#what science you ask? JUST SCIENCE.

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Hehe I really enjoy your comantary and captions you're so funny, I can't wait until we see Wen Ning again since we left his brief cameo

I miss him everyday.

[mechieonu]

but like maybe bill had a point if i saw a man that wasn't yet infected w The Horrors but was very clearly intending to run headlong into them I'd snatch him up and ruin him for anyone else too

[definitelynotshouting]

Coming to you as both a big fan of your hunger au and a chemist.

You keep describing Grian’s feeding as an absorption of beta waves of a specific frequency from the brain. You’ve also teased that Doc eventually finds a way to feed Grian without him having to mind melt his friends.

My logical conclusion: Doc periodically sticks Grian in what is essentially a microwave modified to produce the correct frequency and I cannot stop laughing at the mental image. I like to think someone (maybe Mumbo) adds a timer that does the classic ding after a certain period so they don’t over caffeinate the bird.

this is the most terrifying ask in my inbox do you mean to tell me there are STEM people who actually know what theyre doing looking at my silly au that i do maybe 2 hrs of research on any one topic for before plonking it in. i feel like im about to be arrested for speculative biology crimes take me away officer

slash jays aside this is the FUNNIEST mental image to me... they fucking rotisserie chickened him..... Rotate Your Bird For Maximum Frequency Coverage. Mumbo would absolutely add a sound effect button. This is incredible i might genuinely put a reference to this idea in the fic just for how hysterical it is

[scatterpatter]

Feeling normal again

[dustykneed]

what was the first piece of Star Trek media you consumed? :)

Anon you have fallen for my nefarious schemes once again... (rips off disguise with an evil flourish) I may look like a trekkie, but I am actually.......

A trekkie who is a huge nerd at heart xDD. I got into Star Trek mainly through assimilating fanfic into my conciousness. I've heard my characterizations are surprisingly solid (YIPPEE) for someone who only vaguely knows what happens in canon. But I've never actually had the pleasure of going through any official Trek media yet! My one flex is that I have no qualms against spoilers of any magnitude lol.

I know this isn't Trek media explicitly, but in the spirit of responding to the sentiment behind the question, ngl, I'm going to have to go with Mythbusters. I honestly didn't really pay much attention to the Trek segments when I watched it for the first time (that being said, I *need* to go back and watch the gorn cannon episode again omg). But Mythbusters was so formative for me because it gave me that push to get excited about science again after spending so many years defining myself as only an art/literature nerd when I was so excited about science when I was a kid.

I think in a sense, my interest in Star Trek is directly descended from the impact Mythbusters had on me-- and I think that's pretty neat :]]

[sparklecarehospital]

sly is like if barruni was a person to you. whens the spam reblog sly image coming to join little science kitty in the highest ranks 🐱🦊🩵💚

[not-poignant]

Hi! I apologize if you've spoken abt this already, bur how come ruts aren't really a thing in the UtR verse? Anton mentioned he's never had one, and they're very rare - is there a biological reason for it? Did Gary ever have one? (Starting to see what he is like during regular sex, I feel like he'd commit actual murder-by-cock during ruts fjfnfjnfjf) Anyway, love your writing to bits!!

Hi anon!

So I'm gonna write an essay, buckle up (I always write an essay on this stuff, I can't help it, I signed a contract at birth that said I would)

Firstly, ruts are sort of a 'new invention' in the omegaverse landscape. And by new I mean I'm really old and some people don't remember omegaverse without it. But I sure do! Only omegas went into heat, because heat indicated hyperfertility, and alphas were already hyperfertile without a rut. That was the whole point. You know, that's why they make such a perfect match. Hyperfertile mate meet hyperfertile mate.

They didn't need a rut.

Ruts came along later, and honestly in most of the fiction I've read that have them, ruts are very rarely written, and are often more like a threat hanging in the background. A sort of 'lol make sure you have food and water because like people go to hospital if they're in rut / heat at the same time.' Literal just about fuck-or-die situation. Or fuck-and-die. Probably more like fuck-and-who-cares-about-anything-else.

Anyone who has ever fucked a lot in a marathon session knows that eventually you just need carbs. *coughs*

Ruts are conceptually a TON of fun to think about. It's like authors went 'you know what hyperfertile alphas need? Something like a heat, that also makes them completely out of control.'

The thing is... alphas could already go completely out of control around an omega for a lot of reasons. It happened in fated mates stories. It happened in 'an omega is in heat and I just can't help it' (oh bless all those noncon omegaverse stories we have which are literally 'you just smelled so good you had to be mine'). A lot of the things ruts are supposed to achieve, already can easily be achieved in omegaverse.

Conceptually, ruts can be interesting as 'the alpha is also super vulnerable and helpless and needy during this time' but it's almost never written that way and it's not how I like to think about it. And in terms of worldbuilding, the places where it's made the most sense has almost always been as a dystopian thing that's almost dreaded by both the alphas and omegas (and everyone else) alike, and is just as much likely to be controlled by suppressants as heats, because no one likes to turn into an Automatic robot rapist. (Even though that's basically what many alphas become if they smell an omega in heat, I'm not saying ruts are the Department of Redundancy Deparment or anything, but they're a little bit like City of Redundancy in the shire of Redundancy population Already Covered In General Omegaverse tropes in the country of But It's Fun Anyway continent of Redundant.)

I love reading stories with rut worldbuilding but I have to suspend my disbelief so hard. And I know, I know, you kind of have to do that with omegaverse anyway, but there just comes a point where it's like 'but...the heat...triggers a response in alphas...thats mean a rut...is not needed...because that's what the heat does.' In some ways it takes some power and strength away from the symbolism of the omega's heat (romantically it's very interesting as the trope that renders the often hypermasculine character as so helpless to the omega that they basically have to have sex with them (guess what a rut is? Same same not different! Okay it can be different. It's often not though.))

As a result, I personally like worldbuilding that differentiates a general alpha response to an omega's heat, to a rut. And therefore if a rut is the more extreme version of a general 'must fuck' alpha response, it's likely to go pretty not...great. Much like unfulfilled heats are often characterised as agonising, I like to think of ruts are potentially very fatal. (Warning! Warning! The hypermasculinity levels are critical, boss! He's gonna blow! This time his heart! Not his cock!)

The worldbuilding mentioned in the chapter you're referring to - in the Underline the Rainbow universe - states that ruts are vestigial. It's killed too many alphas who have experienced it.

It basically knocked itself out of the genetic line, in the same way that peak alphas are going the same way because people just don't do great living like that in a functional society.

Also consider the...setting of the story if you will. This is a place where we're rehabilitating omegas and helping them recover from extreme trauma. The professional response to 'I go into rut all the time' alpha companion candidates is 'see a health professional, you can never ever ever ever ever be a companion here, because we...care about our omegas, and don't think your rut takes precedent over their health during a heat. Go away.'

None of these alphas go into rut! None of them should! It would be terrible from a story perspective (I mean, for me. I'm writing trauma recovery).

The only alpha on the grounds who potentially could go into rut is Caleb, I think he has the disposition for it. And I think it would be speedily suppressed with heavy doses of medication for the safety of any omega near him.

The thing that really frustrates me from a worldbuilding perspective is that in some ways, heats make sense. It's a fertile period for an animal that cannot afford the physiological cost of being that fertile all the time. That's it. In humans who already have menstrual cycles (which create fertility windows so the woman or person with the uterus doesn't have to be consistently fertile the same amount all the time), this makes actual biological sense.

Ruts in omegaverse don't even mean what they mean in nature, it's so frustrating. In nature, ruts are sort of connected to mates, but not about fucking them endlessly most of the time. It's about competing with rivals. Going into rut is marking your territory, attacking fellow stags (sometimes to the death), and keeping hold of your herd or flock. This makes...much less biological sense. It's not how it's written in fiction most of the time, and it's really just 'what if heat but alpha.' I'd love if ruts were 'HHH I have to FIGHT every ALPHA I SEE to the DEATH or at least MEASURE MY HEIGHT against HIS or SHOUT to see whose VOICE is LOUDER we are DICK MEASURING NOW my dick is BIGGER I am going to FUCK AN OMEGA IN TRIUMPH. YOU! THERE! COME HERE! No wait where are you going? Stop running!' That's... that's the world I want to live in sdalkfjsaflksaj

I have no problems with that, most omegaverse is just pure mindless pornography for fun, or very thin worldbuilding for fun, and orgasms are had by many and it achieves it's purpose.

But I can't justify something like that making sense in the Underline the Rainbow as a thing these characters experience. I like it as a 'oh this used to happen but we couldn't just go around killing each other and also we died so...' I'm pretty sure it's taught about in schools, lol. In the same way that alphas dueling each other to the death is now pretty much illegal in most places, some things you either just culturally change for the betterment of society (which is...literally the purpose of Hillview), and some things you X out of your own genetic lineages because the thing itself kills you.

Since ruts are in most serious omegaverses presented as extreme events, and alphas are already hyperfertile (in worlds where betas exist), they're just redundant.

Fun in PWPs, and fun for angst, but not the kind of angst I'm personally going for.

Thanks for coming to my really-not-a-TED Talk! :D

(Er so no, Gary has never gone into rut).

(In webtoon Define the Relationship one of the alphas goes into rut but because he's like a submissive alpha he basically needs to be fucked like he's in heat by another alpha and I just actually do kind of love the subversion of 'what if heat but alpha' where it's like 'no literally what if they have to be knotted and they have a whole bunch of shame about that.' But almost no one is writing it that way so aslkfjdsa)

[brothfan1997]

the problem with working a job where u interact with like 1500 people per day & u are supposed to be charming and informative the whole time is that sometimes you are so weird on accident?? and u say something that is so weird to say to another person out loud ?? and u just have to be like :) lets pretend that was normal. do you have any other questions

[unrestedjade]

Man, MB snapping at ART about doing therapy-speak at it during that "this isn't you, it's your trauma treatment certification talking" exchange sure makes me feel some type of way lol.

Murderbot Diaries is like Star Trek in that 93% of the time it stays on the correct side of the line separating optimistic sci-fi from cloying hopepunk bullshit for me, and I can live with the other 7%.

Idk what round of backlash or backlash-to-the-backlash we're collectively on regarding "characters talking/acting like they're getting an A in therapy" but letting MB express that (imo justified) annoyance built a lot of goodwill for me that carried me through the bits of this book that were too sweet for my palate.

Hearing the exact right, enlightened thing at the exact right time can be super alienating. Like the person saying those words to you is holding you at arm's length the way a professional therapist has to. Dr. Bharadwaj can fill that role for MB and often does. That's not a role for ART, as an intimate friend/partner/admin assistant/whatever, and it rings true for MB to tell it to cut that shit out and just talk normally.

[esteemed-excellency]

💜- What’s their favorite memory of the other?

>:}

hi I forgot this ask in my drafts for an entire week so I hope the answer is cute enough to make up for it

💜- What’s their favorite memory of the other?

Hiram's favourite memory of the Deviless is when she tried to show him how she experiences time. He was still unsure of his final choice after the Marvellous, but she was very interested, and she insisted on talking about it. They spent a wonderful and enlightening afternoon, albeit a bit confusing, dancing through a lot of sigils. They had to stop after a while because the human brain is not built to perceive all the depths of anachronistical timelines, and the Deviless kept on explaining as best she could, even if mere words couldn't hold the same nuances of meaning as the correspondence. Hiram concluded that her anachronistical experience of the future was similar to his constant reminiscence of the past, just in the opposite direction, and he couldn't help but feel extremely fond of her in that moment. He decided that if experiencing time meant being able to keep feeling like that for a little longer, he had made the right choice.

The Deviless' favourite memory of Hiram is when he gave her a particular gift after he began experimenting with the Red Science. He was always at the laboratory and they weren't seeing each other very often, until one day he said he was almost done with the experiments, and he gave her a rose, as usual. She didn't notice any difference at first, but after two and a half weeks the rose was still as fresh as the day it was picked. After three weeks the stem began to wither. After a month, the rose rotted away in a single morning. It took another two other weeks for the Deviless to stop thinking about the fact that Hiram manipulated reality specifically for her.

[perdvivly]

Saw someone saying that feminism was a plot by the government to bring women into the work force so that they would get more taxes… Genuinely terrifying how easy it is to be a moron online

[definitelynotshouting]

Can I ask, since you mentioned agreeing 'even if under duress' - how did the Watchers convince Player Grian to join them in hunger au?

So take this with the specific grain of salt that ive never watched Evo directly (but have friends who have ((thank you wren)), so i know tidbits via osmosis from them), but my thought has always been that the riddles the Watchers gave the Evo Players were all tests used to measure cleverness and intelligence-- the whole point of them attempting to copy the mind of a Player into a Watcher larva in the first place was to try and avoid the insanely high infant mortality rate their typical juveniles go through, bc they dont understand their own limits enough to even know they have them yet. So they needed a Player they knew they could instruct and who would listen to them, and, well. Grian, for all he was rebellious and outright defiant of the Watchers, still solved their puzzles and only had to be punished once before he stopped trying to mess with them

What ive always pictured is after the dragon fight the two main elders of the Watcher colony finally revealed themselves to Grian properly-- i have this crystal clear image of the two of them hovering above and next to the central end island, looming over Grian, and like, these guys are big. HUGE. A good 5x bigger than the ender dragon itself, at LEAST. It would be hard not to feel insanely intimidated by that, honestly, especially when there are two of them side by side, blocking your entire view of the End from that direction.

Anyway picture that with the context of these two giant floating winged worms youve never seen before, who have demonstrated their powerful ability to manipulate code in a way you cant.... telling you that they have chosen you to become one of them. Thats an immense amount of pressure, both from flattery and fear, especially considering theyve punished you before for defying them. I like to think even then, Grian balked a bit, and while i dont have exact dialogue beats here, i know the Watchers continued putting that pressure on him (likely while leveraging his friendships too-- like ive always said, if Grian hadnt been chosen, BigB wouldve been, and i can absolutely see the Watchers offering to take him in Grian's stead) until he finally caved and accepted their "offer" of joining them.

Unfortunately, he didnt find out exactly what that entailed until it was far too late.

[uncanny-tranny]

For transsexual thursday

I've gone to study biology in university and these first two weeks have been the kindest, most accepting in my life. For all the screeching about basic biology actual biologists sure don't agree lmao

The most beautiful part of the sciences is just how little you realize you know. "Basic biology" in the way that people use it is not, in fact, basic. Biology is not divine, but it sure as fuck is fascinating and so beautiful

[oicuperp]

this man was winning the idgaf war

[olibensstuff]

Did u know that poisonous frogs in South America stop being poisonous when they’re in captivity? Like they don’t lose colors or anything but they lose their toxins and it’s bc they get it from their diet from the bugs around them :)

Anyways I love ur colors and u seem rad

You 🫵 You and your frog fun fact🫵🫵🫵🫵

guys go check this person out they’re crazy talented