#unrelated to spec bio

[yellosnacc]

silly

Neal and Neil let's say

[bazookaboi]

currently rewatching Lego Monkie Kid, (SEASON 5 IS HERE LET’S GO) so here’s a feeble, barley thought out attempt at drawing red son (my beloved) but with a bit of demon bull spice.

Also, unrelated, @copperpipes’s Ultraman spec bio is MOST GLORIOUS. I definitely recommend checking it out.

(My favourite part is still how he’s just soup encased in a spacium membrane lol)

[exploding-salmon-heart]

Spec bio alien cutouts for my photography class. This is a semester project so I’ll have so many more of these soon.

The two goat guys are two versions of the same creature. Cool colored goats with one or two trunks and a bunch of whiskers to help them keep aware of the bugs that crawl on them.

The other guy is a birtaur. The front and hind limbs are used as wings and the mid limbs are just lil leggies. My beloved pterosaur taur.

(Unrelated to Heights)

[selkramazed]

As a speculative biology world builder who’s in the middle of “soft rebooting” my sophont alien civilizations, reproduction is something I’ve noticed is very important for cultures. And it should be one of the first things you set in stone for a sophont species you create before you create other details of their culture such as their infrastructure, economy, history, art and technology because reproduction is likely something that can influence all of those things.

With spec bio, you can get really funky with it. You can give your species a bee reproductive life cycle, or a jelly fish or an anglerfish or clownfish or naked mole rat reproductive life cycle. You basically look at these real world animals and wonder what their behaviors, beliefs and cultures would be like if they had human intelligence (or higher). You understand their reproductive norms, and then speculate how to deviate from those norms, that would be queerness for those species. Then you speculate how their queerness can clash with the normative culture of those species, and the discrimination that results from it.

With a sophont species of bee-like people for example, there could be three genders: queen, worker and drone. A drone (male) who’s role is to leave the hive and reproduce with an unrelated queen, choosing to stay to with in their birth hive and work there for their birth queen (their mother) like another worker could be considered “trans-fem”, or more specifically “trans-worker-bee”. Bigotry toward this different choice of role could come in the form of erroneous incest accusations because of the ignorant assumption that “this drone would rather mate with his own queen instead of going out for another” (ignoring the fact this individual is clearly choosing a worker identity, not a drone identity) because the bigoted mindset cannot fathom an individual choosing to perform outside their assigned role. This is just one way of approaching this idea.

I really do enjoy queernornative world building when I’m in the mood for a cozy and fun feel-good story, and, when I’m in the mood for a harder sci-fi or a more morally complex fantasy, I also enjoy worldbuilding that takes real world queerphobia and turns it upside down that makes it unique for its setting. This is simply my personal taste that others don’t have to take to heart: while I love queer representation in media, I love queer (and other minority struggle) allegories a lot more, and that’s the strength fantasy and sci fi has over other genres. I really appreciate any story that does it right.

My feelings about queernormative worlds in SFF is that I can often enjoy it, but I rarely believe it.

Almost everything surrounding gender, sex, and sexuality, and all the different social norms and expectations that different cultures build up around them, derive ultimately from the various realities of sexual activity and pregnancy: who can have it, who can’t, for how long, who does have it, who doesn’t, and what that means for society. I’m not being bioessentialist here, because human bodies are all quite different and different cultures develop different ways to react to that, and rates of and reactions to fertility can be different, and what different sexual and gender roles mean in different cultures and who can and can’t embody them can get extremely different. (Hell, how pregnancy itself even works can be different depending on where you live, what your lifestyle is like, and what your diet consists of!) But like, the reason gender even matters, historically, has been because of reproduction. And the reason reproduction matters, in agricultural societies anyway, has very often been because of property ownership and the need to work on farms.

So I’m totally here for queernormative worlds. But to interest me you have to answer the questions of: okay, but how does your culture work though, and how is kinship structured, and how is reproduction seen, and how is property inheritance understood, and how does gender fit into all this, for me to feel like you’ve actually tried. (And don’t say that there ARE no norms, so no one falls outside of them. There’s no culture where that’s true.)

Sci-fi worlds can get away with this easier than fantasy worlds, imo. Partially because they can posit that it is our future but we’ve gone through all of the Social Justice Struggles already and solved them, but also because technology can really alter all of these topics. The Vorkosigan Saga, for instance, makes it clear that Beta Colony is as gender-egalitarian and free-love as it is because of contraception and uterine replicators, which FULLY decouple “the ability to have children” from “the need for anyone to be pregnant.” This is huge, and the Vorkosigan Saga treats it as appropriately so! Ancillary Justice is another one that thinks a lot about how the genderless culture that decenters romance as a core social organizing principle works. But I read so many low-ish-tech fantasy worlds that are happily queernormative and gender doesn’t matter and they just feel shallow. I don’t believe this world. I don’t dislike it, exactly, I just don’t believe it, I don’t believe people would be like this because you’ve put no effort into imagining a world that works like this makes any sense.

Which is totally fine for people’s D&D games and cute oneshot comics and personal works and such, but when you want me to take your worldbuilding seriously, you’re going to have to convince me! And a lot of it is not convincing.

[pinkaddiofficial]

read from beginning (doesnt work on the app)

there are no rules on asks! send in whatever you want, INCLUDING nsfw

[pink's pronouns are they/them] (nsfw ref)

[mun's pronouns are it/its]

[lumos' pronouns are they/it]

[o's pronouns are he/they/it]

character tags:

light blinded = ralsei

familiar voice = gaster

lightner? = dess

little charge = lancer

coworker = rouxls

spamton = spamton

starlight = ❤️ anon

blinding light = kris

grey guy = greydad

nice lightner = susie

tall music guy = cakes

old mentor = seam

nice little lightner = suzy

red lightner = chara

a ghost? = napstablook

glamourous = mettaton

andie = andie

HER = noelle

e-e = charaty's blue addison

that guy = jevil

hansel = hansel

ledan butler = swatch

warrior of light = undyne

weird kid = pascal

her majesty = queen

suzys friend = frisk

green child = elliot

razoolio = razoolio

organization tags (post-player arc):

ic = in character. can be things that pink says and stuff they see but do not comment on

ooc = out of character. shit the mun says, things that fit into the canon of the blog, etc. should not be replied to in-character

addilore dump = technically my self-reblog tag, ill generally reblog things that are important to the lore using it

canon = reblogs of unrelated things that ive decided to make canon to this blog'a lore

non canon = in character stuff that didnt actually happen

player = posts containing any input from LUMOS, this timeline's red soul

flashback mode = this post happened in the past. anyone can see unless otherwise specified (or if you decide they cant), but any replies will fall on deaf ears

GUYS LOOK FANART !! = for fanart nyall sonkindlu send me (<- pretending to be normal aboat it)

crossover event / crossover event...2! = whoa, howd we get in charaty's blog???

alcohol = cammercial's very own homemade battery acid! (aka mod is sleepy and isnt bothering with quality control, so the in-universe excuse is that pink is slozzed)

inventory = everything tells a story. contains music!

ad spec bio = whoa, these guys are FASCINATING. heres where i talk about these guys' weird bodies, along with the other residents of cyber city

addison music = youtube links people send me

Current Arc: Ascension

[acespec-ed]

(Tw for very slight discussions of sex/masturbation)

Just started seeing a therapist and her bio not only said that she works with LGBTQ people but she specifically went out of her way to say that she works with people in poly relationships and found families and any other non traditional relationships, so I thought she'd be a good chance for finding a therapist who understands asexuality and it's impacts on relationships. In my first meeting with her, when I told her that I'd recently begun thinking I might be ace-spec somehow, she asked if she could ask more specific questions and after talking a while she said that since I said that I have experienced physical arousal but never actually been able to climax, not even on my own, that it's possible it is actually a physical problem and not asexuality. And I know that that is theoretically possible and not just a thing aphobic people say, especially since she asked clarifying questions first so its not like she's lumping all ace people as a whole into this. And I've been on birth control (I'm a cis woman) since before I started exploring my sexuality, so idk it's possible that's affecting things too, but idk it just made me feel weird. I think part of it is I've just started feeling really comfortable in the ace community and I don't want to lose that. Especially since if I'm not ace then I'm basically an allo cis het so it's not like I have another claim to queerness. But also I don't know I just feel like even if it is a physical problem, I don't care that much about fixing it, and doesn't that seem like an indicator that it's not just physical? Also like I definitely don't think about sex when I find people attractive, to the point where if I stop myself and say "wait so if you find them attractive would you want to have sex with them?" my reaction is usually an instant no that didn't even cross my mind and sometimes even ends the feelings of attraction. I've only talked to this therapist once so far, so I'm still hopeful that she'll work out but idk I'm just feeling weird and I don't know how to feel about it. She wants me to buy a vibrator and try it out but like especially with all the unease and stress of this that's not something I feel much like doing right now

(sorry for the long rambling ask, I have no one to vent to irl)

I can see where the therapist is coming from with thinking it's a physical problem, especially when you throw birth control into the mix, BUT- everything else you said sounds a lot more like how an ace operates than how an allo does in my opinion.

You said you didn't care much to fix it. I feel like, an allo would. And allos do still experience sexual attraction, and most likely would want to "fix" the problem so they can go off and have sex with people they're sexually attracted to. They have a drive towards these people that motivate them to fix it. Clearly you don't have that. (To give you an idea, I worked on getting over my sex repulsion because I wanted sex with my boyfriend that bad.)

You also said you don't think about sex when it comes to people you find attractive. While allos aren't going to think about/want sex with every person they find attractive, they're still going to with some people.

I can't speak for allos, but my experience with sexual attraction is seeing/thinking about that person and feeling a need to have sex with them. I'm not getting that vibe at all from your ask. You are most likely still on the ace spectrum- regardless of if you have some sort of physical problem or not.

I honest to God see no need why you need to get a vibrator or fix the problem or whatever the therapist is saying. I hear things about allos wanting to fix sex-related issues all the time and I just don't understand why such things are problems (unless they're in a relationship or it affects actual health unrelated to having sex). So unless there's something vital I'm missing, you shouldn't bother if you don't want to do it. Especially if you’re stressed out enough as it is.

It’s very weird and off-putting to me that she’s saying it’s possibly not asexuality. After all, aces can have physical problems having sex. You can be both ace and have problems climaxing just like you can be ace and not have problems climaxing. It doesn’t have much to do with sexual attraction. (Though, an ace could have trouble climaxing because they lack that sexual attraction.) Like, she can bring up the possibility of you having a physical problem without brushing off the asexual part of your identity like that. Maybe she didn’t mean for it to come across that way, or said it out of ignorance. After all, asexuality is still fairly “recent” to medical professionals and the like. They’re still learning about us and it’s a miracle to come across people who are ace-friendly. But it still rubs me the wrong way. idk. It’s up to you whether or not you want to keep seeing her, and if you want to follow her advice or not. Maybe you could see her again but make it clear you’re not interested in “fixing” any physical problems, and focus on the actual reason you’re seeing her to begin with.

Regardless of if you have sexual issues or not, if you find the ace label useful to you, if it brings you comfort, if it makes you happy, you are welcome to use it! 💜

[transmandrake]

Well, went to see avatar 2 yesterday. Had a lot of thoughts on it, that I have almost certainly forgotten.

To sum up, if you liked the first one you'll like the second. It unfortunately and unsurprisingly has similar weakpoints/critiscisms to the first, but, I think plotwise its stronger than the first (which isn't hard to do lol) but simultaneously has bigger weak points (at least 2 aspects that... contribute nothing)

Full spoilers obviously, but uh. Theres not really any huge revelations here. Its the first one again with more layers and also less on account of parts already being done.

The good:

The creatures obviously. Not asss strong as the first but well water-based life has a lot more restrictions tbh. Theres a reason a lot of unrelated fish look the same. The setting felt less alien and I'll be real Subnautica has already, excuse the pun, blown the standard for ocean spec bio out of the water, and wellll look, if its true they made these films ages ago but couldnt release them, thats a shame, it would have felt more innovative in a pre-subnautica world.

The Na'vi felt a lot more fleshed out in this one, a good sense there's a lot more to them than. Uncomfortable Space Native American Metaphor. However a bad point ahead completely dries up a ton of, and a ton of future, development to them as Not Just Space Native American Metaphors. Siiiiigh.

I liked that we got to see, well, more Na'vi who werent avatars! People critiscise their designs for being too human but the sequel makes it WAY more clear that the avatars are essentially *half human* and that the actual Na'vi are considerably more alien looking. This take annoys me so much I am a Na'vi Design Defender this is my Hill to Die On except the feet. God i hate their people feet. And that they dont have the neck holeess whhhyyy???

Stronger plot! Yes it's essentially the same film again in terms of Moral or whatever but its less of a straight course. The beginning was very strong, though I honestly felt it was contrived the reason they leave at all. I think staying in the forest and developing it more would be a better idea plot and setting-wise but its fiiiine. Its been ages maybe moving on was a good choice long term.

The sorta side plots of the kids, the outcast whale, they were good! I liked them! It added a bit more than just Same Movie Again but Water.

The bad:

Its still Avatar. It still has, a lot of questionable choices. Why does the water chief guy have a cape made seemingly of feathers. Have you seen a single feathered animal in avatar. Why not. Dried fish fins. Sea plant fabric. Something that isnt Feathers. You and I know why its feathers. And its a shame. Same as the first movie, it burns inside me there probably were innovative original ideas that got scrapped in favor of making the Na'vi read as. Well. Space Native Americans and now Space.... Maori? Like, the tattoos. :///// C'mooon its a cool idea in concept (whale tattoos. Amazing.) but youre just... taking that.. its just. Siiiigh. I really do hope its true this is actually like, technically a ten year old movie. It doesnt of course *excuse* all that but if you had decades to make another and you didnt listen to a major critiscism of the first that is easily fixable? Unexcusable.

And uh hey why does Jake have dreads. Maybe I didnt notice this in the first in which, okay, that's established if still a Wierd Choice, but uhh. I dont remember any of the navi having dreads, or curls or whatever at all... Their hair is kept around their neural link whip thing... Why'd they. Do that. The new water people had some curls which was cool, I shouldve paid attention to notice if they still had the neural hair braid. Cuz i really hope they just have a tentacle sticking out of their head when the hair isn't there that'd be cool. But yeahh ummm. Giving the White Guy dreads. I'm more of a benefit-of-the-doubt giver you can maybe tell but uhhhhh. I can't really think of a plausible reason for that choice that makes it not look. Bad.

Oh I forgot, the bad point I mentioned. The film translates Na'vi.

*sssssssiiigggghhhh*

Whyyyyyyyyyyy

You made a whole languaaaageee

Theres so much culture you could have addeeeeeddd via the languaaaageee

There is the sea sign language which I hope was a conlang at least. But uugggghhh.

It's just crushing. The whole reason I make conlangs, this movie. And well it's not gonna happen anymore.

:[

Some of the plot points are useless. Why does the human kid exist. I thought he'd be a cool way to take the plot but uhhhh they do nothing with him! His only contribution was funny backtalk (which the other kids did better) and saving the Colonel. Which. Whhhyyy.

And the dreads again. Why? The colonel's a pasty white guy. Its already wierd for him to have a kid that wasnt mentioned or foreshadowed at all but. Huh???????? What. Why.

Speaking of, I really liked the Colonel as a villain in the first movie for his over the top villainy and generally likeable hateableness. I'd be fine with him being a returning villain... but hes just not as interesting and hes just. Boring this time. And well he's not dead so he's coming back again. Okay. I'd have preferred the exploitative whale hunter guys to have been the main villain here. They weren't developed much at all. Did they even get names???

In general the villains motivations were wierd. He just wants to kill Jake. What happened to unobtainium. The whale guys want the whales eternal life juice, cool. That goes nowhere really in favour of Kill Jake. Why aren't they colonising the forest now they know he's gone. I still don't see how him leaving was a good idea.

Conclusion:

In general I work on a basis of liking things as I know they Could Have Been rather than What They Are. Avatar is one of the best things ever from that point of view and I will defend that point of view, because I like being contrarian and well I want. More things like it to succeed.

But it's not that in reality. It's flawed, but in a way that is fundamentally... fixable. It's not like where I don't like something because at its core it cannot Get Better. But the Avatar in my head's real good.

Again, if the rest of it's creative production went how the music supposedly did... we were robbed.

Here's to a bunch more maybe? Hopefully of continuous improvements but uhh it's Avatar. I would be happy with more of the same which is prolly what its gonna be so yay for me and my low standards?

[puddleorganism]

Ok, just to be clear I am NOT trying to start a fight with prev - you just activated my trap card (spec bio obsession). So I wanna ramble about this idea, because I hadn’t even considered that before!

I think that’s a very good point if you imagine them living in the present day environment of Subnautica. Like, yeah, the gargantuan leviathan is leagues and bounds larger than literally anything else. If they were trying to eat something they couldn’t come at it straight on or they’d lose sight of it and potentially miss (though, granted you’d be pretty hard-pressed to get out of the way of that thing in time lol).

However, there’s no way in hell the gargantuan leviathan could live in the environment you play in in Subnautica - and in the main game, it doesn’t! The skeleton is 3 million years old. There’s every chance the environment was wildly different back then!

So, if we assume that, at one point, it was actually advantageous to be a predator as big as the Garg, the first thing that would change is the availability of extraordinarily large prey. In which case, eyes on the side of the head would actually be useful! In the ocean predator, prey, and competitor can come from any direction, so it really pays to have a wide field of view, even if you sacrifice depth perception.

The other thing I’ve been thinking about (that’s pretty much entirely unrelated) is: what if the data bank entry was wrong about the “predator” part? The Garg could totally have filter-feeding organs that weren’t preserved during fossilization. Such a lifestyle would also explain why it’s so freakin big in the apparent absence of appropriately sized prey items. Now, that might make you say, “Meta, that’s cool, but what about, you know, the teeth that are over 10 meters long?” Which is fair. But I think they could’ve been used to fight competitors rather than capture prey! Such a big creature would need a huge amount to sustain it, and as such would probably have a very large territory. It makes sense to me that they would fight over feeding rights - even (and maybe especially) as predators.

Back to the main point, being a filter feeder would also mean eyes on the side of the head wouldn’t be detrimental. The same principle (predators and competitors coming from any direction) applies, but with the added bonus that they don’t hunt so sacrificing depth perception isn’t really a sacrifice at all.

In the end the filter feeder thing is not my end-all-be-all theory, though. It’s a fun one to think about, but ultimately I don’t think it’s any more likely than there just being bigger leviathans back then.

I have such conflicting feelings about the gargantuan leviathan (Subnautica)

One the one hand, that thing is ridiculous. A prime example of coolness trumping realism (especially the mod that adds living ones to the game).

On the other hand, god it is so fucking cool though. Also the model in that mod is gorgeous and the sound design is sick as hell, personal preferences aside.

On a third, secret hand, I really really really wanna figure out what kind of environment would make that thing evolutionarily advantageous, it would be fascinating.