#this is mostly data-science specific

[hopefullhearts]

Sickeningly Sweet [Scott Miller x Reader - Twisters]

summary: You are Tyler Owens' childhood best friend and member of his storm chasing crew. A storm outbreak means you and the gang cross paths with Storm Par on more than one occasion, and your sweet southern charm drives Scott crazy (in more than one way).

content warnings: somewhat heated kissing, no use of y/n, light name-calling/teasing, not proofread/bad writing (I have not written a fanfic in forever), bad taste in candy, & i think that is all!

word count: 3.5k

a/n: I have not written or posted on tumblr in SO long but I saw Twisters for the glenn powell craze and left with a scott/david corenswet obsession and these thoughts must come out of my head.

Shoutout to @hederasgarden and @sailor-aviator for leading the charge for the Scott girlies. All of their writings and drabbles inspired me to write this one, so check them out!

If people like this I might do a smutty part 2! I don't mind writing smut I just feel like it's not very good hahaha but let me know what you think!

--

You heavily resented the idea that guys and girls could not just be friends, because you'd be damned if Tyler Owens wasn't the best friend you ever had.

You met on the playground in Kindergarten. A boy pushed you off a swing, Tyler defended your honor, and the rest was history.

Tyler's overprotective streak made you view him like the brother you never had, and that's how your relationship remained. He was family, and that was that.

Tyler had always been interested in tornadoes, more specifically, how to track and predict them. You, on the other hand, hated science, including weather, but you loved the thrill of the chase.

In college, you studied marketing while Tyler studied meteorology. So, when Tyler had the idea to start streaming his storm chases, you were right there with him to help grow his brand.

Tyler knows he would be stupid not to credit you with all his success. You set up his streaming account, you edited all the clips and drone footage to post to his social media after the fact, and you even gave him the idea for the "Tornado Wrangler" nickname.

Now that everything was off the ground, you mostly put together streaming highlights and designed the merch, but you were right there in the backseat for every single chase, soaking up all the thrills.

This particular storm outbreak was expected to be a big one, so the whole crew strapped in for a week of bad weather, cheap motel rooms, and of course, a few run-ins with other chasers, including the guys from Storm Par.

"Storm Par's here." You said, gesturing to the fleet of white vans parked at the gas station you had just pulled up to.

"Of course they are." Tyler sighed. "There's probably going to be a lot of damage done by these storms for them to swoop in on. Just ignore them."

"No, we should be polite." You chastised him. "I'm gonna go say hi. Will you get me a cherry coke please?"

Tyler fought back an eye-roll, but nodded with a smile as you both got out of the car. "Of course."

Like everyone else in the crew, the Storm Par guys got on your last nerve. They were all a bunch of Ivy League grads who thought a more expensive degree made them better than everyone else.

However, being raised by your Mama, the epitome of Southern grace and charm, you always put a smile on your face and treated them with kindness. You even occasionally brought them food or coffee if you ran into them in the aftermath of a storm.

And even though you were blissfully unaware of the fact, this drove Scott absolutely mad.

"Hi Scott, Javi." You said cheerfully to the two boys in charge.

Scott replied with a grunt, but Javi was quick to greet you with genuine enthusiasm. "Hey! How are you?"

"I'm doing well." You nodded, smoothing your hands over your athleisure skirt. "Excited for a good chase today. How about you guys?"

"Us too." Javi nodded. "We're hoping to finally get some solid data collection today."

"Ah." You nodded, unsure what to say. You hated the idea of what they were collecting data for, but Javi seemed like a nice enough guy, and Tyler ripped on them enough for the both of you.

"Something on your mind there, princess?" Scott finally spoke, glancing away from his tablet to look down on you (literally and figuratively).

You rolled your eyes. While you would normally love to be called a princess, it always sounded like an insult coming from Scott, his voice always laced with a touch of venom.

"No, nothing at all." You smiled. "Just wondering if we'll see you guys in the aftermath if there's any damage done?"

"Why? Are you looking to increase your t-shirt sales?"

You bit your tongue, doing your best to hold your composure and not let him get to you.

"Nope, just trying to figure out if we need to make some extra to-go boxes for you guys." You decided to focus your gaze on Javi instead, finding him less intimidating.

Javi opened his mouth to speak, but Scott beat him to the punch. "I think we can find food on our own, thanks."

You took a deep breath, choosing your next words carefully. "Okay, well, the offer always stands if you change your mind."

Javi smiled and nodded. "As much as I want to see a good storm today, let's hope we don't have a ton of damage clean up."

You smiled. You knew he had a heart.

"That's something we both can agree on." You grinned. "Stay safe out there you guys!"

With that, you turned and walked away. Scott watched you go, your hair and skirt blowing side to side in the wind.

"Stay safe out there you guys." Scott mocked you under his breath.

"Yo, you don't always have to be a jerk to her, you know."

Scott gave him an unamused look. "She comes out here with her little boyfriend, selling his t-shirts and shit, and then skips over here like we're the best of friends with her thick southern accent. It's all fake."

"For one, I don't think Owens is her boyfriend." Javi corrected. "And two, I think she's just a genuinely nice person. She always says hello, even when everyone else in their crew ignores us like the plague."

"Whatever." Scott mumbled.

As you reached the truck, you took the ice-cold Coca-Cola bottle from Tyler's outstretched hand.

"Thank you!" You said excitedly, twisting the cap off to take a sip.

"How are dumb and dumber?" Tyler teased.

"Javi was nice." You informed him. "Scott was... there."

"Ah, yes." Tyler laughed. "Word on the street is he's a man of many words."

"Right." You agreed sarcastically. "But, when he does speak to me, he always calls me princess, and it drives me crazy."

"In what way?" Tyler said, failing to hold back a smirk.

It took you a moment to realize what he was implying, but when you did, you were mortified,

"Tyler Owens!" You gasped, your face flushing red with embarrassment.

""I'm just teasing you! You make it too easy." He laughed loudly. "In my defense, he looks like exactly like every boyfriend you've ever had."

Your face got even warmer, because he was exactly right. You had a weakness for tall, muscular, dark-haired men, and you especially loved a man who was a challenge.

"That is...irrelevant." You said, covering your face in your hands out of pure embarrassment.

Tyler held his hands up in surrender, as you rushed to talk about anything but Scott. "Let's just figure out what storm we're going after, you jerk." You insulted Tyler, but the smile on your face was ear to ear.

Scott watched the interaction from afar, and his chest twisted at your sickeningly sweet smile. Even if you weren't Owens' girlfriend, your closeness was evident. He ignored the burning feeling that was rising within him, not wanting to question why it was there in the first place.

Tornadoes were scary, but trying to understand how he felt about you? Terrifying.

"Alright, boss man, which storm are we chasing?" Javi pulled him out of his thoughts with a hand clapped on his shoulder, and he finally pulled his gaze away from your smile, the sound of your laughter fading into the background.

--

The storm was bad.

It hit a small town of about 3,000 people, and you estimated based on the initial damage scene that it was an EF3 at best, maybe even an EF4.

You were currently handing out anything that might be helpful to families who had been impacted by the tornado - blankets, water, heat lamps. pre-made sandwiches and cookies. You tried to offer them any comfort you could with a smile and hug, but you understood the devastation they felt all too well.

In the early days, you would try to help with the damage cleanup, but Tyler insisted that you stay back at the camper and talk to the families.

At first, you were insulted, and you thought that Tyler was insinuating you weren't strong enough to move heavy tree limbs or pieces of drywall. You finally asked him about it one day, and he laughed.

"Absolutely not!" He insisted. "You just have this energy around you that's calming, and these families need that. Your empathy and kindness are doing much more for them right now than cleaning up a bunch of rubble would."

You had never thought of it like that, but once Tyler pointed it out, it became your mission to be the solace that these families in crisis needed.

"Is there anything else we can do for you, Mrs. Smith?" You asked, rubbing the arms of a middle-aged woman who you had been speaking to for a few minutes now.

"No, thank you." She sniffled. "I really appreciate you guys being here. God bless you."

You smiled, giving her another hug. "Please let us know if there's anything more we can do to help."

She nodded, walking away to join her family, who were staring at the remains of their house.

You pushed back tears, feeling silly that this never got any easier for you, but also focused on being the anchor that these folks needed.

Scott saw you before you saw him. He watched you from afar as you did your work. He watched you force a smile and hold these people as they cried. He also watched you look up to blink back the tears before taking a deep breath and moving on to the next.

And damn if it didn't drive him nuts.

This job is easier when he doesn't get involved with the people impacted. It's easier to pretend not to care. But watching you pour your heart out to strangers, just because it's the right thing to do? It made his heart jump, and that scared him.

Ignoring the people involved and ignoring his feelings for you had become increasingly more difficult with every chase.

"Scott!" You called, approaching him with a styrofoam container in your hand.

He sighed, mentally preparing himself as you literally bounced over to him.

How the hell does someone look this good after taking on a tornado?

"Here." You offered him the container. "It's just a ham and cheese sandwich and a cookie."

"I'm really not hungry." He responded.

"Seriously?" You asked, not buying it. "We've all been chasing since 10 AM and it's nearly 8, you have to be hungry."

Scott shrugged, trying to hold back the things he really wanted to say.

"Fine." You sighed. "We're right over here if you change your mind."

"Yeah, I know princess. It's hard to miss you being the town's savior over there."

Scott watched you visibly retract and he internally screamed as his heart dropped. You probably hated him, but it didn't matter anyway. You were far too sweet for him, so putting a wedge between the two of you seemed to be the smartest way to outrun his feelings.

"Wow." You spoke, your voice much smaller and shakier than usual. "I knew you were sarcastic and maybe even a little mean, but I never thought you were actually cruel. So, thanks, for enlightening me."

And with that, you turned and strutted off. This time, you failed to fight back the tears as you returned to the camper.

And to your horror, Tyler was there, taking a break from clean up for some water.

When Tyler sees you cry, his overprotective streak comes out instantly, and right now you didn't want to be protected, because you were so embarrassed that he finally got to you. You were even more embarrassed that you thought that just maybe, he might be a good person under that scowl and hard facade.

"Hey, hey, hey, are you okay?" Tyler rushed up to meet you.

You nodded, trying to stop sniffling. "I'm fine."

Tyler looked behind you to see Scott watching you closely, with a look that almost mimicked longing, and he quickly put two and two together.

"Let me handle this." He insisted.

You shook your head in protest. "No, Tyler, please, he thinks I'm a waste of time anyways, it's not worth it."

"Trust me, he doesn't," Tyler reassured you. "Let me handle this, and if it goes badly, I'll edit all the stream highlights for the next two weeks, okay?"

"Deal." You nodded.

You truly did trust him more than anyone in your life, so you opted to go inside the camper and dry up your tears while he went to speak to Scott. You would let Tyler handle it, but no way were you going to stand there and watch, looking like a puppy who just got kicked.

"Coming to defend your girlfriend's honor?" Scott said sarcastically, trying to mask any emotion he was feeling.

"Dude, seriously." Tyler glared at him. "If you want her attention being a complete and total asshole is not the way you get it."

"Is that what you think? That I want her 'attention'?" He said, framing the last word in air quotes.

"Yeah, I do." Tyler nodded. "I saw the look you gave her as she walked away."

"Okay, so what?" Scott shrugged. "You might be surprised to know I am human and I didn't mean to make her cry."

"Sure." Tyler nodded. "So, what about all the other times I've caught you staring at her, hm?"

Scott stayed silent, stunned speechless.

"Ah, you thought you were better at hiding it, didn't you?" Tyler said with a smug grin. "Every time we end up at the same gas station, restaurant, bar, or motel, your eyes follow her nearly the whole time. And don't even get me started on the holes you burn into my head when I'm talking to her."

"Alright, fine." Scott snapped angrily. "Here to rub it in my face then?"

Tyler sighed in frustration. "No."

"Then what?"

"I'm going to give you a piece of advice."

"Why?" Scott scoffed. "It's no secret that we aren't friends."

"I know her better than anyone else, do you want my help or not?" Tyler asked, his patience nearing its limit.

Scott didn't protest this time.

"Look, no matter what I think about you, you're pretty much exactly her type," Tyler said, much to Scott's surprise. "So if you want her, apologize and tell her how you feel."

"She's not going to feel the same, and she deserves much better than me." Scott retorted. "C'mon Owens, you know what we do. When she comes floating into these broken towns like a heaven-sent angel, I'm collecting data for the devil."

"That doesn't have to be a permanent problem." Tyler pointed out. "Plus, she likes a challenge, and she's definitely brave enough to think she can fix you."

That cracked a smile from both of them, followed by a moment of silence.

"218." Tyler said.

"What?"

"That's the room she's staying in tonight." Tyler said, starting to walk away. "Apologize."

Scott nodded, beginning to formulate a plan on how the hell he was going to get you to forgive him.

--

You were snug under your blanket in the motel room watching reruns of Modern Family when the knock came.

You sighed and got up, not bothering to check the peephole as you assumed it was just Tyler coming to talk about the day's events.

So when you opened the door to see Scott standing there, you couldn't be more surprised.

"What are you doing here?" You said quietly, nearly breathless at the sight of him.

It wasn't the first time you had seen him outside of that stupid Storm Par white jumpsuit, but it was the first time you had seen him in gray sweatpants and a tight black long-sleeve shirt that clung to his muscles in a way that you could only describe as sinful.

He towered over you, leaning against the frame of the doorway, and you nearly shuddered when you looked up to meet the intense gaze in his eyes.

"I brought you something. As an apology for being an ass earlier today."

"Oh, and what did you bring for all the other times?" You spat back, no longer in the mood to play nice with him.

"I deserve that." He sighed. "Can I come in?"

"Depends." You responded, and he raised an eyebrow. "What did you bring me?"

He handed you a plastic bag, and you opened it to find a Cherry Coke, Sour Patch Kids, and a Honey Bun.

All of your favorites.

"How did you know what I like?" You asked, curious to know if Tyler was behind this.

"You always get some combination of the three at any local gas station." He shrugged.

He remembered because the first time he saw you buy all three he physically rolled his eyes, because, of course, you would buy snacks just as sickeningly sweet as you.

"I didn't know you paid this much attention to me." You said softly.

"Yeah." Scott inhaled a sharp breath. "That's what I wanted to talk to you about. Can I please come in?"

You opened the door, inviting him in with the gesture. The door shut behind you, and there was a brief moment of silence between you two.

"I'm sorry, for being a jerk today and every other time I'm around you." Scott started, visibly nervous as he ran a hand through his hair. "I wish I had a better explanation for why I've been such an ass."

"Yeah, so let's hear it." You said, hands on your hips. "Because I have been nothing but nice to you, even though I don't like who you work for and what they stand for."

"I know." He nodded. "At first, I thought you were being fake or sarcastic because it was unfathomable to me that you would be nice to us when you have absolutely no reason to be."

You nodded, encouraging him to continue.

"But once I learned more about you, and I realized you were being genuinely nice," Scott took a deep breath, building up all his courage. "It knocked me off my feet."

"What do you mean?" You asked, confused at what he was getting at

"I spend most of my time pretending that I don't care about the people that are devastated by all of this, because it's easier that way. But watching you bear your heart and soul to all of these people, just because you can?" Scott scoffed. "It makes it hard to pretend like I don't care about them, or more importantly, about you."

"You care about me?"

"I do." He nodded. "And I was a jerk to you because I thought it would be easier to make you hate me than it would be to admit that I have feelings for you, when you're far too good for me."

His admission stunned you. You can feel your heart thumping out of your chest as you look into his eyes, which look painstakingly vulnerable.

"I completely understand if you don't feel the same way, but I couldn't outrun these feelings anymore, and I wanted to at least let you know that I'm sorry."

The room fell silent as you processed everything he just told you. Scott was panicking inside, waiting for what felt like years for you to say something, anything.

"Do you know why I was always nice to you?" You asked him. "Because I was hoping that somewhere in there you had a good side. I needed to know that you had a heart before I could admit to myself that I felt drawn to you."

"Do you still? Feel drawn to me?"

You nodded. Stepping closer to him so that you were nearly face to face.

"Can I kiss you?"

"Please." You nodded desperately, your words barely above a whisper.

His lips were on yours in a flash, and the pure intensity of the kiss nearly knocked you off your feet. It was heated and rough, but somehow gentle and passionate at the same time. His thumb grazed your cheek as he pulled you closer, and every spot his fingers touched made your skin feel like it was on fire. You couldn't get enough of him.

Once he knew you were comfortable, he took the liberty of exploring you more. His tongue slipped into your mouth gently and his teeth caught your bottom lip, causing a small whimper to come from the back of your throat.

Scott groaned at the sound, letting his mind imagine (not for the first time) all of the sounds he could pull from you.

When the two of you finally pulled away for air, he kept you close, his hands ghosting under your chin around your neck, forcing you to meet his eyes.

"You taste just as sweet as I thought you would," Scott said with a smirk.

"Shut up and kiss me again."

[sirfrogsworth]

So Elon has decided to skip the imminent disaster of global climate change and just move on to a calamity 5 billion years in the future.

If you ever need to understand Elon's motivations, it's all this.

Okay and a little bit the woke mind virus.

But mostly this.

He wants to get to Mars more than anything. It's why the only thing he can speak intelligently about is his rockets. He has put in the time and effort to learn about them because this is his singular passion.

A lovely Youtube physicist did a video about SpaceX and she said half of the rockets blow up and Elon just wants more money. And it was disappointing to hear her say that because she is a scientist and both things are inaccurate.

SpaceX would be an amazing company without Elon. His leadership is the only thing really holding it back. They have put lots of cool shit into space. Their Falcon program is the most productive and cheapest rocket program in history. They put more stuff into space than everyone else combined.

They had to blow up part of the graph just so you could see the competition. Half of the SpaceX rockets are *not* blowing up.

Starship is a specific prototype. It has nothing to do with their main rocket business. Starship is Elon wanting to go to Mars. It is basically him trying to send a 3 story building into space. And he keeps blowing it up because that is the fastest way to develop a rocket. He's wasting a lot of money by trying to speedrun a trip to Mars in his lifetime. And these tests are bit more like crash test data than expecting the rocket and Starship to actually function properly. It's a process and they have goals for each launch, and for the most part, they reach those goals. Any success after those goals is gravy to them. But they are pretty certain it is going to end in fireworks at this stage of development.

I don't know if they will get it to work. It would be nice because a functional spaceship that size could do a lot of cool science. But Elon's goals and NASA's goals are going to conflict in a major way at some point in the future. And I'm worried that may damage space exploration.

Starship is very different than their Falcon program. It's a science experiment. Falcons rarely blow up. They get shit to space like the James Webb telescope.

And as far as Elon just wanting more money... sort of.

His personal wealth has not been a huge concern of his for a while. Otherwise he wouldn't have let Tesla fall apart like it has. The wealth he is actually concerned about is not his own. Going to Mars is a trillion-dollar-plus endeavor. Even the richest man in the world cannot raise that much money.

Only a government could fund that.

Elon knows this. He figured it out a while ago. And when he saw an opportunity to get his hands on the government purse strings, he jumped at the chance.

He jumped in the shape of an X like a giant loser.

I'm *positive* Elon thought, "If I could save the government a trillion dollars, they'll give it to me so I can go to Mars."

But it is probably breaking his brain right now after learning he isn't this super genius who can figure out government bureaucracy in a weekend with a bunch of coding dorks.

He got depressed and realized his cool plan to get to Mars was falling apart.

Whoops.

Elon will say anything to get to Mars. He will lie about anything to get to Mars. He will consort with anyone to get to Mars. If you are ever unsure why Elon is doing something, it's to get to Mars. His moral calculus is based on this. In his delusional mind, everything is justifiable to save the human race.

He does have side quests. He wants to repopulate the Earth with his seed. And he uses IVF because you can drastically increase the odds of getting a boy if you pay extra. And he is angry at his trans daughter because he wants boys to continue his mission to spread Musk seed. He spends $50,000 extra to make sure he gets boys and she is messing with the plan.

Oh, and he really really wants people to think he is good at video games. And he wants people to like him. And he wants to kill the woke mind virus because he didn't get the boy he paid for.

But Mars is *almost* all he cares about.

Elon thinks Earth is doomed and he wants immortality from being the man who saved human civilization. He truly believes our existence is dependent on being "multiplanetary." It might be the only thing he believes.

Saving the human race is supposed to be his legacy.

And it is killing us.

[sidrashakti]

Gemini Punarvasu: Mother Business or The Personal Brand 

My slogan for Punarvasu nakshatra is Big Business, Big Families because this is a nakshatra of (often extreme) abundance and expansiveness because of its ruling deity Aditi. She is the personification of the sprawling infinite and vast cosmos. She is the goddess of motherhood, consciousness, unconsciousness, the past, the future, and fertility. 

I have found that Gemini Punarvasu natives tend to dominate in their respective fields often not through the strict achievements or metrics (Capricorn) but through more personal (Cancer) means. They embody the concept of the Personal Brand. 

Identifiers: 

1) Tend to connect with their audiences personally rather than through extreme skill 

2) Tend to have mostly female fanbases

3) Can take on the role of Mother by nurturing or comforting or becoming omnipresent in the cultural landscape

4) Use setbacks to their advantage (ie: Reputation by Taylor Swift) 

5) Hypercreative, constantly churning out content, usually praised for their work ethic

6) Innovate through intuition, they’ve almost always innovated in some way 

7) Big family or strong connection to family in some way 

The success of these natives may bother people who believe in systems of strict qualifications: 

Amy Coney Barrett is a Gem Punarvasu Moon and caused widespread outcry when she was nominated to the Supreme Court by Donald Trump based on her beliefs, making her the only current Justice who had not attended Harvard or Yale. She has seven children and known for pushing right-wing “family values.”

Kris Jenner, a Punarvasu Moon AK in 10th House (which means she embodies this placement and does so extremely publicly for work), has launched her big family into limelight despite the frequent criticism that they don’t have any actual talents. Kris literally coined the term “momager” and created a billion dollar empire by creating a new mode of celebrity that was the opposite of the previous impersonal, distanced celeb. Like a mother, the Kardashians are omnipresent, transparent or emotionally available to their audiences, and intuit the desires of their fanbases. Kris specifically is known for her deep connections with everyone in Hollywood that are not always public and being a “secret-keeper” or always in the know, a deeply maternal role. 

Kim Kardashian has Gem Punarvasu Mercury and Jupiter tightly conjunct at the same degree in her D10 house of the career and public and is the first person to become famous for being famous. Mercury here rules technology such as social media, which is Kim’s platform. 

Ironically, perhaps the biggest personal brand ever is Taylor Swift, who has Punarvasu Moon in her D3 at the same degree as Kris Jenner’s, which is so interesting given her decade long feud with the family. Taylor has faced the same criticism as the Kardashians: reaching extreme fame not based on her vocal or performance talent but based on her connections and relatability in her music (in comparison to celebrities like Beyonce). Her music “raised” generations and is omnipresent well into her career. Punarvasu is the star of renewal and these figures often come back stronger from trials and tribulations. Taylor became the biggest popstar in the world after a period where she thought her career was over and the public hated her. Her family also extremely involved in her career.

These natives rely on their intuitions to innovate rather than hard science or rules. Steve Jobs had Jupiter in Gem Punarvasu (and Uranus in the Cancer portion) and was known for frequently stating that he valued intuition over logic and data, believing it to be a powerful tool for innovation. He often said that his intuition was a "whisper of the soul" that guided him, despite the reputation given to him by media of being a technician. Jobs's approach to product development often involved trusting his gut feeling about what customers would want, rather than relying on focus groups or market research. The Iphone became omnipresent in the West, owned by most people. He was a father of four children.

These natives are often hypercreative and workaholics, constantly producing and creating due to to abundant nature of Aditi. As a result they often have long and unique careers, becoming known for multiple things depending on other placements in their charts.

Sexuality

Sarah Weddington

This placement is particularly interesting on the Rahu/Ketu axis because it embodies the struggle for the liberation of the feminine on a public stage and these natives are very glamorous. Marilyn Monroe, perhaps the most famous woman ever, had this placement and her life embodied the struggles of the dark feminine publicly. Sarah Weddington was the lawyer who litigated and won the Roe v. Wade case as a fresh law school graduate after struggling to find employment because of a preference for male lawyers. This case gave generations of women the freedom of choice.

Working list of natives: 

ASC 

Sade Adu 

Caroline Herrera

Moon

Kris Jenner (Punarvasu Moon AK in 10th House

Taylor Swift (Moon D3) 

Amy Coney Barrett 

Mercury

Lana Del Rey (Mercury in Punarvasu in her natal chart & Lilith in Punarvasu in D10) 

Jupiter 

Steve Jobs (Jupiter in Gem Punarvasu (and Uranus in the Cancer portion) 

Mars 

Jalen Hurts

Ketu

Dita Von Teese 

Hasan Piker (Ketu in 6H) 

Rahu

Marilyn Monroe 

Sarah Weddington

[tickytheclock]

Time to get my Faction out :D

[Wild Riders]

They are a faction of a rag-tag team of Toons. They basically travel around via the truck, Steel Stallion. They go around from settlement to settlement to do business such as selling weapons and augments as well as buying for supplies and material.

Members in the faction join via being picked up by the leader, Tinkerer. Most of them were found in tight situations like near death scenarios or even when they are at their low, some are pretty great customers of Tinkerer who just decided to hitch on.

This is their Truck, or more specifically, Tinkerer's.

Steel Stallion

Functions as a base, home, workshop, store and more. There are plenty of weapons, augments, armour, utility tools and supplies so take your time scouring through the stocks.

Operation Ichor by @slumbrr-r @operation-ichor

Relationship with other Organizations and Factions. ↓

Gardenview [Allies/Friendly]:

The Wild Riders have a very beneficial relationship with this organization, especially with those in the Forge. They supply and trade each other with mainly blueprints and materials.

The Merchant Order [Neutral]:

The Wild Riders are technically under this organization, plenty of reliable links and ties to be found there. Mainly just buying and selling goods there.

RUIN CORP [Allies/Neutral]:

Although the Wild Riders primarily go to them for...cleaning. The two benefit from each other a lot, specifically with Harmony.

Zodiac [Enemies]:

Although it's usually either kill on sight or sabotage on the sidelines, the Wild Riders have a primary goal—to make the members in there defected from the place as much as they can, whether it be through fear or convincing.

Plus it be funny if there was a revolution, watch the place crumble on itself.

Vinization [Allies/Neutral]:

Mutual connection for benefit, and a great place where the Wild Riders can get info on the Zodiac through the captured members. It also wouldn't hurt to do a bit of trading with the Retailers, helps both sides.

Hidden Sanctuary [Allies/Friendly]:

Like Gardenview, they provide each other with supplies and material, beneficial for the Builders and Defenders with materials, tools, weapons and augments and the Wild Riders with food supplies.

Overseas Commandment [Neutral/Friendly]:

These two factions don't really meet up often since they travel a lot one on land and the other on sea. But when they do, it's mostly some exchange in information and trading with materials.

The Caravan [Allies/Friendly]:

They most definitely share information as the Wild Riders would aid in giving and improving weapons and augments for better protection. These two factions travel with each other when they get the chance to, after all, there is a certain strength in numbers. Makes the trip a bit more safer.

Phoenix Coalition Organization [Allies/Neutral]:

They most certainly do have different ideals but they do have a certain goal, to protect others and stand united.

With the Defense Division, the Wild Riders will most certainly aid in their mission and especially with evacuation and waves.

At Site Omicron where the Engineering Department is, they mutually help in making even more ichor efficient and powerful tools, weapons, augments and armour.

Meanwhile at Site Thaumiel, the headquarters of the Science Department, they share data and research for more understanding and breakthroughs.

Sentinel and Wild Riders would certainly run into each other plenty of times, it's more of a competition of who does it first really and maybe form a joint operation.

The Wild Riders never truly interacted with the Diplomatic Relations Division, so just be prepared for sudden joint operations, but despite everything help is still help.

Mechanists [Neutral/Allies]:

These faction may not see things eye to eye but they certainly help each other when it's needed.

Sometimes they do come around each other via the Marauders Division in their expedition I'm which they would offer the members to hitch a ride to their destination and target.

With the Moongazer Division, its mainly exchange in material and tech, as well as maybe blueprints.

Masquerade Town [Neutral?]:

...if a single word got out to the Wild Riders that the town is nothing but Twisteds, there's going to be a massacre...

The Field [Tension/Enemies]:

...the ex-member of the Zodiacs in the Wild Riders have given intel of this organization...this place needs to be known but the risk is very much a lot.

Wild Riders mainly avoid this place because it is at risk with all the children in there...mayhaps the other factions can help.

The Greater Good [Tension/Enemies/Allies?]:

Unfortunately, they are enemies (albeit one sided) due to Wild Riders have both an ex-member of the Zodiac and partial Twisteds, maybe they could've been allies under different circumstances but this is not the case.

The Wild Riders take on a more defensive approach to the faction of The Greater Good, often fleeing, their intentions are good but their ways are flawed. But they WILL reluctantly help each other and call it truce when it comes to threats like the Zodiac, Twisteds and especially waves.

[typewritingyip]

Arcturus Three

Part Three - Creation

Part Two

———

The idea of first aid in space travel has been around since they first started sending humans up on rockets, astronauts have to undergo extensive medical training to handle any potential emergencies in the zero-gravity environment they face.

Specific medical equipment was developed and has become essential for zero-gravity, such as portable defibrillators and compact ultrasound machines. Wearable sensors for heart rate, blood pressure, and oxygen levels became necessary for tracking data.

Contact with other astronauts and Mission Control are important for not only physical but mental health, with limited resources of sending up physicians and psychiatrists.

Space medicine research is a still developing field with experiments and research being done from the International Space Station. 

It is essential that every astronaut before beginning their journey, no matter the duration or destination, go through assessment for a number of things; cardiovascular health, bone density, vision, hearing, and mental health status. 

The need for medical professionals in space is ever growing with the further exploration efforts, research in need of expanding and an ever expanding horizon.

—

Ratchet had been right about the very long night, his head was aching as he fought with the coffee pot. Truthfully, he had a rule against making coffee while Jesse was in the workshop but with Percy there it was hard to deny the need. They’d been up since the attack yesterday, mostly waiting on the full casualty report but also Percy was interviewing the so-called interloper.

He was trying his hardest not to bang his forehead against the counter. 

“Why don’t you have one of my translators set up?” Groaning, Ratchet turned and looked over. 

Deadlock was still protecting Jesse, though the pilot was now perched on the aliens shoulder instead of behind his clawed hands. Perceptor was standing in front of them both, hands on his hips and staring up at Deadlock, “My translator is able to perceive vowels in words and syntax to make semi-accurate translations that can be adjusted by the users.” He was frowning, “It would make this significantly easier.” Tilting his head to the side, he goes back to circling, again and Deadlock growls again.

Yeah, he wasn’t sure why he wasn’t slamming his face into the counter. 

With a sigh, he poured himself a fresh cup of coffee and turned, “Because asking you for a translator would have been suspicious and we made it work.” Shrugging lightly, Ratchet eases himself onto a nearby stool, wincing slightly before sipping more coffee.

Percy’s eyes flick over then he stop circling and moves towards the makeshift food area, “Well, I wouldn’t have asked, but you’re not entirely wrong either.” Ratchet watched him get his own cup, slowly turning to face Deadlock instead.

The look he’d been getting for the better part of the night was one of mixed worry and betrayal, as if he’d invited Perceptor over. Clicking quietly, Deadlock motions to him and he shakes his head, “No, I am not coming over there to hide from Percy, for fucks sake.” Closing his eyes, he sighs slowly.

Deadlock growled again and Jesse laughed, “Oh don’t be like that, Ratchet has been up most of the night, it’s rough on him.” With almost a pur, Deadlock returned to his pouting. Pinching the bridge of his nose and letting out a deep sigh, Ratchet turns back to Percy.

Whose eyes were still examining Deadlock like a science experiment and Ratchet scowled, “Percy, give it a rest.” Humming, Perceptor finally brought over his own stool, sitting down and frowning into his coffee.

”Shockwave can not find out about this, uh, Deadlock as you call him.” Nodding a bit, Ratchet stared at his own coffee, “It’s bad enough the pilots are his new test subjects, I don’t want to put him through that.” Gesturing weakly towards Deadlock, “We have to get him onto the Iliad before we go up. I can’t keep him hold up in here and if we have another incident like tonight.” His words died off.

There was nothing else to be said on that front, if Shockwave found Deadlock, they’d either be at war or the poor mech would become an experiment. 

His eyes wandered back to Deadlock and Jesse, his heart aching, “His kind are at war too, at least I think that’s what he said.” Percy nodded, glancing over and catching Deadlock’s eye, he started to growl again. Cracking a smile, Perceptor shook his head a bit, “He hates me.”

It took Ratchet a moment to try and smile, “He hates scientists.” His heart clutched painfully again, “And I don’t blame him for that, not one bit.” Perceptor sighs, “I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones. Albert Einstein.” Sighing, Ratchet drags a hand through his hair. 

They’d all designed the suits in one way or another, “Fuck me.” Percy smiled and nodded, “In a way, I’m glad we’re all flying to our deaths, better than fighting those freaks with sticks and stones.” Rubbing his neck, Ratchet sighed and nodded.

”We need to figure this out Percy, we’ve not heard actual news from Arcturus One in ages and don’t play the crap company card with me, it’s the same footage replaying over and over.” Percy winced and rubbed at his implants, “Yeah, uh, these missions are meant to put out a relay satellite to send back the data they get.” Nodding a bit, Ratchet finished his coffee with a bit of a scowl.

Sighing, Perceptor hangs his head, “You have to know we lost contact with them after two weeks. Then six months for Arcturus Two, the success rate for these missions is sitting at zero.” With a shrug, Ratchet nods, “I know what I signed up for, kid. So, what the hell are we doing talking about the enviable?” 

He shrugged weakly, “If we’re bringing an alien with us which is already complicated in itself, three of us have suits that are actually planned for, and who knows where the previous crews have gone. They're just disappearing, so we need to be able to defend ourselves. Entirely.” Humming, Ratchet stands and moves back towards the coffee maker, “I don’t have implants, I’m not compatible.” Percy chuckles.

”You don’t need to be compatible with what I’m thinking of.” He stopped pouring his coffee and swore, “Perceptor, I am old and tired. I have an alien that follows me around like a lost puppy and a pilot that does the same. The last thing that we need to consider is how I will defend myself against the Kijus.” Perceptor gets up and moves over.

Resting a hand on his shoulder, Percy leans in, “You’re going to like it, I promise, and your alien over there might like it as well.” He groaned and put his face in his hands, “I should have left you outside.” Percy’s arm rested around his shoulders, squeezing them tightly.

In only the way a pilot could now, “Relax Rusty, it's just to keep you safe and keep your oversized mechanical cat from killing me in my sleep.” There was another growl behind them.

Yeah, it was decided, he not only hated it here but truly wished he’d slammed his face into the workstation. If not to kill him, to at least have knocked him unconscious. 

—

They took to meeting most nights to work, the three of them plus an alien, and every night that went by the more often Celia’s name passed their lips. But then Deadlock would growl and it was dropped again. 

Three quarters of Arcturus Three were working on a project to protect a mechanical alien that reminded them all of their own suits, without their leader, their captain at the helm. Certainly they had all made smarter moves, but Deadlock needed to be in space before they went into their three months of isolation and as much as he would hate to admit it, Ratchet’s suit needed to be finished as well. 

The design was one of the coolest things that he’s ever seen, it was the assistance suit on steroids. All of it had been approved by Shockwave and NASA, but Percy and Ratchet were building it themselves with certain precautions. 

Sure, they all knew they were basically flying to their death but that was beside the point in this. The longer they were able to stay alive, the better. 

Everything from the oxygen reserves, to the defibrillators built into his hands, in place of striker suit magnets, it was truly a work of technological art. Then the white and red paint scheme of a rescue unit wrapped it up all in a nice bow, though Ratchet’s complaints were a bit annoying. This was the closest the old man would ever get to being a pilot, he thought it would be cool. 

Jesse was at present sitting on the top of the disguise unit that Deadlock was supposed to scan. He had been on Earth, hiding as a muscle car and then an emergency response vehicle for a while, now he was going to be a massive piece of moving equipment for Rusty. 

Just another thing they were making for this crazy trip, but this one was almost more necessary, to keep Deadlock safe from Shockwave. A shiver ran up his spine. 

The mech behind him was clicking and purring, the translator set Jesse was supposed to wear was currently buried under some things on Perceptor’s workbench. He hadn’t meant to break it, but still managed to. So he was just nodding along to the foreign language, watching the engineers work.

Several clicks were followed by a groan from Ratchet, “No, this will not be something you can drive. It’s just for transport, we’ve talked about this.” The headset was large on Rusty’s head, adjusting the microphone a bit and Deadlock purred before clicking and beeping.

Deadlock wore a small magnetic something against one of his ears, Jesse didn’t really know how it worked but it was sending the translations directly into the headsets. 

“You said that you can put yourself in stasis, that’s the plan and we’re not changing it just because you’ll miss us. If you’re asleep then you really won’t.” Pausing, Rusty put down his tools, “Alright, alright. We’re taking a break.” Removing his headphones, he rubs at his neck. 

Jesse glances over before climbing down from the box, stretching, “You hungry? I could run to get us food from the cafeteria. Percy, you hungry dude?” He leaned around the box to stare at the man who was welding, something, fuck only knew what. 

With a solid smack, Percy wears as his head hits a metal bar, “Yes, thank you Jesse. I think it’s protein bowl day anyways.” Giving him a thumbs up, he walked across the room and grabbed up his keys, “I’ll be back!” And the door slammed shut behind him.

Humming to himself, the walk to base wouldn’t have been terribly long, but it was more fun to ride the motorcycle. Sliding over the seat, he pulls his helmet from the handlebars. It took him a second to fix his hair before pulling the helmet on, it was so similar to his own assistant suit, that it never felt claustrophobic.

Backing up carefully, Jesse turns over the engine and revs it for a moment before tucking close and speeding towards command.

Mecha, Georgia was never a place he imagined living, not even for just a short time but it was where headquarters was so it is where he was. At least for a few more weeks before they went to the isolation chamber run by NASA. 

Tucked close to the bike, Jesse was hugging the curves of the road, trees blocking his view of buildings. Or better known in the county as the compound. This place had been here longer than he’d been alive and it would probably outlive him too, but it was where suits were built or more often rebuilt, along with where the scientists lived.

A shiver ran up his back as he came up to the gate, flicking up the visor on his helmet for a retina scan. It was easier than pulling out his ID card, before the gate opens and he pulls in. 

The compound was massive, it had to be to maintenance or at least maintain up to ten mech suits. Along with their pilots and have a space for testing, there was also the mundane aspects of it; offices for engineers and administrators, the labs that Shockwave ruled over with an iron fist, and only the people stationed on this coast normally knew.

Pulling into his parking spot, Jesse removes his helmet and slides off the bike casually, humming again. If it weren’t for Arcturus, he wouldn’t have come here but he’d known Jazz back when he was a new pilot then he heard the hatchet was signing up to be a medic on scene and the rest was history.

Sighing, he scratches at his implants while walking through the hanger. Their suits were all being worked on, getting prepared to be in space.

That was a cool thought, massive space battle against the alien menace. Sounded like something out of the movies. 

Saluting vaguely to a handful of engineers, he kept going towards the cafeteria. Drumming his fingers against his legs, this was why he was a striker over any other class, he was far too hyperactive to be a hunter and impatient to be a tanker then rescue was completely out of the question. 

He couldn’t help the singing under his breath, “Dare, dare to believe you can survive.” It was a staple of his childhood, one of his dads favorite songs. His mom would play it whenever she was sad. 

Grabbing up a tray, he kept banging his fingers against it while sliding down the line, picking up the things that sounded and looked good. Placing two orders to-go at the main counter, glancing around the space before grinning, “Hey, Acree!” 

Celia was talking with another pilot and a few engineers, smiling and laughing while drinking some coffee. She glances over, “Hey, Hot Rod, where have you been? I haven’t seen you in ages.” Smiling, he lifts his filled tray and walks over, “Here and there, you know how that is.” Setting the tray on the table, he sits next to it on the surface.

She laughs and shakes her head, “Normally, yeah, when we have our suits but we’re not meant to be going too far.” He waves it off, popping from blueberries in his mouth, “Yeah, I haven’t been far. Over at the hatchets workshop is all.” She hums and nods, stealing one of his bread rolls. 

Smirking a bit, he shrugs, “You should swing by, we’re making the doc a bunch of cool space stuff, well him and Percy are.” She shakes her head, smiling, “Some other time.” He shrugs and shifts to focus on his food instead.

—

It was late, just shy of two in the morning when Cecilia called it a day. Walking away from the hanger, leaving her toolbox in her locker. She really was supposed to call home that night, hence the long night in the first place.

Last thing she wanted to do was hear about home, when she’d probably never see it again. 

Sighing, she drags a hand through her hair and brushes her fingers over her implants. Closing her eyes for a moment.

She had wanted to be a pilot her whole life, lived and breathed everything to be a pilot, snuck off for compatibility testing and now they were sending her to die. All because the original quote-unquote captain was unwell. Which, she felt for Felix, it was obvious whatever happened that day with his suit had been intense. The poor guy was still in the hospital and suit eleven was in the back of the hanger. 

Hitting the access, she goes into the room she was staying in in the dorms, rubbing at her eyes. It had been a painfully long day, even with the good conversation she’d had with just shy of everyone in the complex, even Jesse had swung in at lunch time. Sitting down on the bed, she takes her phone from the charge and looks at the messages.

Most if not all were from her mentor, groaning, she puts it back on her nightstand and puts her head in her hands.

They were a few days shy of the first launches for the Iliad, the pieces that weren’t the ship they were taking were starting to go up and all she honestly wanted to do was be back out in her suit. Defending the innocent, not exploring the void of space.

Groaning again, she gets up and grabs a hat, starting back out of the dorms.

There was no way that she’d be able to sleep there, not in the pit that was headquarters where everything would drag them down mentally. Maybe Jesse was right, maybe spending some time around Rusty’s workshop would do her some good. Getting to spend some time with the people she’d shortly be going into isolation with. 

Isolation sounded like hell, being from the rescue class originally she was already around a lot of people, more extroverted than the typical striker class but rescue class were less needed than they used to be. She was a better striker anyways, but she dealt with the public a lot less. 

Slipping out of the dorms and heading for the woods, she went at a jog, glancing towards the science building for a moment. The lights were still on, there had been a compatibility test earlier that day. Around twenty people had showed up, three had passed even with the low level now. 

The screams were always so loud, even when you were working on a mech or in a group, the screams of a compatibility test were distinct. She could remember how it felt, how it sounded, everything about it. No pilot talked about it in interviews, you honestly didn’t know what to expect unless a family member went in for testing. 

Sliding down the slight hill, there was a fence and a road between her and the warehouse, nothing much to be bothered over, but still annoying. 

She smiled a bit as the familiar response vehicle pulled into the warehouse, Ratchet and his mystery boyfriend. It was always nice whenever the guy dropped him off or picked him up, especially after the agonizing meetings with Swindle or Shockwave. 

However, the moment Ratchet got out and the thing changed, she stood frozen and staring. Hot Rod ran up to greet them both, if it was a both but the thing looked so similar to a suit and she froze as whatever it was looked right at her. It’s eyes were bright and terrifying. 

Nothing like the visors of all their suits, these were actual eyes, that were staring into her soul.

Whatever it was leaned down and said something to Ratchet and Hot Rod, who both looked her way as well, though the trees blocked enough of her to hopefully not be noticed.

��Hey! Hey Arcee! You came!” But leave it to Jesse to have eagle eyes. Swearing and stumbling back, she glances around, “Come on! We’ve gotta get inside!” He kept yelling and waving.

Looking over her shoulder again, “Alright! Alright.” It wasn’t exactly like she wanted to go back to bed anyways. Swearing again, she keeps going towards the warehouse even as the prototype suit goes inside, pulling the big door shut behind itself. 

Quickly scaling the fence and glancing down both sides of the road, she runs across, before Rusty and Jesse had hold of her arms, “Welcome to the Arcturus secret headquarters capitan.” Jesse’s smile was too bright and Rusty’s hold nearly painfully tight. 

The inside of the warehouse was loud, from that thing moving around to the sound of welding, “Uh, Jesse, what is that?” She didn’t want to call it a thing, in case it could understand her, but still was thinking it, “That, is Deadlock, he’s an alien.” Jesse dodged the swift smack from Rusty.

”Yeah, uh, great.” She stared, “Why is it here?” The men on either side of her shared a look, “Well, he’s our friend, and we're getting him off Earth on the Iliad.” She instantly regretted asking.

—

Perceptor spent day and night working, more intensely than he had in ages but there was a distinct deadline on all of it. Three months before take off, they needed to be said and done with everything, it needed to be on the first ship that would form the ring on the Iliad. 

It needed to be done so he was working, even when everyone else wasn’t or was busy, he was working. It reminded him of his early days working for MECHA. How he had to do a lot of his own plans for himself, to himself, the bone deep exhaustion that would drag him down.

At least here he had Rusty’s help along with Jesse and Cecila’s company, then the alien who growled in the corner. It was hard if not impossible to build trust in someone who had so much trauma based in science. He could see why Deadlock had quickly gotten along with other pilots. 

“You know Percy, you get this look on your face whenever you’re about to break something.” Rusty’s voice was deep and calm with age, the patients in the medic and scientist was shocking.

Right now Cecilia and Jesse were talking quietly with Deadlock, headphones over their ears and blocking out the worst of the noise he was causing, “Sorry, I was just lost in thought. We need this stuff done tomorrow and I don’t know if it will be.” His hands shook lightly before he balls them into fists.

Smiling sadly at him, Ratchet rests a hand on his shoulder, “Close enough is better than nothing, just because we’re going to Texas tomorrow doesn’t mean they have to be perfect. Deadlock will scan the machine tonight and my suit is good enough. We’ll see it all in a few months' time.” Nodding slowly, Percy set down his tools and sighed.

Dragging his hands down his face and rubbing his implants, they ached with lack of use, he hadn’t even been in a simulator in the last month he’d been so busy. This was all so important, important towards their survival up there. Who even knew what happened to the previous crews, what had happened to Jazz all those years ago.

Ratchet’s hand rested on his shoulder, “Alright, enough. We all need to get some sleep before tomorrow.” Standing slowly, he patted his shoulder before going to get the others.

Percy sat there, taking slow, deep, calming breaths for a long moment. How were they going to pull this off?

———

A/N

This was supposed to be done a few days ago but I’m had a hard time with parts of it. And the last two days have been insane for me so there’s also that.

Next part will probably be out in a week or two, and then the last part soon after that. Right around the time Part 50 should be coming out for Arcturus One.

TAGS

@lunarlei68 @whirlywhirlygig @loop-hole-319 @pixillandjester @alek-the-witch @not-a-moose-in-disguise @goddessofwind8water @neurologicalglitch @dersereblogger @pixel-transformers @mrcrayonofdoom @wireplaces @twilightfreefaller @original-blog-name-2 @devilangel657 @robbin-u @miniartistme @starwold @tea-enthusiasm @valeexpris606 @celticdoggo @bird599 @agentsquirrelsgotrobots @aquaioart @thatwandercat @artdagz @seisha974 @halenhusky309 @leethepiper @cat-cassette @sirassban @cosmique-oddity @garbageenthusiast @xervias @azulabutterfly @fryseem @spring-mc @echo-circuit @aghostsnail @wooblewooble @ask-glory-haddock-and-others @nonsscrapheap @magichats @iminahole247 @omgflyingderpywhale @thetrexartist @naaaafam @elegantmantaray @emichusai @waterlilykitty @diabolichare @ham4ponyo @osqindaxend @sunnyvibesanddoodles @ratatatata248 @ijustneedausernaneplease4444444 @sprook-children @fooolisher 

And once again thank you to @Keferon for this amazing AU

Also I am going to be redoing my masterlist soon, probably after part 50 so that those who want to be tagged can be and those who don’t interact anymore don’t have to be if they don’t want to be.

[alpaca-clouds]

Let Us Talk About Insects For Once

I could swear I have talked on this before, but I cannot find it (tumblr search is still busted) and also, it is something important, that sadly a lot of the big science communicators have communicated wrongly - mainly due to trying people to care about it.

You probably have heard this phrase before: Save the bees!

And the image this conjured up for you is this one:

The kinda adorable, fluffy little honey bee, who make nice and tasty honey for us, are being kept all around, and also have a very weird movie about interspecies romance dedicated to them, that communicates this issue wrong once more.

Well, what if I told you, that a) honey bees are just a very tiny minority of the insects responsible for polinating plants in the world, and b) are actually doing right fine, given that they are somewhat domesticated and people make money with them. So yeah, to the shock of absolutely no-one the Bee Movie is horrid pro-honey-bee propaganda.

Instead the animals mainly responsible for polinating our plants are other species of bees - those actually endangered often - who live often more solitarily and do not produce honey either at all or in as high quantities as the honey bee does. Butterflies, moths, wasps, flies, beetles and wasps instead are doing a whole lot of polination work, too.

And yeah, I get that the flies - such as the humble hoverfly - are not as cute or sexy, as the honey bee is, but... we kinda need them fort his whole pollination shit. I mean, by as much propaganda as the Bee Movie it, it was right about one thing: While it would absolutely not affect anyone if all honey bees went on a worldwide strike (good labor coordination though!), if we run out of polinators we might be a bit fucked.

So, honor the beetle and the humble hover fly.

Of course polination is not the only thing that we need insects for.

Yes, I am well aware that most time humans think of insects mostly as annoying pests, but let's be honest: We kinda know that they are somewhat important for the eco-system.

Other jobs that insects take over in the eco-system include, but are not limited to:

Removing waste (such as feces and dead animals)

Providing a food source for all sorts of small critters

Help plants filter water

Loosen the ground by digging through it and making it hence better suited to grow plants

Control one another and other animals, who without them would turn into a danger for humans and/or the eco-system

And that is without helpful jobs insects might actually take over for humans - especially in agrarculture, like hunting other pests or breaking down weeds.

So, you might notice: Even the stupid, digusting kinds of insects are kinda important and fulfill their own specific place in the eco system.

And as anyone who so much as looked at a car in the year 2000 vs today might have noticed... insects are kinda in trouble. Because in the year 2000 your typical car windshield looked like this:

Which is not what it tends to look like today. And while this is anecdote and not scientific data, we of course also have studies that confirm this subjective information.

Scientists have measured the biomass of insects in the environment with certain measures and have found results worthy of concern. Over here in Germany the flying insect biomass has decreased by 75% between 1989 and 2016. Sweden found the same 75% for a similar timeframe. The ground based insects looked better, though their biomass is harder to measure. Depending on the study their biomass has decreased between 18 and 34% over the last 30 years.

An US study found that the overall biomass has decreased by about 34% in the US, the abundance of insects (basically how densely they live and how likely it is for you to encounter insects) however by 61%. And mind you, the same study noticed that while this is an issue the abundance of certain insects - ones that in their current population might become a problem for either humans or the environment - increased.

Several studies also have found that while these decreases were observed, a similar decrease was observed in some species feeding on certain insects - especially birds and certain rodents.

Which lets me speak about the origins of this issue. Why are the insects dying?

I am guessing that both solarpunks and guerilla gardeners might be most familiar with the issue of the lawn and the impervious surfaces.

To make it short: A lot of insects rely either on earth to dig in, or on those plants to polinate - because it is an important food source. They might also rely on certain forms of biological waste (like dead animals and animal feces). And basiclly in a lot of areas we removed all of this. We replaced natural flowers with well maintained lawn, and compacted the ground, if not sealed it all together with concrete. We also remove those dead animals and the animal poo from nature, because it bothers us. And with that we take a lot of insects important elements to live on.

Which means that, yes, ideally a garden should look a lot more like the one beneath than what the HOA (a thing that pretty much is non-existent outside the US) wants you to have.

But again, this is not where it ends. We need more ground that is not sealed and not compacted. We need ground that insects can live and borrow in. Just as we need some animal carcasses to just rot where the animal died - and some animal poo to stink up some areas were humans might live. I am sorry, but there it is.

And yes, I hear you screaming. "But what about the poison?!" And yes, that is also another issue, that definitely is impacting the biomass - though the abundance is more influenced by the last three points.

Basically, yes, a lot of the stuff that farmers use to fight off either weeds or pests are obviously also killing the insects that we technically would love to survive. Because poison tends to not differentiate.

And then there is of course the other issue: Invasive species and climate change.

Germans might be well aware of these fuckers, that kinda look like ladybirds (no, but really, why are they called ladybirds and not ladybugs?) but are not. Or are, but not the right one. Basically they are species of ladybirds that are from other places on the world and somehow ended up over here, where for a variety of reasons they kinda end up killing the local ladybirds. Partly by competing for food sources, partly by being poisonous, and so on.

And of course they are not the only invasive insect species. In fact, the most invasive species tend to be insects and arachnids. And the reason for them living here is two fold.

While most of the time insects and arachnids tend to not be rewilded in places were they are not supposed to be, they do at times hitch rides on humans who travel the world - or in the luggage of said humans.

At times some of those species just happen to do the travelling on their own. For example, I spent the last two years collecting a couple of spiders of the Nosferatu spider species, that just managed to make their way from Southern Europe up here to Germany on their own.

And the reason they manage to survive is obviously climate change. It has gotten too warm and a lot of insects that would not survive here before now are capable of doing so.

And of course some insects that are natural in these parts, can no longer survive because it is too hot for them.

Those issues are obviously not just a thing in Germany. They are a problem basically everywhere.

Which reminds me of one thing. Don't get me wrong. There is some insects that are generally not really beneficial outside of feeding birds maybe. Mosquitos are one of those, which is why there are researchers arguing for erradicating them. Not becuase their bites are annoying, but because they get us - and some animals - all sorts of sicknesses. (Even though we obviously know that their existence once saved earth, lol)

But yeah, insects dying is a problem. And we should do something about it. Not just the sexy honey bee, but also some annoying flies and stuff.

And because y'all managed to read all of this so far, you get a picture of a pretty butterfly.

[breadandblankets]

Duke is a man of science and a man of questions. This leads him down many rabbit holes but most specifically printing out dozens upon dozens of business cards.

Gothamites are by and large, smart people, so not many people scan the little code even if it was put in their hands by Gotham's very own daytime hero. But it only takes a couple to get #SignalSurvey trending.

Duke doesn't find out (even though he has been trawling social media for days) until Babs shoots him a text in his Econ class (which is honestly a snoozefest anyway).

Sauron: I'll keep your secret.

Galadriel: dont u dare skew my data

Sauron: I would Never

Galadriel: yes u would

Sauron: little birdy has been a good boy so he may live.

-

Young people, who were reckless enough with their online safety (and knowledgeable enough to actually Use the thing) are the first to complete Duke's little experiment.

The answers start pouring in, with Red Hood well in the lead. The comments include things like "wet blanket" and "lame" which makes Duke laugh his whole ass off.

It's not until older internet savvy people get a hold of the link that the results become Fascinating. Nightwing begins to pull ahead, the comments are filled with: "please please less puns they're terrible" and "can't stand him but he's adorable so I forgive him".

Memorably: "Nightwing rescued me from a hostage situation one time. He talked the whole time and at the end I wanted to go back to my kidnappers. You're my hero Mr. Nightwing but Please."

Duke does actually get some votes for himself (included for sake of completeness) and he's not going to lie, shit hurts. Although some of the comments are just to the effect of "Bright :(", which does make him laugh.

There are plenty of votes for Batman (expected), Spoiler/Batgirl (expected but he's mad about it), the Robins (Fair), and a handful for Batgirl/Batgirl.

(Those seem to mostly be from goons complaining about her efficiency and how scary she is, Duke thinks they may have missed the point of the survey.)

-

At the end he compiles it all, gleefully makes a powerpoint, and bounds into Family Saturday Dinner™ with a ultra short throw projector and a dream.

The noise of the dining room doesn't dim even as Duke clears his throat, typical. It's when he starts speaking, clear and even, that people stop waging their personal wars.

"Most Annoying Bat, as voted by the people of Gotham," Duke anounces.

"A vote? By the people of Gotham?" Jason says, his voice strangled. "You mean the thing that killed me?"

"Number three: Batman."

It's here that all hell finally breaks loose.

[witchingwithscissors]

okay so LISTEN. i’ve been tracking tag data for Agatha All Along week on ao3 (shhh it’s fine) and as of rn there are 396 works. i got curious, took some screenshots for science, and now i have IMPORTANT DATA. everyone shut up and LISHEN to this absolutely groundbreaking discovery.

(pauses for dramatic effect)

okay, so here are four Agatha/Rio dynamic tags i tracked before we even hit the “breeding” category: Top Agatha, Bottom Agatha, Top Rio, Bottom Rio. yes, this is science. you’re welcome.

Pre-breeding:

Bottom Agatha = Bottom Rio

Top Agatha > Top Rio

Post-breeding:

Bottom Agatha = Bottom Rio

Top Agatha = Top Rio

so here’s what we learned: right before we hit the very specific sexual tags on ao3, Top Agatha shows up more often. as someone who uses data to help guide creative choices, i find that super interesting.

Bottom Agatha and Bottom Rio start off even, but then split into sub-tags and Bratty Bottom Agatha shows up more, so that tag is physically larger. again, Agatha leans more popular, whether that’s writer preference, reader interest, or both.

now, i didn’t vet if every fic actually fits the tags (some folks just tag to tag), but still—patterns are patterns.

also: i only followed 4 tags for fun. obviously there are way more out there, but i kept it broad. and for the record, top and bottom don’t always mean sexual to me—they’re about dynamic, energy, vibe. take that as you will. my personal opinion? irrelevant. the data speaks.

mostly, i just think it’s cool to see what we’re building together. the more we create, the more this fandom breathes and grows.

that’s all. just Agathario vibes. 💜💚

[evidence-based-activism]

I keep seeing this claim that schools/the education system today are designed for girls and disadvantage boys and that’s why girls and women are out performing boys and men at basically every level of education. Does this claim actually have any merit or truth to it? Because tbh I have a hard time believing it and I find it interesting that this seems to be the popular explanation for why girls are doing better in school when I somehow doubt a similar explanation would be widely used if girls were doing worse.

Thanks in advance and I hope you have a lovely rest of your day (or afternoon/evening/night)!

I hope you have a lovely day as well! I know this response took a while, so I hope you still see it!

Evidence For and Against a Gender Gap in Education

There's been a lot of reporting about how boys are "falling behind" in education but there is ... much less evidence to support this. (At least for young children, who are generally the focus in this sort of conversation.)

To start with, we can look at the data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), which is "a congressionally mandated program that is overseen and administered by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), within the U.S. Department of Education and the Institute of Education Sciences" [1]. Using their data explorer to examine trends in performance, we see very similar performance between boys and girls in general. However, looking at the most recent year for any particular subject and grade level (grade 4 ~ age 9; grade 8 ~ age 13; grade 12 ~ age 17), we can see some small differences.

Boys have higher scores than girls in:

Mathematics (500 point scale for grade 4 and 8; 300 point scale for grade 12) in grade 4 (-6 points), 8 (-2), and 12 (-3)

Science (300 point scale) in grade 12 (-4); girls and boys show no significant difference in grade 4 or 8

US history (500 point scale) for 8 (-4) and 12 (-4); girls and boys show no significant difference in grade 4

Geography (500 point scale) for grade 4 (-4), 8 (-3), and 12 (-5)

Girls have higher score than boys in:

Reading (500 point scale) for grade 4 (+6), 8 (+8), and 12 (+13)

Writing (300 point scale) for grade 4 (+17), 8 (+19), and 12 (+14)

Civics (300 point scale) for grade 4 (+7) and 8 (+2); girls and boys show no difference in grade 12

So, according to a standardized test measurement in the USA, there is little difference in boys and girls performance. Where there are differences they: tend to be small (mostly single digit differences on 300- and 500-point scales) and varied in direction (i.e., boys score higher in some things and girls in others).

Notably, there are substantially higher racial gaps (20-30+ points) in these subjects, suggesting that there isn't a "boy crisis" there's a "marginalized races crisis". (For both sexes, but, interestingly, more so for boys.)

In addition to that, this examination of longitudinal data [2] reaches essentially the same conclusion (different direction of gap by subject, small effect size, bigger racial difference, etc.) but also concludes that most boys "gain ground" as they age. This Dutch article [3] examines several large-scale national and international datasets and also comes to the same conclusion. (Importantly, however, as this will come up later, they did find substantial gender differences in "non-cognitive domains".)

All in all, this suggests the empirical evidence for a "boy crisis" in grade school education is weak.

That being said, there are a couple measures that do provide support for the idea specifically in older students. First, Brookings analyzed data from the Department of Education [4], and found that there is a sex gap in high school graduation rates such that a lower proportion of boys than girls graduated. Notably, however, this gap is much smaller for Asian Americans and White Americans than for Black Americans and Hispanic Americans, which suggests this is – again – more of racial issue than a gender issue.

In addition that, women are outpacing men in college entrance and graduation in the USA, according to the Pew Research Center [5]. Specifically, 39% of women over age 25 have a Bachelor's degree compared to 37% of men. However, when considering only the most recent cohort (adults aged 25 to 34), 46% of women have a Bachelor's degree compared to 36% of men.

Importantly, however, this difference is not driven by structural inequality. For individuals who did not earn a Bachelor's degree, 44% of women report financial constraints and 38% report family obligations, compared to 39% and 35% of men respectively. In contrast, 34% of men reported they "just didn't want to" and 26% report they didn't need it for their desired job, compared to 25% and 20% of women respectively. This does not support the narrative of an external "boy's crisis".

And, in addition to all of that, men are still the majority in highest paying jobs, the majority in governmental and commercial leadership positions, more likely to be the primary or sole earner in a family, and earn more - on average - that women [6].

I'd propose that any differences in educational achievement – if they existed – would be irrelevant without a similar "real world" impact. That is, what does it matter if girls outperform boys on reading tests (or boys outperform on math tests) if they are not also gaining ground in their adult professional careers?

---

Boy's Behavior

Having established that there isn't very strong evidence for a sex gap in educational achievement, I want to note that there is evidence for another type of sex gap: behavior.

This study [7] actually provides evidence that nearly all of the sex differences in grades (i.e., girls receiving higher grades from teachers in primary school) is dependent on the student's behaviors. In other words, once adjusted for "noncognitive skills", differences in grades disappears.

And remember that Dutch study [3] from earlier? They also found that teacher rated young girls "substantially more favourably than boys" for "social behaviour and work attitude". For older students, boys rated themselves less "peaceable" than girls.

The common belief that female teachers (as compared to male teachers) hurt boys performance also appears unfounded, as indicated by this review article [8]. These studies [9, 10] also draw the same conclusion, and additionally suggest that boys behavior/attitudes in school is worse than girls for both female and male teachers.

(Some people may read this and think that this is the result of girls "maturing faster" than boys. So, I'd like to point out that is almost certainly a result of socialization. Someone else has written a blog post about this topic [11], but also see this post about brain sex that also considers the reach and effects of early socialization.)

---

Conclusion

All in all, there isn't strong evidence of a "boy's education crisis". While there are gender differences in education performance they vary by subject and grade level, tend to be very small (much smaller than other demographic differences), and don't appear to have a "real world" impact.

There is evidence that boys are less disciplined and less positive in educational environments, a difference that is most likely driven by how boys are socialized in comparison to girls. (For example, boys are encouraged to be more out-going, girls are more likely to be praised for "good behavior", girls are included in chores more often and at younger ages, etc.)

I hope this helps!

References below the cut:

NAEP: National Assessment of Educational Progress. (2024, March 21). About NAEP: A Common Measure of Student Achievement; National Center for Education Statistics. https://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/about/

Husain, M., & Millimet, D. L. (2009). The mythical ‘boy crisis’? Economics of Education Review, 28(1), 38–48. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.econedurev.2007.11.002

Driessen, G., & Van Langen, A. (2013). Gender differences in primary and secondary education: Are girls really outperforming boys? International Review of Education, 59(1), 67–86. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11159-013-9352-6

Reeves, R. V., Buckner, E., & Smith, E. (2021). The unreported gender gap in high school graduation rates. Brookings. https://www.brookings.edu/articles/the-unreported-gender-gap-in-high-school-graduation-rates/

Parker, K. (2021, November 8). What’s behind the growing gap between men and women in college completion? Pew Research Center. https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2021/11/08/whats-behind-the-growing-gap-between-men-and-women-in-college-completion/

Schaeffer, K. (2024, February 27). For Women’s History Month, a look at gender gains – and gaps – in the U.S. Pew Research Center. https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2024/02/27/for-womens-history-month-a-look-at-gender-gains-and-gaps-in-the-us/

Cornwell, C., Mustard, D. B., & Van Parys, J. (2013). Noncognitive skills and the gender disparities in test scores and teacher assessments: Evidence from primary school. Journal of Human resources, 48(1), 236-264.

Coenen, J., Cornelisz, I., Groot, W., Maassen van den Brink, H., & Van Klaveren, C. (2018). Teacher characteristics and their effects on student test scores: A systematic review. Journal of economic surveys, 32(3), 848-877.

de Zeeuw, E. L., van Beijsterveldt, C. E., Glasner, T. J., Bartels, M., de Geus, E. J., & Boomsma, D. I. (2014). Do children perform and behave better at school when taught by same-gender teachers?. Learning and Individual Differences, 36, 152-156.

Carrington, B., Tymms, P., & Merrell, C. (2008). Role models, school improvement and the ‘gender gap’—do men bring out the best in boys and women the best in girls?. British Educational Research Journal, 34(3), 315-327.

Graham, R. (2023, September 22). Do girls really mature faster than boys, or do we just force them to? The Noösphere. https://archive.is/2023.09.22-090402/https://medium.com/the-no%C3%B6sphere/do-girls-really-mature-faster-than-boys-or-do-we-just-force-them-to-68e31307abf3

[transmutationisms]

hi caden i know this is advice but u seemed willing to help anons cheat academia stuff before <3 i am currently fucked in terms of getting into the ivory towers* womp womp. it's fine bc most of what i want from academia isn't really limited to academia, except for one thing which is institutional credentials/library access :(

i know that there's: cold emailing current authors, requesting specific files on online sites, requesting library borrows as an independent researcher (least likely to work :(), and spamming (smartly) the limited digital scan requests that some libraries offer. but other than those options, is there a way to get something close to actual institutional access? do i rlly just need to hunker down and make enough copyright-hating twitter mutuals that happen to also be an academic and beg for their login accounts

*yadda yadda it's bc i have a cruddy online masters and no bachelors <- unfixable i fear. i guess i could grind like. self publishing essays and making industry connections and funding small anthropological or historical research projects on my own and Then applying for a masters (which i think im gonna have to pay for lol) and even then it's probably a low chance of acceptance innit?

piracy? i mean i'm not discounting the value of institutional access but i have it & still get most of my stuff illegally lol. directory of open access journals also has some stuff tho they aren't flagship journals, and a jstor free account gives you two articles a week or something like that. mostly i use anna's archive and stc, most non-academic interlibrary loan won't have the subscription money for journals but you can check if your libraries are funded better. borrowing credentials doesn't always work because the schools typically have a policy against & will flag you based on location data lol. i get caught in that just using a vpn. it's worth trying tho

i would not under any circumstances advise anyone to try being an actually independent scholar it's impoverishing and an incredible amount of work for basically no pay reward or recognition. when academics use that ohrase it typically means someone who has a job paying their bills fulltime, often adjuncting or as university staff but could be something else, it's not that they're actually living off the proceeeds of their scholarship. research is basically not profitable in itself outside the infrastructure of an institution or lab paying you im so sorry. it's not absolutely impossible to get into an ma program with no ba but it is hard and will depend on how old you are and how much career experience you can reasonably put up on your cv. some departments might be willing to just have you audit some core undergrad classes but this is something you would have to meet with them and discuss on a case by case basis. my blanket advice will also always be don't pay for grad school in the 'academic' disciplines (lib arts, sciences, anythig that's not a professional degree with a guaranteed job path you have a clear way of entering) these aren't useful degrees for much else at the entry level and universities will bleed you dry on tuition alone

[wyllzel]

get to know your tumblr mutuals tag!

i was tagged by @nfly5, thank you laura!! :))

1. what's the origin of your username?

i think wyll ravengard of bg3 fame and lae'zel also of bg3 fame should kiss and fall in love and ride dragons into the sunset (or, rather, the astral plane) together :)

2. otps + shipname

wyllzel 🥰 and vivwall (vivienne x blackwall dai) at the moment for sure!

i'm trying to think of more, but honestly i'm p easygoing when it comes to ships haha i'll take a peek at almost anything that seems compelling 🫣

3. song stuck in my head

"purple lace bra" by tate mcrae for uhhh no reason 🤫 and "feel it" by d4vd for also no reason LOL (🎶 you told me once that i was crazy i said babygirl i knooooowww but i can't let you gooo (away!) 🎶)

4. weirdest trait/habit

i have a growing aversion to cold drinks lol it's starting to feel odd drinking something that isn't hot... that's not that weird though, i think i'm just becoming a grandma LOL

5. hobbies

photoshop!! i like making gifs and edits and such :) i've also been writing a lot more recently which is crazy, i haven't felt this inspired or productive in forever :'D thank you DA lol 🩷

i am also v much a webtoon enjoyer (my all-time fave is "trash belongs in the trash can!" but i'm currently v invested in "nevermore," "i'm the queen in this life," "sisters at war," and "momfluencer"!), but i'll read manga (tatsuki fujimoto my GOAT) and comics (invincible also my GOAT)

6. if you work, what's your profession?

i write internal software documentation which means it's architectural, high-level design stuff... not so much code-specific, but the reasoning behind why software components are organized the way they are. it's not very fun, mostly mind-melting... i work closely w engineers and it's kind of a toss-up whether they'll be nice/patient or think i'm stupid lol

but my brain now contains so many company secrets :^) if you ever have any questions about data storage/virtualization i can possibly help lol

7. if you could have any job you wish, what would you have?

funny story—i applied for grad school, and i've been accepted to an english m.a. program that starts this fall!!! 🥹 we'll see where i go w that, but i'll likely enter education!

8. something you're good at?

uhh i suppose BG3 LOL i beat honor mode twice! 🎉 (i'm still trying to figure out how DA works 🤔 DA2 hard mode is chill idk if i'd ever do nightmare tho 😬)

9. something you hate?

ok it's not rly a "hate" thing but it does irk me when i see fandom claims/arguments that don't cite specific quotes/screenshots/instances lol (the english major in me activates and i am consumed by the thought "🚨‼️ where do you see this in the text 👁️👁️🫵" LOL)

10. something you forget?

the grief 😂🖐️ it creeps up on me! almost cried in my cubicle multiple times this week. haha.

11. your love language?

receiving is probably words of affirmation? giving is probably gifts, i like making silly things for my bestie (eg. fenris keychain lol) and finding weird stickers for my brother 🤡

12. favorite movies/shows?

my letterboxd top 4 are:

everything everywhere all at once (2022) (saw it twice in theaters and sobbed thru both times)

nope (2022) (BRILLIANT movie, so smart)

challengers (2024) (so fascinating!)

lust, caution (2007) (i need to rewatch this one expeditiously)

as for shows, i love succession (2018-23), invincible (2021-), and the twilight zone (1959-64)!

13. what were you like as a child?

apparently very friendly, outgoing, and extroverted! i would just run up to my fellow kids and yap at them?! i do nooot do that anymore lol

14. favorite subject in school?

english/literature!!

15. least favorite subject?

oh man, i was so bad at science, especially biology/chemistry... i could scrape by in physics bc i was decent at math, but it was still awful...

16. what's your best/worst character trait?

worst...??? according to my last annual review, i need to be more confident in the workplace LOL 💀 + sometimes i let my anxiety get the better of me... i think that's just a lifelong struggle thing though, but i know i can improve to be a better friend and such 💪

best... multiple reviews from mom-aged women say that i am a "nice" and "sweet" person so hopefully at least that means i can leave a good first impression haha

17. if you could change any detail of your life right now, what would it be?

i'm not a huge fan of what-if-ing personally, but i do wish i were on vacation 😆

18. if you could travel in time, who would you like to meet?

i'm currently very curious about my paternal grandparents... it's hard for me to conceptualize why they got married... and how my dad grew up... i guess i would want to witness some of that??

tagging: hello again haha!! @creaking-skull @andrewknightley @coolseabird @genderdotcom @bladeweave @grey-wardens @maironsbigboobs no pressure again :))

[thebreakfastgenie]

When the right first started making up the litterboxes in schools thing I thought it sounded familiar because I swear I remember a post from the peak of the tumblr otherkin era about the idea of public bathrooms including "litterboxes for catkins." When I started thinking about it I am fairly sure (but not entirely, it was a long time ago and I'm working from memory) that the post I remember was not actually suggesting this, but rather mocking another post that did, except it didn't reference a specific post. It was just "they should have litterboxes for catkins!" in quotation marks, as if someone else said it, but without attribution. There have been cases of fake tumblr posts made up on places like 4chan and reddit working their way back to tumblr, and we know those people were on here, mining for content, trolling and harassing, and running the anti-SJW blogs. I'm not saying anything definitive because again this is all based on my decade old memory, but it would make sense if the litterboxes thing had an origin in right wing posters making fun of otherkin tumblr. We know there's a right wing poster to mainstream right wing politics pipeline. I know that kitty litter was included in emergency kits in case of an armed intruder as well but I don't think the two are mutually exclusive, there could be multiple origins. I'm mostly interested in a possible anecdotal data point about the way ideas that begin on the right wing internet make their way to the mainstream right because if I'd stayed in political science I'd probably be researching this now.

[fantasy-anatomy-analyst]

Hello again! I come bearing questions re: my aliens, the Ímí, AKA Shadow People Context: I have been spending the last decade-ish working on this worldbuilding as a hobby. It is inspired by a comic book and has diverged a lot, but part of the fun for me is to figure out how to make scientific sense of choices that were made for Plot or Other (usually Sex Appeal) Reasons. There's a lot going on, but it's basically a planet where aliens get stuck on and can't leave, so there's no single origin of life, which allows for some fun things. But my questions for today are in regards to my "main"/favorite people (they're not the majority nor the people in charge, but they're the most interesting to me). I have severe ADHD and also autism, and I'm trying to put all this information in a way that makes sense to People Who Aren't Me, so sorry if it's a bit incoherent. Feel free to ask for clarification. Some facts about Shadows, based on the source material: They're very tall (around 7ft) bipedal humanoids and have gray/silvery skin, black sclera, inky black blood and murky black-ish tears. They are hunter-gatherer nomads who live in the desert, but they used to be a space conquering group who renounced their advanced technology and that lifestyle (mostly). They're fearsome warriors and some of them have a specific super power that isn't super relevant to my questions. They can also interbreed with humans, and give birth to children who are around a similar development to a human five year old (very important to the question)

My Stuff: I got rid of their binary sex system and made them Cosex (which is an alternative term for the intersexist slur - so they are all capable of both giving birth and to impregnate others. In my conlang, they have mother/father/ect terms based on who the carrier was. So your Mother was pregnant with you, but your Father could well be your sibling's Mother, ect, but I'm just going to use the English terms) I have also altered their story so that they were essentially engineered by another race of aliens to act as an army of super-soldiers, rather than evolving that way naturally. I feel it makes their various OP abilities and quirks more plausible (I've been calling them Organic Cyborgs). I know robots aren't your wheelhouse, but I've wanted to be an engineer who works with robots since I was 6 and have been working towards that since then, so robots were kind of inevitable.

Cyborg-isms: Shadows are organic creatures who live, breed, and die, like any other animal. But they have some unusual features. Basically, they have an internal Crystal Computer, and they have self-replicating nanobots in their blood. Their bodies basically treat the bots as just another cell, but they act like Nerves but Bluetooth for Crystal-Specific stuff. [For anyone who isn't as Robot-Brained as I am, crystal computers are an actual thing that science has been working on - they're theoretically the most stable method of data storage humans have discovered]. When a Shadow becomes pregnant, a tiny seed crystal breaks off from the mother's Crystal and implants in the embryo, and the nanobots are passed through the blood, which is how the system continues organically. This Crystal is what allows a lot of their oddities to function, and is like a second brain. Their flesh-brain is used for most of the functions of the human brain, but memories are stored on the Crystal, and the seed crystal that a fetus receives comes preloaded with information, which will be covered in the next section. The Crystal also contains instructions for their weirder biological processes. They also have an unusual respiratory system, which is important to my Question #2 in my next ask. They have a hybrid respiratory system, which is unidirectional by default (in the nose to lungs and out the mouth, but they also have a flap between the lungs that can close off the system in to two in-and-out systems. Also, their respiratory system is separate from the esophagus. There's panels of semi-permeable membrane in their throat where air can pass through but not liquids or solids, which is how air exits the tracheae (plural) through the mouth.

Super-Soldiers: I essentially spent a long time sitting down and thinking to myself, "If I was an Evil Empire who wanted to engineer superior soldiers that can be sent out to conquer the universe, how would I do it? (while also still hitting the important Lore bits that I'm keeping". The creators of the Shadows are pretty much the stereotypical Gray Aliens, with the big eyes. I'm just gonna call them Grays for this info-dump. The Grays are not very physically impressive but were technologically advanced. So they started with themselves and went from there. They very much considered the Shadows to be more as a piece of technology, rather than Actual People, so they treated them like Resources, AKA, they had no regard for the Shadows' well-being, as long as their goals could be accomplished. The key goals for their army would be 1, Able to replicate/breed; 2, very hardy and able to survive in a wide variety of environments; 3, adaptable; ect. The reason for the convertible respiratory system is so that even if they get stabbed in the lung, they can compartment off that section and just breathe on the other side. At some point in the past, the Shadows overthrew the Grays and left to form their own society.

Reproduction: I'm very fond of my idea for how reproduction works, while meeting the Things I needed to hit in regards to Plot Points. The main reason they can interbreed with humans and have such developed newborns is because in the comic, the human character had a Shadow love interest who got pregnant and then died in an Apocalypse, and then the kid* had survived and came back to be a pain in the ass for Dad. And I wanted to try and Science that, so I did. Because I didn't want to just make it Weird Humans In Space, I got creative. In short, Shadows have a built-in CRISPR genetics lab in their uteri, which are run by their Crystal and Nanobots. They have oviestes at the opening of the uterus, and they both produce a fluid for transferring genetic material, as well as collecting it. Rather than having gametes with only half the information, they interface with the entire genome. Also, I'm just going to say DNA, but it's not quite the same. Once collected, the sample is stored and analyzed, and the Crystal begins to run tests where various genes are swapped out to try and find the "best" option (at least, in the eyes of the programming designed by the Grays). Once the tests are done, the nanobots start to assemble a fetus until the fetus is big enough to be implanted with a Crystal, which takes over for itself. This results in the next generation to be able to continue, even with a very small starter population on any given planet. The whole genetics testing and "best" thing might sound like eugenics, which is intentional. Shadows themselves do no practice eugenics, but they are a product of eugenics. [Obviously, eugenics are very very bad in real life. I'm disabled and am very aware of this. But the Grays are the bad guys, and of course they practiced eugenics, given everything else about them].

Babies: The fetus grows quickly, with roughly a 10 Earth Month gestation. They're born being able to walk within minutes and run within an hour or so. Their Crystal has a preinstalled dictionary and basic survival instincts, which leads to an interesting situation of newborn who is very mobile and has instincts to hunt and feed themselves (even if, for example, their mother dies during the birth and there is no one else around) but they also have no practical life experience or visual data. They know what food is, that you eat it, ect, from a definitional perspective, but not if any given thing in front of them is Food or not. I described it to my friend as like trying to deal with ChatGPT, as they can talk to you in a way that makes grammatical sense but they have no context for what they're saying. In modern Shadow society, newborns are watched around the clock by the community so they don't like, eat a rock because they haven't connected the Visual Information of A Rock to their Stored Data of Rock.

Lifecycle: Shadows reach maturity faster than humans. To human eyes, they age much faster, but at a decreasing rate, until a point in the early 20s where they cross over and age slower. For math people, it's a Natural Logarithmic Function, if humans are a straight line. Basically they mature faster but stay in their physical prime longer, living to be at least 200 on average unless killed. They also have two puberties, which accounts for the canon's sexual dimorphism. Childhood is spent learning and training, and is Neutral. Then they reach their first puberty around 20, where they take on what was designed to be their "Breeder Morph", aka "Females". They develop "breasts" and wider hips. Shadows don't actually breastfeed or even have nipples, but the "breasts" and other squishiness is there to provide an reservoir of calories for pregnancy, as it is not easy to consume enough calories in 10 months to grow a fetus into a preschooler. The wider hips are to make childbirth easier, though the hips also widen considerably (to the point of being extremely difficult to walk) during pregnancy due to the nanobots restructuring their bones, which will be re-restructured after birth. In their late 50s/early 60s, they undergo a second puberty into a "Combat Morph" aka "Males". Their skeleton rearranges to have less adaptions for pregnancy and more towards bio-mechanical advantage. It's not extreme, but they're basically undoing human "female" puberty and then undergoing human "male" puberty. Older Shadows can still get pregnant after their second puberty, but it's less common. This accounts for the fact that the only "female" Shadow that appeared in the source material is in her 40s and the only "male" is in his 80s, plus it makes sense from the perspective of the Grays. You have time to train the next generation of soldiers, and then continue their education for about 40 years as they act as a baby factory, and then they can put their training to use in the War after they've done with their time as a Breeder. But if you need, you can send some Combat Morphs to another planet to start the next invasion and have them pop out a few babies over there, as they'd be Very Experienced in the process.

The final question: How the fuck do I make Organs work in a (mostly torso) layout that makes sense??? Organ systems that to be accounted for:

brain (in skull)

a Crystal Computer (size undecided) - probably in skull with brain - skull is elongated compared to humans so there's room

a uterus that can expand to a MASSIVE size without crushing other organs

respiratory system

heart

digestive system (the Shadows on my planet have adapted to a largely Meat and Potatoes diet, as the main vegetation in their desert is starchy tubers)

small bladder (they need far less water than humans; they don't even sweat) and various other smaller organs

They have less organs than humans, as their nanobots are able to do things like blood filtering and metabolizing. I currently have the uterus placed at the bottom of the torso, with everything else above it, and the lungs taking up most of the rib cage. During pregnancy, the uterus would push the other organs up into the rib cage, and they are obligated to use the unidirectional breathing so that their lungs can move air without having to squish everything further. Their ribs are very sturdy and inflexible, which helps with not breaking anything when the baby kicks. I picture the ribs as more of a lattice than as slats like in humans.

(I have been writing this for like 6 hours with a migraine and I think this is the best it's going to get so I'm just going to send it)

since your other questions are in a separate ask, I'll just focus on the reproduction here. It reminds me of kiwi birds!

(image description: X-ray picture of a kiwi bird with an egg inside its body. The egg is almost as big as the bird's body. end description)

so yes, giant pregnancy is plausible. But I do think there are a couple of details with the organ shifting that could be corrected.

first, the ribs: being inflexible would actually be a detriment here. if they're not flexible, they'll put a lot of pressure on the organs when they get shoved upward, and they'll actually be more likely to break. The bones of course are solid, but human ribs have things like ligaments and cartilage allowing them to move where they connect to the rest of the skeleton. there's a detailed explanation on this quora thread:

now let's talk about the organs themselves. I think right now your concept is a bit lacking in the 3d arrangement of the organs. up and down are only two pieces of how organs are arranged in the body. The size of internal organs is why bellies are round. This site has a video showing how human pregnancies push the organs around:

The organs get pushed up, but also backwards, and the uterus is pushed forward. The intestines still need to be present behind it, after all, or the constipation would get even worse than it already does lol. So your aliens with extra large pregnancies will also need more forward-lean on the uterus. They may also need more flexible pelvic ligaments. the pelvis on humans has ligaments at the front and by the spine, which soften and stretch to give birth. Bigger baby requires more stretch, so the pelvic ligaments will have to stretch wider/the pelvis may need a different shape that allows it to spread wider to give birth to extra large babies.

and here's a site where you can study different parts of human anatomy, like the internal organs. Obviously your aliens are not human, but they do appear to have a human-like torso structure and internal organs.

hope that helps! I'll get to the next part of your questions in a bit

[peaceofthespirit]

I know I mostly got away from this discourse after deleting twitter but I saw an instagram post from an "inclusive orthodox" type episcopal church upset that the church doesn't strongly proclaim that jesus is the son of god/a literal physical resurrection enough. first of all, I don't think there is a shortage of people who believe/claim this in the church?? but also it drives me nuts to see them say stuff like "without this our faith isn't worth it" like ???

I am naturally a skeptic, maybe it's my brand of autism or whatever. To me, Christianity is about God transforming the world through Jesus. Christianity did not die with Jesus, but continues on. You can't kill the holy spirit! That's the "miracle."

Like I personally believe in a spiritual resurrection (as in probably not the same physical body, but rather a spiritual encounter that seemed physical). To me God is not "supernatural," but rather the being that encompasses all of nature. To me, miracles are science that we are too limited to understand. maybe influenced by god, but they still follow the ways the universe works (even if we don't understand it!) We have lots of anecdotal data about experiences with lost loved ones but not about physical resurrections where someone was literally incapable of still being alive.

Idk it's fine to believe what you want about the resurrection but the problems with the church have a lot more to do with wealth and power and complacency than these specific semantics in theology. My unorthodox theology has enabled far more productive conversations about faith with atheists and agnostics who are uninterested in a church that doesn't take skepticism seriously than those who stick to literalism as dogma. Literalism especially scares me because to me it assumes us humans can fully determine or have access the truth, which for me is far too close to what toxic evangelicals believe (and I was raised in that religious environment).

I recognize that belief in a literal, physical resurrection can be inspiring for people and deeply transformative. That's wonderful! But it just doesn't work like that for me, I tried for years to force myself to believe in it and the idea that I "had to" never sat well with me. I also prayed on it, because my relationship with God is indeed very real! So I interpret the creeds differently because of this, but I say them in church every time the same as any other episcopalian. It's frustrating to see that people who disagree with me would often rather have me leave the church rather than encourage diversity of theology and discussion that would probably bring more people into the church.

I guess I also don't see the church as the savior of everything... I'm far more interested in evangelism that is interfaith and based on a revolution of values - translating the values of Jesus and other religions / kindred secular movements into something that anyone from any walk of life or level of skepticism feels they can embrace for personal and societal transformation. That's how we can work with God right now to bring about the "Kingdom of God."

(Disclaimer: I'm not saying all religions are the same, they do often have different focuses, but I think they each have important insights and values within).

[lavatichellborn]

Two of my original characters I have art for are Snitch and Stitch. Only face claims for now, but I do have a basic idea of their bodies. They’re Dinobots, well kinda

They’re twins born from the planet Devisun. They weren’t Dinobots at the start, their original is that of what went down in the aligned continuity for the Dinobots, where they got transformed to them. These two were part of the original squad (who are much larger now in terms of members).

They were born during the Golden Age, their original mode was a car. They were brilliant, by proxy, they acted as assistants and archivists organizing data all around, mostly weaponry, engineering, and equipment based sciences. They were never allowed to work on anything on their own, just allowed to organize and assist bigger name scientists. But they managed to learn quickly and secretly build things on their own in private. The two brothers had the outlier ability of magnetism, though it was rather short range.

They got found out and they tried fighting their way out, but they got caught and thrown into the arena where they met Grimlock pre change (also aligned Grimlock, and RID15 Grimlock are separate entities in my universe). Not only were they captured they were forced to undergo a what might be considered a light empurata, aka they now each had one eye. They were like annoying younger brothers with too much energy but a lot of smarts to make a bunch of weapons and tools that no one asked for but they were gonna make regardless.

But everything changed when the fire nation attacked, I mean when the war broke out. They acted as scientists for their main team, and as the snipers able to hit from far away and blitzkrieg opponents by being rascals. Now everything went fine, that is until around the midpoint of the war and the Thunder Coalition getting captured by the cons. Shockwave had some fun with them given they were the only devisiuns there. So he experimented and resulted in them getting a Pachycephalosaurus alt mode.

So now whenever they transform they become that instead of their shared vehicle mode. Like the others they were made dumber, but due to their more unique origin, they actually were able to keep a high level of their intelligence, though much more wild and animalistic. But compared to their fellow Dinobots they are considered the calmest and easiest to talk to since they don’t fully become violent or aggressive easily.

They’re much much more curious and interested in science still. They get into constant brawls and headbutt over and over again, but their heads are the toughest parts of their bodies now so anyone else getting headbutted unless they have tough armor is getting a concussion. They ramble a lot and technobabble, they usually speak in turns and sometimes in unison if being more serious. They like walking on all fours in robot mode cause to them it’s faster and their arms are longer than their legs so it helps with balance.

There are moments where their full intelligence comes back and they are able to speak normally. They do what they can in this state to get the most work done or communicate with others without the fog in their mind. Also their magnetism ability had grown stronger from the experiment so now they can send a full magnetic burst of energy and magnetize the battlefield for a bit, …but they end up stuck together too.

Their designs are based on another person’s Dinobot design that I enjoyed their heads and specifically their eyes so I went off in my own direction. They also take inspo from the comedy tragedy masks so that’s why they have smile and frown and opposite color schemes. They both act more or less the same as one being, but when alone you can tell Snitch is the more cheerful one, while Stitch is more pessimistic.

They were fighting else where with the rest of the Dinobots, but now that the war’s over they’re chilling and building things. They sometimes come visit Griffin Rock cause they like working with Doc Greene and all his crazy stuff.

Also their voice is One-One from Infinity Train but a bit more wild

[bemusedlybespectacled]

so, I'm thinking a teensy bit more about character death and, specifically, the death of a main character in a comedy show that I'm actually okay with. I'm talking about Death in Paradise.

Just as a primer for people who weren't raised by teaboos, it's a murder mystery comedy show, the premise of which is that there is one white British detective inspector guy who solves murders with his group of local cops: basically Midsomer Murders but on a fictional Caribbean island.

The comedy is always that he's some kind of socially awkward nerd who clashes in some way with his otherwise-entirely-Caribbean office, especially his black female second-in-command, even though they've at this point had four different DIs and I don't know how many changes of supporting characters.

The first two seasons, with DI Richard Poole, are your typical cozy murder-of-the-week-type mysteries. And then the third season starts, and the first mystery of the season is who killed DI Poole.

Like, it literally opens exactly like a normal episode, with a cold open establishing the suspects and showing us the murder victim before cutting to the jaunty theme tune and opening credits. It's just that this particular murder victim is the main character.

And then the plot progresses in exactly the same way, with a different white British nerd guy leading the investigation, because THE PROTAGONIST FOR THE PAST SIXTEEN EPISODES IS DEAD.

Now, some key differences between this show and OFMD:

It's a murder mystery show, so the rules are inherently different. No Muppet physics here: people die all the time and they die in totally normal ways, like getting stabbed with an ice pick or drowned in a fish tank or turned into a science class skeleton.

While this was the first time a main character was killed off, it was not the first time the DI had been killed. The pilot had Richard solving the murder of the previous DI, only for it to be revealed that his black female second-in-command of that episode was the murderer (Camille Bordey, his actual #2, isn't assigned to him until the very end of that episode). Like, shocking twists about characters you thought were "safe" was established in the very first episode.

The death actually affected the fucking characters and the fucking plot.

It's been like ten years since this episode aired and I still really like this episode, even though it gutted me the first time I watched it (and I don't like the later seasons nearly as much). Like, it's not my favorite (that's 2x06), but it's definitely in my top three. Because even though this is the episode they killed off DI Blorbo From My Britbox, it's also an episode about him.

The comedy is toned way down because the entire office is gutted by his loss. They have to do mundane things like call his parents to tell them he died and review CCTV footage and wait for lab data like it's just a normal case when it's not. At every step, there's a "what would Richard have done?" moment. And even though this is the episode that introduces the new DI, Humphrey Goodman, the summation at the end is entirely about Richard, with this pretty sweet line:

You know, bizarrely, I'm the only one who never met Richard Poole. But during this case, I… I feel as though I've got to know him a little. Mostly by the effect he had on those around him. But it seems we all forgot one very crucial thing: he was a detective. A good one. I think he made a discovery, had a theory about what he discovered, and then sent home for evidence to corroborate that theory. And in doing so, he has, in essence, solved his own murder.

His presence is felt throughout the entire episode, even though he's only alive for the first three minutes or so. His death is disappointing (especially for those of us who shipped him with Camille), but it actually has an impact.

So when they brought back Camille in S10, years after she was written out, they also brought back Richard: Camille imagines having a conversation with him when she’s worried that her mother is going to die, and he gives her advice and comforts her. And that scene makes me cry every time I watch it, because it's clear that she misses him as much as the audience does.

We didn't get that in OFMD. We didn't get an acknowledgement of how Izzy impacted the other characters (except Ed, in the weakest way possible), or even them looking sad for longer than two minutes. We sweep past it immediately and go directly to a wedding and then Stede and Ed settling down together.

There’s no gravity to it. There’s no time to process the loss. Hell, for the characters, there ISN’T a real loss. And if the characters don’t care, why should we?