#End Citations!

[henrysglock]

S4 Victims: Story by Proxy?

Okay so. In spitballing with Em...something stuck in my head.

So we all know how serial killers leave crumbs because deep down they want to be caught/want the truth to be revealed? Well what if the Duffers, or even current Henry, are doing the same thing. That is, leaving breadcrumbs.

This mainly has to do with the S4 victims, their stories, and the order in which they're chosen.

So, it goes like this:

Chrissy: Abusive mother who resembles Virginia

Fred: Eaten alive by the guilt of being responsible for the accidental death of an innocent.

Max: Suicidal over guilt about Billy's death and her response to it. Billy, who died saving her/while she was saving herself from the Fleshflayer, a regenerated form of the Mindflayer.

Patrick: Abusive father, not much else told.

Max (again): Suicidal Ideation, dies, soul taken, but was revived by El. She's now in some limbo-state, where her body lives but her identity/mind is elsewhere. She will likely be brought back entirely by El in S5.

It almost feels like a story by proxy if we piece it together.

So, let's piece it together:

Person with an abusive mother...feels responsible for the death of an innocent...a sibling who was killed while this person was trying to save themselves from a monster which came from Hawkins lab, which leaves them suicidal...and this person lives in a situation with an abusive father figure. This person becomes suicidal, and their suicide attempt was not entirely successful. They were revived by El, and end up in a limbo state. They may or may not be brought back by El later.

Now, let's collect details about our serial killer:

Abusive mother? Check. (No matter how we frame it, Virginia was not a good mother.)

Innocent died? Check. (Henry has nothing bad to say about Alice, which we know he would if she were not innocent, since he does this with every other victim.)

Sibling died as a result of saving oneself? Check. (The Creel massacre was a situation where Henry was, with whatever intentions we may assign for the other family members' deaths, trying to save himself from Virginia and by extension the lab.)

Ended up with an abusive father figure? Check. (Well...an abusive Papa, one might say.)

Brought back by El multiple times? Check. (El was the one who took Soteria out and brought Henry back from being powerless. El was the one who put Henry in the UD/limbo state. El was the one who opened the gate for his return to the RSU.)

IT ALL ALIGNS. So let's put it together with all the feelings involved:

Citations (I guess? Explanations?) are in the tags listed by number!

Henry had an abusive mother who was at least trying to have him shipped off to the lab, if not actually trying to kill him outright. This situation builds and builds, him wanting to be left alone (1), putting out subconscious and conscious cries for help (2), and her targeting him about it, until March 25th, 1959.

Virginia starts it, attacks, and this time she's out for blood (3). Henry defends himself (4). Virginia, being the parent with powers (5), doesn't actually die (6). Victor, Alice, and Henry go for the door (7). Virginia's on the stairs (8). She's got to finish what she started, since her original plan was botched (9). Henry puts his energy into trancing Victor (10), protecting him from Virginia, since logically two people can't occupy one person's mind.

This leaves good, innocent Alice to fend for herself, standing directly in front of the staircase. She's a loose end (11). Virginia kills her, but can't kill Henry or Victor while the trance is occurring. She figures Henry's going to run himself into the ground (12). She figures she can call Brenner in to collect Henry, like they planned (13). If she disappears, she figures it'll go into the news something like this:

"World War II veteran kills entire family in deranged fit of insanity. Wife missing, presumed dead. Son dies in hospital."

And on both counts, she's essentially right. It does basically go into the papers that way. Victor is taken in for murder, and Henry is taken by Brenner, but not before he sees that Alice was caught in the crossfire (14).

Henry ends up with Brenner, the abusive Papa. He's got the guilt about Alice's death, something that makes him sad and angry. Brenner, maybe, decides to push this in order to increase Henry's powers, but it backfires. Henry's powers increase, but he does...something. He lashes out, he snaps, maybe he even tries to kill himself. He's Brenner's prized pet, though, so Brenner can't let that happen. He seals Henry's powers away with Soteria. It's a death for Henry's entire identity, so far as to have him under the name Peter Ballard. Then comes along 011. She removes Soteria from Peter Ballard...and revives Henry Creel. She then exiles him to the Upside Down in 1979, only to eventually bring him back in 1983 when she opens the Mothergate.

All this to say: It could be his own story, told through the stories of his victims.

Breadcrumbs, or maybe...obvious things, which nobody by any chance ever observes.

Below the cut is where I speculate into motivations for his actions after Soteria's removal, so...not required reading for this particular analysis.

Years of MKUltra torture warp Henry's guilt about the situation into a bastardized, violent, brutal, unethical savior complex based in the notion that he's a predator by nature, but a predator for good. He "saves" the lab kids from a future like his own, filled with nothing but torture. He "saves" El from her ignorance about the lab and intended to have her join him, thereby attempting to "save" her, technically his little sister, from the lab entirely.

He "saves" his s4 victims from their guilt and suffering, which so closely mirror his own, which no one saved him from. I could even go so far as to say he was "saving" Will, who is set up to be so much like him, from a world of horrible people who (from Henry's viewpoint based on his lived experiences) would only serve to abuse and betray him.

This of course isn't to say any of it is right. None of it is right or good...but it makes sense. It follows a pattern. It coheres. The math...maths.

#Citations! #1: Henry often hides alone in the attic. #2: Victor's burning cradle vison (a child in need of help). The drawing of the Shadow Monster. Possibly Alice's nightmares. #2 (cont.): Can all be interpreted as calls for help. Children in distress act out and make disturbing art in hope of conveying that need. #3: Virginia may or may not have been trying to kill Henry but based on the Fleshflayer parallel re: sibling death...it's probable. #4: Henry himself describes that night as self defense/being forced to act. #5: Virginia likely had powers given that Henry has powers #6: Her powers are likely similar to Henry's and Henry has regenerative powers. There are also fishy scenes of her death which imply #6 (cont.): that she may have still been alive. These include: shots from her POV. The fact that her eyes are bloody-- #6 (cont.): but still intact in some shots. The unexplained POV from the top of the stairs. #7: Henry looks very nervous and fidgety at the door like he's antsy to leave with Alice and Victor #8: Again the unexplained POV on the stairs...stairs she earlier runs down after Henry gives her her mirror moment in the bathroom. #9: Henry was successful in disabling her initially which exposed her culpability. #10: Henry puts *so* much time into Victor in canon with basically no explanation why. #11: Alice seems to be a smart and upstanding girl. She might not be controllable re: Virginia being alive/the whole scheme with Brenner. #11 (cont.): The only way to eliminate that risk is to kill her...and we've already seen that Virginia is not good to at least one child. #12: If Virginia has powers like Henry's she likely has a sense of how long someone can be tranced before the trancer runs out of energy. #13: Who called Brenner to come get Henry during his coma? How did Henry end up in Brenner's hands specifically? #14: amerion-main's recent post re: Henry's position change in the foyer shots #End Citations! #This is all very much speculation when it comes to the actual path of events re: the Creel Massacre #but we can all agree that we don't have the full story about the Creels yet...so who knows. #henry/vecna/001 #henry creel analysis #henry creel #virginia creel #creel family #stranger things #stranger things analysis

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Mushroom body

(for @mikkeneko)

#SVSSS #shen qingqiu #mushrooms #body horror #better drawn mdzs #<-tag for higher effort art. At times like this I really wish I chose something else. #What is an October raffle for if not to end off with a little mushroomy body horror? #This one is inspired by my massive disappointment upon discovering that sqq's 'mushroom body' was just....guy shaped. #Come ON where is the fun in that? Why are we being kept from Fungi Amalgamation Monster Loving? #It's not going to stop Luo Binghe! SQQ could be a shapeless lump of slime and LBH and would still be over the moon for him. #Thank you *so* much for the prompt! I had so much fun. I love mushrooms and doing research was a delight! My citation list is long! #Broke my style a bit but I think it was a good choice. I have been trying to practice non-dot eyes more and its slowly coming along! #Also huge congrats mikkeneko for winning Twice In A Row!! #Your odds were a little over 1 in 1000! Lucky you!

[get-back-homeward]

...John had always been the one of them to wear his heart on his sleeve.

Nobody knows me, do they?

From McCartney, Christopher Standford [x]

#starting standford again to try to figure out how trustworthy it is #this closing note feels right on the money to me even tho a lot of the conversation sounds like badfic #understanding paul #i should start an elusive paul tag #finding paul #christopher standford #another book that starts with 1980 #no citations only a list of sources at the end #bug book list #1980 #mine

[leather-field]

three healers

#pathologic #daniil dankovsky #artemy burakh #clara pathologic #my art #when theyre all unmistakably on the same side working against a common enemy but they can’t work together #and their solutions can’t exist alongside each other #so they must work against each other to the same end #or work with each other to opposite ends? #also none of them have free will in the matter because they’re being pitted against each other on so many levels #by the other characters and the directors and the powers that be and the writers and the PLAYERS #i was going to write a whole essay in the tags yknow for fun but actually most of my thoughts about these characters do not exist in words #sorry💔 #imagine 14 pages of incomprehensible and nonexistent letters in 12 point times new roman and pathologic has an MLA citation at the end #oooops i wrote a billion tags for this post that is 3 portraits of expressionless video game characters! are yoy mad at me

[twodiamondhoes]

Dirges in the Dark

Fandom(s): Hermitcraft SMP, Life Series SMP

Pairings: Jimmy/Tango; Scar/Grian

Rating: Mature (for setting-typical violence, body horror, eldritch/lovecraftian elements, and smoking)

Words: 110k

Summary:

When Jimmy woke up to the sound of gunfire across the plains, he was convinced that Grian's past had finally caught up to them. He never could have imagined that the day would end with the eyes of the town looking to him for guidance, including that of the town's newest resident, a red-eyed horse-thief with a secret that had sent the previous sheriff on a wild goose chase halfway across the continent.

I'm so excited to be part of this event! I've got to give such a huge kudos to the mod team for setting this event up, as well as my artists @hybbart and @foxyola!

#HSBB 2023 #solidaritek #rancher duo #scarian #desert duo #got a real 'arson murder and jaywalking' vibe up in the rating section lol #still so sad I couldn't manage to fit Pearl in as a POV character the way I wanted to but c'est la vie #I did so much research for this fic guys. So much. There WILL be a citation page at the end of this fic both for the lols and for anyone wh #might be curious

[crescentfool]

What are your ryomina headcanons? I've loved these two since I played P3 FES, and I'm so excited to get back into the fandom^^

hi!! thank you so much for the ask, welcome back to the p3 fandom, it's always a delight to see new and old ryomina fans alike! 🥺💛💙

as for headcanons, here's a "few" i that i tend to come back to a lot! my interpretations of them are influenced from both the source material and other's fanworks, so i've linked to them as i saw fit! hcs in no particular order under the cut because oops this got long (900 word bullet point list, mentions of reload content up to 1/1)

minato's hair is dyed blue (hair originally brown, you can see it in his roots!) and he has a beauty mark on under his left eye. i like mirror imagery and there's definitely a few arts i've rb'd that portray them this way :) (e.g. this one by feliichu and this one by marasschino)

as far as i'm concerned the bathhouse scene from the manga where ryoji's hair down = similar shape to minato? that is canon to me. this art from xierru is a fun depiction of hair down ryoji :D

ryoji is homeless. everyone say thank you foxmulder_whereartthou for this awesome fic it's why i have the headcanon! but like seriously. we have no idea where ryoji lives and i could believe this.

minato dying at the end of the game is sad to an outsider's POV BUT!!! ryomina gets to be together in death for the rest of their lives (this illustration from mafuwara is a gorgeous representation of them as nyx avatar + the seal)!

speaking of the seal, they are like telepathically communicating to me in the great seal together. (mymp3 had a comic wip with this. give it a looksie :D)

ryoji likes cuddling with minato because he's warm :) (something something orpheus has fire affinity, minato is warm by extension and ryoji is cold because he's death)

ryoji's camera roll is filled with pictures of minato! ryoji... loves life, to me. and i feel that photography and journaling are perfect ways of expressing gratitude and capturing the moments in life that are most important to you :3

my other favorite activity for these two is stargazing- i feel like it's something they could appreciate either in life or death (looking at the stars from the great seal...)! they do a bit of this in the fic eurydice's vow by crescentmoontea (P5R spoilers, takes place in third sem it's a very fun fic concept).

between ryoji and minato i feel like ryoji was the one who fell in love first- and it doesn't really click in place for minato that he loves ryoji until december hits (appriser reveal + ryoji transforming into thanatos). its about the realization that ryoji was with him for his whole life and that he gets him like no one else does.

ryoji is like a sad and wet puppy who is so scared minato won't like him back. he is so scared of being rejected by minato to me like. this boy straight up deflates after he does his "i know i said i wanted us to be friends, but... i actually want to be something more." / "what about you?" on 12/1 ???

AND SPEAKING of wet puppy ryoji. ryoji is like. every animal in the world to me. he's a bird. he's a cat. etc. and also ryoji knows every language in the world ever and uses it to express his love for minato. see this fic from superheroics to see what i mean.

both of them are lactose intolerant. "this isn't lactose, it's milk!" i definitely think ryoji would make himself sick eating ice cream and milk he doesn't know what lactose is. (i made a silly poll about this once and the tags were very entertaining.)

i see minato as transmasc or nonbinary depending on the day (schrodinger's headcanons babey they're simultaneously true and not true at the same time!!). either way he's not cis to me and ryoji is like. His Gender. anyway go read this fic by nail_gun for t4t ryomina :D !

ryomina are WEIRD GUYS TO ME!!! they are so strange and they understand each other better than anyone else because of the circumstances of their relationship!!! if you asked them to do the "i wonder what i taste like" meme i think they'd start biting each other (affectionate) tbh but that's just me.

after ryoji gives minato the music box in 12/31 on reload, minato listens to the music box every night in january. this boy has insomnia and also chronic illness to me (things that housing death does to you). but i think he finds comfort in the melody and memories he made with ryoji.

in general, i think it's fun to imagine minato taking ryoji to places and show him things he's interested in! i feel that ryoji takes a lot of interest in minato's life, this isn't really a hc because in reload, minato DOES give ryoji a tour of the school (11/9) and possibly port island (11/12). but ITS CUTE OK! (tangentially related fanwork: this series of doodles from vinnigami: 1, 2, and 3)

not a hc but minato's kindness is like the backbone of their relationship and i think we would not have the ryomina we know and love today if minato wasn't such a kind soul. oh minato.... we can learn so much from you... like ryoji did!

anyway! that's all the hcs that i could think of, thank you for the ask! i had a lot of fun answering this, these two mean a lot to me 💛💙

i hope you don't mind the links to the fanart and fanfic as well, the fanwork people have made for ryomina have really made an imprint on me! if you want to see more of them, i definitely recommend looking through my tag for them because oh. i got a lot of them reblogged alright 😂 (<- SOOO NORMAL)

#UMMM hiiii #this was VERY fun to do thank you so much for the ask!! im very. well-adjusted about these two #this ended up turning into some art + fic suggests (they are like citations to my hcs) #but it was really fun! i love ryomina to bits and pieces i cannot provide a concise answer #this post nearly gave me a scare bc somehow the bullet point list doubled itself and wouldn't let me post #tumblr is a very functional website! but the posts intact so im happy!!! yippee! #i still need to finish reload but some of the hcs i wrote were partially backed by what i saw there #people are welcome to send asks btw! cant guarantee i'll answer them in a timely manner but i enjoy doing them #doing this reminded me of my early tumblr days when i'd get so many asks where ppl dropped their ryomina hcs it was cute... #im sure i will continue to recommend fanworks in the future i definitely want to start reading fic again after i finish reload! yahoo! #also this post is like the iceberg of my brain btw you have definitely not seen all of my thoughts im soo. (twirls hair) normal. #lizzy askbox #ryomina #<- why not i put effort into the post #anyway bye im going to go to the library to learn about my favorite new interest called html and css aren't websites cool :)

[lexosaurus]

HOLY FUCK I WROTE A MASTER'S THESIS

#yes i submitted it three times #because i kept finding little things that didn't copy/paste right into my template #and one of those times was because i forgot a citation #but it's the next day and submissions are closed so....It's Done. #now i wait. #and they'll tell me by the end of the week if i am cleared to defend or not. #....oh my god it's been like 4 hours and my nerves are already through the roof #brb screaming crying throwing up

[mylimoji]

not the citation needed.....

#citation needed. i wanted to make myself angry today but i instead ended up laughing #can't find a source of the population being antisoviet huh? i wonder why. #al.txt

[isfjmel-phleg]

Here's the tentative outline of the TSG paper, as okayed by the professor whom I've been discussing the project with:

intro to the trend of recent adaptations/retellings reframing TSG as a story about grief

an assertion that the book is really about healing from childhood e m o t i o n a l n e g l e c t (CEN) (my thesis?)

defining CEN and distinguishing it from traditional grief

an analysis of CEN in the text

how this interacts with what these adaptations/retellings are doing

conclusion about the importance of the text’s depiction of CEN and why it’s worth acknowledging/exploring

It's a relief to pin this down and be able to go into this with some kind of focus. I've already got a start on the first paragraph. I'm trying a method of drafting by just constructing the basic argument and then working in all the evidence and research later. My college papers tended to take forever to write because I drafted them with Finished Perfection in mind for each sentence, which is stressful and easy to get bogged down with. We'll see how it works. The paper needs to be completed by October, probably the end of the month at the very latest, but I'd like to get it finished in enough time to fully polish and not have to stress about a tight deadline.

I can do this. Probably. It's been a few years but I might still have it in me.

#random personal stuff #of course I write mini-essays here all the time! #but those aren't presented as scholarly with proper citations and you guys presumably forgive me if I'm not clever enough #Dr. B. (the one who tried to rope me into that roundtable presentation) is already talking about #trying to get some of my old papers published in a journal #or working on a book #she is so full of enthusiasm and confidence and grandiose ideas that it's both impressive and kind of terrifying #don't know if I really want to do any of these things #I mean even assuming a journal would want my work (which isn't really on that level I think) what would be the point #I used to want to be an academic but lost that after the thesis and everything before that #the last time I was working with a professor who wanted me to do Grand Things...it didn't end well #and of course Dr. B. is nothing like That Man and would not have his motivations #but all the same I don't want to commit to anything on this level for the foreseeable future #I'm just writing a paper so I can present it at a convention because that's about the only thing I can do that makes anyone proud #got to justify my existence somehow

[hollytanaka]

lol someone I followed really reblogged something that implied “from the river to the sea” is antisemitic and all equations of Zionism with colonialism are antisemitic.

I hit that block and unfollow button so fast 🏃🏽‍♀️

how do you study the intellectual origins of zionism and not see how it's rooted in european colonialism lol. zionism is not a monolith; i understand there are variants of it as an ideology. but my god some of the first zionist settlers in palestine self-described/identified as colonizers lol. and the entire field of settler-colonial studies basically agrees that the creation of israel was a zionist settler-colonial project; the two are related.

also 'from the river to the sea' isn't about exterminating jews -- be so fucking for real.

using your position as a 'leftist jew' to be so loud in spaces made up of arabs + palestinians + people from the global south (communities that are always, always being silenced by westerners) and to then discreetly repeat anti-palestinian talking points and get away with it in the name of 'being nuanced' is fucking disgusting.

in any context, it would be gross. but it is especially so in the midst of a genocide where nearly 7000 innocents have died within a matter of days.

#mari.txt #palestine #i was gonna put citations but imma save that energy for my actual phd thesis not for explaining basic history to lowkey closeted zionists #this is why yes calls for a ceasefire are needed #but that is not the end goal #i suspect many americans/europeans think that's all they need to do #when really structural liberatory change for palestinians is what's needed #not simply a pause in this 100-year massacre #settler colonialism is not an event it's a structure

[opens-up-4-nobody]

...

#ok. this is the fucking bullshit thing abt grad school. u go to fucking grad school bc u r a fucking tryhard nerd freak #who is either naturally very smart or ur so fucking anxious u r incapable of allowing urself to get a bad grad #and then u go to fucking grad school and everyone's like: man fuck ur classes. if youre getting streight As then u aren't focusing on ur #research. and theyre right. but u still cant fucking let go of the idea that if u get a bad grad the world is gonna fucking end and u r a #bad person. u didnt try hard enough. all this to say i have a final project that i put way too much energy into and not even in a good way #i would just open the document. start sobbing. and then close it and spiral abt how i didn't want to work on it. so its bullshit #i mean. its a good project idea ans i probably sound like i kno wtf im talking abt bc i do. i worked on that topic for 4 years but like #i could make it wayyyyy better. its bullshit. i didnt even number the citations to give more page space. i made section headers. i didnt #wrap text. i could add like 4 more lines of text if i wanted but i think im not gotta bc fuck it. ugh. i dont even. i fucking avoide #stochastic stuff altogether which i kno im gonna have to fight abt but like fuck it who cares abt randomness. i just wanna focus on the #predictably aspect of community composition. fuck u. i shouldnt have picked this topic. i mean. i had to bc its like the one microbe thing #i could do but its also like the exact topic that makes me wanna rip my hair out and start screaming. like jesus christ who tf cares? ugh. #i think id give myself a B if it was an undergrad class. but the standard is higher in an all grad class. ugh. i hate this. i should just #send it abd be done. i dont even kno when its due tomorrow. before class i guess. idk i felt like garbage today. fucking vertigo bby. i feel #ok now tho. so maybe the allergic reacting is over???? fingers r still arthritisy tho. jesus. im falling apart #ive got a pretty good sounding excuse for being lazy tho: owo i had an allergic reaction to my antidepressants 🥳 but nah no excuses we run #this body into the ground. like the good old days. #unrelated

[bones-ivy-breath]

Dieu et La Fin de Satan or God and the End of Satan by Victor Hugo (tr. R.G. Skinner)

Translation:

I am Breath. I am ash, smoke and flame.

#dieu et la fin de satan #god and the end of satan #victor hugo #quote #typography #literature #aesthetic #dark academia #light academia #french academia #french studyblr #poetry #citation #français

[umi-no-onnanoko]

“Le passioni umane sono una cosa molto misteriosa e per i bambini le cose non stanno diversamente che per i grandi. Coloro che ne vengono colpiti non le sanno spiegare, e coloro che non hanno mai provato nulla di simile non le possono comprendere.”

-La storia infinita (Michael Ende)

#michael ende #la storia infinita #the neverending story #film #book #books #libro #libri #read #reading #leggere #lettura #frasi #frase #citation #citazione #citations #citazioni #quote #quotes

[forestofsprites]

i'm at 33 bastardly pages of notes from my research this afternoon, and the absolute best that i have to show for it is my desperation to explore cas's confession and death through the lens of death sentence speeches & subsequent executions in 17th/18th century england!!!!!!!!

#there are more parallels than youd think #i could extend it to french capital punishment too #but that was a staunch roman catholic gig compared to england's little protestant fanfare #and the most crucial component is the notion of your little predeath spiel in english hangings. absent from french #(save for amende honorable?? could argue that maybe) im so tired i cant make this make much sense atm #but for the english system. the sort of best possible ending was giving your autobio speech of ideally guilt #youd bare your sins. youd ask for forgiveness. #youd fucking die #^ very oversimplified im exhausted #and here you have cas #who in the context of spn was never allowed to be gay and in gay love #not by the confines of the show #and his admission to dean was just that- admitting his greatest sin #in turn his true happiness #anyway #then he fucking dies #look #it makes a lot more sense when im not tired #i will make a post #with citations #and we will all love it

[learnyouabiology]

Fun Fact: You can tell if a Monarch Butterfly is Male or Female at a Glance!

So, the other day, my dad showed me a picture of a monarch butterfly he saw, because my dad has a pure heart and gets excited about seeing butterflies. I looked at it for a second and said “Cool! That one’s a male!”

My dad looked at the picture, which was kind of blurry and didn’t really show much detail, then looked at me.

“How can you tell?”

“Easy,” I said, laughing, “The males are the ones with balls!”

This was mostly a joke, but also kind of true? Let me explain.

Here is a photo of two Monarch Butterflies (Danaus plexippus), one male, and the other female:

I can see right away that the male is the one at the bottom of the photo. How can I tell which is which? Well, All you have to do is look for these things:

See those little dots on the hindwing, circled in green? Those are only found in male monarch butterflies! Why?

Well, for the ladies, of course! Probably! Kind of! Maybe not?

Contrary to my joking answer to my dad, these are not the butterfly’s “balls” (which can be found elsewhere on the butterfly). Instead, these are called “alar pouches” (although they also have a bajillion other names, bc consistency is for chumps, I guess 😉).

They’re called “pouches” because, when viewed up close, they basically look like this:

(these are technically a diagram of Danaus chryssipus alar pouches, but it’s similar enough to Monarchs so shhhhhhh)

These pouches contain a bunch of excretory cells, meaning that they produce various chemical compounds. Many people will confidently claim that these chemicals are “pheromones”, i.e., scents used to attract females, but the truth is... we don’t really know what monarchs use them for, if anything.

(also, there hasn’t been much recent research on this, recently. 😢)

The pheromone hypothesis makes sense, especially considering that other species in the same subfamily as monarchs, Danainae, definitely do use these sorts of pouches to excrete pheromones and attract a mate.

The problem is, in order to transfer a pheromone through the air and to the female, pheromone-transfer particles are required. Monarchs don’t seem to have any of these particles, nor the chemical pheromones themselves.

(female monarch, notably lacking alar pouches)

As it stands, it appears that the alar pouches on monarchs might be vestigial, meaning that they used to have a function for the monarch’s ancestors, but that its function has been lost over the course of evolution, leaving behind these little structures that don’t seem to be useful for much of anything.

At least, not useful unless you are a person who wants to tell the s3x of some monarch butterflies!

This has been Fun Fact Friday, teaching you how to s3x a butterfly for no particular reason other than I think it’s neat! (now on Monday, because I have discovered automated censorship, and it hurts)

(side note: my dad has been using this knowledge to educate many people against their will. Friends, family, and random strangers have all been victims of his relentless information campaign. He cannot be stopped, the absolute Mad Man.)

Sources: x, x, x, x

#biology #fun fact friday #entomology #bugs #butterflies #monarch butterfly #science #sciblr #science side of tumblr #zoology #STEM #adhd in STEM #fun fact #insects #insect physiology #i guess #i know that it's monday but the system decided that this post needed to be censored #which: rude #some of the links are google scholar citations. bc i'd feel bad linking the pdf directly >.> #mobile users would end up getting it downloaded automagically #which is of course horrible to have happen unexpectedly #ps my dad is great #i still have the depression #also butterflies don't experience gender the way that humans do #probably

[itspileofgoodthings]

My principal doesn’t believe that the point of an English class is to introduce the children to great literature and model loving it, analyzing it, and engaging it for them and with them. But I do.

#he thinks the point is like. to teach them to write research papers #which. a) you can’t really DO #b) is stupid #anyway I do what I can to check the boxes because I have an anxious and precise conscience #but also like. that’s not why we’re here #they will learn ONE thing from my class if they learn anything #and that is how to love literature #and it’s more important??? than stuff they can literally learn online???? and that again?? like kind of can’t even be TAUGHT #anyway there is an element of complaining and laziness in my standing on my principles (ha) on this subject #I acknowledge that #and yet all my instincts tell me I’m right so. #anyway balance blah blah blah #I won’t hurt anybody by becoming a more precise and thorough teacher of MLA. in-text citation. finding good sources. structuring an a essay #but like. at the end of the day: AT THE END. OF THE DAY. #it’s not what matters