#nature is the answer

[night-the-starfish]

Miku has been all over the world by now but has she been to the animal kingdom? 🤨

[akanemnon]

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MASTERPOST (for the full series / FAQ / reference sheets)

[swannsways]

favorite Angus Tully's quotes, The Holdovers (2023) dir. Alexander Payne

[markscherz]

Is there any frog species you have a grudge against?

Meet Gephyromantis (Phylacomantis) pseudoasper

Peak calling activity? Between 3 and 4 am 😡

Its preferred perch? The canvas of my tent 🙃

The decibels of its call? Jet-engine levels 🫨

The sound? Fuckin' Star Wars lasers.

[hellowallflowerfriend]

*"Harry was so close to the mirror now that his nose was nearly touching that of his reflection.

'Mom?' he whispered. 'Dad?'"

...

"The Potters smiled and waved at Harry and he stared hungrily back at them, his hands pressed flat against the glass as though he was hoping to fall right through and reach them. He had a powerful kind of ache inside him, half joy, half terrible sadness."

* * * *

I have been thinking about a lot these days. Everything on this earth seems to be waking up -- the flowers, the leaves, the birds, and me. I feel like I am gearing up for one more run, as tired as I am, and I will pace myself, and I will keep going.

I read aloud to my class the excerpt above maybe two weeks ago. As I read it, I felt -- unexpectedly -- the dreaded, "knot in your throat." I did best to skirt around the knot, knowing how many of us will grow to long to see this reflection around us at some point in our lives. I read around the knot knowing how hard this yearning is to feel, and for some of us, more early than others.

I read aloud the old Professor's voice I had only once imagined, and then one day, "heard," through cinema speakers. I had dreamt of his soft, patient voice, as a person I wished I could see in the mirror reflected back at me. I began to hold back tears: "It shows us nothing more or less than the deepest, most desperate desire of our hearts."

I took a deep breath, understanding how I found in fantasy the things I so longed for. I realized as I read, were I to stand in front of the mirror, I may see those ghosts, but I would also be fully content to see in reflection the people I love standing around me.

I guess I'm not entirely sure what I am trying to say. Life can be quite unexpected sometimes. Even Dumbledore let us down in some ways. And, lets not even talk about JK Rowling. (But, we will, that's what the * is for.) * * * *

Sometimes in life, on Easter, your Aunt Annie gives you squishy plastic dinosaurs that you can, "shoot," at people. Sometimes you realize that your grandma is a hot sauce champion, and can eat, "Indian hot," paneer. Sometimes it is a gorgeous, sparkling day, and you read hate speech written with Sharpie on a wooden post. Sometimes you get a horrible phone call and you spend hours trying to show someone how much you love them. Sometimes you realize that your dreams are unfolding before your eyes, if you just manage to keep them open.

* * * *

Disclaimer: I am heartbroken, enraged by, and utterly dumbfounded by JK Rowling's hate speech against members of the LGBTQI + community, specifically, the transgender community. I quote her book as a beloved childhood classic, but with much chagrin, because the author is the way she is. I guess it's like they say: don't meet your heroes. I am surprised to say that she let us all down with her hate speech. But, also, I guess I am also in some ways, not surprised.

Don't meet your heroes, kids. Become your own.

[bunnieswithknives]

Does anyone else other than hazel end up finding out abt dev’ prosthetic?do Winn and jasmine find out?

Eventually he does get comfortable enough to let other people see it, he still refuses to tell anyone what happened though.

[arttsuka]

Request: Jed and octavius dancing on/playing the piano like in that scene from the movie Big.

(Your art is amazing)

Like this? 🎹🎵🎶

Maybe they can have an iPad too

[canisalbus]

do you pencil traditionally and then colour digitally, or do you just have a very convincing digital pencil brush? I really love the organic, sketchy feel of your work.

I always sketch and ink on paper first, then scan the piece and color it digitally.

[justaz]

king merlin after meeting lady guinevere and sir lancelot’s baby and falling in love: arthur. i want a baby.

king arthur, not looking up from his paperwork: …what?

merlin: give me a baby.

arthur, sighing: merlin, you studied to be a physician. i don’t think i have to be the one to tell you how impractical that is.

merlin, rolling his eyes: this is why i’m the brighter side of the coin

arthur, finally looking up: wha-

queen merlin using magic to transform her body: i. want. a. baby.

arthur:

arthur:

arthur: *stands up from his desk so fast his chair topples over, multiple parchments flutter to the ground, his tunic is already off*

[claraoswalds]

It's racist, my dear, to be blunt. People come from outside, they think we're all witches and druids. For God's sake, child, you walked into a piece of string!

[markscherz]

how the hell do you find so many frogs

This is a photo I took of Miguel Vences, one of my two doctoral supervisors, and I believe the most prolific living frog taxonomist, demonstrating how one finds so many frogs: looking carefully in the right place, and knowing what one is looking for/at. Here, we were at the top of Marojejy, a mountain in northeastern Madagascar. On this trip we discovered several new frog and lizard species.

You can also watch a film where I talk a bit about some of the work that goes into discovery, from my trip to the Bealanana district in northern Madagascar.

This expedition yielded MANY new species.

[kai-strophics]

My lord just say you wanna smash

[transformers-synergize]

Do you have any more stuff for Sunny & Sides? Your designs for them are some of the best I've seen, and I'd love to know more about your plans or headcanons for them!

No pressure ofc, I support you and your absolute galaxy brain :D

Sure, here is a bunch of random stuff about in no particular order, lot of this stuff was just pulled from my notes but whatever lol 

Sunstreaker is egotistical, he knows he is the best and makes sure everyone knows it too. He also has the skills, looks, and combat prowess to back it up. Sunstreaker only really cares about himself and Sideswipe, considering pretty much every bots below him or not worth his time. He often makes sly comments, belittling or cracking jokes about bots whom he deems lesser. His friends are either Sideswipes friends who can tolerate him or bots who think he's cool, which is usually due to factors outside his personality. He's always down for a good fight, being ruthless and downright merciless in combat while still somehow managing to get as little dirt, energon, or other various combat filth on himself as possible, sometimes being nearly spotless after a battle aside from the energon coating his blade. Sunny likes to keep himself in good condition, making sure his paint is perfect and his polish shines, it really helps accentuate how he's the best.

Sideswipe is the nicer of the two brothers. He's outgoing and usually pretty friendly. Sideswipes is always looking for a fight. He loves the thrill of combat. He often treats serious situations more like a game than the high-danger situations he often places in. Sideswipe often can't sit still and always need something to do, and if there is nothing fun to do then he will make his own fun, he is often sparring with his fellow Autobots, trying risky stunts, pulling pranks on other bots and generally just causing chaos. He's very impulsive, often doing the first thing that comes to mind because he thought it might be fun, never considering the consequences. He's kinda like a jock who treats war like a sport with an almost ruthless approach to combat. He often tenses and banter with other autobots, sometimes making jokes at their expense, but unlike Sunny, he usually knows when to stop or when he's gone too far.

info dump bellow↓↓↓

Sideswipe and Sunstreaker both emerged during the Autobot Decepticon war and never known peace times. They are the youngest of the crashed Autobots, both being around a thousand years old, which is very young when your species can live to their hundred thousands.

Twins are what happens when a shuttle-sized spark splits into two, so before Sideswipe and Sunstreaker split, their emerging was highly anticipated because shuttles are rare and extremely powerful, but their spark ended up splitting. When they finally emerged, it was a great disappointment.

they were mentored by Inferno and, to a lesser extent, his conjux Redalert (they are one of the many reasons for Redalerts anxiety). Sideswipe has a pretty good relationship with his mentors Sunny… not so much 

Sunny hates Earth, it's filthy it's wet it's squishy it's sticky it's too hot, at least compared to Cybertron's frigid temperatures, and its dominant species are nothing but a pain he hates he has to hide his existence from the stupid inferior fleshy creatures that rule this dirtball of a planet he hates how often on missions he has to have a fleshy human chaperone to perform basic task that he could easily do himself or wouldn't be a problem if humans just didn't exist. Whichever bot or bots are on a mission with Sunny where human help is required, the other bot will always be the one transporting the human because Sunny refuses to let a human inside of him.

Sideswipe likes Earth, there so much to see it his first time being anywhere without the war consent looming present of the great war, but having to hide all the time on Earth is frustrating, he's been able to seek out and do some street races without Prowl knowing, he likes quite a lot of human stuff human music is pretty good and he like some human tv shows and movies mostly the ones with a lot of actions and explosion, he like interacting with the humans he's allowed to interact with especially Carly and Raoul, thought Sideswipe often struggles to understand how fragile humans are and often can put them at risk without even knowing it. Sideswipe is still a little homesick for Cybertron, even if he's only ever known it as a war-torn mess.

their poses often mirror each other

Sunny tells Sideswipe to smile with his mouth closed because his split beak. 

Sunny is the decision-maker of the two, and though Sideswipe may make destinations for himself on his own as a pair, Sunny always has the final say. 

Sunstreaker hates Sideswipe stickers but gave up on trying to remove them because whenever he tried, he got his claws sticky. 

Sunstreaker and Tracks have a bit of a rivalry going on, though Tracks hates Sunstreaker more than Sunstreaker dislikes Tracks. Also, Sunny usually comes out as the victor of most of their little spats.

Sideswipe pulls pranks but doesn't dare prank Sunstreaker because he knows there will be hell to pay if he messes up his brother's paint job. 

sideswipe loves to cause chaos, Sunny often help

Sunny has some artistic talent, though he doesn't use it much

Sunstreaker always makes sure his frame is clean and in near-perfect condition. Sideswipe doesn't care as much but Sunny, make sure Sideswipe keeps up to a certain standard.

Sideswipe is very extroverted, loves interacting with other bots, and will talk to basically anyone. Sunny is more introverted and prefers to keep to himself and select bots. Sunny tries to encourage his brother not to hang out with bots he considers not good enough to be associated with them which is most bots.

-----------------

As for plans for them, I like keeping what I share plot-wise pretty vague. They appear pretty early on, and they both are pretty plot-important. I don't really care about spoiling characters who appear in the first seven chapters. After that, I'm a little more sneaky and vague about who will appear.

[bunnieswithknives]

Do you think Dale develops (pun not intended) an aversion to bright colors after the attack?

Don’t mind me just hitting the man with my Trauma Hammer

Oh absolutely. Its a good thing he lives in white room

[possamble]

In one of the extra comics Marcille mentions that elves don't have body hair, her included. So Falin staring at a naked pussy is Canon

I mean, I hear what you're saying but...

To be 100% honest, this feels really ambiguous. She's a little too worked up in that second panel. Like, a lot of people have interpreted it as her being defensive and self-conscious about the fact that she shaves and waxes religiously (especially in the context of a trans headcanon) and that feels more right to me?

My personal interpretation is that she really doesn't grow little facial hairs (partially bc we've seen Senshi's huge beard turn into a tiny little elf stache so there is some real evidence for that). But then she doesn't actually know if she has peach fuzz or not and gets REALLY flustered about being scrutinized before she can check for herself and shave off anything she doesn't like.

But either way, my point is that I don't think we're meant to take Marcille's words here at 100% face value and consider it evidence for elf physiology.

And listen. I think Marcille should have a bald pussy in the bath scene bc rule of funny. But beyond that, I want to believe elves can grow pubic hair. I want to believe in the postcanon blondie bush. She's exponentially cuter with it, and I don't want Falin to have to eat bald pussy for the rest of her life. I'm only half joking when I say I want it as a part of her character growth. At the end of the story, Marcille Donato accepts that she is a living, breathing animal that eats and will be eaten and sweats and shits and grows hair all over her body. She learns to accept mortality, starts to reconcile with the inherent grotesqueness of being alive, and most importantly, lets her bush grow out for the first time in her life. And it's beautiful.