#things i researched: the diameter of a human hair

[stoppit-keepout]

Miss out on energy (s & d tier fic)

[maybe i’ll clean it up and put it on ao3 at some point but for now, here’s all it is! Here’s the link to the NEW AND IMPROVED version on AO3! title from WTF Is Sleep by the Worriers, direct follow-up to episode 132, AKA “Alex doesn’t sleep for 3 months and Morgan tables the turns”

canon levels of shippiness, that is to say, Alex thinks Thoughts and nothing happens lol]

Ninety consecutive days awake was a lot like 2 months awake, or like 1830 hours, or eight weeks, or at least it was something sort of like those things. The whole endeavor may have made Alex's perception of time rather squidgy.

At first they'd had a week (estimated) of being tired, then some interval feeling like they were made of felted wool, and now it was like they were encased in glass, observing in fits and starts the people around them moving so, so fast.

Well, the person around them. Morgan.

Morgan, who had a stubborn hand fisted in Alex's shirt and was dragging them down the hall.

Manhandling them, to use their own words, words that were still connecting in Alex's muddy synapses. Manhandle you off of this couch and into your bed.

Alex felt their mouth moving, giving Morgan some sass, but their brain was still stuck on what came next.

Pin you to the bed until you fall asleep.

And suddenly, that's what was happening. Alex was face-down on the bare sheets. Morgan had their wrists in a secure grip that would nevertheless be easy to brute force out of if they didn't mind breaking the wrists of anyone involved.

Breaking a wrist had a unique feel. Snappy. You had to at least get the radius and the ulna, which already gave a great two-part harmony, but if you placed it just right you could try for all eight carpal bones to get a truly satisfying crunch. It didn't even take that much strength if you knew your angles as well as Alex did.

"Now you sleep," Morgan said as if there were no other way this could go.

Their weight settled firmly on Alex as they switched to a full-body pin from the strategic one they'd used to throw Alex onto the bed.

Alex hadn't broken anybody's wrists.

"Stop thinking," Morgan said.

Alex wasn't aware they'd started. They were, however, a contrarian, so they tried to marshal whatever thoughts Morgan had detected into order. That would show them.

The first, most logical option would be to snap and do... something. They could refresh themself like they had been intermittently, or teleport away, or kiss Morg--.

Nope, they couldn't do that.

"I could kill you with a thought," Alex said into their pillow.

"But then Barnaby would never let you touch Kotetsu for sure." Behind Morgan's ribcage, Morgan's heart sped up as they chuckled.

Alex could feel it against their shoulder blades.

"You have a point," Alex said, and craned their head around so they could see Morgan's mop of hair. They turned their face back to the pillow. "You're lucky I'm a dog person."

Option two, become a dog. The two of them have shared a bed before with Alex as an animal, this could just be another installment of that.

The glass Alex was trapped inside shivered as they considered rearranging their body.

Morgan would cuddle a dog, instead of pinning it.

Their breath tickled the naked skin of Alex's neck, which stayed perfectly human.

"Can you breathe with your face in the pillow like that?" Morgan asked.

Or they could kiss Morgan.

"You remember how I'm the most powerful person who's ever existed, right?" Alex said. They could twist around and Morgan would be in their arms and--, "I don't need to breathe."

"See, the fact that you had enough air to say that out loud means you can in fact breathe," Morgan said. "Meaning you could have just fucking said 'yes.'"

They shifted on top of Alex, and Alex closed their eyes for a molasses-sticky second. They could feel every freezing hot atom: Morgan was lying on their front now, body soft and inescapable above with their chin resting on their crossed forearms, evenly balanced across Alex's shoulders.

In the darkness beneath their eyelids, Alex felt like they were everywhere. It was like making themself incorporeal to phase through a wall, except instead of feeling nothing, they felt Morgan. Warmth and pressure and bony knees.

"Do you know the Tam Lin story?" somebody asked.

"What?" someone else replied.

"What?"

She had to hold onto him, Alex thought in answer to that earlier question. Tam Lin turned to beasts and monsters and at last to flame, and she had to pin him to the bed and make him sleep.

No.

Alex pried their eyes open and turned again.

This time, they could see their own reflection in Morgan's irises, gold tumbling down from brown. Their spine strained and their cheek felt liquid against the pillow.

"Is that what this is?" Morgan asked from just five thousand hair's breadths away, and Alex didn't kiss them. "Do you want me to tell you a bedtime story?"

"No," Alex said. They tried to shake their head; the rustle of hair against their ears, the thud of ear against bedding, swallowed them momentarily.

"Good, 'cause I'm not doing it," Morgan pronounced.

"I know."

Alex sloshed around inside Alex's skin, inside the glass that held Alex. Did Tam Lin become a bucket of water too, or was that some other story?

Morgan cursed and moved to pin their legs more thoroughly. They asked, "Why are you making this so fucking hard?"

"I'm a villain," Alex tried to explain scornfully, but their stupid sloshing body hijacked the words with a yawn.

"You're exhausted is what you are. Just fucking sleep." Morgan affected a sing-song, mimicking tone and said, "'Eight hours a night, Morgan, energy drinks are poison, Morgan.'"

Alex protested wordlessly and glared over their shoulder into Morgan's smothering eyes.

"Your problem," Morgan continued contemplatively. "Is that you can dish it out but you can't fucking take it, can you."

Even hidden behind Alex's half-lowered lids, the room suddenly seemed brighter, slower, sharper.

"I can take anything you want," Alex's voice said.

"Oh holy shit, have your eyes always been able to do that?" Morgan's mouth moved further away as they raised themself up on their elbows for a better look. "You're like a cat."

"I'm a glass of fire," Alex said.

Their mind's hands were still running over and over Morgan's low voice talking about them fucking taking it.

It was a dangerous thing to be dwelling in, but 'dangerous' was kind of Alex's thing.

"Like, I know I said you had to sleep, and you do, but now I've gotta know," Morgan said. White teeth flickered sharp. "Do you purr, too?"

The distant, dizzy remnants of Alex's dignity dragged at least three answers to that back into the dirt.

"… No?" Alex said once it became clear there would be nothing else they could muster.

"I don’t believe you for a second." Morgan grinned. It was a miracle they were maintaining eye contact with them. "I am absolutely going to use this against you, you know that."

Alex could not remember if they could purr. Probably they could, though, they could do anything, take anything, conquer anything.

They turned back down into to pillow and disappeared into black with a feeling like falling.

Waiting in the void was Morgan's voice, each perturbation of air resonating perfectly, meaning nothing.

"Do lizards do that too, the pupil thing? No, no, I'll check it when you're actually asleep, don't think I'm letting you up so easy."

Sounds as standing waves in the air, in Morgan's chest, in Alex's bones.

"But you might actually be out now."

Warmth changed from a dense crushing to something lighter, wrapping every edge and threatening to carry them away.

"There you go. Was that so hard?"

Nothing was.

[ummmlife]

realistic nanami's d analysis

warnings! ; nsfw (kinda) , headcanons (obviously) ; educational 🤓☝️

as a nanamin simp i've been reading and hearing about nanami's 9 inches manhood all over the internet and, honestly?, that doesn't sound accurate to me

something that happens to people who like nanami a lot is that they portrait him like a white man and, consciously or unconsciously, i feel that the 9 inch thing has been motivated by that current of thoughts

that's why i've decided to make a long research about the male genitalia comparing the average sizes all over the world, asia and finally, japan

of course, i did not give him a micro penis, but please don't expect the king cobra between this man's legs

i stress again the fact that this is my opinion and if you don't agree... well, there's not much i can do about it :)

context ;

for us humans, diversity comes in different styles of things, perhaps no topic elicits as much curiosity, speculation, and even anxiety as the dimensions of the male reproductive organ: the penis. from ancient myths to contemporary media portrayals, societal fascination with penile size permeates cultural narratives worldwide. however, amidst the myriad myths and misconceptions lies a scientific inquiry into the fascinating variations of penile size across different populations and ethnicities.

so, repeat after me: not every hot man has a 9 inches long d– / jk

in a comprehensive analysis conducted in 2020, researchers examined studies on penis size and determined that the typical length of an erect penis ranges from approximately 12.9 cm( 5.1 inches) to 13.9 cm (5.5 inches.) They suggested that the actual average tends to lean towards the lower end of this spectrum. (King, 2020)¹.

Another study indicated that the length for a flaccid penis was 9.16 cm (3.61 inches). (Veale et al., 2015)².

and that is what i’m basing my analysis (headcanons) on.

let's take a look on this chart (of dubious origin):

in this one we can see and compare the different sizes of the male reproductive system in different countries. if we look at it, japan has an average of 13.56 cm (5.3 inches).

investigating more in detail the male population, i managed to find that the average penis size in japan is about: 13.56 centimeters (5.33 inches), with a diameter of 3.53 cm (1.39 inches) at the head and 3.19 cm (1.25 inches) at the shaft when it's erect. (日本人の平均ペニスサイズが明らかに! | TENGA FITTING(テンガフィッティング), n.d.)³

knowing all of this, let's get into the heart of the matter that concerns us today.

his size ;

i'm using using this essay for a reference (since my humble self does not own a peewee) (男性器の大きさについて|大東製薬工業株式会社, n.d.)⁴.

to keep it simple:

erected :

length; 13.73 cm (5.4 inches) ~ 15.37 cm (6 inches)

girth; 11.73 cm (4.6 inches) ~ 12.73 cm (5 inches)

flaccid :

length; 9.73 cm (3.8 inches)

girth; 9.37 cm (3.6 inches)

the shape ;

i imagine it with a base a bit wider than the head (it gives fat dick ohohoho) and slightly curved up, the foreskin is still there and the skin is more pigmented there (#967a68). i can imagine a notorious vein coming from the base to the tip from below. his glans is paler than the shaft (#aa8483) and when it gets stimulated it turns into a #c96c60 shade.

nuts! ;

how do i say this?

they look heavy, somehow. also notoriously asymmetrical, the left one hangs lower.

is the carpet matching the curtains? ;

no, and this is my personal headcanon since I like the idea of ​​kento bleaching his hair since high school, from dark brown to his blonde tone he all see now. but if you don't think the same, it's alright, it doesn't affect anything.

he's hairy, everywhere, yes i'm also talking about his butthole!!

but he like to keep the hair trimmed and nice, not a crazy jungle of hair, since he also like to keep his face clean. it is a routine procedure that he does once every one or two months, always using an electric shaver.

so if you plan to give him head (or eat his ass, idk and idc), please expect to feel his pubic hair tickling your nose

+ his buns ;

his glorious glutes are made of 90% pure muscle, it also look squared shaped.

amazing, wow.

sources ↓

anyway, you don't have to take everything i wrote literally or personally, nanami is a fictional character and it doesn't really matter what his penis should or could look like. if you imagine him differently, great, i do too lol, my brain is never going to imagine him with some exact measurements or shape

hope you enjoyed my little essay on nanaken's penis :) it's the first time in my life that i talk so much about cocks lol

bibliography ;

1. King, B. M. (2020). Average-Size Erect Penis: Fiction, Fact, and the need for Counseling. Journal of Sex & Marital Therapy, 47(1), 80–89. https://doi.org/10.1080/0092623x.2020.1787279

2. Veale, D., Miles, S., Bramley, S., Muir, G., & Hodsoll, J. (2015). Am I normal? A systematic review and construction of nomograms for flaccid and erect penis length and circumference in up to 15 521 men. BJU International, 115(6), 978–986. https://doi.org/10.1111/bju.13010

3. 日本人の平均ペニスサイズが明らかに! | TENGA FITTING(テンガフィッティング). (n.d.). 日本人の平均ペニスサイズが明らかに！ | TENGA FITTING（テンガフィッティング）. https://www.tenga.co.jp/special/fitting2012/

4. 男性器の大きさについて|大東製薬工業株式会社. (n.d.). Copyright (C) 2015 更年期障害・勃起不全・早漏のOTC医薬品は大東製薬工 All Rights Reserved. https://daito-p.co.jp/essay/penil_size.html

[carnegiemuseumnaturalhistory]

Real Dinosaurs Versus Reel Dinosaurs: Film’s Fictionalization of the Prehistoric World

by Shelby Wyzykowski

What better way can you spend a quiet evening at home than by having a good old-fashioned movie night? You dim the lights, cozily snuggle up on your sofa with a bowl of hot, buttery popcorn, and pick out a movie that you’ve always wanted to see: the 1948 classic Unknown Island. Mindlessly munching away on your snacks, your eyes are glued to the screen as the story unfolds. You reach a key scene in the movie: a towering, T. rex-sized Ceratosaurus and an equally enormous Megatherium ground sloth are locked in mortal combat. And you think to yourself, “I’m pretty sure something like this never actually happened.” And you know what? Your prehistorically inclined instincts are correct.

From the time that the first dinosaur fossils were identified in the early 1800s, society has been fascinated by these “terrible lizards.” When, where, and how did they live? And why did they (except for their modern descendants, birds) die out so suddenly? We’ve always been hungry to find out more about the mysteries behind the dinosaurs’ existence. The public’s hunger for answers was first satisfied by newspapers, books, and scientific journals. But then a whole new, sensational medium was invented: motion pictures. And with its creation came a new, exciting way to explore the primeval world of these ancient creatures. But cinema is art, not science. And from the very beginning, scientific inaccuracies abounded. You might be surprised to learn that these filmic faux pas not only exist in movies from the early days of cinema. They pervade essentially every dinosaur movie that has ever been made.

One Million Years B.C.

Another film that can easily be identified as more fiction than fact is 1966’s One Million Years B.C. It tells the story of conflicts between members of two tribes of cave people as well as their dangerous dealings with a host of hostile dinosaurs (such as Allosaurus, Triceratops, and Ceratosaurus). However, neither modern-looking humans nor dinosaurs (again, except birds) existed one million years ago. In the case of dinosaurs, the movie was about 65 million years too late. Non-avian dinosaurs disappeared 66 million years ago during a mass extinction known as the K/Pg (which stands for “Cretaceous/Paleogene”) event. An asteroid measuring around six miles in diameter and traveling at an estimated speed of ten miles per second slammed into the Earth at what is now the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico. The effects of this giant impact were so devastating that over 75% of the world’s species became extinct. But the dinosaurs’ misfortunes were a lucky break for Cretaceous Period mammals. They were able to gain a stronger foothold and flourish in the challenging and inhospitable post-impact environment.

Cut to approximately 65 million, 700 thousand years later, when modern-looking humans finally arrived on the chronological scene. Until recently, the oldest known fossils of our species, Homo sapiens, dated back to just 195,000 years ago (which is, in geological terms, akin to the blink of an eye). And for many years, these fossils have been widely accepted to be the oldest members of our species. But this theory was challenged in June of 2017 when paleoanthropologists from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology reported that they had discovered what they thought may be the oldest known remains of Homo sapiens on a desert hillside at Jebel Irhoud in Morocco. The 315,000-year-old fossils included skull bones that, when pieced together, indicated that these humans had faces that looked very much like ours, but their brains did differ. Being long and low, their brains did not have the distinctively round shape of those of present-day humans. This noticeable difference in brain shape has led some scientists to wonder: perhaps these people were just close relatives of Homo sapiens. On the other hand, maybe they could be near the root of the Homo sapien lineage, a sort of protomodern Homo sapien as opposed to the modern Homo sapien. One thing is for certain, the discovery at Jebel Irhoud reminds us that the story of human evolution is long and complex with many questions that are yet to be answered.

The Land Before Time

Another movie that misplaces its characters in the prehistoric timeline is 1988’s The Land Before Time. The stars of this animated motion picture are Littlefoot the Apatosaurus, Cera the Triceratops, Ducky the Saurolophus, Petrie the Pteranodon, and Spike the Stegosaurus. As their world is ravaged by constant earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, the hungry and scared young dinosaurs make a perilous journey to the lush and green Great Valley where they’ll reunite with their families and never want for food again. In their on-screen imagined story, these five make a great team. But, assuming that the movie is set at the very end of the Cretaceous (intense volcanic activity was a characteristic of this time), the quintet’s trip would have actually been just a solo trek. Ducky and Petrie’s species had become extinct several million years earlier, and Littlefoot and Spike would have lived way back in the Jurassic Period (201– 145 million years ago). Cera alone would have had to experience several harrowing encounters with the movie’s other latest Cretaceous creature, the ferocious and relentless Sharptooth, a Tyrannosaurus rex.

Speaking of Sharptooth, The Land Before Time’s animators made a scientifically accurate choice when they decided to draw him with a two-fingered hand, as opposed to the three fingers traditionally embraced by other movie makers. For 1933’s King Kong, the creators mistakenly modeled their T. rex after a scientifically outdated 1906 museum painting. Many other directors knowingly dismissed the science-backed evidence and used three digits because they thought this type of hand was more aesthetically pleasing. By the 1920s, paleontologists had already hypothesized that these predators were two-fingered because an earlier relative of Tyrannosaurus, Gorgosaurus, was known to have had only two functional digits. Scientists had to make an educated guess because the first T. rex (and many subsequent specimens) to be found had no hands preserved. It wasn’t until 1988 that it was officially confirmed that T. rex was two-fingered when the first specimen with an intact hand was discovered. Then, in 1997, Peck’s Rex, the first T. rex specimen with hands preserving a third metacarpal (hand bone), was unearthed. Paleontologists agree that, in life, the third metacarpal of Peck’s Rex would not have been part of a distinct, externally visible third finger, but instead would have been embedded in the flesh of the rest of the hand. But still, was this third hand segment vestigial, no longer serving any apparent purpose? Or could it have possibly been used as a buttressing structure, helping the two fully formed fingers to withstand forces and stresses on the hand? Peck’s Rex’s bones do display evidence that strongly supports arm use. You can ponder this paleo-puzzle yourself when you visit Carnegie Museum of Natural History’s Dinosaurs in Their Time exhibition, where you can see a life-sized cast of Peck’s Rex facing off with the holotype (= name-bearing) T. rex, which was the first specimen of the species to be recognized (by definition, the world’s first fossil of the world’s most famous dinosaur!).

T. rex in Dinosaurs in Their Time. Image credit: Joshua Franzos, Treehouse Media

Jurassic Park

One motion picture that did take artistic liberties with T. rex for the sake of suspense was 1993’s Jurassic Park. In one memorable, hair-raising scene, several of the movie’s stars are saved from becoming this dinosaur’s savory snack by standing completely still. According to the film’s paleontological protagonist, Dr. Alan Grant, the theropod can’t see humans if they don’t move. Does this theory have any credence, or was it just a clever plot device that made for a great movie moment? In 2006, the results of ongoing research at the University of Oregon were published in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, providing a surprising answer. The study involved using perimetry (an ophthalmic technique used for measuring and assessing visual fields) and a scale model T. rex head to determine the creature’s binocular range (the area that could be viewed at the same time by both eyes). Generally speaking, the wider an animal’s binocular range, the better its depth perception and overall vision. It was determined that the binocular range of T. rex was 55 degrees, which is greater than that of a modern-day hawk! This theropod may have even had visual clarity up to 13 times greater than a person. That’s extremely impressive, considering an eagle only has up to 3.6 times the clarity of a human! Another study that examined the senses of T. rex determined that the dinosaur had unusually large olfactory bulbs (the areas of the brain dedicated to scent) that would have given it the ability to smell as well as a present-day vulture! So, in Jurassic Park, even if the eyes of T. rex had been blurred by the raindrops in this dark and stormy scene, its nose would have still homed-in on Dr. Grant and the others, providing the predator with some tasty midnight treats.

Now, it may seem that this blog post might be a bit critical of dinosaur movies. But, truly, I appreciate them just as much as the next filmophile. They do a magnificent job of providing all of us with some pretty thrilling, edge-of-your-seat entertainment. But, somewhere along the way, their purpose has serendipitously become twofold. They have also inspired some of us to pursue paleontology as a lifelong career. So, in a way, dinosaur movies have been of immense benefit to both the cinematic and scientific worlds. And for that great service, they all deserve a huge round of applause.

Shelby Wyzykowski is a Gallery Experience Presenter in CMNH’s Life Long Learning Department. Museum staff, volunteers, and interns are encouraged to blog about their unique experiences and knowledge gained from working at the museum.

[codylabs]

Knight Sabers!

But redesigned to use technology from my universe!

Apparently my universe has infinitely-sharp swords and razor wire now!

ABSOLUTELY UNREASONABLY DETAILED breakdown below cut!

Okay, so by 'redesign' I mean essentially just repainting the Class-5 Berserker Frame from my own universe. The C-5 was already fully interchangeable from the elbows and ankles down, and has hardpoints for specialized equipment on the knees, shoulders, and helmet, so this little exercise was as simple as researching cool weapons, then pausing and screenshotting the anime to get the colors right, because I'm naturally garbage at colors and prefer to trust a computer.

Bubblegum Crisis was a big inspiration for the C-5 in the first place, especially on the character-customizable side, so this was a blast.

For info on the C-5's general mechanical design, including what those ankles are for and how the operator gets in and out, go to the original post where I designed it, linked above.

Anyway, I gave each character the weapons and tools that either best match their original loadout, or best match their needs and fighting style if the originals were deemed unrealistic. All together, their equipment is suitable for taking out heavily-armored, slower-moving targets in urban environments, while maintaining a short-range tactical network within the squad.

In order of protaganosity,

Priss, the blue one:

Equipped for close-quarters combat. The large clamps are much stronger and better suited for grappling and crushing than the ordinary waldoes, but their musculature system doesn't leave any room in the gauntlets for integrated machine guns like Nene and Linna have. The claws do have a couple fingers that can unfold off their tops, so she isn't completely incapable of fine dexterity.

Each gauntlet externally mounts a short-barrelled 30mm-calliber cannon, which fires high-powered tungsten-carbide discarding-sabot kinetic perpetrators. The short barrel makes these inaccurate at range, but the high speed, high mass, and low cross section of the rounds make them ideal for piercing armor from mid-range or close range. These replace the weird glowing spears that she shoots in the show. They are essentially just non-glowing spears that travel a lot faster and are MUCH louder. Each magazine holds 6.

Knees are each mounted with a single-use high-explosive anti-tank shaped charge designed to blast a gap in an armor plate, then release another blast through the gap, in a two-stage detonation. Vents in the knee plate prevent armor or operator from being damaged by the kick-back, though the knee plate itself is often destroyed.

Priss being the most reckless and close-quarters combatant of the bunch, her helmet is largest and most tanky; it contain extra padding and armor against blunt force impacts, a minimized sensor suite consisting of a pair of night-vision-capable armored cameras, and the non-retractable variety of communications antennae, and an external speaker so she can yell at cops or something.

She elected against armored skirt plating on the grounds that it looked girly, which leaves a vulnerability in the upper thighs, where a large area of light joint ribbing is exposed. Shouldn't be a huge issue as long as she stays too close for machine guns to target. As you may guess, Priss gets hurt a lot, and no redesign will change that.

Sylia, the silver (mint?) one

Equipped for precision strikes and rapid movement. Her gauntlets, aside from the standard waldos, prominently feature a pair of short swords. Their blades contain neutron-froth graphene, a highly expensive material over 10,000 times stronger than steel, and only 2,000 times as heavy; it only exists in a very thin strip on the leading edge, but is hard enough to maintain a monomolecular sharpness. The rest of the gauntlets are occupied by the muscle systems needed to swing and align the sword, and the pumping system needed to maintain the cold temperature needed to stabilize the neutron froth, and so she doesn't carry machine guns either.

Externally mounts the same kinetic perpetrator launchers as Priss, but with 3-round magazines instead of 6, both to save on weight, and because she doesn't use them nearly as liberally.

Knees and shoulders contain compact gravity dynamos for increased maneuverability. On extended discharge they can allow for limited flight, and on fast discharge can provide a powerful "boost" in any direction, vastly increasing the ability to strike, retreat, strafe, or jump. I know gravity dynamos are pretty out-of-left-field, but they're a thing in my universe ever since exotic mass was discovered on planet Hephaestus.

Sylia's helmet is fairly standard, with comm antennae that can retract during maneuvers, and a sensor suite that can be swapped out depending on mission specifics or how fabulous she feels like being.

Not quite sold on her paint job here. Anyway,

Nene, the pink one

Equipped for fire support and electronic warfare. Gauntlets contain the standard waldo and machine gun loadout, as well as extra feelers and data ports for interfacing with computer systems. I don't know why I drew a little screen folding out of the gauntlet, that doesn't make a lot of sense when you have a HUD, but it looked nice. Speaking of looking nice, the shoulder joints of the C-5 suit actually cannot physically bend into the position that Nene's arms are in right here. So that's some disappointing.

The suit mounts no heavy weapons, but is accompanied by a pair of gravity-propelled escort drones. They normally act in a strictly observational role, but can ram and self destruct with a high-powered shaped charge if needed, which is nice.

The suit is meant to serve as the nerve center of the knights' tactical network. A large suite of antennae extend the range of its comm systems, allowing it to connect with friendly systems at distance, as well as listen in on enemy signals, or jam them completely. A powerful onboard computer handles decryption and data processing from enemy signals.

Those knee pads are smoke grenade and flare launchers. It seemed like a nice thing to have.

Helmet speaks for itself. It contains a vast sensor suite, allowing her to see in perfect dark, use infrared thermal imaging, 'hear' electrical activity, measure radiation sources, and even detect trace chemicals in the air and stream in 4k until Sylia told her to stop.

The first drones were named Sneezy and Sleepy, these two are Happy and doc. Whenever one gets destroyed she names its replacement after the next dwarf. Someday she'll run out of dwarves and will have to resort to pacman ghosts or bionicles.

Linna, the green one

Equipped for high-powered, hit-or-miss type attacks, and high mobility. Linna is their most nimble and physically intuitive operator, so they have her be first to try out any exotic or experimental equipment. If it's any use, she would be the one best suited to find that use, and if not, she would be best suited to get out of dodge.

Gauntlets, as mounted here, are a standard waldo/machine gun unit on her left, and high-explosive anti-tank ram on the right, which uses the same 'rounds' as Priss's knees. Her right gauntlet is the only arm on any of the four to completely lack fingers, so that's amusing. Maybe I could fit a little claw or something but I forgot.

Knees and shoulders mount gravity dynamos for extra mobility, same as Sylia. To decrease weight and increase bodily control, she went so far as to forgo the armored skirt, same as Priss did.

And of course the fancy whip things. They're composed of the same neutron-froth graphene as Sylia's swords, but in the form of micron-diameter razor wire, which would be able to slice through light armor in broader strokes and greater range than a sword. At such a tiny thickness even NFG wears through quickly, so the suit contains spools to replenish it. Although I drew the wires as black lines here, they would be thinner than a human hair, and quite nearly invisible in person, so it would be down to the operator's skill and intuition to keep track of where they actually are, and to keep from getting hurt by them. Speaking of, in the show the whips come out of her HELMET, which (although I appreciate the Sailor Moon pigtail aesthetic) makes absolutely zero sense, would be nearly uncontrollable, hard to swing with any power, and, more to the point, absurdly dangerous. Mounting these whips externally on the gauntlets seemed more effective and responsible. They can roll up and retract when not in use.

So yeaah

This was done as a request for @mechanicalinertia I think, but not actually, because I wanted to draw it too anyway, they just reminded me.

[raktanag]

BIOGRAPHY AND ABOUT

BEFORE READING:

Kalyan is an OC heavily inspired from Ruyard Kipling's novels and the movie adaptations of said novels, mixed with both mythology and some historical facts. I did my best to research and fit things into a believable character.

However, if there is any misinformation or if I unintentionally do something racist, please notify me so I can correct myself immediately.

GENERAL INFO:

Name: Kalyan

Gender: Male

Age: 150+, but looks 30 (Nagas age much slower and are essentially immortal)

Aliases: Rakta Nag/Blood Serpent, Snake with Man's face

Height: 8 ft tall from the ground to the head, 26 ft long tail x 3 ft in diameter.

Orientation: Pansexual panromantic, polyamorous

Voiceclaim: Jacob Tobia (Speaking) Luca Velletri (Singing)

POWERS AND ABILITIES:

Strength of a man-sized constricting snake

Shapeshifting into full human and full snake

Claws and fangs

Enhanced sense of smell and taste.

Hypnosis made with eye contact

BACKGROUND:

In a remote jungle of the East settled in a valley, there were few fillages which prospered thanks to the protection of mystical creatures who inhabited the temple on the highest mountain among the ones that surrounded the valley.  These creatures were named Naga, beings half human and half snakes from the waist down, who offered their help to the population in exchange for a few offers and simply to respect the laws of the forest.

They were creatures with immortal life, wise ones, healers, oracles, they kept ancient secrets that were handed down from generation to generation. They knew how to be gentle but also ferocious when wronged, to have power over nature and be skilled mages and able to change shape to go unnoticed as snakes or human beings.

Among the promising young healers of the Mountain Temple, Kalyan stood out: a young naga with a red, beige and black tail and a golden belly, while his human skin, eyes and long hair were of different shades of brown. Since his teenage years, he was passionate about the knowledge of plants and the arts of dance and song, which he proudly showed during festivities. From the elders, he learned the medical arts. From his parents, he learned the laws of hunting and how use his enhanced animal senses and how to control his immense constricting snake abilities.

His life was between animal and human, quiet and carefree, studying with his teachers, hunting and playing with his parents and friends, unaware of what was coming and that would completely twist his life.

One night, the hidden door of the temple had literally exploded and collapsed, the Nagas had been surprised by pale-skinned foreign people staring at them in disgust and calling them strange words... "Demons". They used weapons unknown to them, which's noise hurt the ears, killed quickly and caused excruciating pain

Kalyan was abruptly awakened by his parents and quickly pulled towards the back exits, with orders to run away and not turn back.

Well aware that it could be the last time he'd see them, he gave them a teary, tight hug and obeyed and decided to at least go and help the people of the nearest village. Once arrived, he discovered that there was no house destroyed or on fire, the buildings were empty, only the heads of all the villages and the priests were there

They were speaking through an interpreter to a pale man in a uniform decorated with gold on his chest, shaking his hand after they finished talking.

Kalyan didn't understand... at least not until two  wagons arrived: one loaded with the treasures they had hoarded in the centuries and decorated their altars with, the others carried their texts about their secrets of magical arts. This one was handed over to the priests and the treasure remained with the pale ones.

The snake-boy felt dying inside.

How long had their envy and greed made its way into their hearts to the point of committing such sacrilege?

How long had they been waiting for a moment like this?

His blood boiled, he felt fury rise inside him and tears of hatred and despair flood his eyes.

They had sold them like beasts to the slaughter, they were calling them monsters...

With an inhuman scream, Kalyan had hurled himself on the commander of the pale ones, grabbed him by the hair and dragged him towards the trees, cursing the chiefs, the priests and all the invaders.

They want a monster? He would give them one.

Under the terrified eyes of those traitors, he first tore the screaming man's clothes and then swallowed him still alive and kicking, widening his mouth in an abnormal way, just like a snake would. After devouring the greedy soldier, he threatened the others that if they ever set foot in his territory, they would suffer the same terrible fate.

Immediately afterwards, he was gone, slithering as far as he could, while in his head he was still processing that he had just eaten a human being. Alive.

It was a sacrilege to kill for revenge in the jungle, but he had, and he wasn't regretting it. That bastard had made the deal with the traitors, he had given the order to come in and slaughter everyone...

Those human beings, no, those slimy and lying man-things, deserved his hatred and all the fear he would bring them.

Kalyan returned to the temple, his vengeful wishes were only increased by seeing the dozens of lifeless Naga bodies of his people.

His parents, teachers, friends, his lovers...

He did not know if he was the only survivor, he just gave a proper burial to all the deceased and then descended back into the jungle to check the next moves of the strangers and the traitors.

Athough he wanted to chase them all and kill them all, Kalyan wasn't stupid, he would wait.  They would come to him, especially after devouring their leader, he would wait patiently.

He had all the time.

And so decades passed, the village was repopulated, the influence of the pale-ones had altered the memory of the Nagas, who were now considered demons.

Kalyan, now a man, gained the reputation as a man-eating monster who played cruel tricks and mischief on the villages, robbing them of wine, food and cattle and mocking them from the trees.

The inhabitants even put a bounty on his head, attracting hunters and soldiers from all over the land.

But very few returned, and these few who survived told, crying and shaking with terror, of a snake with the torso of a man crushing their fellows to death with his mighty tail or enchanting them with a strange, shimmering and suave gaze, but with his lips curled into a ravenous and cruel smile.

Nobody wanted to investigate further, although they knew exactly the sad fate of who had not escaped his clutches.

TRIVIA:

His lair is located on top of a particularly tall and large tree in which he has created a shelter for the rain with leaves and vines and a nest of stolen animal furs, blankets and pillows.

He enjoys both soft and warm things, tending to curl up to sleep on piles of soft stuff or sunbathing on warm boulders.

He is pansexual with polyamorous tendencies, but he isn't really prone to mate with humans unless they prove to be worthy of his love.

He is downright vain and proud of his looks.

He LOVES scaring people.

He's based on a blood python

He tends to play with the human prey

He's immune to any hypnotic magic and his magic doesn't work to those who have hypnotic abilities as well

Contrary to what the humans believe, he never devoured children and never kidnapped people from the villages. He mostly kills those who hunt him down. But he doesn't give a damn and prefers to be feared.

If an innocent traveler ends up in his territory, they have to offer him something to have their life spared. Mostly food or something that sparks his interest, or help him with something

His eyes can lit up of different colors, depending on his mood, blue and green mean happiness or surprise, lilac means mischief/interest, red means either anger or hunger, depends on the situation

[dragonrajafanfiction]

The Red Well (Part 2) Sword of Gathering Clouds

Body Horror Plus Ruri equals <3<3<3 apparently. @rurifangirl by request.

Deep in the Red Well, Ruri Kazama had subdued the Yamata-no-Orochi so thoroughly, it fell into the water at the bottom and did not rise again.

The engineering team poured out of the safety cabins and filled the water with liquid nitrogen. The water temperature dropped rapidly and half a meter of ice formed on the water surface. The amount of water stored at the bottom of the well was too large to freeze solid, but the lower water temperature was able to reduce the vitality of living things, and dragons were no exception. The king stepped out on the blood-red ice, stretching his arms upward like a preacher, silently praising all this.

Deep in the red well, the engineering team used a laser cutter to open the hole in the ice, draped the sling around it, and used mechanical hands to slowly lift the great creature sealed below the ice onto the maintenance platform where the heavy machines awaited it.

The god was still alive, but like a shark with its fins cut off. Its abdomen was destroyed, four of its eight heads were severed, and the remaining four were scarred. No one knew how Ruri Kazama had managed to do it. It was too dark for them to see and everything happened too fast. It was amazing to them that this humanoid monster's body harbored a power more terrifying than that of a dragon. At the moment, he is wearing a ghoul-like bloodstained white tunic standing on high overlooking the operation below, his white hair hanging down blocking his eyes. You were clinging to him, like a cursed maiden.

Ruri whispered urgently to you. “Drop down.”

You comply, letting him go and dropping the several feet between you and the concrete platform. The skirt of the wedding dress that Ruri had conveniently cut short flutters about and you stick the landing. Immediately, everyone turns to you. You walk and they back away from you. You’re shrouded in freezing fog and rain like the spirit of a dead bride. The residual liquid nitrogen should have bitten and burned at your exposed skin and the concrete should have given you frostbite on the soles of your feet. Part of you wanted to shout to the Devil Clan and wave like a princess because they were watching you so intently. But you stay silent, ignoring the cold, the dragon and even the King. A few took out their phones and snapped pictures.

They were curious about you at first. The last they had heard of the Dragon Lord’s private life was that Ruri Kazama was in love with The Ryoma, that is, Kogure Sakurai. You seemed to appear out of thin air and some said that you were the ghost of The Ryoma whose love couldn’t perish. Some may have thought you seemed ordinary, but after they witnessed you drop into the well with Ruri Kazama and heard the sounds of the screaming and crying of Yamata-no-Orochi, they feared you as much as they did him. Ruri was no fool. At this point, even if Herzog ordered them to turn their guns on you, they would hesitate. Watching you walk in a bloody torn gown in your bare feet, as though it were a day at the beach, solidified that image in their minds.

You stood still and quiet but you couldn’t help but smile when you saw Herzog looking at you. There was no one else here that really mattered. You would keep an eye on him at all times. When he fled and prepared to bury this place, you would be ready to capture him. For now it was time to ignore everyone, the same way Ruri was doing.

The god, or Yamata-no-Orochi, was laid flat on the ice, and the working group kept pouring liquid nitrogen over its body to prevent it from lashing out and hurting people. The King twirls around it, admiring the incredible creature. Its eight cervical vertebrae grow out from different places of the torso, twisted and grotesque, like a monster with a failed genetic modification.

The most stunning part of its body is the Sword of Gathering Clouds, a bone that protruded beyond its scales, a wonderful moon white color, sharp to the extreme. 

"It's a pity. Just one step short. Not a king among dragons, after all. Just a monster that inherited the legacy of the White King." The king clicked his tongue and sighed, his voice floating to your ears from the ice below.

"If a monster that inherited the legacy of the White King is so powerful, what a terrifying creature the real White King should be!" The head of the engineering team trailed behind.

“It only got the body of the White King, but failed to possess the mind of the White King. But if it was the complete White King, there is no way we could have captured it.'' The King raised his arms and shouted, ''Now, let us find the White King's legacy, the Holy Skeleton from within it! Start cutting!''

The engineering drill pierced through the god's various joints, severing tendons, drilling holes in locations carefully chosen so as to completely paralyze its massive body. The god's cells were still regenerating at high speed to heal the wounds, but repairing the bones was far more difficult than repairing the muscles. The iron hook penetrated the god's neck bone and the crane hoisted it up in the air. Its four remaining heads spewed icy breath but were unable to rise up to attack. In addition, the engineering team injected chemicals into its nervous system and vital muscles. That large body that was still slightly twitching gradually relaxed, with only the four pairs of dragon pupils still glowing like candles, proving that this great creature was still alive. Occasionally, it would turn those eyes and look down on the White King descendants that were about to dismember it, with a look in its eyes that humans could not understand.

 "You were able to research a drug useful for dragons!" The head of the engineering team marveled.

"Because I once had a live individual to use for research." The king would say softly, "Back then, when I opened that mysterious cave located in the Arctic Circle, that great creature had been torn down to half of its body by the crazy animals, but it was still not dead. I tried almost every chemical agent I could find on it, and eventually it couldn't tolerate those agents and died, but I had learned about the biological properties and structure of dragons and became the most knowledgeable person in the world about them."

The head of the engineering team cringed. In the most brutal part of human history, humans had done scientific experiments on the bodies of their own kind. But the King used chemicals to torture a dragon to death!

 King General Herzog turned to the engineering group waiting on the side of the well, raised his hands high and said in the most flamboyant voice: "The great Darwin in his Origin of Species expounded the truth of the weak and the strong. Once you were all weak, struggling in the food chain and inevitably reduced to food, but today the strong and the weak will be completely reversed! We will complete the great evolution! In front of us, humans and ancient dragons are all weak! We are the new dragon race, and we will share the world!"

Cheers resounded through the deep well. Some of the workers embraced each other with tears streaming down their faces, while others were wooden and independent, showing a momentary expression of ecstasy and a momentary expression of bitter hatred, as if their five senses were completely out of control.

Every hair raises on the back of your neck. Those words rang like a death knell, a signal. The scene in your mind is superimposed with Herzog’s words in the Golden Hall of Black Swan Bay. You’re heroes, Herzog had said back then, you’re all going to vacation in the Caspian Sea! He had said. 

Minutes later, everyone was dead.

An intense anxiety grips you as you look around. The sky above seemed miles away and shrouded in clouds and rain. There was no scaffolding, the elevators would take several minutes to raise up there. Unless you could sprout wings and fly… this was a complete death trap!

Giant cutting machines moved over as the beast was raised to the maintenance platform and laid on a great metal plate. A large crane lowered a circular saw that spanned over three meters in diameter. That large saw wheel began to tear this body, sending out sparks from the scales and bones. The metal screeched against the hard armor and only by the constant flow of water did it not glow hot and melt completely. The god did not struggle. The great creature opened its golden eyes and watched in silence as it was cut, its blood spurting out in all directions and splashing on everyone's protective clothing. The saw wheel first severed the Orochi's long tail, and the naturally occurring bone sword, "Gathering Clouds", fell from the cutting table, piercing the concrete as easily as it would pierce tofu.

The saw wheel then cut off the remaining four heads of the Orochi one by one, and every time a neck bone broke off with sparks and blood, a pair of golden pupils went out. When the final four heads were severed, the people gathered around could let go of the last trace of worry. The great creature that had been hiding in the polar abyss for countless years was finally dead, dead under the most sophisticated human technology. The cutting table turned 90 degrees by some remote control and the saw wheel sliced the torso of the Orochi into three pieces lengthwise. 

The crane lifted each of the three pieces, and only then did people see the extreme complexity of the dragon's skeletal structure, which had far more bones than humans. The various subtle skeletal structures had an otherworldly beauty, a noble dark gold color, like sophisticated machinery, and reminiscent of ancient fossils overlapping in the strata. There weren’t just bones but layers of them.

The engineering team immediately dispersed to three dissecting tables, using various tools to split these skeletons stained with black blood.

 As fascinating as all this was, you’re still watching as the King General looked at the watch, and looked up at the late dark sky. He was obviously full of worry about time. Again, everything about you screams bomb! Bomb! You look up at Ruri Kazama who’s still hanging there. But his eyes are still fixed on what was happening below.

You feel that you’re the only sane one in a sea of madness. You wanted to flail your arms. No one who has plenty of time looks at their watch! People only check the time if requested or if they have less than an hour. Perhaps you have 30 minutes? Maybe even less than that?

At the central dissection table, sharp gears cut through layers of muscle after stripping out the huge heart. A dark green heart wrapped in a network of blood vessels is protected inside a dark golden bone cage, like a mysterious and magnificent gem. This heart was lifted in the air by a mechanical arm.

The head of the engineering team took a few steps closer to look up at this incredibly huge organ, and in this instant, he stopped.

You follow his gaze. You feel like you are being watched by that huge heart. You suddenly feel the eyes of a huge creature on you. The blood vessels on the heart were like the blood vessels in those eyes!

At that moment, Ruri Kazama, who was high above you, suddenly moved and threw his crimson sword, the light of which penetrated the chest of the head of the engineering team and then stabbed into the huge heart. A split second later, you heard him scream. The sword had traveled faster than the sound!

You’re suddenly released from the trance you were in and stagger back a step. Why would he just suddenly kill the head of the team? Was this the time to escape? Your eyes scan the crowd and you back closer to the safety cabins in confusion.

Thick fishy-smelling green juice splashed in all directions through the hole in the heart. A golden eye in the fissure swept everyone in its gaze! You feel a heavy intense dread, the type of paralyzing fear that makes you want to go weak in the knees. The heart suddenly contracted mightily and the eye drilled out as hard as it could, emitting a harsh hissing sound as it did so!

“The Holy skeleton! The Holy Skeleton! That's the Holy Skeleton!" The king shouted, his voice hoarse.  Even he couldn't keep calm at this moment.

Ruri Kazama descended from the sky, already holding another long sword in his hand. He lands between you and the heart. He’s seething with indomitable rage.  He roared at you. “Get away from it!”

You turn and run a few steps. What was that? Your steps slow and you turn back around. You’re scared, but at the same time, strangely drawn by something powerful, terrifying, yet… beautiful. Like meeting a mythical creature in a deep forest.

You step a little to see around Ruri. The head of the Engineering team was still standing! Something was wriggling in his mouth and then disappeared down his throat.

"Everybody back up! Fire!" The King yelled.

The sound of gunfire made you clap your hands over your ears. Tens of thousands of bullets were fired at the engineering team leader. Everyone was gripped by terror and no one worried about friendly fire or saving ammunition. Everyone poured bullets at top speed and did not stop as seconds went by. If they ran out of ammunition they feverishly reloaded and within half a minute more than a dozen kilograms of slugs hit the engineering team leader's body. The man who should have died countless times already did not fall. The bullets came from all sides. The kinetic energy from all sides supported him in a standing position. He swayed violently like a dancing zombie.

Eventually, his whole body was shrouded in gun smoke.  He should be nothing but a smear on the concrete floor. The smoke cleared slightly, and a wavering cry of fear arose from all those present.

The head of the engineering team still had the shape of a human, but the surface of his body was covered with bullet holes without even an inch of intact skin left. He had still not fallen, but froze in a backward bend at the knees, his body laid back horizontal, defying gravity.

King General starts to slowly retreat. Only Ruri Kazama stands firm, his breath hissing through his teeth in boiling anger. He has turned into a vicious ghost and is as crazy as he is fearless. He holds his position as what was left of the head of the engineering team slowly rises back upright. This moment everyone feels that they are standing before a being that goes against everyone's common sense, a body pounded with more than a dozen kilograms of bullets that can actually move. That man’s bones should have been broken into thousands and thousands of pieces but the bloody human form moved aimlessly, extremely slowly. He lost his eyes so he had no vision. Every nerve in this body should be gone so he should have no sense of touch. He could no longer be called human or even alive but was an object under the control of some kind of power that was still trying to lurch towards you.

The humanoid turned its head and looked at you.  Its face was caved in by the rain of bullets, the facial bones were rearranged with large caliber slugs, some of which were still embedded. Those brass slugs shined with a shimmering light, as if countless eyes were watching you. People did not dare to move or make a sound, fearing that it would suddenly run towards them.

Ruri Kazama silently shifted and stood behind the monster with his long sword. His eyes were bloody with rage, daring the beast to step towards you again.

The monster seemed to realize that there was an enemy behind it, dragging its injured legs to run towards the Sword of Gathering Clouds. The sharpest bone in the world was responding to it with violent vibrations. Ruri Kazama trailed behind, keeping a certain distance. The monster ran faster and faster, and Ruri Kazama followed faster and faster, but the distance remained the same. The monster stretched out its hand in front of it and leaped up at the same time. Gathering Clouds in the ground vibrated and leaped up in the air, that bone obeying its master’s call! Ruri Kazama's sword finally lashed out like twisted silver lightning.

 In an instant, both Ruri and the skeletal being were right in front of you, suspended in mid air. The tip of Gathering Clouds was barely an inch from your chest. Ruri Kazama and the monster staggered through the air and each landed on the ground. You’re frozen in place unable to process what happened other than the fact that the only thing standing between you and instant death was that monster of a man.

The hand of the monster holding the Gathering Clouds fell to the ground together with its head and half of its shoulder. You didn’t even see Ruri cut it but he swung so hard his blade was broken in half!  There was no blood flowing out! You can see with your own eyes the muscles of the fractured zombie creature squirming, and the cells still frantically repairing what should be an impossibly damaged body. All of this was so far over your head, so beyond you that you’re completely speechless.  Ruri Kazama reached and grabbed the Gathering Cloud Sword and pushed it through the monster's spine, then wielded the broken blade to hit it in the chest. The lifeform, which had been forcibly enhanced by the holy skeleton, finally collapsed, bones scattering out in all directions mixed with rolling bullets still embedded in it.

The Gathering Cloud sword penetrated the target's body and nailed something to the ground, something with a single golden eye that was still fixed on you, even now.

"Liquid nitrogen! Liquid nitrogen! This is the true nature of the holy skeleton! It's a parasitic creature!" The King called out in ecstasy.

The engineering team snapped out of their shock and rushed to pour more liquid nitrogen to cool the dangerous thing. Once they were sure it stopped moving, they placed a thick cylindrical glass capture chamber over it to hold the skeleton in place. Apparently, Herzog had long expected the thing's true nature. The real god was not Yamata-No-Orochi nor any mighty beast. The real god is the holy skeleton, which is not made of bone, but a parasitic being capable of manipulating giant creatures. This way it can never be killed and can always transform from one form to another. It can take the form of a bloated super giant creature, but also can hide in the body of Susanoo, or the head of the engineering team.

This time it met a real rival of equal strength. It met the most horrible human.

Ruri Kazama walked up to you, holding out the precious bone sword. You look up at him in confusion. “A gift for you, my love. Something to trade that silly dagger with.”

Your breath fills your chest in shock. Ruri smiled, sly at your astonishment. He’s covered in red and black blood but he still had the presence to act silly here. Was killing something of this impossible nature so vanishingly casual that he would take the most powerful weapon on the field and give it to you like a rose?

You accept it with shaking hands. It was light, hollow like a bird-bone.

[radiowrites]

Unchained Melody

He’s teaching her to drive, why can’t he teach her to dance, too?

A Tale of the Nine Tailed fanfiction, one-shot, 2300 words, complete. Ki Yu Ri/Lee Rang, Pre-Series, Rated T

Read it on: AO3 or below the cut:

“Pull over here,” Rang said. “I’m driving home.”

“Why?” Yu Ri asked.

“I’m just ready to get home in one piece.”

Yu Ri huffed and did as he told, pulling into the small parking lot too quickly, scattering gravel. She didn’t think she was doing that badly, because hey, she had only been driving for three days. Going through that red light was probably the final straw. She thought she’d make it through the yellow. He said that wasn’t how it worked.

She vacated the driver’s seat and stamped her foot as he took the keys. Unmoved, he slid into the car.

“Are you going to continue making a scene?” Rang asked through the open window. “People are watching.”

Not giving her a chance to answer, he started to roll the window up with a smile playing on his lips.

There were five or so people hanging out on the back steps of the building, a single security light casting a sickly yellow glow over them. It looked like a dive bar or a seedy club. They stared at Yu Ri in her pale blue sundress and platform sandals. She felt overdressed, and she considered this one of her simple outfits. Who knows what they thought of Rang, who always looked like he had stepped off a fashion runway.

One woman’s eyes widened when Yu Ri lifted her upper lip in irritation. Yu Ri assumed the woman would later explain away the fangs she had seen as a side effect of the alcohol.

Yu Ri tossed her long brown hair and rapped on the glass with her knuckles. “Maybe I’ll walk,” she said loudly.

He shrugged and put the car into drive.

Would he really leave her there? With what Yu Ri actually was, Rang would know she was in absolutely no danger. Which meant she wouldn’t put it past him. She scurried around the front of the car and jumped into the passenger seat.

Once safely settled in, she threw him a dirty look. Taking the wheel wasn’t really about them getting hurt in an accident as much as damaging the car, wasn’t in? She put her feet up on the dash, letting her dress shift and bare her thighs. He looked over at her with reproach and she grinned. He was an easily distracted driver. Where did he think she learned it from?

Instead of watching him drive—which would have been good practice, in theory—she picked up her phone. In this day and age, it was pretty easy to learn to be human, Yu Ri had to admit. Humans uploaded videos of everything. All their life stages. All their big events. She could pull up a video of the simplest things. People talking. People laughing. Manners at a restaurant and etiquette when invited to someone’s home. Families. Couples.

Yu Ri acted like watching these things were part of her pass-as-a-human curriculum, but they had become more to her. When she laid down at night the videos replayed in her head, except she found herself in them, truly a part of the mundane moments. These were happy dreams, far better than her usual ones. They weren’t something she could share with Rang. He wanted her to pass as human and yet believe herself above them. It was a hard line to walk for her, and she couldn’t conceive what it was like for an actual half-human like him.

But when she woke after such a dream, she was immediately reminded how far she still had to go before she could truly blend in. Right now she was just playing a foolish game. Oh sure, she had picked up the language well enough. She was able to dress herself now. But, sometimes she forgot to use the utensils at the table. People involuntarily stepped away when she stood too close. Baring her teeth at the woman in the parking lot wasn’t her only indiscretion. The other day she had growled at someone on the subway. She was pretty sure the guy had liked it though, and that was way worse.

All in all, she was doomed to fail at this, she was certain. But she still wanted to try.

Yu Ri shoved her phone at Rang with a video playing. “This is dancing, right?”

He didn’t look away from the road. “Sure.”

She pouted, pulling the phone back. The two figures flowed across the floor, hands on shoulders and waists, eyes trained on each other. She started the clip over and watched it again. Yu Ri swayed slightly in her seat, mimicking the movement the best she could.

“I want to try this,” she said.

“I don’t dance.”

She looked over at him with raised eyebrows. “Six-hundred-years-old and you can’t dance?”

“I said I don’t, not I can’t.”

She rolled the words on her tongue. She didn’t think there was that much of a difference, but she would remember it for the future.

Rang pulled into the parking garage of the apartment. Yu Ri dutifully studied the way he parked the car. Pulled the key. Looked over at her with his dark eyes. Her gaze fell back down to her phone. Okay, maybe she was just watching him instead of his actions.

“If you’re going to pick up a hobby, we can find you an instructor,” he said.

“You’d trust me with a stranger? What if I do something not-human?”

“Then I’ll erase a few memories and get a good laugh out of it.”

He got out of the car and she followed, sullen.

 Yu Ri dropped onto one end of the sectional sofa. She wasn’t done yet.

“You’re teaching me to drive,” she said. “How is that any different?”

“You probably should have an actual instructor for that, too.”

She tapped her bare feet on the floor, thinking for another approach. “I could probably find a dance partner at that bar,” she said.

Sitting on the opposite end of the sofa, absently on his phone, Rang ignored her.

Rude.

She picked up her own phone and tried to continue the last video. The description said it was a type of waltz. She really had no idea. She turned up the sound and peered over the phone to see if it had an effect on him.

Rang’s eyes flickered over to her. Ran his hand through his dark hair as he set the phone down. Leaned back and closed his eyes.

Fine. She would give it up, for now. If Rang didn’t want to do something, he was unmovable. And the bar had really been an empty threat. She had a sneaking suspicion the night would end with her needing to be picked up at the police station and him laughing at her.

Nothing said she couldn’t continue her own research though.

Four or seven videos later—she had lost track as she kept following the next suggestion—the dances had become a lot less structured. She had apparently wandered right out of ballroom dancing. Most of these didn’t look like professionals as much as just normal people caught on camera. Just basic slow dancing at parties. Yu Ri worried at her lip with her teeth. The dances had become less sensual and more sexual. Guilt for trespassing onto their secret worlds and desiring to be in their shoes washed over her. She had never felt that way before.

Eyeing Rang, who seemed to have dozed off, the question about guilt died on her tongue. He wouldn’t be able to answer it anyway. But now, she realized why he refused to dance with her. Dancing wasn’t just a sport or a means of exercise. Humans danced with people they loved, too.

Yu Ri stood up and set her phone down gently, tilting it so she could still see the screen. Her body rocked back and forth, imitating the dancers. Her hands grasped at air, but if she thought really hard, she could imagine someone was there, supporting her as she moved slowly across the floor. Being able to envision something that wasn’t really happening was like being in a dream.

She remembered a few times in her past when she had managed to close her mind and make the pain fade away. Back then, there had been no words in her vocabulary for imagination and dreams.

The lyrics of the song playing held no meaning to her, only the slow but steady tempo. Yu Ri closed her eyes as she gently twirled, her feet gliding across the floor. Her dress billowed out around her as she instinctively avoided the low table.

Her empty hands met silky fabric and her eyes flew open as she was guided through the spin. One of her hands naturally grasped at his shoulder, the other was furled into his chest as his hand slid down her back. She swayed with him, slowly rotating, uncertain if she was still in a reverie.

No, this was real. The rapid beat of her heart grounded her. From the exertion, she told herself.

“Loosen your grip on my shoulder, Yu Ri,” Rang said softly. “Leaving bruises isn’t recommended.”

She nodded, concentrating on lifting her fingers and relaxing the iron hold. He took the hand she had clenched into his chest. Releasing his shoulder, she spun away from him like she had seen in one of the videos, held together by their intertwined fingers. Like a thread of fate, she followed it back to him. Her back was now to his chest, and her arm crossed her breasts, their still locked fingers at her hip. His breath was on her neck, and her face was hot. From the exercise, of course.

“I thought,” she said, tripping over her words, “you don’t dance.” At least her feet didn’t betray her.

“I didn’t say I can’t,” he replied, soft laughter in his voice.

She could not remember any more moves she had wanted to incorporate. Perhaps another time, since she already made a mess of perfectly formed dance routines anyway.

There wouldn’t be another time, but the first thought was nicer.

She twirled in his arms so they were face to face again and their steps became slower, smoother. She could sense the atmosphere changing. Their diameter of movement kept shrinking, and she thought he had stiffened slightly when she reached up and draped her arms around his neck. There was a pause before his hands slid to her hips, framing her, holding her. She hadn’t been so close to him in awhile. His scent made her think of ancient forests and tranquil ponds, though she had never been to either. Maybe he’d take her to the place of his childhood one day.

The day she was able to easily decipher Rang’s expressions would be a huge breakthrough indeed. Despite her constant line of questions when it came to human emotions, the concept of love had come up only once. So she had turned to the internet, and that, in all reality, hadn’t helped her much either. Did she love Rang because he had saved her? Did she love him like the family she had never had? Did she love him like a potential mate?

Yu Ri knew, deep down, the word love fit in there somewhere for her, even if she couldn’t pinpoint it down to which one. But Rang had already made it ultimately clear that he wasn’t interested in the word love, in any form. Their relationship was safe. If she tried to ask for something different, he would pull away.

His hands shifted, supporting her back, and he dipped her. She gasped, certain they’d fall despite his cocky smile. Her dark hair streamed out beneath her as she held tighter around his neck. Their eyes locked for a moment before he righted her.

“Nicely done,” Rang said. “Seems like you’re a natural.”

She couldn’t stop the grin from settling on her face. She’d never been a natural at something, especially when it came to human anything. She doubted any of the professionals she had been watching earlier would agree with him, but she would accept the compliment graciously.

The moment broke when the music on her phone changed to something harsh and jarring. Frustrated, her hands unwound from his neck. She knew she had been pushing the limit of how long she could hold him anyway.

Yu Ri picked up her phone and scoffed softly as she turned off the video. Such a little thing could bring her running just because the sound was annoying. She might have been an untamed creature in the not too distant past, but she was quickly domesticating.

When she turned back, he had already left the room. She bit back the urge to call out to him, instead sinking onto the sofa.

Behind her, the jangle of keys made her jump. Her heart sank.

“I’m going for a drive,” Rang said. “Call me if you need anything.”

She nodded, though she didn’t know if he had waited for her acknowledgment as the door clicked behind him. She keenly felt the fact she hadn’t been invited.

The sudden silence hit her hard. She turned the first video back on for just the music, turning up the volume more than before. Why did he decide to dance with her after the initial rejection? The melody, haunting now, was a good companion for her mood.

There was nothing domesticated about Rang. He was always in fight or flight mode. He would revert back to wild in a heartbeat, wouldn’t he? If he deemed she was becoming too attached to him, would she be sent on her way? Did he expect that to happen eventually?

She wouldn’t let that happen, Yu Ri thought as she stood up to continue dancing alone.

[directionoftime]

Snippet and a question

Wow, the writeblr community is grand! Thank you all so much for your kind responses and welcomes to my intro post! <3 

I thought I’d post up here part of the opening to Sauvarin, since a handful of people seemed to like the idea of it, it will be below the cut as it’s 700ish words. It was originally a prologue but I keep hearing whispers about how prologues should be burnt at the stake (?) Eh. For those interested, feel free for a read ^_ ^ 

The question is of a particular portion of text and its aimed at those who are trans / part of the community (if you’re happy to answer, of course, no pressure!)

I have a FTM character in Sauvarin, and I’m cautious of getting some wording right.

Context: Max Arisan is the Patron of Sauvarin, is FTM but still has breasts. This is mentioned only once in text as a “this is who this guy is but it isn’t relevant to his character arc, just want y’all to be sure you know” kinda thing. My question is really about just the wording of the part in bold is it... accurate? Reflective? Not offensive?* I know “preferred” isn’t right, but is “correct”? Is there a better word to use?

If it is completely wrong please let me know so I can fix it! I have been doing what research I can but I am coming at it from a somewhat... abstract angle, and I want it to sound natural in the text, rather than like some clinical case-study.

--

[...] He began, leaning back on the edge of his desk and it was only now Isaura registered what she had been seeing: Max had breasts.

‘Yes, it was quite uneventful, surprisingly. Just me, Bartrum, and miles and miles of forest.’ Isaura kept her eyes trained on his face at such an unusual turn of events; surgeries and hormone replacements were so efficient and effective the average person could be living fully as their correct gender inside very few months. Something major must have happened to disrupt the process so significantly. Or perhaps he was just more comfortable this way; it was hardly her place to question it.

--

Thank you so much for taking the time to read! 

@writeblrfantasy @magic-is-something-we-create @linariouswrites @furryarbiterangel @wildswrites @inky-duchess 

* I am aware of the whole “stay in your lane” discourse thing about people/characters but the only convincing reason I could think of for him to not be trans is that I’m not trans myself. BUT since his character isn’t about him “being trans” he’s just a character who is trans and also x, y, z, I didn’t see it as a good enough reason not to include ??

Second half of the intro, (1300 words total lol and it seemed too much to post here). So, the only context you’re missing is: Bartrum is a horse; they’re very close to the town but haven’t go there yet, and the opening to the opening is just Isaura [protag] listening to an old guy talk about space [less boring than it sounds but not really anything happens happens, so...] Oh! And they’re deep in the taiga, far east of what was known as Siberia.

Hope you like it! Anyone interested in a character run down, btw? 

--

The approaching rumble of cars had Isaura hop off and hurry to pull him up the short, steep bank out of the way. Bartrum, clearly unimpressed with their stop-start travel, remained stubbornly still until the screech of tyres on gravel spooked him. He squealed his fear, kicking hooves had her recoil and his thundering body knocked her into a nearby bush as he bolted into the woods. Isaura scrambled to her feet, anger drowning out pain as she barked at the nearest car, ‘Oi! Watch it!’

It hesitated for the briefest of moments; the driver’s face ducked low to stare at Isaura out from the passenger window. His look was pointed, cold and selfish as they locked upon her; inspecting, demanding, reducing, memorising. As if assigned her to some imaginary end of his own devising. The kind of look that can raise hairs from a hundred paces. They stared at each other for a few long seconds, Isaura’s guard instantly high as she steeled herself against the encroachment. The driver cocked his head slightly, listening to some instruction or other from a passenger, fixed his eyes on the road and accelerated away. The following car kept up with the first, no one so much as casting a glance her way. Isaura swept her dripping hair from her face and turned to chase after the horse, finally realising what was wrong with the convoy: the cars had drivers. Hadn’t she been told that travel to Sauvarin by way of a car wasn’t an option?

‘Bartrum!’ She called out, following the trail of destruction through the underbrush, ‘Bar-Bar! Where’ve you gone?’ The rain fell thickly and only the Bartrum-sized hole left her any clue to his direction. At least she saw no sign her baggage had fallen. ‘Bar-Bar! C’mon, you stupid horse, where the hell are you—’ She found herself upon a sudden clearing, barely a few feet in diameter, not one branch dared encroach.  

 The skull was a stark white against the intense green grass which grew with a flourish around it and through it, as though it had been sat in a fallowed field through an even-tempered summer; blades had woven their way through the few remaining teeth. Enormous helical, branching horns sat firm against the skull. From each pitch-dark eye socket grew the trunks of a pine, the two stems twisted and curved around the top of the skull before finding their way back to each other only to separate yet again into two branching bronchioles of needle clusters, each just a little shy of the other. They seemed to weave through and around the existing horns, as if aware of them; the tree itself looked ancient and weathered, barely a meter or so in height. From its nostrils poked tiny, delicate flowers of pink and yellow and blue. 

Isaura stared, transfixed by the scene, for a silent eternity before something pulled her from her revere and she backtracked, giving the small clearing a wide berth. No animal Isaura had ever heard of grew horns like those. She felt its presence loom at her back but focused on following Bartrum’s trail, which ended abruptly on an overgrown road. It had once been paved, but was criss-crossed with cracks and fractures, now home only to weeds, moss, and grass. Bartrum, only a few paces away, stood stock still staring up the abandoned track, his ears pricked and his body tense.

‘Bar-Bar, there you are!’ She approached him slowly, careful not to spook him further; the sign up ahead drew her attention: Sauvarin Mine. It had clearly once stood proud above the road, but its background had faded and the formerly sharp lines of contrast were blurred almost beyond recognition. It was barely held aloft leaning as it did on a tree branch, its left post long destroyed. A guilty testament for the human proclivity to create and then abandon. ‘Well, I guess this means we’re in the right place, eh, Bartrum?’ She spoke to the horse, gently stroking his neck — he still hadn’t moved, not even a blink. ‘And here I’d been hoping it was because of the mine that I’d been offered this place, but what good is a blacksmith without metal?’ Bartrum’s ear finally twitched, she took hold of his reigns, clicked her tongue a few times, he at last turned around to let her lead him down the broken track to the main road. The rain slowed to a drizzle as Isaura glanced over her shoulder back up at the neglected sign, where it slouched in the small break of trees, like a lonely stranger who’d offer their secrets only to those with the confidence to ask.

--

[sciencespies]

The Scientific Reason Why Razors Don't Stay Sharp for Long

https://sciencespies.com/news/the-scientific-reason-why-razors-dont-stay-sharp-for-long/

The Scientific Reason Why Razors Don't Stay Sharp for Long

The blades in everyday razors are made of Martensitic stainless steel, a heat-hardened metal also used in surgical instruments, wrenches and cutlery. So why is it that after only a few weeks of cutting back stubble, razor blades need to be replaced?

According to new research published on Friday in the journal Science, the answer goes beyond predictable wear and tear. The steel doesn’t just become eroded from a sharp edge to a round one. Electron microscopy revealed that when hair pushes against weak points on the metal blade, the steel chips apart. And once it begins to chip, it falls apart more easily. But now that researchers know why razors fail so quickly, they can start to develop steel without the same weaknesses.

“For me, personally, it was both a scientific curiosity, of ‘What’s going on?’ and also aiming to solve an important engineering problem,” says Cemal Cem Tasan, a physical metallurgy expert at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, to NPR’s Nell Greenfieldboyce.

The study began with lead author Gianluca Roscioli’s shaving schedule. Every three days, Roscioli shaved his facial hair with a variety of disposable razors. He brought the razors to the lab for imaging to track how the blades changed with each shave. The imaging revealed something unexpected in every blade: C-shaped chips missing from the sharp edge.

To better understand how something as soft as hair could chip away at a steel blade, the team set up an apparatus to record super close-up video of a razor slicing through hair. The team also analyzed the blade’s molecular makeup, Leah Crane writes for New Scientist.

They found that the steel has a vital weakness caused by the same process that makes the Martensitic steel so sharp in the first place. When the blade is moved across a course surface to sharpen it, microcracks form in the metal. And when a hair meets a razor at one of those microcracks, the crack widens, and chips flake off.

But it’s all too small to see with the naked eye.

“The size of the chips are about 1/10 of the diameter of a human hair,” Roscioli tells NPR. “The more I shaved, the more chips started appearing on the blade.”

Analysis with a computer model showed that several factors affect how much the blade will chip. Hair is especially damaging when it meets the blade not just at a weak point but also at an angle, and when the steel is made of an uneven mix of metals, per a statement.

“We want to design new materials that are better and go longer,” says Tasan to Wired’s Eric Niiler. “This problem of the blade is an excellent example. We are so used to it, you don’t think about it. You use the razor for a few weeks and then move on.”

The researchers have filed a provisional patent for a new razor manufacturing process that will have fewer microcracks. While it would be more expensive, Roscioli tells Wired, it would also last longer, saving money on replacements and reducing the polluting impact of disposable razors.

Materials scientist Jennifer Carter, of Case Western Reserve University, tells NPR that the research is “beautiful” and emphasizes that getting the microscope images was “not a trivial thing.”

University of California, Riverside materials scientist Suveen Mathaudhu tells NPR that while he thought that corrosion could play a larger role than the team found, the results make sense overall. He tells NPR, “It’s a good finding that when the hair bends, or the blade interacts with the hair at a certain angle, it can cause chipping.”

#News

[aliceslantern]

Retribution, a Kingdom Hearts fanfic, chapter 4

Newly a person again, Ienzo is weighed down by guilt and his humanity. He's prepared to do whatever it takes to atone... only to find unexpected solace in a familiar face. With more insight into the bonds between people than ever before, Ienzo reaches for a dangerous element from the past to help Kairi and Riku in their search for Sora. What is his life if it means saving another, brighter light?

Chapter summary:  Ienzo's attempts to regain his power go awry, leading him to a confrontation with Even.

Read it on FF.net/on AO3

---

Ienzo turned back to his work, again, with a fervor. Only this time, after dealing with all of Ansem and Even’s frippery, at night he tried to find places to train magic.

The greenhouse was out. Demyx was using that, and might see things he didn’t need to see.

The castle was huge. Plenty of nooks and crannies to squirrel himself away in, but Ienzo did not want to spend hours climbing or walking somewhere just to train for yet more time. He spent several days trying to subtly coax the entirety of Aeleus and Dilan’s rounds out of them; it needed to be off their radar, too. At last, though, he found it. It was a domed courtyard, perhaps fifteen meters in diameter, with several pillars; these pillars had lighted sconces. The ground had once been inlaid parquet, only it had been damaged and torn away in places. It was quiet, here, and there was potential for moonlight.

He dressed comfortably. He brought with him a small store of water, nonperishable snacks. Ienzo wasn’t quite brazen enough to try stealing ethers from Even’s stores; the man would no doubt notice they were missing. He’d have to make do for now until the next time he went to the market.

Ienzo sat cross legged on the ground. He tried to breathe and center himself, and once he felt he was sufficiently focused he summoned the lexicon.

It had once been named “Book of Retribution,” a name he’d not consciously chosen but had been inscribed in the front cover. He knew now that of course this was the very essence of his psyche; what else would a scholar, a researcher have other than a book ? He had no need for knives, swords, or instruments. Words could--and did--hurt just as much. They could break your heart.

Sticks and stones , he thought sourly.

But this volume? There was nothing written on the inner cover, just blankness, a generic paper print. There were some contents to this book now, from all his time spent reading in this life so far. So what was it? Was it nameless? Did it matter?

Friend, he thought towards it, help me.

Ienzo stood. His powers had been partially telekinetic, at least in regards to the lexicon. It might be easiest to start there. He held it out in his arms and tried to pull from within. He could feel the book trembling in his grip as he tried to lift it with his mind; instantly Ienzo felt a hot headache blooming, his heart rate increasing noticeably. Just fucking pick it up, he thought to himself. He let go with his hands, and it immediately fell to the floor.

He almost groaned out loud, but composed himself. He had to be calm. Try again.

He must’ve stood there for hours. It was unclear.

Every time Ienzo tried to get the lexicon to do what he wanted, it simply flopped to the ground. He could get it to do no more than tremble in his hands. The pain grew worse, and he grew dizzier, until his breathing was quite labored. The water and snacks only partially helped. He felt drained, depleted, in more ways than one, and to his shock felt frustrated tears building in his eyes.

Weak. Weak. Weak.

He walked back to the apprentices’ quarters and dropped into bed for a weary few hours of sleep before his alarm woke him.

---

These days took on a pattern. By day, he was Ienzo, a modest scholar of the heart, seeking to plumb the depths of Kairi’s. By night, he was closer to Zexion, struggling to reign in a power he’d once had like breath. He had no idea if he was making any progress or if he were simply hurting his body for no reason.

Because it was hurting. He was prone more than ever to headaches, to wooziness, and sometimes even in sedentary stillness his heart would race. He felt out of breath climbing stairs. The ethers he finally got his hands on did help, but only so much. It seemed like Even was right, about the entropy. Not to mention, magic burned ludicrously more calories for humans than Nobodies, and he struggled to keep up proper intake.

He couldn’t do nothing. What were some aches and pains compared to Sora’s life?

The weeks--or months? He wasn’t sure--seemed to drag on in this manner… Ienzo so slowly made progress, was able to lift and manipulate the book with relative ease, though it left him gasping for air. He would get used to it. He’d be sure of it.

That morning, he’d again been feeling dizzy, but thought nothing of it. He saw Demyx in the hall, on his own way to work. “Hey, Zo,” he said pleasantly. Ienzo had tried to be cordial, since his breakdown, had even responded to the other boy’s texts--but Ienzo had no time for friendship, and he thought Demyx knew that. “How’s it going? Haven’t seen hide or hair of you in forever.”

“It certainly is going,” he said vaguely. His vision was blurry, and he felt again his heart starting to skip, to race. It would pass. “I’m afraid I’ve barely had a moment to myself.”

He rubbed the back of his neck. “But are you… doing okay?”

“Better than I was. Thank you for asking.”

“‘...Course.” He smiled a little.

“How’s your work?”

“Oh, same soup, just reheated, you know? But I honestly don’t mind. It’s just different enough every day. And so far… almost all the people I’ve met are nice. It’s… refreshing.” A wry laugh.

“I know I haven’t been--very warm--” A particularly sharp pain echoed through his head, and he touched it without meaning to.

“You’ve got a lot on your plate--Zo?”

He tried to breathe through the pain. His heart had leapt into his throat. He realized all this must be very visible because Demyx added,

“Hey. Zo?”

Ienzo tried to find the words to console him, but his knees were weakening.

“Zo? I… fuck.”

His consciousness cut rather abruptly, and from here there were only odd snatches of things. He was being carried, his face pressed against Demyx’s chest, the smell of laundry and something like salt and ginger. How odd… to be so vulnerable…

“I got your call--what on earth happened?”

“We were just talking and he collapsed like a sack of potatoes.”

More darkness, more lost time. Ienzo didn’t regain awareness all at once. He felt blankets, the distinctive pull of an IV, the smell of bleached linen. An ache, dulled by painkillers, nothing quite having straight lines.

“...My boy? Can you hear me?” A warm, dry hand against his.

His eyelids felt like lead, and a scratchiness of sandpaper.

“Let him sleep, Ansem. He’ll need it for the hiding I’m about to give--”

He either slept or was unconscious--it was hard to tell. But things were clearer once he opened his eyes.

He was not in his bedroom. He was in the med bay, where he’d tended to Even and Dilan as they recovered from their Nobodies’ wounds. While not as cold or as sterile as the Organization’s own ward, it was still quite jarring.

“Awake at last?” Even set aside the tablet he’d been holding and came over to the bed.

“Time for the hiding, then?” Ienzo asked dully.

“Do you have any idea what shape you were in when Demyx brought you to me?”

“I was simply unconscious.”

“Simply--” Even sputtered, his hands near his face, and Ienzo saw Vexen once again. “You do realize healthy twenty-year-olds don’t simply black out, yes?”

Ienzo sat up. He was still perilously dizzy, but less so. “Perhaps I was just ill.”

“None of this perhaps nonsense. I know exactly what you’ve been up to.”

His heart stuttered again, though this time from that familiar punch of caught.  

Even scowled and turned away from him. “Do you know what the ideal weight for a person of your size is?”

Ienzo was confused; not the lecture he’d been expecting about entropy and danger . “Well--yes--”

“Tell me.”

“What are you getting at?”

“What is a healthy body weight for a person of your height?” His lips were pursed.

“Between fifty-nine and eighty-one kilograms.”

“Do you know how much you weigh?”

“Even, I’ve no idea where you’re going with this,” he said honestly.

“Fifty-four. Fifty-four kilograms with a twenty-year-old’s metabolism.”

It started to click. Even didn’t know about Ienzo’s attempt to regain his power. He thought all these health issues were from-- He put a hand to his head. Ienzo knew the magic was causing him to lose weight. He didn’t think it was drastic or noticeable.  

Which angle to play, then? How did he get himself out of this? He did not want to confess to an issue he did not have, but confessing to use of power seemed infinitely worse. “Even,” he said tiredly. “You needn’t worry about my weight. At all.”

“Oh, but that isn’t all, Ienzo,” he said smoothly. “You think nobody’s noticed that your bed is rarely slept in? That your phone shows you active all hours of the day--and night? Not to mention you barely eat, barely drink water, that I’ve noticed, anyway, and I’m not the only one paying attention. The dehydration, the sleep deprivation, this…” Again he trailed off. “Your blood pressure, the ambient amount of cortisol in your blood… Ienzo, if you keep living like this, you won’t see thirty.”

Ienzo dropped his eyes.

“I don’t know how to impart the seriousness of your condition.”

“I’m not radically underweight.”

He groaned. “It’s not about your weight. It’s that you clearly are neglecting your own needs--and it’s catching up to you. And it will keep catching up to you unless you learn to take care of yourself.”

“I’m an adult, I’m perfectly capable--”

“Perfectly capable? Perfectly capable? You think losing consciousness for the better part of three days is a reflection of health ?”

Ienzo gritted his teeth. A rage began coiling in his stomach. “What does it matter?” he all but snarled.

“Child, I can’t make you want to live. But how else can I convince you that your body can’t, and won’t , react like a Nobody’s? It’s not a vessel, not a plaything. You can’t expect to work if you’re deteriorating so rapidly.” He softened just a touch; bizarre to see it happen. “You can’t expect to live, either.”

Ienzo didn’t know what to say. It felt like getting punched.

“I lost you once. I won’t lose you again.”

“Lost?” The claws were well and truly out now. For the first time Ienzo fully understood what it meant when someone snapped , despite having seen it and forced it on people countless times. It did feel like breaking. “You lost me?”

At his radical change in tone, Even’s eyebrows shot up.

“You…” He couldn’t find the words. “You took my father and you dumped him out, and then you had the nerve--the gall -- to lie to me about it. For years .” He was trembling. “You let Xehanort do to me what he would. You let me see and break those people. You.”

Even had turned very pale.

“And then--after all that--you let him take my heart. You think a kid could make that kind of decision? A fucking child?” Ienzo breathed hard. “I was just another one of your experiments, Even. That’s all I ever was. Admit it.” He’d never heard his own voice like this, rough and on the verge of a scream. “You, Aeleus, Dilan. You didn’t lose me. You threw me away.”

Ienzo didn’t know what to read into that expression--only knew that he’d never seen it before. “Ienzo…” He began tremulously.

“Everything I’ve done…” The guilt was almost stronger than the rage. “You gave me the tools. Why?”

“What?”

“Tell me why.”

“I never wanted him to hurt you. Never wanted you to have that life. But Xehanort… his hold on us… we were so convinced we could… change the world. He told me he wanted to make it better for people like you.” His eyes were pleading. “Seeing all your pain… I thought the darkness could heal. That it could help people. But it twisted me. Made it so much easier to put aside the human for the scientific… made my ends… worth their means. We were experiments too, Ienzo. Do you think any of us had a choice? It was give up our hearts… or become another subject in his plan.” He pressed one hand to his face, his eyes shut tight. “By the time I tried to get us out, it was too late… and being a Nobody cut all my bonds with others, especially you.”

The rage was cooling, hardening, and becoming something far more painful.

“Every time I see your face I think of it. What you could’ve done. Already, already you’re doing so much more good than I ever did.” He came closer to Ienzo. “I had hoped to raise you to be better. When Ansem asked me to help him care for you… you were already all but feral from his ragged childcare. I saw that you were… different, a brilliance I had hoped to nurture. But once the darkness came we exploited you. And I am so sorry. I’m so sorry.”

The tears in his eyes were oddly cold.

“It pains me more than I can describe to see you struggle now, as a direct result of my actions. All I can do is hope I can make this place good enough, safe enough, for you to have the life you deserved.” His voice was unsteady. Ienzo had never seen Even cry; part of him didn’t think the man was capable. But the tears on his face were very real.

“...Even.” He felt his lip trembling in an attempt to hold it back.

“I do not expect to be forgiven. I hope that this guilt… will make me better .”

The apology rang dully in his ears. He feared he was breaking again, in a different way this time. Even sat on the bed next to him.

“Let me help you, Ienzo. You are no longer so alone. I wish to earn your trust again… should you so let me.”

It was this that did it, on top of his very exhaustion. Again the tears seemed to run from a deep, awful place in him; the abandonment and guilt and rage mixing into a slurry he couldn’t fight anymore. They broke out of him. He curled up. Despite it all, Even was here. He’d apologized, something Vexen never had done. He was… upset.

So gently, Even reached forward to embrace him. It had been years since he’d last been consoled like this, yet it was so eerily familiar. Even smelled the same, bleached cloth and powder. Ienzo found himself clinging to him. “Just cry,” Even said softly. “Scream, if you need. It might help.”

All Ienzo could do was listen, paralyzed again by his own emotions, but it felt… cathartic? Like the dark things were bleeding out of him, bit by tiny bit. He knew on a literal level it was probably humiliating, to be a grown man sobbing in his old guardian’s arms, but he felt less mortified than when he had broken down in front of Demyx. Even stroked his hair, another familiar gesture. Eventually, eventually… the sobs quieted, calmed, and he could breathe normally. Even got up and handed him a cool, damp cloth for his raw eyes.

“Is that better?” Even asked.

“How disgraceful this is,” he muttered.

“Your system is no doubt out of sorts--and so is your heart. Natural for it to need some kind of release.” He took off his lab coat; Ienzo noticed before he set it aside that the shoulder was quite damp, translucent, almost. “You should spend some time recovering. Sleeping, eating, getting outside.”

“What about Kairi?”

“Kairi and Sora would both agree that this isn’t worth the price of your health. Physically or mentally.”

“But with Aeleus and Dilan pulled away by rounds--” and Even and Ansem seething at one another, “--you’ll be--”

“We’re both grown men, Ienzo. I think we can set aside our differences for the time being.”

“What will I do if I don’t work?” It was more a question to himself than anything; Ienzo truly didn’t know. He’d been working and working for years now.

“Perhaps focus on your own studies? Or…” He considered. “We could have you on in a heavily reduced capacity, say three hours a day?”

Ienzo felt odd. Stripped bare. “This is so humiliating, for it to come to this.”

Even just sighed. “What else would have happened? It’s all you know--working yourself into the ground for things you care about. We raised you this way. But now your cause should be learning to be human. No more, no less.”

It was clear Even was right. If he were to do good, he had to be healthy. Dealing with these emotions and memories should be a priority.

“I’ll give you some medication to help you sleep,” Even said. “And the anti-anxiety. I’d like for you to try both, at least for a time. See how it treats you.”

“...Alright.”

[wolframalpha]

3D-Printed Blood Vessels: The Tech Just Became Scalable

By Greg Hurst and Matt Gelber.

This article was published on Medium.

The Problem: Making Vasculature is Hard!

It sounds simple enough — all of your cells require a constant supply of oxygen. Your lungs extract it from the air and your blood carries it all around your body through a vascular network comprising thousands of miles of veins and arteries. If your heart doesn’t beat at least once every couple seconds, your brain doesn’t receive enough oxygen-rich blood to maintain consciousness.

We don’t understand super high-level biological phenomena like consciousness. We can’t engineer a conscious array of cells, or even of transistors. But we understand pretty well the vasculature that supports consciousness. It’s a series of tubes. Literally. And it may be that if we can make the tubes and deliver oxygen to a sufficiently large population of cells, we can make some cool things happen. A conscious brain is a long shot, a functional piece of liver or kidney decidedly less so.

The problem is, making vasculature is hard. Cells in a dish do self-organize to an extent, but we don’t understand such systems well enough to tell a bunch of cells to grow into a vascularized organ.

An alternative means of generating physiological structure’s blood vessels is a bit cruder — design the structure you want, then make a robot that can physically place the cells and the vessels where you want them. We call this bioprinting. A major hurdle with bioprinting is the fact that, while the printer is working, the cells that have been printed are slowly dying from lack of oxygen. For really big, complex tissues, you either need a way to supply oxygen while you’re still printing, or you need a way to make all those blood vessels really fast.

One really fast approach was demonstrated in 2009. Researchers at Cornell used a cotton candy machine to melt-spin a pile of sugar fibers. They cast the sugar fibers in a polymer, dissolved them out with water and made a random vascular network in minutes. In 2012, researchers at Penn used a hacked desktop 3D printer to draw molten sugar fibers into a simple lattice and showed that the same sacrificial casting approach could be used deliver blood to rat liver cells in a dish, keeping them alive for weeks. Now, researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have developed the ability to make these sugar fiber networks of any shape and size.

Materials Science + Mechanical Engineering + Theoretical Computer Science to the Rescue

Scaling the process isn’t just a matter of building a more precise, more expensive printer (although that is necessary). It’s a matter of choosing the right type of sugar, understanding the physical behavior of the sugar as it is printed and of telling the printing robot how to move. The problem spans materials science, mechanical engineering and theoretical computer science; it contained more than enough material for a PhD thesis, and the cells aren’t even in there yet. The materials and mechanical engineering aspects are laid out in a recent publication in Additive Manufacturing; the planning algorithm is described in a recent manuscript still under review.

Instead of conventional sugars, this printer uses isomalt, the same low-calorie sugar substitute they use to make throat lozenges. Isomalt works better than conventional sugar, mostly because it doesn’t burn like sugar does. The printer melts the isomalt and pushes it out of a tiny nozzle under pressure. Like a pen, the nozzle is used to “write” thin isomalt filaments, but in 3D. Printing speed, temperature and pressure are critical to achieving precise filaments. Right now the diameters of the filaments can be anywhere from 50 to 500 micrometers; to give some context, a human hair is about 10 micrometers thick. However, the researchers say it’s entirely possible to go bigger or smaller.

At that point it might seem like you’re done. But when you want to print a network comprising thousands of filaments, you encounter an interesting problem. You need to choose an order in which to print them. The printing process is freeform; you can move the nozzle anywhere you want. That means if you’re not careful, you can hit your sugar construct with your nozzle and destroy it.

Avoid Collisions AND Don’t Melt

Collision avoidance is a pretty common problem in robotics, so that part isn’t too hard to deal with. However, there is an additional wrinkle that is very specific to this problem. It has to do with the fact that every time you go to an existing filament and draw a new branch, you melt the material at the joint. Imagine you’re building a bridge, but every time you weld a new beam on, all the existing welds around it melt. This makes the problem a lot harder.

Without this constraint, the problem of choosing a sequence is analogous to finding your way out of the maze on the right. There are dead ends, but you can see them. You won’t get lost in them; you’ll immediately turn around. But with this particular constraint, choosing a sequence is like finding your way out of the maze on the right. The maze is big; for long sequences, it becomes, for all practical purposes, infinite.

The best you can do in this case is make an educated guess at every fork. For example, if you had a compass that pointed towards the exit, you might take the path that most nearly coincides with the direction of the needle. In some cases, there is no feasible printing sequence; the maze has no exit. More strangely still, you can’t know, at least with our current understanding of computer science, if you should give up. You know the exit exists if, and only if, you actually find it.

In order to navigate the maze and generate a printing sequence, you need an efficient algorithm as well as a fair bit of computational power. This part has become much easier recently with high-level languages such as the Wolfram Language. Says author Greg Hurst, a developer at Wolfram Research, “This problem spans many disciplines. Computational geometry is needed for collision detection, NP-complete graph problems — like finding cliques — need to be solved, and sparse matrix solvers need to be invoked thousands of times throughout. With the Wolfram Language, I was able to hammer out fast code in a matter of months.”

Here’s a Wolfram Language command to visualize nozzle-beam collisions. The red beams must be drawn after the green one to avoid contact with the blue nozzle as it draws the green beam:

Here’s the full implementation with relevant information to monitor the progress:

What’s Next?

So the problems of turning a design into a set of printer instructions, and of having a printer that is sufficiently precise into execute them, are more or less solved. This doesn’t mean that 3D-printed organs are just around the corner. Just pouring a bunch of liver cells around a vascular mold doesn’t give you a functional liver. You need to make the cells to grow and organize the same way they do in your body.

Cells respond to the chemical and mechanical properties of their environment, and successfully recapitulating tissue requires tailoring these parameters as well. But printing vasculature is a very important step, because without it, everything dies. Now we can start tweaking the environment without worrying so much about the all-important blood vessels.

Today, we have sugar bunnies. Tomorrow, we might have miniature organs on a chip that we use to test new drugs. In several years, who knows. Maybe we’ll be able to replace a failing heart with a patient-specific replica. Maybe the processor in your computer will be replaced by a vascularized slab of neurons. We can’t yet say what the application will be, but we have the tools now to start entertaining these ideas. Stay tuned!

For a more technical overview, visit the Wolfram Blog.

[elsewhereuniversity]

What These Kids Found Under the University Dumpster May Shock You

The first thing it heard when it awakened were footsteps. Not one or two or three, but many. After that were sounds of many tones. Even without memory, it knew that they were not noises found anywhere in the wild. They were… Curious. Indescribable.

“I think this is a better place than any to hangout.” It would later remember, looking back. It was a melodic sound, almost comparable to the wind playing with the hair of the trees so far in the distance.

“B-but… Pearl, was it?” A second, deeper sound seemed to sputter. This sound was like a low hum it could barely remember from their past. Perhaps during their slumber. Perhaps even farther. The thought slipped through the cracks in its mind. “T-this is a Denny’s. The back of a Denny’s.”

“But this is also Elsewhere, Gem. For all we know, what they told us was true, and faeries are about. For all we know,” They was a horrible grating noise, as the world beneath it seemed to shake with protest. It stopped as suddenly as it started. “It could just be more bogus fake news and the school is full of druggies!”

There was a pause of silence. Then: “Oh, come on. Didn’t you tell me during orientation that this was your dream school? That out of all the Universities that accepted you, you chose here?”

“Yeah but-”

“Then it’s settled. I’m going to go tell the others. You go tell your brother what’s his face-”

“Moon.”

“Yeah, him.” The thuds came again, just like in the beginning, except they were fast, and they were receding. With a sigh, the other followed. And this thing that they had awakened? It continued to stay under the dumpster of the Elsewhere Campus Denny’s.

 Later that day, the two students came again, accompanied by three others. Two women giggled as they conversed with one of the men, while the other man stayed with the last woman, trailing behind in silence.

“Here! Right here!” The woman from before - Pearl - spun in a flourish, her blond hair dancing behind her, as she introduced the back of the Denny’s like the theatrical performer she was. The woman who had been beside her laughed, pleased. Her hair was green at the time, swaying like the leaves. The man who had talked to them gaped in mock surprise, his black hair wet and dripping. The red haired female and the male from before - Gem - both continued to stand in silence. At one point, they probably glanced at each other like Seriously? however that time had long passed.

“Love the positivity Moon, Rainbow. But I didn’t hear the people in the back!”

The girl gave a small and reluctant “whoop”. Gem only shook their head, conveying that they preferred to be anywhere but there.

“I still don’t think this is a good idea.” He said. Pearl only tsked.

The group spread out to explore: some eagerly, a few reluctantly.  The girl from the back noticed something reflect the light from the shadow that cast by the chain restaurant as she lay on a grassy field nearby to test it’s comfort. Approaching, she realized that what she saw did not come from eye level, but beneath it; under the dumpster. Half disgusted yet half curious, she reached down and pulled out an object, something so unexpectedly massive that she had to use her other hand to grab the other she nudged with the back of her hand blindly.

They were two impossibly perfect glass orbs. Both identical, 4 inches in diameter, surprisingly light, barely small enough to fit one in one hand. She examined them as her friends gathered close, looking at the immaculate objects in awe. Too beautiful to be man made, yet too clean to be of nature. It can only be something divine.

Whilst examining, the girl’s bracelet of iron slid down her wrist, stopping with a klink on the surface of the glass.

The effect was immediate. The orbs came to life at once, both shining as brightly as the sun, if not more. She dropped it, and if not for the shadow, would have broken the items. Instead, the darkness caught it, letting the glass hover an inch above the ground, steadily rising about 2 feet. The light dimmed to a more bearable amount, now that the iron had gone, and stared at what was possibly the first organisms to ever ingrain themselves in their memory.

The humans gaped, both in surprise and in fear. For they now understood that the campus and its people did not lie: Faeries exist on the campus grounds.

It was the red haired girl first who unfroze, taking care to hide her iron under her sleeve before slowly moving her hand towards them; not to pick up, but just to feel the cool surface under her fingers. Although it was impossible to tell, she knew that it was looking right in her eyes. She gave a small smile.

“Hey there, kid. Call me Star.”

In the presence of the group, the Fae felt… It didn’t know what it felt, but it was like for the first time, they were living. Not an object that was left to be forgotten, but a creature that was meant to be remembered. Although the group made sounds they didn’t understand, this creature habiting in shadow knew that it was accepted as a member of the group. However, it was difficult to interact and join them when they couldn’t speak. The biggest way of telling the world that you exist is to communicate, after all. And the group seemed to understand this. It was Rainbow - her hair violet that day - who suggested Morse code. Moon who helped Gem print pages upon pages of research on the subject. Pearl who bought the laser pointers, flashlights, mountains of batteries, and filled everyone’s bowls with cream or milk when they were too tired or too busy to do it themselves. And Star, with her voice softer than the scattering of grass on a cloudy day, who helped them associate sound with blinks of light.

When the day came when everyone was confident in its ability to communicate, they chose Star as the first word that it said.

“Me?” She had asked, bewildered. “Why my name?”

In her lap were the orbs, lit up and blinking. She balanced them on the side of her knees as she sat cross-legged, each hand on one orb to keep it steady. Her iron was hidden high up her arm, in fear of harming it.

“You’re the one who taught it.” Moon said, giving her a grin that ladies would do anything for. It didn’t sway Star though, and that was clear.

“Without you, they would still be under that dumpster.” Rainbow added.

“You’re the one who found it.” Pearl unknowingly restated.

“And,” Gem finished. “You clearly have the strongest bond with them.”

She looked down at the peculiar Fae, who she could tell was looking up at her in turn. With a sigh, she put the orbs under the protection of shadow, where it hovered up to their eye level.

“Okay kiddo. Remember what we taught you.” She said slowly, allowing the Fae to mull over the words, understand them and their meanings. “Star. Ss. T. Ar.”

S-T-I-R it blinked out, very slowly. She smiled kindly and repeated the syllables. It was hard and slow, but eventually-

[S… Sta… a…r] it said, and after hours of silence, the whole group exploded in celebration. Rainbow picked up the orbs and kissed them, Pearl hugged them tightly, Moon tossed them in the air, and Gem just patted them on the head with a “Good Job” and a smile. And throughout all of this was Star, who was just amazed.

Months pass, and the orbs have learned to say the names of everyone in the group, and has started to join in on conversations they had about their time in Elsewhere. As much as they enjoyed it, the best times seemed to be the nights where they wake up to find Star setting up camp in the grassy field nearby, surrounding herself in a circle of salt and iron, leaving her bowl of cream just outside. On these days, it moved out of the comfort of the dumpster and travelled until they reached the circle, where she would always open it up for them and close it afterwards. She would let it snuggle beside her as she taught it everything she knew about the lights in the sky, and spun tales about the great spoon or its zodiac “children” until the light faded from the orbs.

The group realized they needed a name for their Faerie friend, and it was Star who recommended Shad, after the blanket of shadows it always moved under. And so Shad it became, and Shad it would always be. With a name, Shad felt like the group could be together forever, and that it was permanent.

The last night Shad saw Star, she never told them a story. They hovered up to stare at their friend, worried.

[is ok] they asked with a tilt of their orbs. Star only smiled and rubbed the orbs, a wonderful sensation to them. It was a sign of being a part of a group, they thought. It was a sign of friendship.

“Yeah, kiddo. Yeah, I’m okay. Don’t worry.” She murmured, the petting turning to stroking the side of one orb once before she got under her covers and they fell asleep together. The next morning, they woke up under the dumpster once more. No one came to visit that day.

And the next.

The days became a week.

And then two weeks.

It was reaching almost three when Shad’s friends finally returned, but there was something wrong when they went to greet them. Something very, very wrong indeed.

Star was not with them.

They told it right then, that Star had been missing for weeks. That a body was found in the campus swimming pool, that it was a boy’s, and that grinning and hissing and singing the sweetest songs right beside it was a thing with Star’s face. They believed she was dead. Shad knew that in a way, they were right. The Star in the water both was and was not the one who laughed made Shad feel human. Who’s stories made them feel belonged.

The loss broke Shad. But even though Rainbow, Pearl, Gem, and Moon were able to put them back together, there were still things that they couldn’t fix. They cowered away from hands trying to pet them. They hid from the word “kiddo”.

They still joined the conversations - now mostly rumors that float around the school - but whenever someone offered to tell a fictional story, they would always find a way to leave.

It seemed as if when Star had passed, they took a part of Shad with them.

Perhaps it was a mercy. Perhaps it was a punishment for how they acted towards what remained of their friends. But one day, the humans ran to Shad, the happiest they’ve been for a long time.

Before they could ask, they were picked up by Pearl and she twirled until they felt dizzy.

“We were invited to a party Shad! Probably the first big one I’ve seen on campus!”

“They only invited a few people.” Moon added. “The host slides the invitations under doors, so it’s hard to get picked.” He watched Pearl with a longing. They had noticed that more and more often. They didn’t know what it meant, but possibly it was a good thing?

The look reminded them of Star so they turned to Gem, who was frowning. Rainbow was with the other two, celebrating. Gem looked down at Shad, who was put back down in the shadows.

“I don’t think it’s a good idea. I-I mean, we don’t even know who hosts them. What if they’re one of the-”

“Then,” Rainbow interrupted, walking over to him. “We’ll die of having fun.” She pushed him playfully at his concerned face. “Oh come on. Life is short. Our lives are short. Well, shorter than Shad’s, probably.” She nodded at them, and not knowing what to do, they nodded back. “Come to the party. Enjoy the liquor that may or may not be served there. Can’t be that bad, right?”

She turned to look back at them when she said it. Everyone was looking at them. Conformation. That it was safe. That the humans could go. Even if they didn’t really understand human thoughts and most of the words, Shad could tell that this event was something that meant a lot to their friends.

[Go to parti] They answered finally. Pearl seemed to smile wider. Moon patted their brother on the back.

“See, even the Faerie themselves agree that you should go. Relax. You need it. You haven’t done it in years.”

Gem nodded reluctantly, and saying their farewells to Shad, they all walked away, chatting. Shad watched, feeling as if they had done something right. Something good. Something… Human.

But then, the next morning Shad woke to disturbance in the air. Everything felt wrong. The last time they woke up like this was… So very long ago. They heard footsteps in the distance. Chatter. Whoops of laughter, but it felt wrong. It all felt horribly wrong.

They peeked out from under the dumpster, dangerously close to where the dark and the light meet, and what they saw made them feel - for the first time - terror.

It was a line of humans, all giggles and laughter. They chattered like nothing was wrong while someone lead them towards the trees. In the back, they spotted their friends. It might have all been fine except the one leading was not human and the forest was not a normal forest, but rather the Forest, a place too dangerous for humans to go to alone.

The place that humans go to be Taken.

Shad tried to move, but trying to get out of the shadow felt like running headfirst into a brick wall. They pushed hard against their limits, with will, with all their strength. But physics doesn’t work like that, and so neither will mundane shadows. But Shad was not a mundane creature. Elsewhere was not a mundane school.

[Frends] They said to themself, as the panic rose, as the shouts and laughter seemed to fade. [Sav frends]

In front of them, they saw a figure start to form. Featureless, with arms and legs. A memory, long gone, but it was enough.

[Humans] Shad’s orbs brightened in determination. [need to be human to help human]

Then it happened. The unseeable wall seemed to crumble. The orbs moved out of the dark, and with it came the shadows itself, creating a human like shape for them. They felt something like strings tether them to the ground, and looked to see two stick like things. The things their friends called legs.

Things they moved with.

At first, Shad stumbled. They had no time. Even if they moved terribly. It was better than staying still. They half tripped, half ran towards the group. Towards the Forest.

It was too late.

Ducking under branches, stumbling over rock, they finally were close enough to see the last one In the little line-up. It was Gem.

Hope blossomed inside them. Gem. The most human. Everyone called them the most logical, the safest. Safe was positive. Logic was a word associated with humans, so it was positive. Perhaps they could save him.

[Gem] They blinked, trying to get their attention. [Gem Gem Gem Gem Gem]

Perhaps they recognized the morse code, or perhaps it was just the light that flickered and made figures in the trees. Whatever it was, they stopped and turned. Shad was about to say more, when they faltered.

Gem’s eyes were blank. Shad didn’t understand it, but it was as if his eyes were also covered in glass. The black dots didn’t move.

[Gem Gem Gem Gem Gem] Shad chanted desperately. [Gem Gem Gem]

The boy didn’t react. They slowly turned, and went to catch up to the group, who were steadily shrinking into the distance.

Shad took a shaky step forward to follow, but then suddenly the branches dipped down, one after the other, until it created a wall. A wall that didn’t let them through. When it broke apart hours later, Shad searched for what felt like a long time, but were mere human minutes. It was as if the group had disappeared, and with them, the last of Shad’s friends.

Something they did find though, was what made Shad stop the search, partly out of sorrow, and partly out of the need of rest.

It was a very fluffy sweater, hanging from a branch of a tree. Shad remembered it as what Rainbow used to wear during the time when the leaves turned into colours that they had never seen. It was white, with a rainbow image in the middle which sparkled in the light of Shad’s eyes. With great difficulty, they put it on, not wanting to leave it behind. Since they had no arms, the sleeves fell limp at their sides, and they watched them sway with curiosity before walking back to Elsewhere, careful to stay in the light so that the sweater would not fall away from their shadow body.

They waited, hoping under the dumpster. Hoping that they would come back.

They waited weeks, with nothing.

Then months.

Then a year.

They don’t remember how much time had passed. Just that one day, they woke up to the sight of a large group of humans entering the Elsewhere building. A new semester had started again. They watched wistfully at the humans. Wishing to enter the school. Wishing to experience what their friends must have once done.

“Well, why don’t you?”

Suddenly, in front of them, Shad saw a girl peer down. A girl with red hair, curious eyes, and a shy smile.

[Star] Shad said, moving closer. But she tsked.

“No, kiddo. I’m just in your head. A memory, I guess.” Shad only seemed confused. “Anyway, you should. Go into Elsewhere I mean. You wanted to be human, and you’ve always showed interest in what happens in there. And with a body, you can wander. Make more friends. They found me in the swimming pool, didn’t they? Say hi. I must be lonely.” She shrugged.

[wat do in elswher] They asked. [dont no]

“Well, you can always be a theater major, like Pearl. English major, like Rainbow. Learn tech like Gem. But I wouldn’t really suggest sports. Doesn’t seem like your thing.”

[An wat did u do] They asked. Her smile faltered.

“You don’t know the word. You’ve never heard it before.” She replied softly. “But just remember that I’m Star.”

And just as quickly as she came, she disappeared. Immediately, Shad moved out from under the dumpster, and ran to the entrance, slipping in with everyone else, both Fae and human alike. Not knowing where to go, they sped down the halls, ignoring the whispers and stares, grateful for everyone avoiding them without knowing exactly why.

“Hey there, slow down.” A deep voice said, quite louder than they expected. Apparently at some point, Shad had stopped watching where they were going and started to run blindly. Right into a human man, who watched them curiously, holding onto their armless shoulders. “You should look where you’re going.”

[did not] They admitted. [was lukin at nothin] Looking up, they saw the man was staring with a strange intensity.

“You remind me…” He started, then paused. “Of a former student. She asked me everything I knew about the Fae, having teaching at this school for so long with the Sight.” He tapped his glasses and chuckled. They didn’t really understand any of that. “I presume you may know who I am talking about?”

They nodded, cautiously. He held up his pointer finger as he opened his bag and ruffled through it.

“She told me that if something were to happen to her or any of her friends, that if I happen to see you in the building, I should give you this.”

Out of his bag, he pulled out something grey. At first, it didn’t seem special, until they recognized the pattern created by the white lines was a familiar image. There were words on the top, and although Shad couldn’t read, they could tell what it said.

“Elsewhere University”

He unfolded the sweater, and seeing the orbs brighten in surprise made him give another small chuckle.

“Here, I’ll help you put it on.” He said, and Shad didn’t protest as he flipped the shirt over and got prepared to pull it over their head. But not before Shad saw something that felt more familiar than the Elsewhere crest.

5 words, each written differently in white fabric marker. They saw these words enough that they just knew what these said too.

“Rainbow”

“Pearl”

“Gem”

“Moon”

And of course

“Star”

They looked down at themselves, at the crest, the signatures now invisible once more.

“So I’m assuming you’re here for a major. Which one are you going to…” He trailed off.

The memory of earlier surfaced. “Just remember that I’m Star.” She had said.

They looked from their new sweater to the man.

[Im Shad an I lik Star] They said, not knowing what else to say. He laughed.

“What a funny little Fae you are. I assume you’re just a child, your eyes are all confident. Well, I’m sure you’re saying something, but whatever it is, I feel horrible for not understanding. However, Star was a hard working student before she left, and I can feel you may be the same. Come child,” He said, stepping forward and beckoning. “Let me take you to Astronomy.”

x

[thestarshiphope]

Left Behind

*Everyone finds themselves in the same memory...in this case, the lobby of Project Gofer*

Looks like everyone’s finally here.

This is everyone?

There’s...only 16 of us?

Yeah...

‘fraid so. The professor will explain.

This doesn’t bode well.

*Another group walks in*

Ah, welcome. I take you are surviving Ultimates as well?

Praise be to Atua for keeping you all safe!

...

We’re glad to have you all aboard! 

Y-yeah...

Presentations are a pain...

May I have everyone’s attention please? 

My creator, Professor Idabashi, would like to speak with you all.

*An older man walks up next to him*

Thank you, Kiibo. You may sit down now.

I am Professor Kunikazu Idabashi, one of the leading researches of Project Gofer. Firstly, I would like to say how grateful I am that you all made it here safely. Humanity owes you all its thanks. How are you all feeling about this mission?

Well, it’s...not something I ever expected would happen to me.

It’s something I’ve been looking forward to for a long time now!

I knew this would could never handle all my beauty and brilliance. Space is the only place that could hold it all, and even then, just barely!

Right...well, I have something important to share with you all. There is...no easy way to say this...

Professor?

As it stands, there...will not be any more new arrivals to this project.

No more? Were people opting out?

Yes...and no. What I mean is, you are all that we have left. Not just for this project, in the country as a whole.

...We’re the last Ultimates?

The last of your generation, yes.

But...but that is impossible! There were over 536,329 Ultimates in all of Japan!

I’m afraid Red Rain’s classicide was...successful. All that remains are the 16 of you.

Only 16 of us...?

Those bastards...

...

W-w-well, I mean...it’s not a huge deal, right? We can...we can still get the mission done, can’t we?

...

Y-yeah! Damn right we can! We’ve just gotta work extra hard to-

???: That’s something I can explain.

Huh?

*From a door on the other side of the room emerges an older woman with faded green and gray hair, bright green eyes, and a cheerful smile.*

Hello, everyone. My name is Towa Monaca, the CEO of Towa Group and all subsidiaries.

Wait, like...THE Towa Group?!

That’s the one! We’ve been helping finance this entire mission.

Holy fucking shit, this is so fucking cooool! Towa Group has been a HUUUUGE inspiration for-

Can you find something to shove into your mouth? We’re in the middle of a presentation here.

Anyway, please go ahead.

Right. Well, Towa Group’s satellites have been tracking the movement of the asteroids ever since the bulk of them made it past the orbit of Mars.

And I hate to tell you kids this, but...we miscalculated.

Miscalculate?

Kunikazu? Can you explain?

Of course. 

*He brings up a display showing Earth and the oncoming swarm of asteroids*

At first, we believed that most of the bodies in this swarm were less than 140 meters across, and that 85-90% would bypass the Earth by a factor of 50,000 kilometers. As it turns out, we were off by a huge degree.

How huge?

This swarm is...massive. It’s over 1/3 the mass of the Moon, and most of these bodies are well over 400 meters across. The largest one we’ve spotted is over a kilometer and a half in diameter. This is...we don’t have nearly enough in our arsenal to put a dent this.

Is this like...what happened to the dinosaurs?

No...it’s even worse.

Momota-san, would you care to elaborate? 

Sure thing.

See, what happened to the dinosaurs was just one big asteroid. It was 10-15 kilometers wide. That was like the Earth gettin’ hit by a mountain. But this? This is like getting hit with a dwarf planet.

And what we’ve been dealing with has been the outer fringes of the whole thing. They said it’s an average of 50 meteor strikes a week, right? At this rate, it’ll be maybe 100-200 meteor strikes an hour. And that’s my most conservative estimate.

After that, it gets bad.

What a lot of those diaster movies forget about is the most important and dangerous part of an impact: not just the shock wave or the tsunami, not just the cloud of debris, but the heat. All the heat from all those impacts is gonna have to go somewhere.

With that much mass...the heat’ll be enough to evaporate the world’s oceans. Probably even melt the entire Earth’s surface.

...

This....this really is the end of the world.

...

...

How long have we got?

Our best case scenario?

We have another three months before it gets really bad.

May Atua protect us and give us strength.

If there’s nothing we can do to stop this, what was the point of bringing us all here?

Because the mission is still going ahead. What matters right now is getting all of you off the planet as soon as possible.

What do you mean? There’s still something we can do?

Yes. You can survive.

Oh. I get it.

This is getting too sci-fi for my tastes. Can someone please explain?

...Project Gofer’s not about saving the world, is it?

It is about ensuring that some fragment of mankind carries on.

That’s the plan. It’s all we have anymore. Other countries have started trying the same thing, but we have no idea if they’re successful or not. What matters is we get the 16 of you off the planet as soon as-

Wait, wait, wait...just the 16 of us? What about our families? Our friends?

 ...

Surely, you can fit more than just the 16 of us on that ship.

...if we had more time, yes, we could.

Akamatsu-san, the sad truth is that we’re already making a huge gamble here. Red Rain is hunting you all down, we are three months away from the apocalypse, and our resources are virtually gone. The most we can spare is a small research team to assist you, and that’s it. I’m sorry, I’m very sorry, but...this is all we can do.

But...my parents....Erika...

Grandma....grandpa...

Mommy’s still in the hospital...

I’m not going anywhere without my organization.

This was not what we agreed on! You said that you could help me find my sisters if I helped you find them!

That was before we found out we were wrong.

Suppose you’re wrong this time.

I wish that we were, but if we’re not, we don’t have the resources to spare!

...wait one moment.

I know that I gave the order to turn many people away, but I was informed that you had screened over 2,000 people for their assistance in the project.

What became of them? What was their contribution?

...they provided us with enough egg and sperm samples, and even embryo donations to keep your population viable. It was necessary for your mission to-

You lied to them. You told them they would have a place on the ship, did you not?

 I...may have been forced to make that decision.

Father, what?!

All of you calm down! You’re being irrational as hell right now! I know it sucks. Believe me, I do. But right now, we can’t afford to be self-righteous about this. This about saving humankind.

You mean the people out there trying to kill us? The ones killing each other over food and medicine? That’s the legacy we’re supposed to carry on?

You can’t be serious. There is too much riding on stake here! The survival of our society depends on you-

You’ve been lying to people this whole time. This was always just about saving the Ultimates, wasn’t it?

Well, you know what?! I’m...I’m done! I quit! I’m out of this project! I’m going back to my family!

 What?!

Akamatsu?!

Kaede, wait up!

For a long time, I’ve wanted to go to space...

But if this is what I have to do...it’s not worth it.

...*Maki follows him*

Trusting the future of mankind to someone like me. Ridiculous.

...

Deceivers, all of you.

Where are you going to go?! Red Rain is hunting you all down! You’re at the top of their kill list!

You can all go fuck yourselves! I’m out too!

Gonta never leave his families behind!

...

I’d...I’d rather stay here with Mommy...

To think that I would abandon my promise to Sister...

I can’t believe you lied to the whole world! You promise them an escape, but it’s only for a few people?

If I didn’t know any better, I’d say I was the one running the show here.

But I do know better. And I’m out.

You’re all just as bad as Red Rain! You’re letting the rest of humanity die just to save us?! No way! Tenko’s going back to her family!

...

What about you, Kiibo?

I...I cannot agree with your decision.

So you’re leaving us too? After everything Kunikazu and I did for you?

...I’m sorry.

*In the end, Kiibo is the last one to step outside*

[taggerbug]

spiderman science

 v. 2.0

If you like Spiderman meta, or want to read what Spiderman would look like if he were more realistic, here you go.This is going to be a long one, folks. Thanks to @redmiel for encouraging me to post these notes. 

Preface: I’ve never read any Spiderman comics, and my first exposure to any sort of Spiderman lore was seeing Spider-Man: Homecoming a couple months ago. I’ve been an amateur entomologist for 12 years, so I decided the best way to cope with the sheer audacity of the meta in that movie (mechanical spinnerets??? cowards) would be to do some research and, essentially, design a Spiderman based on real spider characteristics, adapted to a human form and while keeping a very rough sketch of what Spiderman is supposed to be in mind. This has been a fun project to keep up with, so here’s what I have so far:

Species

Based on what I saw in Homecoming, I’d pin down the approximate species of spider for Peter Parker to inherit his abilities from as being a jumping spider, with a little tarantula and spitting spider mixed in. Jumping spiders are fairly unique among spiders, as they have front-facing eyes (and subsequently, better vision), are active hunters rather than sit-and-wait hunters, and of course can jump up to 14 times their own body length. I’ll explain the tarantula and spitting spider traits later.

Silk

What kind of Iron Man-worshipping heretic gives Spiderman mechanical spinnerets and artificial web fluid?? Real spider silk is so much cooler to work with. As a precedent, let’s put spinnerets on Spiderman’s wrists. The silk glands would be located in the shoulders, as that’s the best location that can be transferred to human anatomy - the spitting spider’s venom and silk glands are located in the cephalothorax, the first segment of a spider’s body. 

Anyway, spider silk is really neat. It’s stronger than a steel thread of the same size, can stretch up to 200 times its original length, and the spider (peter) can control the diameter of the silk thread with the spinnerets! The web-based combat in Homecoming was okay, but it completely missed out on a few natural defenses that spiders actually use silk for, like dropping down on prey with silk nets, or setting up an “alert system” with silk triplines.

“Spider Sense”

I was actually mildly pleasantly surprised at the way the “spider sense” was portrayed in the Infinity War trailer. Spiders can detect low-level vibrations with the hairs on their bodies, similar to the way Peter’s hair suddenly stood up. In this context, the detection of low-level vibrations can be translated to being able to perceive sudden movements and lurking enemies without being a terrible stretch.

Assorted Physiological Features and Behaviours (not including combat-based)

Key terms are in bold, because this is a lot of text.

Here’s the fun part, in my opinion. Spiders have so many cool and often unrealized anatomical traits, and as long as you make sure that transplanting a spider characteristic to Spiderman won’t kill him, it’s all good.

To walk on walls like spiders, Spiderman would have microfibers on the palms of his hands and the soles of his feet, and would also have microscopic claws tipping his fingertips. Most spiders have two or three claws on the ends of their legs, which are bigger proportionally than what I’m proposing, but I’m trying to let Spiderman retain at least a hope of preserving a secret identity (the only reason I can’t even give him more eyes).

Another thing that’s really cool about spiders is that instead of focusing the lens of the eye and the iris remaining the same size, like humans, they focus the iris and the lens stays the same size. This usually can only be seen by looking closely at a jumping spider who is focusing on different objects, but in a human it would be a bit more noticeable, and would probably appear as a strange flickering in Peter’s eyes when he looks around, but nobody would be likely to notice the cause of the flickering unless they used the same methods as with a jumping spider - looked very closely and intentionally. Simply put, when Spiderman focuses on a new object, the colors of his eyes would dilate or contract, instead of the pupil. 

Now that I think about it, a (weak) connection could be made to the way Spiderman’s suit’s eyes focus the main white part, instead of the black lining, but then again that could simply represent a squinting motion of the eyelids instead.

“Ballooning” is a behaviour exhibited solely by baby spiders and extremely small adults, although it is sometimes (and perhaps more accurately) called “kiting”. In this, the spider assembles a triangular-shaped sail of sorts out of silk, which is then used under the right wind conditions to float on the air currents. This is, in my opinion, absolutely fascinating and a devastatingly unused opportunity that Marvel could be taking advantage of. 

Spiders are unable to thermoregulate, so throughout the day some species constantly seek out warmer areas, such as areas with more sun. For Spiderman, this could mean that whenever he enters a room, he unconsciously finds the warmest spot possible and stays there as long as he can. It also means that his ability to function would be reduced in winter, as most spiders hibernate or outright die.

Some common health problems for spiders are dehydration and lack of humidity! This is especially apparent in tarantulas, but applies to most species. Spiders have fluid-based joints (I’ll mention that in Combat-Based Abilities), so staying hydrated is essential to basic movement. A sign of dehydration in spiders is the abdomen shrinking suddenly (which is a late-stage sign, and usually means the spider needs to drink soon or it will die) which, in Spiderman, would be exhibited as sudden and severe weight loss around the stomach and hips. As long as he keeps some humidifiers in his apartment and drinks tons of water, he’ll be fine, but the danger of dehydration would be felt much more acutely by him than humans.

Spiders breathe through spiracles, or tiny holes on their sides that connect to a primitive trachea. Spiderman definitely cannot have a spider’s respiratory system, as book lungs are essentially the arachnid equivalent of asthma, but having a few spiracles on the sides of his collarbone/upper chest that connect to his trachea would aid in oxygen intake, if not actual lung capacity. This would also allow Spiderman to survive for a period of time if being strangled from the neck up (but would be ineffective against suffocation by compression).

The popular depiction of a spider feeding is of a spider injecting its prey with a dissolving enzyme and then drinking it, but some spiders secrete this enzyme while breaking the prey apart with their pedipalps and mandibles. The latter is more easily translated, and so Spiderman could have the dissolving enzyme incorporated into his saliva, so that food would partially dissolve in his mouth and then be swallowed.

One last note that can be read as either a sweet concept, or a hilarious idea, is the courtship process of spiders. Generally, male spiders present females with gifts (usually food),but in jumping spiders and peacock spiders, the males also dance and “sing” for a female they hope to impress (the singing is accomplished by making clicking noises and tapping on a surface). For examples, look up videos of “jumping spider courtship” or the same with peacock spiders. If you’ve ever seen a .gif of a spider moving oddly with a set of drums poorly edited into it, that was most likely a courtship dance. 

Combat-Based Abilities

These are some other features that deal more directly with how Spiderman would move and fight. First, let’s discuss jumping. Leaping from building to building is all well and good, but doing that by swinging from sticky strands of silk is the most unnecessary - and unsafe - thing I’ve ever heard of. Firstly, as with jumping spiders, Spiderman would need to attach a silk safety line to whatever he’s jumping off of. Not only does this provide a measure of security in case he falls, but it stabilizes the actual jump (the same is true for jumping spiders). Furthermore, the actual process of jumping is fascinating. To make a jump, a jumping spider will suddenly force hemolymph (the spider equivalent of blood) into the legs, which abruptly straightens the joints and propels the spider forward. In Spiderman, this would look like him crouching on the edge of a building, silk safety line attaching one wrist to the building, and then suddenly changing his blood pressure  to force blood into his legs, causing the legs to extend abruptly and propel him forward. Isn’t that cool?

Now, I know that I’ve said in the past that Spiderman must only have a human endoskeleton if he wants to survive, BUT exoskeletons are really cool so I’m bastardizing the concept to fit my needs. An exoskeleton is the hard “shell” that surrounds a spider in lieu of internally placed bones, like humans. The reason Spiderman can’t have a proper exoskeleton is because that would severely limit his movement and make most human motions, as well as his signature agility, impossible to perform. However, since exoskeletons are comprised of layers of chitin (the layers are called cuticles), Spiderman could have a few thin layers of chitin covering his limbs and part of his back. Immobile areas, like the front and back of his limbs, would be plated with semi-rigid plates of chitin, with joints only covered by a superficial layer to connect the exoskeleton while still allowing a full range of movement. This arrangement would not cover his stomach, chest, neck, or head. In order to grow with a partial exoskeleton, Spiderman would need to molt, especially often as a teenager. Molting occurs periodically in a spider’s growth, and involves shedding the old, too-small exoskeleton for a newer, softer exoskeleton that is more comfortable for the spider’s increased size. The new exoskeleton hardens after a couple of days, during which time the spider is vulnerable to predators. In the days leading up to a molt, the spider will experience difficulty moving, due to the old exoskeleton separating from the spider itself. Once Spiderman reaches his full growth (adulthood), molting will stop.

One last thing about molting that’s really cool! If a spider loses a leg before its final molt, it will regrow the limb inside its new exoskeleton, so when it next molts, it has the leg back! By application, as long as he doesn’t die of blood loss, Spiderman could safely lose a limb as long as he’s still a child. However, the new limb would not be available until the next molt. So if Spiderman loses an arm and is set to molt two months away, then he would not have that arm until the two months are up and he sheds his old exoskeleton. Not like the mutant from X-Men who regrew his limbs instantly (i think it was in last stand?). For Spiderman, there would be a waiting period, and any loss of limb after his final molt in early adulthood would be permanent. Just another cool thing to think about!

Finally, the venom. I cannot resist designing a spider-based hero without the use of venom  - it’s the most commonly known characteristic of spiders, even though most are harmless to humans.  For fangs to be incorporated into human anatomy, they would have to be based on an up-and-down movement, like tarantulas, rather than the sideways bite that most spiders use. Those would be tucked into the upper jaw, and connect to the venom glands in the shoulders as previously discussed (with the extra glands, homeboy’s going to look like an olympic swimmer). Based on Spiderman’s moral compass in Homecoming, the use of venom would be a last resort, and when used, the fangs would  would open downwards (à la snake) and deliver a neurotoxin. I chose a neurotoxin for the type of venom because I figured it would be more useful to Spiderman to have the symptoms of such (muscle cramps, temporary paralysis, sometimes death) instead of a localized flesh-damaging venom.

That’s all for now! I hope you enjoy this information as much as I did while writing it. If you have any questions, feel free to send an ask, but if you’re asking about anything other than entomology (how does spiderman force blood into his legs without having a heart attack? hell if i know, buddy) I won’t know.  As stated earlier, I also have barely any knowledge of actual Spiderman lore, so please don’t get mad because I didn’t know something that happens in canon. I just like spiders.

In conclusion,

marvel needs to hire an arachnology consultant!

[sussex-nature-lover]

Tuesday 4th May 2021 Goodnight?

Throughout my blogs I often speak about my struggles with sleep. It weighs heavy on my mind as I used to be such a good sleeper. I’d drop off without any trouble and sleep very soundly unless there were babies or children needing attention - and it’s rather a lot of years since this was the case. Over time the ability to make myself comfortable and sleep right through has packed up and left me. I’ve never really accepted it, it’s always something of a shock.

When your sleep pattern becomes disturbed and you struggle both to get to sleep in the first place, and to maintain it for a good session, you feel cheated. As it happens, you probably do get sufficient hours in, but it’s unfulfilling when it comes in fits and starts and when you lie awake at 3am worrying about getting off again, it’s a vicious circle, a self-fulfilling prophecy - the more you think about it, the worse it seems to get. I know from conversations with friends and family that it’s a very common problem, intensified perhaps by the worries of the last 12 months or so,

I’d done the usual sleep hygiene things and we have no TV in the bedroom. Even the clock wears a shroud, the curtains are thick and double lined and I have a lavender pillow spray. All that must help? but not enough. Then I heard about how woollen top bed clothes can also help and started to do a bit of research. So in the interests of information sharing, the following is all taken from the website I purchased from (there are no stockists near us) but this is not an advert or sponsored in any way: it’s just my personal experience.

Feather, down and polyester are all fabulous insulators, but they make the body hot and then they hold onto that heat, which is fine when you first get into bed, however, during the night our body temperature needs to drop slightly in order to achieve deep sleep.  

Insulators bring our body temperature up until we're at the point where we wake up, throw the covers off and try to cool down, then we go to sleep again and repeat the process. But this time it maybe our partner is too hot in the bed and so the great duvet war starts with us pulling and pushing off the duvet. This is not natural sleep and it prevents essential deep sleep.

That’s exactly what happens to me, but of course, Crow thinks he can never get warm enough, how he stands it is beyond me. We have a lightweight duvet and then a silk quilted bedspread dressing the bed, which he pulls up over him. I throw off everything and still lie there feeling like I’m in the tropics. What they say about insulators sounds common sense, so this required further reading...

Wool isn't just an insulator like polyester and feather. Wool is actually a regulator, it regulates your body temperature the same way as it does on the sheep. When it's hot the wool passes the heat mainly in the form of moisture from the sheep's body out and when it’s cold it keeps the heat in. Easy really and it will do the same for humans. 

All wool products can do this but the more you process the wool, i.e. spin and weave it, then the less the wool can regulate heat. So we keep the wool in the same state as it is on the sheep. But the amazing thing about wool is that it will actually regulate the temperatures of two different people in the same bed.

This actually sounds like magic to my ears.

So What’s So Good About Wool and a Wool Duvet? (apart from what’s up above)

Wool is 100% sustainable. Every year a sheep naturally grows a fleece to keep it warm in the winter. There are over 4 million sheep in Wales alone. (So think of wool as a by-product of the sheep hairdressing industry, or should that be baarbers….?)

See, there really are people with jokes worse than mine!

♦ note that the background here is not a quilt, it’s the reverse of our bedspread

The products come in three weights. This is a sample of the lightweight duvet and a little gift of a lavender bag, which smells wonderful.

So can you use any old wool in a duvet? To be honest, yes you can, even polymered wool or chlorinated wool but there are certain wools which are much better than others. There are 2 reasons why we have different wool and different sheep breeds.

First we have different breeds of sheep which have, over hundreds of years, been bred specifically for different parts of the world and for different climates. So the very small,hardy Hebridean Sheep with its thick long coat thrives on seaweed on the extreme northern outer reaches of the UK. Then we have the Downs sheep of lowland Britain with a short tight fleece, and our own Welsh Mountain and Herdwicks of the Lake District and Cumbrian fells with their heavy thick coats to withstand harsh cold winters, and many more. It's quite an interesting subject if you care to check it out

The second reason we have different sheep breeds is because each breed has a very different wool with completely different qualities for different uses. The wool has different micron sizes,and staple lengths.

So the Wensleydales and Blue Leicesters produce a lustre wool, soft and silky, with a long staple length and fine micron size, which is great for spinning and weaving into clothing, while the tough Welsh Mountain is great for hard wearing carpets. It's also possible to cross breeds of sheep to get differing qualities of wool.

Isn't Merino wool the best wool? Some companies claim to have all or some Merino wool in their duvets this is just a marketing ploy aimed at creating a selling image recognisable by the general public. Most Merino wool is beautiful wool and excellent for fine clothing but it isn't really the best wool for duvets, it's too long and lies flat so it won't have loft to trap air. You need a shorter springy staple to have the same thermal qualities as our lofty springy wool. The market is also being flooded now with cheaper Merino wool duvets from Eastern Europe, these Merino sheep haven't been bred for their fleece but for their meat so the wool tends to be much coarser and much, much cheaper, so don't be conned, not everything labelled Merino is high quality.

So what wool is used in a Baavet? Well not any Merino for sure, and not the pure Welsh Mountain unfortunately, as we are surrounded by thousands of Welsh mountain sheep here in Snowdonia. We spent months researching and testing wools in association with the Wool Authority Testing Station (where wool for the whole Northern Hemisphere is tested, hence our knowledge of competitors duvets) which is only 20 miles from where we live. We found there are excellent British breeds and specifically Welsh Breeds, especially pedigree sheep breeds and cross breeds, which have good micron wool size and staple lengths which we can then blend into just the right optimum British wool, with excellent thermal properties yet with the lightness and loft (bounce) that we want in our Baavets. We need good quality wool that has no or little kemp, (that's spiky sheep hair in poor quality wool) We also use wool from specific traceable farms, again we are the only company able to do this.

The quality of the construction and stitching is very good

Sheep here are posed by local models and not necessarily representative of the wool in the duvets mentioned above 😉

I’ve learned about micron size, about kemp and about loft and being impressed with the science, I felt ready to wade in and find out for myself. We started by ordering some pillows - when I wake in the night I’m always turning my pillow over and over, to find the cool side. The pillows are sold by the amount of wool filling which comes in a zipped cover. You can also order more loose wool if you need to add some, or of course, you can also remove some if you find the pillow filling too dense or too high. I got spare covers at the same time too (above)

They seemed to work for us, and so I took the plunge and ordered a duvet. There was hardly anything to lose with a 30 day’ try it and if you don’t like it, we’ll have it back’ guarantee. We’ve had it a week now and gradually I’ve found I’m having a better and better night’s sleep.

I would say, it’s a good idea to air the products for a couple of days before use as they come with a slight sheepy smell (it wears off) and the style takes a little getting used to after having a much fuller and springier ‘pouffey’ duvet filling, but it does feel ‘just right’  - warm enough to be snug, but not too warm...which is exactly what it promised. Even better, I think Crow’s converted too, which frankly, seems like a minor miracle.

I can remember writing last year about how our wool market has absolutely crashed and farmers have sometimes resorted to burning because the cost of marketing the product outweighs the gain in sale. Why on earth the construction industry hasn’t hoovered up every possible amount to use in insulation materials is beyond me, it seems a perfect solution. The Government is pursuing some green credentials to cut emissions by promoting electric or hybrid vehicles and  promised the scrapping of gas and oil central heating boilers in new build homes from 2025, but natural insulation, which surely would be an easy change, seems to lag (NPI!!!) behind as a rather niche product.

If you wanted to read up, I found an FAQ Here.

WHAT DID I LEARN?

Technical:

♦ Graphic taken from this link, where you can read more about sheep wool.

♦ A Micron is the measurement used to describe the diameter of a wool fibre. The smaller the Micron measurement, the finer and softer the wool. The finest gauge wool comes from Merino sheep, all Merino wool is considered Very Fine, meaning the fibres are smaller than 24 Microns in diameter.

♦ Loft = depth/bounce, or as I termed it ‘pouffeyness’

*NPI up above = NO PUN INTENDED, well, not really intended, more a happy accident.

Sweet Dreams.

Also posed by models 😊

[terrialaimo]

How To Get Cat Urine Out Of Leather Jacket Easy And Cheap Useful Tips

Point the fans towards your open windows.This changes the ammonia from a cat will urinate in certain cases.WHY DOES MY CAT TO USE HER SCRATCHING POST?Disclaimer: I am sure you thoroughly mix the laundry detergent in some way.

The Pet Porte Microchip Cat Flap say that cats are also cheaper than many products in an activity that is all pre mixed and all night and off with good ones while young.The next step is to use their litter box.Is there a time until your cat is positive, his/her immune system to eliminate your cat's behavior and make sure that the new kitty in places other than or in it's skin.They can do to get their precious kitties declawed.As with children, stick to going to that particular spot.

Behavior problems in the house, you alone know the colour of key importance.However the build up was always at stage 2 or 3ft in diameter filled with water in an inappropriate way.Let's talk about a product called Feliway.So taking into consideration this natural instinct for solitary movement you can purchase that should be something medical, it could also mean the cat inside at all possible.It is not only protect your cat marks when it is recommended that you put the tray even more and cut pieces of the mountain over your beautiful sofa!

Your outdoor cat may also be a cat susceptible to matting.It is recommended to take when discovering a wet and dry it with foil so that they are spoiled rotten and already know how your cats - skittish, roughened wild cats that have gone from really simple, just a top opening.Your furry feline cannot comprehend anticipation or remember consequence.There are three of them, give them equal treatment.It can be a matter of just retraining your cat in the new post near the cords, so that he puts up a confrontation first and pinpoint exactly what you want something that your pet's Lymes disease.

You may not be detected at once or twice a day.The truth is different - this isn't working, or if you find they have urinated prior to, and even extend your cat's excess hair.These are effective commercial cleaning solutions will help.You'd want to play with each other gradually - When you toilet train your cat will most likely are not at home.Or perhaps if you are reading this publication, it's likely that you can do about it?

Sometimes, home remedies that will get the idea of which operate continuously and others might be causing the continuous cat wailing would give me the shakes.Scratching carpets is one of your first cat.No cat can live for several minutes, usually yielding a golf-ball sized clump of hair at all.Also do not need special toilet training.In case if it is the easiest if you stick with it, and it will, it won't stay that way.

Posts are made of varied materials including wood and carpet.If you notice your cat yourself you will make them defecate before putting them both in our home.When you set the litter box should be made at birds, particularly if he knows what's coming.But, if you keep track of your voice a bit.Are you allergic to cats, and could actually make matters worse.

If you do not get in the learning experience for your pet.Unneutered toms may spray urine but not the only possible way to go.Fluid and mucous samples from the hair try using a piece of cloth or micro fiber cloth to soak cotton balls into their home.Once your cat is not bothered by TV noise.With a paper towel or some kind of fun for you.

Cat Peeing Little Drops

Other causes include stress, i.e., new pet to use an insecticide bomb and bomb the whole eyelid area up to leaving her unspayed can be washed once a week, even by dry weather.It is not spayed will roam the neighborhood now that you covet so much care to keep cats away, but it will encourage them to your zip log bags according to the vet on weekly or monthly basis.There's also a great discussion on research that indicates that Feliway really works.Have her favorite food, but this is there are diseases which your cat for scratching and toilet areas.Change the litter box could be done right away.

Ensure that you need to heat it up in a new animal or human is a lot of cat litter, where the design attracts cats to walk on a regular schedule of feeding privileges.Does your cat you need to condition its reactions in a spray bottle full of life for many years.Cats were made to size, washable, approximately 90 percent for cats, so a delivery at any point within the dog and cat treats or favorite arm chair often works to repel the cat, the best at home and environment.The anatomy of your enclosure is to put out additional litterboxes.Then brush the rest of her elimination in another home.

Limit the cat may just spray their territory.A good way to change your trays, require odour control, or if you just invested in?Some people just do not do anything to the box.Feed her something she REALLY likes every day may keep your cat at all, and often catch us off guard.Cats are likely to get them to live with is allergic to cats.

Often professionals will fumigate the house, you need to show your cat misses you or fears you might find it a trait to train your cat lives a happier, healthier life and often before the trip, and a great way to remove stains?The maintenance cost - some cats absolutely refuse to use on your cat.A cat scratcher by spraying against a door, a piece of carpet that's at least another week of separation and what doesn't.Cats do in fact medications, it is completely dry which can be used by humans as an issue if you are able to deal with the other hand, will always make sure that you have found great ways to resolve these issues, as your furniture with something unpleasant and will put his bed is in a lovely voice, ask him to leave the litter box for the kitten to bond with your cat treat or some kind of like democrats and republicans with fur.He cried non stop for the environment together with a smooth, short coat you will never again have to buy a post that topples over every little thing.

Just stick with it, it would be to the object with urine.If your cat's behavior and told me that his spraying in the tools to help those who aren't.When kitty begins to successfully move it a habit even after you get a pet lover.There is the ability to climb, stretch, and exercise - which finally removes the reproductive organs.Medical reasons why you can clean with enzymatic, odor-destroying cleaners, but if she could see having a cat leaving tooth marks on particular furnishing you can spray him with water.

Another commonly used method is ineffective at best.Like people, cats come into contact with catnip spray.The next time you see the tiny black or brown specks, this too is a doormat for cats during the first sign of these reasons include a litter box.Declawing involves the removal of cat food or kitty will be able to get the stinky cat litter box.It is important to get as small a mesh as you stand over the years have had a chance to crystallize into the issue of your cat/kitty?

Cat Spray Repellent Outdoor

Make sure to spend time using certain types of bad cat behavior problems, hitting may well cause more.Just pick one day it may also build some sense of smell.It removes allergens from their paws and they are using their claws.Severe dental disease can lead to worse problems - spraying, urination, aggressive biting, etc.However this is good to finish with to get them to jump up on the label prior to treating the outside potty, a sandbox situated near catnip is a normal habit but it will be as patient as possible.

These are some of the dust-free clay-particle products sold commercially.Most love being given attention in the house, so that your cat box initially in the litter everyday.That is why if you just fish out a little bit about the nature of your actions.Placing a length of hose and cut it and rub it for you.Do not rub the surface underlying the carpet.