#this is essentially also how stuff works for me so

[iatrophilosophos]

Hmm well my thoughts are as follows

I am an anarchist and thus not invested in how we build systems of knowlege that effectively interface with the legal system because i do not believe we should have a legal system, generally speaking, so none of my responses here are actually going to answer that for you.

The dichotomy of "science vs vibes" is both incredibly funny and incredibly annoying to me, and a complete failure of imagination or grace on behalf of all who propose it.

This is of course what thr academy dose and why I hate it. It's the cornerstone of maintaining the western progress narrative: academic ideas are good and order, all others are chaos and vibes.

Science is a tool. It is also a religion rivaling Christianity in scale, scope and obsessive-yet-liturgically-uneducated believers. I am interested in science as a tool; I am fully disinterested in fundemental faith assumption of science (that the universe is governed by consistent and knowable laws). Science as religion pleads an optimism about how its *supposed* to work and discards objects of criticism as heretical. I refuse to engage with this perspective. The purpose of a system is what it does. However, i am going to endeavor to talk about the fundemental flaws of science that would still be present without capitalism and specifically bad-faith (academic def; do not earnestly believe what they have said to be true) actors. I am doing this because I DO think this critique is essential to understanding the limitations of science and how we utilize it + other systems to our best advantage.

Science is a toolset for generating a predicitive model, because humans love predicitive models. They're very useful! They help us make choices like how to care for plants and the land, what foods to eat, what medicine to take. There are actually many other tools for generating predicitive models, and I will speak to one shortly. Science accomplishes this by identifying an observation, hypothesis and variables, running scenarios in different configurations to see what may happen, and concluding something either about the experiment itself or the nature of the world. We accomplish those conclusions these days through the application of statistics, which can do some really nasty shit--not just making results seem more promising than they are!

Science is optimized for big answers on a fast timescale. It is a really useful tool in a lot of applications. In the medical field, I can say wholeheartedly that im a big fan of the scientific model as applied to communicable pathogens. I like cultures and i like testing novel antibiotics to see if they do what we want them to do. The situation of a mass outbreak is one where we want a big fast answer.

However, this tool has a lot of limits that I dont think are adequately described by just talking about the replication crisis or specific scientific atrocities. I want to push back on the idea that its "throwing spaghetti at the wall"; cuz i think we both know thats not actually true. Its testing hypotheses based on observations.

Observations are cultural. I firmly believe that one of the problems with psychiatry is that the perceptions, the "common knowlege" as is being derided here, of what Madness is and how it works predate science significantly, and they're ugly. The lobotomy is not throwing ugly evil shit at the wall and seeing what it does. The lobotomy is the "observation" that a certain kind of mad person is the way they are because they are over-active, too much, want stuff too badly, are plagued with an urge to sin so great that it must be excised before they can be saved by willpower and prayer (therapy). The hypothesis then follows: if we have "observed" that Mad people are "too much", we cut part of them away. If we have "observed" that Mad people desire incorrectly, we inhibit their ability to desire. In this way, the logic of the lobotomy is still active in the world and still being used to generate atrocities that I firmly believe we will look back on as a horrific stain on the history of official medicine in 10, 20, 50 years.

Psychiatry and psychology are easy to poke holes in, but this issue is at play in other areas of medical science as well. I am less well versed, but my associates in cardiology will very-unhappily tell you that a similar caliber of "observations" into the nature of human beings, specifically Black people, plague their field and cause deaths they themselves have witnessed firsthand.

The other foundational problem with science is statistics. This is why science as a legal basis actually sucks shit, though as I said im not really interested in constructing more legally-appriopriate knowledge sets. Statistical analysis as the bar for evaluating experimental results can tell us what works most of the time in most cases; especially in those high-quality mass-scale studies. There will be a number of cases where something doesnt work that works most of the rest of the time, and a number of cases where something works that doesnt most other times. I fucking care about statistical outliers. I am one. People i love live in this space. Land i love lives in this space. I believe there is value in high-reward low-risk low-likelihood interventions being widely available. I fully and completely reject the cultural value that most people is good enough, let alone the bar to strive for.

So, alternatives? There isnt one alternative because I dont subscribe to science as religion and thus I do not require it to be an all-encompassing world view or thrown on the trash heap; and i feel this way about other predicitive modeling tools. I believe in doing things that get the results i want for myself, my loved ones and social relations, and the land we participate in; without exploiting others in the process and in a way that hopefully supports others in achieving the same. Many tools fit in that box. I will however take this moment to soapbox about what im gonna term "conversational knolwege" because I think its an interesting model that kind of precursors our modern understanding of citations but retains a lot more nuance.

One benefit of science, and i think WHY it lends itself to systems such as legality, mass medicine, and so on: it endeavors to replace interpersonal trust and deep individual basis of knowledge. Who this benefits is a hell of a question: on the day to day scale, we can say it benefits the average person. It's nice not to have to trust your doctor, a person you probably dont actually know, who has financial and social interests that might diverge from your own, to have your best interests at heart: let alone agree with you on what your best interests actually ARE or have the knowlege and decision making skills to help you get there. Its nice to believe that everything will be okay, that there is an answer, and that you arent personally responsible for making hard decisions in the world. On the mass scale, this way of living doesnt benefit us, it benefits power. Medical codification as a stage of empire is an entirely different can of worms i could talk about forever but suffice to say: medicine is a constant cultural practice present among all people. States get big. In the same way they endeavor to retain power over people by preventing them from feeding themselves etc; they outlaw, burn, and replace the common medical culture with a system more conducive to control. Prescientific medical models have also been used in this way; as are the state-backed nonscientific medical models traditional Chinese medicine and Ayurveda (medical nationalism is another can of worms we can talk about with all three, western industrial, tcm, ans Ayurveda, but especially tcm...its rlly fucking interesting. Don't even get me started on the medical models of colonized countries that fall somewhere between these three powers. Aaaa! I love this shit. Anyway).

Point being: this benefit is damage control for a society that perpetuates itself via deskilling the population. What does generation and transference of knowlege look like in populations with high individual skills?

One answer is conversation. It goes like this:

Person A spends their life engaging with an area that they are passionate about and have a high aptitude for. Maybe its a field of medicine, drug production etc, maybe its a field of engagement with the land like food production or having trails that dont erode to shit or building structures that work well for the beings using them. They come to an understanding of the world based on what they personally see happen (notably, not "vibes", watching something over years is NOT the same as reading half of three news articles and adopting a worldview based on it, I think we can all agree that the latter is an unhelpful way to engage with information). They collect students who learn those worldviews. Maybe they write a book or in oral traditions, pen a folktale with something important to say about the world. Person B is one of their students just starting out in the world. They compare this worldview to what they experience. They travel, sometimes hundreds or thousands of miles, to meet a person with the same role as person A in a different community. Person B learns different things and, by transporting what person A knows into a new context, finds problems with it, and finds where it succeeds. Person B teaches. Person C, a student of person B, has a both what person A and person B thinks, and continues the process adding their own voice to the conversation. Person C carries these three perspectives and communicates them to person D, by saying who told them what they have to repeat and in what context. This "citation" is then allowed to carry elements of personality, reputation, and nuance in trust. This happens over and over again for thousands of years. Every lifetime makes it better.

The problem with this engagement of knolwege is that it is slow. It leads to understandings of the world that are not as good at adapting to the chaotic and rapidly changing conditions of our modern world and its documented to be not as good at responding to drastic shifts (e.g. natural disasters) in history. It requires every individual to participate to at least some degree in the stewardship of knolwege. It requires willingness to break from dead ends and acknowledge we were wrong. Ugly things have happened when we fail to do this and especially when social configurations make it harder: for example, societies that abuse their children are responsible for some of the gnarlier and more shocking historical medical practices, because doing something to someone when they are a child is an easy way to make humans keep doing stuff that sucks (sumn we're otherwise fairly good at avoiding).

What it is very good at is creating skillsets that are nuanced and treat situations as individual; it is good at making knowledge systems that account for statistical outliers. In part, it is because its a system that DEMANDS an answer to *why* something is known: even moreso than science, because a citation doesnt suffice, we are forced to interrogate to trust.

Maybe, especially to folks who are already fully bought in to the logic of the academy, this system cannot shine a candle to the imagined benefits of a perfect science. As I said, I refuse to engage with the imagined benefits of a perfect science, because we might as well start talking about what we should do if the moon is made of cheese. And what the real world right now has to say is that a large swath of interventions generated in these traditional modes WORK, when trialed in good faith; with limitations for drastic shifts in climate, bodies etc occurring over the last few hundred years, +/- the severing of many of these traditions and thus their ability to grow and change approximately concurrent with industrialization and the acceleration of *gestures* All This Shit. (For example, many plant-based drugs that were exceptionally low risk 100, 200 years ago now carry much higher risk or unknown risk profiles in an age of pharmacuetical prescriptions and way more possible drug interactions).

So, that is a way of answering "how do you know?" That is neither a scientific citation nor "vibes". I am personally most interested in hybrid strategies and novel study models because of my aforementioned investment in working with statistical outliers AND the rapid shifts in the world that are occurring in our lifetimes. I think it is imperative to reject science as religion and the comforting position that we'll solve all problems by following the right rules. I also think that its a mistake to resign ourselves to "the best we have", because the best we have doesnt fucking cut it, definitely not for me or people I care about.

So idk if thats the weigh-in you wanted but its what I got. Im not gonna put hella cites in a fucking Tumblr post i wrote before breakfast for one friend, and anyway most of this info is the synthesis of rlly diffuse inputs across historical texts, medical anthropology, conversations with mentors across the spectrum of academy to licensed practice to traditionally educated practitioners to wingnuts like myself, and a ton of dives into random questions about topics across the above spectrum. I can provide my standard entry reading list upon request and as always my #1 reccomendation for people who are new to medical anthropology is The Expressiveness of the Body by Shigehisa Kuriyama. Peace ✌️

"these researchers published a paper on something that literally any of us could have told you 🙄" ok well my supervisors wont let me write something in my thesis unless I can back it up with a citation so maybe it's a good thing that they're amplifying your voice to the scientific community in a way that prevents people from writing off your experiences as annecdotal evidence

[jacksmysterylabyrinth]

There's a few routes in this game that say a lot about how fickle and unstable Takumi can be, that really warps him on an existential level.

It's hard to grasp how sometimes, but I think it starts with this...

Essentially, he's a person whose 'programming went faulty'. Namely, the issue of 'Karua', and how she's at once both a propaganda piece projected into his brain, and also Nozomi's words filtering in.

I don't think he's able to fully separate those things with conviction, as much as he wants to. He doesn't get how projection works, that's already something difficult for a sheltered and clueless teenager to unpack but... this is a whole other level of 'challenge: impossible' mind-fuckery. If the group have ever had some disconnect between their sense of identity and their 'memory', Takumi's is soup.

But what especially gets me, is his 'younger teen self' dismisses 'Karua's' studies in the most incurious way- 'what's this, the outside world? Why bother with all of that? Why do you care? Conspiracy theorist', etc. which I imagine is what he was 'supposed' to do with anything 'weird' like any potential new information. Until the programming got funny at odd moments when Nozomi's interest would seep through, and then, you'd catch Takumi responding to 'Karua's' interest... with more interest for once.

(Now the brain doesn't know what to do. Oh sure, you want to take charge of your destiny, but actually it's better to just sleep and forget it all. Not like you ever cared about learning anything, right?)

I'd say Takumi's avoidance mechanisms later, are a response to Nozomi's existence as if she was a virus. Which... says a lot about the fascist state of the Artificial Satellite, and how Takumi was designed for the 'most ordinary kind of life' that wasn't meant to know it.

It's kind of unclear how the programming works- whether it takes the subject's base personality and uses it to run an 'AI scenario' based upon whatever Kamukura wanted to project into them, or if it doesn't bother matching personality at all and just shoves scenes into their head regardless if it's something they'd do. Either way, it feels that something went especially wrong with Takumi, even if his personality matched the 'memories' he was given, because for the first time one of the pod-programs was actually adapting to outside stimuli.

The symbolism about that moon is especially interesting. Because Eito - the 'moon' - learns the truth about the world and its wars, and remains a significant challenge for Takumi to grapple with- only for him to kill him and redo everything at the end of the first scenario, suggesting he had kind of failed that (basically undoing the work that Eito had done to stop the weapon without knowing that they're not on Earth, for one...). The moon also represents 'illusion'- what the SDU look up at from Futurum is actually the Artificial Satellite where they've spent their whole lives in a pod, Eito's major trauma deals with illusions that physically warp what humans are (the glitch also doesn't even fully distinguish between 'Human' and 'Futuran' in the first place which makes it even less of an objective judgement)...

...on that note, this here from the Casual route continues to haunt me, and it's been hard to put into words exactly why. Because it might very well have come from Eito's mouth if he were there, since he's trapped in some terrible stuff too. But Eito's not there- that's a dream state that Takumi is in, so those words came from Takumi.

It's like his subconscious has been screaming to get out of the cage for a long time, but he keeps wanting to go back in anyway.

[aplaceinthedark]

chapter 8: SPENT AGES losing SLEEP

Summary: The Appalachian Mountains hide numerous monsters, and it's up to Taylor and the Bad Omens to prevent them from causing any harm. 

Word Count: 2.1k+

CW: supernatural themes, witchcraft

This is RPF, and thus will contain real people, but names and events will be changed. If this bothers you too much, then please leave this temple without causing harm. 

Divider by @saradika-graphics

An hour later, Nick stood in our bedroom, peering at something on the ceiling I couldn't see. “It makes no sense,” he muttered, barely audible except to me. “This house is warded against evil spirits. I made sure of it.” 

He was referring to just after we met, when he secretly under the cover of night spelled my house to keep me safe from anything in the woods. When I became aware of his paranormal world, he put more in place. I hadn't known that it included anti-spirit protection, like it was some kind of home insurance. 

I had finally divulged seeing the shadow in the library parking lot, somehow equating it to today's appearance. We had even lumped in the shadow that had been at the edge of the property a few weeks ago, though something nagging in me said that it felt different. I just chalked it up to fear clouding my judgement. 

Even more frustrating to Nick was the silence coming from the forest. He had tried to call for Noah multiple times, but his attempts were as fruitful as mine. He even tried casting his senses out, but he found nothing. Like Noah wasn't even out in the forest.

“That's not like him,” Nick had mumbled, casting his eyes towards me as if he expected me to not be looking at him. He quickly averted his eyes when he saw that I was indeed looking, but not fast enough for me to be unable to see the darkness in them. 

I should've known that the plan would fail. 

Nick had also told me that the ritual worked. He couldn't feel any rot or decay, and that the woods felt… healthy. I wanted to crack a joke about how forest conservation had been solved with three orgasms, but I could tell Nick was still sore about the subject. 

In the present, I watched Nick place new protection spells and banishment wards. Jerry, now pleased as punch that he had essentially saved his parent from a ghost-lady, purred loudly on my lap. Though he had only just rammed his head into a wall, I still gave him pets and treats.

“Could it be something else?” I asked. 

“Maybe. Some things just don't add up,” he said. He closed his eyes and sighed out loud. “There. All done.” He pretended to dust his hands off.

“I feel safer already,” I said, even though I couldn't feel anything different.

“Oh, hush, you,” he said, waving his hand at me.

“Do you need to suck down on something green?” I asked teasingly. I neatly dodged the sock he threw at me. 

“No, I'm fine,” Nick said as he reached back and pulled his shirt off. He pulled back the covers on the bed and neatly slid in.

“What were you doing earlier, before everything happened?” I asked, finally getting the chance. 

“Well, firstly, I was dividing which pots were gonna be used for my Practice and which ones were gonna be for other stuff. Then I was getting the shed ready to be my workspace.” 

Late last fall, I had stated that a project I had wanted to do for this year was to tear down the old shed on the edge of our backyard. Nick intervened by mentioning that he could turn it into a place where he could make his poultices and oils and other stuff instead. I had agreed with him because all the plants he had brought with him when he moved in nearly gave me a panic attack. They had taken up so much space, and the cats kept kicking the soil out of the pots. After our first fight as a couple, and my subsequent meltdown, Nick had to help me unlearn some of the things my parents had instilled into me. 

“You remember what we promised?” I asked, slipping under the covers.

“That I'm supposed to teach you how to practice?” He said. “Of course I haven't.”

I let out a tiny sigh of relief. “Okay.”

“I’m not going back on that promise,” he reassured me as I slipped in next to him. I felt overdressed with my shorts and threadbare shirt.

As I snuggled next to him, I said “Thank you” into a clear patch of olive skin. 

Between his even breathing and the two cats purring on either side of us, it didn't take long for me to be lulled to sleep. But one thing still bothered me until I slipped into oblivion:

Where was Noah?

NICHOLAS

It had taken a little bit for Taylor to go to sleep, as if they were restless. Nicholas couldn't blame them, seeming as they were confronted by some sort of spectre. 

He had gone over the house three times, poking and prodding at the protection spells he had placed and renewed constantly. And the house wasn't haunted before they moved in; it wasn't haunted when Noah and his mom lived there. He had only just spread the rumor that it was haunted, and what good did that do?

Well, besides bringing Taylor to him. 

When Nicholas was absolutely sure that Taylor was in deep sleep and wouldn't be waking up for anything, he slowly got out of the bed. He got redressed and quietly walked out to the front porch, stealing one of his Granny's crochet blankets to take with him.

It was nearly three in the morning, much to Nicholas’ surprise, but that worked for him. It was almost Offering Time. It was almost like clockwork, where Noah would pick up whatever offering Taylor had placed on the silver plate. Except unsurprisingly, it wasn’t Noah who loped out of the woods.

Nick shifted from the white Grim to his human body. “You’re up late again,” Nick said from the steps.

For some reason, his words aggravated Nicholas. “He couldn't come here himself?” He asked. “He had to send you down here instead?”

Nick held his hands up in defense. “Hey, don't shoot me. I haven’t even seen him in a few days,” he said. 

The fact that Nick was here instead of Noah felt like another piece of the puzzle sliding home to Nicholas. “So where is he, then?” he asked. 

Nick seemed to ignore Nicholas as he stepped onto the porch, his nose lifting at whatever Taylor had left as an offering. “Are those their taco wontons? Oh, fuck me–”

Nicholas stepped into Nick's path. “What's his deal?” He pressed.

He caught the briefest of flashes of anger in Nick's eyes as well as a low warning growl, but it was gone as Nick shrugged. “He went up to Stony Man, dude. I didn't ask why.”

Stony Man. The place was a private, almost sanctuary-like place for Noah. Nicholas had tried to go up there once, but the journey up the mountain almost did him in. He had stayed long enough to get his True Name and was quick to journey back down.

If Noah had retreated up to there, then that meant he really was troubled. And he now had a good feeling he knew why. 

He stepped aside to let Nick pass, who was quick to wolf down half of the offering. A cruel part of him wanted to take away the rest, to starve Noah of the offering. The power of the thought took him by surprise and horrified him. No pettiness was worth the danger that would put Taylor in.

“You alright?” Nick asked, his mouth full.

Nicholas let out his anger in a single huff. “Yeah, I’m fine,” he said. He then stuck a cigarette in his mouth.

The two Nicks sat in silence on the front porch for a bit as they listened to life happening in the woods. It was only broken up when Nick wrapped the remaining wontons in foil. “Are you taking those to Jolly or Noah first?” Nicholas asked. 

"Well, Jolly, cuz Noah hasn't said anything about them.”

"He hasn't talked to you? At all?" 

“Jolly and I haven't seen him since the ritual happened. I only know he went up to Stony Man because that's where his trait went.” Nick shrugged.

The anger was bubbling in Nicholas' stomach again. “He needs to get over himself," he muttered to himself. 

“Hey man, maybe he needs time to recover from–” 

"From what?" Nicholas snapped. "From getting my partner for a night? When there's shit happening down here?"

He immediately regretted the outburst, as Nicki's hazel eyes widened. He was pretty sure he had also been a little too loud, as he heard a sound from inside the house that was undoubtedly one of the cats being startled. But he didn't apologize. 

“What's happened here?” Nick asked. 

Nicholas sighed, and told Nick about Taylor's shadow. When he got to the part where the shadow had been inside their house, Nick's face paled until it was almost the color of his fur. "You know what I'm talking about? 

“Well... I don't know if it's the same Thing, but there was something my mom told me when I had kissed a girl who wasn't my first girlfriend. About a woman in black who scared men who were cheating on their wives.”

When Nicholas only squinted in response, Nick blundered on. “If the Woman in Black saw you outside, she'd scare you into going back to your girl, or kill you if she caught you cheating again.”

“Besides the similarity in clothing, what does she have to do with this?” Nicholas asked. 

“Because I found two dead guys in the woods, and I know one of them liked to cheat on his wife. They'd go camping every time he did it, and would brag about it. Loudly.”

“But Taylor didn't cheat. I agreed to it. I was a cuck without actually getting to be a cuck.” 

"I don't know man! Maybe she doesn't see the... technicality of it. But I didn't even know she was a Thing.” 

But none of us believed the Watcher of the Woods was a Thing, either, Nicholas finished Nick's sentence in his mind. 

“Do you think those men were killed by a Thing?” he asked. 

"I know they had to be. One guy's head was clean ripped off.” 

This was bad. Had they done the ritual to banish one evil, only to raise another? And as Nicholas had held back the fact that the ritual wasn't a permanent solution - that it had to be performed once a year - he was certain now that it shouldn't be performed again if it might piss off some kind of vengeful ghost that- 

“What're we gonna do?” 

Nicki's voice cut through Nicholas' thoughts. Noah was MIA, which meant that their chain of command, as loose of a term as it was, fell to him. Despite him being the only human of the Circle, the others listened to him. “Keep an eye out for now. I'll feel out the forest for anything,” he said, pressing his cigarette butt into the ashtray. "And drag Noah down the mountain by his antlers if you have to. We have to have a talk."

He could see Nicki's apprehensiveness towards confronting the Watcher of the Woods. If the two came to blows, Noah would obviously win. Nicholas has watched them wrestle with each other before. But Nick silently began stuffing the leftovers into his mouth, walking out into the front yard before transforming into the Grim. With a look back towards Nicholas, he bounded into the woods. 

Nicholas gave him a moment before standing up, stretching his tired limbs. He still felt wide awake, but he would go back to bed in only a moment. He closed his eyes and let out a breath, extending his mind through the roots in the ground. 

He had done this twenty-four hours ago, when he had been woken up suddenly. He hadn't felt anything then, and he wasn't feeling anything now–

He stopped suddenly, and turned towards the door. He quickly opened it, and with a soft yelp, Taylor tumbled forward onto the porch.

"You should be sleeping,” Nicholas scolded softly. "You have work tomorrow." 

“I know,” they said quietly. They pushed themself back onto their knees and looked up at him. If it was any other scenario, he might've thought it was hot. “But I heard you talking, and maybe Nick might've heard something about–”

“Come on, forget about him.” Nicholas held out his hands, and Taylor took them so he could pull them up onto their feet. “Let's go back to bed, yeah?” 

Taylor puffed out their cheeks, which he knew was their way of showing frustration, so he kissed their forehead and each cheek until they sighed and turned around, leading them back to the bedroom.

As Taylor once again settled against Nicholas' chest, he made up his mind. Either Noah had to come down from his mountain, or he’d go up there himself. Either way, they were going to have to have a talk.

And either way, it was going to be about Taylor.

tysm for reading! If you enjoyed this, please reblog to share the word of the Revered Father. Next chapter coming soon.

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[joshuamj]

Linktober Day 8. Tunic

[kremblor]

Honestly I love the way they did this. Like could the show have gone further and shown the desperation (a la Battlestar Galactica style) ... sure ... but the food situation (and the replicator/holodeck rations along with material scrounging gives us hints).

But here is the thing ... we start the series with Tom and his "tomato soup" "there are " "plain tomato soup" - a clear blatant example of just how much information/recipes the replicator holds for a single thing. No, really, consider coffee, black (but how precisely what TYPE of coffee - what style beans, Earth beans or some other species? The ground style? The brew style? Etc etc) or even Picards "Earl Grey, hot). We do get a bit of "as its their usual the computer knows from voice which" explained elsewhere (off screen or in a book or whatever) but that still has to be programmed in for each person per system (ship, base, home, office, etc).

So, the moment Voyager is dealing with a resource deficiency much of the reliance comes from that pre-programed main preference or Neelix for the food. You aren't gonna use your rations up just because basically. And what does Neelix do?

We get told in show a few times he actually looks into the crews history and background. Listens to their stories ("one stack of banana pancakes coming right up" - he replicates it but he does it, and likely the kitchen has a bit more ration use so its not wasting individual ration). Like, i may dislike certain aspects to Neelix's character but that's more the writers choice to not show the growth there. This man looked up crew holidays and cooked meals for them. "This vulcan holiday is celebrated with plomeek soup, rather bland for me but here ya go". He put together events and everything for the crew to keep the morale going - providing the food for it. Was it always great food ... no. But he worked to learn their traditions and cultures so he could bring them a taste of home.

We also get the whole "attempts to steal mushrooms so Chakotay can make mushroom soup" at the beginning of the show. Janeway may not have been "captain chef" (which honestly not just her - Picard and Kirk also weren't cooks, replicate fine sure but not cooks like Pike or Sisko. Don't even think Archer was shown to actually cook) ... but there are those on the crew who were and I like that the show indicates this sort of thing. That Neelix (and Kes with her plants) cared to help this crew along. That others knew how to cook, and likely did.

Tuvok we learn can bake (and likely more), Seven is capable as well, and obviously Chakotay. I guarantee there was at least a few times those 3 convinced Janeway to do a briefing in the mess hall "cook a nice meal for it" "it would only be logical to brew a pot of coffee-" "okay im convinced" .... just i love the food situation.

And that it is immediately presented in the show. Neelix and Kes are outsiders, not "crew", essentially accidentally rescued/caught up in their situation.... and instead of a "get us off this ship now" its a "let us come along, we can help, i can cook. Oh I can start you a garden". Immediately a "you'll definitely be needing resources and food along the way and we know this area plus bonus capable of providing the food and cooking it" - and its shown through Neelix that without him they might have accidentally gathered the wrong stuff and died (not really but it would have taken longer to test everything on ship for edibility - least with his guidance they can scan what he says is good and see if okay for them).

Anyways .... yeah I love the use of the food situation as a way of expressing the ships situation as a whole.

the food situation on voyager is so fucking dire compared to every other star trek series like their chef is cooking for a bunch of alien species he’s never encountered before and has no idea what their palates are like so he’s just throwing shit at a wall and hoping it sticks, they can barely use the replicators, and they can’t even go over to the captain’s quarters for a nice homecooked crew meal because unlike every other starfleet captain she’s so bad at cooking she can burn replicated water. that’s the real horror of the show tbh

[icewindandboringhorror]

sometimes looking at like Self Help Strategies lists for the symptoms I'm having is always just like:

thing that I already do

thing I have tried 10 times

thing I already do

thing that I don't have the money to do

thing I already do

thing I've been doing since I was 10yrs old to no avail

thing that is impossible given my situation

thing that doesn't apply to me

thing that I already do

thing I have already tried

hrmm, oh wait, maybe finally- OH, yeah.. okay. thing that I already do but it was just phrased slightly differently

thing I have already done

[bacchuschucklefuck]

LIVING for your ponytail Yugi he’s so cute 😭💖

thank u! i hold dear in my heart the way yuugi is like a little plushie that wants nothing more than to die a noble death

[hogfetish]

re: "good girl" i think they say it once randomly as a joke and its just one of those things that gets him wayyy more than they expected it would. so now its their secret weapon and they use it very sparingly and every single time he gets super embarrassed about it but it works ill tell you what.

[welcometoteyvat]

arlecchino's official title is "father" when house of hearth members refer to her ......... please just one chance please please

[sweetandglovelyart]

I didn’t have time to draw something for Halloween, so here’s this old drawing I did a while ago of Meta Knight as Captain Picard/Locutus of Borg from Star Trek: The Next Generation that I feel somewhat fits the Halloween theme. I call him Locutus of Borb.

[leafy-m]

So I hit my 700th edit for the WHA wiki today, because I am a totally normal person

[izzy-b-hands]

I keep forgetting I can't seem to get the current version of xkit to work on my new laptop and going to do stuff that it let me do fjldksafjdlsaj

[orcelito]

At my doctor's appointment and Oh Boy they are having me do labs

[gongedtornado]

h*zbin/h*lluva enjoyers fuck off from my page plz 🙏

[arytha]

at this point i want to scrap what i have built for era and lorne bc figuring out details with the bits i have randomly set up now is fucking annoying me

[nature-played-a-trick-on-me]

Feeling very conflicted about things 😕