#oxygen builder

[recalled11]

I decided to do some redesigns for the various non-human races for Recalled! I'll include my final designs, some sketches, as well as my general headcanons for each race!

Gorons-

Gorons are large reptiles that prefer to inhabit mountains, due to the rich minerals there

Gorons are omnivorous, eating whatever they feel like. They're called 'Rock-eaters', due to the fact that they seek out mineral deposits to eat.

They need to eat large amounts of minerals in order to grow their scales and shells

They reproduce asexually

Only one gender: Goron

master builders. They develop earthquake-proof buildings due to living on volcanos

Rito-

Rito have no sexual dimorphism. Rito genders are 'Warrior', 'Pilgrim', and 'Nester', and genders aren't determined by who can lay eggs and who can't.

Nester plumage is far more colorful, vibrant, and soft than Warrior plumage. Pilgrim plumage is the most dull/earth toned, and the most weather proof.

Rito plumage changes based on which gender they've assumed, and it's pretty common for Rito to flip between genders a lot throughout their lives

Rito have the best senses of sight and hearing out of any other race, though their night vision is non-existent

Rito are the best at archery/bow making, and weaving

Zora-

Zora have three genders, Male, Female, and Royal

Royals are the largest of the Zora. Any Zora can become a Royal, if they are chosen by the current Royal. If they become a Royal, they grow much larger, and their head fins grow longer.

Their Fins can retract, protecting them while they're on land and preventing them from drying out.

their large fins are used for swimming up waterfalls/through powerful currents.

Zora breathe through both gills, and absorbing oxygen into their skin. This limits their ability to travel, as they need to stay near bodies of water to prevent drying out.

Fins and spots are bioluminescent, and Zora use these lights, mixed with signing to communicate while under water.

Zora have the best stone/silver work out of all the races. due to their long lives, they take their time learning to perfect whatever craft they chose

Zonai-

Zonai are descendants of the Minish that returned to the sky

due to having lived in the Sacred Realm for so long, they are the most in-tune with magic out of any other race

most Zonai are born with general magic abilities (Ascend, Ultrahand, Fuse) but others are born with elemental magic, which then influences their coloration and horn growth.

they specialize in creative and scholarly crafts as well as alchemy and diplomacy

during the 200 years between when they descended from the heavens and the time of King Rauru, their race was slowly ravaged by diseases and plagues, due to them having little to no immune system(there's no illnesses in the Sacred Realm)

[taigarrryen]

i really love your sattelite hermits au! also i have a question for you.

i wonder if there's job divisions between them. or were there so few people they just went around and did everything they could?

Hi! Thank you for the ask :]

The expedition consists of engineers, builders and scientists of all kinds. Nowadays there is some division: obviously the scientists are there to focus on science stuff, not to spend their precious time doing heavy lifting — they've got the rest of the gang to do the job. However the first couple of years were wildly busy, since literally everything had to be mapped out, established and made on the spot, before any kind of deeper scientific studies could take place. Livable bases, landing pads, water and oxygen generators, power generators, radio towers, basic roads... You name it. So yes, at that time it was exactly how you've described it! + everyone is responsible for expanding, upgrading and fixing their own stations and labs to this day. But they've got a very wide range of specialists available, so there's rarely a problem that couldn't be fixed with a radio call or a helping hand.

There are also two admins at play: social [Grian] and tech [Xisuma]. Their job is making sure everything works, be it vital systems or interactions within and outside of Minecrea. If there's any kind of problem, it's their responsibility to find a way to solve it and keep the wheels turning. It was all on Xisuma at first, but it quickly became apparent this was way too big of a task for a single man to handle, so when Grian (who had previously had an experience of leading the Europa-Jupiter II expedition for a bit) came along, they've split it.

And, of course, every scientist has their own field of research, as well as every builder or engineer has their own specific work plan. I plan on touching on it in character info posts individually, but here are some examples:

Cleo is a biologist who specializes on extraterrestrial zoology and does research & taxidermy on wildlife

Zed is a planetologist and studies basically anything he can lay his hands on

Cub is an astrophysicist observing HC-1304 (gas giant which Minecrea orbits) and its moons

[lilacsareinteresting]

My two cents about the Elders' stars and my headcanons about their star of origin ^u^

Apparently, Skykids and Elders came from the same origin, that is falling from the heavens as a star. This inspired me to think of headcanons as to what their stars could be and an explanation as to how that is their star

Bear in mind I haven't exactly read up on the rest of the lore yet and I may make some mistakes here and there because uhhh I will stand by my headcanons for life and I will fight everyone for it /pos /hj ',:)

Daleth / Isle Elder / Dawn - Red Dwarf Star

In my opinion, the Red Dwarf Star fits Daleth, seeing as their realm is reminiscent of a sunrise or at the very least the appearance of the sun breaching just over the horizon, the light is dimmer in the realm compared to Prairie, matching with the lesser brightness given by a red dwarf rather than a yellow dwarf—our own sun

While I am sure Daleth's work is important, perhaps shepherding an aviary of light birds or a kaleidoscope of butterflies until sent to Prairie is a demanding job seeing as both are abundant in Isle, I do assume they use their light for guidance to help the animals and bugs, sometimes, especially in the past, even the boats if their people needed them at night/generally if lost

Ayin / Prairie Elder / Day - Yellow Dwarf Star

A Yellow Dwarf Star seems perfectly reasonable for Ayin, as his realm is essentially the reflection of the morning, with the sun beaming in the sky and providing the perfect environment for fauna and flora alike, especially in Bird's Nest and Butterfly Fields, making it clear the environment is healthy enough to sustain a balanced ecosystem**

I believe that storing butterflies takes quite a bit of light the more is stored, and the reason why is for cultural practices, butterdyes/colourflies/dyeflies (Radiance, so probably inapplicable in canon though I am not sure), and overall having builders and civilians must take quite a bit of light to manage, so their slightly higher energy usage is reflected in their star

Teth / Forest Elder / Rain - Red Supergiant Star

I personally like to suspect that the reason why Forest is the most industrialized area in terms of creating technology such as Octahedrons is the abundance of the minerals needed in the forest alongside light, though dampened by the acid rain, which may have been an adverse effect of said production which could be damaging to the environment

Smithing includes great usage of energy, and dependency on light to create a balance between darkness and light to create a stable alloy/containment/vessel, and because of this, the light expenditures must have been grand as it seems that Forest is almost dependent on light to function, hence the star of origin here being the Red Supergiant

Samehk / Sah and Mehk / Valley Elders / Sunset - Red Giant Star

I like to think that they were one star separated by an odd occurrence, which then their cores were distributed among them both and now they have a constant fiery and strong competitiveness, all instilled in Valley folks; that is, their passion. All valley citizens are most likely passionate about their interests, seeing as they celebrate the grandest, and have a colosseum dedicated to entertainment or matches, generally for sports activities around light

The use of light in the Valleys is integral to their cultural significance and their environment, as the demand for light might be great in the high mountains where there is less oxygen for any flame to properly kindle while they host events that may use up quite a bit of light

Tsadi / Wasteland Elder / Dusk - Brown Dwarf Star

I often thought that maybe Tsadi's star would be exhausted instead of naturally small, seeing as the warrior seemed fatigued during their cutscene at the altar. The demand for light in Wasteland might be incredibly high yet production is low as there is almost no light in the realm apart from Treasure Reef and a few gaps in The Arc, which fit into the Brown Dwarf as it is unable to sustain nuclear fission, unlike other stars, hence, far less light compared to other stars

The light must be focused inside of the weapons instead, though it appears that the war has been lost anyway in the end, fulfilling the idea of a Brown Dwarf as it was unfortunately not enough despite the efforts given to sustain the people, as seen in The Arc's attempt at farmland and their water supply

Lamed / Vault Elder / Night - Blue Giant Star

(Sorry if I sound biased I love Lamed by a lot)

The Vault Elder is incredibly suspicious in lore and seems to have shrunken exponentially compared to their Orbit appearance, which may entail that Elders use up quite a bit of light/energy to upkeep their realms as they all shrink in Orbit, because of this, I truly believe that the Vault is an extension of Lamed, heavily weakening the Elder in exchange of becoming all-knowing of all the knowledge stored in the stars upon stars of the non-euclidean interior of the Vault

The energy usage of the Vault, while possibly self-sustaining while using octahedrons imported from Forest, is incredibly high, as stacks upon stacks of memory lanterns are stored on high shelves, the elevator functions, and the extreme use of light in most situations between each layer of the Realm, all of which demand extreme power usage, especially after its entrances have been sealed shut

I won't be doing Resh/Alef, I do not know anything about him sorry :(( but I hope this rant was even a tiny bit understandable because it has 0 contributions to the actual lore B))) it's 2 am btw why did I do this in one go it might not make sense

[carionto]

"It's perfect" a Human said about a Deathworld

Continuing with this trio

Gieverne exclaimed upon reading the latest report on the atmospheric and soil and vegetation conditions of a new batch of surveyed planets. One particular planet read: 43% oxygen, 56% nitrogen, 0.03 carbon dioxide, and lesser traces of other gasses. Lows of 16 and highs of 33 degrees C at mid-latitudes, plus/minus 4 at the equator/poles.

From pictures taken by a survey drone, it was completely covered in kilometers high verdant green ferns and trees. Even the few oceans, or, more appropriately - land-locked seas, also had a greenish-purple algae coating still half a meter thick furthest from any coastline. Indications of extensive microbial lifeforms, but no traces of any macroscopic creatures.

He quickly rushed to his colleagues, and upon hearing the news, Everie was ecstatic, while Henrietta pondered something:

"It's a good start, but we'll first have to introduce smaller herbivores better suited to digesting such dense plants. I'll call up the girls on the Bountiful Kaleidoscope, I suspect the gliding mammals they're working with would serve as better initial prey animals, and all we introduce will have to be tree climbers and nest builders or the lack of sunlight on the ground will just kill them."

There was a short discussion about the best starting species and locations, when Everie suddenly looked as if he had experience a Eureka:

"What if we cleared a spot from orbit first, see how fast it regrows? If it's slow enough, we'll have more options and the ecosystem could better adapt to their new friends without killing them."

The other two thought for a second, then enthusiastically nodded in agreement. After a few more short discussions and consultations with other relevant groups of scientists and natural disaster response experts, they adjourned, with Gieverne concluding the meeting:

"Then it's decided, I'll file the necessary paperwork, and this station should be on its way to our new orbital home by the end of the month."

[starwrighter]

I am not a baby!! (Yes you are)

(Ao3) (Masterpost) (Previous) (Next)

(Part seven lmao)

Sometimes Danny hated being right. Mentally he cursed himself as he clamored into his lifepod. The Aurora was spilling radiation into the water just like predicted it would. A damaged drive core... That didn't bode well for him or the local wildlife. He was a Fenton! He knew the terminology for "This might blow up," in every language, no matter how needlessly complicated you said it.

A radiation suit would be helpful when the ship blew up, if not for him, then for the other survivors. Danny grew up surrounded by radioactive material, he was about as fucked up as one could get, but there was still time left for the other survivors. If there even were any left.

Shaking his head, Danny opened the storage plucking out the remaining Creepvine clusters, and started fabricating. It was hypnotic, Creepvine clusters to lubricant, copper and mushrooms to a battery and copper wire all that and a piece of titanium gave Danny a functioning Seaglide. The device was heavy, the PDA altering the blueprint so it was usable for him.

Opening the hatch up, eager to test his new toy out, Danny dove back into the water faster than ever before. Propellers spun at speeds that would chop his finger clean off if he touched them. A glowing map at the top and a flashlight he could turn off by squeezing the handles. Quick enough to keep up with the peepers while still being able to make quick sharp turns.

The Device whirled as he swam in circles, up, down, left, right, zigzag! Through coral tubes, around stone arches till he got dizzy, divebombing fish and kicking up sand.

"Congratulations, survivor. you have exceeded your weekly exercise quotient by 500 percent. Data indicates that swimming was your favorite activity,"

Heck yeah it was! Swimming is great! He's fast as hell man, radiation could eat shit! Stalkers wouldn't stand a chance, he'd just outpace them! Swimming around, breaking outcrops, and taking samples of table coral for a computer chip. Danny was having a blast!

In time he would have the materials to fabricate a habitat builder and in turn a super cool sea base! A home away from home while he's stuck outside federation space. Currently, the seabase blueprints he had were...limited, but he could work with that!

Rushing to his fabricator the blue lights felt agonizingly slow as he bounced on the heels of his feet, flippers squeaking against the floor. A habitat builder fell into Danny's impatient hands.

Back in the water, Danny scoped out the area. Access to an abundance of resources, food, and water was a necessity. Along with awareness of local predators. The shallows are a perfect place for him to build right now. A temp base to rest and store stuff before moving somewhere more convenient as he explored and met up with any of the other survivors.

Deciding to test out his new tool, Danny placed down a basic compartment. A tiny little tube that would've been big enough if he only needed a place to sleep. Yeah, that wasn't going to work. How was he supposed to pace aimlessly while he wrote notes? How was he supposed to work and live in a high-tech pool noodle? Disassembling the pathetic tube, Danny swam through the shallows plucking up the quartz needed for glass. More materials would be needed to build his base. Thankfully, he’d crashed in a ship made from and carrying the materials he needed. Danny saw no moral issue with “borrowing” titanium from supply crates light enough to lift, but the PDA seemed to have a small issue with it. With a few minutes of tinkering, it was easy to change the machine’s artificial mind.

A loop, he was going to make a base shaped like a zero because that’s how many fucks he gave about Alterra’s dumb rule. Placed upon foundations was the start of his perfect space base. The sides of the Zero became glass compartments, a perfect place to observe the local wildlife. Solar panels mounted jumpstarted the oxygen production, lights blinding when they snapped on. Fish drifted by his base, some ducking underneath his foundations settling comfortably in the shade provided. Maybe if he was here long enough, he’d grow some plants for fish to nibble on?

A hatch was placed on the front of the Zero, finally giving him access to his new base. Cold air punched him in the face as he stepped inside, but it was a welcome attack. Air conditioning at last! Throwing himself to the floor, Danny giggled, noise bouncing against barren walls. A sterile smell cycled through the base with the air filtered in. Like his parent's lab or a hospital room freshly sanitized. Familiar, it smelled like home.

Peeling off his flippers, Danny propped them against the wall. Bare feet against metal floors, Danny took to running through the loop. Brushing his hands against empty walls, he ran laps like it was gym class. The only difference was this wasn't gym class, so it didn't feel like hell. Several laps ran throughout his base until his breath ran out, and he collapsed to the floor.

Winded and panting, he glanced around his base mentally, planning where everything would go. Blueprints were limited, but brainpower wasn't. Making new blueprints for shelving units or a bed should be easy enough. The hard part would be finding the space for it. If he tinkered with the PDA, he could fabricate some blankets and pillows that he could sleep on and store away when he was awake.

First things first, he needed to get a fabricator and some storage set up. A few wall lockers on each side of the fabricator made his little crafting station. His base still felt bare. White walls would get boring real fast. No paint or paper he could use to decorate. No stickers or wallpaper to paint his base to match the stars. Untapped Potential, something to add to his to-do list. If he couldn't decorate anything else, changing the locker's text font would have to do.

Walking in a loop, Danny muttered, his brain working better than his mouth. Words failed, coming out jumbled if they were more than one or two easy syllables. Fangs created a lisp that'd get him verbally castrated if he was back at Casper. That was if he didn't maul them with his newfound face knives. Like a piranha, he was dangerous! Fierce!

Tap...Tap...Tap

Feet freezing, Danny turned to the window, heart jumping to his throat. Several glowing eyes stared back at him, burning a hole into his soul. Stripes of colors ranging from blue, purple, and forest green ran along its massive scaly body and dragon-like head. Two razor-sharp fangs poked out of a closed mouth. Arms glowing blue that faded to pitch black when reaching its four-fingered hands, each claw sharper than a sword. Hands, oh ancients, why does this one have hands? The other one didn't have hands! Curled up, it would be the same size as his base. Danny pointed his scanner at the guy, the results striking terror into the deepest depths of his core...

What the fuck do you mean this guy's a juvenile!?!

@ashoutinthedarkness @avelnfear @meira-3919 @thought-u-said-dragon-queen @hugsandchaos @blep-23 @zeldomnyo @bytheoldwillowtree @justwannabecat @shepherdsheart @starlightcat04 @stargazing-bookwyrm @pupstim

[hugsandchaos]

In my AU (calling it an AU since it’s not canon), iron negates magic. This is inspired by medieval myth that iron negates the fae and causes them harm. Instead of iron, species with magic have copper in their blood to carry oxygen through the body. Luckily, it’s not nearly as common as it is in our world.

Places such as the Everfree Forest tend to have a higher concentration of iron under the ground. Places that are considered strange, places where the animals tend to care for themselves, the plants grow, and the weather acts completely on their own. Places like our world. This is why unicorns may have a hard time using their magic, pegasi have a hard time getting off the ground once they’re too far in, and magical creatures from outside in general tend to feel a little out of breath or a deep gut feeling that things are very wrong.

Certain animals such as timber wolves have a special magic adapted to these conditions, and the bat ponies also evolved in these environments.

The bat pony wingspan greatly dwarfs that of a pegasi’s wingspan, reaching at a total of 15 feet from wingtip to wingtip. Rather than having colorful coats like ponies do, their fur colors are usually dim and darker colors that are better suited for nighttime adventures. Bat ponies with white coats aren’t entirely unheard of, but this gene is extremely rare and tends to skip a few generations. Their diet largely consists of fruits, berries, and nuts, but oddly enough, they are capable of enjoying a bit of fish every once in a while.

They have a little hook on each wing that they often use to grab and hold things, and their tail is surprisingly easy to manipulate.

Yes, they are nocturnal. Yes, similar to young ponies having a fear of the dark, young bat ponies tend to have a fear of lights — especially bright ones — because it’s harder to blend in and go unnoticed. They tend to sleep in the darkest parts of their homes because of this.

The bat ponies are currently living in hiding from ponies due to ponies misunderstanding and labelling them as “vampire ponies”, which led to many… incidents in the past. With ponykind expanding more and growing more and more adventurous and driven to explore the creepy and unknown — such as the Everfree Forest —, it’s becoming harder for them to stay hidden and live in peaceful isolation as they wish.

Families are being pushed farther and farther into the wilderness, and with less room, these families are starting to connect. If this continues without proper communication between the two races, it’s likely that the bat ponies will come together and unite for the first time in history in order to stand their ground against who they now deem as their enemy.

The bat ponies don’t currently live under one rule. Some may live in villages ranging from three or maybe ten houses to the biggest known village being at a population of a measly 537, but most tend to live on their own and far apart from each other.

They also don’t have the same understanding of how the sun and moon move and the seasons the way ponies do, and thus they seem to have a sort of religion and celebrate different holidays and take part in rituals surrounding the phases of the moon and the different seasons. (I have not finished all of the details yet, but the religion is heavily inspired by Wiccan and paganism, so that may give you an idea)

Bat ponies tend to live in huts or nests suspended above the ground, or in cabins on the ground. Both types have their advantages and disadvantages, so it mostly boils down to how the builder wants it and what they’re willing to put up with.

Bat ponies are able to smell petrichor. Being unable to help influence the weather unlike their more bird-like counterparts, bat ponies needed to rely on the weather a lot more for their crops and developed the ability to smell petrichor from an oncoming rain, even when the sky appears very clear.

I’ve yet to create a language for them, but trust me, I will. This is a threat.

Now here’s one of my favorite parts.

Blood necklaces.

One of the things that led to the misunderstanding that bat ponies are vampire ponies is the blood necklace. It’s when a bat pony takes a small glass bottle or vial, fills it with their blood, turns it into a necklace, and gives it to someone of extreme importance to them. This essentially translates that the bat pony will give up their own blood and spill another creature’s to ensure the recipient’s happiness and safety. This act is held as the most significant act of love and devotion, and to take it lightly is unthinkable and downright disrespectful to a bat pony.

While it’s not traditionally done for romantic purposes, there have been a few instances where a bat pony has proposed using a blood necklace. The blood necklace is used for any and all sorts of love — platonic, romantic, familial, anything you can think of.

Can bat ponies use magic? No. They cannot. They can find magical herbs and items to use, yes, but it doesn’t affect them thanks to the iron in their blood and will stop working as soon as a bat pony touches it.

Shall I continue?

[mysteroads]

Just bragging, but look at these NPCs I made! Behold! ALL the UA Third Years!

The UA Third Years in no particular order:

Name/Hero Name - M for male or F for female, "Quirk Name" quirk description.

Mirio Togata/Lemillion (canon character) - M, “Permeation” grants the user the ability to phase their body through all matter. ~Doesn’t participate in the Exam~

Tamaki Amajiki/Suneater (canon character) - M, “Manifest”  grants the user the ability to enhance their body parts with the characteristics of anything they consume.

Nejire Hado/Nejire Chan (canon character) - F, “Wave Motion”, grants the user the ability to convert her vitality into energy and release it in the form of exceptionally powerful spiral shockwaves, can fly*

Yuyu Haya/Diana (canon character) - F, “Electric Arrow”  grants the user the ability to create a bow and arrows from electricity gathered from the air around her. She gets very staticky on dry days.

Kazue Yokota/Illusionist - F, “Light Illusion” grants the user the power to generate and manipulate small to moderate sized illusions. Requires concentration.

Yōta Hidaka/Ricochet - M, “Kinetics” The power to store kinetic energy after being hit. Limit to how much he can store before it has to be released. (Toga stabs this one)

Naomi Ikeda/Lady Luck - F, “Luck” grants the user the ability to shift probability in their favor. They can’t do anything huge like survive jumping without a parachute, but quarter machines are theirs to toy with.

Yoshio Yamaguchi/Shield Hero - M, “Shield” grants the user the ability to create shields of various sizes and types.

Haruna Shinkawa/Soulsword - F, “Demon Weapon” grants the user the ability to shapeshift into a sword. Haruna specifically changes into a European style sword and is a fan of Arthurian Legends.

Juro Nishimura/Morph - M, “Body Builder” grants the user the ability to temporarily change his body to mimic any construction-style substance he touches (ex: concrete, steel, wood). Changes can last for up to an hour, but the more he changes, the faster he runs out of energy and the less time he has for each morph.

Hideyoshi Kanda/Roostertail - M, “Chicken” grants the user the ability to transform into a giant 10 foot rooster (think terror bird) with a sonic crow.

Chō Sugimura/Pause Button - F, “Time Stop” grants the user the ability to freeze time for thirty seconds. Recharge of one day required. 

Katsu Saitou/Tremors - M, “Earthquake” The ability to make the ground shake, can cause liquefaction under the right circumstances.

Yoshie Urano/Plasma Bolt - M, “Plasma Bolt” grants the user the ability to generate and manipulate plasma balls, including throwing energy blasts.

Yaeko Moriyama/Eleventh Metal - F, “Magnetic” grants the user the ability to mess with metal's polarity, as well as magnetize themselves. She can use this to “jump” long distances by pushing off metal and then pulling herself to a new metal by changing her and its polarity. Only works if the metal is heavier than she is.

Kōta Yukimura/Rōnin - M, “Stat Boost” grants the user the ability superhuman reflexes and increased stamina. Prefers to use a katana because aesthetic.

Reiko Hino/Misty - F, “Sublimation” grants the user the ability to transform into a fog-like form. The user still has to take in oxygen and cannot permeate through objects.

Akiko Yamauchi/Whirlwind - F, “Telekinesis” grants the user to move objects with her mind, but only objects weighing less than 20 lbs. She can pick up quite a few though and likes to make a vortex of ouch! around her.

Takako Shibuya/MoonBeam - M, “Laser Beam” grants the user the ability to shoot a laser beam from his third eye. The beam is a bright silvery white and can vary in temperature, from mild burn to welding-torch. Too much use can cause MoonBeam to go temporarily blind in his third eye.

Isamu Iwai/Featherweight - M, “Mass” grants the user the ability to change an object’s mass temporarily if he touches it. Mass returns to normal after five minutes.

Hayate Miyamoto/Aquifer - M, “Water” grants the user the ability to create water and, to some extent, manipulate water he did not create. 

 Ryoichi Miyake/Hermes - M, “Winged Feet” grants the user the ability to fly very fast with winged feet.

 Hachirou Hashiguchi/Wolfgang - M, “Wolf” grants the user the ability to blow giant gusts of wind with his mouth. (He’s also a wolf heteromorph and Winterheart’s big brother!)

Miki Amano/Slime Devil - F, “Slime” grants the user the ability to generate slime that can either stay slick, get sticky, or harden to trap villains. She can generate slime from anywhere, but she prefers to use her hands.

Naruhito Sano/Batman - M, “Bat” a partial bat mutation. Can’t fly fast but can still fly, very good at echolocation and can even knock someone out with a sound wave if he gets close enough. He has very sensitive hearing, but is nearsighted. 

Kiyo Takenaka/Delirium - F, “Fever Dream” can cause terrifying hallucinations when she meets her opponent’s eyes. A strong willed enough victim can break free, though.

Shizuko Inaba/LaVenus - F, “Venus Flytrap” grants the user the ability to grow giant venus flytraps from her fingers and arms. The stems can get very long, and the flytrap heads are the size of basketballs. The flytraps can move independently of her will. She can also create one giant flytrap.

 Kenzou Satō/ZoomZoom - M, “Speedster” grants the user the ability to run very very fast. They are not as fast as the Flash or Hawks, but he’s considered on par with Ingenium. 

Akane Arima/Comet - F, “Meteor Hands” grants the user the ability to create bowling ball sized rocks, set them on fire, and throw them with incredible speed and accuracy.

Sumire Fukui/Obscurus  - F, grants the user the ability to create a field of darkness around themselves up to thirty feet diameter. They can see in the dark, but it cancels out all other types of vision.

Akihito Yoshino/Tarantella  - M, “Tarantula” grants the user the ability to use thermal vision, web creation (from their wrists) for sticky nets and ropes, and climb sheer walls. Since they’re a spider heteromorph, they have six arms, extra eyes, and is extra strong.

Shichirou Iwamoto/Captain Kangaroo - M, “Kangaroo” can do everything a kangaroo can, BIG muscles and can punch your lights out. Kangaroo heteromorph, of course.

Shinsuke Shimizu/Catscratch - M, “Scratch” grants the user the ability of silver fingernails that can lengthen to a foot long and can cut through steel.

 Osamu Ōshiro/Freeze Frame - M “Finger Frame” grants the user the ability to freeze something just by catching it between the square of their fingers, like he was making a frame around it. Freeze as in stop, not as in cold, and the fingers must be square and touching. The farther away and the more things caught between the frame, the harder the frozen things fight to start again.

Sayuri Hashiguchi/Winterheart - F, “Cold Breath” grants the user the ability to breathe freezing air and snow. Basically the exact opposite of breathing fire. (She’s Big Bad Wolf’s twin sister, but she’s not a heteromorph!)

Masato Yoshida/Bones - M, “Bone Armor” grants the user the ability to create armor made of super dense bone. He can even bounce bullets off it. Has been likened to an armadillo to tease him.

Yuu Seki/Cable - F, “Steel Medusa”  grants the user the ability to manipulate her hair made of steel cables.

Akito Maeda/X-Ray - F, “Identifying Eye” grants the user the ability to see weak points in structures and enemies. However, she herself has no extra strength or speed, and her vision can be overwhelmed.

Daigo Kanemaru/Porcupine - M, “Needle Spit” Can spit various amounts of needles of different sorts and lengths.

[oceanqueenmusical]

Once Upon a Sea Temple

Since you showed interest, I'd figure I'd write a little something! This actually managed to pull me out of a writing slump of four months, so thank you @dragonbma !

For context, this is an Admin Jesse au

(This Jesse is she/they for anyone reading)

-

It was raining.

The water hit her skin and slid right off of it while she stared ahead. They stood upon sand, a wide, open ocean reaching out before her. She couldn’t see anything from above its surface, but they knew something was here.

Something familiar.

Not something she would’ve known from before, though. This familiarity came from something else. Something underneath the waves that shifted and roared, driven by the wind and water of the storm. There was an energy pulsing and emanating from beneath the waves, and it felt similar to her in a way, similar to the power that coursed in her veins and laid beneath their dark blue skin.

They stepped off of the sand and onto the surface of the water. The shifting surface pulsed beneath her feet, but she kept walking on the water until it was deep enough for her to sink beneath it.

They dove into the water, floating through it with ease. She didn’t need to swim or even breathe. Instead, she traversed through the water like they did when she was hovering in the sky. The water whipped past her face, and though her hair felt heavier, her movements did not. As if they weren’t bound by the same laws she’d seen humans abide by.

She sank deeper and swam through a deep ravine, but paused when they noticed a couple of fish pause and pay her mind. A smile spread across her face, and she laughed, the action not even creating any bubbles of oxygen in the water. She waved to them as if they could understand her, and continued her journey through the ocean.

She kept swimming until she saw it, the thing that had been pulling them by an invisible thread.

A monument under the water.

It held some kind of power that felt familiar. The place pulsed with it, like a heartbeat. As if it were alive and brimming with energy.

They planted her feet in the sand and walked towards the building. When she walked up its steps, she noticed something swimming near her.

It was some kind of strange fish. Round with one long tail propelling it, with one large eye on its front. It had twelve orange spikes on its body, and it was the same color as the prismarine monument.

“Hello, there.” She greeted, and it looked at her, strangely docile for such an intimidating creature. They wondered what it was called. She reached their hand out towards it and swore she briefly saw something resembling fear in its eye, then she rested it on its head, petting it like a cat and giving it one headpat before continuing on with her mini-journey.

She came face-to-face with a wall that had no sign of a door of some sort. It had a strange hole in one of the blocks, like a key of some sort, but she didn’t have a key. They smiled, feeling a bit smug, because she wasn’t a human like the builder of this monument expected. She didn’t have to abide by their rules. She snapped their fingers three times, and the fish next to her startled when she disappeared. The water began flowing through them, and her body passed through the wall.

She was greeted with even more water, though when they snapped her fingers once and became corporeal again, sponges appeared through the floor, propelled by pistons, and drained all the water from the room.

“That’s convenient.” They noted. Turning to look at the rest of the room, her eyes sparkled. The monument was impressive, but the interior was beautiful. Prismarine made up most of the walls, the blue mineral sparkled in the light of the sea lanterns above. The patterns of the waves reflected from somewhere onto the floor and one of the walls, the constant shifting of the waves providing a comforting sound to fall asleep to.

Aside from the waves and occasional drop of water, though, there was no sound within the temple. It was completely silent, devoid of any kind of life. There was nothing. Nothing except for the energy she could still feel running throughout this place, as if the temple itself was alive. It made her feel like something was there even when she was alone.

She regarded the steps with curiosity. “Birch?” They questioned aloud. Why birch of all things in a sea temple? Wouldn’t you use more prismarine instead?

She tore her gaze from the steps and hovered into the rest of the temple. As pretty as it was, there wasn’t much in the first room. She noticed another wall with the same hole shape in it as the one outside did, and once again snapped their fingers to turn incorporeal, then return to being solid on the other side.

This new room was also made of prismarine, with more sea lanterns embedded into the walls. Obsidian cages hung from the ceiling, and there were two floating spheres of water on each side of the room, and each held a fish similar to the one outside, but its scales were gray and spikes were blue. It also looked blind.

They walked down the steps, their small footsteps reverberating around the quiet room, making their presence known. The two fish looked towards her, but held no hostility.

“Ah– h-hello? Is somebody there?”

She startled, jumping at the sudden voice. It sounded… well, it sounded old, for lack of a better word. It also sounded raw or strained, like it had gone a while without water. Who else would be down in this temple? They paused, looking upwards. It sounded like it was coming from the ceiling?

“Please don’t be alarmed! I mean you no harm, I’d just like to get out of here, if you could help me?” An uncertain pause. “Please?”

She waited a moment, brow furrowing.

“I’m here,” She said. “Who are you?”

“Oh! You are there! Thank the tides!” The voice was tinged with relief. “I’m just an adventurer who got trapped, unfortunately. I’d be more than willing to speak with you more! If you could, um, get me out of here please?”

They hummed. “I guess I could.”

“Oh, thank you!”

She floated up towards the cages. “Which cage are you in?”

“Ah! I’m in here!” The voice said, and she floated over to it. She inspected the bottom of the prison, which looked like some sort of red obsidian. “Though, I’m not sure how you’d get up here–” They punched the block in the middle of the underside, and a blue figure came tumbling out of it and landed on the floor as an ungraceful lump.

Curious, she hovered over them to get a better look. They did look like an adventurer, their clothes mostly blue with a hood and goggles. They also looked pretty rough, with shaggy white hair and a beard. How long had they been in there?

They opened their eyes, which were a pale blue, and they focused onto her–

“Ah!” The man sat up and jolted away from her. “Who– what are you?”

They frowned. Who were they indeed? They didn’t know what they were, so she couldn’t answer him on that front. Whenever she thought about who she could be… she felt unpleasant, like something had gotten away from them, and then she started getting frustrated– so yeah, she couldn’t answer either of his questions.

When the man seemed to get nervous waiting for a reply, he stood up on shaky legs and gave them an unsure smile.

“My name is Vos,” He said. “And, uh– who are you?”

She frowned, something bitter crawling up her throat. “I don’t know.”

Vos’ nervous expression crumbled, confusion replacing it. “You don’t know?”

“No,” They said, giving up on the levitation and planting their feet on the wet prismarine. Upon closer inspection, Vos only came up to just above their waist. “One moment there’s barely anything, just little flashes of things, then poof! There’s me, some people yelling at me, a bunch of other nonsense– so yeah, I don’t know.”

“Do you have a name?” Vos asked more hesitantly.

She shook her head. “No.”

“Well… could you tell me why you freed me?” He asked. “Not that I’m not grateful of course! Thank you very much! I just… didn’t expect anyone to ever come here again.”

“I was looking for something,” They explained. “I was wondering if I would find it here, but I suppose not,” They regarded him curiously. “How long have you been down here?”

“Oh, I can't tell,” Vos admitted, his expression somewhere faraway yet downcast. “It’s been so long. I can’t tell the time down here,” He snapped out of it, looking at them with more curiosity than fear this time. “What are you looking for here? I would assume it has to do with the gauntlet but… you don’t seem to have it.”

They blinked. “What gauntlet?”

There was an awkward pause.

Suddenly Vos swayed, and she dashed to his side in alarm, using one of her hands so he could steady himself.

“Ugh,” The adventurer groaned. “Thank you, kind stranger. My apologies, I ate my last porkchop quite some time ago. To tell you the truth, I didn’t think I had much time left.” He grimaced. “I might not, still.”

She brightened. They could fix that easily! They held out one of her hands, wanting a cake, and lo and behold, there it was!

Vos regarded her with wide eyes, slightly stumbling back when she shoved the cake into his hands.

“I… thank you so much,” He looked at her in regard. “Are you… an admin, perchance? Or something like that?”

They raised an eyebrow. “A what?”

“Oh, he’s said to have built this place,” Vos said, pausing to take a bite out of his cake. “Some say he built this very world we live in. Me and two of my friends came in here to investigate some strange gauntlet one of them had found. His name was Jack…” He faltered and looked at her with hopeful eyes. “Do you perhaps know where he is?”

Her shoulders slumped, and he slightly hunched in on herself. “No… uh, I’m sorry. I had no idea anyone was even in here.”

They were interrupted by the sound of something… burning, almost. A laser suddenly fired at Vos, and he yelped, dropping his cake and stumbling back from his previous spot. She whipped her head round to see the two fish staring at the adventurer with all the contempt their fishy eyes could hold, clearly intending to fire again.

“Those things are hostile?” They yelped in disbelief.

“Of course they are! Did they not fire at you on your way in?” Vos asked incredulously, searching through his satchel for something. Probably a weapon of some sort.

“No, they didn't!” She said, looking between the mobs and Vos. Well, she’d planned on taking him out of here anyway.

“Come on, let’s get out of here.” She said.

“I agree with you, but how do we–” Vos was cut off by her teleporting him, and she followed close behind.

Guess she wouldn’t be finding anything magical in that temple after all.

[alinalioness]

Backstory of Balan Wonderworld: Chapter 14 - Save Wather of the Woods.

After resting, Streetbeat, Fighter, and 5 tims arrived at the fifth forest chapter. There were large trees everywhere with bridges and objects such as ropes and boxes.

Fighter: What a beauty.

They entered another tree and saw a Lickshot Lizard costume. They immediately got dressed and checked how it worked.

Streetbeat: So we can grab onto something like chameleons.

They saw the flying balls and immediately got up with their help. Wandering through the places, they find Guardian Bird costume. However, they did not suspect that there was a trap under the box.

Woman's voice: Wait!

The two stopped and noticed Guardian Bird at the top, where she deftly took the costume and moved away from the trap of the cage that had closed.

Streetbeat: It's a trap from negativity.

Tims were caught by the plants and negatives appeared.

Guardian Bird: Get dressed, we're going to fight.

The kids immediately put on her costumes and immediately fight with negatives. During the battle, Fighter freed tims from the plants and tims started fighting with them. The battle ended successfully and the negatives disappeared.

Fighter: Thank you for saving us from them and traps.

Guardian Bird: No problem. My name is Guardian Bird and I'm costume of Watcher of the Woods.

Streetbeat: Cool. Just, (Looks around) why aren't there any birds here?

Guardian Bird: It's easy, it's because in her past, builders tore down the forest and the birds flew away. She changed her worldview, which she hated. Although she got along great with Sentinel of the City and with us, costumes.

Fighter: If I were her, I would just tell them that there would be no oxygen without trees.

Guardian Bird: Right. It's worth saying that the negatives have set traps everywhere and we have to survive like in an ordinary forest. Have you ever been in the woods?

Streetbeat: No.

Fighter: I wasn't just in the woods.

Guardian Bird: My friends and I will be with you and help you reach the trees. But first...

She took a bush and covered herself and her new friends.

Fighter: Disguise.

Guardian Bird: That's right, now go ahead.

They get up and go out to the other bushes where the rest of the costumes of the fifth chapter were.

Guardian Bird: Reception: this is us. Along with Streetbeat, Fighter and 5 tims.

Sickle Slayer: Reception: We understand you.

Guardian Bird: Now we're heading for the first tree.

They began to wander around their stage to the tree. In the beginning, they noticed that the negatives were looking for them and they stopped. Later they decided to leave, but without the bushes. At that moment, they found a tree with a heart, there were negatives on it. One of them was big with three masks and huge.

Hothead: Problems.

Fighter:(Have idea) I know. One of the tims will hide there and squeak that the negatives will follow and lure us somewhere while we go to the tree.

Lucky Bird: Good Idea.

One of the tims flew up there hiding behind the leaves. When it beeped, the negatives followed the voice. The rest of the friends run to the tree, tim lured the negative into the cliff, scaring them. When he returned to his friends, he and tims destroyed the tree and the heart flew up to Streetbeat and Fighter.

Fighter: There is.

However, they all noticed in delek that the negatives heard this sound of destruction and the heroes hid.

Lucky Egg: They heard it.

Guardian Bird: We're going up to our birdhouse. We built it before our Watcher was turned into Negabosse.

They climbed up, not knowing that Plenti was holding on to the bridge and got up. The creatures were already in the birdhouse and were being examined while Lickshot Lizard and Lucky Bird were knitting a rope.

Guardian Bird: That's the plan. I'm going with Streetbeat, Fighter, tims and Sickle Slayer to the second tree while you wait for us. If they find out, call Balan.

HotHead: Good.

Lickshot Lizard: Done (Gives the bird ropes)

Guardian Bird: We have to go.

They immediately headed for the treetops. The fighter, looking down, almost fainted.

Sickle Slayer: Don't look down.

He was almost close to the second tree where there was no negative and the Guardian Bird lowered the rope, and the children with tims get off.

Streetbeat and Fighter: Thank you.

Guardian Bird: Just be careful, this boss is going to be insane.

However, one of the negatives in the form of a flying bird noticed two children and attacked them.

Sickle Slayer: Take care of yourself!

He attacks with a sickle in the negative. The rest of the negatives noticed them and pounced, which caused the children to stop on the rope. The blue suits fight until the bird sees the children and decides to help them. He jumped in, took the rope with the kids and got further and Streetbeat, Fighter realized what was going to happen.

Guardian Bird: Don't be afraid, it's fast.

She let them go and the two heroes fly on a rope like a vine towards the tree where they need to go. They were scared at first, but then they got used to it and with tims landed near a tree.

Streetbeat: Victory...

Or not, when the Plenti who was burning appeared. The children were shocked, but they had no choice. They tried to attack him in a Guardian Bird costume, but it didn't work out, and only Streetbeat noticed that when the negative stopped burning, he attacked and it worked.

Streetbeat: Fighter, it turns out you had to attack when it wasn't burning.

Fighter: Good.

They attack Plenti when it is not lit and they succeeded. When he disappeared, the tims destroyed the tree and a ball appeared. When Streetbeat and Fighter put their hearts in there, they fell through a tree.

*The screen went black*

They ended up in the Watcher's past, where she watched the birds in a good mood. It turns out that she loved birds until the builders came and destroyed the entire forest. She tried to stop it, but there was so much at home that the panic was absorbed and left in panic, and everything went dark.

Watcher: Humans are oh-so powerful and yet I'm unable to achieve anything...

After the phrases Streetbeat and Fighter found themselves inside a tree on a platform resembling a nest. Later, Negabosses named Cuckoo appear, who noticed them and began attacking the eggs, which broke, forming a purple spot around the heroes.

Streetbeat: Yes, she's really crazy...

Fighter: The birdhouse!

The cuckoo attacks them with a birdhouse, but when the spot is dry they come back. Later, the boy in the bird costume destroyed the birdhouse in response and the tongue flew back to the crazy bird. They noticed that her shell had collapsed and decided to stab her in the stomach. From this, she took off and attacked once more with poisonous eggs.

Streetbeat: Again!?

The fighter realized that her Cuckoo's cape resembled Lickshot-Lizard's colors and, using a lizard costume, attacked her. This made the bird angry and sent hurricanes in response. But that didn't scare the heroes, as Streetbeat hit one of them and it hit her. From this, the Cuckoo weakened, began to shine and turned back into the Watcher. She landed and saw the heroes while the costumes appeared.

Song "Stronger"

[Streetbeat]

Sometimes we cry

We wait

[Fighter]

Sometimes we can't see anything

[Streetbeat, Fighter and Costumes]

But don't give up

You are not alone, o-o-oh

We can be stronger, 'cause we have this treasure

We will survive just like we always do

[With Watcher]

We're gonna level up cause we have this mission

No matter what happens we will stand by you

We'll be alright, we're now on fire

Come and see the other side

Let's believe!

Watcher: I didn't think that I would be saved one day. Thank you. (To Guardian Bird) And you're not upset now that I treated you like an enemy.

Guardian Bird: No, I'm not upset. Because it's not your fault or Lance's. Because he was treated badly by people before you.

Watcher: Just like they did to nature.

Fighter: Don't worry, because you have a chance to talk to them. Just explain to them that life goes nowhere without a plant.

Streetbeat: Yes, then you can admire the birds again.

The woman was surprised by their words and smiled.

Watcher: You were right. Giving up or running away from the problem won't help.

Later, a portal to the real world appeared and she looked at her new friends who were confident and she entered there. She was standing on the ground looking at the birdhouse. She immediately got down to business and talked to the builders.

Builder№1: U-uh... We hadn't thought of that.

Builder№2: I told you we'd die without plants.

Watcher: Then here's what. You can plant trees on the roof of the house.

The trees were already planted, which made the builders surprised.

Builder№3: Hey, this looks better.

Watcher: And so on with your new city.

The city looks more beautiful with the trees. Suddenly, when the woman was weighing the birdhouse, she heard knocks in the birdhouse and it turned out that it was a bird and the woman was glad that they had returned.

In the Isle of Tims.

Balan played the game "Guess the animal by action" with Tims, Bugsy and the children costumes. Balan is now showing the movement of the owl, where he turns his head.

Jumping Jack: Robot?

Pounding Pig: U-uh... penguin?

Bugsy: This... owl.

Balan: Right!

Later, he shows the movement of the lion, where, as in the cartoon "The Lion King", he climbed a hill.

Dusk Butterfly: U-uh... cat?

Box Fox: Dog?

Jumping Jack: Lion!

Balan: All rights!

On the other side of the island, Seagazer and Skygazer were sitting together on a rock looking at their friends.

Seagazer: And how did you manage to fly into your scene?

Skygazer: I asked Balane when he was following me and our friends and he agreed. And he's a really kind maestro.

Seagazer: Skygazer.

Skygazer: Yeah?

Seagazer: After all, we live in other countries... If we leave, will you remember me if they let us?

Skygazer: Sure. If I found you, we could visit each other.

Seagazer:(Hug Skygazer tightly) You're so caring...

In response, Skygazer blushed and hugged her too. Later, she noticed that Streetbeat, Fighter, tims, Watcher and costumes were coming out of chapter five, and she was letting her friend down.

Seagazer: Our people are there.

Balan: Ours? (He noticed them) Ours! Hello!

He and his friends approached them. Watcher was surprised to see Balan.

Watcher: It turns out you're not that evil.

Balan: Yes, it's just that Lance became so angry because of the negativity that he deceived you. But I am glad that you were saved and that you healed your heart.

Watcher: Thank you.

Fighter: Next, we'll have a sixth castle scene.

Streetbeat: I'm not going to lie, when they were escaping from negativity, swinging on a rope like a vine was a lot of fun, even though it wasn't a jungle.

Balan: The main thing is that you are alive.

To be continued...

[wingeddeerlove]

Hi🥰 nobody wants a lady like me because I'm not beautiful😭

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12 Reasons Why Gardening is More Than Just a Hobby:

Mental Clarity: Spending time tending to plants helps clear your mind and reduce stress.

Physical Exercise: Gardening involves bending, lifting, and stretching, providing a mild form of physical activity.

Sense of Achievement: Watching plants grow and thrive gives you a tangible sense of accomplishment.

Fresh Produce: Growing your own fruits and vegetables means fresher, more nutritious food.

Environmental Impact: Planting flowers, trees, and shrubs benefits the ecosystem by providing oxygen and supporting wildlife.

Patience Builder: Gardening teaches you to slow down and appreciate the natural growth process.

Connection to Nature: Digging in the soil and nurturing plants helps you reconnect with the earth.

Boosts Mood: Studies show that gardening can reduce feelings of depression and anxiety.

Saves Money: Growing your own herbs, vegetables, and flowers reduces grocery and landscaping costs.

Creative Expression: Designing a garden allows you to express your creativity through color, texture, and layout.

Improves Focus: Gardening demands attention to detail, which enhances focus and mindfulness.

Community Building: Joining gardening clubs or sharing produce can strengthen social connections in your community.

[fire-bug1]

I’ve been getting back into subnautica recently after hearing there’s gonna be a new game soon!and remembered I never finished below zero, I wanted to continue where I left off but realized, I have no idea where I am, or where anything is. So I decided to just start a new game. I haven’t played in years. A lot changed! Even the opening was different. It’s so fun and I’ve already gotten so far. Anyway, I wanted to show you guys some tips I learned!

SPOILERS BELOW CUT

#1

The first tools you should invest in getting with any subnautica game, are your scanner, an oxygen tank, and flippers.

#2

Seaglide fragments are found all around you at the beginning of the game!

#4

Mineral scanners are NOT useless! If you don’t know what things are in the area, or if you’re even in the right area, it works great! I have a hard time finding the thing I’m tracking even if it’s beeping so fast it sounds like it’s going to explode… but that’s where the next tip comes in handy!

#3

Invest in getting a gravity trap! they’re way more useful than you think! If you’re trying to find food, or bladder fish, just pop a gravity trap in an area and leave it there! It will pull in small creatures

#3 and a half

If you’re using your mineral detector and can’t find the thing even when it says you’re practically inside of it, just throw a gravity trap, it will find it for you! Makes collecting minerals go a lot faster.

#4

If you pin a recipe and hang out with sea monkeys, they will sometimes bring you the ingredients you need! I built my house in a place with lots of them and they have saved me a lot of long trips.

FRAGMENT LOCATIONS

(The mineral detector can find fragments as well)

-Seatruck fragments

Seatruck fragments are honestly found all across the map, but a lot of them I’ve found were in the twisty bridges and deep twisty bridges biome

-Laser cutter, repair tool, seaglide, etc.

Sea monkey nests have lots of fragment parts attached to them, and just around the whole area, there are many nest locations and usually tons of oxygen plants inside. They will also sometimes have random minerals inside of the nests.

-Builder tool

If you go to the delta station, there is LOTS of stuff to be scanned, outside of the nearest building will be a tool that you can scan.

-Prawn suit

They prawn suit fragments are EVERYWHERE at the koppa mining site, I would recommend you get the seatruck MK3 depth module, and a much better oxygen tank, there’s a couple entrances and one of them you’re not able to bring your seatruck in with you, I would definitely suggest looking up a tutorial on how to get there because it’s extremely tricky.

-Prawn suit drilling arm

Also in the same spot the prawn suit fragments are found.

-Prawn suit propulsion arm/torpedo arm

Down in the crystal caves, you’ll need the MK3 depth module and I highly recommend getting the storage module as well

[ptseti]

Throughout our lives, we are bombarded with information, and taught facts and figures that we accept as truths. However, as we delve deeper into the world of science and explore alternative perspectives, we begin to question the validity of these ingrained beliefs. Hair: Not Just a Fashion Accessory, But an Extension of Our Nervous System Our hair, often considered a mere aesthetic element, may hold a far more profound connection to our bodies. Neuroscientists have discovered that hair follicles are densely innervated with nerve endings, suggesting that hair might function as an extension of our nervous system. This theory suggests that our hair plays a role in sensory perception, acting as a sensitive antenna, attuned to subtle changes in the environment. It could explain why we experience a tingling sensation or goosebumps when we sense danger or feel strong emotions. Milk: Not the Bone-Builder We’ve Been Led to Believe The notion that milk is essential for strong bones has been ingrained in us since childhood. However, scientific evidence challenges this perception. Studies have shown that milk consumption may not significantly reduce the risk of fractures and may even increase the risk of certain bone-related issues. The Heart: Not a Pump, But Our Lungs Take the Lead While the heart is often referred to as the ‘pump’ of our circulatory system, it’s actually the lungs that play the primary role in driving blood circulation. The heart acts as a passive reservoir, receiving oxygenated blood from the lungs and distributing it throughout the body. @yahkiawakened- IG

[fangbangerghoul]

That Damn Rock

My Time at Sandrock Fem!Builder Ghoul x Owen Builder, Ghoul is struggling with gathering materials. WC: 935 Chapter 1: Take a Breather

I started a new game and *cough cough* @bearlytolerant got me feeling a type of way about it. So out of the consistent inspiration she always gives me this small, short fic is born.

This is for fun and no real commitment is made. So, the chapters will not be lengthy like previous works, nor will I uphold a schedule. It's for FUNSIES!

Chapter 1: Take a Breather

She found herself pounding away midafternoon. Sweat on her brow and sweat falling down her back. It had been a few days of gathering materials, lack of sleep, and small meals in between the short breaks she allowed herself. Ghoul stood over the large stone that hopefully contained some of the ore she needed but she felt her frustrations flare from the excess amount of strength this particular large stone needed.

Wack, wack, wack, breathe. A repeating cycle for 30 minutes now and no real progress to be made and it was adding oxygen to the fire inside of her. She raised her arms above her head, pickaxe held high and another large swing. Nothing. She inhaled, lifted her arms to drop them onto the stone again and still no progress. Her rage took over her now and she started to swing the pickaxe without form. Throwing an explosive fit from the lack of progress and the sun beating down onto her and the warm sands that surrounded her.

“Having some trouble, builder?” A deeper voice with mild amusement startled her. Ghoul halted all fit throwing and turned to see Owen, towering above her, hands on his hip, and that wide smirk adoring his face. He worked at the Blue Moon Saloon that was over yonder from her shop and he must have seen her recent slip of composure.

“You could say that.” She let out a large breath and let the head of her pickaxe fall onto the ground while she leaned on its handle. Ghoul was exhausted and there were still so many tasks ahead that needed to be done before she could call her current project complete.

“Why don’t you take a break? You seem to be over working yourself in this heat.” Owen offered his kind but unsolicited advice. She did her best not to look as annoyed as she was by it. If she could simply just take a break, does he think her eyes would be so baggy?

“I cannot. I am on a constrained time schedule.” She said softly with bitter. She regretted agreeing to anything Yan asked of her and this was another regret to pin onto her choice board. “This rock isn’t budging, and I need the gravel and stone.”

“Want me to take a swing?” He pointed with his thumb at himself with confidence before he threw his long scarf back. Owen’s smirk turned into a cocky grin as he reached out for her tool. Ghoul hesitated at first but then mustered the energy to stop leaning on the pickaxe and allow him to take it. She stepped back and watched as the brawny man lifted her pickaxe with ease and throw it down onto the stone with speed she had not been able to manage for a few hours now.

The impact pierced their ears and echoed throughout the valley. He swung once, it made a small crack, and he did not stop. The muscle in his arms twitched as he lifted it again and swung with ease another ear-piercing crack and the stone started to loosen up. Ghoul watched him with envy at how easy he made it look. She could not decide if it was his current build or sheer luck that had him breaking the stone completely under six swings. The stone crumbled beneath him giving way to his desires and she felt enamored with how simple it all seemed compared to the half hour she had spent trying to break it.

“Now you can come over and relax for a bit, yeah?” He chuckled, wiping the small droplets of sweat that formed on his brow. It seemed he wasn’t immune to the desert heat as well. Owen handed over the pickaxe and Ghoul took it from him. She was looking between him and the Blue Moon Saloon trying to decide if she had the Gols to spend to even eat.

“Well, I appreciate your help but I’m not sure-.”

“No, I don’t want to hear any excuses. No neighbor of mine is going to pass out from extensive labor on my watch.” Owen was shaking his soft brown hair, and his worrisome eyes got the best of him. Ghoul was going to trying to finish her statement, but he held his hand up. “It’s on the house. I’ll cook it up myself. You look like you need a hearty meal and a good dose of water. Judging by the purple bags under your eyes probably a nap too. You can use one of my rooms if you’d like after for a little get away.”

Ghoul bit her lip not really wanting to accept but also not wanting to turn him down. Owen always seemed to have a habit to look after the Sandrock folk and it has still taken some time for her to accept she might be one of them now. Her dusty hand ran through her hair, pushing it out of her face.

“Well….” She was still hesitant, but his blue eyes stared at her expectantly. “I guess a meal wouldn’t hurt.” Ghoul finally agreed and immediately Owen responded to it with excitement and another loud clap. His large palms slapped together and created a sound that was almost as loud as the stone breaking. For a tall, broad man, he was bouncing with excitement.

“After you, Ghoul.” He gestured his hand towards his establishment and waited with a bit of a buzz vibrating his body. Ghoul gave him a meek smile and started forward, her legs tired and ready for a short rest in his comfy booth.

[lorrekeeper]

The Last Sclanedomite

Once upon a time, the most complex organism on Astraea was a species of photosynthetic Parvaean. It was one of the many species of Brittle Shiny which drifted amongst the currents, taking in siliceous minerals from the water and using them to develop a glasslike cell wall known as a frustule. This means of building a body eventually became co-opted to allow these Parvaeans to form simple colonies by linking their bodies together. These weren’t true multicellular organisms, but they proved to be much more efficient compared to growing alone.

Among these species was Fragilampsi turrificator, a species which pioneered creating the first biological formations visible to the naked eye. This species formed lattice-like colonies together, creating massive, rock-like formations of glass and microorganisms; since their discovery, these were known as Sclanedomites, from the Polish phrase for “towers of glass”. The earliest sclanedomites were commonplace along the intertidal zones of the protocontinents, forming vast reeflike colonies which reached upwards to the skies. In their day, billions of years ago, they covered the land in eerie, monolithic reefs of glass.

The dominion of the sclanedomites began to decline with the Snowball Event, the global ice age which swept across the planet in the wake of Astraea’s Great Oxygenation Event. As glaciers spread across Astraea, many of the once-mighty towers of microorganisms were crushed under the weight of flowing ice, leaving only those near the equator to survive. In addition, during the Snowball Event, the first multicellular organisms evolved - simple amorphous sponges, which filtered water through their bodies and fed on nutrients and plankton. These sponges began to proliferate, spreading across the world and slowly building reefs of their own, gradually overtaking the niches which were once occupied by the sclanedomites.

In the Uridachian Era, sponge and ramosamorph reefs have nearly fully eclipsed the former majesty of their Parvaean forebears. Now such microbial megastructures have become increasingly rare, found most often in hypersaline waters far-removed from the ocean. The few non-saline refuges like this, though, are gradually becoming overtaken by new reef-builders. This sponge reef has been in existence for easily several decades or more, already showing signs of major development. The massive microbial colonies of phototrophic Brittle Shinies still cling on, but their hold is quickly eroding. Very soon, the last of these ancient structures will crumble to dust, and the Age of the Glass Towers will fade into prehistory.

[o-craven-canto]

SpecBio concept #5: Plantworld

A planet resembling Earth in its late Archean state (higher temperature, no free oxygen, dense atmosphere, extensive salty oceans, thick coat of carbon dioxide), perhaps more tectonically stable, extensively seeded with Earth plants and bacteria. Not a single animal or fungal species is brought.

The first green settlers struggle to get a hold on the barren continents, in absence of fungi to erode bare rock and worms to aerate the ground. But some ground is more hospital than other, the first layer of debris provides soil for the survivors, and eventually plant life starts to grow properly.

For many millions of years the plants thrive, thanks to the abundance of carbon and water, the higher temperatures, and the lack of oxygen to interfere with carbon fixation; but eventually oxygen starts piling in the atmosphere, gigatons of carbon are locked into wood and buried debris (to be released in pulses only when wildfires burn out uncontrollably), and the diminished greenhouse effects starts to cool down the planet sensibly. The forests start to shrink.

There’s an obvious niche to be exploited there. Parasite plants without chlorophyll exist on Earth right now, such as the very unfortunately named broomrape. They’ve always thrived on Plantworld in many lineages, with the bounty of hosts to exploit, but now they can do one better: they find out how to secrete acids and enzymes to break apart cellulose, much like fungi did on a forgotten planet, and start consuming the vast dead biomass.

The decomposer plants scatter their pollen and seeds to the wind (no animal disperser to exploit), gliding away on wing-blades like maple seeds, but why stop there? If they gather enough energy, they can manipulate osmotic pressure inside the seeds to move the blades, until they can flap them like wings. This consumes enormous amounts of sugar and oxygen: each plant can afford very few seeds. The strands of turgid cells become analogues of muscles, and soon Planetworld’s forests are abuzz with little flying seeds, flying as far as possible from the mother plant to avoid competing against their own kin.

Each incremental improvement to fitness suggests others. If you sharpen your chemical senses, you could detect the places were there is fewest competition... if you steal back some photosynthetic pigments from your prey (which are but light detectors, after all) you can repurpose them into crude eyes to look for better ground... if you can move your wing-flaps, you can move them on the ground to place yourself in a better germinating position.

Absorbing matter through roots is agonizingly slow for these increasingly energic parasites. It would be much quicker to take food in bulk. The flying seeds secrete powerful saliva-like enzymes to degrade the matter on which they germinate; they use their osmotic muscles to grind shell-plates against each other like tiny jaws; they develop internal specialized glands... And eventually they discard the roots at all, which have lost their use. Why bother growing into a plant form? You can just stay a flying seed all your life, and sprout your flowers directly there. Actually, now that you’re so nimble, you can just seek out your mates directly.

Half a billion year later, Plantworld has a rich biosphere full of animal life; swift-footed grazers and silent ambush predators, swarming minute plankton and giants feeding on them by the millions, industrious hive-builders and devious endoparasites; and perhaps some creature with inquisitive brains and dexterous hands who is in for a big surprise or two when they finally chart the history of life on their world.

EDIT 26-11-23: used to be #4, but then I remembered the actual fourth concept

SpecBio concept #4 (a biosphere feeding on sound, inspired by @cromulentenough) SpecBio concept #3 (children falling from the “sky”) SpecBio concept #2 (liquid brain, chemical memory) SpecBio concept #1 (double silicate biosphere, one hot, one cold)

[without-youthereisnome]

Feed Your Brain - Keep Your Mind

The blood supply that feeds your brain is crucial for life-long brain fitness and mental health. A new study shows that small blood vessel disease may account for on third click here to learn more of dementia cases. One of the best things you can do to protect your brain is to eat right and get regular physical activity.

For some time now, we've been promoting the role of a healthy lifestyle in maintaining brain fitness. Another new study lends more support, but before we get into that we thought we'd focus on some common-sense topics as to why this is true.

One simple concept to understand that doesn't require a PhD is the fact that any organ in your body, including your brain, needs a healthy blood supply to access nutrients and oxygen. This is one reason why heart disease and mental health problems, including dementia are so often related. If you tied a tourniquet around your leg to cut-off the blood supply, you shouldn't be surprised when your foot stops working to well.

The same is true for your brain. If you continue to do things that are bad for your cardiovascular system, like sit around all day and eat chips, your vascular system will eventually have a problem, and this is not good news for your brain. In fact, your brain uses about 20% of the oxygen that you breathe and the calories that you eat. Your blood supply is responsible to get that stuff to the right place in order to keep your brain in good working operation.

The benefits of life-long learning and continually challenging your mind to keep it sharp are well established. But if you don't couple that effort with doing what's necessary to maintain a healthy neurovascular system, you cannot fully realize the benefit. You may have read a lot about neurogenesis and synaptogenesis, which is the constant rewiring of your brain that occurs when you stay mentally active and helps to keep your mind agile. However, this process can only work well if the blood vessels near all this rewiring are healthy enough to do their job. Otherwise, where is the energy, nutrients and oxygen necessary for the remodeling job going to come from?

Think of neurogenesis as a new housing subdivision going into an existing community and the roads as the blood supply to service the houses. If you were the builder constructing this new development you wouldn't get very far if you didn't first attend to the new roads. Not only are the roads needed for the new owners to get in and out of their homes; but they are needed for delivering all the lumber and concrete, enabling the different crews to come in and construct the new houses, and take all the trash away. Similarly, new brain cells or new brain cell connections need healthy roads (neurovascular system) to work right.

Related to this, a recent large study, just unveiled this month (April 2008) by Dr. Thomas Montine from the University of Washington, reports that 33% of the risk of dementia stems from disease of small blood-vessels in the brain. In this 12-year study, 3,400 men and women over age 65 volunteered for periodic cognitive testing and a brain autopsy upon their death. In the 221 autopsies performed, researchers discovered that small blood vessel disease accounted for about 1/3 of the risk for dementia. Importantly, this type of small blood vessel disease may go unnoticed for some time. We're not talking about big events like a stroke or blood clot blocking a large vessel. However over time these small problems can add up, and result in cognitive impairment.

Admittedly, this study comes from the Pacific Northwest, the origin of grunge-rock and Starbucks coffee. We can't be sure that all these people aren't suffering from some kind of post-angst cognitive disorder, or a latent flannel shirt allergy! We also can't rule out suffering from some sort of post-tramautic stress after invading the world with high-priced coffee, equivalent to about $18.00 per gallon; slightly more than we're currently paying for gas. In fact, one of us (Evans) was raised in Seattle and may be showing some early symptomology.

However, with these potential confounds aside (unless Austin Powers was right, and during the time that Dr. Evil was cryogenically preserved his faithful cronies invested heavily in Starbucks), this study is an incredibly important step that illustrates the diversity of factors that can lead to dementia. Even more importantly, it suggests that you can substantially decrease your odds of developing dementia by attending to life-style factors that can protect against vascular disease.

The beauty is that we have a good idea of how to do this since blood vessels serve to supply active areas of the body with nutrients! So if your brain is active (which requires energy), and you're maintaining your overall vascular health by eating right and exercising, odds are that you will be greatly reducing your risk of developing dementia from small vessel disease. Now it should be noted that research is ongoing on this subject, but common sense would suggest that this will hold true.