lilacargent

[lilacargent]

I love it!

The Eyes Are On The Front

Wesk snarled as he dabbed at the openly bleeding wound across his forehead. The shrapnel had obviously done damage to his face and eye. No matter what he did, the canid just couldn't see out of it.

At least he'd retrieved the human from the slaver camp. This was meant to have been a silent break in, snatch and run. So much for that plan...

Wesk had cased the tiny outpost for several days. All their comings and goings. Knowing where the guards were, how they patrolled, which ones took their job seriously and which ones liked to sit on the hidden chair behind the depleted uranium rod holders.

Chained avians, damaged chintians by the crate load. All more than enough evidence with recordings to count as a payday per head for each slaver Wesk removed with his high powered rifle.

It was only when the human appeared through Wesk's scope that his plans had changed so suddenly. The canid recalled blinking several times just to confirm the bounty hunter was indeed, seeing, what he was seeing.

Gone from merely picking them off one by one, now there was a hostage to rescue. One that Wesk had successfully pulled off, if not messily.

The human, a grubby but still feisty thing, was glancing around the den that Wesk had been using as a base. It was embedded into the side of the cliff that overlooked the outpost nestled and hidden in the valley.

Wesk held what amounted to a medical stapler to his forehead and pinched the flesh closed.

"They're coming..." The human quietly warned.

Wesk dropped the stapler and nearly bowled the tiny creature over as he tried to focus through his scope.

But he couldn't see through it. Aberrations in his vision caused it to swim and blind him to the magnified images of his scope.

"Dammit, I can't see! We jave to run." Wesk decoded and span away from the rifle to quickly grab his bug out bag.

The crack of gunfire caused the canid to throw himself down onto all fours and spin round, fully expecting to launch himself at a threat.

Only it was the human that had shouldered the deployed rifle and was now peering through its scope with her finger on the trigger.

It was far too large for her and was not calibrated for one if her kind!

"Hey! You're giving away our pos-"

"One down."

The canid blinked as he watched the human breathe out and squeeze the trigger again. The whole device lurched into her shoulder which took the blow.

"Second down."

"But you need... you need a predator's eyes for that. You're a.."

"Eyes on the front mate. My eyes are on the front."

#humans are space capybaras #humans are deathworlders #humans are space australians #humans are predators #humans are insane #humans are space oddities

[lilacargent]

It looks amazing and i need to be able to find this again so i can read it.

"My sweet nemesis, how glad I am that you returned."

Jude and Cardan from "The Folk of the Air" series, my latest book obsession✨

#reading #book reccs

[lilacargent]

As im currently dealing with the loss of a loved one, this is my way of coping.

Grief

Grief is an interstellar concept. Almost every species in the galaxy has its own traditions and practices. Humans are no exception, like with most of their emotions their grief is all encompassing. Traditions vary from one culture to another, even people deal with it in different ways.

Kilare as part of a flocking species wonders about the human crewmates when one is lost in a battle. She knew the passed human Ellie very well. Turns out they grieve like a flock, huddled together weeping, almost giving into the urge to join she turns away, expecting this to last for a long time she leaves them be. When she checks next the little unit is drinking and laughing, she can hardly believe it, carefully stepping into the room “i am sorry, may i ask something?” The humans look up some still blotchy from crying, the human she knows as liz nods “you were all weeping just now, but you seem happy? Im confused…” fluffing her feathers Kilare backpedals “not to be insensitive, im just trying to understand your process.” Evan gets up and walks to her “that is okay, you knew Ellie well right? We are talking about her and how we miss her, laughing comes with the tears.” Motioning for the taller feathered woman to join the little group Moira makes eye contact and starts explaining “i know you are from a species that grieves as a group, if i remember correctly mostly weeping and spread ashes on the wind to join in every flight” impressed by the womans knowledge she nods Moira goes on “humans have many different traditions, but every one grieves their own way and time. Mostly in five stages, denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. No two people go through it the same or even through all of them. There is times we grieve as a collective, sometimes you need time and process as an individual. We are now reminiscing Ellie, but i already know im gonna have a cry later and ill never forget her.” Kamare could understand and respect that so she joined in. It soothed her soul.

It was years before she saw human grief again so up close.

When the Ri’ktil attacked they committed what humans called warcrimes without batting any of their eighteen eyes. The horror of the people quickly turned to fear. It was when they blew up a human colony Kimare saw the unified grief. Human governments trying to bargain with the Ri’ktil, families travelling to the floating remnants of the colony trying to find survivors, denying that what had happened killed everyone man, woman and child. A month passed and humanity had grown silent and passive, the Ri’ktal took this as victory and broad cast it to the rest of the species in the galactic counsel. A warning that they would stop at nothing and break them like they broke the humans. Kimare remembered her conversation all those years ago and realised that anger was still coming, she could almost seeing it brewing under the surface.

A month was what it took. A month for humans to start walking upright again. Not only humans on their planets but everyone, on every world and every ship seemed to have shared in the depression. So when the fog cleared the whispering began, then came the talking, when it turned to yelling the Ri’ktil took notice. It was too late for them though. Because humanity started screaming, unified rage became a spearhead of humans all over the galaxy, noone even considered not helping. The tsunami of humans that could not wait to tear their enemy apart surprised them, no matter their way too many eyes, this they did not see coming.

The counsel joined the humans in their fight, and quick as the Ri’ktil had invaded were they beat back aswell. The defeat of their enemies did not dismiss their grief. But instead of on a specie scale individuals began their own process. Four years later Kimare noticed a change, they had made a monument out of the destroyed colony, it seemed to signify an end point. Humans went there to process and make peace, they had accepted what had happened moved past it. But never forgotten.

Humans didn’t forget when they grieved, they remember and accept.

~~~~~~

Tadah

#humans are space orcs #humans are space oddities #humans in space #humans are deathworlders #humans are space capybaras #humans are space australians #humans are insane

[lilacargent]

They really are beautiful… yep im going to have to re read them now.

"Ruby Red" and "Sapphire Blue" by Kerstin Gier

Side-by-side of my cover redesigns for the first 2 books of the Edelstein/Precious Stone Trilogy, hoping I can add Emerald Green soon!

#ruby red #saphirblau #gwendolyn shepherd #gideon de villiers

[lilacargent]

This is just the right amount of chaotic and i love it.

One of my more accomplished friends is an MRI operator. When we first got talking about what we did for a living, I didn't get very interested. Now, don't think I'm some kind of elitist snob. My career (freelance journalist/greasy dirtbag) is a laugh-a-minute thrill ride, where you're as likely to get hunted down by friends of corrupt small government as you are to throw up in the back of a diesel-swapped Geo Metro being used to chase cows back into the paddock. It's set the bar very, very high.

By comparison, MRIs are boring healthcare stuff, meant for taking extremely high-quality pictures of people's junk all day long. Those pictures are then viewed by doctors, who will sneer at those people for not eating enough cauliflower. Just an absolute snore, which although involving a cool machine that's very loud, didn't fascinate me in the least.

That is, until they mentioned The Quench. In case you're unfamiliar, MRI machines operate on the principles of magnetism (that's the "M.") Big-ass magnets are used to send pulses throughout the machine, and those pulses are inconveniently blocked by chunks of your body standing in the way. By recording how irritated those magnets are, we can figure out what's going on inside your shit. Of course, you need big, big magnets for this, you're not running down to the grocery store and diagnosing a brain misfire using that cute little toddler-art-retainer shaped like a frog.

Sometimes, when shit really goes wrong, you need to stop the magnetism in a hurry. Maybe a patient walked in with a fully loaded firearm, and the magnets are now using it to shoot the inside of the machine. Perhaps you just decided that you would like to end your career. Either way, hitting the "quench" button douses those magnets with several hundred thousand dollars' worth of liquid helium, which makes them stop doing magnet-y things and start racking up billable hours for the MRI maintenance guy. This kind of highly expensive mechanical failure is my jam, and I asked immediately where I could get me some of those quenched-up magnets. Surely, they wouldn't reuse anything they've beaten up in this way?

My so-called friend figured out what I was up to, and clammed up almost immediately. Almost. He gave me just enough information for my inquisitive journalistic mind to figure out that they just chuck these big-ass magnets into the dumpster out back of the hospital, and someone with an enterprising enough mindset could then un-chuck them into the back of, say, a U-Haul van with the license plate removed after being careful to avoid all the security cameras along the way. Not that I would do such a thing, especially because it involves driving through a particularly weak chain-link fence near the seniors' centre.

Coincidentally, are you coming to my unveiling of my new magnetic-levitation Volare-launching system this weekend? I promise to listen very intently to whatever bullshit you say about your boring job, you'll love it. The Mayor is gonna be there, cut the ribbon and everything. Shit. Siri, remind me to get plastic scissors for The Mayor.

#humans are weird

[lilacargent]

Nah that is a faerie ring, go do widdershins there. Feywild here we come!

#faerie #faerie ring #feywild

[lilacargent]

I love this so much

Humans are Loud

Most cultural exchange is done formally through official channels.

No matter how advanced a civilization you are, when meeting a whole new species, they are fundamentally alien to you in ways that need to be handled carefully and introduced to gradually, or you risk creating a bad first impression, or worse - incite conflict over something that is trivial to one side, but a grave taboo to the other.

However, once you have done preliminary work and both sides have emissaries and ambassadors stationed with each other, it becomes easier and more appropriate to learn about one another through unofficial means. Without curation.

And the most effective method, though legally dubious, is to disguise yourself as one of them and go to some places of public gathering.

Kol Rathar, from the bipedal Jorval race, wanted to experience what a day in the life of a regular Human was. So they picked a random population center on the Earth, engaged their personal disguise kit, tucked in some documents that explain who they are and the legality of their actions should they be discovered, and landed in the city of Neljaes-Helsinki.

It's the dead of winter, a bone chilling -1 degrees Celsius, Kol Rathar immediately turns up their life support to max and heads for the nearest public space. They enter what's called a "bar", take a seat, and order a beer. So as to not arouse suspicion, they "drink" the poison like a Human would, but there is a filter between the mouth on the hardlight holographic disguise and Kol Rathar's that detoxifies the alcohol and turns it into potable water. It still reeks and is hard to swallow, but it won't kill them.

They engage in general banter with some other patrons - Humans tend to dislike quiet in public spaces and often find it odd or unnerving. Universal topics like the weather, traffic, Mondays (most civilizations have an equivalent), and how everything is more expensive again (also a common occurrence across the Galaxy).

Then one of the patrons shouts to "Turn it up!" and the bartender raises the volume of the broadcast receiver to where Kol Rathar almost jumped from the shock, but thankfully the noise suppression kicked in just in time. it displayed a competitive engagement between two teams of Humans in heavily padded suits and helmets, wielding curved sticks and trying to push a small black object into the opposing net.

It did not take long for an act of violence to happen. One participant slammed their gloved fists into another, they retaliated, then a third assaulted the first, another three came out of nowhere and in seconds it was an incoherent pile of bodies slamming into each other, helmets flying off, the safety barriers were constantly vibrating, and it took a whole minute before the referees could dismantle the armageddon.

Kol Rathar thought this was the end of the game, something had gone horribly wrong, but before they could think further, they noticed everyone else in the bar was acting normal, most were looking at the altercation, but their behavior seemed... normal. Like this act of violence was common, expected even. Kol Rathar decided to maintain their cover and continue observing. They still couldn't believe that the competition was resuming after that.

Several minutes passed without another incident, the players of this "hockey" game were all very agile and adept at manipulating the small puck with their hockey sticks. WHILE SKATING ON ICE WITH THIN PIECES OF METAL ON THEIR FEET!

Kol Rathar had not even registered that fact earlier due to the "excitement" and was now awed by the sheer level of mastery and multitasking these players displayed.

Then one team finally scored a goal and Kol Rathar lost consciousness.

When they came to, they were in a hospital bed of the local Coalition embassy building being treated for shock and residual toxin exposure. The dense Human atmosphere saturated with bar patron activities will eventually overwhelm most low to medium threshold filtration systems that disguise kits come standard with.

The medic explained that there are very valid reasons for the strict requirements of Aliens visiting Human environments, and it's not a result of bureaucratic meddling over millennia as is with some other Coalition members. Nobody wants to read five hundred pages of anything, they get that, but Kol Rathar was lucky the Humans at the bar had mostly only recently arrived for the game and were not as intoxicated as they became after they were taken by the ER.

Kol Rathar's experience has been added to the guide for visiting Humans, which has recently been renamed to:

"Don't, but if you have to READ EVERYTHING HERE. There's an embedded audio book too. We know it's thirty hours long, but you will DIE if you don't listen to us!"

#humans are space orcs #humans are space australians

[lilacargent]

You know the Grimm version of Snow White makes more sense than most versions if only because in that version Snow White was like 7 years old.

[lilacargent]

You’re a retired S-tier supervillain. After you retired, you married a B-tier hero. You are forced back onto the stage when an A-tier villain attempts to kill your spouse.

[lilacargent]

I mean if i could get an Alien to read my mind and write it down coherently I’d be thankful…

Alien: it has come to my attention that you are not aware i can hear your thoughts.

Humen: you can read my mind??

Alien: yes. And i am also aware you can't read mine. So i want to apologise for what i have done.

Humen: what did you do??

Alien: so all those stories you have been telling yourself, i kinda wrote them down and posted them on my blog.

Humen: YOU READ MY MIND AND POSTED MY THOUGHTS ON THE INTERNET

Alien: on the bright side you have a lot of fans.

#writing is hard #humans are space orcs #please help

[lilacargent]

I love this so much, it makes me happy.

Every alien species has a different opinion of Earth and therefore humans.

Some say it’s a crazy planet, a boring planet. A planet of gross creatures. Humans bathe too much, too little. They all look the same, they all look so different. Earth is beautiful, earth is horrifying. But they can all agree on one thing. It’s definitely weird.

But then one or two of them come to live on Earth. They learn an earth spoken language if their throats can handle it, a sign language if they can’t. And they go to school, get a job, get a roommate. And the longer they stay they notice something.

Earth is mostly unremarkable. Like any other planet there’s a spacefaring species, beautiful and ugly nature, different cultures. The humans aren’t that genetically different from each other but they’re not exactly the same either.

So really, why does this place have such a reputation.

So someday they go to their friend, boss, teacher, whatever human they trust, and they tell them. You know, I don’t know why everyone thinks you guys are so weird.

And the human laughs. In a good-natured way, they think. It’s sometimes hard to understand the body language of other species.

Then the human sighs. “We always assumed we would be the weird ones in the galaxy, and then we weren’t. But if there’s one thing that humans probably have more than anyone else I’ve ever heard of, it’s commitment to the bit.”

“To the bit?”

The human might shake their head here or elbow the alien in the ribs if they have any. Or maybe just smile.

“There’s not a lot of things that humans are united on, but we do all think it’s very funny to exaggerate just enough that the alien rumor mill will do the rest of the work for us.”

“So you all just wanted to be weird so badly that you started lying?”

“Not lying. Just dropping the right facts on the right people. If you find out that a species generally bathes three times a day, casually mentioning that some humans only shower a couple times a week will eventually lead that entire species to think that humans just don’t bathe. If you tell someone from an ice planet about the Sahara desert they flip out and in a year or two everyone on that planet thinks that humans make their homes in the center of volcanoes.”

Here the alien smiles or shows some other subtle sign that they’re amused. Yeah, now that they think about it, none of the rumors they heard before they came here had turned out to be true.

And that does sound like humans, doesn’t it? Committing as a species to spread rumors about themselves because they find it to be hilarious.

#humans are space capybaras

[lilacargent]

A whole different thing today

I made a backstory for a character in dnd… which im unlikely to use any time soon. So im going to put it here for peoples enjoyment and possibly inspiration.

WARNING: this is a backstory, so there is no resolution yet. This is supposed to happen in the game.

Should people like it enough i might write more of the story

Once upon a time

Adelaide (41) and her two sons, James (19) and Thomas (16)

Her husband died when Thomas was 5 from medical issues.

In the years that followed city life got too expensive and her boys were troublemakers to deal with the grief.

So they moved into a cottage outside of a small town about 4 and a half away from the city when she was 33.

She grew flowers, herbs and vegetables to make money for them and get them to go to school.

Many years go by and James leaves to get trained as a city guard when he turns 17, writing letters to the cottage every month.

Thomas helps his mother in the garden a lot but is unsure what he wants to do when he grows up.

About three months after James left on a summer evening (at three in the morning) a man bangs on their door stumbling in badly wounded

Adelaide takes him in and gets him back to strength, Eduard says he was attacked by bandits on the road in the forest but unable to save his belongings.

In the months that follow he sticks around, growing fond of Thomas and slowly teaching him magic, helping the young boy discover that magic is something he is talented at.

Adelaide lets him stay because she knows Thomas will appreciate a male figure and Eduard seems kind.

A year later he is still there, helping them and Adelaide helping him, caring for him, in turn. With his magic he saved their growth in the dry summer and kept them warm in the winter.

Occasionally he leaves for a few days here and there and he invites some friends to the tavern in town but makes sure they are respectful to her and Thomas.

He is almost with them for two years when James sends a letter that he finished the first part of his training and he is coming home for a week to celebrate and see them.

Now at this point Adelaide dares to admit to herself she likes Eduard and that he likes her.

Planning to confess to him if the meeting with James goes well.

The day James is set to arrive Adelaide goes to the town with her wares and to ride the last bit home with James,

Leaving Thomas to train with Eduard.

In a happy mood they ride the cart home and Adelaide tells him all that didn’t fit in the letters and so does he in turn, talking about this band of mercenaries lead by a strong mage that has been making the city unsafe.

Telling him to go inside, she will put the cart and horse away.

The screaming starts when she closes the small stable doors

Running into the house her heart breaks. Eduard has a finger pointed at Thomas who is standing in front of his brother as a shield.

The devastated look on Eduards face tells her he didn’t mean to hurt Thomas,

But there he is grey stone climbing up his arms as he screams in pain unable to move.

Sprinting to her youngest son Adelaide screams ‘MAKE IT STOP PLEASE WHAT ARE YOU DOING.’

James ducks around his sibling and mother sword already in hand. Swiping at the now scarily tall man.

“You shouldn’t have attacked me young man, we could have worked this out. Now look what you did” parrying without effort they start fighting in earnest.

Unable to intervene Adelaide jumps towards the fire and grabs the firepoker “stop what is going on?!”

She throws herself between them but gets a slash on her back from James, that enrages Eduard.

Without the time to blink James gets stabbed in the stomach. As he falls Adelaide catches his head “nononoNONONO how is this happening?” Gasping for air with blood running out of his mouth he says “mercenary mage” and it is the last he says.

Brandishing her poker as a weapon she gets up adrenaline giving her the power to keep going “fix this” putting his hands up he steps back “i ca-“ jabbing at him she screams “FIX MY CHILDREN”

He looks crestfallen and starts moving his hand but instead of healing magic a green and yellow door appears behind him, he puts out a hand “come with me i can get help for Thomas”

Understanding dawns on Adelaide, he didn’t care about James.

Hell he didn't care that he murdered people.

He only cared about Thomas because he saw opportunity in his burgeoning talent.

"You killed them, YOU KILLED MY CHILDREN EDUARD" she lunges for him, her fire poker catching on his cape as he stepped through the portal.

Without outlet she rages through the house destroying every reminder of Eduard.

Burying her oldest son alone

And hanging flowers on her stone child.

Leaving for the city to tell of what had happened

Instead of the help she was expecting she was incarcerated for aiding and abetting a dangerous criminal.

Now enraged she broke out and started training to get her own revenge,

Aware that the mercenary group had spread over the whole continent she got ready to purge it all.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I personally have this in mind for a barbarian or vengeance paladin.

If this character were to be played i would tell the dm that it is likely Thomas would be de-stoned by Eduard’s associates and then told his mother was killed by James, changing the grave to make it look like that. Possibly even some modify memory sprinkled in.

Now i hope people like this silly idea, feel free to add or use.

#dnd character #dnd oc #dnd5e #dnd #dnd stuff #dnd ocs #original character #oc character #backstory #character backstory

[lilacargent]

Here we go again,

Puzzles/ jigsaws would confuse Aliens so much

Set on the serpentine, beginning of the humans tenure

Important crew:

Primoz, captain -Limoyh a four armed species-Krag, second in command (brother of Primoz)

Kit, dokter -avian, bird like, she has feathers like a swallow-

Ortez, ASR (all species resources, human resources in space) -kiltak, insectoid species, think ants but exoskeleton-

Lugea, helmsperson (does the steering) -rock like alien-

Artex, engineer/mechanic 1 -also Kiltak-

And then our humans:

Kamari, navigator -Eritrean woman- (has cat named Sidra)

Markus, weapons expert (knows how to use them and upkeep, also shields) -Swedish man-

Petrus, mechanic/engineer 2 - Italian man-

Lilly, administrator/note keeper (learns languages for fun)-english woman-

~~~~~~~

Puzzles

The serpentine is on route between trading posts, this is currently the furthest route without proper jump point because of the static energy surrounding the dual planets castor and pollux.

Primoz is getting worried. The humans are becoming increasingly more jittery and Kamari looks like she a pinch away from punch someone, Markus has been ‘humming’ a song that annoys her greatly. Honestly the noises the tall man is making don’t seem that bad but every few minutes her eyebrows twitch which Ortez told him is a sign of frustration.

Before the captain can figure out how to keep them from doing something deathworld worthy, Lilly comes in with precariously stacked carton boxes and Petrus carrying a table. Setting the pile down the smallest human straightens out “look what i brought! Old earth puzzles! This one has a deer and this one has the old world wonders” immediately the humming stops and Markus is at the table with Petrus “oh yes Lilly you are the best! I wanna do the deer one, that is gonna be a challenge”

With the table in the corner of the bridge the tension among crew is nearly gone, as all species try to put the cut apart pictures together, Lilly brought 9 puzzles and at a certain point a competition was forming: after one of the human unit had finished a puzzle the other crew try to make it in less time. They have yet to win.

Looking at his relaxed crew Primoz grins at his brother who is trying to use all his four arms to put pieces together without much succes. Turning away from the competition he taps Lilly on her shoulder “how do you guys do it? Also why did you think to take these things with you.” Lilly looks up from her drawing (the crew bent over the table making the puzzle) “well i knew it was going to be a long trip, Kamari thinks Markus will be ‘professional’ but he can’t help himself” her soft smile when she puts air punctuation around professional makes her look much younger than she is “puzzles are something many humans enjoy, not everyone is as good at them as Markus, but he does this thing where he uses the shape of them more than colours. While he isn’t colour blind, he has real trouble with telling differences in shades. No idea why it works this well but it does, Petrus has already won three nights of free drinking on Castor from betting.” All of a sudden looking bashful Lilly ducks her head “ah eh yes sorry forget i said that we don’t bet on this at all!” Primoz just grins “nobody has broken anything this whole trip, im not going to disrupt the flow you and your unit created. Don’t worry.”

At arrival Petrus has won the whole human crew free drinks for the foreseeable future, and the crew in its entirety hooked on puzzles. While not all species see the colours the same way or understand the patterning in the pieces the feeling of putting in the correct pieces makes it such an enjoyable activity that Lilly brings new puzzles after every holiday back home.

~~~~~~~~~

This one was born out of the confusion my family had when we were making puzzles (jigsaws?) the pictures in pieces… this is where it becomes super clear English is not my first language. Anyway, we had two puzzles out and they were so surprised i could differentiate the positions the pieces needed to be in without context. I had to tell them that the pattern otherwise won’t make sense,

I have the same thing as Markus that colours are fine unless you put several of the same colours next to each other and call them different. This is why the deer one is super hard,

The two puzzles that were described:

#humans are space oddities #humans are space orcs #humans are deathworlders #humans in space #humans are space capybaras #humans are weird #puzzle #jigsaw #humans are insane

[lilacargent]

Honestly this is on point

"Using packaging tape like that is pretty nifty though!" "Don't start getting ideas for missions, Stoppable." Enjoy some cozy movie binging! :) If you haven't watched Die Hard yet, go watch it now! It's a classic!

#die hard #die hard is a christmas movie

[lilacargent]

I’d go feral over a mosquito any day… i love that that is a tag

Humans are the ultimate apex predator:

We run

We climb

We swim too

Other predators do all that, but you can easily make them retray by predenting to be bigger and screaming, you cant do that with humans

We have a great vision, but we dont have a night vision, so in dark, you're safe, right?

Maybe if you hide? Maybe if you overun it?

No. All those 3 are literally children game, we hunt eachother down for fun, we hunt eachother down blind, hiding and running, we can easily locate ourselfes in the dark too anyway

You cant escape a human, they have hunted to extintion animals much bigger than them, even their own predators, they will easily go feral hunting mode over an annoying mosquito

#fuck mosquitoes

[lilacargent]

Another story on the serpentine, way before Ouroboros

Important crew:

Primoz, captain -Limoyh a four armed species-Krag, second in command (brother of Primoz)

Kit, dokter -avian, bird like, she has feathers like a swallow-

Ortez, ASR (all species resources, human resources in space) -kiltak, insectoid species, think ants but exoskeleton-

Lugea, helmsperson (does the steering) -rock like alien-

Artex, engineer/mechanic 1 -also Kiltak-

And then our humans:

Kamari, navigator -Eritrean woman- (has cat named Sidra)

Markus, weapons expert (knows how to use them and upkeep, also shields) -Swedish man-

Petrus, mechanic/engineer 2 - Italian man-

Lilly, administrator/note keeper (learns languages for fun)-english woman-

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Honor

Many species in the cosmos have honor, this Ortez knew, his own not as much, evolved from a hive mind. Now that they are their own entities and no longer bound to the hive queen it is very hard to insult a Kiltak.

Kit has probably the most pride from the species on the crew, Avians tend to react strongly to every insult. Feeling the need to defend their honour at every slight.

Humans were strange though, more compelled to defend concepts than themselves, Kamari called it self awareness, aware that they weren’t perfect and as such a lot of humans laugh off insults to their person (obviously this is not universal she warned Ortez) but if you insult for example stabby… expect the knife wielding cleaning unit in your sleeping quarters at night, because a human reprogrammed it to follow you around. Or Kamaris cat Sidrah, if you told any of the humans you disliked the feline prepare for the cold shoulder for days until You apologise to the ‘pet’.

Because of this Ortez was so very surprised the day a full on brawl broke out between Marcus, Petrus and a human team from another crew that was in the same space station restocking.

Captain Primoz had been more prepared, the dark skinned human had been incredibly serious when she spoke to him about the other human crew, calling them a Problem group. Specifically requesting to be kept separate as the groups leader Jonathan was an ex partner of Lilly’s and apparently had been reprehensible to her.

It hadn’t worked.

When a leaking Lilly rushed past Krag he was very confused, torn on if he should follow her or keep on his course he stopped for a second. The screaming and yelling had made the decision for him, sprinting to the shared food court.

The scene that met him was chaos, many species spectating 7 humans opposite of each other. Kamari and Petrus holding Markus by the arms while the other crew was looking smug. Krag was about to intervene when he heard the tall human up front speak “aww so prepared to protect the little flower, are you her new f*ck buddy” this awful language stopped the four armed man in his tracks and the split second look the two humans stopping Markus shared made it clear this crossed too many lines. They let go together and jumped into the fray with him.

The brawl took both captains and Krag to stop.

During the disciplinary action hearing the humans from the serpentine just told the judges they would take what punishment was given but that the other crew deserved it.

Even stranger that Lilly hugged them, thanked them for defending her honour and helped with the cleaning of the entire space station even though it wasn’t her punishment.

Their punishment had been light because of the many witnesses stating the other group had goaded the serpentine humans and even touched the human named Lilly. Because of this they were sent home to be dismissed from the human space program.

While being patched up Marcus explained to Kit that had Jonathan and his crew only insulted them they would have brushed it off. But they went for Lilly, who he called the heart of their little unit. Insulting her drawing and writing in an old earth analog book, referring to how Jonathan had treated her as a good thing.

It’s not only concepts humans protect, value and honour.

~~~~~~~~~~~

I hope people enjoy my little thing

Nothing brings me as much joy as someone being held back but the moron just keeps going and the ones who do the holding back join in.

#humans are space oddities #humans in space #humans are space orcs #humans are deathworlders

[lilacargent]

WARNING: DOCTOR WHO SPOILERS EXPLAINING REGENERATION SHENANIGANS

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okay so I was kind of not on board with the concept of bi-regeneration, mainly because of how it seemed like all of the Sad and the Trauma that the Doctor had undergone got kind of handwaved away? i'm all for ncuti's Doctor being sort of a fresh start/jumping on point for new viewers, but i didn't get how that could work if like, literally 40 minutes ago he was David Tennant being a sad wet puppy dog of a man

however, after rewatching it, i've realized what i think happened there, and it goes all the way back to something introduced with the 4th doctor's regeneration that was never explained: the Watcher

^this spooky guy

so, for those that don't know (or haven't seen every episode of a show that is over half a century old), the Fourth Doctor regenerates at the end of a story called Logopolis (he falls off a satellite dish, but that's not important right now). all throughout the episode, this weird figure, The Watcher, stands off in the distance, and even intervenes slightly by saving the Fourth Doctor's companion. there's not much given in the way of an explanation until the Fourth Doctor regenerates, saying "it's the end. but the moment has been prepared for..."

the watcher walks up, and gets absorbed in a super rad 1980's digital effect (never change doctor who), while his companion just gives us the not-super-helpful-for-lore statement "He was the Doctor all the time!"

then, in a crossfade, the Doctor goes from Four to weird-powder-man to Five

canonically, the Watcher is explained as a future version of the doctor that comes about in sort of a weird overlapping thing with the doctor's timeline, it's very wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey.

-------------------------

SO what does this have to do with biregeneration and satisfying character arcs/moving on from trauma?

Well, remember, Fifteen said this, about Time Lords doing rehab out of order:

so, here's the thing: Fifteen is the Doctor AFTER Fourteen (duh, I know?) But to be clear...Fourteen lives out an entire lifetime with Donna and family, gets to a ripe old age, and then, when his lifetime of healing is over, he gets yeeted back through his own timestream just to zoot himself out of David Tennant's chest.

Remember, his first words to Fourteen (after popping out of his chest) are "So good to see you! So good!", not the RTD classic "what?". He greets himself like he's almost expecting this, he then says "does anyone want to tell me what the hell is going on here?" which only makes sense if he's coming from a different point in his own timestream (remember, when two doctors interact, memory gets really weird, 10 and the War Doctor don't remember the events of Day of the Doctor until they live through them as 11).

SO TO BE CLEAR: Ncuti Gatwa is playing the Doctor AFTER he has spent years healing from his traumas. His Doctor is fine because Fourteen takes the time to rest and work on himself.

tl;dr: I didn't like biregeneration at first because I thought it looked like this:

In actuality, it looks more like this: