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centrally-unplanned · 3 years

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(Spoilers ahead) Partner and I finished Season 2 of the Fruits Basket modern remake this weekend. I had only seen the, uh, 2001 original anime (2001? It was 20 years ago? Fuck), with no exposure to the manga, so a lot of the plot elements were new to me. I liked a lot of the show, but I have some big complaints about it handles its villain, Akito:

1: Akito occupies a very awkward place in this story. He (don’t worry, ill get to that) is the head of the main crew’s family and constantly inflicts abuse on all of its members, and is therefore the source of conflict for the plot, both in past trauma and present attempts as control and gaslighting.

Okay, so stories often have to walk a tightrope with abusive characters like this. Stories are normally pushed along and resolved internally - the main cast is going to experience the pain and drama, and fix it themselves, because that is the arc. For many plots that is easy, but if the story revolves around an abusive sibling/parent figure like Fruits Basket does, you will always be asking yourself the question “uh, why doesn’t anyone call the cops? or why don’t they just leave?” There is a tension between realism in the setting and the needs of the plot.

You can in fact resolve this tension in a lot of ways. If the abuse is primarily mental, slowly building, inflicted out of sight of responsible parties, etc, you can make this work. Lots of people don’t report abuse to authorities, or just move out of their house, but instead deal with it due to it being normalized. Other ways include making the characters teenagers - they don’t think of the world as having authorities outside of family (or school) and its much harder for them to reach outside of that bubble - the classic highschool bully problem. So Akito can work if he is subtle, slowly ramps, and controls his surroundings to hide his abuse from relevant authorities.

Anyway here is Akito pushing a 17 year old girl out of a two story window shattering her back and hospitalizing her for months:

And here he is threatening a 17 year old boy with life confinement in a literal cage unless he, uh, wins a duel with his cousin?

These are the worst moments but they are far from alone. This person is a raving lunatic, which fair enough that the 17 year olds don’t know how to handle that, but Akito himself is no older than 20. And the cast of characters who know everything that is going on includes:

-27 year old *published author* Shigure, who directly cares for both Akito and two of his abuse victims

-27 year old completely-independent business owner, Ayame, who is the *brother* of one of the abuse victims

-27 year old licensed medical doctor Hatori, who lives with and is the physician of Akito.

Hatori is violating every ethical obligation of his profession on the daily, dude is stone cold! This again could work if these characters were bad guys, but they aren’t - they are sympathetic protagonists or in Aya’s case even comic relief! The show wants you to think they are doing their best, Shigure even has a secret “plan” to deal with Akito that he has been planning for *years* and they all have "reasons” why they feel stuck due to the Zodiac curse yadda yadda. But you have to memory hole the fact that they are functioning adults in 21st century Japan, because otherwise Shigure and Hatori in particular reach levels of negligence to the children they care for that it tips right on over into being evil itself.

These kids go to public school, guys!

Now I know what any defender would say - “its the curse!” The whole cast carries the curse of the Zodiac where God invited them in long-ago times to a dinner, Akito is the current manifestation of that God in some form, and so they are bound to him to enact that “dinner” metaphorically in some way by staying by his side (also they transform into their respective Zodiac animals when chest-on-chest contact occur from the opposite sex, because Anime). Again, you can make this work! Show Akito exerting a magical force on characters who stray too far from him, or a compulsion locking them to being forever near the Sohma estate where he lives. Something showing that yeah, the relevant authorities could not handle this and dragging Akito away in chains won’t work. But sadly the show just...doesn’t bother. There is a “curse” but we are two seasons in and any negative consequences of the curse beyond Akito Being An Asshole are Footage Not Found (Kyo is an exception, but not a relevant one), despite everyone pretending like there is. Everyone wants to break the curse? Fine, kill Akito. Then you all get to live in peace and transform into adorable animals when you’d like, curse broken. Just throw “doesn’t cuddle or do missionary position” on your OkCupid profile to make your love life work, no one is gonna bat an eye, and some people will be, lets say, readily down with your particular transformation fetish.

None of this is fatal to the show per se, you can suspend disbelief. But the show takes itself so seriously that you can’t help but think these thoughts, and it colors in particular how the older characters act. And it would be so easy to fix! They just didn’t bother.

2: Can someone explain to me, in the year of our Zodiac Lord 2021, how a character secretly being a girl is a “surprise reveal” worth ending a season on? The final shot of Season 2 is that our resident asshole Akito has some female-presenting nipples, which is apparently a Big Deal? (maybe the show takes place on Tumblr, *zing*) Its the villain, they are an abusive maniac and also metaphorically/actually a divine being. Why does doubling their X chromosome count affect or change anything? I can envision plots where that is relevant, but this was not one! Maybe the next season will build that into the arc, but they haven’t done that yet, so the moment itself falls incredibly flat.

Yet people obviously feel differently from me - as is my habit I checked the reddit threads for the final episode and they are replete with people commenting on how shocking a twist it was, how they looked forward to it as manga readers, etc. Its a classic suspense trick I think, of how you can just have an event be surprising without it being thematically relevant, and it will work as long as you add the right drama bells around it. This was just a pretty egregious example of it.

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Between these problems, Fruits Basket has this aura of laziness around its none-core characters that does drag it down. Which is sad since I do actually like how it treats its core cast, even if it is stretched out over twice as many episodes as it needs. I am just guessing here, but beyond just “not caring” and doing it for the drama, I think it stems out of adapting the manga “faithfully”.

So Fruits Basket got an anime adaption in 2001, and the author (Natsuki Tayaka) haaaaated it. It was only twenty six episodes, a ~third of which got consumed just introducing the zodiac cast, so its plot had to be mixed around and truncated, and it was much more comedic and zany in tone. It was still very popular, so demand for a “better” adaptation of the full manga was high, which eventually happened in 2019. This time around Tayaka insisted on a high degree of control and faithfulness - I would bet it was essentially a “shot for shot” adaptation, and I have seen manga/anime comparison compilations to that effect.

The problem lies in how manga are made - they are almost never planned out start to finish. You pitch like a chapter, it gets picked up, and then its being published in tandem to its own production. That means that its pretty rare for the ending to be thought out, and the story figures itself out as it goes. Early manga Fruits Basket is pretty zany! Which means it plays fast and loose with its worldbuilding and its adult characters act silly most of the time. Once the high drama kicks in you realize that doesn’t work anymore, but you have already published it all months ago, no way to revise it now, so you just have to bite the bullet.

An anime adaptation would be a good time to clean that up! Its what Kare Kano did - a manga that starts as a cute highschool romcom and ends in sexual assault, for the anime they tried to create tonal consistency right from the start and change plot details around accordingly. But when the author, burned by a past studio, insists on Complete Accuracy...well then the anime has to bite the same bullets the manga did. And so you get Fruits Basket (2019), a show destined to never rise above its source material.

But hey, if Season 3 ends with Tohru just whipping out a gun, shooting Akito right between the eyes, and walking off into the sunset with a harem of zodiac hotties, then all will be forgiven.

#fruits basket #Fruits basket spoilers #Does a 2001 anime qualify as '90's anime discourse'?

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bobasheebaby · 4 years

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125 Golden Girls Prompts

This time I have some hilarious prompts from some hilarious women. These help keep me sane, send in prompts or request a specific show. Long as hell, breaking at 15.

1 “Go to sleep, sweetheart. Pray for brains.” – Dorothy

2 “Crying is for plain women. Pretty women go shopping.” -Blanche

3 “They were all buying T-shirts, you know, the ones that say, ‘Today is the first day of the end of your life.’” — Dorothy

4 “People waste their time pondering whether a glass is half empty or half full. Me, I just drink whatever’s in the glass.” – Sophia

5 “Nobody ever believes me when I’m telling the truth. I guess it’s the curse of being a devastatingly beautiful woman.” – Blanche

6 “No! No, I will not have a nice day!” -Dorothy

7 “Excuse me NAME, have I given any indication at all that I care?” – Sophia

8 “No one in my family has ever seen a psychiatrist ... except of course, when they were institutionalized!” – Blanche

9 “Isn’t it amazing how I can feel so bad, and still look so good?” -Blanche

10 “Condoms, NAME! Condoms, condoms, condoms!” – Dorothy

11 “It’s like life is a giant weenie roast, and I’m the biggest weenie!” – Rose

12 “He’s/She’s really a very sweet man/woman. He/She just doesn’t like to show it.” — Dorothy

13 “I eat raw cookie dough. And occasionally, I run through the sprinklers and don’t wear a bathing cap. And at Christmas, I’ve been known to put away more than one eggnog.” – Rose

14 “I could get herpes listening to this story!” – Dorothy

15 “I’ve been having a good time, and there wasn’t even a man/woman in the room.” -Blanche

16 “Why don’t I just wear a sign, ‘too ugly to live’?” – Dorothy

17 “I though I was gonna die. I swear I have never felt such agony. I saw my entire life flash before my eyes and I thought, ‘What a shame if I die now, I’m too young…and I’m wearing the wrong underwear.’” — Blanche

18 “You’ll have to excuse NAME. HE/She suffered a slight stroke a few years ago which rendered him/her totally annoying.” – Dorothy

19 “Eat dirt and die, trash.” – Blanche

20 “[to NAME] You’re a furry little gnome and we feed you too much.” – Dorothy

21 When I was a child, I used to get overexcited and pet the cat too much.” – Rose

22 “I feel that you have backed me into a corner, and when I am backed into a corner, I come out fightin’ like a wildcat. Unless I’ve had too much to drink, in which case I slide down the wall and make mad passionate love on the carpet.” – Blanche

23 “NAME, you’re one chromosome away from being a potato.” – Dorothy

24 “If this sauce was a person, I’d get naked and make love to it.” – Sophia

25 “I hate to admit it but he/she melts my Haagen-Dazs.” – Rose

26 “Want a glass of water to wash down your foot?” – Sophia

27 “Like I’m the only person who ever mixed a margarita in a sailor’s mouth?” – Blanche

28 “I feel like crawling under the covers and eating a box of Velveeta.” – Rose

29 “When I say jump, you say ‘on who?'” – Blanche

30 “I’m jumpier than a virgin at a prison rodeo.” – Blanche

31 “How come whenever my ship comes in it’s leaking?” – Dorothy

32 “Tell me the truth: do these glasses make me look stupid?” – Rose

33 “If I had that money I could have moved into a swinging condo instead of living with—I better not say anything until I’ve had my coffee [sips coffee]—a slut and a moron!” – Dorothy

34 “Go hug a landmine!” – Dorothy

35 “Fasten your seatbelt, slut puppy. This ain’t gonna be no cakewalk!” – Sophia

36 “NAME? Hubba hubba zing zing, baby, he’s /she’s got everything.” – Rose

37 “I could vomit just looking at you!” – Dorothy

38 “There is a fine line between having a good time and being a wanton slut. I know. My toe has been on that line.” – Blanche

39 “It’s like you people don’t pay any attention to me whatsoever.” – Rose

40 “Why do blessings wear disguises? If I were a blessing, I’d run around naked.” – Sophia

41 “I hate Jell-O. If God wanted peaches suspended in midair, he would have filled them with helium.” – Sophia

42 “Oh, don’t give up, NAME. If the ancient Egyptians could move 20-ton stone blocks to build the pyramids, we can move a toilet.” – Rose

43 “NAME, honey… have you been washing the fruit off before you eat it?” – Dorothy

44 “Tell me, is it possible to love two men/women/people at the same time.” “Set the scene, have we been drinking?” — Rose & Blanche

45 “NAME, what are you listening to?” “A relaxation tape. The rain is supposed to relax me.” “Is it working?” “Not really. I keep worrying that I left my car windows down.” — Dorothy & Rose

46 “NAME, I have a feeling you’re lying.” “NAME, be positive.” “Okay, I’m positive you’re lying.” — Dorothy & Rose

47 “You are undoubtedly the meanest, sickest person I’ve ever met! Not to mention the most unattractive.” — Blanche

48 “Where are you going?” “To either get ice cream or commit a felony. I’ll decide in the car.” — Rose & Dorothy

49 “Let me tell you a story. Picture it, PLACE …” —Sophia

50 “NAME, wake up. My husband/wife/partner will be home any minute.” — Dorothy

51 “I’m NAME and I know it isn’t pertinent at the moment, but I’m double jointed.” — Blanche

52 “He’s/She's really a very sweet man/woman. He/She just doesn't like to show it.” — Dorothy

53 “You know, sometimes when people are under pressure, they sleep to escape.” — Rose

54 “Have you noticed that NAME has been acting peculiar?” “Yes, NAME, from the first day that I met him/her!” — Blanche & Dorothy

55 “Oh, NAME, how do you feel about performing in front of a video camera?” “I think it's okay as long as you've already had at least three dates.” — Rose & Blanche

56 “I never grew a beard!” “You never grew brains, either!” — Rose & Sophia

57 “It wasn't a rat! It was a cute little mouse.” “NAME, it doesn't wear white gloves and work at Disneyland! We're talking about a rodent!” — Rose & Dorothy

58 “My whole life is an open book.” “Your whole life is an open shirt/blouse!” — Blanche & Sophia

59 “Oh, you don't have to worry about me, honey. I never get sick. I take very good care of myself. I treat my body like a temple.” “Yeah, open to everyone, day or night.” — Blanche & Sophia

60 “Oh, NAME. Can I make a little suggestion when you go for your makeover?” “Sure. What is it?” “Don't expect a miracle.” — Sophia & Dorothy

61 “Why am I even discussing this with you?” “Beats the hell out of me!” — Dorothy & Sophia

62 “Well, what do you know? NAME has a past!” “That's right! But unlike yours, I didn't need penicillin to get through it.” — Blanche & Sophia

63 “I'm going to have to meet men/women lying down.” “I thought you did.” — Blanche & Sophia

64 “Here we are in the middle of a crisis and there’s no cheesecake.” — Blanche

65 “Can I ask a dumb question?” “Better than anyone I know.” — Rose & Dorothy

66 “NAME, ‘disdam’ is not a word. You made it up.” “It’s a word.” “Fine. Use it in a sentence.” “You’re no good at disdam game.” — Dorothy & Sophia

67 “He’s/She’s undressing me with his/her eyes.” “Do you wanna move tables?” “Not yet, he’s/she’s only half done.” — Blanche & Rose

68 “You know, there is nothing worse than being wide awake and scared and by yourself!” “Oh yea there is: being wide awake and scared and by yourself without a double-fudge chocolate cheesecake in the freezer.” — Dorothy & Rose

69 “You know what would go so good on this cheesecake is those chocolate sprinkles.” “We finished those an hour ago.” “We could crush some Oreos on top.” “We ran out of those two hours ago.” “How about some whipped cream?” “Mmm!” — Dorothy & Rose

70 “You bought a chocolate cheesecake?” “Just for an emergency.” — Dorothy & Rose

71 “I just need some cucumbers to put on my eyes. It’s very good. It reduces puffiness.” “Does it work on thighs?” — Blanche & Rose

72 “I have a date.” “With a man/woman?” “No, NAME. With a Venus fly trap.” — Dorothy & Blanche

73 “Do you know what your trouble is?” “Of course not.” — Dorothy & Blanche

74 “I think there’s a connection between your brain and wallpaper paste.” — Sophia

75 ““Forgive me, NAME, but I haven’t had sex in AMOUNT OF TIME and it’s starting to get on my nerves.” – Sophia

76 “Do you know what I hate doing most after a big party?” “Trying to find your underwear in the big pile?” — Blanche & Rose

77 “I've never been so humiliated in my life.” “What about the time you lost the key to your handcuffs and had to go with that guy/girl on his/her mail route?” — Blanche & Dorothy

78 “You are not gonna believe this. NAME, just called me.” “I didn't think the two of you were speaking.” “Well, we're not.” “Then how'd you know it was him/her on the other end of the line?” “NAME, you're bringing down the curve for the whole country.” — Blanche, Dorothy & Rose

79 “Oh, my goodness. Look what I found. Double-fudge cookies. I thought we agreed not to keep cookies in the house.” “Right, after this last box.” “You're not going to eat them, are you?” “No, NAME. We're going to go to some dumb country and try to use them as money.” — Rose, Blanche & Dorothy

80 “I can't believe you said that! Oh, if I weren't a lady I'd deck you.” “You try and I'll have you on your back so fast you'll think you're out on a date.” — Blanche & Dorothy

81 [NAME running after a dog] “Ha! Would you look at that: man's best friend, chasing man's best friend!” — Dorothy

82 “I won't stand for this!“[gets up and starts to walk out] “Take it, NAME!” “But I bet you'll lie down for it.” — Blanche, Sophia & Dorothy

83 “NAME, you should make us eat dirt, make us grovel, give us the silent treatment...” “NAME, if you give us the silent treatment, I will eat dirt.” — Rose & Dorothy

84 “Cooking, NAME?” “No, NAME, I'm developing pictures for the Magellan Space Program.” — Rose & Dorothy

85 “Do we have any orange juice left?” [person two pours the rest in their glass] “No, we’re all out.” — Rose & Dorothy

86 “Go hug a landmine.” — Dorothy

87 “Now, what’s wrong?” “I lost it, NAME!” “You never had it, NAME.” — Dorothy & Stanley

88 “You knew I wanted to spend tonight alone.” — Rose

89 “Darn it. I gotta kiss somebody at midnight.” — Blanche

90 “Pizza, dammit! Get pizza!” — Dorothy

91 “What the hell goes on at night in this house?!” — Dorothy

92 “Just drives you nuts, doesn’t it, NAME?” — Rose

93 “Can you believe that backstabbing slut?” — Rose

94 “I’m here if you wanna pick my brain.” “NAME, I think we should leave it alone and let it heal.” — Rose & Dorothy

95 “And the world heaves a collective sigh of relief.” — Sophia

96 "Must you always be so cheerful, you empty headed Mary Poppins knockoff?'—Blanche

97 "What? Are you out of what is left of your mind?!"—Blanche

98 “All I do is listen to your sexual problems. How about my sexual problems?” — Sophia

99 “Blow it out your ditty bag.” — Sophia

100 “Your heart's in the right place, but I don't know where the hell your brain is." — Sophia

101 “Think about it. You live alone. No one likes you." — Sophia

102 “You're moving. Too bad. This would be touching if I liked you more." — Sophia

103 “Go ahead. Stand up and say it. My name is NAME, and I am an idiot." — Sophia

104 “You're here because the rhythm method was very popular in the [insert decade of birth]." — Sophia

105 “Get to the part where they steal the brain out of the dead body and sew it into your head." — Sophia

106 "Exactly how close to the television are you sitting when you're watching TV SHOW.” — Sophia

107 “Boom! You've got a social life." — Sophia

108 “You drink out of a brown paper bag and suddenly everybody’s your friend.” — Sophia

109 “Remember NAME, don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.” “I think I crossed that line when I got a date!” — Dorothy & Sophia

110 “If you can’t count on family, who the hell can you count on?” — Sophia

111 “In this life, that’s all we have, is hope.” — Sophia

112 “Here’s a newsflash, witches can fly.” — Sophia

113 “It’s great bringing two idiots closer together.” — Sophia

114 “NAME, a man/woman called for you while you were out.” “Finally, now we can break out that bottle of champagne we’ve been saving.” — Rose & Sophia

115 “Gee, with only three hours sleep, I can be just as bitchy as you.” — Rose

116 “Gee, Sophia! You’re awfully cranky today.” — Rose

117 “The doctor says it’s the first time he’s ever been called because a baby was sleeping in the day. And then I think he called me an idiot.” — Rose

118 [astonished] “You paying for something?” “What are you saying, I'm cheap?” “Well, of course he’s/she's saying you're cheap. You're the only man I know who owns a time-share dog!” — Rose, Stanley & Dorothy

119 “Hey, what is this? You're talking about me like I'm an animal. [sniffing NAME] You've been with a man, haven't you?” — Sophia

120 “I do love the rain so. It reminds me of my first kiss.” “Ah, your first kiss was in the rain?” “No, it was in the shower.” — Blanche & Dorothy

121 “You know, I've been thinking ...” “Oh, that would explain the beads of sweat.” — Rose & Blanche

122 “God, I hate morning people.” — Blanche

123 “He’s/She’s a lewd, horny, oversexed beast with five hands.” “You don’t have to build him/her up to me, honey. I like him/her just fine already.” — Rose & Blanche

124 “You ... you ... you rude person!” “Go easy on him/her, NAME.” — Rose & Dorothy

125 “This would be touching if I liked you more.” — Sophia

#golden girls prompts #golden girls quotes #dialogue prompts #writing prompts #drabble prompts #sophia petrillo #dorothy zbornak #rose nylund #blanche devereaux #long post #read more #quaratine sucks and making these keeps my mind busy

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boywithbear · 4 years

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Take the Red Pill: The Truth Behind the Biology of Sex by Luz Delfondo

this article was deleted, so I’m re-posting it here so I can add it to my intersex carrd and weebly.

This is the first part of a series about the complex biological realities of sex. Though the posts build on one another, each can be understood alone. Content note: this post contains images and language that may not be safe for work. 1. Introduction I first learned about the social construction of sex from a lovely trans woman named Kiki. She said, “You may have heard before that gender is socially constructed, while sex is biological. But I’m here to tell you that what you’ve heard isn’t true. Sex is socially constructed too. So are you ready for the truth? Are you going to take the red pill or the blue pill?” Three years later, I was diagnosed by my gynecologist with polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS), which means that my body produces hormones intermediate between “typical men” and “typical women.” What I learned from Kiki gave me context in which to understand what this meant about my body and who I am. But it’s still very hard for me to talk about. My hormones affect me in ways that are hard to see, so even most of my lovers don’t know. I can count the number of people in my personal life who know this about me on my two hands. I picked the red pill. If you read on, you can take the red pill too. The problem with calling sex “biological” is that biology is complicated. Hardly anything in biology fits into two neat categories like “male” and “female.” To give you an idea of how complicated sexual development really is, let’s go to the very beginning. How do sexual characteristics develop in a human embryo? 2. The Biology A. Development of the Internal Genitalia In the sixth week of an embryo’s development, a piece of primordial tissue called the pronephros splits off into a baby kidney and a baby internal reproductive system. This system consists of three parts. There’s the Müllerian ducts, which can develop into fallopian tubes, a uterus, and a vagina. There’s the Wolffian ducts, which can develop into a seminal vesicle, vas deferens, and epididymis. Then there’s the gonads, which can develop into ovaries or testes. At this stage the gonads are called indifferent, which I find kind of hilarious, because I imagine the gonads just chilling inside the embryo going, “Yeah, whatever, I just don’t care about sex differences.”

So what determines what happens to all of these parts? It’s complicated. Very complicated. But I’ll try to cover the highlights. The embryo doesn’t start to differentiate into male/female traits until 7 weeks in. What determines whether the gonads become testes or ovaries is the presence of a gene called SRY, which is typically found on the Y chromosome (though as with everything in biology, there are exceptions: SRY sometimes wanders off to another chromosome, which means you can have a person with XX chromosomes and testes).

Not everyone has XX or XY chromosomes. Some people have XXY or XYY or XXX or just X. But if the embryo has a Y chromosome, the SRY gene will nudge the indifferent gonads toward becoming testes. This means that even if you have testes, you might not be XY in your chromosomes. The SRY gene causes some cells in the gonads to begin commitment to sperm development, and to pump out two hormones: the famous testosterone, and the less-known anti- Müllerian hormone, which usually (but not always) causes the Müllerian ducts to break down. (If they don’t break down, the fetus will be born with testes, a uterus, and Fallopian tubes.) The Wolffian ducts usually develop instead, into the organs that create the non-sperm components of semen and deliver them to the testes. (If they do not develop, this results in an individual with testes who does not ejaculate and is infertile, because the sperm don’t have a nice semen package in which to leave the body.)

In the absence of SRY, some genes on the X chromosome, such as DAX-1 and Wnt-4, kick in. The cells in the gonads commit to egg development. Hormones secreted by the ovaries usually cause the Wolffian ducts to degrade, though sometimes there are remnants. If you have bumps on the sides of your vagina, they may be remnants of the Wolffian ducts you had as an embryo. The Müllerian ducts usually develop into a uterus, Fallopian tubes, and a vagina, though how much of the vagina comes from the Müllerian ducts is controversial. Don’t you love that there’s a big scientific controversy about vaginas? Scientists aren’t sure whether the entire vagina comes from the Müllerian ducts, or just the upper vagina. Now, in some cases, the gonads get mixed signals and become intermediate between ovaries and testes, and may be able to produce both eggs and sperm. If that happens, the hormones produced by each part interfere with the other, and the typical result is infertility or only one type of gonad fully functioning. The Wolffian and Müllerian ducts may both develop, one to a side, or just one or the other might develop, or neither. B. Development of External Genitalia Meanwhile, on the outside of the embryo, between its tiny growing legs, is a structure that looks like this:

The development of the external genitalia happens later, in weeks 9 through 12 of development. A complex interaction of hormones determines how the external genitalia develop, which means that there are many possible outcomes of genital development. I’ll try to cover as many possibilities as I can. I will refer to the image above as well as the image below, called the Prader scale, which shows some of the different ways the external genitalia can develop.

Part 1 is the sensitive head of what anatomy textbooks call the “genital tubercle” but I prefer to call the “phalloclitoris,” because as we will see, the penis and the clitoris are so similar that in this story (and maybe in general) it doesn’t really make sense to call them different things. The development of the head of the phalloclitoris is mostly the same in everyone. Testosterone causes it to get larger, but it has just as many nerve endings no matter how big or small it ends up. Part 2 is a membrane that gives rise to the urethra and the anus in everyone, and to a vagina in some. The first thing that happens to structure 2, in everyone, is that the bottom part pinches off into an anus. What remains is called the urogenital sinus. In some individuals, the story ends there. They have one opening, from which they pee, but also has erotic nerve endings and produces lubricant (though it is often shallower than a vagina; see stage 3 in the Prader scale.) In some individuals, it pinches off into a urethra and a vagina. In the remaining group, it closes up like a zipper into just a urethra. If these individuals have a penis, the urethra usually lengthens up to the tip (but it might not migrate all the way up; see stage 4 in the Prader scale). Part 3, in everyone, forms the body of the phalloclitoris. Now, here’s where things can get hard to explain, because sex education in this country is woefully inadequate. It is obvious to most everyone what the body of the penis looks like: it’s the shaft, everything that isn’t the head. But not everyone is aware that the clitoris has a body too, not just a head. In most individuals who have a clitoris, only the head is externally visible. But the body of the clitoris is just as long as the body of the penis. It looks like this:

Those four balloon-like things around the vagina are the body of the clitoris. A penis is just like this, just external and sewn up along the bottom edge. Except, of course, not always:

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some people are born with an external phalloclitoris that opens up along the bottom, like the clitoris in the image above. This all comes from structure 3 in the picture. Structure 3 can also develop labia minora. Anyone who has been sexy-intimate with labia minora, their own or someone else’s, won’t be surprised by this: both the body of the phalloclitoris and the labia minora feel very good when stimulated. Part 4 can swell into labia majora, or fuse together along the bottom edge into a scrotum. Or something in between can happen: labia majora that form “pouches” like a scrotum, or a scrotum that doesn’t completely seal up along the middle. See the Prader scale image for some of the different ways Part 4 can develop. That’s it for the external genitalia. The last part of sexual development happens around week 26: the descent of the gonads. You may have heard about the descent of the testes. If a fetus with testes has a scrotum, most of the time, the testes will descend into it before birth. If the fetus has testes but no scrotum, or the signal to descend never reaches the testes, they will remain in the abdomen undescended, possibly for the rest of the person’s life, possibly not. What you may not know is that the ovaries (usually) descend too. When the ovaries descend, they attach to the ends of the Fallopian tubes. 3. The Implications Those are the biological facts of sexual development. It should be clear to you now that the outcomes of sexual development don’t fall into two obvious categories of male and female. One implication that jumps out at me is that while we don’t know how a sense of gender identity develops in the brain, because there are so many possible outcomes of sexual development in the genitalia, it wouldn’t surprise me at all if we find that there are many possible outcomes of sexual development in the brain. The likelihood of someone growing up to have a penis and a strong sense of female identity is at least as high as someone growing up to have a beard and a vagina, or testes and a uterus. Another implication is that “biological sex,” in reality, is a spectrum, or maybe even more complicated than a spectrum. However, societies divide this spectrum into socially constructed categories: sexes. So where do we draw the dividing line? This may seem arbitrary to you, and it absolutely is. Not all societies have divided up this spectrum the same way. For example, in India, some people with genitals in between the typical male and typical female are classified as a third sex, hijra. Where does Western society draw the line? Until the 2000s, the standard was basically this: is the location of the urethra in right place, and the size of the phalloclitoris big enough, that the baby can eventually stand to pee, and be able to insert the phalloclitoris into a vagina? Even if you are not a regular reader of this blog, the ideology of sex and gender behind this dividing line should be clear. For decades, the medical marker of maleness was a penis that fit the standards of masculinity: standing to pee, and having heterosexual intercourse. These standards had serious consequences. Any baby with a phalloclitoris that didn’t meet medical standards was subjected to unnecessary surgery to reduce the phalloclitoris to an “acceptable” size for a clitoris, raised as female, and kept in the dark for the rest of their life about the genitalia they were born with. These days, the standard used for assigning sex to intersex babies is chromosomal sex. XX, you’re female, XY, you’re male. But there’s more. While some babies are born with genitalia ambiguous enough for parents and doctors to get into a kerfuffle, there are many intersex conditions that have nothing to do with external genitalia and may go undetected. For example, there are those individuals with XX chromosomes and a wandering SRY gene attached to their genomes somewhere. Those people may manifest, in their gonads, internal genitalia, and external genitalia, as typical males. But until they get karyotyped and have a look at their chromosomes, they may never know they are intersex. There are also conditions that cause male-assigned people to produce high amounts of estrogen and related sex hormones or female-assigned people to produce testosterone and related sex hormones. The effects of these sex hormones are sometimes highly noticeable, but sometimes they are harder to detect. This means that even if you don’t think you are intersex, you could be. I know because it happened to me. When I was 18, I was diagnosed with PCOS, polycystic ovarian syndrome. This happens when the ovaries produce unusually high levels of androgens (male sex hormones). PCOS is not classified by the medical community as an intersex condition. However, what the medical community designates as “intersex” or not is motivated by politics, not biological facts. The goal of the way variation in sexual development is defined is to label as few people “intersex” as possible, so they don’t have to live with the “shame” of the diagnosis. The only conditions that are called intersex are ones that can’t be explained away to a child’s parents as a “slight genital abnormality.” Thus, doctors are able to claim that only 1 in 1500 babies is born intersex.

A much more pragmatic definition of intersex, as proposed by Dr. Cary Costello at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, is when a body does not fully differentiate into male or female. By that definition, people with PCOS are intersex, because the condition we were born with makes our androgen levels higher than most women’s and lower than most men’s. Our androgen levels also reduce the levels of female sex hormones in our bodies so that they are intermediate between the typical levels for men and women. Our bodies are not fully hormonally differentiated between male and female. It is thought that up to 5% of female-assigned people may have PCOS. That would mean that at least 1 in 40 people are intersex. The medical community, and society at large, is not ready to accept that figure. If 1 in 40 people don’t fit into our boxes of “biological sex,” then there’s no way to deny that our boxes don’t do a very good job of classifying people. Many people would find that frightening. I don’t find it frightening. I find it delightful. I am so happy that there is so much sexual diversity in the world, and that biology is too complex and beautiful to jam into two little boxes. When I was diagnosed with PCOS, I wasn’t horrified or scared. I was relieved. Finally, I had an explanation for why my body never followed anything resembling a regular menstrual cycle. I knew why my sex drive would suddenly, drastically change: my hormones were shifting from a female sex hormone-dominated bouquet to a male sex hormone-dominated one, or vice versa. When I was diagnosed with PCOS, my gynecologist offered me the option of hormone therapy to make my hormonal profile less androgenic and more typically female. Since I was an adult, I could choose whether to take that option or not. I tried it out for a few months, and I hated it. It changed me in a thousand subtle ways that added up to a profound alienation from my own body. I didn’t feel like myself anymore. So I stopped the hormone therapy and went back to my intermediate, intersex state. Children who are diagnosed with intersex conditions usually don’t get that choice. Their genitals may be operated on, resulting in permanent loss of sexual function. They may be given hormones for years to feminize or masculinize them, causing some of them to go through a partial puberty at age four. The choice of which sex to assign them to, as I explained above, is utterly arbitrary. Many more intersex children end up identifying as transgender than in the general population, knowing that they were born with the very genitalia that they desperately wish hadn’t been taken from them with a surgeon’s knife. The entry for Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome, an intersex syndrome that results in intermediate genitalia, on Medscape has this to say about how to treat children with this condition: “The ultimate medical goal of treatment is to restore external genitalia as close to a nonambiguous appearance as possible while retaining full sensation, the ability for sexual satisfaction (to include penetrative intercourse), and, ideally, fertility.” Maybe some people with Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome want to be nonambiguous. Maybe they want to have penetrative intercourse. But when they’re babies, you can’t possibly know. I remember how miserable I was on the hormone therapy that made me “typically female.” I can’t imagine what it would have been like if I’d been forced to be on them all my life. No one should ever have to go through that. Nonconsensual, unnecessary surgery is morally wrong, and I extend my deepest sympathies to all intersex people who have been violated that way. You hear all kinds of stories about “biological sex.” At the Olympics, they determine the sex of athletes by measuring their testosterone, because supposedly testosterone is what gives male athletes an advantage over female athletes. You also see scientific studies about how testosterone makes men more aggressive than women, more sexual, better-adapted to be hunters back when they were cavemen. If these stories are true, then I have the advantages of a male athlete. I am aggressive, sexual. I am a caveman hunter. If the way men and women behave is an inevitable consequence of biology, then where do I, and other intersex people, fit in? We don’t. Because the stories aren’t about us. They aren’t about biology, which is messy and complicated. They’re fables. They’re folk tales we tell each other so we’ll keep believing in the great patriarchal fantasy that there are two sexes that are completely different from each other, and that one is better than the other. Because biology. Well, I’m a person too. So are other intersex people. So are non-intersex people who don’t fit into the patriarchal narrative of how we’re supposed to live. And this is our story.

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philosophicalparadox · 5 years

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Demon Splicing and Why the Clones Failed.

This is more like a research paper than a fan theory, but hey, I had fun. I’ll try to improv some citations at the bottom, but I don’t guarantee that Tumblr will let me keep them there.

Now, this is a HUGE, MASSIVE, LONG-ASS POST, and once more it is ultra-sciencey; so if you have any confusions, questions, or want to just look the other way and just go “eh, magic” then that is totally okay. I don’t, and won’t, claim to be any kind of authority on these things; I just needed an excuse to open my computer again and I guess do some intense research into etymology (that would be the study of anything with an exoskeleton, basically. I promise it is very much relevant to this theory.).

Summary/TLDR: Demons need specific qualities in their hosts in order to suit themselves, ergo they modify their host’s bodies by using Mutually symbiotic viruses, akin to those of the Polydnaviridae ingroup which coexists within several genera of parasitoid wasps, to alter the human genome. What we explore here is how they do so. Also, because it is intrinsically connected, we will also be dipping our toes into why, exactly, the clones weren’t “suitable” in all instances, as well as how demons may or may not select their hosts. This circles back to my previous post discussing the Twin’s and Paternity, and specifically the topic of genetic expression, though you do not need to have seen or read that post to understand what I’m talking about here. Also discussed is the matter of genes that humans lack, but which would seem to find their way in during possession; the production of feathers, the formation of additional limbs, proteins, and such which are simply not within the power of any existing virus we know of to alter .

One thing must lead to another however, so before we get into the biological science, we need to get into the hypothetical, cosmological stuff that is quantum physics. Didn’t see that one coming, did ya?

Demons and DNA:

We know from that one elusive panel of chapter 44 ( I think...) that demons have genetics - they have genes, which implies that they have, at the very least, DNA. The question then is how, but more so where - where did those genes come from?. Demons don’t have physical bodies, right...? Why would they need DNA?

Because maybe some of them do possess actual, physical “bodies”, or at least cells, that preside in Gehenna.

The Demon Kings are quite likely to be an exception rather than a rule, considering they were the first demons to have come into existence, or at the very least the first demons to have ever attained bodies -- which is precisely how demonkind may have obtained DNA in the first place, via a phenomena called horizontal transference.

Now, I’m going to contradict, in a sense, my other post here, and tell you to forget what you were taught about viruses in high school. Virology is a complicated school of biology, and viruses are extremely simple, and yet extremely complex organisms. Now, viruses typically contain RNA which allows the virus to reproduce once it is injected into the cells of its host by combining viral RNA with eukaryotic (for the sake of simplicity) DNA.

However, there are strains of viruses that contain DNA, not RNA. No one is completely sure how these viruses evolved, but one theory would suggest that these dnaviruses “stole” part of their genetic material from the hosts they evolved with, incorporating pieces of lipids and proteins to turn their RNA into functional DNA; this process of one organism “stealing” DNA from another is called horizontal transference, and it is how bacteria and other asexually reproducing organisms maintain genetic diversity and “evolve”.

But, you ask, how the bloody hell does a Virus have DNA? How does it replicate?

When most people think of viruses, they think of mobile ones, pathogenic ones - but dnaviruses are not usually pathogenic, instead highjacking the excretory or reproductive systems of their hosts and using their reproductive cells to spread genealogically from parent to offspring. One well-studied example of this is the polydnavirus found in Ichneumon wasps, which are themselves parasitoid. They reproduce by injecting their eggs into the bodies of paralyzed caterpillars, who then feed the hatching larvae with it’s living tissues. However, one problem the wasp faces with this method of reproduction is the caterpillar’s immune system, which could kill the eggs - were it not for the polydnavirus, which produces chemical signals that prevent the caterpillar’s immune system from destroying the precious egg that is it’s host cell. As the larvae develops, the polydnavirus is replicated into the cells of the larvae, and once it hatches it is literally born with the virus in it’s body. (I’ll let you go wild with the half-demon thing there, I’m here to talk about possession right at the moment.)

Ok, ok, but what does this have to do with demons? after all, demon possession is, in a way, “contagious” since demons can go from host to host.

Welcome then, to the world of multi-viral mutual symbiosis - fancy way of saying viruses can work together to meet the ends of one another in a host if it benefits both viruses. Demons may possess some form of this event, being somehow sentient (by means perhaps of primitive, conductive cells not unlike what you would find in a jellyfish) but ultimately composed of or utilizing not only one, but several strains of viruses to fulfil their parasitic ends, one which allows them to infect the host and modify existing DNA, and one which can incorporate it’s own DNA into that of the host to bring about desirable conditions. To that, I must add as a courtesy that those primitive conductive cells which could, in a way, offer sentience, may in fact be what comprises the physical manifestations of demon’s hearts. None of this is, of course, to explain demon magic, which is a subject I do intend to breach one of these days - but not today. Today, we do science.

This goes away to explain why Todou sprouted feathers, a phenomena that would not have otherwise been biologically possible given the constraints of human protein structure. That isn’t to say that it would be impossible for a virus to modify via RNA transcription keratinoid proteins to form hollow attachments, which is exactly what you find in polar bears and porcupines, but the structure of feathers is, I’m afraid, just too far off the mammalian path for it to be but a 0.03% likelihood via RNA transcription alone, meaning that it would have to have been the result of DNA that isn’t human.

Speaking of statistical probabilities:

Cloning and the Failure Thereof

Humanity has a hollywood-induced idea that cloning organisms is a fail-less system, when that could not be further from the truth. In point of fact, only about 3% of all attempted cloning experiments with everything from fish to sheep produce viable, healthy clones. This is because cloning is done, kind of ironically, in much the same way as a virus operates; by using the DNA and RNA of the existing mother’s cell’s to complete the chromosomal pairing up that normally happens in the zygote during fertilization. Because of this, the RNA transcribes, ideally, the same exact DNA code that the “mother” has; but here again we get into genetic expression, because though a clone is genetically the same as it’s parent, it is exactly BECAUSE it is genetically identical that recessive (and often in the case of some experimental animals, fatal) traits and gene combinations can occur, depending on exactly how the original, zygotic DNA is copied. Even when using the RNA of the same organism, transcription errors naturally occur -- and they occur so frequently, in fact, that very few cloning attempts are ever successful; that is, they either produce genetically weak, fatal-combination, infertile, or underdeveloped offspring that ultimately can’t be re-cloned or which can not reproduce, and therefore negate the incentive to clone an organism for it’s “healthy genes”.

Connecting the dots:

When a demon is cloned, it’s human DNA is cloned; but so are the genetic modifications of the dnavirus, which is why clones seem to have human superpowers. They are no loner 100% genetically human, and that opens the door to all kinds of genetic complications and probably meant that thousands, not hundreds, of clones were “discarded”, and hundreds died before they even lived. Simply put, it’s an absolute bloody miracle that the cloning thing worked at all, much less that Lucifer was able to remotely perfect the technique.

How he did so is not so much a mystery though; unlike what you would assume, with mammals at least, the more often you re-clone a clone, the “cleaner” it’s genetic code seems to become by phenomena of natural selection and artificial selection; clones with good genes are re-cloned, clones exhibiting bad genes are culled or die on their own, and so on and so on until you get a good sized population of identical clones. With the added fuel of the elixir to make growth happen phenomenally fast, it’s not too surprising that he has a private stock of cloned bodies to inhabit whenever he likes. (Which gave me big Orochimaru vibes, just sayin’).

As for the RNA virus body, I suspect that is retained with the demon at all times, which makes sense because once and RNA virus stops replicating it’s RNA into the host, the host cells re-fix the “broken” codes and eventually replaces the alien DNA created by the virus with it’s own; however, a dnavirus’ DNA gets worked semi-permanently into the system of it’s host, since it has it’s own completed code which is then, reversedly, transcribed over and over by the host’s RNA transcription, which is why dnaviruses went undetected by science until about 20 years ago, and why, God forbid, if there was ever a pathogenic dnavirus, we would all be royally screwed because even the best immune system on earth can’t detect a dnavirus because our immune systems rely on identification markers dependent on RNA viruses; oddly, however, so does every other organism, meaning there literally is not a single living thing, including caterpillars and spiders who are victims directly of “pathogenic” polydnaviruses, has an immune system that could find the damn things. They utilize the host’s own RNA to transcribe their DNA, and therefore go almost completely undetected by whatever they infect.

Speaking of which, let’s talk about:

Immunity and Prions

If Demons rely on RNA viruses to primarily infect their host, then it would make sense why some people would be more resistant than others; however, there is a compelling aspect of demon possession which makes me think that it is the other way around - everyone is resistant, until they are not.

Demons typically possess bodies which have weak-minded and psychologically stressed individuals behind them. Stress weakens the immune system, but it does so in specific ways; and certain viruses in real life are programmed to take advantage of these specific measures more than others.

Right now in the US, there is a nasty epidemic of CWD, Chronic Wasting Disease, spreading through native deer populations on the east coast. This “zombie disease” is a virus that infects the nervous system of the deer (along with cattle and sheep) and forms prions - folded proteins that are then replicated, and replicated, and replicated; and like cancer of the brain, they just keep on replicating and replicating, eating up the animal’s energy reserves and drastically impacting their behavior and bodily functions, starting by supressing and outright destroying their immune system. Mad Cow Disease is a more famous example of a prion disease in the same family as CWD, except that those prions migrate; they move into the soft tissues of the animal and make every single part of it impossible to eat without also contracting the prion, which contains the virus; and MCD is not remotely picky about it’s host, since it affects a very basic protein structure. Any and everything from birds to reptiles to humans can be infected by MCD and it is completely fatal.

My point is, that CWD and MCD both primarily infect animals exhibiting high levels of stress hormones, which is why outbreaks happen primarily during the breeding seasons for these animals. Not only that, but the virus then directly attacks the animal’s immune systems and opens them up to every kind of secondary infection you can imagine.

However, prion diseases and even just plain old viruses can do the exact opposite as well. HIV is a common virus that kills you by making your immune system hyperresponsive, not by shutting it down; it becomes so responsive, in fact, that it attacks healthy tissues. Prion diseases which affect insects also do this, creating folded proteins in the nervous system of the bug that trigger it’s immune system to continuously flood the body with antibodies until it is just too exhausted to do so, and the insect’s body decays as a result of secondary infection.

It could be that this is the case of demons as well. Prions would be valuable in affecting the behavior of the host, though not necessary; they would, however, make the ingestion of a possessed person almost guaranteed to infect you, since most viruses just don’t have the defenses on their own to tackle stomach acid, but a prion virus does.

To recap:

Demons use DNA and RNA viruses to infect and modify their host to their liking, perhaps using the assistance of prions to aid in endurance and transmissibility. Because of this, cloning is a gamble of “what DNA will I pull out of the box today” since the DNA virus’ DNA, and possibly even any prions, is left behind even after the parasitic demon leaves; however, the RNA virus is inert once it leaves a host body, and therefore is retained by the demon within whatever primitive cells they may carry in their demon hearts, which may be taken from some immutable “form” or body that they possess on the other side of the divide (in Gehenna); these alien forms may be the byproduct of their first ever possession, using, perhaps, horizontal transference to absorb some of the DNA from their first (and possibly even subsequent) host and then re-incorporate it into subsequent hosts, which is how Amaimon would be reptilian in spite of having a mammal body; because he perhaps, first possessed or found genetic favor of a reptile of some kind and “borrowed” the DNA from them via horizontal transference, since it worked for him. This can then be applied in turn to all other demons, or at least demon kings.

DISCLAIMER:

I spent literally a week researching this stuff, but I am welcome to criticism of my shoddy work. Also, I am in no way saying this is technically right; it’s just a theory after all, and you’re more than welcome to disagree. :)

If anyone wants to add on, feel free. :) I think I’m done for the week.

#blue exorcist #Ao no Exorcist #fan theory #sorry for the long post #I don't claim to be an expert #hopefully tumblr lets me have those citations #if they don't show up I'm sorry #I tried

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cosmospoons · 6 years

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House MD season 2

30 second episode recaps from someone whos just watched em for the first time and has bad recall

Ep1: they gotta cure the death row dude so he can go back to death row to b killed, cameron is Bad at telling ppl they're dying, house n Wilson had lunch with the coma guy, they cured death row man, also they changed the theme and I hate it Ep2: House has hayfever lmao, this cancer girl with hallucinations is honestly just the coolest she's so positive I love her, shes nine and got chase to kiss her hero,, house an Wilson have a shared balcony amazing, Wilson is so good and pure and is amazing at his job holy shit I love this man. House actually 'temporarily killed' the patient to cure her and made people run drills on a dead man. House is 400% going to buy a motorbike Ep3: i prayed for Cuddy's handyman to fall off her roof past the window and then god answered my prayers and he did, house broke into Cuddy's house mainly to look at her underwear lbr and then won the 'can we chop off his arm' argument, house secretly speaks spanish and waited for the most dramatic moment to reveal this, they gate crashed a cock fight (ayy) and saved the patient Ep4: the patient is a doctor with an ego ((according to house lmao pot, kettle)) who wanted to sit in on the diagnostic process and honestly is actually full of himself,, house puts him on a tippy table and cranks it up, foreman made a patient cry except he was pretending to be house lmao house got in shit,, Cameron needs to stop please, can the patient get his head out his arse please. house gatecrashes the press conference that the patient called and managed to put him into cardiac arrest on live television and eventually cured him of everything cept bein a knob Ep5: Wilson's handwriting is such doctor handwriting and house definitely bought a motorbike and made Wilson pay for it he's so pleased with himself. The kid keeps getting electrocuted but like,, by his own body. House is avoiding his parents but Cameron n Wilson aren't letting him get away with it. I love house n Wilson's friendship so much it's worth 5k apparently lmao. These patients are fukin serial liars jc why are ppl like this, it was rADIATION wow houses dad is a fucking DICK. There were so many good interactions and the house/wilson ship is sailing Ep6: there was a cyclist who took a LOT of drugs which turned out to be curing him of the thing he had, house is a douchebag but we all knew that - he may b a dick to mark but m sure mark deserves it n I love him anyway. Wilson remains a sweet boy even if he cheats idgaf he's adorable look at him ((wilson: i net someone who made me feel funny, me: was it hOUSE)),, he n house are balcony buddies and house shud stop stealing his food, and he should definitely stop digging thru stacys life but actually fuck it why not he's not gunna let go of this why is she so pissy i wanna know Ep7: I love houses new pet rat Steve McQueen,, Wilson is 4000% done with houses Stacy related antics which is fair tbh he should stop but I actually don't give much of a shit about Stacy I've taken against her....he did deserve what she said after reading her file tho. The patient may have given Cameron aids and Cameron got high and slept with Chase, who she may have given aids lmao these ppl r messes but not as much of a mess as that father/son relationship jc...i dont remember anything else about the patient whoops Ep8: chase is being suuuueeeeddd and he keeps lying about why lmao,, house fuckin reamed him one which was probably called for but maybe not like that, turns out chase screwed up cus his dad died and foreman is houses boss ((supervisor)) now how well do u think that's gunna work (((not very))) Stacy's still a bitch and has ~~feelings~~ Ep9: foreman is in charge and house is doing his utmost best to be the dick of the year and it's fucking hilarious honestly I love this man the shit he pulls jc,,, Wilson is super aware of houses antics as usual and had a mild gay panic when foreman started to question him about house,, the patient was a big ol Faker™ but surprise surprise she was actually sick this time ((house totally injected her with a load of stuff so she’d b readmitted after they’s released her)) Ep10: house solved a case thru the phone alone and spent most of the ep at the airport except for those five minutes when he almost slept with Stacy who once had a terrible experience with curry apparently and called house a vindaloo, nice restraint very well timed phone call thank fuck,,, they will sleep together tho and I am Not Happy about it....the power play amongst the fellows is a boiling pot of trouble - the patient was v interesting I enjoyed the word scramble game Ep12: WHAT A GOOD FUCKIN EP so the patient orgasmed in the white chamber while unconscious and covered in burns but more importantly house gatecrashed the lecture of his old archenemy that he had arranged just so he could disturb it and criticise the dude who got him thrown out of med school for snitchin on his cheating all whilst Wilson told him to get better hobbies (('a hooker anything please')),, to test this dudes migraine meds he gave deliberately himself a migraine and the meds didn't work (unsurprising) so the fellows turned out all the lights while he had a nap under the table,, wilson took a diff approach and deliberately made a Lot of noise because he is a Shit even if he hides it better than house,,,, then house dropped a tab of acid and took a bunch of antidepressants, and cured his migraine as well as the patient Ep13: houses leg was super duper sore but at least we got some fantastic house/wilson interaction when wilson pretended to be God during that MRI, even if house hit him with a cane.... The patient was a teen supermodel who seduced her own father to get whatever she wanted,, house was super sure she had cancer and it turns out she did but it was testicular because she had xy chromosomes and was immune to testosterone - which was really fucking interesting...... Also cuddy played house like a violin and gave him placebo saline instead of a morphine shot to prove to him that his leg pain was psychological Ep14: House is stealing organs now. Ok so technically he did get the husband's permission to steal his newly dead wife’s heart for the dying old dude with a strangely young daughter but only after he kneed house in the balls super hard. House spent the whole ep goin on at wilson about the affair he thought he was having and at the end wilson showed up on houses doorstep but sURPRIse !! It was his wife who was sleeping around!! poor baby Wilson I know what goes around comes around but he's such a kicked puppy cmon Ep15: Wilson and house living together is a recipe for disaster and I'm living for it so good so many good interactions I love that house is gunna keep him for his food ((I'll never b over house hearing the voicemail about Wilson's new place, looking over at him sleeping on the couch and then deleting it so he has to stay)). The patient had a super cool marriage and didn't have lupus except whoops actually not a happy marriage his wife is tryna kill him thru gold poisoning. House needs to stop accosting ppl in bathrooms and should also stop destroying marriages Ep16: oh man good shit so,, first of all house n Wilson are still living together and there are some Domestic Antics happening right here including but not limited to a prank war which house desperately tried to get Wilson to participate in, the peak of which had house making Wilson wet the couch and Wilson sabotaging houses cane. The patients mum was ridiculously overprotective and house essentially kidnapped the patient to find the tick noone else thought was there,, surprisingly Wilson helped set that up despite the fact house was the reason he woke up wet that morning Ep17: first things first house could absolutely clean everyone out at poker if he knows Cuddy's tells that well through just a phonecall,, also he needs to stop calling Wilson out on his toenail varnish habits lmao. The patient was a smol boy who presented the same symptoms as an unsolved and dead case that house had 12 yrs ago so he really wasn't gunna let this one go cus he's like a dog with a bone. They were in formal wear all ep which was a Good Look™ and Wilson's retelling of how he won the poker championship may have been one of the cutest things I have ever seen Ep18: Emma from Glee is here and she has the black plague,, her gf decided to donate her liver n Cameron was all het up cus house had worked out plague girl was gunna leave her and sending the gf in blind would be ~~unethical~~ but turns out she knew and deliberately did that so Emma would stay with her out of guilt lmao. In other news Cameron's pissy cus foreman 'stole' her article and house spent most of the episode napping cus wilson is fuckin up his sleep cycle ;) I'm upset there was no physical wilson Ep19: the most annoying patient so far appears in the form of a 15 yr old faith healer with herpes. I feel like the degree to which unrelenting niceness irritates me rly says something about me but eh oh well. Chase (ofc it was chase) kept a tally on who was winning God or house, faith healer managed to shrink a womans cancer tumour through giving her herpes (((a miracle praise be))) and during poker night house called wilson out on sleeping with said cancer patient and discovered wilson was actually living with her whoops bad Wilson ((he totally regrets his life choices ((he should)))) Ep20: HOLY SHIT ITS A TWOPARTER AND FOREMANS GUNNA DIE !! Ok so,,, there was this cop who couldn't stop laughing till he could but then it got a lot worse and then foreman caught whatever it was which they began to realise when he smirked as house shot a corpse to see what a bullet in a brain would do to an MRI ((spoilers it broke the machine)) anyway long story short it wasnt the pigeons and the cops dead and foreman is gunna die even after that shitdick move he pulled where he stabbed Cameron with a needle so she'd go to the apartment Ep21: HOO BOY OK SO a lot happened so much happened the most important thing is foreman by the end of the ep is mostly kind of ok - he's just a bit muddled on his lefts n rights. During the ep house was stressed the entire time cus even tho he denys it he does love n care for his ducklings,, he even cares enough to deliberately attempt to poison Steve McQueen which didn't work but can be added to the list of stressful events. Cameron grew a spine a lil bit I literally yelled when she berated cuddy and she forced the biopsy cus foreman had the foresight (ayyyyy) to make her his medical proxy even if house managed to find the problem anyway so it was ultimately unnecessary and has just resulted in some possible brain damage Ep22: house keeps trying to pick a fight with foreman and failing because Foreman's all happy go lucky now, the patient was mad because of a thing and killed her baby accidentally on purpose, the music that played during the baby autopsy was super unnecessary and bizzare, and in the end the woman had cancer but she's refusing treatment cus of the baby guilt. Cuddy didn't have cancer, which we know because Wilson ((WILSON NOT HOUSE)) stole her dna and ran secret tests in the middle of the night, but it still wasn't a date Wilson despite what house said about skin lessions she was actually just going to attempt to use u as a sperm donor - have fun at the L-word marathon with house you big sad loser (I love u) Ep23: we meet an old house friend which is Super fun he is ridiculously naive and I love that he calls house g-man holy shit. House is now giving cuddy injections as part of a fertility treatment which is nice of him especially seeing as his leg was in a Lot of pain this ep,, like a LOT...he's self-injecting morphine now which is probably bad :/ house's friend's daughter was the patient at one point she pooped out her mouth gRoSs and house ran a paternity test n told the girl she was actually the dudes daughter ((except he was lYINg in support of his friend)) he does care Ep24: HOUSE GOT SHOT WHAT IS IT WITH THIS TEAM SUFFERING RN JC this was a very fun episode of 'guess when house is hallucinating', spoilers the answer is all the time the whole ep takes place in his head. That aside I absolutely loved the hospital gown/trainer combo (no I won't apologize) and the fact that house did almost none of his physio - instead relegating it to others which is....not how it works. The hallucinatory clinic patient was freaky deaky his eye exploded and so did his dick but dw cus to escape the hallucination house killed him ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ what can u do. At the end house woke up n requested ketamine we'll see how that goes

Season 1

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old-long-john · 6 years

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Hey Laura would you be willing to talk more about those John Silver gender feels?

Sure. Thismight be a bit disjointed and weird, because I’m not sure I fully understandthem, but I’ll try to lay them out in some kind of coherent way. Also, if thisall spells out something blatantly obvious to anyone then I guess I don’t mindif you say so, because various words and labels do float around my brain fromtime to time, but I’m not about to undertake any huge personal re-evaluationsor re-labelling or whatever else, because I just don’t have the energy forthat. So yeah. Although it’s entirely possible this is all a huge mess ofnothing that’s any different to anyone else, which would be vaguely embarrassing.

This stuff isby no means limited to John Silver/Luke Arnold, or even ever present with him,but I think partly because of the way I’ve projected onto Silver a huge amount andnow largely write and think about fanfic (and the show) from his viewpoint,these sorts of feelings have slipped into the mix as well. So sorry if thisgoes off on tangents that weren’t what you wanted to know at all, but the moreI think about it, the more I remember things that tie in and ways in which thisreally isn’t about him specifically. I’m gonna put most of this under a cut,just because it’s quite long and personal and I’m not sure how I feel aboutputting it right out there on people’s dashes.

Basically,all of that classic wlw stuff where it’s sometimes difficult to distinguishbetween girls you’re attracted to and girls you want to look like or be like, Ialso experience quite a lot with men, and he’s one of them. I have it even morestrongly with people who are a certain type of androgynous, which is probablygetting straight to the heart of the matter really. There’s a certain look that Silver/Lukeoften has that falls right into the type that messes me up: (big) long hair,facial hair, reasonably muscular arms and legs, and a masculine-but-soft-ish,grungy kind of style.

The waySilver looks mid-S2 is probably the most intense instigator of these feelingsfor me (though any time his hair is down in S4 I get it badly too.) It’sattractive, but it’s also in a lot of ways what I want for myself; thebit of face scruff, the toned, veiny forearms, the wide shoulders, the narrow waist under the big belt, and themuscular thighs. He moves in a masculine way too, and he has that deep voice,and I like those things in the same confusing mixture of ways.

I’ve dressedin a pretty masculine way for a long time, but I’m always kind of disappointedthat my frame doesn’t pull off the look the way I want it to. I almost always wearmen’s hoodies, tank top style tops, sports bras, close fitting dark jeans, belts,and converse or boots. That’s my look. But I want to be taller and harder andmore angular. I want to be stronger. Most of the time I don’t like being softwith round edges, but I do like that I’m naturally quite muscular underneath it.I don’t hate having boobs, but I don’t particularly love them either. I wish Icould take them off for 99.9% of the time and maybe just put them on forspecial occasions. I’m just glad they’re not bigger. I don’t exactly dislike being awoman, but I feel deeplyuncomfortable when I think I look too performatively feminine, like I’m goingto be ‘found out’ as a fraud or people will assume I’m something I’m not. I don’teven know where to start with the fact that I enjoy manual labour partiallybecause I like how it makes my hands rough and calloused and cut up, and itgets dirt so embedded around my nails that it doesn’t come out for days. I’mcareless with my hands when I’m on an excavation (I’m anarchaeologist in theory) because I want them to look more masculine and be less soft.

Tbh, for along time I’ve had a slight obsession with wondering what I’d be like if I wasa man. If literally everything was the same, except I got the Y chromosome frommy dad instead of another X. What would I look like? How would I present myself?What looks could I pull off? Would my personality be the same? Would I fancythe same people? Would I be ignoring confusing ‘do I want to be or be with’feelings about women? And if we lived in a world where it was possible tochange your sex or just your appearance back and forth at will, I thinkI’d spend a lot of time either as a man or at least as an androgynous,masculine looking woman. But not all the time. And that’s kind of the most confusingpart. I regularly wear mascara and eyeliner, I sometimes wear lipstick, and I keepmy nails pretty long when I’m not digging (which is most of the time). Thereare multiple ways I often like to look and feel feminine. It’s such a mixed upmess that it’s hard to pull apart. Honestly, that photo of Ezra Miller with hishair piled up and his adorable patchy beard and with lipstick on too is somehowgoals. But without the dress.

I thinkSilver really plays into all this because he both embodies a lot of the ways Iwant to look, and he also looks some of the ways I already do look. I think wehave a fairly similar face shape, and similar eyes, and somewhat similar hair (mine’sfar less curly, but it’s big and unruly and about the same colour when it’s notdyed), and he’s also fairly short and muscular in that maybe attainable kind ofway that someone like Jason Momoa (who I get it with a little) is not. I think actually, subconsciously, hereally fits into my brain’s ideas of best version male me, and I find it verycomfortable and kind of a release to put myself inside him when I write fics.It’s like playing dress up with a different imaginary body, with all thedetails filled in for me, and a conveniently familiar personality through whichI can express myself in different ways.

On top of allthat, while my memory can be pretty spotty for short term things, my long termmemory is actually very good. So I remember vividly the way I felt about developingfacial hair and a little happy trail when I was going through puberty, before I internalised all that societal bullshit aboutwhat women are supposed to look like. I liked both of them. I liked happytrails on men, and so I liked how it looked on me, because I didn’t really knowyet that I wasn’t ‘supposed’ to have it. The older I get, the hairier I get,and I’m torn between hating it because I’m meant to be a woman and I don’t look‘right’, and feeling weirdly validated by it because it’s like my body wants tobe more masculine too.

I’m not sure whether I’m making the best job of explaining this, but it’s because I’ve spent along time kind of glancing at these feelings and just accepting that they’rethere without actually looking harder at what they all mean when I put themtogether. I’ve also not bothered delving too far into what kind of tumblr-esquelabels exist that could encompass it all, because I’m worried if I settle onsome kind of label for what it is (if it is anything at all beyond ‘you’re justtomboyish, dude, get a grip’) then it’ll only become another thing that the mirror doesn’treflect and my dissatisfaction over the way I look will have new specific and excitingbranches to explore. It’s not just that I don’t look a certain way, it’s alsothat I can’t make myself look very different in any direction. The way I lookisn’t flexible. I always just look like a short, chubby woman. My face alwaysjust looks like my face, only sometimes the lips are a different colour or myeyelashes look longer. I still hope my face will get more angular as I getolder, but it’s not like I’m a kid anymore. I’m almost 30. If I had a beardthough, I’d treat that thing like a god damn etch-a-sketch. I could change myface drastically on a whim. Which is maybe why I’m kind of overly fascinated bythe way Silver’s look shifted so significantly throughout the series.

I’m probablyforgetting obvious stuff, and I’m omitting some other stuff, but Ithink that covers a lot of it. Hopefully it makes some kind of sense. This isprobably a lot more than what you were really asking about, but Silver isessentially just the latest focus (and avatar, really) in a long line of thingsthat fall into this pattern.

#personal #welp that's out there now #other queer stuff?#not sure why anyone would but please don't reblog this #I might delete it later #Anonymous

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andillbeancuteboyifiwantto · 6 years

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An flawed person

Warning: Long, my experince and by no means have I been perfect or will these words be.

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I was raised in an LDS family and I get that weird 'keep silent' feeling. It's strange to talk about church things to anybody except myself or in my chats with God. But also just feels so silly because it isn't at all secrets or anything shameful.

Hey there I am trans that means for me that God put my soul in this body. But for my soul to be comfy it is going to take some work and that maybe it was an lesson. Same with my sexuality. That it's not all about me or to punish me by any means.

Aside from that I am mentally ill and I have health issues. Put it altogether and add in hypersensitivity (I can sense/feel people's emotions and they affect my own) life can be an lot of frustration.

For 7 years of my life it really wasn't an big deal. But then in and out of church my life began falling apart. Feelings became more obvious, family issues and the feeling lost started settling in.

I got baptised for my family instead of myself. It was an big deal for them all, people came to visit, there was appropriate tradition gifts and everything. But I felt unsure and uncomfortable the whole time.

Now you know the big event in the baptisim and the room was so crowded with strangers, family that my anxiety was soaring higher each moment. I freaked out and had them close the door... With the witnesses just there in the side areas...

Made so much of my family upset and it was an disaster.

Them from there attendance was hit and miss, information didn't sink in well. I lamented being picked for any job or task and almost never sang along. Programs were the anxiety fuel of my nightmares but of course no wasn't an answer.

I was the kid who goofed off and drew in class as much I was the good,meek student. Who loved every pack of fruit snacks or handful of cheerios even on fast Sundays. But who could fast for no reason on weekdays due to my eating disorders.

That strung together words to bear my 'testimony' to the ward despite not having one and people thinking it was real for years. When the real one is an different outlook on life they might sneer at. The real one involves what nobody wants to talk about.

My best friend was that girl you know the one. From an seemingly so on point family with an sibling always off on an mission. Looking so attractive spiritually and otherwise that I lied and told myself it was nothing. Nothing when I let her play with my hair and felt so alive.

Nothing when I fibbed saying I did every thing in my Faith of God. She read her scriptures often, she gave thoughtful prayers, helped and tithing. I was depressed and lost finding myself in mental ditches.

For all church is an sore area and all the times I cursed at God. I also cried shouting apologies and found the Holy Ghost in trailing my fingers along the walls. In handing an dropped crayon to an child who didn't care I wasn't perfect.

I found comfort in the pitch black gym sitting or roaming the stage area, the empty classrooms. In the quiet walks home on sunny, summer days instead of getting an ride home. In just closing my eyes and talking to God informally to sort through things or act like I had somebody.

I found it on the floor of an old meeting house or in the way he seemed to scream at me that I was made to be and that I am not an mistake. That I can't be too mad every time they don't expand their hearts and heads. Because we're flawed and unique.

Sure I dreaded those days where it seemed like I had to bite my tongue. The conflict of laughing at not dating till 16 yet the relief it offered on another hand.

An roller coaster and maybe all I have to offer is what nobody's after.

Marriage is about an man and woman, only that is what people feel. There is only suits or frills. You'll never be recognized as who you are even if you want to participate. Because you won't be seen as eligible. Due to your feelings and due to your multi chrome soul.

An photo shoot an the Temple and I just wanted to go home. Feeling the most holy sat on an window ledge knees against my chest as opposed to silently looking in the eternity mirrors at the entrance inside. Baptisms for the Dead with no wish to have gone.

The tiny change room, and screaming head. Burning contacts and dissociation. Dead silence as I just wanted everybody to finish and to go home. Especially because it reminded me of the times I nearly drowned. Traumatic memories that ruined water for me.

Temple Square in Christmas less reverant more lost in thought. An cafeteria where I sat with just an cold soda while everybody else was having fun.

Temple opening tour thing in summer with an tendency to overheat easy. Nearly going unconscious and enjoying the architecture lost in that instead of anything my family was in awe over.

It's been standing on that picnic table at camp scared to step back, blindfolded but not because I knew nothing. But because it meant letting somebody catch me. And beforehand somehow knowing all the details of the 'surprise'..

The whispering freaking an kid who had hallucinations once or twice out. And I remember the bonfire afterwards. Notes from our parents and as they cried. As people were emotional I didn't even want to read mine.

Because my parents weren't accepting of me and my family was not the best. And it all felt condescending lies instead of actual love. So I just wanted to burn it in the flames. Or sharing an tent with my friends. The bathrooms and uncomfortable memories of camp in general.

Never feeling enough. It's been for years originally being so hateful towards the 'different' and not knowing why. Training myself to let myself think from my own source of perspective. That dyed hair is beautiful and God could care less if my hair is natural or bright blue. People look attractive in suits and anybody can wear an tie.

That family's aren't ever really perfect, that there is no right way to love or live your life. And gender is more than chromosomes and an doctors first look at your private parts. People are wonderful as much they aren't and I should try not judge too harshly.

Church doesn't 'cure' mental illness and every time that was implied or I got so desperate to believe it just hurt me more. Nor does it mean I can help who I am or who I love. Because trying to pray it away never was right. And every time God had to watch me struggle.

I know it's harsh to yell at him because it's not an burden. And he can't be training wheels for us. He has to watch as we either pedal or fall down. That I bet he has cried for me and knows what it is like my suffering.

But if I was 'normal' I would have less insight to offer, lessons to teach those around, been less helpful. And I would have been too involved fixing everybody else's scrapped knees so they couldn't actually learn for themselves.

Maybe it's all complicated but I stopped being mad. Did it hurt at times? Of course. And I may never feel entirely welcome in church. Endured years of people not taking the word no and pretending. Whenever they asked if I was attending and grinned saying sure I was.

Or standing there shaking the bishops hand with an empty promise. How I felt an neon sign in an church with dyed hair. Or in my first button up and slacks with dyed hair.

Or wearing my full suit and combat boots to an old ward with short short hair. The way my family has acted at various points. Some in disgraceful ways that God would scowl about because they missed the point of love one another.

My suit hangs unworn because I really don't go and quietly it has been less and less begging. Part of me wants to go roam the hallways, trace fingers on the scratchy walls and pay my respects in quiet reverance.

I miss cleaning on Saturdays but don't miss the tears standing between the bathrooms.

And part of me wants to indulge the person I wish I had been. To show up suit and tie dyed hair or not. Bare my real testimony because if even one teenager found peace then I gave more than I was offered.

To visit even if in passing or come back to my home town with my boyfriend in tow. Take him to the church building that will feel like home. Even despite the rough times and bad memories. On an sunny summer day its more peaceful.

Whisper all my stories and trace my fingers down those walls. Sit on the gym stage soaking in that I made it. To stand on an stage and just let it out. Even if I could never be officially an saint in most eyes.

I want to not think too much about letting missionaries in briefly or be scared to show I exist. Because I could learn more just like everybody else. And everybody else is just as flawed.

Maybe I will only take some of the good morals and lessons. Or maybe I will find myself only praying, skimming scriptures for years and the rest of my life. But maybe at some point I can see brighter days even if its an brave walk of the halls I once grew up in.

The ones I ran down, the ones I cried in, and the quiet chapel where I found comfort in the kids who offered snacks. Or played games with me because I was just the person who paid attention. That gave back lost objects and did peek a boo.

I think there is solace in how there can be change. That maybe one day my cousin who I found out was an lesbian doesn't have to 'understand what it means to be her and LDS' because my aunt had to whisper she was with my grandmother in the room.

After somebody joked about her falling for an missionary one day. Or the support my aunt had for her child that I didn't and still might never. Yet it still seemed terms and conditions. It was in my sister in law daring to say she's bisexual.

In as murky my coming out and well recoming out and misunderstandings... The letter I got back from my mother that showed progress. In the words she wrote in response to my words especially about God.

(Previously something she used against me but now) Now it was: "You say God made you this way, I agree!"

"God is real, God does love you."

If through all she put me through, all the murky water left to wade through. If my older brother who once teased me, abused me about supporting lgbt+ rights could be the first to ask me my pronouns and name. If my sister in law can give me an present with no name on it because I was still closeted.

And my aunt can love her daughter, support her being an lesbian. Enough she lightly joked in whispers that it means asking 'is it anything serious' and embaress her daughter about hanging out with her female friends. If people could just see the soul as most important.

God just wants us to try our best, to live this mortal life. He wants happiness for us, love not tears and screaming to be fixed. When he made us to be who we are. That he can't help us all the time even if it sucks.

I may not be flawless, the best saint around, active or even feel I get to say I am Mormon. Room for learning and growing. Have my lashing outs, scrapped knees and long nights. Make God cry an couple hundred times and tire him out with informal messages.

Because really who would want an prayer along the lines of 'yo so here's the thing its me yup anyways hope heavens doing good just wanted to talk about this cute person I passed by today or how handsome I felt briefly'. But at the same time its far more personable.

Have this little sign off and occasionally an peace sign across my face just in case he actually is watching me/the holy ghost or whatever. Because I can only be so depressing before I have to goof off and God won't just appear like 'please stop its 4 am why are you this way'. Even if that would be hilarious.

Though nobody would believe me afterwards.

#personal #lgbt mormon #long text cw #queerstake #(Woah wait is this like my testimony but unrefined and at length? Yeahh apparently)#(Just had an lot of feelings right now and felt bold enough to share)#(I really should make an faceless for now youtube channel where I can talk about my growimg up in the church)#(Growing up in it mentally ill and lgbt+ and all the things I felt were hush hush)#(That really werent and arent oh could share hilarious stories as well if not possibly relatable lds lgbt struggles)

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sweatpantsscienceguy · 3 years

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Chromosomes-Part 2

The following is a transcript from my video Chromosomes-Part 2:

Welcome, or welcome back to the channel. This is the second in my series of videos on chromosomes. Last time we had a brief primer on what chromosomes are and then we discussed sex determination in ants, birds and mammals, chromosomal conditions in humans and spooky clone bananas. This time we’re going to talk about conditions like Down Syndrome and what causes them, how different cells in your body become specialised to do different things and we’ll have a look at epigenetics which means heritable changes which don’t involve a change to an organism’s genetic code; which is way cooler than it sounds, honest. As with last time, timestamps and sources are down below in the description and I’ll put important definitions on the screen here.

We left off in the last video after talking a bit about Klinefelter’s syndrome. To recap, Klinefelter’s syndrome is characterised by a male phenotype but with two X chromosomes. XXY. This can cause symptoms like breast growth or decreased fertility. We also talked about X inactivation which is why individuals can survive with only one X chromosome- because they only need the products of one X chromosome. On a related note, Turner syndrome occurs when only a single X chromosome, and no Y chromosome is present. Symptoms include short stature, fertility issues and webbed neck, among others.

Now when I started talking about symptoms of Klinefelter’s and Turner syndrome I might have raised a few eyebrows. If so, well spotted. How can there be any symptoms associated with these conditions at all? Don’t all but one of the X chromosomes in a cell get inactivated? Surely an individual with Klinefelter’s would just have the extra X chromosome inactivated and an individual with Turner syndrome would just develop as if they had a chromosome inactivated in each cell? Well it turns out that X inactivation is a bit of a misnomer, most of the genes on the “inactive” X chromosome are silenced yes but around 15% of the X chromosome’s genes escape silencing to some extent. This would account for the symptoms seen in these two conditions due to this idea of a gene dosage imbalance we discussed in the last video. A person with Turner syndrome would have a lower gene dosage of the X chromosome genes than is expected for an XX individual and conversely a person with Klinefelter’s syndrome would have a higher gene dosage of the X chromosome genes than is expected for an XY individual.

With this all in mind and with everything about human sex determination we discussed in part one, I’ll come back to my opening statement on the subject: We tend to think that when it comes to sex and gender, sex is the less complicated one of the two. Well I don’t know about less complicated but as we can clearly see it’s not as simple as XX and XY being the final word on sex determination.

Turner syndrome and Klinefelter’s syndrome are aneuploidies, a word which refers to conditions that come about due to an abnormal number of chromosomes being present. Down syndrome is a specific type of aneuploidy called a trisomy which means that three copies of a chromosome are present instead of the usual two. In the case of Down syndrome there are three copies of chromosome 21. A trisomy can occur with any of the chromosomes but apart from the X and Y chromosomes the only trisomy conditions that regularly occur involve chromosome 13- Patau syndrome, chromosome 18- Edwards syndrome and chromosome 21- Down syndrome. When other trisomies occur they tend to be more deadly.

Looking at the chromosomes might give us a clue as to why this is. As you can see the survivable trisomies seem to occur with the chromosomes on the smaller side. This does have something to do with it, however chromosome 22 rarely has a survivable trisomy condition. The answer isn’t directly to do with the size of the chromosomes; larger chromosomes tend to contain more genes. We talked about gene dosage earlier, for some genes the gene dosage has to be pretty precise, much more or less of that gene being expressed is pretty bad news for the organism. Others however, it doesn’t matter so much. Chromosome 22 has at least one of those genes that require a more exact dosage and due to the higher number of genes it’s more likely that a larger chromosome will have one or more of these genes.

Trisomies occur due to an event that happens before conception known as nondisjunction. Nondisjunction happens during meiosis which is a type of cell division which creates gametes- sex cells. Unlike mitosis, which is ordinary cell division and results in two identical diploid cells, meiosis results in 4 haploid cells which are statistically likely to be different from each other. During meiosis the chromosomes are randomly reassorted, so with 23 pairs of chromosomes the total number of combinations is two to the power of 23 or eight million three hundred and eighty eight thousand six hundred and eight for a single sperm or egg cell. So you know, quite a few… And that’s not even considering recombination, which is a topic for a bit later.

Nondisjunction occurs in the first stage of meiosis when a chromosome pair fails to segregate leaving one of the new cells lacking that chromosome and the other with an extra copy of that chromosome. Using our earlier aneuploidy examples with X chromosomes: the cell lacking the chromosome could lead to a gamete that could become an individual with Turner’s syndrome and the cell with the extra chromosome could lead to a gamete that could become an individual with Klinefelter’s syndrome.

During the first stage of meiosis homologous chromosomes line up next to each other on the centre of the cell. Homologous in this sense means the chromosome ones are next to each other, the chromosome twos are next to each other, chromosome X is next to either another chromosome X or a chromosome Y and so on and so forth. What allows this to happen is a physical connection between the "arms" of each of the chromosomes, sites where they cross over. This connection is maintained by something called the cohesin complex. A complex in this sense refers to multiple protein subunits working together as a single unit. The cohesin complex forms a ring around the two chromosome arms to maintain this connection. This connection allows the chromosomes to attach to the spindle fibre, a structure that physically pulls the chromosomes to opposite ends of the cell. The connection gives some resistance against the pull of the fibre so that no chromosomes are separated too early and everyone can get all lined up properly. When it's time for the homologous chromosomes to be pulled to opposite ends of the cell one of the cohesin subunits is cleaved by an enzyme, conveniently named separase. The ring breaks and the chromosomes separate.

Nondisjunction that occurs at this stage of meiosis is caused by this separation happening too soon. This can happen due to a variety of reasons but interestingly one of those reasons is the physical placement of the crossing over site on the chromosome. When the site is closer to the end of the chromosome arm the tendency for loss of cohesion increases. This seems to be because the cohesin ring can “slide off” the end of the chromosome arms and the further up the cohesion site is, the more likely it is to happen.

Before we move on I should mention recombination. At this stage of meiosis there is a small chance that the little bits of chromosome that are past this crossing over point can swap over. This uses the same mechanisms as those used to fix double strand breaks in DNA. This means that the number of combinations of different chromosomes in a gamete I mentioned before: eight million three hundred and eighty eight thousand six hundred and eight, can just be thrown out of the window entirely. The real number is way bigger when you account for the fact that chromosomes can just swap bits and pieces of themselves as they please.

You might have heard that the chance of conditions like Down syndrome occurring increases the older the mother is at conception, a phenomenon known as the maternal age effect. Most aneuploidies in eggs from older mothers arise in phase 1 of meiosis, the phase we've just been discussing. Oocytes, or eggs develop up to this phase and then stop there until ovulation, so all eggs are at this stage at birth. This has led to the theory that the maternal age effect is caused by an increased chance that the crossing over process will fail and the paired chromosomes will separate prematurely the longer it goes on.

This theory is supported by a 2005 study that used a mutant line of mice deficient in a gene for a cohesin subunit specific to meiosis. The chromosomes of the mices' eggs were observed at different ages, from one to twelve months old. The occurrence of nondisjunction increased massively as the mice got older suggesting that loss of cohesion is directly related to nondisjunction and therefore aneuploidy.

We've talked a fair bit about genes and gene dosage so I think it's time to have a quick and rough overview of what genes actually do. Genes are sequences of DNA nucleotides that encode proteins. Nucleotide is just the name of the molecules involved. The nucleotides are called cytosine, guanine, thymine and adenine. The names aren't that important for this, just think of them as the letters C,G,T and A. You might know that DNA is double stranded, the nucleotides on one strand bind to those on the other strand, C to G and A to T. We call these complementary pairs. On the way from DNA to protein we have another step- RNA, which is another kind of nucleic acid similar to DNA in ways we don’t need to go into too much detail in, we’re not doing full on biochemistry here, thankfully. RNA nucleotides have the same names as the DNA counterparts except we have a molecule called uracil instead of thymine. The gene sequence of the DNA undergoes a process called transcription to create a molecule of messenger RNA, essentially a copy of the gene's complementary pairs but as RNA instead. The last step is translation which is when the messenger RNA is used essentially as a bit of code to assemble a protein from amino acids. I'd love to go off on a tangent on how that works but I'm gonna try and stay on track for now and leave you with vague assurances that I'll cover that in another video.

I've mentioned differentiation a couple of times in this video and the last one and now it's finally time to talk about it. Differentiation is the process by which cells in a multicellular organism, like you, presumably, become specialised for their role. For example, erythrocytes- red blood cells, being able to carry oxygen. The different types of cells all have the same genetic material but produce different proteins in different quantities to perform these different tasks, this is why your red blood cells aren't hairy and your skin isn't red with haemoglobin. The way this happens ties into what we were discussing before about Klinefelter syndrome, epigenetic gene silencing.

Epigenetics: as I said near the start of the video is a term that refers to heritable factors determined by things outside the genome, so not changes to the actual “code” if you will but rather changes to things around the code that alter how the code is read. As an example, the Professor Conrad Waddington who coined the term epigenetics was working with Drosophila- Fruit flies, because of course he was. You can hardly do anything in genetics without involving the fucking fruit flies. Anyway, all Waddington did was incubate the Drosophila eggs at a slightly higher temperature than usual and when they fully developed into adults they had a pair of legs where the eyes should have been. Nothing about the flies’ genome had been changed but rather a previously silenced gene had become unsilenced. He called this gene aristopedia. Aristopedia is what is known as a homeotic gene, which is a gene that regulates the development of body parts, like legs. Homeotic genes usually encode transcription factors which lead to more genes being expressed in a sort of cascade and lots of different things happening as a result of that which wouldn’t have happened without that first step. We saw something similar in the last video when we talked about testosterone leading to a cascade of developmental events further down the line, same principle. What Waddington saw was essentially a gene for a leg being expressed in a part of the body where it ordinarily wouldn’t be.

I’ve mentioned before that small chemical groups can be added to DNA and be passed down that cell’s lineage. So if I added a methyl group to a particular bit of DNA then the two cells that cell divides into will also have a methyl group on that same bit of DNA. This is because of and enzyme called DNMT1 which is a DNA methyltransferase. Belting name for an enzyme that, the name tells you exactly what it does, it puts a methyl group, transfers it, onto DNA. When it happens upon a piece of DNA where only one side is methylated it’ll add a methyl group to the other side. Then when the cell is going to divide the DNA will be replicated, each strand will so off to form a new double strand of DNA, the new strand will get methylated by our mate DNMT1 and there you go, heritable changes to your DNA that don’t involve changing the code. Epigenetics.

I mention DNA methylation because it’s one of the ways epigenetics are used during differentiation to down-regulate or silence genes in different cell lineages. Transcription factors can find it harder to bind to areas of high DNA methylation so any gene in that region of DNA is either much less active or might as well not be there. There are other modifications that can be made to DNA such as acetylation and hydroxymethylation too that lead to a whole landscape of potential differences between cells containing the same genetic information with wildly different patterns of gene expression.

So that this process can begin again for an organism’s offspring these epigenetic markers are pretty much all reset when new gametes are generated or when a new embryo is formed. This is also quite helpful for the health of the offspring too as we can actually pick up some of these epigenetic modifications. You were probably already aware that smoking could cause DNA damage in lung tissues but it has been found to cause DNA methylation, histone acetylation and other epigenetic modifications with the broad effect that the expression of genes for inflammatory proteins is altered.

There is evidence that some epigenetic changes manage to avoid the reprogramming however. For example, children of fathers with prediabetes have been found to be more susceptible to diabetes themselves. This alone isn't grounds to suspect epigenetic inheritance but it's made more likely by the presence of similar DNA methylation patterns in both the fathers and the children, with these particular patterns being associated with insulin resistance which is a key factor of diabetes and prediabetes. So it seems that despite two rounds of removal of epigenetic markers, some manage to escape and get passed on to the next generation.

Remember Charles Darwin? Probably, right? His theory of natural selection is our basis for how we think about evolution. Organisms are born with a set of characteristics and there is variation of these characteristics in the population. Parents pass on their traits to their offspring and individuals with traits that suit their environment survive long enough to pass on these traits. The next generation is more likely to have the favourable traits and survive and so on and so forth.

You may also remember being told about this other guy, Jean-Baptiste Lamarck who put forward another theory: organisms develop traits over their lifetime and similarly pass those on to their offspring. The famous example given is the giraffe, which supposedly started out as something resembling a big fuck off deer with crap camouflage wearing deely boppers which would stretch its neck to reach high leaves on trees. Over time its anatomy would slightly change, its neck would stretch and it's offspring would have longer necks too and then they'd stretch too and you get the picture. Clearly Lamarck was barking up the wrong tree, and even if he barked up the right tree it still wouldn't stretch his neck and allow him to pass that trait on to future generations.

I think you see where I'm going with this though. These epigenetic changes are acquired during a person's life and then passed onto their offspring, just like Lamarck's giraffes. That's obviously not a reason to ditch Darwin and go full Lamarckian but we can see that in certain situations where these modifications have escaped the epigenetic reset that there is an element of Lamarckian inheritance. Pretty wild. Also, I know I've been making a few jokes at Lamarck's expense but to be fair to him; he was mostly a botanist and plant epigenetics work a little bit differently to our own, with many more epigenetic markers passed down to offspring to allow for adaptation to environmental pressures.

Anyway, that's about all for today. Thank you so much for watching, please consider subscribing to the channel and drop a like on the video if you fancy. Hope to see you next time.

Citations:

Carrel, L., Willard, H. X-inactivation profile reveals extensive variability in X-linked gene expression in females. Nature 434, 400–404 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature03479

Radermacher, A. (2007). Extra or Missing Chromosomes. Available: https://genetics.thetech.org/ask/ask209. Last accessed 8th Jul 2021.

Lamb, N. (2005). Cytogenetics. In: Jorde, L, Little, P, Dunn, M and Subramaniam, S Encyclopedia of Genetics, Genomics, Proteomics and Bioinformatics. : John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Gruber, S, Haering, C & Nasmyth, K, (2003) Chromosomal Cohesin Forms a Ring, Cell, Volume 112, Issue 6, 765 - 777

Makrantoni, V & Marston, A. (2018). Cohesin and chromosome segregation. Current Biology. 28 (12), p688-p693.

Gilliland, W & Hawley, R. (2005). Cohesin and the Maternal Age Effect. Cell. 123 (3), p371-p373.

Hodges, C, Revenkova, E, Jessberger, R, Hassold, T & Hunt, P. (2005). SMC1β-deficient female mice provide evidence that cohesins are a missing link in age-related nondisjunction. Nature Genetics. 37 ( ), p1351–p1355.

#sexdetermination chromosomes science biology genetics

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happinessisdownsyndrome · 3 years

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Deanna and Baby

My husband and I were late bloomers to meeting each other. I was 31 and he was 33. We were set up by a mutual teacher friend. We are both teachers, but I teach kindergarten and he is high school Chemistry so we never would have crossed paths otherwise. Even before we were married, we knew we wanted to start a family together. Our families are our everything. We got married July 14, 2019 which was the 3 year anniversary from the day we met. It was the best day ever! Everything that happened afterward decided to challenge us to our core. We got pregnant fairly quickly only to find out at 9 weeks that I had what was called a blighted ovum. It meant my body thought I was pregnant, positive test, belly growing, but it was empty. What a mind mess that is! A few months after recovering, we got pregnant again, this time a chemical pregnancy. Since we had two unsuccessful pregnancies in a row, we were sent for extra testing. We both came back totally fine, but were sent to a fertility doctor to do cycle monitoring to help us along. After only a month of that, we were pregnant again! Terrifying to say the least that this pregnancy would be like the two beforehand. Everything was going great...very few symptoms...only slight nausea...and they assured me there was indeed a baby in there this time! Alleluia!

At 12 weeks I went in for some prenatal testing since I am 35 years old, they recommended it. I knew during the ultrasound that something wasn’t right. The usually chatty tech that I had gotten to know quite well over the time we were monitoring, was all of a sudden quiet and asking if I was ok over and over again. After the ultrasound I knew I needed to meet with my OB, so I hope she would reassure me that my anxieties weren’t real. She sat me down (alone, since you have to go to all your appointments solo due to Covid) and told me there was likely “something wrong with the baby.” At that point, we didn’t know what it was yet. Could be something chromosomal or a heart condition. I was a mess! I couldn’t get ahold of my husband as he was teaching online, but thankfully my mom was home and my doctor was able to call her, explain the situation and she could come get me and drive me home. I was devastated to say the least. Why was this happening again? I thought this baby would be healthy since it’s siblings were not. I was immediately given a requisition to do an NIPT to better confirm the diagnosis, but it takes 10 business days to get the results so we had a waiting game ahead of us.

Only 3 days after the “there might be something wrong” message, we received a video chat appointment with a geneticist. Since they didn’t know what was “wrong,” she went through all the possible scenarios. Overwhelming for sure! I held it together pretty well until she started rhyming off all the “what if’s” and what it would take to terminate this or pregnancy. What?! Terminate? We don’t even know what’s going on, and now you want to know what it’s going to take to lose our third baby in less than a year?! It took the full 2 weeks to get the results of our NIPT test. This whole time we had been connected with a genetic counsellor who was much less direct and abrupt in her questions and was willing to let us ask the questions we needed. The geneticist called back again to let us know we had a 90% chance that our baby has Down syndrome. Again, even though it was a possibility, you somehow think you’ll be the exception and the test must be wrong. I was heartbroken, but then I felt worse for feeling heartbroken. This was still our baby. Why was I so sad? I talked to a friend of mine who is a doctor (and also the mama to a special needs daughter who has since passed away) and she said, no. You need to let yourself grieve. Grieve what you thought would be and then when you’re ready, you’ll accept this new reality. My husband was so great through this whole thing too. He said, “you’re going to be the best mom to any baby we have. This is the card we have been dealt. We will figure it out.” He was right! They asked if I wanted to do the amnio to confirm that extra 10%, and while I initially said yes, I ended up cancelling it before the appointment. That 10% wasn’t going to change our minds on anything either way. Our friends and family have been incredibly supportive. This baby will be well loved with or without an extra chromosome.

I started researching Down syndrome and that was not a good idea. Everything was so negative online and it just became too much. I decided to connect with people online instead. People who have had the same experiences with us that could relate and would be willing to answer my questions. The cardiologist we met with was the first professional who sat us down and made us feel like this wasn’t the end of the world. He explained everything other doctors had found and what he would be looking for (complete with his own doodles and diagrams). Before we left, he actually said to me, “do you feel better about all this? That was my goal today. Your baby is going to do everything any other kid will do, they just might take a little longer or need a little more help.” He was absolutely right!

I’m now 31 weeks along with this perfect baby growing inside me. Excited and anxious for the weeks to come. Every kick or movement is a blessing. Every ultrasound is a nerve wracking experience, but one I will never take for granted. Baby is measuring small, but has a great looking heart! We cannot wait to meet them in a few short months and see just what amazing things we will all be able to accomplish as a family!

#down syndrome

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aion-rsa · 3 years

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Marvel’s WandaVision Episode 6: MCU Easter Eggs and Reference Guide

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

This article contains WANDAVISION spoilers through episode 6, possibly beyond, and for the wider MCU.

It’s Halloween in Westview, and WandaVision is going all out. From the most comics-accurate looks for Scarlet Witch, Vision, Quicksilver, and even Wiccan to an eerie “Wicked Witch of the West” getup for Agnes, this episode isn’t messing around with its pop culture references. Oh yeah, and the whole thing feels faintly like an episode of Malcolm in the Middle, too!

Let’s get to work, because there’s a lot to unpack on WandaVision episode 6…

Halloween in Westview

The episode’s title is “All-New Halloween Spooktacular!” which on its own already sounds like the kind of cover blurb you’d see on an issue of Marvel Comics. Marvel in particular is known for using the “All-New!” designation, sometimes in titles for the books themselves.

The first issue of the second The Vision and the Scarlet Witch series from Marvel Comics took place on Halloween night, so the pair have a history of canonical adventures around the holiday. That story had absolutely nothing to do with the events of this episode, though.

Sitcom Influences

The format and intro are definitely supposed to resemble Malcolm in the Middle, which began in January 2000. Tommy and Billy both break the fourth wall to talk to the viewer just like Malcolm (Frankie Muniz). The theme song practically tells you to stop questioning the reality of Westview and just enjoy what’s going on. How very Mystery Science Theater 3000 of them.

We wrote more about the sitcom influences of episode 6 here.

Pietro, Peter, and Quicksilver

Nope, nothing complicated about the whole Peter/Pietro/Quicksilver thing at all. Nothing we had to write an entire article about to try and make sense of, nossir.

The recap makes sure to show Avengers: Age of Ultron footage just to drive home that we have two different versions of Quicksilver here.

Interestingly, Peter’s speed effect is very much how his power was represented in Age of Ultron, not how it was in the X-Men films. He seems to have at least SOME of the memories of MCU Pietro…assuming that’s who he is in the first place.

Tommy says Billy is afraid that Uncle Pietro is a vampire. Well, we do see him in an undead form later on, so close enough! Plus there’s a strong chance that he represents an entity that’s trying to siphon energy/magic from Wanda.

Pietro is quick to point out that he has the “XY chromosome.” Any excuse for him to announce the letter X, considering which version of Pietro we’re talking about.

He mentions “‘Uncle Peter’ to the rescue.” The Evan Peters version of Quicksilver was referred to as Peter Maximoff.

Pietro dresses as the comic version of Quicksilver, as does Tommy, who has the same powers (while claiming to be dressing as the cooler twin, a slam on both Billy and his mother).

At one point, right before Pietro and the kids run off, Tommy describes something as “kick-ass” and Wanda repeats, “Kick-Ass?” out loud. The movie Kick-Ass starred Aaron Taylor-Johnson (the MCU Quicksilver) as the titular character while Evan Peters (the other Quicksilver) played his best friend.

Pietro and Tommy say, “I feel the need for speed!” The quote is from 1986’s Top Gun. Also, Tommy’s superhero name in the comics is Speed, so there’s that. If we stretch realllllly (unnecessarily!) far, we can connect the upcoming Top Gun sequel to Marvel, as it stars Miles Teller who played Reed Richards in Josh Trank’s woeful Fantastic Four reboot.

Wanda lashes out at Hex Pietro when he is cavalier about Vision’s fate – “It’s not like your dead husband can die twice.” The taunt is super cruel and doesn’t feel like something either version of her twin would say. Wanda’s violent reaction certainly speaks volumes about just how attached to this manifestation of Mr. Maximoff she is – not very.

Wanda doesn’t seem to fully trust this version of Pietro, who knows a suspicious amount about what’s really going on here. He’s asking a lot of painful, pointed questions she’s not ready to address.

Peter’s tattoo says “MoM” – Multiverse of Madness, Mother of Mutants, Magneto’s Own Mutants, or a red herring? We’re sure the internet will have fun theorizing regardless.

That You, Mephisto?

Some of Uncle Pete’s exclamations have strong Mephisto energy “Unleash hell, demon spawn!” “The kids need a father figure” “Damnit, if Westview, New Jersey isn’t charming as Hell…” Has the rumored Marvel Comics villain behind all this integrated himself in the The Hex passing as Pietro? We shall have to see.

The town’s theatre is called the Coronet. Classic poem ‘The Coronet’ is written by an English metaphysical poet called Andrew MARVELL. It’s about a dude who knows the sins of man led to the death of Christ. He tries to make a new crown for Christ’s head in a bid to atone, but finds that there is sin in this too, as the devil is entwined in it and therefore he might achieve some glory with this new creation. Fitting.

Wiccan and Speed

Billy and Tommy are starting to resemble their comic book counterparts more and more. Billy in particular is wearing his “Wiccan” costume from the comics, and Tommy continues to conform to his “Speed” color scheme…except when he dresses like his Uncle Pietro as Quicksilver.

Ellis Avenue

Ellis Avenue is an odd reference. Warren Ellis has written many, many comics, but nothing of note with the characters involved in WandaVision. The closest thing would be Marvel Ruins, a dark, cynical, horror version of the Marvel Universe where everything went wrong. Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver had very minor appearances in there.

The closest other thing would be Nextwave: Agents of H.A.T.E., a probably non-canonical series that teamed Monica Rambeau, Machine Man, Boom Boom, Elsa Bloodstone, and The Captain teamed up to fight…lots of weird shit, to be honest…including several reality altering threats.

Agnes

In her daze, Agnes mentions getting lost, with Vision pointing out that she supposedly grew up in this town. Agnes also talks about making a “wrong turn.” This might have something to do with Agnes’ claim in the first episode that she didn’t actually come to town until AFTER Wanda and Vision had (jokingly citing a visit from her mother-in-law as the reason).

Agnes’ crazed laughter goes perfectly well with her witch costume, giving off some wicked Wizard of Oz vibes.

Agnes’ license plate number is either DA1 B2C or 0A1 B2C. Whichever it is, this is an incredibly generic plate number, either a nod to the artificiality of Wanda’s overall illusion or perhaps an indicator that Agnes is creating this as something that looks “fake” in order to further blend in. Which brings us to…

Is it possible that Agnes is “faking” her confusion here and in episode 5?

Similarly, her “naughty” sweatpants had a rather sinister, possibly demonic, font to them, didn’t they?

Scarlet Witch

Wanda describes her Halloween costume as a “Sokovian fortune teller” while dressed as her comic self. Vision is also his comic self, but is identified as a professional wrestler.

Vision

Vision is apparently supposed to be dressed like a Mexican wrestler, but c’mon, even though it’s no longer era-appropriate there was a Honeymooners-esque “Man From Mars” joke right there!

When Vision collapses to his knees on the ground with his cape blowing in the wind, the shot is composed much like his death scene in Avengers: Infinity War. Wanda’s magic is again the culprit of his demise, albeit unintentionally this time.

Vision showing how selfless he is again – even as he’s being ripped apart he’s trying to save the people of Westview instead. Another pure reminder of Vision’s introduction in Avengers: Age of Ultron when he proved he was worthy enough to wield Mjolnir.

Vision apparently has no memory of being a member of the Avengers, which is certainly strange.

Thanks to Wanda, Vision is an Avenger Disassembled! Get it? Anyone? No?

The Yo Magic Commercial

Yo Magic is a yogurt snack, but the commercial has a real strong Shark Bites vibe. Shark Bites were terrible, you probably would have died too if that was all you were allowed to eat on a desert island.

“Snack on Yo Magic!” MIGHT indicate that someone or something is feeding off of Wanda’s deal here, or perhaps she is channeling the mystical energy of someone even stronger than herself to keep The Hex alive.

There’s yet another reference to the Infinity Stones in this commercial. This ad features a kid alone on a desert island who grimly ends up looking like ol’ Red Skull on Vormir – he’s the sole (Soul) survivor. There’s no doubt in our minds these commercials are all about both the stones and horrible moments from Wanda’s past.

Cataract

SWORD director Hayward’s top secret project “Cataract” included experiments on Vision’s body, as revealed by Darcy. A cataract is “a cloudy area in the lens of the eye that leads to a decrease in vision” – has Hayward weaponized Vision? He’s definitely up to something nefarious.

The Cataract is also one of the stages in X-Men vs. Street Fighter and Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter.

Westview

The town motto on the altered billboard when the Hex expands is “Westview: Home is Where You Make It.” This was less visible on the earlier version, although the juxtaposition of the old and new billboards calls to mind the “Twin Pines/Lone Pine” sign from Back to the Future.

The Coronet theatre’s marquee features The Incredibles (2004) and The Parent Trap. The former is about a superhero family who retires to the suburbs, and the latter is about reunited twins! Both properties are owned by Disney. The Incredibles have often been likened to the Fantastic Four, and in September, 2019 director Brad Bird publicly shot down rumors that he was in the running to helm Marvel’s First Family reboot. The voice of Frozone/Lucius Best in The Incredibles is none other than Samuel L. Jackson aka the MCU’s own Nick Fury! It’s likely that The Parent Trap in question here is the 1998 version, given the time period. This would help place this “era” of Westview somewhere between 1998 and 2004.

Wanda expands The Hex to save Vision, sucking in most of SWORD and Darcy, too. Since we now know that when you are enveloped by the barrier it changes you on a cellular level, Wanda could accidentally be creating a range of new superheroes. How much bigger can The Hex get as Wanda’s anger grows and how many people will it affect?

Monica Rambeau

Darcy unveils evidence that Monica’s DNA has been altered by crossing the barrier of The Hex twice. It seems like she’s well on the path to becoming her superpowered comics counterpart. WandaVision is turning out to be our longform superhero origin story for Monica Rambeau! Of course, Darcy has also now been pulled through the barrier – will she be affected in the same way?

Darcy and Jimmy Woo

Monica and Woo are off to meet her “guy” who will help them – who will it be? We have our theories.

Darcy is seen wearing a Mickey Mouse watch when she’s hacking into Hayward’s files. Probably no need to point out this Disney connection!

Among the names of the people who drop down when Darcy is emailing Jimmy Woo:

James Gadd – works in post-production at Marvel Studios

James Alexander – a visual effects producer on WandaVision

Back in episode 4, Darcy referred to the other people she was travelling with to the SWORD camp as “the full clown car.” The joke pays off again in episode 6 when a bunch of SWORD gets sucked into The Hex and turned into clowns.

As far as we know, Jimmy has still not identified the Westview man in witness protection he’s been searching for since episode 4. This mystery will survive another week. What if it’s…Pietro? Nah. Unless…

Random Marvel and Halloween Stuff

In the background, one kid is dressed as an off-brand Sub-Zero from Mortal Kombat. The first Mortal Kombat came out in 1992, fitting a more ’90s aesthetic.

Someone is dressed as Jason Voorhees, and his sweater is striped like Freddy Krueger’s, the peanut butter to Jason’s jelly. The iconic slashers faced off in 2003’s Freddy vs. Jason, so it’s a mash-up that suits the time period.

Wanda tossed Quicksilver over some fake tombstones. One of them is for Janell Sammelman. Janell Sammelman worked on WandaVision as a first assistant director.

Pietro and the kids are shotgunning “Kane Cola” which on the one hand sounds like it could be an “extreme” ‘90s/early oughts drink like Jolt Cola or Surge (remember those ridiculously stupid commercials?), but with all the X-Men teasing they’re doing, maybe Garrison Kane was a soft drink magnate in the MCU before his powers manifested. No? Ok.

Could Wanda asking about the kid in the orphanage who “had the skin thing” be a reference to maybe another mutant kid? Former Brotherhood colleague Toad?

One of the houses is made up with a sign that says “Macabre Mansion.” They’re …probably not referencing best-forgotten Marvel villain Madam Macabre or similarly obscure Moon Knight villain Dansen Macabre (get it?).

During a flashback, Billy and Tommy are shown playing Dance Dance Revolution, which came out for home consoles in 1999. Also, in their room, on the right, is that Dogpool? A dog doll colored in the style of Deadpool?

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

Wanda closes apps (people) to reduce load times. Or maybe they’re video game NPCs. In any case, it’s disturbing.

The post Marvel’s WandaVision Episode 6: MCU Easter Eggs and Reference Guide appeared first on Den of Geek.

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#aion-rsa #Den of Geek

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almasidaliano · 3 years

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Here’s the thing about Religion:

so i'm not religious. i am spiritual. to each's own, whatever you believe in, im simply happy you believe in something.

i grew up christian, i guess. uh baptist, ame, and non denominational. resonated most with non demoninational, even gave sermon when i was 15. and i loved it, truly. church is what threw me for a loop the most in religion, and members of the congregation. it's like hard to want to follow something when followers aren't people you would imagine when you think "Christ-like" you know?

i have always been skeptical about christianity. about religion in general really. so you talk to god and he hears you and he gets back to you with a signal or sign, a blessing or a lesson etc. very seldom people go through these experiences where they have truly heard the voice of God or seen some silohuette or something. its all about faith. and that wasn't the issue. "walk by faith not by sight" right? okay. it was the discrimination. the way people take it upon themselves to condemn others. the amount of sins people commit by simply having a judgemental conversation in a holy building is beyond me. the way the pastors feed off of the congregation. churches should be tax exempt meaning they are getting plenty to sustain their building from the government. why is the congregation dropping money in collection plates?

tides and offerings. paying dues. what about buying food for someone who was hungry? or simply giving some money to someone in need? why is it you go through your week being christ like giving tides and offerings selfishly whole heartedly, just to come to church and twice maybe three times a collection plate goes around while the pastor giving some motivational speech about how he know you got it; knowing you probably don't so to speak.

the most repetitive thing in the bible is not to judge and christians have got to be some of the most judgemental people i have ever known. when it comes to religion so many believers want to passively play god. they want to decide who is worth saving and who is condemned, who is living right, and what they need to be doing with their life. and that is not their job nor their place. you love thy neighbor. it never said unless xyz. no. simply love thy neighbor. it means be kind. love can be passive. it's treating humans like humans and not animals. common decency; which like common sense is less than common.

each religion has like its commandments you know those clear set of rules. i personally never thought these were things that needed to be clarified on the do not do list, however society. when you really break it down though, it is simple. be a good person. don't steal, don't kill. don't commit adultry (being loyal and faithful). etc. there are hundreds of stories in the bible. each open for each individual's interpretation.

if the title of the Creator is God then God is a woman. male and female exist yes i just think there is a little bit left off to the story. if there's a battle of the sexes women are the superior. first, there's father time and mother nature. time is a construct, it does not actually exist. ashes to ashes dust to dust. we all come from the earth.

see how the white man created a male god and sent his male son to save us all. "this is a man's world" (the Devil is a white man. and God is a black woman.) that is true, why? because Earth is the Devil's playground. what is so crazy is that the devil is this symbol of desire and guilty pleasures, rebellion and such and here we have the power to choose. life is about experiences. thinking for yourself doesn't make you a menace, how else do you learn? self knowledge is the best knowledge.

the Nation of Islam, is the prominent black religion. Catholicism and Scientology are the most prominent white religions. Catholicism enables sodomy and pedophilia. Scientology is a tax exempt cult, pretty much controlling the media and lowkey the United States. the Nation partnered with them and have been getting some heat from it, however i think they are trying to take it down. as time has progressed, everyone has gotten smarter. talk about a trojan horse.

Scientology and Catholicism kind of rule the country. all the many branch religions from catholicism just get ranked under that, however those two mainly. Scientology is a full blown brainwashing cult. they are the abusive partner in a domestic violence situation. most religion is. it's like religion or life. religion or family. religion or you know? more division. Scientology is more extreme in the sense that they really have policies and such enforced behind the rules and expectations. However, the same dynamic is kind of true for other religions. people get shunned and become estranged from their families frequently due to religious disagreements. it is truly disheartening because if someone is supposedly lost and you are their loved one, or simply a member of the following, why wouldnt you keep supporting them in the sense of like love companionship an ear to listen. instead, they force people to choose between trusting themselves and trusting their religion.

if your religion makes you question yourself take a look at it. you may be fucking up, you may not. however, blind trust will lead you off a cliff. almost all if not all religions talk about Jesus in one way or the other. there is truth in everything see? the Bible says its blasphemy to read another holy text. i want to find a Bible in the original script before people came with their intentions and made it what they wanted.

let's talk homosexuality for a moment. now i dont know how other religions work, however in christianity, christians love to condemn a homosexual. first thing, WHAT DOES WHO SOMEONE ELSE LOVES HAVE ANYTHING TO DO WITH ANY OUTSIDER? nothing. nothing at all. it has never been anyone's place to tell someone who they can and cannot love. there are scriptures, however they talk about pedetry and sodomy, rape, and male prostitution. crazy thing, it speaks a lot about males not committing homosexual acts but im pretty sure only comes up once about women and the topic was still men.

here's what i think: like i said god is a woman. so if the stories still hold true, humans were created right? so male and man have prefixes. these are word parts that come before. adding these prefixes creates woman and female. in that, i feel as though women were here first. (probably considering all babies start as females and then whilst developing testes drop or don't.) men cannot carry children, they don't have the nutrients in their bodies, they too have nipples however they don't produce milk. men were created as a tool. like a whole ass donor or carrier. men do not like to be "second in command". they feel like in order to be a man and wear the pants, they must do all the providing while a woman does the nurturing. whereas women are multifaceted and great at multitasking. men are constantly thinking like squirrels trying to get nuts. that's all they are here for lol. women could rule the world.

toats just a random theory: what if eve eating the apple and gaining knowledge was the knowledge of true love. like what if shorty realized she aint love dude they were just made for each other lmao. like men are here for reproduction. and to help when a woman's hand are full. i mean like they are in the garden and shit all happy and shit then shorty eat the apple give it to dude and they like oh no we naked. so they go find bushes and leaves and make some lil clothes or coverings. its the knowledge of good and evil so what if their union was evil lol in the sense of bad. like they get caste out stay together have two sons and one kill the other on some hateful envious shit. men provoke violence and evil. they are so prideful. so its like men love women, because they were made to help repopulate and to some extent protect. that's why men think with their dick heads. maybe that's why homosexuality is a "sin" or they try and press the issue; because of rape and sodomy. also, in effort to keep women unhappy since men were too. like it says man and man shouldn't be together, blatantly. not woman. man. because it was unconsensual, and they are here for reproduction so they kinda wasting product getting off elsewhere if you know get what i am saying. lol its a loose theory just popped in my head. however, it kind of makes sense. this lifetime we learning and experiencing things. at the beginning of the lifetime there was woman and then male was created with the tools needed to procreate. as life progressed, there are now ways for same sex female couples to have children. currently only girls can be born due to the lack of "Y" chromosome, however in due time. it is still presently possible for a child have two birth mothers in the present. that is what life is for, the condension of One Sound Consciousness (basically the big bang except not how they described it.). the condension of the Consciousness means when the Creator decided on this lifetime and created every single thing in it us included in order to experience each and every part of their creation. the Creator knows all, can create all, however has not experienced all; that is what lifetimes are for. the experience. the knowledge gained.

always trust the vibes. energy never lies. your body is a radar. you must protect your peace. meditation is like prayer, except broader. in my opinion you let go of so much weight and you gain so much clarity. do not stop believing. always believe in something. mainly yourself. if nothing else. the things that you eat matter too. there are religions against eating pork, all slaves had was pig parts and pig's food. personally, i think it strengthened our bodies against more diseases and such like made us immune.

religion is simply something to believe in. spirituality is actuality. energy is undeniable. you can feel vibrations. and if you can't open your third eye because you are sleep and we need to be woke. we are superhuman. we have superpowers. for centuries, we have been under a curse of mental slavery. (sound familiar? this is why our ancestors laid down and took it. this is why my melanated friends still laying down and taking it.

having faith supposed to make you stop being afraid to die. so do yall not actually believe in something? because i get (ish) in general not wanting to die if you can help it. however, what part of the life you living is worth living truly? if you sat down and looked at the cards you were dealt, could you honestly say "nah im good, it could be worse ima ride it out." or some shit? would you truly rather live this life than fight for the life you want, the life you deserve and maybe die in the process? so what if they gone kill you anyway?

you know they out to kill us anyway. this is the land of the free and the home of the brave. you gotta be brave to be free. we caged or running the streets. "Ye though I walk throw the valley of the shadow of death i shall fear no evil-" trust yourself and give it to the universe.

We will prevail. We will prevail. We will prevail.

your God already knows your heart, learn yourself and fight like hell for peace, equality, and harmony.

-Almasi

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goron-king-darunia · 7 years

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Identifying as a woman is not a quality of being a woman.

Oh boy, a transphobe! And I know exactly what post you’re here about, too!Tell me, sweet, hateful, anon, if identifying as a woman is not part of being a woman, then what is? Because, you see, there are many many people who are genetically female (XX Chromosomes), hormonally female (produce primarily estrogen and progesterone with some testosterone) and physically female (they have breasts, a vagina, vulva, average sized clitoris, all that jazz) and you would think that perhaps from these features, that this person you are looking at might be a woman. But here’s the rub. Almost certainly there will be cases where this assumption is true. But more importantly, the person I just described identifies as a man. Therefore, to me, that vagina-having, XX chromosomed, estrogen-producing human being is a man. Because I care about what people want instead of just what people appear to be. They’re not lying about their genetics or anything like that. They’re giving me the key piece. Because despite what you think, all that other information about them is either wrong (i.e. not what they want to present as and would like changed) or it’s irrelevant to their identity (they’re non-binary or don’t give a hoot about their body because gender is a construct and has no basis in physical reality.) So, you see, my dear angry transphobe, gender is not the same thing as physical sex or hormones or chromosomes because all that could change and this person would still identify as a man. Therefore, if is one’s gender identity, what someone feels like they are, or what someone sees themself as or identifies as, that is truly important. Because, you see, we are all just brains trapped in skulls that are trapped in fleshy prisons. And if our fleshy bits don’t look like what our brain thinks they should or if our brain goes “you know what, I don’t hate the vagina, but I hate being called a woman when I’m a man inside.” then you, my friend, are known as trans! Because guess what, no matter what you want to simplify everything else down to, it’s never black and white. There are intersex “women” (or if you will, people who are AFAB) that are born with both vaginas and extraordinarily large clitorises that resemble penises more than clitorises. So, if the clitoris is sufficiently large, doctors opt to keep it, but sew the vagina closed in order to better facilitate the “normal life” of a human they have deemed “a boy”. Sometimes it’s the other way around and what should be the penis is trimmed down and the rest is reshaped into a vagina. Genitals look really weird, friend. And if they don’t quite fit our gender binary for easy identification, we chop them up and make them look normal even if they don’t end up matching the child’s gender identity in the future. So being a woman is not simply the quality of “having a vagina” because firstly and most obviously, there are men who have vaginas. Secondly, what constitutes a vagina is not always clear. Is it still a vagina if the clitoris is really really huge and phallic? How close to a dick can a clitoris get before you decide “That’s not a clit, it’s a penis.” Where is the cut off (literally) point?Being a woman is also not really clearly correlated with having XX chromosomes either. There are lots of chromosome “errors” or just plain weirdness that can happen. You can have just X or just Y. You can have XXY, XXX, XXXX, you can literally have any number of excessive X chromosomes because the body is weird. And not all of these correlate to a clear cut “woman” or “man”.Finally, you have hormones. There are plenty of men who produce too much estrogen, or their bodies react differently to testosterone and they don’t grow beards or body hair. There are women who produce too much testosterone and do grow beards and lots of thick body hair. And I mean “real women” as you might call them or “AFAB people.” I’m talking people with normal vaginas and breasts who have XX chromosomes and identify as female who are growing full, Dumbledore beards. Because hormones are a bitch. These people used to be sideshow “freaks” because “Wow, hurr durr, someone with breasts growing a beard? Sure is strange! Let’s pay money to laugh at it, what a horrible creature!” Because transphobia was funny way back then, huh? “Can’t be a woman because it has a beard but can’t be a man because tiddy. Must be a monster, let’s gawk at it!” Also, please remember that really tall people and really short people were also sideshow freaks back then, and you probably wouldn’t make fun of Tyrion or a basketball star nowadays, right? So why would you tease people that don’t fit the gender binary?So as I pointed out, there are a lot of ways to deviate in all 3 of the makers transphobes like to use for saying “trans people are just freaks regecting their natural physique/genes/hormones.” And I can hear you saying “Okay, well, then how about we define a woman as only someone who is XX, makes more estrogen and progesterone and reacts properly to it, and has breasts and a proper vagina. That and only that is a woman.” Except, like I stated at the very beginning, if that person you just described identifies as a man, then they’re a man. And also that’s just really narrow and rude and you exclude all the perfectly decent women who identify as women but only deviate on one of those factors. “I identify as a woman, and have breasts and make estrogen, my chromosomes are XX, but because I had a really big clitoris as a baby, the doctors decided I was male when I was born and just sewed up my vagina.” I think that’s as much a woman as anyone else. Or “I have a perfect vagina and body, I make estrogen and react normally to it. I identify as a woman, but my genes are actually XXXX.” That’s just as much a woman as the last person.So you see, if you try to define a woman as something overly simple. You end up with something that excludes more people than you want it to. The only sure fire way to decide if someone is a woman or not is to ASK THEM HOW THEY IDENTIFY and then accept it. Because if you strip everything else away and just ask a brain in a jar through a computer “Hey, are you a man or a woman?” All that matters is what the brain tells you, right? So yeah, I know I’m feeding the trolls with this, but I’ve been thinking about this for a long time before I even got this ask, and now’s my time to get it all out there. So yeah, crawl back under your bridge you transphobe troll and miss me with that transphobic shit. Good day.

#transphobic anon #transphobia #rant #argument #trans positivity #I can take off that last tag if trans people get mad at it #but I feel that since I'm arguing in their favor #maybe this counts as positivity?#and maybe this argument can help someone better explain the concept to others?#or maybe you all can rip me a new one and tell me where I went wrong #XD #Anonymous

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wheredidhiseyebrowsgo · 7 years

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Hey!! This blog is literally my life and you guys are amazing for dedicating so much time and effort into it!! ❤️💗💖💟💜💛💚💙 I was wondering if you had a tag where someone gives Stiles a makeover or replaces his wardrobe?? because those fics are usually hilarious and I love them... Thank you so much and thank you for being awesome ❤️

Yup! - Anastasia

the very best by Rrrowr

(1/1 I 546 I General I Stere)

“Is this really necessary?” Stiles asks. “No matter what I’m wearing, all they’re going to see when I walk in is a kid who wants to play with the big boys.”

the swap by dansunedisco

(1/1 I 748 I General I Sterek)

“Scott, we’re not in Grease. I’m not Sandy. Derek’s not Danny Zucco,” Stiles ranted, slapping away his best friend’s lightning fast hands away; the very hands that were trying to wrangle him into a letterman jacket. “Dude! Stop trying to Pink Lady me!”

Written for anon who asked: "I wish you would write a fic where Derek and Stiles are both in high school and one of them gets a makeover as part of their attempt to get the other to notice them."

This Is Not A Makeover by i_kinda_like_writing

(1/1 I 5,699 I General I Sterek I Girl!Stiles)

“Thanks.”“What did he say?” Derek asks instead of saying the more classic “You’re welcome”, but kudos to Derek for being original.“His name’s Spencer and he puts out on the first date.”

*~*~*

Or, a story in which everything is the same, except Stiles was born with two X chromosomes (he's a girl).

21 Never Been Jump Street by RedBlazer

(2/? I 15,133 I Teen I Sterek)

"Isn't the point that I'm supposed to blend in?" Stiles asks, pointing at his wardrobe mostly made up of Costco pants, t-shirts, and flannel.

Danny rolls his eyes, "Stiles, if you show up dressed like this, the other kids are going to think you're a Narc. Also, they're gonna think you're a loser. The whole point is that you need to blend in with the popular crowd. Popular kids don't dress like they ran through the clearance rack at Old Navy on their way to class."

Stiles frowns. "That's harsh. I think everyone in this room could use a crash course in sensitivity training."

Lydia turns on him, poking him in the chest with one of her sharp nails. "Do you want to make friends, or what Stilinski?"

"Ow!" Stiles rubs where she's bruised him. "I want to make friends!"

We Prefer Good Love to Gold by i_am_girlfriday

(9/9 I 63,371 I Explicit I Sterek)

This week on Millionaire Matchmaker: Supernatural Edition - Derek Hale, a thirty-year-old millionaire venture capitalist and beta werewolf, finally gives into his sisters’ pressures to start dating again and reluctantly agrees to use the services of a supernatural matchmaker. Stiles Stilinski, at age twenty-five, just sold his start-up to Google for undisclosed millions, and ends up on a reality dating show when his true alpha best friend tries to help him get over his broken heart.

***

The last thing anyone expects is for the two eligible bachelors to fall in love with each other behind the scenes.

#teen wolf #sterek #stiles stilinski #derek hale #makeover #aurum1802

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catsvrsdogscatswin · 5 years

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Higurashi Month 2019, Day 8: Clear and Transparent

Keiichi eyed the clear, glistening water with misgiving. Rena, of course, was already ankle-deep in the rushing stream that flowed through Hinamizawa, and looking at him expectantly. Even the school swimsuit she wore did not distract him from the obvious threat of the water she stood in.

The brunet swallowed hard, shifting from bare foot to bare foot.

It was bad enough to admit that he didn’t know how to swim, at all. And it wasn’t weird, no matter what Rena insisted –he’d just never had the opportunity or reason to learn, what with living in the city and mostly focusing on his grades. But then Mion had gleefully announced two days ago that they were going to the waterpark in Okinomiya for some club activities (and to hang out), and unless he wanted to risk the shame, and in all likelihood punishment games, for merely standing awkwardly in the shallows or on the deck for the duration of their visit, Keiichi needed to learn to swim now.

So with a reason given, he had to make an opportunity, and it was with a cringing sort of deference that he had pulled Rena aside on their walk home and mumbled that she needed to teach him how to swim.

Secretly.

There was a reason he’d asked Rena instead of Mion, or Shion, or any of the others, really: Keiichi knew the humiliation that would be heaped upon him, should the mint-haired club leader discover his weakness. Rena was understanding. She could teach him, and she could keep her mouth shut about it afterwards…or so he hoped.

“Keiichi-kun, you won’t be able to learn to swim if you don’t even get in the water.” Rena pointed out with grim logic, smiling at him playfully. He scowled and reluctantly padded forward into the water, feeling it lap around his bare ankles and wash away the dust of the rocky beach. It felt nice. He could smell all the tiny green and growing things in the water, along with the scent of wet, sun-warmed stones. A few ribbonlike flickers of silver fish swarmed about his feet, then retreated just as swiftly as he moved again.

“So, Keiichi-kun, what is it you don’t like about swimming?” Rena asked, tucking a strand of her auburn hair behind her ear as she sloshed over, blinking at him with benevolent curiosity. Keiichi flushed and averted his eyes from her swimsuit.

“Its not so much I’m scared…” he mumbled uncomfortably, scratching the back of his head. “It’s more like I don’t know what to do with it and don’t trust it on that account.”

Rena rolled her bared shoulders in a causal shrug. “Oh, well then, there’s no reason for you to be worried. We can just get you used to the water, and then you won’t have to be concerned about it at all!”

She beamed at him, and Keiichi yelped as she grabbed his wrist and pulled him over into a sitting position with a shriek and a splash of water.

“You know, if I wanted to be yanked around, I’d have asked Mion to teach me…” he said grouchily as he shifted a knee so that it wasn’t pressed so hard against the rocks, shaking his head as droplets of water were flung everywhere from his tousled hair. Rena flushed and dropped her eyes.

“Sorry, Keiichi-kun…I thought if it was sudden, you wouldn’t have time to get antsy about it.”

“Eh, I’m fine.” he hummed with a shrug, seeing the puppy-like droop of her body and bright blue eyes. “It’s just like a bath, to be honest.”

Rena’s eyes sparkled as she perked up again, brightening at his reassurance. “Yeah! Its just like a bath! That’s what I wanted to teach you, Keiichi-kun! Now swimming should be easy! Just follow me out into the deeper parts!”

She shuffled backwards in the water, and with a gulp, Keiichi followed her, carefully shifting over the polished stones of the streambed on his knees, and occasionally his hands, for the slick portions of flat rocks covered with algae. The water crept up higher around his body, until it touched his ribcage, and Rena, who was crouching, was immersed up to her neck.

“There now, Keiichi-kun!” Rena said brightly. “Try to paddle around a little, and if you feel uncomfortable or anything, you can just put your feet down!”

Experimentally, Keiichi put his hands palm-down on the stones and swung out his legs, letting the slower flow of the shallower current tug at his body as the water crept up to his own neck. It didn’t seem to be anything he couldn’t actively handle, and he swished his legs a little, trying to mimic the things he had seen in movies and been told about in books. It took a little while, but he slowly got the hang of pushing against the current to support himself, and of creating little eddies and currents of his own with his powerful young legs to keep himself afloat as he experimentally eased up on his arms, carrying his own weight by kicking and by floating.

A near-dunking soon had Rena showing him how to hold his breath and puff out his chest to float unassisted, how to keep air in his lungs and water from rushing down his nose without pinching it shut, and how to paddle with both arms and legs, face-up and face-down. They didn’t have any goggles, but Rena told him he could try to keep his eyes open underwater if he felt like it, even though it wasn’t very good for his eyes here and would be even worse in the chlorine-filled pool at the park.

Not to mention the only things to see here were rocks, the tiny silver fish, and Rena.

Well, Rena might be worth seeing, but it wasn’t anything he couldn’t see when they both surfaced for air. She looked really cute in the school swimsuit, though he kept his mind from pursuing any further down that train of thought because for one thing, it would be pathetically easy to drown him in vengeance right now, and for another, it was part of his ongoing crusade to Not Think of Club Members As Girls, At All, Ever.

Keiichi might have been an honors student, but he was also a shut-in studier, which meant his experiences with the X-chromosome-inclined were somewhat limited. But he had still seen a lot, with his former classmates and all their summer dramas, and he did not want to drag that petty, hormonal nonsense into the perfect synchronicity of the Hinamizawa Club. He and his friends went together like well-oiled cogs in a machine, and Keiichi knew that if he started looking at anyone in the club In That Way, things would start to fall apart. If any of the girls liked him except the one he was making goo-goo eyes at, there would be jealousy, and even if everything went perfectly and he and, say, Rena went out together as a couple with no disagreements from anyone in the club, the club would still start to fracture, because he and Rena would prioritize he-and-Rena things over club things, and in the club, lose their merciless, battle-royal mentality towards each other, the one thing that kept all the club members sharp and prevented an ignominious defeat.

So yeah. Keiichi was not looking at the swimsuit, or the person it was covering, or how well the person in the swimsuit fit the swimsuit –nope, not at all. Yup, strictly platonic looking, that was how he was doing it.

The afternoon passed a lot faster than Keiichi thought it would.

“Thanks for teaching me this, Rena.” he said as the sun began to sink in the west, striking rays of gold over the rustling treetops as he rubbed himself down with a color-smudged, paint-smelling white towel. (He was going to have to put in a word with his dad about using the house towels for his work…again.)

“No problem, Keiichi-kun!” Rena chirped, shaking out her own pastel-colored towel from where it had been laying upon the dusty ground too long, and carelessly sweeping it over her shoulders like a cloak. She grinned at him as her wet hair fanned across her cheeks and the back of her neck like a lick of copper flame. “It was really fun! And now, when we go to the waterpark, Mion won’t tease you as much!”

Keiichi huffed under his breath, pulling the towel down from his damp hair to lay it around his shoulders in the same manner as Rena. “Yeah, as much.” he groaned in dismal agreement, turning to where they had left their sandals, higher up on the bank. He hitched his onto his feet, watching as Rena did the same, before they made their way up the slight, rocky incline towards the dirt path.

His back stiffened as Rena’s arms stole around his wrist, cheeks flushing. “Uh- Rena, you, um-”

“Sorry, Keiichi-kun, but my shoes aren’t really suited to walking on rock.” Rena apologized absently, squeezing his arm a little closer to her smooth side as she wobbled slightly, the flat of her sandals slipping a bit on the polished, rounded rocks.

“Yes, that’s it!” Keiichi almost shouted, face turning red. “I mean –yes, um, good, I don’t mind. Thank you. Uh, for trusting me, I mean.”

“No problem~!” Rena giggled, the light dancing of her bubbly voice making it very difficult to keep his thoughts Strictly Platonic as they walked and she kept her hold on his arm. “We’re friends, aren’t we, Keiichi-kun? Close friends, who trust each other implicitly.”

“Y-Yeah…” Keiichi coughed, rubbing the back of his head with his free hand anxiously. “Just friends…”

***

An irk mark throbbed on the back of Rena’s head as she waved to Keiichi-kun, though an innocently blissful smile was still pasted on her face.

The auburn-haired teen had been sure that this little swimming lesson would be enough to net her a confession, or at least make her own interest in Keiichi-kun clear. Maybe she was being too subtle for him? She’d thought that holding his arm all the way to her house was enough of a hint, but apparently Keiichi was even denser than she’d thought.

Well, at least this way there was no chance of him finding out that she had suggested the waterpark excursion to Mion.

AN: As a diehard Keiichi/Mion shipper, this one was weird to write, but the idea got stuck in my head nonetheless. And besides, in the interests of fairness, I don’t feel its proper to force my ship exclusively on the readers of this prompt list. Bless Keiichi for being as dumb as a bag of hammers, and thus making every ship interpretation possible, ‘cause he’s sure as hell not going to notice the difference in how the girls are treating him.

#Higurashi no Naku Koro ni #Higurashi When They Cry #Higurashi Month #Rena Ryugu #Rena Ryuguu #rena ryugū #Keiichi Maebara #Rena/Keiichi #Higurashi Month 2019

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enst1000bk · 5 years

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Earth is Dying and Scientists Need Help to Fix It

In the last chapter the textbook identifies that there is a problem, the Earth is dying, and the second chapter opens up by highlighting the people trying to fix it- scientists! The textbook introduces the readers to the scientific method so they can better understand how scientists approach problems, and uses the case study of Bormann and Likens as an example of the process. In this, they find that trees help soil stay in place and the soil helps trees retain water and nutrients. Next, the textbooks introduces useful skills that a scientists should have and while most seem pretty arbitrary, there were a few that stuck out because I had never thought of them as skills related to the science community. For instance, creativity always seems like a good trait to have in the arts for obvious reasons but it never occurred to me that a scientist would need to be creative in order to come up with new hypotheses and ways to test them. Another important point the book brought up is to check for the legitimacy of information, especially since we live in the day and age of the Internet. I just thought this was interesting because I’ve never seen an academic source like a textbook mention something like that and for some reason it struck me as being oddly self-aware. Next, they go on to talk about scientific theory and why scientific theories are to be regarded with respect and should never be taken lightly. I like that the book brought this up and it reminds me of when people try to debunk evolution “just because it is a theory and not a fact”. I always like to remind people that gravity is just a theory as well; as this goes to show how widely accepted scientific theories are and should be. In order for a hypothesis to be proven true, it must go through many tests to determine the validity. When a hypothesis has been tested and becomes widely accepted by a group of experts in a given field, they reach a scientific consensus and the hypothesis is regarded as a theory. To close out the beginning section of this chapter, the textbook brings up five limitations of science. These are less about what science is good and useful for and more about what it can’t do. They are: human error, proving something absolutely, many complex variables, statistical tools, and ethics.

Now that the textbook has taken care of what it takes to be scientists, it’s finally time to get into environmental studies! Well, sort of… before we can start studying the environment we need to understand what it’s made of. In order to do so the textbook takes us on a quick trip through the basic of chemistry and explains the building blocks of life around us (Thankfully it’s just a short one, AP Chemistry was my least favorite class in high school). Life is made up of tiny molecules of things called atoms. Each atom is made up of a unique number of positively charged protons (unique for each element), and also contains negatively charged electrons and neutrally charged neutrons. The combination of protons and neutrons gives an atom its atomic mass number, and the amount of electrons an atom has determines its charge. Atoms that lose an electron become positive isotopes and those that gain an electron become negative isotopes. All of these things put together create matter, and matter makes up every observable thing in the universe. Cool, done with chemistry, thank god. On to biology! Matter comes to life in cells, the fundamental structural and functional units of life. Within cells are instructions for what they contain, DNA. DNA is what makes you a human instead of a cow and what makes you yourself instead of your brother. DNA is sort of like the c++ of the biology world. Scientists can study DNA and try to decipher what it means but the true magic of DNA happens when it is translated by the body (like machine code) and performs its intended function. DNA contains tiny sequences of nucleotides that are called genes. Genes are responsible for individual traits and inheritance. A group of thousands of genes make chromosomes. All of these things (matter, cells, atoms, all that good stuff) make up the environment and the interactions that occur in the environment. In order for everything to take place in the environment we need energy! Next in the textbook we talk about chemical changes that require energy to take place. Chemical changes and equations are important to environmental studies because they can be used to determine how natural processes happen over time like a tree rotting or food decomposing in an animals digestion track.

So what is energy? It can be defined as the capacity to do work or transfer heat. There’s a finite amount of energy in the universe, which means that it cannot be created or destroyed, only transferred. There are two types of energy- kinetic and potential. When an object is in motion it is using kinetic energy but when it is at rest, say like a ball at the top of a hill, it has potential energy. Changing potential energy to kinetic energy requires work to be done. One form of kinetic energy that is not as obvious is heat.

The majority of the heat on this planet comes from the sun and we harness it as solar energy. Solar energy is the most readily available source of energy we have on Earth and in more recent years we have been able to harness its energy for useful ways like powering our electrical homes and heating our water. The popularity in solar energy in recent years had skyrocketed (a growth rate of 59% from 2006-2016) and it is becoming one of the best alternatives fuel sources to fossil fuels and other non-renewable resources (Moalem, 2016). Because the energy in the sun is renewable it is one of the best examples of practicing sustainability. Other renewable forms of energy include wind, geothermal activity, and hydropower.

Figure 1. U.S. Solar Panel Installations by Market Segment, 2010-2013.

Next the textbook introduces a concept that was new to me, energy quality. Some forms of energy are more efficient than other and often times in energy transfers the energy goes from a high quality resource to a low quality resource. For example, high speed wind is a high quality energy because it can do a lot of work like powering a wind turbine or blowing tree branches. A low quality energy disperses more than a high quality energy so it can not do as much work. For example, the heat given off by the molecules in my body vibrating is not enough to heat anything else up so it would be low quality. When energy changes it goes from a useful energy to a less useful one (high quality to low quality) and the low quality energy is usually given off as heat that becomes so dispersed in the environment that it can not do enough work to transfer energy. This concept is known as the second law of thermo dynamics. To wrap this chapter up the book gives us three big ideas

1) There is no away. Everything is recycled, and nothing is ever lost completely. (Except my iPhone I dropped in the pond in 11th grade. That’s definitely lost forever for sure.) 2) You cannot get something for nothing. This idea is sort of like the economic idea that there’s no free lunch! If you get a free lunch then yeah, upfront it may look like you did not have to pay, but the government probably increased your taxes or something else shady. 3) You cannot break even. This idea is exactly like playing a slot machine. They always say if you work at the same machine long enough you’ll eventually win, but that’s just a scam from casinos to get you to keep playing. Sure, you might win some money back but you’re never going to be back where you started.

Word Count: 1,353 Blog Question: The world is ready and able to power itself with renewable technologies, so what do you think is the biggest reason we haven’t made the switch yet? Works Cited

Moalem, M. (2016, September 22). We Could Power The Entire World By Harnessing Solar Energy From 1% Of The Sahara. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/quora/2016/09/22/we-could-power-the-entire-world-by-harnessing-solar-energy-from-1-of-the-sahara/#16beca1fd440

U.S. Solar Panel Installations by Market Segment [Digital image]. (2014, January 9). Retrieved from https://www.cnbc.com/2014/01/09/ant-solar-users-to-pay-more.html

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