case).

But the work you do in an MA in literature is probably going to be more geared towards preparing you for further work in literature than one in linguistics. If one subject is generally easier for you to get high grades in or if you tend to have better relationships with instructors in one of the fields, that may be the best for PhD acceptance purposes.

Another concern that people sometimes don't want to talk about, or alternately are very annoying about: the current state of the job market in literary studies is dire in a lot of places (certainly in the USA, where I live). It was bad before COVID and is worse now. Exactly how dire the situation is depends on your specialization, but it's pretty bad all around.

I honestly don't know what the job market for linguists looks like, especially since there are a lot of different professions within the field (a high school friend of mine with a linguistics degree ended up in speech pathology and says it's much easier to find work in that field). I did use linguistics for technical writing credit, but that was years ago and I just don't know what opportunities look like now, pragmatically speaking. Possibly the outlook is better than in literary studies, and if so, a graduate linguistics degree might be more helpful if you don't get into a literature PhD program or do get the degree but don't get hired in academia afterwards.

OTOH, there are a lot of things you can do with an MA or PhD in English outside of academia (and those things are usually more profitable because of the defunding of the arts etc etc). Some jobs simply want the degree and don't care much what it's in, for instance.

Some do care, but are actually looking for people with English degrees. A friend of mine once got a very good job in Seattle because he had an English degree in addition to his computer science degree and they wanted someone with that kind of background to work on an online dictionary.

A friend from my grad school cohort used his literature MA to get a job in technical writing, so there's that. A graduate degree in English can help if you want to go into editing or publishing (maybe even law), though there are major issues in publishing as well. If you're interested in creative writing as well as literature, getting into a terminal creative writing degree program such as an MFA or PhD is sometimes helped by having a related MA already.

As for my experience in getting a PhD in literature, it has been very mixed. Sometimes it's fantastic, because you're in an environment that can be very intellectually nourishing, for lack of a better phrase. How actually supportive it is varies a lot (I have been lucky in that respect, but I know people whose programs had a lot of ambitious, cutthroat people and for whom it was miserable). It can be very nice and very helpful to be around people who care about the same general thing as you and who appreciate its value even if it's not their specific area of study. It's super cool to have full on tenured professors be like "oh, that's a bit outside my area, but it's an interesting question and Elizabeth would probably know more" or just straight-up have me take over teaching a class while they dealt with a crisis outside the classroom.

People outside academia (and some parts of fandom) have tended to find me deeply boring, and because I'm autistic, it's always a struggle not to just go on flat monologues about my fixations. I constantly had to remind myself that nobody around me was actually interested or wanted to hear about this kind of thing. But during both my MA and PhD, it was just different. Since all my local friends were in the program, I didn't have to worry nearly as much that people wouldn't know what I was talking about or would find it intrinsically dull, and we'd just sit around a table chattering about this stuff.

That said, this being a constant, inescapable aspect of your life with a lot of pressure and obligations and expectations and so forth—and just the sheer amount of reading you have to do—can start to suck the joy out of it, and this can be a major problem if it's one of your major sources of joy in the first place. I mean, there isn't much reason to do it if it isn't. But I have hardly read any fiction outside of my academic interests for years because the idea of reading any more just feels exhausting.

I don't read fanfic at this point, not because I think there is any intrinsic qualitative distinction between original and fanfic, but because my mind is so wrung out that I usually don't read stories of any kind unless it's part of research. Some of my friends who got degrees in literature experienced the same thing and gradually found joy in literature again once they were free of grad school bullshit, so this isn't a permanent rupture necessarily, just something to consider.

Then there's teaching, too, and the messy composition-literature dynamic, and frankly, as a whole, it's been really bad for my mental health, especially my mood swings. But a lot of that has to do with the culture around grad school and academia in general, not literature specifically (I think it would be worse if it were any other field, actually, except maybe creative writing). So it's worth bearing that possibility in mind, but not a certainty, either.

I know this is a lot! Basically, it depends on a whole ton of factors, and I can't give you an exact answer. But these are the kinds of things I would consider.

[dead-dog-dont-eat]

ok, since you seem to be an active shipping member of the crujo/kuphulu/viktor polycule, do u have any hcs for the goth boyfriends?

Anon, ty so much for noticing me in my shipping obsessions, ily (platonically) but yes! I do! Its mostly just general stuff abt their relationship--but I'll throw in some non-relationship stuff.

-for starters, kuphulu is DEFINITELY the only person in the triad that is trans (ftm + definitely not binary for sure) and not amab; viktor is cis and crüjo is a libramasc but cis person as well--both are binary

-viktor and kuphulu were in the relationship first before crujo came into the mix--I kinda have a hc that they (Vik and Kuphulu) began to date when they were younger and before they were hired by Zs'Skayr to be henchmen but kept it a secret. And when they were in their job they met crujo and then they became a triad

-there's a 10 to 20 year age gap, but all of them are adults; crujo is in his 30s (youngest), kuphulu is in his 40s (middle-aged), and viktor is in his 50s (oldest). I wanna say that when viktor first appeared in the series "The Return" (OG b10) he would've been in his late 40s imo

-all three of them are neither allistic nor neurotypical; viktor is neurodivergent in some ways, crujo is an energetic ADHD werewolf, and kuphulu is auDHD (autism + adhd) with depression, insomnia, bpd and avpd (I, myself, don't have adhd; but I am mostly self-projecting my personality disorders, autism, and insomnia on this man)

-continuing above, crujo and viktor had early diagnoses before puberty (medical), while kuphulu was late. One of my hcs is that viktor grew up in a family from both sides of his parents that were involved in science in some way (whether medical, in the field in general, biology, geographical, etc) and he has a uncle from his late mom's side in the medical science field who is also a psychiatrist and a diagnostician who helped his nephew (viktor) being professionally diagnosed with neurodivergency. His uncle also helped Kuphulu getting a proper ADHD/autism and borderline + avoidant personality diagnosis in his early 30s cuz kuphulu once tried to get one at Anur Khufos and had a bad experience.

-drilling more in kuphulu's neurodivergence: he is definitely a night owl due to his insomnia, and therefore has a TERRIBLE sleep schedule and has to rely on tea remedies and melatonin to get a proper 8 hours; the tendrils on his back fluttering is most likely a stim from his autism/ADHD--including having a problem with voice modulation, which I got inspired from this post by @/kuphulwho; going back to Omniverse, it mentions he collects artifacts--this is more likely a hyperfixation and obsession from his autism and BPD since he probably has a special interest in them--additionally, he also has anger issues from BPD as well (since I, myself, would get swings from my borderline personality disorder at times); I would also like to highlight on his Cluster C disorder (AvPD) where as he doesn't go out in public too often, very introverted, and very much just like to stay inside and do his hobbies.

-another thing I love about their relationship? Fucking the SIZE DIFFERENCE. Viktor and Crujo are SO FUCKING HUGE and TALL, and Kuphulu is canonically a short king 💞. Like, both Viktor and Crujo are the same size while Kuphulu isn't past their shoulders (see the two images below for evidence) I would imagine that they share a bed for three people and Kuphulu would sleep in the middle as a certified little spoon bc even if he did sleep on the left or right he would fall over lol

-kuphulu and viktor are DEFINITELY wife and husband material (in that order) while crujo is mostly just werewolf boyfriend material. Like saying before about kuphulu's insomnia, he would've stayed up all night and therefore is a late sleeper in the morning while viktor and crujo are early risers. And when kuphulu eventually wakes up there's coffee already brewed for him. Additionally, kuphulu is a great baker (to which he got that skill from his maternal uncle and paternal aunt while growing up/living with them). Crujo can't cook for shit, lol, but he's decent at doing laundry.

-since kuphulu's VA is the same guy that did Herbert West from Re-Animator (aka Jeffery Combs), I would imagine he has the same knowledge as Dr. West himself. In fact, in the scrapped storyboard scene of "The Vampire Strikes Back", it was shown he has a knowledge for Vladats and knows them extremely well (image below for provided evidence). I would like to think he was an early grad in high school who was a major in History, Math and Science; possibly be like some sort of historian along with being like a really smart mortician who has a astonished knowledge in history (hence mystical artifacts) and medical science. Viktor is already a scientist (possibly a Professional college graduate degree/diploma in Science, Mechanical/Engineering, Math), but I would imagine he let's kuphulu help him with specimens and chemicals. Crujo would probably just finished high school and work with mechanics.

This is all I have anon. Thanks 4 asking!