#* headcanon {defect of my species. we never give up hope} | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

ofweirdestship · 2 years

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New Horizons!

Hi, I’m Rage and I deadass went on a nine-day trip to see my best friend & writing partner in person on June 2nd. So I JUST got to watch both of the currently released episodes of New Horizons just now.

I’m not gonna pretend to be spoiler-free, unfortunately that just won’t work if I’m going to get things started over here again, but for the courtesy of this post I’ll be putting the info regarding it below the cut.

While this post will not be pinned, I will reblog with updates with each released episode. This blog IS canon-divergent from the point right before Identity pts 1 & 2 in season 2, however I’m going to see what I can/will retain of the story within my own canon. I will be posting a refresher course on my canon-divergent story as an accompanying post to this one.

Electric Sheep: This one’s a keep, with changes. Contending for the canon, this takes place in the Star Trek/Federation universe, thus features some of the Starfleet crew featured on my main blog, @starbcrn-kids. I am retconning Gordon being “uncomfortable” with Isaac due to this-- because of the circumstances the Orville crew has been through with him in my particular canon, even considering his initial betrayal, NO ONE who was on the Orville crew prior to Identity would EVER doubt Isaac if he did come back around and help them. They’d feel the pain of it, but they would trust him again. HOWEVER, I will be keeping Marcus’ response, and this timeline of events does properly intersect with Charly Burke joining the crew when she does (speaking of, this post will also act as her tag dump, don’t mind me). I don’t intend to change any part of Charly’s story or character as seen thus far. I like her so far even if I don’t agree with her and I’m interested to see where she goes.

Shadow Realms: Ew. But, keep. I don’t see much I’d have to do to adapt this one into my timeline tbh. Besides actually placing it, anyways.

Morality Paradox: HOLY SHIT Y E S. Keep, just a matter of where I put it.

Gently Falling Rain: Oh my god. Oh my god. Oh my god. OH MY GOD??? OH MY GOD!! OH! MY! GOD! Okay. Okay. I’m okay. OHMYGOD. Okay. This one I will be keeping BUT I’m not sure how. Because of the timeline of my canon, this takes place in my Trekverse, with my Trek muses, and the reality of the situation is that there’s no way in hell that would have gone down like that in my canon, which I don’t like, but I acknowledge nonetheless. I have no idea what’s going to happen or what’s going on. What I know for sure is I will have to WRITE this story OUT within my canon to figure out what went down. It’s the only way to place it correctly in my story. Stay tuned, I guess?

A Tale of Two Topas: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA. Ahem. Keep! No changes, just fit it in where I can. No change is necessary, this episode was perfect.

Twice in a Lifetime: As emotionally moving as this episode was? Discard. None of what happened is necessary as literally the only character/relationship development that happened (Gordon’s, Talla/John, and Isaac & Charly) either unhappened (Gordon) or could be inserted anywhere for the same effect. And frankly, in a show canon sense and as a viewer, while I personally LOVED that we circled back to Gordon falling in love with a girl from 2015, and showed that what could have been, I hate how Gordon becomes regarding her. I absolutely cannot stand what he is with her. I choose not to perceive the circling back beyond the show-canon narrative, and since I’m canon-divergent, I’m disregarding the episode itself and re-inserting major developments that didn’t disappear elsewhere in my own canon.

From Unknown Graves: I AM A FUCKING MESS. I HAVE BEEN COMPLETELY AND UTTERLY FUCKING EMOTIONALLY DESTROYED AND I DON’T KNOW IF I WILL EVER RECOVER. Keepn’t. I think this one, like Gently Falling Rain, will require a rewrite within my canon to figure out what’s going on. It shouldn’t need a ton of changes (the Janisi plot should remain completely untouched, for example) but some things will be going differently or may diverge from future plans (Isaac’s emotions. I can see they may revisit this and work this out on their own, but with my OC additions I may end up altering how that goes). UPDATE (07/21/2022): I have written the retelling of the ending of this episode within my canon.

Midnight Blue: Being totally honest with you, I couldn’t stomach watching this episode in full. I watched about 20 minutes of it in total-- watched the beginning up till Haveena asked Topa to help her with communicating with her smugglers, watched Haveena with Dolly, and then skipped to Gordon telling the Moclans OFF and watched the end. I physically couldn’t stomach it, but piecing together my understanding of what happened, I’ll be keeping this episode canon and glossing over talking about events I didn’t see.

Domino: WHAT JUST HAPPENED. NO, SERIOUSLY, WHAT. THE FUCK. JUST HAPPENED. I am-- I am emotionally destroyed, I can’t stop fucking crying, I don’t understand anything, I have been shattered. What the fuck? What the fuck was that!! Ohmygod. And I think the worst part is... this is a keep. I have to. I don’t know that I want to, but I have to. Just. Just don’t touch me right now. Thanks.

Future Unknown: Um, is this even a question?! Keep! Though it may require the tiniest bit of editing for my canon. As far as my reaction? ... I can’t fucking process this one, actually. I mean, in nearly every episode, I was able to compare something that happened to my actual rp shit. But this week’s was so wildly comparable I don’t even know how to put anything into WORDS. I loved EVERYTHING about this but I’m in shock. I’ll come back to this later.

#* ooc {captain on the bridge}#* new horizons {and... maytheforcebewithyou}#* headcanon {defect of my species. we never give up hope}#* muse {charly burke}

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wexrdest-shxp-xn-the-fleet · 4 years

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Solo Para: Identity In a New World

The Romulan war won, their universe returned, the Orville crew has been through a lot in the past several months.

With all the initial chaos finally aside, Claire was looking forward to telling Marcus and Ty the truth of her relationship with Isaac. But just as the boys are finding out and responding, Isaac’s eyes vanish and he collapses, shutting down without warning and leaving the three in shock.

When no ascertainable reason can be found for Isaac’s sudden failure, the crew goes to Kaylon, discovering Isaac was shut down but getting him brought back online, only to discover he was planning on returning to Kaylon full-time. Unfortunately, they dig a little too deep and discover the Kaylon’s true intentions, to wipe out all Union organic life and then moving on to the Federation, before the Kaylon storm their ship and take command.

The crew is trapped in the shuttlebay deciding what to do when a Federation starship finds the Orville on scanners and goes to check in on them. The Kaylon originally intend to take Captain Mercer and Commander Grayson when...

“Wait a minute. What’s the ship, exactly?” Dakota’s head pops up as an idea runs through her head and she goes through with it without thinking, stepping forward. “Please, this might be important to your cover.”

“The USS Excelsior,” the Kaylon answers, and she prays to god Sammy keeps her mouth shut.

“Oh, I have a cousin on that ship. My whole extended family knows this week I’m supposed to be doing a command training exercise-- I’m filling in for Commander Grayson this week, isn’t that right, captain?” Dakota’s head turns to Ed with a plea in her eyes for him to go with it.

“Uh, exactly, that’s right,” Ed agrees momentarily, confused but going with it. Relieved, Dakota turns back to the Kaylon.

“If you take Commander Grayson up there, they’ll think something’s wrong. I wouldn’t miss a command training exercise for anything. They all know that. You’ll have to bring me instead.”

There’s a pause, she assumes as they confirm the, actual truth about her cousin and that she’s on the command path. Once both are confirmed, Kaylon Primary instead instructs her to follow with Ed to the bridge.

Ed leans in and mutters to her, “I hope you know what you’re doing, lieutenant.”

So does she.

Taking respective seats on the bridge, Ed swallows a lump in his throat when Captain Sulu answers. “Captain Sulu, I hope you don’t mind if the lieutenant conducts this interaction as a part of her command training,” He gestures kindly to Dakota.

Hikaru nods with a smile. “Of course. Lieutenant, that’s quite an entourage you have there.”

“Yes, sir, the Kaylon are looking to join the Union, so as to be present for peace talks with the Federation,” Dakota answers with a smile. “It seems they make a very big deal out of their ambassador.”

“I see. Are you in need of any assistance? I know my bosses would approve if we had Federation representation present for this monumental occasion.”

She sees a subtle headshake from one of the Kaylon out of the corner of her eye, not that she needs it. “No, that’s all right. Having a number of Federation lieutenants, including the children of the Federation’s fleet admiral himself, will be more than enough. Thank you, though!”

Captain Sulu nods. “If that’s all--”

Now or never!

“Oh, captain, before I forget. This is a bit less professional but your trajectory puts you guys on that path-- can you tell my dad on the USS Kelvin that I love him and I’ll see him later? We were going to meet up but with the Kaylon thing takes precedence, I’m sure you can imagine. He’ll have to meet me for lunch, maybe we should go visit the Union’s version of Earth or something. Sorry to ask this of you, and I know it’s not my place, but with everything going on around here I don’t know if I’ll have time to get the message out.”

The captain doesn’t even flinch. “Of course, lieutenant. Tell my daughter that she owes me a huge hug when our paths cross again.”

“Absolutely, sir,” Dakota answers with a smile, and then the channel cuts off. She turns back to see the horribly confused look on the captain’s face and then braces her explanation.

“Have you attempted to deceive us? Your Federation’s starships do not use the name Kelvin in memorial of the one destroyed many years ago,” the Primary says warningly, and Dakota holds up her hand, willing herself to keep herself contained.

“Congrats on getting into our records, but not everything is ever officially recorded in Starfleet. We have recorded security, but we don’t trust our enemies to not hack that. So we have word of mouth security too. Only captains and the families of crew of some ships even have clearance to know that those ships exist. One such ship is the Kelvin, rebuilt following the disaster with the Narada as a training ship to prepare for enemies such as Nero should the need arise again.” Dakota crosses her arms. “There’s no computerized file of it. Officially, it doesn’t exist, and the name Kelvin was never used again in memorial, but in actuality the Kelvin’s in deep space training. My dad got assigned there after an off-the-charts aptitude test for security.”

“She’s telling the truth,” Ed pipes in quickly, though he definitely has no idea what’s going on. “I was surprised the lieutenant knew the name but it’s the truth, I was briefed on it when I was reinstated to captain by the Federation admiralty. The Kelvin and the Shenzhou are still in operation for a deep chapter of security that has no records for the exact reason of running the risk of someone searching records for them and locating them.”

“You can ask any of the other crew, they’ll tell you the Kelvin was destroyed and its name is not present on any ships because that’s all they know. I’m the only one with family on the ship. I don’t know who all is on the crew, but my dad went over the manifest once and confirmed no other crewman on the Orville has family there.” Dakota keeps herself together, refusing to let them see through her.

And it works. The Primary takes a very long minute before returning the two to the shuttlebay with the rest of the crew.

Once they’re on their own with the rest of the senior officers, Ed turns to her, keeping his voice low. “What the hell was that?”

“I believe your guys’ equivalent is a 13-button salute,” Dakota explains, in an equally low tone, “The Kelvin is a code for danger. But ours isn’t shared with just anyone, and it’s only shared by word of mouth. None of the Union officers on this ship were to know about it unless it became necessary for its use to come up, Admiral Kirk didn’t approve but he was severely outvoted. And ours is versatile, it’s all in the messages you pass on and the way you phrase it. Saying to tell my dad I loved him said to tell the admiralty we were held by hostiles, telling him to meet me for lunch meant they’d launch an attack, telling him we should meet at the Union’s Earth for it tells them where.”

Ed pauses and shakes his head, awestruck. “That was some incredible bullshitting.”

“We’re also taught how to lie convincingly to the hostiles in question when they ask about the Kelvin being named,” Dakota answers with a shrug. “But we don’t know how fast Captain Sulu can reach out to Federation admiralty or how fast the Federation can get the message to the Union. And even combined I’m not sure it’ll be enough, we just got out of a war.”

“So, we need to get some more backup,” Kelly agrees. “We need to take a shuttle out to find the Krill.”

“The Krill? Kelly, are you NUTS?” Ed whips around to face her, but as the argument continues, Dakota tunes them out, turning to John.

“Commander, suppose they go get the Krill and convince them to go along. We still have to get the message to the Union, we may be much faster than the Federation.”

John nods, waving for her to follow him quietly, leading her to a small conduit that Yaphit is waiting by. “This should do that. Yaphit can get out through here and send a message to the admirals, but there’s a problem. We can’t mask the message and the Kaylon could kill it before it gets out if we don’t.”

“So until we’ve got that figure out, we’re stuck,” Yaphit agrees, and Dakota nods, thinking.

She’s not the engineer, though. “What are our options, sir?” Dakota looks at him and he thinks the question over.

“If someone could go out with him and change the frequencies randomly, the Kaylon might think that it’s just subspace noise.”

“Yeah, but no one can fit through there but me,” Yaphit points out. “This conduit is tiny, like half-a-meter wide.”

“I could fit,” comes a small voice behind them and Dakota turns in surprise to Ty, seeing the rest of the senior staff must have worked out their argument about the Krill and had come to check on what they were doing.

“Absolutely not,” Dr. Finn says, while the others look at each other uncertainly.

Dakota sighs. “Doctor, we don’t have a lot of choice. If we do nothing, a lot of people are going to die. If Yaphit does this without that kind of backup, nobody’s going to know what’s going on in time.”

“You’re not sending my son--!” Claire insists, but Ty is the one to convince her he’ll be okay and talk her down, and the two are off in moments during the chaos of the shuttle’s escape at the same time.

Dakota approaches Sammy as they’re waiting. “Hey. Your dad’s okay. He said he loves you.”

Sammy looks up at her and nods, shivering slightly but not from cold. The redhead is scared... they all are.

The next thing Dakota knows is some kind of... pulse, over the speakers of the ship, and the Kaylon watching them collapse, seemingly dead. When the shuttlebay doors open, it’s Ty, talking about how Isaac saved them.

Lily and John send out another covered message to hide it from the Kaylon vessels informing Federation and Union admiralty that the Orville is back in control and not a moment too soon as they find themselves at the other Earth-- with two entire fleets waiting to defend it.

The battle is hell. Things look grim until the Krill show up, with a short and sweet hail from the ship in the lead, revealing Kelly and Gordon, safe and sound. Finally, though, the Kaylon are forced into retreat.

Yaphit successfully revives Isaac as soon as things have finally settled. Then, the crew is invited to the most important meeting of their careers: the meeting between the Union and Federation to finally unite the two forces as one, officially, creating the United Planetary Federation.

They don’t quite know how easy things will be moving forward. But they know they’re ready to fight back. And they’re going to do it side by side. The way it needed to be when two worlds collided.

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that--unusual-person · 3 years

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@atlantianchronicle Had to do bit of digging to back up my answer so it wouldn’t look like I’m spitballing (update: I spitballed). I used mostly G1 logic and history making this, and I too am still limited on transformer knowledge because my brain needs to absorb more juice. As for now… this headcanon is wild. that’s all i have to say.

So before we start I’m going to throw in a bonus. This will explain the making and meaning behind what makes the pillar men cybertronian pillar men. Plus, it’ll help you better understand what I’m throwing at you.

Kars first transformed himself into what i would call a ‘Spark Mutant’.

My definition of a spark mutant is the alteration of a cybertronians spark. Imagine if a humans genes were rearranged and deconstructed before being remade into a different creature. When a spark mutation happens, the genetic coding, mind, and body of a cybertronian are created and destroyed (think back to the scene in the movie Bolt when Bolt transforms).

The reason I call them spark mutants, emphasis on mutant, is because they somewhat have the same nature as mutants (mutants rule the underworld, far down the many levels of Cybertron, enemies to the cybertronians living on the surface, hostile to outsiders; already similar to the nature of the pillar men. Hence why I chose to call the cybertronian pillar men spark mutants, scientifically speaking. And for the ‘spark’ in spark mutants, I simply took the spark out of sparkeater and put it there (nothing special-ish).

Effects of Kars’ spark mutation allow him to feed on sparks the same as a sparkeater, yet maintain a balanced form and complete control over his hunger. Due to the consumption of sparks, it has allowed any spark mutants to live on, presumably immortal, and allowed rapid growth to the body. Rapid growth as in constant evolution, regeneration, stamina, and other physical abilities; including the ability to transform without a t-cog (transformation without a t-cog drains energy making them vunerable. if your ever in a rare confrontation with a spark mutant and duking it out, try to force them to transform, it is their best weakness).

I wouldn’t compare spark mutants to be similar to a prime, but they match in power (sometimes intellect depending on who is the spark mutant). Spark mutants would best be compared to a super soldier abomination. Primes are chosen by the Matrix, spark mutants are defects of sparkeater configuration.

And a side note on Kars’ title for his new species of cybertronians, they take on the name ‘The Pillars of Cybertron’ or for short ‘The Cyber Pillars’ (I’m sorry my brain can’t think of anything super fabulous for them, maybe later I’ll find something better).

Now onto the Cyber Pillar race and how it began ( i tried to incorporate as much of the original story as possible into this one but with a transformers twist so it doesn’t derail. plus i put some history in it, most of which is headcanonly written by yours truly).

This kind-of turned into a short story recreating the pillar mens uprising but transformers styled, but I hope it gives some more details to my answer and why I think so (plus I got carried away, this was very fun to write. Aaaand I think it’ll help anyone who isn’t familiar with transformers and is confused as all hell better understand what’s happening without doing any research. Boom, double bonus. your welcome).

Anywho- let’s start with time, yes? How long ago was it when the rise of the spark mutants began?

It started during the time Primus created Cybertron twelve million years ago, then came the first wave of cybertronians to roam its surface. However, the mutants (talkin G1 Mutants) lived scattered underground in small groups, Kars and Esidisi among one of them (same quantity as the pillar men originally started before humans).

Living and thriving plentifully, it was until the Matrixes were distributed to the first Primes above ground, Kars grew envious not only of their gift, but their power of transformation as well (he’s always dreamed of evolving into a better species like the cybertronians above). Greedily, he searched for a way to attain any source of power that will match that of a Primes, until he came across the ability to create sparkeaters (like how he created the stone masks and caused the DIO incident, but that’s another story for another time). He tested this new ability on random cybertronians he captured from the surface. Unfortunately it proved to be far more dangerous than Kars had anticipated, quickly failing to see how unstable sparkeater are and its transformations can be. It was until Kars stumbled upon a unique technique of altering a spark and processors natural state.

Thus, he created a mask (insert the stone mask and its properties here yata yata yata-) to connect to his brain module and alter his mind and spark. Kars continued to test the new mask on himself, having enough confidence and bravery that this would be the perfect transformation. It was a gruesome process, having undergoing the change to sparkeater tears apart his body and mind, splitting him inhalf before reconnecting in a bright flash of light. Afterwards, he was stable and out of energy. And no matter how much energon he consumed, it was never enough, until he found his taste in sparks. Realizing this newfound power, he went on to feast and thrive off sparks of the surface cybertronians for hundreds years while living amongst his underground brethren. It was then he met Esidisi, who soon joined him, and became his conjunx (hell yes I’ve wanted to say that for a long time).

But with the rapid amount of cybertronians being found without their sparks, husks of the dead being descovered raised suspicion above. Word hadn’t gotten to the Primes yet, but it had reached the rest of the mutants underground. They were furious with Kars’ reckless ness and hunger for power, they decided that if they did not eliminate Kars, the Primes will find the mutants and have them all exterminated. And so, they challenged Kars and Esidisi. (you all know what happens next) Kars and Esidisi make quick work of the mutants, slaughtering them and feasting on their sparks. They left the scene for the surface to live secretly alongside the surface cybertronians. It was hundreds of years later they found two abandoned protoforms; Esidisi insisted on having children (Kars knew Esidisi has always wanted to be a sire when they left the underground), and adopted the two, dubbing them Wamuu and Santana (haha babies). And when they finally grew old enough, Kars titled themselves Cybertron first Cyber Pillars.

It’s then millions of years later, before before Orion Pax becomes Optimus Prime, Kars has yearned for more power, to go beyond his current state and reach that of Primus himself. And so began their quest for the All Spark, yet the quest as proven too impossible for them when the war between the Autobots and the Decepticon broke out. As a last resort, the Cyber Pillars went into stasis, awaiting the right moment to awake when the war is over so they can resume their quest.

To this day, they sleep peacefully somewhere on Cybertron. Until… A SOMETHING HAPPENED! OOH NOOOOO-

aaaand i’ll leave it at that. to be continued i guess

#welp #i did a thing #yay me #now i genuinely hope this answers your question and doesnt confuse everyone else because i got swept off my feet into this wonderfull place #of absolute horror and fun #jjba/transformers #ramble

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cruelfeline · 4 years

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Once upon a time, @shadsiethewriter suggested I do an analysis of Hordak’s eyes. Voila: this is that analysis!

I’m going to attempt an anatomical assessment here, and as such y’all will have to take it with a massive tablespoon of salt. Out of all of Hordak’s anatomical curiosities, his eyes are the one I personally interpret as least akin to ours and find the most difficult to make any sort of even semi-informed judgments of. So. Take this as you will.

First and foremost: a quick rundown of what the typical vertebrate eyeball consists of when looked at from the front: the clear cornea, white sclera, colored iris, and black pupil. The cornea is the clear “dome” over our iris and pupil, allowing light to pass through it. The sclera is the “white” of the eye and consists of fibrous tissue, maintaining ocular globe structure. The iris is the pigmented tissue that controls pupil size, while the pupil is essentially a hole that allows light in. Light passes through the pupil, gets focused by the lens, and lands on the light-sensitive cells of the retina, which send the input information to the brain via the optic nerve.

In addition to the eye itself, there are also periocular structures to consider: the eyelids, various glands, eye muscles, etc. In many animals, there is also the nictitating membrane (the third eyelid).

There’s a whole bunch of fancy physics involved in vision, and the whole setup is essentially a biological camera, but we won’t get into that here. We’re just going to focus on what we need to. Same with the periocular structures: I’ll discuss these where pertinent to Hordak’s anatomy.

Now, I’m not actually going to start with Hordak’s eyes. I’m going to start with Horde Prime’s. Why? Because Horde Prime is, as far as we know, a sort of “template” for Hordak (made him “in his image” and all that, dontcha know), so looking at his eyes as a sort of comparison may give us insight into Hordak’s own ocular anatomy. Plus, Prime’s eyes actually do appear to be far more like our own; this again allows for better comparison when noting how Hordak’s are not.

Horde Prime has green eyes with no visually apparent sclera, likely two eyelids, and a fringe of very pretty eyelashes on his “main” eyes. His lids and perioribital region feature light grey pigmentation that is either natural markings or makeup.

let’s be real it’s makeup

Other than their number, there is nothing particularly odd about Horde Prime’s eyes when compared to various vertebrates. While the lack of visible sclera is strange for a human, it is par for the course for many vertebrates we are familiar with.

Cats, for example, have irises that are quite large and fill most of the space between open eyelids, making it appear as if they have no “white of the eye” (Catra’s eyes are actually like this). This is the case with a huge number of vertebrate animals we’re all familiar with. Most of them, I think, actually.

Prime’s vertical pupils are commonly seen in the natural world, though on Earth, they tend to be found in ambush hunters that are active both day and night, such as cats and foxes. Prime is... probably not an ambush hunter? I hope? Most likely, vertical slit pupils were used in his design because, culturally, they tend to be associated with inhuman, evil-looking creatures. Which has nothing to do with the biology, of course, so we won’t really go into it. Let’s instead assume that his pupils are as they are either due to previous evolutionary history or because he personally thinks it looks intimidating.

All in all, Horde Prime has eyes that appear, at least at this point in the story, very biologically normal. They feature all of the external parts that are needed for vision. Save for the lack of visible sclera and the slit pupils, they appear quite human.

Let’s assess Hordak’s eyes now. Similarities first, just to get them out of the way.

Hordak has eyelids, just as we do. We see them whenever he blinks, and we really see them when he suffers a syncopal event in season three. It is difficult to ascertain the nature of his eyelashes because of the black pigmentation in his periorbital region (assumed to be makeup), but there’s no reason to think that they don’t exist. they are probably also very pretty

Hordak also has lacrimal glands, or some sort of similar structures, because he is able to produce tears in response to strong emotion. Lacrimal glands produce the aqueous portion of the tear film in many mammals, serving to lubricate the eyes; in humans, and in Hordak, tears are also produced due to strong emotions, generally joy or grief.

With the presence of lacrimal glands or similar in Hordak, one may assume that a whole lacrimal apparatus is present, meaning existence of the lacrimal puncta and canals that typically drain tears from the eyes to the nose (AKA the reason your nose runs when you cry). This is not something that would be readily visible, but given the apparent existence of typical tears, it’s not far-fetched.

With the similarities out of the way, we can now focus on the very obvious differences. Right off the bat, we can see one that is very important in terms of Hordak’s actual vision: he has no pupils. Now, in normal Earth-vertebrate terms, one cannot see if one has no pupils. If there is no pupil, there is no way for light to enter the eye and hit the retina, so pupils need to be present.

There are a few possible ways Hordak might be able to see “without” pupils. One way, and the way that I think is most canonically likely, is that his eyes are cybernetic in nature and thus not bound by the anatomical rules our eyes are bound by. This would also account for their glow (something Horde Prime interestingly seems to lack) and their ability to have their color changed during Hordak’s reformatting.

Beyond suggesting this, I can’t say much more about it; any cybernetic enhancement goes far beyond my anatomical knowledge and lands firmly in the realm of science fiction. With cybernetics in play, anything could be going on with his eyes. So, we’ll just have to leave it at that.

A more biological possibility is that Hordak's eyes are actually all-pupil, and that what he is lacking is the iris. This is actually a condition some humans have, termed aniridia. It is usually a congenital issue but can occasionally arise due to ocular trauma. Now, in humans, this is an abnormality that negatively affects vision and can cause other eye problems, but for Horde clones like Hordak, this might just be what their eyes are like. A lack of related issues may be due again to cybernetic enhancement or due to alien anatomy we are not privy to. Same for the color: humans with aniridia have all-black eyes, but light reflected or created at the back of Hordak’s eye may be responsible for a red color in an “all-pupil” eye.

A final possibility I can think of is that there is a pupil, but we can’t see it well because Hordak’s eyes are constantly covered by a nictitating membrane. This “third eyelid” is present in many vertebrates (your cats and dogs have them, FYI) and is generally used to protect the eye while still maintaining vision. A transparent eyelid, essentially. Now, I think this is highly unlikely to be part of Hordak’s anatomy, because we never see him blink like this, but it’s still a thing that exists and might provide a fun headcanon for some of you, so I’m mentioning it.

Besides the lack of pupil, the other two differences I can note (as briefly mentioned) are the glow and the involuntary color change. While both are possible biologically (rapid color change and bioluminescence are both very present in the animal word), given the sudden change in Hordak’s eyes as a result of his reformatting, I would have to hypothesize that these factors are likely cybernetic in nature.

Now, biology aside, let’s take a moment to assess the symbolism and meaning behind Hordak’s eyes, namely in terms of color and lack of pupil.

Horde Prime and obedient, active clones both have green eyes, and Hordak’s eyes turn green when he is reformatted, supposedly returning to a sort of “baseline” state. My personal interpretation of this is that Hordak’s eye color is an indicator of functionality: when he is labeled “defective,” his eye color is altered to reflect his new status. Rather than his defect including being “born” with red eyes, his eyes are turned red to inform everyone around him that his defect exists and that he has effectively been rejected. The glow, present when his eyes are red but oddly absent when they’re green, may also carry the purpose of making Hordak more noticeable; marking him as “dangerous,” so to speak. Of course, we don’t have conclusive proof of this at this point, but it seems logical. Certainly, Horde Prime seems capable of dictating what color Hordak’s eyes are, rather than it being some sort of uncontrollable attribute. This makes it more likely, to me, that the color is an intentional thing meant to carry a message.

Now, the lack of pupils is even more interesting because, while Hordak and the clones don’t have them, Horde Prime does. What could this mean? Well, in my experience, creatures portrayed without pupils are often meant to be interpreted as more “alien” by the audience. Less human. Less intelligent. Perhaps even mindless. The reason for this is instinctive, I think: pupils allow us to see where an individual is looking, to follow their gaze, to make intentional eye contact. Without them, it might be difficult to interpret a creature’s expressions and easily connect with them. It puts up a mental barrier, you see? Takes away some sense of intelligence and sentience from a creature. Makes it look blank.

I wouldn’t be surprised if Horde Prime did this on purpose: manufactured his clones without pupils so that they appeared less like “people,” whereas he has pupils and is thus able to connect more readily with other sentient species. He’s the person; the clones are not.

And that’s that, I think. Obviously take all the anatomy with that heaping tablespoon of salt; I’m willing to bet that much of how Hordak’s eyes work is down to alien cybernetic nonsense. But that said, it’s still fun to muse about, isn’t it? And the potential symbolism is interesting, anatomy aside!

#hordak #why yes I did make another ridiculous anatomy post I'm sure y'all are thrilled

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ofweirdestship · 2 years

Text

Retelling of the end of 3x07

Spoilers! (Shocking I’m sure)

Features Claire Finn, Charly Burke, Isaac, John LaMarr, Rayna Biel, & guest muse Lily Scott

“I’m... sorry,” Charly finishes. That was hard, all of that was hard for her to say.

Isaac doesn’t miss much of a beat. “Thank you, ensign,” and turns back to his work.

She accepts that. It’s the most she can expect from him, she knows, as she starts to leave engineering again.

“Perhaps--” She turns back when he speaks again, surprised, as he continues, “You could assist me with the calibration.”

She nods and quietly goes up to work with him, neither one saying anything more. It’s a stART DEAR GOD.

A sudden crashing whips her and Isaac around to see what the commotion was. Lily stands there looking anything but the usual controlled and collected Charly sees of the other. She points wildly at Isaac. “I HAVE AN IDEA!”

Everyone is staring at her. It’s Isaac who responds. “An idea, Miss Scott?”

“It’s jus' crazy enough t' work, but I need you,” she points to Charly, “you,” she points to Rayna (didn’t they hate each other?--), “you,” she points to John who’s just coming in the door, “And-- I need-- you all stay put,” and as she’s running out the door she’s already yelling, “DOCTOR VILLKA! DOCTOR VILLKA!”

John blinks, looking between everyone. “Anybody know what that was?”

He’s met by multiple headshakes and Isaac’s, “Negative.”

“Awesome,” he says to himself, shaking his head. “Guess we’ll find out.”

When Lily comes careening back in with Dr. Villka and Timmis behind her, she doubles over for a moment, resting her hands on her knees and catching her breath. John looks to Dr. Villka but she just shakes her head. He looks back to his deputy chief. “Lily, what is going on?”

Lily takes a deep breath. “Isaac. When ye deactivated yourself, we discovered tha' there was a very, very, very small portion of code ye missed tha' we didn’t know about backed up on a storage cell, aye?”

“Where are you going with this?” John looks at her.

Lily waves him off, her attention on the Kaylon entirely. “Isaac.”

“Correct, Miss Scott. What is the relevance?”

“John. How long would it take t' degrade from a fresh cell if we broke it?”

“If we kept it in a stasis field, it wouldn’t be bad, but any power surge--”

“Right, right, hours, I remember,” Lily interrupts abruptly, waving her hand as she begins talking. “Wha' if we-- wha' if, we made a new storage cell, an' allowed Isaac th' time t' copy th' programming t' it? Then he could be deactivated, th' cell moved ou' and put in stasis, we downgrade th' electro-chemical pathway physically, update th' neural network--”

“Reinstall Isaac’s programming the way we did when he deactivated, and boom, he can utilize the full emotional range but still keeps his memories and personality,” John finishes, nodding along. “Her logic checking out to you, Dr. Villka?”

“It is,” the woman laughs, “It is, that should work.”

“I want everything ready t' go before we deactivate Isaac,” Lily says. “Hell, I want it ready before we break th' cell. Dr. Villka, I’ll need yer assistance redesigning th' physical component. Rayna, you and Isaac work on th' storage cell-- maybe make a backup of tha' backup, just in case. John, le' th' cap'n know we’re about t' do something crazy an' make sure we’re ready with th' stasis field, sir,” she adds that last word almost like an afterthought. “Let’s do this.”

And do this, they did. Rayna follows Lily’s advice, making a backup of the backup and putting it, unbroken, into stasis as well on its own. By the time everything is together and ready, Ed and Kelly have joined the group.

“No one told Dr. Finn?” Lily looks around before they begin.

“Maybe it’s best we don’t tell her... just in case,” Kelly admits, and that’s all that needs to be said.

Lily takes a deep breath, looking around her. Her full engineering team, and then to this insanely assembled team.

Charly stands back, not with them but ready for when they’re down to putting Isaac’s consciousness back in place. The part they need rests on a small table beside where they have Isaac sitting and waiting, Rayna standing beside it and Dr. Villka with her. John’s at the controls to set the stasis field for the cell they’re about to break, the other one in his hand to be added once it’s broken. Captain Mercer and Commander Grayson are with Charly, watching.

“On my mark, Unk, break tha' cell, an' Isaac, it’ll be time fer tha' pulse. Everybody ready?”

Nods all around. Lily nods. “3... 2... 1... mark.”

And they’re all in motion. Lily barely registers the crunch or John working with the stasis field, because on her mark, Isaac deliberately self-administers an EMP to himself and drops stone cold deactivated back on the table. Immediately, she’s on his other side and she, Dr. Villka, and Rayna get to work. Once the new part is in, Lily steps back, watching Dr. Villka work with rapt fascination and severe anxiety in equal parts. Rayna gently sets the old piece aside. If this didn’t work, they’d reinstall him back to how he was and everything would be fine.

But Lily wasn’t planning on that. Wasn’t even thinking of it. It wasn’t a possibility, because this was going to work.

She scarcely notices the doctor finishing, just Charly immediately coming over to take over. John releases the stasis field and he and Rayna go to help her where needed.

To be frank, Lily doesn’t notice anything until Charly says, “Done,” and the blue lights of Isaac’s “eyes” reappear.

Everyone backs up, watching with bated breath.

Isaac moves carefully, deliberately slow, seeming to take all of them in. “Hello. Can you tell me where we are?”

Faces fall, and Lily kicks herself. Dammit. She’d been so sure...

Well, they could put him back to how he was, even if the... emotions...

Lily looks up at a sound, a muffle snort, which is weird to think about because she’s almost certain it came from...

Isaac starts laughing, suddenly reaching out and pulling her in, hugging her tightly. “I got you. I got you all there, didn’t I?”

Lily lets out a heavy breath, feeling a laugh bubbling up herself. “You me'al asshole! Don’ do tha'!”

But she’s laughing, and so are the others. Lily hugs Isaac back as the Kaylon continues, “Thank you, Lily. Thank you, thank you, thank you.”

“Oh, Isaac, there’s no need t' thank me,” the Scotswoman protests, pulling back gently. “Ye’re my friend, an' someone I’ve served a lo' of years with. I saw ye after th' first try, I knew how much it meant t' ya, even if ye couldn’t tell without th' emotions. I knew I had t' find a way.”

“Lily, you’ve saved me,” he insists, shaking his head at her-- she thinks she’s going to find it a bit interesting, seeing him move with more emotion like this-- and then adds, “You’ve done me a favor I can’t possibly repay you for.”

Lily sighs, rolling her eyes. “All righ', all righ'. Don’ get all sappy on me, save it fer Dr. Finn.”

“Save what for Dr. Finn?” Everyone’s heads turn to Claire. “Sorry to interrupt, I was coming to check on Chief LaMarr and see how he’s doing.”

“Better, doctor,” John answers before Lily swats his arm and they all back up, leaving a perfect path between Claire and Isaac.

“What’s going on?” Claire looks at them all.

“Claire,” Isaac says, and the way she turns to him, the way he says it, says everything.

“What did you do?”

“It’s a long story,” Lily admits with a chuckle. “But... it won’t reset again.”

Claire gasps, looking to the other woman, then back at Isaac, frozen where she is. Instead, he moves to her, gently reaching out to take her hand. She reaches up to his head, and then lets out a sob, even as she smiles, falling into him a bit. Isaac wraps his arms around her at that.

Dr. Villka smiles, turning to John and Ed. “Captain, chief, I hope you know what 3 fine young minds you have working for you.”

“We do indeed, though, I think technically speaking we have 2 of those. The United Federation of Planets gets the last one,” John jokes, ruffling Lily’s hair.

“Really? You’re in Union uniform,” she looks surprised.

“Aye, well, between th' Janisi an' th' fact I’m no' a fan of having t' work down here in th' Federation uniform, it was better fer me t' wear this,” Lily admits.

“Well, you, my dear, are brilliant,” Dr. Villka tells her sincerely, and Lily waves her off with a small shrug.

“You fla'er me,” she chuckles, looking back to Isaac and Claire, though not trying to hard to listen in.

Seeing the look on Claire’s face was enough to her.

#* muse {charly burke}#* muse {isaac}#* muse {john lamarr}#* muse {kelly grayson}#* muse {ed mercer}#* muse {claire finn}#* muse {rayna biel}#* guest muse {lily scott}#* para {we should all be so rare}#* headcanon {defect of my species. we never give up hope}#* new horizons {and... maytheforcebewithyou}

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ofweirdestship · 2 years

Text

Blog Canon

So, I guess there’s not really a page or post about this blog’s canon anywhere yet, which is something I will have to do up at some point. In the meantime, have whatever this is.

Basically, all of S1 and S2 prior to Identity, pt 1 take place almost entirely as normal and shown in canon. Technically, I diverge slightly with S2E3′s “Home”, as in it didn’t happen, and instead of Alara leaving the ship, Talla JOINED the crew as Alara’s DEPUTY chief of security. But the main divergence and real story begins right before the events of Identity, pt 1 and take us so far left field you won’t know where it’s going.

During a routine shuttle trip on her own to a planet’s surface, Alara notices something setting off sensors and all kinds of alarms. Before she has time to react, she and her shuttle are pulled into unfamiliar territory. Regaining consciousness from that crash, she finds herself in the sickbay of an unfamiliar ship-- the Federation starship Enterprise, under the command of one Jean-Luc Picard (Trekids/reboot continuity, not prime). As she explained the details of the story, Picard and his crew were led to the assumption that she was from an alternate timeline, something not unheard of, and attempted to help her return home.

However, they would find themselves unsuccessful, as Alara’s home universe couldn’t be located. Gone, without a trace, for reasons unknown.

Through a convoluted series of events, Alara befriended a powerful figure in Starfleet and the leading expert in the field of the multiverse-- the only expert in the field of the multiverse. Rebecca’s science was there but she didn’t quite have the technology to prove her point, so she worked with someone who could take her science and run with it in order to discover the truth-- Alara’s universe wasn’t gone, simply... scattered, with pieces falling into different dimensions. Alongside Lily, Rebecca located the Orville and its crew in the universe Rebecca herself originated from, and helped Alara rescue the Orville crew and bring them back to their current universe.

Due to this massive rupture and confusion, Isaac was separated from his people, further pushing him away from the Kaylon’s agenda. The Planetary Union, the universe the Orville came from as a whole, would remain splintered until years had passed in the Orville’s new universe-- years, and a war, that had brought the ship closer together than ever, even with its new Starfleet crew. When the universe finally pieced itself back together, the Union wasn’t even starting to broker peace with the Federation before the Kaylon attacked. Though weak from war, the Federation brought its forces to aid in the defense of the Planetary Union, and in doing so managed to really help turn the tide in battle. Peace was made between the two forces and in their compromise, a ship was negotiated as a joint operations exploratory ship as a show of good faith-- the Orville, that had weathered hell in its own time, then come to a new universe and gained new crew that weathered even worse with them, would work both with the Federation’s Starfleet and the Planetary Union’s Union Fleet.

Their adventures go on from there. I could tell you so much about the friends they’ve made from other dimensions and times, who’d seen (or who were) some pretty crazy things. Maybe you’d like to hear about the basically-Medusa young girl adopted by the crew, or the other three from her hometown in Haven, Maine-- a bartender, a detective, and his partner, a woman of many mysteries. Or there’s something to be said about the girls who know another meaning for the word “hunting” beyond animals and care a hell of a lot about saving people. I couldn’t begin to tell you everything. Read and find out, I suppose. Stories not told here are found on @starbcrn-kids.

#* ooc {captain on the bridge}#* psa {red alert}#* headcanon {defect of my species. we never give up hope}

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