#specs is special

[unofficially-racetrack]

GUYS I JUST FOUND THE ONE NEWSIES PICTURE IVE ABSOLUTELY NEEDED

[carsthatnevermadeitetc]

FPV GT Cobra R-spec, 2008. A special edition of 400 BF Falcon sedans fitted with a 405hp version of Ford's 5.4 litre DOHC Boss 290 V8. The blue on white finish referenced the Falcon XC Cobra Coupé of 1978. Ford Performance Vehicle dealers charged vastly more than the RRP when the cars went on sale, with many buyers also selling the cars at a premium.

[herecomesthementalmeltdown]

even the most friendly aspec blogs always have that vibe of "do you not feel any romantic and/or sexual attraction ever or are you an allo?"

i don't think aspec tumblr should be allowed to use the polls feature.

[57sfinest]

SOONA, THE PROGRAMMER -- “What are your radiocomputer specs?”

1. “My what?”

2. [Logic - Challenging] Tell her the Fortress Accident specs.

[CHECK FAILURE]

YOU -- “Oh, uh- he/him? Thank you for asking.”

SOONA, THE PROGRAMMER -- She does not respond immediately.

EMPATHY -- She is confused. She thinks she has misjudged the situation.

KIM KITSURAGI -- Beside you, the lieutenant struggles not to smile.

SOONA, THE PROGRAMMER -- She turns to the lieutenant. He, at least, is capable of coherency, she thinks. “So... What are your pronouns?”

KIM KITSURAGI -- A moment of hesitation- he’s thinking. Then:

KIM KITSURAGI -- “Coupris Kineema twelve-cylinder rear-mounted V12 KR13.5HU four speed manual.”

[behindthescreamz]

behind the scenes of “insidious” (2010)

[ineffable-ezra]

So fucked up that I read good omens 5 years ago, and my brain just went "this is your favourite thing in the universe now. Good luck."

And it's been my special interest ever since.

[juicyolpickle]

Real men shit crayons and draw speculative biology

[moonverc3x]

this ones pretty text heavy! but I felt it would be a good Idea to explain some of the vocab Ill be using and expand a bit on how things work in-universe before getting to requests!

also thank you to @/starflungwaddledee for the magical signature idea. it is so so so good! especially the way she visualizes it in her art omg...

[whollyjoly]

manifesting may and buck talking at the hospital, in a parallel to the may and bobby conversation in 6x11:

buck, trying to keep it together: "im sorry im such a mess, you must be taking this a lot harder than i am"

may, putting a hand on his shoulder: "buck, we're both worried about our dad. it's okay"

[malarkeyrambles]

deep rock galacticglyphid post

drg is my latest hyperfixation i think i love this game so mcuh ive been thinking aboutthe glyphids a lot and their biology im not super knowledgable on bio i just really like the topic so i might get a ton of stuff wrong but idc disclaimer: because glyphids evolved seperately from earthbeings (duh cuz they're on hoxxes not earth) any similarities to earth creatures is most likely just convergent evolution extraterrestrial life could be extremely similar like the glyphids or completely different its all speculative. anyway, first things first: Bone Game

ok lets look at the glyphid grunt for a sec. Glyphids have two body segments, a head and an abdomen, and eight legs. Their front legs are usually enlarged for burrowing, attacking, and defending. These vary in size and shape depending on the bug. (most glyphid variants look like they have three body segments, such as the grunt shown above, but i believe that its just a protruding jaw as when it moves its head its entire body moves with it, and the Warden specifically has a much more obvious two-segment body plan due to its lack of sharp teeth and massive size difference in body and head) They may or may not have eyes, indicating that eyes were a trait they lost when they went underground. What separates them from spiders is their size, ability to vocalize, their eusocial hierarchy, and the fact that they probably have bones. Earth spiders are invertibrates, like all arthropods. We haven't seeen a glyphid skeleton completely before, but there is a lot of evidence pointing towards their true bony nature. They dont have typical exoskeletons that cover the entirety of the animal. They have "chitinous armor plating" as described by the bestiary that resembles more the armored back of a crocodile than an actual exoskeleton. This plating can be removed in battle and not impair the glyphid's movement, in stark contrast to an earth bug which if you removed its exoskeleton it would just be a pile of bug organs. Exoskeletons double as their skin. Also glyphid sw

armers have no armor and still are fine moving around. They also have defined teeth and jaws, unlike the mandibles on an earth arthropod.

(peeled glyphid grunt guard)

(glyphid swarmer with teeth and jaw visible) Lastly, and I'm not too sure on this one, but i dont believe an exoskeleton made of chitin could hold up a glyphid, yet alone some of the bigger ones. Praetorians are the size and weight of a midsize SUV, and they're not even the biggest glyphids get.

Solitary vs Eusocial

If you got this far you're autistic about animals like me and probably know what eusocial means. If you don't, it just means there's a queen and workers. Think ants, wasps, and bees. While it's generally a consensus that most glyphids are eusocial under one Queen (we'll talk about her later), I think not all of them are. The bestiary says that glyphids are a genus, not a species, meaning that different glyphids can evolve seperately from one another and can be able to live independently instead of in a caste system. Of these, I think the beasts most likely to be solitary are the Stalker, Menace, Stingtail, and Septic Spreader. These guys have extra tools and divergent behaviors (sneaking up behind you, digging around, keeping a distance to shoot projectiles) that seem, to me, like they are taking advantage of the fact you are preoccupied with the glyphid colony and trying to snatch you up as prey for themselves.

(from left to right) stingtail, septic spreader, stalker (below) menace

It also explains why, in some locations, there are random batches of glyphid eggs out and about. It could be this could be a clutch of one of the aformentioned solitary glyphid eggs, and all glyphids look the same when they hatch.

These swarmer nests could either be from the glyphid colony (we are in their territory, after all) or just a different variant of glyphid.

( the blue gem is not supposd to be in there usually, just the purple circles. I couldn't find a better picture.) insert super smooth segue into :

Glyphid Hierarchy

apologies for the crunchy image but i put together this tierlist to explain how I think the glyphid hierarchy works. The tierlist didn't have the stalker in it but it would have gone in solitary for reasons Ive mentioned.

Notes: Soldiers are specialized for fighting but they all have different roles. Slashers and exploders tend to flank and sneak up on their target, the latter being born literally just to die. Praetorians and oppressors are meant to soak up attention and, in our case, damage. Web and acid spitters are meant to take care of flying enemies ( probably mactera in the wild, but in our case it's dwarves on a zipline), and wardens support the ground enemies. the green baby glyphids that are in the solitary tier are called Glyphid Spawn, and they aren't actually a glyphid; rather, a fleshy monolith called a Brood Nexus (below) had taken the DNA of a Glyphid and created their own version of swarmers with it. icky.

Mutations and Anomalies

Certain bugs such as the Bulk Detonator, Dreadnought Hiveguard, and dreadnought twins are anomalies that either don't occur naturally or an unintentional byproduct of biology doin its thing. The Bulk detonator "is what happens when an exploder manages to not detonate during its volatile, and usually short, life." This description pretty much spells it out that these guys aren't supposed to exist.

also, look at their mangled faces and bulbous, pustuled bodies. Exploders are meant to be sent out and explode. I don't know what the glyphid colony does with these, but I don't think they let them stay. Too volatile, and positively humongous. They're the biggest glyphids by far and i think glyphids just wouldn't let them be.

I have no clue how the Crassus Detonator exists or how it turns an entire crater into gold when it explodes. The Dreadnought Twins are a Dreadnought that split into two in the cocoon. Assuming dreadnoughts pupate into queens (more about that below), it's likely that they would pupate into two queens, with possible ramifications outside of that (perhaps sharing energy in a cocoon means inhibited reproduction in some way?) I doubt they'd fight over power, because the dreadnought twins show impeccable teamwork when broken out, even to the point of one dreadnought will sacrafice some of it's health for the other if one gets too low.

dreadnought twins The Dreadnought Hiveguard is the closest we've got to actually seeing a Glyphid Queen. It's a dreadnought that's been baking for a while but hasn't gotten all the way there. It's impenetrable from everywhere and can spawn Sentinels to protect it. It then reveals three weakpoints on its face when all Sentinels are killed, and then reveals its booty weakpoint when the face weakpoints were deaded.

(from left to right) Hiveguard, Sentinels Because Sentinels don't come from the cocoon and dont spawn in any other area, my best guess about them is they lay dormant usually, letting the other glyphids fight. They only respond to the Queen, being her last line of defense. It'd make sense because the Hiveguard is the closest thing to a queen we've got, and it has a unique vocalization for summoning Sentinels.

Dreadnoughts, Praetorians, Queens, and Conservation

The glyphid dreadnought, at its base form, seems to be a grander Praetorian. They look similar, down to the tusks on their face, and even have similar attacks. They carry the same bite and slash that nearly all ground glyphids have, but they also have a projectile shot from the mouth.

(from left to right) Praetorian 3d Model, Dreadnought 3d Model If I had to guess, this could be a Royal Jelly Moment. To explain, lets look at earth honeybees. These guys are fed a substance called "royal jelly" as a larva until they are fed honey. Certain workers, though, are fed and fed and fed and even have the walls of their honeycomb cell lined with the stuff. These workers end up becoming juvenile queen bees and they start their own colony. Given the fact that Oppressors are canonically "aggresively mutated Praetorians", I believe they are simply praetorians that weren't fed Royal Jelly. Their armor grows, and their weakpoint abdomen shrinks.

In the game, it's heavily implied that the glyphids are without a Queen (the voiceline "Die like your mother did!" when killing glyphids comes to mind), and the only time we ever see a Dreadnought is in a cocoon, outside of the rare times it spawns on an unrelated mission. We are told explicitly that these guys arent in their final form and they will pupate into something much worse if we don't stop them, and there seem to be a lot of cocoons around. (There are 2-3 cocoons a mission and there is always an elimination mission available.) What i think is happening is Praetorians are mutating into Dreadnoughts which are further trying to mutate into Glyphid Queens to fill the empty spot in the glyphid hierarchy and they want to spew out so many glyphids that the mining operations on Hoxxes has to close down. This has a lot of implications. Firstly, glyphids are so plentiful without a queen. Imagine how insane they'll get with one. Secondly, glyphids are numbered. They aren't being replaced and DRG is killing hundreds of them a mission, potentially thousands on Deep Dives and Elite Deep Dives. (I tried an elite deep dive earlier today, got to about 897 dead glyphids on the third mission which i inevitably failed). Thinking about this really puts into perspective the damage DRG is doing to Hoxxes in the pursuit of more money and resources, polluting it with depleted uranium and plasma radiation and drill fumes and omoran heartstone lazerbeam juice and abandoned mining equipment, sucking it dry for its resources, and actively killing the rest of the wildlife that havent died from habitat loss. Glyphids are not the villain of this story. They are just following their instincts. It reflects how real-world corporations simply don't care about the earth that gives it its wealth and gives us life. I didn't mean for this rant to end the way it has, but please be grateful for the earth you stand on, appreciate nature, and don't litter. Also, if you haven't, play Deep Rock Galactic. solid game.

if only there was some salute or chant i could say to end this with a bang, one involving rocks, or stones, or something

[martitheevans]

Normal btw

[undefbug]

The only dndads head cannon that i care so so much for is lark being on the aromantic spectrum. Like if sparrow is the love wolf he must be the lone wolf.

[blueskittlesart]

crazy to pay 900 for a laptop

believe it or not as a digital artist i require a machine that has considerable processing power and graphics capabilities

[rancid-tactics]

British Army Ranger Regiment

[astrocorvus]

Solis, final character ref

[warren-keplers-funk-band]

i've had bewitched, bothered and bewildered stuck in my head ever since the episode titles came out... and thinking about this song in relation to buck and buddie is. kind of driving me insane

"men are not a new sensation," in relation to buck's bisexuality?

"i'm wild again, beguiled again/ a simpering, whimpering child again," something something buck retreating to his younger self's habits, naive, reckless, desperate. maybe acknowledging his growth

"lost my heart, but what of it/ he is cold i agree/ he can laugh, but i love it/ although the laugh's on me," tell me this doesn't read like buck being jealous of marisol, feeling his love is unrequited, appreciating eddie and eddie's happiness from afar but not feeling worthy of him

"i'll sing to him, each spring to him/ and long for the day when i'll cling to him," this kind of speaks to me of buck's self-sacrificial nature, how he wants to be needed, wants to be used, how his love language to eddie is acts of service... but then like. also allowing himself to want things

"he's a fool," they're both oblivious soo

"i'm in love and don't i show it," you certainly do, babes. in fact you've done nothing but show it since your second episode together

"i've sinned a lot," this accompanied by the "i can be oversexed again," seems very buck 1.0-specific to me. again maybe he's retreating? or acknowledging his growth? especially since his old player tendencies were literally brought up in 7x01. by himself. which eddie immediately amended by saying that he's not like that anymore. idk, it just feels relevant

"and worship the trousers that cling to him," ok let's be real, not to be a simp on main, but we've all seen ryan guzman's legs. also that man is caked up

"when he talks, he is seeking/ words to get off his chest," now THIS. this means a lot to me. i'm already so crazy insane about eddie slowly opening up and being more vulnerable, especially with buck. and ryan and oliver have both confirmed that buck and eddie going to be a lot more open with each other and lean on each other this season. eddie's not great with words, but he's slowly starting to be able to ask buck for help with chris directly, tells him his problems... and i think buck sees that, and is really proud of him for it

"vexed again, perplexed again," and "burned a lot, but learned a lot," both kind of feel to me like references to buck's (and eddie's honestly) history with dating, how everyone leaves him, dazed and confused, not knowing what he did wrong.. but again! i think we've seen a lot of growth with buck in this respect. like, he's learning not to settle. i got the impression that he broke things off with natalia not the other way around, which is a breakthrough for him honestly.

the song has sort of a bittersweet ending honestly, which i think might mean we'll get some angst. like maybe buck and eddie will. encounter some problems in their relationship, or eddie rejects buck or something. obviously that's wild spec but like let me live??

i want to clarify i'm not delulu i don't think the 100th episode will be super buck-centric despite being called 'buck, bothered and bewildered' considering precedent with 'buck, actually' (even though i personally wouldn't mind that, he's my blorb) i was just listening to the song bc it's on my writing playlist and had many thoughts and feelings. feel free to ignore